Author's note: Greetings to everyone viewing this story!
This is the second work that I'm posting on this site, the first one being the novelization of Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver. Those of you who are already familiar with my first fic might think right now that I'm abandoning it in favor of a new project. Well, let me assure you that I'm NOT. Novelization of SR is still my top-priority work, while this story you're viewing right now is just a side project that I decided to give a shot. I'm not meaning to say I take this fic lightly, but my main focus will always be on the SR-novel (until it's finished, of course). So please, no worries here)
Concerning Abe's Oddysee: the reason I so suddenly decided to novelize it as well was mostly because of the recent rumors about the reboot of the original game. I've watched a couple of videos on YouTube demonstrating the new graphics and gameplay of the upcoming reincarnation, and this instantly made download the original game from the Internet and relive all the childhood memories. It took me only a few days to re-walk the entire game, but the impressions I got were so strong I just couldn't help embodying them in the form of a fanfic XD For now, I can't tell for sure if I'm going to write more or not - that will also depend on the feedback I will (or will not) be getting.
Btw, I would like to address my LoK followers yet again and strongly advise you not to walk past this story only because it has nothing to do with LoK universe. Those of you who remember the time when Soul Reaver just hit the shelves of video game stores might also remember that the Oddworld saga started its way nearly around the same time. Therefore, it might be quite possible you also heard about Oddworld at that time and might even have played it like me. To me, this was a Golden Age of video games when truly interesting plots and well-played characters could very often make up for lack of today's colorful graphics and other technical capabilities. In this respect, both LoK and Oddworld series have always seemed alike to me.
And, as always, I can't help but say: please, read & review! Your feedback is extremely important to me and it makes a great part of my motivation to write. Even criticism is always very welcome.
Thank you for your attention and now, onward with the story,
Prologue
The sky was dark with thick black clouds of smog belched into it from the factory's smokestacks. The sun was trying hard to breach this impenetrable blanket of fog, but the decades of unstoppable pollution produced by the plant's chimneys made sure not a single ray of light could ever pierce through. Therefore, the entire area of this industrial complex was always deeply submerged into darkness, its density never changing at any time of day or night. It also didn't help that every part of this gigantic group of buildings was made exclusively of dark and toneless metal, the red rust on its surface seeming to be the only thing to brighten its tarnish outward.
There was, however, one thing to stand out of this dull panorama. It was the factory's emblem on the main central hub of its building, depicting a colorful animated image of a Glukkon - a member of the very race that proudly owned this colossal plant. Painted in bright, yellow color with ruby red eyes, it was smiling broadly from this logo, almost radiating with friendliness. Anyone to look at this trademark would have probably at once wished to become an employee of this company or, at the very least, to buy its production right away. The name of this impressive enterprise was pictured in red letters right beneath the smiling Glukkon's face and read two words that to someone resembled pleasure and nourishment and to others resembled nothing but pure torment and despair:
'RuptureFarms'
RuptureFarms was the biggest meat processing plant on Oddworld. Every day thousands of barrels with various meat ingredients and delicacies made from the most exotic forms of wildlife on the planet rolled off its assembly line to get to the tables of the consumers. Ironically, the most avid of those consumers were the very members of the Glukkon race. Meat made the biggest part of Glukkon's economy and it also made the biggest part of Glukkon's diet. It was like an endless circular flow of money and food where Glukkons ate what they invested their funds into and invested their funds into what they ate.
Of course, Glukkons were not the only beings on Oddworld to enjoy the assortment of RuptureFarms' gourmet products. Sligs, their loyal henchmen and bodyguards, certainly did not averse to having some of those meat specialties for dinner as well. They were not as particular to what they ate as their rulers were and probably could not even fathom the whole concinnity of the RuptureFarms' production. Yet, being the lower subordinate class they were, Sligs were probably cool as long as they just had their share of scraps from their masters' table. This could have seemed a bit unjust, because without Sligs to ensure the order at Ruprture Farms, Glukkons would have never been able to establish such a prolific industrial empire. But like in every society, where there were leaders, there were also followers, and Oddworld was no exception in this respect.
