#zelaznys not in this bc idk i couldnt think of anything

[closedcoffins]

baccano! verses for the un-baccano!’d: part 1.

cahir aep ceallach is a member of the runorata family, provided personally by the house of dormentaire as a gesture of goodwill ti counterbalance the suspicious-by-nature homunculus melvi dormentaire. cahir remains in the crime family against his will---the house of dormentaire had privately and cunningly threatened his family’s safety if he did not comply---but carries out the things he is asked to do without complaint. he’s starting to mind it less, though, after developing a positive relationship with the young carzelio runorata.

dandelion---known formerly by the name julian alfred pankratz---hides from everyone the fact that he was thrown out of his family home at a young age, and had come to lotto valentino under the pretense of being nothing more than a startup traveling bard with better chances in a smaller town. after sneaking onto the advena avis in order to safely leave the city before it fell under the rule of the house of dormentaire ( with whom dandelion’s family had close relations ), dandelion becomes a complete immortal in the year 1711. rather than panic, after escaping that nightmare of a ship, he... just keeps traveling the world and singing songs like he always has.

cyran azerrad kapral is a lost, helpless man. or at least he’d have you think that, anyway. something like a modern terror in the small town of lotto valentino, he assures the city never sees a decade of rest, springing up as a threat to rival even the mask makers with how dangerously he strikes. what people tend to miss is that cyran is actually a vampire, and while he doesn’t intend to subside on lotto valentino forever... it’s certainly a small town, so there might not even be people left when he’s decided he’s had his fill.

mark twain is a man with a strange modus operandi. “the thrill of life comes from near misses with death,” so he says. it’s probably for this reason that twain finds himself among the gang of killers that loyally follows ladd russo. though he didn’t kill anyone aboard the flying pussyfoot, twain found himself nearly becoming a victim of the rail tracer by association, before the man who’d paired up with him let slip that he’d been too cowardly to actually want to kill anyone on the train. spared, and with the memory of the train tracks just inches from his face, twain makes an abrupt about-face and swears that he’ll help the rail tracer clean the train up, and hey, maybe we could do that kind of thing again sometime...

louis james moriarty, with his two brothers and some company, has recently moved into millionaire’s row in manhattan, sparking some discussion among the more well to do crowds. it’s surely a coincidence that their movement coincides with the murder of a corrupt stock trader with a side gig as a loan shark; these sorts of things happen all the time. oh, but with threats on the lives of people such as manfred beriam and cal muybridge, it might only be a matter of time before people grow suspicious...

taryon darrington has gotten himself in deeper than he can reasonably handle with the mafia, which comes as little surprise to everyone who has ever met him. after accidentally offending one of the higher-ups in the runorata family, taryon decides to fight fire with fire by seeking shelter with the gandor family. unfortunately, having underestimated how terrifying the gandors were, taryon once again finds himself in a position of fear vs. survival, and is thusly relieved when he’s unceremoniously swooped away by a strange duo of robbers known as isaac & miria for a supposedly brilliant adventure. really, he’d only mentioned once that he liked tales of old heroes...

kashaw vesh has never really known peace. a homunculus created by huey laforet and handed over to renee parmedes branvillier, his life has been nothing more than a series of endless experiments, small pinpricks and trauma. that’s probably why, at the first opportunity, kash accepted the offer of help from a fellow homunculus who called himself sham to escape the care of renee and the nebula corporation. now, hunted, kash spends his time ensuring that he’s ready for when the day comes that he faces renee again. immortal or not, he’s not letting her go without some serious damage.