Debt Collectors (Fallout 4 - Pt. 6)
Sunset's Isekai
Debt Collectors (Fallout 4 - Pt. 6)
By Wanderer D
"So Sweetie got herself a cult?" Danse asked, frowning. "Children of Atom are… not a reliable bunch at the best of times. I can't imagine things went smoothly."
"Come on, she kicked a Raider camp's collective ass on her own!" Cait countered. "Surely those cultists knew better than to cause her problems?"
"Have you met the Children of Atom?" Piper asked. "They're always one step away from asking you to jump into the sludge canister with them, no matter who you are, what you've done, or how likely you are to kill them."
"All good points," Nick said, nodding. "But it has been my experience, and even the original Nick Valentine's, that cults and cultists are never the brightest bunch. They'll make any excuse to justify what they do or have done, and to convince you that it's the only way, regardless of facts or evidence."
Piper sighed. "So what happened to the cultists?"
"So who's this ATOM fellow that Sister Mei swears by?" Robyn asked, glancing at Nick as they followed Mehb across a bridge. "Some sort of god?"
"Some sort of god," Nick said, pondering. "I'm not sure if it qualifies, but they believe that the radiation from the bombs and toxic waste has a will of its own."
"Oh, so it's not like Slaanesh, Tiamat, or Nyarlathotep?" Lena asked. "Just your average anthropomorphization of a basic concept?"
"Well, basic…" Robyn muttered. "Maybe for you, don't you think? We did not have atomic bombs in Kilkenny."
"Slaanesh sounds familiar," Dani said, her head emerging from the floor. "Why does it sound familiar? I know Tiamat has been trying to get into the bar for Dragon's Night, and Nyarly is a riot. But Slaanesh…"
"He's from that 'beastly' world Rarity loves to pretend to hate. The one with the battle nuns from space," Luz explained. "You know. Waaargh!"
"Ooooh!" Dani said. "I remember that place! Didn't Sunset headbutt some chaos god there?
"That was Slaanesh."
"Oh wow, she actually did it?"
"She did, and she swears she got an apology too," Lena said, "but to be honest I doubt the apology part. I didn't hear it, and both of them were mostly groggy from her going Krogan on its ass, so it is entirely possible she imagined that."
"I didn't think you could do that to Slaanesh to begin with."
"I can't, but I'm not Sunset."
"I'm lost." Robyn looked at Nick, who shrugged. He had no idea either.
"Well, it's never bothered her since, though, so there's that," Lena said. "Not that it stops the local humans from trying to shoot her."
"Okay, I think we lost track of the conversation altogether," Nick interrupted. "Th bigger question here is, why would Sister Mei think she was blessed by Atom? Is she a ghoul? Is she radioactive?"
"I'm sure she showers."
Nick simply looked at Luz, who grinned. "Sorry."
"Well, it is a legitimate question, isn't it?" Robyn said after everyone had started walking again. "Why do you think they thought she was chosen by Atom, Lena?"
"Why ask me?" Lena grumbled.
"Because you've known her the longest. What, like two centuries now?"
"Hey, I'm not Sunset! I'm only…" Lena trailed off, counting with her fingers. "Oh, shut up!"
"Wait, you're—" Nick stopped when Lena raised her hand.
"It's hard to explain. I'm… really old, but not? I still age when I'm in my original world, but it's more like… because I want to grow with my friends and family there?" Lena sighed. "I'll probably age until I'm in my mid twenties or so, physically. But… I've been traveling the multiverse with Sunset for a long time."
Nick nodded, thinking about his own, (mostly) unchanging appearance. "It must be hard."
Lena smiled a little, glancing at the others. "It was harder before… but Dani was there, and I still spend time with my other family, back in Duckburg. And with Scrooge being there, who knows how long everyone will live? In a good way, I mean. He's known Rarity for longer than I've known Sunset, and that's saying something. Still… It's hard growing up in an invisible way. Being older, and yet being a teen, you know?"
