Fastball o/` The Way o/`

[Bjorn]

"Hey, Victor," Bjorn says quietly to the side of the Ezmereth Q&NotReallyA session.  "If you don't mind me asking... how did the Workshop grab you, anyways?"

[Brian]

Ezmereth shrugs.  "It is difficult for me to find words that you will understand.  Modern man and I are coming further and further apart.  But know that I mean it, when I say I hope you will understand."

Victor frowns, and takes the pipe from Ezmereth, puffing lightly before answering.  "That's an embarrasment, really.  But, if you must know, I was living in Mexico City.  I found it prudent not to stay in a single place too long, but Mexico City is large ... and for someone like me, the night life was not terribly dangerous.

"Unfortunately, I became enchanted with the idea that I could manage things well enough that there would be no need to move on.  I was wrong.

"A hunter came after me.  A man with a cross, and a wooden stake.  He believed they would help him, and they did not.  I thought I would be merciful.  I left him -- weakened, to be sure.  And delirious, so none would believe his stories as anything other than a fable.

"I thought I was strong enough to make myself a lair and protect it ... but he sent word to people who knew better than he did, that hunter I spared.  The Workshop sent its minions after me shortly.  Walls of air I couldn't penetrate.  I had no need to breathe, but the wind held me in place, while I bore the misguided assumption I could have fought off anything in that place.

"But that was then, and this is now.  I've seldom associated with others who were anything other than completely human, before.  Perhaps, it was unwise of me to do so."  He shrugs, and offers the pipe to anyone who will have it.

[Rezantis]

"Don't worry too much, Uns.  It's genre.  The explainers never tell us half of what we want to know at the start, because we later find out they're really ill-tempered mutated sea bass in disguise trying to take over the world.  I've seen this plotline before, it was an episode of Excel Saga."

[Huitzil]

"Nate... stop calling me that. That's not my name. That's not even my Internet name, if I can even be said to have one."

[Rezantis]

"Paul, then.  It's just, like, hard to connect that with you.  And Unseen was so much cooler - and pronouncable - than Huitzil.  Although I guess years of 'Seen Unseen?' jokes would get to someone . . ."

[Bjorn]

"It probably was," Bjorn agrees, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.  "Hell, I already feel the same way myself.

He stretches, and vaguely contemplates telling Rez and Paul that he'll settle the matter for them, and dub them Archimedes and Winston, respectively, but decides against it.  It's late, too much shit has gone down, I don't feel like dealing with an argument, for fun or for real.  Putting Shinmyouken down by his side, he spreads out the fur cape and lays back, staring at the stars.

"Anybody got any good campfire stories?"  he asks, whimsically.  "Well, actually, that's pretty much a given.  Anyone feel like telling one?"

[Brian]

"I know stories," Victor says quietly.  "But Ezmereth knows better.  I take it that our questions are finished for the night?"

[Rezantis]

"Well, I don't know about everyone else, but I'm out of questions.   I'll probably think of more tomorrow, but that's it for me, for now."

[Huitzil]

"I have plenty of questions, but none of them are going to get answered. If you don't mind, I'd like to go find Julie and fall asleep next to her on a bear-skin, looking up at the stars."

[Dracos]

"It was a dark and stormy night....  Naw, I don't really have anything more in mind.  Even if I've forgotten something, that's how it goes.  If we had perfect knowledge we'd be gods instead of men after all."

Dracos

[Brian]

Victor snorts, and puffs on the pipe a bit more, before handing it to Ezmereth.

"I can tell a story," Ezmereth says, nodding.  "When I was young, and Grandfather Thunder walked the land...."

Ezmereth tells three stories; the ancient man's first tale is how the moon captured the stars in its nets, the second is how Brother Eagle and Grandfather River stole the rain from the north, and the third is of the strongest warrior, which ran all the way from his home to a mountain and back in a single day.

Victor tells a story that he says was common when he was young, about the soldier who tricked the devil into filling his grave with gold before the sun rose.  He smiles sardonically before he excuses himself.  After that about half of the college kids come back, and sack out around the fire.

When you wake up in the morning a bit after sunrise, (comfortably warm, if sandy) on your polar bear skins, Ezmereth and the college kids are gone....

[Dracos]

Dracos gets up, shuffles the blokes into the car, and gets driving back to the safehouse.


Dracos

[Brian]

The drive back to Ripon is uninmpeded.  You find the day is clear, for once, and even without the polar bear skins that everyone (except for Ginrai, who really doesn't need one anymore) it's a good bit warmer.

[Dracos]

Upon their safe arrival he heads in, doing a few things in series:
Shaving his beard off and trimming the sides of his hair.
Getting maps, contact info, and various other important tourist information from the AAA website using his access info and saving them to his hard drive.
Getting Rez to keep his longsword and short sword.
Making breakfest for everyone.

Providing no one else stops him, he heads out to the nearest general store and buys cameras.  Then he goes to a luggage place and gets some baggage for the trip.

He then returns to the safehouse...

Dracos

[Bjorn]

After getting back to the safehouse, Bjorn exercises, showers, and then eats Drac's breakfast

Following that, he tags along on Dracos's shopping trip, buying (with the help of a loan from Drac) some proper-fitting clothes (a bunch of plain, solid colour t-shirts, a couple pair of loose-fitting cargo pants, socks, underwear, but no shoes, because the purloined Workshop boots are surprisingly comfortable), and a messenger satchel.