And, finally, among Glukkons and Sligs there was also the third race that would have loved to enjoy the RuptureFarms' gastronomy alongside the first two races, but was strictly denied that opportunity. Those were Mudokons, the race of slave laborers working at RuptureFarms and some other factories across Oddworld. Oppressed and belittled by both Glukkons and Sligs, Mudokons were reduced to cheap labor force that only cleaned up grime inside and outside the factory and operated various manual machines and devices. Mudokons were not just subjugated – they were abused, disregarded and humiliated. Day after day the Sligs that supervised them beat each and every single Mudokon to a bloody pulp just for fun, absolutely careless about the possible casualties. If a Mudokon died on the factory floor, no one bore any liability for that. Even though the Glukkons in the RuptureFarms' Management insisted that the casualties at the plant be kept at minimum, this was not out of any concern or compassion for Mudokons' lives. The only thing Glukkons cared about was the fluency of the factory's workflow, and in order to maintain it, all employees should have better been kept alive.
Despite all of the aforesaid, none of the Mudokons ever tried to question this derogatory position of theirs, let alone try to stand up for themselves. Their social status had always been taken by them for granted and, with the course of time, to change something about it was getting ever harder. Mudokons were born as slaves, and as soon as they reached maturity, they were at once thrown into factories to start working up a sweat. Not to mention, the Sligs jailing them there overmatched their kind both individually and numerically, which made the prospect of any rebel or revolution on the part of Mudokons little but infeasible. It was hard to tell why specifically Mudokons were picked to be the dominated race. In fact, legends had it that once Mudokons used to be a supreme race on Oddworld. Nowadays, though, there was no telling for sure about it. Modern generations of Mudokons were kept ignorant of their heritage and barely knew or saw anything in their lives outside their places of employment. Their existence began inside the plant's premises and most commonly ended there too.
As years went by, the swing of things at RuptureFarms continued staying the same. The malnourished, exhausted Mudokons worked day and night, assiduously scouring the dirty walls and the floor of the place with wet dusters. Their warders, Sligs, swaggeringly walked around them with a springing mechanical sound made by their robotic legs, never forgetting to give their 'supervisees' some preventive punch every now and then. This all was recorded by the cameras placed on Security Orbs flying under the ceiling of every premise in the factory. Those were round-shaped mechanisms with a red 'eye' that were devised to detect the so-called 'Mudokon chanting'. It was rumored that ancient Mudokons had the gift of possessing the minds of some living beings, which is why those Orbs were created to suppress any attempts of the employees to make use of that ability. If any sign of Chanting got within the range of the Orbs' sensors, their red eyes would zap the Mudokon using it with a bolt of electricity right on the spot. That blast didn't kill but merely stun the target, but the Mudokon to have received it would almost always be finished off by the nearest Slig guards straight after.
It was hard to tell how Mudokons really felt about the way they were treated because conversations between employees at RuptureFarms were strictly forbidden. If a Slig was to see two or more Mudokons as much as saying 'Hello' to one another, it had the right to shoot to kill. Apparently, the purpose of such harsh rule was to ensure no conspiracy could be hatched among the slaves. But, of course, like with every rule, there were always some ways of evading it. When sentinel Sligs dozed off, which they did quite frequently by the way, Mudokons could always interact with one another in a hushed voice. The majority, however, did not want to risk a bullet in their head only for the sake of some purposeless small talk and rather preferred to keep silent. Therefore, any words of grievance or discontent were hardly ever heard among them.
