"hard luck, blues!" — prologue!
game: fallout 4
character: arthur maxson
summary: searching for his parents’ killer, arthur maxson escapes vault 49 with vengeance in his veins. meanwhile, you’re busy trying to keep the commonwealth together through the brotherhood of steel. while your goals are completely different, your lives converge, and it seems like fate chose it to stay that way.
warnings: afab! reader, she/her pronouns used, second person pov, spoilers for the bos and main timeline in fo4, main masterlist here
taglist: @hrefna-the-raven
you stare at the vault dweller, who clutches onto his pip-boy quite tightly around the various power armour wearing knights surrounding him. he stood at 5’10 with a dirty blue suit that anyone could recognise here in the commonwealth. you didn’t know what kind of stupid he was wearing that in public.
not only that, but he had this look in his eyes that was shadowed by hatred. it just screamed that he has never stepped outside before. surely he had convinced a few people he was a local wastelander, but you were not so easily fooled.
your trusted soldier, paladin danse, stands at your side as you watch a knight, out of armour, brings him down to his knees in front of you. the dweller lands with a grunt and tries to yank the knight off of him.
“he was caught by scribe haylen, ma’am,” danse informs you, “while going to recover the power armour you sent us to find, we stumbled upon this individual taking it apart.”
the man doesn’t even attempt to reject that idea or defend himself.
“what’s your name?” you question him as you tilt your head. the veritbird behind you blew wind into his face and made your long leather coat flow against you.
“why do you need to know?” he spits back.
“because i need to know the name of the roach who tried to steal power armour from one of my soldiers,” you respond. he glares at the ground. “answer now, or i will strip you of all your weaponry and technology. my scribes would have a field day with that pip-boy of yours.”
he looks up at after that threat. a scar adorns his cheek, slightly covered by the beard he was growing. by the crease of his brows, you can tell that he’s been through some tough stuff. you recognise the look in his eyes as that of a man on a mission.
“afraid of what we’d find on there?” you chime. the man furrows his brows. “hand it over.”
the knight attempts to unlatch the pip-boy from the man’s wrist, but the dweller only fights back. he manages to hook an elbow around the knight’s head and flip him over. in the rush, he draws his gun and aims it at the knight’s head. you hold up a hand to stop the guns from shooting towards him.
that only solidifies your hypothesis on who this man was. everyone has heard about him by now.
“knight rhys!” danse shouts as he holds up his laser rifle. he waits for your command.
“you hold no cards here,” you explain with a huff, “what do you gain out of killing one of my soldiers, other than becoming an enemy of the brotherhood?”
“i don’t even know who you people are.” he tells you.
“you’re the vault dweller that killed kellog,” you speak up. the man freezes as his eyes widen a little at you. “you are, aren’t you? diamond city quick to spread the news around.”
“i was justified,” he claims as he slowly stands up and puts his weapon in its holster. the knight lifts himself up and holds his shoulder as he steps away. “you don’t know what he did.”
“kellog has been on my record for years now,” you explain, “and you suddenly brought an end to him? i have a hard time believing i shouldn’t pay attention to you.”
“my name is arthur maxson,” he tells you in a loud voice for all to hear, “i’m after the institute.”
“then we have similar goals.”
there’s a silence between the two of you as your soldiers lower their weapons. you’re considering what you should do with him. but you look to danse.
“paladin, what do you think of his fighting? i’m sure you’ve had time to evaluate,” you say to the man in armour, “what is your verdict?”
he doesn't seem surprised by your question. the brotherhood knew you as one of the more lenient (as much as you could be in your position) elders of the brotherhood. anyone you deemed fit enough, you would allow them to prove themselves in the brotherhood.
“he is an exceptional fighter. we were caught by ghouls and instead of running away after he got caught, he stayed and fended them off with us.” danse briefly explains to you.
“would you sponsor him?”
“if he abided by the laws of the brotherhood and were more cooperative, perhaps.”
“hm,” you hum out with your hands in your coat. you purse your lips, not impressed. “i suppose this is a waste of time, then. if you aren’t able to follow instructions, then you are useless to our cause. gather the armour, we are heading back to the prydwen. i want a sample of his remains for proctor quinlan to assess — those vaults are crazy. and i don’t condone stealing from the brotherhood.”
you order everyone. they begin to file into their respective vertibirds. some of the knight raise their weapon, safety off.
“i cannot work with someone so… unhinged.” you sigh as you step onto the vertibird.
“wait!”
you glance to maxson. the knights stop closing in.
“bring me with you.”
you raise a brow at him. the man squared his shoulders and clenched his fists.
