Have a car thief with no cars

[vengeance_driven]

[Do you know what happens when you put a confused Serb Yugoslavian expatriate in the middle of a strange building in a strange place while he's in the possession of his favorite carbine rifle? He skulks through a hallway quietly, looking for a way out.

Niko nears a window with his back to the wall. And off in the distance? That jungle? That sure wasn't Middle Park. Not long before he heard something that sounded like the most fucked up war-zone he's ever been near. More rushing fire, less bullets. So he's just playing it careful until he finds some sort of damned map.

First he finds a soda machine, though. And that soda machine is not a Sprunk soda machine. He ventures closer, pokes it with the gun as if that's going to help anything, and moves to look behind it as if he's searching for the mechanism for a bomb in an obviously fake piece of inexplicable equipment. Surveillance maybe?

He's pretty sure he's not in Liberty State, anymore.]

Oh, here we go. [Traces of his Balkan accent in those sarcastic sounding words he goes back around to the front of the soda machine, not creeping along for the time being and with his rifle lowered at his side. He's ready to hop behind that thing defensively though.]


((OOC: New person, new character. Niko Bellic from GTA IV. Snarky bastard but pretty friendly and easy to reason down.))

Comments

[vengeance_driven]

[There's no service on his phone, and he's frowning at it. But when he looks up and sees Boone's expression, he turns it to show the time it still has as it's been keeping power.

OCT. 24, 2008

The phone is a pretty strange thing, itself. It's a touch screen with a bunch of apps.]

[thumbsdown]

[Boone squints at it. It's not the time that baffles him anymore, it's the phone itself.]

The hell is this?

[It's so... tiny.]

[vengeance_driven]

It is a cellular phone. [He looks at it.] But it is not working all the way. A phone has to have an antenna somewhere and this says there is none close.

[He pulls up the camera with a few quick clicks where Boone can see it, and there is Boone's image on the screen, until he clicks the picture button and there's Boone's face.]

It does a lot of things. This is strange, you don't know any of this. I don't know about this war, you don't know about my war. It was talked about much a few years ago.

[thumbsdown]

[He just watches the phone silently, brows furrowed as he tries to figure the situation out. Unfortunately though, he already knows he's not smart enough to get what the hell's going on. He grumbles and frowns to himself.]

Yeah, I don't get it.

[He wonders if he would have gotten it even if he was smarter. There doesn't seem to be any logical explanation for any of this.]

[vengeance_driven]

It's okay. Maybe one of us is crazy now. We just have to figure out which one. [He puts the cell phone away with a huff.

And appears to be waiting on something.

That something is for Boone to start walking. Say hello to a new, very tall shadow.]

[thumbsdown]

Maybe we both are.

[He doesn't seem to be too bothered by the idea. If he's gone crazy, well, it doesn't feel much different than usual.

He glances up at Niko when he just stands there. It seems like he's waiting for Boone to do something, but Boone isn't sure what it is. It's not like he doesn't have a habit of walking away from people when they're talking to him, but that's generally only if he doens't like what they're saying. Niko hasn't really given him a reason to just start walking.]

[vengeance_driven]

Maybe asylum is better than prison. Who knows.

[With a light shrug. And then he waits a moment. Okay, they're both just sort of standing there.]

You uh, you going somewhere? Because [I have no idea where the fuck I am] better two sets of eyes. Even if they are crazy eyes.

[thumbsdown]

[Boone gives him a long look, as if deciding whether he wants to actually go anywhere with him. Eventually, he grunts and starts off back down the hallway. That's something that makes sense to him- better two sets of eyes than one. Even if he still isn't so sure he trusts the other set yet.

Then again, he supposes if this guy wanted to shoot him, he would've done already. Not like he doesn't have the means. People don't tend to make idle chit chat with someone they intend to kill, at least not in Boone's experience.]

Was exploring the place until I ran into you. Still trying to figure out who the hell would want to bring us here. More importantly, how they managed to do it. Sign in the clinic said we've been kidnapped. Something about that doesn't add up.

[vengeance_driven]

Less things add up than before. People usually kidnap people from me, not me from them. That is not how my life works.

[He's a little unlucky that way.]

Alright. I'll help you look around, try to make a map in my head as we go. That's something at least.

[thumbsdown]

[Boone only responds to that first part by tightening his jaw. The last thing he wants to talk about is people being taken from him.]

Guess so. You seen anything dangerous around here so far?

[Boone just isn't used to walking around a strange place and not having something attack him. He's expecting hostile robots or something every time he turns a corner, but... nothing.]

[vengeance_driven]

[He shakes his head, already falling into a sort of leapfrog advance because that seems the best tactical approach to a new area] Not so far. Just the angry woman with the bad smelling food and the intercomms. [He drags the word out.]

[thumbsdown]

Gonna assume that's the cafeteria. Haven't been there yet. Don't plan to, either.

[He doesn't know how serious that board was when it said that eating the food there would probably kill you. Coming from the wasteland he's used to trying his luck with food, but... he wouldn't eat something if someone warned him off it, no matter how hungry he was.]

You come in alone?

[vengeance_driven]

Yes, which I'm hoping is a good thing.

[But it makes him hesitate.]

Did you?

[thumbsdown]

No.

