Welcome to Gaia! ::

Candace sighed and took out her phone again as the woman disappeared.

...A gopher. She raised a brow.



Not that the last statement of that text applied here but her point remained. Had this been a man she probably could just walk out of here with the flowers and not have to come back later. She grinned at that thought and looked up again as the florist returned. So she had until six in the morning to come in, get the flowers, then leave. Right. Got it.

Candace nodded. "Alright! I'll see you then, with my boys~. Thank you so much, ma'am! It was a pleasure meeting you!" She was being honest. This woman was an absolute delight. Candace left then, giving the woman a wave and turning...in the opposite direction she needed to go to return to Lance.

She did return, even taking the way she had left from earlier, but with a few shopping bags in her arms. It was her money, damnit. She needed a few things.

"Honeyyyy, I'm home~." Candace called out as she closed the door behind her with her foot, looking around to find Lance.

"Your demonstration comes in the form of me not giving a s**t if you see me change later, by the way." Candace told Lance as she set down her shopping bags. There were clothes in them. Mostly black. She had checked the text when she received it but didn't feel like texting back when she was on her way back to him anyway.

At his question she grinned. "The florist insisted you and Marcus should pay for the flowers, since you two cowards sent me to find flowers for your ladyloves instead of manning up and doing it yourselves." She waved a hand at the story she'd fed the woman. "I'll be fine. I'll take a basket while I'm there and just carry all three of them at once. Like a little red riding hood." She winked.

Candace approached the table, looking down at the locks and tools with excitement clear as day on her face. "None that I can think of. I'm excited to see how I do with this, honestly. I did pretty well in the Mist Tower when it came to the locks..." She turned to Lance with a smile. "What's up first?"

At Lance's question Candace blinked. "...Mmmiiiiine...?" Wouldn't that be the obvious choice here? Who else could be linked to this ca-- "You're a dumbass. I'll pay you back what I bought, 'kay?" Oops. Word filter went down for technical difficulties. "I just bought a different outfit. Jeans, sandals and a tank top isn't exactly the best 'sneak in and sneak out' attire." Candace dug into the bags to show him. A black turtleneck, black pants, and a pair of sneakers. Nothing terribly expensive as much as she'd have liked to have bought the designer clothes she'd seen in the store she had been in. They were strictly for this little venture.

The clothes were put back into the bag before she settled down beside Lance to practice at the locks. It wasn't..so bad. It was certainly not something she was used to doing. Sure, there was the occasional mishap of forgetting her house keys and then having to climb through a window or use her driver's license to get the door open, but Candace had never actually broken into a place before much less picked a lock on anything until she went into the Mist Tower. She was determined to get them right, not giving up on a lock until she got it open efficiently.

She was a quick learner.

She hadn't even realized the time until Lance brought it up, looking up from what she was doing with surprise. Was it that late?! She only had until six am...she didn't..want to risk...

But..what if there was a deadbolt...s**t. Candace frowned, looking down at the locks and tools. What to do. What to do..

"Will deadbolts take long?" She rubbed her lips together, looking unsure of what option to take. Testing her luck was risky but so was spending too much time preparing.

His annoyance was noted with a wince. She hadn't meant to upset him. She'd make it up to him somehow. Get his mind off her comments with lockpick success. That and mission success. Though at his comment on her choice of clothes she raised a brow. "I can do that. But I'm going to go to great efforts not to be seen. Mist goes wherever it wants, right? I should do the same~." She shrugged. She knew she wouldn't do perfectly; this was a learning experience, a high risk one. Candace knew she wouldn't die doing this, and she had a strong feeling if she was caught she wouldn't be in trouble for long, but she would rather not risk that. She was going to do whatever she could to go in and get out as undetected as possible.

She was going to try damn hard. She just needed clothes that blended in with the dark and were easy to move in.

Lance brought up a new name that Candace didn't recognize and she visibly paused to digest it. "..Who's Gen?" A Mist hunter she hadn't met, maybe? She wouldn't be surprised, Aria had told her most other Mists were out on assignment somewhere. Candace rubbed at the back of her neck and stared down at the lockpicks. It was a hard decision. Worst came to worst she could use Atropos as a, uh, makeshift pick. Or she could fiddle with herself. But a few days? She didn't have a few days. She barely had a few hours.

