Posts Tagged ‘characters’

Day 10 – Hello Alice

Tuesday, November 10th, 2009

The time has come. That plot bunny is perfect for this month really, and now I can write it out. It’s time to get working on the prep work for the first book of The Looking Glass Saga. Or maybe Chronicles, but for now, Saga is what I had written down first. Let’s get to characters.

Alice Liddell
Alice just started at Lucena Academy, sent there because she had gone to Wonderland half a year before and driven her parents nearly mad with her incessant talk of her time there. She took this as they told her to take it: a chance to further her education and continue to learn to be a brilliant, polite young girl. She does, however, have a feeling her talk of Wonderland has caused them to send her here and is making an effort to not be so forthright with the tale any longer.

She is young, outgoing and not afraid to point out when someone is wrong or make a correction where she thinks it is necessary, but does so in the politest way she can manage. She is level headed and determined, working hard to make her parents proud and ready to continue to do her very best at anything that she attempts. Granted, it doesn’t always work out for the best, but her intentions are usually good.

Adrianna Case
Quite possibly the most beautiful girl in school, Adrianna certainly doesn’t let on that she is aware of that or anything at all. She has been sent to school for a good education at the same place as her seven brothers, all of them who remain at the school keeping a keen eye out for their little sister, who is quite prone to getting herself into unusual situations due to who she is.

Adrianna is an honest, caring and dim young girl. While she is beautiful, she has trouble understanding that there could ever be anything but good intentions when other people approach her and she is quite naive. While she does work hard, she is also a little slow to understand. She memorizes facts, but does not understand how to use them in any constructive way.

Cat
A somewhat aloof older figure in the school, he appears to only associate with Alice, it seems, and does not obey much of the dress code or anything else in the school. Those who have seen him say they usually find him looking to find a comfortable spot in the sun for a nap rather than attending any classes or homework. Some believe that he may not even go to this school, saying that he only appeared on campus this year and no one knows his name beyond Alice referring to him as “Cat.”

What he is, however, is the Cheshire Cat, come to bring Alice news of Wonderland and bring her back when it suits whatever his own motives may be. In all actuality, though, he is quite happy being a human at this school and doesn’t know why the children are so stressed. He certainly isn’t.

Adrainna’s Brothers
Adrianna has seven older brothers, all of them attending the same school as she is for the moment. They do not currently all have names and I am still trying to work out who is in what year, when they would graduate and all of that messy extra stuff that comes with creating families of more than two children. Well, even then, come to think of it. But there are triplets in there and they are mischievous. Possibly a pair of twins in there as well that are both perfect little angels. That would be five of them… we’ll see.

Their core function of the story, though, is to keep an eye on their little sister and make sure she isn’t getting into trouble again. She does have a bad habit of not recognizing obvious scams and being a little too sensitive. As well as that, they have their own issues and problems so that they can be well rounded characters as well.

Arthur Dragon
Doesn’t show up for a while, but he’s been a little frozen in stone for a while. When he wakes up, he is slow to pick up on how things work in the new world and his understanding that he’s not King and doesn’t have the power to do what he wants for the good of the mission doesn’t apply anymore.

He does turn into a good guy once he gets smacked around a little, though, but he does keep some of the arrogance. He’s also a bit of an unwilling hussy, kissing whoever Alice tells him to kiss because his kiss breaks curses. He’s not all that happy about this development.

Peter
Peter is the first refugee that Alice pulled out of the Looking Glass. He was on the run, trying not to get himself killed and scared for his life as well as carrying a lot of guilt over the people he left behind in the mean time. Not knowing what else to do, he ran from Neverland looking for a way out and found Alice, who pulled him out, but was unable to keep him at Lucena Academy.

He also returns at some point, though I don’t know how or what happens just yet. But he’ll be a hell of a lot happier than he was before, so everything should work out pretty nicely. Maybe a little rivalry between him and Arthur or something of the like. It would be nice to see the two of them try to show up one another.

And that’s more characters than are appearing in the book I’m working on right now. It’s being conceived as a series, so I’m working on the planning as if it’s going to be a series as well. Peter and Arthur, they aren’t getting into the story though they might be alluded to.

So this first one, Alice has been sent to Lucena and then Cat finds her and pushes her into a mirror. She’s supposed to try and save Wonderland, or just to deliver something to the White King, and fails. She goes back to her world with the gift of a book that she’s supposed to keep safe and not read.

Alice, of course, reads it and horrible things happen. And then more bad stuff happens and then the series is properly set up for all sorts of more things. Really.

