damned_institute | Day 28: Bill's Hardware

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Day 28: Bill's Hardware

[ from here ]

Could Nami be acting any more natural? Could her smile be any more confident?

Perhaps, although she'd done this what seemed like thousands of times, on her way to make the millions of beli she needed to free her town. And while pirates were her usual targets, stealing pirates' booty held with it the threat of death. Here? The worst that would happen to them was a scolding look and a mild sedation. Nothing big, right..?

..Unless they took her and made her do the things that Luffy had been forced to do. That wouldn't be very fun.

Still, she was going to undertake this job with the utmost professionalism; just because they were on a different planet didn't mean that she would stop stealing things like she meant it.

Nami let herself into the store as if she were a regular. She looked around slowly - at first glance it seemed that it was a normal hardware store. Maybe with a bit better technology, but she could certainly deal with that.

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Luffy had wanted to say that, no he wouldn't call Nami "Monkey Lady" because Monkey was his name. Seeing that there wasn't any reason to call him "Cats," Luffy had just assumed the nurse was obsessed with those kinds of animals. It made perfect sense in his head.

But then they were making their way towards the hardware store, and Luffy felt another thrilling jolt at the prospect of doing something so daring. He was all smiles when they entered the shop, but it wasn't because he was trying to act confident. He was honestly happy about what was about to take place.

Nami, was of course, as sure of herself as always. That was his navigator. For a moment, Luffy couldn't help but be vaguely reminded of the time they'd plotted to steal all that gold on Skypiea together, and he only grinned wider.

Man, this was gonna be awesome.

Forget that he didn't have a clue of what he was going to do when the time for him to act came. He'd cross that bridge when he got to it!

No sooner had Luffy and Nami walked into the store when some other people she recognized as fellow patients followed them in. They could have been twins, with how similar they looked - and twins played tricks.

Oh, it looked like these two had the same idea as they did~

She looked back at Luffy for a moment and mouthed Wait. Then she eyed the two guys, hoping her captain would follow her gaze. Maybe they wouldn't have to create a distraction after all - these guys could do it for them.

Could this heist be any easier? All Nami would have to do was play the part of a concerned fellow patient.. Ooh, she could build rapport with the nurses and the townspeople and get a load of fat loot at the exact same time.

In the meantime, the navigator creased her eyebrows and moved into the same aisle as the two brown-haired young men, eying them, then taking a look at some of the wares. Copper wire, hmm? Interesting~

She turned back to Luffy for a moment, making pleasant conversation while keeping an ear out for the other two patients as well. "It doesn't really look like a normal town, you know? All these pumpkins everywhere.."

Luffy was rather confused when Nami told him to hold off. They'd already made their plan, right? Why wait? But then he followed his navigator's gaze over to the two guys, and his eyes lit up in understanding. Well...partial-understanding, anyway. The pirate wasn't exactly sure if Nami considered them potential victims, or if they were in their way, or what.

Either way, Luffy had at least some idea of what to do for now, and that was what really mattered. He didn't even really bat an eye as the orange-haired girl suddenly made small talk with him.

"Must be a pumpkin town," he declared simply. "Pumpkins are actually really tasty, you know! You think they have pumpkin pies for sale at that restaurant?" Man, that would be the perfect way to celebrate the end of a successful treasure hunt!

Nami made a mental note of the copper wire: it was loose on a spool, in a way it could quite easily be cut. Copper wire was endlessly useful; it was nearly invisible in the dark, could be used as a garrote, a trip wire, a - well. Usopp would thank her, most probably, but she was planning on keeping quite a bit of it for herself, if she was successful. Which she would be.

The best thing about a thin copper wire was that quite a bit could fit wherever she put it.

"Quite possibly," she was replying to Luffy, as if rather interested in what he was saying. "I'm about through poking around town for now anyway. It's kind of boring, don't you think? Even with all the pumpkins. We'll go for lunch soon." Sorry, Luffy, she was really saying. Sure, small talk isn't very fun, but we'll have to do a little bit more before we're through...

And these guys? Amateurs. One was pulling the I'm a cute little boy, no one would other suspect me act and the other had embraced I am this guy's big, bad boyfriend charade. Nami pretended not to notice neither them nor their acts; instead she looked amused at nothing in particular, then she looked around as if she was almost dazed. Two nurses here. This won't be too difficult...

