Not So Lonesome Road 1 Doc Michael

"Raaah!"

And as suddenly as the pain came it vanished. My eyes opened to see a fan slowly turning above me.

I forced myself to sit up and noticed that I was laying on a dirty old mattress with no sheets. More than that though I was in my underwear!

My mind raced through a dozen different explanations for my situation and none of them were good.

I was on the edge of having a panic attack when a voice startled me.

"Your awake? How bout that."

I nearly jumped out of the bed as I turned and saw the old man sitting in a chair in front of the bed.

"Whoa, easy there friend" he motioned for me to stay sitting. "You've been out for a couple of days. Why don't you relax a second, get your barings.

The man looked vaguely familiar but, my mind was too preoccupied with everything happening, for me to be able to place him.

The man must have seen my confusion because he placed his hand on my shoulder.

"Let's start slow" he said "now how about you tell me your name? You do remember it don't you?"

"Y-yeah, I do" I stuttered unsure of why I was answering him but, I just couldn't seem to see him as a threat. "My name is Devin."

He laughed "I can't say that's what I'd pick for ya but, if that's your name, that's your name."

At this point that vague feeling of Deja vu was getting more intense but, I still couldn't place it.

The old man reached out to shake my hand and smiled "You can call me Doc Michael, welcome to Good Springs."

"c.r.a.p" I thought, this isn't good.

Well at least I now I knew where the Deja vu I was feeling came from. I was actually living in a real life version of Fallout: New Vegas's intro. I know I should've questioned it more but, something inside me was telling me that this was all real and not just a crazy prank.

I was shaken from my thoughts when I noticed how awkward Doc Michael seemed. He had been holding his hand out for a couple of seconds now and I hadn't reacted.

"Oh, sorry" I said shaking it and feeling his calloused hands.

"It's alright" he waved it off " I'm not surprised your a bit out of it considering."

"Yeah" I responded "getting shot in the head tends to mess you up."

He laughed again "I don't doubt it. Now I hope you don't mind but, I had to go rooting around in your head a little to pull out all the bits of lead. I take pride in my needle work but, you better tell me if I left anything out of place."

He handed me the mirror that he had sitting next to him which I cautiously took while wondering what would happen.

as soon as I held the mirror to my face my body froze and I couldn't move. I almost panicked but, I noticed a strange green screen appear in front of me and I knew what happened. Time was frozen!

Everything was still and it was quieter than I had ever heard. There wasn't even the feint sound of my heart beat that I could always hear when it was quiet. It was ominous.
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The green screen in front of me showed my face. And to my eternal relief I still had my normal looks and not those horrifying presets. I was still my self and had no intention to change anything. It took a moment to figure out how to manipulate the screen when I couldn't move but, thankfully it reacted to my thoughts.

I skipped to the end ignoring the different options for gender, race, hair, and all of those d.a.m.n appearance sliders. Another screen popped up to confirm if I was satisfied with my choices because it would be impossible to change later.

I selected yes and time started to flow again. I put the mirror down and told Doc Michael that he did good work.

"Well, I'm glad I got it right" he smiled before getting out of his chair. He stretched a bit before sighing "All right then, no sense in keeping you in bed anymore let's see if we can get you on your feet" he motioned for me to try and stand up but, was close enough to catch me if I fell.

I slowly scooched over and stood up. I was a bit dizzy at first but, was able to get up without any major problems.

"Good. Why don't you try walking over to the end of the room over by the Vigor Tester and remember take it slow, it ain't a race."

I nodded and walked over to the machine.

"Now why don't give it a try see if you got all your back. I know that doesn't seem very scientific but, that machine has never let me down."

"Okay" I shrugged and gripped the handle and gave it a good squeeze expecting time to freeze again. And I was right I felt the same paralysis as before except that this time no screen popped up in front of me. Instead it was the Vigot Tester itself that was the menu.

It was time to pick my Special and luckily for me Fallout: New Vegas was the best game for this. The other games only give you 35 Special Points, just enough to get all seven of your stats to 5 but, New Vegas was different it actually gives the player 40 Points.

I had played through New Vegas several times and already knew exactly how I wanted my Special. I scrolled over to Intelligence and dumped all 5 of my extra points into it maxing it out to 10 and confirmed my choice. Making all of my Special except for Intelligence and even 5.

I chose to max out Intelligence because in my opinion it was the most over powered stat. Having it maxed out means that when I Level Up(I'm a.s.sumed was going to happen considering the whole time stopping stuff) I'll get a whole 15 skill points each time letting me max out my skills as soon as possible. Not to mention that its useful for the type of character I like to play.

I knew that I should have only raised it to 9 considering that there are ways to raise it later but, I'd rather just do it now.

Time started again and the Vigor Tester flashed through all of my scores.

