I do have to say that objectively ghoulcy is extremely hilarious from Hanks POV.
Like you help manufacture the end of the world 2 centuries ago. Your boss is married to Cooper frickin Howard - and shes convinced him to do ads, which is just the bees knees since he doesnt do ANY ads, thank God for the old ball and chain eh?
But since they end up separating you end up ignoring he existed, enjoy some of the movies you'd stored but whatever. You get frozen, come back, have a family before realizing your bisexual wife wants to leave u and take the kids and you just can't handle that, the optics of your family falling apart is not at all acceptable.
So you take care of that, cover your ass, and everything is swell for a decade or so and you're in control and everything's great. Your daughters about to be married off (wipes tears) only to kind of recognize the overseer of 32, only to realize too late why.
Yall stole her tech. Whoops! How's she still here?
And she kidnapped you infront of your daughter and vault, and half your participants are dead and suddenly you have to face your husk of a mostly dead wife for weeks. Jesus cmon, you only dropped a nuke and barely anyone remembers anyway, you just want to go home and get the plan back on track.
And then fucking Cooper Howard shows up with your daughter and she's clearly trusting him and not you anymore.
Consider going to bed first, only for your f/o to wake you up just a little as they slide into the covers and pull you into their arms.
The soft sounds of their breath slowing + their chest presses against yours. You can feel the breath against your scalp as they're smelling your comforting scent right at the line of your hair. Their arms resting around you, and their leg loops around yours, and just as you're drifting back into sleep, you hear them whisper that they love you.
The outer worlds 2, Niles Araba/Male Commander, 3.6K, c. 1 of 2,
Age Difference, References to Depression, Canon-Typical Violence, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Love Confessions, Bisexual Male Character, Not Beta Read
Niles and Vasgen had only known each other for a short time before Horizon Point, but it was enough for the two survivors. In the midst of trying to fixthe rifts, their pasts came forward, one night, in a bed they'd both used
First part of my playing in the sandbox
Notes:
OK im going to write more of this universe out slowly but this is my first go into the second game. How fuckin good was that game eh? I can't stop talking about it and thinking of it.
Anyway. Chap 2 will have explicit material, and into the series Ill be writing some aza/marisol and inez/Tristian so hi please let me know what you think
Vasgen looked over Niles' bared torso. He had a thin smattering of coiled hair over his pecs, only to thicken over his stomach. The soft light still illuminated the dark skin; Vasgen saw thin lines of burn tissue cut through his body, raised where once hair follicles grew. If Val hadn't been there that day, Niles wouldn't be here. His thumb moved up to rub over a scar, perpendicular to the edge of the smooth tissue. He felt the difference in texture - his flesh thumb rubbed over it for just a moment of selfish indulgence.
"I know they're not the prettiest." The statement received a reproachful look, up the span of up Niles' skin. Vasgen saw his eyes flick to his own damaged shoulder, the limbs that his commander lost. Niles softly laughed, the words catching up.
"They're your story, aren't they?" Vasgen let his prosthetic hand run over Niles' scars, showing the contrast of their stories, only to end with their hands together. Metal met metal tapping softly together.
"We make an odd sight, commander." Idly, he wondered if Niles had been touched like this in the last decade. If the younger had felt someone else's touch without the undertone of medicine and rehabilitation.
"Only until you lose your other leg. Then we'll match."
"I'll get right on that. "Vasgen looked at the next scar avaliable, a small, slim memory.
"That wasn't a fair fight- for them. They didn't know i was here, and I know the lay of my ship." he heard the pride of that simple fact in his voice. His ship. Vasgen felt a bead of jealousy. It faded after a few moments, and he hadn't said anything for longer than appropriate.
"Still feels like I'm waking up from a dream sometimes." Metal fingers unlaced, and moved to his bicep.
"I can't imagine, Commander. You've got a unique lease right now."
Too many phrases rested on Vasgens lips, too many feelings rushing forward to be addressed first, to be addressed at all. He was glad that Niles made it.
He was glad Niles had found him.
He was glad Val had kept him sane and safe.
He was glad he was here, helping giving Niles a place to put his unfailing, unrestrainable faith in his now found commander.
In the onslaught, none managed to slip out.
"I knew you'd treat her right."
"Thank you, Commander.
"Ok. Try that." In a reversal of just weeks ago, it was Niles infront of Vasgen, working on his much older gear. Gear that had not been maintained in a decade, or more. Even ignoring the suspended animation, he needed to have someone else look at what was squeaking.
He took the moment to adjust his fingers, testing out the change.
"Unsurprisingly, perfect." Sitting on the medbay bed, close to Niles, he was firmly distracted by the engineer infront of him. The moment of tension from a few weeks ago that had developed between them had become more than a moment. It hung in the recirculated air, shone in the bright light shining down at the space between them. That tension hadn't released just yet, despite how many times they'd tried to find a few more quiet moments in the ship to their own. This was one of the few times it felt that they had that luck.
