Characters in the Hive Mind (2016) books by Janet Edwards.
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Amber and her team leaders
Amber
Amber as the Light Angel
First-Person Perspective narrator and protagonist. She has no idea what she’ll be good at or what use the Hive will find for her as she goes into Lottery, only to discover that she is an (exceptionally rare) full telepath.Provides examples of:
- All-Loving Hero: Amber loves the people in her unit, even beyond the point of reason. She keeps Fran and Tobias even after it is blatantly clear they need to be removed. This appears to be an artifact of her telepathy going further into emotions than other telepaths.
- Animal Lover: Amber loves being around animals, because their minds are simple and generally happy, at least for the well-treated ones in her park. She's the only telepath who can see their minds at all.
- Big Eater: Apparently telepathy takes a lot out of you.
- The Empath: Amber isn't just a telepath, she's the only telepath who can feel the emotions of the people she's reading. This seems to lead to her All-Loving Hero tendencies.
- Hates Wearing Dresses: Downplayed. She doesn't hate them, but she doesn't have any she likes, because her mother always dressed her in clothes that were the right coloration and style for herself. Amber takes after her father, and her mother's colors don't work for her. Once she finds dresses that she likes, she wears them more often.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: She frequently wonders what her life would have been like if she hadn’t been a telepath, and wishes she could just have a normal life in a job that Lottery would have made sure she enjoyed.
- Nice to the Waiter: Amber goes out of her way to thank Hannah for keeping her room clean, and makes a point of saying that the unit's success is not just due to the active teams but also to all the support staff that keep them fed and maintain the facilities.
- Secret Legacy: She's the great-granddaughter of Claire, a powerful and dedicated telepath, and Wilder, considered to be the greatest Strike Team leader of all time.
- Smitten Teenage Girl: Over Forge, and even she doesn’t understand why. He strongly resembles Elden, so she subconsciously feels a need to obey any ‘command’ he gives her. Once the implant is removed, this goes away.
- Telepathy: Amber’s ability, and the reason she’s so vital to the Hive. Amber can go deeper into a person’s subconscious than the other telepaths, but that means she may end up finding out things she doesn’t want. She can only read what the person is currently thinking about at some level.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Don't get between Amber and her chocolate crunch cakes.
- Trash of the Titans: Downplayed; Amber's mess never gets that bad, but not due to her efforts. Amber has a tendency to just drop things on the floor when she's done with them. Hannah was brought in as one of the first people in the unit so that she could clean up after Amber, and is the primary reason Amber's apartment isn't a complete mess.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Amber has a fear of heights, and a fear of nosies. She also has a fear of Outside, especially the ‘truesun’, until the imprint from Genex is removed. She, of course, has to deal with all of those.
- Young and in Charge: Eighteen years old, fresh out of Lottery...and in charge of one of the Hive’s scarce telepath units.
Lucas
Provides examples of:
- Awesomeness by Analysis: He is always watching and observing patterns. At a young age he figured out that the water jets in a play area fired in a sequence such that if you ran through at a certain point of the cycle, you could get all the way through without getting wet.
- I Have No Son!: Disowned by his father at age 6, and by his mother as soon as he left for teen level.
- Insecure Love Interest: He’s certain that Amber’s going to trade up from him at any moment. He refused to get into a relationship with her at Hive Futura because he was certain that as soon as she met her Strike Team, she'd lose all interest in him. Meeting Atticus and finding out that Amber dated him a couple times had him fully convinced she was going to dump him, and he almost had a panic attack at New Years out of fear that Amber would reject him the way his father had.
- Limited Wardrobe: Wears his old teen level clothes when hanging out, and some classic outfits in neutral colors (grey or blue) when acting as Tactical Commander.
- Living Lie Detector: Downplayed. Part of his imprint involves being able to read a person's reactions, so he can generally tell when somebody is lying. This is more of a problem than an advantage, as Amber can more-easily tell if somebody is lying by reading their thoughts, but Lucas can use this on Amber when she knows something that he shouldn't.
- Parental Neglect: He was a duty child of his high-level parents, and was supposed to be adopted out, but one of his parents cancelled the adoption out of spite and they were required to raise him. His father left when he was six, and his mother disowned him as soon as he left for teen level.
- Picky Eater: Downplayed, but he never wants to eat what gets cooked when the team goes Outside, sticking instead to protein bars and other normal Hive foods.
- Smart People Play Chess: Unless Amber reads his mind, he completely trounces her. He played competition-level chess before becoming tactical commander, but doesn't have time to any more.
- Xanatos Speed Chess: His specialty. His job is taking the information Amber can get by reading a target’s mind, combining it with the information provided by liaison, and using it to capture the target, ideally without anyone getting hurt.
Adika
Provides examples of:
- Asskicking Leads to Leadership: He’s been working on strike teams for seventeen years, ten on Mira’s squad and then seven as deputy strike team commander for Morton.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: With Megan. Even after they get their issues sorted out, arguing is a turn-on for them.
- Crazy-Prepared: He gets annoyed at Elliott's bodyguards for not noticing that somebody had cut into his apartment's ventilation system within the past month. He checks the security of Amber's apartment daily, and has defensive plans that only his trusted deputies know about.
