---

¤ Age, approximately.
NINETEEN! I'm Nineteen. I counted. I remember the very m-m-moment I was born, y'know! I was there th-the whole time! I can say, without a doubt, one HUNDO percent, that I am Nineteen, Three Months, and TWO DAYS...young.

¤ What Are You?
The Oilburner.

Someone who needs heat, and casts away shadows with light and flame alike. Always trying to "burn the midnight oil" as much as possible.

¤ What defines you?

Sharp. With a capital S.

---

¤ What do you want?
Some day...some day I wanna burn that whole damn jungle to the ground.

After that, I wanna build a car.

Then...? I wanna make a new Steelbird. An airplane! I wanna make a new Steelbird and fly, fly, fly away, far from here. Then I'll return with treasures and knowledge! There's gotta be someplace out there for people like me. I've seen pictures of places where there IS no jungle. They can h-h-help us.

¤ What do you believe?

Truth. Truth truth truth. I think the truth is that we had something really good going and then we all screwed it up. Nature threw a little temper tantrum and all the weak-minded l-l-LUNATICS took the opportunity to go on murderous rampages. Steelbird Landing, and places like it, are the ONLY hope! Every where else is full of BRAIN DEAD MORONS! One day things will get back to how they used to be. I'm probably not gonna live to see it, though, but SOMEONE will, and they're gonna look at a big statue of me and say "Gee thanks, Belly Button, you really had something good going on."

¤ What do you follow?

If you're anywhere near as smart as I am, you probably g-guessed it. That's right! My kneecaps. No HAHA, no, it's my NOODLE, of course! My brain, my mind, that wonderful p-p-pile of electrified grey matter rattling around in my noggin! It's NEVER lead me astray. It IS me, actually. I'm my brain! What else would I follow, if not me my brain?

¤ A scarcity embodied:

(Time. Button has so much she wants to do and not enough time to do it. She was born in the wrong time. She yearns for a time that has past. To her, everything moves so agonizingly slow.)

¤ Basic Instincts:

I always have goggles and a mask. If not on my face, then on standby! Never know when a bunch of small particles are gonna fly in your face.

I always return to my garage.

...And I've got a lighter or a flint and tinder or a matchbox or a tinderbox on me. Just a little something to start a little fire.



¤ What do you most regret doing?

One time one of my fires got out of control. Someone had built a homestead on the outskirts- I didn't see it there b-b-because I was so excited, I really had the itch that time. I don't think there was anyone inside. At least I hope there wasn't. I didn't check. =

¤ Who do you owe?

I owe my Momma everything.

¤ What/Who are you addicted to? What are you willing to do to acquire it?

I'm addicted to...knowledge. Books. Stories. Scrap. I NEED a project to work on. I need to be DOING something, otherwise why am I even alive!?

¤ Who's intentions do you question?

There's a w-woman named Vineleaf that comes around to my garage. She says she only wants to learn how to read but she looks at my gadgets and my toys and my engines. And she looks at me when she thinks I'm not looking. I don't know what she r-r-really wants from me, but sh-she really creeps me out.

¤ Who wants you all to themselves?

People in faraway places. Who-Gives-A-Fuck, probably. They hear about my hands and my brain and they want to get at me but I'm a solo operator! I'm a WOMAN OF THE PEOPLE! NO GODS NO KINGS!

---

S-s-sometimes, when one of my fires goes REALLY, REALLY HOT, and it's really really dark, and I'm really really all alone, I feel like it talks to me. I know it's not real. I know it's just that nasty nasty nasty l-light, up over my head. But it tells me to keep burning. It feels like I go on fire, too, and it feels good. I feel like I can turn into the King Midas of the inferno, and everything I touch melts away in my hand. I'll drown in the ashes. When it's over, there will only be cinders and peace. A Great Phoenix will rise and rule and soar and look upon my finest work and respect me. The Great Phoenix- that's what the fire says to me sometimes.

It's scary. I don't want the Phoenix to come h-h-here. Only SOME things need to be destroyed. Other things need to be BUILT. And I get to choose. Only me. Only Button.

So I usually bring a book to read while I'm setting fires. Just in case I need to get my mind off things.

OWN WHAT YOU'VE BECOME

The Oilburner? I've seen her in the night, lit by the orange glow of a fire. I hope that little spark doesn't consume us all...

