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Ever since he first left Shi-Town in 2272, Liam has always come home for the Lunar New Year. He's missed the reunion dinner a couple times (much to his parents’ disappointment), but he never misses all 15 days. Some years -- especially when he was with the Followers of the Apocalypse -- it was the only time he got to see his family in person.

His favorite part of the New Year, aside from seeing his family, is coming up with lantern riddles with his younger brother. Since his brother is a poet, and Liam loves puzzles of all kinds, they’ve gotten a reputation for having the best riddles. And Liam always brings home items from his travels to give out as prizes for people who get the answers right.

2282 is the only year he doesn’t come home at all. He plans to go home after checking out a radio signal coming from an abandoned Brotherhood of Steel bunker, but Elijah captures him. By the time Liam escapes from the Sierra Madre, it’s too late to get to Shi-Town before the New Years ends. And after the hell Elijah put him through, he’s in no state to travel.

(He writes a letter to his family apologizing and telling them not to worry, but he never tells any of them about the Sierra Madre.)

#(about. )

Post-game, House teaches Liam chess, and Liam teaches House go. Aside from it being a good way for House to help Liam hone his strategic thinking, it also reflects their influence on each other: Liam tries to get House to see people as mattering equally, all deserving of kindness, while House teaches him how to best use people according to their abilities and importance.

(Liam carries the black king from the chess set House gave him in his suit pocket, as a reminder.)

#(headcanon. )#{chess metaphors w/ them are so important to me #liam as the once-pawn who becomes the most powerful piece on the board #house as the essentially stationary piece whom liam defends and works for #i'm die}

altruistec-blog

Liam walking around Zion with a literal healing halo, offering said halo to other people, and having no idea of the symbolism

#{this is STILL my favorite thing}#{this man survives a white leg attack #wears a halo #and is immune to poison #'what are you?' 'just a courier'}#(self reblog. )

Liam’s general thoughts on the main companions:

ED-E: A precious, small robot whom Liam is too emotionally attached to. From the time Liam fixes ED-E up in Primm, he rarely goes anywhere without the eyebot shadowing him. He cries after he has to sacrifice ED-E in the Divide to stop the missiles from launching; when he gets back to the Mojave and sees that his ED-E is just fine, he hugs him for a solid minute.

When Liam conducts official Vegas business post-game, ED-E is often floating near him, conveniently recording the conversation. (And he wouldn’t dream of going to the Commonwealth without bringing ED-E along.)

Veronica: Reminds Liam of his sister, which more or less guarantees that he adores her. Her struggles with the Brotherhood’s elders remind him a lot of his own attempts to persuade Shi-Town’s isolationists. In-game, she’s the first companion other than ED-E that he joins up with, so he’s known her longer than any of the others.

He does I Could Make You Care after House orders him to destroy the Brotherhood, because he believes he can find something that will persuade House to let the Brotherhood live. It... doesn’t work out that way. He doesn’t blame Veronica for what happens to the Followers outpost; he blames himself for not listening to House about what needed to be done.

He never really stops feeling guilty about destroying the Brotherhood, and he doesn’t expect her forgiveness. If anyone killed his family, even if it was for the greater good, he would hate them for the rest of their lives.

Lily: A good grandmother. Liam encourages her to keep taking her medicine at half-doses, because he can’t imagine anything worse than forgetting your own family. He mentally calls her năinai; fortunately, since he tries not to get drunk around her, he hasn’t yet said it out loud. He doesn’t like outright giving her orders, since she’s so much older than him.

Boone: Too reserved, grim, and focused on revenge for Liam to get along very well with him. Liam doesn’t really have any interest in traveling with an ex-NCR sniper, anyway, after the pressure the Republic put on Shi-Town to accept annexation following the ‘78 earthquake. He doesn’t do the quest One For My Baby, so it never becomes an issue.

Arcade: A genuinely good person whom Liam has a great deal of respect for. Liam likes anyone who genuinely tries to do good, and since he was with the Followers for three years before becoming a courier, traveling with Arcade feels pretty natural for him. Along with Veronica, Arcade is the human companion Liam spends the most time traveling with. (He’s very protective of ED-E, and does not appreciate suggestions about throwing him into a lake.)

Liam helps House keep absolute control of New Vegas, though, so that’s the end for them. He doesn’t ever talk about it with anyone, but he misses Arcade like hell post-game.

(And there’s at least a little awkwardness with the whole descendent-of-remanants-of-the-American-government vs descendent-of-Chinese-sumbariners thing.)

Cass: Liam doesn’t do the Crimson Caravan quests, so alas, he never travels with Cass. If he did, it would be an interesting dynamic. She’s blunt and never hesitates to speak her mind, whereas Liam is... not that.

Raul: An extremely cool ghoul. Liam loves listening to stories about the time before the War, though he doesn’t like them as much for a while after he gets back from Big MT. (And he feels terrible about what happened to Raul’s family.) It makes him slightly uncomfortable at first that Raul calls him ‘boss', seeing as Raul is over 200 years old, but he gets used to it. In Old School Ghoul, Liam convinces Raul to give up his gunslinging past and live a more peaceful life.

Rex: A good boy.

#{cut for length}#(ch. arcade | caveat samaritanus)#(ch. veronica | cloudy with a chance of friendship)#(ch. ed-e | fly far fly fast)#(ch. raul | old school ghoul)#(ch. lily | grandma knows best)

I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend.

