First Entrance - Briareus

[cyberbunnyman]

They were making their way from Toronto to New York City because they heard there was power there; power enough that the signs in Times Square still worked. At least, sometimes they did. If the rumors were to be believed. Power hopefully meant a decent enough place to live and so they decided to head Southeast.

Most days they walked. Some days they got lucky and found an abandoned vehicle with some gas and were able to drive. Now, they were somewhere in either what was once Pennsylvania or what was New York. Deunan was certain it was New York, while Briareus was pretty sure they drifted a little too far South. Travel wasn't so straight forward nowadays. He'd have a better idea once the sun was rising and he could get bearings. For not it was sit tight, find what food he could for Deunan and wait.

Which was why he was checking around and looking in the bar (people always forgot bars usually had canned goods). What he wasn't expecting was people and what looked to be a thriving business. Quickly he sidesteps into the nearest shadow, lowering his riffle to a less threatening angle as he does so, but the few shadows there are do a pathetic job of covering him. Given his size, it was much like the old cartoon of an elephant hiding behind a sapling. 

What now?

[tiny tag: Briareus]

Comments

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Funny thing about shadows: they don't mean all that much to animals.

"Baroo?"

[cyberbunnyman]

Animals are pretty scarce, given the double punch of nuclear winter and robotic drones left over from the global conflicts, but Briareus does remember them. This one doesn't seem to have a threatening or threatened attitude and so he slowly lowers himself to a half crouch and offers his left hand, leaving his right on his weapon, for a sniff or whatever the dog would like.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Dogmeat is familiar with many, many mechanical smells, and with the combination of human and machine smells in particular. Granted, that's because large humanoid figures that look metal all over are usually Brotherhood members in armor, but all in all it means there's not much here to be nervous about in his estimation.

So he's going to sniff the offered hand and see if there's any meat or anything like that on offer. Or attention. Attention is good too.

(There'll be a human along shortly looking for him, but he's not thinking about that right now.)

[cyberbunnyman]

Alas, no meat. And likely no smells of meat either. Canned food is about all Briareus has been able to find for Deunan and so that's all Dogmeat is going to smell. Tough times.

As for Briareus, if he still had anything like lips, he'd be smiling as he carefully pets the side of the dogs neck; assuming he doesn't pull away when Briareus tries. "So how come all the people in this town are hiding in here? Huh, boy?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

It's nothing all that unusual for the heeler. Dogmeat wags his tail and leans into the metal fingers, looking thoroughly content with the prospect.

It's about here that the young woman (scars and grey hair to the contrary, her face is still fairly young-looking) in the battered, much-repaired, blue-and-gold jumpsuit catches sight of the dog and makes her way over. "Dogmeat, one of these days I'm going to fasten a transmitter to your collar... I hope he's not bothering you?"

She'd say sir, but she knows better than to assume about armored figures.

[cyberbunnyman]

As Ellen approached, Briareus' "ears" which had drifted backwards snapped back to attention.

"It's no problem," he says, quickly assessing that she had no weapon and if the tone of her voice was any indication, was not ready to be one. He shifts his riffle enough to show that his finger is not on its trigger and then he points it down to the ground. "I'm sorry to intrude. I thought this town was deserted."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"People make that kind of mistake more often than you'd think when it comes to this place," Ellen says with a small smile. "Mostly because the place is playing an unfortunate trick on them by its nature. There's a document about it, if you'd like a look- or I could try to explain it myself. Lord knows I've done that enough times since I first made it here."

The 'ears' are kind of a neat touch. Ellen's seen plenty of Enclave power helmets with ears approximately like that, but none of them could move.

[cyberbunnyman]

Briareus considers for a moment, petting Dogmeat as he does so. This is all still reading as weird and strange for him, since he got not audio from the bar before he entered. Everything seems friendly though, and so he'll react as such.

"Been a while since I've had anything to rad. Why don't I start with the literature?" He says as he stands, switching his riffle to safety and slinging it across his back. Standing, he gets a view of more of the patrons and their variety. Confused, he taps the side of his head; much the same way some people pound on a machine to make it work.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen nods and signals to one of the rats scurrying by; it darts out of sight for a moment and returns with the standard Milliways greeting information pamphlet for her. She hands it to the newcomer and notes, "Hopefully it's in a language you can read. I'm not sure how they decided what to write it in."

She pauses.

"You, um. May not be having instrument difficulty, if that helmet works anything like my power helmet does. There's a lot of different species and varieties of technology here."

[merryeccentricities]

Joly looks up from his tablet and his books when the door opens. And doesn't look down again. The new fellow is sort of noticeable.

But that's not why Joly's looking so carefully. He is, without being quite aware of it, making the expression that says he's trying to figure out if he knows this person or not.

