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camwyntes From New Vegas 57
When last we saw our heroine, she had Arcade Gannon of the Followers of the Apocalypse in tow and had just been greeted by a nice young Elvis impersonator who gave her a small gift and the King's compliments. You may recall, as I failed to reall when I wrote the prior set of Notes, that way back when Janice arrived in Freeside she encountered a building surrounded by these guys. Said building was apparently The King's School of Impersonation. Given how her life had been going up to this point, Janice figured it might just be time to pay the King a visit. It's not like it could make things any more weird.
Well, unless these guys kidnapped and brainwashed people into looking like them. There was always that possibility.
Still, there were worse fates and Janice had already survived several of those. And frankly, the Elvi didn't give her the creeps the way a lot of these other types she'd encountered did. So after a little discussion with Arcade, who had no objections, they set off for the School of Impersonation. Which, of course, had an Elvis at the-
Okay, point of order here. At no point in the game is the name Elvis ever mentioned. Nor the Presley name, either. I don't know if it was too expensive to get the proper rights, or if Obsidian just thought it was more appropriate to a post-nuclear world to have the man's image and likeness but not his name, or what. But they never, ever, ever actually refer to him as Elvis, and Janice wouldn't be thinking of these guys as Elvis or as Elvis impersonators. It's just that it's patently obvious that the player is supposed to be looking at these guys and going "Elvis!", so I might as well play along. I'm good with that.
Anway. Elvis at the door. Elvi, lots of Elvi, inside the door. Most of them had black leather jackets over white T-shirts and jeans. Some of them had black jackets over horizontally striped shirts and jeans, like in Jailhouse Rock (not kidding, the outfit is called the Jailhouse Rocker if you look at their inventories). All of them affected some degree of accent or other, at least until Janice ran into Pacer. Pacer was the only one of all the Elvi in the lobby who was willing to talk to Janice much beyond 'the King's in that room' or 'why don't you watch where you're going' if she bumped into them. Problem was, Pacer's conversation involved asking Janice how much it was worth to her to see the King- as in, asking for caps.
Now, Janice was reasonably well stocked in the money department, so she could've paid if she'd wanted to. She found the idea of being charged to see this guy annoying, though- how did she know it would even be worth it? So she told Pacer very calmly that she was just in town and wanted to pay the King her respects. Apparently this struck the right note; Pacer decided he liked her and let her into the next room. Which was also full of Elvi, but this time there was also a stage, and a couple of Elvi were up there practicing hip-intensive dance moves while other Elvi watched and critiqued their form. Well, it was a school of impersonation...
And there, in the middle of the audience area, was the King. He was wearing somewhat nicer clothes than the others- his outfit was white, although more like young Elvis than old, over-sequined Elvis- and he sounded much more like the original Elvis Presley than most of the rest. Voice, tone, accent, everything. It was kind of neat. Also he had a what the hell WHY DO YOU HAVE A ROBODOG WITH A GLOWING BRAIN IN A DOME. SERIOUSLY, THAT'S SOME FREAKY DEAKY BIG MOUNTAIN !*&( RIGHT THERE. WHAT.
... well, she didn't say that. I mean, she wanted to. That's not the kind of thing you forget. But she was trying very hard to be polite and the King was really a decent fellow from the word go, so it didn't seem like a wise idea to disrupt the conversation with 'um, hey, half robot abomination dog, what's up with that'.
Well, the King thanked her for looking after people in Freeside and doing folks some good, and expressed some surprise that Pacer had given her a hard time at the door. Apparently they were good friends. Janice figured it was probably best not to raise too much of a fuss, since Pacer had let her through in the end, and brushed the whole thing off. That seemed like the right thing to do, because the King thanked her and then asked if she'd be willing to do him a favor to help out Freeside.
Janice got wary pretty quickly, but it turned out that all the King was asking her to do was investigate one of those bodyguards who were hanging around the gates to Freeside. Apparently one named Orris was making money hand over fist, and the King didn't trust anybody who was profiting that much more than everyone else. If he gave her two hundred caps to hire Orris and find out what he was doing that got him raking in that much more cash than most, would she be willing to report back? Well, that seemed reasonably harmless, so she said sure.
