Gus

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

The western sun's rays slanting across the Wasteland cast long shadows, reminding Ellen that as much as she wants to reach DC and find out what the situation is at the Lincoln Memorial, she's going to need to get some rest first. It's a long way from the Temple of the Union to the ruins. She's tired, Dogmeat's tired, and the temperature's dropping fast as it gets darker. Plus, her armor's starting to hum the Battle Hymn of the Republic, which Ellen figures is never what you'd call a good sign. Luckily there's a shack up ahead, one with a door she can open and close. "What do you think, Dogmeat?" she asks. "Does it smell okay to you?"

Dogmeat raises no objections, so she tries the door. It's solid enough. There's a table with a radio on it to one side; the radio's got enough juice left in its fission battery that it picks up the GNR signal when she turns it on. Unfortunately, when she moves to survey the rest of the place, her Geiger counter starts going off as she approaches the far corner of the room.

"Blast. It's not worth the Rad-X we'd both need," Ellen says to Dogmeat. "We'd better find somewhere else."

As they head out of the shack she pulls the door closed behind her, hard. It's not really built for that, so when it hits the doorframe it bounces open again. Pity she didn't turn around at the sound, because she'd've caught sight of the light of Milliways leaking through the inch or so that the door bounces open.

And anyone in Milliways who happens to be looking at the right spot at the right time will notice the door that suddenly opened an inch or so, letting in the cool evening air.

Comments

[thanksrainman]

Gus is just finishing off his breakfast at the Bar when he hears a strange noise behind him. Its...

He turns round to see the DOOR is OPEN. It's just open a few inches, but the fact that it's there at all is quite startling. Looking across the bar, it's clear that no one else notices, so he quickly finishes off his steak and eggs and fetching up his hooded jumper from the seat next to him and slowly, carefully making his way to the door.

Cautiously, he pushes it open and before he gets a very good look at where the door is opening up to, he steps through.

"Hello?" he says, almost timidly as he looks out upon the dusk-washed expanse.

On second thought, it's probably safer in the bar, He turns back round to open the door, finding a small shack where Milliways had been just a few moments before.

"What the fuck?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

It's a quiet place, really. There's none of the sounds of the Bar, none of the sounds of a city; there's some insect noises, sure, but they're hardly anything at all. Maybe some splashing from the pond a little distance away, off downhill. Hard to say. There's a trickle of music coming from the radio in the shack, though just as Gus might start identifying the song it gives way to a man's voice:

"This is Three Dog, coming to you loud and proud from my fortified bunker in the middle of the DC hellhole! Today's forecast: excessively violent, with a chance of dismemberment!"

[thanksrainman]

He's starting to get it, but Gus is very good at denial. For a moment, he ducks into the shack, but talk of roving bands of raiders makes him feel like a sitting duck.

He zips up his jumper and leaves the shack and looks across the charred scenery.

In the not-so-distant distance, he can see a faint blue light. Sighing, he takes a chance and quickly makes his way in that direction.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Probably just as well, given that the fellow on the radio's moved on a bit and moved into a public service announcement while he was looking around:

"...Three Dog is cool with all of that. Lord knows I've had my share of costly late night extracurriculars, but remember, kiddies, always wear protection. There are some diseases out there that would make you wish you were suffering from simple radiation poisoning. The fission is NOT something you want to be living with for the rest of your days..."

Oh, and there's definite splashy noises coming from the direction of the water, too. But that's somewhere behind Gus, so he can probably ignore that, right?

[thanksrainman]

He ignores the splashy noise by all but running toward the bouncing blue light. At least it's getting closer.

As he draws closer to the light, he can hear what sounds like a dog, and he's not entirely sure that he wants to deal with that, either.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Incoming at six o'clock, ma'am!" announces a synthetic sounding voice. Ellen freezes in her tracks and spins around, a silvery rifle raised. Then she sees who's coming and blinks- quite a bit, actually. She's too surprised to lower the gun as she says, "Gus? What the... is that you?"

She's dressed a little more impressively than Gus may remember seeing her dressed in the Bar.

[thanksrainman]

Gus is too busy cowering with his hands in the air to recognise the face behind the gun.

"What?" he pants.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Oh, good Lord." Ellen shakes her head and holsters the rifle. "Gus? It's me, Ellen. How did you even get here?"

[thanksrainman]

He finally looks up. "Huh?"

