Desperation (Open)

[akeelah]

The hunger was bothering her, and coming to this place only made it worse. Every other corner had some restaurant there; this street was full of them. The smell alone made her stomach growl much to her annoyance. But now was not the time to be thinking about food, there was still so much to do first was find a good spot to stay the night. It didn’t matter where so long as it wasn’t too dangerous, otherwise she wasn’t too picky. It was always the first thing that she did whenever she came to a new city. It was always her first priority but right now her hunger was distracting her from her task.

So there she was, casually leaning against a nearby building silently watching the crouch while she debated what to do. Akeelah didn’t have any money to get anything here, especially from some of the more fancy restaurants. That meant that she needed to steal. But that meant that she had to work, and work took time. The more time she wasted here the sooner night would come and just like in the wild, night in the city was dangerous. More so because there were far more dangerous creatures lurked amongst humans than out in the wild. Like vampires for one, Akeelah had a greater chance of fending off a wild bear than one of those.

Then again it might not take too long. There were a lot of people out today, many preoccupied and easily distracted people, their unguarded wallets just ripe for the picking. All she needed to do was find the right target and the right moment to strike. One target was good enough for now, so long as she got some cash she could survive for the rest of the day. But what if they didn’t have anything? There was always the chance that her target had no cash on them, it happened from time to time. Screw it, if I get a dud then I’ll forget it and just keep going she thought. If she didn’t find anything then there was no point in wasting any more time.

With her mind made up Akeelah scanned through the crowd looking for an easy target. Someone who was alone, someone who’s guard was lowered and wouldn’t suspect anything. In a matter of moments she found her target. They were standing in front of a store not too far away. Probably looking at what they had in their display window. A small smile crept on her face. Oh this was going to be too easy. Akeelah made her way over to the target, making sure not to draw any suspicion to herself. Once she was close enough she made her move. She ‘accidentally’ bumped into the person, her hand quickly sneaked into their pocket, pulling out their wallet and moving it into her own pocket. The act itself was too fast to be noticed by any passersby and most likely the target themselves. “Sorry…” she said, shooting an apologetic look before turning around and walking away. It was the oldest trick in the book but it was one that Akeelah found worked well enough in situations like this. With any luck her target wouldn’t even realize what happened until they got home. By then Akeelah would be long gone and fed. All that was left to do was to head into the nearest alley to see what she had caught.

_______________________________

Tagged: No one
Outfit: Black hoodie and jeans
Notes: Open to all
Words: 577

[Saben Renner]

Fresh from finishing up a meal, Saben turned out of an alley and back onto the sidewalks of the streets. The body he used, was hidden away under a whole stash of trash bags from a dumpster. If anyone were to find it, they'd see that it had numerous pieces of flesh ripped away, as well as entire limbs gone missing. It was all the work of Saben, a cannibal who actually preferred his meat raw. This factor, was all because of what he'd been like at "birth". Of course, Saben wasn't born like everyone else...he was more or so created, literally. The work of Kamiya's plans, his first few years of life weren't civilized at all. He was more like a rabid animal, or some form of mutant zombie who had an extremely strong desire for flesh. He would attack people without much though, pouncing on his prey and latching onto their throat with his jaws.

As the years went past though, Saben learned from his surroundings, and it helped him become the much more civilized person he was now. However, the "rapid" part of him still lingered inside as well, it was pure nature to him. This was why he preferred raw meat, and walked around on all fours at times to frighten people to hell. For the time being though, he kept his walk normal to keep the attention away. Sure, a few people might've recognized him every now and then, but a lot of people were caught up in their own business as well. Looking around at the stores, sending text messages or talking on the phone as they walked, etc. It was all typical for society, which Saben hated greatly. He didn't like people, humans, angels, and vampires especially. And unfortunately for him, this city was full of them.

It wasn't all bad though. Finding a human victim or two definitely had its benefits. They were always the ones who were totally unaware of the supernatural, thus making them vulnerable. Saben liked to play with people's fears, and if they saw that he was a demon, no doubt there would be fear to play with. So with that thought buzzing around his mind, Saben kept a constant look out for anyone that might make a nice victim. Again, he didn't want to draw attention to himself, so he'd have to make his move in a casual way. If any kind of mass panic erupted, Saben didn't want that angelic hero name Remy showing up. He always seemed to ruin the fun for Saben and Kamiya, something that tended to get on his nerves. For this, he molded his attacks around things that wouldn't draw too much attention.

As he got further down the sidewalk, his eyes caught on to a younger woman who had just bumped into someone. He immediately kept a close eye on her, his suspicions getting the best of him. He's had people try to steal from him before, and he knew that bumping into a person was often where they made their move. Saben pitied such fools though, who dared to try and make a victim out of him. As punishment, he's taken fingers, organs, limbs, and just about everything else. Of course, what went along with that, was taking their life. It was always a fatal mistake to mess with the demon, and some people found that out the hard way. However, on this occasion, he wasn't the victim. Someone else was, and when an idea came to mind, a smile was put upon Saben's face. This girl already had a bit of careless attitude, otherwise, she wouldn't be stealing from people.

