Sorry for the slow reply, I just started a new job and have been quite busy of late! I absolutely still do Nick Valentine Has and I love when people ask me to write them!

Here ya go:

I think Ellie repairs Nick's coat for him when he tears it. He doesn't mind letting it look raggedy, but Ellie is determined to patch it every time. He sometimes protests that she really doesn't need to go to the trouble, but secretly he appreciates that someone cares enough to mend his coat.

Nick doesn't like letting anyone else do repairs on him, preferring to do them himself. The vulnerability of having someone examine his inner mechanics is deeply uncomfortable for him, and he will only seek help in an emergency. This means that sometimes he waits far too long to do daunting repairs that he can't do himself. When he does seek help for repairs, he hires a mechanic from outside of Diamond City. The idea of someone in his immediate community seeing him that way makes him cringe.

Nick doesn't sleep, and likes to pace sometimes while he's thinking about a case. If Ellie's asleep and he's mulling over a case, sometimes he'll step out for a nighttime walk in Diamond City. Usually the streets are empty then, but occasionally he'll run into someone on the street. When he does, he often gets nasty mistrustful glances. He tries not to let it bother him, but it does anyways.

Nick feels a certain disconnect with his body. Logically, he knows that his synth body is his, but it doesn't always feel that way to him. It's hard to shake the vague memories of his life as human Nick, with his human body. Sometimes Nick feels that his mind is trapped in the wrong body, especially when he sees his reflection. Other times that disconnect ebbs away and he just feels like... himself. His self-perception changes from day to day.

Nick really shouldn't get wet. Sure, he's got sealant at the seams of his skin, but the sealants don't do shit for the holes in his face, hands and neck. He'll be alright outside in a light drizzle for a few minutes, but anything beyond that and he's in danger of soaking his circuits. And don't even think of asking him to swim.

Nick views Ellie as somewhat of an adopted daughter/niece. She was in her teens when he hired her, at first just for simple bookkeeping and organization. He saw that she needed a place to stay and offered the loft, and helped her find everything she needed to settle in. He's been her shoulder to cry on, a patient listener with lots of level-headed advice to give. As she got older, Ellie's sharp wit and good people skills became apparent, and Nick started inviting her to give her input on cases and help support clients. She's great at it, and he's proud of the confidence she's built. He's never outright called her his daughter, but that's how he thinks of her.

Nick has a collection of old pre-war books he's salvaged over the years. Classics, mostly. You can sometimes catch him reading late at night when Ellie's asleep, if he's not busy with a case.

Books are one of the few gifts he will accept with delight. Most other gifts he'll politely refuse. He doesn't like to accept the kindness of others, hating to feel indebted to people. Plus, everything is so scarce these days, how can he take anything from anyone? There's also a little nagging part of him that feels unworthy of people's kindness. He will only accept gifts from someone he really trusts and cares for.

He tolerates most of the other companions, but doesn't really enjoy their company. The exceptions are Curie, Dogmeat, Preston, and Codsworth, who he likes, and X6-88, Cait, Strong, and Gage, who he hates. All of his opinions of the companions are based on his perception of their moral compasses.

-always cold. His hands are especially are fucking freezing. He wrings his hands a lot rubs them together to try and warm them up.

-his cap and jacket both have a worn little tag on the inside, hand stitched with his initials — put there by Lucy in neat black thread.

-he and Hancock were passing friends for a bit before sole was thawed out, but became very close quickly once they spent some time on the road.

-Mac gets along famously with Cait, but hates that she—without fail—calls out his cursing with a shit-eating grin. Sole introduces the concept of a swear jar, which Cait thinks is funniest thing in the world.

-Mac is an excellent at herding drunken people, a highly admired skill in Goodneighbor, and later in any settlement. Probably from his years as mayor of little lamplight: he’s stern but even the drunks can tell it’s mostly affectionate.

-Magnolia is on a personal quest to (subtly) play matchmaker for him. Hancock is notably less subtle about it.

-one of the ways sole knew he really trusted them was when he somberly requested a mod on his rifle. He tried to pay and everything but sole would only accept payment in the form of helping them haul salvage across the waste. (Need more aluminum after those upgrades, after all).

-Mac’s jumpy and fidgety both, to an almost comical (or worrying) degree—unless he’s peering down a scope, where everything he can see is his to control.

-close combat makes him nervous, but he does a good job of hiding it. He hates it more if sole has him hang back while they go in close.

-his dry sense of humor was born from many years of not understanding the joke/metaphor as a kid.

-sometimes his deadpan is too good, and people don’t realize he’s joking, then he has to backtrack: which makes him all flustered and shit.

-while he cracks a grin easily, his actual laugh is rare. but when he does it’s full force: the loud, can barely breathe, eyes-watering kind.

