the tower.

[shortstraw]

It started in Novac, in that lovely Dino Dee-Lite Motel by the dilapidated gas station.

He had told her they could be found in the upper corner room, living the Post-War American dream. If not there, they had others: cabins, bunkers, safehouses, and the like. He gave her all the map points, confident in their future whereabouts. And above all, he was certain they would never be in the New Vegas, beneath the bright lights of the Strip.

The motel room had been empty. The Brotherhood safehouse and the cabin by Jacobstown also held no occupants. After traveling nearly the entire width of the Mojave Wasteland, moving from town to fucking town, she finally caught a whiff of him in Freeside.

The crier for Mick & Ralph's had seen a man matching Alex Seattle Geer's description lately, headed directly into the heavily guarded gates of the New Vegas Strip.

Judas, Sarah had thought. Blood betrayer. She then walked the road back to the Dino Dee-Lite Motel, to that cozy little upper room in the corner, and left Alex a very nice surprise.

Three days later, after finding the presidential suite of the Tops woefully empty, Sarah corners a man in the streets. Their exchange proves short, and with his pockets noticeably heavier, the guy walks the short distance to the center of the road. There, with the Vault Dweller looking on, he straightens to attention and produces a piece of paper from his pockets.

"Ladies and gentleman of New Vegas, may I have your attention please?" he reads, voice clear to the nearby bystanders and vigilant Securitrons. "It is my absolute pleasure to introduce to you a Very Important Person--" The man looks over his shoulder briefly, a quizzical look on his face. "Why is it capitalized?" he asks.

"Go on," she mouths, waving lazily at the gathering crowd.

He shrugs and continues as directed. "Someone who has traveled a great distance and sacrificed a good deal of time, bullets, and money to be here with you fine folks. She is the Champion of the Holy Thirteen, the Swan Song of the Master and His Most Unholy Unity, the Keeper of All Your Dogs, a Sometimes Friend to You and I... I present to you: The Vault Dweller!"

Comments

[goodfight]

Neil retrieves his food, and Alex pulls him back in. They stay as they did before, only now ED-E watches their backs as Sarah and Alex converse over trail mix. The scene registers as familiar, enough to prompt an immediate answer to the side comment.

"...She'd beat me with the lunchbox?" questions Neil as he opens the aforementioned object.

[shortstraw]

They exchange food facts like two Pre-War housewives as the eyebot happily hovers nearby. It is a picture-perfect Kodak moment, and Sarah Marks wouldn't have it any other way.

"I'll see if I can stomach it," she says, meeting Alex's eyes. "And yes, dear, I'd beat you with the lunchbox."

[doubletap]

"Did you know, Neil," Alex continues conspiratorially, if conspiratorially meant loudly and obviously. He grins again at Sarah, keeping his head angled close to Neil. "When mom came to visit, she almost got thrown out of Vegas. And in response, when I came out, she threw me on the ground."

ED-E chirps in amusement, and Alex nuzzles Neil once.

[goodfight]

Neil is procuring a can of Cram when Alex fires the first shot. A shot that will inevitably begin a ridiculous exchange between the Vault Dweller and the Courier, with the poor Lone Wanderer stuck dead center. He tries not to roll his eyes.

"Is that so?" Neil says, attempting neutrality (difficult to do with a guy nuzzling you lovingly). He hopes him fiddling with the can will help deter further participation on his part.

[shortstraw]

"Did you know, Neil," Sarah echoes in the same tone, eyes bright beneath the plague doctor mask. "Alex doesn't like anyone asking his precious roller bots about him, including his own mother. Apparently, you're asked to leave and never come back."

The nerve. "It was a very unpleasant affair. Mom had no choice but to use his own momentum against him."

[doubletap]

"Well, of course, she flipped me," he says pleasantly to Neil, before turning his gaze on Sarah. "But seriously? You're surprised that I don't want people asking questions about me. With my history, House's outcome, and the amount of dye I used to use in my hair?"

ED-E beeps in delight, and Alex rolls his eyes in amusement.

[goodfight]

Quietly, like he's not having any part of this conversation, Neil opens the can and starts eating its contents. After having consumed a mini mountain of food, cooked Cram's just another to add to the pile, but with its radiation wiped away, it has a nice texture his current state of being can be okay with.

"Do people actually ask about you?" he raises with mouth mostly full.

[shortstraw]

"Surprised? Hardly." Never surprised, just had that flutter of-- "Hoped you'd preemptively included special privileges for a mutant matching my description? Why, yes."

Sarah eyes Neil eating for a brief moment (ensuring his task is going well) before returning to Alex. "What if it was an emergency?" she continues, her voice rising in mock hysterics. "What if I needed to know your measurements so I could knit you a sweater? Would they have blasted me away? Shot me all the way back to Red Carpet County?"

She snorts at the mental picture.

[doubletap]

"ED-E," Alex starts, staring at Sarah with a feigned lack of amusement. "Please play back for Sarah the penthouse's recording from earlier today. About 11am. Conversation with me and Raul."

ED-E whirs in response, remote accessing the server. Unlike House, Alex is far more paranoid. Good for him? ED-E finds the audio file Alex wants and plays it, the sound somewhat staticked.

"Boss? Uh, got a problem with the Securitrons up front. They look like they're about to shoot up the people in the crowd."

"Just two.... Fuck me."

"Boss?"

"All good, all good. Might be down two Securitrons, though."

Alex points to the eyebot. "No one was blasting you. I had already assumed I'd need to replace those 'bots."

That done, Alex turns his attention to Neil. "'member Rory, of the 'I'm not NCR, just curious,' who was very much NCR and trying to find out nearly everything about me? Between that, two hacking attempts of the Securitron hardware, and just thinking about what I would fucking do, I have some security measures in place. People ask too much, touch too much, and the Securitrons can't handle it, 'bots go boom."

The Boomers would love it, and to be honest, he got the explosives from them. The guilty grin probably makes that part obvious to Neil.

[goodfight]

Idle chatter among loved ones (minus one) make for better tasting food, and Neil's just about done with his Cram. He places the nearly empty can back into the lunchbox, ears trained on the playback from ED-E's speakers. It has the man wondering if Alex had indeed lost those Securitrons and how beautifully they might have exploded.

Which brings them to the answer to his earlier question. Neil manages a lopsided grin. "Ha, Rory." He laughs, mind briefly submerged in the memories of Just Curious Rory. Of course, they pass like everything else. Neil notes Alex's guilty expression with humor, and he leans further into the other.

"You mean completely decimate everything within a ten-foot radius," he adds.

[shortstraw]

In the course of seconds, Sarah fixates on this Raul and his husky Hispanic accent, and she whistles lowly. "That's Raul?" she asks, thoroughly distracted from the image of Securitrons blasting her across the sky or exploding into smithereens due to unwanted prying. "Holy shit, that voice sounds nice."

The woman starts to nod, as if she was a bystander agreeing to that assessment.