RP:Of Great Men and Burglars
Background
Corbin, seeking to heroically investigate (or... burglar..ize) a clearly abandoned house meets some possible competiton!
In Kelay
This room lies relatively empty. There are numerous artifacts lying around the room, signaling that the previous owners left in a hurry. There is one thing that reserves a once over. Here in the dark corner of the room lies a glowing chest. Perhaps it may be worth looking over.
Players:
- Corbin
- Geralt
Corbin wipes the dirt from one of those windows there with his coat sleeve before cupping both hands around his eyes for peering. Peering where? Into that abandoned house, that is where! He’s been watching this place for some time now, like some sort of mini-burglar. Considering he’s neither hobbit nor burglar, he doesn’t really know what the heck it is he is supposed to be doing. Never know. Sometimes people forget things when they leave.
Geralt marched straight past the kid skulking around the window. Geralt the great did not skulk. He strolls past little would be burglars and straight up into the door, spin on his heel to face it and fish out a key, of sorts (if lockpicks can be considered keys. Which they can. In the sense that they do open locked doors), and sticks it in the lock. This, ah, special key takes a little more effort and wiggling to get the doors open. And in the hands of a such a young and let us say 'well behaved' man, it also makes plenty of rattling noise. Not that there was anyone inside to hear it anyway. All the time in the world to rattle that nasty door open. At this rate he may well have a beard by the time he finishes. But shame on he who backs down! Rattle on, then!
Corbin nearly falls over the moment Geralt appears! He isn’t skulking. He is observing. Er. Yes. So he just stares and watches this boy he’s never seen before messing around with a lock he hasn’t seen unlocked in some weeks now. Kid figured if the owners didn’t come back in a month, then they must not just be on vacation. Today is exactly thirty days and now this guy is just gonna bust in on his bounty? “Hey!” He tots over there, pushing his pointy (and cardboard) hat up on his head. “How’s you get a key.” Obviously he doesn’t know a key from a pick, especially when hidden in another boy’s hands. “Is it stuck?”
Geralt clearly knew no shame. Some might have jumped or been otherwise surprised in some way at being approached or possibly apprehended breaking into an abandoned house. Not Geralt (the great!) oh no. This young man just leans in closer to the lock, closing one eye and opening the other one wider than most others could ever be opened. "It's not stuck. I think something's awry with this here lock!" said, or rather: thought he. Aloud. In a voice more than fitting to his less than masculine looks. One need not looks when they have intellect! Not that intellect helps in picking a lock when the pick really is stuck. "s***e." rattle rattle.
Corbin frowns at the lock while scratching at one of the small, flat stones he has glued to his forehead. “Well.” Maybe this is this guy’s house. Maybe he’s come back to make sure there is nothing left to get before letting it go to the squatters. Probably not, though. He bends over like Geralt (the great!), miming his squinty one eye open pose. “Maybe I can fit in a window and let us in?”
Geralt kept on rattling for a while. Loud enough not to hear Corbins surely completely valid suggestion! Then he stopped. Pulled at the door. It almost opened. But it didn't. Damn thing must be rusted shut. Geralt, not rusted shut, looked over to Corbin, opening both eyes this time. "Sorry? What was that?" generally, when asking a question, you wait for an answer. You don't keep on rattling the defiantly rusted lock in a battle of wills. Of course, that's exactly what Geralt does. He was not about to be done in by a foul, old, rotten bastard of a lock. Not this day!
Corbin ‘s chocolate orbs are covered briefly by rapid blinking. lol Just kidding. He does blink those brown eyes at Geralt. Faces being so close means you notice things about the other faces so close to yours. Like the eyes looking right back at his. They don’t match. “Woah,” he breathes out, just a little in awe. “You have the best eyes ever.” For the moment, he has forgotten about getting into the abandoned house.
Geralt had a triumphant moment there! Just as his newest admirer expresses said admiration, Metallicor the foul lock of rust and shutness yields to the great pick of the equally great Geralt and the door swings open with one final defeated creak! Geralt himself handed Corbin the lockpick as a trophy and lifted a hand to adjust the hat on his own head. "Yes. Yes I do." he proudly agreed and strolled into the abandoned house. Grabbing hold of his own collar and-re donning his jacket as he goes. It was to be a good day!
