So, one of my friends and I decided that we should write a story together and we were each pulling characters from other things we'd written. I haven't actually written a lot of these characters very much or recently, but it should be interesting.
Lucius is from a piece that never really got off the ground. We needed a captain for the ship and he'd make a good one. Original character concept for him was medical, but I think captain fits him better... honestly. Janus is... uhm, interesting, to say the least. His real name isn't widely known, so he's usually called Janus by everyone else. I've written Kiran before quite a bit and I'm getting comfortable with her. Nate hasn't been around much recently, but he's an old character of mine and was originally in a fantasy story. Aislynn is orginally from the alternate universe... and she was originally Canadian. And Seven... well, Seven is just plain wierd. He comes from Seattle, Washington, but about 100-200 years into the future.
Lucius Touchstone
Lucius is the captain of the ship. He appears to be of northern European descent, of medium height and have rather paled features. He prefers to dress in casual clothing instead of the uniform and he holds a special hatred for dress clothing. He has an athletic build.
He is usually patient with the other members of the crew and is easy-going, but he does have his limits. There are a few rules that are his pet peeves around the ship and if you follow those, you’re good. He is celibate, but enjoys flirting. He also enjoys having a drink every now and then, though (according to Janus) he drinks too much.
Lucius possesses the ability to pass through solid objects. In other words, he can walk through walls and whatever else pleases his fancy. Since he has the tendency to run late for meetings, this can come in extremely handy at times. Originally, he was trained at helm/navigation controls.
Touchstone squirmed as he tried to sit patiently in the dress uniform. Whoever had made these things must have wanted the officers to be as uncomfortable as possible. His hair was neatly combed back and everything looked nice. He glanced at the time-keeper in the room on the star base. It read 2103 STT, which meant it was approximately 9:00 PM, standard Terran (Earth) time. He sighed; the dinner had started four hours ago. Even his patience was starting to run low and the Admiral had not yet given her speech.
“Hey, light beam,” a voice whispered over towards him. Only one person would have called him that: Lucius turned to see Maria Hernandez, the head of the science team on the SS Dreamer – the ship that had been forced to retire from service – lean over towards where he was sitting. He nodded a quick acknowledgement. “Just thought I’d let you know that it was fun serving with you. Ana’s going to miss seeing you.”
Lucius smiled as he thought of Maria’s four-year-old daughter. He had taken a liking to the little girl during their two year mission. Things would not be the same on the new ship he was going to be assigned to. For one thing, the SS Dreamer had primarily been a science research vessel, so most of the crew members aboard were devoted to the sciences, with minimal staffing in other areas. He had been the chief medical officer and the third officer – the person who usually commanded when both the captain and the first officer were detained.
The new assignment would be on the SS Veritas, which was an investigation ship. Touchstone would have frowned, but didn’t want to give Admiral Preston – Junior Admiral as though she may be – even the slightest hint that he was frowning at her speech.
“And, lastly,” Lucius breathed a sigh of relief; the Admiral was almost finished with her long-winded speech, “I would like to congratulate Commander Lucius Touchstone, who will be the First Officer of the SS Veritas.” There was applause coming from all over the room. Lucius gasped, completely shocked that he had been named as the first officer. Surely there were others with more experience than he had. “Congratulations, Commander.”
It was a full hour later when Lucius finally arrived back at the quarters he was staying in at the star base. He had started to undress when he heard a buzz that indicated someone was outside his door, waiting to see him. He slipped a grey t-shirt over his bare chest. “Come in.”
The admiral entered, still dressed as formally as ever. “I just wanted to offer my congrats, Luc,” she said with a smile. “There’s a full report coming later, but you won’t be leaving for another week. Perhaps we can get together for some coffee and chat for awhile?” The admiral’s overall demeanour had changed drastically from her formal self.
Lucius thought for a moment and nodded. “Yeah,” he said, suddenly thinking it odd that he had so many nicknames. “How about tomorrow, Sarah?” He returned the first name address just as Admiral Preston had given it, though there was a sudden clip to the tone that was unusual for him. Admiral Sarah Preston agreed. The two would meet the next day. They had so much to talk about; the cousins hadn’t seen each other since before Lucius had begun medical school. But talking could wait until later; right now, all Lucius wanted to do was catch up on some well-needed sleep.
Ophiuchus “Janus” Dylan
Orphiuchus Dylan is much better known as Janus around the crew. This is because no one knew his real name for the longest time. Occasionally, he will be called by his surname, Dylan. As an inhabitant of the desert planet, Janus’ darker skin tone helps protect him from the sun. He also has dark hair and dark eyes and is taller and thinner than an average human. He is never seen in anything not covering his arms and legs; even when he does medical exams, he usually leaves his sleeves pulled down all the way. He is used to a warmer, drier climate and gets chilled easily on the ship.
