#i love courser sole i love love love them

[new-eyes-extra-colors]

Is Shaun Nora's child? If so, does she view X6 as family due to his closeness to Father, or just as a friend?

shaun is nora's biological child, yep, and post-institute when asked she says she has two sons (referring to shaun and synth!shaun--but a minor plot point in my fic is that she doesn't tell anyone about synth!shaun being a synth. if pressed for details, she just says her eldest passed away recently and that typically shuts down any further questions).

oh, edited to add bc i don't think i was clear: she treats synth!shaun as a son too. she takes to him straightaway. he's still a child who views her as his mother, and she still wants to be a parent. they have a good relationship.

she does view x6 as family, but in a found-family sort of way that doesn't have anything to do with them sharing dna. she thinks shaun calling himself "father" is extremely--i think paternalistic is the right word, and she emphatically does not approve. she feels family is a lot more than genetic material, and so is parenthood, which relates back to her family situation mentioned here.

she and x6 grow close as they work together and kind of outside the bounds of father's knowledge. x6 is a smart guy and figures out nora's still working for the railroad, and for his own reasons keeps it to himself, and nora's aware that if she actually reported how snarky and independent x6 is, he'd be sent to reconditioning. so their relationship is tense for a while, but eventually grows genuine and very close.

i think outside of nick, x6 is the companion she's closest with by the end of things.

[tunnelsnacks]

A longish list of Fo4 mods that hopefully won't break your game if you're playing on Next Gen (This list is very much catered to my specific play style and my love of the Minutemen and the Railroad, BOS look elsewhere)

I'll add more or edit this list when I find other mods that I like which play nice or if one's on here are incompatible

The Technical Ones:

Extended Dialogue Interface You'll need F4SE For this one though I'm pretty sure you need it for quite a few. The extended dialogue interface does what it says on the tin and removes the short four options you have for responses and gives you exactly what your sole survivor is going to be saying so you don't end up being incredibly racist towards Nick when the option says 'sarcastic'.

HUDFramework is a UI framework that makes it possible for mods to add new UI elements to the HUD (I say don't worry about this one until it's in a requirement for mods you're getting)

Cheat Terminal Yes, yes I know how some people feel about this kind of mod. I've been playing fallout 4 for like 10 years, I don't have fun scouring every corner of Boston's armpit looking for clipboards. This is a holotape cheat menu that lets you add anything in the game to your inventory, SPECIAL points and other bits. It also lets you teleport companions to your location if they get stuck in an elevator, fix some faction quest if they get broken. This one is great for me because in my little make believe world I have my soul survivor is either a Courser or the Kellogg guinea pig and there's options to make you a little more deadly

Workshop Framework For Players: New controls and faster, more stable workshop scripts. For Modders: Add new resource types, override settings, and generally change the way settlements work dynamically. You'll need this bad boy for a few of the mods on this list They'll be in the requirements for them on nexus

Fallout Priority Next-Gen - CPU Performance FPS Optimizer Does what it says on the tin and stops me from ripping my hair out. Improves performance by elevating the CPU Priority of the game process and minimizes input lags and prevents stutters caused by other processes.

Workshop Menu Missing Tabs Fix Sometimes your workshop tabs will just disappear which is really really annoying. This fixes that with a holotape

The Immersion/Gameplay Ones:

Realistic Death Physics - No Animations decreases the amount of force of both melee and ranged attacks (especially crits) to more realistic levels

Lowered Weapons I hate how your character is always pointing their gun foward 100% of the time in first person, this has your character relax their hold on their gun when not firing it

Improved Maps and Visible Roads A much better high contrast world map with roads, topography, and waterline all clearly visible. Optional number grid and regions

Reverb and Ambiance Overhaul Increases the diversity and dynamics of in-game sound, Great on the ears if you're playing with headphones. My one problem with it though is that it's a little too loud for me and the settings keep resetting every time I boot up the game, but that can be fixed by going into your sound settings, and it takes less than 5 seconds

Enhanced Blood Textures Mixed blood look a little more like well... blood

Vivid Fallout all-in-one In many cases they sharpened the games original textures somewhat, made new normal maps and enhanced shadowing.It looks really good and the textures are less V-Ram heavy than the original ones

Skip Kellogg's Memories I hate that Bethesda felt the need to try to make me sympathetic towards that man, and so I skip his memories all together. Wouldn't recommend for a first play through

Raiders Nonaggressive Raiders are now name "Wastelander" and they are no longer immediately hostile. If the player gets to close the Wastlander will warn you, if you continue to get close the Wastelander will draw a weapon, if you continue to move forward from there they will then attack

Gunners Overhaul makes the Gunners friendly to the player at the start of the game. It also makes all containers and useful items in Gunner areas belong to the Gunner faction, which means you have to steal it from them.  It basically makes them the mercenary/militia faction they're implied to be

Extremely Long Lasting Stealth Boy There is different scales for the length but I do the one that extends it to 1 minute

Pip-Boy Flashlight This one is one of my personal favorites, it overhauls the flashlight on your pip-boy as well as on power armour making it look more like an actual flashlight and like the light is coming from your pip-boy. You can customise what kind of light it is too and some of the options are really cool

Settler and Companion Dialogue Overhaul reduces or eliminates repetitive companion dialogue and adds new situation-appropriate dialogue for companions. They'll have more to say and seem more aware of their surroundings. Settlers are aware of your quest progression, and while they still occasionally complain about "my back hurts, my feet hurt…", they display increased awareness of the dangers lurking in the Commonwealth, expressing gratitude for the protection you've provided them

Better Third Rail this one makes the 3rd rail a little more lively in a lore friendly way

Combat zone restored-restored brings back the cut content that made the combat zone more than just another dungeon

Friendly East City Downs restores the content where this isn't just another dungeon

Fiddler's deliver animation retexture ooooh my god I'm obsessed with this one it makes the loading animations for unarguably the best gun in the game beautiful. And if you're wearing your wedding rings still you can see it in the animation and it makes my heart hurt each time

Natural expression fix helps make the expressions the player and emphasis have a little more...normal

Project reality footsteps changes almost all footstep sounds into more realistic ones. Including subtle gear and backpack rattle

Commonwealth encounter adds almost 300 new encounters to the game

The Faction/Companion Ones:

Afiinity Gains This changes the rate of how you gain affinity with companions. I choose the one that halves it because of the way I play, I get deacon's conversations a lot sooner than I feel is in character for him

Companions Infinite Ammo Gives the vanilla companions infinite ammo for all weapons, just like settlers. As long as they have 1 round in inventory they can fire indefinitely

Companions Stealth Distance Companions can sneak is the one I got before this but it's no longer compatible. It prevents your companion from charging up your booty at full speed whenever you enter stealth. Also slightly increases their follow distance. Now also prevents Dogmeat from entering player crosshairs every damn time you stop

Immersive Dogmeat Makes him a little more sneaky and a little more deadly. He'll wait for you to attack before doing anything for the most part. It also removes his level cap

Everyone's Best Friend Speaking of dog meat, this mod let's you take him with you and a companion at your choice like how it was originally intended before the game was launched

Preston Garvey No Radiant Settlement Quests Until you take the Castle, Preston will give you the quests as normal. After you have control of the castle and the radio powered up again, he'll stop giving you new quests every time you speak with him. Now to receive further quests you simply tune into the Minutemen radio station and will receive the alerts from there.

