Miss Vicious , Her saga and story... Options

[SubRosa]

she spared no gunfire

I loved this line.

A nice explanation for the use of bobby pins rather than lockpicks in this game!

There is an actual Raider in the place! Uh oh, now Red has been outed. My guess is that means she's going to be dragged back to Springvale to be tortured and murdered. Maybe they will keep her alive because she has some skill though.

I remembered Vault 106 as the crazy hallucination place too. I just figured Starsky stayed there for a while, and got himself some phobias for his trouble. But he made his Sanity Rolls, so he's not fully crazy.

I have never seen Wasterlanders running through the police station. That sounds like some weird bug.

[Renee]

Lopov: As you have gleaned, there's something fishy about vault 106. I was hoping you would pick up on this, you being more of a Fallout Lore Geek® than the rest of us.

So I didn't know whether Starsky actually somehow survived what happened in that vault and remained more or less sane or did he...lie. But why did he lie? Maybe he plans to do something dark. Maybe Bratty is in danger! ohmy.gif Run, Taneesha, run!

Taneesha... RUN?


Acadian -- the whole bobby pins thing came to me literally as I was writing last week. I haven't worn pins in a long time, but a lot of the ladies I've known and worked with over the years, especially African-Americans, sometimes do. Especially if their hair is straightened; pins help keep their coif safe from flyaway.

In Fallout games, a bobby pin gets shown (along with a small screwdriver) whenever we pick locks, and so it hit me. She has a bunch of pins in her inventory; some of them were given to her by Slick Rick along with her specialized gun, but I like to imagine some of them are in her hair.


SubRosa -- OH no, no, no... Red is safe. Vicious is not some bloodthirsty type like most raiders. She has a background of decent morals, overall. But I also thought it would be a good idea to move Red into a different room. Because the raider convict guy is part of the RaiderFaction. And I wasn't sure if he would attack poor Red if he saw her. In fact, whenever the party comes near civilization (such as Big Town, or a Brahmin merchant) Vicious gets protective about any innocents nearby.

Ha ha I like what you just said: maybe he made his Sanity Rolls.

It is 9:32 am now. 4th of July. I need to get this done today probably in the next 6 hours, because we're going to my sister's later on for the BIG holiday party.

This post has been edited by Renee: Jul 4 2021, 02:36 PM

[Renee]

Chapter 24: Starsky N. Hutch

Saturday, September 1st, 2277, 9:07 pm

Just before walking that final corner, Vicious turned to Sal, the convict she had rescued not long before.

"W-we stopped again," he said. "I-I-I don't understand what's going on?"

As instructed by his rescuer, Sal had been following Vicious at a distance, for reasons of safety. So Vicious now turned to him. Walked a little closer.

"You might want to wait here," she said.

"Why?"

"I got a funny feeling, that's why. Let's call it Women's Intuition. If I'm wrong, I'll be right back, okay?"

"O-okay... well don't be long! I don't wanna become another monster's diet, if ya know what I mean."

"I do. Just wait here. Hide behind something, if you want. I'll be back."

Sal looked as if he were going to say something. He reached out his hand, pointing a finger, as though he were about to pontificate some obvious, upcoming statement. But by then she was leaving.

Vicious turned the corner, walked past the knocked-down section of fence, and made her way back to the area with all the tents. As she walked, first thing she noticed: she saw nobody. Nobody was around, not Bratty, not Starsky. Not anyone. But this was okay. Maybe her posse was in one of the tents, playing cards. Then again, she knew this could not be true. Her intuition had kicked in, after all.

"Anybody here?" she called. Her voice echoed. Nobody answered.

That's when she saw Starsky N. Hutch. Starsky was walking toward her. By himself. Calmly strolling along.. Shoulders broad, with a very slight smile. His demeanor was different, somehow. Seemed as if he were being ... what?

"Where's Bratty?"

"Bratty's a little tied up at the moment," he answered. His smile went away.

"What. Do. You. Mean? What did you do to her?" she glowered.

His armor was different, Vicious noticed.

"Hey look," he started. "Sorry I had to lie to you about Vault 106. Sometimes it's okay to lie, though. I know you are religious, and I respect that. But some lies are necessary. Let me explain."

His tone of voice was completely smooth and mild, which infuriated her. "Where the *luck* is Bratty?" She kept her temper in check.

"Listen, I know she's your beau," he said. "But let's face facts. She's childish. She's unprofessional. She's abusive and manipulative. Trust me, you don't need her in your life any more, Miss Vicious."

He was relaxed, she noticed. As if he thought he had all of this under control.

"While you were in there, we waited and waited, and finally thought we should at least go after you. Maybe you had gotten hurt, or something."

Vicious glared. Not time for the Blamhammer; not just yet. Let's hear what he has to say...

"We were somewhere on the second level when she just snapped. Grabbed my blade, then came after me with it. Ironic, right?" he flinched. "Anyway, I had no choice but to put her down. Didn't kill her. Just put a sedative into her arm."

"Bull *ship*, she came after you with your knife. I do not believe that for one instant."

"She's still in there," he informed. "In one of those cells. Had to wait until you were done with the basement before I could move her, and lock her in. You walked right by me, in fact!" he said with a small chuckle.

Finally it dawned on her. His armor. His armor had an insignia with the shape of a talon upon its breast. "Talon Company?" she asked, an incredulous sound to her voice. "You're with the Talon Company?"

"And so now, you have a choice," Starsky ignored. "Either you come along with me, or you go in there with the brat."

Vicious said nothing. Waited. Make him guess what I'm about to do...

