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gold-and-rubies · 4 years

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I’m Not an Angel, Baby - Chapter 2

Warnings for language. Bridget’s POV.

“So, are you going to tell me what we’re doing now, or did Manny not give you any info?” Boone asked as Bridget walked down the Dinky the Dinosaur’s steps for hopefully the last time.

She stopped on the second to last step, causing her to be taller than him. She squinted in the bright desert sun to somewhere off in the distance, and sighed, “I was attacked by a group of men while I was doing a job for the Mojave Express. Not only did they steal something from me, they also tried to kill me. One of them shot me in the head. I’m trying to track them down.”

“Alright. Won’t hear any judgement from me. What did Manny tell you?” he responded. His expression remained the same.

“Most of the people who attacked me were Great Khans. They were just hired to help. The guy who hired them, the one in the tacky jacket, he gave me his name, and he told me where they’re going. Boulder City,” she paused for a moment, “Does the name Benny mean anything to you?”

“No. I do know how to get to Boulder City.”

“Then let’s get out of here,” she said, and together they left Novac.

They were silent as they walked through the desert. She quickly learned that he did not like talking about himself, or asking her questions to get to know her better other than planning and strategy. She was not exactly complaining, though. She could not give answers if she could not remember anything.

They got to Boulder City by dusk. They would have gotten there sooner if the wildlife had been calmer. They approached the junk door that led to the ruins, but they were stopped by an NCR lieutenant.

“I’m afraid I’m going to have to stop you right there. We can’t let anyone in,” he said.

“Why what’s going on?” she asked.

“We have a hostage situation going on with some Great Khans,” he explained, “There haven’t been any deaths yet, but they’ve taken some of our soldiers.”

Her eyebrows furrowed as she thought about what to do. She needed to talk to the Khans, even if Benny was not with them anymore. She needed answers.

“Maybe… maybe I could try talking to them. Having a third party negotiator can’t hurt,” she offered.

“Alright, if we hear shooting we’ll help, but you’ll probably already be dead,” he warned.

“I think we can handle it,” she assured him, and she and Boone headed into the ruins.

“Wait,” Boone said just as they entered the gate, “I think I should hang back here with the soldiers. I do better from a long range.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. He was not lying. She was sure of that, but he was not giving her all of the reasons why he wanted to stay back.

“Alright, if you’re sure.”

He simply nodded in response.

The soldiers eyed her warily as she made her way through the ruins towards the Khans. The Khans on the other hand had cautiously surprised looks on their faces. She was not sure if they were impressed by her confidence, or if they recognized her.

She kept her hand resting on her revolver as she walked up to one guarding a door.

“Who’s in charge here?” she asked.

“Why the fuck would I tell you?” he demanded. He seemed to be a little freaked out to her.

She narrowed her eyes at him, “You recognize me don’t you? Then you know I don’t go down easy. Just let me talk to who’s in charge, and we’ll get out of here.”

He looked away and huffed, “Fine. Jessup is inside. He’s the one you’re gonna want to talk to.”

“Thank you,” she said, and walked in the door.

She was met with a gun pointing at her face. She scoffed in response, not exactly surprised. Afterall, they helped put her in the ground.

“What the- you’re that courier Benny wasted! You’re supposed to be dead,” Jessup spat. Despite his tone she could tell he was freaked out. He had gone as white as a sheet.

“I got better,” she shrugged, “We need to talk.”

“And I thought us Great Khans were tough to kill. What do you want?”

“Where’s the chip you stole from me, and where is Benny?” she demanded. Her voice was deadly calm.

His nose wrinkled, “Don’t have it. Benny stole it, before he stabbed us in the back. Probably back to the Strip by now laughing at us.”

She sighed in frustration. She hoped she would not have to track him any farther. She wanted answers.

She took a deep breath, and changed the subject, “Then let’s talk about settling things between you and the NCR.”

He scoffed, “What’s there to negotiate. The NCR backs off, we walk away.”

She leaned forward, bracing her wait on her hands on the counter that separated them. Her glasses slid down her nose, so she stared at him over the frames.

“How about this,” she spoke slowly, “You release those hostages first, then you can walk away.”

He looked at her, clearly conflicted. She could practically see the gears turning in his head.

“Fine. You’re going after Benny right? Shove this up his ass when you find him,” he slammed down a lighter on the counter, “You don’t screw over the Khans and get away with it.”

She gingerly picked up the lighter, and examined it. She pocketed it. Making fires just got a lot easier. With a nod she left the building.

She mulled over what she was going to do. On the one hand, she could get payback. They helped rob her and shoot her. On the other she could keep her word, and let the Khans go free. She did not want more death than was necessary, and it seemed like Benny had screwed them over big time.

She strode up to Boone. She had on hand in her pocket where she was running her thumb over the lighter. The other continued to rest on her gun.

“And?” He asked.

“Hostages are free, and it looks like we’re headed to New Vegas.”

He stood, and stared down at her. She leaned back instinctively. He was intimidating.

“Good job,” he said simply. The small compliment felt genuine.

A small smile played at her lips. She had a feeling he did not give out praise often. Together they left the ruins.

The lieutenant was waiting for them where they had left him.

“The hostages are safe, and not a shot was fired,” she relayed to him.

“Good job, but I just got orders to take care of the Khans.”

Boone spoke up before she could, “They agreed to let the hostages go peacefully.”

The lieutenant looked at him. His expression was a mixture of sympathy, and what she thought was fear. He stammered, “Orders are-”

“Orders. I know, but don’t you think that honoring agreements would help win the favor of the people in the Mojave?” she argued. She glanced at Boone. His face was unreadable. His body looked tense.

“You’re in the first recon, aren’t you?”

“I was.”

The lieutenant nodded, “We’ll honor the agreement. Thank you for your help.”

She let some of the tension in her shoulders go. She was confused, but glad she did not have to argue further. “We should make camp here. Not out in the desert,” she said before they got too far.

He turned towards the ruins without a word. She had a feeling that was going to be a pattern as she sped up to catch him. They made camp in silence. She used her newly acquired lighter to start their campfire. By the time they finished the sun was completely set.

She stared at Benny’s lighter in her palm. The fire reflected off of the metal. She had more questions than answers now. Who was Benny really? Why did he attack her? Why did he hire the Khans? Why did he steal the chip? Why was it important?

She frowned at the fire. Whoever this asshole was, she was going to get answers from him. Even if it meant tracking him all over the wasteland.

#fallout #fanfiction #fanfic #fallout new vegas #new vegas #fnv #fallout nv #craig boone #courier six #bridget o'donoghue #benny gecko

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jacksonsdead · 5 years

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FALLOUT OC INTERVIEW

Tagged by both @robobrainmurdermysterytheatre and @ticktockthem Thank you! Rules:

1. Choose an OC.

2. Answer them as that OC.

3. Tag 5 people to do the same. I’m choosing my courier!

(Also some of the answers feature Jack, who belongs to @robobrainmurdermysterytheatre ) Callie and Desmond are my other OCs ;)

What is your name? Haley

How old are you? Late twenties? Hard to keep track out here

What do you look like? Blonde, been told by plenty of people that I’m pretty, unfortunately...that’s not always an advantage.