Deacon outfit change change stop deacon from changing clothes every three seconds. This one's for my own little game play reasons where he gets to a point where he feels like he no longer needs to change his clothes every 5 seconds when he's with Wanderer

Improved Railroad Overhauls the Railroad faction (in a lore friendly way) to more closely resemble the Underground Railroad and put them on the same level relative to the other major factions

Cleaner Railroad HQ Environment This is when I instal a little bit after joining the railroad, it gets rid of all of the trash and random bricks scattered throughout HQ

Railroad redone is an overhaul of HQ Even though the Railroad is a struggling faction in the commonwealth at the start of the game, I still feel that their base of operations in vanilla fallout 4 is extremely underwhelming. This mod fixes that by changing the physical environment. There's now personalized spaces for iconic characters like Desdemona, tinker-tom, deacon and others. The Player character also has their own quarters with a private terminal, bed, and power-armor station. It cleans up all trash -and some bricks and re-navmeshed the cell. And there's a pathway across the waters in the escape tunnel

More railroad exits adds a small little dungeon and two more exits into the inner city through the escape tunnel

Diverse railroad adds new faces to the unnamed NPC associated with the railroad

Railroad redemption This adds more bits to for the railroad associated with settlements, and allure friendly way it makes the railroad feel bigger and outside the scope of just the player

Railroad perks All of the quest reward perks for Railroad quests were cut before the game was released. This mod enables them at the appropriate times in doing Railroad Quests through a scavenger hunt style "quest"

You and what army Have you ever felt like the minutemen were a bit lacking? Perhaps the settlement system feels tedious, extra, or simply lacks real progression for you. Maybe even wondered why the minutemen seem less relevant the more you play? This mod aims to fix that, using your settlements as a base to expand the Minutemen and improve their ability to help the commonwealth. No longer will everything be entirely on the shoulders of one general. I love this one because in my head Preston and I are co-generals

We are the Minutemen The Minutemen are supposed to be the best alternative for rebuilding the Commonwealth because : More settlements = More resources = Better materials = Better fire power and a larger presence in all the Commonwealth. But currently this is not the case, this mod attempts to fix that

We are the men an alias framework gives the Minutemen ranks and lets you find out their names using the Alias Framework.

The Pretty Ones:

Forest Transforms the Commonwealth into a dense and overgrown forest landscape without disabling precombines. It's my favorite nature overhaul. Tree Trim is a 2024 patch for it that improves tree placement and compatibility (but you can open console commands and type 'disable' after selecting one if there's a tree in a place where a tree shouldn't be)

Animated Traffic Lights This makes the traffic lights thought the Commonwealth work again which I think is fun and goes nicely visually wise with the next one on my list

Lighting Series - All In One lights up red rockets, Starlight and other diners neon, bus stops adds, and illuminates billboards in the Commonwealth

Lightweight Lighting The lighting overhaul lighting mod I use, there are others out there higher on the endorsement list, but this is the best I've found for not tanking my fps while still looking fantastic

Interiors Enhanced - Darker Ambient Light and Fog Ambient light power and fog brightness inside all interiors reduced by 60%, without touching any directional light sources whatsoever, keeping lighting 100% true to vanilla except for those dark corners and unlit areas. Subways are actually dark and scary! Not just a filter, actual light data has been altered. 10/10 my fav lighting mod

Enhanced Lights and FX creates more atmospheric and realistic lighting. It overhauls the lights, effects, ambient light and creates a new mood for interiors. If you get a weird teal light at some locations it might be because of this mod

Darker Nights The lighting ones above look really cool with this. I have the lower setting that doesn't make the nights longer but adds just a little more night

The Flora and Fauna Ones:

Glowing Animals Emit Light Makes glowing animal variants emit light, scaled to their size

Fireflies This adds fireflies at night. It gets a little heavy at the start for my taste but there's a holotape that can tweak the settings

Wildlife overhaul less aggressive creatures and companions This mod makes prey cautious but still scared - also stops companions from hunting them down without cause. Additionally randomizes the animals height slightly, and adjusts some stats. Adds aggression radius to most creatures and robots

Squirrels of the Commonwealth there's squirrels now :)

Mutant Menagerie is a real fun one with all new creatures gathered from a wealth of public access sources. These new, lore-friendly creatures come with unique drops and hand-placed spawns. This mod also adds in dozens of dynamic spawns for new, vanilla, and DLC creatures alike! I'm not going to tell you what it's using as a shell but there's a giant hermit crap and the first time I saw one I was genuinely afraid

More Radstags adds more radstags

Commonwealth Chickens and Rabbits adds, you guessed it! Chickens and rabbits

Commonwealth wilderness overhaul adds a ton of hand placed scenes, objects and creatures across the entire commonwealth wilderness

DECAY makes feral ghouls terrifying

The Player and NPC Ones:

Rusty face fix so there's this bug right? Bug changes the colour of your characters and NPC faces and it's really annoying. This mod fixes that

Classic Ghouls Redux Every Ghoul in the vanilla game gets a Fallout 3/NV ghoul look. It gives them that gruesome falling apart look like the older games

FCO - HD Eyes My fav eye mod that just enhances the vanilla eyes. There's the eyes of beauty but I feel like that mod is too over the top and the eyes, while beautiful, don't fit the game

Ponytail Hairstyles This is the hair mod I think fits best with the vanilla textures, also 13 is my favorite

Lore-Friendly Maxson I don't even see his stupid face in my games, I just need to know that he actually looks like a 23 year old before I blow up his stupid blimp. But seriously, there's something more heavy about knowing that you're destroying a ship whose captain is someone who is so so young

Magnolia is not a cartoon makes Magnolia look a little bit more like the fantastic Linda Carter who is her voice actor. Hi Linda!

Shawn goes to bed this one's a spoiler so don't click on it unless you know what happens at the end of the main quest but now your son goes to bed at night

Eli's Armor Compendium Adds a bunch of new lore friendly armors and outfits to the game

Wasteland fashion also adds a bunch of more friendly outfits and armors

Black Metal pip-boy Makes the pip-boys in game black

Player comments and head tracking makes your character speak other then just in dialog scenes. Includes combat taunts, player hello's, responses to NPC's and much, much more including player head tracking

The Settlement Ones:

Transfer Settlement Blueprints This mod is currently not working if you're playing with the next gen. The author's most recent update on the 5th of June says that their hard work's paying off, and they're getting to a point where they're testing the mechanics of it. Basically this mod lets you download other people's settlements that they've made and posted on Nexus to have them be in your game and vice versa. Since this mod is currently out of commission, I won't include any transfer settlement mods in this list but Fiddleflaps has the best one's in my opinion

IDEK's Logistics Station 2 Adds a system to automatically manage supply lines, improve the efficiency of inter-settlement resource sharing, and adds a handful of minor convenience features.

Place Everywhere My beloved, makes building where you want them a lot easier

Scrap Everything And in game version of a console command disable that lets you delete things while you're in build mode. Be very careful with this 'cause if you delete a part of Sanctuary's road I'm not responsible for the 30 minutes you had to reload to

Icebreaker Settlements 400+ new carefully selected lines of settler dialogue to reduce the repetitive sound of the 168 original. All lines in the original actors' voices. Intended to blend in very naturally with the default lines. Settler dialogue lines that insulted the player character were also tweaked

Graygarden Planters Unlocks the ability to craft the planters at Graygarden after you clear the water purifying plant and talk to Supervisor White. Each planter yields the same amount of plants that are visible in the planter

Proper trading stores and animation Changes how trading stand look and settler animations to be the same as the crafting workbenches So now, an armor-smith who sells your armor would be seen like he actually made the armor

Settlers Go Shopping Your stores in your settlement are no longer empty and silent. Settlers occasionally go shopping and start different randomized conversations with the vendors. Or maybe just the vendors asks them about buying something. Invisible Shopping Marker version is available too

Dino's Decorations Gives you the option to craft static clutter, makes settlements feel more lived in

Sanctuary Hills Overhaul is my favorite Sanctuary mod and the one I used for like 7 years straight . It makes it so there were a few plane crashes near sanctuary and previous settlers used the bits of those planes to build walls and homes

Rickety restored Sanctuary bridge fixes the bridge in Sanctuary but in a lore friendly way

Anom's Sanctuary Hills Overhaul makes the houses there somewhere to the ones and the rest of the commonwealth instead of 'houses of the future' It also adds a community centre and a hotel in a lore friendly way

Starlight bus barricade is an overhaul of Starlight Drive, it's very fun but very big

CVC Dead Wasteland Workshop adds 1000s of unique, lore friendly items to build in your settlements and I love it, The candles and other lighting they have or an excellent touch for low/no power settlements

Settlement supplies expanded is another workshop expansion , this one adds about 400 things

[imagine-silk]

Fallout 4 Masterlist

There is a second masterlist for Fallout

Sole taking time to think and coming back a week later to tell the companions they were contemplating whether or not it was okay for them to be in love again

