Hut image from: https://www.kisspng.com/png-dancing-hut-art-museum-dance-baba-yaga-5334918/

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Baba Yaga (13)

Project: Television mini-series (“Wells”)

Known as: Baba Yaga

Real name: Baba Yaga

Group affiliation: None

Physical description: In the heyday of magic Baba Yaga had a monstrous appearance. Dried thistle for hair, a large hooked nose, beady eyes, and pointed black teeth. Though her body was plump her arms and legs were extraordinary thin (even skeletal). In modern times, with so little magic around, her appearance is more mundane. She is an elderly woman, thin and wrinkled. Gray hair, dark eyes, and usually conservatively dressed.

Personality: Baba Yaga’s best mood is irritated, and rarely is her mood that good. She has an explosive temper and is completely lacks anything approaching empathy. She does not hesitate to use people to accomplish her own goals. Basically she feels others should predict her needs and do everything in their power to meet them; up to and including sacrificing their lives. Where Griffin, the Invisible Man, derives pleasure from the misfortune of others, Baba Yaga simply feels that other’s misery is a small price to pay for meeting her desires. They are both evil to the core.

Additionally, there is something wild just under the surface with Baba Yaga. She is chaos and untamed wilderness. One reason her attempts to rule, run and army, or run a criminal organization are all ultimately doomed to failure is that organization and civilization is not her way.

History: No one knows the origins of Baba Yaga including Baba Yaga herself. She believes she has always been and always will be. The stories of her, especially in Eastern Europe, are endless. Stealer of children, bringer of storms, and dweller in darkness, she was every naughty child’s nightmare made real.

Her home was a magical hut larger in the inside than the outside. It was perched on three giant chicken legs, and as a consequence was known to move around. Her hut by itself was deadly; known to stream fire or poison clouds down upon enemies and the unsuspecting alike.

No singular foe could weather Baba Yaga. Still she resented the growth of civilizations. Cities and kingdoms to her were blights; after all, they were not built to her and her glory. Worse still, they developed armies and machines of war that might one day challenge even her. To stop them, she would need an army of her own. But hers would be no army of regimented soldiers with shiny weapons. Hers would be monsters and chaos.

You’ve already heard the stories of the twins Cassidy and Cameron Reid, so you know no act was too heinous for her in her quest. Eventually she had an army of Morlocks that listened only to her, and desired only mayhem. Soon they were like locusts, swarming over villages and leaving only destruction. Soon kingdoms began to rally armies against her but how to defeat foes who knew no pain, whose skin seemed to be proof against most blades, and whose very bodies were weapons? The battle lines between mystic and mundane began to be drawn; truly a war between two worlds.

It was the people of the fae who delivered a solution. Using ancient magics, they created a malady tailored to the Morlocks. Their thought was to bring Baba Yaga’s army low with a mystic plague.

It succeeded perhaps too well. The disease did wreak havoc against the Morlocks (the original, Spring-heeled Jane, seemed to be the only one immune). But other mystical creatures also began to fall ill and the fae themselves locked themselves and all access to their home plane to avoid the disease. Though many forces converged to begin the decline of magic, this event may have been the single biggest source.

After the fall of her army, Baba Yaga disappeared. Though some wondered if the mystic disease had gotten her as well most felt that not even what destroyed her army could fell Baba Yaga. Instead, she was again a rarely-seen, near legend.

Wells was among the optimistic ones that thought she was through. Still if there were any traces of her or her magic he decided he would weave her tale into a science fiction story in his attempt to meld magic and science. In his story, the war was between aliens from Mars driving tripods much like Baba Yaga’s hut (including a heat ray and poisonous gas) and the people of Earth. The Martians were felled by a common disease (her Morlocks made an appearance in the Time Machine).

Later, when Wells traveled through time, a still-alive but much-reduced Baba Yaga was swept up as well. Severely depleted of magic she has one remaining ability to bind one person at a time to her will. She used this power to move up the unsavory ranks of crime until she finds herself with a major crime lord in her thrall. It galls her terribly, as she must largely remain hidden and rely on humans for her sustained existence. Invariably, Morgan will end up investigating the new force in organized crime in her area.

Baba Yaga dreams of the return of magic, and a restoring of her power. Woe to the present day should that ever occur.

Role in the narrative: Antagonist. She’ll may ultimately get some of the more unsavory things brought forward in time by Wells under her sway, and the moment Morgan becomes an annoyance Baba Yaga will gladly seek Morgan’s destruction.

When I first thought of the connection between Baba Yaga’s hut and the tripods in War of the Worlds, I thought Baba Yaga might end up a misunderstood character (in the myths, she sometimes provided wisdom to the pure of heart). After writing the twin’s stories, she ended up irredeemable.

Abilities: At the moment, her only special ability is to hold a single person in her thrall. This person will obey her and will generally work to her benefit.

At her pinnacle she could control the elements, bend flesh, fly, and much, much more.

Inspirations: Easter European legends and “War of the Worlds.” Once I thought of the hut/tripod thing, and changing the conflict between the world of the magic and the mundane, it all just flowed from there.

Wings courtesy of https://www.shutterstock.com/search/angel+wings

First time at this blog? Check out Home for details on the project and the Character Index for an overview of the projects and characters.

Fiddler Angel (12)

Project: Television mini-series (“Wells”)

Known as: Fiddler Angel

Real name: Cameron Reid

Group affiliation: None

Physical description: Fiddler is very handsome. Tall and well-muscled, he has delicate features and long blond hair. His eyes are two perfect, featureless golden orbs (he can see quite well) and his skin color is reminiscent of gold as well (not that he looks like a statue brought to life). Oh, and he has two large, white-feathered wings growing out of his back.

Personality: Fiddler is very gentle and quiet. He smiles easily, and his smiles always make others feel better. He knows little of the world, but this makes him an astute listener. He is typically content to let others do the talking. He is never angry and in fact seems content in the majority of situations.

History: Yesterday we learned of Cassidy Reid. Cameron was her twin brother, and like her was abducted by the witch Baba Yaga at age 12. He was also part of the witch’s experiments to create an army of monsters but ended up serving a different role. When Baba Yaga began to change Cassidy into Spring-heeled Jane (first of the Morlocks), Cameron automatically began to change in other ways. Baba Yaga always suspected that Cassidy and Cameron’s unique connection was somehow key to her first and greatest success (Cassidy). She never again found siblings with such a connection and was forced to use Cassidy as a “template” for her later creation of Morlocks.

