Fallout shipping and rarepairs

[vegetablearian]

I wanted to write something for Rarepair Hell Weekend, but I don't think I'll get around to it. But there's still time for anyone to take part!

According to the loose rules in that post, literally any Fallout ship (or friendship!) would count as a rarepair. I wrote some thoughts about Fallout shipping trends. What do you think?

Do you have any Fallout ships? I'm not counting Player Character/Best Weapon, but, well, in a world where light switches make passes at you, maybe it's a possibility! (Personally I'm very invested in my headcanon Boone&Gobi Campaign Rifle devoted partnership that ends with a man stuffing his best friend into a small locker after they conspire together to kill his wife.)

Comments

[vegetablearian]

I have a thousand Fallout ships. Well, maybe not that many, but maybe. I have a main ship for all the games I've played, which is Ian/Vault Dweller, Chosen One/Miria, Lone Wanderer/Corporal Betsy (it's not too complicated - LW goes to NCR. okay it's a bit complicated), Boone/Courier and Sole Survivor/Piper.

I have invented stuff like Village Elder/Cassidy, become fixated on things like James/Catherine... most of my ships are FNV ships though. I like Arcade/Boone and Courier/Christine though they conflict with my preferred Arcade/Manny, Boone/Courier and Veronica/Christine. I also have a lot of fun thinking of loads of people for Cass and Arcade to hook up with (separately, but often overlappingly, like how I ship Mick/Ralph, and Arcade/Mick, Cass/Ralph, Arcade/Mick/Ralph). My favourites to think about recently are The King/Cass and Arcade/Sergio, mainly because those are what I'm about to write in my fic :) I've also gotten really into Chris Haversam/Cliff Briscoe...!

[sideways]

Hmm! As far as personal storylines go, my FNV run involves both Courier/Veronica and Veronica/Christine, with the former ending badly as the Courier slides further into a pit of ruthless amorality, and the latter being the bittersweet tale of first loves torn apart, reunited under complicated conditions, but ultimately rebuilding the relationship anew :)

Beyond that I'm a fairly easygoing shipper, I'll roll with almost anything as long as the case is made well. I HAVE recently developed a fondness for the idea of James/Catherine/Madison in FO3 because wow does Madison like to cut herself off when talking about the LW's parents in a very loaded way. I also enjoy the complications that inevitably throws into how she feels about the LW.

[vegetablearian]

You're brave to have a bad Courier! I've been trying to do a Legion run for like, a year, and I really like the story I made up, but I'm pretty much playing through my fingers. This stuff can make for very compelling stories though :)

How do you imagine Veronica and Christine reuniting? My Courier brings Christine back to Vegas with her - after they nearly get together themselves but talk each other out of it in case their exes still want them after all (which they do, hehe!)

Ooh, I need to replay FO3 and pay more attention to how Madison talks about James and Catherine!

[sideways]

I wouldn't call it so much brave as unavoidable, lol. She just kind of developed that way (and still finished the game with good karma, I believe, because the karma system is hilariously borked).

A Legion run would certainly test me, but I have seen folks build really interesting stories out of it! Is yours a die-hard Legion story, or one of redemption, or something else?

I spun Dead Money into a prologue for my Courier, so Veronica and Christine reunite after the events of New Vegas when the Courier returns to the Sierra Madre for personal reasons.

You mentioned becoming fixated on James/Catherine - do you have any special headcanons about 'em?

[vegetablearian]

It is funny how stealing from the Legion is the worst thing you can do, and shooting Fiends before they've even had a chance to really reveal that they're out to attack randoms redeems you...!

My Legion Courier is an escaped slave who's kind of sympathetic to them because they didn't treat her too awfully in the time she was with them, who gets taken in by Vulpes, who thinks she's a useful idiot after getting shot in the head. Only, she also has a romance with Boone that can only end in tears. It's super dramatic and really quite silly but I want to play it! In the game, she's high luck and has Veronica as her main companion :) I want to get the casino achievement too hehe.

I like your Courier's story!! Putting DM before the game is a fun choice. I like the DLCs out of order - OWB before DM, so you know who Elijah and Christine are. For my main Courier, it's another reason to go there.

Flirting with Cass and initially siding with House are things my main Courier does too. Only, because she likes the Followers as well as Veronica, she ends up slaughtering the Brotherhood for that reason after initially not wanting to go along with House's orders! (It's funny how in the game Veronica is fine with it so long as you'd already buttered up the Brotherhood a bit. I hc it as being more like convincing her that you were trying to protect her and prevent more massacres. Which requires being extremely convincing, but she is!)

Omg... it's so dramatic with Veronica and Christine fighting your Courier! I love it though. But I could never make my main Courier be so mean lmao. I stand by you being brave! I'm always like "yeah she's a little bit of a heartless murderer sometimes but she's good reallllly". It hurts my feelings otherwise.

I don't really have any James/Catherine hcs that aren't just Catherine hcs. I wrote a fic about, amongst many other things, her being a granddaughter of the Vault Dweller, and how I made her the catalyst of Project Purity because of this more or less hereditary fascination with water filtering lmao. I just like thinking about how happy they were and how sad it is!