Veronica

"Thanks for taking a chance on a naive young girl from California with stars in her eyes and a pneumatic gauntlet on her hand."

- Veronica

Veronica Renata Santangelo (born 2254) is a Brotherhood of Steel scribe found at the 188 Trading Post in 2281.

Background
"With regret comes a girl... smiling sad, brown robe, name Veronica, half here. Wraps her and her heart up like a pack, in the pack, a key, some say. Forecast: Cloudy, with a chance of friendship."

- The Forecaster

Veronica is a Brotherhood of Steel journeyman scribe who has been indefinitely assigned to the role of "procurement specialist", responsible for venturing out of the Brotherhood bunker to find and acquire resources that the Brotherhood cannot create on its own such as food. Irritated by what she sees as the Brotherhood’s unrealistic and uninformed views of themselves and the world, Veronica is a perpetual outsider caught between her loyalty to the Brotherhood and troubling doubts about the validity of their current course.

Veronica was born and raised in the Brotherhood, her father was a paladin, her mother a scribe. In her youth she fell in love with a woman, who is implied to be Christine Royce, but Father Elijah split them up. Because the Brotherhood was not open to outsiders, many of its members felt that it was their duty to procreate and frowned upon same-sex relationships. Later in dialogue, she laments that both of her parents were killed in the same battle, defending a position whose name and significance she no longer remembers: "Guess it seemed important at the time."

After following the Brotherhood to the Mojave Wasteland from California, Veronica became disillusioned with their goals. The Mojave Chapter's Elder and her personal mentor, Elijah, had changed the direction of the Brotherhood somewhat by dispatching Scribes to recover beneficial technology instead of just weaponry, but after he abandoned the Brotherhood after their defeat at HELIOS One, his successor, Nolan McNamara, upped stakes and holed up in the Hidden Valley bunker, dispatching scouts only to assess the threat posed by the NCR. She felt that McNamara was too much of an isolationist, and by hiding away and hoarding technology instead of using it to win favor with the people of the Wasteland and attract new recruits, he was just going to "wait in a hole for everyone else to die".

Veronica felt that if the Brotherhood was to survive, things were going to have to change. She began to speak up about her beliefs, questioning the direction the Brotherhood was taking. In order to keep her out of the Brotherhood's hair and to stop her dissent from spreading, the Head Scribe sent her on longer and longer excursions out into the wasteland, allegedly to collect resources. It is on such an excursion that her fateful meeting with the Courier occurs.

Quests

 * Beyond the Beef: The player can offer Veronica to Mortimer as a substitute for Ted Gunderson for the banquet.
 * I Could Make You Care: Veronica will ask the player to take her to Hidden Valley, where she will talk to the Elder about the Brotherhood's collapse, and how it will need to grow and change to stay alive. The player is then asked by Veronica to find some technology to convince the Elder.
 * If Veronica is convinced to leave, the player will have to go to the Follower's outpost and talk to Alvarez in getting her to join the Followers of the Apocalypse, but the doctor who decides who joins the Followers of the Apocalypse is out for the day and the player will then have to wait a day. After waiting a day, a few rogue Paladins have destroyed the outpost, killing everyone. She then blames herself for what happens. Afterward, she earns the Causeless Rebel perk, giving her an increase of attack rate by 30%.
 * If she decides to stay, the quest is completed and she will gain the Bonds of Steel perk, giving her +4 DT.
 * You Make Me Feel Like a Woman: Veronica has a long-held dream of wearing a dress. Giving her Formal Wear will make her very happy, and in return she will teach the player the special unarmed move, Scribe Counter. This can be completed by adding White Glove Society attire or Formal Wear to her inventory. The attire can be removed from her inventory without penalty after the courier obtains the Scribe Counter.

Effects of player actions

 * If you have destroyed the Brotherhood Bunker in Hidden Valley before recruiting her, she will come up to you and ask you what you know about the Brotherhood at 188 trading post. If you tell her what you did, she will say "Well in that case: This is for them." and attack the player.
 * Veronica will leave you if your reputation with the Brotherhood of Steel drops to Vilified. However, it seems that with a reputation even as low as Merciful Thug, she will continue to happily accompany you on your travels. It should be noted that she will remain a companion upon destruction of the Hidden Valley bunker, although she warns it is your last chance, similar to what happens with Craig Boone if you work too closely with the Legion, or Rose of Sharon Cassidy if you gain negative Karma while she is your companion.
 * Veronica will enable the player to access Hidden Valley on much friendlier terms without being stripped of gear, having an Explosive collar put on and having to get rid of Ranger Dobson from one of the bunkers. Without her, the player will have everything mentioned before done to them and will have to get rid of Dobson from Hidden Valley to prove that the player is trustworthy.

Dead Money
After completion of Dead Money, the player can retrieve Elijah's holomessage from his console in the Abandoned Brotherhood of Steel Bunker and give it to Veronica, but only after exhausting all of Veronica's dialogue options regarding Father Elijah. In the same conversation, the player can choose to keep the holotape's knowledge for themselves, gaining the Elijah's Ramblings perk. If you choose to give Veronica the message, she will gain the Elijah's Last Words perk.

Notable quotes

 * "Great! Thanks. Thank you. I will encourage people to name their non-ugly children after you. Seriously."
 * "Sorry about that. Just because I love them doesn't mean some of them aren't assholes."
 * "Ooh! Got something good for me? *gasp* Is it a dress ?!"
 * "You're making me carry the heavy stuff, aren't you?
 * "It's a free wasteland."
 * "Let's go make trouble."

Appearances
Veronica Santangelo appears only in Fallout: New Vegas.

Behind the scenes
Veronica Santangelo's script was written by Eric Fenstermaker.