Cameron in some ways developed opposite characteristics during his sister’s transformation and in other ways the changes were complimentary. She was given a fierceness that would inevitably overwhelm her, while he gained an unshakable clam. She grew knives for hands, he grew wings on his back. She gained physical prowess, but while his form seemed perfect Cameron gained a sort of fragility that sometimes made him sick and listless (during these times, his wings would drop feathers). She maintained her memories, but his began to melt away. She became something that many would label a demon while most would call Cameron an angel.

Not even Baba Yaga knew why this happened. She suspected she had tapped into something primordial. The beliefs of people about angels and demons, or perhaps she made a connection of some sort between the twins and creatures of another plane. Baba Yaga might have pondered this further had she not been so pleased with the result. In Cassidy she had her finest creation and the seed of her army. Cameron of course was an unplanned disappointment, but she kept him in case his continued existence was somehow connected to Cassidy’s.

At least, she told herself that. Certainly she did not love Cameron, for love did not exist in the heart of Baba Yaga. Yet she could still appreciate beauty. Cameron in his new form had a beautiful singing voice and seemed to have a natural talent for musical instruments. He was especially good with a violin. The pitiless Baba Yaga put him in a large cage like a beautiful bird and had him sing and play for her. Cameron forgot himself and had become a creature of such serenity he never even tried to escape. Imagine if you will how heartbreaking it must have been to see and hear him the finest musician you’ve ever heard treated more wretchedly than any deserve.

While her army grew so did the legend of the Fiddler Angel. Some claimed to have heard him or even caught a glimpse of him in Baba Yaga’s fabled hut. Tragically, Baba Yaga had separated the twins early on, and told Cassidy her brother had died. His transformation was so great that Cassidy never suspected that Fiddler Angel was indeed her brother.

Wells had heard the stories of Fiddler Angel, and suspected that Baba Yaga and he might both be alive but in hiding. In his story “The Wonderful Visit” he bound the magic of Fiddler Angel in a tale of a being from somewhere else that seemed much like an angel but was ill-suited to our world.

Thus when Wells moved forward in time to 2018, Fiddler Angel was swept along. He was separated from Baba Yaga, and thus enjoyed a new-found freedom. However, when he was discovered he was of instant fascination to people of the modern world. Virtually no one believed he was a transformed person. Instead, most believed he was some sort of costumed performance artist who lived his role. Wealthy benefactors gave him a place to live, and he soon becomes a celebrity. His “benefactors” parade him about like a prized possession and his every move becomes a social media frenzy. He goes from being one person’s possession to everyone’s.

But sometimes he falls ill. And as Morgan starts to believe that the fantastic is real, Fiddler becomes someone she has to investigate.

Role in the narrative: First I would want to be very careful that Fiddler doesn’t seem like an example of someone who is happy to be a possession. He is only content because he’s always content he has been damaged/cursed to be that way. The fact that he is cursed not to seek freedom doesn’t in any way justify Baba Yaga’s treatment of him (quite the opposite, really). I’m not too concerned about this being misunderstood as Baba Yaga will be evil incarnate.

He will however be used as a commentary on the modern world. Beloved people are now photographed, recorded, shared, liked, and commented upon. To remain popular, they have to cultivate an image and engage with their fans. Fans often feel they are owed things by the celebrities their next book, the details of their personal lives, etc. Fans have a sense of ownership over what they love, and a delicate creature like Fiddler may not survive that.

Plus, he will be important to Jane’s story. I hope I can figure out how they can be each other’s redemption, and balance be restored between them. Unfortunately, so far all my ideas about them are darker than that (they may end up a tragic story despite my own impulses).

Abilities: He is a beautiful singer and a virtuoso violinist. He is incredibly calm. Other than that, he has no exceptional abilities.

Except he could fly if it ever occurred to him to try.

Inspirations: Maybe a little bit of “Twins” here Jane got the anger and the power, and Fiddler was what was left over. Obviously the real HG Wells story is an inspiration (that character at least starts “affable” as well). The number of angel characters out there are legion (despite my X-men fandom, I don’t see Warren as a direct inspiration). Really, Fiddler was mostly a side-effect of my ideas for Jane and Baba Yaga. I might need to think about him some more but given how often female characters were created to flesh out male ones in history, perhaps I can be forgiven one going the other way.

First time at this blog? Check out Home for details on the project and the Character Index for an overview of the projects and characters.

Spring-heeled Jane image above is from my talented friend Michelle Penny. So kind of her – it makes me happy every time I look at it :).

Spring-heeled Jane (11)

Project: Television mini-series (“Wells”)

Known as: Spring-heeled Jane

Real name: Cassidy Reid

Group affiliation: None

Physical description: Spring-heeled Jane is a striking figure. She has completely unique skin color (deep indigo) and eye color (light purple). Her hair is pure white, and usually braided. Her hands are razor-sharp talons. She looks both demonic and eerily beautiful.

History: Cassidy Reid was only 12 when she and her twin brother (Cameron) were stolen away by minions of the fearful witch Baba Yaga. Known for snatching children, Cassidy and Cameron would soon find out her hideous purpose in doing so. Baba Yaga, while her magic was fearsome, yearned to be a queen and rule over humanity. Without an army she could destroy but would never truly rule. But what army would be loyal to the horrible Baba Yaga? She decided to make one.

She used children as they were more physically and mystically malleable. Most of her creations simply did not survive. But she had her greatest success, and failure, with the Reid twins.

Cassidy became something akin to a demon. She had hands that were essentially five ridiculously sharp daggers and was much more strong, fast, and durable than any other human. An ideal soldier for Baba Yaga, needing essentially no armament yet more than a match for many foes.

Cameron, as we will discover tomorrow, became something else entirely.

Cassidy was not perfect for Baba Yaga’s purposes, however. Though Baba Yaga had taken steps to shape Cassidy into a killer (see Abilities), for the most part Cassidy retained her personality and free will. Though Baba Yaga would easily emerge victorious in a direct confrontation, she worried that Cassidy might take advantage of an incautious moment and harm Baba Yaga. Worse still, Baba Yaga could not have an army of independent thinkers.

Still, Cassidy was a breakthrough. Using Cassidy as a template, Baba Yaga was able to create more biddable alternatives, though they did not match Cassidy in raw power. Baba Yaga dubbed these lesser creations the Morlocks, and she started to build her army. Unfortunately for Baba Yaga, Cassidy eventually escaped. Lacking her template, Baba Yaga had to make due with the army she had.

Fear not in two days we shall learn of the fate of Baba Yaga and the Morlocks.

Cassidy, believing her brother to be dead, made her way as best she could. Unable to integrate into society, she hid and stole for what little she needed. Occasionally she’d find a place with unusually kind people, but her need to kill would keep these moments short.

She ended up in London in the mid 1800s. The size and population of London meant she had many hiding places, many opportunities for theft, and many victims when she was overcome with her bloodlust. While she attempted to limit her killing to the evil and unsavory, she sometimes had encounters with all sorts. Ultimately reports of a cloaked, demonic figure stalking the night and frequently escaping with unusual leaping skills hit the newspapers. No one had gotten a good enough look to realize this figure was female, and thus the legend of Spring-heeled Jack spread.

Wells, knowledgeable of what would become Baba Yaga’s War of the Worlds (magic vs. mundane), had his suspicions of the real identity of Spring-heeled Jack as Baba Yaga’s lost template. Not knowing the template’s true name, he at least corrected her new alias in his journals as “Spring-heeled Jane.”

As the story of Morlocks and Baba Yaga was retold but transformed by Wells into “War of the Worlds,” Jane was one of the beings bound to Wells and swept into 2018. Modern times have made things still more difficult for Jane, and she begins to despair that she will never be free of her bloodlust nor cursed existence. As victims begin to appear, a certain detective will inevitably be on Jane’s trail.

Role in the narrative: TV shows like this tend to balance cannon stories with “monsters of the week.” I first thought Jane would be a one-episode foe, but when I started writing her her history became intertwined with Fiddler Angel and Baba Yaga. Now I’m not sure what to do with her until I figure out the other two. She’s a tragic character as written so far, which means I could take her in many directions (noble end, redemption, slide into full evil).

Abilities: Jane is an amazing physical specimen. Her skin is akin to Kevlar, and she is largely bulletproof (an elephant gun might do the trick, but otherwise most bullets may only bruise her or break a bone). If she is injured, she has regenerative healing and can even regrow limbs. Broken bones will knit in a day or two, and even severe injuries she barely survives will be healed within a week.

Her talons are tougher and sharper than anything in the animal kingdom. They are not indestructible however (though they will regenerate like the rest of her if damaged). Combined with her strength flesh and bone is no match for her claws, but a steel door would thwart her without sustained and considerable effort.

She is also incredibly strong. She could flip most cars over with one hand. She is superhumanly fast and dexterous, and her jumping skills are indeed phenomenal. From a crouching position she can spring vertically 25 feet or more.

Her greatest limitation is that, thanks to Baba Yaga’s machinations, the longer she goes without killing the more feral and vicious she becomes. She might be able to avoid killing for several weeks, but eventually without a human kill she will have such bloodlust that the first person that crosses her path will die. This is utterly heartbreaking to Jane, who given a choice would never take a life. The only way to avoid inevitably taking an innocent life is to instead consciously decide to kill someone who seems more deserving of the fate. She loathes consciously killing but stacked against regaining her senses after killing an innocent, she feels forced.

Inspirations: Saruman from Lord of the Rings was the sort to twist people into a monstrous army. I’ve always found Universal’s Wolf Man a pitiable character. While a savage killer, he is also someone who doesn’t want to kill (unlike vampires who kill to selfishly continue their own existence those jerks). There are also shades of Wolverine here. The legend of Spring-heeled Jack and War of the Worlds are obviously direct inspirations.

Moreau animal text above courtesy of: http://textspace.net/animal_text_maker/4.9.2.3.0/page_1

First time at this blog? Check out Home for details on the project and the Character Index for an overview of the projects and characters.

Moreau (10)

Project: Television mini-series (“Wells”)

Known as: Moreau; Skinwalker

Real name: Moreau Hoopdriver

Group affiliation: None

Physical description: Moreau is a handsome fellow tall, chiseled features, long and wavy auburn hair. He often wears odd, baggy clothing however.

History: Moeau is an extraordinary individual in many ways. First, he is the only known child of a changeling. Changelings (as you likely are aware) are beings who fairies have used to replace a human baby (the human baby, meanwhile, is raised in the fairy realms). Why would the fae swap one for the other? Best you ask the next fairy you encounter.

Though Changelings are sometimes fae folk themselves, in the case of Moreau’s father it was a simulacrum. Formed of wood and mud, Moreau’s father (called Walter) was a sort of Pinocchio a wooden boy made alive. Spelled to be identical to the replaced child, Walter did passably well for a number of years (the human Walter, by the by, did quite well and became a duke in the land of the fae). Yet he wasn’t a real boy and was of limited wit and a narrow range of emotion. When he came of age, only the local Wise Woman would employ him.

The Wise Woman (Heather Hoopdriver) rather enjoyed Walter’s company. Walter was not unattractive and Heather was so much more intelligent than the men of the village that she hardly noticed Walter was unusually slow for a man. He was even-tempered and obedient and Heather realized that she would never find another man with whom she was happier to spend time.

Eventually they married. Unfortunately, although Heather wanted children, years began to pass without pregnancy. Heather was an exceptional Wise Woman, however. She knew of herbs and remedies, treatments and medicines. She knew how the movement of the moon and stars affected people, and the ways of the magical creatures of the forest. She knew secrets and had an inventor’s mind. She unknowingly accomplished something never done before nor since: she conceived a child with a changeling an artificial man.

Before Moreau came of age, his father died in a fire. Still he and his mother loved one another and had many happy years together. Moreau was lucky indeed Heather was his mother as she was able to help him with his gifts and find his way in the world. Chief among those gifts was to change his shape to any animal he chose.

Additionally, Moreau had inherited the lifespan of a tree from his father. So though Heather lived to a ripe old age, Moreau still had the vigor of youth when she passed. For the next few hundred years he followed his calling, which was attaching himself to and assisting the greatest hero of each generation. Though the term “sidekick” would not exist for many years, it would not ill-fit Moreau (he was one hero’s trusted steed for 20 years).

