#god dogmeat is so hard to draw

[nikinikori]

My Echo, my Shadow, and Me

GHOUCLYWeek Day 1: Partners in Crime

[the-firebird69]

You know what Biden you died and you're sick and you're a piece of s*** you said my husband's alive and you're not he was saying to things to him and he was helping him at the hospital I don't want to see you ever again you're a piece of s*** you and Dave this guy Trump was never a friend you're a f****** loser for doing business with him I can't stand you you want to ride everybody to death and we figured it out me and The Rock and I don't need your help to talk you f****** spaz it's such a f****** dirtbag you and your space cadet s*** you f****** loser it took so much effort and you f****** came by and screwed it all up cuz you're in Maine and we're not and you were down the street you God damn loser I'm writing you up and I'm sending it in I'm not sending it to the max whose bags they're a bunch of morons too I'm sending it to the foreigners because you're such an a****** you don't have to get him tons of money you have to keep trying to get him money and you're not so you don't have a job and you're ruining my life and you threatened him with a device and people are coming around here investigating you cuz you stupid s***. I went out of this they sent a scathing letter back it says if you send agents down here was sending agents over there to investigate what you're doing and what you've been doing you should not be pestering them it's Trump owes the money and he's not falling for your stupid house trick you've seen that was you doing all that stupid s*** to us and him I'm going to sue you myself you as president you b****

Camilla

It wasn't me doing it and I see you know the law and I'm going to be in court my head will spin so fast because of what I'm doing that's wrong I do understand something I know you're serious and you're telling me to the point and I also understand what you mean criminal negligence is what he's saying and it is I know why I'm doing it blaming them but okay I can also come down hard on you and you've been trying to do what he says you can go suck on a f****** barrel of a gun you're so dumb I don't want to talk to you bye and you go to f****** hell and I said that last part the Zeus and Biden said the other garbage before it and it's just a trash can now

We understand that and this is going to go like this with you senile idiots they think they're winning something by being mean and pushing people around and being bullies and their job is not to do that it's a lot more sophisticated and they can't do it and the foreigners are dragging their feet it's because of Tommy F and the Max and these idiots are just sitting here trying to rampage over Earth just like they want now I'm tired of this we have to come down on them and crush people who are like them and single them out and draw the idiots to them right now we're going to DC to take care of all the stupid s**** that work for him basically lost all his kids and he has a bunch of retards like the other people there's nothing you can do about it but he's really stupid Stan is dumb that makes mistakes and he's fighting the guy inside but holy s*** he's going to get tired one day he's got to get that guy out of there

Thor Freya

Olympus

I think I'm going to do the surgery cuz I need to know stuff this guy Trump is useless piece of s*** he's like dogmeat he doesn't know anything he just stares at you and says I'm a CIA guy and you don't know anything Dan what a prick I think I'm going to go ahead and do that and help him they have to do this weird s*** in the hospital what can I tell you don't have that Brian there dumb s*** and then try and capture there so what that's how it works

Terry cheeseman

Would be nice to have your brain back Mac and see all the stupid stuff that I'm doing but really you haven't memory what they were doing but you know I might not come out the same

Zues

I get that okay

Mac Daddy

Olympus

[whatevergreen]

Zhang Zongchang (1881 – 3 September 1932)

General and Governor of Shantung (Shandong) Province, Zhang was described as China's basest warlord. He was the most hated, and one of the most bizarre.

An opponent of the Nationalists and Communists, he was part of an unsuccessful alliance which sought to oppose Chiang Kai-shek and prop up the corrupt government in Peking (Beijing).

Zhang is not somebody I'd normally draw attention to however it's hard not to be fascinated.

His origins are unusual, his father was an alcoholic who worked as a head-shaver and trumpeter. His mother was a practising witch who performed exorcisms, and who remained with him until her death.

In his youth Zhang became a club bouncer and a bandit, heading his own gang. He became a revolutionary of sorts during the 1911 revolution and joined the army, eventually leading his own division. However finding himself on the losing side during the second revolution (1913), he later murdered one of the founding members of the Republic who had rebelled, in order to prove his loyalty to the new Vice President Feng Guozhang.

Into the 1920s he rose in the ranks, eventually leading his own army. He took control of Shanghai and Nanking (Nanjing) for a time in 1925, and then was appointed Governor of Shantung Province. He included women in his army, and numerous White Russians.

Zhang was heavily involved in the drug trade, and was an opium addict himself. He was also an alcoholic, a gambler, and a sex addict with up to 50 so-called concubines.

His rule of Shantung was disastrous. Excessive taxes, and over-issue of provincial and military paper money that rapidly became worthless caused chaos and poverty. He lived flamboyantly in the provincial capital and brutally supressed any opposition: he had the editor of a critical newspaper shot. Rebel groups began to form in the countryside, and were often successful against his forces.

Zhang is known to have travelled with a coffin, and publicly announced that he would come home in this if he was defeated in battle. When his troops were forced back during one campaign he indeed had himself paraded through the streets, sitting in his coffin and smoking a cigar.

He gained many nicknames including 'Dogmeat General', 'Monster' and 'Lanky', however at least three nicknames including 'Old Eighty-Six' were in reference to the size of his penis. Equal in length to a stack of 86 Mexican silver dollars apparently.

Zhang was also noted - and joked about - for taking his aging mother with him practically everywhere, except on military campaigns.

In the end, his military actions against the Nationalists were a failure and he was ousted in May 1928, fleeing to Japanese controlled Manchuria. He made various attempts to regain power in his remaining years.

During this period he "accidentally" shot and killed a cousin of the last emperor Pu Yi and was given a choice between a 15 day prison sentence or a fine! He paid the fine.

Another story relates how Zhang had deposited a quantity of his military paper money (Provincial Army-Note of Shantung) and provincial bank notes at the British owned HSBC bank branch in Tientsin (Tianjin). A few years after his defeat he snuck in to the city to withdraw funds from his account, no doubt hoping that he would be paid in current notes. The bank however paid him in the very now worthless notes of his regime that he'd deposited. He wasn't in a position to protest.

In 1932 he was assassinated by the nephew of an officer he had killed. Despite the justified widespread hatred of him, his funeral procession stretched for over two miles, though many came out of curiosity or were paid to attend.

Zhang wrote hilariously bad poetry (though some claim others wrote it to slander him):

Visiting Pengai Pavillion

A poem (allegedly) by Zhang Zongchang

What a pavilion Place is fucking nice If the gods can get here I’ll take a seat too Have a drink by the window Sing some songs to the ocean Play some cards I think I’ll get drunk

Also...

Poem About Bastards

You tell me to do this, He tells me to do that. You're all bastards, Go fuck your mother

During a famine and drought in 1927, Zhang prayed for rain in a temple of the Dragon King (a rain and guardian god). When this failed, he returned and slapped the statue of the deity several times, shouting and swearing at it, and threatening to destroy the temple. He then ordered his artillery to shoot into the sky for many hours, after it which it apparently rained. He (or someone) wrote a poem to commemorate the event.

His other known brush with religion was a failed attempt to build a shrine to himself at Daming Lake, but he was ousted before it's completion.

[ziracona]

hey zira, what are your hot takes on all of the fo4 companions?

Haha, I don’t know how hot they are, but I can give you a speed run! (Also I am very excited to get this. FO4 was the first open world game I ever played and just the concept of that and the hugeness of the world and branching story & sudden feeling changes towards me in companion characters totally blew my mind, & it still lives rent free in my heart).

Ada, Old Longfellow, and Strong I /still/ haven’t maxed despite having too many hundred hours to want to list on this game—the former bc they were DLC, Strong because honest to god I left him at a nice settlement and then completely forgot about him and remembering that I am the energy in this Ryan O’Flanagan video but abt leaving my super mutant in a tiny settlement alone. I will get there! To max affinity I mean. But anyway, I don’t truly know those three, so my takes are incomplete. So far though, I really like Ada. She is a good girl just trying her best. Fucks me up I can tell her to self destruct. Even though I feel sure she would ignore me, I cannot imagine ever saying that to her. It was really sweet she was willing to forgive the Mechanist and move on with her life. A good girl. Longfellow I am maxing rn (was last time I played anyhow). I enjoy him. Gruff grumpy old man but he seems quite decent and I like his idle banter and when he sings to himself a lot. Seems like he’s had it rough. Strong I liked. He’s wild, and I loved how insane meeting him was, and am worried about him eventually understanding poetry and how that might mess up his sense of world understanding. But he’s a chill dude in his own way and I am glad they gave us at least one nice super mutant.

For the companions I actually do know like the back of my hand, the speedrun:

Nick Valentine: Best man on earth. One of two fictional characters I ever called husband. I would die kill or live for him. I want to be 1/4th the man Nick Valentine is. One of the best characters ever period and I adore literally everything about him. It fucked me up early in game where right after he offered to basically risk destroying his mind to help a stranger look for her son, he asked me how I was doing. First character in the entire game to do that. His first companion dialogue is abt how you’re doing TuT. The man is very kind and forgiving and fair, but knows when the draw the line and take no shit. Emotionally mature, kind, caring, longsuffering. Incredibly damaged and broken by life, but holding on and living kindly and to help others anyway. One of the four most marryablen fictional men I’ve ever seen.

Preston Garvey: Brave, kind, sweet man. I would defend him with my life. He really just wants so bad to make the world better and life has been so hard, but he’s still trying. A beautiful and underrated companion and I would throw hands for him on sight. I adore how he whistles. A true and gentle and loyal friend. Take him to Quincy and let him get his justice it’s what he deserves. People who hate him because he tries to get help helping civilians in that game are weak. I love him so much... please give him enough time to reach max affinity he’s so worth it.

Deacon: *To the tune of You Are My Dad* You are my friiiiend! You’re my friend! (Boogie woogie woogie). Initially, he pissed me off bc he lies all the god damn time, but after we got close enough he actually trusted me, he stole my heart and I would also die for Deacon. He’s a really good person who thinks he’s shit because of who he was on his past. Also him 🤝 Preston: massive survivor’s guilt. They should be friends. Poor Deacon has been the last member of the Railroad like four times, and it’s awful. Help him. Give him love and support. He’s one of my all time faves. Also, Railroad hands down best faction and if you kill them for any reason other than like a walkthrough route video and I ever get the chance I would 100% clock you in the face as hard as I can, like going for losing teeth, and feel no guilt. I know it’s a game and that’s wrong, and I’d be wrong, but I’d still do it. Also, Ryan Alosio (his VA) saw me do cosplay for Deacon once and told me it was great and it filled me with even more love. Anyway Deacon is great. Also, his whole “There are other organisations out there. And, in time, I'm sure they're going to spoon-feed you their own patented form of bullshit. Ignore the verbage and look at what they're doing. What they're asking you to do. What sort of world they'd have you build and how they're going to pay for it.” Is one of the like, two most iconic quotes in all of FO4 & just super good in general.