Vasgen looked into Niles eyes, and saw the younger force steal into his core, his words steady, and force this tension crash down.
"Permission to speak freely?"
"Always."
"I want more."
"More?"
"Than just being your agent." His eyebrows knot together for a moment. "I want to see what this will come to be before the rifts destroy us all. I've started over before for being stupid around a superior, I can't do it again." In his passion, he'd stood up, taking up Vasgen's space without conscious decision. "I just need to know if I need to extinguish this now, or if we can let it burn."
Looking up his body as he had done before, he was once again caught by Niles' beauty. Threadbare long sleeved shirt, hugging over muscle and stomach. The years had been kind to mature him from the fresh faced recruit he once was.
Vasgen wanted to devour his subordinate whole. His hands moved to Niles' hips, holding onto him as leverage as he stood. An inch shorter than the man, Vasgen looked up at Niles before pressing their lips together. Niles took a moment to respond, but did so with his arms around the elder. Scarred lips pressed against aged, and Vasgen pulled Niles closer, a dangerous little smile appearing on his lips.
Yet just as Vasgen began to turn them around to push Niles onto the medbay, they both heard a voice they wish didn't sound around the corner. His timing could be impecable, or infuriating, but rarely inbetween.
"Commander!" Tristian's voice rang out just as the two seperated, Vasgen grabbing onto the mechanical joints to pretend as if he had just been groping the new connections, not just groping his subordinate. "And Agent Abara, how fortuadious. Looking at Niles when Tristian did, he could see that bit of vunerability he had just shown disappearing into his heart once more. These close quarters really did not bode well to the privacy they both needed.
"Tristian, how can I help you?"
"Commander. I am need in of your, and Agent Abara's, help in a most dire matter."
"What is that?"
"Inez and I have made a wager of honor, and a few bits. Please, accompany me to the commissary; Inez and I have need of an unbiased party to judge a test of skills.I am of the belief that her grafted arm is incapible of overpowering my own strength."
"How are you going to test this?"
"Arm wresting!" Inez yelled down from the balcony, at last bringing Vasgen out of the side room, and into the common area. The other two trailed behind him, and Vasgen realized this was going to happen one way or another.
"To the break area, then. Let's give this a quick test, shouldn't we?"
"Verily!" Tristian was loud, was proud about his powress, claims that Vasgen was going to test at every change he got.
Right now, watching an Auntie's choice agent kick his ass was just what he needed to ignore all those feelings welling back up in his heart. He couldnt stop thinking about how soft Niles' lips were.
Vasgen rolled the compression sock down his leg, first his left then his right. They were more than worn through; he had been planning to replace them with his bonus from Horizon Point, but that bonus had never come.
His legs faired no better than the socks. He had been most of his life without the legs almost everyone else had. It had been decades since he had been able to play his toes, sure.
He hadn't been sad over the loss in those years, mind. Vasgen had been fine without them as well as he would have been with them. His youth was a benefit in test sense. It was just his career choice that bit him in the ass. Running about, climbing, sliding, all of it was hard on any body. His sixty one year old body?
Seventy, a voice in his head corrected. The nine years stick didn't feel real. He knew they were, but how different would his life had been if he'd been here? It sounded like not much could have change before de Vries had made her next move, the one that outted her to Niles.
His thoughts continued connecting, rationalizing based on the lack of information he was served. Absently, his hands used the copling ointment he'd taken, and started massaging the ends of his leg, sliding over puckered skin that should have smoothed years ago.
He was still so very sore, despite the ointment he'd taken to using only after a long day of work in the wild. It cooled the skin better than anything he'd used before, at least.
Using his arms, he scooted back to lean against the wall, closinghis eyes and forcing each of his muscles to relax. It was his nightly meditation, the few moments before he allowed himself to sleep. He would reflect on the day, write reports, whatever was needed.
Tonight? I twas simply to relaxand process some of the reconnocence from the day.
He only managed a few minuets of ruminating before he heard the pnumatic swish of his door, sliding open. Eyes snapping open, he quickly flicked the too thin blanket over his bare legs; privacy was in short supply around the Incognito, and he wasn't going to give up the bit he had left.
He heard the door slide shut, and Niles walked around the edge of his bed, and he stood between the bed and the desk.
"Niles. I wasn't expecting anyone to join me tonight, is something wrong?"
"No. I can leave if you wanted privacy..." Vasgen cut off the offer, shaking his head.
"That's alright. How can Ihelp?"
"I was wondering if I cuold hear some of your stories."
"Stories?"
"Uh, your scars? From the other day." The slight embarrassment on his face hit his memory, the embarrassment for speaking up to recognize Augustine. "I only know of some of your stories through the rumor mill. Your name is still brought up, just less often now."
