Plotting out and writing Veronica's personal quest progression and first actual fight with the Legion has been wild. It really just highlights how nuts her experience with Corey really is. Like.
Imagine you're from a technology-obsessed militaristic cult, and you've been told your whole life that you need to guard technology from outsiders, that it's what makes you stronger than everyone else. But you're constantly getting in shit for questioning the codex and you feel like something really isn't right about the way you're all doing things. Like seriously, how good can your method be if you can't even be a lesbian without endangering the group's ability to continue existing? You just don't know where to start on fixing it when you've never really known anything else.
Then this courier and her emotional support sniper pull up while you're buying scrap electronics, and they look tough as hell, so you ask if they'll bring you with them so you can see how some other groups are doing out there, and they're like "yeah sure as long as you don't mind us committing acts of extreme and brutal violence against the Legion along the way". And you're like. "Oh. Well yeah okay I've heard about those guys raping and enslaving people which is fucked up, so sure that's fair. A little disturbing though".
So then you follow them around for a bit and they go to some really interesting places where you're learning all about how different groups are thriving in the Mojave and you're starting to question a lot about your people's ideology. The courier is really kind and pleasant, she and the sniper are ex-NCR but they don't even judge you much for being Brotherhood which is nuts. She's working with these cool people called the Followers of the Apocalypse, giving free medical treatment to poor folks in Freeside and basically doing all the things you wish the Brotherhood was doing. She's putting her ass on the line doing diplomatic negotiations and organizing an alliance between the NCR and some xenophobic gun-obsessed shut-ins, which definitely doesn't bring anything up for you. She's so nice and altruistic, always smiling and making jokes, and you kind of start to forget about that extreme and brutal violence thing she mentioned.
Then one day you're with them on an outing and come across a bunch of Legion guys, this big fucking horrible boogeyman you've heard everyone whisper about. And not only are they dressed up in stupid Roman togas and football pads like you've heard, but they also only have like, one gun between them. And you're like. "???? How are these guys with knives giving the NCR more trouble than the Brotherhood of Fucking Steel????". And the courier is like. "Well they're really, really fast guys with knives. And there's lots of them". And you've kind of accepted that power fist does not always beat gun, but come on. It definitely beats knife. So you're fully like "That's stupid I can totally take these assholes no problem.".
And then you fight them, and they really are the fastest guys with knives you've ever fucking seen. Like these guys nearly kill you, you get overwhelmed by their numbers and your head would have been chopped off if the sniper hadn't jumped in and shot one of the guys attacking you. So you're reeling because not only did you just get confronted by your own mortality, but you're also seeing very viscerally that your people's entire worldview is definitely flawed and technology is not going to save you. Power fist very nearly did not beat knife. And you turn to your right and you see that really kind and constantly-smiling courier just absolutely covered in blood, completely dissociated from reality and going to town repeatedly stabbing a legionary who's definitely well past dead by this point. And you turn to your left and the sniper is double-tapping a couple more legionaries with the same casual emotionless vibe as one would have sweeping the floor or vacuuming. And you just have to be like. Well I guess they did warn me about the extreme and brutal violence.
Went out to the shooting range recently and I will not lie, I was thinking "this is great Corey and Boone inspiration" the whole time. So, some thoughts:
Boone having an INT of 3 is fucking insane in the context of being a sniper who gives the spotter perk. There is no way he's doing all the necessary aim adjustment calculations in his head. He's probably using a very approximated math cheat sheet and a lengthy D.O.P.E. card. Conversely, I interpret V.A.T.S. and its related perks as Corey having programmed a ballistic computer in her pip-boy that she's constantly refining and improving.
The ingame hunting rifle lacks a bipod, and most closely resembles real rifles that generally require manual stabilization. A good option for these is wrapping the rifle sling around the bicep of your stabilizing arm and pulling it tight back into your shoulder. Given that usually Boone wears short sleeves and Corey wears tank tops, after a long time under the sun doing scouting ops, these idiots are both developing some EXTREMELY stupid-looking tan lines from their slings.
