Setting
"A short stubby man who looked like he could father a creature like Piper told me a great deal about the gangs that run this city." Axel said as he stopped his angry pace and leaned against the walls of one of the clubs, his excited eyes switching between Piper and Simon, eager to tell this information. "The other gang that seems to run this city is the Alley sharks, and according to Piper's father they are worst then both gangs combined. The best fighters in Tineburgh, and the least likely to be fucked with. The hounds seem to have a good amount of money, so them stealing from the wasps seems to be an unlikely situation unless they wanted to start trouble, which makes our little lie even worse." He said twisting his boot into the dirt, exhaling a deep breath as he seemed to rapid fire all of that.
"Oh and finally the one who leads the Hounds is a guy called Quinn.. Apparently Val is the more fearsome of the two. And the one who leads the Alley Sharks is a man called Volner." Axel scoffed, folding his arms and pouting. "We could take all of them.." He mumbled his pride to large to admit all three gangs were far far superior to them.
"Nice job, Axel," He said, then turning to Piper with a large, shit-eating grin, "Maybe you should try and be more like him, Piper. He did what I asked you guys to."
Outside the alleyway, some occasional packs of people could be seen passing by, as well as a few members of the Watch. For now, they seemed safe in the alleyway, as none of the passing people have even bothered to look inside. The other end of the alley lead to the other part of town, which seemed less chaotic than the one they had just escaped from, likely because the Watch wasn't thinking to try and catch people there.
Instead, she turned her attention to the street down the alleyway, trying to put aside competitive feelings.
"Whatever-- Listen. We still need to reach a gambling hall, yes? Let's begin heading that way," She pointed down the length of the alley, "And see what we can find instead of staying here like sitting ducks."
Axel patted his stomach as they continued down the alleyway, kicking mugs and other littered objects to the side. "I grow hungrier by the second.. We should at least try and score something more.. Wherever we go.." He said to the pairing, his mind now wandering to the three of them 'scoring' something together again. They were becoming closer by the second, yet still remaining safely distant from each other.
"Scoring more should definitely be a priority of ours, considering we've got a debt to pay at some point," He replied to Axel, crossing his arms over his chest as he scanned the area, looking for something in particular, "I'll be honest, I don't know how we're going to get so much money quickly. And I'm assuming they want it quickly, since that Val girl didn't seem like the type who likes to wait."
Finally, Simon smirked as he saw what he was looking for. He motioned to the other two, then pointing across the street to a building. The building, like the other clubs, seemed to be designed in an attempt to grab the attention of people passing by. Two people stood outside its door, dressed in identical outfits: A black and yellow stripped shirt and simple black pants. The two called out to anyone who walked by the building, seeming to advertise for a play going on inside and trying to lure them inside. The most eye-catching part of this club had to be the obnoxiously bright, yellow painted sign outside, giving the name of the club. "The Hive."
Simon looked back to the other two, giving them a smirk, "How much you wanna bet that's those Wasps' club?"
"I... Agree." She nodded after a slight pause, refusing to look at Axel as she said it. "Hunger will only keep us from being able to think straight and formulate a proper plan for... I don't know, whatever heists we need to go on to pay off this debt."
This debt that could have been avoided. She thought bitterly to herself.
Seeing the 'Hive' brought her back to her primary school days when her mother would force her to be a part of some educational play for the school so that her daughter could socialise. She never bothered acting, but usually worked on gaudy set design. Did the Wasps not care who saw their club? Did they not worry about being raided or arrested when keeping their hideout so blatant? If this was the case, then maybe they should be more worried than they already were.
Her mind turned over to the idea of money as she jammed her hands into her pockets, walking alongside them. "I suggest we get at least half of our debt paid quickly. Maybe even add a little extra to smooth over any feathers Axel ruffled after telling his lie. If we pay in petty pocket change then it'll reinforce the idea that we're not very good at what we're doing and that we're just another dime-a-dozen gang in lower Tineburgh. Which... we are, but that's not the point."
Suddenly after what really took him too long to realize, Axel's eyes widened as he figured it out. He quickly turned his head to both Simon and Piper as his connection was made, he had to tell them. "The wasps.. They are.. I hate to admit it but beyond clever.. Look, that building is called the hive.. Wasps have hives.. That's their hideout!" He shouted out as if he solved a huge mystery. He began to shake his head at how clever the Wasps had been yet again, envy burning in his stomach at them.
Axel then folded his arms at Pipers words, smirking slightly. "Look how easily the good Aer girl turns bad.. You see I knew all you Aerians had a bit of criminal in you, I mean you are born of machines." He said before shifting his eyes back to the suited men at the hive, envy still boiling at their cleverness. "And what you said implies we are a gang... A sorry one, but a gang nonetheless. So why don't we start acting like one." He said as he pointed to the hive.
"Right now, I just want to know more about the gangs that run this city. If we can help it, we should avoid robbing the wrong place or the wrong person and angering yet another of the Top Dogs," He said, shaking his head with a frown, "I'd rather not be in more debt, thank you."
As Axel pointed towards the Hive, the two Wasps outside seemed to take notice, seeing the point as a hint that they might be interested. They look to each other and nod before both start to aim their loud, reedy voices towards the trio, now trying to entice them to come and watch the play, "Come one, come all! Spectate the spectacle as Valorie Morsus takes on the role of a lifetime in 'Inspector Spector'!"
This only causes Simon to roll his eyes more.
She immediately regretted it after hearing his next words. 'Criminal' indeed. She felt her brows lower in a scowl as she looked up at him. "It isn't turning criminal." She defended herself with a sharp glare. "I'm looking out for our survival and our best interests. I don't want to be in trouble with these people any more than you two do. At best, we're a scraggly group. Not a gang."
