The privilege of absurdity; to which no living creature is subject but man only.
-Thomas Hobbes

Can we just say I ended up with amnesia and so I don't know my story so I don't gotta tell it? Ain't real interesting anyway. No? Damn. Had to try though, huh? There's not much to it. Got born. In a hospital even. I know, not many people do that. But I gotta be different, right? My mom had me there and then took me home. That's where she lived, ya know. Dad lived there too. Made it easier to have kids, I guess. I wasn't the first kid they had, either. Guess they were tryin' to make a habit of it. There was a girl and a boy before me, though the girl... that'd be my sister... died when she was 11. Got hit by a car. I was only 4 at the time, don't remember much about her. But I think she'd probably have been a better one to keep around than my brother. Things just don't work out the way they should, do they?

I was 10 when my parents decided not to live together anymore. Guess that's cause they had enough kids and they didn't need to stay in the same house. So my dad left, and damn if he didn't leave my brother and me both in the same house together. Ya'd think he'd have been nice and at least given me a break there. But no. Dads don't got no consideration. My mom started workin' more so the only one I ended up seein' much of was.... him. Now, I ain't kiddin' about this guy. He ain't the type ya wanna be stuck around much. He's mean. Seriously mean. Ya know the kids that beat ya up in school to take your lunch money? He was the kind that beat them up to get everyone else's lunch money from after they took it. I never knew what was gonna happen when I turned around. And my mom? She didn't pay much attention. Especially a few months after her and my dad broke up. She got interested in this other guy and I'll be damned if I gotta see her more than one or two days a week for a few minutes each time. The brother, he took advantage of that. And he wasn't so obvious as to just beat me up, oh no. That'd be way too easy. I gotta admit, he made me nice and paranoid. Especially after the scorpion. Imagine goin' to bed and pullin' down the covers... the fact the bed was made should've tipped me off, like I ever make it... and there it was. Scared the shit outta me. Lucky I got fast reflexes.

Well, life went on excitin' like that for a few years, lucky me, and I got real good at figurin' out when things were outta place or if somethin' just wasn't right. In fact, I'm better at it than anyone I know, which is a useful thing. When I was 14, I heard about this group that was helpin' kids stay outta and get outta gangs and I thought I'd check it out. Lotsa gang stuff goin' on at my school, so I thought it'd be nice to have a tip or two on how to stay away from it. Somehow I got pulled into helpin' out. Don't ask me how, things sometimes happen to me that I just can't explain. Probably some kinda great cosmic joke. Keep Warp totally uninformed about as much as possible in his life. Great conspiracy, huh?

Anyway, I been with Las Panteras since then and it's been a good thing. Made a lotta friends and I really like it here. My brother left town when he was 19, who knows where he is or what he's doin'? Probably somethin' nasty, maybe robbin' the pizza delivery guys or somethin'. I'm sure it's got somethin' to do with stealin', he always wanted what everyone else had. But hey, at least he's outta my life and I don't gotta deal with him no more. Doubt he'll be headin' back to New Orleans with all the shit that's gone down. He likes to be the big tough guy on the block and if there's someone out there that'll compete with him, he ain't likely to get involved. So my life's actually less dangerous than it was, even with zombie things rippin' me outta my body and leavin' me that way. That ain't comfortable, ya know. But I gotta admit, at least I didn't have to smell her or get forced to drink her blood like poor Schuld did. And now I'm back in my body... it ain't the best body in the world, but at least it's mine. And I plan on keepin' myself right here. Hopefully fate'll cooperate.

Only in quiet waters things mirror themselves undistorted. Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world.
-Hans Margolius

All of us are watchers--of television, of time clocks, of traffic on the freeway--but few are observers. Everyone is looking, not many are seeing.
-Peter M. Leschak