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[synthedick]

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[circumitus]

[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.]

You really have an assistant, though?

[synthedick]

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.]

[circumitus]

Oh. That makes sense.

[It's interesting to think that, with all the stigma that follows the synthetics in Nick's world, he's able to carry out a legitimate business like that.]

How'd you get into that line of work, anyway? From the time you're from, I mean, not your memories. Can't imagine it being easy what with being... what you are.

[synthedick]

It hasn't always been easy with a face like this. Even Ellie wasn't sure what to make of me when she moved into town from Goodneighbor.

[She'd obviously changed her mind about him. Nick has that affect on people, it seems.]

It was by pure luck that I was able to move in at all, as I rescued the daughter of the mayor at the time. The kidnappers had been hoping to ransom her off, but what they got was me following the sound of a crying girl and stumbling into their camp.

[circumitus]

[Nick definitely has that affect. Lucky him.

[She listens to his story, unable to help herself from imagining the poor synth happening upon a dangerous scene. It doesn't sound like "pure luck" to her at all, but a stroke of misfortune.]

Don't suppose they just gave up the girl willingly, did they?

[synthedick]

They weren't at first. They pulled a few guns on me, so I had to come up with something quick.

[He cracks a smile.]

So instead of trying to take all of them on, I told them I had a bomb in my chest, and that I'd been rigged to explode. Put on my best Protectron voice and said, "Danger! Danger!" They seemed to be buying it, so I started walking toward the whole lot of them, going, "Beep. Beep. Beep."

[And then he laughs, remembering the scene: four raiders all geared to the teeth, scrambling to get away from a lone, unarmed synth.]

They gave her up willingly after that. Couldn't get away fast enough as they were falling over one another, tripping on their own feet.

[circumitus]

[Now that just paints an even crazier mental image in Rey's head. And she's not even the imaginative sort.

[She blinks, gaping at Nick for a few seconds in disbelief.]

You're fucking with me.

[Pause.]

...Are you fucking with me?

[synthedick]

That's the honest-to-God truth.

[He can see why Rey might think he was pulling her leg, though. Looking back, he can't believe it worked either. He was lucky most folks weren't terribly familiar with synths at the time, though those kidnappers didn't seem to be the brightest, either.]

The girl was scared too, but she came around once I untied her and explained that I didn't have a bomb, and even if I did, I wouldn't be killing us both. She thought I might've been sent by her father, but even once I told her the rescue had been a happy accident, she wouldn't let me leave until she'd made sure I was rewarded. I wasn't going to let her walk all the way home by herself anyway, so off we went. That's how I ended up in Diamond City.

[circumitus]

Good thing you stumbled by, then. For her sake.

[If it were anyone other than Nick, Rey would absolutely assume that he's pulling her leg. Embellishing for the sake of telling a good story. But she knows Nick enough now that he doesn't need to try and impress her, sooo...]

...

Did you really just say "beep, beep" at those guys? And they actually fell for it...?

[synthedick]

[He grins wryly, but he's all too aware of how badly things could have ended for that girl if he hadn't shown up when he did.]

Trust me, I didn't think they'd fall for it, either. I just didn't have any other options for dealing with four armed goons. I'd been wandering the Commonwealth by myself for some time, and wasn't exactly the savvy detective type you see now.

[circumitus]

[The fact that things could've ended badly just highlights what a serious issue this was.

[However, a strange feeling creeps up from Rey's chest the more she thinks about it. At first it sounds like her usual scoff, but then it persists, and that's just weird. Shortly after, she slaps a hand over her mouth to stifle what can only be a fit of low-toned giggles. Certainly not a sight or sound that anyone, whether they be from Hadriel or home, would ever be witness to.

[That's when her hand clamps tighter over her mouth as she takes her chances at speaking between laughing bursts:] Sorry, sorry. That's just... That's really brilliant and I just can't... I mean, come on... [Trying to talk and breathe at the same time is hard. Why has no one ever told her that it's hard?]

Beep-beep!

[And she snorts, unable to stop.

[Rey might need to plead temporary insanity for a bit. She may have just lost her mind.]

[synthedick]

[At first, Nick thinks Rey might be coughing; outright mirth is certainly something he doesn't expect from Rey, not even in light of his accidental, but amusing rescue. But no, that's definitely a sound that's familiar, and yet unfamiliar all at once: Rey is laughing.

And for a moment, it's contagious, and he finds himself laughing too.]

I think the Institute really missed an opportunity by not making that a feature in their synths. Their reputation as the 'Commonwealth boogeyman' would be very different if that was their regular strategy for getting what they want. Clients coming in my door, telling me they think a loved one has been replaced. And how do they know? They heard them beeping in the night.

[He shakes his head, smiling harder than he has in some time. The thought of being replaced by a synth is nightmarish, and an absolutely reasonable fear in the Commonwealth, but the thought of them pretending to be loaded with explosives in the most painfully phony way is something even he can't help but laugh at.]

[circumitus]

[No doubt the actual experience is damn horrific. They also say that one of life's greatest coping mechanisms is humor. And it would seem that's what Rey needs right now.

