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trouslinabone · 8 months

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What's the canon ending for Fallout New Vegas and Fallout 4?

I feel like Fallout 3's canon ending was obvious and I have little experience in Fallout and Fallout 2. Hence why I ask for only these two games.

But this is a question that people have been asking for as long as the games been out - or at least I assume people have. I think someone mentioned it? I don't know, it's been rotting my brain - and I think I have the answer!!

Fallout: New Vegas' canon ending is: House Ending

Fallout 4's canon ending is: Institute + Minutemen.

This is gonna be a long one, isn't it?

Look: I'll explain Fallout: New Vegas first - since it seems slightly less controversial.

The entire game happens because of Robert House - he's the reason you were saved. He's the reason you're in New Vegas to begin with. Hell, he's the reason there is a New Vegas. I feel like the game revolves around him more than any other faction. Well, of course, you can kill him insanely easily and fairly early on too. But what makes him canon over everything else?

Well, let's look at our other options first:

Caesar's Legion:

This one is never argued to be canon, but I feel like I should properly dismiss it. To put it simply - it's implied that the Legion would collapse in on itself, and unless Fallout 5 wants to take place directly after New Vegas, Caesar - the reason the Legion hasn't fallen apart - is close to dying of age. That's assuming Caesar living would be the canon one anyways, otherwise the Legion would devolve into a chaotic raider group and become another headache of the wasteland - far from the threat it once was.

Yes Man:

This one is also never argued to be canon, but for different reasons. This one puts you - the player - in charge of things. This sucks considering that it's a roleplaying game and everyone has a different character. Of course, we could say maybe someone took over Yes Man - or that Yes Man's assertiveness update made him able to say no to others. There, it could work - but I feel like it'd need to take place a lot further than the other games in the franchise for our player to not be a big deal in any sense of the word.

NCR:

The only actual candidate for the canon ending. This one has a lot going for it. NCR has been shown to be a canon ending before from what I do know of the original Fallout games, and NCR overall is a heavily featured faction. However, I do think this one also isn't it since they're slowly becoming a full country - and while they have many issues with supplies and body count - there's a point that if the Brotherhood of Steal is scared of the NCR, it's too much. And as they grow, they'll just get more and more powerful and it's less and less convincing on why they need a random survivor in Fallout 5 or whatever to help them dominate an area.

That's why I think Robert House - from narrative to meta reasons - is the canon ending. While the player is heavily featured in the House ending, it's not as bad and if the next game takes place in, say, the east coast, then there's a reason why they wouldn't be there compared to House's robots. Plus, despite the voice actor of House dying, Robert House is such an interesting character that I'd love to see more of.

Onto Fallout 4 :D

So, here's the really big controversial one - The Institue.

Now, before I even get into it - I'mma just come out and say it: I know I criticized Yes Man's route for having the player in a big role - And my main counterpoint is that if you have preset names for your characters, voice acting for your characters, set dialogue for their personality as well as a big emphasis in personality all together, as well as actual models that are supposed to be your character, then maybe it's not an RPG anymore.

Yeah, okay, so here's why I think what I think:

Like with House mentioned above - The Institute is heavily featured throughout the entire game - and more importantly, Shaun is too. Now, thanks to our character having a personality, we know that they're a grieving parent who's only care into the world is to find Shaun. Now, as funny as it is to shoot him the second he walks through the door, I doubt the sole survivor would. So, more than likely, they'll just be happy to be with Shaun again and do whatever he wants.

Now, I said "With Minutemen", and what I mean is that, for those who don't know, you can go all the way to clearing out the castle for the minutemen before you have to follow their questline to the end. This means that you can choose any faction you want and the Minutemen will have a giant presence over the Commonwealth. Now, I think this was rather because the Minutemen were not originally going to be an endgame faction but was changed later on during development, OR, it was intentional to technically have a "Two factions" ending.

As for why I think it's canon? Same reason as always. A lot of focus is placed on the Minutemen.

Now, I won't list why the other factions aren't canon, as unlike New Vegas, they all could be canon I guess. Railroad seems unlikely though since its questline is basically nothing but the Institute's questline again (wow, is this another faction that was changed later on to be an endgame faction-). I think we're all getting sick of the Brotherhood of Steel being a big role in these games. And Minutemen and Institute by themselves could be canon, but I feel like narratively and from more meta elements it's more likely both are.

These are my thoughts on the canon endings! Lemme know what you think!

#fallout #fallout: new vegas #fallout 4 #mr house #robert house #robert edwin house #yes man #ncr #new california republic #the legion #caesars legion #the institute #brotherhood of steel #minutemen #railroad #sole survivor

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zevranunderstander · 2 years

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im not saying this is a given and that every video game needs to do this to be “good”, but i recently rewatched a bunch of hbomberguy videos and in his fallout new vegas essay he talks about the moment with caesar’s legion where you argue about actual hegelian dialectics w caesar and he also compares this moment to disco elysium in his essay and i just have to say that this is such a cool way to engage players into thinking about pretty deep philosophical and ideological questions without making it all that clear that you are *discussing philosophy* and the apporach is so unique to video games.

like, you create a character/faction who clearly is not the good guy in the story but they give you the chance to “debate” them in a sense - the way caesar talks about his motives and ideology forces you to think for yourself. like, this is *not* a moment where you are supposed to see that “oh, maybe this faction isn’t as bad as i thought they were - what a surprising twist! they are equally moral as the NCR!”, like if that is your takeaway from the moment you are actually super fucking gullible, because, yeah, ceasar is quoting smart men he read a book about and yeah, he might actually think that his approach is correct but you need to apply your own knowledge of morality to the situation.

like if you see these people torturing and killing civilians and latching people to crosses and calling everyone that isn’t like them a “degenerate”, then maybe the ideology of their leader doesn’t matter. also, you have to think about if he is just misusing said ideology to *sound* like that is what he is doing, to *sound* morally right so that people join him, despite knowing it’s bullshit. like, the game doesn’t force you to come to the correct conclusion, you have to actually think about if what he says is actually meaningful and correct and the game does not chew up the right answer for you. like you can end this game working for the actual fascists because they have a compelling leader figure and maybe joining the faction makes you see it for what it is. like, if you aren’t smart enough to realize that ceasar’s legion aren’t the good guys, you have to play along with them until you yourself go “wait, are we the bad guys?”.

disco elysium also does that a lot, like it never just *tells* you if a person is morally correct in what they are saying or if they might try to decieve you by sounding big and impressive to hide their very bigoted agenda. you have to actually think for yourself a lot and realize, that even people who might have *some* correct opinions, do not have all of the correct opinions. that is why i loved that they made kim, who is probably the most beloved character in the game and someone you often look at as a moral compass, a centrist. like. he isn’t a confrontational person, or anyone who is looking to change the status quo and a lot of his morals and ideals he has otherwise don’t mean all that much if he tries to keep his head down all the time. like, you could actually look at kim in the game and say “he usually has opinions i agree with, he probably is right about that”, but to the game kim being a centrist is actually more of a moral failing and a character flaw than just a reasonably held belief.

while i have some beef with the explaination as to why the deserter *did what he did* and there is like, a billion more examples of three-dimensional characters in the game, i loved that the deserter - the only *actual* communist you meet in the game - is a massive asshole, who is incredibly sexist and racist and just a complete cunt, not so that you go “wow, so communism sucks too :/”, but to see his failings and also the failings of communism to be something you need to be mindful of when calling yourself a communist, that you still have to be a good person and also have an actual community. like this guy doesn’t exist so that you go “communism bad, actually”, but that you can see that he isn’t wrong about everything, but he still *is* wrong about things.

like, i love that, i love the way these games tell you “if you take people to be either 100% correct or 100% incorrect all of the time, you will never learn to actually find your own standpoints on topics but always just copy other people’s morality. if you don’t learn to think about your own ideology, you will copy other people’s flaws and harmful ideologies without realizing it and you will have to learn the hard way that you are wrong”.

and a lot of games that try to discuss political ideology or societal issues (cloudpunk comes to my mind rn, but they are not the only ones doing that) are so scared of “confusing” players by having bad people have good traits and good people have bad traits or have a person with a bit of a misguided ideology or have people try to convince you that their bigoted ideology is actually good, because they are scared that people will think they endorse bad ideologies or advertise fascism. and bc of that they make people really one-dimensional and always point out, who is right and who is wrong and people basically lay out their bad intentions for you, so that you don’t actually confuse them to be a good person and i think we should force players to actually use their brain sometimes

#myposts #Disco elysium #fallout new vegas #fnv #also. yeah. i didnt like cloudpunk #like it had its good parts but overall. not a really good game ghjags #also hbomberguy showed a game awards scene from DE winning best narrative where they thank marx and engels and that shit is so funny #like. at the GAME AWARDS #the awards show with the least intellctual quality in the world

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shahnaz-khan · 2 years

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Why is the happy ending for the Khans to go with the followers to raid another place? And how can the followers even approve such a thing?

"Yeah, we will go far away from here where the evil NCR has stolen our lands and make an imperium"

And people even defend them, as if they were a peaceful group of tribals hunting and and scavenging, not like, you know, a group of raiders who sell drugs to another group of even crazier raiders.

Look i know why you all think they're good, because the game presents them as poor souls abused by the imperialist faction, look at what happened to Bitter Springs, same shit as Sand Creek right? No but belive in it.

I don't know why developers want to to this kind of comparation, even in Detroit they put in the bullshit about androids being like black slaves, it's all crap when you realize that this peaciful group had the NCR attack them because they were raiding caravans, shooting at citizens, selling drugs to their enemies and killing everyone who got the NCR on him.

And no, it's not just a small group of bad apples because all but two people in the whole faction are perfectly fine with keep doing what they're doing and go with the Legion. The fucking Legion

#fallout new vegas #fallout #great khans #ncr fallout #new california republic

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fallout-lou-begas · 4 years

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Elevated Extras: Ranger Ghost Companion

You a Courier? If so, this might be your lucky day...if you don't mind walking a bit and your eyes are good.

