Steel Waste

After the "cafeteria" incident most people who disliked Afton stayed well away, the fact that he hadn't been punished in any capacity was one of the reasons why this was the case... The other? Steve Lynch's broken jaw. The Initiate had been patched up in the infirmary, a stimpack being used to help along with the healing, however, as soon as he was deemed healthy he was heavily reprimanded by Scribe Doran.

He was given the punishment of having no free time for three months, his every waking moment would have to be spent in what could only be described as community service. Cleaning toilets, scrubbing floors, helping Knight and Scribes put away the large amounts of scrap and other miscellaneous things they'd sometimes use, etc.​​

Initiate Steve Lynch obviously held a grudge for this, not only had he been humiliated by his junior, but he'd also been punished and lost face. None of his "friends" even wanted to associate themselves with him any longer, apparently now that he wasn't all he made himself up to be, they weren't interested in befriending him.

Afton was slightly nervous about what Veronica and Christine would think about the whole incident, his father was happy about how he dealt with it, having likely heard it from Hardin's perspective. His mother on the other hand? Not so much. Apparently breaking his "friends" jaw due to an argument was way too far, Afton just silently nodded his head though... You couldn't really win an argument with your mother.

As expected, Veronica and Christine did hear about it, during their next sparring session the former was happily kicking her legs while sitting atop a desk, while the latter was giving him a hard look.

"Afton! So how was it? Your first fight?" Veronica quickly asks, wanting to hear every little detail.

He sighed and went into how it came about, how he was provoked and attacked first, this seemed to calm Christine down a bit upon hearing he didn't instigate it. Apparently, Veronica didn't want to hear about how he got into the fight, but how he fought instead... Muscle head.

Christine pops a cocky smile at her lover when he reveals that he'd ended the fight with an elbow, "The elbow is mightier than the fist" she mocks, having heard Veronica spout the literal opposite when teaching him.

"No! If you were stronger your first punch should have ended it... I'll have to show you how to do it again!" she shouts and starts chasing after him while swinging her fists.

Christine laughs as Afton frantically fends off Veronica, despite how long he'd been training with them, he still wasn't a match against either of the two superior combatants.

A few days pass and Afton is finds himself in a class he'd be excitedly anticipating... Power armour training... Doran walks in after everyone had already arrived, however he was no in his usual scribe robes... Instead wearing a set of Power armour that heavily clanked over to the front of the class. As usual the Power armour raised his usual 5.8ft height to 6.5ft, it was honestly rather surprising to see such a short man become so tall just by using the armour.

"Greetings Initiates." he says, quickly receiving "Sir!" in response and nodding, "As most of you know, today I'll be teaching you about Power armour, one of the most important technologies the Brotherhood of Steel owns. Now, I won't be able to teach you anything specifically on how they operate or are made, as you'll only learn that after you graduate from Initiate... But, I can teach you how to wear it."

Afton raises his hand and Doran points at him, "Yes Initiate Parker?"

"Sir, aren't we all still not tall enough to properly wear the armour?" he asks, causing a few students to groan as they realise they'd not get to experience using it yet.

Doran nods, "That's right, you need to be at least 5.5ft in order to wear the typically issued Power armour units we use in the Brotherhood, this brings us to the first thing I need to teach you all." he says as he turns around to show the class his back, he touches something that causes the suit to straighten its back and go rigid. Doran takes the helmet off as the back of the armour opens up, revealing the man inside.

Doran steps backwards out of the armour and turns to look at everyone while resting the helmet on his desk. "Now, the reason for the height restriction is simple. It would be far too time-consuming and wasteful to fully customise each suit of armour to each individual person, the Pre-war American military thought so too and designed the suits in a way to make it more accessible to everyone." he says before gesturing at the strange mechanical components inside the suit.

"See these? These are footholds, this is the main thing stopping anyone who isn't trained to use Power armour. You need to manually adjust them before you get in, otherwise there are two outcomes... First is you don't raise them enough, the armour will close on your head and crush your skull, if there isn't anyone well versed in how to override the armour you will probably die in a few seconds." he explains, causing a few students to grimace.

"Second, you raise the footholds too much, this will cause the armour to clamp don't on your chest, depending on how high you set them, you'll either slowly suffocate or you'll simply have you chest collapse with your heart and lungs being crushed... So, when I tell you to NEVER try to wear Power armour without someone experience watching, I FUCKING MEAN IT!" he shouts, displaying how serious he is on this topic.

"I have seen more than my fair share of Initiates getting mulched in these things due to how reckless and overeager they are, so if nothing else, obey this one warning I'm giving you now." he states.