Radiance Ch. 57

Chapter 57: Greasing the Wheels.

"So Raymond the others tell me that you once used to be human is that correct?' Lia asked curiously and Raymond baulked a little at how very direct this big Claw girl was, she stood blocking the doorway that led from the washroom back into the main kitchen.

The washroom was not large and it was easy for her to simply reach out with one of her very long arms and lift one of the plates off the counter and looking closely at it her long claw making a clicking noise on the ceramic as she inspected it closely with her incredibly intense eyes which once she was done with the squeaky clean plate she focused on him again narrowing her vertical pupils as she did.

"Umm yes all super mutants were once humans, though most aren't like me or Shauna, most are just genderless hulks that are very diminished versions of themselves," he said softly.

The big claw girl took a single step forwards closing the gap between them in an instant, this made him back up in surprise until he bumped against the counter and once again Lia took another step forwards basically trapping him against the counter by blocking his escape from the room.

Once again he saw her large pupils narrow into their vertical slit form as she lowered her head though she didn't need to lean down much as she wasn't much taller than him though he was far more muscular than her thanks to his super mutant genome making him far heavier than he once was though now it was pure muscle, not that it was fat before, weren't exactly many overweight people out there in the wastes thanks to lack of abundance of food, kinda made dieting rather easy, the survivor diet.

She seemed to be analysing him and oddly enough seemed to be smelling him, he could hear her taking deep sniffs, "You don't smell like a normal super mutant, you smell as much like a human as you do like a mutant, it's strange, why are you different from them?" she asked curiously lifting her large horned head so that she was looking right into his eyes with those predatory eyes of hers.

"Yeah that is because the doctor who created me secretly modified the FEV that's used to make super mutants to attempt to let super mutants keep their personalities and essentiality let them still be essentially what is still themselves, but while it did work to a degree and left as who were once were inside outside it is a very different question," Raymond said as he watched Lia looking him up and down seemingly wanting to analyse each and every inch of him making him feel incredibly self-conscious.

Her head came back up and her eyes refocused on his again, "How do you mean?' she asked.

"Well unfortunately most humans have problems seeing beyond what their eyes see and it can cause issues, even though I am still the same person I always was the people who once knew couldn't see beyond this fucking big green body and I scared them, they just kept expecting me to go full-on hulk and start smashing the place up, so I really had no choice but to leave and try and start again, but I was lucky in that respect, unlike Shauna who really fell in with the wrong crowd," he said both wryly and a bit sadly as he thought about his time in the captivity of the Amazons.

Lia tilt her head in an oddly cute manner which was most definitely odd because he had never associated the words 'Deathclaw' and 'cute' in the same paragraph let alone sentence, but it was obvious she was curious and it was kinda like looking a cat, a giant, scaly, heavily armoured cat with giant claws and horns but those slit-like pupils gave off the same vibe, that curious predatory look that she pulled off rather well.

"Oh how so?" she asked and suddenly he had an idea, maybe this was a chance to get to know this claw girl better and to maybe enrich his knowledge and to Raymond, there was very little of more importance than enriching his knowledge and learning new things, so this was a good chance to learn about claw society and just about her as an individual because unless you are Seven or Gregory or even just at the very least a member of this group, how often do you get to just have a conversation with a Deathclaw with about limbs being removed or high calibre weaponry being involved, though it's not so much a conversation more screaming obscenities while firing on full auto hoping you take them down before said limbs get removed.

"Would you like a cup of coffee or tea and then we could maybe sit down in the lounge and I'll tell you about it?" he asked and Lia looked even more curious.

"What are coffee or tea?" she asked.

"Human hot drinks I'm quite partial to tea myself, but I know Seven loves his coffee and infact he seems to have gotten Visa hooked on the stuff," he said with a soft chuckle thinking that the world was going to be far more interesting with a load of talking caffeine tripping claws wandering about.

"I have never even heard of them let alone tried them so how do I know I will even like them?" Lia asked in that oddly straightforward manner of hers.

