A pinch of Dust (Public)

[August Valerian]

The Dust store's door swung open to admit a tall, Faunus with orange hair and fox ears, a quiet smirk gracing his features. August's ears twitched this way and that as his amber eyes swept across the features of the store, the various colours of Dust giving the store a rainbow of colours. He gave the store keeper behind their counter a small nod, the store mostly empty save one or two other customers further back.

"Now... what should I get?" He murmured to himself, stepping closer to the cases contain the various vials of Dust. He needed to refill some of his Dust supplies, fire, ice... maybe some gravity Dust? Yes... that sounds exactly like what he needs. Wait. August peered at one of the vials in the case, one filled with cyan coloured Dust.

"Hard-Light Dust? Now what could I do with you in my kit hmmm?" Well, time for a distraction. Now where should- ah! That corner will do. A moment of focus and a Fox Wind Up Toy quietly drops onto the floor.

"Three..." He muttered quietly under his breath.
"Two..." His gaze returned to the vials in the case before him.
"One..." He grinned as the toy activated, creating a small ruckus over in the corner of the store. With the distraction, he used his Semblance to collect several of the Dust vials, making sure to grab the Hard-Light Dust vial.
"And success!" August turned, heading for the exit. Not hurried, as that would draw attention, but not slow either, not wanting to loiter at the scene of the crime.

[Kinto Boreas]

As August finished his little heist, a sunglass covered pair of eyes followed him, Kinto stood at the opposite side of the street, watching August in the cover of the crowd and the newspaper he was pretending to read.
He was truly a skilled thief, using his semblance not just for the crime itself but to summon a distraction too, the very semblance that also drew Kinto's attention, if he understood it correctly then it could be a huge asset in his own efforts to liberate the world of the huntsman plague, a long and arduous task that needed resources, resources a certain sly fox could help him acquire.
First, he'd have to convince the young man of course, something he now set of to do, taking after August, as he walked he made sure his disguise was set, a long brown leather coat, over a grayish green sweater, simple pants in the same color as the sweater and a black tweed flat with sunglasses dressed his bald head.

As August rounded a corner, a slightly shorter man would stand before him and in his way, Kinto had the map of this city up on display on his glasses, that functioned similar to his helmet's visor.
He looked up into August face, a friendly smile on his own, as stood with his hands in his coat's pocket, the newspaper tucked under his left arm.
"Excuse the disturbance, but could I have a word, August?"

[August Valerian]

August left the store behind him, stolen Dust in pocket. He took a moment to cast his gaze about, as if deciding where to next, though he had an exit plan before even entering the store. He set off down the street, suppressing a growing grin. Another undetected success, with none any the wiser.
"And with my supply of Dust refilled, I should..?" August mused, raising his arms above his head for a stretch. "Hmmpf! Ooh that was a good stretch. Now, how about some celebratory coffee?" With a moment of focus, he summoned a cup of coffee from his storage into his hand, still gently steaming.

"Oh... looks like that's my last cup of coffee huh? I might as well head towards-" August turned the corner, only to come face to face with a slightly shorter man, rather than the expected empty path. Nothing too weird, at least until the man spoke to August, calling him out by name.

August frowned at the stranger. "How do you know my name...?" His fight-or-flight senses tickling at the back of his mind, his ears focused on the man before him. Did this man know he had stolen some Dust? How? The cops? A sting op? No don't be silly... Then who is this man? And what does he want?

[Kinto Boreas]

As expected August was of course a bit apprehensive, or annoyed, Kinto wasn't sure, but that was too expected and of little concern, so he would continue on.
"That's quite an easy question to answer, you caught my interest and I like to inform myself when it comes to people that catch my interest, a simple facial recognition scan does wonders, while your background is a mystery your criminal record is quite extensive and readily available to someone with my "clearance"."
Kinto said as he pulled his arm out of his pocket, doing so slowly not to startle the young man, a gauntlet clad his arm which then with a display similar to a scroll showed security cam footage of many of August's robberies around Vale.
"No offense, but if you meant to stay hidden, then you should reduce the frequency of your little outings, I am not the only one with my eyes all around the city."
He let the video's play for a while, giving August plenty of time to realize how much dirt Kinto had on him.
"But, I am generous, as I wish to work together with you and a colleague behind bars is not very useful, so consider this a show of good faith"
With a few taps on his gauntlet, the recording disappeared one by one, until the display went dark as Kinto retracted his hand back into his pocket.
"Mind you, those weren't recorded by me, plenty of security personal around the city are currently scratching their heads why their camera footage is missing bits and pieces."
He flashed him a smirk, the footage was well and truly gone, which it did pain him a little to throw away this much leverage, especially since it wasn't as easy to gather as he made it look, Kinto had to pull quite a few all-nighters for it, but he was not one to make partnerships based on things like blackmail, that was only ever a last resort, plus, looking at August's record it wouldn't be hard to gather new footage of his crimes.

