Fandom Gladiators; First Period [06/07].

[died8yearsago]

Should the students be a little concerned when they came into the Danger Shop arena that day to find their teacher already decked out with the pads herself?

Yeah, maybe a little. Not to mention the large stick she was leaning on that basically resembled a giant q-tip wrapped in duct tape.

As it was, the area was set up with several pairs of very small raised platforms set very close to each other, so if you hadn't been able to put things together by now, lucky you, Rosa was about to explain.

"Today," she said, "we joust. The concept is simple: each gladiator take a platform and one of these sticks, and the goal is to knock the gladiator on the other platform off. Simple, right? We're doing this tournament style, in randomly picked pairs, and, since there's an odd number of you, that means I'll be competing as well. So good luck with that. If there aren't any questions, let's just get started."

She...just might be way too eager for an excuse to whale on a kid with a giant q-tip under the guise of teaching valuable lessons. They were clearly just wasting good beat-down time.

[[ ocd is....up! Have at it! ]]

Recreational Misuse and Alternative Uses of Gadgets, Friday

[stickitupmyjinx]

"Today's gadget of the day is brought to you by QVC at 3 AM," Vanessa said. "That's how you know it's a good decision, right?"

"That and the crippling self loathing that is only able to be pushed down by buying things you just don't need," Wade added. He'd found a chef's apron to wear over his usual outfit to fit the theme.

"Which is why you're watching QVC at 3 AM, of course," Vanessa agreed. "It's the Set It...And Forget It! That may not be what it's actually called. I think the packing slip said something else but whatever. Details."

"We want you to fuck it up." Wow, Wade was going for that R rating there! "You know. To fill the void. Also because it's fun. I tried to jam ours into the microwave to see if it cooked double fast."

"Bonus points if you figure out how to make it rotisserie a chicken faster so you can stuff it in your face and eat your feelings."

Wade paused for a moment. "Did we remember to bring the chickens?"

Vanessa looked around for a few moments as if grocery bags with chickens in them might appear, and then, throwing PG-13 out the window, said, "Oh, fuck. Okay, so, um, rotisserie...something." This class was going great.

Working the Long Con, Friday, Second Period

[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 places 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."