“i promise that if i am with the brotherhood, i will help you take down the institute. i have gotten further than i believe anyone else has to uncovering their secret,” he claims. he says it with such certainty that you’re almost sure of it yourself. “you need to find them too, right? we should work together.”
you sit on the vertibird and consider it. he seemed to be dead-set on finding the institute and he was right — no one else has ever got as close as he has. looking at him again, you could picture him as a member of the brother of steel. but your doubt outweighs it.
danse, who sits in front of you, clears his throat to grab your attention.
“if you allow me, elder,” he speaks up, “i will have him under my supervision. it was me who brought him to you, so i feel so responsible.”
“hm, you’re lucky, maxson,” you turn your head to the vault dweller who stands there nervously, “paladin danse is a well-respected soldier of mine. if he didn’t vouch for you, i’m afraid you would’ve been left here in bones.”
maxson swallows his fears as he waits for your response.
“i will take you in as an initiate, and you will be allocated to paladin danse’s team,” you explain to him with crossed arms, “i will be watching you closely, soldier. don’t disappoint me.”
he lets out a short breath as he nods his head. knights then escort him to your vertibird as ordered to. you have this condescending smile on your face as he sits across from you. danse stands at the mounted gun.
the vehicle lifts off towards the prydwen, the metal ship in the sky that awes maxson. he’s never seen something so amazing. not even 200 years ago. you watch him as he gawks at the ship.
“the prydwen is where i am situated most times,” you tell maxson with a leg over your knee, “i was only on the ground since paladin danse told me to go for evaluation. consider yourself blessed."
he couldn't make up your character even if he wanted to. someone so patronising and vain was able to reach such high ranks (maxson didn't even know what you were) of some big organisation? he could hardly believe it. he first thought danse was the leader.
you watch him scan his surroundings before he holds onto his seat as the vertibird is latched to the prydwen and was pulled up.
although you'd never admit it, you were... intrigued by the vault dweller. it was like a new experiment for you, having him join the brotherhood. you smile to yourself.
you hear danse get off the vertibird and do so as well. maxson is hesitant before paladin danse commands him off of it. you march towards your own second in command on the prydwen. he salutes you before his eyes fall on the blue-wearing man behind you and in front of danse.
"elder l/n. it is good to see you return."
"thank you, captain kells." you respond with the nod of your head, “this is arthur maxson, he is our newest initiate. paladin danse is keeping an eye on him.”
your captian doesn't look surprised in the slightest at your statement, but it's when his eyes land on maxson's vault suit that he tilts his head. kells stands up straighter, gaze hardened. you nod your head and begin on your way to your office.
“i have some things to discuss with the proctors. kells, if you will, help maxson get familiar with the ship.” you order as you walk passed the new soldier.
"welcome aboard the prydwen," captain kells says to maxson as other soldiers begin to file onto the ship, "and welcome to the brotherhood, initiate."
maxson looks around at the security and the scribes working on the deck. it looked strong enough to hold everyone in the air, but it was also a mechanical feat on it's own. he’s never seen anything remotely like this. captain kells clears his throat.
“are there any questions you have for me?” he asks.
“where can i get power armour?” is the first thing maxson asks.
“only knights have clearance,” kells responds, “and you are not yet a knight. until elder l/n grants you that rank, you will not be allowed power armour.”
“i will be keeping a close eye on you for that reason, soldier,” paladin danse claims as he glares down at maxson, “per elder l/n’s request, you are under my supervision for the time being. your actions will affect me as well. think about the brotherhood before acting.”
maxson only nods his head before he follows the captain into the prydwen. it’s much warmer than outside and maxson can feel the heaviness in the atmosphere. the knight that stood outside your office and scribes did check ups on the walls to see how it faired on the trip to the commonwealth. paladin danse excused himself to talk to you about the plans with maxson.
on the way down the stairs to meet kells’ team, the new initiate watched you. you tugged on the buckle at your front as you sat on one of the seats in your office. danse, in his power armour, stood before you. with a leg over your knee and crossed arms, you talk to danse.
your attention set on him only. maxson watched as you spoke silent words about him. if anyone else was doing so, he’d have their head.
maxson is given a tour of the prydwen and the proctors (teagan finding it funny how he was caught stealing power armour and now could possibly own one). meanwhile, danse finishes giving you a more detailed report.
“i heard that you came across a deathclaw before finding maxson,” you say as you toss him some purified water, “and i see that you’ve found something special in that initiate. you haven’t sponsored a soldier before.”
“yes, that is correct. i believe that maxson could be a great asset with his fighting,” danse responds as he holds the bottle, “i just have questions about his emergence from the vault.”
