Deviation Actions
Literature Text
Boone was really pissed about the old Ranger. Sol wouldn’t tell them anything on why the hell they were travelling down South. He said that he wasn’t going to Caesar’s Fort and yet they were heading down towards that very direction. Sometimes Boone had trouble figuring out what was going on inside that thick head of his.
But Sol managed to distract everybody enough with small talks and Cass’s booze to get them to forget about even asking where they were going. They were wandering around the outskirt of the city at this point. There was a lot of abandoned old houses around this place. There was also a large NCR farm that took up most of the space around here, the rest were just empty broken down houses or houses with boarded up doors and windows.
“Okay, question…” the old ranger said while walking, “Where do you think is Mr. New Vegas?”
“Ooh, that’s… actually a pretty good question actually,” Veronica said.
“I know right?” Sol said, “I mean we hear the guy on the radio like all the time and yet nobody knows where he is. Like some kind of ghost or something. Don't you find that strange at all?”
“My theory,” said Arcade, “is that he’s just an artificial intelligence programmed some time before the war. I believe that there are clear implications of this if you pay close attention to the radio.”
“Yeah, that would explain the repeated messages,” Sol said, “but that still begs the question: where is this so called artificial intelligence then? I mean somebody must have had set it up somewhere, it can’t just show up out of nowhere,” he then turned to the old ghoul, “Raul? Did you notice anything odd while you were on Black Mountain?”
“Gee boss, I don’t know,” Raul said, “I mean it’s not like I had other issues I needed to take care of while I was on that mountain, issues like say trying to stay alive while around those psychotic murderous Nightkins, but no, I understand, finding out about some invisible radio host is way more important than staying alive. That’s definitely an idea I can get behind.”
“Alright, you’ve made your point,” Sol groaned.
“There wasn’t much up there to be honest,” the old ghoul finally said, “just a bunch of crazy mutants hijacking other radio stations with Tabitha’s own psychotic radio show. Don’t think Mr. New Vegas would be too please to hear that, if he’s even a real person at all.”
“You have a point,” Arcade commented, “in my opinion, I think…”
“Wait the minute…” Sol interrupted him, “this is a strange house, I don’t think I’ve seen it before.”
They suddenly stopped before the structure. It wasn’t like the other houses, mainly because it wasn’t boarded up like all the others. Although the rooms inside were dark enough that they still couldn’t see through while standing outside.
“See anything?” Veronica asked the guys just as she was peeking in through the windows. Sol wondered from time to time whether Veronica realized how redundant most of her questions usually were.
“Alright stand back, I’m going in,” Cass said as she gave the door a forceful frontal kick, shattering the door knob and the hinges. It fell down like a tree, scattering dust and cobwebs everywhere with the strong light penetrating through to the rotten wooden planks on the floor. Sol coughed with heavy lungs as he inhaled the ancient dust flying up from the floor.
“Hold on,” Sol said while still coughing, “let me just get the Pip-boy light.”
But they were not prepared for what was inside.
Strange and bizarre ornaments with brilliant colors were lying around all over the floors and inside were countless hefty cardboard boxes stacked up against each other like tall buildings made out of old rotten wood. There were bright shiny red balls lying around on the tables and on the floor, bright blue crystal orbs and polished green balls all scattered around the entire room in a disorganized mess. There was also a tree of some sort sitting in the back, although Sol had never seen a tree with leaves as bright and green as these before in his life. A strange juxtaposition to the decaying wasteland outside the house. It was strange and yet oddly beautiful. None of them knew what to make of this scene.
“What on earth is this place?” Veronica said, speechless as she sauntered in, “I’ve never ever seen anything so… so… so…”
“Beautiful,” Sol said, “… what do y'all reckon is all of this? Some sort of… over-designed junk? I’d say somebody’s got an awful lot of time on their hands.”
“One thing’s for sure though,” Arcade commented, “whoever was responsible for this, it doesn’t look like that person’s around anymore. This place is a mess, I wouldn’t even be surprised if this was abandoned for over a decade or more.”
“Huh, funny,” Sol said, “I thought the NCR had already salvaged this whole area.”
“I don’t think the NCR had salvaged much of anything,” Boone said from behind.
