2024-12-07 - Jewel Thief Pirate Ninja Operatives

There's a lot that goes on beneath the various areas of the park in the tunnels. Trace's office is located beneath the castle along with several others for those who work in hospitality and then of course all the workshop and technical areas for those working on the amphitheatre shows. Then, there are the storage rooms, so many storage rooms for show props, event props, furniture to be moved in and out of the castle, and of course an assortment of parts and pieces.

Today, Trace is down in the tunnels in the warren of storage rooms in the lower levels looking for a particular box of control panel parts that he needs to work on one of the many pyrotechnic control panels around the park. The trouble is, he doesn't remember exactly where he put it.

It's not terribly unusual for Enzo to be seen at the hospitality office from time to time, especially after having dealt with a guest or two in the area, he'll often do check-ins here, before moving on to another section of the park.

It is, however, unusual, to have him wandering through these maintenance tunnels and away from the offices with his employee map spread out with notes written upon it. There's also other pieces of papers too images of the islands pre-Spellbound. Or at least, when his father first set his sights on the place. There's some notes written there as well.

Dressed for work and looking sharp as he does so, he, at the very least, doesn't look all that out of place even if he were to be spotted down here. He works Hospitality. He's wearing the navy blazer. Look at that tie.

The maps of the islands won't help him here, so they are shuffled behind the unfolded employee's map of the magic kingdom. "The amphitheater would be above there..." He says looking down one tunnel as he makes his way along.

Trace is dressed in his own work attire which is a pair of black jeans, some black suede oxford shoes, and today a dark green turtleneck. The leather jacket he wore to the office is slung over the back of his chair back there.

He's got the door to the room propped open, just a tiny shim of wood holding it in place while/ he shuffles about in the shelves. He's crouched down shifting some things around when he hears the voice but doesn't immediately recognize it as Enzo's.

Instead, he's got a box halfway out trying to read the label when some packages of cables shift and start to slide. He's busy trying to catch them and get them back in order, muttering under his breath.

Was there such a thing as a magic detector or monitor, the way they had for radiation? Enzo wasn't even sure if there were any parts of the park where he felt this magic to be strongest. Maybe it has to do with how powerful your own magic feels in a place? The more powerful your magic, the stronger the magic found there? That doesn't seem quite right. Ever since he discovered this ability to sense emotions from people, he's been using that particular spell constantly, if to just get an emotional high off of others, though normally he finds it quite disappointing. Still, he'll jot down a note in the corner of the map somewhere.

Perhaps hearing some footsteps down the hall, that's when he decides to duck into the storage room and lean against the door to finish with his note taking. It's when he pushes off from the door to step further into the room that he doesn't realize that's it's starting to close behind him. Looking at all the shelves and what not, he doesn't notice that there's someone else here at first, but he does go to inspect what exactly can be found in storage. Maybe there's something interesting. Something useful. "Like a magic dete..." He starts to say before he hears something shifting or sliding and that draws his attention.

Trace is too busy trying to grab the sliding packages and keep them from all ending up on the floor to notice that he door is closing, or even that someone is there at first. He manages to catch them all and starts setting them back where they were, each with its matching batch. He's busy pulling out one box, and then another when he hears the voice and pauses.

It's in the silence where he pauses to listen that he hears the tell-tale creak of the heavy door as it swings. "Oh shit." He scrambles to his feet, box tucked under his arm and shouts "Catch that door!"

By the time that he comes around the corner, the heavy door bangs shut and he notices someone else is in the room. Enzo.

He just stands there for a moment in silence, looking from the door to Enzo and back again.

On Enzo's part, he's too busy watching someone trying to pull a box out rather than help with the endeavor to notice who that person was or the fact that the door was closing behind him. To be honest, he ducked into this room because he'd heard footsteps down the hall, so he had obviously been hoping that no one was here.

It's when Trace calls out for him to catch the door that he finally realizes who he's been watching struggle with the package all along. He also looks over his shoulder at the door, only to see it close shut, but he doesn't think too much about it at the moment.

"If I'd know you were here, I would've continued walking." This is when the map is neatly folded with the copies of the photos of the island slipped within its folds and he tucks it away into his jacket, before making a direct line to the door, because he obviously doesn't want to stay here any longer than he needs to now. Checking the knob, he announces, "It's locked." Still, no panic in his voice or anything.

