Characters appearing in An Emerald Unearthed.
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Emerald
Emerald Sustrai
A young pickpocket living on the streets. Find her tropes here. Cole
Cole Sustrai
Emerald’s father and a professional thief that trained her daughter to pickpocket.Tropes:
- Affectionate Nickname: He calls Emerald, "Emmy."
- Anti-Villain: He's a criminal and taught his daughter to be a thief to make money, but he does what he does to help him and Emerald survive after his gambling addiction ended up putting him and his family on the streets. He isn't a bad guy at heart and is probably the least villainous criminal in the whole story.
- The Atoner: He tries his best to get back the money he lost on gambling to get his family out of poverty. Silva’s extortion makes that difficult.
- Disappeared Dad: He was killed by Silva. That’s why Emerald is on her own.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: "Evil" is a bit of a stretch, but he clearly loves his daughter even though he involves her in illegal activities. And he obviously still loves his late wife.
- The Gambling Addict: He lost all his family’s money because of this.
- Good Parents: Not exactly. While Cole does care about Emerald like any other parent, he still has her participate in his illegal activities at the age of ten (when she discovered her Semblance). And he wasted all the family’s money on gambling.
- It's All My Fault: He blames himself for the situation he put his family in and especially for the death of his wife. And the fact that he's not wrong makes him feel worse, no matter how much Emerald tries to cheer him up.
- Morality Chain: Somewhat to Emerald. He turned her into a thief, but they did what they needed to do to survive. After he dies, she aligns with Cinder and Mercury, both of which have a negative influence on her, each for different reasons.
- Papa Wolf: He goes to Emerald’s defense as soon as Silva threatens her. He even tries to shield her when Silva points a gun at her. Not that it helps much in the long run.
- Sacrificial Lamb: He dies in the story to put Emerald in some true peril.
- Senseless Sacrifice: Unfortunately, all his sacrifice did was put a target on his daughter’s back for Silva and left her as an orphan.
- Trapped by Gambling Debts: The very reason Silva has a hold on him in the first place. He lost his family's money due to his gambling addiction and was forced to go to Silva for a place to stay.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: While his attempt to protect his daughter did buy her some time to get away from Silva, it had one unfortunate side-effect. His death left her all alone and opened her up to be taken in by Cinder Fall, leading her into an abusive relationship. And in canon, Emerald was also instrumental in two key parts of Cinder’s plan: framing Yang and the death of Penny.
Mrs. Sustrai
Mrs. Sustrai
Cole’s late wife and Emerald’s mother.Tropes:
- Disposable Woman: She was killed by Silva in the backstory because Cole couldn’t keep up with payments.
- The Ghost: The most we hear about her is in a nightmare that emerald had. She doesn’t show up in the story. Mostly due to being dead.
- Unnamed Parent: She isn’t given a first name.
Silva
Randall Silva
A shark-Faunus and ruthless Loan Shark that has been extorting the Sustrai family. He is responsible for Emerald living on her own when Cinder found her.Tropes:
- Arc Villain: For Emerald.
- Asshole Victim: With how he treated others, it’ll be hard to think that he didn’t deserve to get beat up by his own guys and shot by Emerald.
- Bad Boss: He constantly belittles his workers and will shoot them for trivial reasons. He also doesn’t pay them much. Emerald shows why this behavior doesn’t benefit an employer.
- Beard of Evil: He has a goatee.
- Big Bad: Of An Emerald Unearthed.
- Colourful Theme Naming: Fulfilled by his last name (which sounds like "silver") rather than his first name.
- Deadpan Snarker: He can’t help but drop snarky comments.
- Dirty Coward: He hides behind the work of his grunts and rarely acts on his own unless he's shooting someone. When things don't go in his favor and things seem to be going south for him, he starts running from the situation to safety. And when he realizes his options are running out, he panics and tries to make every deal he can to make Emerald release him.
- Evil Is Petty: He says he'll leave Emerald alone with his men as they beat her up, but as soon as she gives him a Spiteful Spit, he says he'll stay behind and watch for entertainment.
- Faux Affably Evil: He’s a complete scumbag, but he always talks in a friendly and jovial way. He’s constantly making sarcastic remarks even while threatening someone’s life or loved ones. However, rather than make him seem more polite, it only makes him look even more like a douche.
- Greed: He openly admits to Cole that he doesn't care what gets him money, he just wants it. This is his reasoning behind wanting to get Emerald from him as a way for Cole to pay off his debts. When he sees her again after she grows up, he continues to insist that she join him to make him more money.
- Good Hair, Evil Hair: Emerald mentions his slicked-back hair a couple of times.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Beat up by his own men because he mistreated them.
