*Hey y'all! I've recently played through a few sessions of Apocalypse World, a tabletop game! We never got to finish the story, so I'm going to be doing that by myself! Hope you're all doing okay, and treat this like a vacation from Assassin's Creed: Revolution! I just need a quick break from AC: Revolution, and I've been meaning to write this for a while!
Let's get into it!*
...
Death.
Betrayal.
Agony.
Failure.
Burden.
Loneliness.
Most of us feel at least a few of these emotions sometime in our lives, but that's the main difference between our world and this one. Apocalypse World is a nightmare, a tragic mishap of what could have easily been our world. Naturally, only the toughest and most skilled people can survive in such a setting. These words are as common as the amount of poisonous gas floating through the toxic air. This world is incredibly unique, but that makes it the loneliest world to exist in.
...
Circuses haven't changed much. The workers there still torture animals for any kind of profit they can obtain, and it's only gotten worse during the apocalypse. Who could have guessed that would have happened?
Amongst the many painful experiences and acts in the circus, a single little girl cried and cried and cried. Workers felt like the child would dehydrate from leaking so many fluids out of her eyes and nose. Eventually, a slim fellow with a limp walked up to the girl and questioned her. "What's busting your balls, kid?"
The child looked up at the familiar face, still weeping. She recognised most of the workers there.
"Mommy and daddy..." She couldn't finish her sentence without breaking down once more.
"What about mommy and daddy?"
"They aren't moving anymore." She wept once more as she pointed her tiny hand in the direction of the lion cage. Two completely mauled bodies could be seen next to a lion that was licking its bloody lips. The worker's eyes widened and his jaw dropped.
He started getting frantic and stuttered a lot. "Oh for fuck sake. Kid, your parents ain't coming back, unfortunately." He moved his head down in a depressed tone and extended his arm out towards the child. "What's your name, kid?"
The child accepted the hand and managed to lift herself. She wiped a few tears away and deeply inhaled.
"Akiria."
...
From then on, Akiria spent most of her time in the shadows, surviving off of breadcrumbs and abandoned canned food. Mostly beans and tomato soup. Her life was very repetitive and very void of human interaction. Perhaps her isolation and her incredibly unsettling nature turned her insane. She quickly lost most of her basic human senses, decencies and morals. She was but a shell of the prodigal young girl who had the potential to overtake her parents' skill with some basic progress. The piece of weed that supported most plants at their core was hideous and unsettling, but it was tenacious and strong. Just like Akiria...in an alternate universe. She was decently pretty, but she never grew out of her crazy nature. Sometime after growing old enough, she had a massive encounter. An angelic figure, almost as divine as the sky before the smog of the apocalypse tore it down, could be seen entering the vicinity of the circus grounds. They were looking for someone specific, it seemed like. A prodigy, one could say. Akiria's eyes widened with hope as she came out of her dark tent. The angelic figure stopped dead in its tracks and scanned their eyes up and down Akiria's body.
"OOH! OOH! A pretty new friend! Your presence is incredibly light! Are you from around here! Wow, you're so tall, mind if I compare our heights?!" Akiria began hopping like a bunny around the angelic figure. The only thing she received back was a confused stare before the figure spoke up.
"Your aura's incredibly strong."
The angel started inspecting Akiria's presence as they took a step back.
"What's your name, young one?"
"I'm Akiria! I like my name, it's very pretty. It was given to me by my parents, I don't know if that's common or not anymore! But they've been dead for a long time, so I guess it doesn't matter!" Akiria quickly paused to catch a breath. "What's your name, beautiful?!"
"Call me Juno."
"That's such a pretty name!" Akiria exclaimed very loudly. "Can we be friends, pleaseeeeee?" Akiria gathered her hands together and put on a cute face.
Juno chuckled as they placed their hands on Akiria's shoulders. "Sure, we can be friends. Would you like to get out of here and join me on my adventures, Akiria?"
Akiria's eyes brightened once more as she impulsively hugged Juno. "Thank you, Juno! I promise I'll make the most of it!"
"Right. Let's get out of this place."
