“Basically, it tells me where I am, the most direct way to somewhere else, how injured I am, where those injuries are and what time it is.”
The Courier had just finished an incredibly long-winded explanation on the capabilities of the Pip-Boy. Or rather, he had tried to. A lot of the technical language was too much for the poor guard, in the same way that a lot of the talk of the arcane was a complete mystery to him. He found himself simplifying it enough for a child. When that wasn’t enough, he went for tribal. That turned out to be too far, and he had to apologise for accidentally insulting him.
“So, it’s a map, a medical device and a clock?” Defib asked.
“There’s so much more to it, but that’s enough to get a good idea.” Mentally, the Courier began to berate himself for using such technical language. I need to stop hanging around the Followers.
“Wouldn’t such a device make one complacent?” Luna asked. “If you have no need to worry about where your enemies are, or to even properly concentrate on attacking, how can you rightly claim to be such a proficient warrior?”
He shrugged in lieu of an actual answer. “An edge is an edge. I’ll take all the help I can get. And don’t all your guards have armour that heals them?” he asked
The princess acted as though he never said that last part. “If all the places you have travelled to in the past are anything like the Sierra Madre you told me about, I can understand that,” Luna said quietly.
“Sierra what-now?” Defib asked, not having the slightest clue what was going on.
“A city of the dead,” the Courier answered. He turned back to Luna. “And no, not all the places were like the Sierra Madre. Some were worse.”
And then I told them about the Divide. About what Ulysses nearly did, about the Marked Men, about - what? I haven’t told you that one yet? Fuck, now I feel stupid. Okay, I’ll tell you that one later.
“This ‘Divide’ is nothing more than a blasted ruin?”
“No, it was Hell on Earth,” the Courier clarified. “A Hell home to cannibalistic mutants and weapons that could level entire cities. And don’t get me started on the Deathclaws.”
“I cannot imagine what that was like,” Luna muttered, trying her best to conjure up the images of a canyon made of fallen buildings and wrecked vehicles, the entire scene constantly battered by skin-flaying dust-storms.
“What probably makes it worse is that not even five years ago there was a thriving village in there. Then one day half the nuclear missiles went off and tore the place apart. All because of some little bit of Pre-War tech,” he finished bitterly.
“Weapons that harness pure, unfocused magic...” Defib said uneasily. “I can’t even imagine what kind of sick mind devised such a thing.”
“Thomas, your explanation...” Luna said. “It seems lacking. Is there something you’re not telling us?”
There was a very uneasy silence. “I... well...” For the first time, there was something approaching genuine, heartfelt regret. “I didn’t know. It was just a job. ‘Take this package to the Divide,’ that was all they told me. How was I meant to know that would happen? How was I meant to know I was bringing their doom?”
“You killed them all,” Luna whispered as Defib stared at him in disgust.
“I didn’t know!” the Courier cried, tears running down his face. “I had repressed those memories! But the day I went back, I remembered everything! What it had been like, humanity’s best chance to begin again! And I completely destroyed it! Do you... do you know what it’s like?” he asked tearfully. “What it’s like to see something completely and utterly destroyed, no hope of undoing the damage, knowing that you’re responsible? Especially when you didn’t mean to do anything? And then having to live as though it never happened!?” He put his face into his hands and cried into them.
Luna looked at the sobbing man and turned to the guard. “Give us a moment,” she ordered. Defib complied, but not before giving the man a strange look. “Courier,” Luna said, turning back to him, “I do.”
“You do what?” he asked back, refusing to look up from his lap.
“I know what it’s like to see the site of devastation knowing that, indirectly, I was responsible.” She stepped closer. “A thousand years ago, control of my body was taken from me. I could only watch as ‘Nightmare Moon’ committed atrocity after atrocity. Entire towns were destroyed, mountains turned to dust.” The Courier, his eyes red, pulled his hands away from his face and turned to look at her. He was shocked to see that she was close to tears. “I was labelled a monster, a menace. My sister and the thing controlling my body fought for what must have been days. Eventually, my sister succeeded in banishing my body to the moon. She had thought me dead, Courier,” the alicorn said, tearing up. “She had thought that the thing controlling my actions had destroyed my soul and replaced me with it.”
