Prim'n'proper and off to Megaton! Taneesha will definitely gain some attention in Megaton due to her looks.





Looks like that news about Taneessha's mission up north didn't reach that raider yet.

Good luck with finding the BBs.

Taneesha is wise to try and prepare for this curious mission - and does so. Out of her vicious outfit and into her delicious outfit.

And she makes it safely to Megaton. Without the blamhammer, she's going to have to rely on her other weaponry to stun and smack 'em down if needed.

Blamco Mac & Cheese for breakfast? That's what Sugar Bombs are for! Silly raiders. But I suppose they have to take what they can get.

Too bad Vicious doesn't have Stealth Boys handy. Then again, she'd have to work quick and it would be much more suspicious when the Stealth Boy suddenly runs out.

Do you work Fallout 3 perks into your story, Renee? I'm sure there's one that would come in handy for pilfering bearer bonds.

Am I blanking here? I'm not sure what Megaton Officer lady you are referring to. Isn't it Sheriff Simms, who is male?

@Lopov -- Yes, looks like news travels slow sometimes in the CW. Either this, or everyone is so consumed with discussing about the rookie idiots who went up north that they still talk about this.

@Acadian -- Ha ha that is true, she has become more Delicious, I suppose. I really need to have a better look at some clothing mods during this phase. Well, I already have a mod which adds some clothes; Janet wore some of these back when I was gaming with her. But this mod does not add specifically to Megaton's merchant, so maybe I can adjust this.

@Rader -- Who says we can't have mac & cheese breakfast, or Sugar Bombs for dinner? Vicious does have some Stealth Boys in fact. She was given a couple of these before the Germantown mission, but never used them. So yeah, maybe she will need to use those at some point.

Vicious does have some Fallout perks directed towards Stealth and Lockpicking. In her backstory as a child, she is supposed to have done a fair amount of sneaking around & picking locks.



I created my very own crime mod for Fallout, as detailed in this post. which works in a similar way to Elder Scrolls' crime. We can Pay the Fine, Resist Arrest, or Go to Jail. However, the main difference is there is only one officer (rather than swarms of psychic guards), and only in Megaton. And if the player commits too many crimes, he or she eventually gets banned from Megaton.

Pressure's on. Let's see what happens next.

Oh no, Q-Tip "Lucked" it all up by getting into a bar fight!

Miss V is going to get all dolled up and pretty-like!

I love the thought of everyone back at school wanting to play with her new gun!

Time to get all delicious

I think it is cool that you create these quests mods in order to play specific characters like this. You have way more patience than I do when it comes to that.

Rosa, me too. I loved imagining all the raiders were confused about Vicious's new gun. They see her carrying it around, but she pretends the thing is just a cheap energy weapon. Because yeah, just imagine if they knew what the thing could actually stun an enemy, rendering him, her, or it helpless. They'd all be fighting to get it!


Chapter 29: Return to Megaton, part II



"Thirsty? Pard'ner? Try ... Moriarty's. Coldest ... drinks ... in the Capital... Wasteland."

Vicious steeled herself before walking back into town. Her disguise seemed to be working, so far. On the other hand, she had only just been greeted by Deputy Weld. What would happen on the other side of Megaton's twin gates?

She walked to the gates, waited for them to open. *clank* *clank* *clank* they went as they rose. Once inside, first person she saw was Lucas Simms, Megaton's sheriff (sometimes mayor, when the need arose). "You lookin' for the mayor? Or the sheriff?" he asked.

Vicious did a little curtsey in front of him but did not reply. Just kept on walking. So nervous now. Summer day air, growing warmer by the minute. Memories from the near past, of being caught, arrested, and imprisoned. First thing she'd do when she had a moment to herself was jam one of the sedatives she had bought from Springvale's chem dealer into her arm, in an effort to calm her person.

But her nervousness didn't matter.

Lucas Simms stalked off.

Phew.

Vicious took a deep breath, before continuing down the hill. Megaton's water pipes clanked and groaned all around as she took each step. Would she be confronted? Would she be re-arrested for returning to town? She was not sure how the system worked now in Megaton.

But she needn't have worried. Nothing like that happened.
She walked down the hill, and passed the town's clinic. Here is where she had gotten caught a couple weeks ago, stealing Psycho. Maybe Megaton's doctor might see her walk by. Then he'd burst from his shop, pointing. "She's back! She's the one who stole from me!" He'd accuse her of witchcraft, he'd accuse her of all sorts of wickedness, such as not attending religious ceremonies.

But nothing like that happened.

"...people don't change, Jericho," whined Jenny Stahl, owner of The Brass Lantern. "You're bothering me. Now order something, or move on."

