Moo

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

The water caravan will be leaving for Megaton when Ellen heads back to Milliways. She's been wanting to go back to the walled town for a long time now- partly to verify that it's still standing, partly just to... well, it's the closest thing to a home she's had since leaving the Vault. And she really does miss the place, even with its oversized complement of crazy people.

That, plus she's been meaning to see whether the seeds she got from Oasis have had a chance to take root. She paid Billy Creel and his daughter Maggie a good sum of caps to look after the little test plot. Hopefully they'll be willing to take on a little extra responsibility once she gets the Brahmins back, too. If not, she'll find someone else. There's always someone in Megaton in need of work.

For now, it's a bit moot. She's got to round up the cattle and get them ready to go back first. So it's Ellen and Dogmeat, out in the area past the stables, with Ellen waiting as the dog goes about rounding up two-headed cattle.

Just another typical day, isn't it.

Comments

[plays_chess]

John's on his way out of the woods, wearing a stiff coat, jeans, sneakers, and a black backpack.

He pauses when he spots her, before making a decision and raising his hand to wave as he turns his path towards her.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen looks up and waves. "Oh, hey- hi, John," she calls. "Didn't see you there before..."

Dogmeat doesn't mind that she's not paying attention to him. He gets to chase cattle and make them go the way he wants them to go. This is almost as good as attacking people who try to hurt his human!

[plays_chess]

"Hey," he says, and laughs slightly, "Sorry, I guess I'm a bit of a ninja. Uh -- not literally. I mean, I don't know ninjitsu.... What are you working on?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen just looks at him blankly, as she's not clear on the concept of ninja in the first place. (She does understand about secretive Asian warriors who train from birth and strike out of shadow and have invisibility capabilities, but those are the Crimson Dragoons, and they were Red Chinese sniper commando units. Slight difference.) The question, though, is more her speed. "Getting my cattle ready to head back home," she says. "Leah and Rachel and her calf will be staying here, but the others need to come with me- we're heading back to Megaton as escorts on a water caravan."

It is worth noting that all the cattle Dogmeat is rounding up look like this, more or less. There's at least one bull among them, but the head count is the same on all of them.

[plays_chess]

John catches on but he decides not to explain.

He's seen the weird mutant cows several times, given how much time he spends outside; it figures that they're from Ellen's world, though. Weird stuff tends to be.

"I didn't realize they were yours. Do they all have Old Testament names?" More importantly: "Are you going to trade them? In Megatron, I mean."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"No, just Leah and Rachel and Shifrah and Puah." She indicates one of the cows Dogmeat's herding on that one. "The other two cows are Thelma and Louise- someone from the Bar helped me name her- and Anne and Mary, after the pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read. I kind of ran out of pair names pretty fast."

She scratches her nose a moment and adds, "Probably not. I've got a little bit of ground that I'm trying to grow Wasteland-adapted seeds in. If they're sprouting properly, I can use the manure for fertilizer. I'll probably trade the calves away, though. When they're old enough, I mean."

[plays_chess]

John laughs, at Thelma and Louise.

"--Oh! You're moving there, not just guiding the caravan?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"I have a house there," Ellen says. "It's the first place I lived when I got out of Vault 101. I won't be in town all that long, though. The caravan's a Brotherhood of Steel mission, and after we get the water to Megaton I'm probably going to get deployed somewhere else."

[plays_chess]

John's a little confused about who will be keeping the cattle then, but he let's it pass.

"Brotherhood of Steel are the people who were helping you, right?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen doesn't always remember that just because it makes sense inside her head, other people don't have access to all the same data she does.

"Right. The soldiers, the ones who recover technology. They protected Dad's purifier project before I was born. They're running it now, so they've taken over the job of getting water out to people- on top of protecting them from the mutants and the Enclave."

[plays_chess]

He doesn't call them 'US military junior,' in further confirmation, because he's pretty sure he has the groupnright.