After a few moments, he points in the direction from where he came. "I dunno, I was in the bar a minute ago!"

He's only ever gone to the bar; in two years, he's never experienced the shock of coming and going.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Oh, that's just prime." Ellen runs both her hands over her face for a moment. "Well, okay. It's not like I haven't had other people here before. We'll just have to get to someplace where we can get you back to-"

"TIME TO KICK SOME ASS!" Ellen's armor suddenly roars. Ellen's eyes widen; she draws a different gun, the one Gus's seen her with in Bar, and starts firing at something over his shoulder.

[thanksrainman]

Gus hits the dirt before she's even got her gun drawn completely. Face down, he's covering his head with both hands as she blasts away.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

It's not as loud as a standard gun might be, but it's at least as bright a flash each time. And after several shots with it there's a sudden burst of flame and a powerful smell of ... seafood? It... yes, a very definite seafood odor.

Possibly this has something to do with the monstrous, greyish thing that crashes to the ground near Gus. It's still on fire, so he probably doesn't want to touch it- but the flames'll go out soon, we promise.

[thanksrainman]

He doesn't stick around to wait for the flames to go out. He scrambles to his feet and moves quickly behind Ellen.

"Wh--What the fuck is that!?" he shouts. Still struggling to catch his breath, he points at the... thing on the ground. "That ain't right. That just ain't right."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"That's supper," says Ellen, eyeing the still-twitching flaming corpse. "It's a mirelurk, a type of mutant crab. They've got some of the best meat in the Wasteland, if you're patient enough to dig it out. Have you eaten yet today?"

[thanksrainman]

Gus just might lose his breakfast if she keeps talking like that.

"I'm fine, thanks," he says dryly.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"All right," says Ellen. "In that case you might want to- here-"

She digs in her pack a moment and comes up with a luminescent bottle of something purple-bluish.

"This is Nuka-Cola Quantum. It's the only light I have that isn't part of my Pip-Boy. You might want to hold onto that for a bit while I get the good parts out. I don't want to just let this go to waste. Don't drink the soda, you won't like what happens."

[thanksrainman]

Gus very nearly drops it.

"What are you doing?" he asks frantically. "You just shot that thing, and then you..." He sits down on the ground. "Holy shit, what is this place?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"I'm keeping up my supplies," says Ellen very reasonably as she sets to work. "You don't last long in the Wasteland if you just leave food lying around for the scavengers.... this is the Capital Wasteland, by the way. We're an hour or so's walk north of the ruins of Washington DC, I think. Hard to tell in the dark. Are you okay? You haven't been hurt, have you?"

[thanksrainman]

"What? I don't know."

He's running on adrenaline now. She'll have to check back in a bit.

"You said 'Capital Wasteland'. Is it like this everywhere?" He puts the Nuka Cola down on the ground, afraid to hold it much longer than needs be.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Everywhere that I've ever been," Ellen says. "I've only been as far north as Olney, and as far east as ... oh gosh. Somewhere on the Mall, but not as far east as the Capitol Building. It's like this to the south and west, too. Although it's a little flatter southwards and more rocky westwards, with fewer buildings."

[thanksrainman]

Gus sits silent on the ground, trying to ignore whatever it is Ellen is doing.

"I just want to go home," he says finally. "Back to the bar. Whatever."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"The first house we come across, or the first standing fence with a gate in it, I'll try and get us back to the Bar," Ellen says. "I don't think we should go back to that shack, though. There's a radiation source in one corner of the building and I don't think you want to get contaminated... okay, I'm done here. Let me just wash my hands off and we can find somewhere to stop for the night. There's only half a moon, so it'll be easier to travel in the morning, okay?"

She's all too aware how overwhelming the Wasteland can be to a newcomer.

"It'll be okay, Gus. I promise."

[thanksrainman]

"Oh, that's great," he says, exasperated. "I went in there, ya know?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"It's not a very strong source, it's just not one I want to take chances with if the door doesn't work on the first try," Ellen says. "I've got some anti-rad chems on me if you want. They do nasty things to your stomach, though, so you might want to wait until we find a door and not take them until then."

By 'nasty things' she means they go through you like a raging Brahmin on a bad day. Ellen has something of a talent for polite understatement.

[thanksrainman]

"Whatever you say, kiddo." He looks up at her, completely lost. He gets up to his feet, picking up the glowing bottle. "Lead the way."