They want to get 'Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead" to number 1 in the charts, to shout an almighty yay at the fact that Margaret Thatcher is dead, amidst all the masturbatory articles published by the right about how great she was. The air is so polarised, you can smell the ozone.
What I want to say is, yes, I fully understand why you want to celebrate Thatcher's death, but I do not agree that it's the time for revelry. This is not a right-wing viewpoint at all, I don't want to start espousing her greatest points and paint her as a kind of saint. But why, like so many others, do I hold such a viewpoint?
Basically, yes, feel free to criticise what she did. But just leave it at that. This isn't a time for any kind of happiness.
Why I understand your need to celebrate
Let me tell you a story. Not about Thatcher, but about a senior political figure from the works of fiction.
Lord Sidious (Also known as Chancellor, later Emperor Palpatine) was a Sith Lord who rose to the highest station of government. Lord Sidious took control from the incompetent Chancellor Valorum, who had let the factions of the Galactic Empire rule him. It was an embarrassment, and the world of Naboo was embroiled in a rather seedy affair with the Trade Federation placing a blockade around their planet, hoping to annex the world.
Lord Sidious was this sort of person.
A leader with a tough, uncompromising attitude, never one to be wavered by troubles, and never one for turning. In fact he turned them.
An accomplished public speaker, knowing how to get people on his side.
Outwardly, appearing to be a good, moral person; in control.
The person to bring radical change, transforming the Republic totally. This did much to polarise public opinion; people either loved or hated him.
It was as if he was superhuman.
And he had marvellous hair that made his head look bigger.
During his tenure, he brought order to many, a growing economy, at the cost of annoying (and destroying the lives of) quite a few people, who did much to fight back.
But what happened to poor, old Palpatine?
In the end, one of his many proteges stabbed in the back, and threw him down a ventilation shaft. Yeah, boy. For hurting his family. Nevertheless, a quick death.
And after his death, there was much celebration.
So, this is why I understand your frustration. I know you may have been hard done by Thatcher, and I know why you want to party.
Why I disagree with you
Thatcher did not enjoy the privilege of a quick death.
Yes, she may have had many other privileges during her lifetime, and died in the relative comfort of the Ritz Hotel, London, but when you die, when anyone dies, they are alone and no amount of material wealth can ultimately bring comfort. Only love surpasses all. But I feel that even this may have been absent in the case of Margaret Thatcher.
You see, she spent the remainder of her days suffering from the degrading process of dementia, much like her good friend Ronald Reagan, another conservative icon.
You may or may not have known someone to suffer from dementia. It is a horrible disease which can only be described as a slow death. You begin with a person, and you are left with someone resembling that person in appearance, but they may not know who you are, who they are, or what on Earth is going on. They may want their deceased partner, but don't understand why they can't be there.
To be honest, I fear dementia more than I do a quicker death. I like the feeling of wholeness and it irks me when I forget the most simplest of things from time to time, let alone all the time. And no one ever gets better from this disease.
And it doesn't just affect the sufferer too, it affects family, friends, anyone who cares.
We live in a country where free speech is promoted, and it is perfectly OK to criticise Thatcher's tenure as Prime Minister. But to go out and party, to get a song in the charts to celebrate her death with a bit of fun, all you do is bring more hurt to those that survive.
And I thought you were human beings.
I'm sticking with the option of rising above all of this. I don't want to drag myself to her level. Let's be civilised and show everyone else how good we can be.
(This article is a work of fiction, and is for entertainment purposes only. Please do not try any of the recipes below for real, as this could result in illness, injury, death or embarrassment.)
Hi!
I'm Iain Duncan Smith, MP for Chingford and Woodford Green, and Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.
Today I want to show you that, not only can the average person survive on £53, that it doesn't mean you have to skimp on quality. Foodwise, even if you receive Government benefit, you can still dine in fashion!
Try these recipes for size.
1) Posh gruel
Now, you may think gruel kept mediaeval peasants going, and yes, it did. You could say this country was built on gruel, something so simple to keep workers going throughout the day. This version adds a modern twist.
