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I don't want to set the world on fire... [Fallout. 4.]

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Vikarion:
June 1st, 2077

Dear Nate,
Writing very soon after last time, yes, but I wanted to tell you that our station wagon came in today. Nuclear Fusion Powered, and, I have to admit, very very nice inside. Apparently some models even have a minibar, though I haven't seen any.

Well, ok, it's a station wagon. If someone has a car, there's a reasonable chance they went for one of these. But it's OUR car. And yes, it still looks like a 1950s Studebaker Starlight. Somewhat.

I'm going in for some job interviews tomorrow. It's time to start looking, what with the current market. I also have started hunting around for a house. Not anything in town - that would be far too expensive. But there are some new developments going up, they have been for a while, and some are reasonably close.

Love,
Erin

Vikarion:
July 15th, 2077
Dear Nate,
Big news! So, first of all, we have a new house! Well, I am trying to get us a new house, rather. Normally I would send you some pictures and an assessment, but you said to snap up any deal I found, and this is one. Here's the bullet points:

1. New development. It's called Sanctuary Hills.
2. Small, but good quality and definitely affordable.
3. Especially affordable because no one is buying it due to the construction on Vault 111, just to the north in some hills.
4. Construction is finished on Vault 111.
5. I sent form for you to sign if you agree, and what pictures I could, but nothing in the way of an assessment that I could get to you in time for you to sign and return.

It's up to you, I think we should do it, though.

But that's not the only news. Rather, I was looking in Sanctuary Hills because I have a job offer from - guess who? Vault-Tec! They wouldn't be able to bring me on until December, but the pay is good, although a little unorthodox. They are looking for a legal liaison between their establishment at Vault 111, and Concord, and they are offering me a contract.

There's just one catch, as you might have guessed. They want us to sign up for Vault 111. And agreement in principle is all they are asking for right now, but I'm guessing that they're having trouble getting enrollments, since we've had ten years or so of no "Total Atomic Annihilation".

Still, it's your call too. I think this is a bit of a package deal - we probably shouldn't buy a house so far outside Boston unless I can find a job outside Boston as well. I know I've been negative on Vault-Tec, but nothing says we have to do this. It's just an offer we probably shouldn't pass up.

Like you pointed out, it does give some peace of mind. With all of the experts on TV talking about how, at worst, nuclear war here would simply reproduce the world in Europe and the Middle East right here, it's hard to imagine that sitting underground for the rest of our lives would be all that productive. But Europe is supposed to be pretty chaotic. Assured safety, or taking your chances?

Well, let me know what you think. The house down payment would wipe out about half of our savings and all of your pay. But we could afford it, with the job, and if you could find one, we could actually begin paying off the car ahead of time.

Business, then pleasure,
-Erin

Vikarion:
August 27th, 2077
Dear Nate,
We're all moved in, and all ready for you. I have your arrival details, and I can't wait! Just another two weeks!

Uh, also, you know my old stereo? The one you told me not to touch? Well, obviously I had to move it. And now it doesn't work again. Sorry!

The news has been mostly quiet, aside from a riot here or there. There are rumors going around that living off of all this processed, preserved food is giving people scurvy. And with the cost of food, a lot of people are going hungry, especially rural and urban areas without arable land, like in the Southwest and Mexico. Around here, a lot of people are growing their own backyard gardens, and I suspect everyone who can, is. Some people are even trying those new hybrids and species out from Vault-Texc.

I guess some of the things they wanted couldn't be accomplished in one species, so some of the stuff they're selling is really weird. Like "Mutfruit". Mutfruit is this weird...well, it looks like a bunch of grapes and a mango got in a fight, and the bunch of grapes swallowed the mango. I guess. It's very off. Then there's the potato-tomato hybrid, the "Tato", and the fast-growing melons, and the fast growing carrots, and...yes, the biggest draw of these things is that they grow really incredibly quickly.

By the way, have I mentioned that the neighbors across from us have a garden with some of these monstrosities? They have little brochures about it and everything. The plants? All accomplished by "genetic check-sum implementation, genetic redundancy elimination, and phenotype development streamlining". At least, I think that's what the brochure said.

I can see the Vault-Tec posters now: Vault Dwellers of the Future, Beware Carnivorous Plants!

Aside from that, the President remains at an "undisclosed location", the nation is still technically under martial law, and we still have military checkpoints and occasional blackouts.

Given your last letter, I am enclosing a bottle of mosquito repellent. Hopefully it will do you some little good in the time you have left there. Also, the jerky was quite good. I totally ate it. Now tell me what it was.

Love,
Erin

Vikarion:
September 4th, 2077
Nate,
Well.

