[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

[inhonorof]

[More softly,] There were enough people who would've been upset that it would've gone badly if they were honest. [And he looks around them at the others. He doubts only they would've been upset. ... he hopes not.]

[ersatzeverything]

Word on the street was that there was someone who didn't like those orders back in D.C. Aaaaand was issuing his own orders instead. Yeah, that'd be your field commander, Colonel Spring--wait, wrong season--I mean Autumn. He was definitely an Autumn. Jewel tones all the way, pastels would not have been his color.

So, when your Commander-in-chief gives you one set of orders and your field commander gives you different orders, whose orders do you follow? Since you totally follow orders.

[capcious]

[God fucking bless Deacon, and the way he fucking ferrets out information and holds on to it forever. Zetta wants to reach out and touch him, but it's pure sentimentality, and she knows he doesn't need the support boost right now. (The positive reinforcement.) So she refocuses and watches Regan and Torvald closely.]

[falloutpslnpcs]

[Regan is perturbed by the information, but Torvald is angry.]

So that's why we lost. Our fucking commanders couldn't agree on a strategy.

[capcious]

[Zetta wants to say, "even if they did, you still would've been fucked. You can't base yourself off of fucking America and win. Or are you ignoring the fact that the US helped destroy the fucking world, too?" But... Now probably isn't the time to test that boundary. One potentially worldview-shattering scathing criticism at a time. Instead, she says,] Is that what you really want? For you to have won, and wiped the fucking surface and a number of your own goddamn people from existence? I'm not saying you guys didn't lose good people when the shit hit the fan, but do you fucking understand what you're saying when you say that?

[falloutpslnpcs]

[Louis watches Torvald unblinkingly. The siblings haven't been very close in years, but his own brother saying that he'd be acceptable collateral damage would be a bridge too far. He waits for Torvald's answer.

Torvald doesn't hesitate in his response.]

Eden would have pulled all our people back to safety before cleansing the surface.

Why are you upset anyway? You're all from the vault, pure human. Unmutated.

[Deacon raises his hand to disagree.]

[capcious]

[Torvald looms over her, but it doesn't stop Zetta from moving right up into his space. Her teeth are bared and her eyes flaring.] Because I'm not an idiotic self-absorbed piece of shit, [she snarls up into his face.]

[falloutpslnpcs]

[Voices start speaking at once, overlapping.]

Once more I'm astounded by your amazing diplomatic skills, Faraday. [Carrington says.]

Why the fuck should I care about mutants? [Torvald looms over Zetta.]

Torvald, please don't start a fight. [Louis steps a little closer to his brother.]

If Colonel Autumn disagreed with President Eden's plan, it was clearly a bad plan. You shouldn't be so quick to jump on board, Lieutenent. [Captain Lone feels like he's rapidly losing what control he had here.]

President Eden was the commander-in-chief. We had a duty to obey him. [Regan states.]

Christ Almighty... [John mutters to himself.]

Oh my God, shut up! [Sara shouts. The warring conversations trickle out.] Are you seriously going to have a serious talk about whether killing all wastelanders was a good plan or not? When you've all been wastelanders for the last ten years?

[capcious]

Why the fuck should you care? [Zetta picks up after Sara's shouting.] Are you fucking kidding me? You should give a shit because that's the state of the fucking world, you moron. [She'd let Sara's intervention do its work, but this has given her a platform and this is relevant. She doesn't move away from Torvald.] What is the fucking point of trying to keep shit pure? What is that going to fucking accomplish? Whether you like it or not, pure genetics don't do shit for you. Do you think being Pre-War has made our lives easier? Given us an edge? Made us better equipped to survive out here? It doesn't fucking matter. The best people I've met in my entire life are fucking wastelanders, you shithead. And your goddamn patriotism can go fuck itself because America is fucking dead. It blew itself up with the rest of the world, and good fucking riddance. Do you even know the amount of shit America put its own fucking people through? America shot unarmed, peaceful protestors in the fucking streets and told everyone else to celebrate it. America rounded up anyone who dared to speak out and put them in fucking concentration camps. America helped blow the fucking world up, and then it tried to kill everything that was left. Let it stay dead.

[timesbureaucrat]

[Torvald snarls and opens his mouth to shout back, but Nathan intervenes.]