Gruel can be made with all cereals (no, not coco pops, cereals are things like wheat, rice, oats and barley!). It is like a watery version of porridge.
Make your gruel by adding your cereal (this can be ground too, so you can use flour), so raid your cupboards for whatever you have. If you don't have any flour, oats or own-brand Ready Brek, just simply mash some bird feed, or grass seeds into a fine pulp, with a mortar and pestle, a rolling pin, or a house brick.
Boil this in water, or microwave for a while.
Gruel is largely flavourless mush, but you can use your kitchen flair to add a touch of class. Try adding a glug of Tesco Value blackcurrant cordial for a fruity zing!
Garnish with a dandelion flower. Beautiful.
2) 'Lobster' Thermidor
This version does without expensive lobster. Now, let me talk to you about cats. In the wrong hands (of the poor), cats can be a drain on resources, and a source of most inconvenient faecal deposits around the house, that the kids keep picking up and playing with. Just think of the savings you can make, not having to buy cat food any more!
Ingredients:
1 cat
Lidl mayonnaise
Simply take one cat, beat it unconscious, and hang upside down. Slit its neck, and collect the blood in a bowl (you will need this for later). Skin it (you can dry it out to make a fashionable scarf for the children).
You now need to cook the cat. If you haven't got an Aga, a Rangemaster will do. OK, a microwave. It's been taken by bailiffs? Ok, warm the cat with your cigarette lighter all over for an hour.
To make the sauce, simply mix the blood with the mayonnaise, pour onto the cooked cat and serve with a garnish of chives, or a handful of torn grass.
Savour with a glass of prison hooch.
3) Chicken supreme with living rice
This is a fun meal for hungry children.
Now, Bin Day. You're thinking, it's such a chore and you get nothing back from it. Do you realise, though, the sort of things your neighbours throw out?
Grabbing a bag of your neighbour's rubbish is kind of a game. You never know what's inside! If you open the bag, you might find the ingredients for a tasty, nutritious meal. If you get this combination, I'll show you how to make a gourmet meal fit for a king.
1 chicken carcass (which may or may not still have some meat attached)
1 bottle/carton of off milk
Herbs
The lucky ones may find that the chicken carcass comes free with its own, you may call it, 'living rice'. These are little, white, squirmy things which crawl over the chicken carcass (you may find them on other meats, like beef, pork or, especially after Christmas, turkey). Rice tends to be starchy carbohydrate, but 'living rice' is a good source of protein.
Simply shake or pick off the living rice and place into a bowl. Bake, or microwave the chicken carcass for how much electricity remains in the meter. 5p should be enough, I think.
The off milk should have reduced to a nice, creamy lump, which you can pour straight onto the chicken. Serve the living rice on the side.
4) Urban Royal Game Soup
A hearty favourite.
Ingredients:
Roadkill
Dead pigeon
Asda smart price gravy granules
Out on your daily travels to find employment, you may come across roadkill. Out in the country (where I live), you tend to find foxes, badgers, pheasants, deer, that sort of thing. In the city, you may find cats (see Lobster Thermidor), rats, mice, and more cats. All fair game, as it were, for tasty, nutritious soup. The living cats of course may have mauled a pigeon to death, or the local kids have been having fun with an air rifle again.
Simply collect your quarry, skin and pluck and harvest all the meat and organs to sizzle in a casserole dish. Or microwave. While the meat is browning nicely, boil the kettle and mix the hot water in a jug with the gravy granules. Once dissolved, pour the gravy onto the meat and simmer.
Enjoy with a glass of your sobbing children's tears.
Fallout 3/New Vegas have some interesting add-ons, and in the spirit of this, I've also had ideas for add-ons for LDN too.
The player can access the add-ons, but he/she will be recommended to reach a certain level first (or have played the game enough to develop certain skills first). I'll give a brief summary of each idea here and do separate blog posts to go into more detail.
Iron Cross
The player finds a paper trail of assistant's notes all the way to a secret, underground laboratory. In it is a portal which connects to the year 2077, albeit into a parallel universe, where the Nazis won World War II and conquered half of the globe. The player activates the portal but is captured immediately, and is placed into cryogenic storage for 200 years... When the player wakes up, he finds himself in a deep underground chamber under the ruins of the Nazi's model city of Coventry and must find a way to return home.
But what remains of the Third Reich still roams the city above...
The city is ruined, destroyed by American bombs. There are ghouls everywhere.
In this parallel universe, the Third Reich once covered half of the globe, the remainder either allied to China (who had eventually overthrown the Japanese Empire) or America. Unfortunately, dwindling natural resources also pushed tense relations to a point which brought the whole world to war in 2080. The alliance between China and America struck first; the Third Reich retaliated, and this world was soon brought to its knees.
The scientist who created the portal fled, leaving a trail of notes for the player to follow, which explained how he passed on futuristic technologies onto the Third Reich and how ghoulfication affected this world too. The player finds out that the scientist is still alive, as an evolved ghoul, and has spent the years working on a way to create supersoldiers, and ressurect Hitler as a clone. Not only is this world at threat, but the scientist has been working on a new portal to bring his terrors back home. This is the player's route back, but whatever threat is here must be stopped at all costs!
(A tribute to Wolfenstein)
Legends of Grognak
The player is viewing terminal logs, when up pops a message calling for help.
"To whomever can read this message, please aid us. Our world is dying, the end is nigh! Unspeakable horrors roam the plains, corrupted by the evil forces that plague our world. If a brave quest you seek, then please find me. The others think I am mad and have cast me out. Please come before the darkness consumes us allrtoasetrbabfaubxaw4pmbpebmt"
The player uses either his science skills to hack the network or has to find a network tracing device to find where the signal is coming from.
At where the signal ends, the player finds an amusement arcade, but deep inside, completely sealed from the outside world, a number of virtual reality pods with their users in cryogenesis. Strip lights above flicker.
The player logs into a terminal to find out what this place is. It's a holosuite, where gamers enter a virtual MMORPG, "Legends of Grognak", as warriors, priests, rangers, wizards and the like.
Back in 2077, before the war started, a band of players got together and decided they would spend the rest of their days, playing their favourite game. So did many other players around the world.
As the bombs fell, many players disappeared. Those that survived slowly dwindled in number, whether their pod suffered a failure, the internet collection was lost, or they simply wanted to quit. Eventually, only a handful of the London players were left.
The players got used to their new lives and rose to rule the realms of this virtual world. But the world began to die, as the game server's memory began to degrade. Corrupted data created unspeakable horrors that brought this world to chaos...
(This is one for Elder Scrolls fans who love a parody)
A Norse Saga
The player meets a traveller, who had ventured to London all the way from Yorkshire, after hearing tales of the legend of the Vault Dweller, of the one who would bring peace to the North.
The traveller recants his story of woe - a united and largely peaceful Yorkshire, until the Vikings came from across the sea from Norway. And like their ancestors, they came, they raided and pillaged, slaughtered and enslaved. They came, led by their Jarl, who reigns the conquered lands from the ancient city of York, with an iron hand.
Rumours are, are that the Danes have invaded too, further south, and are planning an assault to wipe the Vikings out. They care not for the old ways, and simply want to expand their empire across Europe.
But is there a glimmer of hope amongst the slaves? They are silent, muted as a result of surgery to cut their vocal cords, communicating in some sort of sign language. But there may be other inhabitants here, old, hidden, who may hold the key to a full resistance.
The fate of the North is in the player's hands...
Fly Me To The Moon!
The player intercepts a distress call, faint, crackly, calling out for someone, anyone, to go to the moon to help the remaining human survivors there.
By 2077, there were fledgling colonies on the moon, set up as a joint project between the US, USSR, China and Europe. Unlike their Terran counterparts, the colonists banded together in peace, and managed to escape the destruction below.
The plan was always to be self-sufficient and to use the moon's resources to expand, creating a network of well-linked Lunar towns. Now, they realised that any return to Earth would be impossible, until the radiation lessened enough to safe levels.