Janus is fairly anti-social and has a rather snappish bedside manner. He is easily annoyed, but slow to anger. He believes that knowing is better than not knowing and will tell his patients exactly what is going on, even if they do not want to hear. When annoyed, he gets very blunt in his mannerisms. He keeps most of his personal life hidden from the other crew members. He is a brilliant man, but difficult to work with for most people. Despite being a doctor, he tends to neglect his own physical and mental health at times.
On the ship, Janus is basically in charge of everything medical-related. He is not the ship’s counselor (that job falls to Danielle, as she is empathetic). He performs check-ups and has the power to authorize incompetence for medical reasons. He doesn’t usually fight physically, but rather chooses to heal or use his powers for defense. He is telekinetic, meaning he can move objects with his mind. He is also weakly telepathic, but he hates using this unless it’s necessary.
Janus frowned to himself, making a careful note of where each object had been laid out by the previous chief medical officer on board the ship. Whoever it had been obviously lacked any apparent reason for arranging the instruments as such. Gritting his teeth together in annoyance, he set to work, arranging things as he saw fit. With a wave of one hand – this was unnecessary – he moved the main computer monitor over to the opposite side of the room. A good doctor should be able to operate without all this fancy equipment; people from the city were ridiculously spoiled.
Just as he was finishing up, the door leading to sickbay from the main corridor opened up with a whoosh and Janus turned around. He still had not figured out how to lock the doors around here. In walked Seneca Argentium, one of the young science trainees who worked under Tiffany Aigel, one of the crew members for whom Janus held a decent amount of respect.
“Ensign.” Janus’ greeting was curt and he stood up in a less-than-graceful motion. He locked eyes with Seneca for a moment. She had absolutely no ability to hide her thoughts; even a weak telepath could easily pick up on what she was about to say. “Aigel sent you down here. Tell her things are all working.” Likely Aigel would come down later and check things out for herself... or Touchstone would. Or he might send Seylem or McAllistair. The lab tech was about to protest, but she left the room and Janus was left to his own company again. This was just how he liked it. So why had he signed up for this, again?
Kiran Shasthri
Kiran is on the shorter side of average, but still within normal height and weight range for a human. She has very dark hair, dark skin and eyes that look almost black. Her hair reaches down just past her shoulders and she usually ties it back with a bright hair tie. When not in uniform, she can be seen wearing brightly colored clothing. She also has her ears pierced.
Kiran is emotional, caring and fairly confident most of the time. She loves her friends and family more than anything else in the world. Amongst the members of the Squad, she’s fairly talkative and good at offering ideas... and asking them if they’re sure something will work. She has a fairly scientific mind and she would have gone into medical training, were it not for the discrimination on her home planet against elementalists becoming doctors. She is also known for her occasional sarcastic humor that creeps into the conversation at unexpected moments and for carrying her flute around almost everywhere with her.
As a member of the Investigation Squad, Kiran works to help uncover the mysteries of anything that might have gone wrong on the planets they visit and help fix things. She is also a dual elementalist, controlling light and dark. Light is more dominant and takes the form of a light ray radiating from her left hand and occasionally a sphere floating in mid-air. She can also bend light rays. Darkness is harder for her to control and it manifests itself in a shadow cloud coming from her right hand. She cannot create light or dark.
Fifteen-year-old Kiran Shasthri awoke with a start to the sound of her bedroom door opening. She blinked a few times and pulled a few strands of dark hair out of her face before sitting up. Much to her chagrin, it was Ming-yue Tam, her best friend and roommate, who had woken her – and Shelby and Monica, the two other girls in their room – up.
“You’ll never guess!” Ming grinned, plopping down on her bed. Kiran rolled her eyes and jumped off the top bunk, landing on her feet with a soft thud.
“What happened this time?” Kiran groaned. Leave it to Ming to be awake at this unearthly hour. Granted, Kiran knew that her best friend didn’t sleep; it was part of her mutation. The two girls had met when Kiran first started attending Melanthios Academy about a year and a half ago.
“You got a letter,” Ming replied, handing Kiran an envelope. It was addressed in perfect script and old-fashioned lettering, complete with a seal and a mysterious logo.
Kiran pulled her dark hair back and arched an eyebrow, taking the envelope from her friend. After examining it carefully for a trap, as they had been taught to do, she opened it carefully. “Our esteemed science professor is going to have my corpse as the next anatomy specimen,” she muttered under her breath.
Dear Kiran “Yin-Yang” Shasthri,
Your presence has been requested at a celebration. Please come to my house on December the second. The address is enclosed.
Sincerely,
Mr. W
Ming snatched the letter from Kiran’s head and skimmed it quickly. “So?” she asked, the pitch of her voice rising nearly an octave. “You going or not?”