The obvious frustration at the door closing then turns to even more obvious frustration when Enzo makes his comment and he lets out a faint sigh. "Yeah, yeah, I get it." He watches Enzo go over to try the door. Meanwhile he's fishing out his phone and trying to get signal, moving around the room and trying to hold it up. "It's not locked. It's stuck. I've had a ticket in to maintenance on that door for two weeks now. That's why it was propped," he says calmly, trying to focus his chill. "Do you have signal?" Because he is not having any luck at the moment.

When he's told that it's stuck, that's when Enzo puts his back into it in an attempt to try and force the thing open. At least for a little while, before letting it go. This is where Trace and people like Trace work, someone'll be down here in no time.

So when Trace tries his phone, Enzo just leans against the door some with his hands in his pockets. "Two weeks?" That just gets a light quirk of his brow when he fishes for his phone from pants pocket, unlocking it. No signal either. "What exactly is kept here?" He's really curious now. Why would it take two weeks for them to fix a damn door? That question may very well hint to Trace that he also has no signal.

Trace doesn't even bother with the door. He's tried before. He wasn't able to get it open the last time he got stuck in here, and he doesn't imagine that he's suddenly going to have developed the strength necessary now. But he doesn't stop Enzo from doing so and even watches idly as he does, still fiddling with his phone. When it turns out that Enzo also has no signal he sighs. "Guess we're waiting."

Someone will be by eventually. If only security doing a check later in the evening. Though that could mean a long wait in store. He leans against the wall and slides down it, sitting on the floor and sets the box down on the floor next to him. "Nothing super important, which is why they're not in any particular rush to fix it. Just.. parts." He gestures to the box next to him. "Cables. Electronics for the amphitheatre and the castle. Light bulbs. Stuff. Why are you even in here? What are you looking for?"

"Waiting?" Enzo says looking a bit annoyed at Trace's defeatist attitude. "Waiting for how long? If they are in no particular rush to fix this damned door?" Oh, it's becoming clearer that his agitation is beginning to build.

He tries the door again and again, before backing up a bit to try and kicking it HARD. After that first kick, he turns to see Trace just sitting there on the floor. "You have tools. There's two of us. I'm sure we can break down a god damned door." Unbuttoning his blazer, he decides to take it off, to allow him free-er movement. To the question though, he shrugs, as he finds a clean place to drape the blazer, "I was just looking as I was passing by."

With his arms crossed, he asks, "Why don't you, I don't know, jump into someone's head with your telepathy power and signal for help?"

"Waiting until someone comes by to get Security or Maintenance down here to bust it open," Trace says from where he sits, seeming entirely unbothered and less so the more Enzo's agitation grows. His own frustration seems to evaporate. "At the very longest, until Security does their rounds and comes by to let us out."

"It's a metal door, Enzo. Unless your magical power is Hulk Strength, you're probably not going to break it down. But knock yourself out," Trace observes, watching as Enzo gives it a kick and another kick. The shedding of the jacket almost makes him smile but not quite. Like he does expect to see Enzo suddenly hulk out and tear the door off its hinges. That'd be a thing. "I don't have my tools with me. They're up in the office or I'd probably just try to take it off its hinges and see if that'd work. You got a screwdriver on you?"

The suggestion that he just jump in someone's head has him shaking his own. "It doesn't work that way. I have to be able to see them."

Hearing that they were waiting for Security or Maintenance, Enzo pulls his phone out to try again. He even moves around the room watching if it picks up a signal from anywhere. "Why is there a metal door protecting junk like these? Why couldn't they use a normal door? Then we would be out by now." His voice raises just a touch at the end there. No signal to be found anywhere within the room.

With Trace telling him how his power works, Enzo asks, "Have you tried? Just think of someone and try to communicate with them." Drawing in a frustrated breath, he turns to look at the door again with his hands resting on his hips. "And how do you know how your power works and how it doesn't work? What if there's areas in the park that can amplify your power?" Yes, he's honestly asking in the case Trace might know if that's even possible or have heard of it, rather than it actually working in their situation right now, but it doesn't hurt to try still.

Trace does not have the answer to these questions. He's been here no longer than Enzo has, and so he doesn't bother to try. Instead, he flips through his phone, which has no signal, idly fiddling around with it uselessly rather than just staring at Enzo.

Glancing up when asked if he's tried, he pauses, and says, "Yeah. I've tried. I have to start the connection being able to see them." But the question about there being areas in the park that help amplify his power gives him pause. "I don't know about that. Never really thought about it. Not even sure how I'd begin to measure it. I guess I could have someone go out of sight and see if I could start it in various places."

