Well It EVENTUALLY Got Better
Jan. 25th, 2026 11:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickWe had a fucking rough morning today, with a lot of breakdowns caused by Dad being in massive pain and Mom having almost no luck getting through to anyone about him needing specific pain pills to function (because, again, the asshole doctor who was treating him NEVER CALLED IN THE PRESCRIPTION) -- fortunately, by 10:30 AM, his REGULAR doctor stepped up and called in the script, and Mom was able to get up to the hospital pharmacy, get the pills, and get back before the snow got too bad. So Dad finally has painkillers that, you know, ACTUALLY KILL THE PAIN. There were still a few bad moments (especially around suppertime, when a new pain in his back emerged), but nothing like this morning. And now that we have a ten-day supply, hopefully things will be a little better going forward.
...that is, if we don't get buried in snow, because the OTHER main event of the day was the massive snowstorm that descended upon us -- I believe its name is Tess? At any rate, it dumped a FUCKTON of snow on us today -- Mom and I both went out to shovel at around 2 PM and 5 PM, and both times we were dealing with at LEAST six inches of snow on the ground. And both times it was snowing so fast and hard that we couldn't keep any of our paths or the driveway truly clear -- they all just kept getting covered up with snow again! The second time, we were out there for an hour, and Mom and I were pretty sure it snowed two inches in that hour! It's ridiculous! And it's STILL snowing outside -- tiny little flakes, but they're coming fast and furious, and -- yeah. Needless to say, I do NOT have work tomorrow. And may possibly not have it Tuesday either, depending on how the clean-up efforts tomorrow go. We shall see. *shakehead* Between having to watch the house for Mom while Dad was in the hospital and this, it feels like I might never go back to work at all this January...
Anyway. I owe you two days' worth of "what I did on the computer" write-ups tonight, don't I? "Fortunately," I didn't do a lot online either yesterday or today because of all the nonsense with Dad's pain meds and the snow, so it shouldn't be too hard for me to catch you up. Let's go in order:
Saturday, 1/24/2026: Didn't get that much done after Dad came home in the afternoon, but I was able to accomplish three things --
Tumblr: Was another nothing night over on Valice Multiverse (which I was honestly relieved by), but over on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler), I took a moment after properly finishing Friday’s entry to write up the “Valicer In The Dark not-incorrect quote” scene idea I had on Friday in full – the one where Smiler’s introducing the trio to another scoundrel, only for said soundrel to recognize Victor as the son of the canning magnate William Van Dort, Alice as the one from Rutledge the Doskvol Illustrated kept writing about, and Smiler as an Advocate who sells a very popular drug...and then ask how any of them get away with any crimes. Alice: “We’re very good.” XD I just – I wanted to do something over there, and that was something I knew I could sort out quick and would give me a laugh, so...glad I got it done.
Fallout: New Vegas: As Dad didn’t come home until 4 PM on Saturday (I know because I’d JUST made a cup of hot chocolate when he and Mom pulled up), I had some time after lunch to play video games – so, having played Tav!Smiler on Friday, I returned to the adventures of Courier!Victor on Saturday! Though, admittedly, his playsession was largely another long conversation with an NPC...let me give you the details:
A) First things first – yes, I turned on Hardcore Mode when I got into the game. ^^; I wanted those survival mechanics, damn it! Though, in accordance with what I said before, turning on the Hardcore mechanics (Victor will need to eat, drink and sleep every so often; stimpacks and Rad-Away heal over time; and ammo has weight) also came with me going into the “Agua Fria” section in the Mod Configuration Menu and upping Victor’s base carry weight from the mod’s base of 50 units to 100 – still 50 below the vanilla game’s base of 150, while allowing for some extra space for Victor’s now-heavier ammo. *nods* I felt like that was a fair compromise! So now Victor can carry a whole 130 units of stuff, yay~
B) Once that was settled (and I’d checked that Victor’s carry weight had appropriately gone up and the new food, water, and sleep meters were active in the “Status” section – wasn’t sure if I would need to restart to apply changes or not), I picked up where I’d left off, with Victor hanging out by the campfire Sunny Smiles had just used to teach him how to make healing powder. The game kindly reminded me that his next objective was to go see Trudy at the Prospector Saloon and say hi, as per Sunny’s request (it always reminds you of your latest active quest objective when you load in, which is nice), and I figured I ought to get on that sooner rather than later –
Well, after Victor cleaned up the campsite. The place was a pigsty! Victor accordingly picked up a few bent tin cans and a bunch of empty whiskey bottles (which will hopefully be useful for crafting stuff later), then, once he was satisfied with the place, headed up toward the ridge that Sunny’s dog Cheyenne was climbing. Or, well, was trying to climb, because poor Cheyenne had gotten stuck on the scenery. *shakehead* Common problem in these games that Besthesda has touched… Victor lightly walked into the dog to push her off the rocks she was stuck on, then – once he’d ascertained the pupper was free – headed up the ridge, past one of the wells and the dead geckos rotting nearby over to the road leading up into town. There were some of those curious “looks like a pineapple growing on top of a very stumpy palm tree” plants growing on the other side, so I had Victor check those out to see if anything could be harvested from them – nothing, sadly –
Then I noticed what looked like a strange container of some kind sitting nearby. Curious, I approached it for a better look, and – well. You tell me what you think it looks like:
Hi Indiana Jones from The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull! I’d forgotten that movie came out before this game’s release too. XD As you might expect, this is one of the effects you only get if your character has the “Wild Wasteland” trait – very glad I turned it on last time, even if it DID force me to redo Victor’s face. Especially since it scored him a free hat – a “Suave Gambler’s Hat” taken off the skeleton. Like most hats, it gives +1 Perception, though I think if it’s a “Suave Gambler’s Hat,” it should really give you +1 Charisma or +1 Luck, personally. *shrug* Ah well – nobody asked me when they made the game!
C) Having experienced his first bit of Wildness in the Wasteland, Victor crossed back over to the other side of the road to check out a wagon abandoned on top of some old tires and pick up another couple of bent tin cans scattered around it, then returned to the road itself and continued following it up the hill, past the Goodsprings town sign, past the houses (and the leisurely-walking Sunny Smiles) on the other side of the road, and over to the Prospector Saloon! Victor thus headed inside to fulfill his final quest objective –
And promptly found himself face-to-face with Sunny, who had been teleported inside with Cheyenne when he stepped in (I guess the game felt that she had to be hanging out there when the Courier arrived). After getting over that surprise (and after Sunny had gone out to hang out near someone sitting at a booth near the pool table on the right side of the room), I had Victor head to the left, to the bar, to meet up with Trudy –
Only to find her (or, at least, the woman I presumed was her) standing in the middle of the bar area, having a rather heated conversation with a man in a SWAT vest. One who told her, “I’m done being nice. If you don’t hand Ringo over soon, I’m going to get my friends and we’re burning this town to the ground, got it?” Trudy, unimpressed, replied, “We’ll keep that in mind. Now, if you’re not going to buy something, get out.” The man stalked out past Victor, and Trudy went back behind the bar – Victor cautiously approached her to say hi, and she greeted him warmly, saying he’d been causing quite a stir around town, and that she was glad to meet him before welcoming him to the saloon. Officially finishing “A Campfire By The Trail” (getting Victor another 45 XP toward Level 2) –
D) And opening up the chance to have a good long talk with the “town mom” about everything that was going on! Starting with asking who that man she was arguing with – Trudy derisively said he was a “convict, just without the chains” and named him as Cobb, saying that he and his called themselves “Powder Gangers” and that there were plenty more like him out there. Victor followed up by asking what the argument was even about, and Trudy complained that their town had been “dragged into the middle of something we don’t want anything to do with” before explaining that, roughly a week ago, a trader named Ringo stumbled into town, saying that he was the survivor of an attack, that bad men were still after him, and that he needed a place to hide. The residents figured that he was just in shock and let him lie low in the town, not expecting anyone to come after him – but then Cobb and his boys showed up. Victor, curious, asked where Ringo was – Trudy told him, “He’s holed up at the abandoned gas station up the hill” –
Officially starting “Ghost Town Gunfight,” the next big quest in Goodsprings! So now we can work on getting THAT completed. Victor asked what the town planned to do – Trudy revealed that some people, like Sunny, would probably stand up for Ringo if he requested help – which he hadn’t yet – but that “Personally, I hope he sneaks out of town one night and takes the Powder Gangers with him.” Victor decided he wanted to know more about the Powder Gangers and asked what she knew about them –
And Trudy explained that they were former chain gain prisoners that the NCR brought in during their expansion to work on the local rail lines. “Problem is, it turns out that giving convicts a bunch of dynamite and blasting powder isn’t the best idea.” XD Yeah, there was a big escape, some of them banded together, and the Powder Gangers raider gang was born, to cause trouble for poor Goodsprings. *shakehead* Oh NCR, this is the kind of thing that makes me lean toward an independent Vegas ending. XD Anyway, Victor asked why someone didn’t just kill Cobb and resolve things that way, but Trudy was like “you mean murder? Not our way, even if he is scum,” stating that Cobb could bluster and threaten all he wanted – it meant nothing to her. Fair enough, Victor wasn’t planning on just killing him anyway – doesn’t stop the rest of the gang from coming after the town anyway. Instead, he looped back through the “what are you going to do” dialogue to then ask what might happen if he helped out Ringo –
Cue Trudy telling him that “If you were able to get Ringo out of this mess, you’d have a decent reputation around Goodsprings. I’d even set you up with a discount. Of course, helping Ringo would also make the Powder Gangers mad, and they’ve got a lot of friends out there.” AKA “here is how reputation works in this game – you can make this town love you, but this one gang of raiders will subsequently hate you, and you will have to deal with the consequences.” XD Thanks, Trudy, I got it. Victor thus ignored the follow-up question about what happened if he helped the Powder Gangers (because one, obvious, and two, he wasn’t planning on doing that) and instead asked to move to a new topic –