Where are you from? Where do you live now? I’m from Nevada, lived in a little community just outside of West Vegas when I was a kid. Now I mostly still travel but the boyfriend has a house just outside of Freeside so I guess that’s what I’d consider home.

What was your childhood like? Not...great...Don’t really remember much of my parents, just flashes. They were apparently pretty famous singers/performers but they died when I was still really young. I was raised by my older sister and most of my memories of her are good, which... makes dealing with things harder considering how she died. And after she died? Well...I was 17 and stupid and I’m not getting into the rest.

What groups are you friendly with? Are you allied with any factions? I don’t consider myself ‘aligned’ with any factions but there are some I’m on good terms with, honestly I try to keep my nose out of things entirely but...well you have to draw a line sometimes. I respect the hell out of the Followers of the Apocalypse, one of the few factions I’d go out of my way to help out. And the Kings? I like their leader a lot, seems level-headed and pragmatic. And have you seen the way they dress? Every member of the Kings is attractive as hell.

Tell me about your best friend. Don’t have that many but my closest are probably Callista, Cass and Jack. Callie’s running New Vegas now, was always ambitious as hell, no one I’d trust more to get shit done and done right. Plus we’ve been looking out for each other since we were kids.

Cass is the type of friend who is going to tell it to you straight--she doesn’t mince words, doesn’t bother with niceties, and honestly, there’s something refreshing about that. Really fun to drink with too.

And Jack? Jack is...well he’s way more than just my best friend, more on that later.

Do you have a family? Tell me about them! I have a daughter, didn’t know about her until a few months ago. Basically one day this 12-year-old kid shows up and introduces herself. We’re still getting to know each other at this point, but she’s sharp; really clever and funny.

What about a partner or partners? ...I could have you sitting here all day but I’ll only mention the ones that matter. There’s Manny, Desmond and Jack.

Manny is an ex but when we were together? He was just, such a genuine person; authentic and honest. I knew pretty much *right* away that he was way too good for me, but it was hard to not want that, to not want someone just...nice? But he was still so obviously in love with someone else so I ended things and maybe that wasn’t fair; I honestly hope him and Boone work out.

Desmond...well the way we met isn’t exactly the type of story you tell the family. Thought he’d just be another in the line of feeling-sorry-for-myself-late-night-mistakes. But he ended up being one of the most decent people I’ve ever met, quit the raiders for me and buy a house kind of decent--didn’t think I’d ever find something like that. He’s also really good with the kid so, think I’ll stick around.

And finally, Jack.

(screenshot courtesy of @robobrainmurdermysterytheatre )

I met Jack when I left Nevada for a while--took the first caravan I could find going the furthest away and eventually made it to Boston. I was...not ok. I’d had one foot off the edge of a cliff for a while at that point, ready to fall, just waiting for a push. Turns out Jack was too--and I think we both felt that instinctually, that connection. We had a lot in common, that disregard for our own lives, that recklessness born of misery and through it all, somehow, we each became the one thing keeping the other from drowning. And man, we had fun too. I can honestly say there’s no one that *gets* me like Jack, knows how to have a good time. Some of my fondest memories are my time with him; Sometimes I wonder why I even left Boston at all. We still talk, and he visits in the winter, wish he could visit more though, I miss him all the time. Who are your enemies, and why? The Omertas and I have history and no, I don’t want to talk about it. All I’ll say is that if you go into Gomorrah knowing that they get teenagers hooked on chems and then force them into prostitution to pay back their debt, then fuck you.

Have you ever heard of The Brotherhood of Steel? What do you think about them? They’re kind of assholes right? I mean, you fly around on airships with prewar tech that could be used to help, I don’t know, the world, but instead you use it to grind people under your heel, to “civilize” and then you take any prewar tech they may have away for yourselves. Not a huge fan of them honestly, don’t trust them...but the power armor and airships are pretty cool, I’ll admit. And to be fair, there are a few individuals in the brotherhood that seem pretty decent, I’m just not a real fan of organized militaristic factions as a whole.

What about The Enclave? Don’t really know very much about them but the propaganda spewing fascist patriotism is annoying as hell.

How do you feel about Super Mutants? Hate fighting them, try to keep my distance; there’s just something viscerally terrifying about mutated GIANT used-to-be-people that turns my stomach and gets the fight-or-flight response going. Granted, the friendly ones are fine, but there’s also something so sad about them too, makes you sick to your stomach knowing that they used to...not be that way.

What’s the craziest fight you’ve ever been in? The entirety of my time in the Sierra Madre Casino was just one awful clusterfuck that’d I’d rather forget.

Have you ever fought a Deathclaw? Unfortunately, and I have the scars to prove it. I typically try to avoid them or snipe them from a distance. Better make your shots count though, cause once they see you, it’s over.

Do you like fighting? To be honest, most times I try to talk my way out of it, but sometimes there’s nothing that you can do to avoid them. And then? Well sometimes there’s stress that nothing but a good fight can ease. What’s your weapon of choice? Prefer to keep things at a distance, typically use a Anti-Material rifle. But if things get close a .45 pistol or That Gun is my next choice.

How do you survive? Your wits, your charm, your skills, brute force, some combination? (a.k.a. what’s your S.P.E.C.I.A.L?) Half the time? Spite. Spite and instinct. Charm can usually get me out of most situations, or into them depending. And usually if you’re stuck, hacking a terminal or two can get you all the information you need.

Have you ever been in a vault? What do you think about them?

👏I👏Hate👏Vaults👏

How do you beat all the radiation around here? Has it affected you? I carry a lot of Rad-X and try to filter my own water whenever I can. I have no issue with ghouls but I don’t want to be one.

What’s your favorite wasteland critter? I know that they’re dangerous but NightStalkers are just cool.

What’s your least favorite wasteland critter? MOTHERFUCKING CAZADORS. You see one set of wings? Don’t worry there’s 50 more nearby AT LEAST. How do you feel about robots? Robots are honestly fascinating, Jack taught me a lot about programming them. And I’d do anything for ED-E, they’re my favorite to travel with.

How many caps do you have on you right now? Doesn’t matter how many I have, if I need more I’ll just play a few hands of Caravan or Black Jack.

Nuka Cola or Sunset Sarsaparilla? I like both honestly (especially Quantums) but out of the two I’d take a Sunset Sarsaparilla, way more refreshing in the desert heat.

Do you do chems? Used to be a Med-X junkie when I was a teenager, try to stay away from it now but it’s hard not to use when they’re such a tactical advantage. I keep chems on me for battles and occasionally for recreation even though it’s probably not a great idea. Used to do drug runs for the Great Khans too.

Do you ever think about the Pre-War world? I hack a lot of terminals and read a lot of emails and it really does get me curious. Trying to imagine a world that I only have the skeletons of to use as a frame of reference? A lot of the stories Jack tells me seem impossible, but the evidence is all around us if you know where to look. It’s honestly fascinating to learn about.