Nick smiled, "Somewhat. I still am the same thirty-something year old detective I was back when… before Nick transferred his memories into this. I've grown and seen things, but… well. I'm still him."
The girls all nodded solemnly.
"Luz, myself, Dani, Robyn, Mehb, Panam, Mirage, Freya and a few others… we'll live as long as we want to, and we'll look the same," Lena said. She smiled and nodded at the others. "I wouldn't trade it for anything… I'm just lucky that I have this family and my family back home."
Nick coughed. "So… Sweetie Belle."
Lena's smile soured. "I can't tell you much that would make sense, since Rarity and Sweetie sort of defy explanation, but… Sweetie has a corrupting aura around her that can drive people crazy if you're not protected through magic or other means if exposed long enough. I think that's probably what felt familiar to Sister Mei."
"So, the Children of Atom feel the madness and damage the radiation is doing to them, and they still think it's good?!" Luz asked, aghast. "That's crazy!"
"You might think that, but it might just be simple human nature," Nick countered. "You girls have a favorite snack or even soft drink? You know it's not necessarily good for you, but you still keep eating it or drinking it."
"I still won't worship french fries," Dani muttered.
"Anyway," Lena said, "that's my theory."
"Makes sense," Nick said, shaking his head. "Figures that the Children of Atom would flock to something or someone that would make them crazier, faster."
"Well, at least it makes them faster to find," Luz muttered.
Merlin flew back, landing on Robyn's outstretched arm, just as Mebh came back trotting, whining and barking something, that made the Irish girl frown.
"Mebh says that she found the Children of Atom, well, what's left of them."
The group we found was in a sorry state. Well, more sorry than what I have seen the Children of Atom ever be. A couple weeped off to the side, and the road where they were gathered was slashed and mostly melted.
It's hard to explain how I felt. Being a synth, there's always a distinct nagging in the back of my mind screaming at my sense that what I feel is not real. That it's manufactured data that is processed and elicits a response that imitates the 'feelings' that a 'real person' would experience.
On the other hand, I am aware. I know my history, I know I am not human, and I never pretended to be… but I understand others, and whether it's through advanced programing or experience and empathy, I can still connect to people around me, be them human or ghoul, or even other synths.
Maybe it's my memories of how the original Nick Valentine would have reacted… but his time is so long ago, and his experiences so different to mine, that I think at some point I realized it was a moot point to argue whether I could feel or not… and in a big part, I believe that moment when we found the remnants of the group that had followed Sweetie Belle is when I fully realized my empathy was not fabricated.
One of the survivors told us the tale: Sweetie had continued on her unexplained mission, and they had followed. They had simply done so, and she had simply ignored them as inconsequential to her mission… but somehow, these cultists had gotten it into their heads that she was leading them in the ways of Atom.
And this is where my empathy kicked in. To witness these fools place so much faith into a false prophet of sorts… not even an intentional one, but one they projected their distorted view of the world into, only to find out the hard way they had been severely mistaken was… sad.
In many ways, one could interpret their fate as hilarious, in a slightly hysterical and psychopathic way, I suppose. They had followed this apparently 'blessed' little girl until she had taken a turn away from their perceived destination.
They believed that she was leading them to the wastelands of the Glowing Sea, where Atom waited to bless them with radioactivity, so when she had met a ghoul on the way and after talking to him briefly decided to head in a completely different direction, they had been… upset, and called out to her to clarify what her intent was.
Needless to say, this Sweetie Belle of Luz and company doesn't really like being questioned or ordered about, which makes me wonder how this will end up once we catch up to her.
While Dani herded a consortium of crabs into a conveniently-sized box with straps on it for easy carrying, Nick walked over to the Child of Atom that had been babbling his tale to the group when they had found them.
"Okay, so let me get this straight," Nick said, fighting the urge to massage his temples, a habit he had (unnecessarily) carried on from his human template, and which he had thought he had gotten rid of. "You were following this young girl…"
"Like a caravan of perverts, don't you think?" Robyn tossed in.
Nick gave her a look. He knew that was not the intention for their… misguided devotion… but she made it sound even worse than it already was.
