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keelywolfe · 4 years ago

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FIC: Welcome to Backwater ch.18 (spicyhoney)

Summary: Stretch has already dealt with the local sheriff about his adventures in the local woods. Seems like Edge might have a thing or three to say.

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Read ‘Electric Boogaloo’ on AO3

Read it here!

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It was funny how some things become automatic. Stretch was still thinking about Buford when Edge came into the store not long after the sheriff left. Still thinking about those strange white eyes of his, wondering at exactly how much he could see. How much, how far, how deep did it go. Stretch knew a little something himself about seeing a bit too much.

Still, habits were habits. Even though his mind wasn’t necessarily working in the here and now, Stretch automatically stood up straight and greeted Edge when he came in, customer service skills were a heck of a learned trait, even if he was the only one who worked here that had them.

“morning, hey, what’s up? what do you—" need, he didn’t get to say. He barely had time to notice that Edge didn’t look like his normal gorgeous self, hips notwithstanding. Sure, he was wearing his normal motorhuckle gear and he was walking like he was on his way to kill Captain America. But he looked pale, his skull chalk-white and stark, his eye lights faded to a shade closer to dull pink.

That wasn’t what cut off his ‘can i help you’ spiel. Nope, that was Edge stalking right over to the counter and around it into the register area. Stretch found himself roughly pulled into Edge’s arms and held in a painfully tight hug that nearly threatened to crack ribs.

Okay? This was new but fuck it if Stretch wasn’t going to go for it. He wrapped both arms around Edge and squeezed back, relished the feel of that long, lean body against his own, even buffered under a layer of leather. “um. hi?”

Edge said nothing, only held on, with all ten fingers digging in through the back of Stretch’s t-shirt and damned if he was gonna try fight his way loose. Was it his imagination or was Edge shaking a little? Or maybe that was the earth moving under his feet because Edge smelled so good, no bone cologne could compare. Like spice and woodsmoke, like the heavenly pies he made for Mama’s.

Nothing to be done for it, might as well dive into the deep end and see if he could drown. Stretch closed his sockets and basked in it, reveled in it. Maybe this was some weird frosting on top of an already bizarre cake but Stretch really wanted his slice.

After a minute, Edge was showing no signs of letting up and much as Stretch would’ve been perfectly fine standing like this all day, probably he should say something. It’d be pretty hard to run register if he was stuck to Edge like a conjoined twin and considering that they were sort of the same person, maybe better not to risk it.

It was just a damn shame that Stretch was so shitty at digging beneath the layers of other people’s traumas. Hell, he could barely take a shovel to his own.

He managed to work up enough air to wheeze out, “is…something wrong?” A horrible thought occurred. What if he wasn’t the only person the lady ghoul went to visit last night? Maybe she took the nickel tour of the woods, maybe Buford’s all-seeing eye blinked and missed something. “is frisk okay?”

“Yes,” Edge choked out. His voice was muffled into Stretch’s shoulder. “Everything is fine.”

Stretch shifted in his arms and only managed about an inch in any direction. “don’t take this the wrong way, but as fine as this feels, you don’t seem fine.”

That didn’t get any reply. Instead, Edge loosened his grip just enough to press his face into the hollow of Stretch’s collarbone where he inhaled deeply, mouth opened as if he wanted to taste whatever scent gathered there, get the whole experience.

Um. Holy shit. Okay, well, that was a fetish Stretch never knew he had, and if he wasn’t pinned like a sardine in Edge’s kung-fu grip, he might’ve honest to angel flailed at the feel of damp, hot breath against his clavicles. Every time Edge decided to go through his scratch ‘n sniff routine, it sent willie wonkers tingling right up his spine and right down his pants. All he could do was grit his teeth and stare blankly up at the ceiling as he tried desperately not to embarrass himself any more than the usual.

Finally, all too soon, Edge drew away. He took two steps back, putting some distance between them. He seemed almost embarrassed now and Stretch could only reluctantly let him go.

He was really, really grateful for his work apron right about now; good for catching dust and gook, with a side bonus of hiding inconvenient boners. Hopefully it wasn’t the not-at-all-a-pencil-in-his-pocket that chased Edge away. “not that i mind, like, really not, but you think you could let me in on what that was all about?”

“I’m sorry,” Edge said, stiffly. He crammed his hands into his jacket pockets and looked anywhere but at Stretch.

“uh, nope,” Stretch shook his head, “no apologies, hugs are free real estate.” He’d been this close to Edge before a couple of times but always before there had been distractions. Now looking at him was the distraction and Stretch let his gaze linger on the razer-sharp lines of his cheekbones, the tight narrowing of his eye sockets. The crack that ran through his left socket was obviously old, the edges worn relatively smooth, smoother than their owner.

Edge still didn’t look at him, not directly, anyway. A flick of his eye lights towards Stretch, then back away as he said, tightly. “We came very close to losing you last night. It was…upsetting.”

Oh.

Well, good news traveled fast, didn’t it, basically at the speed of light around these parts. He wondered glumly if Red was in his apartment busily composing a profanity-laden symphony titled ‘I Told You So.’

“How did you know?” Stretch sighed out. Maybe Frisk was tuned in to the local airwaves or Edgar Allen might branch out into branches instead of corn gossip.

“Buford,” Edge admitted. “He is the town constable, he looks after the town. Literally, in his case.”

Also had a big mouth, seemed like. “yeah, uh, he showed me his eyes.”

“Did he?” Edge seemed surprised, then pleased. “He usually wears his sunglasses. He rarely takes them off when he’s on duty because outsiders tend to find his eyes unsettling. But yes, it��s his duty to watch out for problems and he does it well.”

Stretch nodded slowly, “must be tough on him sometimes, seeing all that.” He had a little personal experience in that.

“Buford does his duty,” Edge said with a certain finality. Welp, looked like that topic was done and Stretch was fine with that since Edge was starting to look a little calmer. His eye lights weren’t on Stretch’s but lower, focused more on the mouth region and when Stretch flicked his tongue across his teeth nervously, those crimson lights went heavy and dark.

To his disappointment, Edge didn’t go for Ginormous Hug 2: Electric Boogaloo. Instead, he reeled back, shaking himself visibly and turning towards the door. “Well. I only wanted to check in on you, I should be going.”

“wait!” Stretch blurted and Edge hesitated, raising one browbone. “don’t go, not yet.”

He waved a hand in offering at the stool behind the counter and after a moment of hesitation, Edge stepped around the dog and took it. Mutt never stirred, burrowed down in the blanket Red had laid down for him, snoring away. Good thing they hadn’t been in the market for a guard dog.

Stretch hopped up on the counter to sit, (hey, his butt was cleaner than the whole store had been when he first got here) and wondered what the hell to do now. He’d wanted Edge to stay and now he didn’t know what to talk about. Every other chat they’d had was about some kind of Backwater weirdness, the peanut butter and pickle sandwich version of a conversation. He wasn’t sure he even knew how to have a white bread and butter chat.

Edge seemed to agree. He swiped a finger along one of the shelves behind the counter and checked the results, finding it to be relatively dust-free. “The store is looking much better since my brother hired you on.”

“yeah,” Stretch latched on to that topic gratefully, it was marginally better than bringing up the weather. “try to keep up on it. he’s paying me well enough for it, plus room and board, figured i can do my mr clean impression.” He gave the top of his skull a pat. “i’ve already got the bald part down.”

Edge made a rough, scoffing sound and even that was somehow delicious in that voice of his. “I suspect most of what fills up your board comes from my kitchen.”

Stretch suspected the same but leapt to his landlord’s defense, anyway, he owned Red that much and more. “hey, red is a damn fine microwave wrangler when he puts his mind to it.” Okay, so that was less of a leap than a trip and miss, but he’d tried. Maybe better to steer the topic boat out of the rapids and into calmer water. “my bro likes to cook, too.”

“Is he very good?” Edge leaned forward curiously, propping his chin up on a hand.

Woah, wait, abandon ship, that was not calmer waters, that was a storm a’brewing, a freaking typhoon. “good is relative,” Stretch said stoutly.

“Ah,” One corner of Edge’s mouth curled up into a smile. “Rest assured, I would never force you to disparage your brother’s cooking. If it’s any comfort, my recipes were somewhat unique when we first came here as well. Like the garden, it took some time for my skills to come into bloom.”

“seriously?” There was a little too much naked relief in that one word but fuck it, Blue wasn’t here to hear it, “so how many years until he’s less ‘nailed it’ and more ‘chef’s table’?”

That half-smile widened. “Time is also relative, as are brothers. How is your brother, I’m assuming he’s still back in Ebott. Have you spoken to him since you came here?”

Welp, he’d avoided the storm only to end up in shark-infested waters, wasn’t that just his luck, “sort of,” Stretch hedged.

Edge’s teeth parted in a silent ‘ah’ as he successfully decoded that message. “You texted him. Well, that’s better than leaving him completely in the dark.”

“i think he’s doing okay. he was even before i left.” He really hoped so, but then, Blue settled in easily enough from the start. From the Human’s perspective, his bro looked a little like he’d stepped out of some kind of cartoon. He was small and adorable, his starry eye lights in his huge sockets were as cute as if Disney blessed him from beyond the grave. Stretch didn’t begrudge his brother for that, ‘course he didn’t, but that didn’t make his own experiences easy cheesy. “frisk was pretty right about ebott. when it comes to monsters, it sure isn’t backwater.”

“I’m sorry.” Said with enough quiet sincerity to make Stretch shift uncomfortably.

He shrugged weakly. “eh, not your fault.”

“No, but I can still let you share your pains.” Edge reached up and took his hand. He rubbed a scarred thumb gently over his knuckles and Stretch caught his breath. “You know, I used to dream about coming to the surface. Back in my world, in the Underground. Frisk told you that it was a place of LV, not love. My brother and I spent much of our time there simply struggling to survive.” The reminiscence in Edge’s voice held no hint of fondness, but there was a certain faint wistfulness. “I had such grand dreams of what the surface world would be like back then. Hope was difficult to come by in my universe, I never truly believed a human would come and when they did, well.” Edge chuckled and there was the fondness missing from before. “Frisk was not at all what I imagined.”

“did the surface world live up to your dreams?” Stretch asked, curiously. His own dreams of the Aboveground were shaken to their foundations barely an hour into the sunlight, when the first Humans to arrive greeted them not with welcome, but with automatic rifles.

“In some ways,” Edge said. “Mostly, it’s very different from what I imagine. But like Frisk, not necessarily in a bad way.”

“ebott is sure fucking different then i imagined,” Stretch only realized how hard he was squeezing Edge’s hand when both of their joints popped. He loosened his grip, then pulled away entirely, picking up the pen from the counter to fiddle with; at least if he broke that, he’d be the only one stained. “doesn’t matter, anyway. i’m not there right now, am i.”

“Indeed not. You’re here, and Backwater is probably as different from Ebott as it is the Underground.” Edge stood in a jangling, creaking rhapsody of leather and buckles. “On that note, I do need to get going.”

Stretch stood too, hopping down from the counter. Much as he’d like Edge to stay, he did have some work to get done and who knew what Edge needed to get back to. “thank you for checking in on me.”

“Of course.” Too fast for Stretch to do more than blink, Edge leaned in and Stretch stood frozen as he pressed a chaste kiss to his cheekbone, the delicate scrape of his teeth almost ticklish against sensitive bone. He pulled back before Stretch managed to gather up all his scattered wits, and his smile was the soft, real one as he said, “I’m sure I’ll see you again soon.”

“soon,” Stretch parroted dumbly. He stood there like an idiot and watched Edge leave, only coming back to himself at the jangle of the bell over the door. Then he cursed himself, roundly and in every language he knew, including modified flamespeak. Smooth moves, there, Marvin Gaye, couldn’t even turn your head for a real kiss? Just stood there with crotch plug store book and didn’t even try to kick it up a notch? But he’d gotten one hell of a hug and a hand fondle, that was worth nearly getting eaten by Lady Cthulhu out there.

Well, almost.

“mind not getting your sop all over my counter?”

Stretch whirled around, barely managing not to trip over his own feet, to see Red standing in the hallway entrance. He was leaning heavily on his cane with a brutally unimpressed look on his face.

Fuck.

“i’m sorry—” Stretch began and faltered, unsure of what to say. He’d tried to listen to Red, he really had. He’d warned Stretch against starting anything with his bro from the beginning, offered plenty of warnings against rebound fucks and people getting hurt, and Stretch had tried. Except he hadn’t, had he, not really, and he could try to blame Edge’s hips and that gorgeous voice all he wanted; in the end, it was his fault, just like everything else. He hadn’t really been fighting that hard, why would he, it wasn’t like he wanted to win.

Red only sighed heavily and waved him off. “ain’t nothing to be sorry for. toldja before, i ain’t worried about my bro. you’re the one keepin’ me awake at night.”

“speaking of worrying,” Stretch took a deep breath before plunging forward, away from the sharks and heading into the shallows where the piranhas swam. “look, before anyone else decides to spill the beans, i need to tell you something.”

Red held up a hand and Stretch fell silent. “lemme get my coffee first.”

Coffee sounded better than it had any right to and, in his chest, Stretch’s soul gave an uncomfortable lurch like it could hop out and get a cup of its own. Hopefully, he asked, “can i get some?”

“yeah, sure,” Red turned back towards the apartment and tossed back over his shoulder, “whatcha want in it?”

“honey?” May as well dream big.

“yeah, darlin’?”

What? ”No!” Stretch blurted. “I mean…I didn’t…”

“yeah, yeah,” Red snickered. “i gotcha, brat.”

It was both entirely too long and much too quickly that Red made his way back with two heavy white mugs that looked as if they’d been stolen from Mama’s diner. He handed one to Stretch and settled in to lean against the counter, sipping from his own. “so, this about why you and my bro were cozying up behind the counter?”

“uh, sort of,” Stretch hedged. He stalled by taking a sip of his coffee, glorying in the thick, over-sweetened brew. “he came by because buford got a hold of him.”

Red lurched upright as if someone goosed him right on his tailbone. Hot coffee sloshed over his hand and he hissed, shaking his wet, stinging fingers as he demanded, “he did what now? what the fuck happened?”

“it’s not that bad.”

It was a weak attempt at best, not that it mattered. Red didn’t fall for it in the slightest. He didn’t move, there was no noticeable change in his breathing or posture, but the sardonic humor that seemed to cling to Red like another shirt evaporated entirely and left behind nothing but cold sincerity. “buford don’t exactly text, he don’t get ahold of anyone unless—” Red stopped and gave Stretch a coolly assessing glance that he squirmed beneath. Quietly, he said, “kid, what did you do?”