Yan!Girls react to Sole leaving Synth Shaun to die

Poly!Yandere Piper, Yandere Cait and Yandere Curie with the same Darling

Darling telling Yan!Cait and Curie they love their accent

Nat interrupting Yan!Piper's loving moment with her darling

Companions w/ a Sole who's messy

Christmas w/ the male companions

Companions reacting to a Sole who doesn't talk much about themself

Companions reacting to a settler coming back a week after having a fight to say a new comeback

Yan!Curie traveling w/ Courser!s/o

Nick, Piper, Preston, Hancock w/ an s/o who has a chronic illness/immune disorder

Nick, Danse, Piper, Hancock w/ a s/o who has thassalophobia

Thanksgiving w/ male companions

Yan!Curie w/ Courser who's detained

Yan!Cait traveling the USA w/ Sole

Yandere Preston, McCready, Hancock, and Nick react to quietly unhinged Sole

Deacon + historic =

MacCready + star gazing =

Yan!Girls being rewarded for their tendencies

Kiss Prompt 18 w/ Yan!Piper

Kiss Prompt 18 w/ Yan!Cait

Sole w/ magic

Reuniting with the companions after months of being away

Yan!Cait kiss prompt 16

Yan!Piper hand-holding prompt 24

Sole taking care of Preston and MacCready after they've been injured

Sole who travels with a guitar [Preston, Hancock, MacCready, and Danse]

Yan!Cait hand-holding prompt 4

Hancock with NonSole!Courser

Fallout Yan!Dudes with a courser s/o who left the Institute

Yandere Preston

Companions celebrating your birthday

Yan!Girls w/ Courser who left the Institute

Yan!Girls with Darling who fights back

Fallout Girls watching a bad pre-war movie

Yan!Girls with a Darling who just bails

Companions react to Sole turning into a dog

Wise men say

Companions as Darlings

Okay hear me out... Preston and X6

Fem!Teen!Sole who has long hair asks companion to brush it

Trying to make Goodneighbor a 'better place'

Fallout Girls meeting your ghoulified parents

Fallout House Husbands

Sole going missing only to be found as a glowing ghoul

Sole convinces companion to sit for a portrait

Companions react to Sole leading a pack of feral ghouls

Sole getting a lucky trick shot

Sole being a supermutant's wingman

Meeting a super-ghoul

Yan!Girls with a Darling who was a foreigner when the bombs dropped

Fallout 4 Yan!Girls Meeting your Assaultron Girlfriend

Preston with Sole who has Auditory Processing Disorder

Companions react to Sole turning into a Supermutant

Minute Men rewrite

Cait with her Institute scientist darling

Deacon, MacCready, Danse, and X6 react to Sole hugging them and sobbing uncontrollably when they get back from the institute

FO4 companions help a SS who lost a pet

Companions react to the SS going through a seemingly normal door but it does the cartoon thing

Drugged out Sole confesses to Deacon, Preston, and MacCready

Yandere Danse and Haylen reacting to their Darling confessing to them that they used to be a Soldier for the Enclave

Darling wispering to the Yandere Fallout 4 Girls (+Hayleen) that Darling wants a Baby and wants for them to carry it

Yan!Girls react to Darling going to chase something down and ending up coming back months later

Companions react to very stupid insult throwing

Fallout 4 companions reaction to sole having 4 arms

Companions (+ Proctor Ingram) react to a special doctor that has a knack for making synthetic prosthetics

Companions finding a bottle called Devil’s Kiss and they decide to drink it

Yan!Girls reacting to their Darling absolutely pouring their heart out to them

Darling shooting Yan!Girls with a bubble gun

Yan!Girls with a Darling who admits to being a Enclave solider in the past

Ocean (Danse and Nate smut I drunk posted)

FO4 companions react to a Sole who's always patient and kind with others finally exploding when a settler acts a little too ungrateful

Life with Codsworth after the bombs dropped

Nick, Danse (Pre-BB), Father, and Codsworth react to Sole who jerryrigged themselves a prosthetic

Sole giving cute aggressive love to Hancock, Nick, and MacCready

Scribe Haylen Headcanons [SFW + NSFW]

Companions react if sole was a magical girl with guns

Piper Wright Headcanons [SFW + NSFW]

Hancock, Nick, Deacon, and MacCready react to Male!Sole shaving and becoming baby-faced

FO4 companions with a Werewolf!SS who's permanently transformed

MacCready, Deacon, and Danse getting sick after a bloodbath

X6-88's guide to cure lovesickness

Until I found you by Stephen Sanchez

Happy!Sole breaking down after finding the Institute

Glimpse of Us by Joji

Child giving them a Friendship Bracelet [X6-88, Cait, Vadim and Yafim]

Taking care of a Teen!Asian!Sole [Travis Miles, Nick Valentine, Deacon]

Deacon traveling with a Vampire SS

Non-human companions react to Male!Sole who is very protective of them

Favorite place for a date [X6-88, Preston, Hancock]

Yandere Girls

Sole having a twin

Yandere Preston, Gage, and Danse

Relationship Milestones

Sole having a stutter

Someone reacting to companion being a synth

What are their kisses like [Deacon, Hancock, Curie]

What the mornings are like [MacCready, Cait, Preston]

[twinkliker3000]

more x6-88 headcanons (post-institute)

Will occasionally have nightmares about being reclaimed, despite the institute being long gone. The thought of the institute still being out there, slowly rebuilding, is always on the back of his mind. Doesn't sleep much at night for that reason, unless he's near sole.

Total germaphobe. For the first couple of weeks in Sanctuary, refused to touch dirt or deal with radroaches and bloatflies. Died a little on the inside when he discovered people eat them. His cleaning sprees could match Codworth's.

Refuses to let anyone touch his hair. Started cutting it himself, eventually getting pretty good at it. If you're close to him, he will give you a bomb-ass haircut. His hands will "accidentally" slip if you're someone he can't stand. Once gave Marcy a bald spot on behalf of the entirety of Sanctuary.

If you asked him his favorite color while he was in the institute, he would've told you that was a pointless question. If you kept asking, black. Now, it'd be orange, because of the sunset. The sun setting was one of the first things he learned to appreciate about the commonwealth, as well as the stars. It comforts him knowing that every day comes to an end. In the institute, it was never over.

Adding onto the last headcanon, the reason he constantly wore glasses was because of the blinding institute lights. After moving to the surface, he eventually stopped wearing them as much.

Hates water. I'm not talking about his fear of water, oh no. If it rains, if he gets splashed, if he's forced to take a bath, god forbid if you use the thirst zapper on him - he is the literal epitome of a pathetic wet cat. (By the way, if you did use the thirst zapper on him, you better start running.)

Has an extreme love-hate relationship with Deacon. By love-hate, I mean X6 is 100% of the hate, 0% of the love. Do not leave this man in a room with him for more than 5 minutes, he will literally strangle him to death.

Deep down, he does appreciate Deacon, even though he'll never admit it. Deacon was one of the first people to look past him being a courser and accept him into the group. Unfortunately for X6, being 'accepted into the group' by Deacon means constant, never-ending pranks.

Part 1

[leavingautumn13]

okay, so, during the interview scene with nick, when asked if he really doesn't know anything about the institute he says, "Some kind of security setting strips or blocks out those memories, and it's not just me. Any synth that gets trashed, left behind, or escapes the institute has the same problem. Probably some kind of failsafe."

so like--how does this line up with other lore? number one, "trashed or left behind" to me implies second or earlier gen synths--obviously, the institute is pretty invested in keeping the third gens around, or else there wouldn't be an srb or coursers. does nick know more synths that have escaped? have he (or amari, more likely) poked around inside a deactivated second gen's head to find the institute?

two, it's established that the institute CAN'T just flip a switch to make a synth do what they want them to--again, otherwise there wouldn't be an srb or coursers. so what gives? can they affect a synth's mind remotely or not?

three, glory remembers the institute (albeit not much) and will tell sole about it if asked. but not about the relay, which dez is surprised to learn about later on, even though glory says she mostly worked on surface detail and in the robotics lab--which means glory would HAVE to know either 1. about the relay or 2. about a way into/out of the institute that connects to the surface.

so like. what. anybody have any thoughts about this? am i missing something? i would love to hear others' thoughts about this.

[goodneighborxfallout]

Can I request the companions over hearing sole admit they want to kiss/sleep with/be with them in a game of truth or dare?

