Soulriders 5.0: Legend of the Unending Games

And as the bickering continued, Rez kept driving . . . until he either needed to stop for gas or ran across crash space for the night.  One or the other.

About 40 minutes outside of Boston, you come across an inn in a small town called the Right Inn.  About this point, the after-effects of your respective adrenaline rushes are kicking.  Dracos is dozing off, Ginrai has already nodded off completely, clutching his lucky pipe and murmurring something under his breath about wolves.  This certainly seems like a good place to stop, and if it's not, it's a good point to get some caffine, and fuel for the car.

Rez pulls in to the inn and shakes Dracos awake.

"Yo, bitch, WAKEUP!"

"BLOOD TO THE FACE!"  Dracos grumbled, swearing at Rez, "What is, we der?"  Dracos glanced at the gas meter, "We best fill that up before we check in."

Dracos

"You raise a valid point."

Rez promptly pulled out of the carpark and went looking for the closest gas station.

About a mile down the road you come across an oasis of light and ... well, in this weather, that's all.  But it's a gas station, and at just about 2.98 US per gallon, a pretty good deal, too.

<Chibi-Suu> Them bones was tossed for Brian ... : 3d6 --> [ 3d6=8 ] {8}

You both notice, as you approach the station, that you're somewhat blood spattered.  Though sleeping, Ginrai is also sporting a small burn mark on his shirt.

"Okay... plan, I change here, and drive from now on.  You both hide in the back seat so no one sees you.  And rez, remind me to swipe the towels from the hotel."  Dracos headed back and grabbed the bag of clothes from the trunk.  proceeding to swiftly change his outfit and slip back on his concealing overcoat of immunity to bloodstains he walked around to the other side of the car gestured for rez to leap over.

Dracos

Rez pulls in to the side of the road, turns off the car and tosses Drac the keys.

"All yours. Stupid bloodstains. I have a spare shirt too, so I think I might do the same."

Dracos begins grumbling a language that is altogether quite similar to klingon if you actually knew that.  He proceeds to drive to the far gas pump, get out, pump gas, pay by credit card and then head off presuming no problems, back to the hotel.

Dracos

There are no problems with paying by credit card.  The machine happily accepts payment in return for gas.

Dracos drove the car to the hotel, parking a bit to the side and walking in the freezing cold over to hotel.  Walking inside and up to the counter, he looked around for an attendant, "Have rooms for the night?"

Dracos

The attendant is still awake, and usually is until 1:00 AM, by the 'Office Hours!' sign.  He takes down your information, pausing only to find out how many beds you want in your room.  He nods, and tosses you a key for room 213 (second floor, relatively near your car), after you fill out the requisite paperwork.

Dracos went and got the others, shuffling them upstairs to the room with some of their stuff.  He and Rez claimed a bed and shuffled Ginrai onto a cot and then went to sleep.

Dracos
Timeskip, GM-san? ^_^

You are woken up in the morning by a loud knocking at your door.  Blinking away the sleep (some of you -- Ginrai doesn't wake until after the dead) you can see thin sunlight filtering in through the windows.

The bedside clocks read 8:26 AM.

Dracos heads to the door sleepily and glances out the eyehole, wondering who the fuck it is at this hour.

Dracos

It would appear to be a somewhat rotound, friendly looking neighborhood police-officer, who is looking around, has two thumbs hooked through his belt, and is whistling aloud.

Dracos slapped both sides of his face, waking himself up and putting his cheery conversational and always smiling face on and opens the door, "Heya, something amiss officer?"  He steps out, closing the door behind him.

Dracos

The police officer smiles at you warmly, and says, "Just thought I'd check in.  Guess you missed it in the snow last night, but you parked in a handicapped spot."  He turns his back to you and leans over the balcony railing, peering down at your car.  After a moment he turns back, and nods at you.  "As long as that's taken care of by the time I patrol back this way in about twenty minutes, we should be fine."

He nods at you again, and turns away without saying anything else.

Dracos nodded. "Sorry officer, thanks for the heads up."

Dracos opened the door back up and headed inside, getting his keys and getting dressed for outside, then going and moving the car.

Heading back up he gathered up the dirty and bloodied clothes and the like that'd been uncermonially tossed around and goes to use the hotel washer.  Assuming no trouble cleaning them with some bleach and the like, he returns to the room and jostles the idiots, "Time ta get up."

Dracos

He whistles cheerily, moving on down the walkway.

After moving the car, you attempt to clean the clothes.  They're stained, and somewhat obviously, but it's not obvious immediately that it was blood.  The stains are darkened enough to be mistaken for paint quite easily.

"Gah."

Rez is not pleased.

"There needs to be a better way to start the day than having to get up . . . "

"I could hit you with a sword."

Dracos

"And then you can clean uip the mess, too."

Rez glared at the ceiling.  Evil thing

"Right, you two, get dressed, we be going now.  Time for a sixteen hour driving day and any who complain is going to be paying for snacks."

Dracos

"Yeah, yeah . . . "

Rez gets his gear together (which is like nothing) and dials a message into his mobile.

--

To: Ayame
Subject: A question.

An interesting avenue of enquiry might be to search on 'Brian Randall'.  Another member of the SRs gang, and he was fairly central to this group of SRs peoples you seem to have picked up.  He died in the incident on March 30, 2004 . . . you know, when everything hit the fan.  But since they made our files that day, well . . . call it a hunch.  And a heads-up, should you run across a connection.  And by the way, this hotel room stinks.  Do you have these problems when hunting accomodation? ;_;

--

"Anyone feel like picking up new clothes?"

Dracos lead the way out to the car and put the stuff in.  He then checked out, reved up the car, and with Rez as navigator, started heading, south by southwest, aiming for well, north-west virginia or kentucky by the end of the day.

Dracos

Rez's phone recieves the following text message. From:  Ayame
Subject:  Your friend
Content:  That name matches three entries in the data file.  I'll compile a report and e-mail it to the list.

"Well, well, well."

Rez hums.

"Apparently Brian featured in this database as well."

Dracos blinked, driving along, "Hmm?  Really?  Brian's alive?"

Dracos

Rez shakes his head, "I doubt it . . . I was asking because of the coincidental timing of when our files were made.  Ayame said she'll email us with the data later."

"Hum...  well... we were contacted by a Ceran who shouldn't know where that site was."

Dracos shrugged as he kept driving, "Who knows."

Dracos

"Someone does.  The temptation to try getting hold of Pax Arcana is right up there, you know."

"Yeah, but that's not as fun as having my house blown up by fucking swat team members."

Dracos

"That's alright.  Your bank accounts and passport haven't been flagged yet.  I give you another twenty minutes, so if you want to withdraw some cash, we need to find somewhere to do it . . . "

"Good idea, but if they get all my accounts then they are fuckin' insane."

Dracos, nonetheless, pulls over to refill gas and take a shitload of cash.

Dracos

Once you find an appropriate branch, you are able to withdraw cash with no difficulties whatsoever.  But shortly after you do so, your text message light flashes....

From: Ayame
To: Dracos
Content: Be careful, Mr. Bloom.  They know you're up to something now.  I'd suggest heading your current direction for one more use of your credit card, and then breaking away.

Dracos nodded, "Okay, keep track for virgina folks.  We're going to be stopping in Arkansas tomorrow.  When I get tired, Gin, you are driving.  No comfy beds tonight."

Dracos gets back on the road and keeps a move on.

Dracos

"Fun fun fun.  So, your accoutns still there?"

"Yes.  Fidelity is effectively fidel."

Dracos

"Oooh.  You're doing better than me already."

"Rez, I was doing better than you when I was in high school.  This isn't quite significant."

Dracos

"Pfft.  I didn't see YOU coding AppleIIe games in grade six."

"You are a hell of a better programmer, but I don't really care and if you complain I will build a rotary short range shock cannon and set it to zap rez."

Dracos

"I'd like to note that I'm also a hella better looking, and just an all-round cool guy."

"Roight, would you like fries with your order of bullshit?"

Dracos switched roads and pulled into a town, taking a side mountain road and swinging down south the weird way.

Dracos

"Sure.  Your shout."

"huh?"

Dracos continued driving.

"Did I mention I hate mountain roads?"

Dracos

"About twenty times in the last hour,"  Rez paused, "Mind that tree."

Dracos continues cautiously driving around the mountains, "There are no trees in the road Rez.  Stop playing landfall.  This isn't aussieland."

Dracos

Rez nods.

"Mind that rock."

"Rez, I'd love to look at the side of the road, if you desire me to swerve to the left and get a good view going down, I'm glad to do so."

Dracos

"Oh, I know.  That's why I'm pointing these things out to you, so you don't have to."

Rez hums cheerfully.

"Rez, are you volunteering to be my training dummy later?"

Dracos

"Ph33r my wrath, Dracos for I have the TAZER."

"Your point?"

Dracos

"And I can run faster than you, especially if you're lugging a claymore."

"I have a sharpened pen and I know how to throw it."

Dracos

"The chair is mightier than the pen."

"I disagree."

Dracos

"Pfft.  What would you know."

Rez puills out his laptop and promptly starts gaming.

"Enough to kill you with a pen."  Dracos responded smiling and kept driving.

Dracos
Timeskip, GM-san?

Driving atop the mountain road, taking the mountain route and occasionally admiring the mountain view, two inevitabilities occur simultaneously.

First, your phones all begin to beep, as the trace warning activates.  Secondly, you come across a tiny (yet obviously populated) mountain village.

It's 4:26 to judge by the dashboard clock, and the signs say, "Last food/rest stop for 500 miles!" but it's both dated, and looks like an advertisement, so could be lying.

Rez reaches into his pocket and turns his phone off, then reached into the back seat and grabbed Ginrai's phone (since Ginrai was asleep), and turned it off as well.

Dracos turned off his phone and shrugged, "Okay ladies, who needs food and who wants another five hundred miles on the road?"

Dracos

"Food soudns good.  And Ginrai's not going to answer, because he is A-S-L-E-E-P."

"mkay... Why not..."

Dracos pulls off at the exit, heading into the village and looking around for what they seem to have.

Dracos

No fast food.  Two (opposite ends of the village) of what appear to be, and most likely literally ARE, mom-and-pop diners, a trio of gas stations, and a 'Elk Lodge'.  No actual hotel or motel, though.

There's a few newer establishments -- a Radio Shack, a Verizon store (right across the road from a Nextel dealer), and the road leading south looks new (and newly widened, as well).  This little town may grow up in a few years, but for now it's the kind of sleepy place that can probably afford you a minor degree of anonymity.  Additionally, there's a general store, if you need to stock up on groceries.  No clothing retailers, but the store probably stocks jackets.

"Okay, thoughts, let's get some protective jackets, some non-perishable foodstuffs, lunch, gas, some extra laptop batteries, some extra maps, and...anything else?"

Dracos

"You won't find laptop batteries around here.  A pocketknife for me, just for the utility factor - I had to leave mine behind.  Also, a spare jerry can of gas would be wise.  Ahm . . ."

Rez pauses.

"And some kind of trail indicating that we're heading out into whoop-whoop-land to lay low might be nice, but I don't think we're that lucky."

"Oh, and rope.  Now let's get moving, you get the survival gear and gas and hmm, a couple of hypercompact tents.  I'll get maps, batteries, foodstuffs.  Meet back here in twenty-five."

Dracos heads off to the radio shack and then the grocery store, searching for the stuffs.

Dracos

Rez notes Drac's lack of observancy, and just heads over to the General Store and starts poking around, looking for the aforementioned gear.

Between the two of you (Ginrai planning on driving the nightshift, and therefore doing the switch-off for guard shift with the Lucky Pipe), you manage to find almost everything you're looking for.  You're gouged on the price of the camping gear (that's probably this sleepy-little village's closest thing to a tourist trap), but you do get it.

Then again, given your withdrawl, your funds aren't too low, unless you need to start worrying about bribes.  The only thing you can't find, as Rez surmized, is the laptop batteries.  The cell-phone stores are set if you want cell-phone batteries, however.

And during the forty minutes you were gone (and dragged Ginrai to a washroom), your car was unmolested to the best of your knowledge.  The local residents don't even look at you twice.

