Aurora Moon
Verfied Insomniac with too much time on her hands
- Location
- USA, Earth
- Pronouns
- She/Her
5 years after the events of Fallout 4.
The Contest of Power (Wiki-Warrior style story) (Fallout)
- Thread starter Aurora Moon
- Start date
5 years after the events of Fallout 4.
Chapter 92-- Okay, let's not panic anymore. (Regan)
Aurora Moon
Verfied Insomniac with too much time on her hands
- Location
- USA, Earth
- Pronouns
- She/Her
A/N: Regan chapter. Yes, we're going back to the Karina-Regan-Karina-Regan pattern again until things become more interesting on Karina's side again. Having her just sit around pulling on her power is not conducive to a good story.
In case you don't wanna read the whole Regan chapter, here's the summary.
==================================================
When the old man finally disappeared, it was pretty late at night and so they called it a night.
In the morning, Regan was feeling calmer and not as freaked out over the Karina situation anymore.
Thinking about it, couldn't the whole terraforming of the lands be a tactic to freak out Regan so that he'd make a mistake, like reveal himself to her?
Not to mention that their summons was typically tied to their thoughts and subconscious desires.
Maybe Karina was upset over the fact that the entire world was a wasteland and wanted to fix that. She was probably starving out there due to a lack of fresh-grown foods and the like…
Or maybe she was the sort that was delusional enough to envision herself as everyone's savior and wanted to go down the Jesus-has-returned route by revealing her powers to poor farmers who wanted rad-free soil.
If Regan wasn't so focused on wanting to bring civilization back through technology, he would've probably gone down the messiah route himself. He had to admit that thought was appealing. Maybe he'd have that as a fallback plan in case his plan to have replicators help him recreate civilization failed.
He was growing calmer by the moment as he thought of all the reasons why Karina probably wasn't out to murder him just yet, though it might be on her list. And hopefully, maybe she was just like him in that she didn't give a shit about the people in Vault 129, and could be reasoned with?
Hmm…. then again, there was that time when the bitch had messed with her city, right? Definitely wasn't taking any chances, he still needed a good bodyguard besides Kevin here.
The more he had trusted men guarding him, the better. And he needed to make holotapes containing data for the replicators so that They'd be able to create things like gold and copper on command. If he had armed men AND resources, nothing nor nobody would be able to stop him.
He was startled out of his thoughts as there was a loud noise at the entrance of his hangar home.
>bong<
Regan looked down at the rifle in his hand and then back at the entranceway, which turned out to be that Raider tech-head being escorted by Thomas' men. Bulletproof Avery had a few of his friends help carry over some car parts and other miscellaneous stuff they found.
Regan had honestly forgotten about Avery and Warlord Warren for a few moments there and chuckled slightly as he was reminded of the fact that he was supposed to be building cars too.
Okay, so maybe he was still on edge there…otherwise, he wouldn't have summoned this gun. Fuck, he just wished he knew if Karina was out to kill him or not. Then he'd be able to relax.
if it turned out that Karina just wanted to fuck around with him without killing him because she was a bitch like that? He wouldn't be happy about that, but he'd deal.
Shaking his head, he turned his attention towards Avery as he and Kevin walked over to see what kind of loot was brought to him this time.
"Yo, Regan. We were only able to find some old car parts around Great Falls, most cars around here were already salvaged ages ago by the time we got to them, sorry," Avery said, as his raider friends dumped everything on the ground with a loud thunking noise.
Regan went to thoroughly inspect them all…. And well. It wasn't honestly that much. It was a bunch of rusted car chassis, and metal car rooftops that had been sawed off the old cars and hubcaps. There was even an old ruined car seat that was barely usable anymore.
Regan thought everything about this collection of car loot was complete shit, but he put on his best diplomatic face and politely told the raiders, "Thank you all for collecting this for me, I'll be sure to put them to good use. I can see you weren't a big fan of having to carry them over for me."
One of the raiders scoffed loudly. "No shit. Avery said he'd pay me loads if I helped him though."
Regan nodded as an idea came to him. "Good. I'd think you were a real rube if you were doing this for free, heh. Say…. how would y'all feel getting paid for finding holotapes for me? 50 caps per holotapes. I need them so that I can reprogram my machine to help me build all the cars Warren wants."
Both Avery and the raiders looked interested in this, and most of them simply nodded and shrugged.
Regan smiled. "Great. A lot easier to carry than old cars too, hmm?"
All the raiders turned to leave, except for Avery.
At Regan's strange look, Avery raised his eyebrows. "You didn't forget that I was supposed to work with y'all to help you build the cars, right? I'm supposed to stay with you for a few hours each day, remember."
"Right, right." Regan replied, "That's just, I was planning to go out and scour the airport base again for any parts nobody needed. Are we supposed to go all together for that, or? Or are you gonna stay here and take apart all of this while I'm out?"
Avery's look cleared up at that. "Ah. that's a good question."
Kevin then piped up, "We were also gonna ask around to see if anybody knew how to blacksmith. We need a forge if we're gonna melt down some of this metal and reuse it. Most of this junk can't be used as they are, they need to be reshaped some."
Regan nodded at that. 'Nice one, Kevin!' he thought.
Not to mention, that was a very good point… they definitely needed a forge too now that he thought of it.
Avery crossed his arms with his face mostly neutral. "Actually, I'm already ahead of you two on that. I've been asking around about getting a forge for y'all. I even talked Warlord Warren into paying raiders to find an intact furnace which I think we can convert into a man-made forge… and also paying them to go out and look for car factories and assembly buildings. They'll most likely have all the shit we need."
At Kevin and Regan's surprised looks, Avery just grinned.
"Hey, I promised I'd help ya out, didn't I? When I saw you really didn't have the resources you needed I looked into it. Hopefully, the others will be able to deliver on what we need." He then sighed. "Gonna say though, I never thought about it before, but it's no wonder why vehicles seem a real rarity nowadays. A lot goes into making them according to the car magazines I picked up."
Regan nodded. "Indeed. Truthfully, that's why one of my biggest goals is to get an automated factory set up and running. So that it can make me all the parts I want for a car…….or anything else really."
Avery grinned again. "You sure don't think small, do you? I like that… a man's got to have big dreams."
Regan just shrugged before saying, "So… what now, then? You've pretty much torpedoed all our reasons for going out and we also don't have enough parts to build another car. We used up all our stuff on that tiny-ass car we gave Warren."
Avery looked around, taking inventory of everything once again. "Hm. good point. You said you were gonna go out and scavenge around for parts? You might need another set of hands there."
Regan grimaced. "Uhh…. no offense, but with you around my chances of finding what I need is low. Everything in District 11 mostly belongs to Old Thomas and his people, and seeing you around might remind them that I'm taking those parts to build tanky cars for your people. You do realize they have a grudge against your people for a very good reason, right?"
"Well, shit. Ya do have a point there." Avery looked slightly defeated.
Kevin then cleared his throat, reminding them that he had been standing there listening to this conversation. He then said, "How about this, Regan? Avery and I can sort through some of our junk and organize them into boxes or something so that we know what we have on hand… while you… uh, do your thing. Hell, we still have some old metal doors we can cut up for parts?"
With that, Kevin raised both eyebrows at Regan with a meaningful glance.
Regan smiled. "Sounds great, I can go haggle with those people on my own. Avery, is that okay with you?"
Avery Bishop shrugged. "Better than doing nothing here or going back home emptyhanded without a report for Warren."
Now that everything was settled, Regan went to collect his bag that held his caps and everything, under the disguise of seemingly going to the shops to haggle and also scavenging on the outfields where the roads that the airplanes normally took off on were, as he had spotted a few crashed airplanes and the like there.
He waved at the two men as he walked outside, and nodded at the armed guards standing outside. (they were still tailing Avery Bishop around).
In reality, he was gonna find a more discreet place to pull on his power and hope he got something, or somebody, really good.
Although… maybe he should summon some more things to trade, and act the part of a merchant so nobody got suspicious when he was trying to find a good hiding place to summon things?
He pulled on his power, asking it for something that would fit inside his bag.
>Bong<
Regan felt a new weight shift in his bag, making it heavier. He peeked inside and noted the five new books that weren't there before.
Hmm. he'd go straight to Vault 100, and ask them if they still wanted to buy books from him then.
He strolled through the airport while looking around at the stores and stalls that were currently open to see if they had anything of interest on sale.
He was so engrossed in looking for anything good he could buy that he forgot to watch where he was going, and accidentally bumped into somebody.
"Ooff." he almost fell over but managed to catch himself in time.
>Bong<
He looked up at the large man he bumped in and smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, I didn't watch where I was going. Totally my bad."
The large man just scoffed loudly and walked on past Regan.
Regan just mentally shrugged at that and was about to walk on himself when suddenly there was a loud scream emitting from what looked to be one of the nearby bathrooms.
>Bong<
Regan instinctively headed behind something that would shield him from harm while he pulled out one of the permanent guns that he had chosen to carry with him today.
And then he peeked out at the bathroom as the airport guards headed inside to see what was going on.
Moments later, a bunch of frightened women came out with the guards, though two of them seemed to be missing, presumably taking care of whatever was going on inside there.
A crowd was forming, and somebody seemed to recognize one of the women, and called out: "Dora! What's going on?"
'Dora', a pale-faced brunette in a heavily stained tan dress, said in a shaky voice, "I and a bunch of my friends did our business and then we came out to chat some when we were washing our hands… when we saw this bloody mutated fetus appear in the sink out of nowhere!!"
A blonde with her, who wore a ragged black dress, nodded. "It's true. We stared at it first, because we didn't know what we were looking at. But then it started wriggling around, breathing and junk. Making baby noises. That's when we all screamed."
Another brunette with them who wore loose slacks and appeared to be much older, started sobbing loudly. "... It looked so much like the baby I lost to radiation when I was a young girl."
The rest of the guards finally came out, seemingly carrying something small in a dirty and stained towel. One of them looked like they had puked upon seeing whatever it was.
The crowds seemed to move closer inwards to get a better look… and many of them reacted in horror and disgust when the guard let them see the small, red, and bloody wriggling thing.
At this point, Regan realized it was most likely his fault, so he decided to just casually put his weapon away, and walk away like he had nothing to do with this.
==============================================
A/N: seemed like a good place to stop, heh.
In case you don't wanna read the whole Regan chapter, here's the summary.
It's now the next day, and Regan is much more calm than he was before.
He then imagines what Karina might be like as a person, and whenever she can be reasoned with. But he's still worried about being attacked, and is a little bit on edge, so he summons a rifle gun when startled.
But the people at the entrance are just Avery and his raider friends who brought some car parts while escorted by Old Thomas' men. The other raiders leave, but Avery Bishop stays behind much to Regan's annoyance as he wanted to be able to pull on his power in peace. They're trying to think of every excuse under the sun to get rid of Avery, but Avery torpedoes every one of them saying he already got his friends to help look for a new forge and other things.
Finally, Kevin helps Regan come up with a good excuse for why Avery and Kevin should stay behind while Regan does his "Merchant thing" as well as scavenge for parts.
Regan on his way to the large airport building, discreetly summons a series of books about mage-bards. He accidentally bumps into somebody when browsing the indoor shops, and summons a harmless demonic mutant fetus who is the manifestation of a baby a woman lost when she was shot in the stomach. It spawns inside a woman's bathroom, scaring the women who were in there at the time.
The screams startle Regan once again, giving him a temp ability summon to make video games… again.
Regan realizes what went on when guards carry out the baby thing for all to see, and then acts like he wasn't even here by power-walking away innocently.
He then imagines what Karina might be like as a person, and whenever she can be reasoned with. But he's still worried about being attacked, and is a little bit on edge, so he summons a rifle gun when startled.
But the people at the entrance are just Avery and his raider friends who brought some car parts while escorted by Old Thomas' men. The other raiders leave, but Avery Bishop stays behind much to Regan's annoyance as he wanted to be able to pull on his power in peace. They're trying to think of every excuse under the sun to get rid of Avery, but Avery torpedoes every one of them saying he already got his friends to help look for a new forge and other things.
Finally, Kevin helps Regan come up with a good excuse for why Avery and Kevin should stay behind while Regan does his "Merchant thing" as well as scavenge for parts.
Regan on his way to the large airport building, discreetly summons a series of books about mage-bards. He accidentally bumps into somebody when browsing the indoor shops, and summons a harmless demonic mutant fetus who is the manifestation of a baby a woman lost when she was shot in the stomach. It spawns inside a woman's bathroom, scaring the women who were in there at the time.
The screams startle Regan once again, giving him a temp ability summon to make video games… again.
Regan realizes what went on when guards carry out the baby thing for all to see, and then acts like he wasn't even here by power-walking away innocently.
==================================================
When the old man finally disappeared, it was pretty late at night and so they called it a night.
In the morning, Regan was feeling calmer and not as freaked out over the Karina situation anymore.
Thinking about it, couldn't the whole terraforming of the lands be a tactic to freak out Regan so that he'd make a mistake, like reveal himself to her?
Not to mention that their summons was typically tied to their thoughts and subconscious desires.
Maybe Karina was upset over the fact that the entire world was a wasteland and wanted to fix that. She was probably starving out there due to a lack of fresh-grown foods and the like…
Or maybe she was the sort that was delusional enough to envision herself as everyone's savior and wanted to go down the Jesus-has-returned route by revealing her powers to poor farmers who wanted rad-free soil.
If Regan wasn't so focused on wanting to bring civilization back through technology, he would've probably gone down the messiah route himself. He had to admit that thought was appealing. Maybe he'd have that as a fallback plan in case his plan to have replicators help him recreate civilization failed.
He was growing calmer by the moment as he thought of all the reasons why Karina probably wasn't out to murder him just yet, though it might be on her list. And hopefully, maybe she was just like him in that she didn't give a shit about the people in Vault 129, and could be reasoned with?
Hmm…. then again, there was that time when the bitch had messed with her city, right? Definitely wasn't taking any chances, he still needed a good bodyguard besides Kevin here.
The more he had trusted men guarding him, the better. And he needed to make holotapes containing data for the replicators so that They'd be able to create things like gold and copper on command. If he had armed men AND resources, nothing nor nobody would be able to stop him.
He was startled out of his thoughts as there was a loud noise at the entrance of his hangar home.
>bong<
| guns.M14_rifle Roll 1 The M14 is a battle rifle introduced in 1959. It was the weapon that was adopted by the U.S. military as a replacement for the M1 Garand as the United States Service rifle. As well, the M14 has been officially replaced by the burst-firing M16 in the service rifle role, as of 1970. Officially it was known as a U.S. rifle, 7.62mm, M14, and described as "a lightweight, air-cooled, gas-operated, magazine-fed, shoulder weapon". It is designed primarily for semiautomatic fire and has a selector switch on the shooter's right at the rear of the receiver that allows for fully-automatic fire. Effect: Regan gets a pretty good gun, fully loaded too. Too bad it only lasts for an hour. |
Regan looked down at the rifle in his hand and then back at the entranceway, which turned out to be that Raider tech-head being escorted by Thomas' men. Bulletproof Avery had a few of his friends help carry over some car parts and other miscellaneous stuff they found.
Regan had honestly forgotten about Avery and Warlord Warren for a few moments there and chuckled slightly as he was reminded of the fact that he was supposed to be building cars too.
Okay, so maybe he was still on edge there…otherwise, he wouldn't have summoned this gun. Fuck, he just wished he knew if Karina was out to kill him or not. Then he'd be able to relax.
if it turned out that Karina just wanted to fuck around with him without killing him because she was a bitch like that? He wouldn't be happy about that, but he'd deal.
Shaking his head, he turned his attention towards Avery as he and Kevin walked over to see what kind of loot was brought to him this time.
"Yo, Regan. We were only able to find some old car parts around Great Falls, most cars around here were already salvaged ages ago by the time we got to them, sorry," Avery said, as his raider friends dumped everything on the ground with a loud thunking noise.
