ACE ATTORNEY AU

[enigmaster]

Comments

[agoodname]

[at that, Oswald kind of...brightens. and looks keenly interested] Could you teach me?

[enigmaster]

[........okay he didn't see that coming.] ...You want to learn? Really? [that's kind of surprising]

[agoodname]

Yes, of course I do. [he shuts his laptop, then, shoving it off his lap and onto the couch so he can crawl over to the arm of the couch and peer over it at what Edward is doing in his Box of Things--especially at those lockpicks] It's a very useful skill to have and one I've been meaning to cultivate.

[enigmaster]

[The box is mostly just a mess of clothes, a few (old, very worn) books, some... sudoku books. What looks like a little travel sized chess set. That... kind of looks to be it.] ...I could teach you, sure. It's not that hard with some practice.

[agoodname]

[Oswald brightens immensely at that]

Great! [he's going to shift to sit next to Edward] So what's the first step. [.....oswald, he probably didn't think you meant right this second]

[enigmaster]

[He blinks. ...Oh, he meant. Now? Like. Like, now, now?] Ah, well. First we kind of need a lock, but. Hold on. [Edward digs through his stuff a little more. There's a small locked box. He takes it out, setting it on the coffee table. And he sets the lockpicks out, too. edward why do you just HAVE THIS] There's different lockpicks for different locks, but Gotham has a lot of old tumbler locks, so that's not much of an issue, usually. For that you want this pick... [setting aside the regular lockpick] ...and a tension wrench. [and that, too.]

[agoodname]

Okay. [HE'S NOT EVEN BOTHERED THAT EDWARD HAS THAT SMALL LOCKED BOX now he's just rly interested] So old tumbler locks--I need a pick like that and a tension wrench. Got it.

[enigmaster]

First you're going to want to take the tension wrench and try to move the lock to the side.

[Edward does so. When he turns it to the left, it doesn't budge, but to the right, it gives... a little.]

So you know right away which way the key has to turn.

[agoodname]

[Oswald nods at that, observing him carefully] So once you figure out the tumblers, you know which way to turn it.

[enigmaster]

Yeah. And then you want to insert the pick and... feel it out, a little? You have to get a good feeling of the space, since you can't see inside the lock.

Then you have to carefully push the pins up inside with the pick. One of them will hold more, and that's the one you gotta push up first and then you just sort of keep going. One at a time. Carefully feeling out which one will hold next. It has to be careful, so the lock doesn't freeze.

And once they're all in place you can just... turn the lock.

[agoodname]

What happens if the lock freezes?

[enigmaster]

Well, if you're lucky you can just relieve the pressure of the pick and wrench and it'll reset on its own. If it doesn't, you might have to lubricate the lock, but that's not necessarily an option if you're just out and about.

[He's. Had some experience with this.]

[agoodname]

Just from the name of it, it sounds far too much like it would catch someone's attention.

[enigmaster]

It's really only helpful if it's something small you can take to unlock elsewhere, but that's not really going to be a common thing.

If it freezes, you just have to hope it resets or give up. Realistically speaking.

[agoodname]

It's good to know what the realistic side is. [he squints at the lock a bit] ...can I watch you do it?

[enigmaster]

Sure.

[And Edward... well, it's kind of fast, actually. He works carefully, yes, but smoothly. He's done this a lot, he knows what he's doing. So it only takes a few moments for him to unlock the box.]

...It's just kind of like a puzzle, really.

[agoodname]

[Oswald just....watches with absolute fascination] That's...brilliant. [he sounds impressed]

[enigmaster]

[Edward blinks a little.] Well, I... I've had a lot of practice.

[agoodname]

I can tell. [he still sounds impressed] May I...?

[enigmaster]

[AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH???????] Sure, go ahead. [He'll hand Oswald what he needs and sits back a little, to give him the space to try it.]

[agoodname]

[RIGHT HE'S GONNA give this a shot. He does have to scoot over there, though, to get a better angle...which, despite the backing up, does put him closer to Edward. He picks up the tension wrench and the lock pick then, and just starts....futzing with it. Testing which way the lock turns and feeling the difference between the two, and then slowly starts to test the tumblers, one by one, more just trying to get the feel for the differences in the tumblers than actually unlock it just yet. He has a very intense look of concentration on his face]

[enigmaster]

[It... really does put Oswald very close to him. And that's not a problem. It shouldn't be a problem. It's not like they're touching, they're just close. So there's really no reason why that's all Edward can think about now. It's ridiculous, really. He swallows, trying to put it out of his mind. Glancing over at Oswald's face and oh. ...that expression is kind of cute?]

[agoodname]

[yep now he's concentrating pretty hard on this. The tip of his tongue pokes out of his mouth as he does so--pushing one tumbler into place with a small click, and he sucks in a bit of air through his nose, shifting a bit so he can see better, getting a little closer to Edward]

[enigmaster]

[Edward... tenses up, a little, and tries to focus his attention on the lock instead. Not that he can see Oswald's progress, but. Well. That's. Easier to focus on right now.]

[agoodname]

[something inside the lock clicks a bit oddly, and Oswald frowns]

...I think I pressed to hard or something.