YOUR FATHER RECENTLY GOT INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR WHEREABOUTS. WHO LET IT SLIP?

Pr-probably m-m-m-m-me... I...I haven't been c-c-careful. I knew I shoulda had mom ch-change her name! He's...he's not gonna come here, is he..? Wh-w-whatever! Whatever! I'm not scared of him! He comes here, I'll just set him on fire!

YOU'VE SEEN ONE OF THE MONSTERS IN THE JUNGLE BEFORE. WHAT DID IT LOOK LIKE? WHAT DID IT SAY TO YOU?

I kn-know I shouldn't leave by myself. But, I don't like it when other people w-watch me burn things. So...y'know. I have to go. And the fire usually keeps animals away. Usually. U-usua...

Um...well. It was tall. Must have been nearly 6 meters tall. It looked like it was about to fall over. So it...it had to lean on the trees for support. It was narrow, and...mossy. And wet. And quiet. Way, way, too quiet quiet...quiet. I couldn't see it's face, it was t-too dark up there. The flames...didn't reach. It asked me...why.

But there was no way it really knew what it was asking me. Infact- I-I-I was probably just s-suffering from auditory pareidolia! Or m-maybe it's just a habit, from the...human it used to be. I screamed and ran away, and I thought it was gonna strangle me to death with it's super creepy long fingers.

It's not...mad at me, is it? For burning down the jungle? No way. No way. Just a monster. Just wanted to eat me or kill me or...turn me into one of it. I dunno! Just one more reason to INCINERATE THAT PLACE!

YOU HAVE SUSPICIONS THAT ONE OF YOUR "STUDY FRIENDS" HAS ULTERIOR MOTIVES... WHO WAS IT, AND WHAT DID YOU SEE THEM DO?

Vineleaf. Vineleaf, Vineleaf, Vineleaf. Look, I'll say it- she's hot, okay? And m-maybe some part of my h-hormone addled brain is just making things up, so I think I have her attention. But I know what I know, and I think what I think. And that lady is...I dunno! She's weird! She looks at me! I catch her in the mirror looking at me when she thinks I'm n-not looking. And she's so...touchy. I have to stop her from g-going into the back rooms.

O-okay, look, I'm not crazy. I swear she pick-pocketed me. Reached right into my o-overall back pocket and t-took my protractor! I think one time I caught her tr-trying to sn-sneak out with my calculator! I can't be sure, though.

Now, I know what you're thinking: "Belly Button...why don't you just set her on fire? Or ban her from your shop?"

W-well, arson is illegal in Steelbird Landing. And for good reason, don't get me wrong. And well...somehow, she always talks me out of it. Always apologises, always seems so genuine. Maybe she's just dumb? And other p-people seem to like her. I dunno. I dunno what her deal is. I wish she would just leave me alone.

Plus plus plus...well... my mom knows her dad. And her dad, Orchard, helped my mom escape. So even if Vineleaf is a weirdo or a dumbass, I f-feel like I...owe her something? She was just a baby when her dad made the run Steelbird Landing. But in a way, I guess we did it together. I dunno.

SOMEONE HAS OFFERED YOU A LOT OF JINGLE FOR A SPECIAL PROJECT. WHO WAS IT, AND WHY DID YOU TURN THEM DOWN?

Probably gotta be Spider. Sh-she asked me to make a smoke bomb. Spider is kinda creepy. So I said: why do you need a smoke bomb? And she says, to put out fires. Then she asked me if I know much about chemicals. And I said yes. And then SHE said if I know anything about p-putting people to sleep with the chemicals. And I asked her wh-why, and she said it's because she has insomnia. Then she just gives me this big price. Like woah, lady, I ain't even said yes yet. I turned her down, said I was busy. Told her to go see Salamander for her insomnia, if she cares about it so much.

Look...I'm not stupid, right? Smoke bomb? Sleeping stuff? That's biological warfare. You can combine those two things reaaalll easy. Sleeping bomb? Who makes that? Who needs that? Regular bombs, sure. Sleeping bombs? I dunno. Seems suspicious.

SOMEONE TAKES ISSUE WITH YOU AND ALL YOUR INVENTIONS. WHO IS IT, AND WHAT HAVE THEY DONE ABOUT IT SO FAR?

