Three Dog

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

The door closed behind Ellen; she squared her shoulders. She'd made it inside. She'd made it past the two Knights in the lobby. She'd made it up the stairs and into some room she'd never seen before. She was not going to break down and have the bahoogies about the giant green monster battle now.

She had a radio broadcaster to meet, and she was pretty sure that Three Dog wasn't going to be impressed by a lump of the wibbles, so there was nothing for it but to take a breath, push the memory of the mutants and the Behemoth away, and head for the last flight of stairs upward.

Comments

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Okay," said Ellen hesitantly, "but I don't have a lot of bottlecaps left, I'm afraid. You're welcome to what I've got..."

[voxapocalyptica.livejournal.com]

He held up his hands, shaking his head. "No, no, not like that. Galaxy News Radio is my baby. I love it, I feed it, I keep it changed. But there's one problem -- no one outside of D.C. can hear her cry."

He shot a glance towards the wires that led into the ceiling, then back to Ellen.

"You see, some brainless supermutant thought it would be funny to shoot at the shiny round thing on the Washington Monument."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

She'd heard Nova talking to Gob in Moriarty's way back in the beginning- when she was cleaning up Mr. Burke's body. Something about it not being the radio, but Galaxy News' signal having gone to pot lately...

"I think I can see where this is going."

[voxapocalyptica.livejournal.com]

"Yup, the shiny round thing was our broadcast relay. Now it's swiss cheese. Without it, our broadcast range is... quite limited. Of course, the factory that made the relay dishes is long gone. Leveled. As in: we're never gonna scavenge another part like that again."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

There was just barely the possibility of getting something like that at Milliways, as far as Ellen knew. It was worth a shot, anyway; so she nodded. "Okay," she said. "I'm still listening."

[voxapocalyptica.livejournal.com]

"It's risky. I would never lie to you. But there's something behind those eyes of yours that screams, I'm the one who can get shit done!"

He took a pause then, recrossing his arms as he leaned back against the workbench. The song picked up in the background:

"Don’t know why I left the homestead,
I really must confess...
I’m a weary exile
Singing my song of loneliness."

"Your dad had that same look in his eyes, too. That's why Three Dog's helping you."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

That, at least, was promising. Maybe Dad had pulled himself together despite his lousy judgment call on the Vault front after all...

"That sounds like you have something particular in mind," Ellen says. "Lay it on me."

[voxapocalyptica.livejournal.com]

"One of the Brotherhood guys that passes through here mentioned seeing a dish in one of D.C.'s old museums," he told her. "It's the dish off the old Virgo II Lunar Lander in the Museum of Technology. I want you to get it and bring it to the Washington Monument to replace the bad one.

"That's it."

The task in itself made a good summation of the world in general: national treasures, now useless and unappreciates in their original purpose, recycled to serve what remained of civilization.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

There was a stunned, blinking sort of silence for a moment- but it was mostly because what Ellen wanted to say was you're kidding, that still exists?. Surely that would've been taken apart long ago... but apparently it hadn't.

And Mr. Mills had taken her to all sorts of museums up and down the Mall in his world. The Air and Space Museum had been stocked to the brim with the kinds of things you'd see in a Museum of Technology, and it hadn't been all that hard to find. She could do this, surely.

"All right," Ellen said. "You have yourself a deal."

[voxapocalyptica.livejournal.com]

Three Dog cackled, a wild, manic, hyena sound.

"I sure know how to pick 'em! You're gonna be the best thing to happen to Galaxy News Radio in a long time."

The song was winding down. He ran his hand along the workbench as he moved behind it, touching it as though reassuring it. He took an overlarge set of headphones into his hands and glanced across at Ellen.

"If you need any more info, I'll be here waiting for you."

As if he ever left.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"I sure hope so, sir," said Ellen. "And- thank you, in advance."

She waved, turned, and headed for the stairs and the door again. If Paladin Vargas and poor Reddin had really cleared out the school, she'd be able to hide there and have her fit of the jibblies for a while, and then she could be on her way.

[voxapocalyptica.livejournal.com]

Meanwhile, the DJ watched her depart. The song was ending and he was on soon, slipping the headphones over his head.

The door at the bottom of the stairs clicked shut and he grinned, baring his teeth.

Now this was news.