So off she went. It took a little circling around to approach the bodyguards from a direction that didn't tip them off that she'd already crossed about half of Freeside, but considering how busy they were trying to attract patronage, she probably needn't have bothered. Orris turned out to be a white guy with metal armor and an attitude; he charged twice as much as the other bodyguards from the word go and said he was worth every cap. Janice didn't much like the look of him, especially sincce she, personally, had fought her way through the damn Ghost People back in the Sierra Madre, but... enh, she'd promised the King. Two hundred caps changed hands. Orris told her and Arcade to stay close to him, because he didn't stop or slow down, and immediately started what passed for a tour. "That's the Fort, the Followers there'll sew you up if you get hurt- which you won't, because you're with me." "That's the Atomic Wrangler to your right, best casino in Freeside." "That's the Kings, don't mind them-" you get the picture.
A little ways past the King's School, though, Orris stopped and said he didn't like the look of 'those guys up ahead'. Janice didn't notice anybody in particular, but Orris said they were going take a different route across Freeside to the gates of the Strip, and turned left down a side street. Janice's finely honed scam sense started tingling, more so when Orris suddenly broke into a dead run and outpaced both her and Arcade to the next turn in the street. When the gunshots broke out, well...
Now, here's the thing. Janice and Arcade got around the corner and found Orris with his still-smoking gun, and four guys lying around looking reasonably dead on the pavement. Janice, however, had only heard Orris fire three times. And whn Orris started talking about how you couldn't be careful enough in Freeside and had to watch out for dangers like that all the time, Janice was just sure she saw one of those downed guys breathe. I'm not sure the custom of going "*cough*bullshit*cough*" survived into the post-nuclear age, but if it did, Janice was sorely tempted to do so. She didn't call Orris on it, though. With that many accomplices on hand Orris stood a chance of getting some real damage in, should she piss him off. She just nodded and thanked him for his impeccable marksmanship, followed him the rest of the way, waved goodbye and promised to hire him again should she ever need a bodyguard.
Funny thing; they were just outside the gates to the Strip, but there were no guards for hire anywhere in sight. Mr. House's Securitrons on the gate, yes; bodyguards, no. One might almost be inclined to think that people coming out of the Strip were somehow less likely to be carrying anything that might make them worth robbing! ... actually, to be fair, we are talking about Freeside here. The locals don't especially care whether you're worth robbing or not. These are the people committing suicide by Janice, remember. I suspect the lack of guards-for-hire outside the Strip had more to do with those Securitrons. Big, bulky robots with cop faces on their screens instead of cowboy faces like Victor, they demanded anyone who approached the gate submit to a credit check- and if anybody tried to get past them without doing so, they relieved them of all that pesky blood their bodies were carrying. With bullets. Lots of them. Kind of hard for a human bodyguard to look impressive or worth hiring when there are robots like that around, even if they're not bothering to shoot anybody who isn't approaching the gate.
Sooner or later Janice was going to have to come back, of course, since Benny was on the Strip somewhere, but she didn't really feel especially tempted to try right now. For one thing, she was on a job for the King, and for another, there was that whole credit check part. What the robots were checking she didn't know, but she was pretty sure she didn't have it. She'd just have to come back later. OH WELL. So sorry, main plot, you are being ignored yet AGAIN, this time in favor of Elvis.
The King thought Janice's news was absolutely fascinating and said he'd have some words with Orris, but asked Janice if she'd mind doing him another favor. This time it involved checking up on some friends of his. They'd been attacked, maybe by NCR squatters, and they were recovering at the Old Mormon Fort. No caps this time, but Janice wsn't too fussed about that. The King was one of the first people she'd run into around here who wasn't a complete jerk, he'd asked nicely, and anyway it wasn't far to the Fort.