"Yep, Talon Company," he finally answered. "Didn't you ever notice how I never really fit in with the raiders? You're a very perceptive lady, so I know you did."

Vicious said nothing, so he continued.

"It was pretty easy to infiltrate your stupid comrades," he explained patiently. "Really, it was no sweat." His arms were crossed. "Now look. I need to explain a few things to you. Pay attention. The reason we, ... uh... we being Talon Company that is, decided to infiltrate the raiders is because of you. Because we heard about you causing that mess back in Fairfax, taking care of those raiders. Heard about it on the radio, matter of fact. We decided, we wanted to recruit you. Now, think about that for a moment..."

"Yeah, me join the Talon Company," Her face twisted. "You need to *duck* off, with that jack *skit*." Her right hand was on the butt of her gun. "That's what you need to do..."

"You also have something which we want," Starsky continued. "And I think you know what I'm talking about. A certain gun. High technology. Looks like an energy weapon, perhaps."

Vicious said nothing at first. Just stood there sadly. Yet also determined, about something. She touched her bag. Felt along its canvassing. Finally, she spoke.

"What, you want that cheap-ass energy weapon I found?"

"Ah, looks like you DID find it!" Starsky snapped his fingers. "We KNEW these things existed!"

Vicious reached into her bag, and pulled the weapon she'd found earlier out of it.

"That's not just an energy weapon," he explained, "it's a stun gun."

He waited a moment, for this bit of information to sink in. When it seemed it hadn't, he continued.

"Back in the 21st century they used stun guns all the time, mostly to apprehend uncooperative crimnals. Stun guns were non-lethal ways to take someone down," he gestured, acting like he was about to fall over. "We sent a team out here to Germantown a while back, but were unable to find one. Like I said though, we knew there had to be at least one out here. We were hoping. And looks like you found it. See, if we have a stun gun, we can figure out how it works. Maybe we can start using them, to incapacitate our opponents before they even know what's going on."

Vicious made no reply.

"Now, you have a choice, Vicious. Join us."

She shook her head, looked to the ground.

"Rules and regulations, to structure your life. Chem-free programs, to keep you clean. An army of mercenaries, men, women, and bots. We could use you. You know how to work against the odds; our staff psychologist thinks so, anyways. We're very impressed with you back at Fort Bannister. By the way, I was able to radio back to Bannister while you were gone. 'Bring her back safely, Starsky,' those are direct orders from Commander Jabsco himself, our very top leader."

"Yeah, whatever," she spoke softly. The gun was in her hand more firmly, now. "First thing you're gonna do is show me where Bratty is. Or you'll get to SEE why they been known to call me Vicious."

"Easy there. Give me the gun, Taneesha," he said. "Yep, we know your real name. One of our techs, Bea Faroni, did great research on you."

Her gastrocnemius muscle tensed. Her eyebrow twitched. From somewhere far away, an animal called out into the night.

"Or you can join the brat deep in that cell. Your choice. We'll just leave you in there," he said, pointing up the street. "Won't kill you. Because we do have respect. So we won't kill you right away. Instead, maybe we'll hunt you."

"We?"

"Oh yeah, I do have others with me. Place is surrounded, in fact. Talon Company everywhere. Because we're serious about this."

He smiled, arms crossed.

Vicious looked down at the gun. Checked its safety (which was nothing more than a power switch). She turned the gun on. A little light blinked on the gun's stock which said Powering.

"Hey whoa. Whoa, whoa ... WHOA!" he said, backing up a foot or so. "That thing's not a toy. Uh. You'll need highly specialized ... uh ... gloves to handle it, without zapping yourself."

Vicious looked down. Powering now changed to Ready.

"Uh, you didn't find those gloves, did you? Because you'll--"

30,000 volts of electricity zapped into Starsky N. Hutch just then, causing his limbs to lock up. "N--!" He screamed, while Vicious stood surprised. Surprised, that the thing would even work! ... But Starsky was frozen. He was not moving. So she switched to her other gun.

"You've just made a date with this here Blamhammer, fool."

She shot him in the chest, causing him to stumble aside, then fall onto a sandbag. She shot him again, knocking him backwards into miscellaneous stuff! His leg was broken, she could see.

Just then, the stun gun's effect wore off. Starsky got up off the ground, and grabbed a pistol he had found at some point. "Give it up!" he cried. "You're surrounded! WHERE ARE MY BOYS?" he shouted, panicking.

"Shut up. Ain't no boys. Why ain't you using your blade, fool?"

She grabbed the stun gun, left-handed. Zapped him again with its volts. Had a quick look around, to see if others were approaching. Didn't see anybody, nor hear them. "Surrounded, eh?" *BKKSSHHH!* went the Blamhammer.

"Oharrgh!!!!"

Two more shots, causing him to roll, and shriek. Next thing she knew, Starsky N. Hutch (apparently named after some famous action TV stars from the 20th century) was done for.

She checked his belongings. Found a few caps, a few rounds of 10mm ammo, but no Stimpaks! No way to heal herself. Dammit. Though she did not see or hear anybody else, she decided to play it cautiously, sneaking back toward the police station. Flashlight off. Past all the tents, and over the section of fallen-over fence. Around the corner where she'd left Sal the prisoner.

Finally, she saw somebody. Standing maybe 50 feet away. At that moment her foot snagged on something, and whoever it was heard the noise. A man, but not Sal. This man was bigger. He turned to her. Readied something large with both hands. "Talon Company!" he yelled, blasting Vicous with a spray of fire. A flamethrower!

