Post by tariph on May 31, 2015 8:18:01 GMT
The streets of Satan City were as busy and bustling as they always. Window shopping, people passing through, visitors and students alike all crowded on in the same on the streets working in the same way one could easily compare to ants. The only difference being that ants had a much more seamless network while these people... not so much. Still, they managed, and one of the people managing was one of the resident half-breeds. She was under a hoody, bandaged hands tucked into her pockets while going out of her way to be careful not to bump too hard into the other bystanders. Between her covered arms was a rather large briefcase, and as she continued to walk the crowd thinned out until it was a mere trickle to its former glory. She turned at an ally, enough room to escape if any trouble arose but inconspicuous enough for what she was planning.
The teen knelt, placing the case down and taking out a folding table that was about twice the length, the thin legs standing it up about two and a half inches off the ground. She then placed a deck of cards down, shuffling them with experienced ease between her gloved hands. She'd have been doing this out in the open if gambling didn't require a permit, oh well. From her pocket, she lifted a wallet containing about 300 zeni and quite a few credit cards. Whoever she stole this from was lucky the halfling wasn't into identity theft, that kind of thing was way harder to get away with without a serious amount of practice. And even then it was better left to hackers and technology nerds than an average girl with a few cards on hand. She snapped them, the crack ringing through the area louder than she intended, before replacing the now useless plastic into her pocket. The wallet followed right behind, but the money was placed on her table in full view.
She held her head bent down, her posture closed in a vulnerable manner that usually attracted the types around these parts to an easy victim. Or someone to pity, this part of the city was kind of mixed. She was covered head to toe, the only skin seen was her nose and below thanks to the hoody. There was also the tail she had lie limply on the ground, honestly with all the Saiyans that usually had some kind of sob story and the few that could even be considered weak this just made the act that much better. Before she left the house she considered wrapping it up in gauze, but that would have been a bit of an overkill when her clearly wrapped wrists were also visible. With everything set, she kept crouched with a straight face and waited for the first sucker to pass by.
It didn't take long either. Tariph really had to pride herself with her acting, every manner gave off a feel of unsure nerves, from her crouched position to the way she shuffled to pass the time. "What's this all about" The boy standing in front of her had his hands in his pockets, looking at the Saiyan before him curiously but with the same air of superiority many get from seeing someone less fortunate than them. Given his age she was surprised he hadn't tried to step on her tail, but then again he didn't look like he was from the rougher parts of the city, but did look like he was from a family that would give out an allowance every once in a while. She watched him from the shadow of her hood as he crouched, the boy was tall enough so he still had an inch over her and looked from the money on the table to the cards in her hand. He hadn't tried to take it right away, a good sign of someone with a higher moral standard than she had. But then again, he might think he's a good enough cheat to just win it without a fuss. He snapped his fingers in her face, an air about him that said she better not ignore him, "Hey, I asked what's this all about"
Keeping with her act, Tariph lowered her cards on the table and bowed her head lower "Just a small wager game. You know Black Jack? It's really easy to play" He sucked his teeth, of course, he knew how to play a game as idiotically simple as Black Jack, was his response. She smiled, making sure it didn't turn into a smirk or seemed too confident, as they decided how much was being put up. She dealt out their hands, and as the game goes, the boy's fourth card dealt him a bust "Heh, guess I got lucky there." There was an edge of a gloat in her voice while she moved to gather his money.
But, he was faster in his movements and snatched it back before she could, "Lucky my ass! That deck was rigged."
"We had a deal!"
"Tough luck, monkey!" Mouth agape, she watched him storm down the alley, shoving his money into his back pocket. Once he disappeared, her surprise turned to a grin while she shook something out of her jacket. It was a watch, his watch, and a pretty expensive one at that. She was sure he wouldn't miss it though, and even if it did, how could a little old monkey like her, too slow to keep his money, take a watch right off his wrist without him noticing? She giggled as she replaced the cards into her case and pulled out 5 small cups, all big enough to hide the watch without being too big to bring along. After putting her own zeni away, the table was set up again with a new game ready. After pulling her hoodie a little farther out, the halfling held her head down with her arms crossed limply over her lap and monkey tail curled in front of her feet and behind the table.
