Over a century ago, in the foothills of the old river valley, there stood the village of Acme Falls. It was a town filled with happy inhabitants, including the butcher, baker, a candlestick maker, and of course, the town mime. Well... No place is perfect.
But Acme Falls was as close to perfect as possible, except for the mime, that is.
The mime proceeds to imitate the narrator. "Would you mind?!" The narrator asked an annoyance. "Now would you mind leaving? I have a story to narrate!" The mime proceeds to leave, not before an anvil was dropped on their head.
Ah, that's better. Now, where were we? Oh yes! Now I remember!
Now this village was part of a peace-loving, picturesque little country called Warnerstock, which was ruled by a benevolent king, Sir William the Good. Everyone loved King William. Peace and prosperity covered the land. King William wasn't the only ruler of this beloved kingdom however. By his side through all, was his beloved queen. Queen Angelina II.
And together the king and queen ruled over their beloved kingdom, bringing joy and happiness to those who were lucky enough to inhabit it.
But then, one tragic day, King William and his wife passed away, leaving their kingdom in quite a struggle.
Before long, the kingdom was filled with sad mourners, who mourn their beloved rulers. Of the hundreds of mourners there were many different people. Among those people were several different kinds of chipmunks, the chipmunks varied, from different fur, different sizes and ages. But Acme Falls was welcome to all.
But luckily, or should I say, not so luckily, the struggle ended with Warnerstock being overthrown in a hostile takeover by the nation of Tictockia. Now the new leader of Warnerstock was Ian the Pushy, a ruthless corporate raider who vowed to rule with a tight fist. But the international community didn't support his regime, and the country's fortunes plummeted.
Ian's treasury grew dangerously low, so he sent out an edict for the country to start turning a profit or perish. To fill the royal coffers, all cities and towns were to be taxed, and this included Acme Falls. There, the king sent his tax collector, Baron von Suggs, who was taxing to the extreme.
Suggs was enjoying a nice home cooked meal while the residents gave away their money to the constable, constable Theodore.
"Well?" Asked Suggs, greedily gobbling a chicken leg all to himself. "Did we get everything?"
"Um, no, Suggs, not yet!" Theodore said with a squeak.
Suggs angrily got up from his chair, and walked over to an old man who was using his cane to walk.
"Forgive me, Bron von Suggs, sir, but I've nothing to pay my taxes with. Why, you've taken my livestock, my land, my home, and left me with nothing to eat!"
Suggs gave the old man a pat on the shoulder unsympathetically. "Yes, yes, these are hard times. I can hardly keep the fire burning myself." He said, pretending to care, taking the old man's cane making him fall over, and throwing it into the already blazing fire. "Next! "He called to the next person as they moved heartbreakingly along, forcefully giving away all of their hard earned money.
The baron squeezed the life out of Acme Falls until the once prosperous town was crushed.
Living in the orphanage were three children, siblings as a matter of fact.
The oldest turns to her siblings, Who sighed. "Gee, it sure is cold here!" The middle sibling shivered, trying to stay snug and warm in his dark blue turtleneck.
The youngest sneezed. "N-N-No kidding!" She said, as her teeth chattered, as a cool gust of wind blew through the air and into the orphanage.
" I know Sibs, I know it's absolutely freezing, but at least we have each other though, right?"
The youngest rolled her eyes. "Did you really have to be that cliche sis?" She deadpanned. "This isn't some feel good movie, y'know."
The middle one crossed his arms. "Thanks for pointing that out Captain Obvious, as though we didn't need reminding already." He said annoyed.
The oldest facepalmed.
What oh what was she going to do with her siblings?
Meanwhile throughout the town, many of its residents were wondering just what they would do. One such chipmunk, named Ren Stryker, now old and grey, and her best friend Shine, were living in the bottom of a tree, not many nuts were left. The two of them were running out of food very quickly. "Well Shine, looks like we only have a month's supply left." Ren said, carrying the last of the nuts into their tree.
"Oh no! Now what are we gonna eat for winter?" Shine asked.
"Heck knows," Ren shrugged. "It ain't exactly what it used to be back in the 40s, you could get nuts that would last ya a whole year, maybe even more if you ate it slow enough." Ren said.
Shine frowned. "Shame we don't have a tardis, if we did, we could travel back in time and get one of those nuts."
"This isn't Doctor Who, Shine, besides, the majority of our audience wouldn't know what Doctor Who even is."
The narrator of the story steps in again. "I'll have you know that I do in fact know who Doctor Who is, and I believe the majority of our readers do too."
Ren waves her hand. " yeah yeah, we know we know." She says.
"Tough crowd." The narrator says, before snapping their fingers and fast forwarding a month in time.
And so our story begins, in the miserable little village of Acme Falls, with this pathetic band of downtrodden and destitute townsfolk, oh, and a mime too. And three orphans who live on the street ever since the orphanage shut down, Sparkle, Shane, and Bonnie.