PLEASE NOTE: This guide is a reference point to refer back to as you read. That being said, it includes spoilers for ch.1-39 of Stray and ch.1-10 of Result in Congregate (Minseok's Origin Story) in the form of directly quoted text. You have been warned.

Jongdae Kim

(AKA: Chen, Cerberus, #11, John)

• Cerberus: genetic miracle; the three-headed purebred waiting at Hell’s open gates; 11.
• “Coincidences line up in your favor like dominos. 1. 1. 1. 1. It’s enough to make any dog pant with jealousy.” 
• “Rumor has it you’re going by John these days…Exactly how many names do you have now?”
• “Close the gates!” Jongdae ordered—doors open and close at the hellhound’s will. 

Minseok Kim

(AKA: Shoe, Orthrus, #12, Michael)

• Orthrus: genetic misstep; the cattle- herding chimera waiting for a hero to strike him down; 12. Johnny couldn’t handle how close yet how far Minseok was from being the golden boy.
• Minseok, a green-thumb who appreciated a weed’s beauty, was too good a man to profit from unrighteous means. 
• Bad luck doesn’t go away with time; Michael’s wings were only strong enough to save himself. 
• “Do you know why I call you Shoe…We can walk without you, but it’d be terribly inconvenient.
• “Michael will sign; he always signs.”

Nefaria Farland

(AKA: Fay, Scylla, #13, Mary)

• Fay, the girl with eyes like wildfire, stood before [Jongdae]. 
• Fay may have been [Jongdae's] Savior: undeniably stronger than any girl he had ever met before. But she was still a girl. A girl who wanted to like a boy without having to explain her myriad number of feelings. 
• Or as the enamored announcer introduced her: Scylla, the devourer of any man who dared to come within reach of her claws. 
• In the middle of the snapping jaws and curdling growls, Fay stood unfazed. Perhaps nefarious enough to take enjoyment in the chaos.
• “Fay’s scary; the very fibers of her soul echo ‘let’s run away together.’”
• Trust me. I’m sorry. Save me. Jongdae wanted her, like a boy who just wanted to like a girl and the myriad number of feelings she gave him, with every fiber of his soul.
• “Mary of Nazareth. Registered number: 13. Cease and desist,” a mere Blessed demanded of the woman chosen by god. 

Kyungsoo

(AKA: Deo, Cù-Sìth, Daniel)

• “My real name is Kyungsoo,” Deo began tentatively, as though he’d told his story a countless number of times, “and I was once a Blessed like you.” 
• Daniel’s real name was Kyungsoo. He made it a point to mention this. Whispered in the weight room. Drowned out by Bach’s harmonic symphony. White Coats may be listening; Kyungsoo taught Minseok what secrets were. 

Dr. Zitao Huang

(AKA: Tao)

• Multiple piercings lining either ear. Black hair a shaggy mess. Limbs long and lanky. A laugh akin to a child’s wind-up toy escaped the mad scientist, Tao, as he welcomed Minseok and his friends to his humble, creaking, abode.
• “Birds of a feather flock togetha'.” Hands falling to dig into deep pockets, Tao rolled his eyes; following orders proved too boring to entice his eccentricity. “Society serves my interests, I serve ‘is.” 
• “Back again, Cerberus?” the mad scientist — Tao — greeted, yawning wide. Silver shining. Coat discarded. More white beneath. The Tower changed both him and Fay. Elusively balancing between beauty and insignificance. 

Han 

(AKA: Shisa, #9)

• Following Han’s victory over his brother, their masters purposefully rejected his right to bathe. Three more days passed until he finally cleaned Hun’s blood from his hands. He didn’t flinch when he was hosed down. He thought bigger than all of this. 
• “Yeah, I would.” Han finally said, “I’d die for you...I’d die for anyone at this point.” 
• “But our real names are Han and Hun.” The talkative boy pointed at himself, “Han,” and then his ditzy twin, “Hun.”

