[OPENING] exploration log

[spellbindmods]

Who: Explorers and Co.
Where: Around the island and at the newly discovered house
When: Day 10
Open/Closed: Open to All
Note: Feel free to create your own logs for individual island explorations. A prompt is for house exploring, and you can list off multiple A prompts like A1, A2, etc. for more than one prompt within the house. B prompts (B1, B2, etc) are for exploring the island and may be open to all OR select friends who your character is exploring with.

[It's tough to live on an island that doesn't have many resources outside of the limited food sources and running streams. While Brie is aware of some other minor sources of food, like fish and frogs, one person exploring an island on their own means there are a lot of secret spots left to uncover. Despite adventuring for three years, her time on the hub itself has been much shorter, only staying for days or weeks at a time. Now that there are more people on this journey, covering ground is a lot easier.

Recently she's discovered another large estate -- much larger than her current shared mansion, which might also mean it has some supplies inside. On the morning of Day #, she's called together those who are hankering for more supplies in order to bring as much back as possible. Congrats, you get first dibs.

A. Upon approaching the house, the first thing that's noticeable is its size. It's all one story, but very flat and spacious. There are gardens in both the front and the rear, and upon entering (Brie might have enlisted you to help break the door down, oops) the inside is also quite vast. There are tons of rooms, multiple bedrooms and bathrooms, two kitchens and other rooms that aren't even explorable because they need keys to be entered. Unless you can find these keys, that is?

B. Alternatively, or maybe even aside from exploring the house, Brie's also suggested that you do some exploring on your own. Again, she's one woman with limited time to scout the island herself. What can you find? What resources are there to be harvested? Will you share in this bounty, or keep it to yourself?]

Comments

[actus]

[ bro, it's fine. don't worry about it. ]

Huh? Oh yeah. Just... used to having to sneak around places like this.

[ his hands slide into his pockets easily, a sheepish smile on his face. wow, that sounded kind of sketchy, didn't it? ]

[windeity]

[The best part is that he already sort of knows what the Phantom Thieves are supposed to do but he has zero idea Akira is linked to that. So yeah, it does sound a little sketchy but at the same time John's not going to really question.]

You break into abandoned mansions a lot? [He cracks a grin.] Then you might be our best bet to finding anything useful around here.

[actus]

Mansions? Nah. More like museums and casinos.

[ is that a joke? who knows! he tosses john a smile nonetheless. ]

A lot of the doors are locked, though.

[windeity]

[What. He doesn't know if he wants to really ask because that sounds like a Mystery, but he doesn't immediately follow with that logic. Instead, he shakes his head.]

Too bad we don't know anybody with lock-breaking powers. Unless we know someone who knows how to break them the old-fashioned way. [Or John beats the crap out of the doors with his hammer, that's possible.] Makes you wonder why they're locked in the first place though.

[actus]

[ ... huh. ]

I can pick locks. I haven't really tried it for awhile, but I used to be pretty good at it.

[ in the metaverse. though there was that one time... ]

[windeity]

Think you still can? [He shouldn't be encouraging this, but his curiosity's getting the better of him.] I mean maybe they are locked for a reason, but nobody's around to tell us what that reason is.

[actus]

If we can find some metal, yeah. I should be able to.

[ call it an old habit. ]

Have you seen any?

[windeity]

Anything metal? Uh...[Give him a second to reach into his pocket and pull out what looks like the blade portion of a butter knife.] Just this. But it might be bigger than what you need? It could probably be broken down further from what it was though.

[actus]

It might work if we break it down, yeah.

[ a bobby-pin or something similar would definitely work, but working with limited resources, you need to be flexible -- ]

Wait, I have an idea. Let me see it.

[windeity]

[John is the wrong Homestuck to have a bobbypin, but he'll dutifully hand over the broken knife instead.]

If you can figure out a way to make it useful, you can keep it.

[actus]

I'll take a stab at it.

[ and on cue, his fingers start to glow with tiny flames. carefully, he blows out his right fingertips and brings the blade over the warmth of his left, trying to melt it enough so it's longer and thiner. he actually hasn't done this before, so this is a very slow work in progress. please send help. ]

[windeity]

[He's seen this by now and yet he's still intrigued by the little flames, watching the metal wither slowly. It's. Taking forever, but John's thinking anyway.]

Um. Don't you think it might be easier to break off a smaller piece and then try that? You're going to be standing there forever.

[actus]

That's fine.

[ he doesn't seem to be in a rush, slowly manipulating the metal. he mostly just doesn't want to be lame and not have thought of that brilliant suggestion himself. ... so he's just gonna keep slowly melting it. oops? ]

... Any time now.

[windeity]

...dude, by the time you actually melt it all the way down, the locks will all be open because the house will have deteriorated. Are you sure that's how you want to do this? [It's working, slowly, and he'll give him credit for that but also there has to be a better idea.]

[actus]

[ he'll go grey by the time this works. ]

All right. [ he sighs, a bit dramatically in defeat, and blows out his fingers before offing the metal back. ]

Want to try it your way? Breaking it up?

[windeity]

It shouldn't be hard. [He takes the metal in-hand, examining it for a moment before nodding to himself. Even without his original powers, John's hands are fairly strong with a firm grip. Given that Akira already started most of the heavy lifting, so to speak, the metal easily snaps and he produces a smaller sliver that he holds between his fingers.] This should do it, right?