welsh
Junkmaster
mandrake's day
Thanks Reaper-
I thought it was important to bring Mandrake back into view, if only for a glimpse. He's become an important NPC even if he's on the other side. I also thought it would be interesting to bring up the "other side." If the main characters are in conflict with a conspiracy, the conspiracy is struggling with an, as yet nameless, other. I felt it was time to introduce them a bit more.
As for Claire, she was a minor but important NPC from chapter 1 who had tortured Caleb for information. She was also one of the conspiracy's principle agents in Tabis and also the one who got the blame for the failure of that operation. Claire was not a nice woman. Sexual, yes. She had used her charms to get to McKinner and had sought to play with him and Kroeger as well. As for Mandrake, well she was the prize. Where the dark man might be a "believer in the cause" Mandrake is driven by his own darker passions.
As for the scene. It still needs a bit of work. I kind of wrote it up in a rush. I didn't want to emphasize the sex in a graphic way, nor the violence for that matter. I thought it better to play on the suggestion and not the actual visuals. For fighting choreography during major battles, fine.
But this wasn't a major battle but a quick hit by assassins. And the sex? Well sex was always part of Fallout even if "blacked out" and Fallout is twisted. Most of the prostitutes were either junkies tryin to pay for a fix or using their bodies to make a little cash. Claire has been driven insane through a cocktail of drugs that changes her mood and had lost her fingers and her eyes. That is part of the "punishment" that the conspiracy plans for her and the "demonstration" in Red Waters.
Our enemy is not nice. Later we might find out the reasons why it exists and what it plans.
A way station for caravans where a caravan could restock supplies and replace brahma made sense. The Church of the Crooked Cross might be symbolic of these morally dubious times.
The family shows generations of people living this way, and that most organizations and collectives are probably built around families, clans, and other like associations. Those are the people you trust most. The boy is wicked innocense. What kind of people would be raised from this kind of environment, without the education or values we take for granted? What would his dreams be? Based on the generations of parents, probably not a very nice person, and kids are often cruel and sometimes delight in cruelty. There is a scene in the beginning of The Wild Bunch, where kids play allow a scorpion to be killed by red ants, and then they burn all the ants and the scorpion. That's kids in this world.
While I think most of us would respond the same way as you mention, I think that life in Fallout has always been Hobbesian- nasty, brutish and usually short. Most people live desperate lives in constant competition and moral scruples are a luxury. I guess that's what I really wanted to show.
This is the humanity our group of heroes is trying to save. It may have its bright spots and virtues, but it has its wickedness as well.
But I don't think its wise that either sex or violence be too widely or vividly drawn. Ideally this was a twisted scene and not a very pleasant one. But I don't think we need to be too vivid. It is often unnecessary and almost pornographic. Besides, sometimes its better to leave images to the imagination of the reader.
Anyway, that's what I was thinking in that scene.
Thanks Reaper-
I thought it was important to bring Mandrake back into view, if only for a glimpse. He's become an important NPC even if he's on the other side. I also thought it would be interesting to bring up the "other side." If the main characters are in conflict with a conspiracy, the conspiracy is struggling with an, as yet nameless, other. I felt it was time to introduce them a bit more.
As for Claire, she was a minor but important NPC from chapter 1 who had tortured Caleb for information. She was also one of the conspiracy's principle agents in Tabis and also the one who got the blame for the failure of that operation. Claire was not a nice woman. Sexual, yes. She had used her charms to get to McKinner and had sought to play with him and Kroeger as well. As for Mandrake, well she was the prize. Where the dark man might be a "believer in the cause" Mandrake is driven by his own darker passions.
As for the scene. It still needs a bit of work. I kind of wrote it up in a rush. I didn't want to emphasize the sex in a graphic way, nor the violence for that matter. I thought it better to play on the suggestion and not the actual visuals. For fighting choreography during major battles, fine.
But this wasn't a major battle but a quick hit by assassins. And the sex? Well sex was always part of Fallout even if "blacked out" and Fallout is twisted. Most of the prostitutes were either junkies tryin to pay for a fix or using their bodies to make a little cash. Claire has been driven insane through a cocktail of drugs that changes her mood and had lost her fingers and her eyes. That is part of the "punishment" that the conspiracy plans for her and the "demonstration" in Red Waters.
Our enemy is not nice. Later we might find out the reasons why it exists and what it plans.
A way station for caravans where a caravan could restock supplies and replace brahma made sense. The Church of the Crooked Cross might be symbolic of these morally dubious times.
The family shows generations of people living this way, and that most organizations and collectives are probably built around families, clans, and other like associations. Those are the people you trust most. The boy is wicked innocense. What kind of people would be raised from this kind of environment, without the education or values we take for granted? What would his dreams be? Based on the generations of parents, probably not a very nice person, and kids are often cruel and sometimes delight in cruelty. There is a scene in the beginning of The Wild Bunch, where kids play allow a scorpion to be killed by red ants, and then they burn all the ants and the scorpion. That's kids in this world.
While I think most of us would respond the same way as you mention, I think that life in Fallout has always been Hobbesian- nasty, brutish and usually short. Most people live desperate lives in constant competition and moral scruples are a luxury. I guess that's what I really wanted to show.
This is the humanity our group of heroes is trying to save. It may have its bright spots and virtues, but it has its wickedness as well.
But I don't think its wise that either sex or violence be too widely or vividly drawn. Ideally this was a twisted scene and not a very pleasant one. But I don't think we need to be too vivid. It is often unnecessary and almost pornographic. Besides, sometimes its better to leave images to the imagination of the reader.
Anyway, that's what I was thinking in that scene.
