374: Pre-War Businesses: Clark Interior and Furniture's Secret Messages & More

0:01 [SPEAKER_00]: Robots radio, games, lore, stories, community, just press play. [SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the Fallout lore cast. [SPEAKER_00]: The podcasts that explores the boundaries of our knowledge about the world of Fallout. [SPEAKER_00]: Specifically, when looking into these different businesses or even just smaller little details that show up in the Fallout games, there's always a little bit more to it.

0:42 [SPEAKER_00]: Now, some of the businesses we've been talking about are very simple, maybe a sign on a wall somewhere with very little backstory. [SPEAKER_00]: But sometimes you come across something like Clark Interior and Furniture. [SPEAKER_00]: And you think, oh, well, this is just a little furniture business.

0:59 [SPEAKER_00]: What else is going to happen? [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, oh, there are people. [SPEAKER_00]: There are people. [SPEAKER_00]: This is related to other people. [SPEAKER_00]: And the remains of the things that they were discussing before the bombs dropped or just after the bombs dropped or whatever.

1:12 [SPEAKER_00]: And inevitably, it leads to something more. [SPEAKER_00]: What I think is initially going to be just a quick look at this business and where they're located, what game they were in, are their real world connections, any of that stuff becomes a story with intrigue, a story of individuals, it's not just about the furniture that they bought.

1:32 [SPEAKER_00]: In fact, a lot of those details are rarely even mentioned. [SPEAKER_00]: It's them dealing with the end of the world, or dealing with a personal struggle, and in this case, the discovery of an affair that was only hinted at by little notes in receipts. [SPEAKER_00]: And we'll get to this at the end of the episode, but there are some other ones that are coming along the way that are smaller individual types of businesses than ones with less details, but there's almost always something a little bit more to find out.

2:02 [SPEAKER_00]: So let's get into it. [SPEAKER_00]: The next business alphabetically on our list is Circle G. This is an ammunition company. [SPEAKER_00]: They show up starting in Fallout 3, and then also a new Vegas Fallout 4 and in Fallout 76. [SPEAKER_00]: Now, we don't have a ton of detail about this one, but we do know some things.

2:26 [SPEAKER_00]: It does not show up in Fallout 1 and 2. [SPEAKER_00]: which might make you think, okay, maybe they didn't distribute their ammunition on the West Coast, but they do show up in Fallout New Vegas. [SPEAKER_00]: So that's not the reason why they don't show up in Fallout 1 and 2. [SPEAKER_00]: The reason they don't show up in Fallout 1 and 2, circle G specifically, seems to be that we don't get the name of any pre-war company making ammunition in Fallout 1 and 2.

2:49 [SPEAKER_00]: They just don't happen to give us that information. [SPEAKER_00]: We do know that individuals and groups were making their own ammunition and re-casing shells and doing those kinds of things. [SPEAKER_00]: But the businesses that existed before the bomb dropped are not mentioned in Fallout 1 2 as far as I can tell.

3:07 [SPEAKER_00]: We do know about other businesses that manufacture ammunition, big chief we've already talked about, federal cartridge, both of those show up initially in Fallout New Vegas. [SPEAKER_00]: and Circle G shows up in Fallout 3 and then the game's following, which seems to be filling in that lack of information gap.

3:23 [SPEAKER_00]: So, based on that, you could probably extrapolate that a lot of the ammunition that was used in Fallout 1 and 2 probably started out as Circle G because we don't have any other ammunition companies to reference. [SPEAKER_00]: or maybe it was somebody else and we just will never know. [SPEAKER_00]: And you can find all sorts of different sizes and types of ammunition.

3:42 [SPEAKER_00]: 308, 38 rounds, 44 rounds, 45 rounds, 50 rounds, 10 millimeter, 5.56, 7.62, it runs kind of the whole spectrum. [SPEAKER_00]: And if you look close enough on one of the boxes, you get this. [SPEAKER_00]: Circle G high velocity performance center fire cartridges are manufactured to the highest tolerance for the discerning shooter.

4:02 [SPEAKER_00]: For reliability and stopping power, Circle G ammunition is the right choice. [SPEAKER_00]: A very generic sounding text you would find on ammunition. [SPEAKER_00]: And probably in any box of ammunition today, you could probably find something very similar to this. [SPEAKER_00]: You'll recognize the boxes by their bright colors.

4:19 [SPEAKER_00]: Each type of ammo has a different color set, but they all have the big circle g, which is typically a yellow g inside a red circle with another yellow circle around the outside of it. [SPEAKER_00]: And then some of them have pictures of the ammo, or they've got picture of the gun. [SPEAKER_00]: It's just a variety of different stuff.

4:34 [SPEAKER_00]: And there are some ads out there you can come across like a high velocity brand, 10 millimeter shoot with style and precision circle g ammunition. [SPEAKER_00]: There you go. [SPEAKER_00]: Circle GM Unition. [SPEAKER_00]: Good for shooting raiders in the head or death claws. [SPEAKER_00]: Well, if you put enough light into them.

