I'm Not Home Right Now, Please Break In and Leave a Message...
[Offscreen, Puz has invited Mlle. Beringer to a leisurely boat-cruise "in the near future".
Puz needs to learn to follow-up his invites much more briskly. Especially ones made to impetuous women.
An Active RP where Cecile sneaks into Puz's house while he's hiding (unbeknownst to her?) at the Brass Embassy. Warning: Secrets abound.]
The faintest stir of air passes by, either a bit of draft from the window, or shock-waves rippling through the time-stream from the moment Puz will return to his desk and read her cheeky note.
Stepping around the desk, Cecile makes her way towards the banister which encloses the open stairwell leading below. Light continues to stream from the sunken well from two gas lamps, silent sentries against tripping & stumbling.
She stops short, though, noticing two things on the floor...
The first are the earlier-mentioned shiny objects, looking a bit the color of brass. Upon closer inspection, they prove to be hollow 2-inch-long cylinders, each open on one end, each bearing a smell the cat-burglar-chemist is instantly able to recognize: sulfur, charcoal, saltpetre... Black Powder. These are shell-casings of some sort. [If Cecile has some sort of background with firearms, you may query for more information].
The second floor-item which draws her attention is the straight line which runs across her path. It seems to have been inked into the floorboard, maybe with the aid of a crude stencil, judging by how straight it is. It is almost in-line with the end of the well-varnished table beside her. The table is bare along the top, and the lacquer is a bit worn along the middle, as if there has been frequent friction upon it.
Further on, past the line, is the mouth of the stairwell. Further on along the west wall are some filing cabinets. On the east wall are some odd wardrobes and shelving units... and just barely visible, a door.
[Investigate? Move? More info? Dennis?]
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Interesting.
But more interestingly, there's a door over there. Could she find his bedroom? Now that would be exciting. But first, this place looks a little suspicious-- she'll have to borrow the chair. A little sacrifice, something her darling won't miss!
"Drawing on the floor! Something we should have learned to stop doing when we turned five. Why would a grown man draw on the floor? Distraction?" She walks around the desk and gets the chair, pulling it behind her and returns to her original spot. Swinging the chair in front of her, she pushes it toward what she thinks might be a trap.
She hesitates a moment. How does Puz get around these rooms? Surely there's a turn off all the annoying things switch somewhere. With a shrug, she pushes the chair in front of her as she walks toward the door.
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The chair moves without a squeak... phenomenally-well-oiled, it glides before Cecile like a stern bodyguard. It passes the line.
Nothing happens.
Chair and cat-burglar pass the opening to the stairs on the left, and the array of cabinets and wardrobes on the right.
Nothing happens.
Now the filing cabinets (and more unlit lamps!) are to their left, and the door is to their right.
Nothing happens.
Leaving the chair between one of the more rough-cut shelving units and a conspicuous shelf of books, Cecile intently examines the door. A sturdy affair, frame and all. Curiously, there are two keyholes underneath the porcelain doorknob. At first glance she can tell that each is designed for a slim key, but one will accept a specimen with longer teeth.
[Your orders? Examine? Act upon? Multiple actions in one turn?]
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"Lucky~" She sings to herself as she spins the chair to sit in it, to peek in the keyholes. Well, that's a bother. Two keys required to unlock the door? She doesn't have enough hands for this! She leans back in the chair and crosses her legs, putting a gloved hand to her chin.
"Two. Deux~ Do I need both to turn at once, or is one a fake? A trap, perhaps? Oh, Monsieur, you do like to make a woman wonder." She spins in the chair a few times before getting up and pulling up her skirts to dig through her pockets.
"I wonder if anyone is home~? I should like to be greeted." She drops down a dark brown paper wrapped brick on the chair. "Or stopped before you lose such a perfect chair, hm?" She smirks and steps back, laughing to herself as she gets more supplies ready. Is this a bomb? Uh oh.
"Let's add some colour." She lights a line sticking out of the brown brick, kicks the chair to the door, then steps back to cover her ears, smiling with her eyes closed.
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BANG! The explosive goes off, splintering chair and door alike.
The chair is no more. The floor escapes the worst of it, though it is singed and smelling of something sharp. And the ceiling? Well, if it leaks, we will know why. But as for the door... half of it swing open gently, missing most of its middle section. The handle -- and both locks -- still hang on stubbornly to the frame, albeit at a downward angle.
Picking up her lamp, Cecile peers within... the explosive was concocted with low-smoke in mind, so there is not much to hamper her visibility, but still the room is very dark. At the edge of her lamp's cone of light sits an identical specimen of the lantern variety, a stool raising it to hip-height. It silently pleads to be lit, so as to reveal the room.
Aside from wooden shrapnel, the rest of the room is as before. No one rushes to stop the... well, after that, we'll not say "cat-burglar". More like, "Adventurer."
[Your Action?]
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Spotting the lamp, the first thing she does is walk over to light it up, so she can glance around the room and see what it contains.
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It's quiet in here, the extra walls cropping put noise one doesn't realize they are listening to through an open window. The Lantern flares to life. As Cecile trims the wick to a controlled burn, she takes two steps in, and looks around.
Not a large room. To her Right, a curtain rod spans the gap between the East and West walls, its passenger curtain bunched up on the far side of the track. It once veiled a rack made of wires of various gauges; some handwritten letters are clothes-pinned to this rack (again, none addressed from-or to-Puz). the entire apparatus sits before a set of small rails, some of which have sheets slotted between them. The sheets glimmer with brass light in the lanterns' glow.
On the South side of the room sits what, at first glance, is the miniature of the classic Greek Amphitheater. Each succeeding row rises above the previous. Each is backed with a silvery metal polished to an (less than-) mirror finish. And in each row are Foxfire candles at different stages of consumption.
