Post by Deleted on Jun 6, 2015 10:47:02 GMT -5
It had been a while since Peter had done this, and, to his horror, it seemed like he might even be out of practice. Regarding sneaking into meetings, he meant. This was probably because no one had bothered to hold many meetings anymore, considering that half the participants would either refuse to show up, they'd devolve into a fight, or things would generally go as bad as they could real quick. There wasn't much of a point to sneaking into military meetings, either, unless they directly affected Peter, given that if people caught him "spying" he'd be in even worse trouble than he already managed to get himself into on a weekly basis. Also it didn't help that most of the meetings only emphasized how badly things were going overall. That wasn't what he wanted to hear about. He wanted things to start going better, not worse!
The fact remained, though, that Peter was slightly out of the loop as far as news went. He got basically the same things as civilians, and after the mess with he Russian submarines and a lot of news from places like Japan that kept on failing to make sense, no matter how he looked at things (it couldn't be escalating again, he refused!), he realized that he couldn't just stay out of that loop much longer. That meant sneaking around. That meant hunting for information. And that meant sneaking into a meeting. And that meant that Peter was in an ventilation shaft in the EU building in Belgium, trying very hard to hear what a bunch of people he didn't really agree with were saying. At least these meetings were moderated, unlike some meetings between Nations; he wouldn't be able to hear anything, then.
It wasn't until after the meeting was nearly completely over that the problem hit Peter. He really was out of practice, because he'd actually dealt with this one before: he couldn't turn around. The shaft was too narrow. That meant he'd have to somehow get rid of the covering over the opening if he wanted to get out. Okay. He was made of metal and he had his Swiss Army knife with him, he could probably pull that off without too much issue. Except he'd make a lot of noise. So much noise. Why hasn't anyone noticed him yet, anyway? Not that he was being loud, he was being quiet, but these places had been getting progressively more paranoid over time and it somewhat surprised him that no one had checked for him yet.
That was probably because they didn't expect a young child to crawl into an air vent and get mostly stuck, actually.
Well.
He sighed, adjusted himself slightly, and went ahead and started trying to reach the screwdriver/knife/pliers/wrench/clamp/everything else that was in his pocket. This was difficult since he couldn't bend his elbows but so much and his pocket was on the side of his pants, not on the front where he could actually reach. Peter remembered this working significantly better at some point in time. Maybe the place they held just general, Nations-only world meetings had bigger vents? He probably should have made sure he wouldn't get stuck before doing this. He hadn't even learned all that much that was overly important, anyway, and he was trying to ignore the fact that everything everyone was saying suggested that the war was back to escalating after years of stalemate and that was dumb, it was stupid and dumb and he didn't like it one bit!
Peter waited for the meeting hall to empty before finagling a wrench out of his knife and trying to unscrew the screws from the inside. It surprised him that it even worked as well as it did, actually, which is to say, it probably took him a good fifteen minutes to get two of them unscrewed through a combination of the fact that the screws got more inaccessible the more he tried to get them out and the fact that his range of motion was very limited. Luckily for Peter, his body weight caused the somewhat-unscrewed screws to give way after a lot of frustrating work. Unfortunately for Peter, his body weight caused the screws on the grate to give way, and that was about when he remembered that he was on top of the grate and in the ceiling. He heard the screws give way, realized he was about ten feet in the air, and had a few milliseconds to brace himself before-
CRASH.
Both the grate and Peter fell to the ground, just beside the table. Peter laid there for a moment, somewhat dazed, the wind knocked out of him, as the glass break detectors on the windows proceeded to go off, set off by the loud metallic crash. After a moment, Peter pushed himself up off the ground. "Ow..." This was going... well... He knew this worked better in the past! He then remembered that he had just fallen out of a grate in a diplomatic building and any moment now the guards were going to come in.
Peter looked at the irreparably bent up grate and the scraped up floor and winced. He'd pay for that. Eventually. When he actually had money.
He scrambled off, praying that it was one of the Nations who found him first, rather than either a diplomat curious about the noise or, you know, the security guards who were not going to be happy. He hid under the table. That wasn't going to work, probably, given the security cameras, but hey! A boy could always hope! (He was in so much trouble when his Daddy heard about this. So much trouble...)
The fact remained, though, that Peter was slightly out of the loop as far as news went. He got basically the same things as civilians, and after the mess with he Russian submarines and a lot of news from places like Japan that kept on failing to make sense, no matter how he looked at things (it couldn't be escalating again, he refused!), he realized that he couldn't just stay out of that loop much longer. That meant sneaking around. That meant hunting for information. And that meant sneaking into a meeting. And that meant that Peter was in an ventilation shaft in the EU building in Belgium, trying very hard to hear what a bunch of people he didn't really agree with were saying. At least these meetings were moderated, unlike some meetings between Nations; he wouldn't be able to hear anything, then.
It wasn't until after the meeting was nearly completely over that the problem hit Peter. He really was out of practice, because he'd actually dealt with this one before: he couldn't turn around. The shaft was too narrow. That meant he'd have to somehow get rid of the covering over the opening if he wanted to get out. Okay. He was made of metal and he had his Swiss Army knife with him, he could probably pull that off without too much issue. Except he'd make a lot of noise. So much noise. Why hasn't anyone noticed him yet, anyway? Not that he was being loud, he was being quiet, but these places had been getting progressively more paranoid over time and it somewhat surprised him that no one had checked for him yet.
That was probably because they didn't expect a young child to crawl into an air vent and get mostly stuck, actually.
Well.
He sighed, adjusted himself slightly, and went ahead and started trying to reach the screwdriver/knife/pliers/wrench/clamp/everything else that was in his pocket. This was difficult since he couldn't bend his elbows but so much and his pocket was on the side of his pants, not on the front where he could actually reach. Peter remembered this working significantly better at some point in time. Maybe the place they held just general, Nations-only world meetings had bigger vents? He probably should have made sure he wouldn't get stuck before doing this. He hadn't even learned all that much that was overly important, anyway, and he was trying to ignore the fact that everything everyone was saying suggested that the war was back to escalating after years of stalemate and that was dumb, it was stupid and dumb and he didn't like it one bit!
Peter waited for the meeting hall to empty before finagling a wrench out of his knife and trying to unscrew the screws from the inside. It surprised him that it even worked as well as it did, actually, which is to say, it probably took him a good fifteen minutes to get two of them unscrewed through a combination of the fact that the screws got more inaccessible the more he tried to get them out and the fact that his range of motion was very limited. Luckily for Peter, his body weight caused the somewhat-unscrewed screws to give way after a lot of frustrating work. Unfortunately for Peter, his body weight caused the screws on the grate to give way, and that was about when he remembered that he was on top of the grate and in the ceiling. He heard the screws give way, realized he was about ten feet in the air, and had a few milliseconds to brace himself before-
CRASH.
Both the grate and Peter fell to the ground, just beside the table. Peter laid there for a moment, somewhat dazed, the wind knocked out of him, as the glass break detectors on the windows proceeded to go off, set off by the loud metallic crash. After a moment, Peter pushed himself up off the ground. "Ow..." This was going... well... He knew this worked better in the past! He then remembered that he had just fallen out of a grate in a diplomatic building and any moment now the guards were going to come in.
Peter looked at the irreparably bent up grate and the scraped up floor and winced. He'd pay for that. Eventually. When he actually had money.
He scrambled off, praying that it was one of the Nations who found him first, rather than either a diplomat curious about the noise or, you know, the security guards who were not going to be happy. He hid under the table. That wasn't going to work, probably, given the security cameras, but hey! A boy could always hope! (He was in so much trouble when his Daddy heard about this. So much trouble...)