Hun

(AKA: Shisa, #10, Raphael)

• Hun was always at the bars when [Jongdae] ate, dirt-smudged fingers reaching through to him. Asking with a childish smile if he could share a bite. A growing boy needs his nutrition. 
• “It’s Raphael here,” Hun, the Shisa, corrected, eyes trained on the broadcast system like it was Jongdae’s extra bread ration—sogged with mold to the smallest grain.
• “We’re Angels of Death, Disease, and,” Hun coughed during one of his fever dreams, regurgitating a bubble of bile, “Discontent.” Not Saviors of the World. Not human in the least. Angels who sailed too closely to the ground. “Praying to a god to release us from the coils of these mortals.” 
• [Jongdae] promised an unending “Grace Period.” Past bars. Without “masters.” Blood-smudged fingers reached out. Asking with a childish smile if Jongdae wanted a bite. A growing boy needs his nutrition. 

Yeol

• “Yeol?” Han tsked, “That big oaf likes it here.”
• There’s a saying that goes: Don’t bite the hand that feeds you. But all he had to do was bare his teeth and the hand would tremble before him. He was the kind of person who could do something. But all he wanted was an extra ration of food in his belly. 
• Beck grasped at Yeol’s [name], nodding in almost fond recognition, “Big guy works for June these days.” Reading into Beck’s countenance without context proved impossible. “In December Lanes.” 
• “This is my box,” a boy’s voice startled the hiding Minseok. Rotting trash couldn’t mask the smell of vanilla. His long legs were brought against his chest. Matted hair sprouted wildly across dirt-smeared skin.

June

• June saved their lives.
• “I won’t tell if you won’t.” Quite possibly the shadiest of ways to introduce himself. 
• Ignoring the basement hatch tucked away in a suspiciously dark alleyway he led them through to get here, the nature of June’s operation was much more righteous than expected. Antibiotics, pain killers, shelf upon shelf stacked full of bandages, Han guessed his occupation within seconds: illegal drug dealer. 

Baekhyun Byun

(AKA: Beck, Sirius)

• Sirius: what the eye cannot perceive shines quietly behind bigger, brighter stars. 
• Sirius scoffed; he’s special and he knows it. 
• “The lone wolf starves to death. Know a man’s name, his personality, his propensity to action, gain an ally when you least expect it,” said the young man who wouldn’t tell Minseok his own name. Yet he’s smiling, and his ideals are infectious. 
• “Name’s Beck and ain’t no Blessed.”
• “Bum it due south to Clockwork City. Look for the hog driver, Beck. He’ll take you to June in December Lanes.” 
• Can a star kill a man? Beck wrought his newsboy cap dry, proposing, “Dinner’s almost done, so stray a little longer.” Idleness suffocates the best of us. 

Laete Farland

(AKA: Lay)

• Fay’s male friend — who she swore wasn’t her boyfriend no matter how many times the curious Jongdae asked — apparently had a taste for the finer things in life…[His home’s] opulence was hidden away between row upon row of graying buildings. 
• As Dog Catcher unlocked their cage, he formally introduced himself, “My sister saved your life, did she?” 
• Why “Nefaria?” Why “Laete?” The homonyms provided images of a pair of rather twisted parents. 
• Laete Farland: Dog Catcher; Society-employed; self-nicknamed “Lay.” He hates his real name. Surprisingly, [Jongdae and Han's] captor turned out to be more forthcoming in five minutes than Jongdae had been his entire life. 
• Traveling with a murderer to Cusp’s End was much more pleasant than expected.

Johnny

(AKA: The Haven’s Father)

• “Good morning, John.”
• Johnny, landlord of the Haven’s infamous Tower, had come to fetch the Stray at long last. It's almost unsettling how he always comes through with his hope-filled promises for the future. Almost. 
• From a security guard to the Haven’s father, Johnny flew to new heights overnight. His first ruling sought to shred an angel’s wings. 
• Jongdae never left Johnny’s office on the 13th floor of the Tower after getting what he wanted. 

