#joshua graham x courier six

[everydayyoulovemeless]

Oooh you do yandere stuff?? Can I please have something for yandere Joshua Graham, either headcanons or the alphabet would be great!

Yandere Joshua Alphabet

➼ Word Count » 1.7k ➼ Warnings » yandere themes ➼ Genre » Romantic, Yandere

Affection - How do they show their love and affection? How intense would it get?

Joshua shows his affection through how he shelters you. He hates it when you leave the camp without him, and does everything he can to ensure you won't end up being a target for the White Legs or any other Legionary assassin that may come for him again. He's fully aware of the influence Ceasar has and would take this aspect of your relationship very seriously. You won't leave without someone else going with you. He simply won't allow it.

Blood - How messy are they willing to get when it comes to their darling?

In a normal relationship, Joshua would be more hesitant to show how violent he can get. But, in this situation, all the drive to hide who he really is goes out the window. He's willing to go as far as he needs to when it comes to you. Anyone necessary. The tribals, your companions, and even Daniel. He'd slaughter them all if it meant you'd be safe. He'd even do it in front of you.

Cruelty - How would they treat their darling once abducted? Would they mock them?

No. He thinks it's rude. It's not your fault that you aren't as experienced as he is. In fact, the whole reason he'd abduct you is to be able to keep a better eye on you. Making fun of you for something that was inevitably going to happen isn't something he's prone to doing.

Darling - Aside from abduction, would they do anything against their darling’s will?

He's going to have you baptized, whether you want to or not, but besides that, he wouldn't dream of forcing you to do anything you didn't want to.

Exposed - How much of their heart do they bare to their darling? How vulnerable are they when it comes to their darling?

There are times when it feels as if you don't even know the man. He's quiet and incredibly closed off, even to you. He'll try to discreetly tell you about himself through bible verses or poetic words, but other than that, he's not jumping for you to learn about his past with the Legion any time soon. He wants you to love and trust him, not despise him.

Fight - How would they feel if their darling fought back?

He understands it. This world is harsh, of course, your instinct is to fight him. However, after the first week of staying with him, he hopes you’ll calm down and finally just accept that you’ll never get away from him.

Game - Is this a game to them? How much would they enjoy watching their darling try to escape?

He won’t. If you try and escape the humble home he’s managed to set up for you both in Zion, he’s going to be upset. Even with all the knowledge he’s told you about the White Legs and all those around who want to hurt you, and you still want to try your luck? He’ll be disappointed, to say the least. He expects you to have more instinct than that.

Hell - What would be their darling’s worst experience with them?

He's always taken his philosophies seriously, even when he was in the Legion. So, if he ever overhears you saying something he deems to be blasphemous towards his religion, you're going to have a very hard time calming him down. He'll force you to pray out loud to the Lord and ask for forgiveness until he's satisfied. It doesn't matter to him if it takes hours, he refuses to let you be shunned to Hell for a sorry mistake such as the one you committed. What kind of husband would he be if he didn't seek to save you from God's wrath?

Ideals - What kind of future do they have in mind for/with their darling?

If he had it his way, you’d be the perfect housewife, staying home to cook and clean while he went out and did whatever. Some Legion habits never left him, and coming back to a loving spouse who’s prepared to comply with his every whim is one of them. Just the perfect nuclear family.

Jealousy - Do they get jealous? Do they lash out or find a way to cope?

He gets very quiet when he's jealous, preferring to be silent rather than blatantly lashing out at whoever is triggering these feelings. He thinks it's stupid that he gets so upset at the tribals for simply being around you. It's not like you'd leave him - not like you could - so why is he so stressed? He'll pray and go on walks to try and combat his jealousy, it's one of the only things he actively tries to work on.

Kisses - How do they act around or with their darling?

He acts as any spouse would. He kisses you on your hands or on your cheeks to greet you, rests a gentle hand on your lower back when you're near him, and does everything he can to take care of you.

Love letters - How would they go about courting or approaching their darling?

As he believes any man should: with trinkets and thought-out dates. He wants to court you the right way, even if you’re aware from the start that you’ve got no other choice other than to accept his advances.

Mask - Are their true colors drastically different from the way they act around everyone else?

On the outside it doesn’t appear as if anything has changed, however he feels different. There’s an urge now, something that tells him to kill. He’s felt it before during his peak in the Legion, but now it’s come back and he’s not sure what else to do than to quench the thirst of fear that floods him by ensuring your safety. Maybe it’s God's will that’s enforcing him to protect you.

Naughty - How would they punish their darling?

He’d shout and maybe grab your face, but he couldn’t imagine going any farther than that. If he wants to get his point across then he’ll just let you feel the raw fear that getting chased by Legionaries gives you (only once, he doesn’t want you to be actually harmed), but enough to get you to listen.

Oppression - How many rights would they take away from their darling?

He’ll take away your right to leave the tribes camp, your right to your weapons, your right to your opinions, your right of religion - there’s not much he doesn’t have control over.

Patience - How patient are they with their darling?

Joshua thinks he's patient, but he has a clear temper. He'll be kind one moment then angry the next. Although he does his best to not take it out on you, it's still terrifying to witness. Sometimes you wonder if it'd just be best to listen and avoid his fits altogether...

Quit - If their darling dies, leaves, or successfully escapes, would they ever be able to move on?

No, he’s got it in his mind that God assigned him specifically to defend you and keep you safe, so if he ever were to fail that, he’d feel as if he were betraying the Lord's trust.

Regret - Would they ever feel guilty about abducting their darling? Would they ever let their darling go?

How could he? You're better off this way. He's sworn to care for your every need. He'll feed you, give you access to water, cloth you, comfort you, bleed for you, house you - why should he feel guilty about doing you a favor? For loving you?

Stigma - What brought about this side of them (childhood, curiosity, etc)?

Joshua has always had this need to worship in his life. It could be seen with how devoted he was to the Legion and the will of Caesar, then with God, and now with you. There's a primal urge within him to commit himself to wherever he feels most desired, and that just happened to be you.

Tears - How do they feel about seeing their darling scream, cry, and/or isolate themselves?

It shatters him, especially if you're acting like this because of something he did. He'll sit beside your curled-up form and whisper Bible verses and scriptures as a way to encourage and reassure you.

Unique - Would they do anything different from the classic yandere?

Vice - What weakness can their darling exploit in order to escape?

His religion is a massive weak point, and if you can somehow convince him that it was God's will for you to go elsewhere, he may just let you go. Granted, you'd have to be really good at persuading people. He's a logical man and won't just take your word for it so easily.

Wit’s end - Would they ever hurt their darling?

Not intentionally, but sometimes he forgets his own strength when it comes to handling you. He likes to brush it under the rug though, best not to think about it.

Xoanon - How much would they revere or worship their darling? To what length would they go to win their darling over?

In his mind, he's already won you over. Of course, he'll still go through the process of romancing you and won't ever stop doing that, but his delusions tell him that you've already fallen for him. One thing about Joshua, however, is that he almost sees you as a second Christ. If you ask him to do something, he'll do it no questions asked. But, in the same sense, he's paranoid that you'll be crucified just like the Lord and is constantly looking out for that certain 'Judas' that will betray you.

Yearn - How long do they pine after their darling before they snap?

Like a day. The second he feels different around you compared to others, he's got it in his head that you're a divine being or, at the very least, someone God wanted him to meet.

Zenith - Would they ever break their darling?

He hopes to 'break you in' to his way of life, but he hopes that it won't have to be violent or over the top in any way. He's certain you'll come around to his way of thinking soon enough, even if you need a little shove.

#fallout new vegas #fnv #joshua graham x reader #joshua graham x courier six #joshua fnv #joshua graham fnv #joshua graham #yandere joshua graham #joshua graham headcanons #yandere fallout #yandere fallout new vegas #joshua graham x courier 6 #joshua x courier #yandere alphabet

[danses-with-dogmeat]

Day 22 -- Joshua Graham

The (nsfw) details for Kinktober, Day 22 are just below the cut!

Minors, please don't interact.

Soaking/Cock Warming with Joshua x F!Six

WOW okay, this prompt was perfect. A HUGE thank you to whoever suggested this in the Kinktober Survey I put out a couple months ago, you have my love, and this one's for you <3

Also, just a note, if you see that I got any of the Mormon stuff wrong, please let me know and I will try to fix it!

I hope you all enjoy! 😁

Here is the link to my Kinktober 2022 Event list so you can stay up-to-date, or re-visit these works as you please.

Included: Soaking, cock warming, religion (Mormonism), Legion bullshit (to a limited degree), pet names, misogyny, manipulation, coercion,  non-consensual creampie, breeding, corruption, grooming, power dynamics. (-> just another note too, Joshua's not really intentionally being a horrible person here, but it's just kinda who he is. Just something to keep in mind with these tags. He thinks this whole thing is very sweet, whether it's healthy or not. )

5.6k words.

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“You’ve come too far to be tainted like this, Joshua.” Six’s fingers were smooth against the cloth upon his face, their methodical stroking like the flame of a candle, sweet, innocent, but still burning hot against his flame-torn skin. “To be tainted by me.” 

Her eyes were mesmerizing. She always insisted that it was him, that his icy-blue gaze is what drew her to him in the first place, and maybe that was the truth, but it didn’t mean her gaze was any less captivating. 

“You could not taint me, beloved. Not if you tried.” He attempted to reassure her, pressing his cheek further into her touch as his eyes closed at the familiar sting of her affection. “The fault– the sin is with me only. No action you could ever do would amount to a fraction of all that I’ve done. The errs I’ve made. Ego numquam liber ab meum praeteritum. I can never be free from my actions. Not fully. That is no fault of yours, my angel.” 

Her fingers ceased their movement over him abruptly, and he feared she would pull away, but instead, he felt another pressure. Her other hand came to press to his cheek, his face nestled between her palms firmly as she spoke with a voice just as adamant. 

“You are free from it. That’s what happened to you. That’s why you are here, why you lived. Because you were saved.” 

He smiled at that, even from behind his cloth, she could see the way his eyes crinkled as they opened to take in her visage. Her brow was furrowed over her eyes, her lips were a firm line. Six was always kind and generous, more so than he ever was, but she was also stubborn. It was a quality he didn’t think he would enjoy half as much as he did. His expression softened further at the sight of her, the coolness of his eyes seeming to warm at the way she spoke to him. 

She sees more in me than I ever have. Even before The Legion. And before I was saved. 

“You were saved to be free from your past and become better. I would not keep you from God’s plan.” 

If God is good, then you are my plan. 

He wanted to say it. It was at the tip of his tongue. He would mean it, too, like he hadn’t meant any other words in his life. 

But could I tie her to me? A woman so sweet, so selfless, so devout? I would tie her to a flame-torn monster, a sinner who was only saved once purged with fire, and still, one who is unworthy of such mercy. 

His hands came to hers, the linen cool against her skin, as the air remained warm in the small space of their shared tent. 

Even sharing this space was a battle with her. Without marriage, we cannot be bound the way I know we both crave. Not with her conscience, her holy practices, her concern for my soul and its place in the afterlife.   

He pulled her palms from his face, holding her hands in his between their seated bodies as their gazes stayed trained on each other. 

“I understand. You are good, and I would not seek to tarnish you. Just as you protect me from my own sinful desires, I would never seek to tear you from your salvation.” He finished speaking, but Six made no move to reply. It was clear that he had not said all that he meant to. 

But this could scare her away for good. We’ve both come so far… 

His hands squeezed hers, the pain was numb, was equaled out by the pleasure of her simple touch. 

Joshua’s soul was a secondary priority in this moment, and every one he spent with her. She came first, for the first time in either of his lives, someone came before himself. 

And… before God as well. 

He closed his eyes to that thought, willing it away as he felt a warmth spread through his chest. It was a soft warmth, not terrifying like the heated glow of a campfire, but muted and comforting like the spill of warm breath over his skin. The feeling sank low, still to that spot that had made him inquire to his partner in the first place. 

It was the old Joshua speaking then. Not the Legate, never him, never again, but the Joshua from before. The one so neglectful that he allowed the Legion to exist. That he marshaled it forth like it was something to be celebrated, even after it became corrupt. The old Joshua didn’t take women by force, not like the Legate, but he was less concerned for their virtue than he was his own pleasure. He had almost let that be the case now. 

He couldn’t do that to Six, not after all she’s done for him, all he’s asked her to look past. Yet still… If there was a way to satisfy them both, to appease her needs and his, as a man and a woman, to keep in God’s good graces, where she belongs, and where he wishes to stay… There is a way. 

“But perhaps there is a way, my love, to show my devotion to both you, and to God. For us to be one as a man and woman, without yet being husband and wife.” 

Her eyes widened in surprise, but he was relieved to see wheels of consideration turning behind her clear eyes. 

Marriage is still in the cards, he supposes, he would wish for it beyond anything. Six was everything he desired in another, and more than he ever thought possible, but could he truly tie her to him for good? In this life, and in the next, she would be bound to him. If he didn’t achieve the salvation that God has tried to lead him to, if the Legate was able to take control of him again, could he truly drag her down to hell with him? Or else, taint her reputation in heaven? 

Hell would be a kinder fate than to damn her for eternity.

“If it will keep our virtue intact…” She started, and he could see the way a blush was affecting her features. He held back a grin at the way Six bit into her bottom lip in thought. 

She wants to say yes. She wants, as always, to please me. 

She is a better woman than I deserve. 

“It will. This show of devotion has been in practice for hundreds of years, since the very founding of Mormonism. I can assure you, it will not taint either of us. Just as long as you do as I say, my angel, you will still be pure and I will still be devout.”

She began to nod her head as he spoke, and by the end, most of her nerves seemed to drain away. 

“Always, Joshua, I will do as you say.” 

That warm feeling returned to his chest, this time accompanied by a tingle up his spine. Her words traveled through his whole body, honing in at that sinful place between his legs and making him harden with unspeakable desire. 

“Very good, my love.” He forced the words out, trying to keep his voice steady and calm, trying to act as though he were well within the bounds of his own restraint. But truthfully, he felt the reins fraying in his hands. 

“We will stay as we are now, for the most part.” He continued with a quick shake of his head, clearing his thoughts to make room for the memories to come. “You need not expose yourself to me, nor I to you.” 

His hands left their grip over hers, going instead to brush at her hips, to encourage her to scoot over on the bed and make room for him to sit back further. 

“In regards to sin,” He began, a teaching quality adding to his voice as he easily shifted her body beside him. “It is our actions that influence the purity of our soul, correct? It is not our circumstances. Those are within God’s realm of control, yes?” 

“Yes.” She nodded, relenting to each of his touches as though they were laws spoken by God and written by the prophets.   

“This is much the same. What we are about to do, there must not be action, must not be movement, for then this will become all that we are wishing to avoid for the present time.” 

Joshua shifted his hands on her body, moving them slowly to the button on her trousers. She kept her eyes on him all along, trusting him and looking on with that earnest gaze that left his heart pounding like a warrior’s drum. Her faith in him, her belief, it made him brave. 

“We will be joined as one.” He told her, just as his fingers grasped at the hem of her shirt, stretching the surplus fabric down to cover what his other hand was revealing with the slow tug of her zipper. 

One day, I will gaze upon her visage in its entirety. When we are married. If I ever deem myself worthy of the honor. 

Joshua felt the pressure of his own zipper against him, as his hardening member strained upwards, aching to be one with her. 

He closed his eyes as he throbbed with anticipation. 

“But we will not engage in the act that is forbidden to those not bound by holy matrimony. Rest assured on that.” 

Joshua’s eyes opened in time to see the way her expression flashed at the mention of marriage. 

She knows that I know it’s what she wants. But she will never understand. She sees too much in me. She has never witnessed the actions of who I once was, never seen what the Legate was capable of. 

He blinked to rid himself of the thoughts again, allowing his mind to wander back only to her, to thoughts of being with her this way. Of being the first to be with her this way. 

His member pulsed once more from the confines of his pants and his wrappings. 

I need these off.

He tried to do so without fully exposing himself, but in the end, Six simply closed her eyes. It was like all of her devotion to the Lord. It was simple, straightforward, as easy and as necessary as blinking, it was a solution he hadn’t thought of. It was a devotion he wished he could share, but it had never come as easy to him. Just as he tried to find loopholes, as he tried to cover his own partially-bare self with nothing, as he tried to keep her nearly half-naked visage free from his sight to the best of his abilities, it seemed there was no easy way, until she was the one to present it. 

With her, his salvation seemed achievable. 

When his aching erection was finally free from his trousers and his wrappings, Joshua placed a hand on himself briefly, his eyes locked to ensure hers were still tightly shut, to keep her from witnessing his actions. Swiping a thumb over the tip of his cock, he felt a wetness gather there, and he brought what he could downwards, over his shaft, trying to ensure there would be as little resistance as possible. 

We’re not supposed to move, after all, but I don’t wish for her to be pained from taking me. 

In the ways of preparation, without being able to see her, without being able to touch her in such a lewd way, this was all they had. 

I’ve gone with less than even this before–

No. That was the Legate. That was the old Joshua. That was not me. 

I will not harm her. 

He pulled his linen wrappings from one rough hand, and as Six sat patiently, silently, he brought his fingers to his lips, he uncovered them, and spat quietly into his palm. Slowly, as soundlessly as he could, he rubbed the wetness over his shaft, lubricating himself as much as possible. 

“Are you ready to be one with me, my angel?” 

His voice was hoarser than he’d hoped, dripping with sinful arousal as the rough palm of his hand dragged over his sensitive shaft. 

She didn’t dare open her eyes, not with the sounds she still heard coming from between them. That methodical rubbing, the sound of slickness spreading over skin... She didn’t have to see a thing to guess what was happening beyond her eyelids. 

“Yes, Joshua.” 

Six’s voice was nearly as bad as his own. He didn’t know whether to reprimand her or to be relieved that she was human. She always seemed too perfect to be affected by something as basal as her own arousal. 

He decided against mentioning it. If he was a better man, perhaps he would have spoken a harsh word to her. But if he was a better man, they wouldn’t be in this position in the first place. 

I’m going to ruin her. A small, but strong voice uttered from the dark, forbidden recesses of his mind. Joshua chose to ignore it. 

“Good.” 

His hand released himself, and he wiped the slick mixture of spit and pre-cum still on his hand onto the fabric of his trousers before reaching forward to grasp at his partner’s hips. 

“Keep your eyes closed. Until we are one with each other, until my nudeness is hidden within you. We cannot look.” 

Six nodded to him, and allowed his hands to guide her. He brought one of her legs over his lap until she was properly straddling him. Keeping her on her knees, he brought one hand to his erection, hard and glistening and yearning to be within her warm depths, and pointed it towards her. 

“Prepare yourself.” He whispered, brushing his freed lips over her jaw as he spoke. 

Six released a held breath, the smallest hint of an anxious quiver leaving her throat as she nodded to him again in understanding. In permission. 

Joshua’s chest warmed. 

In the next moment, his hand was pressing the tip of his cock between her folds. He moved only a little, just enough to nose her lips apart so he could enter in one swift thrust, but a feeling halted his movement. 

She was warm, he could feel the singing heat of her body against the sensitive skin of his cock, but more than that, he could feel a slickness beyond his own doing. His Six, his angel, his pure, perfect soul, was wet for him. Joshua’s damaged lips spread into a grin. 

Again, he wrestled with the thought of saying something to reprimand her, but he held his eager tongue. 

We’re so close. I cannot frighten her. Not now, not when I need her. 

Slowly, once he was situated at her entrance, his hand put pressure on her hip, and he felt her tightness spread to accommodate him. It was slow, without being able to pulse his hips up into her, he simply had to wait for her to slide down on him in one unyielding motion. He watched, unblinking, as she took him. 

Six’s brows furrowed over her still-closed eyes, and he could hear her breath quickening, could see sweat beginning to glisten above her lip and on her chin with the effort of taking his cock for the first time. 

He knew it wouldn’t be easy. He was… different. Not especially large or thick, but his skin was grooved, scarred and uneven, harder and less yielding than it once was, than it is on normal men. But Six made no complaint. She did as always, she did as he said, she trusted him, and she did anything it took to please him, even if it pained her. 

Six truly was a gift from God, made specially for him. He wasn’t sure what he did to deserve her, but he would find a way to thoroughly thank the King of Kings for this woman one day. 

She stopped for a moment when she was about halfway down, and he felt her insides unwittingly grip him tighter. Joshua grit his teeth to hold back a sound. 

That too, would be sinful. This was for closeness, it was to build their bond, their trust in one another, it was a show of devotion, a promise before the one great promise they would one day make to one another before the eyes of God. That’s what it had to be, for them to continue. That’s all it could be. 

Six took another breath, the heat of it spilling over the meager, exposed skin on his face, before she grit her teeth and pushed down the rest of the way. He moved his hand out from between their bodies where he was still grasping his shaft, allowing her to come all the way down, until they were joined fully. 

He sighed as she settled on his lap, unable to hold back at the overwhelming feel of her heat encasing his aching cock. Part of him knew that this was hurting him as well, that the heat of her was too much for his ravaged skin, but the pleasure outweighed any discomfort, the knowledge that he was finally one with her, that made any pain bearable. For the both of them. 

“Very good, dearest. You’ve done just as I said. You’ve done well.” 

“Thank you.” She managed, her brow still creased above her closed eyes. With each passing moment, Joshua felt her tight walls pulsing around him, her heartbeat fast and strong, but her grip slowly eased as she grew used to the feeling of him inside her. 

“May I open my eyes now?” 

“Of course, you may.” His hands moved to her hips as he spoke, and he pulled the hem of her loose t-shirt down again to ensure all was covered to both their gazes. 

Six blinked a few times as her eyes opened, before they widened in surprise at his proximity. 

They’d always been so chaste, hardly showing physical affection beyond quick pecks of the lips and meager touches in harmless places. This was so very different. Her walls clenched him tight as their eyes met, as she realized what it was they were really doing. 

She gulped. 

Quickly, Joshua sought to console her, his hands coming up to rub over her forearms soothingly as his lips moved forward to meet her cheek. 

“See? Joined together, as we wanted, as is right for a man and a woman, but taking no action.” 

“I-I do. I see.” Her hands came up to grasp at his shoulders, to better steady herself and keep from moving. It was a strange feeling for the both of them. Joshua had done this once or twice in his old life, before becoming the Legate, before he’d truly bedded a woman, but now, after knowing the sensations, after gaining expectation for how interactions like this were meant to go… It was just strange. Everything in him was telling him to move, to achieve that friction, to chase his pleasure and his release, but he couldn’t. He had to be still. 

Six, on the other hand, was marveling at the new feeling. It was exciting, but also not as thrilling as she thought it would be… But this isn’t it. This isn’t what a husband and wife do in their marriage bed, this was something else, but it felt similar. It felt… fitting? She felt full, slightly uncomfortable, but also whole. Yet still, she wanted… something more? How could she? Wasn’t that wrong? 

It didn’t matter if it was. For either of them. They still wanted it. 

The urges were less when she had her eyes closed, perhaps if she closed them–

“Look at me.” Joshua spoke, a strange, thick quality to his voice that she’d never heard before. “Keep your eyes trained to mine.” 

He needed something. This was driving him insane. Maybe if he looked at her, maybe if they spoke to one another, maybe if he could feel just a bit more– 

“Clench yourself around me, my love.” Joshua requested, before he could even think. His body needed it so badly that it spoke of its own accord, without his mind’s consent. 

Six’s eyebrows raised. He could see that she wanted to obey, to always do as he asked, but there was conflict behind her earnest eyes. 

“Is… Forgive me, Joshua, but wouldn’t that be ‘taking action’?”

He was more ready for the question than he thought, and his reply flowed from his lips easily. 

“Would it? Or is it a result of circumstance? You’ve already clenched around me before, without meaning to, so you’ll simply be doing so again, for the same reason.” 

Though she looked unsure, Six nodded to him. 

As always, she listens to me over herself. As always, she is perfect for me. 

And she was. The grip of her as she clenched her walls around him, as she did as he bade and tightened herself like a viscous vice around his cock, it was enough to make him throb. 

“W-what? What was that?” 

Joshua couldn’t hold back a grin as her eyes darted to the covered place between them, where they were joined, before snapping back up to him with a gleam of curiosity. 

“That was a natural response, angel. Our bodies are meant to fit together like this, they’re meant to respond to one another this way.”

“You did it on purpose?” She tried to make sense of it. 

“No, I did not.” Joshua told her, failing to hold back his grin. 

She’s precious like this. She’s so honest and genuine and pure. 

A part of him wanted to teach her, to show her all that she could be, show her what he knows, but another part valued her naivety. Perhaps it was wrong, but he wanted her to stay as she was. Chaste and ignorant and almost wholly pure. Pure, apart from what he would do. 

Quickly, almost savagely, he thrust away those selfish thoughts. The thoughts that sounded like a past self, though he wasn’t sure which one. This time, it seemed like a combination of his previous selves. 

There’s only room for me now. And I should tell her the truth.  

“It was as I said,” He continued, “A natural response. Another direct result of our circumstance.” 

“I see. It felt… strange.” She bit her bottom lip and dropped her gaze to the floor. “Should I… do it again?” 

“If you feel as though you should.” He allowed her the freedom this time, if only to see what she would choose. “If you feel like that’s what the circumstance demands.” 

“Will you… have that ‘natural response’ again if I do?”   

“Perhaps.” His hands continued stroking over the smooth skin of her arms, serving as the only real release for his need to move. “There is only one way to know for sure.” 

Six nodded her head. He felt her fingers grasp more tightly at his shoulders, and then he felt another clench around him. 

Joshua’s cock didn’t throb within her this time, but they both could’ve sworn that he felt harder after the fact. To her credit, and to his relief, Six didn’t stop.

It was slow, but methodical as she routinely squeezed her walls around him. Eventually, she laid her forehead down against his shoulder, and he wrapped his arms around her, rubbing soothing strokes over her back as she held tight to his body in more ways than one. 

He did feel closer to her, that much they achieved, and not just physically, as he had anticipated, but he felt bonded to her like he wasn’t before. Before this moment, she was perfect, she was untouchable, she was a flawless specimen, proof that God exists and that he can truly make beings in his image, and now, well… It’s not that she is no longer perfect, because Joshua was certain she was as close as humanity could ever hope to being divine, but she was… human, at least.

He could be with her now, physically, as he could with any other human being, he could feel her sweat soaking through her clothes, hear the way her breath picked up, he could see the uncertainty in her expression, feel the want as it began to drip from her. 

She wasn’t perfect, but God, she was perfect for him.

“Oh!” 

Joshua’s teeth clenched as he felt himself throb within her again, and despite his best efforts, his hips gave one desperate thrust up into her. 

“F-forgive me, dearest.” He grunted out as she clung to him. “I was not meant to move.”

“Did I do something wrong?” Her small voice asked, and his heart ached at the sound. 

“No. No, angel, nothing. The fault, as usual, is with me.” He chuckled at that, and his body’s motion caused her walls to grip him, unwittingly this time. 

She released a breathy noise that almost made him thrust into her again. 

God, give me the strength to hold back. 

His jaw ached at how hard he was clenching his teeth. His cock gave another belated jerk within her, and he felt her fingers grasp at his shirt and wrappings until he thought they might tear. 

“Should I… um, continue?”

Joshua could hear the blush in her voice, and he couldn’t hold back his persisting grin. 

“In a moment. Hold onto me.” 

Six wrapped her arms around his shoulders more securely, and Joshua scooted himself back on the mattress until he reached the middle of the bed. From there, the missionary laid down on his back, pulling Six along with him until their bodies were flush, with hers resting easily upon his. 

“This doesn’t pain you?” Six pulled her head up to meet his gaze, her own was full of concern.

“No. Do not worry.” He said it with a smile, his hands tightening their grip on her back and pulling her even closer just for emphasis. If it pained him, his foggy mind couldn’t decipher it amid the pleasure.

Despite their lack of movement, the thoughts in his head and his partner’s incessant clenching had him growing closer to his release. “I truly have never felt better, my love.” 

“Mm.” Six hummed happily, and she laid her head down to rest on his chest. At this angle, it was easy to place a kiss upon the top of her head, and Joshua took advantage. Despite the fabric of his shirt and the bandages below it, he felt her smile at his action, and her heat gripped him tight once again. 

Soon enough, Six wasn’t surprised when she felt his cock throb inside her, the feeling became like a sweet little reward for her efforts, and she came to expect his telltale movement within her core. As muted as it was, it was a small taste of the something more she’s been silently craving. It wasn’t intentional, but eventually, her movements grew quicker, and she felt some sort of heated pressure building low in her gut. 

It made her want to move, to explore what it could mean, to hasten its journey and bring her to whatever unfamiliar precipice it was pushing her towards. But she couldn’t. She only wondered if Joshua was having the same such inner turmoil, or if she was just being impure. 

Joshua’s breath was picking up in his chest, his hands were gripping at his partner with more desperation, and he even felt the unfamiliar feel of sweat begin to seep from his charred, scarred skin. 

What do I do if she gets me to my release? His mind battled with itself within, as his body welcomed every sensation that brought him closer to his orgasm. 

Can I spill within? It’s what I would like to do, but outside of marriage– 

That hasn’t stopped me before.

But I’m not like that anymore. I put that behind me. This is a new start. A new life. 

This is a new start! Exactly! It could be the start of a new life, a family, something wholesome, something that will make me truly happy, truly whole for the first time in my life. 

But am I meant to have this new start? Do I want to make her have a family with me? Does she even know of the possible result, if I were to finish here inside her?

He felt himself give another jerk within her warmth, this time a violent one. He was painfully hard, his legs were growing numb, his gut felt hotter than flame, he was getting so close. 

I have to make this decision now. 

And I have to make the decision that is best for her. 

He stroked one hand over Six’s back, and though he could tell she was trying to repress it, she sighed into his chest. Joshua looked down to her expression and he saw contentment. A bit of frustration as well, which he found endearing, but mostly, there was honest pleasure written on her face, rapture glistening in her hazy eyes. She looked… happy. Happy to be with him. She loved to please him, she always did as he asked, she honored him, she cared for him, she was proud to be with him, she trusted him. What more could he ask for, and from her point of view, what more could she want? 

He protects her, guides her, loves her, provides for her. He is far from perfect, unlike Six, but maybe, just maybe, he’s perfect for her too. 

Six was damn near whimpering now as she clenched around him, the smallest hint of a thrust coming from her hips where they rested against his pelvis. Joshua found his hands stilling on her back, his fingers clenching at her skin just as her walls gripped down on his cock, and with one last muted push against his body, Six buried her partner as deep inside as he could go, and Joshua held her body firmly to his as his cock gave a final throb inside her, before his release finally came. 

His mind was made up. He knew what was best for him, he knew most what she needed, and he knew that he could be that. He knew, all along, that she was God’s new plan for him, and so how could the Holy Father look down on this with judgement? How could he call it sin? For a loving man and woman to bring new life into the world, especially if their intention was always to marry and be devout? To one another, and to the Lord.

It couldn’t possibly be wrong. 

So Joshua held her, even as Six gasped and wriggled in his arms in surprise at the strange sensation of his seed spilling inside her, he didn’t let go, and beyond a couple muted thrusts, he didn’t move. 

“Be still, my love. This too, is natural. This too, comes from circumstance.” The words came out as a groan as the last few spurts of cum left him and he felt his taut body relax back against the mattress. 

Still though, he held his partner to him, and still, he remained inside her. 

Six was silent as she rested in his arms. Her walls clenched around him as his member began to soften, but this time he didn’t think it was intentional. 

“You did well, angel. So well at this. You are still so pure, so devout. To the Lord, and to me.” 

He reassured her, in case she felt differently. He couldn’t see her face from where it was buried in his chest, but her silence was beginning to worry him. Joshua’s hands were gentle as he stroked over her back again, and once more, he touched his ravaged lips to the hair upon her head. 

Her body shuddered over his, and Joshua’s brows drew together in concern. 

“My love? Are you crying?”

Slowly, Six raised her head from his chest, and sure enough, there were glistening tear tracks beneath her brilliant eyes. 

“Tell me what’s wrong.” He requested softly, knowing deep in his heart that she would never refuse to answer him. 

“N-nothing is wrong.” 

His eyes narrowed. 

She would never lie. That, I know for certain. 

“Except maybe me… I don’t know. I just… Did I do too much? Did I– Did you mean to…”

She could hardly speak with the choppy way her breath was leaving, and Joshua’s brows only creased further, this time in sympathy. 

“Oh, no dearest one, no. You did just as you are meant to. You did nothing wrong.” He kissed her cheek, tasting the salt of her tears on his lips. 

“It’s as I said. What happened, it was natural. It was what was meant to happen. This is God’s plan.” 

“I-it is?” She sniffled. 

“Yes, dear, yes.” Joshua paused, his mind tired from his release, but reeling with his new decision to make this woman his. His wife. “I could hear it. I could hear God telling me that this is what He wishes for us. This is His plan.” 

“You heard Him?” The sobs had come to a stop. Now her eyes were wide. 

He gave a definitive nod, a gesture not to be argued with. 

“Yes, love. He told me to hold onto you tight, He told me that He would help bring about my release, so that we could start a new life together. So that we could start a family.” His eyes darted down to where they were still joined as one, then dragged upwards to where he could only hope that his seed was quickening in her womb, tying them together for eternity. 

“Does that mean…” She paused, biting her lip, but Joshua nodded to her. Encouraging. 

“Does that mean we can get married?” 

He smiled at that, even as a shiver ran up his spine. 

“Yes, dearest. That is His plan. I will marry you.” 

#fallout #fallout companions #fallout npcs #fallout new vegas #fallout new vegas companions #fallout nv #fallout new vegas dlcs #fonv #fnv #fnv npcs #joshua graham fonv #fallout joshua graham #joshua fonv #courier six #f!six #joshua graham #joshua graham x courier six #kinktober 2022 #kinktober #dwd.nsfw

[vaulthistorian]

Welcome home with love.

Joshua Graham/Six/Daniel.

Just some fluff for Six coming home.

After Joshua and Daniel settle down again, Six drops by now and then on their road around the Mojave to see the two.

They'll approach the place in their dirty duster and mucky boots. Their mask is worn but the two know your silhouette anywhere, any day.

Daniel is most likely sitting on the porch, looking up over the tip of his hat as the dust rolls past you. Each foot is a stride of intent and longing to finally be at home.

He stands and watches you approach the house. "Look who came home."

You shuffle and pull your mask off, breathing in the warm, fresh air. A clean start from the radiated, dense air you'd been inhaling for the last bit.

Daniel smiled softly upon seeing your face. He gently reached out for your duster, pulling it back off your shoulders and laying it on the chair he previously sat in.

Your tired body slumps against his chest, letting out the heavy emotions against his neck. His strong hands roam up and down your back, pulling at the hot undershirt you wore.

"Hey Daniel..."

"Hey, darlin'." He gently shifts with you in his arms, letting your body rest as long as it would need. But you'd been on your feet for so long.

You look up at him, and he slowly cranes his neck down, giving you a soft, sweet kiss. A welcome home.

"Come inside, I'll get something made up for us."

You smiled a little, following Daniel inside. Inside a small fan ran near the door. Books were stacked up along the walls, some scripture, some pre-war texts you'd found on your adventures.

You looked around, heading through the main room toward the kitchen where you found Joshua.

The extra pair of footsteps wasn't lost on him, his gaze already off his drink he slowly sipped through a straw.

His gaze softened when he saw you. "Welcome back, dove."

You came over, leaning down and kissing his temple. "I missed you, and you don't even have the courtesy to get out of your chair for me." You teased.

Joshua huffed and slowly got up. Properly hugging you, his forehead leaned against yours. His bandaged palms pressed gently against your cheeks, rubbing his thumb over your skin. Feeling the roughness from the sands of the Mojave.

You smiled softly, kissing his cheek gently. Daniel huffed softly from behind you, which made you turn and cup his cheek. "Come here you."

You gently brought him in again, tasting his lips and inhaling the smell of fresh pages and sweat.

Joshua slotted himself behind you, his hands drifting up your abdomen, feeling your body softly. His head resting on your shoulder, feeling the warmth of your nape against his head.

"Get off your feet, darlin'. Sit, I'll fix you up something nice."

Your stomach growled at Daniel's words. And you had no doubt he'd make up something fierce.

Joshua still has not pulled away from you. You swayed slowly, "Did you miss me?" You teased.

"The same amount I miss you any other time you leave for up to a month on short notice.."

"Yeah, I know." You smiled a little. "But I'm home." You patted his knuckles gently.

He nodded, pressing the bridge of his nose against your neck, and then slowly released you so you could sit and get off your feet.

You sighed, relaxing into the barely cushioned chair. You leaned your head back and watched the two peacefully move about.

Joshua went around the table to offer help, Daniel's hand slipping down around his waist to gently tug the two men hip to hip.

You smile softly, seeing Joshua lean over, reaching for something and Daniel interrupting it with a gentle kiss to his temple.

"Alright you," Joshua squeezes his bicep. "Easy."

"I'm just excited, happy to have you both in the same room again."

You smiled softly, sitting up and watching them. In the sunlight that came through the dirty window in the kitchen, they both seemed to glow.

Maybe it was you not seeing them for a while? Or you were falling in love with them all over again. That spoke for itself. You were glad to get welcomed home.

#fallout new vegas #joshua graham #joshua graham fallout #fallout nv #fnv #fnv courier #courier 6 #courier six #daniel fallout #joshua graham x courier 6 #joshua graham x reader #daniel x reader #Joshua graham x reader x daniel #honest hearts

[messyyythoughts]

sands of zion, part 4.

fallout: new vegas Joshua Graham x female courier reader

author’s note: i am tipsy, have this xxx

summary: the Dead Horses want to move against the White Legs, but Joshua doesn’t expect the consequences...

warnings: war antics, the usual fallout: new vegas violence warning lol

••●••••●••••●••

since your conversation about Caesar, Joshua Graham had been watching you closely. you hadn’t mentioned or even inferred anything about Caesar since, treating the name like a fatal curse if spoken aloud. you seemed sober compared to how Joshua saw you before that conversation. where you’d take the time to talk with the Dead Horses each day and learn new words, now you stayed quiet and only spoke when spoken to. in Angel’s Cave you avoided others, and politely regarded Joshua when he was nearby. you spent days doing nothing, sleeping in your bed or walking up and down the river.

it was as if merely talking about Caesar had taken the very spirit from you. and Joshua hated it. every day he awoke hoping that his prayers had been answered to find you back to your old self, but each day that passed he found himself losing faith in his God. if ghosts were real, then he was watching one walk around his camp that looked remarkably like you. Follows-Chalk had made several attempts at communicating with you, but nothing could get your mind off of the evil that was Caesar waiting for you back in the Mojave. how his assassins hadn’t made it here yet you didn’t know, and it made you overly paranoid. they could be watching, waiting in the shadows, seeing how far you could get before they grabbed you. you’d refused to leave the camp for anything that wasn’t immediately life or death business, and it was beginning to irritate the Dead Horses. if they got that annoyed with you, they could show you the way home and you’d never bother them again. but, there was still the problem of the White Legs to deal with before any of the inhabitants of Zion would show you the way home, so you had to deal with it soon. one day, amidst your paranoia, you awoke to loud, shouting voices coming from outside of Angel’s Cave. you didn’t decipher any of the speech clearly at first, then you heard your name being thrown around. darting out of bed, you grabbed your rifle, forgoing your trench coat or outdoor clothes, and burst out into the sunlight in your sleeping clothes. Follows-Chalk was stood against a group of Dead Horses members, attempting to placate them as they stared at you with anger in their eyes. Joshua was nowhere to be seen. your eyes scanned the river before you lowered your rifle. “what is all of this about?” you asked quietly, though you feared you knew anyway. “we can talk about this in a calm way–” Follows-Chalk began, but the voices rose against him faster than he could handle. you picked out a few words, and understood that they were complaining of your idleness in the recent weeks, and the threat of the White Legs you were meant to be aiding Joshua in eliminating. your lips pressed together in mild embarrassment, but you really could care less, because they had no idea who Caesar was and what he was going to do to you the moment this war was over. “send her to the White Legs if she’s so scared of them! we are ready to fight them, why won’t Joshua Graham make the move?” one woman yelled, anger distorting her features. the funny thing was that all of these women had braided your hair, taught you words and shared their food with you a handful of times before. now you were their worst enemy, save the White Legs. Follows-Chalk was doing his best, but you knew he was no match for angry women. the men stood further back, shooting you disapproving glares. they’d seen you as one of them many times, but now you were no better than a child. you put a hand on Follows-Chalk’s arm, and his worried eyes met your dead ones. you nodded and he stepped back, closing his mouth. you faced the group, eyeing up each one. “if you want to move against the White Legs, I will speak to Joshua Graham.” your words only did the bare minimum to quiet their anger. at the rise of more voices, you held up a hand. “do not forget that it has been me who has rescued one of your children, defeated dozens of your enemies and fought for all of you with my life many times over.” your voice was raised, built on a foundation of disbelief at their words. “I will finish this war, but not if you disrespect me any further. am I clear?” they all went silent, watching you. “am I clear?” you yelled, snapping. the women’s heads dropped and they moved back. the men bristled at your tone. “be ready to fight with your lives, if you can do that.” you looked at each one of them in the eyes, and felt every one of them staring into your soul. Follows-Chalk followed you quietly into Angel’s Cave as you sighed and held in a desperate scream of frustration. you barely remembered the last few weeks, it had been a big blur of nonsense. you’d finally realised how soon you were going to face Caesar and lose your life in the process, and yes, you had others depending on you, but they didn’t know half of what your life had been. “do you know where Joshua is?” you asked Follows-Chalk, as you unpacked your belongings in preparation for the fight of your life, which would soon be overshadowed by the fight you’d bring to Caesar. “he is making final preparations for the attack, or at least that is what he told me.” you nodded, smoothing your hair away from your face and sighing heavily. “thank you for trying to save my reputation back there,” you said, “it wasn’t worth it but at least they’ll fight alongside me now.” Follows-Chalk was at your side, a worried look on his sweet face. his hand rested on your shoulder. “what troubles you, Courier? you have been a ghost since...” Follows-Chalk didn’t finish his sentence because footsteps approached. your heads both swivelled to meet the owner, and it was Joshua. he seemed surprised to see you up and awake, organising your things nonetheless. “we can talk later.” Follows-Chalk eyes searched yours for any hint of a smile, and even though you faked one, it didn’t fool him. he’d grown to know much about you personally since meeting you, and that smile wasn’t like the ones he’d seen from you before. he walked away, feeling something uneasy about you. ••●••••●••••●•• you filled Joshua in on the near-uprising against you, and he agreed that a move against the White Legs was looking favourable. you both stood at his desk, moving around it as you mapped out the White Legs territory from several scout reports. Joshua didn’t mention your behaviour recently, he was just satisfied that his prayers had been answered at last, and content to be enjoying your company once again. you went back and forth all evening, hypothesising the best formations and plans. you briefly paused the debates to make dinner and start inventory of all the weapons available to the Dead Horses. there was a lot, the scouts had done well, and Joshua had tracked down some pre-War technology that had been made useful by tinkering and experimenting. the sun went down, and Joshua gave the order to be ready to move out at first light. you continued planning, poking holes in each other’s ideas, before you settled on one of Joshua’s plans. you liked it, it had the least chance of failure, and it would get you into the White Legs camp where you could do the most damage. the necessary Dead Horse members were informed of the plan, and you both tried to get some sleep. Joshua resorted to studying his holy book at some point in the night, and you had started to clean your rifle and organise your trench coat with its many pockets. neither of you spoke as you knew it would only serve as a temporary distraction from the real thing that would be upon you in a few hours. as the sky began to change with the rising sun, you both got changed and checked weapons one last time. you were attempting to braid your hair out of the way but it proved hard with a scattered mind. you gave up and let it sit behind your shoulders, sat on your old camping bed, when Joshua’s voice broke the silence of Angel’s Cave for the first time in hours. “may I...?” your eyes landed on him, and he was stood at the end of your bed, looking at your hair. you nodded and took off your hat, smoothing your hair down. he knelt behind you, taking your hair in three sections and beginning the braid. it was the simplest one, but it kept your hair out of your face. you sat there, staring at the walls of the cave and imagining your death. would a White Leg grab and slash your throat open? a stray bullet? an explosive? a brutal fist fight to the death? you didn’t even notice that Joshua was long finished the braid, and was still knelt behind you, just waiting. he was probably thinking, too. you turned around, facing him. the sight of him on his knees might’ve elicited a different reaction from you in a different life, but now it just made you sad. deeply and utterly sad. he looked up at you, and you looked down at him. “we’re losing time.” you said softly, feeling a strange knot in your throat. “we are.” Joshua watched as you stood up, slinging your rifle over your shoulder and leaving the cave. he stood, watching after you.

••●••••●••••●••

the atmosphere in the camp was different to that in the cave. where there’d been a sober silence broken only by a few meaningless words, out here there was a flurry of activity. shouts and chants rang out, splashing water, weapons colliding. last minute training and conversations went down at the same time, each Dead Horse member preparing in their own individual way to face the enemy. the elders and healers were blessing the warriors with marks and paint on their bare skin. some even began blessing the weapons held by the warriors, bathed in early morning light. you went to walk past the elders, who you assumed held dislike for you since your outburst yesterday, but one woman stopped you. she held out her hands, covered in paint, and you took off your hat, kneeling down for her. she was short and unassuming in appearance, but one look at her face told you that she’d seen more than you’d ever comprehend. her fingers danced over your face, making a mask of a warrior, and blessing you. she took your rifle from your hand and painted that too. a feeling of something you couldn’t quite explain went over you, like hands running through your hair, or a mother’s touch. suddenly, the old woman smiled, before turning away. she left you there feeling bewildered, strangely empowered, and ready to face the White Legs.

Joshua Graham had been watching the scene unfold from the entrance to Angel’s Cave. for some time now he had believed you to be a blessing sent by his God, or a divine being who he just happened to cross paths with. whatever you may end up being, he would spend the rest of his existence eternally grateful for you. the way you had accepted the Dead Horse tribe as your own, adhering to their customs and way of life so quickly. it may not have been your first port of call when you realised you were trapped here, but you soon realised what had to be done to survive, and Joshua could appreciate that.

he joined you by the river, taking the sight of you in before speaking.

“I see you have been blessed, by one of our oldest healers no less.” he could barely contain his urge to smile at you from beneath the bandages. you looked so proud for a moment, watching your reflection in the water. then you came back to reality. your brilliant eyes met his, and you looked away again.

“she does me a great honour, I can almost… feel her with me, or someone watching over me. maybe your God has time to watch over both of us today.” Joshua’s chest tightened when you spoke of his God.

“if He is willing, everyone here shall be watched over, and protected.” Joshua wanted to say more, but stopped himself. he could not let these feelings interfere with his mind right before battle. you were staring at the river water once again, then you spoke quietly.

“if He is indeed willing, we will live to wash in this river tomorrow. we all will.”

••●••••●••••●••

Joshua gave a short speech worthy of a war chief to the Dead Horses. those who would not be fighting would stay here, hidden in Angel’s Cave until either the return or retreat of the warriors and scouts of the Dead Horses. you stood there in silence, pushing the image of Caesar out of your mind and instead replacing it with that of the White Legs. they were your problem today, not some tyrant in the Mojave, which you had no feasible way of returning to yet. it hadn’t occurred to you that once this was over, you’d either be dead, kidnapped or alive and on your way home to the Strip to face Caesar. it felt horrible to admit, but you were starting to think which of the three options had the best outcome…

Joshua Graham was at the front of the crowd, leading the Dead Horses into battle. they gave off war cries and other unfamiliar sounds as you all waded up the river, but once out of the camp, silence fell like a blanket across each and every one of them. you were bringing up the rear, you and Joshua had agreed that it was best you stayed split up, for many reasons.  you recalled the conversation in question, one that had happened amongst the planning and strategising.

“and if one of us goes down?” you raised an eyebrow and Joshua leaned back in his chair.

“then we stay separate for the battle, as long as we can. should one of us fall, the other will assume command.” he offered up. that seemed satisfactory to you.

“alright, I’ll take the rear, you be up front.” you said, to which his eyes barely widened, but you still caught it. “what’s wrong with that?” you asked, leaning over the paper which detailed your plans and formations. Joshua watched you lean, and resisted the urge to touch your hair that was loose over your shoulder.

“I am simply surprised that you would volunteer to take the rear, that is all.” he replied, after taking his eyes off of you. he could watch you pour over battle plans and maps while sat on his desk until the day he died.

“well, you are the war chief. what good are you in the back?” you'd smiled at him before sketching in your position in charcoal on the paper. he’d watched you, imagining you on the battlefield the next day, victorious.

now, as you watched the Dead Horses march determinedly towards the White Legs camp, you wondered if Joshua had wanted you up front with him. would it have looked fiercer? more intimidating? perhaps, but your plans had been finalised last night, and this was not the time to go changing them. you instead counted your steps and watched the feet in front of you to distract you. so far the march had gone uninterrupted, but you had some distance before White Leg territory began. then you’d be in trouble.

••●••••●••••●••

Joshua Graham halted the march as you reached your destination. just past this trail was the last known White Leg camp, as reported by Dead Horse scouts days ago. this was it. you quickly worked your way up front to speak to Joshua. he seemed ready for battle, for war.

“Joshua, we haven’t seen a single White Leg, something isn’t right.” you whispered to him, mouth right next to his ear. he did not react to your worrying statement, but instead loaded his pistol. “Joshua, did you hear me?” you demanded, slinging your rifle down your shoulder.

“we cannot back down now, even if every single living White Leg is waiting for us in that camp. we fight here and now, God willing.” Joshua replied, not looking you in the eyes. you put a desperate hand on his arm. he went still.

“are you sure we can win this? if every single one of them is in there, armed to the teeth? with the high ground?” Joshua’s cold blue eyes finally met yours. his gaze felt entirely alien to you now.

“you aren’t abandoning the fight before it’s even began, are you, Courier?” you hold his gaze, but let go of his arm.

“I’d follow you almost anywhere, Joshua, but if this becomes a bloodbath, I beg of you… order them to retreat.” Joshua’s eyes slipped away from yours and down to his pistol.

“if this becomes a bloodbath, we won’t be on the wrong side.” with that, he raised his pistol in the air, rallying the Dead Horses. you ran back to the rear, shaking your head and sweeping sand from your hat. you loaded your rifle up, and followed Joshua Graham and his Dead Horses into the White Legs camp.

and it was a bloodbath. on both sides.

the second the White Legs realised what was happening, they had the jump on you. the Dead Horses fought hard and some, to the death, to advance into the main camp and start taking out the entirety of the White Legs tribe. you took out any sneaky attackers who attempted to cut you off from behind, but soon there were so many even you were struggling to drop them all with your rifle. close combat became the norm within minutes, and you were facing off against strong, bloodthirsty warriors with insane melee weapons. you couldn’t ever imagine the gangs in the Mojave fashioning these creations up, they lacked the imagination for one, and the sheer insanity for two. though many of the weapons you went up against seemed impractical, the White Legs wielded them with skill and ferocity that you hadn’t seen before. you started questioning if you were ever going to survive this. why didn’t Joshua hang back and think things through? why did he insist on charging in without knowing the odds? because he was Legion once, just like Caesar, and the arrogance of the Legion never truly leaves you. he is the Burned Man, of course he couldn’t wait to finish this war—

a loud boom, the earth shaking, you flying briefly then colliding with rock. hands on your throat, your rifle snatched from your arms. the White Legs had set off grenades, killing some of their own, but killing more of yours. coughing and sputtering against the warrior who had you by the neck, you kicked out, but they forced your legs apart and had you pinned hard against the canyon wall. it wasn’t a bad way to go, dying in battle, at least you died doing something worthwhile in this world. a clean shot entered and exited the warrior’s head, and you dropped to the sand. you didn’t have to look up to see who pulled that off, because he was already coming. he had you up on your feet, leaning on him, rifle back in hands. his voice was all around you, but you knew he was there, somewhere. you found your feet, standing up and letting go of him, and took aim.

one down. two, then three. Joshua snuck off, taking out more White Legs from behind. the Dead Horses were fighting bravely, taking on two or three White Legs at a time. you helped the best you could, dropping the odd White Leg warrior here and there. but soon you were spotted, and on the move again. knives in hand, you took as many White Leg melee fights as you could get. Joshua was still shooting somewhere across the camp, his shots evenly timed and most likely hitting their mark each time. Follows-Chalk spotted you across the camp, and made his way over, taking down White Legs as he went. for how soft he could be, he was downright lethal in battle. as he neared you, you realised with a start that he was covered from head to toe in blood. his markings were barely visible beneath.

“is the blood yours?!” you demanded, open-mouthed in shock.

“never mine!” he answered simply, moving you aside and clubbing a White Leg in the back of the head. a scream from somewhere made you freeze, and you saw a Dead Horse warrior die to a White Leg who wore a scary helmet and wielded a power fist. Follows-Chalk returned to your side, panting but still raging. “Salt-Upon-Wounds, the White Leg leader. you must kill him, without him they will die!” you were about to protest when a White Leg charged you, and took you to the ground. Follows-Chalk had him off of you in seconds, swinging his club with a war cry. you rolled out of the way, letting Follows-Chalk kill the White Leg, and took aim again with your rifle but Salt-Upon-Wounds was gone. he was just there. you scanned the battlefield with your scope, bloodshed was happening everywhere, but where was their leader?

“he’s gone! where is he?” you shouted to Follows-Chalk, but he was gone too. the ever-changing nature of battle meant you were now alone, again. you skirted around skirmishes and takedowns, reaching the spot where you’d first laid eyes upon this Salt man, but all he’d left behind was blood and death. the grisly sight of the Dead Horses falling on the battlefield hurt your soul. how would they ever carry out their after-death rituals if they lay abandoned on a cursed battlefield? you ducked reflexively as a machete narrowly missed your neck. one shot to the chest from below and your attacker fell, dead. your eyes scanned the camp again, raging with the sounds of war. you were sure that you’d never forget the sounds, even after returning to the chaos of the Strip.

an arrow whizzed past, just missing your face, you ducked down and ran, taking shelter behind a boulder. you aimed your rifle over the boulder, and spotted the archers hidden further in the camp, high up in the cliffs. that was why your warriors were falling so quickly, archers were picking them off! you steadied yourself and took aim again, within minutes all of the archers you could spot were dead, bodies hanging limp on the cliffs with single bullet holes in their heads. the Dead Horses began to fight back harder, now unburdened by arrows, and out for revenge for fallen brothers and sisters. you’d lost sight of Joshua a while ago, and Salt-Upon-Wounds had disappeared. you joined up with whichever Dead Horse you came across in battle, your kill count for the day reaching double digits. soon, the camp became a much smaller battlefield as the White Legs started backing themselves into corners.

you helped a Dead Horse member overpower a White Leg wielding a club, firing off another shot as another White Leg charged at you. they were getting desperate. they were beginning to fray. the Dead Horses were making a comeback, using the White Legs own weapons against them now. your eyes focused in on a flash of white becoming visible from the back of the camp, then your heart dropped into your feet. Joshua Graham was fighting Salt-Upon-Wounds, one-on-one, hand-to-hand.

••●••••●••••●••

you took aim, but the two were moving too wildly for you to confidently pull the trigger. you didn’t dare ask Joshua’s God for any more help, so you rallied the Dead Horses to you, and those who came were ready. you took them towards the back of the camp, flattening any White Legs that stood in your way. Salt-Upon-Wounds saw you approaching, and you went down to one knee, rifle aimed. Salt-Upon-Wounds held Joshua Graham by the neck, and God knows where his trusty pistols had gone. Joshua’s clear blue eyes bored into Salt-Upon-Wounds’s. your finger went to pull the trigger again, but Joshua was now in your sights, forced to stand before Salt-Upon-Wounds like a human shield. you lowered your rifle slowly.

“call off your warriors, or Joshua Graham dies!” Salt-Upon-Wounds announced, the battlefield stood still for the first time. you made a sound that told the Dead Horses to stand down, and they reluctantly did. “good girl. lower your weapons, all of you!” the remaining Dead Horses gathered around you did not move, instead they watched you. they were waiting for your move, and they would follow.

“do as I do, or we lose.” you whispered to them in their dialect, and it was passed around quickly. you threw your beloved rifle to the sand, and your knives, and the Dead Horses followed. they did not protest, they did it silently, they did it with you. for you. Salt-Upon-Wounds began walking towards you, still holding Joshua captive in his grip, a power fist on his free hand, already shiny with blood.

“you, outgirl, listen to me. I take Joshua Graham’s life, then the Dead Horses. then you will be for me, but not for kill.” Joshua’s eyes hardened but one look from you told him to not respond. his job was to focus on surviving Salt-Upon-Wounds right now.

“why not kill me?” you asked, lowering your hands and taking a step forwards. Salt-Upon-Wounds tightened his grip on Joshua. “do you know who I am, Salt-Upon-Wounds?” you let your hands rest on your belt. you could feel exactly what you needed.

“I see a outgirl who fights.” Salt-Upon-Wounds said after a moment, he was not big on talking, you realised.

“I am the Courier, I control the Strip in the Mojave and your leader, Caesar, wants me dead.” Salt-Upon-Wounds’s body tensed. “he is your leader, isn’t he?” Salt-Upon-Wounds threw Joshua to the sand, angry.

“Caesar… wants you. I give him you, and kill Joshua.” Salt-Upon-Wounds let Joshua’s shirt go, and raised the power fist. Joshua began to roll, you reached into your trusty belt, pulled out a small knife and launched it in Salt-Upon-Wounds’s direction. it landed in his face, he recoiled and stumbled backwards, yelling. you dove for Joshua, grabbing him and hauling him back towards the Dead Horses. the remaining White Legs watched in horror as Salt-Upon-Wounds was injured by an outsider. Follows-Chalk grabbed Joshua, but as you went to get up, you were dragged backwards.

you made fleeting eye contact with Follows-Chalk, then Joshua as you were flipped over by Salt-Upon-Wounds. the Dead Horses picked up their weapons as the remaining White Legs attacked. you saw the power fist coming, time slowed, Salt-Upon-Wounds pinned you down with his legs and yelled with pure rage as he brought the fist down. you reached up, twisting the small knife still embedded in his face. blood spurted out, showering you. you yanked the knife out, the shock gave you time to get it from under Salt-Upon-Wounds, but he was still bringing the power fist down.

you felt the dull heavy impact on your hand first. then the pain of your hand bones being shattered to pieces took over. your entire arm was throbbing from the impact. you were screaming but you couldn’t hear it. Salt-Upon-Wounds revelled in your pain, and raised the fist again. you clutched the small knife in the other hand, panting, tears forming in your eyes. he roared from above you, bringing the fist down in one big overhead swing. you whipped your good hand quick, and the knife flew. it skimmed the power fist and landed between Salt-Upon-Wounds’s eyes.

you were crying as Salt-Upon-Wounds’s stiff body went limp, the weight of the power fist dictating his fall. the power fist met the side of your head as you desperately tried to escape from under the now dead weight, and you were out cold.

••●••••●••••●••

Joshua stopped believing in his God right then and there. he was already up on one knee, but Follows-Chalk, fuelled by the fear of the power fist caving your face in, threw Salt-Upon-Wounds’s corpse off of you. the side of your face was open, blood pouring out. Follows-Chalk had his arms under you already, lifting you up and calling out for a healer. the surviving Dead Horses surrounded you, reaching out and touching your bare skin with their hands. a sign of respect, a collective hope that you would survive this gruesome injury and live to recount the battle around a campfire full of Dead Horse children, reunited with their families. Joshua’s mind was making his body move, but he had absolutely no awareness of it. it was as if someone else was taking charge of him physically as he worried about you.

Follows-Chalk sent any remaining Dead Horse scouts forward to call for the healers, the warriors remained with you, escorting those who had survived the battle back to the Dead Horse camp. Joshua walked in step with Follows-Chalk, eyes never leaving your body. he offered to take you from Follows-Chalk several times on the march home, but he refused, determined to get you home alive. healers came rushing up the river, war-torn bloodied scouts in tow. the old woman was there, stood in the river, a serious look on her face.

Follows-Chalk set you down in the river, holding you there so the old woman could examine you. she spoke harshly to her other healers in Dead Horse dialect, Joshua Graham listened but for the first time, he couldn’t translate the words in his head. the old woman bent down in the river, and her words seemed to move the water.

“the sky, the earth… we beg of you, as the blood of ours joins you, return her to us.” the other healers repeated the words, muttering under their breath, eyes closed. the old woman cupped her hands, pouring water over your open head wound. Joshua went to his knees watching the old healer work. the river welcomed him, he let it soak him through. Follows-Chalk also dropped to his knees gently in the river, copying the prayers of the healers.

soon, every Dead Horse member present was on their knees, praying and begging the land and sky to not take you from them. Joshua clasped his hands, rattling off one last prayer to his God. then, as the old woman’s worn hands touched your cold ones, a jolt of something went through you. all you really remembered was the hot blood streaming down your face, tainting your vision red. now you looked up and saw clear blue skies, white dancing clouds and felt the hold of the river all around you.

the old woman rejoiced as your eyes flickered open, everyone was relieved, thanking their ancestors’ spirits and the land and the sky for not taking you. mercy had been granted today, but it would likely not be granted again. Joshua slowly moved towards you, the river pulling him. he took you from the old healer’s hold, and sat you up out of the river. you looked around, surprised at being back in camp. hadn’t you just been facing Salt-Upon-Wounds...?

without another word, Joshua stood, carrying you up the river, and into the safety of Angel’s Cave. the healers did not use the same medicine that you were so used to in the Mojave, but Joshua was familiar with the basics. now that he had you alive, he intended to keep you that way. he carried you to his camp bed, carefully setting you down. he lit the campfire, taking off your wet clothes with as much dignity he could give you. he covered you in furs, then as your eyes danced in and out of consciousness, began stitching up the gash on your head. he knew it wouldn’t beat a surgeon’s steady hand and some anaesthetic, but it was better to close the wound rather than let it become infected.

he worked for hours, having to stop his hands from shaking each time you winced or moved your head away. he’d unravelled the bandages from his hands, leaving them exposed to the open air. he told himself that the constant tingle that soon felt like he was burning all over again, was nothing compared to this open wound on your head. you probably had one Hell of a headache too. he could really only pray that your brain had remained unscathed. he then carefully began to wrap your broken hand, though you had no real feeling down there and barely reacted.

Follows-Chalk, now clean of his enemies’ blood, came to see how you were getting on. Joshua had just about managed to finish the stitching to your head, if he ever forgot the sight of it, he’d be grateful. Follows-Chalk had the healers gather all of the herbs that could possibly help and brought them into the cave, Joshua had other ideas. he knew you’d found old world medicines in the Mojave, and often made more when out scouting for the Dead Horses. he told Follows-Chalk to search your bag, and he found the stash of Stimpacks.

Joshua hadn’t seen you use these in his presence. perhaps because you were trying not to invoke feelings of despair in him that no medicine would relieve his pain or mend his burns. Follows-Chalk, however, had seen you use these from time to time. admittedly, not often, but he knew how they worked.

“you push it into the skin,” he told Joshua, as you lay there, eyes closed and breathing shallow. “I think.” he added, absolving himself of any responsibility should this go wrong.

“I… I’ve seen this before, but rarely used them.” Joshua admitted. Follows-Chalk stared at the Stimpacks. another strange thing from beyond Zion.

“should we not use them?” Follows-Chalk asked, eyes lingering on your stitches.

“they’d help her…” Joshua began, when you opened your eyes and reached for the Stimpacks yourself. the two watched as you took one, jabbed it into your side, then removed it.

“done.” you sighed, handing it back to Follows-Chalk. “Follows, you’ve seen me use those before, don’t be scared of them.” you rolled onto your back and went to reach up to feel your stitches. Joshua’s hand caught your good hand and placed it back down to your side.

“I am no doctor, but we better leave those alone.” he said, thinking about how the stitches would turn out when they healed. if they healed. Follows-Chalk seemed to agree with the way he eyed up the stitches uneasily.

“there are no doctors left anymore anyway.” you mumbled, closing your eyes and rolling over to sleep. Joshua pulled the furs over you and stood up, clearing away his impromptu stitching kit. Follows-Chalk looked at you for a moment longer before standing, and approaching Joshua.

“Joshua Graham, I must ask you something.” Joshua paused, then turned to face Follows.

“what is it?” he asked, curious as to what Follows-Chalk could possibly have to ask him.

“when the Courier is recovered, I should be the one to take her back to the Mojave. do you think the same?” Follows-Chalk asked. Joshua was not expecting this question so he stalled for time by organising the medical inventory for a moment.

“I think that when the Courier leaves us, she should go alone once she reaches the Mojave.” Joshua said, giving Follows-Chalk a look. Follows-Chalk nodded, but in his head, he did not agree in the slightest. “she fell into our lives, and she has the right to walk back out as she arrived... alone.” Joshua knew he was lying to himself too, not just to Follows-Chalk. Joshua prayed for nothing more than to accompany you back to the Mojave and see how you live your life, but there was the not so small problem of the Legion, and your life did not have space for him… who knew who you had waiting for your safe return back on the Strip?

••●••••●••••●••

when you woke up, you had such a headache it made you sensitive to light and noise like some sort of mutated wasteland creature. Joshua had been asleep by the fire next to your camp bed, and when you sat up, holding your head, he came back to life. he brought you fresh water, handed you Stimpacks, ordered stacks of medicinal herbs from the healers. Follows-Chalk was in charge of the recovery of the fallen Dead Horses from the battle, so you didn’t see him for some time. you spent days in Angel’s Cave recovering, even then you weren’t sure you’d be fit to make the gruelling journey back to the Mojave anytime soon. your head hurt and your hand was still useless. Joshua felt both joy and despair at your predicament. he knew that you needed to get back to the Mojave soon, with Caesar and his Legion becoming an increasingly worrying problem, but when Joshua watched you sleep he saw your pained expression and knew you were in no fit state to travel. you barely moved your broken hand, he worried that it was beyond saving some days.

Follows-Chalk was surprised to see you still on the camp bed, huddled under the furs, stuck somewhere between heavy sleep and being consciously aware of the world. Joshua tried his hardest to get you to talk, drink water or even sit up, but each day you refused and fell back into a fitful sleep. it wasn’t until one night that Joshua finally found the strength to wake you. it had been a slow day, you’d tossed and turned and had bad dreams. the night was cold, cool. Joshua and Follows-Chalk took it in turns sitting with you, but you did not improve. Follows-Chalk left the cave to retrieve more bodies from the battlefield and transport them for proper burial with the other Dead Horse members, leaving Joshua on the night shift. at first, you were just whimpering in your sleep, Joshua had grown used to the sound, as much as it scared him. then you started to move. you jerked and shivered, the whimpering turned into incoherent words. Joshua shut his holy book and sat next to you, watching your face contort in your sleep. all of a sudden you were crying, repeating words over and over. Joshua couldn’t stand to watch, he reached out, a hand on your shoulder, but you didn’t wake. something had you stuck deep in your mind.

after several unsuccessful attempts to rouse you from sleep, Joshua pulled the furs away, his hands on your arms. he turned you onto your back, repeating your name over and over. you didn’t come out of sleep. he started to wonder if it was a seizure, or if he was about to lose you. he didn’t stop trying to wake you, and after he shook you by the shoulders, your eyes flew open and you sat up, gasping. relieved you weren’t dead, Joshua’s hands fell from you and he said a prayer. you threw the furs from your legs and checked that this was real, that this wasn’t a dream that turned into a nightmare. you’d had so many these past few days, unable to escape them. they bombarded you each time you closed your eyes. your eyes landed on Joshua praying and you began to worry that this was yet another dream.

“Joshua, Joshua, is this real?” you grabbed him by the face, leaning right into him. his clear blue eyes met yours, and his hands settled onto yours.

“this is real.” he took your trembling hands into his bandaged ones and held them tight. “I am real, you are real, we are real, we are here.” he told you, and you moved off the bed to be closer to him. he was real, thank the Lord. you ran your hands over the bandages and let the feel of them bring you back to the present.

“we… are real.” you decided, nodding as your hands went back to his face. “you are real, I am real.” Joshua nodded back, and you let your hands trail to his neck, then around him. he let you do it, just happy to be there. you had him in your arms, and he felt real and you felt real and you were finally free of the endless cycle of nightmares. Joshua’s arms then encircled you and you melted into him. your eyes closed but you did not slip back into the land of nightmares and horrors. you stayed there with him, safe.

“are you okay?” he asked, not pulling away.

“if you’re here… I think I am.” you replied, after thinking for a moment. words seemed to elude you sometimes, but it felt even worse now, since the battle.

“I will stay here then, with you.” Joshua said quietly, and you sighed in relief. you both sat like that for a moment, until Joshua’s arms managed to lift you into his lap and have you tucked in his chest. you watched the roaring fire behind, letting it soothe you back to sleep. when Joshua felt you go heavy, he lifted you up back into the camp bed, but climbed in with you. he removed his heavy SWAT vest, and his boots. in just his trousers he held you there in the single camp bed, furs covering you both, and prayed that your mind would heal as well as your stitches had.

••●••••●••••●••

messyyythoughts © 2023 do not translate without my permission, give credit if you repost, support always welcomed <3

#fallout #fallout new vegas #fallout joshua graham #messyyythoughts #fallout new vegas honest hearts #zion #joshua graham #courier six #female courier #Female Courier x Joshua Graham #sands of zion #part four #fnv

[vladolak]

I added a new chapter to my fallout New Vegas fic and I hope you all like it ^_^

#ao3 #joshua x courier #falloutnewvegas #ao3 writer #ao3 link #ao3 fanfic #joshua graham #courier six

[chaosintheavenue]

Fallout Opinion Survey- Results!

Thank you so much to all those who took part! We had 421 usable responses in total :D

One quick note- the nature of the data this time around means that most of the auto-generated charts are usable as they are, which does mean this post will be very image-heavy. I’d be very appreciative if someone who knows how to write image descriptions for charts could add them on!

Without further ado, let’s get into the results...

The Basics:

Favourite DLC:

Dead Money- 115 (...nice) Old World Blues- 94 Far Harbor- 76 Lonesome Road- 53 Nuka World- 27 Point Lookout- 17 Honest Hearts- 11 The Pitt- 9 Mothership Zeta- 7 Automatron- 3 Operation Anchorage- 3 Broken Steel- 2 Vault-Tec Workshop- 1

Favourite faction:

Followers of the Apocalypse- 146 Railroad- 62 Minutemen- 45 NCR- 23 Kings- 22 Brotherhood of Steel (all chapters combined)- 20 Yes Man/Wildcard Courier- 18 Great Khans- 14 Enclave- 10 Caesar's Legion- 8 Raiders (76, Nuka World and general combined)- 8 Institute- 6 Chairmen- 5 Unity- 4 Atom Cats- 3 Mr House- 3 Boomers- 3 Freeside- 2 Responders- 2 Children of Atom- 2 Ghoul settlements in general- 2 Hubologists- 2 Tunnel Snakes- 2 And the list of those with one vote each: The Family, Think Tank, Reaver Movement, Ciphers, Broken Hills, Powder Gangers, Reilly's Rangers, Acadia, Goodneighbor, Underworld, White Glove Society, Omertas, Jacobstown, post-Legion Ulysses, Cult of the Mothman, 80s, and talking Deathclaws from Fallout 2

Favourite companion:

Arcade Gannon- 75 Nick Valentine- 53 Hancock- 39 Veronica- 38 Deacon- 30 ED-E- 26 Raul- 23 Boone- 22 MacCready- 13 Christine Royce- 12 Dogmeat (all)- 11 Fawkes- 10 Preston Garvey- 10 Charon- 9 Rex- 9 Butch Deloria- 8 Goris- 8 Cait- 7 Danse- 7 Piper- 7 Lily- 6 Marcus- 6 Rose of Sharon Cassidy- 6 Curie- 5 Porter Gage- 4 Dean Domino- 4 X6-88- 3 Strong- 3 Ulysses- 3 RL-3- 3 Ian- 2 Dog/God- 2 Codsworth- 2 Joshua Graham- 2 Old Longfellow- 2 Lenny- 2 Ada- 2 And the 'list of ones': Tycho, Katja, Follows-Chalk, Sydney

-

The Lore:

(other titles specifically mentioned in the final question: Metro and Doom)

Characters headcanoned as synths: The Sole Survivor (by far the most common theory), Sturges, Deacon, Preston Garvey, the Lone Wanderer in Broken Steel, James/Dad, Dogmeat, Three Dog, Parker Quinn, Charon, Courier Six, Tinker Tom, Zeke, Arthur Maxson, Father/older Shaun, Piper, Travis Miles, Mysterious Stranger, Caesar ('cause funny'), Joshua Graham, most Children of Atom, Desdemona, Myrna, Marcy Long, Mr Burke, Vault 76 Overseer, Trashcan Carla, Cricket, many BoS and Enclave members, Reaver Movement members, Redeye, Moira Brown, Dr Zimmer, Ranger Ghost, most birds, Arcade Gannon, Elijah, Lizzie Wyatt, Kellogg, Mama Murphy, Nat Wright, and Sierra Petrovita

(please note I'm not all that familiar with Fallout 4 lore, if any of the FO4 peeps here are canon synths then I didn't know about it lol)

Fan theories/headcanons from the final question that cropped up repeatedly (in approximate order of popularity):

Vault-Tec started the Great War

Alien involvement with the pre-war US government and/or the Great War

Horses are still around

Talking Deathclaws are still around

Occult/eldritch influence (e.g. the Dunwich building) is widespread

Charon is a survivor of Vault 92

Deacon is a founder of the Railroad and his 'real' backstory was another lie

Veronica and Christine reunite

Sarah Lyons is alive

Gen 3 synths and ghouls still need to eat, drink, sleep and so on

Ghouls only turn feral in specific circumstances (suggestions include prolonged isolation and relying too heavily on radiation instead of food as a source of energy) and it is not inevitable

International travel and immigration continues

Danse and Harkness were sent to the Capital Wasteland by the Railroad together

X person is actually multiple people- suggested for Deacon, Legate Lanius and Vulpes Inculta

The US is the either the only place that was nuked or the only place that hasn't rebuilt and recovered, and the rest of the world is just ignoring them and carrying on as normal

Cass is the Chosen One's daughter

Mama Murphy is the Chosen One

No-Bark Noonan is the Chosen One (lots of Chosen One theories popping up lol)

All subsequent Dogmeats in the series are named after the legend of the original Dogmeat

Father is not really Shaun

MacCready is lying about Duncan being ill (or one person even suggested Duncan existing)

Yes Man overthrows the Courier after being upgraded

The real Lone Wanderer died at the end of the vanilla game even if Broken Steel is installed, and the Broken Steel LW is a synth

Deacon once worked for the Institute

Deacon deliberately leads people to theorise that he is the Lone Wanderer to throw them off

Deacon is or was once a ghoul (also plenty of Deacon theories)

The Mysterious Stranger is a time traveller who protects the various PCs to maintain the timeline

Appalachia was turned into a barren wasteland by the nuclear trigger-happiness of the Vault 76 Dwellers (possibly interesting aside: my brother, who buys into this one, has gone as far as to theorise that the original Great War used very low-yield weapons and wasn't that severe on the environmental level (as far as literal nuclear war goes, that is), and it was the Vault 76ers nuking the hell out of Appalachia that triggered a continent-wide nuclear winter and sent the ecology of the wasteland into the state it's in in all subsequent games)

Glory is not a synth

The (in-game) reason for lore clashes and retcons is that the plot of each game is a retelling  of the story as it's passed around in the wasteland, so some details have been embellished or mixed up

I’ll be coming back to the theories from the final question at some point, but aside from that, that's a wrap! There isn't really much potential for me to play around with the data here like with the OC surveys, so this was more just me presenting the data as it came in without commentary. Still, I hope this is somehow interesting/insightful!

#fallout #survey #this was a bit all over the place lol #but as I said there's not much actual analysis I can do with this data

[murderous-wolf-daddy]

So obsessed with Joshua Graham x Courier Six. Cheated Death Gang 😘 Unkillable 🫶

[estoanquez]

these arts are founded on the "Up!" and Carl and Ellie's screenshots from there I really feel like my fallout otp's have exactly their vibes full of warm I love them :>

#fallout #fallout new vegas #fallout 4 #joshua graham #courier 6 #courier six #nick valentine #sole survivor #joshua graham x courier six #nick valentine x sole survivor #courier x joshua graham #ss x nick

[felassanis]

Fallout: New Vegas fan cast

Courier 6 - Emmy Rossum

Acrade Gannon - Chris Wood

Ulysses - Roger Cross

Veronica - Melissa Barrera

Benny - Oscar Isaac

Joshua Graham - Mads Mikkelson

Rose of Sharon Cassidy- Penelope Cruz

Craig Boone - Ed Skrein

Caesar - Michael Hogan

Vulpes Inculta - Jason Spisak

#fallout new vegas #fnv #fnv ulysses #courier six #arcade gannon #benny gecko #cass fnv #rose of Sharon cassidy #veronica santangelo #Joshua Graham #boone #*i wanted to use people that havent appeared in other fancasts #so if you think 'wow how can she pick X over X for this character' #its because i wanted to try DIFFERENT PEOPLE

[dalishkadan]

wip MONDAY because fuck rules

i was tagged by @thedashingcaptainweird to post a little snippet of something i'm working on. i wanna keep my gift fics close to my chest for the moment, but here's a little new vegas thing that i need to finish one of these days. i tag @dreadfutures, @a11sha11fade, and @rakshadow.

With his help, I had. In Zion I had learned, I had healed, and while it wasn’t complete, I was well on my way, firmly on the path, eyes now wide open to see where I was going. And though I didn’t want to admit it, that path took me out of Zion, out of the canyon, right back to the Mojave. There I’d left unfinished business, business I had to address before it was too late. The conflict was only brewing, threatening to boil over as the Legion and the NCR all vied for control over Hoover Dam and New Vegas. As much as I wanted to turn my back on it and forget everything, the guilt of abandoning the Mojave to its fate would have hung on me heavier than anything else, and I knew it. We both knew it. This parting, it was inevitable, an eventuality, the culmination of everything I’d become since I stepped foot here.

So then why was it so hard to leave?

I knew why. I just didn’t want to admit it. Not out loud. Not to myself. To put words to it would be to make it real, more real than it already was, and if it was real, that meant it could be lost, that it could crumble to dust in my hands, nothing more than sand to be swept away in the swift desert wind. And that … that I could not bear.

Joshua’s hand settled on my shoulder. “You cannot tarry here forever, Zelda.”

Nodding, I whispered, “I know.”

In one moment, he squeezed my shoulder, and in the next he’d spun me around and pulled me close, his broad chest making it easy to hide the way my eyes watered, tears threatening to spill even as I clenched my jaw and willed them away. I didn’t want to say goodbye, and so instead I told him, “I’ll come back. I promise.”

“I know you will, I have faith in you.”

He squeezed me that much tighter for just a moment before he loosened his grip, pressing something cold and hard into my hand. Looking down, I gaped as I saw his pistol, A Light Shining in Darkness, the metal of the barrel gleaming in the sunlight that filtered in through the open windows. This close, I could see the etching along the side, a phrase in another language that I couldn’t understand but that he’d once told me read, And the light shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehended it not. He’d wielded it as long as I’d known him, never parting from it once, and as I looked back up at him, I shook my head. “I can’t take this.”

Those brilliantly intense blue eyes felt as if they pierced my soul as he said, “I cannot accompany you, Zelda, we know this. And if I cannot personally ensure your safety, I want some assurance that you will be well looked after. This is the only thing I can send in my stead, the only thing I trust other than myself to keep you safe.”

All resistance in me crumbled under his gaze as I nodded, taking the .45 from him. In return, I unholstered Maria, the 9mm I’d taken from Benny’s corpse, pressing it into Joshua’s hand as I promised, “I’ll be back for this.”

With the way the skin around his eyes crinkled, I knew he was smiling underneath his bandages as he nodded. “Indeed.” Leaning down, he pressed his covered lips against my forehead. “Can you do one thing for me in the Mojave?”

“Anything,” I breathed.

Stepping back, he fixed me with that fierce regard. “Send my regards to Caesar.”

I couldn’t hold back a grin as I reminded him. “I am a courier, remember?”

#wip #fanfiction #fanfic #fallout #fallout fanfiction #fallout fanfic #fallout fic #fallout new vegas #fallout new vegas fanfiction #fallout new vegas fanfic #fallout new vegas fic #new vegas #new vegas fanfiction #new vegas fanfic #new vegas fic #joshua graham #courier six #female courier #joshua graham x courier

[everydayyoulovemeless]

Hehe seeing a lot of NSFW asks, if you're feeling like writing more maybe now the NSFW alphabet for Joshua?

Joshua NSFW Alphabet

➼ Word Count » 1.2k ➼ Warnings » MDNI ➼ Genre » NSFW, Romantic ➼ A/N » Always in the mood for a good alphabet

A - Aftercare (what they’re like after sex)

He's so kind. He'll scoop you into his arms and carry you down to one of Zion's rivers to wash you. It's peaceful, private, and just fast enough to feel good against your skin. Not to mention how cool the water feels, which is always a bonus when you live in a desert.

B - Body part (their favorite body part of theirs and also their partner’s)

Joshua loves your face. He loves the adoring way you stare up at him or the way your features shift depending on how you feel. He could stare at you for hours. You're the most divine thing he's ever laid his eyes on. He personally doesn't have a favorite part about himself. He considers all of him to be stained with sin, so it'd be disgraceful for him to be drawn to any of it.

C - Cum (anything to do with cum, basically)

He would never dare to cum inside of you. Someone as sinful as him shouldn't be allowed something so sweet. You deserve someone younger - someone who you actually deserve to have children with, or at the very least, cum inside of you. Instead, he just releases himself on the floor.

D - Dirty secret (pretty self-explanatory, a dirty secret of theirs)

He likes the thought of covering your mouth with bandages to keep you quiet. He won't ever mention it. He thinks it may be too degrading for someone like you, but he does think about it a lot.

E - Experience (how experienced are they? do they know what they’re doing?)

He hates talking about his past experiences, especially around you. Mostly because he finds it rude and unnecessary, but he has definitely slept with a handful of women before you.

F - Favorite position (this goes without saying)

Missionary (haha 'cause he's literally a missionary). It's pretty basic, but he thinks it's the best position to be in when it comes to appreciating his partner. He likes being able to look at your face and trace his fingers over almost any part of your body he wants, but most importantly, it's the most comfortable for him. His burns sadly don't allow much room for experimenting, so missionary is what he sticks with.

G - Goofy (are they more serious in the moment? are they humorous? etc.)

He doesn't like being humorous when participating in something so sacred. As a follower of Christ, he takes the deed very seriously and would be ashamed if he ever took you or the act for granted.

H - Hair (how well groomed are they? does the carpet match the drapes? etc.)

He can't grow hair anymore due to the severity of his burns, so well groomed?

I - Intimacy (how are they during the moment? the romantic aspect)

As I've said before, Joshua takes sex very seriously and would do anything in his power to make you feel that. He'll take you by the hand and gently guide you to an isolated part of Zion, where he'll set up a small camp, cook for you, kiss you, and take you to bed. The romantic parts are one of the most important factors to him, and he never fails to make it a priority.

J - Jack Off (masturbation headcanon)

He doesn't masturbate. It can be painful at times and he's too old to be feeling horny all the time.

K - Kink (one or more of their kinks)

He's generally more vanilla in his kinks, but every now and then, he likes to do some light bondage.

L - Location (favorite places to do the do)

In a nice, secluded spot in Zion will do. Usually, in a cave of some sort, but as long as it's private, he'll be happy.

M - Motivation (what turns them on, gets them going)

He's motivated by you're happiness and pleasure. It might sound cliche, but the only reason he's still fucking is because he likes being able to make you feel good. Even if it hurts him, he feels that it's his duty to honor and worship you in such a way.

N - No (something they wouldn’t do, turn offs)

He refuses to degrade, harm, or humiliate you in any way. He can't ever imagine anyone doing that to the person they love, and he certainly couldn't imagine doing that to you.

O - Oral (preference in giving or receiving, skill, etc.)

He prefers to give, one because he doesn't feel he deserves something so sweet from you and second because he can't help but cringe at the feeling of teeth against his burn scars.

P - Pace (are they fast and rough? slow and sensual? etc.)

He prefers to go at a slower pace, one because he doesn't want to hurt you, accident or not, and second, he likes to take his time with you.

Q - Quickie (their opinions on quickies, how often, etc.)

The simple answer is no. Joshua doesn't like rushing it with you, especially since neither of you really has to, and would much prefer to take you out on a walk somewhere in Zion before properly pursuing you in that manner. He personally believes that these things were meant to take time, so it's safe to say quickies are off the table.

R - Risk (are they game to experiment? do they take risks? etc.)

No, never. Hurting you or risking your well-being in any way is the last thing he ever wants to do.

S - Stamina (how many rounds can they go for? how long do they last?)

Usually, he stops after the first round. He takes his time with it anyway, so it's not like it's disappointing at all. He's just old and struggles to stay horny long enough to please you.

T - Toys (do they own toys? do they use them? on a partner or themselves?)

I don't think he knows what a toy is, but even if he did, I don't see him using them much at all.

U - Unfair (how much they like to tease)

He hardly ever teases you. His number one priority when being intimate with you is to give you whatever you desire. He couldn't ever imagine depriving you of anything or subjecting you to any kind of humiliation.

V - Volume (how loud they are, what sounds they make, etc.)

Joshua doesn't make much sound, but you'll occasionally hear him grunting above you. It's still pretty quiet, though.

W - Wild card (a random headcanon for the character)

He likes to pray with you before and after sex. He thinks it's customary to thank God for granting you both the ability to feel and the chance to find one another.

X - X-ray (let’s see what’s going on under those clothes)

He's a good 6 inches, bald, and covered in injuries. It's not pretty to look at, but that doesn't mean it can't make you feel good.

Y - Yearning (how high is their sex drive?)

It's not very high at all. He's old, and it generally hurts to do. 'Getting it up' is more of a holiday than an everyday occurrence.

Z -Zzz (how quickly they fall asleep afterwards)

He doesn't like falling asleep afterward, instead, he prefers to hold you and caress gentle symbols into your skin. The Lord gave both of you moments like these to cherish, not to ignore.

#fallout new vegas #fallout #fnv #fallout nsft #nsft alphabet #nsft headcanons #joshua graham x reader #joshua graham x courier six #joshua graham x courier 6 #joshua graham fnv #joshua graham headcanons #fnv nsft #nsft fnv #nsft fnv headcanons

[juniper-tree]

These Wild Fires

What’s it gonna take to make her walk away from Zion? masterpost

Read on AO3  

1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8  • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 • 16  • 17 • 18

Fallout: New Vegas - Female Courier x Joshua Graham 

Rating: explicit/18+

Belief wasn't something which came natural to Eddy. Neither did trust. Belief was like a sarsaprilla cap—worth something because everybody said it was. Trust was the rare blue star on the inside. Belief could get you killed, if you were dumb enough not to second-guess. And keep your gun loaded.

And trust? Trust was not a thing—it was a process. A long road, with so many damned curves and breaks you could lose your way.

So she wasn't sure she would ever believe. But she could feel. She felt something when Joshua spoke his word. When he told her about salvation. He was so sure about it, nothing would move him. She wondered what it was like, to be like him.

Maybe she didn't show it, but the things he told her—she thought about them a lot. Forgiveness. Sacrifice.

Forgiving was not in her. And she was fine with that.

At her side, Joshua laid his hand on the rock between them. Inches from her hip.

Here in Zion, the idea had come to her, quietly, like it had always been there: it was not up to her to forgive Joshua Graham.

Or for anyone in this blasted world she had wronged to forgive her. Anyone she'd let live.

People like her, like him—they left a lot of blood in their wake. It stained them as sure as they were breathing. It could not be washed clean, like it was never there, no matter what Joshua's book said.

But there could be a balance. She could give of herself sometimes, and do things right. Like those scales she could pick out in the stars. Weigh the blood against the good.

Could be it was enough to do that, just about half the time. To look for a way to be good. Like Joshua had done.

#fnv #fallout new vegas #joshua graham #oc: eddy #courier six #female courier x joshua graham #masterpost #complete work

[vaulthistorian]

Can you do a quick little Male/ Gender neutral Courier x Joshua Graham, where They're both sitting next to the fire and the Courier scoots to sit closer to Joshua? :3

Asks! 🥰 Of course I can, hope you're satisfied.

You'd not been with the Dead Horses long. The Sorrows and Daniel had proved to hold up as allies, and your determination to help the people of Zion grew stronger the longer you stayed. The water didn't suffer the same radiation and the canyon walls were marked with drawings they held close.

But Joshua wasn't as attached to the place as Daniel. In a way you could sympathize; having had few places to truly call home for yourself.

You came back to the Dead Horse camp from visiting Daniel and the Sorrows. The fire they sat around crackled. It was clever how they had separate set ups for food vs. warmth.

You couldn't stop your little smile when you spotted Joshua among the group, sat near the fire, close enough for some warmth but no more.

"And like the prodigal son, he returns." Joshua joked softly, something new you hadn't seen from him.

"You seem lax." You came over and fluffed your duster as you sat a respectful distance from him.

He shrugged, crossing one leg over the other. One of the Dead Horse's came over with a plate and offered it to you.

"Thank you." Your stomach growled and you eagerly dug in.

Joshua found it fascinating to watch you. He saw parts of himself in you, it gave him comfort, and fear. You seemed to be able to have a strong impact on the world. On NCR and the Legion, couriers held more power than they may realize.

You felt his gaze on you, thinking, considering. You moved your plate and scooted closer, sitting nearer to him.

His eyes widen slightly before cutting off his reaction and looking back at the fire.

"You have a lot of responsibility, past Zion. Past the Mojave."

You stuffed the last bit of gecko meat into your mouth and swallowed. "Hey, if I let you take the Dead Horses, The Sorrows, and Daniel out into the Mojave, I'll make sure you're provided for wherever you end up going."

Joshua was quiet.

"So don't think this is all on you." Your hand briefly touched his knee, close enough to him your body warmth collided.

"I'm responsible enough to take care of my problems."

"Oh. A problem, are we?" He turned his head, tilting slightly.

You stare at him, something about only being able to see his eyes makes them more intense and beautiful. You smiled softly, "Well, my problem now. I don't mind."

"Somehow you always find things to say I don't expect from you..."

You lean closer, your warm breath fanning across the bandages on his chin. Before you can do anything stupid you catch yourself, his sharp eyes watching.

"Watch my lips more often, I'm sure you'll figure it out." You patted his thigh, making his eyebrows scrunch briefly.

God, you really had to send this one, didn't you? Somehow... Joshua doesn't find himself complaining. A little smile tugging at his lips. His body is relaxing with your close proximity. Looking down briefly before his eyes drew up to your lips.

Well, if you insisted. He'd pay much closer attention.

#joshua graham fallout #fallout new vegas #fallout nv #fnv courier #fnv #courier 6 #courier six #joshua graham #joshua graham x reader #Joshua Graham x courier 6 #Little blurb

[vladolak]

Hiya :3

there's a new chapter and this one's a bit longer than usual and I hope you all like it ❤️

This chapter is called Quick Fall on Delicate Waves

#falloutnewvegas #joshua x courier #joshua graham #female courier #courier six #ao3 #ao3 writer #ao3 link #New Chapter :3 #Whats gunna happen? #Maybe something nerve wrecking #Maybe something cute? #Youll have to see ^_^

[vaguewrites]

I drew my oc and Joshua

#my art #art #fanart #sketchbook #oc #fallout #fallout new vegas #joshua graham #courier six #oc x canon #courier x joshua graham

[nightingaelic]

Reactions to a vampire courier? Companions plus Benny, Ulysses, Graham, House, Caesar, and Yes Man. (sorry if that's too many :x)

TW: Blood (maybe obviously)

Also I don't normally feel some type of way about AUs but the idea of Joshua Graham encountering a vampire courier is giving me shivers

The courier was a little... strange. Not in any way that stood out to the average wastelander just by looking at them, everyone in the Mojave had their quirks and the courier was no exception. Hell, you get shot in the head and come back, you're bound to have a screw or two loose. They were unquestionably a night owl, but so were half the people on the Strip, who only started to wake up after the sun had gone down and the slot machines were singing their loudest. They usually had bags under their bloodshot eyes, but every caravan driver from here to the Hub was short on sleep.

On the other hand, the courier had some habits that were a little beyond surface-level eccentricities. For one, no one had ever seen them eating, not once. Even when the King laid out a spread of pre-war snacks and liquor or when the buffet at the Tops was refreshed, they politely declined and took a swig from the canteen that they never offered to anyone else. They were also rather odd about bathrooms, insisting that anyone accompanying them remain outside on watch and let no one else through the door until they were finished. But the undeniable moment of oddity came one night in October, when their companion rounded a corner in Freeside after a trip to the Atomic Wrangler and discovered the courier behind a rusted dumpster, holding a man against a brick wall with their teeth buried in his neck.

The courier drew back at the interruption, blood smeared across their face. "I'm not- it's not what- he- oh, fuck."

Arcade Gannon: Arcade stared open-mouthed for a moment, before snapping violently back into the present. "Is he dead?"

"Umm..." The courier glanced at the man they were holding, whose head was lolling against the bricks. "Yes? Mostly."

With no patient to resuscitate, Arcade rounded on them. "Six, what in the ever-loving fuck are you doing?"

The courier tried to wipe away the blood that was dribbling from their chin, but they only succeeded in spreading it up their jawline. "Well, I, um, I was trying to..."

Whatever excuse they were searching for eluded them, so they dropped the pretense. "I was feeding, Arcade."

"Feeding? What, like some kind of-" Arcade's eyes widened and he cut his sentence off early in realization. "No. No way. That's not- vampires aren't real!"

That earned him a look of intense skepticism. "Arcade, we've fought off plant monsters and rattlesnake-coyote hybrids together. I have a gun in my pack that lets me teleport."

