closed rp Post

[assjerky]

CLOSED RP POST with okiedokies art by pignk

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[okiedokies]

Lucy didn't have to look at him to know it was a bad situation but she was watching him closely while he looked through the scope. She could see the tension in his body as he surveyed the scene below where she had seen a column of smoke. She had pointed it out too because it was an unusual sight and The Ghoul knew this world a lot better than she did.

Listening to him curse, she felt her stomach twist as she looked in the direction of the smoke and frowned to herself. When he lowered the rifle, she focused on him again and then sighed. "Actually, I was already thinking that."

Off of his look, she shrugged as she leaned back against the toll booth and looked around. "Who is though? It is more of the Knights?"

[assjerky]

"Naw. Caesar's Legion. I fuckin' wish it was the goddamn Brotherhood." He knew how to handle the tin cans. The Legion were somehow even more fanatical and grew up in fighting pits. They were strong, violent, and completely devoted to their beliefs.

Christ, he hated cults.

He levels the rifle again and looked through it, then held it and moved out of the way so she could look through the scope. "Take a look. That there's a Legionaire and his underlings. We're gonna have to kill 'em all. We don't have a choice. That fella in back, the bigger helmet on? That's the biggest threat. He's gotta die first."

As she looked through the scope, the Ghoulnl found himself watching her with...something like concern. "It's gotta be you, Vaultie. Legion don't see women as anything but...chattel. They ain't gonna attack you on sight, they'll want to take you prisoner."

[okiedokies]

Well, it had to be bad if he wished it was the goddamn Brotherhood and it was unsettling to her because she had seen what the Brotherhood could do. Shifting closer when he told her to take a look, she leaned down to peer through the scope, taking note of the different men she could see.

"Shoot," she breathed when he told her then that it would be her because they wouldn't attack her. The idea that they would want to take her prisoner instead made her blood run cold as all sorts of scary thoughts ran through her head.

Letting out a slow breath, she eased back to look at him as she nodded slowly. "Okay, so, we make it look like I'm traveling alone. I can't take Dogmeat with me because she'll want to attack on sight if she thinks I'm in danger. If they're focused on me, they won't see you."

She looked at him, trying not to look worried as she pressed her lips together. "You'll come, right?"

[assjerky]

Smart gal was his Vaultie. Truth to tell the Ghoul was feeling decidedly not fond of this plan. He knew she could take care of herself and he knew he could too, that between the three of them--him, the Vaultie, and Dogmeat--they could more than handle a few low level Legionaires. Still, put an itch between his shoulder blades sending her out there alone.

He reached over and took her chin in his hand, skimmed his thumb over her lower lip. "I will." He plucked up the rifle, checked her pistol to make sure it was fully loaded, took a small knife out of his boot and handed it to her. "Count down ten minutes, then head toward 'em. Once you got their attention, try some of your fancy talkin' negotiation tactics...but play up the nerves. Make 'em think you'll be easy to control."

[okiedokies]

Lucy wasn't feeling overly fond of this plan either but she knew it was the right one. They would never let the Ghoul get close enough to do anything and so it made the most sense to send her out to be the bait. But there was a small part of her that worried he wouldn't get to her in time or that something could go wrong.

She didn't think he would just leave her behind so he could make it past but could she be entirely sure of that either? Yet she didn't want to believe it.

She stilled as he took her chin in his hand and allowed her to be soothed by the touch as well as the promise before she nodded. She waited as he checked her pistol, then took the knife when he handed it over. The way she licked her lips was the only sign that she was nervous as she glanced down, tucking the knife out of sight. "Got it, ten minutes."

[assjerky]

The Ghoul gave her a quick nod, then ducked out of the ruined toll booth, keeping low as he picked a path that would put him in the right place. "See that outcropping there? Near that old road sign? Lead 'em out past that if you can. If you can't, just do your best, darlin'. We'll figure it out."

[okiedokies]

Lucy looked out where he instructed, picking out the old sign as she nodded slowly. Drawing in a breath, she reached out suddenly to grab his hand, staying silent as she gave him a look, a silent plea to be careful before she let go and eased back. She waited for him to leave, to slip out of sight, so she could start counting down. When enough time had passed, she rose to her feet and moved around the toll booth, lifting her chin as she started down the long path toward where the campfire was.

She kept her head down slightly but her gaze stayed on the group as she approached and so she saw the moment they clocked her. She could see the surprise and the interest at spotting a lone woman all by herself and she noted that the one that the Ghoul had warned her about was the slowest to rise. She also made the slow, cocky look on his face and she felt a dark bloodthirsty thought stir in her mind as she hoped that the Ghoul would kill him first.

It was a thought that made her blink in surprise at herself, lifting her head and using it as a ploy too as though she were surprised by the sight of the men. She slowed her step, then started moving to the side as though she were going to try to keep going past them. Of course, they wouldn't let her.

