Fallout - Part 5: Rummaging Through Junktown

First things first, I owe Interplay an apology. I thought they included a super-perverted scene with Tandi, but that was just me jumping to conclusions. It turns out that, if you hit on her, she turns you down, so the dialogue option that gave me the heeby-jeebies was actually the character being creepy, rather than the game being creepy. If I were in the mood to quibble, I might be curious as to why anyone would think that a main character who ineffectually comes onto a sixteen-year-old would be compelling enough to bother writing in the option, but I am so mortified by my mistake that I'm just going to let this lie.

Instead, it is time to further explore the world of Fallout. Where we last left off, I'd failed to find the water chip in Vault 15. From there, I have precisely zero leads. All I know is the names of a couple of Wasteland towns - The Hub and Junktown. Neither has been singled out as more likely to have what I need than the other. So I go to the one that's closest.

I figure that the locations on the side of the navigation screen are arranged in the best order for visiting. This is shameless metagaming, I know, but I literally have nothing else (besides my memories of how to actually beat the game) to go off of.

Strangely, I manage to make this trip without encountering any random enemies. It's like my early death at the claws of mole rats has bought me some extra leeway. I should probably wander around in the wasteland grinding xp, but that feels a little like cheating to me (I couldn't say why, though, probably because this is a roleplaying game and "then the vault dweller spent two weeks wandering in circles hunting for radscorpions" doesn't feel like it's "in-character.")

Thus, in the shortest time possible, I arrive at scenic Junktown.

Once I get past Lars, the gate guard, I explore a little, to see if I can find a lead on the water chip. No one volunteers anything, and, of course, the "tell me about" button is basically useless.

Perhaps I was angered by his sarcastic non-answer, or perhaps I am simply an rpg protagonist, but I poke my nose into the hole behind him, climbing down into the basement to discover a gore-covered little person who is, perhaps, not the most sensitive portrayal in the world.

Because of my high Speech rating, I basically have magical mind control powers, so I'm able to wring from him a sordid tale of disgusting, disgusting deceit.

Iguana Bob, down in the Hub, is buying human body parts from Dr Morbid, and passing them off as Iguana Bits. How this makes sense from a business perspective is unclear, but I do know that if I ever run into this Iguana Bob, he's going to have a lot to answer for.

Sadly, I can do nothing to confront the good doctor himself. When I talk to him about his side business, he just denies everything.

I suspect there is some other event I have to trigger to get this situation to advance, but I can't quite figure out what it is. I do know you can start a fight by poking around in the basement too much, but because I wasn't sure whether that counted as aggression in the eyes of the local law, I declined to pursue that path.

Instead, I sought out the mayor (sheriff?) of this little town, Killian Darkwater.

He seemed like a decent enough fellow, though I never quite know how to navigate these gruff authority types (much like in real life). You can never tell when being sarcastic and causal will cause them to view you as a down-to-earth straight shooter and when it will make them see you as a smart-assed trouble-maker who needs to be rousted as soon as possible. I take the cautious road and be respectful.

It's hard to say whether it was a fruitful approach, because as soon as I exit the dialogue screen, fate intercedes to ensure my destiny is entwined with the town's.

An assassin tries to take out Killian (seen there, dead at my feet, because I forgot about the timing and was too surprised to get a screenshot). I was able to both loot the body (got a rifle out of it, cha-ching!) and get a job from Killian - bring him evidence of the local crime-lord's involvement in the attempt.

I will confess to not knowing how the law and justice system here in Junktown works. I guess it's some kind of constitutional . . . something. Killian needs evidence to deal with people he doesn't like, so he's not an autocrat, yet if there is some kind of popular rule, than it is kind of hard to understand how Gizmo can operate while Killian opposes him. Surely, if Gizmo's operation were popular among the locals, then Killian would not have the support to be a problem, whereas if it were unpopular, then antagonizing a well-loved (and well-armed) figure would hardly be in Gizmo's economic interest.

Maybe the two are carefully balanced political rivals, and it is the arrival of this mysterious newcomer that threatens to throw the status quo out of balance.

But enough of that intriguing stuff, I'm off to the hotel.

I meet a prostitute.

It's really weird, in a game ostensibly about choice (so much so that they give you the option to perv on Tandi), that you have no option but to ask Sinthia how much she charges. It's doubly weird that she then tells you that she's too expensive. I can't help but take that a little personally.

I have to find some place to sob myself to sleep, sadly unboned.

I am awoken from my slumber by a commotion in the other room. Sinthia has been taken hostage by a disgruntled john. Naturally, I am such an obvious choice for hostage negotiator (perhaps I have an aura of "ask me to do your dirty work" surrounding me), that the hotel's owner begs me to intercede.

I gab at that guy for a bit, and at first it looks like my magical speech abilities are doing the trick.

But I'm still only level 4, and so I haven't quite reached ultimate mastery. The guy manages to shake off my spell.

The results are kind of gruesome, and honestly more than a little disturbing.

Violence against women is not cool, Fallout. Also, why are you using the most graphic and gory animation for Sinthia's death? I can only imagine it's to punish me, the player, for not adequately saving her. And I don't even want to begin parsing the politics of that reasoning.

Because I don't want virtual blood on my hands, I reload my save and try a different approach. I go for the bribe. It works, and though it somewhat aggrieves my sense of justice to just let a hostage-taker stroll away, not only unpunished but 100 bottle caps richer, it is important not to lose sight of the real goal here - saving Sinthia's life.

And of course I have the option to immediately turn this beautiful moment of selfless heroism into something tawdry and gross. I'm just going to assume this is another Tandi situation and take it as read that the sleazy pick up line doesn't work.

Sinthia's job is being a prostitute. Earlier, she declined to have sex with me in exchange for money, and as much as I found it weird that I had no choice but to solicit her custom, it would not have bothered me if it was an option. However, having suddenly change her mind and be willing to  sleep with me as a reward for saving her life is just . . .

You know what, I have no proof that's how things would have gone down, so I'm going to choose to believe the best. Fallout is like, 95% a fun game. These uncomfortable moments where I'm faced with potentially very weird sexual politics are actually few and far between (only two in three hours, and one of them was not quite as bad as I initially thought).

Next post, I'll be able to deal with Gizmo. A straight-up, old-fashioned political murder. There's no way that can get exploitative and creepy . . .

Oh, for fucks' sake!