#courier cain

[averagepsychouser]

Ah nah man my dog is feral or something

[crassinova]

(Art dump) Mysterious stranger and Nick

And ocs ig but they aren’t important rn look at the gay people

First two drawings were inspired by ship art of mace and sieve from infinity train from the storyboard artist of infinity train. So I Yeah eggggghhhggg I like ininity tarain

My back and neck hurts terribly I hate my life graaaahhahhfgggffrh

[kyngsnake]

comm of a sad wet rat of a courier for @vnknowcrow !

[nooklingposting]

Yeehawgust

Prompt 5: Stampede

These four? All together? They’ll cause a stampede within 20 minutes of meeting

Meet some of my moots New Vegas OCs! (L to R)

Cain Maryann belongs to @vnknowncrow

Avery Moreno belongs to @kyngsnake

Alicia Black belongs to me

And Mercy belongs to @bokatan

[fieldofcain]

“Always nice to come back home, thanks for coming up here. Wanna grab a beer?”

[fallowfield]

i love when media have visibly nonhuman characters that Were Once Human bc it gives ample room for me to make characters and to say "yeah they're trans. and they took 'make your body your own' to a whole new level." not because i have internalized issues or anything (i do but that's a whole other post and not the reason for my characters that are Like This) but because if i had the choice i would loove to look like a creature out of a horror movie.

[themackenzieboydchronicles]

Mackenzie Gets Hounded by the Press.

Has Meena spilled the beans?

Mackenzie boyd Fanfic.

"Well the engagement party went down well" said Mack as he came home after spending the night with Lucy.

"Is Lucy OK Mack." asked Aaron.

"Yes we went to hospital as she was having pains but they said everything is OK. She's gone to stay with her mum and dad's for a couple of days" said Mack just as a knock came to the door.

Mack opened the door to a camera being shoved in his face.

"Hotton Courier. What's your take on living with a serial killer" a voice shouted.

"Go away. I'm not interested" said Mack shutting the door.

"Who was that?" asked Aaron.

"The Hotton Courier. What am I going to do. This is Meenas doing" said Mack "And I can't let Lucy know about this as it will worry her"

"They are actually camping outside" said Aaron "I'm ringing Cain"

*****

"Well that's them sorted" said Cain as he and Nate came into the cottage after running the press off. "Apparantly they were at Tall Trees questioning Ryan as well"

"If I were you Mack I'd move into your other cottage with Tommy and Aaron, as they won't give up. That psycho has obviously given them your address" Cain said as Mack's phone rang.

"What? No way" shouted Mack cutting the call off.

"Who was that?" asked Cain. "Glamour magazine want me to a centre page spread. They said they saw my picture in Chatter Mag and they want a full frontal"

"What photo?" said Cain.

"Don't ask me" said Mack. "Its the first I've heard of it."

"You were right Cain" said Nate "they're back"

"Right get some clothes together and we'll get you to Aaron's" said Cain putting a sheet over Mack so he couldn't be photographed.

"Right I've been to David's and bought Chatter Magazine. You'd better take a look" said Nate.

"My nights of Passion with my Highland Hunk" Mack read. "By the infamous Emmerdale Serial Killer"

"It gets worse turn the page" said Nate.

"Oh my God a picture of me naked. Everyone can see my bum" said a horrified Mack.

"Good job it's only the back view Mackeeta it could have been full frontal" said Tommy.

"Well David said this was the last copy" said Nate "they sold out within minutes of being delivered"

"I can't let Lucy see this" said Mack. "I've got the baby to think of"

"Calm down Mack" said Aaron "I don't want you back in hospital again"

"She's made me out to be an insatiable sex maniac" said Mack.

"Good God how many times a day does it say" said Nate. "He's my five a day man" he read out loud.

"Right she isn't getting away with this" said Mack. She's made an idiot out of me. I'm going to see her and get her to retract everything"

"Well good luck with that" said Nate

"She's made me out to be an idiot" said Mack.

"Well that wouldn't take much effort" smirked Cain.

"Oh thanks a bunch Cain" said Mack "I'll ring Mary as she said she will go with me to see Meena."

"Well if she doesn't put the wind up Meena I don't know who can" said Aaron "Bear said she's enough to frighten the French"

[shepherds-of-haven]

I'm curious. How did child MC survive when their town disappeared? How did they manage to feed themselves?

Hi there, I tend to leave that up to player headcanon! There's a lot of different scenarios that I think could be plausible: they walked to the nearest town and begged or worked on a farm or an inn to earn some coin for a bit, they used their survival skills to forage or fish or hunt (especially plausible in Elf or Ket backgrounds) and lived in an abandoned hut once used by foresters until they decided to leave or Belnus came along, etc., they hitchhiked onto a 'van to the nearest large city and pickpocketed or lived in an orphanage or worked as a servant or a courier until an instructor from the Circle took notice of them, they traveled from place to place with an acting troupe or a merchant caravan or just on their own until they grew strong enough to become a mercenary or trained under a famed battle-master who caught them scrapping in an alleyway or filched spellbooks from every town until they had to move on for fear of getting caught, etc. etc.! You could really imagine anything, I don't have a solid canon for that gap in their history! But children in the Autarchy are well-equipped with survival skills and experience beyond what the modern day requires (Caine is essentially working a full-time job at 12), so it's not a stretch to say that they would have found ways not to starve!

