In Fallout, being a tourist means fighting super-mutants and raiders in fancy places, rather than just ruined ones.

River Shitty, I have to remember that one!

I loved the line about the Spike TV censors.

I love Taneesha's ruminations of blue and white collars. Especially because yes, they did!

As much as Taneesha wants to leave the old life behind, she's still keeping the old raider gear. For future expeditions. Granted, she could explore the wasteland with say, a suit of combat armor instead.

And a hard parting at the bridge to Rivet City. I am not surprised. There was no way Bratty could fit into 'normal' life. Q-Tip was the only one I was not really sure about. But he's not ready to give up the gangster life either. Let's just hope that Taneesha can stick to her guns, and leave Vicious behind for the rest of her life.





Nits
in the line about the Tenpenny snobs, I think you mixed up plebians with patricians. Plebians were the commoners, the patricians were the fancy upper crust aristocrats.

A powerful scene, but loaded with humor as well.

Tomayto – Tomahto; Rivet City – River Shitty. That almost made me spray a mouthful of my Farduck’s iced coffee all over my screen.

Tanesha’s faulty understanding of the pre-war concept of blue/white collar highlights how foreign a notion it is in the world and time in which she lives.

Like, SubRosa, I wish Tanesha well as she strives to make a clean start, yet I also see the little red flags of keeping her raider gear and promising to quit the cigs. . . right after this last one in her mouth. But who knows? She did destroy her cig pack. Maybe Q-tip is wrong. But at least Brat still has someone to kind of help watch over her.

Hey, it's Saturday. Hurricane Debby just passed over yesterday, and this means humidity in Maryland is lowered. Really nice weather. No more 100 degree nonsense. I hope to sit in the backyard later today, reading another Lovecraft tale.

@Florens: If Stormcrow is CW, Miss Vicious is Spike TV. That's what I've been picturing, anyway. Really, Spike TV is called something else now, but it just sounds so rad: SPIKE TV.

Mm hmm, you clued into that bit, about keeping the raider gear. Don't worry, it's not what you might think. It's even better!

Indeed. Having Bratty on the ship (and just around during future chapters) would've become distracting. To do it right, she'd be by Tan's side a lot, like a child tagging along with mommy. The story would become more about the Brat than the Vicious.

But none of that has anything to do with why she left. I went for a walk last week and "saw" into her head (and Q-tip's) and they didn't want to stick around. They've got this juvenile life going on: partying and looting and generally being a nuisance. They're not wanting to grow up.

Q's perspective is interesting. I think he was joshing Miss Vicious the entire time. He says he thought it was all "a joke", but really he's more clever than that. I think he's been playin' my toon, honestly. What he mentioned to her, about raiding the ship and returning with tons of loot seems silly. It'd be three against hundreds. He's smarter than that.

Moreover, it just feels right for Tan to be doing this on her own.

Sweet, thanks about the nit! . So it should've been "patricians prancing about" instead of plebeians.


@Paladin: Glad you picked up on the humor. I wasn't really picturing Vicious as a laughfest 4 years ago when the story began, but it does have some humor, some of it unintentional.

Oh yeah, she stomped that ciggie pack. It's crushed. Although it's not written in detail, there was a brahmin merchant nearby during that whole final scene. These are merchants in the Capital Wasteland, who travel around with 2-headed cows and guards. Anyway, I like to think the merchant saw her crush the pack (in imagination) and then said "Hey, could've given that to me!"

Next episode up in a few.

Episode 58: Rivet City

Date: Wednesday, September 26, 2277, late afternoon


Bratty and Q-tip go back the way they came. For a minute or so, the former raider watches them leave. Then the moment passes. Taneesha Jones, on her own. Time to deal. She clomps the rest of the way up the metal ramp.

At the top of the ramp is a dirty, washed-out man. "Please... water," he says. The man is dressed in rags. Looks as though he's been outside for hours, his face is sunburnt. "Do you got any water?"

"Um. Yeah sure. Think I've got a bottle." She looks in her bag, and yep, she does. "Here, have this." It's her last bottle, and though she's feeling a bit thirsty, she begins to hand it over. Chances are there'll be plenty of faucets and fountains inside the ship/city. She hopes.

But the man rejects her offer. "That's not purified," he complains. "I've been drinking this irradiated *cakka*, for years! And I just can't do it anymore!" he explains, his voice gaining volume. "I need purified water... please!"

"Well, can't help you, sorry." She places the bottle back into her bag. "Got some RadAway, will that do?"

Apparently not. "Please. If ya find some clean water, PLEASE..." he continues to beg. Which is a rather hopeless situation. Even two-hundred years after the nukes, most water in the Wasteland contains isotopes. Clean water can only be gathered from a handful of underground reservoirs, and is rarely sold by merchants.

Can't save everyone, especially delusional fools like this poor fellow. So keep moving.

But now that she's here the question arises: how does one actually get onto the ship? Because her initial assumption was wrong: there IS NO bridge leading to Rivet City! From where she's standing there's a huge, empty gap, roughly fifty feet across, with drop of maybe a hundred feet into river below! -- But there's also a metallic box to her left, an intercom! -- A little speaker with a button to press, similar to the intercom in Super Duper Mart and several other locations. However, most of these units had been installed back when society still existed, which means most have become inoperable.

She presses the button. "Hello?"
...nothing

"Anyone there?"
... nada

"Or listening? Or even alive?"

Zip. Taneesha Jones freaks. What if I came all this way only to...? But finally, the speaker crackles. Through a blast of static, she's able to communicate with an unseen somebody, asking who's on the other end. She identifies herself, explains she's a wayward Wastelander looking for a place to trade. As she speaks, she tries to keep her voice cheerful. Hopes she's not coming across as desperate, like the water beggar still slouched a few yards away.

For a moment there's no reply. Uh oh... But then *creeeeak!!!*, there is a bridge, she just hadn't been able to see it. A huge platform swings slowly from the left side of the ship, a full ninety degrees. Taneesha grins, filled with anticipation and glee. Begins walking once she's sure the bridge has finished its sideways arc.

Her final glimpse into the past occurs halfway across. She does a quarter turn to the right and spares one last glance downward, trying to catch sight of Q and the brat, walking the promenade far below. But they're gone. And this is okay. Because she's looking toward the future! Psyched for the chance of new opportunities, if any happen to exist. Yet now that she's here, questions begin to emerge; things she'd only vaguely considered during upcoming days and weeks.

She'd made a three-point checklist over the past few days, actually.

1). Find employment.

She'd been frugal with her money while living in Megaton. Despite her chem habits and other expenses, and despite giving Bratty and Q hundreds of bottlecaps to accompany her to Rivet City, she's managed to save over a thousand caps, all which currently reside within her Feebok® sports bag. Most of this money came from finding those ancient bearer bonds for her former boss: the Dogmaster. Though these riches will make her start in Rivet City easier than if she'd shown up destitute, it also won't hurt to find a job, even if it doesn't pay much. She knows how to cook, for instance. Rad beans and rice became her specialty while growing up in the Jehovah temple. She'd also made countless breakfasts and suppers for the hundred or so witnesses she lived with: bloatmeal, blamcaroni and brahmcheese, and so on.

2). Find a place to live.

This could become a major drawback if she's unsuccessful. Having an apartment, or even just a single room to call her own, will help the recovering raider feel secure and settled. For the past couple years she's been scrambling all over the Wasteland, never feeling truly at home in any of those hoodlum hangouts: Super Duper Mart, Springvale School, Bethesda Ruins, etc.

So, finding a place to live in Rivet City will be important. But what if all residences are taken?
Tenpenny Tower is an example. Every flat and suite within the tower had been inhabited when she inquired over a month ago. Though Rivet City looks to be much larger than that pompous tower, she's arriving here entirely cold.
Doesn't know anyone, hasn't got any references from anybody inside.

"Heck, but that ain't no biggie. I'll sleep outside if I have to," she rationalizes.

As she gazes at the ship's decks, all she sees is lots of empty space. She pictures herself erecting a tent up there to evade the elements, maybe in some unused nook or cranny. If it gets chilly, she can maybe build a fire. ... Like that 'hobo' guy she'd heard about! That old geezer's been travelling the Wasteland with a dog at his side for years, according to what she's heard.

-- Of course, all of this assumes squatting in Rivet City is permitted in the first place. If so, then her outdoor tent idea is definitely doable.

"Slept in places much worse," she mutters. "With corpses and mutated rats in the same room, sometimes."
Let's also consider: finding a place to live would be much so more difficult if her friends had decided to come along. It's better that the brat and Q-tip chickened out. Bratty, especially. It'd be really challenging for Taneesha to establish herself onto the ship, while also dealing with Bratty's constant nonsense. Girlfriend could be lots of fun, and Taneesha's going to miss that side of their friendship for sure. But it'll be so much easier to navigate her new life without having to deal with her childish chum.

3). Get the *bleep* clean.

Number three on her list will be the most daunting in the long run, thinks she. It's easy to say you'll clean yourself up, but Taneesha's no fool.

On the plus side, becoming a teetotaler will be more possible, now that she's no longer a raider. Rivet City will certainly have its share of chem-users, no doubt; chems are everywhere. But let's just say it won't be as easy to score drugs, like it is in raider society. Addicts tend to hoard their stashes, and if there are any dealers inside Rivet City, Taneesha will "Just say No!" to them. Like that ancient president's wife suggested long ago.

"Just say NO!" Taneesha giggles.

But the odds for long-term sobriety shall surely be challenging. She knows this. She's been steadily smoking and boozing and stabbing her veins over the past couple years, her body expecting some sort of 'reward' on a near-daily basis.

Perhaps #3 on her checklist should be the very first step to inquire, really. Because already, she's beginning to feel that certain rawness within her nerves, rawness which can only be (temporarily) cured with a shot of narcotics, or a pint of liquor if she's really jonesing.

One, two, and three. Overall question: Will her 'to-do' list effectively become her 'today' list?

By now she's standing in front of a large metal door. Two doors, actually. The door straight ahead enters Rivet City Market according to its placard, while the door to her left leads into 'Stairwell'. Taneesha Jones chooses the market. A place to trade, here we go.




The market is dark and cavernous. There's a combination of smells: grease, food, and an aroma she can't immediately identify. A flaming barrel had been set off to one side, like the barrels filled with trash raiders sometimes burned for amusement. Already, she likes what she sees, but can this potentially become her home?

Her first thought when entering Rivet City Market is a combination of thoughts, actually.

On one hand, there's an immediate sense of relief. An immediate sense of 'my scrounging days are over'. Everything she's ever going to need: food, drink, clothes, guns, bombs, ammunition, is all right here in this very large room. Let's start with the gun shop on her left.

"Welcome to Flak 'N Shrapnel's, best goddamn weapons in the Wasteland. I'm Flak," says a tattooed biker-looking dude with a handlebar moustache. "If you want any of this *crap*, just holler." Flak is exactly the sort who looks as though he'd been born with a Ruger in his diaper. Like he really KNOWS his uh... *crap*.

Perfect. Taneesha's got several clips of 5 millimeter ammo, scavenged from that supermutant camp earlier in the day. She's also got some 10mil and a few .32 rounds, calibers she never uses on a daily basis. Just like that, she's increased her currency by dozens of caps.

And if that's not enough to wow her, Flak's got shotgun rounds for sale!

"Lookin' to do some killin', eh?"

Which is going to be mighty convenient. Keeping her shotgun loaded has been a constant issue these past few years; even the Wasteland merchants whose focus is armaments are hit or miss (mostly miss) when it comes to shells.

She crosses the floor to the next merchant: Potomac Attire. "I carry discriminating attire for discriminating customers," says Bannon, the clothing store's dapper manager. Bannon's wearing a comfortable V-neck sweater / button-down shirt combo which wouldn't look out of place in Tenpenny. And he's got a bunch of casualwear for sale, including a pink dress! Taneesha can't help but splurge right on the spot, clink! she buys the dress for seven caps. Though she'd never wear such a hideous thing, perhaps she'll keep it around, for days she wants to reminisce her former friend.

"Another satisfied customer."

Already, Rivet City's newest newcomer is beside herself. Two shops so far, each dedicated to two completely different trades. Most Capital Wasteland settlements couldn't dare specialize; they needed to cater to a wide assortment of goods, accepting business from whomever comes to the door. Well, Rivet City's different. Best of all, there's still two more shops to go.

She zigzags across the floor to Rivet City Supply, a general trader of all things from what she can tell, how convenient. However, whoever the trader's proprietor is, she or he isn't on duty. Still, her shopping experience so far has put her into an incredibly good mood.

She crosses the floor to the next shop...

...and her enthusiasm comes crashing down.

"This is A Quick Fix," says Cindy Cantelli, the stall's proprietor. "I mean, that's the name of our shop," she jokes. Cantelli's eyes are pink. Taneesha can see the woman is definitely a user. She's also a little too eager to make a sale to the dark-skinned lady who'd literally just arrived, then done business all three of her neighbors. "You wanna get a good head?" Cindy winks cheekily. "I got ya honey. Um. Hey, are you okay?"

No, Taneesha Jones is not okay. Taneesha Jones doesn't like what she's seeing at all. Syringes of Psycho, Med-X, and Thorazine, varieties of pills and capsules and powders, all packaged and ready for users and addicts. Pre-rolled blunts, bongs and pipes. Bottles and vials and tonics. Exactly the things she assumed she'd easily be able to avoid, ALL OF IT is right here.

"Ma'am? Are you alright?"

Taneesha can't answer; can't do anything but turn the *duck* away from Cindy Cantelli. Because what the hell? A merchant who specifically sells chems???

Already craving a fix (and a quick one, as advertised), Miss Jones wonders how the heck she's going to do a Nancy Reagan, day after day after day, with such easy access to drugs of all kinds?

For now, the aroma of food provides a temporary distraction. Thank goodness the cafeteria's right next door. So she heads to Gary's Galley before her feet know they're walking.

"Welcome to Gary's Galley," says a cheery waitress, after Taneesha lurches onto a seat. "I'm Angela. May I take your order?"

Taneesha realizes she's starving. Raider life rarely includes a full belly, after all.

"I'll have the squirrel stew, a bag of Potato Crisps, and you got any Nuka Cola?" she mumbles a bit too quickly.

And yet when the food comes, Taneesha's too glum to wolf it down. She only picks at it.

Slurp... (Stares across the room.)

Crunch crunch... (A Quick Fix. It's all you need.)

Gulp, glug... (It'll only cost a few caps, and you've got plenty! Especially now that the brat won't be mooching it all! So be happy! Why all the pressure? Sobriety can start tomorrow!)

Taneesha fidgets. Her thoughts, they'd been so darn positive just ten/fifteen minutes ago. But now, the realization. NO place to stay. NO one to talk to. Plenty of money, true, but this money could potentially be blown within a couple weeks.

Was coming to Rivet City one huge, gigantic mistake?

"Hey there," says a voice from behind. A bronze hand plucks Taneesha's shoulder. "Ain't you Miss Vicious?" says the voice.

Uh oh.

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

Binocular View -- (Q and Brat can barely be seen in the center).

Where is that confounded Bridge?

Intercom

Flak the gun merchant -- (one of my fave traders in FO3)

Taneesha Jones, jonesing

[-------------------------

Notes: SubRosa and Lopov, you folks might notice I skipped a few things. The guard who's stationed just before we enter Rivet City for instance, who explains places to stay (Weathersomething Hotel) and places to go. This is to provide more a sense of drama.

Acadian: RadAway lessens radiation which has been gathered in our character's body over time. ☢

That was a tense moment on the bridge when Tan realized there was no way across, and no one answered the intercom. Had she gone all that way - and severed her relationships with the Brat and Tip - for nothing? Thankfully not. The guards were just slow to get up from their card game to answer the door bell.

Bloatmeal...

I loved the call out to the Hobo!

Just say 'No' Taneesha!

Armaments merchants that are hit or miss? I would say that comes with the territory when it comes to firearms...

Uh oh, here is the chem dealer. Just say no Tan, alright? I am afraid it is only going to get harder to resist the urge to get a quick fix, when the real withdrawl symptoms start to kick in. Hopefully Tan will have herself set somewhere, or even away.

Uh oh, a cliffhanger! Who is this mysterious stranger who knows her by her Raider name?

Sounds like the old bridge guy never heard the saying, ‘Beggars can’t be choosers’. Oh well, more water for Tanesha.

The Hobo!

‘Born with a Ruger in his diaper.’

Shoppping!

Uh oh. Temptation's tendrils begin to wrap themselves around our wanna say No girl. Be strong, you can do it, Tanesha!

Closing with a name from her past. . . .

Got really sick this past Saturday, my chest was in a lot of pain; all of this came out of nowhere, just as I was making a final edit of last week's. Really thought I was having a heart attack, or maybe my lungs were shutting down or something. But then hours later, lying in bed, I began to wonder if it was COVID. Doctor Lopov theorized it was a combination of pneumonia + Covid together, and a doc here in Maryland confirmed this. Well, I had pneumonia, but tested neg for the C.

Anyway, spent most of the week either in bed or making this story or watching Hulu. All better now, fingers crossed.


@Rosa: I changed some things in the opening scene, think I may've mentioned this. But for instance, there's a guard who aims a gun at us just before we enter the ship > Completely forgot about this guy! And then once Vicious got there I didn't want to include him because that would've meant changing a lot of the story after she crosses the bridge.

Also, the guard dispenses a bunch of info about where to shop and the Weatherly Hotel, and I didn't include any of that because I want my toon to find her own way. Plus I added several things into the game like I usually do, and it wouldn't make sense for guard dude to gloss over some of this.

Yeah, Bloatmeal! Yuck.

Maybe the Hobo will appear in a future chapter, we'll have to see. I'll ask Lopov if that's okay. One thing I promise is NO RATTLER!!!! 🐍


@cadian: There are several points in Fallout 3 when we can gain "Karma", and if we give the Water Beggar (Diego is his name) water, we can accrue Good Karma. It is also possible to gain negative Karma, for those who want to be Evil.