“Agreed,” Cass told them, “you take one look at the farm over there and you’ll see that's where their priorities is, the houses around here’s probably still abandoned, left for scavengers to pick apart.”
“So how come this place’s still intact?” Veronica asked, “I mean, it’s not like the door was boarded up or anything. Some wandering scavenger could’ve had easily broken down the door.”
“They probably thought that the junk here wasn’t worth much,” Sol told her, “You try trading using any of these things and people’d probably think you’re conning them.”
“True.”
Sol began wandering around the piles of ornaments on the floor, he was still unsure of what these things were and what purpose they served. He tried looking for some clues over the table, but it was also packed with cardboard boxes and these shiny ornaments.
“Hey, take a look at this,” Veronica pulled out something that resembled a furry string with bright white color, it was like as if the string was coated in diamond. She toyed with string, spinning around with it while humming, wrapping it around her neck like a neck scarf or something.
“How do I look?” She asked while striking a pose. It was campy as hell.
“Like a short 90 year old woman with a scraggly white beard who just spent 30 days straight in the scorching sun,” Raul calmly said.
“Bah, don’t listen to him,” Cass dismissed him, “he hasn’t got a slightest clue when it comes to fashion senses.”
“Right, because your fashion sense is so apparent with your filthy duster filled with nothing but dirt and sand, absolutely beautiful if I do say so myself,” Raul responded sarcastically.
“Hey, hey, I look good alright?” Cass said, “Everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY wants a piece of this,” gesturing to all of her.
“Correction,” Raul said, “every filthy raider on the street who hasn’t been touched by a woman in years wants a piece of you, he-he.”
“Hardy-har-har, very funny.”
Sol and Arcade continued rummaging through the cardboard boxes until Sol stopped at a small ragged little notebook that was lodged between two boxes. He carefully pulled it out of the small dusty space, a bunch of small bugs scattered down the floor just as he took the book out from the crack.
There was no title on the front, just a brown leather cover. Sol assumed that it was a journal of some sort. But all the dust and crap sticking over the thing almost made him reconsider even reading the damn thing. But he opened it anyway, careful not to make the dust fly all over his face.
The old ranger cleared his throat before reading aloud:
Chapter One
December 19th, 2272?
I don’t know what I’m doing anymore, it’s been five days now and the goddamn raider was still outside the house. He’s lurking out there in the dark I’m sure. He’s probably thinking that there’s some valuable loot in here. I wanted to go out and tell him a couple of times, but I’m afraid that he won’t believe me and kill me anyway. I mean, I don’t really care if he kills me, it’s Sarah that I’m worried about. She’s still just a little girl, I can’t just leave her here to that brute. Poor thing. She’s frightened to death by that son of a bitch outside.
She wanted to go out and play with her friend Jackie but I told her that it’s dangerous outside. It got her real upset. She couldn’t even bear to look me in the eyes during dinner. I’m sorry honey, it’s just that I know everything’s been difficult lately, but I promise you it’ll be over soon. I’ve got an old friend over the NCR. They’ll sort this out soon I promise. And besides, I’m pretty sure that this will be sorted out just before Christmas. I’ve got all these gears lying around, people are going to start buying all these junk by then.
“Christmas?” Sol asked, “The hell is a Christmas?”
Sol looked around the room to find everybody shaking their heads, shrugging their shoulders. But then one of them spoke from the crowd, nobody expected it.
“Heh, I remember Christmas, I guess it’s been a long time since we had those,” Raul told them in a low voice, almost as if reminiscing of his past, “my sister used to love ‘em, since our grandma always gave her the nicest gifts.”
“I didn’t know you had a sister,” Sol said.
“I had a lot of siblings actually,” Raul told him.
“So where are they now? Are they also ghouls?” Veronica asked. But Raul’s expression suddenly changed, but only slightly. There was a sudden dullness that sparked in his eyes, as if remembering something awful. He told them:
“Not everybody is unfortunate enough to become ghouls, Veronica…”
“So… what exactly is Christmas?” Sol asked him.