And now I need to spend the rest of the evening looking for random stuff to throw into the story because, dammit, it’s Wonderland and Nanowrimo. I take that as license to have utter insanity happen. That, and I’m going to throw a fridge at a character at long last!

Oh, and I guess I should note that the looks and uniforms I have aren’t entirely accurate. I just couldn’t find a jumper. Alice and Adrianna are 12 at the start of this. They get the blue blazer when they get to the high school area in a couple years.

School uniform colours: Blue and grey. It’s the only time I’m having uniforms, I think, so I’m going to try and do a little consistency here. Just a little. But she’s still getting the black headband with boy.

Who knows, I might be able to start writing this thing tonight. Wish me luck!

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Raven Project: Cast

Thursday, October 29th, 2009

There’s only a few days left until Nanowrimo. As such, it’s time to actually get started on a little planning. So let’s start with the characters.

Lira Ebon
A 19 year old former gymnast, she’s started in university in hopes of finding something else to do with her life. She is full grown at 4’4″ and seems to be grossly underweight at 68 pounds, though her physique seems normal. She’s also a vegetarian not for any ethical reasons but because she can’t seem to digest meat.

She was adopted by the Ebon family as a child, who have treated her well and given her a good childhood. Besides having to be rushed to the hospital on several occasions due to very fragile bones, she has lead a relatively normal life.

Morgan Beau
He’s started at university because it’s what his parents wanted him to do, but Morgan doesn’t see that as much of an obstacle towards his objective of trying to find the good life where he doesn’t have to work and everything will just work out for him in the end. He has a bit of a nervous twitch now and then, seeming to know things are coming, but will usually brush those off fairly easily.

Morgan has two basic settings to his personality. He’s either cheery, laid back and tries not to worry about anything or he’s tired, grumpy and full of pessimistic and snappy comebacks for any suggestion made.

Jayde Ng
A fairly outgoing young woman, she is a bit of a girly girl, though keeps her strong opinions and holds her own very well. She is currently working in customer service and is working hard to maintain both grades as well as a job while she is in school, hoping to soon move out and earn her independence. Ever an overachiever, she is set on maintaining a high GPA regardless.

She wears brown colour contacts to cover her strange eyes, one of which is golden. She’s quite self conscious of this and usually keeps a spare contact on her just in case to hide the abnormality.

Shane Towers
Laid back yet strangely grounded for someone his age, he seems to be a quick study and works hard to keep his grades up, though he also is more than willing to go around finding a party if he has simply had enough with work for the day. He’s very social and has a habit to use rather bad puns in conversation to lighten the mood.

Shane has a tendency to get overprotective and worry heavily for the well being of others when given the opportunity. He tries hard not to meddle, but wants people to be well so long as he is around and can sometimes mother people and get on their nerves.

Calvin Chen
He was raised in an international school in Hong Kong along with his brother who had left for school a year before. He was happy to be sent to join his brother at school, though he rarely ever mentions him now that he’s here. He does the work given to him in class as asked, but is uncertain about the educational path hes chosen to pursue.

He’s getting used to life on the other side of the ocean fairly quickly, taking on the punk fashion and getting himself used to the culture in that way. He’s a bit quiet, though nice enough if you actually talk to him.

Liz Lovel
A year older than the rest, she’s here to show them around and get them used to the ropes. She’s actually a pretty quiet person for the most part, though helpful and anxious to show them the lighter side of school life.

She’s another girl who’s lead a perfectly average life. She has a few allergies that make it seem she’s sick some of the time, but the majority of the time she will brush it off and continue on with the group, lending a hand where it’s needed and usually trying to take a back seat and let everyone else try for themselves.

So, nice normal characters with nice, normal lives. All of them are just starting their first year of university. I am going to have so much fun breaking their poor little minds.

Of course, I’m lying about a few of the characters too…

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OMG Characters!

Sunday, October 28th, 2007

Okay, so Nano is just around the corner. And though I’ve said nothing about what my story is about, I’m going into my character spiel because some of them are really well developed and some have no development at all and I just need to go through them all. Worked well for me last year. Might as well give it a shot this time around.

Donovan “Don” Mitchell
Don
Age: 20
Gender: Male
Powers: Summons a spear, has increased agility, strength and stamina
History:
Don grew up the only child in a small family. His parents had wanted a second, so treated him like the experimental child, placing rules and regulations on him to keep him out of trouble and generally trying to keep him a good responsible child. Unfortunate that he started bending the rules around that and found loopholes that helped loosen his parents up a little and made them let up on the overabundant restrictions. Especially after he managed to break into the house when he forgot his key because of their last effort to get him into the house on time: by locking the house and not letting him in.

