History Characters / TheFamiliar

!! Bobby

Cas' / The Wizard's husband, aged 77. He has thick white hair and a beard and is physically more fit than Cas. He has been married to her for decades. He is an astronomer with a degree from Berkeley.

* GreenEyedMonster: Bobby still gets insecure and uncomfortable when Cas sees Deakin / Merlin, because she slept with Deakin once; that was 40 years ago though. Cas even mentions the Trope by name once when referring to him in her narration.

* AmicableExes: She and Dov separated when she was pregnant with Xanther, and she's been with Anwar since. Dov and she get along well still. In an interesting twist, Anwar even seems to appreciate Dov even more (and vice versa) than Astair (Amicable Spouses' Ex?).

A gang member in Los Angeles of Hispanic descent. He was initiated into his gang by a man called Téyo (who is the gang leader), and now is involved in many illegal activities. He also owns dogs he uses for dog fighting.

A LAPD Detective of Turkish descent (born in Istanbul, moved to L.A. in his teens). He once was passionate about his police work but now (by Volume 1) sees it as a chore and is openly saying he's looking forward to retiring and moving out of L.A. if his girlfriend Elaine can get a job elsewhere. He previously had a relationship with a co-worker, Nyra, who was pregnant with him, but they don't have a child now (what happened to the pregnancy/baby is unclear). He does origami as a hobby and loves jazz music. Reading detective/crime fiction by Creator/RaymondChandler and the like, was what inspired him to become a police officer.

An Armenian-American taxi driver in Los Angeles, who often happens to drive famous or important people with his taxi. He is described as having a squat face with thick eyebrows and yellow teeth. He is married to a woman called Patil. He insists on speaking in English even with his Armenian friends, even though (or maybe, because) as his college professor friend Mnatsagan remarks, his English is still mediocre. He often coughs up blood, due to an unknown ailment (even unknown by himself, as he avoids medical help).

Cas' / The Wizard's husband, aged 77. Has thick white hair and a beard and is physically more fit than Cas. He has been married to her for decades. He is an astronomer with a degree from Berkeley by origin.

Anwar and Astair's 8-year-old twin daughters, and Xanther's younger sisters. They don't understand why Xanther, with her physical problems, takes so much from their parents' attention, but they do love Xanther. However, they're also more or less living in their own world.

A friend of Anwar and also a computer programmer. When Anwar doesn't succeed in debugging a program, Mefisto is the first Anwar thinks of asking for help from, as apparently Mefisto is one of the best. Mefisto pulls a prank on Anwar in the beginning that results in Anwar's family's phone and e-mail numbers being outed on the internet and them being bombarded with calls and texts; according to Mefisto, is was never supposed to go that far.

--> Maybe he should stop mistaking a habit for love. Maybe he should stop thinking of Los Angeles as a woman and consider more closely the woman who sometimes shares his bed.

A 12-year old girl living in Los Angeles with her (step)father, mother and 8-year old twin sisters. She has many physical ailments and trouble to keep up at school and fit in with her peers. She has the closest bond with Anwar within her family, even though he is not biologically her father. She feels guilty that her mother Astair is sometimes exasperated about her peculiarities. She is described as having black hair worn in two braids, pale skin, one eye azure and the other hazel, and wearing glasses and braces.

* AmbiguousDisorder: Apart from her epilepsy and other physical ailments, she also has trouble reading (described as that she has difficulty distinguishing letters / numbers), which resembles dyslexia but isn't named; and is focused on details [[note]]This is introduced in her very first chapter, in which it rains and she over and over ponders "How many raindrops?"[[/note]] and socially awkward in a manner that reminds of autism.

* CallingParentsByTheirName: She calls her parents, Anwar and Astair, by their first names. Mostly, at least; when she calls him "Daddy", Anwar knows she's probably upset or sad about something.
* ImmigrantParents: Her father Anwar was born and raised in Egypt. He has lived in the U.S. for a long time now, and while his narrative reveals that some of his thoughts still occur in Arabic, but he seems to be more an American than an Egyptian culturally.

A Los Angeles computer programmer and designer aged 54. Father of three girls (Xanther, Freya and Shasti - though the first is not biologically his daughter, he cares as much for her as he does for his other daughters) and married to Astair. He's of Egyptian descent, from a Shiite mother and Sufi father, and now an atheist. He has a philosophical streak and tendency to question everything, something he shares with his oldest daughter Xanther; within the family of five, he and Xanther bond strongly due to sharing the same view on life, sometimes to the frustration of the other three family members who don't understand.

