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QUESTIONS FOR YOUR OCs
What’s the maximum amount of time your character can sit still with nothing to do? I don’t know if meditating counts, but he’s spend a few hours at a stretch praying to Atom. Otherwise, he tends to get twitchy at about the two minute mark.
How easy is it for your character to laugh? Very easy. Hell, Nate makes himself laugh sometimes. He’ll just be walking along and then starts chuckling to himself because he thought of something funny.
How do they put themselves to bed at night (reading, singing, thinking?) Cuddling. Nate like to hug someone or something when falling asleep. Usually Nick, but other repeat offenders are his bag, Dogmeat, his gun Apex (safely unloaded), and once, Piper’s leg. She just sorta laughed about it and tried not to make him because it was too cute.
How easy is it to earn their trust? Quite easy. Nate tends to trust easily (too easily, some might say), but Nate prefers it that way. He’d rather take the knocks than live any other way.
How easy is it to earn their mistrust? Actually quite hard. Nate tends not top take things personally, so some rando double crossing him is more likely just to get a shrug and a bullet to the head (didn’t say it was a smart rando) than actually get Nate angry. It takes either a betrayal of serious existing trust, so something absolutely heinous to get Nate mad.
Do they consider laws flexible, or immovable? Definitely more on the flexible side. The Commonwealth is rough, and Nate is willing to forgive a lot of crimes if committed in the name of survival.
What triggers nostalgia for them, most often? Do they enjoy that feeling? Books, and libraries. A swimming pool once. He does not enjoy the feeling. It’s only a few steps removed from flashbacks and even pleasant memories feel like a betrayal.
What were they told to stop/start doing most often as a child Told to stop tinkering with shit. Oh wow the number of radios, televisions and random crap he must have taken apart and ruined. Told to start getting out more and making friends. Nate found it very hard to make friends and assumed that it would be easier when he got older. And it was! He has lots of friends in the Commonwealth.
Do they swear? Do they remember their first swear word? Oh yes, Nate swears. Shit fuck cock bastard asshole motherfucker. He can’t remember when he started. Somewhere his parents couldn’t hear him, that’s for sure.
What lie do they most frequently remember telling? Does it haunt them? Nate was never much one for lying. Maybe it would have been better for him if he was, but like being suspicious, this seems to be a trait for a Nate Brooks that does not exist. Besides, he believes lies cause more trouble than they’re worth, in the long run.
How do they cope with confusion (seek clarification, pretend they understand, etc)? Clarification, or, if that fails. Nate will just point out he has no idea what is going on and just let the situation drift around him, aimlessly, and hope someone else (usually Nick) understands.
How do they deal with an itch found in a place they can’t quite reach? Oh wow, I suddenly had an image of Nate using Apex to scratch an itch and everyone just staring because Nate that is not a good idea wtf.
What color do they think they look best in? Do they actually look best in that color? Red, and he does look very nice in red. Nate is definitely an autumn.
What animal do they fear most? Humans. Nate isn’t really scared of animals, even after the bombs, he doesn’t like baby mirelurks but wouldn’t say he’s scared of them, they’re just a pain to shoot.
How do they speak? Is what they say usually thought of on the spot, or do they rehearse it in their mind first? Nate tries the latter, but it tends to get mixed up along the way or just lost, so in practise it’s the former.
What makes their stomach turn? Food :( poor Nate. Also pre-war abuses and anything Institute. In the Commonwealth he’s pretty unflappable.
Are they easily embarrassed? Not really, Nate just tends to power through awkward situations and oddly, this usually works.
What embarrasses them? People being too grateful for something he did. It feels really uncomfortable and most he wants to get away as fast as possible.
What is their favorite number? Nate has no idea. Maybe he had one once, and forgot it. He should think of a new one. Hmm.
If they were asked to explain the difference between romantic and platonic or familial love, how would they do so? Umm, romantic means would want to have sex with someone. Also be physically close in other ways, maybe feel comfortable sharing more things that with the other kinds.