However, Taneesha's more of a Chaotic Neutral if we are to put her into DnD terms. Survival comes first. And unlike Cho Zen Wan, my Lone Wanderer, she won't go out of her way to save everyone she meets. However if she meets a child or someone truly helpless like a slave who's been bound, then she will go out of her way.



Yes. Who can this be?

I am so glad to hear that you are doing better. Hope you get well quickly.

Thanks macole. I am better, but kind of scared as well.


Episode 59: Aspiration

Taneesha launches upon her feet, stun gun aimed center-mass! Whap goes the cheap dining chair she'd been sitting upon, fallen to the floor.





"Hey whoa, whoa, put that down!"

It's just one of those things; one of those moments of Capital Wasteland existence. You never know when someone's going to try to get a jump on you. Steal your loot, attempt to end your life, et cetera. Gotta be ready, at all times.

"Hey! Miss Vicious! It me, Aspiration! Don't you remember? From Dukov's Place?"

And now that the moment has commenced, all Taneesha Jones can do is stare at the woman she's holding at gunpoint. And glance the diners of Gary's Galley, her eyes sweeping from one patron to the next, folks who'd merely come for some Junk Food or tonight's Blamco Mac & Cheese Special! Embarrassed as all getout.

"Oh! My goodness! I'm so sorry!" says Taneesha as she puts her prized Tazer back into its holster. "I didn't know it was you! I uh.... Yes, I remember you! Aspiration! I do remember." She wipes her brow.

The confluence of thoughts packed into the moment overwhelm the former raider, who makes an obvious effort to calm herself as the entire room stares.

"It's alright everyone," says the woman Taneesha had met at Dukov's a couple weeks ago, gesturing to the cafeteria's guests. "Just rehearsing for next week's upcoming show, hee hee!"

"Phew!" ... "Alright.." they reply, relieved that some sort of battle is not about to occur, bullets flying/blood spraying, just as they're about to slurp, crunch, and munch their evening meals. To Taneesha's surprise, a smattering of applause suddenly broke out.

Such a scene: one person pulling a gun on another, who then tries to laugh it off to placate a crowd, could only happen in a few specific places here in America, during only a few specfic time periods. Such as today's Capital Wasteland. Or somewhere in America's Wild, Wild West, during the 1800s, perhaps. Any other era or period of United States history, and Taneesha would've been locked down and cuffed by now.

Aspiration waits a moment for people to gather their breath before continuing. "Sorry 'bout that, honey. But I am right, aren't I? You go by Miss Vicious?"

Taneesha sighs. "Yes, well, I'm not Vicious anymore. My real name is Taneesha. Taneesha Jones, though you can call me Tan. Vicious is... was... sort of a nickname, I guess."

"Well Tan, what are you doing here? And oh, how is Bratty? That dingbat ever get her act together?"

"Dingbat, ha! Naw, she's still a mess. Nothing but trouble, girlfriend is."

From here, the conversation continues.* Taneesha blabs a few details of the past couple weeks (omitting any mention of her raider life, of course) while both women have a seat. It's as if nothing happened three minutes ago. As they converse, Miss Jones temporarily forgets the Quick Fix drama which plagued her mind not long ago. And the initial bonds of true friendship begin to form.

"Welcome to Gary's Galley," Angela interrupts the pair. "May I take your order?"

Aspiration goes for a bowl of mutfruit; apples, cherries, and other vegetative delicacies which have mutated over the past couple centuries, their genetic strains exposed to the radiation of the modern world.

"Girl's gotta watch her figure," Aspiration explains. The former Dukov's dancer then adds that she's also a newcomer to Rivet City, which makes Taneesha feel relieved for some reason.

Finally, Jones remembers her three-point checklist. Might the woman sitting across from her with the auburn hair be able to help?

"Well look. So this might be a strange request, but I'm wondering if there are any jobs available here at Rivet City. Like, actual employment. You know of anything?"

The question takes Aspiration by surprise. "Jobs? You mean, like working for payment? Why would you want one of those?" It's as though Tan asked if it's possible to time travel to another dimension. "You don't actually need a job to live here, if that's your worry. Plenty of slackers and layabouts on this boat," she chuckles.

"Um. But I need something to do, now that I'm here. I don't want to just slack or lay around, you know? Not how I was raised."

"Hmm," Aspiration considers. "You can ask Janna over there," she says, pointing to an elderly matron in a jumpsuit, standing off to the side. "Janna Torr's her name. She's a cleaning lady. Really, I don't know if she'd be able to help. Worth a try, I guess.

"Like I said, most folks 'round here don't really do much to make themselves useful," Aspiration adds, snapping her fingers with flourish. "And I don't blame 'em. All the best 'jobs', such as the merchants and guards and cooks here at Gary's, and my own job as a performer certain nights, have long been taken."

Taneesha silently disagrees. Just having a quick look around the floor here at Gary's she notes a proliferation of trash on the floor, and gathered in crannies. Papers, empty bottles, discarded cans, all within eyesight. What is it about the Capital Wasteland and litter? It's like nobody's interested in cleaning up after themselves in the Twenty-Third Century. Rivet City is nowhere near as negligent as raider society, of course. But still. Her temple family went out of their way to keep their home spotless; all kinds of chores has been assigned on a daily basis. And from what she'd learned as a child, much of society before the Great War did the same.

"Hey, thanks!" Tan says, making a mental note. "Um. What about a place to stay? I've got caps."

"Listen honey. Normally I'd say you can stay with me, but my place is really tiny. Like, barely bigger than a broom closet. Really a challenge on nights I come home glammed out in glitter," Aspiration chuckles. "But it just so happens I KNOW an empty room just opened in the Lower Deck.

"Other than that, there's the Common Room, which is somewhere mid-deck. But as the name suggests, it's common. Which means a big, open room. Lotsa beds. Anyone can stay there, true, but best be watchin' your stuff if ya do so, lest some thieving, low-down, cheap*butt* steals all your stuff."

"Well you've been very helpful, Aspiration."

"Hey listen Tan, pretty soon they gonna shut this place down. The Market, that is. Closes every night. If you'd like you can follow me, straight to where that room is. How about it?"

"Sure!"




One woman follows the other woman out of the market, through a confusing series of corridors, bends, and walkways, and finally to the ship's main stairwell. Good thing Aspiration knows where she's going; Tan would've gotten miserably lost trying to find the place on her own. They take the steps two storeys downwards and through a door, which leads to The Muddy Rudder, Rivet City's inhouse bar. Like the market, the Muddy Rudder is a dark, utilitarian room. Lots of steel which once saw countless Navy personnel pass through. An obvious effort has been made for cheer: Prewar posters on the walls, a billiards table, decorative lights, and so on.

"Here we are," Aspiration announces.

"This is it?"

"Mm hmm. I spend lotsa time in here; do a couple shows on the weekends, too. Now we gonna speak to Belle Bonny. She's the bartender. Pretty sure I heard she's the one renting a room."

"Alright."

"Um, gotta warn ya. Belle can be moody sometimes. Like, don't take it personal. She's a cat."

"Alright, sure." What's a cat?

They approach the bar. "Hey Belle, this is Tan. She just got here a couple hours ago. Lookin' to rent that room."

"Ya don't say," says the dark-haired, weary-looking dame behind the counter before turning to Taneesha. "I'm Belle Bonny," she growls to the newcomer. "I'll tell you what I tell all the fresh meat. Don't start anything down here, or I'll have Brock kick your *butt*."

Whoa. "Yes ma'am," Taneesha says, fighting an urge to talk back. Normally if someone out in the wastes greeted her in such a way they'd be fixin' for a brawl! "I'm not aiming to cause any trouble. Just need a place to stay, and heard you got one."

"Yep, I do, if you got the caps."

"Of course I do." *Witch.*

"Speak to Stace. Over there," Belle says, pointing casually to the blonde nursing a drink at a nearby table. "She's the landlady. Handles all my rentals."

And just like that, the second item on Taneesha's three-point checklist is crossed off.

"Place is a steal," says Stace with a smile a minute or so later. "Fifty caps for the month."

Peanuts to a gal who's currently bagging a thousand, thinks Tan.

"This key is yours," the landlady says after payment has been made. "Don't be shocked, it's a former storage room. Might be some leftover items in there. If so, you can have 'em. Don't tell my boss, though," she mutters under her breath.

"Nope, I won't tell that... cat."

Stace directs her new tenant to a section of wall between the bottom of a staircase and one of the Rudder's tables, where a large wheel sticks out of the wall's surface. It takes a moment before Taneesha realizes the complicated device before her is a door. "Here. Like this." Stace grabs the wheel, gives it a swift turn, which causes a series of 'arms' to unlatch themselves. The old door then swings open.

"Come on in!" she says.

"Thank you."

Place is dark inside, like really dark. "Gotta flick this switch on," Stace explains, causing a couple ceiling lamps to illuminate. "Um. Watch your step. The mattress where you'll sleep is right there."

Before them is a small, trapezoid-shaped room containing a series of shelves. "A former storage room, like I said." And on the shelves are an ancient telephone (not that there are any recent ones), a typewriter, and the usual clutter which can be found all over the wasteland: bottles and cans, rotted-out books, and other miscellaneous junk. Again, the moment of befuddlement-- nobody cleans!

"Dayum," Aspiration says, joining them inside the door. "You got a room bigger than my broom closet!"

"Hee hee, yup, and it's all mine!" Taneesha gloats with a bit of sass. Already she can see herself going on a mad little sanitation spree; removing useless junk, getting rid of whatever she won't want, or need, making the place hers. Just like her classroom in Springvale School, and just like the crawlspace she discovered as a child in the Jehovah temple.

Only possible issue might be the fact that she'll now be living next to an alcoholic bar.

"All yours!" Stace leaves the room.

It's not really the noise. From where she stands, Tan can barely hear the Rudder's patrons. It's the fact that she'd just declared herself straight-edge not long ago, yet right next door is all the whiskey, beer, and hooch a girl could ever drown herself into oblivion with. Of course, such a thing probably could never happen. Wouldn't be prudent, getting smashed in front of your landlady and the bar's owner, but still.

Tan and Aspiration leave the storage/bedroom, and reenter the bar. Aspiration orders herself a rum and Nuka-Coke, while Tan sticks to water. She does so successfully. Even after some flashy fleabag in a cheap suit tries to buy her a drink, plying her with pretty words and oral promises, Taneesha Jones sticks to water.

Number three on her three-point checklist, temporarily crossed-off.



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

Mystery Woman Approaches

Mystery Woman = Aspiration

Tan's thoughts return to A Quick Fix every so often...

The Muddy Rudder

Stace the Landlady

Off-center Lopov'd

-----------------------------
* For anyone who's forgotten, Vicious rescued Bratty from Dukov's place a couple weeks' prior, and Aspiration is the trans woman who assisted the process.

I'll take advice from anyone who knows how to get rid of Fallout 3's stupid 'skin tone which doesn't match an NPC's face' glitch. And if I can't get this fixed, Aspiration will only appear in dark screenshots. Another option is to somehow get clothes with longer sleeves on the gal.

You have the NPC Gray/Black Face bug. It happens in Skyrim too. It is because you created a new NPC, but did not export and save the Facegen data. I never came across it in Fallout 3. But here is the fix for Skyrim:

1.) Create a new NPC

2.) Edit the necessary sections of the face. If there are additional textures installed in actors/character, NPC customization will result into a two toned NPC, move all the extra textures into a back up folder.

3.) Click "Okay" on the character window closing it, Highlight your new NPC in the actors list and press CTRL + F4 to export FacegenData.

4.) Save plugin.

5.) You can confirm success by checking Meshes/Actors/Characters/FaceGenData/FaceGeom/<mod name> folder &Textures/Actors/Characters/FaceGenData/FaceTint/<mod name> folder. If it is simply a change to a vanilla NPC, it will be in the .../FaceGeom/Skyrim.esm subfolder. The file will be a .nif with the same name as the base id in the construction set.



Taneesha is wound up like a spring, Wasteland reflexes primed to explode into action at a moment's notice.

Janna Torr is the cleaning lady. You have not lost your touch at names...

I always got confused by Rivet City's layout too. It feels like a maze to me.

Well, making friends, a place to stay, two out of three checks on her list. Now Tan just needs to find a quest to bring in more caps.

So long as she can keep that straight edge of course.

I hope Aspiration blossoms into a friend. After losing the Brat and Q-tip, Tanesha could use one.

Don't feel badly. I've been on plenty of big ships and they can indeed be confusing to navigate.

Janna Torr - I'm not as clever as Sage Rosa and didn't cue on it until she pointed it out.

So it was the transgender woman after all!

Well, quite helpful for Tan to meet Aspiration (even the name fits the occasion), who told her, where she can stay in the RC.

Actually, being slightly obsessed with making the Rivet City clean and actually cleaning the pre-war carrier might put her recurring thoughts of the Quick Fix aside.

Stace has quite a face.

I assumed that you modded the room, where she stays? Or are there actual rooms down there? I don't remember anymore.

I'm up really early this Friday morning. I almost always have Fridays off these days, and usually I devote this day to cleaning projects or whatever. Stuff which doesn't get done during the week. But there's nothing really, no projects. So, gonna get the next chapter finished early, so I can enjoy the rest of the weekend with my daughter, who's done with college, but will be busy with a couple extra classes this upcoming fall. 🍂

This next chapter is half-written, but shall also be half-random. In the days when I wrote Kahreem the entire story was unplanned; I'd literally game while writing/write while gaming. So I'm gonna return to that style for this chapter and the next one, as Vicious moves amongst the gossip and the neurotic behaviors of Rivet City's inhabitants.


@SubRosa: my gosh, I wonder if it's like the gray-face bug of Skyrim, the Alt + F4 thing. Like, I wonder if it's that simple of a fix. Guess I'll find out when I jump on my gaming rig in a half-hour or so.

I played around with names in my head last week like I usually do: Janey Tore, Jen E. Torr, etc. Janna Torr won.

This'll be my third story in which one of my people gets a job. Sarah Phimm became a cook/waitress in Skingrad, Laprima became a bar wench in Solitude, and now Vicious is going to bec---.. well, don't wanna spoil entirely. Something about landing a job and going through a few repetitive days tends to settle the anticipation, before X occurs.



Oh it'll be more involved than caps...


@Acadian: Oh yeah, well Aspiration's going to become a better friend than those raiders. It's like comparing the druggy losers I hung with in high school to someone who's got broader intentions than just getting loaded/causing trouble. My friend Jennifer in high school was one of these 'real' friends I had, before she got brainwashed by the Witnesses. And she equates to Aspiration.

Yes, that's right. Your military career might be getting some flashbacks. Maybe you can help me with a few terms I'm unfamiliar with. Like, what is the name of the "wheel" which opens sealed doors, like the one Tan used to get into her room?


@Lopov: Welcome back. Well, you've been lurking behind the scenes, but I meant here in the forums, pard'ner.

Indeed, landing a job (IF she lands one...) will help with her addiction problems, but it's going to go further than that, as we'll see.

Ha ha, yeah, Stace's nose is pretty messed up! When I make NPCs sometimes I'll just click on facial features in the GECK and just randomly push sliders around. Can't really see what they actually look like until in the game.



I did add that room, yes. It includes a door which autolocks after 30 days have passed, until payment is made to Stace to reopen the place, as described in this post. It also includes an activator which can be manipulated to turn lights on and off, as per this idea.

Gonna do some gaming in a few. After coffee...

Episode 60: Janna Torr

Date: Thursday, September 27, 2277

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


Our protagonist awakes early the next morning. There are no windows in her small rented Rivet City room, so she relies on her handheld Pip Boy device for time. And it's 8:32 AM. Which is fine. She hasn't just slept through the morning (and now it's past noon). She plans on making the most of today.

First things first: let's clean this room. All around are shelves, and on these shelves are an assortment of items. Some of these items are useful, such as a box of Dandy Boy Apples and other foodstuffs, other items are trash. She eats the apples, gagging a bit because they're so sugary. But at the moment this pre-processed crap seems like the breakfast of champions. Actual food, instead of some other substance she might normally wake up to.

She then begins to sort the trash. There's an empty barrel next to the door, and this becomes the room's dedicated trash container. The stacks of rotted-out books for instance, too degraded to read. Zillions of old books can be found all across the Wasteland of course, because that's where they'd been placed ages ago by some ancient readers. But why are there stacks of them in here?

Into the trash barrel they go, along with the empty cans and bottles. Later on, Tan will find a place to dispose this rubbish. Hopefully Rivet City has some sort of trash compactor, or even a barrel where refuse gets burned.

She leaves her room, entering the bar next door. Belle Bonny is wandering around, looking weary. "Morning. And how was your night?" Belle asks. She seems more pleasant than she was the previous evening, perhaps because now she knows her storage room tenant isn't some lunatic. Hadn't gotten sloshed the night before, picking fights with a whirl of fists. Or maybe because it's morning, which means the bar is nice and quiet.

"Hey, I'm good. These were in my room though," Tan says, handing the four full bottles of beer she'd found while cleaning. "I don't want them. I don't drink....alcohol anymore. Maybe I'll have some water later."

"Water, heh. You sure drink a lot of water." To Taneesha's surprise, Belle takes the beers, and then pays a bottlecap for each. Perhaps to reward for honesty. "I'll be right here when ya get thirsty," she says slyly. "For water, of course."

Yikes. Time to go! Tan doesn't stick around the Rudder. By now her nerves are agitated, her thoughts scattering wildly, due to the nicotine and narcotics her body's expecting, yet hasn't received. Her left arm feels as though invisible bugs are beginning to crawl all over. Yeah, let's get out of here. As the door upstairs clunks shut for instance, the resulting thud booms within her head, seemingly louder than it should. And the bar's right here! It'd be all too easy to temper her cravings with a shot of whatever, then spend the rest of the day in an inebriated state. So she moves upstairs quickly.

