Birth Name: Shih Wu-Cheng (family name) Daiyu (given name)
Goes By: Dali Wu-Cheng
Allegiance: Vault 81 (estranged)
Occupation (former): Vault Radio Host, Scavenger
Occupation (current): Vault Exile, Scavenger, Traveling Radio Host
Race:
100% unmutated Human!
Sex:
Trans*, MtF
Age:
34
Companion(s):
Cvrie (Miss Nanny)
Inventory:
Traveling radio equipment
Pre-war clothes & Jewelry
Silenced 10mm pistol
Appearance:
When out and about, away from home and outside of the Vault, Dali wears expensive pre-war dresses, jewelry, and light leather protective gear. The dresses typically resembling oriental evening gowns instead of the more common summer dresses of the wasteland elite.
Dali, at home in vault 81, wears a standard Vault jumpsuit, with some slight modifications. On her feet, she wears comfortable matching slippers, as opposed to those garish boots, the cuffs are rolled up to allow (gasp) some of her ankles to be shown. Her sleeves are rolled up high on her arms, bunching up around her shoulders. She keeps her front zipper rolled down just far enough to give the illusion of a sizable bust, without exposing the falsity of that reality.
She maintains a near constantly perfected appearance, following several hair and make-up routines, as well as keeping her nails polished and painted and the few accessories and jewelry matching. Due to scarcity of such non-essential beauty products in the vault, she has learned to improvise with which products she uses, and experiments in order to maintain her consistent image. Some would liken it to witchcraft.
Lastly, as someone raised against the unquestioning nature of typical Vault citizens. Dali was skeptic of the Pipboy 3000, and it's ability to potential give the Overseer to view all her vital at any given time. So for her 10th birthday, she opted to receive a wrist-mounted Pipboy 2000, with no biolink.
Personality:
Dali is just as much a progressive thinker as her parents. Already having a Chinese heritage that would raise eyebrows, her subversive attitudes regarding authority, capitalism, communism, and her philosophical waxing nature in general have almost certainly placed her on the Overseer's watch-list. She is smart enough to know that the radio is not the place to broadcast these views, unless she'd like to be assigned to the trash crew quicker than she could check the time on her 2000. Although, she is known to occasionally let her bias slip when delivering the news or current events.
Generally, she is slow to anger, and carries herself with a gentle, sophisticated demeanor that speaks of what she thinks without filter when she is around those she is comfortable with. She is someone who might talk for an hour about those subjects others may find 'pretentious' or 'absurd' with ease. Being completely comfortable with contemplating the asinine and appreciating outer beauty. Although she doesn't like to admit it, she is vain, and shows flares of materialism and occasional hypocrisy within her own philosophical and anti-authoritarian views, as well as an extreme sensitivity to her gender identity.
Biography:
Dali's life was about as exciting as as you could expect of someone with dysphoria, raised by a couple of new-age retro-hippies, trapped underground with a bunch of people who had a general cultural disgust towards all things Chinese. To avoid the glares of her peers, and more often than not, her peers' parents, Dali mostly avoided those her age. For a long time, she was that quiet Chink boy sitting in the corner. Her only friends growing up were her parents, her teacher (who was also a self-proclaimed 'free-thinker' and friend of her parents') and the people on the radio, who sang of the loneliness she felt was reality at times.
Her mother, a musician, instilled in a young Dali the value of music and her father, a painter, the value of art. By the age of 15, she was something of an accomplished mixed medium artist, and capable of expressing her own ideas and perspectives eloquently to groups of her parents' friends.
Of course, at 16, she completely flunked the G.O.A.T.
But her in with the teacher landed her a position as an intern for the Vault P.A. and Radio system, and as the years passed, she began to dedicate herself to her work and examining her own life in adulthood. By 17, after years of being uncomfortable and presenting as overtly feminine already, Dali begun her transition. Being generally unnoticed by the Vault proper already up to this point, her transition was relatively painless.
The Overseer wouldn't allow a change to her birth certificate, but she started going by the name Dali, in a sort of tribute to the surrealist artist. Her parents' circle of friends, holding a few chemists and doctors were able to synthesize a few bootleg hormones under the Overseer's nose and conduct a few 'back alley' surgeries quid pro quo-- the quality of which would never match full pre-war cosmetic capabilities. But from then on, she felt more complete as a person-- even more so after becoming the official host of the Vault Radio a few years later.
Years passed, and Dali's life was relatively calm-- she of course, was always a bit of a nuisance for the more conservative Overseer-- but the pair settled into something of a 'friendly rival' relationship. With Dali playing unauthorized music she had found on a scavenging trip in the wastes or airing a story that made the Vault Leadership look bad, being punished, and eventually going right back to it.
This changed when the Sole Survivor entered the scene.
