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Polendina Family
Pietro Polendina
Kindly old man, and Penny's father/creator. Expanded significantly from his canon self to be a well-off man due to more than a few lucrative patents. Despite his technical affluent status, he lives a very spartan lifestyle and donates a great deal of his money and time to the needy. A widower who has also outlived his human daughter, Ada.
- Affluent Ascetic: He actually owns the pharmacy he volunteers most of his time at and splits his time between two apartments, one in Atlas and the other in Mantle. This is in spite of him being nearly as rich as the Marigolds.
- Cool Old Guy: As in canon. When he's introduced in an otherwise somewhat somber-sounding scene in the rewrite,
- Good Samaritan: Stitches Sarah back together and lets her stay with him while she's recovering, and it's implied by a few other characters that he does this sort of thing a lot. Though he had somewhat ulterior motives, keeping a tight leash on a potential threat.
- Intergenerational Friendship: With Sarah—they bond over their mutual status as Shell Shocked Veterans and enjoy sharing stories of their past with each other, even if the relationship is a little rocky at first and hampered by the younger lady's... issues.
- Keeping the Enemy Close: Implied, with Sarah Sable. She's an unknown quantity with dangerous knowledge, but he also knows that Remnant is not ready to handle The Reveal of The Multiverse, so he decides to make the choice to let her stay with him as a way of keeping a tight rein on that knowledge himself.
- Ignorance Is Bliss: Refuses to know what Sarah knows about his future during While We Fall. Ultimately Played for Drama, when she's forced into "encouraging" him to take her to Vale as part of her own deranged Suicide Mission.
- Old Soldier: Confirmed in the rewrite of While We Fall to be a retired former [[Conscription Conscript]], which is where he obtained his medical training. He also had to make a lot of hard choices that never left him.
- Pragmatic Hero: The other part of the reason why he immediately helps Sarah with a cover story, even getting Allison Redding to fake a genetic test for her. It's later revealed he keeps an extensive armory, keeps his old Silverclaw stored away in his chair, and even keeps bulletproof vests on hand.Sarah: You're gonna fake a DNA test for me. You.
- Properly Paranoid: He wouldn't let Sarah stay in his apartment in Mantle if there was a chance that she could actually steal anything or if she wasn't constantly being watched. She eventually proves she's mostly trustworthy, but his initial suspicion is entirely justified.
- Rags to Riches: Strongly implied in his backstory, and part of the reason why he's so sympathetic to the plight of Mantle and the faunus in particular.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: When a strange girl stumbles into his pharmacy in Mantle while he's in, and tells him an insane story about how she's from another world and she needed his help to survive, he doesn't immediately take her at her word, but at least gives her the benefit of the doubt.
- The World Is Not Ready: Fully believes this about The Multiverse—as soon as Sarah shows up—but his bleeding heart drives him to at least help her stay alive.
- Secret-Keeper: For Sarah, at first.
- Implied to have also been Ironwood's own secret-keeper, presumably for years, as he was brought into the loop about Salem and the Relics by her predecessor.
Au.R.A.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Sarah confronts her about how smart she really is out of anxieties regarding this and once her sapience is revealed, the danger of this being played straight rises, but it's quickly Subverted when she hijacks a camera drone to knock out a dissociated, unstable and possibly dangerous Sarah, revealing she always was a Benevolent A.I..
- All-Loving Hero: In her profile,
her alignment is given as Paragon. - Contagious A.I.: A rare benevolent version.
- Cyberspace: Scenes involving her in her 'native habitat' are described as virtual environments, but it's implied that this is mostly for the benefit of the reader. It'd be boring to read endless logs of communications and hacking tools back and forth, so it's depicted in this way instead. She does occasionally maintain VR spaces, however, playing this trope straight.
- Darkhorse Sibling: As a more primitive predecessor to Penny's mind, she was never expected to be fully sapient, but she's managed to cheat the system as she's outgrown her capabilities by turning herself into a partial Hive Mind, which has given her preternatural hacking abilities.
- Fun with Acronyms: Her name: Automated Reliable Agent.
- Pintsized Powerhouse: It's later confirmed during the events of The Girl Friday that Au.R.A. is much smarter than she appeared up to that point. She also presents herself as a 5'2" flat-chested woman with a ponytail to cultivate this image deliberately.
- Onee-sama: In a way, is this for Penny. Behind Pietro's back, the two have grown very close over the years, and she actually cares deeply for Penny. Explicitly, she treats Penny as her little sister.
- Robot Buddy: For Pietro, even predating Penny. Later becomes this for Sarah as well.
- Servile Snarker: Constantly, a trait shared with Pietro's other Girl Friday.
- Shared Family Quirks: Shares Penny's habit of being Literal-Minded on occasion while still being dutiful and helpful, but she's somewhat colder and more snarky than her 'sister'.
- Sliding Scale of Robot Intelligence: Presents herself as a humble 'smart tool', when in reality she's a borderline Deus est Machina.Sarah: Damn, I hope I'm never on your bad side.
Au.R.A.: I am everywhere.
Sarah: I know, Au.R.A.
Au.R.A.: Basically a cyber-goddess.
Sarah: I know, Au.R.A.