Dracos picked up a couple extra cellphone batteries and then got in the car, setting up an easy to eat sandwich from the rations they got from the store and driving off with the other two eating in the car.

Dracos

The horizon beckons you.  The hours blend into a maddening blur alleviated only by occasional breaks in the weather.  Slight fog when entering the Great Smoky Mountains, followed by an all-out blitzkrieg-style attack of mother nature against you as you descend.  You guess that you missed getting snowed into some sleepy village by hours, at most.

At about Pikevile, Kentuky, after a shift in drivers, Ginrai takes over while Dracos and Rez sleep.  Using a simply established plan of 'keep only one phone active unless more than one person is awake', it's shut off quickly when the triangulation warning kicks in.

Morning finds Ginrai made good time, just ahead of (surprise) more snow, though it's thankfully lighter than it was further north.

With Rez giving Ginrai a breather, he switches on the radio, and you catch this:

The situation surrounding the bizzare attack are still unknown, but the nation is once again on a 'high' security alert, given warnings of further violent terrorist activity.  Mr. Philip Bloom and an as-of-yet-unammed associate are assumed to have been killed in the blast that leveled his home late Saturday night.  Dental records have yet to be verified, but the FBI warn that those responsible are at large.

President Ewling issued a warning that with advances in U.S. Military technology, both the United State's defensive force, and organizations such as the F.B.I. are even better eqipped to deal with these threats.  He then promised that, "Justice, as has been stayed these recent years, will finally be done."

"...Fuck.  Phone call time.  Pronto."

Dracos smacks himself awake.  "Rez, pull over at the nearest payphone."

As soon as they get to a payphone, Dracos grabs the phone, funneling the coins in and quickly dialing into what should be the extremely secure fidelity accounts phoneline, getting a bloody rep quickly and giving them the obtusely long list of required questions to assert his identity and get into his account.  As soon as he does so he has it locked from being foreclosed and distributed on case of death (as their policies should require several days at best to ascertain and do all the paperwork) and upgrades the account to whatever fucking hypersecure ultragold platinum they are offering that week.

When he finishes the call, he shakes his head, "I need to get a letter to my folks.  Otherwise they are going to smack me seven ways from sunday when I come back from all this shit."

Dracos

Most of your goal is accomplished quickly.  No one at the bank seems to be aware of the fact that you're dead (which is a good thing), though you don't really know about your parents yet.

Dracos glances about for a nearby post office.

Dracos

You're in a large city.  There are several, should you pause to locate one.

Dracos does that then: writing a quick letter of summary level explanation (no names, a 'yes, I'm in trouble, but alive, no phone calls, pretend I'm dead, don't be surprised my accounts are locked to any access but my own and that the 'in case of death' are currently locked out), puts it on a stamped envelope, no return address, labeled to his mother using her middle name so it'll catch her attention on top and gives it to the post office with a small tip and the cost of protected and ensured overnight mail.  Paying their assuredly outrageous fee for it he heads back out to the car.

"fuck...  I hate this shit."

Dracos

The letter has been sent.  It's now morning, early-ish, and you're still not yet in Arkansas.

Rez, in the meantime, has been looking around for an internet cafe or the like.

This is harder to locate than a post office, but after consulting a phone booth, possible.  The town looks like it has four of them, two in locations that may as well be fairland for all the sense the street names make, one with a quarter-page advertisment, and one on a street that you remember driving past on your way to the post office.

"Let's go to the closest one."

Dracos

Rez promptly drives to the closest one.

Which one is closer turns out to be the advertised one, which is huge, crowded, and packed with Counter-Strike fans.  Even on a day and at a time when people should probably be at work.

There's a few 'net access/e-mail' systems that couldn't handle the rigors of serious gaming (or proper usage) availible, and the proprieter only wants 10$ for 30 minutes, if you don't have a membership card.

Rez hands over $10 - reluctantly, bloody gouger - and sits down at a system for a few minutes, checking his email . . . and checking news sites to see what he can find on the apparent terrorist attack on Drac's house.

For that matter, he googles himself, and sees if he finds anything out of the ordinary.

For yourself, you find nothing new or unexpected.  The news on the terrorist attack (from what you can see) makes it pretty simple.  Dracos was apparently having a friend over when terrorists detonated an explosive on the site.

No one is yet certain why it happened, however.  The terrorists are still at large.  An ariel view of the neighborhood shows that little (if any) evidence will be recovered -- the entire house is demolished, along with major sections of both the neighboring houses.

Apart from this, Rez also drops an email to the parents from another hotmail account, speaking in vague terms of some contract work, and claiming that he'll be out of contact for a while, so not to worry.

Then he logs out, grabs Drac by the ear, and drags him back to the car.

Hustling Drac back into the car, Rez got settled back int he driver's seat . . . and after a refill of gas, yet again, the crew kept on heading towards their destination.

It's not long after the pause for internet cafe that you cross the border into Arkansas, and it's now just after 11:00 AM.

"You know, I'm gonna miss those game systems.... hmm, let's see what's around here."

Dracos keeps an eye out for places to stay, preferrably low key.

Dracos

"Dew Drop Inn," a few larger chains, a Motel 6 ... there's a fair assortment of places you could stop along the way.  The highway is picking up more assortments of towns and budding 'burbs after you clear the border.

Dracos smacked himself in the head, "What the heck am I doing.  I know how to travel better than this.  Rez, pull over at that gas station."

Dracos gets off at the gas station and heads in and looks for one of those tiny free tourist books that tend to be printed every day and give the best fares for hotels, usually beating out AAA in his experience.

Dracos

The gas station has several, as well as the latest Rand McNally guides.  Though, you already picked a few of those up in Hicksburg, or whatever that sleepy mountain town just before you ditched a tent with active cell-phone was.  Come to think of it, anyone who went after that phone, into the teeth of the blizzard you evaded....

"yadeda," Dracos checks it out for the best local fares.

Dracos

Best you'll get without 3+ days advance reservation is 48.99 a night single, or 55.00 for up to four people.

"55?  Decent.  Let's crash, rest, eat, get our heads screwed on straight and plan a route of attack."

Dracos directs rez to the good place.

Dracos

It's decent.  Decor left over from the sixties, but then, the prices are left over from the eighties, so it's a mixed bag.

Wouldn't suggest the pool because it's still really cold, and it looks a little ... green.

Other than that, it's okay.  Two beds and a cot.

Rez promptly called one of the beds and collapsed on it.

Dracos did similar on his side of the room.

Ginrai, on the other hand, was left with the cot.  

"You snooze, you lose!"

"Now, the question is can we get aol for free dial up while we are traveling without installing STUPIDITY upon our computers?"

Dracos

"No."

Rez hums.

"Net cafes are fine for now anyway . . . the thing you have to remember about the is that if they intercept an email from an account they know is ours (and they KNOW our email accounts), they'll just read our originating IP off the header of any email accounts -we- have access to.  Any server that we use otherwise could be compromised without our knowledge.  SO, if we start using a dialup connection, they'll probably quickly dig up our connection and possibly track us down whenever we dial in."

"Fair enough.  So, plan of action from here.  I'm thinking we plot a course to san fransisco stopping at any large/old libraries on the way.  You know, the ones that might have nifty information."

Dracos

"Mm, maybe.  I don't think we really have time to be spending a day in every decent library we pass, though, and you KNOW how long it took us to find something in the Harvard library.  I don't think we're going to find, like, a floor plan for where we're heading."

"Hum, pity I don't have any military connections.  Hum, You know, I'm just going to sleep.  We'll get driving again late and head straight to SF.  I don't think we really should bother with anything else."

Dracos

"I concur, excellency!."

Rez promptly falls face down.

Dracos sleeps until that evening...

