Chapter Three - Embrace the Suck

The Best Laid Plans O'Mice and Men

Chapter Three - "Embrace the Suck"

Being military officers, mornings started at 0500hrs, though of course, since they really weren't in the "chain of command" of the regular Navy. The rules were slightly more relaxed, but as they say, "early to bed; early to rise". Phil was definitely an early-riser though. He got up at 0430, had his breakfast which was an apple pie that Harm had cooked (he was a natural cook, after all (he was a gastric connoisseur on the TV show and could cook up any meal - unless it was Harm's Meatless Meatloaf(that was a standing joke on the TV show and if the Sims had meatloaf as one of the recipes able to be cooked, I'd be throwing that in there too)),

...then it was back out to the dumpsters to try and pick through some more garbage and rotting food to try to pick out the gems in the rough. In the past two days, Phil had thrown up more than he'd had after tying on a few too many beers while on liberty at Mama Rosita's near Subic Bay (well, it was either that or the adobo had gone bad and had given him food poisoning).

When he lifted the lid of the dumpster, a wave of noxious stench assailed his nostrils. Nope, it hadn't been emptied from last night; he thought to himself and then realized that it was only 0430hrs. Garbage pick-up daily though it was, wasn't for yet another four hours. With his mood sinking, he sighed, heaved himself up on the ledge of the dumpster and stuck his head in the decaying waste. What an utterly joyful life he was leading; what a come-down from the glories of flying a Mach 2+ jet fighter and landing on aircraft carriers; dress whites and gold wings, to being stuck out here in the middle of Boondocksville, USA. picking through garbage. The US Navy should use this as a detailer's invitation to new recruits. "Join the Navy, See the World, Smell the Unique Culture." Boy oh, boy, Shore Duty was a blast. ~sarcasm~ Made Phil wish that he was back in the Fleet.

The women headed over to the elixir shop, it seemed as though the proprietor was human, though that didn't account for much as who knew where their allegiances lay. Mac who was clairvoyant kind of knew what to look for and counselled Kimber on what to ask the proprietor without giving away their motives. The proprietor didn't seem like she let on or the fact that three humans asking for cure elixir didn't provoke any alarm in her. However unfortunately, there was none in stock at the this particular time, so Kimber said, "Thanks, maybe we'll try again tomorrow..."

Tosh and Harm had gone fishing over at a new spot at the sandy banks near the ocean and well, they had a bit more luck, with luminous salamanders (which weren't on the menu) nor were the jelly fish that were a painful catch. Luckily they weren't box jellyfish of the tropical variety or that would have been a death sentence: they have lethal toxins - the venom causes cells to become porous enough to allow potassium leakage, causing hyperkalemia, which can lead to cardiovascular collapse and death as quickly as within 2 to 5 minutes; not something you want to come in contact with.

By this time, the ladies had come back home and were reading skill books that they'd bought at the bookstore on the way back. At least it was something to do and increasing their skills would be a boon to the entire group. Gardening would help in insuring that they had enough foodstocks to weather an assault by the occult. In fact they had to fortify their home just to make sure that werewolves and vampires couldn't attack the building. So far the occult were unaware of the reason of their presence and the vice-admiral, Harm and the others planned to keep it that way.

...and Phil was enjoying himself less and less...considering that he now heartily wished that he no longer had a stomach, whose contents he kept making a reaquaintance with every two hours. But dedication to duty was what Phil was good at, regardless of his propensity to take short-cuts, and he still kept at it - digging through assorted disgusting muck to try to find the few items that they could use or pawn off in order to give them some working money so that they were able to stock the fridge with food.

Meg explained to Tosh that they needed some more duties other than just sitting around the house reading skill books. Tosh nodded, but he said that he was reluctant to show his hand in terms of taking a more active approach to reconnoitering the area at this present time. If they showed their hand too early, they would lose the tactical advantage. Meg didn't like that, but she saw the strategy in the position that Tosh was taking. And he'd been to War College, so he'd know strategy.

Since Tosh and Harm weren't happy with their fish haul for the day, they decided to go back out to yet another fishing hole on the far side of town. Tosh made a command decision for all of the group to have individual vehicles, so the Navy sent over six Yomoshoto Evasion; a souped up clone of the coupe version of the Chevy Malibu which the Navy used as service vehicles. And if they had to tangle with some occult, they'd need that horsepower to make a getaway.

Well, at least the fish were biting at this location - Tosh and Harm managed to get quite a few fish from this location.

As night fell on the second day in Moonlight Falls, Phil was still head first in the dumpster, looking for items and hoping to the Watcher that he wouldn't upchuck and aspirate garbage, incurring a raging lung infection, that would require hospitalization to treat.