She could see it now. 'Aerian Runaway Found and Arrested After Initiating Unlawful Gang in Tineburgh.' The headline wasn't catchy, but it would be enough to get her knees deep in shit with her mother on top of everything else.
"Spectate the spectacle..." She repeated softly after the announcer with a small chuckle. "Perhaps we should go in. We could get an idea of what type of people the Wasps are aligned with or who else comes to see their plays."
Axel felt special, they were finally getting the respect they deserved as a well oiled gang. These wasps new the business and that's why all they desired was them inside of their.. Their hive. Disregarding the come all bit, Axel slapped them lightly on their sides. "You see! That's the type of respect they deserve, they are calling out to us and only us.." He said nodding his head triumphantly "Plus, Valorie Morsus? That has to be val.." He turned to Piper "One boom from your silly boom stick and she's down!" He said voicing his idiotic plan for assassination.
"We're not going to shoot her, Axel. That'd ridiculous, we'd get killed before we even had a chance to blink," He said, shaking his head, all while thinking, "... Though Piper might be right. Maybe going in and watching a show wouldn't be a bad idea. It'd be good to know how exactly one of the Top Dogs runs their club."
As Simon considered this, the Wasps calling out to them continued to try and lure anyone, making the play they are putting on sound rather exciting. Apparently it was a tragedy about a detective who lost his life, only to then solve crimes in the afterlife for ghosts who died under mysterious circumstances. Riveting stuff.
"All this excitement in the comfort of the Hive, only two marks a person!" One of the Wasps call out, holding a hand to the sky, two fingers raised, "Come now, before you miss it all!"
"I've got a couple marks in my wallet." She mumbled. "If you two can scrounge up anything, it would be helpful."
She brought out the old, brown leather wallet and began fishing through it. If they couldn't pay, then she hoped they wouldn't count on her to try and help them smooth-talk their way through. That, she thought, would be Simon's job if it came down to it. Pickpocketing was also an option.
But Axel's retort still came back through her mind. He was right. It was still criminal despite their intentions to simply survive in a tougher part of town. But didn't the fact that they weren't outwardly malicious redeem them in some way?
She gave a sigh and plucked out the two marks before stuffing the wallet back into her flight jacket. "Right. I definitely don't have any more than this." She muttered, side-eyeing Axel. "Maybe you can pray to Eftris or whoever for another handful of them to rain from the sky."
Axel clenched his jaw at Piper's mockery of the gods. He wished in his soul that Ualdir would come from the sky and smite her with a bolt of thunder so strong it would separate her body in to particles that would be soaked up by the ground of Ylena. He raised a fist up at her shaking his head "Mock the gods again and money won't be the only thing falling from the sky." He said sharply his head a flame as he apologized in his mind to the gods for how disrespectful this little Aerian was.
Axel whipped his head over to Simon "I doubt you have any marks either, you smell like poverty." He said with a scowl as he folded his arms. "Any bright ideas to get us inside?" He said rolling out his shoulders before turning to Piper "If it comes down to it Piper will give me her two marks and you two Aerians could cuddle outside in the dirt or something."
After a moment of scanning the crowd, Simon snapped his fingers and gave a satisfied, mischievous smirk, having found a suitable target for pick-pocketing. He turned to Axel, his grin widening, "Alright, Axel, let's just get some money, eh?" He said, tilting his head over towards the crowd, subtly motioning towards one person in particular. A boy that looked to be considerably younger than all of them, maybe eleven or twelve, stood looking towards the Hive with awe. He was dressed poorly, but Simon spotted the obvious lump in his back pockets of a wallet, likely containing the marks he hoped to use to get into the Hive and watch a play himself. Lucky for them, he left himself wide open for it to be lifted from him.
"You get in front of that kid and make sure you keep his attention, I'll just sneak around and snatch what is rightfully ours," He chuckled, waggling his fingers as if warming them up. It had been awhile since he had done anything that required a deft hand like pick-pocketing or lock-picking, but he knew he still had it in him.
She zoned out for another moment, shaking her head to try and think of another solution. She felt a sharp sort of embarrassment at having stood out here so long while trying to scavenge a couple marks in front of the Wasps members. It continued to sting as she tried to think of a way out of this. Simon was a smart-ass, but he was smart in his own way. Perhaps he could persuade the doorman to--
Her attention was suddenly caught by the human's skinny finger pointing toward some wide-eyed little boy on the end of the street. She felt confusion settle over her for a moment before it cleared like overcast clouds from a sky. She took a couple steps forward as self-righteous frustration stewed in her. "I'm sorry," She hissed out to avoid alerting the child. "You were going to rob a child, Redcaster?" She shot a glare to him, gesturing to the Hive advertiser. "You're smart, just smooth-talk your way through the door! You can--" She stopped, cutting herself off for a moment as she felt the gears turn momentarily in her head. "... You could go over and convince the kid to lend some money. He seems innocent enough, just go on about how you really want to see the show and only need about four marks for you and your friend. There're no legal repercussions involved if you manage that." She glanced once to the child again, then back to Simon before giving a casual shrug. But if you two can't manage something like that, then go ahead, show the Wasps that we're a gang that needs to steal from kids to get by."
She hoped her delivery wasn't awkward, and once again found herself hoping and praying that the subtle ego-stroking and less-than-subtle reverse psychology would be enough to make them settle for something less... morally dubious. She was a thief at this point, a member of an illegal gang, but even she had standards.