(Original sketch by @tarberrymentats / based on the OC Companion Meme by @falloutfandomeventhub / if you borrow this concept please tag it as #fallout elevated extras)

General

Name: Ranger Ghost

Location: Mojave Outpost

How to obtain: Complete the sidequest “Keep Your Eyes on the Prize,” then begin the sidequest “Giving Up the Ghost” to get her reassigned from the Mojave Outpost. Once freed of her assignment, she can travel with the Courier to monitor Legion activity throughout the Mojave.

Companion Quest: “Giving Up the Ghost.”

Ranger Ghost, like everyone else, is sick and tired of being stuck at the Mojave Outpost. Unfortunately, orders are orders. With the courier’s help, though, she just might be able to come down from that rooftop, but dealing with NCR bureaucracy might be a worse ordeal than Legion crucifixion.

Companion Wheel

I think we should travel together. You probably can’t tell, but that’d make me very happy. Let’s get the hell out of here.

Let’s talk about your tactics. Sure. Lecture the ranger on tactics. Go ahead. / What’re you thinking?

I want you to change your combat style. (humoring) Alright. / If you insist.

Use a melee weapon. Close combat, then. / Sure. We can hold their hands and tuck them in while we’re at it. / (Wild Wasteland Enabled) Try to remember the basics of CQC.

Use a ranged weapon. (stating the obvious) It’s what I do. / You going to spot for me? / (deeply sarcastic) Aww. Finally remembered I’m a ranger?

Be passive. Sure, give peace a chance. / Don’t go pacifist on me, now.

Be aggressive: Locked and loaded. / (mocking the company line) Right, and with “extreme prejudice.”

Enough about tactics. Agreed. Anything else? / Are we good, then?

Let’s talk about how close you’re following me. Is there a problem? / What are you...implying, exactly?

Wait here. Right. Things to do, places to be? / Holding down here. / I’ll keep watch here.

Follow me. Let’s roll out. / Finally. Don’t like waiting. / Right. Skip to my fucking lou.

Stay close to me. (sternly cautious) Define “close.” / Got it, on you. / Just don’t bump my gun.

Keep your distance. Positioning, got it. / Yeah, covering you. / (facetious concern) Don’t get lost, now.

Let’s trade equipment. Don’t get fucking handsy, now. / Just don’t hog the ammo.

(Overburdened). I’m not your fucking pack brahmin. / (exasperated) I’ve only got so many pockets.

(Sneaking). Staying low. / (wryly imperative) Quiet, now.

(In Courier’s iron sights). What the fuck is wrong with you? / (slowly, emphasizing) Watch your trigger discipline. / Don’t make me take that away.

(Courier lays mine). I’ve got my eyes on that. / You’d better have a plan for that.

It’s time for us to part ways. It’s because i’m a bitch, isn’t it. / Such sweet fucking sorrow, I bet.

I’d like you to go to the Lucky 38. Hm. Sending the Ghost to the haunted house. See you there. I’ll try not to spook the Securitrons.

We can meet again at the Mojave Outpost. (sucks teeth) Guess I’ll report what I’ve got back to headquarters. Hopefully by now they’ve got someone else watching the brahmins shit full-time.

Injured: (seething) SSShhit. / Didn’t want it like this. / (with conviction) I didn’t get off that roof just to fucking bite it.

Damaged Limb: (shout of pain) Fucker clipped me! / Sure could use a fucking medic.

Regaining Consciousness: What...what the hell happened? / (trailing off) Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck...

Death: (death rattle) / (weakly) Ghosts...can die, huh...ha...

Attributes

Aggression: Aggressive.

Confidence: Brave.

Assistance: Helps friends and allies.

Karma: Neutral.

Perks

Ghost of a Chance: When Ranger Ghost is by your side, so are the odds. In addition to gaining an extra 3% chance to critically hit, any single attack that would kill you may instead leave you just barely alive and invulnerable for a brief moment..

Drops, if killed

Ranger Vest Outfit

Ranger Grey Hat

Authority Glasses

Cowboy Repeater

Combat Knife

Iguana Bits

Grognak the Barbarian

Dialogue, Quest Details, and Ending Slides:

Dialogue

Why do they call you Ghost? What, don’t I scare you? Boo? Nothing? (beat) Well, if you gotta know, it stuck pretty quick back in basic. Not like there were many other albinos in boot camp. The all-white spooky bitch who shoots better at night? Yeah, that’s a ghost, alright. Pissed me off at first, but I came around when it started giving privates the heebie-jeebies. Just a little kick, is all.

What’s an albino? Albinism is a pigment disorder. You know, the color of your skin and hair? As in I don’t have color. Pale as a sheet.

[Medicine 35] A sharpshooter with albinism? Isn’t your vision affected? Done your homework, huh? Well, these big, bad sunglasses aren’t just for intimidation, doc. They only come off when I sleep. Sucks enough being photosensitive in the goddamn desert, but like I said. I’m a lot better at night.

What’s your real name? (the thousandth time she’s answered this exact question) If I told you that, I’d have to kill you.

Aw, come on. Curiosity killed the courier. Don’t push it.

[Speech 40] I’m just trying to understand my partner better. Then “understand” that I don’t owe you shit except loyalty. Just call me Ghost, and you’ll get that.

[Cherchez La Femme] Surely you’ve got a name to match that lovely personality. (flustered) Are you d-...I-...Yeah, I do.But you can just keep calling me Ghost. (quietly) For...for now.

What’s the deal with Ranger Jackson? Man hasn’t got a thought in his fucking head...which is why he’s such a good C.O., from the top down. He’s a nice enough guy on a good day. He’s...principled, for sure. But the man wouldn’t budge on an order from brass if it’d save his life. Stranded caravaneers get so bored and restless because of the impasse he’s overseeing that he’s started (excessive emphasis) “hiring” the rowdier ones for odd jobs off the grounds, which is why we’ve been “losing” supplies for a while. Gets shit done, I guess, but wish he’d show half that drive when bitching to HQ, but no. They tell him to sit tight, he says yes sir, and then he takes it out on us when we get frustrated at the frustrating bullshit.

Do you know Major Knight? (standoffish) Yeah. Good guy. Known him a while. Hell, he’s been at M.O. longer than I have.

What does he do? Repairs, mostly. With all the caravans backed up, we sort of have a monopoly on maintenance and upkeep. And believe me, he does damn fine work.

[Confirmed Bachelor] Is he...you know…? Is he...oh. Between you and me? Yeah. He and I are...alike. I mean, I’m the bitch everybody hates, so I don’t really give a shit, but beneath that…(thinking how best to describe him, ribbing him a bit)...accountant exterior of his, he’s really the soft, sensitive type. Needs someone to talk to sometimes. I’m that someone, sometimes, but if you get the chance...it’d do him good just to know he’s not that alone out here.

How can I best use your skills? Hard to find a way that’d be worse than all the wasted time at M.O., but I’ll make it easy for you: give me a target and let me shoot it. If it’s too close to shoot, I’m trained in hand-to-hand, and if it’s too far to shoot, it’ll never see me coming. Standard repertoire for a ranger.

What’s your opinion on the NCR? High enough to keep me enlisted, low enough to where I’ve got plenty to mock. We’re a good country, a damn good country. We’re the only real country actually left in the West. We’d be the best thing to ever crawl out of the bombed-out ruins of this war if it weren’t for all the bureaucratic bullshit, and the brass getting duller the higher you go. It’s all just song and dance and sloganeering to them out here. Whatever looks good on paper. They don’t give a shit what really happens to people out here, and if Caesar doesn’t kill us, that might. At least on the inside.

What’s it like being a ranger? Ranger training is the best, most brutal gauntlet this side of the Colorado. Hours and hours of days and days spent shooting, drilling, fighting, bringing the body to its breaking points, pouring blood and sweat just to get an inch past the wide-eye hopefuls who were always going to just wash out...and all of it just to stand on a fucking rooftop staring at ants and malnourished raiders on the interstate. I swear, if you gave headquarters a golden egg, they’d fucking cook it.

Were you at the battle of Hoover Dam? Was going to be, but believe it or not, I sat out sick. Got the fucking flu right before and was stuck at McCarran the whole time, half-lucid. Let me tell you, the whole tent of coughs and sneezes crowding around that radio, listening to the reports...when Hanlon ordered that retreat out of Boulder City, we were grabbing our rifles and getting ready to march out on foot, even if we could barely stand. We thought that was it. Of course, it wasn’t, and we cheered so loud when they radioed about the explosion that I hope Caesar damn well heard it.

Do you wish that you had been there? Of course I do. If I miss the next one because I’m stuck at the Outpost or some shit, I’m deserting with a dozen fed-up caravaneers to flank his fucking fort myself, if only for some goddamn excitement.

How do you feel about the Legion? Love ‘em. Joined the NCR because I just wanted to meet them that bad. Their new Legate’s such a heartthrob, I hear.

You’re not serious. (sucks teeth, deep sigh) Look. You saw Nipton. It was just a taste of what they do. I’ve seen good men die on crosses, and that’s a mercy compared to the good women. I hear when women sign up now, they get about five extra “are you sures?” from recruiters. Not officially, of course. Brass would never let people back home know how bad it is. But it’s just another thing that makes me glad I’m a sniper, sometimes. Engage at range. Out of reach.

What about Legion society? Do you know anything about life across the river? There’s nothing across that river. Nothing. (beat, pondering) Do you remember the Enclave War? Bitter, bloody, big explosion at Navarro? And the Brotherhood campaign out here? Even worse of a shitshow, but still, we won that out, too. But the Enclave and the Brotherhood at least stood for something. They were societies, or at least promises of one, and if things had shaken out the other way for the NCR at least something would still be standing here. The Legion isn’t like that. They aren’t “something.” They’re one big razor across Arizona, shaving everything down. And if we don’t stop them here, we never will.

What about their Legate? (with contempt) Lanius, “The Monster of the East.” Caesar must’ve plucked him out of hell or something after his first legate blew it at Hoover Dam. Word from recon is that the only reason we’re all still twiddling our thumbs there is that he’s out making friends for Caesar someplace, and he’ll be bringing them all back for a whole ‘nother goddamn jamboree soon. (tension broken by a funny thought; spoken dryly) Or should I say a Damboree. Since it’d be at the Dam.