Truth: if you could be with anyone in the settlement who would it be

Sole: Obviously (companion)! You know I love them

Thank you for requesting! I changed the truth or dare game to the companions just overhearing Sole talk about their feelings for them to a friend. It can still be read the same way though!

Cait:

Cait will have a field day. She won’t tell you she overheard you at all, but she’ll make a lot of comments trying to embarrass you or make you stutter. “We’d move a lot faster if you kept your eyes on the road and off me arse!” “Admiring the view, are you?” “Didn’t know you cared that much about me.” 

Curie: 

Instantly confronts you about your feelings because she’s confused about her own. 

Danse:

Before BB: He’ll berate you for being unprofessional, not at all thinking about whether he himself has feelings or not. 

After BB: He’ll contemplate whether he should confront you about it or not. He respects and trusts you a lot and there’s no one he’d rather be with than you, but he doesn’t think himself worthy of you so he’ll keep quiet. 

Deacon:

Deacon will pretend like he didn’t hear anything. He’ll act the exact same as he’s always acted around you, but he won’t be able to stop thinking about your words. And he’ll hate it. Chances are, Deacon will try to find some excuse to distance himself from you for a while if not indefinitely. 

Gage:

At first, Gage immediately thinks about how he can have some dirty fun with you, but he finds himself unable to act on it because he respects you too much. This confuses him and you’ll find him often spacing while you’re talking to him. 

Hancock:

Chuckles to himself and is very flattered, but he won’t mention anything to you unless he notices you acting differently around him. (Like if he suddenly notices that you’re acting shy whenever you’re with him.) He’ll tease you a bit when that happens, but he won’t take things further or mention your feelings for him (or his feelings for you) because he thinks it’s just a crush and that you deserve better than him.  

MacCready:

Mac will be - like Hancock - flattered and amused, and he won’t be able to hide it. He’ll smirk at you, wink at the most random of times and make flirty jokes in a very unsubtle way. If you blush in response, he’ll find it both hilarious and adorable. This can go on for a while before he finally confesses that he overheard your conversation. As you groan and hide your face in your hands in embarrassment, he’ll pull you in his arms while laughing before he reassures you that you are adorable and that he feels the same.  

Nick:

Sighs loudly. He had not expected this and he doesn’t want things to become awkward or complicated. Without even thinking about his own feelings, he’ll sit you down and talk about it, trying his best to let you down gently. 

Piper:

Knowing Piper’s horrible “journalism”, she might just write an article exposing you.

Honestly, I think she’ll talk to you almost instantly, not even caring that you’ll find out she was spying on you. She needs to know if you’re serious or not, because she is serious about you. 

Preston:

In shock. He’ll tell himself to not mention to you that he overheard you, but every time he sees you, he’s reminded of it. Suddenly, he starts to look at you differently and notices that he too has feelings for you. Before he even notices, he’s spoken up: “General, can I talk to you about something?” 

X6-88:

Doesn’t realize the significance of your words and just carries on. I’m not sure if coursers can forget things, but the information will be pushed to the back of his mind and is not likely to resurface.

[aith-art]

Falloutober 2023 - Day 1

'War Never Changes'

@falloutober

Word Count - 713

With a single push of a button the Institute was gone. People had seen science as evil technology unchecked, as the source of all ills, all misfortunes. It was easy to understand why. The institute acted without reason, tore communities apart for fear of being challenged. Created killing machines out of people. They saw science as the last hope for themselves, and no one else. The Instutie refused to see and face their history and that was their greatest failure. Maybe those who survived the explotion will seek out their past, learn what science for personal prosperity had done to the world. 

The destruction of the Prydwen, the Brotherhood of Steel’s greatest creation, was a necessary sacrifice. The Elder had survived. He and what remained of the Brotherhood scampered back to the Capital Wasteland. They wouldn’t leave forever, but the Commonwealth would be prepared when they returned. While the Institute didn’t see the history of destruction they were fated to repeat through creation, the Brotherhood ignored the flaws in their beliefs and refused to see the hope in new technology and suffered for their hubris. To blinded by the rigidity of their symbol to see how the world was changing and rebuilding. 

In the confusion and rubble of the institutes destruction, the knewly rebuilt Minutemen offered aid and protection to settlers across the Commonwealth. Their aid was steadily accepted and Minutemen, under the leadership of General Preston Garvey, became a common site across the Commonwealth. With a military station at the castle and trade hubs to the north in Sunshine Tiding and the old Drive in Cinema, the Minutemen began to be seen as an honourable group once again. An old world history brought into the present with hope for the future.  

The Railroad continued to operate in secret, helping the last of the synths become part of the world. When the last of the known synth survivors had their lives rewritten, the Railroad disbanded. Many of the tourists returned to their lives, the agents that were left continued to monitor the synths they had helped, safehouses continued to operate for anyone who had helped the Railroad. 

 Dr Carrington found himself as the leading medic for the Minutemen in the Castle. Though he believed their goals were bigger than their capability, he commended them for all they had achieved so far. 

Tinker Tom joined Sturges in Sanctuary, though his ideas were more outlandish than Sturges was used to, the two got along well and the MiLA’s became a useful surveillance system for rouge synths, and threats to the people of the Commonwealth.

PAM was eventually moved to the Castle, despite Ronnie Shaw’s protest, and became an invaluable if not slightly disconcerting member of the organisation. 

Drummer Boy continued to operate the dropbox’s for the safehouses and agents that monitored the synths. He became an invaluable messenger to the Sole Survivor. 

Desdemona dissapeared into the wasteland. Occational a message would arrive for the Sole Survivor with tips on rouge synths and coursers, all marked with a D. It became the only inclination that she was still alive somewhere in the wasteland, hiding among the shadows as she had done for years. 

I’ve known nothing but war my whole life. I fought for the people I cared about, made mistakes I can never forgive myself for. War may never change, but I’ve seen people change. For better or worse, people are always capable of change. 

There was always something to fight for, a symbol to side with. It’s not hard to fight, to offer your life for a cause you believe in. But to let go, give up the anger and fire for something calmer, that is the real challenge of life. Finding a loving family and something to live for is difficult, but not impossible. Throughout my travels I have shown mercy and relentlessness. Kindness and ruthlessness. Love and hatred. I’ve cheated death, and face the consiquences of my actions whenever I look in a mirror. I have survived but never lived. 

Now I have a chance to live. People who love me and whom I love back. A real Family. 

As an old friend said, 

‘War Never Changes, men do, through the roads they walk.’ 

I think I finally found my road’s end.

[softwater3452]

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[fallout4reactsblog]

Holy fuck bestie??? I love your courser/synth sole au! It's really interesting djdbd

It does make me curious as to all the timeline stuff about it too! Just all that jazz

Askdjlfsd thank you!!! As far as the timeline goes, it gets a liiitle bit messy because some of it branches off for alternate paths. All of the paths are in my original "companions find out that sole is a courser" post. But for the majority of synth!sole stuff I write, it all follows the same timeline:

Sole goes to the Institute with the aid of the Minutemen and pulls some data from the inside, as per canon.

The Institute immediately realizes what has happened and who they are, so shit hits the fan. It's decided that they can not be allowed to go unsupervised, so they start trying to find a subtle way to keep sole monitored at all times.

Sole returns home and hands the info off to the Minutemen. They decrypt it and find out sole's true identity. Word quickly spreads throughout the Commonwealth.

Piper publishes the findings in Publick Occurences, and sole is quickly banned from entering Diamond City. Ellie pitches a fit and starts boycotting the paper.

Sole is banned from Goodneighbor. Even Hancock gets the news, and the ban comes down fast and hard.

With sole's ban from Goodneighbor, the Railroad moves Amari out and into the Castle for protection. Only sole knows what she's doing there really; everyone else thinks the Memory Den has just moved.

Sole and their remaining allies regroup in Sanctuary Hills. This is where they meet up with Nick, and the two of them start traveling together.

Nick and sole visit Diamond City. This is the synth!sole post where they run into Piper at the gates. Meanwhile, on the home front, Preston is assembling the Minutemen, taking stock of what's left.

Sole returns to the Institute, getting a better look at what's going on, also getting to know X6. He begins to question what it actually means to be a synth.

