Foalout 4 – Sanctuary Hill – Chapter 50 – Lothmar
The memory was dark at first but the words were very crisp and colorful
“Please dad, I want to go with you.”
“You’re not going anywhere with me. You’re not my son.”
“But you cant just leave me here, I don’t want to die! Please, just think about it for a second.” The boys voice said panickily as you placed them in the pod that synth retention used for hard wipes. All units had to be wiped before they were scrapped.
Suddenly the whole memory was illuminated in red. “YOU’RE NOT SHAUN! You’re~ not shaun…” You found your arms trembling while holding the synth in place after slamming them, nearly throtteling it back into the back support. “You’re a robot, made to think you’re real.”
“So you’re just going to leave me?” They ask hoping to elicit sympathy as the hand and ankle restraints engage.
“No.” As you drew the throatslicer from your hip your words became icy cold. “Shaun will always be with me.” You added raising the blade thinking you needed to kill this shadow to find peace. As it came down that look of fear transformed and shauns face and body became Gentlemans.
“Wub~” they coughed blood. “Daddeh…”
You sat up quick and sweaty in your bed beneath your vault suit. Your reflexes kicking in as you fell forward and caught the fluffies in your arms that had been catapulted off your chest. You had changed positions in your sleep and they had crawled up onto your chest and stomach.
“Wha’ dah fwuff!” Sundae added irritated.
“Cawefuw daddeh!” Gentleman added having been frightened awake as you balanced them in your hand.
“Im, im sorry… I was, too warm…” You added pulling them back to you with a sob. “Way too, hot…”
“Ew, daddeh stop dwipping on Sundae!” She referred to the sweat from his hair but the tears and snot were certainly not welcome.
“Hehe, daddeh squishy.” Gentleman added squeezing out from the hug and pushing his hoof into the vault suit to listen to the sound of sweat displace beneath it.
“Sorry guys.” Johnson sighed before looking at the clock. “At least we had to get up soon anyway.” He yawned and stopped to think. ‘What was I dreaming about?’ The emotion was so clear but it was gone now.
After a brief breakfast of razor grain oatmeal with your personal fluffies Johnson excused himself for a quick rinse and a change of clothes. Johnson was ready for the day and made their way back to the house to grab the pot that was still warm but no longer hot. He took it out to the gathered fluffies at the tree.
“Allright fluffies line up, foals then parents.” After a little confusion the fluffies managed to get in a single left to right lineup. “Now then, all fluffies going with daddy for the procedure please step forward.” Every colt and stallion stepped forward. You were slightly disappointed that the mares had not joined but the choice had been made. “Ok, looks like everything is decided.” Johnson smiled and proceeded to serve breakfast. They had not told you to limit feeding or the like prior to bringing them in so you assumed it was fine but kept it small. You even served some of the older foals some oatmeal to try as well while they waited for their mothers to finish eating.
Johnson could see some hesitancy from Daisy after yesterday while Sundae asked if any of the mothers could let her feed one of their foals. Mango was interested but Daisy was preventing him from going over and Sundae also wasn’t interested in feeding him. Peaches was willing to let Nimbo or cato feed since Star had a chance yesterday. “Allright foals, follow daddy.” Johnson added while eyeing Nimbo enjoying the teat that Gentleman hadn’t feed from earlier that day.
“Nimbo?” She detached.
“Sowwy daddeh.” The voice box garbled. “Miwkies vewy good.” She galloped to catch up. While the fillies wouldn’t get the procedure they would be getting their shots.
You lead them around the corner and got a large enough box out of storage. You proceeded to put the fathers in first and then pack the foals in the remaining space in front and between them. Some crawled up and onto their fathers instead. After sending a signal for teleport himself and all synths in a meter proximity he takes a deep breath and hefts the box up. ‘3,2,1~’
~THWOK!~
You arrive on the other side with a sudden flurry of fluffy panic.
“Nu wike!” “Woud noisies!” “Too bwight!” “screeee~”
“Fluffies! Calm…” You below and watch them all freeze in place before blinking in realization. “You are safe with daddy…”
“Sowwy~” came a collective reply from all the boys.
