Notes From New Vegas 22
Nov. 25th, 2010 08:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
camwynNotes From New Vegas 22: Okay, Now You're Just Being A Jerk
When last we saw our heroine... well, we didn't, not really, because I was busy frothing at the mouth last time instead of actually talking about her. Vault 34. HATE. HATE. HATE. Suffice it to say that Janice and Veronica had the pulse gun and the mission orders from all the dead Brotherhood dudes, and so started south to Hidden Valley again to talk to the bossman about technology that he should be paying more attention to. This.... did not really work. McNamara flat out refused to look at the pulse gun, saying it was outside their technological mandate or something and that the Codex said not to accept the work of outsiders not bound to them by oath. Veronica asked him if he seriously intended to sit in the dark and rot and he said that they'd already outlasted the end of the world, they could outlast these other upstarts. Veronica kinda lost it at that and stalked out of the room.
At that point Janice just casually sidled over to the Elder and slid the stuff he'd asked her to recover across his desk. I guess she figured that this was as good a time as any; either the man was a rank hypocrite and wouldn't think twice about the situation, or the man was not a hypocrite and having had to accept help from an outsider would rankle extra hard in his brain if she timed it to now. McNamara accepted the tapes from her and rather uncomfortably asked her if she could possibly lend some more assistance, as there were scouts out there spying on the New California Republic and he needed to hear from them. He gave her a code to give them and thanked her for her assistance.
Janice met up with Veronica outside of the Elder's office and talked to her some. Veronica was all flaily and upset about the Elder just not being willing to listen even though there was proof right in front of him. She asked Janice whether she thought she ought to even stay in the Brotherhood or go join the Followers of the Apocalypse. Janice... to be honest, didn't know. She'd only met one Follower so far and while she liked Nacho, thought she probably ought to know more about them before telling someone to change her life over to theirs. So she told Veronica it was her decision to make, and Veronica grumbled about not getting any advice, but said she needed to think about it and get some air. Fine by Janice; they headed to the surface and Janice did her best not to catch Hardin's eye, because right now was not the time to get into politics.
'course, there were four Paladins who felt that now was the time, because they showed up and got all snarly at Ronnie and Janice for spreading subversive ideas and generally being bad little soldiers. Janice somehow managed to pull off a minor miracle and got the lot of them to briefly agree that it was a soldier's duty to occasionally get their superiors to think (which is to say after a reload, she downed some boozeahol, read a copy of Meeting People, and possibly crunched some Party Time Mentats to crank her Charisma and Speech ratings up to the point where she could pass a major speech check). They growled some more and told the girls to watch themselves from then on.
That'd be the point when Janice decided, you know, you people might be salvageable but you have some serious jerks in your number; you are not getting my robot. Time to go find the Old Mormon Fort and the Followers of the Apocalypse. And then go chase down the scouts for McNamara because seriously, Janice was in no hurry to do these people any favors; at least this way he might have time to stew and feel guilty.
The trouble with the Old Mormon Fort is that in order to find it you have to get into the outskirts of New Vegas again, so it was a bit of a walk. She couldn't help but notice as they got closer that things were getting uglier and uglier- more wreckage, fewer intact buildings, less indications of anything alive or growing anywhere in the vicinity. Eventually she and Ronnie and ED-E came across a big ol' gate in the city wall, with a couple of guys who all had the same black pompadour hairdo and vaguely similar clothes hanging out nearby. They didn't seem inclined to talk so Janice shrugged and said 'whatever' before going through the gate and into Freeside.
Freeside was, to put it politely, a wreck. There were guys in body armor hanging out near the gate offering their services as bodyguards to get you across Freeside safely. There was a dude across the street selling roach and dog meat cheap. There were children running gleefully through the ruined streets with sticks, trying to catch up with the most terrified giant rat Janice had ever seen, calling out that they would have rat meat tonight. There was a guy in leather and a baseball cap in one of the nearby doorways generally looking so skeevy that he just had to be some kind of a chem dealer. (He was. Janice didn't get proof until later.) It was, in short, the kind of slum that Newark residents point to and say "it could be so much worse". And the Followers were in there somewhere.
Well, it took some poking around and sticking her head into places of business- Mick and Ralph's, mostly, a shop that sold miscellaneous goods, guns, and fake passports onto the Strip. Janice did not bother buying one of those, as she had no particular intention of going there until she absolutely had to. Eventually, though, she found her way through a gate in the Giant Wall of Rubbish that defined the area and came out near The King's School of Impersonation, at which point she realized that she was seeing a lot of guys with that black pompadour hairdo, all carrying various degrees of weapon... yes, Freeside was, in fact, the territory of an organized gang of Elvis impersonators.
