Lily (Fallout: New Vegas)

"Grandma's got a present for you!"

- Lily Bowen

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

Background
Born in 2078, Lily lived a simple life in Vault 17 - until the Master's army raided the vault. The 75-year old grandmother was dragged outside, seeing the sun for the first time, and dipped in the vats of Forced Evolutionary Virus, emerging a super mutant. She became one of the Master's elite guards - a nightkin - working sometimes as a spy or an assassin. After the fall of the Cathedral, she and her squad lead 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.

Lily now tends to the bighorners in the mutant community of Jacobstown. Like all nightkin, she struggles with her dangerous schizophrenia brought on by excessive Stealth Boy usage, but is aided by Doctor Henry, who considers her to be a primary subject for medical testing in his personal quest to cure the nightkin of their affliction. Unbeknownst to Henry, Lily only takes her medicine in half-doses as it allows her to remember her grandchildren, a recording of whom she carries around on an old holotape.

Leo
Lily frequently mentions someone named Leo, who seems to be the manifestation of her schizophrenia. She will have conversations and even arguments with "Leo", insinuating that he drives her to do "bad things". Leo's voice is audible to Lily only, but she experiences it as real; "How else could I hear him tell me who to chop?". In contrast to Lily's generally helpful and friendly personality, whenever she begins to exhibit violent tendencies, she will blame Leo.

As it was mentioned by Doctor Henry, Lily is mad but not dangerous. Leo, however, is all about aggressive and sociopathic behavior.

Leo is very fond of melee weapons. He is the one who tells Lily "who to chop," and he will not be satisfied if Lily doesn't engage in melee combat on every opportunity she gets. If ordered to favor ranged combat over melee or to take a passive stance rather than an aggressive one, Lily's reply will be, "Well, if you insist. But Leo is not going to like it much!"

Lily also tells the Courier that Leo was the one who instructed her on making her Vertibird sword using parts scavenged from the Vertibird wreckage in Klamath back in west California.

It is mentioned by Marcus that the nightkin suffer from schizophrenia induced by their prolonged use of Stealth Boys. During dialogue with Lily, the Courier may ask about the location of Leo. Lily replies by saying that he's right there by her side. The Courier may then try to convince Lily that there is no one there (to no avail, of course).

The creation of imaginary friends seems to be common among the nightkin, Davison takes his orders from a dead brahmin skull which he calls Antler, and Tabitha's radio show is nothing but Tabitha talking to herself as she alternates between her own voice and her imitation of the voice of Rhonda.

Lily has to regularly take her medicine in order to "make Leo shut up" and prevent him from taking over control of her body and going on a rampage in the process. If the Courier chooses to make Lily stop taking her medication, she will start to become more effective in combat but also more prone to psychotic rages, and, in the end, she will be little more than a ravening beast. Lily and Leo's condition is similar to the one of Dog and God.

Quests

 * Lily and Leo: At a certain point, if Lily Bowen is the active companion, the player 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.

Endings

 * If encouraged by the Courier to take her medication regularly, Lily's mind eventually attains a semblance of clarity. Her memories dulled by the pills, she casts aside the recording of her grandchildren, no longer remembering its significance.
 * If the Courier agrees with Lily's decision to take her medicine at half-doses, she will continue to do so and although she remembers her grandchildren, her mind remains muddled and confused. Eventually, she parts ways with the Courier and travels west, seeking the remnants of her past.
 * Encouraged by the Courier to stop taking her medication altogether, Lily's instabilities grow worse with each passing day. Eventually she becomes little more than a ravening beast, the kindly old grandmother subsumed beneath the rage.

Inventory
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 will only equip weapons from the following list:

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.

Appearances
Lily Bowen appears only in Fallout: New Vegas.

Bugs

 * 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.
 * 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.
 * Even before recruiting, if you talk to Lily, she will comment on things like Lucky 38 or Benny being killed.
 * After killing the mercenaries that are at Jacobstown she may randomly attack the player then fall unconcious

Behind the scenes
Lily Bowen was written by Travis Stout.

Gallery
Lily Лили