Byrd Man

World in Revolution: 1861

I awoke in the gray of the morning twilight; and as I lay waiting for the dawn, the long lines of the desired poem began to twine themselves in my mind. Having thought out all the stanzas, I said to myself, 'I must get up and write these verses down, lest I fall asleep again and forget them.' So, with a sudden effort, I sprang out of bed, and found in the dimness an old stump of a pen which I remembered to have used the day before. I scrawled the verses almost without looking at the paper.

--Julia Ward Howe, November 1861

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;

This was is no longer about something so heady as states' rights. With European involvement it has boiled down to one main issue: Emancipation. The emancipation of the Southern negro, as well as the emancipation of the Northern Yankee. The European bootheel seeks to push us down and wrap us in chains very much like those poor black devils down South. British ships blockade our ports and British armies mass in Canada for the express purpose of slapping the yoke of British imperialism back upon our throats. That is why we here at this paper say that we must take the fight to the would-be conquerors. We say that General McClellan should march the Army of the Potomac north while the Army of the Tennessee and Ohio march south with all due haste. On to Canada and on to Charleston! God save our Nobel Republic!

--New York Tribune editorial, December 1861

He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:
His truth is marching on.

My fellow Americans,

As I've pondered over the situation we find ourselves in, I am suddenly struck with a story I once heard back home in Illinois. Two hunters found themselves in the woods, confronted by the sight of a massive bear. It was easily ten feet tall, maybe a thousand pounds. It had claws that could chop trees in half. The bear catches the scent of the two hunters and takes off after them. The first hunter slings his rucksack and weapons to the ground and begins to run. His friend inquires about that, saying that he can't outrun that bear. The first hunter simply replies "I don't need to outrun that bear, I just have to outrun you."

Make no mistake, the force we face is very much like the bear. It is large and angry. We have enemies massed to the North, to the South, and even out to sea. We are surrounded on nearly every side by hostile forces who seek our end. Like that hunter, we cannot outrun them. Unlike that hunter, we don't have anyone we can outrun. No help is coming, it is just us and us alone against the Southern rebels and the European meddlers. This conflict, which started out as an attempted rebellion has become much more. It is about the rights of all men, be they black or white, and the rights our Founders fought so hard to attain all those years ago. Our Republic sits upon a knife-edge. We have the chains of slavery to the South, and the chains of imperialism to the North. We cannot accept the enslavement of the negro, and we will not accept enslavement of the United States. This is no longer a Civil War. It is a second war for American independence. It is a Second American Revolution! And we declare that all men shall be free!

--Abraham Lincoln to Congress, January 1862

Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.

World in Revolution: 1861

Should we wait a few more days before sending some war orders, Outcast? I know you said you wanted to do a mini-update sometime after the big one.

World in Revolution: 1861

Fun times. I'm in the IRC, you dirty Reb. We can discuss how much you suck.

World in Revolution: 1861

I'm from South Carolina! Birthplace of the Confederacy. 48th in Education, 7th in Diabetes!

World in Revolution: 1861

The US Prevails.

World in Revolution: 1861

I think I'm borderline schizophrenic, so that may explain some things.

World in Revolution: 1861

If we needed any more proof that Great Britain's involvement in our affairs is an act of avarice, we have no need to look further than this so-called treaty. Their blockade is nothing but a toll booth, gentlemen. They mean to turn our pain and suffering into some hair-brained scheme to fatten their own pockets. They talk about peace, they talk about rights and sovereignty, but make no mistake that all they care about is coin. Who cares about things like freedom or human decency when there is money to make? Like the Book has said 'it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God,' and so it seems that it will be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it will be for a ship filled with wheat to make it out of a New York harbor. Very well. While they starve in London, that wheat will rot while it sits in that New York harbor. Let us hope that when they meet their maker, those rich men will be able to shove that camel through the needle's eyes.

-- Representative Thaddues Stevens on the House floor.

World in Revolution: 1861

solamelike said
Ok that's it...Now I didn't want to be made an OUTCAST within this group but I am getting SO BOERD of these puns!How many one! two ! three! THORgili, I just have to let out a BIGSCREECH!Yes I know I KHO I just did a MAGNIFICENT ONE but I feel puns should be RARE.They shouldn't be some GIANT part of a conversation.Now I am not a BYRD MAN but I AMPHuriouse Now, please lets leave this DEDonus in the ground. Ok yes I am so lame.... like yeah..

...

World in Revolution: 1861

Pasta Sentient said
Also...How great would it be if through some insane dice roll or something that the Union falls on July 4th?

Not as great as if the whole UK collapsed on that day.

AegonVI said
Didn't the Union pull a massive victory in RL ACW on July 4th??

Gettysburg ended on July 3rd and the Siege of Vicksburg that finally locked the Mississippi down for the Union ended on the 4th. Fun fact: after the battle, the people of Vicksburg refused to celebrate the Fourth of July for nearly seventy years.

Ultimate DC | Character Repository

| Identity |
Jonah Hex

| Origin & Backstory |

Jonah Hex was born in 1980 and abandoned as a newborn at the Black Cherry Indian Reservation in New Mexico. All that was known about the baby was the name pinned to his diaper: Jonah Hex. He was taken in by a local family in the rez. Hex was a favorite of the family's patriarch and reservation chief, Thomas Eagle Feather. Eagle Feather taught Hex how to hunt, shoot, and track a wide variety of animals.

While Hex lived with the Eagle Feather family, the Black Cherry Reservation slowly withered away around them. The poor Native Americans who lived there were leaving their once proud homeland to seek jobs elsewhere, those that stayed behind were old men and drunks. Thomas Eagle Feather, seeing his beloved reservation crumbling, succumbed to alcoholism and became a violent abuser as the years went on. When Hex turned 18, he left the reservation never to return.

