It took a couple of hours for Dennis's line to change on the display, probably because he was seriously invested in his game.
[DENNIS W: 7 hours 59 minutes
LAYLA W: 5 hours 44 minutes
MARK W: 5 hours 21 minutes
JESSICA W: 5 hours 48 minutes]
"Finally! All that's left now is for everyone to sleep peacefully while the time counts down."
While Alesha celebrated the change to her quest progress screen, Dennis was glaring at the empty space on his desk. "I didn't touch TinTin, he doesn't know how to walk on his own yet either, so where did he go?" He shuffled his plushies around, spreading them out over his desk. He crawled under the desk to look. He circled the perimeter of his room, opened and emptied his closet, unmade his bed and checked under the covers. "Well I guess that leaves just one solution!"
-- A few moments later --
Alesha was startled when Dennis opened the door to her room, holding a quarter-sized cubic object in his hands. From the object came the holographic display of an arrow… which was pointing straight towards the part of the wall in which everything was hidden. Her eyes shot wide. What was Dennis doing with that?! How had he gotten his hands on one?! Shoot, this meant that he had, for some reason, already inserted the companion piece of the tracker into the unicorn plushie even before she stole it… this was bad!
"Dennis, what are you doing?" She asked, trying to distract him.
"TinTin's missing, this will show me where he went," he responded without slowing. He knelt by the box and began to push it aside.
Seriously?! Was she about to fail her second quest?! Since when did protagonists fail the very first TWO quests they were ever given?! This didn't bode well for the future at all!
"Wait, Dennis, since when were you such a Tekkie? I didn't know you had a Pair Tracer, where did you get it?"
"Made it," he replied, still refusing to be distracted from his goal. The box was now completely pushed aside and he was poking at the wall to try and figure out why the Tracer was pointing at it.
"Really? That's cool. Why's it pointing at the wall though? Could it be faulty?"
This finally got a reaction out of him. He glared at her with a dull expression. "No, it isn't faulty. I submitted it to a competition in my school and it got first place. That's when I decided to use it on something important to me," he explained, turning back to his prodding of the wall.
"System, did you have any idea about this?! My quest is doomed at this rate! What do I do?!" She hissed mentally.
[Don't ask me,] the System sounded as if it were shrugging as it said this. [I'm not all-knowing, I had no idea he had that thing either. And no, I don't have some sort of magic technology-detection powers, so don't ask if I could have found out in advance. I couldn't have. I'm just as surprised as you are.]
[But… yeah, it pretty much looks like your brother's about to ruin this quest for you.]
[Unless you want to hear my suggestion on how to keep him from discovering your stash. You might want to hurry, though. Clumsy as the kid is, he's close to opening that.]
"Yes! Fine! What do you have in mind?"
[Knock him out, keep him unconscious til morning.]
Alesha was floored. THAT was the System's brilliant plan? "That's such a stupid idea!! I'm not hitting my brother upside the head just for this quest!"
[Suit yourself,] the System said as Dennis's fingers found purchase around the edge of the trap door. [Now it's too late even if you change your mind.]
Dennis lifted the trap door, exposing what was inside.
"Ehh, what?!" Alesha shouted, leaping to her feet in shock. That was distinctly NOT what she had expected to see.
Inside the little compartment, a small bipedal creature clutched the items to its chest, lizard-like hands slipping a little from them in surprise as its adorable, big-eyed face turned to meet Dennis's gaze. Long green rabbit ears hung limply from its head, and a thicket of spines on its back raised in alarm. Matching spines on its arms and long tail echoed the movement of the ones on its back. The creature yelped and, with an audible pop, disappeared right in front of their eyes.
"Uhhhhh… what was that?!" Alesha asked, not sure if she expected an answer. Did the System have something to do with this? Was this the real reason for the quest?
The System didn't respond, but a purple quest screen pulled itself up in front of her vision. And she did not like what it had to say.
[Ding! Quest failed!]
[Quest: Chaos Has Come to Home, Sweet Home!
Goal: Hide an important item of each of your family members without getting caught!
Quest Conditions: Keep the items hidden from your family for 8 hours. Each object will count as "hidden" only once a family member realizes it is missing.
Penalty: Insatiable raw meat cravings for 8 hours, beginning in 30 minutes. Prepare yourself!
Failure Conditions: 2 or more items were found before the time passed!]