Mallside VIII: OrksOrksOrks!

[Rebonack]

[Ranger Rick's Shooting Range]

A shooting range might seem like a weird thing to have at a mall, then again this is the Nexus we're talking about, so next to that place that buys blood for vampire noms it's probably downright normal by contrast.

Anywho!

"I am normal person sized," Geneva insists. "Everyone else is just tiny."

She's never going to let that go.

Never ever ever.

Into the range! Behind the counter is a fox-person. Unlike the fox folks over at Inari's she's actually fox-sized, though her proportions have been altered slightly to make walking upright possible. That and she has obvious cybernetic enhancements. A little badge on her space-y looking outfit reads 'Scarlet'. When Nick and Geneva arrive her ears perk up. "Hey. Welcome to Ranger Rick's. Is this your first time here?"

[Deathkeeper]

Ranger Rick's

"I think if your species was made as a super survivor species you're more of a special person than a normal person, but I'm sure that's not something anyone is going to care about." he teases.

And then store! The Nexus sure likes foxes, doesn't it?
"Yeah, it is." he says politely.

[Rebonack]

[Ranger Rick's Range]

Of course the Nexus likes foxes. It's because the Internet likes foxes. They have the best attributes of cats and dogs and their worst attributes can't be smelled over a computer monitor!

Geneva sticks her tongue out at Nick, but otherwise doesn't respond.

"Well then, we have several different deals. You can pay a one day fee, or get a membership here. If you buy a membership we have discounts on any ammunition you purchase from us."

The day fee is less, obviously. The membership is quite a bit more, but if Nick and Geneva came here often enough it would even out. Especially if they bought ammo exclusively at the range. And judging from those shelves Rick's has a pretty wide selection of ammo, some quite exotic.

People like exotic ammo, right?

"So, what will it be?"

[Deathkeeper]

Ranger Rick's

Nick pauses to consider this.
"How about a day pass for today? If we decide to come back we'll go for a membership." he decides.

[Rebonack]

[Ranger Rick's]

"Two passes it is," Scarlet replies, pulling out a pair of little paper cards for Nick and Geneva. The hippogriff will be rather insistent on paying for her own. "We have ear protection you can use, just don't go wandering out of the range with our ear muffs still on."

Surprisingly enough, they've got muffs sized for critters as large as Geneva.

They must get quite the range of folks coming in here regularly.

The shooting range section itself is to be found beyond a rather large sliding door in a section of the shop that has been quite well sound-proofed to keep the rather noisy hobby from bothering the other Mallside patrons. Within the range itself is a pretty wide range (see what I did there?) of various species blasting away at distant targets with a huge selection of projectile weapons. Everything from huge, hulking lizardy aliens with massive plasma rifles to some lanky wood elf launching arrows at a dizzying pace.

In short?

There's lots of dakka going on here.

[Deathkeeper]

Ranger Rick's

Nick nonchalantly walks past all the kooky critters and their kookier guns and finds himself and Geneva an unused spot. After setting up the spot and their ammo and such, he gestures downrange at her, indicating that she may take the first round, even though he has his own side to shoot down.
How polite.
He'd just say so, but their ears are muffed and he'd have to raise his voice for her to hear him.

[Rebonack]

[Ranger Rick's]

As it happens, this would probably be one o the worst places for random thugs to try attacking.

I mean, seriously.

Just look at all those weapons enthusiasts.

Anywho!

Geneva gives a little nod and removes her veritable Gauss cannon from her inventory spell. She gives the weapon a quick once-over to make sure everything is in operational order, sticks in its battery pack and magazine, chambers a round, sets the magnetic field strength, flicks off the safety, and takes aim.

The weapon isn't that loud, comparatively speaking. Magnetic acceleration weapons typically don't get very noisy until you're ripping the speed of sound a new one. With all the noise from the other weapons folks are using, the Gauss cannon hardly puts out a peep. There's a recoil and the distant target suddenly sports a new hole. The shot wasn't terribly on-center, though. But at least she hit it!

Obviously she wasn't using VATS, otherwise she probably would have bulls-eyed the thing.

Geneva flicks the safety back on and offers the huge rifle to Nick.

[Deathkeeper]

Ranger Rick's

Nick accepts the gun, spending a moment to feel the weight and heft it, check the sights, etc before he feels ready to flick the safety.
Nick peers down the sights, downrange at his target, and takes his sweet, sweet time to line up the shot whilst sitting comfortably on his haunches.
And then with a not-so-loud bang, the center of the target bursts.
"Feels nice, Geneva. You've got a nice gun there." he says aloud (loudly so she can hear) as he flicks the safety back on and sets it down again for her.

