[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]

[Riley half-shrugs.] I dunno. I was pretty young. Probably started in school. Music classes were part of the basic curriculum for kids who were just starting school.

[ersatzeverything]

They taught you guys how to read and sing? Man, you Old Worlders are so lucky. That's what I call a good childhood.

[inhonorof]

[Zetta snorts again, though not in amusement. Riley grins a little.] Read, sing, do math, jumprope...

[ersatzeverything]

Math? Seriously? So, like, all of you can do long division?

[He figured that Zetta could, because she's a scientist and science is math-y like that. But it never occurred to him that Riley and Ferran probably could too, just because of that good old Pre-War education.]

[inhonorof]

Yup. I mean... kind of. I can, but it doesn't mean my answers are right. I didn't pass math very often.

[ersatzeverything]

Hey, I'm still super impressed. I can...add up caps and...yup, that's about the extent of my math skills.

[inhonorof]

Zetta would be better to teach you than me, if you wanted to learn. But honestly, I dunno how helpful long division even is any more.

[ersatzeverything]

I've gone these 72 years without knowing it, and I've done okay so it can't be all that useful.

[inhonorof]

[Riley grins and nuzzles into Deacon again.] Yeah, I can't say I ever used it outside of school. You didn't end up with a career in science.

[ersatzeverything]

[Deacon turns serious and shifts in Riley's lap so that he's sitting side saddle, arms looped around Riley's neck and practically nose to nose.]

Tell me about your childhood.

[inhonorof]

[Deacon's face is so close that Riley is pretty sure whatever he's going to say isn't going to have anything to do with his childhood. He blinks in surprise.] I don't know. There isn't a whole lot to say. [Riley's hands had settled on Deacon's hips after he turned around, and now they circle around to thread fingers at the small of his back, loosely holding him.]

[ersatzeverything]

Come on, say anything. I mean, I was raised by mole rats in an irradiated cave, so anything you say about your Pre-War childhood is going to be novel to me, you know?

Just...tell me about what it was like. I know about Zetta and her mom, and Ferran and his mom, but I don't know much about you.

[inhonorof]

[Riley's uncertainty crumbles. When he puts it like that... He starts brushing his thumbs up and down on Deacon's back.] Well... My dad's an immigrant. [Present tense. ... he still hasn't shaken that.] He came over from South Korea for his job, and then decided to stay after he met my mom. My mom and Zetta's mom were already friends from college, so that's why we grew up together. My dad's family never came to the States, so I never got to meet them. He had sisters, and they had kids of their own. [Cousins he never got to meet, only ever saw in photographs.] But my mom's family was local. My grandfather babysat me a lot when I was young, because my parents worked a lot.

[ersatzeverything]

[Travelling from one side of the whole freakin' planet to the other. Old Worlders. Deacon's pretty sure it wouldn't even be possible these days. But he wonders if South Korea fared better in the aftermath of the War than old America and China did.]

So your granddad kind of raised you when you were young.

Your mom didn't make you do, like, beauty pageants when you were a kid like Zetta's mom did, right?

[inhonorof]

[Riley shakes his head.] My mom... I don't know if she really knew what to do with a kid. We got along well when I was older, and I learned a lot from her. She worked as a masseuse at one point, so that's where I picked that up. But... She sure as fuck didn't learn decent parenting from her father, [Zetta says bitterly.] I wondered if she was maybe scared to be a parent.

[ersatzeverything]

So...your grandfather wasn't the "fun" babysitter who let you eat too much ice cream and stay up past your bed time.

[He's beginning to fill in the blanks of "Why Riley Rileys."]

[capcious]

[Riley is silent. Zetta cuts in,] He was an abusive piece of shit who went to fucking jail after he got caught.

[ersatzeverything]

[Jail? This was deeper and darker than he expected. Deacon slowly pulls his sunglasses off his face. If Riley's going to talk about this, he deserves to be able see Deacon properly instead of looking at a mirrored mask.]

What did he do?

[He asks quietly.]

[inhonorof]

[Even so, Riley's eyes fall away from Deacon's face.] He... yelled. A lot. He blamed Riley for literally fucking anything that happened.

[ersatzeverything]

[And the pieces click into place.

Deacon smooths his thumbs over Riley's cheeks.]

He was pretty dumb then, because I can think of a ton of things that weren't your fault. Like the existence of Cram. Or like when holotapes skip. Or flat Nuka Cola.

[inhonorof]

[Riley laughs softly, his heart not really in it.] I can... only imagine... what it was like for my mom, growing up. [Deflect, deflect, deflect.]

[ersatzeverything]

Hey.

[Deacon kisses him softly.]

It's good that you're concerned for other people and all, but you're allowed to acknowledge your own pain too.

[inhonorof]

[Riley returns the kiss, eyes sliding shut, and he keeps them closed.] I don't like thinking about it, [he says, barely inaudible.]

[ersatzeverything]

Okay. [Deacon whispers. He's the last person who'd insist that you shouldn't hide from your past. Sometimes hiding from your past is a super good idea.

He kisses Riley again.]

[inhonorof]

[Riley returns the kiss, soft and slow, gradually relaxing into it, into Deacon. Those memories... They're long, long behind him. It's... He's okay. He's okay.]