K

(AKA: Adlet, #14, Cassiel)

• K was nine-years-old and walked with a cane. The Blue made his left leg limp. Calf twisted into a gangly position, he sat at the far left end of the table during meals.
• The male had a tendency of making mountains out of mole hills. Surely when they interviewed him for his tenant-ship at the Tower, he listed “talking” as his favorite hobby in the miscellaneous box.
• Excitable to a fault, he informed Jongdae of the day’s “Treat:” the special dessert served alongside their indistinguishable pile of slop.
• “What’s for dessert?” was [K's] audible exclamation. To himself. To everyone.
• “Atten—Cassiel. Registered number: 14...Look around: this might be your last glimpse of Haven.” Luck, amongst other things, kept danger and K at a safe distance of six floors away. 
• Black Coats hate K. The verb doesn’t occur to them yet — not for those on the third floor. K’s existence in the Tower became valuable the second someone asked why. Minseok briefly wondered if there were other Ks on other floors. Objects of hatred for the inarticulate.

Argos

(AKA: Christian)

• Argos stood tall at 200 centimeters. Round faced. Shaved head. Loyalty kept him awake for six days straight. Loyalty plunged him into the oasis where he floundered like a catfish out of water. 
• Pulled ashore, Argos writhed in the sand, right nub of a leg wiggling, lungs gasping for water. Throw him back in! He’ll die! He’ll die! Either way, he’ll die! Family yelled. There are no heroes on the Hunt; ribbons and medals are best fit to adorn a woman’s bosom. 

Mary Magdalene

(AKA: Magdalene, Charybdis)

• 1:100; Dr. Huang finally cracked it. Charybdis threatens to swallow men whole—eyeballs and all.
• Standing like black sludge in a sea of white, she, a sparkling new female, dared him to swim in for a closer look. Come and chase me: pleading pupils drowned in blue irises.
• Magdalene preferred her middle name. Too many Marys in one place and people start to compare.
• “Hear that? Tick. Tick. Tick. I’m on day 36. Should happen any second now...Boom!” 
• “Lighten up.” Magdalene laughed, “Our species needs to learn to laugh a little.” 
• You can’t break a natural disaster. 

J 

(AKA: Adlet, Jeremiah) 

Deceased

• J was for Jeremiah. Like Minseok, he had eighteen years of existence under his belt. Unlike K, he didn’t fake happiness. “Let’s go home. To our family.” J pursued the comforting concept as though it existed. Informed optimism. Resilient idealism.
• “Hortum means garden in Latin.” J was a walking dictionary. “Latin is a dead language, but you’ll sometimes catch White Coats using it.” Minseok found the trouble with dictionaries was their subjectivity. J was charming in his naivety; K reveled in it. 
• J didn’t make it back to the Haven. He dropped dead ten miles from the southern security checkpoint. Dehydration coupled with unworldly positivity did him in. 

Dip

Presumed Deceased

• Bolstering a gorilla’s strength and a simpleton’s intelligence, Dip was unextraordinary. His rarity was revealed at the cellular level; the man was a walking cesspool of disease. Rumor had it his cells didn’t fight foreign intruders but, instead, welcomed the seemingly life-threatening. 
• Bandages fused with skin that bubbled yellow. Dried strips peeling back revealed bumpy, red patches. One color stood in stark contrast to the mess of beating flesh: blue. His left eye, a brilliant blue dropped on bursting veins, was unmistakable. This was Dip: a Black Coat scorned. 
• “Some Dip- streaked through the neighborhood dripping pus and screaming nonsense at the top of his lungs."

Cadejo

Deceased

• He once asserted on a mild Friday, “Catfish are deathly afraid of water,” with neither context nor reason. As though the revelation hit him with an otherwordly force, he violently declared, “Catfish are deathly afraid of water!” until White Coats seized him from the weight room. 
• Days ago, Cadejo got the bright idea to strike out for water alone. Sapien Lizards left only the trespasser’s skull behind. 