Nick and Sole visit Goodneighbor, which is the story where Nick pistolwhips the mayor.

KLEO moves out of Goodneighbor and into Sanctuary. She is *technically* now part of the Minutemen but it's heavily implied this is part of her role with the Railroad.

Sole decides to destroy the Institute. They activate the evacuation order, but the whole thing goes up in flames and the news starts to run wild.

Piper publishes her article in the Publick, singing sole's praises. Preston brings a copy back to sole so they can read it. Hancock decides to visit. Both of these are in the apology story.

Piper and Hancock start to try to make amends. They open communication. Sole is allowed back into Diamond City and Goodneighbor, though they don't visit.

Piper and Hancock decide to take a risk and visit Sanctuary, which is where sole saves them from a Deathclaw.

Happy ending! Sole lets them back into their life, Nick fixes his broken relationships, and everybody gets to live happily in Sanctuary!

[imagine-silk]

Masterlist (Old)

🍮 My Favorites

AtSV

Peter B staring down Jess while hugging Autistic!Younger!Spider

Peter B taking Autistic!Younger!Spider to a meeting

DRAGON AGE

Dragon Age Inquisition characters finding comfort with you

Yan!Sera headcannon

Josephine Montilyet headcannon

Cassandra Pentaghast headcannon

Varric with a Noir Detective 🍮

Dorian, Cassandra, and Cullen finding out a Scout has a crush on Varric🍮

What if Sten was Pining

Vegas AU ideas

Okay hear me out... Trian and Alistair

Origins Fake dating ideas(Commenter has a great one for Shale)

DAI Modern summer events (Sera, Josephine, Iron bull)

You're a dark elf (Solas, Dorian, Josephine)

How they show affection (Varric, Cullen, Morrigan)

Their child is sick (Cassandra, Josephine, Vivienne)

Pining over a scout (Varric, Cole, Josephine)🍮

Days Recovering; One, Four

FALLOUT

Fallout Yan!Dudes with a courser s/o who left the Institute

Yan!Cait w/ Institute scientist Darling

Sole turns into a supermutant

Preston reacting to Sole w/ Auditory processing disorder (APD)

Yan!Girls Meeting your Assaultron Girlfriend

Yan!Girls w/ a tourist Darling

Reactions to terrifying super-ghoul

Super-mutant wing-man

Sole's accidental trick-shot

Sole painting companions in a surreal art style

Missing Sole turns up as a glowing ghoul

Girl companions meeting your ghoul parents

Sole sobbing uncontrollably when they come back from the Intitute

Modern!Companions comforting reader after a pet death (Not dogmeat's)

Cartoon door beat-up thing

Sole high on painkillers confesses (Deacon, Preston, MacCready)

Yan!Danse and Haylen react to Sole being former Enclave

Yan!Girls react to you saying you want to have a baby w/ them

Yan!Girls react to Sole leaving to hunt down an item and returning months later

Insults between dumb and dumber

Sole having four arms

Peaceful!Sole finally snapping at an ungrateful settler

Telling Yan!Girls you were once in the Enclave

Shooting Yan!Girls w/ a bubble gun🍮

Pouring your heart out to Yan!Girls

Companions gaining fire abilities

Companions (+Proctor Igram) react to a ripper doc

Life w/ Codsworth after the bombs dropped

Reader giving love-nips (Hancock, Nick, MacCready)

Scribe Haylen headcannons

Piper Wright headcannons

React to a magical girl w/ guns

Hancock, Deacon, Nick, and MacCready react to M!SS who shaves too much and ends up with a babyface

Companions react to Pacifist!Lycanthrope!SS who is stuck in werewolf form🍮

MacCready, Deacon, and Danse after a gore-y fight with blood everywhere🍮

X6-88's guide to cure love sickness🍮

React to the song Until I Found You by Stephen Sanchez

Chipper!SS breaking down after going to the institute

React to the song Glimpse of Us by Joji

Child giving them a friendship braclet (X6-88, Cait, Vadim and Yafim)🍮

Taking care of a Asian!Teen!SS(Travis Miles, Nick Valentine, Deacon)🍮

Deacon traveling with a Vampire SS(not romanced)

M!SS is protective over non-human companions (+Kent, Sturges)🍮

House husbands (Preston, Hancock, Deacon)

Favorite place to go for a date (X6-88, Preston, Hancock)

Yandere (Cait, Curie, Piper)

Having a trouble-making twin (Hancock, Nick, Piper, Deacon)

Yandere Preston, Gage, Danse

Relationship milestones (Deacon, Preston, Gage)🍮

Modern Companions

Modern Companions Love Interest/Ocs

You have a stutter (X6-88, Hancock, Piper)

When someone reacts negatively to them being a synth (With no interference)

What their kisses are like (Deacon, Hancock, Curie)

What are mornings like (MaCready, Cait, Preston)

Danse and Nate smut I wrote drunk

MARVEL🍮

Marvel characters being inebriated

Finding a portrait of them you painted

Secretary!Trilogy!Peter finding out he's in love with you

Natasha and sleepy kisses

Secretary!Spidermen; You doze off

Secretary!Spidermen; Winter dates i guess

Secretary!Spidermen (MCU, TASM, Trilogy, Peter B., Miles Morales)

Secretary!Spidermen; Getting you ready before a meeting

You're a Slime (Peter, Tony, Bruce)

Glass in my hands (Scott Lang/Fem!Reader)

DBH

Yandere husband!Hank + son!Connor x willing!Darling

Supernatural lore ideas

Gavin having a surgeon husband

"You're so cute." (Hank, Gavin, Chloe)

Hugging them out of the blue (Hank, Gavin, Chloe)🍮

You don't like androids (Simon, Luther, Markus and Carl)🍮

Meeting your parents (Hank, Markus, Gavin, Elijah)

Darling is very tactile (Yan Connor, Hank, Gavin)

Misc.

Please I need this Bagginshield ending

Yandere Elliott

Yandere Sam, Sebastian, Emily

Star Trek: Next Generation; Having a crush on Data (+Socially awkward)🍮

Overprotective!Yan!Parvati/Nyoka + trying to escape

Parvati romance headcanons (still ace)

[taffingtons]

so i have mixed impulses on this...

canon definitely says they dont gain or lose weight, but its only mentioned in a couple of terminals and not backed up by anything else. imo, the "weight doesnt change" thing was somebody coming up with something that they thought was 1. silly in regards to the "synths love fancy lads" idea, and 2. a good excuse as to why synth mcdonough wanting to be a courser was a ridiculous idea

in the end, though, its fatphobic while simultaneously making zero sense. we see the synth creation process -- it straight up looks like they're lab-made humans that get synth chips implanted. the fact that you cannot tell a living synth from a human is very big and very important and heavily emphasized -- both by the institute, and by the surface. why would they bother re-engineering the way human metabolisms work when that would make synths stand out?

i can't remember where the "synths don't age" concept came from (wrt the text), where i'm pretty sure "can't procreate" is implied through unreliable narrators rather than directly stated. (for example, deacon saying he and barbara were trying for kids, so like. sweeping gestures at deacon's everything)

this is a lot of hemming and hawing about what i remember from the game itself and not properly answering the questions. LOL

synths and metabolism -- canon is bullshit on this one. i'm keeping "they inexplicably love fancy lads" though just because it's cute (and doesn't break the major "can't tell them from humans" rule). the real reason why synth mcdonough can't be a courser because he doesn't have the temperament tbqh (and because SRB already considers him disposable)

synths and aging -- i'm the most torn on this one. on one hand: yeah, breaks the major rule, but on the other, i imagine the institute wouldn't WANT to do such long-spanning projects with synth replacements. we are told over and over that S9-23 won't be able to grow up, but is it unique to him? it could be considered in line with shaun's intentions for that "project" for S9 to represent his forever-childhood

synths and procreation -- i can see this one being true, solely so the institute can control the population. it also doesn't break the major rule tbh. but it would be neat if, like in fable's (prev) works, they actually manage it through hormonal control via synth chip, and they actually can if they get their synth chips removed

Question for the Fallout community.

Not sure if this is factual or simply my headcanon. I think that Synths don't age and can't procreate. It's actually a large theme in my fanfictions and poses lots of issues for many characters.