Do you know anything about Mr. House? No. Closest I’ve ever been to the Strip has been McCarran, where I was too proud to get wasted on expensive booze in the casinos. As punishment, I got stuck with nothing to do but get shitfaced on cheap booze at the outpost. All I know is Mr. House runs the whole Strip himself, and there’s one casino, the Lucky 36 or something, that’s supposed to be all his. No one’s allowed in, no one’s ever come out. Frankly? Just strikes me as fucking weird.

Companion Quest: Giving Up the Ghost

After completing the sidequest “Eyes On the Prize” (in which the Courier checks Nipton for survivors), Ghost will remark that the Mojave’s going to hell, and all she can do is sit and watch. The Courier will reply that she ought to stop watching and travel with them, to which she’ll respond that her orders are absolute—but if the courier can change her orders somehow, she’d be indebted. The quest then begins.

= = = Stage 1: Deal with Jackson = = =

First, the Courier must speak to Ranger Jackson and convince him to consider Ghost’s reassignment. They can do this through the following dialogue options:

[Speech 80] This outpost is just waiting to be overrun by Legion. You’ll be the next Nipton unless you’re proactive.

[Speech 55; completed “Can’t You Find It In Your Heart” beforehand] Maybe I could tell your superiors about where I “found” these “lost” supplies, then.

[Barter 80] Ghost is an exceptional asset to the rangers. Stationing her here is a waste of valuable NCR resources.

[NCR Fame] There’s work to be done for the NCR out there, and Ghost is who I trust to do it with me.

[Black Widow] I’ve ways of making men come around...especially handsome men in uniform. (The Courier must then sleep with Ranger Jackson)

Note that the Courier can not simply complete the quest “Can’t You Find It In Your Heart?” as a favor to Jackson for Ghost’s reassignment. While he’ll let a caravaneer go, it’ll take more than clearing some ants from the road to get him to compromise his standing force and let go of a ranger.

Alternatively, Jackson’s death will advance the quest.

Kill Jackson. Similar to Cass’ companion quest, Jackson can simply be killed. However, Ghost is far less sympathetic to this course of action and will confront the Courier over the murder. If Jackson is simply killed, the Courier will either need a convincing alibi [Speech 90] to argue that they weren’t responsible or admit to the murder. If the Courier fails the Speech check or admits to the murder, Ghost will turn hostile (“Maybe you didn’t fucking think this through, but do you know what we call someone who kills an NCR ranger? An enemy of the NCR rangers. Now, eat shit.”). Alternatively, the Courier can intimidate Ghost into silence with a [Terrifying Presence] option, after which a shaken but seething Ghost will simply ask the Courier to leave the outpost and never come back. Passing the Speech check is the way to not fail the quest from this option.

Kill Jackson and frame Cass. If the Courier kills Jackson themself, attempting to loot Jackson’s body will trigger a message suggesting that they could frame Cass for the murder by splashing whiskey on the body (so long as Cass is not currently the player’s companion and is currently at the Mojave Outpost, not the Lucky 38). By adding a whiskey bottle to Jackson’s body without themself or the body being discovered in the meantime, they can successfully implicate Cass for the murder, and explain as much to Ghost. She’ll buy it, since Cass was one of the most frustrated residents of the outpost and was drunk almost all the time. Cass will then disappear from the game, and if Lacey, Major Knight, or Ghost (if the Courier left the outpost before speaking to her again) are asked, they will explain that Cass was arrested by the NCR.

Have someone else kill Jackson. A desperate, fed-up caravaneer named Paul by the brahmin pens is willing to kill Jackson for 5,500 caps. This price can be negotiated down to 4,000 with a [Barter 60] check, and 3,500 with [Barter 75]. At midnight that night, Paul will attempt to sneakily kill Jackson. Alternatively, Paul can be incensed into attacking Jackson immediately and for free with a [Hot Blooded] trait check. In either case, though, there is no guarantee that Paul will succeed, and if Paul is killed then the Courier must advance the quest another way (though they can loot their spent caps from Paul’s body). When spoken to afterwards, Ghost will remark that she saw the Courier speaking to Paul and ask if they had anything to do with it. By passing a [Speech 50] check, the Courier can convincingly lie that they were trying to talk him out of it. With either the [Black Widow] or [Cherchez la Femme] perks, the Courier can lie and say that Paul very foolishly did it to try to impress them. With [Low Intelligence] the Courier can earnestly say that they thought “taking care” of Jackson meant doing something nice for him.

Somehow allow Jackson to die. If Jackson just somehow dies in an unaccounted way, such as from a spawned-in deathclaw eviscerating him in his own office, Ghost will remark on the strangeness of the situation but won’t blame the Courier. This is a failsafe option to prevent quest breakage.

= = = Stage 2: Find a Replacement = = =

If Jackson is alive, he’ll agree with the Courier that he ought to let Ghost go, but he’s still under orders to maintain a standing force at Mojave—a standing force which includes a highly trained sniper. If Jackson has been killed, Ghost will mention that Major Knight is next in command and would be glad to give her clearance, but that he won’t be able to do so without a replacement sniper, either. Either way, the Courier is tasked with finding a suitable replacement. The Courier can ask her for advice:

Who should I look for to be your replacement? They have to be NCR, obviously. Ex-NCR might work, too, so long as they’re in good standing. Any Dick or Jane off the road is a no-go, since brass put the kibosh on officially contracting mercenaries. Oh, and anyone you get would have to be well-trained. Not necessarily a ranger, but good enough to replace one, even for a sit-on-the-shitter job like this. Only the best and brightest get to stare at this fucking road all day, apparently.

Where should I look for your replacement? If you checked out some of the ranger stations around the Mojave, they might be able to move some people around. Hell, take it all the way to McCarran if you want, or with Hanlon. If you’re going to give them shit on my behalf, by all means, go nuts. A lot of higher-ups can be greased with enough favors, anyway. Whoever you get just needs the right credentials. Legion attacks get dragged asses and twiddled thumbs, sure, but bad paperwork would set a goddamn fire at headquarters.

The following characters can be recruited as the Mojave Outpost’s new watch:

A generic ranger. By speaking to the commanding officers of at least three of the NCR ranger camps across the Mojave with sufficient [NCR Fame], the Courier can speak to Chief Hanlon to arrange for Ghost’s replacement with a generic ranger. This option is impossible if “Return to Sender” has already been completed.

Craig Boone. If the Courier has completed “I Forgot to Remember to Forget” in a way that makes Boone repentant over his past, he can be persuaded to take over Ghost’s position as a good way to put his skills to use. Otherwise, he will refuse, either preferring to stay in Novac where he lived with Carla or not wanting to be stuck as a watchman again when he could be out killing Legionnaires. If selected, Boone’s home marker will change from Novac to the Mojave Outpost.

Manny Vargas. Novac’s other sniper can be convinced to take up Ghost’s post, but only if the Courier has completed “One For My Baby,” “Come Fly With Me,” and eradicated the Legion presence from Nelson. Once convinced that Novac seems safe, for now, he’ll be willing to reenlist if paid a generous salary. The Courier can either pay Manny 5,000 caps to reenlist now, pass a [Barter 65] check to explain that it’s a provisional reenlistment and reduce their bribe to 3,000, or if the Courier has already passed the [Confirmed Bachelor] check in dialogue with Knight, they can tell Manny about the cute little major sitting behind the desk all day there by his lonesome. Once convinced, Manny will relocate to the Mojave Outpost and take Ghost’s place.

Bryce Anders. This keen-eyed ranger can be recruited to Ghost’s position if he is rescued from the Vault 3 Fiends by the Courier. Once spoken with in Camp McCarran, the Courier can explain that the Mojave Outpost needs a new ranger stationed there. He will defer to Colonel Hsu’s authority on reassignments, and with a successful [Speech 60], [Medicine 40], or [NCR Fame] check, Hsu will agree to the reassignment on the grounds that it’s a useful position still sedentary enough to not complicate the ranger’s recovery.

Little Buster. The listless bounty hunter at Camp McCarran is looking for another career path and would be willing to take over Ghost’s do-nothing position. However, the only way to recruit him is to fabricate both credentials and enlistment records by either stealing personnel files from either Colonel Hsu’s office at Camp McCarran or from the filing cabinets at Camp Golf, or speaking to Daniel Contreras, who “knows a guy” who’ll take care of it if the Courier has already acquired access to Contreras' expanded inventory by siding with him in the unmarked quest “Dealing with Contreras.”

Private Halford. The sole survivor of Camp Guardian mentions that he wants to head back home through Mojave Outpost after being rescued from the mirelurk caves, at which point the Courier can mention no one is allowed to leave through there, and ask if he’d like to take Ghost’s position there instead. At first he’ll refuse, but with a [Speech 45] or [NCR Fame] check he can be convinced that a quiet, do-nothing watch assignment would be a lot better than anything else after what happened at Camp Guardian, to which he’ll agree. He will also relocate to the Mojave Outpost after being freed anyway, getting stuck like everyone else so that the speech check can be re-attempted. However, Halford isn’t considered well-trained enough for a ranger’s job. The Courier must speak to Jackson (or Knight, if Jackson is dead) and pass a [Speech 80] or [NCR Fame] check to make a strong endorsement, or a [Survival 55] check to explain how impressive it is that he survived an attack from so many mirelurks. Alternatively, the Courier can fabricate impressive enough credentials through the options required to assign Little Buster.

Once Ghost’s replacement has been assigned to the Mojave Outpost, the Courier only needs to speak to Ghost again. She will explain that she’s been “reassigned” to open patrol across the Mojave, ostensibly to track Legion activity, so long as she does so with the Courier. She also gains an additional dialogue option dependent on your choice of replacement:

What do you think of your replacement?

(Generic ranger) For this job? Any ranger’s as wasted as any other. I almost feel bad, I doubt she’ll like that fucking roof any more than I did...almost feel bad. Doesn’t quite cancel out the relief.

(Boone) First recon is one hell of a pull. Took right to it, too, like he was already used to it. Strikes me as the...quiet, contemplative type. Likes to think. Not much else to do up there, anyway. I bet those brahmin pins have never felt safer.

(Manny) First recon is one hell of a pull. Took right to it, too, like he was already used to it. Seems like a nice enough guy, and seems to be getting along with Major Knight. Hell, you love to see it.