"...and Sweetie spotted this ghoul…"
"Yes!" Bernard White, the last member of the troup said, rocking back and forth. "What did we do wrong?! The Chosen One was—"
"Trust me," Luz interrupted him with a raised hand, "I don't know what your god or goddess is like, but none of them in their right mind would choose this particular Sweetie Belle as their champion."
"But—"
"Seriously," Lena interrupted as well. "Gods have nothing to do with her or her sister."
"Anyway," Nick continued, snapping his fingers in front of Bernard to get his attention back away from the duck girl. "what can you tell me about this ghoul? Did you hear a name? Did Sweetie say why she wanted to go with him?"
"She said… she said he had a familiar energy around him," Bernard muttered.
"That's uh, never good," Luz said, while Mebh came to sit next to her and nodded her massive head next to her. The size of that wolf was simply staggering.
"W-well, she did!" Bernard stammered. "And then she said that she was going with him, after she had uh, somehow made him fly to her from where he was ahead in the road."
"She what now?" Nick asked.
"Telekinesis," Lena said.
"Right."
"B-but she was going the wrong way! The Glowing Sea is in another direction!" Bernard hissed. "We told her so! That she was mistaken, that Atom's will would have her go to our greatest sanctuary!"
"Oooh…" Luz hissed, wincing in sympathy. "That is not something you want to tell Sweetie or Rarity. They have a nasty habit of eating chaos gods."
"Luz!" Lena gasped. "That's just a rumor!"
"Is it, though?"
"Some of those are pools of goop, that's disgusting!"
"It doesn't work like that!"
"Girls!" Nick interrupted the escalating, and rather baffling, argument. "Focus." He turned to look at the man, considering his options. "Let's go back to basics. Did she mention a name? Can you describe this ghoul to me?"
"Uh… he was a ghoul?" Bernard said, hesitantly. "You know how ghouls loo—"
"How was he dressed?" Nick interrupted.
"Oh. Um… he had some armor on… kinda looked from different factions, leather jacket…" the child of Atom paused for a moment, eyes straying away as he thought of the ghoul. "Uh, well armed, not that it did any good against the Chosen o—"
Luz cleared her throat.
"...um, against uh, Sweetie Belle. I think he wore a page hat?"
"Wait. Wait, wait, wait." Piper spoke up, interrupting the story. "Are you telling me Sweetie Belle snagged Edward Deegan?"
"Well, aren't you reporters fond of ruining the surprise?" Nick muttered.
"Sorry! It's just the description fits perfectly!"
"Who's that?" Cait asked.
Piper glanced at Nick, who shrugged.
"Um, he's the manservant of the Cabot family…" Piper muttered, then her eyes widened. "...you're telling me…"
Nick grinned.
"I'm afraid I'm unfamiliar with this ghoul, but from the sound of it, he's a mercenary working at the Parsons State Insane Asylum, which is in the direction Bernard here pointed us," Nick said where he was crouching in a circle with the girls and the giant wolf. He looked from them to Bernard, now stumbling away, carrying the box full of crabs. "Can she really…?"
He trailed off. He had seen plenty of crazy things around the Boston area, and even more in the last day, but…
"Turn them all into crabs?" Luz asked, "yes. Yes she can."
"It has something to do with Rarity fighting giant crabs, I think," Lena added.
Nick frowned. "Giant crabs? Like Mirelurkers?"
"Oh, those things?" Dani waved her hand, dismissing the thought. "Nah. I mean actually giant crabs. Not mutants like these ones."
"I see," he said. Although he really didn't. "Are they going to be okay?"
The girls exchanged glances, all turning eventually to Lena, who sighed. "Probably. I don't think that was permanent."
"They got lucky then, didn't they?" Robyn said.
"Well… that's assuming that Bernard taking them to the Glowing Sea doesn't trigger some sort of horrifying mutation that mixes with the magic to create a race of crab people that will somehow try to take over the world in a hundred years or so."
They all turned to stare at Luz.
