milliways_bar | (no subject)

Entry tags:

ellen park,
voodoo

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About two or three weeks ago by her time, Ellen enlisted the help of Voodoo and Tyler- sorry, Moon Shadow- to deal with the Lamplight situation. (It's still ongoing, but the miracle of Millitime will handle all of that.) She thanked them sincerely for their assistance when it was all over, and saw them both safely back to Milliways. Then it was back to her Wasteland deployment, and aside from one or two accidents with the Door appearing, she's been working like hell with the Scribes and the three Initiates she was given ever since.

Today, however, they hit enough of a milestone that Ellen called for a proper celebration on the old RobCo building's factory floor, and everyone agreed. The first power-generating windmill is online, delivering current to the building's central mainframe to supplement the two-hundred-year-old emergency rooftop solar panels. Tomorrow is back to work. Today, some measure of relaxation.

Ellen didn't really mean to end up at Milliways just now. She'd been headed up to the prewar restroom they got functioning when they first moved into the building. But, hey, if the Bar's going to show up...

She ducks into the ladies' room, then out again, and heads over to the Bar with Dogmeat at her heels. "Hey, Bar?" she says. "Can I get a bottle of whatever-it-is, that soda that Corazon doesn't like that isn't Nuka-Cola? And water for Dogmeat," she adds. "It's probably best if I'm careful about any more celebrating tonight."

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Thanks to the miracle of Millitime, she might see a considerably more dapper Voodoo than she's used to seeing in one of the booths by the Window.

(Which is not saying a lot. But still.)

Remy's long since up and left. So for now he's just watching the show.

Huh. That's unusual- not that she hasn't seen him dressed like that before once or twice, it's just that it's not his usual. She heads over his way with the Sunset Sarsaparilla in hand.

"Hey there."

Voodoo looks to her. "Hey, Ellen."

Then he takes note of the soda in her hand.

"You celebrating, or just thirsty?"

"The former. It's been almost three weeks since you guys left," Ellen says, and grins. "We got a windmill working today. Actual measurable usable electrical current, for hours. Scribe Sprunk's been bouncing of the walls, she's so happy it worked."

"How about you? what's the occasion?"

"Oh, this?" Voodoo asks, gesturing to his apparel.

"'s nothin' big. Just met someone here for dinner, is all."

"Really? Neat!" says Ellen. "Who is she?"

Because if it was a guy, he would've given the guy's name, right? Right.

Blink. Blink.

Oh, hell, maybe someone already told her.

"Her name's Remy," Voodoo says. "Dunno if you know her or not, but she was the doc who treated me after that whole...thing with Lyght went to shit."

Ellen has to think about that for a bit. Then she says, "I've met her a couple of times. I haven't seen her lately, though. How's she doing? I know she had one stretch where she was stuck out of the Bar for two years..."

Voodoo has to think about that one for a bit.

"Well she seemed all right to me," he says. "I mean, she didn't look dead or anything, so that's a plus."

"Oh, good," says Ellen. "Around here you can never be too sure. So what prompted it, anyway? I mean, I don't usually see you going out of your way to eat with anybody..."

"Oh, uh, nothin' major," Voodoo says. "I just sent her an apology 'cause I was - I was kinda an asshole to her, told her her next order was on me..."

He leans forward in his seat.

"...and then she tells me if I'm buyin', she'd like to share with me. Said 'it'd be interesting to meet you without the restraints'."

Blink. Blink. "The- oh, wait, they have restraints in the infirmary, I remember now. Doctor McCoy threatened to use them on me if I didn't stop trying to get out of bed when I was recovering from radiation poisoning."

Please, God, please let that be what he's talking about. Please.

"...yyyeaaah, they do," Voodoo says slowly.

"...why, what'd you think it meant?"

"Nothing! Nothing," Ellen says hastily. "Nothing that makes any sense under the circumstances. Go on, it doesn't matter."

She's turning red, she can feel it. Augh.

"...are you blushing?"

"It would be pretty pointless to say no, wouldn't it?"

"...okay..."

Moving along...

"So she asked me out to dinner, we started talking, found out we're both from Massachusetts, we both got into our - vocations at an early age, both like comic books, both like mountaineering..."

He shrugs.

"And one of these days we're going to climb that real big peak out back, the one that's still snowcapped."

Oh thank God. This, she can handle.

"That's got to be pretty amazing," Ellen says. "The mountain climbing, I mean. I don't- I don't usually go out anywhere near that far, but I'll bet the view would be really something for you guys."

"Yeah, I'll bet," Voodoo says. "Might make it a two- or three-day thing if it's too high to go up in one day. Separate tents," he adds.

