Paradise Apartments

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✨ Posting as Alois Trancy. ✨

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It was probably a bit expected in around these parts to experience shoplifters, but that didn't stop Alois.
Being broke sucked, and he was going to take it out on Walmart.

He slinked through the aisles, glancing up and down, trying to find something he could sneak into one of his sleeves, or maybe his pockets, or both... Both, both is good. He also wondered if he could try and sell the stuff he got, or maybe trade for something else, would anyone do that?

Either way, he wandered himself to the aisle that had the watches, sunglasses, bags and a few racks of clothes. This would be a good place to take from... Alois peered at the cheap sunglasses, slowly grabbed a few, acting like he was looking at it, made sure there were no cameras around, or at least where they could see him, then shoved one of the pairs up his sleeve, setting the others back on the display.

Alois then glanced to the watches. They weren't Rolex, but they were something. He once again, acted as if he was looking around, browsing at them, then grabbed one, looked at it, set it back, grabbed another, looked around and shoved it in his pocket quickly, then darted into one of the nearby aisles, heading to the back of the store next, specifically the craft section so it didn't look so suspicious.

14-year-old kid in the Craft's Section. Sounded like a school project, you know? Wrong.
He was shoplifting, but no one had to know that.

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✨"My heart was entwined in a spider web."✨
Alois Trancy

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Æsc grumbled to himself as he wandered the aisles. Why couldn't Lucien buy the milk? If you wouldn't mind awfully, please buy us some more milk, Æsc, I'm so dreadfully busy- Busy doing what, exactly? That was what Æsc wanted to know. Months - that was how long they'd been living in this dump of a place, and Æsc was getting sick of it.

Sure, there were some bright spots. The raid the other week had been pretty fun, and Rowen was always a bit of a lark, but a kid needed friends his own age, and the closest Æsc had was Lu, who was two years older, anyway, and probably didn't count much as a kid.

The milk was heavy and bounced against his leg as he wandered. Lu has given him about ten dollars of extra money. Æsc wasn't sure if it was to make sure he had a bit of spare change, or if they just didn't know how much milk cost. Could be either, knowing them. He wasn't going to argue, though - he'd just take the extra cash. Maybe he'd buy something to make this trip worth it.

He watched a kid, probably about his age, shove something from a watch stand into his pocket, and Æsc knew that trick well. He kept his grin to himself as the boy darted off, and sauntered over slowly; he wasn't about to blow his cover.

Pausing to examine a display of crêpe paper, he glanced at the other with a teasing, knowing quirk to his eyebrow - although certainly no judgement.
"You got the time, mate?"

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It would have been a bloody lie if the blonde hadn't felt like his heart jumped ten feet out of his chest, he took in a deep, silent breath and glanced over at Æsc, "Time?" He asked as if he had no idea what it meant. He certainly did know what it meant, but he had been caught off-guard and was almost in a panic to respond to the question. Did this kid, close to his age, see him take those things?

"Uh, I don't know." He glanced around, "'Would have to find a watch or something." Alois said, ironically. Saying that while having one secretly stuffed in your pocket was very, very contradicting. Alois then forced himself to stare at a random bag of buttons in the aisle, trying to make it seem like he was only browsing and not shoplifting.

Come to think of it, those buttons were really pretty. Alois liked purple.

"Might could.. Hm... Find a clock in the Home Decor area, if they're set. Employees here probably don't set'em. Do they even set display clocks in stores?-" Alois continued.

It was like playing a game of poker and seeing how hard you could fool someone into thinking you had nothing when it was the opposite. A little too alike, except instead of cards, a pair of sunglasses and a watch.

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"Probably not. Probably don't get paid enough to go 'round settin' them all," Æsc mused. "S'why I asked you. Seein' as you seemed the type to have a watch or two on ya."
He paused just a moment longer, letting the air sit for a second, before his face split into a grin, sharp and vicious, but not threatening - the fanged smile of a wolf. "Aye, I ain't gonna grass you up or nothin', though. I don't got any loyalty to Walmart or whatever. You livin' around here?"

He hadn't seen the boy before, but maybe their paths had just never quite crossed. If Lu had come across him before, then they'd certainly have tried to introduce him to Æsc. They were always going on about expanding his social circle, and maybe they were right - not that Æsc would ever say such a thing to their face. The last thing Lu needed was their ego expanding - but there were tricks that could be pulled off by two that were near impossible by one thief, if they could trust one another.

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Alois' heart fluttered a bit when Æsc suggested he might have a watch or two.

But when he mentioned he wouldn't let anyone know, he not only realized that Æsc indeed had saw him take that watch, but thankfully realized that this kid didn't mean any harm.

"Oh. Ha." His nervous grin faltered and turned into a more, comfortable one. "Thanks."

"I live nearby Paradise Apartments." He said, not really giving context on exactly where he lived, because he probably wasn't even supposed to be there, since he just set up a makeshift tent in the back of the Paradise Apartments lot, behind the building. "And you, Mr. Give-Me-A-Heart-Attack?-" Alois raised a brow, smirking mischievously at the nickname he made up.

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"Oh, hey, really? I live in them apartments. We must've narrowly missed each other, like, a million times." If Æsc caught the careful phrasing of nearby, or thought anything of it, he didn't let on. He'd been there too, after all, before moving in with Lu and Pluto.
He let out a bit of a laugh at the nickname, seeming rather proud of his ability to scare. He hadn't meant it to be anything more than good-natured fun - Æsc liked poking and prodding, and if he upset people in the process, he didn't much care, but he didn't want to alienate the other boy right off the bat.

