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It’s Too Damn Cold

Finally! I have finally completed my half of my art trade with redgraveconspiracy. I know it’s way overdue and I’m super sorry! I wanted to make something you would really like but I kept putting it off because I’m not very confident in my writing. Forgive me senpai~

As requested, something “winter” themed (though it’s not really winter anymore hrrhrr). I decided to do something Lolix for you! I wanted to incorporate your blind Locus but I just couldn’t work it in. Maybe next time!

In any case, I hope it was worth the wait! 

Winter.

The lock was old and rusty and Locus had to tug off his leather gloves to fit the key into it. After a few seconds of frustration he was able to push the door open, only to be greeted by darkness.

Locus blinked, scrunched his eyebrows together. Unusual. The light in the small mudroom had been on when he left, with his partner shouting requests for supplies at him as he descended the stairs. Felix had the insufferable habit of leaving every light in the apartment on. He never heeded Locus’ lectures about wastefulness.

With a long suffering sigh, Locus toed off his military-grade boots, lining them up neatly against the wall amongst Felix’s scattered things. He shrugged off his heavy black coat and unwound his green knit scarf, both of which found their home on a hanger above the boots. When he had shed his winter layers he stepped into the kitchenette. Still dark. Several corners of the room, however, were illuminated with an orange glow.

Candles? Locus continued to frown. He knew that Felix was prone to occasional romantic frivolity but this seemed excessive, even for him. Not in the mood to indulge, he reached over and flicked the light switch.

Nothing.

“Don’t fuckin’ bother.” Came a muffled voice from the adjoining living room. “The fuckin’ power’s out.”

Locus deposited his bag of supplies next to the door and crossed the room to look down at the sagging old couch. There he found a bundle of blankets and righteous indignation that he assumed was Felix. 

“What?” He asked in a dull monotone.

A pair of amber eyes appeared among the blankets, then the entirety of Felix’s head. His face was that of a cat who had been caught in the rain, complimented by the matted mess that was his hair. “You heard me.” He snapped. “Power’s out! Friggin’ heat too. Something about iced over power lines or some shit. Jackass landlord doesn’t know when it’ll be fixed. We should kill him when we leave, y’know. Burn this shithole to the ground too.” Apparently recognizing the condescension and mild annoyance in Locus’ eyes he added, “What?! It’s fucking cold in here.”

This was another reason that Locus hated winter: Felix’s incessant whining. The smaller man hated the cold and wanted to make sure that the people around him were aware of it. If he was miserable it was only right that everyone else should be too.

Choosing to ignore his partner’s complaints, Locus simply said, “We have everything we need for tomorrow’s assignment.”

“Did you get the flashbangs I asked for?”

“No.”

“What, why the hell not?”

“We don’t need them. This mission is to be as covert as possible.”

“Ugh. Fine. Whatever.” Felix groaned. With what looked to be a great deal of effort he sat up, keeping the blankets wrapped around his neck. “Hey, do you wanna hit a bar or something? It’d warm us up.”

“No.” Locus said firmly. “We’ll need to be well rested for tomorrow. And I will not allow you to complicate the assignment by being hungover. Understood?”

Felix released another exaggerated moan. “You are absolutely no fun.”

“I’m aware. Now, I’m going to bed.”

In the space of half an hour Locus had laid out his equipment for the next day, washed his face and hair, and prepared for sleep. Before retreating to his bed he stuck his head into the living room to make sure that Felix was still sulking on the couch. Satisfied that the other mercenary hadn’t snuck out just to spite him, he retired.

Sometime later, Locus wasn’t sure how much, he felt his mattress shift. Immediately awake, he reached for the gun he kept under his pillow. One eye slid open, only to see someone with a matted mohawk climbing into his bed.

“Felix?” He asked, trying to sound groggy. He relaxed his grip on the gun, but did not release it completely. “What are you doing?” “Shut the hell up, okay?” Felix grumbled. “It’s just really goddamn cold!”