I did it. I signed the employment contract with Vault-Tec.I'll be going through some employee orientation meetings throughout the next three months.

I have to say, I'm questioning my decision. These people are really, well, I don't want to go too far, but "controlling" is perhaps the best word. Oh well. What's done is done, and we'll make it work.

You said you enjoyed my longer letter, so I thought I'd do one again, on oil, of course, because I'm just such a nutty environmentalist. Of course, soon you'll get to hear these lectures face-to-face, so know that I indulge you (alright, and myself) at the expense of poor proletarian inkpens everywhere. By writing these letters literally in their spilled blood, I prove my rights by dint of oppression to the capitalist class.

Right then. Levity aside...

You say that I worry too much. Honey, it's worse here than I let on. Not as bad as there, no, and it looks like it's getting better, but it's slow. And I try not to worry. But it's hard. It's hard not to worry, sometimes.

I went down to the library and looked up some things on oil, including on the 'nets. I still would really like to get a personal computer. Maybe some Christmas. *hint*. Anyway, it turns out that oil is used to make all sorts of things, such as sulfuric acid - which is used in industry AND to create fertilizer (helps explain why our farms are so much less productive, eh?) - and other industrial chemicals. Oh, and plastics, as we all know. And wax (did you know that wax was used to package frozen food? I had no idea). Asphalt - so we're having to replace more and more of our roads with concrete. And all sorts of various other chemicals - benzene, toulene, stuff like that. Which are used to make even more chemicals.

You. Would. Not. Believe. how much stuff oil is used in. It's used to make paraffin wax, which is used to lubricate bullets, preserve cheese, stabilize high explosives and propel solid rockets, in printer ink, and in neutron radiation shielding. And that's just paraffin wax. Lack of oil is what is keeping us from developing electronics at any great rate, as we need it for the necessary plastics, though we are developing work-arounds. Oil is used to - well, mostly was - make cloth like nylon and elastic and polyester and etc. And you would not believe how many things nylon was used for alone. Well, maybe you would.

I was 5 or 6 when Project Safehouse - the vaults - were started. I don't really remember that. I do remember when, when I was twelve, how everything...just...stopped. There was no gas, for anyone, anywhere. And then the news from the Middle East - after all the religious violence, all the western meddling, after Europe decided to take the oil by force - that it turned out to be all gone. They'd pumped out the very last of it to fuel their war machines, or to sell to China and Russia and Australia for Uranium for their atomics. And, Europe, used the oil they captured for the same things, according to the archived newspapers at the library.

And, of course, I was eighteen when China invaded Alaska. Just getting out of high school, what passed for it. We were still battling inflation and deflation, with barely enough oil to keep bare transportation and essential services going, with the government frantically selling junk bonds to finance vaults and attempting to rapidly build electric mass transit. I know you remember, but it was...more immediate out in California, I guess. Or maybe that's unfair. But I remember them working on the Vaults. I remember that winter, the blackouts.

And then, of course, I went to college, which led to meeting guess who?

Despite all that oil is necessary for, I still recall my feeling of disbelief when I heard that Anchorage had fallen to a surprise attack. And after all the time and money that had been spent on fortifications and preparations. And the sheer arrogance of it, the total greed. The Chinese learned nothing from Europe and the Middle East, and their justifications resemble nothing more than those of Japan over one hundred years ago. What did they expect to happen? Or were they just that desperate? I thought we were desperate, how much worse must it be under Communism?

Well, this will be my last letter, I think. With you heading home soon, any more would probably cross paths with you. Be safe, and I'll see you at Boston Airport.

Love,
-Erin

Vikarion:
September 27th, 2077
*Note, left on kitchen counter*

Dear,
I couldn't sleep all that well last night, after last night, I guess, and I have to go early to a Vault-Tec thing.

I'm not mad, but I didn't want to get into an argument. I know you wanted me to say more, but I don't know how to respond.

Yes, I didn't tell you all about how bad it was back here. But you've told me about how bad it was up there, should I have added to your worries?

I know you hate all of this 1950's stuff. It's popular for a reason, though. It reminds people of both another great struggle in World War 2, and that we came through it. That good times will be here again. That we'll have color tv and fast cars and even a colony on Mars. That we are creating the future, and it's going to be GREAT.

And, without putting too fine a point on it, it's also because other media has been censored since the introduction of martial law, not that anyone makes too much noise about that.

If you must, we can buy the damn robot. Fine. I just don't see why it needs a buzz-saw. We don't even have much of a hedge - and that picket fence will last a hundred years. But if you just HAVE to have it, fine. You can even name him Mr. Codsworth, after that stupid comic book guy. But I'm still pretty nervous about having it around Shaun.

See you this afternoon!

-loves xoxo

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