<span style="font-style: italic">Aw, shoot,</span>Santi thought grumpily as she traveled the street, following the sidewalk and keeping her hands to herself for the time being.<span style="font-style: italic">Shoulda stayed in bed... nothing's open yet.  Woulda had time fer that quickie, after all...</span>She sighed to herself, softly, looking around as she walked.  She didn't want to start picking pockets at this early an hour... there were people out and about, but not enough yet to really conceal her actions.  Besides, she had finally realized, with some embarrassed self-derogatory comments as she walked, that her one-piece, skintight suit might be pretty to look at... but<span style="font-style: italic">had virtually no pockets</span>.  If she pulled someone's wallet free, she would have nowhere to hide it.  Likewise, swiping stuff from the vendors didn't seem very likely either... unless maybe if she started by stealing some baggier overclothes.  Of course since none of the vendors were open yet, that wasn't an option at the moment.<br/><br/>She could always kill some time at that coffee shop over there... if she had any money.  Santi, however, had no such thing as a wallet, and even less a purse.  The tiny pockets built into the suit along her ribs were just large enough for a credit card or to velcro in some coins or cash, but she had none of those either.  For any credit card she needed a real identity, and it would be too much of a risk that<span style="font-style: italic">they</span>might track her down; cash and coins weren't generally the most common articles hanging around her condemned home, either.  Whatever her gang managed to scrape together usually went into food.  Coffee was a luxury she rarely permitted herself, anyway.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">Guess I'll have to sell myself again,</span>she thought, not particularly grumpily.  It was something she was used to at this point... she even enjoyed it a lot of the time.  The annoying part was that half the time she didn't even end up getting paid... so many men, or males really, just walked out without a word.  Sometimes she tried to stop them, or just shouted at them, but it had gotten her beaten more than once and so she usually just let it go these days.  She didn't want some pimp around making sure she got paid, but taking more than half of the money... let alone bothering her friends.  As long as even one client ended up paying during the day, she had something to bring home and share.<br/><br/>It had occurred to her that taking a coffee, alone and dressed as she was, could have wrangled up a client or two, and she was wondering if she might not make a very quick change-snatch from a coat pocket just for one cup, when across the street someone stirred up a ruckus.  She saw the hooded figure run through a small group of people and emerge with two purses trailing behind.<span style="font-style: italic">Amateur,</span>Santi thought as the figure quickly outran the confused pursuit.<span style="font-style: italic">No subtlety whatsoever.  And targetting a bunch of women out hoping for bargains... naughty, naughty...</span><br/><br/>Subtlety... yes, that was the way to do it.  Blatant purse-snatching like that would get you caught and jailed if not killed.  In Santi's case she suspected the risks were even greater... so stealth was indeed the only way to go, for her.  Besides... a hoody?  Everyone would suspect someone wearing a hoody.  But who would suspect a pretty young woman in a skintight black-and-blue outfit?  No one.  Even if someone<span style="font-style: italic">did</span>catch her at it, she'd talk her way out of it... and if that failed, she could let her body do the talking.  In fact... there, those kids... she didn't steal from the young as a rule, but these looked to be higher-learning students from across the wall.  They were probably mostly, if not all, in their late teens or early twenties at most... and if they were wandering around here at this hour, surely they were out hoping to find something to do for the day, and thus had money to spend.  Their rich parents' money, no doubt...<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">Surely they wouldn't begrudge a girl a little spare change,</span>she thought, turning her attention toward them.  Their baggy robes had all kinds of pockets... one quick finger-flick and she might have enough money to<span style="font-style: italic">buy</span>herself the stuff she wanted.  After all, when she could buy things legitimately she preferred to do so.<br/><br/>She moved toward them, trying to act as nonchalant and innocent as possible.  If they saw her they would probably start on the catcalls or such, but she didn't mind... if she got close enough undetected, or simply saw an easy and stealthy pickpocket option, she'd take it...