it can be easy for Sadie to get completely wrapped up in what she’s doing and disregard her surroundings entirely, especially when she’s stuck in the middle of the goddamn Glowing Sea. she’s had to travel to a lot of dangerous,insane places to collect her bounties and she’s always left with a new scar to her collection but also with a whole lot of more caps in her pockets. it just so happens that her bounty has decided to travel into the most radiated place they could find in an attempt to get away from her. Sadie does have a fearsome reputation and with good reason. she’s never failed a job. she’s got enough caps to settle down somewhere now, take it easy for the remaining years of her life. probably not too many, considering all the radiation she’s soaked up in the past couple of years. but this isn’t just about the money anymore– it’s fun for her. what’s she to do? buy a place in Diamond City, people watch from her window? god, she’d rather be eaten by a Deathclaw right now.
she doesn’t notice the eyes on her after she pulls the trigger on her rifle, shooting her target straight on the ankle and making him collapse in pain. he yells in pain and Sadie quickly closes the distance between them, shoving her boot against his throat and telling him to shut his mouth. everything about this place sets her nerves on edge but the man beneath her still gets an amused snort out of her. he’s begging for his life, as if she didn’t know what he did to get someone to hire her to go after him. manipulating and abusing a young girl from the city until she took her own life– it’s something Sadie isn’t going to go easy on. she blows his brains out after getting a good, hard look at his face– making sure it’s actually the man she’s looking for. she’s not one to kill innocent folk even if her morality isn’t her strongest point. she’s in the process of going through his clothes to find proof of his identity to deliver to the ones who hired her when she catches a glance of someone out of the corner of her eye. she immediately looks up at them, recognizing the symbols on his face and his clothing as traits relating to the Children of Atom. she knows about them, sure, knows not to fuck with them if she doesn’t have to. people with undying loyalty to ridiculous religions tend to be much more dangerous than any person with their poster on the wall.
“just passin’ through,” she says, not losing her attention on him for a single second. “don’t mean to intrude. been chasin’ this bastard all over the Commonwealth. want me to take his body with me? wouldn’t want to–taint your holy grounds.”
Of all terrains he’s traversed this journey from Atom’s Island, none pulse so blessed as the Glowing Sea...
Richter’s steps fall quiet, reverent. Memories of home, of worship, crackle across his thoughts– Unsurprising. Spires of fallen churches and other cleansed locations break the horizon like lit candle upon bone. Familiar. And, oh, how naturally the land becomes its own ossuary: those spines and skulls so carefully cleansed and arranged in the Nucleus are the relics uniformly purified here, finding their places as Atom deigns...
Wind howls and the Grand Zealot watches calm, drunk on the warmth of His Glow and... oddly not surprised to see the spectacle of one figure gunning down another. Graceful violence sending the lesser to an early judgment–
A worthy offering to this scorched land,
to His Glory.
The killer notes him in turn, caution in her stare and seraphic fire to her tone that matches her actions. The Grand Zealot’s radium rifle remains likewise ready in gloved hands– yet relaxed for the comfort he finds here... and in her phrasing.
“ Atom’s power here... It’s too vast to be tainted by mere human remains.” Serenity permeates an already soft voice, prevails as he questions: “You followed him here? ...Presume he’s not one of the Children of the Crater then? ”
