[video] backdated to the 17th

[quixotically]

Okay, it should be on, so --

[The video starts with a close-up of the lower part of a face. But then, Elle leans back, and the rest of her face comes into view. She grins.]

Awesome! Man, this is cool. Er -- Hi! I just got here today. Name's Elle, Elle Days, I recently signed on as a guide, so I've got training starting pretty soon, but I wanted to try this thing out. [She holds up a hand and wiggles her fingers in a wave, her smile widening.] So, uh. Hi.

I guess I could say a few things about myself? Sure, alright. Um... Back home, I do work as a courier. Which, really, means I do a little bit of everything, not just delivering mail or whatever. Running, gunning, exploring, throwing rocks at deathclaws... Getting into trouble. That sort of thing. Uh... I live in a casino-slash-skyscraper thing with my friends. Anddd... My favorite drink is Nuka-Cola. Um.

[There's a beeping noise. Elle glances to her left, and her grin is back.] Right! And I didn't come alone. I brought a friend along for the ride. [She adjusts her communicator so that a robot comes into view.] This is ED-E. ["Eddie."] He's what we call an eyebot. He's like a floating radio with lasers. And, a few other nifty tricks. Say hi, buddy.

[The robot bounces in the air and makes more beeping noises, cheerful this time.]

Oh! [The feed refocuses on Elle again. She leans in closer.] And, uh. Boone? Are you watching this, too? This is where you ran off to, right? [She smiles sheepishly.] Sorry to crash the party. But, they offered, and, I mean, d'you really think I would've said no? [Cue nervous laughter.]

Anyway, uh. I look forward to meeting all of you! Thanks. Um. Now to stop the...

Comments

video

[quixotically]

[Elle lights up.]

There you are. I'm so glad I was right, and hadn't taken some other crazy offer to work at some other-world resort. How've you been? I heard you made a friend.

[She laughs and waves, in case Rex can see her, too. Her voice immediately drops into "baby-speaking to an animal" tone.] Hi, Rexie! Have you been a good boy?

[She laughs again as ED-E pushes himself against her to get into view of the camera again, buzzing happily.] Looks like he's not the only one who's been missing someone.

[thumbsdown]

I've been okay.

[Kinda cold recently, and not all too happy with the rain, but okay otherwise.]

Yeah, I did. Niko. You talk to him?

[He fixes the camera so that Rex is on the screen for a moment, then sits down so he's not walking around with it. He hasn't been home long, so he's still in his patrol uniform.]

[quixotically]

[Elle waves more energetically when she sees that Rex's gonna be able to see it.]

Yeah! He seems pretty nice. And he said you've got cats! I wanna see, they sound really cute.

[thumbsdown]

Yeah, I've got cats. One of them is Niko's. Don't think they wanna be apart, so... he left her here.

[He looks away from the communicator and cranes his neck to see if he can see either of them from where he's sitting, but he can't.]

Not sure where they are right now, but it's not hard to find them. One of them is pregnant, so she doesn't move much.

[quixotically]

Yeah, yeah! He mentioned that.

Where are you? Would it be okay if I come find you?

[thumbsdown]

Sure. I'm at home, but I don't live at the resort anymore. Got my own place. Can come get you, if you want.

[The resort was fancy enough, but he didn't like having his things moved around by the cleaners. It's not like he's untidy in the first place, so it always seemed to him that there was less cleaning going on and more unnecessary moving of his belongings.]

[quixotically]

[She brightens.] Sure!

[She tells him what her room number is.]

How long've you been living out of the resort?

[thumbsdown]

Since I saved up enough to get outta there. Few months, I guess.

[He whistles once to signal to Rex to follow, then leaves his house and starts the walk to the resort. He lights a cigarette as he does.]

Might take me a while to get there.

[He could get a taxi, but... nah. He's used to walking long distances, and not used to being inside a car. He'll just walk faster.]

How're things back home?

[quixotically]

That's okay. I don't mind waiting.

They're alright. The Dam and HELIOS should have plenty of workers to keep them running and functional. [She looks a little embarrassed, because, well. She wouldn't have needed to make sure there were workers trained to take care of those places if the NCR hadn't lost the war.] Arcade hasn't stopped ranting about Mr. Fantastic, and all the ways he screwed up... um.

Veronica seemed to be having trouble really settling into the Followers. The Brotherhood's started attacking caravans again, and that's made her pretty upset. I tried talking to McNamara, but, well. He didn't really want to listen to me, not that that's any surprise.

There are fewer and fewer Fiends every day. We've even gotten a few of them coming into the Followers for help with their addictions, which is nice. I was worried about whether other tribes will try to come in and fill in the shoes of them and the Khans, so, with some... help... [From Big MT.] I increased the range of Yes Man's control over the Securitrons, and now we've got active patrols out in the desert. That made Cass happy, too, since that means we'll be able to help protect caravans on the roads.

[thumbsdown]

Sounds like you've been busy.

[He is still a little sore over the NCR being booted out of the Mojave, but things could have ended up a lot worse. He's glad to hear there are patrols now, though. That was one thing the NCR couldn't do, since they were stretched so thin.]