4:58 [SPEAKER_00]: Merry Christmas, everybody. [SPEAKER_00]: Klaus and Ko is our next company, Klaus, like Santa Klaus. [SPEAKER_00]: This is a business that shows up in Fallout 76. [SPEAKER_00]: You can find it west of the White Springs Resort Building. [SPEAKER_00]: And if you've played Fallout 76 and you've been around that area, you've probably run into this.

5:15 [SPEAKER_00]: Because it's... [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it's not the easiest thing to find if you are just kind of looking for something specific. [SPEAKER_00]: But if you're running past those buildings, just kind of looking through the windows, pop in in each of the rooms that you can enter, you're going to notice this one.

5:28 [SPEAKER_00]: There are Christmas trees, there are Christmas lights, there are the remnants of what appeared to be a business that caters specifically to selling Christmas. [SPEAKER_00]: type things all year round. [SPEAKER_00]: And this is not a foreign concept to our world. [SPEAKER_00]: There are a number of these companies.

5:44 [SPEAKER_00]: There's definitely one or two of, I don't know, in places that I've driven across Florida that I've noticed. [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm sure they show up in other places as well. [SPEAKER_00]: Now, the information we know about Class and Co is pretty limited. [SPEAKER_00]: We aren't left with any tapes or any data on a computer or anything like that that we can read.

6:02 [SPEAKER_00]: We don't really know who worked there, who ran the place, what any of the things they were doing or cared about had to do with all we know is that we have the remains of this location and some little pieces of [SPEAKER_00]: some of the things they sold, you know, the Christmas trees, but also toy trucks and toy cars, rocket ships, wooden blocks, board games, those kinds of things.

6:23 [SPEAKER_00]: So a lot of toys and the kinds of things you'd buy for children for Christmas, which makes sense. [SPEAKER_00]: So I did a little bit more digging. [SPEAKER_00]: This sounds like a name that might show up in the real world. [SPEAKER_00]: Everybody knows who Santa Claus is, right? [SPEAKER_00]: And Klaus and Kou has kind of this nice, I don't know, a iteration going on with the seas at the beginning of each word.

6:44 [SPEAKER_00]: So maybe somebody else has created a Klaus and Kou business? [SPEAKER_00]: Well, turns out, that is absolutely true. [SPEAKER_00]: Well, first of all, Closenco is similar in the Simpsons universe. [SPEAKER_00]: There's a company called Closco, which is run by Santa Claus and shows up in their tapped out video game.

7:02 [SPEAKER_00]: It's a location you can go to and it goes all the way back to the Christmas event of 2013 or something like that. [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know a ton about this specific game, and I know a little bit about the Simpsons, but it's been decades since I was a regular watcher of the Simpsons. [SPEAKER_00]: So if you know more about ClassCo in the Simpsons, chime in, tell me some details.

7:21 [SPEAKER_00]: But Class Anne Co shows up many other places. [SPEAKER_00]: There are locations online where you can buy class and code by Melissa Mortensen items, these are crafty items for making quilts and sewing patterns and things like that that have these general kinds of Christmasy designs and colors.

7:38 [SPEAKER_00]: This seems to be a subset of collections of different kinds of things underneath the Riley Blake designs. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not familiar with any of these things, but there are things that I've found online. [SPEAKER_00]: There also seems to be a shop on Etsy called [SPEAKER_00]: kind of stuff.

7:57 [SPEAKER_00]: And most unexpected, there's a class in Co in Bromley, England, which is a, that's right, you guessed it, a hairdresser. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm guessing class was the person's actual last name, and this was not Santa class. [SPEAKER_00]: So there you go, class in Co, kind of a little bit of a fallout thing, but also a real world thing in very different ways.

8:19 [SPEAKER_00]: When you think of retrofuturism and fallout specifically, what do you think about? [SPEAKER_00]: Probably think about the music, the old tunes that play on the radios, or the visual style of some of the buildings, and the cars, and heck, even the clothing, some of that kind of stuff, the hair styles, but what goes with all of that better than something like a drive-in, [SPEAKER_00]: All night cafe, it doesn't even say theater, Clayton's drive-in, all night cafe.

8:47 [SPEAKER_00]: This is a chain of drive-in locations, only mentioned in Fallout New Vegas. [SPEAKER_00]: Now, you might recognize the signs they are blue with kind of a off-white man that might just be in the where, and, you know, the years kind of collecting on the white to make it less... [SPEAKER_00]: of an actual white, but Clayton's driving all night cafe's all in white and then around the side there's a little red arrow that runs from the top down to the bottom where it has one of those boards where you can put in all the plastic letters to kind of change it up, you know, let people know what's playing that weekend at the driving theater.

