[They might not see eye-to-eye on everything, but they have a lot of commonalities, bonds that hold them together. And having her around is almost like having family -- not like the sibling he isn't sure exists, but an honest connection of compassion between two beings with a lot of synth issues, two people who don't view themselves as such. There's a lot unspoken, but it's true: sometimes, the words don't need to be said for them to know what the other feels.
Nick makes quick work of his trip, and is back with Charlie and his few other possessions in tow. Seeing Rey has taken a room on the first floor, he considers taking the one next to her; however, he decides to mirror their old arrangement and heads upstairs. That will give her some space, and the top floor won't go completely empty. The balcony up there gives him a nice view of the streets, too. Good for his late-night watch.
He gets to work on making the bedroom on the left his own, shoving the bed against the wall to free up space. He's not going to be using it much, anyway.]
[By the time Nick returns, Rey has already unpacked most of her belongings and is sorting them out in her room. It doesn't take very long, as she isn't one to fuss over details when it comes to her personal environment. If she's got a place of her own where she can linger and sleep, she'll be a happy camper.
[She won't be making much use of a bed, either, having pushed it into the corner of the room and considers just dissembling it altogether. Which she does. That way she can have more space without a useless piece of furniture that she doesn't even use. She'll figure out some way to sneak it out without Nick's noticing.
[Once Nick is done with his thing, Rey will be in the living area, seated in a rather peculiar position on the couch. Sitting with her legs hanging over the back of it and her head on the cushion, looking at the room from an upside-down angle. She really gives no fucks, her fingers entwined with her hands resting on her stomach.
[Of course it isn't strange. It's just a position that seems uncharacteristically carefree for Rey, if you ask Nick.
Not that he's complaining as he meanders downstairs, having left his coat somewhere in his own room with the rest of his belongings. He's got his space ready to go upstairs, and she's got her room presumably set up downstairs; it didn't take long for the place to start feeling like a home, a place where the two of them can belong.
He joins her on the couch, taking the spot beside her, sitting the old-fashioned way.]
[Perhaps Rey is just feeling uncharacteristically carefree at the moment. It isn't often that she allows herself to just relax. Not just in general, but around someone else as well. Rather than her usual stiff postures, she's able to slowly ease into the comforts of her new structure.
[For once it seems like she actually has a place she can call home. Not a temporary arrangement, not a lonely quarters that means nothing more than a place with doors and walls. This is something else.]
Yes. [She nods, which is awkward from where she's sitting at the moment. Her eyes flick towards Nick as he seats himself next to her.] I think we've got something good here, and it's just... It's good.
[Nick's eyes meet Rey's briefly before they return to the rest of the room, taking in the sight. It's a far cry from what he's used to, even considering the adjusting he's done the past several months. In Diamond City, he had his agency: dingy walls, a cramped space, and passing comments about how all synths ought to be blown to smithereens -- save for him, as he "wasn't like them other synths." It wasn't perfect, but it was his home for years. His apartment in the Spire in Hadriel had been both an upgrade and a downgrade: there'd been a little more space and the place was immaculate compared to his abode in the Commonwealth, but it hadn't been much more than a place to stay, somewhere when he needed a quiet moment. It wasn't home.
And then he'd gotten a roommate, and it'd started to feel like a place he wanted to go back to each day. He didn't keep patrolling the streets long after his shifts were over just because he had nowhere but a lonely apartment to return to. He went back to his apartment because he had a reason to go there.
And that reason is in the house with him now. It's refreshing to feel needed, like he's doing someone some good, even if it's just one person. He might be helping others by patrolling, but it's rare he sees the results. With Rey, though... they're right there in front of him, in her tone and her posture.]
Yeah. This is good. It's not the Commonwealth, but that's not a bad thing. Not a bad thing at all.
[Though it may be hard to see from this perspective, Rey's mouth upturns into a small smile. But before she can make it known, she flips. Adjusting her position on the couch so that she's mirroring Nick's bearing. At least she's acting more like a civilized human being and less like a cavewoman.]
Suppose I only got to see a little bit of it. [She would hope that the home Nick lives in isn't just one big long wasteland and nothing else. It sounds like there was actual civilization on the surface world where he's from. People. Still, she can see where he's coming from.] What happened, exactly? You mentioned before about bombs dropping, but who did it?