Dracos

[17:43] <Brian> Dracos!  Rez!
[17:43] <Rez> HAIL!
[17:43] <Brian> You are asleep.  And you dream.
[17:44] <Brian> You are lying on your backs on stone slabs in a room that may be a mausoleum.  It's surprisingly comfortable.
[17:46] <Brian> The walls are stone, carved with intricately detailed depictions of battles.  They look Greek in origin.  Light is shed from small hanging lamps, burning noiselessly and smokelessly.
[17:47] * Rez sits up.
[17:47] * Dracos_of_Persia blinks
[17:47] <Brian> Man.  You feel dizzy.  This feels more real than most of your dreams.
[17:47] <Brian> And it's in full color.
[17:47] <Dracos_of_Persia> Apparently I've traveled to persia in my sleep.
[17:48] * Dracos_of_Persia looks around.
[17:48] <Rez> Rez gets up.
[17:48] <Dracos_of_Persia> "Rez, you kay?"
[17:48] <Rez> "Juuuuust peachy."
[17:48] * Dracos_of_Persia shakes his head, getting up as well.
[17:48] <Dracos_of_Persia> "Rolling my knowledge random architecture, I'd bet we are apparently in a greek temple."
[17:49] <Brian> You both realize, in a vague sense, that this is a dream.  Hope the fact that you're dreaming about your friend doesn't indicate something vaguely homo-erotic.
[17:49] <Rez> "Oh . . . kay."
[17:49] <Dracos_of_Persia> "I'd also bet that this has something to do with Ayame."
[17:49] <Dracos_of_Persia> "Thirdly..."
[17:49] <Rez> "Stop that."
[17:49] * Dracos_of_Persia attempts to mentally reach out and see if he can sense anything.
[17:49] * Rez eyes the stone slab he was sitting on.
[17:49] <Dracos_of_Persia> "Why?"
[17:49] <Rez> "Because.  You have no DICE."
[17:50] <Rez> "Er.  Do you?"
[17:50] <Brian> Dracos: You can sense, in a dim sense ... that your body is lying in bed, and Ginrai is pacing across the room, muttering about not being able to sleep, though you can't actually wake up.
[17:50] * Rez looks around the room for exits, or anything else notable.
[17:51] * Dracos_of_Persia reaches into his pocket and sees if he has a dicebag.
[17:51] <Brian> What pockets?
[17:51] <Dracos_of_Persia> oh...  >_>
[17:51] * Dracos_of_Persia attempts to mentally fabricate clothes in hopes that they would appear.
[17:51] <Brian> You're both wearing (now that you look) those funky ancient greek outfits that are not actually Roman togas, but are kind of like tunics.
[17:51] <Brian> They both have brass clasps on the shoulders.
[17:52] <Dracos_of_Persia> *blinks*  "Spiffy!  My talior approves."
[17:52] <Brian> Looking closely, Rez's indicate a pair of hands clenched together, and Dracos's look like a Green Man symbol wreathed in eyes.
[17:52] <Dracos_of_Persia> "Toga Rez, do you see Exit?"
[17:53] * Rez looks around the room for exits, or for anything else notable.
[17:53] <Brian> Your belts are heavy, probably made of gold, and have similar ardonments.
[17:53] <Brian> There is a hallway, at the end of a ramp.  There's also two empty stone slabs nearby.
[17:54] <Rez> "Indeed, Dracos of the pale coloured sheet!"
[17:54] * Rez points at it.
[17:54] * Dracos_of_Persia checks the stone slabs quickly for slots, holes, things that can be taken off of them.
[17:54] <Dracos_of_Persia> "I see, Toga Rez, one second, and we shalt depart forthhence!":
[17:54] <Brian> Looking back, you also see a seal etched into the surface of the slabs you were sleeping on -- they also echo your own symbols.
[17:54] <Rez> "Now stop that before I hurt my tongue."
[17:55] <Brian> The other two are adorned with a large ring of linked chains, and an eye in a symbol neither of you recognize immediately respectively.
[17:56] <Dracos_of_Persia> "Hum... using my logic sense, there is a linkage with these.  Hum.'
[17:56] * Dracos_of_Persia memorizes the symbols for later note.
[17:56] <Dracos_of_Persia> "Shall I lead the way Rez?"
[17:56] * Dracos_of_Persia heads towards the hallway.
[17:56] <Rez> Rez walks over towards the hallway.
[17:57] <Brian> The hallway opens up into a ramp, which leads into cooler night air.  You're standing in a building thats relatively open -- no actual walls.  It does have columns all over the place, though, and the appropriate Greek architecture abounds.
[17:58] <Dracos_of_Persia> "Well, while I love architecture...I lie, I don't, Anyone here?"
[17:58] * Rez walks over and looks at one of the columns, curiously.
[17:58] <Rez> "Uncultured barbarian!"
[17:58] <Brian> It's tall, smooth, and unadorned, except near the top.
[17:58] <Brian> You can see a blonde woman with long hair leaning against a column on one end of the temple, however.
[17:59] * Rez walks over in her direction.
[17:59] <Dracos_of_Persia> "Damn skippy.  Greetings random person who invades mine dreamspace!  Introduce thineself, please?"  Dracos says, heading over as well.
[17:59] <Rez> "WHo says it's YOUR dreamspace?  Hmm?  HMM?"
[18:00] <Dracos_of_Persia> "Hush, TogaRez.  Both our dreamspaces have been invaded.  Unless you dream of greek temples regularly?"
[18:00] <Brian> She looks up at you and smiles.  Her outfit is more robe-like than yours, and somewhat thinner, too.  She's kinda hot.  "Hello, Mr. Bloom, Nathan," she says quietly.  "I had hoped I could bring you here."
[18:00] * Rez blinks.
[18:00] <Rez> "Ayame?"
[18:00] <Brian> She smiles and nods.
[18:00] <Brian> Death: You can now see two more people.  One of them is the guy with the golden gauntlet, and the other is a darkened figure, and his eyes are wells of blackness, with darkness seeping out of them.
[18:01] <Dracos_of_Persia> "Greetings and Salutations Oracle of Delphi.  How goes the sharing of wisdom?"
[18:01] <Brian> They're speaking to the oracle.
[18:01] * Rez smacks Dracos upside the head.
[18:01] <Rez> "Man. You can't take anything seriously."
[18:01] <Dracos_of_Persia> "I can, but why?"
[18:02] * Rez grins.
[18:02] <Brian> "Unwell, at the moment."  She pauses.  "I cannot reach your friend Ginrai ... and your other friend is even further from my reach."
[18:02] <Rez> "Oh, fine."  
[18:02] * Death watches silently
[18:02] <Dracos_of_Persia> "Hum...  From what I sense, he's awake and pacing most obnoxiously.  Perhaps you need us sleeping for connections."
[18:02] <Rez> "Ginrai . . . Ginrai was with us when we went to sleep . . ."
[18:02] * Rez blinks.
[18:02] <Rez> "How do you know that?"
[18:03] <Rez> (Directed at Drac)
[18:03] <Brian> "I do," she admits.  "Perhaps he is uneasy."
[18:03] <Dracos_of_Persia> "Concentrate Rez, this is a dream after all, you do still have your own body."
[18:03] <Brian> The oracle turns to you, Shade, and says, "You are all friends, are you not?  I sense that you will need to work together to succeed, here."
[18:03] * Dracos_of_Persia looks at the others.
[18:03] <Dracos_of_Persia> "Pardon, but I do not recognize these two...Introduce thyselves?"
[18:04] <Brian> Rez: If you concentrate, you are indeed aware of your own physical body, and you can vaguely sense Ginrai pacing back and forth, muttering to himself ... but not actually wake up.
[18:04] <Brian> The wolf smiles.  "I have no name," it says.
[18:05] <Dracos_of_Persia> Brian: Query quickly, what do 'we' perceive.  Other than the oracle there?
[18:05] <Death> "And with teeth that big, he doesn't need one either."
[18:05] <Brian> You see the wolf, you see the pool, and you see the temple.  To your eyes, you appear exactly the same to each other, except dressed funny.
[18:06] <Brian> You see Shade, too, of course, though he's dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, with a backpack.
[18:06] <Brian> Apparently he didn't get the costuming memo.
[18:06] <Dracos_of_Persia> "Right... And who da hell are ya with the bad 50's movie lines?"  Turns to shade.
[18:07] * Rez taps his foot pensively.
[18:07] * Death smiles "Sanity is relative, isn't it."
[18:08] <Rez> "Well, that's unhelpful."
[18:08] <Dracos_of_Persia> "Right, so I'll call you Insane-chan."
[18:08] <Dracos_of_Persia> "Greetings wolf, I assume we may consider you friend by your association with the Oracle?"
[18:09] <Brian> "I'm a friend of nature," the wolf says.  "You don't litter, do you?"
[18:09] <Death> "So tell me Rez, what the hell did you do to get the Seventh Cabal interested in you>"
[18:09] <Rez> Rez looks curiously at the wolf, fixing it's appearance in his mind to as k Ginrai about, later.
[18:09] <Rez> Apparently . . . I got born, then turned twenty.
[18:10] <Rez> "And you would be?"
[18:10] <Death> "Shade, of unsound mind and worse body."
[18:10] <Rez> "Ah."
[18:10] * Rez blinks.
[18:10] <Dracos_of_Persia> "Occassionally, but not too much.  Raised more to clean it up than to litter outside my dwelling."
[18:10] <Rez> "Shade, is that the wolf you were warning Ginrai about?"
[18:11] <Death> "For now at least, though I hope for improvements in the future."
[18:11] <Brian> The wolf comments, "While this is nice and all, we're still in something of a quandry, what with being chased.  Do you have any plans for dealing with the threat we so politely dropped on your doorstep, O Mighty Oracle?"
[18:11] <Death> "No, looks like the wolves are on our side this time."
[18:11] * Rez raises an eyebrow, but turns to look at the Oracle. Threat?
[18:11] <Dracos_of_Persia> "Right Insane-chan, because there are many many giant wolves.  Armies of them.  Why I see them e'ery day."
[18:11] * Dracos_of_Persia turns as well to the Oracle.
[18:12] <Rez> "Threat?"
[18:12] <Dracos_of_Persia> "I assume this threat is the Seventh Cabal?  Or something greater?"
[18:12] <Death> "Where is she of dark hair and darker mounted bird?" to the oracle, inquiring about the pursuer
[18:12] <Dracos_of_Persia> "IT does seem weird to witness this level of power for what seems to be a mortal conflict."
[18:12] <Brian> "You don't see us," the wolf assures you.  "But we are legion."
[18:12] <Brian> Ayame frowns at the wolf pointedly.  "I have a plan," she replies somewhat testily.  Turning to Rez, she says, "Nathan, I realize that this may be something of an imposition, as much trouble as I've caused you already ... but now that I remember who I am, and I have a single gift I can give you to aid you on your journey."
[18:13] * Death says to Dracos "There are some things you're better off not seeing, trust me on this."
[18:13] * Rez waves his hand dismissively.
[18:13] <Dracos_of_Persia> "Insane-chan, don't attempt to lecture me.  It be a worthless gesture."
[18:13] <Rez> "I'd say I've been imposing on you, more, what with all thehelp I've been asking."
[18:13] <Dracos_of_Persia> "Ayame, you have our curiousity, do continue.  You need not worry about asking of us."
[18:14] <Brian> She ducks her head.  "Then there is something I would like to give you that could help us here.  It is all I can think of that would change things....  Follow me."  She takes off at a jog down the hill, all the way to the pool, which is still lined with guttering torches in the night breeze.
[18:14] <Brian> You can all distantly hear the sound of flapping wings.
[18:14] * Death follows
[18:14] * Rez moves after her.
[18:14] <Death> "Hurry"
[18:14] * Dracos_of_Persia follows swiftly.
[18:15] <Dracos_of_Persia> "Insane-chan, do be quiet."
[18:15] * Death smiles
[18:16] * Death beckons for the wolf too, if he has not yet joined them
[18:16] <Brian> When you reach the pool, Ayame kneels, and brushes her hands across the surface of the water.  It ripples a bit, then splits open, revealing a ramp descending into the earth.
[18:16] <Brian> "This is where the greatest secret of Delphi was kept," Ayame said aloud.  "Not our greatest power ... but our secret."
[18:16] <Brian> * says
[18:17] <Brian> The wolf follows Shade leisurely.
[18:18] * Dracos_of_Persia raises an eyebrow.
[18:18] <Dracos_of_Persia> "Interesting..."
[18:18] * Rez waits.
[18:18] <Brian> Rez: She motions you to follow, and goes down the slightly damp ramp.
[18:18] * Dracos_of_Persia follows ayame if she goes down but does not proceed ahead of her.
[18:18] * Rez follows her.
[18:18] * Death goes after Dracos
[18:18] <Death> keeping one eye back for any birds
[18:19] <Brian> "Delphi had an oracle, yes, and everyone knew that.  But Delphi also had a protector.  Because without a defender, an oracle would be something anyone would be pleased to aquire."
[18:19] <Brian> She hesitates, as you pass under the ground, and lights a lamp.  The other lights in what appears to be a long hall light themselves.  "Not that it stopped people, in the end," she admits.
[18:20] <Death> "Little does, and rarely for long"
[18:20] <Brian> The wolf stops before the lamp, and turns to face the entrance.  "I'll wait here," he says.
[18:20] <Dracos_of_Persia> "Quiet, Insane-chan.'
[18:20] * Dracos_of_Persia nods.
[18:20] <Rez> Rez looks sharply at Death, "It kept the oracle for quite a long time, it seems."
[18:20] <Dracos_of_Persia> "Understood, Sir Wolf."
[18:21] <Brian> Ayame nods, and continues further in.  "The power of Delphi's defender was usually left here ... in a flame.  It spread warmth and goodwill, and protected the Cult of Apollo for some time."
[18:21] <Dracos_of_Persia> "Protected the Cult of Apollo but did not stem from it?"
[18:21] * Dracos_of_Persia asks in his curious vein.
[18:22] <Brian> "When we needed a champion, we asked ... of Apollo for someone to take up that power, and wield it in our defense."  The corridor emerges into a large room, where you see a red altar, probably a meter across, with a giant flame burning in the center.
[18:22] <Brian> "No, no, it was one of Apollo's gifts to us.  He gave us three fires."
[18:23] * Dracos_of_Persia examines the flame and altar with his eyes looking for any familiar greek mythos symbols.
[18:23] <Dracos_of_Persia> "Three?  One for each defender?  Or were there other purposes?"
[18:23] <Brian> There's a huge golden statue of apollo behind the flame, holding a shield and a lance.
[18:23] <Rez> Rez stops himself, since Dracos is already asking the question.
[18:24] <Brian> "First, he placed the fire in the earth to grant our oracle visions and wisdom," Ayame recites, as though from memory.  "Secondly, he placed the fire in our spirits, to give us the will to live, and the strength to cherish our lives and our art."
[18:25] * Chibi-Suu (Dicebot@netblock-66-159-222-100.dslextreme.com) Quit (Connection reset by peer)
[18:25] <Brian> She turns to the fire.  "Thirdly, he gave us this, the fire of protection."
[18:25] * Chibi-Suu (Dicebot@netblock-66-159-222-100.dslextreme.com) has joined #ether
[18:25] * Rez nods slowly.
[18:25] <Dracos_of_Persia> "Hum...Interesting.  This is truly the God Apollo?  Or was he merely a spirit that in legends is referred to as a god?"
[18:25] <Death> "Protection at what price?"
[18:25] <Brian> "I don't remember back that far," Ayame admits.  "I am sorry."
[18:25] <Rez> "Oh, man, this is not the time for metaphysics."
[18:25] <Dracos_of_Persia> "Insane-chan, do be quiet."
[18:26] <Dracos_of_Persia> "I'm sorry, just idle curiosity.  Does he still live today?"