Her arms and back burned, but fortunately she was able to also aim and hit the man from a distance with her new electric toy. The Talon Company merc fell straight to the ground! So she blasted him with her shot gun until he was done for.

Good thing was, this man had a Stimulation Recovery Pack, or Stimpak, for short. Vicious immediately jammed it into her arm, her body her returning nearly to full health. A few minutes later, she found a second merc, but this one was already dead. She searched around a little more, flashlight still off, and cautious. But there were no others to be found. Apparently, Starsky had been bluffing. Either that, or all these other mercs who'd 'surrounded' the place had decided to go off on some huge, extended cigarette break.

She began to run. Back inside the station she found Sal, hiding safely inside. Good man, she thought.

At 10:14 pm she found Bratty. Locked in a cell, but also freed from her restraints. Bratty was dousing herself with water from the jail cell's sink. She had somehow been able to get out of the ropes Starsky had tied her with.

"I knew you'd be coming! Just knew it!" Bratty said. But her enthusiasm did not last long. While Vicious pulled another set of 'lock picks' from her hair, and began working on the cell's door, Bratty began shaking. Her face fell into a jumble of sobs. Click the lock was open.

Vicious rushed into the cell. Grabbed the brat, and hugged her for a very long time. As she did so, Vicious noticed that Starsky's knife was in Bratty's possession.

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

"It's not just an energy weapon...."

Bzzt!

Bang!!!!

Bksssh!

Splat! (gore warning)

The demise of Starsky N. Hutch

Vicious Delicious

-------

Notes: finished and done for at 2:59 pm!

This post has been edited by Renee: Jul 4 2021, 11:42 PM

[Lopov]

That twist was far better than anything I expected, nicely done! I had some ideas in the back of my mind, what could happen, but none of them included the Talon Company or the reason why Starsky (if that was his name) was in fact after MVD!

Well at least Starsky felt the effect of the wanted gun personally.

Nice that Bratty's still alive.

Deliciously lopov-ed.

[Acadian]

Wow! So Starsky was a bad guy / plant all along. Well, the warnings were there.

"Don't taese me, bro!"

"How about a taese and a blam then!"

Vicious lived up to her name here and can't say I blame her. Good that Trouble Bratty is okay.

[Renee]

I am such a ditz, and forgot to write the very last line of this story earlier. The one about Starsky's knife. Just added it in. Phew.

[SubRosa]

Starsky was a Talon company spy! I expected that he would be trouble. But not that sort of trouble. That is a really interesting turn of events.

Somehow I don't think he is going to duck off.

Ok, from that side pic I can see the gun is more like a regular taser now.

[Renee]

Yes Lopov, Starsky is his real name. Um.. was his real name. I guess it would be like if somebody in our times named his/her son Abraham. Nobody uses that name Abraham in America anymore, but if they did, it would be an obvious reference to one of our most famous presidents from the past.

That entire last set of episodes was not going to be like that at all, by the way. Originally it was going to be Vicious, Q Tip, Bratty, and some random raider (whose name is actually Raider, not Starsky) going up to Germantown all so Vicious can retrieve this cool mod I'd found. We couldn't bring Q Tip though; his AI package wasn't working right. And by the time everyone got to the raider campsite by that irradiated pond, I had all these new ideas for what IS actually going to happen.

Yes Acadian, there were definite warnings along the way. Subtle moments when Starsky would "think" and "ponder", especially when Vicious announced she'd be leaving them for a few hours. From my perspective, I knew he we plotting to get Vicious all his own.

In fact, his original plan was to somehow pluck her straight from Springvale. But then once he found out she'd be heading up to the police station, he decided to hitchhike along with Vicious & Bratty, hoping they'd find the stun gun, or any other such law-enforcement weapons which Talon Company was unable to locate.

The stun gun is added by a mod, SubRosa, and the mod-author used some other gun mod for its textures and sound. I've done some random gaming with Vicious these past couple weeks, and I can confirm, the darn thing works! In fact it kind of breaks the game, since it works on huge targets such as super mutants.

But that's the idea. I wanted Vicious to become untouchable. Nobody can mess with her. Only if multiple targets show up do problems arise. Because between each taze, she must reload. Otherwise, look out Capitol Wasteland...

[Renee]

Chapter 25: Anticlimactic Arrival

Saturday, September 1st, 2277

Minimum Temperature: 70.9 °F

Maximum Temperature: 95.0 °F


Now that it was firmly September, everyone was looking forward to some relief from summer. But today was not the day for some cooler weather.

Vicious and Bratty spent most of September First getting lost, traveling in one very large circle. They located a street full of raiders who were even more barbaric than the ones near the Potomac. These villains had a house with an entire room devoted to torture! Though they accepted the traveling ladies with open, blood-spattered arms, Vicious and Bratty did not feel comfortable staying more than an hour with them.

Vicious did know how to use shadows, to tell which direction she was going. For instance, if it was morning and their shadows were falling to their left, they were walking north. If it was morning and their shadows fell to their right, they were walking south. Still, it was a good thing Vicious possessed her nifty handheld device (with its real-time map and GPS capabilities). It might have taken days to return home without it.
After walking and walking, and then realizing it was late afternoon, and they had merely arrived back at the police station, they decided to just spend the rest of the day camped where they'd started.

Vicious's device also had the ability to dial in radio stations. As they walked, they listened occasionally to the wasteland's latest news and music. Here's some of what they learned.