He didn’t mention to his parents what had happened that night to make him late, not believing it himself just yet. He had been walking home when a group of older teens surrounded him. Besides wanting to hurt him, he didn’t really know what they wanted. Outnumbered, he wasn’t sure what to do, but decided to at least try to put up a fight. When they started beating on him, he lashed out and found that he was suddenly holding a spear that had come out of nowhere. He used it, beating them off with the flat of the blade end of it and pushed them back and off, running out in the confusion.

The spear disappeared once he was out of danger, his heart pounding a little less and he was in the gardens behind his house, looking himself over and trying to figure out how hurt he was and how he was going to explain to his parents. Strangely, he wasn’t hurt nearly as bad as he thought he should have been, though he was locked out. His window, however, was still open and he had questions left to ask about earlier.

Rather than deny the existence of the spear, he tried to summon it again. For an hour. When it didn’t appear, he started trying to climb the side of the house up the grate. He got quite high, but when he reached for the window, he fell. He flailed, needing something to break his fall and keep him from falling on his head, the spear was there again in his hand, embedding into the ground. He was never quite sure how he managed to land on his feet, but he was happy for the spear. Once he caught his breath, it was time to try something stupid.

With a running jump, he vaulted himself into his window, using the spear as leverage. It worked and the spear, upon looking back outside, had vanished again. Confused though he was, he decided to just sleep on it.

From high school, he became a very laid back student, maintaining a C+ – B average throughout and getting into sports. He was not popular, though still maintained many friends and a couple girlfriends here and there. It was one of his girlfriend’s brothers that introduced him to the wide world of computer programming behind gaming and he had discovered a passion and direction outside of sports, which were clearly not about to give him any free rides into any good schools.

In his final two years, he took up more math and computer science classes and did quite well. Grades improving in the last two years, especially with having dropped quite a few of the sports teams he was on (Mostly as a second stringer anyway, so he didn’t particularly mind) he managed to get his grades just high enough to get into a school with a decent technology program.

The spear appeared again several more times afterwards and, though he never quite got used to making it come when he wanted, he was getting the hang of using it when it did show up.

Notes:His control is minimal, and he kind of takes things as they come rather than worry about things that might happen eventually.

He also has a romantic interest. I can’t remember her name, but they’ve been going out for about 6 months as of the start of the story.

Dawn Ngera
Dawn
Age: 22
Gender: Female
Powers: Can see the future, needs an inhibitor so she doesn’t get lost in time and remains mentally in the present
History:
Dawn doesn’t discuss her past, because her past is her own business and she has no need to live there any longer than she has to. Needless to say, it wasn’t a hell of a lot of fun. Instead, she likes to focus on other people’s past, and what they had shared instead.

While none of them will ever recount the tale honestly, Dawn had been living on the streets when Di and Ezra Thrice came by. They had simply walked past and she had stopped them, telling them of things that would soon be causing them all problems. There were people that were after all of them. Well, her specifically, but they would soon be coming after everyone and they would all need to be warned. Not warned. They would need to be recruited. Knowing how the twins would react to all this, she made it sound more like a challenge. The pair of them were clearly bored and if they helped her, she would get them good stable living arrangements, entertainment, lots of people and they would never have to settle down. They would be on the move soon enough.

She gained their trust slowly, but surely enough they grew to trust her and followed her into conning a good number of people into fabricating educational histories for all of them. She now appeared to have several years at a community college and was transferring into university. The twins were fresh out of high school. The plan was set, the pieces were in motion, now all that was needed was the other side to show up and the games could begin.

Notes: I love Dawnie. She’s fun. And she’s wearing a black wig and brown contacts to hide white hair and silver eyes.

Torana “Tori” Celeb
torana.gif
Age: Unknown
Gender: Female
Powers: Creates charmed items with magic in them. And she appears to randomly turn into an elf.
History:
Torana, Tori as she’s more commonly known, doesn’t particularly like to talk about her past, though people on the campus know her. She has been attending the school for many years now, dabbling in just about everything and very good at what she tries. She has enough experience now to hold a double, perhaps even a triple major if she would ever declare one, but she never does, instead taking odd jobs on campus and cutting down on her number of classes.

Most of her research, little known to the rest of the campus, leans largely toward the classification of all the people who have magic in this dimension and trying to understand how that works in the context of alternate dimensions. No one, however, questions her on what her real motives at the school are since she’s been there for so long. Instead, she goes out and enjoys the social life regardless of midterms or finals on campus.

Her magic she keeps largely to herself, knowing that it is generally forbidden among the people. She doesn’t use it at all, though, except for her own purposes. In this way, she has never been caught or suspected, though some are starting to find it a little odd that despite how long she seems to have been studying there, she still doesn’t look over 20.

