#moebiusquest

[moebiusacquisitions]

>>Give Arche the go-ahead. No plan survives contact with the enemy, but occasionally a thief does.

>> Have a little faith. Sure, Trace is a loose cannon, but he knows what he’s doing. Usually. Have Arche warn him.

>> Let Arche do his thing.

Back in the building, Trace finally finished dragging the unconscious janitor to the men's restroom, where he was out of the way. They weighed more than he did, and it was difficult work for the glimneon, who did not exercise much and mostly subsisted on a diet of junk food. Once the janitor was stowed in the bathroom, Trace took a minute to have a breather and dry the mopwater off his suit. "I can't believe how much trouble one janitor has been." He glared down at the offending aqualine, suppressing the desire to kick him again. Either way, he turned towards the door to leave. "Now I can finally get back to wor-" The voice of his team's overwatch, Redshift, came in through his headset. "Trace, the guard heard your fight and came upstairs, found the aqualine's stuff. He's going to come looking for them in a second." Trace expelled a breath in frustration. "Aw, come on! I don't want to have to deal with a gorm, especially that one!" He'd only seen them for a few moments, but they had seemed really surly, which usually meant they would want to beat him up if they found him. Redshift's reply was dry and unsympathetic. He must be annoyed that Trace had gotten into a fight. "Then you're going to have to either take the elevator or slip past him to the stairs, Trace." Trace turned off his microphone and tried to decide which would be better. The guard would soon know someone was in the building due to the knocked out janitor, so the best he could hope for was to avoid being found by him. If he could sneaking past him to the Stairs, it might take them a while to figure out where he was now, but they also might catch him, he didn't know if they had heat sensors or something, some gorm did, and those would see right through his stealth suit. On the other hand, taking the Lift (and probably disable it afterwards) meant he would have some breathing room to avoid the guard without having to sneak past him, but they would almost certainly hear the lift and know someone had used it, and would soon come up the stairs after him.

[renvart]

“Draw your OC’s” was suggested, which was as good a reason as any to draw up a Glimneon OC. He’s Thesp. Does reconnaissance via elaborate disguise and acting techniques. 

Glimneons are a species by http://yark-wark.tumblr.com/ ! Also featured in that Moebius Acquisitions comic I’m doing.

[moebiusacquisitions]

 > use one of your grenades. Temporal? That sounds useful. Blame the noise produced on his ladder falling over. > Try a (quiet) Parley! Point out that he doesn't look super enthusiastic about his job and they probably don't pay well so maybe he can just let you go and give you a towel, please? Trace is not going to use his grenades right now! He is not in sufficient danger to justify using such an expensive tool! However, trying to talk his way out seemed like a reasonable first course of action. So he spoke up, trying to sound as friendly as possible. "Okay, listen. I can tell working here isn't your favorite thing, so how about we just walk our separate ways and I leave you be. Maybe after you tell me where the towels are?" Spume stared at the thief for a moment, then raised his mop slightly with a snort, his deep voice amused. "Are you serious? Catching an invisible thief in the act is the most exciting thing that's happened since I started working here. If I apprehend you, I might even get a pay raise. Not a chance am I just going to let you walk off." It sounds like this aqualine actually wants to capture Trace and is ready put up a fight. Fights are not Trace's specialty. He could try to go in with the stun glove immediately, and catch them by surprise. But it might not hurt to come up with a less head on approach to taking on the aqualine, just in case... after all, Spume did have what amounts to a crude quarterstaff in his hands.

[moebiusacquisitions]

> He's an engineer right? Go break something in another room! That way he'll go into that room, be isolated, and be super distracted fixing it! > Spend the effort to do the theft properly. Find something to distract him with.

>What you ideally want to do is cause some sort of janitorial disaster, something that'll distract him more then just his tablet.   Trace considered his options for a moment, then decided the best course of action would be to distract the janitor with something to do before swapping out his ID while he was busy. There wasn't enough time to just trail after him waiting for an opportunity to present itself. And this glimneon liked to make his own luck, anyway. That in mind, he backtracked to the staircases, looking for some sort of easy opportunity. After some looking around, he finally came up with a workable plan...