"What?" she said. "Don't you know how many eggs crabs lay? We're talking millions here."
"Please tell me that won't happen," Nick said to Lena.
She cleared her throat. "Um. It's very unlikely."
"In any case, we should head over to this Parson's Asylum place," Robyn said. "Now we know where she's probably going, don't we? We shouldn't dally."
"I suppose that's true," Nick said, standing up and dusting his pants. "Come on: I know the way."
They walked in silence for some time before Luz finally spoke. "So… what's with the Asylum? No offense, but why would you have one still working when everything is like this?"
Nick shrugged. "No one knows. The Asylum is abandoned as far as anyone is concerned, although it's been used for years as the gathering place for a group of mercenaries. We never crossed paths, and they never committed crimes near or in Diamond City, so there's never been any need for me to find out more about the place."
"Why would Sweetie want to go there then?" Dani asked, floating back to keep even with Nick as they walked. "I don't think she has been here before."
"Well, whatever her reason, we can't have her rampaging across the Wasteland," Nick stated. "Sooner or later she's going to harm someone that's actually innocent instead of simply turning them into crabs." He visibly cringed. "Now, there's a sentence I never expected to say."
Luz patted him on the shoulder. "It happens. You'll get used to it."
"I'm not sure I want to."
"Okay, I hate to interrupt," Piper interrupted, "but how long between check-ups was this? Because there's no way it's real."
"What do you mean?" Danse asked.
"Come on, you're telling me that some girl turned a bunch of people into crabs? And I'm supposed to believe that?!"
"You didn't argue much about her taking down the Raider camp, did you?" Cait stated, eyes narrowing.
Piper rolled her eyes. "You know that could have been anything from an uprising of other prisoners to them getting a lucky break from a Super Mutant attack on the camp."
"What about the witches flying around, the ghosts and—"
"Ok. Look, the crabs are just too much, alright?"
"Ladies, why don't we let Nick finish his story first and then argue about it?" Danse asked.
"Fine."
"Sounds good to me!"
"Is it me, or does that place have way too many electric towers?" Dani asked. "Why would you need to go so… Tesla on it?"
Nick shrugged. "I don't think it does much for the architecture of the place, but it's not unusual to see old places like this one, refitted past the days of glory into an amalgam of lost grandeur and modern psychotic."
"Wow, that was a mouthful," Luz said.
"It makes sense, though," Lena said, shrugging. "It's obvious it was a nice looking asylum at one point, but after the war they made do with what they could to turn it into this."
"Let me take a look around." Luz jumped onto her staff and flew off. "Come on, Merlyn! Mebh!"
The hawk and wolf shared a look before following after her, the hawk in the air, the wolf sniffing around the building, leaving the rest to study the structure at a distance.
"I don't like it." Robyn crossed her arms, frowning at the place. "It seems… severe? Is it odd that it somewhat reminds me of the Head Laundress from the Castle back in Kilkenny?"
"No, it looks like the type of place that would have a job called 'Head Laundress' in it, just not… related to clothing," Dani said.
Nick gave her an amused glance.
"What? It's true! This place looks less like the place you'd take anyone with mental issues to heal, and more where you'd dump them for a lobotomy."
"Well, whatever the case might be, it seems we're at the right place!" Luz said, descending up to hover just above ground. "I saw some people melded alive into the walls!"
"Cool!" Dani said, eyes shining. "I've got to see that!"
Nick followed the group at a more subdued pace, grimacing when he saw the desperately waving hands, legs and arms of people trapped in the walls. "You girls are far too used to this kind of thing for it to be healthy."
"Ha! I laugh in the face of health!" Luz declared.
"That's not something to be proud of, is it?" Robyn asked, shaking her head.
"Mamá said the same thing."
"Well, she was right."
They stepped through the main door and glanced inside. The place was a mess: old abandoned wheelchairs were scattered around the dirty floor, half collapsed walls obstructed the main hallway, and plants had grown through the cracked windows and into the building itself, with vines climbing along the edges of the walls and wrapping around abandoned furniture.