Locus watched through one eye as Felix made himself at home, pulling the covers up around himself. He opened the other eye when the other man snuggled close, resting his face in the crook of his neck. “It’s just fucking cold.” Felix murmured again, this time with less conviction. Locus said nothing, just placed one arm around his partner and allowed him to cuddle in and leech off his body heat. 

A few minutes passed and Felix fell completely still, his slow breathing the only indication he was alive at all. Locus looked down at the smaller man and almost smiled. Almost. From the bedside table a blue glow appeared and his cheap burner phone buzzed impatiently. Careful not to disturb Felix, Locus reached over him and snatched up the phone. The screen alerted him to a new text message.

Power should be fixed soon. Sorry guys! –Tod

Unfortunate.

Wild Wild Wasteland - Chapter 1: Still Suckin’ Air

So, I recently started playing Fallout: New Vegas and I thought it would be a fun exercise to write along with the adventures of my Courier, Virginia Marshall. Since I’m writing it anyway, I thought I would post it here for others to read. I would love any likes, reblogs, and feedback you feel it warrants

Rating: Mature

Warnings for this chapter: None

Read it on AO3

The first thing she saw, when the patches of haze cleared from her eyes, was a ceiling fan spinning listlessly overhead, blades dragging slowly through the air as if propelled by an onerous sense of duty rather than an electric motor. She watched the fan float overhead for what felt like minutes but probably weren’t, afraid to blink. The act of closing her eyes threatened to plunge her back into the darkness she had just surfaced from.  Instead she lay staring up at the ceiling, listening to her own rattling breaths and reveling in the slow throb of her head and the feeling of sweat trickling down her neck. Before much time had passed like this, however, the dry desert air got the better of her. In the fraction of a second it took her to flutter her eyelids closed and open again, there was a flash, a snippet of memory, so brief it was more like a primitive imprint.

Cold night air in her face. The flicker of neon from the New Vegas Strip in the distance. Adrenaline coursing through her bloodstream. Ropes biting at her wrists as she squirmed.

A man. A man in a checkered suit.

“Sorry you got twisted up in this scene, kid. From where you’re kneeling, it must seem like an eighteen-karat run of bad luck.”

A gun in her face. A coil of anger in her gut.

“Truth is, the game was rigged from the start.”

Fury igniting, burning as brightly as the muzzle flare from the gun as it fired.

That was it. That was all she had left of the past several days. The man in the checkered suit had left her for dead, with a single image and a deep, untempered fury.

Of the many questions she was left with, the most pressing was where she was, quickly followed by how she was still sucking air. A gunshot wound to the head wasn’t something that most people licked with a little rest. She’d never much cared for luck, but maybe she was luckier than she thought. She blinked again. That her view was of a ceiling and not the Nevada sky – or six feet of dirt – told her that she had been moved. Why, and by whom, remained a mystery.

Without thinking she heaved herself up on her elbows and swung her feet over the bed, and was rewarded with a pang of dizziness.

At least she could move.

At least she could feel anything.

“You’re awake. How ‘bout that.”

When her vision had come back into focus and her stomach had climbed down from her throat, she saw that she was not alone. A deeply creased forehead and bristly white mustache stared back at her from a chair at her bedside. She lurched forward, unsure what she had intended with the motion. A warm, steady hand caught her shoulder and pushed her back up into a sitting position.

“Whoa, easy there. Easy.” The man cooed in a voice typically reserved for startled animals. “You’ve been out cold for a couple of days now.”

Her mouth opened, but all that she could summon forth was a rattling groan, like gravel under a boot.

The man looked concerned, the creases in his forehead growing even deeper. “Why don’t you relax a second. Get your bearings.”

She huffed, but sank more fully into the cot that, evidently, she had been camped on for the past several days. Still wary, but resigned.

Seemingly satisfied, the man leaned forward, “Let’s see what the damage is. How ‘bout your name. Can you tell me your name?”

The answer rose to her mouth before she could think up a suitable alias. “Virginia… Marshall.” When her voice finally came it was dry and cracked and caked with dust.

