A.N. - Eyyyyy~
So I'm giving fallout a try in a new story I hope that anyone who manages to wander into this corner of the internet enjoys it!
Side note before we begin – The LW's name this time is Persef a shortened variation of Persephone. Because I'm a sucker for metaphors.
"Moira...are you sure this is a good idea?"
"Oh nonsense cookie!" Moira chirped, bubbly as ever; though still keeping at a respectful distance from the ever present pool of radioactive water smack dab in the middle of Megaton. "You'll be perfectly fine! Remember to drink up!"
Persef sighed scooping up another mouthful of murky looking radioactive water. Sometimes, she meditated, cringing at the taste of the stagnant water, Moira was a wonderful friend; driven and versatile, unfailing in her optimism and willingness to lend a hand. Other times, well...scientific curiosity got the best of her. Like now, now was one of those wonderful, lets exploit our friendship with ' The Lone Wanderer' for science times.
"Is this even safe?" She hollered back.
"Of course it is! You just go ahead and Wallow in there for a few more minutes and we'll be all done!"
She sighed once more but obligingly wallowed as she was told. Flopping down onto the water and letting it soak into her hair. "I am so going to get split ends from this."
Minutes passed, and soon she felt the telltale rising nausea that indicated high levels of radiation, the constant warmth that being irradiated brought her slowly but steadily ticking its way up to a hellish inferno.
"I'm starting to feel kinda sick!"
"Oh wonderful!" Distantly she heard the unmistakable sound of Moira clapping her hands in ecstatic delight. "Now come on up to the store so we can start the testing!"
Slowly, but surely, so as to not hurl the contents of her breakfast all over the Children of the Atom's place of worship (no one, no matter how loony, deserved a pool of vomit all over their religion.) Persef sat up and began the walk up to Craterside Supply.
"I've been shot at, crippled a good couple of limbs and almost died a few times. I can do this." She mumbled to herself, staggering up the ramps to the store while her wobbly world gained a distinct yellow tint.
"I. Can. Do. This." Was her mantra until at last, she swung open the door to the store and slumped against the doorway. "Oh thank fuck; I did it."
"Oh you're here, great! Just take a seat over there cookie and we'll start right up!" Moira said gesturing to the seat by the front counter, while Persef slumped on it gratefully. "Ok now you just sit tight, I'm gonna take some readings and then I'll fix you up in no time!"
The next few minutes passed by in a haze as Moira poked and prodded at her. Scanning with a multitude of devices and jotting down notes in a clipboard. "Hmmmm, I wonder," She said to herself as she tapped a pencil against her lips.
"Wonder what?" Persef asked, closing her eyes and concentrating on breathing through her nose to fight off another bout of nausea.
"Oh well, just - let's try something here."
There was the dull taps of Moira's shoes on the scuffed floor and then: darkness. Or least, semi-darkness. As soon as Persef opened her eyes she was able to confirm the unavoidable. She was glowing. Soft muted yellow light poured out of her skin; effectively turning her into some strange human nightlight. "Moira," She began warningly.
The culprit in question just gave a small nervous laugh, clutching the clipboard protectively to her chest. "Yeees?"
"Why am I glowing?"
"Oh well, I don't really know for sure. But I have a theory! And I promise it's a good one!"
Persef sighed, or at least, attempted to sigh, before she felt a sudden and pressing need to throw up and had to clap a hand to her mouth and dry heave.
"Ok, this is what we're going to do. I'm going to not kill you out of respect for our friendship. You're gonna fix me up right the fuck now and you're gonna tell me why in the shit I'm glowing! "She hissed, growing progressively more heated.
"Yes ma'am!" Moira squeaked out with a salute, scrambling for the medical supplies.
Two bags of RadAway and one puke filled bucket later, Persef was effectively not glowing anymore. Something Moira seemed ecstatic about. This, if her vast field of 'times Moira has been very excited' experience indicated correctly, was not a good thing.
"Okay. Sit. Explain." She said, pointing resolutely to the chair close to hers.