Saben's plan, was to take that part of her attitude, and mold it into something much worse. Ah yes...corruption, another one of the darker things that he loved. That in mind, he walked up to the female, making things seem as if he were any other person. "That didn't go unnoticed, you know." He said to her, a smirk plastered on his features.

Tag: Akeelah
Word Count: 671
Notes: -
Lyrics: Lyrics and image soon
Template: Lycan

[akeelah]

Akeelah kept moving, satisfied that her latest victim was completely unaware of the theft that had just taken place. Unaware that she herself was being followed. Since neither the target nor anyone else spoke up she assumed that no one else had noticed the crime, she had gotten away with it. All that was left to do now was to see if what she had taken was worth the trouble. Akeelah slipped quietly into the nearest alley and pulled out her prize, rummaging through it to see what was inside. The wallet’s contents were pretty standard, a couple of credit cards, a debit card, and some i.d. cards none of which were of not of any use to her. Credit cards became worthless quickly once the owner noticed that they were lost. Debit was only good if you knew the original owner’s pin number, and since Akeelah wasn’t an identity thief any personal information she could find was completely useless. The only thing that she had an interest in was the cash. Bills never became useless after a period of time, and they were harder to trace when they went missing. Akeelah could steal from a handful of people and have just enough to last her a week on a good day. For the time being though she only needed to take from one person.

Luckily for the young thief there was some cash inside, forty dollars in fact. More than enough for one meal at some place cheap. Akeelah couldn’t help but smile; at least she got something for her trouble. She shoved the bills into her pocket and checked the coin pocket for change, emptying its contents as well. No points of letting the coins go to waste. With that done she intended to throw the wallet away, having no further use for the thing when the sound of someone’s voice caused her to stop in mid-throw. Shit, looked like she did have a problem after all. Akeelah turned around, sending a fierce glare at the smirking intruder.

Akeelah wasn’t sure what to think about the man at first. From the looks of it he wasn’t a police officer, a small relief if nothing else. He couldn’t be a friend of the person that she had just stolen from, he obviously she what she had done but he didn’t look upset by it, and he was by himself too so that ruled out that possibility. Could he be one of those morons pulling that ‘good Samaritan’ act? If that were the case then why didn’t he say anything before she had the chance to get away? Did he think that he could accomplish something by confronting her in private? Something about this just wasn’t right, she could feel it.

“You caught me.” She said coolly, doing her best to mask the unease that she was feeling. Her instincts were telling her to run but with the nearest exit blocked it might be a bit tricky to do so. There was also her lack of knowledge about the area to consider. The alley stretched out like a maze, it would be very easy for her to get lost while trying to escape. Assuming that this man knew his way around that put her at a disadvantage. It wouldn’t stop her from trying if she had to, and most likely she would. Fighting wasn’t always the best idea. Even if she shifted, if he had a gun or wasn’t human she would still be in danger. For now the best that she could do was play it cool, show no fear and hope that he would lose interest and leave, or piss him off enough that he would storm off, whatever worked. “So what are you going to do? Slap me on the wrists then call the cops?”

[Saben Renner]

Stealing had never been much of Saben's thing to do. The things that people had were of no interest to him, so why bother taking them. Often times when people stole, they were after money. Money wasn't an issue with Saben, because for one, he never really bought much. Second, he didn't care about paying. And then if it wasn't the money that people were after, it was simply something else they wanted. Again, he didn't take any interest at all in what people had, especially humans. Saben's game was more along the lines of torture and murder. He fed off of people's fear, taking it in and using it to his advantage. Whenever he saw that they were frightened, it motivated him more to keep up with what he was doing. Not only that, but he knew that fear was often a weakness. It could paralyze you, and prevent you from doing the things you needed to do, such as fighting back.

Another thing that fear was good for, was control. If you put enough fear into someone, you had a chance at controlling them. Whether it be through personal threats, or threats directed at other things. It didn't always work though, but that wasn't what Saben had in mind anyway for this situation. He didn't plan on frightening his target, but more or so...just get into her mind. So after she turned around and addressed him, his smirk faded a bit at the mentioning of the police. "Cops?" He asked. The look on his face made it seem like she were joking. "Hell no. I can't stand those little fucks." Oh yes, cops were another thing that annoyed him. Remy aside, they were always around to ruin the fun. Every so often, Saben would have a run in with them one going about one his chaotic little plans.

