The Locke Family
Rendell Locke
The father of the Locke family, Rendell is killed by Sam Lesser (under the orders of Dodge) at the very beginning of the series.
Nina Locke
The mother of the Locke family. Has been hitting the bottle ever since her husband died and
she was raped on the same day.
Tyler Locke
The oldest of the Locke children, Tyler does his best to be the man of the house, but is still haunted by Sam Lesser's words.
- The Atoner: That quote at the top of the main page? It still torments him constantly.
- Book Dumb: Though he is pretty fast at thinking on his feet, and manages to piece together that Dodge and the Dark Lady are one and the same.
- Dangerously Genre Savvy: Especially obvious when he gives an irrefutable and logical explanation as to why Kinsey can't be trusted with secrets.
- Gentle Giant: The Giant-ness seems to be something he inherited from his father, who is also built like a truck. Runs in the Family, perhaps. Eventually the giant part became literal, but he wasn't too gentle.
- Heroes Want Redheads
- Hypocrite: In a minor way. He constantly gets on the others to be more careful about using the keys and keeping secrets, but he's barely any better about it for most of the first 4 volumes.
- Idiot Ball: Sure, go ahead and tell everyone about the magical key that can unlock people's minds... I'm sure nothing bad's going to come out of that one. Lampshaded by Kinsey.
- Instant Expert: Subverted hard. Turns out simply absorbing the contents of a textbook doesn't help much in actually understanding it enough to write a paper on the subject.
- Purely Aesthetic Glasses: Gets a pair of glasses that, according to Kinsey, make him look smart. He comments they do serve a purpose, as they help with his reading.
Kinsey Locke
The second youngest of the Locke children. Tired of being sad and afraid, Kinsey used the Head Key to
totally remove her sense of fear and sadness.- Anime Hair
- Badass Boast: Her various "I'm not afraid to ___" statements, but especially "I'm not afraid to kill you".
- Blessed with Suck: Completely removing your fears and sadness turns out to have some negative effects on your social life.
- Broken Bird: Averted, but she strayed very close to it early on.
- Fire-Forged Friends: With Scot, Jackie and Jamal after they all almost drown together.
- Important Haircut: Changing her haircut from a conventional style to a short cut with a braid and green stripe marks when she starts bouncing back from her father's death.
- Took a Level in Badass: After removing her fears, although it led to some unforeseen consequences.
- Plucky Girl: Actually enforced. She doesn't get scared or sad because she literally can't.
Bode Locke
The youngest of the Locke family. Has a knack for finding keys. Or maybe they're finding him?
Duncan Locke
Rendell's brother, Duncan helps to take care of the Lockes with their father gone.
- Straight Gay: Though it's implied he might not always be; he suggests they go to a club (as opposed to a bar) that is known to play Cher (though this may be because he correctly thought the club might be safer).
- Tap on the Head: Gets knocked out pretty easily. A beer bottle is one thing, but a plastic gas can?
- The Reveal: It was actually his fault that Dodge got possessed.
Antagonists
Lucas "Dodge" Caravaggio, aka Zack Wells
The main villain of the story, Dodge seeks to open the Black Door. He almost did it in 1988, and doesn't intend to fail this time.
- Attractive Bent Gender
- Back from the Dead: Sort of. He is actually a living echo of his former self. As one point his corpse can be seen at the bottom of the Drowning Cave.
- Big Bad
- Big Bad Friend
- Bishounen
- Demonic Possession: Has a ...*thing* lodged in his soul (if some lines in Clockworks #1 are to be taken seriously, it may be one of the Thousand Young) that guides his actions, although it's unclear just how much control it has; comments by Dodge about "moving the meat" indicate that the parasite is in full control, or possibly switches back and forth, only taking full control when necessary. Comments by Sam Lesser, however, indicate that the parasite may have completely taken over and simply retains Dodge's memories and personality, ala a Joss Whedon vampire.