[applesontheground]

💘 house call 💉

sending birthday wishes to @bisexual-horror-fan! as always, utterly thankful for a great friendship, and how else to show it by making our barbies kiss each other? this was another hypothetical we had talked about a little after the last cross-canon piece -- how the triads would react to properly meeting each other -- and in my nature i ran to write it for the special day.

(btw, i def intend for this to be something that happens outside the events of prometheus/post the "oh my god they finally hooked up" moment that's still coming. it's a slow burn after all, so spoilers that they get together eventually, i suppose?)

also: just to avoid confusion since there are a severe lack of names in this, i use she/her for the TTHITOW reader and they/them for the YOP reader!

SFW | Word Count: 2,771 | Tiffany Valentine x Reader x Charles Lee Ray & Herbert West x Reader x Daniel Cain contains canon typical/injury, compliant with Through The Heart Is The Only Way and Your Own Prometheus

In the dead of night, a car went squealing down the road. Trying to get away from an audience of dark windows, clear and open like crystal eyes peering into where they were going – and more importantly, who they were.

“Stop lettin’ go of it, you’re just gonna bleed out!”

“I’m not. Tiff, don’t fuckin-! OW!”

Another yelp from the backseat made the tires squeal, causing a sharp turn being made and the woman behind the wheel to finally slam both her palms down in an aggravated motion. “I can’t drive straight if you two are screaming in my ear! I just can’t!” She cried, hands white knuckling as they returned to take control.

Chucky looked to the ceiling of the car cabin, rolling his eyes and disguising it as agony to keep both of his girls off his back. Tiffany swung around from the passenger seat, and she argued, “He’s the one that says we can’t go to a hospital, especially not with the sorry sap in the back.”

Being reminded of the body in the trunk, the waitress rolled her neck but finally gritted, “No, nope. Fuck it, I have somewhere better than a hospital. Somewhere far safer for all of us, sealed lips and all.”

“Sure, sure. Take us wherever is best right now, baby cakes.” Tiffany finally softened, an arm on the crook of her elbow. “Only thing I have t’ask is where it is.”

“…Across from a cemetery…one town over or so…” She mulled, then quickly insisted, “A friend of mine, they work as a document runner. Believe me, we can trust them-“

“Oh, that’s nice. Perfect, just what we needed.” Chucky grimaced in a sarcastic bite, but the waitress snapped, “For God’s sake, if I’m your accomplice you could let me fucking finish-” Tiffany gave a downright diabolical look to him, patting the waitress’ arm as she mustered the patience. “…They got a couple doctors for roommates.”

“Oh,” His hands came up in a shrug, “Fine, that’s actually better than I thought.

Let’s make a house call. Sure they’d fuckin’ love that at this time of the night.”

Knock on the door.

From inside the house, the sole person in the kitchen looked up from the counter. First at the door an ocean’s away with the desolate living room seeming so vast; then at the clock on the mantle. Finally, a familiar voice hushing on the other side made them sprout up from their seat, discarding the question of a warrant before entering that had been forming in their mind. Even though no one else was on the main floor with them, they couldn’t help sneaking, the heavy quiet making them very aware of their own footsteps.

Opening the door, their eyes fell, a little disheveled in an expected way for this time of the night but growing in moments at the scene before them. Two women holding a man between them, one of them they recognized like the back of their hand. If there wasn’t a dark stain trailing down the man’s torso, they would’ve been quicker to say hello.

“Is everyone home?” The waitress asked, giving a pointed look from under one of his arms. The courier stammered, “I- They’re…” They looked to one woman, then the other. Finally, the man for only a brief glimpse as they answered more confidently, “They’re downstairs, but I can…Oh my god,come inside.” Forgetting formality, they held the door open.

“Downstairs, like in a basement?” Chucky clarified. Tiffany sighed, “What else could we be talking about, huh? Come on, you’re bleeding all over the porch.”

“Oh yeah, let’s go inside and bleed on the carpet-“ He snarked, his other girlfriend lingering by the door to catch a worrisome glance from the courier. Still, they smirked as she murmured, “I can explain, I promise. Thank you so much. We just couldn’t go to the hospital, you know.”

“Sure, of course.” They assured, nothing else needed to be said as they guided them in. One last look into the street, across it to the cemetery for a beat, then they closed the door behind them.

“Good timing. I had just been up and walking around when you pulled up.” The courier explained, ushering an open jar of peanut butter behind the toaster on the counter, one second upright and another crouched down, opening a drawer where you might expect them to keep the pots. Looking over one shoulder, they offered, “You can take a seat anywhere you’d like, by the way.”

“So, sweets.” Chucky rolled his eyes over to the waitress, and teased, “Do you have multiple pals that happen to be bangin’ a couple doctors, or is this who I think it is? Be honest.” The courier perked up, trying not to smirk. “She’s told you about me?”

Chucky shot a look towards the woman on his left. “All I’m saying is that you told me that you weren’t taking me to the Frankensteins. What do we mean by doctors, exactly?”

The waitress asked, “Do you want to be taken care of without the legal work or not?” and the courier lamented as they set some medical supplies on the counter, “Do we have to word it like that?” The gears continuing to turn in their head as they tore the seal on a bottle of peroxide, they then repeated in a confused tone: “Frankensteins?”