Of course, the police never agreed to it, and always tried to stop him. For that, they paid the price, and went from living beings to lifeless corpses. "I simply think that you could do better." He continued to say. Now, one could take that statement, and perceive it of him meaning that she could do more positive things with her life. But honestly, he meant the exact opposite. Again, his goal here was to try and gain her trust, and then corrupt her further to the best of his ability. He's heard of people who started out small, such and stealing wallets, change, and all that other stuff. Then they moved on to the bigger crimes, and that was similar to what Saben wanted to do. So hopefully, the younger woman would take up an interest in what he had to say, and not shoot it down the instant it slipped from his mouth.

Taking it as an insult, was another possibility that could be played out. By saying that he thought she could do better, the shifter could take as him judging her, or saying that she wasn't good enough. But as mentioned, his statement was the truth, though it was more so aimed at getting her attention.

Tag: Akeelah
Word Count: 517
Notes: -
Lyrics: Lyrics and image soon
Template: Lycan

[akeelah]

Akeelah raised an eyebrow at the apparent distaste that the man showed regarding the police. This man really was an odd one. She had never met anyone like him before, mostly because she never bothered to try and socialize with other people. There was a good reason for that though besides the fact that people in general were a pain in her ass but because strangers could not be trusted. Most people in his position now would not try to approach her without wanting some kind of benefit for themselves, whether to cause harm or feel like a better righteous person for it. The question was what did this guy want from her? From the way that he was acting, the ‘Good Samaritan’ theory was out of the question. By now he would at least have gone into the morality bullshit speech by now. Was he planning on hurting her? Maybe, again she wasn’t too sure about that. There was nothing stopping him from trying to do so now if he really wanted to. But for all she knew he was just bidding his time before he struck.

Again the stranger said that she could ‘do better’ and again she had to try and figure out what he meant by that. Studying his body language, his tone of voice, and any other little details to decide what he meant by those words. Since she had already ruled out him trying to do good, he probably not trying to judge her for what she was doing. That much she could tell at the very least. It might not be an insult, but there was no way to be certain of that unless she could investigate further. “And what’s that suppose to mean?” she asked suspiciously. For now she would play along. Figure what he wanted and then decide what to do. If push came to shove she could still run away if things went bad.

[Saben Renner]

It was certain by now that Saben wasn't here to preach to the young woman about morals and shame. Such things were at the very bottom of his list, and barely existed at all. It was only in a few rare cases that he considered them. Most of them had to do with Ciara and Kamiya, the only two people he was friends with. But as far as others in society, they meant nothing to him. He didn't care if people stole from each other. Why would he if it didn't have anything to do with him? Besides, it was rather boring. Saben would much rather watch chaos erupt...chaos that involved bloodshed and death. Then if he could, he'd try to add in on the fun. Being a demon, he could add in some fire here and there, or just jump right in. But as far as this situation was concerned, there wasn't going to be any fire, and hopefully no chaos either. It was a bit odd for Saben not to include it, but he'd make up for it later on.

"What that means..." He began to say. "Is that you can do better than just simple pickpocketing. You can move on to bigger and better things." Bigger and better like what exactly? Well, Saben had a few things in mind. For one, he could see that this woman didn't have much room for caring in her. So what did it matter if anyone saw her steal or not? What helped was the fact that she was a shapeshifter. If anyone were to chase after her, she could simply hide away somewhere, and then shift into some other form. Sure, there'd be a few kinks here and there with that plan, but they could easily be worked out. And if her level of uncaring ever expanded, Saben would take advantage. Maybe corrupt her mind some, and then go on to harming some people.

So as those thoughts flew through his mind, he let her know. "Who cares if people see you? Most of these idiots are only human after all." That was another advantage. The supernatural had a tendency to outsmart and out run humans. To Saben, the human race were simply a bunch of pawns...or just meat bags really. Being a cannibal, he made more use of them as food. And he ate other species too, save for vampires and angels. Vampires were just too gross to eat in his opinion. They were dead, and looked more like mutant zombies. Who the hell would want to eat rotten flesh? And angels? Well, they were practically toxic. Their blood to a demon was poison, so there was no way Saben was taking the risk of trying to eat one. Humans on the other hand, there was nothing ever really wrong with them, unless it was something obvious.

But again, Saben didn't have any immediate bad intentions on mind as he looked at the shape shifter. Whether or not she'd actually listen to him, was beyond him. He couldn't read minds, although it would've been a nice trait to have.

