"I'll leave the details up to you... technical sorts."

[hazlogs]

It is currently 18:35 Pacific Time on Fri Aug 15 2003.

Currently the moon is in the waning Gibbous Moon phase (79% full).

Currently in Saint Claire, it is a cloudy day. The temperature is 68 degrees Fahrenheit (20 degrees Celsius). The wind is currently coming in from the southwest at 14 mph, with gusts up to 20 mph. The barometric pressure reading is 30.12 and rising, and the relative humidity is 68 percent. The dewpoint is 57 degrees Fahrenheit (13 degrees Celsius.)

Fifteenth Avenue, Uptown

From south to north, the buildings shift from small, two- or three-story offices with delicatessens, ice cream shops selling homemade ice cream, and similar types of small specialty shops on the first floor to, first, a few old-fashioned inns, and then a small park on the western side of 15th, south of Market Street. Less than fifty yards to a side, there is a curving path in it, and a few park benches, and a small grassy place used, to guess by the poles, for volleyball or badminton. North of that, between Market and Osprey, are old houses, mansions almost, with metal gates and walls to set them back from the street. Along the street itself, tall trees tower, cutting off much of the light that should reach the ground, excepting a small strip in the center of the roadway itself from which the sky can be seen. Farther north, where 15th joins Osprey itself, there are a few condominium buildings, with carefully sculpted bushes around them.

The gate swings open for you on well-oiled hinges, and you begin the journey up the driveway.

Dominion Estate

The Dominion estate spreads out over a small hill, giving the mansion built at the peak a view of the surrounding suburban countryside. The grassy lawn is dotted with statuary and encircled by hedges grown up to hide the stone wall which surrounds the estate. A gravel driveway snakes elliptically up from the front gate northward to the house, east from there to the garage, then back towards the front gate. Preparations for some sort of garden have been made on the western slope of the hill.

The house itself is old and appears to have had had work done it over the years. The original, main part of the house is made of gray stone and reaches four stories high with the tower. The east and west wings appear newer and are made of brick and wood. The previous decay and disrepair can still be seen, but there also seems to have been some effort put into fixing the place up.

The gravel driveway leads northwards to the front porch and doors of Dominion, while 15th street is through the front gate to the east.

With a tug, you manage to open one of the oaken doors and pass through to the mansion itself.

Inside Dominion

Four stories and an attached stone tower. There's one of those nice-nice parquet floor front halls and a room off to the right as you walk in, which is a parlor or sitting room. There's an office toward the back left corner of the house, and the bedrooms are upstairs.

Some furniture has been left by the previous owner, along with some rugs. Not much, however.

You paged the room with 'Probably a digital locking system, a keypad thingy... Marco's player said it had state of the art security... for the early 90s. That'll have to be upgraded, of course.'.

Salem

Tall and dark, he stands a few inches over six feet, a well-built and rather dangerous-looking man somewhere around thirty years old. Thick black hair, cut to just above his shoulders, frames a somber, hawkish face, the left side of which is twisted by scars. If not for this disfigurement, he could be considered handsome -- albeit in a dour, moody, saturnine kind of way. His face is one designed for brooding and cynicism, and the short black beard that lines his mouth and jaw makes him look all the more satanic. The dark sunglasses don't help, either. In short, he has the look of the very devil about him, or of a Christ figure gone bad.

A gray and black flannel shirt hangs open and loose on his tall frame, revealing a plain black t-shirt that's tucked into a pair of black jeans that are only slightly faded. Black, too, are the heavy combat boots, which also look well broken-in. Something hangs from a black cord around his neck but is hidden from view underneath the t-shirt.

Leala

A small smile plays mischievously across the dainty face of the young woman you see before you. Her gold-brown eyes sparkle a little, displaying a mild amusement. Her thick dark blond hair set in a simple chignon, with wispy waves falling around her face. Her facial features are petite and defined, but not angular, with fine brows curving over her bright eyes. She is short of stature, standing no taller than 5'2", and her frame is quite delicate and slender, almost aristocratic, with long limbs, and hint of grace in the way her arms gesticulate as she talks. It is not hard to imagine that many would find her charming, with her cheerful demeanor and brilliant smile.