Regan went to thoroughly inspect them all…. And well. It wasn't honestly that much. It was a bunch of rusted car chassis, and metal car rooftops that had been sawed off the old cars and hubcaps. There was even an old ruined car seat that was barely usable anymore.
Regan thought everything about this collection of car loot was complete shit, but he put on his best diplomatic face and politely told the raiders, "Thank you all for collecting this for me, I'll be sure to put them to good use. I can see you weren't a big fan of having to carry them over for me."
One of the raiders scoffed loudly. "No shit. Avery said he'd pay me loads if I helped him though."
Regan nodded as an idea came to him. "Good. I'd think you were a real rube if you were doing this for free, heh. Say…. how would y'all feel getting paid for finding holotapes for me? 50 caps per holotapes. I need them so that I can reprogram my machine to help me build all the cars Warren wants."
Both Avery and the raiders looked interested in this, and most of them simply nodded and shrugged.
Regan smiled. "Great. A lot easier to carry than old cars too, hmm?"
All the raiders turned to leave, except for Avery.
At Regan's strange look, Avery raised his eyebrows. "You didn't forget that I was supposed to work with y'all to help you build the cars, right? I'm supposed to stay with you for a few hours each day, remember."
"Right, right." Regan replied, "That's just, I was planning to go out and scour the airport base again for any parts nobody needed. Are we supposed to go all together for that, or? Or are you gonna stay here and take apart all of this while I'm out?"
Avery's look cleared up at that. "Ah. that's a good question."
Kevin then piped up, "We were also gonna ask around to see if anybody knew how to blacksmith. We need a forge if we're gonna melt down some of this metal and reuse it. Most of this junk can't be used as they are, they need to be reshaped some."
Regan nodded at that. 'Nice one, Kevin!' he thought.
Not to mention, that was a very good point… they definitely needed a forge too now that he thought of it.
Avery crossed his arms with his face mostly neutral. "Actually, I'm already ahead of you two on that. I've been asking around about getting a forge for y'all. I even talked Warlord Warren into paying raiders to find an intact furnace which I think we can convert into a man-made forge… and also paying them to go out and look for car factories and assembly buildings. They'll most likely have all the shit we need."
At Kevin and Regan's surprised looks, Avery just grinned.
"Hey, I promised I'd help ya out, didn't I? When I saw you really didn't have the resources you needed I looked into it. Hopefully, the others will be able to deliver on what we need." He then sighed. "Gonna say though, I never thought about it before, but it's no wonder why vehicles seem a real rarity nowadays. A lot goes into making them according to the car magazines I picked up."
Regan nodded. "Indeed. Truthfully, that's why one of my biggest goals is to get an automated factory set up and running. So that it can make me all the parts I want for a car…….or anything else really."
Avery grinned again. "You sure don't think small, do you? I like that… a man's got to have big dreams."
Regan just shrugged before saying, "So… what now, then? You've pretty much torpedoed all our reasons for going out and we also don't have enough parts to build another car. We used up all our stuff on that tiny-ass car we gave Warren."
Avery looked around, taking inventory of everything once again. "Hm. good point. You said you were gonna go out and scavenge around for parts? You might need another set of hands there."
Regan grimaced. "Uhh…. no offense, but with you around my chances of finding what I need is low. Everything in District 11 mostly belongs to Old Thomas and his people, and seeing you around might remind them that I'm taking those parts to build tanky cars for your people. You do realize they have a grudge against your people for a very good reason, right?"
"Well, shit. Ya do have a point there." Avery looked slightly defeated.
Kevin then cleared his throat, reminding them that he had been standing there listening to this conversation. He then said, "How about this, Regan? Avery and I can sort through some of our junk and organize them into boxes or something so that we know what we have on hand… while you… uh, do your thing. Hell, we still have some old metal doors we can cut up for parts?"
With that, Kevin raised both eyebrows at Regan with a meaningful glance.
Regan smiled. "Sounds great, I can go haggle with those people on my own. Avery, is that okay with you?"
Avery Bishop shrugged. "Better than doing nothing here or going back home emptyhanded without a report for Warren."
Now that everything was settled, Regan went to collect his bag that held his caps and everything, under the disguise of seemingly going to the shops to haggle and also scavenging on the outfields where the roads that the airplanes normally took off on were, as he had spotted a few crashed airplanes and the like there.
He waved at the two men as he walked outside, and nodded at the armed guards standing outside. (they were still tailing Avery Bishop around).
In reality, he was gonna find a more discreet place to pull on his power and hope he got something, or somebody, really good.
Although… maybe he should summon some more things to trade, and act the part of a merchant so nobody got suspicious when he was trying to find a good hiding place to summon things?
He pulled on his power, asking it for something that would fit inside his bag.
>Bong<
| https://fantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Minstrels_of_Skaythe Roll 13 Minstrels of Skaythe is a fantasy series of novellas by Deby Fredericks that takes place in the world of Skyathe. The stories follow the members of a disbanded troupe of mage-minstrels, taught by the recently late Ar-Thea, who are running for their lives. Each one has an internal battle between wanting to help others and hiding to save their own life. They know they cannot violently defeat the oppressive, cruel, and very powerful master mage Dar-Gothull who rules Skaythe. Especially when Skaythe itself is cruel and oppressive. All they can do is battle the regime doing what they know best: reaching the people as mages and minstrels while trying not to be found. Being found could mean worse than a quick death, it could mean having their souls sucked away. Effect: Perament roll. But due to the slightly low roll, those books are slightly battered on the outside though the insides are still readable. |
Regan felt a new weight shift in his bag, making it heavier. He peeked inside and noted the five new books that weren't there before.
Hmm. he'd go straight to Vault 100, and ask them if they still wanted to buy books from him then.
He strolled through the airport while looking around at the stores and stalls that were currently open to see if they had anything of interest on sale.
He was so engrossed in looking for anything good he could buy that he forgot to watch where he was going, and accidentally bumped into somebody.
"Ooff." he almost fell over but managed to catch himself in time.
>Bong<
| https://silenthill.fandom.com/wiki/Baby Roll 8 The Baby (unofficial name) is a non-hostile monster in P.T. The Baby is a small red creature that appears in the bathroom sink in the never-ending hallway. The baby itself seems to be a bloody, very young human fetus writhing in agony and suffering. Its heart appears to be outside of its chest, similar to ectopia cordis. It lacks ears and a nose; its eyes are barely visible and never open (although the eyelids slightly flutter); and its limbs are short stubs, emphasizing its weakness and futility, unable to crawl out of the sink. Effect: for eight hours, this baby will simply exist in this world. It appears in the closest sink around, which just happens to be the women's bathroom, which is still functional after all this time. |
He looked up at the large man he bumped in and smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, I didn't watch where I was going. Totally my bad."
The large man just scoffed loudly and walked on past Regan.
Regan just mentally shrugged at that and was about to walk on himself when suddenly there was a loud scream emitting from what looked to be one of the nearby bathrooms.
>Bong<
| EA_DICE Roll 9 EA Digital Illusions CE AB (DICE) is a Swedish video game developer based in Stockholm. The company was founded in 1992 and has been a subsidiary of Electronic Arts since 2006. Its releases include the Battlefield, Mirror's Edge, and Star Wars Battlefront series. Through its Frostbite Labs division, the company also develops the Frostbite game engine. Effect: for nine hours, Regan's ability to make video games is increased some more on top of his other rolls which already could give him that ability. whoo. |
Regan instinctively headed behind something that would shield him from harm while he pulled out one of the permanent guns that he had chosen to carry with him today.
And then he peeked out at the bathroom as the airport guards headed inside to see what was going on.
Moments later, a bunch of frightened women came out with the guards, though two of them seemed to be missing, presumably taking care of whatever was going on inside there.
A crowd was forming, and somebody seemed to recognize one of the women, and called out: "Dora! What's going on?"
'Dora', a pale-faced brunette in a heavily stained tan dress, said in a shaky voice, "I and a bunch of my friends did our business and then we came out to chat some when we were washing our hands… when we saw this bloody mutated fetus appear in the sink out of nowhere!!"
A blonde with her, who wore a ragged black dress, nodded. "It's true. We stared at it first, because we didn't know what we were looking at. But then it started wriggling around, breathing and junk. Making baby noises. That's when we all screamed."
Another brunette with them who wore loose slacks and appeared to be much older, started sobbing loudly. "... It looked so much like the baby I lost to radiation when I was a young girl."
The rest of the guards finally came out, seemingly carrying something small in a dirty and stained towel. One of them looked like they had puked upon seeing whatever it was.
The crowds seemed to move closer inwards to get a better look… and many of them reacted in horror and disgust when the guard let them see the small, red, and bloody wriggling thing.
At this point, Regan realized it was most likely his fault, so he decided to just casually put his weapon away, and walk away like he had nothing to do with this.
==============================================
A/N: seemed like a good place to stop, heh.
Aurora Moon
Verfied Insomniac with too much time on her hands
- Location
- USA, Earth
- Pronouns
- She/Her
it's actually from the PT game which got canceled, so I dunno if it has any canon connection to Silent Hill. and apparently, it doesn't take place in the titular town but in Japan, where a similar entity lives.
But yeah, we can take this as Silent Hills itself trying to reach out to Regan and use him again. not that it was successful.
Aurora Moon
Verfied Insomniac with too much time on her hands
- Location
- USA, Earth
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Mainly because I've never read the books and I have no idea which ones would suit Regan. also, I tend to give them the powers or abilities of said character page if it's a character page. if it's a generalized page such as one that talks about series overrall then I don't do that.
I am reading for the first time and I have to say that I am confused, all the really interesting and bizarre things happen to Regan while you always cuts off at the climax... To go back to Karina's Fallout Shelter.
For example my reaction with Yoda was something like:
"Yes, it's Yoda!... And that's it?"
Was the subject of Aliens in Fallout ever discussed with him or with the fairy?
What happened to all the weapons, cola engines, medicines and food inside the Sunny?
Then there's Darth Vader, but it was a brief thing that was cut, and then some fucking Fallout developer showed up... who died instantly.
As mc I like Karina more, then wildly appears every crazy thing that Regan gets into and makes me prefer his chapters.
I had to pause oh god lol and this is why Regan is my favorite lol. I have two hours of sleep with two months of back pay among other things, now I'm laughing like an asthmatic seal.
Chapter 93-- A new quest for Karina. (finally).
Aurora Moon
Verfied Insomniac with too much time on her hands
- Location
- USA, Earth
- Pronouns
- She/Her
A/N: had to rewrite this chapter as it was initially too dull. In this rewrite we actually have people being more active and outside! I was tired of them not ever coming across that Firegem cave and stuff like that because they didn't have a reason to go west. Thank god the terraformation of the northern states gave me an excuse. XD
Karina chapter.
====================================
This morning Karina woke up in such a cranky mood. It seemed that the other day when she did nothing but summon such weak duds instead of something actually useful had left her in a bad mood. And now that mood had transferred over to the next morning. Great.
And she had gone to the trouble of getting a normal bed she could sleep in instead of that magic bed that kept on making you yell out "I'm so refreshed!" every time you got out of it.
But not even the full night's sleep could completely erase everything it seemed.
By the time she was in a better mood, after sitting in the bathtub filled with hot water and generally relaxing while she bathed, the others were already in the cafeteria when she came into the room looking for her usual fix of coffee and breakfast bars.
As she went to get her coffee, she couldn't help but overhear Cindy and her fairy Coupe talking.
"But that's just it. How am I supposed to find the aliens who've apparently done this to the entire Earth? Wouldn't they be gone by now that they've succeeded in bringing the world to ruin?" Cindy was asking.
Coupe crossed his arms. "Maybe so. But surely somebody out there would notice the Earth slowly being revitalized back to normal thanks to all our efforts? The greedy aliens might come back to drain us again for resources. That's why I think that as a Precure you could travel around and help out people. We're bound to get a lead on the aliens the more you go out there. Not to mention, you could purify a lot of areas that Karina had failed to purify too…?"
Cindy considered this, before shaking her head. "That does make sense, but what about the women here? Don't they need help purifying themselves and returning to normal size before I go out and do that? I'll only do that once all the women are awakened."
Coupe pouted at this. "Are you really just going to stay inside and do nothing? We should be out there being active!"
Karina finished filling up her mug full of shitty coffee and nodded to herself as she walked away.
She could understand where Coupe was coming from. It rankled her nerves too to come back and then sit on her ass doing nothing when she usually felt better being active and doing SOMETHING.
She liked being productive, and not just because it was a distraction from thinking too much about the past and what she had lost.
It also rankled that she was so close to catching up to Regan, or at least it had felt like it, only to have to go back just because their cars needed some serious repairs.
She joined Lauren who was sitting at a different table, and sat down to eat and drink.
Lauren eyed her but didn't say anything until a few minutes in.
"I heard about your day yesterday. You were trying to summon something useful for the men out there but failed." Lauren commented casually.
Karina sighed. "I was trying to do something good and useful, I guess. I just can't stand the idea of standing here and doing nothing. Especially when I was so close to finding out where Regan was! I suppose I was also hoping that I'd summon more armored vehicles with mounted guns so that Terry and I could go after Regan again."
She then scowled as she pulled on her power, just knowing somehow that it'd be useless to her. "But instead I get junk like this nowadays!"
>ring<
Both Karina and Lauren stared at what appeared to be a highly futuristic-looking slot machine.
"Is that... A slot machine??" Karina replied somewhat disbelieving. It looked so futuristic and high-tech… but Karina had a hard time believing somebody could waste advanced technology like that on a slot machine. Did the civilization where this came from become so advanced that it was in everything, even trivial everyday things?
Iona popped out of seemingly nowhere to start scanning the machine with a handheld device, but both Karina and Lauren were used to her antics by now so they paid her no mind.
"That reminds me, actually…" Lauren said, "I've been thinking of making an arcade room next. You've been summoning a lot of holo-game tapes and the like before in the past, so I thought we might as well put them to good use."
Karina stared at Lauren. Out of all the rooms they needed, that seemed like such a trivial want in comparison. "Why?"
Lauren answered, "Because we all need something to do, to get our minds off our troubles. Sure, we could occupy ourselves with busy work that's needed for our survival… but… that does nothing for our stress levels. Believe it or not, but humans also need fun in order to survive out there otherwise we'd all be a suicidal mess."
The tall woman then looked at Karina meaningfully. "Which is something you need too, I suspect. Having another movie night would be great too as well now that I think of it. I think we might need to build a rec room for movies and relaxation too, as well."
Karina mulled this over. She then sighed. "You do have a point I guess…"
She was startled when Iona suddenly moved to her side asking for quarters. "Do you two have any quarters? I want to test this slot machine!"
>ring<
A holotape appeared on the table between Lauren and Karina.
Lauren then said while Karina picked up the holotape and looked it over, "Why not try the personal effects storage room? You might find some quarters in some wallets there. In fact, I don't mind if you take from my wallet too, it's not like we need that money anymore."
Iona blinked. "Oh, right. I'll be right back then!"
With that, she rushed off.
Karina smiled wryly as she held up the new game holotape. "Looks like my power agrees with you, Lauren. I guess I'll help you build that arcade room then?"
But to her surprise, Lauren shook her head. "No. Gemma and Mark can handle that part for us. Actually, I was going to ask you to explore and scout the area around vault 129 along with Cindy today. Now that the entire Northern Commonwealth's been terraformed there's bound to be new resources and other things nearby we didn't know about. Maybe even new sources of food."
Karina blinked. Why hadn't she thought of that before? That seemed so obvious in hindsight.
But she wasn't going to complain, that at least sounded far more productive than building a new entertainment room so that people could have someplace to go to relieve their stress.
Besides, it was right up her alley as she did have a history of going foraging with her father in the wild looking for edible wild plants and the like. So she'd be more likely to spot any safe mushrooms, berries, and whatnot that they could forage and bring back to the vault.
She smiled at Lauren and nodded. "Alright, I'll do it."
