Miss Vicious Delicious, Her saga and story... Options

[Renee]

Chapter One: Miss Vicious Delicious

Date: August 19, 2277, 11:06 AM

Location: VAPL-66 Power Station

They called them raiders, Takana and Neeptu. Social and demographic miscreants who nobody would touch. Nobody would accept. Not the Enclave. Not even Talon Company. Collectively, they were groups of young adults who lived each day as though it'd be their very last. Because often it was their very last.

As the Psycho they'd squeezed into their arms took brilliant effect, both of them were sizzling.

The common misfit known as Neeptu Daalu steadied himself, and squinted his eyes. "See? See her now?" he asked his partner. "Told ya there's a wastelander out there! The little b----. Look how she's dressed. In a freeking Parkstroller! Prob'ly good for a few caps." He was speaking loudly, his booming voice being echoed by a nearby overpass.

"Haah? I don't see a thing," said Takana Topov, Neeptu's partner. Takana had done well as a dancer, far away at Dukov's place. But she'd done even better as a thief.

Together, Takana and Neeptu had plotted to steal hundreds of caps from her former employer. And they had been successful at this. In fact, the job had been easy. Neeptu pretended to be a john while Takana depleted some of Dukov's stash of cash. It was over in less than a minute, their getaway boat floating just meters away. Then the good life had begun. They'd finally been able to afford Psycho, Jet, and all sorts of other goodies, which had been clouding their judgment for days.

"Ya need some glasses!" Neeptu announced. "C'mon, just follow me!"

The pair scrambled off. They readied their pieces: Takana's pistol went *clink!*, and Neeptu's went *shink!* ... but neither of them could possibly know their prey was not some gentle lamb who'd cry and run.

"Oh hell no!" The lady in the Parkstroller brandished her only weapon, a rusted old iron tool.

She went to work. Jumping, hopping, and skipping around the raiders and their clumsy efforts at gun play. ...Bam! ... Crash!... At close quarters, their Chinese pistols were next to useless. The lady in the Parkstroller might never be as good with a hand weapon as the cannibalistic fiend known as Rattler, but as a member of the 'raider' demographic herself, neither was she somebody to try messing with.

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Takana Topov

Neeptu Daalu takes a beating

"Oh hell no!"

Unexpected help

Goo' boy!!!

Miss Vicious Delicious throws away her Parkstroller for something new

This post has been edited by Renee: Jan 21 2022, 03:09 PM

[Renee]

Yes, macole, that bell is about to toll. Isn't it funny how the world of Fallout is sort of closer to what could happen here on Earth, sort of? Comparing Fallout to Elder Scrolls, that is. I can take several liberties because of this--using more 'modern' language, referring to the way things were, and so on. Whereas the Elder Scrolls universe is totally fictional.

Acadian: RaderOfTheLostArk influenced me with his Fallout: Florida story, so far as the background of Springvale Elementary goes. I'm still not entirely sure if there is an actual Springvale, Virginia. If so, I've never heard of the place. But I try to imagine what sort of school they'd have in their community, and what sort of students would go there. The thing about this area of the United States is it is very possible to rub elbows with a senator's daughter, or have an FBI safehouse located in my neighborhood, and not even know it. A lot of these adults have children, and a lot of these children can go to any middle-area sort of school of their choosing, as long as they fall into certain districts / zonings. So I try to imagine all of what was, and compare it to what is now.

SubRosa: now it sounds you you are yelling at your computer screen! Love your new avatar, by the way. It looks valiant.

Lopov: No Lopov. He'd better get here soon, he's going to miss his story additions!

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..,

Chapter 15: Returning to the Raiders

Taneesha Jones neared the front doors of Springvale Elementary. Pondered a moment. Weighed her options just a moment more. I've been here before, thought she. Ain't no big thing. Just walk in, girl.

But she didn't just do this. These were the doors which would define her coming future, and she knew this future would not be so brilliant, or glorious. Did she really have other options?

In the distant past, many students had also entered these doors day after day, defining their own futures, from dismal to promising. Taneesha had once wondered what these students must have been like. Did most of them show up every day with smiles on their faces? Gaily-painted posters advertising the Spring Play or latest talent show displayed in the school's front foyer? Did they cower under their desks (as she had once seen in an old bomb-safety newsreel) when the ground began to shake, as missile after missile found their nearby American targets? Perhaps so.

Taneesha had once wondered all these things. But at this moment, all she could think about? What's on the other side of that door. She readied the pistol Q Tip had given her, just in case. Then she scrambled inside, aiming, aiming, aiming left and right, high and low, like some heroine in one of the action flicks she had seen from America's past.

"Well look who it is," said a man with a smooth-talking baritone voice. "Miss Vicious Delicious. Been a long time, it seems like, since I seen you." The man walked calmly toward her, ignoring her gun and antics. Obviously, he had been waiting just inside for her.

