Other Characters
Captain William Crosby
This crusty old spacefarer is the captain of The Exposition, the ship all our heroes travel around in. Ichabod hired He’s such an old-school, set-in-his-ways space traveler that he barely ever even takes off his space suit. (So no, he’s not a robot. There’s a person under that armor) He’s a tough old salt, too. The Cap’n can and WILL throw you out into deep space if you break the rules of his ship. Sure, he’ll USUALLY give you a space suit and distress beacon, but still, that’s pretty hardcore.
And yet, SOMEWHERE underneath all that gruff and grit, there must be at least a bit of a softie. After all, he’s the one who found Avatar floating in space, and he’s given her a free ride ever sense. Quite possibly the ONLY free ride he’s ever given in his life. So, there’s that, at least. Nobody’s quite sure why he’s got that soft spot for Avatar, but it’s hardly the only thing nobody knows. Cap’n Crosby’s past pretty much a big mystery. All anybody knows is he’s old, and this is his ship. Then again, that may really be all there is to tell.
There’s also the question of why a guy like him would buy a noisy little pet like Blip to keep around. Actually, that might be an even bigger mystery.
Blip
Cap’n Crosby’s aforementioned store-bought artificial intelligence pet. Think of him as a sort of futuristic equivalent of a pirate’s talking parrot, only with a larger vocabulary and an abiding love of explosions and loud noises. It must be understood that Blip may be a fairly convincing simulations of intelligence, but he IS still just a simulation. Cap’n Crosby doesn’t go around buying actual intelligent beings as property.
Jenna Louise Hector
Jenna is quite possibly the nicest person in the universe. She’s kind, patient, mature, hard-working, gentle, and genuinely concerned for others over herself. Needless to say, the universe relentlessly takes advantage of that and screws her over at every opportunity. It’d be tempting to say the kind can never catch a break… but seeing as how her family is so ASTRONOMICALLY rich that she’d never have to work a day in her life if she didn’t chose to, she’s still coming out ahead. And she knows it, too. It’d be tempting to call Jenna a doormat, but she really could stand up for herself if she wanted too. The thing is: she’s mature enough to see that, in the long run, she’s pretty much won at life, so she doesn’t sweat small stuff… like the entirety of humanity relentlessly treating her like dirt.
Jenna works a lot of part-time jobs, on top of helping run her family’s numerous charity projects. She’s very good at organizing things and, given her supernatural patience, is very good at dealing with difficult people. The fact that she can still care for her monster of a little brother should have guaranteed her sainthood by now.
Oh, and Jenna like boys. I mean, she really REALLY likes boys. She’s probably got the largest collection of teen heartthrob pin ups in the galaxy. Don’t be fooled by that calm, responsible exterior, Jenna’s catalog of dirty, dirty thoughts is ASTOUNDING. Most of the time she’s mature enough to keep her blushing, boy-crazed urges to herself, but every so often those hormones burst through when she doesn’t want them too.
Kevin Stanley Hector
Kevin is Jenna’s older brother. He’s also a lazy bum. Seriously, he doesn’t do anything, he has no ambition, no goals in life, he just sits around watching TV all day. Why not? He’s absurdly rich. It’s not like he’ll ever have to actually DO anything with his life., so he’s getting a head start on not doing anything right away. He’s also kind of a jerk. Not maliciously so, he doesn’t set out to be mean to anybody, but he’s so self-absorbed that it happens anyway. So, basically, he’s the polar opposite of his little sister Jenna.
Which is kind of funny, seeing as how Jenna’s probably the only friend Kevin’s got. That’s a bit of a recent development, for a while Kevin didn’t like Jenna any more than anyone else. Again, he wasn’t TRYING to be mean, but he never really tired to be nice to her since… well, that would mean thinking about someone other than himself for a second. Eventually, though, he got it through his thick skull that she was the only person he knew who really gave a crap about him, so he’s making more of an effort to be nice to her. He’s not great at it yet, but at least he’s TRYING now. Maybe there’s hope for the guy after all?
Megaweapon Oppenheimer Hector
Megaweapon’s a horrible little monster. That’s not just an unfair assumption drawn from his unfortunate name, it’s a verified fact. Megaweapon is a TERRIBLE child. All he ever does is hurt people and break things, every day, all the time. He’s the living embodiment of blind, angry misanthropy, usually directed at his half-sister Jenna. There’s not even any reason for it, he just enjoys the sense of power that comes from breaking other people.