Now he's actually thinking about it, mulling it over out loud. "If I could make a connection somewhere that I couldn't before, then I guess that could be a possibility. Would have to repeat it with other people and other powers to see if it did anything to theirs, too."

Then he pauses and looks over at Enzo, "What's yours?"

Keeping in the same spot, but this time turning to face where Trace is still seated, Enzo just watches the other when he ponders aloud about testing out the capabilities of his powers and some such and eventually Enzo has to ask, "Are you at least trying it?"

He already knows the answer to that question, but he doesn't break off eye contact until a few moments more when he decides to sift through any open boxes or shelves or anything to see if there's anything of use to be found.

"You don't want to know." That's said about his powers, before he follows up with an obvious lie, due to what he'd just said, "Maybe I'm immune and won't develop anything."

Trace lowers his phone and finally sets it down on top of the box. It's not of any particular use at the moment anyway. He blows out a breath and says, "Okay fine. Maybe this storage room has magical cellphone signal dampeners and magical power strengtheners." He does not sound like he believes that, but he lets his head rest back against the wall and he closes his eyes. And he's silent for a bit. Is he actually trying or taking a nap?

Finally, he opens them again and says, "Nothing. I tried my roommate. I tried my boss. I even tried the security guy that I know is probably on shift tonight. I'm telling you, the only person I could talk to right now is you." He chuckles, "And I don't really need that for that."

But then he pulls himself up off the floor and moves over to lean against the shelves as Enzo starts to go fishing through the boxes. There is a dizzying array of lightbulbs for the various lighting systems including some giant ones. There's a lot of random electronic parts that would likely be unidentifiable to him. There's a bunch of the metal garden lights that one might find out in the ornamental gardens.

"I do want to know," Trace says as he studies him thoughtfully.

The fact that Trace is willing to entertain what could be an absurd request does get Enzo to take pause for a moment and turn and watch as the other looks like he's taking a snooze over there. Something about that amuses him, or maybe it's the idea that he's at least trying. Finally.

He'll then go back to sifting through all sorts of lighting which he has no knowledge of nor any use for. When Trace reports his failure to contact anyone, while there was just a tiny sliver of hope that it would've worked, Enzo expected this result. He does go ahead and muse, "How is that pretty roommate of yours anyway? She seemed nice."

With no screwdrivers, drills or anything useful to be found, that makes him take a step back an evaluate what might be in the rest of the boxes and on the shelves. Would they all be useless lights as well?

"I've learned that I can understand various languages." He says all without looking at Trace, "And speak them too." Was that what he was hiding? Was that what he didn't want Trace to know?

Trace makes a very token attempt at looking around the shelves. He does a slow walk around them, one that carries him out of sight of Enzo as he walks around one aisle and then down another, but there's no need to even raise his voice to converse. It's quiet. There's just the two of them. "Fin? She's great. And she is nice. Be nice to her. Not her fault she got roomed with me." As though he feels that mere proximity to him might be enough to catch splash damage from Enzo.

There's the sound of boxes being tugged and opened and pushed back from nearby and Trace's steady steps as he moves between the shelves.

<< Any langage? >> he asks in Italian. << Or only specific languages? >> It doesn't seem to matter to him whether that's what he was trying to hide or not. He just seems interested that Enzo shared anything with him at all.

When Enzo had brought Fin up, he was actually waiting to see Trace's response to that. What he gets is somewhat surprising, perhaps he expected something more? Accardi being overly protective and even defensive when it comes to his roommate. Enzo seems to drop the topic once the response is given, however.

Looking from shelves and boxes, then back to the door again, despite it being a metal door, Enzo looks as if he wants to try to break it down once more.

Then he hears that bit of Italian being spoken, a language which he's never learned and being able to fully understand it. << It seems so >> He responds in kind. <<You're the first I'm speaking to in Italian. The other day I had to deal with some Japanese tourists. From what I've learned, I'd be a big star in Japan, the way they all wanted to take pictures with me. >> While he might not sound fluent, it's passable.

Walking over towards the door, he begins to feel along the sides to see if there's anything loose that they could use, before he tries pushing against the actual door frame to test its strength. All in all, there's no arrogance, at least, not in his new found grasp of languages, and he seems rather pleased to be able to comprehend and respond in kind to things he may not have understood before.