It took a little longer than the first time, but the next person walked up with more of a tourist attitude than the last boy. She was a woman, wearing trinkets that didn't look very expensive and more off something you'd win at one of the local gaming stores. She was also a lot more curious about the cups than the Tariph herself. Tariph dropped the weak act and switched to something more confident, looking up with her half-concealed face and grinning as she held up the stolen watch, "5 zeni to play, find the cup with the watch and it's all yours." The little thief explained. The woman grinned back, seemed like she was pretty confident she was good with the game. And from the shape of the watch and tightness of the teen's sleeves there was no way she wouldn't be able to tell if there was foul play.
She crouched down, putting her offer up on the corner, "I'll take you up on that offer." The two grinned at each other while Tariph placed the prize under one of the cups and took the zeni . The woman's confidence waned when the shuffle started, Tariph moved at a speed that made the cups little more than a blur without damaging the stand beneath them. She stopped a few seconds later, sweeping her hands over the cups in a gesture both meant to be a permission to proceed and proof there was nothing up her sleeves. Predictably, the human lifted an empty cup, and so the challenge for two out of three began, then three out of four, then four out of five. Before long, the woman was storming out of the ally with her wallet a little lighter, and leaving Tariph's stolen one feeling a little fuller.
There was a man who'd been watching the little game with suspicious interest, and after Tariph showed him the watch was indeed under the middle cup and the woman just made a bad guess, he walked forward ready to accept the challenge himself. She told the man not to blink as she started shuffling, and had to keep herself from cackling when his eyes struggled to keep up with the cups. Before he went to reach for one, she put out her hand in a receiving gesture, and a little reluctant the man handed over the zeni. His first try, how ever, resulted in nothing. Then the try after that gave him the same results. A few people seemed to sprout up behind him, and Tariph made sure to show where the watch was after each missed turn until the man got fed up and walked off.
And so this went for a while, the light crowd building for a turn while no one guessed the correct cup that held the prize in question. Watching the players grow frustrated was always fun, their money was also a very nice addition to such entertainment, but after a while this grew boring, like it always did, and she decided it was time to wrap up this little game now that she had some interested suckers. Now, that she was done, it should be noted for those of you on the other side of this wall that she had been hiding it, she had pockets on the thighs of her pants and the watch fit perfectly. People were so focused on her fast hands with the cups they didn't even notice the moment hesitation with one hand and how she would rub her pants leg putting it in and before showing the cup she had placed it under moments before. Being fast in a around mostly slow humans sure did have its benefits. But that wasn't to say she did that every turn, a few times she would leave the watch in the cup fair and square. Just like this time when a small kid was offering up his guardian's money.
She shrugged, already done with the game at this point, and showed which cup the watch was under. Instead of fast hands, this time she shuffled them at a rate so slow it was akin to a preschooler's insultingly simple brain teaser games. When the kid took his prize she pet the boy on his head with her tail and took out her cards again. She announced the game was Three-card Monte, put up your stakes and find the queen, you win and you get her bet and if she wins she gets theirs. As the three cards were laid out on the table, the queen of diamond face up, the monkey-tailed girl watched the crowd. Only a few people left but the rest seemed to hold some interest. The rest of the deck was placed back and one girl, probably around the same age as Tariph, came forward with her wager.
Everyone seemed a lot more confident in their chances with only three cards and with a kid that seemed foolishly honest with keeping the target on the table and leaving it to chance that no one would guess correctly. Not only that, but the prize was cash instead of a watch. The game commenced on low stakes with the teen before her, and three times the girl won one, then the stakes rose and she one twice more. That's when Tariph offered up all the money on her and the girl decided to do the same, feeling like this was her chance to 'break the bank', metaphorically speaking. But, she guessed wrong, and Tariph got to keep both of their money in the end. And that's how things went from there. Some people would lose and keep losing on low stakes, some would win on low stakes but lose when the stakes started rising, and over all the winning and losing ratio was inconstant enough for people to feel like the whole thing wasn't a scam.
