Characters / General Protection Fault

GPF Software

Nick Wellington

A programmer for GPF Software, hired near the start of the strip.

• Morality Chain: To Trudy. She becomes quite unhinged after his death in the Bad Future.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: Denies having a job offer from JCN, even when he's not being asked about anything related, and is only overhearing Sharon and Ki's conversation about what Ki will do for work.
• Unwitting Pawn: In Surreptitious Machinations, Trudy manipulates him into building Project Velociraptor, a power source for energy weapons, Deflector Shields and a Kill Sat, which she intends to use for world domination.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: He gets taken down a notch by Trudy's betrayal. Ironically, his pre-Surreptitious Machinations trust in others inspires Trudy to be more trusting, as he concludes, based on past experiences, not to trust Trish.

Dwayne Duncan

The head of GPF software

• Benevolent Boss: He's a very good manager and businessman, and his employees think highly of him.
• Happily Married: What few disagreements we've seen between him and Nicole are minor and quickly sorted out.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Like Nick, he trusts Trudy.
• Only Sane Man: Is not nearly as obsessed with technology as his employees, but at the same time, not as skilled.
• Unfortunate Names: Lampshaded as early as Nick's interview, when he points out the company is named after an error message.

Jason "Fooker" Barker

Systems administrator at GPF, and also Agent #6 for the Undisclosed Government Agency.

• Big "NO!": After being told he can't wear shorts to Regional Telecom.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: His brother finds it frustrating that he doesn't live up to his full potential, and is outraged when Fooker manages to take his job, despite being taken by mistake and taking the test while drunk.
• The Combat Pragmatist: When his counterpart advances on him as he's down, he flips him over.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Ki. They've been friends since college, and trust each other implicitly.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Played with when Ki, meeting Dwayne, refers to him by his nickname.
  Dwayne: Jason, who's Fooker?
  Ki: Who's Jason?
• Parental Abandonment: His mother is dead and his father left him and his brother.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: From Justin, his hard working, disciplined brother.
• The Teetotaler: In the present, thanks to Ki.
• Weak, but Skilled: Not especially strong, but a skilled hand-to-hand fighter. Lampshaded when he fights off Sam
• Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Complains about having to abide by this rule after Ki beats him up for being sexist against her.

Ki Oshiro Wellington

A programmer for GPF Software

• But Not Too Foreign: The daughter of a Chinese woman and Japanese man.
• Designated Girl Fight: Faces Dr. Not and Trudy as she races up the Statue of Liberty to find Nick, but also faces Chuck.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: Cuts her hair short while dating Sam (much to his displeasure) and lets it grow out for Nick.
• Love Martyr: Willing to stay with and defend Sam even when it is implied that he's cheating on her.
• Second Love: Nick is the second person she has been in love with, after Sam
• Tsundere: Dere towards Nick, and tsun towards Fooker.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Towards Fooker. She helped him stop drinking, and he put her in contact with Dwayne and GPF.

Trudy Trueheart

GPF Software's marketing professional.

• Alliterative Name
• The Atoner
• Big Bad: Of Surreptitious Machinations
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Puts on the clothing around Nick and Dwayne, but Ki and Fooker have seen her true nature. This trope is not valid anymore after Surreptitious Machinations.
• Devil in Plain Sight
• Future Me Scares Me: She's uncomfortable around her future self in the best of times, and eventually, her future self's presence in her dreams prevents her from sleeping at all.
• Hippie Name: Trudy Trueheart was born Moonbeam Gertrude Glowerhausen because she had Hippie Parents.
• If I Can't Have You…: To Nick after he rejects her. In the Bad Future, she kills him.
• The Insomniac: As a result of having guilt-induced nightmares.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy
• Reformed, but Rejected: She gets sent back instead of her counterpart, and those who suspect her true nature don't trust her
• Saying Too Much:
  Trudy:"The time-hopping brat! He somehow obtained it! I thought the old me took care of— Heh heh... my, was I saying something incriminating? I hope not..."
• The Starscream: Of C.R.U.D.E.; in the Bad Future, she ends up killing the other members.
• Token Evil Teammate
• Villainous Breakdown: After Nick realizes the truth.

Frederick Physarum

A slime mold that gained sentience in the filth of Fooker's apartment.

• Arch-Enemy: He and Trent can't stand each other, and get along worse than even Ki and Trudy did.
• Escalating War: With Trent, culminating in threatening to sue each other. Fred is convinced to call his lawsuit off, but by this time, Trent has found a lawyer who is willing to believe him about Fred being a slime mold.
• It Came from the Fridge
• Kick The Son Of A Bitch: Using his newfound powers to force Trent to sexually harass Sharon, go almost naked in front of a client and get himself arrested. It earns him a What the Hell, Hero? and comes back to haunt him during the lawsuit, but it's hard to sympathize with Trent.
• Puppeteer Parasite

Trent Terrell

Trudy's old boyfriend, and later her replacement as marketing director of GPF.

