Lucy Harper

"Technological responsibility isn't genetic. I've seen Brothers who I wouldn't let operate a vacuum cleaner, let alone a laser rifle."
— Lucy Harper
Lucille Nicole "Lucy" Harper is a Follower of the Apocalypse stationed at the Old Mormon Fort in Freeside, New Vegas in 2281.
==Background==
===Early life===
Born on April 19, 2260 in the Hidden Valley bunker complex, Lucille was the only child of two Brotherhood of Steel Knights, David and Alexandria. Harper was nurtured by her parents while provided basic education and trained in combat exercises by other Brothers in Hidden Valley; her parents left when she was ten years old to protect scribes investigating the HELIOS One solar power facility. Being basically raised by scribes after her parents left, it seemed natural she would decide on the path of Scribe under the Order of the Quill in 2272; during her basic education, she enjoyed reading, studying and working with her hands far more than the likes of calisthenics or shooting ranges.
In October of 2276, the New California Republic Army laid siege to the Brotherhood-occupied HELIOS One. Both of Harper's parents were killed in action when defending the facility. Distraught and confused by her parent's deaths, she continued being raised by Brotherhood scribes as a whole. The newly promoted Paladin Ramos acted as a godfather, personally seeing to it that Lucy was raised properly, having both respected and fought alongside David and Alexandria before their deaths. Veronica Santangelo, who also lost her parents in Operation Sunburst, acted as a "big sister" of sorts, out of sympathy and empathy for young Lucy's loss. Lucy responded in kind and a steadfast relationship was forged between the two.
===Questioning the Brotherhood===
After Operation Sunburst, Harper continued her role as a junior scribe, but was consistently reprimanded for researching the history of a device for her own enjoyment instead of furthering the Brotherhood's understanding, preservation and improvement of it. She could not understand why the Brotherhood was supposedly the sole inheritor of technology and the saviors of the wasteland. After researching the Codex several times over the years, she began to believe the Brotherhood had drifted away from its primary original goal as it expanded across the wasteland. Instead of protecting people from themselves like Elder Maxson I set out to do, the Brotherhood had devolved into blindly and unwarrantedly confiscating any and all potentially dangerous technology by force, regardless of who was in possession of it. 
Being within the inner workings of the Brotherhood allowed Harper to see the kind of people that were responsible for preserving the wasteland's technology and she was not compelled to believe they should inherit the wasteland. As her adoptive sister, Veronica Santangelo had a great deal of influence in making Harper question the way of things. Harper indeed wanted to help the wasteland but researching confiscated technology was not the way to do it. She wanted something more compassionate, altruistic and personal. 
===Joining the Followers===
Harper had heard about the Followers of the Apocalypse by word of mouth, especially from Santangelo, and dug up research on them in secret. Even though the Brotherhoods briefing were fairly biased against them, Harper sifted through the subjectivity and determined that the Followers were the people with which she belonged. In 2280, despite Ramos' urgings to stay and Hidden Valley’s state of lockdown, Harper convinced her godfather and head of security at Hidden Valley, Paladin Ramos, to let her leave and forward the news to the Elder. If she had told Elder McNamara herself, she definitely would not have been able to leave and confined to the labs for the rest of her life. Dissent was not what McNamara needed. 
Harper set off along I-15 and took Highway 93 to the 188 Trading Post where she made contact with Santangelo. She asked where she could sign on with the Followers and tried to convince her sister to come with her and leave the Brotherhood's nonsense behind, but Veronica was not as adoptive of the change as Harper. The conversation was overheard by a man named Ezekiel, who happened to be a historian and anthropologist with the Followers. Harper became Ezekiel's assistant and friend that day and began helping him gather information and research on the Boomers. After four months of field research, Lucy and Ezekiel returned to the Old Mormon Fort where Lucy officially joined the Followers of the Apocalypse under the management of Julie Farkas. Lucy currently acts as a consultant on geopolitical and economic history of 2050s to current era North America as well as a trouble shooter for mechanical engineering problems, like irrigation techniques and robotics malfunctions, and she has never been happier.
==Appearance and abilities==
Fair skinned and slenderly built, Lucy stands at 5 feet, 4 inches (1.6 meters) and 125 pounds (57 kilograms). She has a simple allure and is arguably more pretty than most other women the wasteland has to offer, especially in Freeside. Lucy styles her shoulder length chocolate hair in a loose bun and, on occasion, uses dark eye shadow that accentuates her hazel eyes. She also wears Buddy Holly-style eyeglasses for hyperopia (farsightedness).
From nearly a decade of scribe duties, she has a wide range of knowledge, scholastic or otherwise; she knows advanced mathematics, history, biology, computers, et cetera, but she is also well informed on wasteland politics, economics and sociology. Lucy is very bright and observant, which are fantastic skills to have when researching or repairing any number of mechanical devices. Her time in the Followers has taught her a fair amount about medicine and even more about diplomacy, considering that people need to trust her before she can help them. With her naturally amiable attitude, this is not hard for her.
Lucy is much more passive than most when it comes to violent situations; she can handle an energy weapon, but would rather not and her other combat related skills leave much to be desired. She isn't weak, but she sure isn't strong either and her endurance is equally lacking. In addition, if she is ever caught without her glasses, her hyperopia will make things up close very, very difficult. 
==Equipment==
===Weapons===
The only weapon Lucy carries is a Glock 86 Plasma Defender with two batteries (32 small energy cells). She's confident that no one would raid the Old Mormon Fort, but it's better to have a weapon and not need it, than need one and not have it. 
===Apparel===
Lucy wears the standard doctor's coat of the Followers of the Apocalypse, which consists of matching beige cotton pants and a button up shirt under a lab coat emblazoned with a Follower's Cross patch, as well as thick, square framed eyeglasses.
===Miscellaneous===
An assortment of research related junk lines Lucy's lab coat, like a clipboard, some pencils and intact, pre-War books. She also carries a number of bobby pins to keep her hair up, or for use as makeshift binder clips, clamps, or screwdrivers. 
==Personality==
Lucy is a pleasant and cheerful woman, even if she can be a tad introverted at times. She isn't what you would call antisocial, but given the choice between chatting or skimming through a history text book, she will choose the text book 90% of the time. She has few close friends, but is incredibly loyal to them, because friends that can hold an interesting conversation are rare in the wasteland. As a Follower of the Apocalypse, it is not surprising that she has a healthy disrespect for "authority" and values critical thinking, compassion, and altruism. 
Nothing is more important to her than helping someone down on their luck. The wasteland is an awful place and it's people's lack of community and social interest in the common good that are preventing the Mojave, and the greater wasteland as a whole, from flourishing to a hospitable and productive region. As such, she believes that violence should be the absolute last option and even then, death should be reserved only for the most vile and dangerous people with no chance of rehabilitation.
==Theme song==
Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive, Johnny Mercer & The Pied Pipers, feat. Paul Weston & His Orchestra
Category:Characters
Category:Kastera1000