[He doesn't really want to tell him who he came in with incase he does turn out to be dangerous, but just saying he came in with someone else should be harmless enough.]

Still not sure if it's a good or bad thing myself.

[On the one hand he isn't here alone- on the other hand, he's going to be worrying about Elle if this place turns out to be dangerous.]

[vengeance_driven]

Oh... Fuck I hope they did not get my cousin.

If you see a terrified fat man in a terrible shirt with an accent like mine? That is my cousin. He has a good heart, he's never hurt anyone. He's just an idiot. Don't shoot him.

[He has to get that out of the way right off. Roman's already been shot once in front of him already, he doesn't want to see it again.]

[thumbsdown]

Sure, got it.

[Terrified and stupid fat guy in a terrible shirt with a weird accent. Well, Boone doesn't make a habit of shooting people who haven't shot at him first, so Roman should be fine.]

People shoot at him a lot or something?

[He just wonders why Niko had to specifically ask him not to, that's all.]

[vengeance_driven]

Not often, no. Once was enough. [Even seeing a gun pointed at his head was enough. Niko moves to take a look around the next corner, then makes a gesture to say it seems safe.]

[thumbsdown]

[Boone nods and follows, still ready to grab his rifle if he needs to. And he would have replied, but he then sees a familiar figure crouched down in front of a door, obviously trying to pick the lock.]

...Elle.

[Elle, people can see you, what are you doing]

[quixotically]

[Oop. Elle looks up from the lock she's been squinting at, already smiling because she knows it's Boone. Her tongue is poking out between her teeth and she doesn't even stop trying to pick the lock, she just keeps turning the bobby pin and screwdriver.]

Yeeeeees? ["I'M TOTALLY INNOCENT" voice. don't use that tone on her Boone okay she's got this under control

Huh! Look at that, Boone's got himself a tagalong. She starts to tilt her head curiously, but her bobby pin snaps before she can even open her mouth to ask. She looks back to the lock, huffing.] Oh, dammit.

[vengeance_driven]

So, this is the person you came in with?

[And then he hears the break of the pin.]

It would figure, given our luck so far. How long have you been at that? [Boone not only has a tagalong, but a man that just said something that sounded more like Eet would feegyor, geeven our luck so far. That is a very thick accent there. Down to the hev you been at thet.]

[thumbsdown]

Yeah.

[He glances behind him towards Niko, then at Elle. He already knows what she was going to ask before her bobby pin snapped.]

That's Niko. He just got here too.

[You should probably shake hands or something.]

...How long have you been at that?

[quixotically]

[Elle holds up one hand, still holding the screwdriver with her thumb, and wiggles her fingers in a lazy wave as she works on digging out another bobby pin with her other.] 'Lo. [Aha! Success. New bobby pin, get. She gives Niko a curious once-over now, but she shrugs to their question.]

Eh... Ten minutes, maybe? [She glances at her Pip-Boy.] Twelve minutes, sorry. Gone through like eight bobby pins. [Her grin returns, wider and brighter this time, and... well. It'd be a lie to call it anything but "greedy," too.] Who the hell puts a lock this good on the janitor's closet? [She gestures up at the sign on the door with her screwdriver.] There's gotta be something good in here.

[she's gotta know]

[vengeance_driven]

It's probably because if you mix the right cleaning things you can make poisonous gasses and explosives based on the chemicals in them. Usually janitors closets are locked in most buildings because of this.

They sometimes have access to other maintenance areas, too.

[Though it seems like something she should know, but maybe not since Boone and she are from bottle cap land. Damn that's a scare and a half on her head, though.]

[thumbsdown]

[Boone just shrugs in response to Niko's statement. Yeah, maybe someone smarter than him could do something like that. He sure as hell couldn't though, so janitor's closets don't really interest him too much.]

Not something I'd be any good at making, that's for sure.

[He glances down at Elle.]

Haven't seen anything hostile around so far. All the walls are standing, so I guess that's why there are no bugs or anything in here. Haven't opened many doors, but I couldn't hear much behind them. Ones I did open weren't all that interesting. Not sure what it's like outside yet. Might be better to check the area out from a roof or something. Not sure I feel like heading into the trees and getting mauled.

[quixotically]

[Elle glances at Niko again, this time approvingly. She's still grinning as she goes back to squinting at the lock.] Yeah, you're right. But the locks are almost never this good. [They usually range from Easy to Hard. This qualifies as Very Hard, and she can't even beat it with her maxed out Lockpicking.] Ones I've run into, anyway.

[She listens to Boone's report and hums thoughtfully.] This place is remarkably well-preserved. I'd love to take a look around outside, too, but I'm with you on that. I don't trust anything that green any more. [Thanks a lot, Vault 22.

Her bobby pin snaps again, and she sighs, shaking her head and settling back on her haunches. Lightly:] Well. I can come back to this little bitch later. [She tucks her screwdriver and box of bobby pins back where they belong in her duffle bag, then stands and shoulders it.] Let's go find us some roof access. Hopefully we've got an option other than going outside anyway and climbing the building.

[She adjusts her hat to sit properly on her head -- she'd angled it back to stay out of her way while she was picking the lock -- and looks to Niko again.] You comin', too? [Said like she doesn't expect anything else.]