What’s your deepest regret? What would you do differently? My sister shouldn’t have died, I should have stopped them or, hell, I should have been the one to...It just shouldn’t have happened.

What’s your biggest achievement? Or what do you hope to achieve? I’d say that being a courier and going to all these places that most people have never seen or heard of or imagined is definitely a big accomplishment. I’d like to see more.

What do you want for the future? For yourself? Your friends? The world? I could try and say I have lofty, big goals for the world, that I look at the big picture but honestly? I just want to find peace for myself. To not wake up already tired. I want my kid to be happy and provided for and never go through anything I went through. I want to see Jack.

I TAG: @undeadcourier and @courierspikeee

#fallout new vegas #fallout #new vegas #courier six #courier 6 #haley #long post

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thesportssoundoff · 5 years

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Carlos Beltran is the new manager of the Mets...and that’s probably good.

Carlos Beltran is the New York Mets manager.

'Kay.

Hooray.

All jokes aside, there's a lot of very mixed powerful opinions about Carlos Beltran being the head of the Mets house going into 2020. Some very powerful people have espoused opinions all over the place (https://twitter.com/djshort/status/1190368529578692608, https://twitter.com/MattEhalt/status/1190355937535700993, https://twitter.com/MrazCBS/status/1190361495068200961, https://twitter.com/AndrewMarchand/status/1190364456976605184) but I've noticed more negatives than positives at least. I'm going to take the other stance! I'll argue for Carlos Beltran because somebody has to be fair to this whole process. Let's give Carlos Beltran the benefit of the doubt and talk about WHY this is going to work out just fine for the Mets.

First and foremost, don't apply a Mets tax.This is basically the biggest problem with having any sort of discussion about the Mets. The Mets are a poorly run ill equipped franchise that more often than not are the laughing stock of the New York sports area. They are, for better or worse, the jokes of the Metropolitan area. Here's the counter though; that doesn't mean they can't make good decisions. It also doesn't mean conversely that every decision they make is a bad one either. View any moves on their own and don't clasp onto the fact that it's the Mets making it. Carlos Beltran was in the running for the Yankees job that ultimately went to Aaron Boone and the Yankees valued him so much that they kept Beltran in their front office after he went for the job. That wasn't the only offer either! The Padres and the Cubs both wanted the opportunity to interview Beltran for their managerial but Beltran turned down their overtures strictly because he wanted the Mets job. Beltran was qualified but limited himself to a set location; the New York Mets job.

And that leads us to my next point; Carlos Beltran legitimately wanted this job. In New York, specifically in these franchises that are woebegone and dismal, there needs to be a certain head nod for folks who actively want these jobs. Carlos Beltran could've gone to San Diego and enjoyed living in absolute obscurity with tremendous weather, little to no expectations and years of watching Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr do great things. He could've gone to Chicago which is probably STILL not as pressure packed as coming to New York's SECOND team. He wanted the Mets job and nothing else which speaks to his desire for it. He knows this media, he knows the market, he of all people understands the expectations required for being a manager in this city. He played for both teams in this very market at various stages of his career. He's a bilingual manager who will relate to all types of players and it's hard to knock somebody who was still a relevant and capable bat into his late 30s. Beltran is still not so far removed from the game to not get the challenges that today's players face while also being old and established enough that he can bring an old school approach if need be. You're taking a chance on somebody who wants to be here, knows what's required to be here and has the ability to blend a generational gap.

A lot is being made about experience and it's granted that Beltran has never been a manager on any level. Let's start by pointing out that of the four managers in the ALCS and NLCS, three were in their first managerial gigs and one was on his second gig ever as a hyphenated short term stint prior to that. Managerial experience is by and large no longer a must and now more and more guys are managing with minimal expertise. The days of being a bench coach for five to ten years, putting your nose to the grindstone as you elevate up the ranks and then emerging in your mid to late 40s as a qualified manager are going to become no more. Dusty Baker and Buck Showalter are not in demand despite their qualifications because those types of managers are not of value anymore. Joe Girardi is an outlier in large part due to the fact that Philly is desperate for success and Girardi can flaunt that better than anybody. Seriously the days of guys who by their gut and manage based upon feel for the game and so on so forth are pretty much gone. Baseball teams, now more than ever, are run from the top down. Analytics departments and general managers have more say so than ever before in how a team is run. Carlos Beltran is going to be just fine with that part of the game given that he was a special advisor to Brian Cashman and worked alongside the Yankees analytics department. If ANYBODY is going to get what a modern manager is going to have to do, it's Beltran who will be a Carlos Beltran's experience with dealing with the New York media trumps whatever sort of Also I think we need to be fair and understand what a modern manager does. A modern MLB manager is meant to be the liaison between the analytics department and the players. He's the guy whose job it is to relay what the analytics department wants and deal with 25 personalities on a game to game basis. He's the collaborator; the guy who gets the analytics and then gets the players and then ties it all together. Most MLB managers make very few on the fly decisions and 99% of what you see on a game to game basis is branched out well in advance before a single ball is put into play. If you think Beltran is going to be called on to make a lot of snap decisions, he may or may not struggle but will probably struggle no more or less than the usual experienced manager. Gut decisions more often than not go badly so why would Beltran be exempt from that?

I can't tell you if Beltran's bullpen management will be great or not because we don't know. I can only tell you that most of those decisions will be taken out of his hands. I can tell you that Beltran will be as in tune with analytics as a modern manger needs to be, has skins on the wall as a player to be able to relate to modern day players (especially Latin American ones given how he came up in the bigs and the struggles he's endured) and that after dealing with this media for years, he's not going to get spooked at the first sign of a tough question. If Terry Collins was too tired and Mickey Calloway was too friendly then Carlos Beltran will bring the proper balance between old school 'tude and new school analytics based thinking. There are those on twitter who say that the Mets missed out on their original target (Joe Girardi) but maybe that's for the best. Every Yankee scribe who followed the Girardi/Yankees end boiled it down to Joe not necessarily being the friendliest guy for players and at times resistant to new school measures fostered upon him by the front office. If the Mets wanted THAT kind of a guy then it's a good thing that Beltran got the job in the end because maybe he'll force them to adapt and accept the way baseball is going these days. Going after Joe Girardi would've felt like ahungry and desperate attempt to win some sort of PR battle with the Yankees. At the end of day, the Mets got a guy who wanted the job more than anybody else, is young, is bilingual and comes with high upside. They got a fine fit for a roster with a solid blend of established names and faces and enticing young up and coming talent.

Getting some other teams scab leftovers as a manager might make you FEEL better because you can see that once upon a time maybe 5-10 years ago they won something. The reality is that they don't actually make you better. Carlos Beltran might not even make you better if this roster doesn't get any better. I support the Mets trying with a highly qualified unproven coach. If you're applying a Mets tax on the decision, you're just being unfair.

#MLB #Mets #baseball #yankees #Carlos Beltran #manager

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elizabethrobertajones · 7 years

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13x11 watching notes

I take back at least 5 of the recent snide comments about Sam's jacket. D:

... aaarghhh being non-US is a pain. For having to rely on downloads, anyway. Pretty much just that :P

well it's nearly 5 but I have a download which started with a bunch of static over Donna recap I don't need, and then in to a vampire recap...