Eventually the heroes seemed to lesson with each generation. As magic began to leave the world, so did transcendent heroes. Also, Moreau himself had started noticing some strange changes, such as instances where he went to sleep a man and unexpectedly woke as an animal.

With nowhere else to turn he became friends with Wells. Wells, unfortunately, was neither a great hero nor wizard. Failing to help Moreau, in desperation Wells wrote one of his stories and bound Moreau to it magically. When Wells attempted his time spell, Moreau was one of the creatures swept up and taken to the future.

This was terrible for Moreau. With so little magic to stabilize his form, in 2018 he finds himself changing shape uncontrollably. Furthermore, he sometimes forgets who he is, and believes he is the animal. Angry and confused, it is not known if Moreau is heading to a speedy death or becoming a monster.

Role in the narrative: I need to cleanse my palette after Griffin yesterday. Moreau will be a monster to be hunted down at first, but I plan to find a way for him to become an ally of Morgan.

Abilities: When his gifts are under control, Moreau can turn himself into any animal he chooses. He retains his human intelligence and can become human again at will.

At the beginning of Wells, his power has gone haywire. He doesn’t control when he changes, or what he becomes. He doesn’t always keep his intelligence (e.g., he might spend several days as an actual dog). This lack of control is causing him pain and confusion, and he may be going insane. Worse still, sometimes he doesn’t become one animal but some horrible amalgamation.

Inspirations: “The Island of Dr. Moreau” was about a scientist who surgically changed animals into people. I reversed it (a man who comes animals). There is a course a rich tradition of mystical shapeshifters, from werewolves to skin changers (and Sookie’s shifter friends). To do one of these every day for 100 days, I kind of have to go with what occurs to me. I feel like this one is a little bit of a miss. The original work had themes of humanity vs. savagery; I’m not sure what central theme most intrigues me about this character. BTW, if “Hoopdriver” sounds odd, it is a name from another Wells work.

First time at this blog? Check out Home for details on the project and the Character Index for an overview of the projects and characters.

The Invisible Man (9)

Project: Television mini-series (“Wells”)

Known as: The Invisible Man

Real name: Unknown (called “Griffin”)

Group affiliation: None

Physical description: Before he made his deal, Griffin was a dirty, scraggly young man. Rotted teeth, (presumably) dark, greasy hair, with a skeletal frame from too many missed meals. After his dealwell, who knows?

History: The man who would eventually be known as Griffin was born to a farming family in England in the mid-1800s. From the beginning he was a horrid child. The lying began very nearly after he learned to speak. He could be overly ingratiating to his parents, only to turn on a dime and belittle them viciously. The only thing that brought him joy was the suffering of others (even a simple story of someone tripping and falling made him titter creepily). Animals began disappearing, and one day his father found one of the family’s mousers mutilated and reshaped in a deliberate way. When a neighbor’s barn burned down, his parents became frightened of him.

His parents tried various forms of punishment and religious intervention but reached a point where for the good of their community and themselves “Griffin” had to go. At age 11 they took him to London and abandoned him. They cursed themselves for a lacking the courage to kill him and waited for the day that he would return to the farm and enact his revenge. Fortunately for them the day never came, as the boy turned out to be a natural for the life of a street urchin. London at the time had a great deal of suffering for him to enjoy and his skills as a liar and manipulator served him well. He was gifted at using weaker children to take the bigger risks in thieving and skullduggery, and as he had no qualms about abandoning them to their fates he avoided any major attention from the law.

This was his existence for many years until he met a sort of kindred spirit. Creatures from other planes of existence were very rare at that time in London but there was at least one who had disguised himself as an old man- Mr. Scratch. Mr. Scratch had been sealed from his home dimension by a rival and found himself trapped on our plane. It was a wretched existence as he was near immortal but unable to return home.

Beyond immortality, his people possessed one notable power. His people had been visiting the earth plane as their magics were such that they could empower humans with tremendous gifts, but with a substantial limitation. You see, they were the source of the belief that one could sell one’s soul for power. This conclusion was drawn from the fact that those handful of people so empowered (evil witches and the like) seemed devoid of souls evil incarnate. Thus the conclusion that these individuals had earned their power through trading their souls.

In truth these devils’ ability to empower humans was gated by the conscious and empathy of the person. It is these qualities that bind a person most strongly to humanity. These devils lack the power to change humanity, only a human. So those they could affect most profoundly were those humans who were truly disconnected from humanity lacking a conscious and empathy.

Fortunately, these types of people are relatively rare. Furthermore, beings of magical power on Earth cared little for the “devils” and banished the devils on sight if they could. In fact, Mr. Scratch had run afoul of Wells on a few occasions (including a few imprisonments of Scratch yet devils are hard to keep). The rival’s seal also prevented Wells from banishing Scratch, and part of Well’s motivation for seeking more magic was to overcome this limitation. Wells felt it was inevitable that Scratch would one day find a truly evil person and, through that person, cause misery and mischief.

Scratch indeed found such a person in the young (now) man. In fact, an unparalleled candidate. Though Scratch could have transformed the man into something akin to a god, Scratch’s needs at that moment were simpler. He knew of a place that housed and protected a menagerie of the last few magical creatures in England, including a griffin. It is well known that no one can hold a griffin anywhere against its will, so Scratch knew the blood of such a creature could allow him to return home. Scratch himself lacked the means to get past the guardians undetected, but he could empower the young man to do so.

And so Scratch and the man reached a pact. Scratch would change the man so no one could perceive him. Not “invisible” per se, but magically prevented from being registered by the minds of others. This would allow the man to pass the guardians and wait for an opportunity to bleed the poor, old griffin. If the man delivered the blood to Scratch, Scratch would make the change permanent.

The man, for his part, could imagine no better gift. He could indulge his every impulse with no chance of consequences. So he completed his part of the bargain (little knowing that Scratch could not have undone the change if he wanted to).

Scratch did indeed return home. But not before he wrote a final letter to Wells exalting his victory. Never learning the man’s name, Scratch further twisted the knife by naming him “Griffin” in the letter. Wells knew his enemy was now beyond his reach, but not before his enemy had made one of the evilest men in history completely undetectable.

Wells made “The Invisible Man” the first science fiction story he wrote to begin to bind magic and science. He opted for this being his first experiment reasoning that if his spellwork failed it might still have some consequence to Griffin.