Notes: Her secrets won’t be revealed in this book. Also, fashion misfit. Which makes her fun.

Jin Chen
jin.gif
Age: 21
Gender: Male
Powers: Controls rocks and minerals.
History:
His parents were strict-ish growing up. Both of them Chinese-Canadians, they believed that Jin should grow up with more freedom than they had, but not by much. He had always been pushed very hard to get straight As, learn both Cantonese and Mandarin and become a doctor. That was what his parents had wanted for him and therefore his line of work had long ago been chosen for him.

In school, however, he had discovered a liking for geology of all things. And cooking. His parents did their best to appear supportive of it, though it took them a very long while to realize that he was gravitating away from being a doctor and wanting to branch out into something else. Doctor wasn’t really what he wanted to do, but he would try anyway to make them happy. And his parents slowly stopped pressuring him to become a doctor, deciding instead that he could do what he wanted as long as it required a good education and was guaranteed to pay very well. Post secondary allowed him to branch out into a lot of strange subjects and he’s dabbling.

He did not discover his powers until first year. He was hanging out outside, joking around with Don about the Philosophy class they had just gotten out of. Smething about how in an alternate universe, they would all have powers. Jin joked about how he could just wave his hand and girls would fall for him. In doing this, he waved his hand and the ground developed a lump in it, a girl tripping over it as she walked. While Don and he laughed, Jin knew he had done something and started trying it on his own time, gradually realizing he could manipulate the earth, sand, salt and other earth, rocks and minerals.

Notes: I have to fix him. Lots.

Ciara “Cici” Foley
ciara.gif
Age: 20
Gender: Female
Powers: Controls silvery dust
History:
Ciara was raised largely by her mother as her father left when she was young, unable to deal with her grandparents. Her family had a long standing agreement with another family, the Foleys, to protect them while they got their hands dirty, both families in a very long standing business of information. Selling and using it was their speciality. Ciara’s family provided the muscle. Therefore, when Ciara manifested her abilities at a very young age, she was immediately sent to her grandparents for training.

She couldn’t remember that summer at all. It was like it hadn’t even happened. All she knew was that she had been indited into the family business and, while she wasn’t ready to work yet nor did she understand what it was they did, she was useful now. Her mother, however, didn’t like it and wanted to find a way out of the family.

Over the next year, her mother married a man from the Foley family and she got an older brother, Gabriel. He seemed to remember her better than she remembered him, saying that they had met last summer at their grandparents, then taking it all back and instead trying to act more like a brother to her. She didn’t really understand it, though grew used to him though he seemed strangely distant much of the time. Like he knew something he shouldn’t. Still, she was young and didn’t understand what was happening.

The pair of them were sent off to another completely forgotten summer at their grandparents and then soon after that Ciara stopped seeing them all together. They all moved clear across the country, well away from them and hopefully away from their eyes. Ciara started learning to develop her powers on her own at this time, discovering that the dust listened to her and could tell her things that it heard as well. She took up eaves dropping and started to learn things about how her parents were trying to get out of the family and the family business but it was going to be nearly impossible because they had just robbed them of an entire generation of power.

Ciara had no idea what it meant and decided instead to focus on her own exploits. Like studying. High school pressures were starting to wane on her and her brother was off to University soon, so he would not be around much longer to ask things of. He had started opening up a little more, but he still didn’t seem to have too many answers, not at all interested in what his grandparents were up to or why they had been moving.

When school for her rolled around, she was put directly into the English program due to her grades in high school. Since then, she’s been content to keep to herself, though always seems to know a hell of a lot more than she should.

Notes: She’s the one who has written this book in continuity. That’s why it misses all the stuff that happens in Wipe. Baha.

Gabriel “Gabe” Foley
gabrial.gif
Age: 23
Gender: Male
Powers: Teleports using mirrors.
History:
His mother died in child birth, which left him being raised by his father alone. His dad, while caring, was still rather cold and distant. Like he didn’t want to get too close. Still, Gabriel did his best to make him happy, studying hard so that his father would be proud of him and trying to do well in everything he did because when he did well, his father seemed to become warmer toward him.

One night, tired, he had gotten up from his bed to go visit his father. Forgetting to open his door, he walked into it or, more precisely, into the mirror and walked out the other side in his father’s bedroom. His father, surprised though not entirely shocked, said nothing about it and treated it as if it was a normal incident that they were not to talk about outside this house.

That summer he was sent to his grandparent’s house, though he could tell his father did not want him to go. There he was introduced to the family business. They dealt in information and he would too, especially since he was someone with abilities. Only one was born per generation in the entire family and he would be brought into the business early. And so he began learning his abilities and how to use them well. So important his grandparents thought they were that they arranged for him to have tiny mirrors surgically implanted behind his ears, though he was too young for that yet.

