Mariska, Marshall, & May
Mariska Koppel
Another member of The Nitpicker’s Guild, Mariska is probably Ichabod’s oldest friend. As kids, they trained under the same couple of instructors, and they’ve remained close ever since. Mariska is atypically cheerful and positive for a Nitpicker, genuinely looking to go out of her way and help others. Of course, since this is a cruel, unfeeling universe, this has a habit of blowing up in her face. Like, even more than usual for Nitpickers.
Marshall Iger
Marshall is Mariska’s apprentice Nitpicker, following her around to learn the ropes. There’s not a whole lot to say about Marshall, which is just how he likes it. Marshall is a very quiet, reserved, unassuming kid who prefers to avoid attracting attention to himself. Clearly, he’s in for a rough ride as a Nitpicker.
May Teagarden Lane
Marshall’s polar opposite, May is another Nitpicker-in-training who LOVES to make her presence known. Loud, excitable, and easily distracted, May is your prototypical annoying hyperactive kid… which makes it just PERFECT that she’s been assigned as the new apprentice for Ichabod.
FAQ
Q: Really? You’re adding even MORE new characters? Doesn’t Far Out There already have too many?
A: Yes. Yes it absolutely does. The HOPE is that having more Nitpickers around will help bridge the gap between what Ichabod’s doing and what the kids are doing, especially since two of them are the same age as that bunch. IDEALLY, this cross-pollination between cast members will actually make it easier to keep everybody interacting and prevent anyone getting forgotten about. Ideally.
Q: Wait, did you just mention “age?”
A: *sigh* Yeah, so let’s just dive right into that. As usual, no specific number of years, just general ages in relation to the other characters. Mariska is a little younger than Ichabod, but only by a year or two. Enough for her to be the “little sister” while they were kids, but not enough to matter now that they’re adults. May’s the same age as Trigger and those other boys, while Marshall’s older. He may LOOK the same age, but he’s actually somewhere between Trigger and Layla. So, basically the same age as Jenna, whatever that is.
Q: If training apprentices is a normal Nitpicker thing, why did Ichabod go so long without meeting May?
A: Because Ichabod hates kids and HAD worked out a deal with his superiors where we wouldn’t have to take an apprentice. Said deal only happened because he’d been doing a better than average job and earned himself some leeway with the Guild. Then he went and started making a lot of trouble for them, and suddenly The Guild was much less willing to make an exception for Ichabod.
Q: Ichabod and Mariska seem to know each other pretty well, is she his mysterious girlfriend?
A: They would both find that suggestion incredibly gross. They’re as much of a couple as Trigger and Layla.
Q: Mariska always seems to be wearing gloves and sweaters and stuff. Is she from a planet that’s really cold?
A: Quite the opposite, actually. Mariska’s home is an exceptionally warm planet, so the residents have to be bred to be used to constantly high temperatures. As a result, “normal” temperatures feel uncomfortably cold to Mariska, hence the constant bundling up. It’s also why she favors such bright, pastel colors, since everyone back home dresses to absorb as little sunlight as possible.
Q: What about how May dresses? What, is she from some steampunk planet?
A: Actually, yeah! It’s sounds like a joke, but May’s homeworld was colonized by poor saps who didn’t realize the planet was inside an energy distortion that disrupted the power systems of most advanced technology. Thus, they had to cobble together a whole civilization built around purely analog technology of gears and clockwork… for a while. They actually figured out how to shield against the distortions ages ago and now normal technology works just fine, but now they whole “steampunk” vibe is kind of their cultural theme, so they keep it around for cosmetic purposes. Thus, May totally loves the whole steampunk aesthetic, but has NO clue how clockwork technology actually works.
Q: Are you ever actually going to do that “Young Ichabod & Mariska Adventures” comic you keep talking about?
A: If I keep talking about it long enough, that’ll MAKE it happen! …right?
Q: If May is Ichabod’s new apprentice, why is she lumped in with Mariska and Marshall?
A: Because I’ve already got too many new pages to make and this was a way to give myself one less thing to do. Also, despite May’s official connection to Ichabod, it’s not as if he LIKES the kid, so she still hangs out with her previous keepers more than her new one.
Q: Doesn’t the fact that you gave these characters a dedicated page instead of lumping them in with the “other characters” somewhere give away that they’ll be around a lot longer than they expect?
A: Yes, but to be fair, the weirdness of Webcomic Time doesn’t necessarily mean that “a lot longer” for US is also going to be the same kind of “a lot longer” for THEM. Technically. Maybe. Sort of. …but yeah, it is a dead giveaway. I just knew that if I waited to post a new page later, it’d probably never get done at all.