desperate times [aaron]

[alice "rio" grand]

Tags: Aaron
Soundtrack: Boulevard of Broken Dreams
Author's Note: *whew* Sorry for the novel

The wonderful thing about Central (or perhaps it was a bad thing, she didn't really feel like putting too much thought in that particularly pointless mental endeavor)was that sometimes the crowds were so thick or frenzied that you could do almost anything without being seen. Should a thief manage to avoid being seen by the soldiers, they were basically home free, especially if they knew all the good hiding spots and shortcuts in the city. Of course, it was actually avoiding the soldiers that tended to be the problem. They were so much tougher now, so much more vigilant than they had been, meaning that stealing even a loaf of bread could be dangerous work.

"Dammit...can't believe I'm even thinking about this..." Rio shoved her hands in the pockets of her oversized coat, her back against the brick wall. "I cannot believe I am doing this..."

Rio disliked thieving, generally. This was not out of any sense of justice or anything of the sort; she did have that, but those kinds of feelings tended to lose importance when you had no food and and no money. Most of the time, it was actually more trouble than just working for her food, if only because Central's cops didn't mess around. Avoiding cops and running from pursuers was much more effort than would be invested in just moving a couple of boxes around for a few bills. She tended to shy away from that kind of thing, especially when you considered what horrible luck she had...the few times she did end up stealing something, success was either extremely difficult or just a completely lost cause.

But desperate times called for desperate measures, and she had to make the most of them, even if the most of them was likely going to end with her battered, bruised, and more hungry than when she started. And then she would spend a few days or weeks or months regretting her decision, and then something would probably end up forcing her to do it again, just because the world seemed to enjoy sticking her nose in things she didn't like, just for the sake of reminding her why she didn't like them in the first place.

Well. If she wasted any more time thinking about it, she knew she wasn't going to do anything. So Rio resigned herself to her fate and pushed herself up off the wall, walking with a deliberate slowness towards the store across the way. She was sure they wouldn't miss a few loafs of bread or some meat or something. Her plan was moronically simple and utterly and completely foolish: just walk in, grab something, walk out. She had mastered acting like she didn't do anything, like this was just another moment in the life, so she wasn't too worried about looking suspicious. She was pretty sure she would be seen at some point, though, and it was really just a matter of running long enough to escape.

This was probably why so many of Rio's endeavors went wrong. She had neither the patience nor the attitude to plan anything too far into the future, trusting things to even themselves out (or not) on their own. It was not the soundest way of living life, as was obvious by her state of perpetual hunger and homelessness. But she wasn't dead yet, so.

Rio walked into the store, nodding in reply when one of the employees greeted her. Luckily, people tended to avoid her in public places, as she tended to have a naturally negative air about her, apparently. She didn't look like the kind of person you just walked up to and talked to, because when she was concentrating, she tended to have a pretty nasty scowl on. Today, she had to work very hard to keep that scowl off, and just focus on finding something that would last her long enough to mean anything.

She actually had a pretty good system of stealing, she was rather ashamed to admit. It went a little something like this:

Walk around a lot, as slowly as possible. Pick many things off the shelves. Look at the things. Put most of the things back. Pick your poison. Grab two of said poison. Put both in your pocket. Walk around some more. Pick lots of items off the shelf. If another item is selected, grab two. Put them in your pocket. Walk back. Put one of each item back. Walk around some more, just in case. Leave.

It actually went swimmingly. She got a few looks for intently reading the labels of a few items (she was trying to find the serving sizes), but not one commented on the fact that she was picking up and putting back food. Finally, she got ridiculously uncomfortable, feeling like she was being watched. That feeling followed her a lot but sometimes, like now, it was so overwhelming that she became anxious. And acting anxious was all she needed. She forced out a huge, calm sigh and turned for the door, the exit the only thing in her sights.

Words: 859