Backfired Thieving

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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.

"Sorry..." she began, feeling as though that was a good place to start. Claudia paused for a moment before deciding to just go with it and continue.
"Okay this might sound a teenie bit weird, but there is actually a phoenix spirit trapped in this medallion and his name is, well, Béacenfýr."

Claudia had stopped fiddling with her hands and had focused her gaze on Aaron. She had thought about telling a few people about Béacenfýr, but usually opted not to because of the risk of sounding rather crazy. After all she was pretty much admitting to hearing a voice in her head all the time. One that didn't belong to her.

Aaron remained silent for a second, thinking about what she was saying. Well, that sounds a bit farfet-wait. I'm a freaking mage who just got chased by a supernatural bear creature after my companion here made a guy go insane with her mind. I'm not one to judge what sounds plausible or not. He decided, and acted calm with the news.
"Béacenfýr? No offense, but it sounds kind of like a girl's name." He commented, smirking a bit. "And of course it sounds weird, but I'm pretty sure being who I am and living in this kind of life I can deal with that." Aaron continued. The subway train seemed to make its first stop, and some people got off, while new crowds boarded in their place.

Claudia bit her lip a little to stop herself from laughing at Aaron's comment.

Hey! I didn't choose my name! Béacenfýr protested, not that Aaron could hear him. He seemed to ignore the fact that Claudia was trying rather hard not to laugh, something she was rather grateful for.
She stopped her laughter to flash Aaron a genuine smile before the train stopped and others went about their normal lives.

After the train started moving again, Claudia asked a question of her own.
"I hope you don't mind me prying, but I was just curious as to when and why you started stealing from people. I mean... it's a personal question so you don't have to answer, I was just... wondering."

"No, it's fine. I can't remember exactly when I started, probably sometime when I was fourteen or so, maybe four years or so ago." Aaron responded, thinking and trying to remember how everything started. He hadn't been one to think too much about the past, instead he preferred to live in the present and the future. You can't change the past, but you can change the present and future he'd always tell himself.
"I mean being on your own and not being able to get a job, there aren't many opportunities available for you to get." He added, throwing in a chuckle, sounding fairly realistic, and yet not as genuine as his other times he had done the same thing.

Claudia just nodded. She actually felt rather sorry for Aaron as she knew that a lot of mages who were discovered had to leave their homes and disappear, sometimes ending up as thieves and pickpockets. She couldn't help but wonder if Aaron was one of these unfortunate people, though she had already decided not to ask as prying any further into his history would likely only make him uncomfortable.

Aaron went quiet for a moment, before going to continue talking in order to not let things get too quiet and awkward, when the subway train stopped again. The doors opened and more people started to stand up and get off, making the area become a bit noisier then before.
"Well, I think this is good enough. We might as well get off now, don't you think?" He suggested, getting up and starting to walk off the subway, waiting to see if Claudia was going too.

Claudia nodded, standing up and walking towards the open doors. She neatly hopped off the train and into the station, glancing around for any indication of where they were.
"Okay then... so where did we stop?" she wondered out loud as she moved away from the edge of the station platform and towards the exit.

"Well, if we just head up the stairs down that hall and back onto the street I believe there should be a map of the tracks that tells us where we ended up." Aaron responded, walking through the area until he arrived at a staircase, heading up and into the streets once again. A board could be seen a few steps down the sidewalk with the subway routes labeled on it, which also included locations.
"Let's see..." Aaron mumbled to himself, reading the map and trying to find where they started from and where they ended up.
"You know, you don't have to stick along with me just to let you know." He said to Claudia, starting to feel guilty about having partially ruined her day.

Nodding again, Claudia followed Aaron up the staircase and back up onto the wide open streets. Wandering over to the map, her green eyes began scanning it, looking for something indicating where they were. She blinked however as Aaron spoke. She smiled, "It's fine. It's not every day I get to spend time with a fellow mage."

"Right, that reminds me. You know I control electricity, but what about you? I mean I saw what you did to those guys back there but I can't tell what it was." Aaron asked as he continued to read up on the board, waiting for a response from Claudia as he tried to find their location for a minute or two before smirking.
"There we are. We started just a little bit away from the station near Central Park, and now we're next to the Triax building." He said to her, turning away from the board and looking up and across the road at the large building nearby, also making note of a large amount of police around the building.
"Geez...what happened there?" He asked out loud as he started to look further up towards the building and noticed some damage around the roof. Well, that looks pretty big. He thought to himself, wondering what caused it.

"Oh.. uhm," Claudia paused for a moment before replying, "I guess I control fear in the way that I can manipulate a person's mind into thinking something they fear is present or affecting them in some way..."

Claudia trailed off, Aaron still looking at the board. It was a few more moments until he discovered the point that marked where they were stood, but after this revelation the entire map seemed to make a little more sense.
Turning away from the board, her green gaze rested on the Triax building, surrounded by police vehicles. Staring up at the roof, she could sense the magic that had been used here.
"This was definitely a mage... or maybe even more than one," she blinked, glancing at Aaron before looking back at the partially destroyed roof.

Aaron blinked, looking over at Claudia as she made her observation about the damage done to the building. Well, that was easy. She must have a really good feeling for sensing magic. Or mine sucks, either one works. He thought to himself as he decided that asking himself would get him nowhere and opened his mouth to speak up.
"Wait, fear? That's a pretty interesting thing to control. Seems pretty helpful too. But how do you know that a mage did that kind of damage?" He asked, glancing at the police again and remembering the scene they had caused earlier with the gang members. Hope they're not after us, that could turn out badly.

"Wait fear?"
Claudia just nodded before listening to Aaron as he asked about she knew it was a mage who had done this.
She blinked thinking of how to word it before replying.
"My fear magic also enables me to sense the emotions in both normal people and mages. However sensing a mage's emotions is a lot easier than a normal person, and thus I often find they leave almost 'signatures' when they use their magic. It's like a representation of their emotions at the time in that magical signature, most clear when the mage was scared or attacking something."
She paused.
"I always thought of it as being almost as if the emotion sensing thing is powered up by my natural ability to sense when magic is being used nearby," she finished, looking back at the police.

Aaron nodded his head, thinking about it. It seemed to make enough sense to him, chances were that mages had different kinds of thoughts and feelings then most normal people.
"Well, it makes sense when you explain it like that. Must be pretty useful to be able to figure that kind of stuff out, makes it easier to figure out if someone's lying or nervous. Wait a minute. Or stealing something..." Aaron started to say, smirking at Claudia as he made the connection. She could probably tell that I was nervous, or I was really obvious with taking the phone. Either one seems possible. He thought to himself.

Claudia couldn't help but smile and chuckle a little as Aaron seemingly realised how she'd caught him out. His nervousness had initially given him away as doing something wrong or frowned upon, though once she knew that it was easy to spot the movement of him taking her phone.
"It does make it rather a lot easier," she chuckled in reply.