Hancock: Hardcore badass man but also a good dude and a champion for the people. Man really puts his money where his mouth is and you gotta respect that; another favorite companion for sure. Big fan of the way he stabs a guy for you upon meeting, and is a cool leader who organized his crime and does a decent job actually leading. He works hard to help people and bites back hard. Social justice advocate, dangerous man about town, not afraid to cosplay a revolutionary war hero 24/7 & u gotta respect the no fucks given attitude. A chill dude. Like that he fights the institute, hates the Brotherhood, helps the Railroad, and is friends with Nick. He’s legit af. Also, his VA gives a different answer every time someone asks him about the voice he did for hancock and they’re funny af.

Piper Wright: A cool spunky lady. Lois Lane on the case, kicking butt, and taking name. She’s nice but also hardcore and smart, supportive, fun. A good person. You always get points if you like Nick (which most companions do), and they’re good friends. She’s funny and I love her. A good heart.

Codsworth: He’s great. He’s family. He’s like my...weird brother. Getting to max affinity is heartwarming and also makes my heart go :’-] . Great early-game companion bc he kicks ass and doesn’t need stims to heal. I love getting called by my name and think that was a great feature (well, my PC’s name). He’s a wonderful funky little robot dude and I am so glad he likes me.

Dogmeat: Amazing. A good boy. Doggo of the year. His actor deserved the game award she won. Cute, full of love, and plays with a teddy bear if you give him one. 100/10z

Cait: I like her a lot. She’s been through so much shit, and it makes sense she is how she is. I like they actually gave her an emaciated and messy (though still pretty) design, since she is a drug addict. And that they make her main quest about taking that seriously and wanting to get help, and that she’ll call out the player if they fuck around and do drugs in front of her after she gets rehabilitated. Her relationship to the PC if good is really sweet, and I am a fan. I like that while she’s not sympathetic to synths and thinks they aren’t people, she forgets that every time Nick walks into a room and is like “Oh hey Nicky : )”. She’s a good girl who has been through a lot and still needs time to heal and find herself, but she’s making great strides.

Robert Joseph MacCready: Human disaster (loving). Homeboy a goddamn /mess/ but I love him. He tries so hard to be cool. I love he makes you pay him to come with, then chickens out and gives it back lol. A fool ball of anxiety and bad decisions and what he thinks brovado is. I wish he, Preston, and Deacon would quit fighting, bc I am always like “ :’-] </3 Boys Please” when they swap out, but I love them just the same. He’s doing his best, he’s just stupid and a fool. Like Philip J Fry. Keeping his goddamn soldier toy, which somehow is listed as junk instead of sent to Misc with quest items where it would be fine, safe?parylizes me with fear. I’ve lost 2 hours of gameplay reloading an old save bc I accidentally lost it.

X6-88: A more complex one to answer about. He’s bad, but like, I’m pretty sympathetic to how he got that way. He was created in a lab and had his emotions mostly dragged out of him in intense psychologically damaging training so he would be a weapon and view himself as an object. I was relieved he chose me over the institute even if he wasn’t a fan of the chocie, and think that means there’s a lot of hope for him. Wish he’d chill the fuck out and quit intimidating civilians for 6 god damn seconds, but I like him. I bring him fancy lad snack cakes home from travels all the time, bc Synths are supposed to like them. Really like that he’s the /most/ sympathetic companion towards Danse in Blind Betrayal, even though he should not be programmed for that, and Danse hated him and made it clear any time they interacted.

(EDIT) Curie: I FORGOT HER BABY IM SO SORRY. I like Curie a lot, despite the fact I temporarily forgot she existed. I stg I thought she was in here. Uhhh, okay. Curie: like her character and personality, HUGE un-fan of both the way her desire to get a synth body is to be ‘more real,’ as if Codsworth isn’t a fully realized person while the same robot type she is, instead of just like. Because it would make her happy. ALSO hate how much of a Born Sexy Yesterday she is, even intentionally in not-determinate affinity talks. It’s gross. But her herself, I like a lot. She’s my daughter and I will protect her. She works at The Castle right now as their on-site medic.

Paladin Danse: I know I’m gonna take heat for this but honestly? He didn’t do much for me. I like that he looks and sounds kinda like Buzz Lightyear, and that’s fun, but idk at all why people think he’s so hot. He’s very boring & generic looking to me. Like you’re valid! Taste all be different. But he doesn’t do it for me personally in looks or personality. I don’t at all like, hate him. Or even dislike. Tbh I am fairly neutral on him. It was funny making affinity with him though. Every other companion I had maxed, I liked more and more with each affinity talk. They’d be like “So my dad was a minuteman and died and I want to honor him” or “I just want to really feel like I’m a person, for real, myself, and I am glad I met you, because the good we have achieved together is ours, even if I can’t be sure of anything else,” or “My brother threw the cultural minorities out of our city for clout bc the rich citizens were all racist, and I tried to help—I snuck them food to the unsafe ruins they set up in for weeks, but eventually, they just vanished, and I still bear immense guilt and self-hatred over not having stopped that.” And Danae’s would be like “One time a buddy of mine got kidnapped by super mutants. They turned him into one of them, and they’re all abominations, so I killed him and it made me really sad.” And I was just like “...Oh danse. I really wanted to like you more. But what the fuck.” His relationship to Haylen is sweet though. And ofc I saved him in Blind Betrayal. I blew up the Prydwin so he’s safe now too, and he lives in the garden by my house and tells me how glad he is we’re friends, and I’m p into that. Overall, my feelings on him are not strong at all though.

Porter Gage: Not a fan. Like, I appreciated he helped me kill the old boss, sure. And bc I owed him for that, I went to max affinity to see what there was to him as a person. And like, as far as raiders go, he was okay. But he wasn’t deeply sympathetic, and he’s a slaver, and if you try to liberate the slaves he and the others own, he /will/ turn on and attempt to murder you immediately, no matter how close you were, so he made his choice, and it was to be a bad person and an asshole to the last. Really enjoyed the VA’s work a lot on him tho.

And there you have it 👈👈😎. Thanks for asking!

[fallout4reactsblog]

This is for Valentine's Day, way into the future, I know - but it's my favorite. Plus, this way you have plenty of time to work on it, lol. As a holiday of love and friendship, sole has a nice idea; as a gesture of love, sole draws up some official looking adoption papers and adopts their companions into the family. Rolled up and tied with red ribbons. Synth!Shaun and Dogmeat help pass them out, and we also adopt Nat, Duncan, etc. Ohana means family! And family doesn't get left behind!

“How many group meetings do you think sole will call this year?”

Hancock pulled his hat down further over his eyes, trying to escape the too-bright sun that came in through the windows. “Too many,” he grumbled. “I love them, but damn.”

“It seemed important to them,” Preston said, attempting to soothe. “It’ll probably only be a few minutes.”

MacCready sighed, watching Duncan run around the house with Shaun, being chased by Nat. “Nothing ever is with them.”

The door swung open and cold air swept through the otherwise warm house. Piper, sitting closest to the door, shivered, and Nick quietly offered her a scarf from the pocket of his coat.

“I’m glad you all made it!”

Sole stepped into the room, a bundle of rolled up papers clutched in their arms. More were piled in the basket that hung from Dogmeat’s neck, each tied with a small red ribbon. Sole was grinning.

“Happy to be here,” X6 said, tone far too dry to be sincere. That earned him a heated glare from Preston, and everyone swore the courser shrank back.

“So, how’s everyone’s Valentine’s Day been so far?” Sole shot a cheeky grin at Nick, and if the old synth could have blushed, he probably would have.

Instead, he murmured, “Peachy, thanks,” and pulled his hat a little lower.

“Shitty,” Cait said in reply, beer bottle dangling loosely from her fingertips. “It’s a pointless holiday. I don’t get the fuss.”

Sole nodded sympathetically. “I understand. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to celebrate this year, with everything that’s happened. To celebrate without my spouse felt…” They fumbled with their words for a moment, “Wrong. But I wanted to do something for all of you, since you’ve been so kind to me as I’ve adjusted to life here in the commonwealth. So, I brought some gifts!”

They stood and began to hand out the scrolls of paper. Dogmeat bounded over to the kids immediately, not only to complete his duty but also to get some well-earned pets. Sole took a more serious attitude, carefully handing over the scrolls to each of their companions. A chorus of thanks greeted them, even though their friends were altogether confused about this activity, and most of their thoughts were centered around what the hell sole was giving them.

When all the rolls had been distributed, sole settled back into their chair, grinning ear to ear, and Dogmeat came to flop down on their feet. “Go on,” they said, waving their hands. “Open them up.”

The rustling of paper filled the room as they hurried to get ribbons untied, papers unfurled, and read the words sole had printed. Their pre-war handwriting was lovely, though perhaps a bit shaky from lack of use, and the words were neatly spelled across the page.

Piper, the best at reading by far, was quickest to finish, and glanced up with tears in her eyes, “Oh, Blue…”

“You didn’t have to do this,” Nick followed up.

Danse, in the corner, made a small choking sound, hand pressed to his mouth, and Preston leaned over to bury his face in his shoulder. Both men were crying, even as Preston stammered out his thanks and Danse nodded along, completely unable to speak.

“It’s unconventional, for sure, but I like it.” Hancock shot them a wide grin. “Thanks, sunshine.”

Cait leaned over to Piper, ashamed to ask for help, but desperately curious to know what the hell the paper said. Across the way, Gage was trying to weasel similar aid out of MacCready, with far less luck. But when each had got their papers deciphered, Cait gave sole a solemn nod and choked out a “Thanks,” while Gage turned his face to the wall, pretending he wasn’t blushing, no, sir.

“Thanks, boss,” Deacon said, with finger guns to accentuate his point. He was glad for his glasses at this moment, to hide the tears that pricked at his eyes.

