Trouble on the Homefront
Nov. 15th, 2009 10:44 pmThe door opens into the dusty, metal-smelling interior of a house built from the parts of long-ago airplanes. Light leaks into the room through the greased-paper covering over a few windows, and through the chinks in the metal walls. Ahead, a set of dented lockers takes up one wall. An alcove in the back seems to hold dishes and possibly an ancient refrigerator. There's a workbench off to the left, and stairs leading upward off to the right. "Well," Ellen says, "this is it. Home sweet home."
"Welcome back, mistress!" comes a tinny, mechanical voice from upstairs. "You weren't gone long at all that time..."
"Welcome back, mistress!" comes a tinny, mechanical voice from upstairs. "You weren't gone long at all that time..."
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Date: 2009-11-16 03:48 am (UTC)...And this is coming from a kid who grew up on a moonbase.
"...who's that?"
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Date: 2009-11-16 03:51 am (UTC)"Hallo, young master!" the robot cheerfully exclaims. "Is there anything I can do for you? A drink, perhaps? Something to eat? Jokes, maybe?"
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Date: 2009-11-16 03:53 am (UTC)"Jokes please?"
There is a grunt and a growl from floor level.
"Winston, no biting."
"Krah."
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Date: 2009-11-16 04:00 am (UTC)"They're all like that," Ellen murmurs.
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Date: 2009-11-16 04:01 am (UTC)"I can wait while you get what you need here."
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Date: 2009-11-16 04:05 am (UTC)"Might I suggest you consider your new suit of armor, madam?" Wadsworth comments.
"No, Wadsworth. I'm going back to Vault 101. I don't want them thinking I'm an invader- they're already in a bad enough situation as it is."
"All the more reason to dress properly, madame."
"This is properly," Ellen points out. "Moira reinforced this herself, and whatever else anyone thinks about her, she does good work."
"I suppose," says Wadsworth gloomily. "Do pack along a few extra stimpaks, though, won't you?"
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Date: 2009-11-16 04:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-16 04:20 am (UTC)"All right," says Ellen. "We'd better get going."
"Do take care, the both of you."
The door opens onto a rusty metal walkway that affords an excellent view of the town. "Um, you should be aware," Ellen notes. "There's still an unexploded bomb in the middle of town, but it's been disarmed. There's nobody who can move it and that one place with the big model of an atom sticking out of the roof is kind of a church for people who worship the bomb, so moving it would be a problem even if we could. I just thought I should let you know."
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Date: 2009-11-16 04:22 am (UTC)"...I think your world has bigger problems than moving the bomb if people are worshipping it."
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Date: 2009-11-16 04:30 am (UTC)The crater in which Megaton was built is steep-sided, but there are steps leading upward, and Stockholm the gate guard on the upper walkway waves cheerfully before pulling his lever. As the gates grind upwards and apart, Ellen squares her shoulders and takes a deep breath. "Okay," she says. "See that rock formation in the distance, off to the left, past the remains of the raised road? That's where we're headed."
Dogmeat, who has been following silently all this time, butts his head against Ellen's leg and gets an absent scratch between the ears for his pains.
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Date: 2009-11-16 04:34 am (UTC)New Territory.
Tyler's getting an affectionate hand-nuzzle as a way of the little monster's way of saying 'thank you'.
"I see it."
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Date: 2009-11-16 04:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-16 04:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-16 04:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-16 04:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-16 04:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-16 04:53 am (UTC)"...have you heard anything else about Canterbury Commons?"
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Date: 2009-11-16 04:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-16 04:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-16 05:03 am (UTC)They've come a fair distance; she glances up at the rock formation.
"Almost there. This is the path up; there's a wooden door up at the top, into the tunnel that leads straight to the Vault."
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Date: 2009-11-16 05:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-16 05:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-16 05:11 am (UTC)Well. He could help fix the robots after busting them up, right?
"I'll try to just disable the robots without busting them up."
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Date: 2009-11-16 05:21 am (UTC)It's a relatively short, wide run. The tunnel was originally built to let quite a lot of people in, after all. It's shadowy, though; Ellen turns on her Pip-Boy light, which plays over the bones of the dead she passed on her way out... it seems like a lifetime ago.
Up ahead, beyond the signs reading LET US IN YOU ASSHOLES and WE'RE DYING OUT HERE, there looms a door.
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Date: 2009-11-16 05:25 am (UTC)Tyler's already got his flashlight in the gauntlet hand...and the training saber in the other, unlit.
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