> Problem with stealing his ID is that he'll continue to move around, which means he'll quickly notice it's missing. > Swap it with the pass you have and he'll at least not notice until he tries to enter an area Avee's pass won't let him into. And even if he calls the guard at that point, they'll get caught up trying to explain why he had someone else's pass to begin with. > This is an emergency - a fashion emergency. Yellow with purple? Eugh. Swap IDs with him. The aqualine soon rolled his cart over to investigate the sound, and stopped, frowning at the broken light in clear puzzlement. It wasn't unheard of for a light like that to short out and burst, but it was rather uncommon. The janitor rubbed the back of his head and sighed, kneeling down and pulling something out from the base of his cart. He pressed the side of the yellow block, and it swiftly unfolded into a ladder that would let him reach the broken light bulb. As the aqualine climbed up the ladder to get a closer look at the broken light,

Trace grinned, slipping in behind him and to the side of the ladder. The thief reached up to snag the ID, but found the janitor's waist to be somewhat out or of reach from his elevated position. He strained to reach it a few times, but after several failed attempts, it occurred to him that he could just climb up the other side of the ladder and grab it from there. Snickering silently to himself, Trace carefully climbed up the janitor's ladder, making sure he didn't jostle it. He was about to reach for the ID, when the janitor moved his arm, and a dripping mass of nasty, nearly opaque mopwater lifted out of his nearby mop bucket, hovering in the air. The thief paused, considering the floating mopwater. He wondered, briefly, why the aqualine needed mopwater to change a light... he'd never seen someone replace a bulb with water. Fortunately, Spume didn't keep him waiting for an answer. "Ackplbbth!"

[moebiusacquisitions]

> If grav mode is quick to activate and unexpected, you could move towards him, dash into a wall/ceiling in the last second and then jump into him again before he could react. Just don't stay close to the bucket of water. The stun glove is a great option if its already charged. We could then swap cards and hope he thinks this encounter was just a cool hallucination. > Grav swap Trace decided he was going to have to be a little more clever about his attack than rushing straight for the aqualine, so took a moment activate his grav-walk function, and begin charging his stun glove. He then used his suit to boost his jump, flipping upside down and clinging onto the ceiling. Spume saw him move due to the water residue on him, but it was clear he wasn't expecting him to leap onto the ceiling. Snickering quietly to himself for a moment at the aqualine's face, he leapt down towards the janitor, glove outstretched... And was met with a mop to the face. The mop smelled like filth and soap, and Spume must have been doing something with the water in it, because it immediately began wrapping around his face like some kind of horrible tentacled creature, pulling him in deeper into the mass of wet fabric, invading his mouth. The taste of mopwater in his mouth intensified, and Trace gagged, thrashing around wildly. At some point during his thrashing, he smacked Spume on the nose, knocking off his hat. That evidently broke his concentration for whatever the aqualine was doing with the mop, because the fabric went slack, and Trace threw himself back and away from Spume. The mop clattered to the floor, and Trace spent a few moments trying to spit the horrible taste out of his mouth. He could feel little bits of dirt or worse clinging to his tongue. This was the worst janitor ever. >kick him in the nads Trace was mad now, and as Spume leaned down to pick up the mop, he abandoned any pretense of fighting fair. He lunged forward, taking advantage of the momentary distraction to kick the aqualine between the legs with as much force as he could muster, before scooting back out of retaliation range. The result was gratifying, and the janitor made a wheezing sort of pained sound, sinking to his knees, clutching his hands between his legs reflexively. Trace moved forward, priming his Stun Glove, and the aqualine opened his eyes to snarl something at the glimneon, but whatever it was, he never had a chance to say it. The stun glove flashed right into Spume's eyes, and Trace watched his pupils contract as the lightshow did... whatever it was it was supposed to do. Raedia had told him once it overloaded the brain's optical nerves or something, but what was important to him was that it worked. The janitor stumbled back a few steps, eyes wide and confused, before he collapsed to the floor, staring blankly at the ceiling. Trace hoped when he woke up, it still hurt. 