(Bryce) A good man. Heard about what the Fiends did to him, and after all that, he certainly deserves a break. Didn’t think of this shit job as much of a vacation before, but seems like it’ll do him good.

(Buster) Not sure where the hell you found this guy, but if (Jackson / Knight) gave the okay, then...okay. I would’ve put a goddamn brahmin in a beret up there if it could have gotten me another assignment.

(Halford) The mirelurk guy? Yeah, he seems alright. I’ve never actually seen a mirelurk, but after hearing his story, I don’t think I want to. I didn’t even know we had a camp that far up there.

Speaking to Ghost after her replacement takes her position completes the quest, and from then on, she can now be recruited as a companion. However, similar to Boone, she will only remain the Courier’s companion if they maintain good reputation with the NCR, and as an active-duty ranger, her intolerance for anti-NCR actions is even more strict.

Ending Slides

If "Giving Up the Ghost” is started, but never completed:

NCR Victory. Ranger Ghost remained at Mojave Outpost, dutifully, thanklessly, and restlessly. When the rangers there received word that the Legion had made their move on the dam, the entire outpost went silent. Waiting. From her rooftop perch, at least she was the first to see the bearer of good news come up the road. In the moment, at least, it was worth everything to be there.

Legion, House, or Independent Victory. Ranger Ghost remained at Mojave Outpost, dutifully, thanklessly, and restlessly. When the rangers there received word that the Legion had made their move on the dam, the entire outpost went silent. Waiting. From her rooftop perch, she was the first to see the NCR’s retreat, as civilians and troopers alike began fleeing through the Long 15. She was right: this whole time, all she could do was watch.

Ghost is dead. Ghost, bitterly, died as she lived...(deep sigh) at the Mojave fucking Outpost.

If “Giving Up the Ghost” is completed:

NCR Victory: When legionnaires by the score descended upon Hoover Dam, Ghost was proud to have been one of the many rangers in the battle that kicked their shit in back across the Colorado. She celebrated with the rest of them, even a smile creeping onto her face every now and then. Still, Ghost returned to business before long, as part of a squad out East tracking down the straggling remnants of Caesar’s retreating Legion.

Legion Victory: Ghost was among the many rangers who fought at Hoover Dam, but when the army of legionnaires led by the Courier, to whom she owed her very presence there, proved unstoppable, she was ultimately among its many casualties. Their advance was too sudden, too overwhelming, for a clean evacuation, and a grisly duel with a centurion trapped her near the front. Still, the Legion never took Ghost alive. She made sure of it.

House or Independent Victory: The arrival of the Securitrons at Hoover Dam was a surprise to every NCR trooper stationed there, including Ghost. Their sudden turn against the NCR, and their allegiance to the Courier, even more so. The triumph of vanquishing the Legion was short-lived, then, as Ghost joined the forced retreat, one pale face in a sea of many.

Ghost is dead: Despite her name, there was no supernatural flourish when Ghost died. She simply died like a ranger, fighting to the end. That’s all that mattered.

(Bonus) Cass’s Ending Slide if the Courier frames her for the murder of Jackson:

Rose of Sharon Cassidy spent all of her time at the Mojave Outpost in a drunken stupor, which is why when Major Knight oversaw her arrest for the murder of Ranger Jackson, it took so long to get exonerated. By the time the alibi was pieced together and the evidence was admitted as circumstantial, the battle of Hoover Dam shifted NCR’s attention elsewhere, and the crime was never solved. For a few months in the clink, though, at least Cass got what she wanted: home, and finally away from the outpost.

#fallout #fallout new vegas #fnv #ranger ghost #art #fallout elevated extras #elevated extras #from me

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believerindaydreams · 3 years

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I was not expecting to channel Tuco Ramirez energies into a young pregnant hatmaker but Carla has very promptly become the sardonic loveable glue in this ongoing ball of poly!energies

This'll all show up on a03, properly edited. Eventually.

Into the fire, part 3

"He's scared stiff," Carla says, looking at Arcade sleep. "I mean, literally stiff. Look at how tightly his hands are clenched."

She fluffs a pillow to put under his head and I'm falling in love with her all over again, just to see her. That calm, sure way she moves, the sparkle of earrings she ground herself from broken beer bottles. Utter self-confidence wrapped in a hand-knit shawl.

"He's not as important as you. Nobody could be."

She snorts. It's cute. "You keep thinking you need to surrender something for me. That's not true and it never has been."

"Might be this time. Uh- we weren't planning to stay in the Mojave. What with him both of us being marked by Legion assassins, a friend of ours was gonna help us get out."

"Ooh. Friend friend, or-" She gestures, disgracefully. Makes me bark with laughter.

"No. Dyed in the wool lesbian. On the outs with the Brotherhood...she says she can get us cross-country. I don't know if it's by Vertibird or what, but if she says she can do it, she can."

"Are you sure she's trustworthy?" Hell, just the way she wrinkles her nose half kills me. Manny used to tease me about the way I'd keep on about her.

That was before he met her, though. "Yeah. If she wanted us dead, she had plenty of chances she didn't take. And we didn't tell her anything about...you know."

"I still say we need a better way to refer to that." A big smile appears. "Maybe we could say baby names. That's personal but not strange in a conversation."

I run my hands along the inviting bump of dress; she's pretty far along now. "What happens when the baby's born, though?"

"We can say we're planning for the next one." She laughs, pins my arms back in a bear hug; and I don't mind a bit. "But hey. If you were planning to go, let's go. God knows I'm hardly stuck on this two-bit town."

Whatever that means. Her Vault had some funny expressions. "I'd like to say it'd be safer to stay put...but honestly, it wouldn't be. Not while I'm still here."

"And I am not letting you wander off without me," Carla says, cupping my chin in her hands. "Bad things will happen. I want you where I can see you."

"...okay. Then I guess we'd better pack. Your sewing machine is under the bed."

"Not anymore," Carla says, tapping a footlocker with her bare toes. "Manny fetched it for me, all the way to Arizona and back."

"Guess I wasn't up to much compared to him, was I."

"Listen," Carla says, her small face suddenly turning intensely serious. "You're here, I'm here, Manny is here. And your new boyfriend. We're all alive, that's what matters."

She makes me blush, sometimes; and it doesn't help when Manny comes out of the bath, drying his hair with a towel and butt naked otherwise.

"Damn. Your Arcade looks cute curled up like that."

"He says it's a habit. Bedrolls aren't ever long enough for him."

"I can fix that with my magic sewing machine," Carla says, grinning dryly. "And I'll make him a hat. That's an important order of business."

"Don't know what I did, to deserve you two...look. You're sure you're okay, him coming along?"

"Would you be here if he hadn't helped you?"

"...no."

"Then let's bring him," Carla says conclusively.

"If it's good enough for your wife," Manny says with a wink, "it's good enough for me. Besides. That ass."

"Definitely one of the more shapely asses populating this wasteland," Carla agrees, straight faced.

"Fuck...you two don't talk about me that way when I'm asleep, do you?"

Manny gives me a patient look. "Don't be stupid, Boone."

"Huh."

"Of course we do."

***

It's ridiculously late by the time Arcade wakes up; and he has a pretty good idea why. There's a part of him that never quite feels safe falling asleep, without the hum of conversation and a trustworthy guard around; and he hasn't really had that since the Old Mormon Fort.

(Avoided going places for exactly that reason, if he's being honest. He's still never seen the Strip.)

He looks at the Sierra armor, frowns, puts on light doctor fatigues instead. It's hot already, that's a fair excuse.

Manny's asleep on a spare mattress, but there's no sign of the other two. He heads out and finds Carla cooking at the motel campfire, a tired Boone besides her.

"Oh good," she says when he approaches, poking her husband. "Boone, go to bed. Someone else is here to play bodyguard."

"Mmm...'s Manny?"

"No, it's Arcade. Go to bed."

He grunts and goes, slightly to Arcade's surprise. Carla looks after him fondly.

"They always were a little paranoid, even when we thought Novac was safe. And it wasn't really good for them, being on opposite shifts...they missed each other." She shoves beans around in a cast iron pan, takes the lid off a milk crate filled with tortillas. "Would you enjoy a burrito for breakfast? Or I can just give you some caps to buy from Cliff, if pre-war food's more your thing."

Right. After being taken as a slave and then dumped into a pre-war casino he is in fact broke right now, at least until he and Boone split the pre-war money stashed in the room. "Burritos sound fine. Trust me, you don't have the luxury of choosiness at the Old Mormon Fort, it's too chaotic."

"Sounds terrible. But then I'm a luxury hatmaker and I enjoy what I do, I'm probably the last person who'd understand charitable impulses." She places a tortilla on a grill to warm. "It did seem simpler in the vault, when we used lotteries and left morality out of it...my other vices include overpacking, an impatience with village idiots who think that three cornfields equal New Vegas, and I will bite you if you hurt Boone or Manny. Hard. Just getting that out of the way upfront."

"Ah." He's been expecting something like this conversation, but had rather expected he'd have to go first. "Um. I'm a poor liar, despite being privy to more secrets than I ever wanted to know. I seem to have mislaid an inherent pacifism in favor of wanting to shoot any Legionary I see, which despite Boone's opinion I can't really see as an improvement. And despite my ostensible position with the Followers, my medical capabilities leave almost as much to be desired as my bedside manner."

"You seemed to handle it well when my husband passed out."

"Battlefield medicine is one of the things I can do, yes. Along with making broc flowers grow anywhere and boiling homemade bagels."

" ...actual bagels? You're hired. Damn shame no NCR caravan imports lox yet, Boone took me to Shady Sands for our honeymoon and that's the only time I've had it...do you want to make bagels? Do you need ingredients?"

"Uh. I would need to buy a few things, yes, and it would take time to grow a new culture." He thinks with a mild pang of the last sourdough he had going, left unattended in a Followers tent. Hopefully someone found it before it started to smell. "What I mostly did for the Followers was garden, actually. We've figured out ways to emulate stimpaks with herbs, but they always put the subject in a fever, and there are ailments that's contra-indicated for. And of course nobody wants that on a battlefield...except the Legion, apparently, they don't seem to care."