“It’s ok.” Johnson added setting the box down. “Ok Phanes, Durum~” You add reaching out and taking them out of the box before producing a collar and leash from his pack for both. “Daddy is going to ask you to walk with him. Stay on this side please.” You add tapping on your left as you hold the leashes with one hand and pick up the box again under your arm on the right side.
“Daddy is interested if things have improved since you were here last. Please keep in mind what occurs and tell me about your stay when we get back home but don’t tell any of the other scientists about this.”
“Otay daddeh.” Durum responds.
“Pwease be caweful wif babbehs.” Phanes added slightly insecure.
“Trust me, it’s safer up here then on the floor for the little ones.” As you say this a gen one synth pushing a floor buffer moves down the opposite side of the hallway. As you’re leaving, they reach the end of the hallway and turn around to see the contamination you and the fluffies were tracking in. It proceeded to vigorously clean while following the group, but the gap widened, especially when they got in the elevator.
“Welcome, to the institute.” You added as the foals gazed out across the concourse as you lowered down to it. The fathers though knew that all that is beautiful is not necessarily good from their previous time here.
After walking the group over to bio sciences a lab assistant approaches you. “Hello director. Check in your fluffies for their appointment?”
“Indeed. Do I need to sign something?” You add setting the foals down on a desk top.
“That wont be necessary. Follow me to the back and we can get everyone situated in a safe room.” You sigh unable to gauge their face under the clean room suit but their body language seemed ‘thankful’ for not having to carry a box of foals.
You follow them back to the old FEV labs that had been repurposed for fluffies along with the additions. You proceed through the security checkpoint. “Don’t be nervous little ones. There will be some blinking lights and you’ll feel a little gust of moist air but you’re very safe. Does anyone need to make good poopies before we start?” You smile slightly assuming the interns had adopted certain protocols for handling fluffies. Likely after several issues.
When no one volunteered Johnson had to set the fluffies on a moving counter panel that pulled the fluffies through an apparatus. It proceeded to scan them and gave them a decontamination spray and blow. Their complaints were slightly muffled, but they were no worse for wear on the other side which Johnson was there to great them on having made it through the checkpoint before them. “Things a little slow…”
“It’s the safest speed for the monitor team to be able to stop the line in case someone’s hair gets snagged in something or the like. Such incidents are down ninety three percent since adopting current speeds.”
“Mmm-hmm..” Johnson added thinking those figures seemed suspicious but also didn’t particularly care. You were directed to a personal room for the fluffies. It was made up with nice soft and bright colors and padded plastics and fabrics. A drain in the corner indicated tiled floor beneath the washable pads.
“All the boys will be getting the procedure done today. All the foals need their shots and chips.” The assistant scribbled on their clip board.
“Noted. Ok we’ll start with the fathers after getting the foals used to the room. But first, lets get everyone tagged.” They add proceeding to clip on a small device with a light that blinked occasionally to the fathers collars and then producing temporary paper bands to act as collars for the foals that the devices clipped to. “Just a formality until they’re chipped.”
A small tour was given, indicating the litter box. It was a self-sifting and raking model that pulled the waste into a wall chute. In the opposite corner was a series of napping mats against the wall. On the opposite wall on that same corner were a series of buttons. “If they require food, they just need to push a button and it will be provided. We’ve got a couple of nurse mares on staff for orphans or rejects, very well mannered.”
“Do you offer nutrient paste for the teething foals?”
“And the adults if they prefer it, we just formulate it differently. But most prefer to chew so we’ve added some kibble and other requestable items from the menu. Sketti is a premium though and is only given out once a week unless they’ve earned more on their implant wallet.”
“Wait, we’re rewarding fluffies via a voucher system now?” Johnson added in a positive tone.
“We find it helps encourage good behavior and a willingness to volunteer for experiments and tests. Not to mention report and discourage bad behavior.”
‘Ahh, paid snitches… Sounds like something retention would institute.’ Johnson through to himself.
“On this wall you can request toys to play with, please return them to the receptacle when you are done.” They add demonstrating by pushing a button to call a stuffed bear that rose up from the floor, picked it up for a hug before putting it back down on the pad where the panel lifted into the ceiling as a new floor appeared.