"Dammit Jenny!" Jericho exploded "Why do you have to embarass me like that?" Jericho was Megaton's resident Tough Guy. Rumor is, he was also a former raider. Which made sense. He had that Tough Guy Jersey accent, for one. He was also constantly pissed off about something. The one time Vicious had tried to speak to him, he told her to 'get the *cluck* out of my face!'

Vicious took a seat upon one of Brass Lantern's stools.

"So. What'll it be today?" asked Jenny. "We've got some noodles and the brahmin steak is pretty good, too."

First order of business was to get her stomach fed with proper food. Vicious had been living on pre-packaged Blamco Mac & Cheese, Junk Food, and Cram for days after her return to Springvale. Time for some real sustenance.

Second order of business? She would no longer refer to herself as Vicious. Not while she was back in Megaton, anyway. "I'll have some noodles," Taneesha said.

As she ate her second meal of the day, Taneesha silently planned. She removed the silly stormchaser hat she'd worn into town. The day was going from warm to hot, and she had determined by now that the hat would no longer be needed as a disguise.




3:07 PM

"Hey there. Glad you're back."

By mid afternoon Taneesha had gone into Moriarty's for a drink. Moriarty's, where the air-conditioning worked, and the booze worked better. She bought a bottle of wine for 12 caps. Funny how not long ago, when she had been stressed for money, 12 caps seemed like a lot.

Here she met Lucy West, the blonde Megaton resident who'd offered Taneesha a place to live a couple weeks ago. Today, Lucy informed Taneesha that her place, her home here in town, was still available. " ... It gets so lonely without my family, you see. I'm still worried about my brother back in Arefu. Having you around would definitely help."

"You know," Taneesha replied, "I am thinking of staying in town for awhile. So yeah. Think I'll take you up on your offer this time. So sorry to hear there's still trouble up in Arefu. And sorry I can't help out with your family."

"It's okay," Lucy replied. "I did find somebody who volunteered to head up to Arefu this week, so that's taken care of."

"Really?" Taneesha sipped her wine.

"Oh yes. That Asian fellow from Vault 101, Chosen something. He volunteered to go. Guy's a real knockout, let me tell ya," Lucy giggled. "He likes to pretend there's still an army here in America, and that he's a soldier in this army. Anyway, if I trust anybody to handle Arefu, I trust him."

Taneesha sipped more wine, thinking back. She had just passed by Arefu, twice. Once on her way to Germantown, and once on her way back. Not that she had time to get involved (especially with Bratty the brat taking so much maintenance), but she couldn't help but kick herself mentally, just a bit.

"I don't care about your past," Lucy continued. "What's done is done. You were lost and scared, and needed some help just like I do. But now, you seem to be taking better care of yourself. Your pallor has improved. Love your dress, by the way."

"Thank you, and sounds good, thank you." Taneesha raised her glass. "To us," she said.

"To us," Lucy West agreed.

Lucy handed Taneesha a key, making their verbal agreement official.






12:30 AM
It was late in the evening when Taneesha awoke, then started her search. What exactly was she supposed to be looking for? Bearer bonds, Slick had told her. Which looked like some sort of tattered old documents, that's what. But how would she know if she'd even found one of these documents?

She started with Lucy West's two-story shanty, because why not? Taneesha Jones had already stayed in Lucy's home for several hours, so far. And Lucy herself was still out. "I just won't take whatever I find," Taneesha promised nearby walls.

And she kept her promise. Lucy had plenty of food, plenty of goods, and a few caps stored here and there. Taneesha, raider-in-disguise, took none of this. But she also found no bearer bonds, or any sort of documents at all. So she moved on.

"Maybe it'd be good if I started with places I don't need to break into."

Next would be the Common House. Common House was one of two places where anybody could live, for free (Church of Atom was Megaton's second free home) as long as he or she followed a few unwritten rules. Conditions in Common House were cramped, with privacy just about nil. This is where Taneesha had stayed briefly, after returning to Megaton a couple weeks ago. Unfortunately, Megaton's Common House contained no bonds, not that Taneesha was entirely surprised.

Next, she walked into Megaton's Water Processing Plant. The need for fresh water in the Capital Wasteland was always at a premium, and Walter of the WPP did his best to meet this need. Taneesha searched the plant's bookshelves, metal boxes, and cabinets. Nothing to find there, either.

"Hmm. Alright. Next place I pass next, guess I'll try going in."

By 'going in' she really meant 'breaking in'. And this next place happened to be Craterside Supply. She removed a bobby pin from her hair, and grabbed a small screwdriver from her purse. But Craterside had a lock which was too complicated for her budding lockpicking skills.

"Drats!"

Of course, she could try searching the place during daylight hours. Moira and a guard stayed mostly on the first floor of their goods store. Maybe Taneesha could sneak away from them, and explore the store's upper area tomorrow.

