Mara's Hideout

There is an abandoned garage on the corner of a street in downtown Nachton, in a quiet area not very far from the Back Alley but also not in the worst part of town. The inhabitants here are mostly working middle class and the buildings are from an older period, circa 1940-50 but some few are older, from the 20s. There is a quiet, old-style charm about the semi run-down buildings here.

The garage itself is modest in size, consisting of two pull-in garage bays and a small area on the ground floor that was once an administrative office. There is a very small lot in the front that people could park in to drop off or pick up their vehicles. The windows and doors have long since been boarded up; there's no obvious way into the building and the casual passer-by would never guess the building is occupied. However, anyone who knows architecture would realize that the foundation is certainly sound and stable and the outside of the building is almost crafted to appear run-down while actually being quite weatherproof. It is very convincingly done.

There is a fence along the back side of the lot the garage sits on; every night one can find a variety of stray cats perched upon it. They seem very comfortable there; clearly no one shoos them away. Also in the back of the building is a set of cellar doors, double-sided metal doors leading down into the ground. They are securely locked. The lock is old, but very sturdy.

Inside the building, if one can actually figure out how to get there, the cellar is chilly and dark, being underground. There are numerous boxes on metal storage racks and the area can be lit with a single bulb hanging from the ceiling, with a string to pull on. Each box is labeled with a set of letters and numbers that must makes sense to someone.

At the far side of the cellar another set of stairs takes you up into the garage bays, which are all one large room. Here, the area has been transformed into a huge work area. A small fortune in equipment is in here. Two or three work benches seem to have several different purposes. Two are clearly used for small, detailed work. One such has a variety of torches and tips. Another has what some may recognize as bead making tools. The third is a modern workbench with a seat for the artist to sit on and arms specially made to rest a blowpipe on for rolling and shaping glass. There are racks upon the walls with a variety of blowpipes and hoses and several metal storage closets which can be assumed hold more supplies and tools. In the middle of the room are two kilns and two furnaces. There is a small writing desk along one wall with pencils, erasers, measuring tools, and a sketch pad, presumably all used to conceptualize and plan out certain projects.

In the corner behind the administrative area there is a door. This door leads up yet another flight of stairs to the second story of the building. This has been converted into a studio apartment. There are no clearly defined rooms save the kitchen, which is a small galley on the right as you enter, with two bar stools at the open counter, and what is presumably a bathroom, along the wall behind the kitchen. The rest of this story is a combined living and sleeping area. The floors are a dark honey-colored wood. The walls are decorated with several pictures reminiscent of the 1920's era.

There is no clear definition between the living room and bedroom, save for a shoji screen that provides some small amount of separation. The living room has a large oriental rug on the floor in a myriad of blue shades from ocean dark to pale robin's egg with black and white accents. In lieu of a coffee table there is a large steamer trunk that serves the same purpose, deliberately placed in front of a vintage sofa that has clearly been restored and reupholstered in a soft gray fabric. To one side of that there is an armchair in dark blue. On the other side there is a chaise lounge in cream with a pattern of roses on it. All three pieces of furniture have several throw pillows on them. There is an old television on a wooden stand against the wall with a DVD player and a cable box.

Between the living area and the shoji screen, against the wall, is a large bookshelf with a variety of literature on it. Many of the books are classics but not all of them. The reader obviously has a wide range of interests. Next to that on a little table is a small loom, meant for hand-weaving small pieces of cloth. On a shelf underneath the table is a variety of needlepoint accessories; hoops, flosses, and patterns. There are also knitting needles, crochet hooks, and a basket of yarn.

The shoji screen itself consists of four panels, 6 feet tall, with a very subtle pattern of cherry blossoms crawling across them. At first glance it appears to have been manufactured but when you look closer, it is obvious that the wooden shoji screen is quite authentic and the cherry blossoms are hand painted. The artist has signed their work in kanji, "Yuki," with no additional name.

Behind the screen the bedroom area is classic 1920's. There's a four-poster bed, a vanity/dressing table, a bedside table, and an armoire all made from dark walnut. The frame above the bed is draped with gauzy blue and purple fabric, hanging artfully down the posters. The vanity has no personal items upon it but instead has a collection of antique glass perfume bottles in different prismatic colors. They are varied and mismatched, clearly there because their owner seems to like them rather than to serve a purpose.