Bugs

 * If you equip Brotherhood of Steel power armor inside Hidden Valley while Veronica is a follower, even if you are a "member" of the Brotherhood, she will react as if you have killed Brotherhood members, then repeatedly keep talking to you and saying "What?", every 3–8 seconds. In the PC version, turning off your console or restarting solves the problem.
 * After giving Veronica Formal Wear or White Glove Society Attire, she may thank you and say she'll teach you an unarmed move, and the screen will fade out and in, but the perk won't be added. According to the GECK, the object that does the timing for the fade out/in when she teaches the player the move is shared with the nine triggers used to start I Could Make You Care. The script for giving the move doesn't fully reset the object, so if any of the nine triggers have activated, she will no longer be able to give the perk.
 * At Hidden Valley, she may glitch and stay at the intercom and the door to the bunker will become locked. In the PC version, the following commands can be used to fix this glitch: then.
 * After completing I Could Make You Care, she may stop following, but can still be interacted with. The compass will have an extra quest arrow pointing at Gibson's Shack even though the quest has been completed and the map won't have a marker on the location. She won't follow the player except for through certain loading doorways, upon which she will immediately initiate direct conversation. She won't move from this spot, or attack any enemies. Even upon removing her as a companion and returning to the 188 trading post and re-enlisting her, she will still not move. This possibly has to do with the ending fight of her quest. You can also make her appear in Gibson's Shack if you use the terminal to download the research notes.
 * Going to Gibson's Shack, Veronica will instantly appear when you enter. Use the computer and download the notes again. Walk outside and talk to her in normal dialog, tell her again what tech you will go for, and end the conversation. This seems to reset her and she will start to follow you as normal.
 * PC players can download and install this mod on New Vegas Nexus and consume the aid item it provides, then save the game, then disable the mod to fix this bug after it has occurred.
 * When Veronica is your companion, it is possible that she will not respond to any of the 'triggers' for the quest I Could Make You Care. It would seem that not replacing her with mods and not giving her any items helps prevent this bug (tested twice on PC).
 * When you try to give Veronica a dress, she will sometimes act like you haven't given her the dress. A possible way to fix the bug is to have Veronica with you when you sit down and stand up from any chair. You may need to access her inventory after you stand up. She will then act like you have just given her the dress and will teach you the Scribe Counter unarmed move, even if you have already taken the dress out of her inventory earlier.
 * If you don't ask her to join during your first conversation with her, it is possible that the dialogue option for her to join never appears after that.
 * Sometimes if you give Veronica weapons, she "loses" them when you leave a casino. If you look into her inventory, she will have no weapons.
 * Veronica can occasionally become stuck at the Silver Rush in front of the gun supply after she activates one of the triggers for her quest.
 * When exploring the underwater levels of Vault 11, Veronica may get stuck and will permanently disappear for the rest of the game. To avoid this, tell Veronica to wait before exploring the underwater levels.
 * Sometimes, taking Veronica into the REPCONN Test Site offices level during the Come Fly With Me quest will cause Jason Bright to appear as hostile upon entry, and cause her to attack him without provocation. Telling her to wait outside the office entrance prevents this.
 * When paying Dawes the caps to enter the NCR Correctional Facility, she will randomly attack Dawes when you get in, but the Powder Gangers will not be hostile.
 * Sometimes, she will become trapped behind the first door (with a Very Hard lock) in Hidden Valley, rendering her unusable until the door can be locked. It will also prevent you for initiating dialogue with her, so you cannot use her to unlock the door.
 * When the player buy Euclid's C-Finder from Max at Freeside while with Veronica, it might automatically activate the quest I Could Make You Care but leave it in a glitched state where it can't be completed.
 * When initiating conversation via the companion wheel, Veronica will have two mouths; a regular mouth that remains stationary and a "ghost" mouth that will speak over the stationary mouth, while both are still visible.
 * While in hardcore mode, Veronica can be of some use. A glitch can occur where she can carry infinite pounds of weight. This has worked with lighter objects like missiles or Nuka-Cola's when placed one at a time, but it doesn't seem to work if she is already over-encumbered.
 * Veronica stops using her default power fist and equips a combat knife instead. Neither the power fist nor the combat knife shows up in her inventory, and giving her stronger melee weapons will not force her to switch. When waiting at the Lucky 38, she will walk around with her default power fist, however as soon as you tell her to follow you, she will switch back to the combat knife.
 * After destroying the Brotherhood bunker, Veronica will say how it is your last chance. After this, she will continuously engage conversation with you and you have to dismiss her to the Lucky 38.
 * NOTE: This will sometimes continue even if you revert to a previous save (prior to the destruction of the bunker)
 * After fast traveling to a location, she will occasionally start running away as quick as she can for no reason. To correct this either enter a building (That makes your game load a new area) or fast travel to another location.
 * Sometimes when given a ballistic fist, Veronica will later start using her default pneumatic gauntlet and the ballistic fist will have disappeared from her inventory. At a later time, it is possible to recover the "lost" weapon which has spontaneously swapped to your inventory and become invisible.
 * After giving Veronica her formal wear or White Glove Society dress, you may lose the option to tell her to go to the Lucky 38.
 * Sometimes, when equipping Brotherhood power armor even outside of Hidden Valley, Veronica will become angered and accuse you of fighting the Brotherhood.
 * If you add Lobotomite goggles to Veronica's inventory, she will remove her hood and not put the goggles on at all. She will still wear glasses and other head wear, however.
 * Sometimes, Veronica's equipped weapon will disappear from her inventory when she is dismissed from your party. There is no way to get it back. This can be avoided by taking weapons from her before dismissing her.
 * When giving her an unarmed weapon, the "wrist" part may dissapear, leaving only the part covering the hand visible.

Veronica Santangelo Вероника