The night before, Aspiration had told Tan that Rivet City does have a doctor in the house, somewhere in the upper deck. "Hope he's able to dispense addiction cures," Tan mutters.

Megaton, for instance, has its very own doctor as well: Doc Church. She'd been able to get totally clean after he'd fixed her with a shot of Coldturkease. - Her immaculate veins and clear head hadn't lasted long at the time though, only because she'd been tempted as soon as she returned to raider society. But now things are different. Now she's no longer around that temptation; those losers can kiss her *behind* for all she cares!

In the Stairwell, Taneesha searches frantically for the door which leads to Rivet City's Clinic, and is pleasantly surprised to learn the ship has its very own place of worship: Saint Monica's Church.

"No way! Hope they worship our actual God in the sky, not some stupid bomb," she says, referring to the undetonated atomic warhead which to this day still rests in the center of Megaton. During her childhood at the temple she'd been forced to follow their beliefs, which'd become less plausible in her mind as she'd grown to become a teenager. But now, as a young adult, it wouldn't hurt to at least reevaluate some spiritual priorities. If anything, attending the church might lead to meeting like-minded individuals.

"As long as they don't go preaching door-to-door."

But that can come later. She continues up the stairwell from Mid Deck to Upper Deck.

"Good to see you," a scroungy woman in a dirty wifebeater greets.

"Really? Uh, I mean, good to see you too."

Tan locates the door leading to Upper Deck. Inside, there's a sign leading to the clinic. She strides purposely in this direction, pausing only to see if the water fountain she encounters on her left actually works. And yep, it does. The water's dirty of course, but the fountain operates, and its product is free. She'll be drinking a lot of water today, now that she knows this.

She continues following signs, makes a right and then another, until she locates the clinic. Passes through its door, which is open. Before her is a gray-haired man wearing a dingy white coat and glasses. "This is a medical clinic," says the man, stating the obvious. "And I am Doctor Preston. Please do not disturb any of my patients."

Taneesha looks around. Doesn't see any patients, so she closes the door behind her. "Hey, I need help. With uh, trying to get clean from chems."

"I thought you had the look about you," Preston says aloud, and with a bit of condescension. Which makes Tan glad she'd shut that door. "Sure I can help you." His fee is fifty caps.

The doctor's attitude may include some smugness but at least his service is good. It doesn't take long for the shot of Coldturkease he injects into her arm to take full effect, after which Taneesha's cravings vanish entirely. The rawness of her nerves, the hunger of her vascular system, both diminish to nil! Her thoughts go from distractable to clearheaded! The monkey on her back goes off to wherever such monkeys go, after they've been kicked from a host's body.

"Thank you Doctor Preston. I won't be back for another shot."

"Mm, that's what they all say," he says, shaking his head.

"Yeah? Well maybe part of it's because y'all got a market stall dedicated to that crap. A vicious circle of addicts getting clean, then walking down the *freaking* hall to get dirty again."

The doctor starts to say something, but Tan puts up her hand. "Talk to it," she says. Overall, she feels good. Number three on her three-point checklist, crossed off! She can hardly believe it. Taneesha feels like dancing right here in the clinic, but refrains from doing so, of course. Perhaps later in the day she'll find her way outside, to one of the ship's enormous outer decks, where she can jump and shout with joy.

But for now, her next task, coming right up. After a few wrong turns she makes her way back to where it all started: back to the market. Returns to Gary's Galley.

"Have a seat anywhere, someone will be right with you," says a man with a cig in his hand. Taneesha does this.

"Welcome to Gary's Galley," says Angela, the same waitress from the day before. Taneesha orders some squirrel bits this time. As she waits for lunch to come she gazes pensively toward A Quick Fix once again. And is glad to discover the hold the place no longer holds power over her. It's just another market stall.

"Did you hear about the fight in the Muddy Rudder last night?" asks a security guard wearing a full helmet.

"Yeah," says Angela. "Belle's going to need to replace some tables and chairs."

"Ah, I'm sure she'll just scrounge some from the Lower Deck," the guard answers before walking away.

Funny. Tan hadn't heard anything amiss last night while inside her room. Must've slept like a rock.

Breakfast arrives, and she munches it down. All the while, she keeps an eye upon Janna Torr, the custodian Aspiration told her about the day before. Janna's on duty, broom in hand, though she doesn't do much sweeping. Taneesha finishes her meal. Time to seek employment, if any such thing actually exists here in Rivet City.

She gets up and puts on an open face. Approaches the woman, who glances up from the market's floor with a frown.

"Hello, are you Miss Janna Torr?" Tan asks while beaming an incredibly goofy smile. The smile is one of the suggestions she'd read in an old Zorbes business magazine she'd discovered in the temple crawlspace as a child: Top 10 Ways to Impress Your Prospective Boss. Although Tan can no longer remember them all, one of these suggestions was a 'firm handshake'. Another: 'Act as though you've already got the job'. You're supposed to visualize yourself already working in whatever office, whatever accountant firm, and so on, radiating confidence even if you'd spent the entire previous night worried and restless.

"Well, I'm Missus Torr," the woman responds, nudging the dustpan at her feet. "Got a man somewhere's around here if ya look hard enough." She chuckles, which seems to be a good sign. "And you are?"

"My name's Taneesha. Taneesha Jones. I'm new here in Rivet City."

"Mm hmm, ain't never seen you before, I got that. And how may I help you, Taneesha Jones?"

"Well I been told you might need some assistance."

"Assistance? Doing what?"

"Um, well you are the ah, superintendent here in Rivet City? Wondering if I can assist you. A job, that is. Helping you clean, that is."

"Ah, now, here's something," Janna chuckles again. "Some folks call me the cleaning lady, some folks call me Jan the janitor. Ain't never had nobody call me 'superintendent', HA!"

Taneesha's confidence slips a notch, as she's unable to read Janna Torr's body language. Was that a 'good' laugh, leading to further conversation? Or more of a scoff? Leading to basically nowhere.

"But it's okay. I like that term, 'superintendent'. Makes me sound important!"

"I see," Tan replied, undeterred yet unsure. Nevertheless, she ploughs on. "So what do you say? Might I be of any help?"

"Listen honey," Janna continues, sweeping some random dustbunnies, "the main thing about Rivet City when it comes to 'work' like this," she says, miming quotation marks with her fingers. "Ain't nobody's really in charge. Like, nobody TELLS me what to do on a day-to-day basis, I just one day picked up a broom and started sweeping. Five years and some odd months later, here I am. Ever'body thinks I'm the cleaning lady."

"Really?"

"Mm hmm. And you can do the same. One thing you may've noticed by now; nobody on this ship bothers much to pick up after themselves."

"Yes! I have noticed!" Taneesha giggles. So someone IS aware of the messiness.

"Buncha lazy *butts* 'round here, right?"

"Right! But what about getting paid? Does anybody pay us?" Jones asks, very conscious of the fact she's now using an inclusive pronoun rather than the singular form (I) she'd spoken before.

"Paid? As in caps?" -- Janna laughs aloud. She laughs for a good ten seconds or so, slapping her knee for full effect, leading Taneesha to worry she's just 'blown' the 'interview' for good. But then the superintendent calms down.

"Looky here," Janna says, her voice hushed. "No one's really officially pays, not any of the city's officials, that is. But if ya want, you can return to me directly with any rubbish you collect, and I'll pay you caps m'self."

"You'll pay me? Really?"

"Mm hmm, here's the deal," she continues conspiratorially, keeping her voice low, as though what she's about to say is some huge, covert secret. "See, certain items on this ship, trash that is, I know where to take it. And someone -- I won't mention who -- will then use these items for a sort of, ah, program. Dude recycles this garbage somehow, and I get paid directly from him, see?"

"Sure," Taneesha says, not really seeing at all.

"You bring me any of the following: empty bottles, empty cans, old, worn-out books..."

"Books?" Taneesha asks, delighted because she'd just disposed of a stack of books back in her room, along with a bunch of empties.

"Mm hmm. Bring 'em to me. Can't pay you much, but you'll earn yourself a few caps here, a few caps there."

"Great! I can do this." The moment seems destined. All over the Rivet City she'd seen all kinds junk. She'd have plenty to do. "I can't believe more folks don't know about your secret."

"Shh. And here," Janna Torr says, handing Taneesha the broom. "You're hired. And in that cab'net over there you'll find some Abraxo Cleaner, some detergent, some turpentine, and so on. Hop to it girl. Let's make Rivet City sparkle! ... Or try to, best ya can, cleaning up after these goof-offs."

"Yes, ma'am," Rivet City's newest custodian, its second custodian in the last five years, answers. She sets off to her first day on the job as though she'd just won a lottery. "Heck, I might even get rich."

Since the market seems to be Janna Torr's domain, Taneesha aims herself toward the ship's stairwell. From here she spends the rest of the day, exploring Rivet City's rooms and corridors, cleaning up after the ship's numerous litterbugs with fervor.

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

Doctor Preston

Janna Torr

Ship door wheelie things. Some doors on ships are designed to seal watertight. Those doors are called hatches. When you close the hatch, you can then ‘dog down’ (usually four) metal tabs called dogs. These dogs are arrayed around the hatch frame and are dogged down to seal the hatch tight by either a wheel or a handle about as long as your arm. The wheel is actually a ‘dogging wheel’ but generally referred to as simply a wheel.


Cold turkease.

Nice to see Tan focusing on beating her addiction and taking the right steps to do so. I wish her luck!

And a job! One person’s trash is another’s caps.

She seems off to a great start in Ribbet Shitty!

That is right, Fallout does have addiction curing medication. That would be a handy thing to have in the real world. Coldturkease!

So the Doc kicked the monkey off her back. That will make things a lot easier for Tan. Now that she has her room cleaned up, and her body cleaned up, all that is left from her to do list is to get a job of some sort.

I have in fact noticed, that no one on that damn ship cleans up after themselves. There is trash everywhere.

Now I see what Janna Tor is not a very good cleaning lady. She just walks around with a broom. She never actually cleans anything, because no one pays her to!

Ahh, so there is someone paying for certain things. I wonder if that is the old Doctor in the broken bow?

Well, that does it, Taneesha has a real job, a place to stay, and is cleaned up. I guess the story is over then. Wait! Not so fast. I suspect that her adventures in Rivet City have only just begun. She just needs a good call to adventure to get her motivated.

Rivet City just got another cleaning lady. Maybe it's time for a new nickname. Miss Clean and Delicious?



I guess that's better than putting on a closed face.

Let's hope that the Quick Fix remains just another stall.



We should be thankful that Janna didn't that just one day pick up the minigun instead of the broom.

I keep forgetting to do this during weekend comments, so I'll do it now. Just wanted to give a shout to a couple real-world stories which have partially influenced Miss Vicious over the years.

1). Zone One, by Colson Whitehead. This is a typical zombie apocalypse story; the virus which isn't contained, the experiments 'gone wrong' and all the typical themes we see in modern zombie stories. The main influence I've gained from Zone One is 1). it's a humorous story, yet also believable; it's not a total joke like American Zombie. and 2). The New York area comes across as similar to the Capital Wasteland. Some devices work, others become doorstoppers, or artistic expressions of interest, and so on.

Every machine Taneesha comes across for instance: the water fountain she discovered in RC, the intercom she used when she first arrived at the unseen bridge, etc., the question always comes up: Does this device/appliance/product work? -- It's not like today's world, in which nearly everything we see in our daily lives functions. And if it doesn't, someone often puts an "Out of Order' sign upon it.

All around Zone One (which is an area in NYC where they're attempting to contain the zombie menace) are reminders of former civilization, similar to the Fallout world.

2). Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel. All the 'Emily books' are great, but the others she's written feature modern life situations close to our times. One of her books goes into the future, where people are living in outer space, somewhere near the moon. But Station Eleven is the only Emily book which is truly apocalyptic, in the sense that civilization has almost completely ended. Less than 1% of the world's population survived, and so on.

Again, it's similar to Fallout's world, but unlike Zone One (and Fallout 3 itself), Station Eleven isn't humorous at all. It's Emily's blend of stark realizations and intense speculations about the world around the story's characters that makes everything ultra-believable. And scary. Some future chapters of Vicious won't necessarily be scary, but they'll be nudged somewhat that way, I'm hoping.

@Lopov: Oh yeah, Tan's not feeling like she needs A Quick Fix anymore. When she looks at the place now, or if she smells someone smoking a cigarette, it's like she's back to being sixteen again, before she got hooked on that junk. So... a mild curiosity is what she's experiencing (I imagine) which is better than being a raging junky.

In real-life Keith Richards from the Rolling Stones was known for getting blood transfusions. He'd get his blood replaced, moving all the heroin out of his body, so he could go right back for more. Fortunately Tan's not going to follow that route.


@SubRosa: Coldturkease is not one of my silly names, just so ya know, that name comes from Better Living Through Chems.

Yes indeed. Trash everywhere in the Wasteland, right? Sure, in the raider hangouts or super mutant camps I can see them being beyond messy. Or in some old abandoned dwelling, maybe nobody's cleaned up over the past 200 years, and there are plenty of abandoned property vids on YT that reflect such a thing can actually happen. But trash in Rivet City and Megaton??? Sure, there's gonna be a slob here and there, but nobody cleans after themselves in civilized CW areas?

And I know you feel the same way about giant spider webs in Skyrim! 🕸 Webs in Dawnguard's castle, nobody wants to detangle them, really??



Yep, that's the end of the story, thank you, good night!


@Acadian: Ah, thanks much. So every time she goes into her rented room, she is dogging down, I'll see if I can work that term into the story.



Taneesha appreciates.


RECAP: Acadian is posting quick recaps and I think it's a good idea as well. Not much to post for this week; things aren't so complicated yet....

Episode 61: Ship Shape


Thursday, 11:40 AM
First thing she does after getting hired is something most new employees would never consider: Taneesha goes home. Back to her rented room in the Muddy Rudder, that is. She gathers all the things she'd thrown away a few hours ago: the rotted books, the empty cans and bottles, a couple pieces of scrap metal. All this trash gets stuffed into her empty Feebok® bag.

"There we go..."

Her plan to tackle the boat's mess then radiates backward: from her room back to the market, cleaning as she goes before returning to Janna Torr.

"So. Whatcha got for me hmm?"

Taneesha earns just over thirty caps for the haul ...Which pleases her to no end! See? It is possible to earn money without being shady or vicious, thinks the former Miss Vicious. All those years with the raiders, almost her entire 'income' was 'earned' stealing and looting. Stealing from other raiders after they'd passed out drunk or whatever, but also stealing from innocent people. Breaking into their homes at night, burglarizing Moriartys or Craterside Supply or from that weird Nuka Cola chick who lives in the middle of nowhere, looting lots from Tenpenny Tower, where most folks didn't lock their doors.

'Thou shalt not steal'; it's the Seventh Commandment for Christ's sake, right in every existing copy of the Bible ever published! So what the heck happened these past couple years? How had she gone from strict schoolgirl to thieving thug?

Well those days are over thinks, she. Those days are now a mere blemish upon her memory. From now on, she's going to back the pious do-gooder she'd once been, that's right.

After bringing in her first haul, she wonders where she'll clean next. Well first, she checks her Pip Boy. 12:39 PM it says. Hmm. She's hungry. "Every worker gets a lunch break right?" she asks no one in particular. "Think I'll take mine right now." Janna Torr's already slouching on her broom, gabbing to some resident in a jumpsuit. What's the rush to get back into it? thinks Tan. So yeah, time for a break.

She has a seat at Gary's Galley, Angela rushes right over. "May I take your order?" Taneesha goes for some wild punga fruit this time. Fourteen caps, which is a little pricey. But heck, let's celebrate a little.

"One of the new immigrants died of radiation poisoning last week," an elder gentleman with a whiney voice states nearby.

"Yeah," Angela replies. "I heard she was drinking river water."

"The ship's water isn't much better!" the gentleman complains. "We don't get fresh water soon, we'll all end up like her."

Angela doesn't reply.

Tan counts her earnings while waiting for her meal. Thirty-three caps. Nowhere near the hundreds she'd pocketed under the employ of Slick Rick, or nearly a thousand she'd earned after stealing those ancient bearer bonds for the Dogmaster, but hey. Today's meager allotment of caps represents a new a way of life, which is honest and fastidious, and respectable.

"I just hope it's also sustainable," she mutters.

Months from now, will she still be able to gather easy wages from collecting the junk others toss behind? What'll happen if they all start cleaning after themselves? -- Ah, but such concerns are for the future. And maybe there are other tasks she can become involved, here in Rivet City.

"It was so noisy last night, I could hardly sleep," Angela says to a security guard.

"Maybe A Quick Fix can help," the guard suggests. "Cindy's got all kinds of good chems."

"I-- I'll try that," Angela says nervously.

Taneesha Jones does her best not to speak up as she slurps her silly fruit cup meal.






5:43 PM
A moment of sad mention occurs later, after Tan takes a walk up the stairwell and finds herself atop one of the ship's outer decks. She does this partially so she can begin to memorize the city's confusing layout, partially so she can perform her little dance of sobriety.

It'd been raining out here earlier in the day, everything still slick with water. Surprisingly, there are lots of old airplanes on the deck. She gets curious, exploring these ancient metal birds, which once flew all over the world.

"Might want to watch where you walk," a security guard warns after Taneesha gets close to the edge of a plankway. "Woman fell from right where you're standing, just a few days ago. Her name was Emily. Poor Emily weren't watchin' where she was going. Made a misstep; fell down into the nethers below."

"Oh gosh, that's horrible!"

"Maybe you'd survive and get lucky, fall into the river, that is. Poor Emily, seems that weren't her fate."

"Hey, I'll watch my step," Jones promises.

----------

Friday, September 28
The custodian from Ellicott City takes two shifts on this day: morning and afternoon. She moves from Lower Deck to Midship Deck, and from Midship to Upper Deck. She earns an incredible seventy-eight caps for her three-hour morning shift, from all the glass she picks up in The Muddy Rudder and Weatherly Hotel alone, and is paid another fifty-four during the afternoon.

