[Nexus] GLoG 83

[OrchestraHc]

Refugee Slave Cabin

Justin nods to them before he exits. "And that's all she wrote," he says to Daisy. "This means I've met everybody here, right?"

[Earl of Purple]

Refugee Slave Cabin

"Yes, Sir. Although I believe that the others are around here somewhere, the ones that were owned by the priestesses rather than by the Temple itself." Namely, Slave, Object and Mine.

[Slii Arhem]

Originally Posted by Morty

[Rowan Cabin]

It's a testament both to Sophie's composure and the nature of the Nexus that she doesn't blink at Julie's recount of the recent events. This sort of thing just happens.
Right now the Hunter takes the cup of coffee as Nicholas makes himself comfortable in her lap. She smiles slightly.
"Nothing in particular. Or a couple of things put together, I guess. I've just been feeling... melancholic. And a little nostalgic."

Rowan Cabin

Julie smiles as well, reaching out to pat Sophie's knee if she can find it under the mass of cat fur, "Care to talk about it? I've got little else to do, and it would take my mind off of my worry for Eric to talk about something else for a while."

[OrchestraHc]

Originally Posted by Earl of Purple

Refugee Slave Cabin

"Yes, Sir. Although I believe that the others are around here somewhere, the ones that were owned by the priestesses rather than by the Temple itself." Namely, Slave, Object and Mine.

"I remember them, don't worry." It'd be almost out of character for Justin to forget a pair of blonde girls. "I'll be visiting them in a bit. Thank you for showing me to everybody Daisy."

[Earl of Purple]

Refugee Slave Cabin

True, but they have a different player, and I was just ensuring that Justin's player hadn't forgotten.

Also, don't forget about the Abandoned Camp on Justin's pipboy.

[McBish]

Infirmary

Originally Posted by Earl of Purple

"Thank you Your Holiness, but coins aren't important to me at the moment. Is there a chest, with a keyhole and no key? Or at least, a hidden key?" He doesn't know that Yuki has already opened it.

Originally Posted by Dimonite

"Certainly; I will not only monitor his recovery, but also ensure that no further harm comes to him."

Yuki smiles and nods to Lume glad to see someone is taking care of the sea elf. She turns back to the child with a small frown when she is called Holiness, it just doesn't feel right to her.

"The chest is safe. The key and contents of the chest are all safe. I'm sure someone could bring it here if you want."

No one knows that she had yet she locked it all up after looking through it briefly, hiding the key away again.

[Mahonri Violist]

Originally Posted by Wolfbane

Pathfinder's Hut - Levi

"What do they feed off of, and how does one generally get rid of them?" Pathfinder asks. He doesn't seem to notice the shadow, but even so, he begins to pull out various powders from his pouches and begins mixing them in his paw.

Pathfinder's Hut - Levi jeans

The man whose cape blows dramatically in the wind looks down at Pathfinder's mixtures of powders, as he thinks about how to answer the question. "Generally...I suppose they eat meat, just like most other animals. The difference is that they like eating people once in a while."

He answered the first question, which was the harder one. The second half of the question is certainly easier, and so Levi answers this one much more quickly. "The best way to get rid of one is, of course, killing it. Barring that, the next-best way is to shine a really bright light at it. They're slightly nocturnal, like bats or dogs or deer." After that, he doesn't know any effective way to get rid of one. Everyone has their own wives' tale, like hanging a headless chicken in front of your house, or yodelling "Happy Birthday" at the top of your lungs, but those haven't been proven to have any great effect.

[Zefir]

Originally Posted by Wolfbane

Main Cabin - Andy

Pathfinder nods slowly to agree to tell Andy the story sometime. "For now however, consider yourself welcome to my hut if you ever need to come. And if you should ever need aide, just call out to the spirits around here. They'll be able to help even if I cannot."

Main Cabin - Andy

Andy can't say he feels save now.

"I will remember this."

[Morty]

Originally Posted by Slii Arhem

Rowan Cabin

Julie smiles as well, reaching out to pat Sophie's knee if she can find it under the mass of cat fur, "Care to talk about it? I've got little else to do, and it would take my mind off of my worry for Eric to talk about something else for a while."