True or false for you?

[satans-left-asscheeky]

Okay okay, hear me out on this. How would the companions react to a very ladylike sole finding hair spray then proceeds to use said hair spray with a light to burn the ever living crap on (rad roaches, Raiders, what ever) That got a sudden drop on them. 

Lmfao. I love this so much! I'm assuming this is for an F!sole? If I'm wrong though feel free to let me know and I'll fix the pronouns 💖💖💖

Maccready

*Snort* "Its- its a pocket flamethrower!" *falls over from laughing so hard at his own damn joke*

He thought it was great! only down side was whenever sole would use it he couldn't suppress his giggles. As for sole? he thought she was cool af.

Hancock

"Woahhhh! And to think the pre-war American housewife was depicted as frail.... wonder what those sexists would have to say right about now"

He'd be so in awe of this wonderful prewar relic of femininity being so effortlessly badass! Safe to say if he didn't already, he definitely has the hots for her now. (pun intended)

Cait

"That's it lass! Show em who's boss!!!"

She'd love sole so much after seeing her do this. She'd probably try it out for herself, but she'd never be able to make it look as cool as sole did.

Danse

"Well that's certainly not brotherhood grade, but it gets the job done."

He was suprised it worked honestly. In a pinch it worked fine, but he still preferred the reliability of his energy weapons

Curie

"Oh this shall make starting campfires easier!"

She was suprised she hasn't thought of it earlier when she was having trouble starting fires when her and sole were traveling. Not anymore! She had the power of fire whenever and wherever she wanted!!!

Deacon

"And just like that the patriarchy's dead...along with that radroach..."

Wow. Just wow. He'd think she was a totally badass. He loved glorys whole angel of death thing, but there was something so funny to him about sudden death from hairspray.

Piper

"Jesus Blue! Where'd you even learn that anyways?"

Once she'd heard the story of sole almost burning her house down trying anything and everything to kill a spider she'd understand. She hated those bastards too. The skill was certainly more useful in post-apocalyptic Boston rather than suburbia though...

Nick

"gotta say there's something so classy about a dame using fire and hairspray to fight her foes...."

He was a massive fan of this method. He'd never use it himself, but he never grew tired of watching sole do it.

Preston

"......."

Preston was so shocked that he just stood there like an idiot until sole dragged him and the other survivors outta concord and back to sanctuary... That definitely wasn't the main reason he decided to make her general... totally.

X6-88

"Ma'am that was the most amazing thing I think I've ever seen."

Have you ever seen a courser fan-girl before? No? well that's exactly what X6-88 would do.

[danses-with-dogmeat]

Fallout 4 romanced Companions reactions to sole being cute and todderlike when they get anxious? Like they hold their companions thumb or bunch up the bottom hem of their shirt?

FO4 Romanced! Companions React to Sole with Anxiety Tics

This was an awesome prompt! Thanks so much for sending it in! I hope you enjoy! 😊

(Also, I realized after the fact that I totally have like... almost all of these tics. So this was a fun journey of self discovery for me 😅 )

Cait:

Cait’s nostrils flared as Sole sat beside her, their anxiety clear in the way they incessantly cracked their knuckles over, and over, and over again. How their knuckles could even crack that much, Cait wouldn’t know. And she knew a lot about knuckles! She even cracked her own from time to time. But this seemed like overkill. Her hands would fly over to grab at her partner’s, her grip firm in the way it pried their fingers from where they clenched at their knuckles. Sole would look up at her in shock, utterly unaware that they were doing it at all, and Cait would loosen her grip, flashing them an apologetic smile and asking if there wasn’t some better way for them to release their pent-up anxiety? Maybe they could train with Cait? Box a little? C’mon, she promises to go easy!

Curie:

"Oh! Mon dieu, do not injure your clothes like this!" Curie would focus her attention on Sole, gently pulling their hands from where they bunched and tugged at the fabric between their fingers. She knew this was a tendency her companion had whenever they felt uncomfortable, and the doctor would do her best to find an alternative coping mechanism for Sole to deal with their stress. Going through breathing exercises and helping them to identify what was the true cause of their anxiety, and then trying to make whatever it is seem less daunting, Curie would do everything. Her medical training would help quite a bit in these instances, but her presence at Sole’s side would be all the more comforting, given the nature of their relationship. Once Sole shows Curie that they are trying to adhere to her more professional coping mechanisms, the doctor would be thrilled, giving constant praise and encouragement to her partner any time they seemed to be successfully dealing with their anxiety.

Danse:

Danse would spend a long time wondering silently to himself why it was that Sole always made that face when they spoke to strangers for the first time, or they seemed lost in thought, or had to speak in front of a crowd. Their mouth turned sideways, chin gyrating in such a strange way… He wondered if it somehow helped them? He wasn’t sure. When he finally managed to ask Sole about it, and they looked down at their feet in embarrassment, their expression raising up to reflect that very same face that he had been inquiring about, he decided that he already understood. He had a nervous tic as well, his superiors always berated him for cracking his knuckles when he was stressed, and now he would be the one to say something to Sole, to place a hand comfortingly on their shoulder and fix them with his sympathetic gaze when they were anxious enough to bite at the inside of their cheek. He would feel as though he were being too hard on them every time he told them to cease their nervous tendency, no matter how gentle he was about it, but ultimately he told himself, (and Sole if they brought it up) that it was because he cared. The idea of them physically harming themself, even in such a miniscule way, wouldn’t sit right with him, and he would try to work with them to find a more productive outlet to dealing with their anxiety.

Deacon:

The Railroad agent noticed early on that Sole would tug at their collar when they got antsy, and would see it as an opportunity. Every time he would see them reach for the top of their shirt, he would do the same to his own, making it a game to see how long it takes them to notice his mimicking. It was a fun way to pass the time, and to distract his partner from whatever it happened to be that was worrying them. Once Sole made it clear to Deacon that they knew what he was doing, he'd just grin at them, nice and big, telling them that everything was gonna be okay, maybe pulling them in for a reassuring hug or kiss if they looked like they needed one. Bonus points if they get nervous talking to him. In that case, he just stares straight back at them as his hand mirrors theirs, tugging at his own shirt collar…or he may even begin to tug at their collar as well, booping them on the nose as he tells them how cute they are when he makes them nervous.

Hancock:

When Hancock first noticed Sole biting at their cuticles, he figured they might be hinting for him to stop doing it himself, as that had always been a habit of his. He would continue to watch when they did it, to see if they only tore at the tips of their fingers after they had seen him do it himself, but that didn’t seem to be the case. No, only when they were about to have a tough conversation, speak in front of people, or otherwise were uncomfortable, would they engage in this destructive action. Hancock would smile to himself, approaching his partner and would slowly pry their hand from their mouth as he asked them what was bothering them. When they admitted to having their little habit, he would ask if they’d noticed his, and found that they thought he was the one mimicking them. The pair would chuckle at the thought, both of them thinking the other was making fun of them; when, in reality, they both just coincidentally happened to have the same bad habit. From then on, the couple would work together to try and prevent the other from tearing at their fingers, and would instead settle for holding hands when one of them was uncomfortable.    

MacCready:

He hated to think that he liked when his partner was anxious, but he just can’t help but smile whenever he notices Sole bringing their fingers up to tangle in their hair. The way they nervously stroked at the strands on their head, turning them round and round into little coils that would unravel once their hand left it’s place atop their head, it always made him smile; and in certain situations he would most definitely have to resist the urge to tackle them with his affection. In other situations however, if they weren’t in a very public place, or a dangerous area, if their nervousness was stemming from his steamy compliments, he wouldn’t hesitate to run his own hands through their lovely locks before covering their blushing face with kisses, even as his own cheeks turned pink. Did he ever make them flustered on purpose? Um... no. He wouldn’t dream of it ;)

Nick:

Whenever Nick sees Sole's hands running up and down their thighs, he knows that they're becoming uncomfortable. It’s his job to pay attention to the little details, and it hadn’t taken him long at all to notice his partner’s little habit, and to take action when he realized that the action was direct evidence suggesting that they were uncomfortable. No matter the situation they're in, Nick will cease whatever he's doing and reach over his good hand and rest it atop one of theirs, or lay it, palm up, on their thigh so that they can grab ahold of it if they so choose. The old synth's eyes miss nothing when Sole is in an anxious state, and he, without fail, will offer himself as a listening ear, a hand to hold, or an advice giver until he sees that Sole has physically calmed down.