9:24 [SPEAKER_00]: But this place is not just a theater, it's an all-night cafe. [SPEAKER_00]: And you can find a few different locations across New Vegas where this sign shows up. [SPEAKER_00]: In fact, it's even a part of the collection of signs that makes up Zaps barricade. [SPEAKER_00]: We also know that this company probably worked with Zaps neon signs in order to get this sign because like many of the signs in Vegas, this was designed as a neon sign.

9:54 [SPEAKER_00]: And that's another location you can find these signs. [SPEAKER_00]: There are actually two near or in zaps, neon signs, location, which we'll talk about. [SPEAKER_00]: If you're sure we'll get to Z, there's also one inside Michael Angela's workshop. [SPEAKER_00]: There's one in the new Vegas sphere, and there's one near free-sides north gate.

10:12 [SPEAKER_00]: But where this actual drive-in location is, or was, I'm not sure. [SPEAKER_00]: This is kind of a mystery to me. [SPEAKER_00]: There are the signs. [SPEAKER_00]: There are signs, and that's about it. [SPEAKER_00]: We don't have a terminal with a history that talks about, [SPEAKER_00]: doing business with this company from some other business, we don't have a plot of land at least that I know of, and maybe this is something to look into in the future, given more time to do this, or for those of you who really know the new Vegas map really well, is there a location?

10:43 [SPEAKER_00]: There are a few places that seem to be these abandoned car-lot type locations if I recall, but is there one that specifically was Clayton's drive-in all night cafe? [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not sure. [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe one of you aspiring content creators out there could do a video series about these locations that are hinted at and where they might actually exist.

11:04 [SPEAKER_00]: That would be really cool. [SPEAKER_00]: I'd watch that. [SPEAKER_00]: Another feature of the pre, well, current era of our timeline, is the fact that people had habits that were more popular in the past than they are today, specifically, things that we know are much more dangerous to do, like smoking cigarettes.

11:26 [SPEAKER_00]: you go back to the 1940s and 50s and soldiers were given cigarettes because it was marketed as being healthy and would keep them active and awake and those kinds of things, but it turns out that there's very little benefit to smoking a cigarette and a lot of drawbacks. [SPEAKER_00]: But people in the past didn't know these things, and if I can recall, going to a restaurant, it wasn't that long ago that you could go into a restaurant and you had to choose smoking or non-smoking, but because they were smoking in the restaurant, the whole place smelled like smoke.

11:58 [SPEAKER_00]: During my time touring in a band, every single night we were in smoky bars. [SPEAKER_00]: And I... [SPEAKER_00]: couldn't believe that our singers could continue singing without getting their voices all messed up because of the smoke because it affected me a lot. [SPEAKER_00]: So it makes sense that smoking would be something that would have existed in pre-war fallout.

12:17 [SPEAKER_00]: And so there must have been companies who had to [SPEAKER_00]: create and distribute and whatever the cigarettes. [SPEAKER_00]: This one is called Clipper Ship. [SPEAKER_00]: And I find this interesting. [SPEAKER_00]: There is a machine you can find in both Fallout 4 and Fallout 76. [SPEAKER_00]: That is a cigarette machine.

12:34 [SPEAKER_00]: It's the kind of old-time machine that you would see on the side of a building somewhere. [SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't look like a big, say, like, Coke-vending machine. [SPEAKER_00]: It's a smaller type of thing where you would go up and it would be about, I don't know, arms, like, elbow, height, [SPEAKER_00]: And then you could put in your money, choose what you want, it would distribute the cigarettes.

12:53 [SPEAKER_00]: What's interesting to me about this is the name Clipper Ship. [SPEAKER_00]: There's a picture of an old, tiny sailboat called a Clipper. [SPEAKER_00]: That's part of the design and marketing of this. [SPEAKER_00]: Now, we don't have other details specifically about the location of where this was manufactured, who worked there, any of the terminals, just like some of the other ones we've been talking about recently.

13:13 [SPEAKER_00]: But what I do find fascinating is the fact that they're using this iconography, this clip or ship. [SPEAKER_00]: So I looked into it and it turns out that these types of boat images being used for tobacco products historically is actually pretty common. [SPEAKER_00]: They were pulling from a source.

13:33 [SPEAKER_00]: There are real world companies that still today use these old-timey ships in their marketing. [SPEAKER_00]: Well, if you think about it, the original discovery and use of tobacco in the Old World came from the New World, as the North and South American continents were explored, people discovered plants and animals that they had discovered before, and uses for those plants and animals that were different from things that they had in the Old World.

14:04 [SPEAKER_00]: There's a vast selection of products and plants you can get in Europe and Asia and Africa. [SPEAKER_00]: But when it came to the new world, things like tobacco were brand new to the European explorers. [SPEAKER_00]: Tobacco was first brought to Europe in the 16th century, and very quickly became a product that the elites preferred to use.

14:24 [SPEAKER_00]: Most likely due to, well, not just the fact that it was rare and it was kind of a sign of status, but that it was addictive. [SPEAKER_00]: So if you were somebody of the aristocracy in Europe in the 16th century, you would know that products like this only came across the Atlantic on these types of ships.

