Character · Book 4, The Gate of the Feral Gods

Loita

A kua-tin of the Bloom, formerly Hekla's representative, who claims the Royal Court's account when Katia joins it and takes it when Zev is sent to 'reeducation.' A rebreather instead of a suit, a dahlia pin, and a rule that crawlers get no more snacks.

Segment appearances

• Chapter 7 — The frog con
• Chapter 8 — A yam from the pacifists
• Chapter 12 — Dolores Doesn't Splat
• Chapter 13 — Gerbils
• Chapter 15 — The Gate of the Feral Gods
• Chapter 17 — Jennifer and Dale's house
• Chapter 18 — One
• Chapter 19 — Orren

Arc

The Bloom's creed

Bookings, threats and no back-talk: an infomercial, a product sample that must be seen used, 'I am not Zev, Carl' (ch. 7); Mongo fed to a mob and Donut made to watch (ch. 17); 'Audiences like drama, but not melodrama' (ch. 17). In an underwater trailer she says what she believes: humans are a cancer on the Bloom, their culture a contagion, Borant will close its borders when every dry vermin is dead and the reawakening will come; and Zev's generation had to be brought back into the fold by 'unspeakable things to her mother and her aunts' (ch. 18).

One

Carl leaves the robot Donut beside her — a fingernail shim under its self-destruct panel, a panel she herself ordered — and gets her off the couch. Missing an arm and both lower legs, flash-fried, she cannot be teleported without drowning the two crawlers Borant values more. 'You… you did this.' 'It was an accident.' 'The Bloom will prevail. You will be forgotten.' 'Nobody likes melodrama, Loita' (ch. 18). Carl keeps her rebreather. Fifteen admins had died to crawlers this season before her; Orren calls hers the only one nobody can explain (ch. 19).