-ROSE-
Ever since she was a small girl, luck always had Rose's back for the most part of her life, from the random toasters exploding in the faces of bullies to getting the last sweet roll after the rest got ruined in a birthday cake gone wrong.
A poster child of Vault Tech values, Rose aspired to make her people proud with her assigned role as a vault teacher.
Life was good in the Vault for Rose that she thought she had it all and for a while that was true.
While her luck remained strong, Rose's life took an unexpected turn from her Overseer father at the shy age of twenty.
He pulled her aside before she went to the mess hall for dinner and asked an unusual favor from her.
Under his arm, he had a tightly bound box.
"Rose, I need your help," Johnson asks Rose in a hushed tone.
Bright eyed as her mother before her, Rose inquires, "What's wrong?"
Waving his hand, Johnson assures her that nothing was wrong, he only needed her help with something.
Showing the box, Johnson explains how it was a parcel that needed to be delivered to a specific person.
And only that person.
No one else.
No one else must open the parcel except them.
Rose's father remained dodgy about answering her questions and he insists that if there was anyone who could deliver the parcel to the intended recipient, it was Rose.
"Why me?" Rose grew curious about her assignment.
Sighing, Johnson frowns as he tells her, "There's nobody else in the Vault I trust except you, honey."
Something he never took lightly.
Unfortunately, he couldn't tell her more, he insisted that she trusted him, and Rose swore that she trusted him wholeheartedly.
"His name is Mercurio Benton. You know it's him because of his eyes. He has an eye condition known as heterochromia. One eye is bright blue, and the other is dark brown. I believe he has a scar over his mouth," Johnson described the recipient of the parcel.
Listening to his description, Rose sheepishly asks where Mercurio was located, and almost jumped when Johnson told her that he was outside the Vault.
The last known location was Memphis.
Trying to say the word, Rose found it foreign before her father explained it was a city.
"He's still there last I heard," Johnson gestures as he recalled the last communication he had.
Following along, Rose then asked her father, "Why does he need this parcel?"
Johnson was hesitant telling his daughter anything about the parcel and instructs her that nobody can have the parcel except Mercurio.
"Trust me, honey," he only said before prodding Rose to collect her things from her room.
She couldn't say goodbye to her friends or her students, her father insisted that she get a hurry on, and not to say a word about where she was going.
When asked what he would say if someone asked, Johnson answers that Rose transferred to a different Vault.
The details muddled enough no one would go looking deeper and with him as the overseer, no one would think twice to go behind his back.
Whisked around the Vault with her knapsack filled with whatever she thought best brought with her to the surface, Rose met her father at the entrance of the Vault.
Holding the box in one hand and a BB gun in the other, Johnson sighs as he presented his daughter with her task and her weapon.
Shocked at the sight of the BB gun, Rose was initially hesitant at taking it before Johnson insisted that she take it, citing the dangers of the surface.
"I loaded the map on your Pip-Boy, you shouldn't have problems getting around, so long as you keep to the main road, you ought to be fine," Johnson hesitated at the end of the sentence.
Seeing uncertainty in his eyes, Rose begged her father for more information regarding her task, but he wouldn't give her anything more than a quick kiss on the forehead.
He opened that Vault door and ushered her out of her only home to the bright surface where she felt her presence greatly reducing into an insignificant part of the new world.
The bright sun illuminated her hazel eyes as the wind whipped her auburn hair tightly bound in a ponytail.
With her task in hand, Rose set out to achieve it, and quickly learnt that the surface wasn't like anything she had ever seen before.
A far cry from the Vault, it was like something out of a nightmare.
The uneven roads with debris that remained since ever and the Pip-Boy warning her of the hidden dangers of radioactive areas, it was hard to believe that this existed topside.
It was unlike anything Rose could have imagined and she wanted nothing more than to return to her sanctuary in the Vault, but her father tasked her with delivering the parcel, and so she pushed on despite her uncertainty.
In the back of her mind, she wondered about her friends and how they took the news that her father concocted to explain her absence, what they would say.
It dawned on her that she wouldn't know what to say to them when she got back after delivering the parcel to them.
Her father was hesitant her talking to her friends when he sent her to collect her things, so she wondered if he would even let her talk to them about this adventure of hers.
