Detective Morgan Fayd (from Wells)

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Morgan Fayd (8)

Project: Television mini-series (“Wells”)

Known as: No aliases

Real name: Detective Morgan Fayd

Group affiliation: None

Physical description: Morgan is of indeterminate ancestry. She has light brown skin and dark hair with piercing light blue eyes. She is of average height but above average weight all muscle (working out helps her think and she thinks a lot). She dresses very practically (sneakers, jeans).

History: Morgan grew up with her mother in Austin, TX. Her mother appeared to be of Middle Eastern decent but was mysterious about her own origins. Morgan never knew any of her family except for her mother and her mother said there was no family alive to know. Furthermore, Morgan’s mother told Morgan that Morgan had been conceived during a dream. Not an immaculate conception per se, but a dream so real that it had a physical result. Once Morgan was old enough to understand that most people’s perception of reality didn’t quite align with her mother’s, she was comfortable believing her mother is lovably crazy. Although Morgan occasionally tried to convince her mother that some of her mother’s memories or perceptions could not be real, Morgan mostly adopted a “of course, mother” attitude.

Perhaps in reaction to having a parent most people found odd, Morgan was very careful to create a very grounded, sedate persona for herself. Even as a child many found her to be more serious than most. Eventually this mask seeped into her bones. She was never quick to laugh at a joke nor showed an interest in frivolous things.

Still, she was popular as she was a star athlete (in multiple sports). Also her peers had few complaints about Morgan as she was assiduously fair and unemotional in her interactions with others. While she did not hold grudges, she was a big proponent of justice and fairness and was never shy about giving direct feedback about misbehavior.

To the surprise of no one, she went into law enforcement. Her dedication, talent, and intelligence caused he to rise through the ranks quickly to detective. While better-than-average at solving mysteries, she was not a Sherlock Holms type that found the joy in solving the puzzle. Rather, satisfaction for her was getting justice for victims (solving the crime just happened to be a necessary part of that). Very capable of solving complex cases, her tenacity was her greatest asset.

She always had a limited social life mostly because she was not fun in the traditional sense and is a workaholic. Most assume that she is in a romantic relationship with her police partner (Gavin Berns), which is not the case. Rather they spend so much time together because Morgan is such a stronger personality than Gavin that he is caught up in the slipstream of her dedication to work.

Morgan’s salt-of-the-earth, steady existence is about to be challenged. She is about to begin to investigate a case that involves an invisible man.

Role in the narrative: Morgan is our protagonist. When the series begins, she will seem like an archetypal cop in an archetypal procedural. Slowly, some odd things will begin to occur in Austin (stay weird!) which she first tries to explain in grounded ways. Inevitably, she’ll conclude that some truly supernatural things are going down, which will lead her to Wells.

The beings she has to interact with and bring to justice will challenge her worldview. Not as much as the discovery that she herself might not be exactly what she appears (what, you thought her mysterious family background was an accident? 😉 ). She is also the classic proxy for the viewer learning about the world beyond what she understands.

Abilities: No known supernatural abilities (yet). Still she is a remarkable person. She is smart, dedicated, and gifted. She is a marksperson and butt-kicker, and a brilliant detective. She is tenacious to a fault, with a clear view of justice.

Inspirations: A grim, workaholic cop driven by justice? While I’m clear in these inspiration sections that I know I’m not reinventing the wheel with most of these characters, this one has been seen a million times before. The only deviation is that she’s not driven by some horrible event or trauma. We will see over time it is simply her nature/destiny (remember, mysterious past). I like her, though (it is easy to like heroes).