By now it was after 1 AM. The wasteland's summer air had cooled off. Taneesha strolled all over town, wondering where to go next. Nobody was outside this late except Lucas Simms, a couple of Church of Atom devotees standing transfixed in front of Megaton's unexploded bomb, and Megaton's enforcement officer. "Evening," the officer said, as she walked by.

Finally, Taneesha arrived at a door and read its placard. She had found Mister Burke's house, which was really just a a large half-tube of corrugated metal. A quonset hut, what the military might use to store supplies and ammo long ago. Taneesha remembered Mister Burke. This was the guy who'd gotten into that fight a couple weeks ago. The Asian fellow from Vault 101 had beaten the man to death with his baseball bat, right inside of Moriarty's Saloon.

"Too bad for him," Taneesha said, scooching down to hide. "But since he ain't living no more, guess he won't mind if I search his place."

She inserted her bobby pin, felt inside of the lock for a few moments, checking its tumblers, all the while keeping an eye across the plaza on Megaton's officer. Unlike the lock on Craterside Supply's door, this one on Mister Burke's former home did not feel so complicated.

She inserted her small screwdriver. Rotated. The lock did not open, but it did twist quite a bit. A second attempt, and she broke her pin after improperly locating the lock's tumbler.

"Drats!"

Despite the cool summer night, she was starting to sweat. Taneesha glanced over at the officer, who was still standing in front of Brass Lantern's concession area. "Doesn't that *twitch* ever go to sleep?" she swore quietly.

Finally she tried again. Removed another bobby pin from her hair, inserted it into the lock. Positioned it slightly to the left this time. Inserted her small pocket screwdriver...


---------------------------

Bowl o' Noodles

"Hey, I remember you!"

"Cho something..."

"A toast... to us!"


Notes: After Lucy West's dialog to Vicious concluded, she switches back to vanilla dialog as she does her goodbye. "Remember, my offer still stands" she says. Kinda neat when vanilla dialog compliments what I write in the GECK.

This post has been edited by Renee: Sep 6 2021, 03:59 PM

Cho-Sen Wan. That was your Lone Wanderer's name, right? Fun fact: Chosen One is the nickname of the protagonist from Fallout 2. He/she might have something to say about your LW's name. But oh well, that's the opposite coast of the U.S. and almost 40 years prior to Fallout 3's events, so what are they going to do?

I don't remember uncovering this on my own, but when I found out about the Jericho's past with Jenny on the Fallout wiki, I wanted to kill him so badly. But even when you do it silently and in his home, everyone in town suddenly knows and tries to kill you. Hell, I think I even used the 'kill' console command one time and it STILL turned people against me! I don't think I tried it with the Sandman perk, though, so I think I'll try it sometime with my current character, Emilia. He deserves to die.

I like when Jenny says, "Have a look. Most of it is edible. Some of it even tastes good!" Such an amusingly honest admission. And I suppose that's usually the best you are going to get in the wasteland.

Ha! Burke got what was coming to him, and for everyone to see. Noice. Hopefully Moriarty gets the same treatment soon...

Interesting how you modded Lucy West's dialogue like that.

So, are these bearer bonds actually in your game as part of a mod? Or is it totally made up for this story? Or is it something I somehow missed in the vanilla game?

Phew, she got past the Sheriff with just a curtsey.

I love that she is afraid of being accused of Witchcraft! "Unclean! Unclean!"

Cho is off to Arefu! Cool!

Taneesha needs to work on her lockpicking skills I see.

Nice how events from worlds of your other characters interfere with Taneesha's, like Cho helping Lucy West and that Burke is already dead. But it can happen that she finds Major A. Holl in Burke's house, right?

Whew, looks like only her friends recognize her here. Nice cameo mention of Cho!

Hey, are those noodles moving?

Rader Yes, Cho is my Lone Wanderer, and yes his name is a play on chosen one. I am not sure if I knew this is the moniker of our Fallout 2 character back then. So his name equaling FO2's Chosen One moniker might be a coincidence.

Cho is the first character I rolled in Fallout. I'd really been wanting to roll an Asian in Oblivion, and it pleased me that FO3 allows this (and also Hispanics).

Wow (about killing Jericho, and then the entire town knowing). We know not of his past. You really tried and tried to get rid of that guy! I agree that Megaton, and also Rivet City, perhaps have the best food in the Wasteland. They can at least take the time to prepare stuff with proper kitchens.



I created the bonds, and wrote the quest / scripts for them, but Lopov is the one who actually hid them. I emailed the mod to him last summer so he could do this, you see. In the process of hiding these bonds, he then added some 'extra content' into Megaton, which I have no idea what this could be.

I also created an entire crime system last summer as described in this post, so if your character had gotten caught killing Jericho with this .esp toggled this would equate to jail time, or paying a lot of caps!

