[closed] the only constant is change

[capcious]

Who: the Fallout AU crew
Setting: the Commonwealth
Summary: BoS things, institute things
Warnings: Fallout warnings, smut
Other: [original notes] [first post] [second post] [third post] [fourth post] [fifth post] [sixth post] [seventh post] [eighth post]

- minor timeskip to when the BoS has its feet under it again, shaun asks riley to go up and keep an eye on them and deacon goes with
- they get assigned to a BoS squad composed of AU versions of chancellery guards (paladin archimedes o'hallan, knight-captain anthony norris, lancer-sargeant alex reyes, knight riley reynolds, knight everett wynter, knight henry "hal" saller, aspirant 'jack' "deacon" 'priest')
- maybe some minor quests involving getting to know them, gotta get some solid Bonding going
- sarrith (sarah, secret enclave remnant) and sal's romeo and juliet romance
- that one quest where you get the nukes from the glowing sea for the BoS
- wynter's mistake and gradual ghoulification and the position it puts the squad in
- blind betrayal

- shaun announces ferran officially as his successor
- ferran dealing with the short institute quests that result from that
- shaun discovering ferran's a slut and trying to talk to him about it
- zetta freaking out bc they're spending all this time waiting for her to recover and dealing with the BoS, and not having the time to try to figure out a way to save shaun
- zetta, in general, driving shaun slowly up the wall because she's cooped up and needs to be kept occupied or else Bad Things Start Happening, why is this shaun's life, this was not what he was expecting at all
- ferran going on missions with x6-88 / house divided, warwick
- nathan and zay's one night stand with ferran becoming not a one night stand any more
- at some point we need to have nathan call deacon a mongrel to his face so zetta can go positively nuclear
- zay finding out nathan is taking buffout

- build towards the railroad and institute being on better terms (not *stable*, but they need to be in a position where they're willing to make an alliance at the battle for bunker hill and afterwards to take the BoS down)
- probably need to do a meeting with dez and carrington, bc jfc (and ferran being the next director makes it easier to make negotiations on the institute's behalf though shaun probably doesnt fully trust him with that wrt the railroad yet, shaun needs to see ferran make decisions that benefit the institute OVER the railroad for that)

- mass fusion happens before battle for bunker hill, lighting a fire under the brotherhood's ass (still use it as the faction cut-off point?)
- at the battle, brotherhood wins -- keeping them a legitimate threat and serving as the push for the institute and railroad to work together against them

[image] [lyrics]

well, oh, it seems you're a lot like me
you dug yourself into places you never thought you would be
but don't you fret, and don't you mind
the only constant is change,
and you never know what you'll find

yeah, tomorrow i might wake up nice and clean
and i might believe the things i said i didn't mean
and this might turn and wind up just the way we'd dreamed
and i might become the things i swore i'd always be

Comments

[recalcitrare]

[Jealousy? Zay's eyes flick to Nathan and his brow furrows slightly, the only outward signs of his confusion. Surely not. Perhaps Nathan means having the connection at all. Still, when Zay's gaze returns to Singh, it's with narrowed, suspicious eyes.]

[bostoncrossing]

[Carrington's shoulders tense and jaw tightens.]

Alright, then let's speak of public matters. Such as the Institute. Wasteland rumor has it that the Institute is controlling Diamond City. Is that true?

[In addition to changing the topic, if Carrington has to be here he might as well try to squeeze useful information out of the situation.]

[recalcitrare]

[Zay can't help it; he finds himself rolling his eyes.] I wouldn't know, [he answers dryly,] I hardly pay attention to whatever SRB natters on about. What does it matter?

[bostoncrossing]

I imagine it matters very much to the people of Diamond City.

[Nathan pinches the bridge of his nose.]

To most of the scientists in the Institute, the surface world might as well be...Belgium. They have no interaction with it and it's essentially a distant foreign land.

[recalcitrare]

And I fail to see how it has any relevance here. Isn't this supposed to be some... [Zay makes a vague gesture with his free hand. (His other is still on Nathan's back.)] Strategy meeting to deal with the Brotherhood? [Diamond City, and whether or not it's under Institute control, has nothing to do with that.]

[bostoncrossing]

As Captain Lone pointed out, that meeting isn't until tomorrow.

[But Carrington's already feeling on edge. How much worse it will be tomorrow, when there's all of them.]

And I had a long day travelling, so if you don't mind, I'm going to bed now. And if you do mind, I'm going anyway.

[recalcitrare]

[Zay snorts. That sounds almost like something he'd say. But it's hardly as if he cares whether Singh stays or goes. Well, no, that's not true. He'd rather Singh go. But he doubts he needs to say as such.]

[timesbureaucrat]

Dismissed, Doctor.

[The R&D division, and Singh in particular, was never very good at following the military chain of command and Singh's gotten even worse after ten years living on the surface with near anarchy. But Nathan has to at least try to maintain some order.

He waits until Singh leaves and then turns back to Zay. He's not sure he can recapture the mood that was shattered when Singh arrived.]

Well. I wouldn't call Singh the crazy uncle. That's probably Torvald. The pretentious cousin, perhaps? Welcome to the family.

