Eyebrow deep in firemen?? Nikki though, also finding a bit of naughty pleasure in the idea. Best not to get her knickers knotted now, though. She tried to focus on Staci's comments, then nodded as she finished and asked for volunteers for nexties.

"I'm echoing Staci. My forte is Drama and Social Studies, but I've also got some talent in firearms and general poking around, yanno?" she shrugged. "I'm out for computer stuff and could pick up a thing or two from Vanda on sneaking around. I'm better at blending in than disappearing."

Emma groaned inwardly, wondering what on Earth Miss Fritton was thinking to have drawn her into this circle. Her skills were woefully useless in a heist. Sure, her ability to pass unnoticed was commendable; but she doubted seriously that she was a match for either Nikki or Vanda. Her needlework was passable, but again, she suspected there were others in their group that were far more talented in that arena.

"I've some talent for Needlework, passable at the very least," she offered, clearly uncomfortable with tooting her own horn. "I, too, am comfortable drawing little attention when required. My talents rest more in the ... healing or harming ... Biology and Home Economics." She carefully left out her passion for interrogation and torture techniques. "Perhaps I could help with distraction or at least reducing the number of persons responding to unauthorized activity?"

"My needlework skills are middling but, depending on the types of lock we're dealing with, careful applications of chemistry will get us just as far even if they're not as easy to cover up afterwards."  Dani had never really understood the fascination with firemen, the uniforms were bulky and heavy and they tended to rain on her parade, quite literally.  When it came to men in uniform, she preferred cammo and khaki.  "Obviously with the spell slinging and the building toy and stuff.  I can run distraction so long as you want something loud or confusing rather than showing a bit of cleavage and having the building drooling over it."  Dani's methods, even when they didn't involve explosions, were likely to have her talking a mile a minute about anything and everything rather than the more dramatic, performance basis that the other girls worked from.

Vanda listened to the others and offered her contribution."Covert intrusion is my forte, I suppose, and I'm pretty good with magic and potions, but my needlework is limited to the likes of office doors and desk drawers. There's not a hope of me cracking a safe. I can show a bit of leg, like the next girl, but ingratiation is definitely not my field. You need a posse of first years to cause a distraction, though, and you've got it."

Eustacia read her notes and pursed her lips... "Well, it looks like we really need to get Dani and Emma in to bust open the safe. They're the best we have with locks, and I am pretty sure if it needs more, that Danielle can figure it out. She's pretty good with the technical stuff. Then again, so is Taffy. Do you think we could get all three of them in? The more we send, the larger the chance of being spotted. Distractions - I think we have that covered. I mean, with Nikki's legs, and that funny sort of wiggle, that'll definitely be handy. I could easily rustle up some sort of incident if we needed one. And if in doubt - unleash the kids and hide under a desk until the screaming stops. I think we need to go take a nose around the offices, though. Doing a heist blind is always going to be a big risk."

Nikki nodded along with Eustacia's comments, the others' as well. "I agree we should case the place first. Should be easy enough to do, I'd think." She looked to Vanda - she was the Prefect, that made her 'in charge', she supposed. "How do you want to divvy us up?"

[OOC: I think that's the right thing to do, correct? To get Vanda's bonuses for our tasks? -Ken]
This message was last edited by the player at 02:49, Tue 08 Mar 2016.

[Plan Statement]"I think the first thing is to get Taffy to do some remote checks on the building layout, security and timetabling.[End] That way, we can get some idea of what we're up against. There's no point in planning elaborate distractions if we find that every Thursday afternoon the whole staff is in a meeting and they leave an alley door open.

"Taffy, can you do that now? How long will it take?"

Vanda loosed a momentary grin to the others.
"Any bets she's already done it?"

"Not one I'm willing to take." Nikki retorted with a smile.

"Most of that is done already."

Angharad, smiling to herself like a cat with a bowl of cream, took her laptop over to the big screen and plugged it in. A wireframe diagram began to unfold.

