Vault 69/Decon-doctor/Boom/Stay/None

You like the idea of doing sexual things with Doctor Romero . . . but it has been a long day. you still have to go through decontamination and orientation yourself. You also need to talk to your father for the last time ever. You've been thinking about what to say to him all day. The odd thing is, even knowing you may never get to talk to him again, you have no idea what you are going to say to him. You'll tell him you love him, of course; and that you'll take care of the family. Other than those standard topics, you've drawn a complete blank.

You enter the room you've been watching all day. There are only three bins in the room. One says "Taylor Lynn Willis", the second "Renee Maria Romero Cortez" and the third "Lolita Juanita Romero Romero". You are a bit confused until Doctor Romero enters the room with a young girl in tow. The cute little girl has a striking family resemblance to Doctor Romero and looks to be about your age, maybe a bit younger. You wave weakly as they enter.

"Oh Tay," says Doctor Romero, "this is my daughter Lolita. Loli, this is Taylor."

"Um, you can call me Tay if you want," you say.

"Okay Tay," she says with a bit of a giggle. "You can call me Loli if you want to."

"Alright Loli."

Doctor Romero goes to the wall with the one way glass, and opens a hidden compartment. Controls like those that you have been using all day appear from the wall.

"Alright," says Doctor Romero, "everyone strip."

Doctor Romero takes off her vault suit and lab coat and throws them in the clothing slot. They must have been temporaries to indicate her authority. Loli shows no signs of embarrassment as she quickly strips all of her clothes off. She's heading for her bin when her mother chimes in.

"In the clothes slot Loli. You'll be in a vault suit for the rest of the time. Those have to burn."

"But they're my favorites."

"They are all your favorites."

"Can I keep my necklace?"

"Of course you can sweety. Put it in your bin. I'm sure it can be decontaminated."

You take in the normalcy of the mother-daughter interaction and it puts you at ease. You slip out of your own clothes, and throw them in the slot for burning. You have nothing but a Swiss army knife in your pockets. Everything else you own is still at home. You put the knife in your bin. It occurs to you that it will be the last gift from your father that you will ever have. Melancholy, you sit on the bench to wait for the decontamination. You feel someone put their arm around yours, and look to see Loli sidle up to you in a side hug.

"It'll be okay, Tay," she says as she looks into your eyes with her own soft brown soul orbs. "You'll see, everything will work out fine."

You try to force a smile, and find it comes much easier than you anticipated. "I'm sure you're right, Loli."

Doctor Romero looks on the pair of you with a smile, and activates the controls.

Suddenly you're being gently shaken awake. You didn't even remember dozing off.

"Come on Tay," says Doctor Romero, "we're no done quite yet. Open your vault suit and put it on. We have to do the rest of your orientation so you can talk to your dad."

You put the vault suit, and vault undies on, and find that conform to your body perfectly. You expected them to compress your body like stretch-cloth but they seem to fit like normal clothes other than changing size to fit you. You know you should be amazed, but you just want to get on with your day.

You follow Doctor Romero as she leaves the room. Loli takes your hand as you all go to the next room.

• To Orientation