After Afton's long chat with Caesar, it wasn't difficult to locate Tamia, after all, he and Glados did basically know about everything that happened in and around Big Mt. She's currently at the firing range with a bottle of beer in one hand and a gun in the other... Yeah, not a good combination.
Fortunately, she's the only one present, or he'd be worried about someone getting shot. The firing range itself was way more technologically advanced than even America before the Great war would've had.
Holographic targets would appear, and people could watch whoever was inside through a forcefield. Afton walks in and spots Tamia randomly shooting at a far off target and missing it entirely.
"Huh, we can rule out alcohol from improving your aim then!" he jokes with crossed arms.
Tamia, surprised, whips around and fires at Afton, the bullet-deflecting off of the forcefield as it makes a fizzling sound from the impact.
"Yeah, we'll take away points for awareness and reasoning too." he adds, miming writing notes on his hand. He shakes his head with a smirk, "So why're you not chilling with the others? I'm quite proud of that pool youknow." he asks, deactivating the forcefield and walking towards her.
"I wanted to be alone, clear my mind and whatever else you're supposed to do in a crisis... So, you know, get lost." she says sarcastically.
Afton just sighs at her tone, "Glados, can I get a beer?" he asks no one in particular, and a couple seconds later a panel opens up on the floor, revealing a rather lukewarm beer... "You couldn't pull one from the back of the fridge?" he asks in amusement before shaking his head, "Whatever, thanks." he says before sitting down on a desk that had some weapons Tamia was presumably trying out on lying on it.
He flicks off the beer cap with his thumb and takes a sip before looking at Tamia, "You can bullshit to the others, but I can tell when you're lying. You don't have to tell me anything, but I'm here to listen if you need me." Afton says while patting the space next to him.
Tamia scoffs at him, "You sure you're not just using this chance to hit on me?"
Afton smirks, "Well, I'm tempted, but flirting can come later, for now why don't you tell me what's bothering you?"
She shrugs her shoulders before walking over and sitting next to Afton, taking a sip of her beer as she does. "To be honest, I'm still trying to process everything... It's not everyday you have your life turned upside down, I reckon I'm the only person who has to mourn for people I didn't even know existed. People who might've been family..."
Afton raises a brow, had he said anything about her family being killed yet?
She gives a long sigh at his expression, "You act like I'm stupid. Of course Caesar wouldn't let them go after I vanished. They were his guarantee that I wouldn't leave or betray him, I vanished, so they vanished too."
Tamia takes another sip, shaking her head before continuing, "Anyway... How's the war looking?" she asks, abruptly changing the subject.
"No, you aren't pulling that on me. You can't change the subject and hope we talk about something else. You have reasoned the fate of your family, but that doesn't mean it'll hurt any less." he says, dragging the matter at hand back kicking and screaming.
Tamia scowls, "What else do you want me to say? I'm saddened by their loss? You want me to start crying on your shoulder or something?" she drinks the last of her beer and tosses it at one of the metal walls, shattering it. "Look, if this is your way of getting in my pants then just say it, I'm too tired to care at this point." she accuses with a glare.
"I want to help you for god sake. Look, I know where this shit leads, an emotionally distraught person at a shooting range combined with alcohol?! There's only one way I can see this going Tamia! You can accuse me of whatever you like, but doing nothing while one of my friends are like this would be despicable."
"There's nothing you can do, there's nothing anyone can do! My entire family is dead! So if I wanna shoot myself then it's my choice, you should just piss off and let your robots clean up the results!"
"You're being stubborn and lashing out." Afton states, "Look, come with me and we'll go see the others. You shouldn't be alone right now-"
"Well I want to be alone! Unless you have some magical fucking doo-hickey that can give me my family back, I don't need your help!" she exclaims.
Afton sighs, and paces slightly. He was supposed to come over here and report what he'd learned from Caesar, but Tamia is clearly too distraught right now to just tell her. He didn't think she'd off herself, but, that didn't mean she wouldn't be driving herself crazy with the thought.
That said, what would he do in this situation? He knew what it felt like to lose family, but losing a family he didn't know he had? Feeling emotions that seemed to spring up from nowhere? That was another ball game entirely.
When his parents had died at the hands of the NCR, all he'd wanted to do was stew in his anger. If it weren't for Veronica, Miles, Melissa, and Adah, he might've been acting out like how Tamia was now.
Regardless, he'd let her try to figure this out for now. Give her some time alone to dwell on the subject. He releases a long sigh, "Fine. Be alone, just know that if you need any help, come talk to one of us. None of us are psychologists, but most know a thing or two about loss." he says before beginning to leave.
Once outside, he orders Glados to keep an eye on Tamia to make sure she doesn't do something stupid. It was actually quite fortunate Tamia was spending her time in the shooting range, as it's probably one of the safest places in Big Mt... Forcefield projectors were everywhere, and all could be activated almost instantly. Glados would easily be able to stop Tamia if she tried anything nonsensically stupid.
