Some random headcannons for my 2 versions of courier six from fallout new Vegas (this is going to be a lot of text)
-she was born February of 2252 in what was once Washington state
-she had an older brother named Liam, and her mother was a recent widow at the time of her birth
-in 2261, a drought struck her hometown, it became increasingly hard to survive. People started leaving in large numbers
-Ethel, her mother, and brother, traveled south, down to Oregon, where Ethel’s mother started working as a server in a bar. She didn’t get paid much, but she and her kids were given shelter and food
-this is where Ethel learned to read, she started by just practicing with the inventory stocks from previous months, then moved on to some old books the bar owner let her borrow. She had only become literate around age 19 (2271)
-in 2273, Liam said he was going down to California, saying he was going to get a job and a house and then have them come over and live with him, since California probably had better opportunities than a middle of nowhere town in Oregon. They never found out what happened to him, just that he didn’t ever come back.
-in 2275, Ethel’s mother died. Now Ethel was fully alone at 25 years old. She decided to leave Oregon, hitch a ride with a caravan for a bit, just see where it took her.
-she traveled around the west coast and northwest for about 2 years, before arriving in the Mojave in 2277. This is where she decided to stay, it was the exact opposite of what she had grown up with, and she liked that.
-she did mercenary and bounty work for about a year, as well as other odd jobs here and there, but officially joined the Mojave express in 2278, at the age of 26.
-the events of the game occur 3 years later in 2281. Ethel sides with the NCR, since she thinks they are the best option for the Mojave, although she sometimes regrets following their orders, and occasionally has to ask herself if she’s doing the wrong thing.
-a few months after the events if the game, she’s given the award mentioned in the end slides, and told she can enlist in the army if she wants. She refuses, she likes to wonder around, doesn’t want to stuck somewhere and not be able to leave.
(I don’t have any DLC, so my versions of the courier never did them)
-born in July of 2249, in the NCR.
-he has an older brother named Paul, and 3 younger sisters named Coral, Christina, and Kayla
-his father is a lieutenant in the NCR military, his mother is a doctor
-he had a formal education, but didn’t do very well in a traditional system, preferring instead to fix things
-his performance in school was not helped by the fact that he had a strong anti-authority streak, and would go out of his way to cause issues for people who had power over him (teachers, parents, etc)
-At the age of 20, he attempted to join the army at his parent’s insistence, but didn’t make it very far because he refused to follow any direct order
-for the next few years, he worked at what was essentially a repair shop, fixing guns and gear and getting things that people accidentally locked to open.
-just disappeared for a odd year or so in his mid 20s, wandered around the county, went as far as Montana before returning home
-he was 28 when he became a courier, he saw an ad for the Mojave express, and decided this would get him far enough away from his parents, who were starting to complain that he didn’t have what they considered a real job (like his brother, who became an engineer, or his sisters, who became a teacher, a midwife, and a soldier)
-the games events happen when he’s about 32, he does independent ending, killing Caesar and Lanius, and then throwing Lee off the dam.
-he just leaves a few months after doing this, like pops in occasionally, but 9/10 times nobody knows where he is or what he’s doing
These are both just very basic overviews, I’ll probably make more things in the future with more specific events or just how they exist (based on how I play the game), companions, relationships, reputations, etc