1 - 20 of 27 Works in Tristan Rao
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Solidarity Forever by lame_perrier
Fandoms: The Outer Worlds (Video Game), The Outer Worlds 2 (Video Game)
30 Jan 2026
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As it turned out, there was an Arbiter on the other side of this door. She was alone, and a Protectorate Arbiter was standing inside the 2nd Choice Saloon on Free Market Station.
A novelization and creative interpretation of canon events... for now.
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Commander Zane (and Buddy!) in How I Met Your Mother by TrueheartZen
Fandoms: The Outer Worlds (Video Game)
27 Jan 2026
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"Zane wasn’t sure why she was being handed off the Arbiter, other than maybe Barney wanted her to push him out the airlock of her ship. Or maybe the idea of sending her off on another misadventure involving arbiters was his idea of humor. Maybe both."
Commander Zane finds herself signed up for a very arbiter intensive protectorate breeding program during a messy infiltration mission. When she runs into a particularly thick-skulled arbiter nearly five months later and certainly showing, it doesn't take long for them to recognize each other.
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Do Your Part! by lame_perrier
Fandoms: The Outer Worlds (Video Game), The Outer Worlds 2 (Video Game)
26 Jan 2026
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“Ever the dramatist, Tristan,” Virgil told him, slinging an arm around his shoulders companionably. “Do not be so quick to dismiss this as a tragedy! You and I are already in our thirties- without such an intervention, who is to say that I might not find you still a bachelor ten years from now, diligently waiting for the arrival of his destined lady?”
Needs must, and the timely discovery of the trespasser Augustine de Vries on Horizon Point Station has created a need: with the possibility of interlopers lurking amongst ordinary subjects, it is no longer sufficient to allow Arbiters to simply be selected via aptitude testing. To ensure no interference, they must be born into the role.
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Tristan Rao, a prodigy of the rigid Protectorate system, and a top Arbiter, has always known he was destined for greatness. His selection for the elite Arcadian Vitality Program—a state eugenics initiative to produce the next generation of perfect Protectorate citizens—feels like a logical, if sterile, next step.
There's just one flaw in his perfect profile: Tristan is a secret romantic. He dreams of meaningful connection and grand, emotional destinies, not clinical couplings.
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Protectorate Arbiter Tristan Rao was a man in service of the Sovereign, so when his summons came, he was ready to do whatever it takes.
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"Tristan did not relish having blood on his hands, at least in the literal sense. He wore gloves for a reason, but the work of removing bandages required precision that his heavy gloves did not allow."
An easy mission gone wrong leaves the commander gravely injured, and with a snow storm blocking communications with the Incognito, Tristan alone has to keep his favorite ally alive. What neither of them expected was the unshakable attachment to each other that followed.
Or, In which Tristan refuses to let the commander die, and she gives him a reason to live.
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The Lab That Shouted Incoherently And Often by TrueheartZen for DanceBoheme, lame_perrier
Fandoms: The Outer Worlds (Video Game)
11 Jan 2026
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The scientist, of course, had learned nothing, directing Shepherd to synthesize a formula within a few moments of looking at the data.
“Are you sure your calculations are correct?” They asked, standing at the synthesizer and looking over the numbers. Medicine wasn’t their area of expertise, save for detailed knowledge on nutrition macros that made even fellow fitness nerd Tristan cringe when they got on the topic.Auntie's Choice's poor lab safety guidelines strike again, leaving Tristan and the commander in a very hot and heavy crossfire.
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Red Mist by DanceBoheme for TrueheartZen, lame_perrier
Fandoms: The Outer Worlds (Video Game)
10 Jan 2026
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“Commander… I believe your current state of dress is… detrimental… to what must logically follow.”
A harsh laugh escaped Smith. “Yeah? You’re a fucking genius, aren’t you?” But his hands were already moving, clumsy and rushed, tearing at his own buckles and fastenings. Fabric gave way under their combined, impatient efforts—a chaotic, graceless symphony of rustling cloth, hissed curses, and the sharp snick of a strap breaking.
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Commander Smith and Arbiter Tristan Rao have nothing in common: one is a pragmatic opportunist, the other a pillar of doctrine. Forced together after a contamination due to red spores, they find a brutal, chemical solution to a shared problem. The aftermath, however, is infinitely more awkward than the act.
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Avail Yourself of Eden's Bounty! by lame_perrier for TrueheartZen, DanceBoheme
Fandoms: The Outer Worlds (Video Game), The Outer Worlds 2 (Video Game)
10 Jan 2026
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The ‘Red Spores’, as they called them- typical Auntie’s Choice behaviour, not even assigning the void damned things a proper taxonomic designation- were a scientific curiosity.
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The Throat, The Throat, The Throat by lame_perrier
Fandoms: The Outer Worlds (Video Game), The Outer Worlds 2 (Video Game)
06 Jan 2026
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Virgil was wrong. He had excellent restraint.
Commander Jean-Pardieu Beauchamp of the Earth Directorate remained unharmed, despite everything.
(He wanted to break every single one of those maledict fingers.)
OR
She tried to scoff. It turned into a sigh. “Not everything is worth gambling on, Pardy. This wouldn’t be a problem if you’d just stop.”
The winning smile turned coy. “See, that right there? That’s the difference between us,” he said, lifting his index finger and gesturing conspiratorially with it. “With A.C. folks, Order folks, Protectorate folks, even Aza’s little cult: you all think the whole Universe can be broken down into tidy little production quotas, a list of product values- sums and totals and summary executions. A Universal Equation, a Paradigm, a Grand Architect waiting on the other side of a rift... or a long black number on a bottom line.” He leaned towards her conspiratorially. “Everything in this life is a gamble, Inez. All that really matters is how you’re betting.”