"I think there's a few more chapters than you have." Thru both laughed softly, but it didn't linger in the room.
"Can I see your legs, Commander? Being that you've seen mine and all." It had been years since someone had asked him such a question. He didn't need to think long about it, grabbing the edge of the blanket and pulling it off, pooling to his side. Despite the rest he'd taken, it wasn't enough, and his skin was still red. Not as badly as before, but anyone would be sore after the kilometers they had ran through the day.
Niles shook his head as he started speaking.
"You need to take breaks now often." The stark medical advise from Niles made a bubble of laughter burst up from Vasgen, and pulled a smile from Niles. It wasn't even funny, not a hint of humor in the sound advise. Niles pushed off from the edge of the desk, and nodded at the salve that Vasgen used once he was done with his meditation.
"Give me that." Perhaps due to the shock of the instruction, Vasgen listened. It only took moments before Niles was on a knee infront of him. His flesh hand was deft in the massage. "And relax, just a bit. Lucy still hasn't learned the stairs yet." It took the gentle jab to make him realize just how far forward he was leaning forward, as if he needed to run suddenly.
He could still smell the standard issue shampoo and conditioner, as well as something distinctly not standard issue coming from Niles. He wondered where Niles had aquired cologne in this colony.
The moments of simple quiet help was a shock to Vasgen's system. Looking down at Niles below him, dedicated to his task, he couldn't help seeing the texture of his scar, a scar that was possibly Vasgens fault. If he had taken the other path, perhaps he would have been there first, perhaps Helen could still be there with them, Eric would be ribbing her, Wade...
His eyes closed, and he took a deep breath into his lungs.
"I still think about them." Niles didn't meet his eyes, taking in those words. "I wish they were still here with us." And then, Niles' hand stopped moving, simply holding onto Vasgens thigh.
"I wasn't sure how to ask. You don't talk about them."
"It's hard to lose a family."
"Guess we have that in common."
"The best part of my legs being like this? I can't keep yall up by walking around all night."
"It stopped me from jumping around to replenish my bottles. Where do you have it?"
"In the kitchen, in the icebox." Niles finally took his hand off Vasgens upper thigh, having skid further up his skin during the verbal discussion. His stomach flipped from the contact, trying his hardest to not bring attention to the boner that had spawned from Niles' touches.
"I'll be back."
They were well sloshed by the time the bottle was empty. Niles leg was set next to Vasgen's, matching in a unique way; they'd already settled on sharing the bed.
"Reach up, there should be small red box in that netting." Vasgen's words were softer, less diction on each word. His voice had lost some of the authority, and was strained from years of yelling and use.
"Where?" Niles already was reachng up, rifling through the containers for just a moment.
"There." A not insignicant amount of noise and shifting, as well as an extra box falling on both of their heads, and the item was set on Nile's good leg.
Upon opening the box, he found a few old items, a few small reminders of years too long past to remember. A photo, slightly torn and clearly kept in a pocket for too long. It depicted three children, clearly in the midst of a chase around the table where the tone was clearly different. Three adults, two with cigarettes in their fingers, were in the middle of gesturing at a map, showing iconography depicting movements of what had to be some kind of troops or enemyt combatants.
the dish holding the old cigarettes was towered high between them all.
"A few days ago, we were talking about Triangulum; your stories. I don't have much of mine left to show, other than the obvious.' He motioned at his lack of legs, and felt a catch in his throat. Only Helen had known about this before, and he knew better than to push himself too much futher down this train of discussion. But with the gin, with the intimacy of someone who had been there before... It was the only thing he had to connect the narriative string in his life.
"You learned mechanics by watching. Engineering was the one place I could ignore everything and allow the realities of my family fall to the side. Of the people in that photo, I am the only one alive in a meaningful way anymore. We were taught from that age on, that we should find a cause, and stick to it." He cleared his throat, unsuccessfully. "Give me that half bottle of gin that's there." Another swig, and he doubled down into a bad idea. "We were taught to die for our revolution, hopefully young. We rationalized that the younger you went out a maryter, the more moving the plan. My parents didn't even care about which cause we dedicded to double down on. So long as there was one."
"The earth directorate isn't a revolution."
"No. No, it isn't, is it?" Nile's comment had him laugh quite suddenly, and shake his head, sobering up a tiny amount.
"My family wasn't happy when they found out I was working for them."
"Glory?"
"Hm?" Niles stole the bottle, and asked the question again.
"Did you join for glory?" The same thing he'd asked Niles days before.
"I was looking to say the wrong thing infront of the wrong person." He was looking at the sofa across the room from them, and that was it. He couldn't imagine looking into Niles' soft eyes, his kind face. He didn't know how he could take the words that hung back, not in a meaningful way.