----------

Lopov: Ha ha that's true. Major A. Holl is the one who inhabits Mister Burke's house in my gameworld. In fact, maybe HE is the one who left that cigar burning in Burke's ashtray, since Burke himself got pwned by Cho!

Chances are Taneesha would not encounter Holl. Major Andrew Holl only stayed in Burke's place maybe two times. Eventually Holl got sucked into Mothership Zeta, and was never heard from again.

-----------------

SubRosa: Yes, in my gameworld, Cho is the one whose done a lot of vanilla quests, such as Arefu, and all of Moira's silly Wasteland Guide quests, and so on. Cho also did a ton of raids, especially on raiders. We'll hear more of than in times to come!

Vicious was worried about Megaton, but I was also really nervous about her return. Because I added my own content (crime mod), which basically counts how many times our character commits certain types of crimes. I wasn't sure if I had screwed something up, and then would have to go all the way back and fix stuff. Turns out, everything works as it should.

Cho is a goodie, you see. He rarely does stuff wrong, and I have the same crime mod in his game, yet nothing happens because he never assaults / steals / murders, and so on. So the mod won't trigger for him. Vicious on the other hand, has shot at a few of those random Wastelanders, which should count as Assaults by the game's engine. However, since the only witnesses to those "crimes" were other raiders, the game did not count those.

-----------------------

Acadian: Yes, thankfully Vicious gets noticed only for the kinder moments she's done, and she can safely go back to being Taneesha.

I think the noodles are moving, but they're supposed to move. Let's try some more salt...


EWWW!!! at Gagh video!

This post has been edited by Renee: Sep 12 2021, 04:17 PM

As we last saw, Miss Vicious Delicious has been able to go back to being the girl she grew up as. She is back to being Taneesha Jones. She has searched a couple places inside of Megaton to find one of these bearer bonds, but so far has been unsuccessful. Now... she's attempting to pick the lock on Mister Burke's place. Will she be able to do so, without being noticed by any of Megaton's midnight stragglers?

Shhh....


Chapter 30: Starting the Search

Taneesha was more successful at her second attempt at picking the lock to Mister Burke's former home. She removed a second bobby pin from her hair, bent its tip just so, and inserted it into the keyhole. Positioned the pin slightly to the left this time. Inserted her small pocket screwdriver...



... and within seconds she was now inside. Taneesha's heart was hammering. She tried calming herself, by attempting to think of pleasant things. But there wasn't much pleasant to think about. She lived in the Capital Wasteland, Year 2277, after all.

She stayed crouched, and looked around. Found the place to be surprisingly well-lit; its electricity had not been shut off, despite the fact that Burke was deceased. The place was also clean.

Taneesha, in her new role as prowler, was really feeling frazzled. She was trespassing! ... She looked into her purse, dismayed to find she was out of Thorazine, and did not have any other calmer-down chems used by wastelanders. Any sort of sedative to calm her nerves would be welcome right about now, thought she. There were a couple syringes of morphine in her purse, but morphine was hard stuff. And hard stuff was for later.

She winced at that last thought. Her intake of chems had dwindled over the past couple weeks. This was partially due to willpower, and partially because heading up to Germantown, going on an actual mission, had kept her focused sober. But right about now, anything to sedate or tranquilize would be welcome.

Suddenly, she froze. There was the smell of tobacco pervaded the room, and smoke was drifting nearby! The prowler nearly fell over with light-headedness once she realized a cigar was burning in an ashtray, right on Mister Burke's desk! ... Who the heck had left that burning? Was someone here?

Her shoes made little clop clop noises on Burke's metal floor as she snuck across the room. The place had a locker, several metal boxes, two desks, three chairs, and a bed. But thankfully, nobody was here.

"Phoo...."

Since Burke's metal hut already reeked of smoke, she felt safe to light up one of her own. So she did so, which helped a little with the jitters. Then, she began her search. She turned on her flashlight, then clopped her way around as quietly as she could. Found a bobby pin. Found a sawed-off shotgun. Found some liquor. But no bonds.

3:43 AM
The prowler ended her night with a thorough search of Church of Atom. "Good to see you," one of Atom's loonies greeted as she entered the church.

Taneesha smiled and made some sort of gesture as she passed by the Atomite, which she hoped would be taken as a sign of her belonging. Growing up with Jehovah's Witnesses to guide her childhood, she knew all about gestures and signs of belonging, even though she herself never felt like she truly fit in.

But she knew she'd need to be more careful here in the Church of Atom when while moving and removing items. Unlike Common House, Church of Atom had stricter rules about posessions. If somebody left some items in a locker for instance, this did not mean it was okay to just take these items.

