Character Profiles
Roger "Rog" Miller
Investigative Reporter at SCAB! Magazine
Roger raised himself on his elbow and gradually focused his eyes as the blare of the morning sun filtered through the blinds. Christ! She took everything. The walls in the bedroom looked worse than bare, for you could make out the outline of dust where the painting had hung, lighter shades of the carpet where the dresser had stood; over to the right, her make-up table gone. His clothes were tossed in a heap where his bureau had rested. Outside the mechanical mayhem abruptly stopped and he could hear shouting, he buried his head in the crux of his elbow piecing together what he could of, of the days that followed. His rise had been almost immediate in the field of journalism; the story of the decade about the second terrorist cell aimed for the Hollywood sign and the Hoover Dam. His clandestine interviews with members of Alqui’da’s inner cell in America were rewarded with SoCal President’s Award for Investigative Journalism and his celebrity was on the rise. Even the Whitehouse had to verify that the story wasn’t libel, even though they never actually admitted to the western cell per se, they never denied it. Roger went the extra mile to document conversations within the western cell, and find informants that would brave Alqui’da’s wrath. His mind slipped back to that night in 2005, when he and Fahad were forced to hide in the BP oil drums, as they listened to the men describe exactly what they would do to them, if they caught them. Roger had picked up enough Arabic in those past few months to ascertain the extent of the torture they were conjuring up. He trembled a bit, recalling those harrowing hours. Roger’s thoughts were now invaded by the growing wail of a siren; and, as the sound escalated, he propped himself up in bed mesmerized by the continuous wail as it progressed until it appeared to revolve right below his window. Sirens! Sirens! I can’t write, I can’t think, all I can do is drink, drink, drink! His voice echoed in the stillness of the room, then died suddenly in his throat. The Kiss by Rodin, the sole work of art still left hanging on the empty wall; the print he spent three weeks hunting down for her, so that he may give it to her on Valentine’s Day to mark their fifth anniversary. Even then, he could not be sure if she had been sleeping around the bitch and to what extent she was already planning her escape from him and his problems.A promising young journalist, who locked horns with the Trump administration, and his career took a downward spiral from there. Now eighteen months later, he finds himself at the nadir of his profession—writing for SCAB! Magazine. He sees the spontaneous combustion cases as a way to get back in the mix, but is assigned to track down a washed up rock icon from the 90’s. His journey leads him to the very brink of the apocalypse he fears is coming.
Alice “Drachira” Tompkins
Exotic Dancer at Cheatah's Gentlemen Club
She is the Bat Kol the daughter of the voice of Yahweh, the spiritual leader of her people, trapped in a world that is not her own. Countless years have passed, but now there is a new hope, a voice from the past stretches across the universe. She must use all of her wits and guile to find a way back to her universe and save her people; but, one man stands in her way or does he?.
Alice awoke from a fitful nightmare. At first the dream was pleasant; her in regal attire being pampered by her chambermaids.Her at the ball seducing whatever man satisfied her fancy, her and Anna playing flirt along the lines of men. She recalled the night with the Drachr Salat, her prince to be; as they flew to ecstasies and round the bend. A wedding larger than any she had dreamed and herself the bride, Ardassand, the bridesmaid. A ceremony of love and flowers out in the garden; a flock at the courts to cheer the unity. Her life as fairy tale as one could have, filled with chirping birds and gossamer wings. Piksicania Eradian appeared one day out of the mists of her youth. Her beloved and her by the stream, in the barn, across the glade. All life as wonderful as a song. Then the change in the Drachr, unruly distant, being taken away, locked up for his own care. He had been experimenting again; some said defying the limits, breaking boundaries. The word cuckold, as strange a word from a strange land, he had returned from, flew around. Piksy forced to flee, the Drachr’s indifference, her bed not her own and the man in it not the Drachr. Keeping her secret from all but Ardassand. The book of Rachel as he took her that night, partly against her will, but the sorcerer eyes mesmerizing. She saw that night as a turning point, the Drachr reaching for her out of the shadows, begging her help, the love of one to another, the rage at seeing in the bed another soul, the powerful lunge that vaulted her into a swirling darkness; thrusting her chin first on the grass; an alien land, men running to her, grabbing her, asking her over and over where Dallas was. The men beating her then taking turns and she began to witness a very real hell. Where had he brought me? Now it was explained to her that she was trade for the money he stole, for the coke. Her beaten into the trade, a sideshow rarity, an amazement to watch, as she seduced the filth each night with her dance of the seven veils. The drugs came later, after it had been revealed her power to mesmerize, setting one man against the other. Then holding her down they jabbed her with the needle then took turns with her. This horror is too pronounced for words. Then through time everlasting, Piksy and the handsome young man she felt him the handsome man grabbed her, told her to run and there he was standing in the corridor…
MacKensie "Mac" Peters
Photographer at SCAB! Magazine
Loyal friend of Roger’s and working at SCAB! as he waits to be accepted at USC to work on his psychology master’s. His last assignment is to work with Roger and find a rock icon from the 90’s, but his loyalty will be tested, as they follow the trail that may lead them to the end of all existence.
