Cole Bolton Origins

Character backstory for a ‘magical post-apocalypse’ roleplaying game, 2024

It’s a quiet Friday night when we find Mr Cole Bolton on the train. He’s the picture-perfect salaryman, sitting up straight and proper with square spectacles, suit and tie, a briefcase by his side. He’s got his headphones in, looking at his phone, tapping through a Duolingo Spanish lesson. His hearts not really in it though, he’s just passing the time until-

His phone buzzes as FaceTime fills the screen. He grins wide, his mood immediately lifted as he hits ‘accept’.

The smirking face of Fillian Bolton appears, the picture-perfect art student, in a flannel shirt, messy green hair with shaved back and sides.

   “You got the undercut! It looks very cool.”

   “Yeah, I know.” She runs a hand through her hair to show it off.

   “I bet everyone’s talking about how you’ve got that rizz-”

   “No. Bad dad. Stop.” She cringes.

   “Okay, okay. So - tell me everything. How was your first week? Have you made any friends there?”

   “Oh my god, it’s way different than I thought it was gonna be! But like, in a good way. My roommates are cool, except for Jack who I’ve already gotten in a fight with-”

   “What kind of a fight?” Cole’s tone is momentarily more serious.

   “-Not a fistfight. Don’t worry, I used my big girl words and explained to him why he can’t leave his stuff everywhere for the rest of us to pick up. I think he got it. Eventually.”

   “Good. Remember-”

   “Violence hurts all parties equally.” She parrots wearily, having heard this many times growing up.

   “Exactly. Only reason and understanding can mend. Anyway, who else have you met?”

She launches back into it, glad to be past that conversation.

   “My classmates are all crazy talented. And there’s some talk of a D&D club starting next week.”

   “Ooh, what’s that? Design and… ‘Dechnology’?”

   “Ha ha. No.” She shoots back sarcastically.

They talk for a long time about her new life at university, about what she’s enjoying and what she’s struggling with. About everything she admires in her new friends and all the new experiences she’s been exposed to. 

   “Hey, I think my stop is coming up soon, but would you mind if I came to visit this - well not this weekend - but next weekend? Or are you going to be busy, working and studying oh so very hard?” He says finally.

She makes a show of thinking very hard about it.

   “You know what, I’m sure I can make time.” 

   “Good. Your homework from me is to find the best restaurant in town before I come over.”

   “I have so much homework already! But I’ll try, I guess. See you soon dad. Love ya.”

   “I love you too-”

Midway through the sentence, something odd occurs. A shimmer passes through the air, like a pulse. His phone flickers and goes black. The lights in the train flicker and go out. Everything shudders, and the train starts slowing down, mechanisms screeching somewhere in the distance, like something’s broken.

Cole suddenly feels an intense sense of dread. He sits in the silence for a while as the train comes to a complete stop, and his eyes start to adjust to the dark. He looks around for someone to ask what’s going on, but he’s alone. He cautiously rises from his seat and finds the doors. He presses the ‘open’ button a few times, but it doesn’t respond. 

Though he can’t see far beyond the window in the late evening darkness, something catches his eye in the field outside. A spark of light. The ground rumbles. Something screams, a horrible, inhuman scream. A shadow hurtles towards the door. 

CRASH!!!

Cole just barely leaps out of the way as something massive smashes into and partially through the train, in a shower of glass and tearing metal, rocking the carriage with a force that threatens to capsize it. The man looks back over his shoulder at what he just avoided and is struck with an absolutely incomprehensible sight - an insectoid monster the size of a car, like something from the mind of H.R Geiger, wriggling off of its back. It’s bloodied from the collision, but it’s clearly not done, and now it’s noticed him. 

He screams and scrambles back on his elbows, as the beast rears up with a chittering roar and slams a long, hooked talon down between his legs, very nearly piercing him. Waving its many scythe-like limbs, it lumbers forwards, salivating. Cole hits the wall. He can’t back up anymore. Is this the end?

    “ENOUGH!”

A booming woman’s voice engulfs everything. The roof is suddenly torn off the carriage, bathing the man and the creature in a blinding spotlight. The monster moves backwards, afraid, as a glowing, winged figure flies down between it and its prey.

   “Have at thee, FOUL BEAST!”

The angel takes up a stance with her flaming sword pointed forwards, winding up to lunge. The monster turns to flee, but in a flash, the angel flies low and pierces its head from beneath through a soft spot in its throat, the speed and force of the movement causing the creature's whole cranium to explode, and the rest of its body slumps out of the train, going limp.

She drifts to a stop in the sky. With a single swish she shakes the blood from her blade, and then sheathes it. 

She’s not glowing as brightly now - and in this calmer moment, Cole can finally understand what he's looking at. The angel has pale blue skin, featureless glowing eyes, a long white ponytail, and a flaming halo behind her head. Her armour is silver and royal purple, the intricate detailing chipped and tarnished with use. He can feel a rush of wind with every beat of her enormous white wings.

She floats back down to Earth and inspects the decapitated form of her fallen foe.

   “Huh… That’s odd – my enchanted blade should have returned the creature's soul to its realm of origin. What a pain, I’ll have to collect it manually.”

   “E-excuse me- ”

Her steely gaze makes Cole flinch as it flicks to him.

   “…What just happened?”

Her eyebrows go up in surprise, her expression grave.

   “You can see me? You can see this thing?”

Cole just nods quickly.

   “That’s… that’s not good. If things like us are taking on a fully corporeal presence here, that can only mean… the walls between realms…”

She’s cut off by an explosion in the distance. In the dark of the night, a city on the horizon is suddenly lit up in flames. A chorus of screams can be heard, even this far out. For a fraction of a second, a crack of lightning reveals a couple dark silhouettes of things even further away, entities taller than skyscrapers, eyes blazing red. Like something out of a nightmare.