“as do i,” you sigh out. you stare outside the window. “not many people are willing to help vault dwellers — and even less number of dwellers are willing to leave their homes. i want to know why he is after the institute.”
“do you believe he has ulterior motives, ma’am?”
“possibly,” you state, “i would like to hear it from him first. regardless, you are to monitor him. i would like all information, paladin.”
“understood, elder l/n.” he responds before leaving you alone.
you stand up and press your hands against the rails in front of yours windows. you could feel the enemies of the brotherhood lurking beneath. super mutants, synths and ferals running rampant. when you were given this part of the wasteland, you vowed to do your job, no matter what it takes.
if you had to use a singular vault dweller to do that, so be it.
who knows — maybe he will prove to be more useful alive than in a ditch lifeless.
you hear back from the other scribes on the ground throughout the rest of the day and gather all your intel. you begin to map out all the camps of super mutants, raiders, synth locations and other enemies to keep in mind for your next move. it’s late into the night and you’ve sent all your commanders to their quarters and the night soldiers from kells’ team overtakes to keep the ship security.
so you think it’s strange that when you head towards your quarters, you see movement in the power armour bay.
“maxson,” you sigh out as you cross your arms over your chest, “i believe i made myself clear on my rules on power armour.”
the vault dweller steps away from danse’s armour. you watch him carefully push the fusion core back into the slot and walk towards you. he stops a few feet away as you hold up your pistol towards him.
“i want your full story, now,” you demand. he hardens his glare towards your figure, which makes you roll your eyes and sit yourself down on top the weapons bench. “you tell me what you’re doing in the commonwealth trying to find the institute, and i won’t empty a mag in you.”
he hesitates to come closer once you take off the safety on your weapon. you tilt your head at him and wait for him to start.
“the vault i’m from performed an experiment to see how we would fare against wasteland creatures,” he explains to you, “ever since the bombs dropped, families were kept inside and acted like it was a normal vault. but then, when i was just a kid, we were locked in large portion of the vault where mirelurks and deathclaws were released.”
you knew those vaults were crazy, which is why you never allowed any of your soldiers to go down there unless necessary.
“those vile creatures loomed down every hall, and at the start, so many of us had died. we had to go from vault dwellers living the lavish life, to fighters in a night. it was the biggest and fastest change we have ever had to make.”
he stares at you and how your gun doesn’t falter. you hold it up against him and listen.
“there were no weapons, other than steak knives. we had to create our own,” he informed you, “we had to learn how to defend ourselves from the onslaught of creatures that multiplied as the days went on. last week, the doors opened on its own and i was the only one who survived the first day.”
“that doesn’t explain your connection with the institute,” you state, “if you’re looking for vengeance, vault-tec barely survived themselves. i’d say to let it go and focus in yourself.”
“no, not vault-tec,” he spits back, “my parents suddenly went missing a year after the experiment began. the only reason those doors opened was because we had killed every single mirelurk and deathclaw in the vault and ‘passed’, and once we gained access to the security cameras, i saw kellogg’s face clear as day. i got all the information i needed to decide that it was the institute that took them. for whatever reason. and i plan on finding my parents and finishing the institute off.”
you stare at him for a few seconds before you let out a sigh and slide your pistol back into its holster. maxson feels a weight be lifted off his shoulder.
“i’ll help only because we share the same goal,” you state, “but you need to prove yourself to be an asset to the brotherhood. if you cannot, i will let you go, but know that you will be constantly monitored. refusal to cooperate then will deem you an enemy, and i will still look forward to dissembling that pip-boy of yours.”
he braces the technology against his chest as he nods slowly. a smile dawns on your lips.
“it’s good that you can listen.” you hum out. he clicks his tongue and looks away. “now, go back to your bed, initiate. i can assure you no harm will come to you if you sleep; i keep my soldiers in order.”
you stand up straight and rub your neck.
“sleep well, initiate,” you say, “i have an important mission for you in the morning.”
he doesn’t say anything back to you as you walk back to your room. you didn’t ask him to move first, not even thinking about maxson going to attack you. did you really have that much trust in him already?
he does as you say, though, and he walks back to his bed. there are sleeping scribes surrounding him, and a few knights stand at attention at the higher and lowest levels. maxson can't help but feel in danger as he lays back down. these people could attack him at any moment, at your command. when he finally feels his eyes go heavy, it's about an hour after you talked to him.
he can't get the image of you out of his mind.
it wasn't infatuation — it was fear.