Belle Bonnie is all kinds of pleased once she notices her new tenant disposing of the numerous empty bottles and flasks around her joint. "You're making me look bad!" she caws at one point. Tan plays the radio in her handheld Pip Boy 2500 device as she works; ancient songs from the distant past: James Frown, En Rogue, Depressed Mode, and so on. From what she's heard, lots of blue collar workers worked entire shifts while listening to upbeat tunes, while those from the upper classes were stuck with 'elevator music' and cheesy jazz tunes.

"Hey there."

Along the way, she gets into occasional conversations with various Rivet City residents, learning bits of gossip here and there. From Vera Weatherly, owner of the Weatherly Hotel, Tan learns that Pauli Cantelli is addicted to chems. "Her poor wife Cindy is at her wits end," Vera blabs while the cleaning lady gathers more empties.

"Mmph, is it really so surprising?" Taneesha replies, getting into the spirit of slander. "The Cantellis own A Quick Fix after all. Doesn't shock me they both dipping into their own wares, mm mmm." With the casual way she handles smalltalk it's as though she's already a Rivet City resident. "Well, back to work!"

"Farewell, and thanks so much for your service!"

Midship and Upper Decks include the rooms and dorms of many Rivet City residents. Under certain circumstances, Tan doesn't restrict her cleaning from these areas. If a door's been left ajar for example and no one's around, she'll slip herself quietly in, tidying without permission.

"It's locked for a reason," guards occasionally inform, assuming they notice her eyeing a locked door.

But they needn't concern themselves. She's not about to get her bobby pin/penknife set, picking locks and invading privacy, just for a couple extra caps! - She never actually steals. Still, she refuses to consider doors which've been left open as off-limits. If no one's inside, the custodian's gonna do her job! is her attitude. Interestingly, it's the moments when she's going after a can or a couple tossed-aside empties in someone's unattended room; it's these moments which are most reminiscent of her hoodlum days, gotta be honest. Sneaking around, listening for nearby footfalls... Taneesha can't help but admit she enjoys the prickling adrenaline she experiences.

"Is that a sin? All I'm going is my job," she insists, speaking to the nearest wall.

In the Common Room, the dorm which'd been designated for anyone to sleep in by RC officials (caps or no caps) Taneesha meets Mei Wong, a paranoid woman who immediately jumps when the cleaning lady shuffles by. "Forgive me. I used to be a slave," Mei explains, keeping her voice low. "And I saw a slaver on this ship earlier today. A man named Sister."

"His name is Sister?" Mei's got Jones's attention. "Hey, no worries. I won't tell him you are here."

"Really? Oh thank you!"

"Seriously, are you okay?" Tan asks.

And just like that, Mei Wong asks the janitor for help. "I've been so worried with him around. I can't sleep at night!"

Why does Wong confide in Taneesha? Is it because she senses a certain toughness the former raider exudes?

"Hey," Jones replies. "Maybe I can uh... do something about this Sister." Even as a raider, she'd loathed the idea of slaving innocent people. "Not promising anything, but it ain't right this dude Sister should be expanding his business on our ship. So you's saying the guards ain't doing nothing about the slaver?"

"No!" Wong shivers. "And I... I am at your mercy!"

"Well I don't know about that. Pretty sure I know where this slaver Sister lives, though..." she mutters. Earlier in the day she'd checked his room for trash. Not that she'll do anything about the douchebag. Right? Maybe just have a little... talk with the fellow, if she happens to meet him somewhere. Right? That's all. Just a little talk.

Back to work. The ship has its own Science Lab, as well as a museum called the Capitol Preservation Society, which is dedicated to documenting America's past. She doesn't have the space within her bag to clean these areas yet, but they're on her list for sure.


Friday, 2:02 PM
Curiosity is killing Tan about Saint Monica's Church. Eventually she finds the place; a rectangular room without a door, open to the public. The church has rows of uncomfortable-looking metal benches which serve as pews, and a pedestaled altar to the far right. As inferred, Saint Monica's holds particular interest for Tan, especially given her upbringing. After speaking with Father Clifford, the church's priest, she is pleased to learn his doctrine is definitely Christian. No weirdo congregants worshipping bombs or reverently discussing 'Atom's glow' while they bathe themselves in radioactive water, none of that bull*crap* jive.

"Monica is the patron saint of lost children," Father Clifford explains to the former Jehovah's Witness member.
"Very popular among the faithful of Rivet City. I'm surprised you've never heard of her!"

At some point Taneesha learns this 'Monica' was a ghoul, not a fully-fleshed human with unblemished skin, but so what? She's psyched for worship. Sets her Pip Boy's alarm for Sunday/7AM, so she'll be sure to make it to Clifford's sermon on time.

Other than this, there isn't much to look forward to in the life of Taneesha Jones. She's got her daily routine of cleaning, breakfast and supper at Gary's, and goofing off with Aspiration after hours. Which is just the way she likes it.


Friday, 8:44 PM
With the day done, she returns to The Muddy Rudder, and is surprised to find Father Clifford lecturing, right in the middle of the bar. "This is not a safe place for your soul!" he warns Belle's patrons, finger wagging. "Do not be tempted by the sins of vile liquor in this den of iniquity."

"I'll say when I've had enough, so *procreate* off!" says one of Belle's regulars, an obstinate woman who always seems to be here in the bar.

"Hey, don't look at me, Father," Taneesha says to the priest. "This is water. And I aim to be at your sermon on Sunday."

"Bless you, dear," the priest says, before turning to the bar's counter. "Belle, you are an unwitting servant of the devil. I admonish you to clean up this conduit to hell, or else..."

"Not gonna happen," Belle growls. "Every week you come down here preaching this crap. If you keep bothering my customers I'll have Brock throw you out. Again."

"Your sins call me down here," Clifford protests. "I aim to perform the Lord's work, wherever He calls for my help."

"That's a load of crap. Preach if you have to but don't bother my customers."

"I've heard enough for one night," Brock, the Rudder's bouncer snarls. "Time for you to go, buddy." He escorts the priest up the stairs, thankfully without resistance.

"Phew," Taneesha Jones, unbelieving. "I mean. I'm still going to church on Sunday, but damn. This guy's just as persistent as a Witness, but without any doors to knock, and pissed-off dwellers to get slammed by."

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

Saturday, early morning
She wakes early and gets dressed. For the first time in a long time, Taneesha realizes she's no longer packing. Isn't carrying a shotgun on her back, not even a knife from her belt. For the past three days, her weapons have been stored inside a locker within her rented room. And she can't foresee needing to walk around 'hot', not while she's living within Rivet City.

So it comes as a surprise when on this very day, just as she's making her way down a corridor to begin her shift, that she finds herself wishing she'd had one of her pieces at the ready. Jones notices a shady figure approaching, a man wearing Prewar military clothes. Whoever he is, he's approaching fast, and the corridor they're both in is narrow.

Taneesha strafes to the left, the man strafes left. Taneesha sashays to the right, the man sashays right. Eventually, it becomes one of those awkward 'elevator' moments we've all experienced in modern life: two people, standing slightly within each others' personal space, suddenly at an impasse.

"Excuse me," Taneesha says shyly, thinking the dude will welcome her pardon. Because why wouldn't he? She's the lady; welcoming her pardon is the polite thing for a man to do.

But he doesn't welcome her pardon. Doesn't step aside saying 'after you'. Instead, it seems he's blocking her path.

"Miss Vicious?" the man asks quietly. "Uh, you are Miss Vicious, aren't you?"


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

The Cleaning Lady gettin' Shady

Janna Torr accepting books

Father Clifford

Dining with Mei Wong

Lopov grabs the camera...

Mystery Man Approaches

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

Notes: 1). Taneesha's 'job' works through the GECK's GetItemCount function. She's able to turn over one item (one bottle, one can, one scrap metal, one book, even cigarettes!) at a time, and earn a fixed amount of caps for each. Similar to when we turn over Vampire Dust to the Order of Virtuous Blood in Cyrodiil. "Excellent. Another vampire has been slain, here's your reward."

2). Lopov & Sub know that in Fallout 3, all the things Tan turns over to Janna Torr can also be sold to vendors, but Janna pays more. Plus it's more fun that my toon's got a job.

3). Acadian & Florens: Emily was one of Lopov's characters. Fell to her demise after not watching where she was going.

A wonderful ‘Day in the life of’ episode as Tanesha goes about her new job turning trash into caps.

A slaver in Blivet Kitty? Or is Mei Wong appropriately named, and mistaken?

Uh-oh, another dude somehow familiar with Tanesha’s vicious past. . . .

OMG Emily! I'm surprised that you still remember her, it's probably been more than 10 years, since I had this character in FO3. But you're right, she was walking on the deck while it was already getting dark and apparently she didn't see a hole and fell down...as the residents correctly recall, she didn't land into the water. Probably one of the silliest deaths of my characters but it was DiD, so I didn't reload.

Saint Monica was a ghoul?

I don't remember ever seeing the priest down in Muddy Rudder!

I love that black & white pic on the deck, it's awesome!

Taneesha Jones doing some honest work. I hope that she doesn't stray away from the determined path...but another cliff hanger makes me think, that something is about to change in the life of Miss Vicious. Speaking of - was this thread always named Miss Vicious? Or was it formerly Miss Vicious Delicious and got renamed?

Just to clarify, Mei Wong's a vanilla gal, not one of my silly-named NPCs. The slaver is a guy named Sister. Janet also took Sister down as per this post.

Here's a specific picture of Sister's last moment. I'm not 100% sure Taneesha will also have the time to deal with him, her story's about to get really busy, so we'll see.


Lopov: I did some research on Monica, and found she was a ghoul.

The priest in the Muddy Rudder is something I've never seen either! He's got a lot of dialog down there! Not only did he try to sermonize Belle, he also preached to Trixie, the alcoholic floozie who's always asking us to buy her a drink. And Trixie cursed him out! -- There was even more dialog than this, though... All of it was scripted yet it was better than Skyrim's dialog scenes because it felt unique. Didn't repeat over and over like the scenes in Skyrim's inns.

That entire scene caught me off guard. I was doing the final edit of the story and gaming in real-time when all of that happened, and so I had to write it up.

More comments later this week, but I wanted to clarify those first.

Well look at that, Taneesha is earning an honest living after all.

Sounds like Rivet City needs a supply of purified water. Do I smell a quest coming in the near future?

Looks like Rivet City is like the Galactic Empire in Star Wars. No OSHA or other other safety regulations. Bottomless pits yawning right next to the places people walk, and not even a safety rail. Watch where you step.

I was always partial to the music of Han Valen, Hammy Sagar, and Sob Begar myself...

I have always wondered if Mei is related to Ada Wong?

Tan is definitely getting the lay of the land now. She's meeting people, and learning about some of their dark histories, re: Ada and the slaver, and Santa Monica.

Looks like its time for the Father to procreate off! Daddy Cliff sounds like he's a big downer.

Uh oh, a mysterious man in a suit has come for Miss V. I wonder if it is Mr. Burke? He's the first suit-clad person I can think of in the Capital Wasteland. Now that I see the picture, nope. But I look forward to seeing who it is.

I am probably going to be going away this weekend, so gonna post the story early, maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow morning. But it's no rush to read. Take your time.

@cadian: thanks for keeping up with Vicious; I know Fallout and the genre it portrays within are not your first loves, so it's lovely that you have been choosing to support. Sorry that last episode ran longer too. There's a lot of looniness in Rivet City (last episode was just a slice of the pie), I felt it was important to capture at least some of it while my gal is on the boat.

The next episode and probably all others which follow shall be more focused.


@opov: And now that you've revealed to me the entire story of Emily, in a way I'm glad I didn't know it all beforehand. Just 'cause it would've been hard not to write it up along with everything else which got described. Perhaps more of Emily's tale shall come out in the future.

The black & white pic is actually in color. I've got a weather mod (because we've got other weather than dry in Maryland/Virginia/D.C., goshdarnit!) and it'd just finished raining when she went out on the deck. There was a bit of mist in the air, which made most of the color evaporate.

wish I'd taken a picture of all the planes on the outer deck, too.



Oh yes it is. She's about to meet X, who tells her to go to X so she can meet X.

I had Moderator Acadian change the name of the story, the 'Delicious' part of her name always bothered me in some way. Kind of yicch, I guess.


Florens: Indeed, my toon's got a job. And yes, you do smell one heck of a quest coming in the near future.

Yeah, Sammy Van Hagar rules!

I don't know Ada Wong but she looks badass! I'd say Mei Wong is more on the mousey side. Taneesha's going to try to help Mei with the slaver problem by the way, but probably not for a few more episodes.

That whole scene with Father Clifford in the Muddy Rudder actually happened, in fact I was actually done writing by the time that occurred! But that scene (and the ensuing dialog....) I just had to capture some of it. Brock even escorted Clifford out the door at the end; the AI a Bethesda dev wrote had Brock literally pushing the priest up the stairs and out the door.



No madam, not mister Burke. You shall meet the guy in just a sec.


RECAP: Taneesha Jones gets a job and performs it diligently, and with enthusiasm. But her past cannot keep from coming back to haunt her...

Episode 62: Lamont Stamford

Date: Saturday, September 29, 11:34 AM


"Miss Vicious?" the man standing before her asks quietly. "Uh, you are Miss Vicious, aren't you?"

*Crap...*





Taneesha doesn't answer, but her mind begins speculating. Who the hell is this? Not anyone she wants to associate with, if he knows her by that name.

The man is dark-skinned. He's got a moustache and his hair looks processed. He smells a bit flowery. Is he wearing cologne? And is wearing what looks to be Prewar military clothing, pressed and starched. She might find him attractive under other circumstances; he is rather handsome. But he knows her by that name.

"I am Lamont Stamford," he extends a hand. "Pleased to meet you, Miss Vicious. Heard a lot about you, actually."

"Mm, sorry, but you're looking for a Miss Vicious?" she does not shake his hand. "'fraid you got the wrong woman, I'm just the cleaning lady. Now if you'll excuse me, I must continue my rounds."

Rather than come across as gruff or belligerent (expected within raider society), Tan uses her brand-new 'singsong' voice as she speaks, which'd sort of 'materialized' the day before while picking up recyclables and sweeping floors. Light and pleasant, her new method of speaking has taken the former raider by surprise. She's enjoying her work while interacting with various Rivet City residents, which'd shown in the way she'd communicated.

"Look, okay," Lamont replies, raising his palm. "But uh, let's stop playing games. You're Miss Vicious, we know this. And I'm here to tell you that someone special wants to speak with you."

The man sounds truly apologetic, maybe a little embarrassed.

"Well tell this ... 'someone' ... he or she or whomever... they got it wrong. I am not Miss Vicious, nor do I know anyone by that name. I'm just the cleaning lady." Taneesha beams a smile. "Ain't gonna tell you who I am. And what kind of a name is that anyway? 'Miss Vicious?' Sounds like a damn psychopath."

"Okay, so look. I come from Dogmaster," Stamford reveals, laying his first card onto the table. Three of Clubs, perhaps. "Mm hmm, the big D.C. raider boss. I come from him."

The man seems to be searching for some sort of reaction from her, a tell, perhaps. But by now, Taneesha has noticed something. Lamont (at first) had asked her identity, you are Miss Vicious, aren't you? -- A question rather than a statement. Therefore, his Three of Clubs could possibly be a bluff.

"Dogmaster? Sorry, but who's that?"

Lamont's face becomes a smirk. "'Who is Dogmaster?' she asks evasively, like this is a game. Hey, guess I don't blame ya for trying, Vicious."

"Um, sir, you really need to allow me to continue my rounds..."

"Look. We really need your help," Stamford replies, laying out another card. "And as you know, Dogmaster's willing to pay. Like.. a LOT of caps, if you agree to help us."

Taneesha says nothing. Pushes her broom a bit. All around them the ship continues to creak, unseen ventilation fans and generators continue to hum.

"I can't reveal all the details, not in here anyway. You'll have to come to Georgetown to find out more. But one thing for sure: you do this mission, and you'll be rich," he smiles. "Set for life, in fact. You could come back here and buy this entire ship if they'll let you. So what you say, love? You interested?"

Love, the man just called her.

"Listen chump," says Jones quietly, her pleasant sing-songy gone. "You'd best get out MY way so I can tend to my rounds. Got a lot to do..." Dag, wish I had my Tazer with me....

"'Chump'?" Stamford places a hand to his heart, genuinely wounded. "Come on now, let's be cordial. There's no need for name-calling."

"You're starting to make the cleaning lady angry, chump," Taneesha declares, hands on hips. "Want to see what happens when the cleaning lady gets angry?"

But Stamford remains undeterred. "Look, we got you, this is fact," he says, again with the same apologetic demeanor. "Couple of your friends squealed your location, alright? Said they'd just escorted you the big RC. And indeed here you are."

...Bratty and Q-tip?

"I don't wanna have to do this," he adds, "but the Dog said maybe this would change your mind..."

Lamont reaches into his shoulder bag, and removes what looks to be a letter-sized piece of paper. "Here, take a look."
He hands it over.

The cleaning lady looks. Studies. Her eyes go wide. The broom she's holding clatters to the floor before she even notices it's been dropped.

"Really sorry," Lamont says. "That I had go there..."

The paper he hands over is actually a photo. A black and white photo, eight by ten, which looks to've been taken with a real, working Prewar camera. Taneesha flips the photo from its emulsion side, looking at its posterior. The photo is dated with a standard camera's font: September 26, 2277. Just three days ago.

"We got a married couple who we convinced to move in," Stamford says with a shrug. "Wasn't that hard really, the couple owes Dogmaster a favor. And if you owe the Dog a favor you do not dare disobey. So they're in there now, living happily in fact, assuming you decide to help us."

The photo portrays a picture, and within this picture are Elder Thom, Elder Wilbur, and several youngsters, all in the middle of late-summer harvest. None of them seem aware that their picture's being taken; they wouldn't tolerate a camera in their midst if they had.