I love that it shows us Dean being a vampire, and the time he was turned, just because it really ought to be more of a thing, even as a lighthearted "I got turned into a vampire once but I'm fine" like idk in 12x16 trying to reassure Claire or something :P Well, no, but you know what I mean. Typical Dean!girl complaint that they don't spend enough time harping on all the various traumatic things he's been through, even if some of them are 1 episode MotW things which don't earn mytharc "remember this?" nods 7 seasons later.

That was a very short recap, scratchy bit I skipped aside.

Well this is a horrifying open :D Nice serial killer basement you got there. The same playing music while doing something horrific thing as Athena in Davy's last episode, but she was just being an undertaker doing her job, and this is clearly the baddie of the week at work, with his serial killer wall and leaving blood splatters on all his dirty horrifying equipment.

Still, you gotta have music while you work.

I can't prove anything withthis level of CBA but the truck stop looks like the one Sam got snatched from in 2x21, just because it's small and single story and all. It's probably been a bunch of other things knowing this show, like, idk, 4x01 and 10x03 and no one's ever added it all up :P

Other thoughts: it's "manny's" but the Y is out turning it into "MANN 'S" which means once again I'm just gonna say toxic masculinity may be the bad guy and it's not exactly subtle :P

If this is Donna's niece I love her already because of her bumper stickers - anti-guns and "think globally act locally"... the anti-gun sentiment is especially amusing because of the jokes about Donna's arsenal... There's a social responsibility to actually advocate AGAINST guns, but the entire monster hunter subculture is indistinguishable from weirdoes in the woods with a stockpile of weapons, as Victor pointed out for us back in season freakin 2. As local law enforcement it's more likely Donna would have access to and comfort with weapons and an ideal scenario is that people know about monsters in general and are equipped to fight them, that is, the law enforcement like Jody and Donna and other hunter-cops who actually can turn it into a part of their regular job, with the emotional responsibility less about crazy revenge missions because no one else will do it... But you know, that and an anti-gun sentiment completely undermine the show's entire set up, which is why this show has a bizarre second face of being equally favourite of republicans and democrats, because the take-it-into-your-own-hands and collect guns for legitimate self-defence scenarios super appeals to them.

IRL there are no monsters except the ones we make, is all I'll say >.>

But in the context of the show, and especially as she's gonna get kidnapped, the fact this world has different rules aka legitimate danger to personal safety from monsters, means the show's social conscience is always going to be skewed and conflicted, and the fact she's against guns is potentially not going to look good given her status as an innocent civilian who has no idea of the irony of her stance being undermined by the existence of monsters and her aunt's legitimate giant gun and flamethrower collection being a lifesaving boon >.>

Oh, gross, close ups on eating, making it look really horrific, with red tomato soup (blood) and slicing into a steak with a squelch (self-explanatory).

This is gonna be an arty, violent, gross episode, isn't it? :P Mental note to try and catch the director. Because with this voice over about psalms or something there's definitely a sort of ~mood~ being set.

Christ, the population of this diner is basically the cast of The Adventure Zone's latest thing (which is playing some cryptids in the woods Supernatural D&D knock off literally called "Monster of the Week" and I'm gonna keep recommending it :P) - anyways if you've seen the fanart I've been reblogging there's literally a character people are headcanoning to look almost exactly like this person with the curly hair. Minus the bunny rabbit.

I like the Aliens Are Watching Us guy as well. There was a conspiracy guy in 12x15 (also Davy) so I guess he's not done with this concept of people enjoying the wacky stories without realising they're a shade off, Ronald Resnik style. (Perez is possibly competing to be the new Edlund, if Yockey is taking after Robbie in tone... aka gently petting existing characters on the head while introducing amazing one offs)

Anyways definitely feeling the vibe of Would Not Go In This Place Unless Truly Desperate they want us to get :P

Okay the cashier is super creepy up close, taking too much delight in his power over her ability to leave and his leisure to decide if her ID is valid or not and mocking her name.

(Pointing out that "Hanscum" is old English is asking us to go look it up and ponder how it relates, right?)

Oh boy and there's the request for her to smile that makes him a Grade A Creep whether he's the monster or not.

So many creepy trucks and vans, the "Jesus Saves" van looking anything but salvation, and probably ANOTHER fake out bad guy with the window washer, just here to scare her... Holding up the window washer thingy like an axe murderer.... Whether he is affiliated with the murderer or not, we get a lingering shot on him and a red STOP beside his head

Aaand someone slashed her tyre while she was there....

Oh no, caltrops. It's a trap :(

AAAAH scary masked guy!

not the same mask as in the promo pictures, just a bag over his head and goggles. This time referecing over to 13x05 and the plague doctor masks - the same huge dead eyed look they have without any of the style :P Theeemes for the season though.

Oh no, we start the episode on Sam trying to have a lie in... Already awake before his alarm then grumpily staying in bed another two and a half hours. #relatable

is he okay?

I mean I know in general he is Not Okay but I guess this is going to take some unpicking :P

...

OH NO he resisted PANCAKES.

Dean is up and about and enjoying being home with comforts around him, and Sam...

Is still in bed at 10. I may cry.

Oh thank god Donna is calling him to get him to move.

He's resisted food which means everyone narrowing their eyes at him not touching his lizard in 13x10 gets a cookie for pointing out his issues and how he handles them re: food. I know lethargy and not wanting to get out of bed are huge signs of depression but we rarely see that side of Sam manifest, and mostly just see him casually not eating or having much interest in food offered to him so I think it may be one of the first times the story is actually set up to genuinely call attention to him having a depression lie-in and refusing to come out and get pancakes that Dean is making to celebrate having a kitchen again.

Anyway, now we get Donna angst. Hearing her cry is the absolute worst.

It's such a sharp shock, tbh, to go from Wayward Sisters where she was shown off as the fun comic relief, and have her in the same coat and all suddenly speaking in such a tiny voice, and sitting helplessly in her great big D-TRAIN truck which was like the cavalry arriving and betraying a character that pretty much never DOESN'T want to make a fun entrance and lighten the mood...

Oh Donna. :(

(This is especially painful having watched all the WS episodes up to this point in the last few months)

"BREAKDOWN" appears over Donna pulled over to the side of the road, having her quiet breakdown over this, in an episode about serial killers engineering a breakdown on the side of the road, after we saw Sam having a silent breakdown this morning

Lovely.

Someone turned the angst dial all the way back up to 11 after the break it was taking.

The Impala rolls respectfully and quietly up to Donna.

She looks small :(

I'd guess she's apologising for calling them because it's pretty much The Next Day or thereabouts give or take driving time. Like, she'd be assuming they need their "Just back from a parallel universe" downtime.

Also because if we add any extra time instead of assuming it's been back to back since, like, 12x19, then the tension about Cas evaporates and they leave him for weeks.

So let's say they saw Donna like, 2 days ago max.

Oh no and she feels the guilt of inspiring her to go off on her adventure, because she had fun and talked about it. This is not how fault works, D-Train :( You did nothing wrong. It's the serial killer who took her, no one else.

