Backfired Thieving

The sidewalks of New York City were packed with people, as they normally were during the later parts of the afternoon on a sunny day. The crowds were packed close together, pushing against one another often. The combination of these factors made it a perfectly good opportunity for Aaron to try out some easier ways to fund himself. Sitting on a bench just by the outside of Central Park, he had been watching the people walk by and trying to get himself ready to make an attempt. Normally he stuck to picking locks on safes or doors and taking some money, but he figured trying something new would be a good idea.
"Excuse me, sorry." He mumbled as he got up and moved into the crowd, walking along. Okay, don't panic. Just trip, go for the pocket, grab something and go. He thought to himself. Taking a deep breath he stumbled, falling forward and bumping into a man who seemed to be fairly dressed up, probably walking back to work after a break. "Sorry about that." Aaron mumbled as he pulled out something from the suit pocket. The man just grumbled in reply and continued to walk. Smirking, Aaron left the crowd again and moved towards a bench, looking to see that what he had grabbed was a wallet. He sat down and opened it up, finding some cash inside. Well, that worked well. He thought as he looked back at his surroundings to see if there was anyone else he could find that would have something good on them.

A red headed female sat on another of the benches, drinking a starbucks hot chocolate. She watched the people walk past and experienced the emotions coming from all of them. She attempted to identify each emotion. Some were clearer than others, others were muddled, however what stood out more than anything was the sense of nervousness that someone nearby was feeling.

Claudia attempted to block out the fear based emotion, trying to focus on the others around her. Fear was always so clear, but to truly harness her powers to their full potential Claudia wanted to be able to detect others as clearly as she could sense fear.
Sighing, she got to her feet, taking the last sips of her hot chocolate and throwing the paper cup into a nearby bin. She began to idly wander towards the other side of central park as she had no other real destination in mind.

Shoving the wallet into the pocket of his shorts, Aaron started to think about moving on from the area until he saw a certain red headed girl walking towards the other side of Central Park. What really struck him was the slight glint of sunlight reflecting off of something she was wearing, which upon a better look Aaron saw as a strange looking medallion. That looks pretty fancy. Maybe she's got something else on her that could be useful. He thought to himself, accepting that there was no way he would be able to get the medallion itself. He stood up and started to walk in her general direction, not the same way she was heading but on course to run into her. Wait a minute. There's no crowd in the park, so no cover. That's a problem. I should probably just turn around He began to think as he got closer, and was about to when he felt his foot catch onto a tree root. He blinked, not completely understanding that he was falling as he bumped into the girl on his way down, landing in front of her.

Claudia continued to wander, taking a phone out of her pocket to note something down that had just occurred to her. Whilst writing she had blocked out her sense of emotions and Aaron had drawn closer.

Claudia

She looked up just as Aaron tripped over the tree root and in a split second reaction, attempted to catch him so that he wouldn't fall face flat on the ground, dropping her phone in the process. She helped him back onto his feet and made sure he wasn't gonna trip over again before she spoke.
"Are you alright?" she asked, her head tilting ever so slightly to the side as she did so.

Aaron, with the help of Claudia, got back on his feet, but not without putting his hand over her phone and sliding it into his pocket, hopefully without her noticing. He nodded his head, taking a moment to step back and recover. Well that didn't work out well. At least I don't think so. He decided, before realizing that he should probably respond.
"Yeah, I'm alright. Thanks for that. I should probably get going though, wouldn't want to disturb you." He quickly responded as he felt around his shirt, making note that his unloaded Luger pistol was still tucked in his pants and his lockpicks were still in his left pocket.

Claudia narrowed her eyes and frowned as Aaron attempted to make a hasty exit.
You are aware he just stole your small talky box right? asked a voice inside her head.
Claudia forced herself not to react to the phoenix out loud, instead confining her response to a mental one and giving no clue that there was a conversation going on in her head.
Of course I am.
The female then returned her attention to Aaron, "You know it's not very courteous to steal from those who help you."

