the_campus | Have a car thief with no cars

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Have a car thief with no cars

[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.))

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[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.

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.]

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?

[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]

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.]

[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.

[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.]

[He eyes the lock, and when Elle moves away it's a miracle that he doesn't shoot it. He's looking at it hard enough that his eyebeam lasers should be cutting a hole in it. But finally opts to go after them, taking his gun off his shoulder again because he'd rather have it in his hands if they stepped outside.]

Everything looks pretty new to me. But I think some things aren't lining up too much. It was fall in Liberty City when I left. The leaves were all different colors.

[He follows after Boone, probably somewhat hilariously since he's shorter than him and Elle is shorter than Boone.]

And we have different money.

We've had some pretty hard locks with barely anything behind them, though.

[And by "we" he means "you", because he's not so great at picking locks. Boone has no real problem with Niko coming along just so long as he doesn't get in the way, so he follows after Elle and lets him tail along at the back.]

Doesn't make any sense, but so far not much is.

Yeah, but there's something there. There's at least a radio. ['Cause, you know, that REALLY WEIRD MUSIC.

She hums again. Liberty City? She's never heard of it.] Well... I dunno where Liberty City is, but it's possible that wherever we've been displaced to isn't temperate. Which makes sense. I mean, this is an island, right?

[She turns to walk backwards so she can look at them -- and specifically Niko -- while she talks.] Different money?

[Niko's first response is a burp, which seems to surprise him.] Pardon.

[Then he pulls a coin out of his pocket to pass up to her. It's mint date is 2005.]

Doesn't mean there's anything there worth breaking all your pins over.

[Boone takes the coin and hands it over to Elle.]

Coins. Nothing I've seen before, though. Thought it was Legion money until I got a better look at it.

[They're similar, but they have differences. The most notable being the lack of Caesar's profile on these coins.]

I'm not gonna break all of them. [uh-huh, sure, Elle

She takes the coin with much interest without stopping walking backwards, though she does angle her path until she's more to the side while slowing; an invitation for them to catch up speed.]

Huh... [No, that's certainly not Caesar, but Elle doesn't recognize the design at all. She flips it over in her fingers, perplexed.] You're right. I've never seen any coins like this before. [Here, go ahead and take it back.] Where is Liberty City?

In Liberty State. Next to Los Santos it is the biggest city in America. I just moved there not long ago.

[The sad thing is he's no longer surprised they don't know what he's talking about. But he sees a stairwell ahead, and maybe that will lead up to the roof. That's where he heads.]

Edited 2014-02-12 13:25 (UTC)

[He takes the coin back and passes it over to Niko again, though not without turning it over in his hand briefly to get another glance at it. Strange.]

Yeah, I've never heard of it.

[He pauses when he sees Niko heading towards a set of stairs, and decides to follow. Well, even if it isn't the way to the roof, they're still gonna have to go up.]

What's it like there? I mean... you're saying you're from before the war happened. Must be pretty different.

[Elle is frowning, now.] Los Santos...? Hmmm.

[She's never heard of that, either, but if it's supposed to be one of the biggest cities in America, along with this Liberty City he's talking about, she should've. She reads everything that survived the Great War intact she can get her hands on, magazines and books and even the extremely rare newspaper. She's peppered Raul and Dean and House with as many questions as they'd let her get away with. So... What Niko's saying isn't lining up.

She wants to know the answer to Boone's question, though. So for now, she'll just wait -- Maybe Niko's description will unlock something else to make this make more sense.]

It's shitty.

[Welp.]

For a country that is founded off immigrants, they do not like new ones that come in. Americans look for ways to blame other countries for their problems. Even people that have been in America for generations still show brotherhood not by cultural pride, but by hating others.

It's stupid. Everyone is mean to each other. Not that back home was any better, but people there were not stupid enough to pretend that it was. We knew we could be bombed any day. In America, they pretend bad food is good, that water has no chemicals, and that to be pretty you must do fake things to yourself.

[A ray of sunshine is Niko.]

[Exactly what Elle needed, two of them.]

Hating others, huh? Doesn't sound much different to back home.