Seeing them busy quickly, even finding a pair of nitrile gloves conveniently stashed with the rest of the supplies and wasting no time to stretch them over their hands, Chucky scoffed, “Well, this whole household’s full of doctors, huh?” They met eyes with him and chirped, “Oh no, I’m a courier for the county, actually.” He gave a look of concern back down to the heavy tear – both through his sweater and doubling down into his skin – above his stomach.

They then hummed, “It’s alright. When you live with people in the business, you learn a little. Believe me, I may not be licensed but I know what I’m doing. I’ve patched up those doctors themselves a few times when they weren’t able to.”

“What, when they burn their hand on the stove or something?” Chucky scoffed, getting a small laugh from the courier. “Sure, or when they stub their toe on a doorframe.” They went along with it, shrugging casually but their smile slightly bent into a disguised grimace.

Chucky sighed, half from the load off he took on a barstool by the counter and half by the return of his humor. “Sure. Just like everyone here, you also know a thing or two about all that necromancy garbo, too. I know a sadist when I see one.”

The courier’s kind eyes grew wide. “Oh, did she tell you about that, or…?” They met eyes again, both confused now. He mumbled out, “…No? No, I was- I was joking, buddy.”

Before they could rewind their terrified expression, a door opening down the hall towards the right side of the house made their head snap towards it. They dropped the gauze from their hands into Tiffany’s lap. She merely watched in shock as the poor thing nearly lost balance shooting around the counter.

“The boys must be in.” Tiffany mused, one hand resuming the work they had been doing but still giving a curious glance towards the doorway where they had slipped out of sight.

Hushed conversation. The courier begging with a quiet, “please” was all they caught before they slipped back around the doorway and cleared their throat so all three people in the kitchen looked over. There were emerging figures from the hall, still shrouded in the deep dark of the corridor but still clear enough to see that one was taller, lankier while the other had a pair of metallic-framed glasses.

“These are friends of mine. They ran into some trouble and just needed the help.” The courier explained, “Friends, these are my partners.” The two men finally followed as they walked back in, the light showing their faces far better. The taller one was quick to react, giving a confused nod before his eyes settled on the blood seeping across the counter, finding the source and immediately softening in stature at the sight, concern making him antsy in how he stood behind the other two. His counterpart was far less disposed to it, still giving a close look to the courier, a raise of the eyebrows when they locked stares in a silent ask of ‘All this, and you brought them inside?’

“Oh, that one’s definitely a freak.” Chucky cringed under his breath, both of his girlfriends slapping hands over their own mouths and then his with the free ones. The courier disregarded it, ignoring the offense from one man by saying his name. “Herbert, Dan. This is a friend I meet up with every Thursday after late runs, and … her partners. Chucky and Tiffany?” Looking in a silent question to the other two just to be safe, both silently greeted in affirmation.

“Sorry about the blood, you guys. I know tricks on how to get it out of linoleum if you need.” Tiffany mentioned to them as both men tried to find their place in the scene unfolding. Dan quickly responded, shaking his head hurriedly and trying to crack an edgeless smile for her, “Oh, we got cleanup down well. I, uh- “ He gestured to the courier, “They get nosebleeds a lot, actually. Don’t you, honey?” Briefly pecking each other on the lips, the courier put a hand to Dan’s lower back and commented, “Yeah, about that. They know we do more than nosebleeds around here.”

“They what?” Herbert turned from the counter, paused in his movement to find some gauze. He even held it close to one shoulder, like he was about to abstain from the entire ordeal, but Dan quickly snatched it from him. Knowing there were more pressing matters, he came around the counter and asked Chucky, “How did you manage something so bloody? At this time of night, too?”

“Believe me, it’s better you don’t ask. What’s important is making sure I don’t die around your boyfriend over there.” Chucky grimaced, earning a suppressed glance from the man.

Herbert snorted at that, the courier cringing to themselves as Dan assured him, “Come on, you’re not doing that. You haven’t lost enough blood to die, I promise.” The courier then added kindly, “You’d need a lot more than that, actually.”

“I’m sure stranger things have happened,” Herbert warned, making Dan finally frown over at him as the courier hissed, “Enough.”

Chucky groaned, “For Christ’s sake, I think I know where this caravan is going. We all kill people, or at least know about the whole murder ordeal, so let’s stop being a bunch of pusses while we have this small talk, huh?”

“Kill people?” Dan echoed, half terrified of the mere mention but trying to disguise it as confusion.

“Oh, murder?” The word stained Herbert’s tongue, like a bad burn, “Is that what you call it?”

The courier scoffed at him, “I didn’t give them that word.” Giving a pointed look back, like they were growing exasperated from the assumptions, they silently resolved the issue and looked back to the others.

“Huh, we seem to know a little more ‘bout each other than I thought. Have you been yapping, too?” Tiffany then asked the waitress, crossing her arms to make the other woman huff, “Not…not anything specific about what you and Chuck do for a living, if that’s what you mean.”

“Well, we can understand now, can’t we?” Herbert piped up again, the courier handing him a pair of gloves as he now joined the small circle forming in the center of the room, “We don’t need to be so discrete: If you must know, I met Daniel in a morgue and the other one sneaking around two nights after they had moved in.” Even though it was a bit rude, the courier seemed tickled by the use of the other one, and when Tiffany noticed with a narrow of her eyes they whispered, “Long story.”