Piper:

"Stop biting your nails, Blue!" Piper would shout every time she saw her partner giving in to their little nervous tic. It almost became a game with her, to see how quickly she would notice their discomfort. The sooner the better, because then she could help talk them through whatever was bothering them, Sole would startle easily every time she did it, but would find themself looking forward to the times that Piper caught them “red handed,” as it were. Sole rarely ever registered when they were doing it, and the fact that their partner did, well… they would be touched to know that Piper paid that much attention to them. And it made them even happier when she offered to paint their nails or give them a hand massage whenever she noticed that their nails were grown out.

Preston:

The first time Sole went to grasp his hand firmly in theirs, Preston thought it was rather odd, as they weren't yet together. Though he didn't mind, he did bring it up to Sole later on, just out of curiosity, and when they explained that it was a nervous tic they had, to grab onto someone they trusted when they felt anxious, he would feel nothing short of honored. The fact that Sole felt comfortable enough with him to look to him in their time of uncertainty, that they depended on him like that… it would warm his heart. As it became more of a common occurrence, the two would develop a sort of communication system this way, if Sole squeezed his hand a certain number of times it would tell him what they were nervous about, which became quite handy (pun fully intended) in certain situations. As bad as he feels about Sole being uncomfortable in any capacity, he can't help but admit how much he adores their reaction to it. It makes him feel strong, and protective, and loving, and trusted, and needed, and allows him to communicate to Sole that he'll always be there for them.

X6-88:

The courser's attention would fall to Sole the instant they started shifting side-to-side on their feet. His eyes would note the condition of the rest of their body, knowing full well that this tic of theirs was a direct result of their anxiety. When he realizes that Sole is outwardly fine, he won't quite know how to help them, but he'll want to try to do something for them. X6 will move towards them, reaching out a hand and placing it on their shoulder, his grip soft, but the weight of his palm pressing down on them would help ground them and prevent them from continuing their nervous movements. He'll want to help for their sake, want to make them feel safe, but also will want to prevent them from disclosing their anxious state to any onlookers or potential enemies.

[tinachristeen]

I don’t understand why Bethesda couldn’t make it an option for you to always fix every problem in fallout 4 perfectly. Like you unite all the factions together and just make friends with literally everyone. It would just be absolutely hilarious to me.

Big scary brotherhood leader guy that hates synths and thinks all ghouls are filthy? All the sole survivor has to do is flash their doe eyes at him, and suddenly he wears an “I love ghouls” tshirt and aids the railroad in helping escaped synths.

The minutemen are in shambles and there is no one to lead? The sole survivor shows up and has shit fixed in a week. Raiders? What raiders? The sole survivor already cleared out that new settlement, set up a generator, some beds, and a great supply of crops. Supply Lines are being planned out as we speak!

The railroad is lacking clear routes to smuggle synths out of the commonwealth? Not anymore they fucking aren’t. The sole survivor assigned teams of minutemen to escort railroad field agents to the boarder of Massachusetts personally!

The island up north is having problems with fog? Sole fixes it.

Arcadia doesn’t have enough supplies to make it through the winter? Sole has it under control.

The nuka world raiders are causing issues? Sole already has them eating out of their hand!

And being sole’s companion would be so hilarious too. Like imagine paladin danse, a (no longer exiled cause sole fixed that too) paladin of the brotherhood follows sole to the nuka world transit station like a puppy dog that is eternally loyal to sole because she saved his life. They board the nuka cola train and he’s like, “wait, where tf are we going” in his head. Then they hop off and danse is immediately frightened because he sees raider but sole seems.....calm? and the raiders don’t attack!?!?! So he goes along with it until one of the raiders greets sole and danse is like freaking out at this point. Sole meets gage at the front entrance with a, “welcome back overboss!” And now danse is in utter shock. Gage and sole start talking about the territory that sole SINGLEHANDEDLY cleared out and now danse is wondering when the fuck she found time for all this? And these raiders just aren’t evil!? They don’t actually raid things and kill people!? And danse is at an utter loss at this point because OF COURSE his traveling companion that emerged from that vault and has been making friends since day one would manage to make and entire fucking army of monstrous bloodthirsty raiders into friendly human beings. Sure, they rebuilt the minutemen, assisted the railroad, changed tyrant maxsons whole view on human life, liberated an island, supplied a synth refugee camp for life, helped every single one of her companions with their problems, fought the mechanist and ended up sparing her life, built robot guards for all the caravans, and basically befriended the entire commonwealth and all of far harbor, BUT THIS!? this was a WHOLE new level! Sole has befriended a half brained super mutant, a discarded synth, a danger seeking reporter, a ghoul mayor, Preston Garvey, a drug addicted cage fighter, a robot butler, a mr. handy turned human, a face swapping secret agent, a (not so emotionless apparently) institute courser, a grizzly mercenary, danse in all his synth-like glory, a slow, blue robot, an older geezer from far harbor, and now a one eyed raider? And she loves them all so dearly, flaws and all.

It’s almost upsetting that this isn’t an option. Let me play my game how I wanna play it Bethesda!

[daddyfuckinlonglegs]

part 2 What I really liked about these two posts and the authors' interpretation is how much they're pulling out those themes of loneliness - fundamentally, I think the stories of all the companions, and the player character, and Shaun, and a bunch of other NPCs, maybe the game as a whole, are about loneliness.

Imo, it's absolutely spot on to observe how lonely Danse is, and how, to quote the original post, he "doesn't even have that connection to the world, of being born into it", how once he's not welcome in the military he's lived for, he has nothing, and struggles to understand his place in society (and to recover his self worth, what a fucking blow it must have been for him). There's a lot of writing out there about how ex military people often struggle to settle into civilian life, and how it affects their entire lives afterward - and some specifically interesting (to me) stuff about how the intense homosocial bonds encouraged around WWII were in fact so strong that lots of men either realised they were queer, or if they weren't, couldn't find a companionship that lived up to what they'd had with their "buddy". An angle I'd love to see explored with an ex-military Sole and Danse, for the record. I'm getting off track. Next point. I like how much both OPs have reckoned with the social pressures of these character's positions, vs the characters' sense of self worth. It's clear that both of them feel tremendous guilt, and have made life changing choices based on that. And here's where I'd bring in the other companions' experiences. Look at MacCready - also parentless, also forced to leave the only community he ever knew, and one where he had an immense responsibility (as a child too), also disconnected from the family he built through the harshness of living in the wasteland. Joined a military organisation, could not find that connection there, now a complete "lone wolf" when Sole meets him. Piper, also parentless, trying to care for her younger sister, routinely harassed by people who hate what she stands for (and literally locked out of the city when Sole meets her, a metaphor I hope Bethesda intended), socially isolated because she stands up for what she believes. Deacon, where do you even start hah! It's too dangerous for him to connect to anyone because of being connected to the railroad, and he lies about everything, to everyone, all the time. Strong, exiled from his community for being different to the others around him. X6-88, as courser he can't be attached to anyone (because what happens if he needs to recall them?), and what does it mean to be a synth living inside the institute - is companionship for synths even considered important or necessary? Cait led such a life of trauma that her entire personality is a front for her addictions and she literally spends her life fighting people, Curie literally locked in a vault for hundreds of years, Codsworth waiting at the house after the entire world died around him, Preston watching his hope for the commonwealth and everyone he was close to destroyed by the Institute, Nick Valentine tossed out by his creators and living as the imitation of a dead man in a city that makes it's hatred of synths very clear, presumably with the memories of the warmth and connection that man had in his pre-war life... Hell, even Dogmeat is alone. And the sole survivor, waking up 200 years out of time to a world they don't recognise, knowing their spouse is dead and their child is missing and they have nothing to connect them to the world except the need to find their kid - then finding him. Finding what an isolated life he's led. All of them have experienced so much loneliness. And I think that both of those initial posts really explore the ways that we, as the audience, as readers of this text, can connect with that loneliness, through our modern experiences, through our own trauma or loss or isolation, through our frustrations and anger at the way society is built and how it rejects us and keeps us disconnected.

