" change.. Right." Erich says to Dallas and Dustyn with a wink. For a brief moment,Erich is lightly jealous that Dustyn has someone. Even if the circumstances seem kinda weird. But he was happy for them. That kind of familiarity would probably be invaluable nowadays.
"Yes.change and prepare. You guys should probably get some supplies." Dallas utters, effectively dismissing Erich and Billy. He was going to need some sort of releass to handle this trip. "Come here,you." He tells Dustyn playfully.

"Dude,what the fuck happened to dal-" Erich starts, but is stopped when he literally runs into Josh. "Sorry,man." He says sincerely. It may have been Wyatt Earp that said an armed society is a polite one. Erich definitely subscribed to it. Like prison,you don't bump into people and not apologize. Erich did have hope that Joshua knew something about karoliena. At this point,he would take anyone's information. Besides,he didn't actively dislike Joshua. Erich kept quiet and listened as they spoke. He nearly fell down when Joshua asked to come too. "The more the merrier. Right?" Erich grins. Joshua may posses skills nobody else had. Maybe firepower wasn't always the best answer to a problem. And....well,letting the mentality of Erica seep in: Josh was a body he didn't mind taking a bullet instead of him or someone he loved. " Erica probably should have kept her cart. This party is getting huge."

Erich listens to Joshua for a few moments before speaking. This didn't sit well with him,even though Joshua was just trying to help. Josh didn't really seem like the hard ass wastelander who could throw together an expedition like this. "That seems a bit excessive,don't it? She could just be chilling in a town somewhere. Do we really need a mini army traipsing about the country side? I don't mean any disrespect,but have you ever done anything like this before?" Erich asks Josh with real respect in his voice. Erich knew he was the newest here but he had to question this logic. "The medic is a fantastic idea though. We may need something stronger than first aid."

Erich grins at the sight of Oscar being a doctor. He always seemed to be one of the good ones,and here he was helping out a town. "Oscar! It's been a long time! You look all respectable now." Erich congratulates him and hugs him enthusiastically. He didn't ask about edilih or the kids. Seems like it was best not to ask about friends and family to anyone anymore. "Can you look at this boil on my ass before we go? "He jokes to Oscar. "Don't want to be mistaken for a ghoul if I become pantless.

"Yeah,dusty wouldn't come with out Dallas...wouldn't come on the search,I mean. Oh god,you know what I mean" erich sorta answers to Oscar. It seemed there was much he didn't know when it came to the Dynamics of Dustyn and Dallas now.

as joshua speaks,erich can feel the pistol in his waistband getting heavier and heavier. its presence making itself known. erich didnt really care for josh before and he isnt caring for him now. once they got out of the city gates,he could solve this real quick. did this motherfucker think erich was just lollygagging around,playing grab ass with super mutants? it was his friend they were going to look for and josh didnt even know the woman. how dare he just insert himself as leader here?! billy at least looked and probably was the part. josh still looked as if he hasnt ever been in a fist fight. but as erich listens,he does come around to understanding why josh was acting the way he was. "im not saying we arent going to need all that. but wouldnt a smaller group draw less attention?" erich asks anyone in earshot really. but he does eventually narrow his eyes at josh. " everyone so far at least knows who karoliena was...whats your angle for coming along?" erich asks suspiciously. its not like any of these people were "friends" with josh before. erich's paranoia got the better of him when he realized,josh could be planning to kill him,or any of the people here.

"i just cant get over it being two hundred years later. i guess those library books i borrowed are mine now. if they are till in the duke,i got a lot of terry pratchett books. pay no mind to the library stickers on them!" erich laughs back. he seriously doubted there was much that could honestly be laughed about these days,so enjoy it while you can. though it was a bit easier with meeting more and more people that erich knew. "good call on the noodles!" erich calls to billy as he seems him take off towards the stand. he actually shuddered when he thought what could possibly comprise those noodles. he didnt see loads of wheat or rice fields around. his mind instantly went to tape worms.