When he came home, he shared everything with his father, including the fact that he understood this was all to be kept a secret. He returned the next year, and a few years after, starting to wonder as he grew older just what it was they were training him to do. He knew, but he didn’t really understand it. And then he saw Ciara, a little girl they were training intensely for combat regardless of her health and ability. When he asked and protested this, they explained that this was the role of her family. She was being trained to protect him at a word and she was going to be their gift to him.

From there on, he only pretended to enjoy himself and absorb everything, but he was a little disgusted at what was going on. He told his father all this when he got back and he assured Gabriel that everything was going to be all right if they could get a few things settled.

His father married Ciara’s mother later that year. He did his best to keep an eye out for her, but wasn’t sure what to do. She couldn’t remember anything that had happened over the summer at all. He felt awkward around her, knowing that she was being given to him this next summer somehow. That summer, he found out what they had meant. She was trained as a sleeper and they gave him the password to make her switch between normal and agent.

When they moved, he felt better, though still awkward around his sister. The family as a whole decided to not mention any of it to Ciara and Gabriel did his best to do that, hiding his abilities from her as well. Still, he was happier when he went away to school. Protective of her as he had become, he didn’t really know what to do around her anymore. He tried, but that knowledge was still haunting him.

Notes: I send him to Australia. In every iteration. His hair looks dorky, I really should have found something better.

Diamond “Di” Malaya Thrice
di.gif
Age: 19
Gender: Female
Powers: Illusionist
History:
Twin sister to Ezra, she is younger by a few minutes but more than makes up for it in her own way. The pair of them were abandoned by their mother at a very young age, left at home on their own with her never returning. Their mother’s influence had left both of them distrustful of adults and they made their way into the streets to fend for themselves.

They knew they had powers but never knew that such a thing was unusual. Di became very good at making illusions of herself, as well as making herself invisible so that she could take food from stands and run away with it for herself and her brother. Gradually they joined a group of other homeless children and she became one of their two best thieves, stealing enough food for everyone to eat as well as hiding them when bad people came by.

When her brother and herself were offered a better home away from all this, they accepted. Their powers had become known and certain people could find need for their kind of children. Di wondered what it was like to be a princess in a house, so they accepted. Once there, they were taught many things, like how to read, shoot a gun, math, use weapons and generally keep people in line. In exchange, they got to play as much as they wanted and watch TV and eat regularly. It was fun.

Then the work came. Once they were ready, they were brought along as backup to collect protection money and introduced to the people. They were quick to learn the ropes of intimidation and soon were insisting that they could do it on their own without people watching them. They had done everything else on their own up to this point, after all. As a joke, they were permitted to go in on their own once, and in the one act they were deemed the terror twins.

The man in the shop recounted seeing demons and ghosts of the past, running screaming from the shop to their driver pleading with him that he would get the money and do anything they wanted from now on. Anything. When asked what they did, the twins merely said that they were having fun and they didn’t know what they did that was so great. They had barely even gotten to the fun part yet.

It was on their thirteenth birthday, or rather their proclaimed one, that they decided to make a break for it, not at all appreciating that they were now being referred to as the “Terror Twins” and wanting to kill anyone who called them that in an affectionate manner. And so, on their thirteenth birthday, they slaughtered everyone at the party and vanished.

Several years later, Dawn pulled them aside and promised them some excitement from their rather dull current existence. As well as the promise of other people with powers. They were starting to learn not to kill the people who made them mad so they figured they could mingle with the smart kids. Maybe. Might as well give it a shot, anyway.

Notes: No one will know when you vanish and Wipe steps in. No one. BAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Malachite Ezra Thrice
ezra.gif
Age: 19
Gender: Male
Powers: Hypnotic voice
History:
When the pair of them started stealing things, Ezra shone in a different manner than his sister. He discovered that adults would do what he said, so he started convincing people to give him money rather than go through the trouble of pickpocketing. He acted largely as a distraction, however, commanding people not to pay attention to the theft as it was happening and everyone obeying him.

He and his sister were the best team and he thought that perhaps they should make something more of themselves. That was when they got the better offer. They both agreed, Ezra because he was curious about what a house was like.

You know what, see Di’s history. They’re pretty much the same, really.

Notes: Anyone who’s been paying attention knows what happens to him already.

Aaand to be continued as I need to keep filling this thing out. Seriously, this is the core cast. All protagonists. I still gotta make proper antagonists before Thursday.

EDIT: And done. More or less.

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