They didn't realize Tariph had a system, after all, the half blood didn't have any accomplices to keep people thinking this was legit if she kept winning. So she would be smart about it, lose less than 10% of her ill-gained winnings and win until it looked suspicious. She read faces, body language, and one would think someone as socially distant as this girl would have trouble with that sort of thing, but when you separate yourself from the crowd just enough you start to find a pattern, and that's what Tariph did and works with. Does the pattern break sometimes? Of course, but it didn't break enough to bring about a major loss, and that was something she could say she liked about humans. They were almost deceptively easy to figure out, almost. It's almost scary to think about the kind of things this half breed could manage if she had the right incentive to do so. Of course, what she would manage would only happen by being a right hand man, Tariph didn't possess the attention span for the long term planning required to get world shaking things done.
Grinning to herself at the hefty load in her pockets, Tariph put away her things, announcing to the loafing disgruntled and eager waiters that she was done for today but they might be able to find her next time she's low on cash. She picked up her case and wandered out with everyone else, though hung out back to fish loose change from unsuspecting pockets with their owners being none the wiser, as usual. She's learned it's always better to leave through the crowd than disappear past a corner if all the gambler's weren't angry or appeared to know each other. Doing otherwise usually resulted in a fight, and even though she wouldn't mind, fights weren't something she wanted to do with human packs. Mainly because she couldn't kill them so the stupid ones would always come back with more people at a later date.
Still, the day was young, and even though she was done tricking gamblers, she wasn't done with her get rich quick scheming. And sure enough, a few hours later, she was back on the streets in different clothing that still concealed as much as before. In her hands she was holding a plastic sealed cell phone box, and she was offering it up at a cheap price. After someone paid, she'd disappear with the nearby crowd and leave the human with a box full of toilet paper and rocks that amounted to about the same weight as the phone they thought they were paying for. Really, the hardest part was nabbing those empty boxed in good shape, the plastic was handled easily with some dry heat from public restroom hand dryers. From there it was just a matter of hiding the false product in the right spot and going back to them and finding a more public spot to sell. And the trick there was never sell near a camera and always sell when there are so many people around no one's paying attention to just one teen when there are plenty loitering in the same manner and same concealing outfits, though they weren't holding boxed but really, who would know later on?
The half-breed could almost laugh at how gullible humans can be sometimes. But all good things must come to an end, and they come to an end when Tariph gets bored of it. Really, tricking them was too easy, gets boring, but spicing it up could result in trouble she doesn't need when trying to get a fat stack of cash. So once she sold off her last box to her soon to be disgruntled customer, Tariph wandered with the herd until she spotted something interesting. And to a girl with the appetite fitting a Saiyan and rivalling a full blood's, what she found was very interesting. An eating contest! Whoever could eat a 20 pound stake in less than an hour gets the meal free and a healthy amount of Zeni for their troubles and on coming indigestion problems. Well, how could she turn down a challenge like that? She shook her head, cackling to herself, then pausing after remembering most places don't let Saiyans participate in these types of competitions. The restaurants usually see them as having an unfair advantage on most occasions, sometimes even raise the stakes to make it more challenging if they are allowed. Well, as much as she was complaining about not having enough challenge just a few hours ago, she'd rather just take their food and money with no problem.
But what was a girl to do when her tail was in full view of the world? Simple, go into the store next to it and tuck her tail into her pants leg while in the bathroom. Such a simple solution, wouldn't you say? Now she really had to keep from laughing while entering that restaurant and surprising the waiter with her request to take the challenge. Honestly, Tariph was a very small thing for a Saiyan, hardly any real bulk that would be considered more than average for a human teen her age, really anyone looking at her without the tail would never be able to guess how much she managed to scarf down in a few minutes. Regardless, the man accepted her request for the challenge and she found a spot while waiting. About thirty minutes later a huge slab of meat and some bread was placed in front of her and in 10 minutes there was nothing on her plate and she was still hungry. Well, not hungry, but that didn't stop her from wanting more food. The people unfortunate enough to have witnessed the girl's savage appetite had expressions ranging between admiring, impressed, disgusted, and a mixture of all three.
