private FoE: Aftermath; After the Fact (1x1 with Meson Bolt)

[Meson Bolt 2,648]

Foray glanced around, still a bit unsure. Though she could still walk on three legs, it would definitely be a hassle with all this loose dirt around, but at the same time she'd hate feeling like dead weight if Kronos carried her.

 

Turning back to her companion again, she sighed and answered reluctantly, "Fine, we'll go with the first option... just, please don't drop me, okay?"

[Kronos the Revenant 1,971]

"Don't worry, Foray," Kronos replied in a reassuring tone, "You can just wedge yourself between my back and the radscorpion plate and you should remain still on my back." He went on to take off the radscorpion hide and squatted down to let Foray on his back. "Before I forget once you're on my back," Kronos went on, "Do you want the ragged outside or the squishy inside of the radscorpion hide holding you on my back?"

Edited October 17, 2016 by Kronos the Revenant

[Meson Bolt 2,648]

"Does it really matter?" Foray retorted, still looking slightly unsure as she carefully climbed onto Kronos' back. It wasn't particularly easy with her wounded knee, but she'd managed to ease herself up onto his back and hang her front legs over his shoulders. "Let's just get this over with and get to the cabin, I really don't want to stay out here any longer than we have to..."

[Kronos the Revenant 1,971]

"Alright," Kronos replied as he got Foray on his back and then fastened the radscorpion hide over her, "Hang on tight."

 

He jump up to the cliff, digging his robotic claws into the formation. His own weight in addition to the added weight of Foray and the hide on his back dragged him down a couple of inches. When he stopped sliding down, he regained his grip on the cliff side and scaled the formation. A few minutes later, he made it to the top, he went forward a few steps, removed the hide from his back and squatted down again to let Foray off of his back.

 

"Alright, there ya go," Kronos replied, "now let's head over to that cabin."

[Meson Bolt 2,648]

Foray rolled off Kronos' back as soon as she was free, landing gently on the ground beside him.

 

...Well that was... unpleasant...

 

Glancing around the woods, and now quite wary of the giant hole they were standing near, she realized that she'd lost her bearings as to where the cabin was.

 

"Any idea which way we were headed before all this happened?" she asked Kronos.

[Kronos the Revenant 1,971]

"I was just following you," Kronos replied, "Then that radscorpion attacked us." Kronos looked around to see if there was possibly anything familiar to him before the fight, but to no avail as everything was just forest. "Well shit, looks like there's really no way of telling where the hell we were headed."

[Meson Bolt 2,648]

"Well shit is right," Foray replied in mild disgust, plopping down and taking a few breaths to calm herself down. "...We weren't that far from the cabin, right? It should be somewhere close."

 

She paused and looked thoughtful. "If we fan out and search in a circle, we could probably find it before dark... or at least be able to find your previous hoofprints. That should be enough to get us some direction..."

Edited October 18, 2016 by Meson Bolt

[Kronos the Revenant 1,971]

Hoofprints? Kronos thought to himself, Why the hell didn't I think of that? Then again, there's the potential of so many animals crossing through here, there may be a whole slew of prints in the forest. Ah well, better plan than none.

 

With that thought, Kronos replied to Foray, "Alright. Switch to tactical scanner." His eyes turned bright orange as he scanned the ground for hoofprints.

[Meson Bolt 2,648]

Foray did her best to aid in the search, though she really didn't have an idea where to look first. She began pacing around the area slowly in ever-widening circles, but there was very little doubt in her mind that Kronos would find something long before she would.

 

After several minutes, she called out, "Found anything yet?"

[Kronos the Revenant 1,971]

Kronos looked around for a few minutes, searching for patterns in the dirt until he found their original path.

 

"There," he pointed out, "That's where we were before we got ambushed then diverted our path to the cliff. It also helped that the radscorpion left quite a few piles of dirt to determine places where it burrowed near the surface and when it popped out to attack us."

[Meson Bolt 2,648]

Foray trotted over and crouched down, studying the markings he was motioning to. "Right, there's your previous hoofprints... and there's where we first heard it. So we should be going..." she determined a direction and nodded towards it. "This way? And from what I remember, it's not that far... should be there in a few minutes."

 

Getting to her hooves slowly, she headed forward into the woods at a slow pace. The foliage was getting thicker by the minute, and though Foray herself could weave through the trees easily, she doubted Kronos could follow if she went too fast.

[Kronos the Revenant 1,971]

Kronos tried following Foray, but since he was larger than her and stood upright, the foliage got in his way even more so than it went into Foray's way. As a remedy for this, and out of sheer frustration of the foliage, he furiously swiped away at the shrubs that got in his way as he followed her.

 

As the foliage got thicker and thicker, Kronos began contemplating the use of a Flamer to burn through the foliage. The problems with that were the fact that for one, he didn't have a Flamer with him and the other one was that he will most likely burn his companion as well, so he decided to put up with the obstruction and try cutting through it with he claws drawn out and swiped through trying to follow Foray.

[Meson Bolt 2,648]

Foray noticed that Kronos was having a tough time following her, even at a slow pace. Though there wasn't much she could do about it, she decided to slow down a bit more, almost to a lazy stroll, allowing him to head up beside her.

 

Another few minutes passed before she glanced up at her companion, smiling apologetically and asking, "Tough woods, huh?"

[Kronos the Revenant 1,971]

"Well," Kronos replied, "I am larger compared to you, so these woods are harder to navigate for me. So, yeah, with all of this bullshit foliage, these are tough woods to navigate through without a Flamer. How much longer do you estimate it will be until we're there, Foray?"

