[color=9e0039]CORRINE DOOLAK[/color] -- The Gun Shop

By god, did Corrine love watching the man work.  There they were, again, in that gun shop, with him hunched over the work bench, moving parts around her dad's old pistol, mumbling to himself as he worked.  His breath puffed out in little grunts and huffs as he laboured.

"It'll do nicely", Steve said to Corrine after several minutes and testing the mechanics.  She peered over his shoulder to watch was he was doing, but she as yet couldn't make sense of his actions.  Finally, he turned to her, holding the weapon and speaking in a gentle, but informative, tone.

"Here's how you load the magazine, Corrine", Steve said as he demonstrated by loading one magazine with twelve rounds. he then handed her the other magazine and pushed the box, now with only thirteen rounds in it, towards her. "now you load this one." 

"Ahh...okay..."  She quivered slightly as she took a hold of the pistol.  Corrine mimicked his demonstration as best she could, and was impressed he hadn't corrected her.  He took it back to show her a couple more things before handing it back.

"It's loaded now", Steve said, "You have twelve shots, once the last one is fired, the slide will lock back and you remove the empty magazine and insert another like I showed you. Make sure you put the empty magazine in your pocket so you don't lose it...you can reload it later. To fire, disengage the safety. With the safety off, it will fire if you pull the trigger, so watch where you point it." He then handed her the other magazine. "Unless you can open up one of these cans, that is all the rounds you have...don't waste them."

Corrine took a deep breath, exhaling slowly as she merely held the gun in her hands, staring at it.  She cleared her throat, remembering her manners.  "Thank you."

"A few questions", Steve said, "Is there a pre-war military base on this island? I've noticed a lot of stuff that has US Government markings on them, usually that stuff only turns up if there is some sort of military facility in the area."

"A base?  Uhhh..."  Corrine thought carefully for a moment.  "Not sure what exactly you mean by that.  Only military type spots were the vehicles.  One bein' that atomic sub the Children live on, and the other the great big rig out on the far coast that was overflowin' with trappers, last I heard.  MS...flower...somethin'.  Aster?  No.  [i]Azalea[/i]."  She shrugged.  "Seems likely my previous family would'a scavv'ed the place out a long time ago." 

"Also", Steve continued, "I've got an idea about rigging that boiler they're using to cook Mirelurks to spray scalding water on those giant critters you mentioned.....nothing that can feel pain will stand still for that...who would we talk to about getting permission, not to mention the tools, to do that?"  

"What sort of tools would you need?  Tools are easy -- Brooks has all sorts of stuff, and the Mariner had quite a collection back in the day..."  She drifted off, daydreaming about tools momentarily.  "Uh, anyway. Only person I can imagine cookin' mirelurk in such volume would be Mitch. If it ain't him, I'm sure he'd tell you who it is."

"Lastly", Steve continued, "Back in the Last Plank, Rose said something about meeting a "Enclave Bastard".....any idea who she meant by that?"

Completely uninvited, Steve burst in and interrupted their conversation.  “She was referring to me.” Steve replied as he stood in the doorway, his overcoat wide open like he were some kind of exhibitionist.

Several moments passed, silently, and awkwardly, before Corrine spoke.  She grit her teeth.  "What the hell is the meaning of this?  You just put yerself into any conversation you want?"  She shook her head and pointed a finger at James, accusingly.  "Well, he ain't lyin'.  Up in Acadia, he flat out told Bishop and Rose he was 'Enclave'."  She paused for a moment, reflecting on the exchange that happened all those hours ago.  At the time she was anxious to rest, or leave, and hadn't become too involved in the conversation.  "Didn't mean much to me, but now that I think about it, Bishop and Rose weren't too happy about it."

"Now," she all but growled at James, "what do you want?"