“i didn’t do it!” Stretch blurted and no amount of defending himself to his own brother or even the Ebott police could have prepared him for this. “the dog ran off, but i didn’t go into the woods! not until—there was this…this thing!” Stretch gestured wildly, trying ineffectively to convey with skinny bone hands the shadowy, awful creature that lured him into the dark last night. He couldn’t hold back a shudder of revulsion, simply thinking about it was filling him with a renewed sense of horror. “it looked like a woman and then it didn’t, she was singing, she was doing something, and i couldn’t stop myself, i couldn’t even think!”

He stopped, panting, and Red said nothing. He only stood there statue-still and Stretch would have given about anything for the door to open, the bell to jangle as someone looking for a fresh supply of ass wipers broke that awful silence.

Desperately, Stretch pressed on, letting out a nervous laugh. “anyway, i’m okay. she didn’t touch me or bite me or anything. i got out okay.” He didn’t mention the bone dragon, wasn’t even sure why, but Red was still frozen and silent over hearing about one terrifying encounter, maybe better not to mention two.

“red?” Stretch tried, hating how his voice sounded so small and forlorn. In a dismal corner of his mind, he was already mentally packing his bags. He couldn’t go back to Ebott, not now, not yet, but where else could he go, what other job could he possibly find? Maybe a waiter at Mama’s or maybe the thrift shop needed a helping hand. He didn’t know. The little money he had wouldn’t last long and definitely not in a bigger city. He didn’t really have any options, no choices at all.

He jerked back as Red suddenly jolted into movement, limping around the counter without his cane. He staggered almost drunkenly and then swung around to violently ram his fist into the first rack of the shelves. The wooden frame rocked and groaned, scattering boxes and cans to the floor on either side. A small bag of cornmeal fell and burst open, scattering dusty yellow across the floorboards.

“i…i’ll just…” Stretch couldn’t say go, he couldn’t, saying it would make this real, and he couldn’t let it be real. He took a step towards the hallway, tasting heavy tears on the back of his tongue.

Red’s voice stopped him, “kid.”

Stretch stood there and watched Red wrap both arms around himself. The fingers of one hand were streaked with marrow, he’d probably cracked his phalanges, but Red only shuddered faintly, drawing in a long breath and letting it out in a shaky rattle as he said, “if i’d’ve known she was awake, i woulda warned ya.”

Oh.

Oh, that made a terrible amount of sense and it didn’t make Stretch feel one fucking bit better to realize that Red wasn’t mad at him.

“it’s fine, red,” Stretch said, gently. It was hard to bank his own fears, but he managed, “it’s not your fault. i’m okay.”

Red heaved out a hitching little sigh and Stretch didn’t need Buford’s powers or his own magic to see that Red didn’t believe that, not even a little.

“okay,” he muttered under his breath, low and indistinct, “okay, okay.” Then louder, “okay, kid, get on out of here.”

“you’re firing me?” Stretch blurted, horrified. He’d begun to believe it was all right, more fool he, hadn’t he had the rug ripped out from under him enough times by now, when would he ever learn?

“what?” Red said, aghast. “fuck no! take a little time off, is all, after a shitty night like that, you need it. go see a movie, ‘wizard of oz’ ’s playin’, think it’ll be right up your alley.”

Relief left him weak, but he made no move towards the door. “but. your hand?”

“what about my hand?” Red raised his browbones and his hand at once and Stretch stared at the clean, pristine bones in confusion, what the fuck, he was sure he’d seen—

“okay, but,” Stretch still didn’t want to leave, some part of him vaguely convinced that if he left he wouldn’t be able to come back, like this shabby little store was some kind of fae place. “here, let me clean up.”

“i can fucking clean,” Red said impatiently. “been doing it since long before you got here.” He hooked his perfectly unbroken thumb at the door, “now, git! scoot!”

It seemed better not to comment on Red’s cleaning skills. Stretch hung up his apron and obediently scooted while Red limped over to the broom.

Outside, the temperature was just above a swelter. Stretch headed towards the theater even as the kids pulled up by the shop and dropped their bikes to head in, about five minutes too late.

Red had the right idea, he decided tiredly. A movie sounded like a good idea right about now. If, that was, he could stay awake through the opening credits.

tbc

#spicyhoney #papcest #keelywolfe #underfell #underswap #underfell papyrus #underswap papyrus #underfell sans #welcome to backwater

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radreactions · 5 years ago

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Mandalorian Kellogg

Courtesy of our one and only Master of The Force - @saintlyguy!!

Kellogg as the Main Character Instead of the Sole Survivor (inspired by The Mandalorian)

Sent to retrieve an asset for the Institute from Vault 111, Kellogg discovers that the package that’s been under ice for almost 200 years is really just a baby still fussing in the arms of his already dead parent. Rediscovering his paternal instincts and discovering a chance of redemption, Kellogg dispatches the scientists with him and decides to protect the boy and raise him as his own. On his journey to escape the Institute and find a new home for him and his new son, he stumbles upon a unique cast. Are these people potential allies, or just obstacles to his new found family? Ada: Years of experience and overall distrust of any sentient machine due to his experience with 2nd gen synths have led to a preference Kellogg wishes to satisfy in any situation: NO DROIDS. Be it a synth or Protectron (after a certain unpleasant experience with one back in the Mojave), Kellogg prefers to work with those who haven’t been programmed to think the way they do. But with enough whining and teary eyes from his adopted son, Kellogg came in charging to save a lone automatron that looks like a mess of parts. “First that Mr. Handy in Sanctuary, now this.” Ada had no one left and sought to avenge her family. Above all she wished to not be alone. All 3 desires are satisfied with this grizzled man and his son- “No droids. Get lost. No need to thank me. Didn’t want to help in the first place” But he did. Surely that must mean this man must have some shred of compassion. That would be enough to go on at the moment since Ada has nothing. She’d follow this man until he’d take her with him. “I could be of much assistance to you and your son. I’ll protect the two of you. I’m well equiped for scavenging and building. I can even create a nursing subroutine and care for your son.” “ALRIGHT! I’ll take care of this Mechanist for you. Just stop talking. Take point.” “Wonderful. Now that we’re on our way, I’d like to tell you all that I can do for you-“ You ever hear a robot get their head ripped off without a sound? No. That’s because you gotta be Kellogg to pull something like that. “Finally” the exasperated merc exhales as he looks down on his napping son. “Finally he’s asleep.” Cait: “Get outta here you junkie! Don’t show your face ‘round here til you get that psycho out of your system!” Tossed out of the Combat Zone, Cait never thought that putting on a good show and gouging out a raider’s eyes would get her tossed out. “Your loss Tommy! I’ll just put these guns to work somewhere they’ll be appreciated!” Tommy sadly sighs at how Cait doesn’t realize she’s beating herself to death. Eventually Cait made herself a name as yet another Commonwealth merc, one that even the Gunners stay clear of in fear of getting their head smashed in. Cait would take the most dangerous jobs not just for the hazard pay, but to have an excuse to need psycho. She’d go after a raider boss with nothing but a bat and rage fueled by the poison. She can be found in Goodneighbor at the Third Rail where she’s claimed the counter for herself. She’d drink from the top shelf in between jobs with her own space. Until the infamous Kellogg took a seat at the other end. “Oy cunt! This here’s my bar! Piss off!” First that wannabe shakedown, now this. “Don’t see your name on it. I’ll finish my Nuka-Cola and be on my way. You won’t even notice.” “Oh but everyone else will notice the stain that balding head will leave on the counter!” A brawl breaks out. Well I wouldn’t call it a brawl. More like Kellogg just tiring Cait out by just dodging all while having something bundled beneathe his jacket. Almost out of breath, Cait pulled out a psycho she didn’t think she needed. Knowing how much damage a psycho user can inflict, he puts her into a vice and forces it out of her hand. “That stuff could kill you.” Cait was just about to explode as a small hand reached out from Kellogg’s jacket and touched her on the nose. Now you don’t boop Cait on the nose without losing that hand. Unless you were a swaddled baby with big puppy eyes. For the first time in her life, Cait felt...soft. Her rage subsided and she eased up, causing Kellogg to finally release her. Cait felt at ease. Actually more than that. She felt...at peace. She felt better than she ever did in her life. “Holy Shite!” Cait was amazed to see that her arms were no longer veiny or pale, she could see and hear clearly, and she wasn’t as angry! She yanked the psycho from her pockets and threw them in the trash. She doesn’t know what happened, but she’s now healed and free from the psycho. “That kid... Could they have...?” Cait looked back at Kellogg to see him fussing over the kid now knocked out. Codsworth: The butler’s sensors had picked up a familiar lifeform coming from Vault 111. “It couldn’t be.” Then he heard a familiar coo from the end of the street. “It could be?” Anticipation was replaced by fear upon seeing young Shaun in the arms of a rather unpleasant looking stranger. Whoever he is, he has clearly abducted young Shaun and it’s up to Codsworth to save him and deliver him back to his masters. “You! I don’t know who you are! But you will unhand the lad or I will contact the authorities!” Oh blimey, there aren’t any authorities left. This may boil down to fisticuffs, but Codsworth will save Shaun no matter the cost! “That’s not gonna happen Mr. Handy. Now why don’t you go clean something. I gotta get this kid to a safe-“ TALLY HO! Codsworth charges Kellogg with his saw aimed at his head and his claw ready to catch Shaun. Soon Codsworth will have one piece of the family he lost when the bombs dropped. Then he’ll go find his masters and reunite them all. Finally he’ll have the life he had lost serving- SKKRRRRRRR Kellogg let go of the robot’s saw after it had cut clean through its armor and he was sure to have destroyed its cpu. “Ma-Ma-Master Sh-Shaun! Wo-Wo-Would you li-like to see Mu-Mu-Mummy and Da-Da-Da-“ As the Mr.Handy’s voice died out, the child reached out to its lifeless hull. Kellogg had connected the dots. This wasn’t just some malfunctioning Mr. Handy, it somehow knew the kid. All sorts of feelings swelled in Kellogg. Finally he looked down at the child. “So. Your name’s Shaun.” Curie: What’s the perfect place to ride out a radiation storm? The very same vaults that protected its inhabitants from nuclear annihilation. The sky turned green and thundered like never before. The closest place was Vault 81. Although it wasn’t too keen on allowing outsiders in, Kellogg needed to get Shaun out of the storm immediately and he knew he had plenty of worthwhile Institute tools he could trade for shelter. After bargaining his into the Vault, Kellogg was able to finally get a warm meal and rest for himself and his adopted son. That is until this Ms. Nanny came bubbling and insisting on seeing to Shaun. “S’il vous plait monsieur! I only wish to give your little one an examination and any treatment he may need! Free of charge. Just let me-“ “NO!” Silence in the cafeteria except for the humming from Curie’s thruster. “If I need a doctor, I’ll go to the real one. Just let us eat our meal so we can go rest.” Curie complied, hiding her disappointment and hurt. She only wants to help... She’s ashamed to admit, but she had hoped to get in the good graces of the man and convince him to allow her to venture out with him and his son (whom she greatly adored and worried about). Curie wanted more out of her life than being Vautl 81’s Ms. Nanny, she wanted to leave her mark on science! She knew she couldn’t do that in 81’s confines. She also knew she wouldn’t be acheiving her goal anytime soon. Danse: “Brotherhood, better sneak around.” Kellogg maneuvered through College Square as to avoid the ferals only to run into a Brotherhood of Steel outpost and they’re not the biggest fan of the Institute. Kellogg’s pretty sure that saying he betrayed them won’t give him a free pass but a trip to a holding cell and Shaun being taken from him. He couldn’t risk that. While slithering on by, Kellogg halted at the sound of ferals screeching then running towards his direction. Kellogg almost drew his revolver but saw a small squad of Brotherhood soldiers come out to deal with the ferals. “Good a distraction.” Kellogg was almost home free until Shaun pointed back at the Brotherhood with the same damn puppy eyes Kellogg has yet to find the strength to refuse. The ghouls nearly overan the soldiers until a civilian charged in and singlehandedly dispatched then despite their overwhelming numbers. “We need him for the Brotherhood” Paladin Danse thought. Before Danse could thank him, Kellogg hushed him with a finger. “Your welcome. No thanks needed. And no I won’t be staying for long. Also I don’t want to work with a machine.” That last part confused Danse. Maybe he doesn’t like tech, which wouldn’t sit well with being a Brotherhood soldier. Danse then saw a tiny body appear over the civilian’s shoulder which waved back at him. Deacon: Oh crap oh crap oh crap. “I’m in the same room with Kellogg. Worse, he’s got a kid! Where did he get them from? Did he kidnap them?” Whatever the case, Deacon needed to conduct some espionage. “So... you come here often?” “Hmm.” Not much of an answer. “Oh my stars! Your kid is so cute! Mind if I held him.” “Hmm” aggressively as Kellogg turned away. Uh oh, I’m losing him! Better think of something quick! “So I’m guessing a busy man such as yourself needs all the help he can get when raising the little one.” “Hmmm” “Well you’re in luck! I am the Commonwealth’s best, if not the only nanny! I’ll watch him while you go do...stuff! I’m a great cook! My bloatfly jerky is hard to pass up! I’m great with kids and I can entertain your kid for hours. Does your kid like songs? How’s this? Ahem.” “Toss a coin to your-“ Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! “Oh great! Your awful singing upset him!” Dogmeat: A faint scent passed Dogmeat’s nose, waking him from his nap at Red Rocket. Standing at attention, Dogmeat spotted a human carrying a small human. Tail wagging, Dogmeat wanted to run up to see the small human. He wanted to follow to see them all the time. He wanted to PROTECT. But that big human may be dangerous. MORE REASON TO PROTECT TINY HUMAN. So Dogmeat followed at a distance and helped where he could. A pack of hounds too close? They’re gone before the humans get a wiff of them. A yaoi gui looking for a meal? Dogmeat stands his ground and gives the humans time to get far. Dogmeat was a good boy. And good boys get rewarded! One night when the humans rested, Dogmeat was invited to join them by the fire with a hunk of meat thrown in front of him. Kellogg dropped a few more hunks to get Dogmeat to come close. After enjoying his meal and a bowl of water, Dogmeat was finally able to see the tiny human up close. Gage: How could one guy get through the gauntlet with a baby strapped to his chest? And how could he defeat the Overboss without the water gun? BY CRUSHING HIM WITH HIS MIND! That last part seems unreal but it’s the truth! Colter was crushed within his power armor when the bald guy went to fight him! Every raider ran out of there except for Gage, who was still in shock. He didn’t notice the man approach until he was asked “What’s the fastest way back to the Commonwealth?” “R-right this way sir.” Now Gage didn’t like being subservient to those he disliked, but he wasn’t looking to die today. Gage had brought him back to the train, sending the man on his way. Just as the train pulled away, through the window, Gage saw the man’s baby peek out and reach out to him. Gage was confused and was further puzzled when he saw that his pants had fallen out of nowhere. Wait. “Did my pants just- Because of that kid- What the hell is going on?!” Hancock: RIP to the bastard Finn, who thought he could shakedown the guy who looks like he could kill with a stare AND carrying a baby. Now Hancock enjoys seeing bullies get their just desserts, but he wasn’t so sure seeing someone’s jaw get ripped off and shoved down their throat. Sure Hancock has killed his own fair share, but never that brutal. And the guy who just did that is taking care of a BABY. “Now hang on a second. I’m all for not seeing Finn again, but I can’t just let a guy who can do all that carry a baby. Goodneighbor is my town, so everything that walks in is my business. Including you two. Now tell me why I should let you hold on to the little tyke-“ Kellogg retorted without halting “Unless you wanna taste what’s left of your jaw just like him. Leave us alone.” Hancock can’t stand a brushoff threat like that, but he can’t do anything with a baby in the crossfire. So he let the guy go for now, gesturing to Fahrenheit to do surveillance on him. Longfellow:

Kellogg’s journey to find a safe home will take him all over the Commonwealth and to Far Harbor. After hearing of a rumored synth refuge exiting there, Kellogg thought that Maine may be perfect for him and Shaun if the Institute hasn’t found it. Upon arrival, Kellogg realizes that the fog brings all sorts of monsters and that he’d need some of those defogger contraptions if he’s to settle on the island. Asking around the bar, an old man in a trench coat speaks up. “You’re gonna want to get them defoggers from Arcadia, the synth refuge up over yonder.” Kellogg didn’t want to have to interact with the synths, especially since he’s ex Institute. “Are you serious.” With a nod and arming of his rifle, the old man confirms. “I have spoken.” MacCready: Waiting for business in the Third Rail seems like a safe move until Cait gets into a fight. Just like any other fight, Mac was gonna sit this one out. Expecting to hear a loud climatic crack on the bar, Mac was caught of guard to hear Cait happily laugh. Peeking out he sees Cait looking better than she ever did. He then looked over to the man she’d tussled with. He was fawning over a baby?! Mac’s daddy instinct kicked in and he was gonna help the fellow parent. Mac knew something was up with the kid. A sleeping kid doesn’t look like that. As the man tried shaking the kid awake, Mac put a hand on his shoulder only for it to be squeezed and twisted. “Owowowowowow. Hey I just wanna help your kid! I’m a parent too! Just let me help!” “Don’t need it.” “Are you sure about that?” The kid was barely moving but still breathing. It was clear that he needed something more. “I’m gonna buy some meds for him, then a room for the two of you.” Kellogg let go, allowing the help of fellow parent. Mac delivered. Fruit gummy meds for the kid and the cleanest room in Hotel Rexford. Not a single word of thanks. But a hefty sack of caps. Which Mac denied. “This one’s on the house.” Maxson: The Brotherhood’s arrival in the Commonwealth is preceded by reports of Institute teams becoming a more regular occurrence. It’s as if they’re looking for something. Or someone. Scribe Haylen of Paladin Danse’s team mentions that this began shortly after an encounter with a skilled civilian carrying a baby, probably nothing but they’re still worth looking into. Whatever or whoever they’re looking for, Maxson declares that the Brotherhood must find it first. Of course, Maxson wishes to put his best man in charge: Paladin Danse. However, Danse refuses only stating that “I’m not the right person for this job. Please consider Captain Kells to lead the search. Maxson reluctantly agrees but is confused at Danse’s answer. Once again he states that “I’m not the right person” and excuses himself. “I may not even be a person” Danse thinks to himself. Nick: Called out on a case for his old friends the Nakanos, Nick boards a boat to Far Harbor in search of their missing daughter who believes she’s a synth and is escaping to a supposed synth refuge in Maine. “Holy smokes. For a refuge to be out all the way there untouched. Wow.” “Perfect.” Nick sighed as he heard a deep voice and gun click behind his head. He already knew who it was. “Didn’t think I’d run into you out here. Kellogg.” “I see my reputation precedes me. I’m flattered. Now step away from the controls.” Nick does as he’s asked then spits that the most dangerous man in the Commonwealth has a baby strapped to his chest. He has to get the baby away from Kellogg, he doesn’t know how but he has to. Hours pass as Kellogg stands at the control, gun still aimed at Nick, and trying to comfort a fussy Shaun. “I know you got a gun pointed at me, but I’m still decent enough to be willing to take that kid off your chest and give you a break. What say you?” Before Kellogg could refuse, the boat is roughly shaken and makes both lose their balance. In this small window of opportunity, Nick lunges at Kellogg in hopes of getting the kids from him. Nakano’s boat arrives in Far Harbor and is greeted by a welcome party. “Come out where we can see you!” Kellogg emerges from the controls, gently bouncing Shaun in his arms. “Anyone else on board?” “No. Just me and my son.” Piper: Through the town of Diamond City rode a stranger one fine day. Hardly spoke to folks around him. Didn’t have too much to say. No one dared to ask his business. No one dared make a slip. For the stranger there among them had a BABY! Piper has a weakness for babies, whether it be their tiny hands or feet, their coos, or giggles. She just wants to look at the cutie hung from the grizzled man’s chest. Why did this little cinnamon roll have to be with this sort of guy? Why couldn’t he been with some masked stranger in shiny armor? Or hanging in the arms of a well learned woman? “Why do we always get the scary ones?” Suddenly, she felt her hat slightly rise from her head and fall forward. But before reaching the ground, her hat began discreetly floating towards the scary dude. Piper looked up to see a small head and hand over the man’s shoulder. The cutie was reaching out towards...her hat? ............... GASP “Magic baby hands!” Preston: It would take a miracle to deliver him and his friends from Concord. It would take some angel to come from above to save them. But no, they got Kellogg. An unexpected but welcome assistance. “I’m only here because of my kid.” Preston never thought that he’d be saved on the whim of a kid, but here he is on the museum’s rooftop providing cover for Kellogg as he eliminates the raiders. And Mama Murphy and the baby are on the roof watching- MAMA MURPHY AND THE BABY ARE ON THE ROOF WATCHING “Mama! Take the kid and go back inside! It’s too dangerous!” “Aww, don’t be a sourpuss Preston. The little man just wants a front seat.” A front seat to a deathclaw emerging from the sewers and knocking Kellogg a couple of meters back. “Oh crap!” Preston thought as he began to crank his musket in hopes of nailing the deathclaw in a single shot. Just as he thought Kellogg was gonna be deathclaw chow, the big lizard was lifted into the air! As the deathclaw thrashed in the air, Preston felt his jaw drop. “Nice one kid.” Mama Murphy complimented. To which Preston turned his head, seeing the kid’s arm outstretched. “Holy crap the kid is lifting the deathclaw with his mind.” Strong: Nothing gets Strong excited more than a good fight. His favorite by far is when him, human, and tiny human fought Sean. Human had been knocked out with tiny human trying to wake him up. Strong stood between them and Swan to protect them. Just before Swan had brought his anchor down, it was knocked out of his hand. Confused, Strong needed a moment. A moment short lived when he was lifted into the air up to Swan’s head. Looking down, he saw that the tiny humans was doing it! Feeling pride in his tiny brother, Strong knocked Swan’s head clean off. After that fight, Strong would always ask “Tiny Human! Do the magic hand thing!” X6-88: “Kellogg has gone AWOL and intends to keep the asset from us. Eliminate Kellogg and return the asset to us alive X6.” The courser had been given his most important assignment as well as his own long awaited desire: to kill Kellogg. Ever since he had heard of Kellogg’s skills, X6 had wanted to put him to the test and even beat him. Delivering the child is just a bonus. Cornering the two at Greentech, X6 was about to get his wish. “I’ve been waiting to go toe to toe with you, Mr. Kellogg.” “Sure. Fight me. That’s actually easier than the second part of the mission.” “Oh please I’m pretty sure I can handle a baby.” A small head peeks through Kellogg’s jacket and lets out a coo. *Software Instability Detected* “Oh! YOU’RE RIGHT! GET THAT OUTTA HERE!” How could X6 give a baby with such soft cheeks to the Institute?

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moonstone-blues · 5 years ago

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A Spark By The River - Chapter 6: Memories

As River and Nick walked down the dank streets, River couldn’t help but look around. It wasn't difficult to see how bad the conditions in Goodneighbor were. Ghouls slept on the street and all the citizens had their weapons drawn at as if they were ready for a fight at any time. It was… shocking to say the least.

"Why does everyone live like this?” River asked, looking back at Nick. “Can't they all go to Diamond City?"

Nick sighed. "Well Diamond City has a strict entry policy."

River furrowed her brow in confusion. "But I was allowed in with hardly any trouble."

Nick pinched the bridge of his nose. "Well you're human.” He looked at River from head to toe, examining her. “Clean. Pretty. And being a vault dweller surely helped since they're known to be friendly folk to human settlements."

"Wait…” River paused as she processed Nick’s information. “They only let you in if you're human?"

"Well, have you seen any ghouls in Diamond City?" Nick asked.

River shook her head. "No… But they let you in and you're not exactly human yourself."

"That was before the wonderful mayor came up with an idea during his campaign years ago. People call it ‘the ghoul ban’. Ghouls used to be all over the place in Diamond City but as soon as McDonough was elected, all the ghouls were evicted from their homes. With nowhere else to go, they all soon came here." Nick explained.

"No wonder Piper hates him..." River clenched her fists. She hated people like that. Discriminating others for no reason. Next time she was in Diamond City, she would be sure to march right up to McDonough’s office and give him a piece of her mind.

Nick then suddenly stopped, patting his pockets with a blank look on his face. River turned to look at him. She raised an eyebrow. “Nick? What’s wrong?”

Nick suddenly slapped his own head with a loud, frustrated groan. “I’m so stupid!”

After seeing River’s confused look, Nick looked down at her with a look of embarrassment. He scratched the tear in his cheek. “I was in too much in a hurry, I forgot something pretty important.” Nick sighed. “The bastard’s brain.”

River let out a frustrated groan. “Do we really have to go all the way back?” She didn’t feel like running into another suicidal monster again.

“No.” Nick stated. “You don’t have to go all the way back but I will. I’ll get you a room at the hotel here and you can stay there while I go get the brain.”

“But didn’t you say this place is dangerous?”

River shifted uncomfortably, seeing another argument break out in the streets. A man with a machine gun -who River assumed was a sort of guard- soon ran over and eventually broke up the fight. The two fighters stormed off in opposite directions, still clearly angry at each over. River moved closer to Nick.

“You’ll be fine as long as you stay in your room, okay? Come with me.” Nick said before he began walking in a different direction, eventually standing in front of a building with a large neon sign saying ‘Hotel Rexford’.

Nick soon got River a room and escorted her up to it. At the door to River’s room, Nick put his hand on her shoulder. “Remember, do not leave this room under any circumstances, okay? I don’t want you getting hurt.”

River nodded her head, understanding. She opened the door to her room and smiled at Nick. “Same could be said for you, Mr Valentine.”

Nick rolled his eyes. “I always am.”

River chuckled. “Right. That’s why I had to rescue you from countless amounts of thugs in a highly secured vault which you had been imprisoned in for a few weeks at the least.” She flashed a smirk, aiming it towards the detective.

Nick playfully glared at her. “Better watch it, Mrs McConnell.”

“Yeah, yeah. Now go before the smell of your coat rubs on my clothes.” River made a ‘shoo’ motion with both of her hands.

“I get it, I smell.” Nick huffed before he waved to her. “Goodbye.”

River waved back. “Don’t be long.”

River walked into her room and looked around. It was nothing special. There was a bed, a table and a few other pieces of furniture. River walked towards the boarded up window and peeked out of it through the small cracks between the wooden boards. A minute went by and River eventually saw Nick leaving the hotel. Nick walked past a building in the distance and eventually disappeared from River’s sight. River backed away from the window and thought for a moment. She tried to think about the place they were going to go.

The Memory Den.

River remembered Nick telling her about it a couple of weeks ago. It was a place where people went to relive their memories. To get lost in the past. River looked towards the door and thought for a moment.

One little trip couldn't hurt...

River shyly walked into a large room. She noticed large machines, lining the walls. In the far side of the room was a platform where a chaise was placed and a woman lay down in it. Once she saw River, she sat up.

“May I help you?”

River cleared her throat. “Umm hello. My name is River McConnell. I heard that you can revisit memories here?”

The woman smiled. “Why yes, of course we can do that.”

River sighed. “May I… relive a memory? Please?”

“Honey, if you want to go back to the past, I'm gonna need some caps. Can't run a business if I don't get paid.” The woman told her.

River thought for a moment. She checked her pockets, only counting about twenty. Doubtful that would be enough. “I don't have much… but I can assure you, if this is really what I think it'll be then you can garentee yourself a regular customer. I'll pay you whatever you want. Please, It doesn't even have to be a long memory!” She looked down slightly. She was ashamed of her begging but there was someone she just had to see again.

The woman thought for a moment, resting her chin in her hand. “Well… I suppose a little taste wouldn't hurt. And you do certainly seem troubled…” The woman smiled at River. "Just this once though. Don’t tell my coworker.” She added with a wink.

River beamed. “Thank you so much!”

The woman couldn't help but chuckle at River’s enthusiasm. “Amari!” She called out. “We have a new client!”

A woman in a lab coat soon entered the room. She looked River up and down. "Get in the lounger, please."

The woman pointed to a strange looking pod. River swaalled, doubting herself for a moment before climbing in. Some weird machine attached itself to her head. She could heard the doctor speak just a little away from her by a computer, though the machine prevented River from turning her head.

"Please tell me what memory you want. Something strong the machine can cling to."

She needed no time getting to work.

"I want a memory of my husband… Well, my late husband." River asked.

"Describe him."

"He was from Ireland. Had the typical red hair and green eyes. He was very tall, very handsome. We met when we were teenagers and he had such an accent." She chuckled to herself as she remembered.

"Got one!"

The woman River first met spoke up. "Now, just relax, dear."

River took a deep breath as the pod closed. She continued to breath in and out. She still had her doubts about this whole thing but maybe that would change when she relaxed…

Then, the memory came to her.

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River walked down the long hallway of her school, books in hand. She let out a sigh as she made it to her locker, gently moving her fringe out of her face with a calm sigh. She had so much homework to do and so little time. She opened her locker and put her books in, taking out some stuff she would need for her next class. She closed her locker once more to see her very own sister.

"Hey River." The girl smiled, her own books close to her chest.

"Hi Jane." River responded, leaning against her locker. She raised a confused eyebrow. "I thought you were in maths right now. What are you doing all the way over in the english department? Did you forget your bag?… Again?”

"I cut. Mr Johnson is so freaky. I'm pretty sure that he constantly checks me out. It's super gross.” Jane cringed, sticking out her tongue.

River rolled her eyes. Jane was always the drama queen. “Jane, you think that everyone checks you out.”

Jane huffed. “Hey, I can't help it if a lot of people think I'm very attractive!”

“Whatever you say.” River shrugged her off, beginning to make her way over to her next class, Jane following close next to her.

