Chapter Text
January 1, 2288
I chose to sleep in. That was how I celebrated making it to a new year: by sleeping in. It had also begun to snow when we were almost back to Diamond City and I was not interested in dealing with moving around in that nonsense. Today was a good day to stay close to home, do some home maintenance, weapons and armor maintenance, and figure out how to craft a hot toddy with the ingredients I had access to. And if I did go out, it was only to go to the market then straight back indoors.
Nick and I did have detective business at The Dugout Inn, so I did end up having to leave the house. Now that Eddie fucking Winter had been dealt with, we could attend to some of the other cases that had been piling up. Like Earl Sterling’s disappearance. I didn’t feel like breaking into his house, so we headed over to the Dugout to go talk to Vadim Bobrov and see if he had a copy of Earl’s house key. I was also thinking of maybe, maybe, going to speak with Piper after dodging her for the last 2 months.
And then I walked into a half-cocked mess courtesy of the stupid nonsense Vadim dreams up. This time, both he and Yefim wanted to talk to me about Travis – the DJ for Diamond City Radio. Vadim was going on this incredibly unhinged tear about how Travis was so garbage they needed to get rid of him so they could bring someone better in. I knew Vadim was a loose cannon on the best of the days, but this was incredibly over the top even for him. I think Yefim could tell from the look on my face I was a nanosecond from walking away, because he interrupted; telling his brother to knock it off and stop speaking nonsense. Always the more sensible and pragmatic brother, Yefim turned to us and explained what was actually going on.
Travis is their friend and they know he is not the most confident of men (an understatement). Vadim seems to think that paying these guys he knows to come in and fake fight Travis in the Dugout, have Travis win and boom! Travis will instantly start feeling more confident. At least, this is what Vadim thinks. Personally, I think he’s fucking nuts. But do I say this in the moment? No. Though I was sorely tempted when Vadim wanted me to be Travis’ back up in this fight, his hype man. Now, I’ve never been in a bar fight before. Obviously. But I have also done a lot of things these last two months and things that I never imagined myself doing. So somehow that crazy Russian bastard managed to talk me into it, because I ended up agreeing. I’m still trying to figure that out hours later. All I had to do was show up at the Dugout after 6 in the evening; that’s around when Travis usually shows up.
I hope I don’t regret this. I feel like I will.