“And on this one, you can request new friends. If other fluffies are looking to play they can come visit.” There were four buttons, one with an earthy, one with a unicorn, one with a pegasus and one with an alicorn silhouette. “When you press the button it will appear as half blue and half pink. Press the pink side if you want to play with a filly, press the blue side if you want to play with a colt or press the whole button if you don’t care.” The foals seemed particularly interested in this.
“Follow me please.” The assistant added to the two adult fluffies and Johnson passed them the leash.
“Be good boys for daddy. Daddy will stay here and watch the foals till you get back.”
“Otay daddeh…” Durum and phanes reply following the lab technician out of the room.
You were glad you stayed as you turned around while the doors were closing. “Mango, you just had breakfast.” You added seeing the slightly slimmed down from the previous ‘bestest’ state foal was over by the food buttons. “Mango just wookin~” You eyed them with slight concern. ‘Perhaps it was inevitable that the poisoned seed would become a poisoned tree.’ Johnson thinks. He was hoping he wont have to have Mango reset too.
After observing the fluffies at play for about an hour the fathers are returned on a hover platform. You help unpack them onto the sleeping mats. “They’ll wake up eventually from sleep mode.”
“Sleep mode?” Johnson added somewhat curiously.
“Yes. We cant use a lot of certain medications on the prototypes. Hopefully that will change in the future updates. So for extensive repairs we just power them down for a bit with a signal. They will probably be a little sore tomorrow but after that they should be fine. If sore longer than three days please bring them back in for an examination.”
“Thank you.”
“Fillies.” The assistant added pressing a button as a gentle whistle tune came from the doorway. “Please line up.” The fillies hugged their new friends goodbye before lining up. Some of the new fluffies stayed after finding groups to join but two of them made their way over to the wall and after standing for a moment a panel leading to an access duct opened and they began walking back to their own room or family room.
They scan each one to confirm their identity tag to verify they are the ones they are supposed to pick up and then load them onto the hover cart. “Bye daddeh.”
“Bye girls.” Johnson added waving to them as the door closed. After another hour the fillies were returned and were also sleeping but the fathers were awake but mostly just laying with you as you gave them pats and scritches.
Each batch was set on mats on the pad next to their father.
The technician pushed the button again to whistle and get the attention of the colts this time. All the visiting fluffies were given hugs and went back to their own areas as there was no one to play with now. The colts took an hour and a half since they had the most work to get done but they too were eventually returned and laid on the mat pile next to their fathers and sisters.
“Will you two be okay if daddy leaves for a bit?” The two nodded lazily while yawning. Johnson smiled and left the room with a gentle wave as the door closed. You made your way back to the main lab and found Director Holdren working at a terminal.
“How’s your day going Holdren?”
“Decent enough. Did you need anything particular?” They added setting a piece of paper to the side in a finished column before saving and looking at you.
“I was curious if the institute had an educational training program in the works for the fluffies.”
He laughed a bit before looking at you deadpan and blinking. “You serious? If they need anything outside their established parameters, we’ll just download it and patch it so it’s passed on to the future generations as genetic memory.”
“And im sure that will work fine for the one’s we keep here. Especially if you’re just keeping them around as test animal equivalents. But my fluffies are eager to learn and I’d like to be able to teach them larger classes general topics while I teach small groups about specific ones that require more hands-on interaction from a mentor.”
“. . .That’s a lot of effort you’re putting into a pet.” Holdren adds looking at you curiously.
“Im just getting out in front of something I’ve foreseen as an early adopter. Once we start providing these things for general adoption there’s going to be some people willing to pay for the convenience of easy education. So we start broadcasting TV and radio signals and get the word out. Use the radio for simpler lessons that don’t require visual aid and television for those that could benefit from visuals. Maybe even add some general entertaining programs and advertisements so they can be used as basic babysitting.”
“This feels pretty corporate and not conducive to our advancement in various fields of research.”
“The more money the institute brings in, the more we can afford to hire salvagers to fetch us stuff from beyond the commonwealth or even deploy relay pads to expand where we can teleport to even if it’s more energy intensive. At which point we can rely on our own agents to make acquisitions and bring them back promptly without having to wait months or even years to see results like with Zimmer.”