Protective, perhaps, a little. He certainly seems more concerned that Enzo might not be nice to her because she's friends with him than anything else. But when Enzo doesn't pursue the topic, Trace says nothing more on it either. He continues his slow progress through the shelves. And eventually he comes back around the corner to hear Enzo speaking back to him in Italian. "That's kind of wild," he says, impressed. "That is actually.. really fitting for your job, now that I think about it. Kinda cool." Then he grins and says, "Well you are.." and then kind of tapers off and asks, "Find anything?" instead as he approaches the door once more.

"We can both try to put our shoulders into it at the same time.. see if that works?" Trace definitely sounds like he has doubts on whether it would or not, but he seems willing to at least give it a go since there's two of them. "I was in here by myself last time," he admits.

Fitting for his job? Enzo doesn't particularly like the sounds of that, seeing that he's not too keen about his job. It does get him thinking about some of the other powers he'd seen. People could actually fly or change their appearance, which was pretty wild in itself, and he's not sure how much he'd like that sort of power. But to understand language? There were people who could speak several languages as it were.

And was it as special as Trace's telepathy? Enzo wasn't sure. That Telepathy wasn't helping them out at this moment, but neither was his ability to translate languages. Or that other thing that he can do...

So lost in his own thoughts, he doesn't hear the rest of what Trace has to say, which also means that he doesn't realize that the other has come to join him until he's right there. "This is what I said to do the first time, Accardi." He reminds, but he gets into position, ready to push that damned door with all his might.

Trace just sort of looks at Enzo when the man seems lost in his own thoughts, waiting to see if they are going to push the door or not. "I'm aware," he says somewhat flatly to the reminder. But still, he gets up against the door and says, "On three."

"One.. two.. THREE."

And with that, he really puts his shoulder into it and pushes with all the strength that he has. Unfortunately, even with whatever force Enzo puts into the door, it doesn't budge. He keeps on shoving. He shoves a bit more. But there's just no budging the door and he finally just collapses against it, leaning there and catching his breath.

"Why won't you just call me Trace?" he asks.

Enzo will keep pressing his shoulder against that door moments after the call to push was made. Then he'll keep pushing and pushing some more. Failing that, in his annoyance, he even starts to kick at it again, with Trace sitting right there, but due to exhaustion, he eventually stops and takes his own spot on the floor not that far off, needing to catch his breath as well as keep his temper in check.

Then comes that question. One that Enzo doesn't get to immediately as he continues to draw in deep breaths.

Once that's done and his heart rate has become more normalized, that's when he sets his eyes on Trace to look on him blankly. "Why would I do that? It's not that as if we work in the same department and we were introduced to one another by our first names." And oh, how he remembers Trace addressing him as Lorenzo. "And when people used to talk about you or whenever you were mentioned or brought up," He's talking pre-Spellbound most likely, "They would always say Trace Accardi or Accardi's son." One of many, probably. Now he has a question, "Why does it matter? Does it bother you?"

When Enzo sits, Trace does as well, turning and sinking back down against the wall until he's just settled on the floor again. This time, he draws his knees up enough to rest his folded arms on top of them. He listens to the answer as he studies Enzo across that short distance between them. At first, the answer doesn't seem to make all that much sense to him, but as it goes on, there's a certain understanding there.

Finally, he just nods without any further comment or question, letting his eyes close and his head rest back against the wall again, as though he were perhaps going to try telepathy one more time. Or maybe actually take that nap.

"Does it matter?" he asks back in turn without opening his eyes.

In contrast to Trace, Enzo's sitting crossed legged, leaning forward so that he's resting an elbow against the side of one knee. The other hand begins to loosen at his tie, before stopping midway to reach for his phone again as if a signal would magically appear. At least, he'll know the time.

By now, Enzo doesn't expect Trace to be using his powers to try and contact anyone. They did that already, so if anything, he's probably just resting.

The returned question also goes unanswered.

Instead, Enzo just silently observes what he'll assume is a weary Accardi for a moment as he finishes with the tie loosening. After a long moment more, he murmurs, "So this is how I die. Trapped in this room with no food. Or water." And it's only then does his gaze shift away from Trace to look at the boxes around them, "And no one in the park having any interest in any of these useless lights. And on top of that, I'm stuck here with you." It's obvious that he's being over dramatic here.

Trace is silent as well for some time, just sitting there and breathing. Perhaps he's meditating. Who knows? His expression relaxed. It's that quiet murmur that has his shoulders shaking though, a grin spreading across his lips, and then he starts to laugh. "How very dramatic," he says as he opens his eyes and looks over at Enzo again. "You're not going to die. And I'm sure as hell not going to die stuck in a storage closet with you."