"If it weren't for all the security outside, I'd almost believe this place was abandoned," Lena said. "Well, that and the dark magic. That kind of puts things in another light."
"Oh no, there's more!" a raspy voice hacked out between coughs.
Nick and the girls turned to see a well armed and armored ghoul leaning back against a broken sofa. He studied them all one by one until his eyes fell on Nick.
"Well, that's a face I didn't expect to see. You're Nick Valentine?"
Nick rolled his shoulders as he approached. "That would be me, but I'm afraid I don't know who you are, Mr…"
"Deegan. Edward Deegan," the ghoul replied, sitting up straighter. "What are you doing here?"
"We're after the little girl that did all this," Nick replied, kneeling down next to Edward to check him for wounds. "My friends here can stop her."
"Is that true?" Edward asked, looking at the girls, then blinking when he realized one of them was a giant duck.
"Yes," Lena said. "It's weird that Sweetie even went through all of this trouble. What's going on here that would get her attention?"
Deegan visibly clamped down.
"If we don't know we can't help…"
Deegan gritted his teeth. "I don't know. The girl said she could feel someone's prayers on me… but that's ridiculous! And then she… look this will sound crazy, but she levitated me! I couldn't even move to get my gun. It was like was being held by a yao guai!"
"A what?" Luz asked.
"Mutated bear," Nick said, then motioned for Deegan to continue.
"A-anyway, she wanted me to tell her where I was going, and I said that I would not, then she… somehow… she touched my head and I saw clear as day this place, and the entrance to the underground—"
He cut off.
"I see," Nick said. "How long ago did you arrive?"
"Just a few minutes, she shouldn't be all the way down," Deegan answered, pointing at a door. "Whatever you do, don't let her get to the bottom!"
"Alright, let's go stop her," Lena ordered. "We don't know what she's planning to do, so everyone be ready for a fight."
It was then that they heard the voice.
"Lorenzo!" the voice of a young woman shouted, making the girls jump in place.
"That must be Sweetie Belle?" Nick half-stated, half-asked Luz, who nodded.
"Lorenzo! I know you're in there hiding, you dumb, godless nerd! Where's my payment?!"
"Who the hay is Lorenzo, and why does he owe her money?" Dani asked.
"I don't think it's money she's after," Luz muttered. "Come on!"
They ran down into a subterranean hallway that slowly turned from the bones of an old building, into something more akin to a dungeon, oddly mixed with more advanced medical-looking equipment, until, at the bottom, they found Sweetie glowering from within a room at an old man with a weird helmet, who was trapped inside some sort of high security prison.
As I took my first look at the young girl that had caused all of this, I can't say that I wasn't mildly disappointed.
From gangsters, to raiders, to radioactive cultists and secretive mercenaries, my idea of Sweetie Belle had devolved from that of an innocent-looking girl, into some sort of evil-incarnate, tentacle-wielding, barely-human creature that possessed and abused her incredible power to bully her way through the Wasteland.
I did not expect this young, classic beauty with bouncy hair and pouting lips. She was… or looked… as young as the other girls of the group, promising to grow from a young woman to a stunning adult in a few years.
She stood there, leaning forward with her hands on the computer deck in front of her, pouting at a cowering man inside some old tech prison.
I was expecting Sweetie Belle to be upset at our arrival, but she simply turned and studied us in surprise. "Oh. Girls… you brought Nick Valentine?" She then seemingly forgot about Lorenzo and turned to face us, crossing her arms and glaring sternly at the girls.
"W-well, we needed a detective!" Luz stammered.
"You know better than to change major events! Nick wasn't supposed to find out about this for a few years!"
Nick shook his head, blinking. "I—what?"
"You say that, but here you are terrorizing an old man!" Dani argued. "How's that not a double standard?"
Sweetie's eyes narrowed. "Oh, Lorenzo here contacted me several decades ago, then when he got the powers he wanted, went over to worship some other unknowable evil! He didn't give me the payment he promised!" She harrumphed. "I have legitimate reason to be here demanding payment."
