closed;

[unhappy]

🧙 WHO: Emerald Sustrai & Rei Amayado
⚔️ WHAT: A pickpocket and a con artist walk into a real estate open house
🕒 WHEN: Early afternoon
🗺️ WHERE: Some random real estate offering in Camelot City
⚠️ WARNINGS: They sketchy, but probably nothing notable. Will update if that changes.

[ Emerald hadn't actually had to resort to pickpocketing to make a living in a long while. After Cinder had taken her in, her only pocketing happened for fun, to keep her skills sharp, to make sure she still could in case things went wrong and she had to go back to it. She hadn't expected to end up somewhere that the skills she'd kept sharp would be rendered completely useless by lack of access to her semblance. Learning to do it without getting into peoples' heads and causing hallucinations was a challenge.

At least now that she didn't look like a filthy, starving street rat. Now that she's back in a situation where she has to take care of herself (inconveniently still without any schooling or skills beyond how to lie, spy, kill, and survive) she could get into places where the people who could afford nice jewelry and clean buildings hang out. There are a dozen or so people in here to look at the building- too many witnesses than she's normally risk doing this in front of. But this magic this place gave her is different, so Emerald's pretty sure she can get away with it. She screwed up a little during the winter solstice because she didn't know what she was doing, but she's figured this out since then.

She smiles at one of the rich-looking gentlemen who's asking her a question. She reaches out to shake his hand in greeting. He smiles back at her, shaking her hand. Light fingers aren't something this world could take, so she manages to get his very expensive-looking watch right off of his risk without him realizing a thing, right in front of him. An illusion makes it seem to him like his watch is still visibly on his wrist after she lets go and she chats with him for a moment, slipping the watch into her back pocket while he's still interested in chatting with her.

Once he's gone, she drops the illusion and turns around, slipping it out of her pocket to stuff it up her shirt underneath her bra- if he realizes it's still gone, no one's going to check there, but the pocket might be obvious-- and nearly bumps right into Rei when she does. She's definitely not used to this kind of magic, her focus is totally off. At this point she can only hope he didn't see anything and pretend like nothing happened. ]

Hi. Nice building. I really like the... ceiling panels.

Comments

[groundzeroes]

[To her credit, Emerald is good at what she does. Rei definitely would have missed her little heist if he hadn't had his gaze locked on her in the first place (in a crowd of Camelot locals she was the only person he recognized), and even then he didn't realize what she was doing until after the fact. Shoving something into your bra after making a swift exit from a conversation-- and just about bumping into someone!-- is so classic it's only experience that keeps Rei from laughing.

He does grin down at her, though. He'll have a little fun playing innocent before calling her out on it.]

Ah, Emerald-chan. [We meet again!] Didn't know you were into acoustic architecture! What a coincidence.

[unhappy]

[ She still doesn't think she ever got an answer as to what -chan means, beyond that it's something in his language, but at this point she's just going to accept it. She's definitely not going to bring it up again right now, while she's trying to smooth over having potentially been caught. ]

The buildings here are so different from my world's. Real estate open houses are basically free city tours.

[ Her eyes do a quick once-over, practicedly locating any bulges in pockets and the location of jewelry. Even if she considers for a brief moment stealing from him too, she decides against it. He's not going to pay her back if she takes her own fee. ]

What about you?

[groundzeroes]

Ah, I'm planning to open a business. Doing research on available performance halls in preparation for it. [Location, location, location....]

The patrons here are pretty... high-end, though, huh. [ :3c ]

[unhappy]

I don't know, you're here.

[ She's definitely just teasing him. She definitely noticed that everyone seems to be pretty well-to-do here, except for her. But she at least doesn't look like she doesn't belong, she thinks.

Sass aside, she shrugs... lightly, so nothing falls out of her shirt, and offers actual conversation. ]

It costs a lot to buy a venue, that's probably why.

[groundzeroes]

[Rei laughs good-naturedly, taking the jab in stride. He's used to getting dunked on-- really, it's one of the tenets of all his significant relationships! (Hell, even Otome can't resist, and she's as flat mannered as they come.)]

Ah, that depends. [Depends on what you mean by cost. If you fraud it, the cost is more in the risk. This time though, Rei's case he's banking on the fey traders to hold up their end.. though all that questing is certainly a cost of its own.] Still, I think this place is a bit too far on the cosmopolitan side for what I'm looking for.