"Well, I'll be d.a.m.ned. Looks like that bullets done your brain some good" Doc Michael looked a bit shocked at my Intelligence.

"Guess so" I laughed while wondering if my Special were actually going to affect me physically.

"We know you vitals are good but, that doesn't mean you aren't nuttier than a big horn dropping. What do you say you take a seat on the couch over there and answer a few questions for me. See if all your dogs are barking so to speak."

He led me into his living room and took a seat opposite the couch.

"All right I'm going to say a word and I want you to say the first thing that comes to mind okay?"

I nodded.

"Dog."

"Cat."

"House."

"Home."

"Night."

"Sky."

"Light."

"Weight."

"Bandit."

"Criminal."

"Mother."

I hesitated a moment "Parent."

"Good, now I have a few statements and I want you to tell me how much they sound like something you did say alright."

Again I nodded.

The rest of his exam went exactly the same as the game. After he told me all of his phrases he had me look at a bunch of Rorschach test ink blots. And after he was done he gave me the result to ask me what I thought, and once again time froze. This time it was for me to choose my Tag skills and Traits.

Tag skill were 3 skills you select that immediately gain 15 points in their respective categories. I chose Speech, Lockpick, and Bartering. I pick those skill specifically because they would help me get through one of the earliest events in the game.

Next were my Traits, Traits were a mechanic unique to New Vegas. They give you a clear bonus to some aspects of your character but, they also all have side significant side affects.

I chose Good Natured and Trigger Discipline.

Good Natured Increases Speech, Medicine, Repair, Science and Barter skills by 5 points but lowers Guns, Energy Weapons, Explosives, Melee Weapons, and Unarmed by 5 points. I picked this to make it easier to pa.s.s certain Quest Triggers and because it synergized well with my 10 Intelligence.

Trigger Discipline on the other hand makes me 20% more accurate with Guns and Energy weapons but, makes them fire 20% slower and raises their VATS AP cost by 20%. I picked this because I've always played as a Sniper in these games and considering that this is real life now. Staying as far away from enemies as possible while making sure I could still hit the was probably a good Idea.

Once I finished I handed the clipboard back to the Doc.

"All right I guess that about does it I'll give you your stuff back and and send you on your way."

"My stuff" I asked confused.

"Of course" he said "when you were shot, whoever done it left you with all of your belongings."

"I see" he led me to a large crate that he opened up.

"Everything in there is yours. I leave you here to get yourself sorted while I get something else ready for you.

He left out of the room to do who knows what and I looked in awe at the chest. There were lots of things in it but, what caught my attention were the guns.

There were three guns inside a 10mm Pistol, a Caravan Shotgun, and most impressively a 40mm Grenade Launcher. I already knew exactly what they were because everything in the crate were the items that came with the Courier Stash DLC.

Along with the guns there were also a Machete, 10 Throwing Spears, a pair of Binoculars, Light Weight Leathet Armor, Light Weight Metal Armor, some Stimpak's and Super Stimpak's, 4 Weapon Repair Kits, 5 Bleak Venom, and an extremely large Backpack.

I began doing my best to make everything fit inside when Doc Michael came back. He was carrying an iconic Vault Tec Pipboy.

"Here" he said "take this I ain't got no use for it no more. It's a Pipboy a fancy computer you wear on your wrist. It's got all kinds of useful features in like a map of the Mojave and a Radio so you can listen to music while you travel.

"Thank you" I whispered as I carefully took it from his hand. It was light far lighter than I expected for its size. I strapped it to my wrist and saw it jump to life with the Vaultboy giving me a thumbs up.

I looked up at the Doc "Why are you doing this?"

"Pardon?"

"I mean why are you doing all this for me? I understand you saved me to be kind but, you haven't even one brought up payment. You could easily have take all my stuff as compensation but, no instead of taking you actually give me more. I know what a Pipboy is and I know every Vault Dweller only gets one. So, I want to know why your giving this to me?"

When this was a game it made sense every player character has to have a Pipboy. And Because the one in New Vegas wasn't from a Vault they had to get it some other way. But, now that this was real life I just couldn't wrap my head around it.

Doc Michael scratched the back of his head. "I ain't really got any grand reasons. It's just. I don't know it just feels like I have to give this to you. Like it's destiny or something.

I was speechless at that not really knowing how to respond. All I could do was awkwardly thank him again and go back to getting ready.

I put on the Leather Chest Piece while the Pistol was strapped to my leg and the Shotgun and Grenade Launcher were attached to opposite sides of my Backpack. I struggled a bit standing up as all of it together was a bit heavy.

"Allright, I'm going to leave now" I told the Doc.

"You should go see Sunny Smiles at the Saloon. Tell her I sent you and she'll tell you what you need to know to survive in the Mojave Wastes. You could all ask some of the other towns people around town, they might also help you if you ask nice enough.

I thanked him one last time before starting my journey out into the Mojave.