14:42 [SPEAKER_00]: These old wooden sail ships because that's what they had at the time. [SPEAKER_00]: So the association there was already part of that, but then there's also a piece of this that's branding. [SPEAKER_00]: It's beyond just this idea of this is classically how people perceived this. [SPEAKER_00]: The idea of a cliporship being trustworthy and fast and strong and able to, you know, make its way across the ocean and all that kind of thing was part of the marketing of these products.

15:10 [SPEAKER_00]: They wanted people to feel good and feel like this was cool. [SPEAKER_00]: And there was a time where looking at these types of ships was cool. [SPEAKER_00]: So there you go. [SPEAKER_00]: Probably way more than you ever wanted to know about Clipper ships and their connections to the tobacco trade of this 16th century.

15:30 [SPEAKER_00]: But there you go. [SPEAKER_00]: That's it. [SPEAKER_00]: That's why Clipper ship exists. [SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't show up in any of the other games. [SPEAKER_00]: And again, we don't know much more other than the fact that there are some of these machines in different locations. [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, and smoking is bad.

15:41 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, but you already knew that. [SPEAKER_00]: All right, two more left before we get to the really cool story from Clark Interior and furniture. [SPEAKER_00]: This one is CMR. [SPEAKER_00]: This is a company that has to do with transportation. [SPEAKER_00]: Specifically, you can find their logos on Monorail engine cars in the DC area in Fallout 3, but also in the TV series.

16:05 [SPEAKER_00]: Some of these businesses are light on information, but this one is extremely light on information. [SPEAKER_00]: You can see it on the side of these monorail, at least the remains, the carcasses of these monorail trains in Fallout 3. [SPEAKER_00]: You can see CMR in the texture files, and there are some other small places where the logo shows up.

16:27 [SPEAKER_00]: But [SPEAKER_00]: What's even more interesting is that you can find CMR in one of the scenes in the TV show, the scenes specifically in season one, when Lucy and the Google first meet each other. [SPEAKER_00]: They're in Philly, and Philly, of course, is made up of all of this, I don't know, remains of the old world that are kind of stacked up into walls and piles and things like that.

16:48 [SPEAKER_00]: And one of the scenes, you can see on a big freight container behind them, [SPEAKER_00]: CMR, it's a red container and the text on it is white and there are two yellow arrows to the left kind of pointing to the left. [SPEAKER_00]: Like this is a company that deals with transit stuff. [SPEAKER_00]: But outside of that, we don't know anything.

17:09 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't even know what CMR stands for. [SPEAKER_00]: I would guess the R is something like rail, but outside of that, we just don't know. [SPEAKER_00]: But what's cool about this is the fact that it shows up in the TV show and we're about to get season 2, so maybe keep your eyes out. [SPEAKER_01]: See if CMR shows up in the backgrounds of any of the scenes in the next season.

17:36 [SPEAKER_00]: So sometimes you end up with companies like Clause and Co that happen to have real-world companies with the same name that are very much not the same company. [SPEAKER_00]: But other times we get real-world companies that then show up in the follow games. [SPEAKER_00]: And most of the time this seems to happen.

17:52 [SPEAKER_00]: in Fallout 1 and 2 because they were pulling from real world stuff in order to make things feel a little bit more real but also it was a smaller publisher. [SPEAKER_00]: They didn't really have to deal with any but he coming after them for copyright or whatever. [SPEAKER_00]: I mean I guess there was still the potential for that but it's a work of art and sometimes in a work of art you can reference real world stuff and and that's not a problem.

18:13 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not going to get into the legality of that but it does seem more likely [SPEAKER_00]: That's right. [SPEAKER_00]: The camera company, Kodak, that's been around for forever. [SPEAKER_00]: So where does this show up? [SPEAKER_00]: Well, in necropolis, or more specifically in the town map of necropolis, there is a photo that was taken and you can tell this by the overlay on the photo.

18:43 [SPEAKER_00]: There's like a big red rectangle that covers most of the photo. [SPEAKER_00]: It says location necropolis and then down at the bottom right. [SPEAKER_00]: It says [SPEAKER_00]: are 9,000 in a bunch of numbers. [SPEAKER_00]: Like this was part of a catalog of pictures that somebody was taking soon after the bombs obliterated Bakersfield.

19:04 [SPEAKER_00]: So real quick, Bakersfield was originally this location until the Great War and clearly a lot of the buildings were bombed out and destroyed and eventually this became a location known for the ghouls that lived there. [SPEAKER_00]: Therefore, the Necropolis. [SPEAKER_00]: So that's the first location we have of Kodek and specifically the R9000 camera showing up, but that's not the only location.

19:27 [SPEAKER_00]: Their products appear in Fallout 3 and New Vegas. [SPEAKER_00]: Those are the cameras you can find in those games. [SPEAKER_00]: So it's not just the thing where it's like fallout one or two and they weren't so worried about using a real-world name. [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know. [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if I'm not calling Bethesda out on this.

19:43 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if Bethesda got the rights to use the Kodak name or how that specifically works. [SPEAKER_00]: But they do show up and these are those old-timey cameras. [SPEAKER_00]: The ones that look a little bit more vertical and to the right or if you're looking at it to the left side that has the really big bulb with an actual like full-size light bulb in it.

20:02 [SPEAKER_00]: And you'll know these when you see them. [SPEAKER_00]: They look like those old timey cameras that you see in old movies. [SPEAKER_00]: And that's exactly what this is, a Kodak R9000. [SPEAKER_00]: Now, that makes you wonder, okay, if this real world business also shows up in fallout, then what happened with the business, where they located, is it exactly the same or is it just coincidental that these have the same names?

20:25 [SPEAKER_00]: Well, we don't know. [SPEAKER_00]: This is another one of those details that we just don't have more information about. [SPEAKER_00]: But I guess you could say that they work really well if people are still able to use these 200 years into the future. [SPEAKER_00]: So maybe it's good advertising.

20:41 [SPEAKER_02]: Ball peasant. [SPEAKER_02]: Ball before the Ant Queen. [SPEAKER_00]: Alright, so it's time for the one I've been teasing from the beginning. [SPEAKER_00]: Clark Interior and Furniture, and this cracks me up as soon as I say it because it doesn't sound very exciting, does it? [SPEAKER_00]: Clark Interior and Furniture, this is a furniture company, that's exciting, and yeah, that's what I thought too, as I was doing the research, and I'm like, okay, what do we know about Clark Interior and Furniture?

21:07 [SPEAKER_00]: Well, first of all, this shows up in Fallout 76, and is a testament to Fallout 76's writing, [SPEAKER_00]: We know something more than just the fact that this existed. [SPEAKER_00]: There are real people who worked here who have their own stories. [SPEAKER_00]: Well, this is revealed in a very peculiar way.

21:27 [SPEAKER_00]: Through specifically, receipts, the little notes that show up in receipts and go with me here. [SPEAKER_00]: This interior and furniture company was run or at least managed by Gregory Timmerman. [SPEAKER_00]: That's the guy's name. [SPEAKER_00]: He was working with other businesses in order to buy products to sell in his store.

21:52 [SPEAKER_00]: One of those businesses was Van Lowe, Taxidermy. [SPEAKER_00]: So he's selling interior decoration in furniture, which includes taxidermy. [SPEAKER_00]: So you would imagine this would be things like, I don't know, the posed bodies of dead squirrels holding footballs. [SPEAKER_00]: There's one of those at a pizza place we go to sometimes, or the mounting of an [SPEAKER_00]: So, of course, that's fun.

22:19 [SPEAKER_00]: It's fun to imagine that, you know, attacks the dermis and furniture company were doing business together and that these kinds of things were at that location. [SPEAKER_00]: But that's not where the story ends. [SPEAKER_00]: In fact, that's where the story begins. [SPEAKER_00]: Greg was married to Deborah Timmerman and they were the parents of Carver Timmerman.

22:35 [SPEAKER_00]: We know this. [SPEAKER_00]: Only because of the receipts, the little notes in the receipts that Debra and Shelly Van Lo, Shelly Van Lo worked for the taxidermy company, would post to each other. [SPEAKER_00]: They would use the little details in the receipts to send each other these little covert messages because they had developed a relationship.

22:55 [SPEAKER_00]: Debra and Shelley seem to be having an affair. [SPEAKER_00]: And we can find the receipts, and they give us all sorts of fun information. [SPEAKER_00]: So for example, receipt dated 1, 11, 76. [SPEAKER_00]: So that is January 11th, 276. [SPEAKER_00]: The order form includes a star-nosed mole standing, a grizzly bear standing, hind legs, and large mouth bass, wall mount.

23:19 [SPEAKER_00]: Incoming client comments, [SPEAKER_00]: outgoing supplier comments, well hello there D, Dash Shelley. [SPEAKER_00]: The next receipt we have dates from April, April 2nd, 276, so about a year and a half before the bombs drop. [SPEAKER_00]: Order form, bullhead catfish wall mount, another bullhead catfish centerpiece, another wall mounted one, and a black bear on all fours, incoming client comments.

23:47 [SPEAKER_00]: So what do you think? [SPEAKER_00]: D. [SPEAKER_00]: outgoing supplier comments. [SPEAKER_00]: I am available next week. [SPEAKER_00]: I can't wait to see you. [SPEAKER_00]: I wish we didn't have to talk this way, but I understand. [SPEAKER_00]: And what is with this guy and catfish? [SPEAKER_00]: Is he the same client from last month?

24:02 [SPEAKER_00]: So you've got this thing going on where they are kind of like flirting and planning things through their little comments, but also commenting on the fact that somebody ordered a bunch of catfish taxaterby items. [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, let's move forward again. [SPEAKER_00]: This is 8277. [SPEAKER_00]: So this is over a year later.