The Haven

• Multiple domes, their Havens, were built to shelter [humans] from destruction they wrought on the soil beneath their feet. 
• There was no way someone could survive outside the Haven. Outside of the Society's protection. Protection they'd been in the business of distributing since the Havens were built. Exalted as holy saviors, every single human under their charge is Blessed. 

The Tower

• Order breeds good morals. Cleanliness is next to godliness. Your future is our future. Posters lined the walls of the white hallway. “Welcome to the Tower” glared the fluorescent blue sign above a security check-in. 
• This was the Tower. 13 floors. Whitewashed. Located in the center of the Haven. House to the ruling government: the Society. 
• Residential: 3rd, 6th, 9th, 11th. Industrial: 4th, 5th, 8th, 10th. Secretarial: 2nd, 7th, 13th. Lobby: 1st. Miscellaneous: only the heavenly father above knew what black drop occupied the 12th floor of this white bucket.

The Blue (+The Blue’s Medical Trials)

• The Blue — the “Screening” room — required a vast amount of energy to power.
• Jongdae was met with The Blue. Machines whirred. Violins sang together in harmonious symphony.
• According to the elevator, this was the 11th floor. The waiting room was abuzz with conversation. Contrary to their firsthand impressions, the Society deluded many boys into believing they could return home. 
• But rumor had it only a handful survived the Tower’s entrance exams. 
• The Blue’s medical trials weed out the lesser man. Sickly. Disorderly. Failing in the preceding generations’ efforts to evolve. “Lesser.”

The Underground

• The Underground is vast: Clockwork City, Asher’s Drop, Tally’s Ho, Cusp’s End, December Lanes.
• The Underground is approximately ten times larger than the Haven. Train systems, mining companies, free markets create an array of product. 
• Tao. Deo. Shoe. Fay. Han. Hun. Yeol. Chen. Names like this came from the Underground—where one survived on simplicity.
• The air grew pungent with rotting flesh. Humidity from burning grease hung on exposed skin—breakfast’s bacon. K inhaled deeply. “People live here,” he explained, expectations for their first Underground excursion well-met. Perspective swayed, Minseok agreed. 
• People marry young in the Underground. Who knows when they’ll die and “all that jazz.” The verbatim quotation then launched the Shisa into a full blown discussion on the history of jazz and its many different forms from Cusp’s End to Tally’s Ho.

Clockwork City

• A loud noise rang through the air, singing off a crooked melody like an ill-tuned grandfather clock. 
• “Clockwork City.” Han answered; Dog Catcher had moved them. “It rang earlier. You know, while you were unconsciously drooling on the floor of our collective cage.” 
• Curfew rang in on the clocktower’s fourth chime. White Coats herd their flock towards the elevator, housed in Clockwork City’s clocktower. Within minutes, white overcomes grey. 

Tally’s Ho (+“St. Theresa’s Shelter” & Stall Street)

• Tally’s Ho is Bounty Hunter roaming ground. Danger and odd jobs can be found at every corner. 
• [Fay] said but one sentence in response to Hun’s homeward call of “Tally’s Ho:” Asher’s Drop.
• [Han and Hun's] “St. Theresa’s Shelter” uniforms gave [the twins] away. Unlike those all around them Blessed with parents, they didn’t cling to hope. 
• [The Tower’s basement level] had become a glorified Stall Street: Tally’s Ho's popular shopping locale. 
   

Asher’s Drop

• Asher’s Drop had one season: Winter. 
• Affluent mansions teetering atop cracking stalagmites; a combination of frigid winters and roaring fireplaces creating a perpetual smog of ash and soot; diamonds twinkling, a rare Haven commodity, in the gaping caverns beneath their feet: the sights a denizen of Asher’s Drop witnesses on a daily basis. 
• As [Minseok] later learned, Asher’s Drop had toppled without warning. 
• Asher’s Drop hadn’t dropped at all. Brick buildings caked with ash, a solid black, stood tall. Lampposts reflected Nefaria’s makeshift torch, twinkling with nostalgia. Stars, thousands at least, lined the streets. Closer inspection revealed inlaid diamond.
• "It was the ash. It was killing us."

