Houses and Bicycles

## Landlines

All Darling-Jones residences have landlines, if only for use with the alarm such that they get a better rate on their insurance.

## The Rental

### Derek

A terraced house would be a lot of house for just the two of them, but with Derek it would be perfect!

### 2016

**Jan5 -** Summer school starts; Charlie leaves for Orienteering.

**January -** Jackson and Derek start working on emancipating Derek and transferring him to a Sydney high school (at this point, Charlie's still planning on leaving for the middle of nowhere when she graduates).

**Jan27 -** New South Wales high schools start Term One

**Feb26 -** Charlie returns from Orienteering, picks up her paperwork, realizes she no longer wants to be a ranger.

**Feb27 -** Jackson asks Charlie if she would like to move in with him to the rental he's getting for himself and Derek; Charlie forces herself to get her new program all sorted

**Feb29 -** Term One starts for the University of Sydney

**March -** Jackson and Charlie move into the rental; After quite a bit of research, Charlie buys Hush

**Mar24 -** Easter vacation; Charlie rents a car, loads up Whisper, and she and Jackson leave for Mount Isa; Derek spends the weekend packing his stuff

**Apr2 -** Charlie and Jackson return to Sydney

**Apr8 -** Term 1 ends for New South Wales high schools.

**April -** Derek moves in with Charlie and Jackson

**Apr26 -** Term Two begins for New South Wales high schools

## Moving

I had a thought last night about the move from house one to house two: the reason the second house ends up so close to the Vosses is because the handler went looki ng for precedents and found them. I imagine there're a couple Shatterdome families in that area.

Perfect!

Any idea /when they move?

I would guess early or mid-2023.

The boys are back in Sydney at the end of September 2022. But I think it would take a little while for the distance to start being a problem, so, maybe early- to mid-2023. What do you think?

In any event, after she and Jamie are on speaking terms XD

How about early 2023? New Year's resolution or the like of Charlie's to get her time management back under control--she's wasting a lot of it commuting or something.

Works for me.

It'll take Jamie a little bit after the Nguyens disappear to track her down. If the Nguyens vanish in early October ... he could conceivably introduce himself before around the turn of the year.

## 1st House

On what kind of road is the first Darling-Jones residence? (ie, how long is it, is it straight, curved, wiggly, etc). Do they have a garage? Is my thinking that they have a car (usually left with Jackson for groceries, appointments, etc) and an electric bicycle (Wash's commuting vehicle of choice) at all congruent with yours?

I've got a better visual on the second house and neighborhood than the first. But your thinking on the garage and the car are dead on with mine. And an electric bicycle sounds very, very Wash.

I'll leave the first house and neighborhood in your capable hands. XD

Thank you! I will do that trust proud.

(Also have a pretty good view of Jackson's bachelor flat and its neighborhood, should that become necessary later.)

## 2nd House

With regards to Wash and Jackson losing control of their own lives, here's an idea:

When Wash decides to split the distance between work and the Shatterdome (New Year's resolution or the like of Charlie's to get her time management back under control—she's wasting a lot of it commuting, for instance), Jamie offers to take care of the selling, saying he knows a guy who can do the staging and the selling. She won't have to lift a finger. Wash goes for it.

Day before she's about to go open house touring, an envelope from the PPDC arrives. They've bought her a house that checks off all the boxes. Wash goes for it.

(Jackson gets a 12 hour visit the day after.)

(When she gets the keys to the new place, Jackson gets another visit. I think they end up painting the whole time.

And while Wash and Jackson are painting, Logan and one of Jamie's people go over the house with a fine-toothed comb looking for monitoring devices and other nefarious things. I don't think they find any, but everyone feels better.

See Logan and Jamie's person offering prizes to whichever fluffle finds anything with an 'evil looking light'. See a fluffle misunderstand and drag over an alarm clock.)

[I think this is where we meet the Weegie Logan mentions to Blossom. She's Jamije's person and she and Logan wind up giving each other the evil eye the whole time. (I /really wish I knew what he did to piss her off!)]

(We find out later the Squire got the memo and thusly took care of it, but the sheer /rage!

No kidding about the rage. Wash doesn't seem the type to take this sort of interference well. I'm developing some sympathy for this poor Squire—"But-but I was just trying to /help!"

Nay, she is most certainly not. And it will elicit sympathetic anger with the audience which is exactly why we don't mention the Squire for a good while, and even when we do, there'll be the inkling that "how, exactly, did the Squire get ahold of Wash's 'must-have' list?" (the PPDC broke into the house while Andrea and fluffles were on a walk and took pictures of everything house-hunting related.))

I had a thought last night about the move from house one to house two: the reason the second house ends up so close to the Vosses is because the handler went looking for precedents and found them. I imagine there're a couple Shatterdome families in that area.

And an idea I had just now: the house is eerily similar to the photoshoot house (so the down payment may not arrive the next day but the next week). Maybe, anyway.

### Vos House

If the second house is halfway between Wash's work and the Shatterdome, is the Vos residence halfway between the 'Dome and House 2.0? Since the Voses live in off-site housing, can they elect to move closer to the perimeter (if offsite housing is as big as a suburb) "for school" (but also closer to the Darling-Joneses)? (Would they elect to do so? Moving's a ton of work, especially with so many kids but if it's within walking distance of the school, may be worth it.)

Since their family gets pretty large pretty quickly, I actually wonder if the Vosses wind up in a neighborhood /next to the PPDC-associated housing rather than in it. Like, Vosling #3 is on the way, there are no homes on- or off-site/associated that can accommodate that many fluffles, here's a down payment, go find your own place. So they plunk down in a nice neighborhood near the school and Pietr catches public transit to work or bikes in.

## Bikes

Electric bicycle sounds very, very Wash.

I get the feeling Wash has /a bike in university; where would she stash it at Jackson's place, ye think?

As for bikes, Wash would stash hers next to wherever Jackson stashes his in the apartment, since he is also certainly in possession of one. His place is very sparsely furnished, so that location may be something as simple as 'behind the couch.'

Wash calls her heavy, all-terrain university bike, 'Whisper'. I will think of a tweak for "intruder".

Jackson probably has a nickname for his, but he ain't sharing it (with me, at least).

Do you know what kind of bike Jackson rides?

Something lightweight and durable, designed for use on pavement and for agility (gotta dodge traffic!). Basically, the exact opposite of 'Whisper.' XD

Should I be looking up obscure star ships? :D

Heh. He'd probably just name it after a Star Trek shuttlecraft, like Galileo.

\*obscure Startrek star ships XD I'm trying to find sleek-ish ones that someone who studied starcraft religiously would pick, like the Galileo!