Characters / Prehistoric Park Reimagined Rescue Team

Prehistoric Park Rescue Team

The Prehistoric Park rescue team are a small group of employees at the titular park led by naturalist and park manager Drew Luczynski. Together, they work to rescue the various prehistoric animals chosen for display at the park from extinction by traveling back in time via a specially designed time portal. And in the process, they go on quite the variety of crazy adventures.

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Drew Luczynski

Hired to acquire the animals of a prehistoric wildlife park, Drew is reckless, charismatic, and adventurous. Despite his talent, he's rather immature and rarely bothers planning ahead, much to the consternation of his team.

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• Actor Allusion: Just like his hypothetical counterpart in Prehistoric Earth, this is not the first time that Drew has worked with a team that dealt with a portal that led to another world or various strange and unusual creatures (although this time he's the active leader of said team).
• Adaptational Jerkass: He's far more caustic and abrasive than he was in Prehistoric Earth. His treatment of his team, especially Leon, is a bit more jerkish — in particular, using Leon as bait for an escaped Torvosaurus. This is emphasized more by Leon's increased timidity.
• Always Someone Better: To Leon.
• Animal Lover: Quite happy to work with animals in any capacity.
• Badass Bookworm: Downplayed. He knows a decently large amount about most of the animals he's tasked with rescuing and always tries his hardest to capture and send back to the future as many as possible; usually succeeding. But at the same time, his natural impatience and short attention span allows him to be outranked by just the slimmest of margins by his considerably more attentive and studious friend Leon.
• Big Man on Campus: Was this in middle school and high school. And if Adrian's current suspicions are correct, he may very well still view himself as this.
• Birds of a Feather: While their differences in personality did help to some extent, what he and Cynthia really liked most about each other in the earlier days of their past romantic relationship was how they were both incredibly stubborn and strong willed rebels who hated being told no. Deconstructed in that this same stubbornness ultimately caused Drew to straight up resist Cynthia's attempts at reigning in his more self destructive and chaotic tendencies and Cynthia to more or less micromanage him in an attempt to outright force him to have more order and structure in his life.
• Brainy Brunette: Brown-haired and reasonably knowledgeable on the animals he goes back in time to rescue.
• Challenge Seeker: Can never resist a good challenge.
• The Charmer: Oozes charisma that lets him get away with making bad decisions and treating people poorly.
• Crazy Enough to Work: Occasionally thinks up such plans when the situation calls for as much.
• Commonality Connection: He, Leon, and Adrian can be inferred to have bonded over mutual desire and passion for working with animals.
• Deadpan Snarker: Has his moments.
• Deconstructive Parody: Of Nigel Marvin's characterization in the original Prehistoric Park and all other characters similar to him. Specifically, as charismatic and courageous as he is, he is also immensely reckless and abrasive, not to mention very loath to accept being told 'no'. Furthermore, while his methods get results, they're also shown to come with great danger and risk to himself and those around him. His recklessness leads to the park management assigning oversight to him so that he mans up and stops being something of a loose canon.
• Determinator: When it comes to his work, he never gives up easily. Not even natural disasters or wildfires will stop him from giving his all to save any animals immediately present for him to rescue.
• Expy: Much like in Prehistoric Earth, he's basically a time traveling Steve Irwin, but this time with much more focus placed on the inherent flaws present in such people with similar personalities and methods.
• Head-in-the-Sand Management: In general, he tends to be more reactive than proactive when it comes to his work as park manager. He is perfectly capable of serving as a capable leader in his own right and working to try to solve problems when he becomes aware of such in need of solving. But at the same time, as evidenced by both complete obliviousness as well as occasional outright denial of the obvious tension between Jack and Leon, Kyle and Nikolai, and even between several different animals amongst the park's rescued repertoire, it is heavily implied that he is only capable of even acknowledging that any problems actually exist, let alone working to solve them, once they become impossible to ignore or deny. And since this tendency usually leads to him only trying to resolve problems at the park when they're at best extremely close to becoming major disasters and at worst have already become such, he has proven a rather contentious figure amongst the park staff.
• Hot-Blooded: Can be very eager and excitable when it comes to his work.
• Indy Ploy: Manages to pull off one of these at Leon's expense for the sake of recapturing an escaped male torvosaurus. And with his usual overall reckless nature, this plan involving the escaped torvosaurus arguably isn't his first plan of such a nature either.
• Insult of Endearment: Seems to really like 'affectionately' referring to the other rescue team members as 'D-Bags'.
• Interspecies Friendship: Is shown to be forming a bond with Gideon the stegosaurus and Terrence the t-rex.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's caustic and a little abrasive, but is a nice guy deep down.