Jane suddenly let out a gasp as she suddenly remembered something she had forgotten to tell River earlier. “By the way, guess what?”

Jane didn't let River answer.

“There's cheerleading tryouts going on after school. You should totally try out!" Jane suggested. "You don't have to actually do anything, just be there and I'll show you where all the cute guys are." She winked. "By the way… I hear jocks have a thing for blondes."

"I'm fine, thanks. Cheerleading isn't really my... thing." River began walking to the courtyard. “Besides, you know I'm not into assholes.”

Jane followed close behind. "Oh come on, sis! Don't be a stick in the mud! Let your hair down for once!" She then stepped in front of River and pushed her bottom lip out with a pouty face in an effort to convince her. "Please?"

River stared at her for a second before letting out a groan. "Fine! But don't be mad when I don't make it into the squad!”

River tightened her ponytail before grabbing her pom poms. She couldn't believe she actually made it in the cheerleading squad. She looked at the main girl -someone called Lena- who was talking about what their routine would be. Jane nudged River with her elbow and pointed in the direction behind them.

"Hey. Cute guys, twelve o'clock."

River turned around, seeing a few jocks talking and laughing. She rolled her eyes. What was it about them that made Jane so attracted to them?

"You have no taste, Jane."

Jane scoffed. "Speak for yourself."

Soon they got in position for their routine, River trying her best to do it correctly while Jane lazily struck a pose.

Lena spoke. "Ok for this part, I'm thinking of something big..." Her eyes fell on the other cheerleaders as she placed her hands on her hips, eyeing everyone up. "Can anyone here do a backflip?”

There was silence among the others. Lena waited for a few seconds before letting out a groan. "Look. If we want to amaze everyone at the next football game, we've gotta make this good. Now-"

"I might."

Everyone's attention turned to River. Jane's jaw hung open. River immediately regretted speaking up. "I-I mean I took gymnastics a while ago outside of school and I learned a few things..." Her voice trailed off.

A grin appeared on Lena’s face. "Perfect! Now everyone except for River get into the pyramid formation we discussed earlier.

She then went on to explain what River had to do in full detail. After she explained, River got on top of the pyramid. She suddenly felt extremely nauseous. She shook her head, trying to clear her nerves before she was thrown into the air by the other cheerleaders. She managed to just barely complete a single backflip before landing in an awkward split.

Lena thought for a moment. "Ok. It needs some work but we have enough time to practice. Well done.” She clasped her hands together with an exhausted sigh. “Ok everyone! I think we should have a little break. You've done good up to now!"

River sighed. She was about to walk over to Jane when she heard clapping coming from behind her. She turned around to see all of the jocks staring at her. A few of them were flashing a disgusting smirk, others held beer cans which they had somehow hidden from their coach. However, there was one jock who sat a couple of feet away from the rest of the group who was… clapping. River simply rolled her eyes and turned back to the other cheerleaders, assuming that the jock was just patronising her.

After practice River and Jane were discussing the work they had to do before they walked home together. Jane had been slacking in her work and as usual, River had been asked by Jane’s teachers to help her. River didn’t mind helping Jane; she was her sister after all. However, River would rather study herself or just hang out with Jane as sisters, not study partners. Jane was complaining about her english homework. The pair were interrupted when a voice stopped them.

"Excuse me?"

River and Jane looked at each other before turning around to face the figure. River's eyes widened. It was the jock from before who was clapping.

Jane immediately smirked. Jocks were a... personal favourite of hers to say the least. "Can we... help you?"

"Well, I just wanted to say... you were really good back there." The guy nervously smiled at River, scratching the back of his neck. He had a very strong irish accent. Jane’s smirk grew. He was exotic.

"Umm thanks?" River said, a little unsure what response she could've gave to the jock. Was he trying to… flirt with her?

"Listen, I was wondering if you wanted to... I don't know... go to Joe's? I'd really like to get some lunch with a really pretty-"

"No." River cut him off.

"W- What?" The guy was slightly taken back.

River held up one finger. "First off, I don't even know you." She raised another. "Second, you don't know me." Then a third finger. "Third, you only want to go on a date with me because you think I'm pretty and four? You think that just because you're a 'hot jock', you can get with any girl. Well not me. Sorry but I'd rather study. Goodbye!" River turned away. "Come on Jane."

Jane walked closer to the guy, twirling her hair. "Well I'M free if you wanna hang out... umm... what's your name?"

"It's-"

"JANE." River called out, annoyed.

"Wow, I'm coming! Jeeze..."

The next day, as River was walking towards her locker as usual, she noticed a group of jocks approaching her.

“Hey babe.” The one at the front spoke with a flirtatious smirk. River knew who he was. Randy Sullivan. Captain of the football team. He wasn't really classed as a ‘bully’ but he had been known to steal other kid's lunch money back in seventh grade.

“My name is River.” River crossed her arms, eyeing Randy up and down. “And you know that, Randy.”

“Don't be like that.” Randy smirked down at her. “I saw your performance yesterday. I can tell that you're quite… flexible.”

River cringed. Why did jocks always have to be so… vulgar? “Randy, I need to get to my locker, can you move please?”

Randy wrapped an arm around River’s waist. “Don't be such a spoilsport, River. I saw the way you looked at us yesterday…”

“With complete and utter disgust? Yeah that sounds about right.” River tried to move away but Randy’s grip on her tightened. “Let go of me, you creep!” River tried to push him away.

“Playing hard to get isn't really a turn on, babe, so you can stop now.” Randy stated with a frown.

“I'm not your ‘babe’ so cut it out!” River snapped.

Randy used his other hand to grab the back of River’s hair. River yelped and tried to move with it having not much effect. Randy moved his head closer towards hers until a voice called out to them.

“She said let go.”

Randy turned his head to see someone stood in front of him. He rolled his eyes.

“Walk away, jackass, this one's mine.”

“Oh haha, Randy. Very original.” The male stated sarcastically before giving Randy a small round of applause. "Stop being a dosser and leave her alone."

“You got a problem?” Randy asked, displeased.

“Yeah. My problem is you're trying to kiss a girl who clearly doesn't want you to. Pretty sure you can get in some deep shite for that.” The male walked closer. “I always knew you were a manky creep, Randy.”

Randy paused for a second. He turned to the group of other jocks around him. “Grab him.”

River’s eyes widened as the jocks surrounding Randy ran towards the other male. He managed to dodge a leaping jock and punch another in the face. But soon after that, he was forced to the ground. He tried to get up but his arms and legs were held down. Randy let go of River and walked over to the fallen male and began to kick him hard in the gut. He let out a pained yell. River’s eyes widened.

“Get off of him!” River cried.

River ran towards Randy and pulled on his arm, trying to get him away from the struggling male. Randy eventually got annoyed and turned around, smacking River across the face. River yelped and fell to the ground, holding her cheek in pain. Tears threatened to fall down her face. River turned and saw that Randy had gone back to kicking the other guy. River clenched her teeth and stumbled back to her feet. She took a deep breath before she walked up to Randy.

"Hey!" She yelled.

As soon as Randy started to turn around, River punched him in the face. Randy fell to the ground with a cry and River held her fist, biting her lip. That hurt… a lot.

This surprised the other jocks, causing them to loosen their grip on the male on the floor. The male quickly broke free of the other jock’s grasps and jumped to his feet. He immediately grabbed River’s arm and began to run down the hallways, dragging her behind him. River looked back to see the jocks chasing them. River’s eyes widened and she looked back in front of her. The male holding her suddenly pulled her into a room, closing the door behind them. Nearly in sync, River and the male slid down against the door and panted, out of breath.

River let out a sigh. “Thanks for helping me back there.”

“No problem. I can’t believe I'm on the same team as that arse…” The male groaned, looking back at the door.

River then realised something as she examined his face properly. “Wait a second…” River pointed an accusing finger towards the now recognisable jock. ”You’re the jock that tried to flirt with me yesterday!”

The male awkwardly scratched the back of his neck. “When you put it like that, it makes me sound like a loser.” He flashed a nervous smile and outstretched his arm. “And thanks for getting Randy off of me, by the way. What’s your name?”

River looked at the male’s hand before she shook it with a small chuckle. From a flirtatious ass to a gentleman. “River. River Bellafield.”

The male smiled. “The name’s Jack McConnell.”

“Nice to meet you Jack.” River moved her hand away before she thought for a moment. “You know what? I might just take you up on that offer you made. I’ll pay though. It’s the least I can do for my hero.” She sarcastically batted her eyelashes at him.

Jack burst out laughing, eventually being joined by River. After the laughter died down, Jack folded his arms and tried his best to look offended. “Okay, now I know you’re purposely trying to make me sound like a loser.”

“Your accent… Irish, right?” River questioned.

Jack blushed slightly, embarrassed. “Um… Yeah. Is it that obvious?” He chuckled to himself. “I've only been here-”

Suddenly a scream rang out. River and Jack turned to see a girl screaming, while she stared at Jack. River sighed.

“You dragged me into the girl’s bathroom, didn’t you?”

“Yes. Yes I did.”

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The pod opened and River was snapped out of her memory. She carefully climbed out of the pod and turned to the women ahead of her with a grateful smile. The woman in the lab coat had left. “Thank you. I'll definitely come back here. I'll pay whatever you want.”

The woman who lay in the chaise nodded her head before she paused, narrowing her eyes as she noticed something. “Dear, are you alright? You're crying.”

River paused for a moment and raised two fingers to her face and wiped under her eye. River looked down at her pale hand. The woman was right. River had been crying.

“Oh umm…”

River quickly wiped both of her eyes with a small sniffle and flashed a smile, trying her best to look like she was fine.

“It's okay. I'm fine. Thank you so much.”

"I'm sorry for prying but we have to watch the memory to make sure we know if we have to pull you out if something goes wrong." The woman explained. "That memory looked clean. The people looked clean… what's your name, dear?"

"River McConnell."

The woman gasped. "That's it. You're the woman out of time!"

River tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, slightly embarrassed. "Didn't realise the paper came out this far."

"It doesn't. But word of mouth travels far." The woman smiled. "I assume you didn't just come here for a trip down Memory Lane then?"

“I'm... actually working with someone to help look for my son. He's a synth called Nick Valentine. We’ll be coming here later. Can you… not say anything to him please? Don't tell him I was here. He told me not to leave the hotel but I just wanted to see what this place was like. He wouldn’t understand...” River politely asked.

The woman thought for a moment before she nodded, understanding. “My lips are sealed.”

River took out her twenty caps. "Like I said, I don't have much, but-"

"No, no." The woman shook her head. "Please keep it. You need all the help you can get with your tough times."

River nodded. "Thank you again…" She turned to leave but stopped. "I'm sorry, I never got your name."

"Irma. Now you hurry off before Mr Valentine comes back!"

River smiled and walked out of the Memory Den. She stuck close to the buildings, avoiding anyone who looked like trouble while she made her way back to the hotel and entered her room once again. River closed the door with a sigh and took her bag off, throwing it to the side before she flopped onto the bed. It was even scratchier than Nick’s. River sat up, the sheets irritating her skin too much and thought for a moment.

She missed Jack.

River brought her knees up to her chest and hugged them. She first thought Jack was just another jerk jock that was in a constant competition to sleep with the most girls but he was different. He was kind and gentle, willing to stand up to Randy and those other jerks. She wanted to see him again. She wanted to feel his embrace again…

River was crying again.

Nick sighed as he came up to a familiar wooden door. He adjusted his tie. He couldn’t look too unprofessional. River was still a client after all. Maybe… a friend… But still a client. It took him a little longer than expected but he had Kellogg’s brain… or well, whatever it was. Nick raised his hand, ready to knock when he heard a faint sound. He knew he shouldn’t be nosy but he couldn’t help but press his ear to the door. He heard crying. Nick backed away slightly. He cleared his throat and decided to call out.

“River? It’s Nick. Are you in there?”

There was a gasp and after a moment, River replied. “Hold on a second! I’m just… putting my stuff back in my bag!”

Nick frowned. She didn’t have to lie to him.

River soon walked out of the door, flashing a smile. “Sorry about the wait. All of my stuff fell out of my bag when I put it down.”

Nick nodded his head. “Mm hm. Come on, let’s go.”

The pair made their way over the brightly lit building with Nick glancing at River occasionally, seeing her sniffle and rub her eyes.

“You okay?” Nick asked.

“Huh?” River looked up at him. “Oh… Yeah… I just have a stupid cold. Hope that isn’t deadly out here.” She let out a nervous chuckle.

Nick nodded before he looked away. He would talk to her about this later.

They approached the double doors and walked inside the large building. River saw the same woman as before laying in her chaise. She smirked once she saw Nick and sat up, making her way over to the detective.

"Well, well. Mister Valentine. I thought you had forgotten about little ole' me." She batted her eyelashes at the old detective.

Nick chuckled. "I may have walked out of the Den, Irma, but I would never walk out on you." He gave her a wink.

"Hmph. Amari's downstairs, you big flirt." Irma chuckled, pushing Nick away.

River gave Nick a ‘look’ to which he simply rolled his eyes with a chuckle. Nick began to walk, waving at River, gesturing for her to follow him. River looked back at Irma and flashed a sheepish smile, mouthing ‘thanks’ so that Nick wouldn’t hear her. They walked down some stairs to see another woman at a machine. River identified her as the one who set up the pod she climbed into earlier.

"Doctor Amari?" Nick called out.

The woman turned around. "Yes?" She looked at the two. She saw River and quickly glanced back at Nick.

"We need a memory dig, Amari, but it's not gonna be easy. The perp of our case, Kellogg, is already cold on the floor." Nick shoved his hands in his pockets.

Amari's eyes widened, looking at the both of them. "Are you two mad? Putting aside the fact that you're asking me to defile a corpse, you do realize the memory stimulators require intact, LIVING brains to function?"

River bit her lip, nervous, before she spoke. "Please. Nick told me you're the only one that could make this work."

"This dead brain had inside knowledge of the Institute, Amari." Nick stated. "The biggest scientific secret of the Commonwealth. Imagine what we could gain from this sort of information." He tried his best to convince the doctor.

Amari sighed, eventually giving in. "Fine. I'll take a look, but no guarantees." She looked at each of them. "Do you... have it with you?"

"Here's... what we could find." Nick handed the small mechanical part of Kellogg’s brain over to Amari.

Amari took it carefully with a look of utter confusion. "What.. is this? This isn't a brain! This is... wait..." She examined it closely. "That's the hippocampus! And this thing attached to it... A neural interface?"

Nick frowned, scratching his cheek where he could feel a couple of wires poking out of his ‘flesh’. "Those circuits look awfully familiar..."

Amari raised an eyebrow. "I'm not surprised. From what I've seen, all Institute technology has a similar architecture."

"Is the brain still good?" River asked, hopeful.

"Possibly. I think the tech preserving the tissue so there is some hope. However, there's no way to access the memories inside without a compatible port." Amari explained.