Though, if my eyes didn't deceive me... it looks like you found just what you came for, huh.

[His easy grin goes mischievous. It's not threatening-- just sass, like her. A conspiratory sort of smile.]

Pretty good technique.

[unhappy]

What are you looking for?

[ That means.. he definitely did see. Emerald holds her hands behind her back. He's not threatening her, so despite a brief moment of tenseness, she forces herself to remain relaxed. ]

He seemed like he could afford it. You're not going to rat me out?

[groundzeroes]

And lose my training partner? Of course not.

[Rei nods his head and turns to start walking slowly, as if they're strolling around observing the venue like everyone else. The other patrons around them are absorbed in their own conversations, but Rei still keeps his language vague just in case.]

I'm partial to the white-collar side, myself. [OF CRIME, HE MEANS]

[unhappy]

They make better targets no matter what side you're working on.

[ Emerald doesn't like stealing from other people who are struggling. People who can afford fancy jewelry on the other hand.. well, Rei's lucky he knows her face and name already. ]

It's harder here though. Light magic is a downgrade from making people see and hear whatever I want.

[ It's kind of a relief to be able to be open about this with someone. He's a criminal too, apparently, and he's never going to Remnant so there's no point in hiding it from him. It's not like she's telling him about the other stuff, and she's had no one to really share who she actually is with since getting here. ]

[groundzeroes]

Oh? Sounds like you were quite the hotshot, huh. A shame. [Rei has decided to stop being surprised when people tell him about their gamebreaking abilities back home. Seriously, how come he ended up living in a normie world he had to spiff up with his own two hands.... unfair......]

Avalon's definitely challenging our kind, to be sure. Have you heard about that cognitive magic type here, too? [ Being able to see the past history of objects?!] Sounds like it could make operations a pain even with fencing.

Phone tagging hard I accidentally tapped post...

[unhappy]

I've gotten a sarcastic "master thief" before.

[ And a lot of 'street rat.' but she hates that so she's not introducing herself as that. 'Hot shot' is definitely new. People don't compliment her. ]

That's cheating. I bet there's a way to get around it, though. Or else there would never be any criminals, and this place has a courthouse.

youre so strong for even trying phone tagging LOL

[groundzeroes]

Successful criminals, you mean. [Rei hums thoughtfully, glancing down to give Emerald an evaluating smile instead of pretending to be considering the window interior design in front of them. This girl.. she's still got a bit of trust in the power of authority, huh? Not faith, per se--she hardly seems the type-- but an understanding of power structures as functioning entities. How interesting.]

Well, I'll look into it. If there's a court, then there's records. [Records of previous ne'er-do-wells and their methods...] When I find something, I'll let you know.

[Rei pauses for a moment, then chuckles.] This probably isn't what they bargained for when dragging us here to learn magic, is it?

[unhappy]

People don't try to do things if they don't believe there's a chance they'll succeed. [ Whether there is one in reality or not. Emerald's opinion on authority is... not necessarily trust, either. It's more like she has a particular understanding of how the world works. ] If there's a courthouse, there are people who thought they had a chance to get away with it. We just have to figure out what it is.

[ THis is probably the wrong path to take. She knows it. But she doesn't really know how to do anything else that isn't taking down a kingdom and espionage. ]

I'll ask around and see if I can find out who's who on the streets and let you know.

[ She shakes her head. ] I don't think they checked wanted posters.

[groundzeroes]

[It might be the wrong path to take, but what else are they gonna do? What they're told????? Heaven forbid! lol

The open house, fancy as it is, has a small hors d'oeuvres setup; Rei takes one of the offered glasses for himself and hands one to Emerald.]

Might as well ply my trade while we're stuck here, anyway. ["here" being Avalon, that is.] So it's nice to meet someone with the same sort of inclinations. And someone who's good at it, too.

It was only by chance we met, but I think that'll be more purposeful from here on. [Another smile-- conspiring, this time.] Glad to work with you, Emerald-chan.

[unhappy]

Yikes, I feel like I've just gotten involved in something shady.

[ As if she wasn't already acting shady herself. She takes the glass and looks at it with a bit of confusion. Fancy food makes no sense. Is part of this dish edible foam? She's going to eat it either way, after sniffing to make sure it doesn't smell dangerous.

It's food, but she holds the glass up to clink his in agreement, regardless. ]