#...and I have plenty of slingshot ammo. why

[zydrateacademy]

Just for fun, a brief summary of my FO76 Journey

I forget what caused me to return to the game. My brother is typically unsuccessful at convincing me to join on his hyperfixations, though this time I think I was the first to reinstall it. Pamsdottir here (a name to remember and respect my late mother) is probably my third character total. I originally played back in 2020 or so. Didn't like it. Tried it again shortly after the Wastelanders update that added NPCs and various questlines, but couldn't get over the boring, shit mechanics. But here I am.

Now officially at the highest level I'd ever been. Previously some level 14 or 16 or something all those years ago, but there's a drive to keep pushing forward. Not being ammo starved helps, and the insane abundance of stimpaks has left me healthy and resourceful enough to keep going. Also, shotguns in this game are dogshit.

Now officially during the time I had my first hovel. I didn't know each piece had different "versions" so the sharp-eyed FO76 players can peek at my hovel in the background and notice it lacks a doorframe. I just had a wall-less hole for an entrance. But hey, it had a roof and some workbenches.

When I hit around level 34 I joined in on some Expo train that slingshot me well into level 50. I was taking my ramshackle and scavenged power armor in hopes that, if I couldn't do dick for damage, I could at least not be a burden and have some kind of heightened AR to not die immediately. I'm not fond of this screenshot but this was actually shortly before one final expedition that made me hit 51, but I wanted something immediately at 50. It's somewhat fitting. This grungy, seen-some-shit mess of a photo certainly exhibited my experience with the game so far.

Taken the next day alongside my brother. He made me a set of armor and a somewhat useable weapon, though single-fire weapons are not a good time. I don't think I see anyone under level 80 ever use a single-fire weapon unless it's some kind of explosive launcher.

I had been given an outfit to overlay, right after some Nuka Tour wild west event. I liked it, made my backpack a quiver to better suit the style. Didn't wear it for too terribly long, but I still have it as of this writing. It looks neat, don't know the source of it.

I forget when exactly I made the shift from rifles to the 50cal. Roughly in my 70's as I struggled to keep up with any meaningful DPS with the Fixer that was once made for me. As of this writing it's still one of my highest damaging weapons I've ever had in my own hands, though I see plenty of people do incredible work with other weapon types. Still, it's useful and strong, and it apparently had some kind of accuracy nerf in the past because of its strength. Don't care, I enjoy it.

Just a sort of interim, "I'm on my way to 100" kind of screenshot. My attempt to walk around in a sort of tacti-cool outfit with Brotherhood gear. Best I could do, anyway.

All of the other shots were sort of made in the moment, but this one I actually planned around. I've long since shed the trans flag from my early levels (in the strictest sense I'm not quite trans... not yet, anyway). This exhibits my Inferno Mark 2 armor (I would later get mark 3 that will be featured in future screenshots), on the X01 armor which I've always loved the look of. The rugged, intimidating look is a good representation of how far I've come, having made it to 100 and all of the experience and resources that it might imply.

I had long since completed the Enclave questline by this shot but ever since I received the uniform I never took it off. The hat looks a taaaaad too "secret police" for my liking but the main outfit itself has undeniable style.

I have tried to make an effort to keep doing this every 25-50 levels but sometimes an expedition spam runs away with the experience, almost always giving me one or two levels regardless of whatever else I might have planned for the day. That is typically why some of them are uneven.

[drawings-and-nightmares]

Rule Number One

Author/Writer/Whatever: Dreams

Word Count: 2235

Editing: Uhhhhh,,,who's she?

Quick notes: Based off of like, normal modern Cryptid Crew shit that doesn't have powers. There's also nonbinary Finch and dumbassery in general.

Pairings: Mainly Blinch(Blink/Finch) but there is a hint of Spralbert(Spot/Race/Albert)

Well. He just made the stupidest mistake that has ever existed in his life, and that was saying a lot of you knew Blink personally. What was his mistake, you may ask? He may have uh...told the whole Brooklyn Borough that he was dating someone. Then of course, Spot Conlon just had to tell him to invite them over. Classic move Spot, classic move. Obviously nobody believed that he did, so now he was doing this shit. Great. Who would he even?...Fuck all of this, I guess.

