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

Re: SAS: Discussion of the "Rules" 9/12

[tricksy-spy.livejournal.com]

"How so?" she asked, less challengingly than simply wanting him to put it into words for himself.

Re: SAS: Discussion of the "Rules" 9/12

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

"Well . . ." Anders chewed on the cap of his pen. "If you know all the little quirks of your surroundings, like . . . this door always squeaks, or that patch of floor is really slick, you can avoid them when you're trying to not be noticed. Or taking advantage of the way you know people react to certain things."

He fell silent for a moment, then snapped his fingers and blurted out, "Oh! It's not even just sneaking around either. If you know somebody goes to lunch every day at exactly the same time, or somebody else always sits in this one specific chair, things like that, it might tip you off that maybe something's wrong when they're not following that pattern, maybe?"

Re: SAS: Discussion of the "Rules" 9/12

[tricksy-spy.livejournal.com]

Aly looked very pleased as she nodded. "Exactly on both points. One of the ways you can make your surroundings assist you when you're familiar with them is to catch others who might be watching you. You've heard of putting a tin can on a doorknob to alert you when someone comes in? It can also be done on a smaller scale - a hair on a pile of papers so if someone shuffles through them, you'll know."

"And anytime you can use the fact that people are really creatures of habit, do so." She grinned. "Just don't let yourself get caught up in recognisable habits."

Re: SAS: Discussion of the "Rules" 9/12

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

Anders nodded and grinned, his confidence level rising. "So the trick, or one trick anyway, is to try and look at familiar situations from completely different angles?"

Re: SAS: Discussion of the "Rules" 9/12

[tricksy-spy.livejournal.com]

"I couldn't have put it better. You keep this up, and I'll try to recruit you," she said with an approving smile.

Re: SAS: Discussion of the "Rules" 9/12

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

Genuinely (but pleasantly) surprised, Anders just smiled and slid a little bit further down in his seat. He hoped nobody noticed that the tips of his ears were pink, or at least they felt like it.