re_alignment | audio; transmission from: outside of the haven

Entry tags:

✘ stalker | strelok

audio; transmission from: outside of the haven

[Enjoy that full minute of static, Haven. It's not getting any better. At least someone eventually starts talking... just that it's all in Russian and half-staticked out for another minute before the translator either kicks in or the man on the other end realizes that English might be easier for most people to understand.]

... -llo?

... -ve gotten los-

... -omeone come get me?

[The static increases briefly - which mostly covers a rather colorful curse that nobody needs to hear.]

I will rep-...... -ess.

... -ank you.

[The transmission cuts out shortly after that, returning the Link to its regularly scheduled silence.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[He pulls everything back down into place and nods.] Vector. The, ah... knight, yes? Little bit stodgy.

Appear in the temple? Why would I do that, I have been here for... [Strelok pauses, eyes unfocusing as he thinks, but he shakes his head.] ... I cannot remember how long, so a long time. I just sometimes leave the Haven, and then come back.

[He thinks. He remembers one trip out... part of a trip out.

Doesn't he?]

Yesthatshim! He's a...really hardworker too.

You did? Perhaps it was before I arrived. [Odd, Blurr arrived with a lot of new refugees all of sudden, in the junkpile. after that, everyone appeared inside a temples.] You must have been away for a really L-O-N-G time. How did you survive?

I am a stalker! A stalker is always prepared, or they are dead. [He shrugs.] I keep a lot of supplies with me. Food, water, ammunition. Everything a good stalker needs.

Besides, I did not leave all that long ago, anyway... I don't think. [Maybe he should talk to Nexus about this. When he gets back to the Haven, anyway.]

A stalker. So you spy on people? [Blurr gives the man a curious look.] You don't _{seem to have}any of those here.

I've been doing patrols around this place, in and out the Haven, since the day I arrived it seems ODD that I never encountered you before. Were you hiding from the giant robot insects?

[Strelok gives Blurr a confused look in return.] No, not that kind of stalker. They call us stalkers because we got into the Zone past all their military and security. We stalked past them, yes?
And I keep them in my pack. [He shifts the backpack on his back to pat it in indication.]

Giant robot insects? What giant robot insects?

Sorry this all that is unfamilar to me. What's the Zone?

The monsters who attacked us a few weeks ago. Really hard to miss considering how they even tried to get into the temples.

The Zone of Exclusion. It is on Earth, around Chernobyl?

I do not remember any monsters. [He purses his lips and furrows his brows.] I should, perhaps, speak with Nexus when I get back to the Haven.

Chernobyl is in Europe, right? I never visited it but I wanted. I had too much work to do. [He had seen some nice European cars around and got curious.]

Maybe I should bring you to the medbay, perhaps some of your data banks are miss...ohyouhumansdonthavethose.

The rest of Ukraine is very nice, but the Zone... forget it. It's too crazy to just visit. You should visit the rest if Europe sometime though, it's very nice. What I saw anyway. [Though it's been a long time; who knows how things have gone since he went into the Zone.]

[He laughs.] Not data banks, but we have brains. They can have trouble too. [Especially Strelok's.]

If I ever get back, which I doubt, I will see if I can go there. What makes the Zone so bad, though?

Ah, brains, right. I'm sure McCoy can give it a look ad wee if you need rest or something.

It is very dangerous, even for veteran stalkers like me. Everything will kill you, no lies.

McCoy. He is a doctor, then?

So it's like...the badlands? [Blurr looks at away, to the mountain's directions.]

Yes he is. A human one too..

[Strelok glances in the same direction. That he definitely doesn't remember...] I do not know the Badlands so much. The Zone... everything will kill you, but that's not it's aim. Not really.

[It's just a consequence of things.]

Ah, so a human doctor, in more senses than one.

Sound bad enough. What's the true purpose of the zone,a side from endless murder?

[Blurr grimaces, wondering what was all that about.]

Yes. He's very good at at it, I think.

Purpose? [He laughs a little.] It has no 'purpose'. It just... is. Like the rest of nature, but a little, ah... [Strelok wags his head side-to-side in a gesture that says 'ehhhhh'.] ... warped.

We shall have to see about that. I know one of the best in the business.

Warped. [Sounds bad, man.]

Is he here too?

[He points to Blurr and grins.] Exactly. Warped physics, warped mutants. Even stalkers are a little warped.

I do not think so, or he would have called to bitch at me by now.

Warped mutants are something I never want to face. You said you where a stalker.

AH, I see. Do you want me to help you get back to the Haven?

You don't want to meet them, no. They will melt your brain to jelly for being in the room. And I am, a stalker and warped both; you have to be a little crazy to go into the Zone.

I would appreciate it if you could. I will pay you back, of course.

I'm very against brain melting, so I rather not. [He gives Strelok a suspicious look, he cant' help it. He knows that male humans are tricky creates sometimes.] You look normal to me. At least so far.

You don't need to pay me anything, helping you is the right thing to do. We need to go to the east.

Good. Let us keep it that way, da? [Strelok mostly just looks like a thin, dirty, bald fellow in a hoody and armor. What you see with him is exactly what you get.] Ah, it is not all in the looks.

[Unfortunately for Blurr, this just makes him quietly resolve to pay him back. Let it never be said a stalker doesn't pay their debts!] You will lead the way? I am... fuzzy on the directions and my PDA and the Link are not locating things for shit today.

Yes, that seems like a great idea. [Is not the looks what worry Blurr, is the intentions. But Strelok has been nice so far and that's more than what Master Disaster did.] So true.

[Blurr will be surprised when that happens, but grateful.]I can carry you if you want. we could arrive to the Haven much faster if we do that.

[Really, he wouldn't know what to do with a car-controlling device if you gave it to him with all the instructions. Strelok is more interested in drinking and exploring than races.]

That would perhaps be the best way, yes. My dignity will recover, and I should get back and ask Nexus about all of this soon.

[Because something is weird here.]

[That is a good thing and drinking and exploring is not so bad. Blurr likes exploring a lot.]

I promise I will try not to hurt your dignity too much. [Blurr's hands move down, silently asking permission to pick him up. For a bot of his size, his hands are quite big.]

[Strelok and Blurr should get along well, then. Except when Strelok hauls into the wilderness on his own.]

It is hard to hurt, I promise. [Strelok nods once, and takes hold of one of Blurr's fingers to boost up and stand in that hand. He's surprisingly casual about it, really.]

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