Setting
"What do mentats do?" Lakesha asked the doctor. He had been woken up to the hispanic girl's eager questions, which would have been fine, but he had pulled a particularly long shift, and he was going to be heading out soon. Which, Lakesha well knew about, because she was going with him. With Razu's non-violent nature, it was best that he had someone along that got the threats long before they got to him. Especially because there were so few doctors for the Freedom Fighters.
"...you've never had mentats?" Razu asked, not even opening his eyes. He hugged his cot a little tighter.
"They make you smarter, right?" Lakesha asked.
"You don't need mentats," Razu said. "I don't mean to be rude Lakesha, but don't you have somewhere to be?"
"Nope!" Lakesha said. "Why don't I need mentats?"
"You could run circles around me," Razu said.
"Yeah... but I don't get what that has to do with mentats," Lakesha said.
"Mental circles," Razu offered.
"How?" Lakesha asked. "Mental circles? I don't get it."
"You're a lot smarter than me," Razu said.
"Are you the baseline for people?" Lakesha asked.
"No Lakesha, but I can't see any reason why you'd need to be more perceptive and intelligent. Y'know, you should get some rest too," Razu said. "We have a long day tomorrow."
"I'm feeling alright actually," Lakesha said.
"Let me rephrase that Shi. I need to get some sleep," Razu said.
"Oh, am I keeping you up?" Lakesha asked.
Razu chuckled. He patted Lakesha's arm.
Lakesha stepped out of the young doctor's office, rather puzzled. Why did he find that funny? It was an honest question. Deciding she'd ask Razu when he seemed more receptive to questions, she went back to her room in the hotel. She was careful to step around the weak spot in the floor. One more super-mutant, and that thing would be sure to fall right through.
Her room was full of rubble, and hardly looked like a liveable room at all. Razu had offered her a nicer one--it even had a bed--but Lakesha couldn't sleep in it. She couldn't help but feel the steel around her neck when she closed her eyes. Lakesha ducked under a cabinet, and crawled into her hidey-hole, a bookshelf, and part of the upstairs floor, with a mat and a small footlocker. The footlocker held one day's change of clothes, and Sol. Sol was her sniper rifle, unimaginatively named "The Solution." Sol, for short.
The sniper climbed back out of her hole, taking the time to look over the rifle carefully.
She was still there when Razu came to see her, a few hours later. It hadn't been dismantled, or anything. She was just looking at it, like she could see every fibre of its being, feel every spring and screw psychically. It was this intense, unhealthy focus, that tended to make her good at repair, if they could spare her for the next few days per weapon.
There was no point in trying to get her attention. Razu had found that out, when, he finally managed to break Lakesha out of her 'trance,' and had gotten shot in the ear for his trouble. She would come out of it on her own, or she would come out shooting.
"Y'know Shi, I think you have some kind of disorder. I just wish I had the literature so I could help you with it," Razu said.
Lakesha gave no response.
"Were you always this way?" Razu continued. "Or was it only after the Slavers got to you that you became like this? I wonder sometimes. I know it's not right to. It isn't any of my business. You've made it clear. I worry about you sometimes. You know, I think I know why you want Mentats. You don't want anyone to sneak up on you ever again. Trust me, I don't think that will ever happen. I mean well, I snuck up on you, but you trust me. I think. I just mean... you're great at what you do. You don't need drugs to be better than awesome."
"I don't understand why you gave me the compliment, but I'll accept," Lakesha said.
Razu jumped nearly sky-high.
Lakesha broke into a rare smile at the look on his face.
"How's Sol?" Razu asked.
"Perfect," Lakesha said.
Lakesha and Razu had been fairly close, since Razu had found her holed up in a ruin in DC, with a severe infection, probably from the bullets in her leg. She still limped a bit from that, Razu noted. Razu had taken her to the hotel, after seeing the bruise under her scarf, which was quite indicative that she had been a slave. Not that Lakesha had ever admitted it, nor had Razu. He took her back to the Freedom Fighters.
Her first time waking up had been quite a struggle. She was almost feral, and had wrecked that room. When she calmed down, and heard what the Fighters were all about, and realized how close to death she had been, Shi was happy to join up.
