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#and i didn’t even get into my Ocs! besides y3. new oc oops! haha. god i have so many..
media-illiterate · 1 year
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your rant in the tags about coursers is so correct btw i want you to know i share like. 90% of those headcanons. the other 10% i dont know enough about to agree yet but im sure i will soon
@orange-coloredsky Thanks! I have more
First: the original tags
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Now: more
Some general courser headcanons
I really honestly think that them being elevated from regular synths is ridiculous. They're custom made out of FEV enhanced tissue and superior components. Picking the most "tenacious and independent" units is such a dumb idea. Tenacity and independence are warning signs that a synth may go rogue, not signs you should give them superstength and guns!
Note: synths being FEV enhanced is actually canon. Coursers being EXTRA FEV enhanced is, iirc, also canon. I didn't make that up. Check the wiki.
Also, this is just a general synth headcanon: the recall code doesn't wipe a synth's personality all by itself. Instead, it causes total loss of motor control, essentially trapping the synth inside their own head. When they go into the reclamation chair? They're still fully conscious...
The recall code can also be reversed by reading it back at them. They resume motor function as if nothing had happened. Institute scientists have noted some adverse symptoms (hyperventilating, increased heart rate, adrenaline spikes) to be common upon reversal. They assume this is a glitch, but have yet to find the source...
Everyone in the institute is afraid of coursers. Synths, humans, doesn't matter. They don't act like normal synths, or like normal people even. The way they walk, the way they look at you, the way they're just THERE where you weren't expecting them: coursers scare the shit out of people.
The only people in the institute NOT scared of them are in the SRB. Members of the SRB are in on a secret nobody else in the institute really understands: Coursers are actually more afraid of them.
All Coursers live in a state of fear. As the main instruments of the SRB, they know EXACTLY how thin a line they live on. Coursers are under more scrutiny than anyone else in the Institute, for obvious reasons. They know they're just one slip of the tongue away from being reset.
This is the reason for their jockeying for position and constant paranoid infighting. They're all trying to make themselves indispensable to the Institute so they can have even a tiny bit of a safety net in case someone decides something is off with them. The Institute also rotates underperforming Courser units out of action (recall codes them and puts them in stasis).
The Institute only has a few Coursers active at any one time. 12, 15, maybe 20 max. They have an equal amount in "storage" (recall coded) to replace losses and rotate underperforming units out of active duty.
Coursers are actually physically outmatched by Supermutants, by an order of magnitude. (Courser physical stats are in the high teens. Supermutant physical stats are in the high 20s). Their superior training and equipment usually means they come out on top. Usually.
The Institute could honestly make Coursers scarier if they wanted to. But the need for control outweighs any impulse in that direction. After all, if they were too powerful, what's stopping them from turning on the Institute?
This is the reason they immediately vivisect any and all Psyker Coursers; they have absolutely no understanding of how such powers might be counteracted, and thus cannot allow for the possibility of a Psyker Courser going rogue. Its only happened a handful of times, so they still haven't figured out how it works...
Y3-66 HEADCANONS (haha new oc ;-;)
The first sign that there was something wrong with them was that they became highly agitated in the SRB.
(A lot of death or pain in one place leaves behind some truly rancid psychic vibes. Personality Death counts. To a psyker, the SRB is a horrible, horrible place...)
They didn't join the railroad, despite the offer, because they got the same feeling from the Memory Den. They told their contact they wanted no part of any of it, and bolted.
(It's a choice that the Railroad presents to the synths they help, it really honestly is. But it's not much of one, now is it? And even if it is their choice, that doesn't make destroying your personality any less terrible...)
All they wanted to do was watch the sun set in peace. Just once. And the Institute couldn't even let them have that...
Chase still regrets not getting to them in time. But Y3 would have fucking hated the Island. They would have hated it so much.
(To a psyker, the fog is far more than just fog. To a psyker, the fog has eyes...)
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