I think John Hancock and The Ghoul are similar in a few ways, and this is all speculation on my part, however,
They both keep a strict character, not their own, despite having their own distinct personalities and Vices, John Hancock, liberator and mayor, is inherently different from John Macdonough, the hedonistic junkie, and yet it's a strict character he keeps, just like Cooper Howard, the ex-soldier and Hollywood Actor and Family man, is inherently different from The Ghoul, the cold, cowboy bounty hunter, and yet again, this is a specific character he keeps, trying not to stray from.
You could argue that these are self defense tactics, hiding their real personalities as a way to disguise feelings of inadequacy and vulnerabilities they may have, and I certainly feel like that's part of it-
But I also think the strict characterizations they portray serve a more practical purpose:
Allowing them to hold onto their identities as radiation and drugs rot their minds.
Essentially, having these strict characters helps keep them from going Feral.
It feels a bit overdue, so here is a general timeline for Liz and my own take on the Fo3 canon :3
Just a few lil things first
This got long as hell oh my god i literally spent the whole day writing this down. Oh my god thank fuck for the read more omg holy shit
I am, as you will see, a lil loosey goosey with the canon timeline. Welcome to my sandbox, I am playing toys how I want to and I am making shit up as I see fit <3 (Autumn is a synth and Zeta Mothership never happened, fight me)
I've absolutely forgotten some things, or skipped over stuff in an attempt to keep this coherent. Feel free to send asks if you wanna know about anything in particular (just be prepared for a lengthy response lol)
Uuh writing is very fluid for me, and I've been thinking about this shit for over a decade. So I might edit things, or forget what I put where. Sorry in advanced :3
Anywho:
2258
July 13th, Liz is born!
Catherine dies due to complications from childbirth! :D
Work on Project Purity grinds to a halt and James leaves to raise Liz in the saftey of vault 101
2276
James unexpectedly leaves the vault
Amata warns Liz about the Overseer looking for her after his men killed Jonas
Liz, age 18, escapes Vault 101 through the Overseer's secret tunnel and is violently thrust into the outside world with no hope of returning home
(On her way out, she saves Ellen DeLoria from radroaches, and successfully does not kill anyone)
She stumbles into Megaton, asking around for info on her dad. What she finds is just enough work to feed herself and possibly one shady lead if she lets Moriarty hustle her out of 300 caps (which she doesn't have)
Moira offers her supplies and caps for help on the Wasteland Survival guide, and Liz figures it's as good a chance as any to make some money and figure out how not to die before she finds her dad
She spends months scraping together food and supplies, doing short and stupidly dangerous ventures out into the wastes
The first person she kills is a radier attacking her at the Super Duper Mart. She goes to Arefu for Lucy West and "befriends" the vampires in Meresti. She somehow manages not to get blown up scouting Minefield. She develops a healthy and lasting fear of mirelurks after getting a nasty injury in the Anchorage Memorial. There is much and many sidequesting done in this period of time
At some point she tells Lucas Simms about the shady guy who asked her to blow up the bomb, and she learns very quickly about Wasteland justice when that gets Sheriff Simms fucking killed. The guilt is immense, and there is nothing to be done about it.
She does manage to convince Moira to help her disarm the bomb, and gets a house out if it shortly before the whole ordeal.
She makes many failed attempts to navigate the metro tunnels to G.N.R. after hacking Moriarty's terminal to find out that's where her dad was headed
Then she finds Dogmeat while out scavving, and our will be Lone Wanderer is a little less alone <3
2277
Liz finally manages to make it through the D.C. metro tunnels!
Only to damn near get laid out by super mutants before the Lyons Pride shows up and saves her ass
Thanks to the very badass squad in power armor, and their very very attractive leader, Liz makes it to the Galaxy News Radio outpost. Yes she has to launch a mini nuke at a behemoth, and it's the most terrifying thing she's ever had to do, but at least her dad isn't even there at the end of it all :)
Three Dog sees the most pathetic, malnourished, sleep deprived 19 year old to ever take down a mutant monstrosity, and he makes her take a god damn nap. The good fight, for her, is in a bed and a cup of 200 year old noodles.
Too bad the good fight also needs a new radio dish, and one stealthy kid might have a better shot at getting one than a loud squad of undersupplied BOS initiates
Replacing the dish on the Washington Monument is a trial by fire, and Liz comes out of it with a handful of new injuries, the confidence to kill a few dozen super mutants, and the next lead on her dad
That said, she is wiped out and almost literally dead on her feet by the time she gets back to Megaton. She has to recover for at least a week before making the trip to Rivet City alongside a caravan
Now that Three Dog has met her, and G.N.R. has a working signal again, reports of Liz's exploits start getting broadcast across the wasteland
When she makes it to Rivet City, the place is teeming with people and problems and sidequests.
And Liz does not care about any of it, she rushes directly into Dr. Li's lab demanding to know where the actual fuck her dad is gone.