Taneesha found nothing Dogmaster could use, but she did grab herself a new outfit in somebody's footlocker. Couldn't resist. Her green Prewar dress was great for strolling about town, but rather uncomfortable to sneak in. This new outfit comprised of boots, trousers, and long-sleeved shirt, and all this gear was dark. Better for prowling, Taneesha assumed.

Taneesha stole this outfit, but the resulting feeling of guilt caused her to put it back where she found it.

Daylight was breaking by the time she was done searching the church.




..,

5:53 AM until 1:35 PM
Taneesha returned to Lucy West's place, and slept the entire morning. Got up at noon, had breakfast. Turns out, Lucy did not mind if Taneesha ate or used some of her food and things, but Miss Taneesha thought it prudent not to mooch. She could easily provide for herself now, thanks to all the money she had recently earned, and looted. A couple weeks ago, she had maybe a dozen caps to her name in total. Now she had 65 caps on her person, and over a thousand stored back in Springvale. After a meal of squirrel stew at The Brass Lantern, she was ready to go.

Today's first location would be Craterside Supply, Megaton's goods store. Craterside had been locked the night before, but now it was open.

"You know," said Moira Brown, Craterside's owner, "I think I've found a new way to prepare radroach meat! Still tastes like old feet, though. Anyway, what's new with you?" *

Taneesha was hoping to find some new clothes, but all Moira had for sale today was a wanderer-styled Wasteland outfit, which cost three caps. Not nearly as stylish as her green & yellow Prewar dress, but at least these new clothes would be more comfortable to prowl in.

"Good hunting!" Moira said with her smiling Midwest accent.

Yeah. Hunting. If only Moira Brown knew the implications of that. "I'll just browse around a bit," Taneesha said. "If you don't mind?"

"Take care! It's a big Wasteland out there, but you know better than me!"

Taneesha nodded, then began to mosey about the store. She made little noises as she glanced at a variety of useless items. "Ooh, very nice." A toy car. A plate. A coffee urn, and so on. Outside, it had begun to rain, which was perfect. Maybe the sound of water dancing all over Craterside's tin roof would dampen the sound of Taneesha's stylish (but noisy) yellow shoes. She browsed all around the store's lower area: its shelves, tables, and counters. Found nothing, not that she expected to.

"Leave me out of that girl's crazy experiments," said Moira's hired guard as the raider-in-disguise walked by. "I don't get paid enough for that."

Taneesha chuckled, before walking into the next room, then crouching down. Here was a bed and a locker, probably where the shop's guard slept. Taneesha sensed that she was not being watched, so she searched inside the locker. It contained nothing at all. There were also a few metal boxes in this area, and she did find a Prewar bill in one of them. But she left this alone. Stealing is wrong, she believed, and not just because the Bible says so, or Charles Taze Young said so. She was only going for the bonds, IF they existed, and only because she kept telling herself they had to be worthless.

"Stupid Dogmaster. The *cluck* am I doing here in this shop?"

She went slowly up to Craterside's second floor, cursing her non-whispering shoes. Making sure to keep out of eyesight from Moira and her guard. Again, there were more metal boxes up here, more shelves, and more lockers to search. Again, she did locate a few items which any ordinary thief could easily plunder. But she chose not to take these.

But then finally, something! There was a note placed squarely on the middle of a small round table, and under this note was a goshdarn God-forsaken bearer bond. So they did exist! Surprisingly, the bond was not a mere document, it was a series of them, bound into a small booklet Taneesha's heart began to race as she removed the note and the bond, and placed them into her purse. She then stopped crouching, and calmly walked out of Craterside Supply.

"Be careful out there!" Moira called, always cheerful.

Outside it was raining hard, so she rushed over to Moriarty's, and bought herself a beer. Sat next to Lucy West, who seemed to be somewhat of a fixture here in Megaton's sole tavern. After a few usual plesantries with her new housemate, Taneesha fished in her purse, and opened Moira's note.






3:46 PM

"What's that you got there?" asked Lucy as her housemate began to read.

"Oh, just this note I found in some trash. I dunno. I like snooping around a bit. Bad habit, I guess."

From that point on, she decided not to elaborate. Telling one lie was bad enough. Telling a slew of them could lead to bad things. She uncreased the note, and began to read. What she learned (what Moira had written down) surprised her.

My my!

I can't believe that I got my hands on one of the actual bearer bonds! Two of them, actually! That adventurer had no idea these aren't ordinary pre-war books.

From what I read about life before the Great War, these bonds achieved wide popularity in some show called the Wire! Unbelievable!

I have a feeling however, that I'm not the only one in Megaton in possession of bonds. I could swear that I heard Jericho has one. Also, I heard that Moriarty was wildly angry the other day. Apparently, some prostitute escaped from him, and stole a bunch of things as well. Rumor is, he had a bond in his possession at the time.