However, the Mudokons' unique anatomy was still able to find a way to inform everyone around of their true emotions. Mudokons had chameleonic nature and thus had the ability to alter their skin tone to reflect their current mood. Those that were angered turned a reddish hue, while sad and depressed ones became bluish. For their own good, though, it was better for every Mudokon to try to do its best not to display any anger or sadness because Sligs were very receptive to this. Whenever they saw a particular Mudokon being too disgruntled or too frustrated, they felt it to be their duty to make things worse by giving that Mudokon a beating of its life. This usually made the angered Mudokons evermore angered, resulting in them sometimes taking out their accrued irritation on their fellow workers. The depressed Mudokons, on the other hand, would plunge into their despair so deep they often became suicidal and then ended their suffering with their own hands. This was, indeed, an undesirable consequence from the standpoint of industrial efficiency, but still the one to be considered a 'cost of production'.
Over time, some Mudokons were able to learn to put up with their thralldom and even develop a sort of dedication to their work. Among such unlikely individuals was one Mudokon whose name was Abe. He was an outstanding member of his race, and that was not only because of his working enthusiasm. Unlike his fellow congeners that had green-colored skin, Abe had a shade of purplish blue to his derma, which earned him lots of laughs and pokes from other Mudokons. On top of that, it automatically put a huge bull's eye on him for every Slig guard to pass by as none of them could resist the urge to kick the living hell out of such exotic slave.
But the uniqueness of Abe's exteriority didn't stop at his bluish skin. His face bore an interesting habit which was his lips that were sewn together with two sets of crossed leather stitches. Due to this peculiarity, his fellow Mudokons started calling him 'Stitch Lips'. Abe never explained how and when he got those stitches, perhaps because he didn't remember that himself. Yet, there were lots of rumors trying to conjecture that mystery.
Some said that Abe's mouth was stitched shortly after his birth by his mother Sam, the Mudokon Queen. If them to believed, Abe used to cry a lot as a baby, and Sam was afraid that his noisiness would inevitably lead him to getting killed one day. So she decided to sew up his lips to make it physically impossible for Abe to create any disturbances.
Others said that Abe got his lip stitches after he had become a full-fledged employee of RuptureFarms. A story implied that he once tried to amuse his Mudokon friends by imitating the sound of a giant saw with his mouth. But in doing so, Abe had accidentally awakened his dormant Mudokon Chanting abilities he did not even know he had. His friends could only stand and watch with their mouths agape when mysterious flickers of turquoise radiating energy suddenly appeared around the unaware Abe and started twirling above him like a swarm of fireflies. At the same time, the sentinel Sligs nearby started going crazy, screaming in anguish and hectically stampeding every which way. When the blue Mudokon realized that there was an all out havoc taking place behind him, he stopped making those noises, and the Sligs came round to themselves again. But after they noticed that the moment of this sudden attack on their minds surprisingly coincided with Abe's 'sound effects', they quickly figured out the source of their Abe was lucky nobody knew anything about the concept of 'Chanting' at that time - otherwise, he would have most probably got killed. Instead, he only got his lips stitched so that such thing would never ever happen again, while Glukkons decided to build those Security Orbs and spread them across the entire RuptureFarms complex to prevent any further cases of Chanting among other Mudokons. But again, this was just another rumor.
Regardless of what was the truth about the origins of Abe's lip stitches, they had already loosened since whenever he got them, giving him back the ability to speak. Abe, however, didn't bother trying to remove them completely, believing them to be closely connected to his identity. One could think this an oddity, but if there was one thing that was truly in character of Abe, it was coping with every hardship life threw at him. Whether it was taking beatings and mortifications from Sligs, receiving invidious nicknames from his Mudokon friends or doing meaningless dirty work, Abe coped with all of that. He never allowed his emotions to get the better of him and affect the quality of his work. Abe loved his job and held onto it no matter what. Perhaps, that was what at some point had helped him become an employee of the year.
But Abe had no idea that this all was going to change in one single day…
It was on that fateful night that Abe was working late at RuptureFarms. Being an employee of the year, he was granted the privilege of working at the main building of the complex where the meetings of the Glukkons' Management Board took place. Abe considered this a great honor and therefore worked harder than ever, thoroughly walking over every inch of the premises with his dry-and-wet vacuum cleaner. At the end of the night, Abe was already cleaning the area right around the Board Room. It was a broad circular hall divided into the platform adjoining the perimeter of the place and the Board Room itself that was separated from the rest of the hall's space by a thick set of metal walls. On the walls of the hall were hanging colorful highlighted posters depicting various brands of RuptureFarms production. As Abe was walking past these posters, he couldn't help stopping by each one to take it in yet another time.