[Nick's brow knots; he can assume easily enough that Rey saw some of his world in his dream. No telling where or what she saw, but when it comes to the Commonwealth, well... there really isn't much that one would call civilization. Save for the occasional settlement, most of the wasteland is just that, especially the farther south one goes.]
No one knows who shot first, exactly. Some of the old ghouls who've been around since before the Great War say it was China. Others say it was us. Doesn't really matter who fired first, as we all ended up in the same, man-made hell.
[Seeing what little Nick remembers about the Institute, chances are Rey would have a better idea as to what resides there. "Too bad" she didn't get to scope out the rest of what his world was like, as she has found herself undeniably curious.
[The scenario in which Nick describes isn't by any means an unfamiliar one to Rey, though. Humanity has done a fine job at digging its own grave over the eons, regardless of which side struck first.]
And... how long has it been since all of that happened?
Over two hundred years. It's a wonder anyone outside the Vaults managed to survive. Some parts of the country are still swimming with rads, as though the bombs fell only yesterday.
[One truth prevails: the world is never going to be the same as it was before, though given the threat of nuclear annihilation the Pre-War people faced, that's not entirely a bad thing.]
Two hundred years? That's an impressive length of time for humanity to survive after such an event.
[She muses this over for a moment.] It's only been about... forty-five years where I'm from. [Well, it's a short time when you've lived as long as she has, anyway.] A few cities were able to return to the way things used to be, almost. Though other areas are left uninhabitable, thanks to similar radiation. Can't imagine that's going to go away anytime soon...
[Nick is a walking testament to this fact, even if he is one of those that aren't considered people. But anyone who can live through a radioactive wasteland earns brownie points in Rey's book.
[She shakes her head.] Only a few. And the Webcap outbreak was a huge blow when the virus had been released into at least nine major cities. Chicago had been one of them.
[Meaning that the place she had considered home for the last four years? Gone now.]
Nasty sickness. The synthetics manufactured and dispatched it via insect drones to infect the populace. I'll spare you the disgusting details and just say that it was supposed to be their idea of a "warning", if they didn't get what they wanted.
[She sighs, and continues before Nick can ask.]
Well. Not so much as what, but who. They wanted someone. One of my fr-- [Wait, friends? Does she even have the right to call him that?] --a man. Has some very important tech inside his head. Tech that they want.
[Funny, how Rey and Nick have been living together these past few weeks and she hadn't ever really talked much about her home, even though she thinks about it a lot. About the things she'd left behind. The events that led to her return to Hadriel with a rebar stabbed through her chest. It's not exactly a fun story to tell.]
Hm. I can see why you'd be leery of synths after something like that.
[Don't think he didn't catch that near-slip, Rey. He can tell when he's edging uncomfortable topics, though. This isn't an investigation; he doesn't need to disturb the waters.]
Chances are that even if they got that tech from this acquaintance of yours, they'd keep doing what they want. Anyone who is willing to turn a biological weapon against a bunch of innocents is too far gone.
[Just because she has issues with the synths where she's from doesn't mean she's incapable of disassociating herself from that here. Besides, Rey is not one to talk, being partially synthetic herself.]
You're probably right, though. The one who really wanted him... even after she got what she wanted, she still wanted more. [She pauses, her jaw muscles tightening.] That's why she ran me through, just before I came back here.
[Because Rey also has something that the synthetics desired.]
[His eyes flick to her middle, the images of her impaled by a strip of metal as clear as day. If he and Glacius hadn't shown up at the right time, things could have ended very badly for her. She might not be sitting here, if she'd died and the gods didn't feel like bringing her back. He wouldn't be in this house with his new roommate, thinking about how good a home could be.
And that's why he always aims to do what's right -- he never knows how, down the line, things will change, what lives he might affect with his decisions. He knew Rey back then, but they weren't much more than friendly acquaintances. Things are different now. Better.]
I'm glad you made it through that. Guess I'm glad I'm not like the synths where you're from, either. Hell, I'm not much like the synths where I'm from.