Unable to find work off the rez, Hex joined the Army.. Hex served as a corporal in the Army, under Company CO Jack Turnbull. After 9/11, Hex's regiment was dispatched to Afghanistan. While there in 2005, Hex stumbled upon Turnbull raping and torturing a young Afghan girl. Hex and Turnbull fought, with Turnbull permanently disfiguring Hex in the fight. Using his assault rifle, Hex shot the man dead. He lied about the circumstances of Turnbull's death, saying the Afghan girl killed Turnbull with his own gun while he watched. Hex was given an other than honorable discharge from the Army and came back to America, unsure of what to do and where to go. It was while he was in Kentucky, drowning his troubles into a bottle that he found the answer. He was at a bar one night when he saw a man arrested by a bounty hunter. After a lot of thought and consideration, Hex went about applying for a bounty hunter's license.

Nine year later, Hex roams across the country, seeking out only the highest risk and highest paying bounties. If you're wanted by someone and they want you bad enough, Jonah Hex will find you.

| Character Notes |
Nothing much on character notes. Pretty much Hex will travel around the country, doing bounty hunting work on both sides of the law. I do want to incorporate several of the DC Western characters like Bat Lash and Scalphunter into the modern day.

| Powers & Abilities |
No powers, but Hex is an expert tracker and hunter, as well as an excellent shot with guns.

| How is this character different? |

For starters, Hex is operating in the 21st century. The man is the same, just the background has changed around him. I want to tell a modern day western. I also want to try and bring in some of the other DC Western characters and do a new version of the classic Hex storyline featuring Turnbull.

| What is your goal with this character? |

Write modern day western/crime stories with Hex in the center of it all.

| Sample Post |

South Dakota

The Prairie Rose Indian Reservation. It's where the government sent the Sioux to die. That night was the first time I stepped foot on any rez since I left Black Cherry all those years ago. I told Belle a thousand times I don't do Indian work, especially skiptraces. Damn woman went ahead and told them I was coming. She said the money was worth it. Once a whore, always a whore.

I drove my pick-up down the road to the Prairie Rose Indian Casino. In the parking lot a bunch of teenagers tried their best to stare me down and look tough. One look at my face and they scattered, pissing their pants and running home to their mommas.

There were a lot of long stares once I entered the casino. Blackjack dealers eyed me and flinched before they quickly go back to their business. Half naked drink girls dressed as squaws walked by and quickly looked away shuddering. A young boy with an eyepatch gaped at me while he pushed a mop bucket down the hall. This was a casino in South Dakota, so they had to have seen their fair share of shady looking white trash, but nothing like me apparently.

"Who the fuck are you?" A big Indian with piercings in his nose and ears asked.

"Lookin' for Red Crow."

"What's your business, you ugly motherfucker?"

I scowled and sucked my teeth, before tilting my hat back. He was big, bigger than me by at least two inches and thirty pounds. He also had ten years youth on his side. All things considered he'd whoop my ass in a fair fight. But since when do I play fair?

"Nice earrings," said with a smirk. "Especially the ones on your right ear. When I was growin' up, I was told that only men of a certain...sexual persuasion, wore earrings in their right ear."

The big man started to walk towards me. My hands instinctively went to the brass knuckles in my right hip pocket. Like I said, I ain't one for fair fighting.

"Shunka, cut this shit out."

Shunka stopped in his tracks and turned. A large man with dark hair pulled back into a ponytail with a cigar in his hands stood at the entrance to an office, a large scowl on his face.

"Our friend here is the bounty hunter."

"That's right," I said. "Name's Jonah Hex."

"I'm Chief Lincoln Red Crow, welcome to Prairie Rose."

I looked at Shunka warily. "Thanks for the warm welcome."

"Shunka, search him for weapons. Then bring him back."

Shunka began to pat me down, pulling my .45 from the small of my back, the switchblade from my left pocket, the brass knuckles in my right pocket, the .38 on my left ankle, and the Bowie knife in my right boot.

"Looked like you had yourself a good time, Shunka," I said with a wink.

"Fuck you, white boy."

I followed Red Crow and Shunka back to his office. Lots of Indian artifacts, newspaper articles about the Wounded Knee standoff, some more articles about something called Dog Soldiers. I sat down across the desk from Red Crow and wait while he lit up another cigar.

"Shunka, go find Bad Horse. I need to see him. "

Shunka scurried off and closed the door behind him as he left. Red Crow took long, slow drags on his cigar and let the silence settle between us for nearly a minute before he spoke.

"The lady from Central City tells me you're the best tracker in the country."

"Belle'll say anything that gets her that finder's fee. I'm not one for boastin', but I'll say this much: Pay me to do a job, and it gets done. Simple as that."

"Good. I like simple."

Red Crow slid a piece of paper across his desk. It was a photo copy of a driver's license. A California license with a picture of a blonde man. The name on it said Bartholomew Alouysius Lash. Hell of a name, and that's coming from a man who had his momma name him Hex before she abandoned him.

"That motherfucker cheated me. Goddamn card counter cleaned me out and ran out of here with one of my best dancers. That was a week ago. I want you to bring both of them back and bring back the thirty grand he cheated me out of. You get half of whatever you recover."

A man once told me I had a talent when it came to reading people. He said that I could look into their soul and see what they were all about...but he was about three days into a meth binge and I had knocked out half of his teeth, so what the hell did he know?

My instincts aside, I knew right then that Red Crow is a real son of a bitch. I think anyone who spent any amount of time with him could tell that.

"Alright. Showed me where he was staying while he was here, and who knew him the best."

Red Crow was a piece of shit, and he turned out to be way more trouble than it was worth. But at the time his money was good. That's all that counts.