Corbin jumps back, hooting in triumph as the door opened. “Woah you did it! You’re great!” He laughs and accepts his trophy with pride, looking the pick over with awe. Must be some sort of magic key. Corbin likes magic. Better keep that safe! He tucks it in his pocket and follows the other boy in a non-skulking manner. “I’m Corbin.” Cause why wouldn’t you tell a perfect stranger your name while peeking around at the things scattered around the room?
Geralt stopped in the middle of the room, hands on his hips (one a fist holding onto a fine black oaken cane) and turned half way to face Corbin. "well hello there, Corbin! I'm Geralt the Great!" he turned back to stare at a shelf almost dangerously close to his forehead. The room wasn't particularly large. And the shelf was particularly sharp looking and had more than a few useless nondescript items on it. "This isn't your house, is it?" had to arrive at that question sooner or later.
Corbin shuts the door behind him cause he was not born in a barn. Though who leaves barn doors open either. “No. I thought it was your house.” And now that the boys know that the house belongs to neither of them, ransacking can commence! “I’ve been watching. This house has been empty for a whole month!” He kneels down and lifts up a lace doily there on a forgotten (or left on purpose for sheer ugliness) end table to peek under it for treasures. “Sometimes there’s secrets in left houses.”
Geralt nodded mostly to himself and marched straight over to a dresser that was simply too large to get out the door. Which begs the question to how it got in there to begin with. Not that it mattered. Damn thing was empty anyway. Geralts voice echoed out of the dressed as he talked before closing the dresser again with a snap. "You're right there, Corbin! Who knows what they might have left behind." he turned around and bumped the door with his hip, making sure it was completely shut before stepping out onto the open floor again. Tossing his cane from one hand to another. "Hopefully something better than that there doily!"
Probably that dresser was from Ikea and they just built it inside. Cheap thing is cheap anyway. Geralt is lucky he didn’t bust the thing open with that hip-bump just now. “I dunno. I bet my mom would like this.” He smiles and shakes out the doily, freeing it from dust so folding and pocketing can happen. “I know!!” He runs by the other boy with a grin, tugging on his sleeve so maybe the great one will follow him to the bedroom. “People hide things in the closets!” Once in there, he flings the closet door open to rummage inside.
Geralt made a little face. One that said 'I just ate a lemon and it's pretty damn sour'. Except he didn't eat a lemon at all. "Your mother has atrocious taste!" he commented in a tone that matched the expression all too well. He didn't oppose Corbin’s forced conscription of his sleeve and tagged along just fine with the smaller boy. Keeping up was hardly an issue. No matter how excited the boy might be! He looked over Corbin’s shoulder, watching the boy rummage through the closet silently for a moment, lots of socks in there. Must've had moths. Then he turned to look around the room for other possible hot spots. Rolling the cane between his hands absentmindedly. "Let me know if you find something." he encouraged softly.
Corbin halts immediately, abandoning the rummaging to shove at Geralt right in the chest. “You shut up about my mom!” He glares up at the other boy for only a moment to show he means business before going back to closet searching. Yeah, that’s right. You don’t talk about people’s moms. Jerk. … … … Right! The boy starts throwing partnerless socks and shoes with no laces and a cassette tape and a potted plant out of the closet. “Hey! I found something!” There by the wall next to the floorboard is a strip of leather forming a loop. “Help me pull this.”
Geralt was wide eyed for a moment there but quickly recovered. Suffice to say that particular button was duly noted. Every young boy is fond of their mom aren't they? More importantly, though. This particular young boy had found something worth hiding! Something Geralt certainly found interesting when he leaned in over the child to look down at the leather hoop. "A-ha! Move aside, then." he announce, pulling up his sleeves for no particular reason. He left the gloves on though. They didn't stop him from grabbing onto the leather hoop. He put a foot inside the closet for a good bracing and pulled! Probably far too hard. The door had been stuck. What's to say this hatch wasn't?