-- While Vicious, Bratty, and Starsky were busy in Germantown, the deviant monster being called the Card Killer had claimed another victim, right inside of Tenpenny Tower this time. Millicent Wellington was her name. No witnesses had drawn any conclusions, and no suspect had been developed or captured. A tarot card depicting Death had been placed aside of poor Millicent's body.

-- Somebody near the Megaton area had been seen eating the flesh of other humans. Not Rattler, said the news announcer. This cannibal was being described as a woman, wearing some sort highly-sophisticated head gear. A similar woman, a former scientist known as Loviatar, was also known to eat flesh, far to the west in the New Vegas area. Coincidence?

--From Galaxy News Radio, Vicious and Bratty also heard about 'the kid from Vault 101', and not for the first time. This 'kid's' fame seemed to be rising. He had recently been doing a bunch of missions for somebody inside Megaton. These missions included hunting mole rats, of all things! But it was also known that this 'kid', if he indeed was a kid, was also eager to hunt raiders. It was reported that the raiders who'd been camped at Friendship Metro Station had all fallen due to him.

"Shut that happy crappy off!" Bratty exclaimed when she heard that bit of info.

"How about I just change the station?"

Miss Vicious wondered if Three Dog, Galaxy News Radio's main announcer, had been talking about the same 'kid' she'd seen when she was in Megaton. The kid who'd killed that gangster-looking dude, right inside of Moriarty's.

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

Sunday, September 2nd
The next day, Vicious had better luck with their travel. She managed to head straight south this time. Found the chapel where they'd encountered super mutants days before. Avoided Big Town. And found the raider campsite again, the one which was next to that irradiated pond.

By late morning, they were home.

If Miss Vicious expected some sort of haloed welcome as some sort of heroine (and rightly, she did) she was disappointed. Here she was, carrying her big, threatening shotgun, and now had the ability to easily take down any enemy she encountered with one well-aimed zap from her genuine police-issued stun gun. As Bratty and she walked across the Wasteland, she began to feel downright omnipotent whenever they encountered an enemy of any kind. With her new energy cell-powered toy, she was unstoppable.

But back at school, it was as if nothing had changed. Nobody mentioned anything about 'those rookie idiots up north', and how it was she who had succeeded in learning the outcome which befell them. Nobody greeted her as any sort of champion. Nobody even tried to bum one of her cigarettes. As she ambled around the school, looking for Slick Rick so she could get paid, she still received their vague threats, insults, and cat-calls.

On the other hand, there was a certain...deference amongst the others. Nothing she could put her finger on for sure. But it seemed the raiders of Springvale were all just a little more ... cautious with their comments? As if they knew it was her who'd done some amazing things, but were keeping their mouths shut due to ignorance, or jealousy?

When she finally found Slick in one of Springvale's darkened hallways, the man had nothing but good things to say. Dogmaster and other upper-handers were all grateful that she'd succeeded with her assignment. Germantown Police Station was now up for grabs, said Slick. Hopefully, raiders would be able to repopulate the place before others did.

"Here you go, swell!"

Slick gave Vicious a total of 500 caps for her success. What a surprise. She had never held so much money in her life, and now all of it was hers. There were so many caps in the bag he'd given her, she had to carry it with both hands. Extra caps had been given, Slick explained, due to the prisoner she'd safely transported from Germantown to Springvale. This prisoner quickly disappeared now that he was safe. Probably, he'd holed up in some nook or cranny where he could explore all his remaining fears, without fear. The guy had been a nervous wreck all the way back, so Vicious did not blame him.

"You got, you gots, you also gots your own room now," Slick Rick explained, obviously high on something. "Your.. your favorite room! The one that's back by the back, you know which one I'm talkinabout. It's yours now, Vicious."

Vicious did know which room he was talkinabout. It was one of the classrooms, probably once used for art class, Vicious concluded. It had the usual jumble of chairs and tables, strewn and toppled this way and that. Its chalkboard was somehow still intact though, and still hung from its original wall. This classroom also had a desk, once used by some long-ago teacher. Vicious had gotten into the habit of storing some of her things in the desk. And oddly, none of the other raiders ever seemed to wander in. None of them stole her stuff. They mostly preferred to stay in the school's frontal areas. Or upstairs. With a bagful of caps, and nowhere to put it, Vicious decided to head back to the room she'd been promised. Her room.

"Hey, wanna make even more caps?" Bratty asked as she followed her friend to Vicious's room. "Me and a few other *witches* are headed off to Dukov's place. You know, across tha river! We gonna make some extra good cappy-caps!"

"Doing what?"

"The usual. Dancing," she swayed her hips as she said this. "You know. Getting together, havin' fun..."

"Whoring?" Vicious snapped. Both gals stopped walking. Vicious rolled her eyes as she looked at her friend. Dukov was well-known in the Capitol Wasteland for his hookers and whores, after all. "Don't do that, brat. Why you gonna go over there and turn some tricks for caps?"

Bratty's olive skin turned red as she went once again into bad schoolgirl mode. Busted. "Hey lady, check yourself. I ain't like that! I am NOT some *ferking* whore! I ain't gonna sell my body nor nothing, girl! We is just goin over there and dancing. Havin' some fun. Makin' some caps, while the men gets fit to ogle and stare. That's it. No *kitty* play. No sucky luck. That's all I got to say, and that's all I got to say!"

"Well." The girls began walking again. "Count me out. I want no part of that. Doncha see this-here bag of caps I just done got?" Vicious jiggled, the bag jingled. "This bag is not just my bag, it is ours. We can live off this for a good, long while." She smiled. "That's right. You and me. We are a team, if you want us to be a team. And you ain't gotta do nothin' for this. No dancing or..whatever you got planned over there. In fact, I don't wanna know."

