8FOLD/META: Who's Who, and What's What, in Seven 'Gainst Thebes

[Tom Russell]

WHO'S WHO, AND WHAT'S WHAT,
IN "SEVEN 'GAINST THEBES"

SEVEN 'GAINST THEBES is a long-form serial running in the short-form
monthly anthology series MIGHTY MEDLEY. It's more about tone, texture,
and characterization than it is about "plot", and as such the latter
moseys along at its own leisure. Stretch this over the course of
several months (as of this writing, it's been running for a year and
eight months), and a reader might need a little help keeping himself
or herself oriented.

*The Plot*
Bounty hunter John Silke is hired by Paul Strife to put together a
super-powered posse skilled enough to take back Thebes Ranch from his
brother, Ned. Silke assembles a team, and they are confronted by Ned's
number two, the speedster John Peake. Peake escapes unscathed,
believing he has killed Paul; in fact, it was the Indian shapeshifter
Skin of Snake. In that skirmish, one member of the posse, Hank, was
mortally wounded. Hank had agreed to join the posse so as to rescue
his wife, Celine, who had been abducted by Peake.

The remaining Posse determined that they would rescue Celine. Skin of
Snake took on the appearance of Peake's employer, posing as a body
double sent by the Pinkerton agency. He learned from Peake that Celine
was intended to be the new bride for the serial monogamist Ned, and
that after the wedding night, she would be given to Peake to be flayed
alive and murdered, as was his peculiar proclivity. En route to Thebes
Ranch, they were "attacked" by posse member Dash Adams, who allowed
himself to be taken prisoner, thus getting two of the posse members on
the inside.

Ned Strife, Peake, Celine, Skin of Snake, and Adams sat down to a
midnight breakfast. Ned appears to be quite taken with Adams, and
Peake much less-so.

*The Cast*

          White Hats

JOHN SILKE, a bounty hunter, at least fifty years in age; a man of few
words; prone to solitude; gifted with an "internal compass"-- an
innate and accurate sense of where to find who or what he is looking
for, and sometimes, where he is needed.

SILKE'S BOY, aged twelve and nameless; sullen and prone to melancholy;
disconcertingly good at killing; possessing a pair of supernatural
revolvers lifted from the body of "Ghost" Perkins; Silke worries about
him, and disapproves of the boy's admiration for Dash Adams.

GULLIVER, at least thirty years of age; a ranch hand and Irishman;
fond of company, and of conversation; boisterous; able to light
himself afire, and in that form to take flight, and also to construct
and propel balls of flame; an old friend of Silke's, and sometimes his
professional associate.

DASH ADAMS, approaching forty; a veteran of the War, in which he
served as a rebel Sharpshooter; suspected to have been responsible for
the death of Micah Jenkins in a friendly-fire incident in The
Wilderness; scoundrel; raconteur; liar and truth-teller; seducer of
women; drinker of drink; cold-blooded killer.

SKIN OF SNAKE, an Indian man of some twenty-five years; an outsider
and observer; able to take on the forms of other living things, and do
a passable impression of the genuine article; brother to the late
ASHES IN THE WIND, a sometimes-associate of Silke and Gulliver; after
revenging his brother's murder, he decides to ride with Silke.

MARSHALL THREE-NINE, a mechanical man of unknown origin; a being of
cold logic, but also of justice; possessed of a beam pistol, and of an
artificial steed, a grey gelding.

HANK, born a woman some twenty-five years ago; identifies as a man;
possessed of incredible strength, and an invulnerable hide; devoted to
his wife, Celine.

CELINE, a woman of some twenty years; daughter of a Chinaman; wife of
Hank, captive of Peake, betrothed against her will to Ned Strife; an
unknown quantity.

PAUL STRIFE, a man of over thirty years; Eastern in his affectations;
heir to Thebes Ranch, and robbed of his birthright by his brother,
Ned; the employer of Silke and the others.

          Black Hats

NED STRIFE, a man of over thirty years; younger than Paul; a man given
himself entirely over to his appetites and impulses; full of hate and
malice; fond of violence and murder.

JOHN PEAKE, the fastest man in the West, not quite forty; renown for
many exploits and adventures; secretly fond of cruelty, and
particularly of flaying people and animals alive; Ned Strife's man,
through-and-through.