Play@YSDC

May, 1976

After many years of sickness, madness and assorted hardships, it seems that there is a silver lining after all for Heidi Smith and Tobias Jerkins. The long series of complex procedures pays off, and Heidi's tumor goes into partial remission. But now what she needs is rest, and a change of scenery, a real holiday. Luckily, there are some good travel and holiday options offered to cancer ward patients. And Heidi received a free two-week stay at a resort by the Salton Sea in California.

Tobias, Heidi, and their eldest daughter Rachel arrive to San Diego airport, rent a car, and soon arrive to Desert Shores.
However, it quickly becomes obvious, that the Salton Sea is not the swinging resort it used to be in the 1950s...

Most of the roadside motels lie abandoned, and the beaches are slowly reverting back to desert. The moment they get out of the car, the travelers are confronted by a noxious, briny odor, mixed with the smell of decaying fish. Their own palce, the Sunset Hotel, seems to be the last working establishment in the area. After some arguing, the Jerkins family decides to stay, at least for a few days.

The rooms are acceptable, there is a breakfast buffet. Activities are sparse. The Salton Sea is true to its name: the water is so salty, that it's impossible to swim in it. But at least you can take walks on the beach (if the wind blowing from the desert disperses the pungent alkaline smell) and check out the dying fish wobbling in the shallows... Heidi prefers to stay at the hotel and relax at the swimming pool with one of the dozen paperbacks she brought along to the trip. Rachel hangs out with the couple of other kids that stay at the hotel, or just goes around exploring the abandoned buildings in the area. Tobias... well, Tobias frequents the hotel bar, that closes at 11, and a nearby gas station slash convenience store for after-hour supplies.



One day, after lunch, Tobias decides to head over to the gas station to pick up some stuff for the evening. He notices a worn pick-up truck is parked at the station, with a small group hanging out around it: three young people, dressed in flowing skirts and dresses, with long hair... From the distance it's impossible to tell whether they are girls or boys. One of them is filling up the truck with gas, while the other two are chatting with an even younger girl, who is dressed more moderately -- and Tobias realizes that it is his daughter, Rachel!

Tobias swatted away the swarm of mosquitos surrounding him, inhaling the pungent odour as he swigged down a large mouthful of strong, spiced, rum. Cheap, heavy in alcoholic content, it was more than enough to get by. Sometimes, he wished he could run away from his responsibilities and, perhaps, his dinner with his wife. Tobias was the one to pick up the ingredients and make the meal, as the hotel food was indeed so damned tasteless and expensive that, to even so much as considering the mere thought of wasting unnecessarily large amounts of money on ordering food sent shivers down his spine.

Muttering a curse, he stumbled towards the gas station chugging rum and swatting himself all over in an awful mood. Irritated, he looked at the kids and shouted loudly as he saw them gathering around Rachel, “What are you doing?”

Rachel is startled, and also annoyed, by Tobias' sudden appearance.

"Chill out, dad! Just talking with people."

The others turn towards Tobias as well. He now can see that Rachel is talking to two long-haired girls. The person filling the car is a boy. They are all young, probably in their early twenties. Their clothes are worn and torn, but quite clean. Tobias notices a third girl sitting in the car, next to the driver's seat. She appears to be sleeping.

OOC,Roll [b]Spot Hidden[/b]!

Spot Hidden 60%,[dice]0[/dice]

Tobias sighed, and took another shot of rum. “Yeah...uh, about that, Rachel, you gotta be home ’fore dinner. You *Cough* mother wouldn’t like it if you stay outside for too long. I’m...cooking tonight. Uuuhh, just, like, do you want to introduce your new friends?”

Coughing furiously, Tobias attempted to make small-talk with his daughter while making an attempt to count money inside his wallet and drink rum at the same time. Unfortunately, that proved to be a bit of a failure as he quickly realised that he can’t tell the dollar bills apart from each other. He could not give less of a damn about the other kids, as long as they aren’t crazy aliens trying to eat his brains, at the moment, he was still trying to count money inside his very interesting wallet. Huh.

"Uh, sure, Dad. Just check the expiration date on the tomato sauce this time," Rachel says, reminding Tobias about a recent rather unsuccessful cooking experience.

She then points to the boy and then the two girls: "This is Do, Ria and ‘N." The last name sounds weird, not even a syllable, just a heavily stressed consonant. "They live around here." The youngsters just stand around and smile, sort of politely, but not quite so. The girl called ‘N wears the strangest smirk of them all: she looks at Tobias with an air of superiority. She is thin and elfin, tall (a few inches taller than Tobias); her face is bony, pale, with eyes set deep, giving her a malnourished looking.