“Why... why are you telling me this?” he asked.
“Not long before you arrived,” she continued, “I visited the site of our last battle. The foul, horrible magics I had used there, it would be accurate to say that they far surpassed anything these ‘nuclear weapons’ are capable of.” She looked at him, her tears flowing like a river. “It had once been a city, Courier. The largest, grandest city of its time. And there was nothing! A-absolutely nothing left! It was as though it never existed!” With those last words the alicorn collapsed to her knees, weeping unashamedly.
To Thomas, there was only one thing to do here. He slowly got up and walked to her. When he was close enough, he reached out with both arms and tried to grab Luna around the neck in a hug. Only his Pip-Boy began ticking so fast the ticks ran together to create a horrible grinding noise. He pulled away in an instant. “Err... Is there a way you could...?”
“One... one moment.” Luna sniffed before her horn shone. Her mane and tail, the twin voids of night and stars, became limp and turned a delicate shade of blue. There were still traces of the stars, a slight shimmering that could only be seen at the right angle. “It... It should be okay now.”
The Courier tentatively wrapped his arms around her. When he didn’t collapse from an instantly-lethal dose of radiation, he tightened his grip and snuggled into her mane. Luna rose up slightly and brought one of her forelegs around him, pulling him closer.
“T-thank you,” Luna said. “Thank you for listening.”
Author’s Notes:
Aww, isn’t that sweet?
Seriously, how well would you cope in their shoes?
Suicide.
I love the smell of D'aw in the morning. Smells like... Shipping.
Rad Hair
DAMNIT!!! SPOILERS!!!! AND I DIDN'T EVEN PLAY THE GAME
AW well, this was good! a bit sad, a bit short, but it was still good.
Have a Song
That was a nice feel good chapter i just read. Definately wasn't expecting it though but it was a nice one
Nice chapter but you made him look like a pansy.
Well, if Graham can live with himself, it would be a nice story for Luna and the Courier to learn from, specially if you convince him to spare Salt Upon Wounds.
Also, nice burn about the armor, they can't brag too much.
Gah so short........but what can you do eh. Hope to see more real soon at least, keep up the good work.
farely well
I would cope pretty well. I'm already slightly insane. It would probably drive off the deep end and I would become the ultimate killing machine of the ultimate showdown of ultimate destiny.
wildbillkerr.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Whos-awesome_your-awesome_01.jpg
Manly tears.
what if half the nuclear missiles went off the rest would go off to because of the shock waves and explosions
''She had thought me dead, Courier'' lol mistake quickly fix it before others notice!
835400
Are spoilers worse if you've never played it and don't have it, or if you've played it but not that one part?
835519 not how nuclear weapons work. Nuclear fission is a delicate and extremely intricate process, explosions, not even nuclear explosions, could start the process.
835396
To be honest... This Is a Ship I wouldn't mind. Both Luna and The Courier are so similar. Other then, you know, One being a Radiation Emiting God-pony and the other being a Badass Wasteland Courier. :/
835519(Deathpony) Not quite. If the nuclear weapons of the Fall Out world are anything like they are IRL then all the delicate fail safe points in the arming sequence would have, at the very least, been broken. Example: Arming a nuke by hand requires you to imput a numerical sequence in the correct order into a circular device. (i can't for the life of me remember what it's called) Any mistake at all will cause the device to lock up and never work again. You can't even take it apart and fix it. Now, granted, these fail safes have been a more recent development so it's very possible that such concerns weren't a top priority. I guess you could make the argument that such steps would only put a delay on a quick response launch or even open the door to sabotage. But this is just me nit picking details on a game that gives you a shoulder mounted, spring loaded, mini-nuke launcher. So your guess is as valid as anyone else's.