Unfortunately for her, the wild goose chase continues. Madison is baffled to see her alive and oitside of the vault, but has no idea where James went short of his ranting and raving about getting Project Purity up and running again after 19 years
Fortunately for her, she's become very capable of clearing out and poking around the remains of the Jefferson Memorial. And in between killing more mutants and poking around for clues, Rivet City is conveniently close to sidetrack her with odd jobs to afford supplies to do said poking around
Eventually, after finding many heart wrenching ghosts of her mother in the form of journals and papers, she finally finds a newer holotape of her dad talking about the G.E.C.K. and going to look for it in Vault 112
Which means she has to find Vault 112. Which takes her another few weeks to do, having to travel all the way out to a garage in the middle of absolute nowhere where she doesn't even have exact coordinates to go to
While searching around said "nowhere" she stumbles upon Agatha's shack. Turns out this sweet lil old lady is also looking for a Vault, and has heard tell that there's a Vault Tec headquarters downtown that would likely have a list of all the vaults in the area
So Liz detours back downtown, sneaks and fights her way into Vault Tec HQ, and does in fact find coordinates of every Vault in the surrounding area.
And she could just go straight to 112, but she can't just leave the sweet old lady living alone hanging out to dry. So she goes to Vault 92 to recover the Soil Stradivarius violin, figuring her dad can wait a little bit longer.
She regrets this when she finds the vault is infested with mirelurks. Liz really, really, hates mirelurks. She would make the white noise that kills them into grenades/landmines if she knew how.
And at last she makes it to Smith Casey's garage, and decends into Vault 112
2278
If she had known what perverted hell awaited her in Tranquility Lane, Liz probably would've started blasting 112's VR pods to bits instead of getting into one
But she gets out. Her morality is played with, and she agonizes for fuck knows how long over deciphering the failsafe, but FINALLY she gets out and is reuinted with her father, leaving Dr Braun to rot in infinite solitude inside of a computer :3
James is equal parts relieved and horrified to see her. He is completely oblivious to the events inside of 101 after his departure, and doesn't understand why Liz would leave the safe life he tried to build for her
The two make the trek back across the wasteland, back to the Jefferson Monument, and Liz catches him up on all the shit she's been through trying to find him over the course of the year while he was trapped in Tranquility Lane
And even though he is happy to see her alive and rightfully guilty learning what she's gone through, James is still absolutely set on restarting Project Purity.
This adittude starts to solidify feelings of contempt Liz started to harbor for the project the more she learned about it. Her dad may have tried to build her a safe life, but he was really so obsessed with this dream that he completely abandoned her for it, and he still wants to push forward on it after hearing all she's been through to find him
Enter all of the work he has her help do to try and get Project Purity back up and running. They maybe get a week together, working almost non-stop of PP.
Then the Enclave shows up. And James fucking dies :)
Liz is held captive by a brute in power armor, watches her dad gas himself, and then has to lead a gaggle of scientists through a maze of tunnels and protect them from more pursuing power armored brutes.
And then, somehow, they end up inside the BOS Citadel. Liz is completely shellshocked, nearly catatonic as she is entirely unable to process the grief and anger of losing her dad again, and Elder Lyons and Dr Li are asking her to go look for the G.E.C.K.
Her dad just melted his own DNA with a metric fuckton of radiation, and Liz is being asked to go out on yet another wild goose chase to try and salvage the pipe dream that has officially ruined her life
And Sarah Lyons is the only person who seems to care. And if not for her swooping in unexpectedly to ground and comfort Liz, there's a good chance she would've tried to rush the Jefferson Memorial with a mini nuke strapped to her chest.
But Sarah is really good at talking people off of ledges, and she has her own pile of daddy issues to pull from in keeping Liz from going kamakazi
They also maybe have some very emotionally charged intimate exchanges over the next few weeks while Dr Li looks for leads on the G.E.C.K. and Liz tries not to self implode
Then Liz is sent to vault 87. And if there is one thing that could've eased the storm raging inside of her? It would be dealing with a tribe of children living inside the depths of a cave.
She makes it to Little Lamplight, she saves the Lamplighters imprisoned at Paradise Falls, she kills a bunch of slavers and even more super mutants inside of vault 87, and she's almost starting to feel normal
She even meets Fawkes and makes a friend, and between him and Sarah and the Lamplighters, she's feeling less alone than she has in a long time even in spite of losing her dad
Until of course she finds the G.E.C.K. and is immediately kidnapped by the Enclave
She wakes up being held against her will by the same man she watched die along side her dad, which means that James killed himself pretty much for nothing, and she is PISSED.