The right man for the job, Dan closed in as the one in charge of patching Chucky up. Herbert watched in a thinly veiled , but was soon distracted by the courier, who mosied over and took his fiddling hands. He gave them a tough look, but it was ignored in favor of peppering a soft kiss to one knuckle, whispering something that made him roll his eyes but finally release the tension in his hands and let them rest on his sides.

He fell far more content with watching, their chin on his shoulder as they mouthed, “God, he’s handsome, isn’t he?” Herbert didn’t respond, but a contemplative glance back over at Dan was all the courier needed to smile a little. They met eyes with the waitress, and they couldn’t help but feel some sort of strangely placed perfection in how they acted with the two misfits that had emerged from the depths of this strange little house in the middle of some desolate valley of silence and almost crypt-like complacency.

The waitress then turned her attention back to her own two. Tiffany had been idly speaking with Dan, but as soon as the awful gash in Chucky’s side was no longer visible under a healthy layer of gauze she was looking at him.

Dan finally gave them space, nodding one last time before walking over to the sink to wash his hands, meeting the other two there. Putting a hand on his shoulder, the waitress grinned as they shared a kiss themselves as Tiffany huffed, “Very nice work, Dan. My man’s almost good as new. If only you could fix that clunky chip on his shoulder.” Chucky made a face, and muttered, “Keep talking like that, and I’m running away with this one.” The waitress giggled, slapping him on the shoulder playfully as he pulled her into the two of them, giving her a kiss as well. A dim thought fell over her, and her smile faded as she murmured, “Well, now we just need to scrap the body that’s still in the car.”

There was a plastic clatter on the counter over by the sink, the triad looking at them while Dan slowly turned off the water. “You guys brought the body?” The courier gasped, and Chucky shrugged, “What, were we supposed to leave it out in the open with our fingerprints all over it?”

Tiffany then pointed out, “Well, we’re by a cemetery, we can just find a hole in the ground and take care of it.” She looked at Dan, who was shooting a gaze to the living room with the window pointing towards the graveyard. “You guys know a good spot for that, I suppose?”

“Body disposal?” Dan murmured, letting one of his dry hands slip around the courier’s hip, having them fit snug against him. Chucky jutted his chin towards him. “What, are any of you gonna say something?”

Tiffany then sighed, “Whether it’s burying the guy, dissolvin’ him in a bathtub like you see in those over-the-top crime shows…I dunno, we just need it gone one way or another, so we all don’t go to jail.” The courier gave a careful look to the hem of their shirt, streaked a bit with blood that had been lingering on someone’s hand while they had brushed past them.

Finally, Dan offered, “Well…we can help with that, too. I-If you want, I mean- we know how difficult…” Listening to him stumble, the courier’s arm came up to press their fingers into his back in mute support, “It can be to get rid of evid- Bodies, all of that stuff.” He finally swallowed his last thoughts, looking down at the tile floor with an almost ill look on his face.

Herbert stopped rubbing the smudges from his glasses, placing them back on his face. When he got another uncertain glance from the waitress, he then mused more to his partners than them with an amused tone.

“Yes, I think that can be arranged.”

Tiffany beamed, “Great, so it’s a double date?”

The courier looked over at the waitress, and instead of anxiety, confusion, worry… There was a glimmer of mischief on the way they pursed their lips. It was more to hide a smirk than to express discomfort, and the waitress had to put a hand over their mouth to hide the matching smile.

It was dangerous; they had a match made in Hell and they weren’t sorry about it.

[averagepsychouser]

Cain is eating like Mickey Mouse when he had to eat that bean

[crassinova]

Tell me about your OCs 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

UPDATE DEC 14 2023 if you saw the last one no you did NOT NO YOU DIDNT! NO YOU DID NOT THat was embarrasing so now heres a cooler and BETTER ONE

TW: Drug abuse, Religious trauma (implied homophobia)

uaga what was i gonna type down here again????? oh well uhh thankyou everyone and fuck you tenna

Images below are placeholders for now before i remake/made all their reference sheets. again if anything sounds weird blame my lack of vocabulary and everything

anyway thank you for reaiding

“Chancellor” (He/Him)

A mysterious stranger who is seen wandering in the wastes, appearing and disappearing. He is perceived as a guardian angel to people who were once saved by him from danger. Though some others think differently, believing he is a “prolific serial killer” due to his abundant kills and getting away with it freely. Previously seen in the Mojave frequently tagging along with the lone courier, MJ Akabine, until he disappeared to the Commonwealth to occasionally aid the sole survivor, Cain Cross, on finding his son…while also being chased by the synth detective again. It makes you really wonder what his story is if the detective is so adamant on knowing more about him, especially how little is known about him.

Trivia:

Is occasionally seen in The Tops theatre at 10PM to listen to The Lonesome Drifter. Assumptions is that its his favorite singer since he’s seen more often when the drifter was introduced in the tops.

He can play the guitar!

Has a fear of fire…why is that necessary???

Marty Jean “MJ” Akabine (they/them)

An eccentric and sneaky gunslinger and part-time mad scientist who can always lend a hand (metaphorically and literally) to people who are in need of help. Though despite his quirky and eccentric behavior towards their close friends and victims they are quite an anxious mess! ( their charisma is a 1 or 2… or even at the negatives).

