TF on 16/4/2005 at 22:03

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2686) :L

TTK12G3 on 17/4/2005 at 19:28

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2687) When you walk into a building or area you have an unusual urgency to start your trek with a high inward hop.

2688) You later figure out that if you didn't do that hop, you would fall through the map and fall eternally down. (dromeders...)

2689) Even later, you figure out that the floor is totally solid, and nothing can change that except your mouse.

2690) Even later, you figure out that the floor is totally solid, and nothing can change that.

2691) You seriously think that the police will give a crap about the "dictionary definition" of robbery after catching you trying to repel down a neighbor's wall with half of his or her crap...(The part where it says "intent to keep").

Bronze Griffin on 21/4/2005 at 19:32

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2688) You constantly quote from Hammerite Compendiums of Precepts, Regimens and Rules of Conduct whenever you're in a sticky situation.

Domarius on 22/4/2005 at 16:59

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2690) You act out real life as a Thief mission when you need to be silent. (Maybe it's been said here before... sorry)

This is either going to seem really sad, or inspire other people to do the same. Or both. Or neither.

After 9pm, I'm not allowed to make any noise in my house, because my housemates made the rule to stop me from waking them up with my nocturnal activities. (I'm a Uni student)
The first night of this rule, I set my paramaters. Any noise loud enough that it might have disturbed somebody, like letting a plate fall from about an inch high into the metal sink, is classified as a yellow alert. Anything so loud that there is no chance anyone slept through it, say, accidently dropping a plate into the sink from nearly a foot above (happened last time), is a red alert.

Objective 1: Put my dirty dishes from my room into kitchen
Objective 2: Clean dishes
Objective 3: Get some form of food (food is like loot)
Objective 4: At some point you need to go to the toilet.
Objective 5: After you've done everything, get back to your bedroom.
Objective 6: No red alerts, and no more than 2 yellow alerts within the span of 60 seconds.

Grabbed plate and bowl,will have to come back for the cup. Tip-toed noislessly with bare feet. Put plate and bowl down with technique for noislessly placing them, by letting one side down gently, then letting the other side down on top of my fingers, and slowly sliding them out while gently lowering it with the other hand.

Decide to go for the toilet break. The toilet is like the elevator in Thief. All sorts of minor noises could wake people up, but flushing the toilet, an extremely noisy process, is somehow acceptable. Maybe people have grown to accept it. Anyway, Objective 4 complete.
On the way back I bring the last cup to the kitchen. Objective 1 complete. But I set it down imperfectly and it makes a metalic clunk on the sink. 1 yellow alert already. Damn.

Back in the kitchen, I decide to look for some food. I open the fridge and get a glass of milk for myself. Objective 3 complete. But as you know, some is never enough.
When I put the milk back I see the pizza box sitting on my shelf...

New objective: Wrap up pizza in plastic-wrap or else it'll go dry overnight.
Darn, I'd forgot about that. As I'm breaking it appart and tearing off plastic wrap tooth by tooth (that's one metal tooth at a time on the cutting edge of the plastic-wrap dispenser, to be quiet) I'm thinking how this would be a good excuse for food.
I contemplate. I won't eat it unless I can warm it up. And warming it up requires the microwave, which is too noisy and is completely out of the question.
Then I noticed the stove, that I was using to sit the pizza slices on. It had a griller. The griller makes no noise, it just heats up... I could use the griller to heat up the pizza... quietly I set a slice in and leave it on high. I finish wrapping the rest.

New objective: Dispose of pizza box or else it'll attract cockroaches overnight and my room mate will be mad.
Damn! Also its too big for the kitchen bin so I'm going to have to take it to the outside one. Okay, the pizza's been in long enough so I turn it off and go get my keys and travel to the front door with the pizza box. As I approach, I think "...carefull... these locks are going to need an expert's delicate touch. Their normal operation would qualify as a red alert." I set the box down, and I open the wooden door, holding the lock button in with my palm as I do so, so that it pops out noislessly. As I pull the door open noislessly, I'm thinking "...boy am I glad I oiled these hinges for such a situation." (totally true, I noticed the creaky doors on my first night living here and went at them with some WD-40 the next day, knowing about my nocturnal activities) Now for the security door. I find the right key, insert it one tooth at a time, then slowly start to turn. As I turn I notice the lock lever moving. I hold it with the other hand as I do, thinking I will catch its sharp movement toward the end and silence the click. I'm thinking I'm pretty smart. *CLICK!* Now I'm not. It clicked regardless of how the lever was moving. That's another yellow alert, but it's been a minute since the last, so its alright.
Then I turn the handle slowly. It seems to stop, and I push the security door. It won't open. I turn the handle further and it clunks down noisly. That's another yellow alert. One more and it's over. I'm pushing the door and I start to hear it creaking. I couldn't believe the oil had already run out, or even more preposterous, that I'd not oiled this door but oiled the other. Pushing it further revealed no more creaking, whew. It was oiled after all. I put the box in the bin, putting my arm down as far as I can before letting it fall.
When I lock the doors on the way in, it's been a minute since the last yellow alert, so I can afford the click of the lock.

When I come back in, I slide out my newly heated slice of pizza and start to eat it.

Bonus objective: Eat a slice of pizza for food.
Woohoo! Didn't expect to be doing that. I finish the pizza slice and start to clean up. When I scrape the grape seeds off the plate, I scrape them one by one into a bunch and let them all fall in, thinking that one quiet noise will be less noticible than lots of repeated quiet noises. I put the tap on a trickle, and put the plate under it, and the water starts to make a noise hitting the plate, so I put the knife in the way of the stream so it hits it first and runs down to the plate silently. When its full enough, I slowly clean everything in the water of the plate. I'm a bit careless when I turn the bowl over and it clunks the plate. One yellow alert. When I go to sit them on the bench, I realise that setting a plate down, upside down is a whole lot harder to do noiselessly because I take advantage of the lip being curled up to slide my hand out and let it drop. No matter how slowly I pull my fingers out, I can see that the plate is going to drop noisly down the distance of the thickness of my fingers. So I set the last edge down on the rubber cord of the toaster.

I slowly pull the plug to let the water out of the sink. It gurgles loudly and I put it back instantly. I noticed that the noise came from the drain in the adjacent sink. I covered it with my hand and unplugged the sink again. Much quieter this time.

Objective 2 complete.

I go back to my bedroom. Objective 5 complete. Objective 6 complete.

Mission complete.

(Narrative cutscean)
"After that, I went through the usual process of brushing my teeth silently, something I do every night. The extra slice of pizza I found will really pay off, since I won't be getting up later in the night for something else. And the girls are still sleeping soundly in their beds, none the wiser..."

Marlow on 22/4/2005 at 21:53

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2691) Whenever you see something interesting, you say to yourself: