The Anatomy of Melancholy

A Fallout fanfiction, chiefly centered in Fallout 4 but incorporating canon from across the franchise, The Anatomy of Melancholy follows the Sole Survivor Alan Carey across the postapocalyptic tapestry of the New England Commonwealth. In 2077, he enters Vault 111 to seek shelter from nuclear fire. In 2287, he emerges damaged by cryogenesis and lost. The work will encompass five 'Instars,' and includes fanon map extrapolation to add data for other New England states, most notably New Hampshire, as 'The Hinter.'

You have been warned: This work in its entirety comes with an EXPLICIT label. Expect the exploration of incredibly heavy themes, including but not limited to acclimating to the onset of disability, grappling with identity and self-agency, sexually and violently graphic experiences, and extensive drug use. This is a horror fic with significant body horror. Each chapter is prefaced with a set of warning labels that for the most part ought to forewarn any difficult topics. (You’re free to suggest any CW’s I may have missed along the way.)

First Instar: Lexington Concordance

Extending him a military contract to facilitate the war effort, the U.S. Army nationalized a Russian chemist as Alan Carey. Carey's martial contributions afforded him a place in Sanctuary Hills's Vault 111, but when the threat of Total Atomic Annihilation™ shepherds the vault into use, he wakes to find he's the only one of its inhabitants who survived the freeze to which none of them consented--if he can even call it surviving. With the end of the world already so far behind in civilization's past, he struggles to find his place again.

Second Instar: By the Waters of the Merrimack

Following the vague dread of one of Mama Murphy's visions, Melancholy makes a trip to Lowell to investigate the fate of the Deenwood Compound: the military base where General Constantine Chase contracted the development and manufacture of Psycho, the potent narcotic which tipped the scales of the Battle of Anchorage so the States could finally drive the Chinese out of Alaska. But upon arriving, every calculation falls together... and apart.

Third Instar: Manchester Impasse

In pursuit of medical provisions, Melancholy pushes North into the Hinter, to Nashua, NH. Conditions sweep into a perfect storm of psychosis and local tensions, and only his chem-sutured partnership with Sticks can push either of them through the worst cabin fever of their lives.