Can I AXE You a Question?
Encounter With A Raider
The Raider mare gives you a vicious grin, a fire axe, its edge wickedly sharp, held in the ethereal purple glow of her magic.
"Can I AXE ya a question?" She says, her violet irises boring into yours with an unhinged intensity.
"Sure," you reply, keeping your voice as even and confident as possible. "But I'm not sure you'll be able to HANDLE my answer."
The mare's grin gets wider and she giggles, twirling the axe with her magic and licking her lips as she eyes your exposed neck.
Definitely unhinged, you think, trying not to shudder.
"Ya got a SHARP mind," she says. "I like that, which means ya get to keep yer head!"
You let out a small sigh of relief, but keep your pistol trained on the mare, trusting the crazy Raider about as far as you can throw her.
"The name's Guillotine," She says, suddenly thrusting a dirty hoof towards you. "but my friends call me Gilly!"
"Am I a friend?" You say. "Cause that axe of yours is still very close to my face..."
Gilly continues to eye you for several moments, her grin morphing into a thoughtful smirk as she assesses you with whatever crazed intelligence she possesses. Finally, she lowers the axe slightly, then moves it around behind her so it rests across her withers.
This prompts you to lower your gun as well, barrel pointing at the ground just in front of her. As you tentatively raise your own hoof to meet hers, you note that the stains on her dark aquamarine coat and teal mane are likely dried blood, the rusty brown splatters standing out against the lighter brown mud of wastes.
"Anon," you say, gingerly taking her hoof and giving it a shake.
"Heh, ya afraid of me?" She asks, her unhinged grin returning.
"No more than I should be." You counter. "Can't be too careful with strangers you encounter in the wastes."
"Wise words," she says, eyeing your gun and giggling again. "I'm quick, but not ten millimeter quick."
You chuckle at this, still not at ease, but no longer on edge. "So, what can I do for you, Miss Gilly? I suppose you ambushed me for a reason?"
She nods. "Ya look like the kind of Stallion who'd know where the nearest Stable is."
"What makes you think I do?" You retort.
"Yer clothes," She replies, slowly placing one hoof in front of the other and stalking around you in a circle, listing off her observations with each step.
"Yer shirt barely has any dust on it, so either yer a fan of washing yer stuff in irradiated water, or you've just come from somewhere with clean water to spare."
You turn with her, keeping the gun trained on the ground at her hooves. As she circles, you catch sight of her cutie mark, a bleeding, severed head.
"Yer bags too, I know most of the settlements round here and none of em have enough to make those bags as full as yers are."
"None of what you've said so far proves I've been to a Stable," You reply casually, trying to swallow the bile that rose in your throat when you saw her flank. "I could be from any well-established settlement that's beyond your stomping ground, and as for the state of my garb, well..."
You eye the filthy shawl around Gilly's shoulders and the tattered, spiked barding on her back and can't resist a smirk.
"Maybe I just value personal hygiene a little more than some."
Gilly rolls her eyes at this and suddenly gets right up in your face, the unhinged grin back in full force.
"Some of us have more important things to worry about, Anon, like where our next meal is coming from...or how to persuade the cute stallion with a gun to tell em where the nearest Stable is!”
She keeps her axe where it is and gently places a hoof on the barrel of said gun, moving it away from where it now rests against her chest. Her magic then flares around her horn and you feel your sleeve being yanked up, exposing your hidden PipBuck.
"Pretty sure that's Stable Tech." She whispers smugly.
The stench of unwashed mare, dried blood, and sour breath washes over you as Gilly leers in your face. You weigh your options, toying with the idea of simply blasting her at point-blank range, when she draws back just as suddenly.
"Look," she says, sounding slightly subdued all of a sudden. "I said ya would get ta keep yer head, and I meant it."
She pulls a small cloth sack from inside her shawl, the clinking of bottle caps inside like music to your ears.
"I'll pay ya for the information-" she starts, but you're already shaking your head, albeit with some reluctance as the caps continue to jingle.
"Even if I was from a Stable,” You say. “which my PipBuck still doesn't prove, as I could've bought or stolen it from a dweller out in the wastes, what makes you think I'd sell out the Stable to the likes of you?"
Gilly doesn't reply, her eyes narrowing in frustration and her magical grip on the axe flaring up. Then, like an old, abandoned party balloon, she seems to slowly deflate, her gaze falling to the ground and her eyes losing focus as she mutters to herself under her breath.
"N-no more shadows... No more running... I won't add to your ranks... I'm so...so... tired...please..."
Just as you start to think about making a break for it, Gilly's eyes refocus and she looks up at you, her voice now truly weary and layered with a sad, practiced submissiveness.
"If the caps aren't enough..." she says quietly. "I can... ya could...w-we could find somewhere quiet and..."
As you digest what she's saying, Gilly drops her gaze again, her body shaking slightly as a mixture of subdued rage and shame clouds her features.
"Ya don't look like the kind of stallion who'd do me anywa-"
"No, I'm not." You say, cutting her off firmly. "Miss Gilly, I've done a lot of things in the name of survival, a lot of which I ain't proud of, but I've never done, nor will I ever do what you're implying I do to you now. That's a line I won't cross."