Cusp’s End 

• The town teetered at the edge of a cavernous pitfall so deep the bottom was clouded in thick, black shadows. But it was happier than Clockwork City by almost as many miles dividing the two. Vices of all kinds flooded the streets; staggering men and cackling women crept everywhere Jongdae looked. 

December Lanes 

• The road since leaving June’s illegal basement, tucked away in a series of alleyways nicknamed December Lanes, only got rougher the farther east they went. 

The Dog Fights (+ TTs & TTDs)

• There was a specific demographic of awful human beings who found it entertaining. Enthralling. Invigorating. Addicting. Mutilating their sense of self-worth and self-respect for fleeting second-hand feelings. These were the Dog Fights.
• A Dog Fight TT, or a Dog Fight Time Trial, is fought over the span of an hour. The goal is to beat the opponent, the monstrous creature in human skin, as fast as possible via knockout — killing optional.
• A Dog Fight TTD, or a Dog Fight To the Death, is fought until either the opponent or the challenger, the stray, or both are dead. A match suited for those who favor brawn over brains. Unavoidable for everyone, eventually, as time passes. The crowd roars with an almost euphoric delight when the clever mutt is smote by the bestial being that is man. 

The Hortum (Translation: Garden)

• Desert spread out as far as the eye can see. Buildings that once stood tall, gently kissing the clouds above, were reduced to nearly nothing. 
• Hortum: this wasteland's given name. Translating from a lost language called “Latin,” it supposedly means “garden.” Society takes to the untilled fields with exemplary farmhands: Black Coats; saviors of the world; angels of Haven. 
• Hortum: the name for the earth’s surface after years of acid rain. Barren wasteland spreading endlessly out before [the Black Coats], the itinerary’s strict schedule was daunting.

Golden Gates (Golden Gate Bridge, CA)

• As the briefing described, ten miles north of the golden gates landmark — red in color, Jongdae couldn’t help but point out — the ground came to an abrupt end. Earthquakes during the 2500s caused numerous landmasses to split wide open.
• Taking refuge under the golden gates, Jongdae scribbled a note near the campfire: sandworms, 34° N, 118° W.

Eden’s Obituary (Bellefontaine Cemetary, St. Louis, MO)

• Eden’s Obituary glittered beneath the afternoon sunset. Welcoming, green shrubbery thrived despite the region’s predisposition to smite on sight. 
• “It’s an angel like you, Michael,” J said in reference to a dilapidated marble fountain’s towering statue. 

Earth’s Pinky (Space Needle, Seattle, WA)

• A thin structure disappears in a misted shroud above. Its needled head points straight up. 
• Sitting in the snow, [Jongdae] sketched Earth’s pinky: a thin structure seemingly vaccinating the heavens above. Although the snowstorm had cleared, thick clouds shrouded the needle’s injection point. Jongdae could only assume its full appearance. 

Cannon Valley (Brownsville, Palo Alto Battlefield National Historical Park, TX)

• Cannon Valley is a swampland. Circular tubes on wheels dot a muddied landscape. Green. Goopy. This was their last landmark. Black Coats hadn’t seen the world past this. “Pitfall valley is more like it,” Kyungsoo later joked. 

Flightless L (Kennedy Space Center, FL)

• The flightless L was surrounded by pot holes filled to the brim with murky water. Dehydration drove [two Black Coats] to dive in head first. Hours later, their throats swelled and exploded. The force ripped their spinal cords. 
• A star-filled logo watched its creator’s descendants succumb to earth’s limitations for the umpteenth time. 

The Giant’s Playground (Niagara Falls, NY)

• They came upon the edge of the world, where ice cascaded down a rocky cliff in three separate places. Gathered in glittering mounds like land clouds. As vacant skies painted the expanse a drained blue. Minseok stopped his descent on these icy, interconnecting slides to marvel at its novelty. 