Checking her Pip-Boy every now again, Rose saw herself making progress, before she stopped for a time.
Drinking her filtered water and eating snacks her father insisted she pack, Rose sat in a little area that was hidden, and as she rested, she read a packed book given to her by her father to aid her.
In detail, the book told her about some of the people she was likely to encounter on her journey.
Some nice.
Some that the book warned as dangerous.
The types of weapons that she might encounter and their effectiveness as well as limitations.
Her BB gun was effective against the minor mutant insects and rodents, but useless against the likes of armored raiders.
Raiders.
The book warned with red bold letters that they were dangerous, and Rose was not to underestimate them.
With cartoony graphics, it showed how dangerous a group of raiders were to someone like her, and in graphic details it wasn't pleasant.
So, the book advised Rose to stay away from them.
Unless she acquires better weapons and armor, then she would be in the position of giving them a run for their caps!
Until then, she should avoid combat with them.
And the book stressed that while Rose might not like the idea, at times, combat would be the only way forward in some instances.
Others, if she can convince individuals and broker favorable conditions, she should, but the book warns that sometimes she needed to do better to convince others.
If it fails, she should expect a negative reaction.
Whether it results in violence depends, but to be on her guard regardless.
"Mercurio. Benton," Rose murmurs as she etched the name in her mind.
Whoever he was, her father insisted that the parcel in her knapsack go to him.
Never heard of the man until today and with her father being cagey with the details, all she knew was his name and his physical appearance.
"Mercurio. Benton."
Once he got the parcel, Rose could return home to her Vault, and all would be well.
Already she hated being on the surface, the unusual sensations she felt were confounding to her, and she didn't care for the openness presented by what her father called the Wasteland.
On her own for the first time in 20 years, Rose was beside herself as she didn't know where to begin her newfound journey, only that she was given a task.
Using her Pip-Boy, Rose followed a path that led her on a stretch of road with lines of abandoned vehicles.
Rotted away, stripped of parts, these abandoned vehicles became known quantities in the Wasteland.
Rose would get used to seeing them and not to spend long since they were likely picked clean by scavengers.
It was getting dark when Rose made her way to a spot and set up a camp with a fire.
Drinking her filtered water and opening a can of sausages, Rose returned to reading the book.
Munching on the processed sausages that were heavily salted, Rose checks her Pip-Boy.
It's still a while away until she arrives in Memphis.
Frowning, Rose went back to reading her book while the fire crackled.
She soon stopped when there was a noise she had never heard before.
Dropping her book, Rose picks up and grasps her BB gun as she stands up with her eyes darting across the dark Wasteland.
It came out of the darkness with yellow teeth shining brightly in the crackling fire and attempts to take a bite out of Rose, but her Pip-Boy got in the way.
Crunching her Pip-Boy with its teeth, Rose spots black beady eyes looking up at her.
Forcing herself, Rose used the butt of her BB gun to knock the creature away from her.
A mutant prairie rat.
Long thin tail that acts like a whip.
Elongated teeth.
No longer skittish around humans, this rat wanted to take a bite out of her.
While it was dazed, instead of using the BB gun for its intended purpose, Rose used it as a blunt object.
Taking blows to the head, the mutant rat squeals, but Rose wasn't deterred as she continued beating it, until blood oozed from both eyes, and it went limp.
Once she made sure it was dead, Rose was left with a broken Pip-Boy and no means to fix it.
"No!" Rose frowns as she touched the broken Pip-Boy with the screen completely cracked and teeth marks gouging it.
Frustrated, Rose took it out on the mangled corpse of the mutant rat but turning it into mush wasn't going to help her, and Rose sat quietly as the fire crackled.
-M.A. L-
With the sun shining brightly over the Wasteland, it was a good time to start scavenging, since dusk was when the worst the Wasteland had to offer started coming out in droves, and anyone with two brain cells knew better to take their chances at night.
Going around different areas of an abandoned car lot with sharp amber eyes, a woman in her early thirties checked every vehicle on the lot.
Not much to be had with them damaged and left to rot in the Wasteland, but to the woman, anything can be used with some know-how.