The people the King had sent them to check up on were in kind of a bad way when Janice and Arcade arrived, and a little wild-eyed at the sight of strangers, but mentioning the King perked them right up. They'd been attacked, all right. Not sure who by, since it's hard to ID the guy beating you up when your face has been smooshed into the dirt, but one of them had a name- Lou something. Lou Tenant-
Yeah, before you roll your eyes, a) this is a throwaway reference to a character in one of the earlier Fallout games, a mutant named Lou, and b) the other guy immediately called his friend "dumb as a mutant sometimes" and said he probably did in fact mean 'lieutenant'. So probably not squatters by the sound of it, but actual NCR soldiers, which... not really the best sign in the world. Janice wished them well and went to find Julie Farkas among the Followers, in the hopes that she'd know more about what happened. Alas, this was not to be; the best Julie could do was say that generally the Kings were pretty good people and that the NCR had its problems but didn't usually act like that. She did suggest Janice go have a word with a friend of hers, Major Kieran, an NCR soldier running a soup kitchen on the northern end of Freeside; she might know more.
Turned out, once Janice got past the NCR soldiers who were guarding the soup kitchen (you have an option of getting a password from Julie or of passing a three question NCR citizenship test if you want to do this without violence), there'd been some problems a while ago. Major Kieran had originally been set to hand out food to NCR citizens and New Vegas and Freeside hungry folk alike. She'd sent an envoy to go and talk to the King, in fact- work with the locals to coordinate the relief effort, you know? Only that doesn't work so good when your envoy returns to you having been beaten half to death. Funding got yanked and Major Kieran wound up with only enough supplies and money to help NCR citizens, not locals.
Huh. Wasn't that interesting. And wasn't it even more interesting that when Janice returned to the School of Impersonation to tell the King about it, Pacer came running up to her and told her it was all lies and bullshit and not anything the King should be bothered with? And how the NCR envoy had been more of a spy who 'wasn't tough enough to last in Freeside'? Janice gave him a Look and said he'd asked, so she figured he really ought to know, and the next thing she knew Pacer was running out the door muttering about Business he had to take care of. DUN DUN DUNNNNH...
Pacer was apparently some kind of post-nuclear Usain Bolt. He managed to get from the School of Impersonation to the far side of Freeside in the time it took Janice to cross two rooms and tell the King what had happened, because as she was explaining the situation to him (the envoy had never reached him- he'd never even known the NCR sent one) another King came into the room and said there was a shootout with the NCR going on down by the old railroad tracks. And guess who was doing most of the shooting.
Mmyeah.
The King asked Janice to go defuse the situation if she could; the last thing he wanted was pitched war in the streets. Janice took off at a run, as she personally was also not a big fan of such things- something about the risk of being shot in the head just rang all the wrong bells for her- and started shouting and waving her arms frantically on arrival. The Kings ignored her. Major Kieran yelled at her. Janice called them all idiots, or rather very much wanted to but avoided actually doing so, and told Major Kieran that the King hadn't authorized this OR the beating and that this was a splinter faction's work and the King and the rest of Freeside wanted to talk and STOP SHOOTING FOR THE LOVE OF FERRIS OKAY?
Rather to her surprise, they did. Both sides did. There was this sort of fidgety "I am neither looking at you nor at the dead people on the ground" air to everyone as they holstered their weapons, which Janice supposed was probably the best anyone could hope for. The NCR withdrew from the area without incident and so did the Kings, although Pacer was sort of sulking and pouting and muttered things at Janice as she passed, but... eh, Janice figured the King was probalby in the best position to handle him. And when she got back to the School the King said as much, and said that it was time for a little more talkin' and a little less fightin', and told her that for her part in clearing up the situation for Freeside she could have one favor from him.
Janice had the sense to know that some things are best not decided on the spot, and so she told the King she'd think about it, which he seemed to consider a sensible course of action. And thus I will leave our heroine there. Next time, we will deal with the WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOUR DOG.
... sorry, but Janice still kinda has issues with glowy brains in jars, even if the jar is attached to a living thing's head.