Tag: Akeelah!
Word Count: 517
Notes: -

[akeelah]

Bigger and better things he said. There could only be one meaning to what he was talking about that she could think of and that was more serious theft. Like breaking and entering for example or even bigger than that. Of course she had thought about doing something along those lines before, in fact she had broken into homes twice since she left home. There was some benefit to it, stealing from someone else’s house had a bigger pay off than stealing from a wallet. Depending on the neighbourhood one targeted you could find all sorts of valuable things that could be pawned off at a high price. A handful of jewels alone could be worth hundreds of dollars, a lot more that she could get in one break in than she could get in one shot on the streets. But there were a few reasons why she didn’t bother to do it often; one of them was the risk involved. The consequences of being caught inside a stranger’s house were much more dangerous than being caught on the street. Sure there were some ways around that, just shifting to get away for one was a special advantage that she had, but she didn’t like exposing herself like that and so long as her victims saw her face she couldn’t stay in town for long without risking being caught by the police, and if they had guns in the house then she was in real big trouble. The approach itself was also time consuming, Akeelah never liked to just break into a random house without knowing the place she intended to get into first, learn when its owners leave, how long they were gone, and what kind of security that they had. Nothing was worse than sneaking into a house only to be caught red handed by its occupants. The last time she tried it she watched the place for three days before she made her move. Thankfully she had enough cash to last those three days but right now with nothing to tide her by for the time being there was less incentive to do so. And the main reason she never bothered was because she didn’t really need that much. Yes she was poor and wouldn’t pass the opportunity for easy money, but when it came to things like this she only took what she needed. Going after more money was only necessary if she planned to stay in one place for awhile and that hadn’t come up yet. She had never felt any reason to stay long enough in one particular city to try. She wasn’t sure why that was but she just wasn’t ready to settle yet, especially right now when she just arrived to this city.

What the man said next brought another question to her mind, what was this guy? His remark on humans was clear enough to alert her that he wasn’t human like she initially thought he was. The fact that he wasn’t made her a bit more suspicious. It didn’t help that she couldn’t tell what he was, the only way she could find out beyond asking him was to see if he had any marking on his neck and there was no way in hell that she was going to risk getting close enough to touch him just to find out. And why would he bother to mention this at all if he didn’t have any suspicions about her? Did this mean that he knew what she was? If that was the case then she might be in trouble. For now she needed to be careful, she didn’t know what he was up to by trying to give her some ‘friendly’ advice but it could be that he was up to something foul, she needed to tread carefully on this matter in case she provoked him or something.

“As tempting as that sounds I don’t really have much of a reason to go beyond what I am doing now.” She answered honestly, though elaborating on that statement was debatable. She wasn’t sure how much she could trust him at this point to speak the truth, and telling him her life story was not something she was willing to do anyway. “Besides, even though humans are rather dumb they are still dangerous, why do you think that people like us still have to hide our presence if that wasn’t the case?” It was true, though most humans were either unaware or didn’t really care much about their kind there were some humans out there that were dangerous, like the hunters. Their existence was just one of the many reasons she was so careful about revealing what she was. For him it had to be the same, only those who were foolish enough to show off their powers in public never lasted long, and Akeelah was no fool.

[Saben Renner]

Upon hearing the shifter's reply, Saben was quick to answer. "In my case, humans are just annoying." He said to her. "If any one of them, hunter or not, dares to try and start shit with me, I'd gladly rip out their spine and feed it to them." It was true. Saben didn't take their crap, in any way, shape, or form. To him, humans were at the very bottom of the species food chain. He had no respect for them, and the only human he care for was Ciara. The two of them were so attached to each other, it was like they were a couple. Just, not in the boyfriend/girlfriend sort of way. It was more like a creepy love for pain, blood, and torture type of thing. Often times, they'd play their own little games that involved cutting one another, or harming the other person in some way. However, Saben always kept in mind that she was fragile as a human, and he never took things too far with her.

As far as other humans though, he couldn't care less. He enjoyed killing them and putting them through his games like lab rats. It wasn't just humans though. He did all those things with every one of the species, even his own kind. So for this shifter who stood in front of him, again, he intended on playing the corruption card. "And back on to the topic of what you do..." He continued. "There are a lot of reasons for you to go further. Think of the prize and the gain you'll receive. If you steal from business and households, you'll make much more then what you get now. If you want, I can help you get started." And he easily could. Doing such a thing though, didn't mean he'd befriend her. It was an extreme rarity for Saben to befriend people, that was it was next to impossible. As mentioned, Ciara was the only one to accomplish that so far.

Yet, as he had told the shifter, he could still help her along the way if she chose the path of bigger and better things. For instance, if she wanted to break into a home, Saben would remain on the lookout to make sure trouble didn't lurk her way. If the home owners came or anyone else noticed, he'd promptly deal with them and take care of the issue. From that point, he'd let her progress further and further, to the point where he didn't have to accompany her anymore. Once that was through, he'd push her even further, trying to get her to fall off the deep end. Doing that though, would likely prove to be a challenge. From what he observed in this shifter, she was smart and not easily fooled. However, he's managed to mess with the minds of even the toughest and more intelligent people, so he had plenty of experience.

