open invitation for anyone who wants to talk fallout ocs with me LOL
required reading:
pinky meets benny at the tops (fic)
pinky's drug use
pinky rescues benny from the legion (fic)
pinky's pivotal int moment
everything to do with OWB
rating ships w/ pinky based on how toxic they would be
pinky relationship dynamics
her ref
all my fallout ocs heights
-
I have multiple fallout ocs! pinky is my favorite, so you'll hear a lot from her.
au versions -> her fursona is a pig (used to be a bobcat), her warrior cats name is pinkstar, her owl species (guardians of gahoole) is a burrowing owl, she is a rainwing (wof), her pokemon partner is psyduck.
[Fallout] Kind of grinds my gears that the Enclave is never referred to as the United States after Fallout 2. Enclave was the name of the oil rig, not the faction. It was the United States aboard Control Station Enclave.
The description of President Richardson when you "look" at him: "You see the head of the free world, the President of the United States."
Most Enclave characters will also refer to the faction of which they're affiliated to as the United States...
President Richardson: "I am the President of the United States. The Vice-President is in the office outside. If you belonged here you'd know that. Who are you and what are you doing here?"
Vice-President Bird: "Of course you do, of course. Any loyal citizen of these great United States would do the same."
Doctor Curling: "I'm Lt. Col. Dr. Charles Curling, United States Chemical Corps. And just who the holy hell are you?"
Enclave Comms Officer: "Yeah, you know how unhappy he gets when people complain. He takes it personal, like it's a loyalty thing. Maybe that just goes with being the President of the United States. Or what's left of 'em."
I could go on, but I think you get the point. Technically if you "look" at any of the civilians aboard Control Station Enclave, you get: "You see a citizen of the Enclave." However, this is because they are a citizen of the location Control Station Enclave, not that the faction itself is called that.
Addendum. They actually do get referred to as the United States in Fallout 3, however, it seems more like the writers are differentiating the two terms. Whenever the Enclave gets referred to as the United States, they specifically say the "United States government."
Colonel Autumn: "When you see the Enclave, you see the United States government. We are authorized to restore order and civility, by any means necessary."
Colonel Autumn: "You're in a heap of trouble, kid. You're a traitor to the United States government. You know what happens to traitors, don't you?"
Colonel Autumn: "By the authority of the President, this facility is now under United States government control."
It comes off like they're insisting that the faction is the Enclave, and the term United States largely just refers to the physical location. In Fallout 76, they fully cement the difference.
MODUS: "The Enclave were the true masters of the United States - thinkers, fighters, philosophers - united in their goal to protect the world from chaos and collectivism."
Never noticed this, but really interesting when you think about how there seems to be this idea in the latest Fallout instalments that the Enclave is this super secret, evil cabal of mad scientists and ruthless military personnel instead of exploring how the United States descended into full blown fascism before the war.
Imperialist rivalry can only end in brutal destruction, as we saw in World War 1, now add nukes to the mix. In the Fallout 1 intro we're told that:
In the 21st century, war was still waged over the resources that could be acquired. Only this time, the spoils of war were also its weapons: petroleum and uranium. For these resources, China would invade Alaska, the US would annex Canada, and the European Commonwealth would dissolve into quarreling, bickering nation-states, bent on controlling the last remaining resources on Earth. In 2077, the storm of world war had come again. In two brief hours, most of the planet was reduced to cinders.
And in the Fallout 2 intro:
The end of the world occurred pretty much as we had predicted. Too many humans, not enough space or resources to go around. The details are trivial and pointless, the reasons, as always, purely human ones.
Imperialism, ambition, consumption, the problem of wanting infinite growth when there's limited resources, and pairing this with full blown fascism a la Americana we have a really vivid picture with just a few brush strokes. The details are trivial and pointless. We don't need the game handing us answers to these questions because we already have the answers in history. Making the Enclave the ultimate baddies always made me feel like it made the world of Fallout less interesting, less complex.