When last we saw our heroine, she had Arcade Gannon of the Followers of the Apocalypse in tow and had just been greeted by a nice young Elvis impersonator who gave her a small gift and the King's compliments. You may recall, as I failed to reall when I wrote the prior set of Notes, that way back when Janice arrived in Freeside she encountered a building surrounded by these guys. Said building was apparently The King's School of Impersonation. Given how her life had been going up to this point, Janice figured it might just be time to pay the King a visit. It's not like it could make things any more weird.
Well, unless these guys kidnapped and brainwashed people into looking like them. There was always that possibility.
Still, there were worse fates and Janice had already survived several of those. And frankly, the Elvi didn't give her the creeps the way a lot of these other types she'd encountered did. So after a little discussion with Arcade, who had no objections, they set off for the School of Impersonation. Which, of course, had an Elvis at the-
Okay, point of order here. At no point in the game is the name Elvis ever mentioned. Nor the Presley name, either. I don't know if it was too expensive to get the proper rights, or if Obsidian just thought it was more appropriate to a post-nuclear world to have the man's image and likeness but not his name, or what. But they never, ever, ever actually refer to him as Elvis, and Janice wouldn't be thinking of these guys as Elvis or as Elvis impersonators. It's just that it's patently obvious that the player is supposed to be looking at these guys and going "Elvis!", so I might as well play along. I'm good with that.
Anway. Elvis at the door. Elvi, lots of Elvi, inside the door. Most of them had black leather jackets over white T-shirts and jeans. Some of them had black jackets over horizontally striped shirts and jeans, like in Jailhouse Rock (not kidding, the outfit is called the Jailhouse Rocker if you look at their inventories). All of them affected some degree of accent or other, at least until Janice ran into Pacer. Pacer was the only one of all the Elvi in the lobby who was willing to talk to Janice much beyond 'the King's in that room' or 'why don't you watch where you're going' if she bumped into them. Problem was, Pacer's conversation involved asking Janice how much it was worth to her to see the King- as in, asking for caps.
Now, Janice was reasonably well stocked in the money department, so she could've paid if she'd wanted to. She found the idea of being charged to see this guy annoying, though- how did she know it would even be worth it? So she told Pacer very calmly that she was just in town and wanted to pay the King her respects. Apparently this struck the right note; Pacer decided he liked her and let her into the next room. Which was also full of Elvi, but this time there was also a stage, and a couple of Elvi were up there practicing hip-intensive dance moves while other Elvi watched and critiqued their form. Well, it was a school of impersonation...
And there, in the middle of the audience area, was the King. He was wearing somewhat nicer clothes than the others- his outfit was white, although more like young Elvis than old, over-sequined Elvis- and he sounded much more like the original Elvis Presley than most of the rest. Voice, tone, accent, everything. It was kind of neat. Also he had a what the hell WHY DO YOU HAVE A ROBODOG WITH A GLOWING BRAIN IN A DOME. SERIOUSLY, THAT'S SOME FREAKY DEAKY BIG MOUNTAIN !*&( RIGHT THERE. WHAT.
... well, she didn't say that. I mean, she wanted to. That's not the kind of thing you forget. But she was trying very hard to be polite and the King was really a decent fellow from the word go, so it didn't seem like a wise idea to disrupt the conversation with 'um, hey, half robot abomination dog, what's up with that'.
Well, the King thanked her for looking after people in Freeside and doing folks some good, and expressed some surprise that Pacer had given her a hard time at the door. Apparently they were good friends. Janice figured it was probably best not to raise too much of a fuss, since Pacer had let her through in the end, and brushed the whole thing off. That seemed like the right thing to do, because the King thanked her and then asked if she'd be willing to do him a favor to help out Freeside.
Janice got wary pretty quickly, but it turned out that all the King was asking her to do was investigate one of those bodyguards who were hanging around the gates to Freeside. Apparently one named Orris was making money hand over fist, and the King didn't trust anybody who was profiting that much more than everyone else. If he gave her two hundred caps to hire Orris and find out what he was doing that got him raking in that much more cash than most, would she be willing to report back? Well, that seemed reasonably harmless, so she said sure.