"If I'm going to die, it's going to be in some kind of amazing explosion gone wrong, or at least something more interesting than this."

Perhaps that's what Enzo wanted to get out of Trace. Hearing the other laugh, makes him laugh as well. Oh he knows how ridiculous that whole statement sounded.

Tilting his head back now, resting against the wall, he idly studies the ceiling as Trace speaks of dying in an explosion. "Too bad you don't have any of your fireworks with you here. Now."

What Enzo is searching for right now is a grate, perhaps loose panels in the ceiling. He's putting that architect's mind to work. Daddy's money didn't all go to waste.

"What is above us?" He asks, before deciding to stand and get that employee map of his to double check. Yes, it has some of his notes written down, but he's trying to see if there's any ventilation corridors leading anywhere.

Trace chuckles a little and says, "Oh no, the only thing worse than dying tragically alone in a closet with you would be sharing my magnificent and dramatic death by colorful explosion with you. Get your own fabulous ending." The grin doesn't leave his features, though, clearly entertained.

He looks upward as well but that doesn't do him much good. It's definitely a ceiling and there's definitely air vents and lights up there but neither of those things illuminate what might be above. "No idea," he admits. "I kind of lose all sense of direction down here."

The map gets a curious look and he says, "Ah, so that's it. Secretly you're a jewel thief. That explains a lot. The skulking around. The mysterious maps. The fascination with crawling through ventilation systems. You were probably down here looking for some jewels you stashed for later and just forgot where you put them. I mean, that's fair. I wouldn't write down where I stashed my ill-gotten goods on a map just anyone could find, either."

The map is pretty detailed as far as where the corridors and rooms are marked with numbers, letters, probably even a key to what should be there. But maps very rarely hold detailed schematics of ventilation systems. It certainly goes somewhere but there's no telling where.

As for where they are? Enzo could tell that they're between the castle and the amphitheatre, perhaps not far from the shed where they keep all the gardening equipment to maintain the ornamental gardens.

"Aren't you the selfish one." Enzo muses when he's told to get his own fabulous ending! Right now, however, his eyes are on the ceiling, before he's looking down at the map again. To the jewel thief thing, all that he can say is, "Been there, done that." He could be joking, but he's a bored rich kid. Maybe they run into bad influences who are thieves of sorts.

At first, seeing that they aren't beneath an actual place does bring some annoyance to Castillo's features, but he starts to do some calculations and he's even looking over towards the direction where, possibly, a garden shed might be above that space.

As he's doing this, the picture copies of the islands pre-Spellbound spill out onto the floor, picture side up. Sure, they look like the islands, but why? Either way, once he realizes that they'd fallen, Enzo is quick to reach down to pick them up, though his mind is too busy right now to even notice if Trace had noticed. "I think the gardening shed should be somewhere just above here. Maybe." Folding the map haphazardly, he's looking around the room for something to climb. A ladder, a chair. A table. Those shelves if they are close enough.

"Okay, fine, you can also explode if you want, I suppose," Trace says very generously, though not particularly seriously. He does laugh though at Enzo's response to his jewel thief nonsense. "Maybe a pirate. I could see you as a pirate. Searching for buried treasure. Is there an X on that map somewhere? Maybe we can search there if we manage to survive this ordeal."

When the pictures fall out of the map, Trace leans over and manages to pick up one of them, turning it over in his hand as Enzo reaches for the others. One brow creeps up as he looks at the photograph of the island with nothing on it but the abandoned structures that were there before the park was built. "Is that what you're after, Enzo? Buried treasure?" He's still joking, a little, but a little bit not.

There are the shelving units which are not exactly the most stable of climbing apparatus. That could end in an injury. But they are there, and they do seem to be secured to the floor and ceiling to prevent tipping over.

In Enzo's mind, a pirate was far more ridiculous than a jewel thief. And that's what makes him realize that Trace had seen at least one of the photos, especially when he glances over and sees the guy just turning one over in his hand there. Letting out a heavy sigh, he finally stops what he's doing to march over there in an attempt to snatch that one picture away from Accardi. What was written on it were either question marks or places where Enzo had drawn Spellbound landmarks to help him get a better idea of where things are in contrast to how things were back then.

"That is none of your business."

Still a little wary of what Trace might be thinking, he doesn't move or say anything for a few seconds, before he eventually gestures, "I might need you to keep me steady as I test out this ceiling."

