[hr][hr][right][i][color=lime]Croup Manor_[/color][/i][/right][hr][hr]	"Hi there!" Dali waved, approaching the ramshackle manor. The building was different up close-- from afar it had the illusion of appearing to be this grand old establishment, something that had stood the test of time and entropy and existed erect, in spite of the harshities of the world-- the rad storms had made it's grey paint all the more regal, the oceans's waves had made it's pillars all the more dignified. A bastion of hope-- or something greater than hope, something that didn't have as many feathers. Perhaps it could just be something that looked nice, something in stark contrast the horrid grey world around them.

	Of course she was wrong. 

	She found she usually was about these things. The building, instead, was a gutted only house-- hardly worthy of the name 'manor' as her pipboy labeled it. It was a skeleton of something hat had once, 'maybe' been a decent sight to behold-- no more impressive than the other tinsel boxes that people lived in during the before time, no doubt, but still nice. Now it was not. Maybe once there had been windows? Maybe the wood wasn't rotted away by the harsh sea breezes? The fog hiding that it was sinking into the sands of the coast. Maybe there was a nice yard at once point? Where now there was stone... and bone?

	Was that blood?

	Oh god. It [i]was[/i] blood. Dali could smell the death in the air as she and Curie stepped from the crunching gravel onto the creaking porch. There were already two individuals before her, and several more just inside. Attractive men and women, most of them at least-- all probably younger than her. The two outside, a dour looking man with black eyes, a courser jacket, and a scar across his eye-- he didn't seem to be human, Dali wondered if he was a Synth. She'd heard of their kind, before, but had never actually met one before. She looked away from him, the last thing she needed was a robot that was angry at her. 

	The others all [i]looked[/i] human, at least. The other man standing on the porch looked similar to the Synth, actually, both brunette with soft skin tones-- but he was [i]human[/i]. He didn't look like the nicest man in the world, but she couldn't deny that he had a sort of rugged charm about him. The three inside, an Irish looking scientist with stubble and two pale woman with dark hair, one who was focused on... whatever. The other was Asian.

	Coming across another Asian was always surprising in the wasteland-- especially other Chinese people. There were complicated feelings there, some still harbored resentment, some didn't know a lick about the history of the world and why it is the way it is now-- that was hard enough to process as Dali processed the individuals. Then she heard Synth speak.

	"Wait-- this expedition." Dali addressed the scientist looking fellow, assuming he was the leader, "It's going to China? Wh-" Her eyes went wide in disbelief, "What could eliminating the Brotherhood and recovering fusion cores possibly have to do with China?"