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These recovering heroes live in a remote part of the galaxy on a backward planet called Earth. Outwardly, they are indistinguishable from normies. (non addicts) Life events can trigger an astonishing metamorphosis - transforming them in the twinkling of an eye into either active users or into sober addicts. The key to which path they take lies in remaining aware of their super-power(lessness) and making healthy choices.
Recovery Man and Boy Relapse are possessed of an array of super-power(lessness) and an astonishingly simple toolkit. Together they tour an endless succession of church basements and overheated mall community rooms* sharing their experience strength and hope with other intelligent life forms who share their desire to lead simpler more fulfilling lives. (Qualities that define intelligent life forms include Honesty, Openness, and Willingness.)
Recovery Man wears green tights (keeping it green) and a diaphanous pink cape symbolizing the pink cloud of early recovery. The AA triangle is emblazoned across his chest, and on his toolbelt he wears book holsters (for easy access to the Big Book and Twelve and Twelve), a pager (for those urgent 12 step calls) and an array of sobriety chips from several programs.
Boy Relapse is still in denial about his super power(lessness) a lot of the time. He wears all black and dark shades even when inside. Emblazoned on his chest is the Grateful Dead Logo (He insists its because he likes the music, and that he can handle himself around his old using friends.) On his toolbelt he keeps rolling papers (for his American Spirit tobacco) a bottle opener, (he drinks a lot of near-beer) and a pager, suitable for keeping in touch with his sponsor on good days or his dealer when in full relapse mode.
One of Boy Relapse's most striking super-power(lessness) is his amazing Cloak of Invisibility. The Cloak of Invisibility was perfected in childhood. With the Invisibility Cloak drawn about him he's able to blend into the woodwork, and therefore not be called on his issues.
Recovery Man can sometimes deny his own super power(lessness) too. When this happens he can instantly transforms into Boy Relapse. Before this happens he tends to quote the 12 and 12 and Big Book a lot; hiding behind his nearly impenetrable shield of FEAR (Frantic Efforts to Appear Recovered.) Similarly, Boy Relapse is capable of amazing shifts and leaps forward - transforming himself into Recovery Man when he gets honest with himself. (This ability to become each other also relates to their enmeshment and codependency.)
Boy Relapse is not so much convinced of his own super-power(lessness). He spends an inordinate amount of time seeing the differences between himself and those he meets in "the rooms."
Recovery Man always sits up front and shares relentlessly in meetings, weather he has something to say or not. Boy Relapse sits at the back with his Cloak of Invisibility drawn tightly about him. He shares infrequently - and usually only when his sponsor is there, or after a particularly nasty relapse episode.
Born to a small band of itinerant grape crushers; Recovery Man began his (perhaps too exciting) life as an apprentice vintner. After a particularly bacchanalian revel he is left by the hung over grape crushers in a basket at the gateway of the imposing Chateau RÖtgut. Pre Recovery Boy was taken in by the Duchess of Xanex - who rules the Duchy with a glassy eyed and imperious cruelty.
An only child - Pre Recovery Boy spent his childhood in the gilded splendor of Chateau RÖtgut. Pre Recovery Boy always felt different from the other kids, and spent countless hours in childhood dreaming of a perfect world. A world where no pain was felt, Mom wasn't semi-comatose, sadness was unknown, and everybody didn't scream quite so much.
At age twelve Pre Recovery Boy met a seductive witch who lived deep in the shadowy forest of the unconscious. (The witch's lair was tucked inside a hemlock tree; she had blankets nailed up over all the windows, as she cannot tolerate the light of day.) In the darkness she looked strangely beautiful, though she was emaciated and had hauntingly hollow eyes.) The witch's power was deceptive. Her cunning, baffling and powerful elixirs made her seem a scintillating and glamorous creature indeed. She gave Pre Recovery Boy a potent elixir of crushed herbs. The elixir made him feel like he could leap tall buildings, eased his shyness around people, and toned the screaming back at the Chateau down to a dull roar. She said the elixer was "free." Actually she gave the elixer to him in exchange for certain highly inappropriate and felonious personal favors.