“I certainly appreciate the gesture,” X6 said, already tucking the papers into his jacket. “Nothing like this has ever been done for me.”

“Nor for me!” Curie piped up. “Oh, this will be most exciting, non? Strange, certainly, but very exciting.”

“For me, it has been some time since I had a family. I am looking forward to having one again,” Ada added.

Longfellow, somberly nodded, still staring at the page, and quietly whispered, “I’ll drink to that.”

Shaun leapt into sole’s arms for a hug, curling into their side, whispering, “Thanks,” into their ear.

MacCready was the last to speak up, Duncan on his lap. “Y’know, it’s not something you see out here. I thought for a long time it couldn’t be done.” He pressed a kiss to the top of Duncan’s head. “But I think I speak for everyone when I say we’re happy to be part of your family.”

Sole grinned out at them. A motley crew, for certain, and dysfunctional in parts, but they loved them, and they were glad to be loved in return.

“Alright, family hug,” Preston said, patting Danse’s shoulder and striding towards sole. “Everybody get in on this.”

Sole laughed, arms outstretched as their new family encircled them. Even Deacon joined in, though not without a small protest at being jostled by Hancock. But it was loving, and their hearts were full, and even though it was going to be hard, by god, they were determined to make it work.

[mojavehearts]

Fallout 4 Companions react to Strong having a crush on Sole

(REQUESTED!!) (im cackling like a maniac already) 

(I know I used this before but...This IS Sole and Strong)

some are them realising it and some are helping him come to the realisation  (some of the reacts even work together as one!)

Cait: 

Cait watched as Strong stomped back and forth in front of Soles house in Sanctuary, at 4 am, on a Sunday. ‘’Oi buddy! can ya quit yer stompin?’’ she whispers out angrily, putting out her cigarette onto the side of one of the small shacks sole built Strong grumbles under his breath which makes Cait come striding up ‘’what is your problem?!’’ she was trying her best to whisper at least ‘’Strong doesn’t know!’’ he roars back she covers her ears and sighs ‘’Listen big guy, people are tryin to sleep and they cant with you stompin around’’ Strong grumbles again and points at soles door ‘’Strong cant be without master’’ ‘’what you like a lost puppy or somethin’? yer supposed to be a big mean ol’ supermutant’’ Cait scoffs, now leaning against soles house ‘’NO Strong does not want to be, without master near him, makes Strong MAD!’’ Cait’s eyes widen and she backs away slowly ‘’good lord, you better talk to MacCready about that...’’

Curie:

‘’Ah monsieur Strong!’‘ Curie waves strong over in a chirpy tune ‘‘How have our experiments gone so far? any pain? some memories? violent tendencies more than usual?’‘ Curie had gotten some data from some ‘hospital’ of sorts from New Vegas and was testing the medication in does on Strong so far nothing was different of course Strong was already more ‘Put Together’ compared to many supermutants and it had been a very small dose, ‘‘No strong want stop, making head fuzzy! weak!’‘ Curie nods and checks her chart ‘‘When does this usually happen or is it all the time?’‘ Strong stomps his feet slightly ‘‘If Strong is near master it becomes fuzzy! want to stop! need to be strong and protect Master’‘ Curie stops writing down in her notes and freezes ‘‘Oh Mon dieu’‘ 

Codsworth:

Codsworth is what he calls ‘Smart for an old bot’ he knew from the get go, hes still full of old world ideals so he isn't to keen on it, considering supermutants are known as violent brutes as well, but he warmed up to Strong (well as much as one possibly could if they weren’t sole) and it became quite entertaining for him to watch over a cup of tea and a nice book (he makes the tea for show, sadly he cant drink it) as strong ‘somehow’ gets red when with Sole, it really makes Codsworth rethink many things

Danse:

Danse...Isn’t exactly a fan of supermutants in general, that's just the way he’s  wired (haha get it...Ill go)

Strong would always try to size Danse up, whenever he would talk to Sole Strong would be there, either watching intensely with a violent glare or just interrupting whatever he could, so he went up to him and asked what his problem was, guessing it was because he used to be brotherhood and also because...Danse obviously wasn't a fan of him. Strong just stares him down and points a thick green finger to Danse’s chest poking it into him slightly ‘’Sole needs real man, not metal man’’ and walked off leaving Danse to be (the gif above)

Dogmeat:

You know that thing dogs do when they cover their eyes with their paws and or ears as well?...Yeah just that

Deacon:

One word nine letters  Terrified 

Deacon thought it was kinda cute at first when he would watch strong follow Sole around, in that scary sort of way...in that way where little girls sing ring around the rosy or your child stands beside your bed in the middle of the night and says nothing, but then he noticed things...different things, like how he would rarely let anyone else around Sole, and that one time where they went to the third rail and that person tried to hit on sole and he chucked a tantrum and set the third rail on fire and- OH MY GOD 

Piper:

Piper was making her usual rounds around Diamond City, trying to question whoever she could about her new piece ‘’Mirelurks and their MireQuirks’’ when suddenly she saw strong browsing the general supplies store she was confused why he was here alone, things may have changed since Sole came into play but he might still get given a hard time, he scratches his chin and Piper moves closer to greet him ‘’Master friend, Strong need gift for Master, Master gave Strong milk of human kindness’’ Piper thought this was very normal in fact and did help him pick out something, but then he turned to her and said ‘’How do humans show ‘E fec tion’ ‘’ and she froze ‘’Oh wow buddy i’m not the one for that um...Maybe Nicky can help he was married once well- when he was- when he wasn't- wait was he him- yes of course- um - but its- well-’’ Strong had enough of her blubbering and scoffs already walking off to see valentine, Soles gift in hand. Piper breathes out and then in deeply but then starts laughing softly, it was kind of cute really, but she didn’t think Supermutants could feel ..Love?, Piper had already found a new, and better article idea. SCORE

Preston:

Preston sighs softly, wiping the sweat away from under his hat, taking it off to fan himself with it he noticed the ground rumbling slightly beneath him ‘’Strong that you?’’ Preston turns to the direction of the rumbles and places his hat back on, sure enough he was met with big green mean fighting machine, strong. ‘’You know master, what does master like, besides blood and fighting’’ Preston purses his lips in slight confusion an audible ‘huh’ leaving his throat ‘’Strong want say sorry for Third Rail on fire, Mack Ree Dee says I should show sorry with actions’’ Preston scratches the side of his face and stares at the ground for a minute ‘’why don't you go to diamond city? check out the stuff there I’m sure they would like anything from the surplus store’’ Strong grunts in agreement and stomps away again behind Strong stood MacCready with a tilted head and raised eyebrows Preston looks at him completely confused until MacCready takes his two fingers and draws a heart, Preston stands there dumbfounded his gun falling from his hands

Valentine:

It was a slow day for nick, seemed not many people needed help nowadays guess he had Sole to thank for this time off, but he was getting a bit restless with all this sitting around waiting for something, he felt kind of bad for wishing for things to happen but he was sick of the small ‘Lost my cat’ or ‘forgot where my nuka-cola truck was’ and sick of the fact all of those were deacon in different wigs, so when his door opened he was pretty excited he turns his head up quickly and is met with strong slowly trying to squeeze into the door, he struggled for a few minutes before sitting down, and then breaking the chair, but he still sat in place on top of the broken chair on the floor, nick chuckles and rubs at his temples why was the world against him ‘’Strong, great to see you...What do you need?’’ strong was quick to speak ‘’Paper send me but before that pwes ton and then before that mac ree dee and then before him irish lady, and now im here help strong now metal man!’’ nick rubs the lower part of his face and sighs ‘’so...Paper? sent you specifically?’’ strong nods with a grumble ‘’Alright..tell me what you need’’ it was better than seeing deacon in a long blonde wig talking in a high pitch voice about his cheating husband for 5 hours ‘’Strong been told to come to you because you were married and I need to know E fec tion’’ Nicks eyes widen slightly, the pupils whirrling vibrantly this had to be one of deacons tricks ‘’Affection? for whom’’ Strong slams a big green fist on the desk, breaking it, nick pretends the desk is still there for sanity sake and rests his arms in midair ‘’For Master! who else would be good enough for E fec tion’’ Nick could die at that moment ‘’Alright Deacon you can come out now’’ Strong roars angrily ‘’Bald man at settlement!’’ oh god so this was...Serious, nick takes a looooonnngggggg drag of a cigarette and sighs ‘’Alright...ill help ya’’

X6-88:

(petition for me to just use Raymond Holt gifs for X6 considering they are basically,,The same person like the personalities are spot on omg)

All of the companions where sharing their opinions/outlooks on Strongs growing affections on sole/if Sole would return them and all that, Hancock threw in a few sexual jokes (making everyone groan in different tones) while everyone else already knew X6 did not, and he found it obscene 

‘‘x6, what do you think about it?’‘ Curie asks with her eyes full of curiosity, as always. 

