Shiki next went to a box off to the side hidden in some tall grass. He knelt down and started fiddling with the lock, once more his mind started to settle on wonderful objects that could be inside. It was not to be though, since as he got started his foxfire returned to him blocking his view and making him sneeze, jamming he pick into his fingers. "Yip!!"
Damien nodded, resigned that he was on the same page as the scruffy instructor. It was an amazing array of skills that they had tried to instill in the student body, things he never really expected at first. Sure he only gave him a pack of tools that he had no idea on how to use, but it was a step in the right direction, the hound figured. He felt a gaze on him, but it was probably Alumni Uru being a creeper mutt, waiting for him or something. It felt that familiar.
grasping the pack of thin wiry objects, e set off to the nearest grass box. "Are there any more complicated than the others?" he inquired, letting the hearing take over. Every key and lock had a familiar set of sounds, pieces falling into place with a tat-tat-tat repetition before it became loose and was able to turn. It was just a matter of figuring out hot to get the tat sound to occur.
There was no key, he had to make these rods act like a key, one to make it turnable, another to act like alternating teeth. so he started with that, a thin rod to pretend to turn the imaginary key and the other began to tap on top of the lock, looking for the point where pushing up caused the tat sound, moving closer to the front till there was nothing left to hit, the rod that was turning went all the way."Its open." he remarked, acting like a pup and running his hands through the piles of ..... stale spookies. They did not look edible, at least to his stomach.
He was just happy to have got it done. It was time to try some other boxes.
Lockpicking
Pick Attempt: Lock opened! gimme da goodies Treasure Acquired: 6 Total Treasures: 6
The first treasure box was so easy, the hellhound was sure it was meant for scarelings. The next one was covered in vines, thin wiry yet a very thick layer that was hard to peel apart. It would kind of be the point to unlocking the box. The boil tried the same method of placing the lock under force and tap the keys into place. This lock didnt sound the same, the pieces kept moving, not staying in place. maybe there wasn't enough force, but it was not getting along with him. The frustration was growing, and with a cleansing sigh, he put the box back down. "I guess you are meant for someone else to open then." he told it, defeated. Moving on was the best choice. other than asking Danny to burn it to ashes.
Lockpicking
Pick Attempt: It was a failure Treasure Acquired: 0 Total Treasures: 6
Damien went for a stroll, with all the students fussing over the boxes, he found it again.
the boil was sure it was taunting him, mocking his failure. It was the return of the vine box. It was horrible, as he screamed in mock horror and ran in the opposite direction.
Lockpicking
Pick Attempt: The failures continue, deja vu Treasure Acquired: 0 Total Treasures: 6
The vine box was after his bacon, of that Damien was sure. The box of water, which completely bogged the monsters mind, it was not taking kindly to his technique. That, and he was worried that the water would rust his tools, he quickly moved on from it.
Lockpicking
Pick Attempt: Nope! Treasure Acquired: 0 Total Treasures: 6
Posted: Thu Jan 21, 2016 4:34 pm
After the House Cup, things had somehow regressed to how they were for Helki before he met Tavi. He would coop himself up in the demon's room all day without attending class, only leaving it briefly when he absolutely needed to in order to eat or answer the call of nature. Or get Tavi off his back every once in a while. He just couldn’t find it in himself to work up the interest or initiative to do anything whatsoever following his own lacklustre performance during the House Cup.
And so it happened that both Helki and Tavi were out and about and wondering why there were boxes of all sorts of shapes and sizes strewn everywhere when they heard someone call out at the top of his voice something about unlocking some s**t. Before the wolf boil could protest or move quickly away however, it was already too late and he found himself literally dragged by the kitsune to the source of the voice, presumably to check out what this all was about.
Arrakis sort of hung toward the back of the class, watching everyone else and observing as closely as he could without hovering annoyingly. He had his skellyphone in one hand, a text to Ignatius open, as he did this. Sending it, he took a set of tools and looked around for a box. He'd never tried this before, and he was pretty certain his family would be aghast if they knew he was trying it now, but... what they didn't know wouldn't hurt them, right? Or cause them to ask him awkward questions?