And of course, there's the local Don. He has always been nutty, but his condition became severely worse in the past two weeks, after his mother Martha passed away from falling down some stairs. He's been more and more paranoid, always dressed like a child, playing with his rolling pin. The other day he was in my store, asking me about bonds. What is going on here?

He became very provocative with his hard-to-understand questions, so my guard ordered him to leave.

If it happens one more time, I'm going to report him to Simms. I wouldn't want for Don to know, but I now own two of these bearer bonds. He seems very unpredictable to me.

Taneesha Jones folded the note, and put it back in her purse. Satisfied. She now had three clues of places to go to: Jericho's place was right here in town. Silver, the prostitute who had recently fled from Moriarty, lived just outside of town; just across from Springvale School, in fact. And finally, there was this "Don" guy. Taneesha did not know whom this could be, but at least she had three directions to now go in, when just a few hours ago she had nothing.

Actually, four clues, if she could locate the second bond Moira described in her note.

She spent the rest of the day waiting for the rain to stop. Then she decided to walk back to the ancient bus where she'd stored her raider gear. She put her raider-styled armor on, then walked back to Springvale Elementary School.

----------------------------

Lucy West's home

My casa is your casa

Lockpicking close-up

Taneesha the Trespasser

Moira's Note and Bond

You have lost Karma! (but advanced the quest)


Notes: *When Moira Brown said that 'radroach meat' greeting, I have never heard that one before!

I just realized that Miss V is a supervillain. She has her Villain identity as Miss Vicious, and her secret identity as Taneesha. She goes back and forth with no one knowing that both are the same woman!

A frightful moment in the dear departed Mr. Burke's house. Thankfully it was just a false alarm.

None of my characters have ever eaten radroach. Not even Loviatar! Old feet indeed!

She found one!

Great reference to The Wire. I never watched it. I take it they had some episodes on bearer bond theft?

The local Don sounds like a lunatic. I wonder who that might be based on?

I got a chuckle out of Taneesha's conscience wrestling with those pesky property ownership customs.

Lose the shoes for sneaking, girl!

Well, looks like she found a bond - and gathered some clues for more as well.

I also wonder who this Don might be. And he walks around playing with a rolling pin? Oh my!

No bonds in the church? Odd, I'd expect that the mad priests would have had at least one.

Rosa: Good observation about being a supervillain. I hadn't thought of it that way, and I don't think she's quite to that status yet. But there is some truth that she can become a supervillian if she continues on the path she's on now.

The way I see it, she is like so many teenagers her age. Doing some things right, but getting twice as many things wrong. Trying to figure herself out, and so on. I have seen so many kids like this, even in the suburban neighborhood we live in.

Oh gosh. I wonder if any of mine have eaten radroach meat. Probably no in Fallout 3, but in New Vegas it IS possible. I use Hardcore mode in that game, and food gets scarce sometimes... blecch.


Paladin: Glad to make you chuckle. Yes again that goes back to the teenage thing. She's trying to convince herself that it's "okay" to steal, basically.

And yah, she really does need a good sneaky outfit.


Slovenia Guy: YOU are wondering who the Don might be??? But YOU ARE THE ONE WHO WROTE THE NOTE!!!

Hey, it said something about that show The Wire in Moira's Note. How do you know about this show?

Chapter 31: Sara Silver

Date: Friday, 09.07.77, 7:53 PM

Location: Springvale Elementary


"Yo Vicious. Hey, uh, you. You is back! So how's that hunt coming? You... you find any of them bonds yet?"

"I sure did, Rick. Have a look at this!"

"Hey, well hey. Look at that." Slick Rick stumbled off of his bedroll. He appeared to Vicious to be drunk. "You. You got us a bond there, sister. Ah, looky that there! Dogmaster, he gonna be proud! You's is .... you's a soldier, Vicious!"

Vicious took a moment to gloat in Springvale school's darkness before moving her agenda for the evening along to the next topic on her mind. "So. Next mission," she said. "What else you got for me?"

"What else? ... Hey, nooo .... nuh-uh," said Slick. "You ain't ready for no nother mission,. You ain't done with this here uh.. current one, yet."

"What you mean I ain't done yet? I done found you a genuine bond. Bound and typed some two-hundred years ago. Can't you use just that? ... Just copy that one. Don't Dogmaster hide himself in some old office park? If so, they should have a printing machine, or one of those copier machines. I seen a few of them still work, you know? Just make some copies."

But Slick Rick shook his head. "N-n-no, honey, t-that ain't gonna work. So you. You gonna haveta go out there, and uh... get more."

"MORE?" her voice echoed in the school's messy hallways.

Slick Rick flinched, a bit of fog getting blown from his head. "Yo, like uh. Calm down, Vicious." He put a hand to his forehead, as though fearing the onset of hangover.

