Foalout 4 – Sanctuary Hill – Chapter 53– Lothmar
The evening was touch and go with eight foals. However, with daisy, peaches, director and gentleman on standby rotations everyone who needed a little milk or gentle attention got it and everyone got some rest. Sundae was well rested for the morning feedings but still slightly weak. “Mowning fwiends.” She yawned.
“Gu’mowning.” Director who had been laying nearby and just watching his family sleep gave Sundae a few grooming licks to her face. “Wan diwectow go make ou’ bweakfast?”
“mmmm…” Sundae grumbled almost purringly from the grooming. “Sundae wike dat.”
Director removed himself careful not to wake the foals before stretching out on the floor and then heading to the door. On the way down the stairs with a pep in his step he stopped in the kitchen. “I could eat.” The words felt difficult to say but it was a conscious thought from Johnson who had been subsisting on nutrient paste for a few days now. ‘About time to take a break.’ The appeal of swapping between bodies that had chances to physically rest seemed like it should allow him to stay fresh.
Director promptly made his way to the workshop and to the shops litterbox to relieve himself prior to going back in the gel. Awakening in the lounger Johnson removed the heads up display helmet from the armor and then proceeded to remove his air tubes and pull the hose out of his throat and shutting everything off. Smacking his mouth for a bit he grimaced. “Need to get this taste out of my mouth.” He grabbed his toiletries and a change of clothes and proceeded to the decontamination arch for a shower. He paused shortly looking and feeling his body slightly. “Might need to turn down the stimulation pulses or reduce the intervals…” Johnson didn’t want to slow down his movements with excessive bulk. Johnson sent out a comms signal to activate one of the Handies on standby.
“Number three, fetch me the security and send out the maintenance drones to check all the turrets, power connections and general infrastructure for signs of tampering and intrusion.” Johnson added while washing his hair. By the time he had finished cleaning himself up and changed the Handy returned with a holotape. “Thank you. Return to your post.” The handy silently turned around and went back to its charging port. Johnson returned to hanging up his health suit to dry having recently rinsed the sweat out before jogging back to the house.
Setting his pipboy for text to speech he loaded up the holotape and began to listen to the reports while he cooked. Nothing of note security wise save for the occasional couple of bloatflies or other wildlife that messed around and found out. The majority of the maintenance issues detected were simple enough to leave for the repair drones but there were three issues you’d want to see to yourself. You cooked something that was effectively a hashbrown made from a vegetable medley along with a pot of ground meats with some tato sauce to give it that ‘sloppy joe’ feel. You went for thick, not wet and drippy though when it came to the sauce letting it thicken up. You transferred the food to two trays you could stack and made your way upstairs.
“Daddy’s back.” Johnson added struggling to open the door with an armload of food and dishes but managed. The fluffies greeted him in a round of “Hewwo daddeh.” They seemed very interested in the smell.
“I hope you like it but just let me know if you don’t and I can probably grab something else.” You sit down on the floor and proceed to add a small spoon of each to sundaes dish to let her sample so it was easier to clean up and didn’t need to wash the whole dish. She took each bite in curiously but with a slow dignified chew before nodding her approval before you dished up the remaining food to everyone.
“Before you get too far, it’s time for supplements.” Johnson adds dumping three of one kind of pill into one hand and one of a smoother pill that looked to be filled with powder. If he had been human during the birth he probably would have just made spaghetti like with daisy but now that he had access to proper pills it felt kind of primitive. “This ones to help with milk…” They each took and swallowed with various degrees of difficulty, sundae lapped some water and the other two took a bite of food. “And this one is to replace the iron and whatnot you lost from the birth.” This one was a lot easier to swallow thanks to its smooth capsule but it still tasted weird and she followed the other mares examples of eating some food. “Good girls…”
You sat there petting your fluffies while they ate and fed your proxy children. It still felt weird acknowledging them as your own. Between feedings, songs, huggies and rocking motions Sundae said something while looking at one of the foals. “Dis babbeh weminds sundae ob Daddy.”
