Daniel Meets Mandy

//--GM
You leave the barn for the hands' house, and locate a rotary mockery of a phone that has stubbornly refused to die. Your new contact for Basin City picks up at the other end, and her soft voice promises you all the oblivion you can handle. Do you want to go get it (long walk with the car torched) or have her deliver it?

//--Daniel
Crap. Bodies lying all over the place. She doesn't need to come here. "I'll come there, but I've gotta leave a way for my friend to find me. Have you got a number that's anonymous? Something you can ditch if it falls in the wrong hands?" If so, I'll leave that number nailed by the place where I sat with Random; Oshi's good enough to figure it out. Then I'll start the long walk across town.

If not... I don't know. Shit. Have her bring it by, and I'll meet her at the bottom of the hill.

//--GM
"I... um... I was sorta hoping to get out of town for a little while. They just let a serial killer out of prison, and I don't want to find out too late that I'm his type. I'm quiet and reliable, I swear."

//--Daniel
"Ah, shit. What is _wrong_ with this place? Look, you do _not_ wanna come here. Is there someplace we can meet and hole up? Hotel near hear by uptown? I can leave a number for the folks I'm trying to hook up with later."

//--GM
"There's an abandoned gas station a mile or two farther out of town. Maybe their phone still works. If you wanted a hotel, I'd have to... uhm, borrow a car." You hear paper rustling even over this bad connection. "Here's the number." *sounds of dialing on a neighboring payphone* "It rings, but nobody's answering. Sound like what you want?"

//--Daniel
"It'll do fine."

//--GM
(skipping ahead slightly)

Funny, this whole place feels like your Shadow-shifting method writ large, traveling from one armpit to another. *eg* Any thoughts or deeds on your mile-long walk to the station?

//--Daniel
Thoughts? Like, what else is there? That kind of shit?

Let's add it up. Random's king, with license to murder anyone but the one person who's got it coming; power enough of his own to run over anyone except a very few - a few with maybe less scruple than he has... or at most the same amount. He and his make the game board. Was I ever sorry to lose him? Did I ever love him?

And me, more pathetic one moment to the next. Incapable of grand acts, incapable of petty ones. Outpowered.

At least there's not much chance I become him, if that's my fear. No chance at all.

//--GM
The gas station truly has seen better days, with most of the fixtures blown away or rusted into uselessness. Even the pumps smell more of bird droppings than fuel. However, the main structure is two rambling stories of cinder block, and the doors still work, although the locks are useless. Inside, the office runs into a three-bay service area; a concrete stairway with fixtures made of old pipes between them. A nigh-indestructible old pay phone is the only feature of note left on the ground level, unless you need a rusty wrench for something. The upper level is parts storage above the bays, and a small, musty apartment above the office, with a ratty mattress, a few broken tables, and a parts-scavenged old refrigerator that even the roaches ignore.

//--Daniel
Fine. A little grim, but fine.

//--GM
You note with some irony that this pit feels a bit like home - albeit no specific home you can recall - in your current mood.

You hear an engine out front, and spot a single headlight pulling into the station. By the time you get enough grime off the window to be sure, the motorcycle pulls away, depositing its passenger near the office door. You catch a glimpse of long hair before she walks under the awning and out of your sight.

//--Daniel
I look around for a broom or something, maybe a salvageably clean tarp, while I wait for her. I find that my want for what she's carrying is sharp and physical, in my gut.

//--GM
The broom and mop you turn up have heads rotted into uselessness by time and tiny teeth. A quick search of the upstairs turns up a box of old coveralls that were too full of oil and GoJo for the rats to eat, a few leftover boxes of machine wipes that don't look too chewed, and a heavy canvas work tarp that seems serviceable once you brush off some cobwebs and dried droppings. The bathroom off the "apartment" has faucets that still work, but runs brown long enough that you aren't sure you want to be drinking anything from there. A bar of soap has melted into a permanent part of the sink, but there's a half full hand tub of degreaser that doesn't look too foul.

//--Daniel
Wow. This may be too bad even for me.

Anyway, now she's here we can walk on elsewhere, perhaps.

//--GM
The girl seems to be moving very slowly, probably creeped out by the state of the place. Her bright blue eyes are wide and searching, and her knuckles are pale from their tight grip on the shoulder straps of her backpack. By the time she reaches the middle of the garage bay downstairs, she looks like she might jump out of her skin at the next loud noise.

//--Daniel
"Up here," I call to her to avoid just that effect, then I head down towards her.

//--GM
Her head turns sharply at the sound of your voice, and then she relaxes a little. She unlimbers the backpack as you get closer, clutching it to her chest by the time you're within arm's reach.

//--Daniel
"Thanks for coming, but I'm guessing we'll have to walk on elsewhere. I'm worried something'd eat my legs if I pass out in this place." I try to keep a little life in my voice. No sense worrying her.

