Random stories

Everyone knows about ninjas.

This is true.

Almost no one knows about ninjas.

This is *also* true.

Everyone knows, for example, that ninjas wear black. And they do! Everyone knows that they do this to be stealthy, and this is *also* true.

But black will 'pop' in darkness- dark blue will serve much better, to blend into the night. But no one thinks about this.

The reason ninjas wear black is because ninjas are a part of a theatre tradition. That tradition features people in the background you are meant to ignore- moving props around, changing the scenery, things of that nature.

These people wear black.

And so when someone else appears, wearing the same outfit as those in the background, the brain automatically ignores them. They aren't part of the action of the play, after all.

Our brain tells us stories, and we tune certain things out. This is why ninjas seem to appear from nowhere- they were there the whole time, but our brain ignores them until they make themselves part of the story.

Ninjas are both real and not real. They aren't real assassins, but they are *absolutely* a real way to hide in plain sight.

Hence the assassination plan.

It was simple, really. A fright wig, a mask with the right appearance, a gaudy outfit, those wildly impractical shoes, a half-dozen bowling pins to juggle...the works.

It always stings my pride. I can always juggle more pins than I bring to an assassination, but I can't juggle at my max *and* pull off the assassination. It's necessary, but it feels undignified.

You'd think it'd be the outfit that does that, but no. It's not performing to where you know your maximum is, sometimes for *hours* while you wait for your victim to arrive.

Everyone sees a clown, and when they do so, they don't notice all the details. Clowns are nothing *but* garish details- that's sort of the point. Our brains don't register them all- they simply notice a bright patch of grotesque visuals and mentally place a 'clown' sticker over them. They watch the sticker, not the actual clown.

So it is that while there are always people watching my juggling act, no one ever, *ever* notices when I pull out a gun, shoot my target as they walk by me, and put the gun back without missing a beat on the juggling.

They hear the noise, of course. And it seems that surely some of them must catch at least a *glimpse* of the gun in my hand.

But we don't see with our eyes. We see with our brains. Our brains see a clown, and fill in the details. You don't hear a gunshot and think "I'll bet the clown did it". Even scary clowns don't kill with *guns*. It's incongruous.

They always look for someone fleeing, or someone who stands out. And they always, always, *always* gloss over the fellow in the biggest 'Look at me!' outfit for miles around. We don't look for evidence- we look for threads in a story. We don't consider the possibility that someone in an outfit perfect for concealing weapons who was just demonstrating significant sleight-of-hand might have *employed* either of those things.

There are very few places that are better to hide in than simple incongruity. Brains don't like to be surprised like that, and are quite willing to paper over reality with whatever they need to in order for things to still seem normal.

All you have to do is stick to your role, and no one will ever, *ever* notice the things you do outside of it.

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Submitted by Xavier_Elrose on Sat, Jan 07, 2023 to /r/WritingPrompts/

The prompt

You are an assassin with a reputation for pulling of very public hits without being noticed. You achieve this not by being extremely stealthy, but by making sure that your kills are so absurd and ridiculous that no one would ever believe the witnesses if they told their stories.