A Tale of a Mall Rat - RPLOG

Participants

• Aliasi
• Dio
• Nuku
• Sasha

Date

18/9/2013

Log

Tis a fine, crisp, fall afternoon. Rod's perched against a soda machine, nursing a can himself. Where do mall rats find those things anyway? The rest of the city's been out of soda for a year, but there he is, enjoying sugar ambrosia.

Sasha walks about in her usual white t-shirt and blue denim shorts. Stapped to her back though is an M16A2 however, with an M23B grenade launcher unders it. She hasn't had the launcher part set up for proper use yet, but the rifle has been repaired and has special magazines that make rounds while they aren't in the mag tray from ambiant nanites. Today she is shopping for more... delicate attire, having nothing but similar outfits and her RSX uniforms. Living at the KS building for now, it was a short walk. Spying Rod though, she looks at him funny a moment. "Hey, what is that?" she asks, being born not too long ago, she has no clue what a soda is!

Aliasi is browsing through some of the things available at the mall when her nostrils flare. Soon, Rod finds himself confronted with the looming presence of a very tall, angelic black-fleshed figure. "WHERE DID YOU GET THAT?!" she says with notes of incredulity and desire.

Finally, fall was drawing near. The hot summer sun was never fun when one is the proud owner of a heavy mane. In a need of a few supplies or perhaps just a minor visit, a silver furred and suit attired lion strolls his way into the mall with a gleeming smile, but perhaps a hint of tired eyes. Naturally, he notices the famous Rod upon his entrance and looks at him for a few moments. Come to think of it, he's never really had much of a conversation with him. "Greetings sir," Dio says as makes his way towards Rod. But then, he notices his recent new... Employee? Friend? Regardless, he gives Sasha a lovely wave, along with Aliasi too. "And hello to you too, ma'am."

"Hey man," Rod says in general greeting as he is approached by three people in short order, "What, this? You want?" He holds out the can with a stylized rendition of an orange on the side, "I only got half way in, enjoy. What's the haps? I hear they're building a rocket or something, far out stuff right there."

Aliasi shakes her head, "I don't want one like that. Or one at all, really. It's just about as crazy as if you'd been playing frisbee with an old America Online CD."

Sasha takes a look at the can, sniffing it a few times, "No thank you, but... what exactly is it?" Not much liking the carbination tickling her nose, she looks over to Dio, "Oh hello again there... Lion. I never quite caught your name." She says then looks over to Rod once more, "A rocket? Where are they building that? Eureka? Woodfield?" she asks curious a moment.

Dio looks upon the soda with a bit of interest, but to be honest, we hasn't a big fan of such sugary drinks. Tea was the favorite by far. "Ah yes, I've heard about the ongoing rocket project. Certainly an interesting venture. To be honest, I haven't really caught up with how it's been going." The lion looks back at Sasha and comedically slaps his forehead. "My apologies! I shoul've introduced myself. The name's Dio, my lady," he says, taking a rather deep bow.

Aliasi adds, "Just don't call him Ronnie James. He gets grouchy when you do that. A rocket, huh? You know, it's occurred to me more than once that if anyone could explode a nanite bubble on the moon or mars or something, you could make it livable in real short order..."

"Thing I don't get," says the mall rat as he pulls from his unclaimed can, licking his lips clean of sugar, "Is how they're building a rocket with so much of the city all trashed and everything. Priorities, man, they're way gnarly. So what brings you down to the mall? Looking to trade?"

Sasha nods to Dio and Aliasi, then to Rod, "Well, yeah, it is strange that they would focus on that. I hear Eureka is doing ok though as far as that goes. Mom talks about Eureka a lot these days, I wonder how many cities are out there. Been to, well, here, Woodfield, Eureka." she says idly to herself before, "Oh! Yes, I'm looking for some different clothes, something that would look good at a... well, a party, I have nothing like that, and don't want to ask Mom." she says, blushing a bit.

"Being such a musical legend," Dio comments, "I feel I'm undeserving of taking the full of his name. I think I'll simply stick to Dio for now. Or perhaps just Lion when need be." Crossing his arms across his chest, he continues to listen to Rat Cool with interest. "Curious indeed. But perhaps we could do something rather grand with such a project? At the very least, I hear people are also developing nanite shielding of sorts." Hearing the word Mom, he looks back at Sasha curiously. "How is mother, by the way?"