"Today, Lee is wearing a tailored white cotton button down shirt, which looks newly pressed. The stiff cuffs and collar are turned over a finely sewn black leather jacket, which is also tailored to her form. The cropped bottom of the jacket flares slightly at her waist, where it ends abruptly. Her jacket matches the black leather boots peaking out from underneath her pressed bootcut jeans, and the thick black belt at her waist. A violet silk scarf hangs loosely around her neck. She carries a slim aluminum briefcase, and a black leather camera bag.

An engine sounds in the distance as a small black blur approaches quickly. The tiny Mini comes to a halt. The car is completely black with black interior. Leala is clearly visible behind the steering wheel, though she looks a little confused. She's rummaging around in the car, searching for something. The car is obviously brand new and she doesn't quite look comfortable sitting behind the wheel. She triumphantly pulls a scrap of white paper out from the junk piled in the car and opens the door and steps out. Seeing Salem, she waves and approaches. "Sorry, I couldn't find the key code for the gate." She walks over to the gate and punches in a code, and it begins to open.

Salem, by contrast, looks more or less at ease leaning against his own vehicle, even though the ugly little Yugo certainly does _not_ fit the upper-class surroundings. He gives the other Walker a tight little smile. "No problem." As the gate opens, he climbs back behind the wheel of his car, preparing to follow Leala in.

Leala stuffs the paper into her pocket and climbs back behind the wheel. The car lurches forward and enters the mansion grounds, travels up the long driveway and comes to a halt in the arced area of the driveway directly in front of the door.

The Yugo rumbles up behind Leala's sleek little black thing and comes to a halt, the engine dying with a vehicular grunt. Salem climbs back out, glancing back to see the gates swinging slowly shut, then surveys the mansion itself and what can be seen of the grounds, and in the evening light, his mismatched eyes gleam.

Before climbing back into her car, Leala slips edge of the scrap of paper containing the gate code into a nook, making sure that it's highly visible to those that approach the key pad. She then proceeds through the open gate and parks near the front door.

Salem waits near the front door of the mansion, arms folded and smiling faintly.

Rattling it's way along the road comes a very....unique....car. A VW beetle, all rust removed and a paint-job done, though not many cars are painted in matt wall-paint. The main chassis of the car is BRIGHT GREEN, with the wheel-arches and trunk hatch being neon orange. There's also a slew of transfers all over it. Someone likes their car. That someone is Ebony, who is driving it, and Jeremy who is riding shotgun. The brightly-hued beast pulls up near the gates, and Ebony nudges at Jeremy to get out and work the keypad.

The gothic is covering his head in shame as the car pulls up, looking embarrassed. Ugh. GREEN. They are in a four wheel caterpilliar. After they stop, he slips out of the car and reaches up, quickly fingering in the code that he got from his voice mail, then watches the gates soon slide open.

Ebony drives the car in, parking it beside the Yugo and hopping out. How cute! He's wearing matching GREEN pants. Peering around and waiting for Jeremy to catch up to him, he then heads for the front gate. "Yo boss! Yo....er...lass."

Leala blinks a few times as the brightly colored WV approaches. If she's offended by its color, no one can tell. As the inhabitants of the car disembark, she turns and then walks up to the door and fits a key into the lock. It turns and she pushes the door open slightly and peers inside cautiously.

Salem bares his teeth in a faint grin, and blame the still-fat moon for giving the expression a rather, er, feral air. "Ebony. Jeremy. Excellent." He eyes the goth in particular. "I'm hoping that you, in particular, can get us nicely wired up. The security system's state of the art... for ten years ago."

