mellowdisko

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Super Mutant

Concept art for Fallout 3

Art by Adam Adamowicz

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I like to think that at the graveyards in NV, the whispering voices are specific to the courier, in terms that others don't canonically hear them, and that it's due to the courier cheating death or being so close to death with getting shot in the head. Maybe they came back from death and the fingers of the grave haven't quite let them go yet.

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1955 Lincoln Futura (Ghia)

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was replaying lonesome road and came across the body of an NCR riot control officer. I’ve seen him before, but ig I never really paid attention. but now i’m stuck on the term riot control. like obviously NCR is big so civil unrest is probably a given but these guys are both heavily armoured and armed. so that raises questions like: is the republic really that cruel to use shit like literal sniper rifles for urban law enforcement? or how willing are they to harm protestors?

also if I remember correctly there is NCR police in fallout 2 so is the riot control unit part of the police force (like its the case in my country) or are they more like an extension of the rangers/military?

anyways, writing legion version of riot control :p

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1960’s Factory Computer Station, Japan by SwellMap

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just imagine being raised in american military culture and then being thrown out into the postapocalypse before you can reach that age where you join. and it's not even like you're locked out of some perfect life, because the apocalypse was partly caused by the military you were raised in. you can't find comfort in childhood memories, only mixed emotions -- mostly guilt. can't find the same comfort in adult life because it's such a departure from the comforts of a super privileged childhood. so you're stuck in this middle ground where you're perpetually shocked at the horrors of the world before and the horrors of the world now, comforted only by some fantasy of what's to come. fitting in nowhere, relating to nobody. some well-nourished and pale product of the old world, towering, looming over everyone you meet. dude

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Bruce Weber

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small first chapter wip of the longfic im working on

any feedback would be very much appreciated.

It is a late, sultry hour. With torchlight scattered over the ash-coloured plains, the name of a distant city on every lip, glued over the yellowed paper of every distributed pamphlet. Two-Sun. The boys at Fort say in hushed voices, whispers breaking the lull of quiet over the camp in the purple darkness of the soon morning.

And perhaps Decimus Valerius was six months ahead of time when he approached the gathered frumentarii with his dark blue cape draped over his shoulders when the order given was a short and clear not-to-overdress. But every face of Flagstaff had turned to look at him that night, and maybe that was his plan all along; perhaps Decimus really was six months, one step ahead of time when he announced that their most beloved centurion, Tiberius of Two-Sun, was actually a traitorous snake; a puppet of that degenerate underground.

Vulpes had not listened to him back then. He had his own doubts, of course— small things he had noticed, a tiny voice in the back of his mind. Like how the centurion’s eyes would shift away whenever the other side of the river was mentioned. Or how the triumphs of the Novam Centuria, once so glorious, so soaked in blood, seemed to lose their savage edge. And there was the young priestess, approaching bare feet with a ghost’s grace, who had whispered under her veil that the centurion no longer sought new slaves or the spoils of war; how strange that was, how strange Tiberius had become.

But Vulpes knew Decimus well: an unreliable and proud man. He could never fully trust him. And how could he even think of disposing of the centurion as he watched the man stroll into Caesar’s tent like he belonged there? How could he kill the hope of a city, a local hero, when war was just a breath away? How could he listen to Decimus’ words when, in their quiet late-night walks, Tiberius would hold one strong hand over his shoulder and tell him of fate and The Parcae?

He was in his full centurion regalia that night.

The world around them was quiet, asleep. His cape, the colour of their flag, billowed behind him like a crimson wave as the Mojave wind howled between them. He was holding his helmet under his arm, talking of destiny being weaved by three old hags in heaven, of even Jupiter and Mars themselves trembling before the lady who cuts the thread. He looked impressive. Like the sun. Like a true Roman warrior who has climbed out from those old-world books, forged in myth, carved into legend. And then, Tiberius told him that once he had killed a hellish monster from Black Mountain with nothing but his bare hands. Like Hercules strangling the Nemean lion.

That night, under the stars, Vulpes Inculta thought the centurion before him was untouchable, undefeated. For a small moment, he almost believed it. Almost believed that Tiberius of Two-Sun was immortal— This was before the war. Before Boulder City had collapsed on them. Before a foreign god blessed the scopes of First Recon. Before Malpais Legate lightened the night around him as he fell down the Grand Canyon, burning until nothing was left at the bottom but pitch black…

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I completely forgot about this but even in the intro of NV, the narrator straight up refers to the Legion as an army of slaves. There is a very tragic element to them that I sometimes think isn’t acknowledged enough. None of the men asked to become legionaries or had any say so in it. They’re victims as much as they are perpetrators in a cycle of generational trauma they were forced into, alienated and indoctrinated even further by taught hatred, and possible hot take here but I think because they’re men that whole victim aspect tends to get swept under the rug more.

