A legacy member of the Brotherhood, Melissa was born to veteran members of the Mojave chapter, with her father being a scribe and her mother a paladin. After their deaths at HELIOS One during the attack by the New California Republic during Operation: Sunburst, the young Melissa was raised by the surviving chapter members.[2] During her educational development, while Watkins was grappling with indecision over whether to become a scribe or paladin like her parents,[3] she was hand-picked by Head Scribe Lars Taggart to become his assistant as an apprentice;[4] according to Senior Scribe Linda Schuler, however, Watkins' reassignment to the head scribe's service was done not so much for her intelligence as it was for her appearance, as Taggart was known to be lecherous.[5]
Sometime prior to 2281, Watkins convinced one of the chapter initiates, Stanton to sneak out of the bunker during the lockdown, lying about it being a "training exercise" and getting him to requisition a laser pistol from Knight Torres' armory stock to go hunting for bark scorpions at the nearby scorpion gulch. Initial success quickly gave way to danger once the larger, stronger radscorpions began swarming, forcing the two to retreat and causing Stanton to lose his pistol in the process; while the initiate regrets ever following Watkins' lead, the apprentice herself is completely remorseless and considered it one of the few times she has had fun in the Brotherhood.[6][7]
Pistol Packing: The Courier can talk to her to learn about what happened at the scorpion gulch where the laser pistol was dropped.
Other interactions[]
If Veronica is an active companion and brought into the VR chamber in the bunker with Watkins nearby, she will make a snide comment to the apprentice about her lazy eye. Watkins will have a unique response depending on whether Veronica is wearing her default scribe robes[8] or a different piece of armor/clothing,[9] both intended to taunt the journeyman scribe about her hair.
On subsequent visits to the VR chamber, Veronica will angrily mutter "Watkins," and she responds with "Veronica". The script notes state that Watkins dislikes Veronica intensely. [10]
When speaking to her directly, her voice sounds more like a young girl; when she speaks outside of direct dialogue, it changes to sound like an adult woman.
Paladin Ramos can say that he knew of Stanton and Watkins' outing at the scorpion gulch, watching them on monitors, but noted Watkins to be "a hell of a shot" when watching them surrounded by scorpions.[11]
According to a cut terminal entry, the virtual reality Enclave attack simulation Watkins was placed in had its settings modified to "Baby" offensive settings and "Pansy" defensive settings, with an overall easy difficulty,[12] as compared to the default attack simulation, which placed both settings at "Strong" with a "Hard" overall difficulty.[13]
↑Watkins' first name is only mentioned in the G.E.C.K. editor; her Editor ID is "MelissaWatkins".
↑The Courier: "Tell me about yourself." Melissa Watkins: "Well, like just about everyone else here, I grew up in the Brotherhood. My father was a Scribe and my mother a Paladin." The Courier: "Are you parents here somewhere?" Melissa Watkins: "They both died at HELIOS One. The others were always like a family to me before that, but afterward they became my family in truth." (Melissa Watkins' dialogue)
↑The Courier: "So who do you take after more? Your mother or your father?" Melissa Watkins: "I don't know, I'm a little like both of them I guess. If I had to choose, I really don't know which I'd pick. That's a question I've been asked a lot lately, since it's something I have to decide for myself soon." The Courier: "What do you mean decide for yourself?" Melissa Watkins: "I'm currently an Apprentice in the Brotherhood, and recently became eligible for Journeyman status. But first, I have to decide which Order I want to join - the Knights or the Scribes." (Melissa Watkins' dialogue)
↑The Courier: "Shouldn't you be in school or something?" Melissa Watkins: "Head Scribe Taggart quickly realized my extraordinary talent when I took the mandatory VR combat testing. Soon after that, he requested that I get transferred to VR specialist training, serving as his assistant. I miss hanging out with the other students all the time, but at least I get to skip all those boring lectures." (Melissa Watkins' dialogue)
↑The Courier: "Was Initiate Watkins the 'pet' you were referring to earlier?" Linda Schuler: "She's cute, isn't she? Like a puppy, almost. Unfortunately, our Head Scribe's intentions toward her aren't quite so innocent." (Linda Schuler's dialogue)
↑The Courier: "You were the last one to check out the missing laser pistol, right?" Stanton: "Oh man, I told Watkins this wasn't going to work. Look, Watkins and I snuck out one day. She said it'd be a training exercise. Said she heard from a guy on one of the patrols that there was a gulch just southeast of here with scorpions in it, and that we had to check it out. There were scorpions out there, all right. We started using them for target practice, but before we knew it the damn things were all around us. So we made a run for it, and in all the commotion, I dropped my pistol. Watkins keeps urging me to go back and get it, but that's not gonna happen. You can go outside, though, can't you? You could return the pistol to Torres and clear this whole thing up for me." (Stanton's dialogue)
↑The Courier: "Initiate Stanton told me about your little adventure the other day." Melissa Watkins: "That was so much fun! The wind whipping through our hair, not knowing what was going to jump out at us at any moment. And when those scorpions came out! It was just like the sims! All I had to do was line then up and squeeze the trigger. I doubt I'll be able to get Stanton to go with me again, though. I thought he'd enjoy it as much as I did, but he was just scared the whole time. Don't tell him I told you this, but when those scorpions surrounded us, I'd bet a week's rations he pissed himself!" (Melissa Watkins' dialogue)
↑The Courier: "Did you know Watkins and Stanton snuck out of here a few weeks ago?" Ramos: "Yeah, I knew about it. They're still young, and they weren't going to go very far. I had them on my monitors the whole time. I almost headed out there when they got surrounded by those scorpions, but Watkins is a hell of a shot." (Ramos' dialogue)