• Jumped at the Call: Eagerly accepts Theodore's offer to work at Prehistoric Park without hesitation.
• The Kirk: The knowledgeable, yet also rather hotheaded and short-attention spanned, leader of the team.
• The Leader: Serves as this for the rescue team.
• Leeroy Jenkins: While he is capable of thinking up viable plans for rescues, he nonetheless occasionally shows signs of reckless tendencies.
• Magnetic Hero: His early character description describes him this way, with a bravado that both repels and attracts people.
• Never My Fault: In Of Scales and Feathers, even though he himself deliberately chose not to allow Jack and Leon to come off suspension despite their having successfully fulfilled the requirements he said they needed to fulfill for as much, his only response to Alice pointing out how much Jack would have loved to accompany them to the giant reptile populated Miocene Amazon is a callous sounding 'Eh, his loss' as if he's blaming Jack for not being there. Alice, rather understandably, proceeds to silently call him out on this.
• Opposites Attract: His past relationship with Cynthia was partially based upon attraction formed from how Cynthia largely prefers order and structure in her life while Drew is a more carefree maverick who likes to grab life by the throat and embrace the chaos. Ultimately ends up deconstructed in that the otherwise complimentary personality differences end up only making things worse as a result of a couple of crucial negative traits that they both happen to share.
• The Peter Principle: Heavily implied to be on the receiving end of this when it comes to his work as park manager and why he isn't quite as ideal in skill level at handling the related duties compared to how well he handles his job as rescue team leader. While his tendency to act in the heat of the moment and improvise as well as his preference to do things at his own pace prove valuable assets for rounding up animals in the wild as well as in the midst of attempted escapes at the park, these same factors result in him largely being incredibly unobservant of problems going at the park without getting directly told about them by other staff members, choosing to resolve said problems at a point where they've already ended up resulting in someone getting hurt or dangerously close to as much, and handling the paperwork that comes with being in a position of administration at an irksomely leisurely pace, all of which are noted by Percival to be potential ingredients for disaster in the event he's allowed to continue behaving in this fashion with no one around to balance him out or take care of stuff he doesn't care about as much for him when the park's open.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: While hardly the most helpful at immediately dealing with potential problems and hazards taking shape at the park before they become serious issues, he nevertheless has enough faith in his team and staff to know what they're doing and be capable of doing their work without him having to constantly look over their shoulders.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The hot-tempered, reckless, and short attention spanned red to Leon's calmer, more methodical, and more attentive blue.
• Self-Insert: Technically this for fanfic author of the same name, who had previously written Prehistoric Earth alongside Nathanoraptor and been offered to reprise this position for PPR before respectfully declining and allowing A-LionGleek to take his place.
• Too Much Alike: The very same headstrong and stubborn personality traits and hatred of being told no that he shared with Cynthia ultimately caused their past romance to deteriorate due to Drew stubbornly refusing to rein in his chaotic and self destructive tendencies for Cynthia's sake and Cynthia equally stubbornly trying to ramrod her idea of order into Drew's life to the point effectively micromanaging him.
• True Companions: With Leon and Adrian. Not even their briefly drifting apart after college and a gig together at a pet store was enough to stop them from eagerly accepting the chance to come back together to work at Prehistoric Park.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Does not at hesitate to give several of these to Jack and Leon after they end up engaging in several unpleasant squabbles at inopportune times during Devils of the Deep (with an especially vicious one being given to the both of them after their final scuffle in that very mission very nearly gets him killed, or at the very least almost costs him an arm). He also ends up on the receiving end of this multiple times in Of Scales and Feathers over his deliberately choosing not to let the suspended Jack and Leon come off their suspension and rejoin the active duty rescue team despite their successfully fulfilling the requirements he said they needed to fulfill for as much (as well as for at one point acting as if they're at fault for not being there on the mission with him, Alice, and Adrian instead of him).
• Working with the Ex: As of Spirits of the Ice Forest, his ex-girlfriend Cynthia has started working at Prehistoric Park alongside him. Deconstructed in that neither is happy about this arrangement in the slightest. And in fact, his and Cynthia's inability to work out the issues they still have means that they spend more of "The First Steps" railing each other for something the other did (e.g. Drew skipping the funeral of Cynthia's grandmother because he didn't like her and straight up lying about forgetting it was even happening at all) than they do actually getting anything done.

Leon Gilbertson

One of Drew's two close companions from school and college prior to working at Prehistoric Park as one of the younger keepers. Diagnosed with mild high functioning autism, he can be a bit quirky and is both lacking in social skills and starts out as not entirely as competent in his work with the rescue team as he'd initially hoped. But his sheer knowledge of and passion for animals does allow him to be a valuable addition to the team in his own way as the resident animal expert.

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• Actor Allusion: Via hypothetical casting, this isn't the first time that Leon has been part of a story that involved time travel, associated himself with vultures, or gone on adventures in general.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • Largely downplayed. While he does start out as The Load like he did in Prehistoric Earth, his efforts at shedding this status allow him to wield a specially designed recording device to broadcast recordings of animal vocalizations in order to attract animals into going through the portal. This device was something he noticeably didn't have in the previous fic.
  • A more straight example of him proving to be this can be found in how he handles his clashes with Jack during Devils of the Deep. In Prehistoric Earth's equivalent of this chapter, Leon was seemingly always at a disadvantage against Jack over the course of their clashes and unable to adequately defend or 'fight back' meaningfully against Jack. In this story, however, he is actually able to hold his own and metaphorically go toe to toe with Jack over the course of their clashes, even managing a couple times to both take advantage of some genuine flaws of Jack's the same way Jack takes advantage of some of his own and very nearly successfully getting the last word in over the course of a couple of the clashes.
• Adaptational Sexuality: Was straight in Prehistoric Earth - here, he's bisexual.
• Adaptational Wimp: Since his dinosaur-training arc has been given to Jack, Leon starts pulling his weight much later than he did in Prehistoric Earth. As well as this, he is also a bit less assertive than he was in PE.
• Always Someone Better: As much as he subtly idolizes Drew, there are also times where he feels jealous over how he's often considered 2nd fiddle to him.
• Animal Lover: Is unashamedly a person who's really liked animals from a young age and has always dreamed of working with them in some capacity or other for a similar amount of time.
• Appropriated Appellation: Jack's malicious nickname for him^note Dolittleends up inspiring him to use a mixture of prerecorded animal vocalizations and his own animal-based vocal mimicry as a means to competently engage in rescues and animal care.
• Asian and Nerdy: Played with. He's 1/4 Filipino on his mother's side of the family.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: Is capable of making some very well thought out deductions and summations based upon carefully observed details.
• Badass Bookworm: Is smart enough to outrank Drew in knowledge on the animals being rescued. And while he initially starts out as The Load, he eventually manages to both start showing signs of eventually improving his skills as well as prove capable of some daring acts of bravery when he's able to force aside his insecurities and really put his mind to getting done what he wants to get done.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Leon's quite timid and prefers to avoid confrontation. However, in the event that he gets pushed around just hard enough, he can get downright vicious.
• Big Damn Heroes: Attracts Smokey the arctodus to come rushing at him in time to prevent the bear from kiling Diego during Oozing From the Pit. He also naturally serves as this for any other animals he successfully rescues alongside the rescue team. And of course, much like in Prehistoric Earth, he valiantly dives in to rescue Yolanda when she's accidentally knocked into a pool full of hungry carnivorous aquatic animals. And he and Jack manage to put aside their Teeth-Clenched Teamwork just in time to rescue Drew from dunkleosteus in Devils of the Deep.
• Book Smart: Very much this, which contributed heavily to becoming the resident animal expert he currently is. In fact, he was academically skilled enough to consistently make better grades than Drew back in their days at school. And he still just barely edges him out in regard to the amount of knowledge he has on the animals being rescued.
• Brainy Brunette: Brown haired? Check. Encyclopedic knowledge on animals? Check.
• Butt-Monkey: Much like in Prehistoric Earth, he starts out as this. He even lampshades his and Jack's mutual status as this in Building Bridges.
• Commonality Connection: Inferred to have bonded with Drew and Adrian over mutual love for and desire to work with animals.
• Cowardly Lion: Can at times find himself rather nervous (especially around a large number of species of invertebrate), but is ultimately always a person to be trusted to get the job done.