[18:26] <Death> "I know my legends well enough to know that no gift came without a cost."
[18:26] <Brian> "The protector of Delphi is bound to the people of Delphi ... but we are no more, save for me."  She frets.
[18:26] <Rez> "Shade, be quiet."
[18:26] <Brian> "I cannot find him," she says, sounding on the verge of tears.  "Long I have searched, but I do not know."
[18:27] <Dracos_of_Persia> "Hum...Interesting.  Where did you last recall him, Ayame?"
[18:27] <Brian> You hear the wolf howl, though it sounds much, much further away than you think it should.
[18:27] <Dracos_of_Persia> "Hum...have we...worn out our welcome?
[18:27] <Death> "You may think this is just a dream, but we can die here as easily as in the real world."
[18:28] <Rez> "Death, I trust her.  You don't have to, so feel free to scram.  Alright?"
[18:28] <Brian> Ayame jumps.  "Ah, it would have been, centuries ago, when I had just been reborn again ... but time grows more precious with each instant."  She shakes her head.  "Nathan, if you are brave, and willing to accept the burden of protecting me, then this flame will grant you power ... maybe even enough to challenge the Seventh Cabal."
[18:28] <Death> "Rez, its not her I'm worried about."
[18:28] * Dracos_of_Persia awaits Ayame's answer, resisting the urge to smack the talkative fellow.
[18:28] * Dracos_of_Persia laughs.
[18:28] * Rez nods slowly.
[18:28] <Dracos_of_Persia> "Rezzie, time for ya ta become a warrior, eh?"
[18:28] <Rez> "Hah.  Smartass."
[18:29] * Rez grins.
[18:29] <Rez> "I can try."
[18:29] <Dracos_of_Persia> "Of course, wouldn't be me if I wasn't.  Now gets."
[18:29] * Death decides to pull out a lock, and back away from the entrance
[18:29] <Brian> Rez: She nods, and holds out a hand to you.
[18:29] * Rez reaches out and takes her hand.
[18:29] <Death> "Hurry it up, Rez."
[18:29] * Rez ignores Death.
[18:30] <Brian> You hear wings approaching, and the snarlings of an angry wolf.
[18:30] <Dracos_of_Persia> "Insane-chan, I'm lazy, do be quiet before I decide you would make a good shield."
[18:30] <Brian> Ayame reaches towards the fire with your hand, Rez, and says again, "Be brave."
[18:31] * Dracos_of_Persia watches with the curiousity of one who is rarely witness to things that can amaze his rather difficult ego.
[18:31] * Rez gathers himself, and nods.
[18:31] <Brian> When your hand draws near the flame it feels warm, and the heat grows in intensity ... but even inside the flame, it's just short of where it should burn you.
[18:32] <Brian> Ayame releases your hand as you feel ... something ... hidden in the flames, but you can't see it.
[18:32] * Rez moves his hand, trying to touch it.
[18:32] <Brian> It feels like a gauntlet.
[18:33] * Rez puts his hand inside it.
[18:33] <Brian> You do.  It fits on your hand, and the fire vanishes, as though sucked into the gleaming, gold armor.
[18:33] * Death checks, how close do those wings sound?
[18:33] <Brian> Absolute silence rings out -- not the beat of a wing, or the snarl of a wolf to stain it.
[18:33] <Brian> Then, you hear something rattle in one corner of the room.
[18:33] * Rez stretches his hand out, then clenches it into a fist.
[18:34] * Dracos_of_Persia raises an eyebrow.
[18:34] <Brian> Okay, you hear a lot of stuff rattling around.
[18:34] * Death looks at the noise
[18:34] <Dracos_of_Persia> "I'm almost jealous, Spiffy...'
[18:34] * Dracos_of_Persia turns focusing.
[18:35] <Brian> The ancient armor and shields and weaponry lying on the ground is starting to rise up, as though wielded by some invisible army ... and then starts streaming towards the entranceway that you all came in from.  You hear the wolf howl again, but it sounds triumphant.
[18:35] * Dracos_of_Persia drools.
[18:35] <Dracos_of_Persia> me want...
[18:36] <Brian> Ayame looks shocked.  "I hadn't remembered..." she mumbles.
[18:36] <Brian> A few moments later, the wolf limps in, bloodied, but alive.
[18:36] * Death repockets his lock and chuckles, "Impressive"
[18:36] * Death goes to see if he can help the wolf's injuries
[18:36] <Dracos_of_Persia> "Hadn't remembered?  I assume the army lead by the defender which eternally protects this shrine of vision?"
[18:37] <Brian> Ayame looks embarassed.  "It must be," she admits.  "There's so much I just can't remember...."  She straightens up, and turns to the wolf.  "Who sent you, friend wolf?"
[18:38] <Brian> The wolf licks a paw, and replies, "Ida-ten.  As Kanon instructed.  Ida-ten also wants him," the wolf indicates Death, "to find Ezmereth.  And that's all I know."
[18:40] <Death> "Ah, that reminds me. Who is Ezmereth?"
[18:40] <Brian> "Ezmereth," Ayame murmurs.  "He is old ... older than some of my memories, and a friend to wolves."
[18:40] <Brian> "A friend to the land," the wolf corrects.
[18:40] <Dracos_of_Persia> "Ida-ten...  hum...  That's a kami of Justice wasn't it?"
[18:40] <Death> "Druid?"
[18:40] <Brian> "Yes," Ayame replies, nodding.
[18:41] <Brian> She nods at Shade, as well.
[18:41] <Dracos_of_Persia> "Hum, Kanon...hmm... I do not recall Kanon..."
[18:41] <Death> "How do I find him"
[18:41] * Death answers Dracos "The Goddess of Mercy."
[18:41] * Rez shakes himself and looks himself over.
[18:42] <Brian> You look like Rez in a toga.  With a golden gauntlet.  A skin-tight golden gauntlet, now that you examine it.  Still allows for comfortable movement, though.
[18:42] <Dracos_of_Persia> "Rez, concentrate...do you have that now in real life?"
[18:42] * Rez tries to visualize his body.
[18:42] <Brian> Rez: Since you don't really feel it in the dream, it's a tough call to make.
[18:43] <Death> "Interesting, so that's what the dream meant" as Death looks at Rez
[18:43] <Dracos_of_Persia> Ayame, "Give us only this... what direction do you sense we need travel for this Ezmereth?"
[18:43] <Brian> "Ezmereth must be called ... he sleeps beneath the Earth, sleeping away the end times of man," Ayame replies distantly, her eyes unfocused.  "In Hokkaido, in the mountains, there is a place you will find.  Three rivers meet.  At their juncture, in the waters, a a tree rises, over a hundred years old.  Go to this tree, Shade, and dream."
[18:43] <Brian> * a
[18:44] * Death nods
[18:44] <Death> "What stands in my way of reaching this place?
[18:45] <Rez> "Wait."
[18:45] <Dracos_of_Persia> "Only your own stupidity."
[18:45] <Brian> "Nothing, if your will is strong," Ayame says, blinking some of the dimness from her eyes.  "But Ezmereth bears a key."
[18:45] <Rez> "Ezmereth . . . wasn't he listed as an escaped metahuman, or whatever?"
[18:45] <Dracos_of_Persia> "Hum, keys again?"
[18:46] <Death> "Both of you, be still."
[18:47] <Death> "Please, continue." to the Oracle
[18:47] <Brian> "The path is uncertain," Ayame apologizes.  "But Ezmereth can guide you to freeing your friend."  Her eyes widen, and she moans sofly, "Oh, no...."
[18:47] * Rez raises an eyebrow at Death, but doesn't say anything.
[18:47] <Rez> "What?"
[18:47] * Rez looks sharply at Ayame.
[18:48] <Brian> "There is more ... finding your friend is only the beginning ... I do not know when you will be free to return to your own lives.  I am sorry."  She covers her face with her hands.  "I had not known...."
[18:48] <Rez> "We didn't really think that would be the end of it, you know."
[18:48] <Rez> Rez grins.
[18:48] <Dracos_of_Persia> "It's the end of the world as we know it... and I feel fine..."
[18:49] <Dracos_of_Persia> "Hey Ayame, a thought, these markings on these toga...can you interpret them for us?"
[18:49] * Rez smacks Drac upside the head. NOT with the gauntlet.
[18:49] * Dracos_of_Persia laughs in return.
[18:50] <Death> "What about the crow woman? Where is she now?"
[18:51] <Brian> She shakes her head brushing away tears, and says, to Rez, "Your symbol is your gauntlet.  The Champion of Apollo."  Turning to Dracos, she brushes her fingertips across one of the shoulder seals.  "This symbol ... the Green Man will either protect you, or fail you.  And you will either see more, or nothing, afterwards."
[18:51] <Dracos_of_Persia> "Hum."  Dracos nodded and smirked.
[18:51] <Brian> "She ... is in ... the place where your friend is being held," Ayame says with difficulty.
[18:52] <Death> "What friend? She spoke of a partner, but I have none that I know of."
[18:52] <Dracos_of_Persia> "What Crow Woman?"
[18:52] <Brian> "Your friend," she restates.  "His name is Bjorn.  I cannot reach him from here, though."
[18:52] * Death turns to Dracos "Who do you think was chasing us just now?"
[18:53] <Dracos_of_Persia> "Insane-chan, I don't care.  I asked a question of clarification for I've seen no crow woman and know not of it."
[18:53] <Brian> "More to the point," the wolf drawls, "realize that--"  And then there is nothing ... and you wake up.
[18:54] * Dracos_of_Persia blinks
[18:54] * Dracos_of_Persia shakes his head.
[18:54] <Dracos_of_Persia> That was a bit abrupt.
[18:54] <Brian> Shade: We'll get to you in a bit.
[18:54] * Rez sits bolt upright.
[18:54] * Death nods
[18:54] <Rez> "Fuck!"
[18:54] <Brian> Ginrai is apparently snoozing (he got the cot, again).
[18:54] <Dracos_of_Persia> "Yes, yes..."
[18:54] <Dracos_of_Persia> "Hmmm...  So...
[18:54] * Rez looks at his right hand.
[18:54] <Brian> Rez: Your hand hurts.
[18:55] <Dracos_of_Persia> "There is a person of power with Bjorn in SF that we need be worried about."
[18:55] <Dracos_of_Persia> "Hmm..."
[18:55] <Dracos_of_Persia> "Now the obvious question is...  What is her powers."
[18:55] <Rez> "Ow ow fucking OW!"
[18:55] <Dracos_of_Persia> "Huh?  What's up Rez?"
[18:55] <Brian> You're wearing the gauntlet, but it's like it's bonded with your skin....  Now it's more like you have a golden right hand (all the way to just above your elbow) than you're wearing a gauntlet.
[18:57] * Rez stares at his right arm in mingled shock.
[18:58] <Brian> It still feels like skin.
[18:59] * Rez pokes it.
[18:59] <Brian> It gives a bit, like you're poking a normal arm.  Which just happens to be golden.
[18:59] <Rez> "OK."
[18:59] <Rez> "This is both freaky, and . . . going to be damn conspicuous."
[19:00] <Dracos_of_Persia> "I have gloves.  You have hands."
[19:00] <Dracos_of_Persia> "We do magic there."
[19:00] <Rez> "Oh, shut up."
[19:01] <Dracos_of_Persia> "Sorry, that's the incorrect answer after something like that.  The correct answer is trying to will it away or invisible."
[19:01] * Rez tries, skeptically.
[19:01] <Brian> It doesn't seem to do anything but be a golden hand at this point.
[19:02] <Dracos_of_Persia> "May I try something, Rezzie?"
[19:02] <Rez> Rez looks over at Drac, slightly wide-eyed.
[19:02] <Rez> "Ahh . . . sure, I guess."
[19:03] * Dracos_of_Persia pokes Rez's hand seeing if it has any effect.
[19:03] <Brian> It feels like you just poked a solid block of gold.
[19:03] <Dracos_of_Persia> "hmmm..."
[19:03] * Dracos_of_Persia goes and picks up a pillow
[19:03] <Dracos_of_Persia> "Rez, Punch"
[19:03] * Dracos_of_Persia tosses the pillow at rez
[19:04] * Rez tries to, well, punch it. o_O
[19:04] * Rez gives even odds as to whether he hits or misses!
[19:04] <Brian> Go ahead and roll 3d6
[19:04] <Rez> roll 3d6
[19:04] <Chibi-Suu> 1,0Them bones was tossed for Rez ... :1,0 3d6 --> 1,0[ 3d6=12 ]12,0{12}
[19:04] <Brian> You whap that pillow but good!
[19:04] <Dracos_of_Persia> Anything nifty happen to it?
[19:05] <Rez> It got punched.
[19:05] <Brian> It flies away from you and lands on the floor.  Ginrai wakes up a little, peeks at you to and says, "Pillow-fighting?" before dozing back asleep.
[19:05] <Dracos_of_Persia> "Hmm, no special effects on that.  Your hand feels as hard as gold to the touch though...hmm..."
[19:06] <Dracos_of_Persia> Dracos takes the pillow cover off and hands it to Rez, "Try and slip this over, let's see if it eats things on top of it away before I give you some gloves."
[19:06] <Rez> Considering I just had my hand on the bed, and the bed is still there, I'd say it doesn't.
[19:07] * Dracos_of_Persia shrugs
[19:07] <Dracos_of_Persia> "mind checkin it anyway?  Might just be for complete coverings.
[19:07] <Rez> Where's the uplink?  I think I need to ask some questions.
[19:07] * Rez sighs and checks.
[19:07] <Dracos_of_Persia> "Under the cot."
[19:08] <Dracos_of_Persia> "No more than fifteen minutes though.  Then we get out of here."
[19:08] <Rez> "Deal."
[19:08] * Rez turns his mobile on and places it on the bedside table, then pulls out his laptop and the uplink and starts setting them up.
[19:09] * Dracos_of_Persia wakes up gin and shuffles him into the car.
[19:09] <Rez> "You know, maybe I should read the fine print of these things . . ."
[19:09] * Rez grins lopsidedly.
[19:09] <Brian> Well, when you are about to set the phone on the table, your gauntled DOES, in fact, make it vanish.
[19:09] * Dracos_of_Persia then proceeds to make sure and get all the stuff that needs to be in there.
[19:09] <Brian> Or else you got the evaporating model of i730.
[19:09] * Rez looks . . . surprised.
[19:10] * Rez concentrates on wanting the damn phone back.
[19:10] <Brian> It feels very weird.  It's like you have two right hands, and one of them is holding onto the phone ... and the one you can see, isn't.
[19:11] * Rez tries to, like . . . put the phone down with the hand he can't see?
[19:11] <Brian> When you try and will it back, it's like your 'extra' right arm moves in alignment with your golden arm, and poof, phone.
[19:11] <Rez> Hm.
[19:11] <Rez> OK, that I like.
[19:11] * Rez puts the phone down, concentrating on just, you know, putting it on the table and removing his hand from it..
[19:12] <Brian> That works.
[19:13] <Rez> Hm.
[19:13] * Rez continues trying to set up the uplink and laptop.
[19:13] <Brian> This takes very little time.
[19:14] * Rez attempts to do some more experimenting while waiting for the various things to boot up.
[19:14] * Rez tries, for instance, making the phone vanish again . . . holding it, and willing it to, sorta, leave his hand.
[19:15] <Brian> That, however, doesn't quite work.  It makes the phone reappear right underneath your hand and fall to the floor.
[19:15] * Rez blinks.
[19:15] * Rez picks it up again and tries to, sorta, pass it to his other-right-hand.
[19:16] <Brian> What you discover while waiting for the system to boot, is that it'll pretty much let you hold something, but make it vanish.  And you can put whatever it is into your hand.  But it doesn't seem to come with an extended extra-dimensional pocket.
[19:17] <Brian> It's like having an extra-dimensional hand just for hanging onto stuff.
[19:17] <Rez> So I can only hold one extra thing?
[19:17] <Brian> That's what you discover for the moment, yes.
[19:18] <Brian> But now, the uplink is active, satellite signal streaming in through the window, Dracos streaming out through the door with extra luggage.