The Screen Sea (Laguna Madre y Delta del Río Bravo, Mexico)

• Spacious canopies were more welcoming than sharp stone. They weren’t the only ones who thought so. Tree houses built from “driftwood” and blue tarpaulins hid away in the shade of wispy palms.
• The Screen Sea, the Haven would later name this natural deathtrap. Toxic air currents blow westward each Fall morning. It’s specific range of effect is unknown. Future expeditions never came back.

Emerald City (Indianapolis, IN)

• Smoke gathered at the moss-covered ceiling. Black plumes struggled to escape the dilapidated building turned green by time and neglect.
• The city skyline leaned down to kiss the ground, giving into inevitable ruin.
• They traded candy beneath Emerald City’s shrouded stars.

Ozma Strip (Washington Park Zoo, Michigan City, IN)

• 41.7254° N, 86.9010° W: past Seasonal Hunts reported non-hostile wildlife roamed the Ozma Strip.
• Jongdae squeezed into the giant cage. Stampeding over the bones of an animal that failed to adapt to calamity—if it couldn’t escape, how could they?

The Spire

• Apex glittering above the tree line. Hexagonal shielding holding true. 33 days from its North American sister.
• PROCEDER A LA AGUJA PARA OBTENER MÁS INSCTRUCCIONES: the Haven recited, unguarded gates closing.
• Water stains had faded vibrant paint, leaving behind pastel shells under a static sky. Two hours passed beneath the same clouds. Dust settled on rows upon rows of abandoned homes.
• Nefaria found an access key for the Tower’s elevator hanging off a nailed man’s neck..[She] mimed an odd gesture over melted wax candles. 
• This Haven’s Tower had 13 floors: 4 residential; 4 industrial; 3 secretarial; 1 lobby; 1 miscellaneous. Beds were made. Medbays were clean. Cubicles were quiet. Security was severely lacking at the front desk. 
• “TEN FE.”...Four angels flew to the balcony for a closer look at god’s penultimate directive: a satellite antenna. “Have faith,” K translated as one Holy Father rolled over the guardrails.

??? (19.4194° N, 155.2885° W)

• K repeated the coordinates ad infinitum. The Spire’s satellite dish picked up a lone transmission: ACHERON, 19.4194° N, 155.2885° W. Spooked into silence, Cerberus ignored warnings of lore. Undaunted by myth, Orthrus wanted to investigate further.

Colossus Ant

• Colossus ants are aptly named for their size and awe-striking feats of construction. Workers are approximately two feet long and half a foot wide. The Haven has documented seven nests within a radius of 600 miles. Their habitats of choice are deep gorges left after the earthquake that shattered Northern America in 2439. 
• “She’s blind,” Kyungsoo informed Minseok. More irrelevant facts didn’t help calm his nerves. There is a single female colossus ant: the Queen. 
• A Queen appeared without a sound. Two stories high and four cars long. Antenna swiped the ground. Whipping up a storm as the lone female wiggled her hindquarters. 
• Sensitive to bright light, blind to all else, the Queen sleeps during the day. Burrows aboveground when mating season — twice a year — comes around. Crosses the bridge to a castle built by her gallant knights' regurgitation. Births millions of stars. 
• Minseok warns, “Don’t eat her eggs.” 
• As she crawled over the gas station 20 Black Coats laid praying in, metal creaked. Glass gave. Shards sliced a hole in Minseok’s bag. Red patterns scar her belly. Roses.

Sandworm

• Rolling sand dunes stretched as far as the eye could see. 
• Sweltering sun. Dry air. Grainy smells. Complaints spiraled through the group with Shuck as the origin point.
• Ground opening to swallow him whole, Jongdae sprinted. Minseok was always faster. Screams of terror accompanied Shuck’s last words.
• “Congratulations! You’ve just traced the migratory pattern of the indigenous, flesh-eating sandworm!” Peppy sarcasm delivered in passing by Michael the Recruiter. 