Sam tells her to just focus on the case rather than think about it which is A+ coping methods and how you end up like how Sam was this morning

Ew, Doug is here

Oh no Dean is leaving Sam and Donna together. Dean, no, you're the chirpy pancake-making one today - you have to prop 'em up :P

Oh boy, this is the real FBI isn't it? They were in the promo...

"First off, I'm not your son." Dean straightening up and trying to fake-authority figure bluster past the confidence of real authority.

Doug diving in to rescue him may be the only way out he has?

"Company man. You should have told me." "Didn't get a chance."

I think Dean doesn't know the codes to pass as FBI with whatever they'd immediately say to identify themselves with casual ease - like in 12x06 where at the hunter party he doesn't know not to say wendigo? There's just some stuff he probably can't know without, like, literally being the FBI and having their specific swagger and way of talking.

e.g. I don't think Dean would say "Company man" without sounding like he got it from TV

Oh dear, he doesn't have the field office - yeah he just diiiives around that one.

Not here on official business, the victim is my cousin, I'm just here to get some answers.

Makes Donna on a close family level to them - or at least that she's another branch of the same family officially like what Doug might think watching this exchange, knowing Dean is not Donna's brother/husband/whatever else on the closest level would make them share a niece.

... Obviously also a lovely message about how Donna's business is family business for them

"You and Donna are related!?"

A COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO?

How long was Dean chilling and making pancakes and not calling Cas??? Asmodeus has HAD to have had an accidental "is Dean trying to sext Cas?" confusion over the texts he's been getting in this time period.

... the fact that Cas is back next episode and for all intents and purposes the promo pics and premise would make me think it's Buckleming but it's actually Yockey and BL have 13x13 is like the one thing keeping me going :P

I hope I have that the right way around... Literally panic-checking my 13x12 tag before I continue, just for Cas's sake

"Amanda Tapping directed the episode written by Steve Yockey" Mmmmmmmm

Okay, soul soothed, continuing to watch Dean blustering through pretending Wayward Sisters was a family reunion, which is also adorable that Donna used an emergency family reunion as the excuse to go.

Well at least the FBI already seem to have done most of the work with having a map with red string, names and other victims. This parallels directly to the serial killer's collection, the red string mirroring the blood splatters that guy was leaving on it.

Pretty much gonna assume Mr FBI is the serial killer, or else as much of a problem as him.

Donna looks so tiny in this room full of men.

"Troopers got an anonymous tip" aka there's something fishy about it being called in - if Mr FBI is the killer, it makes his job more effective than waiting around for someone to find the car so he can get his rocks off on chasing himself around in circles :P

Bleeech Doug putting a hand on Donna's back to reassure her.

If you hadn't gathered I'm super not a fan of Doug being back because I think it's ridiculous to inflict another Doug on Donna, and especially when you're doing a dark episode actually doing emotional stuff with her for once, it's dragging out a joke that was from her first episode when we didn't know anything else about her. Defining her by her Dougs

Oh yeah her niece is called Wendy - I think that name was made up for Peter Pan? Or else boosted its popularity through the stratosphere to the point that you can make up a fake fact that the name was invented in Peter Pan. Either way, Wendy Darling associations - growing up, but doing the gap year before college is essentially putting off becoming an adult aka having a Peter Pan year...

If Mr FBI is the serial killer, calling himself "the Butterfly" is the most inconspicuous way to go about it, than "yeah I named him myself he's The Badass Slaughter Man" :P

It makes sense, as well, the way he migrates for the winter and back.

The pause before describing what happens to the victims and Donna saying "go on", not wanting to be talked down to or having her feelings saved just because she's personally invested/female and prone to hysterics/both

He's been chasing him for TWELVE YEARS without catching him

Aka this is the easiest thing ever: just get paid to suck at doing your job to find yourself :P

If he turns out not to be the killer this was at least a hilarious diversion imagining this

Oooh they've re-used the yellow panels for the motel screen which have a serious pedigree of being the yellow panels in the motel - but almost always in crosses or inverted crosses in the empty spaces between them. The new pattern doesn't really have any negative space image I can see.

Dean knows trucker lingo.

I assume this is something you pick up if you literally grow up routinely visiting truck stops and being exposed to truckers as the other wandering workers you'd find on the road most often as a hunter.

There's plenty of headcanons out there about Dean and truckers and picking things up as well.

He calls Wendy "Alice in Wonderland" which might be trucker lingo but also overlaps with the whole Wendy Darling then when talking about Victorian kids literature

Sam says it's stupid to use the trucker radio and then starts trying to argue down the case because he wants to go home and not-sleep some more. (ARGH it being a couple of weeks means Sam has spent a couple of weeks not sleeping)

He has a point about being fugitives and wanting to stay off the radar, but I kinda think he's just finding reasons and yelling about them because he's irritable (depressed, angry, no sleep) and wants to stop even though he couldn't say no to Donna to start with, now they're here it's time to start looking for exit ramps.

Dean says "Dad used it all the time" re: the radio so we're also invoking his ghost with some point to make on top of everything else :P

"So what do you want to do? Call up Donna and say 'sorry about your niece, these things happen! Later!' and head back to the bunker to mope some more?"

OH NO I mean of course Dean has noticed but holy crap he's actually calling it out immediately.

(Reminds me of season 1 when they had so little else going on they were constantly side-eyeing each other's nightmares and grumpiness levels and commenting on it - Dean especially while trying to work out what was wrong with Sam before he came out with the visions thing.)

Anyways we have it established in the same episode that Dean calls it out that Sam is moping around the Bunker, which honestly should not impress me as much as it does, except that they have had a very passive-aggressive last... 11 years :P

Dean thinks it's weird that Sam got up at 10 because he's Mr Rise and Freakin' Shine, and tbh there were people last year bitching about Davy's characterisation of these guys, but he has a very very direct way of exposing them and picking which bits to show up to catch them at their worst angles and I LOVE IT from a meta perspective, but perhaps it comes off weird to people who aren't primed to think of the characters in certain ways. Especially that they may act out of their normal patterns. In 12x15 Dean started the episode disgustingly dirty and not caring about the car or their home environment, which is obviously out of character. Sam "sleeping in" is out of character but this time we see it unfold and at least immediately have a clue that it's because something is wrong and have it called out far more obviously than in 12x15 where it was left for us to interpret, and some people wildly missed the mark by assuming it was just bad characterisation, instead of identifying past characterisation and playing with it as an exposure of something new

Also... Dean made pancakes because he knew Sam was upset. My heart.

I mean Sam didn't go for them, but again, 13x05, Sam trying to make Dean feel better, 13x11, Dean trying to make Sam feel better.

Uhoh. I am scared to see what Dean lists... "I know you're in a dark place. We lost Jack, Mom is... I think about 'em too. All the time."

He doesn't know Caaaas is lost tooooooo

my heart.

ALSO it's dramatic irony again, as it was at the beginning of the season - Dean not knowing about Cas's current state, in which we are wildly more equipped to tell him how he should be feeling...