And it did. Mystically bound to Wells, Griffin came forward in time with Wells. Now Wells has loosed an unseen evil on 2018.

Role in the narrative/abilities: Griffin gets the whole thing started. Though surprised by his change in circumstances, he soon reverts to form and kills someone on the street by impulse. This ends up a case Morgan is investigating. It’s a bizarre one, though eyewitnesses claim the victim suddenly died with no explanation, but a traffic camera grainy images of the perpetrator. Griffin’s powers, you see, affect the mind/perception. So in modern times he can be captured digitally.

Furthermore, Griffin’s abilities have a limited range he has to be a certain distance from you in order for you to be affected. In times past, this made him completely undetectable (if he is too far away, you couldn’t detected him due to your sensory limits; if he was close enough for your senses, his power prevents your mind from perceiving him).

This sets up some interesting mysteries and possibilities for creepiness. You might think you could use your phone camera to detect Griffin yet if he is close enough your mind will fail to perceive his image on the camera (even though the camera is still displaying it). If you were in a building with security cameras, you could watch him on those cameras until he got close to you (at which point, for you, he would just vanish though he would appear on the recording if it were reviewed later with him out of range).

Again, as I conceive the story, you would not get any of these details right away. Instead Morgan would be reviewing the evidence, including the pictures of the crime scene. Griffin would move close to her, and his image would vanish from the picture. When she shares this with others, he is again out of range and in the picture. It will be Morgan’s first evidence that something truly strange is going on and would ultimately lead her to Wells (in some way I haven’t figured out maybe Wells reads a “cop goes crazy” story).

Remember he is undetectable and your mind is working to make it so. Thus if he picks something up, you might perceive the item as not having moved or vanishing (a floating thing would give you a sense that he is in a specific place). So he doesn’t have to go around naked, and he won’t be found by a trick like footprints in the snow (as he was in HG Wells’ original story).

Another detail. There is one thing about Griffin that is detectable his voice. So he can talk to people (and mostly does so to be cruel). The listener can’t localize the sound of his voice it seems to come from all around. He still sometimes titters uncontrollably if something amuses him (such as the misfortune of someone else). If this was done on TV in a skillful way (more skill than I have) I think it would be pretty unnerving.

BTW, Griffin would be a primary antagonist in the series. Evil dude doing horrible things, and hard to catch. About the worst thing that could happen to justice-minded Morgan.

Inspirations: Man did H G Wells have a fabulous idea with the Invisible Man. He has become a staple of horror (what is creepier than something you can’t see meaning you harm? Wells created a scifi ghost story). In the story, Griffin (a doctor who studies optics and the refractive index of things) is a doctor who creates a formula to turn things invisible. In his excitement, he turns himself invisible before he has created a cure (oops!). Griffin was never a good person, but he goes quite bonkers when incurably invisible.

I liked that Griffin was not a great person to start with (in many versions, including the famous Universal film, he was made more sympathetic). Though from time to time any number of us might have wanted to be invisible for a brief period of time, my invisible man is happy to be undetectable by anyone permanently. In my mind, it would take a pretty twisted soul to want that (there is an episode of Black Mirror where a man is punished by being rendered “invisible” to everyone else).

Following my theme, my invisible man has supernatural origins. I like to think that some of the original readers of Wells’ work found the whole thing plausible (“good golly that could happen!”). But it is all pretty silly science today (e.g., people don’t have a single refractive index; if the invisible man successfully bent light around him he himself would be unable to see, etc.). Plus as noted above I think there are some interesting plot twists it enables.

Final note this one kind of got away from me as a 100 day project. I hadn’t even really thought of the specifics of Scratch when I started writing this (I should have made him a separate character profile). Also I’m struggling to limit myself to a character profile when the concepts I like about this have to do with plot. The result above is that I gave both too much detail and not enough.

Austin Police badge image from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin_Police_Department

First time at this blog? Check out Home for details on the project and the Character Index for an overview of the projects and characters.

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).

Black hole image – https://phys.org/news/2018-01-black-holes.html

First time at this blog? Check out Home for details on the project and the Character Index for an overview of the projects and characters.

Note: I’ll return to the world of Mizfits at some point (they need villains, after all). But, the time constraints on the 100 days project means I might have to jump around a bit to where the creative juices are flowing freely (e.g., I need to think about Mizfits villains more). So, hoping over to Wells for a bit.

Wells (8)

Project: Television mini-series (graphic novel?)

Known as: Wells

Real name: Helios Gandalf Wells

Group affiliation: None

Physical description: Wells is of average height and above average weight. He looks every bit of the late nineteenth century Englishman that he is. He has a big, bushy mustache, a full head of wavy hair, and can usually be found wearing a period-appropriate suit with many accessories in various pockets (watch, spectacles, pipe, etc.).

History: The late 1800s was not an ideal time to be a practical, gentleman magician. The rules of magic had begun to change with the barrier between England and the Fae growing ever stronger. Meanwhile, marvels of science such as steam and air ships were on the rise (at times literally). Magical creatures and people becoming rarer, though persecution (witch trials), hunting, and the general waning of magic. The most powerful wizard in England was a shadow of his forebears.

That wizard was Helios Gandalf Wells. Of tremendous magical pedigree, Wells possessed Fae blood and some of the most formidable magic-users in his family tree. He was knowledgeable of spells and artifacts, and as a gentleman with means consistently increased his magical collection.

Yet as functional of a spigot as he was, the water of magic simply didn’t flow the way it once did. Wells had many theories as to why, but chief among them was the rise of science and technology. Seeking save magic, and perhaps realize his true power, Wells sought to mix magic and science (becoming the first “technowizard”). His hope was that if he could position magic and science as complimentary, the former would not need to decline with the rise of the latter.

Wells had some mixed success creating devices that mimicked the principles of science but were powered by magic. He had a pocket watch, for example, whose gears cast a spell of time tracking, rather than tracking time mechanically. Yet these small successes did little to ebb the general decline of magic.

Belief and narrative had always been cornerstones of magic, so Wells sought to bind magic and science together with the telling of stories. Wells knew of several remaining magical creatures and magic users, and he used their stories and abilities to inspire stories of fantastic science. Beyond just written stories, these were magical writings that bound the magic of these beings within their pages (without their permission, unfortunately). If his spells were effective, those reading his stories would believe that science could create magic. He aimed to retell tales that once drove magic with a sheen of science; essentially “hiding” magic as science.