Sapien Lizard

• The species walks vertically, balancing six to eight feet of diamond-shaped scales on shapely legs—so beautiful race horses would cry. Possessing incomparable grace even as the creature charged towards Jongdae with the intent to kill. Sharp claws slashing. Long jaw snapping. 
• The sapien lizard has an impeccable sixth sense; it is hyper aware to the endorphins released by pleasure centers of the brain. Usually utilized during mating season, this adaptation can sniff out the slightest chemical shift.
• Yellow eyes peered at him from the other end. Forked tongue hissing. Scaled tail whipping at sand. “Please,” Minseok begged. 

Landfish 

• [Landfish wait] for Spring’s end to bring a rush of migrating insects. [They screeched and flopped] about when Minseok’s knife sliced between their eyes. Landfish are subjectively defined as food to malnourished Black Coats. 
• High as kites from the landfish’s defense mechanism — hormonal secretions through its muscle fibers — two [Black Coats] gained the perceived power of invincibility.

Sepelire Anoplura (Translation: Burrow Lice)

• Burrow Lice, as Minseok helpfully translated. Frozen into a forced hibernation, the critters hitched joyrides on snowflakes. Contact with heat sent their nervous systems into overdrive. Hunger stored for months without feeding explodes. 
• Bone marrow is their delicacy of choice. 
• Burrow Lice are adept at digging through greasy layers of skin and fat, unsavory muscle tissue, bitter nerve endings — hence the “burrow.” Tiny, red, circular caverns dotted Dip’s head, face, neck, arm, hand. Each contracted, relaxed, contracted as though sighing in relief. 

Ozcat 

• Bear-sized body capable of pouncing four times its length.
• Steel crashed, Ozcat a blur of orange stripes as it rammed away.
• Fluffy font paws swiped at their hidey-hole; six feet of fat stored for the winter is too wide to fit. Mewling, the largest and most powerful of its kind begged for the other leg.
• 4-inch claws clacked to a stop at the sound. Low breathing sent dust flying. Beady, black eyes stared outside cracked panes. Growls echoed, “Run away”—Ozcats love the chase. 

Ironback 

• Sheet metal, road signs, clipped chains: makeshift armor pushed orange fur into starbursts, framing tiny faces. “Surface world appraisers.” She clarified in nefarious terms, “Scavengers.”
• Ironbacks perceive society differently.
• Hitting it on a stone separated handle and blade; they hadn’t an interest in plastics. The knife was swiftly added to the growing metal metropolis. 

Mime

• “Me-mehs,” he pronounced aloud, scribbling “Mimes” on a clean journal page. Indentations skewed his efforts to shade in patchwork disguises.
• Stitched skin advanced with wobbly steps. Incessant buzzing hummed in eerie symphony...Jongdae much preferred the whites of his nightmares’ eyes than the black caverns bulging and depressing to maintain their mimicry.
• Microscopic insects broke formation, orifices oozing with buzzing clouds of unified consciousness. They snatched at flung fabric to ease their momentary panic. 

The Society

• Determined to one day leave paradise, separate groups of individuals, backed by the ruling government, set out to create the perfect generation of human beings. 
• Nobody said super foods enriched with every nutrient known to the surviving man would taste good. A strictly regimented food plan had been in place since the late 2300s. The Society demanded its citizens maintain healthy lifestyles. 
• Oh, but [Minseok's] mother adored the Society. Longed to be thin and fragile. 
• The Society had a knack for the bleak and the calculative.

Blessed 

• “But why’re you outside the Haven in the first place, Blessed?” 
• Blessed: the ethnicity of the Haven’s inhabitants. Those humans lucky enough to claim a spot after the 2345 catastrophe thrived thanks to the Society. 
• Cemeteries are impractical for the Haven’s limited residential area. Deceased Blessed are burnt and used as compost to manufacture superfoods. It’s eaten by the living who eventually die, burn, become fertilizer, give back to the congregate, the cycle continues.