It doesn't take Dracos long to pack everything up, and shortly after that, the 15 minutes for the uplink are over.  Ginrai, pre-volunteering for the late-night driving shift, takes the back seat of the car and crashes almost instantly.  Somewhat worrisomely, however, is the four to five centimeters of snow on the ground as you head out.  This is really flat territory, and the streets have thawed, now salted....  But this is an abnormally cold winter, if there ever was one.

Rez drums his fingers on the window.

"Was Shade annoying you HALF as much as he was annoying me?"

"Insane-chan?  Quite.  Shall we pick up something decent on the way out before we start moving?"

Dracos

"Food sounds like a plan.  I'd rather not stay too long, though."

Rez hums.

"At least the arm can do NIFTY TRICKS.  And I need a pair of gloves, thin ones."

"Reach in the pocket of the back of the seat.  Pull apart the gloves inside.  The slender inner glove should be plenty."

Dracos drives to...fast food joint.  Acquires: Fast Food.  And continues driving with: Fast food.

Dracos

"Mm, it's alright for now.  I'll pick up an actual pair of thin gloves sometime later uip the road."

Rez hums.

"I'm going to say, again, that I found certain parts of that quite disturbing."

"Hum?  Like?"

Chomps on his burger as he drives along heading on the road to San Fransisco.

Dracos

"Why is Shade being so damn evasive?  It's impossible to pull a straight answer out of him.  Plus . . . notice how evasive he was when I asked him about that wolf he warned Ginrai about?  And notice how vague his emails were when he got asked for specifics?"

"Because he has been infected with "I'm an ass" syndrome.  Alternatively he sold out to either one of the other groups."

Dracos

"One or the other.  It's hard to tell which."

Rez hums.

"Either way, dealing with him is risky.  I told him we're heading to SF - which he knows anyway - and for him to talk to us when he gets hold of Ezmereth.  So I suppose we'll worry about him when we hear from him.  Which reminds me, according to Ayame I should pick up a bow."

"A bow?  What type of bow?"

Dracos

"A bow that I can shoot people with.  Apparently, amongst other things, the gauntlet gives me the skill of Apollo's guardians when fighting with his weapons or playing his instruments.  So I'm going to assume that'd be any bow, as assumed to Apollo's own personal bow."

"Oh, sweet.  FIREBOW!"  Dracos laughed.  "Well, keep a lookout for hunting goods stores and we'll pick one up.

Dracos

Rez grins.

"Well, I don't know about firebow, but . . ."

Rez settled back into his seat and tried to get some sleep.

Dracos drives along, looking for any hunting outlet signs or outlet mall ads as he follows the route to Caaaaaliiiifornia!

Dracos

Well, being closer to the south, it takes a hard ten to fifteen minutes of looking at road-signs before you manage to find a store advertising hunting gear (and sporting goods).

Rez promptly points the sign out to Drac.

"Look, Drac!  A sign!  A sign springing from Gaia herself!'

"ROCK ON!"  Dracos drives into the HUNTING STORE!  "You got fifteen, go go go..."

Dracos guards the car and the sleeping Gin as Rez makes a bow rush.

Dracos

Rez smacks Drac.

"You, come with me.  Lock the car, Ginn will be fine for a few minutes.  Bring a tazer."

Before getting out of the car, Rez . . . palms a stungun and puts it into his . . . other-other-hand?

Dracos blinks, "Dude, it's a hunting store."

He shuts down and locks the car and follows rez anyway, not bringing a gun into a fucking hunting store though.

Dracos

Rez stops before Drac locks the car, and gets the inner liner of the glove and puts it over his CONSPICUOUS HAND.

>_>

<_<

Then heads into the store.

You didn't realize how cold it was, until you step into the warmth of the car.  Hmm.  Maybe want to throw a blanket over Ginrai.

Anyway, once you're inside, this place is huge.  The 'sporting goods' section is one aisle, everything else is hunting gear.  Rifles are locked up, and require a license, but bows are just toys, right?  They've got a few lying around that you can test the draw of.  Unfortunately for Rez, the only one that seems to have the right amount of pull (the rest are too weak) is about 800 dollars, and made of some relatively new carbon compound.  It's a real beauty, though, decent size and everything.

Rez looks around for a sales assistant . . . being that he'd like to try the bow out.

One arrives.  They have a shooting range out back, but you will have to wait in line for a bit to use it -- a couple of guys in suits are toying with scoped rifles, and he needs to wait for the real money before giving you a chance to use the target.

Rez will wait a couple of minutes.  And turn his phone on.

Your phone is on.  No new messages, no warning-beep.  After about twenty minutes, you're given access to a target -- a pile of hay-bales at one end of a targeting range with approriate score modifiers.  The clerk looks at you doubtfully, and hands you five smooth-bore arrows.

Dracos stands nearby watching with a curious eye.

Dracos

Rez puts four of the arrows into the ground in front of him, point down, then lifts the bow, and remembering some old archery lessons, nocks the arrow, pulls the string back to about his ear, checks his aim and looses.

Your first shot clips the edge of the hay-bale, prompting the clerk to wince, and put on a forced smile.  Your second hits the target, about halfway between the center and the edge.  Your final three shots form a perfect triangle on the bullseye.  It took a shot or two to adjust, but it doesn't feel like the gauntlet is helping you out ... it's like you just got better at firing a bow.

The clerk is highly impressed at your accuracy, when you finish.

Rez flashes the guy a grin.

"I think I this one.  What have you got in the way of arrows?"

Dracos glances around for any good combat knives idly on a whimsical thought.

Dracos

There are all kinds of arrows, though the clerk insists on giving you a new bow (as opposed to the display model).  Most of the arrows are designed for hunting, and therefore, mostly barbed.  He advises against the smooth bore, explaining that in hunting, they often slip out.


Dracos:  Combat and survival knives not a problem.  Several varieties are availible.

Dracos examines them, looking for one that looks both sturdy, sharp, and preferrably similar to a weight/balance of any of the short-swords he's wielded before.  Preference goes to easily hidable.

Dracos

Unfortunately, they really lack proper 'short-sword' length.  There are some nice knives, but they are all just that ... knives.

Dracos glances about to see if they have any small machetes after mentally picking one of the better knives in case.

Dracos

That, they do have.

"Spiffy."

Dracos looks for a good solid looking one, emphasis on the hilt, the proper size for being somewhat concealable, durability, sharpness and style (in that order).

Dracos

Rez purchases the bow, about twenty barbed arrows, ten smooth-bore, and ten blunts - with most of the remains of the cash that he changed back at the airport.

Dracos: You find something servicable after searching for a bit.

Rez:  You find everything you're looking for, except that you don't really have a way to try on an archery glove without taking your normal glove off, and that would entail certain difficulties....  Purchasing it is not a problem, however, as it's not actually a firearm.

There's no trouble purchasing knives, either (in this state).

Dracos nods and buys it.

Dracos

Rez tries the left of the pair on . . . his left hand!

You manage to find a suitable looking glove, though it takes a while to find one concealing enough (most have breathing holes which would expose your hand).

Picking up the gloves and a couple of practice arrows in addition . . . Rez goes to see what Drac's up to.

Dracos has just finished buying a handy dandy machete.

"Ready to go Rez?"

Dracos

"Yep."

Rez finalizes his purchases and heads back out to the car with Drac.

Dracos switches on the simon and garfunkel mp3 disc.

"When the music comes on, there is no turning back.  Next bathroom break, one thousand miles.  Hope ya can hold it."

Dracos grins and pulls out getting onto the interstate and heading swiftly for california again.

Dracos

"Bladdars of STEEAAALLL!"

Ginrai snores in agreement.  You leave Arkansas, but you're not far outside of the state when you recieve a text message on your phones:From: Ayame
Subject: License plates
Content:  They've got your license plate number.  I don't know what this means, though.  If they know you're headed for them, they may be confused ... but they will know you're coming if you don't change directions and then switch cars.

"Uh... Rez, remind me when License plate scanning technology got to the degree that they could scan license plates just at random on all cars?  Or track one as it's being driven?"

Dracos

"It's called eyesight, and it was invented by the police at around the same time as the license plate.  Any more silly questions?"

"Wrong answer.  They can only scan cars they've pulled over."

Dracos continues driving safely and following the traffic laws on his way to california.

Dracos

"Ehh.  I see your point, but I don't like it that much.  For the record."

Rez closes his eyes nd tries to get some sleep.

"Wake me if something cool happens?"

You left mid-day from your last hotel, and got your weapons in late evening.  The sun sets, and occasional snowflakes drift down.  It's now a little after 6:00 PM, on Monday, January 8th.