* DotingParent: He really loves his three daughters and is a caring and supportive father to them. Xanther stands out though since his and her way of thinking, and interests, are the most alike. At times this makes the other family members even feel shut out.

40-year old woman living in Los Angeles, married to Anwar and mother of three daughters: 12-year old Xanther and 8-year old twins Freya and Shasti. She is in university studying Psychology to get a degree to become a family therapist. She is now an atheist, but originally of Irish descent and raised a Catholic. She worries a lot about her oldest daughter Xanther, who has epilepsy.

* AmicableExes: She and Dov separated when she was pregnant with Xanther, and she's been with Anwar since. Dov and she get along well still. In an interesting twist, Anwar even seems to appreciate Dov even more (and vice versa) than Astair (Amicable Spouses' Ex?)

A gang member in Los Angeles of Hispanic descent. He works for a man called Téjo. He also owns dogs he uses for dog fighting.

A LAPD Detective of Turkish descent (born in Istanbul, moved to L.A. in his teens). He once was passionate about his police work but now (by Volume 1) sees it as a chore and is openly saying he's looking forward to retiring and to move out of L.A. if his girlfriend Elaine can get a job elsewhere. He also has had a relationship with a co-worker He does origami as a hobby.

* JustFriends: He has a female co-worker, Planski, whom he's been good friends with since a decade. They even joke about that they aren't having sex, but both prefer the status quo.

A 76 year old computer scientist who since 1998 has been in possession of a mysterious Orb, which allows her amongst other things, when she looks into it, to see into the past. It might have more abilities too. There are four other Orbs, and all are in possession of friends of Cas. A mysterious, sinister organization is hunting Cas and her husband Bobby because of the Orbs, so they are continuously on the run, living in a travel trailer. At the beginning of Volume 1 they are in Marfa, Texas and she finds out most of her friends connected to the Orbs, have been murdered or taken hostage.

** Cas' friends who are involved with the Orbs too are known as The Sorcerer (who might or might not really be (called) Mefisto, from Anwar's storyline), [[GreekMythology Thanatos, Artemis, Circe]], Lilith, [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Treebeard]], etc.

Singaporean 20-something who had a history of drug abuse before being taken in by his current employer Tian Li, a woman who works as a healer and spiritual adviser. Now he works as her assistant; a.o. translating for her, and he makes sure she gets paid well (according to jingjing, she is negligent with bartering for her paying prices). She has a small cat most of the time sitting on her shoulder, that he finds creepy.

Cas' / The Wizard's husband, aged 77. Has thick white hair and a beard and is physically more fit than Cas. He has been married to her for decades. He's an astronomer with a degree from Berkeley by origin.

* GreenEyedMonster: Bobby still gets insecure and uncomfortable when Cas sees Deakin / Merlin, because she slept with Deakin once; that was 40 years ago though. Cas even mentions the Trope by name once when referring to him, in her narration.

Anwar and Astair's 8-year old twin daughters, and Xanther's younger sisters. They don't understand why Xanther, with her physical problems, takes so much from their parents' attention, but they love Xanther nonetheless. However, they're also more or less living in their own world.

* TwinBanter: They often communicate with each other with expressions unique to them both. I.e. in Volume 1, they call each leak in the roof of the house "Itsy-Bitsy-Spider".

A LAPD detective of Turkish descent (born in Istanbul, moved to L.A. in his teens). Not much is known of him except that he once was passionate about his police work but now (by Volume 1) sees it as a chore; and that he does origami as a hobby. He has a love interest, Elaine.

A 76 year old computer programmer who since 1998 has been in possession of a mysterious Orb, which allows her amongst other things, when she looks into it, to see into the past. It might have more abilities too. There are four other Orbs, and all are in possession of friends of Cas. A mysterious, sinister organization is hunting Cas and her husband Bobby because of the Orbs, so they are continuously on the run, living in a travel trailer. At the beginning of Volume 1 they are in Marfa, Texas and she finds out most of her friends connected to the Orbs, have been murdered or taken hostage.

A gang member in Los Angeles of Hispanic descent. He works for a man called Téjo. He owns nine dogs he uses for dog fighting.

!! Mefisto

%% Use Lutéro to get Luther's Spanish-version name with the right characters.
%% Use Özgür Yıldırım to get Oz's full name with the right characters.
%% Use Isandòrno's to get his name with the right characters.