Jerry Fuckin' Can. I hate that guy. Fat bastard. Stupid Jerry. God damn Luddite. Religious sonova bitch. Says that technology was the reason the world went to shit in the first place. Says I'm makin' the same mistakes. Says I'm gonna burn the world to cinders! Fuck you, Can. I'm gonna burn your house down. He threatens me! With his eyes! He doesn't say anything outloud, only to me, when he's alone with me during low hours or when I'm workin. I swear he broke some of my wooden windows. And maybe HE'S THE ONE that tried to steal my calculator!? Or my abbacus!? I dunno! I dunno dunno dunno! I wish he would just go away. And he says I'm an arsonist. Well, SO WHAT IF I AM!? AND HE CAN'T PROVE NOTHIN'!

L-look. I get it. I'm...not like a lot of other people! I j-just wish someone would try and do their thing, instead of being all sn-SNEAKY about it! Just make your move! Vineleaf and Spider and Jerry Can are always snoopin' and sneaking and lying to me and everyone and I just- I just HATE IT! I'm not good with people, okay!? Why do people gotta take advantage of that!? Jesus! I'm not hurtin' nobody!

---

¤Your theme song goes here, if you are so inclined.

¤ Age, approximately.
“Erm.. I wasn’t taught to count above ten?”

22

¤ What Are You?
The Tribal Heir

The heir of a tribe not too far from Steelbird Landing, though exiled by those who seek to keep the power from entering his hands. He seeks to retake his birthright from the sister who had taken it away from him in a violent coup with the men of the tribe, her consorts.

¤ What defines you?
HOT



¤ Who are you?

Tell us a little bit about your history. What are you known for? Who loves you? Who hates you? What spins your wheels?

“I am Nothing, firstborn to the Lake Strippers Tribe, and heir to it and the scavenging lands surrounding it as well as the people who reside in it. I am firstborn to Chief Ash and his wife Locus, and for the very beginnings of my life I was groomed to take over the tribe, to know it’s lands and it’s people so that I may know what I own. Though, not two summers after I was born did my mother bear a daughter named Hare. I grew up with them and became a regular sight amongst the people as we roamed the jungle and the scavenge lands that were near it. It was these lands that I grew to know, walking the forest floors as my ancestors did so long before and that their ancestors had set.

Now, I will say, I did not grow up in the typical fashion of a child of the tribe or say, the Landing, as I was dotted upon and given just about everything that I could ask, especially because I was my father’s only son and heir. With that, came my arrogance, as I tended to view myself as the next great step of our people because of how I was treated by everyone and even the shamans looked upon me and called me a chosen of the Maelstrom. I was a beautiful child, I was loved by all and envied by those who could not hold my position and power, though none envied me more than Hare. As she looked upon my form and saw me not as family, but as a rival, and quickly, I looked upon her as the same.

Yet, she proved to be a rival that challenged me at every turn and the one thing I can thank her for would be the simple fact that I would not have become the chosen of the people if she had not pushed me out of my father’s eyes. Hare as we grew up, was shown to be more beautiful, smarter, and stronger, attracting many suitors whereas my arrogance and shortsightedness isolated me from the realm of politics as I focused on the approval of our people. Where she directed hunts and ration, I led the hunts and fed the people. Where she stayed in the shade, I worked in the sun to pull metal from wrecks. This is why the people had chosen me.

Even into our late adolescence did she prove to challenge me at every turn, but by then it was too late as she had become the favorite of my father and she would use that against me. One night, at the height of a feast, she took the chance to say how I neglected my duties as the heir and suggested that the shamans inspect me to see if I still held their favor. This was a challenge that I could not let go, and stormed off to the shamans after throwing slurs at her, calling her harlot and breeding sow for her suitors. The eldest shaman, Oak, looked upon me and laughed that I had been challenged, calling her absurd but would humor me with the ritual.

It was that night where I would first lay with a shamaness, I would be trapped in that ecstasy until I would meet the ancestors in some strange field that I cannot recall. Their forms were gone with the exception of their eyes and they watched me, I could hear their whispers as they spoke of me. Then, a great wind surged around me as the Great One judged me. I could still hear a voice of thunder and power, the ancestors all speaking the will of the Great One.

They said to me, ‘You are just and live as the others do. You are the future… but you will learn humility and what it means to be… Nothing.’