The first banner he passed by showed a pink bipedal creature with disturbingly jointed tridactyl hind limbs and numerous tiny arms growing out of its abdomen that looked like insect pincers. The being also had a massive plated humpback with spikes growing out of it and no less than three beak-like jaws full of sharp teeth. For advertising purposes, this animal was pictured bright and friendly looking, but this was very different from what reality had to offer. The yellow logo above it declared the name of the product that was made from this creature's meat:
'Meech Munchies'. A text in small print in the lower right corner of the banner also added: 'Without preservatives'.
After reading this shop-sign, Abe sighed and shook his head in disappointment. RuptureFarms used to make a lot of Meech Munchies, but it was only until Meeches were through. In their desire to manufacture more and more of those specialties, the Glukkons had lead Meeches to extinction, and the Meech Munchies, as the crossing inscription over this poster said, were 'no longer available'.
Abe continued his way and then stopped by another banner. This one depicted a different delicacy produced under the guise of RuptureFarms. On the blue background was glaring a puffy turn over pie with an orange insect-like creature resting on its top. It had four pointed legs with which it was eagerly digging into the pie it was sitting upon and a head that looked like some weird six-fingered hand appendage. Like the Meech in the previous poster, this animal was also made in an animated, cartoonish style, without any realism to its details. The name of the specialty this being represented was written in large blue letters both above and beneath the picture and read:
'Paramite Pies'. Below it was another small print addition in a yellow blotch-like frame, saying: 'Homestyle, 100% natural'.
At the sight of this poster, Abe mirthfully rubbed his skinny belly. He once had the joy of knowing how tasty Paramite Pies were and was glad RuptureFarms still made them.
Abe marched several more feet forward until he came across the third placard. Recreated in it was the image of a purplish cake with some green filling pouring out of it. Standing upon it was the very animal that made the cake's filling. It was a green centauroid creature with four nipper-like legs, a humanoid-like torso and a head that looked like a long crab claw. Those who drew this poster clearly did their best to ensure this being looked amiable as they even made it smile with its claw-like beak. Hardly there was anyone unfamiliar with Oddworld's wildlife that after watching this advertisement would even think for a moment that he's looking at one of the most feared predators on this planet. The cakes this banner publicized were made out of creatures called Scrabs – 'delicious and nutritious', as the banner itself said.
As Abe remembered the way 'Scrab Cakes' tasted, he couldn't help rubbing his palms together with pleasure. Scrab Cakes were among those RuptureFarms' dainties that Abe had the luck of trying once, and the experience was hardly forgettable. Much to his delight, the factory still produced them, and Abe couldn't wait for the next lucky opportunity to try some of them again.
Once through with milling about the Scrab Cakes poster, Abe made for the next and final one in this row. This advertisement didn't have any products on it yet, but merely promised something 'New 'n' Tasty' coming soon. And if the size of inscriptions on the poster was any indication, this 'New 'n' Tasty' had to be something really huge. The prospect of what this new product could be was very intriguing, and Abe was really curious to know that.
Unfortunately for him, his curiosity was just about to be satisfied…
When Abe turned away from the banner and was already about to continue running his vacuum cleaner over the place, a beam of light suddenly fell upon his face, drawing his attention. Abe shifted his gaze to the source of this unexpected distraction and saw that it was coming from a split in the door leading to the very Room where the meetings of the Glukkons' Management Board took place. Normally, the doors to the Board Room had to be sealed pressure tight, but this once, they weren't. And ringing from there were the loud aftersounds of some heated discussion, which was probably a RuptureFarms' Board Meeting being in session. The sounds kept getting louder with every second, and the more they did, the more irresistible was getting Abe's desire to go get a peep of what was happening there. Of course, spying on the Glukkons' Board Meeting was a calculated risk, especially in his position, but Abe found himself to be unable to oppose his overfilling curiosity. So, yielding his momentarily whim, the blue Mudokon left his vacuum cleaner and carefully sneaked on its tiptoes to the tantalizing split between the doors.