"Well, the only way to know is to try some and decide for yourself, if you don't like it then so be it at least you tried right?" Raymond said with a smile and Lia looked at him curiously as he moved along the cabinet with her following him keeping him trapped against it with her sheer presence, he reached up into one of the cabinets and pulled down two tins one filled with ground instant coffee and the other filled with tea bags that apparently had been shipped over from Great Britain before the war and boy did those Brits know a thing or two about tea.

He turned and opened both tins before holding them out to her and she looked between him and the tins curiously before leaning in and smelling them and he couldn't help but chuckle softly when she recoiled at the incredibly potent and bitter smell of the coffee which while it earned him an obviously embarrass growl was worth it.

"That stuff smells bitter!" she exclaimed and Raymond nodded.

"Yeah I'm told that's kinda the point but honestly I'm not a fan, I don't like my drinks to punch me in the face when I drink them but your cousin and her man swear by the stuff so there must be something to it but give me a good old fashioned cup of tea any day and hey any drink that can build a nation can't be wrong right?" he said extracting two tea bags from the tin before placing both cans back and extracting two large cups that were more like pint glasses than they were cups to drop them into.

"What do you mean by that?" she asked.

"Tea was once the national drink of a place called Britain which is very far away across the ocean, they swore by the stuff and I can see why, honestly to me there are few things as comforting as a good cuppa as the Brits would have said," he said with a grin.

Given that she had never drunk the stuff before he couldn't ask her how she took it so he decided to make two exact replica cups, with powdered milk and two large teaspoons of sugar to sweeten it, once it was done he turned and handed her large steaming cup which she took with a click of her claws on the ceramic as she mirrored how he was holding his, she watched him take a sip before doing the same.

Her face changed from curious to surprised to happy, "It's good, very good!" she exclaimed and Raymond smiled and before he could say a word she drained her mug from top to bottom and held out the empty cup to him.

"Another!" she said and he looked at her in amazement as that water was freshly boiled, god these claws must have Teflon mouths but he still took the cup and made a second cup in exactly the same way but this time he told her to go easy and to savour it, she looked at him curiously but did so.

He wormed his way around her and led the big curious claw girl back into the main lounge area and it felt oddly like leading an oversized scaly dog around the way she stuck to his heel like glue as he moved infact he almost felt the very odd urge to pat the couch when he sat down to invite her to join him but he really didn't need to bother as she snatched the seat next to him like someone was going to jump in and snatch it from her, suddenly he was beginning to understand what both Gregory and Seven meant when they said that Claws were both impulsive and very territorial in the sense that they acted as if they had claimed something that automatically made it theirs and solely theirs and now that seat was hers and no-one else's and no-one would be under any illusions otherwise.

Given that human furniture wasn't exactly built with claws in mind it was somewhat funny watching her trying to get herself comfortable as she wiggled her large scaly rear end about on the cushion and also trying not to trap her long thick tail under herself and for some reason he couldn't help but comment on it.

"Guess there aren't exactly many chairs where you come from eh?" he said softly and her head snapped up to focus her attention on him.

"No, I never realised that humans live such luxury filled lives, I could very much get used to these things like furniture and tea," she said.

"Well normally I wouldn't exactly call them luxury but that was before I began living as a super mutant and wound up sleeping in basements and on floors and eating whatever mole rat or animal was stupid enough to have a go at me, infact it wasn't until I met the Greasers that I began to feel somewhat human again," Raymond said with a nod.

"Indeed, a Claw's life is not too dissimilar to this that you describe, we live in a nest of our own making and hunt whatever we can catch with our own claws and to be fair this was enough but there always did seem like there was more to life, it wasn't until I saw how humans live that I got curious about such things, well that was until they Enclave took me and my pack, after them, I am genuinely surprised that I do not kill every human I encounter though I think if it was not for your pack leader Seven I would probably do just that, but he has shown me and mother that there are good humans who will see us as more than just animals to be used and killed," she said with a very noticeable bitterness to her voice.