I mean look at bisexualdemondean's inbox over Christmas with all the jokey needling from people reminding him to check on Cas or coughing into their sleeves about seeing what Asmodeus is up to, and obviously demon!Dean casually being like pfft whatever and paying it no heed because the very in character RP is savvy to this plot that Dean has no clue and seems to think he has no reason to worry, even if he hasn't seen Cas in a while. The show is making the same reaction as the anons who want him to look and the show Dean is obviously completely in the dark, minus the wink wink fourth wall break from the blogger behind the demon!Dean blog that they know full well what the anons are implying because they've seen the show...

why am I using this as an example? Because the show's been incredible with the dramatic irony this season and as a way of creating an emotive response from us it can not be overlooked as an element of the season, but also has a knife edge from causing a BUNCH of wank from people who don't get it that this is something Dean doesn't know, that the pain of watching him not knowing all this stuff is basically permanently setting up SOMETHING at his expense this season and constantly using what he doesn't know about what's happening to Cas as the lever to boot.

And idk I find it totally fascinating, and awesome, and really clever, but when the show is super clever the fandom as a mass entity seems to struggle, for whatever reasons.

Non-judgementally, it's like that MIB meme about panicky mobs of people aka fandoms, just as a mass entity. If you're reading this I assume you've been reading the other posts I made per episode where I've talked about this literally every time it comes up so as individuals you're probably not part of this :P

Oh heck I should not have pressed play. "You can't let it eat you up. Look when I was broken up you were there for me. Well I'm here for you now."

I love SalmonDean in the exact right quantities and this is the sort of thing that makes my stomach hurt with affection for them

Dean gives Sam the same message of putting your head down and focussing on the work.

Repress repress repress!!!!!!!

I think the radio is going to put an end to this - yeah

lol Dean is midnight rider

sounds like a woman on the other end? the static makes it hard to tell but the dudes all laugh off Dean's request like it's a hook up request for Wendy or just don't care, then this woman radios in with info

score one vs toxic masculinity

"it's a date"

Dean says he'll go check it out and tells Sam to hang back, I think to enforce his obligation to Donna while also giving him a chance to rest until needed, which is a nice arrangement.

Sam does the "Look obviously I'm here for Donna" and doesn't have a "but" - though it's left hanging that he's struggling. Whatever else is going on, he is saying he doesn't intend to bail, despite his earlier attempt to argue to go home

aaaaand back to the serial killer basement.

More masks, and Wendy with her eyes covered too

Wendy screaming and getting screamed back at, and mocked silently with the serial killer miming tears at her - not using his voice, definitely falling into this persona of the monster with a disregard for her feelings... the "Boo hoo" attitude again takes me back to toxic masculinity as the bad guy

And he tells her to smile (again if it's the UFO creep from the Truck Stop although honestly he looked too small to be this guy) - if it's not him it's once again just men being creeps.

"Sorry I'm late," Sam says, showing up after reluctantly dragging himself into work

my heart is breaking for this guy

Donna has been handed credit card history for Wendy so they'll probably be at the creepy truck stop soon - if that's not where Dean arranged to go already (I didn't catch where they arranged to meet)

Huh, Mr FBI called in Bible Guy who I assume had the Jesus Saves van, of all the potential suspects in that truck stop.

He's suuuuper creepy but I assume at this point, probably not the bad guy, if he's already here 15 minutes in.

Although he did have Wendy's bloody shirt so who knows... Doesn't look good.

He's called Pastor Diamond something or other which goes with how there's a diamond motel neeext episode... or 13x13. Yeah. Anyways, theeemes

He's already called out for having a history of lewd behaviour, then we add being creepy enough to keep a bloody shirt even if he isn't the killer.

(I assume the killer wouldn't be dumb enough to be caught with it)

OMG Dean's dressed as a trucker.

Which is to say, his normal plaid with a puffy vest over it.

And yaaaay it is mowhawk lady from the diner aka one of the main characters from TAZ Amnesty I mean what no she isn't a magician with a bunny. I'm so confused :P

Oh no, she didn't stop to pick Wendy up, and she made excuses to herself for why she couldn't stop and help out another woman in distress, and now feels the Guilt. Everyone feels very bad about what happened to Wendy but it's not helping her >.>

Donna has to stop to gather herself when they pull out Wendy's picture and start talking about how great she is.

Pfft and then Diamond whatever fuckhead is super racist about a guy with a Mexican-sounding name. Well he may not be the serial killer to be brought in so early but this is very much a story of how all the humans can be monsters if they try hard enough.

(I love the "Humans are the real monsters" stories and this one is great because who can you trust in that scenario, and it focuses on all sorts of things, like the trucker's responsibility to help and being a bad Samaritan etc is a lesser evil and she's definitely one of the nicer-seeming people, because she said Manny's gives her the creeps as well so she's on our side about it, but at the same time she's still mixed in with the social responsibility for allowing evil to happen... this probably isn't social commentary about current America at allllll)

Dean enlists Doug's help which is... great... and Doug shows up trying to be all shady in a hooded coat. Donna's adapting to the grittiness well... Doug sticks out like a sore thumb

I like that Dean's already staking out Manny's anyways.

Ewwww Doug just saying "I love Donna" blech

He's asking if Donna will be okay after never seeing her sad before but almost the first proper interaction Dean had with Donna seeing her as more than local police but as a person was seeing her deep dark pit of sadness about how Doug1 treated her, and told her she deserves better. He KNOWS Donna has a lot of sadness and self-worth issues she doesn't let on, and if Doug doesn't know about them after a year, he's not someone Donna opens up to. She opened up to Jody immediately, in contrast :P

"Not sure what you mean."

Doug lists some really superficial things they talk about as talking about "everything"

"I think she's hiding something from me"

Dean is like... hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

He tells Doug he's going to be there for Donna and to trust her.

Maybe I just really hate Doug more and more but Dean's starting to remind me of the Lester conversation in 10x02 but just in bafflement about how Doug could possibly ~get~ Donna.

Meanwhile Donna looks like she's about to school Pastor Dickhead

He's sitting there with the lighting giving him a halo while playing butter won't melt in his mouth

And she's playing friendly cute Donna facade while telling him he's gonna be had for dinner for 2 days in the cells while getting him to talk

She's awesome.

Well that's super suspicious that the cashier closed early and chased after Wendy... We're halfway through so allowing for monster nonsense to get added in...

At this point because it took so long to get to a download, my mum insisted we watch the episode together while we ate so I now know everything that happened. D:

Ugh creepy pastor. ugh. the least he deserves is being reduced to crying by Donna while interrogating him.

Mr Totally Not The Bad Guy being like "But the shiiiirt" and Sam and Donna are too smart to think it makes sense for a moment. Sam says almost exactly what I would have done - hurr blurr I evaded capture for 12 years but here I am with a bloody shirt in my van

I mean the pastor is probably someone they were sizing up as potential eating and just hadn't got around to him yet, so he also worked as a fall guy

Anyway blatant "but if it isn't him who is it" cut to the cashier

The plot makes mores sense with hindsight that he cracks and shows Dean the video because they'd recognised the Winchesters' car and so he wasn't just playing dumb that he happened to know the website but his albi was being over here while the live cutting up was going on but that he confidently had the reassurance they didn't know he was a vampire so he could go along with whatever while leading them into a trap, and thinking that his day ended with packing up bits of Winchesters to go.