"It's been twent- thirty years since word of any of them has come." His eyebrows furrowed deeply, pressing wrinkles deeper into his skin. "If there's an architect up there, it has some answers I'm not leaving without." A deep breath, and he laughed at himself. "Law that's dramatic." The laugh was met with silence, and he felt Niles' hand move to his knee.
"Are you holding all that in yourself?"
"I hold that so other people can go home to their parents, and children. In that, I find peace in the people I share my days with." Vasgen moved his hand over Niles'; prosthetic hand holding porosthetic hand. "I enjoy the time that I do have, with those who want to share it with me." His eyes looked to the photo that was now restingo n Niles' lap, and took another deep breath. "That was the last time I had both legs."
"Your family, they didn't..."
"No. I don't think that's what happened. Can't complain too much, since I was using both of em well that day."
"I'm so so-"
"Niles." The interruption was intentional, clearly. "Promise me something." Extremely stupid thing to say after half a bottle of liqour, but off Vasgen went.
"Yes?"
"Don't just stay for me. If the planets hold something for you, go find it."
"Permission to speak freely?" Vasgen snorted softly, before continuing.
"You don't need my permission at this point. "
"Stop being such a fucking hullhead. You ain't kickin me out of your life, and this ship is mine the same as you. Just cause it's your name on her doesn't mean I wasn't the one taking care of her for teh last decade."
"What?" A very eloquent response. It was met by a just as delicate reaction: Niles' hand smashing into Vasgen's jaw. It was clearly an attempt to turn Vasgen's face to a better position. Niles moved faster than Vasgen could manage to keep up with, and their lips were suddenly pressed together. By the time that Niles pulled slightly away, their breathing wasn't just unsteady due to the gin anymore. Prostethic finger joints caught slightly in Vasgen's beard, pulling and tugging at the hair just lightly.
"Stop being a fucking hullhead, would you? We're not leaving that easily. And frankly, I wouldn't consider Horizon Point as 'easy.' Now can you please remember that from now on? Get that to stick in your head for a while?" He looked away from Vasgen, pulling himself away as well.
"Only if you don't stop kissing me." Niles looked back at Vasgen at those words, a quick glance before registering what he was seeing on the haggered face.
The vunerability that shone on the nearly 70 year old man's face shown from emotions untouched for years. The ten year old's eyes shown through, needing reassurance from a mother who was unable to give it. The twenty something who had lost his leg and arm in one go, holding himself to the soldier's rigidity and unfeeling care of his life. He had lost more than just loves, but most of his life, most of his history, by the time he'd hit thierty, and reinvented himself over and over through the missions he had been sent on. The pain of a full life was asking for the reassurance of at least a few missions together. "Please."
Niles stuck on Vasgen's lips, and slowly leant forward. His human hand moved up to Vasgen's chin, lacing into the short cropped hair, the leverage pulled them close again. Their lips met, and time slipped from their minds.
the pressure was kinder than either of them had even wished for in years.
"Whenever you need that reminder, commander, I'll be here. However you ne-" and suddenly, Niles couldn't talk amymore, as Vasgen pushed their lips together once again, demanding that affection from the man who was so freely offering it. Vasgen's left prosthetic hand took Niles right prosthetic hand, matched in another sense of the world.
Their kiss lingered, pressing again and again, both tasting like the gin they'd been so freely drinking. When they seperated, it was only to press their foreheads together, breathing in the same recirculated air.
"Didn't think I'd end up here."
"I'm sure you probably still had two more limbs when you first srtarted."
Niles snorted right into Vasgen's face, inevitible for how close they were. Niles decided to take the initiative and push Vasgen back to the bed. The gin and history were set next to their legs, and Niles used the chance to press a kiss to Vasgens stomach, over the thin material of his shirt. Vasgen's hand moved to his coils, holding him halfway down his stomach for just a moment.
"I think I can get used to seeing you there." His hand slid from resting on his hair to his jaw, the proof of stubble on him still.
"I'm glad that I got to end up here." Vasgen's hand moved from his fac down to Niles' bicep, rubbing the muscle gently. "I'd heard stories, about how nice you were to the trainees. Minimal hazing, we were informed. By the time I'd joined, my head was so full of stories, I really wasn't sure if I had a bigger thing for you, or de Vreis." Vasgen could see the pain that the name still brought him. Yet, he was strong, and pushed through it. "I'm glad that you're the one still here, inspiring me." Vasgen's hand still on Niles' arm, Niles reached up, running his fingers through his commander's beard. Niles looked like he wanted to say something else, but held his tongue in favor of kissing him once again. They settled intogether naturally, as if they'd been doing this for hundreds of nights, and not just the first. Niles' arm wrapped under Vasgen's shoulder, his lips pressed against Vasgen's collarbone; he rested his head against his heart, feeling it beat a million miles an hour.
"Go to sleep, Commander." and with the blanket pulled over their shared bodies, his voice rang into the quiet room.