Jeremy glances around as he steps inside, rolling his shoulders. "Geezus.. fucking green. Um.. Yah. I can do that. We got the cameras an shit yet? Or do we need to buy them? Cuz', if you want, I can abuse my discount on getting some stuff."

Long distance to the room: Salem remarks that the mansion inside hasn't had its desc updated yet, because I don't own the rooms (yet). So, when we enter, just check out the layout object I set in there and use your imagination. Plus there may be... ooo, surprises. Why don't y'all page me your Perception score? :)

Overhearing Salem, Leala calls back, "I'd also like to outfit the door with a keyless card entry system or maybe even some kind of retinal scan or something.

"Lianne mentioned something about helping defray the cost of that, not to mention renovations," Salem says. "The place is rather old." He nods to Leala, one eyebrow quirking. "_Retinal_ scan?"

Leala shrugs and grins. "Whatever works!"

Salem chuckles briefly. "I'll leave the details up to you... technical sorts." Then he gestures toward the open door. "After you, Leala. And remember," the Elder adds, "Leala gets first pick of the bedrooms."

Looking like a kid in a candy store, Leala excitedly disappears into the mansion. Her voice carries back, "This is my first real attempt at home ownership!"

Leala tugs on one of the oaken doors to enter the mansion itself.

Jeremy tugs on one of the oaken doors to enter the mansion itself.

Inside Dominion

Jeremy rubs the back of his neck a bit. "Retinal scans? Geezus.. um.. I hope you an Bill Gates are best friends, that shit is a lot of money. I can do finger print scans tho'. Unless you're afraid one of us may lose a hand or something." He murmurs, following after you guys. "And.. I think I'll just stay at my own place, but.. thanks."

Leala replies, "Maybe you're right... we could do voice recognition software though..." She surveys the surroundings, her nose wrinkling slightly at the must of disuse. They definitely had somewhat of a fixer-upper on their hands.

Salem paces through, taking in the interior of the place with that same gleam in his eyes. "Or simple keycards or passcode system. The previous owner's did some work on it, didn't he? Hopefully, the electric wiring is up to date, at least..."

Ebony enters the mansion and makes his way to the room you're in.

Jeremy glances around the place slowly, then takes out his PDA. On it, is attached a small camera. He begins to take pictures of the room as he walks along the walls, humming to himself.

Leala walks quickly through the sitting room to the right and office, then proceeds towards the stairs. "The decor could do with some modernization. I envision a plasma screen maybe in this sitting area and some nice track lighting." She grins, stopping at the foot of the stairs and gazing up.

"Lovely," Salem says, and then frowns. "Cat should be here." He looks back over toward the Brit-born kinsman. "Ebony, ah... would you mind going to fetch him?"

A few more pictures get snapped, then Jeremy puts the PDA back into his jacket, somewhere within the heavy folds of black.

"A'aight," Ebony agrees simply, scruffing a hat back over his head and nodding. "Back in twenty." He then heads for the door, whistling something appropriately cheerful.

Comically, Leala tests a stair with her foot to make sure its sound before proceed up onto the second floor. "Maybe we should install an elevator," she calls back down to the others.

Salem watches Eb go, then goes back to prowling through the first-floor rooms. The mansion _is_ sound -- well-built, good craftsmanship. It just needs some work here and there, and modernization. Oh, yes. For the Glass Walkers, modernization is required. The Elder snorts amusedly at Leala's suggestion.

The kitchen is vast, the dining room even moreso. Salem opens some of the cabinets, then checks the faucets. Water's on. Power's on.

Thinking a bit, Jeremy really has nothing much to add, except. "DDR machine." He shrugs his shoulders, then faintly grins to himself.

Ebony makes his way to the front doors of the mansion, passing through the double doors and out to the rest of the estate.

In this place, there could be a whole DDR _room_. A room, just for Dance Dance Revolution and other video games. The whole tribe could live here, kinfolk included, and there'd be plenty of room. Has anyone even counted how many bathrooms, full and half, there are?

