Doctor Borous

Doctor Borous is a scientist living in Big MT in 2281.

Background
Before the War, the boy who would become Borous was a child prodigy who had been bullied in American High by a classmate named Richie Marcus. He also had an unrequited crush on another student, Betsy Bright, who had turned him down for Richie and picked on him as well. His only friend was his dog, Gabe.

It is unknown if he was inherently twisted or if he became malicious as a result of those experiences at school. What is known is that once he became a part of Big MT's staff as head of the X-8 cyberdog project, he began cruelly experimenting on Gabe, feeding him various drugs. Other animals also fell prey to his vicious nature, but only Gabe remained faithful and loyal, answering malice and cruelty with love and attachment. Sometime before the War, Gabe was eventually transformed into a special unique model of cyberdog. However, due to errors in programming, he was sealed in an unfinished section of X-8's test areas, as a "precaution."

After the War, together with the rest of the Big MT "Think Tank" executives, the doctor became a think tank to continue his work at Big MT. However, when he started to show symptoms of the insanity that began to consume his comrades, Doctor Mobius, the sole sane researcher, wiped his pre-War memories, hacked his data banks and gave him the name "Borous", all to keep him and his colleagues forever trapped in the Big MT, so that they can never unleash the horrors of the crater on the unsuspecting world.

Doctor Borous is the "Head of Animalogy, Beastology, and DNA-Scrambling technology" at the Big MT and created both the night stalkers and cazadores. He also claims to be responsible for creating the Radar Fence around the crater, although Mobius may have done it.

Quests

 * Old World Blues: If Klein can't be convinced otherwise, Borous, along with 2 other members of the Think Tank, are needed to convince Klein to give up trying to escape the Big MT.
 * Picking Your Brains: After completing Welcome to the Big Empty, the player needs to talk to Borous and the rest of the think tanks to complete this quest.
 * Welcome to the Big Empty: The player has to talk to Borous as with the rest of the Think tank to complete the quest.
 * A Brain's Best Friend: After Gabe's bowl is returned to him, he feels an overwhelming sense of remorse and regret towards how he treated his dog, as Gabe was a loyal companion. This feeling is quickly repressed however and Borous' personality remains unchanged on the surface.

Effects of player actions
If the player has shown Borous Gabe's bowl before completing Old World Blues, and the player doesn't have a 100 in Science or 85 in Medicine to convince Dr. Klein, Borous will side with the player in convincing Klein to back down.

Other interactions
Once a day, the player can ask Borous what animals he's experimented on today and he'll give the player some of their parts, 3 cazador poison glands and nightstalker blood jars.

Notable quotes

 * "Attention students! This is the prerecorded voice of your prerecorded principal, Doctor-Principal Borous!"
 * "FIRST WAS THE HEART! Uh - wait... I mean SECOND WAS THE HEART! Brain was first. THIRD WAS THE SPINE!"
 * "A GUN! Are you MAD?! We can't give it a GUN! GUNS kill."
 * " Fwooooooosh! That... is the sound of FLUSHING."
 * "Down at the end of the hall is BALL storage. For jocks who like BALLS, like RICHIE MARCUS. Do you hear me, Betsy? RICHIE likes BALLS."

Appearances
Borous only appears in the Fallout: New Vegas add-on Old World Blues.

Behind the scenes

 * The name Borous is a reference to the name of the ancient symbol Ouroboros, which is typically depicted as a snake eating its own tail - another looping and infinite figure which follows the naming convention of the other members of the Think Tank. The mis-spelling of "Boros" was an error on Mobius' part.
 * Doctor Borous' speech often parodies that of a stereotypical 1950's science-fiction movie narrator.