Hunting 101, Wednesday (3rd Period)

[likethegun]

"Okay, so today we're gonna talk about spirits," Dean said once the class had assembled. Because why beat around the bush in a class on the subject?

( The Winchesters get kind of talky when ghosts are involved. Who knew? )

Working the Long Con [Wednesday, Period One]

[talentforlying]

"You're all broke students, so you'll like this one," John said once everyone had shown up. "Change raising, also known as a quick-change artist, is a common short con and involves an offer to change an amount of money with someone, while at the same time taking change or bills back and forth to confuse the person as to how much money is actually being changed. The most common form, 'the Short Count', has been featured prominently in several movies about grifting, notably Nueve Reinas, The Grifters, Criminal, and Paper Moon." Yes, John watched movies. What else was there to do around here?

"For example, a con artist shopping at a gas station pays for a cheap item - under a dollar, say, for you Americans - and gives the clerk a ten dollar bill. The con gets back nine ones and the change then tells the clerk he has a one and will exchange ten ones for a ten. Now, here's the con: get the clerk to hand over the $10 before handing over the ones. Then the con hands over nine ones and the $10. The clerk will assume a mistake and offer to swap the ten for a one. Then the con will probably just say: "Here's another one, give me a $20 and we're even." Notice that the con just swapped $10 for $20. The $10 was the store's money, not the scammer's."

"Now, say you're the clerk. To avoid this con, keep each transaction separate and never ever permit the customer to handle the original ten before handing over the ten ones. It's just common sense."

"Another variation is to flash a $20 bill to the clerk, then ask for something behind the counter. When the clerk turns away, the con artist can swap the bill he is holding to a lesser bill. The clerk might then make change for the larger bill, without noticing it has been swapped. The technique works better when bills are the same colour at a glance like, for instance, American money. It doesn't work so well in countries where a ten is pink and a twenty blue, and so on, unless you've scooped your mark in advance and know he's colorblind."

"A similar technique exists when a con comes to a gas station with a young clerk, buying something cheap, showing him an uncommonly huge bill while not giving it and telling the clerk to prepare the change. While he's busy counting the change, the con would ask many questions in order to disturb the young clerk. When change is counted and ready the con is acting as if he had given the huge bill. If the clerk does not remember having received the bill, the con will say he gave him the money. If the clerk is weak or disturbed enough, he could let the scammer go away with the change."

"Now here's your money." John grabbed a large basket of Monopoly money out from under his desk and started tossing wads of bills at the students. "See if you can scam each other, and keep a hold of your own money at the same time."

How to Be One with Your City, Wednesday, Period Two

[cannotdenyher.livejournal.com]

This week, class was actually meeting in a classroom. And don't even ask how even that managed to be a little shadier than usual. Things just turned a little more stylized around the Spirit. Just go with it. At least this time it wasn't full-on black and white but just a subtle change. And they weren't going to hang out in here too long, anyway.

The Spirit, who was leaning against the desk, looked up from inspecting his hat once it looked like everyone had filed in. "Morning, kiddos," he greeted them with a nod. "Last week, you had to use your smarts and your senses to get somewhere. Today, we'll be doing something similar. You're going to go into town for a while, but instead of trying to figure out where you should be going and how to get there, you're going to be really paying attention to where you are. You're just going to walk around for a while, and get a feel for some part of the town. There's no goal, no prize at the end of the line, and there are no thugs out to get you, either. And that makes this harder than last week."

In fact, he was fairly sure they weren't going to grasp the point of this exercise until next week. And that was fine. Give it more time to sink in.

"It just you and this little slip of a town. Walk. Look. Really look. Then come back and tell me what you saw."

He nodded at them again, to signal they were free to leave now.

"I'll be waiting."