[Rebonack]

[Ranger Rick's]

That manages to get a smile out of her! "Thanks!" she yells back. "It isn't all my work, but putting it together was a lot of fun!"

The things she shot with it typically had less fun. For the most part the weapon was just a backup in situations where her weather magic was impractical. Like, say, more enclosed spaces. Weather magic is at its best when one can build up speed to use it. And when you're creeping around in a spooky, 'abandoned' bunker there isn't much room to build up speed.

"Maybe we could try the pistol?"

She really hadn't fiddled with energy weapons much, aside from the one she had scavenged off the Enclave trooper she had knocked out shortly before her escape. Geneva had gotten rid of that gun as quickly as she could. Every time something got dusted the smell brought all the memories to the forefront of her mind...

Thankfully the laspistol doesn't work like that.

[Deathkeeper]

Ranger Rick's

Nick nods and takes out his sidearm. If he had his normal hands he would have done so with more of a flourish, but when you aren't totally confident in your ability to do that with a gun you shouldn't try it.
Nick checks everything out to make sure it's all functioning before disengaging the safety and priming the gun (bweoommm), taking aim at his target. He fires three blasts, one after the other with brief delays to readjust his aim. He might claim he isn't as good a shot as a griffin, but his burst's spread is very, very tight. From a distance it's probably difficult to tell the three burn marks apart. If they do smell like ash, it's probably hard to tell with the smell of all the other gunpowder flying through the air around here.
Nick puts the safety on again, and offers the pistol to her.

[Arkhosia]

"My Creator Is An Accomplished Alchemist," the golem rumbles. "I Do Not Know If She Is Willing To Teach Another Student. But I Can Take Her Here So You Can Ask."

The alchemist nods.
That would be great, thank you.

[Rebonack]

[Ranger Rick's]

The scent of flesh turned to ash is pretty distinctive. Suffice to say there isn't any of that on the air right now. Even if there was, the sharp scent of burnt gunpowder would without a doubt overwhelm it.

Geneva will be... somewhat awkward with the smaller laspistol. There's a reason why she uses that mammoth rifle, after all. Weapons sized for smaller creatures seem almost toy-like when she's holding them. It takes her a little while to find a comfortable grip on the gun, but once she does she pops off a few shots.

Her aim is even worse with this thing than it is with the rifle.

The hippogriff gives a little huff and activates her VATS. The virtual acceleration targeting spell slows the world to a crawl and provides her with precise firing solutions on her weapon. There quick snaps of super-heated air later she spell ends and her target has the center of its bulls-eye burned out perfectly. Despite the great shots, she still looks irritated.

"I have trouble hitting anything without my targeting spell," she loudly informs her friend.

[happyturtle]

[Haemonomics]

(I try to donate regularly, but more often then not they turn me down for reasons.)

That was very smooth and well-done. Nobody poked into the wrong veins or anything, which is good. After it's all over, Harley hangs out with the juice and cookies (although, honestly, she prefers the juice to the cookies. It tastes better and juice is awesome).

dot dot dot

The return of Rilayne! "I was right. Oh dear, your blood is so fizzy. Heidi, love, get me a bottle of dark elven AB-. I simply can't bear fizzy blood. But it's good quality, and a rare species type at that, so I can price it high." She offers Harley a bag of probably more gold than Harley was expecting, and a little 'frequent donor card'. "There's a bonus if you fill out your card. Heidi says you can safely donate every 4-6 weeks if you want to return. Now if you see any orcish selkies, do sent them this way. I've been looking for one ever since my last donor died." That was not at all what she said when Harley first came in, but Rilayne is nothing if not scatterbrained. "Thank you for donating! Watch out for dire mice!"

[Morty]

[Erin's Emporium]

The alchemist nods.
That would be great, thank you.

The golem disappears in the employees' only door and emerges with a slim, blonde young woman wearing a labcoat and glasses.



"Sizewell told me you were looking for an instructor in alchemy," she says.

[Arkhosia]

[Erin's Emporium]



The golem disappears in the employees' only door and emerges with a slim, blonde young woman wearing a labcoat and glasses.



"Sizewell told me you were looking for an instructor in alchemy," she says.