[At least she can agree that Nick is different. Special. Not just in regards to the synths in his world, but to her as well. Fact is, she wouldn't be here if that wasn't the case.
[Rey draws her knees to her chest, not caring much about putting her feet on the couch -- because what are manners even for?]
Suppose I'm not much like them either. Synthetics or organics. I'm just... I'm somewhere in between. [She shrugs a shoulder.] Anyway, all things considered... I'm glad I made it through, too.
[Which, after some of the things she's said to Nick before, and some of the things he's seen... It's a pretty big deal for her to feel this way.]
["Somewhere between" is a phrase he's often used to describe himself, though not as a bridge between synthetics and organics -- he's in the gap between two generations of synths. The Gen 2 synths, with their pale skin and yellow eyes, have an undeniably manufactured appearance; however, it's only the Gen 3 synths that seem to have any kind of personality, that have enough human behavior programmed into them to actually pass for one. And then there's Nick, not enough of either one to fit squarely with the rest.
It's not as bad as it used to be, now that he's got someone to talk to, someone to commiserate with. He only hopes it lasts -- he's thought more than once already on the fact that people vanish regularly, there one day and gone the next as the Door sees fit to bring them in and take them out.
Down his eyes go to his hands, particularly that obviously mechanical one.]
I'm glad you came back.
[She's already left once, only to return. Who's to say she'll be back next time.]
[Following his gaze, it doesn't take much for her to notice what he's looking at.]
Hey. [She brings a hand over his, her fingers folding over the metal. While she may have expressed revulsion or alarm when she had first seen him, Rey shows that she's willing to overlook all of that now. To see Nick for who and what he is.] I'm not going anywhere. I've died and come back enough times over the years. Like a damn cockroach. Not that easy to get rid of.
[Perhaps she could've referred to herself to something more majestic? Nah.]
[She probably could have picked something better than a roach, but the gesture gets a slight smile out of him all the same. He pulls his thumb over her hand and gives a squeeze in return.]
Maybe it's myself I should be worried about, then. I'm well past my warranty date, but when I've got a good thing going, it's hard to let go.
[Seeing him reach out rather than pull away is encouraging. Between this and despite what he says, she manages to pull off a real, rare smile. Something that feels strange on her face, but not in a terrible way.]
Don't you worry about that. I'll make sure it doesn't happen anytime soon. You're not the only one around here who knows their way around machines.
[Rey did orchestrate the dam construction, after all. Keeping an old, rusty synth together? Yes, she is confident that she can do that, too.]
[The smile Rey gives Nick is a rare gift, one he doesn't take for granted.]
Good. I've had to put a part or two back on, but some things are just out of my reach.
[He lets out a small laugh, thinking back on home in the Commonwealth.]
My assistant back in Diamond City -- Ellie Perkins is her name -- had to do most of my er... maintenance. Last genuine engineer we had in town moved out a while back, so she's had to pick up the old screwdriver every now and then. She's not bad, but it'll be nice to have someone around who knows a little bit about what they're doing, just in case something does come loose.
[As you should, Nick. Rey doesn't smile for just anyone, you know.]
It certainly helps when you've got an engineer and a mechanic in your head. Have to admit, sometimes there are advantages to having different people's memories.
[Now that she has some semblance to control over them, it feels like they're actually useful nowadays.
[She shoots Nick a sidelong glance. It isn't the first time she's heard him talk about his secretary, but now she's got a name.]
Someone has to watch the desk while I'm gone, handle the paperwork and the clients. Most cases take me out of Diamond City, sometimes for days at a time.
[Or weeks, if he happens to get locked up in a Vault by a gangster and his latest fling. He wonders briefly how Ellie is doing without him. He just hopes the Door can send them back to the same time they left. At two weeks, he'd been gone for too long already -- several months wound send poor Ellie into more than fits.]
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Nick makes quick work of his trip, and is back with Charlie and his few other possessions in tow. Seeing Rey has taken a room on the first floor, he considers taking the one next to her; however, he decides to mirror their old arrangement and heads upstairs. That will give her some space, and the top floor won't go completely empty. The balcony up there gives him a nice view of the streets, too. Good for his late-night watch.
