ang saya saya ko! nakahanap ako ng dice roller para sa irc. deric, alan, pwede na tayo maglaro! tapos nasakop ko na ren and buong asia minor at bahagi ng balkans! tang inang mga griyego yan, walang nakatakas! tinatamad pa ako ituloy yung istoryang nasa baba. mag iisip muna ako storya para sa dnd. pero may tanong ako: mayron pakayang pork n beans sa kusina? at dapat bang kumain muna ako bago ko lusubin ang antioch?

THE LOCKPICK APPRENTICE
Part Three : The Tinker’s Tools

It was on one of his forays into the half abandoned school that Jon came upon Janitor’s lockpick.

Though Janitor will henceforth be known for being a petty criminal, he is also notorious for being amazingly forgetful. His absent-mindedness bordered on the supernatural; it defied logic. Which made him all the more interesting a character for Jon’s entertainment.

After school hours, Janitor would mop classroom A. After that he would proceed to classroom B. Then on to classroom C. And the room after that. Sometime later, he would step out into the hallway, wrinkle his play dough face, then proceed to classroom B, only to find that someone has mysteriously mopped it in advance. He would then catch Jon watching him and Janitor would send him a wave of bad vibes in two blinks. He would then huffily stride into classroom C and mop it needlessly anew.

For Jon, it was a sitcom.

He first realized that Janitor had lost his keys when Jon happened upon him trying to open a locked maintenance room. There was much rattling metal noises and wrist twisting and he watched the man unnoticed for a while.

The door finally yielded a click and opened.

“Awright!” Jon said, too loudly on purpose.

Janitor yelped some expletives but not before dropping something on the floor. Jon got a good look at it before it was snatched from view.

The doughface tried nonchalance “It’s late. Go home”

“Where are your keys?” countered the boy.

In the end, Jon’s silence was bought by a caramel sundae and a promise to let him have two puppies when the school dog gave birth. Predictably, when Janitor left the school for good, he forgot his lockpick and it has now found it’s way into Jon’s eager hands.

It did not look very impressive. In fact, it looked like it was once a tweezer that was cleaved apart. In his grip it felt cool and slick, and somehow, sneaky.

With thoughts of espionage and daring bank heists in his head, he proceeded to wrestle into submission every door handle within reach. He met with mixed results; the easiest to open by far were the stainless steel knobs whose large keyholes admitted the sliver of metal easily. He found that at a certain depth you had to lift the pick just so while simultaneously twisting the handle until the click happens. But it didn’t work consistently so the better theory was dumb luck plus frustrated energy.

It was when he finally opened the maintenance room that Jon was to encounter the most disturbing thing he would see in his short life.