Julie will be able to reach Sophie's knee, although it makes Nicholas raise his head.
"Sure, why not. I guess I've been keeping this close to the chest for too long." She reaches into her pocket and produces an old, worn photo. It shows a young man, with fair skin and blond hair, wearing glasses and a single earring. He appears to be dressed in a leather jacket, although the photo shows only his face and shoulders. "I've never told you much about what I was doing before I ended up in the Nexus, have I?"

[OrchestraHc]

Originally Posted by Earl of Purple

Refugee Slave Cabin

True, but they have a different player, and I was just ensuring that Justin's player hadn't forgotten.

Also, don't forget about the Abandoned Camp on Justin's pipboy.

Refugee Slave Cabin

((Neither of us has forgotten, and I'll contact The Alexandrian soon. As for the Abandoned Camp, I'll send a Plotclone right out.))

If Daisy has nothing in particular to say, we can assume fond farewells before Justin makes his way to the girl's cabins.

Meanwhile, in the future, a plotclone of Justin goes to the woods surrounding GLoG to search for the Campsite Bramble had found. ((Would that be here or Outside?))

[Earl of Purple]

Refugee Slave Cabin

Well, Daisy won't let Justin leave until he's promised to re-visit. So yes, very fond farewells.

As for the Abandoned Camp, it's in the woodlands around GLoG, so this thread's quite good, I think.

Abandoned Campsite

It's quite a trek into the forest to reach it. There's the remains of eight cabins, all heavily overgrown and dilapidated. Five are marked only by the brick fireplace, rusting metalwork (the bedframes, ovens and fridges) and the occasional rotting beam, two are still standing with most of their roof on and the last one has totally collapsed with the only sign it was present the pit of its basement and cellar. A very rusty car hulk is also present, obscured by the bush growing in the front passenger seat.

[OrchestraHc]

Slave and Objects Cabin

Justin comes here and knocks on the door. He's been meeting with all the former slaves from Dalachrech and he's curious to see how the girls have adjusted. All the others are remarkably well, so he's reasonably optimistic.

Abandoned Camp

This is... eerily familiar to Justin. It's probably the closest to his old environment he's been since he left Georgia. Times like this, Justin can normally and safely fall back on old habits. The first is scanning the dilapidated "cabins" for anything of interest. Any odd nick-nacks or curio that might have survived whatever destroyed the house. Keep in mind, Justin's a hoarder, so a lot could be interesting to him.

[Earl of Purple]

Abandoned Camp

In the five really ruined structures, there's a bottle of something called 'butterbeer' in one of the fridges, a plastic chair, a fascinating mushroom in an oven, and very little else, besides the pilot lights from the ovens anyway. Most of their contents have been exposed to the elements for too long to be recognisable, or lost amidst the bushes, shrubs, trees and long grass growing amidst the ruins.

It looks like the houses collapsed through neglect, rather than weaponry. Weaponry can't be ruled out, though; judging by the large, untarnished metal door in the basement, the camp's home to a bunker, or maybe even a Vault. A slight green light is visible from a keypad next to the door, and there's a set of shelves against one wall, complete with metal boxes. However, there's also a set of concrete stairs so getting in and out doesn't require scrabbling over dieties-know-how-old shelves.

[Slii Arhem]

Originally Posted by Morty

Julie will be able to reach Sophie's knee, although it makes Nicholas raise his head.
"Sure, why not. I guess I've been keeping this close to the chest for too long." She reaches into her pocket and produces an old, worn photo. It shows a young man, with fair skin and blond hair, wearing glasses and a single earring. He appears to be dressed in a leather jacket, although the photo shows only his face and shoulders. "I've never told you much about what I was doing before I ended up in the Nexus, have I?"

Rowan Cabin

"I don't think we've talked enough to move on to your history, no. So who's the handsome man?" Julie gives in and tries scratching Nicholas lightly behind the ear as she studies the photograph idly.

[Morty]

[Rowan Cabin]

Nicholas purrs quietly as Julie scratches him. Meanwhile, Sophie looks at the photo with sadness.
"He... was... my fiancé. We were supposed to get married, but then everything went wrong. Once I was made into a Hunter... we couldn't be together anymore."
She sounds strained when she says this. One wonders if she's ever told anyone.

