ways_infirmary | (no subject)

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Dr. McCoy checked her in yesterday, so Ellen's in one of the beds towards the back, Dogmeat curled up at her feet. At least somebody in this scenario currently has hair.

The personal dosimeter she's wearing would appear to indicate that it's safe to approach.

[OOC: visiting post. Have at!]

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A woman in leather armor and a cowboy hat comes in, followed by a battered-looking Enclave robot (http://images.wikia.com/fallout/images/6/65/ED-E-trailer.jpg). "Hi Ellen," Corazon says. "ED-E and I came along for a visit. ED-E, say hi."

The robot emits an electronic chirp.

"I got you a souvenir," Corazon says, reaching into a pouch on her belt. She pulls out a button - the kind you pin on - with the double-headed bear of the New California Republic on it and the words 'NCR and Proud.'

Ellen blinks, lifting her head a moment; then she blinks some more and raises a hand. "Hi, ED-E," she murmurs. "Wow. You weren't kidding about the modifications."

She reaches for the button and eyes it curiously. "Huh," she says. "Must be a different species from yao guai. Ours only have the one head."

"I've never seen a two-headed bear for real either," Corazon says. "I've seen the old California state flag, though, and the bear on that had just one head. I don't know why the NCR had to slap another head on there.

"Speaking of weird creatures...I ran into something." Corazon scratches her head. "It looked kinda human, but it was seven feet tall and muscly and bald. And kind of dusty blue, I think, although it was dark so it was hard to tell. It also used a Stealth boy. I killed it, but it's not like I could drag the body back with me," she says apologetically. "Ever heard of anything like that?"

Ellen blinks a few times. "The skin color's weird," she says, "but... sounds like a supermutant. Eight feet of muscle in seven feet of skin, kind of look? They're like that."

She starts to reach up to scratch her nose, then drops her hand; Dr. McCoy warned her against that.

"Never seen one use a Stealth Boy... Star Paladin Cross said the ones on our coast're different from West Coast mutants, though. Yours... they might be smarter."

"Star Paladin Cross - sounds like Brotherhood to me. And he's right, the Super Mutants in the Master's Army were as smart as humans. But they're gone now. Well, mostly."

"She is," says Ellen. "Protected my dad when I was just a baby... she's third highest rank in the Capital area now. Came east from California with Elder Lyons, she said."

"Might be a leftover. You never know. One that survived..." A thought strikes her, and she winces. "Might be another FEV source, somewhere. Like Vault 87."

"What's FEV?" Corazon asks. "I mean, I get that it's probably what makes people into Super Mutants, but what is it specifically?"

"Forced Evolutionary Virus," says Ellen, reaching down to run a hand over Dogmeat's head. "Rewrites your genome, mutates you... not just humans, either. There was a man in Grayditch. Lesko was... he tried it on giant ants. Trying to shrink 'em down to little size. He got it wrong and the infected brood... they breathed fire after that."

"Didn't ask where he got it from. I know Vault-Tec was testing it in Vault 87."

"So it's an Enclave thing. Corazon makes a face. "Figures. No offense, ED-E," she hastens to add.

"I... sort of," Ellen says. "The Enclave at Raven Rock? They were... they had a strain. It was going to wipe out anyone infected with regular FEV. Or any other FEV. I get the feeling they changed their minds about it, somewhere along the way."

"Doesn't matter now."

"Yeah. I guess not," Corazon says. "I did tell you, I think, that there are still mutants in the Southwest - or at least people say there are - living way out where people won't bother them. I guess that's true." That crazy blue guy she ran into had to come from somewhere.

"You said. I remember," says Ellen. "I wish ours would do that. Except Fawkes and Uncle Leo. I think Fawkes saved my life at the purifier. What was the blue one like?"

Corazon throws up her hands. "Fuckin' crazy, man. He was going up to this guys Brahmin pen every night and shooting the cattle with a minigun. I found this...journal, I guess, on his body, and apparently he was shooting the Brahmin because they were screaming in his head or something and distracting him."

"... that's different," Ellen admits. "Wow. Guess he put up a fight, huh?"

"Eh..." Corazon rubs the back of her head. "He didn't notice me. Or maybe he did, but he was really focused on the Brahmin. So I just shot his head off while his minigun was spinning up."

In other words, he never had a chance to put up a fight.

"Sensible," Ellen says. "You don't... you don't wanna take chances. Not with that many bullets."

John walks in, carrying a portable video player from Bar (it's lap-sized, in case Ellen wants to use it later, and has what Bar had listed as the 'standard selection' of videos downloaded. He's...not sure exactly what the standard selection is, for his designation 'for Ellen,' but he assumes they should hopefully work).

"Hey," he says, after giving a quick glance to her dosimeter, "how are you feeling?"

"Like something that came out of a yao guai," Ellen says, and considering what's left of her hair between the radiation and some unseen person who came around with a razor, she kinda looks it. "But I'm awake, that's something. Hi, John."

"Or in general with something that could snap you in half like a twig," Corazon says. "Man, if I'm gonna be running into any more of those things, I'll need a better rifle. The one I have would probably just piss 'em off."

"Use enough gun," Ellen says firmly. "The first... the first time I saw a Deathclaw? People'd emptied assault rifles into it. It was still moving. I got- I got really lucky with a sniper shot. You're gonna want a lot of gun."

~~Moar DPS!~~

"Well, I got myself an SMG. It's a surprising amount of gun in a small package. But the range is too short. I'd rather not have to let something get that close."

"I miss my Gauss rifle," Ellen murmurs. "Long range. Nice scope. Took out a Behemoth's knees. Stupid aliens."

"Little green men abducted your Gauss rifle?"

(Corazon doesn't realize that that's seriously not funny.)

"Me," Ellen says. "Happened to be carrying the Gauss rifle at the time."

This is her dead bloody serious face.

"Whoa. Geez. In that case, I hope you shot them. Or blew them up. A lot."

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