The "how they do it in the FBI" pathetic slap and then the Look that Donna gives Dean and the shifty look he gives back before turning to Doug and giving him another "but yeah it is" nod to back it up is an amazing silent exchange

Whoops Doug finds out about monsters. Dean has another "awkward" look caught between them

At this point Wendy being auctioned is really just bait to make them come

I will forgive Sam for not being more suspicious of Mr FBI on account of him having a very bad day but the point where he shows up and helps them investigate and Sam, now knowing it's monsters, doesn't fob him off harder but just says "alright follow me" is where I call impaired judgement

The caged halo lights are back and the creepy mask guy doesn't get to stand under one but one is directly behind Wendy in the video clip of her screaming

The trick with the radio is good because it works on us too knowing the torture is currently going on with that music playing.

And then we go to Doug being roughed up and turned because it's time to do all the reveals now we have the fake out, so Sam gets knocked out and Doug left as a distraction and the cashier to hold them up.

Oops Doug is a vampire. Doug growling is weird

Pfft and he just immediately attacks Donna. Dean is very quick thinking to immediately grab dead man's blood as soon as things start going.

"Well thanks for making it easy for me."

The vampire comes back to gloat and tell Dean that Sam's been got.

I love that Donna has no patience and just shoots the guy's knee out because we need to sort things out and Dean's showy machete waving ways aren't her style :P

"No no no get further back. He's a big boy, we need a wiiiide lens" I know it's terrible but I laughed SO HARD

"Hell soon as I saw that fancy car I knew who you were"

... we do always say is it a good idea that they keep driving it around? no. but will they stop? Never. :P

"The Butterfly" giving Sam a rough estimate of how many monsters there are - 100s of thousands - says the ones Sam and Dean see are too mean or stupid to "pass" which does lend itself to a double-edged fear of every day people being monsters... I think the implication with a corrupt FBI guy and the monsters we see all being white peeps is not a racist implication but more commentary on society being awful and so on, and I think using the racist preacher as the absolute scum of humanity is a good way to avoid too much weird implications about monsters - the BMoL had that creepy Brexit parallel which sort of cast monsters as immigrants which of course, considering they might well eat people, wasn't the neatest message.

I think this is a bit more tuned to 2018 anyway :P My concerns about the social commentary from earlier have mostly evaporated.

He thinks he's saving good honest American lives by feeding only people who won't be missed to the monsters - and he mentioned that the Mexican guy had a family which means he WOULD be missed - he's just racist too.

He's good at the whole auction voice thing though.

They really toned down the vampire cure thing because Dean barfed his guts up with it and now he's letting Donna give Doug the cure in the car as they drive.

In the *car*

"Let's begin the auction for Sam Winchester's HEART"

lemme tell you, even coming in at like 500k that's still not as much as it's worth. That is a priceless artefact there.

I absolutely adore the "you had no idea your aunt could do that" fight sequence :D

Like, she knows Donna's a cop, but having her just bust in and kill the guy...

What an aunt.

"There are many pieces to Sam Winchester but only one heart"

Honestly, devoid of context, I wanna see that on like 8 different artsy Sam edits.

Fake out Sam getting shot. "Since Dean's out there, quick and dirty."

Not quick enough.

Sam having a "huh, I'm not dead," moment. After we see the close up gunshot and that's why Sam and "The Butterfly" were both down to their white shirts, because there's just a mo where we aren't sure which one of them we're seeing even though it was aimed at Sam's head so it's clear just from seeing a shot to the heart that it wasn't Sam.

Also he wouldn't just randomly die, I say in a season where Dean randomly died already :P

Dean does those quips just for Sammy's benefit

I think Donna and Doug maaay not have been dating but she kinda realised she might like him now they've had a sort of adventure together...

"I was a vampire!" "For a couple of hours"

Ah well, bye bye Doug, thanks for breaking Donna's heart, don't let the door hit you on the way out.

This was a bit drawn out but I think it was important for Donna even if Doug is really annoying so I don't like watching him struggle on screen.

I think Donna really hoped she'd found someone in the life

Sam just sees it as completely inevitable and good for Donna that she doesn't have someone she cares about in the firing line.

Ow.

Ow ow ow ow.

Oh Donna as well... :(

I'm just in so much pain for Sam and Donna. Dean needs to hug 'em both.

He just gives Donna the pat on the shoulder while she cries.

Buuut now she's Doug-free for Wayward Sisters, hurrah!

She and Jody can bond and discover something in each other they didn't even know they were missing :3

That Jody's name isn't "Doug" for starters.

Dean's still harping on what Sam said to Donna, both telling her to get used to having no one close to you and just in general, yikes it's never good to hear someone you care about talking that way about caring about people and he should know he's BEEN there.

This is like the dark opposite of 11x04's optimistic Sam and "someone in the life" stuff.

Sam angrily stands his ground because he's a grumpy goose today "Was I wrong?"

it seems like Kaia set off his latest mood but also in losing Jack in the process of looking for Mary, who, also, is still gone and not seen for weeks before that, presumed dead... I would guess the fact that he was miserable in The Bad Place was the start of this, before Kaia died, and losing her really just symbolised how shitty everything is, the cherry on top of losing all the people they care about over and over.

After Dean spent the first part of the season his terrible way, now Sam's got his overdue depression and breakdown (tiiitle drop) that has been lurking below the surface...

... if we're lucky, as Sam fans, this might not just be a one-episode thing but actually, like, something that's going to happen in an ongoing way for Sam??

Sam denies he's in a dark place because everything he's saying is true, but Sam normally does repress and get optimistic about finding ways to research their way out of whatever hole they get themselves into this time.

Which ain't healthy but is how Sam manages to skim over the top of being in a dark place most times, meaning this is really hitting him hard now.

He also mentions Cas in his list of having mom and cas back and helping jack, accidentally playing into the dramatic irony in another way, of not knowing Cas is currently in trouble now as well but still listing him among the ones they've lost and that he's lost hope over...

"This ends one way for us, Dean."

And with that, the ginormous, grimy, rusty cog behind the entire mechanism, finally clunks around a slot, turning it from Dean as the dying bloody mindset Winchester to Sam, for the first time in a long time, and in a very curious way that Dean, who states it all the time, is now forced to evaluate and to think, do I really agree with it? I say it all the time but WOAH THAT IS HORRIFYING TO HEAR COMING OUT OF SAMMY'S MOUTH WHAT THE HELL WHO BELIVES THAT?

I'M CARVING THAT FUCKER A SLICE OF THE APPLE PIE LIFE AND HE'S GONNA SHUT UP AND EAT HIS DAMN LIZARD. PIE. I MEANT PIE.

Anyway then we end of that awful shot of Sam from the outside of the impala looking in on him which just makes us feel helpless about not being able to hug him, in my scientific opinion of what that shot is implying.

