[ACTION | the day after the flood] Insert terrible puns here

[mirage_diver]

[Locke, being a treasure hunter, naturally has a lot of experience with opening jammed locks, but not like this.

NOT LIKE THIS.

So apparently the key to his room isn't working. The reason why? An errant blob of flying fruit-paste smacked right into his door the day before. So know Locke is kneeling down in front of his door, a small set of lockpicks opened up on his knee, along with a red-stained cloth or two - looks like he's having to work out the literal jam a little bit at a time.

All while looking incredibly suspicious to anyone that doesn't recognize that this is his dorm he's going at with those metal jimmies.]

Comments

[fisheyes]

[Gintoki's just going to settle against a wall and watch, not actually bothering to help. Even though it is, y'know, his room as well.]

What, you're not done yet? Sloooow.

[mirage_diver]

I wouldn't've had to do it if someone hadn't decided to lock the door on his way to class, you know.

[Yeah, he's a little annoyed at the lack of help, but let's face reality - this was a one-man job no matter what. Locke wipes off another glob of preserve onto the cloth, trying to keep his focus while his dormmate the sugar king did his best to whine and complain.]

You have no idea how much this stuff can worm its way into the tumblers.

[fisheyes]

Ah, really? Who did that? Sounds like the sort of thing a smart, incredibly sexy guy would do.

[And also modest. Despite that, Gintoki finds it within himself to amble over and squat down beside Locke. He could just kick the door down, you know.]

Seriously, is that really doing anything, or do you just wanna be able to say you tried?

[mirage_diver]

Yeah, I suppose. Or the guy I share a room with, who's a maniac on a sugar high.

[If you kick the door down, the door will break, and then both of you will have to listen to the RA lecture about how much trouble it is to fix one of these old-fashioned doors and blah blah blah no thanks.]

I think it'd be doing a lot more if I didn't have a skeptic questioning it every five seconds.

[fisheyes]

So he has good taste, too? Astounding. What a perfect guy.

[It's okay, Gintoki can practice sleeping with his eyes open. He's not bothered if you have to listen to it.]

Bah. Step aside, sugar-hater, and let a master show you how it's done.

[He cracks his knuckles ~DRAMATICALLY~ and motions him aside. Prepare to be... not amazed.]

[mirage_diver]

[...He may not know you inside and out, Gintoki, but...]

You're just gonna kick the door, aren't you. That's not very masterful at all.

[fisheyes]

No! What kinda violent maniac do you think I am, huh?!

[... Shit. On to Plan B.]

Pass me those picks, and I'll show you how a real... lock... picking... guy... does it. Yeah.

[Such professionalism.]

[mirage_diver]

...You're too hyper to be a real "lock-picking guy".

[It's a simple fact, bro. Especially if you can't get to sugar, you get the shakes.]

Besides, you'd end up licking the picks, and you have no idea what other crap that jam picked up in the lock.

[fisheyes]

[Oi, oi. Gin-san isn't so much hyper as 'a lazy guy who occasionally lets sugar get the best of him'. Mmm, sweet, sweet sugar...]

I call bullshit.

[He holds his hand out.]

Gimme. And don't worry about me licking 'em, I already tried the jam. It's not worth it.

[It isn't real strawberry. >:(]

[mirage_diver]

[Here you go, Gin - you get the cloth he's been wiping this crap on.]

I call bullshit, too. I bet you don't even know what to DO with these, considering you used the term "lock-picking guy".

[He might've taken more offense at 'thief', but it would've been more accurate even.]

[fisheyes]

[He's so tempted to lick it.]

Ch. You don't need to know fancy words for things to do them. Hand 'em over, then just watch and learn, my sugar-heathen roomie. If you try to make me ask again, I'll just lounge around and back-seat lock-pick at you.

[It's like back-seat driving, but even more annoying.

Oh, and he's scooping the jam off the cloth.]

Geez, no bread...

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

Kid, tell me...

[Jecht folds his arms, looking down at Locke with an expression midway between disbelief and annoyance.]

That you just left your key inside there or somethin'. Because no one's dumb enough to be this obviously about breakin' into someone else's room.

[mirage_diver]

[Sigh. He should've expected this would happen. As calmly as possible, Locke pulls out one of the picks with a glob of red on it.]

That fiasco yesterday apparently got to my door.

[Yes, it's wildly improbable that a stray glob of jam would smack his door when most of the flood was in the classrooms, but it happened, so.]

And it's not like I have any way of prying the knob off to let someone else fix it.

[Seriously, times like this he wished that Edgar was around to foist such a job off on.]

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

Hmph. Not sure if I should be scolding you for not getting some staff help or commendin' you for your initiative. Tell ya what, if anybody asks I did whatever they were asking to hear.

[Jecht stoops a little to peer at the knob.]

[mirage_diver]

Yeah? Tell me someone on staff who spent most of their life learning to pick locks and I'll admit I should've asked them. Instructor Reno doesn't count because you can never find him when he doesn't want to be found.

[As is befitting a Covert Ops instructor.

Looking closer, a sharp eye would be able to tell that the gunk is almost gone - and that the knob's been beat up a bit, like someone's first choice for opening it was to try to kick open the door.]

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

Pick locks, no. Actual locksmithin', maybe? You think these things get on the door by themselves?

[Jecht isn't exactly a sharp eye for little details like that.]

You think you can actually get it?

[mirage_diver]

I dunno, I figured they just hired a guy. That's what most schools do.

[The pick gets pulled out, less jam on it than before..]

Good enough to open, shouldn't take more than a few more minutes. Might be longer to completely degunk it.

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

Well, let's see it. Not that I don't trust ya, but it'd look bad if I heard later someone's room got broken into and they got out of gettin' caught with a lie about it bein' their own room.

[mirage_diver]

[Locke nods. The difference between a treasure hunter and a thief is that a treasure hunter is honest about what he does. He steps away, putting aside the picks and the cloth before tugging himself back up and fishing through his pocket for the key to the door.]

Dunno if it'll work right now, but it should be good enough to try. And to show that it's the right key. You wanna do the honors?

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

[Without hesitation, Jecht casually takes the key, turns it in the lock, then twists the knob as he applies his shoulder to the door.]

[The door's opening one way or the other, after that. Hopefully it DID unlock...]

[mirage_diver]

[On the plus, it unlocked! And Jecht doesn't need to apply lethal force to the door. On the minus...

Well, looks like the key's stuck in the lock now. Naturally, since Locke wasn't the one with the key at the moment, he's oblivious to this.]

See? I told you, just trying to get the damn thing to work.

[And with that, he starts cleaning off the picks the rest of the way before folding up the set and slipping it back into his pocket. The sufficiently sugared cleaning cloth gets balled up and tossed into the trash can inside the room.]

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

You... you've got another problem here.

[Jecht taps the key hesitantly.]

[graynbowdash]

(Why yes, that's incredibly suspicious, Locke. However, someone with that much lock picking know how would know better than to do this at this time of day. As in sunshine. And most of Garden being wide awake.

So with faith that Locke isn't an idiot with horrible timing, Daring trots on over, jesting at the situation.)

Getting a little last minute practice there?

[mirage_diver]

...More like trying to clear out some horrible luck. Seriously, that crap from yesterday didn't even get NEAR the dorms.

[And the jesting gets a bit of a jest from Locke, as he pulls out a goop-covered pick and offers it to his instructor.]

Want some? Bet it goes good on toast.

[graynbowdash]

No thanks; I got my fill yesterday.

(Seriously, all the jam she had to dig through to get cadets out...it kinda turned her off to it.)

You're gonna be at this for a while if you're just using picks. Jam knows exactly how to do just that.