Floating effortlessly with different arms moving, a Mr. Handy with the etched letterings H.A.L on its chassis checked the opposite side of the lot.
"Find anything, yet?" Mal asks the Mr. Handy robot.
In its automated voice, the Mr. Handy robot responds, "No, madam. Nothing."
Sighing, the woman frowns as she regrouped with the Mr. Handy with annoyance in her amber eyes.
"Do we have to raze another raider camp?" Mal sighs in annoyance with their luck.
Despite its limitations, Hal sighs as it says, "It's looking to be that way, madam, but we would be doing a public service."
No one in the Wastelands likes raiders and no one hated them more than other raiders.
Self-explanatory reasons why no one liked or trusted raiders, but they were always getting their hands on anything they thought was worth money.
Of course, Mal had no intentions attempting to trade with them, and it was wise since raiders were prone to attacking.
Scum of the earth, no one cared if Mal and Hal razed their camps for supplies.
Effective, they made sure the raiders didn't know it was their doing, since there were never survivors, and it was a wise thing to do, as evident with raiders going scorched earth on perceived enemies.
Sure, it sparked a mortality discussion here and there, but there was nothing to discuss when it came to raiders continuing their terror on the terrified inhabitants of the Wasteland.
"Ah, hell, okay Sherman set course—" Mal was about to tell Hal to find them the nearest raider camp when they were alerted by someone calling out to them.
Alarmed, Mal followed the voice until her amber eyes dropped to a woman wearing a blue and yellow jumpsuit with a knapsack on her back.
"Excuse me!" Mal hears the woman calling out to her.
Her brow raised with her mouth open, Mal blinked when Hal shouts, "Madam! Behind me!"
Its multiple arms raised with weapons in hand, Hal planned on obliterating a perceived threat to its owner when the woman waved her hands as she shouts, "Wait! Wait! I'm not a raider!"
She pleaded with the Mr. Handy robot not to open fire on her and it made it turn towards its owner with confusion in its optical eyes.
"It could be a trap, madam," Hal warns Mal.
Seeing the woman coming closer, Mal recognized that she wasn't like any person that they have dealt with since making this area their home some time ago.
"Hold on there, Hal. How many raiders have we gotten rid of that had perfect teeth?" Mal raised her hand to stop Hal from going through with its intuitive.
Lowering its weapons, Hal responds in a monotonous, "0.00%!"
Slowly nodding, Mal watches as the woman hurried over to them with her weapon in tow.
Instantly, Mal recognized that the woman wasn't proficient with weaponry, the way she held the BB gun said it all.
She was prevented from coming too close to Mal by Hal as it guards its owner from her.
"Talk. Now," Mal raised her voice as she wanted to know the woman's intentions.
Pointing to herself, the woman introduced herself, "My name is Rose."
Confused by the seemingly friendly Rose, Hal remained cautious as Mal crossed her arms.
"Okay Rose, you have two seconds to tell us why you're out here making noise before my friend here zaps you out of existence. Go," Mal didn't hesitate to show displeasure towards Rose.
Quickly, Rose tells them, "I have to get a parcel to someone."
Raising her brow, Mal echoes, "Parcel?"
Hal also echoes, "Parcel?"
Nodding, Rose explained that she was given an important task in delivering it.
Seeing their disbelief, Rose gestures, "It's a long story."
Raising her finger, Mal retorts, "Do you have to announce you have a parcel toeveryoneyou meet?"
Meekly, Rose justifies it, "Well, it's the truth."
Shaking her head in displeasure, Mal remarked, "It's a miracle a raider hadn't made you theirtargetpractice!"
Hal was quick to add a sharp, "It's a miracle you're evenstillalive!"
Seeing the confusion on Rose's face, Mal made it clear how raiders loved stealing perceived valuables from people.
Often with extreme prejudice.
"I'm just being honest!" Rose protests.
Rubbing her amber eyes, Mal goes, "Honesty gets you an early grave around here."
Hal interjects a quick, "If something doesn't eat you first!"
Nodding, Mal agrees with Hal.
Meekly smiling, Rose timidly asks, "Um, can you help me?"
Skeptical, Mal asks her, "Why?"
