Chapter 630 - SSP

Afton immediately perks up upon hearing this. Whatever dream Shani might've had may reveal events in the future, events he may want to stop... Though, if it just reveals a Mojave utopia with Bulwark and Mr House flags flying above every building he wouldn't be surprised... "Tell me about it then." he requests.

Shani chews her lip for a moment before speaking, looking incredibly anxious, "I... I dreamt that many pillars of blue fire would come down from the sky... The dream ended before they hit the ground though..." she mutters.

...

Blue pillars of fire from the sky huh? That sounded an awful lot like his orbital laser... Or, it could just be aliens, especially considering that they actually exist in this universe... This could be pretty bad to be honest, either he goes crazy and unleashes massive orbital bombardment onto the planet for some reason, someone hacks into his orbital lasers, or... Aliens suddenly attack the world?

...

The trio just watch the many emotions occur on Afton's face, wondering if he knew what might be the cause of the dream. "You know anything?" Boone inquires.

Afton slowly shakes his head, "Nothing for certain, but I'll make sure we are prepared for such a situation." he diplomatically states before making a show of looking around, "Any of you seen Veronica or Christine anywhere?"

The trio chuckle, "You won't be seeing them until tomorrow." Josie adds while taking a swig.

"Ooooh... Good for them I guess." he mutters while kicking his feet up, "Any word on Tamia?" he asks, wondering where she was... She was supposedly the Protagonist, which meant she should have been present at Hoover Dam if everything went similarly to Fallout 3...

The trio shakes their heads, "No... Haven't seen her since she left through the tunnel system." Boone adds.

Afton idly nods as they begin discussing other subjects, their thoughts on House, the future, Psykers, even what they'd each be doing now that the war was essentially over. All the while, Afton was doing his best to break through his mutations resistances against alcohol... He knew it could be done, but, it'd take a while.

So, glasses of straight Vodka and Whisky were deployed, and an hour after he started drinking, he was finally starting to feel a little tipsy... Though, everyone else at the party had either gone back to their rooms already, or were completely shitfaced.

He did, however, take a moment to tell Glados to start making estimations on the various causes of Shani's dream... He'd need to start preparing for that now if he wanted to be ready for it... He could think of a couple ways to deal with Aliens, like multiple orbital lasers, or simply a shit ton of anti-air cannons...?

He's drawn from his thoughts when a red-faced Josie taps him on the shoulder and gestures at the not vacant seat where Boone and Shani had been... "Er, did they leave together?" he questions, wondering if Boone had finally gotten out of his funk.

Josie shrugs, "Probably not... Just walking her back to her room I'd bet... Say..." she trails off with a mischievous grin, "You wanna walk me back too? It's getting pretty late..."

Afton crooks a brow but doesn't reject her, instead, standing and offering a hand. "I guess I could, if you really want to." he says, knowing exactly where this is going.

And as you'd expect, it went exactly where you'd think.

The next day Afton awoke in an unfamiliar room, in an unfamiliar bed, with surprising familiar arms wrapped around his waist. He hadn't drunk all that much so he remembered exactly what he'd done last night, plus the bonus of his regenerative abilities stopping any hangovers...

He sits up suddenly when he remembers he's got a meeting with House at 11 am... His eyes dart around the room but he doesn't spot any clocks around, all the while completely forgetting the Pipboy attached to his arm. He pulls himself out of bed and rapidly starts getting dressed, accidentally waking up Josie in the process.

She grumbles and rubs her eyes once she feels the source of warmth leave the bed, looking over at Afton's frantic movements, "Mmm... What is this? A dine and dash?" she mutters half sarcastically.

Afton shakes his head while he pulls his shirt on, "You know I'm not like that, once the meeting is over we'll talk about... This."

She chuckles, "What's there to talk about? Unless!" she gives an exaggerated gasp, though, her acting was terrible as she was still half asleep. "Did you realise you weren't into women last night?"

...

"I can't tell if you're teasing me or not... Wouldn't me turning gay after a night with you be your fault, not mine?" he asks while pulling his trousers on.

She waves her hand in his direction with a yawn, "Semantics... Besides, I could just change you back after another session."

...

"You mean like a sexuality swapping pussy or something? As funny as that superpower would be, I doubt it's possible... Even with Psykers." Afton states before giving a light kiss and leaving.

"Bring some breakfast when you get back!" Josie calls after him before going back to sleep.

Once outside he calls for Glados, breathing a sigh of relief at the fact he still had ten minutes to get to New Vegas. It was enough to get there, but not really enough to organize his thoughts for the meeting... Regardless, hopefully everything would turn out fine... House was a businessman through and through, but you could only negotiate so much when your opponent has a bigger and better army, as well as an orbital laser at his disposal. Plus the fact he'd claimed that Bulwark had already allied with New Vegas, meaning that House had to seal the deal no matter what.

The only reason Afton wasn't going to make ridiculous demands though was because having a good relationship with House would most likely trump whatever he could extract from the man.