#13x11 #season 13 spoilers #my stuff

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believerindaydreams · 3 years

Text

Crossing at dawn, part five, in which things get way out of hand

Manny

"Listen," Boone's saying, as short as I've ever heard him. "What if I sell this rifle?"

And you know, it makes sense. He's got one, I've got one, but nobody in DC carries the right ammo for .308 and our supply's running low. Boone's been using a whole-ass minigun since we hit the Mall, in perfect condition with all the spares we've got, and ammo for that is for the taking around here.

Still. Still. "What about mine?"

"You never tricked yours out. Mine's worth more." Boone runs his fingers down that polished stock, visibly reluctant to hand it over, which by his standards is like two soliloquies.

But he lets go in the end. So long Mojave, hello DC.

The merchant we're talking with, Crazy Wolfgang, he might be crazy but he's the first friendly face we've seen since waving bye to Veronica. "I do enjoy the look of it! A spectacular piece of junk to add to the junk collection!"

Carla wraps herself around Boone, nuzzling him, and since my man can't concentrate on cuddles and murdering the shit out of this dumbass trader at the same time, Crazy Wolfgang gets to live another day.

"So does that cover everything we're buying?" Arcade's been doing sums on a clipboard, juggling the caps duffle and the guns we've been collecting to sell off.

"Just about," Wolfgang says. "The tent, the Brahmin, dirty water, chems, one bottle of Nuka-Cola..."

We're cleaned out by the time the merchant's done with us, but we've got the essentials at least. Carla needs that Brahmin milk, and we have something to eat again besides mashed xander root. It's a start at rebuilding our lives.

"One more thing. Where's the closest settlement?"

"Right over yonder." Wolfgang points at a mass on the horizon, a huge metal hulk that looks like it's shot through with stars, in the dusk. Artificial light at night- not a patch on New Vegas lighting the desert, but it looks friendly. "Rivet City. A glorious place to buy, sell, and live, unless you happen to be a ghoul or oddly mutated, in which case they will politely drop you off a plank."

Boone spits on the ground. "Thanks for the warning."

"Warning? I will say, you all look pure enough to pass their admittedly stringent policies. Even if not, a few caps for the clinic doctor might smooth things over." Wolfgang's gaze comes to rest on Carla- and not even on her. "In truth, there's more than one community in the Wasteland where proven fertility is an assured ticket in. Play your cards right, you might get lucky-"

"Thanks," Arcade says. "But frankly, we'll stick with the tent."

Glad he says it. Think my favorite couple is just about speechless.

*****

Arcade

He isn't-

you aren't-

like a radio tuned to two frequencies at once, overlapping, your head's muzzy since that last concussion-

he's shaking, too weak to stand as he scrapes away at cold dirt with a shovel-

Navarro outpost, Navarro outpost.

I wish you were here, Julie.

He wastes purified water in extravagance as he places the prickly pear fruit, covering the earth wound in soft mud, too much for a desert plant but this soil is barren, lifeless, needs all the help it can get.

A tribunal back at the Boneyard, held to judgment. Would you care to clarify that last statement, Mr Gannon?

To wit. The introduction of even the most innocuous organism, into an environment devoid of its typical predators, can lead to catastrophic effects. Rabbits-

you cut your hands open on the next fruit, desert thorns one more injury to add to the list. Carla's touching your shoulder and you wish she wouldn't, you don't want to hear her. "Come to bed. You need rest."

"Look at your rad counter. What else is there to drink?"

"Can do it in the morning," Boone says, gruffly-

and I would prefer not to scream at him, but- "Sweet rads, stop being so loud! I can do this, it's what Followers are for."

They move away, leave an absence to be filled by your Eyebot's quiet hum, a voice with the common decency to stay outside your own skull.

Songs of old America carry you through the night as you dig and plant and swear, chanting the melodies like a rite, the only thing holding you together. Spacious skies and early light.

He passes out around dawn.

*****

Carla

You take a prickly pear fruit in a set of tongs, squeeze it into a soda bottle until the liquid's gone. Then you do it again.

Then you have a clean bottle of purified water to drunk, and it all seems so terribly simple.

Arcade is coming out of his all-day stupor, tearing ravenously at the trail stew Manny's fixed for him. "I had a...there is a word for this. Not a guess."

"A hunch?" you suggest. "A notion?"

"A hypothesis," Arcade says, closing his eyes. An exhausted kind of satisfaction in his voice. "Manny. Take out your gun, would you?"

Manny's too old a soldier to quibble. He takes the hunting rifle off his back, hefts it.

"Point it at a target?"

This is a tent, there's no one else here. Manny swings around, lining up his rifle for a perfect head shot.

You trust them both. Implicitly. But the palms of your hands are damp now, the baby kicks violently.

"She's coming in red," Manny says. "What's going on, you can ask Boone to do it without talking now?"

"That might be more helpful, but- actually, no, I think another night like that would kill me. Um. You can put your gun away now."

Manny does. Your breathing restarts.

"So what was it? I mean, that was just the same as usual."

"The point is, because he wasn't doing it, I was- Manny, forgive me for being terribly blunt, but did you first fuck Boone before or after being inducted into First Recon?"

"Before. Basic was hell for both of us in different ways, sharing a bunk eased it some. Why?"

Arcade opens his eyes again, resumes shovelling down pinto beans and dog steak. "A preliminary hypothesis that the First Recon ability isn't a mutation as such but a transmittable ability, transferred by the well-understood mechanisms of more familiar STDs, a conclusion which the NCR might also have reached sooner if not for the limited sample pool and operational mores on married service members."

"Uh, no? Because if it worked like that...Carla is sitting right here."

"Maybe it doesn't work the same way with women." You can't see his eyes. Something about the light reflecting off his glasses, making it impossible to see. "I don't know. But I'm asking- begging- was it difficult when it manifested for you? Do you know how to make it stop?"

Manny shrugs, strangely helpless in the lantern light. "Dude. I didn't notice anything, but by then I could trip on Turbo without even taking the stuff. My head was pretty well screwed up before I ever met Boone, believe me."

Arcade's so pointedly not looking at you now, his hands shaking as he forces open a bottle of soda and spills half of it on his coat, and you register that same coat is all that's holding him back, his vows as a doctor. Not to force a confidence.

With Rivet City a mere stone's throw away, that means more now than it ever could in the Mojave.

Your voice seems hard to find, but when it comes it's calm, reassuring. "It was like this for me too, yes. Maybe not as bad, but... I'll help."

Arcade lets his head bang to the tabletop. "You have no idea how grateful I am. I don't have any idea...ignore me. I am literally blathering now."

Manny turns to you, a bit of a frown on his face. "Hang on. That whole time in Arizona, when I was spotting for you- you could have partnered me all along? Why wouldn't you want the First Recon expert in charge?"

You think back. To the choking dust of Flagstaff, and the play of an incinerator in your hands as you dealt out death. "It was personal."

"...I never realized Boone picked a wife who was such a good fit," Manny says. His eyes have gone wide.

You shrug a little, and waddle over to the doctor to see about making him feel better.

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