THIS SECTION IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION :)

Heidi is a Fire Science undergrad, training to be a career firefighter, who suddenly developed a fainting condition two years ago. She’s now back after a gap year with a new service dog (Bark Twain) and a stunted grieving process for the life she thought she would be living. That is, until she suddenly develops telekinesis and is enthralled by the chance to reclaim her life as a literal supercrip, fighting fires and “overcoming” her disability with this new magic. Except that the telekinesis is tied to her blood pressure, and goes off in violent episodes, just like her disability. The grieving process restarts, but this time, she comes out the other end: realizing that it’s not about letting go of the life you love, but about falling in love with a new one that actually loves you back. 

Ken is the CEO of CLP Client Management Services – aka, The Cult of Lord Petra. Many millennia ago a planet full of life became dust in the blink of an eye. In 1866 a chunk of that planet, imbued with drifting souls, sought out the empathy of other traumas in the universe and landed off the coast of Jeju Island. Since then, it has supernaturally formed tormented attachments with those around it. By 1923 it became the centerpiece-god of the Cult of Lord Petra in Paris; by 1942, it became the ingredient to test on injured soldiers returning to the US South; and today, it has become the political power reserve of a company whose main directive is to intimately catalog and suppress the now-superpowered descendants of the once-kidnapped soldiers. Being a descendant is a genetic predisposition that can be sparked into powers by the circumstance of having a chronic illness. Their powers are amplifications of their conditions onto the outside world. Which is all to say that they are disabled by magic, and the cult is their ableist “protector” who seeks to preserve the will of their god, magically-charged illnesses included: no accommodations, no medicines. The cultist workers who are assigned “clients” to stalk and write reports on are called missionaries.

Subin is an unpaid intern at the Cult of Lord Petra. Having been kicked out and unable to earn an income on his student visa, he is just trying to survive until graduation and stand out enough at CLP to be hired at the end of the semester. Unbeknownst to Subin, his supervisor, CEO, and father figure – Ken – hired him so that he could create his own successor from the ground up (or kill him if things go awry). Bonding more and more, Ken promotes Subin from intern to “missionary,” taking him from homelessness to living in a company-owned apartment. Which mainly serves as a place to share with his new roommate and “client”: Heidi. As he follows her journey of excitement, grief, and plenty of telekinesis-smashed mugs, they fall in love. And as her powers and the cult’s directives both dangerously escalate, he is caught between two lies: lying to Heidi about the fact that he’s making reports on her, and lying to Ken in those same reports to protect her. At the breaking point of Heidi’s condition, the cult gives Subin a tranquilizer gun, and a new crisis of choices and betrayal begins.

Lola is a descendant raised by the cult. From a childhood of complex traumas she developed OSDD 1b (a subtype of Dissociative Identity Disorder without full amnesia), which magically manifests into reality; when her alters (witch, pirate, and ghost) come to the front, their appearances and abilities come with them – and when she gets pulled into the inner worlds, she can bring objects back with her. Having escaped so many times from “Constant Care” – the cult’s voluntary suicide depot disguised as a last resort of safety for their “clients” – she is now on a short leash by means of a scant allowance that she must pick up in person, weekly. When she doesn’t show up, a battalion of cultists with tranq guns come to bring her back in until she inevitably attempts suicide, gets stopped by an alter, escapes, and the painful cycle repeats. What they don’t know is that she has been bringing knickknacks from the 21st century into the 18th century to sell them, and has been pawning the resulting doubloons for cash, saving up enough money to escape once and for all. That is until Frankie – a kind bystander – becomes the first person to help Lola and survive. Now they are both on the run as Lola’s first ever friendship begins, and death is no longer the only way out.

All throughout, Petra is facilitating a supernatural connection between the three: Heidi, Subin, and Lola – the would-be Supercrip, Villain, and Victim. Via Lola, Heidi, and the Cult’s magics, portals and domino effects topple into each others’ worlds. Their fates are in each others’ clumsy hands as they unknowingly affect what happens to each other. 

At the boiling point of this story, Subin has betrayed Heidi, thinking it would save her life, bringing her into Constant Care where she faces her grief eye-to-eye for the first time, and sees that she’s not the only one with magical conditions. Bark Twain, who has recently begun alerting to telekinetic episodes, finds his way to Lola and Frankie. And having survived shootouts, inner worlds, and mistakes, Lola and Frankie finally decide to kill Petra and stop running. The four of them finally converge as Subin tries to break Heidi out of Constant Care, and Lola and Frankie come in for their kill.

This story does not end in self sacrifice or of peace after some final boss is ridden. It ends with people, who felt their lives weren’t living, finding health and compassion in themselves and others. And taking a sledgehammer to a meteorite.