Gesturing, Rose explains how she was lost.
She's disheartened when Mal flatly told her how she wouldn't help.
When asked, Mal gave a pragmatic reason, "I don't know you."
Hal adds, "You can't be too trusting in the Wasteland, these days!"
If it's not raiders, it's raiders disguising themselves!
Raising her hands in self-defense, Rose frets, "I just need to find a place, is all!"
She heard back, "You have a Pip-Boy on you."
Frowning, Rose shows the broken screen on the non-functioning Pip-Boy before telling Hal and Mal, "It broke."
She saw immediate confusion on Mal's face before Mal blurts, "How the hell do you break a Pip-Boy?!"
When Rose told her how she was attacked by something trying to bite her and it bit her Pip-Boy instead.
Giving an understanding nod, Mal sighs, "Doesn't everything around here?"
Pleading with her, Rose begs, "Please, can't you help me?"
Feigning disinterest, Mal questions her with, "What do I get from helping you?"
Shifting in her spot, Rose gestures as she struggles with an answer, "Um, you did a good deed?"
Shaking her head as her matted hair stiffly moved under the hard hat, Mal declined to help Rose.
"Look, I sympathize with ya, but I'm kinda busy at the moment with something," she attempts to wave Rose away from them, but the Vault Dweller remains stubborn.
Remaining where she stood, Rose asks, "What are you busy with?"
Mal gave a dry response, "Currently: You. Before you: Supplies."
She hoped it would be the end of it, but Rose wasn't deterred despite Mal being intentionally unhelpful.
Asking for more details, Rose learnt from Hal that Mal was looking for a part needed for some upgrades.
"Can I help?" Rose offered to help with the scavenging.
Dryly, Mal points out, "Goldilocks, these bears will eat you alive."
Provided Rose was lucky when the raiders inevitably captured her.
Hal further solidified with doubt.
Clasping her hands haphazardly with the BB gun, Rose begged them, "Please! I need to get this parcel delivered."
There's silence between Hal and Mal before Mal finally spoke up.
Raising her finger, Mal stresses, "Before I can remotely think about it, what are you exactly delivering that's so damn important?"
Harkening back to her father's urging and warnings, Rose became hesitant about telling Mal what her father wanted delivered.
"I'm sorry, ma'am, but that's against Vault Tech rules."
Shrugging, Mal showed disinterest as she prepared to leave with Hal, "Then get going. You don't want to be around at night."
And believe Mal when she said it.
Holding her hand outstretched, Rose begged, "Wait! It's important enough I had to leave the only home I have!"
She recoils as Mal bitterly remarks, "That's assuming they let you back in after you deliver it!"
Take aback, Rose blinks as she sheepishly asks, "I'm sorry?"
Waving her hand, Mal didn't answer the question and instead suggested, "Look, if it's that damn important, then suppose we can work out some sort of deal."
Recoiling, Hal sputters, "Madam?"
It was taken aback by Mal suddenly showing interest before Mal gestures, "Work with me Hal."
Curious, Rose asks, "What would I have to do?"
Seeing an opportunity, Mal went and explained, "Well, I need a part and I have a sinking suspicion that a raider camp has it. Of course, raiders aren't known for being reasonable."
As with everything else in the Wastelands, that's beside the point.
"If I get the part, can you fix my Pip-Boy?" Rose pointed at her wrist.
Slowly nodding, Mal said, "Assuming you survive long enough, we'll discuss the details."
Hal quickly spoke up, "Are you sure you want to do this, madam?"
It sounded alarming to Hal that its owner was willing to work with an unknown individual, but Mal calms the Mr. Handy robot.
She gave her pragmatic response, "Sure, what the hell. No skin off my teeth if she can't hack it."
It's a cruel thing to say, sure, but the Wastelands wasn't forgiving.
Rose touches her chest as she asserts, "I promise to get you that part, ma'am!"
Showing doubt, Mal responds, "We'll see. Hal, go with her."
Aghast, the Mr. Handy turned its floating body to face Mal with it sputtering, "But madam, what about you?"
It fretted about leaving her alone while it went with Rose.
Rubbing her eyes, Mal insists, "I'll be fine. Besides, you can still get the part while they're distracted with Miss Sunshine over here."