Kiran frowned. She hadn’t been away from the Academy since she came, with the exception of going home briefly last Christmas. She was one of the fortunate ones. Most of the students were run-aways and outcasts from their own families. At least she still had a family who cared about her enough to want to do what was best for her. And as much as she fought with her older brother, Ekram, they were still close.
“We have a biology exam later today,” Kiran pointed out. “And band rehearsal after that.” She was one of the flutists in the band at their school. “And like I said, I’ll probably be the next cadaver if I leave.”
Ming shook her head. “So, if anything happens, just use your powers. How bad can it be?”
Kiran sighed. “Ming,” she began, carefully considering what she was going to say. Her best friend was one of the few recipients of her outbursts; she was usually pretty calm, but this was something she felt strongly about. “I believe that we were given our powers to help other people, not to make personal gains and certainly not to hurt other people. It’s what Dad was always trying to tell us when we were younger, but before I came here, I never really heard what he was saying.”
Kiran paused for a minute to observe Ming’s reaction. “It’s one of the things I’ve learned since coming here,” she continued. “Not only from the professors, but from you and George as well. I used to always be afraid of what my powers would do, but now I’m not, thanks to you guys.” George was a friend of theirs at school. She smiled slightly. Her power to turn herself and whatever she was touching invisible or into a shadow or beam of light had manifested itself when she was at school one day, nearly hurting one of her classmates. “I can’t go.”
Ming groaned. “Aww,” she pleaded. “That’s just the reason why you have to!” A sly smile crossed her face. “Or I’ll ask the Professor to use an alternate means of convincing you.” She grinned. “Sheesh, take your flute and books with you. Study while you’re there and you can’t miss anything too important here!”
Kiran arched her eyebrows as she stood up, put on a comfortable shirt and leggings and wrapped her blue and purple sari around her. She knew that she shouldn’t be leaving – not with the biology lab later that afternoon – but her curiosity wouldn’t leave. She just had to know who this mysterious Mr. W was and what he wanted.
Nathaniel “Nate” Winters
Nate has bright red hair, pale skin and freckles all over his face and body. He’s a little taller than average in height and the only thing that stands out significantly is his bright hair. He also has green eyes. When not dressed in uniform, Nate often wears jeans and a solid colored t-shirt.
In personality, Nate is very quick to react to anything and everything. He’s generally good around people and well-liked by his peers, though he does have a temper. He can be incredibly charming one moment, but yelling at the other members of the Squad the next. He is – and always has been – fascinated by all things technological.
Nate is also a member of the Investigation Squad and has the ability to control fire. He cannot create fire, so he must have a constant source of flame with him (usually in the form of an old lighter he carries around with him).
“That’s the last time you’re put in charge of the computer club, young sir!” An angry voice pierced through the disgustingly wet air of New York City. Nate could feel his freckled skin grow nearly the same color as his red-orange hair and he sank into his chair.
“Sorry, sir,” Nate muttered under his breath. So far, this was the second time during this summer that his foolishness had caused trouble, but who was counting? The first time was creating a computer program that was able to solve math and science problems by simply being told. This time was for creating a program that judged art and had poorly judged the skills of their school art teacher.
“Now, kindly take your things and go home,” the supervising teacher ordered, pointing a long, bony finger towards the door.
Nate picked up his backpack and could feel his heart sinking further and further down. Frances, a close friend of his, excused herself, telling the teacher that she needed to go home to take care of her baby brother. She met up with Nate in the halls outside.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, shifting her books to a more comfortable position as they walked through the streets of NYC together. She and Nate lived in the same apartment building and always walked to and from school together.
“Nothing,” Nate said, narrowing his eyes. He could still feel that envelope in his pocket. Frances frowned and Nate regretted that they were such close friends.
“Okay.” He dug the envelope out of his pocket and handed it to Frances. She read the writing on the paper inside and smiled.
Attention: Nathaniel Winters
Your attendance has been requested at Camp Aestas. You will leave tomorrow morning from the New York airport. Please see the list of items to bring.
Cordially,
Mr. Docens
“Isn’t that good? At least you won’t have Mr. Frost mad at you for the rest of the summer,” she offered.
“Whatev,” he muttered. But he knew he had to go, partially because only ten people had been accepted. It wasn’t like there were going to be a hundred kids and he wouldn’t be missed; he had the odd feeling that this was something important, unlike all those e-mails he’d received in his inbox before he finished writing the program to weed out spam messages and installed it.
Aislynn Celeste
Aislynn is a shapeshifter, so her appearance tends to vary based on whatever mood she finds herself in. She’s slightly less than five feet tall and naturally has blonde hair that’s short and blue eyes and light skin with a few freckles. She likes to dress in casual clothing whenever she has the chance, which consists of skirts and blouses. She has a tattoo on her shoulder, but often uses her powers to disguise this into her skin.