Stand down, soldier! That's an order.

[And there's still enough training in Torvald that he replies with a brisk "Yes, sir" even while glaring balefully at Nathan.

Nathan ignores Torvald. The expression in his grey eyes is flat and bleak.]

Perhaps this wasn't a good idea.

[capcious]

[Zetta looks at Nathan in surprise as he shuts Torvald down -- and she sees the look in his eyes. ... and Torvald isn't the only one who stands down. She steps away from him, fist opening and closing repeatedly. Goddammit. She didn't mean to go off on a "fuck America" rant so soon. She intended to hold off on that until they figured everything else out, and she let herself get pissed. She wishes she could cross her arms.] Shit. Nathan, I'm sorry. [Her eyes aren't on him, away and down with something like shame. (Zay has given up resisting touching Nathan with all these other people in the room -- His hand is resting on the small of his back. He obviously needs the support.)]

[timesbureaucrat]

You say what you think. I can't fault you for that.

[But he doesn't know how to salvage this now. An alliance is looking highly unlikely.]

[capcious]

Yeah, but I was planning on saving that shit until later. I just -- fuck. [In her anger, she forgot about Nathan's reaction the first time she went on that rant. She wanted to rage against the concept of the Enclave, of the shit they impressed on all of them. She didn't want to hurt him in the process. (She knew she'd fuck this up.)]

[ersatzeverything]

[Deacon slips forward, subtly brushing against Zetta as he joins the fry.]

Wow, this is just like Thanksgiving with the family. Spooky.

So...hi...I guess I'm, like, the designated mutant in this room. Grrr. Argle bargle rawrrr.

Getting back to the whole Brotherhood problem...what do you guys think of synths?

[capcious]

[Zetta lets out a breath as Deacon brushes against her. Her fingers twitch to brush against his as he passes, and she has to resist the urge to reach out more directly and touch him. She falls back to Riley and Ferran, crossing her arms anyway by folding her good arm over her sling, resting her hand lightly on her elbow. Riley smooths his hand down her back and kisses her hair. For the first time since the reveal about the virus, Bellamy speaks up, and with a bit of snark.] I feel like I don't need to answer that.

[ersatzeverything]

You know what they say about feeling. It makes an "f" out of an "eel."

[Deacon holds his attention on Bellamy.]

[crowspy]

Gross, eels. I hate those things. Who wants to "f" an eel, am I right?

[bostoncrossing]

Oh dear God... [Carrington closes his eyes as if he's in pain. He should have expected that the two of them in one place would be headache-inducing.

He has to stop them.]

Synths are sentient and sapient individuals who deserve the same rights and autonomy as any other sentient and sapient creature.

[He knows Deacon already knows what he thinks, but it's the fastest way to halt the progression of whatever strange and senseless conversation was about to happen there.]

[capcious]

[Bellamy grins broadly at Singh and leans back, crossing his ankles again. Zetta mutters,] Good god, there are two of them.

[falloutpslnpcs]

Why are we talking about synths? [John asks, confused at Deacon's rapid subject changes.]

I thought the threat was the Brotherhood?

[capcious]

Because what you all think about synths matters as much to us as what you think about wastelanders.

[falloutpslnpcs]

I see a lot of fear about synths. New settler comes in and everyone's afraid that maybe he's a synth spy.

Way I figure, if you can't tell if someone is a synth or not then it probably doesn't matter if they're a synth or not. If a synth attacks me, then I'll care. But if he's just planting tatos who gives a shit if he's got some metal in him. Hell, I've got some metal in me, too.

[Performance implants, medical replacements after battle injuries, he wasn't artificially constructed but he probably has as much tech inside him as a synth now.]

[capcious]

[... this guy and his daughter are definitely her favorites out of this bunch. She's glad they're with the Minutemen -- He may have made the "you're stuck with us" joke, but she's beginning to think there isn't a way that's a bad thing.]

[falloutpslnpcs]

I don't know if I've ever seen a synth. Except when Nick Valentine came up on a case. [Louis shrugs.]

I haven't thought much about them one way or another.

[capcious]

[Well, that's better than nothing. Zetta's eyes slide from him to his wife and brother. He definitely seems the most reasonable of the three, even if he's largely motivated by what only affects them. But... again: she can't entirely hold that against him.]