A/N: A few ramblings about Spot that I did my best to form into a oneshot. I had a lot more trouble with this one then the last one, because I find Spot really hard to write. So feedback loved and appreciated. :)
Some people say it's lonely at the top.
Spot Conlon says sure, that's true. But it's just as lonely at the bottom.
Spot Conlon says that when you're a flunky, just a newsie, you don't have any real friends: you just think you do. They're cheap, they're easily bribed, they're fickle, and they'll run at the first sign of danger. Sure, when you're at the top, you don't have any real friends either. But you can keep the ones you pretend to have with promises of power or money, and threats of worse if they don't stick around. When you're at the bottom, there's no guarantees. At the top bribery and threats will get you nearly anywhere.
Some people say it's a long fall when you've reached the top.
Spot says sure, that's probably true. But he wouldn't know - it's never going to happen to him. Falls from power happen to stupid, careless leaders who don't know what they're doing. They happen to the crazy, the foolish, the imperfect. They happen to leaders who make mistakes, and bad decisions. They happen to idiots.
Some people say everybody makes mistakes. Spot says sure, that's true. But he isn't everybody. He is the exception to everybody. He is Spot Conlon, Brooklyn newsie, and he doesn't make mistakes. Mistakes are for "everybody" - not for him.
Nobody ever has the guts to say Spot Conlon's full of lies, Spot Conlon's fooling himself, Spot Conlon makes mistakes all the time. But Spot knows it's true.
He is human after all.
His expertise lies in making people forget just how human he is. He appears and says he doesn't believe in mistakes, in loneliness, and whether people know it or not they become convinced that he's some kind of robot, or a deity, the perfect ruler of invincible Brooklyn. The true King of New York, and Brooklyn in particular. The person who turned his boys into a tremendously powerful and terrifying fighting force. The boy who can do anything.
He blinds people to the truth, carefully covering up the obvious with the oblivious, which he brings forth with graceful ease to the forefront of everything.
In other words, one of the best liars this side of the Atlantic.
Spot Conlon is lonely, and Spot Conlon is afraid of falling, and Spot Conlon makes mistakes (he just covers them up really well).
Since the age of 9 people have been persuaded by him to forget his humanity (and most of the time his age) and follow him into anything.
There are thousands of little things he does, from carrying his cane, to his slightly exaggerated accent, to his expertly unflappable fighting style. The way he phrases things, and the slight smirk he puts on when necessary for "business affairs." All of it is arranged, and though it soon becomes habit, easier to slip into than his (by now a size to small) shoes.
He may be human, but there is one human characteristic he does not share with many - he isn't stupid. Or at least, so he tells himself. And for the most part, it's true. He's nobody's fool. That gives him the advantage - that and being such a cynic. So he carefully guards what he says and does with a flawless mask of emotionless, biting sarcasm, and an air of being above it all, and it turns him into the supernatural.
Some people say Spot Conlon must have a weakness.
But Spot Conlon says they're all wrong.
A/N: Please let me know what you thought of it, and thanks for reading. :)