"Damn if it isn't snowy this year.  I'd figure we'd be breaking out of it by now," Dracos continues, switching the route to a more south-by-south-west route to california in an attempt to get out of the weather and evade having to go over the mountains in this nastiness.

Dracos continues driving until he feels tired, then pulls over and kicks Gin awake and has him continue until after daybreak.  Before Dracos goes to bed, he pulls open the cell and sends a quick message back to Ayame


From: Dracos
Subject:Re: License plates

They can't do much with that really as they'd have to scan them by eyes, but for convienence can you check the DMV and police databases on that license plate and unflag it from being stolen if they've done it?  In the off case that we get pulled over, I'd prefer not to have a report sent back that they can trace.

Dracos

You rest well.  Rez is awake, as he went to sleep earlier, staring out at the sunrise.  Ginrai stops the car next to the, "Welcome to Arizona!" sign, climbs out of the car and walks around to your door.  After opening it, he says, "Scoot over, or get up."

Dracos grumbled and got up and moved over to the front shotgun side seat, pulling open a book on how to kill people with words by George Carlin as Rez takes the driving lead.

Dracos

"Ahh, it's my turn."

Rez drags himself out of the car and walks around to the driver's seat.

"Drac, we need music.  And since you're awake, can you keep an eye out for somewhere that I can probably get away with some archery practice?  I need to sight that bow in, for a start."

Ginrai mumbles something incoherent before he dozes off, apparently still not having picked up on Rez's gold arm.

"Sure.  We're in arizona though.  It's all fuckin' parkland."

Dracos switches on Oingo Boingo superdisc and flicks it to track, "No One Lives Forever".

"Rez, drive on!"

Dracos

Rez . . . drives on!

And looks for somewhere mildly appropriate to stop (hell, nice, open, and with a tree stump would do) so he can try plinking something with arrows for a few minutes.

Finding such a place is remarkably easy, where you are.  The terrain is all open, save a few ridges of rock, and filled with low scrub.  Not too many trees, but after an hour or so of driving, you find a large flat spot that's difficult to see from the highway, and near a wide gravel shoulder that already has two cars parked in it.  Seems to be a somewhat unofficial 'scenic viewpoint'.

Dracos shook his head, "Eh, we're crazed tourists.  This good for you Rez?"

Dracos

Rez pulls the car over a small ways away from the other ones, and looks around for the people who said cars belong to.

Pocketing mobile phone and taser, he gets out of the car and grabs his archery gear.

"Coming, slackass?"

One of the cars is vehicle to a young couple, probably newlyweds.  It's a Lexus, something written on the back window in soap, but blurred from rain.  You guess it's rain, at least.  This is the first leg of the trip where it hasn't felt cold enough to snow ... but it feels like it's close.

Either way, view is really not that great.  The other one car is a van (the old style, from the late 60's) and has blinds up in all the windows, as someone seems to be using it for a nap spot.  Crossing over the guard-rail would take you down a steepish, weed-covered slope, and the field below was probably a pasture at one point.  It's filled with weeds, too, broken and dead in the winter.  One prominent tree-stump sticks out, and looks like it would make a decent target, though.

Dracos picked up two bokkens from the trunk and shrugged, "Sure, sure, bitch."

He headed out to a clean spot, passing over the guardrail and carefully heading down with Rez following.  Moving a bit to the side, he figured he might as well get some damn exercise in after being in the car for so long and now is as good a time as any. Stretching out a bit first, he proceeded to do a few sword katas while Rez was practing his new techniques with the bow.

Dracos

Rez discovers quite a few things on his trial of experimentation with the bow.  Firstly, that stump was petrified.  Whoops.

Secondly, graphite shafts are durable, as the points actually penetrating a short distance attests.

Thirdly, when frustrated at the inability to really seem to do much to the stump (before discovering it was, in fact, petrified), Rez reduces one of his prized arrows into a shaft of flame two meters long that merrily sheds sparks and fire along the weeds it passed over ... which fortunately do not ignite.  It does an impressive amount of damage to the stump, though.

Dracos stumbles a bit at that and turns to rez raising an eyebrow, "Rez, you shoot arrows of fire."

Dracos

Rez nods slowly, looking more than faintly surprised himself.

"That stump DESERVED it, though."

"That is now an extremely EX-STUMP.  Now, rez...you set any of my shit on fire, I'm going to have to kill you, no matter how jealous I am at the moment that you can shoot fire."

Dracos

"Aww.  I thought you likes fire?"

Having finished tinkering with the sights on the bow, Rez goes and collects his arrows (whichever ones are, like, still okay after that) and packs his gear up.

"Yeah, one sec before we go though... Gotta check something."

Dracos quickly sets up the sat and gets online on his laptop, putting his mad searching skills to finding the best sword place (Combat or antique, no decoration places) and best hunting goods stores in the state.

Dracos

This requires setting up the satellite uplink, which is simple enough.  Ginrai is sacked out in the back seat, and the suit-case containing the dish is on the seat next to him, familiar lead pipe resting atop that.  He sleeps through uplink extraction, and within a few minutes you're able to find something close to your route.  You're currently on highway 44, headed west, and will pass through Winslow on your way to California.

There's a 'Swords and Collectibles' shop there, and their website assures that they sell functional items, not just show pieces.

Dracos nods, gets the directions memorized and then shuts the whole thing down, "I'm driving, let's rock."

He gets in the driver seat, waits for rez to get in the passenger seat, and burns off down the road.

~o/"Who's gonna ride with the Elevator man"/o~

Dracos

"Drac, your taste in music is worse than my roommate's."

"Bitch, you dare bad mouth OINGO?"

Dracos

"No, you sorry-ass neanderthal, I'm badmouthing YOU."

Rez leans back in his seat and gets comfortable.

"Rez, you need to work on your insults.  I'm too arrogant to care about being badmouthed myself.  You know this."

Dracos heads into winslow, following the directions to get to that store.

Dracos

"I'm hardly going to insult CLAYMORE MAN unless I'm a couple of hundred yards away.  I have a little common sense, ya know."

The BS is launched freely as the banter continues.  You realize, by the time you pull into Winslow, that if Ginrai learns through hynopaedia, he will wake up the world's most foul-mouthed and offensive person.

You find the store you're looking for at around lunch time, when you get a text message on your phones:From: Ayame
Subject: Lodgings and such
Content: I've located a safe-house for you.  The address is 535, Warren Ave, Ripon, California.  There should be a package with the ID you requested inside.  Additionally, your car is now registered to the ID in the package, Mr. Bloom.  Try not to get pulled over before you get the new ID.  I wasn't able to unflag your DMV files, and I think the plate number is still being watched....Then, that horrible eventuality which you thought could be staved off arrives.

The parking lot of the store you're looking for shares it with a few other establishments.  One of them proudly advertises it's authentic Tex-Mex grill.  "That sounds good," Ginrai comments, finally having woken up.

"Sword Store first, lunch second, hunting goods last, and then road."

Dracos parks near the sword place heading in, and promptly looking around, both at the swords they have (types, styles, quality level) and for anyone who works there.

Dracos

Rez, alternately, looks around for anywhere that might sell luggage . . .

In a word, they suck.  They've got really lousy 'authentic' blades, mostly rusted through.  The daggers are better, and you find a solid looking (if ugly as sin) blackened iron parrying dagger.  It's wide, mostly rounded, and would probably work better as a cudgel than an impliment of cutting. But that wider edge would hold up better under a strike from another blade, when compared to a machette, and the point is respectable enough for stabbing, should the need arise.

Ginrai glances around, commenting on the inferiority of most of the weapons to a good hefty pipe.  In this store, you're forced to conceed that he's probably right.

There are no luggage dealers on this lot, though the city's big enough that it has to house a department store, if not a luggage dealers specifically.

Dracos slips into a scottish accent in his random accent changing ways, "These things look like they got pulled out of a junkyard.  They're wretched.  My baby sister could forge a better blade than some of these pieces of junk."

Dracos looks for the owner and when he finds the bastard he asks, "Show me your decent blades.  Not these cruddy third-hand pieces.  Surely ya got some better ones in the back or something."

Dracos

The guy behind the counter blinks at you, frowns, then says, "What you see is what I got.  I'm not a weapons dealer."

"Well are there any good weapon dealers around?"

Dracos

He eyes you doubtfully.  "I think I'm the wrong kind of person to be asked that question," he answers you.  "You want an antique clock, or an authentic Civil War sword?  I'm your man.  You want a weapon?  Look elsewhere."

Dracos shrugs and leads the way out.  Heading out to the car he gets on the net for a quite spurt, doing three things:

looking for combat quality sword providers between here and california.

Checking on irc and getting any of the weapon freaks quickly (there are several), getting access to either the professional quality stuff or the military sword vendors and checking if any of them have a factory or outlet on the way.

Checking email quickly to hard drive.

Dracos

Rolling his eyes in mock disgust, Rez knocks on the car window.

"Rez, gimme five, hell, go get a table with Gin.  We're within walking distance, just go get a table and start eating.  I'll spring for it when I get there.  Order me a burrito.  No sour cream."

Dracos

Rez nods, rolls his eyes, and wanders off towards the restaurant, Ginrai in tow.

"A burrito?" Ginrai seems scandalized.  "Drac, this is Tex-Mex!  You can get a ... uh ... Gorditolupadillacho platter, or something, and you're just going to get a burrito?  I think me and the Pipe need to discuss your priorities."  He hesitates, and realizes that his own priorities involve getting him some of that spicy Tex-Mex, and therefore wanders off before you can retort.  Thankfully, he leaves the pipe in the car.

Once you reach the land of IRC, you are assaulted (nearly litterally) by CyMage.  Specifically, he wants to know where the hell you've been the last four days, as SR players too lazy to actually message you directly have been whining about your abandonment of the forum.

Also, yeah, he thinks he knows a guy in California who knows where to get decent weapons, and sure, he'll e-mail the info to you once he gets an address.

IRC:

Dracos> Yeah, knew I forgot something.  Anyhow, I'm dead officially.  My house has been blown sky high.  And I'm currently living out an anime.  I'm going to fling ya up as administrator for a bit until I get through whatever this shit is.  Explain to the gamers and all.  Thanks for the save.  Don't worry, gonna take more than some fucknuts blowing up my house to take me out.

I log off irc.  Log on sr and set him up as a temp admin.  Log offline, put the stuff away, lock the stuff away, and head down to the tex-mex for my burrito.

Dracos

You mod Cy, and vanish.  He probably hates you now.

You get into the resturaunt, and see Ginrai eating some glowing, festive, practically nuclear combination of 'Tex-Mex' that probably weren't meant to be.  He looks a bit dissapointed, really.  Your plain burrito, in contrast, tastes bland, and uninspired, but without the heavy grease, or cultural bastardization of the other dishes.  Rez quietly munches on his standard quesadilla, and, hey, soda's the same no matter where you go.

Mostly.

You get handed your bill after eating, and Ginrai admits that Tex-Mex is not really that great, but hey, after seeing how happy the people were in the commercial, the assumption HAD to be made.

"Gin, shaddup."

Dracos pays and then heads over to the hunting store, tossing rez the keys to warm up the car and get ready to move.

Dracos

The hunting goods store is the same chain as the last one.  Seems to have most of the same inventory, too.

Rez promptly turns the car on, muttering imprecations, and goes to dig around for his bow, nocking an arrow to it - and replacing the tazer currently in his 'other' hand with the nocked bow.

Dracos picks up a couple quivers worth of what are recommended as good steel-tipped penetrating arrows, pays for them, and heads out to the car.

"Drive on."

Dracos

Well, not many arrows are advertised as 'penetrating' in conjunction with 'steel', but you do find what you're looking for.  And man, those things look vicious.

Rez:  It disappears with a "whoosh!" when you do so, though the arrow falls to the ground.  Hmm.  You've still got the bow, but the 'other' hand doesn't seem to want to hold more than one thing at a time.

Rez drives on!

o/' "Revvin' up your engine, listen to her howlin' roar . . ." o/'
o/' "Metal under tension, beggin' you to touch and go . . ." o/'

A potential stumbling block arises about 15 miles outside of Winslow.  You come across a billboard advertising: "Meteor Crater!  5 Miles! Take 233 exit at the RV park!"