Specifically, if she knew anything about the men who’d attacked him. Trudy replied, “Not much – other than they’re a bunch of freeloaders who expected a few rounds on the house. I was able to get them to pay up, though,” before adding that one of the Great Khans “accidentally” knocked her radio to the floor, breaking it. Nice people. Victor was curious to know if they’d said where they were going (since, you know, he wants to give them what for) – Trudy told him, “They were having some sort of argument about it, but the guy in the checkered coat kept shushing them” before explaining it sounded to her like they’d come in through Quarry Junction, to the north – and if that was the case, she did not blame them for not wanting to return that way! Victor was like “...why?” and she elaborated, “That whole area’s overrun with the kind of critters that just get mad if you shoot ‘em. Merchants avoid that whole stretch of I-15 like it’s radioactive. Which it could be for all I know.” Victor made a quiet mental note to avoid that part of the world and said she hadn’t actually said where they were going – she admitted she hadn’t heard exactly, but that their leader had been talking about the Strip, and kindly told Victor that, to get up there while avoiding I-15, you’d have to go east and take Highway 93 up. *nods* Very helpful, Trudy! Don’t know if it’ll help MY gets-lost-easily ass, but still. XD With that information in hand, Victor changed the subject again to ask about the other Victor in town, the securitron that rescued him –
And Trudy, true to what Easy Pete had said, replied fairly coolly, “I know that…thing...as much as anyone else around here. It mostly keeps to itself, which is just fine by me.” Victor was curious as to what Victortron actually did in town – Trudy replied that it mostly just rolled around doing nothing useful, and that she didn’t know why it suddenly took an interest in Victor, before warning him to be careful as it had never helped anyone else before. Victor noted that she didn’t seem to like the bot much, and she admitted that it was friendly enough, she just didn’t trust that whole “cheerful cowboy” act – “I find it all very creepy.” You know what, fair enough. Victor then asked how long it had been in town, and she revealed, “It was here when I took over the saloon seven years ago. Some people have said its owner lived here, but no one knows who it was.” Mysterious! Victor made a note to meet him at some point, then changed the topic again to ask if Goodsprings got many visitors. Trudy said, “Mostly traders looking to buy Bighorner meat and hides,” before adding that those folks were the main reason the General Store stayed in business – “most travelers heading south on the I-15 just push on toward Primm unless they’re in desperate need of supplies.” Fair enough, Goodsprings is definitely not a big town. Victor then asked if she knew of anything interesting happen in the rest of the wasteland –
And, of course, she said the biggest news was “the coming dustup between the NCR and the Legion over the Dam.” While having already heard about this from Easy Pete, Victor was curious about Trudy’s opinion on the NCR and Legion, and why they wanted the Dam – Trudy told him that the NCR was the most powerful force in Nevada right now, and they were trying to keep everyone safe, but she personally felt they were doing too much and spread too thin; that the Legion were a bunch of horrible slavers and killers dressed up like Romans so they were at least easy to spot, and that rumor was the force in Nevada was way larger than the NCR was letting on, meaning it was sheer luck they hadn’t taken over yet; and that she believed the NCR wanted the Dam because it was one of the few places that could produce electricity, but she had no idea what the bunch of savages that were the Legion wanted with it – probably just wanted to destroy it. Which, given what I’ve seen of their horrible society, tracks. Victor filed this all away and ended the conversation with two questions:
1. “Want me to take a look at your radio?” – Trudy was like “sure, I miss hearing the voice of Mr. New Vegas, he’s such a gentleman – the outside looks okay, but something inside is busted” and gave him a note for some reason (which just said “The radio at the Prospector Saloon in Goodsprings was broken by a visiting Great Khan. Trudy has offered to pay you if you can fix it.” Uh, yes, game, this is all information I already know. Maybe it’s to help remind you of what you need to do if you choose to delay repairing the radio for whatever reason?)
2. “What do you have to sell?” – Which, naturally, brought up Trudy’s trading menu! Being a bartender, she sold mostly booze and a few bits of food, along with purified water – and, because Victor was already Accepted by Goodsprings for saving that settler, she was willing to give him a bit of a discount. :) Victor thus was able to purchase some Squirrel On A Stick and an ear of maize (corn, in case you’re unfamiliar with that word for it) for a mere ten caps. Bargain!
E) Having exhausted Trudy’s dialogue options for the moment, I decided that Victor might as well fix her radio sooner rather than later, and thus after a quick look at the note she gave him (which, again, contained absolutely no new information about the radio), started poking around the bar looking for it. Unsurprisingly, it proved to be behind the bar near Trudy, and activating it revealed that a few parts and connections popped loose when the Great Khan knocked it to the floor. Fortunately, it was a simple repair job, requiring only a Repair of 20 or greater –
And guess what, Victor has a Repair of 25! :D He thus was easily able to fit everything back together and restore the radio to working order. It promptly turned itself on to Radio New Vegas, where Mr. New Vegas was giving a news report: The NCR Correctional Facility had been taken over by the prisoners following a very successful prison riot! Well, that wasn’t good news – especially for Victor, as the prisoners in charge of the place happen to be Powder Gangers, and they’re not going to like Victor much after he completes “Ghost Town Gunfight…”
That was a worry for the future though – the Victor of the present simply headed back to the correct side of the bar and told Trudy that her radio was all fixed. She cheerfully informed him that she’d heard it pop on and thanked him with 50 caps for his trouble. Unfortunately, he didn’t have the Barter skill necessary to get the reward up to 75 with a skill check, but I decided he probably wasn’t too fussed about that and instead had him spend a bit of his new bounty on an additional can of purified water – THAT was 20 caps, but still. Now that he has thirst to worry about, he needs to have plenty of things to satisfy it!
F) With nothing else to occupy him at the moment, Victor spent a bit of time wandering around the bar and learning the layout (pool table area with some tables and a jukebox to the right of the front door, where Sunny Smiles and Cheyenne hang out; Trudy’s bar and booths for patrons to sit at to the left; little hallway with the bathrooms and a back door in, well, the back; and a little side office room by the front door in front of the bar, with a computer that could be hacked and lots of items to steal – however, all of these were illegal actions, and I want Victor to have good karma if possible, so he left everything alone), then headed back outside and over to the workbench tucked into the little alley between the saloon and the general store to see if there was anything he could do with all the stuff he’d picked up. And, as it turned out, there were two things he could do – he could turn his bent tin cans into regular tin cans (or a “Tin Can!” as the recipe called it), and he could turn his gecko hides into gecko leather belts. I had him convert four cans and make one belt, deciding to save the rest of his stuff in case he needed it for something else (and confirming that no, you apparently cannot wear leather belts, they’re just vendor trash. Shame!). He then continued on around to the other side of the general store –
Where I was pleased to discover that dumpster diving was not illegal in this game! In Fallout 4, items in trash cans and dumpsters in settlements are still marked as “owned” so it’s a crime to steal them – which is a shame, because they often have good stuff. But here, trash was there for anyone to grab, so Victor happily helped himself to some scrap metal, five caps, and a coffee mug from the dumpster there. Even better, while he was doing that, he saw a familiar face pass by on the road – the settler he’d saved from death by gecko! Walking normally now, meaning she’d recovered most of her lost hit points! Must have seen Doc Mitchell – or just had a good night’s sleep, as that’s extremely healing in these games as well. :P But yeah, glad to see she’s all right. :) Anyway, from there Victor wandered over to a local farmer’s house and had a peek at their garden, then took a gander at Doc Mitchell’s house again –
And then paused, because I could hear gunfire in the distance. Puzzled, I had Victor head back up the road toward the saloon to try and find the source, but he couldn’t quite narrow it down. Though I did notice with some concern that Easy Pete was not in his usual chair on the saloon porch...that damn giant radscorpion I encountered briefly while trying to get up to the cemetery better not have shown up again. I don’t want Victor’s trip to Goodsprings to echo Useless Steve’s and result in a dead Easy Pete! (Though if the radscorpion wants to hang out near where the Powder Gangers spawn, that would be fine. :P) Eventually, I decided not to worry about it and had Victor head back in the direction of Doc Mitchell’s house –
And then turned west, following the road down to Victor the Securitron’s shack, because – while I am eager to start “Ghost Town Gunfight” properly – I kind of want to get Victor some more XP and see if we might be able to push him up to Level 2 first so he can pass more of the skill checks involved to amass a better force against the Powder Gangers. (He’s got the Sneak to convince Trudy to help, but I don’t think he’ll be able to convince the others who can lend assistance yet – certainly not Chet, owner of the General Store, who requires a Barter check to give you some free stuff for the cause!) So I figured I’d instead check out Victortron’s shack, see what was inside, before going seeking XP-increasing opportunities –
Except, as I neared, I realized that Victortron was in fact outside the shack! Well, that was handy – Victor had an optional objective to chat with him and see what he knew about the people who attacked him and why Victortron saved him! So I had him head up to the securitron –
Only to realize that, oh, I’d been playing for an hour and should probably wrap things up because my parents might be home soon (which they indeed were). So I saved and quit there. Next time, Victor will indeed have a chat with his robotic name-twin, then we’ll see what we can do to get him a little more XP in the general area before chatting with Ringo and figuring out how to defeat the Powder Gangers!
FreeTube: Despite everything, I found some time to watch something Saturday night – “CaFae Latte Season 82 - TikTok Compilation” by C. M. Alongi. This latest season included:
A) Drek and Mark (the 14-year-old hunter with no sense of direction from the holiday special) hanging out together in CaFae Latte, trauma-bonding and enjoying the brownies – JC came over and was introduced to Mark (who indicated he’d like to learn how to pick locks; JC was happy to teach him) before asking how they were. Mark tried to claim “fine,” but after Drek revealed he’d had to lure him to the cafe with the promise of free food to get him to open up, said that he couldn’t talk about this with his dad – JC said “welcome to the shitty parents club” and informed him that most of the staff had survived at least one near-death experience, so if he couldn’t find a therapist but needed a third party, cafe was open 6 to 3; Drek briefly deflected by talking about how Cassie seemed to be doing okay, but then admitted that he was having some trouble sleeping, but the main thing that was bugging him was having to deal with Conner and his BS more, and how almost none of his friends got it (except Abby, of course – he promised to add Mark to the Discord server). Cue JC being annoyed by Drek saying none of his friends got it and pointing out their nonbinary pin; Drek teasing them by being overdramatic about his suffering; and JC informing him that when they came out, they were punished by having to pick up all the sticks and branches in the woods behind their aunt and uncle’s house, on the basis that physical labor might fix them. Which was probably bad for the environment (Mark confirmed, saying they were stupid on multiple levels).