I awoke to hear shouting and the sounds of a battle, my attendants broke me from my ecstasy and tore me away from the tribe, making haste to the jungle to escape. At first, I thought it was the sun worshippers, but I was told that it was my sister who brought on her consorts and slew father and many of the shamans to take power of the tribe. I was meant to die in my ecstasy, but it seemed that they had gotten me out in time, but not before many of our shamans and shamanesses.

I felt horrid.

We made haste to Steelbird Landing, looking to gain an ally in these times but the trek was long without anything to ride upon and not all of us made it. In fact, only about eight of us did. Yet, we found no aid outside being offered a place to stay, but that did not stop me from trying to convince the people of my cause. Though, it seemed these people would not see my plight, though I try as much as I can.

At least the women here are as beautiful as the shamanesses, this much I know.”

¤ What do you want?

“I want MY tribe, MY people, and MY power! It is the law of the tribe that I, the firstborn, inherit it once father passes! And my good for nothing sister thinks she can take that from me! I’ll make sure she regrets everything she did, every single decision! I am the son and chief of the Lake Strippers, it is all mine!”

¤ What do you believe?
“It’s not always might makes right, even if my sister and the rest of the tribe would believe that such a notion would make her and her consorts think that they will stay in charge of my home. Strength isn’t everything, you have to be kind and smart with people, I know this one, and that is why I’m a threat to her and her little toys.”

¤ What do you follow?
“Hmm. I’d say that I follow… my home. I need to get back to it, for the sake of mother and father. I must lead the tribe forwards, retake my birthright, by any means necessary. My sister will not get the better of me and she knows that, our home belongs to me and me alone!”

¤ A scarcity embodied:
“Lust, I always want something. Whether or not that’s leading me into the arms of some wench or if it’s something I want or need, like a wrench. And no, I don’t want it because it rhymes with wench… okay maybe that’s why. I do tend to lust after power, though, can’t go wrong with power.

Whatever, give me the direction to some people who’ll help me get my tribe back.”

¤ Basic Instincts:
“Always follow the word of the shamans, for their word is law, just as mine.

Always pay respect to the ancestors after each hunt, so that they may not take our food to the afterlife.

Most importantly, keep those who love you more than an arms length away, never know if they may turn on you.”


Pick 5 of the following questions and answer them. If the answer requires a named person, you may make up a name or pick another player's character. You don't NEED their permission but they'll like you better if you have it, or at least hash something out with them. If you make up a name, that's all you get to make up. Your loving GM will do the rest, baby. Sit back and hate it. (You can steal names others have already used, too. I love it when my players make up some right and proper bastards.)

¤ What is the worst thing you've ever done to stay alive?

“After Hare, my sister, took over the tribe and sent me and the few who were loyal to me into exile, we had to March through the jungle aimlessly to get to Steelbird landing. We had no food and we didn’t have time to hunt or forage because Hare’s consorts were on our tail. So, those of us who were strong enough, made the decision.

I still can’t get the taste of them out of my mouth. I- They were killed swiftly and painlessly, but we had to… we had to.”

¤ Who did you fail to save? What did it cost?

“The eldest shaman, Oak, he knew what would happen if my sister came to power. I tried to get him to run with us, but he said that he was too old to but he would never let what was law to die. They had to drag me away… and now, I know that our spiritual connection to the jungle had been cut with his death.”

¤ Who makes you feel murderous the moment you lay eyes on them? Why?

“Hare, she took everything from me, and her consorts for blindly following her and betraying everything that our tribe stood for. Once I retake my birthright, I’ll make sure that they will feel nothing but pain in their afterlife, nothing but torment and suffering!”

¤ Who's intentions do you question?

“I question the leader of Steelbird landing for not wishing to aid me in retaking my home, the Landing would gain an ally between them and the sun people. Plus, Hare has made it clear that she does not like the Landing, instead making it known that they should be sacrificed to the ancestors and the Maelstrom.”

¤ Who or what do you worship?

“We worship the ancestors and the great Maelstrom, the God of the Storm, Winds, and the Mind. We praise them both nightly, offer some of our food to them, so that they may stay within the realm of the dead.”





“The Ancestors and the Great God of the Maelstrom, they come to us and give us warnings or threats. Both sides judge us for our deeds and tell us how to correct ourselves before doom should tend our very souls apart, tell us to do better and do what we must in order to survive. They will surround us, talk to us while the Great One watches. They only speak the truth that the Great One will, only speaking when he desires. It is the truth that Great One determines.