When Enzo comes over and snatches the photo away from him, he doesn't try to hold onto it, just lets it go, one brow arching just a little bit. Then he lets out a sigh of his own and says, "Fine, keep your pirate ninja jewel thief business to yourself." And then he pulls himself up to standing again. Looking up to the ceiling and then back to Enzo he looks like he really wants to make some sort of comment, but he doesn't. Finally he says, "Yeah, alright. You going to climb up?" He nods toward one of the nearest shelving units.

The photo is stashed into the folded up map when Enzo has the chance and he says nothing about Trace's complaint about his keeping secrets. In fact, he makes sure to slip both map and photos back into his blazer pocket, which after a moment of consideration, he decides to slip back on, while leaving it unbuttoned. If this were a way out, he didn't want to have to crawl back here to retrieve it.

"Yeah, I'm going to climb up on the shelving units and try to sense exactly where we are. Like I said, the garden shed should be around here. If we can either push our way through, or climb through the vent and possibly into the shed or further..." He shrugs his shoulders, "We might be able to get out of here."

And just like that, he starts the scramble onto the shelf. It's not the most stable and steady, at least for him, so that's why he wanted Trace there, just in case. From there, he'll begin to push up at the ceiling. Would it be dirt? Wood? Concrete? Metal? A vent? Who knows!

Trace moves over to the shelving unit and places one hand on it to provide a bit of stability. The other reaches out just slightly without actually touching Enzo -- there if he wants to grab onto it, or if Trace needs to grab onto him -- but otherwise letting him climb unimpeded. He makes no particular play for the things Enzo has tucked away in his jacket. He won't forget them, but they're on to some Mission Impossible shit now.

And so Trace hums the Mission Impossible theme as Enzo begins to climb up and push at the ceiling. It's a modern concrete structure so there is no dirt above. Beyond the drop ceiling there is some interstitial space where the air ducts and duct work sit below the actual concrete ceiling. There are vents that one could pry loose and feasibly wriggle into the air ducts if one wanted to make that attempt.

Trace remains on the ground, just keeping an eye on Enzo for the time being.

When he's up there and Trace is being his musical accompaniment, at one point Enzo stops what he's doing to look down at the guy, "Do you have to do that? I don't know why I ask, you're just going to do it anyway."

"Okay, I think I could fit into this vent." There's a part of him that wants to whip out that map again and do more calculations, but he figures he ought to trust his instincts. And whipping out that map right now was not convenient. Not while he's up here on the shelf thing anyway.

He works to hoist himself up to bring himself closer to the nearest vent and attempt to pry it open, before doing what he can to squeeze into the actual air duct with those shoulders.

"No," Trace says. He absolutely doesn't have to do it. But he chuckles and stops, not continuing on afterward. "You could just ask me to stop."

Watching as Enzo gets the cover on the vent free and opens it up, he studies it skeptically but makes no comment to deter him from his plan. "Just remember if you get stuck in there, I can't fly. And then you're going to have to wait for maintenance stuck in a metal tube." Encouraging.

But still, he keeps the shelving steady so that Enzo can climb up and watches as he actually does manage to get himself into the air duct. It's definitely a squeeze, but his shoulders do fit. That doesn't mean it's going to be a comfortable crawl around in there, and it's definitely not as pristine as they make them out to be in the movies. But there he is.

Trace watches from below, just prepared to do.. whatever is in his limited power to do while Enzo is up there. Then, almost as an afterthought..

<< I know you don't like this.. but if I make the connection now, when you get further in you can let me know if you get stuck. >> His voice is clear in Enzo's head, far clearer than the first time.

Enzo is grateful when the Mission Impossible theme stops being hummed. It was making him a little anxious and was breaking his focus. He will call out, however, "I did just ask you to stop." In Enzo's mind, complaining equals asking someone to stop doing something apparently.

He's also not at all happy about Trace's words of encouragement, even if those were thoughts that had popped into his mind as he was making the plan to do this.

"Ugh. It's disgusting in here." He murmurs more to himself than speaking it aloud for anyone else to hear. He even lets out a couple of sneezes when he breathes in some dust particles. Yes, he was already having regrets. He was pretty sure he was crawled in facing the correct direction of what should be that garden shed, so he begins the crawl that way.

Trace's voice comes in loud and clear this time and at first Enzo was wondering if the guy was shouting from where he'd left him or if Enzo himself was hallucinating right now. Telepathy this time around didn't feel any less violating to him or comforting to him since the last time it was tried on him, but now he's trying to remember how he was supposed to respond back.