"Yeah he's an incredible guy alright, I mean he's got all this fucking power at his fingertips but all he wants is to help people and to be left alone, all while showing their world what humans and non-humans can achieve together and hell if I hadn't seen it and begun living it I'd have never believed it, especially after what I went through, hell if it wasn't for the Greasers who are just like me after I left my town I'd have probably gone crazy from loneliness and just offed myself," Raymond said shivering at the memories of those dark days.

"You promised to tell me of those days, so honour your word super mutant Raymond," Lia said and Raymond chuckled.

"What is so funny?" she demanded making him flinch, he'd forgotten how direct Claws were.

"Oh nothing just found it amusing you calling e Super mutant Raymond, please it's just Raymond or Ray," he said.

She looked thoughtful for a moment and then nodded her large horned head, "Very well and in return you may simply address me as Lia" she said making him smile.

"Thanks, ok then so you wanted me to tell you about the Greasers right?" he said and she nodded again.

"Alright then well it kinda began when I was at my lowest point really, after leaving my settlement which i had tried going back to after I was turfed out of the regular super mutants area after they discovered I was not like them, fortunetly they didn't try to kill me and to be fair neither did the humans of my settlement though they were so very nearly ready to do so until I was able to prove to them that it was still me in here, but nothing was the same after that, the way people looked at me and treated me, so I decided to leave and to go my own way, well that was both the worst decision and the best decision all in one, worst because I have never felt so alone as I did in those days, moving from place to place looking for a place to just be left alone and safe, in those days i fought raiders as well as local wildlife while dealing with crippling depression and anxiety, but just when things were at their bleakest and i was at the point of chewing on a shotgun they found me, the Greasers" Raymond said.

"So who are the Greasers?" Lia asked sipping on her tea as she watched him curiously.

"They are a group of smart male mutants just like me, all survivors of the same FEV that created me but they banded together for their survival and to possibly do some good in the area, they called themselves the Greasers because of the leader's love of old-style hair cuts and Brylcreame hair products, he used to walked around with this perfectly made up quiff that reminded me of Elvis Presley who is a human singer before you ask, I asked him once why he was so insistent on these fancy hairstyles and he said it was simple m dear Raymond when you see a super mutant with a perfect quiff such as this it causes you to pause for a moment long enough for him to come up and say hello to you rather than just shoot at him, means more chance we stay alive and are not shot by the very people we are trying to help," he said smiling at the memory.

Lia looked up at the top of his head where his long hair was now tied back into a ponytail as he wasn't exactly awash with hair products, "May I touch your fur? It looks soft unlike the course animal fur I often see on my prey" she said and he chuckled.

"Well ok as long as you aren't planning on hunting me I guess it's okay, just please don't give me a trim with those super sharp claws of yours, I rather like my hair as it is thanks," he said and she flashed him a fang-filled smile that made him shiver slightly as once again her apex predator status showed itself.

"I will decide who or what I hunt for myself Raymond not you or anyone else, if I decide you are worthy prey then there will be nothing you or anyone else can do from dissuading me from hunting you, an apex hunter such as I only chase the finest of prey!" she declared in a tone that was a mixture of menacing and oddly salacious, was she flirting with him? Was this how claws flirted?

Bloody hell women were tricky creatures to understand, he always thought human women were basically an alien species as they might as well be as trying to understand their motivations and thought processes had always been nigh on impossible for him but now with this group, he was presented with a variety of different types and species of women and that just added even more layers of complexity to them as if they weren't lying walking talking fucking onions already and the last thing on earth he wanted to do was to offend a woman like Lia, most human women would just angry and call you al sorts of names or shred your clothing while you were out if you insulted or scorned them, a bloody claw girl would probably cut your arms off and drop kick them into the next state if you pissed them off and that was if they were in a forgiving mood.