The boxes were supposedly scattered around, and he looked for once so that he could begin. Once he did manage to find one, he took it securely in hand and tried to get it open with the tools he'd been given. Arrakis knew he was going to suck at this, but didn't quite expect to have to take so long before, finally, the box popped open. Taking the contents, he put the box to the side where the other students seemed to be placing theirs. Alright... now to find another one... Though, maybe he should wait for Ignatius to get there?
Seiana_ZI
To: Ignatius Message: You should probably come to class
Ignatius was excited to see a text from his new running buddy until he actually read the text he was sent.
Then he was not so excited.
Amasis
Text to Arra: do i have to
Hobitis was definitely settling in.
Quote:
Text to Arra: okay fine see you there
Ignatius dragged himself to class, grumping just a little bit about the fact that he actually had to attend. That was, until he saw what the class was about. Lockpicking? That was different. He hadn't attended a class about lockpicking before. Could have its uses, though he wasn't sure what he'd do for it. Ooh, maybe a secret area--
"Alright, you win," Ignatius plopped down next to Arrakis, grabbing one of the lockpicking sets. "But watch, I'm gonna be great at this."
He hadn't noticed at first that Ignatius had texted him back, so intent was he on finding another box with, hopefully, more little trinkets inside. Then, as he found another box and set to work on it, he remembered his phone and pulled it out. He then also saw Ignatius actually arrive. Perhaps it was the other's distractibility rubbing off, but Arrakis almost forgot about the box he was trying to work on for a second, raising a hand and waving in greeting as Ignatius joined him. ...And did not enjoy the kind of success at the beginning that Arrakis had.
Though, to be fair... maybe it was all the distraction, but Arrakis didn't do too well this time, either; he definitely failed to get the box open. Glancing down at it in some confusion, he tried to figure out what he'd done wrong. ...Maybe it was time to try again.
How had Arrakis managed to get it open so easily that kid was a newbie -- ha! He didn't get it so easily the second time. Ignatius wasn't defeated yet.
Not that this was a competition...
He brandished his lockpick and attacked the box with a furor! Unfortunately it failed, miserably. He couldn't even get the lockpick into the lock, instead missing entirely and scrapping the lock with his lockpick like that was how he got it to open. That clearly didn't work. At all.
Arrakis tried to mask his amusement at Ignatius' enthusiasm by turning the box over in his hands and concentrating intently on it His pick didn't scrape across the surface of the box like Ignatius' had--sending a chill up Arrakis' spine in the process--but he definitely didn't have any better luck the second time than he had the first with this box. "I think maybe I got an easy box with the last one," he confessed.
Maybe there were more easy boxes lying around? He really wanted to keep trying with this one, though!
"Or maybe you're just bad at lockpicks," teased Ignatius, totally ignoring the fact that this would probably mean he was absolutely terrible at lockpicks, considering the fact he couldn't even seem to get the lockpick in the lock without completely missing or creating horrible lockpick-on-lock noises.
It seemed not paying any attention to what he was doing was the mark for his success, though, because he finally managed to not only get the lockpick in the box, but also hear the satisfying click of it opening. Ha!
Hey, at least one of them got something, and Arrakis was willing to forgive the teasing, even as he stuck his tongue out briefly in response to it. He had to focus on his own box, okay. He was going to get it open, he was. He had to. How hard could this actually, really, honestly be?
Fairly hard, apparently, as he didn't get it open this time either. Arrakis was starting to seriously consider moving to a different box. Was continuing to try on this one just going to make him frustrated? What would be the best option? There was no guarantee the next box wouldn't also be a pain to open. What were the chances it would actually improve his success to change boxes?
Ignatius put down his current box after pulling the strange items out, plucking up a new one and returning back to his seat. Alright. Time for another one. Maybe he could get ahead of Arrakis--
Because this was most definitely not a competition, for sure.
Ignatius picked up another lockpicking tool, trying to figure out how to approach this one, considering he hadn't really been paying attention last time. Unfortunately, not paying attention meant that he couldn't really repeat what he had done before...
Persistence, it seemed, was key for Arrakis as he managed to persuade this lock to finally open and reveal the contents of the box to him. Another couple small trinkets, individually probably useless but nothing he was going to turn down. Every little bit counted, right?
Right.
He hadn't failed to notice Ignatius getting another box, but he didn't say anything about his own repeat of success, figuring with a degree of amusement that Ignatius' naturally competitive nature would take care of itself. Arrakis didn't need to fan the flames.
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