Part of the Wastelands, pragmatically solving problems.
Relenting, Hal exhaled, "I shall do it, madam."
Excited, Rose proclaimed she would get the part for Mal before Mal brought back to reality by saying, "If you live long enough."
It wasn't her first time in the Wastelands to immediately trust that this Vault Dweller would succeed the task given, but the woman had a surprising moxie about her.
Oh, how quickly she will shed it as she sees how the Wastelands wasn't a bowl of cherries!
"Come along, we have much to do!" Hal insists that Rose follows it towards the raider camp that it picked up on its scanners.
Following closely with the Mr. Handy robot, Rose asks it a question, "So, what part are we looking for, exactly?"
She heard back a monotonous, "A nuclear combustor!"
Drawing a blank on what the part was, Rose sheepishly asks, "What does it do?"
Eloquently, Hal answers with a detailed response that went over Rose's head, so she nods along as Hal led her over the ridge.
As it moved, Hal assures Rose that the combustor was small enough for her to carry it.
Nodding along, Rose then asks what the part looked like, and Hal gave a detailed description, "It looks like a silver cylinder with pipes sticking out of it."
Slowly nodding as her head, Rose gestures as she inquires, "And the raider camp, has it?"
Affirming, Hal responds with an annoyed, "Like rats with fleas!"
Disgusting things, rats, and raiders.
Having limited experience with raiders, Rose then asked why the raiders wanted the part, and Hal groans as it explains, "Oh, who knows with raiders. They collect more than just the random shiny objects they find on the ground, if you know what I mean."
It laments when Rose proceeded to tell it that she did know what it meant by the comment about raiders.
Immediately, she became sickened when Hal went into explicit details about the kind of diseases that Rose can expect from raiders given their unrepentant nature.
It was advised by Hal that Rose have a plan if she was ever captured by them, warning how they were merciless, and if she valued her sanity, as eloquently said by Hal, "Pop a little white pill and smile as you have the last laugh."
It's better than what the raiders had in store for Rose.
"Are they always a problem?" Rose asks as she went over a steep trench.
Groaning, Hal gave a biting response, "Since the first idiot picked up a broomstick!"
They were coming close to the raider camp and Hal noted that the part they needed was somewhere inside.
Seeing leather armored men on the outposts with their respected firearms, Rose stepped back as she realized the gravity of the situation, but Hal was quick to remind her that she wanted her Pip-Boy fixed, this was the only way.
Assuming she survived long enough, that is.
"What do I… do?" Rose asks for advice on how to best handle the situation.
Thinking it over, Hal suggests, "Could go in guns blazing!"
Seeing the doubt and fear on Rose's face, Hal then warns, "I wouldn't try and talk to them, they're not known for their intelligence, much!"
Rose would have better luck talking down a radroach than a raider.
Not very good with her BB gun, Rose worrying about the possibility of a fate worse than death, she grits her teeth before broaching an idea with Hal.
"Can you help me?"
"The madam gave explicit instructions?"
"What if the part gets destroyed?"
"Unlikely. It can handle quite a beating!"
"But what if a raider shoots it by mistake or uses it as a blunt force object?"
"Hm, you do have a point. Fine."
Using the raiders alleged lack of intelligence, Rose convinced Hal that it needed to help her with the retrieval, since if anything happened to the part, there was a chance no other raider camp around had it.
Hoisting itself, Hal raised its arms as it screams a phrase in French before attacking the raiders as they became alarmed at the presence of a Mr. Handy robot suddenly coming towards them, shooting them with several lasers produced from its arms.
Shouting, the raiders desperately tried to fight back, but the always-upgraded Mr. Handy robot made quick work of their attempts, until it ensured the last and final raider was burnt to a black crisp.
Seeing the carnage, Rose was shocked, before Hal reminded her that it was life in the Wastelands, that even if she didn't agree with it, it wasn't going to change overnight.
"Now hurry up, madam requires that part!" Hal grew testy for Rose to collect herself and help locate what they need.
Forcing herself to go through the singed raider camp, Rose saw the deceased raiders in different stages of burning, with some completely charred.
Humming, Hal scours the camp until it alerts Rose to the part they needed.
