Maxine (Fallout 2)

Maxine as she appears in Fallout 2

### Relations

Herbert Dashwood Sr. (Grandfather), Feargus (Cousin), Sulik (Companion), Vic (Companion), Tycho (Deity/Companion), Kaga (Rival)

### Affiliations

Arroyo, Vault 13 (Descendant), Team Arroyo

## Physical Attributes

### Outfits

Tribal Garb, Herbert's Vault Suit, Leather Armor

## Summary

Maxine of Arroyo (known to her people as **The Chosen One**, and more generally as Maxine) is the main protagonist of RedScotGaming's Fallout 2 series. As the alleged grandchild of Arroyo's founding patriarch, Herbert Dashwood (Sr), she was chosen from among her people to leave Arroyo in search of an ancient pre-war relic known as a Garden of Eden Creation Kit (G.E.C.K) which is said to transform barren wastes into clean, fertile land.

Although not quite as traditional or superstitious as others in her tribe (especially those such as the Elder or Shaman Hakunin) she is nevertheless quite naive and unworldly at the time of leaving the village, unfamiliar with technology such as firearms or robots; and believes in the deified image "The Dashwood" and his companions "Saint Tycho and McGee".

For reasons unexplained, she sounds like a Scottish bloke and routinely complains of "voices in her head", including a German man and a Sam. While such conditions are hardly unusual among post-apocalyptic tribal society, it might have something to do with the inordinate amount of cocaine she consumes (known to the Arroyans as *Powders of Healing...*)

## Biography

#### Early Life

Maxine was born in the Village of Arroyo in the year 2214: fifty-two years after the defeat of The Master and the founding of the village by the now-legendary *"Vault Dweller*", Herbert Dashwood.
As village patriarch, Herbert was believed to have fathered many children, almost all of whom make up the fairly incestuous and insular community of Arroyo. Presumably, one of these offspring (and hopefully just one) was one of Maxine's parents, making her a grandchild of the Vault Dweller.

Spending most of her youth chasing Geckos, smoking the "produce" from Hakunin's sacred garden, and making Feargus cry, she became the go-to person in the tribe for any tasks her fellow tribals were to thick or wasted to accomplish: be it repairing the well when it broke or ridding the crops of the carnivorous *Plants of Dark Soul*.

Since the people of Arroyo had little use for "*what they call MoNEY*" these tasks were almost always rewarded in the only thing the village had in spades: cocaine. Hakunin - the Village Shaman - in particular would hand out bags of his "powders of healing" like candy, and sure enough the stuff became the staple of Maxine's diet.

#### Becoming the Chosen One

By 2241 Arroyo was suffering from drought and poor harvest. The village seemed on the brink of death, but having tried nothing and being all out of ideas the village Elder called Maxine, now 27, to her tent to give her an important responsibility. Should Maxine survive a Temple of Trials, she would be anointed Arroyo's "Chosen One", granted the rare permission of leaving the village's canyon borders to travel the outside world in search of a pre-war technology known as a G.E.C.K, which was believed to have the power to save the village.

The temple turned out to be a bit of a joke. While the superstitious tribals rarely ventured within the structure built by the Dashwood and Saint Tycho during the early days of the settlement, Maxine determined the place was little more than a stash for copious amounts of drugs and alcohol likely hoarded by the original Team Dashwood.

After cleaving through a few Giant Ants and Radscorpions she faced off against the warrior Cameron as a final test of her strength and ability. Having none of this, she talked Cameron down saying there was no point in risking a man-slaughter with no purpose, and while Cameron warned her that a time may come where diplomacy may not be an option and violence must be carried through, he departed, clearing the way to the shrine of the Vault Dweller and her trophy: the Vault Suit.

#### Searching for Vic

The village Elder did not know where a G.E.C.K could be found, but she believed the ancient Vaults - such as those that The Dashwood came from - would hold such a device. Unfortunately, memory of the legendary Vault 13 was lost with Herbert, however she directed Maxine to look for a man named Vic, a trader who recently visited Arroyo and carried with him some water flasks marked with the yellow number of Vault 13.

After a little final weapons training and helping folks around the village, Maxine crossed the great bridge out of Arroyo and into the wasteland, eventually reaching the town of Klamath in search of the trader.

After being accosted by a drunkard calling himself the town greeter, she was stopped in the street by a tribal named Torr. While she attempted to ask Torr about Vic he simply kept talking about "*bad bugmen*" and his "*moo-moos*". Happy to help a fellow tribal, she agreed to help him "*protecc Moo-moos from bugmen*" and followed him outside town to his herd, where she immediately fought off a Radscorpion accosting the Brahmin.

While guarding the cattle, Maxine spotted a pair of men spying on them from a treeline and, confronting them, was offered a job to help steal Torr's Moo-Moos. Rejecting the offer, the Dunton men attacked her, Maxine narrowly managing to defend herself by killing both men with her speer: an act which brought back Cameron's words to her.

After a "quick nap" to sleep off the bags of battle-coke she snorted during the encounter in order to stay alive, she awoke several days later (though to Torr's sense of time it had only been 4 minutes) and went in search of some food: the voices in her head reminding her that one can't survive on cocaine alone.

Walking back to Klamath from the north, she happened by the sign to Vic's workshop. Entering, finding nobody was home, she searched containers full of Vault tat and memorabilia, and tried a locked door only to find it trapped with an electric current running through the handle from the other side. Cursing Vic asking "who the hell electrifies a door-knob", she went to the local bar to look for the man.

In Buckner's, while looking for anyone who might look like a trader, she spotted instead a clear and obvious fellow outsider and decided to ask him first if he knew of Vic's location. Another fellow tribal - tattooed, pierced and adorned with bones of deceased family - he introduced himself as Sulik (and Grampy-Bone) and told her that he'd come here in search of Vic, said to have information about slavers who had kidnapped his sister. However with Vic a no-show and a drunken incident leaving him an indentured servant here, indebted until he paid off damages to the bar's owner, Maxine offered to help clear his debt in exchange for his help.

With this debt paid, Maxine and Sulik met the leader of Trapper town, Slim Picket, and rid the area of a rat infestation: the pair doing battle against the gargantuan *Rat God* in the tunnels beneath the town.

Leaving Klamath for The Den, said to be the base of operations for Slavers in the region, they stumbled upon a crashed aircraft guarded by a deranged Handyman robot. While Maxine suggested communication with the Metal-Man, "Grampy-Bone" told Sulik to kill, and he charged in wielding his sledgehammer. Investigating the crash site, they found corpses wearing unusual armour while the vehicle itself was unlike anything either had seen before. Nevertheless the pair left the scene with Sulik remarking on a feeling of the future's shadow weighing down upon him.