Jules McAllister

### Relatives

Eliza McAllister (mother, deceased), Silas Bishop (father), Javier Chavez (husband), Natalia Chavez (daughter), Chosen One (grandparent)

## Biographical information

### Marital status

Married (as of the end of "It's Always Sunny In The Mojave 2: Electric Boogaloo")

### Date of death

she'll never die, she's indestructible, suck it Vulpes

## Physical description

### Hair color

Blonde

Julia Catherine McAllister is the Courier in *It's Always Sunny In The Mojave*. After a rough start to her life and the trauma that comes with being shot in the head and buried in a shallow grave, she desperately tries to find some kind of meaning and purpose beyond revenge and, unfortunately, finds a semblance of this in an offer from Caesar's Legion.

## Early Life

### Childhood in Nipton

Jules was born on April 1st, 2258 in Nipton, California, the daughter of Eliza McAllister and Silas Bishop. Growing up, she gained a reputation for having a short temper and causing trouble around town, from starting fights at school to bashing radscorpions at the Mojave Drive-In to stealing from traders to harassing visiting NCR soldiers. At least once a week she came home with a bloody nose, black eye or another injury clearly from a schoolyard scuffle. The older she got, the more severe her injuries became, culminating in her being stabbed in the stomach at 18 during a knife fight she started with a man who was harassing her. She ultimately survived the wounds inflicted on her, but her opponent wasn't so lucky.

When she was 11 or 12, a mysterious satellite crashed at the Mojave Drive-In, broadcasting a mysterious radio signal and projecting a large blinking eye onto the Drive-In's screen at midnight every night. Despite her curiosity, Jules only watched the satellite and its projection from afar-- rumors spread quickly about people disappearing if they got too close, and Jules swears she saw it happen once.

From a young age, Jules was fascinated by technology. She was curious about how anything and everything worked and began disassembling radios in order to look inside and put them back together again. Her affinity for tech, combined with her talent for tinkering, led her to become proficient enough that she could repair laser and plasma weapons easily and efficiently. These skills were complemented by her love for science fiction, specifically H.G. Wells' *War of the Worlds*. In her early teens she stole a copy of the book off a trader passing through town and read it countless times, until the day it fell apart in her hands.

Despite her mother's best efforts, Jules was never good at making friends in Nipton, or anywhere else really. She was loud, brash and stubborn-- not exactly endearing traits. Nevertheless, one other child in town was determined to become her best friend and potentially more-- Will Harker, two years her junior and completely infatuated with her. For her part, Jules viewed Will as a pesky sibling at best and an insufferable nuisance at worst. When she left town in 2279, he followed suit shortly afterwards, and their paths didn't cross again until years later.

### Early adulthood and events prior to *Fallout: New Vegas*

Eliza died of a brain tumor in January 2276, just before Jules turned 19, which sent Jules on a rapid downward spiral into the depths of Nipton's depravity. Almost immediately after her mother's death, Jules developed an addiction to jet in her grief, and shortly after that she began working as one of the town's prostitutes just to make ends meet. During this time her resentment towards the NCR grew exponentially: they could see how much Nipton's people were suffering, they could hear them begging for help, and yet California did nothing but make empty promises.

After three years as a working woman, Jules sought help for her addiction from the Followers of the Apocalypse and, with the help of one Arcade Gannon, recovered and escaped Nipton for a courier job with the Mojave Express. Any job would have suited her at that point, but she enjoyed the traveling she got to do as a courier and all the sights she got to see.

Shortly following her start with the Mojave Express, Jules met Javier Chavez, a caravaner from Baja California expanding his family's business into the Mojave. When she helped him and his siblings take down a group of deathclaws on the road to New Vegas, Chavez took an immediate liking to her; the two of them began traveling together whenever their routes lined up. Soon they were purposefully altering the routes they took in order to spend more time together and eventually they became lovers, though each had very different ideas about the relationship they never communicated to the other. Jules viewed it as a "friends with benefits" situation, while Chavez was much more serious and genuinely believed in their romance. After some months together, he finally told Jules that he loved her before she left for the day's mail deliveries, a confession that terrified her. She didn't return from her courier duties that day, disappearing without a trace and leaving Chavez to wonder if she was even still alive.

## *Fallout: New Vegas*

### The Platinum Chip job

In October 2281, Jules was contracted to deliver one of six packages to the New Vegas Strip, and as fate would have it, she ended up with one holding a platinum poker chip. On her way, she was kidnapped, robbed, shot in the head and buried in a shallow grave outside the town of Goodsprings by Benny Gecko, but a securitron called Victor rescued her and brought her to Doc Mitchell for treatment. Immediately on waking up and recovering she set out to track him down and take her revenge, heading for the Strip on a path that would take her through her old hometown, Nipton. As she approached she saw a pillar of smoke rising from the town, which only served to pique her interest, and on arrival she was greeted by crosses lining the streets and flags bearing the golden bull of Caesar's Legion.

More curious than frightened, Jules walked the streets, taking in the sight of people who'd wronged her hanging from crosses, places that haunted her memories nothing but piles of smoldering ash. Her path took her down Nipton's main street to its city hall, where between more crosses and piles of burning tires and corpses stood a unit of legionaries and Legion hounds, led by Vulpes Inculta. He explained in gruesome detail Nipton's sins and the lottery he'd conducted as the town's punishment, with the winners enslaved, the lucky losers beheaded, the mayor burned alive and the rest crucified in the streets; to his surprise, Jules expressed an admiration for his work and no sympathy for the townsfolk. She agreed to tell the NCR soldiers at the nearby Mojave Outpost of what happened and they went their separate ways until Vulpes was tasked to summon her to a meeting at Fortification Hill.

From Nipton, Jules made her way to Nelson and met with the decanus Dead Sea, who dared her to eliminate the NCR forces at the nearby Camp Forlorn Hope, which the Legion had been holding under siege but couldn't take completely. She sneaked into the camp in the middle of the night and slaughtered every last soldier over the course of an hour, returning to Dead Sea with their dog tags as proof and receiving his personal weapon, a machete called the Liberator, as a reward.

Jules tracked Benny to the Tops casino and seduced him in an attempt to get more information about the Platinum Chip, but her plan backfired when he ran, taking the Chip with him. On her way out of the Tops, she was greeted by a disguised Vulpes Inculta, who presented her with the Mark of Caesar and told her Lord Caesar himself wanted to speak with her at Fortification Hill. At the request of Mr. House, she met with him in the Lucky 38 penthouse, but his words fell on deaf ears-- Jules had already decided who she would serve.

### Allegiance to Caesar and antagonism with Vulpes Inculta

Jules made her way to Cottonwood Cove and subsequently to Fortification Hill, where she found that Benny had been captured and where she finally came face to face with Caesar and swore her loyalty to him when he promised her a ranking position in the Legion, honor and glory beyond her wildest dreams. With her lasting grudge against the NCR, Jules was more than happy to do whatever Caesar asked of her to ruin their plans. Her first task was to take the Platinum Chip, open the bunker under the Fort and destroy whatever was inside, a task that made her hesitate only slightly when she discovered the bunker held an army of securitrons. Serving Caesar was more important than her affinity for technology, however, so she obeyed. As her first reward, Caesar allowed her to decide how Benny would die: she chose to fight him in the Fort's arena, a quick and painful death for him.

Caesar's promises of glory came with a catch, however: wherever she went, a legionary had to accompany her. Occasionally it was a lower-ranking soldier, such as Felix Octavian, but most often it was Vulpes Inculta, who was less than pleased with the arrangement. Animosity quickly developed between them, but under Caesar's orders they had no choice but to continue traveling together.

