Alternative Methods.

[doubletap]

Has sex become repetitious? Feeling sore in certain areas? Well, good news! Your boyfriend has sent you on a quest to find different ways of having fun gay sex. Yay!

Find the following people and seek out their knowledge:

• Arcade Israel Gannon (=D)
  
• Jimmy (Westside)
  
• Old Ben (Freeside)
  
• Doctor Alex Richards (Novac)
  
• Ignacio Rivas (Helios One)

Good luck, Wanderer!

Comments

[duraframe]

Hobby, is all that's given. Learning.

More importantly, Neil had mentioned Alex had told Neil to learn more to get better at lovey-dovey stuff. That seems unnecessary! You don't have to try to get better at that. You're fine how you are.

...Happy burble.

[goodfight]

So kinda like how kids before the Great War would watch wildebeests mate on TV, ED-E's utilizing recordings for the sake of education. It rings of rationality in an exceptionally strange way.

That statement, though... Neil can't help the self-deprecating chortle. "I don't know. One guy doing the brunt of the work isn't my definition of fine. I just kinda lie there and, ugh, take it."

Crap. Now he's confessing things to ED-E. Neil must be off-kilter today--you know, after four in-depth discussions about sex.

[duraframe]

ED-E buzzes in thought. Certainly, Neil has a point. The point of friendship, no matter what kind, was a give and a take. One person couldn't do all the work.

But friendship had different ways that it balanced.

He smiles with you, ED-E offers. He's happy with you. He wasn't. Before. Before everything ended. And after. You give him things, too.

[goodfight]

Somehow, it is a hovering eyebot from the wretched East who drives the point home, and the young man who shares his hometown finds himself beaming at the idea. At the sheer notion that Alex Seattle Geer is happier with him. It's so great to hear that Neil doing something right, for once.

In time, reality softens his expression, but it still remains. He looks to the side, suddenly quiet. "I'm glad," he speaks, voice soft. "I hope I can continue that."

[duraframe]

Neil makes a nice expression. ED-E burbles in appreciation.

You have to stay, he insists. Stay with us.

[goodfight]

I would love to stay. With them. More than anything.

Neil blinks. "Not planning on leaving you guys."

[duraframe]

He hovers up and down. Then it'll continue. The happiness. Alex's smiles. Neil staying is a good thing.

...However.

You're traveling with Angry-armor-glasses? That's why you didn't want me?

[goodfight]

Continue. Yeah.

The mention of Arcade, on the other hand, has Neil frowning. "No, I'd have asked you if the thought actually occurred to me," he clarifies. "Arcade was just first on the list of people I needed to talk to. I then kinda freaked myself out and asked him to accompany me for the others."

His frown deepens. "I really don't know what his problem is."

[duraframe]

It's in his name, the problem. At least that's what Alex told him. ED-E calls Arcade Angry-armor-glasses, and Alex says the armor is the problem. There's a past and a history, and ED-E is just a reminder of that.

But ED-E thinks he just doesn't like AIs. And says as much in a grinding buzz.

[goodfight]

Doesn't like AIs, huh? Neil wonders if it's as straightforward as that.

Regardless, they need to address the more apparent issue: separating two existences that cannot coexist in the same vicinity. "ED-E, honestly, I just have one more guy on my list," he says. "Do you want to let Alex know I'm almost done and will be heading back soon?"

[duraframe]

He hovers for a moment, then rattles off a lightning-fast series of sounds. Then recalls Neil's efforts at translation and tries something different.

And then you'll come back to us? You won't go away?

[goodfight]

After a burst of untranslatable noise, ED-E slows down enough for Neil Park to decode. He nods at the eyebot, slowly grinning.

"After I pick up Dogmeat, we'll come back home."

Home causes his heart to skip in his chest, but he keeps on smiling.

[duraframe]

ED-E buzzes, then bumps into Neil again.

Come back home quick!

He whistles victory, and begins to fly away home.

[goodfight]

Home. Right. I have a home.

It's only now that Neil Park--who has lost and lost much--can believe he has finally found it. And something in him mourns that truth. Something in him, loud and grating, finally dies a quiet death.

He watches the excited kid fly toward the horizon, his feet refusing to walk away until ED-E disappears into the distance.