Dracos checks the maps and sees if they can easily enough get around it through that route.

Dracos

"Oooh!  A meteor crater!  Can we see?  Can we see?  Can we see?"

You're looking at a 5 mile detour to look at the crater.

Rez is bouncing up and down like a little kid.  You question whether or not you should be taking him seriously, since he did drink a lot of sugar-containing beverages back at the Tex-Mex.

Ginrai contributes his two cents:  "You know, Albuquerque wasn't that spectacular, even if it was at 4:00 AM.  I'd like to at least see something kinda cool."

"Roight, my car, you two are both bloody drunk." Dracos directs them along the correct route, ignoring the stupid ad.

Dracos

"Awwwwww!"

Rez whines for a sec, then goes back to singing.

o/' "Headin' into twilight, spreadin' out her wings tonight," o/'
o/' "he got you jumpin' off the track, and shovin' into overdrive," o/'

Ginrai rolls his eyes in the back seat, and tinkers with his laptop for a bit.  But you haven't been to a hotel in a while, and his batteries are low, so he puts it away.  "Say," he suddenly asks.  "Do we know how to get to the place Ayame mentioned?"  At about this point, the triangulation detection warning kicks in again.

"That's what navigator-boy is for."

Rez turns his phone off.

Dracos makes sure all phones are off.

"There be no road I cannae navigate!"

Dracos

"Not Navigator-boy," Ginrai chides.  "The hero of legend, NAVIGA-TOR!"

"Pah!"

Rez continues driving - until they either reach a town that might have a department or luggage store (since he forgot in the last dump) or someone else takes the damn wheel off him.  One or the other.

"This is the Navigator.  Taking off.  Anyhow, enough silliness..."

Dracos lies back, paying the necessary attention as Rez keeps driving to california.

Dracos

The next major town you encounter is Flagstaff.  If they don't have stores, probably no one will.

"Exxxxcellent."

Rez pulls in to a shopping center with a department store.

"Ginrai, you are . . . minding da car again.  Dracos, you're coming with me."

Dracos grumbles and gets up, "I'm just a bloody pocket book to ya, aren't I bloody aussie."

Follows Rez into the department store.

Dracos

"Hey, I brought some money.  You just, like, have more.  And you can carry stuff."

Rez, Dracos tagging along behind, heads into the store and goes looking for the luggage section.

Ginrai shrugs, and stretches his legs, walking circles around the car for a bit.  "Alright," he says.  "I'm not sleeping now, though.  Do you have a car adaptor for a laptop, or anything like that, though?"

"Sure.  In my laptop bag, front pocket.  Go nuts."

The store you find for luggage is pretty big, lots of designer stuff, and some functional stuff, and even some functional designer stuff.  A clerk asks if she can help you with anything.  She's got blonde hair, way too much pep, and is named, "Mandie", according to her badge.

Dracos glances around for Land's end or anything that starts with a damn Z.

Dracos

"Ah, yeah.  We're basically just looking for a decent sized bag, about five feet long, a couple of feet wide, wheels on the bottom, the usual.  Just something simple and tough."

In due course you find a decent bag, wheeled, handled, and rated to handle 80 kilos of weight without wear.  If you believe the logo.

Mandie thinks you would be better off with the deluxe matched set version, though.  Fending her off is a skill borne of impatence, and Dracos applies this skill liberally.  Two minutes and 120.00$ later, you find yourself back at the car, with Ginrai eying the new aquisition dubiously.  "I'm not getting out of the car, and the Lucky Pipe isn't giving up a spot, either," he announces

It is getting kinda cramped, now that you look at all the stuff you've got in it....

Rez, grateful that such bags are collapsible when empty, attempts to stuff it into the trunk.  Since it's only a few centimeters thick when collapsed, it will hopefully fit for now . . .

. . . given that they don't really want to be unloading and repacking all their equipment where it might draw attention.  >_>

The gear all fits, barely.  After that, it's on the road again, and things fade into the travel-hazy blur that's started to get a bit boring, really.

Pausing in the town of Needles, just inside the California border at about sunset, you nab directions to the address Ayame sent.  Ginrai takes over the wheel for the next thousand miles or so, and you reach the house she indicated at a little after 1:00 AM.  From what you can see in the darkness, it's a two-story house in Ripon, which is 80 miles from San Francisco, and right in the center of the Central Valley.

Ripon is proud to boast it's 10,000 people population, its ONE traffic light, and the fact that it is, undisputedly, the almond champion of the WORLD.  The next billboard defies that claim by citing it is, truthfully, the almond capital of the UNIVERSE.

Either way, it's a two-story building from what you can see in the dark at 1:00 AM.  No lights are on, so electricity is questionable, though.  No cars out front, just some abandoned patio funiture, left to gather cobwebs and dust.  You think you actually see a tumbleweed cross the yard, too.

Rez gets out of the car, picks up one of his arrows, and walks over towards the door, twirling the arrow around his fingers as he goes.

It's unlatched.  You nearly trip over some Fed-Ex boxes in the darkness, but for what it's worth, Ginrai doesn't seem to think the place is creepy.  Fumbling around for a bit, you find a light-switch, and thankfully, the power is running.  The living room of this place is pretty big.  There's a fireplace next to some recliners and a TV to the right.  A sofa and a stairway leading to the second floor is to the left, and straight ahead is a dining room, linked to a kitchen, which has a bar allowing visibility into the living room.  A hall leads further back, and you can see three four other doors down the hall.

A piece of paper on the floor has a pair of keys on it, congratulating "Ryan McGrail" on purchasing his new home.  Hey, the furniture may be tacky, but it was free.

Rez quickly checks out the rest of the house, (A) to get an idea of what's where, and (B) to make -totally- sure there ain't anybody hanging around in here.  Unlikely, but why take chances?

The thick layer of dust suggests that no one's been home in a while.  The only things not covered in dust are the Fed-Ex packages, the keys, and the letter.

Past the dining room, you find three bedrooms.  The first one, on the left, contains a lot of drawings, comic-book-style, tacked all over the walls, a loft-bed, and an drafting table with tonds of art supplies.

The second one on the left is a bit larger, with a normal bed, a desk, comfy-looking chair, and a small TV with an ... ouch ... original Nintendo Entertainment System hooked up to it.

The third one is huge, with a bed identical to the second, and bins full of random toys, mostly LEGO, completely lining two walls.  The door at the end of the hall leads to a bathroom.

Upstairs is (immediately) a computer-table, with an antiquated macintosh varient you've never seen before, and ... that's it.  To the right, above the dining room, is a large, open area.  The entire area has no walls, except around a bathroom, which is right above the downstairs bathroom.  Barriers have been created out of furniture to simulate walls.  There's a massive bed (and free-standing closet full of clothing) above the toy-filled room.

Above the kitchen is (oddly) a kitchen area ... without any stove or oven.  Just a sink.  It's been converted to a de-facto workshop, with wires, various mechanical thingies, and ... an authentic 386.

On the way to just above the living room, you find a small nook with a stero system, featuring center-stage, turntable, currently set with (but not playing) an LP with a label buried under too much dust to make out.  Ginrai investigates, and finds the Beatles worthy of remaining on the turntable.

Finally, just above the living room, you find a futon laid out like a guest bed, and bookshelves lining every wall, completely crammed to overflowing with literature.

But no other people.

Everything seems fine, except for the fact that the bedding is way to dusty to sleep on.

"Oooh.  This isn't so bad, really."

Rez goes for the fed-ex boxes with his pocket knife.

Passports!  A photoshopped image of yourself (she must have gotten it off the internet) greets you, Mr. Ryan McGrail.  It looks just like you, but it's been touched up.  At a guess, so a search for identical pictures won't pull it up automatically.  It's a California driver's license, listing your current location as your address.  There's also a passport ... you have to wonder how she pulled this off, realistically.  It all looks completely legitimate to you, though.

There's another driver's license for Dracos, now Simon Beckett, listing an address in a remote section of Massechusetts (Fitchburg).  There's a new passport there, as well.

Bjorn is now a Texas naitive according to the new passport and driver's license printed out for him, of the name Jacob Housner.

Shade is a Florida resident, now named Brad Packard.

There's also a passport and ID (oddly) for someone you don't recognize right off the bat -- Unseen.  But he vanished from IRC a few months ago, citing a trip, though he was vague about the details.  His new name would be Timmothy Renard.

The final passport is for someone you don't recognize visually, and of course, the name on the ID must be fake.

But that's Ayame's gifts for today, at least.

"Man, an NES?  Those things are hard to bloody find these days.  Spiffy."

Dracos grabs his new ID and sticks it in his wallet of holding lots of shit.  He moves his old one to the hidden compartment in it.

Dracos then pockets the keys and picks up the letter, reading it.

Dracos then proceeds to look around it, marking the back exit (or exits) in his mind and anything he should take notice of about the house (Aside from it being dusty).

Dracos

The back door is in the kicthen.  The only really remarkable thing about the place is how much useless crap is packed into it.  Except for the library and the old records, at least.  It's pretty run down, and the balcony railings are rotting out.  Other than that, no holes in the wall or anything like that.

There's a laundry room outside, and behind that, a woodshed full of firewood.

About the same time you discover the firewood, and the smaller cache next to the back door, it begins to snow.

Firstly, Rez grabs Dracos and Ginrai, and the group goes and unloads the car, dragging -everything- inside.

This is quite a trick, considering how much crap they have.

Second, Rez hooks up the uplink and laptops and as many mobiles as possible to various power points and starts recharging them.

Third, Rez collars Drac and Ginrai into de-sheeting the beds, dragging the sheets outside, and . . . shaking them to try and remove some of the dust.

Hm.

That third one is really going to suck, isn't it?

It does, in fact, suck.  Ginrai doesn't like the dust, so goes inside to tidy up a bit while you're trying to get the dust off of the sheets.  He also ends up finding the CD-ROM (in an envelope) that had slipped off the boxes and was nearly under the recliner.

Eventually, you think you've gotten the beds dust-free enough that you can try sleeping on them.  Ginrai claims the loft bed without hesitation, and you know Dracos isn't going to give up the NES bedroom without a fight.

Rez supposes he'll claim the lego-chamber bed, then, but first things first; he sets up the satellite uplink and hooks in his laptop, then starts with some emails.

while he's at it, he puts his new ID in his wallet.

Dracos yawns and checks out if room nintendo has any good games.

Dracos

Startrops, Final Fantasy, Super Mario Bros./Duckhunt, Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Mario Bros. 3, Dragon Warrior III, Little Nemo, and ... Faria?  Somewhat eclectic of a collection, really.

Dracos slips in faria and begins to game.

Dracos

Dracos grows bored after a while and logs onto his laptop... starting with the classic...

aim<Dracos>"REZ!"

He checks his email too.

Dracos

He then googles Sterling Dubert and the san fransisco city maps in excessive detail.

Dracos

Googling Sterling Dubert reveals about 40 matches.  Most of them are uninteresting, until you come across this:  www.rakhal.com/durandall/update/archive/04-27-03.html

Huh.  That explains a bit, maybe.

"Hmm..."

aim)Dracos> Hey Rez, It's all connected through brian so far.

Dracos

Grumbles tiredly and gets offline, getting to sleep.

Dracos

Rez, shutting down the uplink, also drags himself off to sleep.

Surrounded by LEGO(tm).

"I hate you guys."

Dracos dozes off in the Comfy Chair with the pleasantly numbling difficulty of Faria to distance his mind from S.W.A.T. armored troopers.

Ginrai has a vaguely disturbing dream involving a man, a noose, and two beings made of living water that fades from his mind as he wakens.

Rez dreams of LEGO (tm) figures building a temple to Ayame, and casting him down as a heathen.  Hmm.  No more Tex-Mex or fast food.

Either way, morning rolls around, you're awake, and you can now survey the homestead.  It's pretty well furnished, for the early nineties.  If it were a decade ago, this place would be ghetto fabulous.

Instead, it's largely ghetto, with some distant 'country' appeal to try and carry it through.