Why do they get up in the morning? New morning! New things to do, play with Dogmeat, find somewhere new in the commonwealth and take everything not nailed down, find new and interesting things and share with Nick. Help people. Oh, and the water purifier’s broken down. Again.
How does jealousy manifest itself in them (they become possessive, they become aloof, etc)? Nate gets shifty and uncomfortable. He’s pretty bad at reading people (he’s on the spectrum) so it can be hard to guess when something is crossing the line and Nick does tend to flirt with a lot of people. He shuts down and glares at whoever it is.
How does envy manifest itself in them (they take what they want, they become resentful, etc)? It’s not an emotion Nate gets very much of. He’s pretty satisfied with himself and his life so when confronted with something that is better than he has or someone better than he is, Nate tends to see it as inspiration. The rare few times it’s been negative he tends to just feel inadequate and removes himself from the situation.
Is sex something that they’re comfortable speaking about? To whom? To close friends, yes, but even then Nate is hesitant, unsure if he’s going to be bothering them with his weird sex stories. Someone would have to start first, and Nate wouldn’t go into much detail, for fear of upsetting Nick.
What are their thoughts on marriage? Had it once. Never again. It’s painful because Nate would totally get married to Nick, but the thought of going through all that again, and the ring- it makes him feel sick.
What is their preferred mode of transportation? Walking. Definitely walking. He’s scared of vertibirds and teleportation gives him a headache.
What causes them to feel dread? Being trapped, being surrounded by terrible things and being unable to do anything about it, or worse, being forced to participate. The Institute was a nightmare. The pre war world was worse.
Would they prefer a lie over an unpleasant truth? No. Just tell him his ass looks big.
Do they usually live up to their own ideals? On the whole, yes. The Institute was a fairly large exception for that and Nate never knew he had the capacity for that much violence and hate inside him.
Who do they most regret meeting? Shaun. Both times.
Who are they the most glad to have met? Nick Valentine. Nate knew he was going to love meeting him, had been more than half in love with him ever since Mama Murphy told him of the man with the shining heart. He was so, so not disappointed.
Do they have a go-to story in conversation? Or a joke? Nate has a rather good one about getting stuck on a rooftop by a legendary sentry bot after being tasked to clear a building of ferals. Given the people who were paying him would not be happy to have a sentry bot problem, he felt obliged to take the thing out. It took all night, and half a dozen guns, because the thing finally exploded, possibly out of sheer frustration.
Could they be considered lazy? No. Nate is a lot of things, but lazy is not one of them.
How hard is it for them to shake a sense of guilt? Nate tries to rationalise guilt, convince himself he did what he could, etc. It usually works, but there are some thing, pre war things, that he knows he can’t shake, and almost wouldn’t want to. It would feel tantamount to forgetting.
How do they treat the things their friends come to them excited about? Are they supportive? To the point of sometimes getting more excited about the thing than they are. Sturges makes a point of never asking Nate to do anything in anything but the most causal way, since the time he asked Nate to beef up Sanctuary’s defences and ended up with a dozen missile turrets, a dozen laser turrets, uncounted machine gun turrets, and a wall of steel and barbed wire around the two. Nate likes to make things.
Do they actively seek romance, or do they wait for it to fall into their lap? Nate had been getting ready to seek out some romance, or at least some sex, after getting out of the Vault, but then he ran into Nick three weeks into his stay in the Commonwealth, and the issue became moot.
Do they have a system for remembering names, long lists of numbers, things that need to go in a certain order (like anagrams, putting things to melodies, etc)? Not really, Nate has a very visual and semi eidetic memory, so tends to be able to remember images of things rather than names.
What memory do they revisit the most often? Probably coming out of the vault for the first time. The light, the birds, the strange plants. The little stream int he gully and above all the knowledge that it was over the nightmare was finished and someone he was still here after waking up. The relief was unimaginable.
How easy is it for them to ignore flaws in other people? It depends on the flaws. There are some that he’s fine with, others that really get under his skin. Social flaws like being shy or too chatty or inappropriate he is fine with. Being cruel or lying he is very not find with.
How sensitive are they to their own flaws? Nate is okay with having them pointed out, it’s the best way to know about them and improve.
