Tasslehoff Burrfoot is not a thief (tas_wanderlust) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2016-07-14 18:31:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, !partner thread, pietro maximoff (quicksilver), tasslehoff burrfoot |
Who: Tasslehoff and Pietro
What: Tas totally doesn't steal Pietro's wallet. Really guys.
When: Early July, before Tas gets short
Where: The pier
Rating/Warning: Fairly low/none
Status: Complete
It was a beautiful day for a walk along the pier, Tas thought. The sun was shining, the seagulls were squawking. There was a distinct lack of draconians and demons wandering the streets. Not that Tas really minded having them around. It really made things interesting. But Tas didn’t want people to get hurt, so it was probably better that all the portals were closed.
Tas liked to dress brightly, and today was no different. He was wearing bright orange shorts and a shirt the shade of green that seemed to glow in the sunlight. His long hair was pulled into a top knot on the top of his head, and still managed to trail to halfway down his back. Even his ears stood out, as they were slightly pointy.
All of it was the look of someone who would not blend into a crowd, and one might think that that would stop Tas from deftly lifting the wallet from the pocket of the blond man he walked past before slipping it into one of the many pouches he had dangling from his belt. And perhaps it would have, if Tas had been paying attention to what his hands were doing instead of the seagulls that were fighting over a tray of fries in the garbage can.
Pietro had rather enjoyed the demons being around too, it had been fun to beat them even if his sister hadn’t been keen on the idea. But things were back to normal now and Pietro was on his way to work.
Being uniquely gifted as he was meant he could see things others couldn’t sometimes, so when he felt his wallet being lifted by the brightly dressed man he watched him for a moment. Before using his speed to suddenly be standing in front of him, “I think you have something of mine. It is not nice to take from people” he added.
Tas jumped a little, more startled than scared. He looked behind him, because he was pretty sure he’d just passed the blond man, and was a little surprised to see that it really was the same guy. “Oh, I agree entirely,” Tas said. “People should never take things that don’t belong to them. How did you do that?”
Pietro loved seeing that initial surprise on people's faces. It was always amusing. “Then why did you?” he asked, “Give me my wallet and then perhaps I will tell you”
“Your wallet?” asked Tas, looking as though he had no idea what Pietro was talking about. Despite that, he managed to pull the wallet in question out from the pouch he’d placed it in. “You mean this? Oh! I didn’t know it was yours. You’re lucky I found it. You probably would have been really upset to go home and discover that you had lost it.”
“I did not lose it. You took it from me” Pietro told him, “I should make you speak to the police yes? It would not be good to let a thief wander around taking things from other people”
Tas had originally been intrigued by this man, with his accent and his ability to just pop up in front of people. But now Tas was offended. He glared at him. “I am not a thief,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest. “You take that back!”
“You stole my property, is that not the definition of a thief? Someone who steals things that do not belong to him” Pietro asked, he wasn’t sure why this man was so offended when he was simply stating the truth. The man had stolen his wallet which meant he was a thief and then he had lied about it.
“I did not steal it! I found it!” Tas insisted. “And I’m not a thief. Unlike your hairdresser. Did she actually charge you for that hair style, or did you do it yourself?”
“It was in my pocket, and you did not bend down to pick anything up. I do not understand why you are denying it and trying to insult me” Pietro said calmly, if the man didn’t want to be called a thief then he needed to stop stealing things.
Tas frowned. Most people did not respond quite so calmly when he insulted them. Was it not a very good insult? He thought it had been alright. “I’m telling you I didn’t steal it. I’m not a thief! It must have just fallen out of your pocket and into mine.”
Pietro was fairly level headed most of the time and growing up as he had he’d heard far worse things thrown at him, it gave you a certain thickness of skin. “You know how silly that sounds? First you claim to have found it now it must have ‘fallen’ into your pocket? If you do not want to be called a thief why are you stealing things?” he asked honestly curious.
Tas frowned, frustrated. “I’m not stealing things,” Tas exclaimed. “That’s what I’m telling you. I think you need to get your ears checked.” Tas really couldn’t understand why this man with the bad hair was still insisting that he’d stolen his wallet. “Besides, I gave it back!”
“I know what you are saying but your actions were very different. Do you often take things without realising you are doing it?” he asked, shaking his head at the man's insistence, “You gave it back after taking it and only when I stopped you”
Tas shifted his weight from one foot to the other. This conversation was making him feel uncomfortable, and he didn’t really like it much. “I would have given it back when I found it even if you didn’t stop me!” Tas protested. At least, he would have had every intention of returning the wallet to the address on his driver’s license once he’d noticed the wallet, but nine times out of ten when Tas left the house with that intention, he ended up getting distracted by something else and forgetting all about it.
