Just as Human

Summary – After interviewing Ben, now it's Larry's turn in the hot seat with Penelope.

Note – After Season 2 Episode 6 (underlined means it's written)

Disclaimer – I do not own or pretend to own anything from either the Fallout games or from Nuka Break, the web-series (but I'm very happy to be a huge fan!)

A second Ghoul (in less than a week!) has come to the Lockre. While he was at first not interested in answering my questions and taking some tests, his companions threat-convinced him to help while they recovered their from the battle against crazy Leon.

Name: Lawrence Synder, aka Larry, Lar (extremely disliked) and L.
Age: 186, "give or take a few"
Area - the Las Vegas region

Current Wellness - two gunshot wounds in the right leg (one upper thigh and one lower calf), body stiff from previous fights. Has no memory problems.

When asked about his possibility of his going feral, like Subject A, he grew a little quiet, but then laughed it off.

Feeling a sense of déjà view brewing, I flicked on the holodisk reorder, thankful I had found some empty ones earlier to replace the last disk Ben and I had used.

"Nah, not me. And heh, not for a while yet." Larry leaned back in the chair, bouncing and jiggling it with his feet.

"You seem awfully sure for something that's not 100%." I said, pausing in my journal and looking up.

"I'm not the loner type. Well, yeah, I am, but not the 'loner living without society type'. They're most likely." Bounce, bounce - he really couldn't keep still, and I wasn't sure if it was a characteristic of his or nervousness of me.

"How would you explain Ben then?"

Larry gave me a flat look, his smirkish smile vanishing.

"He traveled with companions." I pointed out, my pencil seeming to make its own point in the air. "That doesn't seen very loner like."

"Benjy...Ben had his own problems." He began slowly, almost as if he was tasting the words, or trying to recall a very old memory. "New Reno, there was a bunch of us ghouls, me an' Benjy an' others. Even then, he was changing."

"Going feral?"

"Maybe...dunno if it was feral." A shrug, and he went back to bouncing. If I wouldn't have tattered my Hippocratic Oath, I could've happily borrowed Raz's nail gun and shot his feet to the floor. I shook my head to get rid of the disturbing image and to bring myself back to the questions I wanted to ask.

"How was he changing?"

"He seemed...finished. Done. Given up." The yellow ghoul shrugged, unable to put it further into words, and the two of us fell into an uncomfortable silence. He actually stopped rocking the chair.

"If you're done with me-" he began, starting to get up.

"Nonononono!" I yelped, dropping my pencil, "this is fascinating, I still have more questions for you."

"Then ask 'em." Larry said bluntly, dropping back down heavily. Hmm, maybe it wasn't me he was nervous about, maybe it was my position.

"What do you think of ghouls?" I snatched another pencil from my desk drawer as the words fell out of my mouth.

"That we're just as human." He said flatly, staring at me with white eyes. I flushed as I realized what I had sounded like.

"Sorry, that's not-sorry." I took a deep breath, willing the heat and crimson away from my face. My smile grew brighter to make up for my mistake. "I meant, what do you think about being a ghoul? Personally."

"Personally?" His gravelly voice trailed off and his eyes seemed to bore into mine. Then Larry smirked. "It's...fascinating."

I started as he used that word; it sounded...very strange coming from him.

"Not sure if I'm remembering this correctly Smoothskin," he began to explain, "but it's like that Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times." You live right as a ghoul, it's certainly not boring."

"Live right?" I yelped. "You peddle Jet! You poison people for a living!"

"People gotta buy it from someone." He immediately growled. "I just make sure my hand's the one the caps land in."

"But you all have such a unique viewpoint." I argued, part of me wincing as my objectivity flew out the window. "A long term view that if used properly, could be a thriving community! An example for the rest of us!"

"You forgot what I said."scoffed Larry. "We're just as human, in all the good and the bad." Was that a hint of sadness in his voice? "Show me a group of humans, ghoul or Smoothskin, with no problems, and I'll start planning that community myself."

He creaked as he got up from the chair, bones popping, leaving my clinic without hesitation as my mouth gaped open like a gecko's.

"Lawrence! Larry! Get back here! I'm not done!"

His voice floated back along the rusting corridor.

"I am."