"This is *bullcrap*." The raider stomped her feet. "I want a new mission! Send me into enemy territory, or something. Come on! I am ready to bust some heads, man!"

A small crowd of raiders had gathered at the far end of the hallway they were in. Layabouts, curious and listening. So Slick Rick motioned for her to move into another room, then he lowered his voice. "Oh yeah, I heard .. heard about your new gun," he smirked confidentially. "Don't worry, I ain't ... ain't gonna tell nobody," he winked.

"Good. Make sure you don't."

"So you's... you can like, stun somebody, without acturraly killing them, eh?"

Vicious said nothing at first. Then she answered. "Whatever you want to believe, Slick. Like I said, I am ready for something more dangerous, and daring."

"Well that. That comes later. Right now you, you gotta find more bonds, Vicious. There's more out there. Go find them, uh... please."

"Pfft. Whatever."

She sighed and turned, and began walking away. In her head, she knew her boss was right, and in fact she was eager to find more. She was enjoying this current mission, despite all her complaints.

"Like FIVE more, Vicious!" Slick called after her. "You find five, and then we can talk!"

"Whatever."

She had enjoyed sneaking around Megaton, and was looking forward to more. But there was no way she'd ever admit this to Slick. Just because.

Vicious walked back to her classroom, closed tthe door. Walked to her teacher's desk, and had a seat. Checked inside the desk's drawers. All 900 caps were still crammed inside. And so were a couple syringes of morphine.

"And now class," she said to the two dozen imaginary students sitting before her. "You are dismissed. Bon voyage. Have a great weekend. Tell your parents, if you still have parents, that you love them."

She had enjoyed her hunt up till now, but had also dealt with a great deal of stress because of it. Miss Vicious needed for the rest of the night to become a big blur. After inserting and plunging one of the syringes, that's sort of what she got.




Friday, 10:35 PM
But the chem's effect didn't last as long as she thought it would.

Vicious staggered out of her bedroll a couple hours later. Slapped herself a couple times to wake up. Had a beer and some Blamco Mac & Cheese for dinner, then left Springvale school. Time to get to work. She walked south toward Megaton, and made a right over to Silver's house when the road forked. Silver lived in a one-story ranch house by herself. Apparently, she had once been a prostitute, working for Moriarty.

As she got closer to Silver's home Vicious hunkered down, then crept the rest of the way, praciting her sneaking skills. She thought for a moment about changing outfits, But decided to continue wearing her raider armor, rather than switching to the new clothes she had bought earlier at Craterside. Yes, keeping her raider gear on seemed like the better choice. This way, if she got caught by Silver, it would be a raider who'd broke into Silver's place, not a Megaton socialitie who more and more people were getting to know as Taneesha Jones.

She looked at her Pip Girl 2500 Personal Information Device, which said 11:03 PM. Would it be okay to break into Silver's place now? Or should she wait another hour. Vicious lit a ciggie, pondering this.

"I mean, this Silver lady is a hooker, or was one," Vicious said aloud. "What time do hookers go to bed? ...Whores stay up all night, sometimes."

Whores, hookers, dancers. Suddenly, she was thinking of Bratty, who had gone down to Dukov's a few days ago. What the heck was going on down there? Nothing good, Vicious assumed. She took a few minutes to finish smoking her Lucky before approaching Silver's door. Then, she went inside, creeping all the while.

She didn't have to worry about breaking in; Silver's door was unlocked, so Vicious slipped right inside. But just a moment after entering, the home's owner was right there in front of her.

"Who the hell are you? Where'd you come from? Did Moriarty send you?"

Silver's hair was silver, Vicious noticed. The color of an old woman's hair, despite the fact that Sara Silver appeared to be young. "Uh, I could ask you the same question," Vicious said, fidgeting, her stun gun just a grab away. "This here's my friend's place. So who the hell are you?" But maybe she would not need to taze the lady. Or use any sort of weapon at all. Silver hadn't attacked yet, or anything.

"Well?" asked Silver.

"All right look," Vicious paused. "Sorry to bother you. This seems to be the wrong house." She paused again, thinking maybe it would be a good idea to change the subject. "Moriarty, eh? So, what's this you said about Moriarty?"

"Colin Moriarty," Silver fired off the man's name like she'd squash a bug. "The owner of Moriarty's Saloon in Megaton. That sack of *cakka* is convinced that I'm some crazy junkie who stole money from him."

"Right. Colin Moriarty. I know him." Miss Vicious took another moment. Wasn't Silver surprised to see a literal raider in her home? Apparently not. "Yeah, I've seen Moriarty bossing Nova arond. That man's a *rooster* hair."

