Showing posts with label characters. Show all posts
Showing posts with label characters. Show all posts

Thursday, July 15, 2021

Science Fiction Idea: Characters

Today, I decided to share a little about some characters that can be found in the science fiction idea which, as I said the last time I wrote about it, has evolved into a series of stand-alone novels that are all set in the same universe but might fit into different genres. The characters will be different between the novels, but some may show up as side characters or cameos in other novels. I don't have a lot of characters planned out yet, but I do have a few that I'm willing to share a little about. 

First up, we've got Vrix. He's an Amphayan and father of six. The host who incubated those six is Taryn Toombs, a human from Earth. These two are a happy couple living on the Amphayan homeworld. Vrix primarily works construction, building the sprawling treehouses that the Amphayans call home, while Taryn spends his time caring for their children. Vrix also has a brother, Thrin. Thrin is the main reason Vrix still goes to Earth and attacks Lunulata ships even though he has a good family and every reason to stay on his own planet. After all, just the two of them survived from their clutch of six so Vrix is a little protective of his reckless brother. He's hoping that the human they just rescued from Earth, Nathan MacKinnon, will help mellow out his brother. It would let him spend more time getting to know Nathan's dad, Wally, who used to fish in the polluted waters of Earth and now works to fix things on the Amphayan homeworld. 

Next, we've got a character known as Orchid. Orchid is a human from the space habitat Avalon, which is primarily inhabited by the ultra-rich and the synths who perform all the tasks the humans don't want to. Orchid left the space habitat and moved to another planet where he works as a stripper. According to him, the reason he left was sheer boredom. He was bored with all his wants and needs being satisfied, and he wanted to experience a life that had a bit of a challenge to it. Whether this was the real reason or not remains to be seen. 

The second group of characters is part of the crew of a salvage vessel known as the Philotes. First up for the crew, we've got the captain, Grey Dawson. Grey was born and raised in the colony of Zion and has no desire to ever set foot back there. He considers his crew his family and his ship his home. Next, we've got the youngest of the salvaging crew who is just twenty and being given only missions that are reasonably safe, Reg Turner. Reg comes from the colony of Gaia, where her very large family (twelve siblings and her parents) still live. She's very family focused and eager to prove herself to the older members of the crew. Two of the heavy-lifters for the crew are Brodie Hall and Frank Jones, both from the colony Elyse. Brodie is a quiet-natured person who only speaks when necessary whereas Frank is more inclined to talk. Frank is also more of an older brother to Reg. The first nonhuman on the Philotes is the head of security, Crix, an Amphayan. He doesn't talk much about his life back on his home planet, possibly due to the plague that has been effecting the Naem'i for the past few decades. Though no one will mention it around him, the rumor mill suspects that he lost his family because of the plague. In the security department under Crix are River Green and Steff Baxter, two more humans from colonies. River is from the colony Aeon while Steff is from the colony Aura. River receives a fair bit of teasing regarding his name, mostly from Steff, and Steff is the one voted most likely to die in a horror movie for being too curious. They're the best shots in the security department. In charge of the medical bay is another nonhuman crewmate, Ferephise, a male Xethalian. Ferephise left his homeworld due to a lack of desire to have children. In all honesty, he's scared of children. Small, needy lifeforms that depend on him scare him like nothing else so he opted to join a crew where having children around wasn't practical or safe. Another of the nonhuman crew is Azorhi, a Culicivoran female. She was living in a derelict ferry that they were planning on scrapping and didn't take kindly to the invasion of her home. After a misunderstanding, she was invited to join the crew and now lives and works in engineering Bay 3. The final member of the Philotes crew is chief engineer, Sean Watson, a human from Earth who put himself through engineering school by working with scrap. He doesn't know how his parents are or if he has any siblings, though given the state of Earth, it's unlikely his parents are still around. 

These are just a few of the characters from the science fiction idea. They're not all from the same book, but they all share the universe. I'll post more characters as they're created and named, and possibly share more about these characters or the novels they'll be present in. Admittedly, I do have a couple characters that I didn't mention due to the fact that the characters do not have names yet even though they do have plots centered around them. Once they get names and a little more information about them, I'll be sure to share. 

Thursday, April 8, 2021

Favorite Characters from The Agency

 I thought now would be a good time to take a break and talk about some of my favorite characters from The Agency. I have a lot of favorites so it was hard to pick just a few, but I finally settled on a handful of them. I'll give their names, the entry they premiered in, and a little about them and why I enjoy writing them. 

  • Ewan Marsh - "Location 014Q" - The youngest son of a cult leader who created a religion around a quarry that grants wishes in the worst way possible. Ewan is fiercely protective of those he cares about, especially his older brother Vincent who was harmed by the quarry's powers. He joined the Agency to protect Vincent. He's a little spitfire and ready to fight anyone who bad-mouths his brother, even though he's going to come out on the losing side of that fight. 
  • Dominic Gallagher - "Inmate 099" - A young member of the Gallagher crime family. He's street-smart and has an attitude with anyone in authority, especially Catherine Meyer, a cop who was recruited by the Agency at the same time as him. He's fun to write because it's always so hard to tell whether he's lying or not, and whether he can be trusted. He's cagy with his answers and standoffish. He doesn't play well with others, but has to work in a team in situations where not trusting your teammates could be fatal or possibly apocalyptic, depending on the mission you're sent on.
  • Luca Shaw - "Location 059MV" - I can't actually go into much detail with him, but during his story I got to show a lot of growth with his character because it spanned many years. He went from a terrified and timid preteen to a cocky teen to a self-confident and quick-witted adult. There's just so much with him that I can't go into without revealing things from his entry, but I can say that it was a joy to write him and I'm sad that it's unlikely he'll make another appearance.
  • Imogen Hart - "Specimen 024SB" - A researcher working for the Agency in their greenhouse, and the only one that you've all met so far. Even though she's just a minor character, she's so bubbly and likeable that it's easy to forget that she'd sell your soul for a corn chip--or at least have you strapped down and implanted with burrowing, bone-mimicking mushrooms. She's just so interested in science and experimenting, and eager to ask how and why the specimens do this or that, that she doesn't even recognize the danger in things. 
So, these are my four favorites. I do have another favorite that was created by my fiancé Myrrh but I'm not going to share anything about them yet. Which characters from the entries have been your favorites and why? Which entries have you enjoyed the most? What would you like to know more about? Comment below.