A spotter can come in clutch in so many ways beyond their general role of managing aim, confirming hits, and maintaining perimeter. They're also good for helping with anything you don't want to look away from your sights or let go of your gun for (especially if it's going to disturb your bracing). Corey and Boone get pretty used to being each other's hands- loading magazines, providing water or food, adjusting glasses or hats, scratching itches, or tucking loose hairs out of the face.
Staring down your sights can get really hard on the eyes, especially if you're focusing on the use of only one and causing an imbalance in the amount your ocular muscles are working. In Corey's case, where she already has a bad eye, the unbalanced eyestrain can be especially rough, and she sometimes gets nasty headaches. To minimize additional strain in other aspects of life, she actually carries a pair of reading glasses to help when she's looking at small objects, even though she doesn't necessarily need them. (This is also the practical reason for the 'snipers wearing sunglasses' thing. Eyestrain is the enemy and the sun is a deadly laser.)
I fear these bitches are both ending up with permanent hearing damage. They are definitely not wearing ear protection, and a .308 is a rifle you can feel in your face when it's fired next to you. Tinnitus buddies for life. By the time they're 40 they'll be practically yelling to each other in an otherwise quiet room.
Apparently experienced and perceptive people can identify what rounds are being fired by the sound of them travelling through the air. Mostly this is when under fire, being able to identify what weapon your enemy just fired at you. I think both of them can at least pick out the calibers most used by the Legion. I also think at some point pre-amnesia, Corey was in ranger training with people shooting past her while she was in defilade so she could learn to ID the sounds. Because that's the kind of thing I'm sure they put their recruits through.
Thinking tonight about Corey and Boone. Woman who firmly does not believe in luck or destiny, man who only joins her because he fully thinks it's his fate to die alongside her. Woman who can't remember her past and man who can't stop remembering his. A pair who are perceptive enough they can read other people like a book, but would rather die than consider even one (1) of their own emotions. Guy who hasn't laughed in months and gal who is most comforted by comedy. And also, crucially, they're both so casually bloodthirsty about the Legion that it's just. Kind of unsettling to the people around them.
Okay. Okay. Thoughts abt Corey and the gang's dynamics:
- Living in the Lucky 38, everyone has their own room. Corey has the master bedroom in the suite, and Boone took the room attached to it. Veronica, Arcade, and Cass ended up claiming rooms on the same floor, just not directly connected to the suite (because I frankly refuse the idea that they're all sleeping stacked up in those two queen-sizes). They all eat together in the kitchen, though, and spend time hanging out or strategizing in the lounge room. Cass also regularly falls asleep on the couch in the lounge, and Veronica sometimes crashes on the couch in Corey's room when they stay up late tinkering together. The pool table in the lounge also doubles as an operating table when covered in sheets, in a pinch. Arcade finds it upsettingly unhygienic, but the rest of them continue playing pool on it despite the bloodstains from that time Corey pulled buckshot out of Cass's ass on it.
- They all rotate who cooks, at least when it's reasonable to do so. Corey and Cass are the better cooks, though most of their cooking is stuff you can make over a campfire, and Cass always makes things a little spicier than anyone else prefers. Boone and Veronica are okay, Boone underseasons stuff but makes a hell of a steak, and Veronica pretty much only makes soup. Arcade... understands the theory of good food, but is usually more concerned with nutritional completeness than palatability, and also tends to overcook things for safety.
- When packing for the road, Corey always tries to bring what she calls "morale supplements" for everyone- Fancy Lads Cakes, Nuka Cola, nice booze, books or magazines she knows someone hasn't read yet but might like, or even just an extra caravan deck. These are usually broken out every three days, or after a nasty fight. She also generally avoids eating at a meal until she's sure that everyone else is happy with what they've got, and will always eat the shitty leftovers. She's pretty focused on keeping everyone in good spirits, which almost makes up for the fact that she regularly has to be reminded that they need to stop and eat or sleep to keep her from neglecting basic physical needs while travelling. It's hard when you're brain-damaged.
