#In other words. Sole develops thalassophobia

[fallout-fucker]

Fallout 4 really coulda made the 'Living by the sea' vibes so terrifying. Of course, people know of mirleurks and stuff. But what about the things they don't know about. The fear of the unknown.

We know that sea life was also affected by radiation. We've seen the size of a mirelurk queen. We know that sharks exist from the corpses.

So. How do we know megalodons aren't back in the Falloutverse. Or krakens don't exist. Sea life enlarged and at an unimaginable scale, unknown to the survivors of humanity as they lurk beneath the waters.

What if Sole had been told not to cross the ocean to Far Habour. What if there's a reason that, after 200 years, no one has brought back voyager boats and sailing the oceans to reconnect the world. What if they know better. Or maybe they realise they don't know anything at all.

What if Sole set up a nice base at Spectacle Island, and is confused when Hancock refuses to see it. Sole jokes that he's paranoid, but he reminds them he grew up on the waterfront. He helped his dad fish when he was younger. Boats don't scare him. The water doesn't scare him.

"It's what's in it," He explained coldly. He sat down in the sand, shotgun in his arms. Sole asked him to elaborate, he said he couldn't. "You wanna go after the Institute, fine. I'll help. That's an unknown I can handle. But, I ain't getting in that boat, and neither should you."

"I'll...Ask someone else."

"Can it be Danse?"

Sole thought he was being dramatic but quickly realised that none of the companions were keen to travel across the water.

There was that time Sole once jumped off the Prydwen and into the deep sea, so far from shore, only to hear a guttural noise around them. They couldn't see anything. The water dark blue, and filthy, almost black from when the world was scorched. But whatever it was, it was large enough that its voice vibrated through their entire being. They convinved themself it was a whale. They know whales don't sound like that.

On the days Sole is at the castle, they like to look out at the ocean. Or did, until today when they saw a large boat in the distance become capsized. They almost sent their own boats out to help, but Preston placed a firm hand on their shoulder. His eyes told Sole everything he wouldn't. Preston's not the type to let people die. So, Sole turned the radio up so none of the other soldiers could hear the distant screams for help and distress calls. And to drown out their own guilt, watching as the last fisherman attempted to swim desperately to shore, only to be dragged down below the waves. Sole didn’t look away until the boat finally sank. When they did, their eyes landed on the East Wall, which was under reconstruction from when the mirelurk queen had emerged. Sole wonders if that was even the largest sea creature out there.

When Sole's getting ready for bed, Preston knocks at their door gently. "Even I can admit when something is a lost cause," There was a guilt dripped into his tone. A silent apology to the fallen men. "I'll tell our guys to stay out of the water for a few days. We can rely on the nets for fish."

"We should set up a limit for how far out our boats can go."

"We will. Tomorrow. For now, get some rest." He's halfway to closing the door when Sole speaks again.

"I jumped off of the Prydwen once..."

"Excuse me?"

"I was fine. I wanted to go into the water. I did."

"Excuse me?"

"I couldn't see anything. But I heard something. I felt the sound go through me. I think it was a whale."

"Think or hope?" Sole doesn't say anything. Preston gets his answer regardless. "Was it close to you or do you think it was fine?"

"Think or hope," Sole mirrors. "I don't know. It was large."

"That seems to be a theme with the ocean."

"...Is that why no one has tried to cross the ocean again in 200 years? I thought...I thought there'd be pirates again out there. Or something. That massive wooden ships had made a comeback somewhere."

"I can't say. For all we know, maybe people have tried." Sole doesn't want to think about the connotations of that.

"No one wanted to go to Spectacle Island."

"I'm sure it looks nice but...To be honest, neither would I. I'm Sorry."

"It's fine. I get it now...I don't think I do anymore, for a while...John wouldn't get in the boat."

"Hancock...Is a smart man. Sometimes."

"Sometimes? You're saying that to the person that jumped off of the Prydwen."

"True, you do make Hancock look like Einstein."

"Thank God people still know Einstein," Sole mumbles. "John's smarter than he let's on."

"He once showed up to my door, drunk, asking if I thought Nick had a penis. Then, if he did, if it could be classed as a vibrator. I refused to answer or ask the context for why he wanted to know."

"...On that note, goodnight Preston."

"Goodnight, Sole."

Sole stares at the ceiling as they try to sleep that night. The sound of the waves crashing against the walls keeps them awake.