But Bratty was determined. For whatever reason, she would not relent on her decision. "Geez! I ain't stayin' all year over there," she said. "A bunch of us ladies are goin', a couple of dudes, too. It ain't like I'm goin' over there by my lonesome self."

"Whatever. Have fun. I will be here, Brat. I won't go anywhere without you first, okay?"

So Miss Vicious bid her friend farewell, cursing under her breath as she did so. Stupid girl. But what can ya do?

Since there was a lull in activity, nothing new for her from Slick or Dogmaster, she now had some time to kill. She immediately decided her new room was an unholy mess. After selling a few unneeded items to Springvale's indoor dealer, Vicious began straightening her room. That's right. The numerous scraps of paper and rubble on the floor were placed in a bucket, then tossed outside. Tables were uprighted, and chairs were placed in such a way that they now looked forward. As if class were about to be in session.

The others thought her behavior downright odd, as she scrapped and attempted to clean. Miss Delicious, now a topic of conversation for all.

Over the next couple of days, she also spent some time wandering outside of Springvale, looking for enemies to kill, and conquer. She headed downhill, and wound up in the metro station across from Super Duper Mart, where she zapped, then shot, dozens of underground ghouls. All of this adventuring was new to her. In the past there was never a time when she had just decided 'oh, let's go off and find something to kill!' No. Guns and other weapons had always been tools of defense for Vicious.

But now she felt different about herself. Maybe Starsky was right. Maybe she really was Talon Company material. Not that she was going to go off and join them. But maybe she was good enough.

"Yo Vicious," said Slick a few days later, as he caught her walking inside from a late-summer rain storm. "Got something for you."

Miss Vicious Delicious, drenched from the rain, could not wait to hear what it was.

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

Vicious and Bratty

Vicious's room (Before Pic)

Vicious's room (After Pic... eh, she's getting there!)

Getting paid

Card Killer victim Millicent Wellington

Strange flesh-eating lady

Loviatar action pic

[SubRosa]

Cool to hear the news and get an update on all our old friends and enemies!

Not the best reception back home in Springvale. Maybe Miss V ought to branch out on her own?

A Raider cleaning house? Inconceivable!

It is pretty neat how you have done this Raider faction.

[Lopov]

Nice, how you include your own and our characters in Taneesha's story. *clap clap*

I wonder if we'll ever see or hear of Bratty again. I hope that she leaves Dukov's place before Rattler arrives there and cleans up the place.

Taneesha's got her very own classroom!

[Acadian]

Clever to use the radio for an 'around the wasteland' update. And as SubRosa and Lopov said, neat to feature some cameo mentions of their characters.

Stungun + Blamhammer + Vicious = Unstoppable.

Looks like these raiders pay well - Vicious gets her own room and 500 caps that she didn't even have to 'dance' for.

[Renee]

There was a member here at Chorrol who was named vicious111. Whoever this is, he or she joined way back in 2006, and today is vicious111's birthday. What an appropriate day to post the next chapter.

Acadian: I love mentioning other gamers' characters. I try not to overdo it, of course. In Fallout games, we also have radio stations, and (in case you don't know) there is one station which constantly updates what the Lone Wanderer (similar to the Champion of Cyrodiil, or the Dovakhiin...) is up to. But Three Dog mostly just talks about our character as we do various quests with him or her. I like to imagine other news has to be mentioned as well.

SubRosa: Ah ha ha .... I've been holding on to that Loviatar mention for awhile now! Just had to wait for the right moment. I also did some reading on Lovi and a couple others (such as Hecate) from a few years ago, which was fun.

Vicious branching on her own is an interesting concept. I haven't written much about that part, but she has considered this, here and there. What always stops her is the fact that she grew up belonging to a "family" (the Jehovah's Witnesses) and so she has that mentality that she feels she must belong to some family or organization. Raiders, of course, can be quite despicable. So why is she with them at all? Especially being supposedly God-fearing?

I don't want to give too much away. You'll eventually see what happens....


Lopov: It's a Rattler pic Noooo!!!! But hmm. Now that you mention Rattler visits the place... hmm.

Bratty is a ditz. I don't think we've heard the last from her, though.

[Renee]

Chapter 26: The Bearer Bonds

Wednesday, September 5th, 2277

Location: Springvale Elementary School

Minimum Temperature: 66.9 °F

Maximum Temperature: 88.0 °F

"Yo Vicious," said Slick a few days later, as he caught her walking into the school from a late-summer rain storm. "Got something for you."

Miss Vicious Delicious, drenched from the rain, could not wait to hear what it was. Where would she be sent to next? Her heart rate increased just then.

"So." Slick began. "I been conferring with my associates, y'know? And we got us your first ... uh... task."

"Uh huh. Well technically, this is now my second task. But please continue."

Over the past few days, Miss Vicious had mostly been on her own. She walked to the Metro station across from Super Duper Mart, spent a day or so walking its underground tubes, clearing them of feral ghouls. She eventually ended at Friendship Station, an outdoor area where subway riders had once congregated as they traveled to or from work. Tourists also packed the station centuries ago, as they headed down to the Mall and museums. Vicious was pretty sure Friendship was the place where the 'kid from Vault 101' had killed all those raiders; this was what Three Dog had said over the radio. Fortunately, this information seemed to be wrong. A half-dozen were there, none of whom had gotten attacked in the last three days.

"So what have you got for me?" she asked Slick. Despite increased blood flow, she kept her face neutral.

