coatls | [closed] the only constant is change

Entry tags:

[closed] the only constant is change

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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Dez drops the cigarette into the ashtray on the desk. This conversation is going to need her full attention.]

I'm going to need a lot more details. How did this happen? I didn't think there was any Enclave presence in the Commonwealth.

[She glances at Deacon. If there were Enclave here, why didn't Deacon tell her before now?]

They've been pretty motivated to keep their heads down. I can't possibly imagine why.

We met this guy back in Vault 81 a while back, one of the scientists working there. He had useful scrap 'n' shit, so we'd swing by semi-regularly to trade and have somewhere relatively safe to sleep. And he went and got attached to us -- [She manages to stop herself here and admit a little more of the truth.] Alright, fine, to me, and I managed to get his story out of him. He used to be an Enclave captain, and when shit went down in D.C., he gathered as many people as he could and got the hell out. And with the Brotherhood in town, he wants to contribute to fucking them up, and so do the rest of his gang. So they had us meet up with the lot of them and they voted to hitch their wagon onto mine.

Attached? What kind of attached?

[If this Enclave captain fancies himself in love with Zetta, there's a serious danger of this blowing up in their faces when he realizes that she's not about to return his affection.]

And how large is this gang?

[At the implications in Desdemona's tone and question, Zetta screws up her face in disgust as if she'd just suggested her brother had a crush on her.] Familial. Absolutely not romantic. Jesus. Gross. I can't even think about it. No, he's got a boyfriend he's totally smitten with. God.

There's... what, seven? Eight? Not sure how to count the boyfriend in all this. He's a vault dweller, so his only horse in the race is his choice in romantic partner. [And that leaves that number ambiguous enough that it may or may not include a certain doctor.]

[Dez relaxes marginally. At least that's one potential problem they won't have to worry about. Now there's just everything else about the Enclave to be concerned with.

Deacon's laughing at Zetta's reaction.]

You seriously don't have to worry about him going all spurned lover on us, Dez. Like, seriously. He and his boyfriend can barely pry their lips from each other.

[Deacon, you're not helping as much as you're pretending you are.]

It's kind of disgusting, honestly. They are sickeningly in love and everyone around them really wishes they'd get on with it in private and leave the rest of them out of it.

[Yes, she's picking on Nathan when he's not here to defend himself, what else is new?]

I get the point. Further descriptions aren't needed. But you understand why I had to ask.

I can understand the reason for their antipathy towards the Brotherhood, but I'm not sure we can trust them. Deacon must have told you that their history is horrifying and their ideology appalling.

[Carrington is studiously staring at the floor.]

Yeah, genocide, racism, blah blah blah. I'm not gonna pretend I didn't about punch out a couple of the soldiers there. But aside from them, the others are for the most part self-interested and in it for either survival or revenge or both.

Oh, and it's worth noting that they didn't know shit about the whole genocide side of things. Turns out the Enclave upper crust wasn't exactly forthcoming with their troops about what they were actually trying to do. So, take that as you will. Again, there are a couple of shitheads in that group, one in particular who didn't see the issue with that plan, but he was the only one whose world wasn't rocked by the truth.

Some of them were legitimately horrified by the idea -- they're the good eggs. Minutemen settlers, a father and a daughter, and the daughter was too young to have been a part of it all before it went to shit. Another couple of them were shocked because it fucked their conception of the hierarchy. The others were upset for more personal reasons, because that anti-mutation virus would've taken them down, too.

[And then there's Carrington, who is the one who told them the truth, so he doesn't quablify, since it wasn't news to him. She can safely leave mention of him out under that legality. She doesn't actually give a shit about lying to Dez, but being able to call upon loopholes is gonna help when she inevitably does find out about Carrington.]

And for what it's worth, literally none of them give a shit about whether or not synths are people. Some of them are for the idea of helping them, the others just couldn't care less. So. You know. You win some, you lose some, [she says, about old members of the goddamn Enclave.]

Think of them as kind of like one of the small settlements. There's always a couple of assholes, most of the settlers just want to survive, and a couple genuine allies or potential allies.

The organization sucked ass, but the people in it were still people. Some of them were shit people, yeah, but for a lot of them, it was just what they knew. [Just like the Institute.]

And now they've had ten years to learn something different and most of them have.