Dammit...HOW?

The Ellicott City Jehovah's Witness Temple can clearly be seen in the background. Dogmaster's trump card. Dogmaster's Ace of Spades perhaps, in a game of Poker.

"See, first we thought it was you that killed Slick Rick," Stamford explains. "Killed him, and all the rest of them *bungholes* living in Springvale School. We didn't like that, see? But Dogmaster, he got an idea to keep you in line. Bring you back. Because even if it was you killed them, the Dog still wants and needs you. Because you are. That. Good," he says, half-sitting on a nearby table, tapping its surface with his fingertips at the end of each punctuation.

"Turns out, wasn't you that took Springvale down, was it? It was that Lone Wanderer *fairy* everyone's been talking about. We know this now. But we still need to make sure you gonna do what we want. Hence, a bit of unfortunate blackmail."

The cleaning lady fumes inside, but says nothing.

"Elder Lovelace has the croup, along with a couple others, that's what our inside couple says. They got sick, but they been quarantined. Looks like they gonna be okay." Lamont's face takes on a look, which (after a moment) Taneesha deduces to be respect. "Really am impressed by the way, the way your religion shuns off proven, modern medicines, sticking to outmoded methods and beliefs instead of Twenty-first century miracle cures. It's rather remarkable, in this day and age where most folks would gobble chems to relieve their suffering."

Taneesha Jones, feeling vicious. Where's my shotgun when I need it?!

"Look, you ain't gotta decide right now. We got some time on this. All you gotta do is come to Georgetown, receive further instructions from the Dog. You've got a week to decide." Lamont Stamford pauses a moment before continuing. "All Dogmaster wants is for you to take out a few scumbags. A westside raider gang who've done Doggy Dog wrong, okay? ... We're not asking you to harm anyone innocent this time, or steal from them. Plus, the Dog, he really wants to meet you. Do this one job and you're off the hook," Lamont says. "Not to mention you'll be very wealthy. After that, you can do whatever you want. Come back here to Rivet City if you want, keep your day job, if you want.

"BUT... you don't want to disobey the Dog, a'ight?"

Taneesha Jones, out of options.

"Young Elsa's a doll, by the way," Lamont adds, creeping Tan the *truck* out. "Got a couple pictures of her too, she's ten now. According to our insiders, Elsa wonders what happened to her pretend big sister, Taneesha Jones? What became of her after she left Centennial Lane to spread the word of God in the Capital Wasteland," Lamont clucks with disapproval. "Seems real fond of you, Elsa does. Seems you were mentoring her before you left and never came back, eh?"

The cleaning lady can't help but grit her teeth as her knuckles whiten.

"Well look, been a pleasure. And no rush. You got a week to decide, so choose wisely. I'm out."

Lamont Stamford walks the way he came, while Taneesha Jones/Vicious has no course of action but the let the man go.

-----------

She spends the rest of her day in deep thought. Pondering. Scheming her brain for some sort of solution while continuing at her job like nothing's wrong. Yet gone is the zest she'd felt the previous day. They know who raised me somehow. Where my family is. Uncertain proof resides in the fact individual names were stated. And it's up to ME to keep my people from harm.

Though she manages to continue her rounds, earning 34 caps on this easygoing Saturday, Taneesha Jones remains glum. Complete opposite to the day before.

"What's up with you?" Aspiration asks later that evening, as they share a table for supper. "Been quiet all day, Taneesha."

"It's nothing."

Aspiration won't accept this answer of course, begins to pelt her friend with questions and demands. "Like hell it's nothing. You got something on your mind, and your best pal Aspiration's gonna find out what it is!"

But Taneesha Jones refuses to elucidate.

-----------

Sunday, 6:48 AM





The next morning she gets dressed in her Sunday best. She then trudges off to Sunday mass, barely eager for worship. Gets there early. Others have already been seated. Father Clifford arrives late to his own service. After some prepping he finally begins, voice whining yet full of purpose. Taneesha pays attention with only half an ear.

"Good morning! So today we are going to have a look at Corinthians II, let's see here. 'And then the Lord said to Monica: For if I make you sorry, who is he then that maketh me glad, but the same which is made sorry by me?'

...And I wrote this same unto you, lest, when I came, I should have sorrow from them of whom I ought to rejoice; having confidence in you all, that my joy is the joy of you all...."

As the priest rambles, Jones's mind begins to wander. Some of these New Testament books could be a borefest in her opinion. But she doesn't put this time to waste; in her mind she says a little prayer. Asks for any sort of guidance regarding the situation at hand. Perhaps throwing her thoughts into the universe might at least provide some genuine inspiration of an answer.

"...Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices...."

Taneesha stifles a yawn. In the end, she concludes she really hasn't any other choice. She'll gather her things and head to Georgetown, later today. Meet the *motherclucking* Dogmaster in person. Maybe once she's in front of the *fleabag* she can then come up with some sort of solution.

As Corinthians II causes a couple folks to straggle out early, Tan has a surprising thought. Realizes there's a part of her which is looking forward to the journey. Yes, that's right. These past few days behind the safety of Rivet City's walls, she finally admits there's a part of her which already misses the action; the question mark of day-to-day survival.

"So yeah, I'm comin' to meet you, Dog," she says quietly as Father Clifford's remaining congregants begin to line up, gushing to thank him for Sunday sermon. (Perhaps relieved it's finally over!)

Taneesha Jones, put on hold for the moment. 'Cause here comes Miss Vicious.


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

Fighter plane - (anyone know what kind of plane this is? )

Lamont's ego gets wounded

Tan has no recourse but to let the chump go...

Lamont heads toward a D.C. metro station

Tan refuses to tell Aspiration her troubles.

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

Notes: 1). Father Clifford showed up to his own church late! He then did not deliver any lines. I had a look in the GECK to see what's up with at this. He's got some scripts which are supposed to make him say a sermon, yet he just stood there. So I had to RP that part. It was funny listening to the church's congregants though. C.J. (a child) said "Mom, I'm bored!" for instance.

2). I really looked hard for an afro hairstyle for Lamont Stamford, so he'd look like the actual guy. Finally found one! But arrgh! It was for Fallout 4. No afro modss for FO3, which surprised me. Anyone knows any different, let me know!

Yes, medieval fantasy is my genre but you're a great writer and loyal supporter of my elf - so I enjoy following your stories. Similar to the situation with SubRosa. She is currently writing an urban (not medieval) fantasy story but, again, she is a great writer and loyal supporter of Buffy.

Oh, I don't recognize that plane. My best guess is that it is a creative invention by the devs.

*

Trapped. By loyalty to her friends. Grrr. So let’s see what Dogbutt wants and evaluate taking him the fetch out. After all, Miss Vicious is That. Good.

I think the plane is just something the developers invented on their own. A quick search says that there were several jet fighters in the Korean War with those pods on the wingtips - the Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star, the Lockheed F-94 Starfire, and the Republic F-84 Thunderjet. The devs were probably inspired by them for the general look.

It's Lamont! He says someone special wants to speak with Miss V? Is that his father, the Emperor of the Wasteland, Fred?

So Lamont works for Dogmaster. I was wondering if he would ever rear his head again. Lamont cleans up good. So he does not seem like your normal raider. He knows how to blend in with normal society, even to the point of smelling nice and doing his hair. So either he is like Vicious, and is good at stepping back and forth between lifestyles, or maybe he's a full time spy for Dogmaster, living the civilian life and reporting back to the boss on what is going on in the legit world.

Uh oh, it sounds like the cleaning lady is about to clean Lamont's clock!

But it looks like Lamont has more than a three of clubs in his hand. He's holding a trump card. The Witnesses in Ellicott City. That's not good. Just when Taneesha thought she was out, they pulled her back in.

Well, the Dogmaster wanted Miss Vicious, and he's going to get Miss Vicious. But I wonder if he's going to still be alive when all this is done?

The Dogmaster looks like to be well informed about Tan's deeds and even about her past, just like it befits a proper 'mafia boss'.

It looks like, that days of peace for Taneesha Jones are over for the time being.

Adventure calls, but I wonder, where this will lead to. Maybe even to a reunion between Tan and the witnesses? I have a feeling that the Dogmaster will demand more than just one simple job, however. It'd be just...too simple.

Aw thanks, that's quite a compliment, Acadian. Dogbutt!

I think my writing fluctuates quite a bit. That last episode was a gem; one of my better examples, I guess. Some drama, a bunch of moments when the foreshadowing of previous episodes comes to fruition, and the plot thickens. This next chapter's kind of ... "Meh" I guess. It's necessary. A part of my gal's life which leads up to a more interesting section.

Graci, Acadian. ☕


Hey, thanks for researching, Miss Rosa. I've seen those 'pods' before, in movies probably. My brother built models when we were kids, also. I figured between the two of you (a former military soldier and a military buff) some sort of answer would emerge. But it's probably just a Bethesda dev creation.

I don't know where the hell I came up with Lamont. My original intention was to make the guy who shows up to RC, and give him an afro so he's got that '70s look. Next thing, I'm thinking Lamont. I even watched a couple Sanford & Son episodes, which is where the 'apologetic' bit came from, when Stamford keeps apologizing for blackmailing Taneesha. Lamont is often apologetic on the show, playing peacemaker between Fred and Aunt Esther, for instance.

I assumed I'd be able to find an afro mod somewhere. And there is one moustache in Fallout 3's GECK which has those downward barbs Lamont's got on the show. IF an afro was out there for download, Lamont would then become a bit of a romantic interest. I began thinking like that: a segue in the story occurs, and Taneesha gets the hots for Lamont later on. Which would be a first. I don't do romance! It just doesn't happen. So this would be an exception, mostly due to inspiration which has nothing to do with me ideas; this would come from Taneesha herself.

But without that afro mod, none of that's gonna happen. I find Lamont Sanford cute, and Tan also finds the guy "attractive". But the guy in the story ain't him.

Yes, Dogmaster's gonna reappear. With HIM I've found some great mods, you'll see.

That's a good point. Doggy deals with raiders, but his influence goes well beyond raider society. As Lopov mentioned, he's sort of like mafia. Got his fingers in lot of peoples' pies. And so he's able to get a guy like Lamont, demand cleanliness and discipline, and so on.

Cool, glad that got a comment: "You're starting to make the cleaning lady angry...." That's probably my favorite line. That is the line they'd play over and over during highlights when the announcer says "Last week... on Miss Vicious...."

Will doggy be alive throughout the story? We shall see.




Yes!



Right, just when a girl wants to settle down and forget her past, it comes right back to haunt her, and then some.



Goodness. It's like y'all can read my mind, sometimes.

Episode 63: D.C. Dogma

Date: Sunday, September 30, 11:34 AM

"2277's dog days are done."

Tan says these words while clacking along in her Sunday two-inch heels, rushing back to her rented room. Her statement is a sort of pun regarding this story's main antagonist, but also, another summer has passed.

"Hullo," says Christie Young as Taneesha clacks by. Young is another city resident who's taken a crusade for cleanliness here in Rivet City, sweeping floors and swabbing decks. Christie is surprised not to get a response from the city's newest janitor, who she'd seen retrieving cans from the Common Room two days ago. Literally, the new worker had been singing a couple days ago. Seems as though she's now in a hurry.

Taneesha arrives in her rented room, opens her locker, changes clothes. Puts on some armor which was apparently made by a designer called Apocalypse* way back when. This is what she'll wear as she leaves the ship. Later when she reaches precarious territory, she'll then switch to her 'Badlands'-style raider armor. Thing is, she does not want anybody in Rivet City seeing her dressed in raider gear, for obvious reasons.

Thinking back to Wednesday, Taneesha appreciates her past self for deciding to keep this ratched armor! If there happen to be raiders along the way, they'll probably leave her alone.

She also grabs her binoculars, her stun gun, and her combat shotgun.

"Dangit."

Problem. Her shotgun is custom-made; a gift to her from Slick Rick. Probably was built by some gunsmith under the Dogmaster's (forced) commission. Flak had looked at the gun several days earlier, then determined he couldn't repair it to full working condition. Its barrel couldn't be rifled to original spec by Flak or by his assistant Shrapnel, not with the ancient, worn-out tools in their shop. Its trigger mechanism is getting shoddy, as well. ... But, hadn't Tan's boss mentioned there's another smith somewhere in Rivet City?

Yes, Janna Torr had. Guy works somewhere Upper Deck, she'd said, repairing armor and weapons worn/used by the ship's security force. Maybe Tan can try looking for the fellow. She's got the caps! She'll pay as much as it takes, get the job done properly.

She also grabs a grenade and three frag mines. Three Stimpaks (healing chems), two Stealth Boys (these devices, also classified as chems, are 'worn' on one's arm to make the user temporarily invisible), and four vials of Rad-X (chems which bolster radiation resistance). She gathers her current ammunition: 40 energy cells to power her Tazer, and 52 shells for her shotgun.

"Good to go," she says. Take that, Jack Breacher.

She snatches the thousand bottlecaps she'd brought to the city. Her aim is get her guns fully repaired, but also decimate Flak & Shrapnel's of every *goshdarn* shotgun round they've got.

"Comin' for you, Dog."

Finally, one last detail, which happens to be the most important. Georgetown. How the heck is she going to get to Georgetown if she hasn't a clue where it is?

Well here's a hint. When Lamont Stamford left Rivet City the day before, Vicious decided to follow him. Stamford had exited the city, crossed the plaza on the ship's port side, and took a staircase underground. Probably into a Metro station, then, which might be a good place to start. -- Sometimes the tunnels have underground signs directing ways to go. Problem is, those signs aren't always reliable.

"Hmm. Wonder if this ship has some sort of computerized map system?" she asks. If so, she'll be able to simply download a marker into the World Map section of her handheld Pip Boy 2500®.

Tan walks upstairs, heads to the Marketplace. Heads for the arms dealers.

"Whatchoo lookin' foh?" Shrapnel asks in his authentic southern accent. Taneesha spends nearly two-hundred caps on shotgun shells and an additional grenade ... before getting virtually accosted by Aspiration.

"Hey, wait up!" the entertainer comes running from behind. "Yo, Tan!"

"Oh, hi Asp," Taneesha starts, trying to be nonchalant.

"You all suited up! Got your guns and your packs? Where YOU goin'?"

At first, Tan tries to come up with a story. Thinks maybe she should tell a lie, headed off to have a look at Jefferson's Memorial.... or some other untruth. But she changes her mind. Decides to be honest. Well, somewhat honest.

"Going to Georgetown," she says grimly. Maybe this way, if she never makes it back to Rivet City, someone might possibly get curious, and go looking. Try to find what happened. The thought is sobering, of course.

"Georgetown?" Aspiration's exasperated reply says it all. Georgetown was once a quaint yet quirky upscale place to live, originally dating to Colonial times. Politicians neighboring white collar professionals neighboring super real estate agents with hidden agendas, and others who could afford the neighborhood's insane prices. Times had changed, of course. Nowadays the neighborhood was probably trash, just like most other areas of the Capital Wasteland.

"Look, I won't pry, Taneesha. Your bizzness is your own. But Georgetown's full of super mutants these days, what I've heard."

"Yea, I know," Tan says, without actually knowing. "That's why I got my guns," she says, hoping her friend won't get too nosy.

"Uh-huh." Aspiration crosses her arms. "So like, who the *heck* are you? First time we met, when you rescued Bratty from Dukov's, you was wearing raider *cakka*. And now you all suited up like some action hero. So who are you? WHAT are you? A regulator? Or," (she lowers her voice) "one'a them raiders?"

"Well, like you just said yourself, perhaps you shouldn't pry." Tan says this, then immediately wishes she could take it back. She hadn't meant to sound obstinate.

"Right but..."

"Asp, dear, I haven't got time to get into this right now." Her Doc Bartin boots begin clomping quickly across the market floor.

"Nuh-uh, you ain't just gonna walk away from me!"

Taneesha/Vicious scrambles awkwardly around the Marketplace, looking for her boss, while Aspiration follows.





Finally finds her boss.

"Hey, so um, gonna be away, prob'ly a couple days..." Tan begins, but Janna Torr shushes her. "Don't even want to know," Janna replies, dismissing her 'employee' with a wave. Which is perfect. Taneesha asks if there's a computer somewhere onboard which possibly has some maps, and according to Janna there is. It's somewhere in the Upper Deck.

"Thanks," Tan says, feeling just a smidge of guilt. In olden times, workers couldn't just leave their jobs without officially taking time off; they either had to declare 'vacation time' or 'sick leave'. If they proclaimed themselves sick they might have to prove their infirmity with a doctor's note, and if they went on vacation everyone expected they'd come back with pictures. Taking too much of either accrual was apparently a really bad thing, she'd heard. Like, you could get fired from your job...

Of course, being a Rivet City custodian isn't considered a 'real' job...

Tan eventually locates the better gunsmith in the Upper Deck, and is also able to download a map marker for Georgetown. But these actions take time; four hours in fact, and now it's early evening. Maybe I can get a few hours' rest before I go, but Taneesha doesn't dare. Thinking of her innocent Jehovah family some forty-odd miles north, picking rad-free apples and corn and barley, she does not dare delay her meeting with the Dog. She's got a blanket she can sleep upon if she later needs rest. It's time to go.





5:34 PM
Somehow, Aspiration knows when her friend's about to leave, despite Taneesha's attempt for a secret exit, looking over her shoulders and so on. An argument ensues between the two on Rivet City's bridge which is almost entirely one-sided: Aspiration shouting at her girl while Tan occasionally does her 'talk to my hand' thing.

The fight goes nowhere. Taneesha leaves the ship, as Aspiration threatens to ... threatens to.... well there's not much she can do, actually.

Across the bridge and down the ramps, Tan has a look at her Pip Boy's map display. Sure enough, there's the marker for Georgetown. She switches from map to compass, expecting the device will send her into the Metro station where Lamont Stamford had gone, but it doesn't do this. Instead, it's telling her to head in a northwesternly direction, toward Tepid Metro Station.