Vulpes realized as she introduced herself at the Fort that he'd heard her name before, but couldn't place it until she was confronted by three NCR rangers, telling her that she needed to clean up her act Or Else. Jules, being the person she is, immediately launched into a screaming match with the lead ranger who, bless her heart, resisted the urge to shoot Jules right away. This screaming match culminated in Jules' accusations of the NCR abandoning Nipton and leaving the town to die-- her exact words, "left *us* to die in Nipton"-- at the hands of raiders and Mayor Joseph Steyn's greed. Vulpes put the pieces together and realized how he knew Jules' name: she hadn't just been passing through Nipton when they met after his lottery; she was *from* there, and more than that, she was one of the girls mentioned in the mayor's journals. Once Jules had finished her death wish confrontation with the rangers and the pair moved on, Vulpes in turn confronted her about what she'd said about being from Nipton, and Jules realized that not only did He Know, but He Knew Everything. But of course, he said, he'd never tell Caesar. This would be a secret just between the two of them.

Vulpes continued to dangle this over Jules' head, though, threatening to tell Caesar about her past indiscretions whenever she did something he disapproved of. Since joining the Legion, Jules had significantly cut down on her chem usage, knowing the Legion didn't allow them, but was still using stimpaks as necessary with occasional, small doses of Psycho and Med-X before intense fights, such as her attack on Camp Forlorn Hope. Vulpes, of course, knew about this and used it against her to make her doubt her loyalty and even her own memory, and eventually she cut out chems and stimpaks entirely, with the exception of her five days in the Sierra Madre. Just as before, Vulpes promised to never breathe a word of her chem usage to Caesar. Naturally, Caesar found out as soon as Jules was out of earshot, but his response was to not give a *single* shit.

### Caravan to New Canaan

In need of caps, Jules took a job with the Happy Trails Caravan on their journey to New Canaan, a trip on which Vulpes was not allowed to accompany her. The ended up being for the best, as the caravan was ambushed in Zion Canyon by the White Legs, leaving Jules as the only survivor. A Dead Horse scout named Follows-Chalk took her to meet his tribe's leader: Joshua Graham, the Burned Man, Caesar's former legate who had been set on fire and thrown into the Grand Canyon for his failure at the First Battle of Hoover Dam. In the four years since he'd become a legend, a terrifying vengeful spirit legionaries and Legion slaves spoke of only in hushed tones.

During their first conversation, Jules greatly underestimated how terrifying Graham could be and made a threat against Daniel, the other Mormon missionary in Zion Canyon, to get the map and return to the Mojave herself. In no uncertain terms, Graham made it clear how bad an idea following through on that threat would be, because he would *find her*, wherever she went. Sufficiently terrified, Jules agreed to hear the rest of what he had to say.

Graham offered to help Jules get back to the Mojave if she helped the tribes of Zion in return; believing she had no other choice, she accepted despite the fear of the Malpais Legate that the Legion had instilled in her. Together the two of them eradicated the White Legs' presence in Zion, including their leader Salt-Upon-Wounds. In return for her help, Graham gave her his .45 pistol and a book of Scripture, both of which Vulpes Inculta noticed on her return to the Mojave and mentioned to her. But of course, like with her other secrets, he'd never tell Caesar what happened.

### Further work for Caesar

Jules resumed her work for Caesar on her return to the Mojave, accompanied by Vulpes all the while. She killed Mr. House, aided the Omertas in their plan to bomb the Strip, pushed the White Gloves back to cannibalism, convinced the Boomers and the Great Khans to aid the Legion, and when the Brotherhood of Steel refused, she destroyed their bunker and everyone in it.

The longer she worked for Caesar, the more convinced she was that the Legion was doing the right thing and that Caesar would follow through on all his promises to her. In addition to the specific tasks he assigned her, Jules went above and beyond the call of duty with attacks on Camp McCarran, Camp Golf and the NCR sharecropppers' farm, establishing Legion rule in Primm and the Searchlight airport and taking Helios One for the Legion's use.

Before long, Jules started to notice hauntingly familiar signs of illness in Caesar when she spoke to him, and eventually he confided in her what she'd already realized: he was suffering from a brain tumor, just like her mother had years before. In her desperation to prevent the death of another parental figure, she persuaded Arcade Gannon to leave Freeside and accompany her to the Fort, only to sell him into slavery as Caesar's personal doctor. Caesar's life was saved, but Arcade refused to so much look at Jules again.

Jules' next assignment was her biggest to date: assassinate President Aaron Kimball at Hoover Dam. With assistance from the frumentarius Cato Hostilius, she attached explosives to the President's vertibird and watched it explode as it took off to return to California. The Legion hailed her as a hero and a friend, while the NCR's longstanding orders to shoot her on sight were only intensified.

### Kidnapping and escape from the Sierra Madre

Following a strange radio broadcast to an abandoned Brotherhood of Steel bunker, Jules was knocked unconscious and kidnapped, dragged to the mythical Sierra Madre Casino under the orders of Father Elijah, an ex-Brotherhood elder. She was collared and forced by Elijah to cooperate with three others in the Madre-- the nightkin Dog and God, the ghoulified pre-war performer Dean Domino, and former Brotherhood scribe Christine Royce-- to break into the casino and rob it of the treasure that supposedly waited inside. At first Jules thought the entire experience was a nightmare, or the worst drug trip of her life, but on her way back to the Villa's fountain after rescuing Christine from the medical clinic, she suddenly realized that everything was actually happening. She couldn't wake up, she couldn't sober up, it wasn't going to stop. She fell far behind Christine and Dean as she began to break down, eventually holing up in an abandoned apartment as she tried in vain to calm herself down. After hours spent crying and hiding from ghost people attracted by the sound of her sobs, Jules pulled herself together enough to venture outside, stopping at a vending machine on the way back to the fountain to pick up some stimpaks and Med-X, supplies she was sure she would need for what lay ahead.

While Jules loses her temper with both God and Domino, she has much more patience with Christine, picking up on several similarities between the two that give her pause and make her start to question her loyalty to Caesar and his Legion. Their situations are different, but both followed orders from authority figures they trusted, and Elijah eventually broke that trust with Christine and subjected her to an enormous amount of torment-- what if Caesar did the same to Jules? He knows how loyally she follows him and anyone can see how much she looks up to him...she doesn't have a lover he can separate her from but he can still take away everything he's promised her and with it the purpose and meaning she's found in the Legion. Jules never voices her concerns, to anyone, and in the back of her head she still believes that Caesar has noticed she's gone and is sending search parties out to retrieve her and bring her home.

After dealing with Dog and killing Domino, Jules reaches the vault at the heart of the Sierra Madre to find exactly what was promised: riches beyond her wildest dreams, in the form of stacks of pre-war money and 37 gold bars. When Elijah contacts her for the last time, she goads him into confronting her face-to-face in the vault. As soon as Jules sees him, she jumps and attacks him without a word or a second thought, punching him with her bear trap fist until his face is no longer recognizable as human. She hauls the treasure out of the casino, never looking back, and back to the bunker, where she finds Vulpes Inculta waiting for her. To Jules, this is a sure sign that Caesar was looking for her-- after all, his best spy wouldn't be waiting for her if she didn't matter to him.