‘No…’
“Wha was daddehs son cawed again?” Sundaw continued.
‘Please don’t…’
“Dats wight, Shaun. Can mummah name babbeh after daddehs babbeh?”
Johnson leaned closer to Sundae, or maybe ‘slumped’ was more accurate. “Daddy still misses shaun very much Sundae… Daddy didn’t get to know him for very long due to the institute taking him away from me as a baby.”
“Just wike mummah…” came a gloomy voice from each of the mares.
“And now he’s forever sleepies…” Johnson sighed giving a weak smile while staring at the skin tone fluff of the earthy foal and brushing his finger along its face. They reached out and grasped the finger with all their might and you didn’t have the heart to pull away. “But, maybe shaun would like that… Just think about it for a few days and we’ll name them when they’re a little older.”
“Otay daddeh, sundae wub ou’.” You could feel they meant this in every way and now truly regarded you as family instead of just a caretaker.
“And I love you too girl.” Johnson added giving her a kiss on the forehead and stroking her mane.
Resolidifying his body with determination, he made his way to his feet.
“Alright, daddy’s got to get to work. You two meet me by the front gate when you’re done. If im not there, just wait a little while.”
“Otay daddeh.” You waved goodbye to the fluffies and stepped out. Johnson left the house and got straight to work on the repairs he needed to attend to in person. He also stopped by a cement shack to reboot his teleporter pad that he had refurbished from when he infiltrated the institute originally with the help of the railroad. Once it was back up online and the diagnostics were all green he set it to administer a jamming signal. With this most of the island was now no longer accessible to the institute teleporter. If they were coming at him, he intended to have some early warning.
He then proceeded to the security terminal where the second issue was. After swapping out a few parts he let the system reboot. After everything came up green, he removed gen 1 and 2 synths from the ‘white list’ and set them to ‘grey’ allowing the turrets to follow them and lock them if their weapons were out. He then proceeded to turn on the perimeter sensors he used to detect movement on the other side of the creek. He had only used these once during a raider siege and that was to help him locate targets for his sniper rifle. Now they’d help the turrets to potentially give opponents in a stealth boy field equivalent pause as they snapped to their facing. And last, but not least he flipped a few breakers to activate a barrier around the security office. The last thing you needed was to lose all automated systems because someone landed a lucky explosive lob or emp. The turrets themselves were shielded so they should keep functioning even if they took some damage from an emp weapon in proximity.
And last but certainly least. A clog in purifier three. Some animal had escaped something and got carried away in the water before getting sucked up into the system. After flushing the system and tossing the remains onto shore for later Johnson climbed up to the bridge end of the gates and opened the front doors. Daisy, durum, phanes and peaches were there waiting for him.
“Follow daddy.” You added waving them on as they took their first reluctant steps out of the safety of sanctuary hills in some time. After a short jaunt down the road you reach the Red rocket Rest stop. A short wall surrounded the settlement continuing out from the hedges at one end. The edge of the gas stations roof, the top of the sign and hedges (thanks to support columns hidden inside) bristled with various turrets. A half dozen merchants sat at various stalls hoping for a passerby to visit. Some were even playing with a recently purchased fluffy foal to pass the time.
There by the side of the building sat the glass front wall of the foal in a can machine. The fluffies rushed over and stared in wonder at the options even if it was half empty. There was a shade of darker blue with signs of a whitish mane. An Antique pink. A yellow that reminded you of curry powder. A metallic Grey that reminded you of aluminium. A dull Black. Vermillion. A light violet sort of like a pearl. A rubbery white that reminded you of oyster meat. A shade of green that reminded johnson of may. A beige that could be reminiscent of a poor quality pearl. A traffic cone orange. A magenta, a cyan and . . . . .
And a fat crying brown foal whose shit storage unit had ruptured. They had been here too long. Long enough that their pickle green mane and yellow spot accents on their main body had come in. Which shouldn’t even be possible considering the machines only got put in two days ago so it had to be a packing error… “Pwease~ Haf… Hewp, fwuffy…” The foal coughed before attempting to suckle at a teat fruitlessly. Any remnants of milk were out of reach due to poor design and a light on the side of the tank signalled it was out of formula, a red sticker placed on the side labeled ‘last chance’ by interior mechanisms as if to censor it from sight.
“Daddeh, what do ‘wast chance’ mean?” Phanes added nervously.
“That todays the last day to get them.” You didn’t want to say what you really thought it meant. Johnson flipped his coin while his fluffies discussed the issue. ‘Tails… Shame.’ He sighed.
“Am suwe it otay?” Phanes adds with a nod from peaches. “Wan dat bwue babbeh.” Johnson gestured to the foal just to be sure. “Yus, dat one.” Johnson shrugged and put the caps in the chute and pressed B 4.
“Thank you… For your. Purchase, today.” The protectron head voiced as the inner workings clasped the foal and delivered it to the bottom where johnson picked it up.
“I’ll need to open these back home so please be patient.” The parents nodded excitedly meandering towards the exit.
“Daisy and duwum am weady to choosies…” With a nod from durum Daisy responded. “Wan big babbeh.”
“The last chance foal?” Johnson added skeptically gesturing to the foal that can just barely be seen thanks to the sticker. “Are you sure, theres lots of other colors.”
“Dat babbeh am hab heawt huwties wong enough. Fwuffies am suwe.” The two nodded together.
Johnson smiled knowing these two were doing a good deed but kind of felt like he was cheating them out of their reward. He flipped his coin again. ‘Heads.’ He smiled.
“Tell you what. How about Daddy adopts the big babbeh and you can help me raise him. Go ahead an pick another.”
“Weawwy?” The two seemed excited and began to chatter but eventually decided on the aluminium grey. Johnson put his caps in the chute and then hit the button combinations.
“Thank you… For your. Purchase, today.” The protectron head voiced as the inner workings clasped the foals and delivered them to the bottom where johnson picked them up.
“Can you lodge complaints?”
“Recording.” The protection head uttered.
“Please register the following serial number as a packing error.” Johnson added holding up the end of the cannister to the head and then rotating it to show the conditions of the foal. “This was a clear failure of quality control.”
“Thank you for your, report.” A ticket stub was ejected. “Please reference this with our customer service if you contact the service desk.”
“Service desk… Where? At the packing plant?”
“Affirmative.”
Johnson scoughed tucking the ticket away in a huff carrying the cans.
“Thank you for shopping, Foal-in-a-can. Where we serve cans. On de~mand.” The head jingles.
Carrying the trio back to sanctuary hills the parents continue to run ahead and then circle you for a few moments while you wait for the gate to open. They then rush in as the gates open enough.
“Huwwy up daddeh!” The group continued beckoning similar supportive comments while giggling and laughing. You walked carefully to your work bench.
There is a slip of paper on each tube with instruction drawings on removing the foal from its container. You review them quickly and nod. “Lets get the big one out first.” Johnson sighs tying his bandanna over his face before heading outside and facing the can away from him as he popped the seal. The initial wave of stink quickly disappated into the open air and johnson put on a pair of rubber gloves. “Come here little one.” The crying foal seemed scared but anything seemed better then this and they crawled close enough for Johnson to hook his fingers under her forearms. “And here come the upies.” He added finding that not surprising fluffies that you were picking them up tended to reduce the fear reaction.
“Huuu-huu… Hewp, huwties pwease?” The foal added attempting to use their limited vocabulary to ask for help and johnson noticed the cord connected to the plug.
“Hurties will be gone shortly little one… This might pinch a little.” He said unattaching the cord and then moving them over to the workshop litterbox where johnson proceeded to remove the plug.
“Owies~ahhhhh….” The foal added relieved as johnson pushed a small button on the plug and then pulled back their hand as the plug deflated itself and was promptly shot out by the pressures.
“There we go, that’s it…” Johnson added holding the foal under the armpits and gently massaging downwards along the stomache to encourage the voiding. After a final tiny ‘toot’ he deemed them ‘empty’ and tilted the cans ruptured contents into the box to stand for a bit while he left to go clean the foal.
“Now a quick rinse.”
“Wha, am winse?”
“It am good cweanies babbeh. Nu scawy wike baffies.” Daisy added while following, the rest of the parents stayed close to the other two cans so they did not feel alone.
“Wickie cweanies?”
“Sort of like that but for when fluffies are really messie.” He added as the mist had now gotten up to temperature and he proceeded to scrub down the foal from the shoulders down. “Now close your eyes.” He added before cleaning the top half that while not having been touching he still could smell the aerosilized shit on her fur. After another minute he deemed the cleaning good enough and shut down the decontamination arch. After drying her off he sat the big foal onto Daisies back.
“Allright, lets go get those other foals out. Feel free to feed and introduce, Fawn here.” Perhaps the spelling would change when she got older but for now it would be Fawn.
“Heaw dat babbeh? Name am fawn.” Daisy added walking into the garage behind you before getting help from Durum to get the foaw down.
“Fawn? Am fawn? . . Wub namesie!” She added as the sudden realization that things were going to be ok now. The relief and happiness washed over the foal and she cried happy tears as she received a hug from the adult fluffies.
Fawn was mid meal by the time you had removed the midnight blue and aluminum grey colored colts from their cannisters and removed the cathetiter and plugs. You handed each mare their foal to let them examine, groom and subsequently feed them. “I’ll pick names for them when they’re older.” While johnson waited for Fawn to unlatch he had begun disassembling the formula portion of the younger foals cannisters and set them aside for later.
“Now then, fawn. Im your new owner, you can call me Daddy or Johnson. The other fluffies will explain the rules to you and show you around.” He added kneeling down to closer examine the foal that had sat down and begun staring up at you. “They have teeth yet daisy?”
“Bewwy widdwe teefies.” She added as if to say it was no discomfort.
“I guess that means we’ll be moving you to soft food soon and weaning you off milk over the next week.”
“Buh, Fawn just get miwkies back… Been so many fowebahs since hab miwkies…” She sniffled sadly.
“Im sorry Fawn,” Johnson added reaching out to brush back her mane. “these two are my only nursemares and there’s a whole lot of little hungry baby’s that need their milk, many even smaller then these two.”
Fawn looked down sadly after looking over. “Nu wan dat…” She added empathising with tummy hurties. “Am bad babbeh?” She inquired wondering if that was why she wasn’t getting milkies.
The adults began to placate her with pleasant platitudes.
“Of course not sweetie. But you are the biggest so you can eat other food sooner. I’ll make sure you get plenty of formula though.” Fawn tilted her head wondering what that was. “You remember drinking while in the can?” Johnson added picking up one of the portions he had removed with the plastic nipple inside. Her face seemed immediately disappointed have just tasted the sweet ambrosia that was actual fluffy milk after so long. “I see… It’s probably a pale immitation…” Johnson added squeezing the nipple slightly to produce a bit of the substance. The color was slightly orange, curious.
Fuck it. He touched the substance to his tongue.
The sweetness was much mellower then what he’d sampled and there was a mellow bitterness to it. He imagined though that to a fluffies tastebuds the bitterness was probably much more heavy handed. If you had to guess, the institute didn’t want to make the beverage too delicious lest a foal risk consuming their rations too quickly and potentially die prematurely. Plus it was probably made with substances they had in abundance. “Very pale.” Johnson finally adds. “I promise, the stuff I make is much better.”
She tilted her head as if confused by the idea of a ‘daddy’ making milk. “If the other mares still have some milk between their shifts we can probably get you some. But remember you are the last to get milk because you’re the biggest and there might not be enough. It’s not because you’re bad.”
