The Gang
TM (Tom Major)
The viewpoint character of the story. A twenty-something inventor fresh out of a bad breakup.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Gets to hit Orion with a knee to the face.
- Finishing Move: Most of the times he hits someone with emphasis, it's a knee or kick to the head.
- Homemade Inventions: Developing these is TM's living. At the beginning of the story it seems that most of his creations are useless, but he gets to show off some of his tinkering abilities later on.
- Meaningful Name: Tom Major is an obvious allusion to Major Tom, and TM (for trademark) is also a suitable name for an inventor.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: Delivers an interrupting knee strike twice, first to the Swede and second to Orion.
- This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!: "Turn and face the strange, bitch."
- Took a Level in Badass: Downplayed: he's in somewhat better shape after the Time Skip, which he plays off as being inevitable since he and Veggie became the owners of a gym. He always knew how to fight, though.
Veggie (Jonathan Vega)
TM's business partner and Heterosexual Life-Partner (well, not heterosexual, but not romantic).
- Heroic Sacrifice: His final act, allowing Orion to take him so as to protect other starpeople and those around them.
Ziggy (Theta Aquila)
A literal star from space.
- Expressive Hair: A mild case - her purple-tinted hair becomes more or less iridescent in states of high emotion.
- Finishing Move: Borrows the High Fly Flow, finisher of Hiroshi Tanahashi, in epic fashion.
- Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Comes across as this at times, but is more often an angsty deconstruction.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Significantly changes her appearance shortly after meeting Veggie and TM, going from an Aladdin Sane cosplayer to a less ostentatious young woman.
Marty Rook (Benjamin Miles Parekh)
Lead singer of the Inciting Incident, a punk band whose songs are dosed to the brim with pop culture references.
Jack Derrida
A non-binary polymath with no real direction in life, but seems to be doing OK just cruising on the philosophy that Jacques Derrida did pretty well so they probably will too.
- Deadpan Snarker: In a World of Snark, Derrida is probably the snarkiest.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: The butt of a lot of the gang's jokes, usually due to their own tendency to play themselves up as the Insufferable Genius. There's no malice there, though.
Dominika Doležal
Rarely speaking, Dominika is The Ace of the group, able to turn her hand to almost anything with alarming proficiency.
- The Ace: Astonishingly good at a range of unusually specific things, including breaking and entering.
- Elective Mute: Veggie doesn't know whether she can speak at all. She can, but doesn't unless she's certain that something ''needs'' to be said.
Celebrities
Riegel O'Ryan (Orion)
Host of Surviving O'Ryan, a TV show about surviving in wild environments. A skilled hunter; never too far from her dog Keelut.
- Big Bad: She is Orion, the Huntress: the constellation in human form, responsible for chasing down lost stars.
- Finishing Move: Uses the Rainmaker to devastating effect.
- Implacable Man: She's pretty much unstoppable in terms of physical prowess. It's only a combination of TM's boosted Star Power and Ziggy's Lazarus moment that proves able to take her out.
- Kick the Dog: Expresses little concern about the fate of her dog, which Derrida finds more objectionable than any of the other terrible things she's done.
- Necessarily Evil: Claims to be only in it for the purposes of restoring cosmic balance, but seems to enjoy it more than she'd like to admit.
Al Tyer (Altair)
Local weatherman Al Tyer is so boring he's almost literally black-and-white.
- The Dragon: Sort of. He and Orion act as if they're a Big Bad Duumvirate, but he's clearly second fiddle. He's not as much of a physical threat as a typical Dragon, though; Orion has that covered all on her own.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Has one inflicted upon him by Veggie later on in the story.
Supporting Characters
Gary Mackerel
Owner of Gary's Fish, a fish and chip shop.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted: the owner of the bar in which the Inciting Incident play a gig is also called Gary.
Lauren and the Ire (Lyra)
An up-and-coming band formed of four very similar-looking young women.
Thomas Major, Senior & Lily Major
TM's mum and dad.
- Happily Married: There's no indication that Senior and Lily are anything other than perfectly happy together.
- Papa Wolf: Senior is a physically imposing man, capable of picking up his son with such ease that he forgets he's holding him at all. He gets a chance to make use of his strength later on, saving his son with a Big Damn Heroes moment.
The Swede (Johan Karlsson)
An ex-boyfriend of Veggie's, and possibly Veggie's only former flame not to be remembered fondly.
- Depraved Homosexual: Or possibly Depraved Bisexual, but the Swede has definitely been in at least one non-heterosexual relationship and is not a particualrly nice person.
Obbie Kernel, Kurt Eiseldown & The Destructionist
Marty's bandmates, all of whom go by Stage Names.
Aster
TM's ex-girlfriend, only seen in flashbacks. Her presence is still felt in the present, though, with TM's perspectives and decisions influenced by the memory of her.
Vega
The star Orion was after on her second visit to Earth.
Animals
Michel Furcoat & Maurice Meow-Ponty
TM and Veggie's cats.
Keelut (Sirius, the Dog Star)
O'Ryan's dog, a huge golden wolf-like animal.
Fictional Characters
Mikkels Stormson
Expy of Solid Snake or Sam Fisher and protagonist of in-universe fictional video game Sliver Nucleus.
Barry
TM's character in Hero's Adventure, the in-universe tabletop RPG.
Lina Lanriel
Ziggy's character in Hero's Adventure, the in-universe tabletop RPG.
Atgard
Derrida's character in Hero's Adventure, the in-universe tabletop RPG.
Malachi
Marty's character in Hero's Adventure, the in-universe tabletop RPG.
Iveline
Dominika's character in Hero's Adventure, the in-universe tabletop RPG.
Rusk of the Leaf
A friendly NPC in Hero's Adventure, the in-universe tabletop RPG.
Linske, Lanfal, and A Buncha Other L-Name-People Lanriel
The ruling family in Hero's Adventure, the in-universe tabletop RPG.