"Not too many humans are willing to fuck with a demon." Was the last thing he added in, revealing just what he was to her. And while there were plenty of other supernatural beings out there who would take on a demon without second thought, most of the population here was still human. So Saben would make sure to target them, and then if the shifter wanted, they could move on away from humans. Hell, maybe he could even get her to battle a few angels. He hated their kind, and it never hurt to get another person against them. More specifically, Remy. Saben had a feeling though that there were already tons of people who disliked the angel god. After all, he was the "good guy" in all of this. He didn't stand for anything malicious or criminal, pickpocketing likely included. So it could give the shifter a reason not to like him. But for now, Saben wouldn't bring him up. He just wanted to see how well he could get things going from here.

Tag: Akeelah!
Word Count: 662
Notes: -

[akeelah]

The man’s comment on the human race was mildly amusing. Just like him Akeelah had no love for humans. She had already mentioned before what she thought of their kind, humans were nothing more than mindless self absorbed fools that she would rather avoid. Killing them though was something that she would not go out of her way to do, it wasn’t out of fear, pity, or anything like that it was simply indifference. They did whatever they wanted to and she did whatever she wanted to do, if she needed something that they had she would take it without a second thought. The other races though she would not bother to. The only reason for that was that they could defend themselves better, and some of them were very dangerous even for her to handle. Since Akeelah was not an experienced fighter she naturally avoided taking on someone that wasn’t human unless she had to. Now here she was standing before one of the kinds of people she would rather avoid, having a conversation about how far she was willing to take her little ‘career’ while trying to learn a little about the who was making suggestions to her. From what he said she could tell that he really did not care for anyone that he thought were beneath him, and he had no problem disposing of those that he thought were scum. Did that contempt go beyond just the humans though? There were always those supernatural creatures that were not too fond of some of the other races and considered themselves superior. Even she had some races she did not like, mostly out of her self-preserving nature than genuine hatred. He could easily think of her as being one of those scums but she had some doubts to that. If he did he would not even bother to try and trick her into anything, he would be playing more on the lines of the bully role. No, he was aiming for something more fulfilling than flaunting his superiority but she just did not know what.

The topic moved back to stealing and what he said piqued her interest. Now that was more like it, he had shown a little of what he wanted. She had to admit it was a tempting idea to have someone help her out in those kind of thefts. Breaking and entering was always a little risky but it was far safer to do with more than one person. Having someone to at least watch her back would make things easier. There were still risks of course; if things went out of hand someone might get hurt, most likely the owner of house or business if they were caught in the act. It would be stupid to think that this guy would think twice about killing them to protect their skin. Akeelah was not sure how she felt about that, she had never killed a human before. Her thefts usually resulted in a minor inconvenience for the victim, not murder but she was not exactly the kind and thoughtful type to consider that as a major flaw. What concerned her more was why he would want to help in the first place? Maybe he just wanted a cut of the profit, something that she would not mind so long as it was reasonable, she only stole what she needed to survive and would be satisfied with only that. There was a chance though that he might just betray her and take everything once they were done. That was the biggest concern there. For all she knew he had a particular place in mind, something that held real value and just wanted an easy pawn to sucker into helping, then once he got what he wanted he’d kill her off and take what he needed, that or just pin the blame on her. Either way she was taking a risk on that.

Then he revealed what he really was to her and that gave her more pause. Though this was the first time that Akeelah had been this close to a demon she knew well enough that they were to be avoided. Demons were a nasty sort, according to her father that was. They were evil and manipulative and would not hesitate to kill you if they wanted. This one might not be much different; she had always made a mental note to avoid them whenever possible. Yet here she was with this one, debating if she should really take up this little offer of his. She really was tempted, though she doubted that she would make a habit out of working together with this demon it would be hard to pass up the potential of easy money.

“And what benefit will you get out of this?” she mused; she showed no hint of the caution that was going through her mind. She did not want to let him catch on to any fear or concern of hers; she would hate it if he took advantage of that. “You could not possibly be helping me out of the kindness of your heart now could you?” Naturally he would not tell her the truth about what he really wanted if it was more malicious than simple robbery. If what he desired was anything as bad as the worst case scenarios she would be prepared for it. It would not be easy but if Akeelah was sharp enough she could find a way out of that kind of mess. If at most he just wanted a cut of the profit she had no problems with that. Akeelah was used to just taking what she needed for the time being and so long as she had enough money to last a few days she was happy. Giving him 50% or less (preferably less) would not be a problem. She was more than willing to take her chances for one day, but she just wanted to see what he wanted first before she just went with it.

[Saben Renner]

The hint of interest on Saben's expression was no fake. He really wanted to know what he could get from this shifter, and so far, things were working out perfectly. Now of course, his interest didn't lie with breaking into and robbing houses. He couldn't care less about that. And if some human, or any other species had a problem with him breaking into their home, he'd kill them. Saben was known to be relentless, only allowing people to live if he had more "games" planned for them ahead. The majority of his victims, whether he allowed them to live or not, were human. He hated them with every ounce of hatred that he had, well, except for Ciara. She was the only human he cared for, and she meant everything to him. While some may've looked at them like boyfriend and girlfriend, they both denied it. They did "love" one another, but it was in a very unique and complicated way. To put it short, they were drawn to each other because of their love for blood, torture, and pain. They needed one another, and nothing would separate them. Not even Kamiya if he tried.