[August Valerian]

August was still on edge as the stranger began to answer his question. Caught his interest? August is a very interesting man, so of course he would get someone's interest. He dropped his guard slightly as he listened to the stranger, noting the slight emphasis on "clearance", as if such a thing could apply to the stranger.

The stranger withdrew their arm from their pocked to reveal a gauntlet with a screen. A screen with shortly began to play various clips. Clips of August pulling the wool over peoples eyes a multitude of times. "That's a lot of footage of me. That is a LOT of footage." This was almost every single time he had stolen something. August looked on as the stranger performed a few taps on the screen. He watched as each clip disappeared, clearly they were being deleted. A show of good faith huh...?

His eyes tracked the darkened screen for a moment as the stranger put the gauntlet back into their pocket. That ha been enough dirt that the stranger was practically scraping the bedrock beneath the paved streets of Vale at that point. The stranger had all that leverage and he just deleted it in good faith.

August felt a grin creeping across his face. He had no idea who this person was, but they had him by the scruff and let him go. Clearly they were hoping for something in return. "So you're not going with the creepy-stalker boyfriend act then?" He raised his cup of lukewarm coffee, taking a sip from it to buy himself some time to think. At this point, assuming that the stranger was being truthful, August could just walk away from this. But... he was curious to see why the stranger had put as much effort as they had into all this...

August lowered the cup, giving the contents a slight swirl. "Alright Baldie." He pointed a finger at the stranger. "A couple of things. First, what exactly is it that you want from me? Secondly..." He 'counted' a second finger to join the first point at the stranger. "What's your name Baldie? Unless you'd rather I call you Baldie from here on?"

[Kinto Boreas]

Kinto took the chance to revel in August's surprise, shock even, but besides a slight tilt of his lips there wasn't much of a reaction, Kinto had a professional appearance to keep up after all.
Speaking of which, August took to insulting his look almost immediately, while trying to put himself in a better light.
Kinto's expression yet remained smiling, giving August little to no information about his emotional state.
"While I have no doubt that you are quite charming or even witty when you want to be, that is not what I have a come here for, what I have come here for is your skill with your semblance, as we both saw in that footage I just deleted, if you want something then there's very little that can stop you from getting it."
Kinto now reached into his pocket again, pulling out a simple folder, a folder than held the description, layouts, schematics and any other information of a couple buildings; banks, dust vaults, high-end electronic/weapon shops resource deposits and many other such places, but first up was a single, wealthy looking dust store.
Kinto then handed August these documents.
"Your small-time thefts may keep you fed, what I provided you with here can sustain you and me for months, which is why I want you to work for me, you can rather easily acquire most valuables in the low security establishments listed here, for anything more dangerous, please consult me. I can provide you with plenty of support to make am attempt at them more fruitful, may that be with necessary equipment or disabling security as you work. Regarding the dividing of spoils, I only care about dust and raw materials, so those will be the only things we'd need to split, you can keep everything else. "
Kinto explained as he then thought about the "tease" August threw his way, about his bald head, it didn't get to Kinto, his head was bald by choice it meant disguising himself was so much easier, but yes August would need a way for him to address and call Kinto should he choose to take on Kinto's offer.
"Simple, the name is Kinto Boreas, you may simply call me Kinto, if you'd please."
Kinto said, as he once again tucked his hands into his coat pocket, now simply waiting for August's reply to his offer.

[August Valerian]

August smirked then rolled his eyes, obviously very little can stop him from taking what he wants. "No?! Not as a friend? Oh what's this...?" August eyed the folder that the stranger withdrew and presented as they continued talking.

He let out a low whistle as he leafed through the folder. "What th- Holy... Alright, you've definitely got my attention with this." He was finding himself very quickly adjusting his opinion of this individual based on what they had shown him thus far.

August frowned as the stranger said something about... working for them? He clicked his tongue, his ears flicking out to the sides, showing more of his displeasure. "Tch! Working for you?! Nono no. I must have misheard you. You meant as partners in crime, right?" There was no way August was going to work for someone else... not after...