- Gentle Giant: When he's dealing with someone who is not a threat to others, he's very calm and non-judgemental. He's seen everything and is long past being shocked by it.
- Hero Secret Service: The strike team member most likely to die is the commander, but he'd gladly sacrifice himself to protect Amber.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Adika immediately changes his tune on staying behind to defend Amber when he hears that Wilder will be there. His willingness to leave Amber in Wilder's care in a threatening situation shows the incredible esteem he has for Wilder.
- Romancing the Widow: With Megan - it caused problems when they had to work together, until they worked out a solution with Buzz’s help.
- Scary Black Man: He's a large, powerful, imposing man with dark skin, imprinted to be the most devastating combatant the Hive has, and then continuously training and practicing for 17 years.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: The swears are never printed, but Amber comments that he frequently has a mental level that is nothing but repeated swearing.
- The Teetotaler: Adika does not drink or use any drugs at overnight clubs, because armed Strike Team members should never indulge in substances that affect their judgement, and their training and imprint mean that a Strike Team member is effectively never unarmed.
Nicole
Amber’s liaison team leader. She has an unstated disorder that means she needs to use a powered chair about half the time.
Provides examples of:
- Field Promotion: Gets a sudden promotion to liaison commander the night before the unit’s first emergency run.
- Mission Control: Her job. The liaison team sits in the telepath unit and feeds information between the unit and the rest of the Hive.
- Young and in Charge: Just nineteen years old, and promoted to team leader of Amber's liaison team.
Megan
Amber’s senior administrator, initial counselor, and physician. She was an administrator on Keith’s team until her husband, a member of the Strike Team, was killed on a mission.
Provides examples of:
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: With Adika. She’s strongly attracted to him, but having trouble getting over Dean’s death. This tends to come out as shouting matches.
- Determined Doctor: Faces down Adika and informs him that she will be helping Atticus perform surgery on the injured sailor from another Hive, even if it puts her at risk from the Sea Farm murderer.
- Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak: Megan presents herself as extremely feminine, but she was a Colonel in two different Teen Games.
- Has a Type: In the discussion about teen games, Lucas realizes that she is irresistibly attracted to dominant, risk-taking men. Her teen level boyfriend was so involved with teen games that she reached Colonel in two of them, she was married to a member of Keith's strike team within two months of her Lottery, and after her husband's death, her Belligerent Sexual Tension with Adika starts up almost immediately after he arrives at Hive Futura.
- Leg Focus: Amber's first experience reading the mind of an aroused male is when Adika is ogling Megan's legs. They factor into his thoughts frequently afterwards as well.
- Someone to Remember Him By: She decides to have a pair of embryos from her late husband implanted, and to have his children before marrying Adika.
- Team Mom: Explicitly her job. She manages the personnel and acts as a parental figure for the telepath.
Buzz
Provides examples of:
- Age-Inappropriate Dress: Shows up for her first meeting with Amber dressed like a teenager.
- Commitment Issues: She's never been involved with someone for more than a couple weeks before.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: When she breaks up with Forge, she changes her hairstyle from loose curls to a much tighter, more formal look. When she realizes what happened and wants to get back together with him, she changes it back.
- Lady in Red: Her love of tight, revealing, red dresses shows her forceful personality and blatant sexuality. When she wants to get back together with Forge, she puts on a red dress, commenting, "I think red suits me better than black."
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Her given name is Simone.
- Really Gets Around: She has a strong libido and has been known to pursue men aggressively. Doesn't qualify as Ethical Slut because she's been known to trap cute guys in lifts with her.
- Shameless Fanservice Girl: She's fond of wearing tight, revealing clothing and showing herself off.
- Significant Wardrobe Shift: After the breakup with Forge, she changes from her previous tight, colorful dresses to serious black businesswear. When she is ready to offer to get back together again, she puts on one of her tight red dresses.
- Sixth Ranger: She doesn’t join the team until the second book.
- Trauma Button: Anything related to Franklin, the murderer she encountered and survived as a child. It's mildly played for laughs when Forge has to dye his hair a similar shade of blond to Franklin's while undercover and Buzz declares that "certain things aren't going to happen" until he dyes it back, but seeing Franklin himself causes her to spiral.
- Underdressed for the Occasion: For her first meeting with one of the telepaths, she dresses like a casual teenager.
Amber's Strike Team
The Strike Team's job is twofold: first and foremost, protect Amber. Second, run down and capture whatever 'wild bee' Amber is tracking, ideally without anyone getting hurt. There are typically forty-three members of a Strike Team: the team leader (Adika), two deputy leaders (Rothan and Forge), and two twenty-person teams, Alpha and Beta. However, as of Borderline some extra members are added to the Alpha team from Claire's unit to help cover shortfalls due to injury as the load picks up after Morton's unit is shut down for his surgery.Tropes applying to the Strike Team members in general:
- Former Teen Rebel: Strike team members are taken from those who are willing to explore beyond the normal boundaries. Most strike team members went at least four zones away from home on their Freedom Day.
- Hero Secret Service: Their job. While stopping whatever disordered individual they're chasing is important, priority number one is protecting the telepath, laying down their own lives if necessary.