Lauren then said, "You and Cindy will have to pack some camping gear, I think. You'll be exploring all around Vault 129 for miles around, so it'll definitely take you a while as you map things out."
Ah. it was that kind of mission. Not that she minded for staying here was making her stir-crazy.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
--half the day later after much preparation--
"Oh, man. I am ever glad to get out of there. I was getting tired of all the magical training Coupe was putting me through. I was also starting to get cabin fever on top of that." Cindy griped loudly, though there was a smile on her face as she hefted up a large backpack into her back.
"Right? I know we're making it our home for now… but I have a hard time seeing that place as an actual home if you know what I mean. It isn't exactly a cozy place where I want to stay long as possible." Karina responded.
Cindy's smile faded at that, but she nodded back. "Right. So much crap happened there on top of that. It's difficult seeing it in that light knowing all the history."
"Yep."
The two of them lapsed into silence as they headed west after having climbed the hill upwards towards the slaughterhouse building that held all the two-headed cows out back.
They headed deep into the forest leaving behind the open mountainous hills where their vault was located, and it wasn't very long before they came across a cave with a small opening.
"We've barely gone half a mile and already found something. That's very promising." Karina commented, "Though, was it already here? or….?"
Cindy got an old map of the local area as it used to be, and marked the cave's location on the paper. She then asked, "Should we go in?"
Karina considered this, and then said, "We shouldn't go too deep. We should be in sight of the entrance at all times… just get an idea of what it's like in there, and then we leave."
Cindy nodded, and with that they slowly went in with flashlights, double-checking for any signs of life. The last thing they wanted to do was run into a bear or something.
But the only signs of life were from those small pink six-legged lizards which scattered away from them and then glanced back at them warily.
Karina sighed. "The sad thing is, I can't even tell if this is a naturally occurring creature that got mutated like all the other wildlife or if it's one of my summonses."
"Look over there!" Cindy exclaimed as she shone a flashlight into one of the dark corners of the cave. Something shone brightly as it caught the flashlight's light.
Karina walked over to the spot with her flashlight, and it turned out to be an entire cavern wall that lit up in a rainbow of colors from the light as the wall glittered brightly from being covered in what looked like raw gems. The gems seemed to hold an inner fire that shone brightly the moment light hit them.
"Oooh, that's so pretty!" Cindy grinned widely as she gazed up at the glittering cave wall in wonder.
"Looks like we discovered a new resource. Maybe we can use those gems to trade with if we don't have bottle caps. Surely shiny gemstones would be valuable?" Karina mused out loud.
Cindy nodded. "Yeah, it's something at least. I'll make a note of it for the map."
At this, she pulled out the map again and shone her flashlight over it as she wrote in tiny lettering over the mark which now read, "Cave full of Gems."
"Come on, we still have plenty of territory to cover before we set up camp," Karina replied as she left the cave.
Cindy followed after she stashed away the map and made sure everything was secure.
Neither one of them noticed one of the Rigellian hypnoid lizards slowly following the two women out of the cave curiously, though it was careful not to get noticed by anything as it scurried from hiding spot to spot after them.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It had gotten dark pretty fast, due to time flying before Karina and Cindy knew it.
With that, they finally set up camp and a campfire.
They were completely surrounded by the forest now and it looked pretty ominous at night, but Karina was now in a good mood thanks to finding dozens of plants she had recognized.
She was currently using a couple of those plants in a stew-pot full of boiling water, while Cindy stared at her like she was crazy.
"I'm just saying, I've never heard of those flowers being edible before," Cindy replied skeptically as she sat across from Karina enjoying the warmth of the campfire.
Karina clucked at her. "Red clover is perfectly edible. In fact, most clover plants are. You can make jelly or honey out of it, or drink it as tea. In fact, that's what I'm making right now… tea."
"What about that purple flower that sorta looks like fireworks captured on a still photo?" Cindy wondered.
Karina then held up a purple flower that had tiny flowers growing off into different directions all at once, indeed resembling a firework that had exploded somewhat. "This one?"
Cindy nodded, and Karina grinned wildly. "That's the nodding onion flower. Guess what it tastes like when properly handled by a chef?"
Cindy's eyes widened at that. "No way. So you mean to tell me that all those times they kept on running out of onions at the supermarket I could've just grown that flower instead of going home empty-handed?"
Karina then grimaced. "The downside is, you can't eat too much of it. It's one of those herbs that can get finicky if you eat too much of it and can cause an upset stomach or worse. So my mom and dad mainly used it for flavoring instead of making it the main dish. So, can't really substitute it in place of onions for onion soup. The most you can do is flavor the water with the nodding onion flower so that it tastes oniony. But then it's basically just onion-flavored tea if you drink it as it is without adding anything else in… and that's a really weird tea flavor, let me tell ya."
"Aha. knew there had to be a catch somewhere, it was starting to sound too good to be true." Cindy smirked.
Karina nodded. "You got to be really careful when foraging for food all the time. Even if something is technically edible, you've got to be aware of possible side effects. My dad and I used to go out here all the time foraging, and he taught me everything I know."
She smiled at the memory. Somehow, it didn't hurt too much to remember her dad in this way.
Cindy smiled mischievously. "Right, wouldn't want to accidentally eat any magic mushrooms and trip balls."
Karina raised both eyebrows. "You joke, but you'd be lucky if that was the worst that could happen to you. There's this mushroom my dad told me about once. The yellow-staining mushroom. It looks exactly like the white mushrooms you'd find in the grocery store, save for the yellow part at the base where it got cut. It also turns yellow when you cook it. Guess what happens if you eat it?"
Cindy's smile faded as she stared at Karina. "What?"
"You get cramps so bad that it feels like your period cramps on steroids, and it lasts longer than a period does, and on top of that, you sweat excessively to the point that you can become slightly dehydrated in just an hour if you aren't drinking anything. And the cramping gets so bad that you can die from it if you don't treat it right away. That, or you die because you didn't replenish the fluids your body was sweating out." Karina said in a low spooky voice, almost as if she was telling a ghost story.
"Ew." Cindy shivered at the idea of getting cramps so bad that she could die from the pain alone.
It was mostly hyperbole there, but Karina had to stress the point that an inexperienced forager had to be really, really careful when foraging. It was better for them to test everything before eating them.
She then noted that the red clover tea she was making was now done, as it all turned a pleasant pinkish gold color, so she took the pot aside and poured them into the ceramic mugs before handing Cindy one of them and sitting down next to her.
"I've some sugar bomb cereal if you want the tea to be sweeter. It was the only sugar substitute I could find at the last minute." She told Cindy.
Cindy seemed skeptical as she sipped at the tea, but her expression morphed into one of pleasant surprise. "It's already slightly sweet? It smells nice too."
"A lot of flowers already have this natural sweetness to them if you cook them right. Rose petals become fruity-tasting in general instead, however." Karina told her, mainly just so Cindy could know that from now on.
Cindy nodded. She then said, "This could do with some honey in it, though. The flavor's somehow lacking?"
Karina nodded back. "Agreed. Sugar bombs are great as a cereal, but it's so weird as a sugar substitute in drinks. It doesn't dissolve fast enough at all. But unfortunately, there seem to be no bees in this world. Probably a good thing in hindsight though however."
Cindy blinked. "Why?"
Karina just shot her a look. "There's actual giant insects out there. The flies and dragonflies alone are already a danger in themselves, imagine what the bees would be like."
Cindy paled slightly at that. "Shit. you're right. I completely forgot about that part."
The two of them jumped as something made noise in the distance, the two of them clutching at each other as they stared off into the distance with wide eyes.
>ring<
Cindy chuckled weakly. "Great. Now I'm worried about giant insects coming after me."
Karina then said, "We'll take turns being the WatchGuard. You go ahead and sleep, I'll take the first shift."
Cindy reluctantly nodded as she went to unroll her sleeping bag. She wasn't so sure she could sleep now, now that she had been reminded that the local wildlife was dangerous and giant-sized. But, she'd follow Karina's lead for now.
Karina chapter.
Karina gets given the quest to go out scouting for resources all around the vault to see if they can mine the local area for food and other things. Cindy comes along, so she teaches her about some things that can be foraged, as well as the dangers of foraging. She summons two game-related stuff before she goes… and during the forest trip with Cindy, she summons a beekeeping skill from the graveyard keeper for the two of them.
====================================
This morning Karina woke up in such a cranky mood. It seemed that the other day when she did nothing but summon such weak duds instead of something actually useful had left her in a bad mood. And now that mood had transferred over to the next morning. Great.
And she had gone to the trouble of getting a normal bed she could sleep in instead of that magic bed that kept on making you yell out "I'm so refreshed!" every time you got out of it.
But not even the full night's sleep could completely erase everything it seemed.
By the time she was in a better mood, after sitting in the bathtub filled with hot water and generally relaxing while she bathed, the others were already in the cafeteria when she came into the room looking for her usual fix of coffee and breakfast bars.
As she went to get her coffee, she couldn't help but overhear Cindy and her fairy Coupe talking.
"But that's just it. How am I supposed to find the aliens who've apparently done this to the entire Earth? Wouldn't they be gone by now that they've succeeded in bringing the world to ruin?" Cindy was asking.
Coupe crossed his arms. "Maybe so. But surely somebody out there would notice the Earth slowly being revitalized back to normal thanks to all our efforts? The greedy aliens might come back to drain us again for resources. That's why I think that as a Precure you could travel around and help out people. We're bound to get a lead on the aliens the more you go out there. Not to mention, you could purify a lot of areas that Karina had failed to purify too…?"
Cindy considered this, before shaking her head. "That does make sense, but what about the women here? Don't they need help purifying themselves and returning to normal size before I go out and do that? I'll only do that once all the women are awakened."
Coupe pouted at this. "Are you really just going to stay inside and do nothing? We should be out there being active!"
Karina finished filling up her mug full of shitty coffee and nodded to herself as she walked away.
She could understand where Coupe was coming from. It rankled her nerves too to come back and then sit on her ass doing nothing when she usually felt better being active and doing SOMETHING.
She liked being productive, and not just because it was a distraction from thinking too much about the past and what she had lost.
It also rankled that she was so close to catching up to Regan, or at least it had felt like it, only to have to go back just because their cars needed some serious repairs.
She joined Lauren who was sitting at a different table, and sat down to eat and drink.
Lauren eyed her but didn't say anything until a few minutes in.
"I heard about your day yesterday. You were trying to summon something useful for the men out there but failed." Lauren commented casually.
Karina sighed. "I was trying to do something good and useful, I guess. I just can't stand the idea of standing here and doing nothing. Especially when I was so close to finding out where Regan was! I suppose I was also hoping that I'd summon more armored vehicles with mounted guns so that Terry and I could go after Regan again."
She then scowled as she pulled on her power, just knowing somehow that it'd be useless to her. "But instead I get junk like this nowadays!"
>ring<
| Diamond_Trails:_Ocean_Winnings Roll 20 Diamond Trails: Ocean Winning is a slot machine game developed and published by Konami Gaming Inc. and released in 2020 in North America. Effect: To us, this is a normal modern slot machine with fancy graphics and flashing lights. To Karina and the others who live in the Fallout world, this looks like a high-tech sci-fi-looking slot machine due to having electronic flat screens that have animated graphics. And because we rolled a 20, Karina can choose to send it back or keep it as an infinite coin machine because it'll never run out of coins to give out if you hit a winning streak. All the coins will be in quarters, as typical of some casinos. |
Both Karina and Lauren stared at what appeared to be a highly futuristic-looking slot machine.
"Is that... A slot machine??" Karina replied somewhat disbelieving. It looked so futuristic and high-tech… but Karina had a hard time believing somebody could waste advanced technology like that on a slot machine. Did the civilization where this came from become so advanced that it was in everything, even trivial everyday things?
Iona popped out of seemingly nowhere to start scanning the machine with a handheld device, but both Karina and Lauren were used to her antics by now so they paid her no mind.
"That reminds me, actually…" Lauren said, "I've been thinking of making an arcade room next. You've been summoning a lot of holo-game tapes and the like before in the past, so I thought we might as well put them to good use."
Karina stared at Lauren. Out of all the rooms they needed, that seemed like such a trivial want in comparison. "Why?"
Lauren answered, "Because we all need something to do, to get our minds off our troubles. Sure, we could occupy ourselves with busy work that's needed for our survival… but… that does nothing for our stress levels. Believe it or not, but humans also need fun in order to survive out there otherwise we'd all be a suicidal mess."
The tall woman then looked at Karina meaningfully. "Which is something you need too, I suspect. Having another movie night would be great too as well now that I think of it. I think we might need to build a rec room for movies and relaxation too, as well."
Karina mulled this over. She then sighed. "You do have a point I guess…"
She was startled when Iona suddenly moved to her side asking for quarters. "Do you two have any quarters? I want to test this slot machine!"
>ring<
| Pharaoh Roll 16 Pharaoh is a real-time strategy city-building video game developed by Impressions Games and published by Sierra Entertainment. An expansion pack, Cleopatra: Queen of the Nile, was released the following year and included new features and a new campaign. Effect: a well-worn yet in good condition holotape with the sim game on it appears, neatly labeled as such with a brief description on the label itself. |
A holotape appeared on the table between Lauren and Karina.
Lauren then said while Karina picked up the holotape and looked it over, "Why not try the personal effects storage room? You might find some quarters in some wallets there. In fact, I don't mind if you take from my wallet too, it's not like we need that money anymore."
Iona blinked. "Oh, right. I'll be right back then!"
With that, she rushed off.
Karina smiled wryly as she held up the new game holotape. "Looks like my power agrees with you, Lauren. I guess I'll help you build that arcade room then?"
But to her surprise, Lauren shook her head. "No. Gemma and Mark can handle that part for us. Actually, I was going to ask you to explore and scout the area around vault 129 along with Cindy today. Now that the entire Northern Commonwealth's been terraformed there's bound to be new resources and other things nearby we didn't know about. Maybe even new sources of food."
Karina blinked. Why hadn't she thought of that before? That seemed so obvious in hindsight.
But she wasn't going to complain, that at least sounded far more productive than building a new entertainment room so that people could have someplace to go to relieve their stress.
Besides, it was right up her alley as she did have a history of going foraging with her father in the wild looking for edible wild plants and the like. So she'd be more likely to spot any safe mushrooms, berries, and whatnot that they could forage and bring back to the vault.
She smiled at Lauren and nodded. "Alright, I'll do it."
Lauren then said, "You and Cindy will have to pack some camping gear, I think. You'll be exploring all around Vault 129 for miles around, so it'll definitely take you a while as you map things out."
Ah. it was that kind of mission. Not that she minded for staying here was making her stir-crazy.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
--half the day later after much preparation--
"Oh, man. I am ever glad to get out of there. I was getting tired of all the magical training Coupe was putting me through. I was also starting to get cabin fever on top of that." Cindy griped loudly, though there was a smile on her face as she hefted up a large backpack into her back.
"Right? I know we're making it our home for now… but I have a hard time seeing that place as an actual home if you know what I mean. It isn't exactly a cozy place where I want to stay long as possible." Karina responded.
Cindy's smile faded at that, but she nodded back. "Right. So much crap happened there on top of that. It's difficult seeing it in that light knowing all the history."
"Yep."
The two of them lapsed into silence as they headed west after having climbed the hill upwards towards the slaughterhouse building that held all the two-headed cows out back.
They headed deep into the forest leaving behind the open mountainous hills where their vault was located, and it wasn't very long before they came across a cave with a small opening.
"We've barely gone half a mile and already found something. That's very promising." Karina commented, "Though, was it already here? or….?"
Cindy got an old map of the local area as it used to be, and marked the cave's location on the paper. She then asked, "Should we go in?"
Karina considered this, and then said, "We shouldn't go too deep. We should be in sight of the entrance at all times… just get an idea of what it's like in there, and then we leave."
Cindy nodded, and with that they slowly went in with flashlights, double-checking for any signs of life. The last thing they wanted to do was run into a bear or something.
