Lying and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, Class #7, The Woods

[jarodpretends.livejournal.com]

Jarod was dressed in a pair of jeans and a green t-shirt. He waved to the students as they arrived. "Hello. Well, today is our last class, and I must say how thrilled I am to have had you all as students. Hopefully you have enjoyed yourselves and learned something that will come in useful later in your lives."

"Today," he grinned, "we're going to test your instincts. I'm not sure if any of you are familiar with the game 'capture the flag', but we'll be playing that today. You'll split into two teams. Two colored fabric flags--one red, one blue--have been hidden on opposite sides of the woods, and you'll have to work together to rescue your flag from the other team's side and carry it back to yours. If you're tagged--no tackling, please--you have to go sit in the other team's jail area until your teammates can rescue you. If the flag is captured and carried back to the team's side while there are still 'prisoners' in jail, it doesn't count as a win."

"In case that wasn't enough, the trusting your instincts comes in now--one person on each team will be a confederate--a member of the opposing team--so, it's your job if you're the confederate to make people believe you're on their team, and deciding when to break your cover, or when people are too suspicious. If you're not the confederate, you'll be responsible for figuring out who they are based on their cues and actions."

"Have fun, and don't kill each other, please."

[ooc: OCD is up! Post here if you want to be a spy. No Jarod until 6 EDT, and feel free to play as long as you want, or until I'm told to close the post.]

Comments

Re: Questions for Jarod

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

Jack tensed, then visibly made himself relax. "Yeah, I did," he replied, looking at the ground.

Re: Questions for Jarod

[jarodpretends.livejournal.com]

"Then you can sit this one out," Jarod replied with a nod. "Oh, and Jack?"

Re: Questions for Jarod

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

He lifted his head and stared at Jarod, waiting for yet another person to tear strips off him. "Yeah?"

Re: Questions for Jarod

[jarodpretends.livejournal.com]

"If you play with Parker again, there are going to be problems between us," Jarod leveled a warning look at Jack, then added, "All you had to do was ask me."

Re: Questions for Jarod

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

"I didn't play with her. I misdirected her, I didn't tell her everything, but I only did it so she wouldn't get hurt." Jack's eyes narrowed. "You would have preferred that I'd put her in danger?" he asked, feeling defensive, crossing his arms tightly in front of him. "Or you? I never lied to you; I just...shaded the truth."

Re: Questions for Jarod

[jarodpretends.livejournal.com]

"No, I wouldn't, and the misdirection was nothing I haven't been teaching you. You did that very well, by the way. I never suspected." Jarod admitted, "I understand needing answers to the questions about your past that gnaw at you at night. But Parker doesn't."

He also couldn't come down hard on Jack--he'd done the same thing to Parker on more than one occasion.

Re: Questions for Jarod

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

A quick smile came and went. "Thanks. I've had a lot of practice." He studied Jarod for a moment before asking, "You sure about that? There's things she needs to know, about her family. So I think she might understand. But yeah, I take your point." He sighed, shoulders slumping, and went back to studying the ground. "I had to find out."

Re: Questions for Jarod

[jarodpretends.livejournal.com]

"She doesn't understand doing whatever it takes to get those answers, no matter what they are," Jarod shook his head, shooting her a quick glance. "Do you feel relief? Knowing?"

Re: Questions for Jarod

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

And that made Jack smile his first real smile since Saturday night. "Beyond my ability to express. Turns out, I didn't do anything, so all that worrying was a bit of a waste." It dimmed as he glanced at Parker. "I guess so. And that's kind of why I couldn't tell her. I never meant to hurt anyone, that's what I was trying to avoid." And he'd failed, spectacularly, but he hadn't known it would happen.

Re: Questions for Jarod

[jarodpretends.livejournal.com]

"Congratulations," Jarod smiled and slapped Jack on the shoulder in an appropriately manly fashion. "So what happened? It sounds like things went wrong."

Re: Questions for Jarod

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

Jack winced and tried to cover it up. "I was stupid seems to be the consensus. And I'm having trouble disagreeing."

Re: Questions for Jarod

[jarodpretends.livejournal.com]

"Would you do it again?" Jarod asked quietly.

Re: Questions for Jarod

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

Oh, and that was a loaded question. "In these exact circumstances? No," he finally replied. But really, this whole life he was living here was an anomaly, so it wasn't likely to come up again.

Re: Questions for Jarod

[jarodpretends.livejournal.com]

"Hmmmm." Jarod was going to have to chew on that for a while. "And of course you can sit out."

Re: Questions for Jarod

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

"Thank you." Jack hesitated, opened his mouth to say something - he wasn't sure what - then closed it and walked away, grabbing a seat on a stump where he'd have a good view of his classmates.