He refocused on the now, only a moments distraction dwelling on his past. Just in time to catch the stranger's name, 'Kinto Boreas'. Kinto? Boreas?

"Mr K? Hrmm, Mr B? No, too formal..." He murmured, shaking his head slightly, this was a very important moment. He had to pick the right 'name', 'cause there'd be no changing down the road. Well, not unless he wanted to make things awkward later on. "K? No... B?" His eyes lit up, his ears quivering ever so slightly. He turned his attention back to Kinto, repeating his nickname for the man again. "B. Bee!"

He nodded to himself, satisfied with his new nickname for Kinto. "One last thing before I agree to working with you Bee. What exactly do you need these materials for anyway? Seems like you could live off some of this well enough by your self. But some of these materials aren't exactly... saleable assets?" So long as Bee wasn't looking to go killing people with these assets, he saw no reason to not work with Bee. After all, some of these heists would be... 'lucrative' might be underselling it, just a little.

[Kinto Boreas]

Kinto simply watched August sift through the folder he had given him, he gave him all the time to think and make his points, scratching his chin, noticing some scruff forming on his chin, hm, he'd have to shave after this.
Well, it was fair that August wouldn't want to be working for him, if he didn't want to call it that but instead a partnership that was fine with Kinto, he himself just preferred to call things what they were, instead of trying to make them sound more appealing, since it was the fact that August would be doing most of the work from now on, Kinto was a skilled individual, but theft was definitely not one of his strong suits especially with the huge target he had painted on his back with what he did and what he would continue to do.
A huge target, a nickname as casual as August had suggested would somewhat alleviate, as much as it annoyed him, Kinto sighed as August called him B.Bee, what kind of nickname was this even, it barely even resembled his actual name, but the stranger the name, the better the cover-up.
As August asked the obvious question of what, he would need these resources for Kinto, did have to lie, he wasn't sure what Augusts stance on murder was nor his stance on huntsmen, but he did seem to want to avoid serious confrontation.
"Well, as my partner, you are privy to an answer, a very simple answer, I'm a vigilante, I wish to do huntsmen work, kill Grimm, protect the people and make a name for myself, however...
He hated this already, not only was he flattering the huntsmen scum but had to admit a weakness.
"...I cannot get a license without a semblance, so I need other tools, tools that are quite expensive to make and need constant maintenance to keep functioning."
He sighed again, unlike last time it sounded much more frustrated as much as Kinto tried to mask it, he really hoped he'd never have to tell anyone else this sort of sob story.
"Now then, partner, can I count on your help?"
Kinto offered his hand for a handshake, showing August a calm smile, he was hoping to make this a simple and quick exchange.

[August Valerian]

August mulled over the information he just learned. B.Bee has no Semblance, as such, Huntsman work with a legal licence wasn't in the books for them. Working as a vigilante with custom tools was a way around the limitation of no Semblance... although the line of "...protect the people..." rang a little hollow with the whole stealing from them to maintain their own tools.

He supposed it didn't matter too much in the end. What was someone's valuables compared to their own life. He reached up with one hand to manipulate B.Bee's wrist and change the handshake into a high five, which he promptly completes. "Sure B.Bee. You've got yourself a deal." August withdrew his hand, a large grin on his face with a mischievous sparkle in his eyes. "Oh, and something that might be more useful for you than me." August turned a palm face up with a vial of Hardlight Dust sitting pretty.

[Kinto Boreas]

Of course, he wasn't satisfied with a simple handshake, but, it wasn't a ridiculous attempt to get under his skin, just August being a bit playful, reluctantly Kinto had to smile.
He let his hand be moved and answered August's high five with his own, while not nearly as energetic as August he still held a fair bit of strength behind the slap.
"Right then, to a good and lucrative partnership for us both."
Just as he said it, August surprised him, a vial of hard light dust, rare and expensive as it was, even a vial was a great contribution to his efforts.
"My, that is mighty generous of you, thank you, August."
Kinto stashed it into his coat, as then checked his wrist.
"As fun as this has been, I'll have to excuse myself, contact when ever you set eyes on your first target, I'll do my best to respond in a timely fashion, till then, goodbye."
Kinto offered, a tip of his hat and a slight bow, before turning in the alley and walking further into it, rounding a corner to then disappear as he had activated his optical camouflage to sneak back home and make further plans.