#iguana

[vvalengogh]

bro do not crawl out through the fallout this weird rat kept biting me

[vvalengogh]

vault dweller 13 elvis costello, aka “iguana,” before and after ghoulification.

he ghoulifies somewhere in his 30s-40s due to the amount of radiation he received from the glow through his expeditions there. while he first got to the glow when he was 24, his ghoulification process was slow as it was sudden, hence his sudden and unexplained departure of arroyo even if it hurt to leave, especially when the elder of arroyo had already disappeared himself leaving him and the rest of the village in distress. but, as his health got worse, he had to leave and hide. hence he started going by the name iguana, basically remained mia to everyone in arroyo.

eventually everyone who once knew him died, and he was no longer remembered outside of the vault dweller from vault 13 legends. he was fine with that. all his companions eventually died, and he kept trinkets to remember them by: namely dogmeat’s collar, who he wears around his wrist as a bracelet.

in the present day, 2287, he still wanders the wasteland doing odd jobs here and there; mostly a mechanic, but he’s good with mercenary and caravan guard jobs. basically a jack of all trades.

he’s still pretty much the same as he was before; more mellowed out, but things like him being whiny and snappy still remain part of him. but he is helpful, knows how to carry himself around.

[vvalengogh]

fallout 1’s dead and empty ambience that makes me hope to god nothing knows i exist in this vast empty wasteland unsettles me greatly but my vault dweller remains silly and lucky

[vvalengogh]

average fallout 1 experience

[vvalengogh]

some wet rat i found in the sewers of necropolis

[vvalengogh]

[ wip ]

vault dweller…. his name is elvis but ppl in the wasteland call him iguana instead. he’s probably a whiny mf also i haven’t gotten past the doors of vault 13

[vvalengogh]

based off of this

[vvalengogh]

anyways.

woe. elvis be upon ye

[vvalengogh]

despite watching and seeing new california sprout with new life, filling the once dead and empty wastes with farms, crops, villages, live people, giving elvis a reason to look forward to things, i think he still pretty much avoids a lot of parts in new california eventually.

i like to believe that very early on in the wasteland, everything was just extremely empty and dead to the point the most dangerous things were just super mutants and raiders and the then-elusive deathclaw. otherwise most critters weren’t as big as a threat until being far more widespread. otherwise it was just emptiness and radiation the elements of the wasteland to worry about.

eventually over the years it got better in terms of population but worse as deathclaws spread, raider factions became far more common and all that fun stuff.

so watching things get a little better in terms of life makes new california less… of a traumatic memory for elvis, but he still doesn’t frequent the area anymore in the present. it just reminds him of all that happened in 2161; he especially doesn’t like the wide, sandy openness of the desert.

[vvalengogh]

reposting from my twitter and rambles to my bf bc I’m cooking up my own vault dweller lore rather than fallout 1 and 2’a canonical vault dweller lore bc personally i don’t like it when games force my character into extremely specific lore without gaps for me to fill in:

i think elvis’ friends that join him in the wasteland after he’s exiled are the three pre made characters ( albert, max and natalia ) the game gives you the option to play as. elvis helps them survive in the wasteland and all four of them build the community of arroyo. idk who becomes the elder of arroyo but it isn’t elvis— it’s either max or albert, or hell, even natalia! but elvis does not take up that position but he does assume a godfather role OR a fatherly role ( in the case that the elder does die and leaves pat every single elder responsibility, thus she’d need a babysitter to look after her kid ). regardless of either choice, elvis never really finds anyone. he’s a gay man though closeted early on in his non-ghoulified life, and never fathers any children in the first place. he’s just sort of a lone wolf ig?? but despite that lone wolf, somewhat distant status, he is still a part of the arroyo community until one day he just leaves out of nowhere in the middle of the night. the reason for that is bc he started to ghoulify, and he was like, uh oh. and had no idea how arroyo would react. so, he left, ghoulified somewhere in his mid 30s/early 40s. and now present day he wanders the wasteland.

and that’s about it, but!! additionally!! i think albert is the one who ends up becoming the elder of arroyo. albert married and had his daughter, and elvis was his best friend and elvis had a crush on him. but he never did anything about it bc he was a closeted gay man back then. anyway, eventually albert isn’t around anymore and he babysits pat for albert’s wife as she takes up every single responsibility of elder. and, as mentioned, then years later he leaves because he starts to turn into a ghoul and he has no idea how the village of arroyo will think of that. so he leaves, and he doesn’t wanna be found, nor does he want to return no matter how sad it is. he starts going more by iguana as an alias, an old nickname ian and other people started calling him bc he never introduced himself properly. I’m not sure where he goes but he doesn’t go to necropolis, nor any major town or village, he just sort of keeps and lives to and by himself. after all, back then people were less kind to ghouls. and he did not want to risk being shot on sight or make ppl think he’s spreading some disease.

anyway, eventually enough time passes where everyone who knew him was long gone, and california had shifted just so enough where he was not worried about being murdered right on the spot.

hundred years or so later he’s still traveling around, minding his business, mingling with people and still the same whiny mf he was back in 2162.

also:

not once was he involved with the events of fallout 2, by that time homie was still hidden away, probably working as a mercenary for someone under like 20 layers of clothes covering his face.

[vvalengogh]

i am happy to announce that elvis saved vault 13 but now he has to deal with the master