"A crafter rather than a soldier. I'm not outnumbered anymore, that's great news." She has buck teeth and it shows when she smiles. "Honestly, I've had to become a regular Crusoe just because the boys aren't. Want them to turn any kind of ammunition into any other kind, they'll do that for you. Anything else, it's strictly DIY." She forks a piping hot burrito onto a plate, hands it to him. "There's sour yoghurt in the fridge if you prefer topping."

"Mmm...this is fine." Better than fine, actually, there's grilled iguana in the mix and a hint of jalapeno. "You've read Crusoe?"

"Oh, we had education machines in the vault, they worked great. Mr Gutsy reading your ABCs to you and blasting radroaches...we were happy." She starts on her own burrito, looking a little pensive. "I'll never forgive Mr House for that, never. Half the kids my age ended up in the Gomorrah turning tricks for sleazeballs, a lot of the others signed up for the NCR and died right away at Hoover Dam...there was a rumor going around," Carla says, a little vicious now. "That House cut a deal with the NCR, so many warm bodies in exchange for not appropriating the Strip. I'd believe it, but then I'd believe anything of the bastard."

Arcade nods, mentally notes one more vice: Carla, for all her sunny disposition, certainly can hold a grudge.

But then, she is Boone's wife; not entirely surprising. "So you got to Novac and hoped it would be home sweet home?"

"If such a place exists, it isn't here," Carla says; and violently pokes out the fire.

#i only have so many original characters in me #and Carla has 0 character so i gotta do all the hard work of making one up

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junk-hoarder · 6 years

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[Thank you for being my first request!! I really appreciate it! Also, sorry if this is a bit OOC. I will learn how to fix that the more I write them.]

The was slowly setting in the sky causing that beautiful shimmer in the colorful yet darkening sky. In the distance were two specks, and when compared to the large hills dwarfed their sizes. One in the familiar blue vault suit that can be spotted from a mile away and the other in unfamiliar tattered clothing and a helmet covering their face. As they came closer you could see the Sole Survivor and this mysterious person were heard laughing and talking, obviously enjoying each other’s presence. This got the attention of the companions, most to all snapped their heads toward their mutual friend and their new friend. As the blue cladded leader introduced their new friend near the blazing campfire like a new student in a school, the companions studied them with intense eyes. The Courier started to introduce themselves and tell their wild stories one by one, capturing each of the companion’s attention.

Ada

The robot was quite intrigued by the person. She was met with a strong sense of nostalgia when they started to speak of their story across the desert, reminding her of her caravan and creator. Nonetheless, she does become great friends with the human due to the fact that the Courier Six moves around a lot and has an affinity for scrap metal (which the others do not really appreciate).

Cait

“Another like our vaultie, eh?” Cait wouldn’t admit it but was inspired by Courier Six. Their sheer courage and willpower to go across the Mojave desert and get revenge on a man who shot them in the face, leaving them to die with only the smallest amount of direction of where they were or who they were. Not only that but fighting against this supreme man who controlled the Mojave desert. The list goes on and on. All this reminded her of their very own survivor who brought Cait much joy. They do end up becoming close, showing them the ways of the ‘better’ Commonwealth with heavy drinking and fighting. (After a while of drinking she was reminded that alcohol also exists in other places. She replied with a quick “But nothin’ like here in the Commonwealt’”)

Coddsworth

The Mr.Handy unit was surprised when seeing and meeting the courier. This simple mail deliver being shot in the head and then after losing everything, went after a man who they barely had a shred of idea of who they were. This all reminding him of his dear master. After his master and Six get along, he soon starts to treat the courier with high respect, serving them endlessly for their courage and efforts to improve life over on the west coast as his master was improving the lives in the east coast.

Curie

“How is this possible? A bullet to the brain has only a 5% chance of living! But out of the 5%, only 3% have the capability to continue life as normal. You are definitely, ‘ow do you say, a scientific miracle.” The synth passionately spoke as she looked at the courier with wonder filled eyes and awe filling her face. Most of the conversations they have is Curie examining Six, what other amazing feats that the mail deliver has experienced like a child who was being read a fairytale. While she does find the person amazing and their story outstanding, she seems to find their usage of violence unneeded. Nevertheless, she still is by their side due to the fact that the violence was needed to improve life out there in the Mojave desert.

Danse

Their connection to the NCR rather displeases this solider. When they meet, he just glares at the person from afar. He is about the most aloof, of course alongside X6-88. After a while, this resentment towards the courier is put to the side as they tell their story to the others around the campfire. His eyebrows furrow as he is in denial that such a group could do good. As he hears more of the stories, he softens up a bit. Hearing all of this fight to bring justice and not only that but helping the people in the Mojave without expecting much back. To him, that is true heroism. He still acts aloof towards them due to their status but they grow onto him, accepting them slowly into his routine.

Deacon

“Now this, this is awesome.” He never met a more badass person in the entire commonwealth, other than his boss. Getting shot in the head!? Then going across the desert to kill some dude!? He starts to joke about the shot to the head but was quickly shut down by Sole Survivor with a nudge. “Too soon?” Deacon is overall amazed by seeing such a person in front of him. He has heard stories of Courier Six bringing justice to the west. But to see THE Courier Six in front of him was just mind boggling. He will though keep a close eye on the mail deliver, just as a simple precaution he takes with people he meets.

Dogmeat

Oh boy! A new human? Smells like another dog. Where is the dog? Can he meet them? He wants to meet them. This human looks scary. But his master likes them, so he likes them. What a nice human, they give nice pets. They’re also good a belly rubs. He now has a second favorite human.

Hancock

“Remind me never to get on your bad side, yeesh.” He jokes as the courier tells their story on their wild adventures. Like Deacon, he jokes here and there as a commentator on their adventures. He quickly grows to like this person in no time. Bringing justice? Hell yeah. Also killing some assholes!? Hell to the fucking yeah. He particulate idolizes the courier the few seconds he meets the person. Alongside Cait and the Courier, he drinks a lot in celebration of making a new friend.

Longfellow

The old man huffs in approval, a slight smile as he leans back hearing the stories of the mail deliver. He is on the fence about the person, studying them from across the camp circle. They are definitely tough facing a shot to the head and going through the desert. While he doesn’t know much how deserts are expect a few books on them, he can tell it is difficult. This toughness is definitely approved by Longfellow and fully appreciated.

Nick Valentine

“You really go out there yourself?” He was definitely amazed by their investigative work. Going off by only the tiniest shred of information and running off to the desert with the smallest of supplies in hand? At least with Sole they had Preston to have near them but with the Courier, they faced it alone. This brave and courageous feats do get them on his good side. Enjoying their stories alongside everyone else. Not only does that please him but the fact that they went out of their way to help the people around them and change the area. It truly warmed the old synths heart.

(His affinity towards them also increased when they didn’t ask about his appearance much. He got tired of the constant questions and sneering towards his identity.)

Robert Maccready

“Boss, I think you got someone running for your money.” He laughed a bit with his beer in hand. He was definitely impressed by this person. Not only did they have an awesome get-up with their weapons that they built themselves but their stories of going across the desert and fighting some dudes with the bare minimum sounded exactly like a comic of an underdog becoming strong. He most definitely hangs out with them after hearing a few more of their stories, and even maybe goes on more missions with them during their stay in the Commonwealth to see them in action.

Piper

“This will make for such a seller! When are you free? Willing to a interview?” She presses as she continues to scribble down quotes and ideas when hearing their stories with bright and awe-struck eyes that matches Curies. They make for good friends obviously. There is nothing more than the mischievous reporter loves more than brings good to the people. So when Piper heard of their journey with all the rescuing and helping people. They have a friendship of that with Sole due to their close similarities.

Porter Gage

The courier and Gage aren’t exactly on the best of terms. He could slightly stand them because of the path of blood that followed them wherever they went but this person had not and inch of raider in them (and also because of the Overboss). They don’t talk much but he does gruffly says hello when Sole forces him too like a bratty child forced to make nice. Admittedly, He did like the stories because they had so much death in them. Revenge here, killing there. And he could definitely get behind this ‘Legion’.

Preston

“Welcome to Sanctuary.” He is the first to great both Sole and the new person into their walls with a large and appreciative smile. As the group gathers around the burning wood with different expressions and obvious feelings towards the new person, his heart swells. He thought he would never meet another person with such a heart of gold like his general. He also listens to these stories with wide eyes as he stands next to his general. The Minuteman does consider giving them a position in their ranks as the stories are being told.

Strong

He wasn’t sure why the humans were gathering just to talk. It was boring. When his brothers gathered up around the fire like that, there would be more guts and screaming. So this was just a huge let down for him as he slumped down with an angered expression. As he was on the floor sitting with such a pout, he was forced to listen in on the stories. As they spoke of their adventures and their resilient attitude shine through, it intrigued him. He got a little close due to their marksmanship in fighting and their luck in not dying. They can prove to be a good team alongside Sole to find the milk of human kindness.

X6-88

He wished he could be anywhere but there. To him, this talking around the campfire was simply a waste of time. They could be doing things of importance. He understood this as humans way of creating friendships, which proved to be vital in the Commonwealth, but still found it useless. Like Strong, he would end up listening in due to his proximity towards the group talk and finding out things about this person. While he did not like what he heard about this. He did know of their journey and who their were through the Institute connections so none of the stories surprised the synth but these stories still seems so unbelievable. Being shot in the head and left with nothing to becoming a game changer.

(But of course it wasn’t too unfamiliar due to the fact that Sole Survivor somewhat experiencing.)

#fallout 4 companions react #Fallout 4 reacts #companion reacts

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skumpitt · 6 years

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Explaining How Fallout 3′s Plot Is Garbage (Again)

Reposted from my comment on reddit.

Well, aside from the horrible world building (or lack thereof), the plot is pretty bare-bones and at times, nonsensical. The farther into the plot you go, the more it becomes apparent that very little thought went into it. The world is a mess, built like a theme park with little to no cohesion between the various factions and settlements. Everything exists independent of everything else, without any detail as to how the Capital Wasteland functions. Where do people get food? What’s the economy like. That sorta thing. Unfortunately, detailed worldbuilding doesn’t seem to be Bethesda’s thing, unless you count notes attached to skeletons as “worldbuilding”.

