Bruce

The vids made it look so clean.  Sanitized warfare, explosions of metal and never of meat.  It wasn’t like that.  There was blood all over the Mech Wars, but it was in the cockpit, away from civvie eyes.  Every one of those boats was stained with it.  We were shooting at pilots, not their vehicles.

They kept tabs on us.  Guidance computers locked into government mainframes.  Deserting was tough.  It took me three weeks to hack my boat.  I flew off in the middle of a battle, shut off my comm.  My own boys shot at me as I went.

Jasper

I didn’t know any good magic. I could pass with cards, but if you wanna play the big houses, you gotta do the big tricks. I didn’t have the skill or an engineer to pull off the big stuff. I had Rupert the Rabbit, though, and that was enough.

Things just worked, with Rupert. I’d have, literally, nothing up my sleeve or in my hat. And I’d reach in, and there he’d be.

Then his magic started working offstage, and I had to lose him. You don’t understand. I’d look into those black eyes and wonder what would disappear next.

RANDALL

THE LAST OF THE MACHINES THE PROFESSOR MADE BEFORE I LEFT WAS EXACTLY AS INSANE AND IMPOSSIBLE AS THE REST, EXCEPT THAT HE DECIDED TO USE ME AS A GUINEA PIG. HOW TO DO YOU SAY NO TO THE DEVIOUS DOCTORATE?

IT WAS A TRANSMUTING, TRANSMOGRIFYING THING, A STEEL CHAMBER WITH WEIRD LIGHTS AND TUBES ON THE SIDE, AND A SUB-STYLE BULKHEAD. YOU PUT A LIVING THING AND A PIECE OF TECH INSIDE, TWIRL THE KNOBS AND BING! YOU’VE GOT A CYBORG.

HE COULD’VE PUT ME IN WITH LASERS, MAYBE A MOTORCYCLE. I DON’T KNOW WHY TEST 1 WAS THIS MEGAPHONE.

Xenia

I knew it was never going to work. There we were, on the threshold of everything, the Gateway pulsing and howling below us, and dominion over all the worlds within our grasp, and he wants to know where the relationship’s going.

I wasn’t looking for anything serious. He was funny, great in bed, hell of a sorceror. But when it came right down to it, we were doomed. I wanted to be the most powerful being in every reality. He wanted a nice universe to settle down in.

I kicked him into the maw. I never really loved him, anyway.

Jacobssen

Yeah, I killed a guy.

Wasn’t personal. I used to work security for this place, way under the radar, some deep bunker experimental shit. For your eyes only, burn after reading, et cetera. Worst job I ever had. Nothing fucking happened. We played a lot of euchre, me and the guards.

Then one day there’s this keening sound from the central chamber, where they’re doing the Big Thing, and out comes one of the scientists, Reinhardt. Only there’s something wrong with his face, and he’s coming right at me…

No big thing. Good to get it off my chest, though.