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Background Since the dawn of humanity, humans have believed themselves to be the sole intelligent life forms on Earth, and among humans only a few actually were intelligent enough to know better. But for countless centuries, "others" have walked among them, most disguised, some not. They traverse the curtain hanging over our reality and into Earth: working, breeding, killing, feeding. 2013 A.D. No one knows how or why, but Earth changed drastically. Society crumbled as fast as the buildings it had made, and human rule took a nosedive. What exactly happen was a mystery, but it didn't make any difference to those left. The "others" looked to this new wasteland of anarchy and smiled. They didn't have to hide. They could come to Earth as they were, to their new home. Nearly one hundred years later, an "other" named Kadeo saw his chance to come to Earth after a century-long wait. And he took it. THE WAY THINGS ARE The Curtain: The curtain is the barrier between worlds. It hangs over everything, encompassing all three dimensions, and like the curtains we know, it conceals what's behind it. Certain people, or people with certain tools, can pull back the curtain, manipulate it, and sometimes tear parts of it. By passing through the curtain, you enter another world and leave your own. Most humans were unaware of the curtain before the disaster of 2013. After things cleared up, the survivors were met with the newcoming "others" entering the world of Earth... and the old residents coming out of hiding. Others: "Others" is the name given to those who live on Earth who didn't originate there. The earliest "others" invented the name and it stuck. Those born onto Earth aren't called "others" by their own kind, but they are by humans. Newcomers arrive from behind the curtain from time to time; their great immigration ended around 2025. Valuables: Water, meat, clothing, transportation, guns, and almost all luxuries are rare on Earth, and few things of value are brought from behind the curtain. People die of malnutrition, cold, heat, poisioning, and each other. Not very different from the older days, except more frequent. There were a number of suicides among the humans immediately following 2013, but those became almost non-existent as the "others" took over. Most guns, for whatever reason, do not work. Most were ruined in the disaster through various means, and many others seem to foul up simply from having been left untouched and rotting for so long. There's plenty of working ammunition, but a gun that doesn't jam every couple shots is not only rare, but a symbol of power (see below.) Society: Human rule ended shortly after 2013, and the rule of "others" came into play. They haven't done much to establish society. For the first few decades, there was total anarchy as older "others" worked to grasp the reigns of power. Today, mob rule is all there is. It's the only form of structure on ruined Earth, and while "others" go in and out of it, humans cling to it. A healthy human can become a valuable asset, while less worthy humans are lower class workers or slaves, depending on who runs the territory. Aside from major gangs, there are several "pocket" gangs, that will often drift as mercenary groups surrounding a leader with a working gun. On occasion, one will find a true mercenary group that never joins a major gang, even temporarily, because the one they've gathered around has a working automatic or semi-automatic. If this leader has a wealth of ammunition, he is one of the deadliest people on Earth, "other" or human alike. Transportation: Most vehicles are nothing more than scrap metal as far as real use is concerned. Few of them work and gas is sparse. Most personal vehicles are owned by gangs for various uses. The majority of humans and "others" walk or use the few methods of public transportation. As a few cars still work, so do a few buses, with different ones owned by different groups. There's also a train system which has become prosperous to its owners and maintainers, who remain neutral in the gang wars. No one attacks the trains. They're useful because they run on a fuel of high availability: bodies. About the Writer, Darryl Fabia "I may love to draw, but I'm a writer at heart. I tell stories, I think about them daily, and I work to get better at telling them whenever I can. I'm Darryl (a.k.a. Escushion) Fabia. I was born in 1985 and I'm currently working on a Literature degree at SUNY Purchase in New York, writing my senior thesis on the evolution of fairy tales and their effects on audiences. I enjoy having a job and I hope to make a career as a novelist later in life. I started Coiling Spine as a means of getting better at art and writing, and these characters have brought me a long way in the latter. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do."
About the Artist, Josh Grabiec Josh Grabiec, born in 1982, remembers exactly when he decided to become an artist: it was in third grade, after he drew a picture of Mega Man after looking at the box of Mega Man 2 and decided, hey, my copy wasn't that bad. He has been drawing comics since that day, although once he graduated high school in 2001 he became embroiled in other things like full-time jobs, a brush with college, a wife, a son, two houses, three cats, and several cars. He makes his living as a hot-shot screen print artist and after the Big Move to Greensboro, he decided to find again what he had once lost, so when Coiling Spine went artistless he answered the call. He counts Matt Groening, Shigeru Miyamoto, Bill Waterson, Steve Purcell, Doug Ten Napel, Rob Schrab, Peter Jackson, Jackie Chan, Mitch Hedberg, Douglas Adams, and Terry Pratchett as his personal heroes, and considers decades worth of afternoons filled with cartoons and videogames as his main inspiration.
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Assorted Spine
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