She chuckles brokenly. "I thought so... most of ya Stable folk still have morals for some reason..."
"...Not all of us-." you start to reply, only to realize that you've just confirmed Gilly's hunch.
She gives you a pale shadow of her earlier grin but says nothing. An awkward since falls, and as you try to figure out how to break it, she looks you in the eyes with surprising sincerity.
"Anon, I know what yer seeing when ya look at me." She says. "Ya see a crazy, filthy, axe wielding mare with a severed head for a cutie mark."
Unsure of where she's going with this, you remain quiet and let her continue.
"I accept that image... cause it's who I am... it's who I've always been... but... I'm trying to change and..."
She sighs and her eyes lose focus again, her muttering more forceful and strained than before.
"L-leave me alone!" She cries quietly, flinching back from some invisible assailant. "I'm trying to be nice! I won't g-give ya another reason to torture me!"
If you had any doubts about her being unhinged, this latest display dispels them. Gilly appears to have completely forgotten your presence, giving you yet another perfect opportunity to sneak away. However, the first quiet sob gives you pause.
"Please...please...p-please... I'm trying to change..." She says quietly, a second sob wracking her frame.
Suddenly, she seems to remember herself and jerks her gaze back up to you, continuing seemingly where she left off as if the strange episode never occurred.
"...Right now, Anon, right now...I'm just really hungry, really thirsty, and so... so tired. All I want is a safe place to eat and maybe rest for a few hours, that's it... I promise you that I have no ill will for the Stable or its occupants."
"A Raider's promise?" You retort, biting back a burst of scathing laughter. "You do realize that's worth less that the dirt we stand on?"
Gilly doesn't respond. Though you do catch a slight twitch in her eyes and you immediately go on guard. When she remains still for several moments longer, however, you let out a long. heavy sigh.
"Look, Miss Gilly, you got me, I'm from a Stable, and you're right, Stable folk tend to have more moral standards than the denizens of the wastes..."
Gilly's magic flares to life, griping the wooden axe handle so tightly it creaks.
"But listen to me," You continue, raising your gun and taking a step back. "The Stable I'm from has dealt with Raider attacks before, and no amount of moral standards are gonna change the fact that normally, most Stable folks want nothing to do with your kind."
The unhinged look is back on Gilly's face, but this time it's less of a grin and more of a sneer.
"Looks like I'll have to AXE ya another question after all." She says with bitter eagerness. "What would the Stable give me in exchange for the life of one of its dwellers!?"
You stand your ground, but with no small amount of trepidation as you find yourself seemingly back at square one with an axe in your face.
"The answer," you reply as calmly as you can. "is entirely dependent on who's manning the door. Some security officers actually care about those they're supposed to protect, but others would happily see me die just so they could have an excuse to reduce you to a bloody smear."
You take a deep breath and press on before Gilly can make up her mind on whether to break her promise.
"Normally, the odds wouldn't be in your favor and normally, a Raider's promise is worth less than dirt, UNLESS!
Gilly's axe halts a few inches from your neck.
"Unless somepone was willing to vouch for you..."
For a moment, Gilly doesn't seem to have understood you, her eyes going in and out of focus and the axe still hovering precariously close to your neck.
"You kept your promise to not behead me," You say, forging ahead. "and if you, a Raider, can keep that promise, then maybe you can keep your promise of no ill will to the Stable and its occupants."
"Y-ya believe me?" She asks, a bewildered look on her face.
"I have my doubts, honestly," You reply. "but my wish to continue living far outweighs them."
"...Heh, I knew ya were a sharp one..." She says after a moments pause, a shadow of her former energy returning. "So, when do we leave?"
"Not so fast," you say, eyeing her axe. "Even if I vouch for you, depending on who's on guard, you may not be allowed to enter with your axe or full use of your magic."
"No pone. Takes. My axe." She says firmly.
"Well, all the more reason for this then." You reply, pulling a magical suppression ring from your bags."
Gilly recognizes the item instantly and smirks. "Ooh, kinky much?"
"I-...look," You say, flustered. "It will show any hard-flanks that you don't intend to be a threat, and if you keep your axe hidden, you may get to keep it with you."
Gilly ponders this for several moments before reluctantly taking the ring from you and slipping it over her horn. The ethereal purple glow of her magic immediately gutters out and her axe drops into the dirt with a dull thud.
It dawns on you that once again, now would be the perfect opportunity to blow her brains out, but instead, you holster your ten millimeter and watch as Gilly scoops up her axe and slips it into a sort of sheath strapped to her chest beneath her shawl.
"Alright," you say, "stay beside me, keep your axe hidden, and maybe let me do most of the talking."
Gilly nods in reply before falling in beside you and the two of you travel together in silence for several minutes, the rough, rolling terrain of the wastes passing slowly beneath your hooves.
"Thanks." Gilly says suddenly. "Thanks for well... not shooting me when ya had the chance..."
"Thanks for keeping your promise." you reply. "Continue to keep it, and we may both get a hot meal and a good night's rest when all is said and done."
"I like the sound of that...I knew I liked ya!" Gilly says, her energy from earlier fully restored.
You simply shake your head and carry on towards the Stable, a singular question hanging over your mind like the blade of a guillotine.
Just what have you gotten yourself into?