"Okay-dokey," Rose went to retrieve the part and found it was heavier than she expected.
Hal swore that she could pick it up, but Rose struggled to lift the heavy part from the ground.
"Hm, not good with heavy lifting, that's going to be a difficult thing around here," Hal comments as it watches Rose struggling.
Lifting with her knees and not her back, Rose managed to slowly move the part away from its resting spot but picking it up was impossible.
"If I may, miss, when in doubt, my madam would always make something out of nothing to help her with a task!" Hal gave a suggestion.
Resting the part on the ground, Rose glances around the raider camp as she tries to come up with an idea.
She stopped when she noticed something leaning against the wooden support beams.
"Will that work?" Rose points at it.
Eying it, Hal answers, "It's been fundamentally unchanged for centuries for a reason, miss. They must have used it, too."
With that said, Rose retrieves it and brings it over to the part lying on the ground.
It took some doing, but Rose manages to load the part into a wheelbarrow.
Hal stopped her to remind her to check the camp for anything useful, since well, the raiders won't be needing it anymore, and it'll just be picked up by someone else.
Going around the camp while Hal waited by the part, Rose found some food, some bottle caps which Hal instructs her to take with her as she will need them, and two stimpaks which Hal urged her to take with her.
Never know when she will need them.
Wheeling it out of the raider camp, Rose proceeds to follow Hal back to Mal who waited for them back at the car lot.
Showing genuine shock, Mal exhaled, "And here I thought you were just another mist in the breeze! How'd you do?"
Lifting the wheelbarrow, Rose shows Mal the part she collected, before Mal astutely said, "Hal did the dirty work, huh?"
Frowning, Rose admitted that she didn't have confidence in her abilities with the raiders just yet before Mal warns, "You're gonna need it quick. Okay, deal's a deal, come with me."
Keeping her word, Mal had Rose push the wheelbarrow with Hal next to her as they led Rose to a hideaway that Mal built with her two hands.
With scrap metal left lying around and not much else, Mal did what anyone would and used ingenuity and a wrench to create her own paradise away from the Wasteland outside.
"Oh, uh, I didn't catch your name," Rose remembered never asking.
As she walked to the beat of her drum, Mal yawns, "Maverick. Astute. Loner."
Mal.
It baffled Rose, but she didn't want to press her luck with Mal agreeing to fix her broken Pip-Boy.
"And I am Hal! Handy. Annihilator.Legionnaire!" Hal gave its name to Rose while slipping into a French accent towards the end.
Arriving at the reinforced steel slide door, Mal had hers and Hal's identities scanned before it opened.
Wheeling inside, Rose saw walls filled with whatever Mal and Hal found during their daily scavenging around the Wasteland.
Once the slide door locked closed, Mal instructs Rose where to place the wheelbarrow.
Doing as she's told; Rose hears Mal behind her placing the other items collected earlier in their respected bins.
"All right. Hand it over," Mal held her hand outstretched as Rose took off her Pip-Boy.
Giving it to Mal, she sat on her workbench stool where she began working on the Pip-Boy.
Hal guarded areas of the hidden bunker while limiting where Rose was allowed to explore.
With the limitations, Rose was able to see the work put into making the bunker livable, it was almost like being back in the Vault.
"How long have you been here?" Rose struck up a conversation with Mal.
While dissembling the Pip-Boy, Mal answers as she pulled away the broken screen, "Few years."
The area was different back than before Mal and Hal made work of the raiders that used to camp around it, built their home with the scraps left behind, and that's all she wrote.
After the umpteenth camp razed, raiders started coming up with rumors about something blitzing raider camps and killing everyone, so that cutdown foot traffic from the lambasted group.
While that was great for the area, it made scavenging harder since it pushed the two further out finding camps to raze for supplies.
Still, they managed.
"So, you're alone?"
"What? Nah, I got Hal."
"No, I mean like, you're alone?"
"Still alive, ain't I?"
"Doesn't it get lonely?"
"Compared to being stewed alive by a raider, I can manage."
Curt and to the point, Mal didn't mince words as she showed little interest in having company, only working on the Pip-Boy as it was agreed upon, but other than that, Rose was the only human she interacted with that wasn't being burnt alive to a crisp.