• Alliterative Name
• Dirty Coward: Hides during the battle for New York, and only emerges to taunt the defeated Trudy.
• Evil Redhead
• Hoist by His Own Petard: His attempts to sue Fred winds up with him under arrest for First Degree Murder as the judge rules that Fred is a Sentient Lifeform with the protection of the law.
• I Shall Taunt You: With a simple wave to the defeated Trudy as she is flown away on a C.R.U.D.E. helicopter, he helps twist the knife.
• Jerkass
• Ungrateful Bastard / The Farmer and the Viper: Punches Dwayne after he saves him from the prison bus.
• Smug Snake: Like Trudy, but far more openly obnoxious to people and far less competent.

Dexter Smith

A contractor for GPF who is later hired full time

• Dark Is Not Evil: In the superhero universe, Nick cast him as a villain, but by the time of their excursion into that universe through the MuTEX, he's a hero.
• Fat Bastard: Initially. He gets better over time.
• Logical Weakness: As Dexter is a contractor for GPF, Nick is able to get rid of him by finishing the project he was hired to do.
• Otaku: The rest of the cast are fans of science fiction, but Dexter taxes his fandom of Star Wars and Star Trek to another level.
• No Social Skills
• Only Sane Man: Takes up this role in the "Alpha Female" arc when, teaming up with Ki and Sharon, he questions why a funeral home would need an online shopping cart. It turns out that the client also asked that question, and ends up cancelling the contract because they don't need one.
• Stalker with a Crush: Had quite a few elements of this in his short-term relationship with Ki.

Sharon Murphy

Fooker's girlfriend, who becomes systems administrator of GPF after his departure.

• Blind Without 'Em: Has trouble seeing without her contacts.
• Fiery Redhead: Has quite the temper.
• Formerly Fat: She ends up making some insensitive comments toward Dexter out of concern toward him.

Nega-Verse

Emperor Nicholas The Puissant

• Bad Boss: Treats all his minions as expendable.
• Bad Liar: Not unlike Nick Prime, who, knowing this flaw, detects several logical flaws in his story within minutes of meeting him. Nega-Nick then takes off the kid gloves.
• Beard of Evil
• Big Bad: Of To Thine Own Self
• Dirty Coward: His plan, as Nick points out, boils down to wanting an escape route to "save his own cowardly hide"
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: The latter. He has a scar that is noticeably absent on his counterpart's face.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: He attempts to escape, but without the guidance chip, he's forever lost.
• I Will Punish Your Friend for Your Failure: Gets Nick-Prime to cooperate by torturing Nega-Ki while suggesting that Nick-Prime doesn't know he's not torturing Ki-Prime, and then says that he will torture one prisoner to death for every hour Nick-Prime wastes. Now consider Nick being unable to teleport out because of Pandemonium's interference...

Duchess Ki Oshiro

Duchess of Europe for Emperor Nicholas.

• The Baroness
• The Dog Bites Back: She's tortured to force Nick into compliance, and eventually betrays Nega-Nick
• The Dragon: Because Nega-Nick doesn't share power, she's relegated to being Duchess of Europe rather than queen.
• Love Redeems: She seems to be in love with Nick Prime
• Redemption Equals Death

General Jason "F**k*r" Barker

General of Nick's armies, a former UGA agent who accepted bribes and joined Nick.

Dwayne Duncan

Governor of Asia and formerly the corrupt head of GPF Software.

• Beard of Evil
• Corrupt Corporate Executive
• The Evil Genius
• Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: Smokes a cigar in Nega-Trudy's interview, as if to highlight his evil nature.
• The Mole: For the aliens, to incite conflict between the rebels and the humans

Trudy Trueheart

A resistance fighter in the Nega-verse who contacts the main cast to help them thwart Emperor Nicholas' plans.

• If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him!: Nick talks her out of killing Nega-Nick this way, although he emphasizes her own counterpart more than her victim.
• Knight in Sour Armor: Life has not been easy for her, yet she still persists against Nega-Nick.
• Perpetual Frowner: Her default expression, much like Trudy's smile.
• Token Good Teammate: For Nega-GPF, as a natural inversion of Trudy.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Was initially selfish like her counterpart before her quest to find her sister changed her for the better.

Trent Terrell

Leader of Nega-C.R.U.D.E., an organization dedicated to overthrowing Emperor Nicholas.

• Beauty Equals Goodness: Averted. He's somewhat overweight and balding, but one of the heroes.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: In contrast to Trent's arrogance.
• Killed Off for Real
• La Résistance
• Supporting Leader: To the heroes in To Thine Own Self. Especially considering he gets killed.

Yoshi Oshiro

A tech expert for Nega-C.R.U.D.E., and a savant who has incredible technological skills, but otherwise has the mind of a toddler.

• Dumb Is Good: Far less of a jerk than his counterpart, but far less intelligent.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: His fate after the raid on the resistance headquarters is unknown.

Chuck

A resistance fighter who was once friends with Nega-Fooker.