"Isn't he like, needed later on?" Lena asked.
"Not really, he's optional at best," Sweetie countered. She leaned back to shout at the cowering man. "You hear that, Lorenzo? You're a side quest! A glorified NPC of no real value to the universe!"
"This is… not a game, Sweetie," Robyn spoke next.
"Okay, you need to explain this to me. How does she know who I am?" Nick asked, glancing warily at Sweetie.
"It's difficult—"
"No, it's not," Sweetie interrupted Lena. "Nick, there are many versions of you, me and even them in the multiverse and omniverse. Some are very similar to you, some are not. I am not anything like most other Sweeties the girls have met. So I know, you… from other yous."
"Wow," Lena said after a moment. "I think you said that more effectively than Sunset."
Sweetie rolled her eyes. "Sunset just tries to be gentle about the same facts. I'm too young to care about that."
"Is that how it works?" Luz asked. "Because when I said the same thing to my mamá, she pulled out… la chancla." She shuddered.
"That's not how it works," Lena muttered. "It's just teenage angst."
"Huh." Sweetie said, giving Lena a look.
"I know," Lena snapped, "that's why I'm telling you that's not how it works."
"Okay, you need to slow down, this whole conversation is giving me a headache," Nick said, "and synths aren't supposed to get headaches!"
"That, and we can't have you run away as you did, you know?" Robyn said, marching over to pat the young woman in the arm. "Do you know what Sunset and worse, Rarity, would do if something happened to you?"
Sweetie glared at Lorenzo one last time, then sighed. "Fine, it's not like he's going anywhere."
Nick poked the fire with a stick, rustling it a bit before throwing in another piece of wood.
"Turns out that while coming here was a first for the rest of the girls, Sweetie had visited this world a few times in the past. Not a similar one… this particular one, and had met Lorenzo when he was much younger and breaking into an ancient Pyramid where she had decided to take a nap between hunts.
"Lorenzo had asked her for power and given her little things and presents of more extravagant earthly value until, more tired of his whining than actually happy with the gifts, she had granted him a smidge of power, which he had promised to pay back to her in kind, now that he could recover more ancient secrets.
"Looking at her, I also quickly deduced that she had completely forgotten she had done that, and it was merely a cosmic coincidence that she had ended up coming back, rather than intentionally being here for him.
"Sweetie explained to us that she had visited other worlds like these when she remembered Lorenzo, but she had arrived at different locations that were similar, but not quite right, and that the Lorenzos there were not affected by her power at all.
"Eventually she had completely forgotten about him—as I suspected—and it was Edward Deegan passing by the concert that had triggered both her memory, and her unexpected trip.
"Sweetie got her payment, which reduced Lorenzo's power, as she only took back what 'she was due, but with a 10% APR', and left with us. We assured Edward that everything was in order, and even met with Jack Cabot for a moment, who confirmed to all involved that everything was secured and Sweetie had not caused any damage.
"I got watch people emerge from the walls as Sweetie taught Lena how to perform the magic herself… something about resonating their powers. After that, the girls went with me to Diamond City, where we said our goodbyes."
Nick grinned at his friends. "And that is why nothing surprises me anymore."
"You—you expect me to believe all of that?!" Piper jumped up from Danse's lap so fast she almost didn't give Cait time to remove her chin from the danger zone. "And what, they just left?"
Nick shrugged.
"So what happened to the crab people?" Cait asked.
"Sweetie said that it was only temporary, and at worst she would check on them later," Nick said. "I don't think she's come by since, so if they didn't turn back into humans or mutated as Luz suggested, it's too late by far now to do anything about it."
"And so everything is tightly wrapped together," Danse said, grinning. "That was a nice story, Nick."
"I guess it was a good way to pass the time, wasn't it?" Cait asked, elbowing Piper, who had sat down, cross-armed and pouting. "I never knew you had this side to you, Nick. Good for you."
"What side?" Nick asked, blinking.
"The creative side, you know?" Cait clarified. "You should get Piper to help you write the whole thing down. Some polishing here an' there and you've got yourself a good book series for kids, don't you?"