‘‘Absolutely...Not’‘

‘‘What do you mean ‘Absolutely not?’’ Piper asks with a joking scoff 

‘‘it is ridiculous at best, there is no way’‘ the other companions sigh at him ‘‘hey it could be a real blossoming love my guy, they will have gorgeous half green babies’‘ Deacon says with a mouthful of carrot X6 looks at him in distaste and turns in his hair ‘‘X6! don't ignore us, stop being a grumpy pants you aren't in the institute anymore! love is real!’‘ Mac says excitedly X6 slowly turns his chair back and stares at him through his glasses

‘‘It might be, but not between sole and the supermutant, now before you complain, i am once again turning in my chair’‘

he will come around

MacCready:

‘’MACK REE DEE!’’Strong stomped up to Mac at INCREDIBLE speed ‘’whoa there strong! you could flatten me buddy’’ he chuckled but he was literally terrified for his life seeing strong run like that ‘’Loud lady says you can help me’’ strong says bluntly ‘’help with what?’’ now mac was interested  ‘’I told her I didn’t want to be without Master and she tells me to see you little man’’ MacCready rubs his neck in confusion why would she send strong to him over nothing it was only natural that he would be if he considers Sole his Master ‘’After fire in Third Rail Master was upset at Strong, STRONG CANT STAND IT’’ Mac nodded slightly ‘’uh well...Sometimes a good ‘’hey I’m sorry’’ and some affection, maybe a hug and a gift can work?’’ strong seemed to like that idea ‘’I GO NOW’’ he roars ‘’whoa buddy wait! do you want me to tell Sole you’re leavin? I’m on my way to have dinner with her now’’ dinner!? Strong’s alarms went off in his head and he picks Mac up by his jacket snarling slightly ‘’Dinner?!’’ Maccready stares at strong, confused and terrified ‘’Um yeah...The thing people do to eat? she wanted Duncan and Shaun to meet formally? you were invited remember?’’ ‘’oh’’ strong slowly and gently (for a supermutant) and slightly dusts Mac off and turned away MacCready laughed softly at how strange he could be and then stopped dead in his tracks ‘’Wait what the fu- ‘’

Hancock:

Once the institute was defeated Hancock and Sole both came up with the idea to have a party for everyone at the third rail, all of good neighbour was decorated from top to bottom with funny decor, synth scraps, all of that (much to x6′s dislike, he still went) everything was fine and dandy, everyone was partying it up, Magnolia switched It up for the night and was singing some upbeat party tunes, and then some random stumbled up to Sole, Hancock watched for a distance he knew Sole could handle themselves so he just watched silently, it was chill and all until Strong war cried, threw the person into some lit candles which then got caught on a decoration and set it on fire and then in shock some people bumped into each other and started fighting AND THEN as everything was going to shit Sole had to jump up to Strong to avoid the fire as it pooled around them, the way strong held onto Sole, told him enough whether supermutants could feel that kinda thing or not wasn't his business. Putting out his cigarette he sighs and decides to help in the chaos as Deacon walked into the third rail ‘’ I BROUGHT PIZZ- aaaa???!’’

BONUS

Sole:

Sole was sitting at dinner with Mac, Duncan and Shaun and turned towards the empty spot they had reserved for Strong with a sigh. They just continue to smile and eat, until the door gets fireman kicked down (I cannot stop with that) and strong appears Sole stands up and strong walks towards them, a pretty sweet looking belt in hand he throws it at sole and they catch it ‘’is this for me strong? well thanks! I-’’ then Strong picks them up and awkwardly  hugs them to his body sole struggles a little bit against him ‘’is this about the third rail? its alright strong I told you that I was just busy’’ Strong ‘’I’m trying to do human E fec tion’’ sole goes silent and then smiles softly ‘’thanks strong that’s really nice of you to do that for me, but you don’t have to I like you the way you are’’ strong slowly puts sole down and sole pats him on the arm 

Mac and Duncan just looked at each other awkwardly and kept eating the whole time

Bonus Bonus

Maxson:

(I hope this was okay!! thank you so much for requesting I had a BLAST doing it!! xxx)

[nishaapologist]

Dogmeat Me, Dogmeat You (Fallout 4, First Sentinel AU)

people have been asking and yes; both rookie AND sarah have a dogmeat, and of COURSE rookie takes their dogmeat with them to boston. what do they look like, a monster???

*

It’s as Sarah is staring very intently at an old and well-annotated map of Boston — drawn over countless times by various travellers, circling places of interest and scratching big Xs over pockets of deadly radiation or Radscorpion nests that sit atop neat typeface denoting another of Boston’s many attractions for Pre-War families — that Dogmeat starts hassling her for no good reason, prodding her snout under Sarah’s armpit as her owner leans over her desk in thought. She nudges her away gently, absently, murmuring not now as she tries to draw up some strategies for the next battery of missions she’s got planned for the Commonwealth, but Dogmeat’s insistent, snuffling and poking and pushing until Sarah loses her train of thought for the third time, and she finally sighs and stands up, abandoning the idea for now to instead look down into her dog’s big brown eyes.

“You hungry, girl? Is that it?”

Dogmeat wags her tail so hard that her whole body wriggles with the motion, and when she nearly sweeps one of Rookie’s countless collectible bottles of Quantum off the nearest coffee table — waiting to be put into a bulletproof, rocket-proof, explosion-proof and just about nuke-proof container — Sarah curses and starts ushering her downstairs. “C’mon, g’won, down you go—”

Truth be told, Home Plate is a little too small for a fully-grown German Shepard, which is only made all the smaller when Sarah makes eye contact with Old Dogmeat lying at the bottom of the stairs, Rookie’s ever-faithful cattledog now greying in the face. He doesn’t quite have the spring in his step that Sarah remembers him having a few years ago, but he’s a stubborn old bastard and Rookie loves him half to death, so Sarah expects him to be hanging around a few more years yet. If she’s being strictly honest, she’d never understood the appeal of having a hound by your side on the battlefield — dogs die so easily, and Sarah’s determination to save as many lives as possible is often tested by their presence — but now she’s got a dog of her own, and, well. Rookie’s just a little smug about it all.

Still, as soon as Sarah’s foot hits the last step on the stairs, he gets up to give Dogmeat a good sniffling before circling around her legs, and Sarah has a feeling this whole thing is a setup.

“Alright, alright,” she says, stepping gingerly over wayward paws. “You know, you could be annoying someone with a face much closer to your level—”

Old Dogmeat makes a gruff sort of woof in the back of his throat, and right in that same moment the front door opens, Rookie’s red cap poking through the gap before the rest of them follows, glancing down at both dogs before peering up to Sarah’s unamused face. They take a second of contemplation — backed by the sound of Dogmeat’s tail hitting the side of the door with a whud, whud, whud —  before cracking a grin as they put two and two together.

“Oh, man, they turned to you, huh? I told ‘em I was gonna go to Polly’s and pick up some meat, but apparently five minutes is on the long side of time for them.”

As they slide inside, there’s a wrapped parcel under one arm that both dogs look very interested in all of a sudden, and Rookie holds up above their head when Old Dogmeat snarts sniffing for it. “Ey, no! This isn’t all for you, fuckers, back off—”

Sarah snorts as she watches Rookie make for the kitchen, both Dogmeats hot on their heels. “I mean, don’t they say a year for humans is seven in dog years, or something? That means five minutes for them is, like…” Sarah does the maths, and she’s not ashamed to admit it takes quite a bit of finger-counting to get there. “Thirty-five minutes. You left them to starve for half a dog hour, Rookie. For shame.”

Rookie reaches the kitchen, slapping down the meat onto the wide countertop that Sarah had constructed out of scrap metal and a prayer, and Sarah laughs at the blank stare they look at her with. “Oh, I’m sorry, you’re on their side now? I heard what you said through the door, asshole, not to mention that look on your face.”

Sarah shrugs with an easy acceptance,  but anything else Rookie had to say is quickly derailed when Dogmeat jumps up to rest her impressive paws on the counter, her angled head now level with Rookie’s eyes, and they yelp, quick to tuck an elbow about her neck to bring her back down to the floor. “No! Counter is for humans, not dogs—”

Meanwhile, on their other side, Old Dogmeat pulls the same trick, nearly pushing Rookie right over to sniff at bloodsoaked newspapers, and Rookie’s face is shot through with betrayal.

“No! Down! I fed you guys this morning, why are you being so dramatic?!”

Sarah just folds her arms, content to watch the carnage as both Dogmeats hop up one after another— not even going after the meat, it seems, with their tails wagging in a way that suggests its playtime — and when Rookie finally looks back to Sarah, it’s with a long and childish whine.

“Saraaaaaah,” they whinge, one hand firmly around Dogmeat’s worn leather collar as they try (and fail) to haul her away. “Control your stupid dog!”

“You first,” she offers in return, but she relents after that, letting off a short whistle that sees Dogmeat settle in an instant, padding her way to Sarah’s side to receive a pat between her pointed ears. Rookie scowls, but a harsh command between their teeth also makes Old Dogmeat finally sit at their feet, smiling up at them with his pink tongue lolling out of his mouth, unapologetic as ever.

“God,” Rookie starts, reaching over to a small basin habitually filled with clean water and left on the side to wash their hands and dishes in, dipping their hands in to find a mottled bar of soap at the bottom. “That dog suits you so well, you know that? I look at her face and I swear she looks like you sometimes.”

Sarah raises an eyebrow, and very specifically doesn’t look to Dogmeat, just in case she sees Rookie’s point get proven before her very eyes. “How so?”

“Well, you know! Weren’t German Shepards, like, Pre-War police dogs? Military dogs?” Rookie cants their head in Dogmeat’s direction, who cants hers right back. “Look at her! Tough as Brahmin hide, obeys all your commands, and she obeys even when it’s just a whistle or whatever… is she reading your mind?”

Sarah shrugs again, though even she’s been surprised by Dogmeat’s sheer tenacity out on the field. Picking her up at Red Rocket had been a spur of the moment idea, if only because Sarah’s compulsive need to do the Right Thing had convinced her to try and find the mutt an owner on the way to Diamond City, but then Dogmeat had defended Sarah from a plethora of attacks and had warned her of many more, always returning to Sarah’s side when called and finding her plenty of supplies with the aid of a keen nose. By the time they’d reached the Wall, Sarah found that she just couldn’t bring herself to let the damn dog go, and despite going through hell and high water… well, Dogmeat’s a survivor. Sarah can relate.

“I dunno,” Sarah finally says after a long minute, reaching down to scratch at Dogmeat’s ears again. “Maybe I’m just a dog person.”

Rookie watches her carefully, screwing up their face like they’re trying to puzzle something out for a few seconds, and then they relax all at once with an airy laugh.

“They say that owners and dogs are super similar, don’t they?” they begin, and Sarah’s not sure where this is going until Rookie winks over their shoulder. “Makes sense they’re just as hard to kill and as much of a pain in the ass as you are, right?”

Sarah glares back, and all it takes is for her to give a single disapproving click of her tongue before Dogmeat goes barrelling across the room, leaping up onto Rookie to cover their face in licks and nips. Rookie splutters — getting a mouthful of dog tongue in the process — and stumbles backwards, nearly crashing right into Sarah’s table of gun parts as they wrestle with her dog. “Sarah! Sarah— ugh, gross, Sarah! Call her off!”

Instead of doing that, Sarah crouches down to pat Old Dogmeat’s flank when he turns to nose at her socks, and she watches with a smile as Rookie nearly gets dragged to the floor underneath seventy pounds of muscled hound. “What do you say, buddy?” she asks, and Old Dogmeat’s shining, heterochromatic eyes watch her with wonder. “Shall I call her off in five minutes, or ten?”