"Unless she forgets hers or something."

~~(Now why would Remy ever do that?)~~

Ellen smiles a little and reaches for her soda. "I hope it goes well, regardless," she says. "You could use a few good days like that."

"Yeah," Voodoo says, "I probably could."

Beat.

"She seems nice enough."

"She is," Ellen says, "at least she's always been when I've met her. Which... was mostly in medical capacities, but still."

"Yeah. Ain't surprised."

Beat.

"So no Outcasts coming to knock on your doors just yet?"

"No, not yet, which bothers me," says Ellen. "We've been seeing them on the horizon, but they don't get close enough to open communications and nobody's tried to open fire. Scribe Cancio's going nuts trying to get the building's defense systems reconstructed- he's the only Sword Scribe they sent, so until he's got laser turrets in place and working, I've got to make do with the three Initiates if there's any trouble."

"You need an extra shooter?"

"The instant I do, I'll send for you," says Ellen. "Initiate Jarvis isn't too bad and Initiate Dimple knows what he's doing, but Initiate Reuben's not much better than Pek was, and I had to rescue Pek when he forgot how to clear the chamber on his jammed rifle during a training mission- before I joined the Brotherhood."

"Jesus. I knew they Brotherhood was giving you the short end of the stick with this, but...damn."

Ellen pinches the bridge of her nose a moment before she says, "The problem is that they know how resourceful I am. Either I mysteriously come up with allies out of nowhere at the last minute, or I find a way to do all my own killing- which I can't entirely blame them for, considering that I cleared all the greenskins and tongue monsters out of the Jefferson Memorial all by myself. The point is, they know that if I run short, I have a talent for calling on very unusual reserves..."

"...that sounds like a shitty fucking plan. Handicapping one of your people just because they've got a history of being resourceful?"

He shakes his head. "It don't make shit for sense."

"I've got a track record of being worth five people all by myself, and that's before I come marching out of an abandoned Metro tunnel with strangers with energy weapons in tow," Ellen says. "As it stands... the Outcasts haven't been willing to shoot at Lyons Brotherhood soldiers for a long while now. Technically they're still in mutiny and all that until either they surrender or the High Elders in California send orders, but nobody's particularly willing to actually start shooting. There's just a lot of glowering and menace going on. So they sent me three Initiates to help secure the area and four Scribes to actually get things running again, because the Outcasts haven't shown any signs of actually trying to start a fight, and because if they do, I have other resources I can fall back on."

"And because even with Vault 87 blown to kingdom come, and the Enclave destroyed, we're still remarkably short on manpower. And because what we are doing at the factory is exactly what the Outcasts were always complaining we should've been doing from the start, and since it's an official Brotherhood project now, there's a very good chance that they won't have enough internal support to muster an armed action against us anyway since a lot of their people aren't going to be happy about the idea of attacking Lyons Brotherhood for finally doing its job. So it's not as if they don't have reasons."

She might be just a little touchy at the moment.

"...okay, you got a point."

Beat.

"But if you got guys who can't clear jams, that's just one more thing to worry about."

Edited 2012-07-29 05:08 (UTC)

"Pek's a special case," says Ellen. "Both his parents are senior Paladins. They insisted on him joining the fighting orders instead of signing on with the Scribes. Everybody in his command structure knows he'd be best off doing armor research under Scribe Bowditch. Paladin Hoss is putting him through as many field training missions as possible to either shape him up or wash him out so spectacularly that even his family can't argue. Reuben's a different story. She's one of the first recruits we've had from Megaton. She knows the landscape and the local hazards really well, she's just prone to losing her head in a fight. I'm working on shaking that out of her before sending her back to Gunny."

"Good luck with that," Voodoo says. "Least she knows how to handle a rifle. From what you've told me."

"Yeah, she does, which makes my life a great deal easier," Ellen says. "And like I said, Dimple's pretty good. He just needs more field experience before he can take his test for Knight rank. And Jarvis has a really good throwing arm and a stock of plasma grenades, along with all her other basic competencies. So there's that."

Voodoo nods.

"Well, if you're ever hurting for anything, just lemme know, okay? I can get you some heavy ordnance from my room."

"Thank you," says Ellen. "I appreciate it. I'm carrying Mjolnir for this trip, so hopefully it won't come to that- but if it does I'll call you."

Voodoo nods.

"Say hi to Fawkes for me, yeah?"

"Sure thing," says Ellen. "And thank you again, Voodoo. For everything."

He smiles - actually smiles - and claps her on the shoulder.

"Don't mention it, kiddo."

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