Knowledge and Defend skills?

So I'm newer to AW and I really like some of the system, but I am more partial to DW. I'm trying really hard to wrap my brain around some things in AW difference between Seize by force and Go Aggro but think, maybe, I understand it after ready numerous threads and blogs on it.

But, I still don't see a basic knowledge skill like Spout Lore DW has. The Read Person doesn't apply, Read Sitch maybe? I guess that's the closest. I mean a player wants to see if they know x about the area, local history, foreign language, certain plant, etc what do they roll?

Also what about defending an ally? DW has Defend allows you to do some neat things to help protect someone. In AW would you use Under Fire if you wanted to protect an ally or local from an attack?

Thanks

I'm not so happy with Spout Lore's trigger, because it doesn't really follow the fiction. You aren't really doing anything in the world, just remembering. In Apocalypse World you either ask the MC and they tell you What Honesty/Prep Demands if its something you might reasonably know. Or maybe they'll Disclaim Decision Making and ask someone else at the table. And if neither of these quite make sense, you might choose to Open Your Brain allows you to interrogate the fiction, to find out information while the MC puts their bloody fingerprints all over it.

In the Apocalypse Engine, if there isn't a move for what the player is doing, that means that its the MC's job to respond with one of their moves. It doesn't (necessarily) mean that the game is lacking a move, but that the writer didn't feel like this action deserved one. Moves don't define what you can do, what you do defines what moves are rolled.

As for defending an ally, it depends what you're actually doing in the fiction. If you mean in a violent conflict, you're seizing the ally's safety by force and maybe the ally is helping(again, depending on the fiction). If they don't help, then taking definite hold would probably mean the ally doesn't get hurt and if they do help then On a 7–9, you also expose yourself to fire, danger, retribution or cost.

Ell975 thank you for taking the time to answer in such a detailed way. That helped a lot not only for my questions, but with the mindset of the game. It is very different than most mainstream systems and sometimes I think I'm having a hard time breaking those habits.

Thanks again