Occasionally been seen dragging raiders/ dangerous people to a recluse area to experiment on them to make new unique healing items and for curiosity sake. If the victim is lucky to survive their experiments they set them free, expecting the victim that they stop their reign of terror.

Back when they were a courier…well an ex-courier they had a strong obsession on becoming stronger so they can prove to people he is capable of surviving the wastes. They were really insecure about everything about themself like “What will make me stronger?” or “Will this makes me stronger?” which in their solution to that is to take drugs and force themselves to use more blunt fighting methods because they think it’ll make them “stronger”. That didn’t go so well.

Trivia:

Has a special interest in all kinds of small little creatures like insects and bugs as they are dressed like a cazador that are mostly populated in the Mojave.

Probably ate someone, theres no evidence of it but he probably did or not idk

has a strong father-son relationship with Chancey. The coat he has on right now is from Chancey before they have to seperate paths. They just "slightly" modified it

He got that name because two (or three) of his groupmates named him at the same time. Which formed Marty Jean Akabine. (though in reality its my indecisive ass having trouble choosing Jean and Marty so i used both. Oh yeah the name "Marty" idea is when i remembered the protag from back to the future for some reason and thought it was cool)

Cain Cross (He/Him)

A sole survivor from the great war who was under cryogenic stasis beneath vault 111 for 2 decades, a man lost in time trying to find his lost son to rebuild his life. His life before the Great War was decent to say the least, if you ignore his struggles. He was apart of the Cross family, a religious and wealthy family that want what’s best for their children, to be pure and free of sin. For what seems to be a straight male with a loving family with a wife and a child, he kept that act for as long as he can remember in the name of everyone, to his parents, society, and God. All what his parents taught him go in vain as he prayed on and on wishing he could wash away the sins he made with a man during the 2nd Battalion. The guilt lingers on due to the fact he never told his wife about the affair before she died.

Trivia:

Gay (if it isnt obvious enough. He likes Maccready) and also asexual

Really likes detective media like the silver shroud, his parents didn’t like him liking childish things so he reads them in secret.

he wears shades because to look cool and because i would also be irritated if the sun keeps blinding me

think of johnny cage but hes not egotistical and suffers from internalized homophobia

Abel Cross (He/They?)

Back before the war, they were perceived as the “The golden child” due to his outstanding grades and leadership skills. Their parents noticed his potential in the business and planned his entire life of being a business man… a life he never even wanted. He wasn’t fond of the attention as they like their time alone (and also with his brother, Cain). He wanted to do art which was something he was passionate in because it gives him freedom to do whatever with a canvas, he wanted to be free, to make their own choices. But he wanted to make his parents proud of him, they already planned his life around and he didn’t want to disrupt their plans so he forced himself into business. And for what? a couple of bones and a person who doesn’t exist?

Trivia:

had a huge identity crisis after the war (imagine having your parents shape your life and identity that you have no free will. he started to draw and paint more after the war so that’s good atleast)

Despite his charismatic personality he really just wants to sleep and watch his brother play video games and make art and eat hot chip and lie (he’s bisexual)

Lustful. Though he has to keep it a secret because of his parents strict behavior (Cain is aware of it but he doesnt tell because he isn’t a snitch(i wont elaborate than that because im uncomfortable just talking abt it further for now))

fun fact abt the Cross siblings: they have a matching snake tattoo that representing “sin” and freedom from their religious background. (based on the serpent in the Adam and Eve story)

YIAPEEE DONE ATLAST!!!!!!! thank you for reading this behemoth of text!!!!! there are more fallout ocs to be told but these 4 are the ones that I like so aahwhahhwhahwaaaaa !!!!! Shout out to my friend tenna for reading this once in a while I really hate them

[elliemuze]

Viserys [handing off what surely must approximate the twenty-seventh textchain]: "Take this and deliver it to Daemon at once."

Somehow-the-thirty-fourth-messenger: "..."

Viserys: "...What idles you, boy?"

Unfortunate Mailman™️: "Perhaps it might be fleeter to send a raven, Your Grace?"

Viserys: "Whyever for? Have your legs gone lame?"

Future Westerosi Speed Bag: "..."

Future Westerosi Speed Bag: "p l e a s e s e n d a r a v e n Y o u r G r a c e."

-

Ye Olde Aggrieved Courier [looking battered, although sensibly girdled within a medley of armor, padding, and trussed barley; panting]: "I survived, Your Grace! If only just."

Viserys [handing off another scroll before the lad can even finish speaking; missing all fingers now but one, from which yonder message dangles]: "Another. Daemon's reply came days ahead of you. Quickly now."

Saddest Boy to Ever [soul leaving his body as he reconciles his doom to play crier betwixt Cain-and-Abel-but-with-Dragons for the rest of his natural days]: "Did he... use a raven, Your Grace?"

Viserys: "What's with you and fucking birds, boy?"

[jakcett]

Speaking of my Courier-- this is my sole survivor and his boi. Caine isn't minmaxed like Jakob, he's pretty even in most of his stats. Also, while I focused on repair and explosives w Jakob, I made Caine more of a rifleman.

[soleminisanction]

That Time I Got Reincarnated as Spoiler?

That one is incredibly self-indulgent and I really should think of a better title.

