Crowning Achievements

[subconmodo]

WHO: Avery Atchison, Jailbreak, Goro Akechi, Bendy, Maya Matlin, Puella Tempus, Ekkehardt Gehring, Héctor, Gunvolt
WHAT:WHEN: May 21
WHERE: A museum in Germany
WARNINGS: Will update as needed.


For all the high tech security the museum is said to house, the building itself is very old--the sort of outside and inside one would come to expect from a museum, really: tall columns, marble floors, high ceilings, even a few dinosaur exhibits here and there.

This late at night one might expect the guards to be a half step away from sleep, but they're wide awake and professional, if currently a little bored.

The mission is simple in theory: grab the crown and shackles, replace them with fakes, and get out. But between all the shiny, magical distractions to be found and a rival group of professional thief mages, things might get tricky.

Comments

Pre-Mission

[subconmodo]

[Pre-mission planning and prep goes here!]

Will Match Format

[lastexit]

Maya wasn't much for art, history she was good with. She liked knowing the everything was as dour and hopeless in the past as it was in the present. An oddly comforting idea that everyone has that suffering in their life. So as much as it wasn't why she was here, she did look at displays and little cards explaining ancient art and old items of people long dead.

Or potentially not given how many people at the school were older than time and that's weird to get used to.

But it wasn't why she was here. She looked like a normal person, and she could figure out where 'interesting' items were by simply hearing them through the museum. She was the most obvious choice to case the museum before they came back later.

People milling about filled the space with noise, but magic was always a little louder than life. She had to stop and refocus her mind, the constant noise of people, new people she was unused to, did take a toll on her, but she took it in stride, enjoy a trip to the museum. Staring at a painting of a woman who looked so sad, and was either a faerie or dead for a century. Either way- the painter captured a hint of sadness to her that Maya just-

She just understood.

[spelleton]

Ekkehardt is supervising, but generally letting Maya take the lead on this one. It's important for her to have some sense of responsibility, especially since this mission is a rare opportunity for her to use what she's best at, rather than uncomfortably branching out into things she has little experience with.

He gives the painting a brief glance, not much more than that. By the look on Maya's face, she's found something to relate to in it - not a bad thing.

"Are you just appreciating fine art, or have you found something interesting?" It's a question with a slight hook to it, but only a little. If she prefers not to answer, it's all the same to him.

Night at the Museum

[subconmodo]

[Catch-all category for sneaking in and finding other goodies for characters to see and/or appropriate. Feel free to have characters react to the crown and shackles here if they would have a reaction at all, but the theft itself should go to the appropriate section.

Feel free to have it out with one or two of the mages here too, but the majority of the battle with them should be kept to the theft.

A list of non-target displays can be found here. Please feel free to add to it, even if you aren't participating in the mission directly.]

Will match format

[subconmodo]

He's been in a sour mood the whole mission. Eerily quiet. Murderous. And though it might seem strange at first (this is, after all, the perfect time to sow a little confusion and chaos in between breaking a few laws), the reason becomes clear once they come into view of the target display.

Or, rather, in view of the portrait displayed proudly within it.

Avery's face is blank, cold, as he stares down the happy couple, one hand squeezed tight around the hilt of a knife he isn't holding.

It's like someone's skinned him alive and left the meat on display.

Sickening.

[unpocoloco]

He understands on a simply human level, the people who set this up, who run this museum, they're not thinking about it beyond the historical. They're thinking people long dead, stories lost to be revived, showing the mistakes of the past to help the future.

But Avery isn't dead. No matter how long passed, it's not long enough. At the sight of the painting, his stomach flips. He would've put two and two together if he hadn't seen Avery young. He might have put it together just from the tales he's been told or even the way Avery is now. Altogether it takes nothing at all.

He reaches for Avery's wrist at first, an instinct to stop him and not to cross a line with the man in the very same instance. But he stops himself. He remembers the scars. As for himself, he'll just take the risk. The worst thing that happens is a little pain.

He puts his hand carefully over Avery's tightly held fist. He doesn't say anything. Whether Avery meets his eyes or not he nods. He knows what he's going to do.

Stepping forward, he yanks the portrait off the wall.

[hattersgonnahat]

[Quite eerie. One could even say a quiet Avery was even more scary than a loud, threatening one.]

[But Puella can't understand why he was just standing there looking at a painting. While he does seem to get moody at a lot of things, inanimate ones were usually...well...]

[Okay, wait... She squinted at the portrait some more right next to him. Something about it was a little bit...]

[She glanced at Avery for a second then right back at it.] ...It looks kinda like you.

[Sort of, anyway. There was a number of things off, but the resemblance was a little uncanny for it being a really old painting.]

i'll match you!

[spelleton]

A.

Ekkehardt is cat-quiet (quieter, since cats can sometimes knock things over and he makes sure to plan his paths so it doesn't happen) as he makes his way through the museum. He navigates through guard patrols and past various obstacles like a shadow, leaving no traces of his presence and hardly any noise. He's silent as the grave, and clearly in his element (questionable in itself).

If he catches people eyeing something they shouldn't, though, he'll speak.