Thus he was one of the inventors of science fiction. Yet his tales of voyages to space, invasion of aliens, and invisible men were retellings of fantastic voyages, attacks of magical monsters, and heroes of mythic power. Readers were having spells cast upon them without their knowledge, and he hoped that their belief in the magic of science would restore magic.

Unfortunately, while his works were extremely popular, they did not produce the desired effect. He became more desperate and decided that his explorations of time might provide a new solution. His thinking was straightforward while science was beholden to time, magic may not be. His hope was to open a portal to the past when magic was a tremendous force and create a stream of magical power to his current time.

His experiments, however, had an unexpected outcome. He found himself transported to 2018, hundreds of years into his future. He had thought magic was limited in his own time and found it nearly non-existent in his new time. This all but removed his ability to undo his spell. Additionally, he found not only magic changed but science as well, as many theories of his day had long since been disproven.

Now his future is uncertain. His personal magic is enough for him to get by, but whether he can somehow meld it with the technology of today is unclear. Will he ever get home, or perhaps will he change the world of 2018? Neither is known.

However, one thing is known. Some of the entities he wrote about in his magical stories were bound to him as a result. Caught up in his time travel, they too have arrived in 2018. Not all of them have had their powers reduced in the same way as Wells and not all of them are nice.

Role in the narrative: Wells’ story establishes the setting and drives the adventure. Though I am introducing him first, he is not the true protagonist nor hero of the story (that would be Detective Morgan Fayd). In fact, who Wells is and what happened to bring the fantastic into 2018 might be a mystery drawn out over the course of the first season or early issues.

Abilities: Wells is a wizard. However, where the most powerful spells in history tended to draw upon external sources of magic, Wells is limited to his own personal magical reserves. So no summoning of lightning bolts, no transformations, and no teleporting. Instead, he can do interesting but unimpressive feats such as making his watch glow in the dark, make small objects move without touching them, and the like. Nothing that the observer wouldn’t think was a trick or not have some mundane explanation.

This means he is substantially less powerful than the beings he has brought with him (as virtually all of them have greater magical reserves than him or have ways of tapping power in modern times). His greatest asset is his knowledge, as he is easily the most knowledgeable person in the field of magic in 2018.

Inspirations: Hopefully one inspiration is fairly obvious ;-). H. G. Wells was one of the most prolific and influential writers in history (and all-around impressive individual). Steampunk has always been a fun drama, and I love retro-futurism. Seeing how people of the past envisioned the future is always interesting both because of how often they were right and how charming their ideas were when they were wrong (I also love the fiction of the 1950ies in this regard). Of course, being public domain, this will hardly be the first retelling of Wells’ work.

I’m heavily influenced by comics, and a major theme of the Silver Age of comics was companies using scifi origins (DC rebooted a number of classic characters with a scifi origin where they once had a mystical one; see Green Lantern, Hawkman, etc.). It always tickled me that this seemed to be in the interest of “realism” but in retrospect was just fantasy in a new form (e.g., getting spider powers from a radioactive spider bite somehow seems more likely than them being bequeath by a spider god).  With the characters of Wells, I’m doing the reverse (retelling scifi stories/characters as secretly being mystical ones). Likely I will be unable to come up with all my influences here (a bit of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norris in the return of magic; or even the old cartoon the Visionaries in terms of ages of magic/science).

Original puzzle image is from https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2010-word/creating-a-jigsaw-diagram-in-ms-word/e34a674c-0413-43bd-a7b9-3e917d0d2145 (I added the lettering).

First time at this blog? Check out Home for details on the project and the Character Index for an overview of the projects and characters.

Puzzle (7)

Project: Comic

Known as: Puzzle

Real name: Darshita Khatri

Group affiliation: MizFits

Physical description: Darshita is a striking woman of Indian decent, with long black hair. She is in her thirties, and while saris are reserved for formal occasions her modern style is heavily influenced by traditional Indian styles.

History: Darshita was born in New Delhi but her family migrated to the United States when she was 2 years old. She only remembers life in the US, but Hindi was spoken around the home and her parents continued to follow some Indian traditions. Her family identified as Hindu but was not known for being particularly devout. Darshita did enjoy stories of gods and avatars (not knowing one day she would live among modern gods).

Darshita was always a bright child that worked hard and did well in school. However, every so often she would show absolutely staggering intuition. She would see novel answers to problems and be unable to explain how she arrived at the solution. In childhood these flashes were unpredictable. A few of them lead to her to invent useful items for use around the household. Her father sought to protect her from unwanted attention by patenting her ideas as his own. Of course, this was a bit of a rationalization, as he enjoyed the attention and wealth that came from being the second coming of Ron Popeil.

Her family’s sudden success and her father’s behavior about her ideas left Darshita conflicted. Though not devout Hindus, it was still hard to jibe the materialism she saw in her family with the tenants of their faith. Furthermore, she felt more exploited than protected by her father, and ultimately decided to stop sharing when she had her flashes of intuition (her flashes always came with a clear feeling of “rightness” so she never mistook a natural idea for a true flash). Her father was hard-working and at that point had built up his business such that he had other ways of finding new ideas, so Darshita ceasing to provide IP was not too profound of a problem. Soon enough Darshita’s flashes of intuition were seen by her family as a few moments of luck.

Darshita continued to keep her gifts a secret. Yet often times her intuitions gave her a sense of what was to come, and how to prevent tragedy. Those she helped never knew: asking a fellow student a question prevented them from crossing the street at the wrong time; the right word prevented a fight; and so forth. Acting on her flashes would keep her busy, and hiding her secret made it all very lonely.

In adulthood, it was easy for her to turn wealth from her family into staggering independent wealth (usually through well-timed silent partnerships in key businesses; she had to avoid the stock market for fear that her gifts would make others believe she was inside trading). She had begun to view her flashes as a burden and found that they occurred less frequently when she interacted with others less. Fewer flashes meant she felt less obliged to fix things, and she began to become a wealthy recluse.

When the “All Saint’s Anarchy” event occurred, however, it nearly destroyed her. All her flashes in the past showed both problem and solution. Right before the event, she had a flash of intuition where she knew a moment was coming where the world made no sense. She could intuit countless problems, but no solutions. She feared for her sanity before she mercifully passed out.