B) JC giving Nicole her customary hot chocolate while Drek and Mark complained about how shitty calculus was – Nicole told them it was to make sure they had logical and critical thinking skills to help them resist propaganda, resulting in sarcasm from Mark...and then, when she didn’t quite get it and Drek told her “she’s autistic, be direct,” a more blunt statement about how freshman math sucked and there had to be better ways to anti-brainwash kids – followed by the appearance of Tessa, Nicole’s ex-turned-friend who is a high school English teacher in Arizona! She was very glad to meet JC (who’d she’d heard so much about, and who’d she’d cyber-stalked a bit in accordance to the “must check up on my friend’s SOs” rules), and after hearing from her about the best way to make teenagers read Shakespeare (tell them about all the dirty jokes, but lie about the number so they reread the play multiple times looking for the one that’s “missing”), JC had to ask why she and Nicole split. Simply put, Nicole was not a U-Hauler (which I think in this context means she didn’t want to move in with Tessa), and Nicole wanted to stay in Minnesota while Tessa wanted to leave because she hates winter (mood). While all this was happening, Mark was like “how did Nicole stay friends with her ex??” revealing he already had two ex-girlfriends who’d he’d TRIED to stay friends with, only for them to be too awkward – after being like “how do you have two exes at fourteen?” (“Good looks and good luck?”), Drek said that Nicole was a witch...but admitted he was pretty sure it was just a superpower queer women developed when dating other women. Mark was like “lucky.” :p
C) JC checking in with Drek at the end of their shift to tell them everything was wiped down up front, they just had to finish the dishes and mop, and talking about how he and Mark were trauma-bonding – Drek saying that he was worried about Mark, as the kid didn’t seem to have many friends at school, and some of the things he said about his Dad were – concerning (Mom wasn’t in the picture as she died of a drug overdose when he was young) – JC was like “hmm” and asked Drek to let them know if he needed backup. This was then followed by Nicole driving JC through the snow post-shift, and them talking about Tessa (JC asking if she’d really cyber-stalked them, and Nicole confirming it and saying that Tessa had been concerned about JC’s past, but Nicole had assured her that they’d turned it around...and that she had an exit plan, just in case, followed by Nicole asking if JC was insecure about them talking and JC assuring her they were not) –
Which led into JC bringing up the “U-Hauler” comment from before (with Nicole clarifying that she wouldn’t want to move in with someone after less than a year of dating, what if they were a serial killer?). And noting that their lease on their place was up in the spring. And since they’d proven they weren’t a serial killer… Nicole’s response was to admit she’d wanted them to move in AFTER she remodeled her kitchen (she was narrowing down contractors), but JC pointed out that if they moved in, that was two paychecks to put toward the cost – and toward takeout when it inevitably took longer than the contractor said. And, when Nicole asked if they didn’t mind dealing with plaster dust in the like, that they would walk over the fires of hell to move in with her. Awwww. :) So that sounds like a storyline in the making!
D) A switch over to Lindsey taking Erik to do some security consulting over at the rape crisis center her new friend Jane works at (with the promise of ice cream afterward), run by a woman called Wendy...only to find Herla, King of the Wild Hunt at the door, being denied entrance by Jane because he wouldn’t leave his weapons outside. (He was not exactly pleased to see “Violet’s little traitor” show up.) Turned out he was in the area to investigate a wraith who might be responsible for several deaths –
And turns out the wraith was Wendy, Jane’s boss and the owner of the crisis center. Erik was pretty badly startled, but managed to recover with a weak smile and a hissed “Lindsey!” (Lindsey: “I knew I forgot to tell you something.”) XD
E) Wendy welcoming them to the crisis center and informing Herla she’d be happy to invite him into her territory if he left his weapons outside, and Herla continuing to refuse to budge – cue Erik calling him out on his shit, pointing out that Herla was being prejudiced and that even he, a person with genuine thanataphobia, could tell he wasn’t really in danger from Wendy – he had a better chance of being mauled by a goose! (Lindsey was promptly like “oh shit, if you’d told me that I wouldn’t have brought you here,” but Erik assured her it was a mild case, and that exposure therapy was good for him; Jane was like “in certain situations,” and Erik pleaded with her to let him keep deluding himself. :P) Herla informed the others that wraiths like Wendy fed on things like grief, pain, and rage – Wendy countered “why do you think I run a crisis center?” and Jane insisted on knowing the exact nature of the complaints Herla had received, sarcastically going that loads of people called 911 about “the spoooky ghost who cries over Hallmark movies and kids’ cartoons.” (Wendy was immediately like “Avatar: The Last Airbender is amazing and when you watch it you will cry as well over the Sad Iroh Song.”) Herla explained that local law enforcement had identified a number of deaths that had occurred after Wendy had started haunting the area that seemed to be by supernatural means – and when Erik was like “I thought wraiths fed on bad thoughts,” explained that they were also capable of sucking people’s life force. Wendy told Herla she’d consent to an interrogation, but made it clear that the weapons HAD to stay outside; Herla finally capitulated, but warned her that his lieutenants would banish her to “the worst hell they can access” if he didn’t come out alive and unharmed. Wendy agreed to these terms and told Jane to take their security consultants around and get their thoughts while she chatted with Herla.
F) Wendy and Herla having their chat in one of the one-on-one counseling session rooms, featuring:
I. Herla noting that the dead couldn’t own property and that, according to his research, the building was actually owned by a “Henry Jones” – Wendy explained that was her brother, who bought the place for her with the money he’d inherited from her when she couldn’t move on post-death
II. Herla commenting that the place was an “ingenious way to keep yourself fed” (noting most wraiths frequented morgues and hospitals – and universities during finals week), and Wendy responding that, despite the comment earlier, she HADN’T built the place to be her personal restaurant; it was built to help others survive what had killed her
III. Herla admitting he’d found Wendy’s obituary, and the police reports she’d filed as a ghost, saying that he’d seen her murderer had escaped justice and only gotten five years, and that he was “almost proud of his cellmate-turned-executioner” – Wendy said she couldn’t bake for shit, so her brother sent the guy cookies every week
IV. And finally, Herla coming to the point – since opening the crisis center six years ago, there had been fourteen mysterious, looked-to-be-supernatural deaths in the Twin Cities – all of the victims being men. Wendy was like “weird” and asked who exactly these men were, and Herla admitted they had no immediate commonalities beyond their sex; Wendy then asked if he’d looked into their pasts, and Herla said he had someone working on that – right before his phone rang…
G) The reveal that it was Ghost Hunter John on the other side of the phone, having looked into all the victims at the request of Herla (asking “why did you ask me instead of one of the people who literally call you king?” and Herla replying “because their talents lay in riding flying horses and shooting moving targets, not sitting at a desk researching cold cases”) – and, unsurprisingly, he revealed that, after extensive research, he could confirm ten of the fourteen were rapists (five officially accused and/or arrested), and based on what he’d found out about the other four, he wouldn’t leave his drink alone if he was at a party with them. Herla asked if the work might go faster if he had a list of potential victims from the center –
Only for Wendy to instantly shoot that down, stating that confidentiality was their BIGGEST concern there – while they kept records of how many phone calls and sessions they did with clients for funding purposes, they never used real names or kept phone numbers. John was like “yeah, could have told you that was going to happen” –
Then revealed there had been a fifteenth victim who’d died of the same mysterious causes found this morning, Daniel Brown – he’d been charged with sexual assault and domestic abuse of her AND his kids by his separated wife, but the police hadn’t done anything, stating lack of evidence. Herla thanked him and hung up before asking Wendy if a “Daniel Brown” had ever come up in any conversations in the clinic –
Aaaand cue flashback of Wendy talking to Daniel’s estranged wife, who tearfully told her that Daniel had said that, if she didn’t drop the charges, he’d sue for full custody of the kids, and he could not let him near them, but she couldn’t bear him just walking away after everything...and Wendy telling her she shouldn’t worry about that and asking where he lived. Cue present-day Wendy repeating just how important confidentiality was in the clinic. XD Yeah, was that really a surprise?
H) And a return to Erik, Lindsey, and Jane, with Erik telling Jane that they probably didn’t have much to worry about in regards to robbery, at least from the average thief – just from people who might want to steal information that a client gave before it ended up in the police’s hands. Jane told him that there was nothing like that there – no names, phone numbers, or addresses on any of the paperwork – so Erik decided their most important goal was cyber-security – good protective software on all the computers to protect their money; training employees and volunteers to spot phishing scams, and changing passwords at least once a month, with Lindsey adding when he asked that she could do a protective charm for each computer. Jane said they’d probably take that, but admitted their real concern was hate crimes, as their last break-in was a vandal, not a burglar. (Erik was like “who vandalizes a crisis center?!” to which Jane was like “people who hate wraiths, abusers who don’t like their victims getting help, and people who get ticked off by us giving out information on abortion clinics.”) Erik then suggested electric bolts on the doors, protection charms from “the all-powerful witch” (Lindsey rolled her eyes fondly), and an alarm system to scare away most would-be intruders. Jane was interested, but admitted money was tight – Lindsey offered to throw in a wealth charm to make it easier to get and keep money, and Jane said she’d talk it over with Wendy. (Lindsey then suggested to Erik they ought to do pamphlets with package deals to give to people. XD) Wendy and Herla then showed up (Erik greeting Wendy as “Miss Ghost who I’m not freaking out over, not even a little bit” XD), with Herla stating that, clearly, the deaths of those men had nothing to do with Wendy or her clinic –
Buuuut, if there were any future deaths involving men who didn’t have the same “horrific pastimes” as the current crop of victims, he would have to take a second, closer look. Wendy allowed this was fair enough, while Erik mumbled “what just happened?” to Lindsey, who shrugged, told Jane to call them once she had it figured out, and took her boyfriend out for his promised ice cream.
Good stuff, as always – again, I wasn’t particularly surprised by the revelation that Wendy had been eating the life force of the people who’d raped her clients, but it was still very satisfying. Looking forward to whatever pops up next!