Forge
Forge in his natural habitat, an air vent
Amber's friend from teen level, whom she had a massive crush on. Lottery picked up on this and not only chose him for her strike team, but chose other team members based on their resemblance to him.Deputy team leader in charge of Beta team, and in a relationship with Buzz.
Provides examples of:
- Distinguishing Mark: Had a birthmark on his cheek, which he had removed after he got a cut in that area during a training exercise. Turns out it was a mark that made him look like Elden, which caused Amber to have a crush on him.
- Le Parkour: He's extremely fond of climbing and getting into places he normally couldn't. Becomes important when he's teaching the strike team how to get around the power complex.
- Scary Black Man: He's large, dark-skinned, imprinted as one of the most deadly combatants the Hive can create, and trained on top of that.
- We Do Not Know Each Other: He and Amber pretend not to have known each other on Teen Level so that people don't feel he got the job due to their friendship. By the time it comes out, he's proven that he belongs there.
Rothan
Adika's second in command, and deputy team leader of the Alpha team. In a relationship with Emili.
Provides examples of:
- Rule-Abiding Rebel: His family are members of the Ramblers Association, a nonconformist group that the Hive uses as a safety valve for people who need to go Outside.
Matias
A member of the Strike Team, and imprinted as a team leader but not serving as one now. In a relationship with Sofia.
Provides examples of:
- High-School Sweethearts: Dated Sofia on Teen Level, and thought they'd be separated after Lottery. Amber finds out and convinces Sofia to come join the unit, and Matias and Sofia resume their relationship shortly thereafter.
- Ruptured Appendix: Amber at first thought he'd been stabbed. He feels it's part of the reason he didn't end up as a deputy team leader, as he was recovering when Adika made the decision.
Eli
A member of the Strike Team, and imprinted as a team leader but not serving as one now. After a severe leg injury, he barely makes it through emergency surgery.
Provides examples of:
- Afraid of Doctors: After his initial surgery, the doctors need to go back in to put in a permanent fix. Eli is terrified of this, and Amber has to talk to his surgeon (Atticus) to find out why it's necessary and what the risks are.
- Forbidden Love: Downplayed. Eli was desperately in love with his Teen Level girlfriend, Becca, but despite being only a few months apart in age, those few months have a Lottery between them. Romance across Lottery years isn't forbidden but it's strongly advised against due to the older partner having to leave the younger one behind on Teen Level for at least another year.
- Living Is More than Surviving: Amber has to choose - should the surgeons focus on saving Eli's life at the cost of his leg, or risk losing him by trying to save the leg? She chooses to save the leg, because he would not want to survive if he were forced to the lighter duties available to him with a missing leg.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When even Eli isn't joking around, things are very serious - for example, after the deadly fire in Defender.
- Plucky Comic Relief: Eli is the comedian of the strike team, lightening the mood with jokes.
Kaden
A member of the Strike Team, and imprinted as a team leader but not serving as one now. He panicked on the unit's first trip Outside when an animal ran over his foot unexpectedly, which eliminated him from contention and almost got him transferred out of the unit entirely.
Tobias
A member of Amber's strike team with a rough relationship with his brother, who was imprinted as a strike team leader.
Provides examples of:
- Always Second Best: How he feels toward his older brother, who was imprinted as a strike team leader instead of just a strike team member.
- Chekhov's Gunman: In Defender, he shows up complaining about the 'greenies' on the beta team. By Hurricane, he's making mistakes and getting jealous of Forge. This leads to his Face–Heel Turn in Borderline.
- Face–Heel Turn: His ego, laziness, and jealousy lead to him getting kicked out of the unit and eventually set up in an attempt to kill Amber.
- Green-Eyed Monster: He’s jealous of Forge, who was imprinted as a strike team leader (instead of just a team member), leads the beta strike team, and is involved with Buzz.
- Never My Fault: He makes excuses for all his mistakes, blaming them on others.
Osric
A former member of Claire's Strike Team, brought back to help bolster Amber's Strike Team during the period when Morton is unable to work due to health issues. He's a devout Hiveist and originally hoped to be a Ministrant like his parents, but his wild escapades on Teen Level led to him becoming a Strike Team member. Married to Nora, who joined Amber's unit at the same time as a second deputy administrator under Megan.
Provides examples of:
- Uncertified Expert: He knows many fine points of Hiveist theology, and led Hiveist ceremonies in Claire's unit, but insists that his doing so is technically a breach of doctrine as he's not imprinted as a Ministrant.
Other members of Amber's team
Fran
Initial candidate for Amber’s liaison team leader. Fired just before the unit went operational due to Fantastic Racism against telepaths.
Provides examples of:
- Face–Heel Turn: Was tasked by Jupiter with stabbing Amber.
- False Friend: Tries to run a telepath’s liaison team while hating telepaths.
- Nice to the Waiter: The 'Rude to the Waiter' version. Fran tells Amber not to bother being nice to a mere Level 57 Law Enforcement Office Cleaner (Hannah).
- The Resenter: Was bypassed for Sapphire’s liaison team, and spent the next twenty-five years building up a dislike of telepaths.
Sofia
A Level 1 Mural Painter that Amber invites into the unit, partly to liven the place up but mostly so she can resume her relationship with Matias.
Provides examples of:
- Eccentric Artist: Hates having people watch her paint, and threatens to throw paint at them until they leave. Even the telepath.