“O’tay.” She adds still seemingly disappointed as the two other foals finally unlatch and she can smell the scent on the air from their burps and dribble.
“Allright girls. We’re going to start working in shifts from now on. Peaches will go to the room with Sundae till dinner. Then after dinner Daisy will come work till the morning. Then peaches workers till the afternoon, then daisy till dinner~”
“Den back to peaches for dawk time?”
“You get it.” Johnson nodded. “Whoever is at the tree will be watching Fawn and the two other foals. While the one working will be helping sundae with her foals.” He added before getting out two small clip on devices. “Hold still for a moment.” He added clipping both to the mares and then pushing a button while playing a signal from his pipboy for them to pair to. “You two should be able to come and go from the pet door now while wearing those. Just wave down one of the robots or ball friends when fawn needs a feeding and I’ll bring it out. Now, go enjoy the day. Thankfully I prepped the formula components a few weeks back.”
“Tank’ou fow pwetty tingie daddeh.” The mares add after admiring eachothers accessories pinned to eachothers chest fluff as the collection proceeds out of the garage and down the street. Peaches waves goodbye to the rest of the fluffies at the house and proceeds inside to their nurse mare shift.
Johnson sighs and proceeds to clean up the workshop. After cleaning out Fawns cannister he proceeds to disassemble the can out of curiosity to determine if the components were worth keeping. All the components were made much more recently then a lot of the components of similar type you had in storage. “Yep, keeping these.” After emptying the formula for later study and putting it in the fridge he proceeded to bundle up the components that he couldn’t change the state of easily or didn’t want to be bothered to. Walking outside he signalled one of the spare handies.
“Take this to red rocket and deposit the contents into the foal in a can recycling bin.” He pauses as the handy picks up the bundles. “It’s the geen one, the red one is for biological waste.” He calls out as it hovers off. “And I want those sacks back!” The voiceless handy simply waves a free appendage in aknowledgement on its way out of the settlement.
The rest of the day went by fairly uneventfully. He would get the foals accustomed to his scent and voice over the next couple of days during his human shift. He brought some supplies to keep himself occupied during the times he was not needed and began drafting and designing further fluffy equipment. In time, perhaps he’d share more of these advancements with the wider wastes. But for now, his children would get to experience the boons of early technological adoption ~cough~ beta testing.
“Ah gent, you’re just in time.” Johnson added that afternoon as Gentleman was entering the room again to visit.
“In time fow what daddeh?” They ask curiously while looking at the corner of the once safe room that Johnson had carved out for himself. It was littered with a toolbox and component and there ona tarp Johnson was wrenching away at an apparatus.
“Testing.” He smiled.
“Daddeh… Sundae feew she hab been patient. Buh nu wike dah oiw and gwease nu smeww pwetties… Pwease no do pwojects in safewoom.” She sighed.
Johnson sighed. “Sorry sundae… I’ll get everything cleaned up when I get back~” He adds picking up the apparatus he had been working on and opening the door with the other hand before rushing out. “Come on Gent, lets head outside.” Gentleman looked at his mother who looked exasperated and disappointed that Johnson was putting off cleanup for later. He simply shrugged and followed after excusing himself.
After a short dress up sequence Johnson had finally finished equiping Gentleman with the prototype. As the prototype was unfinished and had exposed bits he put Gentleman in the equivalent of a fluffy vault suit to prevent their hair from getting caught in joints and whatnot. The prototype had metal boot bottoms that were lightly padded that slipped over the hooves and each had pronged components on the outside of the legs so it sat between the hoof and the knee. The boots were attached to a series of braces that ran along the leg that acted as shock absorbers and aided in the fluffy being able to carry a load normally beyond their means. The bracing led to a chest harness that supported a majority of the weight for carrying the fluffy allong with cycling power for the augmented wings. The wings probably ten times bigger then a fluffies normal wings with a series of slits and vents between the ‘feathers’. There were also a series of fans that went through the bone like frame of the wings.
