Character · Book 8, A Parade of Horribles

Louis and Firas

Two level-22 Americans found drunk in a brothel bar on the fifth floor: Louis Santiago 2, a Pest Exterminator from Miami who drove his mother's convertible van down a stairwell and got a legendary knockout spell for it, and Firas M., a Hammersmith with a level-10 Puddle Jumper. Sobered by force, they grow into a bombing crew, the party's pilots and, by the end, something like friends.

Segment appearances

• Chapter 1 — Chandra; the garage
• Chapter 3 — Heat one; Prepotente's warning
• Chapter 15 — The Lollipop: the crawlers' table
• Chapter 16 — The Paramour
• Chapter 20 — Prison Pocket and Party Foul
• Chapter 22 — Last place; the princess throne
• Chapter 25 — Fursona; Mario Kart; the hotlist
• Chapter 33 — First place; the jungle ahead
• Chapter 35 — Eris and the five-sided coin
• Chapter 36 — Jacobus, the reverse tooth fairy
• Chapter 37 — Chicken and Waffles and Upgrades; Elle and the war mage
• Chapter 38 — Akuma's account: Herot, Menerva and the Pineapple Cabaret
• Chapter 39 — The Lollipop: a needle over the singer
• Chapter 45 — The garage of One Fine Pig
• Chapter 47 — Secretions; the twist; One Fine Pig eliminated
• Chapter 48 — Satan's Water Park; a corpse at the wheel
• Chapter 50 — The River of Sloth; ginger genocide; Lucienne on the hood
• Chapter 52 — Interlude: Minus; the key, the upgrades, and Chachi
• Chapter 54 — Grigori the Placid; Zhang's only way
• Chapter 57 — The brawl; Sing for your supper
• Chapter 58 — Jurgen at the door; Porky's zipper
• Chapter 59 — Negative ROI; the GTO leaves early
• Chapter 61 — Suckira; the cactus; Li Na leaves the game
• Chapter 62 — Mees Koning's page; to battle
• Chapter 67 — Half a prayer, half a song; one flower
• Chapter 68 — Sam Town; Cascadia's announcement
• Chapter 69 — The stables: who may leave; the Scavenger myth
• Chapter 71 — Hungry Eyes: the goodbye; Bautista's tea
• Chapter 72 — Have You Ever Seen the Rain; Minus unmasked
• Chapter 73 — The Garden of Deliverance; the ducts
• Chapter 74 — Human shells; Ad Infinitum
• Chapter 75 — Archie's boy; Imani's family; the Feast Hive
• Chapter 78 — Damien's announcement; under a thousand
• Chapter 79 — 715 deals; Britney in Carl's mind; the Nothing in quotes
• Chapter 80 — The final heat: the lobby
• Chapter 81 — Scolopendra's first attack: the Beast of Burden Sin
• Chapter 82 — Karl the dachshund; Team Sparkles ends
• Chapter 83 — The poleaxes; Britney kills Osvaldo; the Cadillac
• Chapter 84 — The dachshund walks to the Hairpin
• Chapter 85 — The Wheel of Fortune; 'Nothing' in quotes
• Chapter 86 — Mimics; the Big Six
• Chapter 87 — Louis goes; Safehome Yolanda; the giant Imani
• Chapter 88 — Interlude: Quasar; the eleventh floor — twenty-three crawlers; Chaco's parade
• Chapter 89 — Every screen; the Tome of Gatekeeper; the Lucky Shot patch
• Chapter 92 — Chaco on Lamashtu; the AI's history in four parts; Vengeance
• Epilogue — Epilogue: Sydnee Iglacia, Prime Minister Victory, Louis Santiago 2

Arc

Louis, in a lowrider Tahoe that bottoms out and trails its heats — second-to-last in the first — until Bodi's stall-buffs put it first for one (ch. 15, ch. 45), and then last again (ch. 67); Katia's baby's father; Bautista will go and check on the child (ch. 71). He names the cleaner bot Suckira after his mother's vacuum (ch. 61), brings the bucket of 'secretions' (ch. 47), and is Minus's secondary target — 'pork chop over there' (ch. 72). His mother's what-if apartment holds a thinner Louis who graduated (ch. 74). 'I’m not nearly as scared as I used to be'; 'heigh-ho, Silver. I’ll die on that hill' — and he steps into the stasis portal (ch. 87), waking in Sheol with a leech on his skin and Forkith's welcome (epilogue).