24:20 [SPEAKER_00]: The order form includes Canada Goose, spread wings, and the second item, tell me if this is coincidental. [SPEAKER_00]: Oxhorn, cigar rack, like Oxhorn, the content creator for fallout stuff, and then a wood duck sitting. [SPEAKER_00]: Incoming client comments, Miss Van Lowe. [SPEAKER_00]: It would appear a number of holiday proceeds have failed to be provided by your store over the last year or so.

24:44 [SPEAKER_00]: Deb's pop always had kind words for your family and shop and he highly recommended I continue this business relationship when we took the reins. [SPEAKER_00]: I'd hate to make changes over something so trivial, but the lack of receipts has been a real headache for our bookkeeping, Gregory Timmerman, Clark and Terriers, and furniture.

25:03 [SPEAKER_00]: So all of a sudden, year and half later, Greg Chimes in and says, hey, how come we haven't been getting the receipts? [SPEAKER_00]: which implies that they've been hiding them because that's what contained the messages between his wife and Shelley. [SPEAKER_00]: Shelley responds, I'm so sorry, Mr. Timberman.

25:22 [SPEAKER_00]: It seems our terminal in the storefront has been on the fritz. [SPEAKER_00]: It will not happen again, sincerely, Shelley Van Lowe, Van Lowe taxidermy. [SPEAKER_00]: So by August of, well, just a few months before the bombs drop, it seems that Greg had figured out that something odd was going on, at least they haven't been getting their receipts the way that they were expecting, at least for the last year and a half or so.

25:43 [SPEAKER_00]: but there's more happening here. [SPEAKER_00]: 10, 7, 77, October, 7. [SPEAKER_00]: This is just a few weeks before the Great War. [SPEAKER_00]: Insect collection display, rainbow trout, Walmart, special order. [SPEAKER_00]: Oook, moose, moose head imported. [SPEAKER_00]: Why don't I buy moose head makes me laugh?

26:01 [SPEAKER_00]: Black bear, incoming client comments, I'm sorry, I've told Greg, I will make paper copies of the receipts from now on. [SPEAKER_00]: Can we talk? [SPEAKER_00]: Deb. [SPEAKER_00]: So, [SPEAKER_00]: Their relationship has been going on for over a year and a half now. [SPEAKER_00]: Deb has solved the problem over the next two months by saying that she would print out paper receipts, which don't include the little messages they've been sending to each other.

26:23 [SPEAKER_00]: She finishes this one with a PS. [SPEAKER_00]: I think I saw your brother in town. [SPEAKER_00]: Is he back? [SPEAKER_00]: outgoing supplier comments. [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, Deb, we can talk. [SPEAKER_00]: I wasn't mad. [SPEAKER_00]: I was just worried about you. [SPEAKER_00]: I've missed you so much.

26:35 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm playing that they haven't been able to see each other. [SPEAKER_00]: And yes, Calvin is back in town. [SPEAKER_00]: He's on a project from work. [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know Deb. [SPEAKER_00]: He's acting like his old self again going out in the middle of the night, locking himself away all day.

26:47 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know what to make of it. [SPEAKER_00]: I could really use that birthday trip we talked about if you're still up for it. [SPEAKER_00]: Meet me here Friday night. [SPEAKER_00]: Shelley. [SPEAKER_00]: The next, receipt, 10, 19, 77, insert, refunded order. [SPEAKER_00]: Outgoing supplier comments, Calvin is missing.

27:03 [SPEAKER_00]: He must have left when we were away, I think. [SPEAKER_00]: That's the only thing that makes sense. [SPEAKER_00]: When I got home, the office was locked, so I figured he was just in there. [SPEAKER_00]: Then a whole day went by and it was still locked. [SPEAKER_00]: I banged and screamed, but there was no answer.

27:17 [SPEAKER_00]: I ended up taking an axe to the damn thing if you can believe it. [SPEAKER_00]: No sign of him. [SPEAKER_00]: Something isn't right. [SPEAKER_00]: I can just feel it. [SPEAKER_00]: All of his belongings are still here. [SPEAKER_00]: His work, research, even his clothes. [SPEAKER_00]: He didn't just leave this time.

27:30 [SPEAKER_00]: He's, I don't know. [SPEAKER_00]: Missing. [SPEAKER_00]: Gone. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm scared. [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know what to do. [SPEAKER_00]: I feel like this is my fault. [SPEAKER_00]: Shelly. [SPEAKER_00]: Incoming client comments. [SPEAKER_00]: Shelly, calm down. [SPEAKER_00]: Talk to the police.

27:43 [SPEAKER_00]: I'll make sure Greg can watch [SPEAKER_00]: So the story takes this weird turn where Shelley's brother is missing, so what is going on with that? [SPEAKER_00]: Well, the next response we get is 111777. [SPEAKER_00]: Shelley, you weren't in the shop. [SPEAKER_00]: I couldn't think of anything else to do, but leave another one of these tapes.

