Marla “Merry” Baines
Nickname: Merry
Setting: Fallout 5
Core Personality: Intensely emotional, affectionate, excitable, controlling, argumentate, generous, exhausting, protective, funny, unpredictable, and impossible to ignore.
Marla “Merry” Baines earned the nickname Merry because when she is happy, everybody around her knows it.
Merry does not simply become happy. She becomes overwhelmingly happy.
Something as small as finding an old pre-War record she loves, hearing good news, eating one of her favorite foods, winning an argument, seeing somebody she likes, discovering an interesting piece of junk, or having one of her plans succeed can completely transform her demeanor.
Her face lights up. Her voice gets louder. She starts moving faster. She talks over people because she has too many thoughts she wants to share at once.
And there is another important part of Merry's personality:
She wants everybody else to feel what she feels.
If Merry is having the greatest day of her life, she cannot understand why everybody else is not celebrating with her.
She might grab her husband and announce:
“Why are you standing there looking miserable? This is wonderful! Smile!”
If somebody refuses to participate, Merry can actually become offended.
To her, emotions are often communal.
If she is happy, we are happy.
If she is angry, we are angry.
If she hates somebody, she expects the people closest to her to understand exactly why that person deserves to be hated.
If she is celebrating, everybody is invited whether they planned on celebrating or not.
Merry's Emotional Intensity
Merry lives at emotional extremes.
Her bipolar disorder can contribute to longer periods of elevated energy, depression, agitation, impulsivity, racing thoughts, confidence, sleeplessness, or emotional instability, but Merry also naturally has an extremely reactive personality.
That distinction is important.
She does not necessarily enter a completely different bipolar episode every time somebody irritates her. Sometimes Merry is simply Merry.
She can be laughing uncontrollably one moment and suddenly snap:
“WHO MOVED MY DAMN COFFEE CUP?!”
Everyone freezes.
Her husband slowly points toward the table.
Merry sees it.
“Oh.”
Five seconds later:
“There it is! I knew I didn't lose it!”
And she is cheerful again.
For people who know her, the challenge is figuring out whether something is:
ordinary Merry,
Merry getting genuinely angry,
Merry becoming emotionally overwhelmed,
or the beginning of something deeper that may last much longer.
Extreme Happiness
Merry's happiness can become infectious.
When she becomes excited about something, she wants to transform the entire room.
She might suddenly decide there needs to be music.
Or food.
Or decorations.
Or a party nobody asked for.
A successful scavenging trip can become a neighborhood celebration.
A repaired generator can become:
“THE LIGHTS ARE BACK! SOMEBODY FIND THE GOOD LIQUOR!”
She remembers people's birthdays.
She gives away things she probably should have kept.
She can become incredibly affectionate.
She hugs people who do not want hugs.
She buys ridiculous gifts.
She makes enormous plans.
And during especially elevated periods, the plans can become increasingly ambitious.
Fix the settlement water pump becomes:
Rebuild the entire water system.
Rebuild the water system becomes:
We should supply water to every settlement in the region.
That becomes:
Why aren't we running this entire town?
Merry's optimism can become enormous.
Sometimes inspiring.
Sometimes dangerous.
Merry's Anger
Merry's anger works much the same way.
She rarely wants to be angry alone.
If somebody cheats her husband, Merry believes her husband should be furious.
If he shrugs and says it is not worth worrying about, that may actually make her angrier.
“You're not MAD?”
“No.”
“THEY STOLE FROM YOU!”
“It was six caps.”
“THAT IS NOT THE POINT!”
The argument is no longer about six caps.
Now it is about dignity.
Respect.
Principle.
Marriage.
And somehow something he did eight years ago.
Merry remembers ammunition from old arguments.
Her husband calls this:
“The Archive.”
He swears she maintains a mental filing cabinet containing every foolish thing he has ever said.
Merry denies this while somehow remembering the exact day, location, weather, and wording of the incident.
Her Husband
Merry's husband has developed one of the greatest survival strategies in the wasteland:
Stay out of Merry's way when Merry is on a mission.
He loves her.
But he has learned when not to interfere.
When Merry starts cleaning angrily, repairing things aggressively, reorganizing the house, confronting somebody, or muttering to herself while opening drawers too hard, he quietly disappears.
Someone might ask:
“Where's your husband?”
Merry answers:
“I don't know.”
Cut to her husband sitting behind the settlement workshop drinking something.
Another settler asks:
“Hiding from Merry?”
He responds:
“Preserving the marriage.”
He frequently complains:
“That woman nags me to death.”
Merry invariably hears him.
“I HEARD THAT!”
He immediately replies:
“See?”
Their relationship should be funny without turning them into people who genuinely hate one another.
He knows her patterns better than almost anybody.
Sometimes he teases her.
Sometimes he ignores her.
Sometimes he knows she needs somebody to challenge her.
And sometimes he understands that arguing will accomplish absolutely nothing.
His greatest skill is knowing which situation he is currently dealing with.
The Baines Marriage
Their marriage is built around an unusual rhythm.
Merry is motion.
Her husband is resistance.
Merry says:
“We should go.”
He says:
“Tomorrow.”
Merry says:
“Now.”
He says:
“Why?”
Merry says:
“Because I said now.”
He sighs.
Ten minutes later they are walking.
But underneath the comedy is real affection.
Merry fiercely protects him.
She can complain about him endlessly, but somebody else criticizing him is another matter entirely.
Merry:
“My husband is the laziest man in the Commonwealth.”
Stranger:
“Yeah, he does seem pretty useless.”
Silence.
Merry slowly turns around.
“Excuse me?”
The stranger immediately realizes he has made a catastrophic mistake.
The rule is simple:
Merry can complain about her husband. You cannot.
The same works in reverse.
Her husband might joke constantly that Merry nags him, but if someone calls her crazy, stupid, or worthless, his entire demeanor changes.
The humor disappears.
“That is my wife you're talking about.”
Their relationship therefore reveals something deeper than the constant arguments.
They understand each other.
Merry Wants Emotional Allies
One of Merry's strongest character traits is her need for emotional agreement.
She does not simply want someone to understand her reasoning.
She wants them to feel it.
If Merry is excited:
“Come on! Aren't you excited?!”
If Merry is furious:
“Tell me you aren't going to stand there and pretend this doesn't bother you!”
If Merry is grieving:
“How can everybody just keep walking around like nothing happened?”
This creates interesting interactions with the player.
The player can validate the emotion without necessarily agreeing with Merry's conclusion.
Or encourage her.
Or challenge her.
Or manipulate her.
Because Merry remembers who stood beside her when she believed something mattered.
Fallout Dialogue Example
Merry:
“You know what your problem is?”
Player:
“I have a feeling you're going to tell me.”
Merry:
“You're miserable.”
Player:
“I'm not miserable.”
Merry:
“You LOOK miserable.”
Husband:
“Don't answer.”
Merry:
“Nobody asked you.”
Husband:
“That's never stopped you.”
Merry:
“What did you say?”
Husband:
“Nothing.”
Merry:
“Exactly.”
A moment later Merry discovers something she has been searching for.
Merry:
“OH MY GOD! I FOUND IT!”
She hugs her husband.
Merry:
“I LOVE THIS MAN!”
Husband:
“Five minutes ago she was threatening to bury me.”
Merry:
“I can do both.”
Why People Call Her “Merry”
The nickname can carry several meanings.
Some people use it affectionately because Merry's happiness genuinely brightens a settlement.
Some use it sarcastically because they have experienced her temper.
Someone might warn the player:
“You met Merry?”
“Yeah.”
“Which Merry?”
“What?”
“You'll understand.”
She becomes one of those characters people tell stories about.
Everyone has a Merry story.
The merchant she chased halfway across town.
The birthday celebration that lasted three days.
The argument over missing Sugar Bombs.
The time she convinced thirty settlers to rebuild a community center overnight because she suddenly decided children needed somewhere to play.
The time she became furious because nobody appreciated the community center enough.
That is Merry.
What Makes Her More Than Comic Relief
Merry should not exist merely as “the crazy wife.”
Her strongest quality should be emotional magnitude.
Everything matters intensely to her.
Love matters.
Betrayal matters.
Family matters.
Promises matter.
Celebrations matter.
Respect matters.
Injustice matters.
That intensity can make her exhausting, but it can also make her extraordinarily courageous.
When everybody else is afraid to act, Merry may be the person shouting:
“Why are we still TALKING about this?”
She will protect people because she feels their suffering almost as if it were her own.
She will celebrate someone else's victory as though she personally won.
She can remember a settler's child saying they wanted a particular toy and spend weeks searching ruins for it.
She can also hold grudges far longer than is healthy.
Her emotional intensity is simultaneously:
her gift, her flaw, her comedy, her tragedy, and her strength.
Central Character Principle
Marla “Merry” Baines should make the player think:
“I would absolutely want Merry on my side. I just wouldn't necessarily want to live with her.”
Her husband already learned that lesson.
Unfortunately for him, he does live with her.
And according to him:
“Raiders haven't killed me. Radiation hasn't killed me. Super mutants haven't killed me. But that woman's nagging is eventually going to finish the job.”
From the other room:
“I HEARD YOU!”
He looks at the player.
“See what I mean?”
.jfif)