Mystery Box

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Suggestion: Dispel the Doppeldumpster, and get Cam in trouble with the P.I.G.G.S.

>Discard the evidence! There is no pink dumpster here.

Well, dispelling your Doppelmancy will have meant that Cam called these P.I.G.G.S for no reason. That's probably sure to get them a hefty fine attached to it. End the friendly, pink dumpster menace and then tell Cam that you were just trying to get a rise out of them, but now you have to work together or get in trouble with the Law?

>Come up with convincing counter-claim against Cam for the cops. Something like, "He stole my shirt and I just want it back."
>Maybe "He just admitted to having insider information in a major company and then selling stock in it."

With the Dumpster Alarm blaring, and the promise of "The P.I.G.G.S." headed your way, your start putting together an escape plan.

First, you release your spell, freeing the Mana used to form your Doppeldumpster, and letting it flow back into the environment. When you do, the piece of your imagination that was holding it together comes back to you too, and your head feels clearer and Less Distracted.

What's more, now the Belligerent Junk Upcycler has nothing left to complain about. He'll probably get in trouble with the P.I.G.G.S. too, for setting off what turned out to be a False Alarm.

If you get away, of course.

Even so, you briefly consider sticking around. You could try to turn this situation around on him, and get him in Even More Trouble, just out of spite... but recent events have drained your Sass Capacitor. Which is to say, you're not sure you're ready to go up against a Dumpster Merchant in a battle of scams again. The stakes have been raised, and you're still feeling the sting of your last defeat.

Or, at least, the sting of something...

You can't help but feel like you made a bad call at some point. Maybe it was by tempting fate, and trying to out-swindle an Experienced Swindler like him. Or maybe the wrong call was the part where you taunted him, and rubbed your Magical Replication Powers in his face. Or the part where you goaded him into getting himself in trouble, and generally made life shittier for someone who literally already spends his life in a Public Rubbish Bin. All so you could try (and fail) to make a quick buck at his expense.

If you had any parents in the traditional sense, you're pretty sure they'd be disappointed in you for one of those reasons. Nevertheless, you feel like this situation has provided you with a valuable Learning Experience. That's gotta be worth something, right?

[box=#808080 width=full border=2]New Experience:

---

• Lost your cool, and failed to swindle money out of Cam the Dumpster Merchant.[/box]

Anyway, that's more than enough enough self reflection. The Alarm is still ringing deafeningly in your ears, and who knows how long it'll take for the Authorities to get here. Time to make tracks!

The quickest and safest route is probably through the doors connected to the Fire Escape. And with Cam and who knows how many other witnesses nearby, you don't want to have to shed your Cardboard Camo to climb up there...

>wear the boots
>jump up ladder

Instead, you shift your feet in your Boots of Stomping, making sure they're nice and secure. Then, you crouch low, close your eyes, and focus on the flow of Ambient Mana pooling under the soles of your feet. With any luck, these will be enough to launch you up there.

Almost ready...

3...

2...

1...

Now!

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Flannery leaps up toward the Fire Escape platform...

6+10 (Fate) +1 (Boots of Stomping) -2 (Clumsy) = 15 (Compromise)

[box=#808080 width=full border=2]Compromised Act of Might:

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• You succeed, but face a mixed outcome or cost.[/box]

With a Magically-Enhanced Leap, your box-shrouded silhouette rockets skyward. You easily clear the first-story platform... though perhaps by too much, because when your Boots of Stomping come down on the Fire Escape Platform, they come down hard...

Your feet crash against the grate. Through the blaring of the alarm, you hear the groaning protest of Strained Metal, and the cracking of the Brickwork it's mounted to. You freeze, balancing as the Platform shudders and twists away from the doorway... but it slows, as the ladders up and down strain to hold the platform in place.

Needless to say, this Fire Safety Escape is definitely no longer safe, per se... but it seems to be holding together.

[2x1] [|] [box=https://solifuge.github.io/mysterybox/text/grey/box.png border=16]First dumpster piracy, next conspiring to run an illegal business, and then threatening to collapse the economy... but that wasn't enough? Now you're... vandalizing public safety equipment?!

You're a menace, Justabox Actually![/box][/2x1]

As the Broken Platform bobs and wobbles below you, you hear a very distressed-sounding Cam, shouting up from the alley below.

You don't want to linger on the Fire Escape for a number of reasons at this point. Still, without taking off your Cardboard Camo, you're forced to use a long series of Needlessly Complicated Nudges to turn the doorknob. You step up into the doorway, glad the platform held, and hoping this hasn't cost you too much time...

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Suggestion: Taunt Cam with one last Incantation, and make something to throw off your pursuers.

Dispel dumpster. Copy wall. Hide in wall.

you're gonna need a disguise. dopplemance your boxclothes for a fresh new look

"hee hee ha hoo hoo.
i hail from the coop.
most of the time, i show my sunny side;
as for you, you see my hardboiled hide"
>then enter the door without any further explanation

>Skedaddle.

Just in case, you decide to ply a final act of Doppelmancy. From the seclusion of the doorway, you scrape together the first Rhyming Incantation you can think of, and shout your spell over the Alarming Noise.

[2x1] [|] [box=https://solifuge.github.io/mysterybox/text/flannery/magic.gif border=16]Hee hee, ha, hoo hoo!
I hail from the coop!
Most of the time, I show my Sunny Side;
As for you, you see my Hardboiled Hide![/box][/2x1]

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Flannery tries to copy the Cardboard Camo into a convincing dummy...

7+5 (Fate) +3 (Insight) -1 (Weak Incantation) = 14 (Compromise)

[box=#808080 width=full border=2]Compromised Doppelmancy:

---

• Your copy has some issues; namely 2 Major Flaws, or 3 Minor Flaws.[/box]

You weave nearby Mana into a rough approximation of your Cardboard Camo, leaving behind a little Piece of Your Mind to sustain it.

You know the Incantation wasn't your finest work... you're still kinda hung up on this whole "over-easy" egg theme you've got going on, which kinda clashes with the copycat/cat burglar thing, and the box thing, and... honestly your aesthetic is all over the place. Plus, though the Alliteration in the last couplet was nice, you feel like the Irregular Meter and Slant Rhyme in the first couplet hecked up your Doppelmancy a bit.

That, or it was the General Frustration you're feeling, about not having Use of Your Arms while wearing this box...

A lot of the details are off, but even if it doesn't fool them, the distraction will hopefully be enough to keep the P.I.G.G.S. off your trail for a bit longer. With this fake Cardboard Criminal in place on the lower platform, you slip away from the Noisy Alley, and let the door close behind you.