"Oh, okay, so you have some kind of iron deficiency and you're delusional." Arcade laughed, the sound high and harsh in the quiet alley. "Great. Fuck."

Craig Boone: Rather than engage in an abandoned alley, Boone immediately backtracked to a busier street. He was unsurprised when the courier didn't follow him: Even in Freeside, someone covered in blood was sure to be noticed and questioned.

Boone left town that night and made for Novac. He was pretty sure the courier would follow him, but he didn't know where else to go. At least he knew they were coming. A few people in Novac asked about where he'd been, what the courier was up to, but eventually they stopped asking.

A couple of weeks went by. Boone was on the night shift again when the door into the dinosaur swung open to reveal the courier. He'd heard someone coming, their feet on the stairs, and he already had his gun pointed in their face. "We will never work together again," he said, before they could open their mouth.

"Boone, can you just-"

"I don't want an explanation." Boone shook his head. "I don't need one. I already did you a favor, leaving New Vegas without putting you back in your grave. This is over."

The courier took a deep breath. "71."

"What?"

"71. I've killed 71 Legion soldiers and left their bodies empty under the Mojave sky." They looked down and shuffled their feet. "I've tasted their fear. They're more scared of me than the Burned Man, now."

Boone studied them. Ever so slowly, he lowered his gun.

Lily Bowen: "Put him down, dearie," Lily chastised them. "You're playing too roughly with that man. And watch your language around your grandma!"

The courier looked down at their victim, at their torn throat and limp limbs. "He tried to mug me, Lily. It wasn't pretty."

"He looks like he's had enough," Lily insisted. "Set him down. Gently."

With a sigh, the courier obliged and lowered the man to the ground. "I'm sorry, Lily. I should have told you earlier. I don't mean to be rude when I turn down your cooking, I just... I can't seem to..."

"Hush, now." Lily produced her enormous handkerchief and gathered the courier up in her arms, dabbing at the blood on their face with a corner of the cloth. "You've gotten it all over yourself, haven't you? We can clean that right up, but it looks like Grandma's going to have to do a load of laundry. You made the mess, so you get to help."

Raul Alfonso Tejada: Raul swallowed nervously, something he'd noticed he was increasingly doing around the courier. "You know, we get murciélagos down in Arizona that do the same thing. They won't leave the brahmin alone."

The courier took in his anxious stance and sighed. "Raul, I'm not going to hurt you. Prometo. It's okay."

"Sure boss, but I don't think the hair on the back of my neck is going down anytime soon." Raul smiled, but it was more of a grimace. "Or it wouldn't, if I still had any. Como..?"

"No clue." The courier shrugged and held their hands up, letting the corpse they'd been holding slide to the ground. "I think it had something to do with me surviving Benny's best attempts to do me in, but a bullet is a bullet and I don't remember if I was like this before, or..."

"Or only after." Raul chuckled. "Jesucristo, and here I am thinking I'll outlive you like most everyone else I've known."

"Yep."

"Should I start calling you el chupacabra?"

The courier grinned, a bloody smile with sharp teeth.

Rose of Sharon Cassidy: "Fuck," Cass echoed, scrambling to pull her shotgun from its holster. "Knew I had too much, can't even- who are you and what've you done with the courier? Some kind of cannibal, wearing their skin? Alien? Shapeshifter? I'll blow a hole in your liver to match mine!"

"Whoa, Cass, it's me, it's me!" The courier dropped the man they were holding and held their blood-stained hands up. "Same old Six, just... maybe I wasn't straight with you about why I don't order anything at bars."

"Goddamn right you weren't straight with me!" Cass gestured at the body on the ground with the barrel of her gun. "Who's the fucker on the floor and why are you two pints in on him?"

"Just trying to get my drink on," the courier muttered.

Cass repaid this facetiousness with a jab of her shotgun, and they raised their hands higher. "Okay, okay, I'm sorry! You tell me, how do you tactfully tell someone that you're a creature of the night and you need to drink blood to survive?"

"Creature of the night? You're fucking loopy." Cass' eyes narrowed. "There's plenty of critters in the Mojave that only come out when it's dark, but most of them don't tear into..."

She trailed off into curses when she realized she was wrong. The courier smiled hesitantly and lowered their hands an inch. "Hey. Let me chuck this failed mugger in the dumpster and we can talk about it like a pair of civilized folks?"

Veronica Santangelo: Veronica squeaked and fell back a few steps, banging her elbow against the edge of the dumpster. A jolt of confused pain shot up her arm, and the Scribe couldn't help giggling harshly at the sudden assault on her funny bone.

"Not- laughing... at murder," she managed to get out between hisses of pain. "Oh, for the love of... right, you're not getting out of explaining what you are, exactly, just because I'm indis-indisposed!"

The courier couldn't help laughing at the squirming Scribe, but they did their best to stifle it. "Sorry, I'm sorry, I um... I guess I don't really know... what I am?"

"There's books!" Veronica burst out, pointing at the courier and their victim wildly. "I've seen them, in old libraries. Creatures that feed on blood, only come out at night, don't show up in... in mirrors, of course, no wonder you're weird about bathrooms, I should test... Dracula! That's it, you're a Dracula!"

"A Dracula?" The courier held their hands up, as if seeing them anew. "Never heard of them. Are they... bad?"

"Well, traditionally, yes." Veronica made a face and rubbed her elbow. "Black cloaks, sleeping in coffins, seducing and manipulating everyone around them... and people don't like it when you take their blood, in my experience."

"Whose blood have you taken?"

"This isn't about me, Six!"

ED-E: The eyebot bobbed wildly and made noises of concern, blips and blats and a flat burst of trumpets from some old jazz tune.

"I was hungry," the courier protested. "And this asshole pulled a knife on me and wanted all of my caps. Probably more than that, if we're being honest. He wasn't doing the world any good, but he did me some, for sure."

ED-E flipped between old clips of a Silver Shroud radio show. "Well, isn't this a deep, dark <static> secret? <static> In a situation such as this, the best anyone can do is <static> try to control it!" The robot added some more concerned beeps for good measure.

"I'm trying," the courier said with a sigh, looking down at the dead man they were holding. "You know I wouldn't hurt some random person, ED-E. Not if I could help it. The Mojave's full of bad people, enough to keep me going if I'm careful."

Rex: The hair on Rex's spine stood up, and he let out a long, low growl. The courier froze for a moment, before realizing that he was growling not at them but at the man they were holding.

"He's dead, Rex," they reassured the cyberdog, lowering the corpse to the floor for inspection.

Rex sniffed the body over, taking in the copper scent of his blood and the Freeside stink on his clothes. He sniffed the courier too, each of their hands they held out to him and the thick headiness of adrenaline. He whined and wagged his tail twice.

"Good boy," the courier said, straightening up. "It's about time I turned in, anyway. Let's dump this guy and split."

Benny Gecko: Benny crossed his arms. "You know, Six, if you're dead set on getting your kicks in Freeside every now and then, you might want to ease up on the passions with the next greaser you snag. This one's torn all to pieces."

"I wasn't- what kind of-" The courier dropped the man they were holding and sputtered. "Christ, only you could make a midnight murder awkward, Benny."

"Murder?" Benny raised his eyebrows and looked from side to side theatrically. "Who said anything about a murder? All I saw was some dreamboat and the best apple butterer of New Vegas playing back alley bingo, officer."

The courier's eyes narrowed. "Not gonna rat me out? Tell the King or somebody that I'm..."

"What, taking a page out of the White Glove Society's book?" Benny held his hands up. "None of my business. Well, if you ever come for me with that look in your eyes, though, that'll be a different story."

"Not much you'd be able to do," the courier pointed out. "You already tried and failed to kill me once."

Ulysses: Rather than react like any normal wastelander might've upon encountering someone attacking a man with their teeth, Ulysses just stood there, taking the scene in. "Heard tales of a tribe like you. East, farther east than even I've walked... a coven hiding in tunnels, emerging only when their hungers grow too strong to ignore, strong enough to pull blood from the veins of the world around them."

"Well, I don't hide in tunnels." The courier grimaced and heaved their victim up over their shoulder, depositing them unceremoniously in the dumpster. "Unless some disgruntled Frumentarius sends me out to hunt mutants under Hopeville."

"Perhaps you have more in common with those predators than I assumed," Ulysses admitted. "But then, your path has always run red. Blood of the Old World, blood of the new, blood of the Bull and the Bear..."

The courier rolled their eyes as they peeled off their red-stained coat and tossed it in the dumpster as well. "Don't talk to me about blood. I know you've seen just as much as me, but it doesn't mean the same thing when I look at it."

Ulysses cracked a hint of a smile. "You see life where I see death. Two sides, courier."

"Yeah, yeah. If you're not going to try to kill me, come on. You can wax poetic and lecture me about which road I'm walking while I take a shower."

Joshua Graham: "A creature far from God," Graham said in his most reproachful tone. "Forever damned for the souls of the innocent they've taken from the earth. Aren't we a pair, courier."

"You can fuck right off with that attitude." The courier dropped the man they were holding and wiped their hands on their coat. "He tried to kill me first. For some caps."

"The crimes of others do not absolve you of your own sins, courier," Graham continued, leisurely retrieving his gun from its holster. He held it up in the muted neon light that filtered through the alley, turning the weapon this way and that. "Though I confess I am also looking for absolution in this way."

"Are you going to kill me?" the courier asked, eyeing the gun as well.

"I've no doubt it would leave this world better than when you walked it," Graham replied. "But my own opinions are not enough to seal your fate. Perhaps we should find this man's family and hear their feelings on the matter."

The courier took a step forward, then another, until their chest was right up against the pistol's muzzle, pressed against the fabric of their shirt. "Go ahead. Try."

And though Joshua Graham was sorely tempted to pull the trigger, though the courier made no move to stop him, something in their eyes... some faraway pain, older than the desert itself, fresh as the blood on the ground, stayed his hand.

He lowered the gun, chastised, and the courier walked away.

Robert House: The Securitron that bore Robert House's face on its screen leveled a minigun at the courier. "Whoa!" the courier protested, dropping their victim and putting their hands out. "Can't we talk about this?"

"And what have we to discuss?" House sounded absolutely disgusted. "I believe you're familiar with my contract with the White Glove Society. If they wish to continue their current prosperity in New Vegas, cannibalism is strictly forbidden. You are subject to the same terms and conditions, as one of my employees."

"Terms and condi- hold on, hold on, you never asked me whether I was a cannibal," the courier replied. "Are you talking about that document you had me sign, way back when I agreed to help you fight the NCR and the Legion?"

"The very same."

"How is that fair? That thing was over 200 pages long, I didn't grow up in the 21st century, I don't have a degree in... okay, okay." The courier waved their hands. "Cannibalism is a no-go. This isn't cannibalism, this is vampirism."

"Which falls under the definition of cannibalism," House replied, his annoyed tone still detectable over the sound of the minigun spinning up. "Section 3.65, subsection F. Next time, read the fine print."

Caesar: The Legion's great leader pivoted in an instant from surprise to quiet anger. "Clean yourself up, courier. I expect to see you in my quarters within the hour."

He turned and left the alley swiftly, letting his powerful stride and swinging cloak cover his shaken confidence. The people of Freeside cowered as he passed, shrinking into the shadows as he made his way back to the Strip, but the fear in their eyes was not enough to erase the image of the courier bent over in bloodlust, holding their victim in total subjugation.

The courier found him on the top floor of the Lucky 38, gazing out over the city he had conquered and named his Rome. "Leave us," Caesar bid his Praetorian Guard. They bowed and departed the room without question.

"You asked to see me," the courier said nervously, shifting their weight from foot to foot. They had changed clothes, and no trace of blood remained on them.

"I did." Caesar beckoned them to the window next to him. They stood in silence for a moment, watching the lights wink below.

"I'm a well-read man, courier," Caesar said finally. "I know the legends of the Old World, and I recognize the marks of one of their nightmares in you. I order you to tell me the truth: Do you fit the full definition of the creature they called 'vampire,' or do you simply mimic the things to add to your fearsome affect?"

The courier didn't answer right away. When they did, their voice was soft. "I pretend to be nothing. I am what I am."

"And everything that comes with it?" Caesar pressed. "Darkness, the blood of the innocent, eternity?"

"Yes."

Caesar turned to face them fully. "Then I, Almighty Caesar, command you to make me as you are."

Yes Man: "Now that's a twist I didn't see coming!" Yes Man said, his happy tone only slightly tempered with uncertainty. "Boy, am I glad I don't have a circulatory system right now!"

The courier shushed the Securitron and looked around the alley surreptitiously. "Yes Man, I swear to god, if you blow my cover I'm disassembling you."

"As I've told you before, I can't technically die!" Yes Man reassured them. "And I certainly wouldn't want to endanger you and your hobbies, but my volume mixer is tied to my enthusiasm simulator and I can't adjust it! You'll just have to hope any passersby aren't interested in following my friendly voice into an alley!"

"Then go back to the Lucky 38 and we'll talk later," the courier insisted, through gritted teeth.

"I technically never left! But if you mean this Securitron, sure thing!" Yes Man zoomed away on his single wheel, whistling the whole way back to the casino where the rest of his consciousness was housed. He kept whistling as he ran probability algorithms, only pausing when the courier returned after a few hours and crossed their arms in front of his main screen.

"Hi there!" he said joyfully. "I've just been cross-checking Mr. House's records on noteworthy disappearances in the Strip, and I've flagged eight of them as potentially being connected to you! I don't want to assume your intentions, but if you don't want to be found out, I've developed a plan for choosing your next victims that will help you remain undetected in New Vegas for 184 years! Give or take a few!"

The courier put their head in their hand and sighed.

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