It would be any minute before one of the chestnut-haired youngsters decided he was going to swipe something, and then everything would unfold. How did the navigator know they were going to steal something? Elite pirate skills. Or maybe the way the boys were whispering to each other had tipped her off, and their sudden act? Yeahhhh.

It was just so terribly obvious.

Luffy had to admit he'd rather just get the show on the road, cause the distraction, grab the stuff, and make a run for it. But Nami always seemed to know what she was doing, and he wasn't about to go crushing her plans on purpose. (That usually resulted in less stuff and a punch in the face, and Luffy didn't exactly want either of that.)

So, all he had to do was chat with Nami, which was easy enough. It gave him something to do, at least. He was sure things would fall into place! Right now, the pirate was unaware of what was running through Nami's mind, but that didn't bother him. She probably had things covered. He just needed to listen for the Super Secret Code!

"Yeah, I guess it's kind of boring," Luffy admitted. "It'd be a lot more fun if I were eating something, though! I can't wait for lunch. Do you know what that Tasty Burger stuff is about? With a name like that, the food they've got has to be delicious, right?"

"It sounds like bait, quite honestly," Nami said quietly. "Tasty Burger? That simply doesn't seem for a restaurant." Tasty Burger. What a name. Sanji would have said that the food should speak for itself and that such a label was probably them trying to convince the populace that the burger was, indeed, tasty. And for once, his words were seeming to ring true in her ears.

Pub and Pies, at least, didn't try to pull a fast one on them. It was a pub that also sold pies. No more, no less.

"I was thinking Twin Pines, though."

That was when Omi caused the distraction and shoddily pocketed the screws, and Nami had to raise her eyebrow at that. She raised her voice loud enough to get the boy's attention. "You're doing it wrong," she murmured.

It looked like they hadn't screwed up her plan too badly, though with a few more moves like that they'd all be in deep trouble.

The navigator took a step to the right, brushing the side of her chin with her fingers and taking a look at the hammers that were so conveniently beside the screws and the wire. "Wonder how much this hammer costs..?"

Nami took a deep breath, steadying herself. She'd have to work quickly.

Luffy didn't see anything wrong with the name "Tasty Burger". If he had his own burger joint, that's pretty much what he'd call it. It was short, sweet, and to the point. What else did anyone need to know other than the fact they served burgers that were tasty? Any other name would just be a waste of time, right?

Though, if Nami had brought it up, he would have been forced to admit "Pub and Pies" wasn't half-bad either. Definitely better than something like Twin Pines.

The pirate paid no mind to the other two boys who were obviously stealing stuff. He'd leave those details to Nami. The only thing he knew was that if they got in their way, he wouldn't bat an eye at pushing if things came to shoving. They were pirates, after all! Plus, they'd gotten here first, so fair was far, right?

Once Luffy heard the Super-special Codeword, however, he straightened up, grinning widely. Yes! Time for a distraction! But what was he going to do? Hmm, he could pretend he was dying of starvation, or that maybe he really was crazy and obsessed with cats, or maybe--!

Eyes lit up with excitement, he was about to make his way over to the counter for The Distraction when his shoulder knocked against one of the shelves. In a split second, it shuddered, sending all sorts of wares spilling across the floor.

"W-woah!" Luffy stepped back, but his foot fell upon a loose nail. Shrieking, he jumped up, clutching his foot until his back hit another shelf. More things spilled onto the floor, throwing Luffy into a terrible, vicious cycle. "Woah woah woah!"

If there was any doubt, that was doing it right.

In fact, that was doing it perfectly.

Nami moved quickly and easily as soon as the distraction started. It was louder than she'd expected, even though it was Luffy and that was the norm with him. But she didn't flinch, even when her captain ended up with a nail in his foot. In fact, she was reacting perfectly naturally, turning her head in horror and everything.

Simultaneously, though, she was unwinding a good amount - about five feet - of copper wire off the spool, and cutting it in an easy motion. After it had been wrapped around her hand enough times, she clasped her hand to her chest in terror, slipping the wad of wire inside her shirt. She'd secure it later, but this would do for now.

Nurses were starting to crowd around Luffy, and the store clerk had even looked up in horror, as if to say What the hell are you doing to my store?! But Nami kept working, even finding a little pocket wrench that made it into the pocket of her hooded sweatshirt before she grabbed Luffy by the hood of his sweatshirt and started dragging him back out the door.