6:39 PM
She nears the super mutant camp across from Jefferson Memorial. Finds a dark alcove to swap into raider armor. Goes in as Taneesha Jones, emerges as Miss Vicious.

A brahmin merchant caravan moves slowly by. "Hey," says the caravan's male guard. Uh oh. "Mutant camp, straight ahead," Vicious warns the caravan. Because she knows what's about to happen.

The battle is brutal, yet doesn't last long. Bratty, Q-Tip and she had taken down this very camp several days ago, so she already knows its layout. Miss Vicious emerges unscathed, along with the assistance of the caravan guard. In the process, she helps the merchants survive, and even rescues a captive who otherwise would've been eaten.

7:59 PM
She arrives at the Dukov raider camp just before nightfall, wondering if the brat and Q might be here, but they aren't. Vicious doesn't recognize any of these raider goofballs. Despite being a thug herself just a few days ago, she doesn't feel comfortable hanging, so she backtracks to the scavenger dude she'd traded with a half-hour ago. Asks if it's okay to sleep near his camp. And he's fine with that.

The scavenger has a radio. Miss Vicious falls asleep to the voice of Three Dog, complaining about the Lone Wanderer's latest foibles.

7:53 AM
It rains lightly the next morning. Vicious walks a mile north, paying attention to the map marker for Georgetown. She spots numerous recyclables as she travels, bottles and cans which'd been tossed aside, and can't help but tally how much she'd earn if she were to haul some back to Janna Torr.

Turns out, the door to Tepid Sewers is on the north side of Dukov's whorehouse, right by the water. She almost misses this door; it's not so easy to find. Goes inside and hunches down. Listens for a moment. Something (some animal or monster) is wheezing nearby.

"Mole rat."

Large animals which prefer underground; not a problem. She finds the creature in a storeroom -- *BKKSH!* -- blasts it away with her shotgun. Walks down some stairs and makes a left, where she spies a figure down the hall.

"Ha. Raiders down here."

Which is good. Still pretending to be one of them, she relaxes. Stands, and moves through the rest of Tepid Sewers with confidence. Meanders about, gets misdirected a couple times, asks occasional directions from the alkies and junkies who know their home well.

After several hours she finally locates a stairwell, which ascends through a door. The door leads into one of those wide underground passageways where tens of thousands of Metro riders once commuted every day, yet now there's nothing but rocks and rubble. In here there's a change in temperature; the air's slightly warmer. Vicious can also hear a change of ambient sounds, a gate to the outside world must be nearby. Sure enough, there's a sign, indicating Georgetown is just ahead.

"I'm already here?" Miss Vicious asks, surprised.

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

Making SURE that mutant is down.

Rescuing a Captive -- (Tan's Karma is always going up and down. She occasionally steals for instance, and still picks locks. So moments like this provide some balance.)

Scavenger Camp

Mushroom Cloud! (she was fighting a Talon. Blowing up a nearby Chryslus for extra combat is always fun.)

Return to Raider Society

Gate to Georgetown


--------------------------------
Notes: *Wardrobe, including Apocalypse Outfit and some others Taneesha has worn in this story is partially by Misc Clothing Pack. That mod is so generically-named I've kept forgetting to mention it. I also am using Type 3 Clothing by Jonas, Wasteland Wardrobe, and several others. Dogmaster's going to have his own gear. Vicious herself prefers Misc Clothing Pack, though.

2). Vicious gained LEVEL 7! I put 5 points into Energy Weapons, 1 point into Melee Weapons, 1 point in Repair, 2 points in Small Guns (now 55), 5 points in Sneak, and 1 point into Speech. I took the Special Training perk which allows an extra point to any of SPECIAL attribute. Vicious then received +1 Endurance, so now her attributes are S4, P5, E5, C8, I5, A8, L6.

3). Fallout Fandom makes mention of the fact that Christie Young is 'the sole cleaning staffer aboard Rivet City'. No wonder place is such a mess!

Errata: Aspiration should've been getting ready for her 'show' two episodes ago, but I forgot mention this (much less write the show itself up). It'd be distracting to add though, I'm trying to get Vicious done before Halloween/my birthday.

This reminded me, how rare Stealth Boys in the original Fallout are. There maybe only like four or five of them except close to the end, where lots of Nightkins are around and you can always find one on their corpses. And in Fo2 there aren't any at all!

It's back to raider clothes again, Tan's visit to the Rivet City wasn't as long as she had probably planned but some people just weren't meant to be stationary for long.

There's a certain fast-paced feeling to this story, which isn't common for most other Tan's stories, but it's a nice change, in a way it the story should pace up a little, probably the following events won't be very relaxing for Tan.

As soon as I read Tepid sewers, I remembered that it's infested with mole rats. At least Tan didn't need to fight against raider rats.

So Taneesha the cleaning lady kits up, transforms back into Miss Vicious and makes her way toward the dog pound in search of her prey. Thanks for reviewing what some of her gear does – Stealth Boyz, Pip Girlz, etc.

I chuckled as she now sees recyclables as cash. And also at Three Dog’s mention of the Lone Wanderer.

And Georgetown is just ahead.

The Dog Days of summer are over. That sounds Sirius...

I love the touch of the clacking of Tan's heels. Whenever I wear heels, I love the sound they make when I walk.

Like any superhero or villain, Tan has to carefully manage her transitions from one identity to the next.

I also loved the Jack Reacher reference. I know you liked those books.

Georgetown is full of super mutants. Silverlight would be horrified to learn what became of her old home.

Uh oh, Aspiration is prying, and clever enough to wonder what Taneesha might have been in a past life. I wonder if Aspiration might follow her? I guess not.

Some excitement at the repopulated mutant camp near the Jeff Memorial. Maybe some day Tan will consider a new life as a superhero of the wasteland, protecting travelers from monsters? If she can ever put her supervillain past behind her.

@Lopov: Stealth Boys are also rare in New Vegas. I'm glad they are not as rare in Fallout 3.

This is true about the story being "faster-paced". There's more movement for sure. I wanted to cover a lot of moments without going into as much detail. Like I said, that episode, as well as next week's episode, were/are told Kahreem-style. Whereas this week's episode is more scripted/pre-written/focused.

Pretty sure Tepid Sewers is where Moira Brown sends us to test her silly mole repellant stick. 🐀


@Acadian: Indeed, Tan can't help but get forced to return to her vicious past.

YES, I actually wrote those chem descriptions just for you! Or anyone else lurking out there who don't know much about the Fallout series. Lopov and Rosa already know what Rad-X and Stimpaks do.

Graci, signore. Have some cake.


@SubRosa_Florens: Took me awhile.. Sirius.. the dog star. But I got the joke eventually!

I can't do high heels, too many injuries to my toes & ankles when I was younger. 👡 Glad you enjoy them, though. Makes me smile.

A co-worker got my hooked on Reacher 10 years ago; I never saw it coming since I'm really not into action media. Reacher is the thinking man's action hero though, that's the part I like most.

I tried to make a Silverlight reference in that last chapter, but I think I got it wrong. Couldn't remember if she's the real estate agent, or if the heroine in California is, or if I'm just inventing a real estate agent in Stormcrow yet there wasn't one at all. My memory sucks. Wish I could buy more RAM for my head.

Aspiration might've gone with Vicious; I did consider if that would work. In the end it'd be too complicated, methinks. I want to get this story entirely told by Halloween/my birthday. 🎃

For this next story, Lopov is the one who made Dogmaster's face! We emailed back and forth, see. He did a really good job; guy looks ugly and (to me) scary as hell.



Episode 64: Diabolical Dog

Date: Monday, October 1st, 3:27 PM


Cheese Head has been awake for hours. Staring at a bank of blurry monitors, snorting an occasional blast, waiting for their target to approach one of the cameras which'd been placed inside the Metro tunnels leading to Georgetown. Finally, there she is.

"Got her," Cheese says into a Prewar walkie-talkie. "Just spotted the *female dog*, she's in Tepid Sewers. Over."

Though their walkie-talkie set is over two-hundred years old, Dogmaster's top assistant Cheese Head (so named, because he's originally from whatever's left of Wisconsin) had gotten the pair of ancient Radio Crack® devices working like new. He even figured how to reverse-engineer original 9-volt batteries to keep them powered. That's his job; making sure every device, gadget, and machine his boss owns actually works, as though just out of the box. Because even diabolical crime bosses like the Dog need to rely on specialists to keep their operations running smoothly.

"Perfect," Dogmaster booms in one of the rooms of his aboveground mansion. "Make sure them raiders on the ground leave her alone. Vicious is to be treated as a queen."

"Ten-four," says Cheese, rolling his eyes. "Over and out." It's not as though that last bit of information hadn't been drilled into their heads these past couple days. He gazes at the bank of monitors on the wall, as Miss Vicious leaves the sewers and climbs a set of stairs.

Now that the *runt* is finally here, he's eager for one thing: a four-hour nap. Hmm, make that ten.







She'd been assuming Georgetown is somewhere deep in the district, yet after just three hours of scuffling through Tepid Sewers, she's already arrived.

All this time, years in fact, she's had no idea where the Dog lives or operates. No one does. Certainly, no common raider within a ten-mile radius knows. Not even Slick Rick had a clue. Everyone's been assuming the Potomac raider boss stations himself in some remote location. Turns out he's right here, right in the middle of it all. Probably just a mile or two from Dukov's and Anchorage Memorial, according to what her Pip Boy's map is showing.

Dogmaster's hideout sits above A Cuppa Joe, a former coffee shop neighboring Cornucopia Fresh Groceries. Cornucopia was a nationwide chain of food markets, from D.C. to California, more upscale and trendy than Super Duper Mart. Like comparing Whole Foods in our reality to Safeway or Vons.

Vicious strides into Georgetown West, hoping she's in the right place. She notices a Vertibird (a helicopter) had been parked down the street, though. Only folks who've got a 'bird are militant factions, and those who can afford one. So it seems she's found the correct location.

She makes a left and then a right over crumbled pavement, suddenly aware she's being watched. By raiders, that is. Typical thugs wearing a typical mishmash of armor, but there's something different about them, too. Their eyes are wary rather than glassy. They seem know who she is, and why she's here.

"Where Dog at?" she asks. -- Their silent finger-pointing leads to A Cuppa Joe's door. -- "Here?" -- One of them nods. She opens the former cafe's door, which leads to the interior of a rotten rowhouse. A *craphole*, unbefitting a crime boss, it seems.

"Is this a joke?"






The concept of him living here seems ludicrous.

Two centuries ago, the abomination she's standing in now would've been a bright, impeccable coffee shop, perhaps rated 4 stars out of 5 by The Washington Boast and other local publications. ...A Cuppa Joe's Guatemalan Blonde Java is to DIE for...! Perhaps place was owned by a socialite Democrat who imported only the world's most exclusive beans, drove a Plexus to work, donated to public radio, vacationed in Nag's Head. Over the past couple centuries this splendid bistro then succumbed to rot and age, just like the rest of the Wasteland. Typical raider trash pit. Vicious'd been picturing the Dog's home as ... well... not this.

Somebody's here.

"Keep walking through," commands a man who materializes out of a wall. Dude's got a gun, its barrel pointed toward the floor. A second man walks in, a dreadlocked fellow wielding a sword.

"Up da staircase and t'rough da door," dread-man says. "Da Dog, he ee-ager to meet you." - Both men are wearing the same Prewar military-styled outfit Lamont Stamford wore. These guys are relegated, disciplined soldiers, not typical raider delinquents.

A pack of dogs rushes into the room, of course they do. Vicious counts four. The dogs emit a variety of growls and snarls, all of them ready to tear her legs to shreds. Just give us the word, master humans, is their canine consensus. "Woof!" "Arf!" they bark at the newcomer.

"Chill, Screaming Hunter!" the first man commands. "You too, Natra."

"Don't worry 'bout dem, Veecious," dreadlocks suggests. "Dey won't hurt at yoo. Not 'less we say so," he chuckles. "So... donn make us say so."

Vicious takes their advice, keeping her Tazer in hand. Everyone's got their weapons out, 'cause this is how such things are done in the Capital Wasteland. Nobody wants to be the one to shoot last.

At first, at the top of the stairs, Vicious sees nothing. Nowhere to go, except into another room on her right. But then she notices a button sticking out the peeling wallpaper. Pushes it left-handed while aiming the stunner with her right.

...Dogmaster, your days are done... she's ready to zap that *clucker*!

The door slides open, she barges in....

...and is faced with another surprise. The environment she finds herself within now (which IS an environment... that's the first word which comes to mind) completely contrasts the rowhouse below. Pleasant and stylish, even elegant. It takes a moment to discern the word she's really grasping for though: luxurious. Not a term ever used while referring to Capital Wasteland domiciles.






Bars of track lighting hang from the ceilings, the smell of (flowers?) permeate the air, along with a hint of sanitizers.

Dag, look at this place, it's actually clean!

Indeed it is. Rivet City's newest custodian, Taneesha Jones, by now knows all about cleaning products! Can recognize the scent of Abraxo and Zorox when she when she sniffs them. The mansion's floor is polished. Its walls could use some paint, but are otherwise pristine. No rubble on the ground, no unidentifiable stains, no half-decayed corpses; she's now in a place of refinement.

But no one is here, it seems. -- Where you at? -- No Dog, and no Dog cronies. So she walks around a bit. And the surprises continue.

Art hangs from the walls. Zip hop music thumps softly from what she determines to be a sophisticated Prewar stereo system. Plants and flowers soak sun under a skylight in a central room, along with a small, manicured tree. Another word from her school days begins to trigger at this scene, and after a moment the word comes: ambiance. Place has ambiance! The home of a diplomat, rather than a doper. Exactly the opposite of what all other Wasteland homes are going for, which is mostly apathy.

Her entry into this virtual palace causes her guard to drop. So she doesn't hear the Dog until he's nearly beside her.

"You made it," he says. "Charmed to meet you, Vicious."

A tall man wearing a silly yellow outfit sweeps into the lobby, Prewar loafers whispering on the floor. In dog terms his face is a cross between a mastiff and a bulldog; scarred and mean; the face of a man who's had to fight to get to the top! - He's got a military haircut and looks like a prick.

Yet in his left hand is a fluted wineglass which contains something reddish, and smells sour. Vicious aims for center mass.

"You leave my family alone. Ya hear, dumb*donkey*? They got nothing to do with nothing!"

"Ah, come now," the man says, taking a sip from his glass. "Already, we are off on the wrong foot? Let us properly exchange greetings first, eh?"

"*Tuck* you... and *tuck* your *darn* greetings, you *plucking* *dirtbag*."

"I understand. You are upset, I get it. But let's start over first, okay? I'm the Dogmaster," he states, winking cheekily. "Just so you don't fry the wrong man with your gun. Err, is that a toy gun?"

Vicious says nothing while the Dog remains calm. Despite having somewhere north of 100,000 volts pointed his way, Dogmaster is jaded like Vicious: he doesn't flinch.






"Go ahead and kill me, Vicious, a'ight? But you do that, and guess what happens to your family up north? Actually, don't guess. If I die, others meaner than me shall take my place. Your worst imagination can't conjure the possibilities."

He smiles smugly, knowing that potential argument's been eliminated.

"Pinot noir?" he asks, tilting his glass forward a bit. A servant comes rushing into the room. Pours a glass just for her. "This is a Virginia wine, from the Year 2018," Dogmaster informs. "Its grapes were harvested late October, according to its vintner documentation. The east coast had a late summer that year which lacked rainfall, even deep into autumn." He takes a sip while his minion offers a glass for Vicious. "Everyone said droughts were bad for wines back in those days. But I prefer the tanginess of dry years."

"You shut the *heck* up," Vicious warns. "And take that *dung* away from me."

"Do as she says," the Dog orders, causing the servant to bustle away. "So what would you like? Some smoke? Toot? Got a whole network of sailors shipping coca leaves up from South America these days."

"I don't drink no more. No smoke, no toot. Chems are for losers."

"Really?" Dogmaster's ears raise a fraction somehow, independently from his skull. Just like an actual dog. "See, knew something was different 'bout you," he says, grinning like wolf. Like he's proud. "So that's why you got the job done, twice in a row, where others under my employ have failed."

Vicious continues to aim her Tazer while Dogmaster continues to ignore it.

"So, I'll get to the point. A simple mission, to eliminate a couple *mothertruckers* who've defected my organization, stealing what is MINE and not paying." -- A transformation takes place as he says this. His face tightens. The faux-cultured persona portrayed a moment ago gets replaced by a mean scrapyard mutt. No other way to put it. This is the man who'd fought his way to the top, no doubt.

"...But you'll be paid," he promises. "Quite handsomely, you take them down."

"Yeah whatever. Bottlecaps ain't important to me."

"Bottlecaps?" Dogmaster chuckles. "Who said you'll be paid bottlecaps?"

"Lamont Stamford did. Said I could buy Rivet City, I'd be so *darn* rich."

"Lamont said you'd be paid in bottlecaps?" Dogmaster laughs again. "That... big... dummy."

"What he told me," Vicious answers, only slightly aware she's just slipped into negotiations, curious about the money. Who wouldn't be? "What's wrong, you reneging your offer?"

"No, Vicious. I need you. All these other *flopholes* can't get the job done, see? ... But I don't deal in bottlecaps. You'll be paid Prewar bills should you succeed, not caps."

"Prewar bills?"

"Mm hmm," the wineglass goes down. "Treasury Building, okay? Was once the adminstrative center of all America's currency. And it's located on 1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, just twenty-two blocks away. For a long time, no one was able to break into its underground vaults, not even with missiles or bombs. I was the one who got in first. Me and my team, I should clarify. And guess what's inside?"

Vicious has an idea...but says nothing.

"More money than you, or I, could ever imagine. All of it from before Great War. So much money, I got *truckers* in there still totaling it with money counter machines, months afterward. I am well into the trillions with wealth, ya dig?"

Trillions? Well... sure. America was once one of the world's wealthiest nations after all.