Unblessed

• Unblessed: residents of the Underground who were either spurned by the Society or left of their own free will. 

White Coats

• “White Coats is a term used to refer to members of the Society.” Deo took to explaining without hesitating in the least, “As I’m sure you’ve noticed, all members of the Society don the color white.” 

Black Coats

• “The term Black Coat refers to the Society’s conscripted army.” Minseok continued, seemingly misunderstanding Jongdae’s silence as a willingness to hear more, “That’s what we were.” 
• After passing The Blue’s medical trials, before becoming a Black Coat, every candidate for sainthood has a metal tag surgically implanted beneath his nape’s skin. Society renames their soldiers. Inugami, Shisa, Orthrus, Sirius: a Black Coat embodies the power of a myth. Skin heals, and the impression remains. Indentations scar otherwise clear complexions. 
• Angels of Haven; Saviors of the World. 

“Hunt Pickings”

• The Society’s monthly “Hunt Pickings:” a lottery no one wanted to be selected for.
• The “Hunt Pickings” are announced through a “random” lottery system. Should a person’s name appear on the television screen, the Society appears to claim them before the sun sets across the sky’s gridded plain. 
• White-coated men congruous in stature knocked on doors, busted into suspecting homes, and peeled small children from weeping parents. 

Recruiters

• “Recruiter: this noun comes closest to describing my work for the Society.” 
• The Seasonal Hunt first begins with the “random” lottery. Individuals selected during these “Hunt Pickings” are a new generation of Black Coats: children made servants to the Tower’s interest after regular testing by public institutions. Recruiters take root in residential communities to weed out the winners from the losers. Within a week, a list of lucky names airs across local broadcast systems.

Seasonal Hunts

• Two Seasonal Hunts marked the start of [spring & fall] accordingly.
• “Settle in, Black Coats! Debriefing on this season’s Hunt will begin after all confidentiality statements are returned.” 
• Then there was the Seasonal Hunt; Jongdae hadn’t found a partner yet. 
• Upon recalling his first Seasonal Hunt, Jongdae remembers it the most: the gnawing hunger; a need for unreasonable excess; the comforts in safety; certainty. 
• Johnny took great pleasure in rewriting the Spring’s Seasonal Hunt’s info session. From the mind of the popular “Order breeds good morals” came the following slogan: “Records for Prosperity!” They were expected to take notes during their roundtrip on “whatever you deem necessary.” 
• “Hunter,” a White Coat labeled Minseok and “Gatherer,” Kyungsoo. Their supplies were vastly different. Kyungsoo’s messenger pack had a journal, a pencil, and sugar cubes. Inside Minseok’s camouflage bag was his old hunting knife and a heavy piece of metal. 
• [Fall’s Seasonal Hunt] is how Hunts are. Ten pairs of trained hunters and gatherers searching for life beyond the wasteland’s horizon. Spring was a test. Minseok guessed it was pass/fail. He wasn’t sure what to think, but he didn’t throw up his slightly burnt, landfish kabob. 

Prayer Tickets

• “Apparently after two weeks we’ll both get our Prayer Tickets and be on our merry ways off this floor for good. No more plagues for the rest of our Society-employed lives.” 
• Prayer Tickets: pieces of paper that could have given [Jongdae] the world. Influenza gave him one. Breakfast in bed. Salmonella. A mini-ecosystem on his windowsill. Meningitis. An Adlet free week. Tuberculosis. Free hair dye for a month. He’d never had more than one at a time. He’d never kept one for more than an hour. 

Strays

• “Strays are Black Coat defectors from the Tower.” 
• “The only way to kill strays is to sever the brain stem from the spinal cord.”
• “You’re a Stray,” he whispered. “How’d you escape?” Minseok still hadn’t. 
• “Strays like ourselves don’t have the luxury of waiting for something good to happen to us.”