Fallout New Vegas AU

[aeons_crackshot]

3 years, 2 months and 10 days.

That's how long it's been since Annabelle came home to find the ruins of her family's caravan and her mother's body.

Long years, hard years, but she's managed to survive. She's running low on ammunition and lower still on food, which is why she's hunting geckos in the fading light of the evening.

Her trusty cowboy repeater is aimed at a very nice specimen. If it just comes a little closer......

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[mojavex6]

The gecko moves slowly, preying on the normal insects of the wasteland, also concerned about dinner. It pauses to sniff the air and make a squeak, just before a large shadow covers it... and a deathclaw tackles it, a single strike of its talons taking off the lizard's head. The large predator settles with a growl, starting to tear apart the carcass.

[aeons_crackshot]

OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT!!!!!!!!!!!

Annabelle freezes in place, terror surging through her. She encountered a death claw once, inside of a Vault. It was only the dumb luck of crawling into an opening it couldn't fit through and a couple of hand grenades that enabled her to survive that encounter.

The repeater won't hurt it, and deathclaws run much, much faster than humans. If it notices her, she's dead. And she's not sure she can sneak away either.....the damn things have much better senses than humans too, especially in this kind of light.

[mojavex6]

Fortunately, it seems distracted by its meal, and if the wind cooperates and does not...

...change. Right, the deathclaw sniffs the air and turns its gaze to the right to regard the human, tilting head...

[aeons_crackshot]

Annabelle swallows, staring back. There's no point in running, especially not when the instinct of most predators is to CHASE things that run away.

"You...um.....can have the gecko...." she stammers inanely.

[mojavex6]

...

...is it smirking? Nah, it can't be, but sure looks like.

"...boo!"

[aeons_crackshot]

Have you ever seen someone's brain do a hard reboot? Well, now you have.

"......." "......." ".....you can talk?"

WHUT. That's crazy talk, urban legend! Crap, maybe Mole-Men really exist too!

[mojavex6]

Damn it, usually people scream and run, not stay and talk. "NO!"

...damnit.

"...er... growl? Rawr?" Crap.

[aeons_crackshot]

Why scream and run when you know it won't do any good? That's just embarrassing.

Annabelle's mouth works for a second, but nothing comes out. "....I am going to kick Harold's ass up around his ears for spiking those supplies with something hallucinogenic."

She's got to be hallucinating, right? (I doesn't feel like that one time she experimented with a psychotropic, but nothing else makes any sense.)

"Unless I'm dying and these are just the last miss-firings of my brain before it all goes dark for good, suppose I'll find out sooner or later."

Those words weren't addressed to anyone in particular, more thinking aloud. The next, however, are definitely directed at the Deathclaw. "Convincing people you can't talk doesn't work so well when you answer," she replies with a slightly nervous laugh.

[mojavex6]

The deathclaw sighs, pressing the back of its right 'hand' to its face. "Guess it's too late for that, right. Dad's gonna kill me."

"...no, killing me would be too easy, dad's gonna put me on clutch watch for a year."

[aeons_crackshot]

Annabelle never knew she could feel sorry for what is either a figment of her imagination or the Mojave's ultimate engine of destruction.

"I won't tell if you won't," she offers. "I mean it's not like there are any other witnesses."

[mojavex6]

"Oh, dad just knows those things." The deathclaw crouches, resting elbows on knees and head on knuckles. "I'll get back, and he'll eye me and go all so what happened this time in that tone of voice, and then comes the lecture about how I need to be more careful and how can I expect to be Alpha and Clutch Sire one day if I keep blundering about..."

The deathclaw looks up and speaks to nobody. "Guess what, dad? I don't!"

[aeons_crackshot]

"At least your father's still alive to lecture you," Annabelle snaps, tone bitter.

Then she winces. "Sorry, that was....uncalled for." The moisture gathering in her eyes is totally your imagination. Really. Okay, maybe not.

It's not like she didn't sometimes complain about her parents back before they were murdered.

[mojavex6]

"Was your father a twelve feet tall killing machine that wanted you to be ferocious and civilized all at once?" Really, it doesn't compare. "Nevermind."

The deathclaw is quiet for a while, regarding the human. "You want the rest of the gecko?" About half of it is untouched.

[aeons_crackshot]

"That's a tall order," Annabelle allows. "Um. I'm Annabelle Newfield, by the way." It's only polite.

"Yes, please," she replies. "I was hunting it, for dinner."

[mojavex6]

"Oh. Hm. Me too. Sorry." The Deathclaw picks up the dead gecko and offers it over. "I'm Leander, son of Darius."

[aeons_crackshot]

"Nice to meet you, Leander," Annabelle replies. Normally she'd shake hands, but.....CLAWS. Annabelle takes the offered gecko. "I don't need all of it, just enough for the night. I can go hunting again tomorrow."

Sharing is the neighborly thing to do, right?

It won't take long to remove a human meal sized portion of meat from the gecko.

[mojavex6]

"Not feeling hungry anymore." The Deathclaw sighs and grumbles a bit.

[aeons_crackshot]

Annabelle awkwardly pats Leander in an attempt at being comforting. "Maybe your appetite will come back later."

"Have you ever had cooked gecko?"

[mojavex6]

"Yeah, I had. Don't see the point of cooking food, you waste all the juicy goodness." Leander shifts position a bit. "You humans eat all kinds of weird things."

[aeons_crackshot]

"Less likely to make us sick and easier to digest," Annabelle replies with a shrug.

She ponders the fact that she's eaten 200 year old irradiated fancy lad cakes before. "Yeah, we do, don't we? Never really thought about it that way."

"Do you want to come back to my camp with me?" she asks. It's getting dark and there are all sorts of nocturnal things that would like to snack on tasty human flesh, so she'd better be out of the open soon.

[mojavex6]

"No other humans around?" Really, he's in trouble enough.

[aeons_crackshot]

Annabelle shakes her head. "Nope, just me. Courier work means I'm usually traveling alone."

[mojavex6]

"Courier?" The deathclaw gets up, stretching.

[aeons_crackshot]

"I take messages and sometimes items between places. It's too dangerous out here for most humans to be willing to travel long distances."

[mojavex6]

"But you are." He nods, ready to follow. "I guess that explains why you did not just run away."

"Or soil yourself." The deathclaw snickers a bit.