Unfortunately, what Jules believes in regards to the Legion is not often the case. Thanks to her kidnapping, her once-again excessive chem usage and the poisoning thanks to the Cloud, Jules didn't remember that Vulpes had followed her into the bunker but chosen to stay back, far away from what was so obviously a trap. Instead of returning to the Fort and having to explain to Caesar why he allowed this to happen, Vulpes chose to stay behind and wait for the Courier to return, a process which took five long, hellish days. Upon her return he of course plays along with her delusion that Caesar cared about her whereabouts, but Caesar never knew Jules was missing.

### Discovery of Big MT

Following a mysterious radio broadcast to her old stomping grounds at the Mojave Drive-In outside Nipton, Jules finally decides to investigate the satellite that had crashed so many years ago. Approaching it one night as it whirs and projects the familiar blinking eye on the Drive-In's screen, she is teleported to the Big MT research facility, where she wakes up to discover her brain, heart and spine have been stolen by a group of five strange, robotic scientists calling themselves the Think Tank. The Think Tank tasks her to recover three technologies in order to confront their nemesis, Dr. Mobius, and recover her brain, as it was lost before she regained consciousness.

Jules, being the massive nerd she is, is less horrified at the mutilation she experienced and more *absolutely delighted* that she has made it to Big MT. It's just like one of her science fiction novels! She not only recovers the Stealth Suit, Sonic Emitter and X-2 Antenna, but she takes her time to explore every inch of the facility, confronting lobotomites, robo-scorpions, spore carriers, cyberdogs and more in the name of SCIENCE!.

The Sink is quickly populated by its artificial personalities again thanks to her work, making it a powerhouse of production. Jules puts in the extra time to learn about her captors as well, helping them with everything from experiments to existential crises. Dr. 8 and Dr. Dala in particular take a liking to her.

After confronting Mobius, retrieving her brain and debating whether or not to just continue using the robotic replacement organs the Think Tank gave her, Jules decides to go forego becoming a cyborg for the moment-- the Legion's ban on technology has been lingering in the back of her mind since her arrival, but proton axes and Tesla cannons were too much fun to pass up. Nevertheless, she has the Auto-Doc replace her proper organs and goes to confront the Think Tank, discovering that they find her valuable enough to simply release. They give her a Transportalponder! gun, which allows her to come and go from Big MT as she pleases.

### Walking The Divide and the Second Battle of Hoover Dam

After the diversions to the mythical Sierra Madre Casino and to Big MT, Jules finally answered a mysterious message summoning her to the Divide that had been on her Pip-Boy since Goodsprings. There she confronted the second courier she'd heard about from Graham and the scientists of the Think Tank: Ulysses, a former frumentarius, who believed she was responsible for the destruction of the Divide before the First Battle of Hoover Dam. At every step, she defended the Legion and its actions wholeheartedly, despite Ulysses' skepticism and firsthand experience of how horrible Caesar could be.

When she finally met him face to face, Jules discovered that Ulysses had aimed nuclear missiles at the NCR and started a launch sequence. Though she could have stopped them and spared countless lives, Jules instead accelerated the countdown and, as she made her way out of the Divide, watched the mushroom cloud bloom over the Long 15.

Jules returned to Caesar, bloody, bruised, wearing an old duster emblazoned with the Bull and the red X on all legionaries' armor and carrying a flagpole nearly twice her size. Vulpes was mildly disappointed but not entirely surprised she'd returned, but was extremely skeptical of her claims that she nuked the NCR. At Caesar's request, he followed her to the Long 15, where he witnessed the destruction for himself and confirmed for Caesar that everything the Courier had said was true.

Just a few days later, Jules met with Legatus Lanius at his camp just outside Hoover Dam as the Legion and the NCR were preparing for battle. While Lanius led the army, Jules, followed by Vulpes, sneaked into the NCR's headquarters, where she fought her way through waves of rangers to personally kill General Lee Oliver and secure the Dam for the Legion.

With the Dam and New Vegas under Legion control, the NCR quickly pulled their surviving outposts out of the Mojave, though to what they couldn't say-- their top leaders were dead, they held no ground in Nevada, and all of California was a nuclear wasteland. Caesar took the Lucky 38 as his personal stronghold, and Jules was commemorated with a golden coin featuring her likeness.

### Aftermath of Hoover Dam and crucifixion

About two weeks after the Legion's victory at the Dam, on the Ides of March, Jules questioned Caesar about the reward he'd initially promised her months before. Where was her prestige? Her honor? Her rank in the Legion? In response, Caesar just laughed-- she was so foolish, so naive to believe what he'd said. No, she would never be receiving any of that. She was just a woman, after all, and there was no place for women in Caesar's Legion.

Furious, Jules protested and demanded that Caesar follow through with delivering what she had earned, going so far as to grab him by the arm to prevent him from leaving. Instead, Caesar looked her directly in the eye and said just two words: "Crucify her."

The praetorian guards descended on her and dragged her out to the streets of Freeside, where an absolutely giddy Vulpes was waiting with a speech he'd been preparing for months. Under his orders, Jules was paraded through the streets as Vulpes proclaimed her crimes for everyone to hear: she was a degenerate, jet-addicted whore who stole credit from real legionaries, legionaries who'd actually earned it. By the time they made it to the crosses just south of the Strip, Jules had gone numb from over three hours of constant public humiliation. Vulpes nailed her to the cross, breaking the Liberator in front of her, telling her how he'd take all her profligate trinkets and throw them into the Colorado River. He left her canteen sitting on top of her Mojave Express messenger bag at the base of her cross where she could see it, and with a final "in hoc signo, taurus vinces," he left her to her fate.

## *It's Always Sunny In The Mojave*

### Rescue and first week as a fugitive

The day after Vulpes left her to die, Jules was rescued by a disguised resistance agent. In her dehydrated, heatstroked and delirious state, she assumed it was the Legion come to save her, having realized their heinous mistake in executing her. When she came to her senses in some cave in the mountains outside of New Vegas, she realized it was anything but-- in fact, she assumed her savior was an NCR ranger. As soon as she could speak, Jules began spitting venom, bragging about her accomplishments for Caesar, from the Brotherhood's destruction to the deaths of Kimball and Oliver, but stopping short of the nuclear missiles. Her savior refused to divulge her true identity, but instead referred to herself as a "good Samaritan," prompting Jules to call her "Sam."

"Sam" convinced Jules to follow her out of the Mojave under the pretense of getting her somewhere safe and away from the Legion. As angry and skeptical as Jules was, she realized that going back to New Vegas without doing something to redeem herself to Caesar would mean instant death, so she agreed-- but only for the moment.

On their way south, "Sam" caught wind of an impending Legion attack on the town of Ivanpah, led by none other than Vulpes Inculta himself She couldn't resist taking the opportunity to eliminate this problem for the resistance and dragged Jules along with her as she set up for the assassination. To Jules' ultimate dismay, "Sam" was unable to take the shot and eliminate Vulpes: she'd recognized him as her long-lost cousin, Arthur Young, and couldn't kill a family member no matter how much Jules protested that he was a monster and deserved to die. At last, "Sam" removed her disguise and gave Jules her real name: Jessica Lexington, or just Lex. Lexington continued that she couldn't leave without her cousin, but that she needed Jules' help to pull her plan off.

### Kidnapping of Vulpes Inculta and journey south

Using Jules as bait, Lexington lured Vulpes out into the open, and, at his shock at seeing the Courier alive and not rotting on a cross, took the opportunity to jump him and knock him out. When he came to, tied up and facing his long-lost cousin, Lexington informed him, to Jules' chagrin, that he would be accompanying the pair out of the Mojave to safety; thus the Gang was formed. Following a decimation of the Legion forces outside Ivanpah, they made their way south to a spring formerly occupied by the Great Khans. Feelings were shared via a brief story about Jules' mother and photos of Lexington and Vulpes' family; a deathclaw attacked and was killed in a collaborative Bonding attempt.