[Meson Bolt 2,648]

"Yeah, no, using a flamethrower forest is a terrible idea," Foray retorted in a matter-of-fact tone. "I can't believe I have to tell you that."

 

Thinking for a moment, she answered, "We should be there right about now... if I'm not mistaken, we weren't honestly that far when the radscorpion attacked." Pausing and glancing around their surroundings, she added, "Why not use that fancy scanner of yours and see if you can find it?"

[Kronos the Revenant 1,971]

"Alrighty, then," Kronos replied, "Tactical scanners." His eyes once again glowed orange, scanning the area and searching for a structure. "There are some structures that I'm detecting, but none of them seem to resemble a shack. Rather, they appear to be natural structures, caves and whatnot. Hang on a moment." After scanning for a few more moments, he said, "We seem to be a few clicks away from the shack in that direction." He pointed at an angle a little bit off to the right side of Foray's current trajectory.

[Meson Bolt 2,648]

"Awesome, let's go," Foray replied, heading on in the indicated direction with renewed vigor, before remembering Kronos' slow movement pace and sheepishly slowing down.

 

Truth was, she was starving and wanted to eat, but didn't feel safe in the open woods with radscorpions around. And as she wasn't too fond of Mirelurk meat, she hoped that there'd be something else to munch on in the cabin.

[Kronos the Revenant 1,971]

Kronos intently followed Foray through the woods after he gave her the directions. As he followed, he searched around the area, unsure of what may come out and try to attack them again. He tried to keep his guard up again. He noticed that Foray was getting a little bit more sluggish in her movement. Hmm, Kronos thought, fatigue? Perhaps there is something wrong with her. Her actions are all too similar to someone that seems thirsty or hungry. I did manage to harvest some meat from the radscorpion we just killed.

 

"You seem a little famished," Kronos told Foray, "Are you alright?"

[Meson Bolt 2,648]

"Just hungry. I'm a couple hours overtime from my last meal," she replied with a forced smile. "We'll stop and eat when we reach the cabin... I don't wanna eat out here while there's radscorpions around." Pausing to push a branch out of her way, she added, "Besides, it can't be that much farther if your scanners can detect it, right?"

[Kronos the Revenant 1,971]

"Yeah, that seems sensible," Kronos replied in agreement with her logic, "Speaking of which, we seem to be a few meters away from the cabin. And lucky us, we aren't getting attacked by anything. Oh shit, I hope I didn't just jinx us by saying that." With that in mind, Kronos kept himself aware of their surroundings.

[Meson Bolt 2,648]

Foray nodded, keeping her eyes forward and straining to see the shelter through the woods. "There it is!" she exclaimed, again forgetting Kronos' slow movement speed and cantering up to the front of the building.

 

The cabin wasn't in that bad of a shape, in fact it looked like it could still be inhabited. Though the windows' shutters were closed, the outside looked completely intact and nothing was boarded up.

 

Better than I expected... Foray mused as she tried the door. It was locked.

[Kronos the Revenant 1,971]

Finally, Kronos thought, we found the damn cabin. When he caught up to Foray, he noticed the condition of the cabin. Hmm, he pondered to himself, seems pretty intact for a lone cabin in the middle of a forest. He noticed Foray try the door just to see that it was locked.

 

Kronos chuckled to himself amusingly and told Foray, "Here, let me try." He carefully peeled off a strip of metal and pulled out his screwdriver. He bent the piece of metal to crudely resemble a bobby pin. Ehh, close enough, he thought to himself as he tried to pick the lock. When he put the piece of metal into the lock and wedged his screwdriver on top of it, he was hesitant to turn it. He wasn't too sure if he could hear the tumblers of the lock very well. He turned towards Foray, "Hey, Foray, you mind listening to the lock while I try to pick it? I'm not sure how well this piece of metal will hold out and I'm not looking forward to stripping every possible piece of metal here. So, can you take a listen while I turn the lock?"

[Meson Bolt 2,648]

Foray snickered lightly, shaking her head in mild amusement as Kronos tried to unlock the door with such a poorly-shaped tool. Under normal circumstances she'd fancy her companion and wait until they eventually gave up, but as she was rather hungry at the time and wanted to get inside, she instead chuckled and said, "I got this, Kronos."

 

Kneeling down in front of the door, she grasped the screwdriver and slipped a bobby pin out of her mane's braid and discarding the misshapen metal strip. With her magic, it only took a few moments before she'd unlocked the door and handed Kronos back his screwdriver, grinning smartly.

[Kronos the Revenant 1,971]

"Oh, thanks," Kronos replied as Foray unlocked the door and got his screwdriver back, "Okay, now let's see what's inside." When they entered, he saw that there were a few things that could possibly be of use to them, including a hot plate that was somehow able to work.

 

Hmm, Kronos thought as he turned on the hot plate, I guess I can cook off of this. Let's see what else is in here.......

[Meson Bolt 2,648]

Foray was far more interested on if the cabin was inhabited, and if so, where the inhabitants were. Heading into the living room quietly, she gasped and took a step back as she nearly fell into a giant hole in the floor.

 

A pair of pony corpses, still somewhat fresh, had been picked clean by whatever attacked them.

 

Probably that radscorpion, she mused. Well, I doubt they'd be upset about us breaking and entering now...

 

"Kron? Mind taking a look at this?" Foray called out.

Edited October 24, 2016 by Meson Bolt