"Alrighty, you know how when you first got here you developed that teensy mutation because you were playing around with radiation for the wasteland survival guide?" Said Moira, sitting down and doing as she was told. "And then remember how you went in to activate the water purifier and landed yourself in that neat coma from the radiation spike? Weeeeell, you must know by now how that affected you right?"
"Yeah, they mentioned something about that when I woke up." She clearly remembered the endless stream of doctors and researchers carefully informing her of her new condition. Among congratulations and reassurances the truth came out. She had another small mutation to add to her list of achievements. The effects of her previous mutation were still in place (she would be healed by radiation as soon as the levels were high enough); but now there was another requirement to it. She had to be irradiated. At all times. Going less than a hundred rads would make her seriously ill.
Apparently this wonderful new addition to her physiology had been discovered because it nearly killed her. The doctors had removed any traces of rads from her like they would from any normal human being. Not knowing that it would make her body start trying to shut itself down in some bizarre suicide attempt as soon as it had no rads inside it. 'Essential to your bodily processes' they had said.
One way or another she was now stuck seeking out the very thing most people tried so hard to avoid.
"Oh well then you must know all about it!" Moira said gleefully. "It's really wonderful how adaptable you are. Opens the door to all sorts of possibilities! But anyway yes; I just wanted to test a little theory of mine about your rad resistance. Turns out I was right! You got up to a thousand three hundred rads with just a little bit of nausea! Dying never seemed to be an issue!"
Persef, quite understandably she thought, paled rapidly at the words 'a thousand three hundred rads'; gazing wide eyed at Moira's constant smile. "You ok hon'? You look a bit peaky."
"Moira," She wheezed out in horrified silence.
"Oh don't look at me like that!" Moira flapped her hands at Persef vaguely, having the decency to look a little ashamed.
"I knew it wouldn't do anything to you! I was monitoring you the whole time; if you had been in any real danger I would have immediately taken you out of there and fixed you right up! I know most people can't go up past a thousand rads but we both know that you've survived worse than that!"
Persef swallowed down the last remains of her panic and found herself growing a bit intrigued in the subject. Damn her upbringing for giving her a healthy scientific curiosity (She blamed James, and Jonas, blamed them both).
"Technically that should be impossible." She began tentatively; not willing to dive off the deep end into Moira's crazy science.
Moira however just beamed, scenting the opportunity to have her best research assistant back for another round of experimenting.
"Oh you and I both know you stopped letting technicalities tell you what to do a long time ago. You're practically a ghoul by now when it comes to radiation! In fact I'm pretty sure there's more to this than meets the eye; check your rad levels!"
With a growing sense of dread at the fact she was getting roped into another of her friend's crazy research projects, she obliged. A quick look at her Pip-Boy revealed that Moira was, once again, right. She was down to eight hundred rads
"I thought you only gave me two bags of RadAway?" Persef messed with the dials and buttons of the Pip-Boy's system. Everything seemed to be in working order, but there was no way only two bags of RadAway could have removed that much.
"That I did!" Moira chirped, back to looking ecstatic. "You know what this means already don't you?"
"I automatically regulate my rad levels. Given enough time to I probably don't even need RadAway to do it. It'll just go away on its own." Persef said, hardly daring to believe the results of the experiment. "Dammit Moira this is-"
"I know." Moira replied, serious in a way she rarely was. "If we found a way to figure out what caused this and replicate it we could help a lot of people. No one would have to worry that much about radiation intake anymore. Their body would just regulate it automatically."
"I'd love to do that but; I don't think anyone has the equipment needed for such a large project." Persef pointed out gently, not wanting to burst Moira's bubble but feeling obligated to bring her often grandiose plans back down to the realm of reality.
"Oh I know." Moira sighed, wistfully looking down at her clipboard of jumbled notes. "I just think it would be a nice idea. Maybe someday!"
"Yes," Persef closed her hand over Moira's and gave it a small squeeze. "It would be a nice idea; maybe someday."