Pre Recovery Boy used the elixir infrequently at first, but gradually noticed himself using more and more of the elixir to recapture the feeling it initially brought him. As he continued to use the elixir, he found himself behaving strangely - avoiding his friends, telling lies, cheating at school, (before he dropped out) and stealing primo bottles from the Chateau RÖtgut's wine cellar to trade to the witch for more of the elixir. Only the first batch of Elixir was "free" - by now the witch had turned her hollow eyes on younger prey.)
Born addicted to crack cocaine, Boy Relapse was taken from his mother by the courts. Boy Relapse spent his childhood in a dizzying succession of foster homes. Some of his foster parents were loving and kind, and others were unspeakably abusive. This traumatic lifestyle led to two of Boy Relapse's most prominent superpower(lessness); that of hyper-vigilance and the Cloak of Invisibility. Hyper-vigilance is a particularly taxing superpower(lessness), as it drains energy yet keeps one awake. This obviously taxes the nervous system heavily.
Filled with good intentions, Boy Relapse sought help for his condition from a misguided "Doctor" - who offered help in the form of a magic tablet. The magic tablets helped him to sleep, but unbeknownst to him they secretly destroyed his ability to dream. The Doctor enjoyed the power and importance he felt in dispensing magic tablets, and so hid their dream crushing properties from his patients. Some years later Boy Relapse discovered that if he swallowed the tablets with beer they made him feel as if he could fly. This effect was very exciting, so sometimes he took two or three. Fearing the Doctor would stop giving him the magic tablets, Boy Relapse began to ration them. He endured many sleepless nights so that every fourth or fifth night he could fly.
Pre Recovery Man has met and fallen instantly in "love" with B.P.D. Brenda - the girl of a thousand mood swings. Pre Recovery Man feels strong and powerful again; since B.P.D. Brenda seems to need him soooo much. B.P.D Brenda loves living at the Vineyard, as the free flowing Chablis helps take the edge off.
Together they paddle about the Beaujolais Bayou in a rowboat with one oar. Making lazy circles, they gaze lovingly into each others eyes before nodding off. While they drift along in dreamy unconsciousness the rowboat slips into the rapids of relationship difficulties.
The wine dark waters become more turbulent - what with him lying and stealing to get more elixir, and her baffling way of being warm and loving one minute, cold and rageful the next, and desperately needy in between.
Their lives are spinning out of control. He isn't eating right anymore, and hardly ever sleeps. Her moodiness increases the more she drinks, and there's plenty to drink at Chateau RÖtgut. He's angry most of the time, and takes more and more of the Witch's elixir, desperately trying to recapture the comfort it used to give him.
Pre Recovery Man begins to sleep around - longing for the "love" and sense of power and admiration he felt when he and B.P.D. Brenda first met. His infidelities trigger Brenda's jealousy, (a core issue) and she becomes more rageful, suspicious and controlling.
Boy Relapse gets a DUI while speeding across town to refill his prescription for Magic Tablets before the pharmacy closes for the night. In prison he trades his scrip to his cellmate for a dime bag of heroin and promptly overdoses.
Pre Recovery Man bottoms out, suffering an elixer induced psychosis. He has a nervous breakdown and enters Treatment.
B.P.D. Brenda gets trapped in a vortex of FEAR (F*CK EVERYTHING AND RUN) and leaves Recovery Man during Family Week, sinking deeper and deeper into the vortex of her fear, denial and shame.
Boy Relapse is intervened on by his Foster Parents and sent to Treatment against his wishes. They are bunked together and begin to forge a life long friendship.
In core group they meet D.I.D. Dina - whose superpower(lessness) is the ability to shift into many different forms to protect herself in times of stress.
They band together to form the Trauma Troupe - a band of recovering
semi-heroes who work to confront their demons, share laughter and tears, and struggle to
honestly work through their FEARS.
(Face Everything and Recover.)
*This parallel universe is known by the oddly poetic name - "the rooms." Back to whence you came.
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