Neena and Menasha were born in 103 PC to Menominee and Marinette. They were babies of the growing Mantysons Clan. Mary pampered and indulged her little girls, with ribbons in their curly hair and bows on their dresses. They followed her everywhere during the day as she shopped in Walton and played around Mary’s feet as she tended bar in the evening. When the girls were in their late teens, Gaffer Manty sent the family on a holiday to Rebelton to visit their Gammer Zenda’s family. They would never see their Gaffer again.
The story of the fall of Walton has been told many times. The twins were too young to really understand what was happening. At first they only understood their holiday would be extended. But, eventually they wanted to go home, to chat with their girl friends and flirt with boys. They were quite upset when they came to realize they would never be going home to Walton. They cried and sulked and pouted for days. As the refugees poured into Rebelton from Walton, they eventually found a few of their friends. But many more were lost in the cataclysm.
By the time the family moved to Trollsbridge and founded the Smoking Pipe, the girls were in their tweens. They were old enough to begin working in the tavern alongside the rest of the family. They waited tables and flirted with guests. Neena took after Zenda and Hurley and began playing music and telling stories, but Menasha took after Manty. The twins were never long apart. Whenever one of them would get into trouble, the other would help her get out of it. Usually by flirting and acting flighty until they were forgiven. At first they avoided serious troubles under the watchful eyes of Zenda, Mary, Hurley and the rest of Manty’s family.
Then the fateful day of Zenda’s fall followed by Hurley’s quest took away their safety net. Hurley’s absence left an opening at the taverns that Neenah naturally stepped in to fill. Menasha always attended her shows, looking for someone whose purse was made heavy by too much drink. At first Neenah mostly played at Tasha’s Ineffable Laughter, with occasional shows at the Pipe, when Mary would allow it. Eventually, Neenah was invited to play The Scarlet Garter. Neenah and Menasha were old enough to have heard a few stories from a few of the wild parties at The Scarlet Garter. But, at 28, the twins were still several years from majority and choosing a groom. They whispered and giggled together as they awaited the day of the first performance. While it was a bawdy crowd, and they were suspicious of the goings on in the darkened, curtained booths ringing the main hall, they were mostly disappointed in the mundane events of the evening. Still, there were only a few halls to play in Trollsbridge and Neenah became a regular there with Menasha in the audience.
It didn’t take long before their girlish fantasies were fulfilled as they caught site of the goings on in a booth when a traveler from out of town got carried away and the curtains were torn down revealing one of the tavern’s ladies with her skirts up and the traveler with his pants down. After the show, they giggled late into the night as they marveled at the site. They had caught glimpses of their brothers’ manhood during the weekly family bath, but they were nothing like the big folk.
Neenah kept performing, improving her skills and expanding her repertoire. Menasha attended every show and improved her thieving, learning to only take a few coins from many purses. Most of the revelers wouldn’t be able to remember how much they had drunk or spent the night before and wouldn’t notice their purses being slightly lighter. Most that is, until Menasha got caught trying lighten the purse of a Borgosian priestess at the Garter. The priestess wasn’t too angry, but insisted on Menasha paying for her transgression. She invited Menasha and Neenah too up to a private party on the second floor. They were blindfolded and led to a room with many people in it and there delighted to discover just how big, big folk could be.
After the party, Neenah and Menasha began frequenting The Scarlet Garter more often. Neenah entertained the private parties with music while Menasha performed in other ways. For some parties they still wore the blindfolds, sometimes they wore masks and for others nothing at all.
It didn’t take long before the parties grew old and Trollsbridge grew small. They began to recognize a faces from The Scarlet Garter around the city and knew others recognized them. They know if their ma would be mortified if she found out about the private parties. Before their 29th birthday, Neenah and Menasha decided it was time to make their way in the world. They packed a bag and booked passage on a ship heading west, hoping to make their way to the City. After their ship sailed beyond the Trollsbridge harbor, they were never heard from again.