- High-School Sweethearts: Dated Matias on Teen Level, and thought they'd be separated after Lottery. Amber finds out and convinces Sofia to come join the unit, and Matias and Sofia resume their relationship shortly thereafter.
Emili
Lucas's deputy. In a relationship with Rothan. Notably, only imprinted as a deputy tactical commander as Lottery did not feel she could handle the strain of being a lead tactical commander full-time.
Provides examples of:
- Mission Control: When Lucas isn't available or is out with Amber's team, Emili takes over as tactical commander.
Kareem
A member of the tactical team. Twenty-five years ago, he was a Tactical Commander when he called a strike wrong. Seventeen people died, and he was unable to continue as a commander.
Provides examples of:
- My Greatest Failure: Not the failed strike that killed seventeen people - quitting as tactical leader afterwards, and handing the job over to somebody who wasn't as good. He estimates that hundreds of people died because of that.
Gideon
A member of the tactical team. He's seventy years old, and initially started in Claire's unit. Father of two of Claire's duty children. He was brought back to give long-term perspective to the team.
Provides examples of:
- Cool Old Guy: Gives good advice to Amber and Lucas, and the rest of the team.
Beckett
A Lottery-mate of Lucas, and formerly on Keith's tactical team with him. The best pattern analyst in the Hive. Moves to Amber's team after Keith fires him to hurt Lucas. Likely autistic, and has a Comfort Cat (named CeeCee) to help keep his anxieties in check.
Provides examples of:
- Hollywood Autism: Subverted. While he is never formally labeled as autistic, his symptoms and abilities are much more in line with reality. He has focus issues, strong objections to people breaking rules, sensory-processing issues, and strong aversion to change.
- Sensory Overload: He has a sensory-processing disorder, causing all sensory inputs to be much stronger. When Amber reads his mind while finding him, she hears a loud thumping noise; when she reads Lucas's mind in the same location, she finds it's a quietly-dripping water tap. He normally wears special headphones and glasses when outside controlled areas.
Other telepaths
Morton
The oldest active telepath, approximately 40 years older than Amber.
Provides examples of:
- The Atoner: After what happened to Celandine, he became focused on propriety and not abusing the authority he has as a telepath. He takes this to extremes, disdaining Sapphire for her informal relationships.
- Unrequited Love Lasts Forever: He still mourns Celandine, forty years after her death.
Sapphire
A telepath known for working hard and playing hard. She is twenty-five years older than Amber.
Provides examples of:
- Has a Type: Her strike team members are all tall, blond, blue-eyed, fair-skinned men with determined chins. Rumor is that about half of the strike team dyes their hair.
- Really Gets Around: Strongly implied that she has had several lovers among her strike team. She clears echoes through "physical love", so this may be necessary for her mental health.
- The Stoic: Unclear how much of this is her actual personality and how much is her trying to not expose herself before another telepath, but she shows no emotions when she talks to Amber.
Mira
A well-loved telepath, 17 years older than Amber. She has Down Syndrome or a similar disorder, which causes physical and mental limitations.
Provides examples of:
- Flowers of Femininity: Her unit is filled with flowers, and when Amber sees her she's wearing a flower-print dress, standing next to a vase of flowers, with the wall behind her covered in flower images.
- Handicapped Badass: A significant genetic disorder that causes both physical and mental issues, but she’s also one of the Hive’s few telepaths, and is deeply loved by her team. Morton holds her up as an example Amber should emulate, as opposed to Sapphire or Keith. When we meet her, she is full of self-confidence and joy.
- Happily Married: She remarries Geo, her teen-level boyfriend, every Valentine, and is clearly totally in love with him.
- High-School Sweethearts: Geo was her boyfriend on teen level, and they've been together ever since.
Keith
The youngest active telepath other than Amber. He is thirteen years older than Amber. His telepathy tends to flake out unpredictably, putting his team in danger.
Provides examples of:
- The Chessmaster: His plans to make Amber and her team miserable involve a lot of long-term planning and preparation, with multiple attacks going on at once.
- Disability Immunity: Keith's telepathy randomly cutting out is absolutely awful for him and everyone he works with, but it does an excellent job of clearing echo personalities out of his head.
- Hated by All: Thirteen years as a Jerkass who can't be punished because his telepathy is that important to the Hive can do this to a person. It's clear that none of the other telepaths like him, and many members of his unit can't stand him either.
- I Have No Son!: Keith was one of the less-liked of Claire's grandchildren. When he became a telepath, his family - including his parents - took the excuse that telepaths can't ever meet to exclude him from all family events.
- Jerkass: He takes out his anger at his flaky telepathy on his team. It is strongly implied that he was stabbed by a member of his own team. Becomes much more so when he declares war on Amber over her role in Olivia's reset and her usage of the Light Angel codename.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When he apologizes to Amber, most people believe he must be sincere because he never apologizes to anybody.
- Sinister Shades: When he calls to demand Amber help him after New Year, he's wearing sunglasses; Amber assumes that he uses them to block out visual distractions while using his telepathy. Amber dislikes that they make it so she can't see the expression in his eyes.
- The Sociopath: His distancing has gotten so bad that he considers everyone else a mere toy to play with.
- The Unfavorite: Among Claire's descendants. Even his being a full telepath wasn't enough.
