Open Season (Fallout 4 - Pt. 3)
Sunset's Isekai
Open Season (Fallout 4 - Pt. 3)
By Wanderer D
The campfire crackled merrily as the group contemplated Nick's Story.
"So, we've gone from random magical girl and Robin Hood, to aliens." Piper rolled her second beer bottle between her hands. "Nick, you must have plugged yourself into some weird Children of Atom shit to get that bad.
"Well, it's funny you should mention that," Nick said.
Cait gave him a look. "Why do you say that?"
"Spoilers." Nick smirked.
"I think you've been hanging out with The Silver Shroud a bit too much."
"There's a thought, let's go to the Machinist and have her take a look at you, maybe she'll figure out what's wrong."
Turns out the girls had come to Boston to throw a concert. Seemed a few hundred years too late to me, but their friend, Sweetie Belle, had insisted.
It was clear that all these girls were good friends, even the lost one, and their personalities meshed well.
Luz Noceda, the first one I met, was full of energy and curiosity. Too much of both, if I was honest, but her relentless optimism was a great source of much needed will to keep going. Her and Dani Phantom, the hologram—or ghost as she insisted—girl, was similar to her in that she sought adventure and challenges.
Robyn and Mebh were similar to each other, and yet not. Mebh was a menace of sorts. She was curious, but in a guarded way that made her less likely to find an unfortunate end than say, Luz. However she was also full of energy, and aggressiveness. She did act like some sort of puppy, and the fact that she was also supposed to be the wolf I had met earlier was beginning to sound more and more plausible.
The sheer joy she brought Robyn was also something to be witnessed. These two were very close, and it seemed their happiness was deeply entwined with each other. They were definitely pack creatures. Robyn was a lot more relaxed around her sister and friends, even though both her and Mebh still seemed out of place in mannerisms and clothes.
The last and oddest one was Lena. She wasn't glowing blue anymore, and looked almost like a normal teen, if teens were ducks. She was the most reserved of the group, not out of distrust, but simply because she was the type to keep a calm mind and plan. Whether they knew it or not, all the others looked up at her, and she fell naturally into the role of the leader.
I have the feeling that if duck people were a more common sight in the Wasteland, she'd been the one to contact me.
It made me wonder what kind of person this Sweetie Belle was. With a name like that, chances were a spoiled brat, but I had been surprised before.
"Okay," Nick said. "Let's summarize. Your friend, Sweetie Belle, set up a concert at the Charles View Amphitheater, and it went well."
"Yes!" Luz said, sitting on the floor with her legs crossed. She pulled out a T-shirt with a picture of the group of girls behind one adorably-innocent looking human girl, all of them dressed up and apparently in the middle of singing a song. "I was in charge of Merchandizing!"
Nick stared at her for a second before he continued. "In any case, the concert went well, and then you were approached by some people?"
"Correct," Lena said. "They wanted us to perform for them in their clubs and such, but this was just an outing. We don't have permission to stay in any world for too long."
"And you came here without asking for permission in the first place," Nick stated. "Why didn't anyone stop you?"
"Sunset was really upset about something happening to Myne, so she went out to visit some guy named Francis?" Luz said.
"Ferdinand," Lena corrected.
"He's the High Priest at her church, remember?" Robyn said.
"Oh, yeah!" Luz shot to her feet and then stood on one foot with her arms upwards as if she was skating or something. "Praise the gods!"
"Yes," Robyn growled. "That guy."
"I'm not certain what's going on, but it seems like your teacher was busy. And so, from what you told me earlier, after the concert you all got distracted and when it was time to go, Sweetie Belle was gone." Nick sighed. "Okay. I'm going to need details."
"Well," Robyn said, "ask away."
"You said that the concert attracted a lot of attention, how did it go?"
"It was awesome!" Luz said. "The crowd loved it! We got a standing ovation!"
"A lot of people were talking to Sweetie afterwards, asking her about future concerts and such," Dani added.
"Is that so?" Nick muttered. "What can you tell me about the people asking her that?"
"Well, there were all sorts," Mebh said. "Some were dressed like the people that live in your area, dirty normal twentieth century clothes, mostly nice."
"We saw some groups eyeing her," Luz said, but the only ones that really approached were a group in suits."
"Oh yeah! They looked like gangsters!" Dani said.
"We have a lot of those around." Nick grunted, rubbing his chin. "What can you tell me about these gangsters?"
"Well, their leader was a short guy with thin whiskers, that I remember."
