#adarlingmess

I love this idea. I don't think he'd even be making the decision to play it safe with Haarlep (well, "safe") consciously. So when he starts to feel something towards Tav, he's kinda caught off guard.

He does write about Tav in his diary, and dreams of them. Of course it's also related to the crown, but I do believe him when he says "I've grown quite fond of you, in my way".

And I always thought his "You." when he catches us in the HoH sounded particularly laden. With a combination of surprise, pain and anger (on god, Wincott did such a stellar job).

Totally agree with OP, that he's hurt we betrayed him, and lashes out. Because it's his only way of coping.

I wonder if his affection(?) for Hope turned into despising her over time, and he doesn't want to go through this again with Tav, so he just decided to kill us and be done with it. I mean, imagine the person you have some form of affection for, refuses you. So you chain them up and torture them, only for them to keep refusing you for tens, hundreds(?) of years. What must be going through his head during that time? "Why can't I break them?" "Am I so undesirable, that they refuse me this vehemently?"

You say a lot of bold things attached to your full name and face, Sam! ;)

On the topic of the Filipino diaspora in Fallout's America, how do you think the new landscape affected Filipino cuisine? What is the Painted Heads' cuisine like?

(I'd like to think popular dishes, although they'd have to change the recipe up to adapt to the wasteland, e.g. with the absence of chicken and pork, they'd use cut-up gecko meat for adobo, and they'd use ground brahmin meat with the local vegetables as fillings for lumpia etc.)

!!!! aaaaa omg ok so the painted heads’ cuisine is very filipino, and it uses up all parts of the animal! so of course there’s dinuguan (stew made from blood), there’s bopis (lungs and heart), sisig (face and liver), isaw (intestine), lengua (tongue), all of that good stuff! maybe made from molerat or brahmin in the absence of pork or chicken? and of course there’s tinapa (smoked fish) and tuyo (dried fish) since fish is abundant in lake mead so i guess there’ll be fish in lots of other bodies of water!

i think filipino cuisine - all parts of it, not just the ones with the pretty cuts of meat like nilaga, sinigang, adobo, tapa, menudo, embutido, tinola, etc etc - would persevere in the wasteland since it’s persevered so long here. don’t quote me on this, but i remember reading somewhere that the reason a lot of filipino dishes use the offal because it’s what the spanish colonizers would discard after they get the pretty cuts of meat - not wanting to waste the other parts, their filipino servants would cook the offal and eat those instead! 

How likely I am to write it: oh damn 👀 I'm not even sure if I've ever read something like this, but i would definitely write it!

Companion Perk: Hell’s Ferryman - Having a tall, silent, and intimidating Ghoul in your party strikes fear in people’s hearts. In combat, humans and ghouls will have their Damage Resistance reduced by 25%, and they have a 50% chance of dropping their weapons in terror. Outside combat, having Charon in your party will unlock special Intimidate dialogue.

Examples of Intimidate dialogue: You can Intimidate Colonel Autumn to back down by threatening him a slow and painful death in the hands of your ghoul companion. You can threaten Griffon that you’ll have Charon rough him up if he doesn’t start selling real Aqua Pura to the citizens of Underworld.

Companion Quest: Charon’s Chains (unmarked quest)

After being in Ahzrukhal’s employ for far too long, Charon is finally free of him and his influence. In your travels in the wasteland, you can influence Charon to overcome his brainwashing, or reinforce his contract’s hold on his psyche.

Select quests, engaging in dialogue with certain NPCs, or doing certain actions that are related to slavery and freedom can give the player either an “overcome” token, or a “reinforce” token, and will unlock dialogue with Charon. Examples: Freeing slaves from Paradise Falls will grants the player overcome tokens, while selling slaves to slavers will grant the player reinforce tokens. During the quest Head of State, siding with Hannibal Hamlin will grant the player an overcome token, while siding with Leroy Walker grants the player a reinforce token.

When three overcome tokens are acquired, Charon will prompt dialogue with the player and will start the Out of Hell quest, where Charon will gain the nerve to ask the player a favor. He will ask to travel to the Ninth Circle, where he will finally tell the player how he fell into Ahzrukhal’s employ. He tells the Lone Wanderer that his time working with them made him question the legitimacy of his contract. He will then ask the player to help him decide what to do with his contract.

