leanonstuff | PSL post for daughterless

PSL post for daughterless

[The NCR had sent Norman to the Vault because the area was surrounded by Fiends, and he was damn good at blending among the various "criminal" groups around the Mojave. No way an ordinary NCR trooper would be able to get inside without being attacked. And according to their intelligence, exactly what was inside was of such great importance that they couldn't possibly wait to go after it just in case Caesar's Legion got wind of it and acted first. Norman was searching for a box of special bottles that appeared to be beer or vodka bottles, but were actually filled with a chemical that, when introduced into a water supply, could spread a deadly bacteria that would wipe out anyone who drank the contaminated water for at least a month.

Unfortunately, finding the bottles was turning out to be far more difficult that Norman had anticipated. He'd gotten into the Vault in the first place by wearing old, torn and dirty clothes that could pass as those a typical raider or Fiend might wear. He'd even bought a few chems from them to help gain their trust (and to use them later, though he planned to tell the NCR that he'd disposed of them instead). The Vault seemed to be empty of Fiends, luckily, but he wasn't too optimistic that he wouldn't eventually run into ghouls or worse.

10mm pistol in hand, Norman opens the door to the Vault infirmary, hoping he might have some more luck locating the bottles in there.]

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Well, that ain't no radroach out there.

[He keeps his voice low, but a dubious edge creeps in anyway. Maybe not a radroach, but could be a ghoul or scorpion nest up ahead... or something worse. You never know what you'd find in these old vaults. Joel's drawn his revolver as well, and his eyes flick back to Norman before-- oh, fuck it. This isn't an ideal place to have any sort of shootout, and he wants a better idea of what they're facing before either one of them does anything rash.]

I'm gonna check it out.

[He hisses to Norman and makes a 'moving forward' hand gesture, and... does pretty much exactly that, edging around the corner of the room to peer cautiously out the side of the door.]

Be careful! [He hisses, having no desire for his newly found partner to turn into something's meal only minutes after teaming up with him. Not to mention that would leave him alone to face whatever monstrous creatures could possibly be lurking around the Vault's halls.

While Joel edges around the corner, Norman creeps up to the other side of the door, pistol held tightly in his hands. He's used to facing off against mutated creatures, but ghouls and other humanoid mutated beings always give him a scare. He's never seen a Supermutant, but has heard all sorts of horror stories. Aw fuck... there better not be Supermutants in here.]

See anything? [He keeps his voice at a whisper, hoping it won't carry any farther than where the other man is standing.]

[Joel is silent for a long moment, peering around the door, then answers in a low mutter.]

Yeah, but-- It's-- Fuck.

[... Joel doesn't fucking know what it is, waddling around the corner, just sort of points at it with a "what the fucking hell" gesture at Norman. It doesn't look human, but it IS, human hands for feet, a squat human face with rolling eyes and big nose, pinkish-cream skin, and that's... where the similarities end, because it has four legs and a long, rat-like tail, and the jaw in that face is distended and filled with far too many sharp-edged teeth. Vaults. Fucking vaults.

Luckily, the creature's eyesight doesn't seem too good, it sniffs the air, rolling its eyes back and forth, as if trying to track them down. Finally, it sits down in the hallway, as if giving up on pursuit.

It starts to cry.

"Help," it whimpers piteously, "Please help me."]

Christ. [To say that he's taken aback would be the understatement of the year, but Joel knows what to do, his hands are already raising the revolver-- the thing is sitting right out in the open, one shot is all it would take.]

[Norman peeks around the corner when Joel gestures ahead, similarly disgusted and disturbed by what he's seeing. Fuck... now he's sure as hell glad he ran into Joel or he'd have stumbled upon that thing on his own and Christ, it gives him the chills.

When the monstrosity actually starts to plead for help, Norman's jaw drops and he gives Joel a dumbfounded look. These things don't usually talk, do they? Well, Supermutants are supposed to, but they aren't anything like this.]

Wait- [He whispers, holding up a hand, knowing that Joel's intending to shoot it. Probably the right decision, but it could also alert anything or anyone else here of their presence.]

We shouldn't use guns if we don't have to. I know that's... shit, I know what we should do, but maybe we ought to find a quieter way. [Quieter will also probably be messier and more painful. Doubt this thing that used to be human would complain too much about a little extra pain at this point.]