So off she went. It took a little circling around to approach the bodyguards from a direction that didn't tip them off that she'd already crossed about half of Freeside, but considering how busy they were trying to attract patronage, she probably needn't have bothered. Orris turned out to be a white guy with metal armor and an attitude; he charged twice as much as the other bodyguards from the word go and said he was worth every cap. Janice didn't much like the look of him, especially sincce she, personally, had fought her way through the damn Ghost People back in the Sierra Madre, but... enh, she'd promised the King. Two hundred caps changed hands. Orris told her and Arcade to stay close to him, because he didn't stop or slow down, and immediately started what passed for a tour. "That's the Fort, the Followers there'll sew you up if you get hurt- which you won't, because you're with me." "That's the Atomic Wrangler to your right, best casino in Freeside." "That's the Kings, don't mind them-" you get the picture.
A little ways past the King's School, though, Orris stopped and said he didn't like the look of 'those guys up ahead'. Janice didn't notice anybody in particular, but Orris said they were going take a different route across Freeside to the gates of the Strip, and turned left down a side street. Janice's finely honed scam sense started tingling, more so when Orris suddenly broke into a dead run and outpaced both her and Arcade to the next turn in the street. When the gunshots broke out, well...
Now, here's the thing. Janice and Arcade got around the corner and found Orris with his still-smoking gun, and four guys lying around looking reasonably dead on the pavement. Janice, however, had only heard Orris fire three times. And whn Orris started talking about how you couldn't be careful enough in Freeside and had to watch out for dangers like that all the time, Janice was just sure she saw one of those downed guys breathe. I'm not sure the custom of going "*cough*bullshit*cough*" survived into the post-nuclear age, but if it did, Janice was sorely tempted to do so. She didn't call Orris on it, though. With that many accomplices on hand Orris stood a chance of getting some real damage in, should she piss him off. She just nodded and thanked him for his impeccable marksmanship, followed him the rest of the way, waved goodbye and promised to hire him again should she ever need a bodyguard.
Funny thing; they were just outside the gates to the Strip, but there were no guards for hire anywhere in sight. Mr. House's Securitrons on the gate, yes; bodyguards, no. One might almost be inclined to think that people coming out of the Strip were somehow less likely to be carrying anything that might make them worth robbing! ... actually, to be fair, we are talking about Freeside here. The locals don't especially care whether you're worth robbing or not. These are the people committing suicide by Janice, remember. I suspect the lack of guards-for-hire outside the Strip had more to do with those Securitrons. Big, bulky robots with cop faces on their screens instead of cowboy faces like Victor, they demanded anyone who approached the gate submit to a credit check- and if anybody tried to get past them without doing so, they relieved them of all that pesky blood their bodies were carrying. With bullets. Lots of them. Kind of hard for a human bodyguard to look impressive or worth hiring when there are robots like that around, even if they're not bothering to shoot anybody who isn't approaching the gate.
Sooner or later Janice was going to have to come back, of course, since Benny was on the Strip somewhere, but she didn't really feel especially tempted to try right now. For one thing, she was on a job for the King, and for another, there was that whole credit check part. What the robots were checking she didn't know, but she was pretty sure she didn't have it. She'd just have to come back later. OH WELL. So sorry, main plot, you are being ignored yet AGAIN, this time in favor of Elvis.
The King thought Janice's news was absolutely fascinating and said he'd have some words with Orris, but asked Janice if she'd mind doing him another favor. This time it involved checking up on some friends of his. They'd been attacked, maybe by NCR squatters, and they were recovering at the Old Mormon Fort. No caps this time, but Janice wsn't too fussed about that. The King was one of the first people she'd run into around here who wasn't a complete jerk, he'd asked nicely, and anyway it wasn't far to the Fort.