Corbin certainly knows when to get out of the way. He gave that loop a tug and there was just nothing doing. Scrawny boys aren’t good for pulling loops anyway. They’re good for getting into small and dangerous spaces! Which is exactly what this is. Probably not a secret passage to a sentient book or anything, but still a passage all the same. The hatch flies open, sending both boys tumbling backwards out of the closet. Just because front doors don’t like to be picked open, doesn’t mean secret hatches mind a tug. “Woah…”
Geralt lost his hat in the fall! When he sat up to look at what'd been revealed, it was with a head full of black hair standing in all directions like a pine tree caught in a storm. "How about that!" he chirped girlishly and climbed to his feet. Pulling Corbin along and reaching for his hat on the floor. "Don't know my own strength!" once he donned the hat, though. It was time to stop wasting about and find out just what they'd found.
Corbin scrambles up to his feet, trying not to look at the crazy -and admittedly a bit scary- hair. “Yah. That was the best ever. I probably loosened it for you. But probably not.” He grins and heads into the closet once more, pretty sure the other boy is going to follow. Turns out that opening leads into a -dundundun!- secret basement! “It is hard to see anything in here.” He squints in the dark as he heads down those wooden stairs that probably should have been mentioned before. “Can you see any-GRAH!” His arms and one leg flail cause a face full of cobweb will turn even the bravest of adventurers into a wailing girl.
Geralt followed closely, mostly looking over Corbin’s shoulder as he came along down the hidden staircase. They didn't make it long, though before Corbin interrupted himself and extended the same courtesy to Geralt. "See wha-AH!?" was all he managed to say before a flailing childs hand slapped him square in the face, disrupting his balance mid-step and sending him tumbling onto the child and down the stairs in a mess of limbs, hats, hair and dust.
Corbin is in no way, shape, or form, a graceful faller. The once silent house is now filled with ahs and oomphs and ows and umphs that don’t stop until the pair reaches the bottom. Pressing a hand to his head, he pushes up with his other hand and groans. “You okay?” He doesn’t really wait for an answer before looking around for… well… Anything, really! It is pitch black down there. The light from the open hatch above not really going down very far considering it is in a closet.
Geralt was mostly alright. And judging from his question, he determined that Corbin was too. So the first thing he did once he'd climbed onto his feet was to feel around for his thing. With no sign of his hat or cane, he muttered something below his breath and reached into his pockets instead. Searching himself. "Oh, nothing I can't handle. Now lets see..." he finally pulled out a box of matches. Surely the tool of many a great hero. Geralt produced a match, however underestimated this intrepid little match might be, and struck it alight. Now comes the good part. Rather than holding it up to spread it's light, he whispered something that looked like sweet nothing to the flame and promptly pinched it between his fingers and pried it loose of the match. He held the fire between his fingers for a moment and threw it ahead of them, sending it sliding through the air until it finally stopped suspended near the ceiling of the hidden basement.
Corbin blinks his eyes back from seeing nothing to seeing something just in time to see Geralt throw that bit of fire. Yes. This is definitely going to be his new best friend. He grins widely without saying a word and then turns to look around the basement. It is mostly dry with walls made out of dirt. There aren’t any shelves or storage containers stacked against a wall. How boring. The previous owners must have taken every-- “Oman a treasure chest!” Well maybe not everything. Corbin pounces it eagerly. “We’re gonna be rich!” He doesn’t claim the chest for his own and he doesn’t expect the other boy to just take the bounty for himself. Shared treasure is best! Right away, he takes out that magic (lock pick) key and shoves it in the lock.
Geralt flicked one or two more match-worths of fire into the air while Corbin appraised the loot. If only he could get to it. When Geralt looked over to the boy and see what he'd found in the chest, he saw him trying to pry the chest open after simply shoving the lock pick in the lock. For a moment there, he looked plenty surprised. And then, after a moment of absolutely not laughing, he came over. "Here. Let me show you how to do that. It doesn't work if you don't do it right." he schooled brotherly and dropped to one knee, wrapping his fingers around the pick. "You sort of... wiggle and twist it until you feel a--" click! Well. That was a lot easier than the door had been. Not the best of treasure chests, was it?
