This is my life

God, yes! Actually, yes, that totally pins down something that I haven't been able to do just yet - that John's 'charm' is really just the way he had of dealing with the world he grew up in, a way to disengage and get people to basically take no notice of him. It's not that he wants people to like him, but rather that he doesn't want them to look beyond what he gives them, and charm can certainly do that, if it's done right, and that's what I've always felt is his reasoning for it. And that Rodney, at least, and probably others, have interpreted it incorrectly as Kirk-ism or being a smooth operator, when really that's the last thing John wants (and thus why he never sees it coming - that's *not* his intention).