#not tagging this as anything else lest it be inflicted upon everyone who follows vb as a topic

[chaosintheavenue]

Writing Snippets and Notes

Oookay, since a handful of people wanted to see them, behold some  unchronological, unedited, unpolished, contextless little fragments of my Van Buren storyline writings (so, Tibbs stuff rather than JJ stuff). Many won’t make much sense, and some don’t strictly hold to design document canon. Also, most of these are old!

If- If someone stumbles across this who knows about VB stuff, in particular the characters I’ve adopted- please ignore what I’ve done to them gfdnhgf. Also, don’t judge the way I talk to myself whilst writing notes...

Prolonged textual mess below the cut, organised into segments for your convenience:

Boulder Dome

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Even later, Mr G pops in to check on his recovery, Xian has had to reluctantly go off to work so he's resting alone G: [walks in with hands behind his back in an authority-esque pose] How do you feel, Nathan? T: [sounding clearly under influence of chems] Better than I look. Survived worse. <Lie> G: Good. I hope to see you back on your feet soon. [slowly raises a holodisk case from behind his back] Especially since these are completely incompatible with our hardware. T: Oh, fuck me... [facepalms]

(note: the phrase ‘fuck me’ here is of an identical tone and meaning to ‘fuck my life’. I’m unsure whether it’s a Britishism or not to use the phrase in that specific way, so thought I’d better clarify in case!)

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The scientists gettin' infected in the first place It's two months after they arrived at the Dome. Presper has left an order for the group to explore and log the purposes and notable contents of every room in the Dome- he believes that said group contains Hunter and Brigitte, and lacks Goddard They come to one lab, the door is jammed shut, Paul rams it with his shoulder repeatedly and it eventually opens A cabinet crashes to the floor and some of its contents shatter The original Dome scientists (now a pair of skellies on the floor) used the cabinet to barricade the door in fear once they became aware of the War, unfortunately this is an infectious diseases lab and that bad boy contained Limit 115 samples Anyways, back to the present day, all scientists wander in and start taking inventory, Goddard spots biohazard tape sealing the top of a smashed vial and kneels down to inspect it further, facial expression shifts as he does so "Out..." so horrified he's almost speechless, some people look up but none leave Gets his voice back, "Everyone out!"

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Tibbs has wandered into Nina's tank room whilst looking around in late 2258 or early 2259, G is in there making note of her vitals as part of his perimeter walk Tibbs has already 'met' her, but today looks at her properly, thinking about Xian's retelling of what happened to her, overall horrified by the whole prospect of her popsicle-isation T: Can I ask you something? G 'mmm's, seeming distracted T: (points to the tank) Is she... alive or dead? G: (thinks for a second) Both, and neither. Nina here is being maintained in a state of suspended animation (leans head back)... from which she will never wake

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They're in the main lab messin' with samples, at one point X tells T to agitate a sample and he jokingly goes 'you wanna take this outside' and taunts it whilst tapping the tube

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Xian is typing on her terminal in her lab, Tibbs is sitting on another computer chair just chilling The minimal lighting suddenly cuts out into a complete blackout. Xian makes a visceral noise of fear in her throat, and we hear clattering of chairs. Tibbs: You're okay! (startled by how startled she is, he just thinks she's scared of the dark though) We then hear the low 'boop' of a Pip-Boy light being turned on, and Tibbs's face becomes illuminated. He's now standing next to Xian's chair with a hand on her shoulder, and she is crunched up in fear Xian: The- the doors- they'll eat us- Tibbs: (tone more serious, realising she might be right) Get under the desk (he steps forward towards the door, gun clicks)

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‘Hoover Dam’ (AKA Freeside)

