Sofia 'Sonya' Petrova Balakina (red_sonya) wrote in birthrightrpg, @ 2021-02-11 17:15:00 |
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Entry tags: | ronnie milam, sonya balakina |
Badge, Badger, Badger, Badger, Badger...
Who: Sonya/Ronnie.
Where: Searchlight.
What: Sonya makes some money and a revelation is made.
Sofia Balakina was feeling a little bent out of shape, as it were. Life in Las Vegas had been bright and loud, just as she had wanted from America, but it was also increasingly limited in time. A lengthy vacation might have been a nice benefit, but her father was not going to be content to pay her way indefinitely.
Not that Sofia had been frivolous with what money she had, of course, but cash-in-hand employment was difficult for immigrants with connections, let alone those without. And the Balakina girl was... Not exactly suited to filling typically menial vacancies.
She would be more informally known as Sonya to friends, though had not yet properly latched onto an expansive social circle. Not outside of the one occupied on social media, at least. One person, however, she had met and mentioned a small town known as Searchlight. Somewhere quite different to life in Vegas, where the redhead immediately began to suspect real American cowboys might be hiding behind every corner, ready to start a gunfight.
What did materialise, however, was an offer of employment not too far removed from that delusion. At first, the girl had been cautious, but...
So it was, having moved from her hotel room in Vegas to a motel room in this small desert town, Sonya walked out with a yawn into the warm afternoon air, paintball gun in hand, bandolier of energy drink cans across her torso and beret on head.
Time to start promoting!
"Hey! Man with hair! I am have questionings for you!"
Ronnie didn’t meander by the El Rey often. He rarely left home these days without some sort of escort, but he wasn’t the type to stay cooped up inside the house. He got bored, needed fresh air and to talk to someone. By definition he was a social butterfly and while he knew it was dangerous he would readily approach and talk to a stranger. He was friendly, he couldn’t help it.
So when the oddly dressed woman shouted for his attention Ronnie stopped, blinked, and grinned. “Cool, what’s up? Is that a paintball gun?” He squinted. And Monster cans.
She looked like a Halloween makeshift version of Rambo except she wore a beret. Or maybe this is a crazy play on Raspberry Beret.
“Da! But is safeties and-”
But an accidental press of the trigger succeeded in startling the Russian-accented redhead and she danced an unintentional jig as the ammunition splatted by her feet, causing her to grumble and reset the device.
“OK! Now is safeties,” she adamantly confirmed. “So, have listenings to me... You are be likings fun, yes? You are be likings big place? With big air! And big noise! And big musics! I am bringings you news, Sir!”
With that, looking partially like a very happy dog who had just caught a frisbee, Sofia flashed out a leaflet and waved it at high speed, trying to make him take ahold of it. A little rudimentary, perhaps, but the text helped to convey what her limited English vocabulary could not: A paintballing ranch not too far out of town, by the name of ‘Dye Another Day’. On the back, a voucher to get up to two friends in for free on an introductory offer.
Ronnie nodded.
Paint splattered on the toes of his sneakers. He looked down and then back up at her with amusement. “Cool,” he nodded. “Paintball is legit.” That was a word he’d gotten from Derek over the years.
And as the pamphlet came toward him he did take it, nearly mimicking her excitement. One foot and then the other. He read the thing. “Oh shit, this is badass!”
“Yes, this shits is bad of ass, my friend! It has unholy ass! You like this ass? It will be of bads for you! The worst ass you shall have!”
Proceeding to mime something which looked like a live-action re-enactment of an air strike, the Russian made an explosive reaction between her hands and faked dying in what looked like a pool of acid.
“Is good moneys! And you bring friends? We have foods for you! Big day - big day! We are havings these,” she gestured to the paintball gun being carried. “And, also, big ones! Like, like rocket! Much booms!”
The animate way she recounted the bad ass time ahead would be observed with amusement. Ronnie laughed softly. “Wow that’s cool. I will totally check this place out if it’s even half of that much fun.” He hadn’t been to a paintball place in ages - he wondered if they were open at night.