[She almost manages to muffle herself long enough to allow Nick to speak. What he says only summons another rather unladylike snort into her palm.]

Stop, I can't--

[Laughter has not always been a positive thing. At least, not when it's Rey. Though it's a lot less foreboding this time when, in between her bouts of mirth, she is sneaking in a few more "beep, beeps" for good measure.]

Oh nooo, you've unveiled my secret!

[She's a beeping synth! Oh wait.

[Just. Goddammit, Nick. Go sit in the corner and think about what you did.]

[synthedick]

[He should, but now he's just enjoying himself.]

I'd never known the truth about you until this moment. You've told me you were a synth a few times, but that beeping is the real evidence.

Unless you're a different synth who replaced the Rey I knew, and getting me out of that apartment and into a house was all a part of your plan.

[circumitus]

[You cruel, evil robot.

[Rey takes a moment to try and get a few much needed breaths in before she replies. She's able to remove her hand from her face and exhale deeply, trying to force a sincere expression and failing miserably.]

That's right, you caught me. I've actually been a fraud this whole time. What more, I was set to go off if you ever found out. Got any last words, Valentine?

[synthedick]

[He meets her look with a sly one of his own.]

No words, save for a final request that you detonate outside. I've seen the kind of redecorating you do, and we did just move in.

[Don't be a dick, Nick.]

[circumitus]

[But it's what he excels at!

[The laughter does weaken into a couple coughs.]

Full disclosure, though. I really can "explode".

[She nearly erupted back in her old apartment, which would explain away the stifling heat that drove Nick to break down her door in the first place.]

[synthedick]

I was wondering what that was about, back at your apartment.

[Hes just been waiting for the opportunity to ask about it.]

That what happened?

[circumitus]

[Busted.]

Y... es?

Um, I may have... almost blown up my apartment. And possibly the whole building.

On accident.

[That last part is important.]

[synthedick]

[He grimaces, glad that kicking in her door hadn't been the last thing he ever did. There's no helping it now.]

And you have that under control, right? You never did tell me what happened to you.

[circumitus]

[Indeed, what's done is done.

[Rey likewise frowns when he starts probing about the incident. Come on, Nick, don't sully her mood with ~*feelings*~ and shit.

[Sigh.]

You mean in general, or what happened back at the apartment?

[May as well dance around the subject. Delay the inevitable.

[To answer his question, though:] And yes, it's under control now. No worries.

[Always worry.]

[synthedick]

I meant back at the apartment.

[But he sees that look on her face and hears that sigh.]

... But so long as it's under control, I guess there's no sense in worrying about it now.

[That's his way of saying Rey is off the hook for now. He's not going to pry, trusting she'll tell him what he needs to know. That's how this partnership works, after all.]

[circumitus]

[It also works when the other is assured that you're not going to go all crazysauce and detonate. She may be off the hook, as she can sense from that tone of his, but he's just going to keep wondering.]

Let me put it this way. When you're living with not only the memories but the emotions of eight very messed up, very broken women? That's enough to drive maybe anyone off the handle.

[If it's one person she can trust to understand what it's like to deal with thoughts and feelings that don't belong to you, it's Nick. At least, she hopes she doesn't have to explain to him what it's like in order for him to understand why it can be so maddening.]

Honestly, I'm not even sure if they were women, or if they were just data cooked up by the asshole who'd installed them into my brain-space from the start. Don't think he had the capacity to be that imaginative, though.

[The memories, sure. But the emotional baggage that came with them, from a synthetic man who didn't fully understand emotions? Probably not something he was capable of.

[She shrugs.] Can't ask him about it now. Since he's dead.

Like I'd said, though... Flipping on that proverbial "switch", feeling all of the things that they felt... Not safe. Last time that happened, I did more than a number on my father's face.

[Aren't you glad Rey realized that she was dreaming before she did that to you as well, Nick?]

[synthedick]

[Nick absolutely knows what it's like to have feelings that aren't his. Despite that, they're so real -- were real, to the original Nick -- that the synthetic man can't help but be influenced by them as though they were his own. The fact that Rey handles the baggage of not one, but eight individuals, is a testament to her capability to "handle it."

And even then, she'd still nearly lost it. It's good she is who she is, or he might be in pieces.]

I can see why you didn't want me kicking in the door.

[The risk he'd taken in doing that, albeit an unknown one at the time, had been worth it, at least.]

[circumitus]

[For someone who claims to have a questionable state of sanity, Rey has an impressive amount of self control.]

Didn't want to hurt you. [She still doesn't, and never wants to. No matter what this place does to them.

[She pauses, chewing the inside of her cheek before she adds:]

It's terribly selfish, but... for what it's worth, I'm grateful that you did.

[Who knows if they'd be sitting together now, laughing and talking like this if he hadn't. Never mind the possibility that she could have burned down the whole spire, but just having Nick knowing what he does now as a result of what he did. She feels relieved.

[Perhaps everyone is allowed to be selfish from time to time.]