Looking around the premises shows about five acres of tumble-weed farms.  North, is a larger lot full of the same.  South is an almond orchard (if the billboards are accurate), and east is a chemical processing plant.  Across the street to the west is a tiny ranch, with over a half-dozen horses, and fewer cows.

The setting is pretty pastoral, but if you didn't have the uplink, this place would probably drive you insane.  There's not even any cable TO go out, it's just TV with an old-school antenna.

Out in the yard you see an automated pump (dusted with the descending snow) which you presume supplies the house with its running water.  Not a horrible place to hide from the law, all told.

Rez, getting his priorities straight . . . goes and looks in the kitchen.

Gingerly.

Maybe there's something tinned.

Oh, God, is this a stupid idea.

This place is barren for terms of food save ... a package of ramen that you're not sure you even want to attempt.  Dracos is apparently still sleeping in the NES room, and you haven't heard from Ginrai yet.

Well, that's not so bad.  A lack of canned goods is fine.

But the refrigerator....

You don't know why, but you have to look.  You know you have to look.

And so, you do....

...and you find an opened box of Arm and Hammer baking soda, and a black bottle sealed with a cork.  No label.  Just a black bottle.

"Hm."

Rez takes the bottle out of the fridge and eyes it suspiciously.

Then, carefully pointing the bottle away from him, he attempts to pull the cork out.

It smells ... LIKE root beer, but ... it's....

Dracos wanders by, sees you with the bottle, sniffs it, and announces, "Genuine sasparilla!"

Rez offers the bottle to Dracos, "Ick."

Then (setting the bottle on the bench, corked, if Drac doesn't want it), he goes off to bother Ayame with another email or two.

OOC: G'damn it brian, just because I collapse in a sleeping fervor for one night ya ruin my ability to sneak up on Rez and go "They Do Not Live"
IC:

Dracos grumbles, "Hey Rez, hurry it up, let's go get something to eat in oh, ten-fifteen or so."

Dracos also goes and checks his email, looking for the promised information from cymage.

He also saves to hard drive any of the maps found last night of SF and the surounding area.

On a whim, he googles companies in the SF area looking for security guards and the like.  And just any large companies in the area.

Dracos

OOC:  Do not underestimate the sleep inducing power of classic gaming once you're about three years older.  Trust me.

Googling security firms pulls up no matches. Apparently security is covered by the police for most people, and in-house solutions for everyone who's left....

For large companies in S.F., you find a few websites that haven't been updated since before the earthquake.  Given that the city site itself doesn't mention them, it makes those suspect....  BioWire seems to still be around, and it's not the only company, but it nearly is.  The only really active industry left in S.F. is actively dissassembling the ruins of the place, judging by the San Francisco Chronicle's website, which does (thankfully) host a mirror of their paper, free of charge.

Dracos glances through the newspaper for anything of interest and surfs around the biowire site looking for job openings and other interesting things like maps or tours or the like.

Dracos

They have two tours (according to the Chronicle).  One is of Alcatraz, which is now cutting down to three days a week, from five.  The other is 'Sights of S.F.: A View Through History', which starts at the remains of the Exploritorium, and leads through the city to such sites as Messenger Hill, the Crookedest Street in the World, and a couple of really impressive sounding old buildings near the waterfront, the Golden Gate Bridge, and Nob Hill.  For the more grim-minded history buff, one of the latter tours also includes a look at some of the earthquake-damaged buildings in the area.

Bio Wire's website advertises that they're looking for "Talented Interns", though the advertisement says to call them for more information.  Their website doesn't have a picture of the building itself, but you have the address, and as the company is still privately-owned, they don't appear to offer tours.

Dracos ponders, getting the bottle of root beer and giving a slight taste, testing what brand it was and whether it was still good.

Dracos checks the ownership of the site and hunts for employee names.

He then proceeds to roll his fingers against each other in a gendoish fashion.

Dracos

It's not a brand, it's home-made.  Woah.

When looking for names, you only find a few listed.  The director of marketing, and the CEO, actually.

They seem to have a very small and difficult-to-approach sales crew....

The CEO is named Henry Bonafetti, and the director of marketing is named Jeffery Whitt.  One contact number is listed (and e-mail address) and the number appears to be for the front desk.  The e-mail address is marketing@biowire-corp.net.

At least they have a decent looking website....

Dracos tosses the email address in aim and checks if it has an account on there and if the CEO (like most people) neglected to turn off the 'people who know your email can hunt you down' option.  He also googles both names, looking for addresses and the like, family, whatnot.

And in final curiousity, he 'whois' the site and gets the contact info for whoever is their tech goon.

Dracos

No luck on AIM or ICQ.

Here we go ... the name of the administrator is William Flint.  Looks like they've got a full class B of IPs, too.

There's a phone number, his e-mail is william.flint@biowire-corp.net, and his address matches BioWire's corporate address (which is the one Ayame gave you).

Dracos tosses those names around google hunting about for info on them.

Dracos

Outside of a few coincidental similarities, and the company website, you find nothing through google.

"Hmm... That's a bit odd in this day and age...hmm, wonder if these people even exist."

Dracos curiously checks what Biowire claims to be selling.

Dracos

BioWire sells all sorts of things.  Industrial, and they point to the marketing e-mail address as a contact point for more information.  What you can glean, however, is that they make various difficult-to-obtain or create industrial materials.  Polymers, adhesives, all sorts of heat and cold tolerant or insulated machinery....  It all becomes a bit vague after that.

Dracos ponders, "Hmm... info info info..."

Dracos gets up and drinks some more of the rootbeer, shutting down the comp, "We should get out of here.  Guys, you ready to roll house?"

Dracos

Ginrai wakes up with a start, suddenly realizing two very important things.

"Fuck!  Forgot to e-mail my parents and tell them that I'll be away for a bit.  And where the fuck is my passport?!"

Ginrai gets out of bed to e-mail his parents and tell them that he's off with a friend for a few weeks because he needed a nice rest from work, hoping that they weren't too worried about him not having contacted them the past couple of days.  While doing so he also asks aloud about his own new identity.

"You don't need it.  Last I heard they were tracking me and rez.  Not you.  Now chill out and start loading the stuff into the car."

Dracos

"Hold that thought, Drac.  Both of you, if you have any email from that list stored on a server, hotmail or whatever, wipe it.  Now.  We have a problem."

Rez pauses, typing furiously on his keyboard for a moment or two (and incidentaly following his own advice), then looks up.

"And before we load everything into the car . . . I can hide that big bag we bought, remember?  Figure out what you both want in there."

"What?  Sure, sure...hum.  Longsword, katana and claymore fit by any chance?"

Dracos opens up his comp and logs in quickly, doing the vape and wipe, doing a final email check, and then logging off again.  "Lovely..."

Dracos

Rez has a -very- foul look on his face.

"Yes, yes, and yes.  Just remember that I have to carry it, so don't make it much heavier than that.  Toss in a couple of tazers and stunguns, too."

Dracos gets with the packing, putting the stated things into the black bag, hustling Gin into the car, taking another drink of the root beer, getting the other stuff into the car, and generally demonstrating the skills trained into him for four am disney trips from ages passed.

Dracos

After waiting a couple of minutes, Rez packs up the uplink and his laptop, and also puts those into the warbag (which is starting to get fairly chunky), then adds bow and a small stack of arrows as well.

Closing the bag up, Rez picks it up in his right hand and shoves the damn thing into his other-other hand.   Or stuffspace.  Or whatever.

Rez is, as can be noted by anyone looking at him, in a moderately foul mood.

"Okay, off to SF.  Scenic route.  Rez, you got navigating.  And dammit, you want me to swing by the slums or something and let you kill a few people?"

Dracos

"Don't tempt me."

Rez grabbed what remained to grab (the mobile phones, really), pocketed a tazer, and headed out to the car, digging out a map when he got there.

"I'm evil, tempting is what I do.  And it's better than seeing ya all out of sorts."

Dracos gets, "Anywhere you thinking for heading?  Aside from picking up some extra artiliary?  Hum...  You know, if we can get it, we might want a flash grenade.  Just as a 'run fuck run' last resort."

Dracos

"What, a flashbang?  I'd be tempted to use those as -more- than a last resort, really.  And we have somewhere to pick up artillery from?"

"Well, whatever cy hooked me up with.  Which we'll see when we get there.  Hopefully they got some good connections.  And yeah, a flashbang."

Dracos flips on the radio.

Dracos

"Hm.  A flashbang would be helpful.  Something slightly more would also be good."

"Have something in mind?"

Dracos

"Vague things, I suppose it's a 'see what you can find' scenario."

Dracos nods, driving onwards towards sanfransisco, with the first planned stop being that contact Cy gave him.

Dracos

All equipment fully charged, Ginrai grumbles something about being relegated to the back seat, again.  Tracy is about a forty minute drive away from Ripon, and you get there without anything untoword happening.  You also find the place that Cy's friend mentioned, though it looks a bit run down.

The King of Swords indeed....

Dracos parked out front the store first, and headed in with whoever felt like joining him.

Once inside he looks around, appraising the wares.

Dracos

Rez follows Drac in and starts looking around the store curiously.

The store is pleasantly improved from the last.  Currently, they only offer short-swords and smaller weapons.  Anything else must be custom ordered, and takes anywhere from a week to two months to make.

But, they do custom engraving on your orders free of charge if it's over 500$!

Checks the quality of steel on a few of the nicer more balanced looking short-swords.  Anything he can bend in his hands in the least or is 440 steel or below is completely ignored.

Dracos

You find one servicable looking blade.  It looks old, but cared for.  Wooden handle, wrapped in leather.  Good grip.  Good balance.

Small etchings of roses on the crossguard, but what can you do?

Dracos picks it up and checks the expected expensive pricetag.

Dracos

$270.00.  Well, it's real, at least, instead of an imitation, but still....

Dracos happily buys it and though requesting the leather sheath it'd been stored in with it.

Dracos

There is no problem aquiring the blade.  The man behind the counter just grunts, nods, hands you a reciept, and waits for the next customer.

Dracos leads the way out,  "Rez, machete is yours.  Slash in peace."

Dracos

"I'll stick it in the bag, but I warn you, I'm not -precisely- sure which is the sharp end.  That's how bad I am."

"If it's shiny it's not to be touched.  If it's black, it is."

Dracos

"But, what if I polish the black and MAKE it shiny?"

After the two of you climb into the car, where Ginrai is (im)patiently waiting, you begin the long drive towards San Francisco.

It's shortly after noon when you reach the city of San Jose, which is actually a pretty sizable city, if much diminished after the Silicon Valley bomb.  Your route is forced to detour around the center of the valley, as Moffet Field was right next to highway 101, and the area is still very much 'off limits'.

After a detour from 101 to the Guadelupe parkway in San Jose, you take 237 to Menlo Park, and get back on 101 West, less than a hundred miles between you and the sea ... and, of course, San Francisco.

You arrive at the edge of the city at almost exactly 1:37 PM.  Coming through the San Andreas foothills, you have an excelent view of the surrounding area.  The low passes are roofed with massive volumes of cloud, but they clear as you crest the rise, allowing you to see the remnants of San Francisco.

Much of the city is gone, as opposed to the photographs you've seen.  Whole acres of housing developments have been completely buldozed and cleared away, and many of the 'celebrities' of the San Francisco skyline are missing, too.  You see a number large buildings still standing, some with visible cracks in them.

Whatever was in the valley imediately below you has been cleared out to make room for a rubble-processing facility, and a seemingly endless line of trucks hauls cement blocks and litter from the city to be filtered into a base for more cement.

The road is slushy, the afternoon having melted the snow in the area.

After rolling down the windows, you find it chilly, but the scent of the sea somehow carries across the length of the city.  It's cold, it's dusty, and there's ... something ... you can't quite place in that scent that doesn't seem quite, but it's the sea anyway.  Behind everything, vast and boundless, lies the Pacific Ocean, and to the north, you can barely make out the towers of the Golden Gate bridge.

A Hazy Shade of Winter comes to an end.  We now continue to: Hey!  Teacher!  Leave Those Kids Alone! (http://pishoque.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=28383#28383)