Twisted Wonderland

A Cleaning Hint

You're back in Leona's room. Ruggie gave you a laundry basket as soon as you walked in.

"Your job for today is to clean Leona's room." The hyena demanded.

Leona grins from his spot on the bed. "You'd better earn your room and board, herbivores."

"Between Azul bossin' me around at work and Leona doin' it at home, I'm a mess." Grim groans.

"Start by putting all his randomly discarded clothes into the laundry basket, then clean off his desk." Ruggie instructs. "Accessories go in this drawer. Books go on that shelf. Once the desk is clear, wipe it off with a dustcloth."

"You're not a cub." Grim mumbles under his breath. "You should know how to clean up after yourself."

Leona narrows his eyes. "Care to run that one by me again?"

"I-I didn't say nothin'." Grim stutters.

You roll your eyes and start putting clothes into the basket. Grim hops onto the desk.

"Okay, I'll start cleanin' the pile of stuff offa this desk... Whoa! He left some expensive-lookin' jewelry just lyin' around. And there's his wallet! W-with this much stuff around, surely he wouldn't notice one little thing goin' missing, right?" Grim chuckles. "That's what he gets for not puttin' this stuff under lock and key."

"Don't even try it. That one's mine to nab-uh," Ruggie clears his throat. "I mean, he'd know immediately if something was unaccounted for."

Ruggie turns to the lion. "I keep telling you to stop leaving your valuables out in the open, Leona. You're gonna get robbed blind one of these days!"

Leona rolls his eyes. "Ah, shut your trap. What are you, my mom? So what if my stuff gets stolen, anyway? It's no big deal. I say if someone's got the guts to steal from me, they can go right ahead."

"But it IS a big deal!" Ruggie argues. "That's my point! It's all fun and games being rich until the day you suddenly feel the penny drop. They're called valuables for a reason."

Ruggie murmurs. "This is what drives me nuts about you silver-spoon types..."

Something finally clicked in your head. You drop the basket. "That's it!"

"Whoa! What's gotten into you, Y/N?" Grim asks.

"Oi." Leona glowers. "Bring the volume down a notch."

You run your hands through your hair. "They're in the vault because they're NOT unbreakable!"

Ruggie tilts his head, confused. "Huh?"

Leona sits up and laughs. "Of course! I get it now." He smiles at you. "That's an intriguing line of thinking."

"Huh?" Grim glances between you two. "What'd I miss?"

Leona stands up from his bed. "Here, I'll explain..."

After a long time explaining and repeating questions, you finally get through to Grim.

"Ohhh, I getcha! NOW it makes sense!" Grim perks up with excitement. "Now that we've got a weak point to exploit, let's bust into Octavinelle right now!"

Ruggie chuckles. "There's just one problem with that."

"Myah?"

"If Y/N's read is right, then the Leech brothers are sure to show up and interfere." Ruggie explains. "Honestly, they're a bigger hurdle to you guys than the vault itself."

Grim kicks at the ground. "For cryin' out loud... We're so close, I can almost taste it!"

"But that means that if we could do something about the Leech brothers..." You look to Leona hopefully.

"Hey. I've got a good idea of where you're going with this, so I'll get this outta the way now..." Leona moves to stand in front of you. "I'm not helping. No way, no how. The last thing I need is to get dragged into someone else's mess. Especially when that cephalo-punk is involved."

Ruggie folds his arms. "Same goes for me. Don't even ask."

Grim rolls his eyes. "You guys're real fairweather friends, y'know that?"

You take a deep breath. Let's see how well my debate skills are.