Early game Lone + Charon interaction that popped into my head. :)
“You know, you’re allowed to have hobbies.”
Charon had spent the past few hours sitting on the battered couch of his employer’s Megaton home, watching the shafts of light spilling through the cracks in the walls shift in tone with the rising sun. He was enjoying the silence - but now his employer stood at the bottom of the stairs with bedhead and a frown on her face, and he could not help but feel unease.
He didn’t answer her.
His employer sighed, walking over to sit in the armchair next to the couch. Her sock-clad feet padded quietly against the metal floor - her toes curled from the contact, salvaged steel cold. It was mid-January - even socks couldn’t save her.
“How long have you been sitting there?” she huffed, drawing her legs up the moment she’d settled into the armchair.
“Since you retired.” he replied, unable to dodge a direct question.
She squinted at him, and for not the first time he wondered how a vault dweller was able to look without flinching. “You don’t have to keep watch.”
“I know.”
That made her pause to consider. “Do you like it? Keeping watch?”
“It is part of my contract.” The response came as naturally as breathing, as every answer to similar lines of questioning did. Seeing her eyes narrow more, he decided to elaborate. “I like the quiet.”
“Oh.” she smiled, though he tried to ignore it - tried not to pay attention to how her entire demeanor softened, the way it always did when he volunteered a little more information about himself. Over the past few months she’d learned how best to do it - and her willingness to let things he didn’t wish to speak of go set her apart from his previous employers.
It unsettled him.
Scrabbling from upstairs signaled that the dog had awoken and found his master missing - soon the beast was as her side, nudging its head under her palm. She scratched it affectionately.
“What else do you like?”
He wasn’t expecting her to follow up on the line of questioning, and didn’t quite know how to respond. In the gentle morning light, he found himself a little less guarded. A little more foolish. A little more willing to tell the truth. “I don’t know. Much time has passed since I’ve done more than my duty.”
“Oh.” She didn’t smile this time. Charon couldn’t look at her. Didn’t want to see pity in her eyes.
“If it bothers you-”
Her interruption was swift - and voice firmer than he’d heard yet. “No.” Not quite a command, but something she wanted him to remember. “No.” she repeated, more gently. “Whatever makes you happy doesn’t bother me. Promise.”
The dog whined a little - her attention had wavered.
“Can you remember before, though?” she continued. “Mercs I’ve seen usually do something to keep busy. Play cards, read. Drink. Smoke.” Her nose wrinkled a little at mentioning the last couple ‘hobbies’, and Charon nearly smirked at it. His employer spoke more than she meant to with her nose - a little rabbit, ever twitching, ever sniffing.
“Drinking is expensive for me.” he answered, hoping she knew what he meant. At his size - ghoul constitution aside - he had to drink like a fucking brahmin. “Never saw the point in smoking.”
Lizzy - no, his employer - tilted her head, tucked the strands of hair that fell over her face back behind her ear. “Well. That’s probably for the best. They give you cancer, you know.”
Charon stared at her, his mouth hanging slightly agape. Then he burst into laughter - a somewhat unpleasant sound, ruined vocal cords cracking and rasping, loud with the air from his powerful lungs.
It startled his employer and her dog - the beast yapped, and then his employer was laughing too, her cheeks turning pink from embarrassment.
“I thought you were smart, girl.” Charon spoke when he at last regained his composure, his tone startling even himself. Was he daring to tease her?
She turned a deeper shade of pink. “I didn’t know if...” she trailed off, puffing out her cheeks and trying to hide her face behind her knees, hugging her legs to her chest.
“If two centuries of the wasteland hasn’t given me cancer, smoke won’t.” Charon spoke when he was certain she was done talking. He was still smirking - it felt strange, muscles in his face that he hadn’t used in years pulling to life.
Stranger still was how her blue eyes were fixed upon him, staring from over her knees even despite her blush. Tentatively she poked her head up. “I didn’t know you were pre-war.”
Dangerous ground. There it was - the reason why he stonewalled. Pre-War was close to human, close to giving up something that was his alone. Close to pretending he was anything but what was burned into his synapses.
He didn’t answer her. She finally broke eye contact, staring at old bullet holes in the wall.
“You hungry?” she piped up after a few moments of silence. “I’m going to fry up some cram.”
Charon was still silent, and she didn’t push the matter. It was only when he heard the clatter of cookware in the kitchen that he answered her question, willing to risk it for a chance at something long forgotten.
“Guitar.”
“What?” she poked her head out from the kitchen.
“I used to play guitar.”
He may as well have told her he walked on water from how her face lit up.
“I’ll keep an eye out for one.” she chirped - and for what wasn’t the first time, the girl in a vault suit scared him more than anything.
Me figuring out the sizes, next to Anglerfish Mark 1 coloured by my youngest sister.
And some shoe designs, because I want to make some lineart of my cuddly possesive Sushi pictures. Because Zuko’s Book of Friends can’t get enough Sushi. But seeing as Sushi is holding Zuko’s boots hostage and I didn’t design them...
k lmao im still too chicken rn to ask my teacher for an internship sooooooo. well what i gotta do now is find out what ext classes i want to take and add them to my schedule (and ask the parents ofc) let’s see, I have singing on mondays, show choir on saturdays. i also need to find classes to revise my sec sch edu. OH! what bout what Charissa told me? hold on. look i have two options, igcse, or ip. if igcse, el language, el lit, drama (?), MUSIC (DID NOT KNOW THIS WAS AN OPTION), lmao chinese.
wait.
K NVM LOOKS LIKE IM STICKING TO IP ASFG
but why?
i can actl get help and shit from school. okayyyy. well then i gotta work with charissa to actl GO BACK TO SCHOOLLLL and like. get used to revising and doing hw and stuff. sigh pie.
wait.
can i do both???? or like take classes for that certain subject??? just classes. okay so back to original question then. i want dance (probs ballet, might go back to redhill, if want contemp maybe centre stage/research more)), acting, maybe musical theatre YOU KNOW WHAT ASK MS D hmm school subjects... alll...??? okay look if I’m not chicken i can get la and ala help from ms jan and ms neo. jeremy for math. YOU CAN DO IT. uhh bio, chem, history. charles for mi. okay. time to research i guess. bio and chem aspire hub is fine. historyyyyyyy also aspire? um. lmao okay i guess that’s it? hahahha im just super fking lazy and sticking to the people/places I know mainly
If someone has ranted to you in a non-constructive way about other people, it is probably safe to assume, that if you step out of their line, that they will talk about you like that to someone else. It is just how most people are. If you are aware of it and they are not talking to you about the issue, that is their problem, not yours. If it does bother you, then dump them.