Lia shifted over even closer to him and reached up unashamedly to touch his hair, thankfully she did not do what a lot of people unfamiliar with long hair did and pulled it as if testing to see if his scalp was fucking detachable, funnily enough, but they always seemed surprised that it was not.

Instead, Lia seemed happy just to run her long claws through his hair seemingly both curious and delighted by the way his freshly washed strands fell lightly between her claw-tipped fingers, "Your fur is very soft Raymond, it is obviously cared for, it is good to see a male that understands hygiene, so many always seem to forget that females have sensitive noses" she said in a very matter of fact voice and it caught him so off guard that he felt obligated to pay her a compliment back.

"Thank you and yeah I get it, kinda tricky out in the wastes sometimes but there is no feeling quite like being clean and I can see you feel the same by how clean and shiny your scales are, you've obviously taken good care of them," he said having exactly no idea just how much that something like that meant to her and how important a compliment like that was to the Claw girl.

Lia looked down at her body as if trying to see what he was seeing and the tip of her tail which was hanging over the side of the couch was flicking back and forth like she became a giant dog all of a sudden who was happy to get a treat.

The mental image that swam into his mind made him smile and she noticed narrowing her eyes again and smiling back at him showing off her large fangs, "Thank you for the kind words, Raymond, so please continue with your story I wish to hear more about these Greasers that saved you" she said and Raymond nodded.

"Yeah ok well as I said the Greasers found me right when I was at my lowest, they took me in, fed me, clothed me and gave me a purpose, they taught me not only how to defend myself but how to fight and I joined them and together we fought to show people that we aren't mindless killing machines, that not all super mutants were bad and we didn't do it for glory or even really for praise, we did it to help people while showing that we can help them and that we aren't all bad, plus it was good for us too, it let us remember who we are and what we stand for, so we started hitting raider groups and slaver caravans where we could, granted it didn't stop the Brotherhood from shooting at us where ever they saw us but we learned pretty fast to stay out of the way of those yahoos, one other thing we also learned was not to stay in one place for too long or the raider groups learned where we were as super mutants don't exactly have it easy when it comes to hiding you know?" he said and Lia nodded in understanding.

"We Claws have the same problem when it comes to hiding, it also irritates us endlessly because as proud Claws we should not have to hide but it is a nessessary evil to make sure our packs have the chance to grow otherwise humans tend to pay too much attention to us, so we would always make our nests in remote places that were either hard to reach for them or even nigh on impossible like in highly irradiated places because while we are immune the humans are not, though these places were never very nice or comfortable, but I genuinely believe this struggle made us stronger, it made us fight harder for the resources we got and made us tougher and far more resourceful, we learned to look in places people would never think to look for the things we needed, plus we learned how to hunt even the most dangerous of prey like Mirelurks or radscorpions or even yao guai's which the humans never ever appreciated us for as we were quietly responsible for taking these dangerous predators away from their nests but all they ever did was see us in the same vain as our feral cousins" she said sounding kinda angry but also forlorn.

"Yeah speaking as an ex-human I can say they are stubborn as all hell, they will refuse to see the obvious hard truth even if its staring them right in the face because they would rather hold truth to their ingrained beliefs, it always takes someone to stand up and show them what they believe is wrong, to gather the facts and show them down their throats and say 'Look what is real!' and even then there are still those that will reject those facts because they do not like to be wrong, so they will reject the inconvienent truth and reject reality, instead inserting their own twisted fantasy in its place where they are right and everyone agrees with them, those fantasist's are a pain in the arse to say the least but eventually logic always wins and the idiots are left screaming to the void as they are dragged out of their fantasy and made to see the truth, but only if the truth has strong warriors to fight for it and that's what this group does I believe, they gather people like us together and show us what we can achive together then together we take that message to any who would hear it, now I'm not saying we will reach everyone and while that is a real shame you cannot argue with the already evident results, infact I'm hoping before we leave DC to introduce this group to the Greasers, who knows maybe the Greasers could become like the DC chapter of the Free Peoples of the Wastes" Raymond said.