#conrad kellogg

[courier-n04]

My beloveds, Nick Valentine and Yes Man.

Nick doesn’t like people meddling in his work — and what he hates even more is when Yes Man tries to “help” by calculating every possible hypothetical outcome for the case with his overwhelming computational power, now enhanced by his connection to the Lucky 38. Sometimes, Nick loses his temper and snaps that detective work isn’t just about ones and zeroes… ironic, coming from a second-generation synth. In those tense moments, when the shadow of Kellogg seems to creep back into Nick’s mind, it’s Courier -N04 who steps in to defuse the situation.

[commonwealthcass]

Beneath the Mask

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Accompanying Music - Beneath The Mask - Lyn Inaizumi

It's been a long time and I really mean it when I say I appreciate everyone's patience on this!

I'm admittedly nervous uploading since its been a while but I'm hoping this is a nice update! It took me a while to put things together again and figure out how I wanted to proceed but I'm hoping that what I have in store will have nice surprises <3

[rad-roche]

oh shit, mind games is happening!

i'd heard about this way back and thought it seemed really ambitious. from the mod page

Mind Games is an upcoming quest mod for Fallout 4. Take on a new detective case with Nick Valentine, where you find yourself entangled amongst various factions vying for control over the sewers and tunnels beneath Boston, while facing the consequences of the search for your son - everything from Skinny Malone to Jenny / K1-98, from the Institute's machinations to Kellogg's lingering presence. Meet new characters, make tough choices, spend more time with your companions, and explore new locations.

i've only skimmed the video since i want to play it myself, but i went checking to see if there was any ai used for the voices (in which case i would not be playing it)

[earwig5]

it’s kind of crazy that both fallout new Vegas and fallout 4 have the same driving force for the first half of the narrative (find the guy who wronged you and make him pay) but Benny is so much more memorable and narratively interesting than Kellogg.

It’s a matter of a strong character foil versus a weak one, in my opinion.

Benny and the courier are very much alike. They are both ambitious people who are willing to do anything possible to stack the odds in their favour. Honestly, Benny and the courier are the same card, reversed.

The Sole Survivor and Kellogg are also intended to be character foils. The game tries to convince us of this with the scenes in Kellogg’s mind, where we see that he ‘isn’t so different’ from our protagonist after all. But we don’t know anything about Kellogg other than his backstory. How can he parallel the protagonist if we don’t know which traits he has? Which traits the two of them share?

(As a side note, I wish Fallout 4 had touched way more on the ‘Man/Woman Out of Time’ thing. The protagonist being frozen in the past + Kellogg being functionally immortal would’ve been really cool to explore! Especially in the context of grief!)

In the end, I think the reason Benny is a more powerful character foil is that he doesn’t disappear from the world when you kill him. The chairmen can mourn him, House will comment on it, and even NPCs across the Mojave will talk about Benny’s death!

In Kellogg’s case, the protagonist is basically the only person who knows he even existed! Once he’s dead HE’s DEAD! He disappears completely from the narrative! As soon as you leave fort Hagen, the game doesn’t bother looking back.

that’s why Benny is a more haunting force for new Vegas; particularly an independent courier. You are Benny’s legacy because you are what he leaves behind whether he likes it or not. People remember him as the couriers victim. Meanwhile, nobody remembers Kellogg at all. The memory of who Kellogg was dies with you, and you can choose to forget him.

[myxineye]

courier quinn visits the commonwealth! i imagine them as a companion who offers junk for the sole survivor every now and then lol

[scopeystfu]

my discontent for fallout 4 when it first released has already passed many years ago but it still makes me shake my head the moment Kellog voice came out of Nick after experiencing Kellog pass at the memory den and Bethesda writers did absolutely NOTHING with it

that small moment was genuinely scary, that one fuckin line he said, was so surprising but disappointing as Kellog never showed up again in Nicks little cybernetic brain

i thought he would start trying to take over Nicks body and as im out exploring with him, as i have my back turn, Kellog is the one tryna raise his gun up at me. or maybe something more, Kellog plays the long game and doesn’t kill immediately, that be too easy, he gets me in other ways before the harsh blow.

just waiting for something to happen was always compelling. the memory den quest is around the middle of the game and your still unsure about synths, but Nick seems like the good one around but still you or even he knows much about what goes on with synths as he has memory struggles. he is slightly vulnerable, maybe Kellog wouldnt have a super hard time enacting his revenge.