Nick cleared his throat, deciding to step up. "Hey.” He said, getting their attention. “I'm an old synth. If the Institute built me out of similar parts, we might have an in. If you plug that thing into me, we could make this work."

Amari paused. She took a deep breath before saying her next words. "There... could be long-term side effects. I don't know where to even begin with listing the risks."

Nick held up his hand, stopping her. "Don't bother. I don't need to hear them.” A determined look was now present on his face. “Plug me in, doc."

River stepped towards him. "Nick, you heard what she said. You could suffer from this. I don't want you to-"

Nick gave her a small smile. "I said, we'd find your boy, didn't I? Well if I have to have something from a psychopath plugged into my brain then that's what i'm willing to do."

"I..." River looked down with a sigh before she looked back up, smiling at Nick. "I really appreciate this, Nick. Thank you."

Nick chuckled. "You can thank me when we've found your son." He looked over at Amari. "All right. Let's do this."

"Whenever you're ready, Mister Valentine. Just sit down." Amari gestured to the chair she was standing next to.

Nick sat down with a nervous chuckle. "If I start cackling like an old, grizzled mercenary, pull me out, okay?"

Amari carefully plugged the cybernetics into Nick. She cleared her throat then spoke. "Are you... feeling any different?"

Nick looked around, frantically as if what he saw in his mind was all around him in the real world. "There's a lot of... flashes... static... I can't make sense of any of it, Doc."

"That's what I was afraid of." Amari sighed. "The mnemonic impressions are encoded. It appears the Institute has one last failsafe."

"Wait.” River said. “Is Nick going to be okay?" She asked, concerned. She didn't want Nick to be hurt because of her.

Amari sighed. "Yes, the connections appear to be stable. But we need to solve the current problem first."

Amari continued. "The memory encryption is too strong for a single mind, but..." Amari gave her full attention to River. "What if we used two? We load both you and Mister Valentine into the memory loungers. He'll act as a host while your consciousness drives through whatever memories we can find." She explained.

River nodded. It was the best shot they had right now. "All right." She still wasn’t entirely sure about this but she was willing to go through anything now.

Amari pointed to an open memory lounger. "Just sit down over there. And…” She shrugged. “Keep your fingers crossed."

Nick smiled at River before he climbed into a memory lounger. He waved before speaking his next words.

"See you on the other side."

River climbed into the empty memory lounger and bit her lip, nervously. As it closed, she looked back at Nick then at the screen in front of her.

River could hardly hear Amari over her own thoughts but she noticed that she was quickly beginning to slip into a deep sleep. She only heard Amari tell her to hold on before she was completely submerged in total darkness.

#asbtr #a spark by the river #nick valentine x sole survivor #sole survivor #fanfic #fanfiction #fallout fanfic #amari #irma #fallout 4 #River McConnell

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phantomphangphucker · 6 years ago

Text

A Life Of Role Playing Weakness - PhannieMay - Day 14 D & D

Summary: What’s a halfa to do when school is on lockdown and everyone’s bored? Games and trickery.

Most of the class groans as they can tell the sun has set by the room becoming near pitch black. Though pretty well everyone’s glad Mr. Lancer got stuck outside of class, otherwise he would have spent the afternoon making them do school work.

Danny, knowing full well no one else can actually see, finds some candles and sneakily lights them with his fingers. Unfortunately, there’s only three but most of the class seems relieved to have them, “took you long enough Fenton”. Rolling his eyes at Kwan, “like you would have been any faster, at least I was actually doing something”. Danny honestly could have found them way faster but that would have been suspicious. Groaning a bit at the window, though the groan was more aimed at the extreme weather outside, that has caused the school lockdown and blackout. Sure he could technically just leave, but due to the schools' security system, all the doors and windows are sealed shut. The only way out would be to phase out and that would be so many levels beyond suspicious.

Clearly, a couple geeks are tired of Star and Lily bickering, “why don’t we play a game? You know, actually get along? For one night?”.

“Oh why would we do that when it’s more fun to annoy you losers?”, Danny rolls his eyes at Todd, sure he’s not as bad as Dash but still.

Apparently, the geek kid, James, isn’t very impressed either, “I’d rather get destroyed by stupid wind while having fun, than getting mocked by some meathead”. Danny’s not really sure how insulting the guy will get him to play games but whatever.

Deciding to interfere, “what game? Ain’t nobody going to play if no one knows what’s up. And if you say truth or dare even I will mock you”.

“Oh like you even know how to mock someone, Fenton. But yeah whatever, spill”, Danny muffles his snickering because he could out mock this guy easily. Half his fights involved mocking the opponent, eighty percent if it was Vlad.

The other geek kid, Tyler, rummages through his bag and pulls out what looks like a board game, “well, someone made a D & D ghost edition. Because this is Amity, got figures and everything”. Tyler is smirking as even Danny knows that anything ghosts gets pretty much every Amity teens attention. And Danny is honestly so down for this too, he will die if there’s a figure like him in this thing.

Flopping on his back as there is indeed a little crystal clear figure that, while mostly featureless, looks suspiciously like Phantom. Finger gun shooting himself in the head before pointing at the board, while still laying on the ground, “ok, I’m in”. Seems everyone else agrees while looking at the collection of ghostly figures.

Unsurprisingly, pretty well only the geeks know anything about this game. And no one’s interested in long explanations. So they just give a quick run down of classes and alignments. But having to pull out the book and read over it quickly for species, since this was an entirely ghosts and humans version.

Danny snickers, “chaotic good undying warlock suits me I’d say”. Really Danny only picked that because of the undying bit, the joke was there so he had to take it. And chaotic good pretty much was him, no way he could call himself lawful. Not when his very existence was against the laws of nature and reality themselves.

James tosses down a shorthand species sheet, “I’m surprised they actually made so many ghost species, so take your pick”.

Species:

Ghost - versatile but never the strongest

Ghoul - aggressive close and personal fighters

Spirit - gentle divine creatures, usually lawful

Spector - sneaky loners, like to appear highly intelligent.

Poltergeist - aggressive powerful fighters, always evil. Large but often invisible.

Whisp - tricksters but powerful with magic, always chaotic good. Small in size

Wraith - protective, unattractive and often feared by others

Banshee - prophetic strong healers

Phantom - selfless guardians who care for others, always good.

Danny obviously wants to pick the Phantom class but apparently, no gets to be that, as James taps on that class and snickers, “considering this is Amity, Phantom isn’t going to be a playable species otherwise half of you guys will pick that”. Danny sticks out his arms, “oh come on, if anyone should get that species it should be the guy with the same first name!”. A few of the other kids snicker and even James shrugs in amusement but, “can’t just let one person pick it. That would be a dick move”. Danny rolls his eyes but is thoroughly amused, seeing as he’s almost about to graduate and literally no one has figured out who exactly he is, he’s kind of stopped caring about going out of his way to hide shit. Heck, he’s tempted to just randomly clue in his classmates through various absurd means. At least now the government can’t even touch him, they wanted to be on “safe footing” with the ghost king even if they still have no clue who exactly that is. All they know is that he’s frequently in the human world and capable of taking the form of a regular human. Danny’s perfectly content to let them think that ability is unique to the Ghost King.

Shaking his head and looking down to the sheet, Whisp and Wraith are the only ones that stand out to him but trickster is much more in line with himself and would be much more amusing. And he’s not really surprised that no one picks regular ghost, “well Whisp it is for me. A chaotic Whispy Warlock that just can not fucking die already”.

“Dude, that’s not what undying means here”

“No shit, let me have my jokes”, besides undying warlocks get their magic from immortals right? Well this character was made by a damn immortal, given creation and thus power from Phantoms immortal ass.

Lily rolls the weird dice in her fingers, “so what? We roll for stat points now?”. While Rex eyes Danny up and down, “you picked the smallest class but you’re the tallest guy here. Did you just pick everything to be funny?”. Danny smirks wide, not why he picked the species but absolutely. Everything about him is practically one big joke, Hell he’s playing a board game with a bunch of regular humans while pretending to be trapped during a storm. He could literally fly through this weather and it would be fun too. He could also stop it if he really wanted to, use his ice to mess with the weather and air currents; but fucking around that much really wasn’t a good idea.

“Yup, roll three dice. Total stat point of three is the worst you could get, eighteen is the highest. Ten or eleven is the average. All the regular human npc’s are tens”, Danny’s not surprised Todd went with Ghoul. He might not be that big of a guy but man could he ever be an aggressive asshole to pretty much everyone. Speaking of asshole, “Fenton, your turn. What? your brain still fried from that weak little shock?”.

Turning to Todd and answering as he throws dice, “you know I underplayed that shit right? Didn’t want to deal with damn doctors, no way anyone would have let me out of going to the hospital if they had known it was closer to four billion than a hundred volts”. Smirking at Todd, “just for reference, a lightning bolt is around one billion. Your wall socket, that I’m sure you rammed forks into for kicks, is about a hundred and twenty”.

“Ok first off, you suck with dice, second how the hell aren’t you dead then?”, James clearly thinks Danny’s bullshitting and the sad thing is, the portal was probably more volts than that. Who knows what the volt readout for the entirety of a dimension colliding inside one tiny body is. Danny finishes rolling as he talks, “I’m not dead? Well, that’s news to me”.

Star elbows him, she’s become oddly friendly even flirty over the past year. Danny’s pretty well positive it’s because of his height and even if he wore baggy clothing pretty well always, if you really looked you could tell he wasn’t scrawny. Star’s got an eye for details so he can’t be too surprised and she’s perfectly fine with dating below her standing, Hell she dated Tucker of all people. “What even happened? Pretty sure you never told anyone”.

Rolling his eyes at her, “no one cared to ask. But if you must know a ghost portal opened up directly on top of me. There’s no real way to know just how much shocked me but I’m pretty sure an entire dimension carries more volts than one lightning bolt”.

Danny’s the only one to notice the straight up shit roll of his last dice as everyone gapes at him. Tyler’s the first to speak up, “you were electrocuted by the ghost zone?! Like all of it?! At once?! You should be a lot more than dead!”. Danny throws his head back and laughs, “what? Dead with a side of extra dead sauce?! Sounds like the perfect breakfast!”. Shaking his head as he continues talking, while catching James staring in bafflement at the dice, “sounds way more edible than those stupid ecto-contaminated Hot Dogs that try to eat you back! Or that damn overcooked turkey that stabbed me with a knife”.

Kwan mouths “what the fuck”, while James points at Danny, “dude, your luck is horrendous. I’m not even sure how you even get the worst stats possible. No wonder a portal opened up on you, I think the universe might actually hate you”, glancing at Danny who has curled up in laughter, “I don’t think it’s quite that funny though”. Danny can’t help but laugh harder, the king of ghosts, the most powerful ghost around, who’s literally worshiped as a god by some; is the weakest and shittiest ghost in this game. Like Boxy could beat this guys ass. That thought makes him laugh even harder. Wiping his eyes a bit and noticing that everyone actually looks slightly concerned know, “trust me, this is utterly hilarious. You just don’t know why! Oh man!”. Wheezing in laughter again, “now watch, the rest of my rolls will be so insanely good that I impossibly succeed at everything my character does”.

Kwan points at him, “with these awful stats you damn well better, otherwise you’re screwed”.

“I think the stats reflect Fenton perfectly. Weak and pathetic!”, Danny really can’t feel insulted because it’s just really funny right now. Todd is clearly not happy that Danny finds this funny instead of insulting, or that Star is mouthing, “are you blind?”, at Todd.

“How can you possibly find being insulted funny?”, comes Rex’s squeaky voice. Danny runs a hand through his hair, “insults are funny when they’re so insanely incorrect that it becomes absurd”.

Todd rolls his eyes at Danny, “you’re a complete weakling and a scaredy cat, just like al-”, Todd cuts himself off as he stares at Danny. Who just tore off his sweater, because this is way too funny. Chances are if he ever gets destroyed, it will be because he couldn’t resist a good joke. Danny smirks a bit as he nonchalantly flexes without doing any dumb poses, because he does have some shame. While everyone just stares at the clearly ripped and heavily scarred weirdest member of the weirdo trio.

“Todd, I could fucking maim you. I could maim the whole damn football team. But that wouldn’t be very good of me, now would it?”, tapping on his character sheet with a sly smirk.

“How the hell do you look like that man? And why don’t you just join the team then? Actually have good social standing?”, Danny can’t really blame Kwan for caring about that sort of thing. After all, being a jock was pretty well the guys' life and he wasn’t burdened with crazy weird responsibilities or power for that matter.

Responding mostly to Todd’s little insults, “I come from a family of ghost hunters, what the hell do you think? That scaredy cat crap is just a cover. Which is rather pointless now, what with graduation coming up and all the teachers not really giving a shit about my crap now”, aggressively pointing his finger at Kwan while the others finish rolling, “I don’t care for sports and my time is better spent elsewhere. Social standing in Highschool means nothing to me”.

Now it’s Tyler’s turn to look incredulously at the stupid powerful halfa, “why are you even telling us this?”.

“Because it’s funny. I picked a jokester species for a reason. I’m a little shit and this is one way I get my kicks. That and no one will believe you if you tell. So it really doesn’t matter. Even if you were believed, it would hardly matter. It’s too late for the school to really do anything and I really am someone of chaos. I will only laugh harder if the whole school starts freaking out”, Danny can tell he’s confusing everyone and that is only making him snickering more. So he takes the chance for first dibs on a figure, a transparent floating skinny man in a hooded robe with his legs crossed. Looks a shit ton like ClockWork, snickering “now if only he had a staff”. This prompts everyone else to realise what he did and to start snatching at figures, while Rex gives him a shy but quizzical look. So Danny decides to be more of a confusing mess to these regular mortals, “he looks like a close friend of mine. And this makes my horrid stats even funnier because my friend is flat out OP. His tricky ass will get a good laugh out of this I’m sure”.

“Uh, humans aren’t really OP, ever, are you friends with a freaking ghost? You’re damn weird enough to be the person who befriends some ghost. And what? You going to talk his ear off about actually hanging out with people other than the two other resident freaks for once?”, Todd’s tone goes from confused questioning to his typical insulting asshole mode. So Danny decides to be a bit of an ass right back, “Todd, my friend is an omniscient borderline god of a ghost. I don’t have to tell him, he already knows and is probably snickering like crazy right now. But of course you don’t believe me, why would you? Which is why he’ll either A, do nothing to make me the butt of a joke. Or B, do something to make you the butt of a joke. That, or he’ll hit me with his staff to do both at once”. Honestly Danny’s kind of looking for approval and pretty well a go-ahead from the master of time here, he’d like to know he’s not majorly fucking up just because he’s having a bit of fun.

Everyone’s staring at him in disbelief and he can tell Todd wants to mock him some more but Danny falling back laughing stops him. Holding the figure, which now has a little tiny glowing CW staff resting across its lap, above his face. Through a laugh, “fucking nice, you enigmatic weirdo”. Sitting back up as he places the figure on the board, “and now he’s got a staff”.

