#samseele

[scarletwritesshit]

💸 Sampo x Seele 💸 To Swindle a Butterfly

The trudge through the mines was already physically painful on its own, and Sampo wasn’t making the trek any easier for Seele. He had this rather unusual fixation on her ever since they first crossed paths, and Sampo refused to give her a break from his antics. As much as she needed to remain in contact with him, Seele had debated on blocking his cell number numerous times.

As annoying as he tended to be, Seele did find his pathetic attempts at swindling her to be quite amusing. A majority of the time, it felt was as if he wasn’t trying to sneak anything by her at all. His scams always followed the same general template; some variation of pyramid scheme, whatever this "blockchain" bullshit was, or a so-called miraculous product that she knew would fall extremely short of expectations. Once in a while, if she was bored enough, she would play along with his newest ploy, just to be entertained by the desperation in his words as he struggled to keep up his act. Call it vengeance, in a way, for him frequently barraging her with messages while she was busy.

Speaking to him in person, however, yielded entirely different results. Seele wouldn’t hesitate to knock Sampo across the streets of the Underworld if he decided to test his luck at the worst moment. The other members of Wildfire may be in favor of sending him flying at times, but Seele had to resist, especially now. The never-ending bickering can be set aside for later, she hoped.

Sampo saw this as a perfect opportunity to win over Seele for real. She couldn’t grab him by the legs and throw him away out of consideration for the rest of the team, so she had no choice but to listen to his solemn pleas to spare him some credits in exchange for product.

"Please," Sampo begged, "I promise you won’t regret it!~"

"For the last time, Sampo, those strings of letters and numbers in your phone aren’t going to magically solve all of the Underworld’s financial problems" she said.

"But, think of all of the food and supplies that you could buy for us with that massive profit!"

"And where are we going to find that food in the first place?" Seele snapped back. "There’s hardly enough to go around as it is, bought or stolen."

"But you can buyyyy it elsewhere with as much money as these snazzy things are worth!"

Seele stopped in her tracks and violently turned to her side, in Sampo’s direction. Sampo froze as well, recoiling backwards in response to her sudden movement.

"Elsewhere? Elsewhere!? If elsewhere was really an option, then do you think we would be stuck in the position that we are in now?"

"Ordering supplies from the surface could-"

"Not everyone can just travel from the surface and back utilizing the same questionable methods as you, Sampo. Besides, how much of a kickback were you promised anyways?"

"Kickback?" Sampo said, casually shrugging. "Why do you assume that I get-"

"How much," Seele barked, shooting him a stern, cold glare.

"75%. They offered me at least 75% of their total earnings."

"As if. They make empty promises like that and run away with the money. I suggest that you cease operations now, for your own good."

"For my own good? But, that’s why I’m doing this! Not just for my benefit, but for our own!"

Either Sampo was truly a "clever" con artist, or his idea of helping others was a bit, unconventional, to say the least. If only Sampo would put more effort into swindling the enemy rather than his own allies. Then perhaps, this whole operation would be made so much easier.

"Name one time that this monetary trickery has worked out in your favor,'" Seele snapped back.

"Ah, well...I did make a few credits back on another little deal of mine."

"Define 'a few.'"

"...A couple hundred, at least. It was still enough to fund a few drinks from the surface vending machine, so it wasn’t completely in vain.”

"A few hundred is deplorable compared to what those on top made. Do you seriously believe the validity of the scams that have ensnared you as well?"

Sampo went completely silent. Responding either way, he would only make himself look like an incompetent idiot, so he remained silent in order to avoid confirming either of Seele’s suspicions. However, his silence spoke far louder than any of his words could.

"Sampo, if you know that you would be ultimately screwed over in the end, why do you continue to try these schemes time and again?"

"Well, I-"

"And why do you always target me over anyone else? They’ve never worked, never will work, and you only make yourself look like an even bigger ass in the process."

Sampo was silenced once again. If he was as crafty and cunning as he made himself out to be, he would perhaps try to scam someone a little more gullible. Anyone would be far more likely to listen to him than Seele, albeit not by a large margin, but it was still a greater chance nonetheless. The only plausible explanation that she could wrap her head around was some ulterior motive that Sampo had, but even then, it was a stretch.

Who would think that getting the attention of someone utilizing suspicious currency promotions and obviously faulty products only to be aggressively told off would be a good idea?

Unless...Sampo was into that. Which wasn’t something that Seele wanted to think about right now.