Corbin furrows his brow as he works, poking his little tongue out the corner of his mouth. It isn’t working! But then Geralt helps and dear god is this boy awesome at things! “It is a good thing you had that key! Is it a skeleton key? I didn’t see a skull on it?” He pulls the lock pick out of the lock and squints at it before shrugging and shoving it into his pocket once again. Now! For the booty. Yar! Maybe these people were pirates! He looks into the chest and there is a green bit of fabric in there. Tablecloth? Doily? Doesn’t matter. He pulls it out of the chest anyway and, “Awww… There’s nothing inside but this.” He shakes the cloth and twin shinies clatter to the ground.
Corbin dropped 2 Preklek Special-forces ring.
Geralt looked into the chest at the same time Corbin did. Both their heads popping in over the edge of the chest. Corbin grabbed the loot, however. As is generally the practice when looting. Geralt was just about to climb back onto his feet when the 'shiny' dropped onto the floor. And so, rather than stand up, he leaned in over them. Probably together with Corbin from the opposite direction. Looking down, he picked up a ring of a unfamiliar black metal. He rose back to his feet and held up the ring. "what are these, then?"
Corbin picks his ring up just as Geralt does and holds it up to the magical chandelier of flame in the middle of the room. “Rings, I think. But they’re cool, right? I like them.” He slips his onto a finger. And then another finger. And then another. Damn thing won’t stay on! Oh it fits his thumb. Yay! He gives Geralt a thumbs up sign with the ringed thumb and grins then looks down at the fabrics. It really is nice. Soft. He wouldn’t know, but it is called velvet. Maybe mom would like it. “Do you want half the blanket?”
Geralt shrugged and matched the child. Slipping the ring onto the correct finger. Not the thumb. It was a little large for the older boy. But it at least stayed put in his case. He looked over to Corbin when he asked about the cloth "Huh? Oh, no. Thanks. It'd be a waste to cut it." he kept talking as he stood up straight and resumed the search for his hat and cane. Hopefully the cane, being breathlessly expensive, wasn't broken. The thing was almost irreplaceable
Corbin beams happily as he scoops up the fabrics that just so happen to not be damp or dusty or moldy or gross like basement fabrics tend to be. “Thanks! I think my mom can make something really great with this. She likes fabrics.” He folds the material up in a perfect square. Okok. So he wads it up as small as it can go and tucks it under an arm. “Ready to go? What are you looking for?”
Geralt had spotted the gloriously round shape of his hat over in a corner, and was on his way to retrieve it. "My cane's still missing" he announced with due importance. Planting the hat back on his head where it belonged. On his ensuing search around the room for his wayward cane. He pinched one of the flamed again and sent it sliding up the staircase, throwing some light over the stepped up. Any cobweb that might have been lit on fire had already been removed by Corbin's face.
Corbin makes that face where the mouth looks like D= and helps to look for the cane. He knows what it is like to lose important things and he wouldn’t want his new friend to lose his thing of importance! So he falls to the floor and starts feeling around for something cane shaped. Like a stick, right? “Oh I see it! There under the stairs.” And the small boy does what small boys do best and easily retrieves the cane. “Here you go!”
Geralt shot his arms out in either direction in a gesture of either triumph or affection. Or both "A-ha! There it is! Thank you, Corbin!" he took the cane in the most splendorous manner possible and then used it to point up the stairs. "Let's get out of here. Before the lights go out." if the kid climbed the stairs, so would Geralt. If not.. well. Geralt would anyway. It was dusty and dry down there.
Corbin totally goes up those stairs! Not just because it is dusty and dry, but because that is what Geralt wants to do and -lets face it- Corbin is a bit of a follower. Going up is much easier, and less painful, than going down. Soon enough, he’s in that empty bedroom waiting for Geralt to pop up behind him. “So um. I should probably go home. I live in town. Maybe I’ll see you again?” He surely does hope to have more adventures with this new friend of his!
Geralt stepped out of the stairwell and closed the hatch with a foot in a sort of nonchalant showmanship that no one saw to begin with. "Of course! My name is a synonym of adventure!" he responded, making his voice just a bit deeper than it actually was, smiling at Corbin. "Go get your mother that fancy blanket."
Corbin heads back out to the front door, waving at the other boy. “See ya later, Geralt the Great!” And off he goes. Cause hungry boys are hungry and mom said be home for dinner.