Michael Angelo

Michael Angelo is the artistic pseudonym of Sheldon Weintraub, the neurotic, agoraphobic commercial artist originally from Vault 21. In 2281, he owns and operates a studio and manufacturing facility on the New Vegas Strip. He is also the brother of Sarah Weintraub, the proprietress of Vault 21.

Background
Together with his sister, Sarah Weintraub, Michael grew up in Vault 21. After Mr. House opened the vault, Michael started to work as a designer of neon signs for the Strip's many establishments, often taking "special orders" from Mr. House himself.

Like his sister, living inside a vault all his life has made Michael an agoraphobic, which means that he is afraid of wide open spaces. Compared to his sister, Michael has the more severe form of agoraphobia, as he even has problems working on the main production floor of his workshop because of its size. Thus, he can usually be found in the workshop's back room, while his assistants, including Kate, work in the main hall.

When first encountered by the player, Michael is lacking inspiration. Talking to the player, with years of costly therapy being out of the question, he realizes that he might regain his inspiration by studying sights he hasn't seen so far.

Quests

 * Classic Inspiration: Michael asks the Courier to take pictures of famous signs across the Mojave to rejuvenate his artistic inspiration.
 * ED-E My Love: Michael, during conversation, says a keyword that accesses ED-E's log databanks.

Other interactions

 * Michael Angelo's sensitivity can exploited by blackmailing him, through a series of Speech/Repair checks upon the first meeting. The series consist of: Speech 40, Speech/Repair 45, Speech 55 will net you 300 caps and 140 XP. It is possible to threaten Michael to hand over the caps, and even provoke a fight by proceeding with violence. This will cause the artist and his staff to turn hostile, in which his money can be looted upon his death, at the cost of his personal quest Classic Inspiration. If one instead agrees with him, one will get the caps, but no longer be able to interact with Michael Angelo, who will fall into a depression, thus failing his quest. If one tells Michael that one is just joking, they will abort the blackmail and proceed to the quest dialogue tree. At any point prior to accepting the quest, one can choose to continue extorting him for caps.

Appearances
Michael Angelo appears only in Fallout: New Vegas.

Behind the scenes

 * Michael Angelo was written by Jorge Salgado.
 * Sheldon's artistic name is a reference to the Renaissance artist Michelangelo - commonly misspelled 'Michael Angelo'.

Bugs
Upon passing the agoraphobia medicine check, you can restart the conversation, and pass the check again. Since you get experience for each successful check, you can gain infinite experience by completing the conversation item repeatedly.