[Joel gives him a look, like are you fucking kidding me?!? as the creature in the hallway begins to cry little hiccuping sobs. But... goddamnit, he's right. One shot, and everything in the vault is gonna come crawling out to investigate. Slowly, he lowers his gun, but not without grumbling.]

I hope you're volunteering, cause I sure as hell ain't gettin' in shanking distance of that thing.

[He's not squeamish by any means, but they don't know what the hell it can do and Joel doesn't much like the idea getting any closer to find out.]

[He offers a helpless shrug in response to that look, but is thankful that Joel took his advice and allowed the gun. He's no fool, at least.]

What? Me?

[When it comes to strength, Norman doesn't really have much to boast about. He sticks with small and medium guns exclusively, and has little to no experience with melee weapons. Sending him to deal with it sounds like a terrible plan, and not only because he's scared of that monstrosity. ...But yeah, that's a big part of it.]

I'd probably just piss it off. Think we could just avoid it?

[It's not moving toward them. Then again, who knows how many could be in this vault? If only he didn't have such an important mission... he'd get the hell outta here and fast.]

Not unless you want it crawlin' up your ass while your back's turned.

[Joel's thinking now. He'd rather shoot it and take his chances with the noise than leave it sitting there, following after them or surprising them on their way out. But maybe there's another to kill it with a minimum of noise... Fuck.]

Think you could buy me some time, lure it 'round the other side?

[There's a thick length of loose pipe lying around somewhere behind them, and he's speedy enough with a knife if he can get the damn thing stunned. So much for not getting within shanking distance...]

Edited 2013-10-24 04:20 (UTC)

Thanks, but no thanks.

[Act as bait? Norman bites at his bottom lip, considering his options. Just shooting it is starting to sound more attractive, but he has to keep thinking logically. One of these things seems bad enough; he doesn't want to imagine a whole family of them.]

Okay... yeah. I think so.

[He hasn't noticed the loose pipe, but there's a baseball bat in the bedroom... maybe belonged to some kid who lived here. Norman puts his pistol away and picks that up instead, holding it tightly in both hands.]

I'll circle around and make some noise once I'm behind it. Then you strike. Please don't leave me hanging.

You just focus on your part, and I'll take care of mine.

[Starting to head back to fetch that bit of pipe, he glances back to catch a glimpse of the monster beginning to sniff the air again, tail waving as it picks itself up on its hand-feet to amble in the direction of their room,

Fucking hell, they're out of time. He hisses at Norman:]

Move!

This is crazy... [He mutters, even as he steps into the hallway. Norman swallows hard when the creature becomes alert again, moving in their direction. As an NCR trooper, he feels like he should be calling the shots here, and yet he finds himself readily responding to Joel's command. There definitely is something about him that inspires some confidence.]

I'm going!

[He darts into the next hallway, following it around in a circle until he's made his way behind the creature. It's moving slow, so he fortunately isn't too late.]

Hey! Over here! [Using the bat in his hands, Norman hits it against the wall a few times to attract the monstrosity's attention. It slowly turns around and starts heading in his direction instead.]

[Joel stays put, pipe in hand, as the other man circles around, thinking absently that they haven't even swapped names yet and now they're double-teaming some mutant freak. Well, assuming that they both survive this encounter, there'll be plenty of time for that later.

There's the sound of the bat banging on the walls, and he's off, stalking noiselessly down the corridor with the pipe held in both hands and the knife tucked within easy reach. At least the damn thing is slow, and even at stalking pace Joel is closing in.

30 feet... 20 feet...15... he could've sworn that he hadn't made a sound when suddenly the monster freezes with a low growl and Joel throws caution to the wind, lunging forward to slam the pipe into its skull.

The thing yelps with pain, but recovers faster than Joel ever expected, throwing itself toward him. Throwing himself back in a defensive crouch, Joel manages to jam the pipe between its sharp teeth, which puncture and tear into the pipe with a squeal of metal.]

Edited (how did this cut off >:|) 2013-10-24 22:55 (UTC)

[If this works out, Norman could see the start of a beautiful partnership. Well, that is, until they leave the vault and he has to report back to McCarran with the bottles. This man might just be a prospector, or he might be involved in illegal activities. In the second scenario, he'd sure as hell not be pleased to know who Norman really worked for.