- Corey often asks people about their lives and perspectives on the wasteland, or even encourages history lessons for places she thinks she already knows- all to try and see what resonates with her and see if anything jogs her memory. Sometimes it comes across like she's grilling random folks about their life story, and one of the gang usually has to remind her those questions might be overly personal. At some point, Cass suggests playing "Never Have I Ever", and seeing whether her instinct is to drink or not. This doesn't work super well, and they've had more than a few rounds that were VERY awkward for everyone, but occasionally on high-spirited nights they still play.
- ED-E is obviously uh. Controversial among the group. Arcade doesn't like having it around, since it makes him nervous about being connected to the Enclave. Cass finds it weird and unsettling to have a flying robot around watching her all the time. Boone finds its enhanced sensors useful, but is annoyed by its insistence on playing music when they get into a fight, which blows any chance at stealth. Veronica actually kind of adores it, loves its portable multitools, and finds the music really cute- she's pretty bombastic in combat anyway. Corey herself is pretty torn because like Boone, she values stealth, and she knows that a lot of her companions are uncomfortable with its presence. But she also feels sympathy towards a lost and wandering thing that was disabled and thrown off course in life by being shot. So she keeps it around and brings it on more missions than she ordinarily would out of pity.
- Rex is one of Corey's best friends. Sometimes, when they're alone, she tells him everything she can't say to another human. They have a rocky start, especially due to the hat thing meaning he growls at pretty much the whole group. But with time and positive association training, he comes to accept hat-wearing begrudgingly. He really appreciates that Corey treats him like an individual, and asks him his opinion on things that affect him- even though he doesn't always really understand. He's generally perceptive enough to pick up on how people are feeling, can smell when they're stressed, and often acts in a service dog capacity when members of the group need grounding or distraction. He just... does it in ways that are a bit concerning from a killer cyberdog. Like putting his mouth around someone's limb and gently shaking it around. Or sitting his entire steel chassis on their foot. He also knows that Corey has a bad eye, and pretty much always sits on that side to help her keep watch. He loves feeling helpful, and fuck knows these idiots need a lot of help.
- Corey and Veronica grow pretty close pretty quick. Their sarcastic but altruistic personalities click pretty well, and Veronica's struggle to steer the Brotherhood onto a better path is one Corey can relate to, since she's kind of in a similar boat with the NCR. They'll often sit together chatting and working on repair projects- Corey's always improving her pip-boy, and Veronica is usually working on fixing at least three different things she wants to bring back to the bunker. Veronica is a little bit scared of Corey sometimes, though- she's seen what happens when she loses control in a fight. When Colonel Moore ordered her to wipe out the Brotherhood, Veronica didn't think that she would, but there was a lingering knowledge in the back of her mind that if Corey wanted to, she absolutely could. That's a hard thing to reckon with, even in someone you love and trust.
- Corey and Boone's relationship... is a lot. He thinks that he's probably had a prophetic dream of her, one that meant the universe wanted him to follow her to his death (two separate fics on that dream are incoming, btw). She doesn't know why, but she feels like she relates to his loss, and his desire for vengeance. Neither of them meant to get quite so attached to each other. But they're an insanely effective team, and they match each other's drive against the Legion, and the longer that lasts, the more they come to rely on, and care about, each other. Boone's haunted by guilt that his karmic retribution is going to get her killed too, and Corey's haunted by guilt that she keeps enabling the mutually self-destructive urge to throw themselves against overwhelming odds.
- Corey and Arcade have a difficult relationship. Initially they get along quite well, when they're working in the Old Mormon Fort and she's volunteering her help without hesitation or thought of compensation. But after they start travelling together, he finds her and Boone's absolute uncritical hatred of, and bloodthirst towards, the Legion to be very off-putting. Over time, they have multiple rather heated arguments about the moral implications of absolute condemnation of the enemy, and the fact that many Legion soldiers are just victims in their own right, and whether or not that should be something you think about when you fight them. Their worst argument is over whether or not Corey enjoys killing people (she vehemently argues that she doesn't enjoy killing Legion, she just enjoys protecting the Mojave- but his words eat at her for a long time after). Despite the conflict, she does consider him a trusted and valuable friend- and usually goes to him for help with ethical dilemmas like in Oh My Papa and The White Wash. He eventually comes to accept that, despite her problems, she's trying hard to do good, and that deep down, she is capable of seeing the nuance even in a Legionary's situation- she's just overwhelmed by trauma and amnesia.
