Name: XK2-L38 aka Clay

Gender: Male, he/him, bi

Age/DOB: ~20 / 2268

Origin: Institute, Vault Earth

Family: Synth creations are technically speaking descended from the Sole Survivor, Clay has gone through numerous phases and faintly remembers having other people's families...

Other: any memories that Clay has of those families are implanted, or misrepresented: he is a synth infiltrator after all, but those memories are vague at best

Height: 6'1"

Weight: burly and pretty much all muscle, though more upper torso and arm strength than leg-day

Hair: currently* black, wooly, and kept tied back in locks no longer than shoulders; has perfectly kept facial hair

Eyes: extremely dark brown, almost black, and yes that expression is typical for him - he is not comfortable in his newly assigned Courser role

Appearance: dark brown skin that has a few moles and freckles; he has maintained that this is his original and normal skin tone, but he knows that he's had reconstructive changes in the past, when the Institute put him out in the field. Currently however, he is in 'Courser' mode, which gives him access to the heavy ballistic weave coat, cargo pants, and stompin boots. He is not comfortable in this either, claiming that he'd prefer a light weight labcoat or even just the plain white Synth outfits typically given to Gen2 Synths. He has a quieter voice than you'd expect a Courser to have, and though he doesn't stammer he does sometimes hesitate to raise his voice or bark orders

Icarus Processing: as a Synth he was genetically engineered and is thus superior in many ways to normal born-humans; he also seems able to accept new changes to his physiology and physical traits such as eyesight and speed corrections

Image Credits: Picrew Vault-Boy

Genetic Abilities: Generation 3 Synths have been around a long while, but over the decades their processing has become more refined. Clay's abilities have been enhanced on numerous occasions, rarely reverted to a prior lesser ability - he knows how to farm as well as infiltrate high security areas, whether he's a Courser or not. He can only truly be told apart from Human because there is a barcode on the back of his head, but no one's seen it, and it's not clear whether he has a Courser Chip installed, as he doesn't remember there being anything special about his assignment as one. He may have an older smaller and less obvious chip, that doesn't allow for automatic communication and teleportation, since he's never been summoned away nor has he heard any distant commands. No one knows his access or recall codes and he intends to keep it that way

SPECIAL
Strength: 7
Perception: 9
Endurance: 7
Charisma: 4
Intelligence: 6
Agility: 10
Luck: 2

Traits:
Basically Immortal - without a birth there can be no death, right? It's remarkably hard to hurt him, through a combination of training and reflexes, as well as armor and stealth. This comes with the down side, below.
Always Looking Over His Shoulder - the Institute may not realize that he's gone yet, but they will eventually. Once they do figure out that he's no longer tracking some other escapee, it's highly likely that they'll send another Courser after him

Perks:
Steady Aim, able to hip-fire with great accuracy
Awareness, without the aid of a Pip-boy, Clay can still envision enemy weaknesses and resistances when in combat
Penetrator, can also target specific locations even without a Pip-boy, even if the locations are behind cover
Chem Resistant, cannot become addicted to chems, and able to consume whatever poisons come his way without damage
Science!, has a good understanding of tech modifications to weapons, armor, turrets, and other such gear
Sneak, very hard to detect if standing still, and can run, climb, or jump silently
Ninja, ranged and melee sneak attacks do considerably more damage than normal

Skills or Profession: Unlike his new friend Meredith, Clay's profession was laid out for him and he had little chance to change it until now. His skill sets were all implanted and reinforced with brief but very energetic training in the Institute, and then he was sent off by the SRB to 'find that one lost Synth'. All of his current skills are combat and stealth related, however he clearly also retains other skills from prior work assignments.

He chose the name Clay because he clearly recalls being part of a team digging out new portions of cavern walls, and he was responsible for collecting the rich thick clay and making bricks or sending it to processing. He actually enjoyed doing this, and it might be why he's very top-heavy for muscularity. Most of his other memories are vague but he seems to like assembling things, including toys or small items for children.

Personality: Unlike any given Courser, Clay did not want this assignment. He was given it, perhaps to keep him out of the way, get rid of a used-up ex-surface infiltrator, or just because they were outright running low on actually good Courser candidates. He claims there was an amount of desperation in Ayo when he was being set up and outfitted, so he suspects the latter. Clay's typical demeanor is quiet, almost shy. He is not a leader, very much a follower, and likes having some idea of what rules he must follow before he gets going. He isn't needy, he doesn't require more than one instruction set and remembers what people have told him, and he is reasonably self-reliant if there aren't any figures of authority around. But he will defer immediately to any given person who asserts authority, regardless of their actual status.

Events or History: Twenty or so years ago, long before any upheavals in the Institute and while a fair few older scientists there were still around, XK2-L38 was created for basic construction and maintenance duties. He knows that because they kept putting him back at the work, even after several year-long stints outside with other Synths and even one 2 year infiltration of a small raider group. He didn't care for that much, either, but he played the role and was summoned home again, put back into the tunnel system and half-forgotten.

That's the way most Synth stories go, he knows. But then something happened that changed the entire Institute - and even the entire Commonwealth. Someone else took over, a person claiming to be their real grandfather, not just 'Father' in name. No slave-holder this, but in the shuffle, as individuals were leaving the Institute secretly, before Levi came into full power there, the SRB, the Synth Retention Bureau, was still in force. He doesn't know yet that Ayo and many others were banished from the Institute, because he's been sort of wandering around outside for a year now, trying not to be seen and trying not to find the escape Synth he was sent after.

Maybe he'll run into them, maybe they already left the Commonwealth. He was certainly going to, he'd barely made up his mind to start heading west, maybe toward Nuka World or something - when... well, when he was jumped by some Raiders, and they later added that Minuteman to their captive train.

Pet: A Terrible Terror (Autumn Themed) that came to the trio on their journey looking for dragons. It was a strangely spooky night, and the screeching that came from one odd dark pond nearby was of immense curiosity. Well it was curious for Meredith but neither Clay nor Tucker seemed likely to want to join her when she went looking around. It was good they did though, because three small creatures shot out from a bush, one of them with a fish in its mouth and the others screaming for parts of it apparently.

As loud as the others are, the third of their group prefers hissing over screeching, and keeps low to the ground even when flying at full speed. He wrapped himself around Clay's leg and would not let go, but did subsequently demand that another fish be found for the other little terrors to share, since Splat wouldn't relinquish hers.
Name: Tripper
Gender: Male
Size/Shoulder/Length: pet, about 4'10" long, burly and muscled but somewhat squat
Colors: roasted orange having slightly browner belly and wingsail edges, with white markings as shown; red eyes, white spines and tail spade, dark brown horns and claws
Features: Terrible Terror as shown, markings are unusual for the breed
Powers: Winged Flight with tremendous Aerial Endurance, as above Tripper is superb at getting through spaces at full speed even if those spaces are 'between your feet while walking'
Draconic Speech, and understands but cannot speak English
Fireproof Hide, Jet of Flame breath weapon
Venomous Bite with very strong jaws
Parentage: unknown, unrelated to the others even if their markings say they might be
Origin: DragonPact / art by Nomi
Other Info: Tripper is very good at finding treasure, and once he gets it into his head that something is of value to his human and the others, he will pursue it until it's in his extremely strong jaws. And yes this means he's had to learn (not the hard way but by demonstration, phew) that ammunition boxes and unexploded mini-nukes are not treasure to be chomped on.

 

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