The place... is BIG.

Leala's voice floats down from upstairs. "This place goes on forever. I think it's even bigger than my family home in Connecticut. I lost count on the bedrooms, but it's pretty big. I haven't found the master yet."

Salem exits the dining room, peers into the office at the back of the house -- that'll be his, most likely -- and then prowls over to the base of the stairs. "Four stories." He makes a little 'hm' noise. "And a tower."

There's a timid knock on the door. One tap, as if the knocker was afraid- and then two more taps.

Salem glances over, and then heads over to the door to let Cat -- the most likely source for timid tapping -- in.

The cub blinks, staring around the room. He looks awful. Hair hasn't been brushed, shirt untucked, and he looks like he hasn't slept in a week. "Mister Ebony said he hadta pick up some stuff," Cat mumbles, still staring. "He said this is the new house?"

Salem ushers the boy inside, one hand light on his shoulder. He nods. "This is the new house. The bedrooms are upstairs... why don't you pick one out? You can stay here until Rina comes home."

Leala comes bounding down the stairs. "I forgot to give everyone their keys," she said excitedly, and pulls a small plastic bag out of her pocket, which is brimming with keys. She walks around hand them out to the assembled Walkers and kin. "There may be other keys needed for sheds, garages, etc, but this will get you in the front door." She looks slightly annoyed for a moment. "We also can't get into the tower yet. We're gonna need to get a locksmith in here if that real estate agent can't locate the key."

Salem adds the key to his keyring and then pockets it, smiling faintly at the Ragabash's excitement. "That shouldn't be a problem."

Cat eyes the vaguely familiar woman and keeps staring around the room. A bookshelf! Tentatively he pulls away from Salem, glancing up at the halfmoon. "Miz Rina'll live here too when she comes back, won't she?"

An empty bookshelf, to be sure, but a whole library could fit on it. Actually, there _is_ a library somewhere...

Salem nods. "If she wants to, yes. She may want to return to the studio."

Leala heads back towards the stairs, still determined to find the master suite. "I'm going to finish exploring the upstairs. There has to be a nice big bedroom around here somewhere. Also, I want to turn one of the other rooms into a photography studio," she says. A wistful look crosses her face.

Salem glances over at Leala again, lips twitching into a faint half-smile. "Knock yourself out, Paints With Light," he says, and then turns his attention back to the rumpled and wide-eyed cub next to him.

Cat scuffs the floor with a shoe, then panics when it leaves a mark and starts rubbing it away. "This is the Walker house?" he asks faintly, slightly incredulous.

"This is the Walker house," Salem confirms. He waves Cat toward the stairs. "The bedrooms are up there. Go pick one out. See if you can find any cockroaches, too. If you find the master bedroom, tell Leala. That one's hers."

Obediently he trots to the stairs, looking over the banister and checking for roaches with every step. "A room for myself?" Cat calls down, with a nearly visible question mark over his head. He must be awfully tired; he's finding all this very hard to take in.

"All for yourself!" the Walker Elder calls back, flashing the cub a brief, rare, roguish, and almost gleeful-looking grin.

Leala hears the young voice and responds. "Yes sir. Whoever wants a room, gets one." She stumbles around the poorly lit upstairs, making her way to the third floor.

The Elder's grin seems to frighten Cat- almost. Then he grins back too, and runs up the rest of the stairs, skipping onto the second floor and opening doors like a child opening Christmas presents.

Salem chuckles as Cat disappears upstairs. If Renee were to come by and tell him a funny story -- well, she might win her challenge right then! It's that kind of evening, and in definite high spirits, he explores the parlor. The previous owner's left a couch in there, covered in a white sheet. He pulls back the heavy drapes and leans close to the window, staring out at the dark exterior. Not that there's much to see at night.