Sunday, 1/25/2026: AKA today -- and between the shitty morning and having to help Mom shovel twice, I only accomplished one thing that would go into one of my typical write-ups --
YouTube: I may not have done my usual workout today, but I still made sure to watch my usual workout video of the day: “Fallout New Vegas: You Only Live Once Remastered - Part 27 - Fight or Flight” by Many A True Nerd! Today’s episode of The Adventures Of Drunken Melee-Only Courier P. D. Shoot included –
A) P. D. camping out in the collapsed yao-guai cave she had to hide in at the end of last episode (because suddenly it was daytime and there were enemies everywhere around her, preventing her from safely fast-traveling out of there to her next objective) until 10 PM so she could sneak out and make her way to a spot where she could fast travel; this involved rather a longer walk than Jon expected because there were so many geckos and scorpions and geckos fighting scorpions about, taking her over the bridge and down the nearby road almost halfway to her ultimate destination, but eventually she was able to kill a Bark Scorpion Hunter in her way and FINALLY create a spot enemy-free enough that she was allowed to fast travel
B) P. D. thus fast-traveling to the General Store she cleared out before, then traveling from there to the nearby Morning Glory Cave (a trip that involved her fluffing a sneaky hit on a mole rat in her path (Jon was very embarrassed, even if she killed it easily with the second swing); managing to take down a giant radscorpion by punching it in the tail (Victor only wishes he could do that); and sneaking past two Zion Mantises hanging out in some grass nearby); once inside, she managed to avoid the first of the spore plants growing within (because apparently this is where the survivors of Vault 22 ended up when they evacuated), but the second came close to detecting her, so she ended up activating a Stealth Boy to sneak past it. Fortunately, this did the trick, and she was able to get past it, deactivate all the traps on the ground in front of the secret survivalist stash she was looking for, then raid the stash and get the map of Grand Staircase Daniel wanted for his evacuation plan. And then kill the spore plant on the way out, because gotta murder those abominations to get the abomination-killing perk!
C) P. D. then sneaking out of the cave under the cover of Stealth Boy, then heading down along the river toward the White Legs camps to steal their war totems and break their morale – Jon was initially annoyed that he’d activated the Stealth Boy so early, as there were only bighorners hanging out on the path...and then a couple of White Legs and their dog spawned ahead of P. D., and suddenly he was quite glad for the Stealth Boy’s protection. XD She managed to safetly get around them and over the Bend Bridge into apparently one of the most chaotic areas in an already-chaotic map –
And, of course, because Jon very much did not want to see any Giant Cazadores, a Giant Cazador appeared before P. D. And started flitting and bouncing around, coming VERY close to bumping into her and detecting her. Fortunately, she managed to run away before it could do anything, and it went to go bother some White Legs while she crouch-sprinted to Red Rapids Dock by the river, then up the nearby hill to grab War Totem #1 from the camp there. She then nervously traversed the nearby ridges over to the second White Legs camp, worrying about where that Giant Cazador was all the way –
Only to arrive at the camp to see the local White Legs gathered around the stewpot and the corpse of the cazador nearby. Jon was very surprised to see they’d managed to kill it, as he’d been sure it would wipe them! But he took the win and had P. D. take the totem, get to an enemy-free spot, and fast travel straight back to the Sorrows’ camp. Yay!
D) P. D. then finding Daniel in the camp to choose which of the DLC’s two ending missions she wanted to complete – the one where the Sorrows stayed and fought against the White Legs, like Joshua Graham wanted, or the one where the tribe evacuated to Grand Staircase, like Daniel wanted (as Jon was not interested in doing the few remaining side missions, as none of them had a good enough reward to justify it). As P. D. prefers sneaking over combat, she naturally chose to go with the evacuation plan. Daniel told her that he and the Sorrows would travel by night in small groups to avoid detection, and that her job would be to kill any White Legs who realized their enemies were escaping, and then to collapse the passage they were using to escape, Pine Creek Tunnel, behind them so the White Legs’ pursuit would be delayed and they could get a good head start. In return, he’d give her a map to get back to the Mojave. P. D. agreed to these terms –
And, upon exiting the conversation, went straight into the Level Up screen, as reporting into Daniel and making her choice had gotten her up to Level 27! Which was a good thing, as it put her that much closer to Level 30 and being able to attempt Dead Money…but was also a bad thing, as it put her that much closer to her level cap of 30 (thanks to Logan’s Loophole), and made Jon realize that he would NOT be able to max out all her “support” skills – Lockpick, Science, Repair, or Speech – like he’d wanted. She simply wasn’t going to get enough skill points from her remaining level ups. Something was going to have to suffer from the lack! He declared he was going to have to have a long think about that later and got Speech up to 80 and Repair up to 85 in the meantime.
E) P. D. thus beginning the final mission “Flight From Zion,” prepared to simply sneak her way to the end and completely ignore every optional objective beyond “clear these White Legs from a bridge you need to cross anyway” – except, well, the game wasn’t about to let her do that without a fight. Because, as it turns out, at the beginning of the mission, one Joshua Graham appears in front of you telling you about how you need to help the Sorrows escape and how he will help you in this mission –
And he will not take no for an answer. And if you try to talk to him or give him commands like a regular companion, he will just say “the time for talking is over” and end the conversation. So P. D. was stuck with him and his absolutely useless companion perk (which reduces spread and increases damage for .45 pistols like the one he himself uses). And worse yet, Joshua, being the guy who wanted to fight the White Legs, was REALLY KEEN on using his gun on any White Legs they might come across, meaning he would be luring enemies P. D.’s way unless she was very careful to stay away from as many White Legs as possible on her journey. Fortunately, Jon already had a path in mind for P. D.’s journey, and thus – after P. D. activated another Stealth Boy for herself – the pair traveled:
I. Across the nearby river and south, away from the main road that was absolutely riddled with White Legs
II. Past a ruined house and down onto a gravel road away from the White Legs in the nearby cliffs
III. Over to the bridge they needed to clear – fortunately, the game put three Bone Breakers, one of the White Leg melee class enemies on there, and they were very happy to focus their attention on the guy who was shooting them; unfortunately, P. D. somehow managed to whiff a 95%-chance-to-hit sneak attack VATS attack on one of the women. Jon was like “how?!” Fortunately Joshua took that one down, and P. D. was able to kill the other two, and steal a mantis gauntlet off one to repair her own Embrace Of The Mantis King!
IV. Down the final road to Pine Creek Tunnel, which involved confrontations with three more White Legs – fortunately, they too focused all their attention on Joshua and his gun, and P. D. was able to get behind them and kill them all with her sneak attack critical uppercuts
V. And – after watching the Dead Horses Joshua had trained take out a few more White Legs with flamethrowers (resulting in one burning White Leg running across the road in panic and Jon shouting “DON’T RUN AT ME WHEN YOU’RE ON FIRE” XD) – reaching the tunnel and the final confrontation with the leader of the White Legs, Salt-Upon-Wounds, who was quite eager to kill P. D. Fortunately, he was one of those bosses could be talked down, and P. D. was easily able to pass his 75 Speech check to convince him that his clan’s power was broken, he could not prevail, and he and his should leave the valley in peace. Salt-Upon-Wounds agreed to leave, though he promised that they would continue to fight –
In service to Caesar. Huh – apparently these guys were working for the Legion all along? That’s a surprise. (Though it’s not like Jon has really shown off the STORY of this DLC at all – just how sneaky P. D. can be despite all the chaos.)
F) P. D. ending “Flight From Zion” by telling Daniel that all the Sorrows were accounted for and he should go, only for Daniel to magically know that she hadn’t completed the optional objections and yell at her that she’d left some of them to die, how could she, before angrily giving her the map and leading the survivors through the tunnel; Joshua for some reason giving P. D. everything in his inventory (including pinyon nuts and some purified water) before FINALLY dismissing himself as her companion; P. D. collapsing the tunnel behind Daniel and company once the fade to black was over with (Jon felt like she was standing a little close to the rock slide she triggered, but since she couldn’t move, he figured it was one of those things that couldn’t actually hurt the protagonist); and the ending slides playing, indicating the fates of all those involved in the DLC (for example, the White Legs were NOT allowed to officially join the Legion due to a failure to root out the New Canaanites in Grand Staircase, and when the Dead Horses stopped them from doing so, the tribe collapsed into a bunch of petty raider gangs, while those Sorrows who survived the final evacuation mission did eventually make it to Grand Staircase and settle there with the help of Daniel and the Dead Horses, but were so grieved by having to leave their homeland that for two generations every member died lamenting the loss of Zion. On the plus side, while Daniel was pissed at the Courier for not helping all the Sorrows, he was impressed enough with their actions as a Happy Trails Caravan employee that he told his family back in Grand Staircase – and they, in order to pay back the kindness, starting making a journey twice a year to trade with the caravan company in Reno. Which made the tough times for the struggling company a little easier to bear. So yay – not all bad news!)
G) And P. D. ending the DLC itself by raiding the goodies chest in front of the exit (containing a bunch of armor and clothing belonging to the important NPCs in the DLC – though the only things Jon was interested in were Daniel’s Hat, as it gives Speech +5 on top of the usual Perception +1, and Joshua Graham’s armor, as it was Light Armor with a DT of 15 and gave Crit Chance +3 – as you might imagine, that immediately became P. D.’s day-to-day wear) before finally heading back to the Mojave. Which gave her a final boost of XP that pushed her over the edge to Level 28! Jon chose to max out Repair to 100 and push Lockpick up to 77, then take the perk Bloody Mess for the +5% damage increase to all weapons and the fact that it can cause enemies to explode into giant piles of gore. Not because that was funny, mind – but because the effect destroyed limbs, and in “Dead Money,” the Ghost People are like necromorphs in Dead Space – they ain’t going down unless you destroy a limb! So yeah, good utility perk, that. (Though he did acknowledge that not taking Light Step to make it impossible for P. D. to trigger mines and floor traps was probably going to bite him in the ass. :P)
And so the episode ended with P. D. stepping back out into the Mojave, ready to resume the main base game mission to get a few more levels before attempting the Terror That Is “Dead Money.” Which meant, given where she was in the base game, it was time to choose her ending – NCR or Legion? (House being disqualified due to the fact that P. D. killed him earlier to get brownie points with Caesar, and already did his ending in the original YOLO, and Yes-Man being disqualified because his ending is too easy to get.) We’ll find out what she decides next week – looking forward to it!
Aaand it is really late and I should really get to bed now! ^^; Oof, dragging myself back toward my work sleep schedule is gonna be fun...ah well. I just hope I can get more sleep tonight than I did last night. I expect I will be doing another round of shoveling tomorrow, but I also hope to fit in some writing (gotta get back into "Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland"), some Portal 2 (science to do), and the final OXBox list video I have to catch up with. We'll see what happens tomorrow! Night all!