- Jerkass: He is a completely unapologetic douche and won't even bother to hide it. The first two chapters show this off a lot.
- Kick the Dog: Killing Emerald’s mother, then her father, and then having her get beat up to “persuade” her.
- Lack of Empathy: He shows absolutely no concern for the people he cons, and he is said to be the kind of guy who would kill you with a smile on his face and have lunch twenty minutes later without ruining his appetite. One indicator is his reaction to Emerald getting angry about him killing her parents.
- Laser-Guided Karma: The girl whose family he extorted and parents he killed ends up getting him beat up by the very workers that he constantly mistreated. It’s more along the lines of Heat-Seeking Karma.
- Laughably Evil: Despite his ruthlessness and cruelty, he can’t help but drop some sarcastic jokes and almost always has a smarmy attitude. He is comparable to Roman in this regard.I squint at him, but he doesn’t seem fazed. “Do you want to get into an intimidating staring competition? I’m all for it. I’ll play along.” He imitates my expression jokingly. I really hate this guy.
- Loan Shark: He has a history of overcharging people for loans and then threating violence when the people couldn’t pay up. The Sustrais were some of many victims.
- Never My Fault: He deflects blame for conning people onto the people he cons often. Even when he has a point about Cole, it doesn’t excuse his extortion of him.
- Non-Action Big Bad: He does shoot people, but he mostly relies on his men to do the physical grunt work. He is in no way a fighter. He starts running away when Emerald escapes and he realizes that she stole his gun. When he is caught by Emerald, he is utterly helpless.
- Obviously Evil: He isn’t as over-the-top as most examples, but his slicked-back hair, expensive suits, and goatee coupled with his general condescending attitude and his obviously false friendliness doesn’t peg him as a guy that’s to be trusted unless you’re really desperate. Unfortunately, Cole was that desperate. The Retcon gave him shark teeth, adding to his untrustworthy appearance.
- Plot-Irrelevant Villain: He's the only one of the villains who doesn't have a huge presence in CRME. Emerald only mentions him in an offhand remark about her parents being killed. And even then, he isn't mentioned by name. Brigit and the Blacks have major influences as Cinder and Mercury's Freudian Excuses, and Kincaid gets mentioned by name and her teachings are still held onto by Roman. In the grand scheme of things, Silva has the least effect on the characters.
- Scary Teeth: He's a Faunus with shark teeth.
- Sharp-Dressed Man: He always wears the finest suits.
- Smug Smiler: Emerald notes that he does this often.
- The Sociopath: This scumbag takes advantage of people for his own monetary gain and will kill without hesitating. All the while, he deflects blame on his victims to rationalize extorting them. He can still appear polite and jovial, but it only serves to underscore how cruel he is.
- Terms of Endangerment: He continuously calls Emerald "Little Sustrai" as a way to mock her.
- Would Hit a Girl: Would shoot one at least. Considering he’s a Non-Action Big Bad, that’s about as close to the trope as he can get.
- Would Hurt a Child: He threatens to kill twelve-year-old Emerald if Cole doesn’t give him his payment. He later threatens to hurt her if she doesn’t come with him peacefully.
Gavin
Gavin
A guy that Emerald stayed with and had a sexual relationship with.Tropes:
- All Men Are Perverts: Emerald is painfully aware of why he wants her as a companion. However, she thinks of him as just someone to have sex with as well. She's just not as lecherous about it.
- Casanova Wannabe: He thinks he's a smooth ladies man, but Emerald quickly lets him know that she's only having sex with him because it's convenient for her.
- Chivalrous Pervert: Emerald says that he's kind of a creep, but he still tries to treat women with respect.
- The Drifter: Like Emerald.
- Friends with Benefits: Well, not quite friends, but Emerald has no-strings-attached sex with him just to get her rocks off from time to time.
- Only One Name: Emerald never bothered to learn his last name; she frankly didn't care. And since the story is from her perspective, it makes sense that we don't know it either.
- Sex for Solace: He unknowingly does this for Emerald. She goes to him after Silva comes back into her life.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: He's included in some later Retcons to An Emerald Unearthed, but no reference is made to him later on about what happened to him.
Rusty
Rusty
A shop owner who Emerald sold stolen goods to.Tropes:
- Only One Name
- Unwitting Pawn: He was going to be one of Silva’s business partners. Emerald states that he was going to rob him blind if he wasn’t careful. It’s a good thing that Emerald killed Silva.
- We Buy Anything: He isn’t concerned about whether or not you legally acquired something. He’ll buy it...
- We Sell Everything: ...and eventually sell it back on the Black Market.
