milliways_bar | (no subject)

He's furious.

This place is a shock after so long trapped in the unending grind of war. It's so... clean. And quiet. And it makes him unreasonably furious that no one here seems to know, seems to care that they have it so good.

Autor, slingless and barefoot, glances up when Ellen approaches the Bar. "Oh, hello, Ellen," he says roughly. "Are you still in Philadelphia?"

"Hi, Autor," says Ellen, and deposits a couple of bottlecaps on the Bar in exchange for something in the beer family. "Yes, I am, and I've just sent a challenge to the man who rules the city, so depending on how many bones I get broken I may be there a while. How've you been?"

"I've been..." he starts, and lets out an explosive sigh. "Irrationally angry. This place is too clean, too quiet. I don't know how anyone can stand it. What's the challenge?"

Ellen blinks. "I think I missed something," she says. "Challenge?"

"You said that you issued a challenge to the leader, right?" Autor says, blinking at her. "I wanted to know what wad involved."

"Oh, I thought you meant you didn't know how anyone could stand being here because there was no challenge to it," Ellen says. "My apologies. Um, I meant that we're asking for an out-of-season attempt to fight his people in an exhibition match in front of the rest of Philadelphia so that we can claim local status according to their rules. I may wind up having to fight him one on one- the challenged ganger gets to determine the form of the fight."

"Oh, no, not at all, though that does make sense," Autor says, running his thumb along the rim of his teacup. "Good luck with your fight. Why do you want local status?"

"Because if we're acknowledged as a competitive ice gang, then we get to claim territory within the city, as long as we occupy it and defend it," Ellen says. "And because it shows that we're willing to work with the rules of the people who live there in order to get what we want, so they'll be more likely to trust us instead of treating us and the Outcasts as being equally dangerous outsiders."

"Oh, wow," Autor says, raising his brows. "You still have to deal with the Outcasts? I thought they would have come already."

"They arrived. I was waiting for my reinforcements from the Capital," Ellen says. "And it hasn't been quite that long... I have a feeling the door's been playing tricks on me with the amount of time passing."

~~Or the mun's been too caught up in other things to move the plot along in a few months, potato, potahto.~~

"And the leader of the city hasn't dealt with them either?" Autor says, tilting his head. "When are your reinforcements planned to get there?"

"They arrived yesterday," Ellen says. "After we'd driven the hippo stampede through the Outcast camp. We've got roughly even numbers now, so they can't just roll over us and fight their way through the city to grab General Atomics for themselves. They'd have to get a number of allies of their own, and they're from a faction that tends to look at people outside the Brotherhood as stone-banging savages who aren't good for much more than bounty hunting, so that's not likely to happen."

"Wait, you drove a hippo stampede through their camp? That's hilarious," Autor says, furrowing his brow. "So you're prepared to fight. Do you think you'll rout them inside the city or will the fight take place elsewhere?"

"They're all over the place around the river in Philly," Ellen says. "I think their ancestors were zoo animals or something. They're nasty, whatever they're descended from, and they caused a good few injuries from what I can tell. The Outcasts aren't likely to fight us unless they're sure they can beat us outright, since they haven't got official sanction from their headquarters. They'll either have to ally with one of the local ice gangs to beat us within the city, or they'll have to admit defeat."

"They haven't gotten official sanction from their headquarters? That's odd," Autor says, clenching and unclenching his fists to get the blood flowing. "Hopefully they'll admit defeat. Do you think they'll want to gain local status, like you?"

"They didn't get official status because at the moment there's a truce between the Outcast leadership and Elder Lyons' command structure," Ellen says. "Elder Lyons officially sent us out to Philly to investigate the place. There are a lot of Outcasts who're glad that Lyons is trying to get back to the Brotherhood's tech reclamation mission, but they're uncomfortable about the idea that he'd still be acting as a regional government of sorts and spending Brotherhood resources on protecting the people of the Wasteland. If Protector Casdin- that's the Outcast leader- if he sent a force to claim General Atomics, he'd basically be declaring the truce over. So this group came up to Philly, unofficially, figuring that if they achieved anything significant they could bring it back to the Capital and announce that Lyons was useless and the truce should be discarded, but if they didn't get anything, they'd be able to say they were just an investigative mission without any orders to do anything that might damage the truce."

Ellen does not sound as if she is a very big fan of internal politics of this nature.

"The only local status they're likely to be interested in is 'occupying power'. I very much doubt they're interested in admitting that the locals have anything to offer or any right or claim to the technology in the General Atomics grounds."

"Ugh, that's awful," Autor says, shaking his head. "Does the leader of the city have enough resources to oust the Outcasts, if it comes to that?"

"He's got a good number of people, and most of the ice gangers would probably fight the Outcasts even if they did want the Blood Prince and his Flyers to lose their rule of the city," says Ellen, "but a lot of the other gangers would take advantage of the situation afterwards to try to set themselves up on top, assuming they survived. The problem is that the Outcasts have better guns and much better armor."