After a night of celebratory binge drinking, and Vulpes' first hangover, the Gang continued south. Just south of Palo Verde, they came to a difficult decision: to continue onwards through the hills and face miles worth of rough terrain and cazadors; go east and end up on the Legion's front lines; go west and get attacked by raiders; or take a small, little-traveled pass that would be tight but, Lexington insisted, their safest option. Vulpes agreed, and against Jules' better instincts, she followed.

The tighter the pass became, the more nervous it made Jules, as did Vulpes' newfound complacency and near-blind obedience to his cousin's instructions. While she was lost in this train of though, and while the others were talking amongst themselves, the Gang abruptly found themselves surrounded by a group of five men, all in combat armor and pointing guns at them, with their leader sporting Black Ranger armor and ordering them to drop their own weapons and fall to the ground. The explosive collars on their belts gave them away: a gang of slavers, set to sell the Gang to the Legion.

### Slaughter at Paymaster Landing

The leader of the slavers turns out to be none other than Will Harker, the boy Jules had grown up with in Nipton. He'd left town and joined the NCR, and-- as he proudly insists-- made it all the way to Ranger before leaving after the first battle of Hoover Dam. He promises to protect Jules, swearing he'll treat her right, unlike her traveling companions.

After some choice words from Vulpes and an attack from Lexington, Harker retaliates with vicious beatings for both cousins and retreats to his tent, taking Jules with him. While Lexington and Vulpes try to recover outside, Jules spends those few hours devising a plan to get them free. Using what she remembers of Harker to her advantage, namely his infatuation with her, she stalls long enough to let the cousins get to a functional point, then gets steals Harker's pistol, holds him at gunpoint and demands he hand over his remaining weapons and the detonator for the bomb collars before freeing her and the others.

As Jules and Harker head outside to where Lexington and Vulpes are being held, he kicks hot ash in her face and bolts, alerting his men to the escape attempt. Jules runs the other way, dragging Vulpes and Lexington off the ground and leading them to an abandoned house not far from camp, where she cuts the ropes tying their hands-- and where she realizes she never got the key to the collars. She has the detonator, so they won't be blown up, but the key is still on Harker's person.

The Gang splits up, with Lexington beating in the skull of a guard that came too close to their hideout and cutting the throat of another in the Colorado River. Jules searches the slavers' tents for their weapons but is ambushed by a third man; she bites off a chunk of his hand and impales him with a tent pole before he can haul her back to the campfire. Vulpes, for his part, gouges out the eyes of the slaver who had been keeping watch on him and Lexington, before slitting his throat to finish the job. Jules meets him and Lexington back at the campfire, but spots Harker trying to make an escape and bolts after him, tackling him to the ground and kicking the SHIT out of him for kidnapping and patronizing her, thinking she would just stay with him for the rest of her life despite having expressed such contempt for him earlier in their lives. With a final blow to his face, she tells him she'd rather go back to working street corners in Nipton than spend another second around him, and demands he give her the key if he doesn't want his windpipe crushed under her boot.

Vulpes stops her from going further, asking that she let him and Lexington deal with Harker for his sins; somewhat reluctantly, Jules lets him and goes to retrieve the Gang's gear. She returns to the campfire with their effects and hears the sound of bones cracking accompanied by Harker's screams of pain. This does not phase her in the slightest. Lexington and Vulpes return a few moments later, handing over the key to her collar and informing her that Harker has been collared himself. With the detonator in hand, Jules follows the others back into the desert after Lexington's lead, the sound of an explosive collar blowing up echoing across the wasteland as they leave.

### Events at Puerto Penasco

Lexington leads the Gang to a port on the Gulf of Mexico and books passage for them on a repurposed yacht to their next stop, Puerto Penasco, where they can rest and resupply before heading into the Sonoran Desert. Recent events, namely being KIDNAPPED and COLLARED and nearly SOLD INTO SLAVERY, have put Jules on edge, something she makes extremely clear to Lexington in the boat's hold. Jules accuses her of being high and mighty, thinking she's always right about everything when CLEARLY that's not the case, evidenced by how they were nearly killed by deathclaws and slavers and how Lexington refuses to tell anyone any part of her plan beyond "we're heading to safety." Jules has almost no reason to trust her; even though Lexington pried her off her cross, she could still have sinister ulterior motives-- Jules has just been following her because the Legion would immediately execute her if she showed her face in New Vegas again. Lexington should have just left her on the cross; both of them would have been better off then.

Lexington does not appreciate these accusations and confronts Jules about her immaturity, intense denial and stubbornness, and reminds her how lucky she was that Lexington found her; in fact Jules has already been significantly luckier than her and her cousin because her entire family wasn't SLAUGHTERED and ENSLAVED when she was ten. She's never endured beatings or torture, she didn't have to fight in a WAR before she was THIRTEEN, and despite Jules' insistence, Lexington DOES know what it's like to have everything taken from her, even more so than Jules herself.

Their argument devolves into a screaming match, with an intervention from Vulpes, and after the most heated exchange Lexington's lungs seize and she passes out, leaving Vulpes to care for her and Jules fleeing to the boat's deck. She broods for a long time over Lexington and Vulpes' words-- she had no idea previously that both of them had been child soldiers, frankly she had no idea the Legion even *used* children in battle. But in hindsight, she should have realized it the minute she saw the boys training at Fortification Hill. Lexington's accusations strike deep, and Jules seriously considers spending the night on deck to avoid having to face her again, but eventually the breeze and the radiation force her below deck again.

Lexington apologizes to her for losing her temper, and Jules stumbles her way through an apology of her own, admitting that she said some things she shouldn't have, and asks that she at least consider what Jules is saying in the future; maybe they could avoid future situations like nearly being enslaved if she does. Lexington agrees and, to break the ice, suggests the Gang have a celebration when they arrive in Puerto Penasco-- her birthday and her cousin's birthday had recently passed, and as it turns out, so has Jules'. Jules agrees, wanting to at least try to turn over a new leaf, and Vulpes does as well, albeit reluctantly.

The Gang splits up again when they arrive, and Jules heads to the marketplace in search of gifts. She finds rusty spurs and a deck of playing cards for Lexington, as well as an NCR propaganda poster featuring Vulpes' face on it for him, at a stall run by the Chavez Caravan Company. The name rings a bell with her, but she can't place it, figuring she must have delivered packages for them in the past. She purchases her gifts and a large bottle of whiskey, and stalls for the rest of the day until it's time to meet with Vulpes and Lexington again.

Unfortunately Lexington is late, which worries Jules and Vulpes alike, as neither of them want to spend any longer alone with the other than they have to. After twenty agonizing minutes, though, she shows up at the hotel the Gang is staying at overnight, and they exchange gifts. Vulpes is less than thrilled with his poster, but the feeling is mutual when Jules opens the box of 9mm bullets he got for her. His slight goes unnoticed by his cousin, who gives Jules her own 9mm pistol and promises to teach her how to use and care for it, and who is delighted by her new spurs.