dallas laughs when dustyn compliments his performance. "you'd be a bit a keyed up too,dust. its like a damned porno up on the prdwyn...but with all the sex cut out." he cracks up. he pats dustyn's back and kisses him on the shoulder. "i dont think your friends care for the brotherhood. i dont know if they didnt disturb us out of respect,or they quietly skipped town." dallas smirks and caresses dustyn's stomach. he missed it so much. " well,if you like the armour..i dont want to disappoint.but it may make us a target for the savages of the wastes." he says while getting dressed and checking the power core levels of his armour. " you know, at time,i could have sworn these suits were powered by mini reactors that lasted for centuries. i guess boston got the shit suits." he muses,tapping the glass on the power gauge.

outside erica and nina are sitting with a very naked cricket. she has the look of someone who just lost the umpteenth round of whatever strip game they were playing. "read 'em and weep,bitch!" nina grins,slapping down a full house hand of cards.

"this is brahmanshit! there is no way you could win 20 times in a row! " she screams,tossing nina a bag o caps and two pistols.

"maybe lay off the...jet or whatever you're on. you gotta have a clear head to beat us." erica quips,shrugging as she shoots up some med-x. "oooh,thats what mamma likes." she sighs and smiles dreamily.

"could i at least have my clothes back. cmon." cricket.

nina wraps the rags around a grenade and throws it into an alley. "better hurry,love. the harlots are blowing away high prices." erica and nina both crack up as the woman shuffles down the street. cricket is so....high? neurotic? that she never notices the grenade never explodes. nina never pulled the pin.

the fact josh didnt answer his question and was getting snippy didnt sit well with erich at all. he purses his lips in thought,picturing the reality of spending days on end with this guy.erich finally nods and replies "yeah,there is a problem with that. you're a god damned asshole. if i do die out there,i invite you to find my corpse and eat my bloated ass cheeks for sustenance." with that,erich simply turns and walks towards billy and the noodles. he'd sooner die out there than be subjected to the stress of reality on top of having joshua trying to take over things.

dallas looks at dustyn holding the pipe pistol. it reminded him of the settlers who would try to refuse to contribute to the supplies of the brotherhood. the phrase "pissing into the wind." came to mind. but still,it was better than being armed with a knife or a pool cue. for the life of him dallas could never understand why people would run at him with a pool cue. he would be dressed in power armor and holding a gatling laser.pathetic. "it'll work until we can get you something better,dust.im sure we'll find some junkie with a weapon far above their intelligence and liberate it from them." dallas says with a smirk over his shoulder. wearing power armor may be overkill for this mission,but it may help. a lot of people run just at the sight of the armor.dallas walks over and hugs dustyn. "i'll protect you out there. bring it,but only for emergencies." he says warmly,just like he would have pre-brotherhood.

"aw,thanks a lot,billy." erich says brightly. he notices oscar didnt get any,which also made him decide to save it for later. with things the way there were,erich was only going to eat if he was extremely hungry. he hadnt really hit famished levels yet,so he didnt want to eat just because. plus,he would share later with oscar." i think i'll save it for our first camp.i still got a full tummy from the freezer. just think,a pre war turd is baking in my stomach as we speak.the first one this world has seen in awhile." erich sighs and pats his stomach. billy put him at ease and almost made things feel like the old days.

erich is quite taken by surprise at the quick to get physical joshua. he certainly wasnt expecting it. but on the short list of people erich feared,joshua wasnt on it. out of reflex he already had his knife out and ready when billy separated the two. billy,however was on that list. he had already gotten the better of erich once. it may have been a fluke,but it happened. so erich did calm a bit,closed the stiletto and put it back in his back pocket. " i dont trust him,billy. he wasnt ever my frien.,im pretty sure he wasnt ever yours. now he's here dictating what we need!? fuck this guy.why does he want to come? like i said,he wasnt ever my friend. now he wants to help? it just doesnt sit right." erich says,looking at josh the entire time while speaking to billy. josh was the odd man out of the group. to him it'd be like adam black suddenly appearing and wanting to help. erich would trust blake more than this joker. he at least knew what to expect with blake.

