aaaaaaaagh_sky | At Large In The Wastes (Reply)

What do you do when everyone around you loves someone you loathe?

( Come gather 'round people wherever you roam / And admit that the waters around you have grown )

It's 101. Pete doesn't care so much about Lyons, and he couldn't name anyone else in the Brotherhood if he tried. They all sort of blend together into one big armored sea of cultists. There's never really been anything to distinguish them; they either hide in their bunkers, or they steal pre-War tech, and one Brother's the same as any other. But 101...

( And accept it that soon you'll be drenched to the bone / If your time to you is worth savin' )

She came on the scene, and the Brotherhood started moving again in the Wastes.

( Then you better start swimmin' or you'll sink like a stone )

She got captured by the Dogboys and taken to Raven Rock, and the President died. And two hundred years' worth of continuity-of-government facility either exploded or fell into Brotherhood hands.

( For the times they are a-changin' )

She fell back to the Citadel, and the Brotherhood followed her like the shaft follows the spearhead, straight through the streets of Washington and right up to the Jefferson Memorial. Like Pete's fellow soldiers weren't even there. The survivors said she sent Colonel Autumn straight into the teeth of a Brotherhood firing squad; there were pictures of the corpse...

( Come, writers and critics, who prophesize with your pen / And keep your eyes wide- the chance won't come again )

Three Dog's propaganda says 101 was born in the Vault. Maybe she was. Pete doesn't know. It doesn't make much sense, though. How somebody comes out of a hole in the ground like that and gets an entire cult and all its followers under her thumb, he can't say. Maybe she was born to them. Maybe she had them feed Three Dog the story about her father.

( And don't speak too soon, for the wheel's still in spin / And there's no tellin' who that it's namin' )

He could see that. The man's been nothing but the voice of anybody who wasn't the Enclave for as long as Pete can remember. If someone came to him and said, I'm an average Wastelander from a humble beginning and I don't need what the Enclave promises, he'd buy it without batting an eye and throw it back to all his listeners like it was gospel.

( For the loser now will be later to win )

It doesn't matter, though. She's some kid who came out of somewhere, whether it's a hole in the ground or Brotherhood parents or some unknown contaminated tribe scrabbling in the dust, and the Brotherhood and their propaganda puppet decided she was the best thing that ever happened to the Wasteland and followed her like a dog follows meat.

( For the times they are a-changin' )

And the Wasteland agreed with them.

( Come, Senators, Congressmen, please heed the call / Don't stand in the doorway, don't block up the hall )

He doesn't- no, he does know how it happened. President Eden promised the Wasteland everything they wanted- safety, stability, prosperity, all of it. But he took too long to bring it to them and by the time he sent his troops instead of his message, 101 had made her move on their hearts and minds instead.

( For he that gets hurt will be he who has stalled / There's a battle outside and it's ragin' )

Pete hears about it everywhere he goes. Saved this village, rescued these children, shattered slavery, wiped out a whole mercenary company- that kind of thing leaves a mark. Turns into a story. Grows a life of its own. People talk about the wonder that came to their frightened, huddled hovels and gave them safety for a little while, and by the time the truth comes to town it's already too late. President Eden waited too long and the people he should have protected fell in love with the woman who killed him.

( It'll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls )

It could have been so much better. It was always going to be better. But it's too late now.

( For the times they are a-changin' )

And the worst part, the absolute worst part, is that it's spreading. Pete's been thinking, lately, that there's too many Brotherhoood forces out and about in the Wastes. He set out northeast, up towards the Republic of Dave. Figured if he could get a few weeks' work done there, he'd scrounge enough supplies to move on out of range and put this all behind him. Only he never got that far. Somewhere north of Canterbury he ran across a man in leathers roasting mirelurk meat over a fire, happy as a Brahmin with two faces full of grass. Pete asked him why.

( Come, mothers and fathers throughout the land / And don't criticize what you can't understand )

"Happy?" the man said. "Why shouldn't I be happy? I've got food, I've got shelter, and I know humanity is on the rise again. Haven't you heard the good news? Haven't you read the Wasteland Survival Guide?"

( Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command / Your old road is rapidly agin' )

And he handed Pete a book.

( Please get out of the new one if you can't lend your hand )

It was her book. There was somebody else's name on it alongside hers but it was her book- 101's.

( For the times they are a-changin' )

He'd bought it off a trader, and the trader had said they were selling like Fancy Lads. Said there were copies going out with caravans headed south and west and, yes, north, out of the Wasteland, out in all directions.

( The line it is drawn, the curse it is cast / The slow one now will later be fast )

Pete didn't have much appetite for mirelurk that night. Still doesn't. The smell just reminds him of things he'd rather not know, things he's not ever going to be able to forget.

( As the present now will later be past / The order is rapidly fadin' )

All he knows is there's nowhere he can go where he's not going to run across some trace of the woman who cost his country its future, so there probably isn't really any point to running any more.

( And the first one now will later be last )

( For the times they are a-changin'. )