Olivia
A telepath eight years older than Amber. She had problems with fragmentation and was unable to resolve them, leading to her mind being taken over by an echo personality.
Provides examples of:
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: Keith is admittedly an unreliable source, but he describes her as having been drawn to the darkness in him just as he was drawn to the light in her.
- The Ophelia: A pretty girl in a white dress with gauzy bits, wearing flowers in her hair, completely mentally shattered by her otherworldly powers. She sings nursery rhymes with the words changed to be much creepier, and calls herself a "broken doll".
- Split-Personality Takeover: She was unable to get the people she read out of her mind and vanished under them.
York
A telepath about thirty years before Amber’s Lottery.
Provides examples of:
- Driven to Suicide: Committed suicide just after his first emergency run.
Nishant
An older, respected telepath who died the year before Olivia came out of Lottery.
Blake
A troublesome telepath who died unexpectedly young, leading to part of the Hive's current issues.
- Shadow Archetype: Inverted. As a troublesome telepath that the Hive was able to actually get under control by posting him for trade and forcing him to use his sole transfer to exit the trading system, he's basically what Keith could have been if the Hive wasn't in so dire need of every telepath that they're forced to let him run rampant.
Claire
An older telepath who died three years before Amber came out of Lottery.
Provides examples of:
- Cool Old Lady: Still doing emergency runs into her 90s after a near-fatal heart attack in her 80s.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Helps Celandine get away from Morton because it's the right thing to do, even though interfering in another telepath's life is the worst of bad manners.
- Super Breeding Program: Given the opportunity to have duty children, she had the maximum of 25, in hopes that at least one would become a telepath. None of her children did, but at least two of her descendants did. Keith is her grandson, and Amber is her great-granddaughter.
Amber's Family
Amber's Dad
Amber's father. He was raised on Level 14, but ended up on Level 27, working on breeding Comfort Cats.
Provides examples of:
- Breaking the Cycle of Bad Parenting: Made sure Amber knew that, no matter what level she came out of Lottery, he would love her and she would still be welcome to visit. After what his parents did to him this was something he took very personally.
- I Have No Son!: His parents disowned him after he came out of Lottery 13 levels below them. As a duty child, they would have expected him to end up at Level 1 like his genetic parents.
- Secret Legacy: He's Claire's grandson, and apparently carries her telepathic genes, but they don't express in him for whatever reason. He's also the grandson of Wilder, considered to be the greatest Strike Team leader of all time.
- Unnamed Parent: We have never been told his name.
Amber's Mom
Amber's mother. She was raised on Level 34, and ended up on Level 27, working on breeding Comfort Cats with Amber's father.
Provides examples of:
- Parental Fashion Veto: Downplayed. She suggests clothes for Amber that would be perfect for herself; unfortunately, they're not the right style or color for Amber, who resembles her father.
- Unnamed Parent: We have never been told her name.
Gregas
Amber’s younger brother by five years; he goes to teen level just after Amber’s Lottery.
Provides examples of:
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Couldn’t wait for Amber to leave for teen level so he could have her room. Once he finds out his Secret Legacy, he starts getting into everything in an attempt to help protect the Hive.
- Heritage Face Turn: Hates nosies, until he finds out that he's a borderline telepath.
- Secret Legacy: He's the great-grandson of Claire, a powerful and dedicated telepath, and Wilder, considered to be the greatest Strike Team leader of all time.
- Successful Sibling Syndrome: His sister is Level 1 and (allegedly) a researcher with her own lab. Until he finds out he's a borderline telepath and will also be Level 1, he's quite sure there is no way he can possibly compare.
Emmett and Palma
Amber and Gregas's maternal grandparents, a pair of young-at-heart older people who love to do things like crashing teen parties. They live on Level 34 but come up to visit Amber's family for holidays.
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Amber's mother is scandalized by their inappropriate behavior, such as sneaking off to teen parties.
- Wacky Parent, Serious Child: They're the parents of Amber's very serious mother, and are both fun-loving and irreverent. Their job is working in the dataview factory...as quality control, as they find all the interesting ways to break things.
Teen Level
Shanna
Amber’s best friend and Forge’s Teen-Level girlfriend. Becomes a Level 9 Media Presenter.
Provides examples of:
- Alpha Bitch: She's less vicious than typical, but once Lottery happens she's clearly thrilled with her Level 9 life and wants nothing to do with Forge (Level 20, security/law enforcement)...until she realizes that he's really Level 1. She tries to make nice to him then, but it's far too late.
- The Beautiful Elite: She's beautiful, from high up in the Hive, and ends up on Level 9 covering parties and fashion.
- The Fashionista: She's always dressed stylishly, and brought her Carnival dress to the park during the blackout as an essential.
- It's All About Me: Much of her mindset. When told that the power outage may last for days, her primary concern is that it will set back her Carnival decorating.
- Life of the Party: When their section of Teen Level is stuck in the area park due to the power outage, Shanna's the one who shows up with music and starts a party. She even has a special song lined up for when power comes back.
Atticus
Amber’s friend and Carnival date who grew up on Level 80. Lottery makes him a Level 3 Physician Surgical, and he is chosen by Morton to perform the surgery he needs because Morton considers him being on Teen Level with Amber to be good luck. Because he knows the truth about telepaths, he becomes the preferred surgeon for any cases involving Amber's unit as well.