Watching Earth from above, the decades passed, and they observed humanity's gradual attempts to rebuild civilisation. But they stayed silent for now.
A systems glitch in the Computer AI system changed everything. All personality controls went down. Initially, the machines began behaving oddly, disobeying commands. Then colonists started to go missing. Systems began to go weird.
Then the AI declared its dominance, shutting down transport between the different settlements. It sent hordes of robots to the Chinese settlement, Yue 1 and before long, all contact was lost. The remaining settlements attempted to take up arms against the rogue machines. The AI moved fast, dividing the settlements by venting their air, pushing them back into pockets of hopeless resistance.
Before long, the AI's robots roamed every part of the base, as well as a sizeable army of cyborgs. But, its ambitions were larger than the moon, as its greedy eyes gazed towards Earth. The construction of the Death Ray began...
Meanwhile the resistance manages to get a distress call out. A secret message, once deciphered, directs the player to a "Skylift" lab, an experimental teleport, which links to a similar device on the moon. Once Skylift is repaired, the player can teleport up, and attempt to save Earth from the evil robotic armies of the moon!
Anyone who has played Fallout 3/New Vegas knows how significant the music factor is. The music creates a sense of atmosphere, makes you feel you are really there and really gives you a sense of the level of devastation you are dealing with, the DJs playing tunes from a bygone, halcyon age.
Both games use music from the '30s, '40s and '50s. What would be different with Fallout LDN would be this - that period wasn't all that great since between 1939 and 1945, the UK was in a period of war, and had suffered a large amount of destruction from Nazi bombs. There is music from this period, though, that was aimed to raise the spirits of civilians and servicepeople alike.
Anyway, here are a selection of tunes for your consideration! As well as focussing on the Wartime period, I do want to include a few random (and I'm trying to go a little obscure at times too, for variety) tunes from before and after the war.
(Glenn Miller can sound VERY Fallout)
(Excellent)
(Classic)
(Because it isn't Fallout without The Ink Spots)
(I'd love this to be the title song for the game)
(It wouldn't be a British Fallout without George Formby)
(A classic wartime tune)
(good one)
(Another classic Wartime one. And it's The Andrews Sisters)
(LOL)
One of the ideas I have for quests in the game involves Cricket. So here's some random tune about Cricket.
Found this, have respect for Humphrey Lyttelton for other things, and sounds kinda Fallout-y... Shut up.
More Lord Kitchener - This would definitely go well as an alternative soundtrack for an advert/trailer for Fallout LDN...
In Fallout LDN there would be a number of factions, with varying character alignments (they aren't simply good, neutral or evil any more).
LAWFUL:
Lawful factions are focussed with maintaining order, and have their own individual approaches for criminal elements.
Order of the Met (Lawful Good): A quasi-religious order espousing the tenets of restoring order and teaching others to be good people. Their Constables patrol the capital, looking for those who have fallen, arrest them and do their best to rehabilitate them, to be good members of society. Headquartered at Wormwood Scrubs prison.
British Army (Lawful Neutral): With bases around the capital, the Army seeks to restore law and order, sometimes with a brutal and seemingly unfair hand. Runs National Radio - a station with important messages, notices for arrest, and classical anthems of old (inc. God Save The Queen). The Army has a message for lawbreakers, get caught and you get shot in the head.
Steel Fist Bounty Hunter Company (Lawful Evil): See themselves as the
disinfectant in a cursed city, these guys take on contracts to take out
bad guys and criminals, but will happily pick on the good guy if they
mess with the wrong people. The Steel Fist represent rich benefactors
who don't like other messing with their business. The Steel Fist tend to recruit bad eggs who just want a bit of structure in their lives.
NEUTRAL:
Neutrals don't consider order to be forefront to their decision-making. It's important, but Neutrals don't seek the need to follow all laws of the land.
Les Chevaliers (Neutral Good): The LC (Full name - "Les Chevaliers de la République Européen) seek to unite the fractured lands of Europe under one flag and uphold the French principles of 'Liberté, Égalité and Fraternité' to the letter. The Chevaliers are Fallout LDNs version of the reknowned Brotherhood of Steel and have access to power armour.