“Nice trick, maybe you can-”, Lily cuts Todd off, “dumb boy, pretty sure he doesn’t carry around mini glowing staff things. No ones that weird”. She’s not wrong, why would someone ever do that anyway? Well, ClockWork might, just to throw them at him. After all, he’s got all the time in the world to mess around, when he can anyway. Just like Danny, though Danny takes way more mess around time.

Tyler shakes his head, “something tells me, we barely know you”. Danny pats Tyler on the shoulder while James actually gets the game started, “so we’re doing this party style, just a dungeon crawl. Get through the city without getting caught by hunters and defeat the ghost king”. This makes Danny cough a bit startled, the goal of this game is for his classmates and him to defeat, himself? Well, he guesses that’s not really a first for him. “Hey, James. Who does this game think the ghost king is?”, everyone looks a bit confused at him. Then James grabs one of the figures, Danny can’t help but laugh at the little knock-off Pariah figure. “Well that’s a damn easy battle currently then! Dude’s locked inside the sarcophagus of forever sleep. So we’re beating up a sleeping man, or releasing him just to fight him. Which is grade A stupid and insane”, waving off their shocked glances, “besides he’s not even the ghost king”.

“Oh and you know who is? We could just swap out if there’s a figure for him. All the figures have set stats for if you’re going to use them as NPC’s”, now Danny’s just flat out interested, because that includes him. Danny motions for the book but James sticks it behind him, “oh Hell no, just tell us who”.

Rolling his eyes, “I’m just going to take the book, dude. I do want I wanna, chaotic and all that”.

“Fenton, he’s literally right across from you. How you plan to do that?”, Todd snickers a bit while James looks smug. Danny decides just fuck it at this point, because really how has no one noticed his crap yet. Using the free-floating ectoplasm in the air to fling the book over Jame’s head and at himself, flipping through it as everyone gapes. “How did you even do that? That’s more than just sleight of hand, holy shit”, Danny blinks at them over the top of the book and snickers, realising none of them actually noticed the slight ghostly glowing. Comparing his and Pariah’s page and damn they made Phantom overpowered. Sure, that’s accurate but, uh, even if everyone had freaky high stats this doesn’t seem winnable. Why the heck put a nearly undefeatable character in a board game? Sure it was accurate to real life but still. Though making Pariah just barely above half Phantoms strength was majorly underestimating the former king. Like insanely so. And did they seriously make a Walker look-alike stronger than Pariah? The tornado “race” too? Putting the book down, “yeah I don’t think we want to do that. The goal here is to actually win right? Not just have everybody’s asses get universally kicked”.

Lily puts her hands on her hips, “just spill already. You satiated your curiosity now do ours”.

Chuckling a bit as he pushes around the figures some, “fine fine, it really should be obvious though”. Smirking as he cups the little knock-off Phantom before slowly placing him at the castle, “our little town hero is a lot busier than he seems”. Literally all of them are grinning, though Star looks a bit confused, “so why do ghosts keep coming here and picking fights with Phantom. If he’s their king shouldn’t they, like, listen to him?”.

“Fighting is how ghosts socialise, know each other, and keep each other from getting rusty. The only way ghosts won't go picking fights with another ghost is if that ghost is hated or extremely annoying to literally everyone. Well, that or just being really dumb and pointless to fight”.

“So what Phantom’s not strong enough to be pointless to fight? Really Fenton”, Danny rolls his eyes at Todd’s unimpressed tone. Shaking his head, “oh the stats this book gives him are accurate. He’s pretty well the most powerful ghost there is. An omnipotent immortal who’s literally worshipped as a god by many other ghosts. All those fights are usually more like sparring matches, he’s having his ghostly fun and keeping in touch with everyone. He’d be so very bored otherwise and the other ghosts wouldn’t want him out of practice in case something happens”.

Todd actually starts laughing at this while James does indeed decide to stick with using knock-off Pariah because damn. Todd points at Danny, “of course Phantom likes hitting and fighting! Regular jock for sure, just with real power”.

“Well I don’t like that. He should be wanting ghosts to not come here, not eagerly, or whatever, awaiting the next fight”, Danny can’t help but jerk from that because dude fuck buddy. He absolutely did look forward to the next fight, fighting and witty batter was his bread and butter. Locking eyes with Tyler, “nearly every ghost awaits their next fight, welcome to ghost nature buddy. Humans go to cafes, ghosts punch each other. Humans show off pictures of their selfies or pets, ghosts show off new weapons by using them on each other. To fight is to socialise. Phantoms one of the few that doesn’t like others in the crossfire though. If ghosts stopped picking fights here, he’d feel unneeded and paranoid. Plus this is his home, ghosts have to come here to see him. Them being here doesn’t mean they’re causing problems”. Tyler still looks unimpressed.

There’s the occasional jokes and pepperings of ghost questions as they play a few turns before Lily has just about enough and finally asks Danny just what the fuck, “how do you even know all this shit? Even your parents, who’ve spent their whole lives researching ghosts, don’t know even half this shit. I would know, I’ve asked”. Danny chuckles, his parents would know this shit if they weren’t so damn biased and actually just asked. Smirking at her, “you learn this stuff by genuinely socialising and being friendly with ghosts. My parents only wish to send them back to the Zone or experiment. Of course, they don’t know”.

“That’s actually kind of sad, still doesn’t answer my main question though. You’re actually fighting ghosts?”, Danny will give her props on being pushy. But he rolls to see if he can avoid this random hunter trap before responding, smirking as it rolls high, “I spar yes, protect the citizens. Toss around witty banter, making Plasmius regret ever meeting me. In general, I’m an OP little shit”, Danny taps on his figure, that’s actually doing well for being an utter weakling, “that’s why this is funny. The strongest most capable person here has the utterly weakest character ever”.

“Capable ghost hunter isn’t a capable ghost, even if you’re a ghost friendly hunter”, Danny can’t help but wheeze. He was just a ghost being a ghost. Half human or not, he was sparing and socialising as a ghost does. Calling him a human hunting ghosts was just so entirely wrong. Smiling with his head in his hand, “I don’t call myself a hunter and neither do they”.

Kwan pushes him playfully, “yeah well, regardless of title, I still can’t believe you even do that. Props man, I guess”.

By the time the party gets to knock-off Pariah, both Lily and some quiet kid named Max have had their characters killed off. Danny’s snickering as his and Tyler’s characters are leading the face off. While James shakes his head and points his hand at the figures, “this is ridiculous even if you had raised your stats the most you possibly could, there’d still be no way to win this”. Danny chuckles because that’s pretty much what the odds were when he did face Pariah. Once again deciding fuck it, “well then let’s make this even more realistic then. I’ll roll to multiply my characters power a hundredfold”. James starts lowkey choking, “what?! How is that realistic?!”. Danny laughs as he rolls, “that’s how Phantom won. Multiplied his power a hundredfold and nearly destroyed himself in the process. This book drastically underestimates Pariah’s power. It took thirteen extremely powerful ancient ghosts just to seal him away, Phantom did it alone. Like the self-sacrificial idiot he is”. Shrugging, “well that and, no one else was even willing to fight Pariah cause he was too damn strong and wasn’t worth fighting”.

Smirking at his die showing a high ass number, while menacingly petting his figure, “having that much power... it’s a burden, isn’t it, child?”. James mouths, “what the fuck”, at both the die and Danny.

While Todd blinks a bit surprised, “Fenton, what? I would never have expected you to sound creepy, threatening, and powerful”. Danny grins wider, “and that’s why no one will believe you about any of this”.

Now, unfortunately, this battle with Pariah requires actually defeating him. No sealing him away, and his character is pathetically weak even at a hundredfold power. He could kick his own ass with his ghost powers completely neutralised. So it really surprised no one that Danny fuckin’ dies.

Snickering down at the figure, “little ragged around the edges, eh, child?”. Before bursting out laughing as the mini staff explodes into purple mist. Todd, Tyler, and Star do wind up surviving and winning though.

“So any other crazy bullshit you feel like pulling. Since we’re officially out of shit to do besides being dicks to each other”, James mutters while lying on the floor. Todd snickers, “I’m cool with that”. Danny rolls his eyes, “now-now, would you act like that in front of Phantom?”. Both Star and Todd shake their heads rapidly, only Todd speaks though, “why the hell would I? That guy’s like super moral, I’d be making a horrible impression”. Danny can’t help but laugh, yeah he’s definitely got strong morals but he’s also a little shit. He steals, pulls pranks, constantly breaks into to pretty much everywhere, and spends most of his time pounding the crap out of someone. Good reasons or no, he’s ain’t a golden boy. Just the good guy who generally plays fast and loose with morality... and mortality. Smirking at Todd, “it’s a little late to change his impression of you, I’d say. You’ve literally punched him in the face, multiple times actually”, Danny sneers mockingly but still humorously, at Todd looking startled, “oh what? Didn’t know Phantom can change into a regular human?”. Throwing his head back and laughing loudly, “funny thing! The town barely knows Phantom”. Danny sighs as his ghost sense goes off and well, surprise surprise, his icy breath also glows. Knowing full well it’s Skulker, who really is more of a threat, he has a bad tendency to abduct people after all.

“What the fuck was that?”, Danny completely ignores Tyler, though he does talk, “the town also barely knows Fenton. So you’re right about that, but looks like I’ve got a job to do. Guess Skulker doesn’t really care about the shit weather, but then again, neither do I. Flying in the wind is hella fun”. Smirking as his toxic green eyes fill the room with an eerie ghostly light, “anyways this has been quite amusing and like I said, I’m a little overpowered shit. And ain’t nobody gonna believe you”. Before transforming and phasing out the window.

“Fenton, Phantom. We are all idiots, holy shit”

End.

#danny phantom #phandom #phanniemay #phanniemay19 #d & d #danny fenton #kwan #oc’s #star #boardgame #reveal #danny’s a little shit #danny fuckin dies #ghost king phantom #danny is op #phantomphangphucker #have a fic suck my dick

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vivern-of-nosgoth · 7 years ago

Text

So there is some Ghost work mail from Reddit.. And it's treasure:

From: TF To: AH, MP, SS, MR, RO Date: 4 October 2011 Subject: Association and some shit

Reply from AH (Aksel Holmgren) (...) Mauro had a car (with a trailer hitch?), but he had to work until 4-5. The question is if we can get hold of something else?(...)

Reply from SS (Simon Söderberg) (...)I want to rehearse as early as possible. I mean as soon Mauritius is finished working.(...)

From: TF To: SS, AH, MP, GL (...)Subject: Ghostmail #3 (...) 2012 it's time for a new album. Jag have two working titles for it: "Infestissuman" (mean something like "the forefront threat" in Latin) and "The sound of Doom to Come"

(...) (discussion) (...)

Reply form TF (Tobias Forge) Ok, boring people. No "The sound of Doom to Come" :´(

Reply from SS Great that "sound of..." was ditched "Infasimium" (sic) is cool in the way Axl describes it. But if the album is for "normal people" I think it is way to hard to pronounciate. Nothing you will remember. Difficult to read. I still cant pronounce it without stuttering. But then I have some analphabetism. (...)

Reply from GL (Gustav Lindström) Ingestissuman has more guns! I really fucking like that title. People will learn it. Simon too. (...)

And there is a messages full of sincerity attention from Omega. Damn good:

Reply from MP (Martin Persner) (...) Let us keep our cred in all ways possible - small safe steps towards merch-storm. I believe in building the trademark for some additional years before we do "family" stuff like wobble-heads, toddler suits, swimsuit, coffee mugs and shit. Actually. Let it be adult for some time. Of course, we could do other stuff than t-shirts - but we should fucking consider WHAT we want and can do. Personally, I prefer that we rather sell ONE EXPENSIVE music box or a box with a chain mail or similar, than selling a hundred tamagothi-machines with the Pope that wants blood. The latter giver more PR, but what kind of PR? What signals are sent about the band?What DON'T you want to see Pink Floyds name on? We have strength in the characters we perform as and that will, of course, make it easier to avoid the "greed-stamp".. I mean...Nobody gets pissed at Lucas when they are eating a Darth Vader Icecream. You actually hold Darth Vader responsible.

The music an where/when/how we are seen will lead the battle of cred - but also if you start finding tons of shit like coffee mugs, sunglasses, apps etc. they could soon decide our credibility. In other words - even if many like to take what we do as something done tongue in cheek, we cant count on them seeing us with dollar symbols in our eyes. (...) (discussion) (...) Exactly as you write - vi will step on their toes, we can't ignore that. It's already too late. What I'm talking about is not if we should step on their tows or not, but the balance. Step on their tows or fart them in the mouth? That is what I'm worried about. The fact that we are becoming a big band obviously means we will sellout in different areas - but it can be done with some fucking class that appeals to a large mass without being shit Disney-style. That is what I'm thinking. So - make sure to keep the humour and taste, without doing obvious bullshit. This is not only to keep cred among the BM people - we already lost that long ago and especially in a few years in the future - both to be able to be seen as a band people listen to instead of being a band little brother listens to and thus belongs to the children years of a life. In other words Lordi. No adult with the name wants to listen to Lordi. Now we are pretty far from Lordi - but a thermos and a bicycle pump later we are in danger. Stuff and Merch is damn fun - I know, I have collected all kinds of Star Wars shit through the years. Until the days I was about to puke by its intensive presence everywhere. When the cuteness in a wristwatch becomes disgust and loses its value because it is OBVIOUS that this is a part of the STAR WARS style...sheets, can openers....The trademarks loose it's value when you can live a whole life with knick-knack from the same trademark. It's more fun with a single thing of two. Think about Jägermeister. What a crock of shit. And it looks so fucking cheap.

Turbonegro had success with this balance. Like their jeans sponsorship. But when they do a one-piece - then they fall and hey, you in the Turbo-one-piece. You have been fooled and you are an idiot... a Turbo-idiot... a Slipknot fan without a clue.. not that Turbo cares....or, in the long run?

Alice Cooper Fanta, King Diamond Chocolate, Ghost Yoghurt. Or Britney perfume. Motörhead wine. Some good some bad.

Tha balance. Ghost insense = fun and good (serves it's purpose and concept) Ghost guitar = good. Ghost picture book for kids = fun and good BUTGhost....have tried for 5 min to think of a good example and can see how difficult it is for us to be judges as sell-out considered the characters... maybe I worry too much? What the hell...seriously - maybe we have a concept that is difficult to kill. I mean it seriously

Well, don't take this too serious.. mostly some night rambling from me //M

And touching Niels's words:

Reply from Niels Nielsen (...) Personally, I am very split about what I would have chosen if it was my band. It kind of feels like the heart says Rick and the brain says, Justin. That is how I would have taken the decision.

But now it's you that has to choose even if I give feedback whenever.. (I really am a little part of the machinery after all).