"This is the building in which the Vague offices are to be found. You enter here... then there is a swipe-card barrier for employees here that leads to a lift to their floors, which are 7, 8, and 9 - at the top of the building. The lift also goes to the basement, where there is limited parking..."

Vanda examined the diagram.
"OK, what I'm thinking is, if you can get at least two of us with temp-agency ID and swipe access from the parking garage to the Vague floors, and arm us with video cameras, we can get a small, concealable group in there, but let others with a need to know see what we're doing, via a virtual presence. A couple of physical ghosts and a bunch of virtual ghosts. I think I'd be best for covert access, and Dani should get a first-hand view of the safe. Do we need anyone else on the physical entry?
"Where exactly is the safe, anyway?"

A flashing red heart appears on the screen, in a tenth floor office.

"There he is."

The schematic shows that there are no surprises on the security front - fire doors activated by swipe cards lead to the elevators and stairwells, but other than standard door keys, nothing stands in the way, physically. Security cameras and probably walking guards and cleaners are the only personel who are around out of working hours.

The safe details are more concerning. It is double locked - a normal safe mechanism that should fall prey to rudimentary needlework. There's also a more complex time-operated deadbolt, which is nonetheless physical. It is neither hackable, nor is it something to be opened with standard equipment. Some jiggery-pokery seems necessary. A job for the science minded, with explosives, chemicals, or less risky fiddling around with complex tools. CDT and Physics look like the order of the day.

Eustacia examined the images closely. "I think it depends on how you want to do it. If you want to case the joint sneakily, you need one bunch. Alternatively, if you want someone to go in an take a look around in daytime, undercover, then you want Nikki and my good self. It might be worth doing. If we can have a day or so - even an afternoon - inside, we might be able to get our hands on some handy intelligence. Who the magazine is talking to about possible judges, and the various door keys, or their locations. We could hide when everyone heads out at night, pop down and let you in... Do the Trojan Horse, so to speak." She beamed winningly at Nikki. "I'll be the Greeks. You already look like the horse!"

She just couldn't resist a little barb...
This message was last edited by the player at 20:36, Fri 11 Mar 2016.

Vanda had to grudgingly admit - only ever to herself, of course - that Minky's idea was better than her own. At least for the daylight operation. They would still need stealth for the night raid, of course.

"That's another way to do it," she said, non-committally.

"Looks like we may need some serious science to get into that safe, though.
Unless we get some entity to enter the safe from another plane and simply hand the papers over."

"Acid." Dani piped up.  "And not the kind that comes in tabs.  I've got a nice little prep that eats through metal in no time flat.  I mean, we can't exactly hide the fact that someone has broken in, but it will get us through.  We could try something with electro-magnets I suppose but that's assuming there's a high enough steel content in the bolt and that it's a straight draw back bolt with nothing fancy.  I mean, we could always go with the old classic of a plasma cutter but that seems a bit excessive for a stealth job."

Vanda shook her head. "No good, Dani. They can't know that the papers have been compromised, or they'll just change the questions. We need to do this without a trace."

Eustacia donned a rather smug expression. "Thank you. And... forest. Trees." She shrugged casually. "If we make it look like we were after something else, and the papers seem to have been undisturbed, they'll not think twice. For example, if we break in and make off with all the designs for the winter lines, which will certainly be there as they will be doing a full spread on them at some point in summer or autumn, then they will assume they have been burgled by some shifty types who are going to make cheap sweatshop knockoffs. Counterfeit high fashion is a multi-billion pound industry, especially in the far east. If they think they have been hit that way, they probably won't even think twice about the question papers. And, bonus! We can actually sell those designs too, giving us a nice little cherry on top of our cake."
This message was last edited by the player at 19:55, Sat 12 Mar 2016.

