Lily Bowen

	For Lily before she was a nightkin, see Lily Bowen (test cell character).

 

Lillian Marie Bowen is a nightkin living in Jacobstown in 2281.

BackgroundEdit

Born in 2078^[1][6], just a year after the Great War, Lily lived a simple life^[7] in Vault 17, until the Master's Army raided the vault. The 75 year old grandmother was dragged outside, where she saw the sun for the first time.^[6] She was taken to the Mariposa Military Base and dipped into the vats of Forced Evolutionary Virus. She would emerge as a nightkin and was then on used as a spy or an assassin,^[8] with Tabitha as her squad leader.^[9][10] It was during this time that Lilly made her sword from a blade of the Vertibird that crashed near Klamath. It was also during this time that she developed multiple personality disorder, this personality "Leo" would "show" her how to craft the blade.^[11]

With the fall of Unity, the destruction of the Cathedral and the death of the Master, whom she didn't like,^[12] she decided it was time to go home.^[13] She and her squad led by Tabitha eventually met with Marcus and formed a community at Black Mountain. When Marcus and Tabitha parted on less than amicable terms, Lily traveled with Marcus to Mount Charleston to begin anew.^{[citation needed]}

Eventually she made it to Jacobstown, where she now lives as a herdsman, tending to the bighorners.^[14] Recently, however, the local nightstalkers had developed a stealth mutation, managing to hunt the domesticated bighorners as prey. Should the Courier choose to intervene, Lily would like to become involved.^[15][16]

While living at Jacobstown, she got help from Doctor Henry for her schizophrenia, brought on by excessive Stealth Boy usage and manifesting itself as a split-personality named "Leo", with anti-psychotics drugs.^[17] The side effects of the drugs however is memory loss. Unwilling to forget her past, in particular her grandchildren Jimmy and Becky,^[3][4][5] she chooses to take her medicine at half-doses.^{[18][19][20][21]} An act personified by listening to a holotape of the last time she visited her grandchildren.^[22]

The "Leo" personality manifests itself as a malicious deviant and sociopathic voice she can communicate with, "He" instructing her in battle and telling her to do "terrible things". She sometimes listening to it when she gets mad.^[19][20] "He" in turn doesn't like being called a voice in her head.^[23] In stark contrast is Lily's natural personality, friendly, helpful,^[24] and pleasant.^[25] Due to her nightkin training, she can help the Courier with their stealth. While she claims to not like guns that doesn't mean she is incapable of doing so, just that she, and "Leo", prefer to use bladed melee weapons.^[26][27]

When Doctor Henry began his work on developing a cure for the nightkin schizophrenia she asked his permission to help.^[24] She even still wishing to help after he informed her of the risk of permanent brain damage.^{[28][29][30][31][32][33]} Should the Courier help her and Doctor Henry with the completion of the cure, Jacobstown will prosper.^[34] Furthermore should the Courier help convince her that she was correct to take her medicine at half doses she will eventually leave Jacobstown to seek the remnants of her past. However if she is convinced that she should take the entire dose every time she will forget the importance of her past and throw away her holotape. Or, if she is convinced to stop taking her medicine then she will be consumed by the Leo personality becoming nothing more than a ravening beast.^[35]

Interactions with the player characterEdit

Interactions overviewEdit

	This character is essential. Essential characters cannot be killed. Status expires when Hardcore mode begins.
	This character is a permanent companion. They grant the Stealth Girl perk.
	This character starts quests.	Lily and Leo
	This character is involved in quests.	Guess Who I Saw Today

QuestsEdit

• Lily and Leo: At a certain point, if Lily Bowen is the active companion, the player character may begin to hear a recording of children greeting their grandmother. This signals the start of Lily's unmarked quest.
• Guess Who I Saw Today: Lily is asked to come into the Jacobstown lodge so Dr. Henry can do a couple of experiments on her, concerning the effects of Stealth Boys.

Other interactionsEdit

• She has unique idle dialogue for locations around the Mojave;