How do they feel about children? Ah, yes… hello small person. Nate is fine with kids of about ten and up, treating them like small adults, but would be totally lost with a toddler. He handed Shaun off to Tinker Tom and washed his hands once and for all of that trainwreck. he is never breeding again.
How badly do they want to reach their end goal? Well, when that was the destruction of the Institute it was almost intolerable how badly Nate wanted this to be over. But that was almost less about the end goal than just ending a particularly horrible chapter in his life. These days he has less of one, and just a lot of little goals.
If someone asked them to explain their sexuality, how would they do so? Well, most people asking would be asking about why he’s fucking a robot, so Nate would just give a long suffering sigh and launch into a spiel about how wonderful Nick is and that Nate is very happy with him, and when two people love each other very much it doesn’t matter if they’re a human or ghoul or synth or a fucking super mutant as long as they can be together. The people usually walk away with that last imagine burned into their brains forever and serves them right.
QUESTIONS FOR CREATORS
A) Why are you excited about this character? Nate is a very neat and very well fitting subversion and satire on the Fallout pre-war past. He uses the canon backstory for the Fallout 4 character while completely turning it on its head, and his pov was been wonderful in playing through Fallout 4.B) What inspired you to create them? Nate developed over time as I was doing my first fallout 4 playthrough. Eventually I stopped the game and restarted with Nate from the beginning. This has been my ‘canon’ story, but some elements from the first playthrough seeped through (like the sentry bot story because that was just too good to leave out)C) Did you have trouble figuring out where they fit in their own story? It took a while, and some aspects came totally out of the blue. Nate’s conversion to Atom surprised my as much as it did him, but it worked and we rolled with it. His romance options were also a bit uncertain, but then I met Nick and- well, it’s Nick.D) Have they always had the same physical appearance, or have you had to edit how they look? He was originally another character, who was white, but one of the first things I knew about Nate was that he was mixed race. He is actually slightly different in game to how I see him in my head, since the little Atom brand he has is not in the game, and I can never get his hair right. It took a while to pick the right shade for his skin, but his eyes were set from the start. Amber.E) Are they someone you would get along with? Would they get along with you? Probably yes. Nate has a lot of my own aspie traits, so I’d like to think we’d be friends.F) What do you feel when you think of your OC (pride, excitement, frustration, etc)? Really happy. Nate’s great fun.G) What trait of theirs bothers you the most? I can’t say it bothers me exactly, but since Nate is at least half black and I’m not, I do sometimes wonder if I’d doing him justice? Like is it okay that he’s into BDSM and a bit submissive or is that playing into negative tropes. That kinda stuff.H) What trait do you admire most? Nate’s optimism and determination to be upbeat and helpful. I) Do you prefer to keep them in their canon universe? He is very much a Fallout person and it would be hard top separate him from that. That being said I played him in Baldur’s Gate and he is fitting in shockingly well in Choice of Games’”A Study in Steampunk”, and I’ve toyed with him a bit in my Progressive Victorian Alternate History, sop he does get around. He fits in well in Star Trek, but then I headcanon Star Trek as being what happens in the future of Fallout once humanity has gotten its act together a bit more.
I do play with a lot of in-world AUs. Including a plague au where the Institute decides surface life is not dying off fast enough and decided to kill them all and, because they’re incompetent, kill themselves along with it.
Also a rather fun one when Nate gets to the Institute and immediately gets embroiled in a Courser plot to overthrow Father and take control because clearly the humans couldn’t find their arses with both hands and a roadmap, and Nate is just GREAT IDEA LETS DO THAT and X6 is awesome and this is the only way you should be able to side with the Institute really Bethesda.J) Did you have to manipulate or exclude canon factors to allow them to create their character? Not really. Most of the dialogue about Shaun didn’t work but there were some walkarounds. The only one I really got stuck on was when Shaun wanted to get out of the Institute and called Nate dad and Nate was just OMFGWTFBBQ I just shot my son and left him to die upstairs what the fuck is wrong with you no. But all the options were ‘you’re not a real person die’ or ‘I love you son’ which was just… no. Regardless, it worked out.
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