Yet, this cannot be achieved without the aid of a shaman through ritual of ecstasy. The men converse with the shamanesses and the women through the shaman, many different herbs are used but given how rare they can be to find, we tend to avoid having to use the ritual often.”





¤ YOU RECENTLY HAD CONTACT WITH THE MAELSTROM WITHOUT THE USE OF A SHAMANESS. WHAT HAPPENED? HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT IT?

"It was strange, I was stripping an old construct before I happened to fade away into the lands of eyes and judgement. I was asked what it meant to be Nothing and I answered that I do not know, but I heard the voice of Shaman Oak amongst them which means he is dead. Yet, when I awoke, I felt a mixture of elation, to know that the ancestors still watch me, and fear, because I do not know what this connection means or implies."

¤ YOU HAVE FELT LOVE ONCE. PURE AND TRUE. WHAT WAS THEIR NAME? WHAT DID THEY TAKE FROM YOU WHEN THEY LEFT?

"I.. Her name was Trails, on of the first I had met in the scavenge lands after being exiled. Her hair was that of the rusted metal that we scrapped and her skin was sun kissed, freckles dotted her face... Our time was short and we spent that time together in every moment, but she could not stay in the lands as her clan, I think they were gangers, was leaving to a different part of the salvage lands. It was a place I could not follow, but she took my necklace that signified my status in the tribe. I yearn to meet her again every time I go to those lands."

¤ SOMEONE DESPICABLE HAS OFFERED TO HELP YOU. WHY DO YOU STRUGGLE TO REJECT THEIR AID?

"A slaver, his name being Ripper, offered the service of his slaves to fight and help me retake my tribe. However, with some of my people being taken by slavers I cannot justify stooping so low to recruit aid by someone so dishonorable as to sell others. Yet, I know that my sister would do something similar if she were in my place."



¤ Wolf Totem

(Ignore what’s in her hair and the bones on her shoulder)
What do I look like? I suppose that is a good question. My skin is… light brown. Olive, I think, is the term once used. My hair white - white as the driven snow, was the old expression. I keep it long and let it hang free. Tattoos. I have lots of tattoos. Some of them from the cult, some from before even then, I think. Some from after, too. My eyes… heh, well, wherever they are now I don’t have them any more. Priest sewed the sockets shut too after he took them, for good measure.

¤ Age, approximately.
Unknown. Witch herself doesn’t remember. She looks young, but how young is impossible to place, and she seems to hold memories far beyond that.

¤ What Are You?
The Apostate.

She who looked from the light, defied the Maelstrom and its cult. She who wished for normalcy.

¤ What defines you?
Weird. I suppose. I suppose it is weird to see what the others cannot. Or refuse to see.



¤ Who are you?
I am Witch.

Early childhood… of everything I’ve seen and remember, that isn’t one of them. I don’t remember… anything, really. Anything before Priest. I remember him extending his hand to me, a lost soul in the jungle. I saw, back then, I saw properly. I still remember his face. Clean, pale, like a ghost appearing from the mist. He gave me his hand, and I took it in mine. I don’t know how I looked then. Maybe younger. Maybe not. It’s impossible to tell. How long ago was that? Years? Months? Decades? Perhaps it’s been only a day. I don’t seem to have aged or changed much, so maybe it was. Perhaps it was a dream? Another concoction of the Maelstrom? Another distant memory from a time long past?

I lived with the Cult for years. I… ”lived” with them, I suppose, but I always lived elsewhere in truth. Even when Priest took me with him to bed I was not truly there. Almost every second I spent with them seems like trance. A fever dream. The Maelstrom was all I knew. I suppose I did fill my role for them, then, the living conduit to the Maelstrom they always wanted. Less of a person, or their “high priestess”. Simply a thing that suited them well. I held the knife during the sacrifices, but it was they who killed them. I saw none of what I told them, saw nothing I recall, anyway. I know I saw something, of course - lying or theatrics has never been a strong suit of mine. Maybe I just chose to forget. Maybe the Maelstrom took it from my mind.