The angel turns back to Cole with a renewed sense of urgency.

   “What’s your name, soldier?”

   “I’m not a-”

   “You are now. Quickly now, your name.”

   “…Cole. Cole Bolton.”

   “Genevieve. Fifth legion of angelic Valkyries. Stick with me, do as I say, and you’ll survive. Understood, Cole?”

Everything is chaos. Everything that Cole knew is falling apart. But following instructions is something familiar. This is something he can do.

   “…Yes ma’am.”

---

Some time later, we cut to a rocky white desert, littered with the ruins of civilisation. A convoy of armoured vehicles, horse-drawn carriages built from salvaged truck parts, winds its way towards a broken city. 

With a CRACK and a plume of fire, a sudden explosion rocks the road ahead. The convoy swerves to a halt as the drivers try to calm the panicking horses. They look around for the source of the attack – and find themselves surrounded and outnumbered on all sides by raiders in camouflage white rags, emerging from hiding spots amidst piles of rubble.

One raider in particular, a bald, bearded, weaselly sort of man in a duster, a fiery energy crackling at his fingertips, strides forward to address the drivers.

   “Folks, you’ve done a wonderful job in takin’ yer cargo this far, but we’ll be takin’ it from here. I need everyone out of the cars, any resistance, and yer lives’ll be forfeit, yada yada, you know what we’re doin’.”

   “COLE! GET OUT HERE AND DO WHAT WE PAY YOU FOR!” A driver screams.

A hatch on the side of the first carriage is kicked open, and a hulking warrior emerges, dropping heavily to the ground. From head to toe, he’s bound in a top-heavy armour made from monster parts - his left pauldron is a reptilian skull the size of a beachball, his right pauldron is a similarly sized spiked carapace of some enormous beetle-like beast. Strapped to the side of a clunky survival backpack is a massive toothy axe, almost as tall as the man it’s attached to, obviously crafted from a massive jawbone. 

As he moves to interpose himself between the convoy and the apparent leader of the raiders, he removes a horned helmet to reveal the haggard, aged, unshaven face of Mr Cole Bolton. Both the men raise their eyebrows at each other in slow recognition.

   “Cole… Bolton? That you?”

   “Long time no see, Graham.”

   “Damn right, long time no see. When was it, the Christmas office party… 2013? Or 2014?”

   “2014. That was my last year at the company.”

   “God, yeah. Mine too, ‘coz they never replaced the head of IT, they just added his responsibilities onto everyone else’s plate for no extra pay.”

   “Did they really?! That’s terrible.”

   “Yeah, yeah. By the way, how’s your little one, what’s-‘er-name…? Fillian! How’s Fillian?”

Cole grimaces.

   “Still… still looking for her.”

Graham nods solemnly.

   “I’m sorry, man. Lotta that goin’ around.”

   “I know. How’s your folks? How’s Maria?”

   “Not great man. Could really use some of that medicine you’re transporting to the outlier base.”

  “WHAT ARE YOU DOING, COLE?!” The driver shouts.

   “Give me a moment, I’m negotiating!”

The raider snorts.

   “Oh, is that what you’re doing? Nah mate, this ain’t a negotiation. You’re giving us everything, and you’re walking away.”

  “Graham… you’re robbing a charity. If you joined up with us, you’d get your medicine, and you wouldn’t be depriving anyone else of it. Why are you doing this?”

The raider chuckles darkly, sifting magical fire through his fingers like he’s practising a sleight of hand trick.

   “You haven’t changed a bit, ‘ave you Cole? Always the ethics professor. Even when the world has ended, you still think it matters whether you say your pleases and thank you’s, and share like a good little boy. Face it man, in this world, it’s every man fer ‘imself.”

   “I’d say in times of hardship is when ethics and cooperation matters most.”

   “Yeah, you would say that, wouldn’t you? Well, as fun as this little catch-up has been, I’ve got a robbery to finish. Now are you gonna give me what I want, or are we gonna have to do a fight about it?”

The power flares in the raiders hand, his patience clearly running out. Cole’s hand is on his axe.

   “Answer the question. Why are you doing this?”

The raider returns the question with a blast of burning energy that shrieks through the air like a firework. Somehow, even at close range, with a practised flourish Cole is able to draw his axe and parry the blast into another raider to his right. Wasting no time, he throws the axe clean through Graham’s arm, taking Graham off his feet and neutralising him immediately.

As he hears the raiders forces take up arms and start to mobilise around him, Cole spins in their direction, slamming a hand into the ground. Angelic runes glow across his gauntlet, and in a pulse of light the battlefield ahead of him is transformed into quicksand, burying most of the raiders up to their waists. The ones that remain unburied recognise the feat of angelic magic on display and flee.

There’s a moment of quiet as the battle concludes, only broken by the raiders struggling in the sand, by Graham's groans as he clutches what is left of his arm, and finally, by a round of applause by the drivers of the convoy.

   “COLE! COLE! COLE!” They begin to chant.

Cole holds up a hand to stop them.

   “Bring out one crate of medicine.”

   “What? Why?”

   “Just do it. Please.”

Cole walks over to crouch down by Graham. He places a hand on his ruined arm, and with a warm, glowing touch, the stump scabs over, the bleeding stopped. Graham stares at this, bleary eyed and confused.

   “What the hell, man? How’d a softie like you get so tough?”

Cole sighs and offers a weak smile.

   “I understand why you’d think it’s every man for himself. We’ve all suffered since the collapse. We’ve all been forced to change and do horrible things in order to survive.”

Cole grabs his axe and stands up to leave.

   “It’s no excuse to be a dick if you can help it though.”

END