How well would I cope? I don't have to! I died the day Benny put a bullet in my head.
Ulysses was one of my favorite characters. It seemed like, at the end, there was only them. The two couriers, equal in their own right, coming to the end to things. Either one was going to walk out, or both. Did Thomas spare Ulysses, on another note?
dear tony,
i can has parental problems update?
from me.
385683
I thought the Government only was good at stealing our things!
Is that something ELSE THE GOVERNMENT IS HIDING FROM US?!
MOOOOOOOAAAAAAARRRRRRRR
835468
Just... try not to piss off godzilla okay?
835881 Don't worry. I have a can of Shaq fu.
835886 (Vomits) Dear God! You are a sick person! (Vomits again.)
835995 Wat. Either it's about how I know that song or how the can has Shaqs' fu in it...
fu = skil
*browsing; le update*
*reads*
SO MUCH D'AW!
HOW DARE THOU SNUGGLE THY PRINCESS OF THE NIGHT!!!! that's my job.
yey for non radioactive hugs!
Hmm, I never knew that the Courier was the one that delivered the laser detonator.
Well, now I do.
835400 Not really a spoiler.
Goddammit. Spoilers. I only recently got New Vegas, and I was going to play the DLC involving the Divide soon. (I seriously have no idea how it took me this long to get NV).
How many rads a second was Luna's mane?
Keep going
Fuck it im getting FNV ultimate edition its about time i get truly fucked up
I haven't played the DLCs yet either even though I recently got the ultimate edition, but that part of the plot for Lonesome Road was already spoiled for me anyway, and I wouldn't complain even if it wasn't. By being set after the game, it's got to spoil parts of it just by nature, and since it already spoiled a lot of potential endings for some of the factions in the main game, I don't see why the DLCs should be exempt.
The divide vs. sierra madre The fight is deadlier ending The divide can fire two nukes destroying NCR and legion territory. Sierra madre unleashs a blood red cloud killing everything except the courier and Elijah. You decide!
D'AAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
Did he talk Ulysses out of it or not? (FNV note: Space suit, Ulysses' Mask, Rad Resist perk, a dose of Rad-X, and a high endurance makes you immune to Rads. Or 95% resistant. It would pass 100%, but there may be a cap.)
Your courier seems a little bit too sensitive. But still a really good story.
838796
Nothing wrong with a little sensitivity.
Besides, just how much of his persona is an act to hide the broken man inside?
838818 Good point and is there going to be a luna courier ship? because its starting to look like it.
838920
I believe the term is "ship tease".
I just got the Lonesome Road DLC and HOLY SHIT MARKED MEN!
Seriously, anything that can just get back up after blasting them with enough laser fire to light up the universe for weeks, or enough explosives to demolish New Vegas is pretty creepy. What makes it worse, is the fact that they DON'T HAVE SKIN. What if they actually HAD skin? INDESTRUCTIBILITY. That's what. Also, the Tunnelers? OH GOD THEY'RE EVERYWHERE. Tougher than a Deathclaw you say? Let me just replace my soiled pants.
Thank god for the Flare Gun.
Oh yeah, great story by the way. Looking forward to more!
482523 Everytime i make a new character in Fallout: New Vegas I tend to go and try to find atleast 60 stim packs and maybe 20 or so guns and around 9999999999999999999999999999 ammo for each gun. How I have so much room you may ask, well it's because I usually go on a killing spree and try to max out strength as fast as possible... What? its not like anyone would do something different. Dont be silly
Right?
Have a 'stache
I just read all the chapters up to 20. EXCELLENT WORK! I love how you keep everyone in-character.
MOAR!!!
The most manliest and teariest of tears was just shed. Words cannot, and will not ever, fully describe it's ever so short existence.
839046 Tunnelers are easy to take on. Grab a Gatling laser and they're toast.
835389 Beat me to it