"That's too bad," Autor says, lacing his fingers together for a lack of anything better to do with his hands. "Are you and your reinforcements a match for them?"

"Pretty sure," says Ellen. "We've got about equal numbers, and I'm better than they are at stealth and long-range sniper rifle use, if it comes down to it. I'd rather not have to pull that off, but it's an option."

"Will the ice gangs team up with you if you manage to get local status?" Autor says, tilting his head. "Or will they compete with you for territory?"

That comment is enough to make Tavi look up.

Ellen--furies, he hasn't seen her in a while--delivering a challenge? A part of him wants to slam his head into the table. (Many things do that to him these days.) But on the other hand... truthfully, he only now realizes that he'd unconsciously assumed it was only a matter of time before she had to do something of the sort--especially after her little explanation about 'gangers' and the state of Philadelphia.

After a moment of silently asking 'why is it always us?' Tavi pushes himself out of his chair and follows her to the Bar, dropping onto the stool next to her.

"I have had any number of people insist to me that challenges are not the best solution to politics," he says dryly.

"In all fairness, it's for an exhibition combat rather than one that necessarily goes to the death," Ellen says. "The idea's to head off a lot more people fighting for much higher stakes."

That counts for something, right?

"That is something of an improvement, I'll grant you."

Yep. Definitely one of those days where everything just makes him want to throw up his hands in defeat, except for the part where literally has no idea how to actually do that.

"Necessarily. Is there any chance it might anyway? I'm assuming there's no chance of a somewhat less violent outcome." He does not actually bloody, because his last non-violent solution to a duel involves quite a lot of blood. His, in fact.

Ellen sighs. "I'm trying to get us recognized as a local team with the rights to settle in a given area of the city," she says, "and in order to do that we've got to either fight a challenge match out of season against one of the local highly ranked gangs, or a one-on-one fight between team captains. The one-on-one's less likely to get people killed, from what I understand, but it's up to the people being challenged to decide which of the two they'd prefer. If we fight well enough on the ice to get accepted as a team, we'll have our own forces and the backing of at least a few of the city's gangs on our side, which will leave the Outcasts severely outnumbered. Unless they decide to try for a massacre, they'll have to back down while we secure the factory, so..."

Tavi just listens and, as she ends, drops his head onto his hands to rub his forehead tiredly. "We do something similar--challenged picks method, challenger picks time and place. We have different requirements for combatants, though. Challenger has to fight, unless something physically prevents them," like Araris pushing Miles in front of a cart so Aldrick didn't get a chance to kill him, and then mostly because Araris refused to let the matter die, "but challenged can pick a champion."

After a moment of reminding himself that he is not allowed to fill his brain with unnecessary military strategy, he asks, "And if they do try for a massacre?"

Hey, she's a friend. He worries.

"I've got reinforcements and some experience with the local mutant wildlife," Ellen says, "and a very long-range rifle, and better stealth capability than they do. If the Outcasts make a move against the people of the city, ice gangers or otherwise, we'll be moving against them along with a good portion of the city's more heavily armed residents."

Tavi relaxes somewhat.

"Good. So long as it isn't likely to be a relentless siege or pitched battle with five to one odds or worse." He does not wish his life on anyone.

And if it isn't, he is far less likely to accidentally spend mental energy trying to solve her problems as well as his.

"Not likely," Ellen agrees. "The Outcasts in the Philly area haven't got official sanction, so there's no help and no backup coming. And they might be aggravating and tied up in their philosophy of the Brotherhood's purpose, but they're not actively stupid so far as I can tell."

Dryly, "In my experience, lack of official sanction can result in extreme action," like effective treason in letter by the heir to the crown for the spirit of the thing, "but if they aren't stupid or too far into insanity, it does seem unlikely."

Look, he rarely takes action that doesn't seem logical and necessary. Everyone else seems to think he's crazy.

"I realize it's not a very good idea to assume that I'm necessarily dealing with people who have their heads on straight, considering the circumstances," Ellen says, "but from what I've seen of their behavior so far it's not nearly as bad as it could be. We'd have been in a lot more trouble before this if they thought they could get away with wiping us out."

With a brief sound that would be laughter if it lasted longer, Tavi taps the Bar lightly, and a glass of cider and plate of meat appears. The meat is held out to Dogmeat. The cider is for Tavi.

"At least there's that. I hope you don't have to go into battle. Furies know you've had enough of that."

"If I have to, I will," says Ellen, as Dogmeat achieves that canine expression best rendered in human symbols as !!!. "I would really rather it not be against the Outcasts, though. They may have turned their back on their commander in chief when they left, but they were Brotherhood once, which counts for something."

In her book, anyway.

"I'm hoping things have been better for you, meanwhile."