Adam waited around the shop for a few minutes before a man wearing a heavy brown smock, welder's goggles, and covered in soot came walking in with Chuck.
"This 'ere is the town blacksmith, Devon." He said with a smile.
"Nice to meet you Devon." Adam said, offering his hand to him. Devon, however, ignored Adam and walked right over to the gold, picking it up and began to examine it.
"Don't mind him, he's not the social type." Chuck said with a small laugh.
"This here yours?" Devon asked Adam, seemingly, as he continued looking at the gold bar without even glancing at him.
"Yes sir." Adam responded, to which Devon just seemed to grunt in affirmation before pulling out some sort of metal detector with a small prong in the front and touching it to the gold bar. It beeped, he looked at the screen, and then he put the gold bar back down.
"It's as it said on the tin. I'd wager it's about 450 caps worth of gold." He said to Chuck, still not looking at Adam.
"Thanks Devon." Chuck said as he flipped him a cap which Devon caught midair. He grunted again and then walked out without so much as a goodbye.
"Not the most talkative man, huh?" Adam remarked once Devon had left.
"No, he usually shuts himself up in his smithy, don't talk to many folk neither. But he's not such a bad guy, he's actually quite friendly, just gotta know how to give him his space." Chuck said as he walked back around to the other side of the counter.
"You 'eard him. It's worth 450 caps. But this is a small town, I can't sell the bar to anyone here and that's a big cap investment. So i'll buy it off you for… 400 caps." he offered. "I'll sell it at Midway next time I'm headin' that way."
Adam took a moment to think. Truthfully he was planning to head to Midway eventually, he just didn't know when. He still needed to stock up on a few things and prepare himself for the journey, planning out a route and all that. But even with that he would likely make it there before Chuck did. However he would really rather not carry around a gold bar for the rest of the time until he made it to Midway. The people in this town were friendly and kind but there really was no need to take the risk. So after a moment to contemplate he nodded. "Alright that sounds good." Chuck grinned and then reached for more vouchers.
"Pleasure doin' business with ya." He said as he handed over 400 caps in vouchers which Adam immediately put away.
"Alright, I'm heading back to the Inn, I'm exhausted and need a nap." Adam said with a laugh as he grabbed his helmet and backpack, putting them back on.
"I'll probably see you later tonight then when I pop in for a drink." Chuck grinned as he waved Adam goodbye.
Adam had over a thousand caps now. A far cry from when he was worried if he would have a roof over his head the last time he was in town. Scaving was absolutely a very lucrative line of work, but it did come with numerous risks. There's a good reason most folks don't even try to do what he is doing. But it pays off well and he is glad to have found something to help sustain him in this wild world that had changed so much from the past.
When Adam got into the Inn Mandy was talking to Eric about something when she saw him.
"Well, well, well. Look what the cat dragged in." She grinned as Adam walked over. Adam laughed.
"No cats, but plenty of other things actually." He chuckled as he pulled out a voucher for 100 caps. "Can I rent the room again?"
"Sure can, cleaned it as always, nothing else touched." She said as she took the voucher and then handed him the key back again. "You keep coming around like this. Eventually I might consider you a regular." She winked and then put the voucher into the cash register.
"Can I go now?" Eric said, a bit annoyed at his conversation getting derailed by Adam.
"I'm not holding you, Eric, but I don't know what your rush is, not like you have a hot date waiting for you." Mandy teased only to get flipped off by Eric who then skulked off heading out the door.
"I don't know what to do with that brother of mine. He's so much work." Mandy remarked, mostly to herself.
"He's feeling underappreciated and underutilized, I'd guess." Adam said as he sat down at the bar for a moment. "I spoke with him before I left and he said he was rueful that all he had to live for was playing Inn worker."
"Did he now?" Mandy said as she raised an inquisitive eyebrow at Adam. "Now, how did you get my brother to open up like that? He's usually not much of a talker." Adam just shrugged.
"Protagonist energy." He said with a cocky grin and a playful tone. Mandy lightly hit his arm and shook her head.
"Well his life is his own, he doesn't need to stay here but I'd be lying if I didn't say I'd worry if he wasn't here."
"Well I doubt he's going anywhere, I think he's just feeling cooped up. I told him it's never too late to learn new skills, he probably just needs a push to find something he enjoys."
"Maybe." Mandy said with a sigh as she put a hand on her cheek. "I just hope he can pull him out of this slump soon, only so much I can do as his sister. Would be nice if he actually found a girl but I doubt he will walking around like that."
"Best thing you can do for him is help him when he needs it and give him a home to return to, it's on him to find something to drive him." Adam offered softly.
"Doesn't stop me from worrying though…" Mandy said trailing off into thoughts before she shook her head and then looked at Adam again. "Now, tell me, did you take a seat just to talk about my brother or did you need something else?"
"Oh yes!" Adam said as he unzipped his backpack and pulled out his Nuka Cola he kept instead of selling. "I was wondering if you could put this in the fridge you got back there." Adam said as he motioned with his head to the large Nuka Cola branded minifridge on the back of the bar next to the corner wall.
"Sure can. 1 cap." Mandy said with a grin.
"Really?" Adam said with a sigh.
"Really." Mandy chuckled. "It ain't that big and the drinks in there are for paying customers, if I take everyone's bottle that needs chilling everytime they ask I'd have nothing to sell. The cap is a cover fee." Adam sighed and then reached into his caps bag and then handed her the cap.
"Please." He said as he slid the Nuka Cola bottle towards here.
"Certainly." She laughed softly as she flipped the cap into the air, caught it in her hand, and then grabbed the Nuka Cola.
"You got a good find out there getting a Nuka Cola." She said as she put it in the fridge. "They aren't hard to come by but ones that aren't broken or open are getting rarer as time goes on."
"I actually found a whole crate of them, a Quantum too. Sold the rest to chuck."
"Didja?" She said as she leaned in on the counter after walking back over. "What'd he pay you for them?"
"20 caps, said that was the market rate." Mandy seemed to think for a moment.
"Tell you what, you sell me any drinks you find from now on and I'll top Chuck's offer. He pays 20 caps? I dont know… I'll pay 22." She laughed softly. "I'm gonna have to buy the drinks from Chuck anyway, might as well cut out the middle man.
"Works for me." Adam said as he stood up. "Oh, by the way, is Salvatore still in town? I got a gift for him."
"Sure is, he has a room over there." She said, pointing to a door he had never seen opened, though it being another room for rent made perfect sense.
"Awsome." Adam said before he paused again. "Oh, yeah also I found the vacuum tube needed to repair the Jukebox fully." He stopped for a moment before grinning and adding: "I'm going to clean up and then take a nap, if you are willing to cook a meal for me for free when I get up I'll finish the repairs for you." Mandy seemed to consider for a moment before she shrugged.
"Alright, fine enough by me, go take your nap, let me know when you want your food."
"Sounds good." Adam said with a smile, heading back to his rented room, glad to have a sense of familiarity and comfort once more.