[Further investigate? Extrapolate/Exposition? Write your thoughts? Set the house on fire?]
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The amphitheatre miniature catches her attention immediately. Why would he have such a tiny little theatre? And these walls-- she has found the most interesting room. Does it play music?
Only poking it will let her know.
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The walls are solidly built (for run-of-the-mill slat-n'-daub stuff) and seem to have some sort of coating on them. Cecile might recognize this as a sort of flame-retardant chemical... or rather, 5 layers' worth of some flame-retardant chemical. And soot, rather a lot of it, on the south side of the room.
The miniature 'amphitheater', its 'seats' each home to a foxfire candle, seems to be facing north towards the unusual racks and the curtain. The backing of each aisle, reflective but not a clear mirror, is soot-free; someone must be keeping the contraption quite clean, for whatever reason. Though its back area ('under the bleachers', so to speak) is hollow, Cecile finds no hidden items or traps there.
As for the curtain across the room... it seems to be made of flame-retardant. Many fabrics in storage become musty, even moldy: this specimen bears no sign of mold, probably because mold would never dare to grow on it... the curtain manages to be crusty and tacky to the touch all at the same time. The sensation of feeling the fabric causes Cecile's mind to reel for a brief, terrible moment. Perhaps this is why the contraption seems to be drawn across the rail via a pulley next to the door.
The racks... the first, made of haphazardly-strung thin wires and twine, bears letters. None are to-do lists, or in Puz's hand. They are cool to the touch, having been here in the quiet for some time. Something about teeth negotiating with devils and bishops. Another is about a rag-tag shroud. None of them make any sense.
The second rack, which defines the North end of the room, is much more sturdy, rigidly built out of small slotted-rails. The few panels in place radiate warmth -- she immediately knows them to be formed of Nevercold Brass. Each panel is set directly behind a letter. And each panel has been embossed with the exact script of the letter dangling before it.
Cecile has not tripped any traps. The light of the two lanterns burn as normal; they both seem well-supplied with fuel. Nothing stirs in the room. The house is quiet.
[Your orders? Examine in more detail? Leave room and head to next item of interest? Take items? Leave items?]
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She is confused by this whole thing. Does Monsieur Puz have a bigger secret that anyone could have guessed? Her thoughts of collecting valuable secrets and selling them for wealth is quickly shoved aside as her own curiosity kicks in. She makes note of the interesting things -- the fabric which caused weird feelings, the racks, the wires, the weird letters about teeth and devils.
She observes and walks a little bit around the room, wondering if she should try to use something or return later. It could be dangerous, she doesn't want to burn her hands quite yet -- this is risky! Risky Curiousity!
She folds her arms and decides to definitely return on her way out, steps through the destroyed door, then steps out to look for a nearby room or a set of stairs.
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A few steps beyond the small room's door Cecile is between a line of filing cabinets and stars leading down. In the lantern's light she can make out semi-ordered piles of paper on the cabinets, as well as some unlit lanterns. In the distance on her right she can make out something in the darkness... something round, about the side of an urchin. That, and more darkness due East.
To her left, the stairwell is bright with gas-light; it is a steep flight, but not as narrow as one might expect from an attic stair.
The rest of the room is as before.
[?]
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Maybe.
Second plan: Poke that round thing.
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Cecile moves Northward, following the row of filing cabinets on the Western wall, lighting their lanterns set amidst piles of paper, a single shelf of books and a half-eaten sandwich.
The additional light allows her to examine most of the North side of this floor now. The cabinets are not labeled; most likely, Puz has either memorized the location of necessary files, or has a master-file list somewhere.
Cecile might recognize the round thing (from either personal encounter or from description) as closely-resembling an archery target. The round thing is painted like such a target, and is rather thick, like such a target. However, most archery targets do not have a heavy metal backing, nor are they riddled with rifle rounds. (The wall behind the target has a few bullet-holes, as well, but only a few).
To the East, at the edge of the light, stands a short row of filing cabinets, with some newspapers & one unlit lantern atop them. They do not glint and shine in the glow like the cabinets she has passed... they seem dull with dust.
The stairwell remains well lit and still. No indication of potential company.
[What would you like to do? Specific actions might include: Examine the West-wall filing cabinets, Examine the books on the shelf, Examine the loose papers, Eat the sandwich, Use the target, Head downstairs, Extinguish the Lanterns, Head East.]
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"Quite a businessman, I see." She considers going to look, and she walks over to peek at the books on the shelf, but she has no desire to read any unless they are an odd topic. However, cabinets are a must see.
The sandwich... she'll see how hungry she is on her way to the stairs.
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First and foremost, unless Cecile is dying of hunger, this sandwich (of a flavor bordering on putrid) will be quite to her disliking... further evidence that Puz has not been in the house for at least a week.
As for the books, many of their spines contain titles using the word "Cypher" or "Code" or "Cryptology/Cryptography". One or two even have the word "French" upon them! It seems that Mr. Puz keeps abreast of the trends in secret messaging. For whatever reason.
As for the western filing cabinets, they are, most likely to Cecile's disappointment, more than half-empty. Some do have interesting files, though... title things like "RING" and "CRIMSON CIRCLE", with sub-files within them bearing names like "SCARLET" and "ATTFORD" and "FNORD" and "BERINGER"...
The target silently bears her business card spot-on the mark; the eastern cabinets are still east; the stairwell is still courteously lit. And the sandwich is starting to smell.
[Your preferences?]
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She looks around, touching.
Oh. The books can be ignored but those files. She pulls them out, one by one, and squats down on the floor (something in her skirts clank when she settles). Interesting names and titles, but the one she aims for first is her own file.
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