Dedication: To my high school English & Lit teacher, who once said she truly hoped I'd write creatively again some day. I hope you've found some peace, and yes, I'll still carry your book bag up the stairs for you every morning when we meet again.
Disclaimery stuff:
This story is all OC's loosely set in the world of Ubisoft's / Massive Entertainment's / Tom Clancy's The Division. No knowledge of the plot or games is required, I strive to provide context in character thoughts/speech. TL;DR: post manmade-virus-apocalypse. TV Trope: Synthetic Plague.
There's a much less tactical tone shift with the flashbacks, the first of which is at the beginning of the second "chapter" (1.2), so I recommend at least reading 1.1 and 1.2 to get a representative feel for the rest of the story. I have occasionally described it as "post-apocalyptic tactical romance".
I only really borrow the overall setting and one antagonist faction, not interacting with the primary plot of either The Division or The Division 2. Hardcore fans of the games be warned, there isn't any fighting until like 40 pages in. I did have to fudge timelines slightly, in no small part because the games came out three years apart but supposedly only seven months went by in-canon. Mostly a matter of world events / technological progress / product releases vs. world timelines. (Example: There weren't many plug-in hybrid SUVs in 2015.)
All original copyrights etc belong to the appropriate intellectual property owners.
Warning-ish Stuff - Tags / Triggers:
M/F, F/F romances, fluff, implied physical intimacy, nothing explicit. Hand-to-hand (including M/F) and firearm / vehicular combat. A primary character has previously lost a loved one, with associated exposition / flashback scenes to before/when/after it happens - I would count it as "minor character death". This leads to some emotional H/C. Some might consider this TV-14:DLSV, or maybe you'd feel it's TV-MA. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ESRB would probably put it around Mature 17+ (Violence, Language, Suggestive Themes, Alcohol References). Mention of but not detailed description of blood. Brief crude sexual language / references and misogynistic comments, but it ends rather poorly for the perpetrator. Very brief undetailed mention of attempted sexual assault. Again, perpetrator gets his ass beat.
Apologetic Noob Stuff:
Any offense caused to identities, sexualities (including a-), religious beliefs, or veterans is accidental / ignorance. If you have a problem with a bi, pan, or gay protagonist, turn around now. If you're looking / up for that, and you're okay with them having guns, lock n' load, come on in.
TV Tropes likely abound, hopefully some are subverted. If you suspect a character is making a reference to another fandom, you're probably right.
Also, here's a PDF-format character study I put together -- actors who kinda resemble how I envision individual characters:
https://tinyurl.com/solace-taproot-characters (Sorry, I know WattPad doesn't allow copy/paste, so I tried to make it easy to hand type in a browser. Edit: Oh hey cool, an "add external link" button. Hopefully it shows up clickable down below.)
On with the show.
YOU ARE READING
Solace & Taproots
Science FictionOn Black Friday in 2015, a bioterrorist releases a plague in NYC that leads to societal collapse. Months later, a former college student in urban Virginia tries to find her new place and new people at a settlement of survivors rebuilding their lives...