And I believe you could become a big band, a high level, large crowd, everything from radio, tv, large tours etc. But I actually believe you can't think too much about the black-metal fans doing it. Slayer and those big bands come from a different time when the supply was different.

Damn problematic. That is what it is.

My gut feeling never lets me down. So if you have it, us it. That is my best advice. /Niels

@your-ghoul @unholymarishka @prime6mover @slutforghost @paganlatte @catacombsaint @coffeeforseaman @fanthem @infernalghuleh @lucifersbrightstar @unholykazoo @sisterghuleh @simonsoderbergtrash @silverthurible @loo-nuh-tik @guttersnarls

#ghost band #martin persner #tobias forge #simon soderberg #niels nielsen #omega #my poor heart #Papa Emeritus #lawsuit

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practicingmedicine · 4 years ago

Text

Practicing Medicine: Chapter Three

(+)3

LOADER V1. 1

EXEC VERSION 41.10

32K RAM SYSTEM

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HOLLOWTAPE LOADED: “THE-CARAVAN”

INITIALISING….

SUCCESS!

> STATUS

Battery Level: 97%

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BP: 120/90

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> TIME

Day: 23 SEP. 2279

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Current Temperature: 69F

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Background Radiation: 0.231 RAD

“Oh, that’s terrible! I mean, I had known that Penny was sick, but I didn’t know that she had cancer !” said Mrs. McBain. She gave my hand a tight squeeze, and then released it. “If there’s anything we can do…”

“There’s one thing,” I said. Both Mrs. McBain and her recovering husband looked up at me. “Look after my momma. Make her nice meals, give her hugs, and send a letter to the followers if anything happens. I hope I won’t be gone for long, but if I don’t come back…” I thought for a moment. “Look for help. If you can’t find any, at least make her comfortable.”

Mr. and Mrs. McBain shared a look that suggested they were worried about me. “Of course, I’m sure that ain’t gonna happen. I just like to plan for the worst!” Mr. McBain smiled at me from his bed.

“I appreciate that kind of thinking, son. Things can go to hell in a handbasket pretty quick,” said the Sheriff. His wife glared at him.

“He’s not going to die, Kurt! Don’t you suggest that kind of thing!”

“I wasn’t suggesting nothin! Just saying that it’s good to have a plan- it’s a staple of being a good doctor, or so I hear,” said Mr. McBain, looking at me again. I forced a laugh.

“Yeah, I guess it is! Now, you two, can you do that? Can you look after my mom for a few weeks?” Immediately, Mrs. McBain nodded. Mr. McBain gave a thumbs up.

“Of course, Isaac! It’s the least we can do, really,” said Mrs. McBain. I smiled.

“Thank you,” I replied, and headed for the door. Mom might come looking for me soon, and this’d be one of the first places she’d check.

“Wait, Isaac- do you want to call your mom before you leave?” suggested Mrs. McBain, putting a hand on my shoulder. I shook my head.

“No. Well, yes, but I’m afraid that she’ll change my mind.” I hung my head. I didn’t want to pass up the opportunity, but I needed to do this. I suspected that I was going to have to make a lot of these kinds of choices in the near future. “Thank you though. I’ll try to repay you somehow when I get back.”

“Isaac, dear, you already have.”

I smiled at that. “If you say so.” A cloud of dust blew in around my legs as I opened the door. “See you folks soon- tell Mom I said goodbye, and that I love her!”

And just like that, I left behind everything I knew, and strode into unknown territory.

-Break-

Well, not really, “ Unknown territor y,” not yet. The next place I went was the town square, which was quiet and empty today. I was thankful for that. I strode past mom’s Casino, which was my next destination, and crouched down next to a little patch of brown grass and concrete between the sidewalk and Bison Steve’s. That was where Father had been shot. After that, he backpedaled for a while, and then ran into the side of the Casino, where he fell down and bled out.

I walked over to the wall. Me and mom had painted it together, before he died and after. I usually left him something; The first time it had been the snow globe he was going to give me, then it had been cactus flowers, and it kept changing after that. Whenever it stormed, the items got swept away, which I was okay with. He wasn’t even buried there, and it wasn’t like he was in any state to need the stuff. I would just start over, leaving something new every time.

But not this time. Not only was that in the past that I was trying to leave behind, but it was also kind of stupid, as I was starting to realize. Instead, I just crouched down next to the spot, put down my bag, and tried to make myself look presentable.

“Howdy, Father- I’m going on a little adventure, out in the wastes. I’d be real grateful if you could watch over Momma til I get back.” I didn’t know much about communing with spirits- still don’t, but it felt like a nice thing to do. After all, I was going to be gone for a while.

And after that, I stood up, wiped away the tears that had been gathering in my eyes, and walked into mom’s bustling Casino. The mysterious new city of New Vegas had taken a toll on business, but Primm still had the most convenient Casino on this side of the Mojave.

“Good evening, Mr. Saller! How you doing- I heard you saved the Sheriff’s life today!” said Johnson Nash, an old, wrinkly-skinned man and the overseer of the Mojave Express mail delivery here in Primm. I smiled as I approached him.

“Howdy Mr. Nash. My mom is dying of cancer. Are there any caravans passing through here?”

Mr. Nash looked surprised. His gaze shifted to the window. “Well, I… Really, Penny? I’m so sorry, boy, she’s always seemed so strong to me! I never would have guessed that she…” he turned his head to look at me again. “Sorry. I’m reminiscing. You just missed an NCR caravan heading up to Nipton. If the schedule keeps going like it has been, another caravan should show up next month…”

“Crud,” I muttered. I thought about saying something less polite, but Mr. Nash didn’t like me swearing.

“Sorry,” said Mr. Nash. Then, his expression changed. He glanced over his shoulder.

“Oh, I almost forgot! There’s an unsponsored one preparing to leave right now, bound straight for New Vegas. It’s a little caravan, three people, a couple of brahmin and a wagon. They’ve run the route a few times, but they don’t usually pass through here. The leader- Gram, I think it was, says he’s with the NCR. He’s got a ranger with him, so normally, I’d be inclined to believe him. But, the NCR never told me about them like they do with the rest of their caravans, and only the ranger wears a uniform.”

I started to walk away. “Thanks, Mr. Nash--where can I find them?”

“They’re out back behind the Casino, sort of over by the hitching posts, but I wouldn’t mess with them. They seem kind of shady to me,” he said. I turned my head to grin at him.

“Oh, I’ll be fine, Mr. Nash. I’m sure they’ll jump at the opportunity to get a doctor on board!”

-Break-

“Hands behind your head! That’s right, don’t move an inch!”

I shouted out in pain and surprise as the great-big person with the ranger uniform pushed their boot even harder against the small of my back, no doubt leaving a bruise. Without even registering it, I had moved both of my hands behind my head.

“Good. Hoplite, search him!”

A stout, bespectacled ghoul wearing a plaid three-piece suit with a tan cowboy-hat sauntered into my field of view. I hadn’t met many ghouls before, but I could tell by his demeanor that he was no spring chicken. Maybe pre war, maybe not, but definitely vintage. Maybe even antique. He stared at me for a while, then took off his hat, and tilted his head in my direction.

“He’s got nothin, Tandi. If he had a gat, he would have tried to reach for it when you spotted him,” said the ghoul. My ribcage felt like it was going to crack open as the ranger put even more weight onto their one foot.

“That’s not what I’m worried about. I bet he’s a legion slave, check his collar, look for brands on his skin!”

“I ain’t a slave,” I said, and instantly regretted speaking. The ranger laughed, a strange, hollow sound once it got passed through the helmet.

“Well, the kid ain’t a slave! What a goddamn relief!” The cheery Texan twang didn’t mesh with the deep, slavic voice. Every word that the ranger spoke sent chills down my spine.

“Look!” I shouted. I reached for my coat collar, and the ranger raised their foot and jammed their heel into my back again, harder than before. I screamed out something incomprehensible.

“Try it again, slave-boy-“ I could hear the ranger pull the bolt back on their submachine-gun, and I’m pretty sure I pissed my pants a little. “…And I put a round in your kidney! Maybe death don’t scare you, but pain like that’ll make a tough man cry. Ain’t that right Hoplite?”

The ghoul let out a tired sigh. “I’m not about to play good-cop bad-cop with you, Tandi. Let the poor kid go.” The Ranger kept their foot on my back for a few more seconds, pressing just hard enough to give me a sharp pain in my ribcage. Finally, they released me, leaving me aching in the sand.

As soon as I had recovered enough to breath, I flipped myself onto my back and started coughing. My whole goddamn chest was aching, which was an unfamiliar and unpleasant feeling. Of course, that wasn’t what I was thinking about. I was instead thinking about how I almost got shot, how I almost died less than an hour into my journey, how I almost failed my momma…

I started crying. I knew immediately that it was a bad idea, so I kept it silent, but I couldn’t help but let a few tears leak down my face. No one seemed to notice it, probably because they were still talking amongst themselves.

“…we do with him? Like, I’d feel kind of bad leaving him here…”

“Whoa, big friggin’ idea right here: why don’t we ask him what he was doing? He don’t look like a bad guy to me…”

“Leave him here. He’s a runt and a coward, and the only thing I-“

“Buzz off, Tandi! No one invited you to this conversation!”

“Yeah, shut up, the adults are talking!”

“What? I am thirty years your senior, Savvy! ”

“… Ladies, please. If we don’t make a decision soon, I think the suspense might kill him.”

“Still time for me to kill him.”

“Hush! I think he’s listening to us!”

All eyes turned to me. After a few seconds of feeling like a bug in a magnifying glass, I threw my arms into the air and craned my neck in what I can only describe as a full-body shrug. The ghoul laughed as my arms and legs thumped against the sand.

“Did that hurt? That looked like it hurt,” said the person who I hadn’t seen yet. I could hear her walking closer to me. I didn’t look up.

“Little bit,” I admitted. She was standing behind my head now, and, not wanting to lift my neck, I strained my eyes to look up at her. I couldn’t see her so well against the glare of the sun, but I could make out the general look; she was a young, heavy-ish woman with a bob of black hair and what I recognized to be some-kind-of-Asian features, wearing a faded floral sundress and a floppy hat. I smiled up at her, and she smiled back.

“Howdy there!” I said, and then regretted speaking so loud. My chest still ached.

“Hi! I’m sorry about our ranger. She’s kind of aggressive,” said the girl. I snorted. “Anyways, what’s your name? And, uh, would you like to stand?”

“Isaac, and no, not really,” I replied. Still smiling, she withdrew her hand.

“That’s okay. What were you doing back here? Was this just bad luck, or were you trying to find us?” I nodded absently.

“Both, I think.” I saw the ghoul cast a sidelong glance at the ranger.

“A wise guy? Oh, this’ll be fun. Maybe we should kill him after all,” said the ghoul, and I laughed a laugh that was really just a thinly veiled prayer to God that he was joking. The girl gave him a look.

“Gram, hush. Why were you looking for us? And don’t beat around the bush anymore, I hate it when people do that.”

Normally I would agree with her on that, but I felt like I had a little bit of a right to be insufferable. Given the circumstances.

Don’t push your luck, I thought to myself, you want to join up with these folks. You can still spin this to your advantage! Except, I didn’t really know how I was gonna do that. None of them were taking any sort of pity on me, so I doubted I could play the poor, innocent boy card, and I wouldn’t press the dying momma thing. Past that… well, I wasn’t really sure what to say.

First though, I decided to stand up. I couldn’t have looked very impressive, lying in the dirt like I was. Trying to appear as though I weren’t in incredible pain, I stood and dusted myself off. I turned to face the girl in the dress, who was looking awful unimpressed with me.

“Well, since you asked me so nice, I’ll keep it simple- I need to get to New Vegas as soon as possible. Someone at the casino told me about y’all, so I came to see if you might take me on.” I turned my head to look at the ghoul. “You’re Gram, right? Nash told me about you. Said you were kinda shady, but I trusted that I’d be alright.”

The Ghoul nodded. “Yeah, that’s me. Sorry, but we ain’t taking any new members. We run a taut ship here, and to be honest, I don’t think we need anyone else gumming up the works.” I started to talk, but the ghoul raised a hand to silence me. “And, forget about paying to come along, because this job here is paying enough for my retirement! Don’t think I didn’t see that look in your eyes, kid.”

There went that avenue. I tried not to look defeated.

“That’s alright! I don’t got much money anyways,” I said, which was technically true- I wasn’t very liquid right now. “I was thinking about offering my services. I’m a doctor, see!”

“Nah, see, I already told you, we don’t- wait!” I could see the look on his face change as he registered what I said. “Wait, a doctor? Ah, I should’ve guessed by the coat! You roll with the Followers?”

“No. I’m looking to see them, actually. My aunt Julie leads this here chapter, and my father was a big shot there. Taught me a thing or two, before he died.” I said. I showed him the badge on my coat, which was a little metal circle with a stenciled-on cross with forked ends and a circle at the point where the two lines crossed. He examined it for a moment, then nodded.

“Badge seems genuine, so I don’t think you’re lying about your pops. But, how do I know you’re any good as a doctor? We can’t exactly have you perform a demonstration.”

I had a solution to this one!

“That’s easy! I saved a man’s life this morning, and I can prove it! Name’s Kurt McBain- he’s the Sheriff of this town. Ask anyone in that Casino, and they’ll tell you that I’m not lying. Mrs. McBain shared the news with everyone , so there’s no shortage of people who know,” I said, grumbling the last part like I was disappointed. I was secretly thrilled that she’d told so many people, but I was pretending to be disappointed because it seemed more in-character.

“Cook, why don’t you go check up on that story? Tandi, go check the perimeter, make sure this isn’t some sort of distraction. I think I’d like to talk to the kid alone.”

The other two members of the group departed wordlessly, leaving me alone behind the Casino with Gram, the weird ghoul who spoke like a gangster from one of the pre-war crime novels that my father would read me sometimes. He scared me less than the ranger, but more than the other person- Cook, he had called her. I couldn’t really put a finger on why.

“So, Isaac, let’s assume you’re telling me the truth, for a moment. Just how good of a doctor are you?” asked Gram, walking past me to lean against the peeling Casino wall. I thought for a moment. That was a hard question.

“Well I’m more of a medic, really- general physician in a pinch, but I studied for trauma. Given enough supplies, I can patch up most folks who haven’t got irreversible organ damage,” I replied, thinking back to how I’d repaired the Sheriff’s leaky artery with a stimpack. I might’ve been able to fix it without one, too, if I knew going in what exactly I’d be doing, but I wasn’t sure if I trusted my emergency sutures to hold on their own just yet...

We talked for some time about what I’d done, and what I could do if I absolutely had to. I explained to him that if I set up a pip-boy profile for everyone in advance, I’d be able to get all sorts of information that I’d otherwise have to find out the old-fashioned way. All the while, Gram was scratching the back of his neck, looking over at the back door to the Casino like a deathclaw might come bursting out at any moment. He always kept one hand in his coat.