...that is, if we don't get buried in snow, because the OTHER main event of the day was the massive snowstorm that descended upon us -- I believe its name is Tess? At any rate, it dumped a FUCKTON of snow on us today -- Mom and I both went out to shovel at around 2 PM and 5 PM, and both times we were dealing with at LEAST six inches of snow on the ground. And both times it was snowing so fast and hard that we couldn't keep any of our paths or the driveway truly clear -- they all just kept getting covered up with snow again! The second time, we were out there for an hour, and Mom and I were pretty sure it snowed two inches in that hour! It's ridiculous! And it's STILL snowing outside -- tiny little flakes, but they're coming fast and furious, and -- yeah. Needless to say, I do NOT have work tomorrow. And may possibly not have it Tuesday either, depending on how the clean-up efforts tomorrow go. We shall see. *shakehead* Between having to watch the house for Mom while Dad was in the hospital and this, it feels like I might never go back to work at all this January...
Anyway. I owe you two days' worth of "what I did on the computer" write-ups tonight, don't I? "Fortunately," I didn't do a lot online either yesterday or today because of all the nonsense with Dad's pain meds and the snow, so it shouldn't be too hard for me to catch you up. Let's go in order:
Saturday, 1/24/2026: Didn't get that much done after Dad came home in the afternoon, but I was able to accomplish three things --
Tumblr: Was another nothing night over on Valice Multiverse (which I was honestly relieved by), but over on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler), I took a moment after properly finishing Friday’s entry to write up the “Valicer In The Dark not-incorrect quote” scene idea I had on Friday in full – the one where Smiler’s introducing the trio to another scoundrel, only for said soundrel to recognize Victor as the son of the canning magnate William Van Dort, Alice as the one from Rutledge the Doskvol Illustrated kept writing about, and Smiler as an Advocate who sells a very popular drug...and then ask how any of them get away with any crimes. Alice: “We’re very good.” XD I just – I wanted to do something over there, and that was something I knew I could sort out quick and would give me a laugh, so...glad I got it done.
Fallout: New Vegas: As Dad didn’t come home until 4 PM on Saturday (I know because I’d JUST made a cup of hot chocolate when he and Mom pulled up), I had some time after lunch to play video games – so, having played Tav!Smiler on Friday, I returned to the adventures of Courier!Victor on Saturday! Though, admittedly, his playsession was largely another long conversation with an NPC...let me give you the details:
A) First things first – yes, I turned on Hardcore Mode when I got into the game. ^^; I wanted those survival mechanics, damn it! Though, in accordance with what I said before, turning on the Hardcore mechanics (Victor will need to eat, drink and sleep every so often; stimpacks and Rad-Away heal over time; and ammo has weight) also came with me going into the “Agua Fria” section in the Mod Configuration Menu and upping Victor’s base carry weight from the mod’s base of 50 units to 100 – still 50 below the vanilla game’s base of 150, while allowing for some extra space for Victor’s now-heavier ammo. *nods* I felt like that was a fair compromise! So now Victor can carry a whole 130 units of stuff, yay~
B) Once that was settled (and I’d checked that Victor’s carry weight had appropriately gone up and the new food, water, and sleep meters were active in the “Status” section – wasn’t sure if I would need to restart to apply changes or not), I picked up where I’d left off, with Victor hanging out by the campfire Sunny Smiles had just used to teach him how to make healing powder. The game kindly reminded me that his next objective was to go see Trudy at the Prospector Saloon and say hi, as per Sunny’s request (it always reminds you of your latest active quest objective when you load in, which is nice), and I figured I ought to get on that sooner rather than later –
Well, after Victor cleaned up the campsite. The place was a pigsty! Victor accordingly picked up a few bent tin cans and a bunch of empty whiskey bottles (which will hopefully be useful for crafting stuff later), then, once he was satisfied with the place, headed up toward the ridge that Sunny’s dog Cheyenne was climbing. Or, well, was trying to climb, because poor Cheyenne had gotten stuck on the scenery. *shakehead* Common problem in these games that Besthesda has touched… Victor lightly walked into the dog to push her off the rocks she was stuck on, then – once he’d ascertained the pupper was free – headed up the ridge, past one of the wells and the dead geckos rotting nearby over to the road leading up into town. There were some of those curious “looks like a pineapple growing on top of a very stumpy palm tree” plants growing on the other side, so I had Victor check those out to see if anything could be harvested from them – nothing, sadly –
Then I noticed what looked like a strange container of some kind sitting nearby. Curious, I approached it for a better look, and – well. You tell me what you think it looks like:
Hi Indiana Jones from The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull! I’d forgotten that movie came out before this game’s release too. XD As you might expect, this is one of the effects you only get if your character has the “Wild Wasteland” trait – very glad I turned it on last time, even if it DID force me to redo Victor’s face. Especially since it scored him a free hat – a “Suave Gambler’s Hat” taken off the skeleton. Like most hats, it gives +1 Perception, though I think if it’s a “Suave Gambler’s Hat,” it should really give you +1 Charisma or +1 Luck, personally. *shrug* Ah well – nobody asked me when they made the game!
C) Having experienced his first bit of Wildness in the Wasteland, Victor crossed back over to the other side of the road to check out a wagon abandoned on top of some old tires and pick up another couple of bent tin cans scattered around it, then returned to the road itself and continued following it up the hill, past the Goodsprings town sign, past the houses (and the leisurely-walking Sunny Smiles) on the other side of the road, and over to the Prospector Saloon! Victor thus headed inside to fulfill his final quest objective –
And promptly found himself face-to-face with Sunny, who had been teleported inside with Cheyenne when he stepped in (I guess the game felt that she had to be hanging out there when the Courier arrived). After getting over that surprise (and after Sunny had gone out to hang out near someone sitting at a booth near the pool table on the right side of the room), I had Victor head to the left, to the bar, to meet up with Trudy –
Only to find her (or, at least, the woman I presumed was her) standing in the middle of the bar area, having a rather heated conversation with a man in a SWAT vest. One who told her, “I’m done being nice. If you don’t hand Ringo over soon, I’m going to get my friends and we’re burning this town to the ground, got it?” Trudy, unimpressed, replied, “We’ll keep that in mind. Now, if you’re not going to buy something, get out.” The man stalked out past Victor, and Trudy went back behind the bar – Victor cautiously approached her to say hi, and she greeted him warmly, saying he’d been causing quite a stir around town, and that she was glad to meet him before welcoming him to the saloon. Officially finishing “A Campfire By The Trail” (getting Victor another 45 XP toward Level 2) –
D) And opening up the chance to have a good long talk with the “town mom” about everything that was going on! Starting with asking who that man she was arguing with – Trudy derisively said he was a “convict, just without the chains” and named him as Cobb, saying that he and his called themselves “Powder Gangers” and that there were plenty more like him out there. Victor followed up by asking what the argument was even about, and Trudy complained that their town had been “dragged into the middle of something we don’t want anything to do with” before explaining that, roughly a week ago, a trader named Ringo stumbled into town, saying that he was the survivor of an attack, that bad men were still after him, and that he needed a place to hide. The residents figured that he was just in shock and let him lie low in the town, not expecting anyone to come after him – but then Cobb and his boys showed up. Victor, curious, asked where Ringo was – Trudy told him, “He’s holed up at the abandoned gas station up the hill” –
Officially starting “Ghost Town Gunfight,” the next big quest in Goodsprings! So now we can work on getting THAT completed. Victor asked what the town planned to do – Trudy revealed that some people, like Sunny, would probably stand up for Ringo if he requested help – which he hadn’t yet – but that “Personally, I hope he sneaks out of town one night and takes the Powder Gangers with him.” Victor decided he wanted to know more about the Powder Gangers and asked what she knew about them –
And Trudy explained that they were former chain gain prisoners that the NCR brought in during their expansion to work on the local rail lines. “Problem is, it turns out that giving convicts a bunch of dynamite and blasting powder isn’t the best idea.” XD Yeah, there was a big escape, some of them banded together, and the Powder Gangers raider gang was born, to cause trouble for poor Goodsprings. *shakehead* Oh NCR, this is the kind of thing that makes me lean toward an independent Vegas ending. XD Anyway, Victor asked why someone didn’t just kill Cobb and resolve things that way, but Trudy was like “you mean murder? Not our way, even if he is scum,” stating that Cobb could bluster and threaten all he wanted – it meant nothing to her. Fair enough, Victor wasn’t planning on just killing him anyway – doesn’t stop the rest of the gang from coming after the town anyway. Instead, he looped back through the “what are you going to do” dialogue to then ask what might happen if he helped out Ringo –
Cue Trudy telling him that “If you were able to get Ringo out of this mess, you’d have a decent reputation around Goodsprings. I’d even set you up with a discount. Of course, helping Ringo would also make the Powder Gangers mad, and they’ve got a lot of friends out there.” AKA “here is how reputation works in this game – you can make this town love you, but this one gang of raiders will subsequently hate you, and you will have to deal with the consequences.” XD Thanks, Trudy, I got it. Victor thus ignored the follow-up question about what happened if he helped the Powder Gangers (because one, obvious, and two, he wasn’t planning on doing that) and instead asked to move to a new topic –
Specifically, if she knew anything about the men who’d attacked him. Trudy replied, “Not much – other than they’re a bunch of freeloaders who expected a few rounds on the house. I was able to get them to pay up, though,” before adding that one of the Great Khans “accidentally” knocked her radio to the floor, breaking it. Nice people. Victor was curious to know if they’d said where they were going (since, you know, he wants to give them what for) – Trudy told him, “They were having some sort of argument about it, but the guy in the checkered coat kept shushing them” before explaining it sounded to her like they’d come in through Quarry Junction, to the north – and if that was the case, she did not blame them for not wanting to return that way! Victor was like “...why?” and she elaborated, “That whole area’s overrun with the kind of critters that just get mad if you shoot ‘em. Merchants avoid that whole stretch of I-15 like it’s radioactive. Which it could be for all I know.” Victor made a quiet mental note to avoid that part of the world and said she hadn’t actually said where they were going – she admitted she hadn’t heard exactly, but that their leader had been talking about the Strip, and kindly told Victor that, to get up there while avoiding I-15, you’d have to go east and take Highway 93 up. *nods* Very helpful, Trudy! Don’t know if it’ll help MY gets-lost-easily ass, but still. XD With that information in hand, Victor changed the subject again to ask about the other Victor in town, the securitron that rescued him –
And Trudy, true to what Easy Pete had said, replied fairly coolly, “I know that…thing...as much as anyone else around here. It mostly keeps to itself, which is just fine by me.” Victor was curious as to what Victortron actually did in town – Trudy replied that it mostly just rolled around doing nothing useful, and that she didn’t know why it suddenly took an interest in Victor, before warning him to be careful as it had never helped anyone else before. Victor noted that she didn’t seem to like the bot much, and she admitted that it was friendly enough, she just didn’t trust that whole “cheerful cowboy” act – “I find it all very creepy.” You know what, fair enough. Victor then asked how long it had been in town, and she revealed, “It was here when I took over the saloon seven years ago. Some people have said its owner lived here, but no one knows who it was.” Mysterious! Victor made a note to meet him at some point, then changed the topic again to ask if Goodsprings got many visitors. Trudy said, “Mostly traders looking to buy Bighorner meat and hides,” before adding that those folks were the main reason the General Store stayed in business – “most travelers heading south on the I-15 just push on toward Primm unless they’re in desperate need of supplies.” Fair enough, Goodsprings is definitely not a big town. Victor then asked if she knew of anything interesting happen in the rest of the wasteland –
And, of course, she said the biggest news was “the coming dustup between the NCR and the Legion over the Dam.” While having already heard about this from Easy Pete, Victor was curious about Trudy’s opinion on the NCR and Legion, and why they wanted the Dam – Trudy told him that the NCR was the most powerful force in Nevada right now, and they were trying to keep everyone safe, but she personally felt they were doing too much and spread too thin; that the Legion were a bunch of horrible slavers and killers dressed up like Romans so they were at least easy to spot, and that rumor was the force in Nevada was way larger than the NCR was letting on, meaning it was sheer luck they hadn’t taken over yet; and that she believed the NCR wanted the Dam because it was one of the few places that could produce electricity, but she had no idea what the bunch of savages that were the Legion wanted with it – probably just wanted to destroy it. Which, given what I’ve seen of their horrible society, tracks. Victor filed this all away and ended the conversation with two questions:
1. “Want me to take a look at your radio?” – Trudy was like “sure, I miss hearing the voice of Mr. New Vegas, he’s such a gentleman – the outside looks okay, but something inside is busted” and gave him a note for some reason (which just said “The radio at the Prospector Saloon in Goodsprings was broken by a visiting Great Khan. Trudy has offered to pay you if you can fix it.” Uh, yes, game, this is all information I already know. Maybe it’s to help remind you of what you need to do if you choose to delay repairing the radio for whatever reason?)