The woman nods.
Name's Miria Armstrong. Nice to meet you. I expect I need to prove that I'm worth being a student?
The woman replies, offering a hand to shake. If it's shaken, she will notice Miria has a strong grip.

[Deathkeeper]

Ranger Rick's

Nick fiddles with the pulleys at their spot and replaces the target with a new one.
"Try again." he says to Geneva, this time making minute changes and prods to her stance along with some instructions, which hopefully should make shooting a little easier for her.

[Rebonack]

[Ranger Rick's]

Geneva tries really hard not to start wibbling when Nick scoots her about to get her stance right. She does seem a little bit flustered, though. Being flustered and tense will ruin her aim! C'mon, Geneva, get it together!

The hippogriff takes a deep breath and sights down the pistol.

This thing doesn't have any recoil like the rifle she's use to. And the shots don't drop with distance, either. It makes aiming at distant targets a bit harder since she has to unlearn everything she learned about shooting with a solid projectile.

Deep breath.

You can do it!

Geneva squeezes the trigger and-!

Pew pew pew!

Much closer this time! Not nearly as good as her VATS shots were, but it's still a pretty obvious improvement. Geneva grins over at Nick, quite pleased with herself.

[Morty]

[Erin's Emporium]

"I do already have one apprentice, so I don't think I can train anyone else from the bottom," Dorota says, shaking Miria's hand. "So yes, you'll have to show me that you already have some knowledge of alchemy."

[Deathkeeper]

Ranger Rick's

"Good job." he says happily as he takes the pistol and holsters it, since it's quite empty.
Presumably they'll spend a while using her gun, since it still has ammo, unless Geneva has other plans.

[Rebonack]

[Ranger Rick's]

And lo, more target shooting happens. Geneva's GUNS skill probably goes up a few notches in the process, but she's still a far cry from a marksmare by any stretch of the imagination. Eventually ammo runs low and the time comes to move on to other things.

Like, say, getting dinner!

One major upside to getting dinner is that it'll allow Nick and Geneva to talk without yelling as loud as they possible can to hear each other over the din of gunfire.

Though before that happens Geneva will take some time to do a little bit of weapon maintenance before stowing her rifle and indicating that she's ready to depart. The Gauss rifle is a bit finicky at times, after all. Keeping it in good repair is the best way to make sure it doesn't jam at the worst possible moment.

[Deathkeeper]

Ranger Rick's

Nick can offer some advice with that, too, although she might not need help there.
"So, what's this place we're eating at?" he asks.

[Rebonack]

[Ranger Rick's ==> Horn ah Plenty]

When it comes to the mechanical and fix-er-up side of things, Geneva is pretty competent. She just runs into trouble when she actually has to shoot something.

"It's called Horn of Plenty," Geneva remakes are they depart the shooting range. "Which I'm pretty sure is a reference to another Ogres and Oubliettes artifact, sort of like the golden dice I have on my rear."

Geneva gives her hind-end a shake, causing the dice to whirl and twirl and come to a rest on dots again rather than a block number. Seems Geneva has figured out how to make rolling and shaking motions without accidentally rolling herself! That's a good thing. Less randomly triggered chaos magic at the worst possible moment is a good thing.

At least she thinks so.

Her sense of sanity agrees.

"I don't suppose you have something like Ogres and Oubliettes in your home world? Or... maybe had, I guess. There probably isn't much call for bored games, aside from in the Stables that are still sealed."

[Deathkeeper]

Horn of Plenty

Nick shakes his head.
"No, I haven't seen anything like that around home, even in the few ruins I've combed. The name sounds vaguely familiar, though. Maybe I saw something like that in a shop 'round here at some point?"

[Rebonack]

[Horn ah Plenty]

In an absolutely shocking turn of events, the restaurant isn't being run by any unusual species, nor does it appear to have a wacky theme. It's just one of those family-style buffet restaurants. And... that's pretty much it.

"A table for two, please," Geneva asks of the fellow at the register. She'll then pay for the both of them and they're given their receipt with a large '2' written on it in felt pen. "C'mon, I think we're just supposed to go pick a table and then start collection food."

Seems like a fairly informal sort of place.

"And don't try leaving the restaurant with any extra food. I learned that the hard way the first time I visited one of these places."

Her instinct to stockpile things in her inventory spell turned out to be a taboo practice at buffets. That sort of practice might be a great idea out in the Wasteland, but over in civilized places it doesn't work out quite so well.

"What about the name Dungeons and Dragons? Does that one sound more familiar?"