[cyberbunnyman]

The new fellow doesn't seem to notice Joly*, instead turning his attention to the rat that is tapping his leg. He accepts the pamphlet the rat offers and returns to standing. Body language would suggest the contents of the pamphlet are proving bothersome for him to accept and he turns to look around the room, shifting his weapon to a shoulder strap as he does so.

*This would be a bad assumption to make given Briareus' various optics. Plus, no one lives in the badlands long if they don't notice when people are studying them.

[merryeccentricities]

At least the stranger didn't panic about the rat? And they put their looks-like-a-gun away!

Joly ventures a wave, and a polite "Hello?"

If the new fellow's looking for a threat, Joly is...probably obviously not it.

[cyberbunnyman]

Briareus had been wondering if the youth would approach him or not.

"Hi. Is this for real?" He asks waving the pamphlet in Joly's direction. The men(?) must be a very fast reader given the brief amount of time he's owned the document.

[merryeccentricities]

A newcomer, then, for certain, and not anyone Joly's met. He settles a little, and smiles witha certain sympathy. "Oh, it's entirely real. And even stranger than the pamphlet suggests." He's a bit far away for a bow, so he nods politely instead. "I'm Joly; I live here, more or less. Pleased to meet you."

Pleased to meet you--Monsieur? Madame? Citoyen or Citoyenne? Joly really doesn't want to guess, so he leaves that for later.

[cyberbunnyman]

"I'm Briareus," he replies in a voice that is likely male. "I can go back anytime I want? And time really stops in the world I came from?"

[merryeccentricities]

Joly nods. "If you can see your door, you can go back any time--and it will be the time you left. You could spend a year here, it would make no difference. So I've heard from many people who come and go here."

[cyberbunnyman]

"That's...a lot to take in. What sort of exchange is preferred? Currency or barter?"

[runningred]

Jay comes up from the garage, arguing with four egg shell coloured ovaloid about the size and shape of footballs. A fifth is tucked under his arm, it's side scorched and blackened.

"I warned you lot not to play with the tig! If you want something welded, I'll do it for you but the rig is far too heavy. Damn it, Stock! I know the twins are useless but I thought you had more sense than that!"

The drone directly in front of Jay buzzes and clicks anxiously as Jay sets the damaged one on the counter and starts cleaning it up.

He hasn't spotted the newcomers yet.

{ooc: placeholder tag till after work.}

[cyberbunnyman]

[ooc: Sounds good.]

Briareus turns to the sound and his ears lift to a more attentive possession as he tries to hear the drones. You can learn a lot by what computer language drones and robots speak. He is also studiously ignoring the rat that is tapping his leg.

[runningred]

The one Jay referred to as Stock buzzes and clicks, colour and light rippling over her surface. It clear she's distressed for the injured one and is trying to point Jay to where the worst of the damage is.

Barrel, the scorched drone whimpers unhappily, little extender manipulators shaking as Jay lifts away plating and starts inspecting the damage beneath.

As much as Jay's getting the jist of their sounds, he doesn't exactly understand their language and has missed the damaged part that is causing the drone the most pain.

[cyberbunnyman]

Briareus' ears swivel down in annoyance at the persistent rat. Looking down he sees that the rat is handing him something and so he takes it in the hopes it will go away. It does so and thus he turns his attention back to Jay and his drones.

"I think there's some damage you're missing," he says, approaching slowly with his riffle pointed down.

[runningred]

Jay gives Briareos a quick once over glance, taking in his multiple eyes and sensor ears. And the rifle.

"Mate, if you can see something I can't, I'd be bloody grateful for your help! Especially if it means I can get Barrel here looked after." He keeps a hand on the drone's flank, trying to keep the little bot calm.

[cyberbunnyman]

"You're doing a great job," Briareus says, since the guy seems to honestly care about the drones. He's seen the type before and honestly appreciates them. He also makes a careful show of putting the safety on his riffle and strapping across his back.

He steps forward then, close enough to be able to point out the damaged area Jay is missing, and says, "I could be misreading his data stream, but I think this is the area that's giving him the most trouble. What I'm understanding is more body language than anything like words though."

[runningred]

"You're gettin more than I am then." Jay nods, gently leaning Barrel on his side to get to the offending panel.

The little drone whimpers and vibrates under Jay's hand and he does his best to soothe it. "Mind giving me a hand? If you can just hold him there..." He pulls out a small tool and starts checking over the circuits and wires.

The one Jay called Stock buzzes back and forth, keeping the other three calm and checking on their progress with Barrel. She rubs her softly textured casing against Briareus' shoulder by way of thanks.

"Yeah, I can see the problem. You've burnt out your capacitors here, Barrel. I'm gunna have to replace them. You just stay still now." He rattles off a list of parts and they appear on the bar next to his hand.

[cyberbunnyman]

Briareus is happy to help and does so, nearly taking all the weight of the drone. He'd take all of it, but knows some people don't like being helped without asking.

Unfortunately, he nearly drops him when the parts appear out of thin air. "What the hele