trans_9 | In the Shadow of the Valley

Entry tags:

In the Shadow of the Valley

Who: OPEN
Where: Outskirts of the City
Summary: Veronica discover a slice of home out on the outer areas of the city.

Not too far off from Central Park, there is a fenced-in sandy area. The only noteworthy things here are some bunkers and vents, and a lot of graffiti on the bunker walls. The sand has footprints - ones that look a bit hurried, actually - that lead to one structure. The door is open - as is the second door inside, which leads to a long staircase, leading into an obviously military installation - quite abandoned, from the looks of things, save for the periodic sound of footsteps and clicking nails on the metal floors and grates.

There's someone here, that's for sure.

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Some time after Veronica has found the place, she put out a message to the other two Brotherhood members - after all, her and Christine still owed Roger a talk about things, and...well, it'd be kind of fitting to have it in the bunker. So for the time being, she sat with Rex outside, on the top mound, watching for visitors.

It wasn't the bunker he knew- it wasn't Lost Hills- but government architecture both above and belowground tended to bear the stamp of the same mindset no matter where you went. It was as close to home as Roger was likely ever to see again.

He wasn't quite sure what to think about that.

Well, it didn't much matter. He'd get used to it. He'd gotten used to a lot of things. And he had people to meet, anyway.

One of Beastboy's favorite habits while staving off boredom on Stacy was to explore the city. So when he stumbled on this mysterious place how could he NOT investigate?

His shape shifting allowed him silent access as an adorable cat padded through the halls sniffing the scents long since stale and any new fresh ones. Sharp eyes took in all the motion down to the dust motes swirling in the air as he stalked the sounds echoing in the halls.

Zouichi rapped on the doorframe -- not enough to break it, of course, but hopefully enough to alert anyone inside to his presence. "Anyone in here?"

Old buildings like this could be structurally unsound and though this looked abandoned, well. Someone might have wandered in in the middle of some expedition or other and fallen right through some rickety floor.

A few rooms into the facility, Beast Boy will find the owners of the scents - one is Rex, who's doing the same thing - sniffing around. After all, the last time he was here, this place was full of people, and now it's empty.

Veronica, however, is staring at an old banner hanging on a central wall. "Of all the places to get caught up in this crazy mismash city..."

Veronica's voice rings out, echoing through the halls, and Zouichi can probably hear footsteps coming his way now. "It's open!"

The scribe grins a little when she gets toward the entrance. "Oh, you're the guy from that big meeting thing! Hi. I found a familiar little hole in the ground."

Zouichi tilted his head to the side, stepping in through the open doorway. "Familiar? So this is a chunk of your world? Looks like it could use a little repair work."

At first, Christine hadn't been sure she believed it, but seeing made the lump in her throat easier to swallow. The damn bunker wasn't exactly what she wanted to follow her from home- by now, she'd heard about locations being discovered, and had been searching around for the Madre like a woman possessed. It could have been worse, but...at least the place was empty. She hoped.

"Sir." It was less formal than it had been when she'd first met Roger, but she wasn't going to drop down to completely casual, either. Vee got a different sort of tone, one that almost sounded happy and tired at once. "You sure get your hands on all sorts of things, Vee."

Once the pair approached, Veronica stood and slipped down the mound. "Well, you spend a lot of timing digging things up, you get pretty good at it," she answers, then glances down toward the ground. "Only gave it a quick once-over - looks like it's pretty bare in there save for computer terminals and furniture. However," she added, turning to Roger. "I believe we owe you some information."

A beat.

"...and I owe you an apology for running off like I did at the big meeting, sir." She still wasn't very proud of that.

"Seems that way. Didn't expect to ever find it here, but I'm not complaining." She glanced about, considering. "I guess it could - it's not so bad in the actual underground area, but it's still pretty damn old."

"Extraordinary circumstances." Roger shrugged. "I'm not going to put up a stink, as long as I get filled in now that we have a chance."

He glanced at the bunker door thoughtfully and added, "Wouldn't be the first time I've gone into one of these after it'd sat empty for a few years."

Zouichi took a few more steps inside. "Find anything interesting? Rad-Away, maybe?"

Not that they really needed it on the ship, but hey. It could be useful.

Times like these made Stephen miss his car. He really had no love of hoofing it around the City, especially when he was carting around a load of debris.

He dropped it when he came upon the bunker, though. He hadn't seen anything like that since the first year he'd spent off Earth. It held some similarities with--not Ilendoria, but Stephen wasn't certain that other place had even had a name. And at this point, it didn't matter.

The Etherite followed the footprints into the structure, sliding his goggles down in his face to give it a proper inspection. Stephen made no effort to silence his footsteps, but quickly became far too engrossed in what he was seeing to announce himself properly.

He'd regret that, probably.

