01: A thought (voice: TheOtter)

[of_bokthersa]

I find it interesting that ever so suddenly things are beginning to become unraveled. Suddenly, once people who are new and different arrive. Perhaps I've been around nobles too long, but it seems to me as if someone was waiting for just this moment to do whatever it is that they're doing.

The local's darker turn is interesting too. It takes a good bit of charisma to cause so many to defend one's honor so. I'm certain I could never do it. And yet, forgoing coin out of loyalty, or so one would suspect. After all, to many a merchant, coin is coin no matter who is offering it.

It should be very interesting to see where things go from here.

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[of_bokthersa]

[There was a horrifying moment where Seregil thought to pull Alec down and bring their lips together; to feel the curve of the other man's neck with his fingers as Seregil them in the hair at the base of his neck.

He squashed the thought by turning to look at the toaster and its silver reflective surface.

It wasn't Alec's fault; he reminded himself; Alec was doing nothing that hadn't been ordinary and natural just days before. They'd always had a type of intimacy about them that was their own, and everything had been perfectly fine there. There had been issues, of course, but those were his own. They were the fancies of a man who fell too quickly and too deeply for another man who he could never reach in that way. And he didn't want to. At least that's what he kept telling himself that he was fine so long as he had a place, somewhere, in Alec's heart.

But since their meeting here there was a pull. It was as if Alec were carefully untying the strings that held his heart at bay. The old reminders were starting not to be enough - every time Alec called him his talí, his beloved, a string came undone and it took more force to put it back in place.]

I've spoken with Max; he's the one who runs that black market of theirs.

[He carefully kept his voice even, casual almost.]

It's possible he'll be asking about night work.

[whiteroadrunning]

That would be lovely! Provided there are no biometric locks involved. Something to keep us busy.

[As if they weren't busy already. Simply trying to figure this place out was work, and Alec wasn't entirely comfortable with the idea of burgling anything he didn't fully understand. Seregil had only himself to blame for that, too; he'd set Alec to task on locks so often, it instilled something like a compulsion in the boy. He had to learn it, practice it, master it, before he put it into practical use.

But the appliance was whole once more. At least, Alec assumed it was. There were no wayward parts on the bed, and he had a fairly deft memory, so of it functioned before, it should function again.

Alec eyed their dressers, and gave Seregil's knee a light squeeze as he rolled out of their bed and made way to kneel before his own drawers.]

Come on, there has to be more than one way into these things. Maybe we can interrupt or bypass what's powering them. We can figure it out between the two of us.

[of_bokthersa]

We'll have to figure them out eventually.

[The truth was that they didn't. They could live without nightrunning here - but who would want to? Since Skala and becoming a Watcher it had become more a part of who he was. The danger and adventure were as much what kept him going as the blood in his veins.

The squeezing of his knee was a surprise, and it brought him up a bit too quickly, eyeing Alec with a measured look before it was gone.]

You sound like you have more knowledge about these things than me these days.

[whiteroadrunning]

Hardly, and I've only you to thank for what I do know. And if one course of action doesn't work, there's always another way to go about it.

[Alec offered Seregil a soft smile and then turned his attention to the dresser.]

Their reliance on electric could be a boon, in fact. We may not get anywhere while the locks are being powered, but perhaps cutting the electric would give us a way to open them manually. It's too much to hope that disabling the power would open them for us immediately, but...

[It was just musing while Alec pondered the mechanism, jamming his nails into the openings and tugging, trying to find some leeway for tools. Even if they had to make new kits for this nonsense, figuring a way in seemed the most important first step.]

You didn't happen to find picks in that black market of yours, did you?

[of_bokthersa]

I didn't see a power source to speak of.

[There's a part of him that's a bit concerned that this is one lock they can't pick. Before Alec arrived, he'd tried everything with his. Nothing managed to work.

Still, he would let Alec work with it a while and see what came up. It would give him a reprieve from the thoughts haunting him regarding the other man.

He tossed him his roll, the same one that Alec would recognize from home. After all, he didn't leave the house without it (even when going to the Street of Lights), so it had been on his person when he'd arrived.]

From what I can gather they seem rather impregnable. A damned nuisance if you ask me.


[Only because he couldn't get into them. Though he couldn't say he wasn't impressed.]