this is a SELECTIVE and MUTUALS ONLY indie rp blog for COOPER HOWARD of amazon prime's FALLOUT tv show. show compliant and headcanon heavy. written by pickle. NOT SPOILER FREE.
A STUDY IN: simple not stupid, war never changes, what you become when your world falls apart, from lawful good to chaotic neutral, the bond between a father and his daughter...
PERSONALS PLEASE DO NOT REBLOG ANY ORIGINAL POSTS OF MINE! i donāt mind personals following/engaging, but I would like my posts/takes, etc. kept in the rpc and away from the wider fandom. thank you!
tldr rules below the cut!
read my rules.
writer: 33. lesbian. pst. lazy af. be patient.
content: this is a fallout blog. canon typical violence will be present in text/images.
DON'T: godmod, metagame, be dick. the usual stuff.
selectivity: i am mutuals only.
portrayal: canon compliant(ish) but headcanon heavy.
formatting: i barely do any. i will not follow blogs that use crazy big spaces and shit between words and letters. i can't read that stuff.
interacting: memes are by far the easiest way to interact. throw them at me always!
shipping: chemistry is key. and coop is an asshole. you've been warned. g.houlcy will be all over this blog. if u don't like it, leave. don't bring hate on my ship to me thanks. :) u can dislike/not care for the ship but i'm talking outright hate on it.
reblog karma: i'll remember as best i can to reblog from the source. reblog w/e u want from me if it comes up on the dash.
blocking/hate: anon hate will be blocked. any barb/max hate will be blocked. i block very liberally for a myriad of reasons. it's not personal. love and light. <3
her temper flares again, but she reels it back in. they're still much too close to the water for eliana to take any risks.ā you really think i was being taught to swim down in a vault? ā she asks, cocking a brow. ā of course i don't know how. ā the biggest body of water in 101 had been the bathtub in her apartment. maybe fancier vaults had been outfitted with such luxuries, but not hers.
not that it explains why, after twenty years in the wasteland, she's never bothered to fill that gap in her survival skills, but the roots of her fear are none of his business.
ā would it really matter if i'd told you? ā she asks, gesturing limply around them. ā no one actually expects a bridge to crumble underneath them, and, like you said, there was no other way around. ā she holds back that she can't imagine him jumping in after her, anyway. who knows how fast that current really is? or what lurks beneath it? she shudders at the thought. she doesn't want to drown, but she certainly wouldn't want to damn anyone to that fate alongside her.
her expression settles into a softer look, half-pleading for understanding.
ā besides, i don't exactly see you giving me a list of your fears and weaknesses, either. we both know better than that. ā
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā āoh, iām sorry, i didnāt realize you crawled outta your vault yesterday,ā he retorts without missing a beat.
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā being a vault-dweller might explain not growing up knowing how to swim, but sheās had plenty of time since then to learn. not every body of water is full of rads either, so that doesnāt explain it either. were it not for her intense reaction, he wouldnāt think much of it; he canāt imagine sheās the only person in the wasteland who canāt swim, but sheās afraid of water. that much is clear whether she ever confirms it or not.
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā when she asks, he shrugs, seeing her point. āprobably not.ā the river stretches on for miles in either direction as far as he can tell; they could follow the bend for days and not find its end or a safer place to cross. and he sure as well wasnāt going to waste time doing that. heād have dragged her across himself or left her behind before doing any of that.
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā āmaybe not, but i aināt walkinā us right into āem either.ā fear, he understands, so whatever she may think, he doesnāt judge her for it. in fact, heād be worried if there wasnāt something she was afraid of. fear is smart. whatās stupid is not sharing it when itās relevant.
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā āi wasn't asking your permission, cooper.ā lucy frowns at him, hands planted on her hips. she is a grown woman, after all, and she's come a long way from the one who first left the vault. āwe need the supplies,āĀ she adds, as though it requires pointing out. āand who knows when we'll come across the next settlement?ā she sighs, shaking her head. āi'll keep my gun close and take four along.ā the dog has proven herself a decent defender, if it comes to that. but she doesn't think it will come to that. āit'll be fine.ā
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā "cooper?" he can count on one hand with about four fingers left over the number of times in the past 200 years he's been called by his full first name and he doesn't like it one bit. not from her. not in that tone, with that look on her face, and her hands on her hips like that. it's almost worse than when she had been calling him mr. howard.