Aliasi says, "The city being trashed can be an excellent reason to build a rocket, if it's trashed enough. Like that coal mine out in, what, Pennsylvania?" She pauses. Of course, most of the others probably have no idea. The downside to rapid maturity is the knowledge passed doesn't usually include such trivia.

Rod flashes a smile at Sasha, "Far out. We can get you some cool threads, no problem." He pushes off the soda machine and drains the last of his can. It gets tossed aside, landing in a small bucket with a recycling logo on it. "I can't explain what goes on in big wig heads. I have enough trouble keeping track of my own far out ideas." He moves to one of the dimly lit storefronts and shouts inside, "Hey, wake up dudes, you got a customer." A few stout slaps against the metal shutter summons forth three rats from within, two female, one male, that swarm over Sasha with the subtlest of gesture from Rod and begin inspecting. "So, uh, what are you trading? And yea, guess that's true, but what, riding a rocket to another state? Far out."

Sasha gives a slight yelp as she is swarmed over, "Well, I was going to use freecred of course, but I could go home and get salvage if you would rather." she say, "And, careful with messuring please." she says. Looking to Dio she shakes her head, "Mother... is not well." She says, but her ears twist at the talk of a rocket to another state! "Where would they go? Isn't there only Cali, Washington, and Oregon?" she asks, "And they are in all 'chopper distance."

"Oh! Perhaps I should push my luck." Dio claps his hands together once and rubs them a bit before setting them back down and following behind Rod. "I was curious if perhaps this establishment may have any interesting books I could borrow. You might've heard about the new project that intends to digitize books for the public," he says, waving at the newly arrived rats. "I would be most grateful. It could be anything, from a simple children's picture book or as complex as an encyclopedia." Getting a reply from Sasha, the lion shakes his head. "I see... Perhaps we should cheer her up a bit... And another state? That would be interesting. Perhaps even visit our friends on the east."

Aliasi shakes her head. "You wouldn't need a rocket to go to another state. And there's plenty of other ones. Assuming they haven't been nuked, of course."

Rod looks confused a second, then reaches to slap Sasha on a shoulder, "What, you really never heard? Dude, there are tons of states, fifty to be 'xact. Used to be you could just hop in a car and get to fourty eight of 'em easy enough, but these days the cars are crappy and the roads are worse. Heck, I've been to plenty of states myself." he says, hiking a thumb at his own chest, "'Fer Freecreds, sure. We like trades, but whatever, cash works so long as other people're still taking it."

"I forgot that you were born after his nanite mess ma'am," Dio comments at Sasha. "I'm quite the dense lion you see. And yes, this gentleman is correct. I used to live much further east than our wonderful state of California. In my youth, I've always wanted to visit New York there in the north east. Sinatra and other singers always made it sound so grand. Never got a chance though." Using his communicator, he checks over his current freecred balance and contemplates. "I'm willing to trade some freecred for any books you might have. Do you perhaps have any I could purchase?"

Sasha shakes her head to Dio again. "No, I think shi just needs space, we should let hir take hir time." She says as she is messured for new clothes. The slap to her shoulder makes her a bit uneasy though, a hard gaze going to Rod for a moment. "50 states? And you've been to most of them?" She asks, "Well, what can you tell me? Mom was never big on teaching geography, focused more on reading, writing, arthimatic, self control, et cetra." she says, then looks to Aliasi as she drips, "Well, if not by car or such, then, a rocket would be a good idea." she says.

One of the rat femmes is kneeling under Sasha, poking her in places that are perhaps not polite to poke, but measurements are quickly had. The three rats collaborate in a chatter before dashing back into the darkness of the clothes shop. Rod tilts his head lightly, "Tell you about the states? About America, land of the free, yadda yadda? That's a big thing to swallow all at once. I heard some dudes from New York were in town just a few weeks back, you hear about that?"

Aliasi shakes her head. "I admit, I never knew more than what you could read in Popular Science, back when it still existed, but I'm pretty sure a rocket would be a horrible choice for transportation in that way. Rockets are inefficent, they're useful mostly because you get so much thrust, and you need a lot of that to reach escape velocity."

Sasha smiles to Dio again, "New York huh? Other states." When Rod says that there were people from New York around she seems a bit excited... till one of her more sensitive parts gets poked, "Careful!!" She growls, not much liking sex herself, nor being touched there. When they are done though, she focuses back to Rod, "What can you tell us about these people from New York, and New York itself?" she asks. Then blinking to Aliasi, "Escape velocity? Thrust?"

