FEAR IN A HANDFUL OF DUST
"A thousand years scarce serve to form a state; An hour may lay it in the dust."
—Lord Byron
"What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow
Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man,
You cannot say, or guess, for you know only
A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water. Only
There us a shadow under this red rock
(Come in under the shadow of this red rock),
And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow in the evening rising to meet you;
I will show you fear in a handful of dust."
—T. S. Eliot, "The Waste Land"
DISCLAIMER: Bloatfly and Mark are original characters of my own creation. Everything else goes to the creators of the Fallout series.
PROLOGUE
Alright, by means of introduction: I invite you to consider the many horrifically mutated creatures of the Mojave. Namely, the ones that will likely try to kill you. Whether you've seen them in person or only heard travelers' tales, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. Now, I want you to pick the top three least threatening of these creatures. That's right, least threatening. Got those in your head? Good.
If the bloatfly isn't one of them, you're a fucking idiot. Have you ever seen a bloatfly? Ever been up against a bloatfly? You got a decent pistol and decent aim, you can take that thing down with a couple bullets, and there ain't much out in the Mojave these days that'll go down that easy. Not that it's worth it: you run fast enough, the bloatfly will do minimal damage before giving up, and if you actually decide to waste the bullets you'll come away with some of the foulest meat available. If you can even call it meat. I've heard of a Bloatfly Slider recipe that's circulating through the wasteland, but I bet even that's barely edible.
Now imagine having a choice in being named after any one of the creatures out roaming in the wastes. You could take Deathclaw or Nightstalker. Maybe those names are a little over-the-top, but they're definitely formidable. Cazador's a pretty cool name, sounds a bit exotic. Hell, I'd even take Fire Gecko, even just plain Gecko if I had to. I guess the point is, if you had the choice, the last name you'd probably pick is Bloatfly.
Unfortunately, at the time, I didn't really have that choice.