Five Loads Of Laundry, And A Stolen Painting

Yesterday, in between creating my character for Spud's rogue game, and actually playing Spud's rogue game, I decided that I had better do some laundry. Laundry is something that I am trying to do weekly (along with mowing my lawn, and cleaning my house), however I have enough clothing that I can easily last about two or three weeks before I'm having to re-wear something that isn't a pair of pants - and let's face it, pants can be worn for weeks assuming that you haven't spilt anything on them.

The fact that I own neither a washing machine, nor a car, makes my laundry task quite annoying - if I have anything more than a single basket to clean, or if it's raining (as it was yesterday) then I have to get someone to give me a lift. This means that I'm no longer cleaning on my own schedule, I'm now subject to the whims of the all powerful driver.

The aforementioned struggle to complete what seems like the most basic of garment hygiene rituals, coupled with the fact that I decided that I'd like to clean all of my winter clothing before I pack it away for the summer, meant that yesterday I had to do five machines worth of laundry. This wouldn't be too bad if I didn't have to mind my laundry for fear of it being stolen, and if the inside of the laundromat was not unlike being stuck inside a room full of machines designed to generate heat and moisture constantly (which, incidentally, it is.)

But I struggled through, and about two hours later I had a very large pile of clean (if not still slightly damp, but only just) clothes laying on my bed, just waiting to be sorted, and either hung up or packed away. I now, if you were wondering, have a very large pile of clean clothes laying on my floor (which, thankfully, is also clean - except for the giant pile of clothing sitting on it.)

Following my laundry misadventures (speaking of which, I just remembered that I left a load of washing in a drier there...Let's hope it's still there tonight...) we played our first session of Spud's rogue game.

I had started to write a post about this on Saturday, but got distracted by actually creating my character, and then watching Whose Line Is It Anyway? for several hours. Blogging on the weekend, as it turns out, is incredibly difficult.

My character in Spud's game is named Arlington Steele, and he is what I am calling a "Face" - he is a con-man who gets his jollies from pretending to be someone he's not in order to steal that painting, get that large sum of money, or just stuff you around royally. It's not that he's a bad person, he just finds that his acting talents weren't getting him anywhere on the legitimate stage, and so he decided to take his talent out onto the stage of life, where the audience is always slightly more believing (and malleable...)

So for Arlington's first job in this game, he has to steal a painting (see, I told you "steal that painting") from a rather...erm...passionate collector. The plan that I developed for this heist is as follows:

1. Pose as Derrick Dominoe, representative for Chester Sandwick - reknowned art critic and collector from the "high society" area of the city, and generate the idea in the owner that the painting could be sold for much more than he paid for it.
2. Return to the owner's house two days later to make "further inquiries" on behalf of 'Chester'. While in the room with the painting, create a diversion (using prestidigitation) that requires the owner to leave the room momentarily. Upon the return of the owner, act suspicious, and make a hasty exit of the house.
3. Post as Lachlan Tonnel, undercover watch representative, and inform the owner of the house that we believe that his copy of the painting has been stolen and replaced with a fake. Use prestidigitation on the painting in order to make it appear as though it has flaws.
4. Use charm person in order to allow the owner to let me take the "fake painting" in as evidence - as the burglars always leave a clue in the painting, and we have a guy who analyses them. Inform the owner that his real painting will be returned to him the moment it is found.
5. Take the painting to the person who requested that I "recover" it for him.
6. Profit

So yeah, that's how I'm hoping it will go. I may have to be a little "think on my feet"y at bits, especially if I fail any disguise or bluff checks, and so forth, but I'll handle that when I come to it.

The moral of this story, I suppose, would be that trying to be a responsible adult by keeping your things clean is tough, but there's always fun to be had afterward, and if you leave it too long then you'll just get a headache from sitting in the laundromat, because you have to 'watch your load', as it were.