“Huh? Oh, right, Christmas… it’s an Old World holiday, it's a day when everybody would give each other these really nice gifts wrapped in these brightly colored boxes. I tell ya, the children love ‘em. They would play around, exchange gifts, and play in the snow, me and my sisters had a blast back in our old ranch…”
“Snow?” Veronica asked, “As in those tiny white specks we see in snowglobes?”
“Yup, damn straight,” Raul confirmed, “it was actually quite pleasant to be honest. People back then would set up one of those triangle looking trees over in the corner there and then put a bunch of decorations on them. These balls lying on the ground are a few of those decorations, it was like some sort of crystal orbs with all the colors of the rainbow placed together in one place. There were also strings of lights and small figurines, it was absolutely breathtaking, you have to be there to understand. The trees… there was just a certain spark of magic to it. The warm luminescent light it gave off onto the crowded white street, the smell of the wood and the fresh sap, and the brilliant light from the star pieces placed on the top of these majestic trees, it was just a spectacular sight to behold. All in all it was just a day where everybody would just relax and have some fun under the beautiful night sky of the silent warm white winter.”
“Sounds awfully poetic doesn’t it?” Cass told him.
“Yeah, it’s what my grandma used to tell me,” Raul said, “I guess… it’s been so long that not many people actually remember what it felt like.”
“I still don’t get it, though,” Arcade suddenly said, “if this so called Christmas was anything like what you described then all these things here in this room should be considered an Old World treasure. There’s no way that a regular scavenger would just ignore this, the argument that they would think that all of these wouldn’t worth much is just simply asinine. A regular scavenger would jump seeing a small shiny piece of scrap metal, a room full of brightly colored ornaments like these should’ve been a gold mine.”
“Maybe it’s explained in the journal.”
“Right.”
Sol nodded and continued the next page:
Chapter Two
December 20th, 2272?
The raider was still outside. I can’t let Sarah out yet. I tried contacting the NCR again this morning but the radio just kept giving me static noises. I honestly don’t know when they’ll be coming. I’m not even sure if they got my message in the first place, for all we know we could be stuck here alone with that bastard. Maybe I’m overreacting, I should just calm down. For her sake. But I don’t know if we can last much longer, supplies are getting pretty low. We’re down to two sacks of potatoes, should be enough to last us a week or two, I don’t really know, I’m really bad at math. Maybe I should start boarding up the house, the raider’s bound to leave eventually.
What am I thinking? He’s a fucking raider, if we don’t do something soon the bastard’s just going to kick down the door. I don’t know what the hell that son of a bitch is waiting for. I mean he’s just standing out there. At least I think he’s there. What am I talking about? Of course he’s there! I mean why would we be here in the first place if he’s not there?
Chapter Three
December 20th, 2172?
I tried the radio again, still nothing but static. I just don’t know what the hell is wrong with this piece of crap. It was fine just a couple of days ago. If I didn’t know any better I’d say that somebody’s out to sabotage us.
Then again, maybe it WAS the raider. He’s playing mind games with us I just know it. Just trying to get into our heads. Well not on my watch! I’ll show him.
Sarah’d been awfully quiet lately. She was probably still upset that she still couldn’t go outside. Well, don’t you worry about a thing honey, I’ll take care of this, I promise. In fact, I think I’m going to start setting up the tree after this. Oh, boy she’s going to be in for a surprise. I already got her present somewhere in one of these boxes, I don’t remember where, though. Doesn’t really matter now, I’ll just find it later. Maybe if I finish the tree early I can still wrap it in a nice little bow.
Oh and another thing, I heard that Jackie’s mom had a bunch of old records of songs, with some Christmas songs in the mix. I was thinking that we could invite her over for a little get together. It might be fun.
Chapter Four
December 22nd, 1271
I just don’t know what to do about the radio. Sarah’s been real upset since the radio’s down. There was this one station that she wanted to tune into. I told her that the station’s not available in Nevada anymore. But she wouldn’t believe me. I kept trying to find that station every now and then, for her sake.
But she was still pretty sad about that, so I told her ‘you know what? How ‘bout we go and make our own station?’ Just think, a radio show where we can be our own host and we can play whatever music we want, we could even take requests. We’ll broadcast it out to the whole wasteland, I told her. It’ll be a blast.
