Rivet City

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

The door opens onto an afternoon of graying sky and greyer cityscape. Megaton and its buildings of metal were one thing; this is the ruins of DC proper, all tumbled-down concrete and metal rusted beyond repair. Here and there the occasional wall still stands, or rebar protrudes from a pile of rubble. Underfoot are the remains of what was once a street, but it's shattered more or less beyond recognition.

"According to my Pip-Boy map, we don't have much farther to go," Ellen says. "The river's up ahead, and then we just follow it to the boat."

Comments

[aeons_crackshot]

Annabelle grimaces at the sight of the city's remains as she comes through the door from Milliways. She's wearing her re-painted Combine body armor and carrying her sawed-off shotgun, sniper rifle, both Hell pistols, a combat knife, and the fragmentation grenades. Ellen's world is a rather dangerous place, after all.

"That should simplify things a bit," Annabelle replies with a grin.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"As long as we don't hit another Mirelurk nest," Ellen agrees. She herself has her combat shotgun and her laser pistol; there's a military combat knife under there somewhere, too, and she's wearing prewar armor and the blue helmet she got from Urahara Kisuke. "Or any more mutants."

[aeons_crackshot]

Annabelle nods, "We might be that lucky." She's not counting on it.

"I don't think I've seen you with that helmet before, did you pick it up in Megaton?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"No, a man in the Bar designed it for me," Ellen says. "I offered to pay him, but he said he was more interested in interesting or unusual things I might find in my world than me just buying commodities that I could trade to the Bar for his world's money. It's got some extra stuff built into it, like the soldiers before the War had- hearing enhancers and things like that."

[aeons_crackshot]

Annabelle makes an impressed hm at that, "Very useful, as long as you can handle the increase in what you're sensing."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen nods. "He left me a note showing me how to turn that off when I get into a firefight," she says. "Since I don't really have any treatments for going deaf."

Up ahead, if one listens carefully, the sound of water lapping quietly at a rocky shore can be heard.

[aeons_crackshot]

"You want all your senses working properly in a fight," Annabelle agrees. "I think I hear water up ahead." She checks to make sure that her shotgun is ready to fire. 'Safari' Jack Tallon taught her years ago that animals tend to hang around sources of water, and she doubts Ellen's world is much different in that regard...

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

At the moment, nothing is visible among the rocks up ahead. There was a sign here once, and some pilings indicate it might once have been a dock. Out in the sluggishly-moving river something as long as a man but rather more broadly built briefly breaks the surface, then vanishes from sight. "Mirelurk," Ellen murmurs. "We should be-"

Her voice catches in her throat; she's glanced upstream and spotted the battered but still apparently intact dome of the Jefferson Memorial on an islet near the far shore of the river.

[aeons_crackshot]

Annabelle notes the Mirelurk, and follows Ellen's gaze when her voice catches. It takes Annabelle a moment to recognize what she's seeing, but when she does....

One line by Thomas Wolfe comes to mind, and Annabelle whispers, "O lost, and by the wind grieved, ghost, come back again."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"I saw that once," Ellen says in a slightly strangled tone. "In Mr. Mills' world. I was inside..."

[aeons_crackshot]

Annabelle's face is sad, "Did you? They hadn't started building it yet when I was alive, though I've seen pictures of it."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"It was the first place we went when we visited," Ellen says. "It was... it was beautiful. This..."

She shakes her head at the blotchy, pocked dome ringed in rubble and fence and wire, and nods upstream. "We should keep moving. I don't think I want to see what's happened inside."

[aeons_crackshot]

Annabelle nods in agreement, "No, probably not. Upstream it is, then." Annabelle can't help but think that a place like this ought to be haunted.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

The remains of the roads are a little more recognizable here, and one can almost walk on level ground for more than two steps at a time. Ellen's keeping an eye on the river as much as on the territory around them; all it takes is one mirelurk attack when your guard is down, after all.

"If this is the way Harith travels, I'm kind of impressed," she notes. "How he gets that brahmin of his through here is beyond me."

[aeons_crackshot]

Annabelle is also keeping an eye out for trouble. "I don't know how you'd get a cart over land like this without something breaking," Annabelle mutters.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"No cart. Just what the brahmin can carry, and Harith himself," Ellen says. "Unless he found one since I last saw him, anyway."

There are a few dead grey stumps of what were once trees growing out of the riverbank here. Ellen very studiously does not look at them at all.

Up ahead, a short flight of stairs- still mostly intact- leads to a raised plaza that must've been part of some government building's riverfront real estate once. The crashed remains of lamp-posts lie among broken benches, and a rusted bit of metal and plastic that once was a payphone can be seen attached to each. (The careful observer will note that the phones had dials, once, not touchpads or buttons.) Ellen keeps moving, pausing only to eye the downed red-and-white form of a Nuka-Cola machine thoughtfully.

[aeons_crackshot]

"You can't carry as much that way, but at least there are no axles to break."
Annabelle gives little notice to the rubble, other than noting it as obstacles to be avoided. Thinking too much on what the rubble is and what it's presence means could reduce even the strongest soul to tears.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Beyond the plaza the path narrows, rubble encroaching on the remains of the road. When it opens out again it's onto a broad open space whose only cover is between a few crumbled columns and the wall of what used to be a building. Up ahead, the jagged lines of a badly erected metal wall poke upwards.

Ellen freezes, turning enough to let one 'ear' of the helmet point in that direction. Then she nods towards the columns' shadows and makes a 'scoot over' gesture in silence.

[aeons_crackshot]

The badly erected wall is a sign that something capable of building a structure is in the area, which likely means trouble. Annabelle can't hear the noise that Ellen notices, but she moves quietly over to where Ellen is gesturing, shotgun at the ready.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"There's something in there," Ellen whispers. "Several somethings. I heard feet, and metal noises, like guns getting readied. And I think I saw wrecked cars stacked up there, too, so there could be an explosion if we're not careful."

[aeons_crackshot]

"An explosion would likely take care of whatever is in there," Annabelle whispers back, "but if you want to avoid explosions, it might be best to make them come to us."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"The cars are on our side of the wall. I don't want to explode," Ellen murmurs. "Finding out what's in there is probably best. If it's too dangerous, we may need to find a way around. I have a Stealth Boy here if you'd like to use it for a bit- it can camouflage you so you almost look invisible, as long as you're not running or making noise."

[aeons_crackshot]

"Really?" Annabelle asks, intrigued. "How long does it last?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"An hour," Ellen says. "It's prewar technology. I don't know how to recharge it. You wear it on your wrist."

[aeons_crackshot]

"That's still very impressive," Annabelle admits with a smile. "Scouting out that area will be much easier with one of those. If you can spare one, I'm willing to give it a try."