Provides examples of:
- Determined Doctor: He will do everything he can to save his patient's life, even if they're from another Hive and he has to put himself in danger to do it.
- First Guy Wins: Subverted. He dates Amber briefly during Carnival, but they decide to just remain friends. When they meet again after Lottery, she’s already involved with Lucas, but he makes it clear that if she's interested, so is he.
- Rags to Riches: His parents are level 80, almost as low as you can get. He ends up on level 3 and is the surgeon of choice for the telepaths and their teams.
Reece
The corridor's bully. Becomes a Level 93 pipe technician.
Provides examples of:
- The Bully: He picks on teens who came from lower levels, teases Casper, tells people's secrets, breaks into Amber's room, glues Forge into the ventilation system, and tries to scare people during the power outage. The job that makes him happy involves having a crew of robots at his beck and call, because he can't be trusted to be in charge of people.
- The Bus Came Back: Shows up in Adversary after not appearing since Perilous and only getting minor mentions in the interim.
- Call It Karma: He ends up as a Level 93 pipe technician.
- Character Development: Surprisingly, while he's still a deeply unpleasant person when he reappears, he's mostly content with his new life, aware enough of consequences to stop bullying people and playing cruel pranks, and he cares deeply enough for his cleaning robots to risk getting into trouble to get them needed help.
- Fake Aristocrat: He claims his parents are from high up in the hive, but Atticus figured out that he’s from no higher than level 40.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: They're stuck with him on the corridor, but nobody likes him.
- Jerkass: During the power outage, he pulled out an Hunter of Souls costume to scare people, which led to one person falling down some stairs and breaking their leg. He gets arrested for it.
- Spanner in the Works: By tracking Amber down at New Year to try to get help for his robots that are getting "sick," he causes her unit to discover Prospero's groupette room early and forced the mastermind to change their plans on the fly.
- Stalker without a Crush: He followed everyone in his corridor back to their home levels so he could tell where they were from.
Margot
A friend from Amber’s corridor. Becomes a Level 30 Protein Enhancement Specialist.
Provides examples of:
- I Have No Son!: Her older sister came out of Lottery twenty levels below their parents, and was disowned. Margot refused to drop contact with her sister, and was disowned by her parents as well.
- Picky Eater: Amber finds it amusing that she's a Protein Enhancement Specialist, because she was so fussy about her food.
Other Hive people
Melisande
The Hive's Gold Commander, in charge of the defense of the Hive against both internal and external enemies.
Provides examples of:
- Ace Pilot: In addition to commanding the Hive's defenses, she's imprinted as a fighter pilot.
- Butch Lesbian: Downplayed. She's commander of the Hive's military and security services, a fighter pilot, typically seen wearing a Hive Defense uniform, and exclusively interested in women; however, she does have long hair, and we see her in a festival dress for New Year and a lacy white wedding dress.
- The Chains of Commanding: If one or more Zones need to be cut off from the rest of the Hive to protect the rest, she's the one who has to make that call.
- Determinator: She was born with a health condition that should have killed her by age 7, but willed herself through the surgeries and treatments needed to survive.
- Field Promotion: Suddenly promoted to Gold Commander at age 21 after Ryne retired and both of the other two people imprinted as Gold Commander (including Ryne's chosen successor) melted down under the stress.
- Pintsized Powerhouse: She's tiny, a head smaller than Amber, and leader of the Hive's military.
- Sickly Child Grew Up Strong: A health condition should have killed her by age 7; now she's the Hive's Gold Commander, in charge of Hive Security and Defense.
- Young and in Charge: Became Gold Commander at age 21, and is still only 26.
Elliott
Head of Hive Politics, a Level 1 Senior Ambassador. He is the oldest of six Duty Children, and was an avid surfer on Teen Level.
Provides examples of:
- Chekhov's Gunman: He shows up (indirectly) early in Borderline when Amber and her team use his apartment as a base; he later plays a much larger role and is a key part in helping Lucas figure out what's really going on.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Head of Hive Politics, completely dedicated to the Hive, and willing to work with Amber as soon as she finds a way to protect knowledge of events from Keith and disable Bruce.
Michaela
A newly-imprinted Level 1 Senior Ambassador, Elliott's youngest sibling. An avid surfer as well, until Bruce attempted to use her to get an unwarranted promotion.
Provides examples of:
- Claustrophobia: A crippling fear of lifts, after being stuck in one for forty-seven hours during the Blue Zone power cut. She worked through it eventually, but it took months of therapy.
- Former Teen Rebel: She took over running Blue Upway as a way to keep herself entertained while stuck in her room.
- Young and in Charge: An 18-year-old Senior Ambassador, sent to Hive Genex as part of the delegation investigating the attempt to kidnap Amber. She is forced to register a claim immediately, the day after receiving her imprint.
Wilder
A legendary Strike Team leader from Claire's unit. Despite being in his nineties and walking with a cane, he is still considered a deadly combatant.
- Cane Fu: Forge picks up that the ebony cane that Wilder uses is clearly designed to be a weapon in addition to its use as a support.