But where Fallout 3 falls apart is its main quest. After railroading the player into a war that can literally be summed up as “the good guys fight the bad guys, because they are bad”. A big part of the problem is the lack of original ideas introduced in Fallout 3. Rather than come up with something new, they decided to copy-paste the villains from Fallout and Fallout 2 without any actual reason beyond “hey, these guys were in the last game, so we’re totally staying true to the lore”.

But Super Mutants don’t really have any reason to exist beyond Bethesda needing to add in more bullet sponges for the player to shoot. Unlike Fallout, there’s no real conclusive way to deal with the Super Mutant threat. In the original game, they were the antagonists, and they were lead by an actual villain with motivation and like, dialogue and shit. In Fallout 3, Bethesda needed a familiar enemy type to populate similar-looking dungeons.

In Fallout 2, the Enclave are introduced as the new villains. Super Mutants still exist, but aren’t a force to be reckoned with. In fact, you get to talk to a few of them and learn how the events of the last gave impacted them as a society. In Fallout 3, they’re basically orcs with guns that don’t tie in to the plot at all.

So about 60% of the way through the main plot, we’re introduced to the Enclave, who are now taking over as the main antagonists. What they actually want, however, is a mystery. In Fallout 2, they were genocidal maniacs. Pretty cut and dry. But in Fallout 3, it’s not clear what the Enclave’s master plan even is. We know that Eden wants to continue the Enclave’s traditional genocidal values, but he isn’t actually the antagonist. Augustus Autumn is. And what he wants, again, is a mystery.

We know he opposed Eden, but what he actually wants is never elaborated upon. What are his values, his goals, his motivation? What makes him tick? If we don’t even know what the antagonist’s motivation is, that’s usually a telltale sign of bad writing.

Compare this to Fallout: New Vegas, which actually allows you to sit down and talk to every major faction leader (and most, if not all, of the minor ones as well) and learn their story. You can actually sit down with Caesar and have a discussion about the failures of democracy and how he feels the NCR needs to be destroyed to stop humanity from regressing again. You can speak with the citizens of the NCR and learn their values, and why they’re opposed to the Legion. You can listen to House, who will explain to you his plan to save humanity. That’s the common thread in all of the good Fallout antagonists. Generally, they all want what’s best for humanity. Their motivations are directly tied to the series’ central themes of war and progress.

Ashur is a good example of this from Fallout 3. He may have done things that you detest, but you can also understand where he’s coming from, even if you don’t agree with him. Of course, you actually get to choose to side with him, something the main quest in Fallout 3 doesn’t do. Instead, you’re railroaded into siding with the Brotherhood of Steel, who have since been stripped of all moral ambiguity and basically everything that made them interesting in order for them to be generic good guys whose goal is to save everyone. In fact, pretty much everything in Fallout 3 is morally black or white, and that makes for a pretty uninteresting story unless you really ham it up.

And I’d be okay with that railroading if, like Fallout, the main villain was interesting or had any real characterisation beyond “I’m the bad guy!”. But he doesn’t. We don’t know what his plan is, or what he really wants beyond turning on Project Purity. But the thing is, that’s also what the Brotherhood wants! So the big climax ends up being completely pointless because both factions have the same exact goal. But it’s never really stated why the Enclave is so vehemently against the Brotherhood or vice versa.

They could have used this opportunity to talk about how pointless their war is. Maybe they could have worked things out, but are too blinded by their hatred for one another to see that working together would result in a brighter future for the wasteland. In fact, it really seems like the Enclave are the good guys of Fallout 3, considering they also want to turn on the purifier, only instead of just giving it away, they’ll use it as leverage to unite the Capital Wasteland under a single government, finally restoring the rule of law. The Brotherhood, on the other hand, pretty much leave the wasteland in shambles, just the way they found it, except now there’s some more bottled water that’s safe to drink. So what was the point of any of it?

They also could have used the conflict between Eden and Autumn as a jumping off point to change or pre-conceptions about him as a character and actually give him some basic characterisation. But nope. He has about as much depth as Alduin. Instead, he says this. He doesn’t shed any light as to why he disagrees with Eden, and barely has any screen time. Basically, he’s just there so the story can have a villain, and he’s not even a good final boss. He just pops in to stop you from doing the same thing he’s going to do later, then later sabotages the thing he wanted to fix so that can’t fix it. Cause that makes sense.

And here’s where the story really falls apart.. At the last second, Bethesda gives you two choices: either sacrifice yourself for no reason, or let someone else sacrifice themselves for no reason. But because there are three companions who are radiation-immune, Bethesda has to do a complete 180 on these character’s personality.

Fawkes can literally just walk into the fucking purifier and turn it off in like, twenty seconds. And not only would it be easy, not only would no harm come to him, he would actually be healed by this! It’s a win-win! But instead of walking into a room and pushing a button and despite him being willing to do the exact same thing not three quests ago, he insists that you have to go in and kill yourself, because… “destiny”. There’s also Charon, who’s been brainwashed since childhood to obey orders without question. And he’ll do so… until he doesn’t for literally no reason. He just doesn’t feel like it, even though you’ll die. That’s some next level bad writing right there.

In fact, this ending was so bad, they had to retcon it with the Broken Steel DLC. This DLC does another 180 on the characters’ dialogues, with Fawkes basically saying “Yeah, no problem man.” Then you do a couple of fetch quests and shoot your way through faceless Enclave dudes and then it’s over. Not only do we get no further elaboration upon the Enclave, we actually get a mini-campaign with no real plot. You’re just… finishing off the Enclave. There’s not even an antagonist or climactic fight at the end. You just shoot a bunch of Enclave dudes until you reach the last room full of Enclave dudes who, for no reason at all, have decided not to use the instant-win button that’s right there, which would allow them to destroy the Citadel and decisively win the war for the Capital Wasteland.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the problem with Bethesda’s storytelling isn’t necessarily bad writing, but a lack of any real writing in the first place.

#fallout 3 #fallout ramblings

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gamesception · 4 years

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New Vegas, part 25: Any Port in a Storm

...

The night passed, and so did the Storm, but the growing rift between Bethany and Cassidy remained. Bethany’s sense that they had taken the wrong path by killing Van Graff and McLafferty had only crystalized, while Cassidy was starting to regret letting Bethany talk her into taking out McLafferty clean and quiet. The woman responsible for killing Cassidy’s caravan had died without realizing what was happening, without knowing why, without ever have to face what she’d done. Was that really the justice her people deserved? If it wasn’t, then that justice was now forever out of reach, all because Bethany got cold feet.

Beth tried to talk about it, but Cassidy just didn’t have anything left to say. In the end there was just nothing left to do, but say their good byes. At least they were at a doctor’s office, so Bethany could pay to have her liver damage treated.

...

Out of character, this is always something that annoys me in video games with companions like these. There’s always some quest to do for them, where you get to be their friends, and you’re rewarded with some boost or powerup for doing it, and then... they’re done. There’s nothing else to say to them, nothing more to talk to them about. They stop being a character. Some games do it better or worse, and New Vegas is old and suffered from a rushed dev time so I’m not like calling it out as particularly bad or anything, and maybe there’s more here that I’m missing, like some more dialog branches will open up if I spend more time with Cassidy, but if that’s the case it’ll have to wait. If nothing else, letting her go now will free up room to spend a bit of time with some other characters.

...

But what to do now? Bethany still didn’t feel ready to confront Benny, if anything she was less sure than ever what she wanted out of such a confrontation. And she felt bad about so completely abandoning her promise not to kill anymore, but not awful like after Primm. Just a general sort of detached melancholy.resignation, as she made her way back to her room at Novac to re-organize her supplies.

To distract herself, she put on the radio, and just happened to catch a news story about Super Mutant sightings out in the Northwest. Could it maybe be the Nightkin she had met while trying to help the Ghouls at the rocket site? That was one small adventure she still felt a bit proud of, having resolved the situation with minimal killing. If the same group were causing trouble, maybe the fact that their leader knew her would let her help defuse things again. And if it turned out to be a different group of mutants and they opted to attack her on sight, well, she could hardly feel guilty for defending herself, and a fight might take her mind off things for a while.

The sky was dark as she set out from Novac, matching the mood. Thunder rippled through the clouds, but thankfully no rain fell, and it was certainly better than the earlier sandstorm

Bethany stopped at the 188 on the way to sell some more leftovers from the Van Graffs, and puck up some more ammunition. She took care to avoid Veronica. After ditching her to go with Cassidy, only for that to turn out so badly, Beth just did not feel up to that particular conversation right now.

She did spend some time talking to a former NCR arms merchant, only to hear yet again about how the NCR is failing to protect not only the people of the Mojave but even its own people from the Legion.

Past the 188, Bethany ran into something she hadn’t expected. Alerted by EDE of potential hostiles, she took a look through her rifle’s scope and saw... a monster. Bethany had heard of Deathclaws, of course. Everyone has. But she had never seen one in person before. At least, not since getting shot in the head. Her memories before that were still... hazy. But she knew the things were supposed to be dangerous, and might attack people from the 188, so she took aim with her rifle and pulled the trigger, silently sending a hot shard of leaden death to smack the thing right between they eyes.

And it barely flinched, idly rubbing at the wound with a massive claw before looking around, somehow spotting Bethany even at, such a great distance, and charging. She had time to squeeze off a whole clip from the rifle with barely any effect before it had closed...

The whole time, EDE was blazing away with it’s lasers, the same ones that had ripped through radscorpions, robots, and combat armor with ease, and yet still the thing game. Bethany tossed down her rifle, pulled out the SMG, and unloaded a whole clip of that while the beast swatted at EDE...

Finally it fell. EDE was barely holding together, and Bethany had expended far more ammunition than she was comfortable with. And that was with them catching the thing by surprise, at great range. Holy hell, these things were monsters, the stories she had heard didn’t feel so exaggerated anymore. Cazadores were nothing compared to this. But at least she had downed it...

Only a warning chirp from EDE told her it wasn’t alone. Panning across the area with her rifle scope revealed at least six more deathclaws, and no telling how many more hidden by ruins and rocky outcrops. A few hours ago, Bethany had been feeling like maybe getting killed by a bunch of super mutants wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, but when confronted with such an immediate and guaranteed death she was almost relieved to find that she’d honestly rather live.

Walking the long way around did let Bethany add a few sites to her map. And thankfully, after wasting so much ammunition killing one single deathclaw, she was able to avoid further trouble on the way.

