Hi! I love seeing new react blogs! This one could either go sympathetic or dramatic: *Spoilers!* Sole destroyed the Institute, but didn't take their love interest with them for the attack. Companions find out weeks later through gossip that Sole left a child synth, created in their son's likeness, behind to die in the explosion.
Oooooh, this one is HEAVY on the **SPOILERS** so if you haven’t finished the game… don’t be a big baby and just read this anyways. The game has been out since 2015 xoxo
Also, I forgot to make Codsworth romanced. If you’d like a romanced!Codsworth, just send me another ask! I like his platonic Mister Handy reaction too much to delete.
Cait: On one hand, Cait didn’t want to care that Sole left a synth behind. She had been against Danse joining their party when he admitted to being one of those monstrosities. Cait barely trusted humans. So a machine that looked and acted like one with having God-knows-what kind of special abilities or enhancements? No way was she coming near them. Hell, they were probably the things the Institute sent out to replace you with.
She overheard some settlers at Sanctuary discuss how Sole had left her synth-son behind and… for some reason this one was different. Cait marched over to Sole - fists balled up by her sides - and it took all of her might not to pummel them right there.
“So ya think it’s okay to leave little, defenseless youngns behind, do ya?” Cait became even more angry when Sole reminded her that she was against synths in the first place. “Not defenseless children, Sole! I know what it’s like to be vulnerable like that. Hell, it took me months to open up to you! I don’t give a damn about adults. They can fend for themselves. But that synth? That was just a kid. And you left him to die. Yer own flesh and blood.” She was disgusted.
Codsworth: For 210 years, Codsworth had dreamed of his master’s family reuniting. Though their house was nearly ash and he wasn’t exactly the Mister Handy from 2077, they could start where they left off. Sole would go off to work somewhere respectable, maybe with Piper in Diamond City. They would earn an honest living while their partner raised Shaun to be the best survivor anyone could be in the Commonwealth. Codsworth would help, of course. He would tutor the young master in school. Make his sack lunch. Tuck him in to a big-boy beg like he always wanted to…
But that would never happen. Sole left synth-Shaun behind, and Codsworth’s dreams of repairing the family were futile. Crushed like broken glass under a heavy boot. Blown to smithereens like an atom bomb over a quiet suburban city one unsuspecting morning.
“You monster!” Codsworth had never yelled at Sole that way. He honestly didn’t know his programming allowed such behavior. Sole tried to reach out to him as his metal began to shake, but Codsworth backed away. “I waited 200 years, mum/sir! 200 years for you to come home to me. For us to be a family. And you never cared. This was never about young Shaun, was it? You just wanted to prove something.” He turned away to go home, knowing Sole wouldn’t follow. “That means you never cared about me either. I rather be deactivated than serve another day under your care.”
Curie: As Curie sat with her face in her palms sobbing quietly, she realized she felt an entirely new emotion. Sole had left her synth-son, and was so unmoved by the gesture they hadn’t even bothered to tell her. Her shoulders shuddered as the only sounds around were the gentle lapping of the lake, and Curie’s own sniveling.
Sole touched the back of her shoulder, but Curie was too upset to react. They began giving her some excuse that a synth-child and synth-girlfriend were different. They always knew Curie as a robot. No one could ever replace their own son. But Curie still couldn’t shake this new feeling.
“I think…” Her voice quivered, and it took Sole stroking her hair for a few moments for Curie to regain composure. “I think I feel betrayed. The boy did not have to replace your son. But he was still just as alive as me. I do not think you understand life.” Sole winced, and Curie finally looked up at her partner. “I do not think you understand me.”
Danse: Sole knew her Paladin better than he probably knew himself. That was what made his silence so disheartening. When Danse was upset, he was usually in an uproar. Smashed belongings scattered wherever he could reach them. Holes in the walls. Chest puffing. He didn’t have a temper, but when his facade cracked, Sole had seen a man full of emotion and anguish.