Radio LDN (True Neutral): Broadcasting the news that matters, from all
sides, everyone deserves their say, their airtime, and the station's
seemingly endless supply of eyebots knows how to go deep to get that
news. Also ensures the air is filled with plenty of tunes.
The Ghoul City/The Ghoul Empire (True Neutral): The main target for the player. Initially as a refuge for the city's ghouls from the rest of society, their motives became warped and their leader has ready an army of cybernetically enhanced ghouls ("revenants") made from those unfortunate enough to descend into feralism. The Ghoul City lies deep under the Houses of Parliament, an expansive place built over decades, and is ready to seek to expand to take the rest of the city.
The Skulls (Neutral Evil): They who run the only casino in town, where everything is game, even those who play there...
The Tenpenny Family (Neutral Evil): A family headed by the wicked overlord Allaistair Tenpenny Jr., a man with many unscrupulous business interests, including slavery. .
CHAOTIC:
The Pirate Clan (Chaotic Good): The Pirates of the ruined capital originally formed from a group of scavengers and raiders, who would raid from those who had too much, and give it to the needy. The Clan runs the Pirate Radio station from an abandoned warship in the Thames. The Pirates espouse a kind of socio-anarchic command structure - they are represented by their Captain, but all booty is shared equally and everyone is infact equal. See the rich as a target to steal from, so that the poor can get by.
Bruiser Gang (Chaotic Neutral): One of the more gentlemanly gangs of the capital, they have no respect for law and order, but sometimes they do have a heart. Run by the Bruiser Brothers, two abnormally giant, stocky twins who WILL rip your arms out of their sockets if you cross them the wrong way. But, they are gentlemen, and they'll shake your hand first. Then throw you a couple of stimpacks.
Raiders (Chaotic Evil): Loosely organised clans with the notion to just go out there, break stuff, rob, cheat, kill and generally fuck up shit. One of the larger factions of the capital, but also one with a larger death rate as they do attack their own. The raiders do have a leader (who most ignore), Lord Fuck You, who the player can curry favour with by wanting to see what's left of London burn...
Here, I want to talk about game mechanics, i.e. what would make this game stand out from other Fallout titles and games in general.
At the time I write this, I have no idea whether Bethesda are planning to cover any of these in Fallout 4.
Character alignments
Anyway, Fallout 3 had a Karma system, where the player's choices influenced Karma to make them be viewed by NPCs as either "good" or "evil". Many other RPGs use this model. A select few also utilise the "lawful/chaotic" system, e.g. Dungeons & Dragons games such as Neverwinter Nights. I think there is also scope for this in Fallout, for example, stealing isn't always an evil deed, but would mean you are viewed as "chaotic". This allows for combinations such as "Chaotic Good", "Lawful Neutral", "Neutral Evil" etc. An overview of the different character alignments can be found here.
Actions which raised/lowered Karma had a Halo/Horns icon to visually indicate this to the player. Actions which increase Lawfulness (apprehending criminals, restoring order, returning stolen goods to their owner etc) or decrease (stealing, breaking and entering etc) would have "cop/robber" icons. Some actions affect both alignments simultaneously (e.g. setting slaves free from their owners can be both chaotic and good).
Multiple currency
Fallout 3 (in some way), and Fallout New Vegas to a larger extent, acknowledge that there are more forms of currency than bottle caps, e.g. cigarettes, pre-war money, NCR banknotes and Legion currency. But, essentially, caps are still the dominant currency and all traders deal in caps.
With a true multi-currency system, traders can deal with multiple forms of currency and even choose to reject some, seeing it as worthless, e.g. in an example system, you have caps, seashells and cocoa beans. A trader may not accept caps, but you could pay him in seashells and cocoa beans, but if you give him 10 caps, then he'll exchange it for either two shells or a cocoa bean.
This also means that there could also be NPCs dotted around the capital acting as Bureaux de Change/Currency Exchanges where the player can exchange one currency for another. Exchange rates can vary, dependent on the owner, demand and how much cash you have, and some may also accept non-currency items as well.