"So the Enclave's still a problem? I mean, I know the mutants are really widespread, but I thought you guys went after the central command?"

Pause, and a sheepish: "I'm sorry, Ellen, I just -- suck at keeping everything that's going on straight."

He's far too distracted about what's going on in his world to spare more than some of his mind to hers; much of his concern, yes, but he trusts her ability to plan.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"No, it's okay," says Ellen, who's grown to expect requests for clarification from pretty much everyone around her here. "I've lost track of what I've told to different people here. Yes, the central command at Raven Rock is down, but some of their command structure survived- whole Vertibirds' worth of evacuees got away from the place first. Elder Lyons thinks they must have a secondary base somewhere."

She looks out at the cattle and scowls faintly.

"No wonder President Eden was so willing to self-destruct. All the humans in the Enclave were perfectly capable of carrying on without him."

[plays_chess]

"Oh?" John's voice is careful.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen nods. "The president of the Enclave turned out to be a big sentient mainframe named John Henry Eden," she says. "He wanted me to deploy a virus he'd come up with to wipe out anything mutated in the Wasteland. Which would've meant pretty much every human being alive, after all this time."

[plays_chess]

John swallows. "Yeah, you told me about the virus. Why did he self destruct?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"I talked him into it," Ellen says. "I didn't mean to, I just wanted him to call offthe virus plan. But when I pointed out that what he was about to do would destroy his own people as well as the Wasteland people, and that it would kill what was left of America's agricultural base, he realized he'd violated his programing directives to protect the United States. So he blew himself up and took Raven Rock with him."

[plays_chess]

"Fuck," he breathes out, unsteadily. "I'm sorry, Ellen. That's -- "

He closes his eyes, and squeezes his teeth together for a long moment, before breathing again and glancing at her. "I -- "

He shakes his head, trying to clear it. "That happened to me," he explains, after a moment. "Sort of -- the situation was a lot different. But -- yeah."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Oh jeez," Ellen says, her face going pale. "I'm sorry, John. I didn't mean to stir up bad memories. Are you all right?"

Vault manners dictate not disturbing people more than absolutely necessary, even now on the surface. It's just not fair to stir up something that might cause problems if you can't deal with it right away.

[plays_chess]

"Yeah," John says, too quickly. He half-forces what in better circumstances might be a quiet laugh, glancing away. "Yeah, sorry. It was years ago, I just -- was surprised."

Sometimes he wonders why the hell he can't get over things. Everyone else seems to do fine. He can't imagine Derek or his mom (or Ellen, even) still doing this, years later.

"Are you? All right, I mean."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen almost says something. Almost. She looks out at the cows and Dogmeat instead, and she's quiet for a while.

Eventually she says, "No, not really. I mean... President Eden, that wasn't so... there's a lot of things that bother me lots more than that, and they keep coming back. But you have enough to deal with. I don't... you don't need all of that."

[plays_chess]

That’s -- hard. He’s quiet, too, but for less time than she was.

"There’s only so long you can fight for your life without talking about it," John says, quietly. "My mom --

"It can make you –- unstable. You're my friend, and ... I'm used to it, really."

He bites his lip, and looks around quickly. "If you want, I can tell you some stuff, too. I have a safehouse and cache in the woods. The bar is a little -- I don't trust its security, for the ... things I deal with."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Sure," says Ellen. "Sure, that would be good. Um. Hang on."

She whistles sharply; Dogmeat leaves off chasing the cattle to look her way.

"Come on, Dogmeat. You can go back to herding later."

Because the Brahmin don't need harassment and because John indicated that dogs can detect and react to problems from his particular world. And, well, she could use the other company, too, but that goes without saying.

[plays_chess]

"Hey," John says, when Dogmeat approaches them; he ducks a bit to offer his hand, before ruffling the dog's ears briefly. He re-adjusts his backpack, and starts heading back into the forest--but from a different direction than he came from.