"Look, I used to work for that slob," Silver explained. "Doing... you know... favors for guys. Well I got sick and tired of it. I told Moriarty I'm taking the caps, and leaving. I even slept with the pig to seal the deal. Next morning he tells me I couldn't leave!"

"Oh .... damn!" Vicious hoped she sounded sympathetic. Stalling for time. She hadn't been asked to leave yet, after all. "So what'd you do next?"

"So I bolted! Took my money and ran. Now he's branded me a thief and a junkie. And says he's gonna send his cronies to find me! Guess I need to find a new hiding place."

"Maybe I can help you move somewhere else," Vicious said, thinking on her feet. "You know, there are some other places out there. Heck, maybe you could come with me to Big Town. I'd take you there, then I'd say to that jerk Moriarty you are gone. I'd tell him maybe I'd come looking for you, trying to hook you up with some john, but you ain't in this house no more."

"You'd do that for me? You don't even know me. Thanks kid," Silver said. "You watch yourself out there."

"Sure, and here's what--" Vicious started to say, but Sara Silver turned the corner out of her kitchen, and walked into the next room. The raider peeked around the corner, only to see Silver had just gone to bed.

"Okay. Was gonna say we can leave tomorrow for Big Town but..."

From that moment Vicious wasted no time. She checked her Pip Girl again. Close to midnight, now.

Now was the time to get to work. Vicious moved back into Silver's kitchen, and began searching drawers. The oven. The refrigerator. All the while, Silver's radio blared the Enclave channel. Enclave Radio was the more conservative of the Wasteland's two major radio stations. Tonight, John Henry Eden (Enclave's only disc jockey) was playing his usual traditional American music. Some song Vicious had heard before, but had no idea what its name was. Horns honking and snare drums tapping, probably played during the 4th of July, and other such United States holidays. Though the music was distracting, Vicious left the radio on. Perhaps it would make her footfalls and movements more difficult for Silver to discern.

There was nothing to find in the kitchen, so Vicious moved into the next room, which was a combination living room / bedroom. Again, she found plenty of things she could easily steal and sell for caps, but she left these objects alone.

"... when I was a boy growing up in dear old Kentucky" John Henry Eden droned in his 1950s broadcast-era voice, "I had the best friend a boy could hope for. My dog. Honey. O-ho-ho, the adventures we had..."

Vicious stifled a sneeze as she risked her flashlight. She began searching a drawer top which stretched half the length of the room, ending close to Silver's feet. She moved slowly as she searched. A pile of papers. A bottle of Nuka Cola. A random fork...

"....irresponsible. And completely... inseperable. It was, for a little while, a perfect existence. So, let me ask you America, how many of your children, can say the same?"

"Ohmygod!"

It was at that moment Vicious found the next bearer bond, located right in front of Silver's radio.

"... How many of this nation's citzens are truly happy?" Eden's voice had risen. "Truly .. carefree? Well we both koow the answer, don't we?"

Vicious grabbed for the bond, but then paused. Overwhelming guilt. This caused her to stop a brown hand from thieving. I mean, the lady who she'd just been talking to was right there next to her, lying peacefully in bed. There was just something... not good about stealing from somebody you've just made pleasant conversation with.

"... America's children live in a terrifying, meaningless existence. There IS no hope!..."

"Maybe I should come back later," Vicious muttered to herself.

..."The Enclave is going to ... rebuild this great nation..." Eaton rambled.

Suddenly, she did it. Moved into a spot just to the left of Silver's shoulder blades which seemed more shadowy. Got up on her tippy-toes, reached over. And took the next bearer bond, right off of Silver's counter. As she did so, Vicious thought she could hear the sound of disappontment. An off-tune sort of sound, ringing in her consciousness.

..."Until we meet again. This is President Eden. Signing off."

And this is exactly what Miss Vicious Delicious did after leaving the home of Sara Silver. She signed off. With a little help of more morphine from her teacher's desk, she took both syringes, one after the other, blotted herself into a virtual non-existence for the next several hours, It was the only way she was going to make it through the rest of this mission, thought she.


-----------------------------

Yet another wayward Wastelander meets his demise in raider territory!

Slick Rick wants more

Sara Silver's Ranch Home

BUSTED!

Vicious offers to help

The second Bearer Bond

This post has been edited by Renee: Sep 20 2021, 12:39 AM

You told me about The Wire.

Did I write that note? You sure?

Anyway, congrats on finding the second bearer bond, I enjoyed the story from the President in between the search for the BB. Oh and I also liked the censored swear words.

The President's name, however, is Eden, I believe.

That's odd. Why would I tell you about The Wire? It's a good show, in fact I am halfway through Season 4. Well, we talk about just about everything, so that's probably why.

Thanks for pointing out John Henry Eden instead of Eaton. I corrected them all just now.