[OrchestraHc]

Abandoned Camp

Justin sacks the butter beer without a second thought. No sense letting that go to waste out here. He can ask Brand about it in greater detail later, as he has no idea what Butterbeer is and his player only knows it from Harry Potter.

Justin goes down the basement stares and searches the metal boxes. If any are locked he's very confident in his skill to unlock them. Always good stuff inside of metal boxes.

[Earl of Purple]

Abandoned Camp

That is, indeed, where the Butterbeer is from, so I doubt that Brand will know much of it either. Inside the boxes are some scrap pieces of metal, a magazine of ammunition for an assault rifle, a white sphere with a red stripe around the middle and a button; it shrinks if the button is pressed. It's a premier ball. In one box, there's the nest of a bird containing several small, green eggs.

[Slii Arhem]

Originally Posted by Morty

[Rowan Cabin]

Nicholas purrs quietly as Julie scratches him. Meanwhile, Sophie looks at the photo with sadness.
"He... was... my fiancé. We were supposed to get married, but then everything went wrong. Once I was made into a Hunter... we couldn't be together anymore."
She sounds strained when she says this. One wonders if she's ever told anyone.

Rowan Cabin

"So why didn't it work out? Being a hunter must have been dangerous, but-" Julie cuts herself off there. If it was Sophie's decision to keep her fiance out of her life to keep him safe, then she didn't want to outright say that she made the wrong one. It just wasn't the decision Julie herself would have made.

[OrchestraHc]

Justin leaves the bird's nest alone. He has plastic bags explicitly for ammunition and scrap metal. He also sticks the premiere ball in his bag, but doesn't fiddle with it yet, for all he knows it's some sort of grenade.

Now it's time to look at this bunker. He examines the door and keypad closely.

[Earl of Purple]

Abandoned Camp

The door's in good condition, and sealed electronically- there's no lock to pick. The keypad has the numbers 0 to 9 on it, although the 6, 8 and 2 have fallen off. The screen's slightly cracked, but it still has the little word in blocky, line-letters like a digital clock's: PASS CODE- It looks to be a four-letter code.

Might be that it's in one of the more intact cabins, miraculously surviving despite the chances that such a vital piece of information, possibly written on a small scrap of paper, has survived whatever destroyed this place and all the time that's passed since.

[Morty]

Originally Posted by Slii Arhem

Rowan Cabin

"So why didn't it work out? Being a hunter must have been dangerous, but-" Julie cuts herself off there. If it was Sophie's decision to keep her fiance out of her life to keep him safe, then she didn't want to outright say that she made the wrong one. It just wasn't the decision Julie herself would have made.

Sophie sighs.
"It was dangerous, but it wasn't just that. You see, I couldn't tell him what I was doing. Where I disappeared some nights. Why there was blood on my clothes. Why I suddenly started training with a gun. Most people on my homeworld... they have no idea that monsters exist. They either need to find out on their own or be shown, like I was. He woudn't have believed me. And even if he would have, I... I don't think I'd have been able to drag him into all this."

[OrchestraHc]

Abandoned Camp

Might be. But why would Justin try to play by the rules when there's a perfectly easy way to cheat? Justin reaches into the pouches on his jumpsuit belt and pulls out a few tools. He'll try to pop out the keypad and activate the door by cutting and using the wires, bypassing the need for key-code altogether. He's very good with electronics, as that was his "official job" back in Vault 47, so even if he can't open it, he's perfectly capable of undoing almost every thing he does.

[Earl of Purple]

Abandoned Camp

OK, that works. Not what I was expecting, but there you go. There's a 'kachunk', and the door slowly rises upwards. Beyond is a large, well-lit concrete room with an air lock in it and various machinery to keep pure air in and corrupt air out. Whomever built it knew what they were doing and had the resources to do it. Also present is a turret with a laser weapon built into a recessed cavity in the ceiling; either it doesn't work, or what Justin did counts as 'authorised access'. Still, might be a good idea to try disabling it. There's another key pad next to the air lock, plus one on the inside to open the door.