“Well, Cook’ll be getting back pretty soon, and I’ll call Tandi over the radio once Cook gets back. Assuming you ain’t lying or holding anything back, then you’re on. I’ll give you ten minutes to pack up, and then we’re leaving.”

Despite everything, I smiled- I just couldn’t help it! The sun hadn’t even set, and I was already starting my journey to save my mom. No one could tell me it was just an idea now, because I was taking actions- taking risks, I realized, and it was already paying off. I was elated!

Suddenly, the back door to the Casino opened up. Cook stepped out, her expression unreadable.

“Hey, Gram? So, I asked around, and I’m pretty sure that he’s for real. There were some people who hadn’t heard about the incident, but most of the people who I talked to confirmed that the story was true,” she said. Gram raised one of his bushy eyebrows.

“Hm. How many is, “most?” How was your sample size?”

“Eight out of the Ten people who I asked answered in the affirmative. No one actually denied the story, they just denied knowledge of it. The details didn’t deviate much between accounts, either.”

Gram turned his whole upper body to look at me. He whistled. “Damn, Isaac! Either you’re the fifth best conman I’ve ever met, or you ain’t kidding about the whole doctor thing. I’m gonna go with the latter, because I’ve usually got a pretty good eye for cons.”

“Are you sure, Gram? Not knowing about it is what makes a good con. What if you’ve been getting tricked all the time, and you’re so bad at spotting cons that you didn’t see most of them- even in retrospect!” suggested Cook. Gram scoffed.

“Please- when you’re alive for as long as me, you learn a thing or two about people and their tricks.” He sounded cross, but I could tell that he was smiling. Cook made a dramatic gesture.

“That’s what they want you to think! It’s how they’ve tricked you for so long!”

“Who’s tricked who?” asked the ranger, emerging around the corner with their barking-iron drawn. Every muscle in my body tensed as I tried not to jump out of my skin.

“Cook was telling me about all the cons I’ve apparently missed. I got a pretty good eye for cons, right, Tandi?”

“How do you know you can trust my answer?”

Cook grinned from ear to ear, and I found myself smiling too- her grin was infectious. “I told you! You’ve been blind this whole time, Gram! I guess living so long has given you some sort of complex…”

Could I wedge my way into this conversation? Did I even want to? The group seemed to run on an awful lot of unspoken rules and agreements, and I definitely didn’t get the impression that I had been invited to this particular conversation just yet.

“Et Tu, Isaac? Has this all been some sort of set up?” Gram asked, throwing his arms out and contriving to look betrayed. I took my invitation and tried real hard to look menacing.

“I’m sorry brother, but you shouldn’t have crossed the mob. You saw what happened to Sunny, didn’t you?” I said, making a little finger gun and calling desperately on my vague knowledge of “The Godfather.” Gram raised an eyebrow.

“First off, that’s not what Pacino sounds like and Michael didn’t kill Sonny. Second, you’ve seen The Godfather?” He sounded more intrigued than surprised. I shook my head.

“Read it, actually. My father read me a lot of books when I was younger. Are you from New York?” I stopped. That was a weird place to end the sentence, since they couldn’t understand the train of thought that led there. “Sorry. It’s just, we were talking about The Godfather, and you sound a lot like the voice my father would put on when he was playing New York mobsters.” Gram looked at me strangely, or at least I imagined he did, then nodded.

“Yeah, yeah I lived in Brooklyn before the war. I’ve been a lot of places since then…” He seemed to think for a moment. “Have you seen what New York looks like nowadays? It’s worse than the Capital Waste. If I hadn’t gotten outta there, I’m sure I would’ve gotten killed by now.”

“Well, I haven’t been, but-“ I started, getting ready to recount one of my many stories about father’s adventures with the Followers. Before I could finish, the ranger stepped between us.

“Beggin’ your pardon, Hoplite, but the sun’s setting, and I don’t want to spend another night in this shithole. Are we taking him or not?”

Gram shrugged. “Depends. Are you sure you wanna come…”

“Isaac,” I said. Gram nodded.

“Right. Now, Isaac, before you agree to anything, I feel like I’m obligated to warn you about the dangers of this run. There are raiders out there, there are legion assassins, mutants, and because of these things there will probably be death. We haven’t had a casualty in years, but you’re still probably going to watch someone die.” That last one hit me like a punch in the gut, but I think I managed to keep my reaction under wraps. I just nodded. “You ever seen someone die, Isaac? Are you gonna shut down on us as soon as someone gets shot?”

“Yes, I have,” I replied, and left it that. Gram looked satisfied.

“Good. Let’s get going. Isaac- as of this moment, you’re hired. I’ll give you ten minutes to pack. Be quick,” he said, shooing me away. I shook my head.

“Actually, I’m already packed.” In retrospect, I probably should have taken a few choice magazines with me, but those weren’t particularly vital. I had my jump bag with me, and I had the clothes on my back.

It was kind of sad, actually, to think that I didn’t own a single item worth taking with me that I wasn’t already carrying. Maybe I just wasn’t thinking hard enough.

“Well, in that case, we’ve got no time to waste- let’s hit the road!”

Under normal circumstances, I’d have felt awful sad, leaving home like this, not knowing if I was ever gonna return. But today, I was satisfied. I’d made a decision, and I was finding a way to carry it out!

“Cya soon, momma,” I mumbled, and loaded my bag onto the back of the wagon. I was leaving all-standing, and the journey ahead of me would surely be long, dangerous, and full of unpleasant surprises. I might even die a horrible death, end up face down in a pool of radioactive waste...

I’d never been more thrilled in my entire life!

[+]

#fallout #fallout fanfic #fallout fanfiction #fallout fandom

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nemossubmarine · 8 years ago

Text

DA RP Write-up #4

My second ever campaign. Wow. For some reason this adventure seems to me to be much closer to current time than my first one, even though they’re only half a year apart. There’s improvement over the last one, mostly because it’s much simpler (except it’s not, but at least the characters could finish the adventure without knowing the full backstory (it’s there, but mostly for me) (it’s super sad) (surprising no one)).

This is also the adventure which introduces both Humbert, our loveliest templar friend and Jonathon, our loveliest spirit friend.

Note: This is a write-up where I had real trouble remembering the order of things. The main events are all there, but not necessarily in order.

Adventure started September 2014 4(?) sessions 1702 words

On their way to Amaranthine, our heroes get stuck in an autumn storm. As they are in the middle of the woods, there doesn’t seem to be much of a chance of finding shelter, but they decide to look around anyway.

By pure luck, they come upon an old mansion in the middle of the woods. Cahair tells the others to go inside while he’ll put Ropso, Sulo and Pila in the stable and follow them in after that, so that’s what they do.

Jelaina, Elspet, Randy and Boshara have a brief look around the house, which seems pretty abandoned. But there’s fire in the fireplace in one of the rooms and a man in templar’s outfit, who introduces himself as Humbert Pomdeter. With him in the room is a statue of a girl made entirely out of glass, but Humbert says that that was there when he came in. They don’t manage to chat long before strange smoke starts pouring out of the fireplace and puts them all to sleep.

While everyone else merely sleeps, Elspet gets a vision. She is standing in a flowerfield on a windy day. The wind picks up some of the flower petals and forms a figure of a man in front of her. The man introduces himself as Jonathon. He says that the party is in great danger, as the house won’t let them leave. Jonathon was a mage, who used to live in the house and he put up a security system of sorts, which has now gone haywire. The only way they can leave the house is for them to remove the system. Jonathon tells Elspet to go to his secret room which is in the master bedroom upstairs. There, she’ll find his grimoire, with information about the security system as well as all the knowledge Jonathon possessed of magic. Elspet is free to have the book as her own.

With that said, Elspet and everyone wake up. Now here’s the problem. Humbert is here and he is a templar and neither Elspet nor Boshara are very keen on getting locked up (again), so they’d rather not reveal their magical talents.

They go try the door, since that whole smoke thing was odd, and indeed, it can not be opened. They also notice a peculiar change in the painting in the hallway. When Humbert came in, it portrayed a man and a woman, a happy-looking couple. When our heroes came in, the man’s part of the painting was destroyed, and now it’s wholly in pieces. Are they not alone in this place?

Elspet suggests that they look around the house for clues and cleverly gets them to the master bedroom. The room remains largely untouched, though the bedside table has been thrown over, leaving couple of books on the floor. Beneath one of them our heroes find a curious silver bell. There’s some papers on the table in the bedroom, revealing that the house had belonged to one Evelyn Garriot, who seems to have been quite affluent businesswoman in Ferelden several hundred years ago.

It takes some time, but they manage to find the secret entrance to Jonathon’s room. They also manage to get Humbert out of the room while they search the place (this includes Randy claiming to not being able to find his pants for like solid 10 minutes). In the room they find remnants of a healer’s workshop. There’s all kinds of curious dried herbs, and the book, as Jonathon had promised. Elspet reads it over. Apparently there are five containers in the house, containing pure lyrium that were used to keep the house hidden from templars. Unfortunately some kind of influence has corrupted the lyrium and is now causing all kinds of strange phenomenon to occur.

First of the lyrium containers is in Jonathon’s room, so our heroes remove it, and, unsure of what to do with it, decide to gather all of the containers in the main hall. It seems that Randy might be able to hear the lyrium in the containers, being a dwarf, so finding them shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

Before going downstairs, our heroes decide to check out the other room upstairs. It appears to be the children’s bedroom. There’s also a kid there; a small boy, perhaps three in age, but as soon as they step into the room the kid starts screaming and bleeding all over the place, so Humbert says no to all this, ushers everyone out and closes the door.

When they’re going down, the stairs to the upstairs start to crumble beneath their feet. It takes some maneuvering, but our heroes make it down alright.

The second lyrium container is in a pillar in the entrance hall. Our heroes decide not yet to remove it, as they wonder whether the first container’s removal was the thing that caused the stairs to collapse.

From this room they continue downstairs and come upon a teenage girl’s ghost. The ghost introduces herself as Ruth. She’s rather unpleasant as far as ghosts go, and not very co-operative, as her only motivation seems to be whining about being here and how all the other ghosts around suck. Our heroes leave her to her own soon.

In the bottom floor hallway they find some crates, and behind the crates the third lyrium container, which is taken to the entrance room with the other. The crates contain either old wine, or skeletons of strange creatures, which leaves them wondering what kind of a business Mrs. Garriot ran exactly.

In one of the servants’ room, our heroes find a female servant’s ghost, but she is completely unresponsive. In the next room, they find another servant’s ghost, a man named Irving, who tells that the woman next door is Claire, and she only becomes active when her mistress, lady of the house, Evelyn returns to the house. Unlike everyone else, Evelyn is not a ghost, but Irving can’t really tell what she is.

Irving reveals some of the things that happened in the house. Evelyn and Jonathon were a couple; Evelyn a Grey Warden and Jonathon an escaped Circle Mage. They had three adopted children: Ruth, Agnes and Leon. Ruth our heroes had already seen, Leon was the crying boy in the upstairs bedroom and Agnes, it turns out, is the glass statue. Together with a dwarf servant named Ingram, Jonathon put together a security system to keep the house hidden from templars, who were after him. It seemed to work alright at first, but after some time people started to notice odd things happening in the house, with the house itself, and with the people in the house, especially Evelyn. It culminated with first Leon dying, then Agnes being turned to glass and Evelyn throwing Jonathon out of the house into a winter storm, where he perished. At that point Irving and some of the still remaining servants tried to flee, but there was no way out.

At Irving’s behest, our heroes go search the second floor some more, namely the library, as there might be some more information on things there. There’s plenty of books there, and a strange flower made out of lyrium in a vase on a table. Randy takes the flower as it sings to him. The fourth lyrium container is found behind a big painting depicting king Calenhad. Our heroes, while they’re at it, remove the painting as well to take as a souvenir.

They return to the entrance room, where suddenly they hear distorted voices all around them, black footsteps running around, and suddenly the windows of the place shatter. The broken pieces of the stairs become a wood monster that attacks. It’s not hard to dispatch, but while they do, Boshara reveals herself to be a mage (fire+wood, good combination!), which causes a brief fight over the subject within our group, mostly between Humbert and Boshara. Elspet is still not found out.

But there’s really no time to argue here and now about who should be in a Circle and why and even Humbert can agree on that, so our heroes continue their search for the last container. They go back downstairs to check on the servants and to their concern Claire has gotten up and started moving about. This mean that Evelyn is somewhere in the house, and they might be running out of time.

They hope to find the final lyrium container in the cellar of the house. The cellar is something quite else. There’s a lot of beds there, signalling that people had been sleeping there. There’s also a big hole that leads to the Deep Roads.

Our heroes locate the last lyrium container, as well as some papers belonging to Grey Wardens; maps of the Deep Roads and some research papers. And they also find one last ghost, a ghostly templar, who doesn’t remember dying. He had been looking for Jonathon, but before he could get his hands on the fugitive mage, Evelyn had captured him and locked him up in the cellar. He lends Humbert his sword, in case it be of use.

Our heroes return to the main hall, only to be faced by the lady of the house herself; Evelyn Garriot. Once a fierce Warden is now a shambling, rotting ghoul, who does not take kindly to invaders in her house, especially the sort that are working with Jonathon, who she claims was the cause of her children’s deaths. A battle ensues, and now Elspet too has to use her magical powers to keep Evelyn in check. In the end she is defeated, and the final lyrium container removed, letting Jonathon’s spirit back into the house to purify it.

They take some more paintings and some of the wine bottles with them so they can sell them later. Jonathon warns that the house will probably collapse, now that the lyrium containers are removed, so our heroes take their leave. They find Cahair outside basically being like “guys, I couldn’t get the front door open so I slept in the stables, what on earth happened, oh hi, who are you, you have a nice horse”.

And then it’s off to Amaranthine!

#nemo roleplays #da rp writeup #campaign tag: i died so i could haunt you #also known as the campaign where i accidentally guessed right how red lyrium is made #namely the blight in evelyn had gotten into the lyrium and corrupted it #woopsie #i had way better gm note son this one than my first one #unfortunately this was also my first free roam campaign so i might have some stuff out of order #and since it was written as free roam there's also not much notes on what actually was done #i try my best you guys #this seems to be what all my tags are all the time always #ah well :D #i have way too high standards of reporting based on the writeups i do #on games im currently playing #it seems to me i remember much more of the games i played in #rather than ran #i guess its more personal when you play #anyway its good enuff #one and half more to go #i actually proofread this #wow #i wonder if i should have written more about the background story here #even though it was never found out completely by the players #idk #i guess if someone is interested i could make a separate post about this #i actually like this backstory #rather than my first campaign's :D #i dont need to write the backstory of the garriot family bc i already have this written down already #but if someone wants to holla at me i'd be more than happy to do that

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