The halls are quite windy and Leala feels her poor sense of direction kicking in. Not a great trait for a Raggie, she mutters to herself and turns back and forth own halls, peeking into empty or mostly empty room. The lighting is poor on the upper floors. Not too surprising... keeping up with 30 light bulbs must be a tremendous chore. She takes out a pad and pen and starts making a brief list of necessities for the house.

After roaming around and taking a few more pictures, Jeremy soon finds himself lost. "Um.. Hello?" He calls out, his voice echoing one of the bigger rooms downstairs.

Salem steps away from the window, letting the heavy drapes fall, and goes to find Jeremy. "The front entrance is this way," he calls back to the gothkin.

In a fit of organization, Leala takes a post-it pad from her bag of tricks and starts slapping the notes onto doors. Each door gets a number and each number gets written down on a floorplan. The work is a bit tedious, but someone's got to be organizd.

Jeremy ohs quietly to himself and follows after quickly on fast steps, peering about. "Ganna need a lot of work. By the way, got in contact with my buddy Trevor in the UK. He's a Glass Walker that may be flying back over to join us. He can be a big help on this stuff with me."

Salem's eyebrows rise. "Another Brit?" One corner of his mouth slants upward. "Is he kin or tall frothing monster?" Jokes. Jack Salem, cracking _jokes_?

Jeremy grins. "Tall frothin monster. His name is Trevor, was a Fianna outta dis' Sept 'bout.. five or six years ago. He said Brian sent him on his passage like an instead he came outta it a Walker. Been a strong contact of mine the past two years."

"Don't get ahead of yourself," Leala chimes in from above. "We'll need to get this all planned out carefully before we execute. I already dumped an _assload_ of money into this place, and I want it to be perfect." She silently crosses her fingers, hoping the place doesn't meet the fate of their last no-so-safehouse.

Salem looks up and nods to Leala. "First and primary. No wiring the place with explosives." He rubs the side of his neck and glances sidelong at Jeremy. "We'll be glad to have him," he says of Trevor.

Nodding his head, Jeremy continues to tap a few notes into his PDA, then lets out a breath. "Security won't be too hard. I'll map out the best places to have cameras at. Once you guys get a heads up on where you want secret shit stashed an what not, I'll make sure to get a camera there as well."

"Excellent," Salem says. "I plan to take a walk through the grounds tomorrow. Hm. Perhaps a makeshift gym in the basement or somewhere else on the first floor..." He rubs his beard, thinking. Making plans.

Leala heads back down to the second floor and commences her sticky note marking. Out of the corner of her eye, she spots a set of double doors, which are at the end of a hall and a bit more ornate than previous ones. "I think I've found the master bedroom," she calls downstairs. Moving down the hall, she throws open the doors and steps into a spacious sitting room. Couches covered in sheets are arranged by a nice fireplace. A small desk is off to the right, next to a window with heavy drapes on it. At the other end of the room is a set of french doors. Leala examines the fireplace and then heads back towards the doors.

Making his way up the stairs, Jeremy easily leaps the steps, two by two as his trench coat flutters about his body. Heavy boots echo through the empty mansion in a resounding boom.

Salem chuckles quietly to himself and wanders again into the back of the house, first floor, to the office. Desk, chair, shelves built into the wall, and a window with a view of the grounds. Pulling the drapes back to reveal the gibbous moon, the Elder takes a seat and tilts the chair back, propping his feet up on the desk. Shit has happened in past and shit will happen in future, but for right now? Life is Good.

Leala opens the French doors at the back of the sitting room and walks into an extremely spacious bedroom. There is another sitting area off to the left with a couple of overstuffed chairs and a wall of bookshelves. Looks like the perfect reading nook. A small hallway leads off on the left side, probably to a bathroom or dressing area. The old bed is up on a one-step platform, left there by its previous owner. The bed is quite ornate, almost too-much so for her, but the mattress is gone. Sighing, Leala sits in one of the covered chairs and puts her feet up on a small coffee table. She is finally home. For the first time since she's moved to St. Claire, she actually has a place of her own. Grinning, she settles back and plots.