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā it's all the evidence he needs to know just how irritated with him she is. she may not be yelling and her voice may not be angry, but she is. and if he's being honest, he can understand why. he knows he's being overly cautious. he knows they need to resupply and it may be days before they find another settlement. yet none of that makes him any more eager to let her go in there alone. he refuses.
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā scoffing, he shakes his head. "she's one dog. and you still barely know how to use that damn thing." he points to the gun at her hip even though he knows that's not true. she's gotten pretty good with it considering what little time she's been on the surface. still doesn't mean he's going to let her go in there alone.
there's a million and one reasons idt coop and barb would just like. immediately jump back into a relationship w/one another like 200+ years and a lot of shit hasn't happened to him (or both of them). idk. like. that just seems absolutely bonkers to me lmfao. i do, however, think he would absolutely have sex w/her immediately.
I have been TRYING not to drink pop (I wanna look into getting my teeth whitened and figure I may as well start cutting back on shit that stains teeth!) but it isā¦.a struggle.
divorced couple energy ship will always be immaculate to me. we hate each other. we've seen each other naked. I know how you take your morning coffee. I will never make you your morning coffee again. get it yourself. here you go, I gave it to you anyway. you disgust me. I will always be somewhat in love with you. I will be yours forever. you're not mine anymore. you will always be mine. fuck you. let's fuck, for old time's sake. did you steal my cd? no, no. keep it.
half a dozen questions rest on eliana's tongue, but she puts in the extra effort to keep them locked behind her teeth. whatever his deal with this vault girl is, it's not her business. still, she can't help the little bit of worry that nags at her when she thinks of a young woman from a vault traversing freeside alone. at the mention of his dog, she perks a little, brows drawing down at his words. ā hey, be nice, ā she admonishes. ā i haven't seen her. probably good i didn't. i'd have stolen her and skipped town, rather than helping your sorry ass. ā
her lips twitch upwards as she glances towards the window in the room. most of the day passed with him unconscious. night is creeping in now. she figures there's a good chance his dog can handle herself, but still ... there's that worry again.
ā i can go out and look for her, before it gets too dark, if you'll be alright on your own, ā she says. ā someone's seen her. there aren't a lot of tame dogs running around. ā
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā cooper rolls his eyes, letting out a soft groan as she chastises him. about the damn dog. but the corner of mouth curls upward as she continues. hell, even he wouldnāt have blamed her if sheād left his ass to rot and taken off with his dog. though heās grateful beyond words that she didnāt.
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā his eyes follow hers again to glance out the window, predicting what she says before she even gets the words out. another do-gooder. so eager to help. with eliana, though, heās pretty sure itās way more about helping the dog than helping him. probably only about helping the dog.
Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā āif you wanna spend your night chasinā after her, go for it.ā he looks down at the rest of his aching body and shrugs. āaināt like iām in much of a position tā stop you.ā which is about as close to a āyes, pleaseā as sheāor anyone elseāis ever going to get from him. silly as it is, and as pissed as he was when she ran off, heās rather fond of that dog.
also not for nothing, but i cannot imagine barb holding coop to some unrealistically high standard of never caring about/finding someone else over the course of literal lifetimes....
idt there's ever a time where coop doesn't feel deeply conflicted in developing feelings before finding barb. this is the exact reason he has avoided getting close to anyone in the wasteland. not like he expected he'd fall in love w/someone or anything but that like. he would care about people if he let himself get close to them.
it's reaaaaaaaal hard trying to get a sense of exactly how he feels/would feel as far as a more strictly show canon coop goes when we still don't know exactly what went on w/him and barb before the bombs dropped and whether the divorce was fake or w/e.
but even if it was fake....200 years is such a long time to imagine that whatever he feels for barb doesn't change. and i don't mean he loves her less. i'm more inclined to think he's placed barb on some ridiculously high pedestal bc he's spent so much time focusing on just finding her. he may think she's alive and that he'll find her and idk what he thinks will happen then (i believe he hasn't thought about that yet bc that's Too Scary, so he just ignores it. his goal is Find Her. he has not thought beyond that....he can't let himself do that) and yeah, she's a real person, but she's also just a dream to him. idt to him she is just a person to him anymore. she's this. ideal. this fantasy. and i imagine that being a Problem.
but whatever the case, i think he 100% wrestles with the idea that if he really loved barb, how could he fall for someone else? (a flawed sense of reasoning bc that's just not how love works despite whatever pseudo-50s culture he grew up in). he simply cannot conceive of all those what-ifs tho so he just. ignores them. laksdfjal.
