#normelodie

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happy 555 days, normelodie 💙💚

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a quiet moment in the vault // art by @theoddbun !!

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of course, i have an elodie to go with him <3 !! where one goes, the other must follow!

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(click for higher quality)

may I declare my lady fair // is mrs. now, not miss remember this, it started with // you know, a nervous kiss

today marks one year of normelodie! a year ago, i watched the fallout show and fell in love with norm to the point of making an OC to ship with him. so, technically, i watched the show earlier, but today's the day i started designing elodie :D

it all started with, not a nervous kiss, but the idea of a dweller that yearns to see the sunlight. maybe she's gotten more than she bargained for, but i'm so happy this little ship stayed for so long. they've brought me joy when times were tough, and i couldn't be more grateful.

normelodie my beloveds, i hope you enjoy the fast that i gave you a whole prewar AU so you could get married in relative peace. i'm sorry about the normal AU stuff, but it'll build character. trust.

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was asked one of the questions from the fallout oc prompt list in a discord, and it prompted a whole new line of thought in me-

the question was: what do they think about religion, and do they follow any?

now, at first, i was like. elodie would think religion is silly. why would there be some deity in the sky that controls everything, if he let the world turn to this? there's no way this was a god's doing, there's too much death and chaos. if there was a god that allowed this, elodie reckoned, she didn't want to give them any attention. they didn't deserve it.

and then i thought a bit deeper, and realized that the people of vaults 32 and 33 treat vault boy as their god. and so, by extension, vault-tec itself is their god.

oo did i hook you to hit read more. sorry. i wanted to dramatically lead to this.

anyways! so! we do have the basics of vault-tec religion shown in the show. for one, we have the literal priest in vault-tec inspired vestiments. bro is literally in a vault-tec stole. he doesn't have the full priest drip, but in the interest of one dweller not being too different from the others, he's still got a stole. for two, we have the multiple times lucy looks to vault-boy for guidance, in a way that reminds me of people looking to their god for guidance.

now, from here, a lot of it is my headcanon/interpretation. as someone who was raised roman catholic, a lot of that slips in. and a lot of this is also how my oc experiences it, since that's how i frame a lot of stuff. so. yes. sorry about the elodie.

elodie herself is fairly entrenched in this whole vault-boy worship. i'd imagine it's taught from a young age, something that's instilled in them via random quips from older dwellers. make sure you follow the rules, vault boy is always watching. he knows what's best, y'know!

then it seeps into their sex-ed, entwined with the beliefs of the vault itself. don't have a kid outside of marriage, that'll ruin reclamation day. ah, yes, reclamation day, don't you want your children and the other dwellers to be happy? make sure you marry someone nice, and have kids for us, okay? definitely not subliminally pushing the message of "you have one person you can marry" either, given the whole breeding experiment thing in 33. sorry that's just the best way to call it. the 33 dwellers are being selectively bred.

in the same vein, i think they'd also push the 'don't be gay' part. because like, how would that reach the goal of reclamation day? that does not support the next generation. if you must, do it in private and keep it secret.

i think the religious aspect also bolsters the meritocracy. meritocracies often conflict with religion, at least in the traditional sense. but to me they play very hand-in-hand. you get to heaven by doing good deeds.

to me, meritocracy is already 100% in this religious codex. do the best you can for others around you! be a good citizen! or else you'll be judged just a little bit, we'll treat you as a black sheep because you dared push a little too hard on the boundaries. we see it with norm. even though he's liked, he's clearly not fitting in. he doesn't seem to be in consideration for the repopulation of the surface, unlike his sister.

essentially, you get to play a role in reclamation day by doing good deeds. you follow a set of rules, you do them well, and you're rewarded. vault-tec thanks you. you saved humanity by doing everything we said, just right.

i think that vault boy is held up as this pseudo-religious figure, and the main 'icon' of the whole thing. the vault-tec logo works perfectly as a cross. it adorns the vault door. it protects them from everything, the rads, the outside world. the gear is similar. but no, vault-boy has a face, and that provides an emotional power. no one will literally call him god, but they'll say things like "vault-tec gave us this home." and no one is chanting prayers to vault-tec, nor are they actively realizing this is a god-and-follower-like relationship. in a way, though, it'd shift the blame from leadership, and onto this ruleset that vault-tec set.

because, like, if you really think about it... what is a priest if not a middle manager?

wish that was the ending. it sounds kinda sick. anyways, to end it off, i really don't see it as an actual religion. its more cult-like reverence instead, and a way that elodie interprets the rules and carries them out. she must do her tasks, for reclamation day. for vault-tec. just like how people did the crusades, for god.

it makes sense, then, for elodie to cling to vault-tec on the surface. she was meant to bring the light of hope to the surface. instead, elodie carries around her vault-boy bobblehead, the science version. she won it for her excelled science grades in class, and she treats it as a sacred object. it reminds her of her potential, what she's capable of. it reminds her of home. and it reminds her that she has a purpose. she can look to the bobblehead, like lucy, and ask what to do. what would vault boy do?

if only she knew that her god caused this destruction.

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full piece to be posted on their anniversary (6/27) but here's a little teaser <3

aka i am so invested in their prewar au and treat it like their main AU sometimes lmao

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so i made a a dogmeat ita bag for my fallout oc x canon ship :] it's not fully complete, i'd like to add in some small pins i just ordered, but! i'm still happy with how it turned out!!

the bag used to be a cowboy bebop ein bag, and i just. never used it because everyone asked if i watched cowboy bebop. i never have! but, this was a gift, so i wanted to make sure i used it!

so, i decided to repaint it! at first, i was like, i can make this into a yamper. i never did that. then i decided, hm. dogmeat? the dogmeat plush is really cute, so like. we ball. and now i am the proud owner of a custom dogmeat ita bag filled with norm x elodie :D

also peep the vault boy pride.

full, uncharmed versions of the art + credit below!

lovely prewar AU + fancy normelodie, art by @theoddbun

postwar/TV canon cozy normelodie, art by ConfusedEwe

the yapper and the listener, by dinolixe

more yapper elodie x listener norm, by @rayhantochtli

nuka cola quantum + nuka cola norm(al), art by @valhamhart

prewar photography + alt version, art by @nenupiot

not pictured, but this charm is on the zipper for the bag! art by @pudica

thank you to all the lovely artists that helped make my dreams a reality... normelodie ilysm

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redoing my boundaries as we go into s2. sorry for the hard limits i just am crazy about norm ok.

edited to also say that current moots are excluded. but please no references to other ships with norm around me (in comments, etc).

when i make interpretation posts about him i also don't mind discussion, but my interpretation of him is my interpretation. and, it won't change unless canon contradicts it!

in general just don't woobify him and we're chill. norm is (now) confident and cocky and i love him for it ❤️