Sophia walked out of The Ninth Circle unprepared for the task at hand. Being the hero was why she left New Vegas to begin with. She was in DC to deliver letters and packages, not rescue ghouls from slavery! Fat lot of rescuing she did since she was now a slave owner. She had been told some pretty nasty stories about Ahzrukal from a few of the citizens of Underworld and had proceeded with caution when she had decided to buy Charon out of his contract. She couldn't leave someone who needed help without at least trying: it just wasn't in her nature. Now she was stuck with him. She wouldn't mind having someone watch her back, but how long was he going to be following her orders? Forever? What about what he had done to his old "master"? She liked her brains right were they were, thank you very much! What had she gotten herself into?

She took in a deep breath and coughed at the smell. Ghouls always had a certain sweet rotted meat smell about them. It wasn't real strong, but here in The Natural History Museum it was made worse by the humidity. In New Vegas, most ghouls smelled more like leather or dried jerky. Here they smelled like an old deathclaw den left to fester. She had never thought about it, but was suddenly glad she had met her ghoul friends in the Nevada heat and not in this humid metropolis. She suddenly had a fierce longing to hear her dearest ghoul friend, Raul's take on the ghoul city. He'd make some remark about how he remembered when those bones at the front had roamed the earth and you had to run away from them or be eaten. She glanced back at her new "employee". Would he become as close to her as Raul? Would he ever crack a joke? He didn't look like the joking type.

Of course, looking at him out of the corner of her eye she couldn't help but be impressed by his size and his intimidating posture. He looked like he could take down a Legion army and be home in time for lunch. As she tried to be inconspicuous about giving him a good once over she realized his armor was falling apart. She could fix that easily enough. Maybe.

Meanwhile, Charon couldn't help but try and size up his new employer while she lead them out of the bar and down to the second floor. A courier? He didn't even know mail carriers were still around. Sure, you might ask a caravan merchant to deliver a letter while on his route, but he wouldn't go out of his way to deliver it. More likely the receiver would need to know to seek that merchant out to see if they had a letter for you. But an honest to goodness mailman, err...lady? He hadn't realized how much more developed New Vegas had become. The ghouls and humans that left for New Vegas never came back. Maybe it wasn't because they had died along the way. Maybe some had decided to stay.

Someone opened the atrium door and a slight breeze swept past. When Charon took in a breath, his head cocked and he took another breath in immediately. What was that smell? It stirred up a long forgotten memory from when he was shorter than the courier in front of him. Christmas? She walked into Tulip's shop and Charon followed. As she stopped at the counter he took a chance and stepped a little closer to her. There! The smell WAS coming from her. She opened her pack and he peered into it.

"I got a problem, sugar," the courier drawled. Tulip licked her lips and took a deep breath in as the courier pulled out a stick of some kind.

"I've got a new traveling companion and his clothes have seen better days. Now, I know you said you didn't have any more caps to buy some of this, but I'm sure we could come to an agreement if you had what I was looking for."

Tulip looked thoughtful for a moment before she turned and walked away from her counter to a set of rundown lockers on the far wall.

"I think I might have something that would work." She pulled out some combat armor and a black leather jacket with padding pieced on in different places.

Sophia smiled at both and asked Charon which one he thought would fit.

Charon was a bit puzzled. He wasn't normally consulted when it came to his owner buying something. He walked closer to Tulip and looked at both items. As he reached out for them, Tulip flinched. Charon didn't let it bother him as he pulled the armor and jacket closer to look at. The combat armor was nice. Real nice. He hadn't worn decent armor in years. Sadly, it didn't look like it would fit a man of his breadth and stature. The leather jacket was worn, but clean and looked like it might be large enough.

"Well, are ya gonna try either of them on to see if one of them fits?" the courier asked.

"As you wish, mi-"

"Don't pull that shit again. Name's Sophia. Sophie if you've a mind to," she huffed.

He grunted and took off his old leather armor. He wore a grey shirt underneath that might have been black at some point in its life. Sophia wrinkled her nose as she caught a whiff of him. She remembered Sydney, a ghoul that worked at Gomorrah, telling her that ghouls needed to bath carefully to keep themselves smelling clean while keeping the little skin left attached. He had also mentioned the need to air out and keep dry, but moisturized. He paid her good money for Brahmin milk to soak in. That had been a funny job. He had asked if she wanted to join and although a part of her might have been a little intrigued, she was far too shy and too sober to accept. She knew what would happen if she had- her thoughts stopped as he finished buckling the straps and turned around. His broad shoulders and tapered waist made her want to feel the muscles under that jacket. She turned to Tulip.

"How much?"

Tulip was in a similar state of mind. "Huh?" she tore her gaze from Charon to stare blankly at Sophia. "Oh. Right. The leather jacket costs 200 caps and the armor 250. I'll sell you both for 300 caps and five sticks of that bark."

Sophia looked pensive for a moment.

"If you throw in an undershirt, clean socks, and that box of detergent, I'll accept."

"Deal, smoothskin."

Charon looked at his employer. "I do not think the combat armor will fit."

"We'll use it for scrap ad fix up the jacket so it'll be better protection. Can't have saved you from the beast to have you die by bandits!" Sophia replied as she poured caps and five sticks onto the counter of Underworld Traders. "Thanks, Tulip!" Charon picked up their newly acquired items and followed Sophia for a second time. Sophia. He liked the name.