- Corey also has a hard time with Cass- she makes her very uncomfortable, especially when she's been drinking. Corey doesn't know why, because it stems from before her amnesia. Her abusive father was an angry redheaded alcoholic, and even though she doesn't remember it, her brain still carries a negative association there. Even though Cass sees her as a good friend, and has never raised a hand to her, Corey's still constantly on edge around her, particularly when she's drinking. Cass doesn't realize this, because she does her best to hide it. In fact, the only one perceptive enough to notice it is Boone- and he kind of dislikes Cass as a result. That she does notice, so it ends up being that Corey's issue manifests as Boone and Cass having passive-aggressive beef.
- Corey doesn't end up travelling with Raul all that much, since he generally makes it clear he's reluctant to do any adventuring. She hates the idea of making him do anything he doesn't want to, especially after he was essentially Tabitha's slave. In fact, he only joins her three times. Directly after he's freed, she pays him to help them salvage solar cells from HELIOS ONE and install them up in Nellis, which he recognized as a thinly veiled excuse to set him up with some caps and escort him home to his shack, because she already had a Brotherhood Scribe helping her. Later, she comes to ask for his help inspecting the monorail at McCarran after the attempted bombing, to make sure none of the systems were sabotaged too- and makes sure the NCR pays him double the standard contractor rate. The last time, it's to ask his help resetting or rerouting some systems in the Lucky 38 after House is disconnected. She pays well and offers him a room there- but he never takes it. It's not long after that he picks up his guns again. Their time together was short, but left an impression. Seeing her so full of fire to protect people, even after nearly being killed, reminds him of who he used to be and why he used to fight. And when he hears stories of the Courier during his travels, he always thinks of her with gratitude.
- Corey also doesn't often travel with Lily much, moreso because she worries about the nightkin's mental state in combat. Their very first fight together, in Charleston Cave, Lily was bitten by a lot of nightstalkers and suffered a psychotic break. Particularly after the conclusion of the stealth boy mk2 experiments, Corey was worried that more combat would make Lily's schizophrenia more volatile, and damage the delicate balance of her medication. She relates pretty hard to Lily's desperation to cling to her memories, and refuses to do anything that might take them away from her. So while she visits Jacobstown and checks in somewhat regularly, she never brings Lily out.
- Similar to with Cass, Boone dislikes Corporal Betsy- at least at first. When they first met her, she came out the gate flirting hard with Corey, who immediately got sort of freaked out by the idea of women openly flirting with her due to past trauma from homophobic violence. When Betsy doubled down, Boone snapped at her, believing she was intentionally and maliciously pushing Corey's boundaries, and Corey had to step in and defuse the situation. In the aftermath, it occurred to him that he maybe came across like a homophobe, and he attempted to reaffirm that he was an ally to a rather amused Veronica, who witnessed the whole thing (and did not, at any point, think he was a homophobe. Just a dumbass and possibly jealous.). The words "my wife was a bit gay" are said. This leads to confusion before it's clarified that Carla introduced Boone to the concept of bisexuality without ever saying the word itself- and frankly it's all way more discussion of sexuality with him than Veronica ever wanted.
- Corey is very touch-starved, but pretends to herself that she's not. Veronica, on the other hand, is very prone to casual touch amongst friends. The group will be chatting around the campfire and Veronica will throw herself down in Corey's lap to complain dramatically about something, and she'll be internally panicking but delighted the whole time. This is probably one of the more subtle reasons Corey becomes so close with Veronica so quickly. Conversely, when sniping, everything takes a back seat. Corey will do whatever is necessary to get a good shot. If that means literally having to lay half on top of Boone to get the right spotting angle, that's what she'll do. But she will have a crisis when she thinks about it later.