But the only signs of life were from those small pink six-legged lizards which scattered away from them and then glanced back at them warily.
Karina sighed. "The sad thing is, I can't even tell if this is a naturally occurring creature that got mutated like all the other wildlife or if it's one of my summonses."
"Look over there!" Cindy exclaimed as she shone a flashlight into one of the dark corners of the cave. Something shone brightly as it caught the flashlight's light.
Karina walked over to the spot with her flashlight, and it turned out to be an entire cavern wall that lit up in a rainbow of colors from the light as the wall glittered brightly from being covered in what looked like raw gems. The gems seemed to hold an inner fire that shone brightly the moment light hit them.
"Oooh, that's so pretty!" Cindy grinned widely as she gazed up at the glittering cave wall in wonder.
"Looks like we discovered a new resource. Maybe we can use those gems to trade with if we don't have bottle caps. Surely shiny gemstones would be valuable?" Karina mused out loud.
Cindy nodded. "Yeah, it's something at least. I'll make a note of it for the map."
At this, she pulled out the map again and shone her flashlight over it as she wrote in tiny lettering over the mark which now read, "Cave full of Gems."
"Come on, we still have plenty of territory to cover before we set up camp," Karina replied as she left the cave.
Cindy followed after she stashed away the map and made sure everything was secure.
Neither one of them noticed one of the Rigellian hypnoid lizards slowly following the two women out of the cave curiously, though it was careful not to get noticed by anything as it scurried from hiding spot to spot after them.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It had gotten dark pretty fast, due to time flying before Karina and Cindy knew it.
With that, they finally set up camp and a campfire.
They were completely surrounded by the forest now and it looked pretty ominous at night, but Karina was now in a good mood thanks to finding dozens of plants she had recognized.
She was currently using a couple of those plants in a stew-pot full of boiling water, while Cindy stared at her like she was crazy.
"I'm just saying, I've never heard of those flowers being edible before," Cindy replied skeptically as she sat across from Karina enjoying the warmth of the campfire.
Karina clucked at her. "Red clover is perfectly edible. In fact, most clover plants are. You can make jelly or honey out of it, or drink it as tea. In fact, that's what I'm making right now… tea."
"What about that purple flower that sorta looks like fireworks captured on a still photo?" Cindy wondered.
Karina then held up a purple flower that had tiny flowers growing off into different directions all at once, indeed resembling a firework that had exploded somewhat. "This one?"
Cindy nodded, and Karina grinned wildly. "That's the nodding onion flower. Guess what it tastes like when properly handled by a chef?"
Cindy's eyes widened at that. "No way. So you mean to tell me that all those times they kept on running out of onions at the supermarket I could've just grown that flower instead of going home empty-handed?"
Karina then grimaced. "The downside is, you can't eat too much of it. It's one of those herbs that can get finicky if you eat too much of it and can cause an upset stomach or worse. So my mom and dad mainly used it for flavoring instead of making it the main dish. So, can't really substitute it in place of onions for onion soup. The most you can do is flavor the water with the nodding onion flower so that it tastes oniony. But then it's basically just onion-flavored tea if you drink it as it is without adding anything else in… and that's a really weird tea flavor, let me tell ya."
"Aha. knew there had to be a catch somewhere, it was starting to sound too good to be true." Cindy smirked.
Karina nodded. "You got to be really careful when foraging for food all the time. Even if something is technically edible, you've got to be aware of possible side effects. My dad and I used to go out here all the time foraging, and he taught me everything I know."
She smiled at the memory. Somehow, it didn't hurt too much to remember her dad in this way.
Cindy smiled mischievously. "Right, wouldn't want to accidentally eat any magic mushrooms and trip balls."
Karina raised both eyebrows. "You joke, but you'd be lucky if that was the worst that could happen to you. There's this mushroom my dad told me about once. The yellow-staining mushroom. It looks exactly like the white mushrooms you'd find in the grocery store, save for the yellow part at the base where it got cut. It also turns yellow when you cook it. Guess what happens if you eat it?"
Cindy's smile faded as she stared at Karina. "What?"
"You get cramps so bad that it feels like your period cramps on steroids, and it lasts longer than a period does, and on top of that, you sweat excessively to the point that you can become slightly dehydrated in just an hour if you aren't drinking anything. And the cramping gets so bad that you can die from it if you don't treat it right away. That, or you die because you didn't replenish the fluids your body was sweating out." Karina said in a low spooky voice, almost as if she was telling a ghost story.
"Ew." Cindy shivered at the idea of getting cramps so bad that she could die from the pain alone.
It was mostly hyperbole there, but Karina had to stress the point that an inexperienced forager had to be really, really careful when foraging. It was better for them to test everything before eating them.
She then noted that the red clover tea she was making was now done, as it all turned a pleasant pinkish gold color, so she took the pot aside and poured them into the ceramic mugs before handing Cindy one of them and sitting down next to her.
"I've some sugar bomb cereal if you want the tea to be sweeter. It was the only sugar substitute I could find at the last minute." She told Cindy.
Cindy seemed skeptical as she sipped at the tea, but her expression morphed into one of pleasant surprise. "It's already slightly sweet? It smells nice too."
"A lot of flowers already have this natural sweetness to them if you cook them right. Rose petals become fruity-tasting in general instead, however." Karina told her, mainly just so Cindy could know that from now on.
Cindy nodded. She then said, "This could do with some honey in it, though. The flavor's somehow lacking?"
Karina nodded back. "Agreed. Sugar bombs are great as a cereal, but it's so weird as a sugar substitute in drinks. It doesn't dissolve fast enough at all. But unfortunately, there seem to be no bees in this world. Probably a good thing in hindsight though however."
Cindy blinked. "Why?"
Karina just shot her a look. "There's actual giant insects out there. The flies and dragonflies alone are already a danger in themselves, imagine what the bees would be like."
Cindy paled slightly at that. "Shit. you're right. I completely forgot about that part."
The two of them jumped as something made noise in the distance, the two of them clutching at each other as they stared off into the distance with wide eyes.
>ring<
| Beekeeping 15 Beekeeping from Graveyard Keeper. Effect: Both Karina and Cindy get moderate skill and knowledge on how to keep bees and extract honey. |
Cindy chuckled weakly. "Great. Now I'm worried about giant insects coming after me."
Karina then said, "We'll take turns being the WatchGuard. You go ahead and sleep, I'll take the first shift."
Cindy reluctantly nodded as she went to unroll her sleeping bag. She wasn't so sure she could sleep now, now that she had been reminded that the local wildlife was dangerous and giant-sized. But, she'd follow Karina's lead for now.
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- Location
- kentucky
yep that is nightmare fuel but not even a 10nth as bad as mutated murder hornets those fuckers are already monsters and have photographic memory you slight it in any meaningful way it will be after your ass wanting to sting you till it is satisfied and it tells its hive about you so now they are pissed at you. thanks for the chapter and for writing
lockingbane
If you're crazy and you know it clap your hands!
- Location
- Waxahachie tx
You know, mutated honeybees actually sounds kind of cool.
Like did you know that a lot of bumblebee species make small nests underground and DONT live in communal hives?
Aurora Moon
Verfied Insomniac with too much time on her hands
- Location
- USA, Earth
- Pronouns
- She/Her
they had mutant honey bees in Fallout 76. I dunno if they're still around though, because Fallout 76 took place like 189 years ago.
- Location
- Ohio
It would be kind of funny if Regan rolled Sexual Tyrannosaurus, which gave him a perk. Why? Because the man who coined that phrase was strong, had a big gun, and was one of the first named characters to die. So by that measure it would give him a boost to big guns, strength, and probably a negative to endurance coupled with more frequent deadly encounters.
Also I found it funny that what Jesse Ventura in Predator died by was similar to the T-rex itself, a burning projectile... They were taken out by a burning meteor, he was taken out by a plasma blast... The irony of it all...
Also I found it funny that what Jesse Ventura in Predator died by was similar to the T-rex itself, a burning projectile... They were taken out by a burning meteor, he was taken out by a plasma blast... The irony of it all...
Aurora Moon
Verfied Insomniac with too much time on her hands
- Location
- USA, Earth
- Pronouns
- She/Her
All of it was looted by both Karina and the followers.
As for the rest of it, with Yoda and stuff... I did want to do more with him, but sadly both I and my muse seemed to have no idea what to do with him as none of the ladies were force-sensitive (yet), and thus we couldn't just take him on as a teacher and mentor.
the rest of it falls to mostly luck and the number of rolls. Vader was a temp thing so of course his time here was brief.
Chapter 94-- A new quest for Regan too?
Aurora Moon
Verfied Insomniac with too much time on her hands
- Location
- USA, Earth
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Regan chapter.
For some reason, my muse really insisted that Regan do something similar to Karina and would not budge on that issue no matter what. So I gave up and went along with it.
=================================================================
"I've been meaning to ask you if you got any other books. That book you sold me last time wound up being far more interesting than I thought it'd be. Goes to show you that you can never judge a book by its cover or its title." The teacher/librarian woman inside vault 100, who Regan didn't bother learning the name of, was saying.
"Really? It just so happens that I have a whole book set here… it's a book series about people who can use magic." Regan did his best to be charming as he played the role of a merchant.
The woman's eyes lit up, and they got to haggling the price for the whole set.
Regan came away from the encounter with some new scrap metals she gave him, along with 100 caps.
Now that he had done his official merchant duty, it was now time to find himself an isolated spot where he could summon things to his heart's content.
…… which was much easier said than done.
After he left Vault 100, he found himself wandering around aimlessly trying to find a place without people, but today it seemed that Theo's people were literally everywhere today! Grr.
And speaking of which, Old Theo came up to him as if he had been looking around for Regan the whole time.
"Regan! There you are," The old man said as he sauntered towards Regan, "I've been meaning to ask you a favor."
"Theo." Regan greeted him with a polite tone, and then asked, "What's it that you wanted of me?"
Theo took a deep breath, and then said, "You aren't going to like this, I assume. But… due to the lands changing, we're sending out another scouting party to assess what's going out there."
Regan blinked. "You want me to go out there again?"
Theo nodded solemnly.
Regan just shrugged and nodded back. "Alright. I was actually trying to find some local salvage here that nobody would miss, but I might have more luck out there."
This way, if he summoned anything this might actually be easier to explain away by saying he found it out there.
Old Theo chuckled. "Is that why you've been wandering around all over the place aimlessly-like for the last hour?"
Regan blinked again and shot Theo a look of disbelief. "..... you're keeping tabs on me?"
Is that why there was always somebody around when he was trying to find somewhere to be alone?..... That's so annoying.
Theo raised one eyebrow. "You're currently working with the raiders right now, even if it isn't completely out of your free will. I'd be a fool not to keep an eye on you."
Regan considered that for a few seconds, and then sighed. "Yeah, fair enough. I'd probably do the same thing if I was the leader here."
Theo just smirked at that as he said, "Meet up with the scouting party at the fence in four hours."
Regan nodded again. "Right. I'll go fetch Kevin and see if I can't chase Avery away today so that he isn't hanging around my home doing god knows what."
Theo just gave him a thumbs up in response as he started walking away.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now that Regan was given the excuse of being on another scouting-slash-expedition party, it was surprisingly easy to kick Avery out this time around. Especially because Avery had already gotten bored with going through Regan and Kevin's random junk to try to sort them into different boxes for Regan to use.
The thing about Raiders? A lot of them were averse to hard work and tended to avoid it whenever possible. And that was true of Avery, even if he was a special breed that liked working on machines. Separating and sorting junk was a completely different matter altogether compared to the topic of machines.
Kevin on the other hand, wasn't so pleased even when Regan pointed out that it might be easier to explain his summons away by claiming they found it elsewhere.
"Yeah, but do I have to go? I'm not in the mood to face any more giant creatures you summon. Somehow I get the weird feeling it'll happen again if we go out there." Kevin grumbled loudly.
"Well, I'm going whether you come with me or not. Just remember that if something happens to me then you're stuck here." Regan replied, shrugging as he grabbed a few weapons and walked out.
Kevin mentally processed that… and then groaned loudly when he realized he'd have to come with Regan to ensure his safety.
"Ugh, fine! Wait up!" He yelled as he ran out after Regan.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Everyone was suited up in hazmat suits once again, though this time they were more armored up this time around as the armor itself had been designed to layer over the hazmat suits. With all kinds of new monsters out there, nobody was taking any more chances!
Regan was currently standing by the gate that would lead to the wild wasteland out there while the rest stood at attention while listening to the survey leader again.
"The mission is different this time around. We'll be splitting up into groups of three but keeping in touch with each other via radio. This is to ensure that we're spread out evenly over the terrain and this way we'll be sure to find out what the fuck's going on here." the same survey leader from last time said.
He then added before some guy in the group could ask, "And no, I don't think this change has to do with the chems we found last time. This is something different."
The guy who had held up a finger to ask a question quietly put his finger back down.
The leader then opened up a map showing where everything was.
He pointed at the airport area, indicating that's where they were all right now. He then said as he pointed to other spots on the map, "We'll be heading in different directions towards here and there…."
He then glanced up at everyone at the scouting party. "Any questions?"
Regan raised his hand. "Which one of those places is more likely to have old cars lying around? I'll look around for anything strange and I'll happily report everything I see to you, but I'd also like to treat this as a salvage run if I can."
The leader then pointed at a spot, which indicated that it was the farthest away out of all the marked locations…. As in so far away that it'd probably take days to travel back and fro on foot. "The only place I can think of is this place. You're volunteering for the longest round trip here, then?"
Regan nodded, which caused Kevin to groan loudly.
Meanwhile, the others subtly looked relieved judging by their body language that they wouldn't have to take what was clearly the most time-consuming location to travel to.
Now that Regan had taken that one, now all they have to do was discuss(aka squabble) which one of them was the most deserving of taking the locations closest to District 11 so that they could leg it back home faster in case of trouble.
Especially if there were giant monsters out there again.
As the other men argued on which spots they wanted to scout, Kevin took Regan aside and hissed quietly, "Regan, what the fuck?"
"Sorry, Kevin, but I honestly don't feel like building cars from scratch. Do you? Not to mention, if I end up summoning more people instead of the cars that Warren wants so badly we'll be able to give people a convenient excuse in that I can claim to have recruited them. I want my army in case Karina comes around." Regan explained.
"Well, they just told us we were going in groups of threes. How the fuck are we going to explain this if we have some rando with us watching every move we make?" Kevin pointed out.
"We'll take turns distracting him, then." Regan dismissed that casually.
Kevin glared.
"By 'we', you mean I'll do all the distracting while you do your thing." He grumbled.
Regan sighed. "Okay, you've been in a real shit mood today. What's wrong? Or did you just wake up on the wrong side of the bed and have somebody piss on your food?"
"......" Kevin paused at that as he crossed his arms sullenly. He then said, "I'll tell you later. When there are not as many people around."
Regan raised both eyebrows at that slightly but he nodded.
They both turned back to watch the unfolding argument over who got which assignment, and to find out who would be the "unlucky SOB" who had to come with them.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Joseph Baker, or Joeb as he liked to be known considering that there were like four other Josephs back at District 11 and he needed a way to stand out from the other four Josephs. He was the "unlucky" person who was to escort them on their long journey.
It was hard to gauge his appearance as everyone was now in full armored hazmat suits, but judging by his face he was a very heavily tanned man or a Hispanic man.
Apparently, The nickname originally started out as him shortening his first and last name together, writing it down as Jose-B, or Joe-B while he was in school learning how to read and things like that. And then everyone in school eventually started calling him Joeb, which stuck.
Not that Regan really cared who he was and what his name was, but he still needed to put up a good front and that meant pretending to care about all the faceless mobs out there.
"Nice to meet you, Joeb." Regan smiled politely behind his plastic hazmat mask as he shook Joeb's hand. He then said, "I'm sorry that you got the short straw. Both Kevin and I might've volunteered to go on the longest route out there, but i know nobody else wanted to do it."