"Well one way or another that safe has to be opened and that means getting through or around that deadbolt.  I'll take a shot with the electromagnets but I think through is our best bet.  And usually I'm all for summoning things to get the job done, but whatever it is will still need to get the papers out somehow and something that fragile doesn't tend to survive long if it needs to be taken through...interesting planes.  If we leave enough mess and only take copies they won't pay much attention."  Well, it was close to admitting Eustacia had a good idea anyway.  Typical of the other girl to find a way of making it all about fashion though.

"I'd rather look like a horse than be hung like one." Clearly indicating that Eustacia not only had a penis, but one of considerable size and girth.

She chuckled. "Despite Staci's endowment she's got a good idea for a plan, as far as I'm concerned. Who said all boys are dumb?"

"Perhaps add an artistic touch, one of the question papers on the floor with a boot print on it, ripped a bit - something discarded as of no interest," said Angharad, trying to get into the spirit of things.

She'd rather understand the safe technology and open it untracebly. At least they didn't seem to have a glass relocker. Those were tough!

"Is it possible to get a replica of the safe they use?" Emma asked softly. "I mean, I'm no scientist, but it seems wise to get a close up look at what we're dealing with and fiddle with it a bit before we have to actually open it. And we may find, when we're not looking at pictures or internet descriptions, that we can finesse the lock without flashbangs." An eagerness brightened her shy eyes, "I think we - Angharad and Dani -  might be able to figure out how to work around the complex mechanism..."
This message was last edited by the player at 14:27, Tue 15 Mar 2016.

Eustacia rolled her eyes. Penis jokes. How very colonial. "So, if we case the joint first to be sure of what we are getting into, we can then do the actual burglary that night, or the evening after if we have to make specialised tools. We could get a similar safe, but that would prolong things a lot. But I doubt they would have a customised safe, they do not seem like the type. We'd need to hack their computers to give us an excuse to be there, walking around. We could be visiting interns, but I am thinking maybe we could be journalists, there to do an article on the wonderful Vague magazine, and how everyone should aspire to be like them. Trust me, ego flattery is simply the best opening of all time. So, if we can get put onto the diary of someone in PR or HR, we can waltz in and have a leisurely day wandering around, asking people questions, scoping the lay of the land. That should get all the info we need, and then you sneaky safe-cracking types can pop in, loot the place, and pop back out again. Make it look like you're after valuable fashion information, and they'll be so worked up over that they would not even think it was the quiz we were really after. I mean, who would rob them just for the questions? It's pretty far fetched!"

She toyed with her pen thoughtfully. "I wonder how much we could get for this winter's designs if we did sell them. I'm thinking Christmas, Malibu, beach party, not having to watch the Two Ronnies yet again..."

Eustacia had a tendency to get ahead of herself, and usually spent her money before she even had it.

"Getting a replica safe might not be a bad idea," admitted Vanda. "Maybe Miss Fritton could persuade the suppliers that the school wants a demonstration of that model for our own exam papers. We could have the safe company describing exactly how it works and how it defeats unauthorized access, then, while the sales rep is having a cuppa with our friendliest girls, we could have our own look at it."

"A replica would be good." Dani nodded.  "That way we can have a real poke at it without there being problems involved with screwing up.  Not that I plan on screwing up.   I'm actually wondering if magic might be a solution, or a partial one.  If one of us can summon up the power to move the bolt without touching it."

She rolled her eyes at the sniping between Eustacia and Nikki, 'Stacia needed putting in her place occasionally she really could be a bitch, and beyond all levels of appropriateness for even a St T's girl.  "So we get a demo model of the safe, her ladyship gets the girls out and distracts the sales rep while we figure out a way around the bolt.  Then we go into the offices.  That how it stands so far?"  Surely it was pure coincidence that her gesticulations encompassed her chest area when she mentioned Eustacia's distraction techniques.

"Sounds like." Nikki said, nodding. "Vanda, why do you put it all together for us with a cute little animated sequence." she chuckled good-naturedly.