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The 'Hoover Dam' caravan espionage quest from VB Tibbs is hanging around in the Freeside area not long after being decked by Mr McBride, but before he catches up with the dastardly duo for good (hence him hanging around in the general vicinity). Alex is on the trail of said delightsome duo, Battery's gamblin' as one does in Vegas- until he, um, gets thrown out of every casino for counting cards, that is- and since T is now barred from the Strip for fighting and needs to recover from what was one mighty concussion before he's in any fit state to hit the road with Alex, he's spending his days alone without a whole lot to do with himself. He approaches 3-Some Caravan and offers to help with packing and unloading in exchange for some sweet caps and the Giordano triplets informing their caravans to look out for people matching certain descriptions. During these few days he gets chatting to the brothers and they discover that all four have been imprisoned by the NCR for theft. They chat more about their experiences and bond to the point where they trust Tibbsy enough to suggest a plan to spy on the Crimson Caravan outpost nearby. He tells them he's already asked for work there the day before and was turned away due to them having seen him working with 3-Some, and the fake falling out plan is hatched and developed over an evening Tibbs approaches the 3-Some outpost (in the same position as NV's Crimson Caravan if that's lore-friendly at all) the next morning asking firmly but civil-ly to be paid, and the brothers refuse to pay him. The argument is carefully scripted to make it clear that Tibbs is not a bad worker or otherwise undesirable, and that the brothers are simply unwilling to pay for his labour because of course they're just so dodgy. Things get louder and louder until they escalate so much that Carlo apparently punches Tibbs in the face, and the triplets then threaten to shoot him if he returns He staggers over to a Crimson guard who was clearly watching and expresses his anger and pain, lifts the part of his mask over his cheekbone down a little and asks her to check if he's bleeding, he isn't but does have one heck of a bruise there She fortunately doesn't have a high enough Perception skill to notice that the bruise is fully established and starting to yellow (so, very clearly not fresh), and asks him if he'd be willing to continue working in the caravan industry after that drama, trying to assure him that not all of them are crooks etc, she knows a position just begging to be filled by someone just like him- hoping to get juicy deets about 3-Some from him * the punch was, of course, actually staged, with Carlo (tactically hidden from view behind the half-closed front gate) punching his hand and Tibbs throwing himself into the area visible between the gates and falling to the floor holding his pre-bruised cheek (conveniently hidden by his mask)

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Random interactions

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ARGOS kindly interrupts the moment by barking 'CIVILIAN, STEP AWAY FROM PRISONER THIRTEEN', Xian flinches away a little but then is frozen staring at ARGOS, Tibbs diffuses with a laughing 'I think you better do what he says, Xian', she slowly steps back away from him, he quickly says his goodbyes then walks down the main road towards ARGOS.

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Wait, I Know You Set when Ty and Tibbs are walkin' to the desalination plant They both feel like the other is vaguely familiar but can't remember where from Ty asks Tibbs where he got his jumpsuit and if he knows where it's from, Tibbs just vaguely skirts around the issue and says that he knows what the jumpsuit is Ty then outrights asks if Tibbs scavenged it or has done time, Tibbs gets slightly defensive and is half-jokingly like 'what are you, a Ranger?' (that question in itself is suspicious, Rangers only dealt with his case because he was stealing from a military base in the first place- hey, triple rhyme!) "Was once." Tibbs goes o_O, "For real?" "Yup. 7th Battalion." They both slowly twig where they've seen the other before but neither explicitly says it, they just start chatting with the implicit mutual understanding

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Tibbs was about to enter the trees and heard her yelling keep away, she comes running out pretty much into his arms, he tries to comfort her and asking where the hell she was, people are looking everywhere for her, she needs to stop running away, etc etc JJ is just stood there like O_O, it's you, he's pretty starstruck, slowly walking closer the whole time As he approaches he notices that Tibbs looks to have aged more than he should and overall doesn't seem to be in a good mood, just looks exhausted and frustrated, but it's still unmistakably him Tibbs gives JJ a simple 'thanks, kid', voice sounds just as tired as his face looks- then suddenly sticks out a hand in a 'stop' motion, '...whoa, that's close enough'

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Bonus- AU in which Tibbs returns from space and crash-lands in a very unfamiliar new land

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Bri finding Tibbs He's wandered for a bit, had some daufad fun, ended up tripping over a thin yet surprisingly deep stream concealed by long grass (*cough* totally not based on myself having the exact same experience in the hills he’s landed in *cough*) which exacerbated his leg injury to the point he can't stand up, he barely has any chems after fighting the robobrains on the satellite because he quite frankly never expected to come home, uses one Stimpak and half a dose of Med-X but it isn't enough, drags himself along a bit Lying there on the damp grass, feels frost in the air Sees a woman with long flame-red hair approaching just a little too gracefully to really be out in these foggy, freezing hills, his mind leaps to it being the spirit of Grace here to finish the job she set out to start, slightly amused that she really did track him to the ends of the earth and beyond She hops across the stream without hesitation, clearly familiar with precisely where to expect it As she continues to get closer he realises that the face is too round, the cheeks too flushed, the hair somehow even redder than he remembers, and she definitely isn't tall enough If this isn't Grace, then who is it?! She keeps walking without speaking until she's right next to him to make sure he's not an enemy or Feral Ghoul, mirror Tibbs discovering Xian for the first time She looks down at him puzzled Tibbs: "Hello?" She laughs somewhat awkwardly, offers a chirpy 'Hello!' back in a peculiar accent. She points to him, then points up, "You, in the skee," motion of something falling from the sky with whistling effect, slams into her other hand with a smash sound effect He nods, groans "Yeah, that was me..."