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Hello! I've been trying to learn and study verdic astrology for a while now, but can't seem to find the time for it, so your observations and overall all your posts have been incredibly helpful in helping me understand more of the concept(?) and the stories behind each nakshatras that you've been writing about. Though I do have some questions about certain things that I've been trying to find answers for, but whenever I try to find those answers, it seems like there's not much informations about them. Some had sufficient details but it was harder to grasp the exact answers I've been looking for. So I decided maybe I could find those answers from you! Although I'm in no way part of your culture, with how much I've come to understand myself more through your researches made me all the more interested in spirituality and verdic astrology itself! There are questions I've come to be more curious about and would like to hear your thoughts on them!
I'm meaning to find the difference between tropical and sidereal astrology. Though I don't exactly grasp whether or not tropical is the same as western astrology or are they the same thing?
This thus then begs the question whether tropical chart placements can relate to sidereal nakshatras placements. I've been seeing (more like read) that you often mention that if you have these nakshatras placements in tropical, they can have certain relevance or influence since some nakshatras share a sign or stay in only one sign in tropical (I don't really get whether the tropical chart that I searched for is really tropical cause it particularly looks the same as the western chart)
If so (that tropical placements can share similar characteristics to nakshatras at sidereal) to what extend does this influence apply?
If you do answer to these questions of mine, thank you very very much! For making time to answer these questions as well as answering them and would likely satiate my immense curiosity about these topics! Your works have been immensely beautiful and I hope there are more researches to come from you! Have a great day! 😊🌷
thank you, im glad my posts have been helpful!!
these are really good questions and i feel like it will help many people clear misunderstandings or understand things better, so here it goes:
is tropical the same as a western birth chart?
pretty much yes. there are many different types of astrology systems (hellenistic, vedic, islamic etc all based on cultural variations) and there's also draconic, horary, harmonic etc
tropical and sidereal astrology differ in terms of how the zodiac is mapped. tropical astrology does not take the concept of axial precession into account. the sun does not return to the same point in the sky every year.
tropical uses fixed stars whereas sidereal take into account the current position of stars. this is why they say tropical is more simplified and sidereal presents a more holistic view of things.
2. i do think tropical and sidereal are two halves of a whole. tropical astrology provides a very simplified overview of the psychology and attributes of different signs whereas sidereal helps us gain a deeper understanding of who we are.
i think its hard for some people because they deeply identify with being a leo for example and realize that actually they're sidereal cancers, the tropical chart kind of represents your ego and external attachments and sidereal shows your hidden/repressed/shadow side. ive heard many people say that it was a journey to go from heavily identifying with their tropical chart and feeling disconnected to their sidereal chart to eventually coming to terms with and embracing it and in turn those parts of themselves. its like doing shadow work. but this is just my personal opinion
i say that even tropical placements can relate to some of the sidereal takes because i dont think you cease to be the person you are just because you switch systems. if you're a tropical pisces and a sidereal aquarius, its possible and alright to feel drawn to pisces energy or both those energies. since its essentially based on how we're looking at the positions of these stars in the galaxy, we can't really say what we feel connected to or what we dont. astrology is not a perfect science. there are elements of pisces in aquarius, of aries in pisces and so on and so forth. its best to not think in arbitrary terms because all of us have many influences that shape us.
idk what you meant by tropical chart looking the same as a western chart bc theyre the same😭😭😭
3. i feel like i answered this above but like i said i feel like everything is a meeting point of many different energies. like Revati (since we're in Revati season) belongs entirely to Sidereal Pisces rashi but i definitely associate the tropical fire sign chaos with it because they're tropical Aries'. obviously this is just how i think of and perceive them. I think it also has a lot to do with how the elements are perceived in tropical vs vedic. In tropical astrology water is mostly understood as this tranquil, reflective, moody energy but in Vedic there is more complexity to every element and a lot of emphasis on the destructive nature of water (UBP, Ashlesha, Jyeshta etc all fall into water rashis) even fire is understood not only as severe and dynamic but also purifying with its scorching heat.
Revati is the birth nakshatra of Saturn, the exact exaltation point of Venus and is Mercury ruled in Pisces rashi which is Jupiter ruled, so that's like 4 different influences right there lol
i know ive used sidereal and vedic interchangeably throughout this post but just wanna say that vedic astrology uses the sidereal system of looking at the stars. but obviously vedic astrology is a whole separate system rooted in indian culture and hindu mythology etc (its like how milk is used to make ice cream, milk is not ice cream but it is USED to make ice cream, if that makes sense??)
also usually i feel like whatever major placements you have in tropical somehow shows up in vedic too?? like if you have a stellium in say virgo, maybe in vedic you have a mercury ruled nakshatra in your big 3. i feel like the overall influences/themes etc often repeat themselves but obvi there will be variations too
youre welcome!!<33 hope u have a good day too bestie<33tysm for reading this far<3
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