About the only people in existence that Megaweapon doesn’t want to mercilessly torture are his parents. Where his father is concerned, it seems to just come down to professional respect: Megaweapon finds Dr. Hector’s mad science interesting, seeing as how it creates stuff he can use to torture other people. But his mother Augusta? That’s different. As the saying goes, even bad boys love their mommas, and Megaweapon ADORES his mommy. The only time Megaweaon ever shows even a hint of a conscience is when he thinks his sociopathic behavior might have made his Mom unhappy. It’s not much, but it’s something, right?
Stilez
Stilez is one of the most dangerous humanoid creatures in existence. A genetically engineered super-being built with unfathomable strength, unmatched healing abilities, terrifying combat instincts, and very intimidating physical stature. Oh, and she’s a cat girl, because shut up. No one’s sure exactly who made Stilez. People who breed unkillable supersoldiers usually do so in secret, and it’s unlikely Stilez left any of them alive to tell the tale. You see, Stilez isn’t just powerful, she’s pretty much insane: forgetful, easily distracted, unpredictable, and childishly unable to comprehend the consequences of her actions. In most parts of the civilized universe, Stilez is treated like a deadly natural disaster, you can’t stop it, just get out of its way.
But being a senseless, unstoppable killing machine doesn’t mean Stilez is MEAN, of course. She’s basically a cheerful, friendly kid… who happens to be a superpowered amazon. She’s also fiercely protective of her best friend Tax, who’s just about the only person in the universe who can talk Stilez out of doing something. The only person who can do that is Ichabod, though how he knows her well enough to do that is a closely guarded secret. (Spoiler: he tired to date her once)
Tax
Tax is Stilez’s sidekick, though she’s probably the more mature of the two… which admittedly isn’t saying much. Tax is quite amused by Stilez’s destructive tendencies, but she doesn’t share them. In fact, she’s one of the few people who can actually talk Stilez down, when she wants to. Tax is just a happy, cheerful child skipping along through life and being amused by everything.
Like Stilez, Tax’s history is something of a mystery. It’s known that Stilez didn’t meet her until well after she’d become infamous on her own, and it’s reasonable to assume Tax is also the result of some kind of genetic engineering experiment. Beyond that, nobody knows. If Tax even remembers anything herself, she hasn’t told anyone.
Vengeance
The only passenger on The Exposition to stay on board as long as Ichabod and Avatar, Vengeance is a figure of mystery. Few people know who he is or where he came from, and those few who do would rather not say. For all his creepy vibes, Vengeance is usually pretty harmless and keeps to himself. He’ll still give you the willies if you have to share an elevator with him, though, and on the rare occasion that he speaks… well, his voice isn’t especially soothing.
Shining Skychild “Skye” Gilmour
Skye is a friendly, easygoing flower child, wandering the universe in a beat up space van, playing guitar with a group of rock and rolling hippy street preachers. Also, she occasionally works to bring down The Man as a saboteur-for-hire. Those two things go together pretty well, right? It’s how she got that purple eye/x-ray beam, anyway. Also, while she’s pretty cool with most of her hippy dippy upbringing, DON’T call her “Shining Skychild”. She’ll tolerate “Skychild” form a select few, but generally speaking, you call her “Skye”. This is important.
Oh, and she also happens to be the object of Trigger’s massive, fairly awkward first crush. She’s doing her best to deal with that too, but Skye’s much better at dealing with the insides of a warp core than teenage romance.
Avi Raban, Hiroyuki Anno, Lynne-3 Penfold, & Tarkus K
A group of young boys from exceedingly rich families who, in the absence of adequate parental attention, get into an exceeding amount of trouble. The flamboyant, manipulative Avi is the group’s ringleader, although he likes to present the tough-but-lunkheaded Hiro as the “real” leader. Stern, moody Lynne and timid worrywart Tarkus round out the ensemble, clearly on there because Avi roped them into whatever stupid adventure they’re on this week. Still, Avi’s hard to say “no” to, especially since their actual families have a habit of brushing them aside. Oh, and they all have MASSIVE crushes on Layla, like most growin’ boys would.