Only after Tariph was denied being able to take the challenge again several times she begrudgingly took her winnings and grumbled her way out the door. Screw those guys, she wasn't going to pay for a meal just because she won one that could have fed a family of three, she had two people that let her sleep in there house that were more than happy to feed her until they're fridge was completely empty!
The teen knelt, placing the case down and taking out a folding table that was about twice the length, the thin legs standing it up about two and a half inches off the ground. She then placed a deck of cards down, shuffling them with experienced ease between her gloved hands. She'd have been doing this out in the open if gambling didn't require a permit, oh well. From her pocket, she lifted a wallet containing about 300 zeni and quite a few credit cards. Whoever she stole this from was lucky the halfling wasn't into identity theft, that kind of thing was way harder to get away with without a serious amount of practice. And even then it was better left to hackers and technology nerds than an average girl with a few cards on hand. She snapped them, the crack ringing through the area louder than she intended, before replacing the now useless plastic into her pocket. The wallet followed right behind, but the money was placed on her table in full view.
She held her head bent down, her posture closed in a vulnerable manner that usually attracted the types around these parts to an easy victim. Or someone to pity, this part of the city was kind of mixed. She was covered head to toe, the only skin seen was her nose and below thanks to the hoody. There was also the tail she had lie limply on the ground, honestly with all the Saiyans that usually had some kind of sob story and the few that could even be considered weak this just made the act that much better. Before she left the house she considered wrapping it up in gauze, but that would have been a bit of an overkill when her clearly wrapped wrists were also visible. With everything set, she kept crouched with a straight face and waited for the first sucker to pass by.
It didn't take long either. Tariph really had to pride herself with her acting, every manner gave off a feel of unsure nerves, from her crouched position to the way she shuffled to pass the time. "What's this all about" The boy standing in front of her had his hands in his pockets, looking at the Saiyan before him curiously but with the same air of superiority many get from seeing someone less fortunate than them. Given his age she was surprised he hadn't tried to step on her tail, but then again he didn't look like he was from the rougher parts of the city, but did look like he was from a family that would give out an allowance every once in a while. She watched him from the shadow of her hood as he crouched, the boy was tall enough so he still had an inch over her and looked from the money on the table to the cards in her hand. He hadn't tried to take it right away, a good sign of someone with a higher moral standard than she had. But then again, he might think he's a good enough cheat to just win it without a fuss. He snapped his fingers in her face, an air about him that said she better not ignore him, "Hey, I asked what's this all about"
Keeping with her act, Tariph lowered her cards on the table and bowed her head lower "Just a small wager game. You know Black Jack? It's really easy to play" He sucked his teeth, of course, he knew how to play a game as idiotically simple as Black Jack, was his response. She smiled, making sure it didn't turn into a smirk or seemed too confident, as they decided how much was being put up. She dealt out their hands, and as the game goes, the boy's fourth card dealt him a bust "Heh, guess I got lucky there." There was an edge of a gloat in her voice while she moved to gather his money.
But, he was faster in his movements and snatched it back before she could, "Lucky my ass! That deck was rigged."
"We had a deal!"
"Tough luck, monkey!" Mouth agape, she watched him storm down the alley, shoving his money into his back pocket. Once he disappeared, her surprise turned to a grin while she shook something out of her jacket. It was a watch, his watch, and a pretty expensive one at that. She was sure he wouldn't miss it though, and even if it did, how could a little old monkey like her, too slow to keep his money, take a watch right off his wrist without him noticing? She giggled as she replaced the cards into her case and pulled out 5 small cups, all big enough to hide the watch without being too big to bring along. After putting her own zeni away, the table was set up again with a new game ready. After pulling her hoodie a little farther out, the halfling held her head down with her arms crossed limply over her lap and monkey tail curled in front of her feet and behind the table.
