Philip S

Philip Harrison

It's not that you were a particularly good kid, but you were always there at church every Sunday, listening closely to the hymns and sermons. It didn't hurt that the minister was your father. You loved it when you were little, at nights when he used to sit by your bed at night and tell you the stories of Job and Korah and especially the Book of Revelations. You were (no pun intended) enraptured by the idea of the End of Days, God's wrath, sin and the afterlife. It was probably because of these stories and sermons that you lived my life the way that you did.

You devoted your life to making sure you went to heaven. You know that sounds a bit selfish, but that was your motivation. You wanted to do enough good that God would pick you at the end of the world.

So you went to the seminary after high school. You felt that the best way to get on God's good side would be to preach to as many people as possible, like dad did. Less than a year after entering the seminary, you were called home. Your father was dying. So, you went home to comfort him. You were told he was in the late stages of a very painful disease and that the only thing anyone could do is make him comfortable and be with him. So you did just that. You sat by his bed while he slept and told him not to be scared, that God would take him to Heaven for he was a good man and a devout Christian.

Who would have thought you were wrong?

One day he woke up and looked you in the eye. "I'm not going to heaven son" he said flatly. You were shocked. He proceeded to confess to you all of the wrongdoings he had done over the past decades, the lies he had told, the laws he had broken, and the people he had hurt. He told you not to tell anyone, that he wanted to keep his sordid past a secret. He died two days later.

Your dream of having a devout future like your father shattered right then and there. You never went back to the seminary. Instead you went as far away from home as you could, as soon as you could. It sounds a bit cliche, but you went to the peace corps. It seemed like a good idea at the time. They put you on a plane to Burundi. I was a mess at first, but you got used to it after a while. Eventually, people got to know you. You even became friends with some of the younger people in the village you were living in. You taught them basketball and they taught you some of the customs and rituals of their people.

That is, until about seven and a half months after you got there. Some Rwandan freedom fighters decided that this little Burundian village was a perfect place for a little base of operations. They came and slaughtered all the men, women and children. That is... except for you. You managed to only get winged. I fell in a ditch and they left you for dead. For what seemed like weeks, you lay there, watching the sky, not daring to move.

When you finally felt like you had the strength to move, and it was dark, you staggered to the nearest city and found a ride to the American Embassy. That's where you passed out. Thankfully, you woke up in a hospital bed. It wasn't very clean, and it wasn't very modern, but it was a bed, and you were bandaged up.

Laying in that dirty, uncomfortable bed, I found my purpose. I know it sounds cheesy, but you know that you wouldn't have survived through this without having been watched over by some higher power. This was my spiritual re-awakening. You knew what you had to do. You were to become a missionary, but not for some third world country. You needed to preach to my own people.

So after a while you got back to the States. When you got settled back in, you set up shop. You found a place to live in Washington, D.C. and got started preaching to the people in the streets. You told your story to anyone who would stop (and, to be honest, to some that didn't). You would read passages from the Bible and tell people about the majesty of the Lord.

There are people who walk by and call you crazy, call you an ass, and so on. You don't care what they call you, if they don't want to be saved, You can't do anything for them.

It was on the street where you met Frank. Colonel Frank Bartholomew did something with the military, he wouldn't tell me the details. He didn't like talking about his background, but you could tell he went through hell. He was wandering through the streets, rambling about the French or something. You offered him some soup and a place to sit and someone to talk to for a while. After a while, the two of you became friends. You would tell him stories from the Bible and he would sit and listen. He was the only one who would listen to you some days.

One day, you and Frank were having lunch in a little diner place when you saw a news piece on this woman who went in front of Congress to talk about the world and how the big businesses were making it go down the toilet. You noticed that Frank found it as interesting as you did. You two had often talked about the state of the world (well, mostly you talked and he listened). You agreed that it was clear that the world was falling apart, and that you needed to do something about it. God gave man the role of caretaker of the earth and man has clearly failed to fulfill this duty.

So you agreed to look up this Chris Carpenter. By the time you found her, she had gotten a couple of followers, even a name for her group. They called themselves the MAGE (Moving Against Global Exploitation) Institute. It was an interesting bunch of people, there were politicians, some ex-big-business people, and some sciency people.

You and Frank have been a part of MAGE for a while now. You've been trying to push the group to a more religious focus. MAGE needs to bring God to the people, for that is the way that the world will survive this. It has become more and more apparent that the End of Days is coming. Man has failed in his commitments and the time of judgment is at hand. You don't think the Jews of the group like the way you talk about the Bible and God. Chris, though Jewish, doesn't seem to mind my preaching. You don't expect her to convert or anything, but you're okay with that, because her head is in the right place, and it's not like she's *that* Jewish anyhow.

She invited you and Frank to this passover thing. They're going to have dinner and do this traditional Jew thing. You don't mind, You're going for her. You just feel a little outnumbered among some of these Jews sometimes. But You're going to stop complaining about them. Everyone is working towards the same goal. MAGE is working towards a world wherein God can look down and see that although the world fell apart in the end, there were some people who tried to make a difference.

People You Know

Chris Carpenter

She's the one who organized all this. She's got a plan and it seems to be doing something good. People are starting to actually listening.

Barry Magdalene

He's a little meek, especially compared to Chris. That whole thing with the prostitute pretty much killed all the respect he had garnered, though. You'll never understand why he become a Jew for Chris though.

Peter Skala

Pretty devoutly Jewish, but helping the cause in his own way. He does corporate espionage.

Andrea Skala

Andrea isn't really willing to get her hands dirty for what she believes in so strongly.

James Papadopoulos

He's a tough-guy ex-marine who's been working on some of our more... destructive assignments. Industrial sabotage and the like. His method's might be a little extreme, but his ideas are good. It's the end times, so if he wakes a few people up it's worth it.

John Papadopoulos

John couldn't be more different from his brother James. He's a gay high school English teacher who believes in the goodness of humanity. He's a nice guy, too bad about the gay thing, though.

Col. Frank Bartholomew

That guy went through some dark stuff in Rwanda. He's never told me what happened, but something inside him snapped. He's a good guy though and he's willing to help out where he can.

Tamasa Valappil

She's an atheist who's come to the conclusion that MAGE is overreacting and the problems aren't as bad as the people here make them out to be. She really couldn't be more wrong on all accounts.

Jamie Schreiber

She's a cute kid, clings to Chris a bit much. She doesn't really stick up for herself much, and she really should find a nice boy to settle down with.

Eve Matthews

She's had a tough break (no pun intended). Since her accident she kinda lost focus on life up until she entered MAGE. It gave her direction, but she's still missing something. She really should go back to church once in a while.

Simon Cylima

He's a bit of an enigma. He's helping the cause, but his outlook on the world and religion isn't clear to you. Hangs around with Jude and James a lot.

Jude Fairchild

Jude is another tough guy. He's an ex-cop. Like James, his methods aren't necessarily the best, but his mind is in the right place. He listens up to your preachings more than most folks here.