Board Thread:Roleplaying/@comment-5543592-20191021184338/@comment-3293219-20191030202554

Paul sat in Goris’ isolation chamber, he could see why the schoolmaster got so much peace from this place. He continued to eye the ceiling, taking a deep breath, with each passing moment as he contemplated what he had just inflicted on San Francisco. It was somewhat odd, that he felt so... indifferent about it. Was this what he’d become? Just no better than Miller or that Naomi Chick? Lives just mean so little to them, that he could accidentally snuff them out, without regret? He didn’t even notice that Cheyenne had entered, he was too busy, lightly scratching images into the floor. It wasn’t until she was immediately behind him, that Paul turned his attention back to her, noticing that she was staring him down. “Time for me to go?” He asked, pulling himself up to his feet. “Good, sick of leachin’ off these folks.” Paul seemingly marched Past Cheyenne, not even noticing that she only looked about thirty at this point, he was too caught up in what he had done. “Nobody blames you, Paul... I hope you know...” “Course they do, they should. Can’t fix a thing, screwing around in here though... need to get back out there. Need to kill Shrike, to make it worthwhile... Then I go back to Virginia, to rot.” “Why go back to that place?” Cheyenne offered, getting a glance from Paul, a rather passive aggressive one at that. “It’s home... The only place I’m safe, the only place that people like you are safe from me. Safe from the virus and those monsters, that roam the sky.” “There are monsters everywhere, Paul... I don’t think you can keep everyone safe, y’know? Also, yesterday’s nightmare could become tomorrow’s trivia... I thought deathclaws were bad, then the Wannamingos came along, then they died out and Josey sent us that report on the tunnellers. Your evil bats... I mean, they sound like a pain in the ass to kill but the NCR have surface to air missiles, for example. They wouldn’t last a month around us, that’s not even bravado... Not at this point. It’s just fact.” “Well, they aren’t in NCR, they haven’t left, because I’ve been killing as many as I can get my hands on. Most of the time, they leave before I can finish the job but every now and then, one or two of them are stupid enough to stay put. I’m not sure how many remain in this Godfucked world but I promise, their days are numbered. Their numbers aren’t increasing, I know that much, they’re decreasing and I’m just helping the process along.” “I mean... I guess that I know where you’re coming from but... Still, wouldn’t you like to try something different, with all of this? Maybe take some people, back to Virginia, immunize them? Colonize the place?” “Heh... I’m pretty sure that the virus is dead by now, the Scorched Virus has been pretty defunct for centuries now. I ripped its tumour infested heart out and took a bite. It wasn’t pretty but it was final, it did the job. Now I just gotta keep that thing dead. Dead as it outta be, after all of the shit that it put me through.” “NCR could colonize the place, you know? Improve it and... Well, make it alive again.” “If you people think that it’s worth it? Then try it... I don’t know what you people expect of the place, the only suggestion that I can offer is hell on earth. A never ending shitshow, that isn’t even kind enough to kill me.” Cheyenne paused, thinking on it a little, in truth, she thought the same of her own wasteland, back in the day. “A long time ago? My home was mostly desert... I went out and fixed that, it cost me a lot and some of the things, that I lost, I’ll never get back but now, after fifty or so years? It feels genuinely worth it to me, everything that I went through all amounted to a green world, ever growing and I’ll leave a world behind, that’s better now, than it was when I entered it. My people have a home, the kind of home that they deserve and it gives me hope, seeing things getting better and growing into something worthy of pride. I believe you have the soil, Paul... You just haven’t planted the seed.” Paul remained silent, he wasn’t sure if that truly applied to him but, he wasn’t about to shit all over the nice old lady’s sentiment. “Thanks, I guess... I got the resources, I got the space... so if you got people, who want to make it work? So long as they know what they’re up against, I can’t say that I mind.” Cheyenne seemed rather happy with that, it was more than one would dare hope for, when talking to an ancient, slightly mad hermit. “C’mon Paul... We’ll get you home. The bad news, is that our new base is in Montana.” “Montana? Urgh, I’d rather live in a MoleMiner’s gravelly throat... Fuck that place.”