XXXXXXXX
After an hour or so of small talk and even more attempts at crazy science Persef was finally on her way home, heading for a desperately needed bath (no matter how immune she was it was never a good idea to let filthy radioactive water crust all over your skin. A thing that had unfortunately happened in the last hour after the radioactive wallowing incident.). So with still squelching boots and a rad count that would set off any Geiger counter at twenty paces, she trooped on home. Carefully and artfully ignoring the confused, concerned glances that any of the residents gave towards her damp, radioactive clothes.
"Honestly," She muttered, fumbling for her keys in front of the door. "It's like they've never seen someone who took a dip in the local bomb puddle."
"Babies!" She called out, as soon she got the keys in order and was able to swing the door open. "I'm home!"
There was, for the dubious onlooker, a second of silence for them to wonder at who she could be possibly referring to. Before something that could only be described a small pack of dogs came tumbling down the stairs, rushing towards her, jumping up to greet her with such a force that she stumbled back a few steps.
"Whoa, down guys!" She gasped out between laughs as various dogs jockeyed for the best position to snuffle at her with wet noses and place various licks all over her face. When she could finally stand, despite the dogs still jumping up at her helping her balance none, she let out a shrill whistle; at which all the dogs immediately arranged themselves in an orderly line, precise as any military recruits.
"Good dogs," she cooed, digging treats out of her pockets to toss at them in succession.
"Alright, I'm going to take a bath, and I want you all to stay down here. No coming up while I'm still bathing to drink out of the bathtub. I'm not exactly clean today." She grimaced, acutely aware of the sticky feeling the filthy water left on her skin. The dogs, merely dispersed at her words, each of them occupying themselves with their own devices. But all of them staying downstairs mindful of her command. Well, all except one. "Always the stubborn one aren't you?" She commented, bending down to scratch Dogmeat behind the ears as he stared impassively back at her. "Well alright, I guess it's not too much trouble if you come up with me while I bath. But only you got it? No one else."
Dogmeat whuffed softly in response, trooping upstairs behind her.
Persef peeled off her damp clothes as she went, tossing them left and right with no care as to where they landed (Being neat after all wasn't so much a need as an illusion when one lived with six dogs.). She absently filled the tub with water (and that had been a bitch to drag all the way to megaton, not to mention hauling it upstairs and hooking it up to the plumbing), something niggling at the back of her mind. There was something missing.
"Oh no," She smacked herself lightly in the forehead as soon as the truth came to her. "You didn't lock Wadsworth up again?" She asked Dogmeat, who merely sniffed daintily and looked away in response. "I told you all not to keep doing that." She groused, shutting the water off as soon as the tub was full and beginning the hunt for her robot. "Wadsworth?" She called, peeking into the bedroom to see if what was where they had pushed him into this time.
"Where on earth could he-" She started to say before she caught the muffled sounds of a well-known voice coming from downstairs. "Oh of course, the kitchen. You all pushed him into the kitchen and closed the door. Assholes; you're lucky I love you all."
Shooting irritated glances at Dogmeat the whole way downstairs (which he studiously ignored) the door to the kitchen was soon opened, so that Wadsworth came zooming out; rambling about 'the mutts' and 'mutiny'. "O-oh dear," The robot had stuttered as soon as he caught sight of Persef's state, whirling around until his optic was firmly facing the wall. "I would recommend you put some clothes on madam."
"Relax Wadsworth, I'm only temporarily naked. I'm afraid you caught me just as I was about to have a bath. Because someone thought to lock you in as soon as I was gone." Dogmeat once again looked the other way as soon as a glare was directed at him. "Either way, just go rest Wadsworth I'm sure you've earned it." With a sniff and a "Quite right madam." Off Wadsworth went to his designated corner to power down.
As soon as he was gone she growled out at Dogmeat when he had glanced up to meet her eyes: "You and I are gonna have some words." The dog immediately whined, flicking his ears down and pinning her with his most puppy like stare. "None of that! You know how I feel about bothering Wadsworth." Dogmeat huffed out his annoyed response, but his ears perked up again. "That's about as much as an apology as I'm gonna get out of you aren't I?"