The three of them were already walking outside upwards on a long old battered highway.
Joeb sighed. He rambled nervously, "I know you two are used to being out there and all that, but me, I grew up behind the secure walls of District 11 and Great Falls. The raiders living in Great Falls are assholes and all, but at least they were assholes I knew how to deal with. I hear the other raider factions are different in their ways, which makes me nervous about running into them out here. I don't know how to deal with them? And the fucking new monsters on top of that!"
Regan just nodded at that sympathetically. "Yeah, the travelling merchant lifestyle isn't really for everyone. Hell the community I used to be part of thought I was crazy for wanting to leave town for that same exact reason you have for not wanting to be too far away from District 11. Trust me, I totally get it."
"The same community you were in where you learned how to make working cars? I heard something about that. Where's that at?" Joeb sound interested.
"Eh, it's in North Dakota, almost near the Minnesota border. It's very far away without a car." Regan lied, intentionally keeping things very vague. In reality, the community he had grown up was squarely in Montana, at his parents' skiing resort place at lookout pass where they made a living off skiers and other vacation goers, or going to a private school in Helena. But that kind of background didn't really explain how he suddenly knew how to build things…. So it was better for him to distance himself from his actual past.
"Ah. I see." Joeb nodded.
The two of them lapsed in silence as they followed Kevin from behind, and Joeb kept on looking around nervously. In his hands, all he had was what looked like a large pipe wrench.
"Did you seriously not have any guns with you?" Regan wondered.
"Not really. I wanted to bring a flamethrower like last time, but they vetoed that, saying they wanted to save up on fuel in times of crisis like this. And I normally don't have my own personal gun as bullets get expensive to buy at times… and bullets are even a currency with the raiders, so it's hard to get bullets unless it comes bundled with a new gun. And that's twice as expensive. I'm poor as fuck, if you haven't noticed." Joeb seemed happy to complain, at least.
Regan shook his head. "That won't do. Being out here without a ranged weapon is just begging to get you killed. Hold on."
With that, he moved to the side of the road to shrug off his backpack and then open it up with his back to Joeb so that he wouldn't see Regan summon something.
If the weapon he got was way better than the guns he had on him currently, then Regan would just give Joeb his old guns. But if it was something lame, then he'd give it to Joeb.
>BONG<
Regan used the UI interface to read the stats on this thing to see what it did and then stood up from his bag on the ground once he saw that it wasn't really of any use to him.
He turned to face Joeb with a smile on his face. "There you go, a ranged weapon. It's non-lethal though, it can only paralyze your targets. But better than nothing. I'm even giving you the ammo for it too."
Joeb's expression looked touched from behind his hazmat mask. "Oh…. thanks."
Regan closed up his backpack and shrugged it back onto his back. "No problem, we need to watch each other's back don't we."
Joeb just nodded at that as they rushed to catch up with Kevin, who hadn't noticed that they had stopped following him for a moment there.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
An hour into their journey, Joeb needed to take a piss badly so both Regan and Kevin stood guard at an far distance while Joeb went to do his business behind a dead tree.
"So. you gonna tell me what's wrong now?" Regan asked Kevin, referring to their earlier conversation.
Kevin shook his head. He then laid it all out in the best way he could, though it was more of a stream-of-consciousness thing. "I've been thinking, is all. I've realized that when I go back to my own world, I don't have evidence or anything of my heroics here. I know you talked about how great it would look if I helped save the world that I was brought to… that it'd add some serious street cred to my resume as a superhero. But… I've not actually done anything besides follow you, have I? I keep thinking about all this crap the people used to tell me as an excuse for why I wasn't even second in command in the Seven Group when I kept asking to be promoted. They used to tell me that I was clearly more of a follower than a real leader and that I needed to work on that before they would even consider it."
"Oh." Regan understood right away. He then summarized things, "Yeah, I can see how that's bad. Empire-building takes time, so that's why it may feel like we're not doing anything at times. But you, on the other hand, want to be seen doing heroics, building up your legend in this world… so this way even when your Vought company asks around there's evidence backing you up and they now know you're not just blowing hot air. Another reason for them to keep you around, even with your new blackmail on Homelander's illicit affairs. Am I right?"
"Exactly!" Kevin pointed at Regan and nodded his head vigorously.
Regan clasped his hands together as he thought about this for a moment, and then let go of his hands as he turned to face Kevin. "You've brought a very important point to my attention. It's all and good if we keep on piling up resources for my empire… but what good does it do if we don't even have a rep to back up our words and actions? Nobody's gonna want to follow our lead if we don't even have a reputation to start with. We definitely do need to get out there and do some heroic shit. You're totally right, we need to do this."
Kevin subconsciously put his fists on his hips in one of his classic hero poses, as he nodded at Regan with a pleased look on his face. Evidently, he was happy that Regan seemed to be listening and really hearing what he had to say here. "Yes, exactly! We should be doing that."
Joeb appeared, only having caught the tailwind end of that conversation. "What are you two talking about?"
Regan then replied smoothly, "Kevin here thinks that everyone should be more proactive rather than reactive. Lately, all people have been doing is reacting to things happening instead of trying to get ahead of it before it can happen. We were having a small debate about how we could do that when we don't even know what was going on. Tell me what you think of it?"
Joeb pondered that as Regan and Kevin picked up their things so they'd keep on walking.
Joeb then said as he followed the two back onto the road, "Well, I see where Kevin here is coming from. I've been thinking we need to set up more radio contacts so that we can keep on chatting with everyone all over Montana to keep our ears close to the ground so that we know more about what's going on out there."
Regan smiled. "Kevin here said something similar. Though he also said that he'd want to talk to all the lake and river lurks and other creatures to find out if they noticed anything humans wouldn't have bothered to check."
Joeb perked up at this and turned his head towards Kevin. "So it's true, you're a psyker? There's been all kinds of weird rumors about you two so I wasn't sure what was real or not. I do know the giant crab thing fighting on our side was true since I was there for that part."
Kevin was fully versed by this point on this world's terminology, so he nodded. "Yeah, I can talk to all creatures who live in the water. And not only that, but I can swim and live underwater too for indefinite periods of time without needing to come up for air. Regan here jokes that I'm the offspring of Manta Man since that was his superpower too in the comics. In fact, he wanted me to dress up like Manta Man and call myself that but I thought that was going too far."
Regan pouted at that. "Kevin's no fun at all. I've liked comics since I was a kid, and I thought it would be great if we at least had one hero straight out of the comics running around here."
"He's such a massive nerd." Kevin chuckled.
Joeb chuckled back. "Yeeeahh…. I don't think I'd be able to keep a straight face if I had to dress up in silly costumes to keep the peace. I don't blame Kevin here for not wanting to do that, Regan."
He then turned his head to Kevin again. "But seriously though, that's very cool. Around here there's been old prewar towns and cities that got flooded badly and now are under relatively new lakes and shit. You could be very useful there, scavenging in places where nobody else can go. Not to mention starting up a lurk farm breeding those creatures for their eggs and meat. That'd be pretty awesome."
Kevin's smile faded at the last part and Regan quickly spoke up. "That last part is unlikely to happen. You see, Kevin's got this thing where in order to talk and control the 'Lurks he has to telepathically bond with them. He gets their entire life history and everything. So it feels very weird for him to think about eating them or even breeding them as food for others. To him, it'd be like farming other humans."
Kevin nodded and explained, "Yeah, what he said. I'll never eat fish and other things that live in water for this reason. I understand that others have to do what they need to do to live, but I personally won't do it myself. I also can't be around people who are eating that in front of me too often… I prefer to be somewhere else when they do that. Otherwise, I get creeped out the same way I would be if I had to hang out with cannibals eating human meat. Ya know?"
"Huh, that's so weird. But I guess there's downsides to everything, even special abilities like that." Joeb sounded fascinated by that.
Regan then asked, "So what else have you heard about us? I'd love to confirm or clear up a few rumors!"
They chatted about that topic as they walked off into the distance.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Another hour into their trip, they ran into raiders. Thankfully, it was raiders from Great Falls and not the other factions they had to deal with, and they were currently at some prewar salvage place that had old rotting cars and other vehicles stacked on top of each other.
The raiders all nearly attacked him and his group, but thankfully one of the raiders seemed to recognize Regan on sight when Regan took off his Hazmat helmet to speak to them.
With a simple spoken sentence, "Hey, that's the guy who's gonna make cars for us. The reason why Avery made us act like scavs out here.", everyone settled down.
Regan nodded and called out, "Yeah, that's me alright! Mind if I have a look around myself?"
They didn't seem to mind, so Regan had Joeb and Kevin rest a little bit at the entrance while he walked around.
When he found himself in an isolated spot with stacked crushed cars high all around him, he grinned and pulled on his power, asking for a vehicle that wouldn't look too out of place here. He'll just claim that he had gotten lucky and found an intact car that all it needed was to fix the engine some and he got it working again.
>BONG<
As the truck appeared, Regan couldn't help but laugh giddily. His power really came though for him this time.
This was perfect, it had the look he wanted it to have and everything!
Now to put on an act…
He rushed out, waving his arms around to catch the attention of the raiders as he excitedly yelled, "We've gotten very lucky! I found a completely intact vehicle, I think all I need to do is clean out the engine and adjust it then I can get it running!"
With that, he ran back to the oil rig truck with some raiders following him. Regan then turned to face the raiders as he kicked the tires of the truck.
"Look at this, even the rubber tires are intact!" Regan continued to put on a very excited act. "Come on, help me pop off the hood here so I can take a look at the engine!"
One of them helped Regan with that, and then for some reason, they stood back at a safe distance when Regan started working on the engine.
He overheard one of them say to the other one, "Odds it's going to explode on him?"
The other one said, "No shit, it's too good to be true. Cars like those have nuclear shit in them that always explode if you touch them all wrong."
Regan scoffed to himself as he went to work on "cleaning" the engine, even going as far as to pull out the engine oil dipstick to inspect it, and clean it with a cloth before putting it back in. had to look like he was doing stuff to the truck. He then pretended to tighten something with a wrench he pulled out of his bag, before closing the hood again.
He then turned around to the raiders and told them, "Amazingly enough, it doesn't even have a nuclear fission engine! I think this car's a relic from the time before cars had nuclear fission engines…It actually runs on gas, I think."
The raiders looked at each other. One of them then asked, "So… it won't explode on us?"
Regan shook his head. "Can you all look for an oil canister? I want to make sure the oil in the truck is still good and to refill it up so we can start up this baby."
One of them left, and Regan went back to the truck… again putting on an act of checking where the gas refueling part of the truck was at and then opening it up to check it.
It appeared to be full, which was good. Regan then put on a show sticking his wrench tool into the hole as if to stir the stuff inside, and then pulling his oil-covered wrench to sniff at it and taste it with the tip of his tongue.
Regan made a face as he commented out loud for the benefit of the remaining raider. "Ugh, tastes nasty but there's still oil in there and it's still good after all this time."
He closed the gas refilling hole's lid and then proceeded to climb up the truck and opened the door so that he climbed inside.
Oh look at that, the key was still here too. nice.
He started up the truck, and it came to life with a loud roaring noise that the truck engines typically had.
He stuck his head out the window to grin brightly at the gobsmacked raider on the ground.
"Well, I'll be damned." The raider said as more raiders came back following the second raider who had brought a red oil container with him.
Regan really should do this more often… it was just so easy to bullshit those raiders into believing that he had the magic touch with old prewar cars. Hehehehe. This way he could work on what he wanted to work on, instead of being forced to become a human car factory all day long.
===========================================================
A/N: not much summoning this chapter, but that's because I was trying to fit in the truck thing into the right scene.
I really wanted Regan to summon this in his hangar and then have him have a super difficult time trying to explain it away, but my muse kept on insisting on having Regan go out.
For some reason, my muse really insisted that Regan do something similar to Karina and would not budge on that issue no matter what. So I gave up and went along with it.
Regan tries to find a good spot in the airport settlement to pull on his power, but people are fucking everywhere. He also plays the part of the merchant selling things like the book series he summoned.
Old Theo tells him that there's another survey team being sent out, this time to assess the land changes, etc. Regan sees his chance and agrees to do it again. They're now escorted by an NPC called Joeb, to who Regan gives his newly summoned Dart gun.
But Kevin is super grumpy because he realized that he hasn't done much as a hero and doesn't have much to tell about when he eventually returns home.
Regan agrees that maybe they should be doing more cool heroic things to build up their rep. They run into some raiders on a salvage run at an old car junkyard for both Avery and Regan, and Regan sees his chance to be super lazy and never build a vehicle. He finds a good hiding spot in the junkyard away from prying eyes and summons an actual oil rig truck from GTA. It has the apocalypse reskin on it, making it look like it could easily fit in well in the world of Fallout.
Regan then loudly pretends to have found it and pretends to fix up the engine and check the gas before he gets it running again, making the raider watching him be impressed as hell.
Old Theo tells him that there's another survey team being sent out, this time to assess the land changes, etc. Regan sees his chance and agrees to do it again. They're now escorted by an NPC called Joeb, to who Regan gives his newly summoned Dart gun.
But Kevin is super grumpy because he realized that he hasn't done much as a hero and doesn't have much to tell about when he eventually returns home.
Regan agrees that maybe they should be doing more cool heroic things to build up their rep. They run into some raiders on a salvage run at an old car junkyard for both Avery and Regan, and Regan sees his chance to be super lazy and never build a vehicle. He finds a good hiding spot in the junkyard away from prying eyes and summons an actual oil rig truck from GTA. It has the apocalypse reskin on it, making it look like it could easily fit in well in the world of Fallout.
Regan then loudly pretends to have found it and pretends to fix up the engine and check the gas before he gets it running again, making the raider watching him be impressed as hell.
=================================================================
"I've been meaning to ask you if you got any other books. That book you sold me last time wound up being far more interesting than I thought it'd be. Goes to show you that you can never judge a book by its cover or its title." The teacher/librarian woman inside vault 100, who Regan didn't bother learning the name of, was saying.
"Really? It just so happens that I have a whole book set here… it's a book series about people who can use magic." Regan did his best to be charming as he played the role of a merchant.
The woman's eyes lit up, and they got to haggling the price for the whole set.
Regan came away from the encounter with some new scrap metals she gave him, along with 100 caps.
Now that he had done his official merchant duty, it was now time to find himself an isolated spot where he could summon things to his heart's content.
…… which was much easier said than done.
After he left Vault 100, he found himself wandering around aimlessly trying to find a place without people, but today it seemed that Theo's people were literally everywhere today! Grr.
And speaking of which, Old Theo came up to him as if he had been looking around for Regan the whole time.
"Regan! There you are," The old man said as he sauntered towards Regan, "I've been meaning to ask you a favor."
"Theo." Regan greeted him with a polite tone, and then asked, "What's it that you wanted of me?"
Theo took a deep breath, and then said, "You aren't going to like this, I assume. But… due to the lands changing, we're sending out another scouting party to assess what's going out there."
Regan blinked. "You want me to go out there again?"
Theo nodded solemnly.
Regan just shrugged and nodded back. "Alright. I was actually trying to find some local salvage here that nobody would miss, but I might have more luck out there."
This way, if he summoned anything this might actually be easier to explain away by saying he found it out there.
Old Theo chuckled. "Is that why you've been wandering around all over the place aimlessly-like for the last hour?"
Regan blinked again and shot Theo a look of disbelief. "..... you're keeping tabs on me?"
Is that why there was always somebody around when he was trying to find somewhere to be alone?..... That's so annoying.
Theo raised one eyebrow. "You're currently working with the raiders right now, even if it isn't completely out of your free will. I'd be a fool not to keep an eye on you."
Regan considered that for a few seconds, and then sighed. "Yeah, fair enough. I'd probably do the same thing if I was the leader here."
Theo just smirked at that as he said, "Meet up with the scouting party at the fence in four hours."
