----------------------------
Date: 05 March 2002
Disclaimers: All characters belong to their own... wait a minute, there are no real characters as such. Ok, the concept of Pretenders belongs to them as made them...
Warnings: Still no plot. Still short. Continue with the premise that these were bits taken on the fly from the Centre. Highly doubtful Sydney wrote this. Some other, amoral Centre-employed psychologist or logistics operator, probably.
----------------------------
05C2002: Pretender Profile II
by Sonnevi
----------------------------
There is still the problem of identifying existing pretenders or candidate couples who may have pretender children. By our very definition, pretenders blend well anywhere. We must create our own means by which to narrow our search.
Pretenders necessarily possess a high degree of empathy, imagination, and sensitivity. It will be difficult, then, to isolate pretenders who are women based on this criterion, therefore we must concentrate on men.
The best candidates to observe include psychologists, profilers, scientists, actors, artists, and other people who are of the highest and best in whatever field they are in, including businessmen and military officers.
Unfortunately, the highest and best people in any field are likely to be well-established and too high-profile for our needs. We must concentrate instead on the second-tier set, the up-and-comers, of which there are always many. Culls from these ranks are more easily explained away: we may even recruit them.
As such, pragmatically speaking, our best candidates are recent graduates, psychologists, scientists, and businessmen, in that order. Recent graduates are ideal -- they have fewer established ties, and are less likely to observe fine nuances in a contract (as this is their first job). Additionally, we may test promising candidates at our leisure without penalty and offer them a place here, where we may further observe them. In this way, also, it is in our interest to re-include women. Social interaction may being our candidates together. Offered housing and other benefits under our control, such couples already in the Centre would minimize our security risks.
On the other hand, looking for infants from prospective candidate-couples within the Centre would be too narrow a search. Centre candidate-couples must only be considered as comprising our primary pool of observation.
Another set would consist of couples where only one is a member of the Centre, or from other outside candidates, such as those already interviewed but declined our job offer. This would provide a wider net for our necessary secondary pool -- there is no guarantee that an infant will be gifted. We must look for demonstrated potential. It is in our best interest to concentrate on children, because they would feel little need to conceal whatever talent they may possess and are therefore more easily identified.
--Fin--
----------------------------
Author's notes: Shades of John Grisham's The Firm? Notice how everything becomes a "necessity?" I was tempted to title this "Operation Jackrabbit: How to Catch and Grow Your Own Pretender." Still theoretical, but the details are coming together for the Centre's project to become a reality. Since the Centre presumably already employs the best and the brightest, looking to their own would be natural, cheap, and easy. Done at Katie's request.
Date: 05 March 2002
Disclaimers: All characters belong to their own... wait a minute, there are no real characters as such. Ok, the concept of Pretenders belongs to them as made them...
Warnings: Still no plot. Still short. Continue with the premise that these were bits taken on the fly from the Centre. Highly doubtful Sydney wrote this. Some other, amoral Centre-employed psychologist or logistics operator, probably.
----------------------------
05C2002: Pretender Profile II
by Sonnevi
----------------------------
There is still the problem of identifying existing pretenders or candidate couples who may have pretender children. By our very definition, pretenders blend well anywhere. We must create our own means by which to narrow our search.
Pretenders necessarily possess a high degree of empathy, imagination, and sensitivity. It will be difficult, then, to isolate pretenders who are women based on this criterion, therefore we must concentrate on men.
The best candidates to observe include psychologists, profilers, scientists, actors, artists, and other people who are of the highest and best in whatever field they are in, including businessmen and military officers.
Unfortunately, the highest and best people in any field are likely to be well-established and too high-profile for our needs. We must concentrate instead on the second-tier set, the up-and-comers, of which there are always many. Culls from these ranks are more easily explained away: we may even recruit them.
As such, pragmatically speaking, our best candidates are recent graduates, psychologists, scientists, and businessmen, in that order. Recent graduates are ideal -- they have fewer established ties, and are less likely to observe fine nuances in a contract (as this is their first job). Additionally, we may test promising candidates at our leisure without penalty and offer them a place here, where we may further observe them. In this way, also, it is in our interest to re-include women. Social interaction may being our candidates together. Offered housing and other benefits under our control, such couples already in the Centre would minimize our security risks.
On the other hand, looking for infants from prospective candidate-couples within the Centre would be too narrow a search. Centre candidate-couples must only be considered as comprising our primary pool of observation.
Another set would consist of couples where only one is a member of the Centre, or from other outside candidates, such as those already interviewed but declined our job offer. This would provide a wider net for our necessary secondary pool -- there is no guarantee that an infant will be gifted. We must look for demonstrated potential. It is in our best interest to concentrate on children, because they would feel little need to conceal whatever talent they may possess and are therefore more easily identified.
--Fin--
----------------------------
Author's notes: Shades of John Grisham's The Firm? Notice how everything becomes a "necessity?" I was tempted to title this "Operation Jackrabbit: How to Catch and Grow Your Own Pretender." Still theoretical, but the details are coming together for the Centre's project to become a reality. Since the Centre presumably already employs the best and the brightest, looking to their own would be natural, cheap, and easy. Done at Katie's request.