They'd probably laugh at him once they realized he was lying. He wasn't like Spot, who had Race and (maybe?) Albert, or Hotshot who could blow off something as “silly” as having a date or whatever. This blowed. Maybe he could say his date was sick?...No...God. Being the one of the only ones in Brooklyn who was single and actively liked someone did suck major ass-

Then, a horrible, awful idea popped into his head and...it was so bad, that it just might work. Finch. Finch owed him a favor after the uh...slingshot incident. It’d probably work, if you took away the fact that he kinda had a bit of a small crush on Finch, meanwhile they hated him. What an amazing combination, am I right? Of course he had a crush on the person who hated him the most, but it was all good. His plan was...

…..It was foolproof!

If he was gonna get Finch to do this, he was going to need to get some stuff to convince them. Uh...chocolate, flowers...wait, were those romantic? Eh, who gave a fuck. Rubber bands, a spare slingshot, and of course, slingshot ammo!(aka, various pretty pebbles that he found on the street) This should work perfectly!...Probably. Possibly. Maybe...Ok, there were very low chances that this would go good. But still, he had to try!!

_____________________________________________

“No.”

“But please-“

“No.”

“But I got you flowers and other shit!!!”

“That doesn’t mean that I’m going to pretend to go out with you, in front of the whole Brooklyn Borough!”

Blink sighed as him and his not so feathered friend argued. Ok, maybe this wasn’t going as good as he planned it out to be...but hey, it was uh...decent?

He sighed, giving them his famous ‘puppy dog eye’, “But Fiiiiinnnnccccchhhh…come on, please??? You owe me for the slingshot incident!”

Finch raised an eyebrow, “You mean the time that I shot you with a pebble and you fell off of the fire escape into a dumpster-“

Blink interrupted suddenly, not wanting to even mention that incident ever again, “YES! THAT INCIDENT, THAT WE SWORE TO NEVER SPEAK ABOUT AGAIN!!!!”

They snorted, laughing a bit. Damn, their laugh was adorable-

Blink no. Now is not the time for that shit, especially when you’re asking them to be your fake date for the entirety of the Brooklyn Borough.

He snapped out of it when they spoke up again, “You know what...fine. I’m bored anyways, and I guess that I do owe you...But, we have to ‘break up’ after this thing. Deal?” Finch spat into their hand, holding it out to Blink.

Blink nodded, spitting into his own hand, and shook Finch’s, “Deal.”

Finch pulled away their hand, “First, there’s a few requirements. One, no like, kissing and junk.”

He barked out a laugh, “Yeah uh...knowing Spot and everyone else, I dunno if that’ll even be brought up, but ok.”

They rolled their eyes, “Jesus, let me finish. Ok, two. Don’t be too much of a sap, ok?”

“Well I never-“

“Three. If you make more than one bird pun, god so help me, I will shoot another pebble at you. Besides, you’ve given me plenty of ammo to do so if you do break that rule.”

Blink sighed, grumbling a bit to himself, “....Is there anything else?....”

Finch hummed a bit to themself, “Not really...although, think of something more creative than your…’significant other’,” they started to laugh again, “God knows only you can do that.”

His ears and face turned a bright red, “Well uh, songbird, it is one of my specialties.” Songbird??? Where the hell did that come from????

They raised an eyebrow at that, but couldn't help the light blush on their face, “Songbird?....Huh….I guess that creative, even if you are being sappy….” Finch started to chuckle a bit, “Anyways, what time is this again?...”

“Uhhh….” Blink checked his watch, “Around eight?...”

“Pick me up at seven then. God knows you're gonna be late.”

He laughed, rubbing at the back of his neck, “Yeah, yeah….”