#Fallout 4 #Sole Survivor #Preston Garvey #John Hancock #Nick Valentine #Paladine Danse #Short fic kinda #Headcanons that the oceans are terrifying in the Falloutverse #In other words. Sole develops thalassophobia #Apparently Bethesda was gonna make a fucking sea creature kike this but didn't #Could you imagine jumping off the Prydwen and seeing like. A fucking megalodon in the distance. #Or maybe you pan your camera down and there's a giant mouth or kraken #Danse slander from Hancock #And Hancock slander from Preston #The companions all love each other really #I thought it would be funny tho #I also feel like Preston goes back to calling Sole by their name when they're close enough and in private #Yeah

[twistedsinews]

Questions for an Author

Tagged by @chyrstis and @guileandgall

Tagging... @corpsebrigadier, @gatticus,  @faejilly, @ anyone who wants to do the thing!  <3

Name: FireEye

Top 5 Fandoms Written: I'm sitting here not knowing the answer to this question, so.  *shrug?*  All of them.  By numbers I have no idea (my fics are scattered across the internet, and my personal are behind in updating), by word count even more difficult for me to determine, by how much fun I've had?  *hands!*  Saints Row is probably up there, Cyberpunk is ticking up, can I count the Final Fantasy metafandom as one or is that too much?  :P

Top 5 Fandoms You Want To Write For/More: Moon Hunters, Ultima, Final Fantasy V, Trials of Mana, and what else am I gonna do with all of these Cyberpunk feels?

Stories You Wish More People Knew About: So I just took a glance at my AO3 stats, and... a lot of my stories are doing as well as could be expected, particularly for how many tiny, tiny fandoms I write in?  Granted, some of them have been there for a good long while.  But...

1. I remain stupidly proud of Thalassophobia

2. I still love the adventurous theme of Frightful Tides of Smoke and Ash.

3. To Catch a Thief got plenty of love, but I am still amazed at how it turned out and yet fuck that tense in particular, omfg.

Ship(s) Written The Most: No actual clue.  AO3 gives me Faris/Butz, but I think I've surpassed that with V/Jackie alone in the past month, so.  *sideeyes*

Character(s) Written The Most: See above, re: clue.  Per AO3, Butz, Faris, and Gat are tied for 15 each.  XD

How Many OCs Do You Have: At least 24 I can count off memory, some more developed than others, and I'm sure I'm forgetting some and there've been some I've misplaced over the years. (Tabletop characters, etc.)  Not counting random characters I develop solely for the sake of plot, or characters from original works.

How Many Series Do You Have: ehhh.  On AO3?  One, properly.  It has the prologue of an old WiP in it that was supposed to be 1 of 4, and nothing else.  I could probably gather quite a few of my oneshots into series, but I’d have to sort them out.  Other than that, I have two series in progress (sort of), one being the one on AO3 as already mentioned that I plan to revisit and finally write out in its entirety and one being my Ultima thing.

What Do You Do With Fics You’re No Longer Interested In? It's less I'm not longer interested and more I get easily distracted by bright shiny objects.  Anything I haven't finished stays in my WiP folder, under the completely reasonable assumption that I'll finish them all eventually someday.  :P

Coming Soon: uh... cheesy confessions, Nomad!V's living in an apartment hijinks, T-Bug~♥, Kidnappings (plural apparently), The Quest of the Avatar (I've been saying for years), and a (one (1)) metric fucktonne of fix-it fic.

Not yet started? All of the above, and then some.  Keep in mind: I write most things in one sitting.  (Which is part of why I don't have that many longer fics to my name).

...actually, that's not the entire truth - I've had small snippets of my Ultima saga on paper for a decade or more and have bits of dialogue and "[premise]" stuff thrown into files for later.  It's just... not really started more than what's in my head, you know?

Line From A WIP: “Hath no one ever shown you compassion before?”

Do You Accept Prompts? ...yes?  I don't think I've ever gotten any when I wasn't explicitly asking for them or reblogging a prompt list, but *shrug?*  I will happily take prompts.  XD

How Do You Feel About Kudos? I do not in fact think Kudos are single-handedly responsible for the decline of comments on fanfics or comment culture in general, and I think they are a perfectly fine way of saying 'I liked the thing!' if you have nothing more of which to comment.  I have seen people talk about kudos that make me second guess, and I get a little irrationally worried when I get comments without kudos, but ultimately I try to trust that it's basically a like button and I am fine with that.  In short: I like them.

Do You Read Fic As Well?  Yes, although not as much as I used to.  Like, back when I'd go through pretty much anything that looked as though it would fit my fancy in any fandom I happened to enjoy so extensively that I'd not have anything left to read.  Recently, I've been reading mostly fic I get in exchanges or that I've prompted on Tumblr and not really that much else.  It's something of a dumb egotistical anxiety thing, though: I read other people's stuff and get self conscious about my own writing, feel super uncreative, my capacity to actually sit down and write feels inhibited, and/or I feel like I'm going to plagiarize something by accident (which I don't think is as far fetched as it sounds, how awkward - my creative brain gets stuck on weirdly specific things at random and doesn't always keep in mind where it got them from) or someone will think I got the idea from [already known fic].  It makes me sad I've fallen so far away from it, because reading fic is something I enjoy deeply, but... that's why I'm trying to make an effort to get back to it.

#guileandgall #chyrstis #ficauthor questions