Thin white eyebrows furrowed. “Huh. Can’t say it’s what I’d have picked for ya. But if that’s your name, that’s your name.” He shrugged. “I’m Doc Mitchell. Welcome to Goodsprings.”

Virginia only blinked in greeting, feeling dazed.

The doctor remained unfazed and began rummaging through an old leather doctor’s bag next to his chair. “Now, I hope you don’t mind, but I had to go rooting around there in your noggin’ to pull all the bits of lead out.”

Her hand instinctively shot to her face, fingertips searching out scar tissue. They were interrupted almost immediately when a mirror, produced from the bag, was thrust into her hands.

“I take pride in my needlework, but you’d better tell me if I left anything out of place.”

Virginia lifted the mirror to stare at her reflection.

“How’d I do?” The man’s voice was hopeful.

She had to admit, she looked pretty damn good for a gal who had just taken a bullet to the head. All the necessary parts were there, and in the right order – thin lips, hazel eyes, a slightly crooked nose, auburn bangs. She moved the mirror to the left, to the right, wincing when she realized her hair had been left tied and pinned to the bag of her head. If the bullet hadn’t given her a headache, she was sure that that would have done the trick.

Lowering the mirror revealed Doc Mitchell’s expectant face. “Thank you…” She rasped.

The Doc’s expression turned sheepish. “Well, I got most of it right anyway. Stuff that mattered.” He straightened his spine. “Okay, no sense in keeping you in bed anymore. Let’s see if we can get you on your feet.

A steady hand found her shoulder and another grasped her side, slowly pulling her upwards into a standing position. Her earlier grapple with the urge to vomit fresh in her mind, Virginia allowed herself to be carefully righted. The doctor waited until she appeared steady on her own two feet to ease his grin on her. She shuffled her weight back and forth experimentally, testing her balance.

“Good,” the old man mused. “Why don’t you walk down to the end of the room? Over by that vigor tester machine there.”

Walking proved to be easier than expected once she was properly oriented, and she closed the distance between herself and the blinking machine with long, purposeful strides. Behind her the doctor chuckled. “Take it slow now. It ain’t a race.”

“Looking good so far,” He noted, ambling over to join her at the machine, a limp painfully visible in his stride. “Go ahead and give that vigor tester a try. We’ll learn right quick if you got back all your faculties.”

The device in question looked more like a repurposed arcade game than a piece of medical equipment. It probably was. There were flashing bulbs and cartoonish depictions of the various aspects of fitness it purported to measure. She reached out and grabbed the lever jutting out of the machine, squeezing with as much pressure as the muscles in her hand would allow. The vigor tester whirred and shuddered, and finally spit out a long ream of paper, which the good doctor snatched up and squinted at.

“Yep, that’s a pretty standard score there. But after what you been through, I’d say that’s good news!” The paper disappeared into his pocket before she could reach for it. “Let’s go into the next room. I’ve got a few more tests I’d like to run.”

Virginia followed with uncharacteristic compliance, lingering in the doorway until the doctor gestured for her to have a seat on a misshapen sofa that groaned and sagged under her weight. Doc Mitchell settled across from her with his own creaks and groans – the soundtrack of old age.

“Well, we know your vitals are good, but that don’t mean them bullets didn’t leave you nuttier than a Bighorner dropping. What do you say we see if your dogs are still barkin’.”

What followed could only be descried, albeit loosely, as a psychological battery. She pliantly endured word-association, inkblot tests, and other questions of dubious purpose. What good the results would do either of them were not obvious to her. Perhaps the more pressing concern was what the old man intended to do if the results weren’t to his liking. She never had to find out. Doc Mitchell transitioned casually into questions about her medical history. “Just a formality,” he assured her, ostensibly to put her at ease. “Ain’t like I expect to find you got a family history of getting’ shot in the head.” He chuckled at his own joke.

A smile cracked Virginia’s dry lips. “After gettin’ shot in the head, Doc, I should be history.”

