> Lucy & Kala: Pull off crab heist!
causticAccolade
dead yet dreaming
- Location
- Silent Sound, Cipher Cove, Levoile.
"We need a way to distract that horrid little beast so that we can get those tokens," Mari muses, staring pensively through the glass of the AQUARIUM. Owen, seeming like he's just had a breakthrough, leaps to his feet.
"I know! Luce, let me put that crown on."
You're a little hesitant about handing over the CROWN OF POSEIDON, even momentarily, but the amused little smirk that's already beginning to play around Mari's mouth makes it seem worth it. Slowly, you reach out to Owen, who puts it on and strikes a pose which he presumably imagines to be majestic before leaning over the AQUARIUM and clearing his throat. "Mr. Crab," he begins, with as much gravity as he can muster, "As you can see, this crown makes me a very important person, which means you really should be starting to leave post-haste, do you hear me?"
The CRAB stares impassively at him, beady little eyes burning with an antediluvian hate that no vertebrate creature could possibly comprehend.
While Owen moves on to making weird and vaguely off-putting clicking and squelching noises with his mouth because, in his words, "It probably only speaks Crabese," you tie some of your SILVER THREAD around the PARTICULARLY SHINY CANDY WRAPPER and, casting it out like a FISHING LINE, quickly grab the attention of the CRAB, who scuttles over it and quickly begins attempting to add to its already impressive hoard.
As it scuttles over to the other side of the AQUARIUM, you suddenly doubt your ability to grab the TOKENS or WATCH without it noticing in time to avoid getting your fingers snipped -- but then you see a strange ripple in the water, and Kala flickers into existence besides you, moving quickly enough that she's almost a blur as she pulls the TREASURES free and presses them into your hand before flickering back into her usual semi-visibility. The CRAB, realizing it's been bamboozled, scuttles up to the glass and glares at you with impotent fury. You stick your tongue out at it.
The CRYSTAL SPIRES on the CRAB'S shell somehow seem completely natural, like they complement its form instead of seeming like unsightly additions. You'd appreciate them as an AESTHETIC TOUCH if they didn't bring to mind images of similar crystals bursting through the MASS OF BONE AND MUSCLE that made up Mars' body.
"Mari, do you think you could use this stethoscope to disarm the--"
"No."
Well, that's that idea discarded. However, you suspect that it could be put to better use unlocking the DESK DRAWER -- after all, you did hear all that clicking. You put the STETHOSCOPE on, and briefly strike the kind of pose a COOL DOCTOR would strike on a show where a COOL DOCTOR does a lot of LIFE-SAVING SURGERY and BEING RUDE TO PEOPLE and an unrealistically negligible amount of PAPERWORK before putting it to the drawer and listening intently. This time, the clicks are much more pronounced, and it only takes a few minutes of experimentation to open the drawer. Inside are a PILE OF WATCH PARTS and a SILVER TOOTHPICK.
There are, in fact, TEN DIGITS that can be entered. Trying the first TEN DIGITS of the square root of 5 doesn't get it to budge, neither does any any variation of it.
Wow, Ornithologist's Weekly really does say that an ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain. Cool! Engrossed in the power of mildly interesting trivia, you continue reading for a lot longer than you should. Surely Mari and Owen will make good progress while you're busy, you tell yourself, knowing full well that when you look up they'll be arguing over what the best COLOUR is or something.
You finally look up from Cool Pictures of Coyotes Monthly to see Mari and Owen arguing over which is the best day of the week (Owen says it's Thursday, Mari thinks it's Friday). Taking a closer look at the DESK reveals very little, except that someone has rearranged the NUMBERS ROW on the laptop keyboard to replace the FIRST FIVE NUMBERS with a FIVE, FOUR, SIX, EIGHT, and NINE from the NUMBER PAD. How curious!
Something seems strange about these now that you have two of them... after a little careful examination, you realize that they've both got similar notches and grooves at the thicker ends. A few seconds later, you've slotted them together to create a PAIR OF TWEEZERS. Now you can TWEEZE to your heart's content!
The HAND seems like it's taunting you, with its outstretched ROOTS and DIGITS... what could it be trying to tell you?
While you're opening the DRESS DRAWER, you hear a COMMOTION from the couch and look over to see Mari triumphantly standing over a BRUTALLY VIVISECTED COUCH CUSHION while Owen looks on in a combination of DESPAIR, SHOCK, HORROR, and INDIGNATION. Mari cackles. You decide you'll leave them to that.