Prologue: E-mails

[Rezantis]

From: Rez ('terrestrial_star@hotmail.com')
To: Relm ('tyrean_@samiam.org')

Subject: RE: Before I forget...

. . . damn, maybe we should just tip you upside down, shake you, and see what falls out.  :P

Hmm, we're thinking we might try and gather some allies before we head for Gibraltar.  We're thinking of trying to get the metahumans we busted out of the worlshop on board with us, and I was thinking it might be an idea to see if we can contact Big Fire . . .  if you've any idea where they may be.

Alternately, I'm sorta curious to see if we can contact the Brothers Of Morpheus, but if I had to take a wild guess I'd say that they're most likely the 'Don't call us, we'll call you' kinda people.

Sneaky bastards.

Anyway.  Thoughts?

--N

[Brian]

From: Relm ('tyrean_@samiam.org')
To: Rez ('terrestrial_star@hotmail.com')

Subject: Before I forget....

Bleah.

Big Fire is hard to find, or the Workshop would have tried to get them a long time go.  From what I can tell, their mode of operation is to hunt down people with special powers that aren't part of a faction, and explain what's going on.

Vigilantees, I guess.  Most of what the Workshop knew about them was from interrogating their own 'guests'.  If anyone would know more about them, it'd be those people ... and I don't know where they are, now.

Unless you know how to get into the dream, that's pretty much the way of it.  Or if you do something in a dream they think is bad.  So, sounds about right.

I think you should wake up and forget about this, because it's way dangerous.  But that's up to you, not me. ;_;

[Rezantis]

From: Rez ('terrestrial_star@hotmail.com')
To: Relm ('tyrean_@samiam.org')

Subject: I see London, I see France . . .

Pity, but we'll have time to hunt these people down later.  I hope.  :)

Further questions.  (1) Where are we going after Ouroboros?  Fuji, or Uluru?  (2) Is my hand likely to set off metal detectors?  (3)  Current plan is to try going from here to London to Gibraltar, via air, fast as possible . . . and, I guess, hope the Cabal doesn't recognize us.  Sound fair?

Those are the questions.  THIS is the side note.

As to 'wake up', I think I'm quite awake as to what this is going to entail.  When we were running across the country, there was a vague 'this is cool' air to it.  That vanished once I started killing people and seeing people get their throats ripped out.  This is probably going to involve being shot at, killing more people - did I mention the gauntlet made me quite good at that? - and possibly getting killed myself . . . I expect I'm not really going to enjoy it.  Despite the fact that I talk fairly flippantly about it . . . I realized just how real this was back in the workshop.

And you know that with the Cabal and Pax knowing what they do about me, with what we all did in the workshop, and with the fact that I happened to accept a certain gauntlet, there's no way I really can walk away from this.  It'll come back to haunt me, one way or another.  Like I said, I'm in for the long haul.  I'm supposed to be your defender, remember?  Until you decide to revoke that (which will involve you being kicked in the head repeatedly and me tagging along anyway, so that's not a suggestion), you're stuck with me.

I mean, you can't walk away from this, which is both good because we need your help, and bad because I don't particularly want to see what happened to Rasputin happen to you, and I have the unpleasant fear that it will.

So deal.  :)

--N

[Brian]

From: Relm ('tyrean_@samiam.org')
To: Rez ('terrestrial_star@hotmail.com')

Re: I see London, I see France . . .

1.)  Up to you, though judging by the remaining radioactivity at Uluru, I'd say put it off if you can.

2.)  Uh ... I don't THINK so....

3.)  ;_;  Try to be careful?

...don't try.  Just BE careful. >_<

I'll try and find the Brothers of Morpheus, or something.  I don't know if you're aware of what the challenge entails, but each stage can take years.  Once you enter the dream of Ouroboros, it could be seasons before you step back out.  It could be seconds.

It's hard to say either way.  I'd like (in all honesty) more people to work with while you're gone, if possible.  There are some things you're forgetting, you know.

You have a family, and even if you're using a fake ID, your enemies know who you really are anyway.  How long is it going to take them to realize that they can get you by basically kidnapping your family and holding them hostage?  Or what if they just decide to kill everyone important of you to drive you mad?  They can, you know.  I can't see if they will, but there's not a whole lot I can do to stop it -- especially if you're still in the dream of Ouroboros.