The other members of the Mizfits have always believed that this was the event that drove her to bring them all together. That the glimpse of absolute chaos drove her to be an agent of order and ended her isolationist ways.

They are close, but the reality is a bit more personal. People developing powers, demons and monsters becoming real, etc. did indeed create chaos. But during times of chaos, those who can see how things fit together have unprecedented opportunity to shape the world. However, Darshita’s first flash after the All Saint’s Anarchy event was to see how the pieces were falling into place to make her a true villain. Her efforts to avoid responsibility meant she was avoiding humanity including her own. She was on a road to view people as pieces to be placed, and herself as a goddess placing them. To avoid this future, she would need to reconnect with the world.

So while the Mizfits think Puzzle is here for them, in truth she needs them even more.

Role in the narrative: Puzzle practically IS the narrative. Team books are all about throwing characters together who might not even be friends under other circumstances. She brings them together, helps them realize their true power is in unity, and gives them purpose. My biggest fear is that, were I to ever write this, she wouldn’t be a multi-dimensional person.

Abilities: Her code/nickname (Puzzle) comes from the fact that her gift is to see how things fit together. Her conscious mind is impressive, but her unconscious mind is phenomenal. It is constantly processing stimuli, events, probabilities and so forth. The result is that every so often her unconscious mind puts things together such that it arrives at a non-obvious, but inevitable conclusion. In these moments, her conscious mind gets a flash of intuition. She cannot always explain the conclusion as a result, but she knows it is right.

This flash can take many forms. One is an inventiveness she sees how elements can come together to create something new and powerful. This is how she brought the Mizfits together she sees how they work together (InvinciBill’s invulnerability with Break’s strength; how Boost can reduce the Mizfit’s many limitations; how Swap can help get team mates into the proper positions, etc.). If they are in conflict with super powered villains and Puzzle has one of her flashes, the Mizfits are nearly invincible (she’ll see exactly what they need to do in order to win). This is crucial as without her the team is hardly a combat juggernaut.

These flashes can also take the form of a sort of premonition. She will foresee events unfolding, even sometimes when she doesn’t remember when she has seen the people involved (she has it’s just her unconscious kept track). These are not prophesy she can work to change the outcomes she sees (and often does). Occasionally, she “stays in the flash” where she sees everything around her in perfect clarity and can set off Rube Goldberg-type chains of events to get a desired outcome.

The thing she can’t control perfectly is when these flashes come. She can increase or decrease their likelihood by embracing or avoiding stimuli. Quietly meditating in complete isolation for days on end tends to greatly reduce the likelihood, while watching multiple news streams for hours increases the same. If she overthinks a problem this reduces flashes, while clearing her mind helps.

By the way Darshita is indeed CRAZY good at puzzles. She can tell when pieces are missing when the box is opened. She can put them together just based upon the shapes no image necessary. She can even see how they can go together in ways the puzzle maker didn’t intend (including making 3-D shapes out of 2-D puzzles).

Also by the way woe to the telepath that ever takes a trip into Puzzle’s mind.

Inspirations: Given this is a group book I’m wouldn’t follow the monomyth too closely, but Puzzle fills the wise mentor role (the hero role some as well, I suppose). It makes me sad that she may have to follow this pattern and that I’d have to eventually remove her from the Mizfits (her power is just too formidable for a long narrative). I have ideas for her ending and they are most noble, so maybe it is just as well that I will likely never actually write the Mizfits (so Puzzle can stay alive indefinitely in my imagination).

I remember a character from OSC’s Alvin Maker series that saw how things go together so likely my thoughts around her abilities. I’d also like to challenge myself a bit to write characters with different backgrounds than myself. I love the idea of someone with concepts like Dharma in her mind having to deal with seeing the world more clearly than others. I’m also toying with making her an avatar but haven’t studied Hinduism enough yet to know if that would be disrespectful (I certainly wouldn’t intend it that way).

First time at this blog? Check out Home for details on the project and the Character Index for an overview of the projects and characters.

Break (6)

Project: Comic

Known as: Break

Real name: Sophia Sanchez

Group affiliation: MizFits

Physical description: Sophia is petite (5′) and thin, with olive skin and long dark hair. She is in her forties and has a beauty mark on her right cheek.

History: Sophia was born in New Jersey to a large and active family and had a happy childhood. She was always very social, popular, and community-focused (she used her homecoming queen acceptance speech to promote her bottle drive). She was religious and was sometimes called “Saint Sophie” behind her back. Not that she was perfect she was vain at times, and sometimes judgmental, but overall, she was (and is) a good, compassionate person. She also was quite adventurous, and enjoyed the outdoors.

She had a successful college career with a focus in business. Her freshman year she met and fell in love with a fellow student, Steven, who she loved deeply. They were married a year later. Tragically, a few months before graduation she lost Steven to pancreatic cancer. She spent a year in mourning before finishing her degree. She never lacked for suitors after that but continued to mourn Steven and found that no one really measured up.

Other than the effect on romantic relationships, Steven’s death did not cause Sophia to isolate herself. Quite the opposite she added curing cancer to her list of causes and remained very active in her community and church. She became a successful pharmaceutical sales rep and was quite comfortable financially but was mild in her indulgences.

Like many people, her special abilities came from the “All Saints’ Anarchy” event. This changed her life in profound ways. She became too much of a danger to others to continue with her community events or job. After causing family injuries and property destruction she accepted Puzzle’s offer to live with the Mizfits full time.

This was a blow to her, but she is too driven to change the world in positive ways to let it define her. She is the most heroic of the Mizfits and is often the catalyst for them to act (the other Mizfits can be a little isolationist).

Role in the narrative: As just noted, the Mizfits need someone (in addition to Puzzle) to help drive them to actually act. Though most of the Mizfits are well meaning, many of them are also insular. They follow Puzzle because they are so confident that they will succeed as a result, but Break inspires them (Puzzle and Break have an easy co-leadership of the Mizfits).

Break and InvinciBill are also the great love story of the Mizfits. Bill’s abilities mean that he can be around Break without concern of harm. This has led them to get to know each other more than they might have had neither of them developed abilities. Bill is smitten with her because her positivity and desire to make things better seems to epitomize in many ways the potential he sees in people. Plus, she is outgoing and adventurous, and introduces him to wonder beyond his books (he never thought he’d enjoy hiking until Break took him). Bill is insecure about her affection for him, however, as he believes she is “forced” to like him because he is the only person who is safe around her.