- Devil in Plain Sight
- Faux Affably Evil: Knowns how to say all the right things, but there is an absolutely vicious, ruthless bastard hiding underneath it.
- Fish Out of Temporal Water: Continually wowed and confused by modern technology, since the last computer he owned was a Commodore 64. All things considered he adapts fairly well, and thinks that modern technology kicks the crap out of what he was used to in the 80s.
- Gender Bender: Oh, Gender Key.
- Hellish Pupils: Sometimes. They may indicate when the parasite is in full control; notice that when Dodge sports them, he tend to be a lot more vicious and violent than usual.
- Humanoid Abomination
- Jabba Table Manners: Displays some shortly after getting possessed.
- The Lancer: Was this to Rendell before the demon possessed him.
- Manipulative Bastard: Even when he isn't using the Head Key!
- Mind Rape: Knowing that they can't do anything about the demon and not wanting to kill their friend, Rendell's circle instead use the Head Key to rob him of all his memories of the last three years; the demon is still there but doesn't know about the keys or the Black Door. Ellie explicitly compares this to rape.
- Neck Snap: He seems fond of it.
- Sealed Evil in a Can
- Shout Out: Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl? Trapped in a well? Actually male? Sounds familiar...
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Without the Puppeteer Parasite, was actually a pretty cool guy.
- Weaksauce Weakness: If he passes through the door to the wellhouse...Poof.
- Weapon of Choice: Fond of stabby things, and uses both knives and a sharpened rapier to deadly effect.
- Would Hurt a Child: Enthusiastically.
Sam Lesser
A mentally unbalanced classmate of Tyler's, Sam was used by Dodge to kill Rendell Locke.
Al Grubb
A friend of Sam's, Al helps him murder Rendell.
Others
Brian Rogan
Duncan's boyfriend.
Detective Mutuku
A local police detective who helps out the Lockes. Seems to have a bit of a thing for Nina.
- Badass: A couple of wounds from a rapier (including a swipe that just missed the eyes and then getting impaled) would slow down most people, but Mutuku barely pauses before going into ass kicking mode.
- Chekhov's Gun: Played with. He mentions to Nina at one point that his mother enrolled him in fencing classes because she had a dream that one day he would need to defend himself with a sword. However, when Dodge attacks him with a rapier, Mutuku just starts knocking him around with a rolling pin while lecturing him about how this isn't a fencing match.
- And of course, knowing how to defend against someone who is using a sword certainly came in handy.
- Determinator
- Dual Wielding: Kitchen knife AND rolling pin.
- Great Detective: Or at least a competent and damned dogged one.
- Improvised Weapon
Ellie Whedon
The track coach at the Locke's high school. Was one of Dodge's original circle back in 1988,
and the one who started the whole mess over again.Rufus Whedon
Ellie Whedon's son. Has some sort of mental disability.
* Seems too articulate to be retarded, but too imaginative to be autistic.
Jackie Veda
Kinsey's best friend,
although Kinsey's social problems due to her head tampering may have driven her off.- Ambiguously Brown: Could possibly be Indian, given that Veda is an Indian name, and the mural in her home (we see it when Kinsey picks her up to go running with her new hairdo) depicts a woman in traditional Indian garb (presumably her mother) sitting with a man and a young child (her father and her).
- All Love Is Unrequited: She loves Scot who loves Kinsey and oh...
- Only Sane Man: Generally comes off as the most level headed of the group.
Jamal Saturday
One of Kinsey's friends.
Scot Kavanaugh
One of Kinsey's friends.
Parsons
An obnoxious orderly at the local booby-hatch, Dodge uses him to find Erin Voss.
Erin Voss
Formerly one of Dodge's circle, she is now a mental patient after
Dodge (for reasons not yet revealed) completely emptied out her mind with the Head Key. Used to be in love with Rendell.Joe Ridgeway
Drama teacher at the high school, Joe was the director for the school's legendary production of
The Tempest starring Dodge's circle in 1988. He recognizes Dodge when he sees him again, which doesn't work out too well for him.