Rising tensions in the Wasteland caused Vault 81 to become more secluded than before. Factions grew within the Vault, with some wanting to close their doors to even traders, and other wanting to actively seek protection from the Brotherhood, the Institute , or even the Railroad. Violence escalated in areas around the Vault, and although the Sole Survivor never stepped foot in the Vault, in his mad quest to find his son, the question was always there. "Would he kill us all?" Overseer McNamara and Dali's relationship became strained. Dali was a rabble rousing journalist, causing people to ask unnecessary questions-- McNamara was an ineffective leader who couldn't even procure basic resources for her citizens--
The breaking point, coming around the time of the great battle of the factions, was the illness of Austin Engill. The idea of a mole rat infestation was enough to get some people seriously rebelling, while McNamara failed to find the root cause of the illness of the child, Dali dug around, reading documents on the Overseer's terminal, coming to the conclusion that Vault 81 was bigger than anyone had known. Broadcasting her truths across the Vault, without a hero to step up for the life of the child, Dali herself was able to organize a group to go address the mole rat problem and find a cure--
This truth practically drove the Vault to civil war. Dali, and many in her party, contracted the molerat disease that was largely benign to adults, to save the life of the boy. Also uncovering a Miss Nanny unit by the name of Cvrie, she took something of a liking to the scavenging radio host, and the two have been companions since-- with Cvrie synthesizing purer hormones for Dali, and Dali bringing Cvrie along in her expeditions for more music.
At this point, The Overseer wanted people gone-- but couldn't simply have a hero such as Dali removed from the Vault forcefully, people wouldn't allow it-- the woman had become a hero, saved the life of a boy, and uncovered an entire new living space for the Vault residents. So, when the call to send people to not only prevent the Brotherhood from returning, but also to ensure a steady supply of fusion cores-- a resource the Vault needed-- it become obvious what she needed to do.
Nominate the Vault's hero and her robotic doctor for the expedition.
Skills:
- Speech-- As someone who needs to speak for her job, Dali has developed this skill nicely, if oddly. Despite her radio persona, however, she actually isn't very good at addressing people face to face, and will appear outright shy to those who don't already intimately know her. But she has a gift for oration, and could move a crowd if given the opportunity. On another level of speech, she is a polyglot, speaking English, Chinese, and Spanish.
"A friendly underground community, where the light is simulated, giant metal gears block out deadly radiation, and we lay awake in bed as the Overseer listens to us sleep.
"Welcome to the Vault."
- Barter-- The only instance in which one on one interaction seems to come naturally to her. She almost views barter as less of a conversation, and more like a game or dance. Two parties trying to get inside the other's head and maximize what they get out of the encounter. Dali can read people in these situations, which helps her ability to find good deals for both parties.
"Constantly looking to buy make-up and new vinyls will certainly help you with that."
- Gambling-- She believes this is what helps her in gambling. Despite the usual stereotype of the Chinese, Dali does not have a head for numbers, her parents didn't have heads for numbers, her grand-parents were bad at numbers-- one of her ancestors was so bad at numbers she became a pirate! So while she'll never be an expert at counting cards, Dali does come from a family of people-readers, and encounters where someone may have even a slight tell give her a huge edge when it comes to gambling.
"Playing cards with the girls from cremation make-up and records is infinitely less costly than buying it, after all...I believe. I don't know the exact math, but I definitely save caps."
- Aesthetics-- Dali has a knack for making things look... sound... be pretty! Be it in the art of make-up and figuring out what can and can't be used to emphasize certain features of one's face, improving the feng shui of a room or an outfit, or the right combination of songs to improve the mood of the vault.
"Qi rides our recycled air and scatters, but is retained when encountering the vault's recycled water."
"風水."
- DJing-- This relates to her work and her '6th sense' of what just... works, aesthetically. Years of practice, listening and a natural musical ear have melded her into a very good DJ.
"I don't want to brag, but my spinning has netted me a few... fans."
- Acrobatics-- Dali's parent made her take up gymnastics as a hobby when she was still a small child. She hasn't kept up with it as her job and life have demanded more and more of her, but she still possesses above average agility, which is further boosted by her naturally small frame.
"I was never one afraid to dodge the sensitive issues."
Name_
Curie/Cvrie (Contagions Vulnerability Robotic Infirmary Engineer
Allegiance (former or current)_
Vault 81 (former)
The greater good, through SCIENCE! (current)
Shih Wu-Cheng Daiyu "Dali" (current)
Race_
Modified Miss Nanny
Sex_
Modified female programming (Miss Nanny)
Age_
Well over 200 years
Inventory_
Bowler Hat
Built in armaments and utilities (such as the condensation collector)
Many of Miss Wu-Cheng's vital supplies (hygienic, cosmetic, medical and hormonal synthesizers, changes of garments, sleeping bags, etc.)
Backstory_
fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Curie
