@gipudesque (Anc.) + @inactivestatus-rq800 (Valentine) - acquaintance thread where Ellie is kidnapped
[Nick listened as she told the story of what happened when humans realized that her kind existed. The thought of people slaying anyone that was a little bizarre didn’t surprise him. Look at how people react to him being a sentient synth. Granted, that’s a little different than this situation, but he could sort of relate. Alice didn’t need to tell him twice not to talk about her kind. Quite frankly, it’s not his place to reveal the existence of Vampires. If Alice wants to, then by all means.
Nick smiled.
“Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone about any of this. It’s better for you to reveal this on your own terms. Or if you don’t, that’s okay too. My lips are sealed.”
Does that phrase count when you’re a Synth? Ah whatever. It’s a figure of speech.]
“Your lips, your hands, your,” Alice gestured over Nick’s body vaguely, “fluid tubes, - I’d even dare say memories, too. We simply cannot be too cautious when it comes to such matters,” she concluded, thinking deeply. Vocal chords are technically separate from a synth’ mouth movement, right? “Actually, keep your memories. I’ve been thinking if it’s possible to just erase them, lest someone reads them like they would a terminal, but that would do more harm that good in the long term. Being as you are, you’ll just end up coming to the same conclusions over time - and neither of us want that to happen near someone who will kill you over it.”
That said, is there really anyone fitting the description that Nick doesn’t already avoid? The only ones who have both desire and resources for that would be the Institute and the Brotherhood of Steel, and neither are really someone he’d just come over to.
“I’m talking about my...” Alice stumbled, distress glimpsing in her expressions even through usual stoic demeanor. “About others like me. You know, I was as happy to finally arrive in Massachusetts as I am worried after staying here for a while.” She bent down a bit, leveling her eyes with Valentine’s.
“You see, if what you’re saying is true and I, the one who arrived here less than a month ago for the first time since before-the-war, am the first... of my kind that you, a detective by job and nature, have come across in all those years, then I’ve got a big, big question. Where - is - everyone?” Alice spread her arms, furthering the question.
“You’d count around a thousand of us in Boston in its best times. Had the war really claimed every single one? And yet I come here, to the promised land, only to find it completely devoid of our presence for leagues around. Add to it those other synths - all of plastic and metal, armed with essentially concentrated fire, - and we’re left with the only plausible conclusion...”
Suddenly, Alice clenched her jaws shut and turned around. “Someone’s coming.” she said shortly after a moment. A couple of seconds later, a sound of door opening came from upstairs, followed by fast yet cautious steps going down all the way to- Ellie. Of course.
“Oh! You’re awake!” Ellie exhaled, approaching the two of them. She’s got equipped with a decent sack and had a steaming bowl in her hands. “Sorry for making you wait, honey - I got outside to get us something for the road. Those handies at the farm agreed to share their harvest as part of the reward for getting rid of Gunners ransacking their place. They even cooked it, and we had a chat that might have lasted a tad too long but then I grabbed what they had for us at the moment and- here, check this out, should make a nice dinner... or breakfast, or... oh look at me hurrying to get you food after a whole day but then just rambling to no end, take this!”
Oh no. It was time for one of the games Alice had to play every other year or so: “Edible-inedible”, except everything is inedible and everyone is clueless. And the first contestant is... “What is that, anyway?” she asked, bending down and looking at a bowl almost full with viscous liquid that looked so pleasantly red and opaque... yet smelled with sour plant stench and had weird pale lumps floating in it. “Tato mash!” Ellie exclaimed, further moving her arms and almost poking Alice with a bowl. “Really popular in these parts because you take all you need for it from one plant. Tomatoes get crushed into a soup, and then you fry potato bites on seed oil and add them for texture and more nutrition. Try it out!” “You mean this plant is a result of crossbreeding of two other plants with every part full of toxins, except for one that was cultivated not to be poisonous for generations, and then left to mutate freely? No thanks.”
From then on, it was easier.
“Noodles?” “I’m allergic to razorgrain.” “Wow, you’ll be missing out on Takahashi’s... How about mutfruit juice?” “I’m not trusting anything with “mut” or “rad” in it.” “Watermelon?” “Basically sweetened water that will only irritate my stomach more and possibly make me go into bushes a dozen times on the way to Diamond City.” “A gourd!” Ellie almost threw the vegetable in frustration. Alice caught it, rotating it in arms, seemingly unsure about what it is, but actually calculating. She recalled gourds to be pretty solid - she could have some to ease poor woman’s mind and then extract those chunks out of her body safely before it starts fermenting or rotting all over her insides. “I’ll have a couple bites while you gather your belongings,” she finally said, stepping sideways into a clearing on the floor and opening the gourd, “but if I fall and start choking, run straight for the doctor.”