The answer is actually about thirty seconds, but that’s mostly because Dogmeat ends up sitting across Rookie’s chest, pinning them to the floor as they squirm about, trapped under her weight. Rookie calls for Old Dogmeat’s help (sicc em, boy!) but when he wanders over just to lie down on their legs, Sarah’s nigh helpless with laughter.

“Traitors!” Rookie wheezes, but Sarah can’t really tell what they’re saying when Dogmeat rolls over, and all their words are muffled into a double-coat of dog hair.

[moonstone-blues]

A Spark By The River - Chapter 4: Pain

Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit. Those were the main words that were flying around in Nick's mind as he ran, a whining Dogmeat by his side, worried about the woman also. River had not long lost consciousness. This wasn't good. Nick didn't know what condition she was in now. It was near impossible to tell, being unable to communicate with the woman that he held in his arms. He had to act fast. River wasn't able to apply pressure to her wound now which meant that she would eventually bleed out in no time at all. Nick looked around, hastily scouting for any sort of danger. When finding none, Nick got down onto his knees on the old, cracked road decayed with age and and put River down. He sat her up for a moment to take her rucksack off before he lay her down on her back. Dogmeat sniffed her hand, licking it, hoping it would wake her up. Nick was sure that if he had a heart, the old ticker would be beating as fast as a mole rat on jet. Nick gently took her hand, careful not to scratch her with the metal of his own and put two of his covered fingers on her wrist. He could feel a pulse. Barely. Nick had to find a way to help River’s wound before it got any worse.

He looked at her -or rather his- old dirty shirt. He unbuttoned the first four buttons from the bottom and lifted the piece of fabric up a bit, giving him full access to River’s wound. He didn't know exactly how this worked as Nick never had these fleshy problems himself but in the back of his mind somewhere… there was a small voice that was sure of how to do this and it guided Nick. He needed to clean the wound. Nick grabbed River’s bag and opened it, searching for anything he could use. He quickly found a bottle and examined it. The liquid inside of the bottle was clear and the bottle itself was fairly clean. Good; that meant it was purified. Nick unscrewed the cap and moved the bottle over River’s wound. The lack of nerves helped keep his hand steady as he poured a little bit of the slightly warm water into the open wound and the small area around it. After repeating this process for a while, he put the bottle down and looked through River’s bag again for any sort of clean cloth. After finding nothing, Nick took an unnecessary deep ‘breath’ and thought. He eventually had an idea and ripped off a piece of fabric from his own shirt. After drowning his hands and the ripped fabric in water, Nick carefully began to wrap it around River’s body. He tied a knot, careful not to make the handmade bandage itself tight enough to the point of being painful. After he wrapped the bandage around River’s wound, Nick put the now empty bottle in River’s rucksack before he decided to put it on his own back. He buttoned River’s shirt up before picking her up in his arms once again. He saw River stir and wince in her sleep. Nick only looked down at her apologetically. Dogmeat perked up.

“Don’t worry, boy. She’s going to be okay.” He continued to run. If Nick was a human then he was sure his legs would be dead by now, unable to move due to the immense amount of running he had just done. But as he saw the large, green walls of Diamond City, those thoughts escaped his mind as he stopped at the intercom outside the walls. He adjusted River in his grip to free one of his hands a little to be able to press the button on the small, metal box. “Hello?” A familiar voice called out. “It’s Nick Valentine. I need to get in now. I have someone with me who needs immediate medical attention.” The voice barked orders to someone before Nick stepped back, seeing the oversized gate open painfully slowly. As soon as it was big enough to duck under, Nick did just that, running straight past the guards and into Diamond City. He quickly set his destination for Doctor Crocker’s surgery. Upon entering the surgery, Doctor Crocker looked up from a table with a variety of chems on it. He saw Nick and immediately noticed the blood on his clothes and the even bloodier woman In his arms. He quickly took the chems off the table and gestured for Nick to put River on the table. After Nick did so, he took a step back to let the doctor have some space. “What type of wound is it?” Crocker asked, pulling on some gloves. “Stab wound.” Crocker nodded. He unbuttoned River's shirt and used a pair of scissors to cut off the handmade bandage wrapped around her. “Were you the one who bandaged her up?” He asked Nick, not looking back at the synth. “Yeah.” Nick answered him, a little nervous. Crocker sighed. At least that would've helped her on the way here. There may have been a way to save this woman. Nick could only watch and pass the occasional tool Crocker asked for as River was operated on. River’s eyes slowly opened as she woke up. She sat up and looked around, noticing where she was. She stretched and let out a small yawn before she moved to get out of bed. That's she felt arms hold her. “Lay back down. You need to rest.” River sighed. “I've slept for too long… I need to get up.” “Come on… I'm not getting up and it would be lonely here without you.” River could practically hear the pout in his voice. River couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle, hearing him fake his sadness. “Jack, come on. I need to check on Shaun.” She had so much work to do today and she’d rather get it done as soon as possible. The sooner she got all the paperwork she had stacked up filled in, the sooner she could just sit back and relax in Jack’s arms. Suddenly, the skin holding her became cold. River shivered under Jack’s touch. She needed to turn up the thermostat. She tried to move but Jack’s icy grip held her in place. Now annoyed at her husband’s ridiculous antics preventing her from doing her work, River groaned before turning to Jack. Her eyes widened once she saw him. His whole body was an unhealthy colour of blue. Frost latched onto every inch of Jack’s body. And from his chest lay a dried up, bloody bullet wound. River screamed loudly, trying her best to get away from the figure who held a vice grip on her. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't bring her body to move. She was frozen. And the creeping ice on her skin only proved it as it enveloped her entire body including her face. She began to suffocate, her nostrils and mouth blocked and covered in ice. She was suffocating and she couldn't do anything about it. She was going to die. As her vision began to fade, one single thought came into her dying mind. Wake up. River coughed and sputtered as she woke up from her crippling nightmare, taking in deep breaths. Her side hurt with each inhale and exhale. After a short moment of coughing and hurting, River found someone by her side. She wiped her eyes of tears she wasn't even aware were there before and saw who it was. Nick. Nick gently held River’s shoulders. “Calm down. You're going to rip your stitches.” “My… stitches?” River asked weakly before she looked down at her side, seeing her shirt had been lifted up in her struggle, revealing a clean bandage neatly wrapped around her waist. When did that get there? “Yeah. I tried to patch it up after you fell unconscious. It helped a little until I reached Dr Crocker’s. He took over then. Cost quite a few caps.” Nick muttered the last part. River’s eyes widened. “I'm so sorry… I'll pay you back, I promise!” Nick let out a small chuckle. “Don't worry about it. I was glad to help.” He gave her a warm smile. “Now get some rest. You need time to heal.” “But-” River let out a hiss as she sat up too quickly. “What about Piper?” Nick frowned, seeing her in discomfort. “I'll talk to her later. For now, I have to look after you until Ellie comes back. She's grabbing’ us dinner.” “I'm not a child.” River narrowed her eyes. Nick held up his hands in defense. “I'm not saying you are. But you are recovering from a three-inch deep stab wound that nearly killed you on the way here.” He stated. River opened her mouth to retaliate but she couldn't find the correct words. Instead, she just scowled in defeat and crossed her arms. Nick laughed loudly before he made he turned to head back into the other room. “I’ll just be doing some paperwork in the next room. Shout me if you need anything and don't move from this spot. Okay?” River sighed. “Fine. But as soon as my side stops hurting, I'm out of here.” Nick rolled his eyes. River was a stubborn dame alright. He walked back into his office and sat down at his desk. He waited for a couple of minutes, looking out for any possible escape attempts made by the woman laying in his bed. After a while, Nick leaned back in his chair, propping his feet on the table and thought. What was it about River that confused him? He just couldn't place a metallic finger on it. He had never seen her before in his life…

He had better things to do than ponder about this. He had a case to solve and paperwork to do. He turned to the draws in his desk, opening one up for his notepad and pen. He carefully picked them up, realising he had left something underneath them.

A young couple held each other. The female showed her hand to the camera, showing off a diamond ring. Nick chuckled to himself. The picture was great but nothing could’ve compared to the real face. Nick’s thoughts began to blur. Static pierced his ears. His head began to spin. “No, no, no!” Nick hissed quietly to himself, clutching his head in pain. “Not now! Sto-”

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-ose that's true.” Suddenly, the whole lounge erupted into cheers as a different song began to play. “Hey, what's getting everyone so riled up?” he asked, looking around at all the other men in the place, a hungry, expecting look on all of their faces. Nick didn't answer but instead followed everyone's gaze to the red-curtained stage. The curtains then slowly began to open, exposing-

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nick managed to break out of his episode, panting heavily. Thank God that was over. He realised that he was panting and immediately stopped. He knew that he didn't need to it just felt… natural to him. He must not have realised how loud he was because River’s confused voice quickly called out to him. “Valentine? Is everything okay?” It took Nick a moment to find his voice. “Umm yeah!” He called out, quickly slamming the drawer shut. “Everything's… Fine…” He had seen that memory so many times and it hurt every second as it played in his mind. This was just one of the rare moments when he was able to stop it from continuing any further. It still hurt though. But before he could even ponder getting his thoughts onto paper, Ellie came through the front door to the agency, holding two bowls of noodles. “I'm back!” Ellie chirped. But upon seeing Nick’s distraught expression, Ellie frowned. “Nick, what's wrong?” Nick looked up at her and smiled. “Nothing to worry about, El.” Ellie sighed. She knew it wasn't best to press into Nick’s personal matters. She had a good feeling she knew what was eating at Nick anyway. Nick stood up from his desk and pulled on his trench coat, a large maroon stain now prominent in the fabric. Nick hoped that would leave in time. Ellie raised her eyebrow at him. “Where are you going?” She asked. “I’m going to see Piper. She might be able to help with the case.” Nick stated, patting his pockets to make sure he had at least one packet of cigarettes on hand. “Make sure not to leak too much of the case.” Ellie warned. “I’ll be careful.” Nick knew more than anyone how reliable Piper was with keeping completely confidential information… well… confidential. As she watched Nick leave, Ellie let out a sigh before grabbing the bowls of noodles she had bought. She made her way into the next room where River sat down, wincing in pain as she moved her upper body. Ellie smiled and handed River the bowl. “Hey. Eat up. You’ll need your strength.” She told the older woman in front of her. “Thank you.” River smiled. She began to eat the noodles, quickly devouring the contents of the bowl, not leaving anything behind. “Wow. You were hungry.” Ellie remarked, still in the middle of eating her own bowl as she leaned against the wall. River sheepishly shrugged with a nervous chuckle. “I haven’t exactly eaten good food in a while…” A voice in her head added onto her sentence.