I already had a couple of holodisks set up and ready to go. As soon as the radio’s back on we can give it a go. Don’t worry honey, when all of this is over I promise you that we’ll host the best radio show that anyone’s ever seen. People will be tuning to listen to it daily, daily I tell you! It’s going to be amazing.
“Um… the chapter ends here,” Sol said.
“Wait what? That’s it?” Veronica cried, “There’s got to be more than that.”
“Yeah, sure, but the rest of the pages are blank, there’s nothing he…” something suddenly fell out of the pages as Sol was shaking it up and down, it crashed straight onto the wooden floor. It was a metal keycard of some sort.
“What’s that?” Raul asked.
Sol picked it up and started inspecting it.
“It’s a terminal key card,” Sol told them, “if my hunch is right, then there’s got to be a terminal of some sort around here.”
“Why do you say that?” Cass asked.
“Well,” he explained, “if the author of this journal is like anything I imagine then I would assume that he’s a very paranoid man. He’s not going to keep a journal in just one place. The terminal’s got to be around here som…”
“Found it! It’s over here!” Boone cried out from the corner. The sniper shoved all the cardboard boxes to the side and dragged the large and hefty terminal out of the corner, carefully placing it onto the table.
Sol looked for the on button down the bottom right corner. It was even dustier than the book. But at least the power was still functional. He quickly located the key slot and inserted the card inside, it fitted like a glove.
“Here we go,” Sol said, “there’s a couple more files here. It’s definitely from the journal.”
Chapter Five
December 23rd, 2072?
The radio was still not working. So I smashed the damn thing. I don’t know, it seemed like a good idea at the time. Who knows, the NCR’s probably already heard our messages…
Chapter Six
December 24th, 2222222
I just don’t know anymore. I don’t know what to do. I tried contacting the NCR again but the radio wouldn’t work. I swear the raider is still out there. I’m not making this up! I’m not, I’m not, I’m not, I’m NOT!
I am so sorry honey, I know that I promised that we would play in the snow again. But I don’t know. I just wanted you to be happy. I promise that I’ll make it up to you next year. Tell you what, I’ll even bring in a new little brother for you to play with, we’ll be just like a family, a family just like how I wanted. So don’t you worry about a thing, dear. Next year for sure.
P.S, I left your present under the wooden board around the corner so that it’s right next to where you usually sleep. I had to hide it in case the raider ever got into the house.
“The wooden board by the corner?” Raul asked confusedly.
“Um, hold on,” Boone said as he scanned around the area, “over there, just under the tree.”
Cass immediately jumped over the boxes and pushed away the trees and the boxes of decorations. She knelt down and forcefully punched onto the hard wooden planks over and over again until a loud snap was heard.
“There’s definitely something here,” She called, she then used her fingers to pry open the planks and threw it to the side. But then she suddenly jumped and nearly shouted at the sight of what was under the boards.
“What’s wrong?” Arcade asked, “What is it?”
“Jesus Christ, what the fuck!” Cass cried.
Under the wooden boards was a small charred skeleton – the size of a little kid. And lying beside the little skeleton was a small metal box that was covered in rust and dust. Nobody knew what to make of this. The skeleton gave off a strange ambiance that sent chills down their spine.
“Is that… the kid?” Veronica asked.
Arcade approached the skeleton and started examining it. He was careful not damage these old bone pieces.
“It’s been here for at least a decade now,” Arcade said, “so yeah, I’m going to have to say yes. It’s her.”
“But wait, if she’s here then… where’s the father?” Sol asked.
“Try the boxes,” Boone said, “it’s piling up like mountains in here, there’s probably something behind it.”
They all rummaged through the piles of cardboard boxes, tearing down one by and one and chucking it to the side. There were a lot more of those boxes than they originally thought.
“Here it is!” Sol called out, “Oh my god…”
There were even more charred skeletons here in the back, about four of five of them. Black and rotten to the core. It had been here for over a decade now, that was for sure. It was hard to tell which bone belonged to which limb. It was even harder trying to make out the face because the skulls were messed up pretty badly.
“That’s her dad right?” Veronica said, “Well that can’t be right.”
“Wait, what’s this?”