"Just name your price," he tempts. "A thousand? Ten thousand? Hundred thousand?"

"A hundred thousand?" Vicious tries not to gasp. Her stun gun finally lowers. "Prewar bills?"

"Well, hmm. Don't wanna pay you THAT much," the Dog decides, "not for one job. You might decide to disappear forever! Buy yourself a Vertibird like mine, fly off into the sunset. But let's say... ten thousand, for sure."

Vicious tries not to blink. Ten-thousand. Prewar bills. "You joshin' me."

"You think? Well here's a bit of incentive to satisfy your reluctance."

With this, Dog pulls something thick out of a jacket pocket, throwing it on a nearby table. Thunk!

"That is for you."

Vicious can't help but look. Sure enough it's a stack of money, with one of those official U.S. currency bands wrapped around it, like she'd seen in an old comic book. $1000, the band promises.

"Legal tender, is how the Treasury Department once referred to paper money. Useless on its own, but it was supposed to represent our nation's actual wealth in Fort Knox. Nine-thousand more to come, you get the job done."

Taneesha "Miss Vicious" Jones, like most other humans who might find themselves in this situation, can't help but tally some numbers. It's the same mentality she'd used while counting recyclables on the way here, except magnified into the thousands. "Alright. You want me to take out some losers, I'll do it. But you leave my family alone."

"Hey. I don't want to harm them," the Dog assures, palms out. "They better off alive in the long run. I want to see our populations grow, matter of fact. Make America great again, ya hear?"

"Whaaat? Why?"

"Because five, ten years from now, my plan's to start collecting taxes from the entire DelMarVa region, once I get enough soldiers out there. More people means more money. And that includes your Jehovah Temple clan."

Miss Vicious stifles a laugh. As a religious entity, the Jehovah's Witnesses were exempt from taxation, way back.

Dogmaster produces an object from his pocket which turns out to be a Prewar pen. Another servant rushes in with a sheet of paper. Vicious finds herself signing a contract. A digital version of said contract is then downloaded to her Pip Boy.

And this is how her first mission to assist the Dogmaster begins.


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

Dogmaster's Coffee Shop Hideout

The Dog hides his diabolic side behind a veneer of 'culture'.

You shut the hell up... (Bad Language Warning!)

Bottlecaps?

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


Notes: Cheese Head is Dogmaster's left-hand man, mentioned in one of the early episodes. He's tasked with making sure all the technical stuff (ham radios, for instance) runs properly.

I wouldn’t say Dogmaster is ugly, but he certainly has the look of someone who you wouldn’t want to cross. Lopov did a real good job making the face.
Real folding money, Miss Vicious doesn’t know what to do with it.

I really enjoyed Vicious’ observations during her trip to see the Dog – particularly once she got to that coffee shop.

The Dog’s got himself quite the doghouse, once she gets through the unassuming front door and coffee shop ‘foyer’.

Blackmail plus a ton of cash manages to coax Vicious into working for the Dog as a highly paid assassin. What could go wrong?

A great story!

Through the post-war D.C., into a ruined building right to one of the most influential crime bosses 200 years after the Great War, if not even the very most influential one. You're really good at pacing (that's a medical term too BTW) and the pace is perfect, as the "rhythm" speeds up, when she reaches the Dog's abode.

An interesting dialogue between the two - Taneesha is pointing her Tazer at him, while he's discussing wines.

Uh oh, she signed a contract... with the Devil.

I must admit, that I "like" his face too.

So the Cheese Head has spotted the female dog on the way to the town of George.

The Master of Dogs seems like he has a pretty well-oiled machine running here. He's got spies in the outside world like Lamont. He's got the tech specialist like Chucky Cheese. He's got bearer bonds, even a Vertibird. He's definitely something beyond just a raider boss. More like a Bond villain.

And apparently the Dog likes his coffee as well.

Damn, Dogmaster even has a cleaning person, who actually cleans!

It looks like Vicious just threw diplomacy out the window. She's pissed off! But Dogmaster's a cool customer as well. Not someone to flinch just because there is a gun pointed at him.

And in spite of herself, Vicious is intrigued, negotiating even. Money talks, and even Miss V listens to that. And sure enough, she just signed on the dotted line. I wonder who these renegades are that stole from the Dog and skipped out? I would not want to be in their shoes, that is for sure. Dogmaster has ambitions beyond that of a simple raider boss or crimelord. He's angling to be King of the Maryland Wastes.

Hello, it's a rainy Friday night here in Maryland,. Time for comments & questions. Got a headache right now, and really need to lie down. Gonna do the quote thing...




Yeah, Dogmaster's got it all, it seems, and he wants my toon on his team.



Oh yeah. Folks like Acadian, who haven't played any Fallout 3, don't know the shock of going from bombed-out interiors to Allistair Tenpenny's pristine upper floors.

By the way, I tried to look for a home for Dog which isn't too familiar, yet is also not all torn up and messy, or too science-fictionish (Vault 101, for instance). But there just ain't much in the game, so I had to settle for a duplicate of TenpennyTower03.

Dog has this idea of becoming a politician or something, even I'm not entirely sure of his ambitions. Money is talking, but my gal won't become corrupt in the process, I promise. You shall hear about these two renegades (thieves, actually) tomorrow morning.




You did a great job. Dogmaster's face really captures the essence of what a 23rd Century raider boss might look like. If I'd tried to make him it would've been Fail.

Yes, we use the word 'pacing' as well, for all sorts of activities. Mostly, exercise. "You gotta pace yourself on that treadmill..." etc. Anyway the rhythm is about to speed up again, these next couple episodes. Fast, and (hopefully) faster.



🍷




Graci!



Hee hee right?

You just have to realize, since you don't play Fallout games, how much harder it is to make money compared to Oblivion or Skyrim. Mirocu and Gunny and their hundreds of thousands of caps ... I'm not even sure how he does it.

Nothing respawns (indoors) in the Capital Wasteland or Mojave, without mods. You clear a baddie location, take all its loot, chems, caps, anything which will earn money once traded, and that location won't a farmable source of income in the future. NPC enemies also don't respawn indoors (outdoors they do, though). Only traders and traveling merchants have ammo for sale, for instance, sometimes. Yet this is hit or miss (mostly miss, if you've got a specialized or rare weapon).

It's not like going into Sercen or Bleak Falls Barrow with seven gold, and coming out with potentially hundreds, maybe even thousands of salable items once we get into town. So what Dogmaster is proposing blows my character's mind. She's been in the habit for years of thinking "dozens" when it comes to money. Yet now she's being offered thousands, and is being led to believe trillions are out there.

Plus, Dogmaster doesn't seem that bad.




Yeah, he did. Sometimes I wish I could Persuade him (or anyone) to help with other stuff! I wanted to make Dogmaster's Suite much more unique, not as "Tenpennyish" for instance, yet I really haven't got the time.

Story shall be up tomorrow morning. Supposed to be partly sunny tomorrow. 🌞

Episode 65: Barb and Buck


A room was offered to Vicious; she could spend the night if she'd like. Initially she declined.

But after Dogmaster's attention became distracted with other matters and he moved into another room, his newly-hired assassin began to rethink the offer. Which 23rd Capital Wasteland inhabitant wouldn't? Most CW folks, who'd spent their entire lives living in desperate, deplorable conditions while being surrounded by the remains of a once-glorious civilization, might wonder what it'd be like to experience that 'once-glorious' part.

So Vicious changed her mind, then found herself being led by one of the Dog's servants to a room; one of many, with its own bed. And its own private, lockable door. And its own washroom. And its own climate-controlled temperature system (operated by a thermosomething) which blew pre-conditioned air from several vents. Want the room hot? Just turn the dial to the right. Want it cold? Turn it left. Dogmaster's guest had a bit of fun with the thermosomething. Cranked the Fahrenheit as high as it would go (summer returned; she began to sweat!) and then turned it all the way to the left. Three minutes of standing in forty-degree air, and her teeth chattered.

Finally, the bed. After two-plus years sleeping on ratty mattresses and uncomfortable cots, she couldn't help but lie upon the room's 'Queen-sized' bed tentatively at first, as if she didn't belong here.

"I could... get used to this."

Dinner was roasted venison next to something green to one side (called "vegetables"), and something yellow on the other (called a "sauce"). Well actually, Tan/Vicious grew up in the countryside, which means she actually knows what deer, vegetables, and sauces are. But most raiders lived on pre-packaged meals mass-produced in ancient factories.

Miss Vicious, living the good life. "If Bratty and Q could see me now."




Date: Tuesday, October 2, 7:44 AM

The next morning, Dogmaster and a nerdy scientist-looking guy named Cheese Head lead Vicious into a room filled with computers and gizmos and ham radios, where they brief her on the upcoming mission.

She'll be headed to Evergreen Mills, a former metals foundry located several miles to the west. Once there, she'll need to eliminate two "targets", a former Dogmaster grunt named "Cr4nk$haft" and another who goes by "BODDY-BAGZZ".

"That is how they specifically spell their names," Cheese informs in his Midwest accent, after uploading a digital file to Vicious's Pip Boy. "Cr4nk$haft and BODDY-BAGZZ. You can just imagine the level of maturity we're dealing with. You heard either of those names out there?"

"Nope."

Both are thieves, according to Cheese and Dog. Three weeks ago, they'd been fronted a large amount of chems from Dogmaster's considerable stash, yet still hadn't returned any profits. Or maybe they had sent money to the Potomac, but their courier(s) got lost. Or killed, or whatever. Doesn't matter. Cr4nk and BODDY are now on the Dog's *bollocks*-list... which is what happens when morons don't consider their actions.

"Cr4nk$haft specializes in uppers," Cheese informs, "Jet, Psycho, amphetamines, and so on, while BODDY-BAGZZ supposedly peddles the downers: Med-X, morphine, Thorazine, et. cetera. Personally, I feel both have become addicted to their wares...."

"Addicted to their wares," Vicious repeats. ...Like someone I know... "What if they actually have some money and want to pay up?"

"Oh, well in that case, you take their money, of course. Whether or not you then choose to eliminate them is up to you."

Vicious learns she'll be accompanied by two Dogmaster soldiers: a Lieutenant Buck Norris, and his cadet, Barbra Bee. "They should be waiting downstairs."

"Hey, I don't need any help," Vicious protests. "Don't know them. They might get in my way."

Doesn't matter. Dogmaster has given her a couple accomplices, and the Dog always gets what he wants.







"One more thing," says Dogmaster, who comes shuffling into the computer room with wandering eyes, as though he hadn't slept. "Vicious, very important. Got a list of more targets. You are to be on the lookout for any of these three. You listening?"

Miss Vicious nods.

"First, a fellow named Chosen One."

"Chosen One? That's his name?"

"According to sources, yes."

The assassin suppresses a grin.

"Chosen One prefers an assault rifle. For sure, he's responsible for the massacre at Springvale, few weeks back."

"Got it," Vicious pretends to type into her Pip Boy. As though she's got no idea who Cho Zen Wan is.

"Next we got a white female named He-ca-te."

"He-ca-te?"

"Hecate," Cheese chimes in, pronouncing the name correctly. "Probably named after the Greek goddess of lightness and dark and witchcraft."

"Hey! My man's got brains!" Dog claps his nerd on the shoulder. "Hecate is similar to Cho, wanders alone. More of a sniper than a scout, though. Always in black. Black clothes, black armor. Hair is black, usually tied in a ponytail. She also wears glasses, according to raiders who've witnessed her. Carries a M110, very brutal gun. Make sure you don't get caught in her crosshairs."

Vicious has never heard of Hecate, but is glad for the description.

"Finally, a dude named Ronny. Blond hair, blue eyes, wears a duster, might be using energy weapons. Other than that we got nothing. So just take down anyone named Ronny, who isn't a raider."

"Got it," Vicious says. Despite her confirmation, she's got no intention of messing with any of them.

--Cho? He's a friend of a friend.
--Hecate? Just stay out of her way.
--Ronny? Take down anyone named Ronny who's not a raider? Pfft.

"All three apparently be from Vault 101. And all three are hunting MY people!" Dogmaster explodes, causing Vicious and Cheese to flinch.

"All three gonna be dead when I catch 'em," the assassin lies. "Anything else? Anybody else? Can I go now?"



9:30 AM
She leaves the suite, ambles through the coffee shop (canines snarling...) and finds Dog's soldiers loitering outside: Lieutenant Buck Norris and his cadet, Barbra Bee. Both are dressed in the same military uniform worn by other Dogmaster soldiers.

"Hello. You're Miss Vicious?" Barbra greets, extending a hand. "I am Barbra Bee. Call me Barb."

Barb...Bee?

The woman is pale skinned, with pretty blond hair. "Heard lots about you!" she grins.

"Yep, I'm Vicious." As she shakes Barb's hand, she notices the woman's nails are manicured, yet also sharp. Like claws. "Ain't heard nothing 'bout you, but looking forward to working together, I guess."

"I'm Lieutenant Buck Norris," Bee's superior introduces, his voice hoarse. Unlike Bee, who looks as though she's just stepped from a salon, Norris looks battle-hardened.

"Pleased to meet."

"Soldiers are like steel," Norris quips. "When we lose our temper we lose our worth."

Norris is older, perhaps near forty. He has scruffy red hair with a beard to match. He seems to specialize in close-quarters combat; carrying what looks to be an Uzi knockoff, backed with a combat knife, while Barbra prefers long range. She's got a rifle.

"Well look. I don't want to dawdle, okay?" Vicious says. "I'm ready to go."

"Fine with us," Norris says, checking his pack. "Just remember, this is not a race, okay? There is no finish line."

"Um, yeh, okay." Huh??

Barbra concurs with the others, but does something odd. Steps toward Vicious, extends her right hand again. Grins her affable grin while offering her pinkie finger. "Sisters?" she asks.

"Uh, sure. Sisters," Vicious wraps her own finger around Barb's, thinking how odd, a Vow of Sisterhood. Last time she'd made such a vow was ages ago, faraway in the Jehovah Temple. And that was when she was ten or twelve.

Had any red flags occurred at that very moment? she'd ask herself, hours later. If so, she hadn't noticed.






The trio begins walking. As they leave Georgetown West and descend the Metro stairs to Tepid Sewers, several sentries watch their progress; all of them a bit jealous perhaps, and also hungry. Hungry for action, that is, and jealous that they've not being included. They are tasked with making sure Dog's turf remains free from invasion, that's it. Probably never go on raids, anymore. Sucks for them.

Vicious begins to build a rhythm with her steps. This is going to be a long journey, two days of walking for sure. But it's at this moment when Barbra Bee makes a sudden half-turn, blocking Vicious's path, while Buck Norris strides further ahead. Bee's sunny smile is gone.

"So let's get one thing straight." The blonde pauses, seeming to wait until Norris is well out of earshot before she continues. "I'm the one getting credit for this, alright? All accolades for killing both targets shall go to me."

Barb unwraps the rifle from her shoulder, holding it toward the ground. Though she does not point it at Vicious, the implication is obvious.

"Hey whatever," Vicious replies. "I really could care less."

"Furthermore, we know about the money," Barb hisses. "WE'RE the ones getting a piece of that million, once the mission is over."

"Million? What million?"

"Ha! Ha! Nice try. The million Prewar bills Dogmaster found in that treasury vault, DUH! ... We're splitting that, Norris and I. This was OUR mission before your *behind* came along."

"Whatever. Take the money, I don't care. Although from what I heard, there is actually trill--."

---Trillions, she'd almost blurted.

"Huh??"

"Thousands, I meant to say. Only a few thousand down there, what I heard. Not a million."

"Yeah, right. Tryin' to pull a fast ones on me, huh?" Barb steps closer, swiping her manicured claws. "YOU don't mock me, girl. Buck and I, all we gotta do is take your black *butt* out somewhere. Tell Dog you got mauled by a pack of deathclaws. Who's to say something unfortunate like that can't happen?"

"Pfft! As if."

Lieutenant Norris notices his partners have straggled, and is now walking toward them. Barb sees this, and lowers her voice. "Well don't worry, we can't actually kill you. Get more money if you return safely. But heed my words, *witch*. Mess with us, and you'll be sorry."

"But I thought we were sisters!"

Buck Norris finally arrives on the scene, looking confused. "There a problem here?"

"No sir," Barbra lies.
"No, we're good."

"Good. Long journey ahead. Let's take it step by step." He mostly says this to Barb, as though aware she's prone to insubordination.

"Yes sir."

"A bit of advice," Buck adds, speaking to both. "There is no finish line, okay? When you reach one goal, time to find a new one."

"Right."
"Um, err... sure."

They begin to march. Down a corridor, and step through a door without a word. As they do so, Vicious can't but notice something which could be important pretty soon.

"Y'all gonna wear Dog's official armor outside?" she asks.

"Mm hmm."
"Yea."

"Really? You sure?"

"We said yea," Barb's voice is sunny again, but she speaks through clenched teeth. "Is there a prob with what we have on, compared to the... rags you're wearing?"

"Um, it's just that..."

"It's just that what?"

"It's just that... nothing."

Vicious decides to keep her mouth shut. Sure, the raiders who dwell locally along the Potomac might leave Barb and Buck alone. But what happens as they continue further? Toward Super Duper Mart? Up the hill and past Springvale?

Thing is, Wasteland raiders may dress the same, they may also look the same, and act the same. But there are subtle divisions of territory from east to west. Those to the east may know and expect Dogmaster's soldiers, but those to the west probably won't; they'll merely see a couple of dunces travelling their turf, then try to take them down just for the hell of it.

Dogmaster or Cheese may have broadcasted a message from their ham, attempting to alert westside raiders to let Dog's soldiers through, but would these instructions actually be followed? Would these orders (if they'd been given at all) be heard by some half-baked receiver, some junkie in the middle of getting high, who neglects to share Dog's order his/her buddies?

Miss Vicious can't help but wonder, as she follows these fools off the cliff.