Eventually Bethany found the road that led up into the hills where the super mutants she had heard about were supposedly causing problems. The sky had cleared up, and the walking had helped ease her mind. But the good weather didn’t last long before the wind started to pick up, threatening another sandstorm, sending Bethany scrambling for the nearest shelter she could find...

Which turned out to be the abandoned Ruby Hill Mine, now a dank, Mirelurk-infested cave. There wasn’t too much to see, apart from some interesting glowing mushrooms, but Bethany did find a fortune in abandoned explosives, so it wasn’t a complete waste.

The sandstorm was still raging outside when Bethany finished exploring the mine, but she found the high rocky hills that flanked the road provided some cover from the sands, so she decided to press on regardless. She and EDE had to fend off a few mantises along the way, but they didn’t encounter anything else of note.

At least, not until they cape across a massive wall of stakes built from uprooted trees

Standing at the open gate was a single, towering figure, utterly unperturbed by the wind and sand raging around him.

Bethany tensed, reaching for her SMg, but the the super mutant stretched out his hand in a gesture of pease. “My name is Marcus,” he said. His voice was deep, and gravelly, but somehow reassuring. “Welcome to Jacobstown.”

#fallout #new vegas #sception plays fonv

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dunkmasterkyouko · 6 years

Text

The Role of The Player Protagonist: What Fallout 4 Got Right and What it Got Wrong

Some reflections on the good and bad parts of the “player character” experience of Fallout 4.

There are many ways to approach to the main character of an interactive narrative. Not all game narratives are changed by the player’s actions in particularly meaningful ways, but for a large percentage of games, the player is at least advancing the narrative if nothing else. In doing so, often this entails controlling the protagonist of the narrative.

It’s worth noting that I’m couching my statements a lot. Gaming is a diverse medium, and even the definition of what is a game will change from person to person. Obviously, in some genres such as an RTS, you may not embody a particular protagonist. In some narratives, your level of interaction with the story may be essentially non-existent, and you’re merely piecing together a story from outside of it. For this piece I’m referring to a more specific kind of games where you control a single person for the majority of the experience and push forwards a story of some kind where that single person plays a large part in events.

That established, even this has many branches. There is of course, always the option of giving the player limited control of an already defined character. It’s hard to argue that someone like Lara Croft or Tidus is a meaningful reflection of the player, or that they are particularly defined by the player. Another approach is simply to make the main character so generic that they are easy to relate to for huge numbers of people, simply by never exhibiting particularly strong personality traits that would cause a player to go “I’d never do that!”

Games such as Mass Effect push it one step further. Instead giving you preset character, they give you a choice of two obvious general characters, but allowing you to mix and match a little. Shepard has a last name and some general constraints to their backstory, personality, and appearance, but the player is allowed customization to some degree. Players will often refer to “their Shepard”, and there is uniqueness to each person’s Shepard, but the fact of the matter is that there are marked similarities between them that makes them quite recognisable. One important component of that is the shared voice, which we’ll come back to later.

However, many games prefer to take an approach closer to pen and paper RPGs- you are given constraints in the form of what the system can model, and are encouraged to create your own character within that mold. In fact many of these games originate from pen and paper- Fallout itself was originally intended to be based on the GURPS system.

Of course, given the limitations of computing compared to a human game runner, your options are a little more limited than that. There’s only so many dialogue options they can program in. There’s only so many talents, abilities, and solutions to problems that can be accounted for. You are still in many ways picking from a list still, but it’s a collection of interconnecting lists rather than a set of fully independent stand alone options.

Whatever the particular methods, the end result is a game designed around the assumption that the main character could be any number of people who might have any number of dispositions, skills, personalities, and motivations.

The first way that Fallout 4 goes wrong is a point that I’m far from the first one to make. The main story of Fallout 4 is almost completely devoid of diversity in how it plays out character-to-character. That isn’t to say that there are no choices, but that the player’s role in the story and their character as represented by their actions are almost identical. No matter which faction you choose, no matter what choices you make, no matter who your character is or how they behave, in the main story of Fallout 4 the Sole Survivor is a distraught widow or widower who is desperately searching for their son. They are also passive, stupid, and gullible.

Firstly, it is essentially impossible to establish a character unique motivation for your involvement in the main quest. Using an example that I won’t touch on for the last time, in Fallout New Vegas, you could have any number of reasons for engaging with the main quest at first. Petty revenge for being shot. A search for answers about why you were shot. Simply because you encounter events relating to as you travel the wastes, since the enemy placement and geography funnels you towards the main quest locations. Once Benny is dealt with, which can be done a variety of ways for a variety of reasons, your character still isn’t locked into any one driving motivation. Maybe they’re siding with the NCR because they value stability, or maybe they just want to be on the winning side. Or maybe they just hate the legion. Or think that the NCR is most likely to pay well and not backstab them.

Meanwhile, in Fallout 4, there is one and only one reason to engage with the main story: maternal or paternal instinct. You engage with the main story because you want to save your son, and you are forced to assume that Shaun is alive and forced to decide that it’s logical to bumble around asking people if they’ve seen “a baby”.

This also touches on what I said about the main character always being passive, stupid, and gullible. It is not ever an option to have the sole survivor consider that the first unfreezing did not happen right before they were unfrozen for good. You can occasionally pick a token dialogue option about “maybe Shaun wouldn’t be a baby”, but the Sole Survivor will always behave and speak with the underlying assumption that Shaun is a baby until the child Shaun concept is introduced, at which point they will always act with the assumption that Shaun is about ten. The second I left the vault in Fallout 4, knowing nothing about the plot, I immediately realized that I had absolutely zero idea how old Shaun would be. It could have been a hundred years ago and Shaun was already dead. There was absolutely no way to communicate this as the Sole Survivor. You have to make stupid assumptions because the plot is written that way. Deal with it.

Once you follow the main quest, you are confronted with another problem: you are never allowed to try and solve anything on your own. You go to where people tell you, and follow the leads you are directly handed. You are never given a chance to make any deductions or decisions. You simply go to the next person who might solve things for you randomly. Once again, you’re forced to follow the plot thread of this one mercenary you have a fairly generic description of being definitely 1) still alive 2) infamous enough that people would know he is and 3) still a link to Shaun rather than “I don’t know, someone hired me to steal vault babies”. You are not ever given any option to search in another other way. You describe Kellogg, and you get the dog to track him.

Meanwhile, going back to Fallout New Vegas, you can track Benny however you want. You can follow the breadcrumb trail, asking about a far more noticeable person who you know did something recently rather than an unknown period of time ago, or you can make the logical deduction of, say, going to where you were delivering the package, or going to the central hub of the world, or learning early on that Benny is from New Vegas and making a beeline to him that way. In the original Fallout, you can follow the trail the game sets up for the water chip, or you can simply walk in a direction and find settlements, search for vaults in the mountains, or ignore the quest entirely and focus on exploration until you feel that you’ve met people that might actually know where the water chip is.

I don’t think it’s necessary or called for to go over the main quest step by step criticizing it. The main points are already evident. There are a few more things to mention, however. Firstly, you are never allowed to not fall for the android Shaun. Secondly, you have absolutely no agency over your response to Shaun. You cannot not believe him that he’s your son. You cannot feel no connection to him given that he grew up completely separate to you and there’s no emotional connection to this old man when you were looking for your baby child. You are always emotional to see him and fully believe first that the android is real, and then that Shaun is actually your son, neither with any real evidence other than your magical ability to know what your child would grow up to look like.

The last point on the main story is to revisit the passivity I mentioned earlier. You are fundamentally incapable of making enemies except by allying with their enemies, are completely unable to explain things to people. You cannot ever tell the railroad that you control the institute and that you don’t need to kill them to free the synths. You cannot ever tell the institute that you won’t kill the railroad, and that you’re in charge so they can sit down and shut up. You can tell the brotherhood that you don’t agree with them, but they will continue to treat you like you do. Your character is only ever capable of picking whose orders they follow, even when they’re supposedly the leader of multiple factions.

But, Fallout 4 is not a game that consists of only a main quest. And that’s where Fallout 4 does some things right.

I, like many others, was worried at the announcement of a voiced protagonist. The skeptics predicted- correctly, as it turned out- that this would mean that dialogue would become much less varied and less options would be available. It also made your character less unique- as I mentioned with Shepard earlier, having someone deliver a line in the exact same tone and inflection with the exact same voice makes them seem more identical to another character than just choosing the same text dialogue option. Two couriers can seem completely different, but any two Sole Survivors of the same gender will speak identically.

Generally, in a game like that, it’s troubling to erode a player’s unique identity. However, there is one instance where the uniqueness of a character’s identity doesn’t need to shine through for your to feel like you’re playing your own character.

And that’s when you’re pretending to be someone else.

One of the main draws of the Fallout series for me, and the Elder Scrolls series to a lesser extent, is the appeal of the Kung Fu style wanderer. Travelling to communities that you’re not a part of, experiencing the local flavour, solving problems and then moving on. It’s a fun fantasy, and allows things to seem more alive than they really are. When you’re living in the same city as someone, and you hear their four lines of dialogue ten thousand times, how flat and unreal they are is obvious. But when you’re just passing through, you only see a slice of them, and don’t see that that slice is all that’s there. Fallout 4 presents a number of quests that allow you to seamlessly slip into a place where you don’t belong and merely enjoy the ride for a little while. The two best examples of this for me are the Silver Shroud questline and the Last Voyage of the U.S.S. Constitution quest.

The Silver Shroud quest is not only a lot of fun, but it’s both a reflection of things players do organically and a chance to define your character’s motivation and approach. People will often dress up as things just for fun in these types of game- putting on the Grognak outfit and hitting people with Grognak’s axe is just something you do, not for any in game reason but just because it’s fun. So letting you dress as the Silver Shroud at having it mean something is great. Additionally, you’re allowed to pick how much you want to get into character. You can just interact with the people in the quest normally, but you’re given the option to do silly impressions of the Shroud’s voice and pretend to be the character completely. It’s a rare moment of doing a quest differently than another player in a way that isn’t “oh, I did the evil option”. And you could have any number of motivations for acting like the silver shroud- maybe you’re doing it because you’re trying to bring the legend to life to scare people, maybe you’re humouring the old man, maybe you just find it fun to pretend. Since you’re playing the role of the shroud, all these motivations are plausible even with the same options, because you’re not acting like yourself.