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers

#(thoughts. )#(about. )

Thinking about Liam stargazing with anyone always reminds me of this quote.

“This mailman gave me more information about outer space than I care to have.”

#(ooc. )#{he loves space a lot #let him tell you about the stars}

“ I’m not planning to die today. ”

The Walking Dead sentence meme | accepting

Most people who die didn’t plan it, he thinks. But that would be an unhelpful statement at the best of times, and their current situation is as far from ideal as it can get. Those damn raiders… The few left in the Mojave know better than to go near him, but out here, the scar on his forehead doesn’t carry any meaning. Any warning.

“Neither am I,” Liam says instead. Keeps his voice down, in case the raiders are close enough to hear. He can taste panic rising in his throat, but he swallows it down. Fear won’t help. “Too many people waiting for me, back West.”

Not only in Vegas; in Shi-Town, too. He thinks the same thing he always does when death knocks at his door: Libin would cry at his funeral, and he swore to never make his little brother cry again. (And he wonders, sometimes, if that vow is the only reason he’s standing here. The reason he had the strength to crawl out of a grave in the first place.)

“It won’t be the first time I’ve had to fight my way out.”

#(v. left my heart in new vegas)#lastofthepast

ragefarmer-deactivated20190827

@altruistec liked for a starter !!

" Thanks. “ Was all Daniel could seem to manage. White Legs. Would’ve killed him if that PESKY courier hadn’t jumped to his defense. He was bleeding, was the other? “ Are - Are you alright? Let me see – “

altruistec-blog

Three White Legs had ambushed them; two bodies and a pile of ash lay on the ground. The acrid scent of plasma and burned flesh clung like tar to Liam’s lungs. “Wǒ-- I’m-- I’ll be okay. Don’t worry about me,” he heard himself say over the artificial heartbeat pounding in his ears. His arm was bleeding, pain settling in as adrenaline left him-- but he’d had worse. Daniel’s wounds concerned him more than his own. “What about you? How bad is it?"

#iireniic #(v. the hand you've been dealt | INTERMISSION III: long road to zion)

Thanks to Liam’s artificial heart, he’s immune to poison. Which means, by 2287, he’s survived several assassination attempts that he doesn’t even know happened.

#(about. )#{liam: casually walks out of a room after drinking enough poison to kill a herd of brahmin #would-be assassin: WHAT THE FUCK}

If you have to look along the shaft of an arrow from the wrong end, if a man has you entirely at his mercy, then hope like hell that man is an evil man. Because the evil like power, power over people, and they want to see you in fear. They want you to know you're going to die. So they'll talk. They'll gloat. They'll watch you squirm. They'll put off the moment of murder like another man will put off a good cigar. So hope like hell your captor is an evil man. A good man will kill you with hardly a word.

Terry Pratchett, Men At Arms

#(about. )#{the last sentence anyway}

Liam walking around Zion with a literal healing halo, offering said halo to other people, and having no idea of the symbolism

#{this is my new favorite thing}#(ooc. )#{liam 'what's a jesus' zhou liwei}

Liam already knew about Happy Trails Caravan Company long before he picked up their radio signal on his Pip-Boy. Since Sac-Town is only about 30 miles from the border between Shi and NCR territory, Happy Trails Caravan Company does a decent amount of business with the Shi. (The Shi-Town earthquake, in fact, is one of the reasons Happy Trails is in such bad financial shape.)

Liam never dealt with them himself before joining the expedition to Zion, but he knows plenty of people who have.

#(headcanon. )

altruistec-blog

Liam: I hate the idea that someone out there hates me. I even hate that Caesar’s Legion hates me. I think if they got to know me they wouldn’t hate me. But Ulysses knows me and he still hates me, so.

#{relevant to that last ask}#(ic ooc. )

Do you think that you’re a good person? Do others like you? Do you want others to like you? What do you think others like or admire about you?

Do you think that you’re a good person?

“I try to be. I don’t know if I always succeed, but I always try.”

Do others like you?

“Most people in Vegas do. The NCR and the Legion hate me, though. I guess I understand why.”

Do you want others to like you?

“It’s best to be liked by good people and hated by evil people.” Blatantly dodging the question of what he wants.

What do you think others like or admire about you?

“Um, well.” He rubs the back of his neck, clearly uncomfortable with being asked to brag about himself. “I try to help people whenever I can. And I do my job well.”

#{he's so uncomfortable #bless}#(about. )

I was walking far from home but I carried your letters all the while

#(radio. )

8, 9, 10

8. Should all people be treated as equal, and have the same rights?

“Absolutely.” He pauses, grimacing slightly. “Even Hubologists are people, technically speaking.”

9. If you committed a crime, would you accept punishment willingly?

“If the law’s right, then yes. If it’s just a rule some guy made up for no good reason – or if it’s unjust – then no.”

10. Is suicide ever the right choice?

“That’s a heavy question. If someone has a terminal illness, and they decide to spare themselves weeks or months of suffering… I can’t say they’re wrong for that. Other than that, I don’t think it’s ever right. There’s always something worth living for.”

#{there it is #that casual hatred of hubologists #a hallmark of shi-town}#adiick #(about. )

@rottenguilt

I just realized the crew of the Yangtze reminds Liam of the feral ghouls in Little Yangtze in Big MT.

He doesn’t exactly deal with that well.

#{hope you don't mind me tagging you in this #it seemed relevant}#(meta. )

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loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night