You plan on staying here long?

[Boone didn't think he'd be sticking around this long himself, but... the place grew on him.]

[quixotically]

Yeah, [she agrees sheepishly. She takes off her hat and scratches the back of her neck.] Not as of recently, though, things kinda slowed down... So... Ta-da. [Here she is.]

I dunno. I hadn't really decided. [A pause.] I mean, obviously I can't stay forever, 'cause... well. Then there'd really be nobody left to look after the Mojave, not to mention everybody else would still be back there, and... [The Think Tank. She makes a loose circular gesture with the hand still holding the hat, "and so on."] But, I'd like to stay for a while. Maybe as an actual vacation. I mean, I loved Zion, but... well. That wasn't all that different from the situation in the Mojave.

[thumbsdown]

Some vacation. Can't go past the fence without worrying about getting blown up or shot by a skeleton.

[He doesn't sound that unhappy about it, though. Sure, they can be a pain in the ass, but the creatures give him something to shoot at too.]

Guess things would get boring without them.

[At least, for someone who spends hours walking beside the fence.]

[quixotically]

Well, it'd be weird if there wasn't something actively trying to kill us, right? [She grins broadly.] What would we even do with ourselves? This is probably awful to say, but... I'm pretty sure I'd go stir crazy.

[thumbsdown]

Probably. There were less things trying to kill people when I showed up, though. The creepers and the skeletons are pretty new. You missed the props, too. Pretty sure they're still around, but... not as many.

[You still get the odd case where someone's sock tries to flee as soon as they reach for it, but otherwise he hasn't heard much more about them.]

[quixotically]

How successful have they been? At killing people, I mean.

Props... Niko mentioned them. One of them turned into your hat, right? [She laughs, still amused by the mental image.]

[thumbsdown]

Some guy got set on fire by a creeper, and a bunch of skeletons got past the fence when they first spawned, but for the most part they're just a pain in the ass. Something else to think about before you head out. Most people know to stay away from the fence at night now, so the skeletons aren't shooting them through the gaps. They won't show up inside the village now cause of the lights, but it's dark out there.

[He smiles very faintly at the memory.]

Yeah. Prop turned into a gun first, tried to hide under Niko. Dogs went for it, bit him on the ass instead. Got chased outta the door by two dogs and two cats. All happened pretty fast.

[quixotically]

Set on f -- [Elle pales.] Was he... Was he okay? [It's a reflexive thing, a kneejerk concern, and she pretty much immediately wants to find out who it was and go see him for herself. But she stuffs that impulse down. She knows... why. And it's awkward enough asking for more details when she's pretty sure Boone will be able to put it together himself. But... She wants to know, at the very least.

He's smiling, though. She focuses on that. It makes it easy to find her own smile again. And the story itself is worth a laugh.] Sounds like you had fun, though. [It's a very light tease. She's happy for him. Boone, smiling. Eeeeee.]

[thumbsdown]

Yeah, he was fine.

[He hides his disapproval well enough for the most part, but the smile fades pretty quickly.]

Not sure fun is the right word for it, but... yeah. Some guy had his underwear running around the resort, too. Guess I'm lucky it was just my beret.

[He won't say who it was, because it was already pretty embarrassing for Narvin.]

[quixotically]

Good. [... awkward awkward.

The awkward makes her happy to laugh at the mental image of some poor guy chasing his underwear down a hallway.] Talk about a worst case scenario. I don't know if I can think of anything that might be more embarrassing than that to have to go running after. I guess tickets to a secret show at Gomorrah would be pretty bad.

[thumbsdown]

Guess we're lucky it's not actually our things running off.

[Because Boone absolutely would have chased his beret down the street if it wasn't just a copy.]

We caught the underwear in the end. Rex killed it.

[After it turned into a vase and then Boone's shades.]

[quixotically]

Rex killed the underwear, [Elle echoes, just for the sake of saying that sentence.

And now she cannot stop laughing. Sorry, Boone, give her a minute, she just. Hahahahahahahaha.]

Oh my god.

[thumbsdown]

Yeah, he killed the underwear.

[It's obviously somewhat amusing to Boone as well, though he seems to be doing his best not to smile.]

Try not to spread that story around. Never told you who it was, but it would probably get back to them anyway if everyone knew.

[He doesn't mind telling Elle or Niko, but he's not going around telling everyone about it.]

[quixotically]

[Some things are just so ridiculous even Boone can't resist, Elle thinks to herself, feeling satisfied. (Even though she didn't actually have anything to do with it. ... Oh well.)]

Yeah, alright, fair enough.

So, aside from dealing with danger in the wilderness and chasing around inanimate objects, what do you do for fun here?

[thumbsdown]

Uhh. Drink, I guess. Like playing pool, too. Niko's pretty good company for both of those. Guess there's other stuff to do here, but I don't do much of it.

[He mostly just does his job and then drink or wander around when he has free time.]

Did look around the desert a little, too. Wanted to know if it was like home.

[quixotically]

[Elle's smile grows lopsided. How typically like him. She supposes she should've expected that, but, hey. Boone made a friend. For all she knew, he's picked up some new hobbies, too.]

What's your verdict?