History Characters / SchlockMercenary

The quickly-promoted cultural liason for the Toughs, Sorlie is essentially the primary actor during the Battle of Dom Atlantis. Like her superior, she wants only what's best for the UNS, and warms up to the Toughs fairly quickly.

* LongBusTrip: We don't know what happened to him after he was captured by the UNS, but we assume it wasn't good and he never appears again.

* NighInvulnerable: Little things like being blown into a million pieces or sucked into a hard vacuum are mere inconveniences for Schlock. (His eyes, on the other hand, are [[EyeScream comparatively vulnerable]].) Being a blob made of buckminster-fullerene and silicon, his only vulnerabilities are fire, being torn into small enough pieces (which must be separated physically or he'll just reform) or massive systemic trauma strong enough to destroy his body's ability to retain information (and the last time that happened it took a multi-mile fall with no atmosphere to slow him down).

** His hearing is also impressive, if overlooked.

* SheCleansUpNicely: Elf gets some RapunzelHair as part of a TV makeover, attracting the attention of the captain for the first time.

* DyeOrDie: Cut her blonde RapunzelHair short and dyed it black when hiding from Schlock after the fire hose thing. As she put it herself: "Extreme makeover, 'Running for my life' edition". She kept the new look afterwards.

%%* RapunzelHair

* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: Actually blue, too.

* BrokenHero / BrokenAce:
** [[spoiler:His parents, wife, and both of his children besides Kaff Tagon, were killed in a nanite assassination attempt at the beginning of the Terraforming Wars, in a split-second decision where both men failed to save them. As Karl says himself, surviving the assassination spree made his career- which was all he had left.]]

* BrokenHero / BrokenAce: [[spoiler:His parents, wife, and both of his children besides Kaff Tagon, were killed in a nanite assassination attempt at the beginning of the Terraforming Wars, in a split-second decision where both men failed to save them. As Karl says himself, surviving the assassination spree made his career- which was all he had left.]]

* ThirdPersonPerson: Lota is too large for your puny pronouns. Being included in "us" or "we" LOTA is fine with.

!!Commander Kevyn Foxworthy, ''née'' Andreyasn

!!Colonel/Sergeant/Captain Alexia Murtaugh

* KilledOffForReal: An unceremonious execution.

* PutOnABus: Retired from the Toughs upon saving the Milky Way from the plot that destroyed his own timeline, which kept him out of the comic for five years until he returned during the final part of "Massively Paralell".

* AIIsACrapshoot: Not much, in that she acts the way Para and Tagon want. But she ''does'' have a quirky-as-hell streak and occasionally will gleefully embarrass humans for fun. [[spoiler: And after spending a little too long in a case of AI Sensory Deprivation, has become something of a homicidal psychopath. She mostly recovers from that and is ''then'' put in charge of an ancient space station loaded with {{Precursor}} weapons. Putzho {{Lampshade}}s what a horrible idea that was, and sure enough, she eventually goes hysterical, forcing Petey and Putzho to go to war with her]].

* HigherTechSpecies: As a messenger from one of the {{Precursor}} races, his tech makes ''Petey'' look out of date. At one point he rebuilds the physical structure of a system where he exists only digitally. Even the AI who helped build the place has no idea how he did that.

* CharacterizationMarchesOn: Began as utterly textbook DumbMuscle serving little purpose other than being one of [[the big guy]]s on the team. Later story arcs would establish him as a noble and kind soul who, while simple and gullible, has only the best and most sincere intentions for his friends.

* ImAHumanitarian: While fighting the suborned JSC agents to save the civilians of Dom Atlantis, he ate four people. We can assume that they were bad guys since he didn't get in trouble for it, but it does hurt his image more than a little.

* BackFromTheDead: By way of TimeTravel. Also at a later date [[spoiler: he is brought back from an [[BodyBackupDrive off-site backup]].]]

* EyeScream: A recurring theme with Tagon in Massively Parallel.

* BackFromTheDead: Multiple times.

* SdrawkcabName: ...Geddit now?

* CoolShades: [[https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2009-12-15 Just not as cool as Kevyn's.]]

When the Paan'uri attempted to destroy the galaxy, Petey organized a massive coalition force to fight the dark matter entities. The AI of thousands of ships banded together to form a Fleetmind that won the ensuing war, and then decided that disbanding would be detrimental to the galaxy's well-being. Taking control of the zero-point power generator built at the heart of the galaxy, the Fleetmind and the massive fleet of warships at its command became a nearly god-like entity, with Petey being the dominant personality. Since then, Petey has turned the Fleetmind against the Paan'uri in Andromeda while engaging in benevolent interventions across the Milky Way galaxy.

