talentforlying: (can't clean me up for polite company)
John Constantine ([personal profile] talentforlying) wrote in [community profile] fandomhigh2026-01-06 10:07 pm
Entry tags:

The Long Con, Wednesday, Period 1 [1/7]

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.

God, why the fuck had he been assigned first period? This was some sort of fucking revenge by that sodding moose, wasn't it? John hadn't started drinking yet, but this was fucking inhumane, to be sober at this hour. Bloody hell.

"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, lighting up. "More the fools you, but I can work with it."

"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 continued 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, then we'll get on to Arts and Crafts."

...did he mean for that to sound slightly ominous? Maybe. It was too fucking early for this shite.
not_a_haint: (Default)

Re: Talk and Stuff!

[personal profile] not_a_haint 2026-01-07 11:11 pm (UTC)(link)
"That's a phone?!" It was small! It wasn't attached to anything at all!

He calmed himself. "I'm sorry that was maybe a bit much. Phones are...a lot different when I'm from."
mostnonheinous: (ooooooooo)

Re: Talk and Stuff!

[personal profile] mostnonheinous 2026-01-07 11:24 pm (UTC)(link)
"It must seem most futuristic," Billie agreed easily. "You're from . . . the 70s?"

She knew musical history far better than other kinds. And Caleb had been nonspecific in the number of decades he'd skipped.
not_a_haint: (confused caleb is confused)

Re: Talk and Stuff!

[personal profile] not_a_haint 2026-01-07 11:28 pm (UTC)(link)
"Further back I'm afraid. It was 1935 when I left home."
mostnonheinous: (tribulations)

Re: Talk and Stuff!

[personal profile] mostnonheinous 2026-01-07 11:50 pm (UTC)(link)
“Oh!” Billie blinked several times. “You don’t even have rotary phones, do you.”
not_a_haint: (Default)

Re: Talk and Stuff!

[personal profile] not_a_haint 2026-01-08 12:04 am (UTC)(link)
"Oh no we have those. I don't think we've had them for long? Relatively speakin'? We didn't have one where I lived for a while." It had been less a resistance to technology as a "this might make it easier for the bank to find us" thing.
more googling
mostnonheinous: (time to think)

Re: Talk and Stuff!

[personal profile] mostnonheinous 2026-01-08 12:52 am (UTC)(link)
“Okay. Okay. Rotary phones. Great Depression. The Carter Family topped the hillbilly charts. 1935. I am most oriented now.”
not_a_haint: (Default)

Re: Talk and Stuff!

[personal profile] not_a_haint 2026-01-08 01:06 am (UTC)(link)
"Yeah that sounds about right." Though life in the Cradle hadn't been impacted too much by the crash of '29 and hard times that followed, (they'd always lived rather simply) the papers were filled with stories that let them know how fortunate they were.

And yeah the Carter Family's music was rather a mainstay of the area, though Granny had been more a fan of Jimmy Rodgers.
mostnonheinous: (time to think)

Re: Talk and Stuff!

[personal profile] mostnonheinous 2026-01-08 01:15 am (UTC)(link)
Billie smiled and held her hands up, gesturing forward in two straight lines. “Oriented,” she said. “Now: you were wondering about the keyboards that aren’t attached to pianos? Synthesizers, while popular with Beethoven, were not a thing then.”

The Moog wouldn’t even be out for another 29 years!

[googling for all!]
not_a_haint: (Default)

Re: Talk and Stuff!

[personal profile] not_a_haint 2026-01-08 01:22 am (UTC)(link)
"Right. Not a word I'm familiar with, but I'm gettin' used to that. Kinda sounds like a riddle. When is a piano not a piano?"