As the creature approaches, he continues banging the bat against the wall while backing away. He can feel his heart beat racing as he looks at those sharp teeth, and prays that Joel will hurry the hell up. Fortunately it isn't long before the other man lunges, but unfortunately hitting the thing with a pipe doesn't seem to do much good.]

Fuck-!

[While it munches on the pipe, Norman starts whaling on it with the baseball bat to try and distract it away from Joel and give him a chance to pull out his knife. It cries out in pain through the beating, but he doesn't stop for a second, survival instinct kicking in by now.]

[Joel wants to swear, but he's too busy avoiding being eaten, forcing the creature's jaws away from his face with sheer adrenaline-fueled strength. He half wonders if his "partner" had done the smart thing, turning tail to run-- when Norman comes charging in, bat at the ready.

He gets a chance to pull back as the creature turns to face its new opponent, and in the few precious seconds of breathing room he draws his knife in one swift move and plunges it into the base of its neck.

Bright red blood fountains from its neck as the monster screams, an eerily human sound from its deformed face. The splatter catches Joel along one arm, a few drops hitting his face as he jerks away, staring at his hands. Anywhere the creature's blood hit bare skin, his skin is blistering and turning red.]

Shit--

[But it still isn't dead, just thrashing around in pain.]

[Norman doesn't let up with the bat, even after Joel stabs it in the neck. As long as that thing's moving and making noise, he's planning to keep hitting it. So distracted with this task, he doesn't notice what's happening to Joel's arm where the blood hit him.

The creature trashes desperately in what Norman hopes are death throes, and eventually after several more vicious swings of the bat to its head, it finally stops moving. Fuck... with all the noise that thing made, they might as well have shot it. At least they conserved ammo this way.

Norman is breathing hard when he turns his gaze toward Joel, hands wrapped around the bat so hard he feels like his fingers are glued there. It's at that point he notices the red and blistered skin that the man certainly wasn't bearing when they began this fight.]

What the hell happened to your arm?

[Joel is breathing hard, fingers shaking slightly as he examines his arms.]

Blood's like acid. I got caught in the spray.

[He flexes a hand-- it stings, like a fresh burn wound, but the muscles aren't stiff and he can still pull a trigger or handle a blade well enough. He'd be fine, shoot up a little med X if it got too bad.

Joel looks up at a -thunk- sound in the distance, somewhere below their feet. Maybe a crate tipping over. Maybe not.]

Whatever that thing was, let's not stick around to see if it's got pals.

Fuck. [He sums up the situation rather succinctly.]

Next time, we'll do it your way and use guns. Might've made more noise this way in the end.

[Norman doesn't have much medical experience, so he's not sure what can be done about his arm. It looks bad, though. Hopefully it's mostly just superficial.]

Need a stim for that?

[He's about to reach into his pack for one, when he hears that thunk. Not good. Norman lowers his voice again.]

We just gotta tread lightly. If this place has things like those here, I doubt anyone else has looted this place. It's gotta be a goldmine.

[But really, he just can't abandon his mission. At any cost.]

[Joel only grunts and waves away the offer of the stim. He's good for now, or at least he will be if they don't have to deal with a next time.

On one hand, no number of caps or bottle of anything is worth dying over. On the other... the guy's right. They could stand to make it big here. Just between the chems and medical supplies they'd looted, Joel was already looking at a good pile of caps. Acquire the client's item and he'd be set for a good few months...]

Just don't get too greedy. [Not sure if he's speaking to Norman or himself.] And keep an eye out. I don't wanna tangle with another one of those things if we don't have to.

[Moving away from the scene of their battle, they hit a fork in the hall-- "Research labs" to the right and "Overseer's Office" to the left. Joel glances back at the other man to see if he has a preference.]

[He shrugs and stops reaching for the stim. He won't waste one if the guy thinks he's fine for now. Better to wait until it's really necessary.]

I know. I have a pretty good sense of self-preservation too.

[The walk in silence for a little until they hit the fork. Research labs, or Overseer's office... hm. The bottles could have been stored in the research lab undoubtedly. But they might also be locked away with the Overseer if they were considered too precious.

In the end he nods toward the Overseer's office and steps in that direction. Less likely to be more monstrosities there than in the research labs, he thinks.]

By the way... I never introduced myself. The name's Jayden.