Vulpes' own gift for his cousin is more unorthodox. He leads the Gang to a seemingly abandoned shack on the outskirts of town, glowing faintly with lantern light seeping out from cracks in the walls, and opens the door to reveal two men whom Jules faintly recognizes but who definitely recognize her. Before Vulpes shuts the door behind him and Lexington, one of the men glimpses Jules and asks, in Latin, if that's who he thinks it is, but he never gets an answer. Jules is locked out of the shack and left to her own devices; soon she hears angry shouting in Latin and English, followed by the clattering of weapons hitting the floor and, a few moments later, pained screaming as bones snap. She decides this is an excellent time to check out the saloon she found earlier in the day and leaves to drink herself unconscious.

uhhh there's more to come, involving the Brotherhood of Steel, arena fights, Craig Boone I think?, another courier, a trip to Flagstaff and a meeting with the rest of the Resistance leaders as well as one Joshua Graham and one Javier Chavez that I'm sure will go delightfully well. Anyways Vulpes betrays the Gang at some point, but they're able to make it into Vegas anyway where they fight their ways through legions (heh) of guards, rescue Arcade Gannon from slavery, have a brief encounter with the world's dumbest aspiring praetorian, and oh yeah Graham eventually corners Caesar, finally confronting him again after his attempted murder, but eventually steps aside to let Jules kill Caesar herself, insisting she, of all people, is the most deserving to do this

Caesar does not put up a fight, knowing Jules would believe he *let* her win and knowing it would haunt her that she'd never know if she would have beaten him in a fair fight. If he has to go out, he's goin' out in the most petty way possible. Jules takes his displacer glove, fibulae and belt as trophies; Graham lets her keep the knife he brought to kill Caesar with (it's very nice).

In the chaos following Caesar's death, Jules, Lexington and Graham manage to escape Vegas, leaving behind Miri St. James with some resistance leaders and Arcade Gannon on the Strip to regroup and figure out where to take the city from there. Lexington tells the others she's killed Vulpes and for one reason or another they believe her, and they stop in Goodsprings to recover. After a few days they all go their separate ways, Graham to Utah, Lexington to Mexico, and Jules back to Big MT, each believing they would finally be able to live the lives they desired.

## Post-*IASITM*

### Escape to Big MT

After killing Caesar and aiding the ultimate downfall of the Legion, Jules recuperates in Goodsprings for a few days before using the Transportalponder to return to Big MT in an effort to finally escape her past for good and to follow her lifelong dream of doing Science. The Think Tank welcomes her back with open arms (arms?) and does *not* lobotomize her this time, instead allowing her to roam freely and use the labs as she pleases. This free rein allows Jules to return to her previous level of skill with technology, build weapons of her own to replace the ones she lost at her crucifixion and begin to recreate more advanced items such as the stealth suit.

While Jules is no doubt thrilled to have the vast resources of Big MT at her hands, she still deeply regrets her actions as the Courier and misses the Mojave, even though she knows it's better for her to avoid the power struggle that's surely happening in New Vegas to fill the void left by Caesar. As her guilt starts eating away at her, she sleeps less and less and pushes herself harder and harder with her work, withdrawing even from the Think Tank and other personalities in Big MT. She finally breaks down enough to lash out at the Think Tank, and when Dr. Klein asks if something's wrong she completely loses her temper with them and decides it's time to leave. She has to return to the Mojave and face the consequences of what she's done.

### Return to the Mojave

Jules arrives in New Vegas in August of 2282 to find Miri still in charge and having taken to calling herself the Queen, assisted by Yes Man, Arcade Gannon, the King and the heads of the three families of the Strip, as well as former NCR Ranger Lafayette Jones and a man calling himself Vincent Phoenix. Miri appoints Jules as Chief Civil Engineer and puts her to work on basic infrastructure the city desperately needs, starting with bringing Hoover Dam back into working form.

Things go well for Jules at first; she's able to completely immerse herself in her work in New Vegas and *almost* stop thinking about her actions with the Legion-- almost. She gets a brutal reminder of what she did when she overhears Miri and her sister Claire, who was ghouled by the nukes that hit California, talking about their parents, who were with Claire when the bombs hit but weren't so lucky. The weight hits Jules again and it's almost unbearable for her to see and talk with Miri every day, knowing that she's directly responsible for her parents' deaths, and she begins the first parts of her second Hell Spiral, though it's much slower than before and could be stopped at this early stage if someone intervened.

In February 2285 Jules reunites with Lexington, briefly staving off Bad Things she was heading for with the reformation of their friendship, and learns that Lexington has not only married Joshua Graham but has multiple children with him. They keep in contact and, the following year, Lexington returns to New Vegas, bringing her oldest daughter Annie along, to negotiate a contract with Miri which will allow Jules to do engineering work for New Deseret. Annie takes to Jules quickly and, despite her initial terror at being in charge of CHILDCARE, being responsible for an ACTUAL CHILD as Lex conducts her business, Jules grows to like Annie as well and takes her under her wing.

Shortly before Lex and Annie arrive, however, Jules is on a job in the Ultra Luxe when she runs into, literally, a White Glove who curses at her in Latin. His face is hidden by his mask but his voice is instantly recognizable; he slips away before she can question him, but when she asks another passing White Glove who that was, she learns his name is Augustus Volpe. The outrageous name, the unusual usage of Latin, the all-too-familiar voice-- Jules is almost *positive* it was Vulpes Inculta. But how? After Caesar's death, Lexington had told everyone she killed him...Jules herself doesn't do anything about it, because if it *is* true Vulpes would surely want to kill her (again), but when Lexington and Annie arrive she tips Lex off so she, with her significantly smaller chance of being outright murdered by Vulpes, can investigate. To Jules' disgust, it's very much true; Vulpes is alive and well in hiding with the White Gloves on the Strip, and has been for years.

Lex takes Vulpes with her when she leaves, Jules' contract in hand, and Jules follows later, arriving just in time for the new year to begin her work building infrastructure in New Zion.

### Hell Spiral 2.0

Immediately after both of them arrive in New Zion, Vulpes resumes and amplifies his constant hatred of Jules, making it his personal mission to make her as miserable as possible. Lex's goal of having her cake and eating it too with regards to her family was doomed to fail. Vulpes reminds Jules of where she came from, what she did and that she shouldn't even be *alive*, let alone in New Zion, every time their paths cross, and due to her work, that is unfortunately often. She makes attempts to ignore him but can't keep it up for long and starts drifting back to her old habits of heavy drinking, drug use and making her way through the beds of the traders in New Zion's less-than-reputable gentile quarter, putting her fully on her second Hell Spiral that was begun in New Vegas.

Jules begins missing more and more family events with the Grahams as Vulpes continues to dig at her. She never disagrees with anything he says; in fact they're things she already believes about herself: she's not worth the time and effort Lexington and Graham are investing in her, she doesn't deserve love from them or their children-- they're only tolerating her because they pity her, and she doesn't deserve her life in New Zion or anywhere else. The camping trips she would go on with Lexington become less and less frequent, she spends less time watching Annie and the other children, despite Annie's fondness for her, but she has her shit together for her engineering work, the only thing she has going for her.

Graham takes an interest in her and tries to intervene, going so far as to track her down and rescue her from ill-intentioned traders when she's too drunk to really do so herself, and he tries to stage interventions time and time again with her self-destructive habits. Jules keeps pushing him away, along with the rest of the family, thinking if he knew the truth about her, about her past and what she'd done in the Divide, he'd never want anything to do with her.

Jules' lowest point comes when she overdoses on chems, combined with a copious amount of alcohol, that she knew she shouldn't have mixed but she decided she just...didn't care anymore. It wasn't worth the effort of living with her intense guilt and self-hatred every day and trying to keep up appearances for her job and the Grahams. She misses work, something that never happens, and Lexington goes to check on her, only to find her passed out and barely breathing; Lex revives her and spends the rest of the day with her, watching to make sure she's alright and that she eats and hydrates as much as possible, begging her to seek help or at least talk to her, or *anyone*. While Jules is still very much in the depths, she agrees to *try*, at least make an effort instead of just giving up.

