Through a Glass Darkly: Spies and Spying; 3rd Period

[tricksy-spy.livejournal.com]

Aly was thumbing through what quite possibly looked like last year's yearbook when the class started to file in.  She looked up at them with a grin and watched as they all found a seat.  At each desk was a copy of the syllabus.

Rising to her feet, she nodded in welcome.  "Good morning, all.  Hopefully your weekend treated you well?  You should each find a syllabus at your desk.  Please go ahead and review it now then let me know if you have any questions."   She hopped up on her desk to sit, facing the class, while they looked it over and  answered any questions that arose.

"Now that that's out of the way, and we all know what we'll be doing  in here for the next 11 weeks," she said with a mischievious grin. "Let's get started."

She went to the whiteboard and quickly wrote down ten points.

1. No matter where you are, act like you belong.
2. Behave purposefully.  Especially if you have no purpose.
3. Blend in.  Become a "gray man."
4. Develop assessment skills by practicing even in circumstances in which you are merely a bystander.
5. Learn to trust your instincts to make decisions.  Right or wrong at first, they will get better.
6. Never second-guess your decisions at the time.  Do analyze them later.
7. Be aware that you may be overlooking things in your surroundings, especially if they are familiar to you.
8. Accept the fact that some level of deception is a necessary part of the job.
9. Don't be embarrassed to be suspicious of other people's intentions.
10.  Improve your memory.

She looked from the points to the students for a minute to try to gauge their reactions.  Still stroking her black beads, she sat back on her desk.  "Those are the ten basic rules (they're more like guidelines to steal someone's schtick) to thinking like a spy.  The eleventh should really be 'do whatever works then run with it and remember that there are no such things as rules,' but ten is such a nice, round number to start off with."

"What do these 'rules' really mean?  How should they be applied?  That, my friends, is the topic of the classroom discussion for today.  Ask questions, hash out what they mean, either with each other or ask me."

"The tenth point, however, is one I brought up last week and something we'll keep hitting - hopefully not literally - over the semester.  Spies don't generally get to carry around little notepads and make notes whenever they need to remember something.  And keeping written codes or directions on your person is a very good way to get caught.  So.  Your memory is the most important tool."  She grinned.  "It can do something so small as remember that Molly over there was wearing a light green shirt last week.  Or that Bridge wears a uniform every day."  She glanced over at Bridge with a chuckle.  "Which might not particularly help blending in, you know."

She stood up, stretching slightly.  "One of the main ways to train your memory is to just using it more.  So this week, I want you to work on remembering this list of words - in order, mind you.  I find that silly associations work best for me using a technique called 'chaining.'  You link each item to the next through images that incorporate both.  So if I'm trying to remember banana, violin, coffee, I'll remember a banana playing a violin, then a violin drinking coffee.  It's silly, but odd associations tend to stick in your mind longer."

On the board, she wrote

notebook
peas
pirate ship
computer
panda bear
lantern
frame
queen
flour
ring
cell phone
coffee beans
rug
llama
tree
piano
dress
glasses
acorn
sword
cat
castle

"Very well then, try to practice the guidelines I set out and come back next week prepared to tell what you did and how they worked.  Also memorise that list and let me know if it was too easy, too hard, whichever.  Oh!  And the TA's for the class are Eric Weiss and Bridge Carson so they should  be able to help you out if I'm not around for some reason."

[OOC: *blinks at omglong" If you haven't seen my OOC post here, please go take a look at it.  Also, the ten rules were taken with gratitude from the Handbook of Practical Spying by Jack Barth.  I'll be around all day and please wait for the OCD threads. OCD is Up!]

Comments

SAS: Take or Pass Notes During Lecture 9/12

[tricksy-spy.livejournal.com]

Be ready for mockery if caught chatting too much here.

Re: SAS: Take or Pass Notes During Lecture 9/12

[bound2blade.livejournal.com]

Of course, Sakurazaki is taking attentative and detailed notes. Of course, they're written in Japanese. She seems to have made particular note of rules number three and eight, despite that this was all very familiar to her.

A few times, she even had to stop for a moment, her eyes drifting away, thinking of a small, four year old little girl, sitting rigidly in a desk too big for her, inscribing the same notes.

If she had any questions, Sakurazaki would probably not ask them. Aly-sensei was certainly not her Shinmei Ryuu masters, but questions had always ended up badly with them.

She had trouble copying down the list. For some reason, her vision was getting a little blurry...

Re: SAS: Take or Pass Notes During Lecture 9/12

[2-twin-devils-2.livejournal.com]

The twins loft another crumpled ball at Setsuna from two rows away and a couple seats back.

Re: SAS: Take or Pass Notes During Lecture 9/12

[tricksy-spy.livejournal.com]

Aly raised an eyebrow at the twins.

Re: SAS: Take or Pass Notes During Lecture 9/12

[bound2blade.livejournal.com]

Sakurazaki sighed at the ball of paper hitting the back of her head. She took a moment to scribble something down in Japanese on another piece of paper, folded it up carefully into an origami bird. She settled it in the palm of her hand, dropped her hand casually to her side, being generally inconspicuous, and muttered a quiet word under her breath.

The little piece of paper seemed to take life and, keeping low, flew back to the boys. Once it reached it destination, it turned back into paper.

Scribbled below a neat line of magical symbols was a message:

//Not today, okay? Please?// complete with a sad face.

Re: SAS: Take or Pass Notes During Lecture 9/12

[2-twin-devils-2.livejournal.com]

Other than being really awed by that, they nodded, being agreeable to her mostly because of the sad face.

Re: SAS: Take or Pass Notes During Lecture 9/12

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

Anders wrote down all the rules and the list of items to memorize, then started looking around the classroom for random little tidbits about his classmates that might be easy to remember.

Re: SAS: Take or Pass Notes During Lecture 9/12

[courier-gavin.livejournal.com]

Jake actually took good notes. At first. Then she got bored and started doodling little cartoons of her fellow classmates. The Aeryn doodle got a huge bazooka, the Seely doodle got fangs and a grrargh speechbubble, and the Molly doodle was lifting a car over her head.