Aratana hajimari - A New Beginning

Lights were on again in the Ordo Dracul Chapter House, tucked away in it's own little corner of Sacramento. The hour was late in the night, and Katsuro had been working now, by himself, for about a week dominating the majority of his time and efforts. He would slowly drag the larger furniture and various items that couldn't be salvaged into one corner of the foyer sorting through the detritus.

Other items in the house of wood or stone, bits and bobs...things that could be refinished or repaired went into another corner. It reminded him of times when he was younger. When he was....alive. His father had him clear out renovation units in houses when he was just starting out. It was an experience many in japan go through if they're in the upper middle class, so they don't misunderstand where they came from and how far they can still go.

Nothing out of the worst rooms. Tomori gave a shudder as he recalled closing the door on some of the blood splattered areas. He took instead to sanding down the library stacks himself and bringing order to what he hoped would become a temple of the mind. Hopefully soon his books would arrive from home and the shelves would seem less lonely, or was it simply Katsuro projecting?

Speaking of projects. The Dragon had managed to carve himself out a private room, its canopy bed still in one piece. Though it needed a little work, with the right set up on the blinds for the window and hangings around the bed sunlight would find no purchase upon exposed flesh under silk sheets. A small comfort in the otherwise spartan room. A single dresser in a corner, both seemed to be made of Mahogany that had been left to age in the unkempt environment. Supplies such as hand tools, wood varnish, and other DIY project related tools lay strewn about the two rooms. So much more needed to be done.

It was not the lavish accoutrements a Lord would seek out, true.Tomori gently reminded himself, he too was in a state that required work. Plus, he could finally stop worrying about staying in those damned busy hotels.

Night after night, bit by bit, the Chapter House would bend to Katsuros vision, mostly because no one else had come along to bend it before him in quite some time as far as he could tell. Perhaps in time someone else would come and join him in his crusade against the neglect the bones of this fine secret estate felt. The thought gave the Japanese man a bittersweet grin as he continued humming along, alone in a foreign land. Eventually the humming turned into songs and on into the night Katsuro went, continuing his restoration project on the House.