- Corey doesn't really care about nudity. From a medical standpoint, she's seen plenty of stuff, so other people's bits don't bother her. She's also never had actual privacy until the events of New Vegas, always having lived in shared sleeping arrangements, so functionally it doesn't make sense to get precious about it around friends. She doesn't even really think about it and will change in front of anyone in the gang without much thought. Both Veronica and Boone act and feel similarly, having military backgrounds. Arcade doesn't act the same, but has worked in Freeside and lived with the Remnants enough that he understands and isn't bothered- he just prefers privacy for himself. Cass... thinks they're a bunch of weirdos. To her, that kind of behaviour is for when you're sleeping together. For a little while, she's actually a little suspicious the gang has some weird poly thing going on she wasn't told about.
Been using Corey to kind of explore the different sides of what the Rangers are, particularly in the 'current' New Vegas landscape of the NCR with its imperialist and expansionist habits running alongside (and often opposite to) the "against all tyrants" value set. It's an interesting exercise in exploring themes of military indoctrination and exploitation.
Especially given the Ranger Unification Treaty, where so many independent Desert Rangers were dragged under the NCR's banner as a desperate move to try and get help holding the Legion at bay. What happens when you take someone whose only job was protecting people and tearing down the tyrants of the wasteland, and tie them down to the politics and bureaucratic regulation of a military structure? On paper, the Rangers answer to Chief Hanlon, but in reality, they're subject to General Oliver's rule, and the rule of the senate back in California. "Protecting the wasteland" inevitably becomes "protecting the NCR's interest". They don't get to keep operating the way Desert Rangers always have, they're tied down in red tape, told to wait and watch instead of taking the fight to the people threatening the freedom and peace of the people in the Mojave.
I keep circling back to the different things we're told as players when we ask what a Ranger is. Opposers of slavers, raiders, and gangs kicking around towns. Solvers of problems regular troops can't handle. Part sheriff, part commando. I think it's really notable that the aspect of hyperviolence, combat prowess, and "badassery" is often at the forefront, and linked specifically with their role as part of the NCR military. Meanwhile their values, their original purpose, is a footnote- any role related to protecting the wasteland as a whole, any aspect of altruism or compassion, is treated as secondary.
The Rangers are arguably the NCR's greatest asset in the war with the Legion. They were the reason the First Battle of Hoover Dam was won. They're an inspiration to the common soldier, they're a symbol of what the peak of NCR military might looks like. They're feared by just about every enemy they have. But they don't adhere to the same culture and typical rank structure of the Army, and they make regular force guys like General Oliver look and feel inadequate by comparison. So he hamstrings them and puts them in a backseat watching everything go to hell, or forces them into dangerous positions that will allow him to take the glory while they die. The regular army brass reap the benefit, their image bolstered and their interests served by the Rangers- all the while denying them the role and purpose they originally had.
I think it's a really interesting portrayal of military exploitation in recruitment. People join under the promise of being given the tools to do good. To protect others, to fight for freedom. Lots of people sign up with lofty dreams of being heroes. Then they get in, and so often find they've been lied to- that they're serving the interest of the powerful few and letting the rest of the world burn to do it, rather than defending the powerless and improving things. There's no glamour, there's just sitting and waiting and watching atrocities happen, doing nothing so long as they don't happen to the military's assets. You don't get to have your own values, your own morals- you don't get to act in service of what you think is right. You're just a tool to be used and discarded. Anything actually good you do is likely still going to be used to distract from or downplay harm being done elsewhere, to recruit more people who will do terrible things, to keep the cycle going. The people who come out of service completely satisfied are generally the people who just wanted the violence, the ones who wanted to feel tough, be badasses with big guns. To me, this is the outcome of signing the Ranger Unification Treaty- the Desert Rangers are commandos when the army demands it, but they're not really sheriffs anymore. They're not protecting the Mojave anymore, they're protecting the NCR's expansion.
Starting my New Vegas playthrough again and I'm wondering, what are your (and/or Corey's) thoughts on the Great Khans?