Either way, he wouldn't be needing that ID anymore. Maybe he had a wallet that could be liberated as victory spoils, too.. 

[moebiusacquisitions]

> If this company had any taste, they wouldn't be making snack foods. > Spit on it and move on. Trace stomps away from the 'art', not even wasting his saliva on the thing. He's not upset, really. It's not like he's wasted a portion of his life (and suit charge) closely investigating a horrible painting. This glimneon is just about as chill as can be. He makes his way towards the stairs, definitely relaxed, as far as everyone who can't see him could tell. Still, even if he was angry, which he definitely wasn't, he would probably calm himself down by the time he reached the top of the staircase.

> Let's go up the stairs! > Anyway! Time to climb those stairs! Trace heads up the stairs, quickly forgetting about bad art in the excitement of returning to performing a new heist. The keycard works exactly as intended, unlocking the upstairs door without any surprises or problems, and the glimneon leans into the room, scoping it out. It looks like the second floor is mostly office space, from what he can see, so that matches up with his earlier information about the building. With everything going so smoothly, he might be done before- Hang on. What's that noise? Shoot! Someone was coming down from the other staircase! Trace hurriedly stepped out of the doorway, letting it close behind him.

Right as Trace stepped out from the fire stair doorway, a total beast of a gorm came out through the opposite door, staring straight at where the glimneon was standing. Trace had a moment of panic, but then remembered that he was still using his stealth function, and that this gorm was probably looking through him, not at him. The gorm had definitely seen the door closing behind him though, because they stopped, staring at the doorway the thief had just vacated. They lowered the can of coffee they were holding slightly, and Trace could practically hear gears turning in the security guard's head. For all he knew, gorm might have gears in their head for real, anyway. What a weird species. The janitor came around the corner, busy with his mop and bucket, but clearly drawn to the sound of the doors opening. The aqualine glanced up for a moment at gorm, then nodded to them in recognition. "Hey, Pach." The gorm tore his intense gaze from the closed door, and Trace took the opportunity to shuffle out from behind the front of it, just in case the security gorm decided to go downstairs. "Spume." The gorm turned back to the doorway Trace had just vacated, and took a drink from the canned coffee he had. "Was someone else just up here?" "Nope." The security gorm nodded and stepped forward, opening the door with a swipe of his arm, and heading downstairs without another word. Trace had a decision to make, now. The only security guard in the building had seen something suspicious, and that would probably put him on alert, especially when he found no one downstairs or having just left the building. Fortunately, the glimneon was in an idea position to help him forget that. One burst from the Stun Glove and 'Pach' would conveniently forget his experience with the door, along with the last couple minutes, negating potential problems with raised alert this early on in the heist. That would drain a significant portion of his Stealth Suit's charge, however, which he might end up needing later. Especially if he ended up having an altercation with the security guard for something unrelated to mysterious open doors. Maybe the gorm would even pointlessly search the lower floor for an intruder while Trace worked upstairs, possibly giving him more time to get the job done.

[moebiusacquisitions]

> Open door to check out the employee lounge. Open it really slow tho. So it could be mistaken for the door just being loose or something > Lets gather some info while we're here and then execute the perfect plan > Do check out what's in that room. Will the ID work on the door despite being invisible? The keycard is safely stored within a pocket in Trace's suit, but the stealth field does not extend far from his body. If he takes any of his tools out or picks up objects, they will not be concealed unless he completely covers them with his hands. That aside, the keycards work via a magnetic principle, so even if they were invisible, it should be no problem to use them to open doors. Deciding to hold off on the stairs for now, Trace unlocks the door leading deeper into the first floor, slipping quietly inside. As it turned out, someone was already here! An aqualine he assumed was a janitor - given they had a mop - was walking into the open elevator, distracted by a small holotablet device. They did not notice the door across the hall open. Trace was considering trying to slip into the elevator with him, but his eyes moved to the right wall, and he stopped, staring. He had never seen something so hideous. It was worse even than that carpet from the previous room. The glimneon was fairly sure it was supposed to be some kind of artwork... but whoever had made it clearly had no idea how color theory worked, or wanted to offend the eyes of everyone. Why would anyone hang this atrocity on the wall of a workplace? Were they actually trying to torture their own employees with decor? The elevator door closed while Trace was busy boggling at the horrifying abstract art and questioning just now nefarious this junk food company actually was. He finally managed to pull his gaze from it, and took a closer look at the room around him. There were three doors, and the blue double doors to the right side of the hall looked to only open from the other side. The purple door had been swinging shut when he came in, so it was probably a janitor closet of some kind. The greenish door was anyone's guess, but this didn't look like where one would find an employee lounge. He could explore either of them first, or turn back The elevator was probably out for now, after it had recently been taken up a floor. Really, anything that got him out of vision range of the Terrible Abstract Art would make him happy, though.

[moebiusacquisitions]

Moebius Acquisitions: Chapter 1

This is the first update of a quest-format story I will be running on this page. This means it will be partially driven by reader suggestions. Suggestions and questions may be submitted via the convenient button to the right.

Of note: This story will be strictly SFW.  Explicit or otherwise NSFW suggestions will not be responded to, and may result in you being removed from potentially suggesting further if you continue to abuse it.

Credits: Linework by @renvart (korbin on FA)

Colors by me

Team Prototype setting by @yark-wark

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The another day reaches it’s close on the balmy and tropical planet Restoria. Though it is the homeworld of the Aqualine race, the climate is pleasant enough that most races in the Alliance use it as a resort world.  And like many tourist spots, it attracts food and entertainment providers to serve them (for profit).

The Cavitch Comestibles Company is one of them, and they own a significant portion of the food and drink stands on this continent - most of them under such enticing names as Icey Froot and Sunni Wingz. Tacky though they may be, they still turn a good profit from oblivious visitors buying overpriced novelty foods.

Our story begins at their corporate headquarters. With the day ending, the employees who work there are ending their shifts and going home.  This will leave the building mostly empty, which is good for the purposes of our protagonist, a glimneon named Trace.  Trace is a skilled thief in a team of acquisition specialists, and he’s planning to break in after the scout in his team tells him everyone except the night crew has left.  His mission today: To extract valuable sensitive data from the corporate database on the third floor of the building.

In the meantime, he enjoys a bag of Appl Puffs, one of the products of his target. He’s had better snacks in his day, definitely, but they’re a tasty enough treat to pass the time before the job begins. They’re even more delicious because he didn’t have to pay the outrageous price for them - his sophisticated stealth suit ensured that the probably underpaid aqualine running the Snak Stand didn’t even notice when they went missing.  Or maybe they just didn't care.

Either way, he was deciding how he was going to do this. Previous intelligence on the building suggested they had cameras spread throughout the building being monitored by a guard at night, but Trace wasn't worried about that. No one ever saw him on cameras. More importantly, he had to decide how to get to the top floor. 

-There was an elevator on the north side of the building, according to surveillance, but whether it required some form of authentication was unclear. Even if it did, there was probably a way to get hold of one if he searched the building. Getting access to that would make entering and leaving the third floor building faster. He didn't plan on riding the elevator, of course - he would climb out through the top and ascend the cables directly to the floor he wanted, if possible.  He might also need to find some tools on-site to break open the elevator ceiling hatch. It would be a risky endeavor, because he wasn't sure how secure the elevator was, or if it had alarms.

-There was a set of stairs leading down to the fire exit he was loitering around the corner from, but that was almost certain to require keycards or similar to progress up through. That would only take him to the second floor, though, which was mostly offices, and he would have to find a keycard on one of the night shift members that could get him to the third floor from there.  This would be a slower route with more potential night shift employees on the way, but the one most guaranteed to succeed. Probably.