This is Rust.

Let's get this straight. This is no sissy forum for magic and furries. This is the end of the world. Actually, it's a bit later. It's post-apocalyptic. And how did our little ball of dirt come to be this way? About 70 years ago, the world was facing several problems.
-The United States NASA lovers got a little overboard boycotting the Russians’ inflated prices on tickets to space. Stuff got blown up.
-The largest companies were competing with the nations over fresh water sources. Stuff got ugly then too.
-All those countries that were fighting their dictators in the 2000’s and 2010’s, you can forget about them.
-A pandemic 50 years ago took out over 30% of the world’s population, draining the major cities and most populated countries.
-North Korea finally came out of it’s shell. With bombs.
-China foreclosed on America. Or tried to. Neither side won.

Now, my guess is that there’s maybe one million people left. Maybe three. But seeing as they’re spread out all over the Earth, you can go many days or weeks with out seeing a scrap of life. There’s some radiation but it’s not all that bad. The nukes hit DC mostly so down here near the border is pretty clean. I keep a Geiger with me anyway.

There was a lot of looting and chaos at the beginning. Thugs and gangsters, you know. The area we’re in is hilly. Somewhere around here is a trickle of a river that might have been the Frio once. Texas never quite recovered from the drought of 2011. Most of the rednecks are gone, lost in battle when they tried to secede again. But there are still some tucked away here and there, probably. These parts have lots of axis, they’re invasive and they bred in with the native white tail. There’s jack rabbit, lots of armadillo (ruggled little creatures). If you don’t know much else about the wildlife around here, you’re probably dead.

Also: if you were in this life, walking (probably alone) and see a complete stranger, you probably don’t give them your name/age/gender/bio/personality/zodiac sign first thing. You do that here, you’re dead; and yeah, a lot of things get you dead. People only know what you tell them so right now, all you know about me is in the attachment.
(I know it's sketch but it's midnight and I'm tired. I'll fix it when I have time)

Why Rust? Because it's steampunk and you're about to get cut, punk! Haha, just kidding. Oh, well, no. You might actually...

And because the school year is starting, I don't expect this to move very fast. So if you join, please be considerate.

Reserved. Just in case.

((btw, if you want to know what my character looks like, look at my avatar))
Lydia walked through the empty landscape, the little bit of grass left on these once-green hills was now a dead shade of brown. She heard a small sound and took her bow in hand and pulled an arrow out of her quiver. She took a step towards where the sound had come from, and she heard it again. She took one more step, and when she did she saw a half-dead bush, moving slightly, so there had to be something in it, she figured. She picked up a rock and threw it into the bush, and a jack rabbit came out. Lydia held her bow, readied an arrow, aimed, and fired, hitting and killing the jack rabbit. She grabbed the corpse and pulled out her knife and a thing of matches she'd gotten from a half-burned out gas station. She skinned the rabbit, grabbed the bush it had been hiding in, stripped the bush of its leaves and lit it on fire, cooking the rabbit over it. Food was short here, and so she'd have to enjoy it while she could. She might not get to eat again for a long time.

Johnny is there, remaining still watching the women, cloacked in some material of a simialer couler to the sand. When she began to get a fire ready, Johnny quivered one of his arrows and sneaks up behind lydia. Who is this women thought johnny.

Lydia heard a sound and turned, her bow at the ready. There behind her was a man wearing a long cloak. She wondered why he would wear something like that in such a hot place (remember, we're supposedly in texas)

Johnny has his bow trained on Lydia. "Who are you, and why are you here?" Johnny faced the women, revealing that nearly ever inch of his body was clothed in the light cloth. "And should you not wear better comoflouge?

"what I wear is my own decision," Lydia said to the man. "As is my reason for going where I go, And I would point that bow elsewhere, if I were you" She aimed her bow at him, in turn

"put your down, and do the same i shall." Johnny replied.

"and why should I trust you?" Lydia asked him. "Why should I trust a complete stranger who might at any moment kill me for a piece of meat?"

"My very same thoughts about you. But, i think i can manage this situation with out an arrow." With that johnny fired the shot, going past lydia and hitting another rabit. "Plus i can hunt my own food." as he reached in his cloak and pulled out a cocked mini-crossbow while dropping his regular bow.

Lydia saw the crossbow and asked, "where'd you manage to find that, did you take it from somebody else who was just looking for a meal?" She lowered her bow and walked back to the fire, figuring that since the man shot something else instead of her, that he wasn't going to kill her unless she had something that he wanted, and she didn't have anything that she hadn't already seen in his hands

"No, i found this years ago, and only use it when i have to." Johnny Replied, putting it away and picking his bow back up. "Do you know how difficult it is to find crosbow bolts in this day and age? Good thing ive only needed this twice. What about you, what else do you have hidden on you?"

"a knife" Lydia said to him as she finished cooking her rabbit. She began to eat it, savoring the juices from it. It might be a long time before she'd eat something again. "and a canteen"

"Well do you mind if i use your fire?" Johnny said as he began using a hunting knife to skin the rabit.

"go ahead," lydia said. "I'm done with it"

"So where are you from anyway, and what brings you to this waste land?" Asked johnny as he took of his gloves and started roasting his rabit.

"I'm from a cave across the sea, where my family hid to try to escape the terror of the wars that were going on," Lydia said. "It didn't work, though. What about you?"

Chewing on a mesquite bean, Algas listened to the wind. She listened to the crack and pop of the fire. She listened to Stormbucket munching the dry grass. She could see a faded glint of another fire on a distant hill. Maybe the voices of strangers. Lots of cicadas. And the rustle of the decrepit Frio.
"Damn foreigners."
She spit out the bean, took a sip of tea. Algas picked up her bible, just a couple verses to keep up the mind, and meditated.

"When i was born my parents desserted me, but there was one man who was decent enough to take me in, for a while at least." Johnny replied. "I've never spent more then a fortnight at a place. I take what i need, and keep moving. anything else you would like to know?"