As Abe peered into the aperture, he was amazed already, because this was the first time he got to see the infamous Board Room. It was an enormous dark spherical chamber with a circular platform erected in its very center. A large emblem of RuptureFarms was adorning the platform's surface where in the company of one Slig stood a tall figure in a purple cloak-like suit and black-and-white spectator shoes. Its head was huge and bulbous, with standing out trumpet-like ears and diabolically glowing blank eyes. From its mouth was sticking a thick cigar that burned almost as bright as its eyes. Abe knew this person all too well to not have recognized it even from a distance. It was Mullock the Glukkon – the supreme representative of the so-called Magog Cartel which membership included all most prominent Glukkon industrialists. He was also the Chairman of the RuptureFarms' Board of Directors and, what was no less important, Abe's boss.
Aside from Mullock, there were also other members of the Glukkon Management present at this meeting. There were six of them standing along the periphery of the hall on their individual smaller platforms. Like Mullock, they were all dressed in those long enwrapping suits of various colors. Abe counted two Glukkons in light-blue suits and two in beige suits, as well as one Glukkon in a green suit and one in a purplish suit almost similar to the one Mullock wore. All of them were avidly discussing something with one another, but any details were almost impossible to make out because Glukkons' hoarse voices made everything they were saying sound more like Slog's barking. Nonetheless, even without hearing precise words, it was easy to deduce that the Glukkons were disgruntled with something, and the cause of their disgruntlement must have been the main topic of today's meeting.
At some point, Mullock asked everyone to be quiet. The six industrialists obediently went silent, and when they did, the Slig standing by Mullock's side took out some remote controller and turned on a colossal high-definition screen in front of the central platform. The revealed image display showed a title slide of the presentation named 'RuptureFarms Annual Board Meeting'. This slide was quickly skipped to give place to a more informative part, and then the reason for the Glukkons' discontent at once became clear.
The next slide of the presentation demonstrated a graphic of profits from the sales of Paramite Pies. A red blinking arrow in the XY coordinate system had its vector directed toward the lower right angle, which indicated that the profits were rapidly decreasing. This disheartening view made the six Glukkons along the room's perimeter burst into a new round of grumbling.
"Hey, did ya see that?" could be heard among them.
"The profits are goin' down!" someone lamented.
Mullock didn't make any comments on that and just continued standing motionless and watching the presentation while chewing casually on his cigar. The Slig by his side clicked his remote controller to shift to the following slide. This one displayed profit statistics on the Scrab Cakes sales. The situation was just as grim as with the Paramite Pies, if not worse. Both Scrabs and Paramites had been turning up thin, and at the rate everything was going, both species could be driven to extinction just like Meeches were earlier before.
The groaning among the Glukkon Management had intensified. Mullock, however, remained cool, showing no signs of concern at all. At some point, the Glukkon in a green suit standing behind him failed to hide his anxiety and addressed himself directly to the Chairman of the Board,
"My God, Mullock, what are we gonna do, huh?" he asked him with both disquietude and vexation.
Mullock just half turned his head to him and replied in a confident and imperturbable voice,
"Watch."
The presentation was then switched to the next slide which showed complete antithesis of what the two preceding ones had demonstrated. The red arrow of profit was now optimistically going upwards as if the economic dilapidation predicted heretofore had just been completely reversed. Shining above this promising diagram was the logo of this 'New 'n' Tasty' product Abe had just seen on the poster in front of the Board Room. It appeared that Mullock was looking to stake everything on this new type of meat that was promised to be announced soon, and someway somehow it alone would be able not just to conquer the profit decrease but to even turn it into an increase.