Something that is not helped by the conflicting back and forth between Autumn and Eden about wether or not to attack her as she forges a damn warpath through Raven's Rock
When she finds out Eden is a computer I think she has a bit of a breakdown. Laughing at the absurdity that turns into shouting and screaming at a machine. Then realizing the "person" in front of her is a computer, and it's asking her to use her dad's stupid dream to effectively commit genocide on mutants. And she has quite a few friends who are mutants, and she's done playing other people's games
She smashes the modified FEV Eden offers her, and manages to initiate a system meltdown and self destruction on Raven's Rock, only just making it out of the crumbling complex before it's destroyed, G.E.C.K. in hand
Somehow, Fawkes is there when she does escape. He followed her from the vault, and he's there to protect her and keep her company on the way back to the Citadel
When they make it back, Liz finds out Dr Li has Liberty Prime up and running, and Sarah is preparing an assault on the Memorial to take Project Purity back from the Enclave
Enter giant god damn robot that throws bombs like a football, aka the coolest way to satarize and criticize America's idealized and whitewashed reign of imperialism and war, I love you Fallout
And then she's back in the rotunda where she watched her dad die. And she kills Colonel Autumn, for good, with a bullet.
And then, because we live in a world where Bethesda did the biggest back track of all time, Fawkes agrees to turn on Project Purity.
And Liz and Sarah are put into comas! :D
Liz wakes up after 2 weeks. Sarah does not. And you'll never guess who blames herself for it :3
So Liz goes home. Her dad's dream is realized, her own life has been utterly fucked in the process, and she is going home to wallow alone in her shack with her dog.
Then she picks up a distress signal on her radio from Vault 101, and hears Amata begging her to come home because the Overseer is mad with power
Part of Liz is tired, and knows better. But part of her is wracked with grief and wants nothing more than to crawl back into a hole in the ground and pretend she's 18 and has never been outside
So we get the events of Trouble on the Homefront (technically not accessible by this point in game but fuck it this is my canon)
She ultimately convinces the Overseer to step down, she faces the ruin left behind after her and her father left, she reunites with Amata only to be told she has to leave again. And she does, and she hates her dad and she hates Amata and she hates herself
And Butch fucking Deloria is itching to leave the vault so damn bad that he's right on her heels as she slinks back to Megaton again
She tries to ditch him, being in absolutely no condition to deal with her childhood bully
But then the BOS is sending for her help with establishing trade routes for clean water, and Moira is bugging her to leave her house instead of rotting, and Butch shows up desperately bored and begging her to show him the ropes so he doesn't get eatten by giant bugs
And she does. Because what else is she supposed to do? At least if she does some odd jobs and gets Butch to the point of taking care of himself, she can ignore all of the BOS's loose ends in the meantime
At least it starts like that. Little scavving missions. Then they help Bryan Wilks in Grayditch, then they get roped into escorting a water caravan and so on and such forth that at some point they're just. Traveling together, and watching each other's backs (see this post for more on them <3)
2279
Liz is still dealing with the internal fallout of everything that's happened to her, mostly trying to ignore it all
She still gets roped into helping coordinate caravans and trade routes between Megaton and the BOS, much to her reluctance
Then Sarah wakes up. And Liz is so burdened with guilt of putting her in a coma and shame of avoiding the Brotherhood, that she doesn't go see her for a good while after
When she finally does, they mutually agree that their priorities lie elsewhere, mainly because Sarah is needed leading the BOS and while they remain on good terms, they're fairly distant
Then Butch takes a bullet to save Liz life, and her emotional turmoil goes from unprocessed grief and anger, to unprocessed grief and anger with a side of romantic confusion. And she is suddenly aware that she doesn't want Butch to leave her like everyone else has left her.
Then Butch is a stupid dumbass and they have their big fight, and instead of being a grownup who communicates her feelings, Liz almost literally runs away to go deal with some unknown issue up in The Pitt. After all, she can't get abandoned if she leaves first!
I should probably make a seprate post about The Pitt, as I could talk about it at length and this is already long. The main points tho:
Wernher takes Liz through the train tunnels to the Pitt. Then instructs her to cross the bridge alone and get enslaved by the raiders
She does so. And it sucks real bad. She hasn't actually been on her own for a while, and she is feeling the absence of Butch and Dogmeat, but she survives the trogs and the manual labor
Everyone is sick and dying, and she learns that she's going to infiltrate the raiders and steal the cure for whatever it is that's turning people into trogs
She fights in the hole, and even if she's off her game she's still a tough son of a bitch by this point. She pulls through and makes it into the Raider's ranks acording to Wernher's plan
Then she's amped to steal the cure, save hundreds of enslaved people, and maybe finally feel like the hero people back home think she is
Except the "cure" is a baby. An infant. Being cared for by her scientist mother. And it's the first time that Liz is faced with a truly impossible decision.
Sure, she's killed people. In self defense. And she's chose not to use Project Purity to end the super mutant threat. Because she knew it would kill innocent ghouls. And yeah, she's been used as a pawn and a weapon, pointed at an enemy and told to act before.