dallas pretends to fiddle with the laser rifle a litte more. there was still part of him that wanted to just say fuck the brotherhood and stay down here for the rest of their days. but those days could be short. the brotherhood was the best bet to make the world better for dustyn and shay. and that is what dallas wanted more than anything. even his own,or dustyn's happiness. with a loud hum the laser rifle was ready for action and dallas answered with a sigh. " dust,i dont really know.i've never really pushed it. if i bring back some fantastic tech,im sure all will be forgiven. or a handful of confirmed synth kills." dallas shrugs. hating to not give dustyn the answer he was sure he wanted. "i imagine two weeks or so should be ok." he surmises.

outside,erica and nina look up when the gates of the city open. the sound is deafening over the silence of the dead city around them. they were rather surprised to someone they knew. and thank god he didnt look like he was also a guard. they had had enough authority to last them a life time. "is that..." erica looks to nina while raising an eybrow.

"do believe it is,love. " nina chirps. it only made sense that erich and billy would find some more people they knew inside diamond city. "think he's coming to tell us billy and erich are lovers now and wont be returning to us?"

erica ponders this for a second and shrugs. "better for us. this expedition is really cutting into our plundering. at this rate,the minutemen will have forgotten who we are."

it did make erich feel a bit better with joshua getting the nod from billy. it may because billy was the first one erich met, or that he seemed to know what the fuck was going on,but he trusted and deferred to billy's judgment. he finally switches his eyes from joshua to billy. "i..well,im sure you know better than i. sounds like you know him well." erich says softly looking from billy to joshua. it was surprising to hear billy stick up for joshua. he really had assumed he would have had nothing to do with the man. over by the shop,erich couldnt help but wonder just what kind of meat was being chopped. he was pretty sure cannibalism was still frowned on,but he wasnt sure...and didnt want to ask. "im not apologizing to him." erich states firmly. josh was the one to escalate it first,and he wasnt going to abide that. " but,i promise not to sell him to erica and nina during the night." erich says with a smile and straightening his jacket. "dont know what i'd do without you,billy." he sighs at the craziness of the situation.

dallas lets the words of dustyn hang in the air longer than he should. he didnt like it. it felt too much like a goodbye and he had doubts this would be all that dangerous. this karoliena lady was probably either dead or down in dc in rivet city. " i love you too,dust. " dallas says softly before putting the helmet on for the power armor. this would effectively end the conversation and serve to hide the hurt on his face. every day he wanted to wake up and look out the window and be back in 2018. seeing dustyn was a reminder of a life he couldnt have. he just couldnt schlup it out in a wrecked ruin of a stadium. "yeah,we should hit the road. they may have already left us." his voice crackles through the helmet's speaker. other than billy and erich's affection for dustyn,there really was no reason for them to wait.even the help dallas could provide probably didnt outweigh the stigma of being in the brotherhood.

it was always odd to see someone from the old days. it was almost always like seeing a really intense halloween party. no matter who it was,it was hard to picture them in their new roles." oscar!" the two squeal and run up to hug him. nina looks down at her outfit and curtsies. "the finest in wasteland chic,my dear.those snobs in the upper stands have nothing on us." she grins,enjoying the moment.
"paging dr oz,paging dr oz." erica says in a loudspeaker voice. "the plan,as far as we know it. was to get info from dustyn as to where karoliena could be. then just go from there." she didnt want to add that they really didnt know if this was the case since they werent allowed in the city walls.

"oh its just us!" nina calls to rueben. the two had been behaving themselves and took offense at being called raiders. but when gunfire erupted,nina and erica hit the deck. "daaamn,oscar, we'll have to call you doc holiday!" erica adds in glee,referencing the old american dentist and gunfighter.
erica pulls out her tommy gun and opens fire. she makes an impressive showing,but hits nothing.
nina braces her gun against a piece of wall and fires more carefully.the first shot takes off a raiders leg,dropping her to the ground.she fires three more times,missing the other leg. but taking off both arms at the elbow. "dont kill her,let her think about what she's done." nina says ducking back behind the wall.