Keep that in memory. It's going to come up again later.
Anyway, she found her way from there to the Fort without much trouble. That area, at least, was reasonably civilized. The Followers had moved into a historic fort and set up shop there, with tents and medical facilities and all kinds of stuff. Apparently this was the place to go if you needed medical attention in Freeside. They had plenty of guards around in case of trouble, including a ghoul in a cowgirl hat, and they seemed to know the area pretty well and command a certain amount of respect. Janice liked that so she found the woman who'd spoken to her through ED-E and offered to let the Followers have a go at her robot. The woman thanked her and said that once they were done with ED-E's databanks, they'd upgrade his laser as a gesture of gratitude.
Janice asked Veronica what she thought at that point, and Ronnie said she was still probably going to stay with the Brotherhood. The Followers were all right, but she just couldn't bring herself to leave the family she'd known all her life, and as misguided as many of them were there was a kind of honor in it. (I could appreciate this on an OOC level because she might as well have been any woman seriously debating whether she wanted to leave the Catholic church for treating her gender as second best. Don't give me that face. That's what they do.) Janice nodded and said that until the Followers were done with ED-E they were going to go and find themselves some Brotherhood scouts and get their reports, so off they went again.
The first scout was actually pretty easy to find, since he was keeping an eye on the NCRCF- the prison up the road from Primm. He made grumpy noises about how the NCR apparently didn't have the manpower to retrieve their prison from these guys' hands, gave Janice his report, and told her to bring it back to the Elder. Scout #2 was down by Nipton, and he made some comments about the NCR not being able to move in and do something about Caesar's Legion in the area. Scout #3 took a little more finding, as he was apparently keeping an eye on the NCR's easternmost front, an area called Camp Forlorn Hope. Janice found her way to his location and took his assessment and notes for the Elder but didn't go into the camp, mostly because she was pretty sure people in there would ask her for favors and she was already a little overwhelmed. She did, however, make a note of the area; she might have to come back someday. With that she and Ronnie left, heading back to Hidden Valley and hoping those four paladins wouldn't be jerks again. Thankfully, they didn't, but there was other stuff that still had to be done...
When last we saw our heroine... well, we didn't, not really, because I was busy frothing at the mouth last time instead of actually talking about her. Vault 34. HATE. HATE. HATE. Suffice it to say that Janice and Veronica had the pulse gun and the mission orders from all the dead Brotherhood dudes, and so started south to Hidden Valley again to talk to the bossman about technology that he should be paying more attention to. This.... did not really work. McNamara flat out refused to look at the pulse gun, saying it was outside their technological mandate or something and that the Codex said not to accept the work of outsiders not bound to them by oath. Veronica asked him if he seriously intended to sit in the dark and rot and he said that they'd already outlasted the end of the world, they could outlast these other upstarts. Veronica kinda lost it at that and stalked out of the room.
At that point Janice just casually sidled over to the Elder and slid the stuff he'd asked her to recover across his desk. I guess she figured that this was as good a time as any; either the man was a rank hypocrite and wouldn't think twice about the situation, or the man was not a hypocrite and having had to accept help from an outsider would rankle extra hard in his brain if she timed it to now. McNamara accepted the tapes from her and rather uncomfortably asked her if she could possibly lend some more assistance, as there were scouts out there spying on the New California Republic and he needed to hear from them. He gave her a code to give them and thanked her for her assistance.
Janice met up with Veronica outside of the Elder's office and talked to her some. Veronica was all flaily and upset about the Elder just not being willing to listen even though there was proof right in front of him. She asked Janice whether she thought she ought to even stay in the Brotherhood or go join the Followers of the Apocalypse. Janice... to be honest, didn't know. She'd only met one Follower so far and while she liked Nacho, thought she probably ought to know more about them before telling someone to change her life over to theirs. So she told Veronica it was her decision to make, and Veronica grumbled about not getting any advice, but said she needed to think about it and get some air. Fine by Janice; they headed to the surface and Janice did her best not to catch Hardin's eye, because right now was not the time to get into politics.