But she's never been asked to steal a baby away from her mother on the off chance it might help end what is actually a very complex conflict
She steals Marie away in a panic, before immediately returning her, and promising to leave. And she's lucky Ashur lets her flee to the train yard, where she finds and confronts Wernher
Then she leaves. Back across the bridge, back to the train tunnels. And she tries to navigate her way back, alone, through an endless labyrinth of underground tunnels
And she does make it, dehydrated, starving, blinded by the sun, bleeding from lacerations that formed from her exposure to the Pitt's air
A couple of caravaner's find her and drag her back to Megaton on the back of their pack brahmin, where she is nursed back to health by Doc Church
She wakes up to scarring flesh, a horrendous cough, and Butch breaking the Dr's door down to check on her
And Liz is a husk of herself. She's depressed, she's plauged by night terrors, she's still not processed anything that's happened to her. And traversing the tunnels back from the Pitt, she's developed claustrophobia. Which she finds out because she has a panic attack in the D.C. metro tunnels
And Butch doesn't know what the hell to do, he doesn't even know what happened to her because she won't tell him
And Liz is so frustrated not knowing what's up with Butch. He's acting weird and she's waiting for him to ditch her, and she's repressing so much
Then they fight again, but for once there's a happy ending, because Butch isn't going anywhere. He's staying with her as long as she'll let him. And despite how mad she is at him for what he'sput her through, it's less than what anyone else has put her through, and having anyone stay is all Liz wants. If she can have just one person stay, she's willing to forgive just about anything. And she wants Butch to stay. (This is not healthy, but it does work out for both of them)
So yay! She has exactly one mostly stable relationship with someone other than her dog <3
But she still has a shitload of unprocessed trauma and crippling claustrophobia, and being depressed af for months means they're running out of money/supplies
And they decide that the best way to fix all these problems, is to go explore vault 106, because Rivet City has issues with rust in thier ventilation systems and vault 106 was supposedly testing some kind of air filtration system
Except actually vault 106 is the one where they were testing psychoactive gas, and Liz and Butch are unknowingly subjected to a torrent of hallucinations and manifestations of all the trauma they've been repressing :3
Which. Is a lot. And really really solidifies the reality that Liz especially is not ok and has not been ok since pretty much the first time she had to leave the vault. And she can't run from any of her problems because she's gotten so horribly tangled up in every little thing going on in the Capital Wasteland
2280
When Sarah dies, it hits Liz pretty heavily. Along with not knowing how to cope with anything else, she reaches yet another breaking point.
And Butch decides they say fuck it, and comes up with the idea to leave. Go wander elsewhere, go to places where no one has heard of the Lone Wanderer. Go deal with unpacking all the bullshit she's dealt with, somewhere else where no one expects anything of her, and she won't have more shit shoveled onto her shoulders
And Liz agrees, as long as they go together.
Im imagining that they start with the ferry to Point Lookout, as it's the most direct and easily available way out of the Capital Wasteland (but i havent played through that DLC in like 4 or 5 years so I need to revisit it)
Then eventually they make it up through Appalachia and the Commonwealth. And they just roam, and wander. They find trouble, they find unexpected moments of peace, and slowly but surely they untangle themselves from everything that's happened.
For as much as Liz came to detest being someone else's pawn, for everything that happened to her because of the choices of the people around her, she finally gets to live for herself. Just her, her dumbass boyfriend, and their dog.
2285
They eventually come back
They get to have 5 years of goofing around, and recovering, with no responsibilities or obligations
They reconnect with old friends, see how the Capital Wasteland has changed as clean water and Maxson's BOS have made settlements safer and life generally more easily survivable
Three Dog hears the Vault kid is back in town, and he asks her to drop by. When she does, he tells her he's retiring, and that he wants to offer her his legacy
And Liz is more than happy to take up the mantle as host of G.N.R. and finally settle down, no longer alone and no longer a wanderer (save the odd scavving trip here and there when she and Butch get bored of sitting still)
(Then MacCready shows up asking her to take care of Duncan, and she does, and there's drama with her and Butch and Amata. She's not even 30, her life goes on, but that last point is such a nice sentiment to end on lol)
Wow.
Hey.
So that was, so much self indulgent text about my OC. And if you're reading this, I am assuming you read all of that. And if you read all of that, I just want you to know that I am crazy greatful that you did. Because wtf omg I literally spend a whole 8hr work day writing this instead of doing my job.
Holy shit.
I love this game, I love these characters, and I love you person on the internet for indulging me <3
Extra special shoutout to @shrugsstuff for asking if I had a timeline, prompting me to actually write all this down
Thoughts on the new Abraxo lore in the new f76 expansion
I do not play fallout 76 HOWEVER it does not surprise me at all that they we were making weapons for the US military and owned by everyone’s favorite bisexual millionaire. I mean, what is a tide pod if not domesticated agent orange?