MacKensie Peter’s life up to that point had been an array of blues and whites. His career had stretched across both collars; from A/C technician to working on a Master’s degree in Psychology. He had been a man of resources most of his adult life, but a man still wrestling with the niche we all pursue in our life—travailed around a streak of uncertainty that had dictated itself as fate through his thirty-two years. Recently, he had finely starched his new collar to the psychotherapy banner; but he was still years away from achieving his doctorate. His friendship with Roger had prospered only through their subtle addiction to cribbage, bad jokes and football, even to the point of following Roger into the corporate world of SCAB! Magazine. He to keep moving towards his degree; Roger to use as a springboard back to the career he had once had. Their camaraderie had evolved like most until, without really realizing it; they had become pals, then good chums. Now they numbered each other amongst their close circle of friends. Mac cared little for the business, except as a rich source of watching life turn against individuals; and a good source to conduct a dissertation on the frailties of human emotions. Although, if put to it, he couldn’t decide whether or not his study would be on the people featured in the rag or the people who bought it. Being from Oklahoma, Mac grew up listening to the Texas bands from Austin, so his recollection of the band, SYN, was not a long stretch. He was still a child, when the band had disappeared from the Oklahoma airwaves, did not recall they had gone to California. But he did remember his father in the evenings, fixing the ’72 Nova; the one Mac still continuously tinkered with, with the radio blaring the Austin City Limits. A smile creased his brow as the remembrance came and went.
Cassandra "Cazz" Diamond
Child Reality Star
A down and out child actor form the world of reality stars; she makes her living in the tabloids and rehab centers as she spirals into her personal apocalypse. In a chance encounter, her life will be completely changed, as she follows the trail to discover her destiny.
She had been going down this road now for a while, a road to destruction blasted out in living color for all the social media to see. But some things she had been able to still keep hidden mother would call it managed the still unexplained sudden death of her sister tall with model looks picked for the Survivor: Teen series, how her mother had cajoled bullied blew them to let Cassandra substitute, and then as the glam Cazz her rising star reached the zenith on, Whose Life is it Anyways? a coming of age piece of crap that had amazingly kept her at age 16 for seven agonizing years. It certainly wasn’t her fault that the crowd she hung out never grew up either, child celebs looking for that next high, hell, their parents were sometimes bigger partiers then the kids. She had put on her bootstraps and made a life for herself. But her sister would come back to haunt her again and again and after the show was put out of its misery, Cassandra found herself realizing how fickle the TV industry could be and how cruel the tabloids could crush a soul not set up for stardom. She felt the bottom fall out though when that rag SCAB! had uncovered the intimacies of her sister’s death and splashed them on the front page of issue 507 fucking 507 some nobody by the name of Roger Miller. She stumbled a bit, feeling unbalanced. OK, so she had been partying a bit too much, drinking and drugs yeah too much too, she was bored. She was also tired the more she partied the more she made the cover of SCAB! Which defeated the whole purpose to ignore them, instead she was making them buckets of money.