This post is meant to be in conversation with this post about Danse from slocumjoe and this post about Hancock from serknighted. Reading them first means this will make a lot more sense. To be clear, I am not saying that their interpretations are wrong, I am in favour of reading any character in a way that allows you to explore your own existence and relationship with the world in more depth, and if you've been around my blog long enough you'll have heard my takes on MacCready that exist for very similar reasons. Deliberately reading a text with a certain lens on it can be good for you. That out of the way, I want to both agree and disagree with both posts.

Firstly, where I disagree: I don't have any strong opinions on whether either Danse or Hancock is autistic. I don't read them that way, but I'm not in charge. I do think that many of the experiences that the original posts ascribe to autism are not a singularly autistic experience. I think what you're both describing is just a very human way of experiencing isolation, in a world where community connection has been destroyed and rebuilt in an image of it's predecessor. I don't agree that Danse or Hancock don't have friends; Danse specifically for the simple reason that a military does not operate without a strong inter-unit bond between soldiers. As serknight put it, "he has all but given up his sense of self for what he believes is right", which is a large part of how militaristic organisations operate - you are a unit, not an individual, you are the lowliest creature on earth until you are trained into the corps, and then you embody your duty to your unit. Hancock also reads to me as having some strong connections - Fahrenheit, for one - and what we each individually categorise as "a friend" is so variable that I don't think we can get into it about video game characters without getting into the reeds. For me the issue here is that the game has limitations on how it shows interpersonal connections; I'd argue that none of the companion characters are shown to have "friends". And although I know it's common for autistic people to experience the very particular type of othering and isolation that comes from not following the secret unspoken rules of society, and a sense of utter rejection and disconnection from other people, I don't think Hancock is shown to feel disconnected because of that. I think he's shown choosing to flout those rules, self destructing, living with addiction, and then trying to rebuild that community differently. I also think he is well liked within his community (as much as any politician is), just not by the people who would prefer to have the power he has. I also don't agree that the synth stuff is a metaphor for autism, I don't think it wholly maps onto what Bethesda did with the idea*. For the record, I don't think the slavery angle was well executed either, too many implications they hadn't considered, but that's a post that's been written a hundred thousand times before. And I think the McCarthyism needed a touch more... importance in the story to really land with any power, but I do really like the idea. I also wish Piper had been more utilised in this regard, and that brings up another point I'd disagree with; I don't think Piper knows shit about who's a synth and who isn't. She makes those comments about Danse's way of speaking pointed out in the original post ("...have you heard him talk?") but not all synths behave like Danse. Glory, and Magnolia, and Sturges all have totally different personalities and approaches, and Piper has no evidence (afai remember) for McDonough other than a plucky journalist hunch. She's a part of the McCarthyist paranoia angle, making accusations against a figure of power that she doesn't agree with. I'm glad that it resonated with people, that idea of autistic people being othered for the way they speak is a great point in and of itself, and the dialogue definitely works to support the reading of Danse specifically as not-used-to-NT/informal-conversation, I just don't think the rest of Piper's character is a good basis for it to go further. And now, before getting too point by point critical, I'm going to post this, and write part two of this, where I will explain where I think you're right, and hopefully extend some of this out over the other companion characters.

[ground-zero-idiocies]

okay so I know you hate reacts so I'll try to not send any. So like what if sole got a bunch of pip-boys and gave one to the companions what would they use it for? Do they strictly use it fot practical use, do they forget its there, is it an over glorified watch, do they play games etc.

this post is 10x longer than what I expected. Tell me what you think lol

The Strange Case of Nora and the Pip-Boys

Imagine this.

You are Nora. You're walking with your absolutely massive team of companions in tow, all chatting about the weather and your respective friends and how everyone's gay love interests are doing (oh yeah, they're all pansexual). You happily lead the group until you find a collapsed truck. Not un-normal, these happen to be everywhere.

You approach the truck, finding crates of Vault-Tec paraphernalia scattered about. One is open, and inside is a box of 'large' size Vault Jumpsuits. You hold one up, only for Danse to call out: "Wait. Vault-Tec lied about their one-size-fits-all jumpsuits?" To which Deacon responded: "You thought that little suit actually fit?" and Hancock added: "We just wanted to see your ass, big cheeks." Danse rolls his eyes. You promptly pry open all the other boxes.

Most of them are ruined, with the tatters of cloths of the Vault suits being collected by Curie for re-purposing and the few intact suits collected by Piper for 'historical preservation.' In reality, she just wants to give some other people the 'Danse Ass' treatment.

You come upon the last crate, a large and highly extremely heavy metal box. Out of nowhere, Deacon pulls out a table saw and opens the box. You ask him where he just pulled out a fully-functional and powered table saw, to which he responded: "When you tango with the Institute, you have to have several pocket dimensions." Desdemona just rolls her eyes.

After some careful maneuvering with the table saw, you pull off the lid of the crate. Inside are 16 mint-condition pip-boy 3000s. You pull off your damaged, heavily used pip-boy, plugging it into your new one to download the data. You also remove the courser chip and plug it into your new one. You throw it onto your arm. It feels good.

Jack Cabot is the first to jump at the opportunity to get his hand on his own. "It looks as though there's one in here for each of us. May I? Having a portable computer would be fantastic for research." You nod, and he grabs one. Of course, he already knows how to put it on.

Cait steps up next. "The Fock are we supposed to do with this? A glorified wrist clock?" Scribe Haylen cut her off. "You know that these things can like...stop time, right? Not the Institute or the Brotherhood or even the Enclave could figure it out? It's so much more than a 'glorified wrist clock.' Also, it's wrist watch." Scribe Haylen fits it onto her arm. "Oh. My. God. IT HAS ATOMIC COMMAND!!!!!!!!!" Scribe Haylen sits down on a crate, and immediately starts playing. Danse grabs a Pip-Boy next. "A few years ago, I would have commented about the combat effectiveness or something. Now, I'm just happy to have such an incredible piece of machinery to my name" Deacon spoke up while grabbing his own. "That is the most insightful thing you've ever said. Now, gimme da goods!" He slides it on his wrist. "Haylen! HAYYYYLLLEN! Mine has Pipfall! We should play both and trade scores! HAYLLLENNNNN!"

The rest of the companions all grab a pip-boy, even Cait does after a while. The only ones left standing are Longfellow, Gage, Strong, Ada, Nick, and Hancock.

Hancock walks over to you, putting his hand on your shoulder. "So this thing can slow time, right? Is that anything like Jet?" You affirm him that the sanctity of his drug trips will be preserved, and he spends the next few minutes glancing down at his Pip-Boy, than pulling it really close to his face, than pulling it away again. You laugh as Gage steps up. "Boss, what the hell is this for? How can this help me?" You shove it onto his wrist, basically forcing him to play the installed holotape game, Zeta Invaders. Once again, Deacon pipes up. "That game takes on a whole new meaning when you've been abducted by a real Zetan." Jack Cabot runs over to Deacon and starts asking him hundreds of questions about his apparent alien encounter.

Longfellow takes a pip-boy, using it to scope out the animals around. He sighted a radstag, shooting it dead in a split second. "Venison for dinner." At first Ada is confused as to what to do with the pip-boy, but then she attaches it to her arm. She plugs it directly into her motherboard, gaining all the benefits a human would get from wearing it. "I do believe that my relationship with this device will be quite positive." Strong tried to fit it on, but ended up just wrapping it around his finger. He hated the feeling of the "VERY LARGE RING" and ended up just giving it to MacCready, who was happy to have an extra video game machine for Duncan.

Nick is last. "Let me just ask you one thing. Every time I've seen the stranger, you've been looking at that machine. So would a machine using the machine summon him? Is that possible?" You tell him that it's worth a try.

He gazes at the machine, selecting VATS over and over. After about 45 seconds, he gazes up and sees a man who looks like a mirror version of him. "I've got you, you incredibly handsome asshole!" Nick LUNGES at the stranger, but collapses onto the hard dirt. He stands up and brushes himself up. "FUCK YOU, YOU AMAZINGLY ATTRACTIVE AND HIGHLY FASHIONABLE MISCREANT!!!!"