Project FURROUT 4 (Read-n-Vote)
Project Furrout 4
Okay, this is basically as fan-fiction-y as it gets, I know that. About as cliché as it gets and I doubt I am even in the top-thousands of thinking up this particular idea. However... being a massive Fallout fan and having wanted to work a lot more with the series as a writer, I thought I might as well see what you guys think about it! If it has any future as a small series or idea in general.
So here is what I am proposing: Alternate universe (because of course it is) where the somewhat screwed-up people of the Valt-Tech Corporation along with the scientists and politics that would later become the Enclave thought up yet ANOTHER sick little experiment. That they did these things on a regular basis is wide known for all fans of the franchise; mutating people, exposing people to radiation, psychological nightmare scenarios, political and social studies in the extreme, resource wars and a lot of other things just to test how regular humans would react to it all. So in this universe... let's say that a few guys at VT HQ had the brilliance to bring up a fairly solid question: Wait, can we run any experiments on the people who will survive on the surface? Some of the vaults were meant to be nothing but preservers for clean genepools, humans untouched by radiation and hardship for the Enclave to use as breeding-tools in the distant future. But seeing how they knew that a large section of people would survive the nuclear apocalypse even without being in Vaults, and that those people and their offspring would have to be cleansed sooner or later anyway, WHY NOT get some mad-science-data on them? Why NOT put their miserable lives that are still impossible to preserve cleanly to some use?! So, with the support from the politicians that later became the Enclave, who supported Vault-Tech's experiments since the beginning, a large portion of special containers were distributed through-out America. Containers that VT claimed to be "Radiation Cleaners", hence why they were placed in sources of clean water all over the country... to keep the people happy in the illusion that the waters would NOT be radioactive for long after the bombs fell. Only that the containers actually contained another modified version of the FEV (Forced Evolutionary Virus) and would be released upon a nuclear attack. Set to react and open if the waters around them reached a certain amount of radiation, releasing the virus to feast upon the manipulative energies from the bombs and spread like wild-fire throughout all sources of water in the United States... This idea coming from Fallout 3's original Ending Option, where the player can choose to distribute a modified FEV into the massive Water Purifier that would over time kill everything with mutations or heavy radiation through the waters that everyone in the Wasteland drinks. THIS particular FEV would do just what it says, Forcing Evolution. And due to all who would be infected by it would also suffer greatly from radiation, something that can cause one's genes to act up and be heavily influenced (game logic, people), maybe the outcome would result in both the surviving animals and humans on the surface starting to look a LOT more like each other?
This is starting to sound more like a skin-mod for the game than anything else, I get that, but picture something along these lines: Instead of Ghouls and their feral brethren, maybe Reptilian Anthros? Their kinds ranging in variations depending on where their ancestors sought shelter in the first place. Maybe tribes of Alligator Anthros that mutated to fit better in the sewers and flooded Metro Tunnels that worked as bomb shelters for their parents? Different kinds of varans, like Komodos or Girdled Lizards, for those that roamed the dry wastes for generations and lived of what little prey and water they could find. Maybe breeds of shrunken, almost dwarf-like Geckos that found shelter and homes in the mountains, where their offspring would have to climb around constantly to hunt? Hell, maybe even a breed that did NOT turn out reptilian at all, but instead got attributes of Rats and their capability to eat almost anything, just to survive the maddening starvation within the collapsing ruins of the cities? Other examples could be Canine, Feline and Bovine Anthros. Heck, throw Bear into that as well! Anthros who at first lacked the human intelligence as they were forced to evolve INTO us to better SURVIVE us as we hunted them for easy food. Or maybe simply consuming vast amounts of their rad- and FEV-infested meat caused the mutations in of themselves? Or maybe you guys would like a more vampire-ish approach of genes spreading through bites and blood? Hell, maybe even through breeding between horny maniacs and unsuspecting animals? I am just laying up suggestions since I want feedback on this project, so if you got an idea, go nuts in the comments. More examples could be that whilst regular Super Mutants do exist, the sudden dosage of instable animal DNA in the humans they sought to capture and mutate into more of their own kind, maybe there are Super Mutant Versions of anthros as result? The pressure from having 2 different FEV's raging in one's system under lethal dosage of radiation... maybe the animalistic DNA would be forced to bend under the pressure of the FEV designed to make a target Bigger and Stronger? Warping them into much larger creatures, or maybe even chimeras! Imagine walking around, scavenging for Scrap Metals and Nuca Cola, when a 5-meters tall Chimera Mutant bursts through the remains of a Seven-Eleven! Or maybe it should just be something more massive by nature, like an Elephant, Hippo or Rhino? Again, just hatching ideas.
The Vaults in this universe would contain some of the last pure-blooded humans, outside for any remains of the Enclave, of course. And would thus give great conflict between the regular humans and anthros, as few humans emerging from the vaults would -wish- to mutate into half-animals and "lose their humanity" (maybe some DOES want it!), and the anthros having declared themselves as a separate race (just like the ghouls and Super Mutants does) and doesn't trust the hidden pure-bloods. After all, pure-bloods are the ones who had no hardships growing up and were the ones who designed all of this to happen... but WHICH pure-bloods? What differs the ones saved and nursed by the Enclave's generous tits in a vault from the Enclave themselves? Most of the two are just massive, plump bigots with fat bellies and rifles anyway... slow... smooth... meaty... delicious... right? SO yeah. That is the basis of it all, and I am just curious to see what people would think about this as the foundation for a series of stories. Nothing too grand or trying to be oh-so-original, but regular fan fiction stories based around Furry Species living in the Fallout World. Presenting most with a lore all would recognize and a setting many are familiar with, saving both writers and readers from having to build and understand new worlds. If you have any opinions, suggestions or discussions you wish to share on the subject, please do! As I am working on other projects and commissions at the time and don't have as much time for personal works and uploads, I would gladly have something more active in the comments to still stay in touch with the people of the net =D