Ally Kingston's Questionnaire

Well, these days, I live in a caravan!  I used to live in the biggest city in the East, but now... now I live in the back of a cart.  Typically.  Right now I'm sleeping under the stars trying to get back there.  I live there instead of anywhere else because my dad told me I had to travel out here, and... well, I trust him. 

There's not much else to say about it, really.  The caravan is nice, though.  I'm a guard, kinda sorta.  They treat me a little bit like a child, but..  I think they respect me, mainly. At least, they know I'm a good shot. 

I was, at least.  I'm an excellent shot now.

Well... this is a little bit of a sore spot.  I don't have a ton of money, really. 

I make most of my money as room and board with the caravan!  Although I think that I might be starting to get paid by these Contracts.  Which would be nice.  I mean, they promised more, but... I don't know what to think of it.  Haven't seen any rewards yet, but I did get to save some people, so.... you know.

What do I spend it on?  Food, maintaining my equipment, just sort of.. living.  It's not like I have a surfeit of money.

I want to make the world better, and keep people safe.

That's what my parents raised me to do, and... well, what my dad did after my mom died. So that's what I'm trying to do.  I'm striving to try to make the world more like the old world I heard stories about.  Where there's enough food for everyone, and the world is safe, and... one where people don't have to fear.

How far would I go?  As far as I need to go, really, to make a better world.  Would I kill for it?  Well... if they were bad people, I guess.

How close to death? 

...

As far as I need to go, really.  I think.  I don't want to die, but.. I can handle things better than most.

Probably when my mom died.

It's when life... changed, really.  Became... harder, maybe? I don't know. Harsher?

I don't know what happened to her. 

But I know that after that dad started training me harder.  A lot harder.  I did my best to keep up, to keep getting stronger, and... well, I'm a pretty good monster hunter, now.  And I can save people, like my mom.  Something killed her.  I know that.  And it changed me and my dad.

He was never the same after that.  He tried to be the same, but.. I could tell, when he didn't think I was looking, that something was different. 

Well... right now, there was dad.  Alexander Kingston. I think he still counts, even though I haven't seen him for a little bit.   He's my father, and he raised me.   He's a good person, he's a monster hunter.  He keeps people save, kills monsters, helps make the world safer.   He's what I want to be when I grow up.  He's... yeah.  The one in the world I'm closest to, now that mom's dead.

There's Sand(ra).  She's a pretty good medic!  Although she's mute.  It's pretty.. difficult to deal with, but.. well, she agreed to come along, so I've been trying to learn sign language with her.   It's hard, but... I dunno.  She's smart, and she's good at her job, so.. you know.

And there's Mason!  He's big!  And a mechanic.  I don't know how good of a mechanic he is yet, but if anyone asks he's really good.  You know.

My childhood was good, as childhoods go, really! 

My parents were Alexander and Sarah.  My mom was really nice.  She did everything that one could ask for.  She kept the home clean, she raised me, taught me, everything.  And she read me stories at night of heroes and such.

And then there was dad.  He was... he was larger than life.  He was a real hero, he was a monster hunter.  He went out into the dark and killed the things that hunted people.  And he was good at it, too.  I think mom dying broke him in some way.  He got cold towards me after that.

I attended school... sort of.  I dunno, the city kinda had a school, but.. it's not like it was a real school like in the stories mom told me.  Most of what I learned was from one of them, honestly.  And that's why I'm doing so well now.

No, not yet!  I'm looking forward to it, though!

I had kind of a puppy love crush on another boy in the caravan, and.. well, I tried to let him know a little!  But I guess he didn't like me back that way, because.. he just kinda turned me down.  Like, I asked him to go for a walk with me, and he told me he'd just been on a walk.  Okay.

Other than that.. well, I'll find someone, I'm sure!  I just hope it leads to something as perfect as my parents had.  And.. well, maybe he can help me save the world, too.

I'm afraid of a lot of things.

But.. part of being brave is being afraid and going forward anyways, right?  That's what my father always told me. 

I know he'd have preferred a son.  He never said it, but I know it's true.  I think he always resented me just a tiny bit for that.  And mother.   But he never said it to me, and he treated me like his child.

I guess that's what I fear most.  Being rejected.   I've done my best.  But I'm always afraid.. what if it isn't enough?  My father taught me to harden my heart against the monsters in the world, whether they wear the skin of man or not. 

I don't know why my father sent me away.  I thought I had done everything he wanted.  He told me he wasn't sending me away, but.. I don't know.  My heart still hurts leaving home.  I wish mother was still alive.  I want to send a mail back home, but Tyler is too small to have a postman come by.  Have to wait until I get to Huston.

I fear dying, of course.   And I fear others dying.  Not being strong enough to save them, not fast enough. 

That's what I have to do.

I don't have a ton of possessions.  Have to travel light, of course.

If I had to pick something pragmatic, though, I guess it would be my rifle.  It's the hardest to come across by a lot, and... well, it keeps me and mine safe.  There have been a lot of times when people have been trying to hurt me or my friends and it's kept us safe. It's old, but it's reliable. I've never had it give me issues.  I actually came across an automatic rifle, but.. the weight was off, the firing was off.  I'm sticking with mine.

Less pragmatically... I don't know.   Maybe this old ranger star I have?  My mom gave it to me.  She scratched 'to my little star' in the back of it.  And.. I think of her whenever I have it.  My dad thinks I like it because it's a symbol of authority, but... I don't know.