Jose "Joe" Miranda
Freelance Graphic Artist at SCAB! Magazine
Jose Miranda’s life up to this point had been one of solitary resolution. He never did like sports and was thus thrown into the group of undesirables in the public school system. He became a reclusive, taking more pleasure in the video games he adored then in a place that seemed to spend most of its time looking for ways to bully him. After that college was no better and his affixation with computers and their inner workings he parlayed into a degree in computer science. He may have finished his MFA by now, except for that catastrophic error in judgment stupid bet! that had enticed him to break into the UCLA data system to change a grade for a friend. Or his attempt, for he had been found out; his grant gone, his expulsion a moot point. He had continued his education in the web of electronics by himself and was satisfied that he had learned quite a bit more from trial and error, than he would have ever learned in the confines of a classroom. After several stints in the business network, he had chanced upon interfacing computer enhancements and the love affair had begun. Using the last of his savings, school money, he bought into the entire Apple Final Cut package and began working for himself. His most prestigious account was with the infamous SCAB!, for which he set up unlikely photo opportunities; president meeting with aliens, two-headed babies, Sasquatch. It was fun, but gnawing at the back of his craw was finding a use for his skill; a purpose or at least a respectable purpose.Befriended by Roger and Mac, Jose finds himself drawn into Roger's mystery of spontaneous combustion cases, and, when the search for Dallas Richards begins, he becomes their point man. But his life is confused, his sexuality in question, his loyalties challenged as the apocalypse slowly approaches.
Isabella "Izzy" Baum
Owner of New Way
Several blocks away, Isabella Baum sat contemplating her future and her ever present problem. She was a woman of practical measures. Perhaps it was her upbringing in the Jewish tradition that had prepared her as a pragmatic; perhaps it was the Italian in her that caused her annoyance of people who believed half of the shit: teaching Creationism in schools, that climate change was god’s will, that the welfare state was responsible for the record high unemployment, that religion was our only salvation, the religion of commercialism. It was not so much a break with religion as a drifting away; a log upon a winnowing stream. Her religion had grown from a sense of humanitarianism toward those less fortunate than herself, the view of a vengeful god inflicting pain and suffering upon his devoted followers just so much flotsam and jetsam within her mind. But the last few nights at work in the shelter had drawn her bead closer to God and the prayers she could still remember from her youth suddenly came back to her. She had always felt an empathy for the downtrodden; perhaps that was why she had turned her back on her father’s business; turned her back on her own pet project; why even now, as the mumbling continued from the corridor in the darkest section of the shelter; while mothers and children huddled together in disbelief on the cots at the other side of the building, she felt a duty to remain.
Isabella may be a trust fund baby, but her heart is in the right place and that place is the homeless shelter, New Way. She turned her back on money and greed, but there is something more insidious permeating from the corridor--a battle of souls. And right when she meets her soulmate, will he text me? Will he call? She lets him go on his quest, even as the gates of hell are opening up before her.
Reginald McNamara
CEO of SCAB! Magazine
As CEO of a thriving magazine, one would think that a man had reached his zenith, that is, until he encounters an image from his dreams. Now he knows that there are riches he had never dreamed of before, brought to him by a bum smelling badly of port. But all he can smell is orange blossoms and a quieter time, a time he wishes to return to. Will an apocalypse get in his way?
Violet Diamond
Talent Agent for Cazz Diamond
Mother of Cassandra Diamond, some may say stage mother. She protected her daughter from the realities of life with the ferocity of a lioness with her cub. The late night talks, the clandestine meetings, quiet indignities to hold together the girl’s fraying shreds of celebrity, she worked so hard to forge. But when her daughter goes missing, she will use whatever means she can to find her, including making a deal with the devil, even to the very fringe of the apocalypse.
Franklin Danforth
Managing Editor of SCAB! Magazine
Editor and boss of Roger, Mac and Jose. Works for his uncle with all the trials and tribulations surrounding that. He fights for his guys, but loses, fights for respect from his uncle but is brow beaten. On the whole, an upstanding citizen, who does the “right things” goes to work every morning in his small office, tries his best to balance boss and friend, home for dinner with the wife, TV at 7 until his secret vice The Daily Show comes on. One night he is invited to dinner at McNamara’s and his battle of conscience begins.
Gary Ward
Police Officer (Liaison)
A disillusioned ex-MP serving stints in Afghanistan and Iraq. After he sees a cover of SCAB! Magazine, he knows a meaning to his life and joins the LAPD to make ends meet. He works as a liaison with the FBI as he uncovers a more sinister plot involving spontaneous combustion, but he has a secret agenda that can only be revealed in time.
Roy Bradley
FBI Inspector
Working in the FBI, Roy had seen everything, everything that is, except the one case that had eluded him all these years. A stolen Dali print and a curious case of spontaneous combustion. Now, thirty years later, clues are beginning to take shape that will lead him to the one nemesis that got away–Dallas Richards.