Regan nodded again. "Right. I'll go fetch Kevin and see if I can't chase Avery away today so that he isn't hanging around my home doing god knows what."
Theo just gave him a thumbs up in response as he started walking away.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now that Regan was given the excuse of being on another scouting-slash-expedition party, it was surprisingly easy to kick Avery out this time around. Especially because Avery had already gotten bored with going through Regan and Kevin's random junk to try to sort them into different boxes for Regan to use.
The thing about Raiders? A lot of them were averse to hard work and tended to avoid it whenever possible. And that was true of Avery, even if he was a special breed that liked working on machines. Separating and sorting junk was a completely different matter altogether compared to the topic of machines.
Kevin on the other hand, wasn't so pleased even when Regan pointed out that it might be easier to explain his summons away by claiming they found it elsewhere.
"Yeah, but do I have to go? I'm not in the mood to face any more giant creatures you summon. Somehow I get the weird feeling it'll happen again if we go out there." Kevin grumbled loudly.
"Well, I'm going whether you come with me or not. Just remember that if something happens to me then you're stuck here." Regan replied, shrugging as he grabbed a few weapons and walked out.
Kevin mentally processed that… and then groaned loudly when he realized he'd have to come with Regan to ensure his safety.
"Ugh, fine! Wait up!" He yelled as he ran out after Regan.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Everyone was suited up in hazmat suits once again, though this time they were more armored up this time around as the armor itself had been designed to layer over the hazmat suits. With all kinds of new monsters out there, nobody was taking any more chances!
Regan was currently standing by the gate that would lead to the wild wasteland out there while the rest stood at attention while listening to the survey leader again.
"The mission is different this time around. We'll be splitting up into groups of three but keeping in touch with each other via radio. This is to ensure that we're spread out evenly over the terrain and this way we'll be sure to find out what the fuck's going on here." the same survey leader from last time said.
He then added before some guy in the group could ask, "And no, I don't think this change has to do with the chems we found last time. This is something different."
The guy who had held up a finger to ask a question quietly put his finger back down.
The leader then opened up a map showing where everything was.
He pointed at the airport area, indicating that's where they were all right now. He then said as he pointed to other spots on the map, "We'll be heading in different directions towards here and there…."
He then glanced up at everyone at the scouting party. "Any questions?"
Regan raised his hand. "Which one of those places is more likely to have old cars lying around? I'll look around for anything strange and I'll happily report everything I see to you, but I'd also like to treat this as a salvage run if I can."
The leader then pointed at a spot, which indicated that it was the farthest away out of all the marked locations…. As in so far away that it'd probably take days to travel back and fro on foot. "The only place I can think of is this place. You're volunteering for the longest round trip here, then?"
Regan nodded, which caused Kevin to groan loudly.
Meanwhile, the others subtly looked relieved judging by their body language that they wouldn't have to take what was clearly the most time-consuming location to travel to.
Now that Regan had taken that one, now all they have to do was discuss
Especially if there were giant monsters out there again.
As the other men argued on which spots they wanted to scout, Kevin took Regan aside and hissed quietly, "Regan, what the fuck?"
"Sorry, Kevin, but I honestly don't feel like building cars from scratch. Do you? Not to mention, if I end up summoning more people instead of the cars that Warren wants so badly we'll be able to give people a convenient excuse in that I can claim to have recruited them. I want my army in case Karina comes around." Regan explained.
"Well, they just told us we were going in groups of threes. How the fuck are we going to explain this if we have some rando with us watching every move we make?" Kevin pointed out.
"We'll take turns distracting him, then." Regan dismissed that casually.
Kevin glared.
"By 'we', you mean I'll do all the distracting while you do your thing." He grumbled.
Regan sighed. "Okay, you've been in a real shit mood today. What's wrong? Or did you just wake up on the wrong side of the bed and have somebody piss on your food?"
"......" Kevin paused at that as he crossed his arms sullenly. He then said, "I'll tell you later. When there are not as many people around."
Regan raised both eyebrows at that slightly but he nodded.
They both turned back to watch the unfolding argument over who got which assignment, and to find out who would be the "unlucky SOB" who had to come with them.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Joseph Baker, or Joeb as he liked to be known considering that there were like four other Josephs back at District 11 and he needed a way to stand out from the other four Josephs. He was the "unlucky" person who was to escort them on their long journey.
It was hard to gauge his appearance as everyone was now in full armored hazmat suits, but judging by his face he was a very heavily tanned man or a Hispanic man.
Apparently, The nickname originally started out as him shortening his first and last name together, writing it down as Jose-B, or Joe-B while he was in school learning how to read and things like that. And then everyone in school eventually started calling him Joeb, which stuck.
Not that Regan really cared who he was and what his name was, but he still needed to put up a good front and that meant pretending to care about all the faceless mobs out there.
"Nice to meet you, Joeb." Regan smiled politely behind his plastic hazmat mask as he shook Joeb's hand. He then said, "I'm sorry that you got the short straw. Both Kevin and I might've volunteered to go on the longest route out there, but i know nobody else wanted to do it."
The three of them were already walking outside upwards on a long old battered highway.
Joeb sighed. He rambled nervously, "I know you two are used to being out there and all that, but me, I grew up behind the secure walls of District 11 and Great Falls. The raiders living in Great Falls are assholes and all, but at least they were assholes I knew how to deal with. I hear the other raider factions are different in their ways, which makes me nervous about running into them out here. I don't know how to deal with them? And the fucking new monsters on top of that!"
Regan just nodded at that sympathetically. "Yeah, the travelling merchant lifestyle isn't really for everyone. Hell the community I used to be part of thought I was crazy for wanting to leave town for that same exact reason you have for not wanting to be too far away from District 11. Trust me, I totally get it."
"The same community you were in where you learned how to make working cars? I heard something about that. Where's that at?" Joeb sound interested.
"Eh, it's in North Dakota, almost near the Minnesota border. It's very far away without a car." Regan lied, intentionally keeping things very vague. In reality, the community he had grown up was squarely in Montana, at his parents' skiing resort place at lookout pass where they made a living off skiers and other vacation goers, or going to a private school in Helena. But that kind of background didn't really explain how he suddenly knew how to build things…. So it was better for him to distance himself from his actual past.
"Ah. I see." Joeb nodded.
The two of them lapsed in silence as they followed Kevin from behind, and Joeb kept on looking around nervously. In his hands, all he had was what looked like a large pipe wrench.
"Did you seriously not have any guns with you?" Regan wondered.
"Not really. I wanted to bring a flamethrower like last time, but they vetoed that, saying they wanted to save up on fuel in times of crisis like this. And I normally don't have my own personal gun as bullets get expensive to buy at times… and bullets are even a currency with the raiders, so it's hard to get bullets unless it comes bundled with a new gun. And that's twice as expensive. I'm poor as fuck, if you haven't noticed." Joeb seemed happy to complain, at least.
Regan shook his head. "That won't do. Being out here without a ranged weapon is just begging to get you killed. Hold on."
With that, he moved to the side of the road to shrug off his backpack and then open it up with his back to Joeb so that he wouldn't see Regan summon something.
If the weapon he got was way better than the guns he had on him currently, then Regan would just give Joeb his old guns. But if it was something lame, then he'd give it to Joeb.
>BONG<
| Dart_Gun Roll 19 A dart gun is a craftable weapon, easily found in the wasteland. It's a non-lethal weapon, designed to paralyze creatures. Effect: As it is a roll 19, it's in pretty good condition and comes with a large batch of darts as ammo. |
Regan used the UI interface to read the stats on this thing to see what it did and then stood up from his bag on the ground once he saw that it wasn't really of any use to him.
He turned to face Joeb with a smile on his face. "There you go, a ranged weapon. It's non-lethal though, it can only paralyze your targets. But better than nothing. I'm even giving you the ammo for it too."
Joeb's expression looked touched from behind his hazmat mask. "Oh…. thanks."
Regan closed up his backpack and shrugged it back onto his back. "No problem, we need to watch each other's back don't we."
Joeb just nodded at that as they rushed to catch up with Kevin, who hadn't noticed that they had stopped following him for a moment there.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
An hour into their journey, Joeb needed to take a piss badly so both Regan and Kevin stood guard at an far distance while Joeb went to do his business behind a dead tree.
"So. you gonna tell me what's wrong now?" Regan asked Kevin, referring to their earlier conversation.
Kevin shook his head. He then laid it all out in the best way he could, though it was more of a stream-of-consciousness thing. "I've been thinking, is all. I've realized that when I go back to my own world, I don't have evidence or anything of my heroics here. I know you talked about how great it would look if I helped save the world that I was brought to… that it'd add some serious street cred to my resume as a superhero. But… I've not actually done anything besides follow you, have I? I keep thinking about all this crap the people used to tell me as an excuse for why I wasn't even second in command in the Seven Group when I kept asking to be promoted. They used to tell me that I was clearly more of a follower than a real leader and that I needed to work on that before they would even consider it."
"Oh." Regan understood right away. He then summarized things, "Yeah, I can see how that's bad. Empire-building takes time, so that's why it may feel like we're not doing anything at times. But you, on the other hand, want to be seen doing heroics, building up your legend in this world… so this way even when your Vought company asks around there's evidence backing you up and they now know you're not just blowing hot air. Another reason for them to keep you around, even with your new blackmail on Homelander's illicit affairs. Am I right?"
"Exactly!" Kevin pointed at Regan and nodded his head vigorously.
Regan clasped his hands together as he thought about this for a moment, and then let go of his hands as he turned to face Kevin. "You've brought a very important point to my attention. It's all and good if we keep on piling up resources for my empire… but what good does it do if we don't even have a rep to back up our words and actions? Nobody's gonna want to follow our lead if we don't even have a reputation to start with. We definitely do need to get out there and do some heroic shit. You're totally right, we need to do this."
Kevin subconsciously put his fists on his hips in one of his classic hero poses, as he nodded at Regan with a pleased look on his face. Evidently, he was happy that Regan seemed to be listening and really hearing what he had to say here. "Yes, exactly! We should be doing that."
Joeb appeared, only having caught the tailwind end of that conversation. "What are you two talking about?"
Regan then replied smoothly, "Kevin here thinks that everyone should be more proactive rather than reactive. Lately, all people have been doing is reacting to things happening instead of trying to get ahead of it before it can happen. We were having a small debate about how we could do that when we don't even know what was going on. Tell me what you think of it?"
Joeb pondered that as Regan and Kevin picked up their things so they'd keep on walking.
Joeb then said as he followed the two back onto the road, "Well, I see where Kevin here is coming from. I've been thinking we need to set up more radio contacts so that we can keep on chatting with everyone all over Montana to keep our ears close to the ground so that we know more about what's going on out there."
Regan smiled. "Kevin here said something similar. Though he also said that he'd want to talk to all the lake and river lurks and other creatures to find out if they noticed anything humans wouldn't have bothered to check."
Joeb perked up at this and turned his head towards Kevin. "So it's true, you're a psyker? There's been all kinds of weird rumors about you two so I wasn't sure what was real or not. I do know the giant crab thing fighting on our side was true since I was there for that part."
Kevin was fully versed by this point on this world's terminology, so he nodded. "Yeah, I can talk to all creatures who live in the water. And not only that, but I can swim and live underwater too for indefinite periods of time without needing to come up for air. Regan here jokes that I'm the offspring of Manta Man since that was his superpower too in the comics. In fact, he wanted me to dress up like Manta Man and call myself that but I thought that was going too far."
Regan pouted at that. "Kevin's no fun at all. I've liked comics since I was a kid, and I thought it would be great if we at least had one hero straight out of the comics running around here."
"He's such a massive nerd." Kevin chuckled.
Joeb chuckled back. "Yeeeahh…. I don't think I'd be able to keep a straight face if I had to dress up in silly costumes to keep the peace. I don't blame Kevin here for not wanting to do that, Regan."
He then turned his head to Kevin again. "But seriously though, that's very cool. Around here there's been old prewar towns and cities that got flooded badly and now are under relatively new lakes and shit. You could be very useful there, scavenging in places where nobody else can go. Not to mention starting up a lurk farm breeding those creatures for their eggs and meat. That'd be pretty awesome."
Kevin's smile faded at the last part and Regan quickly spoke up. "That last part is unlikely to happen. You see, Kevin's got this thing where in order to talk and control the 'Lurks he has to telepathically bond with them. He gets their entire life history and everything. So it feels very weird for him to think about eating them or even breeding them as food for others. To him, it'd be like farming other humans."
Kevin nodded and explained, "Yeah, what he said. I'll never eat fish and other things that live in water for this reason. I understand that others have to do what they need to do to live, but I personally won't do it myself. I also can't be around people who are eating that in front of me too often… I prefer to be somewhere else when they do that. Otherwise, I get creeped out the same way I would be if I had to hang out with cannibals eating human meat. Ya know?"
"Huh, that's so weird. But I guess there's downsides to everything, even special abilities like that." Joeb sounded fascinated by that.
Regan then asked, "So what else have you heard about us? I'd love to confirm or clear up a few rumors!"
They chatted about that topic as they walked off into the distance.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Another hour into their trip, they ran into raiders. Thankfully, it was raiders from Great Falls and not the other factions they had to deal with, and they were currently at some prewar salvage place that had old rotting cars and other vehicles stacked on top of each other.
The raiders all nearly attacked him and his group, but thankfully one of the raiders seemed to recognize Regan on sight when Regan took off his Hazmat helmet to speak to them.
With a simple spoken sentence, "Hey, that's the guy who's gonna make cars for us. The reason why Avery made us act like scavs out here.", everyone settled down.
Regan nodded and called out, "Yeah, that's me alright! Mind if I have a look around myself?"
They didn't seem to mind, so Regan had Joeb and Kevin rest a little bit at the entrance while he walked around.
When he found himself in an isolated spot with stacked crushed cars high all around him, he grinned and pulled on his power, asking for a vehicle that wouldn't look too out of place here. He'll just claim that he had gotten lucky and found an intact car that all it needed was to fix the engine some and he got it working again.
>BONG<
| https://gta.fandom.com/wiki/Apocalypse_Cerberus Roll 20 This is a truck rig from the GTA games that normally hauls oil, and is reskinned to look like it's been though an apocalypse. Actually looks like it would fit right in the world of fallout. Effect: As this is a roll 20, this is a powerful truck that's hard to destroy, yet not impossible to do so. Regan can send this back, but why would he want to? This truck is here permanently forever. The oil tanker is empty though, and can be refilled with something else. |
As the truck appeared, Regan couldn't help but laugh giddily. His power really came though for him this time.
This was perfect, it had the look he wanted it to have and everything!
Now to put on an act…
He rushed out, waving his arms around to catch the attention of the raiders as he excitedly yelled, "We've gotten very lucky! I found a completely intact vehicle, I think all I need to do is clean out the engine and adjust it then I can get it running!"
With that, he ran back to the oil rig truck with some raiders following him. Regan then turned to face the raiders as he kicked the tires of the truck.
"Look at this, even the rubber tires are intact!" Regan continued to put on a very excited act. "Come on, help me pop off the hood here so I can take a look at the engine!"
One of them helped Regan with that, and then for some reason, they stood back at a safe distance when Regan started working on the engine.
He overheard one of them say to the other one, "Odds it's going to explode on him?"
The other one said, "No shit, it's too good to be true. Cars like those have nuclear shit in them that always explode if you touch them all wrong."
Regan scoffed to himself as he went to work on "cleaning" the engine, even going as far as to pull out the engine oil dipstick to inspect it, and clean it with a cloth before putting it back in. had to look like he was doing stuff to the truck. He then pretended to tighten something with a wrench he pulled out of his bag, before closing the hood again.
He then turned around to the raiders and told them, "Amazingly enough, it doesn't even have a nuclear fission engine! I think this car's a relic from the time before cars had nuclear fission engines…It actually runs on gas, I think."
The raiders looked at each other. One of them then asked, "So… it won't explode on us?"
Regan shook his head. "Can you all look for an oil canister? I want to make sure the oil in the truck is still good and to refill it up so we can start up this baby."