However, Saben finding and caring for someone like her was extremely rare. Likely to never happen again. So what about this shifter? Would he take her in like he did with Ciara? Nope...not even close. The difference was, he cared about Ciara in ways he never thought possible. The shifter, he didn't care much about at all. He was just using her for his own games, something he'd never do with Ciara. Despite that fact though, Saben was finding ways of disguising it while keeping things honest, which was another infamous trait he had. Saben was always bluntly honest, not caring if it offended anyone. In this situation though, he was choosing his words carefully. "Nothing." He said to her after she asked what he'd gain from this. Material wise, he doubted he'd get much. He didn't even care for the money if they stole any.

"My heart is as black as night." He continued. "But who says I can't help anyone? Once again, he was telling the truth. Although he was cold, ruthless, and uncaring, he could still technically help people. He just never did. So he managed to avoid lying once more, but how long he could keep that up, he wasn't sure. Saben was more than willing to lie to keep his true intentions hidden. He didn't want this girl finding out that he actually wanted to corrupt her, but if she did find out, well, then his solution was simple. He'd kill her. No one got away from him scot free, even if he allowed them to keep their life. Again, he'd make it a living hell though, so there was no telling which was better. Be tormented by a hell bent and psychotic demon for eternity, or die and solve the issue before it even got started?

"As I mentioned, I simply believe that you can do more. Why not bring it out?" He continued. If she didn't take the bait at all, well, then Saben had a number of options. For one, he could just walk off and forget about it. Or, he could make her pay for denying his "assistance". One of his biggest pet peeves, was not getting what he wanted and being denied. Saben had major issues with it, and some people died as a result of that. He was truly a bastard, but a smart and clever one at that. A wolf in sheep's clothing as some would say. Saben could easily give a smile and put on a calm demeanor, fooling others into believing that he wasn't the bad guy. It made him dangerous, and he cherished this part of himself.

Tag: Akeelah!
Word Count: 635
Notes: -

[akeelah]

Well at least he was honest she had to admit that. She still had doubts about his motives, as much as he still claimed that he was not after something she knew better than to just take those words at face value. There might be some other motive to all of this, something that she had not thought of but as far as she could tell he was not after money. He just did not really seem like the type though that would be one of the more obvious reasons. If he was planning to go after a specific person and use her as a scapegoat she was sure to find out soon enough so she had no worries about that. As far as she was concerned he wanted no money from all of this and she was satisfied with that much. Good help was hard to find and to get I for free was almost impossible.

“Guess it would not hurt.” She replied, “I’ll take you up on your offer.” Now she just needed to figure out how to go about this. There was no particular place that Akeelah had in mind at the moment. Though it was much better to have someone assist her she still did not want to take too much risks. Akeelah had a particular system that she used for breaking into places and she wanted to stick to it. “I don’t have a place in mind to hit right now, I need some time to find a good target and find the perfect time to go there.” She admitted, “How about we meet up a month from now, maybe over here around this time?” she would need at least a week to choose a target and then another week to study the habits of the owners, learn what time they would be away and if possible what kind of security they had. A month would be more than enough time in case something came up and she needed more time. That and Akeelah normally stayed in one place for at most a few months, she would probably leave soon after she took what she needed so they would only work together once. That way she would not have to worry about any future plans that this demon might have for her if he had any and she could just leave if something went wrong.

[Saben Renner]

She had agreed to his deal, and it brought a smile to his face. So far, he had her exactly where he wanted. Convincing her had been one of the hurtles he had to get over, but he still had another. Keeping her convinced and not giving away his true intentions. However, what she said next, put up another issue. Saben didn't want to give her too much time to try and think this over. Possibly a day or two, but that was about it. "Good." He said at first before moving on to the issue. "Why wait? We could just find some random place. No real need to stalk the place out unless you have much bigger plans." To him, it was just breaking in and stealing stuff. No big deal. Again, if anyone had issues with it, he'd kill them. Then there was the fact that he was a demon. Showing his wings and using morphing to make him appear more menacing, often helped in scaring the shit out of humans.

However, not everything came easy. There were a handful of humans who wouldn't just run upon seeing someone like him. They'd fight back, most likely with weapons. It's happened to him before, and he's come across people who have pulled guns and knives on him. If they wanted to fight that way though, that was fine with him. He liked challenges. Thing was, he'd have to protect this shifter as well. No, he didn't care about her. Though he needed to make things seem like he did. If he just allowed her to get hurt without doing a damn thing, it was a giant red flag that something was up. Was all this worth it though? Saben sure hoped so. When he's done such a things in the past, he always had a pretty big pay off, just seeing how well he got into people's head. In some instances, he managed to completely destroy someone.