Ooooh okay this is a fun one. To start with my thoughts, I think the Khans are really interesting as a group. Their history as a violent raider culture from the first two games is obviously pretty unsavoury- slavery and kidnapping as seen by the Khans in Fallout, and use of human shields atop that by the New Khans in Fallout 2. I haven't played these games all the way through, so I can't comment much on them beyond that since I don't have all the context. In Fallout: New Vegas, the Great Khans have a much more tame purview- they're still raiders, sure, but most of what we see in canon is combat skirmishes and harassment of the NCR. Outside of that, it's mostly just... the creation and sale of chems. Idk enough about Mongol culture to really say whether their writing really reflects their supposed theming in that direction, but things like the Bitter Springs Massacre definitely hearken to real-world massacres of indigenous villages by colonial powers, and I do believe that the writers being americans really coloured their story to reflect the acts of genocide that they were most familiar with- things that happened in their own country, like the Wounded Knee Massacre. A lot of the writing reads to me like a sympathetic white american's understanding of their government's actions against indigenous people. Honestly, I do think that the way the Great Khans exist, a warrior culture doing what they can to survive in the shitty place they were forcibly relocated to, and frequently having to get involved in unsavoury and "undignified" things to do so... it really reminds me of some of the roughest sides of life on the rez that I've seen. People in poverty with a history of being surrounded by violence will often end up pulled into crime to survive. The Great Khans selling their services as mercenaries and muscle, running drugs, drowning their sorrows, and fucking with the NCR is, to me, just that. I really wish that we had a little more of a glimpse into their culture beyond these things that we see in game, but their pride in strength and resilience, and their knowledge of the land being one of the primary advantages they maintain over the NCR... definitely speaks to me. And frankly I think the fact that they're out here canonically producing "most of the chems in the Mojave Wasteland" is a serious missed opportunity to dive into what that means for the medical community in the Mojave. Like, sure, they're supplying fiends and recreational users, and the Followers even comment on being disappointed in them for having turned to dealing like this. But how many independent clinics and wasteland doctors are also reliant on them? TL;DR, I find them very compelling as a society and really wish more was done with them in canon. Do they still suck in numerous ways? Yes, but every group in the wasteland does. The nuance makes them interesting.
Corey has... a less sympathetic opinion of them. She grew up in the NCR, with all the propaganda that entails, and doesn't even remember it to be able to recognize the source of, or critique, her own bias. So she definitely does look at them and see primarily criminals and violent thugs- and having been nearly killed because of being attacked by a group of them doesn't help in that regard. But crucially, she does also recognize that the way the NCR treats them is excessively harsh, and being criminals doesn't mean they deserve to be subject to genocide. So despite her dislike of them on a personal level, she still generally argues pretty hard for them to be treated with mercy- but it's less because she cares about the Khans, and more because she cares about drawing the line of what her country should be willing to do to their enemies. She brokered a truce in Boulder City to save the hostages, and refused to let Lt. Monroe go back on the deal, despite everything in her body seething to kill the asshole who helped Benny 'kill' her- not because she thought those Khans didn't deserve it, but because she believed the NCR should keep its word and honour a surrender. Later, when she's sent to Red Rock Canyon by Col. Moore, she again refuses to attempt genocide, and opts to make peace. She's happy enough to tear down the Legion's lies and destroy the alliance they have brewing, but beyond that ends up kind of relying on Arcade and the Followers to guide her, because she knows she's not the right person to be providing guidance to people she doesn't really respect or have rapport with. The Followers provide information that inspires the Great Khans to start again in Wyoming, and at the end of it all, Corey asks Papa Khan for one favour in return- which is to let her beat the shit out of fistfight Jessup as revenge for her shooting (funny enough, I think that earns her more of Papa's respect than anything else.). All this to say, at the end of the day she's kind of done the right thing for the wrong reasons. She was thinking more about keeping the NCR from becoming monsters than she is about freeing the Khans from a cycle of violence, and it's not until afterwards that she really reflects on that. I do think that, throughout the whole process, her perspective does shift a bit, and she starts to realize that she's judged them all without considering their trauma and circumstances. It just comes a little too late in the process for that to make a difference to the way she treats them.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Wrote a one-shot where Corey and Boone briefly confront their envy of each other's memory (or lack thereof), and the fact that the grass is always greener on the other side. They build a better understanding of each other as partners. Corey talks at length about the correct way to eat cram to distract from trauma. Boone has multiple crashouts in quick succession. You know, 100% mentally healthy and stable behaviours.