They started marching away from the circus grounds as Juno's expression changed to a more concerned one. They saw clear through Akiria's past and her struggles. The decision to bring them on the journey might have looked like something that was done in the heat of the moment, but it had a lot of thought put behind it. Hopefully, they won't gather any more worries or troubles in their path. At least not any more than what they already have.
...
A few of the local villagers seemed to be arguing.
"I'm telling you, the crops were right here! They were ready to harvest! I don't know any other way to explain this to you, I know what I saw!" A frantic villager with a huge hat on was shouting at a nearby taller villager. They seemed to be acquainted.
"Don't tell me your retarded ass is now starting to hallucinate, too." The taller villager's expression worsened as he picked his bag back up. "Look, it's fine to say the crops just didn't fucking grow, it's not a sin."
"But they DID grow! Step the fuck down, bastard, you are in no position to call anyone retarded!" The harvester stepped forward and prepared himself for a fight.
"Let's not cause a fight. It's the last thing we need right about now. Get your shit together and plant new crops." The taller villager started walking away.
"That was the last time this land could even hold seeds, it's completely died down! Damn it, what do I do now...?"
The harvester grunted loudly before harvesting what was left of the stolen crops. A short, but intimidating figure was retreating behind the giant windmill that has been destroyed for years. Even in the brightest time of the day, the figure didn't have any revealing features, almost like you were talking to a scarecrow in a hood and sunglasses. It had a very quick and sneaky nature, almost like a rat that's shaped to be a human. A similarly built man was waiting on the outskirts of town. His ruffled hair and torn clothing displayed the rough life he's had.
He noticed the figure approaching him.
"Roach, any success this morning?"
Roach grasped his huge backpack and carefully set it down. The sound it made was satisfying enough in its own right. "I got some goods, yeah." He forcefully opened the handmade backpack and crouched. "What about yourself, Jeff?"
"I haven't got a lot of physical shit on me, but I got some intel." Jeff took out a broken compass and handed it to Roach. That was the only thing he found.
"I'm all ears."
"You know the cathedral in the village?"
"Yeah, what about it?" Roach quickly nodded as he started putting the collected objects into several different bags.
"If the rumours are true, it's full to the brim with valuables."
Roach's head lifted and he glared at Jeff through his sunglasses. "Who the hell is keeping it all there? Someone's bound to have scavenged it by now."
"This is pretty fresh news, man! I guarantee you can sneak in tonight and find something!" Jeff courageously patted Roach on the back and shouted with support. "If anyone can do that, it's you!"
"I'll look into it tonight. We were running out of options either way. Do me a favour and trade those bags full of stuff in for some food or something, would you?" Roach sat on the ground and rested for a few moments.
"On it. Dude, take a breather before you head out tonight. You look like you need it." Jeff picked up a few bags and started carrying them to a populated junkyard for trading purposes.
"I'll come with you and rest for the afternoon."
Roach quickly got up and they set out for the junkyard.
...
The village wasn't exactly small, but only a few buildings were in decent shape. One of those was the cathedral. No matter what, people used their supplies and time to try and repair it over and over again. Human's blatant and blind worshipping of God is sickening. Even when they've had nothing to eat, they would spend time praying to him and attempting to rebuild the chapel. If God truly existed in this world, he wouldn't have let the apocalypse happen in the first place.
Roach carefully approached the church at night and quickly entered through an open window. He made it into the ceremonial room which was full of seats and broken tables. They were full to the brim of scrap, junk, machine parts and anything useful that a thief like Roach could use. Although, it looked like every machine part was stripped of the valuable pieces inside of it. Not a complete heavenly realm for Roach, but it was good enough either way. He quickly stored as many things as he could before he heard someone whistling in the basement of the church. They were climbing up the stairs. Roach's eyes widened as he quickly threw his backpack out the open window and climbed out of it as fast as he possibly could. He quickly bolted across the street and returned to his favourite place in the world - the shadows.
