Stealth and Deception, Workshop #3, Wednesday Morning at Cafe Fina

[badassbutler.livejournal.com]

The students, upon arriving at Cafe Fina, were given a nice breakfast of croissants, pastries, and muffins; then ushered off down a series of twisting corridors, down a series of stairs where a number of symbols had been neatly and cleverly covered up, and then finally pushed into what appeared to be a large dojo.


Alfred was standing there, waiting.

"Good morning, class. Today we're going to discard theory for something a little more practically fun."

He grinned. "Today I will teach you how to move stealthily and, most importantly, silently.




Alfred stepped to the side and let the class get a better view of the floor behind him. The space had been seperated into a number of square sections, all of which had been given different floor coverings. Sticks, dry leaves, hard metal, shag rug, and, in one case, a very tastful hardwood design.

"Some teachers might try to break you in by showing you on something that naturally does not make much noise. Say, the reagular floor of this dojo. However, I'm of the opinion that all the training I give you will be completely pointless if I don't show you how to use it in a real life situation. I might as well be teaching you knitting at that point. Now, class, if you'll please follow me and keep on the dojo floor."

Alfred walked over to the first prepared square (hard wood) and stepped out onto it, still in his dress shoes. There was no audible sound at all. Alfred continued to lecture as he walked around the various surfaces in otherwise complete silence, explaining the proper way to move, where to place your weight, that your footfalls should always be toe first, instead of heel first.

As he stepped off the last panel (dry twigs) he picked up a cup of tea from a nearby panel and sipped at it. "If there are no questions," he said. "Feel free to practice this all on any of the test squares I have set up. If you need help, talk to me or someone who appears to be doing well, as I'm quite sure that some of you already have this skill." He nodded to Setsuna, Briar, and Walter.



_{[[Wait for the OCD. Have fun kids! Yes, you are now technically in the butler-cave, but there is absolutely nothing there that could connect it with Batman. Alfred made quite sure of that.]]}

Comments

Sign-In

[badassbutler.livejournal.com]

One after another so it collapses all pretty like.

Re: Sign-In

[sensethevisions]

Phoebe signed in

Re: Sign-In

[lovelylana.livejournal.com]

Lana signed in.

Chat

[badassbutler.livejournal.com]

Chat during, before, or after Alfred's lecture.

What exactly is this guy on?

Re: Chat

[sensethevisions]

Phoebe was really starting to enjoy this class.

Re: Chat

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

Walter was feeling anything but chatty. It might have helped if Alfred were teaching something he didn't already know, but instead he stood and watched silently, standing in the middle of the group and neither moving toward or away from Nadia.

Re: Chat

[strongestgirl.livejournal.com]

Pippi just happened to be standing next to Walter.

Funny how that just seemed to happen.

Re: Chat

[bound2blade.livejournal.com]

Sakurazaki was nothing but attentive and admirable during the lecture. Alfred really was pretty amazing. And she was slightly smirking. Ahhhhh, nice, easy day. She was a little worried about how Jude was going to do with this one, though.

Re: Chat

[strongestgirl.livejournal.com]

Pippi listened carefully to Alfred but kept an eye on Walter and Nadia.

Stealth

[badassbutler.livejournal.com]

Try being extremely sneaky.

Re: Stealth

[sensethevisions]

Phoebe was careful to pay attention to everything Alfred said and did, and then tried to mimic his movements on the tiles.

Re: Stealth

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia moved quickly and silently through the panels of hardwood, metal, and shag rug, then only paused for a second before stepping into the dried leaves, this time a bit slower.

Still, she was successful. Roberto had taught her how to do more than just fight, after all.

And if Alfred thought dress shoes were impressive, he should try doing this in heels.

Re: Stealth

[walter-n-wires.livejournal.com]

Walter stepped out onto the metal surface and brought his heel down to make it ring from the blow. Then he tried finding different places to step to silence the vibrations. After all, shponk (to steal from Pippi) happens, what do you do to make it better after it does?

Re: Stealth

[union-jane.livejournal.com]

Moving with stealth and cunning (or detecting when others were) would be a most important part of becoming an officer of the law, and Seras wished dearly wished to become a virtuoso of the art.

Anxious to do well, Seras lingered over each of the panels, analysing and assessing them, as she divined the varieties of movements which would betray her presence and those which would allow her to pass by in sly, clandestine silence.

Re: Stealth

[bound2blade.livejournal.com]

...Maybe too easy, especially without a big, ol' sword being toted around as usual. Sakurazaki has the course cleared quickly, stealthy, silently, although rather bouncily, as lots of quick jumps from barely touching lands is inherent in her style. Still, the leaves and twigs are barely disturbed from her fleeting seconds across those panels.

Oh, and she might have been trying to show off to a certain someone. Just a little. But it'd be difficult to tell from her very focused and determined game face.

Re: Stealth

[strongestgirl.livejournal.com]

Pippi was thinking she could do this easy in her usual ways, but that it would best to try it the way Alfred showed them.

She took a little longer around the dry leaves and twigs but made it through.

Then she did it again, on her hands. Because walking around on the tips of your fingers was less surface area.

Re: Stealth

[cyclopeanmerc.livejournal.com]

Pip was regretting wearing the combat boots to class today as he slowly tried to inch his way across the various tiles.

Re: Stealth

[lovelylana.livejournal.com]

Lana did fairly well on the shag rug and the wood and metal floors, but the leaves and particularly the twigs gave her more problems. She did go back and work on the leaves for a while with some success.

Re: Stealth

[conathon.livejournal.com]

Sawyer tried his best, only messing up on the dry leaves 'cause man, those things are loud.

Re: Stealth

[greenmagebriar.livejournal.com]

Briar calmly, and very slowly, made his way across the various pannels, barely macking a sound.

Talk to Alfred

[badassbutler.livejournal.com]

Ask for personal coaching. He'll do it. He's cool like that.

Re: Talk to Alfred

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia approached Alfred, then froze when she suddenly realized how incredibly awkward it was to try to ask your ex-boyfriend's boss and mentor for advice on something.

She turned around instead and started to walk off. Damned Walter and his damned Bulterness. . . .

Re: Talk to Alfred

[bound2blade.livejournal.com]

Sakurazaki was pretty certain she had cleared the exercise almost flawlessly, but she was taking this class to improve, not to just rehash old skills. So she approaches Alfred. "Excuse me, sensei," she says with a small, proper bow. "I was merely wondering if you may have noticed any little details in my methods that could be improved on. Or perhaps other approaches you would suggest I work on? A lot of this is so inherent in my system that sometimes it is difficult to understand what could be changed."

OOC

[badassbutler.livejournal.com]

I'm totally guessing that Briar knows how to move silently due to his past as a theif. If I'm wrong, well, it goes to show that Alfred is but falliable man.

Re: OOC

[threeweapons.livejournal.com]

Yes he would, actually. That's one of the things he's quite good at.