Pietro found it very interesting how much the whole situation was being denied, perhaps this person had some kind of disorder. “Oh are you one of those клептоман...uh kleptomaniac people?” he asked searching for the English word after the Russian. It would make sense though he should probably just say that to clear things up.
“I am not a maniac,” Tas said, hands on his hips. “You’re really very rude. Has anyone ever told you that before? Or do they all just avoid you on account of the smell?” He waved his hand in front of his nose, even if he really couldn’t smell any obvious body odor coming off from the other man.
That actually made Pietro laugh, “I am not as rude as someone who steals, lies about it and then decides that insults are the best thing they can say” he grinned, this man was far more entertaining than he had thought he would be when he’d felt the wallet being taken.
Well, at least the fellow was laughing now, though Tas wasn’t entirely sure what was so amusing. “You insulted me first. And you’re still doing it!” Tas exclaimed, a bit of a pout to his voice.
“I did not insult you. I felt the wallet being lifted from my pocket, I did not drop it and you certainly never bent down to pick it up” Pietro said, “I thought perhaps you had taken it without realising you had but again you took offence at that. If I had something of yours what would you think?”
“You called me a maniac,” Tas said, crossing his arms. A something-or-another maniac. “And a thief! And a liar! I’m none of those things! And if you had something of mine, I’d just think that you had found it like I found your wallet and I’d thank you for giving it back to me!”
“A kleptomaniac, that is someone who takes things that don’t belong to them because they can’t help it. It is like a medical condition” Pietro explained, “I do not think that is true” Deciding to prove his point Pietro used his superspeed and removed the man’s wallet, “Oh look, you must have dropped this” he said holding it up between them.
It was true. In the community that Tas had grown up in, all property was community property. Even in his dreams, Kendermore was the kind of place where a family heirloom was any object that had managed to stay in the house longer than two or three weeks. Frankly, Tas had never really understood why people got so bent out of shape when he borrowed or found something that belonged to another person. He was about to press the point, argue that Pietro should believe him because he wasn’t lying, when suddenly Pietro was holding his wallet.
Tas gasped, then patted his pocket. He didn’t believe for a second that he’d dropped his wallet, because obviously Pietro had just taken it to prove some sort of point that Tas didn’t understand, but he wasn’t upset. “How did you do that?” Tas exclaimed. “Oh, oh! Can do you do my phone next?” And to add a bit of a challenge, Tas quickly clamped his hands over the pouch that contained his phone. Maybe it was magic!!
Sadly it wasn’t true for the majority of people and Pietro was one of those people. He had caught the man so he wasn’t so worried about himself but he didn’t want the man to take something from someone else. It wasn’t fair.
However playing to Pietro’s pride in his ability was a good move, grinning he took the phone. Tas would feel a wind effect but he’d be able to move his arm and remove the phone in the blink of an eye. “Like this?” he asked looking as though he had never moved.
Tas gasped again, his irritation quickly replaced by wonder. And curiosity. “How did you do that? Is it magic? Was it magic that had you appear in front of me as well? Can you teach me how to do it? I have a few friends who can do magic and it’s really interesting! But none of them can really teach me how. Do you dream? I’ve never met anyone who had powers and didn’t dream, but I bet there’s a first time for everything!”
“It is not magic. I have an ability, I can run very very fast. Fast enough that things appear not to be moving to me” Pietro told him, “It is not something I can teach. But yes I do dream, it is where this ability came from”
“So you’re super fast?” Tas asked. “That’s so cool.” He was a little disappointed that the man couldn’t teach him how to do it, but it was a disappointment that Tas was becoming rather familiar with at this point. It seemed no one could teach him their powers. He wished his dream self had some kind of magic powers. “What do you dream about?”
“I am” he nodded, he definitely agreed that it was super cool and it went a long way to forgiving this man for taking his wallet that he seemed to agree.
“Robots, superheroes and a plot to kill everybody on earth” he summarised his dreams.
“That sounds so exciting!” Tas said. “You should tell me all about it!” Tas loved stories, especially the stories that came out of people’s dreams. “Oh!” He extended his hand out for a handshake. “I’m Tasslehoff Burrfoot, but my friends call me Tas!”
Well it hadn’t been exactly what he’d expected but Pietro shook his hand, “Pietro Maximoff, it is interesting to meet you Tas”