"Hi," she started with a hesitant smile, her gaze darting past them as she noted where the sign was. Not close enough yet and so she looked back at the men who started to walk towards her. "I'm just looking to get by, I don't mean any trouble!"

They all laughed and tried to look like they were nice as they told her they didn't mean any trouble yet but the looks on their face didn't match the look in their eyes. She continued to face them even as she turned to move sideways, drawing closer to the spot where the Ghoul had told her to get to. She especially didn't want the dangerous one to get too close to her.

[assjerky]

The Ghoul glanced down at her hand clutching his, almost puzzled, before he squeezed it and nodded confidently, clicked his tongue at Dogmeat so she'd follow him. He hitched the rifle over his shoulder and slipped off, moving as quietly as possible over the rocky terrain. It was damn hard to stay hidden--they'd picked this location well, and it wasn't like there was much cover in the Mojave. He paused behind a scraggly bit of brush and carefully took out his rifle, eyeing the Legionaire he knew was in charge. Just to confirm what he suspected: he was armored. Meant he'd won a lot of fights. Brought the Caesar a lot of wealth and slaves. He considered the merits of trying to pick them off from here, but he caught the moment they spotted the Vaultie. The 3 younger, less experienced and less well armored and armed soldiers looked pleased, but the Legionaire. He was fuckin' cold. Dogmeat belly crawled up next to him, her hackles raised, a low rumble of a growl in her throat. "Shhh," he shushed her, grunted softly as he got his feet under him again. "She'll be fine. C'mon."

Now that Lucy had their attention, the Ghoul allowed himself to move with a little more urgency, still keeping an eye on the rocks as his feet so as not to kick one down the side of the embankment. He heard the Legionaire bark an order in that weird blend of Latin and English the Legion used, and the chatter from his subordinates died immediately. "Come on, Vaultie," he murmured, listening to the leader launch into his spiel, This land and all within belong to Caesar, imagined he must be walking towards her with threatening purpose. "Just a little further."

[okiedokies]

“Hey hey,” Lucy started to backpedal, holding up her hands as the Legionnaire started towards her after he barked something at the other men to make them stop. She didn’t like the look in his eyes but she quickened her pace, glancing behind under as though she were trying to make sure she wouldn’t fall. When in reality, she was checking the sign and making sure she was closer to it.

Only a little bit more.

“I’m not from this land, so I’m going to have to ask you to back up and let me by. I don’t want any trouble but I have no interest in meeting this Caesar. But if you’re going to insist, I’m going to have to react as though you’re a threat to me and my personal safety,” she was talking quickly and the last bit seemed to amuse him as he continued to stalk her. She moved past the sign which meant he was right in the spot she hoped would work for The Ghoul.

“Really, it’s in your best interest…,” she started when he moved forward to reach for her and she darted back. “It is in your best interest to let me go!”

[assjerky]

Seeing the soldiers reach for rope, the leader uncoiling a whip from his belt, the Ghoul had to grit his teeth to resist the urge to fire on them prematurely. "Come on," he snarled through gritted teeth, staring them down through the scope to wait for the right angle while Dogmeat crept towards them, teeth bared, snarling right along with him.

No sooner had Lucy darted back than the Legionaire's jaw shattered in an explosion of blood and bones and teeth. Nonplussed, the Ghoul loaded another shot into the rifle as Dogmeat took off like a shot, leaping at one of the remaining soldiers and tackling him to the ground with a vicious snarl. Of the remaining two, one seemed to recognize where the immediate threat was coming from, slung the spear from his back and rushed at the Ghoul, while the other, half panicked, ran towards Lucy, fumbling for a machete at his belt.

[okiedokies]

It was a grotesque scene that unfolded before her as she watched the large man's jaw suddenly explode. That was the only way to explain it. One second he was starting to tug his whip free, the next she saw half of his face explode as she stood there blinking in shock even though she had known it was coming. She felt the spray of blood splatter over her as he dropped but then she jerked herself out of the shocked state she felt as there was no time to stand there.

As soon as he hit the ground, she was pulling out her pistol, her eyes snapping up as she caught sight of a blurred mass flying past her to tackle one of the men. She didn't need to actually look to know it was Dogmeat but she looked at the man who was running half panicked at her, lifting her gun to fire off a shot. She felt the kickback of the gun but the man caught the bullet to the chest, the impact flinging him backward to the ground. Then she twisted to see the one racing towards where the Ghoul and she lifted her gun to fire at him too.