One of them left, and Regan went back to the truck… again putting on an act of checking where the gas refueling part of the truck was at and then opening it up to check it.
It appeared to be full, which was good. Regan then put on a show sticking his wrench tool into the hole as if to stir the stuff inside, and then pulling his oil-covered wrench to sniff at it and taste it with the tip of his tongue.
Regan made a face as he commented out loud for the benefit of the remaining raider. "Ugh, tastes nasty but there's still oil in there and it's still good after all this time."
He closed the gas refilling hole's lid and then proceeded to climb up the truck and opened the door so that he climbed inside.
Oh look at that, the key was still here too. nice.
He started up the truck, and it came to life with a loud roaring noise that the truck engines typically had.
He stuck his head out the window to grin brightly at the gobsmacked raider on the ground.
"Well, I'll be damned." The raider said as more raiders came back following the second raider who had brought a red oil container with him.
Regan really should do this more often… it was just so easy to bullshit those raiders into believing that he had the magic touch with old prewar cars. Hehehehe. This way he could work on what he wanted to work on, instead of being forced to become a human car factory all day long.
===========================================================
A/N: not much summoning this chapter, but that's because I was trying to fit in the truck thing into the right scene.
I really wanted Regan to summon this in his hangar and then have him have a super difficult time trying to explain it away, but my muse kept on insisting on having Regan go out.
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Aurora Moon
Verfied Insomniac with too much time on her hands
- Location
- USA, Earth
- Pronouns
- She/Her
it pasted without the formatting and without the tables the first time around for some reason, so I had to repaste it again.
Aurora Moon
Verfied Insomniac with too much time on her hands
- Location
- USA, Earth
- Pronouns
- She/Her
that's only if you're a earth pony or a pegaus. unicorns can use it with their magic.
and well, humans have hands and fingers so I don't think they need to use their mouths.
clonezero
Is it a bad thing if my t read list keeps growing?
But imagine, triple wielding guns!
lockingbane
If you're crazy and you know it clap your hands!
- Location
- Waxahachie tx
The trigger and handle are probably a bit weird to use with hands. Probably something like two triggers that have to be compressed together to fire.
- Location
- USA
The way a Cerberus looks, I think in real world would be a Peterbilt or a Mac sime or for the europeans a Volvo or Kenworth lorry. So putting gas/petrol into the tank would mess up the engine. it's probably a diesel. That's a good thing because in a pinch the truck can run on motor oil to vegetable oil new or used just has extra steps. If you have a running oil or natural gas well then you can crack the raw oil or the gunky by-product into new diesel and also get new motor oil. If you don't have that then rendering trees into fuel can get you light methane to run generators, charcoal to cook with and to heavy tar to patch roofs / walls.
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Chapter 95-- Just hanging out with Cindy, no biggie.
Aurora Moon
Verfied Insomniac with too much time on her hands
- Location
- USA, Earth
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Karina chapter.
In case you don't want to read about her:
========================
--the next day--
Karina finally felt productive after such a long time, as she and Cindy successfully foraged for things like mushrooms, fiddlehead fern shoots, and other wild edible items.
They had so much that they already had two bags worth. Normally Karina wouldn't have collected so much and would've left behind some stuff so that it could all grow back. But, Iona had said that the radioactive rains were gonna come eventually sooner or later, so who knows when any of this stuff would still be safe to eat after that? Especially if they all got eventually exposed to FEV if that was still around.
So it was better to grab a lot of pure samples while they still could so that they could grow them inside the vault… or better yet, create a version that would be immune to radiation and were still safe to eat? One can dream!
It wasn't just the mushrooms and other edibles they found. They had stumbled across some rocks that seemed to have traces of iron and copper deposits! This indicates that they could now finally mine for metals again, despite their world running out of resources like that a long time ago. That was actually pretty huge!
This put them in such an insanely good mood that not even Karina's power could ruin the moment by summoning what were a bunch of very smelly flowers temporarily.
>ring<
Both Karina and Cindy just laughed, holding their noses as they ran away from the area full of vivid purple and blue flowers that were so big they reached past the ladies' ankles.
"Too bad it smelled so awful, they looked like such beautiful flowers," Cindy commented.
"Probably designed that way on purpose to attract insects so that they can reproduce via swapping pollen with each other," Karina replied.
Cindy just nodded at that, and they finally sat down after getting some enough distance between themselves and the scent. There was a flat rock that seemed perfect for sitting, it was even at the same height a chair would be, and that's the spot they sat down at.
Cindy then opened up the map of things that they had marked as having found said resources, and there were quite a number of "Xs" along with tiny written notes on the old map now. If you followed the pattern of Xs you'd realize that they were literally going around in a circle… but one that went on for miles all around the vault that they had come from. A few more miles of walking and the circle would be completed with them arriving back at vault 129 from the other direction.
Unfortunately, they had already spent so much time scouting the areas and foraging a lot that it was already getting dark out fast. Time had a tendency to fly by very quickly when you weren't paying attention to the time.
"Great. So this means we have to camp outside again?" Cindy didn't sound too happy with that idea.
Karina smirked. "What happened to the woman who was happy to be out of the vault because she was suffering from cabin fever?"
Cindy gave her an unimpressed look. "That was before I got reminded about giant creatures being out here! I hate half the normal bugs already, it's even worse when they're giant-sized."
She then sighed gutsily. "I had a difficult time sleeping as it was when I kept on thinking about those bugs all night. I don't know how I managed to get enough sleep for this hike today."
"But," Karina asked all too innocently, her smirk still gracing her face, "Aren't you a superhero? You could literally blast all insects away with your magic."
Cindy shook her head. "I could… but the truth is, I'm kinda embarrassed by the pretty cure costume. It's just so…. FRILLY. It looks like something a six-year-old girl would wear when she plays dress up and pretends to be a princess. I'm an adult woman, Karina. I can't help but feel self-conscious dressed like a six-year-old. It's the reason why I haven't been going out there to scan for any signs of the aliens now that Yoda proved to me that there are in fact aliens out there. I don't want anybody to see me dressed like that, not ever."
Karina blinked. "Is it that bad? I mean, Iona and I transformed into our Milfy costumes and it was somewhat frilly but not so bad."
"It's way more excessive than that, trust me," Cindy responded.
"Hmm." Karina mulled it over, as she thought out loud, "I wonder if it would be possible to alter the costume with my power?"
Cindy perked up at that. "That would be great, actually!"
Karina smirked. "But…. you'd need to let me see your costume first before I can alter it."
Truthfully, she was now curious to see the costume, to see if it was as bad as Cindy claimed it to be.
Cindy blanched slightly at that, but then her shoulders sagged at that. "Ugh, fine. But I swear if you speak a single word about this to anybody else I'm gonna kill you."
Cindy got off the flat rock and walked a few feet away from Karina, before turning around to face Karina.
Cindy pulled out the device that Karina had seen before last time she summoned it alongside coupe, and she inserted some kind of pink engraved disc thing into it and held it up into the air as she cried out, "Precure! Open my heart!"
Coupe appeared out of nowhere, startling the hell out of Karina before he became a glowing ball of light that merged with Cindy's Precure device, seemingly activating the magic within.
Cindy pressed the nozzle on the device towards herself as if it was a perfume, and bright pink light shot out of it into her clothes, making everything she was glowing so brightly that it was hard to look at her directly now. Glowing pink petals shot out of the ground to engulf her, and within seconds she was now dressed in what was an excessively frilly outfit, and at the last minute, her brown hair was the last to get transformed as it grew outwards, becoming a dark reddish-pink hue color. And with that, her transformation was complete.
"The second flower that shines brightly in the holy light, Cure Flower!" Cindy couldn't help herself saying as she finally struck a pose. There was now a faint blush on her face.
Karina was finally able to assess the "Cure flower" outfit as a whole, and well…
She could see why Cindy felt like this wasn't an outfit that an adult woman could go out in without getting feeling embarrassed. It was definitely far more frilly than the milfena fairy outfits that she and Iona had worn that one time and made her think of those fancy pageant dresses.
It certainly didn't seem like something a superheroine would go out to fight crime in unless they were a really young girl who loved dressing up like a princess.
"Huh. yeah I see what you mean. It looks more like a dress for the pageant show than for… erm, practical activities." Karina commented.
"Exactly!" Cure Flower/Cindy jabbed in Karina's direction with a finger, "And not just any pageant show, but one for kids!"
Karina finally got off the rock they had been sitting on just moments ago, and walked over. "Alright. Time to see if I can alter this outfit, or give you a different alternative."
Cindy eagerly took Karina's hands without much prompting, and then closed her eyes as she prayed, "Come on, give me a better outfit…. A better outfit… a better outfit!"
Karina snorted at her reaction as she pulled on her power--
>ring<
"Eh? Huh?" Both Cindy/Cure Flower and Karina found themselves holding what looked like a piece of neck jewelry between the two of them, and out of it, a small puppy-like creature appeared. It sported brown fur with white spots, with gray eyes, and was blinking adorably.
It seemed confused at first, as it clearly didn't recognize the two women, but then seemed relieved for some reason. It then took the opportunity to introduce itself to the two surprised women first before they could say anything.
"Hello! I'm Barkk, the kwami of adoration! With that necklace there, I can help you transform into a Superheroine that helps out the masses!" it yipped excitedly at the idea of aiding new heroes out there.
"Just one question," Cure Flower asked, "what kind of superheroine am I going to look like?"
Barkk tilted its' head. "This is the Dog Miraculous…. So you'll be a dog-themed hero."
Cindy scoffed loudly as she de-transformed back into her normal self, with Coupe appearing next to her. "Yeah, no. I'm out. I don't want to be a dog-themed hero either… sorry, but that sounds even lamer than going out in a ridiculously frilly pageant dress punching baddies."
With that, she let go of Karina dejectedly while Karina herself responded. "Come on, don't you think you're too unfair? And look, you hurt the poor little guy's feelings."
Sure enough, Barkk seemed sad and emotionally wounded by Cindy's words. His ears were dropping downwards and his eyes were glistening puppy-eyes, as his lips quivered.
This was enough to affect even Cindy, who looked very uncomfortable as she weakly replied, "Uh, I'm very sorry! That's just, as you can see I'm already a superhero with my own means. I'm sure it would be just redundant if I layered your magic jewelry on top of what I could already do … you need somebody who isn't a superhero yet to make your own abilities shine??"
Coupe nodded at that while staring at Barkk curiously as Barkk stared back at Coupe.
"Maybe you should tell us what you can offer to a person who uses your…. 'Miraculous dog necklace'? What kind of amazing feats can you give your user?" Karina pointed out.
The dog-like kwami perked up at this, and his tail started wagging slightly as he responded in what was one long rambling breath, "My miraculous can grant its' user incredible powers of speed, endurance, agility, stamina, and strength. As long as you don't use the special magic item, you can keep on going on and on without tiring too much! But if you do use the magic item, which is my special weapon ball, it then can be used as both a weapon, a communicator, and an object that can be used to breathe underwater. If you use the ball and call out 'Fetch', this gives the user the ability to fetch and return any arbitrary object that has been touched by the ball in order to obtain their goal, like defeating a villain. As long as the superpower isn't used, the wielder can remain transformed indefinitely. However, as soon as the superpower is used, the wielder loses power and the transformation wears off in about approximately five minutes if they are a child. The transformation lasts far longer if the person is an adult instead. The collar also has the ability to give the wielder the costume they truly desire."
The last sentence seemed incredibly pointed, which made Cindy chuckle slightly. "Yeah, but it'll still be dog themed?"
Barkk pouted slightly at that and nodded. He honestly didn't see what was so bad about being dressed up like a dog superhero!
Coupe could only snort at the fact that this creature from an alternate world had such limits, and he snootily thought that it just proved that the Pre-cure faires were superior in that respect, even though they both worked through similar means.
Karina nodded and looked down at the Dog Miraculous necklace in her hands. "But that's still pretty good. I can definitely see so many uses for this."
Barkk perked up at this again. "You won't be using it for evildoing, I hope?"
When the two women looked at him, he then looked sad. "Recently, a very evil man stole me from the rightful guardian of all the Miraculouses and was using me for evil, forcing me to use my magic when I didn't want to do any evildoing. He imprisoned me inside this tiny glass orb and the same was done to my brothers and sisters all so that he could use our magic! He even fed us this horrible-tasting pellet that they normally feed to hamsters. I'm not a hamster!"
In the last part, he actually looked more angry than sad.
Coupe blinked, having the decency to look thoroughly appalled at that last part. Being captured by evil forces was bad enough, but to suffer the indignity of not being fed any proper foods at all as a long-term captive? As a fairy, that was the worst fate possible!
Coupe went over to Barkk, and touched the sides of the Kwami's body as he said while shaking his head with a thoroughly dismayed expression on his face, "I'm so sorry that happened to you. That truly sounds so awful."
Karina blinked. That seemed to be about the third time she had apparently rescued somebody from a certain death or suffering, the other two being Gemma the robot and Mike (who didn't want to go back knowing that he'd have to suffer heavy nuclear fallout even if he survived the initial great war).
Well, the rescue part was good in that it saved somebody from a horrible fate, not to mention it did reduce Karina's guilt over what was effectively kidnapping people from their worlds. Still, she had to inform the dog-like tiny creature just in case.
"You won't have to worry about that horrible man here. You see, I'm a summoner who can summon things and people from other worlds. You're currently in a world other than the one you came from." Karina responded, just to see how the little creature would react.
Barkk's reaction was far more milder than expected, as he blinked. "Really? Wow, cool! You can eventually send me back to my rightful guardian eventually, right?"
Karina sweated slightly as she replied, "Well, I've been working with Iona to do just exactly that…. I'm not a professional summoner, you see, I just started out a while ago."
Barkk seemed to take her at her word and beamed as he wagged his tail. "That's alright then! I can't wait to explore this new world. Imagine the new smells I'll get to smell! I'll be able to tell my siblings something new and exciting!"
Cindy looked at the darkening sky. She then commented, "We might as well as set up camp again. And this way we can take the time to tell Barkk all about what's been happening with this world."
Karina nodded.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hours later, both Karina and Cindy were relaxing on their sleeping bags laid out on each side of the campfire, as they listened to Coupe and Barkk compare notes.
The two women had told Barkk everything he needed to know, but strangely the Kwami hadn't reacted much other than absorbing the information and going, "Oh I see…" or the occasional "That's great!" or "Oh, that's bad!"
Cindy supposed it was because they were still unfamiliar to Barkk, and hadn't fully earned his trust yet.
Barkk seemed to be far more animated with Coupe now, as they compared notes on what it was like to be a Precure fairy and a Kwami. Strangely for all their differences, there were a lot of similarities, such as the fact that a Precure girl couldn't use their magical transformation trinkets without a fairy becoming one with the transformation trinket…. And likewise, a Kwami had to go into the miraculous item for it to be effective.
Barkk decided this meant the fairy tribe that Coupe was part of had to be related to the Kwamis, just like some group called the Renlings.
"I'm so happy to have a new cousin! And of course, because you're more experienced living here I'll look to you for advice." Barkk smiled widely and adoringly at Coupe, who seemed somewhat flustered.
Coupe blushed slightly as he nodded at his new younger(?) relative. "I'll do my best then."
The two settled down after that, murmuring quietly to each other.
Cindy smiled as she stared up at the sky while the two magical creatures were chatting.
She then said to Karina, "I suppose this is one of the few good things about civilization as we knew it ending. I've never seen the stars so vivid and bright before."
Karina then looked up at the sky at that, lying down herself for a better view. She smiled, and replied, "Yeah, no more light pollution blocking our view."
It was now dark out enough for the moon and the stars to be out in full force tonight.
The women relaxed as they lay on their backs staring up at the stars, with the voices of the mascot-like supernatural beings chattering away in the background acting as white noise.
This was enough to make Karina start to doze off…. Then she suddenly noticed something strange with the stars.