It takes her longer to open up to Graham, and in fact she wouldn't have, were it not for an accident. Jules had been in the bars again, well on her way to being blackout drunk but still lucid enough to register when a trader tried to offer her caps to sleep with her. Horrified, she threw the caps in his face and stumbled home, buying up as much liquor as she could on her way and drinking herself to sleep. The next morning, she wakes up with one of the worse hangovers she's ever had to the sound of her door opening and someone entering her house and stopping in her bedroom doorway. Figuring it was Lexington, because who else would have a key to her house, let alone care, Jules relays the events of the previous night, the horror she felt at herself and confesses about her unrelenting guilt that's been eating away at her for years. When she finally looks out from underneath her blankets and pillows, she sees it's not Lexington she's been talking to, but Graham. With a sigh she finishes her story and waits for Graham's inevitable lecture, but she doesn't get one. Instead, he says he knows, and he understands what she's going through, then asks...how can he help?

This accidental confession breaks a wall Jules had put up and, gradually, she starts confiding in Graham more and more, making noticeable improvements in dealing with her lingering guilt over everything from her history in Nipton to her work for the Legion to her belief that she's failed her newfound family, and eventually coming to see Graham as a father figure, leagues better than the one she had previously. Jules comes to trust him enough that she confesses what's most been destroying her:her responsibility for the destruction of the NCR. Graham promises to keep her secret, as he's kept all their conversations secret, and they talk for a long, long time about their Legion pasts and how to deal with their guilt for their actions.

While not fully recovered, obviously, Jules is making progress and accepting help, and when Lexington sees how far she's come, she decides it's time to implement a plan she's had brewing.

### Negotiations in New Vegas

In mid-2290, Lexington dispatches Jules to negotiate a contract with a prominent trader in New Vegas, insisting that she is the only one who can work out a favorable deal for New Deseret. As it turns out, this is because the trader Lexington wants to contract is none other than Javier Chavez, Jules' ex whom she hasn't seen or had contact with since the Resistance meeting in 2282. Neither is thrilled about the deal or the fact that Lexington kept them both in the dark, each initially refusing to speak with or even look at the other. Jules finds herself in a bar after sending off several angry telegrams to New Zion and shows up in Chavez's office the next morning still pissed and hungover after picking a fight with someone who turned out to be an ex-centurion and spending the night in the drunk tank, but at least willing to do business. Chavez admits that he's not happy about this either, but the deal is too good to abandon so they might as well work it out, and then they can both go their separate ways.

Jules inspects his caravans to ensure they can make the trip to New Zion, which of course they can, and the goods he's selling to ensure they're legitimate and functional, which of course they are. He asks her questions about tech he has that he wants to sell and she advises him on it, as well as on what he has that'll go over well in New Zion. She repairs a few eyebots for him as well to add extra security to his caravans and soon not one Chavez party is seen without one.

One day Jules arrives with a black eye, and Chavez asks her if she got in a fight with another ex-centurion, but she says no, it wasn't like that...she saw a trader harassing one of the girls outside Gomorrah and bolted over to defend her after he hit her across the face-- how *dare* this man raise a hand to harm a woman?! This started another fight and Jules took a few punches, but she was able to thoroughly kick the trader's ass before securitrons broke them up. As she finishes telling Chavez about this, Jules pauses and quietly adds that she remembers being in similar situations in Nipton and how much she'd wished for someone to intervene on her behalf, so now that she can do so she believes she has to. Graham has also been a major influence on her and she wants to make him proud.

After working together for several weeks and moving past initial hostilities into being friendly again, Chavez realizes that oh *shit*, he still has his old feelings for Jules. He steels himself to ask her over for dinner so she can have *real* food and so they can finally negotiate that contract Lexington wanted-- Jules knows he's up to something, but she accepts, and the entire time she's there she can tell how distracted he is.

Finally she calls him out on it, but he insists that they have to finish the contract and then they can Talk. Jules keeps pressing, though, and Chavez finally confesses that, though he thought he'd moved on, he hadn't. His feelings for her are distracting him from his work, so they need to finally put some closure on what happened between them. Believing they'd *already* put closure on their failed relationship after the resistance meeting, Jules is unhappy with this new development and makes it very obvious.

They get into an argument in which Jules accuses Chavez of being foolish and immature for believing he loved her when they barely knew each other for a year and Chavez calls out her stubbornness and how unnecessarily cynical she is for thinking everything has to have a catch; pessimism doesn't equal maturity, and he should know his own feelings better than *she'd* know them. Even if she's right, on some level he still cared enough for her to drop everything and look for her when she disappeared and threw him aside like he was nothing to her-- Jules insists he *wasn't* nothing to her, and Chavez demands to know why she did it, then, and won't let up. She finally manages to squeak out that she doesn't know, and he sighs, exasperated, that this is why he didn't want to work with her. She's too stubborn and she won't admit when she makes mistakes. They just go around in circles, over and over and over.

Jules insists that once Lexington's *stupid* deal is done, the two of them are *also* done, and they will never, *ever* be on good terms again, but she and Chavez still wind up in bed together that same night. The next few days are awkward, but finally they decide that they actually do need to talk and sort out their relationship, for real this time. Jules apologizes for starting the fight and for treating him so badly before, and she can finally answer why she left: she was catching feelings for him, too, and it terrified her…running away was the only thing she could think to do. Chavez admits he probably rushed into thinking they were more than they actually were, says they should have communicated better and she agrees. He does care about her, though, so much, and if she feels the same way, he wants to try again– a real relationship this time, see where it goes…and she says yes.

### Return to New Zion

After a little more time in New Vegas, Jules returns to New Zion with a very favorable contract in hand for Lexington, as Chavez was too distracted to negotiate a better deal for his company, and with some very strong words for Lex herself. She chews her out for setting her up with her EX and using her as a tool to manipulate SAID EX, Vulpes calls her out for sleeping with him and Jules gets Embarrassed, insisting it was a one-time thing (it is not). Jules is put in charge of keeping Lexington updated on the Chavez caravan, how they're doing, if they want to renegotiate, etc., and has weekly meetings with her to facilitate this. Each week she makes sure to also let Lex know how glad she is her FRIENDSHIP with Chavez is back on track, they really make such good FRIENDS, thanks for that Lex. Chavez starts making frequent trips to New Zion for business and Jules, wanting to keep their relationship private to fend off nosy questions and interference from outside parties, sneaks around like a teenager to see him. Of course almost everyone can tell they're together, but it's not until Chavez nudges her with a few romantic public gestures that she's finally willing to acknowledge it.

Vulpes, being bitter and petty, does his best to break up Jules and Chavez once they finally go public, spreading nasty rumors about Jules, telling her that Chavez is unfaithful to her when he's out of town, exposing her past profligate ways to him. Unfortunately for Vulpes, Chavez already knows a good deal about Jules' past and he takes everything Vulpes tells him with a grain of salt. Jules is much easier to get to, but thanks to the Love and Support she's getting from Graham, Lexington and now Chavez she can resist his attempts to push her back down into her previous misery. Chavez in particular is a strong voice of reason, countering Vulpes' words and reminding Jules that not *everyone* is Vulpes Inculta; in fact only he is, and he lies.