!! jingjing
!!! Color code: Blue

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jingjing350.jpg]]

%% Please don't "correct" punctuation, capitalization and spelling in this quote as it is like this on purpose like it is in the book
-->''"and in case of cat, jingjing don't know much except to keep his big mouth shut. no clue why either. not like cat saysay tiam, shhhhhhh. jingjing don't know where it goes. or how it goes."[[note]]And in the case of the cat, Jing Jing doesn't know much, except to keep his big mouth shut. Doesn't have a clue why either. It's not like the cat says "shut up", shhhhhhh. Jing Jing doesn't know where it goes. Or how it goes."''[[/note]]
%% Please don't "correct" punctuation, capitalization and spelling in this quote as it is like this on purpose like it is in the book

Singaporean 20-something who had a history of drug abuse before being taken in by his current employer Tian Li, a woman who works as a healer and spiritual adviser. Now he works as her assistant; a.o. translating for her, and he makes sure she gets paid well (according to jingjing, she is negligent with bartering for her paying prices). She has a small cat most of the time sitting on her shoulder, that he finds creepy.

* AllLowercaseLetters: His chapters are the only ones written entirely in lower case. Also the only ones in a sans-serif font.
* CunningLinguist: jingjing speaks fluent Cantonese, Mandarin, Russian and Singlish / English. This trait also reflects in how his narration is written - mostly Singlish with a lot of Mandarin and sometimes Russian interjected. An important aspect of his job as assistant to Tian Li is act as her translator.

!! The Wizard / Cas / Catherine Aa’ala Stern
!!! Color code: Red

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cas350.jpg]]

-->''"But even with all the black clouds churning beyond, where now and then shafts of noon still slip through, this collision of vapor and current, every so often repeating its clamorous light show, connecting one starless vault to one star-warmed earth, is still not dazzling enough to keep Cas and Bobby from turning away, backs to the world, always craving to return to the rear of the ''Airstream'', where centered before their couch by day and bed by night, wrapped up in an old cashmere sweater, waits her Orb."''

A 76 year old computer programmer who since 1998 has been in possession of a mysterious Orb, which allows her amongst other things, when she looks into it, to see into the past. It might have more abilities too. There are four other Orbs, and all are in possession of friends of Cas. A mysterious, sinister organization is hunting Cas and her husband Bobby because of the Orbs, so they are continuously on the run, living in a travel trailer. At the beginning of Volume 1 they are in Marfa, Texas and she finds out most of her friends connected to the Orbs, have been murdered or taken hostage.

* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname:
** Her full name is Catherine, but she's always called Cas (her initials) by other characters, or her nickname The Wizard (which the fandom in Real Life always uses referring to her).
** Cas' friends who are involved with the Orbs too are known as The Sorcerer (who might or might not really be (called) Mefisto, from Anwar's storyline), [[GreekMythology Thanatos, Artemis, Circe]], Lilith, [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Treebeard]], etc.

* GreenEyedMonster: Bobby still gets insecure and uncomfortable when Cas sees Deakin / Merlin, because she slept with Deakin once; that was 40 years ago though. Cas even mentions the Trope by name once referring to him, when narrating.

Anwar and Astair's 8-year old twin daughters, and Xanther's younger sisters. They don't understand why Xanther, with her physical problems, takes much attention from their parents' attention, but they love Xanther nonetheless. However, they're also more or less living in their own world.

* RedOniBlueOni: Freya is the fresh, bold, outspoken one; Shasti more quiet and reserved.

* TricksterTwins: Astair mentions she really has to keep a close watch on them all the time in order that they don't pull a scheme. In the first book, Astair takes them to a pet supplies store and they run out of the store with an expensive dog bed into the rain, which Astair is then charged for by the shop.

40-year old woman living in Los Angeles, married to Anwar and mother of three daughters: 12-year old Xanther and 8-year old twins Freya and Shasti. She is in university studying Psychology to get a degree to become a family therapist. She is now an atheist, but originally of Irish descent and raised a Catholic.

Singaporean 20-something who had a history of drug abuse before being taken in by his current employer Tian Li, a woman who works as a healer and spiritual adviser. Now he works as her assistant; a.o. translating for her, and he makes sure she gets paid well (according to jingjing, she is negligent with bartering for her paying prices). She (originally, in Volume 1) has a cat that he finds creepy.

* GreenEyedMonster: Bobby still gets insecure and uncomfortable when Cas sees Deakin / Merlin, because she slept with Deakin once; that was 40 years ago though.