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Friends in the Fine Lines by SeraphHT
Fandoms: The Outer Worlds (Video Game), The Outer Worlds 2 (Video Game)
03 Jan 2026
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Tristan keeps hearing his name being brought up in a conversation between Inez and Aza. He was expecting malicious thoughts, not... to be 'Sketch of the Week'.
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Amorous Arbiter by DanceBoheme
Fandoms: The Outer Worlds (Video Game), The Outer Worlds 2
01 Jan 2026
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It had been an affront to the gloriousness of the Protectorate way of life, and specifically to those who gave their lives to serve the Sovereign. It was a besmirching of the dignified office of the Arbiter. He had identified the contaminant, isolated it, and initiated its definitive, thermal disposal. The matter was closed. Expediently.
So now, a new and more perplexing variable presented itself: why was the Commander (his paramour of sorts, though he privately loathed the frivolous sound of the word) standing in the precise geometric centre of his tiny quarters? And why was she holding the offending material, which by all laws of physics and justice should now be a faint memory? More critically, why did her face possess the unique hue and tense rigidity of someone who might, at any moment, achieve spontaneous combustion purely through the power of profound embarrassment?
(Or, Tristan has a new romance serial in his collection, but is too dense to figure out who the stars of it are meant to be…)
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Taking the Lot by lame_perrier
Fandoms: The Outer Worlds (Video Game), The Outer Worlds 2 (Video Game)
31 Dec 2025
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In the time between that red light going on and his receiving the signal to continue, he had been assessed. His crime had been considered, weighed, and ultimately allowed to pass unpunished. Whoever lay on the other side of that wall had a far more merciful temperament than he.
With the clear eyes afforded to him by release, he understood that he’d not only breached protocol, but breached it in a way that could have been disastrous.
There are always options for someone who worries about the complications their authority might bring to intimacy. Unfortunately, anonymity comes with its own set of complicating factors.
Series
- Part 2 of Lucky Break
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Management Material by lame_perrier
Fandoms: The Outer Worlds (Video Game), The Outer Worlds 2 (Video Game)
29 Dec 2025
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Luck and likeability are both valuable traits in a superior officer. A likeable superior is easy to follow; a lucky one won’t get you killed.
“And, uh... Tristan, if you want to... ‘visit a friend’ too, that’s fine? I’m not your boss.”
More important, however, is the ability to take charge and make hard decisions.
“I wouldn’t be so quick to denounce your authority, Commander. If you do, Arbiter Rao may feel he has a responsibility to no longer tolerate the continued presence of traitors and malefactors on this vessel- and I would prefer to avoid removing a familiar variable from the Equation unless absolutely necessary.”
Unfortunately for Commander Lane Perry, a surplus of the former is not an adequate substitute for an absence of the latter.
Series
- Part 1 of Lucky Break
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The Hammer of the Protectorate (And Source of The Incognito’s Amusement) by DanceBoheme
Fandoms: The Outer Worlds (Video Game)
29 Dec 2025
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Tristan is finding himself the butt of the joke increasingly amongst the crew of the Incognito, but he’s not entirely sure why…
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Arbitrary Measures by TrueheartZen
Fandoms: The Outer Worlds (Video Game), The Outer Worlds 2
28 Dec 2025
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“What level of attire do you expect from your superior officers?” Rao asked Niles, standing in front of him in the main room of the ship. He was in full Protectorate down-time regalia, clutching a datapad like it held the kind of secrets that could bring down the entire corrupt organization.
Commander Bri Shepherd keeps things rather unprofessional around the ship, something her emotional support arbiter takes extreme umbrage with. Confronting him about it goes exactly as you would hope.
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the stars look very different today by CallicoKitten
Fandoms: The Outer Worlds (Video Game), The Outer Worlds 2 (Video Game)
27 Dec 2025
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Before Horizon Point, Niles was with the Incognito for six months – not counting hibernation stints.
In the grand scheme of things, it really wasn’t that long – he was at the Academy longer, hell, there are people he met when he was running with Zeb that he knew longer, spent more time in the field with – but he fell hard for the Incognito, for her little crew, for their chatty, principled Commander. Back then he’d be happy to follow him into the jaws of hell and back; would follow his lead unquestioningly, knowing instinctively they were doing the right thing.
Now, though, things hit different.
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or, niles has a complicated relationship with his commander, their crew and just about everything but he's reasonably certain he'll figure it out at some point
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Run your mouth by Shadows_in_the_fire
Fandoms: The Outer Worlds (Video Game), The Outer Worlds 2 (Video Game)
27 Dec 2025
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Tristan is mad at his Commander because she won't stop annoying him, and is making him question everything he has known as an Arbiter. So he goes to her room to lay down the law, but it goes south because he finds her just as attractive as he does aggravating.
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Anomalous Behaviour by DanceBoheme
Fandoms: The Outer Worlds (Video Game), The Outer Worlds 2
26 Dec 2025
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"Ten years in a cryo-pod, and she fell in love with the most unsuitable man in the galaxy. Who didn't even notice her as a woman."
Arbiter Tristan Rao is order, law, and judgment incarnate. The Commander is chaos, pragmatism, and survival. He is her tank, her critic, and the source of a furious, secret yearning that she buries deep. He is also, completely and utterly oblivious to the torturous effect he has on her.
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Spare a thought for the lonely by Heartofhubris
Fandoms: The Outer Worlds (Video Game), The Outer Worlds 2 (Video Game)
06 Dec 2025
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Niles and Vasgen had only known each other for a short time before Horizon Point, but it was enough for the two survivors. In the midst of trying to fixthe rifts, their pasts came forward, one night, in a bed they'd both used
First part of my playing in the sandbox
Series
- Part 1 of the lonely