It took a little longer than the first time, but the next person walked up with more of a tourist attitude than the last boy. She was a woman, wearing trinkets that didn't look very expensive and more off something you'd win at one of the local gaming stores. She was also a lot more curious about the cups than the Tariph herself. Tariph dropped the weak act and switched to something more confident, looking up with her half-concealed face and grinning as she held up the stolen watch, "5 zeni to play, find the cup with the watch and it's all yours." The little thief explained. The woman grinned back, seemed like she was pretty confident she was good with the game. And from the shape of the watch and tightness of the teen's sleeves there was no way she wouldn't be able to tell if there was foul play.
She crouched down, putting her offer up on the corner, "I'll take you up on that offer." The two grinned at each other while Tariph placed the prize under one of the cups and took the zeni . The woman's confidence waned when the shuffle started, Tariph moved at a speed that made the cups little more than a blur without damaging the stand beneath them. She stopped a few seconds later, sweeping her hands over the cups in a gesture both meant to be a permission to proceed and proof there was nothing up her sleeves. Predictably, the human lifted an empty cup, and so the challenge for two out of three began, then three out of four, then four out of five. Before long, the woman was storming out of the ally with her wallet a little lighter, and leaving Tariph's stolen one feeling a little fuller.
There was a man who'd been watching the little game with suspicious interest, and after Tariph showed him the watch was indeed under the middle cup and the woman just made a bad guess, he walked forward ready to accept the challenge himself. She told the man not to blink as she started shuffling, and had to keep herself from cackling when his eyes struggled to keep up with the cups. Before he went to reach for one, she put out her hand in a receiving gesture, and a little reluctant the man handed over the zeni. His first try, how ever, resulted in nothing. Then the try after that gave him the same results. A few people seemed to sprout up behind him, and Tariph made sure to show where the watch was after each missed turn until the man got fed up and walked off.
And so this went for a while, the light crowd building for a turn while no one guessed the correct cup that held the prize in question. Watching the players grow frustrated was always fun, their money was also a very nice addition to such entertainment, but after a while this grew boring, like it always did, and she decided it was time to wrap up this little game now that she had some interested suckers. Now, that she was done, it should be noted for those of you on the other side of this wall that she had been hiding it, she had pockets on the thighs of her pants and the watch fit perfectly. People were so focused on her fast hands with the cups they didn't even notice the moment hesitation with one hand and how she would rub her pants leg putting it in and before showing the cup she had placed it under moments before. Being fast in a around mostly slow humans sure did have its benefits. But that wasn't to say she did that every turn, a few times she would leave the watch in the cup fair and square. Just like this time when a small kid was offering up his guardian's money.
She shrugged, already done with the game at this point, and showed which cup the watch was under. Instead of fast hands, this time she shuffled them at a rate so slow it was akin to a preschooler's insultingly simple brain teaser games. When the kid took his prize she pet the boy on his head with her tail and took out her cards again. She announced the game was Three-card Monte, put up your stakes and find the queen, you win and you get her bet and if she wins she gets theirs. As the three cards were laid out on the table, the queen of diamond face up, the monkey-tailed girl watched the crowd. Only a few people left but the rest seemed to hold some interest. The rest of the deck was placed back and one girl, probably around the same age as Tariph, came forward with her wager.
Everyone seemed a lot more confident in their chances with only three cards and with a kid that seemed foolishly honest with keeping the target on the table and leaving it to chance that no one would guess correctly. Not only that, but the prize was cash instead of a watch. The game commenced on low stakes with the teen before her, and three times the girl won one, then the stakes rose and she one twice more. That's when Tariph offered up all the money on her and the girl decided to do the same, feeling like this was her chance to 'break the bank', metaphorically speaking. But, she guessed wrong, and Tariph got to keep both of their money in the end. And that's how things went from there. Some people would lose and keep losing on low stakes, some would win on low stakes but lose when the stakes started rising, and over all the winning and losing ratio was inconstant enough for people to feel like the whole thing wasn't a scam.