“Still feels like something you should be pitching to advanced systems.”
“Naturally I will. But I want the lessons explained by fluffies, for fluffies as they seem to ingest explanations better from one another. I think some details are lost in translation sometimes. And for that, well you’re the only department I can ask unless im going to produce the lessons myself.”
“What kind of lessons you looking for?”
“Some basic math for sure. They can generally speak and know their letters naturally it seems but we can do the abc’s and stuff as entertainment. After that, things like parables and lessons on things that are helpful in general life. This can be anything from stranger dangers all the way to pointing out what kind of wasteland creatures and food are dangerous.”
“So basically everything.” Holdren added with a smirk in regard to that last one.
“A little bit yeah. Some households and settlements will want the fluffies to be able to pull their own weight since pets for pet sake is kind of a luxury. Sure some people are looking for luxuries but if we’re going to move these to wider audiences, we need to make them appeal to the general populace. Plus if we start selling electronics and amenities, we can package them with bugs so that we don’t need to rely on the fluffies for one hundred percent surveillance. . . Heck if we keep the fluffy specific learning separate, we could also do general educational programming as well for the kids that fluffies could learn from as a public service to the commonwealth. Daimond cities one of the few settlements that has a decent school so there’s probably a hunger for learning from the smaller settlements.”
“One thing at a time Johnson.” Holdren adds since the institute’s interests are his priority.
“Oh right,” Johnson added pulling out a holotape. “Here’s those designs and details you asked for on the other thing…”
“Lets take a look.” Holdren goes to the main menu and puts the tape in their terminal. “Mmm-hmm. Of course a stud frame, so simple.” He chuckles having overlooked the solution.
“Allright we’ll produce the show. But we’d like for you to gather up some pre war supplies for us to examine. We could draft something from scratch but having some top of the line studio equipment to use as a basis will save us some design time. We can probably add on to the diamond city tower so it can handle two stations at once but we’ll need a location to send out the television signal from. Find these supplies and get advanced systems on board and we’ll handle the show.” The two of you shook hands on that.
After a short trip to advanced systems to verify the institute had the available manpower to break down and recreate the needed technology and was willing to handle the broadcast side of things the director authorized the appropriate resources for the project. Admittedly a chunk of this would be coming from Johnsons personal funds but they considered it a worthwhile use of wealth.
With one last trip to the meeting room director johnson pulled the blinds. “Pam, are you available for analysis?”
“No extensive tasks in que. How can I help you Director?” Came the blinking light in the center of the table.
“Im sending you the related data now.” Johnson added forwarding the design schematics as well as his own personal health records and the specs on Director fluffy.
“Processing… Analyzed, proceed with inquiry.”
“I want to know your opinion on what you think will happen to the human subject if the synth being operated perished while it was being piloted.”
“Processing…” Pam began to tap the lesser synths first from their docks or containment tubes for processing power. “With current designs, there is potential for feedback to the operator. Range from the broadcasting apparatus is also a variable. Assuming a short range of less then one half mile from the device. Your chances of regaining consciousness with negligible issues are eighty five percent. Five percent chance of migraine. Five percent chance of coma. Five percent chance of death.”
Johnson blinked at the last two.
“This is only based on the data you have provided. You can mitigate some of the worse conditions with proper equipment that monitors your health and administers aid if needed. Even with such a system though it would be ten percent migraine chance, three percent coma and two percent death.”
“That’s a little better…” Johnson added liking the odds. Hopefully the finalized system would work a little better. “Please prepare a report for advanced systems on this premise using the medical files of average institute scientists. I’d like them to consider the risks so they can figure out ways to mitigate them better.”
“Acknowledged.” The lesser synths were overclocked and pam had to even tap some second generation synths from storage for additional processing power considering they were analyzing all the institutes medical records to compile an ‘average’. A high pitched ‘screee~’ echoed through the halls of synth storage and muffled but somewhat noticeable from the tanks of the Bio sciences fluffy labs. “Report compiled. Shall I send it to their system mail, or would you like a holotape imprint?”