28:01 [SPEAKER_00]: Please be okay. [SPEAKER_00]: Please find me when you read this. [SPEAKER_00]: It's just Carver. [SPEAKER_00]: He's getting so skinny. [SPEAKER_00]: Shelley, I don't know what to do. [SPEAKER_00]: His cough. [SPEAKER_00]: It's terrible. [SPEAKER_00]: I need you. [SPEAKER_00]: We need you.

28:14 [SPEAKER_00]: So at this point, you might have recognized the name Kelvin. [SPEAKER_00]: Kelvin Van Lowe is also known as Aries. [SPEAKER_00]: Aries is the cryptid hunter, inventor, engineer, connected with the Blue Ridge Caravan Company. [SPEAKER_00]: We're not going to go into all the details about Aries on this episode.

28:33 [SPEAKER_00]: But it is a fun detail, a fun connection. [SPEAKER_00]: You have this affair between these two women. [SPEAKER_00]: Gregory doesn't seem to know much about it, but then eventually does seem to find out more about this, and then Kelvin goes missing. [SPEAKER_00]: And then at night, it seems like some things come to a head.

28:51 [SPEAKER_00]: When Deb leaves to go help Shelley, Gregory stays home with the kid, and starts to kind of put the pieces together. [SPEAKER_00]: But then the Great War happens within just a few weeks, the bombs drop, [SPEAKER_00]: and all of a sudden, priorities change. [SPEAKER_00]: Gregory does the best that he can in order to take care of his family, but he understands that things are changing emotionally or have been changing for a while with his wife, and now with the world ending, they're just looking for supplies and food and just trying to get by.

29:21 [SPEAKER_00]: Greg finds out about a location. [SPEAKER_00]: Supposedly, the burning mine has a stash that might have some supplies and things that they need. [SPEAKER_00]: So he heads to the mine, and we get his final note. [SPEAKER_00]: He leaves a hand written. [SPEAKER_00]: multi-page note. [SPEAKER_00]: This is what it says.

29:40 [SPEAKER_00]: To my family, my legs have been crushed real bad, and the heat in here is, well, it's killing me, literally. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure. [SPEAKER_00]: This will serve as my last will and testament. [SPEAKER_00]: Deb, whatever you've got going on between you and your Van Lowe friend, I get it.

29:57 [SPEAKER_00]: Actually, I don't get it, but I get that I don't get it, and that's all right. [SPEAKER_00]: I hope both you and her can live a happier life than the one I tried making for us. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm sorry, I didn't try harder, truly. [SPEAKER_00]: Please keep Carver's safe and whatever is left of this world.

30:13 [SPEAKER_00]: Carver, my boy, know that I loved you. [SPEAKER_00]: Know that I wouldn't leave you behind if it were my choice. [SPEAKER_00]: I've made many foolish mistakes, but that's a part of life. [SPEAKER_00]: Wish I could be there to help you learn from yours. [SPEAKER_00]: I've got my lucky lighter on me.

30:28 [SPEAKER_00]: I want you to have it. [SPEAKER_00]: It's worth a pretty penny, so sell it if you need to. [SPEAKER_00]: But more than anything, I want you to have something from me. [SPEAKER_00]: If anyone stumbles upon this, my name is Gregory Timmerman. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm from Louisburg. [SPEAKER_00]: My family is Dorat Timmerman, maiden name Clark, and Carver Timmerman.

30:47 [SPEAKER_00]: I beg of you to find it in your heart, to bring this to them. [SPEAKER_00]: These characters were originally mentioned in the Wild Appalachia update and then Gregory Skeleton was added to the mine in once in a blue moon when that update came out. [SPEAKER_00]: So what happens with Carver and Debra and Shelly?

31:06 [SPEAKER_00]: Well, we don't know a lot. [SPEAKER_00]: We know Carver's health was failing. [SPEAKER_00]: We also know because when we find this corpse or it's mostly a skeleton in the mine, it still has the note and the lighter on it. [SPEAKER_00]: So Carver never got his father's lighter. [SPEAKER_00]: We also know the Deborah and Shelley and Carver decided to move to Kentucky.

31:29 [SPEAKER_00]: So from what we know, they're probably still out there somewhere and maybe they'll show up in a future update. [SPEAKER_00]: I guess we'll just have to wait and see. [SPEAKER_00]: But this is what makes doing these episodes so fun is that there is an attention to detail in so many of these [SPEAKER_00]: connections, the business is connected to these people, these people have these stories, they go through, in this case, the end of the world, and they have big stories and little stories.

31:56 [SPEAKER_00]: They've got the things in their lives that they're dealing with, and then they've got the the bigger situation with the world out there. [SPEAKER_00]: It's all connected, and it creates such a fun and sometimes terrible thing to discover. [SPEAKER_00]: Alright, I hope you enjoyed that episode, and welcome to our newest patrons, Polar Missed in Stanch, Koala.