All I really remember about those days was how much I hated it. How much I hated them. I wanted to leave. I wished for anything else - I saw visions in the Maelstrom. The lives of other people, normal people. I wanted to be like them, I wanted to be like them so badly, so dearly. I told someone I wanted to leave, to live with them, to be normal instead. I thought I could trust her. Her name was… Blossom. They all had names like that. Priest named her Blossom of the Maelstrom’s Grace. He gave me a name too, not that I remember it. Perhaps it was the “Maelstrom’s grace” that took that too. Maelstrom couldn’t save my eyes, though. Priest did it himself. He held a knife to my neck before them all, he proclaimed that I was a false prophet, that I would be punished. Blossom stood to one side, smiling. The last thing I ever saw, really, truly saw with my own eyes, was her smile. It wasn’t directed at me, but at Priest. All of them smiled at him. He put his thumbs to my eyes and pushed. I don’t remember after that.

I remember waking up in pain, clawing at where my eyes had been. They were gone, hollow sockets sewn shut with wire. I screamed for hours until they came, hungry for the flesh of the blind prey in their midst. I don’t remember how I survived, only that I did. Blood, blood was involved, I think. I was covered in blood. Mine and theirs. All I know is that I Saw for the first time. I saw myself as the Maelstrom did, I saw my surroundings, the dead forms of the beasts of the forest, the spear in my right hand. The revolver in my left - a Taurus Model 689, a voice told me. One of the voices that talks most often.

I don’t… really remember how I came to Steelbird Landing, either. I wandered for a while, I think. Shot things that needed to be shot. Stabbed things that needed to be stabbed. Fucked things that wanted fucking. Life is just a dream, anyway, isn’t it? We do what we will before we return to the Maelstrom. I do what any Weird person does in Steelbird Landing. I sell myself. Sex, plenty looking for that - some times I am too. Blood - everyone wants it spilled, some times they deserve it too, I suppose. I tell people what I see for them, or what was them. Some times they get angry when they don’t like what I have to say. Soothsayer, I guess, is the word for someone who does that. Never really felt like it applied to me. People come to hear what the Maelstrom has to say, though, and I tell them. Medicine too, I don’t remember where I learned it or why, but some come to me when desperate, when none of the other doctors or healers can help them. I do what I can, from what I remember. Some times it even works, too. It works often enough that they keep coming to see me, anyway.

That’s Witch, I suppose, the sorry mess in front of you. What? You want more?

¤ What do you want?
I do not know this myself. I can list ephemeral wants and desires, infatuations and temporary fixations, but I myself drift through life without purpose, without guidance and direction.

¤ What do you believe?
The truth is that all is relative. We once believed we knew the ins and outs of the universe. We believed we knew what was up, what was down. The Maelstrom proves them all wrong. What can we judge, knowing that nothing is as it once was? Knowing that it never will be again.

¤ What do you follow?
The Maelstrom. For it is the one constant in life. I listen to its screams within my mind, and I know peace. The pain it brings will always be near, deep within me, nestled against my soul. I have no direction in life, and so life passes by me without notice.

¤ A scarcity embodied:
Hope. All I have known in life is the screaming of the Maelstrom within my mind. I have seen things not from this world - or perhaps they are. Glimpses into the past, a past so long distant it is as if the earth itself had forgotten until now. Perhaps it is the future. My life, my being, are carried along on the currents of a great river. I have never known anything but the whims of fate as they carry me through this river. All I desire is a raft.

¤ Basic Instincts:
The Maelstrom watches us. It always watches us. If you believe it does not you are a fool.

Keep your friends close, and a weapon closer. Be prepared for betrayal. Be prepared to kill.

The dead speak. And I listen.



¤ What do you most regret doing?
Not leaving the Children of the Maelstrom sooner. Not dying, and bringing them with me to the Maelstrom they so dearly loved.

¤ Who owns you? Literally or figuratively.
The Maelstrom. I am its slave. I see because it wills it. I lost my sight because of it. I know not who I truly am for it has taken this from me. I see memories, my own or from it I can no longer tell. Some I think to be mine are far too far gone to be if I am who I think I am, yet I know them as closely as my last meal.

¤ Who makes you feel confused the moment you lay eyes on them? Why?
Priest. The man who blinded me. The man who raised me. The man who took me to bed with him every night. The man who told me how I was his jewel. The man who I thought I loved. The man who gave me everything and took it away.