“System mail is fine, department head only.” You added pulling up the blinds and heading to the doorway. “Have a good afternoon Pam.”
“You too Director Johnson.” The light blinked off.
Johnson returned to bio sciences after swinging by to get some lunch packs from the cafeteria. “Huh, they have flavored food goo now.” He chuckles at the ‘spaghetti’ label on one and decides to get some rather then the standard vegetable taste.
It wasn’t good… But it kind of made up for it with that hint of pre war canned nostalgia. But like recently canned not actual prewar stuff. You had a feeling a fluffies taste buds would find it more appealing. Discarding the first container in the garbage at the lab entry you made your way back to check on your fluffies while grabbing a hover dolly hoping they were feeling better after a nap. The foals were up and about but not moving particularly fast or excitedly.
“Hello fl~” No sooner had you started to speak did you notice all the foals wince at your voice. Durum and phanes held up their hooves to their muzzles as if to tell you to be be quiet. ‘Gotcha.’ Johnson whispered pulling the carrying platform into the room.
‘Time to go home.’ He added kneeling down and gently patting his pants signaling the fluffies to line up. They assembled and their fathers began passing the foals up to him and he assembled them on the platform before putting the fathers up as well. After a short walk-through the group was teleported back to sanctuary hills.
~THUMP~
‘Go tell the mothers and the robots they will probably need to whisper the rest of the day while the foals have a headache.’ Johnson adds and sets the two fathers down to go ahead.
‘Poor babies..’ Johnson thought to himself sitting next to them assuming the headache was caused by the synth component implant. After a short petting session Durum poked around the corner and waved you over. You got up and pushed the cart to the tree to the waiting mothers. You were almost surprised to see Sundae there with the other two mares, perhaps they were getting along better.
“Th~thank’ou daddeh…” Peaches adds adjusting her volume but seemingly averting her gaze from looking directly at you. Daisy was seemingly doing the same not looking up at you while holding their arms out to receive the foals you were passing down.
“Daddy will make some medicine that is safe for them to have. It should help with the head pain but it should go away after a day or two.” You wave sundae on as you push gentleman on the cart back towards the house. You pass gentleman off to sundae and push the hover cart in front of the storage building before killing the engine to save power. “So, did you have a good day with the other mothers?” You headed into the house followed by the other two.
“Was otay… Mostwy just make tawkies.” She laid down in the kitchen while gentleman made their way over to the stairs to get away from the talking.
“Gossip I see.” Johnson added making his way over to the cupboards. “So what kind of topics did you discuss?” Johnson said curiously moving a few containers around.
“Dis and dat. Pwevious babbehs, speciaw fwiends, tings speciaw fwiends du duwing speciaw huggies.” Johnson momentarily dropped the jar he was pulling out before bouncing it a few times and holding it between his hands.
He coughed. “I~ see…” Johnson adds focusing on the date of when he packaged the bottle to gauge the freshness. After pouring some water into the kettle he set it to boil.
“Am daddeh embawassed?” She looks up smiling.
“Not at all.” He adds preparing the cup and spoon.
“Dat gud, cause dey weawwy intewested dat dewe am uddah positions and tings dat feew vewy gud. Wike when diwect~” The kettle began whistling at just the right time. Johnson looked back for a moment to watch sundae as she spoke and gestured with her front hooves and tongue for a bit. It was somewhat comical, and he found himself laughing when the kettle died down after being removed from heat.
You almost felt sorry for durum and phanes having set an unrealistic standard for sex that standard fluffies probably couldn’t achieve if only due to their anatomy.
Johnson added a small dose of the ground up hubflower into the water and stirred thoroughly as it gained a slight tint of color to it. He gave it a sip. “Needs something…” He poured a bit of the mutfruit juice from the pitcher in the fridge into the spoon and mixed it in and took another sip. The temperature was now reasonable for a fluffy and had a gentle sweetness to it. “That should do.” He looked around and saw gentlemans tail sticking between the bars of the stair about halfway up. ‘Must have gotten tired from climbing.’ Johnson thought.
