In my many playthroughs of Fallout 4 I've come to dislike the first part of the game, before you get to the Institute and your options open up. It seems like a far-fetched wild goose chase that purposely sends you to all corners of the map. But then again, Fallout 3 and New Vegas kind of do the same thing… at any rate, I've come to despise the first several quests of the game and the characters in them. I think that really shows in the way I write the NPCs.
Anyway, leave a review please please pretty please!
"Who the hell are you, and what have you done with Brian Virgil?" Scruffy shouted, very defensive of someone who he was planning to beat up, five minutes previously. The Super Mutant in front of him urged him not to make any sudden moves. Scruffy suddenly sprinted closer.
"I know you're from the Institute, so where's Kellog? Huh? Trying to sneak up on me while you distract me? It's not going to work. I'm not stupid, I knew they'd send him after me!" the mutie lamented.
Scruffy paused. The HUD showed that the mutant was named Virgil. Odd. He had never seen a Super Mutant with glasses before. Had our hero been more situationally aware, he would have deduced that Virgil had converted himself into a Super Mutant in order to survive in the glowing sea. However, what he actually assumed was that this mutant also happened to be named Virgil.
"Listen, you idiot who happens to be named the same exact name as the person I'm pursuing! You're going to end up just as dead if you don't give me what I want."
"Dead? He's dead? Don't you lie to me!"
"I'm not lying. I killed him myself." replied Scruffy, never one to pass up an opportunity to brag about a kill.
The Super Mutant-Who really was Brian Virgil-asked what somebody capable of killing a mercenary like Kellogg would want with a scientist like him.
"I'm not an idiot. I know you were part of the Institute," responded Scruffy. The Mutant expressed shock that Scruffy knew that he had been a part of the Institute. The dialogue option surprised the Captain.
"Hey, you're the same Virgil that I have been looking for all along!" he exclaimed. "Anyway, the Institute. I need to know how to get inside."
"You want to get in to the Institute? Are you insane? Nevermind how nearly impossible that is. If you were to succeed, it'd almost certainly mean your immediate death. What reason could you possibly have for taking that risk?"
Scruffy was not liking this guy. Bit of a whiner. He preferred Strong. Strong never whined.
"Look man, I know how this works. The Institute is not going to kill me because they are instrumental to the plot of this game. They're probably going to want me to join them and have 50 side objectives for me to perform. Bethesda's been on a side-objective kick since Skyrim. Anyway, they kidnapped someone, and I want him back."
Virgil expressed his sympathy and then explained that he needed something from Scruffy if he was going to help. Because of course he did.
"Sure, add it to my growing list of side objectives."
He skipped the rest of the conversation, and then found his Pip-Boy urging him to go to the Commonwealth Institute of Technology and listen to a radio frequency so he could pick up on a certain kind of signal and then kill a Courser. Whatever that was. Our hero set off, vowing to come back and destroy Virgil as soon as Virgil stopped being quest-essential.
Outside he came face to face with the Deathclaw he had been avoiding earlier.
"Oh. I was hoping you would have scampered off by now," Scruffy sighed.
However, his stalwart companion, Strong, rushed into battle!
"Strong will kill Deathclaw. Strong can kill anything!" he shouted before charging the chameleon-turned giant killing machine.
Scruffy decided to sit this one out, and watch to see what happened.
"Come on Strong! You got this!" he shouted.
Strong rushed toward the Deathclaw. The Deathclaw rose, and then turned and ran a quarter of a mile in the opposite direction. Apparently the enemy was having trouble mapping to the slightly uphill location of Strong and Scruffy.
Our benevolent and attractive hero seized the opportunity to jump onto the top of the nearest rock formation, completely unreachable to an enemy who could not jump. "Works every time," Scruffy thought to himself.
The Deathclaw came galloping back. Strong ran up to it. The two circled, in an aggressive dance. Then the Deathclaw used its deathly claws to tear Strong a new one. Our faithful companion was knocked on his ass in three swipes. "Pathetic," thought Scruffy. Maybe Strong wasn't so strong after all.
"Maybe I ought to start calling you Weak instead!" hollered Scruffy, from a safe distance. Strong didn't respond.
The Deathclaw seized the advantage of the moment to bound away at full speed, evidently trying with all its might to map a navigable path to Captain Scruffy. But our bold hero was not reachable. He took advantage of the moment to fast travel away.
"Score 1 Scruffy, 0 Deathclaw," he said to himself.
He found himself outside of Beantown Brewery, where he crawled out of his Power Armor. It made him feel claustrophobic. After that, he sprinted on to the C.I.T. Ruins, eager to get on with his life. It was taking a while to find his lost loved one, even by Bethesda Fallout Game standards.
On the way, he passed by the Cambridge Police Station and accidentally completed a quest known as "Reveille."
"That's weird," Scruffy remarked, "I've had a lot of accidents in my life, but never an accidental quest completion. I wonder what that was all about."
He would never find out what that was all about, as he rushed on to the next objective.
Upon reaching the ruins, the HUD asked him to tune into a new frequency, one called Courser's Radio Frequency.
"Creative name. Novel quest device. Having me tune to a specific frequency to hone in on my objective. Cool," Scruffy told himself, trying to drum up more enthusiasm for the storyline. He followed the signal, ignoring a few pesky raiders, until he reached a giant-ass green building called Greenetech Genetics. Clever name.
"I bet they're gonna have me fight through increasingly difficult enemies until I encounter this Courser, or whatever, at the top," he sighed. "Might as well get on with it."
And that's exactly what he did.
Ten minutes later, he found himself at the top, overhearing an awkward conversation between this so-called Courser and some prisoners he had taken captive. Apparently he wanted to access a small room where an escaped Synth was hiding. It appeared that Coursers were specially designed Synths that specialized in returning escaped Synths to the surface. This certainly posed some interesting moral questions, which Scruffy completely ignored. He was too busy admiring the Missile Launcher that he had found on one of the Gunners he had punched to death.
Once Scruffy arrived in the room, the Courser said,
"You. Come here. You've been following me. Are you here for the Synth?"
Scruffy, since he hadn't paid any attention, had no idea what the Courser was talking about. He was still a bit fuzzy on what a Courser even was. He just knew he needed to kill it, which was thankfully what he did best.
"Excuse me for a moment," he said, walking away slowly. He needed a second to consider his options, "Missile Launcher, or Minigun?"
As he walked away, the Courser took it as a sign of hostility. He immediately cloaked himself and ran out of the room.
"Ah, so Frag Mines it is!" exclaimed Scruffy, the joy returning to his world once more.
He shut the door behind the Courser and patiently laid 10 fragmentation mines on the ground. Then, he backed away, and waited.
After a moment, the Courser attempted to come back in the room. He opened the door, stepped forward, and-
Courser Signal Lost.
Scruffy immediately looted the body, put on the Courser's outfit, and gained a new quest item called Courser Chip. He thought the name Chip was deceptive, however. The thing looked nothing like a Dorito, Cheeto, or a Frito.
Then he turned to the Gunners who were just moments ago prisoners to the Courser. He thought a field test of his new Missile Launcher was in order.
At last, the room was quiet. And filled with random body parts. Our hero looted the place thoroughly, found a password to a nearby terminal, and another prisoner locked behind a security door. He took a look at the escaped Synth.
"K1-98. Huh, that's a weird name. Oh well."
Captain Scruffy ignored the prisoner, turned on the elevator, and hard jogged his way on out of there.