[Slii Arhem]

Rowan Cabin

Julie sighs, so it was like that huh? Well then, "It seems like you were a lot better about it than whoever forced you into this was to you then. Although, it seems to me that if everyone knew about this kind of stuff it would be a lot easier to deal with than just trusting it to a few insomniacs in bloodstained clothes." Julie tries to joke to lighten the mood a bit.

[Morty]

[Rowan Cabin]

Sophie forces a smile.
"It would, wouldn't it? But it's not so simple, I'm afraid. Either way... when I was shown the world for what it is, I couldn't turn back and pretend everything's fine. But that meant I had to leave my old life behind. Including my plans for the future. I... looked forward to being a mother, you know," she says, not trying to hide the grief in her voice. "And every once in a while, I'm reminded of the... good old times and what could have been."

[OrchestraHc]

Originally Posted by Earl of Purple

Abandoned Camp

OK, that works. Not what I was expecting, but there you go. There's a 'kachunk', and the door slowly rises upwards. Beyond is a large, well-lit concrete room with an air lock in it and various machinery to keep pure air in and corrupt air out. Whomever built it knew what they were doing and had the resources to do it. Also present is a turret with a laser weapon built into a recessed cavity in the ceiling; either it doesn't work, or what Justin did counts as 'authorised access'. Still, might be a good idea to try disabling it. There's another key pad next to the air lock, plus one on the inside to open the door.

Abandoned Camp

First things first, the destruction of that turret. The simplest way to do it would be to cut the turrets connection to it's power supply. Either it has it's own or it's connected to this bunker's power. either way a wire is getting cut, and if it has it's own, a battery is getting stolenscavenged.

If there's no way around the airlock, he'll try the same trick he did on the door.

[Earl of Purple]

Abandoned Camp- Bunker

The turret is powered from the bunker's own power supply. A battery would have run out a long time ago, looking at the surroundings. The air lock is suseptible to the same trick he used on the door; interestingly, all the keys are still there.

Beyond is a large room with a row of currently-offline computers. On the other side is a large Union Jack painted on the wall. In front of the computers are a row of computer chairs, in very good condition. One has the corpse of a man sitting in it. The body has naturally mummified due to a complete lack of anything in the bunker to break his body down and he's wearing green trousers, steel-toe-capped boots, an automatic pistol in its holster at its waist, a green shirt and a navy-blue beret. He looks to have been a soldier. There's three doors leading away, into other rooms in the bunker.

[OrchestraHc]

Abandoned Camp - Bunker

The key thought going through Justin's mind is What the hell are Brits doing in a bunker in the Nexus? Secondary thoughts include, That flag would look so cool on my wall and Keeping that beret. It matches.

First he searches what he assumes to be a soldier and swipes his beret, boots and gun belt. He empties the pistol and the bullets, gun, and belt all go separately into his bag, as do the boots and beret. He also takes down the flag and tries to fold it into a triangle, because he's pretty sure that's how flags get folded.

Logical search methods tell him to simply sweep left to right. He starts with the farthest left door.

[Earl of Purple]

Abandoned Camp- Bunker

Presumably, they were doing the same things that they did before they arrived. Much like Justin is. Unfortunately, I did say that the flag was painted on- it's not a flag, but a mural. It is, however, good to see that despite 200 years post-apocalypse, Justin paid attention when he was taught geography and possibly politics. Otherwise, there's little chance he'd recognise it. The soldier also has a frag grenade in his pocket.

Through the first door is a small hallway with two doors leading away. One is marked 'Engineering Room', the other is marked 'Supplies'. The second door is a closet filled with a variety of interesting parts and spares for several things, including a geothermal generator, two different types of tank and a land rover. Not enough in any case to actually build one; just enough to replace the things most likely to get damaged or wear out.

[OrchestraHc]

Abandoned Camp- Bunker

+1 Grenade to inventory!

200 years in a tin can with basic, if dated and heavily biased, school supplies. Other than the US and UK he can recognize the flags for China, the Soviet Union, France, Italy, Japan, Canada, and Mexico. It's unlikely that he'd know any other Earth flags.

He doesn't own a tank or a car, so it's unlikely he'll have a use for the supplies. A shame it wasn't a more typical supply closet filled with brooms and cleaning stuff. That would have been steal-worthy.

He goes to the engineering room next.