The Last Voyage of the U.S.S. Constitution is a slightly different take, but it’s a similar thing- when the robot announces that you have been drafted, as a citizen of the US, simply saying “oh yeah, of course, lead the way” has room for all kinds of different motivations. And like I said, it’s genuinely fun to just see where whatever strange person you’ve run into is going with this and take a walking tour of a miniature community.

In the end, I still don’t much like Fallout 4 for a variety of reasons. But for all the issues the plot has with giving the player the chance to actually play things out the way they want to, those two side quests are genuinely fond memories that I deeply enjoyed. Sometimes the best way have a quest that any number of different people would do for any number of different reasons is simply to hand someone a costume and whisper “play along”.

#fallout #fallout 4 #my writing #yeah that's right jerks I did some more rambling about video games

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tavoriel · 7 years

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2, 12, 32, 42, 52 for your new vegas baby

2. Which faction(s) did they join and which did they destroy? Why?

Spatula’s favorite faction is the Followers of the Apocalypse. She uncomfortably tolerates the NCR because it opposes Caesar and makes a tiny slight biased effort to actually do things to protect the region, compared to enslaving and crucifying everybody and treating women like objects. Caesar’s Legion can go to hell. Caesar and Benny met a bad end :( Spat’s planning to take over New Vegas with Yesman’s help because even though NCR is better than the Legion, none of the factions with teeth are substantially above petty greed and red tape. Maybe she should try to fix things herself.

12. What are they most insecure about?

She does not like being talked down to. As far as I’ve figured her backstory she spent a lot of her childhood feeling insignificant, like a problem and a burden, and it was only after she picked up mercenary work that she found anything resembling confidence and autonomy. It was not wise of Benny to patronizingly explain to her how she could be his personal trained dog and have a great time with that, after he already tried to kill her.

32. Do they prefer to solve things diplomatically or using violence?

She has the most fun with violence, but she will carefully and patiently try to help people if she can. She wants to do right by the vulnerable and the defenseless, and basically sees a lot of people as fitting that category compared to her. She also LOVES attention, like watch this if you help someone for no reason it makes their whole day and they’re happy and it’s because of you and you both know it and !!!!!!!! She used to be more particular about getting paid, but all of the dlcs have been spoiling her rotten with caps and it’s less of a priority now.

42. What’s their favorite location?

Spat decided Lone Wolf Radio is her HOUSE, and she stores her things there. The Sink in Big Mountain is also her house, but it’s not as private, and technically belongs to other people.

52. Are they good at disarming traps or do they constantly miss them?

If she sees a mine, she’ll walk up to it until it starts beeping then RUNS AWAY! She found a sleeping bag in the Divide, so if she breaks some bones anyway she can probably just sleep it off on the spot? She kinda sees herself as casually invincible, and things that don’t literally kill her are annoyances and details.

#this appears to be a blog #savefairy #thank!!

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believerindaydreams · 3 years

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Did you know there's a Native American reservation on the other side of Lake Mead?

That sure informed the next part! Into the fire, no 5

"Why did we get a Brahmin at all, if you won't ride it?"

"She's in milk right now, which Brahmin notoriously can't do if they're being used to haul," Carla says. "I'll walk."

"You're six months pregnant."

"And I made it back here from Flagstaff without losing the baby. Strolling up the road to New Vegas is child's play by comparison."

I look to Manny for help; he coughs. "We did walk some of it...but most of that's Hualapai territory and you go by water. Legion doesn't actually control the Hakataya, but the right of free passage is older than the war and they're abusing the privilege to the hilt. That's why the Fort is so ridiculously close to the front, it's as far from the action as he was allowed to put it."

"Or was. Don't see why Caesar wouldn't wipe them out like the other eighty-something tribes."

"Solar electric fences that the government installed to stop tourists wrecking the entire Grand Canyon ecosystem, back in the day," Arcade pipes up. "I'm not sure if anybody asked the locals before those were installed...the Boneyard had a few examples, though not in functional condition."

"Point is," Carla says. "Barring a wet nurse, that Brahmin needs to be coddled in case the baby made it through and I didn't. I'm not going to assume that wherever we end up is civilised enough to have wet nurse volunteers, so-precautions."

"You'll be fine," Manny says heartily. "Look at those hips. You have great hips for this."

"Not the point, but thank you."

"Is anyone going to actually name our beast of no burden?" Arcade asks. "I believe Betsy is traditional."

"No naming cattle after First Recon members," I say.

"Ah. Bessie?"

"Why a B name at all?" Carla asks.

"Uh. The alliteration makes it traditional, I believe."

"Call her Cow," Manny says, with satisfaction. "That's traditional."

Silence.

"Not the most imaginative," Arcade ventures.

"Funnier than Bessie, though," Carla says. "I'll second that."

I puff a cigarette and say nothing; so Cow carries the day.

*****

They haven't even spent that long in Novac, comparatively; but it's been so hectic that it feels like it's been forever since he was last on the road. Arcade watches the sunrise with measured enjoyment; what he's supposed to be doing is keeping guard and he's taking that responsibility seriously.

Walk by night, sleep by day. Not recommended in the more chaotic parts of the Mojave but on a main road like this it's given practice. They've got plenty to carry.

Boone and Manny have their guns and all the requisite paraphernalia to worry about, he has twenty pounds of weapons and ammo just to start with. Throw in food, water, Carla's sewing machine and hat making supplies, and the trinkets of three people's lives, they're almost at the limit even with Cow hauling the tent and Carla carrying a modest load. Mostly baby things, she says.

Some power armor would certainly come in handy right now. He chews his lip, considering- he would like it back, very badly in all honesty, but without Daisy no password and no getting into the bunker, end of. Unless Orion or Judah have some tucked away in.a cellar, and even them...no. Who knows what Washington will be like, but unobtrusive has to be the way to go.

Story of his life, really.

He digs a chunk of compressed honey mesquite cake from his doctor's bag, nibbles at it. There's so many hostages to fortune in his life now. Boone had seemed as safely closed off as any intelligently selfish paramour he's dallied with, and now-

Well, he's his mother's son after all, and he knows how fiercely her loyalties ran to the other Remnants, can see very clearly how he could end up the same way. Lover and wife and child all as important as the one he found and needed, critical because they're critical to Boone.

It's frightening. Individual lives are so much more fragile than a cause like the Followers; they carry the burden of risk.

Sun's risen properly now. No sign it was ever modestly hidden behind the horizon.

Arcade tries to keep his breathing calm, thinking of what he'd do if something happens to any of them; and belatedly realises he'd already be in too deep not to register loss.

*****

Never been so glad to see the 188. Bump on the road to Vegas, but a safe bump.

Manny opens a pouch and counts out caps on the bar counter. "Beer for me, purified water for the lady, whiskey for my man here-"

"Beer is fine." Whiskey will taste like missing Carla, like the haunted Sierra Madre, until I'm laid out flat and buried. If I don't drink it again that'll be too soon.

"Finally! Took you long enough- what's your poison?" He nods at Arcade.

"Nuka-Cola. Iced if you have it."

"Nope, just the regular. Rest I can do for you," Samuel says, fetching bottles. "Any news down Novac way? The last patrol never made it back."

"None so we've noticed." Manny sips at his beer; I knock back most of mine at a gulp. Still not my thing, but it's cheaper than most alcohol.

"Glad to hear it. They did say as there was a massacre as a Followers station-"

Arcade chokes on his soda; it's Carla who asks the obvious while he's getting his breath back. "Not the big one? The Old Mormon Fort?"

"What, up New Vegas way? No, no, this was a small one east of here, by the train tracks. Some say it was Legion, but I had two different cowboys who swore up and down it was power armor, and we all know what that means-"

Arcade gives up on his drink and pushes the bottle away, looking sick.

"Brotherhood. Skulking around the place, I daresay."

"Oh. Right."

Manny gives me a look, at the color starting to come back to Arcade's face; I flick a finger in a circular motion. Later.

All the chaos, I haven't even told him and Carla about his Enclave ties. Hell of a thing to leave out. Too many things I'm hiding from my wife, that isn't good either.

Carla nudges him. "You going to drink that soda?"

"Bad for the baby," I say. Who the hell knows what's in that stuff.

"I'll risk it."

"No, no. I'll make the sacrifice." Arcade finishes it at a gulp.

Carla rolls her eyes and resumes her purified water.

***

They set up the tent beneath the overpass, out of the sun and convenient to grass for Cow, who's taking the travel well. Carla's getting the lion's share of milk for its anti-rad properties, but even after she puts up a morning dose in damp maize husks, there's still a bottle to split three ways.

Manny and Boone pass it back and forth while pitching stakes; Arcade finishes his share once they're done, cosy inside a tent that's comfortable for all its sparsity. Folding table and chairs, portable radio, a bedroll that looked big when they were packing but is definitely too small in the field, and a scrap of a stove that takes one microfusion cell a day and will dehydrate a steak in four minutes flat. Orion Moreno would hate it, affectionado of power armor napping that he is.

Arcade can't help liking it. A Followers tent with slightly more amenities, if slightly more people than he'd prefer. There's a bedroll back in Freeside that literally has his name on it, along with a few other things good to have before they drop off the map.

Spare glasses, definitely. Sack of farming tools, caps hidden inside said bag. The plasma defender that he'd had the sense not to bring to the Legion camp, which will undoubtedly end up as his primary weapon again once this amazing holorifle breaks down. The broc flower tea mix he drinks when it's too early for his Nuka-Cola addiction.

For that matter, broc flowers and xander roots. The NCR has a whole bureaucracy on reestablishing floral diversity, but the one thing they have conclusively settled is that since those plants are toxic to no intelligent life of any sort, are edible and healing, and can't seem to reproduce without human intervention, dissemination is probably fine.

Part of the reasoning for which had been the research for his own doctoral thesis. He's still smug about that, or would be if anybody outside of the Followers intelligentsia understood in enough detail to comprehend the niceties.

Maybe he should explain that to Boone. Yeah.

It's bound to be a long trip to DC, after all.

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