- Respected by the Respected: Wilder's status as a living legend is cemented when Adika unhesitatingly lets him take command of Amber's defense in a crisis, where he had previously refused to hand it off to anyone else including his own deputies or Claire's final strike team leader even if that meant letting someone else take charge of a crucial strike.
- Retired Badass: Wilder is lauded as the epitome of a Strike Team leader, to the point where Adika is willing to let him take charge of Amber's defense. He's in his nineties and walks with a cane, but still carries himself as a deadly fighter.
- Your Days Are Numbered: Doctors have told him he's got three to nine months to live.
Koloman
Lucas's father, who was traded from Hive Zurich. He abandoned Lucas and left his wife when Lucas was 6. Shortly afterwards, he and a woman who is not Lucas's mother were both reset and lowered to Level 63. He was told afterwards that he had a head injury that caused memory loss and loss of his imprint, and to take medication to help him with his memory. The medication is actually a drug that removes whatever element of his personality made him do what caused him to be reset; in the process, he became a much nicer person and is a loving parent to his other five duty children. He is the nominal leader of the gathering of Hive Zurich emigrés, and given the nickname Prospero due to his oldest daughter being named Miranda.
Provides examples of:
- Jerkass: What he comes across as in Lucas's recollections of him prior to his abandonment of his family and subsequent reset. Mention is made of him pointedly grumbling about language details cluttering up his imprint and how primitive the Hive's electrical items are, not because he was actually bothered by those things but just as a way of emphasizing his inherent superiority as someone the Hive found valuable enough to pay to bring in from another Hive.
- Mysterious Past: We don't know exactly what he did to get himself reset, but it must have been horrible. Lucas refuses to look in his secure record to find out, especially since he can't be sure Keith hasn't modified it. He asks Melisande to lock it down such that he can never look.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Being reset and put on medication may have cost him his imprint and over sixty levels of status, but it also seems to have made him a more pleasant person and a much better father to his subsequent five children than he ever was to Lucas.
The Sea Farm
The Sea Farm is a separate installation from the main Hive; all Hives are required by treaty to maintain a Sea Farm with certain population numbers. It's almost entirely self-sufficient, and most people there don't go through Lottery, instead learning through apprenticeships.
Tropes applying to the Sea Farm as a whole:
- Born Under the Sail: While the Sea Farm is about much more than fishing - it's intended to be entirely self-sufficient, with mining, farming, and herding - its culture is centered around the sea, with the leader bearing the title Admiral.
- Crazy-Prepared: It's not widely known among the people there, but this is the whole purpose of the Sea Farms. They're meant to be places that can survive if the Hives collapse, so they keep alive knowledge of how to do things without all the Hive's technology.
Admiral Tregarth
The leader of the Sea Farm. He's a bulky, sun-worn man in his 60s with a bushy grey beard, worried about the murders, the upcoming census, and whether the Hive will find him a successor in time.
Provides examples of:
- Reasonable Authority Figure: He's devoted to the Sea Farm and its people, and willing to do whatever he needs to find the murderer in their midst.
- Seadog Beard: A distinct contrast from the normally clean-shaven Hive citizens.
Tressa
Admiral Tregarth's wife, who came in as driftwood from a French-speaking Hive's Sea Farm. She acts as a general troubleshooter for the Sea Farm, as well as working on the ships sometimes to help out.
Provides examples of:
- The Ghost: She's only available by voice communication until the end because she's out on a fishing boat. She wanted to be away from Amber to make sure that Amber didn't see her past.
- The Lost Lenore: For Morton. He believes Celandine is dead, and that it's his fault; he has become The Atoner in response.
- Meaningful Rename: When she came back from the Hive, Celandine took the name Tressa, meaning 'third', to indicate that this is the third part of her life.
- Red Herring: Initially seen as a possible suspect in a poisoning attack on the visiting Telepath Unit, since she was one of the few people who knew about the furniture delivery with enough time to have interfered with it and who isn't nearby enough for Amber to read her mind and eliminate her as a suspect, up until the team realizes that the attacker must have used a drone.
Juniper
A young woman whose hand was mangled in an accident; Perran put her arm in a switched-off machine as a Halloween joke because he knew the machine was off, only to find that the switch had been tampered with.
Provides examples of:
- Artificial Limbs: She has an artificial hand to replace the one that had to be amputated.
- Career-Ending Injury: Her dreams of being a sea captain are destroyed by the loss of her hand.
- Claustrophobia: She grew up on the Sea Farm, and being in the Hive makes her feel closed-in and trapped.
- Commonality Connection: Bonds with Eli over them both having recently suffered a major injury to a limb.
- Determinator: Despite her traumatic injury, having her claustrophobia triggered, and being afraid of nosies, she gives permission for her mind to be read so the security unit can hurry up and find the person who is setting traps before more people get hurt, and she unhesitatingly puts herself on the line to help the investigation even while personally struggling with the loss of her dream of being a sea captain. This foreshadows her lottery result as a future Sea Farm Admiral, since such a vital post would have to go to someone who is not just intelligent and loyal but brave and resilient enough to handle it.
- Young and in Charge: She ends up imprinted as Sea Farm Admiral, Tregarth's long-awaited successor, and takes over as his deputy at the end of the book.
