#bitter-root-tea

not to KEEP replying to your posts with smething only barely related that just occurred to me, but i wonder if Regis has traveled a bit more, to have actually seen more legionaries, or perhaps maintains contact with some people out there (even NCR?), and that's why he's better informed and more suspicious

no no no I agree!! Me and a friend of mine have this. very in-depth hc about Regis and his backstory. very indulgently and 😏 yknow,, but i wont mention it because I know they’re working on something about it

BUT what’s always struck me about Regis is he’s really not raider-like at all. Like sure he’s happily killed NCR troopers before and puts their skulls on spikes outside where he sleeps but that’s pretty much where it ends

He cares about laws and staying orderly. He’s well-read--you can tell by all the books and magazines in his tent and by the language he uses, like “political agitator” and “moot point” are not things that would come out the mouth of a Bethesda-isk raider. 

Does make you think 

Personally I think he gets the books from the Followers and may have managed to maintain a working relationship with them after things Officially broke down purely because he’s so unraider like. Tho I have loads of hcs involving the relationship between Khans and Followers including Pen Pal projects and stuff but I’ve already talked way too much lmao

15: What makes your OC angry?

Bullies, senseless cruelty, people just not giving a damn when they could, and any hint of the old world’s corruption and authoritarianism.

46: Is your OC loyal?

Absolutely, but she also has trust issues, and her loyalty is hard to win.

50: Does your OC cry easily?

💫What is your favourite fact about this character and why?

Jackal is a kleptomaniac and a hoarder, and that will never stop being very amusing to write. She doesn’t even steal things that are valuable most of the time, though those are usually more tempting. Trying to find anything specific in her dozens of storage spaces is hell for anyone but her — she swears it’s organized even if other people don’t understand how and constantly give her shit for it.

Maybe it’s a bit of a downer, but I like exploring Athena’s relationship with mental illness. Her story is one of life continuously fucking her over, but she gets back every time no matter how hard it is. If she can make it, we all can, and that means a lot to me.

Ava is very different from my other characters in that she’s very feminine/motherly and still cares about things like manners. Also, in the words of @benny-gecko-official, she deserves a mom of the year award for all the stuff she puts up with; she’s basically all of Sanctuary’s mom as well as Shaun’s. 

Thanks for the ask! This is actually a very fitting ask for him, providing that I’m interpreting it right!

Phase 1: His early childhood before the age of five. Originally called Benjamin, he lived in pre-Legion Flagstaff with his parents, neither of which was particularly attentive to him. His main memories of this period involve books, shops, and people, but he’s lost the details and wishes that he could remember more.

Phase 2: Enter the Legion. I imagine that, rather than leaving the citizens to live under their rule like with other cities, they fully took over Flagstaff the way they destroy tribes, deliberately to use it as their capital. His parents, along with every other adult he knew, were killed, and he was forcibly taken in for training and given the name Brutus Decimus (bonus name origin fact: the reason behind ‘Brutus’ will soon become clear, and ‘Decimus’ because it means ‘tenth’, as in the tenth man during a decimation. Just had to rub it in that he tends to draw the short straw in life!). The training itself was brutal and he barely made it through, forcing his only goal at that point in his life to be ‘survive’.

Phase 3: Life in the Legion after training and before 2277. A combination of being generally reserved, not the most physically capable in terms of strength and endurance, not completely on board with Legion culture, and openly holding some polarising- but not treasonous- opinions led to him being seen as a bit of an outcast in general, and being a particular unfavourite of his various centurions (one of which was Silus), but he was content with the small group of brothers-in-arms he was close to. He didn’t see too much action as he was usually assigned to cities in Arizona (acting as a guard etc), but he was a member of a small group led to Zion by the then Malpais Legate soon before 2277. This whole phase, but especially that journey, was definitely a time that he looked back on fondly and with some nostalgia during later phases.

Phase 4: Hoover Dam, take one. Like most Legionaries, he was sent west to construct and train in the Fort, which was intended to be a very temporary base of operations, a little while before the battle itself. Thanks to being low-ranking, he avoided the Rangers’ attacks, and was mostly unharmed by the explosion by good fortune, but most of his friends were not so lucky. Still stunned, he then watched his Legate (someone that he had come to consider a friend during the trip to Zion, but in reality was barely noticed by) suffer the consequences of his failure. Try as he might, he could not reconcile the defeat and deaths with what he had been taught about Lord Caesar. All in all, these experiences turned his heart against the Legion, and Caesar especially, and shaped the course of the rest of his life.

Could be! I def agree with the Khans being in a very vulnerable position in terms of arguing with the NCR. It seems pretty likely that despite treating their wounded, the NCR wanted the Khans out of the area as quickly as possible--hence why the Khans had to abandon half their tents and almost all of their supply caches. They also apparently left Oscar behind as well since he doesn’t even know the Khans have resettled at Red Rock.

Though, all the bodies of the Khans who died were literally there at Bitter-Springs, so I’m not sure if they would assume he died there. And if the NCR was treating all wounded together they would have seen him right?

There is always the possibility that the NCR outright seized all the Khans surviving children and redistributed them out into the NCR, which would be really fucked up but not out of character. 

Another part of the anti-Khan NCR propaganda seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding of the initiation beat down. I personally have quite a few hcs about that and I’ll talk about them if asked, but basically--I think it’s a lot more controlled and less deadly then even some Khans give it credit. No Khan has ever actually died of as a result of the initiation beat down.

i've always wondered why regis has the flag, bc in hindsight i guess it indicates that he's interested in the ncr? but it seems more likely he stole it or took it as loot

From a game mechanics view yeah that’s probably why he’s got it. Tho it’s kinda sad considering how few people actually notice that. But thats probably down to how little Regis is in his tent lol

I've always noted how the flag is bloodsoaked and has a bloody handprint on it. I love Regis a whole lot so allow me to just sit in my hc hole for a hot second

I know Papa wasn’t at Bitter Springs but I hc that Regis was and was the one who gave the order to retreat through Red Pass/Cayon 37, but also stopped the fighting when he realised what was happening. He’s the only Khan you can ask about Bitter Springs but will refuse to elaborate. Because he was so guilty Papa gave him the flag to remind him who was truly responsible   

harshest possible criticism is just that he expects too much of the Courier's morals, by the time Papa's dead and the Courier shows up like "so about what we discussed" it's too late and he's got to do the best he can with reality

Regis getting woken up at 3am by this courier who’s telling him that Papa Khan is dead and ‘hey so about you signing that alliance with the NCR now that you’re chief’ and he distinctly remembers this same courier asking him if he was chief if he’d sign this alliance like 5 hours ago and he’d said yes because lmao how unlikely is it that Papa Khan is going to actually die?