Of course, the super-intelligent Bill is an idiot in this instance. Break is drawn to Bill because he is the most extraordinary person she has ever met. No one will ever replace Steven for her, but after she read Bill’s poetry she found she had enough love in her heart for two “loves of her life.” Bill is an adventure for her she discovers new layers to him regularly. She is not at all insecure about their budding relationship, and instead sees it as one of the blessings of her abilities.

Abilities: Break is ridiculously strong. Tear steel in her bare hands, throw a car a mile kind of strong. This is both her power and her curse, as she cannot fully control her strength. To quote JLU: she lives in a world of cardboard. Thinks she tries to pick up are crushed, doors she tries to open are yanked off their hinges, and she avoids hugging anyone (except Bill). Eating is a messy affair. She has to navigate the world with extreme caution. Her living quarters have been adjusted accordingly (e.g., titanium comb), and she lives there with only a little care.

She is not, however, extraordinarily resistant to harm (e.g., she is not bulletproof). This means that Bill is often her partner in any sort of action the Mizfits encounter (he provides the defense, her the offense).

Inspirations: Battlechasers had a super-strong young girl, and likely inspired the whole “the strongest person on the team is the smallest one as well.” Comics like to portray super-strong characters as big/muscular, but it’s not like their musculature can explain their strength (what would Superman look like if you tried to illustrate his strength by the size of his muscles?). Seriously, is it any more sensible for a large man than a petite woman being able to throw a dump truck? I just am enamored of the image of a petite woman being the most powerful force on the field.

First time at this blog? Check out Home for details on the project and the Character Index for an overview of the projects and characters.

InvinciBill (5)

Project: Comic

Known as: InvinciBill

Real name: William Gazer

Group affiliation: MizFits

Physical description: Bill is quite tall (6’4″), very thin, and not athletic. He has dark skin and is professor in his fifties and looks the part: tweed jackets, receding salt-and-pepper hair, and round eye glasses.

History: Bill was born to two successful Boston attorneys and has never wanted for much in his life (at least financially). This enabled him to pursue his many intellectual interests and gifts. Bill was a prodigy and minor celebrity. A Mensa member at age 3, concert cellist at age 6, a national spelling bee champion his paintings were exhibited in a major gallery by age 10. He was the most gifted person of his generation, and his parents had the means and supportive attitude to try to help him reach his full potential.

Of course, there are trade-offs in life. It was pointless to send Bill to public or even esteemed private schools. He was home-schooled by a series of private tutors (many of whom ended up learning quite a bit from Bill) and was attending college courses by his teen years. This meant he rarely interacted with his age peers and when he did he had trouble connecting with them. He was not athletically gifted and rarely could find time for such pursuits even if he had been interested. While admired by many for his abilities there was also jealousy and resentment (turns out not every Harvard professor enjoys being corrected by a 15-year-old) compounded by being a person of color.

Despite having a small group of nontraditional friends, Bill has lived an amazing life as a professional student. He has earned several formal degrees along the way but tended to follow his passions (it did not trouble him to leave courses mid-semester if the right opportunity presented itself). He has had jobs as a teacher or professor several times but was uninterested in career. His interests never tended towards the applied engineering, business and the like (in truth, he was a tad squeamish about biology, medicine and the like). Rather, he was most at home in the humanities.

Those who don’t understand him find Bill to be aloof and inscrutable (due to his limited social skills and general tendency to operate at a higher level). In reality, he is a beautiful soul. He is enamored of the human mind, and the beauty it can produce. He is happiest when he gets a new perspective, experiences new art, or is impressed by another’s thinking. Despite not always being treated the best by other people, he believes in humanity and its potential (this is key in our main Mizfits romance more on that tomorrow).

Bill was thrown for a loop when the “All Saints’ Anarchy” event gave him the power of invulnerability. He feels a responsibility to help the Mizfits with this ability, but it constantly puts him in situations where he does not feel confident that he knows what to do (an unusual sensation for him). Also his power leads him to have to behave in undignified ways (e.g., throwing himself in the gears to stop a machine). Finally, he has the same reflexes as the rest of us, so despite being immune from harm he flinches and covers his head like any of us would.

Don’t mistake any of his hesitancy in some situations for cowardice; after all, he consistently puts himself in situations where he is very uncomfortable.

Role in the narrative: The duality theme of the Mizfits shows itself again: a complete intellectual gets a physical power. Just gives a great opportunity for a character to get new perspectives.

On a team with many intelligent characters (e.g., Nudge and Random are in the genius range; Boost and Puzzle have outstanding if narrow intellectual capabilities), Bill is next-level smart. He could go toe-to-toe with most humanities professors on the planet, with only the most exceptional being able to exceed him (even then, if he dedicated himself to a single topic, he could become a world expert in short order). Music, Art, Literature, History, Philosophy, Religion, Anthropology he either literally or functionally has PhDs in each.

Narratively he’s useful to drop in literary quotes, and if the plot ever backs one in the corner Bill could come up with something. I love smart characters (even though they are hard to write being smarter than I am). Plus, I think he’ll be good for the team. Random, despite him being so traditional, really admires Bill (he’s read more books than she has). So does Nudge (and the sisters get along better when he is around). And, we’ll meet his love interest tomorrow.

Abilities: Bill cannot be harmed in any way. Impact, heat, cold, gasses, etc. simply cannot damage him. He has no need to eat any longer, and only sleeps if he wants to. Note he is not super strong, nor dense. If he gets hit by a wrecking ball, it will send him flying, and he might flip over a few times, but he will be unharmed. He also doesn’t feel pain (his tactile sense “turns off” beyond a certain level of stimulation). His power is a complete mystery, as a medical examination reveals nothing unusual about him. Still he is unbreakable (in the above “gears” situation, the metal of the gears would give way before Bill’s flesh did).

Inspirations: It seems there are plenty of people named “Bill” on the internet who already use this as a nickname (including a cancer fighter big props to a real hero). However, likely the name was inspired by Kirkman (who both writes “Invincible” and uses names like “Dupli-kate”). Plenty of invulnerable characters abound (many of you may have thought about Unbreakable), but I’ll give a nod to Diamond Lil from Alpha Flight as a more obscure one (Byrne essentially reused the concept in Next Men).