Stone Circle by Alexander Sköld
This artist on Instagram
@ask-the-hidden-thief / ask-the-hidden-thief.tumblr.com
Stone Circle by Alexander Sköld
This artist on Instagram
AVATARS - Ben Barnes 200*320 by Saya Kung
“and you have to accept help from me. because you really have no alternative.” (Hello from a fellow thief muse! ;) )
Well….
It was true that Mari needed help. There were security systems she couldn’t get through to save her life, and this was one. Why Corey shoved the contract at her instead of someone more skilled, she’d never know. Maybe he just wanted her gone without wasting the bullet. She couldn’t be sure. All she knew was that she needed inside that building.
As much as she liked diamonds - especially big ones - she didn’t like breaking into museums.
But there was the way this guy was telling her that she had to do what he was saying. She didn’t like that. She’d just gotten over thinking he was there to arrest her, after all. Knowing what contract she was going after was something she didn’t like. Hearing him tell her that he was just about the only way she could do it?
It chafed a bit.
“If I say no?”
Mari debated snorting, but she didn’t want to draw eyes. She already wanted to jump out of her skin. Tapping her fingers against her leg, she resisted the urge to sprint. Stopping wasn’t on her mind, at least. The necklace and diamonds felt heavier than ever. She was surprised they hadn’t stopped her to search her pockets or something. She gave Alex a tight nod, glancing around at all the cops, muttering, “Rich people pay for police like none other.”
She locked eyes on the cars, hopping a bit and extending her stride. The sooner they got to that alley, the better.
Alex sauntered through the crowd, weaving brazenly past the cops, looking, for all the world, as if he belonged there. He caught up with Mari, who had picked up her pace. “Tightest security in the city and this happens,“ he sighed, looking as forlorn as several other security guards milling through the crowd. “Almost home free,” he added to the girl in an undertone, as they skirted the last of the police cars.
Alex laughed, her mood was definitely contagious. “Hey, those sorts of bracelets are everywhere these days, you’d make a killin’, I think,” he grinned to her.
He nodded a moment later. “Well, the one I was headed to actually boasts a roof garden an’ a small restaurant, so it should be fun, I think,” he offered her his arm with a grin.
"Oh really? Hm~ I guess if I ever quit my day-job, I could try pursue a crafts career on Etsy,” she chuckled back, only half-joking. She knew she could never quit her current profession - she loved it way too much.
“Ooh fancy~ What were ya plannin’ on havin’ for lunch?” she chuckled, taking the crook of his arm politely.
thesundowncrew
“Hahah yeah, I get that a lot!” Natalie chuckled back. “Hmm ooh! I got it! You must be a programmer! That’s like super difficult, right? But you’re the kind a guy that enjoys challenges or something.”
A bit more banter and they were down the street in no time. Natalie perused the books in the store window a little bit before being ushered inside and through to the restaurant. “Oh! Can we go to the roof garden? If you don’t mind, I mean? I’d love to see it!”
Alex snorted. “Security consultant, actually. I break into people’s systems an’ then tell them what to fix,” he grinned. “It’s definitely...fun,” he hummed.
He was quick to nod to the girl’s request. “I was goin’ to suggest the same thing,” he said. “The view is nice an’ the place is pretty cosy,” he said, motioning her ahead towards the elevator.
“I can’t help what I do in my sleep. That includes what’s done with the blankets.”(Alex)
Amelia playfully rolled her eyes. “That…maybe the case, darling, but…” She managed to unwrap enough of one of the blankets to get under it herself, snuggling up close to Alex’s side, wrapping her arms around him. “I may have to start docking kisses from you if you keep me freezing in this cabin,” she teased.
imxthexhandler
( @ask-the-hidden-thief)
Amelia chuckled. “Oh, I remember,” she mused, referring back to their undercover mission in an upper-class suburb, but his offer cut her off. She returned his kiss, humming softly against his lips. “Run away with you?” she asked when it finally ended, blushing as she let out another soft laugh. “This is all so sudden,” she added, realizing then in the back of her mind she was quoting The Little Mermaid.
