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[findthegeck]

Shiny buildings! Lush green parks! Sharp-dressed folk striding up and down the sidewalks with purpose and vigor! All of these descriptions would fit somewhere that isn't the Den.

To say that the Den was rustic would be doing authentic examples of rusticism a disservice. Many towns did not reach their dilapidated state because of the ravages of war, but rather the ravages of time. The town where the Den now stood had not been flattened by atomic bombs, but by looking at it, perhaps that would have been doing it a favor.

Some of the aging pre-war buildings have had whatever maintenance was necessary to keep the number of gaping holes in the roofs and walls to a minimum, leading to a sort of post-post-post-modern neo-retro-classical architectural style. Civic beautification is not a high priority, nor is filling in all the potholes.

There's no grass to mow, yesterdays junk is today's half-buried tetanus hazards, and plumbing is of the outdoor variety exemplified by the outhouse that for Sativa serves as a door to and from Milliways.

"This way," She tells her guest, pointing to crumbling road alongside the seedy bar (The Hole isn't just a clever name) they are standing behind. "The junkyard's just beyond the far end of the street. Watch your step."

That's no so much a warning about what you do here, as it is to actually make sure you don't put your foot in anything unpleasant.

Comments

[findthegeck]

"Things are pretty tough all over, but there's some good things in some places," says Sativa. "And this place has a lot of bad elements, but there's been some improvements. There's fewer kids on the streets now that the orphanage is running, and there's people helping out with that who are doing a lot better than they were before..."

It's not all that hard to do: leather-clad maniacs, sawn-off shotguns, beat-up roadsters. There's midgets, too!

Speaking of which (roadsters, not midgets) here one is now, as they enter the scrapyard. There's a few cracks in one corner of the windshield and the paintjob isn't all that great, but otherwise it looks roadworthy.

Well, worthy for these roads, anyway.

"What do you think?" she asks, holding up the key by its cute little keychain. "Want to give it a try?"

[says-the-booyah.livejournal.com]

HE gives a small chuckle at the keychain. And then studies the car. "OK, that thing looks like it's from my granddad's time. But that can't be from the 1950s, right?" Fins made a comeback? Really?

[findthegeck]

Sativa can only shrug. History isn't one of her strong points.

They never left. Fact is, the Fifties were never out of style. Nor were beehive hairdos, vacuum tubes or McCarthyism.

The interior doesn't look all that different from what you'd expect of that era, with a few retro-futuristic additions. Leather seats to accommodate a family of five, stick shift, handbrake, glove-box, analog clock and dials... The fuel indicator has a little nuclear symbol where you'd expect a gas pump to be and the stereo (won't be picking any station around here) has a slot in which would fit something thicker than a cassette.

There's also a little monitor that looks like it may allow interface with a certain type of portable computer.

And we haven't even gotten to what's under the hood.

[says-the-booyah.livejournal.com]

"I think I can work with this," Cy says as he slides into the front seat. "At least there's room. I hated driving after I got my parts, until I built the T-Car."

[findthegeck]

Sativa gets in through the passenger side, hopping up and down a little as she gets used to the heat of the leather from being in the sun all day.

"T-Car?" she asks, watching what he does.

[says-the-booyah.livejournal.com]

"The car I made for myself. T for Titans. But it wasn't like this." It's so much sleeker, though Cy bets there is some tech overlap.

"Let me get her running so I can see if she works the way my car does first."

[findthegeck]

"Uh-huh. Okay, go ahead. The key goes into that thing there," she tells him, pointing to the ignition. Just like a normal car!

It turns over like a normal car engine too, but instead of the rumbles and roar of a combustion engine there's an increasingly high-pitched whine. Atomic batteries to power, turbines to speed and all that.

[says-the-booyah.livejournal.com]

"Ooooo, nice sound. You gotta show me the engine." This is what the future is supposed to be: cars with really cool engines.

He grabs the shift and slides it out of park, and puts his foot on the pedal carefully. He has no idea how sensitive it is.

[findthegeck]

"That's the part up front, right?" she asks, grabbing onto the door and the dashboard when this thing starts to move.

And careful is good. This baby can go from 0 to 60 in nothing, and you wouldn't have to go far before becoming an addition to the adjacent scrap piles.

[says-the-booyah.livejournal.com]

"It used to be. I can't speak for the future. Feels like it though." The rumble is different but it's coming from up front.

The car begins to edge ahead slowly.

[findthegeck]

The bit with the fans sticking up out of the center of the bonnet might help to confirm that.

So far, so good. Remember to ease up on the clutch and everything.

Why does an atomic-powered car need a clutch? Hey, good question.


There's not a lot of ways to go withing the confines of the junkyard apart from back and forward as well as around and around a bit. The only other place to go is through the gate.

[says-the-booyah.livejournal.com]

"Let me guess...you don't got much road here, do you?" So far the car is handling well, but Cy wants to push it a little. And wants to figure out where Sativa is going to be driving.

[findthegeck]

"There's a few along the main caravan routes," she tells him. "Some are a lot wider than the one around here. They don't all connect with the towns, though, and sometimes it's quicker and easier on the feet to cut across on the ground."

[says-the-booyah.livejournal.com]

"There is someplace you wanna go, right?" So far, so good. It acts like a car.

[findthegeck]

"I was thinking about taking a trip back east to Vault City and then heading south to the New California Republic," Sativa replies. "But they're both pretty far away from here. The closest town I know of is Klamath, a few days walk north of here."

[says-the-booyah.livejournal.com]

"Just where are we on the map, anyway? Just for reference." He gives the pedal a bit more of a push, and gets the needle up to 35. Which is about as much as he thinks will be safe.

[findthegeck]

Sinking back into her seat, partly due to the acceleration, she punches up the map function on her Pip-Boy. "Just a second..."

The screen shows a zoomed in portion of the west coast region they're in with the Den in the center.

It's kind of hard to angle her arm to show him. Maybe that monitor on the dashboard with a conspicuous plug socket beneath it might help.

[says-the-booyah.livejournal.com]

Maybe it will, so Cy sees what he can do without losing command over the steering wheel.

"I...don't know those places. Most of them anyway. And I don't see Jump City." Which might be a good thing, since maybe her messed up world isn't his.

[findthegeck]

"Where's Jump City supposed to be?"

Wow, the landscapes really flying by. She feels the urge to stick her head out the window and feel the against her face.

[says-the-booyah.livejournal.com]

"Around where this San Francisco is. And the coastline is a bit different." He begins to bring the car back to where they started. "You been watching what I do with the wheel and the pedals?"

[findthegeck]

"I don't know anything about that place," she says.

"Huh? Oh, yes." she points. "That one makes it go forward, and the wheel makes it sort of... turn?"

[says-the-booyah.livejournal.com]

"It's called the steering wheel. It moves the tires in front left and right so you can change your path or turn. This pedal speeds us up, and this one...
" He moves his foot. "...is the brake and slows us. Be careful with both. And always use the same foot for both." He remembers the time when he was 15 and used both feet. That was not fun.

[findthegeck]

"Got it." She thinks so, anyway.

"What about that?" She asks, looking at the gear stick.

[says-the-booyah.livejournal.com]

"That shifts gears. From drive to park to neutral to reverse." He could explain it, but figures that cam come later. "Right now, we're going forward, so it's set for that."

[findthegeck]

"Makes sense."

Meanwhile, up ahead a group of over-sized lizards are gathered in the middle of the road. How inconsiderate.