[recalcitrare]

Lovely. I suppose it could have gone worse. [Zay allows his hand to settle back on Nathan's hip again, a more casual hold, more comfortable, more personal.] Unfortunate we won't have the full privacy you expected tonight.

[timesbureaucrat]

Tomorrow.

[Nathan murmurs as a promise and raises on his toes to brush his lips over Zay's.]

After everyone is gone.

[recalcitrare]

[A slight shiver runs down Zay's spine.] Mmmm. Patience is not one of my virtues, [he murmurs back. It's not entirely true, but that's not the point. He means as far as tonight is concerned.]

[timesbureaucrat]

We'll have a private room tonight, even if we don't have the whole base to ourselves. Can you be patient until we're in it? Or is even that too long to wait.

[He slides his palm over Zay's chest and drops kissing along his jawline.]

[recalcitrare]

[Zay can feel himself relaxing, soothed by the affection, all the prickles that Singh raised finally lowering. His hands circle around Nathan's waist until they meet at the small of his back, and he loosely laces his fingers together there.] I suppose I can manage.

[timesbureaucrat]

Good.

[He gives Zay one last kiss and then steps back. They can't walk to the personnel quarters if they're tangled together.]

Then let's go.

[recalcitrare]

[Zay reluctantly allows his loose hold to break. But if they're to ever actually indulge, they need to move. Get somewhere actually private.] Lead the way.

[timesbureaucrat]

[It doesn't take Nathan long to find the housing quarters for the facility. Pre-War military bunkers all tended to follow similar design patterns. He picks a suite from among the larger rooms reserved for high ranking officers and they don't leave it until morning. And although he doesn't get to fulfill his fantasy of fucking on a 3-Star General's desk, he likes to imagine that this was a 3-Star General's bed.]

[crowspy]

Knock knock, [Bellamy calls into the empty central command room. He should cut an unfamiliar figure to the others -- It's been years since he's seen most of them, to be fair, but considering the number of layers of clothing and armor he's wearing, and his gas mask... Yeah, he's really hoping he isn't gonna get shot at. His arms are tucked away in his layers, his hands stuck in the pockets of a ratty old hoodie. In his hoodie pocket is a pistol -- nice, small, easily concealed. Doesn't pack a big punch, but it doesn't need to.] Come on, there's no way I'm the first one here.

[bostoncrossing]

[Fortunately for Bellamy, Regan hasn't arrived yet, or else the chances of him being shot on sight would have risen exponentially. Instead, there's just Carrington in his dingy white lab coat, the pipe gun he'd carried with him for the journey left in his room. It's not that he trusts his old brothers-in-arms to not kill him, it's that if they decided to he'd be doomed and his tiny pistol wouldn't help him any.

He walks into the central command center from the room next door at the sound of someone's voice.]

Be grateful you didn't arrive last night.

Which one are you? [It was easier to remember who everyone was when they all had uniforms with name tags on them. Annoying to have to actually learn people's faces. It took him a little while to get the hang of it after they'd all scattered across the Commonwealth, so even if he could see the person's face he probably wouldn't have been able to match it to a name.]

[crowspy]

[Bellamy grins behind his mask.] Why? What happened last night? [For his question...] Bellamy. [It's the name he's been using on the radios for so long. Hell, it's the name he's been using in the wasteland, has been since his undercover days. But, just in case...] Or Yamamoto, if you have to be old-fashioned about it.

[bostoncrossing]

[Oh good, one of the more tolerable ones. Well, perhaps tolerable is stretching it. One of the less evil ones.]

Captain Lone was feeling amorous last night.

[crowspy]

[At that, Bellamy starts laughing -- a bubbling cackle that should definitely be familiar from the radios.] Towards you? Man, that's frickin' unfortunate. [A beat.] I probably would've paid to have seen that, though.

[bostoncrossing]

[Carrington's eyes widen in alarm.]

Not towards me. How did you come to that bird-brained conclusion? I walked in on the Captain and his companion. Unfortunately. I shudder to think what I would have walked in on had I been five minutes later.

[crowspy]

[Bellamy is unflapped by Singh's attitude.] Uh, 'cause I assumed you guys were the only ones here. Duh. "Companion," huh? [His curiousity has been thoroughly piqued, though. Within his pockets, he rubs his thumbs over the grooves in his pistol. If it was one of the group, Singh would've obviously named and shamed. Bellamy's head tilts to the side.] What's that supposed to mean?

[bostoncrossing]

He brought an Institute scientist with him. I don't know why. Aside from the obvious.

It concerns me that this meeting might be part of a strategy to pull us closer to the Institute.

[crowspy]

Huh. [Bellamy's lower lip twitches up in surprise. He tilts his head the other way thoughtfully. The Institute...] That'd be weird, [is what he says out loud.] I mean, sure, that's where the Cap'n's been set up, and the Brotherhood is here to kick over their sand castles, so there's that whole "enemy of my enemy" angle. [A beat.] But they don't seem like they'd be the types to go for it. It's not like we have a whole lot to offer the most technologically advanced group in the area. [What he privately thinks is that the Institute would be a gamble. They have no reason to trust them, even with Lone's ties there. And it doesn't seem like the Institute is exactly... pro Enclave-friendly agendas. He doesn't understand why Lone would suggest it.]