The player can either hand him his own contract and tell him that they’re giving him the right to choose his own employer, which grants +200 Karma. Depending on the player’s Karma, Charon will choose to stay in the party if the player has Neutral, Good or Very Good Karma, or return to Underworld if the player has Evil Karma. Very Evil players will still be shot on sight when he leaves the party, forcing the player to terminate Charon.

OR, with a difficult speech check, the player can convince Charon to abandon the contract, and they burn the contract, granting Charon unconditional freedom. This grants the player +400 Karma. Charon will then thank the player and will refer to them as a partner. He will continue to travel with you as long as your Karma remains positive or neutral. Otherwise, he will return to Underworld and will be recruitable again if player Karma improves.

When three reinforce tokens are acquired, the Damnation quest starts. Charon will gain the nerve to protest the player’s actions, citing his sense of self-preservation as the reason, and the player can convince him that there’s nothing he can do to change his status as an indentured servant. Convincing Charon will make him abandon his personal code, becoming your amoral puppet. This grants the player -400 Karma.

Additionally, there is an unmarked quest Bodyguard for Sale. The player can choose to give away or sell Charon’s contract for 1000 caps with or without completing Damnation and permanently lose him as a companion. The first option is to give his contract to Hannibal Hamlin and the Abolitionists, which grants +200 Karma. To do so, the player must pass a speech check with Hannibal to convince him to accept Charon’s contract and rehabilitate him. Alternatively, the player can sell him to slavers in Paradise Falls for 1000 caps. With a series of barter checks, his value can increase up to 3000 caps. This grants the player -400 Karma. Finishing Damnation and selling Charon to the slavers will net the player a total of -800 Karma.

Reward Perks:

Fire-Forged: Permanently increases Charon’s DR by 30% and increases the player’s hit points by 50 as long as Charon’s in the party. (If Out of Hell is finished.)

Hellhound: Permanently increases Charon’s fire rate with shotguns by 30% and increases his reload speed by 15%. (If Damnation is finished.)

Romance: His Angel (unmarked quest)

Charon can be romanced if the player finishes Out of Hell by burning Charon’s contract and has Neutral or Good/Very Good Karma. Attempting to romance him with his contract intact will cause him to reject the player, stating that he’d like to keep their relationship professional.

If the player meets the conditions to unlock his romance, a new dialogue option will show up where the player can ask Charon if he had previous employers whom he considers as friends. Charon will admit that though he had employers who are decent to him, he only ever felt animosity or indifference. He adds that the Lone Wanderer is the only employer he ever cared for on a personal level. The player can respond by saying that they are glad to have him by their side, OR, they can initiate a romance by telling him that what they want to take care of him too. When questioned by Charon about what they meant by that, the player can choose to respond by confessing that what they feel for him runs deeper than friendship, or drop the romance route by saying that friends care for each other and you want to return the favor. If the player goes for the romance route, Charon will express his fears, never experiencing a relationship before because of his upbringing, and the player can either drop the romance entirely, or reassure him that they’ll figure things out together, thus locking the romance in.

Charon will occasionally call the Lone Wanderer “angel”, and additional idle dialogue are unlocked: “Please stay close to me.” “I’ll always protect you.” “I’ll stay by your side for as long as you’ll have me.”

Lover’s Embrace Dialogue:

-snores, jerks awake, then grumbles-

-grumbles- Angel, what time is it?

Did you sleep well, angel?

Did I please you?

I hope last night was to your satisfaction. I was very satisfied.

Note: After completing Out of Hell in favor of burning his contract, if the player’s Karma drops too low or if the player kills a Neutral or Good NPC in cold blood, he will warn them that they need to turn things around or he will no longer travel with them. If the player’s Karma doesn’t improve in 3 in-game days, Charon will leave the player and go back to Underworld, and if romanced, will take a break from the relationship, but will not attack the player. He can be recruited and romanced again when the player improves their Karma. Their relationship, romantic or platonic, can be salvaged twice. If the player’s Karma drops too low for a third time, Charon will tell them that he’s tired of their excuses and will apologetically tell them that the player has left them with no other choice. He then proceeds to attack the player. If the quest was done in favor of giving him his contract, he will refuse to work with the player if recruiting him with Evil or Very Evil Karma, but will not leave the party if already recruited before the player’s Karma dropped. Dismissing him while Very Evil will still cause him to shoot you, but he will express remorse in doing so. Doing the Damnation quest will not change Karma requirements for his recruitment, reflecting the game’s vanilla mechanics.

