Cio Later is a series of short stories and a part of the "Kalloverse", created by StewieGriffin34. Taking place in the year 2218 CE, this series stars a young Lovable Rogue named Cio Redwell. As an outlaw, Cio tries to survive in post-apocalyptic Los Diablos without getting caught by the Armed Forces Squadron.
Along the way, he meets a girl named Katelyn Wood, who suffers from similar circumstances (being a wanted outlaw with a high bounty and good reasons to do what she does) and befriends her.
This show provides examples of:
- Action Girl: Katelyn is just as much of a force to be reckoned with as Cio.
- After the End: Cio Later takes place after a series of natural disasters (a result of climate change reaching a head) that caused a societal collapse.
- Alliterative Name: Squadron Sergeant Stalwart.
- Artificial Stupidity: Killdrones have a very basic AI that is easy to exploit. Cio has gotten so used to facing them that to him, fighting them just isn't fun anymore; bloodroids in particular are more challenging and that's the way he likes it.
- The Bad Guys Are Cops: The Armed Forces Squadron is the post-apocalyptic equivalent to the police, and constantly commit acts of Police Brutality and seize complete control over the wastes.
- Black-and-Grey Morality: Cio, Katelyn, and even Marty are hardly model citizens and have more than their share of morally ambiguous moments, but all three are saints compared to the Armed Forces Squadron and Mayor Goodwill.
- Black Comedy: A lot of the horrific elements of the world After the End are Played for Laughs.
- Cat Stereotype: Marty is a smart and heroic all-white cat.
- Crapsack World: Los Diablos was far from perfect in Seth in the City, but the city's problems are amplified considerably here:
- The mayor is a corrupt Dirty Coward who will allow any of his underlings to take the heat for his actions.
- The police force (now known as the Armed Forces Squadron) are, in 90% of cases, psychotic brutes who beat people they don't like just as badly as they do genuine criminals.
- The civilians are generally rude Ungrateful Bastards.
- Deadpan Snarker:
- Cio is far and away the most sarcastic character in the series.
- Squadron Sergeant Stalwart is also quite on the snarky side, especially when he has to deal with the stupidity of his own men.
- Everything Trying to Kill You: Outside of the already less-than-pleasant Los Diablos and other various cities, the wilderness is full of dangerous, aggressive animals; coyotes, bears, bobcats, and even deer have a tendency to attack travellers on sight.
- Fiery Redhead: Katelyn has reddish hair and is quick to anger.
- Heroic Canines, Villainous Felines: Inverted. Katelyn has a cat named Marty, whereas the Armed Forces Squadron has several dogs.
- Horror Comedy: The series takes place in a grim, post-apocalyptic future reminiscent of Fallout, but there's also a lot of snark, Black Comedy, and slapstick to go around.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Cio and Katelyn are hardly the most pleasant heroes in fiction (the former being a rude, cynical Deadpan Snarker and the latter having serious rage issues), but they are also trying to make Los Diablos a better place (or at minimum, suck a little less).
- Lovable Rogue: Cio is a wanted outlaw, but his charisma makes it hard to hate him.
- Mayor Pain: Mayor Goodwill is a malicious variant. He's a sniveling weasel who doesn't care what lows he has to stoop to as long as he makes it out unscathed. The only reason Los Diablos doesn't suffer more under his hands is because the city was already a toxic wastehole before he seized power.
- Mecha-Mooks: While there are a number of human Mooks that Cio has to deal with, robots tend to be the most common enemies he faces.
- Non-Malicious Monster: The robots and animals are not sapient and do not intentionally cause havoc; the robots are merely doing what they're programmed to do, while the animals are either hungry or defending themselves.
- Opportunistic Bastard: The current dystopian society only emerged after the societal collapse. With the vast majority of important documents destroyed in the apocalypse, opportunists swooped down and seized control.
- Perky Female Minion: Silver is an energetic Genki Girl in stark contrast to her boss/idol, Squadron Sergeant Stalwart.
- Police Brutality: The Armed Forces Squadron is filled with loose cannons who relish in the opportunity to abuse their power.
- Satisfied Street Rat: Cio had a horrible upbringing, his parents died when he was very young, and he constantly has to break the law in order to survive in the hellish landscape. However, he doesn't seem to mind much. Subverted in that Cio does hate his life and considers his past to be horrifying, but is in denial about it.
- Single-Task Robot: Killdrones, bloodroids, mechabats, cyberpedes, and the like are programmed for one purpose: neutralizing wanted criminals from the Armed Forces Squadron's database.
- Sliding Scale of Robot Intelligence: The various Mecha-Mooks in the series are at a low 1, completely lacking sapience or even sentience. As a result, they are behaviourally inflexible and their code simply cannot catch on to tricks.
- Unskilled, but Strong: In terms of raw power, killdrones are very formidable and can easily catch one off guard. However, as Cio learns, they are very easy to exploit once you've gotten used to dealing with them.
- World of Jerkass: In spades. About 95% of the people residing in the Los Diablos Wastes are either rude Jerkasses, excessively violent, morally corrupt, outright evil, Knight Templars, prejudiced, or some combination of the above. Even Cio and Katelyn aren't spared.
