Okay folks, you're getting kind of a personal one. Let's dial back the clock to the first Fallout game. It was a wonder to my teenaged mind. It was my first true, open world RPG adventure. Exploring the wastes, trying to find every secret while saving the people living back in Vault 13. For those of you wondering, I tended to play a Charisma Boy, who tried to do the right thing... has hard as that could be sometimes.I was especially fond of my friends. They were Ian, the long haired, adventurer who great with an SMG. Tycho, the grizzled Texas Ranger wielding a shotgun. Katje, the knife expert and punk girl. And, of course, faithful Dogmeat.I loved travelling the wastes with them, listening to their banter and dispensing justice. We were a legendary team of badasses. They were my crew. My posse. Above all else, they were my friends.Then we went to the Black Cathedral. I was cocky. I was convinced my Charisma skills would pave the way. We got all the way up to the top of the Black Cathedral. Then we were attacked. We were attacked by forces I had never seen before, armed with weapons I had never seen before. The first to die was Dogmeat. Point blank with a chain gun. I reeled in horror when I saw my beloved canine literally blown to bits. Ian was hit with a flamethrower. I saw him dance around screaming as the flames consumed him. Katje was hit with a laser blast, her fried skeleton standing in place for a few seconds before collapsing into ash. Tycho was the last to go. Hit with a plasma weapon. I watched his flesh liquefy. All my friends dead. Dead, before I could do anything.I. Lost. My. Shit.I went berserk and started murdering everything. I worked my way down, floor by floor. Super mutant, centaurs, cultists, didn't matter. Everything had to die. I ran out of ammo for all my guns. I start BEATING them to death! With my fists! No, I didn't have an Unarmed build. Just my power armor and bottomless rage.When it was all over, I thought about reloading my game. If felt wrong though. To honor the memory of my friends, I resolved to finish the game by myself.Alone.I defeated the Master.Alone.I destroyed the mutant vats.Alone.I returned to the Vault. I was emotionally exhausted, but at last I could return home. I may have lost my friends, but I still had my family. They would take me in and... no. That's not what happened. They didn't let me back in. They exiled me. The final cinematic of the game is me walking off into the wastes. Alone.ALONE.*incoherent screams of despair and futile rage* To say the game did a number on me is an understatement. This picture is a memorial to my fallen friends. is the artist.