<< Was I supposed to look at him to think at him or... >> In his mind, he's actually thinking at Trace as if he were holding a conversation without talking, even if he doesn't quite realize it. << Well I can't go back and look at him now. Jesus Christ... >>

With Enzo up in the vent, disappearing from sight, Trace is left standing there holding onto the shelving unit which he eventually just lets go of. And with nothing else to do from where he is, he just sits down on the floor cross-legged and lets out a bit of a sigh. As much as Enzo's constant latent hostility bothered him, suddenly having him NOT there wasn't any more comfortable.

But then he hears that voice in his own head and his lips twitch into a bit of an amused smile. << I can hear you if you think at me. Like now. If you think about sending me the message, I can hear it. Just.. reach out if you run into any trouble. >> Is there a note of genuine concern there? Maybe. But then he's quiet, leaving Enzo to his own thoughts.

The duct work is not only a bit dusty but there's some very precarious creaking as he is crawling and shuffling along through it. It wasn't meant to hold a person's weight inside. It's for air traveling through, not passengers. So it definitely doesn't feel particularly secure.

As he continues to go, he reaches intersections where the duct goes down, where it goes up, and where it continues to branch out to the left and right.

Enzo can definitely sense the way the duct creaked uneasily with each and every of his movements. This means he had to go slowly and more carefully than he'd been doing when he originally clambered up here.

There's a long moment of nothing being transmitted from Enzo's own thoughts as he tries to figure out the best way to maneuver through some fragile sections of the air duct. Then it's at some point, perhaps not liking the quiet, himself, that something comes through. << Did you really do nothing and wait how many hours for Security to unlock the door for you? >> It's a somewhat belittling inquiry, but he's more amused than anything when he asks.

Around that time, however, he comes to this crossroads and he has to think back on the map. He recalls the garden shed being nearby and above, but what room could the air duct going down possibly be connected to. Which room is close to the storage room?

Trace reaches for his phone and fiddles with it. There's not a lot that he can do without signal, but he can read the books that he's already downloaded on Kindle, so he just opens one up and starts thumbing through it.

The sound of Enzo's voice has him smiling just a little wryly. << I didn't do NOTHING. I tried every way I knew how to get the door open. I definitely didn't try crawling through the air ducts though. And after a while? Yeah. I just played on my phone for a while til they came through and then got me out. I'm clearly not the super ninja pirate operative that you are. >> His own tone is just as amused.

Where indeed would the duct be going down to? Is there a sublevel below the sublevel? How far down do things go? Mysterious. As for what is close to the storage? More storage. More workrooms. Maybe even the break room at the castle level if one goes in the opposite direction from the gardening shed and the amphitheatre and instead back under the castle.

Well, now the downward duct does have Enzo curious and he idly scratches as his chin as he ponders this. It's probably not all that idle and insignificant an action, he's probably feeling a little itchy just being in here with dust and who knows what! This was no time to just explore willy nilly, however. He really wanted to get out of this freakin' god damn air duct right now. He will make a note of this location and jot it down on the map later, just in case. For now, it's onward and upward.

<< So did you manage to get the high score in, >> Enzo doesn't really play games on his phone and if he did it would be minecraft or something for the building, so he takes a guess, << You look like a Candy Crush guy, >> Yeah, he's making a dig at Trace, << Anyway, I may or may not have found the garden shed, so I'm going to try and climb my way up and hopefully, I'm correct. If you don't hear back, well, I may have fallen into what could be a pit leading down into Hell for all I know. Not checking down there. Yet. >>

And with that, he starts to try and shimmy his way up, up the duct.

For a moment, all Enzo gets in response from Trace is the very clear image of him flipping Enzo the bird. It's definitely a mental image rather than words, crisp and clear. Whatever link they have this time is capable of transmitting much more than the previous one. << It's okay. You look like a guy who wouldn't quite know how to get an app to work on his phone. >>

Then he's quiet again as Enzo describes where he's at. He turns the phone over in his hands, staring at it for a moment or two and then sends back just a quiet, << Be careful. >>

Shimmying up a vertical metal duct is not an easy prospect, especially if one wasn't dressed for climbing or with shoes or gloves with any kind of grip, but using his shoulders to press on one side of the duct and carefully edging his way upward, he is able to make it further up. It's a little louder up here. There are sounds coming from other rooms where the ductwork leads, but it's hard to tell the direction they're coming from. And then there's the slow whoomp whoomp whoomp of fans turning as well, further up and a little further to what would be west.