Alex snorted. “Why the hell not? We can get off the grid easily enough, new identities an’ everythin’,” he grinned. “It’d be an adventure,” he nudged her playfully, kissing her again.
@ask-the-hidden-thief || continued.
“I didn’ suggest jumpin’ off the train.Well, not jus’ yet, anyway,”Alex grinned back. “I’m kiddin’, I swear!” He added quickly a moment later. “We’re not jumpin’ off the train, OK?” he reassured the boy with a nod. At least, he hoped they didn’t need to do that.
The thief paused at the funnel, both of them standing still for a moment, as the wind whipped around them, stealing their very breath away. If they didn’t get into the next car, the thief thought, it might well whisk them off and then they wouldn’t be jumping off the train so much as falling off, which was probably worse.
Connor gripped his arm as Alex made to cross the narrow gap, the other’s eyes wide. “If we don’ move, we’re goin’ to die; probably out here,” he frowned at his words, though he gritted his teeth as he spoke. He glanced back to the car they’d just exited. The men couldn’t shoot their way out that way, the lockdown mechanism was buried in the steel under the door…but their friends might well be coming the other way, the one Alex and Connor were trying to head towards.”I don’ want…”He paused with a huff, the sound stolen the moment it left his lips. “We have to risk it.I don’ want to put more lives in danger, but there’s no other way, Connor. None.”He paused. “Unless…How afraid are you of actually jumpin’ off?”
⊱.。*゚+.*.。⋅. ───────
Actually jumping off. Connor stared at Alex, waiting for him to say he was joking, again. When the expected did not come, he laughed, incredulous. “How.. how afraid--? Well, considering I’d really rather not die a painful death, especially not today, I’d say pretty scared, yeah. And by ‘pretty scared’ I mean, absolutely fucking terrified!”
He took a second to assess their surroundings, once more, half-wishing a win-win solution would appear magically if he observed diligently enough. “Okay, Alex, I don’t know about you, like, probably you have a gymnastic background? Some kind of self defense techniques? Maybe you can somehow survive jumping off, but I would just smash myself right into the ground at breakneck speed, man, just saying.”
─────── .⋅゚+..。*゚+ .⊰
Alex could literally see the wheels in Connor’s mind turning and he was willing to bet he knew what he was thinking too. Ten minutes was an eternity of time in their current circumstances, the thief sighed. But they really didn’t have much of a choice or chance otherwise.
“Yeah, not leaving you behind an’ don’ be silly,” he scoffed to the other’s remark. “We’re both damn smart, we can do this,” he nodded. “It’s a big train, so we’ll jus’ keep movin’. No one’s allowed near the engines, so that’s where we’ll head.”
@ask-the-hidden-thief || continued.
Alex smiled faintly at the girl’s so very grown up tone. Thea, he thought,probably had her hands full with this one; it had to be fun-he couldn’t really know, but he assumed as much.
“Well, I hope you can go one day; you have to visit the city you were named after, right?” the thief grinned as the girl pulled the large book of fairytales closer towad him. He got a glimpse of the story she was reading before she asked him to read for her. “Alright,” he nodded to her request; he rather liked fairytales and the original ones, though gory and he did wonder whether it was alright fgor Florence to be reading those, had their own charm.
“Where did you leave off? Or should I jus’ read from the beginning?” he asked.
⊱.。*゚+.*.。⋅.
"Eh." She lifted her hands, palm up. "It's no big deal. There are sooooo many other places I want to see too!" Like Disneyland or the biggest zoo in the world. She forgot where that was, and made a mental note to look it up again later. So, Florence could wait.
"From the very beginning!" she asked. "And then let's read Beauty and the Beast if you still got time. I've got a feeling I'm gonna be here till late so might as well. I've never read this old version before, they're much better than the little kids' books I've got at home."
.⋅゚+..。*゚+ .⊰
Alex didn’t move, still blocking the girl’s escape. “Yeah, well, I know what I’m offerin’ an’ it seems to me you might need the help, too. Are you OK?” He asked gently, the girl more agitated, it seemed, with each passing moment.
