āI believe the word you are looking for is wonderful, not dick.ā
This is easily one of the nicest things ever said to me, thank you ^_^
THIS MIGHT GET TL;DR, please stay with me :s
1) Nick is NOT as au-fait with his identity as he makes out.
Despite telling us that he got over the confusion ofĀ being synth in the commonwealth a few weeks after waking up in landfill; its clear that Nick is only just coming to terms with his identity. Especially after his personal quest. I think thatās where it really hits home that a large part of his identity is that his memories came from someone else. And the realisation that heās not human, but he is a person.
Letās face it: he could have looked for Eddie Winterās tapes by himself. He could have done this entire thing decades ago. The only reason he didnāt was because Eddie Winter was a big part of his percieved identity. He just could not let him go. Probably spent many nights thinking about what killing Winter would mean for his identity, which is why he put it off for so long.
2) Nick covers up his insecurities with sass. Which tells us a lot about what heās afraid of.
I also believe a fear of abandonment is a defining factor in both his and human!Nickās personalities. It informs a surprising amount of what he does, he covers it up with a mountain of snark. But it really becomes apparent if (god forbid) you ever do anything to disappoint him. Then it all comes spilling out: he tells you he sees too many people āgiving inā to their greed and their hate. Tells you he was certain you were different, and that you are destroying all the hopes he had.
If you push him too far he yells at you, angrily pushing you away and cutting you out of his life completely. But not before sassing you from one end of the Commonwealth to the other. Which tells us that Nick has always used sarcasm to deal with his emotions. And they always boil over when people push him away.
I agree with you: Nick canāt catch a break because he is still haunted by the ghosts of a man heās never even met.
ALSO: I too want to see a fix-it AU⦠but my mind just keeps going to dark places.
I already know this post has reached TL;DR territory, so bear with meā¦
What if Jenny was *never* āNickās girlāā¦
Eddie reveals to Nick that he didnāt kill Jenny, why would he kill his own niece? The only reason she ever got with Nick in the first place was so she could feed information on Operation Winterās End back to him.
It was unfortunate for Eddie that Jenny actually started getting sweet on Nick for real, and stopped giving useful information. With her now being more of a liability: something had to be done.
She needed to be removed from the picture in such a way that NO ONE would question where sheād gone, not even Nick.
Eddie stages the shooting of Jennifer Lands. Sticks a corpse with remarkably accurate (and expensive) facial reconstructive surgery in the middle of the street. Nick blames Eddie and claims something isnāt right about the whole situation (even after Winterās End is closed), his boss starts thinking Nick is losing the plot when hes asked to ID the body and Nick says āShe never had a birthmark there!ā Sends him to CIT. Two birds, one stone.
Jenny, meanwhile, is strong-armed into a Vault. Along with the scientist responsible for the concoction that turned Eddie Winter into a ghoul. The Vault is then sealed when the bombs fall. Of course, like every Vault, there is more going on here than the residents are being told. Half of the vault is set to be heavily irradiated to test the effects of radiation on the surface, but in a controlled environment where others can contain and study the people as they change.