"Right." Piper snorted. "It's too bad we ran out of drinks. I need a stiff one after that."
"What?" Cait cackled. "Danse and Blue not doing it for you?"
"That's not what I mean!" Piper said, although she could barely hide her own smile. "It's just… I wanted the true story, damn it."
"Hm." Nick nodded solemnly, twirling a card in his fingers. "Well, I suppose we can't do much for disappointment there. But, if you really want a drink, I know a place nearby."
The girls and Danse looked up at him and blinked.
"Oh?" Danse asked. "Where?"
"Yeah, I didn't know there were any watering holes around here," Cait added.
Nick stood and dusted his trenchcoat free of sand, walking around them to stand next to the arch of stones framing the wooden door with the yin-yang sun in it. "Sunset's bar, of course." He gently pushed the door open and they could see…
"Oh no," Piper whispered, eyes wide. "I see a duck with a tray delivering drinks to people."
"I see it too," Cait said.
"It's real…" Danse muttered.
Nick grinned. "Yes it is, and I for one, could also use another drink. Coming?"
The End
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Beautiful ending!
Pretty sure that was an ambulatory corpse of some description, not the radiation-infused "ghouls" of Fallout proper.
Nobody's seen Malal lately... (also, I'd be tempted to say "other Chaos gods" simply because that's not far off)
To be fair, that's completely normal for pre-war buildings in Fallout even when they've been resettled. I'd be imagining it that way even if you'd left it undescribed. I'm sure someone who'd actually played Fallout 4 can back me up that you're just describing the canon appearance of the building.
Shaggy Dog story slowly turns into Serving Duck.
Lovely
Sunset... Rarity... what kind of things you exposed these innocent children to?
Love that ending, incredulity to "I see it too............"
11470011
I'm sure once you're seen 40 realities you've seen 40 thousand of them.
Crazily enough, there are some Atom cultists who seem to be completely immune to radiation. They call it Atom's Blessing.
I think you got the wrong spelling the first time
Fantastic end to the arc
This Nick seems like a fun guy to be around. Where to next?
And so it ends. Well, this particular little arc.
Big fan of the ending, and his nonchelant and cheeky confirmation that it was all real.
Yessssdd!
New chapter that wraps up that bit if a story ark and leaves room to be came back to later on if you want to
I'm so exited that this story has yet another chapter!.
"Nick said, shaking her head."
"Nick said, shaking his head."?
Was expecting Lena to appear and offer drinks at the bar while pointing towards the door.
Bravo good ending
11470389 Thanks! I fixed it.
11471020
Oh, and thanks for writing, by the way. :)
(I was rather tired at the time of my previous comment, as I recall.)
So we’ve gotten to the characters having SoD breaking levels of power I see.
A good ending, here.
11472628 I'm sorry, SoD?
11472760
Suspension of Disbelief.
11473026
Ah. Not sure why you say that exactly, but I hope you're enjoying the story regardless.
I'd be willing to! What boons would I get? Permanently increased fry portions? Perfect amount of salt and crispiness every time? Free french fries once a day???
Ahh, always feels good to be proven right. Vindication huzzah!!!
Well, at least you got people around who know how to handle her.
Oh. OH. She's the actual sister of the Rarity who owns the bar? I did not see that coming
Oh, great. This will lead all the way to Dunwitch, won't it? Freaking Cabots...
She's kind of sounding like Gus here. This is totally the kind of thing Gus would say.
"And that's how we got demons!"
Don't tell me that is who Lorenzo's been talking to
Did she just call herself an "unknowable evil"?
Oh, come on. That's just mean. Players are trying to get to the bottom of this whole creepy Lovecraftian mystery! You need Lorenzo for that!
Ha. Perfect ending.
Remarks and corrections:
> and whether it's through advanced programing or experience and empathy
Misspelled "programming".
> "I got watch people emerge from the walls
Missing word: "I got [to] watch"
i1.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/612/313/296.jpg
.....Hold up a damn second. What?