[assjerky]

The Ghoul had brought his rifle up to deal with the soldier that had rushed at him, but the Vaultie beat him to it. And judging by the meaty tearing sound that brought a sudden end to the hollering, he figured Dogmeat had effectively taken care of the third soldier. He turned towards Lucy and took a step in her direction, then froze and suddenly lifted the rifle again. For a split second seemingly pointing it at her. But before he could pull the trigger two things happened in quick succession: one, the hound that had lingered back by the campfire, that the Ghoul had forgotten about, leapt at him from nowhere and closed its jaw around his arm, causing his shot to fire skyward. And two, the Legionaire's weight suddenly fell on Lucy, as apparently, having ones jaw obliterated was more survivable than it looked, and he made some truly disturbing rage filled gurgling sounds as he tried to lock his blood soaked hands around her throat.

[okiedokies]

Lucy couldn't make sense of what was happening as she looked at the Ghoul who was suddenly training his gun...on her. Confusion rippled across her features as she looked at him quizzically before she saw the hound that wasn't Dogmeat leap at him. She opened her mouth to yell at him but then there was a crack of thunder that made her jump just before the Legionaire fell on her. Not only that but he was still alive as he did, a garbling growling noise escaping him as they crashed to the ground hard enough to knock the wind out of her.

Then his hands were around her throat, setting off alarm bells just as her oxygen was cut off, causing her to make a choking, gasping noise as she lifted her hand. He must have guessed she was going to try shooting him as he let go of her neck long enough to hit the gun from her hand, sending pain shooting up her arm. When his hand joined the other around her neck, she knew she was in real trouble. She hit his arms, her fists punching hard at his elbows but he had them locked as he glared at her with murderous rage, blood dripping from the messed up maw that was his mouth, landing on her face and chest. As her world started to spin and fade on the edge, she reached up, clawing at the remainder of his face before she did the only thing she could do which was go for his eyes.

[assjerky]

The Ghoul would've absolutely just killed the dog, if he hadn't given the Vaultie his most accessible knife, so instead he was stuck just trying to wrench his arm away from its jaws, which he eventually managed to do and kicked it away from him. As it yelped and rolled, struggling back to its feet, Dogmeat leapt between him and the hound, snarling and baring her bloody teeth. The Ghoul didn't even see it, as he ran straight for Lucy, scooping up the machete dropped by the soldier she'd shot, and swung it at the Legionaires head and neck. It took a couple good thwacks for him to finally collapse, and the Ghoul threw his weight against his shoulder so he wouldn't tip directly on top of Lucy. Kept shoving while he grabbed her arm to tug her away from the now corpse. "Vaultie. Hey, hey, breathe, s'all right, fucker's dead."

[okiedokies]

She heard the Legionaire make a terrible garbling sound as something squished beneath her thumbs but she didn't think about it. It was hard to think when her head was roaring and her chest was aching as though there was a great weight on it, more than his weight. Then he was gone and she could suck in air which immediately set her coughing as she rolled to her side, the world spinning faster as the muscles in her throat contracted. Then she was being hauled away from the body of the man, twisting to try pushing away from whoever it was until she registered that it was the Ghoul. Still trying to suck in air, she collapsed against him as she blinked away the tears and looked around. "Did...we..get them...all?"

[assjerky]

"It's me--Lucy, it's me," the Ghoul half-snarled as she instinctively tried to push away from him in a panic. He laid a hand on her back as she sagged against him, coughing and hacking to catch her breath, and assessed their surroundings quickly. "If they ain't dead yet, they will be," he sneered, taking back the knife he'd given her before shifting to steady her in a sitting position. "Shit," he grumbled, making a fruitless effort to swipe some of the gory mess from her chest and face, his lips curling in anger at the bruises he could already seen forming around her throat. "Stay here. Gotta take care of this fucking dog." He shifted the knife to his other hand and took out his gun, striding over to the hound that Dogmeat had cowed, clearly intending to shoot it.

[okiedokies]

"I'm okay," she coughed as he started wiping at her face, wrinkling her nose as she hated the feel of the blood being smeared across her face even though the pain in her throat was worse at the moment. She was mentally kicking herself too because she shouldn't have taken her attention off the Legionaire until she knew he was actually dead. Wiping her hand across her mouth, she looked down at herself until she heard that he was going to take care of the dog.

"No!" She hurried forward to grab his arm. "Don't shoot it, it was just doing what it was trained to do." She looked at the dog who was looking at them warily before looking at Dogmeat who was just watching it. "We could take him or her with us."

[assjerky]

It wasn't her fault, it was his. He should've been dead on the first shot. One of the many reasons why he was so fuckin' pissed. Her sudden plea for the damn dog's life certainly didn't help.