This went on for a few weeks. Roach would steal from the chapel regularly and there wouldn't be any consequences. Nobody mentioned his name and there were no wanted posters with his name in the village. Well, the former part of the sentence wasn't realistic at all. Anyways, Roach repeated this for a good while...until he found himself in quite the pickle. Whoever spent time in the church set a trap for Roach. He was expected that night. Heavy clanging was heard in the basement which wasn't unusual, but Roach was still caught by surprise.
A beartrap-like object clamped its terrifying metal jaws on Roach's leg. Thankfully, Roach was already leaving the chapel, so he managed to get out of the chapel fairly quickly. He yelped out in pain when he slowly walked across the street. His head snapped back towards the chapel, he spat on the ground beside him and collapsed on the ground. "I'll...remember this...Henri..."
His head turned towards the lonely dark sky as he tried to stay conscious. After a minute or two of laying there, his wound creating a pool of blood beneath him, a familiar young man peeked his head into his vision.
"Come on, guys, you two, pick him up and keep that wound tightly pressed. Take him to the doctor, he'll whip something up." The young lad quickly turned his attention to Roach who was now lifted by a strong man. "You alright?"
Roach's eyes widened behind his sunglasses as he reached his hand out towards the young man.
"Husk...?"
Roach passed out.
...
"You're shitting me." An average-built man was talking to an older fellow inside of a bar.
"If I was bullshitting the story, I wouldn't be telling it to you, Lamprey." The old man sipped another shot of refined alcohol from his giant glass. "Mind if I get a refill, Luke?"
"Coming right up, Been."
An insanely tall and muscular man walked out of the backroom for employees and slid the big alcohol bottle to Been. Been nodded firmly as Luke started rearranging some of the bottles he kept on display on the shelves behind him. He briefly heard his name mentioned in the conversation between Been and Lamprey. "Talking shit about me?" He turned around and unintentionally flexed his back muscles.
"No, dumbass. We were complimenting the bar." Lamprey sipped his drink and slid a bag full of materials to Luke. "Here's your payment in full. Thanks again." Lamprey grabbed his hat and disappeared from the bar within a few moments.
"If we're on the subject of payment...this one free?" Been pointed at his half-finished glass.
"Don't worry about it, old man." Luke grabbed the bag, quickly made his way to the backroom and tossed it near his supplies.
Suddenly, a tall figure with red hair walked into the bar. They approached the counter and sat down. Luke peeked his head out the backroom as he saw the familiar face.
"Henri! Been a while." He greeted them enthusiastically.
"Yeah, I've had a busy few weeks. Stuff keeps being stolen off of me." They corrected their long hair and took off their thick coat.
"Oh, shit. Sorry to hear that. Would you like something to eat or drink?"
"Get me the usual drink and whatever your current favourite thing to cook is." They winked at Luke as he nodded with a smile on his face.
Henri and Been exchanged a casual conversation until they heard the entrance door opening again. They both turned and saw a very familiar regular, Gams.
"Perfect timing, eh? I got shit to do, unfortunately, sorry, kids." Been grabbed his jacket and said goodbye to both of them. He shouted to Luke in the kitchen who shouted back. He also let him know that Gams showed up.
As soon as Luke prepared the meal and drink, he served it. It was as good as ever.
"Gams! What's up?"
"Just hoping you got some booze to treat me with."
Luke instantly pulled out two special cups which he used to whip up cocktails. Within a few seconds of shaking, he prepared the best martini he could. "I hope you got some funds this time, though. I'm kinda running low."
"Don't worry, big man, I'll pay full price." Gams sipped his drink with a happy look on his face.
"Appreciate you."
Dozens of minutes went by which eventually led to a few hours. Gams and Henri chatted up a storm in the bar with Luke. It was a nice little reunion. Once they left, the place shut down for the day. It doesn't help Luke's situation that everything feels extremely lonely after closing time. Especially in this world, the loneliest world of them all. But, perhaps it wasn't as lonely as it could be. This was the place all of them were willing to call home.
Whitt's End.
...
*End of Chapter 1!
There we go, a few backstories! We'll kick off the story that we went through in Apocalypse World ourselves in the next chapter! Hope everyone has a good day!*
