fandomhigh | Working the Long Con: Famous Confidence Artists & Their Gigs [Wednesday, Period One]

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Working the Long Con: Famous Confidence Artists & Their Gigs [Wednesday, Period One]

It was a grumpy, rumpled librarian that stomped his way into class after the students had arrived, bonelessly dropping into his chair and kicking his feet up on to his desk as he fished about in his coat for some cigarettes.

The school board might make him teach, but they couldn't make him behave.

"Right, I'm Constantine, and you're most likely here because you're gullible and thinking this is going to be an easy 'A', a delinquent, or for some strange reason thought this was an academic class with philosophical value," he said. "More the fools you, but I can work with it."

There was a beat as he pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and squinted at it, comparing his class rooster with the number of people in front of him. "Someone hates me. Laufeyson! Whichever one you are...surprise, you get to be the teaching assistant, if only so I can keep a closer eye on you."

John? Distrust someone based solely on their name? And previous experience with celestial deities? Perish the thought.

"So, let's start with the basics. A con is a game, one where hopefully you're the one writing the rules and the people around you are the pieces you're moving. It's a scam, a grift, a hustle, all those words designed to make it sound as shady as possible, although the number of reasons you could be running a con are infinite, at least when you're justifying it to yourself. It usually just boils down to one, very simple motivation: You want something," he said bluntly. "So give me your name - or whatever the hell you want to be called for the purposes of this class, I don't care - and tell me one time you ran a scam on someone. Give me an idea of what you already know, kids."

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With an ulterior motive.

Atton Rand

Bay Kennish

Emily Thorne

Korra

Toby Logan

Loki Laufeyson

Sparkle

Not that there's much of it.

Name, and one time you conned someone(s) into something. Feel free to bounce off each other, John doesn't care.

"I'm Atton Rand," Atton said, sitting back. "I'm getting better at hustling at that game of yours - uh, pool? Yeah, that."

There were much more interesting things he could name, but it'd be a cold day in hell if those came up.

"Pool's a classic, and it's never too hard to separate a drunken frat boy from his cash. In fact, it may be an act of karmic justice." John Constantine, ladies and gentleman. Role Model.

"See? That's what I've been saying!" Atton said. "I mean, it's not like they're going to really feel it..."

To Sia's dog. Who seemed to be as good at judgey looks as she was.

"If they don't like it, they shouldn't be picking on people they think are easy marks," John replied with a shrug. "If you didn't take it, someone else would. That's just the way pool works."

"Pool... cards... life..."

"Hi, I'm Bay Kennish," Bay said, trying to decide whether the teacher was sexy or scary or a little bit of both. Either way, she wasn't going to open with anything incredibly intimate, but: "I had a fake ID that usually worked. Does that count as a con?"

The Kansas City Police had the fake ID these days. Dammit.

Edited 2013-05-15 16:23 (UTC)

"Had?" John shook his head in mock sadness. "Your first assignment, Kennish, is to get a new one."

"Police took it." Bay side-eyed him. "You aren't going to tell me it's illegal?"

That was new.

"This isn't American Government, love," John said, waving it off negligently. "One, British. Two, you already know it's illegal, which is why you claimed it as your con. You don't need me to tell you what you already know."

"Okay, but usually teachers wanna be good influences and junk like that," Bay explained. "Anyhow, I'll get right on getting a new ID."

She didn't know anybody, but like that had to stop a self-respecting kid with an Internet connection.

"Think of it as me teaching you how not to get caught," John said dryly. "Then you don't end up in the guidance counselor's office, and everyone's happy."

"I'm Emily Thorne," Emily started, her voice all silk. "I'm fairly good at outdrinking guys that think they will be able to take advantage of me after a few shots of tequila." And then she had been the one taking advantage of them, usually their wallets. Being rich had sort of ruined that, but her other examples weren't ones she wanted to name.

"Right, the pretty girl and the drinking contest. Classic example of mixing the clip joint and romance runs with the fact men think with their dicks," he said bluntly. "You can probably manage at least one or two levels better at this point."

"It works surprisingly well," Emily commented easily. She wasn't expecting this to be a lovely conversation. "And yeah, I probably can."

"I'm Korra...I snuck into Equalist meetings a couple of times."

Korra wasn't what you'd call a natural con-artist.

John kind of gave her a side-eye. "Most kids are sneaking out of meetings, you know. Why'd you want to get in?"

"Well, the first time they'd kidnapped a friend of mine and we needed to get him back before they hurt him."

"Toby Logan," Toby introduced himself. He couldn't exactly share some of the actual tricks he'd pulled, as that would mean having to explain the telepathy thing. "I've forged foster parents' signatures on stuff a bunch of times," he settled on. It was true, anyway, if somewhat boring.

"Forgery! One of the first, and yet still most effective ways to scam someone. Do you just do handwriting, or art, too?" Hey, it was important to know.

Toby snorted. "I think I'd need something resembling artistic talent to forge artwork," he admitted wryly.

"I am Loki of Asgard," he said, puffing his chest out to wear the name like a badge of honor in this class. "I am said to be the finest trickster of all nine worlds. My reputation, usually, precedes myself."

"Fucking hell, you are." Someone(s) out there really hated John. "Give us a trick that you're proud of, then."

Or had a very cruel sense of humor!

"My continued existence," he said after a moment. "For I have died and come back with each cycle of Ragnorak, but this time I did it while the cycle has been broken."

"Sparkle," Sparks replied with that tone that suggested that he was not adverse to punching anyone who wanted to snicker at his name. Sure, everyone in the class seemed to be old hat. Didn't change that he had to cop attitude every time they did these stupid introduction weeks. It was pretty much mandatory by this point. "And you live on the streets for long enough, it gets hard to pick any one con. Kept myself fed for years just telling people sob stories on street corners, they've got real fucking bleeding hearts for hungry kids, so long as they don't have look at 'em ever again. That's got to count for something."

It was possible, also, that the specifics of that story were a con unto themselves, even if the spirit of it was accurate enough. Sparkle wasn't usually one for blatant honesty.

Once they tag in.

Look at that! He was given a position of power again. We can only hope it won't be used for glitter in this case.

But. You never know.

Welcome to Life with Constantine, kids. Hope you survive.

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Working the Long Con: Famous Confidence Artists & Their Gigs [Wednesday, Period One]

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