He gets to work on making the bedroom on the left his own, shoving the bed against the wall to free up space. He's not going to be using it much, anyway.]
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[She won't be making much use of a bed, either, having pushed it into the corner of the room and considers just dissembling it altogether. Which she does. That way she can have more space without a useless piece of furniture that she doesn't even use. She'll figure out some way to sneak it out without Nick's noticing.
[Once Nick is done with his thing, Rey will be in the living area, seated in a rather peculiar position on the couch. Sitting with her legs hanging over the back of it and her head on the cushion, looking at the room from an upside-down angle. She really gives no fucks, her fingers entwined with her hands resting on her stomach.
[Nothing strange about this at all.]
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Not that he's complaining as he meanders downstairs, having left his coat somewhere in his own room with the rest of his belongings. He's got his space ready to go upstairs, and she's got her room presumably set up downstairs; it didn't take long for the place to start feeling like a home, a place where the two of them can belong.
He joins her on the couch, taking the spot beside her, sitting the old-fashioned way.]
Enjoying the view?
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[For once it seems like she actually has a place she can call home. Not a temporary arrangement, not a lonely quarters that means nothing more than a place with doors and walls. This is something else.]
Yes. [She nods, which is awkward from where she's sitting at the moment. Her eyes flick towards Nick as he seats himself next to her.] I think we've got something good here, and it's just... It's good.
[She feels good.]
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His apartment in the Spire in Hadriel had been both an upgrade and a downgrade: there'd been a little more space and the place was immaculate compared to his abode in the Commonwealth, but it hadn't been much more than a place to stay, somewhere when he needed a quiet moment. It wasn't home.
And then he'd gotten a roommate, and it'd started to feel like a place he wanted to go back to each day. He didn't keep patrolling the streets long after his shifts were over just because he had nowhere but a lonely apartment to return to. He went back to his apartment because he had a reason to go there.
And that reason is in the house with him now. It's refreshing to feel needed, like he's doing someone some good, even if it's just one person. He might be helping others by patrolling, but it's rare he sees the results. With Rey, though... they're right there in front of him, in her tone and her posture.]
Yeah. This is good. It's not the Commonwealth, but that's not a bad thing. Not a bad thing at all.
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Suppose I only got to see a little bit of it. [She would hope that the home Nick lives in isn't just one big long wasteland and nothing else. It sounds like there was actual civilization on the surface world where he's from. People. Still, she can see where he's coming from.] What happened, exactly? You mentioned before about bombs dropping, but who did it?
[Assuming Nick would know, that is.]
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No one knows who shot first, exactly. Some of the old ghouls who've been around since before the Great War say it was China. Others say it was us. Doesn't really matter who fired first, as we all ended up in the same, man-made hell.
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[The scenario in which Nick describes isn't by any means an unfamiliar one to Rey, though. Humanity has done a fine job at digging its own grave over the eons, regardless of which side struck first.]
And... how long has it been since all of that happened?
[Again, her curiosity prevails.]
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[One truth prevails: the world is never going to be the same as it was before, though given the threat of nuclear annihilation the Pre-War people faced, that's not entirely a bad thing.]
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[She muses this over for a moment.] It's only been about... forty-five years where I'm from. [Well, it's a short time when you've lived as long as she has, anyway.] A few cities were able to return to the way things used to be, almost. Though other areas are left uninhabitable, thanks to similar radiation. Can't imagine that's going to go away anytime soon...
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[Not that everyone in the Commonwealth is considered "people" anymore, but his point remains. That does bring him around to a question, though.]
You have many cities left in your world?
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[Nick is a walking testament to this fact, even if he is one of those that aren't considered people. But anyone who can live through a radioactive wasteland earns brownie points in Rey's book.
[She shakes her head.] Only a few. And the Webcap outbreak was a huge blow when the virus had been released into at least nine major cities. Chicago had been one of them.
[Meaning that the place she had considered home for the last four years? Gone now.]
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Webcap outbreak?
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[She sighs, and continues before Nick can ask.]
Well. Not so much as what, but who. They wanted someone. One of my fr-- [Wait, friends? Does she even have the right to call him that?] --a man. Has some very important tech inside his head. Tech that they want.