Aaron sighed and looked down at the ground, hearing the question and knowing that had he run off he probably would have reminded himself the same exact thing. He reached into his pocket and pulled the phone out, getting an idea as he held it.
"Yeah, I figured that. Which is why I'm going to say that I just picked it up for you. Nice phone by the way." He said to her, all the while holding the phone so his finger was at the area a charging cable would go and sent a small amount of electricity in, recharging the phone. It wasn't much magic, so it wouldn't, well shouldn't since he couldn't predict too much about the creatures, attract gails as much as a larger output of energy would have. He tossed the phone to Claudia, hoping that she would be coordinated enough to catch it.

Claudia didn't move her gaze away from Aaron as she caught the phone, sensing the magic he had just used. Looking away for a moment, she examined her phone after the drop. There was a small crack in the corner of the screen that she figured she should probably get fixed at some point, but it was fine for now so she shoved it back in her pocket, noting that it had more battery life than when she had been using it a few moments ago.

Surprisingly, the phoenix trapped within Claudia's medallion had neglected to say anything about Aaron revealing himself to be a mage. It was rare that she would meet someone who had magic as she usually kept to herself.
"Electric mage," she noted nonchalantly before smiling a little. After a short pause she introduced herself, "I'm Claudia."

The sudden shift in personality took Aaron by surprise for a moment until he heard what she was saying next and how she did so. From the fact that she seemed to be fairly calm about calling him that and that she seemed to get a bit less accusatory afterwards was all he needed to guess that she was probably also a mage.
"Well, it's nice to meet you. I'm Aaron, and sorry about trying to steal your phone." He responded, before holding his hand out awkwardly to try and introduce himself in a better way.
"So, if you're so quick to come to that kind of conclusion I assume you happen to be a mage yourself?" He asked, purposefully not confirming what she had suggested yet, though she didn't seem to need any confirmation on the topic.

Claudia took his hand and shook it gently. "It's fine I guess, at least you gave it back," she smiled.
Well that went rather smoothly, the phoenix, Béacenfýr commented, earning a subtle eye roll from Claudia before she answered Aaron's question.
"As a matter of fact I am," she replied, "Though I wouldn't normally admit that to anyone."

"Well obviously you wouldn't admit it to anyone under normal circumstances, you would probably be told you were crazy." Aaron commented, crossing his arms and becoming a bit more comfortable with the normal conversation going on.
"So what brings you here? Just felt like going to the park, or is there something more then getting caught trying to take a phone I should be worried about?" He continued to ask, genuinely curious about the question. He was fine talking and stealing if need be, but getting caught up in some kind of larger matter wasn't something he was interested in.

She chuckled at the electric mage's response. The sad thing was it was probably true.
"Oh... I guess I just felt like coming here. It's easier to focus when there are less people around to cloud my senses," she replied, not exactly telling Aaron everything as she wasn't entirely sure whether she could trust him completely. Of course, he was a mage and she was already enjoying having a nice, open conversation with a fellow magic user, but he had just tried to steal from her and could just as easily do something unpredictable.

"That sounds good. I guess it's nice just to get some alone time and focus on some things. Even if it's your senses. Though really, you pick a place like New York to try and clear your senses?" Aaron joked, looking around at the surrounding area. Nothing had seemed to change much, there were still crowds on the streets and the sky was sunny with a few white clouds, nothing really special. And on the plus side no sign of general chaos pf any sorts. Well, yet at least. Those things tended to come out of nowhere once they happened, and have almost no clear explanation whatsoever.

"There are lots of opportunities in a large place like New York," she blinked, "Which begs the question, why do you steal from people instead of finding a real job?" she asked, the question having been on her mind for a few minutes now. Mages were quite capable of hiding their powers as long as they had an object to help control it. Her medallion, and by extension Béacenfýr was what helped her keep control of her own. She just didn't understand why Aaron wouldn't attempt to get a normal job instead of risk being caught by the police.

Aaron shrugged, wondering what was so strange about a pickpocket in New York. It wasn't exactly original or unique, but he could see her point upon a few seconds of thought.
"For starters, I don't exactly like to stick around areas for too long. It's not really good for the people around those areas after so long. Also considering I have a habit of not getting caught by police, but I have a plan for it if it happens." He told Claudia, still maintaining a smile. Truthfully he didn't find it to be something to smile about, but she didn't know that, and hopefully he wouldn't end up revealing it through a facial movement.
"I'm guessing you don't move around much. Do you have a job or something nearby?" He asked her.