AU Thursday: Fallout Of Darkness -- Turning “Publick Occurrences” Pro-Synth
Not that it’s exactly ANTI-synth to start -- as @theggning has pointed out in her excellent meta, In Defense of Piper Wright, Piper and her paper aren’t anti-synth as much as anti-Institute, but in a world where most people believe all Gen-3 synths are infiltrators who kill innocent people and take their place, the distinction can get blurry. That being said, I liked the idea Piper using her paper after she learns about the Railroad to try and help synths without compromising the Railroad’s operations, and here’s what I came up with for my own Fallout of Darkness AU along those lines:
-->Victor and Piper work together to rescue Nick after Victor learns of his disappearance from Piper -- once that’s sorted and Nick’s safely back on his way to Diamond City (Victor having to take care of some Minutemen stuff before he can catch up -- also, was that just an alien spaceship that went streaking across the sky??), Victor comments to Piper that she could have told him Nick was a synth (“I’m so used to him I kinda forget!”) -- and that he’s kind of surprised that Piper has a synth detective friend, after reading “The Synthetic Truth” and its tale of the synth that went haywire, and her implication Mayor McDonough is cut from the same cloth.
Piper: Hey, it’s not that I hate synths in general, just. . .every one of them that isn’t Nicky is a spy for the Institute.
Victor: Er -- do you know that for sure?
Piper: [now slightly concerned] Well, it’s the only kind anybody ever finds. . .
Victor: Well, fair enough there, but -- if Nick’s different, maybe others are too?
Alice: [from her sleeping bag, because it’s daytime] Also worth pointing out that being a spy for the Institute doesn’t necessarily mean that McDonough isn’t human. They could have just paid him off or blackmailed him or something.
Piper: [more concerned] Didn’t think about that. . .hmm. Might have to write a follow-up article.
-->Eventually Victor becomes a member of the Railroad -- I don’t know if Piper’s gonna be with him when he finds them (I’ve decided this happens after the stuff with Kellogg, because Amari’s a member and can point him there), but he definitely tells her about them -- and how they help synths escape the Institute because, for all the ones that aren’t super-loyal infiltrators and coursers, it’s a hell where they’re treated as slaves.
Piper: That’s awful! . . .and shit, articles like “The Synthetic Truth” don’t actually help them, do they? Damn it, how do I make this right without compromising the Railroad. . .
-->Piper decides the best course of action is to print another article, detailing what she’s learned from “an anonymous source” and actually sort of APOLOGIZING to McDonough (in the form of “if you are a synth who’s just trying to do the best he can, then I’m sorry I made your life harder. If you’re an Institute spy, synth OR human, I will kick your ass”). She also says that any synths who want to come to her privately to share their stories of their time in the Institute, or leave her a holotape or something, she’ll anonymously post their tales so people can see how the Institute is bad for everyone, even their own creations.
-->Desdemona is conflicted about this new story -- on the one hand, she does appreciate that someone is trying to help show synths are NOT necessarily the enemy; on the other, she is concerned about security and compromising operations. Victor assures her that he knows Piper intimately (in -- multiple meanings of the word) and that she would never knowingly betray the Railroad or her sources, and that if she likes, he can set up a specific “dead drop” location for any synths who want to leave a story for Piper. Deacon and Glory are both also for this plan, knowing that they have to be stealth, but the good publicity for their cause can’t hurt -- and since Deacon and Glory rarely agree on anything, this brings Desdemona around, and they set up a safe space for synth drop-offs.
-->And then, right after the meeting, Glory pulls Victor aside, slips him a holotape and says, “If your reporter friend really means what she says, she can publish that one first.”
-->Turns out it’s Glory’s own account of her life as an Institute synth. Victor passes it along, and Piper publishes a transcript before destroying the holotape. She also gets a few stories from the dead drop of synths explaining how bad it is down there, at least one admitting they hated it so much they’re not afraid of a memory wipe to just forget it all.
-->McDonough is of course furious and trying to put the pressure on Piper to reveal where she’s getting this info, so Victor gets her and Nat out of the city for a bit to hide out in a nearby settlement. And while the prejudice is going to take some time to properly die. . .it turns out that, like Piper herself, a lot of people are willing to at least rethink their ideas a bit when they learn that “synth” does not automatically mean “Institute spy” in all cases but Nick.
It’s a little rough around the edges, but I just like the idea of Piper helping get synth stories out there and showing the world that they’re NOT all infiltrators working for the Institute. It feels very her. :) I mean, she’d have to be super careful while doing it, but she has quite a few friends on her side to help in this universe. Including a vampire who can temporarily scramble actual Institute agents’ brains long enough for a reporter in trouble to make a daring escape...
5 notes
·
View notes