A Hazy Shade of Winter

[Brian]

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.

[Rezantis]

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?

[Brian]

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.

[Rezantis]

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]

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

Dracos

[Brian]

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]

Dracos slips in faria and begins to game.

Dracos

[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

[Dracos]

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

Dracos

[Brian]

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.

[Dracos]

"Hmm..."

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

Dracos

[Dracos]

Grumbles tiredly and gets offline, getting to sleep.

Dracos

[Rezantis]

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

Surrounded by LEGO(tm).

"I hate you guys."

[Brian]

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.

[Rezantis]

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

Gingerly.

Maybe there's something tinned.

Oh, God, is this a stupid idea.