"I’m not that gullible, in case you’ve failed to notice," Seele said in order to bring Sampo’s attention back to her.

"I’ve noticed plenty, but...never hurts to try, am I right?"

"Try what? To scam a friend?".

"To try to help but...never mind that'" Sampo said, dejected. "I guess this means that you don’t want little ol’ me's assistance, then?”

"Took you long enough to get the hint."

Sampo silently slowed down his pace so that he would be walking with the group that lingered behind them, rather than directly by Seele’s side. Finally, she had the peace and quiet that she so desperately yearned for. With no purple haired bastard up her ass begging her to participate in whatever scheme he thought of this week, she could quetly be left alone with her thoughts.

Though, being left alone with her throughs proved to be counterproductive to the overall clarity of her mind. Seele couldn’t help but spend some time wondering what Sampo’s intentions truly were.

Nobody really knew much about Sampo and his background. It was easy to say that he simply desired to scam others for his own benefit, yet no one truly knew what was happening behind the scenes. Still, that doesn’t excuse his attempts at swindling his friends.

Strangely enough, Seele was most often the victim of his antics. They were never cleverly crafted either, always following the same general "buy this and we both win" sort of deal.

What was Sampo really after anyways? There was one plausible explanation behind his fixation on Seele, but it wasn’t something that she wanted to think about at the present moment. The thought of someone having certain kinds of feelings for her absolutely disgusted her.

Or so she claimed. Her burning red face showed otherwise.

Come on. Get these thoughts out of your head immediately, she thought, frantically trying to shove this possibility into the back of her mind. No matter how hard she tried to force herself to forget, it was ever-present in her consciousness.

It was beyond impossible for her to like someone like Sampo. He’s an unpredictable swindler and plots his trickery in the most annoyingly charming way.

This could be a mere fluke more than anything. It has to be. Anyone could fluster at the thought of someone having a crush on them.

Shouldn’t Seele be revolted by this idea, however? She didn’t where her thoughts were lingering. Not one bit.

It’s nothing more than a standalone occurrence. These feelings can’t mean anything in the long run. Disregard them, shove them to the back of your mind, and carry on with the mission, Seele thought to herself.

It did feel a bit weird without Sampo constantly pestering her. Things were almost too quiet for her liking.

…Would it really hurt to allow Sampo to walk with her, for just a little bit? She could think of it as free entertainment, to prevent her thoughts from spiraling into some form of insanity.

Perhaps this would slap some sense back into her, and Seele could convince herself just how absurd her intruding thoughts are.

She turned around to see a moping Sampo trailing behind her. He was looking down at the ground, which ruined her hope for a quiet visable gesture of invitation to her side.

“Sampo,” Seele said, hopefully quiet enough for the others to not hear.

He perked up, with a face equivalent to that of a sad puppy. Seele subtly gestured for him to catch up with her and walk by her side. He hesitated at first, as he couldn’t believe what she was implying, but once she nodded her head to confirm her request, he quickly picked up the pace and caught up with her.

Twiddling his thumbs, Sampo was once again left without a word to spare. He was averting his gaze, Seele noticed, possibly out of shame due to the confrontation about his awful plans prior. An equally likely reasoning for his behavior was that it was out of embarrassment for some sort of lingering feelings that Seele totally could not feel lingering inside of her as well.

Maybe now, she could take this as an opportunity to pry some truths out of Sampo.

“…You’re really not an awful person at heart, are you?” she asked, hesitantly.

“Define ‘awful.’”

“Truthfully, you just want to take some of the burden off of my shoulders, yet have no idea how to go about it without utilizing some form of scam...”

“Well my dear lady, we are friends, are we not?”

“Perhaps, but why me in particular?”

“You’re our hard-working leader, obviously. Perhaps, a little too hard-working.”

“I can take care of things myself. I’ve lived that way my entire life. Wouldn’t it be more worthwhile to lend a hand to someone else?”

“It would be if there wasn’t something I valued more than money in this particular scenario.”

“Something more valuable than actual credits? To you, of all people? Whatever your reasoning may be, it must be rather important to your heart.”

“Yeah. It…it is. Let’s just leave it at that.”

Seele gently nodded her head and quietly agreed with Sampo. He was clearly hiding something, and Seele had the feeling that she had been just as guilty as he was all along. For now, no more words needed to be exchanged between the two of them regarding this matter.

Seele needed more time to accept her newly realized feelings for Sampo anyways.