Oh it was fun to see them become and emotional wreck, all at his hands and because of what he's done. Saben was practically the definition of evil. He treated others like lab rats, experimenting with different aspects to see what worked and what didn't. And it didn't just come down to mind games and tormenting them either. He'd often do things physically, like cutting someone open and see how long it was until they died from bleeding out. For the shifter though, he had no such thing planned, unless she tried to break free from the deal and start something. "Trust me. I know what I'm doing." And it was true. He did know what he was doing. However, the part about trusting him, would best be taken with a grain of salt. Saben was never to be trusted, but he wasn't about to tell that to her.

So if he could, he'd get her to come along and break into whatever random house they could find. If she didn't want to do that, he'd give her a few days at the most. Once again, his past experiences came into play, since he knew how to trail people pretty well. In a few days, he'd find her and ask her if she'd found a place. Hell, he didn't even care if it were a house or not. They could break into a store that had shut down for the night for all he cared. The issue there was, a lot of stores didn't keep their money overnight. So if this shifter was looking for money, a store wasn't their best option. Not to mention surveillance tapes that some of them ran during the night hours. If he were caught on tape, he didn't want to go through the issues of being put in the spotlight. Saben liked to go out into the world, cause chaos, and then return home without much more trouble than that. So actually, he was hoping that she'd pick someone's home instead.

Tag: Akeelah!
Word Count: 662
Notes: -

[akeelah]

A single eyebrow was raised when the demon suggested moving on with their plans today rather than what she intended. It was not like she had not seen this coming; it occurred to the girl that he might just try to do just this in one of her scenarios. It was enough to raise suspicion in the girl’s mind. Him trying to push her into doing this now meant he was rushing to do something, he could just be trying to nudge her into the direction of his own target and ensuring to give her little room for second thoughts before it was too late. That theory of course was not too solid since he did not say anything along the lines of ‘I know just the place’. He could still be giving her less thinking room or he could be impatient. Akeelah could not deal with impatience well, she alone had very little patience in dealing with others but when it came to stealing patience was essential. Patience could mean the difference between getting your hands on the goal or coming out empty handed and thrown into chaos. The wrong move at the wrong time could be deadly, whether the execution was too slow or too fast. The idea of doing this now made her a bit nervous, if something went wrong part way through she did not have much of a backup plan or even a place to hide in for awhile if things turned really bad and the cops went after her.

His reassurance that he knew what he was doing did not help that much either. They had barely gotten started and already Akeelah did not like this idea. But she had agreed to it, she decided to take the risk by taking his assistance so it was not easy just pulling back now. The last thing she wanted was to just turn her back on this guy now, she had no way of knowing if he would just turn on her for rejecting him and the idea of getting into a fight over this was not a pleasant thought. For now it would be better to just go along with it, see where it took her and if she thought it was too risky she would take her chances and just ditch the demon. He could take care of himself anyway if something bad happened.

“I normally don’t just waltz into someone’s place without knowing what I am getting into first.” She answered honestly, “Last time I tried that I almost got caught.” That had been her first break in, it ended up being a bust since the family came in and she had no choice but to flee. She had since then learned from that mistake. Akeelah sighed softly, now it felt like she was doomed to repeat that mistake by doing this but there was little choice in the matter. “But if you are that persistent about doing this now then fine we can do that.”

“I say we find some house to break into for now. Houses tend to have less security than businesses and that’s what I am used to dealing with anyway. I don’t know my way around this city yet though so I don’t know where to look for a good place but I am sure if we wander for a bit we will find something…unless you have a better idea?”

[Saben Renner]

Again, Saben didn't want to push things to far and draw in any more suspicion. He could already tell that the shifter was treading with caution, taking his words carefully and looking into what he said. If he said one wrong thing, he knew he could easily give everything up. However, there was one well known fact about Saben, and it was that he was always pretty calm and collected. He knew how to handle things, and if he saw things going in the wrong direction, he'd do what he had to to fix it. And as he stood there in the alley with the shifter, a strong breeze came in, throwing up the scent of any and all humans near by. It made Saben want to gag inside, but again, he kept calm about it. He hated the smell of humans, and found it quite disgusting really. Though he held back on bringing it up and simply stuck with the current subject that they were on.

When he heard her tell him that she almost got caught the last time she just walked in on a place, he snickered and smiled. "Well, that's not going to be much of an issue now, is it?" In some instances, people knew who he was. He was Kamiya's "pet" so to speak, so some people feared him just as much as they did with the demon God. If anyone pissed off Saben or disobeyed anything he said, then Kamiya wouldn't be pleased. Not to mention that Saben himself could draw out quite a bit of fear from people. After all, he was a demon, cannibal, pyromaniac, sadomasochist, and all around freak, all packed into one. He knew how to mess with people's minds and manipulate their fears and emotions to get what he wanted. So if anyone gave him and this shifter the least bit of trouble on their little outing, it was practically a death wish.