Cassandra had the entire Cult of Apollo to work with in the old days, when the champions were out on the quest ... but I don't have as much to work with, here.

[Rezantis]

From: Rez ('terrestrial_star@hotmail.com')
To: Relm ('tyrean_@samiam.org')

Subject: o/` Sweet Home Alabama! o/`

Right. Plan is this.  Bjorn and I will fly Sacramento -> Alabama to talk to the workshop metahumans and put them in contact with you, then we'll go from Alabama to Madrid, and from there we'll head to Gibraltar.  Drac, Gin and Unseen will go from somewhere else to London, and from there to Gibraltar, ahead of Bjorn and I and get an idea of how the land lies.

Now.  Sine you're -way- better at this stuff than we are . . . what do you reckon is the best way to get to Gibraltar?

And can you screw with passenger listings so it looks like our reservations are a couple of months old?  :)

Also, is it possible to courier swords and the like?  Probably not, that would attract too much attention, but we live in hope.

--N

[Brian]

From: Relm ('tyrean_@samiam.org')
To: Rez ('terrestrial_star@hotmail.com')

Subject: Alabama?

Um ... okay.  Where in Alabama?  It's a place with computers, right?

Gibraltar has an airport, but they usually only take flights from England (and France).  Otherwise you can drive from Spain, or take a ship from relatively nearby.

It's a really tiny country....  As far as messing with passenger listings, that's harder than you think.  I'll see what I can do, but I'm not going to promise the discount paid-in-advance rate.  I put five thousand dollars on all five of your credit-cards, and had those cards re-issued, but right at the moment, they were all sent to the addresses on your IDs.

And I don't know what happened to yours (unless you got it, and never bothered to call it in).

You can courier anything that's not toxic, explosive, or radioactive, usually.  But, by 'usually', that means 'packed in a crate on a ship'.  Which takes a while.  Sending it faster is possible, but you really do need someone waiting there for you to recieve it for you.  (Swords and the like are considered 'art' objects, modern weapons usually aren't, unless they're 'sporting equipment', and even that's kinda iffy.)

[Rezantis]

From: Rez ('terrestrial_star@hotmail.com')
To: Relm ('tyrean_@samiam.org')

Subject: Alabama?

I'm not precisely sure, yet.  Suffice to say we will get sure, and if there are not computers, there -will- be.  :)

Nah, I figured messing with passenger listings would be tricky.  If it's even vaguely risky, don't worry about it.  I was more curious as to the possibility.  Driving doesn't sound like a horrible plan, actually.

And, er, yah.  I did get my credit card.  It didn't occur to me to mention it, sorry.  ^^;;

Couriering . . . nah.  If we manage to hold this to a fairly tight schedule and arrive close to the same time, it shouldn't be necessary.  I should be able to bring most of what we need through customs.

--N

[Rezantis]

From: Rez ('terrestrial_star@hotmail.com')
To: Relm ('tyrean_@samiam.org')

Subject: o/` I've been to cities that never close down, o/`

OK.  First note actually that everyone else in the group does have your email address now.  ^^;;

Hm.  Well.  Drac, Gin and Paul just flew out of Sacrament, they're off to Gibraltar . . .

Bjorn and I need to meet Victor The Vampire at 10pm on the 22nd at a bar in Montgomery, Alabama, and he's going to take us to the ex-workshop-inmates.

So.  We have about two days to kill in the meantime.  Got any suggestions/requests as to things we should be doing?  I was thinking of trying to collect credit cards, but they may have been returned to sender already.  So, hm.

--N

[Brian]

From: Relm ('tyrean_@samiam.org')
To: Rez ('terrestrial_star@hotmail.com')

Subject: o/` I've been to cities that never close down, o/`

You're meeting a vampire, and you're asking me for suggestions?  How about ... not?  But, anyway, the cards won't get sent back.  They should just sit in the mailboxes until they either get crammed completely, or someone takes them.

