In the soggy borderlands of the Rind — teeming with the overlooked and the overlooked's overlooked — thrives the teenaged Maximilien Fontaine, aka MaxVolt, aka Max. Taking the name of the battery juggernaut? A savvy lifeline in a place where corpos are more commonly anchors around necks. This maneuver, emblematic of his existence, threads through a tapestry of hustles sustaining him. Max, a jack of all trades and master of none save the art of living precariously, immerses himself in the pulsating heart of the Veil, a dance hall where weekends are lost to the infectious rhythm and hypnotic lights — a siren's call he heeds with the zeal of a devotee.
Recently, the fabric of Max's life has started to unravel, especially where his father Anselm is concerned. Anselm's dive into the OMM movement put a crack in their relationship, leaving Max to look elsewhere for guidance. Amidst the tumult of his khru-slum, the too-cool collective JUNTA stepped up, anointing Max as their envoy and weaving him into their operations. A surrogate family of sorts, with a curriculum steeped in the clandestine. If JUNTA is the devil on his shoulder, the angel(s) are Raina, Sana, and Toula, a trinity of maternal spirits who hover with a blend of concern and consternation. They are the counterbalance to JUNTA's pragmatic mentorship, offering Max a softer landing spot in the harsh reality of the Rind.