The people the King had sent them to check up on were in kind of a bad way when Janice and Arcade arrived, and a little wild-eyed at the sight of strangers, but mentioning the King perked them right up. They'd been attacked, all right. Not sure who by, since it's hard to ID the guy beating you up when your face has been smooshed into the dirt, but one of them had a name- Lou something. Lou Tenant-
Yeah, before you roll your eyes, a) this is a throwaway reference to a character in one of the earlier Fallout games, a mutant named Lou, and b) the other guy immediately called his friend "dumb as a mutant sometimes" and said he probably did in fact mean 'lieutenant'. So probably not squatters by the sound of it, but actual NCR soldiers, which... not really the best sign in the world. Janice wished them well and went to find Julie Farkas among the Followers, in the hopes that she'd know more about what happened. Alas, this was not to be; the best Julie could do was say that generally the Kings were pretty good people and that the NCR had its problems but didn't usually act like that. She did suggest Janice go have a word with a friend of hers, Major Kieran, an NCR soldier running a soup kitchen on the northern end of Freeside; she might know more.
Turned out, once Janice got past the NCR soldiers who were guarding the soup kitchen (you have an option of getting a password from Julie or of passing a three question NCR citizenship test if you want to do this without violence), there'd been some problems a while ago. Major Kieran had originally been set to hand out food to NCR citizens and New Vegas and Freeside hungry folk alike. She'd sent an envoy to go and talk to the King, in fact- work with the locals to coordinate the relief effort, you know? Only that doesn't work so good when your envoy returns to you having been beaten half to death. Funding got yanked and Major Kieran wound up with only enough supplies and money to help NCR citizens, not locals.
Huh. Wasn't that interesting. And wasn't it even more interesting that when Janice returned to the School of Impersonation to tell the King about it, Pacer came running up to her and told her it was all lies and bullshit and not anything the King should be bothered with? And how the NCR envoy had been more of a spy who 'wasn't tough enough to last in Freeside'? Janice gave him a Look and said he'd asked, so she figured he really ought to know, and the next thing she knew Pacer was running out the door muttering about Business he had to take care of. DUN DUN DUNNNNH...
Pacer was apparently some kind of post-nuclear Usain Bolt. He managed to get from the School of Impersonation to the far side of Freeside in the time it took Janice to cross two rooms and tell the King what had happened, because as she was explaining the situation to him (the envoy had never reached him- he'd never even known the NCR sent one) another King came into the room and said there was a shootout with the NCR going on down by the old railroad tracks. And guess who was doing most of the shooting.
Mmyeah.
The King asked Janice to go defuse the situation if she could; the last thing he wanted was pitched war in the streets. Janice took off at a run, as she personally was also not a big fan of such things- something about the risk of being shot in the head just rang all the wrong bells for her- and started shouting and waving her arms frantically on arrival. The Kings ignored her. Major Kieran yelled at her. Janice called them all idiots, or rather very much wanted to but avoided actually doing so, and told Major Kieran that the King hadn't authorized this OR the beating and that this was a splinter faction's work and the King and the rest of Freeside wanted to talk and STOP SHOOTING FOR THE LOVE OF FERRIS OKAY?
Rather to her surprise, they did. Both sides did. There was this sort of fidgety "I am neither looking at you nor at the dead people on the ground" air to everyone as they holstered their weapons, which Janice supposed was probably the best anyone could hope for. The NCR withdrew from the area without incident and so did the Kings, although Pacer was sort of sulking and pouting and muttered things at Janice as she passed, but... eh, Janice figured the King was probalby in the best position to handle him. And when she got back to the School the King said as much, and said that it was time for a little more talkin' and a little less fightin', and told her that for her part in clearing up the situation for Freeside she could have one favor from him.
Janice had the sense to know that some things are best not decided on the spot, and so she told the King she'd think about it, which he seemed to consider a sensible course of action. And thus I will leave our heroine there. Next time, we will deal with the WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOUR DOG.
... sorry, but Janice still kinda has issues with glowy brains in jars, even if the jar is attached to a living thing's head.
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Date: 2013-05-10 08:19 pm (UTC)