They didn't realize Tariph had a system, after all, the half blood didn't have any accomplices to keep people thinking this was legit if she kept winning. So she would be smart about it, lose less than 10% of her ill-gained winnings and win until it looked suspicious. She read faces, body language, and one would think someone as socially distant as this girl would have trouble with that sort of thing, but when you separate yourself from the crowd just enough you start to find a pattern, and that's what Tariph did and works with. Does the pattern break sometimes? Of course, but it didn't break enough to bring about a major loss, and that was something she could say she liked about humans. They were almost deceptively easy to figure out, almost. It's almost scary to think about the kind of things this half breed could manage if she had the right incentive to do so. Of course, what she would manage would only happen by being a right hand man, Tariph didn't possess the attention span for the long term planning required to get world shaking things done.
Grinning to herself at the hefty load in her pockets, Tariph put away her things, announcing to the loafing disgruntled and eager waiters that she was done for today but they might be able to find her next time she's low on cash. She picked up her case and wandered out with everyone else, though hung out back to fish loose change from unsuspecting pockets with their owners being none the wiser, as usual. She's learned it's always better to leave through the crowd than disappear past a corner if all the gambler's weren't angry or appeared to know each other. Doing otherwise usually resulted in a fight, and even though she wouldn't mind, fights weren't something she wanted to do with human packs. Mainly because she couldn't kill them so the stupid ones would always come back with more people at a later date.
Still, the day was young, and even though she was done tricking gamblers, she wasn't done with her get rich quick scheming. And sure enough, a few hours later, she was back on the streets in different clothing that still concealed as much as before. In her hands she was holding a plastic sealed cell phone box, and she was offering it up at a cheap price. After someone paid, she'd disappear with the nearby crowd and leave the human with a box full of toilet paper and rocks that amounted to about the same weight as the phone they thought they were paying for. Really, the hardest part was nabbing those empty boxed in good shape, the plastic was handled easily with some dry heat from public restroom hand dryers. From there it was just a matter of hiding the false product in the right spot and going back to them and finding a more public spot to sell. And the trick there was never sell near a camera and always sell when there are so many people around no one's paying attention to just one teen when there are plenty loitering in the same manner and same concealing outfits, though they weren't holding boxed but really, who would know later on?
The half-breed could almost laugh at how gullible humans can be sometimes. But all good things must come to an end, and they come to an end when Tariph gets bored of it. Really, tricking them was too easy, gets boring, but spicing it up could result in trouble she doesn't need when trying to get a fat stack of cash. So once she sold off her last box to her soon to be disgruntled customer, Tariph wandered with the herd until she spotted something interesting. And to a girl with the appetite fitting a Saiyan and rivalling a full blood's, what she found was very interesting. An eating contest! Whoever could eat a 20 pound stake in less than an hour gets the meal free and a healthy amount of Zeni for their troubles and on coming indigestion problems. Well, how could she turn down a challenge like that? She shook her head, cackling to herself, then pausing after remembering most places don't let Saiyans participate in these types of competitions. The restaurants usually see them as having an unfair advantage on most occasions, sometimes even raise the stakes to make it more challenging if they are allowed. Well, as much as she was complaining about not having enough challenge just a few hours ago, she'd rather just take their food and money with no problem.
But what was a girl to do when her tail was in full view of the world? Simple, go into the store next to it and tuck her tail into her pants leg while in the bathroom. Such a simple solution, wouldn't you say? Now she really had to keep from laughing while entering that restaurant and surprising the waiter with her request to take the challenge. Honestly, Tariph was a very small thing for a Saiyan, hardly any real bulk that would be considered more than average for a human teen her age, really anyone looking at her without the tail would never be able to guess how much she managed to scarf down in a few minutes. Regardless, the man accepted her request for the challenge and she found a spot while waiting. About thirty minutes later a huge slab of meat and some bread was placed in front of her and in 10 minutes there was nothing on her plate and she was still hungry. Well, not hungry, but that didn't stop her from wanting more food. The people unfortunate enough to have witnessed the girl's savage appetite had expressions ranging between admiring, impressed, disgusted, and a mixture of all three.
Only after Tariph was denied being able to take the challenge again several times she begrudgingly took her winnings and grumbled her way out the door. Screw those guys, she wasn't going to pay for a meal just because she won one that could have fed a family of three, she had two people that let her sleep in there house that were more than happy to feed her until they're fridge was completely empty!