"I think.." She looked to the locks and then checked the time on her phone. She had until six am. Time flew...she could lose track. She could be caught. Candace bit down on her lip, suddenly looking nervous as she thought over just how much time she had. Who knew how long it would take her to get in. Getting out could be just as difficult if all didn't go as it should.

This was hard.

"I'll..give myself one more hour of practice, to get the hang of it...and then I'll go out. The florist comes in at six, I want to be in and out long before then. One hour should be an okay start. I can practice better later when I'm back on the island, if you're up for helping me still." Candace smiled. "An hour of deadbolts, since I've spent so much time with the rest already, and then I'll change and head out. I have a couple ideas I can try. The lockpick will help immensely." She paused. "..Can I have a flashlight for this or should I have thought of that before coming back?"

Candace blinked. Genoveffa...what a unique name. She'd love to meet the other Mist hunters seeing how the other divisions had that sense of camaraderie from knowing each other and bonding but she could see why it'd be difficult for that to happen. She scoot closer to watch Lance instruct her on picking deadbolts, watching with undivided attention. It didn't look too hard, in fact with a bit of time she managed to get the deadbolt unlocked. It took more time than she'd have liked but what mattered was she was able to eventually get it without too much trouble.

She was practicing with another lock when Lance reminded her of the time, humming quietly. Last requests? "A flashlight? Or some way to see in the dark..." What else. She didn't want to waste this. She wouldn't have other chances like this once she was out that door. "Do you have any last minute pieces of advice? Suggestions? Ideas?" A pause, she hummed thoughtfully. Candace suddenly smiled and tapped her cheek. "And a kiss for good luck?"

At Lance's teasing Candace pouted, sticking her tongue out at him complete with a 'mneeeeeh!' sound in a very childish display. But he did make a point with his advice. Damn. She'd have to go this blind then, or use the light of her cell phone if she needed light. Candace looked surprised by the offer to let her borrow something, however, taking the swiss army knife with wide eyes. She flipped open each little tool one at a time just to see what was what. Not bad! This could be useful! Maybe she should get herself one of these. Definitely something to consider. She smiled. "Thanks! I'll take good care of it. I'll keep the doors thing in mind."

While he gave his advice she was already changing right there, laughing at the first thing he said. "Right. I'll do my best to not get caught, definitely." She rolled her eyes and shook her head at him, straightening out her new shirt. "Oh you silly Suns~. Too much brawn." She teased right back at him, fastening her pants and putting on her sneakers. "Whaaat? Not even on the cheek? That hurts. I'll keep the hunter thing in mind though. I'm almost there." She grinned, standing straight and ruffling his hair. "I'll be careful." She pocketed her lock pick set, her phone and the swiss army knife before giving Lance a wave and heading out.

She was glad it was dark out, it let her go out the side door and climb up the wall from earlier. She was not going in front of the shops again. She did have to summon Atropos to get herself going over the wall, but she managed to pull herself up and over without much trouble. Atropos was unsummoned as she landed on the other side, bracing herself against the wall. A few trash cans were set up similarly to the other side so she could climb over the wall again. It would be difficult with a basket of flowers, but she was determined to get this right.

She headed for the strip mall, planning on going the long way around first. She remembered the stores that were on either side of the flower shop, so she just needed to find those two signs just in case the flower shop didn't have a sign labeling its back door as belonging to it. She'd seen a door in the flower shop, she hoped it went outside and not into some stupid closet.

The regular lock didn't worry Candace, it was the sight of the deadbolt that got her. Hopefully she'd do okay with it. She didn't want to break her set.

Taking a deep breath, Candace inspected the picks in her kit before picking the ones she needed. She got down on her knees to see better without blocking her easiest light source, working the lock until she heard the click. Candace turned the handle to make sure. Ah, yes! Perfect! Now for the bolt..

Lockpicks: 5/5

Click-click.

The door opened, creaking softly as it swung outwards towards Candace. She was able to slip inside. The Mist hunter was now inside a backroom, the shelves lined with various different types of vases, containers, and accessories. She was in the workroom, however there were no flowers to be seen anywhere.

Candace can choose to go out into the main store, or explore the workroom some more.