Two hundred years to be exact. After Ellie had finished her own bowl, she took River’s and walked back into the main office. After she didn’t come back into the room, River decided to try and relax. She lay down, easing herself under the covers, and rested her weary head against the scratchy pillow of Nick’s warm bed. As Nick walked through the familiar streets of Diamond City, he listened closely to the sounds of children running, playing, laughing. He heard a guard near him shoot a warning, telling Nick ‘not try anything’. Despite all he had done, he was still a synth. And that couldn’t be changed no matter who he saved from what. It didn’t bother him all too much though. He was just glad to live an at least relatively normal life, safely guarded by a sturdy wall. He said a quick hello to Nat before he was directed to Piper’s location inside the building. Once he walked inside, he was met with the sight of the reporter sat at her table, a large pile of caps on it next to a piece of paper she was writing on. Once she had caught sight of Nick, she smiled. "Well, well, Nicky Valentine walks into my office for a change.” Nick chuckled. "What can I say, Piper? You, me and hard luck all seem to run together like acid rain down an old sewer." “I heard about Blue. She okay?” Piper asked. Nick thought for a moment. He then realised what Piper meant by ‘Blue’. “She’s a fighter, that’s for sure.” He smiled. “It’s going to take more than a stab wound to stop that woman.” He took a glance at the table and it’s contents. “What are you doing?” Nick sighed. “Who’d you steal the caps off?” Piper looked offended. “Nick! How could you even think I would commit such a crime!” She couldn’t stay in character though as she bursted into a fit of giggles. “Okay a couple of them are Solomon’s.” After seeing Nick’s unamused expression, she sheepishly smiled. “He lost them in a bet! I’m fair game for them!” She picked up the paper closest to her and waved it. “The interview I did with Blue is really popular with everyone. I’m just doing a little management with the caps I got. Now I can fix the damn leaky roof and get Nat some boots. You can not believe how many holes she has in the shoes she has now… And of course, if I have any money left over, I’ll give it to River.” She took a deep breath. “Anyway! What brings the great Nick Valentine to my humble abode?” Piper flashed a cunning smirk. “You finally letting me in on this little case of yours? What's the story?" Nick chuckled. “Well, we found the psychopath who took River’s son. Turns out, he’s working for the Institute.” This information definitely piqued Piper’s interest. “I need everything you’ve got on them.” "The Institute? Hoo boy..." Piper let out a sigh. She stood up and walked over to her private desk. She sifted through countless amounts of paper. She picked out a few and gave them to Nick. Nick quickly read over them. There was hardly any information there. Piper let out a sigh and pointed to the papers Nick held before she folded her arms. "I haven’t covered anything you don’t know. I’ve dug up a lot but to this day, there's one thing nobody really knows..." "Where the institute actually is. Or how to get in there." Nick spoke up, finishing Piper’s thoughts as he put the papers down. "But there's one person who must know, right?" Piper thought of a suggestion. "The guy who handed them the kid, Shaun." "Kellogg. Huh..." Nick sighed. "Well, that angle isn't going to work." He put his hands in his pockets. "The bastard’s dead." Piper sat back down in her chair with a huff. "So a murderer and a kidnapper gets his brains blown out by an avenging parent." She sighed, rubbing her temples and spoke in an annoyed tone. "It would be a great ending if we didn't still have the biggest mystery in the Commonwealth to solve." "'Gets his brains blown out’... Huh." Nick wondered allowed, getting Piper's attention. "His brains… You know, we may not need the man at all." Piper raised an eyebrow. "You're talking crazy here Nick. Got a fault in the ol' subroutines?" She tapped her own head. Nick rolled his eyes in response. "Look, there's a place in Goodneighbor called the Memory Den.” Piper knew Goodneighbor. Hell, she had the scars and broken ribs to prove it. “Relive the past moments in your mind as clear as the day it happened." "If anyone could get a dead brain to sing, it'll be Doctor Amari, the mind behind the memories." Nick continued, speaking his thoughts out loud. "Let's see... I guess we're going to need a piece of Kellogg's brain. Enough gray matter to bring to Amari and find out if this is going to work." Piper glanced at Nick, feeling a little queasy at the thought of someone’s brains splattered all over the floor. "Jesus Nick, gross! Seriously?" Nick growled. "I know it's grisly, but what choice do we have? We got no leads, nothing. That old merc's brain might just have all the secrets we need to know." He put his hands in his pockets. That’s when he felt a weird shape. He pulled whatever it was out of his pocket and examined it. It was the piece of metal Nick had found when River killed Kellogg. He also noticed the piece of pink flesh stuck to it. Piper’s face retorted in pure disgust once she saw it. “What the hell is that thing!? It looks like a brain!” "Cybernetics, huh?" Nick thought for a moment. "This… This could work… Well, I better get going, Ellie would have my head if I went missing again." "I'm gonna do more research. I'll be here if you need me." Piper stated with a smile. She really wanted in on this but she had Nat to look after. Oh well... she'd get all the juicy details later. “Oh and read my paper if you haven’t already!” She reminded Nick. “And get rid of that gross brain!” Nick chuckled, putting the cybernetics in his pocket and making his way outside. “I’ll read it as soon as I get back to the agency.” Once he got back to his office, Nick took off his hat and coat, hanging them up on the coat hanger. He looked around before seeing a paper on his desk. Ellie must’ve got it for him. Nick smiled and sat down at his desk. He grabbed the paper and unfolded it. He cleared his throat (or lack thereof) and read the title out loud. "View From The Vault by Piper Wright." Intrigued, Nick continued to read, this time in his head, and he turned the page. He read up until a certain name caught a certain name. "... So as fortune often has it, I crossed paths with River McConnell. A Vault Dweller. A person who is experiencing the Commonwealth for the first time. What would her fresh set of eyes say about how far we've come? Is Diamond City the 'Great, Green Jewel' we have always claimed it to be?" This was interesting. Maybe Nick could know a little more about River without invading her privacy. Maybe there was somehow a clue here to the mystery surrounding the woman in the next room. "Before we begin to answer that question, we need to know who River is. To my surprise, she did not have much to say about her life in her vault at all. Because she spent all that time staring at a piece of frozen glass for over two centuries. That's right, River isn't just a Vault Dweller, she's an original Vault Dweller. She spent her entire time on the inside cryogenically suspended." Nick turned the page. He already knew that. "So what does River say about seeing Diamond City for the first time?" "'Honestly, seeing everyone surviving out here? Rebuilding the world? It gives me hope.'" Nick smiled as he read the quote out loud. Hope. Hope was what this world needed. It was what River needed. It was good to know that this god awful world made her feel even a fraction of a little bit positive. This was even better coming from River because she knew what the world was like before it was transformed into the harsh wasteland she found herself in now. She could actually give a solid comparison. "This is all the more remarkable because you see, River has a son. Shaun. And even though they were in the relative safety of a Vault, someone broke in and took Shaun from her, and River is now risking everything in order to save Shaun." Not many people were willing to do that these days… They relied on other people like Nick because they couldn’t be bothered wasting the caps or their lives on doing it themselves. In most cases, Nick found out that the missing person was a slave to the rest of the family, only used for manual labour. The families only wanted them back because that would mean that at least one of them would finally have to get off their backsides and do the work themselves. The world was messed up. "We all know the rumors and whispers that surround every missing person in Diamond City. The guilty looks we pass to mourning family members as we 'thank the Wall that, this time, it wasn't us.'" Nick sighed. It was all true. He remembered all those missing person cases that all came to the same conclusion. The Institute. "Why spend our time worrying about kidnappings? Why, indeed." Nick turned the page once more. He had to admit, Piper's papers were getting better. They spoke the truth. Even with Mayor McDonough threatening her, Piper still kept going. That persistence and hunger for the truth is what everyone needed. "I asked River to give us an outsider's perspective on what it means to lose a loved one and how she feels. Maybe, in some way, it's how we all should feel." "'No matter how much you want to give up, don't.' She said. 'You have to have hope. That you'll see them again. Or at least, that you'll know the truth.'" Wise words. Nick put the paper on his desk with a smile. River always seemed so down, and of course, Nick didn't blame her. But he could tell that inside, there was something there that was aching to escape. Nick sighed. He leaned back in his chair and rubbed his temples. This case was proving to be a little stressful. Suddenly his head began to spin again. Nick growled. He grabbed his head in pain. It was happening again! He tried to block out the pain but it wouldn’t work. “Shit, NO-!”