[Deathkeeper]

Horn ah Plenty

Nick is happy to go pick a table.
"Sorry, no to that too, although I'm still sure I passed a store with it in the window at least once. Why the interest?" he says as they go to get food.

[Rebonack]

[Horn ah Plenty]

This time around, Geneva snags a pretty huge salad. One of those the works sorts of salads. With a little bit of everything! Eggs, croutons, chunks of bacon, blue cheese dressing, and (of course) salad greens. She piles her plate pretty high. And the food will probably be vanishing just as quickly as she acquired it.

Magical metabolism has high demands!

"I'm just curious. Two of my other friends are Dungeons and Dragons characters. Except, you know... real," Geneva recounts. "And I found out through some reading that 'Fallout' and 'Equestria' are a video game and a cartoon, respectively. One of my friends thinks that fantasy and stories are actually caused by some kind of echo from alternate universes that imaginative people just pick up on."

Certainly better than believing one's self to be unreal.

Geneva sets her plate down at the table and smiles over at Nick. Despite the... weirdness... with the die, today has gone pretty well in her estimation! She'll do her best to avoid any future dice. She wouldn't want to make her friends feel uncomfortable after all.

[Arkhosia]

[Erin's Emporium]

"I do already have one apprentice, so I don't think I can train anyone else from the bottom," Dorota says, shaking Miria's hand. "So yes, you'll have to show me that you already have some knowledge of alchemy."

Its possible sort of do. I am well trained in a style of alchemy that focuses on transmutation and a law known as The Law of Equivalent Exchange, where you transmutate using runes to shape, combine, or separate the materials on hand or around you. If it is not enough knowledge to start me off, maybe I could make training me from the bottom up worthwhile by training you my style of alchemy
Miria replies, withdrawing her hand after the handshake.

[Deathkeeper]

Horn ah Plenty

Nick on the other hand is going full carnivore. Sausage, bacon, steak, you name it. This is doubtfully surprising. He smiles, too. He enjoyed himself as well, even though his circumstances are more an opposite of hers.
"Urgh. I can't even wrap my head around stuff like that. I've heard of the game though while digging around." he says with a shake of his head.

[Gullara]

Mystique Physique

Jim smiles. "Of course, Syela. You wouldn't think that I'd possibly make you pay for my stupid little incident, would you?" he asks her with a smile.

[Mystique Physique]

"Hey, I just don't want you losing all your money or something like that." Syela waves her hand dismissively. "Come on, let's get you back to your normal self as soon as possible." She'll be glad when this is over.

Mall Office

Kate walks to the mall office. In one hand, she has a folder. Inside this folder is her resume. She'll do... whatever is customary. Presumably there is a front desk to talk to?

[Mall Office]

In a mall? Unlikely. It's not like the owner of the mall needs a public facing desk like that. There are phone numbers and the like for that kind of thing. She can, however, approach one of the mall's many kiosks where there's always a friendly employee ready to lend a helping hand!

At this particular kiosk sits a rather frazzled looking young man. He's looking down at his cellphone when she walks up to him. How unprofessional. Surely he'd be in trouble if his boss heard about this.

Mask Parade

(Some time after the blood donation scene is over...)

Harley enters the Mask shop. She‘s excited; she loves masks. They help hide her face which is, in her opinion, better left hidden.

Maybe a rose mask, in honor of Stu. As much as she would like to buy all the masks here to replace her lost collection which she left in AMEN, she simply doesn‘t have enough money for it. In fact, she can probably only buy one - an average one not a good one - so she has to carefully decide on only one.

[Mask Parade]

The mask shop is a sight to behold. Over every possible surface there hangs a mask. Some lie in piles on tables, some on proud display. Masks of every conceivable size, shape, colour, and expression. There are masks of people, masks of animals, masks of the unreal, and masks of things that should not be. SO many masks, uncountable masks, and each with an uncanny, empty stare. Each one staring at Harley as she enters the store.

One mask in particular is particularly eery. It's that of a man, one with a grin too wide for his face and eyes that bore into your very soul. It sits central int eh room, just behind the mask littered purchasing counter. It's incredibly detailed. So much so that one would almost think- "Hello! Welcome to Mask Parade!" It speaks! But wait, there is a body attached to this mask. In fact, it's not a mask at all, but a man!

[Lost_Deep]

Mall Office

Okay... "Excuse me, sir?" She gives him a moment to compose herself, "I would like to apply for a job. Who should I talk to about that?"