C is for coal

Send down the canary

If it comes up alive

No need to be wary

My Name is: John

And I am: coal miner

What’s been keeping you awake?

This damn cough!  I can’t get enough breath in.  Whenever I think I got myself some sleep, my chest rebels and I spend the next hour coughing.  Just as well, I need to work extra at the mine

What’s on the surface?

I’ve been working the mines practically since I could walk.  It’s a hard life. Someday it will kill me. There was an explosion.  The damn foreman did not listen to me when I told him to get the men out.  He would not send the cart back down and I lost a lot of friends.  Foreman doesn’t care… by the sound of his cough, he won’t be caring for anything before too much longer…

What lies beneath?

I was in love with Mary Jane, though I called her Fair Emma.  She was such a pretty thing.  She didn’t mind the cough like the other whores did. She was the last girl that butcher carved up. There was this kid too. Lev was his name. I liked him. Scrappy little bugger. He reminded me of myself at his age. Mary liked him too. We looked out for him when his pa was on a rip and tear, but that all ended when Mary died. After that I was in no mood for childish things.

What’s your path?

I’ll catch the monster who did that to her and gut him.

What just happened to you?

My time on this world draws to an end. I got dismissed from the mine as my lungs keep me from doing the heavier work. I now take sleeping in whatever shelter I can get. Tonight I got nowheres to sleep so I am walking the streets of Whitechapel. While I walk, deep down inside I hope to find the man that took my Mary.

Exhaustion talent (Enhanced Observation)

Heightened senses – I see in the dark. I can smell the toxic buildup of gases.  I can hear the popping that signals an explosion. On the streets of London, its gives me an edge. When others stumble through the fog and smoke, I stride into the night.

Madness talent:  Black Lung

I breath in the air in the mines, the air in the city… let me share that with you.

1 – 2:  Exhale smoke or fog to impede someone, knock someone down, etc

3 – 4:  Cover a large area in smoke or fog; blow someone into a wall, fill someone’s lungs with methane, etc

5 – 6:  Cut of someone’s air permanently; encase a person/object with sludge; etc

What are you becoming?

One day I swear I will cough so hard that my lungs will fall right out, along with all the rest of me. I will be hollowed out, an empty shell of a man, but at least the Goddamn coughing will stop. What's left will likely be little more than what the mine had gave me: coal smoke and malice. I will continue to press on, seeking to smother the world with my black lungs as it had smothered me.