[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.]
[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.
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.
[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?
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.
[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.
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Date: 2016-05-30 10:42 pm (UTC)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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Date: 2016-05-30 11:12 pm (UTC)[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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Date: 2016-05-30 11:43 pm (UTC)[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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Date: 2016-05-31 12:07 am (UTC)[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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Date: 2016-05-31 01:05 am (UTC)[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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Date: 2016-05-31 01:54 am (UTC)[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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Date: 2016-05-31 01:59 am (UTC)Webcap outbreak?
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Date: 2016-05-31 02:14 am (UTC)[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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Date: 2016-05-31 02:28 am (UTC)[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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Date: 2016-05-31 02:39 am (UTC)[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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Date: 2016-05-31 02:55 am (UTC)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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Date: 2016-05-31 03:15 am (UTC)[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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Date: 2016-05-31 03:41 am (UTC)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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Date: 2016-05-31 04:01 am (UTC)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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Date: 2016-05-31 04:57 am (UTC)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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Date: 2016-05-31 05:18 am (UTC)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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Date: 2016-05-31 06:50 am (UTC)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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Date: 2016-05-31 10:53 am (UTC)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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Date: 2016-05-31 02:42 pm (UTC)[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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Date: 2016-05-31 02:52 pm (UTC)[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.
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Date: 2016-05-31 03:29 pm (UTC)[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.
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Date: 2016-05-31 04:56 pm (UTC)[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?
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Date: 2016-05-31 08:12 pm (UTC)[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.
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Date: 2016-05-31 08:44 pm (UTC)[She blinks, gaping at Nick for a few seconds in disbelief.]
You're fucking with me.
[Pause.]
...Are you fucking with me?
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Date: 2016-05-31 10:31 pm (UTC)[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.
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