2. “What do you have to sell?” – Which, naturally, brought up Trudy’s trading menu! Being a bartender, she sold mostly booze and a few bits of food, along with purified water – and, because Victor was already Accepted by Goodsprings for saving that settler, she was willing to give him a bit of a discount. :) Victor thus was able to purchase some Squirrel On A Stick and an ear of maize (corn, in case you’re unfamiliar with that word for it) for a mere ten caps. Bargain!
E) Having exhausted Trudy’s dialogue options for the moment, I decided that Victor might as well fix her radio sooner rather than later, and thus after a quick look at the note she gave him (which, again, contained absolutely no new information about the radio), started poking around the bar looking for it. Unsurprisingly, it proved to be behind the bar near Trudy, and activating it revealed that a few parts and connections popped loose when the Great Khan knocked it to the floor. Fortunately, it was a simple repair job, requiring only a Repair of 20 or greater –
And guess what, Victor has a Repair of 25! :D He thus was easily able to fit everything back together and restore the radio to working order. It promptly turned itself on to Radio New Vegas, where Mr. New Vegas was giving a news report: The NCR Correctional Facility had been taken over by the prisoners following a very successful prison riot! Well, that wasn’t good news – especially for Victor, as the prisoners in charge of the place happen to be Powder Gangers, and they’re not going to like Victor much after he completes “Ghost Town Gunfight…”
That was a worry for the future though – the Victor of the present simply headed back to the correct side of the bar and told Trudy that her radio was all fixed. She cheerfully informed him that she’d heard it pop on and thanked him with 50 caps for his trouble. Unfortunately, he didn’t have the Barter skill necessary to get the reward up to 75 with a skill check, but I decided he probably wasn’t too fussed about that and instead had him spend a bit of his new bounty on an additional can of purified water – THAT was 20 caps, but still. Now that he has thirst to worry about, he needs to have plenty of things to satisfy it!
F) With nothing else to occupy him at the moment, Victor spent a bit of time wandering around the bar and learning the layout (pool table area with some tables and a jukebox to the right of the front door, where Sunny Smiles and Cheyenne hang out; Trudy’s bar and booths for patrons to sit at to the left; little hallway with the bathrooms and a back door in, well, the back; and a little side office room by the front door in front of the bar, with a computer that could be hacked and lots of items to steal – however, all of these were illegal actions, and I want Victor to have good karma if possible, so he left everything alone), then headed back outside and over to the workbench tucked into the little alley between the saloon and the general store to see if there was anything he could do with all the stuff he’d picked up. And, as it turned out, there were two things he could do – he could turn his bent tin cans into regular tin cans (or a “Tin Can!” as the recipe called it), and he could turn his gecko hides into gecko leather belts. I had him convert four cans and make one belt, deciding to save the rest of his stuff in case he needed it for something else (and confirming that no, you apparently cannot wear leather belts, they’re just vendor trash. Shame!). He then continued on around to the other side of the general store –
Where I was pleased to discover that dumpster diving was not illegal in this game! In Fallout 4, items in trash cans and dumpsters in settlements are still marked as “owned” so it’s a crime to steal them – which is a shame, because they often have good stuff. But here, trash was there for anyone to grab, so Victor happily helped himself to some scrap metal, five caps, and a coffee mug from the dumpster there. Even better, while he was doing that, he saw a familiar face pass by on the road – the settler he’d saved from death by gecko! Walking normally now, meaning she’d recovered most of her lost hit points! Must have seen Doc Mitchell – or just had a good night’s sleep, as that’s extremely healing in these games as well. :P But yeah, glad to see she’s all right. :) Anyway, from there Victor wandered over to a local farmer’s house and had a peek at their garden, then took a gander at Doc Mitchell’s house again –
And then paused, because I could hear gunfire in the distance. Puzzled, I had Victor head back up the road toward the saloon to try and find the source, but he couldn’t quite narrow it down. Though I did notice with some concern that Easy Pete was not in his usual chair on the saloon porch...that damn giant radscorpion I encountered briefly while trying to get up to the cemetery better not have shown up again. I don’t want Victor’s trip to Goodsprings to echo Useless Steve’s and result in a dead Easy Pete! (Though if the radscorpion wants to hang out near where the Powder Gangers spawn, that would be fine. :P) Eventually, I decided not to worry about it and had Victor head back in the direction of Doc Mitchell’s house –
And then turned west, following the road down to Victor the Securitron’s shack, because – while I am eager to start “Ghost Town Gunfight” properly – I kind of want to get Victor some more XP and see if we might be able to push him up to Level 2 first so he can pass more of the skill checks involved to amass a better force against the Powder Gangers. (He’s got the Sneak to convince Trudy to help, but I don’t think he’ll be able to convince the others who can lend assistance yet – certainly not Chet, owner of the General Store, who requires a Barter check to give you some free stuff for the cause!) So I figured I’d instead check out Victortron’s shack, see what was inside, before going seeking XP-increasing opportunities –
Except, as I neared, I realized that Victortron was in fact outside the shack! Well, that was handy – Victor had an optional objective to chat with him and see what he knew about the people who attacked him and why Victortron saved him! So I had him head up to the securitron –
Only to realize that, oh, I’d been playing for an hour and should probably wrap things up because my parents might be home soon (which they indeed were). So I saved and quit there. Next time, Victor will indeed have a chat with his robotic name-twin, then we’ll see what we can do to get him a little more XP in the general area before chatting with Ringo and figuring out how to defeat the Powder Gangers!
FreeTube: Despite everything, I found some time to watch something Saturday night – “CaFae Latte Season 82 - TikTok Compilation” by C. M. Alongi. This latest season included:
A) Drek and Mark (the 14-year-old hunter with no sense of direction from the holiday special) hanging out together in CaFae Latte, trauma-bonding and enjoying the brownies – JC came over and was introduced to Mark (who indicated he’d like to learn how to pick locks; JC was happy to teach him) before asking how they were. Mark tried to claim “fine,” but after Drek revealed he’d had to lure him to the cafe with the promise of free food to get him to open up, said that he couldn’t talk about this with his dad – JC said “welcome to the shitty parents club” and informed him that most of the staff had survived at least one near-death experience, so if he couldn’t find a therapist but needed a third party, cafe was open 6 to 3; Drek briefly deflected by talking about how Cassie seemed to be doing okay, but then admitted that he was having some trouble sleeping, but the main thing that was bugging him was having to deal with Conner and his BS more, and how almost none of his friends got it (except Abby, of course – he promised to add Mark to the Discord server). Cue JC being annoyed by Drek saying none of his friends got it and pointing out their nonbinary pin; Drek teasing them by being overdramatic about his suffering; and JC informing him that when they came out, they were punished by having to pick up all the sticks and branches in the woods behind their aunt and uncle’s house, on the basis that physical labor might fix them. Which was probably bad for the environment (Mark confirmed, saying they were stupid on multiple levels).
