Ordinary Days

[Dracos]

~Thanks.  How about this, we're going to definitely be hanging low the rest of the day, so contact me like this sometime this evening.  We'll work it out then.  I'd have contacted Relm myself, but I didn't want it traced by any chance.  Also check with what she sees about gibraltar and here, okay?~

Dracos

[Bjorn]

Will do.

With that, Bjorn pulls the mindboard back away from Dracos, letting his touch blur back into a smudge, before reaching the board out towards the Paul-smudge.

Paul?  It's Bjorn, he writes, his handwriting crisp.  Drac said that you had a dream.  Mind telling me about it, so I can get the Oracle's opinion?

[Huitzil]

<Huh what? Bjorn? How'd you get here?>

Paul shakes his head. <Er, my dream, right. Well, I'll tell you what I told Phil. I was walking down a hallway that never ended, with locked doors at each side. I had something in my hand, but I didn't know what it was. Then, someone was chasing me. I didn't recognize him, but based on everything else, we might meethim in the future. He wore all black, and I knew that I could not let him catch me. So I stopped, and the "thing" in my hand became a keychain with keys labeled... I can't remember, strange things, like "Friends" and "Adventure" or something. I unlocked a door, and went in.>

<Then I was at a game table, playing against a fat kid. It was the same fat kid from the dream I had earlier, back in California. Only this time it wasn't cards -- it was chess. The board has thousands of squares and hundreds and hundreds of pieces. There were pieces for you, and me, and Phil, and Nate, and Parthipan, and many others I couldn't recognize. There were lots of colors, too. I had four pieces captured off the board. The other guy had too many to count. The Japanese kid had a piece. His was red, and it was right next to ours. And I think... I think I could move him. I think he was one of our pieces. I think he was on our side.>

<Then I was in his house. His house. In Tokyo. Rose petals were falling like rain. He was there. So was his sister. And she was hurt. He told me her legs had been broken. She would never walk. And I think -- I think it was Shade that did it. It was why he was looking for him on the plane.>

<He told me other things, too. That the other guys on the plane lied to him. That he didn't want to let himself be caught... or maybe it was let "people like him" be caught. Or like us. Hazy. He also said he was ready to die. He told me that he was in the same hospital as Parthipan. And he told me that the last time it rained in Tokyo was on the eighth. I looked it up, and he was right. I didn't know that. It couldn't have come from my own mind. So, I know, it couldn't have been my own dream.>

<I know, in my heart of hearts, we have to rescue him from here, before the Cabal spirits him away in the night to lock away in a cellar for the rest of his very short life. I'm in Parthipan's room right now, and the kid is a few rooms away, and I think I have a plan to rescue him. I need to steal some handcuffs, though.>

[Bjorn]

Can't help you with the handcuffs.  But I'll find out what the Oracle thinks about your dream.  Be in touch again.

And with that, Bjorn pulls the mindboard away from Paul.

[Dracos]

Dracos whistles, heading back into the room proper.  "Not too bad a place to be hung up in.  Anyhow, want us to hang around here, Steven?"

Dracos

[Ginrai]

Ginrai shrugs.  "Why not."

He slowly gets up, not wanting to reaggravate any of his injuries.

[Dracos]

"Mkay.  Got no problem with keeping you company."

Dracos

[Ginrai]

"So what're you guys going to do until I can get out of here?"

[Brian]

Moving doesn't really hurt, though you do feel weak; mostly due to lack of blood.  Since you won't eat red meat to restore the missing iron content in your blood-stream, the nurses have been making you take iron supliments and drink tons of juice.

It's actually kind of nice to have that freedom to walk around without having to stay in the bed, though.

[Dracos]

"Come on, out on the balcony.  Some fresh air would probably do you good."

Dracos leads the way out onto the balcony and idly tries to establish contact out of the corner of his eye with the asian punk while out there.

~You hear this?~

Dracos

[Brian]

The BCK starts slightly, but relaxes back into the bed without any other external indication.  You're just out of sight of the guard, as far as you can tell.

Yes? he sends back to you.

[Dracos]

~Okay, I'm going to be blunt here.  At the moment, I don't particularly like you.  It's nothing personal, just I tend to hold idle grudges against people who were waving guns in my face.   But you've convinced my friend to help you out.  So here's what I want to know for starters...  I want to know what you intend when you get out of here.  As I see it you can do a few things.  You can vanish.  Get back wherever your home is.  Claim to have killed shade if you need to and have satisfied whatever honor you need.  If you do that, don't bother us again.  We'll probably help you, but in return we'd expect you to do no harm back to us.  We'll let by-gones be by-gones.  Alternatively, you can help us.  Those who nearly got you killed, are no friends of ours either and if you feel like helping give them a black eye or two, I can overlook the fact that you helped them nearly kill us all and let by-gones be by-gones, if you help us out.  If that's the case, we'll certainly be looking into breaking you out.  Alternatively, if you won't either help us or do no harm to us, well, you are on your own.  Either way, I'd like your word on your choice.~

Dracos

[Brian]

Threats ensure such stable alliances, he replies somewhat caustically.  I recognize you, and you're not who I wish to work with.  The ally I await knows a password.  Do you?

[Dracos]

Dracos idly glances over to huitz, ~Password.  Give now.  And next time, give earlier.~

Dracos

[Huitzil]

<What, you're talking to him now? You could have warned me.>

<The password is "Elbereth".>