Ever heard of That Time I Got Reincarnated as Yamcha? It's a pretty funny isekai gag manga adjacent to the Dragon Ball franchise whose title is self-explanatory by design. That's the basic inspiration.

In this fic, Steph's near-death experience in War Games would result in her waking up with memories of having been somebody (nameless self-insert basically) who read the original canon as comic books and has the same Opinions I do about how it all went down.

Like I said, it's more than a little self-indulgent and I put some real though into ditching the concept and just doing a re-write of that era with Steph acting like she has any empathy for other human beings at all...

But! Then I had the thought that foreknowledge of Battle for the Cowl would give new!Steph the perfect inspiration to, say, find Cassandra Cain and convince her that the boys are being stupid and SHE should be Batman instead. And then finding Tim and convincing him that Cass is the best choice for Batman because Dick might actually listen to him in a way he won't the girls (since he barely knows either of them).

So then Cass kicks Jason's ass in the final fight and becomes Batman with Tim as her Robin, while Damian gets sent to live with Dick in New York and becomes the Flamebird to his Nightwing. Bette Kane gets to be Batgirl again, and new!Steph gets a job working in Leslie's clinic as an assistant and emergency courier and is content.

I keep coming back to this idea so I might actually write it, as you might've noticed I like working meta commentary into my fanfiction.

[godlikedevil]

As the perpetual #Storyteller, #VampiretheMasqueradeNightRoad is great in capturing what makes #V5 a magical experience for the player. This is my 2nd playthrough (after a relatively blind one as a #Tremere) and my #Lasombra had quite the character arc. A veteran marksman who served in Afghanistan in his mortal life, my character began unlife as shovelhead turned criminal accountant for the #Sabbat. His star rose while his Humanity plummeted until the Sword of Caine decided to fuck off in the Gehenna Wars and abandon its holdings. Keeping his Sabbat name, "Dämmerung" spends the next 10 years laid low as courier passing himself off as a member of a #Camarilla clan until the Lasombra were formally accepted into the Ivory Tower. He gets himself embroiled in the Cainite politics of Tucson, doing jobs for its Prince and the #Anarchs. He runs afoul of the Second Inquisition and has his haven blown up, slays a few monstrous elders, finds love and rebuilds his Humanity, then eventually betrays his employers to mortal hunters when he could not stomach unlife anymore before retiring to San Francisco with his ghoul and his wolf to live life as a family. They really should use Night Road as a template for future games if they decide to make something like Bloodlines again, because it has the right mix of investigation, social intrigue, combat, and cool vampire powers. https://www.instagram.com/p/CkFrFNhuEzN/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[yugospersonal]

Part 1 - Like a fella once said, ain’t that a kick in he head

Intro - Blue Moon

“Let's see what the damage is. How about your name? Can you tell me your name?”

I decide to name myself Karter Cain, because I thought it sounded good for the type of build I was going for, little did I know now that I check it that “Karter” means “transporter of goods by cart” which is fitting considering we’re playing as a courier. Though now that I think about it, it should’ve been obivious when I actually say the name out loud

“Huh. Can't say it's what I'd have picked for you. But if that's your name, that's your name. I'm Doc Mitchell. Welcome to Goodsprings.”

“Now, I hope you don't mind, but I had to go rooting around there in your noggin to pull all the bits of lead out. I take pride in my needlework, but you'd better tell me if I left anything out of place.”

“How'd I do?”

You did good doc, now if only I wasn’t blinking when I took the screenshot

“Take it slow now. It ain't a race.”

After we gain control off our character, don’t forget to pick up the doctor’s bag from the side of the bed, it’ll heal our limbs when they get crippled. After you take it, go to the vigor tester to assign your SPECIAL stats

Now, let’s get to assigning SPECIAL stats using the vigor tester machine.

Strenght is pretty good. We get to carry a lot more, which will be more important than normal since I’ll be playing on hardcore mode due to ammo weight, we deal more damage with our melee weapons and if we use a heavy weapon, it won’t suffer from an accuracy penalty. Has quite a lot of perks that’ll make you effective with melee combat and heavy weapons.

Perception is... kinda useless. Other than the governing stats, the only thing it governs is the how near you have to be to your enemy to detect them. Which can be counteracted by just, paying attention and not running aroun willy nilly. I guess you could detect Cazadoré using your compass if you have high perception to detect them from miles away because of their distinct movement patterns but we will get a companion that will make any points we put into our perception unnecessary. It doesn’t even affect how accurate you are in V.A.T.S. The only reason to not dump your perception stat is because you want to get the “Better Criticals” perk since, yeah increasing your critical damage is nothing short of amazing so if you don’t plan on raising your other stats too much, you can leave this at 5 and get an implant to make it 6 for Better Criticals. The only reason I’m not dumping it to 1 is because I plan on using explosives and it increases the explosives skill.

Endurance is also obiviously quite important, not only it will increase or max HP but it will also increase your unarmed (fist weapon) damage, our resistance against poisons and radiation, but most importantly it will allow us to get more implants. If you have 7 endurance like I do, you’ll be able to get 7 different implants and no, getting another endurance implant doesn’t give you a free implant slot.