The thief nodded to her question. “If you’re referring to the noise, yeah,” he said calmly. “Probably someone dropped a few shelves of books, by the sound of it,” he shrugged. Still, no one seemed to be reacting to it, he thought; rather odd,indeed.
“ what hideous sin have you committed lately? ”
Alex snorted at the question, giving Mari a clearly amused- and somewhat mischievous-grin. “An’ here I thought I was the dramatic one here,” he stated-dramatically. “Hideous sin? Me? Never,” he went on. “I mean….breakin’ into the Modern Art Museum an’ stealin’ that precious stones installation doesn’ count, does it?”
“How about you, Mari? Any hideous sins committed lately?” He teased back.
Mari couldn’t stop herself from grinning with Alex. “I’m pretty sure those are clean.“ Then a memory popped up. She sat up some. "Wait, Celia isn’t. I caught a prostitution charge once because the cop was an idiot.”
Alex smirked. “I can make that disappear,” he said coolly. “But yeah, might as well check them all out, to be safe,” he nodded with a thoughtful hum. “While we’re at it, it might be a good idea to make Mari a bit more...invisible to the authorities too?” He suggested.
’This isn’t fair. I love you’
Alex crossed the room to place a kiss on her shoulder, concealing a grin as he did so. “I love you too, but I don’ see how that comes into this,” he nudged her playfully. “An’ fair was never part of either of our jobs, why should that change now?” he asked softly. “I do my bit an’ you do yours an’ we hope for the best.”
Amelia sighed heavily, not sure if she was amused or annoyed with Alex’s casually calm reply. Her eyes were watery with tears as a weak smile tugged at her lips. “Leave it to me to fall in love with a thief,” she commented, looking at him. She took in a shaky breath and wiped at her eyes.
“You really love me?” she asked after a moment, her voice quiet, almost timid.
Alex smirked. “Yeah well, I fell in lovewith a cop, worse, a fed,” he teased her, sighing dramatically.
“And really, you need to ask?” He hummed to the question, cupping her face to make her look at him. “Forever,” he hummed against her lips.
“Yeah, this place isn’t creepy. Not at all.” (Alex De'Nuit)
Finn looked around. “I don’t know. Those fake cobwebs just really make the ambience in here.”
lordofthegoldenflower
“I get lost just as much when you aren’t around, so I guess it really must just be me,” Finn returned with a shrug of his shoulders. He had come to terms with his directional issues a long time ago.
“How about this, one of these weekends we can fly out to my family’s cabin,” he offered, helping with the sleeping bags. “I promise it would be an amazing weekend. Yes we would be out away from the cities, but you wouldn’t have to sleep outside or even be without any of your modern conveniences. We would even have cell coverage and internet.”
“I can rig your phone so it pings back to any network or a satellite, you know,” Alex offered.”Make sure you don’t get lost or that help can come to you,” he grinned.
“An’ ok, that actually sounds nice an’ not like campin’ at all. I’m really…well…I don’ really have nature-relevant survival skills,” the thief snorted.
“I’d really appreciate that, thank you,” Finn agreed, offering Alex a bright smile before looking back up at the creepy house. Now that they were back looking at it from outside, it looked even more like a horror movie set than it had when they had pulled up originally. He shuddered a little bit before hugging the sleeping bag a little closer to his chest like it would protect him from the piles of dust inside.
“I can promise the cabin is completely modern and clean and nothing like this place. You certainly won’t need to worry about catching some obscure disease if you touch something.”
Alex nodded. “I can do that when we get back in the city,” he promised, glancing to the house as well. “Yeah, definitely looks like a scene from a thriller,doesn’ it?” He asked, looking more amused than worried.
“An’ that sounds like a nice place,” he grinned a moment later. “I’m sure we’re safe from obscure diseases, though. It’s the dust in there that would’ve killed us.”
"So...I have a thing I need to do an' I think it might be of some interest to you. Do I have to, like, submit some sort of formal application to ask for your help?" The thief asked with a grin.
Strange arched an eyebrow, his curiosity piqued but proceeding with caution nonetheless. “Depends on what it is you need doing. Care to share?”