B) JC giving Nicole her customary hot chocolate while Drek and Mark complained about how shitty calculus was – Nicole told them it was to make sure they had logical and critical thinking skills to help them resist propaganda, resulting in sarcasm from Mark...and then, when she didn’t quite get it and Drek told her “she’s autistic, be direct,” a more blunt statement about how freshman math sucked and there had to be better ways to anti-brainwash kids – followed by the appearance of Tessa, Nicole’s ex-turned-friend who is a high school English teacher in Arizona! She was very glad to meet JC (who’d she’d heard so much about, and who’d she’d cyber-stalked a bit in accordance to the “must check up on my friend’s SOs” rules), and after hearing from her about the best way to make teenagers read Shakespeare (tell them about all the dirty jokes, but lie about the number so they reread the play multiple times looking for the one that’s “missing”), JC had to ask why she and Nicole split. Simply put, Nicole was not a U-Hauler (which I think in this context means she didn’t want to move in with Tessa), and Nicole wanted to stay in Minnesota while Tessa wanted to leave because she hates winter (mood). While all this was happening, Mark was like “how did Nicole stay friends with her ex??” revealing he already had two ex-girlfriends who’d he’d TRIED to stay friends with, only for them to be too awkward – after being like “how do you have two exes at fourteen?” (“Good looks and good luck?”), Drek said that Nicole was a witch...but admitted he was pretty sure it was just a superpower queer women developed when dating other women. Mark was like “lucky.” :p
C) JC checking in with Drek at the end of their shift to tell them everything was wiped down up front, they just had to finish the dishes and mop, and talking about how he and Mark were trauma-bonding – Drek saying that he was worried about Mark, as the kid didn’t seem to have many friends at school, and some of the things he said about his Dad were – concerning (Mom wasn’t in the picture as she died of a drug overdose when he was young) – JC was like “hmm” and asked Drek to let them know if he needed backup. This was then followed by Nicole driving JC through the snow post-shift, and them talking about Tessa (JC asking if she’d really cyber-stalked them, and Nicole confirming it and saying that Tessa had been concerned about JC’s past, but Nicole had assured her that they’d turned it around...and that she had an exit plan, just in case, followed by Nicole asking if JC was insecure about them talking and JC assuring her they were not) –
Which led into JC bringing up the “U-Hauler” comment from before (with Nicole clarifying that she wouldn’t want to move in with someone after less than a year of dating, what if they were a serial killer?). And noting that their lease on their place was up in the spring. And since they’d proven they weren’t a serial killer… Nicole’s response was to admit she’d wanted them to move in AFTER she remodeled her kitchen (she was narrowing down contractors), but JC pointed out that if they moved in, that was two paychecks to put toward the cost – and toward takeout when it inevitably took longer than the contractor said. And, when Nicole asked if they didn’t mind dealing with plaster dust in the like, that they would walk over the fires of hell to move in with her. Awwww. :) So that sounds like a storyline in the making!
D) A switch over to Lindsey taking Erik to do some security consulting over at the rape crisis center her new friend Jane works at (with the promise of ice cream afterward), run by a woman called Wendy...only to find Herla, King of the Wild Hunt at the door, being denied entrance by Jane because he wouldn’t leave his weapons outside. (He was not exactly pleased to see “Violet’s little traitor” show up.) Turned out he was in the area to investigate a wraith who might be responsible for several deaths –
And turns out the wraith was Wendy, Jane’s boss and the owner of the crisis center. Erik was pretty badly startled, but managed to recover with a weak smile and a hissed “Lindsey!” (Lindsey: “I knew I forgot to tell you something.”) XD
E) Wendy welcoming them to the crisis center and informing Herla she’d be happy to invite him into her territory if he left his weapons outside, and Herla continuing to refuse to budge – cue Erik calling him out on his shit, pointing out that Herla was being prejudiced and that even he, a person with genuine thanataphobia, could tell he wasn’t really in danger from Wendy – he had a better chance of being mauled by a goose! (Lindsey was promptly like “oh shit, if you’d told me that I wouldn’t have brought you here,” but Erik assured her it was a mild case, and that exposure therapy was good for him; Jane was like “in certain situations,” and Erik pleaded with her to let him keep deluding himself. :P) Herla informed the others that wraiths like Wendy fed on things like grief, pain, and rage – Wendy countered “why do you think I run a crisis center?” and Jane insisted on knowing the exact nature of the complaints Herla had received, sarcastically going that loads of people called 911 about “the spoooky ghost who cries over Hallmark movies and kids’ cartoons.” (Wendy was immediately like “Avatar: The Last Airbender is amazing and when you watch it you will cry as well over the Sad Iroh Song.”) Herla explained that local law enforcement had identified a number of deaths that had occurred after Wendy had started haunting the area that seemed to be by supernatural means – and when Erik was like “I thought wraiths fed on bad thoughts,” explained that they were also capable of sucking people’s life force. Wendy told Herla she’d consent to an interrogation, but made it clear that the weapons HAD to stay outside; Herla finally capitulated, but warned her that his lieutenants would banish her to “the worst hell they can access” if he didn’t come out alive and unharmed. Wendy agreed to these terms and told Jane to take their security consultants around and get their thoughts while she chatted with Herla.
F) Wendy and Herla having their chat in one of the one-on-one counseling session rooms, featuring:
I. Herla noting that the dead couldn’t own property and that, according to his research, the building was actually owned by a “Henry Jones” – Wendy explained that was her brother, who bought the place for her with the money he’d inherited from her when she couldn’t move on post-death
II. Herla commenting that the place was an “ingenious way to keep yourself fed” (noting most wraiths frequented morgues and hospitals – and universities during finals week), and Wendy responding that, despite the comment earlier, she HADN’T built the place to be her personal restaurant; it was built to help others survive what had killed her
III. Herla admitting he’d found Wendy’s obituary, and the police reports she’d filed as a ghost, saying that he’d seen her murderer had escaped justice and only gotten five years, and that he was “almost proud of his cellmate-turned-executioner” – Wendy said she couldn’t bake for shit, so her brother sent the guy cookies every week
IV. And finally, Herla coming to the point – since opening the crisis center six years ago, there had been fourteen mysterious, looked-to-be-supernatural deaths in the Twin Cities – all of the victims being men. Wendy was like “weird” and asked who exactly these men were, and Herla admitted they had no immediate commonalities beyond their sex; Wendy then asked if he’d looked into their pasts, and Herla said he had someone working on that – right before his phone rang…
G) The reveal that it was Ghost Hunter John on the other side of the phone, having looked into all the victims at the request of Herla (asking “why did you ask me instead of one of the people who literally call you king?” and Herla replying “because their talents lay in riding flying horses and shooting moving targets, not sitting at a desk researching cold cases”) – and, unsurprisingly, he revealed that, after extensive research, he could confirm ten of the fourteen were rapists (five officially accused and/or arrested), and based on what he’d found out about the other four, he wouldn’t leave his drink alone if he was at a party with them. Herla asked if the work might go faster if he had a list of potential victims from the center –
Only for Wendy to instantly shoot that down, stating that confidentiality was their BIGGEST concern there – while they kept records of how many phone calls and sessions they did with clients for funding purposes, they never used real names or kept phone numbers. John was like “yeah, could have told you that was going to happen” –
Then revealed there had been a fifteenth victim who’d died of the same mysterious causes found this morning, Daniel Brown – he’d been charged with sexual assault and domestic abuse of her AND his kids by his separated wife, but the police hadn’t done anything, stating lack of evidence. Herla thanked him and hung up before asking Wendy if a “Daniel Brown” had ever come up in any conversations in the clinic –
Aaaand cue flashback of Wendy talking to Daniel’s estranged wife, who tearfully told her that Daniel had said that, if she didn’t drop the charges, he’d sue for full custody of the kids, and he could not let him near them, but she couldn’t bear him just walking away after everything...and Wendy telling her she shouldn’t worry about that and asking where he lived. Cue present-day Wendy repeating just how important confidentiality was in the clinic. XD Yeah, was that really a surprise?
H) And a return to Erik, Lindsey, and Jane, with Erik telling Jane that they probably didn’t have much to worry about in regards to robbery, at least from the average thief – just from people who might want to steal information that a client gave before it ended up in the police’s hands. Jane told him that there was nothing like that there – no names, phone numbers, or addresses on any of the paperwork – so Erik decided their most important goal was cyber-security – good protective software on all the computers to protect their money; training employees and volunteers to spot phishing scams, and changing passwords at least once a month, with Lindsey adding when he asked that she could do a protective charm for each computer. Jane said they’d probably take that, but admitted their real concern was hate crimes, as their last break-in was a vandal, not a burglar. (Erik was like “who vandalizes a crisis center?!” to which Jane was like “people who hate wraiths, abusers who don’t like their victims getting help, and people who get ticked off by us giving out information on abortion clinics.”) Erik then suggested electric bolts on the doors, protection charms from “the all-powerful witch” (Lindsey rolled her eyes fondly), and an alarm system to scare away most would-be intruders. Jane was interested, but admitted money was tight – Lindsey offered to throw in a wealth charm to make it easier to get and keep money, and Jane said she’d talk it over with Wendy. (Lindsey then suggested to Erik they ought to do pamphlets with package deals to give to people. XD) Wendy and Herla then showed up (Erik greeting Wendy as “Miss Ghost who I’m not freaking out over, not even a little bit” XD), with Herla stating that, clearly, the deaths of those men had nothing to do with Wendy or her clinic –
Buuuut, if there were any future deaths involving men who didn’t have the same “horrific pastimes” as the current crop of victims, he would have to take a second, closer look. Wendy allowed this was fair enough, while Erik mumbled “what just happened?” to Lindsey, who shrugged, told Jane to call them once she had it figured out, and took her boyfriend out for his promised ice cream.
Good stuff, as always – again, I wasn’t particularly surprised by the revelation that Wendy had been eating the life force of the people who’d raped her clients, but it was still very satisfying. Looking forward to whatever pops up next!
Sunday, 1/25/2026: AKA today -- and between the shitty morning and having to help Mom shovel twice, I only accomplished one thing that would go into one of my typical write-ups --
YouTube: I may not have done my usual workout today, but I still made sure to watch my usual workout video of the day: “Fallout New Vegas: You Only Live Once Remastered - Part 27 - Fight or Flight” by Many A True Nerd! Today’s episode of The Adventures Of Drunken Melee-Only Courier P. D. Shoot included –
A) P. D. camping out in the collapsed yao-guai cave she had to hide in at the end of last episode (because suddenly it was daytime and there were enemies everywhere around her, preventing her from safely fast-traveling out of there to her next objective) until 10 PM so she could sneak out and make her way to a spot where she could fast travel; this involved rather a longer walk than Jon expected because there were so many geckos and scorpions and geckos fighting scorpions about, taking her over the bridge and down the nearby road almost halfway to her ultimate destination, but eventually she was able to kill a Bark Scorpion Hunter in her way and FINALLY create a spot enemy-free enough that she was allowed to fast travel
B) P. D. thus fast-traveling to the General Store she cleared out before, then traveling from there to the nearby Morning Glory Cave (a trip that involved her fluffing a sneaky hit on a mole rat in her path (Jon was very embarrassed, even if she killed it easily with the second swing); managing to take down a giant radscorpion by punching it in the tail (Victor only wishes he could do that); and sneaking past two Zion Mantises hanging out in some grass nearby); once inside, she managed to avoid the first of the spore plants growing within (because apparently this is where the survivors of Vault 22 ended up when they evacuated), but the second came close to detecting her, so she ended up activating a Stealth Boy to sneak past it. Fortunately, this did the trick, and she was able to get past it, deactivate all the traps on the ground in front of the secret survivalist stash she was looking for, then raid the stash and get the map of Grand Staircase Daniel wanted for his evacuation plan. And then kill the spore plant on the way out, because gotta murder those abominations to get the abomination-killing perk!