But instead, Danse was quiet. They finally had to ask why he reacted to their decision in complete silence. Danse looked over at Sole; eyes full of thick tears. “I thought when you said you loved me, you loved all of me. Even the synth part.” His voice cracked. Sole had never seen him this upset, even when he left the Brotherhood. “Now I don’t know why you stay. To you, I’m just a machine. I was right all along.”
Deacon: “What the FUCK, Sole?!” Deacon slammed the door to HQ so hard the frame cracked. He had followed them back from picking up a lost synth when the man innocently asked why Sole had left young Shaun behind. Sole didn’t even have the audacity to deny it.
Sole pleaded with Deacon to lower his voice, but it only fueled him on more. He said something about never truly knowing them. That they couldn’t be trusted. They were the only thing just as scummy as him in the entire Commonwealth.
“We’re through,” he said. Deacon’s voice was low. Seething. “I don’t want to be your partner. I don’t want to be your boyfriend. Because apparently I’m traveling with a murderer. I want you to look Des in the eyes and explain why you left a boy to die, because I sure as hell never want to see your face again.”
Hancock: “Wow,” Hancock said as Sole entered their shared apartment in Goodneighbor. “That’s low. Even for the likes of you.” When Sole asked what Hancock was talking about, his eye twitched. Today was not the day to mess with him. “A little birdy told me you left your son to die in the Institute. And here I was thinkn’ we were out to make the world a better place. To stick up for the little guy.”
After that, Hancock and Sole drifted apart. It was a quiet, gradual break-up. He couldn’t be with someone who didn’t value all life. If Sole felt so apathetic about smoothskin synths, he didn’t want to know how they really felt about ghouls.
MacCready: “I can’t believe I was gonna let you meet my son!” MacCready stood between the bed and dresser. He wasn’t sure if he should sit down, or start packing his bags. Soul explained that the synth wasn’t really her son, and that it would be too hard to see young Shaun every morning knowing he wasn’t really him. MacCready calmed down enough to try and see it from their side. He ended up staying, but still hasn’t let Sole meet Duncan.
Preston: Preston’s first reaction was to get mad at the Minuteman who started spreading the rumor. His lovely, caring Sole would never leave an innocent person behind; especially not a child. He approached the topic carefully while the two were headed to a settlement that needed their help. To his horror, Sole admitted to leaving synth-Shaun behind.
“Y’know, a lot of the folks we help out here are synths, too. They deserve a chance at life. What you did was… cold.” Preston wanted to ask Sole if she would still help a settlement of synths, but he didn’t want to know the answer.
Piper: Piper felt conflicted. She didn’t trust synths, but she wasn’t a complete racist. Spending so much time in Diamond City had filled her head with doubts about the legitimacy of synths. Could they really be trusted? She knew Nick Valentine was alright, but he didn’t actually look like a person.
Sole asked her to imagine if she found out Nat was a synth that had replaced her a long time ago. That only made Piper angry, and she threw Sole out of the newsroom. As much as Piper would be hurt to have Nat replaced by a synth, it wouldn’t have been the synth’s fault. She supposed Sole wasn’t as trustworthy as she hoped they were.
Nick: “Well isn’t that just great,” Nick seethed. “I wonder when you were planning on ditching me, too.” Sole tried to explain that leaving Shaun had nothing to do with how she left about Nick, but he wouldn’t hear it. They had never seen him so angry, and his eyes pierced in to their own with fury. “You couldn’t even tell me. I had to find out around the streets of Diamond City! Do you really care that little about me, Sole?” Even though Sole continued to apologize, Nick didn’t even want to have a conversation about it. He couldn’t. It broke his heart.
X6-88: For the most part, X6 understood Sole’s decision. He hadn’t wanted them to leave the Institute in the first place, but he was programmed to obey and watch over the relatives of Father, and that was what he was going to do. However, he allowed himself to feel hurt. X6 wouldn’t say it out loud, but hearing the gossip from others made it much worse. When Sole found out X6 knew they left Shaun, they tried to explain themselves.
“You don’t need to tell me anything, sir/ma’am,” he said. X6 had that deadpan look he had given Sole the first time they met. “I’m sure your decision was an educated one. I just hope you aren’t planning on leaving me any time soon.”