Taneesha bit her lip, and waited a moment for the ambush. Which did not occur. "Been awhile since I seen you too, Slick." She looked down at her pistol, now unsure, now feeling a bit silly about her 'action hero' entrance. "So what's up? You want to tell me what's going on?"

"You can put that gun away, sister. Ain't nobody's gonna mess with you, nuh-uh. We already been knowin' all about you. What you done. Where you been. All-a that."

Taneesha took a moment to be sure, then holstered her piece. Took a look around. Relaxed as best she could, though it was tough with Psycho still running through her system. The school's front foyer, which she had once imagined to be gay and bright, now had a large cage in its middle. Several corpses had been strung from chains, hanging from the foyer's ceiling. Whatever that was about, she did not want to know.

Suddenly, she was angry.

"They said I didn't deliver those goods, but I DID!" she bolstered loudly, nearly yelling at Slick Rick, hoping whatever dumb-asses holed up in this dump might hear. "I DID what they told. And so there musta been some mix-up, or something. Whatever. And what the *ferk* did I get for this service? You all put me out in the middle of nowhere, that's what. Put me in that old Parkstroller suit. Got raiders out there takin' aim to kill a sister. THAT's what! As though they knew who I was, and when I'd be coming."

"Hey, easy there," said Slick with an 'ease-down' sort of gesture. "I got nothing to do with any of that. And anyway, uh, we're all good now, Vicious. You proved yourself good."

"My name ain't Vicious no more, it's --"

She stopped herself. Looked down at the floor, as if embarrassed.

"Huh?"

"Nothing," she said finally.

"Well look," Slick Rick continued, with a facial expression which any former used Chryslus dealer would try as he worked up to his pitch. "I am on your side. I know what you been through, and it wasn't right, okay?"

"Whatever," Taneesha / Vicious pouted. She shifted her weight, like a tardy schoolgirl must have once done when arriving late to this very institution.

"Hey, cheer up," he said. "And look here. I got something for you. Uh. We got something for you."

Slick Rick pointed to the floor, and she so she couldn't help but look to the box which had been placed there. Taneesha / Vicious looked inside. Picked up its contents with her own two hands, and was momentarily surprised. "This is for me?"

"Yep. That's a brand-new, perfect condition set of badlands-style armor, which I know was your favorite, yuh? And it's just for you. But it's like, a special set, okay? ... It signifies you, as a, uh, special sort of raider. Like, no one can mess with you now, yokay?"

Taneesha placed the upper part of the suit upon her chest area, as we in our own times might place a dress or a shirt upon our own upper-half in a modern department store. The armor's coloring was somewhere between tan and greyish, perfect for subterfuge amongst the Capitol Wasteland's bland and dried-out terrain. The suit also had a set of button-up gloves, and a series of fastening belts to keep everything tight and in place. Best of all was the long string of ammo, which were placed across the armor's chest padding. This ammo would be from some old bunker perhaps. Useless, and merely for show / intimidation; the powder in each round no longer potent after centuries of storage. But it was the sort of thing which would display to the world who its wearer was, and what this wearer could potentially be, if some intruder or enemy came too close.

"Go on Vicious, or uh... whatever your new name is, and take it outside. Put it on." He was now making some sort of shooing gesture.

"You want me to go outside?" she asked unsurely.

"Okay look." Slick Rick had his Used Chryslus face on again: half smiling, half something-else. It was the look of somebody who wants you to trust him, but for some reason you don't. Not entirely, anyway. "You need to go outside for awhile. Put that armor on. Wait about an hour or so, okay? While I ... uh... confer with my peoples in here, yuh? And then you can come back in here after that, okay? We should be all good then."

"I can't just walk in inside, yet, and see all the others?"

"No!" Slick Rick's voice rose abruptly. "Uh, I mean no. Not yet. I just gotta confer with my peoples in here, right? Then after that, we all good, okay?"

Though Taneesha (Miss Vicious) was anxious and unsure at Slick Rick's odd choice of words, she was also feeling a certain.... something. Gratitude? Perhaps. They were going to let her back into their family, it seemed. And though this was not the sort of family which would have once been featured in a Good Housekeeping magazine exposé, she at least knew this family was broad, and powerful. This family took care of its own, and defined its own rules. She'd always have somewhere to go, at least.

No more would she need to worry about slumming in Megaton, or anywhere else which could be termed more civilized-than-usual in the rough-and-rumble wasteland. Megaton, where no jobs were available, all the best houses were already taken, and one could get locked into the new jail just for stealing a syringeful of meds.

With the raiders she'd at least have a life, and a future, and maybe even some respect. All of this could be hers, she knew, if she chose to walk out that door, and don the armor set Rick was giving her. She'd already be dead (or nearly so) if they weren't offering her these very things.

She took a moment to decide, before walking out of Springvale Elementary.

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Springvale Elementary Front Foyer

No schoolbell tolls here

Slick Rick

Changing clothes -- (argh, still can't get animation mod to work)

Miss Vicious Delicious



This post has been edited by Renee: Apr 4 2021, 06:21 PM