[valveorangebox]

[sirmanmister]

💥💥💥 BOOM POW GET KILLED GET KILLED GET KILLED!!!!!

This is a redraw from January 6 2023, in honour of it being 1 YEAR since I posted the last chapter of The Father(s) and Son(s)!!!!! A little bit over a year actually because it was April 10th and it took me a little while to draw this lol

So much has changed in the span of a year omg. And for THE BETTER?? Like I’m going to school, I made and lost friends, I’m slowly but surely getting over some social anxiety (still a wip tho!!! 😭😭) and I’ve found so many cool mutuals and artists and just!!!! AAA!! Not to mention my art skills have improved a whole HELL of a lot!! LMAO

I don’t write as much as I did when I wrote my fic initially, and I feel bad for that sometimes, but it’s just a testament to how things have gotten a lot better for me and it’s not bad that I’m busy. I’m still trying to cobble together some more writing to eventually get another fic out, cuz I do genuinely miss it, but we’ll get there when we get there!

Anyway. TYSM TO EVERYBODY THATS STUCK AROUND FOR SO LONG/CAME HERE FROM MY FIC IN THE FIRST PLACE I LOVE YOU ALL AND YOU MADE MY LIFE BETTER!! 🫶🫶🫶🫶

Pspsps closeups/old pic under the cut!!

[shitty-fallout-art]

The man- the thing?- loomed over him like a ghostly specter, loose, rotting flesh sagging in deep folds across narrow cheeks, stitched together in a horrible patchwork of scars and miscolored skin. The lips had peeled back to show a wide grimace of grayish teeth, and his eyes sunk so deep into his skull that only a tiny pinprick of light reflected outwards like a tiny pupil. He was dressed in an odd uniform of sorts; long red sleeves beneath a loose, once-white shirt that matched perfectly with his equally blood caked pants and cap. He looked similar to a ghoul, yet he moved and articulated like a person, standing calm and quiet even as Shaun tried to crawl away from him.

The man-shaped monster that stalks the wasteland has no defined name or person-hood, but it does have a long and unfortunate history.

Long before the fall of the Commonwealth it's body would be host to a memory named Nick Valentine, an abomination of real human consciousness trapped within the cold steel of machinery. Though often shunned due to the circumstances surrounding his creation, and doubting his own purpose as a mere experiment, he held onto his humanity by helping those who could not help themselves, and in time became a well-known figure of hope amongst the residents of Diamond City for many years.

Things did not change immediately upon meeting Nora, and when they did, it had only seemed for better.

The two of them possessed a special connection that saw them through the worst of their struggles. Both of them possessed memories of a different world, one that had been kinder to them then this one, but amidst the loss and confusion, they at least had an understanding of one another, a true sense of what the world had lost through its mutually assured destruction. Conversation between them was like speaking in your mother tongue; familiar subconscious,relaxing, something that he cherished even when the opinions they shared tended to drift uncomfortably far from one another. ...Or uncomfortably close.

While Nick held a lot of uncertainty towards himself, Nora never made it a point to disagree with such self-conscious notions. In fact, she often feed into his dysphoria with heavy questioning towards the nature of his identity, and what parts of the real Valentine he could still claim as his own, though never maliciously. She had simply helped to give him a reality check.

Finding Eddie Winter was supposed to finally put the real Nick Valentine to rest, and he trusted that Nora would help him accomplish that goal. But one day she just... disappeared, and after some time Deacon eventually came clean and said the Institute had killed her.

The surprise was short-lived, the heartbreak just as profound as it was two hundred years after losing jenny, and left without any other purpose Nick helplessly threw himself into his work.

Which eventually led him to Far Harbor, and the revelation of his true past.

When Nick came back Ellie thought he was acting strange. With how much the Commonwealth was changing, it was impossible for anyone to keep their head on straight, and he had been rather withdrawn ever since Nora, but after coming back to Diamond City he wouldn't talk to nearly anyone, and when he did he seemed.... confused, unable to keep up with conversation, names, or common events. At Ellie's suggestion he frequently wrote notes himself, reminders of dates, clients, locations... and recent events that he otherwise couldn't remember, though it did little to help.

