Motif · Book 4, The Gate of the Feral Gods

Carl's family

'After a stint in the US Coast Guard, I ended up working as a marine tech.' What Carl says of himself in the first chapter, and what leaks out after: a mother who locked him in the basement with his father's Frogger machine whenever his father's friends came over, and who left; a heavily tattooed father who laughed at him, broke his slingshot and never replaced it, and drove on past a wrecked moving truck saying it was a shame.

Segment appearances

• Chapter 2 — The Wasteland through a telescope
• Chapter 5 — Rapid Detox
• Chapter 11 — The Vahana
• Chapter 16 — Denise
• Chapter 17 — Jennifer and Dale's house
• Chapter 33 — Phase three
• Chapter 34 — Seeding the pond

Progression

A sudden memory of his father angry, soon after his mother left them and a month before his father left him to fend for himself: a helmet ripped off, a fish tank smashed, mollies on the floor (ch. 11).