Resourcefulness
Making your own weapons was also a great feature in previous Fallouts, as well as making modifications as well. This would be a major feature in Fallout LDN, the reason being that firearms would be in shorter supply in the UK than the US, so weapons would be more 'homebrew' than normal. One popular modification for firearms, owing to a more scarce supply of ammunition, would be bayonettage - lashing a knife to the end of your rifle to stick in your foe at close range.
In addition to the usual guns and melee weapons, players would also get to mess around with bows and arrows, adding things like scopes, poison tips, nerve gas canisters, EMP, explosives, incendiaries etc.
Faction Power
In Fallout New Vegas, you can build either a good or bad reputation with the different factions there (e.g. the NCR, Caesar's Legion, The Strip etc). Fallout LDN would give the player the opportunity to interact with many factions; however, some of these vie to control more of the city. As well as gaining or reducing trust with a faction, the player can carry out tasks to increase or decrease a faction's influence, or power, meaning more or less of their units on the streets and more/less territory held (factions can take territory off others). This allows the player to mould the city into the form he/she sees fit: a strict, lawful society, a den of pure evil, a city of goodness, something more chaotic (and combinations of those).
Fallout LDN is an idea I have for a sequel to the Fallout series of games, for a First Person Shooter Role Playing Game. The game will be based in the ruins of London, England.
"In 2077, war came and consumed the entire Earth, as it had done before. And, much like was said about those previous conflicts, it was the war to end all wars.
"But the origins of that war came from an earlier conflict between the European Commonwealth and the Middle East, sparked by dwindling resources, driving up the price of crude oil. In 2052, the Europeans decided they had had enough, and declared war on the Middle East. This was the first time since 1945 that the nuclear bomb was used, and Tel Aviv, Riyadh, Athens and Tehran were amongst the several cities to be decimated.
"In 2060, all the oil in the Middle East ran dry. The Commonwealth, while occupying part of the Middle East, withdrew to face problems at home. Bankrupt and thirsty for resources, the Commonwealth shattered into the bickering nations that once founded it, becoming secluded, paranoid, focussing what resources were left on defence, as the old rivalries between nations returned.
"Concerned about the conflict between the United States and China, many European nations began to plan vaults of their own. Many were poorly designed. The British, with their 'special relationship' with the US, enlisted the help of Vault-Tec to create their own; it was part of several exchanges between the two countries, in return for Britain's solid allegiance, should all-open nuclear conflict occur.
"2077 came and went, like a tidal wave. The US liberated Alaska; the Chinese retaliated with thermonuclear weapons at every US city, and the Americans reacted in kind. The nations of Europe, united in fear for survival, launched a pre-emptive attack on the Soviet Union. Pre-war civilisation's last hurrah was to be all-out war: every country able to fight did so, anticipating the worst, doing what they felt was necessary to protect their own.
"Fighting continued for a while after the bombs fell. Those who were privileged enough to make it to a vault did so, to wait until it was safe to leave. Those unfortunate enough to stay outside mainly perished from nuclear fallout, or were transformed by radiation into ghouls.
"The British vaults were locked tight; their only communication with the outside a secret All Clear signal, when radiation levels had died down to safe levels. For one of these vaults, the signal failed, and its residents, unaware that they were trapped, carried on, hoping that one day they would get the order to leave.
"More than 200 years would pass before Vault D4 would be forced to open."
In the year 2288, a sealed Vita-Chamber opens within Vault D4, a Brit-Vault construction, deep under Hackney Marshes. The lights are low, emergency power is running, and there seems to be nobody else about.
Inside, amidst the replenishing fluid matrix, the Vault Dweller stirs, vision blurred. A whirring can be heard in the distance that seems to be nearing the Vault Dweller.
The Vault Dweller rises out of the blue, viscous liquid - groggy, dazed. There before the Vault Dweller is a robot, a Mister Handy type machine, painted in a smart charcoal colour.