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The air was filled with music. Bright, multicolored lights blared in every direction. Nick looked over at his partner, hopelessly trying to flirt with the young, attractive woman handing the men their drinks. Nick sighed and dug into his pocket, fishing out some cash. He paid the woman for both of their drinks because his partner sure as hell wasn't going to. He gave her a tip and along with it, her cue to leave. Nick’s partner turned to him with a clearly displeased and defeated look on his face. “Come on, Nicky! I was this close to getting her number!” Nick grabbed his shot of whiskey, quickly downing it in one gulp. “Lennie, the only thing you'll be getting off here is a restraining order.” Lennie rolled his eyes, using his hand to mimic Nick. He soon leaned back in his chair and loosened his tie. Women liked it that way… or so had read in all those magazines. “Why doncha relax for once?” “As much as I wanna get drunk off my ass, I don't wanna be thrown on it if the boss catches us slackin’ off.” Nick pointed out, watching Lennie drink his own alcoholic liquid. Lennie shrugged. “S'pose that's true.” Suddenly, the whole lounge erupted into cheers as a different song began to play. “Hey, what's getting everyone so riled up?” he asked, looking around at all the other men in the place, a hungry, expecting look on all of their faces. Nick didn't answer but instead followed everyone's gaze to the red-curtained stage. The curtains then slowly began to open, exposing a young woman. Her skin was a light tan that glimmered in the lights. Her chestnut hair fell in long, elegant curls over her shoulders. Her makeup had a theme of blue: blue eyeshadow, blue lipstick, blue sparkles dancing across her cheeks. It complimented the woman's turquoise gown, reaching down to the ground. A slit in the side of it allowed a long, strutting leg to escape from the confines of the dress as it fit nicely and tightly against the mysterious woman's curvaceous and irresistible body. Lennie eyes practically bulged out of their sockets as he let out a loud wolf whistle, earning a few looks from the variety of girls whom he had been flirting with all night. Nick tilted his fedora in embarrassment. Lennie always had to get distracted with women. It was always women. Nick peeked at the woman after a gentle lift of the fedora. Once he examined her face clearly, he leaned over to his partner and whispered in his ear. "That's the girl." It took Nick practically screaming down Lennie's ear for the seventh time for Lennie to actually hear him. "The one the boss wants us to talk to? I call dibs." Lennie smirked, aiming his smug look over in Nick's direction. Nick rolled his eyes before he grabbed Lennie's chin, forcing him to look back after the stage. He then sat back and crossed his arms. They would have to wait until she had a break to talk to her. Lennie continued to speak anyway, but not about the case they were supposed to be working on. "Holy moly! She's legs all the way up, ain't she?" Nick paid no attention to his partner. He instead focused intently on the woman as she approached the microphone stand. The room suddenly went quiet. She smiled, showing her dazzling, white pearls and gently grabbed the microphone. The lights dimmed. "I don't want to set the world on fire~" This immediately caught the attention of everyone in the room. Her voice was smooth silk, calming those who listened. Nick looked over at Lennie and groaned seeing his partner's jaw on the floor and he was drooling. Nick used his whole hand to harshly force Lennie's jaw back up to his mouth, causing him to bite his tongue. Lennie yelped in pain and glared at Nick who was wiping his hand on his shirt. Nick got out a pack of cigarettes and put one in between his lips, using the candle on the table to light it. "And that one is you, no other will do~" The woman shot a wink at a random member of the audience who replied with a laugh, taunting his friends that he had caught the attention of this beautiful young woman. Nick continued to listen to the woman's singing as he began to blow smoke out of his mouth. He couldn't help but admit, her voice definitely was... alluring. The woman eventually noticed Nick and realised he was the only man in this room not head-over-heels for her. She subtly raised an eyebrow and made her way across the stage while still singing. She walked over to the small table Nick and Lennie were sat at. Lennie chuckled to himself and leaned closer to the gorgeous lady. His excitement was quickly extinguished though when she instead gestured for Nick to move closer to her as she put her microphone down. Nick decided to humour her. He stood and walked over to the stage, crossing his arms, wondering what trick she would try to pull. The singer quickly whispered something to Nick and she stepped off of the stage, smirking when Nick rushed to catch her. Nick put her down and turned to get back to his seat when the singer pulled Nick's shoulder back, causing him to face her. She then plucked Nick's cigarette out of his mouth and his fedora. She put the cigarette in her own mouth and placed the fedora on her head, tilting it slightly to the side. She chuckled, pushing Nick back to his seat gently. She took a long drag before she removed the cigarette from her mouth and let the warm smoke fill the air around the table she was at. Lennie let out a small cough, still not used to his partner’s horrible smoking habit. But that sure as hell didn’t prevent him from being the heaviest drinker Nick knew. Seeing that Nick was unfazed by her actions that other men would love, the woman leaned towards Nick (much to the amusement and pleasure of all of the males in the room who had a good view) and she whispered in his ear. "You're good." She then tilted the hat as a way of saying goodbye until she threw it back at Nick, it landing directly on his face, blocking Nick’s view. She used the built-in steps to walk back onto the stage as she began to sing once again, cigarette still smoking in her hand. Lennie leaned over to Nick, his face showing nothing but bewilderment. “Why the hell did she go to you?” Nick tilted his fedora back, letting it rest back on top of his head once again. “Maybe because I wasn’t getting my drool all over her.” Nick didn’t bother hearing or seeing Lennie’s response as he instead looked back at the stage and waiting for the woman to finish. He took out another cigarette from his packet, a little annoyed that the suspect had taken his previous one. He lit it, placing it in between his lips as he waited for the show to end. After her performance, Nick and Lennie got up from their seats and made their way over to the dressing rooms. After flashing their badges to security, they were finally allowed to enter a long hallway full of doors. The pair walked down the hallway, looking at the names written on the fading golden stars in search of a particular name. Eventually, Lennie tapped Nick, stopping him. He pointed to a door next to them. “That’s her.” Lennie said, gesturing to the door. Nick nodded and sighed. “Jennifer Lands.”

[corvidexoskeleton]

Gonna send in a bit more for Derrick this time because he deserves it: 2, 8, 15, 18, 23, 26, 32, 34, 38, 44, 49?

Sure

2. Do they have any titles? How did they get them?

Hmm I’m not sure what rank the average sniper would be, honestly, and I really don’t care enough about the US military to spend an hour or two looking it up, because god knows I’m just gonna get distracted and confused

8. Did they have pets as a child? Do they have pets as an adult? Do they like animals?

No pets growing up, but did look after Darryl’s dog from time to time in the years before the war, and probably hangs out with Dogmeat when he’s not off with Darryl

15. Are they good at cooking? Do they enjoy it? What do others think of their cooking?

He does his best, but he might need some help. Whatever he makes will taste better if he’s got someone else there to give him a hand, and will likely enjoy cooking more if he’s got help, but is mostly indifferent on his own. Has a tendency to royally fuck up if he gets distracted, so it’s best to try not to do so

18. What’s their favorite genre of: books, music, tv shows, films, video games and anything else

Liked sci-fi/adventure books when he was a kid, same with movies/shows, some rpg games/first person shooters. Listens to a lot of rock because of how much time he spent with Darryl when he was growing up, but will listen to most anything if it sounds good. Doesn’t really like metal/really heavy shit, though

23. Do they have a good memory? Short term or long term? Are they good with names? Or faces?

Meh, it’s not the best memory, but it’s good enough that he can remember /most/ things. He’s good with faces, but not so much names. Will recognize someone from across the room within a second or so, but would be hard pressed to recall their name if it didn’t stand out to him the first few times

26. How do they act when they’re happy? Do they sing? Dance? Hum? Or do they hide their emotions?

It’s not that difficult to tell if he’s in a good mood, since he’s a relatively cheerful person and smiles a lot when he is. Has to tell himself to tone it down, though, so he doesn’t get too carried away. He won’t sing or dance or anything, but he likes to talk to people if he can

32. What do they dress like? What sorta shops do they buy clothes from? Do they wear the fashion that they like? What do they wear to sleep? Do they wear makeup? What’s their hair like?

Shit, well, for pre war, I’m not super sure. Would absolutely be the type of person to unironically wear a denim jacket over a faded graphic tee. Has a bunch of shirts/a pair or two of pants that he would wear specifically while doing mechanic work after leaving the military, since they’d be the primary victims of grease stains and tears from accidents. Will also wear button ups over another shirt and jeans

Will usually just wear underwear to bed. Post war, leaves socks and a shirt on in case he ends up getting woken up or needs to leave in a hurry. Doesn’t actively wear makeup, but won’t say no if someone wants to put some on him, and will probably like the end result. Hair is pretty thick and hangs down over his face, and usually messy. Tries to comb it back out of his face with his hands, fails spectacularly. Usually sports a little bit of scruff, but doesn’t like having to take care of it if it gets any longer

34. What is their body type? How tall are they? Do they like their body?

I’m not sure if I’m remembering this right or not, but I think I originally said he was about 6 foot? So about 182 cm? Not that bulky, but when he was still active and actually exercised regularly he had a decent amount of muscle. Not so much anymore, though. I swear, one day I’ll get around to actually drawing him and Darryl out

Anyways, he’s fine with his body. Doesn’t think it’s particularly exceptional, but it doesn’t bother him any. Kinda wishes he could be more active and is pretty annoyed with how his fucked up knee will keep him from doing stuff he wants to do, but he’s gotten used to it over the years

38. What do they admire in others? What talents do they wish they had?

Admires people who can keep things from bothering them the way they would normally bother him. Greatly appreciates people who actually choose to friendly/not an asshole, but also admires when other people don’t take any shit or let others walk on them

Sometimes wishes he was a less empathetic, since it can be a real bitch at times, but dislikes of thought of caring less about others. Also wishes that he had been better about standing up for himself when he was little, but is incredibly grateful to Darryl for actually taking the time to help him out and trying to teach him to stand up

44. What is their favorite season? Type of weather? Are they good in the cold or the heat? What weather do they complain in the most?

He likes the fall the most, since he thinks it’s the prettiest, and also likes having an excuse to dress up more warmly, and also just really likes the general vibes of it. Favorite weather would probably be one of those days where the sun is out, there’s a few clouds, but is also just cold and crisp enough to need to a jacket and/or a hat. Also really likes when it rains. He can deal with both heat and cold, but does better in the cold. Won’t complain about heat unless it’s scorching out

49. What is their most valued object? Are they sentimental? Is there something they have to take everywhere with them?

Not sure there’d be any one object that holds the most value, or would want to take everywhere, but he places sentimental value on a lot of seemingly insignificant stuff. Random gifts from over the years, pictures, cards, ticket stubs, anything he feels could have some kind of connection to someone he cares/cared about. Will probably keep them either on a shelf somewhere or in a drawer, so he doesn’t lose them

[fallout-snippets]

Hia! If you're still open for requests, could I get some companion reactions to the SS being a famous pre-war author? I'm writing a story for this and would love some ideas for how they react! (will credit of course) thanks!

Cait doesn’t care too much about them being famous but thinks it’s pretty cool they got such an imagination. Thinks it’s even cooler that they ended up being such a badass coming from such not-badass beginnings.

Codsworth has every book stored in his memory. Read them to himself while waiting for his family to come back.

Curie is dissapointed Soles work hasn’t been integrated in her storage (since she was a sciencebot and didn’t need non-scientific information) but demands that she gets to read it. Now that she is a human, she can’t wait to experience art.

Danse is ashamed to admit he’s not familiar with their work. Asks to familiarize himself with their work but never has time until he’s out of the Brotherhood. Thinks that it’s pretty great that they’ve written books but thinks their personality is more impressive.

Deacon has read all of it. Or so he claims. He’s probably more familiar with their work than anyone else but it’s more likely he’s found a synopsis in a magazine than an actual surviving book copy.

Dogmeat hopes he can be in the next story.