Au.R.A.: You really should fear me more.
Sarah: I know, Au.R.A.
Sable Family
Ariana Sable
A brilliant specialist in the field of Etheric Studies, responsible for many of Atlas' breakthroughs in Aura-related research, including the Aura Transfer Pods (insistently called by Pietro and a few others as "Sable Pods" to honor her legacy). Adopted 'mother' of Sarah Sable (posthumously), and general source of premium Valoisi Snark. Died abroad in Vacuo, long after a departure from Atlas some years prior under mysterious circumstances, implied to be at least partially related to Pietro's deceased daughter, Ada.
- Deadpan Snarker: In her first (and only) in-person appearance in Before The Whims of Fate, she chides Watts in her native tongue about not putting a brain into his Paladin prototype, saying it must be because he doesn't have a brain either.
- O.C. Stand-in: Based on a woman that appeared in a picture of the team that worked on Penny, and her backstory, fittingly ties into Watts' and Pietro's deeply as well.
- Posthumous Character: She died abroad in Vacuo some years ago, and her trans daughter was presumed dead as well about three years later.
Ariana's Daughter
A trans daughter of Ariana's who left Atlas with her, and her new name was not known up to her death.
- Never Found the Body: Which is rather convenient for Sarah B. Sable, her "replacement".
- Posthumous Character: Possibly. They Never Found the Body.
-
Reality Subtext: The very real and sordid occurrence of a trans person getting buried under their legal name is nodded to with her story. Pietro and Allison refuse to say her old name, even if they didn't know what she was calling herself prior to her death.
Marigold Family
May Marigold
Former member of Team JHAMs, Sarah's Trickster Mentor, and a close friend of Pietro and Robyn. See also her canon trope list here.
- Adaptation Name Change: Not her specifically, but her Semblance. In canon it's called Invisibility Field, while here she calls it Perception Gap.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: To make it clear just how broad the power level and experience gap is between the two, May actually holds back on Sarah during their sparring matches. The few hits she gets in sends the poor girl reeling.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Her first appearance is actually in a text conversation during Breaking Point, Chapter 20 of While We Fall, but she doesn't appear in-person until the events of The Huntress, two chapters later.
- Establishing Character Moment: When she's introduced in While We Fall as Sarah's mentor, she sends Robyn in first to get her attention, before sneaking up on her and knocking her off her feet.
- Official Couple: With Fiona.
- Trickster Mentor: Towards Sarah, mostly at the request of Pietro, but she gleefully messes with Sarah's head and puts her through a Training from Hell. When asked about any knowledge she has to share, May offers an interesting bit of wisdom.May: Live with a man for twenty years. Eat with his children, meet his wife, know his family. Share stories and wisdom. Then on the last day of the twentieth year, hold him over the boiler's edge. On that day, you will finally meet the man.
Sarah: Hell do you mean by that, May?
May: Means I get to hurt you more and the Gods get to watch. - Invisibility: As in canon, but with the slight implication that it's actually a form of superpowered Perception Filter, given its altered name.
Others
Allison Redding
Atlesian cyberneticist and close friend of Pietro. Responsible for overseeing the unnamed Transgender H.R.I. program that Weiss Schnee (and later, Sarah Sable) is participating in. Appears in-person during While We Fall, but is mentioned off-handedly by Weiss during Before the Whims of Fate. Was a lab assistant for Ariana at the Applied Research Division at Atlas Academy, after she left the SDC.
- She's also personally responsible for the ease of Weiss' transition and her ability to be on the battlefield without hormone therapy for long periods of time.
- Nerd Glasses: That also serve a practical function beyond correcting her vision, being an Augmented Reality display.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Were it not for her showing up and informing Pietro about the death of Ariana's daughter and the fact they never found the body, Sarah Sable would not have any connection to Remnant and not even be a legal person.
John Silver
- When chasing an impossible dream, you often give up many things. I do not mourn my eye, my arm, my leg. What I have in their place, it reminds me of what I did—what I felt I had to do. Don't lose too much of yourself, trying to reach for the stars.
- Arms Dealer: A blending of Gun Shop Owner and Gangland Gun Runner. Generally runs a legitimate gun shop, but in a conversation with Sarah he offers to bend weapon restriction laws for her, and it's implied he does this for a few people on the side.
- Electronic Eyes: He has one cybernetic eye he calls his "Silver Eye", which is presumably some sort of scanner.
- Expy: Of Treasure Planet's rendition of John Silver, being a cyborg with much of the left side of his body replaced, including an eye implant.
- Foreshadowing: In the quote above, he's addressing Sarah, who's depicted as losing at least one limb herself at some point in the opening of Before the Whims of Fate.
- Hero of Another Story: It's clear that there's a lot more to the story between Pietro and John. In Sarah's narration, she reflects on how many more stories she could hear and that she can't wait to find out more.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: His first impression is not great. He calls Sarah an Atlesian in a snide tone, and basically berates her for being seemingly elitist, and issues a thinly-veiled threat, possibly to test her reactions. When she stands her ground calmly, he chuckles and softens up considerably. In most of his appearances afterwards he comes off as somewhat gruff but otherwise friendly.
