RE: the "that scene" ask game - Second Instar.
...Would you be surprised to hear that it wasn't the Unfolding?
It was his arrival at the base.
The original plan was for the Deenwood Compound to have locked down into DEFCON-1, and he's able to get inside via his prewar military clearance where the Furriers can't. I was enchanted with the haunting notion of a character's gruesome past still recognizing him no matter the time since it last laid eyes on him. I was significantly less enchanted that the plot broke down to "all he has to do is walk up to this building, and he gets both a leather coat on par with a higher-MK Railroad coat, and history's single most unethically-sourced chemistry book."
Olivia, the Rust Devils, and Bogey weren't in the picture in any way. I had intended some long-game tomfoolery with Sticks, but hadn't actually firmed up exactly what I intended to do about it until around the time 'Choly first enjoyed all the prewar trappings of the Deenwood Compound.
I've always loved to a fault the repeated trope in Fallout, where you trick a biometric scanner into thinking you're a whole entire Boston Mayor, just by flashing some long-dead schmuck's wallet. The irony has always been that 'Choly actually has clearance where he used to work.