Her attempt at humor, or maybe the fact that she had regained enough vitality to crack wise, brightened the Doctor’s laughter as he led her towards the door. Before reaching the end of the hall, however, he ducked into another room, reappearing with a worn leather satchel. “Here, these are yours. Was all you had on you when you was brought in. I, er, hope you don’t mind, but I gave the note a look. I thought it might help me find a next of kin, but it was just something about a platinum chip.”

The skin on the back of her neck prickled. A platinum chip. The package! She was Courier Six! She had been delivering a package for the Mojave express when she had been attacked. She saw the man in the checkered suit again. This time he was tossing a poker chip into the air and snatching it deftly back. She clutched her belongings, grinding her teeth to conceal the sudden flood of white-hot anger. That bastard. That job would have been worth a lot of caps. The Doc gave her a strange look and she smiled amiably back at him, swallowing her rage, though it burned on the way down. “Thanks for patchin’ me up, Doc.”

 After a long pause, in which his suspicion was made evident, he smiled back. “Don’t mention it. It’s what I’m here for.”

They continued down the hall, but the doctor stopped again before the door. He cleared his throat. “Well, if you’re heading back out there, you ought to have this.”

The object he offered forward, snagged from a small chest near a coat rack, was a mess of metal and leather, blinking lights and a glowing screen. She recognized it immediately as Vault technology.

“They call it a Pip-Boy,” He explained, confirming what she already suspected. “I grew up in one of them Vaults they made before the war. We all got one. Ain’t much use to me now, but you might want such a thing after what you been through.” She opened her mouth to protest, realizing how valuable this particular piece of tech was, how many caps it might be worth out in the wasteland if things got tough. This wasn’t a gift you simply gave to a stranger out of the goodness of your heart. The Doc, though, simply held up his hand and shook his head. “I know what it’s like, having something taken from you.”

Virginia nodded mutely. There was a story in those words, but she didn’t ask after it and he didn’t offer it. In the end they both knew more than if either of them had. She wasn’t sure what it was he thought had been taken from her, but she could feel the loss of it keenly. She accepted the Pip-Boy without a word, strapping the contraption to her arm with some difficulty. After the last strap had been secured the static on the screen cleared, displaying her vital readings on an all-too cheery cartoon of the Vault Tech mascot. The device monitored her heart rate, blood pressure, even her radiation levels. She flexed her arm, wiggling It back and forth to habituate herself to the weight of it.

While she had been mooning over her new piece of tech, the good doctor had retrieved another treasure from the chest. “Put this on too, so the locals don’t pick on you for lacking modesty.” He pushed a neatly-folded blue jumpsuit into her hands. This time Virginia didn’t argue, having become abruptly aware of the fact that she had spent the past hour or so mulling about a stranger’s house in nothing but her underthings. In the dry, oppressive heat of the Mojave she hadn’t even noticed.

“Was my wife’s,” Doc Mitchell elaborated as she stepped into the suit. “I think she was about your size, and she hardly wore it after we left the vault. Felt it was too brazen.”

Virginia nodded, not sure what to say to this. “Thank you” seemed lacking. Fortunately, the doctor kept talking, sparing them both her awkward fumbling with gratitude. “You should talk to Sonny Smiles before you leave town. She can help you learn to fend for yourself in the desert. She’ll likely be at the saloon. I reckon some of the other folks at the saloon might be able to help you out, too. And that metal fella, Victor, who pulled you outta your grave.”

A pause, during which they merely stared at each other.

“Anyway, you ever get hurt out there, you come right back, y’hear? I’ll fix you up. But try not to get killed anymore.”

Virginia was still at a loss, unable to express her thanks or whatever else she might be feeling. She settled on a grin and a flippant salute.

Doc Mitchell saluted back, smiling after her as she strolled out into the wasteland.

So, here is a thing I wrote for @overthinkingfeathers for the 2017 Handers Secret Saturnalia so I thought I would share it here because it’s so much easier to read and keep track of (also I never write anything so this is one of my few true accomplishments). I really hope they enjoyed it, even if I am a bit rusty!

Title: Encounters Rating: Teen Warnings: Blood, fighting Prompt: Hawke accidentally stumbles upon a mage run in progress.

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