Even before humans escaped from their currently inhospitable home world, humanity had started to direct its own evolution.

Jones grew up learning there were some things one simply didn’t ask in the Midnight Cabaret, such as how a trick really worked, a performer’s home town, and what Uncle Ernie did on his nights off that sometimes brought him home with bloody knuckles…

What few outside the Midnight Cabaret realize is that nearly everyone in the show is a war refugee from some faraway magical realm, worlds overrun by evil. Despite leaving their conquered homes and taking human form, the enemies of these survivors sometimes send minions after them; perhaps to thwart future reprisals; perhaps to finish the job. The performers always look for signs of incursions by their old enemies as they travel around the troupe’s new home.

She specializes in the study of applied biomimicry, using nature as an inspiration for her engineering designs. Marisol’s best design yet has been the “Fathom” powered deep-sea diving suit. With the suit, she’s been able to venture farther and deeper than most undersea explorers, and with her knack for following her hunches, Mari has discovered creatures of myth and civilizations of legend. So far, Dr. Paz has kept these things out of her papers, satisfied to write only about her engineering work.