!! Mephisto

!! Luther / Lutéro Perez
!!! Color code: Black

%% Please don't "correct" punctuation and capitalization in this quote as it is like this on purpose like it is in the book

%% Please don't "correct" punctuation and capitalization in this quote as it is like this on purpose like it is in the book

A LAPD detective of Turkish descent (born in Istanbul). Not much is known of him except that he once was passionate about his police work but now (by Volume 1) sees it as a chore; and that he does origami as a hobby. He has a love interest, Elaine.

An Armenian-American taxi driver in Los Angeles, who often happens to drive famous or important people with his taxi. He is described as having a squat face with thick eyebrows and yellow teeth. He is married to a woman called Patil. He insists on speaking in English even with his Armenian friends, even though (or maybe, because) as his college professor friend Mnatsagan remarks, his English is still mediocre. He often coughs up blood, due to an unknown ailment (probably even unknown by himself, as he avoids medical help).

!! Mephisto

-->''and in case of cat, jingjing don't know much except to keep his big mouth shut. no clue why either. not like cat saysay tiam, shhhhhhh. jingjing don't know where it goes. or how it goes."[[note]]And in the case of the cat, Jing Jing doesn't know much, except to keep his big mouth shut. Doesn't have a clue why either. It's not like the cat says "shut up", shhhhhhh. Jing Jing doesn't know where it goes. Or how it goes.[[/note]]

%% As per the spelling conventions within the books, the name of jingjing is spelled uncapitalized here.

* AmbiguousDisorder: Apart from her epilepsy and other physical ailments, she also has trouble reading (described as that she has difficulty distinguishing letters / numbers), which resembles dyslexia but isn't named; and is focused of details [[note]]This is introduced in her very first chapter, in which it rains and she over and over ponders "How many raindrops?"(See image on the main page)[[/note]] and socially awkward in a manner that reminds of autism.

!! Mephisto

!! Color code: Pink

!! Color code: Green

!! Color code: Orange

!! Color code: Black

!! Color code: Blue

!! Color code: Red

!! Color code: Grey

!! Color code: Brown

!! Color code: Yellow

A 12-year old girl living in Los Angeles with her (step)father, mother and 8-year old twin sisters. She has many physical ailments and trouble to keep up at school and fit in with her peers. She has the closest bond with Anwar within her family, even though he is not biologically her father. She feels guilty that her mother Astair is sometimes exasperated about her peculiarities. She is described as having black hair worn in two braids, pale skin, different-colored eyes, and wearing glasses and braces.

40-year old woman living in Los Angeles, married to Anwar and mother of three daughters, 12-year old Xanther and 8-year old twins Freya and Shasti. She is in university studying Psycholoy to get a degree to become a family therapist. She is now an atheist, but originally of Irish descent and raised a Catholic.

!!Xanther Ibrahim

!!Shnorkh Zildjian

An Armenian-American taxi driver in Los Angeles, who often happens to drive famous or important people with his taxi. He is described as having a squat face with thick eyebrows and yellow teeth. He is married to a woman called Patil. He insists on speaking in English even with his Armenian friends, even though (or maybe, because) as his college professor friend Mnatsagan remarks, his English is still mediocre. He often coughs up blood, due to an unknown ailment (probably even unknown by himself, as he avoids medical help).

Singaporean 20-something who had a history of drug abuse before being taken in by his current employer Tian Li, a woman who works as a healer and spiritual adviser. Now he works as her assistant; a.o. translating for her, and he makes sure she gets paid well (according to jingjing, she is negligent with bartering for her paying prices). She has a cat that he finds creepy.

* BilingualBonus: jingjing speaks fluent Cantonese, Mandarin, Russian and Shinglish / English. This trait also reflects in how his narration is written - mostly Shinglish with a lot of Mandarin and sometimes Russian interjected. An important aspect of his job as assistant to Tian Li is act as her translator.

A 12-year old girl living in Los Angeles with her (step)father, mother and 8-year old twin sisters. She has many physical ailments and trouble to keep up at school and fit in with her peers. She has the closest bond with Anwar within her family, even though he is not biologically her father. She feels guilty that her mother Astair is sometimes exasperated about her peculiarities. She is described as having black hair in two braids, pale skin, different-colored eyes and wearing glasses.

!! Tropes:
* RavenHairIvorySkin: Xanther is described as this: "...her hair so black, her skin so white...".

A 12-year old girl living in Los Angeles with her (step)father, mother and 8-year old twin sisters. She has many physical ailments and trouble to keep up at school and fit in with her peers. She has the closest bond with Anwar within her family, even though he is not biologically her father. She feels guilty that her mother Astair is sometimes exasperated about her peculiarities.