The day was already well into the evening, he had spent quite a long time fixing up the Mr. Handy after all, but he still had one more thing he wanted to do before he could retire for the night, not that he would, it was still early. But tasks come first.
He made his way out of the building, after a mild struggle on the first floor to navigate to an exit. Once outside he headed right for the ghoul section of the city.
He made it all the way to the wall separating the ghoul area from the rest of the city before he was stopped not by the guards who also seemed to be on guard near the gate to this section of the city, but by a ghoul who seemed to be in plain clothes and may have also been on guard, separate from the uniformed ones?
"Hey, where do you think you are going smoothskin?" He said as he put up a hand to stop Adam from entering. The uniformed guards didn't make a move, they didn't seem to care at all about the Ghoul stopping Adam.
"I um… am here to see a friend?" Adam said, uncertain why he was being stopped.
"Sure, sure." The ghoul said with a roll of his eyes. "Look, we don't need whatever you are selling, just get out of here before you cause trouble." The ghoul continued, still blocking his way.
"What?" Adam said both indignantly and confused. "Are you seriously not going to let me in?"
"I'm not looking to start any trouble, but this here is ghoul town, it's ours and we gotta protect what we have, so if you understand then get lost." He said standing his ground.
"The fuck-" Adam began before he stopped himself. "You don't want trouble? Well there will be if you are going to stop me." Adam said as he put his hand on his holster, not even touching his pistol but simply indicating it was there, not that it was at any point not visible.
The ghoul seemed sufficiently intimidated but didn't back away. He opened his mouth to speak before another ghoul, a woman, walked over and spoke up.
"Oh, leave him be Johnny. He won't cause any trouble here, will you cutie?" She said with a charming smile. Or what would be charming if she didn't have a rotting face, but it was the thought that counted.
"No ma'am." Adam said as he slowly pulled his hand away from his holster and rested it at his side again.
"Good, then welcome to our little slice of heaven, we welcome all types." She said with a pointed tone as she looked at Johnny. She then gently grabbed Johnny's shoulders and pulled him out of the way.
Adam relaxed and smiled at her, nodding. "Thank you miss."
"No trouble at all, it's always nice to see a fresh face around here.~" She said with an impressively flirty tone despite her gravelly voice. As Adam began to walk away, heading to the Golden Gecko where Salvatore said he would be, he realized the double meaning she had slipped in, now unsure if she thought he was handsome or being subtly racist herself. In either case there was clearly a lot more of a cultural divide between the humans and the ghouls than he had realized.
He immediately felt like the odd one out as he wandered the streets of ghoul town. Everyone else was a ghoul, obviously. So walking around as he was he stuck out immediately. Though while he was drawing some attention it wasn't as much as he would have expected from the introduction he got from Johnny. A few people looked, one person stared, but most ignored him, even if he stuck out.
The area was also bigger than it had looked in the distance. Not nearly as big as the airport proper, but there were a lot of buildings constructed over here, big ones too, and that's not even considering the private air terminal that the town was centered around. It could certainly house a lot of people, which it probably did.
Considering how many people lived in the center of Midway, if you also included Ghoul Town this was a proper huge settlement. Not that was ever in question but it could not be underestimated how many people actually lived here.
Regardless of musings it took him a bit before he eventually found one sizable separately built building labeled "Golden Gecko". Upon entering it looked like a decent tavern, plenty of tables and chairs, a bar to drink at and the second floor had a bunch of doors, likely for renting rooms. In addition, there was wait staff taking the orders of some patrons. The patrons themselves, while all ghouls, were a mix of those wearing moderately nice clothing, blue collar worker clothing, and people wearing various kinds of armor. Though the last one was the most common.
After looking around for a moment, struggling a tiny bit because ghouls often looked a bit similar, he found Salvatore sitting at the bar, just like he would at Mandy's. Perhaps if he knew more ghouls he might have an easier time telling them apart but it was challenging right now. In either case he strolled up to Salvatore and took a seat next to him.
"What you drinking?" He asked as he sat down. Without missing a beat or even acting surprised that Adam was here Salvatore responded.
"Atomic Bomb. He said as he sipped the drink.
"Sounds interesting. Is it any good?" Adam asked with a playful tone.
"No, it's awful." Salvatore responded dryly.
"How rude!" A female ghoul voice piped up from the other end of the bar, when Adam looked it was the bartender who was filling up a glass for another patron. "I'll have you know I've been tending bar for decades, I challenge you to find a better bartender." She said as she walked over and smiled at Adam.
"Don't mind grumpy here. Though I wouldn't recommend trying the Atomic Bomb if I were you. It is lethal to humans." Adam laughed.
"Noted." He smiled. "Actually I'm here for my friend here." He said, motioning with his head to Salvatore.
"Oh! You are that new guy he mentioned. I never knew you'd be so handsome!" She said with a playful wink. Adam laughed again.
"Oh you flatter me."
"Can't blame a girl for shooting her shot." She smiled. "Well good to know grumpy pants here has a friend, I know he doesn't make those easily."
"It's none of your business Claire." Salvaore said curtly.
"How can you say that to me of all people? You know it's my business." She said, her hands on her hips
"Maybe a decade ago but I broke things off between us." He responded without looking at her.
"Uhuh, sure." She said unconvinced. "That's why you keep coming back to me." Salvatore shot her a look now fully engaged.
"I'm not going to do this in front of the kid."
"Oh so he's your kid now? Where was that energy a decade ago?" She said with a teasing tone but it was clear she was just trying to get under Salvatore skin. Unfortunately for him, it was working.
"I thought I said-" He began before she cut him off.
"Yes yes, you are a private man after all." She said to him before turning to Adam and winking. "Well since you are here would you like something to drink? I make a terrific mimosa." She smiled at Adam.
"Oh um, yeah, sure, that sounds wonderful."
"Wonderful, I'll get right on it for you." She said walking off to prepare the cocktail, leaving Salvatore grumbling. Adam looked over at Salvatore and chuckled.
"Looks like you really have had an interesting life huh?" Salvatore shot Adam a look.
"Don't you start too. What I do in my free time is my business, not yours or hers." He said sharply.
"Of course, of course." Adam said, his hands up in mock surrender as he laughed softly.
"Anyway you didn't come all the way over here for a social visit…" He said before pausing and reconsidering his words. "Did you?" He asked, now not sure if Adam was truly here for non business reasons.