"Are you fuckin' serious??" He lowered his gun and turned back to her, fuming. "You wanna pick up another fuckin' stray?? Somethin' else to fuckin' feed and fret after and keep alive??" Was he talking about the dog anymore? Who could say. He flicked the hammer on the pistol and shoved it back into the holster, swearing up a storm under his breath as he stalked over to one of the other soldiers and dragged the knife across their throat to make sure they were dead. "Do whatever the fuck you want, Vaultie, but don't come cryin' to me when you get bit," he snapped, beginning the process of stripping the body for anything useful.

[okiedokies]

Lucy winced as he whirled around to snarl at her and she lowered her gaze as she realized there was a very good chance that he wasn't talking about the dog. The dog was just a stand-in for the person he was actually mad at, whether it be at her or at himself. But it also crossed her mind that he was pissed off because he cared but did she dare entertain that idea?

Clearing her throat as she massaged the side of her neck, she looked around at the bodies that surrounded them now and sighed. She might as well get to looking them over as well since she couldn't just stand there and pout. So she went to the body at the one that had run at her with the machete. She bent down to pick up the blade, looking it over before deciding that it could be useful. Then, she turned her head slightly, not quite looking as she sliced the man's throat just to make sure he was dead too. It didn't sit well with her but she knew, logically, that it was better to make sure he was dead rather than risk him being a threat later.

"I'm sorry," she said softly a few moments later, not quite looking at the Ghoul as she continued to check the body over. "I should have made sure to shoot him after you took him down the first time."

[assjerky]

The Ghoul didn't reply right away; he finished stripping the body, with the quick efficiency of someone who'd done it a hundred times or more. "Check for coins," he reminded her, a few jingling in his palm before he pocketed them. "Legion uses fuckin' gold and silver shit, but they trade just as well, most places."

He fell silent again, moving on to the last body, the one that Dogmeat had taken care of--didn't bother to slit his throat, though. Cause he didn't have a throat left. He was quiet still as he divested the body of money, weapons, rations, a sack full of some kind of jerky probably intended for the hound, which he carried over to Lucy and handed to her before he finally spoke. "Ain't your fault, Vaultie," he grunted. "Should've been a one shot kill. That's on me."

[okiedokies]

"Okay," she nodded, then stopped almost immediately because of the headache. Not that she was going to complain about it as she continued to search the body and then moved on to the next one. They were coming out with a pretty good haul which she knew was a good thing even though she didn't want to think about the lives they had to take in the meantime. Still, she knew that it was better them than her and the Ghoul. She didn't want to think about what would have happened to her if they had captured her and taken her to wherever they were heading.

She was looking over the weapons, the money, and the rations she had gathered together when the Ghoul came over to hand her the bag of jerky which had the dog nearby perking up. After peeking inside, she glanced up before shaking her head. "It's not your fault. Shit happens sometimes, right?"

Yes, she cursed.

[assjerky]

"Yeah." The Ghoul stared at her for a moment, then glanced over at the dog. "So what's the plan? I know you ain't got a lick of experience training hounds, Vaultie." Cause No dogs in the vaults. Yeah, 200 years later and he was still bitter, what about it. "I ain't kiddin', that fuckin thing bites me, I'm puttin' it down."

[okiedokies]

Lucy wanted to lean up to kiss him, just to reassure him that she was fine but she didn't move. Focusing on his question instead, she shrugged a little while glancing over at the dogs. "I'm going to use Dogmeat to help me. It already looks like he's trained, so we just need to get him used to us."

"Look how quickly Dogmeat attached to you," she pointed out as she withdrew a piece of jerky, broke it in two, and then tossed the pieces at the dogs who quickly caught them.

[assjerky]

"Darlin', Dogmeat's a fuckin' runaway Enclave experiment," the Ghoul replied with a sigh. "Ain't no tellin' what they done to her to make her the way she is. That right there's a wild mongrel raised up the same ways as these fucks: in fightin' pits. Killin' each other to make ranks." Which he should've realized wasn't gonna do anything to dissuade the Vaultie. If anything it'd tug her heartstrings even harder. "Look. We can see what happens. Seems like Dogmeat's done showed it who's the alpha dog. But you can't save everything with a pair of big sad eyes, Vaultie."

[okiedokies]

"It worked on you," she glanced over at him, pressing her lips together as she teased him to lighten the air between them. Or maybe it would piss him off more, she never really knew but she was trying to figure that out. But he was right in thinking that hearing how the dog had been raised would only tug at her heartstrings more.

"I promise, if it doesn't work, we'll...do something," she didn't like the idea of killing the dog but she had to make a compromise with him. "Just give it time, you'll see. If he does get attached to us, then it'll be good. They can both keep an eye out for things and warn us ahead of time if something is nearby."

She had drawn closer to the dog and now she was holding out her hand. He gave her a wary look before leaning forward to sniff at her fingers. Then he drew back, slinking closer to Dogmeat as Lucy sighed and looked down at herself. "I need to get this blood off of me."