Crazy Costume Kooks

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Holotape Entry 4:





Time: 23:36





Date: August 20, 2279





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My entire life I have defined the word "crazy" as someone who has experienced intense mental trauma or an extreme anomaly in my experiments....today redefined that word and my outlook on this "Capitol Wasteland". To start, I must simply say that I declined Hannibal his offer and left quietly...even without saying goodbye to Alejandra. Hannibal and I had a quick conversation about it and after explaining my story, he pointed me towards a town called Canterbury Commons. I realized now that it was my first time talking to someone about what happened and my situation....and it made me feel....better. Hannibal gave me a key to the front gate and told me I was welcome whenever, so I promised to visit if I was ever around. And really that was that. I left the first group of decent individuals since the ambush. Oh, before my mind wanders as it does, Hannibal explained that those people I saw were "Raiders" and have the wide tendency to ambush groups to rob them. It is a relief to have some understanding of what happened. So, as I have said, I left and headed in the direction of Canterbury Commons.





To be honest it wasn't a long journy or even hard to find. After leaving the building, I walked around it and headed what I could gather was a rough east direction. Geometry wasn't my specialty, I was the lead of Bio-organics and genetics. A rather boring field until we were given a sample of Forced Evolutionary Virus....or FEV as it was. That sky-rocketed out research ten-fold and we quickly got to work...which...in retrospect....was a mistake. Anyway, enough about my old life.





Now to explain what happened would be like explaining the color of a colliding particles, you just need to see it. As I walked closed to the entrance of town I saw a battle going on. I whipped out my pistol and hid behind a broken car as I watched what unfolded, Dioje hiding behind me while growling softly. A man dressed as a robot arguing with a women dressed as an ant. They of course both had their respected small army of what they represented. I know, I know! I couldn't make this shit up even if I tried. I read comic books when I was younger and from what I could tell this was your average superhero v. supervillan. The women named herself the "AntAgonizer" and the man was simply "The Mechanist.". After a brief fight, they ran in opposite directions. I noticed the AntAg.......the women had run into a small cave below town.





After such an odd sight, I continued into town to be meet by a man named Roe. He made sure I was ok and we had a breif conversation about the event that just unfolded.





"If only someone would help us! Then the caravans wouldn't have anything to fear when they come by! This is really cutting into our yearly earnings," Roe complained while kicked a bit of rock.





"I can help, I have briefly studied into the art of psychosis and therapy," I stated, while still nervous of taking on such a crazy pair. Everyone has a problem and I might as well help a few people. How hard could it be? I never did like therapy, but it helped with many of the shell-shocked grunts.





"Great! Just great! Get them to stop and I'll pay you 200 caps for your efforts. Then finally we can get the caravans running through without a problem." He put his hand out to shake on the deal.





"Wait....caps?" I questioned, while still shaking his hand.





"Where the hell you from boy? Caps!" He laughed until he realized I was still perplexed. "Bottle-caps are the currency around here. You want something, you pay in caps. Other then bartering, the only thing traders will take." He shook his head while saying it..probably in disbelief.





"Oh" was all I managed to get out about the subject. Bottle-caps as currency? What about pre-war money? I had seen plenty go around Raven Rock. I guess an easy and more durable currency for a harsh and unforgiving landscape. I told him I would get to work trying to help these people with their psychosis.





Just as I started to head to the cave I saw the women enter, gunshots rang out as I jumped behind a building. Fumbling for my pistol and searching for the cause, I got a look at my first Brahmin. These two-head mutant cows, as they are, seem to have gone mad and attacked Roe. Luckily, two rough looking individuals put the cows out of their misery. A few quick, brutal, and precise shots to the head...err heads....took the mad things down and before I could comprehend the even they had already started dragging the carcasses out of the road. I decided it was best not to think much of it and I went back to my "quest".



Everything hit me at once as I got to the cave's entrance. I was about to enter a cave, most likely filled with giant ants, to stop a crazed supervillan, to save a town, and collect a ridiculous amount of botte-caps so that I could purchase better equipment. I'm starting to think that the explosion at the scrapyard actually killed me and this is some twister version of hell. Then again why would I go to hell? I worked all my life with the Enclave to better man-kind. In fact this whole mess started with a project to rid mutation....well at least once we had the right data...and the fact that we still have no way of dispensing it throughout the wastes.