Ending:

If Out of Hell was finished in favor of burning his contract:

With the Lone Wanderer’s help, Charon finally gained true freedom. He overcame the brainwashing he experienced during his brutal upbringing, and is now free to follow his own moral code. Ready to face what the wasteland has to offer with his newfound liberty, Charon spent his time keeping the roads of the Capital Wasteland safe from Raiders and slavers. Tales of a frightening ghoul with a shotgun began to spread; while the wicked saw him as a grim reaper, the downtrodden hails him as an avenging angel.

(if just friends, Neutral or Good Karma) Charon and the Lone Wanderer remained friends, occasionally traveling together like old times. Their friendship lasted until one of them stopped drawing breath, a rare thing in the Wasteland.

(if romanced) Charon and the Lone Wanderer spent the rest of their days together. Though life in the Wasteland is uncertain, they remained lovers until one of them stopped drawing breath, and remained in love even long after, a rare thing in the Wasteland.

(player has Evil Karma) Despite the Lone Wanderer’s troubling actions, Charon thanked his former employer for his liberation, though he parted with a warning: should he cross paths again with them, he will not hesitate to shoot them on sight.

If Out of Hell was finished in favor of giving him his contract:

With the help of the Lone Wanderer, Charon finally has the option to choose who he will work for. He bent the contract’s rigid rules, and is free to refuse to be an instrument for any evil bastard who seeks to use him for their own gain.

(player has Very Good, Good or Neutral Karma) Charon thanked his employer for giving him the right to choose, packs up, and ventures west. There he found work as a bodyguard for a Followers of the Apocalypse outpost, taking silent pride in himself for choosing to work for humanitarians and doctors.

(player has Evil Karma) Despite the Lone Wanderer’s troubling actions, Charon thanked his former employer for giving him this opportunity, though he parted with a warning: should he cross paths again with them, he will not hesitate to shoot them on sight.

If Damnation was finished:

(if Charon was convinced to abandon his morals) Without his personal moral code to hold on to, Charon begin to lose what’s little left of his humanity. In less than a year, his mental stability deteriorates, until he becomes nothing but a husk, a mindless feral.

If Charon’s contract was sold:

(if Charon’s contract was given to the Abolitionists) With Charon in tow, the Abolitionists’ influence grew in the Wasteland, and more escaped slaves flocked to the organization. Slavers were less brazen to go after the escapees when they found out that a few of their fellow scum ate shotgun shells courtesy of a certain shotgun-toting ghoul.

(if Damnation wasn’t finished) Soon enough, with Hannibal Hamlin’s influence, Charon slowly detached from his contract. As a symbol of his liberty, he and the Abolitionists gathered together and threw the piece of paper in the Potomac. Long after Hamlin and the original members were gone, Charon remained as a member, a stalwart protector to whomever needed their help.

(if Damnation was finished) Without his moral code to hang on to, despite the Abolitionist’s influence on Charon, it did very little to help his state of mind. One day, Hamlin and the others woke up to a feral Charon, and with remorse, had to put him down. They built a small shrine in memory of their fallen comrade.

(if Charon’s contract was sold to slavers) With the ghoul mercenary under their employ, the slavers became an even bigger threat to the denizens of the Capital Wasteland, using Charon to kidnap more slaves, and terminate anyone who gets in the way.

(if Charon wasn’t convinced to abandon his morals) One day, when the slavers finally thought that it was time for Charon’s contract to change hands, the ghoul whipped out his shotgun and took out as many slavers as he could before being shot to death himself, a cathartic smile plastered on his face as the light faded from him.

(if Charon was convinced to abandon his morals) One night, the slavers awakened to a feral Charon tearing apart Carolina Red, and was forced to put him down. After burning his body, they discarded his contract, the last reminder of his existence.

If Charon dies:

Charon’s lifetime of servitude finally ended when he found his freedom in death. His contract no longer holds any meaning or purpose, and was discarded and forgotten, like himself.

Author’s Notes: See below.

POV: ur on a date with me

jk

Something different from the usual fanart: a quick self-portrait because I’m missing the pre-pandemic life. Watch me try to blog about my feelings and write a coherent thought about it below

Tiktok flagged it the first thirty seconds I posted it, boo