He opened up the leaflet and glanced at the pages, studying the pictures. It really did look like a lot of fun and he did have a birthday coming up. Was paintball in the future?
OK, so... Sonya now knew she had a potential customer. She had ‘won’ the game, as it were. Should she... Consolidate that, somehow? Or get more potential customers? She hadn’t actually been briefed that far ahead and was feeling a little fuzzy on the details. The trouble was, being a relatively sleepy little town, it wasn’t as if the place was bustling with pedestrian traffic.
“It is! I am guarantee this,” Ronnie’s militant rebel of the painting world enthused with an assertive nod. “You are lives here? Or perhaps Las Vegas?”
“Say,” he began softly, holding up the leaflet. “If you have any more of these I can pass a few around for you. I bet a few people here would find paintball really cool.” And her confirmation proved that it was a good idea to send people there.
“Oh, I’m from here,” Ronnie replied. He waved a hand around. “Don’t look like much but it ain’t a bad place to hang your hat. Vegas is real loud and real bright. We move a little bit slower around here.”
The girl carried with her a satchel. Not a handbag, a satchel. She was either improvising a ‘combat chic’ look or had been asked to. A bunch of fliers were brought and passed his way with a happy little, “Da!” If her Eastern European accent and mangled grammar wasn’t already a clue of her geographical origins, then that was.
“Searchlight very new for me,” she responded, having to pronounce the town’s name in a lengthy fashion, still getting used to it. “I come to America and I am, mmm... How say...” And she took out her mobile, consulting a handy little automated translation application. “Oh! Yes, I am come here? And Las Vegas very nice, very big! Very bright, yes, but... I am be meet girl and she say, hey, you go here! Searchlight! And I go and I am findings man and... Well, I am be do this now,” she smiled with a little flourish of her partial costume.
Ronnie took the handful of leaflets for the paintball place, grinning like a fool. He felt like he’d just struck rich at the pony races. “Cool! I’m totally passing these out to my friends.” Who didn’t love a good game of paintball? Not only was it fun to be competitive, but you got to shoot at your friends in a non-lethal way. Totally macho and he was into that.
When she told him she was new, his smile eased a bit. “Welcome to Searchlight, then! We don’t really meet strangers here. Not a bad place to end up. I’m Ronnie,” Ronnie the newly tasked leaflet distributor.
He smiled wider, “Ain’t nobody more suited to hand out combat flyers than you, I guess.”
Sonya had yet to run into Nesryn since that time, though if this was any indication, perhaps a smaller area would be more likely to expand her social circle. Then again, perhaps it was the change in career. Not that there weren’t far worse options for an immigrant. Heck, she knew that from her own native country.
“Me? Ohhh, I am fast! I-”
From somewhere behind her, as she braced into a fire-fighting stance, there was a loud noise of something on the ground and the redhead whirled, jumping back a little as she faced a coiled rattlesnake making its audible warning. After a few moments, backing slowly out of range, the animal swerved and chose to make good on an escape.
Something in Russian was muttered and she turned back. “Welcomes to Searchlight,” she echoed in mockery with half a grin. “I am be... Sofia, but can call Sonya.”
While she hadn’t noticed it, the redhead’s sudden fright had, for a brief moment, caused a distinctive outline of something which looked like leathery wings and a tail, in a ghostly hologram-like red, to appear. Something which had slowly disappeared into nothing, but… It was there.
Ronnie blinked at the snake, looking down at it. Snakes typically didn’t bother him. Out here wildlife was common and usually it left you alone if you showed the same courtesy. That seemed to be the case here, too. “Nice meeting you, Sonya.”
She may not have noticed but he certainly did - that odd little snap of an outline he wasn’t familiar with. But he only smiled as it faded. Things in this town were different though he had never seen anything quite like that.
“I should let you get back to your paintball promotion. Place ain’t going to sell itself.”