____________________________________________________________________

Ok, to his credit...he actually did make it somewhat close to seven…meaning that it was now 7:30. But the trip to Brooklyn wasn't too long anyways, so they both should be fine. He adjusted his car mirror to make sure his clothes weren't on backwards or anything. Gray jacket? Check. Pale yellow t-shirt? Check. Decent ripped jeans that he got at a sale? Check. Alright. He was all good to go.

Blink’s head turned as he heard a door open, and saw Finch. And...holy shit dude...Instead of their sweatshirt that they always seemed to wear, Finch was now wearing a pastel blue sweater instead, and...it looked good. He shook his head slightly, he couldn't get distracted now. Blink sighed a bit, and started up the car, as they leaned their head into the open car window.

“Fashionably late as always, Kid Blink?” Finch teased, grinning at him.

“Mhm...better late than never, songbird.” He laughed a bit, leaning against his seat.

They rolled their eyes and pulled their head out of the window, opening the car door and sitting down. “You know, you really can drop that nickname until we get there.” Finch shut the door and fastened their seatbelt.

Blink started to drive, smirking at them, “Mmm...yeah, but you see, Finch. I have this condition called ‘I don't really want to’. It's very contagious, from what I hear.”

Finch huffed slightly, but made no further objections to the nickname. The car ride continued in not so awkward silence, with some argument whether or not the radio station and/or music they were listening to was complete and utter garbage, or amazing entertainment that everyone should listen to and worship for its glorious lyrics.

They finally pulled in towards the apartment, which was of course, filled with people from the Brooklyn Borough. Did Spot throw a party or some shit?...To show off Blink not having a partner?...He was probably just being paranoid, since most people in Brooklyn just kind of gravitated towards the apartment anyways, like it was a black hole or the sun or...some other space and physics shit.

He opened his own door and slid over the hood in order to open Finch’s, like a real gentleman would. They responded to this by, of course, rolling their eyes at Blink’s complete and utter sap. Despite the playful banter in the car, and even the teasing now, both were nervous as hell, due to the mass of all of the Brooklyn Boys in one space.

Blink, being Blink, slipped his hand onto Finch’s, and surprisingly, they didn’t protest in return. They just gave him a glance, before starting to walk themself and Blink towards the complex, hand in hand. Ok, now that he was thinking about it, maybe he should’ve just...accepted the other humiliation. Nearly everyone in Brooklyn knew about his crush on Finch, and if he actually walked in with them, there’d definitely be teasing, and...he didn’t want to put Finch through that.

He blinked(hahahaha) in surprise when they suddenly stopped in front of the door, noticing Finch staring at him, “Uhhh…..yes?....”

Finch sighed slightly, rolling their eyes, “Well? Aren’t you going to knock?”

“Why don’t you knock?...You’re obviously paying more attention than me.”

“Oh my god,” they pinched the bridge of their nose, annoyed, “because all of Brooklyn would wonder why the hell I’m here, if you don’t introduce me first?...Wait, don’t you live here? Why aren’t you just opening the door-“

Before Finch could finish their sentence, the front door slammed open, and there was a very confused looking Hotshot. Chaos was clearly happening behind the confused boy, but it was honestly just a normal day in Brooklyn. Blink sighed in relief, thankful that he now didn’t have to explain that he was nervous about the others. Speaking of which…

Hotshot looked up and down at the ‘couple’, and smirked, looking at the both of them, “Damn. You were actually telling the truth. Honestly, I’m surprised.” He laughed, and leaned against the doorframe, “Looks like our cooking wasn’t for nothing after all!”

Blink grimaced, “Please don’t tell me that you guys cooked without me...did you mess up my fucking kitchen again?...”

“Relax! Albert and Race came over to laugh at you-“ The other boy realized what he was saying, “Errr...I mean, they came over to help cook?....”

He rolled his eye, “Yeah. Cause that’s much better. Anyways...this is Finch-“

“The Finch? You mean the Manhattan Finch that you’ve had a cr-“

Blink kicked Hotshot in the shins subtlety, looking back at Finch to see if they noticed. Luckily, they seemed distracted by their sweater sleeve, “Oh! Hotshot! Did you hurt your knee? How sad!” His voices dripped with sarcastic sympathy, just like venom would.

