In the Shadow of the Valley

[snarkingscribe]

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.

Comments

[first_of_steel]

"They were pretty persistent up until the day I found myself in that slime pod, that's for sure," Roger said. "I can only assume they were more of a problem for my son after that."

He heaves a sigh and runs both his hands over his face. "Green," he repeats. "That's... way too familiar for my liking. They look like ten feet of muscle crammed into eight feet of skin?"

[snarkingscribe]

Veronica sighs, then folds her arms. The wheels were starting to turn by this point. "So what was done out of necessity got done for so long...guess nobody ever considered what to do in the event of if you ever encountered other civil people." She frowns a bit - though it's more a sad frown than anything.

She nods. "Yeah. Even the lady mutants, apparently."

[first_of_steel]

"I doubt our policy on deserters helped much, either," Roger says. "Before the War it was government policy to shoot anybody who tried. We didn't do that, didn't think it was a wise idea to cut down the human gene pool that way, but... anybody who wanted to give up on the group and strike out on their own wasn't welcome back, ever. No help for them once they left, neither were they to be let back in. The idea was to make sure people knew what was at stake, so they didn't leave in the first place and drain what resources we had."

What had started off as a steadily-more-gloomy expression comes to a screeching halt at Veronica's next comment, though. The West-Tek researchers, in the grand tradition of scientists everywhere, had few to no female subjects in their medical experients except for specifically testing things that had to do with the female anatomy. All their military prisoners had been men. So... "Lady mutants," Roger repeats, a little disbelievingly. "I'm not sure I even- what does that even look like?"

[snarkingscribe]

"Yeah... Well. Not so much that as at some point down the line, I assume someone never thought to adapt with the times once it became obvious that there were other civil settlements and the like." She sighs. "They were good policies for the time, not debating that."

"Well, in the case of Lily...she looks like any other Nightkin, and sounds like them too. She just dresses a little different in comparison."

[first_of_steel]

"They made sense, once," Roger agrees. "They wouldn't here, if we were going to try to pick up those pieces."

It's a big if, he's aware of that. There's a total of three of them right now, and of those three one of them probably has no reason to even want to try. But... well, who knows. He'd rather work with the people of his world than try to make it on his own, and he's an old enough dog at this point not to want to have to do it entirely through new tricks. So to speak.

"I suppose that would make sense. The ones I saw... they didn't strike me as the sort to draw much of a distinction any more. Not after everything that'd happened to them."

[snarkingscribe]

"Yeah. For one, there's tech everywhere already. Even if we anted to go confiscating, we're obscenely outnumbered. That, and given how much more civilized things seem here compared to home, I'd like to think it's in capable hands," Veronica comments. "It wouldn't hurt to keep an eye out, though. What they have here outclasses anything we ever had, so there's a lot more potential for bad stuff to go down because of it. If I can track down whoever's in charge of tech stuff around here, I can see about getting involved in their departments."

She frowns, though - a rather sad one, really. "I don't want to be suspicious, especially after I said all that about us needing to adapt, but this is a really different situation than the Wasteland. Gotta get to know these people more."

She nods. "Yeah...Lily seemed to be an odd one out from what I've seen out of Super Mutants, distinguishing herself like that." A pause. "Then again, I don't know if I ever actually saw or met any other female super mutants."

[first_of_steel]

"We were trying to reclaim the old tech before it could hurt anyone," Roger says. "This stuff- this was never ours to begin with, so reclamation wouldn't even be in the cards to begin with. Familiarizing ourselves with, getting to know, getting to understand, that's another story. We can't just let this stuff go unknown. Not when any chance of a future we might have might depend on it."

His mouth twitches. "Understand, I've never exactly been on the research and development side of the line. Field testing and evaluation, sure, but- I think we're gonna have to depend on you to get your hands dirty first, if we're ever going to have a prayer of knowing what we're working with. I sure as hell hope you're up to it, Scribe."

[snarkingscribe]

As Roger says that, the realization of just what all this entails hits her.

She's...grinning, actually. Being able to do research without getting chased out of the building (hopefully)? Sign her up.

"I...will certainly do my best, sir."