Steel Waste

The "celebration" that his parents had devised proved nothing more than a simple get together... The Brotherhood of Steel was new to the area and lacked any none critical supplies, as such the only things they had for the guests were a few sunset sarsaparilla's and nuka cola. Somehow they'd been preserved well enough these two hundred years to still be drinkable, though, Afton was hesitant to drink any...

As the get together was rounding up, the door to the room opened, causing everyone present to turn towards it.​​

...

A man wearing blue and grey robes walks in, his pale and almost clammy skin matched his messy grey hair, with the addition of the massive beard he also sported, he looked like the ideal picture of a crazy homeless man.

Afton glances around in confusion, everyone's reaction to the man appearing was abit too strong for his liking, had something bad happened?

His father steps forwards after the moment of silence passes, "Elder, I don't suppose you've heard about my son?"

The man shakes his head, "I couldn't care less about your son," he states, causing a few in the room to tense up, "I seem to have misplaced my apprentice. however." he says, glances around the room before locking eye with Veronica.

"Er, hey Elder..." she scratches the back of her head, "I was on break, right? Ha-ha-ha..."

The elder scoffs, "Funny, usually when someone says thirty minutes, they mean thirty minutes, or if that's too hard for you, one thousand eight hundred seconds... I also don't recall giving you permission to go traipsing around the base doing whatever strikes your fancy." he states with a frown.

"Excuse me, Elder... Veronica here just wanted to visit our son, she's young and it would healthy for her to socialise." Verna says.

"Indeed it's important, that's why I allocated her two hours and thirty minutes of every day to "play" with people her own age... Was it not enough apprentice?" he asks while glaring at her.

"I-er, yes. It is but I wanted to see Afton... I'm sorry for sneaking off." she admits, her shoulders slumping.

...

The Elder loudly breaths out through his nose before sighing, "Very well... You may stay here, but you'll not be allowed any social breaks for three days. You've put my research five hours behind and I'll have you return that time with work... Understand?"

Veronica quickly nods, "Yes Elder, thank you!"

The Elder turns and walks away, thankfully seeming to have no interest in Afton judging by how the man ignored him entirely.

So that was Elder Elijah he thought to himself. The man didn't exactly look like leadership material, this with all the misgivings he'd been hearing from the various people in the base painted a pretty clear picture. Though, he'd not really understood Veronica's relationship to him until now...

From their brief interaction now he could see that he valued her a lot, the girl had bragged to him in the past that she was the Elder's favourite due to her aptitude when it came to engineering and technology.

The man was purported to be extremely strict and hated anyone going against his orders, he was worried that Veronica would be heavily punished, but apparently, he had a soft spot for her? If he didn't know any better he'd say they were more like father and daughter than master and apprentice. That made the most sense since Veronica's parents had been killed by the NCR a while ago.

After the Elder left people immediately started conversing again, Verna and Zachary walking over to Veronica to ask whether she'd be alright, and if they could do anything to help.

Veronica simply shook her head though, "This is not the first time I've snuck away, and it won't be the last... The Elder ignores it as long as I do my best when I am working."

Afton could see the worry the held for her as the Elder was known to be awful to people that displeased him, but with Veronica's reassurances, they let the matter go.

Thirty minutes later people started leaving, the children his age Melissa and Miles had become tired and fallen asleep, being carried away by their parents who sent smiles at Verna and Zachary, as well as longing glances at himself...

The following days were much more interesting than most beforehand had been, "learning" at an advanced rate allowed him to finally do something productive other than exercise his body at night.

Under Adah's guidance, he quickly became "proficient" at writing the alphabet, simple mathematics, and other basic studies. This encouraged the woman to press and go further every time he completed something.

She kept his parents up to date on his progress, and if they hadn't thrown a celebration the other day, he had no doubt they would throw another.

And so, this became his daily routine. Waking up, being taken to the nursery by his mother where he reluctantly socialised with the children there before thankfully being carried off by Adah who started his day's education.

He was occasionally visited by Christine and Veronica who seemed to make it their duty to be the best big sisters possible, even if some of the other parents found it slightly awkward that they didn't extend that same attitude to their own children.

The duo even snuck him away once to teach him how to shoot a laser pistol... That was probably the most fun experience he'd had since reincarnating if he were honest. The feeling of power it gave you to shoot extremely deadly beams of light at anything you wished? Afton was afraid he might've developed a fetish...