Yall ready for blorbo posting? Cuz I was once again thinking about the them, and I have thoughts. So welcome back again to Karma talking about Liz and Butch and fallout (for a really long time omg im so sorry)
Today's topic:
✨️Butch's Jacket✨️
As yall may have noticed, I am a huge fan of Liz stealing Butch's jacket. Yes i do love to steal my wife's clothes why do you ask?
I also really like the Tunnel Snakes jacket as like. A symbol. It's symbolic of Butch's tough guy facade, being tied so closely to his obsession with leading a gang. It's a symbol of the past, being something directly tied to his life in the vault.
And it's a symbol of Butch himself as a person. I think much like Liz's scars, as Butch is changed by the wasteland, the jacket would show signs of wear and tear and be changed as it gets damaged and repaired over time. (A hole mended over where he got shot, patches or tears from rough fights/encounters, in general the change of the leather or discoloration on the snake from being worn and exposed to the elements, ect.)
So likewise, there's also symbolism in how Liz treats it.
She starts out annoyed by it as a persistent reminder of the asshole Butch pretends to be, she's seen glimpses of the person hiding behind the facade and she wishes he'd drop the act. One of the ways she pushes that, is by getting in his face and under his skin and poking and prodding at him. Making fun of his jacket is a way for her to make fun of the mask he wears.
As their relationship develops, the poking and prodding that was antagonistic, becomes more playful. Arguments turn into banter, taunting becomes flirting, and doing things to piss eachother off (like stealing a prized possession and flaunting it around) becomes a fun/comforting back and forth.
And finally, by the point of no return where they both actively have feelings for one another, it becomes a comfort thing. Liz wearing Butch's jacket, becomes an extension of Liz finding comfort in Butch's presence. If she's in a position where she doesn't know how to ask him for comfort or she doesn't want to because she's mad at him, well wearing his jacket is the next closest thing to being wrapped up in his arms. And seeing as Liz is seriously touch starved and craves physically affection, the physicality of her wearing the jacket is that much more reassuring.
The way Liz interacts with and thinks about the jacket reflects the way she feels about Butch, because subconsciously she views the jacket as an extension of Butch.
All that to bring me to what I was actually thinking about. Which is the problem of Butch giving the lone wanderer his jacket for saving his mom in the begining of the game.
Now, obviously, I am playing around with Fallout 3's story like it's my own personal playground. I'm not against going off script a lil to make my own canon work how I want it to. Buuuuut I am compelled to try and work in as much of the games canon as possible, because it helps keeps me kinda grounded over here.
Which raises the questions:
If Liz saved Butch's mom, and she would have his original Tunnel Snake jacket from the very start, then why doesn't she wear it? Why steal Butch's? Where even did he get another one?
Originally I thought about just, saying that Butch didn't give it to her like in game. It'd be the most simple solution.
Too bad that's boring as hell lmao
So, ok, first things first. If I'm saying Liz had his jacket the whole time she was outside of the vault, then where did Butch get a second one? If he was jacketless for 3 years, it kinda effects how closely tied it is to his character. Also, in game, he is wearing another jacket when you go back to the vault. He literally did get another one. Which is strange, considering that it'd be really weird for the vault to just have a supply of spare leather jackets right?
Then it hit me. There are 3 jackets at the beginning of the game, but only 2 Tunnel Snakes in Trouble On the Homefront.
The jacket Butch is wearing when the lone wanderer goes back to 101 belonged to Paul Hannon.
If Butch, Paul, and Wally had the only 3 jackets at the start of the game, and then Paul dies and Wally stops playing along with Butch's gang fixation, that means Paul and Wally's jackets would have to be the ones Butch and Freddie are wearing when the LW returns.
And I'm convinced that Butch would want Paul's jacket more than Wally's.
For one, I think Butch would blame himself for Paul's death, at least partly. He was more focused on his mom than his friends, and even after his mom was saved, there's no way he went and helped kill the other roaches. (Which after the last episode of the tv show I dont blame him) And Paul died of radroach wounds.
Secondly, I like the idea that Wally and Butch butt heads a lot. They argue over the gang's name and leadership, Wally drops the gang and is openly against the rebels who want to leave the vault. Which I interpret as him and Butch having a massive falling out after Paul's death (Wally probably projects his grief onto Butch given that he blames Liz and James, but they arent around to be mad at) and this results in Butch replacing Wally in the gang with Freddie.
So okay, Butch has Paul's jacket. The jacket remains a symbol of the person he pretends to be (a badass gang leader) but also now has an added layer of sentimentality and grief (carrying around the weight of losing Paul). It gives him all the more reason to be attached to the thing, even after leaving the vault.
Which is great and fine and dandy, but doesn't explain what Liz did with the original jacket, or why she doesn't wear it.
To this I say, she put that thing in storage and completely forgot about it. :3
Kinda.