"Stay on task," he says, briskly. "We're not here to sightsee. Save that for daylight hours."

B.

[ Out of all the exhibits displayed in the museum, there's one room he thoroughly avoids. Even if it means his route becomes longer and thus more inefficient, he gives it a wide and noticeable berth.

Checking the room will reveal a display of various historic torture devices, tools behind glass and larger implements behind barriers, laid out with neat explanations as to what they were used for. ]

B

[unpocoloco]

[He's no knowledgeable historian. He doesn't have any fancy schooling or even any particular wealth of knowledge besides the musical. He's just a man who likes history, who finds home with the old and a sense of connection he's always lacked except with things and stories even older. This place draws him in, even with the security guards he's got to dodge by every ten or so minutes. The security in this place is crazy. Though he guesses they are, probably, the reason why that is.

He's making his way okay but he's definitely not one of the more... professional individuals here. Like Ekkehardt! He feels a little bad ruining the man's stealth somewhat but following after someone who knows what they're doing seems the better option than getting caught and ruining it for all of them. He trails behind, not expecting Ekkehardt to be interested in conversation right now and not trying to engage in it.

At least until they skip a shortcut to take the long route. Not just that, but he swerves wide. Héctor blinks and follows without a glance at that room.]

Uh... Ekkehardt? Is everything okay? There some kind of camera back there or something? What just...

Will Match Format

[lastexit]

Maya's somewhere between 'too professional' in her attire or 'silly superhero.' Depending on how you view the dark gray catsuit with the owl-featured mask. But when someone makes you a stealth suit, complete with all the toys and tools one might need for spying and stealing... you use it.

It would be rude not to. Plus covering your face while you crime is perfectly reasonable!

She isn't invisible as she moves around the museum for the moment. Only activating that trait of her attire when she senses a guard coming near. Listening to the sounds of several more items declaring their power in the air than just the two items they're after. Trying to place names and identities to what is drawing her attention, in case maybe they need to take a few other items from the museum.

If anything sounds dangerous, that is. Right now she's drifting toward the storage rooms, a space to research the artifacts outside of the prying eyes of museum patrons.

[unpocoloco]

Héctor didn't come with a disguise-- mostly out of being told that his were Too Much. That was fine, he guessed. There were plenty of combat oriented people here and one knocked out guard is all he needs to borrow a disguise. Sorry Señor Leon, it was for a good cause. Ish.

Fixing the hat firmer on his head, he glances around and steps on out from the supply closet. The key card is nice feature to all this. It lets him in to places a lot quicker than the regular visitor paths do.

It's hard not to be a little distracted by all this history but he mostly manages to stay on task, even here in the storage room. But a skeleton all stood up like that by the wall and encased in glass? For that, he has to stop and step back, a weird feeling in him as he lifts off his hat and tilts it at the corpse. "Rest well, mi amigo."

Now, what else was in here...

Will match format, much like the others.

[shockingblue]

The museum had been sufficiently cased, and unfortunately, infiltration of it proved to be a challenge. Not packing invisibility or any related magic, Gunvolt had to slip in the hard way. Which... well, went smooth enough. The young boy exhibits a surprising amount of competence and confidence in so doing; GV cautiously checked his corners, kept a low profile, and maintained situational awareness, checking over his shoulder and keeping an eye peeled above for security cameras and motion detectors.

His first mission was to get into position to reach a specific part of the museum where he could safely overload the security system, allowing for maximum coverage without arousing suspicion. Gunvolt checked another corner, and looked back over his shoulder to his partner (or partners) and nodded, motioning to the next doorway, leading into another exhibit, toward their target: a utility closet.

Of course, as they sneak through the Roman exhibit, one of the artifacts, a pair of strange boots, began to glow as they moved past. ...Enough to catch their attention.

"...Pretty sure that's not normal."

[lastexit]

Rex had made Maya's suit with a number of cameras and the mask could augment her vision in a few useful ways. Sending her along while the security system was up and running was just practical. On top of her innate supernatural senses. Of course, she's invisible, so Gunvolt trying to look at her was a dubious call. She had a slight shimmer, a distortion around her in light. But a dark museum- not a ton of light to spot her.

"Well, it's magic. Not sure what it does unless I listen a little while." Maya's stopped to look at it, but with the security still on she can't get closer to really listen to what they have to say. "But I can hear it easy enough. They didn't react like that while I was here... they sound a little louder."

I'll match you

[littledevildarling]

Bendy was really excited. He rarely got to leave the Academy due to his obvious inability to blend in with regular society and usually when he did get to leave it was to the outlands so he'd never been to a museum before. Even more importantly, they were here to steal stuff, like they were master thieves or something!

... Okay, they were gonna replace the artifacts with fakes and it was only because they were magical artifacts that some bad guy might try to nab themselves, but it was still the berries to Bendy. Abd it wasn't like he wanted to be a thief for real or anything.

He might be getting a bit distracted wandering around looking at things, though. Hey, he's never been to a museum before.

[spelleton]

He sees Bendy wandering the academy's halls on a regular basis, and he knows enough about him now to understand why that's the case. It makes him a little more lenient with his obvious distraction than he would be for someone else who'd been able to experience the world beyond the Outlands.