Slick lit a cigarette. "So think of Megaton, a'ight?" he started. "Big place full of peoples of all types and kinds."

"Uh-huh. Megaton. What about it?" She noticed Slick seemed more lucid today. That is, he did not seem high on anything.

"So like, hundreds of years before the war, there was all kinds of things they used to do, ways to move moneys around. Y'know, like they had banks, and computers, and trading stations. Stocks and bonds. It weren't all about physical cash, right? They had, like, documents and transfers and liens and all kind of stuff."

Vicious frowned.

"There was these things called bearer bonds, y'see."

"Okay..."

"Bearer bonds were like these legal pieces of paper, a'ight? And they gave the owners of these legal pieces of papers total ownership, of like...all kinds of junk. Like, say, if the gov'ment waned to issue ownership to some corporation, of, let's say, some sort of property or transfer or whatever." He puffed his smoke, blowing out the side of his mouth. "As the market fell up and down, the stock market, that is, as moneys went up and down, you know, the market was always goin' up, or goin' down, people who had stock held within the market would either lose their money or they was gaining some. You could be poor one day, and rich the next. Or vice versa, see?"

Vicious crossed her arms. "Rick, where is this ... lecture going?"

"I'm gettin' to that!" He waved his arm impatiently. "See, these bearer bonds was like... securities, they was called. They was worth money. But as the market went up and down, the bond would make sure your money STAYED where it was at. Some dudes who owned stock would be rich one day, and poor the next. But not with bearer bonds."

"Okay..."

"Bearer bonds was always worth money," he finally stated.

Vicious said nothing. What the hell is this? thought she. I'm back in school, with a lunatic raider for my teacher, educating me on Economics?

"Well now they ain't worth *ship*. Them bonds. They ain't worth nothing. All of that got blown up with da war," he smirked. "No gover'ment, bonds ain't worth *ship*."

"So, what is this, this little sermon of yours? I thought I am here to discuss my latest assignment."

"But y'see," he ignored, "we gots words from Q Tip that a lots of peoples in Megaton still OWN some of these bonds. Got them all locked up. Stored away in their properties, y'see? When the tip was living in Megaton, he did some snooping around, right? He found they still got bonds there!"

Vicious said nothing.

The male raider smiled. "That's where you come in," Slick Rick began making his funny gestures again. "You go into town, you go on a lookout, goin' into peoples' homes and stuff, and you find as many of these bonds as you can." He was openly grinning now. Proud of himself, or something. "Probably they 'll look like they's all torn up scraps of paper, by now. You know, these bonds is old."

Vicious said nothing, so Rick continued.

"Don't know what Dogmaster wants with them, but this order comes down from him. You bring thems to me, and I bring thems to him."

"Ah, so this is Dogmaster's idea," Vicious replied. "I was gonna say. What the hell does he want with a bunch of old documents? ... even if they were worth money. Sounds to me like they were authorized by the government back then. Back then, that is. So what good are they now?"

"Hey, I don't know what the dog wants them for," Slick answered. "Don't really care, to be honestly. But that's what he wants, so that's what you got now."

"Hmm." Vicious looked to the ground, shaking her head. "I mean, it's like you guys just assume I'm going to be up for this. Like I want to go sneaking into peoples' homes to basically steal a bunch of worthless old documents. In Megaton. The town where I just got caught, and thrown into their new jail."

Now it was Slick Rick who was momentarily speechless.

"Do you know how embarrassing that was? Getting caught while stealing Psycho, and then hauled off to jail by Megaton's new officer? And you just assume I'm ready to go back in there..."

"Hey look, don't be .. uh.. talkin' like that, okay?" Rick said. "Like you's all disappointed and junk."

"Is it that obvious? I mean but seriously. How am I supposed to go back in there and actually DO this?"

"Hey, I dunno. Maybe wear a disguise!"

"A disguise?" she chuckled. "The *cluck* am I now? Bonnie and Clyde or some *ship*?"

"What'd you think, you was going to be sent off to kill some Enclave or something?" he asked. "I apologize, but this is your next job. This. Right here, is what you should of could of be doin' now, instead of arguing with me."

Vicious rolled her eyes.

"Tell you what. Pay is going to be even better on this one," he crushed his cigarette on a nearby wall. "I can guarantee this. That's one thing about the dog. When he wants something, you always get paid if you do right by him. And I know he's talking about more caps for this job. For whatever reason."

Slick Rick informed her of this, then wandered off, to whatever else he had planned for the day. Which probably wasn't much.

Miss Vicious began walking back to her classroom, biting her cheek. She'd been hoping for something a little more exciting. But maybe making a return back to Megaton wouldn't be so bad. Certainly, she would not have to face any dangerous monsters, for one thing. For another, she could work solo. With Bratty out being slutty at Dukov's for whatever length of time, certainly having a look (at least) into this Megaton business might not be so bad.

"Hmph. Guess I won't be needing my Blamhammer for this one," she said to the nearest wall, half-disenchanted, half-not. She stopped walking, just then. "'Thou shalt not steal,' the Lord says," she added. "But it sounds like these items, these bonds or whatever, can't be worth anything. Except to Dogmaster, of course. I should at least have a look, I guess," she rationalized half-heartedly. "Not like anybody would miss any of these if I grabbed a few. Not like I'd be stealing caps, or food, or weapons."

"Que pasa?" asked a raider male, walking slyly down the hall.

"And really," she said to the man without answering his question, "what the hell do I owe towards Megaton, anyway? Pshaw. They kicked me out of town! Locked me up, too. I tell ya..."