Every day he seemed to get worse, acting completely normal at one moment, and then... like someone else entirely. He would go off on his own without any recollection as to what he did during that time, hiding things from himself, setting up traps or tricks for himself. It was too much for Ellie to deal with on top of everything that was going on, but she hadn't expected to be fired after all of that... and he didn't even have the decency to tell her to her face, just left her a sackful of caps and a note that said she had better be out of town by the time he got back. Shortly afterwards he was formally thrown out of the town on suspicion of Institute intervention.

For two years almost nobody could find him, and what he did within that time is unknown, even to himself. But he returned to Diamond City one final time, locking its inhabitants inside, unable to escape.

~Fact Sheet~

-Since Far Harbor established that Nick has limited memory space, Kellogg's memories are replacing his.

-Kellogg and Nick struggle for control over their now shared body, Nick is only semi-aware of the extent of Kellogg presence and actions.

-Deacon is taking advantage of this a bit cause Kellogg is getting results.

-Moe Cronin developed radiation poisoning from contaminated food and was kicked out of Diamond City when he showed signs of ghoulification. He had fled to Goodneighbor, which the Railroad operated out of on occasion. When Moe began to go feral Kellogg skinned him and crafted a disguise. Nick had tried to discard the costume before but always wakes up in it later.

-Currently, he is one of the very few people who are free to enter and exit Goodneighbor. This is important for later.

-He is help Shaun without Deacon's order or notice. This is also important.

-Kellogg remembers who Shaun is. Nick doesn't.

-Nick is still looking for Eddie Winters but for other reasons now.

[courier-n04]

The darkest night in New Vegas began when Conrad Kellogg seized control of the Lucky 38, plunging the Mojave into a reign of terror and bloodshed.

[stoat-party]

Sometimes a family is you, your 200-year-old mom, her sad robot boyfriend, your dead father, your other dead father who your mom says was really your brother

Your uncle/fourth dad, your cousin/brother, his dead mom

Your mom’s sad robot daughter, your mom’s other sad robot daughter (a human who dresses like a robot), her pet eyebot, and an omnicidal brain in a jar

A noir detective, his secretary, his weird brother from Maine, and your evil cyborg fifth dad who haunts his brain

The Irish pit fighter who doesn’t like you but follows your mom around like a puppy

Your lonely, salty grandpa(?), also from Maine

A French medical researcher who’s also a robot

A militiaman with clinical depression

Your weird uncle you think might be a shapeshifter

A reporter and her 12-year-old sister

A cool drug-abusing mayor with no skin and a bodyguard who might be his daughter

The sad robot boyfriend’s one (1) friend, also sad

Your mom’s estranged grandson the Terminator

A one-eyed dirt man who does crimes, also estranged

A handful of neighbors including a mechanic, a couple with lots of emotions, a former fortune teller, and the guy whose personality is “salesman for a company that no longer exists”

Your seventh parent the butler (actually a robot this time)

The dog who’s a part-time detective, the cat your mom stole off a giant airship, and the giant cannibalistic ogre who functions more like a pet than the other two.

And that’s okay.

[mariasklodowskastwixbar]

I know they couldn't do this in the actual game, but i think it would be cool if your memories, Nick's memories, and Kellogg's memories kinda collided together in that part of fo4. Like, a memory where Kellogg is with his daughter being superimposed with a memory of you with your son. Or a memory of you getting engaged superimposed with original Nick's memory of getting engaged. Your memory of you escaping the vault, superimposed with Kellogg leaving the vault with Shaun, superimposed with Nick waking up outside of the Institute. Etc, etc. Idk, I just think that would be a cool moment to really tie these three characters together

[brainrotinternetcreator]

Fallout Smash Cake for my good friend @stag-with-swag

[twosides--samecoin]

Excited to announce I'm writing companion dialogue for the upcoming full release of Mind Games! Please check out the demo if you haven't already!

I enjoyed Mind Games so much that I went around taking screenshots of all the characters to help spread word about the project/as a gift for the crew. I feel so honoured to be involved with one of the best story mods I've ever played :)

[turnthis]

[yamamotomotoya]

"The only thing that can protect you in this world is the gun in your hand."

One of the cool guys in Fallout 4