Now, I do not think Liz would go around wearing a Tunnel Snakes jacket fresh out of the vault for much longer than she would wear her vault suit.
She saved Butch's mom because, well, it's not like she was going to just let her neighbor die. Even if she hated Butch and didn't really have any reason to like Ellen. The jacket was a nice gesture? But once she has a place to stash stuff, she moves on from the vault suit and stops carrying around the jacket.
I think the only reason she didn't ditch it or sell it to begin with, is only because it's a good idea for survival to have an outer layer to protect yourself from the elements.
And when she goes to stash it? Well, she doesn't really love the memories attached to her vault suit either. But Liz is sentimental, and these things are the only remnants she has of home, so she just tucks them away somewhere safe. Eventually, other things join the stash, like her baseball bat, or Jonas' glasses and the pictures of her and James that she gets back in Trouble on the Homefront, and other sentimental items she ends up with.
And when Butch comes back into her life? I don't think she gives it too much thought. If anything she likely doesn't want him making fun of her for keeping it to start with, then it's just sort of out of sight out of mind.
UNTIL, Butch asks what happened to it. Because of course he remembers giving it to her. And she's part of his gang whether she wants to admit that a gang can be just them or not, so if she had it, she could wear it and they'd match. WHICH HE ONLY WANTS CUZ GANGS MATCH AND THAT'S BADASS. HE DOESNT WANT HER TO MATCH HIM FOR ANY OTHER REASONS SHUT UP (this is a lie).
So he asks her what happened to it, thinking she probably sold it or ditched it, because why wouldn't she? Only for Liz to admit, very nonchalantly, that she carefully tucked it away for safe keeping with the rest of her most valuable possessions.
Which would lead both of them to have individual internal meltdowns of repressed mutual pining <3 as I imagine this exchange is somewhere in that messy middle area, where they're both in deep denial about possibly having feelings for eachother.
And after that it becomes a bit, where Liz steals his jacket and Butch tells her she has her own, but they keep it in storage anyways. At some point Butch would likely trade the two out, deciding he wants Paul's jacket to stay safe before it gets too worn or damaged.
Now, if anyone made it through all that, I would like to ask what it's like being so sexy and cool all the time? And also I LOVE YOU THANK YOU for indulging in my bullshit ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
It's been a min, so here's some fun thoughts out of nowhere, cuz I miss thinking/yapping about the blorbos :3
Idk if I want to fit it into the actual timeline, or if it's more of an AU (as much as a branching idea of a personal canon can be AU lol) but I keep thinking about Liz and Butch in Nuka World
Like, I know lots of folks have their LW head west and also become their NV Courier, but I've always thought it makes more sense for Liz to end up roaming the east coast and end up in the Commonwealth for a lil bit. And she has a fascination with Nuka Cola memorabilia, so it would make perfect sense for her to want to go poke around Nuka World. And because I'm me, I can not stop coming back to the idea of a post-Pitt Liz being dragged into another god damn raider shit show.
So some ideas in no particular order:
Liz and Butch would tag team the gauntlet so bad ass, it would make the raiders so mad. There's no pain and suffering here! >:( These assholes are weirdly good at not dying! Liz would be pretty pissed about being tricked into a stupid raider maze trap. She wants to break shit and ruin their fun. Butch meanwhile would be having a blast helping his enraged girlfriend dissarm booby traps and take pot shots at their tormentors
Then they get to the end, and Liz gets to take out her anger on the Overboss. Which is actually kinda fun and pretty satisfying. Up until Liz is made the Overboss, effectively putting her back in the all to familiar role of playing raider (queue Pitt flashbacks)
and she wants out of it so bad. She insists Gauge do his own stupid plan, or hell, if they have no choice, let Butch do it. He loves acting like a big dick tough guy, let him be Overboss. But nope, she killed the last guy, so she has to be top dog now
Butch is actually on board for playing raider. He may think raiders are dumb, and he knows Liz has raider based trauma. But also? Sorry, Butch "i wanna lead a gang so bad" DeLoria does in fact wanna wear stupid spiky armor and tell a bunch of underlings what to do. He'll do his best to support Liz, but he is doing the worst job at hiding how bad he wants to be second in command to the Overboss
Also he wants to see Liz in raider gear so bad
As much as she hates it, Liz would rather play along than have to deal with hundreds of pissed off raiders. Besides, she's good at pest control and if she just clears the other parts of the park maybe she and Butch can leave without a huge headache
after years of playing tough with wastelanders, plus her experience in the Pitt, Liz can actually be fairly intimidating when she wants to be. It takes multiple pep talks from Butch, and she has to fight past at least one panic attack, but once she gets herself into a raider headspace she is unfortunately perfectly suited to throwing her weight around with the gang leaders
