For other characters in the Fallout universe named Christine, see Christine.
“The quick... the quick scribe... jumped over the lazy paladin.”
Christine Royce is a mute human prisoner trapped in the Sierra Madre in 2281.
Background
Christine is a member of the Circle of Steel, a splinter faction of the Brotherhood of Steel dedicated to taking a more active stance in the wasteland. She was a scribe in the Brotherhood before joining the Circle of Steel at the rank of knight.
When Elijah abandoned the Brotherhood after the disastrous Operation: Sunburst, he left a trail of crimes across the wasteland. As word of these crimes reached the Circle, Christine was dispatched to track him down. In addition to avenging his crimes, she had a personal stake in the matter; he had separated Christine's lover from her. She managed to locate him at Big MT. However, once she confronted her mark at Little Yangtze, they were interrupted by security robots. The elder escaped using the ghoulified Chinese prisoners as walking bombs while Royce was wounded and taken to the Y-17 medical facility for processing. During the course of experiments at the facility (involving jamming electrodes into the skull, and, in her own words "Making a flashlight out of [her] head"), her brain was damaged to the point of her losing the ability to read and write words properly (although she can still do equations and mathematical sums).
It was there that she was rescued by Ulysses, who blew up part of the facility just to get her out. She recovered with him for several days at Ulysses' Point, where they discussed philosophy and the failure of modern civilizations like the NCR or the Legion to forge a new future. Once Ulysses met the think tanks and received his answers, the two separated. Christine left Big MT with the Mark I stealth suit and resumed her quest to find Elijah. Her original armor and rifle were left behind.
She eventually tracked him to the Sierra Madre Casino, where she was captured by his slave, Dog, and forced to work for him in breaking into the Sierra Madre while fitted with an explosive collar. At some point, she was also locked in an Auto-Doc in the Villa's Medical District by Dean Domino, where her vocal cords were torn out. The Auto-Doc repeated the procedure for two weeks in which Christine eventually developed claustrophobia as a result[1]. She later regains the ability to speak when the operation is completed by the Auto-Doc in Vera Keyes' hotel room. However, the procedure replaced her old voice with Vera Keyes'. It is then revealed that her capture was part of Domino's plan to break into the casino's vault, as the elevator could only be activated by the voice of the long-dead Keyes.
Find Collar 12: Christine: The Courier has to travel to the Villa Clinic to find her. Once inside, they have to release her and take her to the fountain in front of the Sierra Madre.
Last Luxuries: The Courier has to find and confront Christine in the Sierra Madre Casino.
Heist of the Centuries: Christine can use her new voice to unlock the elevator to the Sierra Madre vault.
Other interactions
When the Courier travels with Christine, she will be able to block out radio and speaker signals for a short time. She will also increase the amount of time taken for the collar to detonate.
She knows how to counterfeit Sierra Madre chips, and can give the player character the Coin Operator perk with the right dialogue options.
If the player character has at least 75 Medicine and initiates "You were badly hurt by that Autodoc" dialogue option, there is an additional dialogue option when discussing Christine's love interest ("Oh, girlfriend."), and one can easily calm her down, stating that the player character understands her situation; if the player character has the Cherchez La Femme or Confirmed Bachelor perk there is an additional interaction with Christine when they leave her at her post before the Gala Opening. If the Courier accepts to hold Christine's hand, they can promise that they will return for her.
She can be intimidated with the Terrifying Presence perk to be forced into the elevator in the Mixed Signals quest. This results in a loss of Karma.
Christine, scarred by her hunt for Elijah and unable to let him go, perished in the Sierra Madre Casino. She never completed her mission, nor did she stop to consider what had driven her to accept the mission in the first place. Obsession is another form of greed, a lesson that Christine never learned.
Christine, her mission complete, found new purpose as the Sierra Madre's warden. She watched over it silently - by choice. Over time, the ghost people came to see her as one of the Holograms. They would watch, silently, as she walked among them. At times, Christine thought of the Courier, who had kept Elijah's hand from her throat. The Courier reminded her of the other courier she had met in the Big Empty, and wondered if the two had found each other at last. She did not think of them again until she heard the legends of the Divide. The Divide, where the two messengers, the two couriers, fought beneath an ancient flag, at the edge of the world.
The player character must have a high Perception or Intelligence in order to understand her properly. Various skill checks require: PER 6, 8; INT 6, 7; Speech 50; Science 60, 75; Medicine 60, 75; Explosives 60. (Note: Explosives 60 and Science 60 are both options in the same conversation and give the same result.) The Math Wrath, Cherchez La Femme and Confirmed Bachelor perks, as well as Power Armor Training and Brotherhood of Steel reputation, give additional conversation options.
As a result of her imprisonment in the Auto-Doc, Christine has developed claustrophobia.
From dialogue with her it comes across that she may have gained some kind of alexia from what happened to her in the Big MT.
In Old World Blues, when speaking to Dala, the player character has the option to say "The quick scribe jumps over the lazy paladin" for observational purposes, which Christine also says. The above line is also a play on the well-known phrase, "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog," which itself is an English pangram - a sentence that uses every letter of the alphabet.
She is the third shortest adult character in game; her height is only 92% of the normal size. Other small characters are Sunny Smiles (95%), Sammy Weathers (92.5%), the Gomorrah floor manager (90%) and the shortest, Irate Ida (85% of normal height).
Notable quotes
"Love makes people do strange things. Won't argue that. It can drive you crazy sometimes if you can't... connect."
"Never going back... and Elijah was on his way here, so I couldn't stop to see if it was something I could fix... if you can even fix what happened to me when they jabbed the electrodes into my skull and turned my head into a flashlight."
PCPlaystation 3Xbox 360 If the player character has Dean Domino or Dog/God as a companion, the camera may center directly through the player's head (or chest) during the first bit of dialogue with Christine. [verified]
A possible fix is setting any companions to wait before starting dialogue with her.
If the player character has Dean Domino or Dog/God as a companion, the camera may center directly through the player's head (or chest) during the first bit of dialogue with Christine. [verified]