"Smelled like alcohol," Mebh said, while Robyn nodded.
"And cigarettes," the latter added.
"Short guy with whiskers," Nick muttered. "Out here, instead of Good Neighbor. Tell me, did this man talk with a lisp?"
"Oh yeah, now that you mention it… I think he did?" Luz said. "I only managed to hear him talk at the end, when I went to tell Sweetie we were getting ready to go. But he was already leaving by then."
Nick nodded. "I'm willing to bet that's what he wanted you to think. That right there sounds like Mickey "Snarky" Milano. He's a nasty piece of work, that one."
"But I saw them go away," Dani said.
"Most likely just to get his goons to pick up Miss Belle," Nick muttered. "If she's as good a singer as you say—"
"I've met sirens that couldn't match her."
"—if she's as good a singer as you insist," he corrected, earning himself a mock glare from Lena, "then he'd want her for his Speakeasy downtown." He hesitated. "It's not a nice place, being out here. But 'Snarky' made a reputation for himself that got him kicked out of Good Neighbor—which is hard enough to do—and he wouldn't be allowed in Diamond City."
"Well, if you know where it is, maybe we should go knocking?" Dani suggested.
"Or, we could knock down the door!" Mehb cheered.
"Let's go investigate," Nick agreed. "Are you all coming?"
"Might as well," Lena said. "Mebh, Robyn?"
"Tempting, but I'm staying human," Robyn replied. "I hate the smells here, and we'll have some extra ranged weapons if we need them."
"Aww, it's not that bad, is it?" Mebh said. "There's so many smells to explore!"
"Maybe you should bite Luz, between the two of you you have the weirdest interests."
"Oooh! Can you? Please?!"
"We've talked about this, Luz, not without asking your mom. And Sunset. And Eda. And Amity."
"Aww."
Nick watched as Mebh went over to sit on a couch. She closed her eyes and relaxed. After a moment, golden mist swirled around and through her, then flew out, splashing on the floor before them and took the shape of the giant wolf from earlier.
"And, that's my cue," Lena said, lifting a coin. She muttered something under her breath, and suddenly Mebh's human body was gone.
Nick stared. "How in the world—"
"I'm never getting tired of watching a body get sucked into a coin," Luz said, patting him on the shoulder. She glanced at Lena. "You think I can learn to do that with runes?"
"Maybe?" Lena replied. "We'll have to look into it, but it might be a very complicated one. I'm just using a spell Magica designed to trap Scrooge."
"Isn't she, like, an interdimensional threat?"
"Yep."
"Cool."
"Ladies, I think we're getting off track," Nick said, trying—and failing—to understand what had just happened.
"It happens."
The Bar's name was the "Lady's Knickers", and it had the exact effect on the girls as one would imagine.
Nick wished he could smoke, like the old human Nick Valentine could. Because this was going to take some time. The girls were rolling on the floor, unable to stop for more than a few moments before their eyes would inexorably stray to Mikey's bar's name and they would lose it again and laugh uproariously.
He had to admit he couldn't blame them. It was a dumb name for a dumb place. No one from the old neighborhood would be caught there willingly, and the bar served the densest of the dense. The bottom of the barrel out of the already low-quality individuals that hovered around this area smack in the middle of territories already infested by feral ghouls, supermutants, raiders and gunners.
Eventually they calmed down enough to keep to snickers, so he deemed it time to step inside.
Whatever he had been expecting, it wasn't this. The bar was a mess. Tables had been tossed around with enough force to explode against the walls. A chair was embedded on the roof, alongside the poor sap that had been sitting on it. The bar was split in half, with most of the bottles having been swiped forcefully across the room.
Three goons were stuck to the wall, having been run through by the microphone stand.
"Yep," Luz groaned. "Sweetie was here."
"My god."
"Nope," Lena said, "that one was definitely not involved."
Mehb growled and turned, barking as she jumped through the remains of several pool tables.
"Mehb's found something!" Robyn announced, getting the attention of the rest of the gang. They followed the wolf over to where they could now hear groaning.
"I... I can't believe what I'm looking at," Nick said, climbing over the sofa next to the man half-buried in furniture. "If it isn't Mickey 'Snarky' Milano himself."
"Valentine?" the man rasped, coughing. "W-what the hell happened?"
Nick leaned back. "I was hoping you'd tell me. These girls are looking for a friend of theirs. Maybe you've seen her?"
The man blinked several times, shaking his head and groaning. "Must've hit my head harder than I thought, I'm seein' a duck."