Charisma is definently useless. Back in Fallout 1-2-3, speech checks were derived from a formula using your charisma and speech combined, and in 1&2 it affected how many companions you could have with you at all times, but in New Vegas all speech checks are done with the speech stat. Meaning you could put all the points you could’ve put on charisma to intelligence and use the increased amount of skill points to better increase your speech to pass all speech checks as your charisma is at rock bottom. The only thing it affects (except for obiviously the derived skills) is the companion’s nerve, which makes it so that for every 1 point in charisma, they deal 5% more damage and gain 1 Damage Threshold (DT subtracts the amount of damage you would’ve taken from it like, 10 incoming damage – 6 DT = Take 4 damage). I always played with no charisma and that has never changed my companion’s survivibility in hardcore mode, even if you’re having trouble keeping them alive you can just dismiss them or use Charisma enhancing stuff to temporarily increase your nerve.

Intelligence is important if you want to maximise your character, since for every two points of INT, you gain an additional skill point to use (10+INT/2) . And if you have an odd number of INT one point will get saved every level (14 on LVL 2 and 15 on LVL 3 with an INT of 9) Not too much to explain, it’s good in a simple way. And also, if you have 3 or less INT, it will make is so that you now talk like an idiot to NPCs, which will give you unique dialouge and responses.

Agility affect how good you’ll be good with V.A.T.S. by giving you more Action Points and making you AP regeneration faster. The “speed” it mentions on the vigor tester isn’t your movement speed, but is actually your your reload speed. Oh, and don’t forget to holster your two handed weapons to run faster.

Luck is frankly overpowered. Not only it slightly increases all of your stats, not only it will cause you to have more critical hits, not only it will increase how much the human enemies mess up, but it will also make us more lucky in our gambling, and this is Vegas we’re talking about, of course you’re going to do some gambling.

After this, Doc Mitchell will comment on our SPECIAL Stats after we assign them, he’ll go “Yep, that's a pretty standard score there. But after what you been through, I'd say that's great news.” if you didn’t focus on any particular stat, but if you raise/lower certain stats, he’ll have some comments on them

Strength:

High: Surprised anybody'd want to tangle with you. Heck, you could go Deathclaw hunting with a switch.

Low: That's some serious atrophy, even for someone who's been in bed awhile. It's a wonder you can move at all.

Perception:

High: Nothing gets by you, huh? Coulda used you when I lost my keys last month.

Low: Now I ain't no optometrist, but maybe we should fit you for some glasses while you're here.

Endurance:

High: I guess that explains how you're still alive. You're built solid as an oak.

Low:  I just don't get it. A stiff breeze'd tear you in two but a couple of bullets and you're right as rain.

Intelligence:

High: Look at that. Maybe them bullets done your brain some good.

Low: Sorry, son/little lady. I fixed up your head as best I knew how. Guess I missed a spot

Agility:

High: Most patients don't get out of bed after being shot and then move like they was in perfect control. You're unusual, I'll say that.

Low: Don't have all your coordination back yet, looks like. You should think about doing some rehab.

Luck: 

High: With luck like yours I'm surprised them bullets didn't just turn right around and climb back into the gun.

Low: Now that don't make a lick of sense. Seems to me you're the luckiest son-of-a-gun in New Vegas.

Charisma:

High: Good to see them bullets didn't affect your charm none!

And if you’re minmaxing like I am, this will be the one you’ll hear the most

Low:

“Well, we know your vitals are good. But that don't mean them bullets didn't leave you nuttier than a Bighorner dropping. What do you say you take a seat on my couch and we go through a couple questions? See if your dogs are still barking.”

I just picked randomly, we’re going to handle the skills ourselves anyway.

Fun fact; if you awnser Doc Mitchell’s questions with these “Dog - Kick, House - Demolish, Night - Silencer, Bandit - Reasonable, Light - Inspiration, Mother - Human shield” he will respond with

I tagged Explosives, Speech and Barter because even though I’m going to use them the whole run, they are low due to them being goverened by my dumped charisma stats.

“I got a form for you to fill out, so I can get a sense of your medical history. Just a formality. Ain't like I expect to find you got a family history of getting shot in the head.”

Traits:

“Built to Destroy” 3% increase to your while degrading your equipment faster. While this is not a problem in the late game, early on you’ll have problems with the equipment you’re using since it melts so fast. I’d call it a late game trait but the thing is, it’s not necessary for a crit build. If you’ve played your cards right you should have a 35% chance to crit (40% in V.A.T.S) and there are weapons with higher than a 2x chance to crit, making the perk sorta unneeded for a crit build

“Claustrophobia” Gives you +1 to all your SPECIAL stats when outside and causes you to lose -1 to all when inside. Not that good as there are some skill check that might happen when you are inside, which will cause you to lose -2 of your skill since your SPECIAL stat took a hit. Not worth it but pick it for roleplay purposes.

“Early Bird” Will give you +2 to your SPECIAL stats from 6AM to 12PM, but gives you -1 to all when it’s 6PM to 6AM. Same problems as Claustrophobia but a bit better since you can get the boost by just waiting. And the boost is +2 meaning you’ll get a +4 to the skill you need. You can pick it as a roleplay choice but there are better choices.

“Fast Shot” and “Trigger Discipline” Two skills that mirror each other. Fast Shot will cause you to fire 20% faster at the cost of 20% accuracy, making shots in V.A.T.S cost less but also make them less acurate and Trigger Discipline will fire 20% slower while firing more accurately, increasing your V.A.T.S costs but making them more accurate. Also these skills don’t work on fully automatic weapons so might not be the best choice if your end game weapon is one.