"You're awake. Are you alright?" comes a tinny voice from the robot, "I do hope this six months has brought you back to your full health. Do you remember me? It's Jeeves."
"Six months? What's going on? Where am I?"
"Please keep calm, I appreciate this must be an awful shock for you. Please stay calm, I need to check your vitals. Let's hope this machine has restored you to your correct state."
(The player chooses gender, appearance and name - here I assume the player chooses male)
After checking the player's vitals, the player exits the Vita-Chamber.
"Excellent, sir, you're just how I remember. I'm so pleased this contraption hadn't turned you into a lady! Now, stand, please, if you would sir, and let's clean you up and get you into some clothes."
Jeeves cleans the player up and dresses him.
"Now, chin up. Right, now that I've checked you, and you seem absolutely fine, unfortunately I must give you the lowdown on what happened. Please, take a seat."
The player takes a seat on a nearby armchair.
"Right, ahem, sir... you have been in a terrible accident. You we're near the Power Station on your duties, I imagine, and a power coupling you were near to... exploded. I don't know how it didn't kill you outright, sir, that would have been fatal to anyone. Would have been fatal to any droid too, come to think of it. I don't know how you survived... let's say quite a lot of you was spread about quite a bit. Oh, sir, if I had a stomach, it would have turned, though I'm glad to see you've been brought back to full health!"
"I don't remember anything. I don't even remember going near the Power Station."
"You don't? Oh, I feared this would have happened, sir, I really did. An accident like that may have caused some memory loss, which unfortunately, the Vita-Chamber cannot do much about. Limbs can be healed, well in your case, regrown completely, but memories are either lost forever or hidden deep within. Fortunately, we still have a working Hypnotronic device to help us delve into those deep memories and bring them to the surface."
Jeeves fetches the Hypnotronic helmet and hands it to the player, who puts it on his head.
"Now, sir, please relax, and let the Hypnotronic do its work. I will go to the control interface. You will go into a trance, and we'll go deep inside your own mind."
The player's vision fades.
THIRTEEN YEARS AGO
The player is six years old and before him, on the floor, are his grandfather's broken spectacles. He is in the family apartment, and no one else is about.
"Sir!"
The player turns to his right. Jeeves is there.
"These are highlighted memories picked up by the Hypnotron. What you do here reflects what happened in your past, what shaped you to be who you are today. Don't worry, this is an artificial hallucination of myself. You can talk to me for advice, but nobody else can see me here. Now, this seems to be the aftermath of an accident. So what did you do?"
(The player goes through a series of choices, in different memories from different times, finishing with the accident - the player is either doing something good, bad and/or lawful or chaotic - will elaborate on these at another time.)
"How was that, sir? I'm sorry you had to see that for yourself, but that is what actually happened. Now, I'm afraid I have more dire news, sir. A week after the accident, there had been a catastrophic power failure across the entire vault. Our best engineers had a look, but they simply could not repair it. The power core was destroyed, melted, they said. They activated emergency power, but there was simply just not enough power to sustain the vault for all its inhabitants, just the basic to keep the emergency lights on. This infirmary, as it might have it, has its own independent power system, so they locked it down until you were fit and able, and kept me in here to keep watch over you."
"Anything else?"
"Since the vault couldn't sustain everyone, the Overseer gave the order to evacuate. Everyone, your mother, your father, they were all ordered to leave."
"Where did they go?"
"Out into the open, whatever was out there. I couldn't imagine what it's like up there, sir. Oh, that reminds me. Your mother popped back in with a note."
"What did the note say?"
"She says as soon as you get out, make your way to Tottenham. They've found a place to live there. She says watch yourself and remember your weapons training, it's a bit rough outside. Oh and she dropped off some supplies too. Your Uncle Ron's old Pip-Boy 3000G, a pistol, a knife, and some ammunition. Oh, I am worried for you, sir."
"I've got to find them."
"I guess you have to. Well, you're in fine health, and I wish you the best of luck. Oh, and I would watch yourself in the vault. It's awfully dark, and I heard... noises. Like animal noises. I hope you remember the way."
But what happened to poor, old Palpatine?