"That's not the only thing you'll be seeing, buster!" Luz said. "We need details! Who, when, how?! Where were you the night of the 20th of December, 2021? Was it really Col. Mustard, in the Library, with the candlestick?" She shook him by the collar. "We want answers, 'Snarky', and we want them now!"
"Easy there!" Nick spoke up, "don't want to break his neck. We don't know if he has any serious injuries."
"He doesn't," Lena said. "He's surprisingly complete, considering Sweetie was here."
At the name, the gangster scrambled back. "Sweetie Belle?! Is she still here? I'm sorry! I won't do it again!"
"Calm down, buddy," Nick ordered, grabbing him by the shoulder. "Miss Belle is not here, which is the problem. We need to know what happened, Snarky, and you were the last person to see her."
The weasel-like gangster twitched, glancing around to make sure the little girl in question was not around. "She's… really gone?"
"Really, really," Dani said. "It's just us, you, and the dead."
Before she could do her ghost thing, Robyn thankfully grabbed her shoulder. "No."
"But—"
"She's right," Nick said, "we need him coherent for now." He grunted as he grabbed Snarky's shoulder and helped him up, then, with Robyn's help, sat him down.
"Here," Lena said, passing him a cocktail. "Best I could do with what you have here, but you need some liquid courage, I'm sure."
Nodding shakily, Snarky took a sip. Then another. "Huh. This is… really good. Say, I don't suppose you're lookin' for a job?"
"Snarky, focus," Nick ordered. "What happened to Sweetie Belle?"
The man shuddered again, then took a deeper drink before talking. "Well… after the concert, me and the boys went over to talk to Miss Belle about maybe doing a gig here."
"A more permanent one, I imagine," Nick growled.
Snarky shrugged. "Gangster, eh? But yeah, we offered and she declined, so I sais to the boys to go pick her up when she's not looking."
"Next thing we're here, and I'm talking to the little lady, trying to tell her how things will go from now, on…" his smarmy smile slowly faded. "But she wasn't paying attention. At first she was just curious about the place, then… something grabbed her attention. I told her to sit still and follow orders…"
His eyes went wide and he started shaking. "Sh-shadows. Eyes. Something came for me and threw me over the tables. I heard whispers and slithering… something like the sound the wind makes when running through dry leaves… and then screams!"
"Snarky!" Nick shouted, shaking his shoulder as the man turned to stare at him with wide, open eyes that slowly calmed down.
Snarky blinked. "Nick! What brings you here?"
"You were just telling us about Miss Belle."
Nick fell back on his chair. "Sweetie Belle?! Is she still here? I'm sorry! I won't do it again!"
"I don't think we're getting anything else out of him," Luz muttered.
"Sweetie Belle did a number on him, alright," Robyn said. Lena, Dani and Mebh all nodded.
"H-hey Nick, what was I drinking? I think I'm seeing a giant duck."
"Just go lay down, Snarky, we were just leaving."
"Right. Right… sleep sounds good…" Snarky walked over to the other side of the bar, then fell face-first on a couch and stayed there.
"Any clues?"
The others shook their head.
"Mebh and I will look around," Robyn said after a moment. "You can check if there's other survivors."
"Right." Nick sighed and turned, intending to wake up Snarky again when he stepped on something that crunched under his foot. He paused and looked down. "Oh. I think I found something. And it's not good."
He leaned down to pick what he'd found.
"Are those… sunglasses?"
"And not just any sunglasses," Nick said, twirling the colorful item in his hand. "Only one group of idiots in the Wasteland wear this kind of cheap plastic stuff."
"And who's that?" Lena asked while Mebh approached to sniff them, then obviously regretted it.
"That would be Olaf Brutalhammer's gang," Nick said. "Raiders."
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I'd say poor Snarky but he kinda had it coming. Nice touch with the repeating dialog, he's obviously a low quality NPC.
Well, to be honest, I think both Sunset and Rarity were very close to those beings by now. So extended those definition to Sweetie might be not too much exaggeration.
I wonder if Sweetie would turn Olaf into a snowman cause of his name. I pity these raiders. But then again they're Raiders, you're supposed to murder them without remorse.
11299340
I didn't actually get that until your comment, I just read it as him being really, really out of it.
11299340
Oh, damn! Very good catch, there!
Which version of Sweetie Belle is this they have misplaced? There's an entire organization of them patrolling the multiverse.