Yep, Enzo was not expecting to be flipped off mentally, but there it is and that makes him laugh outright. In truth, he was also regretting this decision to tunnel rat. Just the sleeves and fabric of his blazer and slacks along with his shoes are making it difficult to cling onto the sides of the duct despite his best efforts to keep himself from sliding down too far by expanding his body horizontally as he works to spread his arms and legs out further. Would it really be bad here if he kicked a hole in the duct? It would be his foothold and make things slightly easier for the rest of the climb. He's also breathing harder now with the exertion of just keeping himself in place as much possible.

"Okay," He starts talking to himself rather than using that mental link, "Maybe I just need to double back a little," He's not expecting to go all the way back to the storage room, "Lose the blazer, roll up the sleeves of the shirt, kick off my shoes and socks." He's not even sure there's enough space in the duct to perform any of this, though he could possibly kick off his shoes and things without needing to reach for them. "Think... You are so close."

In his mind, all he could do was continue on as he does so as loudly as he can. Not verbally, but any time his knee of his foot strikes against the side of the duct, that can be heard. He really is trying to maybe break something if it will help. For all he knows, the duct he's in now could collapse around him, but he can't think about that now!

There's little to do but to keep going. Doubling back would only be backtracking and wouldn't make it much easier to get out of his blazer. He could certainly kick off his shoes and socks, letting them fall into that hole and going wherever it goes, but for now he's making progress, and he continues to make progress regardless of whether he sheds them. It's hard progress. It takes time. But he eventually gets to a place where not only the ducts turn horizontal again but where they open up to where several large fans turn slowly. And beyond, the sounds of people working outside. He can hear some conversations clearly enough, talking about hauling some new fencing to fix a corner of the gardens, some complaining about the frost on the blooms. Groundskeepers at work.

Once he's reached a point where he doesn't need to climb any further, that's the time when Enzo feels that he can finally relax. He just has to pull his way up onto the horizontal surface and just take a much needed breather there. He was exhausted and breathing hard, where he's pretty sure every muscle in his body is going going to be aching tonight and even more so tomorrow.

Okay. He could hear things. He could see things from here. People! Other employees! Banging against the duct, he calls out to the groundskeeper, "Hey! I could use a little help down here!" He moves his way closer as he continues to try and call attention to himself with as much noise as possible. Yes, this was humiliating, but he had to do what he had to do. "I'm down in the vent!!" Before murmuring more to himself, "Don't make me have to find something to throw to get your attention."

Fortunately for Enzo, after only a few moments of confusion, someone pokes their head up close to the vents and asks, "What the hell are you doing in there?" Then of course there's some "Stay right there" and "We'll get you out." And eventually there is some banging, some prying, and the fan assembly on the front of the exhaust outlet is pulled off, opening to the cool crisp air of an outlet behind the gardening shed, hidden away from public view but tucked back near where the workers are pulling tools and equipment out of the shed.

One of the groundskeepers offers Enzo a hand out and then peers down into the air ducts. "What in the bloody hells were you doing, Castillo?" the man asks, recognizing him from work around the Castle.

Down below, in the storage room, Trace glances up at the opening in the ventilation duct, unaware of what's going on above. A little furrow crosses his brow.

Enzo's been breathing in this filthy air this whole time that he's more than happy to just draw in the good stuff once the fan is removed and he's helped out of the vent. He's covered in dust and all manners of things one would find in an air ducts. His skin was damp from being stuck in such tight quarters for so long and then there was the climb. All he could do for a long moment was remain in that semi-hunched forward, semi-crouch and just breathe.

"Thanks..." He says between breaths. He then points to the vents, looking as he's about to explain, but he needs a moment.

A moment he might not need to, perhaps, return a message back to Trace and let the other know that things were okay. Enzo was thinking about it, he truly was, as he worked to compose himself. For some reason, however, he just couldn't bring himself to do it. There was a part that wanted to, if only to give the other the A-OK. Instead, he straightens himself up and dusts himself off. "Let Maintenance know that someone is locked in the storage room in the tunnels." He even gives the exact location if prompted. There's a pause on whether to leave it vague, but eventually he states, "Trace Accardi, the Pyrotechnician. We were trapped there for a while, so I climbed my way out of through the air duct."

Enzo's not even planning on heading back there himself now. He needs a good drink and a much needed shower, even though, technically, he's still on the clock and has been this whole time, but no one could reach him. Though as he returns back to his apartment to freshen up and see if they'll force him to work the rest of his shift or not, he has to wonder what Accardi must be thinking right now and what he'll think when Maintenance sets him free.