Waylon

"If it can be made smaller and blown to bits, its perfect."-Waylon, the Hewer

Waylon Phineas Dyers is a survivor and major character in hymns from the hypogean. An old miner with a love for working and throwing explosives at large rocks, he is willing to work for anything-even if his mind and lungs aren't as good as it use to be.

## Life before arriving in the Constant

Waylon Phineas Dyers was born in DeadWood, South Dakota in 1875. As soon as he learned to walk, he had immediately understood the value of hard work. When he turned 12, he had begun to work for a mining company-The Undersung family were known for their success in gemstones and minerals, making jewelry and technology from their gains. However, what many didn't know was that they truly had no respect nor care for any of their workers. Waylon found this out the hard way.

When he turned 17, he developed coal-workers pneumonia and realizing that his time is limited, he attempted to gain a small pension for the hard work he had done. Instead he was laid off and given a measly 3 dollars; 5 years of loyalty and hard work, refusing several offers made by other entrepreneurs, working day and night and then, in return being kicked to the curb with enough money to buy a days worth of food. His angered boiled up and rushed towards the two owners and immediately threatened to sue. They laughed and he was thrown out once again, this time the fire inside him had been snuffed out when the two brothers threatened about buying his families house and throwing them out. Waylon traveled from state to state, doing his best to find work-He didn't care if made his lungs hurt or if it made his infection worse, as long as he got paid he was willing to sacrifice his lungs; all the while reminiscing of simpler times when all he had to do was break rocks, a job he loved but run by people he hated.

At the age of 49, he was completing a task when the world suddenly darkened and his chest felt like it had been stabbed with a dagger. His lungs ached and he could barely move-worst of all is that he was stuck in an grimy alley with a sack full of explosives. Without any options he called out for help, repeating it while his lungs kept stinging with pain. A dapper man heard his cries for help and approached him and kneeled down. He offered Waylon a way to help him that would get rid of his lung problems. Waylon didn't care that this strange man somehow knew his disease, he only cared about living and completing his job so he agreed when suddenly he felt his eyes droop and the man disappeared behind darkness. Only an empty sack, some badly written pages and black sludge remained in the alleyway.

## Life during the Constant

Waylon awoke to a cool breeze that entered his lungs and something fuzzy nuzzling his face. He opened his eyes to see a large hairy beast stare at him, its eyes were a bright white and its fur as gray as smoke. He jumped and immediately felt his lungs feel better-well only slightly better as they still stung at random intervals. Looking around him, he saw nothing but rocky walls and a brightly colored town, he smiled. It was a cave and suddenly a warm feeling of nostalgia had washed over him.

He grabbed the strange creature by its fur and a handful of dynamite-the owner couldn't really stop him- and set off to explore what he could only guess was a large cave.