I sat down on a rock near the door and took out a old bag of "Potato Crisps" and ate the tasteless things. I had a bit of meat left from my night with Hannibal's Gang and gave the rest of it to Dioje. He eagerly devoured the helpless meat chunks. I made a "game plan" as the Hellfire troops called it. I would just carefully enter the cave and search for AntAgonizer and talk her out of this insanity. Once she was done, the Mechanist would stop his madness as well.



Surprisingly, the cave reminded me of home in Raven Rock. It was actually and underground maintenance building. Long corridors and the low hum of machinery made me start to miss my comforts at the base. My thoughts of getting back to Raven was quickly cut off by a beeping I have grown accustom too. I jumped back as a small explosion rocked the hallway. Mines were quickly becoming my pet peeve of the wastes. Lucky that was the only one I ran into, but my next problem was a dead end. I almost left, thinking I took a wrong turn, but soon I noticed the odd floor coloring. There was a rather large section of the paneling that was a different color and surrounded by a rectangular indentation. I decided to look around and it didn't take long for me to find a button to open what I found out was a trap door. Thinking back....it was quite foolish to just randomly push the first button I found. It could have been a trap! Luckily it wasn't and I got into the deeper parts of what became a real cave structure.



The place had worker ants, the same type she used to fight in Canterbury, all over and I was forced to use lethal action. I got down to my last clip before I relied I still had my sub-machine 9mm with me. It made quick work of the remaining ants, with the help of Dioje of course. *Barking and unintelligent noises* My inquisitive nature got the best of me as I spent a small portion of the trip studding the ants. To me it seemed the radiation somehow expanded their size, but their anatomy remained largely unchanged. This is all in comparison to the few test ants we had back at base.



The "lair" of the ant queen was....different. She had a throne room surrounded by concrete blocks and old nuka-cola cans. A passage to the left lead to what seemed to be sleeping quarters and to the left was a shelf stuffed with random items. Most of which I took after my confrontation which included more of these damn Potato Crisps.



"Who dares enter the lair of the AntAgonizer?! You must be working with that damn Mechanist!" she screeched as I entered.



"Umm....no actually. My name is Devs and I'm here to kindly ask you to....stop?" I wasn't sure exactly what to say.



"STOP?! How dare you give me commands! You are human! Humanity is doomed!" She carried on for a bit before I cut in.



"Why are you doing this?" that stopped her.



"Why? Why.......because! Ants are perfect! That's why they grew as humans died!" She seemed to change her tone.



"No, why are you terrorizing the town?"



"Because they are human and they all deserve death! They treat us bad and mock us!" She got up at this point and made too many hand gestures to emphasis her point.



"Humanity isn't all that bad. Just take off the ridiculous costume and start a regular life. You have so much potential wasted with this nonsense," I might have just punched her with the look she gave me.



"You...believe in me?" She fell into her throne and shook her head, "You are right, this is so ridiculous. I never wanted this...it was just so hard..."She started to take her costume off. I looked away until I realized she was fully dressed underneath, "Thank you....Thank you! Have this please, I am off to start a new life." She said all this while thrusting the costume into my arms.



"You are perfectly welcome my dea...." and without response she left me alone talking to myself. I still find it quite odd she gave up without a fight or much of anything. My charm couldn't have gone that far? I still can't understand what happened, nor probably ever will. I took the remaining food from her now-deserted home and found this odd.....glowing....nuka-cola. It never stops glowing and I am currently using it for light in my temporary sleeping quarters.



The rest doesn't need explaining, I went back to the surface and collected my reward. Roe also threw in my new bag as extra thanks and a place to store my...caps...and other resources. What needs to be explained is how I found out about a city called Rivet City and my current goal to get there.



After my "quest", everyone in town was extremely positive towards me. Joe gave me some dirty looking water and a bit extra food, while Roe gave me a large explanation of the wasteland. There is so much to gather in, but for now the important detail is in the large cities. Apparently, one is called "Rivet City" and is THE hub for intelligence and science. I must say that does sound exactly "up my alley" and who knows? Maybe ill find a job or someone who knows where Raven Rock is located. Funny how I spend my whole life there, but never once cared to look at a map to find its location. Also, Canterbury Commons seems to be a main trade-route for a circuit of trades and their caravans. I think I might join one as a guard of sorts to help it along it's path and reach Rivet City.



For now, Roe gave Dioje and I a place to sleep. I'm using the glowing nuka to illuminate the dark as I record it. What an amazing invention, I must remember to find out how it works when I get some proper equipment. Signing off for now, this is Devs, the most illuminated man in the world.



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