The party had indeed grown to almost faction size. A few more people and they could easily overtake the whole of minutemen. But the plethora of people did serve to keep everyone from each other's throats. Which oddly didn't seem to include Joshua after diamond city. Erich came around to him having a purpose. For the harlots, it was Dallas who was the unwelcome one. They didn't say or do much to show this, mainly out or respect for Dustyn,but it was like having a cop along. Plus they probably fell more in line with Joshua when it came to the synth subject.

Erich had adapted pretty well to the wasteland. He already had the shooting skills,but learned to apply them through Billy and the harlots. He kept away from Dallas for the most part. The power armor creeped him out. It seemed sinister and the laser rifle seemed weird. Plus,if synths were such good replicas that you probably couldn't tell who was a synth and who wasn't? They got a pass to personhood from Erich. Covenant sounded promising. Erich just couldn't see karoliena roughing it out here.

Dallas could feel the .... tension among some members but didn't let it bother him...well,other than the two women. They were every reason why he hated the new world. They had lost people,so what? Everyone had. Not everyone became maniacal killers. They at least had the decency to play the part all the time. Joshua seemed normal enough,but was just as quick to shoot. But Dallas could assume Joshua at least cared if people were innocent or not.
Dallas used the bulk of the power armor to try to block most of the view of the corpse from Dustyn. "I know,dust.i know." Dallas says to Dustyn,shaking his head slightly.

"Really? C'mon." Dallas asks Joshua. His natural instinct was to slap him,but he refrained. There was enough tension here as is.

Erica rummages through the pockets of the dead woman and comes up empty handed. ",No caps. Nothing. Boo,you whore." She tells the woman,who doesn't look like she cares anymore.
Nina,who has found the woman's calf,uses it to kick erica in the butt. 'who are you calling a whore,you slut!" Nina replies in a Terrible Boston accent. Nina tosses the foot over her shoulder and wipes her hands on Erica's back. In a glimpse of her old self,erica shrieks and runs around.

Nina could barely hear Reuben when he spoke.it was a miracle he had survived this long. Much less as a diamond city guard. Normally,his sort were ripe for the picking for her and Erica's schemes. But given their pre war history,he was safe. Taking him along probably was the best thing for him. " Of course,love. Here you go,one can of cram. Aged to perfection." She hands it to him along with a fork she keeps in her bag. She was happy someone still saw her as human. It was rare these days.

At Billy's call,the trio of hesses readied their guns and scanned the hills around them. Whatever it was was either big...or a lot of somethings. " I swear if this is a behemoth..." Erica sneers. Wanting to appear brave,but fully ready to run.

"think Nothing of it,love. Streets are paved with the stuff." Nina smiles to Reuben. She almost relished the idea of taking care of someone again. But wasn't going down that road again. Everyone was disposable. Even her relationship with Erica wasn't as close as it should be.

Erica and Nina watch Dustyn vomiting and have no clue as to why he's doing so. The woman hadn't started to smell too much. "Is there radiation around?!" Erica panics and takes out a pip boy and scans it around. Nothing .not a single rad. "It is hot out here. " She agrees with Dustyn while he is vomiting.

" Mirelurk!" He tells Dustyn loudly," watch out!" Dallas throws himself in front of Dustyn and starts firing the laser rifle. There was no way something this low on the food chain was hurting the man he loved. His brotherhood training made it second nature. Level the rifle and pull the trigger. The hardshell mirelurk rapidly burns up and turns to Ash. he was proud of Dustyn for at least shooting at the thing. He could have easily ran away,but didn't. " Good job" he tells Dustyn warmly..well as warmly as the speaker on his helmet would allow


Erich,now wiser to the wasteland,wasn't as impressed with a mirelurk as be was when he first saw a ghoul. "So...were they human?" He asks, clearly thinking about eating it. He did love seafood. But without butter,this was going to be hard.