With a curious glance: "How long of a trip is it, to Megaton?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Several miles," says Ellen. "From the Jefferson Memorial up the river through mutant territory, crossing the river probably somewhere around the Anchorage War Memorial, and then up along the old roads a few more miles. The last few miles are probably the safest, but there's always a chance of raiders or scorpions or yao guai or something."

[plays_chess]

John nods, for once recognizing all the words in that sentence.

"Will you be taking a barge up the river, to cut past them?"

He knows nothing about cows, but he thinks people used to do that? Presumably if it was big enough, the cows--Brahmin--wouldn't mind.

Thankfully the forest is close to the field.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"... no," says Ellen, after a moment's startled look. "No, not that I know of. It's pretty much walking the whole distance. I'm not sure anybody has a boat big enough to move the cattle and the water and the armed escort."

There's a pause.

"You can wait to chase the rabbits until later, Dogmeat."

[plays_chess]

John nods to her first statement with a slight shrug that allows his ignorance of river travel--then, at her added advice to Dogmeat, he laughs quietly.

They're on one of the smaller paths in the forest, though still in the lighter foliage. "Those things can be terrifying, if you go too deep in; I try not to, if I can help it."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Part of the problem is also that her father's purifier is located at a spot that only allows it to purge the waters in the Potomac tidal basin. They'll be traveling upstream from the purifier. Taking the river would irradiate everyone involved, although Ellen hasn't actually thought of that. (Nineteen. What can you do.)

"I don't really know how to deal with trees," Ellen admits. "I keep half expecting one of them to try to talk to me or something, and it puts me on edge."

[plays_chess]

John looks startled, but he doesn't laugh--he just sends a glance back at her.

"I forget how different your world is," he says after several moments, suppressing his initial swear but letting out a rueful breath. "How's Dogmeat do with underground?"

He's cutting off the path, but he takes it more carefully and moves aside branches where needed so that she doesn't feel so out of place. He grew up in forests; he's trying hard not to image what happens to them in nuclear wastes.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"In my defense, there was only one tree that ever tried, and it wasn't so much a tree as a man who'd... it's a long story," Ellen says. "But that's the only place I've ever been to that had actual green trees, and he was at the center of it, so it's all sort of associated."

She glances down at the dog. "He's all right with it. We've been into a bunch of Vaults and things together, and we've had to go through the old Metro tunnels more times than I can count."

[plays_chess]

He remembers this, sort of. He thinks. God, Ellen's world is weird.

"Cool," John says, glancing down at Dogmeat as well.

After some further walking, John pauses to open up a tunnel that's hidden moderately well in the underbrush -- it wouldn't pass perfect inspection, but he's one person and only half-trained at that.

He gestures for Ellen to hold the cover while digs out his flashlight and turns it on, walking in; it'll be easy to close after her and Dogmeat. The tunnel isn't very wide, but it's a hair under five feet tall. He's had a lot of time, and super short tunnels aren't fun for anyone.

Speaking of short, though -- the tunnel is that in distance, too; he's hoping to build some longer ones, and has one in progress, but this one's his front door, so to speak. It opens up into a larger room a couple yards in, and he walks forward to hit the top of the ceiling, so that a battery-powered light pops on to light the room. This one has sleeping gear and food stored in it, and John pauses for a long moment before glancing back sheepishly.

"I guess we could sit on the sleeping bag?"

He wasn't really prepared for guests.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen's not particularly tall, so navigating the tunnel is only a matter of crouching a little and moving with care. To be honest, she feels better underground no matter how long she's been on the surface. Underground is home, it's safe- or at least safer... anyway, it shows in her posture and general expression.

"Nice," she says, surveying the room as she straightens up inside. "Did you do all of this yourself? You do good work."

[plays_chess]

"Thanks," John says, brightening. "I've, uh -- been working on it for awhile."

Most of his time at Milliways.

"Some guys taught me how to when I was a kid, but this is the first -- time I've built one by myself."

