The Heist

A few hours have passed. Jessica and Mark had returned home, the family ate dinner together and everyone had gone on to do their own thing. Dennis returned to gaming and Layla to her bottomless pile of homework. Mark decided to game as well, and Jessica, for her part, decided to go on a short walk. The city wasn't all that great in terms of scenery, but the Alliance was strict in requiring the construction of walking paths. Healthy humans made better workers, after all.

Her parents had wanted to spend some time as a family, but Alesha has said she wanted a chill first night back instead of anything more involved, so they respected her wishes. She had only just woken up after a traumatic experience, after all.

[Little did they know that she was plotting against them!] The System narrated helpfully.

"Shush up, System," Alesha communicated silently. "I'm not plotting against them, it isn't about them, it's about my quest!"

[Oh? And do thieves usually consider their plans to be plotting against the owners of the items? I'll answer for you, that's a no; it's always about the goal, it's always about… the quest! Yet, any thief would be said to be plotting against the owner of the targeted items. Hence, you are plotting against your parents. Hehehehe.]

"Aghhh, you're impossible, Rogork. Truly impossible," Alesha thought towards it, giving up. With her dad in his gaming pod and her mother out of the apartment, it was time to act.

She had taken note of where her father set his Lucky Chain when he got home. Turns out, he actually has a dedicated spot for it. The dedicated spot? A little blue bowl with a peculiar triangle symbol in the bottom. The triangle symbol was yellow, just a simple triangle except it had an upside-down triangle cut out of the center. When she scooped the sword trinket out of the bowl, her knuckles brushed the symbol, sending a little tinkling noise gently into the air. She froze in surprise. This hadn't happened when her dad had placed it there, why did it go off now? 

The tinkling noise faded, replaced with some sort of out-of-fashion theme song. Alesha stood there awkwardly as it played. Did anyone notice…? Or rather, did her sister notice? Since she was the only one conscious in the real world (out of those who were at home) at the moment.

She waited a few seconds after the song ended, and when no one came out of the hallway, she relaxed. She snatched her mother's lanyard off the hook by the door, the only thing on it a cheerful-looking ID card displaying her mother's face and the word "Volunteer." Yes, the object she had chosen to (temporarily) steal from her mother was the lanyard she wore to be recognized while volunteering at the Iritia City Animal Shelter. A terrible item to steal, really, but what could she do? No other object probably held enough importance in her mother's eyes to count towards the quest.

Alesha felt excited. Finally, she'd gotten all the items! Quietly, she hurried to "her" room and put these objects with the others in the hidden compartment, sliding the box back into place when she was done. All she had to do now was wait. Wait for her family to notice they were missing things, then for 8 hours to pass, and then once everyone was asleep, she could put the objects where they could be found. This whole ordeal was almost over.

Well, kind of almost over. Having retrieved and hidden the objects honestly felt like half the battle to Alesha.

Closing her eyes and laying on the bed, Alesha let herself drift off into an early rest.

Only to be woken up sometime later by Layla's furious voice. "... me?! You definitely took it, Dennis, you were asking me about it the other day! When I said you couldn't touch it, I meant it! Now give it back!"

Dennis's alto voice whined a reply, "But it wasn't me, I promise! I didn't touch your makeup, why would I? Back then, I was just wondering why you had so many and why that one was somehow special to you! I wouldn't take it!"

The bickering continued until a strong male voice, their dad, interjected. "Alright kids, someone clearly took it, either you misplaced it and forgot, Layla, or you are lying Dennis. I don't really care which it is right now but we can't be yelling at each other alright?"

"...Fine," Layla and Dennis chorused together. Neither sounded pleased with the outcome.

Dennis's door shut with enough extra force to be noticeable, but not so much as to get a scolding. He had apparently mastered the art of pouting in such a way as to avoid trouble. Alesha chuckled at this. Silly kid.

A purple screen popped up in front of Alesha.

[ITEMS MUST STAY HIDDEN FOR:

[DENNIS W: (not started yet)

LAYLA W: 7 hours 53 minutes

MARK W: 7 hours 30 minutes

JESSICA W: 7 hours 57 minutes]

"Oh? Most of them have discovered their things were missing already. That's good. Can't believe Dad noticed first, though, I wonder how that happened," she thought to herself. "I thought he was busy gaming. Thanks for the countdown by the way, I didn't think you could be so helpful."

[Hmph,] the System huffed, [I'm always helpful. You just don't appreciate my style.]

"Ha! I suppose the last part is true enough. I definitely don't appreciate your style of 'help' most of the time. Maybe you should change it up a little."

[You know, I could just stop being helpful altogether…]

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry. Thank you for being helpful when you feel like it."

[... I suppose that's a little better. You're welcome.]