Sol crouched down to one of the skeletons, there was something peculiar that sparked his interest. A silver pendant with a carving of a name on it – Jackie.
“What the hell?” He checked all the other skeletons, they all had the same silver pendant, each with a different carving – NCR, Jackie’s mom, Billy, and lastly Raider. This doesn’t make any sense, he thought.
“Check the other skeleton!” Sol shouted, “See if there’s a necklace like these.”
“Yeah, there is,” Boone said.
“What does it say?”
Boone muttered reluctantly:
“… Sarah…”
They all stood there speechless. Frozen in shock and with chills crawling down their spines. But something still didn’t add up. Sol rushed his way towards the terminal and scrolled through the files. Something just didn’t feel right.
“Ah ha, here it is,” Sol cried, “there’s one more file,” he then read it aloud:
Chapter Seven
December 25th, 319233??
I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m so so sorry. All I ever wanted was for us to be a family. I know I promised you many things (it looks like your little brother will have to wait, his name is Billy) but most important of all I know that I promised you a perfect Christmas. We were going to set up the trees, put up the decorations. I even prepared a present for you. It’s all the songs I promised we would have on our radio show, I really thought that you’d love them.
I know that I won’t be around forever but at the very least I could leave behind something amazing, something beautiful. He’ll look after you even when I’m not here. I called him Mr. New Vegas. I know it’s not that original but it reminded me of an old singer I used to hear on the radio, you’ll love him. I already programmed him to broadcast signals to every radio stations in the entire region, it wasn’t easy but it was worth it. So as long as any of the radio stations in the Mojave keeps on broadcasting signals, even if only one of the stations is activated, Mr. New Vegas will be there.
There’s a holodisk in the box, it’s all the songs that Jackie’s mom gave me, you just hook it up to the radio and Mr. New Vegas will broadcast it for you. All I ever wanted was to bring the joy of Christmas to everyone in the world, everybody in the Mojave. Mr. New Vegas can do that, he can do that! He can bring the joy of the snow and the season of giving to this harsh cruel world, a harsh unforgiving world where we can take comfort in knowing that there will always be a time, a time in a cold beautiful season where we can spend some quality time with our family, our friends. Sarah, please forgive me for I can’t be there for you, but I’m certain that Mr. New Vegas will be there for you.
Merry Christmas honey, and happy New Year.
Love, Dad
They all stood there in silent. None of them knew what to do, what to say. They all thought about it, a morbid little story. What was this strange feeling that they felt? It wasn’t like anything Raul described. They didn’t know how to describe it. The best way they could explain it was to say that it was a strange sadness of a tragedy that they would never want to resurface from memory.
And yet…
“I think… I understand…” Arcade said, “why nobody ever bothered to show up to loot this place. Nobody wanted this tragic story to be heard. They thought that it’d be best for it to be left in the past where it belongs.”
Everybody seemed to agree on that idea. But the worst part about it was that they all seemed to agree on following through with the notion as well, leaving this tragedy behind to history, keeping this secret hidden and buried forever. It was quite depressing actually, but so easy to do.
… But…
“No!” Sol suddenly said, shocking everybody, “We can’t do this!”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean… we can’t just… do it like everybody else… we can’t leave this behind in the past anymore. We can’t ignore it.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s Christmas…” he told them, “I mean… if something so wonderful and beautiful is to be left forgotten… then what is there left to live for? Especially in this horrible, horrible wasteland. Raul?” He turned to the old ghoul, “Don’t you remember what it was like before the war? When Christmas was still around, don’t you remember the magic of the holiday? Back when you were children and you played around in the snow with each other? The days full of cheers and laughter?”
Raul slowly nodded in sadness:
“… Yes…”
“Let’s be real here,” Sol said, “does it really matter that a tragedy had happened within this very house? We are standing in the middle of an Old World treasure for god’s sake. It doesn’t matter what happened within this house, this man died trying to spread his love for his daughter to the whole wasteland, to the whole world. And that means something.”
A sudden spark appeared in their eyes, Sol continued:
“If we don’t do something about this then nobody else will, they will just keep on going without looking back to the Old World treasures. I don’t know about you, but I’m not going to have that! C’mon guys, it’s the season of giving, we should be happy, we should rejoice, it’s CHRISTMAS FOR GOD’S SAKE.”