-his letters to Duncan include drawings sometimes—usually encountered creatures or people he’s met. Per his kiddo’s request, there is a pretty decent sketch of sole tucked under Duncan’s bed—he likes knowing someone is keeping his dad safe.

-sole and Hancock collect the all the pens, pencils, and intact paper they can find for Mac. They never give it to him directly: it feels like too much to address it unless Mac wants to talk about his kid, so they just add it to his pack. Mac knows, and returns the favor in his own ways: gruffly shoving shotgun shells into Hancock’s hands, and a giving a variety of ammo types to Sole.

(tiny lil things in a clump) and they're Really Rich when cooked. I'd compare the texture to egg yolk, but theres more savory seafood flavor. They're also super nutritious, according to my 2 minute Google search

lobster eggs are like that too

I'd like to think mirelurk eggs retained some of those qualities from crab/lobster eggs, and are really orange when you crack them open. You gotta add milk and cook them low and slow if you wanna make an omelette with them, otherwise the egg sets hard and looks kinda dry and cracked.

- he definitely knows how to sew/patch clothing, which isn’t abnormal for wastelanders but bc he’s so sentimental about his frock coat he is Very good at it. Red fabric/thread is like the one thing he actively scavs for. One way sole shows they care is by always stopping to scav any old tailor/steamstress shops even though their settlements have plenty of cloth.

- sole grumbles something about “kill them with kindness” and it’s officially his favorite old world phrase

Ex. Sole makes epic headshot. Hancock nodding in mock serenity; “kill ‘em with kindness”

- the fact that tattoos are not a bigger thing in the commonwealth is a Crime and I want tattooed Hancock. Like: ghoul specialty tattoos. Please. I feel like he’d have a patchwork of the Stupidest shit

- Hancock makes a lot of his own Chems: I feel like ghoul physiology would be slightly different so if he wants the same effects as a smoothskin he usually just makes it himself. He’s definitely a hoarder of chemistry books and keeps notebooks in scrawling shorthand that he can only decipher half the time looking back on them.

- he totally wore Piper down over time and now they are actually just friends. She will not admit this.

- he doesn’t do Chems in front of Cait.

- And he always has at least one dose of addictol around in case anyone goes a bit too hard. He started keeping an extra one on top of that for Sole specifically, since they tend to overdo it when they run into a deathclaw, which happens Way Too Often.

hi everybody shut your Fuck up I learned something else in med school that I immediately related to fallout because I probably have undiagnosed ADHD

An outer layer of your eye was covered by the pigmented layer (you might recognize part of it as the Iris. The sclera (the whites) wraps around it so your entire outside of the eye isn't just visible pigment layer, just the iris part.

Both of these are derived from the ectoderm, which is the same tissue layer that melanocytes (melanin producing cells) come from.

Which brings us to our QUESTION: How can ghouls who have their eyes blown out all black still see? Doesn't that seem like the kind of thing that would fuck up your vision?

Well!!! If we're applying the same logic that turns humans into ghouls with radiation, then it's not far fetched to say that the reason some ghouls have their eyes turn entirely black is because the ectoderm derived tissues I just mentioned (sclera and Iris) got stimulated to produce melanin like crazy. According to my calculations, if just that happened, they would still function as normal, just darkened.

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Firstly, why are there so many jazz songs on the radio from the 1900's? I think it's because the facist pre war government forced a shift in culture to return to a rose tinted picture of the 50's.

They started prioritizing the oldies (a sanitized collection without all the songs that address racial and economic inequalities), resulting in other music being scarce.

Lots of songs were banned and even stuff that wasn't banned (country, classical) became scarcer because of the priority on one genre. I have no doubt the government paid off and threatened artists to conform.

The brotherhood of steel, as fascist as it is now, was founded by a rebel. Given the focus on preserving pre war stuff, they must have archives of banned pre war music that the soldiers could listen to. Roger Maxon probably listened to country and his collection just ended up being passed down to the brotherhood.

lol i am pretty sure nikolaj c-w is cis but idk what using him as a faceclaim for a trans character has to do with it? the main reason i didn’t pick a trans actor or celebrity is because i’m not familiar with many trans celebs much less ones that look like how atticus looks in my head! and also i fleshed out atticus’ character around the same time i watched (and looooved) the parts of got where jaime and brienne are captured by roose’s bannermen. and sad, greasy, handless, be-bearded, long haired jaime is 100% atticus.

but i think it’s expensive pre-war! even more so than it is now, because of inflation and the fact that surgeries would have been improved. i think pre-war there were probably ways to alter endocrine systems and primary sex characteristics fully so you wouldn’t need hrt all your life and could have bio kids. auto-docs can heal your brain tumors, change your skin color and your bone structure flawlessly 200 years later much less in peak condition! in my head atticus is mostly post-op (top surgery, endo system, etc) except for bottom surgery due to the fact that the military covered his transition. and the military was slow with it and took forever to clear surgeries.