Alex nodded, following the other man’s words more easily than most. He stayed by the entrance, keeping an eye on the corridor they had come from. There was no other passage that he could spot; if anyone was coming, they were coming down the same way they had.
“Rich guy shit sounds about right,” he murmured,noticing what looked like a very elaborate, definitely very expensive, pair of diamond cufflinks in one of the glass displays. Those could easily feed every poor family in NY for a year, he wagered.
He raised an eyebrow at the crate the Sorcerer Supreme was using his power to pull apart though”That…doesn’t look all that impressive, to be honest,” he hummed, giving the passage behind him one last look before walking into the room carefully, for a closer look. “No alarm system on it, either.Do you think it’s,like, safe to just grab it and stow it in a pocket?And, really, what is it?”He asked.
“It’s an Alpha Atom,” Strange said while keeping his eyes fixed on the locked vault. “Billions of years ago, beings called Celestials sparked the chain reaction that caused the Big Bang; the formation of not only our universe, but the entire Multiverse. It was said that as those universes were being created, the energy the Celestials used to create planets, stars…everything…dissipated into the cosmos, but one atom of that energy had the capacity to destroy or create entire galaxies. The Master of the Mystic Arts had collected ancient scrolls that documented that an Alpha Atom had been contained and sealed away in an Egyptian burial chamber, but when they searched for it, the tomb had been ransacked.”
Stephen turned to Alex. “We have to get this out of here. No one on this or any planet should be in possession of this.”
Alex listened carefully, his mind working at the same time, though, really, what he was being told...it was way beyond anything most people could comprehend, he thought.
“OK. So how do we get this thing out of here, then? I’m assuming touching it is probably a very bad idea?” He asked finally.
“ what are you doing here? it’s the middle of the night. ”
“I can’t sleep..keep having knightmares” Luda answered the man
mysticaltwoface
“Um..sure I suppose” Luda followed the Man who was oddly kind to her
“So, assumin’ i’m not pryin’, what are your nightmares of?” Alex asked, piuring her a large mug of hot coffee, before doing the same for himself.
“my past…a knife on my back"luda says to him
Alex scoffed. “You an’ everyone else, really. They say the past is over, but it always seems to find a way back an’ bite us.”
NIGHTWISH’S WISHMASTER quotes from their album ‘Wishmaster’. Feel free to change pronouns as you like!
“ what hideous sin have you committed lately? ”
Alex snorted at the question, giving Mari a clearly amused- and somewhat mischievous-grin. “An’ here I thought I was the dramatic one here,” he stated-dramatically. “Hideous sin? Me? Never,” he went on. “I mean….breakin’ into the Modern Art Museum an’ stealin’ that precious stones installation doesn’ count, does it?”
“How about you, Mari? Any hideous sins committed lately?” He teased back.
Mari laughed. Pizza and movies were more than enough. “I don’t have a ton of stuff, luckily.” Not much she wasn’t willing to lose. She wouldn’t have a lot of time to get out of there, once Corey caught wind of what was going on. She would just pack a few bags, and she was out of there. “I’d appreciate it.”
She set the pen down, sliding the paper back to Alex. She had six names scribbled out, marking the ones Corey knew about. “I can’t think of anymore right now.”
Alex nodded. “My pleasure an’ we can go get your things the moment you say you want to,” he smiled, taking the paper in his hand with a hum. “Right. I’m goin’ to run these, make sure they’re clean, before I go about makin’ them…well…real,” he grinned. “An’ i know a guy who can even make you formal papers, too,” he winked.
“Even if I did take whatever you think I took.what makes you think I would ever put it in your hands .”
streetofmuses
“You’re looking at one. The name is Holly.. just Holly.” she certainly didn’t want take either of her parents surnames, so Holly it was.
Alex snorted. “Right, then, just Holly, I’m Alex. An’ every alarm in here hasbeen triggered, so we should probably get out of here, right?”
“You were just not going to touch anything, did you not hear what the Doctor said?”
agirlnamedbenny
“I think that’s going be the least of your problems. Heard that marching? well its coming in our direction.”
Alex raisedan eyebrow, pausing to listen. “Ok, that does not sound good,” he frowned.