Dr. Li had to literally watch her one of her friends and colleagues die. Unable to do anything but take her friendâs newborn to the other room while Catherine went into cardiac arrest and died on the table. She had to watch James leave, watch all their work fall about, and then pick herself up and start all over again in Rivet City. She has spent years working in Rivet City, gaining respect and making progress, only for James to appear outta nowhere and claim they were gonna finish what they started over 20 years ago. Who wouldnât be bitter, frustrated, confused, or any combination of those emotions? I donât understand this weird resentment so many FO3 players have towards a woman who has every right to feel conflicted and upset.Â
And like, I do get that her leaving without knowing if the Lone Wanderer ever woke up/lived is arguably a bad choice, but 1) your face is such a painful reminder for her and 2) itâs so much more interesting when characters make bad or questionable decisions. I thought we liked complicated characters?? Or is she not allowed to do that. I think Madison making the decision to not stick around is a very compelling choice for her character; it doesnât read as not caring, it reads as genuine fear of having to lose you. If she doesnât have to acknowledge the Lone Wanderer might be gone, then they can continue to exist in a more nebulous sense. There is no âend pointâ for them. She can avoid accepting the fact that an entire family she loved is dead. She can avoid the survivorâs guilt. And whoâs to say that she isnât continually impacted by this grief? In the end, she just wants to be left alone and do her research in peace. Madison Li is exhaustedâsheâs lost everyone, her work continues to be invalidated, and Brotherhood or Institute, sheâs continually being bossed around, had her work used in ways she does not agree with, or even lied to. I think sheâs allowed to feel upset.Â
Dr. Li is very decidedly not a selfish person. Sheâs not acting this way out of some sense of greed or entitlement; she genuinely just wants to do work sheâs passionate about and not have to worry about surviving. Her goals are always focused on wanting to better the wasteland itself. She wants to help people. If you speak to her in FO4, she remarks:
âAll those innocent people up there... dying. And here I am surrounded by technology that could make their lives better.â
âAll those people dying in the Commonwealth while I was surrounded by food, medicine and comfort. How could I be so blind to the Institute's greed?â
And she will become furious if youâve convinced her to return to the Brotherhood because sheâll be asked to work on Liberty Prime again.Â
âAnd for a moment there, you almost had me thinking that you actually cared about the CommonwealthâŠâ
Liberty Primeâs creation is literally one of the major reasons she left.Â
âI left the Brotherhood because they had me work on weapons of warâŠI was tired of being stepped on and usedâŠ.â
In fact, if you speak with her after you destroy the Institute with the BoS, sheâs one of the few NPCs I can think of who is genuinely angry with you for doing so. Itâs not out of any loyalty to the Institute, but the fact that you still killed a bunch of people. She is actively critical of the Institute just as much as the Brotherhood, but she is still aghast that youâd kill so many people. That you werenât using Liberty Prime as leverage for surrender, but that you went the route of destruction.Â
And that seems to be the recurring theme for Dr. Li. Her life is defined by loss. Sheâs often caught in the middle of terrible situations with hard choices to make at every turn.Â
[to the Sole Survivor] ââŠyou were sleeping peacefully in your little tube while I went through a very special kind of hell.â
Perhaps itâs not uniqueâeveryone whoâs born and raised in the wasteland has struggled with hardships in similar or even greater scale. And Madison gives off the impression of someone who does recognize just how lucky sheâs been comparatively. She will remark in FO4 about the things sheâs gotten to have while others suffer. It very clearly weighs on her. And despite her debatably better circumstances, it doesnât mean the traumatic events sheâs suffered are any less impactful and heartbreaking. You cannot blame her for being jaded. It seems like no matter what she does, she will lose someone she loves. Even her one friend in the InstituteâVirgilâends up having his death covered up. Over and over again, itâs nothing but loss. Dr. Li continues to be one of the most enduring characters in the series. Sheâs someone who struggles to deal with her grief and puts walls around herself to try to protect herself and what little she has left. She makes wrong choices in her pursuit of doing good, and sheâs well-aware of being stuck in the middle. And I think that self-awarenessâhypocrisy, evenâis not out of insincerity, but rather that sheâs human.Â
âWhen she died, I think... I think he gave up. I know he wanted to keep you safe, but I think part of what he did was run away.â
Sound familiar?
Ultimately, She wants to leave the wasteland better than she found it. Better than it found her. Her life is defined by death, by being left behind, and if she can do something to make up for it, she will. She doesnât like to talk about herself, and instead wants her work to speak for her.
â[They] turned my work into a weapon of war.â
A woman whose life is nothing but deaths happening around her, out of her control. Sheâs a deeply tragic character who is never given the same grace as others (I wonder whyđ), someone who has good intentions and works to do what she can to help others, but who simply has a somber disposition given what sheâs been through. If anything, itâs a testament to her resolve that she hasnât let her bitterness cloud her work. She will make this world better in spite of everything it has dealt her.
any lone wanderers out there who are just complete haters of butch? no romance, not even friendship, just bitter resentment from all of the years of bullying and torment.
2087
tangentwithtanner
sugurugetos
areudirty
theartofmadeline
titsay
gracieabrams
izzy806