And all of the places SHOULD be set up like the place in Ripon ... just hopefully not taken over by vagrants.  See, this is why having people with ... you know ... bodies would be good. :(

[Rezantis]

From: Rez ('terrestrial_star@hotmail.com')
To: Relm ('tyrean_@samiam.org')

Subject: o/` I've been to cities that never close down, o/`

Well, you wanted people with bodies, this is the quicket way to get trustworthy ones. ;)

But seriously, given that Victor was imprisoned by the Seventh Cabal, lead us to Ezmereth and Ezmereth seems to both know the guy and have no issues with him . . . I'd guess he's on the level.  And we won't find the Workshop peoples without him (at least not quickly), so . . . what the hey.

Don't know who else we can really get you right now. :/

--N

[Brian]

From: Relm ('tyrean_@samiam.org')
To: Rez ('terrestrial_star@hotmail.com')

Subject: o/` I've been to cities that never close down, o/`

Sorry.  Okay, it's better than nothing, as long as I've got SOMETHING I can do to help you out.

[Rezantis]

From: Rez ('terrestrial_star@hotmail.com')
To: Relm ('tyrean_@samiam.org')

Subject: o/` From New York, to Rome, to old London Town . . . o/`

Don't be sorry, you've got a right to worry. :P

Hmm . . . ok.  I've managed to, er, abuse my credit card already - plane tickets - if we can pick up Bjorn's, this shall not be a problem, howveer, until we decide to leave Gibraltar.

Second question: if we're goin to put these people in touch with you, we'll probably set up a PO box in Montgomery and give them the key, so you can ship them stuff if need be.  I doubt the have computers out where they are - yet.  We will fix this, but we may need you to ship stuff to them to finalize it. :)

BTW. won't 'Sam' notice you taking up residency on his server, sometime soon? What's the deal you've got going there? ^^

--N

[Brian]

From: Relm ('tyrean_@samiam.org')
To: Rez ('terrestrial_star@hotmail.com')

Subject: Sam luvs me.

Actually, he's got a really big crush on Ayame.  Kind of annoying, really.  Until I can get a better server, it's basically a complicated game.

He think's I'm a real person living in Kentucky.

Bleah!

Can I have your new credit card number?  I used a bank transfer for the initial 5k, but if I have the number, I can put a little bit more money in.  I expect if we're going to be picking up allies, being able to charge things to your card might be useful for me, too.  I'm not as good at hacking as Ayame....

But on the bright side, all of this legitimate stuff makes me much harder to find than she was.

[Rezantis]

From: Rez ('terrestrial_star@hotmail.com')
To: Relm ('tyrean_@samiam.org')

Subject: o/` But no matter how far, or how wide I roam . . . o/`

*snickers*

That's mean.  But then, I guess social engineering > hacking, any day.  Come to think of it, I didn't know there was anything to come out of Kentucky other than greasy chicken.

Credit card number is ****-****-****-**** - use it's powers for Great Justice.

But, yeah.  Harder to find is . . . infinitely preferable.

As a side note; if I gave you a couple of emails, do you reckon you could send them to certain people without being noticed?  People like my parents, whose email account is quite possibly being watched. <_<  I'd do it myself, but I don't want to risk attention being drawn to ze uplink, whereas you can probably set up a delayed job on some server in the back-ass-end of nowhere.  :)

--N

[Brian]

From: Relm ('tyrean_@samiam.org')
To: Rez ('terrestrial_star@hotmail.com')

Subject: Ayame's toys

She left me utilities to forward e-mails for just such an occasion.

Anyway, you now have another three thousand six hundred in your account, (from Ryan's abandoned bank account) but be careful.  Even if secret conspiracy people aren't after you, the government does keep an eye on super-huge money expenditures, especially out of people who haven't touched their accounts in ... well ... years.  I'm also going to have to be careful about how much money I can give you.

I could cover this, though, by creating a ficticous company, or something.  Then I'd get a corporate card, and no one will blink, as it'll all be business expenses!  I think.

The plan needs a bit of work.

I'm tired.

Go ahead and send me the e-mails and who you want them sent to.  But I'm going to take a nap.

Hmm.  I wonder if I'm supposed to dream....