"Æsculapius Monte-Gage," he introduced himself, as pompously as he could, mimicking Lucien's overly posh and proper elocution, before dropping back into his own usual register. "You can call me Æsc. You been livin' here long?"

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"Ha, maybe." Alois slowly slid the sunglasses that were in his sleeve, out and put them in his back pants pocket. "Name's a bit of a mouthful, inn'it? Makes you sound really fancy." He laughed slightly before adding, "Æsc it is then."

"I've been living here a couple of months, so not long at all really." Alois quipped, crossing his arms now that he had no sunglasses in his sleeve to worry about. "I imagine you've been living here quite a while yourself?" Alois raised a brow, tapping his fingers on his crossed arms. "I bet you know a thing or two I don't about Paradise." He snickered.

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Æsc drew himself up a bit, clearly quite proud of how fancy his name sounded. He'd picked it out himself, dressing himself up in a mouthful of a name the same way Lu draped themself in expensive and fine fabrics.

His eyes flicked over the sunglasses, making a mental note of their position in the other boy's pocket, but the act was instinctual; he had no actual intention of pickpocketing them off him. If Æsc wanted sunglasses that badly, after all, he could just steal another pair. As the boy moved them, Æsc shifted just slightly, helping block him from the sight of any other customers who might wander past at that moment.

"Yeah, I've been here a while - I know my ways about. An' I know where's worth targetin', and where's too dangerous to be worth the risk an' all," he boasted. He was purposefully vague about how long he'd been here, wanting to give the impression of quite a great deal of experience. "An' I know the people who live in the apartments. Most of 'em are kinda borin', but there's some fun people, too. And there was a raid a while back an' a cop got shot, which was a break from the monotony an' all."

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Alois raised his brows, "Wow, a raid? That's crazy." He said. It must have been before he had arrived to Paradise. "I bet it was a break from the boring hum-drum of everyday life." He laughed and then put his hands behind his back, rocking back and forth on his heels. "Oh yeah- Forgot to tell you, my name's Ji- Alois Trancy." Alois' slip-up with the name could easily be looked over, as it sounded like a stutter more than anything. It was true, Alois Trancy was actually a moniker, it wasn't his real name.

But who had to know that?

Alois took his hands out from behind his back and snickered, "Hey, speakin' of targeting and not worth the risking, mind giving me some pointers on where to go and where not to go?" Alois said, quieting his voice in-case anyone else was nearby. "Gotta steal to eat, gotta eat to live." He winked. He may or may not have stolen a quote from a song from a movie he watched when he was younger with his little brother.

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"Alois," Æsc repeated, sticking out his hand to shake. There was dirt under his nails, and perhaps a few flecks of something coppery, but his hand was otherwise clean, his nails short and a little bitten but healthy in appearance. "It's good to meet ya."

He didn't catch the reference - Æsc hadn't really seen many movies, and although Lucien was doing their best to force an education on him, their idea of important cultural references for a teenager to know were more along the lines of the classics - Sophocles, Homer, Dostoevsky, Malory, Baudelaire, Keats, Wilde - than modern children's films. Æsc got the impression they also hadn't seen many of those.

"Aye, sure. You know Sally's, just outside the apartments? Good spot if ya want a quick snack or somethin'. Ain't gonna make you a fortune or nothin', but it's easy to slip somethin'. You gotta go when there's the drunks about, though, so's they're payin' more attention to them than you. There's the dollar store jus' down the road, too. Real easy to get away with stuff there." He'd started his response casually, just passing on a few hints, but as he spoke, he seemed to become just a little more excited, as if enjoying getting the chance to share a bit on a subject he was knowledgeable about. His voice stayed low and quiet, though, and his demeanour remained relaxed, so that anyone walking by would just see two boys chatting.
"An' you probably know already, 'cause it ain't specific to here, but the drunks outside the bars are easy pickin's here, an' the drug users. Oh, and there's a pawn shop down the way - owner's real gross, but he gets distracted easy, so you can sometimes get a real good deal."

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Alois shook hands with him and grinned. "Same to you."

He began listening to all the information that the fellow mischief maker gave him, making sure to note everything in his head. "Lot o'drunks out here, huh? I've heard you mention them about two, maybe three times. Gotta keep that in-mind for both safety and an advantage." Alois nodded, "How many of these places have you actually went and took from?"

Alois' face brought a mischievous grin as he spoke;
"Since you seem to be an expert, surely you've done all this at least once, maybe more."

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"Yeah. One of the main attractions of the area, I'd say," Æsc nodded. "An' I mean attractions, 'cause there ain't much else attractive about the area, least that I've seen." Alois was right, though - the drunks did make for an easy cover, especially when one of them was making a scene about something or other, as they often were. Nobody paid a small kid much attention when there was an adult shouting and waving their arms about.

"Aye, y'know. A few of them," he said, vaguely, with a grin that suggested it was more than a few. "I am something of an expert on it." He drew himself up, proudly.

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Alois paused, thinking for a second, and then busted out in a soft laughter.
"Hey, you know.. I like you! I think we can be great friends. Or a thief duo, stealin'stuff." He winked.

"Just imagine, a thief duo snatching things up left and right, who did it? The police ask. No one knows. The detectives all quip." He began doing gestures and hand motions, trying to hype up what he was saying.

He giggled and then covered his mouth, lowering his voice.
"I should probably be quiet.." He shifted his eyes and awkwardly grinned.

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