¤ What are you addicted to? What are you willing to do to acquire it?
Sex. Pleasure. Alcohol. Drugs. Anything to dull the mind. Anything to escape the Maelstrom for a time. Some times it fails. Some times it succeeds.

¤ Who's intentions do you question?
The Maelstrom. For it speaks to me, and I to it, yet it never says a word. I question my purpose within it. I question why I must know it. I question why it chose me, or perhaps why I was chosen by something beyond even it. It has defined my life, and I know much of it - yet I know nothing.




It’s adorable, and sad, and enviable, that some only know the Maelstrom in brief flashes. I hear it scream with soft whispers into my mind. When I became blind, it reached out to me, and I saw as it did. The ghosts living with us. The shadows upon the mind. I see it all now, through its eyes. What is the Maelstrom? Whenever I sleep, it greets me. It is different every time. A churning sea, colors out of space lighting the souls that swim within in an eerie glow. A blank mist. A brothel, the people within used by the Maelstrom and those yet to fall into its grasp. An open meadow. A distant land that surrounds me. The Maelstrom is everything and everywhere, and it is nowhere.





"The Apostate, huh? I don't trust anything or anyone that closely tied to the Maelstrom. And baby, I can practically see it dancing around your pretty little skull."

¤ ONE MEMORY FROM THE TIME BEFORE PREACHER HORRIFIES YOU IN PARTICULAR. WHAT DO YOU RECALL?
I told you, I don’t remem- I do. One thing. It was… oh… it was… why would you make me remember. Why is this happening?! I don’t know I don- oh god, wake up please. Wake up! I can’t, the ground swallowing all those people. Planes falling from the sky like stones. Those people, oh god, Juan, please wake up. Please, we have to go. We have to go now, I… we have to hide, to run. No, no! Not him! Not her! Not my little girl, please!

The gun, yes, the shelf. In the safe. I can’t stop. What are those things? O-oh god, they’re… die! Die! Die you disgusting things! Run. Hide. Survive. It speaks to me. What is that in the sky? They call it the Maelstrom. I don’t want it to speak to me. I want Juan back. I want little Rosa back.

Why did you make me recall that? Why?

¤ SOMEONE IS TRYING TO RESCUE YOU FROM THE GRIP OF THE MAELSTROM. WHO ARE THEY? WHY DO YOU WANT THEM TO FAIL?
I… I’m sorry give me a second, I’m still recovering. I… maybe it’s Trinket. Nice man, I think. Shows up weekly looking for sex, pays in drugs. Not sure what he wants, truthfully, but he did say something about rescuing me from the Maelstrom once. Maybe it’s Rocket. He reminds me of Priest a bit, but in a good way, I suppose? He’s certainly interesting. Maybe it’s Brick, she shows up a lot too, built like her namesake even, I think she’s a real softie on the inside, she comes for sex too but also likes to talk. I… I don’t know, truth be told. I know a lot, but I don’t know this.

¤ THE LAST PERSON YOU KILLED WATCHES YOU IN YOUR DREAMS. WHAT WAS THEIR NAME, AND WHAT WERE THEIR LAST WORDS TO YOU?
Piano wire. That’s what I used to kill her. Have you ever heard a piano? It’s a beautiful sound. Haunting, some times. Melancholy, others. Some times it can even be cheerful. No, really, I’m serious! Piano wire… She tells me every night how it felt as the wire cut her throat. Her name was Brass Tacks, for some reason. She just called herself BT, though. I wonder how her girlfriend and boyfriends are doing? I only saw them once, when she asked me why I took her from them. She showed me them all laughing, roasting the meat of some big animal over an open fire. Salt and spices rubbed into the meat, the fat dripped off and rose up in smoke, they all cut slices off and stuffed them into fresh baked breads. I took that from her. Her last words…? I never heard them myself, but she tells me every night. They all tell me every night. Every single one of them. Hers was… she asked me if heaven was real. If the Maelstrom was heaven. She asked me if I had ever known love. She asked me why I was taking it from her. Every night, she asks me. Some times she lets me talk back too. I wish I could tell her, but even I don’t know. Maybe they aren’t within the Maelstrom at all, maybe they’re with me, until I finally go to it as well, wherever it leads. I don’t know.

Why do you have so many questions, anyway?



¤Your theme song goes here, if you are so inclined.
Oh! I remember these! They were a thing, before the Maelstrom’s time.

…

Nah, pass.