So two new oddities.

1) it looks like the electrical connection to the AC compressor is disconnected. ... and in a place that is gonna be seriously hard to reach to reconnect. ... and assuming there isn't some good reason for it to be disconnected.

2) apparently rear driver side door holds water from rain, like... some turning, opening and closing the door, the water is audibly splashing about in the door.

edit update:
so fiddled with the rubber bit at the bottm of the door, water drained out. kinda weird for that to be a problem, but ok.

with some help from someone with smaller hands and better sense of car stuff, tried connecting the compressor to the apparent plug that seems to go to it. clutch still doesn't activate, and now check engine light comes on. so thats fun. figuring maybe getting that read might give some insight into the problem. but I'm betting that means my AC is screwed.