GIVE US THE DEETS ON AGNES AND JOHNSON NASH!!! how do they feel about each other!! whats their relationship like!! 👀
cc: @corvyknight; @operaland
Ah, of course, well, since you all asked..
As mentioned in the comic, Agnes has been a courier with the Mojave Express for four years. Primm is right there out past the Long 15 from the NCR, so it’s basically the first place she arrived when she first headed into the Mojave. She needed a job that would keep her moving, preferably solitary, and a courier gig was the perfect job. Given the instability in the region (with the first battle of Hoover Dam at the same time and all), it turned out that there was a lot of turnover for couriers, and most of the ones applying were young, spunky NCR-rejects who thought it’d be some kind of adventure.
Not Agnes. Her and Nash got along quick. They’ve got similar worldviews, very practical and down-to-earth above all else, and he respected that she came into work and just delivered the damn mail. No delusions of grandeur, not big bright eyes. It took her a little longer than some of the other couriers since she ran about ten years older than the twenty-somethings usually doing the job, but not once did she ever miss or err, and every time she came back in one piece. That’s dependency, and damn if Nash doesn’t appreciate dependency.
On Agnes’ end, she’s never really had much in the way of, like...good older men in her life, especially since her father died when she was young and she was raised by her mother and aunt. Nash’s stern but sweet demeanor towards her is very fatherly in that regard, and a relationship that’s really important to her even if the two aren’t, like, walking through the park every Sunday afternoon. They smoke in the Express office chatting about goings-on, Nash has her over sometimes for Ruby’s cooking, Agnes does some occasional odd jobs to help out...again, they’re not a storybook found family or anything but have a really deep (mostly) unspoken affection and appreciation for each other. If you asked either of them they’d probably say the other’s just a very good co-worker and neighbor (since they’re literally neighbors, out in Primm’s neighborhood of ruined houses).
I also tried to convey this in Johnson’s line about Cassidy Caravans, but like...he’s an old, grounded guy but he’s the kind to “make an effort,” as they say. He’s not being facetious, he’s genuinely correcting his own assumption. Nash never gave Agnes any bullshit for being a trans woman in all the four years they’ve known each other, never even really brought it up which was an immense relief to her, but y’know, he’s like, trying. I based him on a lot of older family members I know in that regard, ahaha, just this very self-aware yet genuine “heart in the right place-ness.”
tl;dr he’s agnes’ not-dad