In short, Saben wasn't concerned at all about people trying to stop him or fight back. He'd start out easy with humans, and they usually weren't able to do much. So he moved on to what the shifter said next and shrugged. "Whatever works best for you. Houses are fine with me, and like you said, we can just find one at random." They could just walk around the city some and try to find a house that looked vulnerable. More than likely though, they'd have to stick with the middle to lower class areas. Sure, you might not find much in lower class, but something was something, right? And hey, if things worked out, Saben was even thinking of moving on to the rich areas. They always had a lot to take, and not just money itself. Steal the jewelry, and you could sell it off for quite a hefty price.

Trouble was, the rich always put a lot into protecting their home. Alarm systems, security cameras, extra locks, sometimes even someone to watch over the house while they were away. It'd be a lot of extra stuff to go through. Though if you got away with it, the payoff was huge. Hell, it wasn't like the rich would lose much anyway. Steal some luxury pr sports car from them, and they could buy a new one right off the bat. And with them, if he and the shifter ever got that far, he'd make sure to take extra precaution. Again, they put a lot of work onto protecting their property, and he was damn well aware of it. That being said though, he doubted the shifter would ever want to take it that big. It was a lot of trouble to go through. But as mentioned, Saben would do his best to keep them from causing any troubles. Threats always seemed to work, on the rich and the poor alike.

Tag: Akeelah!
Word Count: 660
Notes: -

[akeelah]

“Good it’s settled then.” Akeelah said; it was good to hear that the demon was willing to go along with it. At least she would have some level of control in this, though she did not get to start things off when she wanted to but she would at least have control in what place to hit. Since the only person’s judgment that she could rely on was her own it was the best possible option. “Let’s get moving, I want to get this over with before nightfall.” She said as she made her way out of the alley, not bothering to look behind her since the demon would no doubt follow. The only thing left to do now was to figure out where to go. Akeelah already rejected the idea of going to a richer area for this task. It was simply too risky, they would be hitting a home that they had not even tried to investigate. That alone could lead to trouble if one of them slipped up. The rich usually had some form of security to protect their homes so it would be inevitable that something would happen.

So that left the lower classes to take from. They would have lower security if they had any at all so they would be better, and due to the area they were in they would be easier to find. It also suited her needs better. Akeelah did need the money but she was not too greedy, all she needed was a few decent things to pawn, and maybe some extra food and clothing to last for awhile and that was it. Even if she wanted too she could not carry bigger more expensive stuff than that…Then again she did have an assistant, maybe she could take something bigger, like a dvd player if she really wanted to get more cash. Heh, I am already thinking of how to take advantage of this situation without thinking about just who I am partnered with. she thought.

There was a lot that Akeelah did not know about her temporary partner, and because of that she could not trust him. Who was he exactly, how dangerous was he, and would he turn on her? These were thoughts that whether she wanted them to be or not still drifted in her mind. Some people might think she was paranoid if they could hear her thoughts, but then again most people particularly humans were stupid and naïve. She wanted to know exactly who she was dealing with but it was not an easy matter to handle. The demon would most likely not give her any unwanted information; he might even lie just to cover himself. She also needed to be wary of him trying to get anything out of her in turn. Akeelah did not have much information that anyone could use against her if they tried. If someone tried very hard to discover who she was all they would discover was that she was just some runaway shifter kid, nothing very special. But there was still something’s that she would like to keep to herself, her history was the only weapon that anyone could use against her and she would do what she could to conceal that.

As the pair headed out of the alley Akeelah headed towards the same direction she had originally entered it. If memory served her correctly there had been a street of houses that she had passed awhile ago to get to this place. They would do for now, besides since she was new here she did not want to risk looking for someplace else and get lost along the way. Nor did she want to ask the demon for directions. It was just better for her if he did not know that she was unfamiliar with this place, he could use that to his advantage if he did betray her.

“By the way, who are you?” she asked him, not bothering to turn and look at him since she was busy paying attention to where she was going. Akeelah had almost forgotten to ask him for a name this whole time, mainly because she was looking to get rid of him earlier on and couldn’t be bothered. Now that she had agreed to this she had to know at least that much about him, even if he gave her a fake name she would not care, she needed to call him something later on anyway. She would wait for him to answer before moving on. "So do you do this kind of thing often? I mean helping others to discover their 'hidden potential'?" Akeelah was not much of a fan of small talk but it seemed necessary in this case. It might give her the chance to learn a little more about this demon so she would know how to deal with him better if she needed to.