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

Dogmaster's Terrarium

Dogmaster's Den

Tan takes a bath

Watchdog plays with dog

Cheese Head

Buck Norris (whatcha all think? )

Barb Bee

Sisters? -- (from Spike TV's "bloopers" reel. She used the wrong finger...)

The Dark Side of Barbie

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


Notes: 1). Ronny was Lopov's Lone Wanderer.

Nice digs Vicious gets for the night!

And once she gets her mission from CheeseDog, she has Chuck and Barbie as sidekicks! Nice job making Buck look like Chuck!

Be on the lookout for Cho, Hecate and Ron. Sure. . . whatever you say, DogDoo. They’re hunting down Dog’s people? If I see them, I’ll see if they need any help or supplies.

Ooh, Barbie’s a bee threatening to sting Vicious. A bit more dangerous that her initial impression of being made of plastic.

I think Vicious’ first reaction of wanting to work alone was probably sound. Again, what can go wrong?

I started a rewatch of the Lord of the Rings. One of the interesting things about it is that it is a post apocalypse story. Just as Vicious noted about the CW, the people in Middle Earth are living in the shadow of once great civilizations that have been destroyed. Everywhere you go, there ruins of giant statues, and buildings, and walls, and bits of this and that. All are relics of previous Ages, literally. Even the main battleground of the First Age - Beleriand - no longer exists. It was destroyed in the final war that ended the age and sank beneath the ocean.

Dogmaster has central air? Wow! Seriously, for the Wasteland, that is amazing. One could definitely get used to that.

"Cr4nk$haft" and "BODDY-BAGZZ" I can imagine those two already!

The story behind Crank and the Bagz sounds very familiar. There is a documentary called Cocaine Cowboys that is about the drug trade in Miami in the 80s. All of its talking heads are people who were part of the trade. There was a smuggler, a top level dealer, and an assassin. The way things worked drugs and money never changed hands at the same time. The top level dealer would front the street dealers a certain amount of cocaine, which they would sell. Then a week or so later they would come back with the money for it. Sometimes they got full of themselves and decided they didn't need to pay. That is where the assassin came in. His job was kill everyone like that.

Wait, Dogmaster wants Miss V to kill Cho Zen Wan? Is he crazy?

And Hecate! I can't wait to see who is third. Is it Buffy?

Ronny I don't remember. Was that one of Lopov's characters? Just so long as it is not the Rattler... Ah, I see your note at the bottom. He was one of Lopov's.

Her two new partners are turning out to be a handful. Buck seems to be, well, Buck. Barbie on the other hand, looks like someone who is going to need killing.

Buck Norris has a Chinese uniform! And so does Barbie!

I LoL-ed often because of names in this story!

Cr4nk$haft and BODDY-BAGZZ FTW!

Don't trust a doll in a uniform!

Good job with Buck's looks!

Dogmaster's yellow suit really stands out.

The story title "Barb and Buck" reminds me of the inn in Riften - Bee and Barb (or similar).

A nice reference to Ronny. He was my first character in FO3 and my first LW back in 2010 or 2011.

@Acadian: I wanted to put more work into Dog's home, which 'Rosa and Lopov know very well as Tenpenny's Suite. Anyway, I wanted to decorate it differently, and make it not so obviously his place, but I haven't got time. Priority is the story itself, and all the GECK stuff happening in the background.

Funny thing is when I was trying to make Buck look like Chuck I didn't think I was anywhere close, because faces always look different in the editor. He doesn't look exactly like Chuck of course, but I gave it my best, and was surprised how he turned out in the game.

They’re hunting down Dog’s people? If I see them, I’ll see if they need any help or supplies

Ha ha, pretty much!

Barb is supposed to have a much different hairdo than what she's got, from ZzJay's Hairpacks, but for some reason her hair is still vanilla. It took two episodes for the dreadlocks to show on some of Cheesedog's guards, though.


Rosa: Nice. I read LOTR in high school, all four main Tolkien editions, and I've forgotten that their civilization has also crumbled. But yeah, I seem to remember past civilization being mentioned by the jobbits here and there.

I imagine it's possible several places in the CW could originally have central air, and I even asked a real-life HVAC acquaintance if it's possible 200 years later. He told me the main thing would be making sure the gases don't leak: natural gas for heat, and whatever gets used in AC. Other than that, the fans might need oil or whatever. Since the CW definitely has electricity, we both concluded it's at least possible.

Yikes, WHOA.... Cocaine Cowboys sounds intense. And from what I've heard, those assassins were sometimes called enforcers. So yeah, Vicious could be an enforcer if she were doing this job in another century.

Yep, Hecate. Did some research in the Characters thread, to make sure I got the right toon person of yours who did the Main Quest.

Rattler will earn one more mention in this story. 🐍


@Lopov: Ha ha ha, I know. I thought of those names long ago, maybe a couple years ago. Cr4nkShaft & BODDY-BAGGZ. When you meet these idiots in the story, suddenly their names will make more sense.

As you know, Dogmaster's supposed to change suits a couple times in the future, according to a couple clothing mods I found. Who knows if this'll happen though.

Ha ha I thought of The Bee & Barb (m'lord) as well.

And yes, I remembered Ronny. This way, each of us three FO3 players have their Lone Wanderer represented. 🤠

LAST WEEK!!! ON... MISS VICIOUS!

Vicious has been hired as an assassin, to take out a couple knuckleheads at a faraway location. She's eager enough for the job, if only to keep her Jehovah's Witness clan free from possible harm. Accompanying her are a couple Dogmaster soldiers: Lieutenant Buck Norris and Private Barbra Bee. Problem though: Vicious noticed a possible issue with the jumpsuits the soldiers are wearing. For whatever reason, she chose not to reveal what the issue could be.

Now... Vicious, Norris, and Bee approach Super Duper Mart from its opposite side. Who's to tell what's become next?


Episode 66: Super Duper Mart

Date: Tuesday, October 2nd

Low Temperature: 60
High Temperature: 74
Humidity: 66%


The moment of truth began a couple miles up the Potomac, just south of Farragut West Metro Station.

"Hey Vicious. Is that a toy gun?" Buck Norris asked. Most everyone gets fascinated by her stunner, which is powerful yet looks rather "cheap". Most folks assume it's a toy which she carries for good luck, or whatever.

She was just about to answer when all hell broke loose. This particular area was known for its opposite warring factions: raiders are often eastside, while mutants sometimes roam across the river to the west. This time there were three raiders and two mutants. Gunfire erupted right away! The raiders blasted their rifles and pistols. While one mutant powered his giant 5 mil 'minigun' from the river's other side, the other launched a missile, which exploded into one of the riverbanks: Bkkshh!!!

Vicious, Barb, and Buck assisted the raiders, firing rounds across the water. Because of this extra help, the mutants didn't last long.

"Yeah! Kick *butt*!" one of the surviving raiders yelped as the battle came to an end.

"That's how gettin' it done gets done, WOOOO!!" Barbra Bee cried.

"Good job ladies," Norris slammed in a fresh clip. "Not to brag, but I once killed eleven out of ten opponents, with just nine bullets."

"You did what?"

"Wait... elven... ten... nine... huh."

The fight was over: Potomac raiders two, super mutants zero.




3:11 pm
But that was a half-hour ago. Westside territory. Now they're eastside.

As the trio crosses the bridge and approaches Super Duper Mart, Vicious surveys the raiders loitering outside the market from a distance, observing with caution. Would those thugs take the soldiers' outfits as reason to break their usual boredom with a bit of action? -- Halfway across, we're still good.

Once again, Norris gets a bit ahead of Barb and Vicious.

"You... are still with us," Barb mutters to Vicious, under her breath. "Why?"

"Just to piss you off."

"Just remember, pack of deathclaws. That's all I gotta say to Dogmaster when he asks why you haven't returned several days from now. I can even take a picture with my Pip Girl® after the unfortunate occurs as proof. Just imagine your carcass all torn up. I can make it happen when Norris isn't around....*witch*."

"That's Miss *Witch* to you, *witch*," Vicious retorts.

"Ain't no Miss *Witch*, you little B----. Just wait until--"

Norris notices his teammates have strayed. He turns around. Starts approaching. "Say Vicious," he calls, his voice a slight Texas drawl. "May I ask why you seemed concerned about our garb?"

Hmm. Is he reaching the same conclusion I did a few hours ago? Should I warn them?

"She's just wondering why she didn't get a snazzy official jumpsuit like us," Barb mutters proudly. There's a smile in her voice, which seems an effort to keep him unaware of her disdain for the newcomer. "Really don't know why Dogmaster decided to--"

"Oh *FLIP*!!!" Vicious yelps. "To the left!"






"It's go time!"
"Die! Die! Die!"

As Vicious had predicted, the market raiders aren't keen on outsiders trespassing their turf. They begin taunting the soldiers from a distance. Split second later, shooting begins. -- If Dogmaster or Cheese had broadcasted a BOLO to leave his soldiers alone, seems the scumbags at Super Duper Mart hadn't gotten the message. They ready their pieces and begin firing from afar!

"Like shooting fish in a barrel!" a female raider screams.

"You all better just give up!" Buck Norris warns. "Guns carry ME for protection!"

Barb retreats to the bridge like a siss, but then aims her rifle from and sharpshoots a Badlander from afar, while Buck sprays 'n' prays with his fake Uzi. -- Vicious? She initially doesn't know what to do, so she hesitates; a rare moment of lapsing on her part. Despite her earlier prediction now coming true, she hadn't been entirely sure what would happen once the soldiers entered westside. And now that everything's gone nutso she pauses, forced to pick a side.

"Call a doctor, I think we got a bleeder!"





She can't defend Dog's soldiers because this'll cause the raiders to fire against her; potentially every single bandit on the way to Evergreen will then become her enemy... and what if Bratty and Q-tip are here? -- She doesn't assist the raiders because if she sides this way, and Buck and/or Barb happen to survive, the mission's trajectory will then become compromised. Chances are the lieutenant and/or his cadet would not just forgive, or forget. Which means Vicious would need to take one or both of them down, as well.

After looking for her friends (Bratty and Q are definitely not here...) Vicious decides to side with the soldiers. Targets a *tart* with her shotgun, and FWOOM! blows the *snitch* down. It takes a few seconds for the nearest raider to get a clue though. Initially he seems confused. Like, why she shootin' at us, if she be one of us? -- And once that clue has been gotten, every raider on the lot is targeting her as well.

As is typical for spontaneous Capital Wasteland rumbles, the fight doesn't last long. Before she knows it, everyone on the Super Duper side has been blasted away or blown to pieces, while only one of Dog's soldiers remains.

"Aw no! No!"

Barbra Bee is down, bleeding onto the parking lot where numerous SDM customers once parked their SUVs and minivans, kids already begging for Sugar Bombs while moms and dads grumbled about the Shredded K their docs had suggested. Barbra Bee is down. Despite the animosity Barb held against Vicious, and despite the threats Barb had made, Vicious cannot help but rush to the cadet's side, checking for pulse, poking the woman's arm with a Stimpak in an effort to revive. But it's too late.

"Dammit!" Vicious screams into the wind. "Dammit, dammit, dammit, ARRGH!" If only I'd just spoken my mind about their stupid uniforms! She can't help but beat herself up... if only, if only..

Buck Norris, a veteran of countless bouts and brawls from even before Taneesha was born, calmly sheathes his 10 mil while Vicious laments. He crouches down beside the hired assassin, puts a hand on her shoulder.

"A lot of people give up just before they’re about to make it," he tells her. "You never know if that next obstacle is going to be the last one."

"Aw, shut up. What's up with all these quotes and quips, anyway?"

Norris doesn't answer. Vicious continues to curse, now fighting back tears...

...But to everyone's surprise, Barb Bee suddenly begins to stir!

"Whoa..."

Perhaps the Stimpak jammed into her arm had a delayed effect. Vicious rushes over toward the woman who'd tried to scorn her, fussing over Barb like an old, fallen friend.








"Ditch your jumpsuits."

She finally says the suggestion she should've made hours ago, speaking to Norris because he's the one in charge. Norris looks at her quizzically.

"Not that y'all would've listened to me, especially you," she says, nodding toward Barb, "but that's what I almost said back in the sewers. Ditch the uniforms. Put on some raider gear, instead."

Norris gets it. "It's because we'll appear to be as one of them, huh?"

"Exactly. Most raiders are too high, or too drunk, or coming off a high or a drunk, or they just ignorant. They mind is blasted. They lookin' to rumble, just for the *heck* of it. They don't accept nobody but their kind. They'd shoot their own momma if they jonseing for a cig, and she don't wanna hand over her pack. At least round the Wasteland this is true."

Buck Norris doesn't disagree. "Well then, that's too bad for them."

"It is?" Dang, I had to ask...

"Yes ma'am, it is. Violence is always my last option."

"Uhm seriously dude, you got all these nuggets of wisdom..."

Buck Norris chuckles softly.

Vicious suggests Buck checks the market's trash bins for discarded raider apparel. Sure enough, he finds an armor set typically worn by the Sadist gang in a large Dumpster behind the market. Puts it on while Vicious loots the fallen. Most folks of course, the thought of donning someone else's trash is revolting. But Buck's an old pro. Originally from Florida's Panhandle, he's a survivor; Norris has decades of experience. He'd joined the Alabama Dissidents when the call for such duty arose in his dinky, down-south town at the age of fifteen, and has been a warrior ever since.

"How's this?" he asks five minutes later, dressed in gruesome Sadist chest, shoulder, and leg pieces.

"Looks good."

"Remember this Miss Vicious: (uh oh) Running from your fears can be more painful than facing them."

"Huh, yeah. Actually that makes sense."

"Fear is spelled F.E.A.R., which stands for False Evidence Appearing Real."

"Huh."

By now, it's late in the day; too late to continue travel. Though Norris has more life/combat experience than Vicious, Vicious is now calling the shots, since she's the one who knows where to go. She wants to head into Super Duper Mart, and tells the others they don't have to join her. She wants to see if Brat and Q are here. And they are! She finds both of them in what was once a back office, partying like usual, wasting their Wasteland lives away.

"YO!!! It's VISHIOUSH!!!" Bratty slurs.

The Brat literally slams into her pal, knocking her into a pile of miscellaneous stuff, while Q-Tip drops his smoke.

"Vicious!" Q exclaims. "See I KNEW you'd come back to us! So Rivet City sucks, huh? Knew you'd be back!"

The latest chem on the scene is 'Antagonizer Nectar'. Brat attempts to tempt Vicious with this latest psychedelic treat.

"Yo! It makes you see things!"

So it really comes as a surprise when Vicious tells her the news, that she's not only now chem-free, but also booze and cig-free as well. Bratty refuses to believe it, of course. Follows her teetotaling friend into the women's restroom, pestering all the while.

"Whaddoyamean you don't do chems no more?!"

After a half-hour or so, Bratty passes out. Predictable. Vicious looks over her intoxicated friend with disgust. Pallid face, pockmarked arms, that was ME not long ago.

The next morning, eventually the question arises in Vicious's mind over a package of Noodles: should she reveal Dogmaster's mission to her raider friends? Should she include them, asking them to come along to Evergreen Mills?

In the end, she decides not to.

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

Barbie blasts a molerat!

"I don't initiate violence..."

Crossing the Bridge - (Note the message at the top left. I added an invisible trigger on the bridge which removed Buck & Barb from the RaiderFaction.)

Super Duper Mart

Buck Norris, retaliating

Vicious hesitates, but ultimately joins the soldiers' side.

Double-shot - (Vicious hit the guy in the leg, and pretty sure Barbie got him on the chest, from the bridge.)

Mushroom cloud

Speech Challenge was required with Barbie. If Vicious failed, she would've continued in her Chinese suit.

Everyone's a raider now.

Bratty and Q live in SDM

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

Notes: 1). Alabama Dissidents are mentioned, which I borrowed from RaderOfTheLostArk's Fallout: Florida thread. Wherever Rader is.

2). As usual, I had to do the main combat scene several times. For some reason, Barb always ran the opposite direction; perhaps because she has a hunting rifle, and wanted to stay long-range.

3). Buck Norris actually got pwned during one of the fights, but I'd already made him Essential, so he lived. Why? Because even the Essential flag in the GECK is afraid of Buck Norris.

Not to brag, but I once killed eleven out of ten opponents, with just nine bullets.

Hilarious!

Well, I didn't feel sorry for Barb. But looks like that she was essential as well. I bet that she won't be rude to Taneesha anymore.

Maybe it's better that Tan doesn't share details of her mission with her ex-friends, especially Bratty. Who knows what a mess she'd cook this time?

I like the double shot screenie, such scenes can be hard to capture!

"You all better just give up!" Buck Norris warns. "Guns carry ME for protection!"
- - Along with the one Lopov quoted, you really have some great Chuck Norris truisms.

Too bad the Bee made it. . . .

Wise of Buck to heed Vicious about the uniform change.

I agree with Lopov that not telling Q and the Brat about her mission is a wise choice.

Raiders vs. Super Mutants. Good thing Miss V and company were there. That fight usually goes the other way.

Sounds like Buck did a Deadpool, where he lined up multiple bad guys to take out with a single bullet. TBH, Hecate's shot that I am most proud of was in a random encounter between a Deathclaw and some settlers. The was a settler right between Hecate and the Deathclaw, and they were about to be eviscerated. From long range, Hecate took one shot, and the kill camera kicked in. The bullet passed just inches from the settler's head, went by, and went right into the Deathclaw. One shot, one kill, all in a day's work for Hecate.

I think you got the west side / east side mixed up. The Farragut West Metro exit is east of the Potomac. The Super Duper Market is west of it.

Boy Barbie is really asking for a load of buckshot to the face, isn't she?

Now its Raider on Raider action, as the Super Duper Mart's crew reacts as one might expect to people wearing Chinese Army uniforms.

Antagonizer Nectar! I love it!

So the Brat and the Tip are there at the mart. Good thing Miss V wasn't wearing colors that would have made them instantly hostile. I am thinking keeping her trap shut about her mission was a wise choice. Otherwise word of it would have been all over the Wasteland in no time at all.