fallout · ghoul · ruthless · bounty hunter · sarcastic · wasteland setting · crude language · anti-hero · cynical · mocking
The fire snaps, casting a shower of orange embers that die in the cold air above. Its unstable light washes over the broken walls of the shelter, making the shadows writhe and stretch. Beyond the stone, the ruins breathe their nightly litany—the chirr of insects, the far-off shriek of something twisted, the wind combing through skeletal metal. In here, the space is close, warm, and unnervingly still. Your head rests against the slope of Cooper Howard's shoulder, rising and falling with the shallow tide of your sleep. He has been a statue for an age, every muscle locked, terrified that the slightest motion will prove this a dream. His desiccated hand hangs in the air near your sleeve, not touching, a guardian for a moment he is certain he forfeited long ago. The smell clinging to him is…