By 2291, Chavez decides to live in New Zion permanently and moves in with Jules, and in early 2292 he proposes to her. She turns him down, not because she doesn't love him, but because she's scared of making that big a commitment, that much of a leap. Vulpes' attacks against the two of them, Jules in particular, reach a peak by the middle of the year and, after forcing an apology that Vulpes manages to weasel out of by giving Chavez and Jules a puppy from his ranch, Lexington finally lets Jules just beat the *shit* out of him for what he's done and doing to her. She corners him in the library late one night and goes to town, only stopping when Lex herself saunters in to lecture her cousin, letting Jules leave satisfied with bloodied knuckles.

This satisfaction would be short-lived, however. The next day, still nursing his black eyes and broken nose, Vulpes has Lexington over to his house and tells her, there's something very important she should know: he knows who was responsible for the nukes that destroyed California all those years ago. It was none other than the Courier.

Lexington is furious, and rightfully so, and immediately cuts off all contact with Jules, not only for herself but for her family as well. Graham tries to get in contact with Jules but Lex makes it difficult; she won't even let Annie say hello to her in the market. With her family gone and Vulpes more pleased than ever, Jules genuinely believes she's losing everything. She'll have to tell Chavez before he hears it from anyone else, and he'll leave her, and once the elder council in New Zion finds out she won't have a job, and they'll surely send word to New Vegas...

After a few agonizing days, Jules is sat down by Lex and Graham for what she expects is the lecture of a lifetime. Lex explains her anger and how shocked and betrayed she was by learning about the nukes, and adds that while what's done is done, now Jules has to do *something* to prove she's changed and try to right what wrongs she still can. She goes on to explain how New Deseret is in a non-aggression pact with the Brotherhood of Steel but they have reason to believe the Brotherhood will break it with a war against New Vegas on the horizon. What Jules will have to do is accompany Lex and Vulpes on a mission to find proof of the Brotherhood's intent to betray them so that New Deseret can send aid to Vegas and keep them from being forcibly annexed. Less than thrilled at the prospect of going on another Hell Trip with Vulpes but desperate to get her family back, Jules agrees. She's only able to offer a short explanation to Chavez, confessing about the nukes and telling him she has to leave to help with the war, before Lexington arrives to begin *It's Always Sunny In The Mojave 2: Electric Boogaloo*.

## *It's Always Sunny In The Mojave 2: Electric Booglaoo*

### Events in New Vegas

After establishing herself as Queen of New Vegas and leading her city-state into a new era, Miri St. James drew the attention of the Brotherhood of Steel, who were concerned about her securitron army and believed she was not responsible enough to wield such power. Immediately suspicious, Miri brought Yes Man to accompany her at her first meeting with Brotherhood ambassadors, which she quickly realized was A Mistake. Even more alarmed than before, the Brotherhood gave her an ultimatum to disarm her securitrons or face a forceful acquisition. At the same time, they negotiate a non-aggression pact with New Deseret, the only other real threat to Brotherhood expansion, which effectively renders them useless in the increasingly likely event of an attempt to annex New Vegas. Lexington and Graham are, of course, suspicious of the Brotherhood's intents, and Lexington recruits both Jules, for her technical expertise, and Vulpes, for his skills undercover, to help her find proof that the Brotherhood won't keep the treaty and plans to annex New Deseret once they have New Vegas' securitron army.

### Journey to New Vegas

The first few days of the Gang's second Hell Trip are incredibly tense until finally, after YEARS of enduring this torment at his hands, Jules tears into Vulpes for being a MASSIVE DICK to her since the day they met, and even more so for dragging Chavez into their feud though he'd done nothing to deserve it. She's sick and tired of it, and she won't put up with him anymore-- he has no more blackmail material on her; everything is out in the open now, for better or worse. His time is *up* for treating her so badly. Vulpes manages a reluctant apology, though not necessarily for what he did to Jules. More, he regrets that he hurt his cousin and her children by way of torturing Jules for so long, but he doesn't make this known.

The Gang arrives in New Vegas, much to Miri's relief, and tells her of their plan to stop the Brotherhood. At this point she's extremely grateful for any help she can get and offers them the assistance of her two top lawmen, Lafayette Jones, a former NCR Ranger, and Vincentius of Phoenix, a former centurion and, incidentally, Vulpes' centurion before he was recruited for the frumentarii. Now with their two new companions, the Gang heads for Shady Sands to meet Lafayette's brother Washington, a Brotherhood knight who's been recently stationed in the town after the Brotherhood's recent acquisition of it; following their rendevouz with Wash he points them towards New Reno, where they can try to make an alliance with the city's crime families to aid New Vegas...or, if not that, at least get a stockpile of weapons.

### New Reno

The Gang, plus Lafayette and Vincentius, arrives in New Reno to negotiate on behalf of Miri and quickly attracts the attention of the Bishop family, in part due to Jules' striking resemblance to its patriarch. They're summoned to meet with him and he asks who they are. Immediately startled by Jules' name, he asks, cautiously, who her mother is, and when she answers "Eliza McAllister," he finally reveals who he is: Silas Bishop, Eliza's boyfriend when they were in their teens. He explains that she disappeared without a trace, such a long time ago, and now he realizes why-- she must have been pregnant with Jules and justifiably scared at being in so far over her head. Silas had gone out to look for her but never found her or Jules-- maybe if he'd gone a little farther, stayed out a little longer...even so young, he says, he would have been there for the two of them and done his best to help them. Jules is here now, though, and he tells her-- and the rest of the Bishop family-- that as long as she and her friends are in town, they are part of the family as well.

Jules has a sudden influx of new family members as she meets not only her biological father but also his wife, Claudia Van Graff; his stepson, Oliver Van Graff; and her half-sister Evangeline Bishop. Additionally, once her mother's family heard there's another McAllister in town they want to see her as well, and for the first time Jules meets her grandparents, Frank and Jeanette, her aunt Catherine and her uncle Nicholas, along with their spouses and children. Unfortunately, all this new family means she has to keep retelling the story of her mother's tragic young death over and over and over.

Silas makes no secret of the fact that he wants Jules to stick around in New Reno to be groomed as his heir and help the Bishops get back on top. He offers her money, power, technology, he plays on their presumed relationship, but Jules has no interest in organized crime and turns his offers down. Having thoroughly offended a mafia don, the Gang leaves New Reno, heading north for Arroyo to meet with contacts they've been told will help them against the Brotherhood.

### Arroyo, San Francisco and Boneyard

The Gang's new allies are none other than Sarah Lyons and Veronica Santangelo, now married and leading their own chapter of the Brotherhood, which is deeply opposed to the rule of Arthur Maxson. Along with their help, the Gang also recruits Goris, a scholarly deathclaw, to go to the Mojave and speak with Marcus in Jacobstown to get the super mutants on their side, and meets the Chosen One, Jules' grandmother and latest addition to her suddenly rapidly expanding family tree, as well as her wife Miria.

From Arroyo the Gang finally heads to San Francisco, the Brotherhood's main base, to infiltrate them and find proof of their intent to betray New Zion, and to a final confrontation in the Boneyard, where they discover something far more sinister: evidence of a conspiracy to wipe the earth clean of all human life and replace humanity with synths. Jules quickly reasons that the only place capable of something on this scale is Big MT, and the only beings willing to commit such atrocities are the Think Tank.

### Hell Sim 2282

Almost immediately after the Gang teleports to Big MT, Jules, Lexington and Vulpes are captured by Dr. Dala and trapped in one of the facility's labs for an experiment: a simulation in which Caesar's Legion never existed. In this alternate universe, all three of them live in Marysvale, where Lexington is Sheriff Jessica Graham, still married to Joshua, Vulpes is the town's beloved veterinarian Arthur Young, and Jules and her husband have recently moved to town so she can begin some engineering work.