Impassive brown eyes stared up at her as his tail wagged lazily back and forth.
Persef couldn't help but let out a small laugh; even if she knew that he would inevitably do the same thing as soon as she was gone again. The problem wasn't that Dogmeat was dumb. Far from it; the dog was possibly one of the most intelligent beings she had come across in the whole wasteland. But he seemed to have a personal vendetta against her robot butler (something she suspected he had carried ever since Wadsworth had taken his first look at Dogmeat and asked if she wanted 'the mutt' to be led outside) and nothing could dissuade him from carrying out his revenge.
She sighed, knowing there was nothing she could do about it for now. "I'm going to take my bath, come if you wish." She said to the dog, resolutely heading upstairs. Nothing should be between her and cleanliness now.
The water was, predictably enough, freezing. But even that was in its own way good, after the dry heat of the wastes that blew in through the cracks in Megaton's walls. Persef just lay back, relaxed and proceeded to scrub out all the grime accumulated from her day of puddle wallowing. Which truth be told wasn't even that much. She had been much, much dirtier before when she had been traveling all around the wastes looking for her father and scrambling to get project purity off the ground.
It had been how long? Only one (or was it two?) months since the end of her so called 'adventure'. And a part of her was still in disbelief it had happened all in five weeks. Her whole life had been altered in five measly weeks. She had lost a home, got another, plus some friends, made plenty of enemies, gained some fame, lost Jonas, lost her old friends, lost her father. By the end of it all she still hadn't figured out if she had lost more than she had gained. But perhaps, she meditated, letting the now dirty water swirl around her, those where questions for another day.
Pulling the plug and stepping out of the bathtub, carefully avoiding Dogmeat, who as always liked to lie down right under the tub like some bizarre living rug she would accidentally step on; still meditating on the turn her life had taken.
I wonder what you'd think if you could see me now mom. She thought with a huff as she gazed at the mess around her.
Once she was dried, dressed and her hair was in order, Persef had to confront the next order of business.
"What the fuck do I do now?" She mumbled to herself, picking her way through the various makeshift chew toys strewn around her house (including but not limited to: old bones, part of a tire, some burnt books and what looked suspiciously like a mole rat skull).
After five minutes of pacing in complete mind-numbing boredom and an idle thought that she should, maybe, perhaps think about organizing the place; Persef promptly gave up all pretense of productivity and flung herself down on the sofa.
Who knew being 'the last best hope for humanity' would be so boring? She hadn't seen action in months.
"You know your life is fucked up when you start to fondly recall those times you were getting shot at." She told Dogmeat as he curled up next to her on the sofa, running her fingers through his coarse fur.
"Alright that's it." She decided, resolutely picking herself up off the sofa and dusting herself off. "I'm going to go visit Gob and Nova, they're going to point me in a good direction and tomorrow morning we're heading out for some more 'Lone Wandering'." Dogmeat whuffed quietly in response, tail thumping against the sofa as he wagged it back and forth.
After bidding goodbye to her pack of dogs, with a last farewell of 'be good' and a final 'and leave Wadsworth alone' she finally slipped out the door and headed out towards the Saloon. It is dusk by the time she does so; the shadows long on the ground and the sky lit up in a dusky orange.
Persef tips her head back and smiles, lets the light of the setting sun skitter across her closed eyelids and remembers good things.
It's an alright world dad; in times like these I can almost understand why you always said it deserved better.
The walk to the saloon is short, and sooner than she'd think she's swinging open the door and crossing over that well-worn threshold to the sounds of the saloon's regulars milling around.
"Gob! Nova!" She hollers, knowing full well that the recipients of her yelling are only standing a few feet away.
"I hear ya', no need to shout so loud." The ghoul in question grouses, giving her a warm smile nonetheless.
"Must you always yell like that knowing we're right here?" Nova peeks out from the banisters on the second floor, her wide grin softening the sharpness of her words.