"See you later, then," Rachel waves to them, and heads off towards the hotel.

Tobias focuses on ’N, there’s something about her that irritated him. Maybe it was the been-there-done-that smile, maybe it was the fact that a teenager was taller than him, or maybe it was the fact that she was kind of blocking the entrance and he couldn’t be stuffed navigating around her. ’N, is that right? Interesting name, I’ve never heard of any cultures giving kids consonants for names. Now, you don’t happen to deal drugs right?” Tobias tried to look threatening and intimidating at the kids, puffing up his chest and started to wave his bottle about like an abrasive man-child.

Intimidate 15%,[dice]0[/dice]

Psychology 60%,[dice]1[/dice]

“And Rachel, stay behind for a bit. Your daddy will walk you home, I’m worried about you getting lost here! And totally not because I’m too *Cough* drunk to remember...where the hotel is.” He shouted to Rachel who was already planning to leave.

He wanted to get the grocery shopping over with, but something tells him that there’s more to these local hoodlums than the average muckled-darn teens.

Tobias' try at intimidation fails spectacularly. 'N almost bursts out in laughter. "Dealing drugs? Not since last year, no," she says with a straight face. "What? Are you looking to buy, daddy? You can barely hold your liquor..."

"Don't worry, kiddo, soon one day you'll get away from all this," 'N adds, turning to Rachel.

"Let's go, 'N," says the other girl (who is called Ria), and gets behind the wheel. The boy finishes filling up the car, and takes one of the back seats.

"Can I come and visit you now?" Rachel asks, but 'N shakes her head.

OOC,What exactly did you want to establish or find out with the Psychology roll?

OOC:   Uh, I kind of wanted to establish whether N mean either Tobias or Rachel any harm, basically, whether she has any ill intent. Is this...unreasonable at this point in the story?

“Then you stay away from my daughter, Ye muckled darned drug-dealin’ schmuck. Don’t patronise me and don’t go makin’ any moves on me daughter! Ain’t no daughter of mine is going to move in and date nobody with a name that doesn’t stretch longer than a consonant.” Tobias shook an angry fist, completely misinterpreting the last message exchanged between N and Rachel.

“Seriously, Rachel, probably a good idea to stay away from these type of folks. They aren’t ‘chill’, or whatever you young people call it.” Tobias said, in an attempt to sound fatherly or...sober, at least. “I’d bet whatever’s left of my liver that N, is up to no good. She even admits it herself that she dealt drugs. Now, if you really want to be friends with them, invite them to our hotel room for dinner tomorrow, if they don’t behave like proper gentlemen and gentleladies...well, we’ll talk about it then. For now, let’s buy some food. Wouldn’t want you and your mother starving, would we?”

With that, Tobias walked in to buy some eggs, a bottle of cooking oil, bread slices, bland vegetables, four slices of beef, a small bag of potatoes, and some sweet-and-sour sauce.

OOC,It's okay to roll for stuff if I don't call for it, just put an intention for me to understand, how do you want to use this roll. However, uncalled rolls are not always taken into consideration.

'N is... cryptic and distant. Tobias gets the feeling that she is completely torn away from society, and what is considered appropriate. More so than it is usual for the hippie types.

They get into the car and slowly pull away.

Tobias and Rachel walk into the store and continue their strained conversation. "I don't think they would be interested in dinner with you, uh, I mean, us," says Rachel, and personally checks the expiration date on some of the stuff. She adds some grated Parmesan cheese to the basket as well.

The shop attendant, a 40ish sunburned fellow, rings everything up, then casually asks: "Any trouble with those folks out there?" He probably saw the exchange in the station's parking lot through the big glass pane walls of the store.

“Oh none at all, they weren’t out looking for trouble. Well, they didn’t attack me or anything, so that’s good.” Tobias said cheerfully.

OOC:   Cool. Got it. Will be making sure the rolls are more specific from now onwards.

“Interesting. They a part of a hippie community or something? And how much will that come to?” Tobias asked, wanting to get this over with.

"Or something! They have some of that hippie touch to them, but they are more religious. When I caught them shoplifting, they just said that money doesn't matter, 'cause the world is gonna end soon anyways. Or something along those lines. But I think that's their trip, making people feel weird. It was that tall girl you've been talking to."

The man quickly goes through Tobias' basket, takes his money.

"Have a nice day, Mister, and you too, young lady!"

Tobias made a mental note to do more background research, and left the shop with Rachel and two heavy bags of groceries.