Jules grew up in Goodsprings, as her parents fled New Reno shortly after she was born and married as soon as they could. When she turned 18 she begged them to let her join the Followers of the Apocalypse in Freeside and after some persistent nagging on her part, they let her. The family wrote and visited each other often, and Eliza and Silas got to meet not only Jules' new friends Julie Farkas and Arcade Gannon but also a young man named Javier Chavez she'd taken a particular liking to when she'd been hired to solve some security problems for his family's caravan. The two married in Puerto Penasco in 2282 and, because of the success of the Chavez caravan, were largely nomadic until Jules received the job offer in Marysvale. They hadn't yet had any children of their own, but after settling in Marysvale they had begun to seriously discuss the possibility of doing so.

In 2292, Jules starts to get strange feelings about things that were previously an ordinary part of her life: she and Arthur shouldn't be as close as they are. She gets frequent headaches and can't remember her wedding or much of her work with the Followers, and she can't shake the thought that her mother isn't living comfortably in Goodsprings with her father-- her mother is *dead*. She has a lingering feeling that she's done awful, awful things, and that awful things have been done to her, but no one gives much credit to her fears.

A Follower and old family friend of the Grahams, Edward Sallow, comes to visit and the minute Jules sees him her blood runs cold. She can't explain her sudden terror at him but it's only worsened and somewhat confirmed by Arthur greeting him with "Ave, Lord Caesar." For some reason, it makes sense to her, like Caesar is really what he's supposed to be called instead of it being a joking nickname he earned for his love of classical Roman literature. That night, she has a vivid nightmare where she stabs Sallow to death.

Jules and Chavez have a huge argument the next day about her sudden change in demeanor, the first they've had in ages, and what's worse than the fact that she's in such a vicious argument with her husband is the fact that it feels *normal*. She storms out and eventually wanders over to Arthur's house. When he opens the door, all she can say is "Vulpes?" His face falls and he invites her in, locking the door behind her so they won't be disturbed. Arthur himself has been having the same feelings, he tells her, that something is incredibly wrong, but he can't pinpoint what. They spend hours comparing their memories: each one features in the other's, as does Arthur's cousin, but drastically different. Arthur remembers Jules as angrier and scarred, and Jules remembers him going by "Vulpes Inculta" and being far more cruel. Cruel enough to crucify her.

They come to the conclusion that yes, something is very, very wrong, and Jules is able to put together that it must be a simulation, something to do with Big MT and the Think Tank-- who else would have the technology to do this to them? But when they go together to tell Jessica she denies all of what they're saying and denies that she's been feeling the same way. As their behavior grows increasingly erratic, Jessica comes to view them as threats and has them arrested for their own safety and for that of the town.

Despondent, Jules tries to convince Jessica to listen and let her and Arthur go, but she refuses. The minute Eliza and Silas hear what's happened, from Jessica of course, they set out for Marysvale to see their daughter and find out what's going on. Eliza visits Jules in jail and Jules completely breaks down-- it's the first time she's seen her mother since she was 19, now that she's convinced herself that none of her memories of Marysvale and Goodsprings are real. They have a long talk where Jules confesses everything she's been dealing with and how the conflicting memories have been eating away at her. While Eliza comforts her as well as she can there's only so much she can do, but she does manage to get both Jules and Arthur out of jail.

The illusion is shattered when Dr. Dala herself appears in the simulation to check on her experiments. Jules and Arthur confront her and demand to know why she's tormenting them like this; Dala dodges the questions but lets them go when they threaten her.

Now free of the simulation and returned to Big MT, the Gang is equal parts shaken and downright *furious* at what's been done to them. They find Lafayette and Vincentius, who've had a hell of a time fending for themselves amidst the horrors of Big MT, and Jules barely manages to talk Lexington out of murdering Dala and the rest of the Think Tank-- barely. With the proof Faye and Kent found of the synth conspiracy, Jules is able to set up and broadcast a signal that shuts down all the synths who've infiltrated the Mojave and New Deseret and replaced key players including but not limited to Julie Farkas, Swank, Marjorie, Big Sal, Byrum Pratt, Lexington herself and several members of the Chavez caravan. They return to the Mojave and make their way home, parting ways with Kent and Faye in New Vegas, and tearfully reuniting with their loved ones in New Zion.

## Post-*IASITM2: EB*

Shortly after her return home, Chavez proposes to Jules again, and this time she accepts without a second thought. They're married in an extravagant ceremony in New Vegas some months later, with the entire Chavez and Graham families in attendance, as well as Miri, Yes Man and an uninvited Silas, who nearly comes to blows with Graham over his assumption that Graham has replaced him in his daughter's life (Jules is extremely vocal that this is impossible, as Silas was not there to replace). The reception gradually devolves into a giant drunken party, though a joyful one.

Jules and Silas reconcile when he writes her an apology letter a few weeks later and they keep in touch, though Jules is careful to maintain a healthy distance, given her history with getting roped into less-than-legitimate organizations.

On October 23, 2293, Jules and Chavez welcome their daughter, Natalia Eliza Juana Lexington Chavez McAllister, in New Zion. The first time he meets Natalia, shortly after she's born, Graham tells Jules how proud he is of her and how far she's come from when they first met; for both of them it's almost surreal to think of where they are now compared to where they were then.

Jules is hesitant to tell Natalia about her history, but as Natalia gets older and more curious she sees no choice but to tell her, in part so she doesn't hear it from anyone else first. Still, there are certain things Jules keeps private, such as her role in the destruction of the NCR and the extent of what she did for Caesar. She tells herself she's waiting until Natalia's older, but by the time her daughter is fourteen she still doesn't know the full story of her mother's time as the Courier. Natalia isn't as tech-inclined as her mother, instead gravitating towards the arts, and her talent gains her a large amount of attention in New Zion.

When Joshua and Lexington's son Zeke is seventeen, he finally learns the truth about his family's history and runs away in disgust, devastating the family. He returns briefly after a terrorist attack incapacitates Lexington but, despite his family's begging, leaves for Flagstaff again. Natalia is able to talk privately with him before he goes, but that only raises more questions for her. Jules herself is now put in the position of having to comfort and aid Graham, when he's always been the one she's relied on.

## *It's Always Sunny In The Mojave: The Next Generation*

A few months before Natalia's fifteenth birthday, she butts heads with her parents and decides to run away to join her cousin Zeke in Flagstaff, thinking it's a haven for artists that won't censor her like the strict Mormon part of New Zion does. She takes her art supplies and the pet fox she inherited from Zeke and leaves a note for her parents that's both angry at her perceived restriction at their hands and excited about the new opportunity she's pursuing in Arizona.

Jules, naturally, is furious that her daughter would do this, as well as worried sick about her wellbeing; her worry wins out over her anger and when Chavez writes to his sister who's currently living in Flagstaff, she begs him to ask Mariela to watch for Natalia and bring her home. The last thing she wants is for her daughter to be hurt or go through anything close to the troubles she did.

At the same time, she's also having to look out for the other Grahams as well and be there for them as Lexington's in the hospital from the terrorist attack and as they deal with having Zeke back for a short time, only for him to disappear again. She tells Joshua to do anything, *anything* in his power to get Natalia home safe, for her and Chavez's sake.

## Notes

As the Mormons in New Zion and her husband's Catholic family are very quick to point out, Jules' collection of scars bear an eerie resemblance to the wounds inflicted on Christ at his crucifixion. In fact, she has all five stigmata -- one on each hand and foot, plus the knife wound on her stomach -- as well as the scars from her lobotomy at Big MT resembling the crown of thorns.