Butch likes watching her threaten ruthless killers a whooole lot 👍
He also loves being an antagonistic little shit since none of them can touch him. He may be a lil pouty about not getting to be the Overboss himself, but he will abuse his position as Overboss's boytoy to it's full extent
if Liz wasn't thrilled about getting caught up in raider nonsense again, she's really not excited about having to deal with mirelurks in the quantum river ride
but it's fine, because NUKA COLA POWER ARMOR. THERE'S NEARLY UNTOUCHED NUKA COLA BRANDED T-51 POWER ARMOR! and also an entire pre-war nuka bottling plant which is just very fun for her. Liz is a Nuka nerd deep down, crabs be damned she would actually be thrilled about the whole stupid building and giant glowing river once the fish food is dealt with
she is later thrilled about the Quantum X-01 armor, but the nerd in her finds the T-51s far more interesting and she's a sucker for the red
that said she would also be thrilled to run into Sierra Petrovita. Liz was a big fan of her museum, and would be excited to see someone normal (well not a murderous raider at least) besides, they've been wandering from the Capital Wasteland for a while, it'd be fun to run in to someone she knows
all of this is fun and good. But as they move on to Dry Rock Gulch, I only have two words. Cowboy Time
Liz is having some kind of time. Mostly a bad time, cool power armor aside. And as far as Butch is concerned? The cure is cowboy gets ups and blasting bugs with revolvers. And he's rootin tootin motherfuckin correct in that assessment. COWBOY. TIME. (he does insist on getting the sheriff badge though since Liz is already Overboss)
Do not worry, they would definitely have a very dramatic cowboy duel, and plenty of cowboy flirting 🙂↕️
Anyways, no that they've had a good chunk of fun and Liz is feeling better, they get to go to Kiddie Kingdom :3 ya know, the place with a bitter ghoul who's grieving his friends and the world he used to know? Who Liz would feel very sympathetic towards and try very hard to help or at least talk down??
Yeah our boys are not feeling super great about killing all the ferals and taking over this guy's home. But by the time they get the full scope of Oswald's story, they're on his front door, and they do not succeeded in quelling his anger...
They liked cowboys way better than candyland
Anyways. They go to Safari Adventure and Butch is rightfully freaked the fuck out by the gatorclaws. But Liz has tangled with things bigger and deadlier than her plenty of times, and now she has an excuse to use the T-51 armor
They maybe find the other power armor outside of Safari Adventure for Butch to get some hands on experience. Power Armor shenanigans would be entertaining, and giant gator mutants is as good a reason as any for Butch to run screaming in a rusted set of T-45
As for the Galactic Zone. I haven't quite found an in canon reason for Liz to hate aliens. But I am a big time Mothership Zeta hater, and it has absolutely poisoned how I view alien/space content in the Fallout universe (I'll never forgive you Todd)
That said, the goobers do enjoy stars and would think space was cool
I can not decide if it's funnier for Butch to believe in Aliens or not, but I am leaning towards not. Boy believes in ghosts whole heartedly (brought up again at the Grandchester Mystery Mansion) but aliens? Naaaah
Liz is just relieved to be wresting with robots instead of living breathing bullshit. Robots can be hacked or turned off, and robots don't have sad backstories or stupid hairbrained schemes... President John Henry Eden not withstanding
Aaaaaand that's all I've got so far, because it's been years since I actually played through all of Nuka World and idk if I want to "canonize" the whole thing. I am tempted solely because of the cowboy stuff though not gonna lie
Anyways I miss my blorbos, I've had so little time for them lately, so thank you for indulging this mess of ideas ♡
What if had been Liz that mumbled the "I love you" in her sleep instead of Butch?
Would he have believed her with all his insecurities? Would he think she was dreaming of Sarah? Or even Amata?
I'm so curious to see how he would have reacted. Also, I just love those two so much! Liz is so compelling and the way you interpret Butch just feels so right!
Omg I hadn't even considered 🥺 (AND I WAS A FOOL NOT TOO)
I absolutely think he would have some doubt about it. Like he would want to believe she meant him, and maybe if it was far enough into their relationship he would, but there would absolutely be that little voice telling him she was dreaming of Sarah or Amata.
I definitely think Butch would be insecure about Sarah especially. Like, he doesn't have to compete with her really, but that doesn'tmean that he doesn't think Liz loved her more. When he gets topside Liz is pretty open about it being over because of the coma and her own guilt, then Sarah wakes up and takes over as elder for the BOS, and then of course she dies, but I think he'd pick up on Liz's absolute heartbreak over it all. She did love Sarah and she wanted it to work out so badly, and those residual feelings would linger even as she was falling for Butch too.
If he thought it was Amata though, he'd get kinda angry sad. By the point in their relationship that Liz would be muttering confessions in her sleep, Butch is Amata's #1 hater. The more he cared about Liz, and the more she's told him about her relationship with Amata, the more ready he's been to throw down lol.