“Yeah, yeah, that’s right, it’s Christmas guys!” Veronica joined in, agreeing and smiling brightly, “Now we’re not going sit around here doing nothing while Christmas passes by now are we?”
“No!” Sol yelled, “C’mon guys!”
“Okay, boss,” Raul said, smiling warmly at last, “I suppose… my Rafaela would’ve wanted this.”
“You’re damn right she would!” Sol shouted enthusiastically, which managed a chuckle out of the old ghoul.
“Well, as long as there’s lots and lots of booze, I’m game,” Cass said, also smiling under her shades. “What? It’s Christmas right? I may not know much about this Old World holiday, but I don't think it matters that much, and honestly I don't care. Let’s have some fun now!”
“So what are we waiting for?”
“Yeah, let’s get this show on the road, baby.”
“Ring-a-ding-ding, baby!”
“I’ll get the decorations!”
“I’ll go set up the trees, we should clear the room of all the boxes first.”
“Yeah, and clean up the damn place, it’s filthy in here.”
“Come on, ED-E, Rex, come here boy, now don’t go causing too much trouble, alright?”
“Boone, don’t just stand around there, come on! Cheer up will ya. It’s Christmas.”
“Alright, while you guys are doing that, I’ll be at the terminal and the radio here, I'll try to hook up the holodisks, for the songs see, I'm sure we can make something out of these old junk.”
“I already got ya covered, Arcade my man. I’ll just upload it onto my Pip-Boy, I’ll grab onto the signals of the New Vegas radio station and broadcast the signals. It shouldn’t be too hard, especially with RobCo technologies.”
“Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep!”
“Oh, ED-E, you’re so silly!”
“Ha ha ha!”
Hey Arcade, you noticed it too right?
Yes, Sol, I’m a doctor after all. Most of the skeletons were a lot older except for one of them. The only one without a necklace. That one must’ve been the father.
Don’t you find that strange?
Are you implying that the father was the killer of all these people?
Perhaps, it’s evident through his psychotic journal entries. He wanted a family, he wanted to be the role of the father. He wanted it to be his family, and his alone.
Are there any evidence to the contrary?
Yeah, the way he used language, it’s evident that he truly loved his daughter. So maybe he wasn’t really a killer. Maybe she just died before he had the chance to spend time with her in this Christmas together.
Yeah, but there’s the detail about the raider. He never mentioned him attacking them at all. He never even mentioned anybody other than himself seeing this raider.
Yes, that proved to be supporting the theory that it was all make-believe. He wanted to keep his family to himself I suppose. There’s also the detail about the smashed radio.
A lot of conflicting information here.
Interpretations, dear Arcade, history’s all about interpretation.
I disagree. History is the facts, facts cannot be altered.
What about the facts looked through the eyes of a mad man? Facts looked through the eyes of all the countless greedy scavengers that came and go throughout the years? How is it that we are the first to see things differently?
I guess some things are best left in History.
Yeah, I suppose.
And hey, what you did back there. Trying to bring back Christmas, it was… nice.
Yeah, thanks… it… reminded me of home… I understood what he meant… even though the journals implied some horrid things. It didn’t really matter, he truly loved his family. He truly loved Christmas.
Hard to let go of Old World memories I suppose.
Yeah, I guess… now come on, let’s not stand around here dilly-dallying, we still have to put on the decorations.
Right behind ya.
“You're listening to Radio New Vegas, your little jukebox in the Mojave Wasteland. I'm Mr. New Vegas, and I'm here letting you know I've got a new and exciting Christmas compilation coming out soon. I’m feeling something magic in the air tonight and I'm not just talking about the gamma radiation. We are getting into the spirit of the season folks, so grab your winter coats and lace on your winter boots because it’s going to be very cold real soon. It’s beautiful, I tell ya, the icy crystal white snow descending from the heavens like a beautiful angel. But not… as beautiful as you folks. So stay tuned, for this next song is all about the wonders of Christmas, the wonders of the Mojave, the wonders of Nuclear Winter Wonderland.”
Fallout belongs to Bethesda and Obsidian. This courier character is mine.
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