[Quiet Man Cometh]

Hi there. I read your excerpt, You're right about the writing being quite cliche, and I think you use far more descriptive words than you need. It gets to be overboard after a while. What got my attention most though, was the gecko steak.

I looked it up (it bugged me enough to go wiki it. That's how picky I can get about details ;)) and the largest gecko is an island dwelling fellow about 14 inches long, and in the picture it still has tiny legs. Eating a piece of even big gecko flank would be like eating a chicken nugget for dinner. It doesn't fit with what your character is doing in the picture. Gecko tail would make more sense I think, since there's definately more meat there.

I'm not familiar with the New Vegas Universe though, but unless they have big geckos, something like joanna steak might be more realistic. Those are my initial thoughts.