#I promise Ethan is a nice guy nrgnrgn he just. is scary. by accident but sometimes on purpose

[wander-over-the-words]

23 and 28 from the ask game for Ethan? :]

ahhh thank you for asking about my boy!! :D oc ask game 😋 23. how would you describe their voice? can they sing?

I am. absolutely rubbish at describing voices so I don’t know how exactly to say what Ethan sounds like ngrnngn besides the fact that he speaks in monotone like 90% of the time, as a symptom of his autism. He’d be voiced by Yuri Lowenthal (and that’s absolutely because Yuri does legit voice the male Courier and I’m too lazy/inexperienced with voice actors to pick someone else for him), but I’ve yet to decide which of Yuri’s roles is closest to what Ethan sounds like

For now, I just have fun imagining Ethan walking up to like half the people in this game like “Hello, Person Who Sounds Like Me If I Changed My Voice To Suit a Different Personality.”

Somebody call up Yuri and ask if he can sing rnnrgn I think Ethan’s probably…decent at singing. Not good enough to get on stage but good enough that you don’t mind hearing him. He’d mind if you heard him tho nrnrgnrgn

28. how do they show that they care about someone? how do they express that they don't like someone?

I don’t wanna make Ethan sound like a saint (because he isn’t) but he. cares about people in general. by default. Granted, some people, he’ll pass on caring about, for whatever reason he might find in advance (*cough*membersoftheLegion*cough*), but when it comes to the regular joes of the wasteland…He has a very high level of empathy that he just *clenches fist* hates because when someone needs help, he’s compelled to help. He finds it annoying because either he’s trying to get on with the main quest or whatever else he’s doing at that point or it’s a task that he’d just. Really rather not do nrngrgn

Best example I can think of is the fact that he did Rex’s personal quest even though a) he was about five minutes away from finally getting onto the Strip to confront Benny and b) he is TERRIFIED of dogs. He still did it tho because “Look at him, he’s in pain. Why should he suffer just because I have a phobia?” 

He just. spent half that quest hiding behind Boone ngrngn but now Rex is the only pupper he’s not scared of! so! progress! 

Obviously, some quests he was happy to do and got invested in, like defending Goodsprings and Joana and Carlitos’s stuff, but some stuff he approached with a “okay fine but let’s make it quick” mentality.

On a more personal level: you know Ethan likes you/is comfortable around you when he drops his Resting Bitch Face and monotone voice. The companions knew they were In with him when he first cracked a genuine smile at them; he’s actually quite a bubbly guy, you just haven’t Unlocked his Real Personality until you’re a Level Two Friend. But to be honest, Ethan’s not shy about just calling somebody a friend when he himself would classify them as such.

When he dislikes someone, his Resting Bitch Face just becomes Bitch Face. His frown and half-lidded, dead eyes turn into a heavy frown with a slightly curled lip and narrowed, annoyed eyes. Because it’s not very different to his default expression, it’s not always easy to tell when Ethan doesn’t like someone. His tone gives it away a little more, in that his monotone-ness inches towards exasperation (the likes of Fantastic at HELIOS One) or a certain tension that lets that person know that he ain’t fuckin around so don’t try anything (Cachino at Gomorrah), and his body language becomes more stiff because of how uncomfortable he is. He’ll also make use of his Terrifying Presence Perk more; someone he doesn’t like touches his shoulder and Ethan will look at their hand, look at them, then slooowly raise his eyebrow while glaring at them as a silent warning to remove their hand

In the specific case of Benny: Ethan’s a deadpan snarker anyways, but he’s never snarkier than during that Enemies phase of he and Benny’s Enemies to Friends to Lovers relationship. With other people he dislikes, he’ll generally keep his opinion and any insults to himself until he’s out of their earshot; with Benny, he wasn’t afraid to let Benny know what he thought of him, and insult him and clap back at him during their conversations while they were companions. Benny touched his shoulder and Ethan would threaten to break his fingers. Insulted Benny’s intelligence and called him a dumbass a lot.

Benny knew something was changing between them when he had the realisation that Ethan hadn’t told him to go fuck himself in a while, and especially knew it when Ethan started smiling at him, laughed at things he said, and called him stupidhead instead of dumbass c: