Day 35: Bill's Hardware

[kagurazuki]

[[from here]]

Kagura walked hesitantly into the store, following Leon and trying to remain unobtrusive.  The place was full of stuff she knew nothing about, but she kind of liked the woodsy smell it had.  She did as she'd been told and walked up to the counter, hoping to speak with the large man who worked there.

"Um, hello sir," she said politely

Comments

[scarletspeedstr]

[from here]Wally looked around the small store, noting the aisles of tools and the fact there were a couple of other people here already. They looked like patients, though without the normal smiling logo, he couldn't be sure. He gave a trademark Flash grin to the guy behind the counter as he walked past, taking a wild guess that he was the Bill the sign mentioned

[dawning_dreams]

"Zeppelin...?" Cid muttered as he followed Wally into the store, and while he'd normally be quick to write off the kid's confusion as ignorance to Shin-Ra's newest technological advances, he had a feeling from the 'they still use those?' comment that he was probably from a different world. It figured: that blond kid, Guy, from the other day had been impressed with Cid's know-how, but he couldn't damn well expect everyone to be behind him technologically, could he

[scarletspeedstr]

"So we won't get caught," Wally whispered, winking at Cid. There had to be some way to get something useful out of here and back into the institute without anyone noticing, right? Of course, he'd have to find something useful first.

"Uh, any idea if we could use any of this stuff?" he asked sheepishly. A lot of it just seemed pretty basic and not exactly useful to him, but then he'd never had to use a weapon before, so he wasn't sure what exactly 'useful' would mean. Not to mention that the smell of food from earlier had reawoken his appetite. Swiping something was beginning to take a second place to keeping up with his metabolism.

[dawning_dreams]

Cid took a look at the stuff Wally had grabbed and scratched the back of his head.

"Well..." he said, leaning forward to grab the set of screwdrivers away from the kid and glancing over the range of sizes with a more experienced eye, "kinda depends on what we come across. Against monsters and nurses, sure, y'can't do much with tools but bash in a baddie's brains with a wrench we prolly can't steal anyway, but if we find some electronics or even get to break open the radios..."

He heard a sound from the door and looked up to see someone else enter the shop. If they were going to swipe something, they'd better do it now, before a lot of eyes were on them, so Cid moved to shove the kit under his jacket as soon as the store-owner turned away...

[scarletspeedstr]

Wally blinked as Cid began talking of electronics and radios. It wasn't really his area of expertise, that was for sure. "I can't say that I've got much experience with that," he muttered, feeling a little useless. He brightened. "Though, I might be able to help you out by keeping Bill over there busy..." Though the idea of going to find food was becoming rather tempting.

[dawning_dreams]

Cid had to admit once again that it was nice to have some actual clothes on, if only because they provided more coverage under which to hide stolen goods. He looked at Wally and smirked a little as he nodded. Maybe a kick in the ass was what he needed; he'd become so goddamn cautious at this place that he'd forgotten how good it felt to break rules that needed breaking. Hell, he was Cid Highwind! He wasn't a pansy!

"Yeah, you do the talkin'," he said, turning back towards the items on display in the aisle. He scanned the baskets of tools, trying to figure out which ones he could best put to practical use. After all, he'd be going back to Landel's Institute at the end of the day, not a hangar.

[damned_town]

"Excuse me." Their conversation was interrupted by an unfamiliar voice as what appeared to be the only assistant Perry had at the moment appeared from around the corner. He didn't seem to fit the image of a hardware store worker, dressed up far too nicely beneath the required smock. The name tag, stuck on the sleeve of his shirt as though this was some sort of fashion statement, said 'Roger.'

"Can I help you two men with anything?"

[scarletspeedstr]

Okay, time to put your money where your mouth is, Wally, he thought as the assistant appeared from around the corner. A quick glance at the front of the store showed that a young girl had the owner's attention, so hopefully he'd just have to keep the assistant busy and hope that no one else turned up.

"Can you ever!" Wally said enthusiastically. He grinned hugely and flung an arm around the guy's shoulders. "You see," he glanced down at the name tag, "Roger, I'm thinking of doing so renovating around the home - you know, on that DIY kick? - but I really don't know that much about what kind of tools are the best for the job - besides a hammer and nails I mean - so someone with a bit of insiders info, an expert opinion, would be really great!" As he was talking, Wally began manoeuvring Roger away from Cid and over towards a display of power tools. "Hey! Those look handy, would you mind giving me a demo?"

[officer_leon]

Leon approached the other two, nodding slightly as one of the men guided the store employee away from the potentially useful items. He carefully sidled up next to the remaining man. "You from the Institute too?" he asked under his breath. "Doing a little... shopping?" He glanced around the area, nodding to himself when he spotted several rolls of copper wire. He just needed to figure out how to get some of that into his jacket...

[officer_leon]

After making sure that the staff was occupied, Leon moved over to the copper wire. There was, conveniently, a wire cutter right next to the rolls; probably so shoppers could cut off however much they needed and take it up to the front. This seemed like the kind of town that wasn't supposed to worry about crime much.

Sparing another quick glance around, Leon located a thinner gauge of wire and quickly started unspooling it, getting about four feet before clipping it off. He bent the wire in half, then half again. He kept the wire against his arm, heart pounding, as he casually wandered towards the back of the store. Once there, he glanced down, as though his shoe was untied, and knelt down to "fix" it. While kneeling, he quickly worked the wire up his pant leg, making sure it was safely held by his boot before standing up.