Granted, the biggest shithead fell in with raiders, and the biggest rules stickler is a Gunners commander, but then we've also got a caravanner, the Minutemen settlers I mentioned, the one who turned vault dweller, and, uh...

Shit. What did the last one say he did again? [Bellamy didn't say what he did at all.]

He lives and works in Diamond City.

[Dez looks sharply at Carrington. Not because of the answer itself, but that Carrington was the one who answered it. No one has yet explained how he's involved in all this and why he knew about this alliance before Dez did. But she has a growing suspicion what it is.

Everyone always did wonder where Carrington received his medical training.]

[Zetta glances at Carrington, too, surprised that he provided the information. She was expecting Deacon to do it, assumed he picked up or remembered or otherwise knew something she didn't. Was that Carrington slipping, or him deciding to say "fuck it" to trying to pretend he's not involved?]

Carrington, I think I need to hear everything.

[If he has something he needs to say, now's the time.

Carrington takes a deep breath.]

Singh, actually. Doctor Alistair Singh, Research and Development. I can vouch for the squad. I wouldn't call Captain Lone a good man exactly, but he's a loyal one and he's decided to affix that loyalty to Zetta. He won't betray her and the others won't betray him.

[... well. That's an extra dose of balls Zetta wasn't expecting him to show today. She'd also been trying to avoid names, just in case, but, the cat's out of that bag, at least for Nathan.

Zetta watches Desdemona's face closely, body tense, ready for a fight.]

[Dez purses her lips, her fingers twitching, wanting that cigarette back.]

I would have preferred to be kept in the loop before all this was decided.

[And would have liked it if at least one of her lieutenants could have been honest about his past, but in an organization like this she can hardly blame them for secrecy. And both of them were with the Railroad and saving synths before she was.]

But I can't stop you from making alliances.

Here are my ground rules. No intel sharing. They can't know anything about Railroad routes, safehouses, or procedures. Present company excluded. And I want to know where they'll be operating so our runners and agents can avoid them.

Well, no shit. Some of them are alright, but there's no way we're willing to risk the shitheads finding out about anything that'd put Railroad ops at risk. I'm not fuckin' stupid.

[... she's still on edge. But at least Dez isn't fighting them on it, or giving them hell.]

[Dez frowns.]

This is a serious matter and I think it's best if expectations on all sides are made clear. There needs to be no room for misunderstandings.

[She has a point. Still, Zetta sighs in frustration.] Yes, alright.

For the most part, we weren't intending on getting them involved with Railroad shit. They're most interested in taking down the Brotherhood, so that's probably where we'll be focusing them. ["Probably," because Zetta still isn't sure what to do with them.]

But I've been thinking about fixing up the National Guard Training Yard for them to operate out of. [A beat.] And... I trust Lone enough that I think if he sets up there, then the place might not be a bad option for a waystation. [And now it's time to brace for impact again.]

[Deacon jumps in to make the case before Dez can veto it outright.]

It'd just be a waystation, and have no contact with any safehouses or anything. Just a spot where we'd be able to take shelter and resupply and not have to worry about whether a pack of raiders or muties has moved in.

Lone's stubborn as a mule, but he's gotten better about synths in the short time I've been talking to him. And he'd know that fucking things up there would fuck things up with me, and he's not going to turn on me.

He understands the value of an alliance. [Carrington adds.]

And I've known this man since he was a child. He's not a backstabber. If we treat him fairly, he'll do us the same courtesy. It would be foolish of us not to use this resource that's made available to us.

[... and Zetta might have a personal reason for it, too. If Nathan sees the way synths are on the surface, sees the fear... It'll make the slavery situation more real to him. And maybe that'll also work on knocking Zellweger's head out of his ass about it, too.]

I can see when I'm outnumbered.

[From Dez, a small breath of amusement, an almost-laugh.]

I'd be afraid of a mutiny if I refused.

[Zetta blinks a couple of times, then breathes out heavy through her nose, some of the tension leaving her shoulders.]

Honestly, we'd probably still do it anyway, [she admits, shrugging one shoulder.]

And that's why I'm not bothering to forbid it. I'd rather you do it openly so I can at least know what's going on.

[And they've already done it anyway, without talking to her, so it would be that much harder to undo it now.]

I see you share Deacon's philosophy of asking for forgiveness rather than permission.

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