quest selected: glad to be unhappy [open; backdated options]

[quixotically]

Who: Elle (Courier Six) and YOU
Where: Anywhere you want, though these are specific locations that'll be popping up: Hydroponics, the Garibah Tree, the Public Bathroom in the City, and a wall near the Level 5 Sleeping Halls teleporter. And, for the sake of narration, the Lucky 38. The Drunken Dragon Tavern will be added later!
When: Any time ranging from shortly after the podpops to the past week or so.
Summary: Elle has been occupying herself by exploring the ship, especially the City. I'm going to set this post up in a bit of a weird way, with the OP being a general exploring post, and then threads for specific locations, just to make things clean and easily organized. Feel free to tag into any of the threads unless it's marked as [CLOSED], and you can start your own thread with Elle set in another location of your choosing if you'd like! These settings are just starting points, in a way.
Warnings: None?

Elle is certain there are better things she could be doing, but... Unbeknownst to her, spending an endless amount of time exploring the Ship and its City has become her coping mechanism. She hasn't quite realized just how hard this whole situation has hit her. The knowledge that her home, the world she had learned to love again, even after everything that happened there, was gone... Knowing that most of the people she'd met probably hadn't been saved... Maybe she's still in shock. Maybe she's subconsciously delaying the information from truly, fully sinking in. But, regardless, she thinks she's fine. Which is why she wonders why she's still doing it. But everything else in her mind is telling her to keep poking her head around, and she's learned to listen to her instincts, so... Exploring it is.

Elle has managed to get herself a dress made a few weeks after her podpop, at the very least. There's a part of her that feels particularly naked without her combat armor, but she doesn't want to run around the ship wearing it -- it makes her seem more heavily armed, and that's not exactly good for making friends. Her dress and her Pre-War Hat will do her just fine, thank you very much, and it's much more comfortable. (Of course, she still has her shotgun slung over her back and a bag filled with extra ammo and her teddy bear over her shoulder. She may not be wearing her armor, but at least she'll be able to fight.)

The small Courier can be found everywhere publicly accessible on the Ship, though it's much more common to find her somewhere in the City. There's a lot more to distract herself with explore there, after all.

Comments

[first_of_steel]

Roger cocks his head at that. "Sounds familiar," he says, "although... hm. That's a RobCo product, isn't it?"

He can't say he recognizes the specific make name, but it's got a promising ring to it.

[snarkingscribe]

"Yeah. They're pretty well-armed robots. Submachine gun, gatling lasers, grenade and missile launchers. Decent self-repair systems, too. Real nice pieces of work." Veronica makes a face, then sets to thinking. "Guess it makes sense they'd be down there with how House operated."

A moment passes, then there's a small smirk that comes across Veronica's face. "...hey Elle, you still got that fancy poker chip?"

[quixotically]

"RobCo? Yup, that's the one!" Elle doesn't seem too bothered by the whole thing. The Securitrons are more armed and dangerous than she would like them to be, yes, but when she looks at them, she thinks of the safety of New Vegas and protection against the Legion. After all, she trusts House. (Mostly, that is; the survivalist is wary and sees the warning signs, but deep down, there's a part of her that instinctively trusts him, and it's so strong that the survivalist has chosen to step back and be more quiet about the matter.)

"The Platinum Chip? Yeah, I've got it right here."

She reaches into her pack and draws the thing out.

[first_of_steel]

Roger nods. "They had a hell of a product line. Damn near bought my wife one of their 'bots instead of a Mr. Handy. Sounds like this model'd be worth waking up and having a look at."

[snarkingscribe]

Veronica nods at Roger. "Definitely one way of putting it," she adds, then points to the silvery object Elle pulls out. "With the information on that chip and a little program-editing, we'll have something really useful on our hands. Keep a lot of good people out of harm's way...at least for a little while, whenever things get bad."

going off the assumption Elle doesn't know Vee's the head yet

[quixotically]

Something trips in Elle's mind and suddenly she feels like she's behind the conversation.

"Wait, you almost bought your wife a..." Something about the way he said it, so casually -- You don't commonly buy robots any more, you scavenge and fix them up. She isn't drawing the connection to differing timelines yet, though, so she just stands there looking confused for a moment.

Anyway. "The Securitrons could definitely be useful. Is there anyone in particular we should talk to? There's a tech department and all somewhere around here, right?"

[first_of_steel]

"Protectron," says Roger, on the not-unreasonable assumption that it was the model of robot causing her to stall out. "I'd promised her I'd get her some more help around the house when I got transferred to California, and it came down to a security bot or a butler model. The Mr. Handy wound up being the better buy, even if I did have to tweak that thing's gyros every other week."

He glances over at Veronica. "I've mostly been working on getting something organized in the way of ground forces. You have anyone in particular you think ought to know about this, Scribe?"

[snarkingscribe]

There's a faint chuckle at the comment about the Handies. "Kinda makes the name a little contradicting, in hindsight."

"Weeeell..." Veronica starts, then nods. "I wound up joining up, though, uh. Given a lack of a head of their general science department, and the others in the department being too busy, or heading up other departments, I kinda took up the reigns." There's a bit of a sheepish grin on her face - she's proud, but still feels a little awkward about the whole thing. "Given that it's our backwards tech, I think we're the go-to people on it, though some others might need to be called in at some points. I spent more time wandering the Mojave than I did tinkering."

"Don't suppose there was a chip-reader just lying around down there, was there?"