Idk but that tragic element of them is so interesting to me and adds another layer to them entirely. I don’t think it’s possible to be a legionary without some sort of trauma. They’re a cult after all. Trauma makes legionaries and legionaries make more trauma.

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huh

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the praetorians are caesar's bodyguards, but we see one in lanius' tent. does this mean all high-ranking officials have a praetorian guarding them? or was the legate just extra protected because of the ongoing war? if it’s the former, would someone like vulpes have a bodyguard too?? and what about the families of high-ranking officials?? like bro its the wasteland and they’re a citizen of like the most opposed faction, surely they’d need some extra protection— would the state provide that kind of security??? so many questions...

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I feel like there’s no where quite so haunting as the cocktail lounge in The Lucky 38. You can see it from miles away in the wasteland lit up, it’s easily the most noticeable part of the landscape. When you get it it’s empty, dead silent save the wind, and strangely pristine. In the wasteland you’re used to abandoned places and buildings, accustomed even, but the entirety of the lucky 38 is the wrong kind of abandoned. The cocktail lounge emphasizes that perfectly, better even than the empty casino floor, or House’s pent house.

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Quo Vadis Directors Mervyn LeRoy • Anthony Mann

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i do believe Vulpes Inculta is pretty good at his job, the Omertas wrapped around his finger, his shadow looming over the strip, cunning little fox finding his way into the henhouse right under House's nose- but i can never imagine him putting on a charming or seductive persona for it. he probably sits at casino bars, looking a little bit strange, a little bit out of place, eerie, distant and mildly off-putting and the lads at vegas go: "damn i need him"

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Abandoned radio-optical telescope, Mount Aragats, Armenia.

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How often do you play as a Legion affiliated courier? Do you enjoy it despite how little there is in the vanilla game?

okay, tbf, ive only done one legion playthrough. don’t get me wrong, it was fun, but there’s not a lot to do, and most of the quests feel pretty bare-bones. that said, i did enjoy it; especially since it was the first time i tried a melee-focused build so finding different ways to counter the long-range power of the enemies was cool.

overall though, while terrorising the wasteland is fun, the legion's storyline is pretty lackluster. aside from two quests (arizona killer and the one where you help picus blow up the monorail—can’t remember its name), i didn’t really find myself thinking back on them much.

but maybe that’s why I like the legion so much! it has cool aesthetics and lots of potential, but it’s still a blank canvas. you can make up all kinds of things about them without having to worry too much about pre-existing lore. like ofc writing amazing things about the ncr, the bos and etc is possible but there is still a lot of established stuff that you should take into consideration. legion is much more lenient in that sense. like im currently writing a legion fic about civil war breaking out after a huge loss at the second battle of hoover dam and i can tell you: it’s been a blast so far.

anyway, apologies for yapping too much. to sum up, brainrotting about them is much more interesting and fun than actually playing through their storyline.

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Is it really ooc for women to be working with/in the Frumentarii considering how flagrantly hypocritical the Legion are? Caesar bans medicine but owns and uses an auto-doc. He is also more than happy for a female courier to secure him victory at the Dam, even if she receives verbal abuse from the legionnaires around her.

Sure, it would have to be off the record and I highly doubt they're positions in the network were secure. A misogynist society like the Legion would probably see a woman in their intelligence network as the prime scapegoat for anything going wrong, faulty information, infiltration by the enemy, etc.

However, given what the game tells us about the Legion/what we can infer, I think there's absolutely potential for it.

honestly, my main reasoning for the whole idea was martina. she obviously does not know shes working for the legion but vulpes is still willing to use her, even going so far as to ask you, the courier, to ensure her safety. and like you said, accepting help from a female courier is a major hypocrisy but they still do (plus technically she already functions as a frumentarius)

they look down on women, but they’re still willing to accept their help when it's convenient. however, i do feel like these women holding unofficial but respected roles within the frumentarii might be a bit ooc, or at least doesn’t really have much support in-game since there is very limited information about the legion. i've always headcanoned the frumentarii as being more normal about gender, since they’re constantly exposed to a world where women are treated as equals and have the opportunity to accomplish great things. but again, none of this is told in the game. still, there is potential for it and its certainly very fun to think about :D