“Are you ready to make history gentleman?” Johnson added strappping on the helmet and visor before adding the batteries into place along the suit.
“Fow ou’ Daddeh, gwadwy.” He wasn’t really interested but he sought his fathers approval.
“That’s my boy.” Johnson smiled. “I’ll leave controlls to you. Try to get up to speed as fast as you can before flapping your wings. The suit should follow your prompts. And just in case…” Johnson added clipping an eyebot to the top of the chest harness. “They should be able to slow your descent.”
Johnson took a few steps back and the eyebot proceeded to the end of its tether to give the fluffy room. Johnson watched with baited breath as Gentleman began to struggled to get up to speed. That issue should be solved when you finish the fluffy power armor but you could also potentially look into lighter weight materials if you made this piece its own indepenent unit.
Johnson began to walk and then jog as Gentleman was starting to get into a gallop and round the corner towards the downward hill that led towards the gates. The wings were starting to move up and down and Johnson could hear the fans getting up to speed. The feathers glowed as the exhaust was vented and the sound of Gentlemans hoofs became more a booping sound like something hitting a drum as they had not noticed by their hoofs had left the ground. It looked like the alicorn was running up an invisible incline more then flying but this soon changed as gentleman began making jumping motions and flapping harder as they cleared the top of the first gate instead of going through it.
Johnson clapped at the scene. “Bravo!”
All the fluffies of the settlement and nearby watched in amazement as Gentleman flew like the pegasus of legend. For a minute or two anyway…
Then the wings locked in full extension. “Shit.” He added flipping over to his pipboy and broadcasting to the eyebot. “Gent, don’t panic. The suit is down to emergency power. You’re going to have to glide in for a landing. Tilt your wings to aim for the street and I’ll catch you.” Johnson had to give gentleman credit though. He kept calm in the moment. Perhaps the feeling of ‘gliding’ gave him a zen like focus.
As the alicorn was coming in hot the eyebot finally began to slowly pull back and off decellerating their entry until gentleman was no longer moving forward and simply slow falling towards the ground ten feet away from Johnson who was walking over quickly to catch his fluffy before he could land. “Well done gent!” Johnson added holding the fluffy and the prototype aloft in his arms.
“Gentweman tink he wike dis fwying bettah.” The two laughed for a moment.
“Im sure that’ll change. I’ll make the suit a little better each time and with practice it’ll get a little easier each time to use.” He added removing the helmet first as some of the other fluffies who were free began to assemble. Star was the first on the scene.
“Wha’ it wike- Wha’ it wike?!” Star adds enthusiastically her mind racing as Gentleman was sat down on the ground. “Can staw twy?”
“Sorry girl, the unit still requires a few more test runs before I feel comfortable sending you up.”
“Dat nu faiw. Why staw nu testies wingie tingie?”
“Star, please don’t argue. Testing wing based equipment is part of Gentlemans job. Just like horn and general augments are Cato’s. Do you understand?” Johnson adds kneeling down to help Gentleman out of the suit.
“Yes… Uhm, can weabe wingie ting on pwease?” Johnson blinked for a moment. “Staw wan take bweak wif gentweman.”
“. . .I see.” He looks to the side since it was gentlemans decision. He gave a look that implied he didn’t intend to look a gift horse in the mouth. “Fine. I need the prototype brought back to the garage later. If im not around to take it off ask Nanny.”
Before you were even finished you looked back to see Gentleman being dragged away somewhere private with Star. Her love for flying may have gotten some signals crossed, like a gear head groupie wanting to have some fun in the engine room. You very much hoped she was responsible enough not to try anything midair once these augments were more widely available. Johnson did not want to know what semi roleplay the two were about to get up to. However he did snicker slightly when he remembered he had forgotten to detach the eyebot and could see it bobbing slightly like a baloon just over top of the nearby hedges because of the attached cord.
He sighs thinking back in a nostalgic way that some people do when seeing the younger generation do things you can still relate to.