C) P. D. then sneaking out of the cave under the cover of Stealth Boy, then heading down along the river toward the White Legs camps to steal their war totems and break their morale – Jon was initially annoyed that he’d activated the Stealth Boy so early, as there were only bighorners hanging out on the path...and then a couple of White Legs and their dog spawned ahead of P. D., and suddenly he was quite glad for the Stealth Boy’s protection. XD She managed to safetly get around them and over the Bend Bridge into apparently one of the most chaotic areas in an already-chaotic map –
And, of course, because Jon very much did not want to see any Giant Cazadores, a Giant Cazador appeared before P. D. And started flitting and bouncing around, coming VERY close to bumping into her and detecting her. Fortunately, she managed to run away before it could do anything, and it went to go bother some White Legs while she crouch-sprinted to Red Rapids Dock by the river, then up the nearby hill to grab War Totem #1 from the camp there. She then nervously traversed the nearby ridges over to the second White Legs camp, worrying about where that Giant Cazador was all the way –
Only to arrive at the camp to see the local White Legs gathered around the stewpot and the corpse of the cazador nearby. Jon was very surprised to see they’d managed to kill it, as he’d been sure it would wipe them! But he took the win and had P. D. take the totem, get to an enemy-free spot, and fast travel straight back to the Sorrows’ camp. Yay!
D) P. D. then finding Daniel in the camp to choose which of the DLC’s two ending missions she wanted to complete – the one where the Sorrows stayed and fought against the White Legs, like Joshua Graham wanted, or the one where the tribe evacuated to Grand Staircase, like Daniel wanted (as Jon was not interested in doing the few remaining side missions, as none of them had a good enough reward to justify it). As P. D. prefers sneaking over combat, she naturally chose to go with the evacuation plan. Daniel told her that he and the Sorrows would travel by night in small groups to avoid detection, and that her job would be to kill any White Legs who realized their enemies were escaping, and then to collapse the passage they were using to escape, Pine Creek Tunnel, behind them so the White Legs’ pursuit would be delayed and they could get a good head start. In return, he’d give her a map to get back to the Mojave. P. D. agreed to these terms –
And, upon exiting the conversation, went straight into the Level Up screen, as reporting into Daniel and making her choice had gotten her up to Level 27! Which was a good thing, as it put her that much closer to Level 30 and being able to attempt Dead Money…but was also a bad thing, as it put her that much closer to her level cap of 30 (thanks to Logan’s Loophole), and made Jon realize that he would NOT be able to max out all her “support” skills – Lockpick, Science, Repair, or Speech – like he’d wanted. She simply wasn’t going to get enough skill points from her remaining level ups. Something was going to have to suffer from the lack! He declared he was going to have to have a long think about that later and got Speech up to 80 and Repair up to 85 in the meantime.
E) P. D. thus beginning the final mission “Flight From Zion,” prepared to simply sneak her way to the end and completely ignore every optional objective beyond “clear these White Legs from a bridge you need to cross anyway” – except, well, the game wasn’t about to let her do that without a fight. Because, as it turns out, at the beginning of the mission, one Joshua Graham appears in front of you telling you about how you need to help the Sorrows escape and how he will help you in this mission –
And he will not take no for an answer. And if you try to talk to him or give him commands like a regular companion, he will just say “the time for talking is over” and end the conversation. So P. D. was stuck with him and his absolutely useless companion perk (which reduces spread and increases damage for .45 pistols like the one he himself uses). And worse yet, Joshua, being the guy who wanted to fight the White Legs, was REALLY KEEN on using his gun on any White Legs they might come across, meaning he would be luring enemies P. D.’s way unless she was very careful to stay away from as many White Legs as possible on her journey. Fortunately, Jon already had a path in mind for P. D.’s journey, and thus – after P. D. activated another Stealth Boy for herself – the pair traveled:
I. Across the nearby river and south, away from the main road that was absolutely riddled with White Legs
II. Past a ruined house and down onto a gravel road away from the White Legs in the nearby cliffs
III. Over to the bridge they needed to clear – fortunately, the game put three Bone Breakers, one of the White Leg melee class enemies on there, and they were very happy to focus their attention on the guy who was shooting them; unfortunately, P. D. somehow managed to whiff a 95%-chance-to-hit sneak attack VATS attack on one of the women. Jon was like “how?!” Fortunately Joshua took that one down, and P. D. was able to kill the other two, and steal a mantis gauntlet off one to repair her own Embrace Of The Mantis King!
IV. Down the final road to Pine Creek Tunnel, which involved confrontations with three more White Legs – fortunately, they too focused all their attention on Joshua and his gun, and P. D. was able to get behind them and kill them all with her sneak attack critical uppercuts
V. And – after watching the Dead Horses Joshua had trained take out a few more White Legs with flamethrowers (resulting in one burning White Leg running across the road in panic and Jon shouting “DON’T RUN AT ME WHEN YOU’RE ON FIRE” XD) – reaching the tunnel and the final confrontation with the leader of the White Legs, Salt-Upon-Wounds, who was quite eager to kill P. D. Fortunately, he was one of those bosses could be talked down, and P. D. was easily able to pass his 75 Speech check to convince him that his clan’s power was broken, he could not prevail, and he and his should leave the valley in peace. Salt-Upon-Wounds agreed to leave, though he promised that they would continue to fight –
In service to Caesar. Huh – apparently these guys were working for the Legion all along? That’s a surprise. (Though it’s not like Jon has really shown off the STORY of this DLC at all – just how sneaky P. D. can be despite all the chaos.)
F) P. D. ending “Flight From Zion” by telling Daniel that all the Sorrows were accounted for and he should go, only for Daniel to magically know that she hadn’t completed the optional objections and yell at her that she’d left some of them to die, how could she, before angrily giving her the map and leading the survivors through the tunnel; Joshua for some reason giving P. D. everything in his inventory (including pinyon nuts and some purified water) before FINALLY dismissing himself as her companion; P. D. collapsing the tunnel behind Daniel and company once the fade to black was over with (Jon felt like she was standing a little close to the rock slide she triggered, but since she couldn’t move, he figured it was one of those things that couldn’t actually hurt the protagonist); and the ending slides playing, indicating the fates of all those involved in the DLC (for example, the White Legs were NOT allowed to officially join the Legion due to a failure to root out the New Canaanites in Grand Staircase, and when the Dead Horses stopped them from doing so, the tribe collapsed into a bunch of petty raider gangs, while those Sorrows who survived the final evacuation mission did eventually make it to Grand Staircase and settle there with the help of Daniel and the Dead Horses, but were so grieved by having to leave their homeland that for two generations every member died lamenting the loss of Zion. On the plus side, while Daniel was pissed at the Courier for not helping all the Sorrows, he was impressed enough with their actions as a Happy Trails Caravan employee that he told his family back in Grand Staircase – and they, in order to pay back the kindness, starting making a journey twice a year to trade with the caravan company in Reno. Which made the tough times for the struggling company a little easier to bear. So yay – not all bad news!)
G) And P. D. ending the DLC itself by raiding the goodies chest in front of the exit (containing a bunch of armor and clothing belonging to the important NPCs in the DLC – though the only things Jon was interested in were Daniel’s Hat, as it gives Speech +5 on top of the usual Perception +1, and Joshua Graham’s armor, as it was Light Armor with a DT of 15 and gave Crit Chance +3 – as you might imagine, that immediately became P. D.’s day-to-day wear) before finally heading back to the Mojave. Which gave her a final boost of XP that pushed her over the edge to Level 28! Jon chose to max out Repair to 100 and push Lockpick up to 77, then take the perk Bloody Mess for the +5% damage increase to all weapons and the fact that it can cause enemies to explode into giant piles of gore. Not because that was funny, mind – but because the effect destroyed limbs, and in “Dead Money,” the Ghost People are like necromorphs in Dead Space – they ain’t going down unless you destroy a limb! So yeah, good utility perk, that. (Though he did acknowledge that not taking Light Step to make it impossible for P. D. to trigger mines and floor traps was probably going to bite him in the ass. :P)
And so the episode ended with P. D. stepping back out into the Mojave, ready to resume the main base game mission to get a few more levels before attempting the Terror That Is “Dead Money.” Which meant, given where she was in the base game, it was time to choose her ending – NCR or Legion? (House being disqualified due to the fact that P. D. killed him earlier to get brownie points with Caesar, and already did his ending in the original YOLO, and Yes-Man being disqualified because his ending is too easy to get.) We’ll find out what she decides next week – looking forward to it!
Aaand it is really late and I should really get to bed now! ^^; Oof, dragging myself back toward my work sleep schedule is gonna be fun...ah well. I just hope I can get more sleep tonight than I did last night. I expect I will be doing another round of shoveling tomorrow, but I also hope to fit in some writing (gotta get back into "Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland"), some Portal 2 (science to do), and the final OXBox list video I have to catch up with. We'll see what happens tomorrow! Night all!
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Date: 2026-01-26 05:55 pm (UTC)You should check CM's merch store on her website for the Valentine's Day and Ramadan cards just cuz they're so cute.
As for the evil white stuff, I think we got about a foot. Not everyone has shoveled their sidewalks yet, but those who have if I compare the height to Ruby she'd disappear. The drifts and where everything was shoveled and plowed, naturally, are higher. Almost as tall as me. But Ruby hates that there's no grass to do her business on. Someone who lives in an apartment building on the corner down the street must shovel a pathway in the grass for his dog, so I take her there so she can do something.
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Date: 2026-01-27 04:36 am (UTC)*goes and does that* Awww, they really are! It's great to have all the major romantic relationships represented, along with Husniya and her family. Great stuff. :)
Apparently according to the news, we got fourteen inches, but Mom is adamant that we got closer to two feet in our neck of the woods, and I believe her -- we certainly shoveled a lot last night, and she said there was another six inches this morning. And THEN it snowed again tonight and added another inch or two that she had to clear after supper. >( And yeah, I'm not surprised, we have some tall-as-fuck drifts here too -- your poor doggo would probably disappear entirely in our snow. And I don't blame her -- good thing you've got that pathway that she can use!