How can you tell that Radiation in Fallout is "magical"?
Well, barring the magical mutations--its about what this radiation doesn't do.
[ discussions of body horror below, you've been warned. ]
Cancer. By the sheer exposure of radiation. Infact, I'd be there's a dramatically increased chance of it in Fallout.
Blindness. You know what you don't hear about? Anyone getting blinded because they looked directly into the Nuclear Gods Damn Explosion.
Sunburnt insides. Just ask the poor bastards exposed to the "Demon Core". Nuclear Radiation is basically like being Microwaved.
Deformatity. There would be. Be it simple stunting or be it dramatic and horrific, and that's not even getting into the dangers of the wasteland doing gods knows what to you.
Non-Dissipation. It has been plainly argued, a lot, that by 200 years, a lot of the Eastern Wasteland should be clear of the more blatant pieces of radiation in water and soil. The fact that it hasn't, suggests that there's something up with the "fallout" that isn't typical nuclear radiation.
Phony Jaw. This was the greatest Terror of the Early to Mid 20th Century, because they used to put Radium in EVERYTHING. It used to be Prescribed. It used to be in Makeup. It was on CLOCKS. Phony Jaw is when you're JAW GODS DAMN ROTS FROM YOUR FACE BECAUSE YOU'VE BEEN EATING OR IMBIBING RADIUM. [ Be very careful about googling phony jaw, there are some pictures you don't come back from. ]
In the fallout universe, you drink Radiation, you Eat Radiation, and yet, everybody's skeleton seems perfectly fine and intact.
This is just minor small stuff. Things you generally don't think about when you're playing games, defeating bosses, grabbing loot, and not thinking about "How come so many people become raiders, and if raiders out populate the settlements, have I actually been killing the average wastelander who might need more help than a bullet, and whom took on a "shoot first ask questions later" mentality because of the dangers surrounding them?"
So yeah, Fallout Radiation is more magical than you thought. Its practically Anomalous.
yeah I know they're not gonna write realistic radiation. its a video game, at the end of the day, a baseline knowledge is all you need to play the game and accept "yep this is what this storybook world is like". but the more you know about real radiation, the more you're not just aware of the world around you, the more, i find, you can, in fact, enjoy the fictional. because now, you can make a discussion that, say, fallout's radiation has anomalous properties ala SCP, instead of just a low-grade story-book excuse element to make "ENVIRONMENT BAD". you can prolly even expand your own personal fallout stories with these new angles in mind--whilst also recognizing that, in real life, you don't come back (intact anyway) from radiation poisoning.
storybooking is how you learn how to accept the thought of something, so that you may accept its existence in increments. radiation is a horrifying existential element of our world, and to see it all at once would drive you to nightmares. but to take a little at a time, making stories around it inch by inch, so that you can accept the horrors without being driven into the forever box, is literally how humans cope with things. which is why I'm not trying to be that hard on Fallout. storybooking serves a purpose. yeah its a bitch and a half to convince people "no raidation doesn't act like this", but y'know, full exposure to reality without preparation is traumatizing, and even baseline informing has to be careful lest you scare someone into simply not reading whatever you wrote because the anticipation of unknown horrors and pains and exposure without support, kills useful knowledge or good intent.
plus y'know, video game fun.
Now for the real stuff.
Ever wanted to know what, in real life, constant radiation exposure and ingestion, actually does to you overtime? Want to know why all the radioactive stuff in cartoons and media looks like Green paint instead of whatever fallout-exposed materials? Want to know about why there's workplace regulations and the fact that, at one point, business could keep your body and direct who your doctor was, so that they don't get exposed for killing people?
Ask the Radium Girls.
[ be careful on research. This is real life body horror, as well as real life capitalism horror. like the above--there are some pictures you don't come back from, so either keep your wits or keep it word of mouth.]