Finch rolled their eyes, pushing past Hotshot and Blink, “If you two would excuse me, I think I’m going to head upstairs and actually eat something. Don’t kill each other while I’m gone.”

He smiled a bit at his...well...his fake birdfriend. Heh. Birdfriend. Maybe if he stopped being dumb about it, he’d actually end up asking them out-

“Wow. I see why you like them.” Hotshot called out, causing Blink to roll his eye.

“Shut up. Let’s just go see if anything’s salvageable in the kitchen.”

“Eh. There’s probably….something. Maybe the Brooklyn Blend-“

“We’re not making Finch drink the Brooklyn Blend. Besides, that’s for us Brooklyn Boys.”

Hotshot raised an eyebrow, “Well, at this rate, they’ll be a Brooklyn Boy soon enough-“

“Oh my god, shut the hell up already.”

Blink trudged to the kitchen with Hotshot behind him, sighing as he entered. There sat Finch, with a few Brooklyn Boys beside them, and right next to them, was Spot Conlon himself. In the background, something on the stove was definitely burning.

Spot was laughing, “Tell me, Finch. How did he even work up the nerve to ask you out? Leave absolutely nothing out.”

He looked over at Finch, and felt a spike of nervousness impale him as they just smirked in response. Oh god no…

“Welllllllll…..” They placed a finger to their chin, tapping lightly, “You should’ve really seen him to believe it...he was being all blushy and sappy, per usual,” Finch chuckled softly, “...honestly, though. How’d he become so poetic for someone who eats raw chicken?”

That arose a laugh from Hotshot, Spot, and the rest. Blink crossed his arms and mumbled something along the lines of, “I’m gonna go put out that fire now,” and wandered to the stove, turning it down.

“You know, Finch,” Spot. Please. Please no- “Blink’s has his eye on the ‘Manhattan Finch’ for a while now. Which is saying a lot, if you know him personally.”

Blink let out a groan that was filled with nothing but emotional embarrassment. Well this was fucking great. Perfectly peachy, if you will.

Finch seemed a bit startled, blinking as he looked at the others, and then at Blink, raising an eyebrow, “...Really?...Huh. I didn’t...know that.”

They continued their conversation with the others while he tried to salvage the meal. Damn. He needed to teach the others how to actually cook for once. As he was finishing up, he felt someone tap on his shoulder. Blink turned back around to face…

Finch.

Of course they'd have questions after...all of that. After turning off the stove, he sighed, “Uh...yes songbird?...”

“Can I...talk to you for a minute?...Alone?...” They fidgeted with the hem of their sweater. Was Finch...nervous?...

Well, if Finch wasn't nervous, Blink sure as hell was, “Uhhhh….I'm assuming that I'm gonna have to say yes to that.”

Finch sighed, rolling their eyes. They grabbed a hold of his sleeve, pulling him onto the fire escape while the other Brooklyn Boy's were distracted.

Blink tapped his foot anxiously, “Sooooo….is there a reason you pulled me out here, or-”

They leaned onto the railing of the fire escape, letting out a low, exhausted sigh, “Jesus Blink...do you know how long I've waited for you to stop being stupid???”

“Wait, what-”

All that Blink knew after that, was Finch’s soft lips pressing onto his own. It was funny, in a sense, since Finch had to stand on their damn tippy toes to reach him. But hey, he wasn't really...paying too much attention to that right now.

When they pulled away, he stared at them with a wide eye. Of course, his dazed mind could only think about one thing, “B...but what about the rules?? Rule number one???”

Finch smiled warmly at him, and pressed another soft kiss to his lips, “To hell with it.”

//TAG LIST\\

@orollyitsracetrackhiggins @guys-are-nice-once-or-twice @cryptid-mike @newsies-more-like-gaysies @finchesnbinches @albertdoesnteatglass @albert-eats-cookie-cake @race-is-a-furbie @sure-as-a-star @iamliterallyaghost @amostauspiciousmanner @im-alone-but-i-aint-lonely @daavenport