The intonations of the Glukkons' grunts slowly began to change from agitated to surprised ones. Although it was, indeed, very relieving for them to realize that Mullock had a plan, the idea that just one solitary product could alone make such a revolutionary impact didn't seem very believable. The six Managers started wonderingly exchanging glances with one another until the one in a green suit finally voiced his perplexity by asking,
"But how?"
Abe was equally intrigued to find out what kind of meat-type could make such tremendous difference. However, after Mullock told the Slig by his side to open the next slide of the presentation, the blue Mudokon could only wish he had never been so excited about learning this.
As the core of Mullock's financial scheme became unfolded to view, Abe was overtaken by a shock so strong he barely refrained from falling down into a swoon. His heart gave a harsh jump in his chest, spreading a wave of diffused weakness through his every body part. His whole dystrophic husk started shivering hectically as if he had just been exposed to a blow of a snowstorm. Abe was so horrified he wanted to scream, but the horror he was experiencing seemed to have taken the whole air out of his lungs. All he could do was stand there in torpor and watch with bloodshot eyes the fruits of Mullock's sadistic brilliance shining at him brightly from the wide screen. This 'New 'n' Tasty' recipe that the Chairman of the RuptureFarms' Board was looking to use for restoration of his Meat Empire's former grandeur turned out to be a bloodied Mudokon's head impaled on a stick like some corndog. The inscription above this macabre picture read two words that Abe would never forget till the end of his life. 'Mudokon Pops' – that was the name of this upstart product.
Upon seeing this sickening spectacle, Abe had to cover his mouth with his sweaty palm to prevent himself from puking. The Glukkon Managers in the Board Room, however, didn't share Abe's nervous disgust as all of them burst out laughing demonically, showering Mullok with approving cries of jubilation. The Slig standing next to him also hurried to applaud his Master's genius and quickly joined the rest in their joyful laughter. Mullock, who was probably very proud of himself at that moment, could only relish in his triumph and rejoice his own greatness. He had just dug his own company and his allies out of another financial hole and once again proved himself to be a well-deserved Chairman of the Board and a member of the Magog Cartel. Now he could only fantasize how remarkable would be the accomplishments his brilliant game-plan would bring and, who knew, maybe one day it would even lead him to becoming an owner of his own monopoly and a prestigious status of a 'GlockStar' – the highest class in the Glukkons' social hierarchy.
In the meantime, Abe frightenedly shrank away from the split in the doors, still wrestling the shocking revelations he had just learned. After disclosing the dirty little secret of the RuptureFarms' Management, the blue Mudokon felt his mind to be scrambled. Just a couple of minutes ago he honestly believed that he had a good job, and now he was forced to cope with the thought that he and the rest of his people working here were about to become dead meat. Abe was scared and bewildered. He did not know what to do now. His brain was numb and irresponsive, the logic and intellect seemed to be absent. The only thing he was able to respond to was his fear. Abe knew he was in danger and he knew that as long as he remained within the walls of RuptureFarms, his chances of doing something about kept getting evermore unlikely.
He just had to escape.
He just had to be free.
Amid this thought, the blue Mudokon sharply looked either sides of him, and then desperately took it to the heels. Unfortunately, Abe's breakout didn't go unnoticed. One of the Security Orbs that heavily guarded this part of the complex instantly detected the abrupt transition of one of the employees and focused its zoom lens on him. It took the drone only a couple of seconds to process the recorded image and identify the fugitive. A moment later, Abe's photo from the RuptureFarms card index with large 'WANTED' signs on it was already printed on every monitor at the factory. Then the alarms across the complex were turned on, informing each and every single Slig guard at RuptureFarms that an escape had been attempted by one of the slaves. Abe had officially become a walking target, and any Slig to encounter him had every right to shoot him dead.
But Abe didn't care about that. He only cared about one thing right now - running. He had no plan or strategy in his mind. He wasn't even sure where exactly he was running. All he knew was that he had to run, because this was the only way he could escape this terrible destiny the Glukkons had planned for him and his kind. But at that time, Abe had no idea that he also had a destiny of his own…