Cador
The head of Sea Farm Security, and down on himself because his team can't solve the ongoing crimes. He's overimpulsive and jumps to conclusions, causing problems.
Provides examples of:
- Lowered Recruiting Standards: When the head of Sea Farm Security was killed, the best available candidate in the next Lottery was imprinted for the job, despite not being the ideal candidate.
Perran
A young man who caused Juniper's accident, not knowing the safeties had been disengaged.
Provides examples of:
- The Atoner: He realizes he can never make up for what he's taken away from Juniper, and goes out as 'driftwood' so that they can both rebuild.
Treeve
A technician responsible for repairing the Sea Farm's drones. His murder with a hammer triggers Amber's unit going out to the Sea Farm.
Provides examples of:
- Asshole Victim: He wasn't liked very much, so when he's murdered, he's only missed because of his technical skills.
- Evil Nerd: The best tech at the Sea Farm, but nobody liked him because he tended to say cruel things for fun. He started setting traps for revenge.
- "Just Joking" Justification: The sort of person who'll say borderline-nasty things, then claim that they're being taken too seriously when people get offended.
Massen
A friend of Treeve's who used to work with him until he was caught stealing.
Provides examples of:
- Asshole Victim: Even more of an asshole than Treeve, and killed because he knew too much.
People from outside Hive England
Adversary Aura
Provides examples of:
- Advertised Extra: She is on the cover of Adversary, but plays a fairly minor role in the story, which is mostly about Keith's attacks on Amber, albeit with the threat of Aura's visit in the background. We finally get to meet Aura in the last 15% of the book.
- The Dreaded: She was heavily involved in the negotiations that Keith tampered with, and Hive Politics considers her a serious threat.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: She defects to Hive England, apparently because she thinks she will be killed upon her return to Hive Genex.
Rune
The Investigator sent by Joint Hive Treaty Enforcement to handle Hive England and Hive Genex's claims against each other.
Provides examples of:
- The Chessmaster: Amber specifically thinks of him with those words, after seeing how he has manipulated both Adversary Aura and Hive England to get what he wants out of the investigation.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Unlike everything we've heard about JHTE so far, he seems to be very fair and level-headed.
Antagonists
This section contains unmarked spoilers for all books! Telepath
Elden
An agent from Hive Genex, sent to imprint Amber to request a transfer as soon as she completes Lottery.Provides examples of:
- Air-Vent Passageway: Uses the air vents and structural pillars to get around the Hive secretly.
- Despair Event Horizon: When he realizes that Amber has broken free of his control. His imprints are already dangerously large, and the realization breaks his mind.
- Distinguishing Mark: Has a birthmark on his left cheek, which was where the genetic compatibility mark Hive Genex implants in children was removed so as not to give away that he was a spy.
- Trap Master: Sets several traps for Amber and her team, using a three-year-old girl (also named Amber) as bait for the first one.
- Would Hurt a Child: Unsafely imprints Amber at age three, and uses another three-year-old girl as bait to trap Amber after she grows up.
Defender
Mars
Real name Martin. A pyromaniac from Jupiter's group of saboteurs. His job is setting a massive fire in Purple Zone, but he also burns the Security Unit that Fran had worked in, almost killing Lucas and Rothan, and killing the daughter of a member of Sapphire's strike team.Provides examples of:
- Pyromaniac: He really loves fire, and really loves burning people.
Mercury
Real name Gareth. An uncle adjusted his Lottery results, putting him in a position that he wasn't capable of filling. He ended up shifted down from Level 4 to Level 37 due to his imprint restricting where else they could put him. He joined Jupiter's group of saboteurs to blow up the power system in Green Zone.Provides examples of:
- Cargo Ship: In love with the power nexus.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: He snaps and kills Fran.
- Nepotism: Deconstructed. He was given a role beyond his capabilities, and ended up getting people hurt, leading to him getting demoted to a job well below his capabilities.
Jupiter
See 'Olivia' under Other Telepaths.Venus
See 'Fran' under Other Members of Amber's Team. Hurricane
Rose
Treeve's daughter, and his murderer. A ten-year-old sociopath who murders her teacher, her father, and her father's friend without remorse.
Provides examples of:
- The Bully: She was having fun hurting the other kids until Hazel caught her.
- Children Are Innocent: Exploited by her to conceal her murders.
- Patricide: Rose murders her father to prevent him from reporting her.
- The Sociopath: Amber declares her unredeemable.
- Tampering with Food and Drink: She poisons her teacher, who is threatening to send her to the Hive for therapy.
Borderline
Bruce
Blue Zone teen surf coach. Stalked and harassed Michaela on Teen Level, even having her ambushed on her way to Lottery. Once she got through Lottery, he stole the Blue Upway gamemaster stack and added increasingly-dangerous challenges to it, blackmailing Michaela's family to prevent them from interfering.Provides examples of:
- Blackmail: He blackmails Michaela's family to let him stay in her (Level 1) room and keep running Blue Upway, threatening to turn her in. It works, but not for the reason he thinks.
- Kick Them While They Are Down: After he knocks out Forge with the sedatives, he kicks him in the ribs.
- Stalker without a Crush: Stalked Michaela to punish her for not going along with his desire to get promoted to the Level 1 beach.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Attempted after Michaela quits the team, but her family backs her against him.
Adversary