“Four Eyes” This skill permenantly decreases your Perception by 1. No, you heard me right, that’s what the perk does while giving all eyewear the ability to give +2 Perception. If you are planing on taking “Better Criticals” this has set you back by one point. A roleplay trait, other than that don’t pick it.

“Good Natured” will give you +5 to your Barter, Medicine, Repair, Science, and Speech, but have -5 to Energy Weapons, Explosives, Guns, Melee Weapons, and Unarmed. If you are planing on using only 1 weapon type, this is a free 20 perk points. Pretty good, you should pick it.

“Hoarder” Gives you an extra +25 lbs to carry but you lose -1 to all your SPECIAL stats if your weight is below 160. You can just carry junk around and throw them out once you find something good but it’s a bit of a hastle. Not a bad pick.

“Hot Blooded” You deam 50% more damage when below 50% health but lose -2 Perception and Agility in the process. As I’ve said perception doesn’t matter but losing 2 Agility is slightly problematic. Decent choice for a trait.

“Heavy Handed” Will increase your damage with Melee and Unarmed weapons by 20% while decreasing your critical damage with those weapons by 60%. While that does sound bad, some people who are a lot more smarter than me did the math and concluded that since the base damage is higher, the ammount that is actually decreased isn’t all that high If you aren’t playing a crit melee build, it’s a no brainer to pick and if you are playing a crit melee build, you can pick it for the early game to swap it out later since the Old World Blue DLC allows you to repick your traits once.  There are also some melee weapons that deal a low, static amount of crit damage, these are mainly the weapons that ignore the DT and DR of an enemy and also Two-Step Goodbye which only deals 10 crit damage... but in turn it turns your enemy into a bomb!

“Kamikaze” Losing your DT at the cost of AP doesn’t sound like it’d be to bad of a trait but it takes away 2 DT to give you 10 AP. It’d be not that bad if it was 20 or 30 but since it’s a 10, it doesn’t give you a whole lot to work with. Don’t pick this one even in a V.A.T.S build.

“Logan’s Loophole” A really good trait, will increase the duration of consumable items at the cost of making you max out at LVL 30. Not a bad trade-off if you are playing a character who isn’t planing on doing everything and even if it is, LVL 30 is still a good place to be leveled so I don’t considier it to be a bad downside. It’s up to you if you wanna pick it.

“Loose Cannon” You lose your effective range (in a game where enemies shoot at you!) to make your bombs arrive at their destination sooner... which again will need some time to blow up. Yeah, I’m not picking this.

“Skilled” This is the best trait in the game. It gives you a +5 to ALL of your skills at the cost of getting 10% less EXP. If you don’t know anything about New Vegas, here’s something to keep in mind about EXP boosting skills. They are worthless, especially if you’re playing a character that you’re planing on doing everything with since you’ll already be maxed out without needing them.

“Small Frame” Gives you 1 Agility at the cost of making you crippled faster by about 25%. While being crippled in Normal mode isn’t that bad, you can just sleep it off. In Hardcore, taking care of your broken bones is a lot more harder. There is a perk in the game that will unlock after you’ve broken your limbs 50 times that will give you 20% less limb damage, which will make your condition a lot better. I don’t remember getting that perk a whole lot on my playthrough without Small Frame, so this should make getting the Tough Guy challenge perk easier to get to boot. Not a bad trait at all, just... carry a lot of Doctor’s Bags and Hydras.

“Wild Wasteland” In Fallout 1&2, while traveling with high luck you’d randomly come across unique events that referanced other stuff, or were generally a bit out of Fallout’s normal tone. This is the game’s way of reincorporating that stuff without making them clash with the main tone by making them only optional. Gives you some unique stuff too, a good pick if you don’t know what else to get and aren’t bothered by the things it adds to the game. It also cuts off access to the YCS/186 with replacing it with a different weapon and removes 2 mini nukes and gives you 3 unbelievebly strong grenades. Though you can get those items only to remove Wild Wasteland in Old World Blues to get the things you couldn’t have gotten.

After all that explanation, I’m going to pick Good Natured + Skilled as it’s you basic minmax traits.

“All right. I guess that about does it. Come with me, I’ll see you out.”

Now that our stats have been assigned, we can go to the chemistry set and the broken 9mm submachine gun in the good doctor’s house. If we have 25 Science skill and 25 Repair respectively, we can interract with them.

“I hope you don't mind but I gave the note a look. I thought it might help me find a next of kin. But it was just something about a platinum chip. Well, if you're heading back out there, you ought to have this. They call it a Pip-Boy. I grew up in one of them vaults they made before the war. We all got one. Ain't much use to me now, but you might want such a thing, after what you been through. I know what it's like, having something taken from you. And put this (Vault 21 Jumpsuit) on, too, so the locals don't pick on you for lacking modesty.” If the player character is male: “Never was much my style anyway.” If female: “Was my wife's”

“You should talk to Sunny Smiles before you leave town. She can help you learn to fend for yourself in the desert. She'll likely be at the saloon. I reckon some of the other folks at the saloon might be able to help you out, too. And the metal fella, Victor, who pulled you outta your grave. Anyway, you ever get hurt out there, you come right back. I'll fix you up.”

I will certianly try.

Return to the Master Post