Non-player character commentsEdit

• Nightkin: "Head voices say someone close. Someone like us."
• NCR civilians: "The Supermutant's under control, I hope."
• NCR tourist: "I've seen what those creatures do, and I don't know how you trust them."
• Gun Runners: "I had no idea there was such a thing as a friendly Nightkin. Look at that thing."
• Boomers: "I like you big mutants. You're easy to sight."
• Fiends: "Is that Mean Sonofabitch? They all look the same to me."
• Legion: "How does one get that blue monster to obey?"
• Brotherhood of Steel: "Keep that mutant in line, or we'll put it down."
• Powder Gangers: "Holy fuck. Never seen a mutant like that before."
• Great Khans: "Holy hell, is that a Nightkin?"
• Followers: "Look at that - a friendly Nightkin. What's it doing here?"
• Freesiders: "Odd company you keep. I thought all Super mutants were crazed cannibals."
• The Kings: "Whoa. That's a whole lotta mutant you got with you there. Still, long as it doesn't cause trouble it's all good."
• Strip Securitrons: "Be advised, visitors will be held responsible for the behavior of any non-human sapients accompanying them."
• Strip MPs: "What's a mutant doing in the Strip?"
• Omertas: "Uh, I don't think we allow her kind in here. I'll let it go this time though."
• Outer Vegas denizens: "Another Supermutant roaming outer New Vegas, huh?"

EndingsEdit

#	Slide	Voice-over narration	In-game condition
1		Lily's long life finally came to a close in the Mojave Wasteland. As the life faded from her, her last thoughts were of her grandchildren. Play sound FNVending LilyBowen 17 1.ogg	Lily dies.
2		Encouraged by the Courier to take her medication regularly, Lily's mind eventually attained a semblance of clarity. Her memories dulled by the pills, she cast aside the recording of her grandchildren, no longer remembering its significance. Play sound FNVending LilyBowen 17 2.ogg	Encourage Lily to take her medication regularly in her unmarked quest, Lily and Leo.
3		Lily continued to take her medicine at half-doses, and although she remembered her grandchildren, her mind remained muddled and confused. Eventually, she parted ways with the Courier and traveled west, seeking the remnants of her past. Play sound FNVending LilyBowen 17 3.ogg	Encourage Lily to continue taking her medicine at half-doses in her unmarked quest, Lily and Leo; or do not complete the quest.
4		Encouraged by the Courier to stop taking her medication altogether, Lily's instabilities grew worse with each passing day. Eventually she became little more than a ravening beast, the kindly old grandmother subsumed beneath the rage. Play sound FNVending LilyBowen 17 4.ogg	Encourage Lily to stop taking her medication altogether.

InventoryEdit

Additionally, Lily has a third companion weapon, a power fist variant called Lily's gauntlet. This weapon is not initially in Lily's inventory, but may be given to her as part of a script which ensures all companions retain their special weapons.

Lily is limited in the weapons she can use, and can only theoretically equip weapons from the following list.
Note: Lily's default assault carbine does so much base DPS that she will never equip certain weapons in practice; these weapons are crossed out.

Due to the above limitations, there are only two holdout weapons which Lily is capable of using: frag grenades and plasma grenades. This makes Lily a less-than-ideal companion when performing quests which take place in "weapon-free" areas like the Strip's casinos.

NotesEdit

• When panicked she will repeat a mantra to calm herself down.^[36][37]
• Her husband used to make a particularly strong moonshine, of which she partook from time to time.^[2]
• If you enter with Lily inside the cafeteria of Vault 3, she will comment about herself when she was a small girl and she will remember her first kiss. This will also occur upon entering Vault 11, Vault 19 and Vault 22.
• As a nightkin, Lily is also significantly faster than the player character. It is not uncommon for her to charge ahead to engage a target, which can be problematic when dealing with creatures like deathclaws.
• When Lily is a companion, if she is reduced to one half of her hit points, she will suffer a "psychotic break" and will be in aggressive mode until it fades. The player character is unable to give Lily commands or interact with her until this break subsides.
• While Lily is not a companion, cazadores may attack Jacobstown and kill her.
• If the player character asks her to be aggressive she will comment saying, "That's exactly what Leo told me to do!"
• During the quest Beyond the Beef, Mortimer will reject a suggestion to use her as a replacement for Ted Gunderson, as she is non-human. The same applies for Raul Tejada.
• Lily is considerably helpful for a melee weapons character.
• When you go to Novac with Lily, she asks if you want to ride Dinky the dinosaur.
• When you go to the tribal village with Lily, she will ask "Oh Dear, did I do all of this?"
• When enemies are identified, Lily will frequently state "Get behind Grandma" and then place herself between the player character and the enemies. This can prove frustrating when trying to use a ranged weapon to dispatch enemies.
• When crouched, Lily enters her own sneak mode, where she activates a permanent stealth boy, until the player character stops sneaking. When in this mode, it is hard to see Lily in front of the player character, or between the player character and an opponent, and the player character can frequently shoot her accidentally, because of her tendency to stand between the Courier and their enemies. This can sometimes be countered by telling her to "back up" in regards to the Courier.
• Lily is noticeably shorter than other nightkin, such as Keene.

	The following is based on developer test content cut from Fallout: New Vegas and has not been confirmed by canon sources.

• In the GECK editor, there is a character model for Lily before she was made into a super mutant, as well as models for her grandchildren, Becky Bowen and Jimmy Bowen.

	End of information based on developer test content cut from Fallout: New Vegas.

• The super mutants at Jacobstown may comment on Lily, in which they whisper to the player character: "Better watch out. Lily's been babbling about her grandkids again."

Notable quotesEdit

• "What's the matter, dearie? Afraid grandma will embarrass you in front of your little friends?"
  

  

  Play sound
  FNV Lily WhatsTheMatterDearie.ogg

  
• "Grandma's got a present for you!"
  

  

  Play sound
  FNV Lily PresentForYou.ogg

  
• "Hush, Leo, it's medicine time now!"
  

  

  Play sound
  FNV Lily MedicineTimeNow.ogg

  
• "Didn't your mother ever tell you it's polite to help an old lady carry her bags?"
  

  

  Play sound
  FNV Lily MotherEverTellYou.ogg

  

AppearancesEdit

Lily Bowen appears only in Fallout: New Vegas.

Behind the scenesEdit

Lily Bowen was written by Travis Stout.

BugsEdit

• PC Playstation 3 Xbox 360 Lily's Vertibird sword and assault carbine may occasionally clip into one another, causing whichever one she's using to have the other hanging from it. The sword may also be replaced entirely by the gun. She will not shoot with the gun, however; she will continue to use it as a melee weapon. Opening her companion wheel and forcing her to switch between melee and ranged attacks a couple times will fix this glitch. ^[verified]
• PC Playstation 3 Xbox 360 Sometimes when going into stealth mode, Lily will say her normal line, "Oh, don't you worry about me dearie, your grandma knows how to stay quiet," but will repeat it every 20–30 seconds. ^[verified]
• Xbox 360 Even before recruiting, if you talk to Lily, she will comment on things like Lucky 38 or Benny being killed. ^[verified]
• Xbox 360 After killing the mercenaries that are at Jacobstown she may randomly attack the player then fall unconscious. ^[verified]
• PC Playstation 3 Xbox 360 On rare occasions, Lily may die before she is recruited as a companion in a non-hardcore game. ^[verified]
• PC Sometimes, when Lily is equipped with Oh, Baby! she will randomly lose the weapon. It will no longer be in her hands or in her inventory, where it would normally go if it were to break from use. ^[verified]
• PC If Lily is asked to use ranged weapons, she may not take out her assault carbine, and instead stay with her vertibird sword, or bumper sword if it is in her inventory. Even if switched back to melee, she will still stand near the courier, trying to use a melee weapon as a ranged weapon. This can be fixed by switching her back to ranged, then back to melee again; however, there is not a fix to make her use her Assault Carbine, because the next time you switch her to ranged, the bug occurs again. ^[verified]
• Xbox 360 If the player dismisses Lily to the Lucky 38 penthouse, she wil not always make it there, but instead found in the Casino section, able to recruit again and dismiss to the penthouse without issues. ^[verified]
• PC Xbox 360 When the player character is sneaking, Lily may not enter sneak mode along with the player, and instead will walk along as if the player was not sneaking. ^[verified]
• PC Xbox 360 If the player dismisses Lily while they are sneaking, Lily will remain in stealth mode until recruited again.^[verified]
• PC Xbox 360 Lily may disappear on the way to Jacobstown during Guess Who I Saw Today, if she is sent to the Lucky 38 and then asked to take Doctor Henry's test for the Stealth Boy Mark II without re-hiring her. However, it will still be possible to complete the mission regardless of whether or not she's actually there, though she may not be hirable again unless somehow found. ^[verified]
  • To fix this, either access the dismissal terminal and dismiss all companions, or reload a previous save. The former should bring Lily back to the Lucky 38's presidential suite.

GalleryEdit

Lily before becoming a nightkin as she appears in the G.E.C.K.

Lily between her bighorners

Add an image to this gallery

ReferencesEdit

v·d·e Companions in Fallout: New Vegas Base Game Permanent Arcade Gannon · Craig Boone · ED-E · Lily Bowen · Rose of Sharon Cassidy · Raul Tejada · Rex · Veronica Santangelo · Ulysses Temporary Bodyguard · Cannibal Johnson · Deputy Beagle · Joana · Logan · NCR Ranger · NCR trooper · Neil · Orris · Private Halford · Rhonda · Securitron Mk II · Sunny Smiles · Ted Gunderson · Victor · PYTHON Add-ons Dead Money Dog and God · Christine · Dean Domino Honest Hearts Follows-Chalk · Waking Cloud · Joshua Graham Old World Blues Roxie Lonesome Road ED-E