thanks to atom's prosthetics and synthetic heart/spine, he will always be highly likely to survive a natural lightning strike.
the construction of his mechanical body parts will guide electricity onto themselves, and away from his internal organs. his heart particularly is designed to survive such an event.
granted; lightning is unpredictable, and a controlled or artificial strike can still hurt him, but he has more tools to manipulate the odds than most people.
feel like getting back into giving atom rlly esoteric headcanons. hes left handed but shoots with his right. he wins more poker games while high than while sober. he does not know how to hold a baby and if handed one will kind of hold it outwards in two hands like a fisherman holds a big fish.
an addendum to that hc is that in modern verses where he runs a prosthetics shop he will often have the shop's garage door open and ppl will just be able to walk in to chat with him and often do because he is generally friendly and well-liked
when atom doesnt have a Big Goal to accomplish and is just living in vegas or whatever city an au requires of him, he acts as a local fixer. he trades favors and handles issues amongst the community and does his best to prune the weeds.
Here it is. I’m gonna stop being cheeky and spell it all out.
Owen Callahan and Lola Palomo are Institute scientists. They are both highly competitive, with each other especially. During their twenties they underwent a whole rivals-to-lovers thing. They proceeded to marry and have three kids. Herb, Marvin, and Earl Callahan. All ginger, like their father, despite the statistical improbability of that.
Owen and Lola did not have a parenting philosophy, so much as they had a teaching philosophy. They viewed their children as vessels for their combined knowledge, and focused very hard on teaching them as much as possible through rigorous daily tutoring. Unfortunately for the boys, this curriculum did not include connecting emotionally with their children. Every type of science under the sun, and a simple music class, but nothing so much as a hug if it wasn’t a reward for a perfect test grade.
The boys all reacted differently to this parenting method. The eldest, Herb, applied himself fully to his lessons, and internalized a deep desire to gain his parents’ approval through academic success. As his brothers were born and began to grow, he became highly competitive, and sought to best them in every subject. This created a rift between Herb and the younger two, where he was often given praise over them, leading him to accept his parents’ methods and internalize them.
Marvin was a crybaby. His reaction to doing poorly in tests and being denied a hug or a bedtime story was open sobbing. He did not understand why his parents were denying him emotional support because some symbols on a page didn't match up for some arbitrary reason. It was worse when Herb made fun of him for getting wrong answers. This was a frequent occurrence, and the boys often fought.
Earl was the youngest, and seemed to do just as well as Herb had at his age. The larger age gap prevented him from being pitted against his brothers in competitions, and so he did not struggle to bond with either Herb or Marvin. He was also something of a troublemaker; frequently knocking over blocks or other teaching tools.
Once, while still too young to speak sentences, Earl was being babysat by his godmother, alongside Marvin and Herb, while their parents were at a conference. Earl showed great joy at the symbols on the pages of a cardboard children's book about the structure of atoms. He babbled and giggled and flapped his arms and everything. From this he gained his nickname; used by everyone he met aside from his parents.* Henceforth shall he be referred to as Atom.
*Their refusal to use his new, better, name, was the first real thorn in Atom’s relationship with his parents.
As they grew into teenagers, the rift between Marvin and his parents grew wider. He was the relatively functional relationships between the other Institute kids and their parents, and knew that life could be better. But his parents refused to listen to his pleas. Eventually, at age 17, he successfully pulled off an escape from the Institute. It involved coding a virus that would disrupt the Institute’s systems for long enough for him to make his escape, after which he had to evade detection and capture by the synths that were sent out after him. He was also weighed down by one unexpected issue: His twelve-year-old brother had decided to tag along.
After a successful escape, Marvin and Atom moved rapidly west across the U.S.. Too paranoid to stay anywhere for long, lest they be located by any of the institute’s agents, they rarely stayed anywhere for long. They quickly learned how to fend for themselves, using jurry-rigged pipe-guns, a policy of travelling at night, and a trust that only grew as the years passed.
By the time they reached Nevada, they were in their early-to-mid twenties, and had gained a reputation for being extraordinarily resilient and persistent. They were hired on by the Mojave Express, and spent the eight years working as couriers along the route between Nevada and the NCR. From this work, a community grew along that road. Hopeville. And from one package Atom carried, it was all laid to ruin.
Atom and Marvin had been working separately for several years by this point, and after the disaster that created the Divide, Atom did not know his fate. In truth, he survived, and is currently employed at a bioresearch facility in the NCR. He himself has reason to believe that Atom died in the Divide. Neither has seen the other since.
Following this, the events of the game begin. Atom is shot in the head in the intro, and remembers absolutely nothing from before his injury. He can still recall information that he was taught as a child, but not where he learned any of it from. The person that he once was may haunt him subconsciously, affecting his decision-making, but the damage to his left hippocampus may prevent him from ever remembering more than the barest thing.
As for his family in the Institute, Herb continues to suffer from a childhood without learning how to manage his emotions. He ties his success deeply to his mental state, and suffers with breakdowns and temper-tantrums if he fails at anything. He struggles to connect meaningfully with his colleagues, and is generally self-centered and rude.
Meanwhile, Owen and Lola struggle with the loss of their two youngest children. They are convinced that the problem child Marvin kidnapped Atom (whom they still call Earl) and that they have surely both died in the wasteland. They continue to work and challenge each other to reach new academic heights, unknowing of all the damage they caused.
