An Introduction...
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Harold was more wood and leaves than a man. His organs were human, and normal; aside from there being multiple hearts through his roots. But his skin, his body; was wood, bark, dirt... He was, to put blatantly, a tree. He could blame his little friend “Bob” for it, too. Explaining all that is what this story's for...

Bob or, as Harold likes to call him sometimes, “Herbert” was a little tree growing off the top of Harold's head. No one really knew how it was possible, all Harold would ever say was that something fell on his head during some sort of expedition.

Being a tree, Bob (Herbert) grew, and finally overwhelmed Harold. Now, a tree-man stood rooted to the ground, with a beautiful grove growing around him. Harold was the source of a little place called “Oasis”. Quite possibly the only green place on Earth.

Harold stood in the same grove for many, many years. He was forced to one place; rooted to the ground by his best, and easily his only, friend. His miserable face stuck from the trunk, while his one eye darted around observing the trees surrounding him. A light red patch of wood with two notches cut into it appeared to be his nose, while his lips turned into bark, and his teeth half-rotted out.

He cleared his throat, and stared at the young man who presented himself in front of Harold. A overly large, green wrist watch was on the man's wrist. Despite staring in the face of a talking tree, the young man's facial expression didn't change. He continued to have a conversation with Harold, deciding whether or not Harold should perish. After some thinking, Harold had one wish left in him. And, oh, was it surprising.

“Listen to my story. It gets old telling Bob, over and over again...”

Harold sounded like a dying man, which was truly an unfortunate thing. Through every sentence, he had to take a long, dreadful sounding breath. And every other word, he had to cough or clear his throat with a wicked hacking sound. With the body of a tree, Harold had the heart and immune system of a dying, extremely old man.

Being already so old, a few group of people have come across him in their travels. These people were overwhelmed by the sight of trees, and a talking tree (Harold). They ultimately went crazy, and started to worship Harold as their God. They closed Oasis off from the outside world, doing their best to cover the trees by the mountain they were already trapped inside of. They called themselves “Treeminders”.

Much against Harold's wishes, all the Treeminders gathered around their false God of the waste to hear his tragic story. As much as they wouldn't have believe him to begin with, thinking he simply came from the ground; they wanted to listen to what their God had to say.

As the branch-wearing, robe-sporting, crazies sat in a half-circle in front of Harold, he violently cleared his throat like he always had before. He took in a breath, and looked around the group of people; including the Lone Wanderer.

“Where should I start? Before or after I met Bob?” Harold met eyes with a young Treeminder, it was Yew. “I'll start from the beginning.” He said, “Back when I lived in that one Vault. Vault, uh, something-nine.”

And so everyone listened; The group of Treeminders, The Lone Wanderer, Herbert... To Harold's story.

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This will be my last fan fic, for Fallout anyway... Maybe this one will actually get some attention?

Anyway. That was just the intro, and it really has nothing to do with the story. If anyone wants more, it'll shift to first-person, through Harold's eyes.

By the way, this is completely based from Harold's "life". So, I'm just making more of a story behind the history. From Vault 29, to being a merchant, to be the expedition of Mariposa... It'll all be there, just with an added touch. The only real thing I'm changing is the fact Harold forgot most of it, otherwise where would the fun be, eh?

So, this is like 7 stories in one, just with the same protagonist.

Just so you know, harold already has an origin, so this is anti-lore. I would advice a disclaimer to keep the lorehounds from flaming.

Edited the OP to make things clear

Umm..no you didnt. It still says something fell on his head during an expedition, and he had a strong past in fallout one and two.

This is what we call flaming Sannes, he's written a story and we're here to give him actual advice instead of saying 'do this, do that!'.

@Comedian: Good story with a good idea, keep up with it, I'd love to read more on where this is going.

Just giving constructive criticism. As far as story goes, it seems like a solid start with good grammar and paragrahing. Could be a good one.

Yes, it's now first-person. "I" is now Harold. Keep in mind, Harold is still human and spent the last thirteen years in a Vault. He's not the Harold we all know and love, yet!
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Chapter One - Leaving Home.

How long has it been? How long has it been since that war? What even happened? Oh, there were so many damned questions a 20-something who spent their life in a metal box could ask. I was... I don't even know. I entered the vault when I was, like, thirteen. Or something. Hard to say. Everyone else in there was around my age, so I'll just keep to that.

It's been roughly ten years. Actually, I think it's been thirteen. I'll just ask Diana, when I get the chance to speak with her. Maybe she can explain what happened before, too. Huh...

Anyway. Vault 29 was a pretty great place. A safe place, at least. Warm food, warm housing, warm... everything. Everyone was my age, or at least close to my age. And to top it off, our caretaker (I guess you could say caretaker?) was pretty much perfect. Her name was Diana, and oh was she beautiful.

The strange thing was that she could appear almost anywhere, anytime, whenever she wanted to. At first, being a young kid, I thought it was magic. But being the 20-something I am now, I realized it was projected image. It was amazing, though, how real it looked.

There was no transparency in her look, like I'd always seen from entertainment holotapes. Even her curly brown hair was thick, and solid. Her lips were red, and big, to be honest? They were perfect. She always had a look of caring on her face. Both eyebrows were always raised, which was weird to me. Her long nose fit perfectly with her pale face.

I'm getting carried away with her. The reason I'm talking about her so much, is that she wanted to see me in private for something special. I had no idea what it was, and I was hopeful that it would involve the vault, and me not being in it. Hey, you never know right?

***

Click. Click. Shwoop.

The door opened, and I stepped into the room that Diana had taken as her own. The room was empty, and nothing special compared to all the others in the Vault. All of a sudden, an image of Diana projected from the wall, taking me by surprise. I jumped back, then realized it was her.

"You, uh, you wanted to see m- me?" I said nervously.

"You've always wanted to leave, and see the world outside. Am I correct, young Harold?" Diana said.

I said, "I've always had a sense of exploration, I'd like to think."

To which she replied, "The population of this Vault is growing. It's growing too large for such a small thing to handle. In the event of such a thing, I am required to pick one test subject. One person to leave the vault before it's time. Harold, I've picked you."

"Why would you pick me?"

"Because, Harold. You're special."

***

I'll spare you the details of the rest of the conversation I had with Diana. To be brief, I was picked to leave the vault, find out if the outside world is able to sustain life, and report back to Diana. Simple, simple, simple. Right?

Oh, I almost forgot. I'm twenty-six. Diana told me.

They didn't prepare me very well, which at the time seemed unfortunate. By "they" I mean the other 20-somethings of Vault 29. And, Diana just let me off with some words of wisdom, and the key to the door.

Many goodbyes later, I stood in front of the big ass Vault door. A little drill-lookin' thing was mounted to the ceiling, and rails led to the giant metal door. Reaching over to the yellow panel, I pressed some buttons and pulled a lever down. The drill thing moved to the door, and went into it, unlocking something. With a sickening screech, the door opened.

The outside world? Oh, trust me, it was worse than it is now. But, it was beautiful in it's own sense. I hadn't seen it for thirteen years, and it went from green and colorful to brown and gray. It took a few minutes for my eyes to adjust to the brighter light, and as soon as I could see properly, I felt an intense pain in my back. Feeling completely paralyzed, I fell to my knees and made some sort of sound. I don't like to admit, but I'm pretty sure I soiled myself.

As my face hit the dirt, I could see a little turret thing spinning back into the ground. It was the Vault's security system, I had guessed. I felt my head get light, and my vision started to blacken.

That was quick.