the blasted new story idea is taking over my brain

I just need to get this pile of names and facts out of my lap so I can do the real post I was trying to do.

Kay. Deep breath. The main character of my developing story idea: Lizbet 'Lizby' Fain, an almost-orphan who lives with her insane younger brother and a bunch of other mentally unstable kids in a warehouse in the industrial quadrant of the planet Rebellion. She has a grueling, low-pay job as a dockhand-slash-mechanic at one of the many freighting skyports, where she loads and unloads cargo from the steamships and generally picks up heavy stuff. Hence the funky metal performance-enhancement rigs on her arms. Removable, of course. Dude, imagine if she couldn't take them off... that would be just weird. AHAHAHAAA. I crack myself up. Can you tell I just discovered steampunk? Lawl yess. I mean, gunpowder... parasol... haberdashery... really? Do I sense a trend here? Why yes, I believe I do. Oh, Rebellion is a dying planet by the way, cuz the stupid humans are totally pumping all the life out of it and turning everything into coal to run all the steam engines with (yess, I went and looked up how steam engines work because I hate to get my facts wrong.) Stupid humans. *swats the lot of them* Oh, and the planet is actually a sentient being in disguise. So it can like, talk to certain people and stuff. Only a few certain people. And those people generally wind up insane cuz they hear these creepy voices in their heads all the time. Ahahaaaa. Insert evil cackle here. And did I mention the fact that some people are trying to save Rebellion by developing clean, highly efficient organic technology that also happens to be extremely illegal because the government doesn't want people to know about the deteriorating condition of the planet and just keep churning out coal at suicidal rates? Whoa yes.

Tears is in this story! His real name is Tarren Hawkes, and he's several years younger than I thought. But he's still crazy and still missing his thumbs and still has a wonky haircut, so it's still HIM. The insane brother's name is Hickory Fain, called Hex, and he looks nothing like his sister and is one of those certain people who's gone funny because of the voices of Rebellion in his head. Then there's some other crazy-orphan people: Meena and Mandis Redlock, who are sisters; Jaxter Torrington, who likes to steal stuff; Ben Lander, who is schizophrenic; Zaraia Greencastle, who comes from another planet, and Silence, who can't talk and therefore can't tell anyone her name. Then there's Jonathan Brackolt, an old gentleman who knew Lizby and Hickory's grandfather and is developing a cruiser that runs entirely on oxygen (or something); Ivy Dale, who is their mother and still alive but quite insane; Mahogany Gabbs, who is called Mag and runs freighters at the skyport where Lizby works; Symon Hopper, Lizby's overseer and something of a bad guy; Thomas Fain, the long-dead grandfather; and Rebellion itself, which is a planet and only sort of counts. Then the bad guys, who all work for the government and are too numerous to list off, and the head of the organization, whose identity is so secret that no one's ever heard his name and he is known only as Nocturn. (I wanted to name him Miasma, but I have the feeling one of Brentalope's villains already has that name. Now I can't remember, of course. Meh.) The government people know about Rebellion's sentience and their job is to hunt down anyone who can hear his voices, but they have to do it without alarming the masses, so they set up mental institutions and test all the insane people that come through, hunting for the Voices, as they call them. The Voices are 'liquidized' and all the others just kind of hang out. Therein lies the beauty of abandoned warehouses in the industrial district, see? No one ever looks there. Usually. *smirk smirk*

Kay. There, I think I'm done. I think.

Commander Kip
Then he took out his bazooka and killed King George.
Normal is overrated!