//--GM
She fumbles around with a side pocket on the backpack, eventually producing what looks like a white plastic cat head with a speaker-grill mouth and green bead eyes. "I brought a vermin wailer, just in case. Don't leave home without it," she says, trying to smile, her nervous chuckle trailing off into a soft cough.

//--Daniel
I give her a grim smile at that. "Sure, might help." Changing tone I say, "Daniel Howethorn." I stick out my hand to her.

//--GM
"Mandy. Mandy Blue." She takes your offered hand, flashing chipped turquoise nail polish. You note a gentle strength to her grip and no shakes. If she uses what she sells, it hasn't broken her health yet.

//--Daniel
That cheers me up a little, in an odd way. I'm glad for her that she's clean. "Hey, Mandy Blue. Thanks again for coming out. Things are... things have kind of gone to shit. It's good to see a kind and pretty face."

//--GM
There's a hint of disbelief under her blush, like she's not sure if you're for real. Even though she is pretty, you doubt anyone has bothered to tell her so lately.

//--Daniel
Yeah, well, fuck 'em, I think.

//--GM
"Never had anybody order water with their poison before.... Don't worry; 'Pretty Poison' is just what it's called," and she flashes you a bottle of blue stuff big enough to dope half a psyche ward. "I wasn't sure how big a party you were throwing, so I brought two boxes of pins." She looks around. "Is it just you?"

//--Daniel
"Just me, sorry. But I'll pay you for your time, and the rest of that," I add, pointing, "if you can stay a bit. I got some time to kill," I kind of wince at the bad turn of phrase, "and I've gotta keep a promise to a friend."

//--GM
Your wince makes her smile again, like she's not used to someone worrying about what she might think. "I wouldn't normally say this to a guy I just met, but I don't think anyone will miss me for a few days." She quotes you a daily rate for 'babysitting' that seems quite reasonable. "If you get more than lonely when you come down, I know a couple girls who can help you with that, too, and I won't charge you a finder's fee if you behave yourself."

//--Daniel
"I don't know. Maybe. Have to see where I'm at then, I guess. And I don't know when exactly to expect Oshi -- that's who I'm waiting for. I said I'd give her a week... but I suppose she might call before that. She's a little scary, but I trust her; she saved my life more than once, and I hardly know why.

"Hey, um, let's find a place to hole up, huh?"...

//--GM
She sets the little cat head at the top of the stairs and makes sure the eyes are lit before following you around. You imagine for a moment that you can hear it wailing, but it's just a stray thought that quickly passes.

//--Daniel
I look around with her until we find someplace less grungy than most... Someplace where maybe she can safely light a fire or get some power on to have a light to read by or whatever. We'll find and clean off something reasonable for her to sit on. I lay out the tarp and shrug off my duster. Given where we are, I don't know if she'll react much to the holstered Ingram, the Colt, or
the sword, but, well, there they are.

//--GM
You find a space between the parts shelves that seems serviceable, and the electric light for that row actually works, despite some ominous flickering. Her only reaction to your weapons display is to eye the sword, curious.

//--Daniel
I take off that gear, wrapping it up and setting it aside.

//--GM
Her fingers trail along the sword scabbard for a moment before withdrawing her hand.

//--Daniel
I give her what passes for a smile. "Yeah. 'S nice. Had it made some years back."

//--GM
She continues to admire it. You can almost see the samurai fantasy playing across the backs of her eyeballs before she shakes it off to get to work.

//--Daniel
I ball the duster up for a pillow and sit. Finally I relax a little, close enough to getting myself together and getting what I need for a while. I watch her lay out the kit. "It's... been a while," I comment to her.

//--GM
"This stuff burns a bit the first few times, so you don't want to go too fast." She draws just a little into the syringe at first, but the look on your face persuades her to just about fill it. "Might not want anything sharp too close to hand until it really hits, okay?"

//--Daniel
I nod and start rolling up a sleeve. A black ball of tar is sticking my lungs and guts together, and it's hard to talk. As she prepares, I ask, "You got something, uh, quick, to bring me back if you need me to... move or whatever?"

//--GM
"I could probably slap you awake enough to zombie-carry you out of the building, but that's about it. Sorry, but for whatever reason, there just isn't much of a market for antidotes among the people I deal with." From the look on her face, you'd guess she's going to spend some time wondering just why that is... implying a touch of charming naivety on her part.

//--Daniel
"Mm, yeah. Well, if I was concerned about safety I suppose we wouldn't be here," I mumble.

//--GM
She gestures with the needle, wordlessly asking whether you want to shoot up yourself or have her do it for you.

//--Daniel
I nod and take it from her, as she warned me about the spasms and I don't want her hurt. Before I go away I say, "If anybody else calls -- anybody else you don't know, besides Oshi -- I don't want 'em here." I look over at the guns. "I don't know what you're packing, but use 'em if you need to."

And, I go away.