'course, there were four Paladins who felt that now was the time, because they showed up and got all snarly at Ronnie and Janice for spreading subversive ideas and generally being bad little soldiers. Janice somehow managed to pull off a minor miracle and got the lot of them to briefly agree that it was a soldier's duty to occasionally get their superiors to think (which is to say after a reload, she downed some boozeahol, read a copy of Meeting People, and possibly crunched some Party Time Mentats to crank her Charisma and Speech ratings up to the point where she could pass a major speech check). They growled some more and told the girls to watch themselves from then on.
That'd be the point when Janice decided, you know, you people might be salvageable but you have some serious jerks in your number; you are not getting my robot. Time to go find the Old Mormon Fort and the Followers of the Apocalypse. And then go chase down the scouts for McNamara because seriously, Janice was in no hurry to do these people any favors; at least this way he might have time to stew and feel guilty.
The trouble with the Old Mormon Fort is that in order to find it you have to get into the outskirts of New Vegas again, so it was a bit of a walk. She couldn't help but notice as they got closer that things were getting uglier and uglier- more wreckage, fewer intact buildings, less indications of anything alive or growing anywhere in the vicinity. Eventually she and Ronnie and ED-E came across a big ol' gate in the city wall, with a couple of guys who all had the same black pompadour hairdo and vaguely similar clothes hanging out nearby. They didn't seem inclined to talk so Janice shrugged and said 'whatever' before going through the gate and into Freeside.
Freeside was, to put it politely, a wreck. There were guys in body armor hanging out near the gate offering their services as bodyguards to get you across Freeside safely. There was a dude across the street selling roach and dog meat cheap. There were children running gleefully through the ruined streets with sticks, trying to catch up with the most terrified giant rat Janice had ever seen, calling out that they would have rat meat tonight. There was a guy in leather and a baseball cap in one of the nearby doorways generally looking so skeevy that he just had to be some kind of a chem dealer. (He was. Janice didn't get proof until later.) It was, in short, the kind of slum that Newark residents point to and say "it could be so much worse". And the Followers were in there somewhere.
Well, it took some poking around and sticking her head into places of business- Mick and Ralph's, mostly, a shop that sold miscellaneous goods, guns, and fake passports onto the Strip. Janice did not bother buying one of those, as she had no particular intention of going there until she absolutely had to. Eventually, though, she found her way through a gate in the Giant Wall of Rubbish that defined the area and came out near The King's School of Impersonation, at which point she realized that she was seeing a lot of guys with that black pompadour hairdo, all carrying various degrees of weapon... yes, Freeside was, in fact, the territory of an organized gang of Elvis impersonators.
Keep that in memory. It's going to come up again later.
Anyway, she found her way from there to the Fort without much trouble. That area, at least, was reasonably civilized. The Followers had moved into a historic fort and set up shop there, with tents and medical facilities and all kinds of stuff. Apparently this was the place to go if you needed medical attention in Freeside. They had plenty of guards around in case of trouble, including a ghoul in a cowgirl hat, and they seemed to know the area pretty well and command a certain amount of respect. Janice liked that so she found the woman who'd spoken to her through ED-E and offered to let the Followers have a go at her robot. The woman thanked her and said that once they were done with ED-E's databanks, they'd upgrade his laser as a gesture of gratitude.
Janice asked Veronica what she thought at that point, and Ronnie said she was still probably going to stay with the Brotherhood. The Followers were all right, but she just couldn't bring herself to leave the family she'd known all her life, and as misguided as many of them were there was a kind of honor in it. (I could appreciate this on an OOC level because she might as well have been any woman seriously debating whether she wanted to leave the Catholic church for treating her gender as second best. Don't give me that face. That's what they do.) Janice nodded and said that until the Followers were done with ED-E they were going to go and find themselves some Brotherhood scouts and get their reports, so off they went again.
The first scout was actually pretty easy to find, since he was keeping an eye on the NCRCF- the prison up the road from Primm. He made grumpy noises about how the NCR apparently didn't have the manpower to retrieve their prison from these guys' hands, gave Janice his report, and told her to bring it back to the Elder. Scout #2 was down by Nipton, and he made some comments about the NCR not being able to move in and do something about Caesar's Legion in the area. Scout #3 took a little more finding, as he was apparently keeping an eye on the NCR's easternmost front, an area called Camp Forlorn Hope. Janice found her way to his location and took his assessment and notes for the Elder but didn't go into the camp, mostly because she was pretty sure people in there would ask her for favors and she was already a little overwhelmed. She did, however, make a note of the area; she might have to come back someday. With that she and Ronnie left, heading back to Hidden Valley and hoping those four paladins wouldn't be jerks again. Thankfully, they didn't, but there was other stuff that still had to be done...