[There are still some genuinely good people about, but... for the most part, people are too busy killing each other. People like Elle are rare. And eating bad food and drinking bad water is pretty standard too, but he doesn't quite get the last part.]

Fake things?

[Well, they don't really have the luxury of makeup and cosmetic surgery back home. The latter is possible, but not an option for most people.]

Fake things, like a lot of make-up. Or- [There's a woman here, he has to watch his language. He heads up the stairs towards the roof. Looks like there's an access up there.] -parts of themselves redone like ladies with bigger chests or smaller butts thanks to surgery. One of my best friends takes steroids and has face implants because he is so worried what he is thought of.

It's stupid. It's like me wishing for smaller nose or... I don't know. [He thinks he looks alright.] It's just stupid. Especially when other people can barely get by. All the wealth in the world, and poor people still pay for rich people to get nice things, or for governments to buy guns and make them kill each other.

[Just vomiting cynicism there.]

Huh. Sounds pretty stupid. People can get brain implants back home, but... they're to make you smarter, or stronger.

[Boone could really do with an intelligence implant, honestly. Too bad he'd never go for it. He doesn't want some doctor putting things in his brain. He follows Niko up the stairs, remembering something Elle told him.]

Guess if you programmed an Auto-Doc to do it, you could get it to reconstruct your face, but-

[And then suddenly, it's absolutely freezing. He can't help but to gasp quietly in surprise, and automatically takes a step back.]

[The way that Niko has been describing "America" doesn't go against what she's heard, not like Liberty City and Los Santos do. Niko's a lot more blunt and cynical about it than Raul and Dean and House, but it still fits in. She can see where it pieces together.

Which... honestly? Just makes it more confusing.]

You know, [she starts quietly, just under what Boone's saying, but she cuts short the same time as he does the second the door opens.

Elle recoils, eyes going comically wide and arms wrapping around herself.] Jesus christ, where the fuck are we, Jacobstown?! [IMMEDIATE AND LOUD WHINING, BECAUSE WHAT THE HELL IS THIS]

[He stops at the door, already prepared to go and investigate, but then they balk back at the cold. They're not dressed warmly, that's easy enough to see. Niko though is use to this sort of weather. He turns to look at them.

And his eyes slide down, and then back up to their faces.]

We should still go and look.

[So he pulls off his bomber jacket, then his trackshirt. It leaves him with his body armor exposed over his fitted turtleneck and a shoulder holster with a pistol and a dangerous looking hunting knife in it. He holds them out towards Elle and Boone, because he doesn't want to go out there alone.]

Edited 2014-02-21 23:11 (UTC)

[Boone eyes the jacket for a moment as though he's not sure if he wants to take it, but eventually he gives in and tugs it on. It's warm from where Niko had been wearing it, but it's still not nearly warm enough to stop him from shivering. Still, he nods and follows him out of the door. He sticks closer to Elle than he usually would, too. He just hopes they don't have to shoot anything far away. He's shivering too much to aim properly.]

[Elle hesitates, too, though mostly because she's having trouble processing that, yes, this really is a thing that's happening. Boone making the first move is what does it, though, and she takes what's left over, leaving her duffle bag sitting by the door. The trackshirt swallows her, but that just means she has something to hide from the cold in. The majority of her face ends up disappearing into the shirt, leaving her eyes visible between the jacket's collar and her hat. She doesn't even bother trying to shake her hands free of the sleeves.]

R-R-Right. Okay. Okay...

[Small island. Beach to the south, mountain to the north. Some plains, mostly jungle. Elle thinks she spots a stream...]

The fuck kind of island is this cold AND has a tropical jungle?... [It's more of a grumble by this point, racking her brain for an answer.]

[Niko has his rifle unslung, so he starts looking through the scope at things, crouching on the edge of the roof. He doesn't mind the cold and seems used to it.]

I don't see any distant land, and it is too cold to try to swim that water anyway. [He sounds disappointed that option is no longer on the table. He looks down into the courtyard from where they are.]

Fountain. Sports facilities.

[Incredulously, still looking through his scope.]

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