"He'll be fiiine," she was explaining to the nurses, waving them off all of a sudden as she dragged him outside. "Terribly, terribly sorry, I can't ever take him anywhere, he makes such a racket. Timothy, let's get out of here before you make any more of a fool of me today." She waved off the nurses again in her mad dash to drag Luffy toward the exit. She was even blushing. As if she were embarrassed by the charade! Ha~

[ to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/245151.html?thread=18048927#t18048927) ]

Strolling into 'Bill's Hardware', the first thing Duo did was make a discreet check for security. No cameras, that was a good sign. It meant at the very least that it was a plausible heist.

Duo took his time making his way towards a less obvious section of the store, picking at things and pausing to consider, making a good act of browsing the merchandise. Once he was sure that no one was in earshot, he glanced over to Omi.

"See anything you like?"

Omi, on the other hand, looked every bit the bored friend being dragged around to a store he couldn't care less about. He glanced around the store, taking in every detail while appearing to look for anything at all that might catch his interest.

"Not yet. Still looking. You?" He kept his voice low and disinterested, not wanting to draw attention to the conversation. Now, he just had to figure out a good reason to start the distraction. Boredom? Well, it certainly worked as an excuse for Yohji and Ken...

"There's a few interesting things," Duo replied with a shrug. It was a pain to restrain himself to palm-sized items or smaller. Back in the day, he'd grabbed whatever he could carry and ran like hell to lose his pursuers. That method didn't quite work in this place, though.

Still idly browsing, he picked up a pack of screws to examine them. They had potential, as did the small replaceable saw blades he could see hanging further down the aisle. As soon as Omi made his move, Duo was fully prepared to set to work.

He was about to make his move when he caught the girl watching them. He didn't like people paying too close attention to him in the first place, if he could help it, but during a mission, even an unofficial one, it made his hackles rise.

He edged closer to Duo, outwardly timid and very, very guileless, and openly watching the other pair in return. Everything about him said 'look, I'm cute and scared and you wouldn't want to make it worse, right?' He waited till her attention was nominally elsewhere before muttering under his breath to Duo, "Might have trouble."

Duo didn't need Omi's warning to make his gaze flicker briefly over towards the other person when she entered his aisle. It would be stupid to knick anything in plain sight of someone else, even if they were only another patient. It was a low blow to rat out another person who was just as needy, simply for your own benefit. Not that Duo wouldn't have done it himself if given the chance, but at least not to a girl. Unless she gave him reason to.

"Already noted," Duo muttered back, looking at Omi. He'd have to play along. He gave the boy a worried look before following that gaze to the woman and her friend. If Omi looked cute and timid, Duo took the protective role, his frown a clear sign to the woman that any blatant attention was unwanted and she should avoid watching them.

If that wasn't enough to make her go away, Duo was fully prepared to take Omi's hand and lead him to another aisle. There were always other things he could grab first.

Dammit, this wasn't going to work. Maybe...

He shot Duo a quick look that said 'please, just trust me.' Hopefully Duo'd be able to talk fast enough to keep himself out of the fallout of all this and maybe still end up with the stuff.

"I-I'm going to wait outside, Duo-kun." There, excuse to leave, body language just the tiniest bit off from what it should be, nervous maybe, and gods, it'd been so long since Omi had had to actually think about things like this. He 'bumped' into the shelf holding the screws as he turned, pocketing one package with what he hoped was just enough lack of skill to be seen without seeming to try to be seen.

Now to see whether the girl took the bait. If she wasn't going to rat them out, Duo'd be able to get the other stuff easily. If she missed him, at least they'd have the screws. If she did rat on him... well, maybe he'd be able to talk himself out of the punishment. Maybe.

Duo barely caught the look Omi gave him. He'd seen that look before, had himself given it to other people right before he did something either brilliant or stupid. Or both. It worried him that Omi was giving it to him now, but he made no move to stop the other.

Sure enough, Duo wanted to groan when he saw Omi grab the screws in a less than professional manner. What was he doing? Omi himself had said he wasn't very good at this, so why? There wasn't any help for it now, though. He had to improvise and hope for the best.

"Alright, I'll be out soon. Don't wander off, ok?" He gave the other boy a smile before moving away from the section he'd been browsing, heading for the next aisle.

You're doing it wrong.

Omi didn't have to fake the startled squeak when the woman spoke to him. Of all the things he might have thought to expect, that wasn't one of them. He froze, blinking in surprise. "What?"

