(no subject)

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

[OOM: "... because unwanted personal attention is a serious distraction from the mission regardless of whether it constitutes fraternization or not oh God I'm a dead man."]

Well.

That went better than expected.

"Hey, Bar?" says Ellen. "I feel like I should be celebrating. Could I have something with meat in it? Not- not Cram, or whatever, and not a- not a steak, it's not that big a thing, but- maybe just a hamburger? Or a, a cheeseburger, something like that? That's real food, right?"

Well, it is when Bar dispenses it. Although Ellen may need some help eating it and all the fries, as it's larger than she was expecting and Dogmeat's back on her side of the door.

There's a seat at her table, if you like.

Comments

[kamehamehaaa]

"Hi Ellen." Gohan says, from down the bar. He's demolishing a dessert the size of his head.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"oh- hi, Gohan," says Ellen, looking up. She remembers him; he's the boy who told her about chi. "It's been a while, hasn't it? How have you been?"

Pause.

"That's... exactly what is all that you've got there, anyway?"

[kamehamehaaa]

"I'm not sure, Bar gave it to me. It has bananas in it." Gohan says, shovelling some more into his mouth. "And chocolate. I'm not sure what this brown goo is."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Wow."

Ellen looks back at her own plate.

"That must be really sweet, if it has that much chocolate in it... what's a banana? I mean, other than a fruit with a very slippery peel."

[kamehamehaaa]

"Would you like some?" Gohan asks. "I think this is the bit without the peel."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Maybe just a little bit," Ellen decides. "I've still got to eat my actual dinner, and Bar gave me much too much of it."

She indicates the pile of French fries, never mind the burger alone.

[kamehamehaaa]

"Humans don't eat as much as we do, do they?" Gohan asks. "Mummy only eats a tiny amount."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Depends on the human, I guess," says Ellen. "Although most humans I know can get along on very little, if they have to. Do all your people eat such huge meals?"

[kamehamehaaa]

"Well, there's only three of us, the rest of the species died out." Gohan says. "And I'm only half-Saiyan. But Daddy and Vegeta eat lots."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"I didn't know that," Ellen says, blinking. "About your species, I mean. I'm sorry to hear that."

Seriously, how do you follow up on a statement like that without saying something upsetting?

"Do either your father or this Vegeta ever come here?" she ultimately decides on.

[kamehamehaaa]

"Their planet was blown up." Gohan says quietly. "Before I was born. Daddy was only a baby, he'd been sent to Earth. He was meant to destroy it but he lost his memory, and now he protects it."

He shakes his head. "I don't think so. Or they'd use it for training."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Well, I'm very glad he's protecting it," Ellen says firmly. "He must be very good at it, too, if you're anything like him at all."

[kamehamehaaa]

"Thanks." Gohan says. "Well, it hasn't been destroyed yet?"

[aeons_crackshot]

"What are we celebrating?" Annabelle asks with a grin.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"If it were anybody else, I'd say that I'm getting a new sword soon," says Ellen. "But for you, I'll just say this- remember how worried I was about fraternization last time?"

[aeons_crackshot]

"So he's nice AND he's making you a shiny new sword?" Annabelle replies. "Definitely a keeper!"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"The sword was his idea of a courtship present. Well, is," says Ellen. "He hasn't finished it yet- it's not just a sharpened piece of metal. He saw me using the Shishkebab- you've seen that, right? I'm pretty sure I showed you..."

[aeons_crackshot]

"I've seen it," Annabelle replies with a nod. "Best iteration of flaming sword I've seen outside of pyrokinetics."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen nods. "Well, the junkyard look of it bothered him," she says. "Not that I ever had any problem using it, myself, but it just looked too cobbled-together. And he kind of had a point when he pointed out that it's hard for me to carry a supply backpack and wear that thing's fuel tank at once. I mean, I've got Karkat's trollish storage deck, so I don't need a backpack really, but he doesn't know that- anyway, he thought I shouldn't have to use something that was just pieced together from scrapyard junk, and he offered to try to make me something better."

[aeons_crackshot]

Annabelle nods. "Doesn't surprise me too much. Engineers, in my experience, tend to get almost as wound up about unnecessary ugliness as they do about functional failures."

"What did he decide on as a solution?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Well," Ellen says, "he found some pre-War newspaper records of a sword carried by a Chinese general in the Anchorage campaign. General Jingwei's blade had microfusion cells in the hilt, and delivered one heck of an electric shock on impact- sometimes it'd be enough to electrocute the target on the spot, or short out poorly insulated power armor. Jerald's trying to replicate that."

[aeons_crackshot]

"That sounds familiar," Annabelle replies, thinking. "Didn't you have something like that once?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"I have every reason to believe that the sword in the armory was Jingwei's blade," Ellen says. "There was a captured suit of stealth armor, too-"

She stops, and then claps one hand over her face.

"I forgot to tell him. I was about to tell him, and then he called me ma'am and I got completely diverted..."

[aeons_crackshot]

Annabelle can't help but giggle a little at that. "Understandable. At least it gives you a conversation starter for the next time you see him."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"I suppose there's that," Ellen says. "He'll probably want to know how it compares to the original, so he can tune its performance and balance and all of that, anyway."