32:24 [SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for joining us and signing up over here and joining the ad free episodes and other stuff that you get for all the different tiers. [SPEAKER_00]: We have our Patreon chat coming up in just a week, the very last week of [SPEAKER_00]: October is already on us, so that'll be the 29th Wednesday, the 29th, 9pm Eastern is when we get together.

32:41 [SPEAKER_00]: If you'd like to join us head over patreon.com slash fallout lorecast. [SPEAKER_00]: You have to sign up at the tier that gets you that, that's the assault trun tier, but there's different tiers. [SPEAKER_00]: You can get at free episodes, all the stuff you guys know how this works. [SPEAKER_00]: And also, have to shout out our...

32:55 [SPEAKER_00]: Sentry bots, we've got two sentry bots, germinator, and dusty ray who gets shoutouts every week. [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you so much for continuing to support the show. [SPEAKER_00]: And also, we have some new reviews that came in. [SPEAKER_00]: Leave a 5 star review on Apple podcasts, and if I can see it here in the US, I will read it out on a few trips.

33:11 [SPEAKER_00]: So this one's from Mithborn, who says, amazing podcast. [SPEAKER_00]: Finally, swap to iPhone, so I can review this amazing show. [SPEAKER_00]: I've been into Fallout since I first played new Vegas, but I never dealt into the lore. [SPEAKER_00]: There's so much to learn about these games and it's fascinating.

33:23 [SPEAKER_00]: Thanks Tom for starting this amazing project. [SPEAKER_00]: Well, Mithborn, thank you so much for taking the time to leave that amazing review. [SPEAKER_00]: This one comes from Memo with an H after the O127 who writes the greatest Fallout podcast ever. [SPEAKER_00]: Wow. [SPEAKER_00]: Fallout lorecast is a must listen for any Fallout fan, this podcast is incredibly interesting, diving deep into the rich lore of the Fallout universe with a level of detail that's both accessible and super knowledgeable.

33:46 [SPEAKER_00]: From the great wars origins to vault text wild experiments in the on-claves shady schemes, host robots breaks it all down with a perfect mix of canon facts and engaging storytelling. [SPEAKER_00]: This is great, I should have you write my marketing material. [SPEAKER_00]: The humor is spot on robots witty one liners and wasteland inspired quips keeps things light and laugh out loud funny making even the darkest lore fun to explore Overall, it's a fantastic show with top notch production and robots is an awesome host whose passion and robotic charm shine through every episode Whether you're a veteran vault dweller or new to the wasteland this podcast is a gem you won't be disappointed I wanted to do it justice, but I'm terrible at reviews, so Grock helped me and made it way better and pretty much explained it how I wanted to

34:26 [SPEAKER_00]: Well, I thought you, if you didn't tell me that, I would have thought you wrote it the whole time, but that's awesome. [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for taking the time to do that. [SPEAKER_00]: I really do appreciate it. [SPEAKER_00]: And then this one's from G-Man 1019 who writes my own Fallout.

34:38 [SPEAKER_00]: I've always loved Fallout and have been a huge fan of the games and all that has come after. [SPEAKER_00]: Last year I lost my grandpa, grandmother, my dog, and our family dog all within six months, holy moly. [SPEAKER_00]: That's, I went through losing a dog almost a year ago. [SPEAKER_00]: It is, I can't imagine, go through all that at the same time.

34:55 [SPEAKER_00]: It's been a hard time in this podcast, along with Replaying Fallout 4. [SPEAKER_00]: Mixed with my students, I teach, bring amazing, [SPEAKER_00]: Being amazing has helped me through a dark time in my only 25 years of life experience. [SPEAKER_00]: The mental aspect of war never changes.

35:08 [SPEAKER_00]: Should be considered when one goes through a major life change. [SPEAKER_00]: These can drive people to do and believe things with bad intentions. [SPEAKER_00]: Well, I'm glad that the show is helping you out. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm sorry that you went through so much. [SPEAKER_00]: But hang in there.

35:19 [SPEAKER_00]: It'll get better. [SPEAKER_00]: At least that's the hope. [SPEAKER_00]: And well, if we've learned anything from Fallout, it's that people can keep going. [SPEAKER_00]: The world ends. [SPEAKER_00]: but people keep going. [SPEAKER_00]: So hang in there and thank you for all of your support.

35:33 [SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for being here and I'll be back next week with our patrons until then, stay safe in the wasteland and I'll see you next time. [SPEAKER_00]: To plug into everything else we're doing, check out robotsradio.net, reach out to me on Twitter at robots underscore radio, check out the robots radio rocket club where you can join me and a bunch of our other creators creating your podcast starting a new podcast or helping your current podcast grow.

36:00 [SPEAKER_00]: There's more information about that on RobotsReady.net as well, and you can always talk with us and the entire community over 2,000 people on the RobotsReady Discord. [SPEAKER_00]: Come join us. [SPEAKER_00]: We'd love to chat with you. [SPEAKER_00]: See you guys next time.