A Hazy Shade of Winter

[Brian]

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?"

[Rezantis]

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

[Brian]

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]

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

Dracos

[Rezantis]

"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."

[Brian]

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....

[Rezantis]

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.  >_>

[Brian]

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.

[Rezantis]

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.

[Brian]

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.

[Rezantis]

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?

[Brian]

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.

[Rezantis]

"Oooh.  This isn't so bad, really."

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

[Brian]

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.

[Dracos]

"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