All that said, it makes me really happy to hear that you like how I interpret Butch! I'm very compelled by the complicated person hiding behind the bad boy bully trope, and I worry sometimes that I write/draw him a lil OOC because of it, so I'm delighted that others like him this way ❤️❤️❤️ (also I love that you find Liz compelling! My lil 13 yr old self insert! Beheld and enjoyed by people who arent me!? 🥺❤️)
So I was adding onto this post, and then my thoughts on Amata finding out Liz and Butch are a couple got real long, so I decided to break it into a separate post. (Thank you @gimmethatsweetroll for prompting me to write all this down lol)
SO
I know that she's going to be overall wildly confused.
Definitely she's a bit sad/angry that Liz moved on without her, defiantly jealous and baffled that it was with Butch, but all of it underlined by a fundamental disconnect between how Liz and Butch have both changed while Amata largely hasn't.
The vault dweller mentality is a very pre-defined and stagnant one, and I think Amata, being the daughter of an Overseer (especially such a controlling one), is especially prone to focusing in on a single mindset. (This being the main reason her relationship with Liz ended up so one sided and toxic, because she was more focused on living up to her father's expectations, even at Liz's expense.)
Where the wasteland is messy and volatile and demands quick thinking and constantly challenges someone like Liz to reassess her world view and morals and self image, Amata gets to fall back on doing what she's always done and never has to face any of that. Sure her vault almost fell apart. Sure her best friend got forced outside and her dad went crazy. But she was raised to be a leader, and whether its organizing the rebels or taking over as overseer, she knows how to fill that role, and doing so has (in her mind) always solved her problems just fine. And she's never been challenged to really consider why that is or what the cost may be.
She's similar to Sarah in that regard. Except Sarah takes the time to recognize her own inability to be a leader and her own individual person. Sarah grew up recognizing that her father loved her and wanted to care for her, but was in a position that demanded he be more than her father. I think Amata's father told her the same, but I feel like Elder Lyons actually tried in a way that impacted Sarah differently. So when Sarah finds herself in a position of authority, especially once she has to take over as Elder, she recognizes that she can not be there for Liz the way she wants to be and ultimately tells Liz to move on because she values her happiness.
Amata on the other hand just kinda expected to have both. Liz's happiness was never Amata's primary concern, and Amata never recognized that Liz might need her in a way that she could never be. After all, if her father insisted that he was a good parent and overseer, then Amata must be able to be a good friend and lover and Overseer too. (yippie repressed daddy issues!)
And I don't entirely blame Amata for any of that. From her pov Liz was always there, always had her back, always took the fall, never demanded all of her, even when she was giving Amata all of herself. Hell, after 3 years of exile, Amata sent out an S.O.S. and Liz came running back. Why would Amata expect anything different once she's got all her ducks in a row and she's ready to let vault 101 join the surface world. (and also, if she realized that she was neglecting Liz, she'd have to come to terms with her father neglecting her)
So when she does come up topside and Liz isn't there, isn't waiting for her, and doesn't come running back to her, she doesn't fully grasp why.
Not because she's stupid or anything, but because she's simply never been in any other position.
Unlike Liz and Butch, she's never been rejected or abandoned by anyone. Unlike Liz and Butch, when she comes up to the surface, Megaton is thriving and the BOS is starting to succeed in making the wasteland safer, and there is no driving force pushing Amata away from relative safety.
She doesn't need to scrounge and fight to survive, she doesn't need to scavenge deadly ruins or fight blood thirsty factions. She just needs to barter some trade routes with local caravans and Megaton, and go home to sleep cozy and safe in the vault.
So when she finally does finally interact with Liz and Butch again, it takes her a while to actually recognize that either of them are in fact drastically different people from who they were when they left the vault.
Then when it hits her that they're together, it's a huge shock to her system.
Ultimately, it'd serve to change her world view. It'd make her recontextualize and reevaluate her actions in the past, her relationships, how she did in fact hurt Liz. She'll grow a lot from it, and find a way to be a better person because of it.
But in the moment, she would struggle immensely with a flood of emotions and questions and uncomfortable truths, that she just would not have the life experience to immediately process.
As she does process it and starts to understand how the two have changed, I think she'd see how well they work together and she'd ultimately find peace in knowing they had each other and they're both obviously better for it (even if it'd hurt knowing that she could have never been that for Liz). And I think she would eventually apologize to Liz, allowing them to both find equal footing and closure as well, even though I don't think they would ever be as close as they once were.
As for Butch, I think she'd really come to admire him, as weird as that would be for her to admit. Where Amata was blind to who Liz needed her to be, and where Sarah knew she couldn't be who Liz needed her to be, Butch stubbornly and awkwardly fit himself into that role. And maybe Amata wasn't there for every messy stumble he made towards becoming a better person, but she can tell he did it for her, and ultimately Amata would be able to forgive herself for having added to Liz's hurt, once she sees how happy she is with Butch.