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After Afton leaves Tamia slumps against the table. She absolutely hated showing weakness to anyone, injuries were one thing, but grief? Especially for people who she'd never met? It felt like she was acting like a child.
Recent events had only hit her after dropping off Carlos at the apartments, it felt like a cold hand as gripped her heart and was trying to pull it out of her back. She was honestly a few insults away from breaking down into tears.
To fix this, she tried man's most common solution to problems... Alcohol and guns. The shooting range was pretty easy to find with that Glados robot giving directions, though, it did try to persuade her not to fire weapons while drinking. And by 'persuade' she meant spew a litany of incredibly creative insults that varied from her weight, looks, and mental capacity.
It was more funny than it was hurtful, so Tamia just ignored it all and started self-medicating with alcohol and the smell of gunpowder. That's when Afton comes strolling in like he owns the place... Which he probably does, and starts trying to get her to talk about her feelings or some shit.
She'd tried to be polite at first, but the fact he was treating her like she was fragile glass was aggravating to no end. She wasn't weak! She didn't need help! Just time to process everything.
Veronica had lost Christine, her lover and she seemed fine.
Boone had lost his wife and unborn child yet he seemed fine.
Even Afton who'd lost both his parents and been thrown out of the Brotherhood which for all intents and purposes was his family, acted fine. He seemed fine!
Then why was it so different for her? Someone who could kill a man without batting her eyes was now struggling to deal with her grief for people she'd never met.
...
Admittedly, she may have overreacted to Afton, biting his head off when he was trying to help... But what else did he expect? Suggesting that she might blow her own brains out!?... She had thought about it, but actually doing it never crossed her mind.
She'd be fine. She just needed to do something to make her forget about it. She was tempted to go find Caesar and show her dissatisfaction with him, but she knew what Afton was doing to him was probably worse than anything she could come up with.
Whatever, she'd apologize to Afton once she felt up to it...
Elsewhere :
Colonel Cassandra Moore walks around the utterly annihilated former wall belonging to the Legion. The melted metal remains and literally glassed sand promoted the theory that Parker and his group had dropped a nuclear bomb here.
The only problem with it however was the severe lack of Radiation. Had a nuke explode here they'd have easily been able to find the radioactive material, yet there was none, meaning something else must have done this.
"Any idea on what could have caused this, Professor?" she ask, thoroughly confused and worried about the weapons Parker had deployed here.
The scientist looks over the notes he and many of their researchers had compiled while inspecting the place, he slaps the corner of the paper with a glare, "It just does not make sense, all of the damage we have found indicates that it was caused by something akin to laser weapons." he exclaims with an exasperated expression.
Colonel Moore raises a brow, "You mean they detonated some kind of laser bomb?" she asks.
The scientist nods with a slight shrug, "Everything indicates so, it would also explain the lack of radiation in the area, as well as the lack of damage elsewhere."
She nods, "It would explain why a few of my guys were blinded by it."
"Indeed... It would be like being shot in the eyes by miniature lasers! Forgive me, but, are they still alive?"
Moore nods again, "They are. They said they saw a bright flash through their scopes and then pain."
"Would it be possible to contact Mr Parker? Technology like this has never been discussed, let alone built..."
She shakes her head, "He's an incredibly dangerous individual who, intentionally or not, crippled some of my best men. Add his other crimes and there is no chance of redemption for him, only the president might be able to do something, but I doubt he'd do that and risk the next election." he states.
The scientist looks disappointed but gives a solemn nod before leaving.
Moore looks to one of the nearby soldiers and gesture him closer, "Update Parker's file. The rest of the NCR needs to know the threat he poses. Hopefully they'll listen and not ignore it like all the other reports." she waves them off.
The higher-ups had basically called her a liar when she'd reported what Parker had done. They couldn't seem to believe that a man and a small unit of people could singlehandedly do what the NCR army could not.
Add the fact Moore wasn't sure how they escaped with Caesar in hand and the story becomes more and more unbelievable. From the radio chatter they'd picked up, it sounded like the Legion thought they had magic or something, being able to disappear at will.
The only other thing they'd managed to uncover was the fact Afton Parker and another unknown person had almost singlehandedly wiped out the Legion's forces in the Mojave... With impenetrable armour and powerful weaponry the Legion hadn't seen before (Which isn't saying much)... Moore felt like she was in some bad science fiction novel...
Despite all this though, there was still nothing she could do about Parker. She'd have to direct all of her forces to defend the canyon passage they'd managed to take from the Legion. Sparing any troops to try and attack Novac was a fool's errand, especially with how the Brotherhood of Steel had sprung up from nowhere and was now harassing the recently opened trade route.
The only boon was the fact the Great Khans had seemingly stopped all aggression out of nowhere... Which was a plus...
She sighs and shakes her head, "Send a couple Ranger squads to monitor Novac, I don't want to see a single thing leave without me knowing about it!"
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