Trouble on the Homefront

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

The 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..."

Comments

[basic_powers]

"I wasn't..." Tyler starts to say...but thinks better of it for a moment. "...just in case he starts talking about the 'why' of all this, I think I could rig my communicator to broadcast it to the Vault."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Mrs. Palmer's eyebrows go up at that; then she nods. "Well," she says, "it's not as if the other ways were working..."

"Please," says Amata, "just- just talk to him. And-" Her eyes flicker to the reinforced bits of Ellen's jumpsuit, the armor patches and laser pistol. "Don't hurt him?"

"I don't intend to hurt anyone," Ellen says, which is true enough. "Come on, T- Moon Shadow. We should go."

[basic_powers]

"Winston, heel!" The little raptor pops back up onto two feet as the boy reaches into a utility belt to give him a little beef jerky for being so well-behaved in front of the Vault dwellers. "Good boy."

...There's a little held out for Dogmeat too, he's been VERY good so far.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Dogmeat yips happily and snatches his bit of jerky out of Tyler's hand. A few of the Vault dwellers draw back reflexively; they've never seen anything with teeth like that in person, after all.

Ellen just sighs and waits for the critters to do their eating before setting out into the halls again.

[basic_powers]

It's not very long..and the critters do a little of the chewing while they walk, with happy chomps into smoked emu meat.

The boy simply disappears.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen takes the opportunity to switch on her Stealth Boy and returns to the creeping pace of earlier. This time, however, their path leads upwards- through narrow metal-walled corridors, around corners, past a skittering young man with a black pompadour hairstyle and black leather jacket over his Vault suit. Ellen flattens herself against the wall at that, but he passes on by, grumbling under his breath about how there's no way he's gonna spend the rest of his life a hairdresser in this pit.

[basic_powers]

...He's going to say this again. Ellen's world is just plain nuts.

He's not even going to ask. And once the young man has passed by, he's going to inch ahead to peer on down the corridor.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

On one of the walls up ahead, a line of lighted letters scrolls up to be read every few seconds:

America Lives On...In You

Seek the Sunshine of Friendship

We're All In This Together

Hard Work is Happy Work...

[basic_powers]

He's just going to pause and see what this thing is exactly because...why is it scrolling words all the time? Is it like some kind of motivation poster for the Vaults?

He's just thinking of the posters on the halls of the school.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Have You Taken Your Medication Today?

The Outside World Can Never Hurt You

Procreation is Your Civic Duty

Thank You, Overseer!

[basic_powers]

.

.

.

O-KAY.

Where's that slight silhouette of warped image that means Ellen's there?

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Safety First

Vault 101 Security - Here to Help

Achieve Perfection

Exercise Regularly

Cleanliness is Godliness

Ah, there it is, just coming up the hallway now.

[basic_powers]

And there's a boy who isn't there, quietly waiting for Ellen....doesn't look like there's anyone here.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Come on, Tyler," Ellen says to... well, she hopes Tyler's there, it's not like she can see him. "The door up to the Overseer's office is on the other side of the atrium..."

[basic_powers]

Well, if the placement of the miniraptor is any sort of clue to Tyler's whereabouts, it's safe to say he's right behind Ellen.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Oh, good."

She creeps across the Atrium's open space with the greatest of care; there's a round window at the far end that looks down from the Overseer's office. It's right above a sign that once said HARD WORK IS HAPPY WORK... Oh, and the sign at the other end used to say 'Thank You, Overseer!'. The rebels have been at it with paint somehow. The first word ... still ends in K.

[basic_powers]

"...I've seen worse in the bathrooms in Milliways."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"I'm kind of impressed that anyone in here actually had the nerve to do that," Ellen murmurs. "This way-"

There's a door up ahead, thank goodness; Ellen would far rather be in corridors right now, instead of out where anyone could spot her blur. This one is a mess, with cast-off rubbish trying to serve as barricades (and not doing very well). It leads up to the next-

POIK!

"... oh crumbs, there goes my Stealth Boy," says the suddenly-visible Ellen. "We're going to have to be extra careful now."

[basic_powers]

"...you want me to go up ahead and scout things out?" He's the only one who can really go invisible, so it'd make sense.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Would you mind?" says Ellen. "I'll wait here, and keep Dogmeat back with me..."

[basic_powers]

Tyler nods once before he disappears again, creeping from rubbish pile to pile before reaching the end of the corridor to the next level and peering inside.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

It's the mezzanine that runs around the atrium. Several of the other visible doors are blocked off, but there's no one to be seen- except for a man pacing back and forth angrily in one of the sealed-off rooms, while a woman most likely his wife huddles in one of the chairs inside.

Another door with a sign over it reading ADMINISTRATION leads in the general direction of the window Ellen said is the Overseer's office.

[basic_powers]

...Angry man isn't worth the trouble of bothering...Tyler creeps up the rest of the way towards the ADMINISTRATION door.

"Hrrkkrrrrrrarrrrghhh..."

Except Winston's taking an exceptional dislike to the smell of whoever is behind that door.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

The door slides open to reveal a tall, dark-skinned man in the same Vault suit and black body armor and helmet as the fellow who greeted them. Difference is, this one is carrying his gun like he knows exactly what he's doing- starting with aiming it immediately on the source of the unfamiliar sound.

Safeties are for other people.

[basic_powers]

Winston for the most part just bunkers down and bares all of his sharp metallic teeth at the man, growling like a wet lynx in the dryer. That man is a threat.

The raptor's master on the other hand...having been startled and confronted with a foe of larger size (even if he hasn't been spotted yet) is taking a page from Ellen's book.

snap-hisssss

whhm szzzt!

Kneecaps are a PRIVILEGE, even if the light saber doesn't cut anything...that's still gotta HURT.