"Perhaps it's the ten bottles of buffout I found in your bag. All empty," Nia said. "Do you consume it, or just bathe in it?"
"I'm on fire..." the raider moaned.
That's because you were only supposed to take one of the formula. Not ten. Note: Use smaller quantities in experimental drugs. I have once again underestimated the average Wasteland Raider's desire to get high. Nia thought, injecting him with some normal med-x.
Nia dropped her paperwork on the desk, picking up her bag. She was headed out to Arefu, which was a post for some of the 'recruitment' Slavers. The family that ran the town was very militarized, so the Slavers posted out there were safe, and the family was a supporter of them too.
They didn't have a doctor, and the Slavers didn't really have a surplus to spare, so Nia went out whenever there was an emergency that she actually had a chance of getting there on-time for. The leader of the town, Abraham, didn't seem too appreciative that Nia was female, but he often seemed to find himself wracked with stomach pains, and unable to interfere with Nia's work, when she came to town.
Abraham was old-school, in many, many ways. Nia found she couldn't judge. At least he was there for his kids, even if he seemed to have an innate desire to control every aspect of their lives. The boys guarded the town, the girls ran the hotel they opened and built, a few years after the incident with The Family.
"Reith?" Nia called. Nia's switchblade, often poisoned, was enough for the combat Nia would deal with around the City, but when travelling, she needed a guard-dog. That's where the little Raider came in. Most of the Pitt Raiders weren't amused by the Wasteland Raider's behaviour, often using them as entertainment, or fodder. But to be honest, Nia's mother had been almost exactly like a Wasteland Raider. Nia was used to the weird, drug-induced rambles, and shifting moods. And of course, the sadistic ruthlessness.
Nia wouldn't exactly say she was 'fond' of Reith, but she very rarely slipped mild poisons into the drugs she supplied Reith, which was better than could be said for most people in Nia's life. Perhaps that was the extent of the emotionally-stunted-woman's affection.
"What did he mean by that?" Tyson decided he didnt want to find out the hard way, so he began his journey towards Rivet City. As he walked he came across what appeared to be an abandoned hotel. It was getting kind of late and he was kind of tired. Tyson went up to the side emergency door. These doors usually were left unlock. he began to open it when to his dismay it was locked. Tyson really wasn't in the mood so he kicked the door a few times until it broke open. He began making his way down a dimly lit hallway. It almost looked as if the place was inhabited.....
"No, I don't-"
Lakesha covered Razu's mouth. She closed her eyes, touching the floor. Razu stared at Lakesha, mostly puzzled.
Lakesha slipped into a room, putting Sol on her back. This place was too linear for her to get a good shot without being seen, so she had to take a more... direct, approach.
Lakesha, upon hearing the shuffle of the unfamiliar feet pass by the room she was hiding in, grabbed the man, yanking him into the room, and pushing him against the wall. She held him to the wall by his throat, searching him for guns with her free hand.
"Shi, don't you think you should use your words?" Razu asked.
"Don't be patronizing," Lakesha said. "This guy just broke right the fuck in. I'm not taking any chances." Lakesha tightened her grip on his windpipe. "I'm going to let up so you can talk... but be aware that if you answer wrong, I will crush your windpipe. Who are you working for?"
Reith listen her head slowly off the ratty-looking pillow, gradually pulling herself up to a sitting position upon the bed that was sat against the wall. That stood out from the other items in the small room, a chair, a desk, a stack of comic books, and boxes of old needles and jet casing.
She'd got a small room on the lower level, and spent most of her time there when she wasn't hanging around Nia, the woman who served as her 'boss' in effect. Generally speaking when you were a wasteland raider your boss was whoever you happened to be more scared of than anyone else, though her arrangement with the slaver was different. Nia had something she wanted. Chems, mainly. Reith had been ruled by those long before she'd met Nia of course, but Nia provided a source that the raider gravitated towards.
Hearing the yell the raider rose to her feet, the noise rattling around in her head like a startled radroach.
"No need to yell..." she mumbled, stepping out, her slender fingers threading through her thick, silvery hair as she approached the woman, dragging her feet.