erich pauses while opening a 2 hundred year old beer. the sad little bottle barely lets out a fizz when opened,guaranteeing its contents are flat and skunky. it had been long enough and erich had gotten used to the wasteland's cuisine. but he wasnt used to josh's shit. he takes out his pistol and fires it at josh's head. he misses,of course. "dont forget to take its bladder home for later." erich says flatly. next time they come across some raiders,erich is popping this bastard. erich looks at the puking dustyn,the butchering josh and the girls kicking a severed foot and making foot ball jokes. he felt a small hope that they'd find karoliena dead. this was hell.

the girls mill around and watch joshua at work. they would of course come to erich's aid if he needed it,but for now they were content to watch this play out. they had already placed bets on who was going to kill who first. "watch out,joshua. plankton is STILL after the krabby patty secret formula." erica says while looking at the mirelurk. she hated the things too. they were just so damned ugly and noisy. still not as ugly as the mirelurk kings down in dc. they looked really human like.

nina elbows erica the mention of riley and mouths "fuck." to her. this was worse than having the brotherhood with them. the steely boys were content to watch the world burn. but minutemen?! they were the antithesis of everything the harlots stood for. it was very possible riley was sent to find erica and nina. "we need to go. like,now" nina whispers to erica. "fuck karoliena,fuck erich. the minutemen are going to fucking kill us." nina was right to be worried. the harlots usually traveled in large groups and could hold their own against a contingent of minutemen.and had. but this...this wasnt good.

erica nodded. nina had a point. there was loyalty and there was stupidity. sticking around here was stupidity. between the raiding of any settlement close enough to good neighbor and the minutemen who took exception to that...it was safe to say their faces were known. " we cant just make a run for it. lets blend in and then fall back once everyone starts moving." erica plans. realizing it was a silly plan. blend in? they were the only two females here...and were dressed as such. damn their penchant for skimpy clothing!!
they slinked around behind the bulk of dallas and handed dustyn some water to wash the vomit taste from his mouth. "only pure water for the pure." erica tells him softly.

erich greets riley warmly. he whistles an impressed whistle at the small group riley was leading. they certainly looked like they meant business. it was always good to see a familiar face. "nice threads. but shouldnt you be in a red coat?" erich jokes at the idea of a british man wearing colonial american inspired garb. "tell your people i dont think karoliena would be out here. if there is still any pre war type civilization,i think she'd be there."

erica and nina would make a joke about covenant and their hatred of synths to dallas,but they are trying to will themselves under the dirt to hide.

erich considers stepping things up and throwing a grenade at josh,pin pulled. he isnt like oscar and irreplaceable member of the group. but frankly erich wasnt exactly sure how far the deadly range of a grenade was. it would be a hell of a time to find out it was a lot bigger than he thought. next time,he'd shoot him in the hand to prove his point. but for now,he'd leave plenty of irradiated soil between himself and joshua.

erica and nina shoot each other even more intense "oh shit." glances behind the back of dallas when scott's name is mentioned. its not like they forced scott to visit,they merely offered the goods. but still,what would be the line crossed to where riley would attempt to bring them to justice? " i dont think he is in good neighbor.i heard he went up to far harbor and is fucking robots up there." erica says in a comically deep silver shroud voice.*


erich is still fuming about joshua. he wasnt exactly sure why the man irritated him so. but josh was the turd in their punchbowl as far as erich was concerned. but he is still made to laugh when billy speaks. who'd have ever thought billy would be the one to talk erich down? "well,if i ever make it to this ..good neighbor,i'll be set." erich laughs to billy,sighing. the open road was even more depressing than miles and miles of destroyed city. they pass a corvega full of skeletons and erich just shakes his head. "you know,thanks. i mean that,billy." erich says,squinting into the setting sun. this was a hell of a thing getting everyone together just to maybe find someone.

underneath a tree with a noose hanging from a branch,the party comes across a youngish..maybe? its hard to tell under all the dirt,woman. shes got red hair and is dressed much like an old west preacher. she starts singing " i saw the light." as the group nears her. "and the lord said unto thee,who the fuck goes there?!" she exclaims.






ooc: seriously. i was on the fence over the player character having a voice in fallout 4....until i heard the female "speak as shroud" dialog option. love it.