"Very well," Dio nods at Sasha. "I shall give her what space she needs. I hope this situation comes to a quick end soon. I didn't expect to help be a babysitter just a few days back." With a small chuckle, he returns his interest back at the group. "Really? Some visitors from New York? Please, tell me about what you know if you don't mind.

"Don't pay them no mind. They forget people even have feelings down there," Rod says, sounding amused and keeping half an eye on the clothing store rats, "Don't know much about the people from the Big Apple, but I've been there. One of the few places in the US that still has all the lights on, and water, and all that crazy stuff. Man, if you were there, you'd almost not know P day went down, besides the people wit' tails."

Aliasi huhs. "Funny that, because I always figured New York would be one of the FIRST places to go down when it all hit the fan. It's an incredibly fragile metropolis, or used to be. But I guess having a lot of people die off might help with that, sad as it is."

Sasha watches the clothing rats too for a bit, then looks back to Rod, "Big apple? What would an apple have to do with anything?" She asks, "But, you've been there too? Lights, water, everything still works? I've read about that in the book Mom borrowed from the library skunks about Fairhaven's history." She says, "What else is it like? Do they have a hard time with lots of births too?"

"I wonder why they'd visit here. Perhaps to converse with Zephyr?" Dio watches the scene between the trio of rats and Sasha with a warm smile as he continues to think about the visitors. "I would've loved to meet them, but it appears I was too slow on the draw. I'll have to keep my ears open for rumors and such if they ever decide to send another party." Hearing the Big Apple being taken literally, he couldn't help but chuckle. "Sounds like they have everything under control then. Much unlike us."

He lifts his shoulders, "Bout normal so far I saw when I was there. People got food, got families, jobs, real jobs, like nine to five, not 'all the time' jobs like you dudes got." The clothing rats suddenly emerge, reaching to Sasha with eager hands to start stripping her down on the spot and get her into new clothes in a flurry of activity. "That's their nickname. Place is called New York, but some people called it the Big Apple. Not sure how it got the name." A soft shrug from Rod, "Anyway, they cracked down on the infection big time, destroyed the hostile ones, and the rest are watched closely. It's an alright place, but mutants like me get the eyeball. Second class citizens and all that, not cool."

Aliasi hmphs, "and I'd probably get mistaken for a giant monster. To be fair, I *am* a giant monster, so I suppose it works out. The problem is there's a whole lot of country between there and here. I'm rather more curious if any of the mountain states made it through. Always wanted to go to Denver, but I've no idea if there's still a Denver to go to."

Sasha lets out a loud bark as she is stripped down, covering what little she has and giving a hard glare to one of the rats! She was about to use one of her stares, but decides against it, besides she has clothes on again soon enough. Shaking off the experience, she looks to Rod, "How much.... and destroyed the hostile ones? Second class citizens? That.." and she thinks a moment, "That would be murder, very.... uncool." she looks almost like she'd choke on the word 'uncool' Then she hears Aliasi talk about Denver, "Is that another state? Mountain state?" She asks.

Dio nods towards Rod and slips his hands into his pockets. "I see. Unfortunate they would treat mutants in such a manor, but I can understand their position after having to deal with their own little corner of apocalypse. Overall safety rather than the rape infested and violent streets we have over here." The lion puts a hand to his chin and glances over at Sasha during her little strip-down. "I think you would look wonderful in a dress, ma'am. Black, tight, and short. Or perhaps something a bit more professional."

One of the rats slaps himself in the forehead, "Professional!" he echoes. The others seem to agree and they rush back inside, presumably to gather more clothes.

Rod nods, "Not so bad. Kind of a nice place, really, but not for me. I left some of the rats there, the rest of us moved on."

Sasha watches the rats again as they leave, almost afraid of what they will do and bring back next. "It sounds like a nice place overall but... murder of ferals? I'm not sure I could get behind that.." at what Dio says though Sasha looks to him, giving him a quick, hard glare, her eyes looking oddly a moment, Transfixing gaze. "Down boy!" she says to him before continuing.

Aliasi responds to Sasha, looking at the ongoings with some mild amusement. "Colorado. It's a bit to the east, in a range of mountains called the Rockies. Denver was the big city there; high up in the mountains so the air was thin. Lots of skiiers, back in the old days, or so I recall."