Should be easy to find the remains of the raider camp, due to it being on fire, after Sweetie tried making a drink of water?
For some reason, what that Snarky described looked familiar to me on Alucard's abilities from the Hellsing anime. Creepy shadows and eyes.
kartinkin.net/uploads/posts/2021-07/1627010037_20-kartinkin-com-p-anime-khellsing-pistoleti-alukarda-anime-k-20.jpg
I wonder what happened... Adoption? Assassination attempt? 2 years nap? Royal Academy? Adoption?
On one what?
11299384
That one is easy. The one you really don't want to leave without supervision. AKA: The sister of the Rarity that is Sunsets sponsor.
11299343
True, but Vic's "God" wasn't around for this.
Slight irritant, its children of atom, not sons of atom
Tease
I feel like I recognize those names from somewhere
Edit:
So I looked into it and found out it was about a certain bookworm.
Yes, yes it does
Thank you, don't need the guy passing out
Yeah, she turned him into a non-essential NPC that can only repeat the same dialogue
This should be interesting
11299355
I got 50 bits that when they find Olaf and the gang, Sweetie will be their supreme leader and dressed up like "Nuclear Wasteland Chic" (Rarity inspired forward fashion for the decerning Raider).
...I'd have bet on a Master-Blaster duo but she's effectively both.
11299566 11299439 fixed!
I'm really curious what's up with this Sweetie Belle, but a part if me REALLY wants it to be the Sweetie Belle Chronicles Sweetie Belle.
Snarky: Several generations away from being born.
Luz: Oh, right. The 50's aesthetic makes it way too easy to forget how far in the future this is supposed to be.
11299343
It's been pretty clear that most of Rarity's friends are from the other side. In fact, some of us have bets on Rarity herself being the Zootopian equivalent of the Hart from Buffy.
Based on Snarky's testimony alone, either Isekai Sweetie has some scary powers or she has an eldritch entity for a guardian angel following her around.
11299641
why not both?
Dear god which version of sweetie is this.
'Zod? They lost 'Zod?
May the Raiders rest in many, many pieces
You know, I'm glad I saw this. The cover art reminded me that the anime Ascendance of a bookworm existed, and in fact an entirely new season was already out. So thanks!
Awe it seems sweetie is getting the full wasteland experience complete with cheat codes
11299757
Same, looks like the artist even learned to do eyelids
Sweetie belle when taken by gangsters:
son of Adam (atom) is alt.history's midieval Earth faction
atom-p
"Luz said, but the only ones"
"Luz said, "but the only ones"?
... somehow, this is making *more* sense as it goes along, not less. Which tracks, given this group.
11299725
I feel like they would’ve noticed if Sweetie were a bartione.
And yeah, we’ve got a nasty case of a big fish in a small, albeit radioactive pond. The girls aren’t here to save Sweetie, but to protect the Wasteland. Let’s hope Brutalhammer’s crew has someone comparably lucid to continue the trail.
11300601
Fair, and true.
Fun story as always! Loving it!
The ladies kept to snickers about The Ladies' Knickers?
Hm. I only was just pointed in this fic's direction by a reader of mine who thought my story's character(s) would be entertaining here.
I suppose I'd better get reading.
11299613
Is the next chapter almost ready by now?
Yeah I had thought nick would be a bit more freaked out by the impossible magic shit he's witnessing instead of barely questioning anything and going along with it like it's another Tuesday, granted he's a synth with the mind of an ancient human but whatever.
I haven't read any other chapters of sunsets iseki so can someone who's read it tell me if there is any characters within one of the chapters that reacts extremely negatively to the whole magical dimension hopping bar thing?
I mean any sane person should go completely insane at the notion of alternate dimensions and Magic and all that shit in my opinion or at least experience a severe case of existential crisis, right? Far as I can tell, everyone is just chill.
Ha, yes. That world has decidedly silly rituals.
Oof. God can't help you here.
I just got back into reading the series and recently caught up with the paperback releases (P4 V7), and I'm interested where Myne currently is in relation to Isekai. As someone else commented, there are a lot of reasons that Sunset would want to visit the High Priest.
She's kind of in an odd spot when compared to the rest of Sunset's family/students. They're all from worlds where the story is finished, so Sunset doesn't have to worry about altering events as much. Myne's story is still ongoing, so pulling her away for side adventures may not be an option if Sunset still won't interfere with solving her patron's problems.
I'm guessing that since she's on the cover art, this won't be the last mention of her, so I'll save more of my musings until later.