Hancock is awestruck. Thinks it’s really cool and wants to hear all about it. Tries to hunt down a copy so he can read for himself. That they were famous doesn’t interest him much but he can’t believe his friends with an honest-to-god author!

MacCready isn’t a huge fan of books since he gets bored trying to read long texts where not much happens but he also knows there’s an artist drawing the comics and an author writing them. Would jump at the chance of doing a collaboration where he draws a comic and Sole writes it. One of his biggest dreams.

Nick is familiar with them but may not have read their work depending on the genre. He’s pleased to see that being famous hasn’t gone to their head although it’s hard not to be humbled by the wasteland. Likes to discuss literature with them, especially since they know what they’re talking about.

Piper is in love! Finally she meets someone with experience and talent in writing, someone who can understand her better and maybe even teach her something new.

Preston just keeps getting more and more impressed with Sole. It seems there’s nothing they don’t excel at. Asks them about their works, and more behind it. Like what inspired them, how did they make a career out of it etc. Asks if they’d like to stockpile some pens and paper to write on, if it’s something that drives them.

Strong only cares if they’re as good as Shakespeare, fame means nothing in comparison. And what’s the deal with metaphors? Why can’t humans just write what they mean?

X6-88 is of course familiar with Sole and their life, there are copies of their work at the Institute that Father asked for. He hasn’t read them though since coursers have one job and one job only. After the Institute he asks if he may read them.

Ada isn’t familiar with their work but would love to get a copy in her memory so she can share it with people. If Sole has written something it must’ve been something great. Especially if it made them famous.

Longfellow has probably read something they’ve written and he admits they sound familiar. But he has trouble remembering everything and Sole has to remind him but once the ball starts rolling they have an absolutely wonderful conversation about it. He admits he’d like to write some parts of his adventurous life down but he doesn’t know where or how to start.

Gage has not read anything from Sole and isn’t ashamed to say so. Thinks being famous for writing a book is kinda lame, their new fame as a badass is much more useful, but he’s still interested in hearing about their stories. Reading sucks but that doesn’t mean he’s not interested in fictional adventures.

[entergamingxp]

Artist Recreates All Your Favorite Video Game Characters at a Grand Theft Auto V Pool Party

May 6, 2020 9:01 AM EST

Concept artist Patrick Brown takes our most beloved gaming characters and throws them all together in one big pool party at Michael’s house from Grand Theft Auto V.

Thankfully, social distancing in video games is not a thing. We can all happily run around our chosen gaming world without care and this is why gaming rules, quite honestly. While most of us have been doing this for many years, it’s only lately due to COVID-19 and being forced to stay at home, that some non-gamers have started to enjoy this concept and finally seeing what all the hype is about. To illustrate this idea, artist Patrick Brown has created the most non-socially distant fan art piece I’ve seen that includes many of the video games industries’ biggest characters, all having fun at none other than at Michael’s house from Grand Theft Auto V.

Australian Patrick Brown is a freelance artist and has been doing fan art for nearly 10 years now, accumulating a huge gallery filled with some of his most beloved art pieces over on DeviantArt. Being a huge gamer and having a keen interest in the entertainment world, Patrick never runs out of things to draw with the help of his Patreons. After 4 years working on his Video Game Legends fan art, Patrick finally released the final product to the public but stated that he definitely bit off way more than he could chew due to how much detail went into it. Patrick thought it would be fun to have all the video game characters he could think of at a pool party in the world of Grand Theft Auto V and realized Michael’s house would be the perfect location to host such a party. If you look closely you can see how frustrated Michael is by all these guests trashing his house – I won’t tell you where he is, that’s the fun!

As your eyes dart around the picture, you’ll also spot Franklin, Trevor, and even Niko Bellic from Grand Theft Auto IV. Of course, there are many more characters but can you name them all? Some of the guests I have spotted so far is Scorpian stealing Chun li’s sausage, Ellie, Lara Croft and Nathan Drake taking a selfie while Joel looks on from the side seemingly unimpressed, Cal from Jedi Fallen Order looking like he’s about to take on a licker from Resident Evil perched on a palm tree and Sackboy hanging out by the deckchairs with Dogmeat from Fallout 4 beside him holding a Minecraft ax. Naturally, Geralt from The Witcher is chilling in the pool with his shirt off – that’s expected but what’s not expected is seeing Kratos from God of War standing beside Link from The Legend of Zelda in only a rubber ring – a Yoshi rubber ring at that.

You really could spend a long time finding so many of the characters we know and love throughout Patrick’s incredibly done painting which was completed using Adobe Photoshop CS6. I think this would look great on the wall of many gamer’s homes and if you think Patrick deserves some recognition for his hard work, you can head over to his Patreon site to select a level of membership for as little as $1 which grants you access to exclusive content, updates on work in progress and interaction with Patrick and his patrons. There is a higher tier of a $10 membership which gives you everything that the lower membership gives you as well as original high-resolution PSDs including all layers, access to Patrick’s video tutorials and high-resolution art of each piece he creates. Artists with as much talent and skill as Patrick has, deserves each and every penny they get so I’m looking forward to seeing more of his fan art pieces in the near future.

If you enjoy your daily fan art dosage, check out this Reddit artist who captures Ellie and Dina so well in an incredible piece of art that it would fool you into thinking it was the actual scene from The Last of Us Part 2. Since there’s a lot of hype around Assassin’s Creed Valhalla right now, Concept Artist Jessie Lam pieced together an incredible creative version of their perception of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s female Eivor. Taken it back to the retro years is Dreamcast fan and artist Pierre Roussel who has taken the treasured console and put his own spin on it while also exhibiting some of the many classic games that found their home on the system.

You can check out the entirety of Patrick’s work over on DeviantArt or Instagram.

May 6, 2020 9:01 AM EST

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/05/artist-recreates-all-your-favorite-video-game-characters-at-a-grand-theft-auto-v-pool-party/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=artist-recreates-all-your-favorite-video-game-characters-at-a-grand-theft-auto-v-pool-party

[dove-cot-old]

elle and maccready

okay, some thoughts on the elle-maccready dynamic while i’m doing research on him (both canon and . fic. look, it counts ok, finding fic focused on characters that jive with how they #feel to me makes it easier for me to get into their heads, especially someone who talks as Fucking fast as mac)

(also, the hard part about getting mac down, i think, is getting the balance of like. how Grounded he feels, and how he’s not actually all that chill. normally, the grounded practical-minded types are portrayed as the chill or at least even-tempered ones, but mac is emotional and opinionated while also being very willing to communicate, and all in all these traits together make it a juggling act for me that has me worried about writing him)

anyway:

it’s gonna sound so weird but — i’ve been going off the idea that he’s a very grounding influence for her for a while, and i’m still convinced of this

especially since he’ll think she’s the grounding influence for him until she starts opening up to him

maccready is her first human companion, and this is significant

she takes dogmeat everywhere, and adores him, but ... he’s a dog

she’s too scared to take codsworth out with her, bc if he goes down, she can’t fix him, and she Cannot Deal with losing more robot friends (still need to write that scene up at some point, maybe in the sturges focus i’ve been vaguely pondering)

but she’s used to running with at least one other person — usually, two. she’s perfectly capable of doing shit alone, but she does best with others

mac is the first available to her — hancock is next, but she’d feel bad pulling him from goodneighbor, so that’s not going to happen until later

hiring him is a business transaction. this also makes him the emotionally safe choice — and at this point, elle is Fucked Up

she feels isolated, so she isolates herself further (yeah i know), she’s kicking emotion bottles under the carpet constantly, her headspace is a very unpleasant place for her early game

maccready is the safe choice

he’s also a sniper, and apparently elle’s First human companions are destined to be snipers (/waves at boone)

maccready is also comfortable keeping it a business transaction. he don’t trust like that, and is focused on saving money, and so they’re on the same page from day one

safe spaces from day one, despite themselves

what starts breaking down elle’s walls? maccready’s sense of humor

he’s a huge ol honkin nerd and likes dumb jokes. and has a competitive streak, and all of these mean he can get between the joints of her armor

elle always responds well to people who play with her, in any form. mac would draw her out of her shell through ribbing and show-off competitions

why does this work? because he’d be drawing out her human side

sosu elle tries so hard to push down her own humanity for the sake of efficiency, of getting shit done. and once mac starts making her smile, gets her bantering back regularly, it starts breaking that shit down — making way for the rest of it to leak through

meanwhile, on maccready’s end...

elle is on the same page with him on more things than he’s likely been used to lately. she’s pro-making money (need caps for supplies, need supplies to do what they’re doing), she listens well and sees shit from his perspective instead of fighting him for having an opinion, she explains the decisions she’s making so he understands what he’s getting himself into and why she’s doing what she’s doing...

transparency is a big deal — elle is upfront about danger and generous with pay because she cares about treating him like an equal, not like an employee or someone otherwise beneath her

(because she does this shit with everyone, with a patient kind of purpose, because this is how you get results, she has this down to a science, but also with real empathy, because she genuinely cares — even as she’s smothering herself, she clings to caring to keep her identity intact)

so it’s really no wonder that they end up suprisingly close in a very short amount of time

(this is also a bit of a role reversal for elle, because this time, her companion is the one who reminds her of her humanity while she’s the one being patently reliable and pulling through for them, instead of the other way around)

end result: elle actually relaxes around maccready, and trusts him with personal shit more than others — finds him easy to talk to, and he’s a judgment free zone because while he’s opinionated, morality isn’t what he’s centered on, and that always makes her feel more comfortable with someone (contrast with nick, but that’s a post for another day)

maccready is the one elle asks to have at her back when she goes to fort hagen, instead of nick or codsworth

she isn’t going in there to kill kellogg, she’s going in for answers, but at the same time, she knows there’s still a chance it’d get ugly in there and she doesn’t want codsworth to see the darker side of her and with nick, he’s both still a stranger at that point, as well as being so Goddamn Good that she doesn’t want him near her when there’s a chance she’ll be like that

maccready? won’t do that. and she knows that if things go ideally, then he’ll think she was too soft on kellogg — and if instead, the worst comes out, then he’d be there to pull her back, but it wouldn’t change how he looks at her. not this.

and god Fucking damn is that such a big deal with her

as much as there is, i suppose, the Potential for a ship here, i seriously only get sibling-y vibes whenever i sit down to think about them like this. which is also funny because for once, elle isn’t the little sister — she’s the big sister