Johnson paused before walking up the stairs and taking off his shoes to muffle his steps. He makes his way up the steps and sits down next to the fluffy with the cup in his hand. “Try some of this and let me know if you feel better…” Johnson added getting the spoon and offering the warm tea to the foal. He sniffed it curiously and then lapped at it for a bit before finishing the spoon.
“Tank’ou daddeh…” He said groggily, as you put the spoon in the cup and picked him up with your off hand to bring him to the top of the stairs. Sundae was already up and through the pet door by the time the others were making it to the top.
The only other wasteland remedy you could think of right away that would probably help might be bit of skito spit but you’d have to give each of them a little prick to administer it since it was usually administered via infusion. After observing gentleman between taking notes for potential fluffy lessons he was seemingly acting much more comfortably after a half hour. “Glad to see you’re feeling better buddy. I’ll give you some more medicine before bed to help you sleep. Daddy needs to go do some work now.”
“Bye Daddeh…” Gentleman adds a little glum that johnson was leaving despite him now feeling well enough to want to play. Johnson took the remaining tea to the cul de sac crew and gave each foal a spoonful and the fathers two. “I’ll bring some more to help you guys sleep before bed. Daddy needs to do some work, either send a robot or come find me if you need something.” The adults waved him goodbye and johnson returned to the garage.
He spent the rest of the daylight hours gutting his spare Chinese stealth suit. By the time it was over he had removed the components that generated the stealth field and used the existing circuitry and wiring to power the vitals monitoring system that could dispense pre-prepared medical doses in response to certain symptoms. As well as administering nutrient paste and fluids through a throat tube in response to calorie usage and hydration levels. While he couldn’t do much for cardio, johnson was able to add in systems that would provide stimulation to his muscles while he was unconscious to ensure he didn’t lose muscle mass if he was in the lounger for longer stints. The system could also signal for one of the robots to replace various substances when they were running low or empty assuming it could be found. He’d make sure to have at least a month on hand just in case of a coma since he’d probably be found and hopefully recovered before he starved in such a state considering how often people came to him for issues.
After signaling for Isaac on their pipboy Johnson got in the lounger and adjusted everything to give the suit a test. By the time Director fluffy was making their way out of the garage Isaac was on their way down the street. “Fowwow Diwectow, nee’ ou to cawwy tings to uddah fwuffies.”
“And a good evening to you too sir.” Isaac added following the fluffy inside as they used the pet door that they signaled with their component. The robot had to use the knob though. After jumping up to the counter thanks to his superior courser specs (with a little levitation nudge to get over the edge) Johnson put the remains of the water in the kettle back on to heat up.
“Otay sowwy fow be bwunt. Hewwo Isaac, how was ou’ day?” Director asked fetching a second cup from the cabinet and putting a spoon of the mutfruit juice from the fridge in each.
“Am otay. Pwetty bowing wif most fwuffies gone… No much for isaac to do to hewp show am gud fwuffy.” You could tell he was subtly hinting the reminder as if you had forgotten.
“Diwectow am suwe ou’ wiww hab chances to show dat ou’ hab eawned a new body some day soon. How am fixah tweatment going?”
“Nu ask fow it as much as used to. But am stiww vewy gud when feewing weawwy nu pwetty.”
“Ohh?” Director added actually very interested. “Ask Johnson to gib ou an exam when am human daddeh. Wan check pwogwess.” Director adds turning off the heat with telekinesis before pouring a little into each cup and then adding the ground hubflower and stirring. “Pwease gib one spoon to each foaw and dah west to dah daddehs.” You add as you hop down and pick up the second cup.
“Diwectow see ou’ tomowwow.” They added while scaling the stairs as the cup floated up at an angle alongside him.
“Gud ebening.” Director added as the pet door opened, and they stepped in to the room.
“Diwectow daddeh am backsies.” Gentleman adds excitedly before wincing slightly.
“Sundae nu tink she see ou’ so soon speciaw fwiend.” After giving gent his spoon of medicine director split the rest with sundae as a nightcap. The evening wound down and director joined the two in the pet bed. The two adults fell asleep with their heads leaning against each other and gentleman rolling over off mothers back and onto his own between the split between their bodies.
‘lets see what its like to just normally sleep in this thing…’ Director and johnsons thoughts sync up.