She began walking again. Wondered what Bratty and the others were up to. And if she'd made a mistake not traveling down to Dukov's with them. But her final decision? She wanted to at least see if there was any merit to this bearer bond business. Maybe lifting a few of them would be relatively harmless.

This post has been edited by Renee: Jul 31 2021, 05:32 PM

[Acadian]

What an odd mission. I'm curious to see what happens. I should think Vicious has the right of it - what value is there to bearer bonds when the institution/government that issued them is long vaporized? Well, we shall see.

I loved it when Slick Rick referred to Q-Tip as 'the tip'.

[Lopov]

Maybe lifting a few of them would be relatively harmless.

Or maybe not.

I mean, so far Taneesha doesn't seem to be involved in a lot of harmless stuff.

I quite enjoyed a history lesson of bearer bonds.

[SubRosa]

A bearer bond heist? I hope a New York City cop named John McClain is not there to foil the job!

[RaderOfTheLostArk]

I like how you had a brief reference to the Lone Wanderer here. Shows how there is a bunch of other stuff happening in the wasteland well outside this story.

Surprised that a raider knows what any sort of bond is, especially 200 years after the Great War. Curious to see what this Dogmaster wants them for.

[Renee]

It's already August and although I'm enjoying this story, there's a lot to come and I'm feeling overwhelmed. Plus it'll be autumn pretty soon, and I'm eager to plunge into Skyrim, and continue the story of Laprima Donaugh, in the actual Fan Fiction section. So probably what I'll do is finish this next part of Vicious' story (Megaton, searching for these bearer bonds), and then continue with the rest of her story later, probably in Spring of 2022.

What an odd mission. I'm curious to see what happens.

It is odd, I agree. In fact, this entire next set of chapters; I'm going to be partially in the dark. I wrote the quest, but Lopov is the one who actually hid all the bonds! And he's hinted that he added some extra content along the way, which I have no clue what his could mean. Traps? Bombs? Rattler? Who the heck knows?

So, I knew what would happen (pretty much) during Germantown Police Station since I did all the GECK work, but Vicious did not. This won't be the case for her return to Megaton. Both of us are unsure what'll happen.

Maybe lifting a few of them would be relatively harmless.

Or maybe not.

See, what the *ferk* is that supposed to mean? Anyway, thank you for helping me with this next portion of the Miss Vicious World.esp, spending some time in the GECK, and so on.

Lopov and I have discussed this several times. If he hadn't assisted me last summer, chances are he wouldn't have gotten inspired to create his own Enemies of the Wastes mod for Fallout 3.

A bearer bond heist? I hope a New York City cop named John McClain is not there to foil the job!

I was actually thinking Beverly Hills Cop. There's a scene in which Axel Foley links cocaine to bearer bonds or something. For some reason, that notion has stuck in my head all these years... err ... decades.

Now you got me wondering who John McClain is though. I'll have to read up on him.

I like how you had a brief reference to the Lone Wanderer here. Shows how there is a bunch of other stuff happening in the wasteland well outside this story.

That's what I love the most about writing these sort of longer stories. I get to spend many months, maybe years in this case, thinking of all these extra angles. Different perspectives from different peoples already in the game.

We shall find out what the Dogmaster wants with those bonds in this next chapter. Sort of.

[Renee]

..,

Chapter 27: Return to Megaton



Vicious spent the rest of Wednesday September 5th pondering and preparing. How should she approach this latest mission, if it could even be called a mission?

She located Slick Rick after wandering the school's halls for an hour or so, and grilled him for more information. Such as, why was she even being given this task, especially since Q Tip is the one who supposedly found one of these bonds in the first place?

Turns out, Q Tip had been their local 'inside man' for covert operations into the Capitol Wasteland's more civilized locations. He 'cleaned up nicely' once he was out of his raider gear. He could be cute, especially with his unusual cue ball-colored hair. But he had also "done and *lucked* up" the last time he'd been in Megaton. Got into a bar fight after getting drunk at Moriarty's. Because of this, he too had gotten arrested by the town's new law force lady. He hadn't been jailed, though. At the time he had had enough caps in his pocket to simply pay for his crime. 50 caps was all it took. After this, he walked out of town a free man. But chances are, it would not be good for him to return so soon.

"Yes, but hello?" said Vicious, bulging her eyes. "You all seem to forget that I have also been arrested in Megaton recently, fool. Wasn't really that long ago. Everyone will know my face."

"Yeah, but you is, uh, you is a chick," Slick explained. "You is a lady, with plenty of ..uh... femininity to go 'round these parts. That is who you is."

"So?"

"Well, uh, see, I was thinkin' all about this. Like, you can put makeup on. Change your hair around and stuff, like you womens do. And and and.. no one will expect a lady prowlin' around their grounds, yuh? Snoopin' in their homes. Especially if you get all dolled up and pretty-like."

Before Vicious could protest further, Slick led her to a particular school locker, where one of the previous raider females had been keeping her clothes. The locker contained a lot of pre-war-styled clothing. Dresses and heels and skirts and blouses. Though Vicious rolled her eyes and pouted here and there, she did secretly admit to herself that going back into town with a totally new appearance would be rather... fun?

She grabbed a couple dress / shoe combinations, and also selected a hat she could wear. The hat was overkill. It had been made in the stormchaser style, meaning that it was designed for keeping one's face clean from dusty or rainy weather. It covered most of her face, in fact! Though this might seem odd; wearing garb like this was not totally out-of-place, here in 23rd century Capitol Wasteland.