* DeusExitMachina: After the war with the Andromeda galaxy takes a turn for the worse (the Paan'uri fired up their own core generator with a ''much'' higher output), Petey's energy resources become limited. This prevents his trademark punch-through-interdiction teraports, although he still has massive physical resources. This could be interpreted as a simple attempt to take him out of the story for the sake of drama, but Petey seems to imply that it may come back to haunt the protagonists later on. [[spoiler:Which it did, as they built a long-gun of their own and that same higher output lets them snipe at the Milky Way all the way back from Andromeda, and they're wasting no time]].

* {{Phobia}}: Petey started out as the AI of a ship driven completely insane by the presence of a ghost on the ship. The ghost, who moaned ominous phrases in Galstandard West, turned out improbably just to be a complex pattern of air trapped in the wastewater system. What drove Petey crazy was [[https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2001-05-04 the utter improbability that such a coincidence could happen]].
** Fortunately? He got over this around the time he got an organic body...which is VERY good, as it previously turned him homicidal AND suicidal.

** [[https://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20100206.html Oh. Fork.]]
** [[https://schlockmercenary.com/d/20100815.html And again.]]

** [[https://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20100920.html "I have just decided to skip the part where I use anesthesia."]] Poor Tagon.

* GogglesDoSomethingUnusual: Seen aptly in [[https://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20091215.html this strip]], though with sunglasses.

* BewareTheNiceOnes: Play with a company member's heart, and the sweet, gentle doctor is [[https://schlockmercenary.com/d/20100606.html likely to go all Mama Bear on you.]]

* CoolShades: [[https://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20091215.html Just not as cool as Kevyn's.]]

* TeenGenius: Nineteen, [[OlderThanTheyLook looks like she's twelve]], and is so good at robotics that her [[https://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20080330.html mere presence can terrify AIs.]] (Her name suggests that she's possibly descended from the co-originator of the Hencke/Ventura scale of AI capability.)

** Schlock sitting on a [[https://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20081104.html Plasgun, or a pair of Plasguns]], to [[RecoilBoost attain flight]]. However he has very little control, and usually crashes.

* ScrewDestiny: [[https://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20100531.html No curses.]] If I get dead, it's 'cause '''I chose this'''.

* RevengeBeforeReason: Petey offers to pay her 25 times what she lost to Kevyn Andreyasn's manipulations to fund his plans, in exchange for releasing the captured Kevyn {{time travel}}ing copy and Karl Tagon to Petey. [[https://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20101010.html She refuses, instead demanding "satisfaction".]] And this is after Clone!Kevyn offered her double what he stole to let them go.

!!Commander Kevyn Foxworthy, 'née'' Andreyasn

\\

!!Commander Kevyn Andreyasn

A second Kevyn exists due to time travel shenanigans. He does not serve with the Toughs, instead devoting himself to pure research. Initially, he decides to retire next door to Captain Tagon's father, General Karl Tagon, but eventually he volunteers to help Petey fight the Pa'anuri.

%%* CloningBlues
* CloningGambit: The original Kevyn actually died two years into the comic's run. Luckily he'd made a perfect memories-intact copy seconds earlier, and we've been following the clone ever since.

* DuplicateDivergence: His future self, who by now has been existing in parallel with him for years, is notably more abrasive and assertive, likely a product of his timeline where Tagon got killed and he had to deal with the fallout. Also he stopped wearing the glasses.

* HappilyMarried: Marries Elf and takes her surname late in the series' run.

* StrangerInAFamiliarLand: The alternate Kevyn from a destroyed timeline retires from the Toughs and ultimately becomes a researcher for Petey. When he temporarily gets pulled back in, he is still used to giving orders like an officer, deeply offending the company's ''current'' officers since he no longer has any rank and isn't owed any respect, being in an informal advisory role at best.
* WhatHaveIBecome: Kevyn, after Petey's blood-nannies rebuild him as an armored killing machine in "The Sharp End of the Stick".

* WorthyOpponent: Petey enjoys debating philosophy with the Reverend, despite the latter's skepticism of the god-AI and the two almost never agreeing on anything.

* NamesTheSame: Not *[[VideoGame/SystemShock that]]* Shodan...