Katy cautiously steps out from cover and begins wandering over to Mike. She offers him a part she found. Looks like an old servo. "You'd probably get better use of this than me. So what kind of robot are you, exactly?"

She hasn't dropped her guard. It is clear she is still glancing around and has her legs in a "ready to sprint" posture. The girl is tense, despite trying to act friendly. But then... who isn't tense in this world?

Miku, don't answer that.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 00:19, Sun 12 Mar 2017.

  "The kind made by the lowest bidder. Or I wouldn't need to be a robot riding a robot suit for shoulder mounted Gatling guns."  Not that he owns any, but a robot can have goals.

  He decides that of the two options, taking the servo with essentially brand X mage hand will be slightly less offputting that putting his arms with the integrated weaponry closer to the girl.

  "Thank you, I'm sure I'll think of something for it.  Now, how much radiation and/or lead poisoning can you handle with your water?"  Sure, she's hanging around low level radiation land.  But people have been known to be incredibly stupid even with a Geiger counter where radiation is concerned.

Katy shrugs. "More than normal. Less than a lot? I've never measured my limits... just tried to survive."

She eyes Mike. "For someone built by the lowest bidder, you sure are surprisingly functional."

  "Well, I'll try to be mindful of that.  If anyone suggests experimenting to see how much makes you sick, punch them in their most sensitive organ."  He considers a crumbling section of wall.  "Now, water will be easy for the moment.  I only have a single smashed granola bar decades past it's expiration date at the bottom of my backpack because I only need water."

  It's a shame 'Nutrient pipelines' never caught on for the living sorts, but last one he heard about had devolved into paper plate mask wearing tribes in constant warfare.

  "It helps knowing how to repair yourself.  Well, that and the tendency to build things to still be dangerous to anything that walks by them after hundreds of years sitting in a ditch somewhere.  Seems like things only break quickly when it's something that keeps people alive."

OOC: http://brigador.wikia.com/wiki/Man_from_Volta 

Katy says, "...could you teach me how to repair you? If you were to lose both arms, I'm sure that would keep you from repairing yourself. And now that we're friends, we should be able to help each other."

  Mike finds this going way too well for his expectations. But then outside of 'designated civilization areas' like some settlements, any sentiments he runs across in travel belonged more on a random encounter checklist than a conversation.

  "Probably later, under some random bridge doesn't seem the best place to demonstrate proper maintenance." wait back up-  "I know I shouldn't be surprised, but getting considered friendship material because I'm not shooting at you feels like a bar that deserves to be higher."

Katy says, "In a better world, maybe. But this world sucks and I'm lonely."

  Mike nods, it's one of the few things close to a facial expressions he has available.  "Well, I guess at the very least I can probably help with that much.  Though I'm pretty sure all my spare jumpsuits are way too big for you, so I'm already way under the curve on actual help provided."  Well, at least fresh water is readily dealt with for the moment. Give or take some power tool usage.

Katy shrugs. "S'alright... this outfit I'm wearing is lined with lead; helping to protect me from the radiation. Feel like helping me scavenge? I've been at this for a while, so I'm due for a break if you'd rather we find a safe place."

  "I'll need to get into practice looking for food, but at least for water I've got some clean bottles of if I've mostly kept around for barter reasons if you can't wait for me to drill through this wall."  It's funny how boring holes through concrete can end up faster in the long run than trying to clear away crushed under rubble utility access covers, and other misc apocalyptic set dressing.

  "Though if you already know a better spot to actually stop for later, that would be convenient."

Katy says, "I know a spot or two. I'm sure you know a couple spots, but I'm guessing they are the kind of locations designed to keep organics from reaching you, so... anyway. This way. Follow me."

Katy begins leading the way towards a hilly, rocky area just outside the city ruins.

  Mike follows after the fuzzy girl, reminded again that auto-map isn't as good at already knowing where things are in the first place.  "It mostly cuts down on a few poorly equipped bandits tops, considering almost everything that wants to kill you is immune to, or made out of, radiation."

Katy eyes him. "Are they immune to poisonous gas? Or drowning in water? Or burning in lava? Radiation is only one of a gajillion things that can kill organics."

  "Yes to the first two, though I've been fortunate enough to not see lava yet at least.  So now it's only a matter of time before an erupting volcano full of magma people happens.  Honestly most hazards that could hurt hostile 'organics' roaming the wasteland are still a painful for robots."  Hiding out in a minefield is all fun and games until the universe decides to swap out the walking radzombies for giant cyborg wasps.

Katy says, "Guess I take it for granted that stuff that hurts me doesn't hurt all organics... on the bright side, enemies CAN be hurt. One way or another." She would say "hurting is what I specialize in", but as far as she knows, that's not a specialty; it's life.

  Katy does have an advantage in worst birthday ever-Oh wait, that probably was probably referring to hurting others.

  "Preferably from a safe distance, at least for me.  I miss bullets though."  Sure the damage size is the same with his custom weaponry, but income vs usage meant slumming it with fancy rock throwers instead of using drastically overpriced needles and bullets.

  It's gotten to the point he has a spare longbow... Hmm, Katy was short.  But was she KEYWORDS small?

Nope. You have to be under 4' tall to get on the "keyword small" ride.

Katy is standard human child size because she is a human child... technically.

After about a half hour of travel, the duo come upon a group of zombies who start peeking from around corners and whatnot, hobbling towards the two. Katy says, "These guys are slow and only attack face-to-face, so I keep them around as a minor deterrent to most. Feel free to just run." Why fight when you can flee and still get to your destination? That said, Katy runs.

  "It seems very inconsistent whether or not zombies ignore me, or decide to attack me anyways.  So I'll follow your lead for now."

Like Katy indicated, they only chase for a bit before returning to their original location. Eventually, the two are climbing rocky hills before Katy shows a nook that you have to squeeze through. Eventually, the nook leads to some kind of cave entrance. Inside the cave is a small area, about 25 feet in diameter, filled with nick-knacks, a makeshift bed, and other such things. Looks like Katy has a pile of parts, electronics, and the beginnings of a chemistry set. "Welcome to my home."

  Oh right, beds.  What a crazy time having to basically shut yourself off instead of just using minimal effort for a while.  "I hope this place has enough ventilation for your chemistry to not harm yourself, other than that I can see the appeal."

OOC: http://awkwardzombie.com/index...e=0&comic=032017

Katy says, "That's why I keep my viles sealed."

She trots over and hurls herself at her bed, doing a mid-air corkscrew before flopping. "Home, sweet home. Sort of.... Did you ever have a home, Mike?"
This message was last edited by the player at 22:26, Thu 13 Apr 2017.

  Mike finally disengages from his Mechframe.  "Not in a meaningful sense of the word.  Attach a roof over D99, and it would be more of a home than assorted storage locations I've been through."

  He considers the cave, which he expects is a step down from whatever this girl may have had before.  Even the worst of apocalyptic shanty towns still involve walls or roofs of manufactured material.

Katy says, "Oh. Well now you have one. Maybe some day, we can find a settlement that is safe enough to live in. But for now, this place is about as safe as it comes, I think."

  We blame Mike's inexperience with more normal social interactions for why he doesn't break down and hug Katy in thanks for her touching offer, and simply says "Cool, at least I won't take up much room."

Katy may have had the worst birthday ever, but seems she has had a happier backstory than Mike. At least she was loved once. Katy yawns. "Maybe after I sleep, we can scavenge some more stuff... together..." she closes her eyes, looking a little peaceful.