Shifting back into human form he felt awkward intruding on her moment, but as he tried to tip toe back out of the bunker he stepped on an empty can crunching it. Wincing and clenching up feeling his stomach drop he awaited the outcome and prepared to apologize.

Veronica's response made Christine chuckle, and she shifted to peer between her and the entrance. "Hope that's not all you've been practicing. Is it in lockdown? I don't envy if we have to crack the system open."

Christine glanced from Vee to Roger, almost turning a bit pitiable. "At the very least, this one won't be empty any more. Can't let something like this just sit here, with all that's going on." Namely, what she'd seen going down on the network.

"I didn't check yet, but if it is, it shouldn't be too hard - nothing against Head Scribe Taggart, but he spent too much time hanging around the girls in the bunker and not enough on his job." Not that Veronica's overly biased or anything, no.

Veronica nods at Christine with a bit of a smile. "Yeah, especially given that robot swarm that people say hit before we woke up." She then turns to Roger. "I guess the big question is where should we start?"

Veronica turned, fist clenched - someone had gotten the drop on her! Stupid, shouldn't have gotten all emotional and let her guard down--wait, nobody hostile reacts like that. Generally.

"Um. Can I help you?" She's also trying not to stare at the whole...green thing. Was he a runty Super Mutant?

"Just some old computers and furniture. Guess this will give me a proper place to lay my head, though," she answered, patting the wall. "Maybe a few others, too."

The first thing to greet Stephen will be Rex. The sound of footsteps that weren't Veronica's got his attention, and back he went, giving a short bark once he found the man poking around. He's not hostile, just greeting Stephen in his own doggie way.

Roger considers this, steepling his fingers. “Here’s what I know right now," he finally says. "As of 2282, human civilization exists in at least parts of old California and Nevada, with what sounded like a democratically elected government extant in California. The city of Las Vegas has been recolonized sometime in the last ten years. I’ve heard ghouls and supermutants mentioned, which I’m taking as a sign that we weren’t able to seal up Mariposa well enough to lock people out until that hell-pit lost its venom after all…”

For a moment, he looks a lot older and more exhausted than his fifty-one years would suggest.

”I knew we should have found a way. Not that it matters now. You’ve told me the Brotherhood still exists as of 2281 and mentioned at least one chapter that wasn’t based at Lost Hills, and one subset or splinter faction with a similar name. And you’ve mentioned that we might still exist, but that we’ve fallen on hard times, and brought up the name of an Elder who sounds like someone my people would’ve been better off without. What happened after I was gone?”

"Oh, so you're planning on living here. Well, I can't say I blame you for wanting to get out of Crew Quarters." He looked at Veronica a little curiously.

"But don't you want to live somewhere a little more modern?"

Christine rubbed her temples the second Vee brought up 'robot swarm', and almost made an offhanded comment that she'd almost rather holograms, but Roger took precedence over snark.

"...people happened, sir." It was quieter than she intended, but Christine eventually did raise her voice. "People take a flag and they run with it. To the point they forget what it looks like." She wanted to say more than that, but frankly...it would seem wrong to speak bad of the Brotherhood in front of their founder, let alone Veronica, who still believed in it as far as Christine knew.

"Uh sorry!" He flailed a little with a sheepish embarrassed smile, "I didn't mean to interrupt your uh...walk down memory lane?" He offered.

Christine's comment gets a nod. "That's a general way of putting things, but it works." That's followed with a sigh - looks like they were diving headfirst into the heavy stuff.

"We... Never really saw eye-to-eye with the New California Republic. We wanted to keep tech out of the hands of people that would misuse it - they wanted to use tech to help their expansion. This eventually turned to disagreeing violently. We were armed better, but they had more people." Another sigh. "That's the hard times - we're stuck hiding out and being sneaky."

"That Elder, though..." Veronica frowns. "Even in our time, that old phrase - 'the road to hell is paved with good intentions'. He had good ideas, but they blinded him to reason, and...well, to a lot of things."

Probably shouldn't end that on a bad note, though. "The mutants and ghouls aren't so bad, though. Most of the ones I've run across are generally pretty civil, but that's limited to the Vegas area and the time I've spent there, so I can't speak for...a lot of places and time."

...well, that attempt toward positivity got bungled.

Whoever the kid was, he seemed to mean well. Veronica half-grins, looking about the facility. "...well, not so much down memory lane as it is down memory hole. Don't worry about it, though."

A moment passes, and eventually curiosity gets the better of her. "Hope you don't mind the question, but...are you some kind of mutant?"

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In the Shadow of the Valley

Talk thread with Roger and Christine

Re: Talk thread with Roger and Christine

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fashionably late as usual! ...sob

No worries!

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Re: No worries!

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ITT: an Etherite pokes his nose where it doesn't belong.

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Excellent!

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