[He likes to keep his first name with the NCR, and his last name when dealing with Fiends and other hostile tribes. There's no reason any of them should be able to make any sort of connection.]

Joel. [Short and to the point. Joel's got a bit of a reputation in these parts as a gun runner and smuggler, but he's never posed enough of a problem for any of the local authorities to really crack down on it, or him.

Jayden's not a name he recognizes, but no real surprise there, no reason why he'd know every Tom, Dick, and Harry this side of the Mojave.]

You run with any of the local groups round here?

[The man's dressed like a Raider, but if this last encounter was anything to go by, definitely not one himself. Camouflage is as good a way to get through this area as any, but pretty ballsy all the same; he'd be in for some real trouble if one of the Fiends figured it out.]

[Norman hasn't heard of him, but that's no surprise either. It's pretty rare to get names among the less than lawful types; usually they go by code names. It doesn't really matter either. Even if Joel were to commit crime after crime before him, his only priority now is bringing those bottles back to McCarran.]

I'm a bit of a loner, actually.

[He doesn't feel safe choosing a group just in case Joel is enemies with them. And since there are plenty of loners around the wasteland, it probably should be too difficult to believe.]

What about you?

[He definitely doesn't come off as a gang member. Again, the possibility that he could be a Legion spy crosses Norman's mind. They're really good at blending in. He'll have to be careful.]

Mostly freelance. I'll clear out the odd cave here and there for some extra caps.

["Freelance" is as good a euphemism as any for the string of deliveries, pickups, and the occasional shootout that constitute his current line of work. As for the other man's claim to be a loner, well... maybe, and maybe not. There's nothing really about him to indicate otherwise, but Joel just has a sense that there's something more to it. Well, maybe the feeling was just 'cause most of the other loners he'd met before had been either huge assholes or completely bugfuck crazy.

The door of the Overseer's office is locked by a keypad and computer terminal. Joel eyes it uncertainly-- he's no good with tech-- and then his gaze shifts toward the round window to the office (bulletproof?) and then back toward Norman.]

I don't reckon you know your way around old tech like you do locks.

Figured as much. You didn't strike me as a gang member.

[Norman has admittedly not been working too hard to keep up much of a facade around Joel, since he clearly isn't with the Fiends, Vipers or any other outlaw gang. Maybe that's a mistake, but it's too late to change it up now. As long as if he is Legion, he doesn't suspect that Norman could actually be NCR.

When they approach the office, he frowns at the terminal before going for the door. Damn... this is the type of lock that can't be picked, even by an expert like himself. He gives the terminal a quick try, but that's also way beyond his hacking abilities.]

Damn! I think we're gonna need to find a key to get inside.

[And that means... to the labs they must go. Norman gives the door a dirty look before turning back to Joel.]

Let's go to the labs. ...You're still up for this, right?

...Seems like it might be more hassle than it's worth.

[Joel's also less than enthusiastic about the prospect of the science labs. Fuck, this job is getting to be more trouble by the minute. Still, he doesn't like giving up on a job unless absolutely necessary-- it's bad for business, and bad for his reputation.

He doesn't know if Jayden's got anything else in mind, but he's just looking for a few old bottles of booze. Maybe they could stick to looting the domestic areas like the kitchen or the maintenance levels and avoid the potentially dangerous parts of the vaults altogether.]

Maybe we could avoid the lab altogether, stick to the safer parts as best we can.

Yeah... maybe.

[But Norman's gut tells him that something of such importance isn't going to be somewhere particularly safe. But really, can he go at those places alone? He was expecting Ghouls, yes, but not whatever it was they faced. And it bleeds acid? Shit!]

But then again, you and I both know the really good stuff isn't gonna be in the safer parts.

[Maybe he can appeal to this guy's sense of danger. He must have one, if he came here in the first place.]

Yeah, it's risky. But we could really strike it big here! Imagine being able to buy a place to live, settle down comfortably. Seems like it's worth the risk to me.

[People trying to talk him into anything immediately gets his hackles up. Joel gives Norman a long, flat look.]

Sure sounds like a lot of goddamn risk for some shit we don't even know. And here I could've sworn I just heard you say something about self-preservation.

[And up until just this moment, Jayden hadn't seemed like the stick-your-neck-out sort to him. His eyes narrow.]

You got something you wanna tell me?

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