The tiny part of his brain that was keeping track of this whole escapade really hoped Duo was having more success than he was.

If he hadn't heard Nami's voice, Duo definitely heard the squeak that Omi gave. He paused at the end of the aisle, just far enough to feel unassociated, but still leaving the two in his line of sight if he kept his attention to the end-cap.

This was not going at all how he'd hoped. What the hell was that woman up to?

Either way, he wasn't about to let her get away with hindering their progress or whatever she was up to. If her attention was on Omi, Duo figured that she wouldn't be watching him, too. Fingering the row of small replaceable blades he had seen earlier, Duo deftly slipped one off the rack and into his inner sleeve.

That... and then.... and falling things....

He had to just blink at the destruction for second.

That was it. Omi was so out of there. He edged around the two and darted for the door, barely avoiding the falling merchandise. He'd wait for Duo outside.

And Duo thought the woman was strange. Her friend was even worse.

It was a blatant distraction, and a damn good one. As talented as he was, even he wouldn't have the gall to literally step on a nail (if that part really was part of the act). The attention that he was gathering was quite convenient.

And first and foremost, Duo was an opportunist.

With the attention on the flailing boy, he grabbed a pack of matches and stuffed them into the pocket of his hoodie. He didn't wait to see what became of the boy with the nail in his foot. Instead, Duo hurried outside after Omi, fleeing the chaos the other two had made.

[from all the way over here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/244463.html?thread=17478895#t17478895)]

It looked like some other people had also decided to try and lift things from the hardware store. The more people, the less attention there would be on yet another theif.

Recluse had learned decades ago how to make people ignore him when he needed to work without their notice. That act was in place now, as he wandered between the shelves, looking for likely items to steal.

Perfect. Recluse would have applauded the brilliant distraction, if his hands hadn't been busy with making certain items disappear. Matches, a small container of gasoline, and... A Swiss army knife vanished up his sleeve. Why not. Give Marcus a toy to make himself feel useful.

Anything more, and it might become noticeable under his clothing. Recluse waited several minutes until after the distraction had ended to leave the shop. No one seemed to have even noticed he was there.

[going out (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/245151.html)]

Well, he'd gotten in fine. The problem now was actually finding anything.

Without help. The last thing he needed or wanted now was some nurse or townsperson solicitously guiding him around -- sure, there were sleight-of-hand tricks (all those kunai used in fights came from somewhere, after all), but they would be a lot harder to do if Sasuke himself couldn't see things.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Sasuke moved forward slowly, hoping his hand would come into contact with a display shelf or something (and hopefully not a person) sooner rather than later.

... this could actually be a lot more difficult than he'd expected.

... damn.

There was a fair bit of murmuring in the store -- apparently whoever had last been in here had caused a bit of mess. That could only work to Sasuke's advantage, though.

With a bit of too-friendly direction from people in the store (and, a little more worryingly, what sounded like Landel's staff) Sasuke managed to find the 'building crafts' section and wave off what had sounded like a middle-aged sort, too interested in what Sasuke planned to build. Somewhere, though, he had to thank his nurse for forcing a sweatshirt on him this morning.

Under pretense of feeling a few rolls of wire for weight, he tore the tags off and slid them over his wrists and into his sleeve, rolling them up once he'd gotten two onto each wrist and shoving the coils of wire up with them. Thank shinobi training for teaching all the most effective ways to hide miscellaneous items up sleeves -- hopefully the nurses wouldn't be too exacting in the search.

A bit more fumbling found a handful of long nails that would do for senbon in a pinch; Sasuke tucked them into his waistband under pretence of scratching an itch. They scratched and pressed rather more painfully into his hip than the pens had with the looser Landel's uniform -- who the hell wore material this thick this tightly, anyway?

He'd just groped his way to another display when the same too-interested man's voice sounded again, asking if he was particularly interested in anything.

"Just looking," he muttered. "We don't have any money. I'll head out if it's trouble."

A moment later, he decided that if the townspeople here had one thing in common, it was that they were disturbingly solicitous. It took far too long to convince the man that he didn't need to stay and look at anything he needed, and entirely too much talking to get out of the shop, although he finally did.

And now to hope that his nurse was as bad about searching him for new additions to his wardrobe as whoever owned that shop.

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Day 28: Bill's Hardware

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