[Funny, how Rey and Nick have been living together these past few weeks and she hadn't ever really talked much about her home, even though she thinks about it a lot. About the things she'd left behind. The events that led to her return to Hadriel with a rebar stabbed through her chest. It's not exactly a fun story to tell.]
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[Don't think he didn't catch that near-slip, Rey. He can tell when he's edging uncomfortable topics, though. This isn't an investigation; he doesn't need to disturb the waters.]
Chances are that even if they got that tech from this acquaintance of yours, they'd keep doing what they want. Anyone who is willing to turn a biological weapon against a bunch of innocents is too far gone.
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[Just because she has issues with the synths where she's from doesn't mean she's incapable of disassociating herself from that here. Besides, Rey is not one to talk, being partially synthetic herself.]
You're probably right, though. The one who really wanted him... even after she got what she wanted, she still wanted more. [She pauses, her jaw muscles tightening.] That's why she ran me through, just before I came back here.
[Because Rey also has something that the synthetics desired.]
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And that's why he always aims to do what's right -- he never knows how, down the line, things will change, what lives he might affect with his decisions. He knew Rey back then, but they weren't much more than friendly acquaintances. Things are different now. Better.]
I'm glad you made it through that. Guess I'm glad I'm not like the synths where you're from, either. Hell, I'm not much like the synths where I'm from.
[Save for one. Maybe.]
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[At least she can agree that Nick is different. Special. Not just in regards to the synths in his world, but to her as well. Fact is, she wouldn't be here if that wasn't the case.
[Rey draws her knees to her chest, not caring much about putting her feet on the couch -- because what are manners even for?]
Suppose I'm not much like them either. Synthetics or organics. I'm just... I'm somewhere in between. [She shrugs a shoulder.] Anyway, all things considered... I'm glad I made it through, too.
[Which, after some of the things she's said to Nick before, and some of the things he's seen... It's a pretty big deal for her to feel this way.]
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It's not as bad as it used to be, now that he's got someone to talk to, someone to commiserate with. He only hopes it lasts -- he's thought more than once already on the fact that people vanish regularly, there one day and gone the next as the Door sees fit to bring them in and take them out.
Down his eyes go to his hands, particularly that obviously mechanical one.]
I'm glad you came back.
[She's already left once, only to return. Who's to say she'll be back next time.]
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Hey. [She brings a hand over his, her fingers folding over the metal. While she may have expressed revulsion or alarm when she had first seen him, Rey shows that she's willing to overlook all of that now. To see Nick for who and what he is.] I'm not going anywhere. I've died and come back enough times over the years. Like a damn cockroach. Not that easy to get rid of.
[Perhaps she could've referred to herself to something more majestic? Nah.]
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Maybe it's myself I should be worried about, then. I'm well past my warranty date, but when I've got a good thing going, it's hard to let go.
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Don't you worry about that. I'll make sure it doesn't happen anytime soon. You're not the only one around here who knows their way around machines.
[Rey did orchestrate the dam construction, after all. Keeping an old, rusty synth together? Yes, she is confident that she can do that, too.]
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Good. I've had to put a part or two back on, but some things are just out of my reach.
[He lets out a small laugh, thinking back on home in the Commonwealth.]
My assistant back in Diamond City -- Ellie Perkins is her name -- had to do most of my er... maintenance. Last genuine engineer we had in town moved out a while back, so she's had to pick up the old screwdriver every now and then. She's not bad, but it'll be nice to have someone around who knows a little bit about what they're doing, just in case something does come loose.
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It certainly helps when you've got an engineer and a mechanic in your head. Have to admit, sometimes there are advantages to having different people's memories.
[Now that she has some semblance to control over them, it feels like they're actually useful nowadays.
[She shoots Nick a sidelong glance. It isn't the first time she's heard him talk about his secretary, but now she's got a name.]
You really have an assistant, though?
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[Or weeks, if he happens to get locked up in a Vault by a gangster and his latest fling. He wonders briefly how Ellie is doing without him. He just hopes the Door can send them back to the same time they left. At two weeks, he'd been gone for too long already -- several months wound send poor Ellie into more than fits.]
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