"Good news, the damages' are only minor, I can fix everything up," Mal revealed as she pulled away the punctured screen.
Collecting parts since she came out here with Hal, Mal had enough Pip-Boy parts to fix Rose's without issue.
It'll take some time, but when Mal's done the Pip-Boy will be good as new.
"Just need to flash the memory," Mal grabbed something from a workbench drawer.
Curious, Rose asks why Mal would need to do it, and Mal plainly told her that by replacing the parts, the Pip-Boy risks wiping the memory when everything is connected and powered on.
A quirk, but manageable.
Quietly, Rose watches Mal stick something into a port on the Pip-Boy, with some prodding, everything was flashed to the device.
Making sure everything was backed up, Mal went to work fixing the Pip-Boy.
Hal made her a drink and she thanked the Mr. Handy robot as it rested the tray beside her.
"Of course, madam!" Hal cheerfully said.
Seeing Rose fidgeting in the reflective surfaces of the wall, Mal asks Hal to get her something, too.
"Only if you're sure, madam!"
Hal disappeared down the hallway.
"So, you have a Mr. Handy, that's kind of… handy," Rose awkwardly smiles.
Disconnecting and reconnecting wires, Mal tells Rose about Hal, "It used to be in a rough shape, but I managed."
When Hal inevitably went into low-powered mode after being offline for so long and the damage it endured, Mal was able to work on it without fear of it turning on her.
Turning Hal back on at full capacity was the real test on whether she succeeded or not, but thankfully her changes in the programming stuck despite the risk of it not, and she further worked on Hal to the point where it was her lighting bruiser.
"Okay, sunshine, now for the fun part!" Mal then began the process of putting the Pip-Boy back together with the replacement parts.
Slow and steady, Mal worked on the Pip-Boy until finally turning it on with Rose behind her.
The screen illuminates and expectedly goes to a different screen.
Mal worked to recalibrate the Pip-Boy by utilizing the admin menus and using some know-how to bypass the security measures put in place.
As expected, recalibrating the Pip-Boy with the new parts caused a failsafe where the memory was cleared, but Mal reinstalled the backed-up flash memory.
Once the Pip-Boy rebooted, Mal gave it the clean bill of health, and presents the fixed Pip-Boy to the ecstatic Rose.
"Oh! Thank you!" Rose profusely thanks Mal for keeping her word and fixing the broken Pip-Boy.
Waving her hand, Mal casually informs Rose that it was a simple job for her, and that said, her job was done.
"Okay, sunshine, it's fixed, now you can find your way to… wherever you're going," Mal waved her hand.
She lowers her hand as she heard Rose say, "Memphis."
There's silence and then Mal echoes, "Memphis?"
Nodding, her ponytail stiffly bouncing, Rose confirmed she was going to Memphis.
"Well, it's not the worst place one can go to, madam," Hal stiffly shrugged.
Baffled, Rose asks what was wrong with Memphis, to which Mal explained, "It's full of Elvis impersonators who listen to their King, that should give you some idea."
There's a quizzical look on Rose's face as she struggled to understand what Mal said before Mal waved it away as, "Before our time."
Still, Mal held up her end of the bargain so henceforth Rose was to vacate the premises and continue her journey to Memphis.
Which Mal lambasts Rose for telling her where she intended on going.
"You are new to this ain't you?" Mal eyes her.
Meekly, Rose admits, "Well, you were struggling, and I thought…"
Waving her hand, Mal stresses, "Look, you don't want to go running your mouth to every Dick and Jane. I may be willing to help ya with your Pip-Boy, sunshine, but that's me."
Seeing how Rose was doe-eyed, Mal stressed the dangers and Rose affirms she was aware, showing Mal the book packed into her knapsack.
"If you're going to Memphis, you better be careful," Mal stresses the dangers that lie in the Wasteland.
Don't trust every Dick and Jane that talks to her.
Don't go around telling everyone her intentions.
Most of all, Mal pointed at the BB gun as she emphasized that Rose needed to learn how to use weapons.
"You're going down a lonely stretch of road, sunshine, and believe me, it's not easy," Mal points at her.