• Fake Defector: Pretends to be the Emperor's spy, but betrays him when the rebels are ready, reversing the situation.
• Perpetual Frowner

Dr. Nefu

Dr. Nefarious's counterpart, a scientist for the resistance.

• Killed Off for Real: Gets a bullet in the head during the raid on C.R.U.D.E.
• The Smart Guy: For the resistance.

Alexis Nicht

Dr. Nefu's assistant

• Shrinking Violet

Outside Time And Space

The Gamester

An extra-dimensional entity charged with regulating temporal disturbances.

• Invisible to Normals: There are some exceptions, such as Ki's cat, and Trudy (who mistakes it as a sign of her declining sanity)
• Time Police

Mischief

The Gamester's assistant

• Boxed Crook: Implied to be this in the past.
• Identity Amnesia: After recovering from Pandemonium's attack, she poses as "Misty"
• Meaningful Name
• Noodle Incident: Several unmentioned incidents indicate that she earned her name.

Todd Wellington

Nick and Ki's son, who was sent back from the future to prevent Trudy's rise to power. Rather than be erased, he exists outside time and space

• Kid from the Future
• Shoot the Dog: He states a willingness to kill Trudy's younger self, who, while having done some terrible things, has not yet accomplished her plan, in order to stop Empress Trudy from establishing herself.
• Sunglasses at Night
• Time Police
• Walking Spoiler: His status as Nick and Ki's son, which is hidden from the viewer at first, reveals quite a bit about the plot of Surreptitious Machinations.
• Wham Line: After Nick and Ki help him defeat an Expy of The Terminator, he escapes, thinking "Thanks, Mom and Dad".

Empress Trudy

Trudy's future self, who took over the world, but began losing her sanity after killing Nick.

• Enemy Civil War: Killed the rest of C.R.U.D.E. after taking over the world.

Pandemonium

• Greater-Scope Villain: To Empress Trudy and Emperor Nicholas.

Other Characters

Chuck

Fooker's best friend. When Trudy moves in to their apartment complex, he is immediately attracted to her, but she makes him her pawn.

• Bald of Evil: Has his head shaved when Trudy puts him under her control.
• Character Witness: Devastatingly subverted, as Trudy forces him to testify that he suspected that Fooker was planning the shooting spree.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Trudy sets his pain device to maximum, throws away the remote and leaves him to die.
• Shock Collar: Trudy can cause him pain with a remote control.

Yoshi Oshiro

Ki's younger brother, who skipped several geades.

• Annoying Younger Sibling
• The Cracker: Attempts to break into GPF Software on a few occasions, and when he's doing some last-minute work on his MuTex, hacks into the airline to reschedule his flight.
• Improbably High I.Q.: 209.
• Insufferable Genius: Virtually no one likes him in-universe.
• May–December Romance: Implied that Trudy, a woman describing herself as over twice his age, is setting him up for one during their collaboration, but she backs off.

Persephone

• Opposite-Sex Clone: Of Fred

Otto Wisebottom

Nick's uncle, and a fellow carrier of the Inventor's Gene

• Einstein Hair

Akhilesh Sehgal

A doctor who treats Trudy and suggests that there may be a way for her to find redemption.

• I Have No Son!: His family disowned him for becoming a Christian

Sam

Ki's former fiancé

• Attempted Rape: The reason Ki breaks up with him.
• Jerk Jock: It's not obvious at first, but the implications of him cheating on Ki and the way he mocks Fooker mark him as this before the rape attempt, would indicate him as one.
• Karma Houdini

Justin Barker

Jason/Fooker's brother.

• Hard Work Hardly Works: Loses his spot in the U.G.A. to Fooker on mere chance, but is able to switch positions with him later.
• The Resenter: Has harbored a grudge against Fooker for years after he was taken by mistake and got his UGA job, but the GPF group convinces him to reconnect.
• Second Love: To Maddie.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Hard-working and disciplined while Fooker is a lazy slob.

Mr. and Mrs. Oshiro

Ki and Yoshi's parents

• Accidental Misnaming: Mr. Oshiro keeps calling Ki "Kyoko," the Japanese name she was supposed to have.
• Exiled to the Couch: After he makes the mistake of implying that he views his mixed marriage as a mistake, even after he apologizes.
• Former Teen Rebel: Mr. Oshiro was apparently a cultural rebel in his youth, marrying a Chinese woman, but became more conservative with age.
• Hey, You!: He typically calls Nick "gaijin"("foreigner"), but calls him "Nick-san" when apologizing to him.
• Hypocrite: Mr. Oshiro disapproving of Nick's marriage to Ki on the basis of him not being Japanese, when he married a Chinese woman. Nick and Ki both call him out on that.
• Love-Obstructing Parents: Mr. Oshiro is the last obstacle Nick must overcome to get the right to marry Ki. Interestingly enough, he wasn't nearly as much of a problem when Ki was engaged to Sam, and Sam's parents were the problem.
• Yamato Nadeshiko: Mrs. Oshiro.