"What do you want?"
"You broke down the door," Lakesha said.
"I'm sure he thought nobody was here," Razu offered.
"That's stupid. Most of DC has something holed up in it," Lakesha said.
"Shi... chill," Razu said. Razu walked up to Tyson, his hands up. "My socially maladjusted friend is trying to say that you wandered into our home. You could have been anything. A super-mutant,
"Unlikely. He's not that big," Lakesha said.
"A raider, or a slaver," Razu continued, unfazed. "All three groups regularly come in here, and their goals aren't exactly conducive to well, anything. Nobody else has their gun out, Lakesha's calm- right Shi?"
Lakesha nodded, folding her arms.
"So just put the gun down. Let's just chat," Razu said. Razu offered a hand, the other hand still in the air.
---
"I'm prepping to head out to Arefu, so I'd like you to do so too," Nia said, shrugging. "Didn't mean to wake you, dear."
"They'll all die," Lakesha said casually.
"Doesn't like them," Razu continued.
---
"Oh, and could you not wear an obviously raider outfit? I've set aside leather, metal armour, and some wasteland clothes. As lovely as you look in your clothes, people tend to try and take pot-shots at us if we look obviously raider," Nia added. Nia patted Reith's arm with a smile. "I just gotta finish up with this guy, then I should be ready to go."
" this is a nice little establishment you have here." he said as he moved into the room a bit more and looked around. He also noticed that the place was very fortified. Thats when he realized most of the people in the place were ex slaves. Tyson had heard about these settlements from back when he was a slaver but he had never seen one in person.
"And I don't know where the fuck you come from, but being easily identifiable as a raider is kinda the fucking point. You think I wear this shit for the fashion? Puts people off. People don't wanna try and rob you or fuck with you if they think you're going to murder you and eat your face. Thought you were supposed to be smart..." she muttered irritably, kicking one of the boxes across the floor.
Reith didn't take well to being condescended to. She resented the implication that she was stupid just due to being a raider, and was unlikely to oblige when spoken to in such a way.
---
"We'll have to leave soon," Lakesha said. "It's too easy for people to wander in. The floor can't handle many more super-mutants."
"Yeah, we typically can't stay in one place for long. I was thinking of trying the sewers next. There's not too many places not already full of some crawly though," Razu said. "Let me find you a room."
"Hey Jill, don't forget the pile of scrap, nails, and hammer on your way to the door," Lakesha said. "Close it up again. The sound he made when he came in suggests a bunch of damage."
Razu led Tyson away from Lakesha and Jill. "So I'm sure you've noticed most people here were slaves. I hope you can appreciate how scared they are. A couple of these guys will probably kill themselves before they get taken again. Many more would rather kill you. I'm not saying you're a slaver, I'm saying you don't walk with the same amount of fear as some of the people in here, and there are slavers who are smart enough to say they aren't slavers.
"Don't worry. I give the same speech to everyone. Keeps the ex-slaves calmer, to know someone has their back. A few things to note: Be careful around the women. Assume most of them have been victims of sexual violence, because they have. Especially the ex-slaves. Jill, the girl I hadn't introduced earlier, has had very specific paranoia set in about that, so don't get too close to her, make too many sudden moves, and so on.
"Lakesha, well, I think she has some sort of mental illness that I don't know about. As a wasteland doctor, we tend to be more concerned about the body than the mind, so I can't even find literature on mind-illnesses. What I can tell you is, if she's completely unresponsive, don't try to wake her up." Razu pushed his hair back, revealing that he didn't have a left ear. "That's how I lost this. Other symptoms seems to be a complete lack of social skills. If you feel insulted by what she says, the best thing to do seems to be to tell her this directly, then explain logically why. For example: "It upsets me that you imply my mother is a whore, because I am very attached to my mother, and she is not a whore."
"I'm the doctor. Well, there are more, like Jill, but seeing her paranoia, let's just leave it at "I'm the doctor." This is my 'office.'" Razu opened the door. "The room next to me just opened up. Most people don't like to stay there because of the patient's crying and screaming and all that. Feel free to let me know if you mind, and I'll find you a better room. Any questions?"
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