The biggest problem in my life is...  I don't know.

Probably the fact I keep getting so bloody angry all the time.  I just want to snap all the time.  I'm trying to deal with it, to keep my cool, and I'm typically okay at pushing it down.  Unless I'm not, of course.

Other than that.. I don't know.  The fact that everyone I'm close to keeps dying.  I wonder if that's related at all to the first one at all.  ...Probably.  But I don't know.

Maybe they're unrelated.

So yeah.   There's that, and.. I guess on a baser level there's the fact I keep having to keep leaving Mountville and then coming back and crossing Texas.  At least it gives me a chance to see the landscape, I guess?  And meet new people?

I try to make the world a little bit better as I cross Texas each time.

What a weird question. 

Uh... I guess I wake up, and stretch, and get up, and get out of my tent, and.. I guess  get ready for the world. Wash  some, make coffee, talk to people in the caravan.  Make sure everything went okay.  Tend to my equipment some, do chores. 

What do most people do on their morning?  I mean, it's not like I have a great deal of choices, really.  The caravan is nice, better than living in the middle of nowhere.  But it's still like... there's not a lot of people here, and I'm young, even if they respect me. 

So it's like.. yeah.  I really just get ready to face the world by getting up and knowing I have things to do.  It's not like I can just sit in bed, because I have things to do.  I always have things to do. 

I wish I didn't, sometimes. 

...Uh, well... I can't say I've ever really thought that hard about that. 

It's not like I have really nice clothes...  I have practical clothes and such, and mostly good, hardy stuff..  but I don't really have anything nice.  I have soap and stuff and I try to keep clean.  So that would probably be my first thing.  Make sure my hair was all combed, wash myself as much as I could.  Maybe trim my hair some, clean it up a bit.  I'd maybe have to trade for like.. nice clothes.  I have some trade goods, so I'm sure I could find something.  Maybe a dress?

Other than that... I don't know.  Maybe bring someone?  Is that what you do when you go somewhere special?  I don't really have anyone to bring, though.  Maybe my brother...  Well, he's not really my brother, but we're as close. 

I miss my family.

My next birthday?

I dunno.  I'll be fifteen.  My birthday for the last couple of years hasn't really been anything special.  Just another day.

I remember my mom doing some special things for my birthday, though.  Even a cake one year!  It was great, even  if  mom said it wasn't as good as she could make before the blackout.

So yeah.. I don't know.  Maybe I'll try to find a cake.  Or make one.  Heh.  I'm not good at cooking, but.. that might be nifty.  To try to figure out how to make a cake.

I'm going to make a cake.

My  greatest regret?

I dunno. 

It's silly, but maybe not saving my mom, somehow.  A monster killed her.  And... I was a child.  I couldn't have done anything.  I wasn't even there.  But.. that's what I regret.  Not being strong enough to do something.  And it's why I'm going to make these wastes safe again.  I'm going to hunt down the monsters in the dark and put them down.  Protect people who need to be protected, like my mother.

Other than that, I don't know.  I guess not saving my adoptive mother.  Miriam.  She.. was killed when I wasn't even there.  And I don't know.   They said she was a monster.  She wasn't.   I know she wasn't.  But... they were all so convinced.  I don't know.

I... talked? to her some. I don't know.  Maybe.  And she.. I don't know.  She tried to explain some of it.  I didn't want to kill those who killed her, because.. what if... I don't know.

I don't know.

I go on these jobs because the Harbinger said that I'd get to help people on them.  And... I have.  I've saved two towns directly, I've brought down some kind of a zombie creature, I've helped save a caravan,  I brought down an outlaw murdering lawmen, I brought down some kind of sleeping... fish... demon thing.

So yeah.  I don't know on these jobs for gifts or anything like that.

I don't know.  My body has been changing some.  I was always good with my rifle, but I've been getting better at it. And my senses are shifting some, getting sharper constantly.  My head hurts some at all of the smells I can smell now.  And what I've done.   When the full moon rises I get so angry.

And I don't know what to do about that.   Just keep going, I guess.  I've been keeping it together. 

Mostly.

Well.. I don't know.  I can't say I've ever been particularly religious.   I've heard of God and stuff, but.. well, I don't really see him anywhere, you know?  If he really did exist, why did he let all of this happen?  Let my mom get murdered, let the world fall into darkness, let so many evil things exist just to prey on people?     So yeah.  I don't believe in God.. or if one existed, he's an evil son of a bitch, so I'd like to spit in his face anyways.  Spirituality is just another word for being religious, right?  Or.. I don't know.  I know magic and stuff exists. I had a dead horse come and show me visions of the future and give me abilities.

And.. well, I can still feel things changing in me.  I don't know what to make of it.  I'm just getting angrier and angrier. 

I can't say really any of it has conflicted with my worldview, to be honest.  What's there to conflict?   That there's a bunch of evil shit out in the darkness?

I already knew that, my father was a monster hunter.  Hell.  He raised me to be one too until... until my mom died.   That broke him, somehow.

So other than that.. I don't know.  What was everything else I thought was true?   That there was evil out there? Yeah, I knew that.  That there's good out there? Well.. I knew that too, but it's hard.

So what?   I'm.. going to try to keep doing these jobs so I can beat back the darkness just a little bit more.  Because if I don't, who will?

I can keep trying, and.. well, sometimes I do save people.  Sometimes I fail.  But sometimes I do save people, and that's what make it worth it, right?