At a first glance, Aislynn is fairly happy-go-lucky. She often smiles when she works and spends time getting to know her fellow crew members. She is incredibly talkative and enjoys discussing various subjects, whether they be personal or academic in matter. Speaking of academics, her favourite subject in school was mathematics. On a closer examination, one will find out that Aislynn has always hid the deepest of her emotions from other people and she will often go into her room and start crying for no apparent reason.
Aislynn is fresh out of the academy and works at the helm and navigation controls.
It had been the first time Aislynn stepped into the Dance Hall since she had taken waltz lessons when she was in her fourth year as a student here. Having declined Justin's invitation to go during their final year, she had not come here at all that fall, winter or spring and the young professor sighed. Around her were beautiful pictures and the ceiling had been painted to look like a faerie tale castle. Like she was home once again where she truly belonged.
She laced up her dance shoes moved out onto the hardwood floor. As she closed her eyes, she felt like she was her father’s little girl once again, that her dad would come home after a long day of work and ask her how her dance lessons with Madame Barnes went. She would smile, giggle and show him how they learned to point their toes or spin around in circles. Her mother would not smile, but Demetry... Demetry would pick her up and twirl her around in his arms, lifting her high enough to touch the sky. She was his little princess.
And then it all changed when Demetry didn’t come home from work one night. Aislynn could barely remember, but she remembered Clarissa screaming at the government official who came around to their house... then her mother started crying, objects started getting thrown and eventually things got so bad she went to live with her grandparents. She was no longer her daddy’s little princess. Aislynn spun into a pirouette and as she made her second revolution, she spotted someone standing in the doorway out of the fleeting glance of her peripheral vision.
As soon as she could get both feet back on the ground, she turned to see who had been lurking in the doorway. The professor turned and could feel her cheeks glowing red as she found herself looking into the face of Nicholas Gunner. “Oh!” She glanced around, hoping that the other professor wasn’t taken aback by her horrible dance skills. “I’m sorry about that... did you want to come in and dance?” There was a short pause as she looked at him, still unsure of what to say.
Septimus “Seven” McAllistair
In appearance, Seven is of average height and average build. Nothing seems atypical about him at a first glance. He has pale skin that often carries a jaundiced tinge and non-descript brown hair. Glasses cover his orange-grey eyes. He often wears clothing that does not appear to be well-kept, a result of growing up in a lower-class family and getting used to dressing as he does. He cares little about his appearance or how he comes off to people.
Seven is probably one of the most awkward, unemotional people you would ever meet. This is largely due to the fact that he has a computer chip implanted in his brain and has since he was a young child, the result of a scientific experiment. He is naturally good with facts and uncomfortable with what he doesn’t know. He is also uncomfortable around people and their emotions.
He possesses a naturally photographic memory, but due to scientific research when he was younger, he has a computer chip implanted in his brain, which allows him to control computers with a single thought or to teleport himself (and occasionally others) through a computer network. Seven works tactical on the ship, but can also help out in engineering if need be.
He logged off of his computer and told it to shut down. Normal people would have needed to push buttons on their computers to do such a thing or at least speak to the machine, as technology had advanced enough for the newest computers to take verbal commands, but all he needed to do was think at the machine and it would do his will. The adolescent’s grey eyes stared at the blank screen curiously, as if he wished he would have persevered at that last project he was working on; he needed to crack that code.
With a slight frown on his face, he ordered his computer back on. This particular code was much trickier than any of the ones he had worked with before and the fourteen-year-old’s lips thinned in sheer determination, the one human emotion he could still feel thoroughly and with the intensity of any normal person. Septimus was well aware that he could be over-analyzing the situation, but perhaps he was wrong.
The boy flexed his hands and pulled the knitted fingerless gloves back onto his wrists. These blue garments had been his latest project, along with perfecting the latest violin piece his mother had chosen for him to learn. His glasses reflected the rows and rows of letters, numbers and various colors that littered the screen of the computers. With one thought, all the numbers were put in bold font and the letters in italics.
Seven stroked the side of his head. Brilliant. With another thought, the numbers had disappeared and the letters rearranged themselves to reveal the message, which read McAllistair: Meet me at the South End of the computer labs at the University tomorrow at precisely 17:45. I have something to give you. If you are not there at the designated time, you will not see me. He had solved the code; now all he had to do was find out the identity of the mysterious sender.
NB: Neither Justin nor Nicholas Gunner belong to me. Danielle also does not belong to me, nor does Aigel or Seylem. All the other characters do. This list of characters is for a story that one of my friends and I are writing together, so it should be interesting.