Persef shrugs, plunking herself down at the bar with a grin of her own. "I just want to make sure I'm heard."
Nova bounces down the stairs as Gob slides a Nuka Cola over the counter with practiced ease. "What brings you around here kid?" She asks, sliding into the stool next to Persef's. "You miss us already?'
"You know me. I can't live without your charming personalities." Persef bats her eyes at her, taking a swig of the Nuka Cola with a wink.
"Yeah, we're regular miss congenialities." Gob raps out with a shake of his head. "It's good to see you vaultie."
"Same here." Persef says her little hands clasped around the neck of the bottle.
Nova stamps down a completely misplaced surge of protectiveness she gets every time she's reminded of the vaultie's small stature. She may be barely pushing five feet but the kid's a maniac in a fight. Nova reminds herself with a wry smile. The vaultie could take care of herself; Nova's barely-there maternal instincts be dammed.
"Ey, if you could all quit the fucking family reunion and serve me some booze that would be much appreciated." Jericho snarked from the corner of the bar, nursing his dwindling scotch.
"If you quit having such a shitty personality maybe we'd be more inclined to serve you." Gob shot back, roughly shoving a full glass his way.
"Watch your fucking mouth zombie, before Moriarty comes 'round and smacks you for your fucking lip."
There was a moment of silence, where Nova, Gob and Persef traded conspiratorial looks before Nova burst out laughing with barely concealed contempt.
"Where the fuck have you been Jericho? Moriarty's dead." Nova informed him gleefully, relishing the look of complete and utter surprise that swept over the man's face.
"What the fuck?" He stammered out at last. "What the fuck killed him? When did he kick the bucket?"
"He died three days ago. Which you would have noticed if you pulled your own head out of your ass to look around once in a while" Persef said with a small smile as Jericho slurred out a half-formed threat. "As for what killed him; you're looking at it."
Jericho barked out a mocking laugh at her last statement. "I'll believe he's dead but no way you killed him vaultie." He sneered out the last word, turning Gob and Nova's term of endearment into a mocking nickname.
The only thing that met his words was three impassive stares.
"If you don't believe her then check with Simms Jericho. I'd appreciate it if you shut the hell up before I kick you out of my bar." Gob said with a stare that could freeze hell itself.
With a few murmured insults Jericho does just that, hunkering down in his corner of the bar with his glasses of scotch.
"So how's things kid?" Gob asks turning back to Persef now that Jericho isn't a problem anymore.
"Boring," She complains, rolling her eyes. "I was thinking of setting out again. Any interesting places you guys would recommend?"
A shared glance between Gob and Nova brings them to equal agreement to suggest the least dangerous place possible.
"Have you ever seen the underworld?" Gob suggests, wiping down the counters with a semi-clean rag. "It's an interesting enough place."
"Never even heard of it actually." Persef says, leaning forwards on the counter, eyes alight with curiosity, always thirsty for new information. "What's it like?"
"Ghoul city from what I know of it." Nova comments, taking a borrowed swig from Persef's Nuka Cola.
"Pretty much," Gob agrees, swiping a swig of the Nuka Cola himself once Nova sets it down on the counter. "It's a place for us ghouls to hunker down and lead a nice calm life here in the wastes. But what you'd like most is where it's at. It's built in the old museum of history. They got all sorts of shit there that you'd probably find interesting."
"Sounds neat." Persef comments, stealing back the bottle of Nuka Cola and drinking the last couple of dregs from it. "I think I'll head there after all."
Nova and Gob breathe out identical sighs of relief at her words.
"Just stay safe vaultie." Nova says, ruffling Persef's hair.
"Whenever am I not?" She comments with mock affront as Gob watches them both with a smile.
XXXXXXX
Hours later, Persef wanders back home, shoving the door open with a bang and calling for Dogmeat.
"You and C get ready baby! We're heading out tomorrow!" She crows with a smile, as the pack of dogs swarm around her once more.