Slick also explained to Vicious that Dogmaster wanted her to collect the bonds because of some sort of scam he was going to pull. Vicious hammered Rick with more questions, but he seemed just as clueless as she, beyond this superficial information.

Finally, Vicious needed to decide which weapons she'd bring into town, just in case. The two grenades she'd looted out of Germantown? No. Her Blamhammer shotgun? Nuh-uh. Too big, too loud, too messy. She'd likely not need any frag mines, either. Probably would not be such a good idea to lay some of those in some hidden locations, blowing to smithereens whoever was unlucky enough to walk over them.

So no guns, and no bombs. Instead she'd bring an old lead pipe, just in case she needed to get up-close and vicious with anybody. And definitely the stun gun.

Vicious smiled as she selected this second weapon. She lit a cig as she admired her new electronic piece. Such power it had; such potential. She'd done some research, reading an old armament textbook she had found in one of Springvale's classrooms. Apparently, stun guns had also been called Tasers back in the day. When she was zapping some enemy with her gun, 'tasing' was the official word for this.

Over the last few days, she'd been keeping the gun secret from the other raiders. "Bratty, please do not tell anybody in Springvale about my new gun," she had instructed as the pair of ladies walked home from Germantown. "Last thing I need is for every mother *ferker* back at school to be tryin' to play around with it."

So of course, the first thing the brat did was start bragging about their trip home from Germantown, and how Vicious now had this new, powerful toy. "She stuns it, I shoot it!" she gloated to the others. Because of this, Vicious was forced to mostly hide her stun gun. "What stun gun?" she lied several times. "Ain't no such thing as a stun gun. Bratty's high. She don't know what she the hell she be talking about."

She put her Taser on her teacher's desk, and cracked open a beer. Vicious spent the rest of the night getting plenty of rest. She got up early the next morning, ready and hopeful for the day to come.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Early morning, Thursday, September 6th, 2277

Minimum Temperature: 68.0 °F
Maximum Temperature: 91.9 °F

After breakfast (Blamco Mac & Cheese) and her early-morning cigarette, Miss Vicious felt as if she was as ready for this as she'd ever be. She looked into the anonymous teacher's desk in which she'd been storing most of her smaller things, making sure the 900 caps which she'd stored inside were still there. And they were.

"Heck, by the time I get paid for this next one, maybe I'll be able to afford my own place," she muttered. "Maybe move down to Rivet City, away from all these *arseholes*. Hmph. Maybe even take the brat with me, too. Make a decent woman out of her, if I can get into her head just right."

She closed the door to her room, carrying the bag which contained the nicer clothes Slick had given her. But for now, she still wore her raider armor. One thing she did not want was for one of the others to be high on something, and mistake her for a Wastelander who'd mistakenly wandered in from outside, all because she wasn't dressed like them.

"Hey," said a raider male as she walked by. "You know those rookie idiots who went up north?"

Vicious did not bother to reply. Instead, she rushed out of the school, and into a warm, but not-so-humid morning. Fall was coming soon. She made a left turn, and walked toward the bus located a quarter mile or so down the road. This was the same bus where Bratty and she had gotten sloshed that one day, and Bratty gave Vicious her current hairdo. Vicious walked into the bus. She changed out of her raider gear, and tried one on of the dresses. The dress was blue, made of some sort of woolen fabric. Not really her color, and it would be too hot for this weather. So she tried on the other dress, which was green and sleeveless, with a cute yellow sash around its waist.

Yeah, that's more like it. Miss Taneesha could play vicious at times, but she could also play delicious.

She selected a couple of low heels, which were yellow, and incidently matched the dress's yellow sash. Oh... snap! Ready to slay, ready to play, ready to go on the town today! Whoever it was who'd left these clothes behind sure had some sense of style.

Outside, it began to rain softly. She could hear drops begin to patter on the bus's roof. She looked into one of the bus's dirty windows, hoping to catch a glimpse of herself. But these windows hadn't been cleaned, inside or outside, for over two centuries.

"Dammit. Will they know who I am?"

Better to play it safe. As she walked toward Megaton, she decided to put on the stormchaser hat. Though she could not see herself, she knew she looked nothing but silly. Ridiculously silly. Some disguise this was. Maybe she'd even be attracting more attention to herself than necessary, by wearing practical on one hand, sassy and lady-like on the other. What a contrast! Good thing there was no such thing as Fashion Police in the Capitol Wasteland.

"*Duck* it. This will have to do, for now."

"Hello" said a caravan guard as she walked toward town.

"Fine pleasant day this is, oh, do be charmed!" she replied with some sort of fake accent she invented on the spot. A moment later, kicked herself mentally for doing so. Do be charmed? "Well hey," she said to herself as she began walking away. "Maybe I gotta get into the spirit of all this. Pretend to be someone else, at least for a few days, or however long this takes. Stupid mission. Stupid scam. I hope Dogmaster can't run whatever scam he's got going on in his head."

Miss Vicious Delicious rewarded herself with a cigarette as she walked the rest of the way to Megaton.

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

The Bus

Vicious looking good

En route to Megaton


Note: I had Vicious walk into Megaton, just to see what would happen. My crime mod idea is that if enough crimes are committed by the player-character, this causes the Megaton Officer lady to react, and try to arrest us. I was worried because during some of those times when Wastelanders would show up in raider hangouts, Vicious never killed one of these on her own, but she did assault a few. Would this cause her Major Crime Count to go up? :] Fortunately it did not. Probably because the only ones who witnessed these assaults were other raiders, who don't care about crime.

This post has been edited by Renee: Jun 26 2022, 03:20 AM