"Is there anything here that particularly interests you?"

He won't mind explaining, if that's the case. But he has no idea what he's seen, or what he hasn't; he's too busy, most of the time, to engage in talking to individual students on campus for more than brief periods.

Will Match!

[hattersgonnahat]

[A - STEALTH MISSION!!]

[As soon as the students were unleashed onto the museum, Puella was no where to be found. Already she was snooping around for anything of interest - and if she could find those alleged items to replace before anyone else, that would also be awesome too. It's the only time she's done something like this so she wanted to enjoy it as much as possible.]

[That also includes playing tricks on some of the guards. This wasn't like the school where Puella knew where all the passages were, but there was enough small or high places to hide in. A guard might catch moment in the corner of their eye and suddenly whatever it was was gone. Perhaps they just imagined it.]

[This would go on for awhile until sooner or later she bumps into the rest of the class again.]


[B - That really doesn't belong in a museum]

[Once the crown and shackles had been replaced, and it was getting about time to leave, Puella walked past one particular display of more excavated artifacts. She had only decided to glance at them with mild interest. But then, suddenly something in that case made her want to stop and go back.]

[She...must have not seen that right.]

[Upon closer inspection - which in this case meant pressing up all the way against the glass - Puella could definitely see some sort of hourglass in there. And not just any ordinary one, though it has seen plenty of wear, but it had the same sort of pattern as the one she had. The little carved hats were no mistake.]

[But how? Only her mom and dad made hourglasses like that. She had never seen one that looked this old before. Puella pouted. How on Earth did it even get in here?]

[Before long, Puella was latching on to the glass case, intending to break in somehow. Given that others had probably already gotten their own souvenirs from this trip, it only seemed fair enough.]

B

[spelleton]

[ He keeps one eye on Puella, but otherwise leaves her to her own devices until she starts doing....that.

He can't, in good conscience, tell her to just leave it and continue on - several of the others, both students and faculty, had their own items to grab.

And it's hardly the worst crime he's committed in service of a child. ]

What seems to be the problem, miss Tempus?

A

[unpocoloco]

His first plan was that of a beautiful aristocratic woman visiting in on the museum from a distant land. In lieu of that, after a reluctantly relenting to Jailbreak's insistence that it was a bad idea, he'd picked up one of the guards knocked out by another of their group. Dragging him into the storage room, unconscious Señor Leon received copious apologies that would do nothing to fix his situation when he awoke. But oh well. He had a disguise now and maybe one that wouldn't be half bad.

Except someone was definitely messing around with him. He heard something just now. He's sure of it... He walks on just a little longer, pretending he doesn't hear it. Then spins, shining Leon's flashlight. "Ah-ha!"

Mission: Complicated

[subconmodo]

[Actual theft of target here. The rival thieves will be showing up in force here.

Please see this comment in the planning thread for more info.]

[lastexit]

Maya was the best choice of look out, while people who actually stole things for a living did the stealing. She could hear trouble before it got near enough to be trouble. Her range wasn't perfect, some parts of the museum were too far for her to hear. So guards would drift in and out of her perception and that was fine.

New sounds, new sounds were a problem. That was what she was looking out for.

One of the guards had drifted into her field of hearing and she heard two new sounds, new people here. That weren't any of the guards she already clocked. Followed by a snapping noise. Louder, magic is always louder than people. The guard's noise was still in her field but it wasn't moving. "Guys..."

The new sounds were moving this way, carefully sure. But they hadn't changed direction. "I think there's trouble."

[subconmodo]

Avery turns around to scan their surroundings, eyes narrowed, and sure enough there are three souls, practically soaked in magic, making their way towards them.

"Wonderful. Competition."

Although... maybe it is wonderful. He'd been discouraged from doing anything to the guards, but no one said anything about hurting these guys, did they?

"Do what it takes to made sure we leave here with our prize. If you have to hurt them in the process? Do it. I know I will."

The Rebound

[subconmodo]

[Post-mission decompression here.

Wanting to try out your new toy? Trying to stop one of your teachers from burning down a museum? Dealing with a few injuries? Got juicy gossip?

Bring it in here!]

[nor_iron_bars]

[Mission's successful, everyone's out of the museum with the things they wanted and without any fatalities, and Jail is turning around to address the group:]

Okay, hands up everyone who can fake being old enough to drink.

[Honestly, probably no one is surprised.]

'Cause it has been a day and I wanna hit the bar.

[hattersgonnahat]

Um...I don't think I can, but that should be fine. I got in once before!

[Should she really be saying that aloud?]

[lastexit]

*Maya's at least putting a jacket on over her owl suit, and taking off her mask. She won't appear as 'standoutish' anymore, although she's not having much luck dealing with hood hair. She can pass for normal enough in the dark, but if she goes into a place where anyone tries to talk to her, the 'definitely just robbed a museum' catsuit will sell her out a bit.*

Pass, as much fun as that'd be, I'd need to get out of this get-up, and I'm not putting on pants again tonight.

*Look, she's tired and can drink later.*