John sits on the side of his sleeping bag, shucking his backpack and opening it up. His nalgene's half-empy, but he offers it to her from where he's sitting with a slight gesture and a tilt of his head, in case she's thirsty. He could always fill up with one of his stored water sources, but he tries not to when he can avoid it.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Given how important water's always been in the Capital Wasteland, and that John's her host at the moment, it would be rude to refuse; Ellen settles down carefully nearby and accepts the bottle, but hands it back after a short sip. No sense in taking more than she needs. "Thank you," she says. "I appreciate it."

Hopefully, he'll be able to talk now.

[plays_chess]

"Um," John breathes out after a moment. "You know how -- my world has robots?" He flicks his eyes to her, barely waiting for the confirmation. "Most people don't know that. Our technology level is pretty far -- below self-aware robots. Not, like, a lot. But it's definitely the sort of thing you see in fiction movies, not -- real life."

He swallows. "For the pretty good reason that, um, we haven't invented robots like them yet. They're from the future. A future where a missile defense system became -- self-aware. And basically ... destroyed most of humanity. And made the robots; we call them cyborgs, the ones that look like humans. Or metal. But they were losing their war, so they made a time machine, I don't know how, but they did, so that they could -- kill the key members of the human resistance before the war even started."

John shrugs, uncomfortable, and crosses his arms. "They've been trying to kill me since before I was even conceived. Um. They went after my mom, so that I couldn't be. My dad -- died. Fighting them. He was a soldier from the future." John glances at Ellen, for a moment. "He was a hero. But -- I didn't know him. I wasn't born, yet, I mean. We've been in hiding since then. I grew up in -- a lot of places. They always find us, anyway. It's ... stressful."

He lets out a breath that's almost a laugh, after a moment, and shrugs slightly. "That's pretty much the--highlights edition."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen listens silently, head cocked to one side. "Oh," she says at last, nodding. "Okay. That... that makes sense."

After a moment she adds, "That must be really hard. Having to live with all of that hanging over you, I mean."

(Look, somebody in this shelter reads too many comic books, including the time-traveling adventures of Drake Tungsten: Chrono-Cowboy!, and it's not Dogmeat. Of course it seems reasonable.)

[plays_chess]

John's startled into silence for few seconds, a sweeping paranoia, but Dogmeat's calm; then he laughs sincerely, low and brief, at her easy acceptance. "I -- yeah. Nowhere is ever safe."

(He has an inane urge to say it's not that bad, but even he knows most kids don't know how to survive being hunted by an intelligent tracker in a jungle during a firefight at eight years old. At least, in his world.)

He glances sideways at her. "I guess Milliways makes it easier to believe."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"It helps," Ellen admits. "But then again everything since I left Vault 101's been an exercise in having to accept that something utterly weird is actually real, too. I mean, we didn't exactly have fire-breathing giant ants in the Vault, or a sentient computer that called itself the President of the United States but committed suicide when it turned out to have violated its orders, or little green men from outer space who kidnapped people and did surgical experiments on them. At least everything that you have to deal with has robots in it. The time travel thing's a little weird, but the rest of it?" She shrugs. "Robots are part of life. So is having everything trying to kill you, at least back home. So it's not that hard to believe."

[plays_chess]

John feels a wave of ...he's not really sure what it is; embarrassment, maybe? This is the most important thing in his world, and he can't help feel like he's misrepresented it to Ellen -- but she's right, her world is really awful.

He nods, leaning forward to catch his fingers in the scruff of Dogmeat's neck, petting him. "Don't tell anyone? If they're here, they'll hunt here too. And most don't know what I look like, so I don't want -- anyone else to die."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"It's all right," says Ellen as Dogmeat wags his tail cheerfully. "I wasn't planning on mentioning it to anyone. You went to a lot of trouble to keep the whole thing secret, after all."

"I appreciate that you told me, though," she adds after a moment's thought. "That must've been... that's got to have been really hard for you. Don't worry. I won't let you down."