Way Back Home

The Great Green Jewel

There wasn't anything particularly interesting to look at today. Another dawn was always nice, but the hustle and bustle of Diamond city's morning routine had become boring. Lillie had already memorized the routines of nearly everyone living on the field; whether their first stop was the noodles shop, the chop shop, or whatever mundane circuit was left to buy their essentials from. People usually hung out with each other near the bars. Some idled aimlessly through the bases, their lost faces noticeable every time. She wondered if they felt as lost as she did.

It sucked to watch people she didn't care about go on their daily routines, so she stepped back into Home Plate— back to her weapons workbench she went to. It was practically her only hobby outside of the obvious, and many had noticed her good skills. Whole reason she was here was because enough people cared enough about her craftsmanship to eventually help her fund this weird old home. As she stood over it, as well as the rack of broken guns given to her to fix, her shoulders sank as she sighed, cursing under her breath. "Damn it, Lillie, get your shit together..."

She grabbed one of the guns, simply taking the first one she felt as she kept her eyes squeezed. Thank God she enforced a no-bullets policy on any gun that came into her shop; her hapless guessing had already blown one nicely sized dent in the concrete wall. Still, it felt like the only way she could start doing this nowadays was by forcing herself into starting the project. To tell the truth, she was just so bored. Ever since Detective Valentine had gone "missing," Lillie found that her own line of work as his helpful hired hand had dried up, and she was hesitant to believe, at this point, that Valentine had just found an exceptionally-long lead— at the same time, though, she worried that if she went to look for him, she could be stumbling into the same trap he fell into. She hated the possibility of him being kidnapped or tortured, but this wouldn't be the first time she's had to make a shitty decision to keep herself from becoming Wasteland fertilizer. She gazed at the 10 millimeter she had in her hand. The note attached to it was simply an arrow pointing at the barrel; gun was jammed, likely. Lillie always found it a little embarrassing how she couldn't really read the lengthier explanations that people gave to her, but no one really seemed to care, after a while. "Learning to read is a difficult task, even here," they'd always tell her, "you've been out on your own a long while." Even still, you'd think a girl with a knack for guns would know how to read more than simple sentences.

Right before she went through her box of tools though, she could hear a ruckus, and not the normal kind. Ditching the sidearm to go and open her front door just a crack, she watched as a crowd surrounded... something. Someone, maybe. It was a small group of people, but even they couldn't obscure the volume of Piper's voice. Once again she had decided to go on an angry rant against the mayor. Lillie didn't love the mayor- she thought he was a little on the crazier side- but this level of vitriol had to be personal, the way Piper nearly lost her home to the most recent paper she heard everyone talking about. Actually, how had she not lost her home? Lillie shook her head, before her eyes abruptly focused on the sight of someone starkly unfamiliar. A rather large man with shaggy brown hair; despite what seemed to be a Pip-boy on his arm, he carried no weapon. She noticed Piper was close to him, and once McDonough had stormed off, she turned to the larger man, saying something inaudibly to him. There were also caravan traders close by. Maybe he was a new part of the caravan? That still didn't make any sense; again, he had no weapon. Shutting the door behind her as she walked out to the market, she watched as the man was immediately flagged down by several vendors. He seemed confused and upset as he was pushed around, before finally, the barber won the game of tug o' war, pushing him into his shop. Upon closer inspection, the man looked to be recently wounded, judging by the litany of bandages all over him. His hair was, frankly, a mess— no wonder the stylist wanted to see him so badly. The gunsmith leaned against the front wall of her shop, her eyes adjusting to the scene. Piper had gone back into the Publick Occurrences shop, and it seemed that a crowd began to walk closer to the waterfront. McDonough was probably doing another one of his mayoral speeches down there— anything to comfort his people, Lillie thought as she rolled her eyes. She watched the barber shear at the unknown man's hair for a while. He cut it down to a more even length, and while it was still unruly and longer in the back, the man seemed more comfortable with this than whatever uneven mess he had earlier. When it came time for payment, the man shuffled frantically in his pockets for an embarrassingly long time, before finally placing a handful of caps into the other man's hand. He didn't even seem to immediately recognize that he was supposed to pay with caps, which baffled Lillie. So many people had been trying to switch the currency over the years, sure, but it never worked out for long. Had this guy been living under a rock? As she watched him stumble out of the salon, he brushed his shoulders off, seeming even more bewildered than before. For a moment, the two locked eyes, and Lillie had to quickly avert her own, praying he didn't notice her staring at him like a freak. She was close to going back into her shop to try and avoid any conversation before she watched him stop to talk to a guard, instead. She overheard the words "Ellie Perkins" and "Valentine," which piqued her interest. Did this man have anything to do with Nick's disappearance? As he walked in the direction of the detective agency, she trailed close behind, minding the combat knife in her pocket. He didn't seem to notice her as he made his way down the path.