Namely, the fact that it looked like there was something exploding in the far distance a few miles away from Earth? There even looked like there were bright objects shooting lasers at each other.
Huh? What the heck was with that??
"Do you see that?" Karina said as she pointed up into the night sky.
"Yeah, I see it too…" Cindy replied.
The two women quickly sat up and looked at each other, wondering what to do now.
===========================================================
a/n: The Zetans are finally starting to face consequences from one of Karina's rolls. uh-oh.
Do you know what this means? that's right, the next chapter will be from the aliens' POV!
In case you don't want to read about her:
Karina and Cindy spend a whole day forging, and they find plenty of great stuff that they're in a good mood about that can't be ruined by Karina accidentally summoning a swamp-smelly flower. They take a break and they get to talking, and the topic eventually changes to that of Cindy's Precure outfit and how Cindy feels self-conscious in it because she feels like a little kid playing dress up... which is weird as an adult. Karina offers to try to change it with her power, but she doesn't succeed... instead, she summons the Dog Miraclous from the series Miraculous Ladybug and along with it, the dog Kwami known as Barkk.
Everyone explains things to Barkk while they set camp for the night, and with that, everyone's just chilling.... until they notice something weird with the stars!
Everyone explains things to Barkk while they set camp for the night, and with that, everyone's just chilling.... until they notice something weird with the stars!
--the next day--
Karina finally felt productive after such a long time, as she and Cindy successfully foraged for things like mushrooms, fiddlehead fern shoots, and other wild edible items.
They had so much that they already had two bags worth. Normally Karina wouldn't have collected so much and would've left behind some stuff so that it could all grow back. But, Iona had said that the radioactive rains were gonna come eventually sooner or later, so who knows when any of this stuff would still be safe to eat after that? Especially if they all got eventually exposed to FEV if that was still around.
So it was better to grab a lot of pure samples while they still could so that they could grow them inside the vault… or better yet, create a version that would be immune to radiation and were still safe to eat? One can dream!
It wasn't just the mushrooms and other edibles they found. They had stumbled across some rocks that seemed to have traces of iron and copper deposits! This indicates that they could now finally mine for metals again, despite their world running out of resources like that a long time ago. That was actually pretty huge!
This put them in such an insanely good mood that not even Karina's power could ruin the moment by summoning what were a bunch of very smelly flowers temporarily.
>ring<
| Stink_Pot_Swamp Roll 7 Purid-smelling swamp flowers from a Disney show about kids playacting as pirates. Effect: for 7 hours, those flowers will stick around before disappearing. Nothing special about them other than gorgeous colors AND awful smell. |
Both Karina and Cindy just laughed, holding their noses as they ran away from the area full of vivid purple and blue flowers that were so big they reached past the ladies' ankles.
"Too bad it smelled so awful, they looked like such beautiful flowers," Cindy commented.
"Probably designed that way on purpose to attract insects so that they can reproduce via swapping pollen with each other," Karina replied.
Cindy just nodded at that, and they finally sat down after getting some enough distance between themselves and the scent. There was a flat rock that seemed perfect for sitting, it was even at the same height a chair would be, and that's the spot they sat down at.
Cindy then opened up the map of things that they had marked as having found said resources, and there were quite a number of "Xs" along with tiny written notes on the old map now. If you followed the pattern of Xs you'd realize that they were literally going around in a circle… but one that went on for miles all around the vault that they had come from. A few more miles of walking and the circle would be completed with them arriving back at vault 129 from the other direction.
Unfortunately, they had already spent so much time scouting the areas and foraging a lot that it was already getting dark out fast. Time had a tendency to fly by very quickly when you weren't paying attention to the time.
"Great. So this means we have to camp outside again?" Cindy didn't sound too happy with that idea.
Karina smirked. "What happened to the woman who was happy to be out of the vault because she was suffering from cabin fever?"
Cindy gave her an unimpressed look. "That was before I got reminded about giant creatures being out here! I hate half the normal bugs already, it's even worse when they're giant-sized."
She then sighed gutsily. "I had a difficult time sleeping as it was when I kept on thinking about those bugs all night. I don't know how I managed to get enough sleep for this hike today."
"But," Karina asked all too innocently, her smirk still gracing her face, "Aren't you a superhero? You could literally blast all insects away with your magic."
Cindy shook her head. "I could… but the truth is, I'm kinda embarrassed by the pretty cure costume. It's just so…. FRILLY. It looks like something a six-year-old girl would wear when she plays dress up and pretends to be a princess. I'm an adult woman, Karina. I can't help but feel self-conscious dressed like a six-year-old. It's the reason why I haven't been going out there to scan for any signs of the aliens now that Yoda proved to me that there are in fact aliens out there. I don't want anybody to see me dressed like that, not ever."
Karina blinked. "Is it that bad? I mean, Iona and I transformed into our Milfy costumes and it was somewhat frilly but not so bad."
"It's way more excessive than that, trust me," Cindy responded.
"Hmm." Karina mulled it over, as she thought out loud, "I wonder if it would be possible to alter the costume with my power?"
Cindy perked up at that. "That would be great, actually!"
Karina smirked. "But…. you'd need to let me see your costume first before I can alter it."
Truthfully, she was now curious to see the costume, to see if it was as bad as Cindy claimed it to be.
Cindy blanched slightly at that, but then her shoulders sagged at that. "Ugh, fine. But I swear if you speak a single word about this to anybody else I'm gonna kill you."
Cindy got off the flat rock and walked a few feet away from Karina, before turning around to face Karina.
Cindy pulled out the device that Karina had seen before last time she summoned it alongside coupe, and she inserted some kind of pink engraved disc thing into it and held it up into the air as she cried out, "Precure! Open my heart!"
Coupe appeared out of nowhere, startling the hell out of Karina before he became a glowing ball of light that merged with Cindy's Precure device, seemingly activating the magic within.
Cindy pressed the nozzle on the device towards herself as if it was a perfume, and bright pink light shot out of it into her clothes, making everything she was glowing so brightly that it was hard to look at her directly now. Glowing pink petals shot out of the ground to engulf her, and within seconds she was now dressed in what was an excessively frilly outfit, and at the last minute, her brown hair was the last to get transformed as it grew outwards, becoming a dark reddish-pink hue color. And with that, her transformation was complete.
"The second flower that shines brightly in the holy light, Cure Flower!" Cindy couldn't help herself saying as she finally struck a pose. There was now a faint blush on her face.
Karina was finally able to assess the "Cure flower" outfit as a whole, and well…
She could see why Cindy felt like this wasn't an outfit that an adult woman could go out in without getting feeling embarrassed. It was definitely far more frilly than the milfena fairy outfits that she and Iona had worn that one time and made her think of those fancy pageant dresses.
It certainly didn't seem like something a superheroine would go out to fight crime in unless they were a really young girl who loved dressing up like a princess.
"Huh. yeah I see what you mean. It looks more like a dress for the pageant show than for… erm, practical activities." Karina commented.
"Exactly!" Cure Flower/Cindy jabbed in Karina's direction with a finger, "And not just any pageant show, but one for kids!"
Karina finally got off the rock they had been sitting on just moments ago, and walked over. "Alright. Time to see if I can alter this outfit, or give you a different alternative."
Cindy eagerly took Karina's hands without much prompting, and then closed her eyes as she prayed, "Come on, give me a better outfit…. A better outfit… a better outfit!"
Karina snorted at her reaction as she pulled on her power--
>ring<
| https://heroism.fandom.com/wiki/Dog_Miraculous 18 A Miraculous gem that allows you to tap into a Kwami's power, and transform. This one is the dog Miraculous, meaning you can transform into a dog-themed superhero with help from Barkk, the dog Kwami. Effect: as this is a roll 18, both Karina and Cindy's magical cores get strengthened… and their affinity for both dogs and the dog kwami increases. This one is iffy on the rules as this counts as both an item and a character. Normally only characters can be summoned at 20 and any lower than only their items and skills/talents are used. However, narratively speaking the Kwamis and Miraculouses tend to be treated as sentient things that can be treated as possessions…. Not unlike Coupe with the precure items. So I'll allow Barkk to appear here, as it was already a high roll to start with anyway. It's really bending the rules here, but whatever… it's not like the miraculous can work without Barkk around, just like Coupe with the pretty cure items. |
"Eh? Huh?" Both Cindy/Cure Flower and Karina found themselves holding what looked like a piece of neck jewelry between the two of them, and out of it, a small puppy-like creature appeared. It sported brown fur with white spots, with gray eyes, and was blinking adorably.
It seemed confused at first, as it clearly didn't recognize the two women, but then seemed relieved for some reason. It then took the opportunity to introduce itself to the two surprised women first before they could say anything.
"Hello! I'm Barkk, the kwami of adoration! With that necklace there, I can help you transform into a Superheroine that helps out the masses!" it yipped excitedly at the idea of aiding new heroes out there.
"Just one question," Cure Flower asked, "what kind of superheroine am I going to look like?"
Barkk tilted its' head. "This is the Dog Miraculous…. So you'll be a dog-themed hero."
Cindy scoffed loudly as she de-transformed back into her normal self, with Coupe appearing next to her. "Yeah, no. I'm out. I don't want to be a dog-themed hero either… sorry, but that sounds even lamer than going out in a ridiculously frilly pageant dress punching baddies."
With that, she let go of Karina dejectedly while Karina herself responded. "Come on, don't you think you're too unfair? And look, you hurt the poor little guy's feelings."
Sure enough, Barkk seemed sad and emotionally wounded by Cindy's words. His ears were dropping downwards and his eyes were glistening puppy-eyes, as his lips quivered.
This was enough to affect even Cindy, who looked very uncomfortable as she weakly replied, "Uh, I'm very sorry! That's just, as you can see I'm already a superhero with my own means. I'm sure it would be just redundant if I layered your magic jewelry on top of what I could already do … you need somebody who isn't a superhero yet to make your own abilities shine??"
Coupe nodded at that while staring at Barkk curiously as Barkk stared back at Coupe.
"Maybe you should tell us what you can offer to a person who uses your…. 'Miraculous dog necklace'? What kind of amazing feats can you give your user?" Karina pointed out.
The dog-like kwami perked up at this, and his tail started wagging slightly as he responded in what was one long rambling breath, "My miraculous can grant its' user incredible powers of speed, endurance, agility, stamina, and strength. As long as you don't use the special magic item, you can keep on going on and on without tiring too much! But if you do use the magic item, which is my special weapon ball, it then can be used as both a weapon, a communicator, and an object that can be used to breathe underwater. If you use the ball and call out 'Fetch', this gives the user the ability to fetch and return any arbitrary object that has been touched by the ball in order to obtain their goal, like defeating a villain. As long as the superpower isn't used, the wielder can remain transformed indefinitely. However, as soon as the superpower is used, the wielder loses power and the transformation wears off in about approximately five minutes if they are a child. The transformation lasts far longer if the person is an adult instead. The collar also has the ability to give the wielder the costume they truly desire."
The last sentence seemed incredibly pointed, which made Cindy chuckle slightly. "Yeah, but it'll still be dog themed?"
Barkk pouted slightly at that and nodded. He honestly didn't see what was so bad about being dressed up like a dog superhero!
Coupe could only snort at the fact that this creature from an alternate world had such limits, and he snootily thought that it just proved that the Pre-cure faires were superior in that respect, even though they both worked through similar means.
Karina nodded and looked down at the Dog Miraculous necklace in her hands. "But that's still pretty good. I can definitely see so many uses for this."
Barkk perked up at this again. "You won't be using it for evildoing, I hope?"
When the two women looked at him, he then looked sad. "Recently, a very evil man stole me from the rightful guardian of all the Miraculouses and was using me for evil, forcing me to use my magic when I didn't want to do any evildoing. He imprisoned me inside this tiny glass orb and the same was done to my brothers and sisters all so that he could use our magic! He even fed us this horrible-tasting pellet that they normally feed to hamsters. I'm not a hamster!"
In the last part, he actually looked more angry than sad.
Coupe blinked, having the decency to look thoroughly appalled at that last part. Being captured by evil forces was bad enough, but to suffer the indignity of not being fed any proper foods at all as a long-term captive? As a fairy, that was the worst fate possible!
Coupe went over to Barkk, and touched the sides of the Kwami's body as he said while shaking his head with a thoroughly dismayed expression on his face, "I'm so sorry that happened to you. That truly sounds so awful."
Karina blinked. That seemed to be about the third time she had apparently rescued somebody from a certain death or suffering, the other two being Gemma the robot and Mike (who didn't want to go back knowing that he'd have to suffer heavy nuclear fallout even if he survived the initial great war).
Well, the rescue part was good in that it saved somebody from a horrible fate, not to mention it did reduce Karina's guilt over what was effectively kidnapping people from their worlds. Still, she had to inform the dog-like tiny creature just in case.
"You won't have to worry about that horrible man here. You see, I'm a summoner who can summon things and people from other worlds. You're currently in a world other than the one you came from." Karina responded, just to see how the little creature would react.
Barkk's reaction was far more milder than expected, as he blinked. "Really? Wow, cool! You can eventually send me back to my rightful guardian eventually, right?"
Karina sweated slightly as she replied, "Well, I've been working with Iona to do just exactly that…. I'm not a professional summoner, you see, I just started out a while ago."
Barkk seemed to take her at her word and beamed as he wagged his tail. "That's alright then! I can't wait to explore this new world. Imagine the new smells I'll get to smell! I'll be able to tell my siblings something new and exciting!"
Cindy looked at the darkening sky. She then commented, "We might as well as set up camp again. And this way we can take the time to tell Barkk all about what's been happening with this world."
Karina nodded.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hours later, both Karina and Cindy were relaxing on their sleeping bags laid out on each side of the campfire, as they listened to Coupe and Barkk compare notes.
The two women had told Barkk everything he needed to know, but strangely the Kwami hadn't reacted much other than absorbing the information and going, "Oh I see…" or the occasional "That's great!" or "Oh, that's bad!"
Cindy supposed it was because they were still unfamiliar to Barkk, and hadn't fully earned his trust yet.
Barkk seemed to be far more animated with Coupe now, as they compared notes on what it was like to be a Precure fairy and a Kwami. Strangely for all their differences, there were a lot of similarities, such as the fact that a Precure girl couldn't use their magical transformation trinkets without a fairy becoming one with the transformation trinket…. And likewise, a Kwami had to go into the miraculous item for it to be effective.
Barkk decided this meant the fairy tribe that Coupe was part of had to be related to the Kwamis, just like some group called the Renlings.
"I'm so happy to have a new cousin! And of course, because you're more experienced living here I'll look to you for advice." Barkk smiled widely and adoringly at Coupe, who seemed somewhat flustered.
Coupe blushed slightly as he nodded at his new younger(?) relative. "I'll do my best then."
The two settled down after that, murmuring quietly to each other.
Cindy smiled as she stared up at the sky while the two magical creatures were chatting.
She then said to Karina, "I suppose this is one of the few good things about civilization as we knew it ending. I've never seen the stars so vivid and bright before."
Karina then looked up at the sky at that, lying down herself for a better view. She smiled, and replied, "Yeah, no more light pollution blocking our view."
It was now dark out enough for the moon and the stars to be out in full force tonight.
The women relaxed as they lay on their backs staring up at the stars, with the voices of the mascot-like supernatural beings chattering away in the background acting as white noise.
This was enough to make Karina start to doze off…. Then she suddenly noticed something strange with the stars.
Namely, the fact that it looked like there was something exploding in the far distance a few miles away from Earth? There even looked like there were bright objects shooting lasers at each other.
Huh? What the heck was with that??
"Do you see that?" Karina said as she pointed up into the night sky.
"Yeah, I see it too…" Cindy replied.
The two women quickly sat up and looked at each other, wondering what to do now.
===========================================================
a/n: The Zetans are finally starting to face consequences from one of Karina's rolls. uh-oh.
Do you know what this means? that's right, the next chapter will be from the aliens' POV!