• Crash-Into Hello: His first proper meeting and series of interactions with Yolanda ensue as a result of one of these.
• Crazy-Prepared: Plans to create a dossier for every possible (known) animal that could end up rescued over the course of a mission...for every mission. And he likewise works to ensure that all other employees who might find the information in such dossiers useful get a chance to read a copy.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Spent a large portion of his childhood friendless, teased, and being noticeably 'different' from others without understanding why.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype:
  • Of the Badass Bookworm. Leon is very well-read and knowledgeable about the creatures he's working with, but, compared to his teammates, has very little practical experience. This, at least initially, makes him a liability in the field.
• Deadpan Snarker: While not to the same extent as Alice, he can throw a good zinger every now and then.
• Death Glare: Will not hesitate to give one of these if he feels in the right mood for one.
• Delayed Diagnosis: Wasn't officially diagnosed with autism until one summer near the end of his middle school years.
• Determinator: Despite how nervous he can occasionally get, and how seemingly incompetent and unsuitable for the job he initially makes himself look, he is hardly one to give up easily.
• The Drifter: While not homeless, he did drift between various animal handling jobs in his time between graduating from college and getting hired by Theodore to work at Prehistoric Park.
• Face Your Fears: Works to gradually overcome his nervousness around invertebrates in South of Heaven for the sake of improving his skills as a keeper.
• Friendless Background: While admittedly willing to try to make friends, it wasn't until he got assigned to work with Adrian and Drew during 8th grade biology that he managed to make any friends outside of his immediate family.
• Foil:
  • To Jack. Both are emotionally uncertain people who hide their insecurities and are eager to impress, but, whilst Leon is introverted, scholarly and emotionally guarded, Jack is a Book Dumb extrovert, who is a lot more hot-headed and emotional.
  • In a way, he's also one to Colette. Both of them can give off the impression of being rather aloof, guarded, and antisocial; and they also both have a very small number of close friends. Leon, however, is perfectly willing to expand his group of friends just the tiniest amount if he meets the right people, never even tries to hide which people he feels close to and comfortable with, and his seemingly aloof and antisocial behavior is very rarely (if ever) deliberate on his part. Colette, however, is a lot more slow to choose people to add to her group of people she considers friends, tries more often than not to keep it a secret which people she likes to hang around with more than others, and is largely more deliberate in her making it look as if she wishes more often than not to be alone.
• Hidden Depths: He can seem rather solitary and difficult to get to know at times. The fact that a lot of the staff at the park consider him a useless load that was only hired thanks to cronyism on Drew's part doesn't help. But once you really get to know him and earn his trust, respect, and friendship, he's actually a pretty decent fellow in his own right.
• Humble Hero: Usually not the type to brag about his achievements.
• I Just Want to Be Badass: He hopes very much for Prehistoric Park to be where he finally gets it right career-wise after a good long while of drifting between jobs. Naturally, he is less then pleased with the rough start he finds himself getting off to early on in his work and hopes to improve as time goes by.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: Felt this way for a long time before he befriended Drew and Adrian. And it is heavily implied that he still fears returning to this state.
• Incompatible Orientation: In Spirits of the Ice Forest, it was revealed that, when they were at school, he had an unrequited crush on the straight Drew.
• Ineffectual Loner: While not always unhappy with having time to himself, he is ultimately perfectly willing to try to make friends, and very happy indeed whenever he successfully makes any.
• Insufferable Genius: How Jack is heavily implied to view him over the course of their rivalry.
• Interspecies Friendship: Has formed a close bond with Diego the smilodon and also with Simba the cave lion.
• Jerkass Has a Point: As rude and impolite as he is in the way he expresses as much to Jack, he is not at all wrong to say that Jack's usual style of recklessly charging into situations seemingly without thinking or planning and relying on nothing but luck and the first half baked semblance of an idea he can think of in seemingly blatant disregard for personal safety over the course of the dangerous work they engage in is hardly the safest way to go about things, that his own personally preferring to more or often than not use a noise broadcasting device to attract animals into the portal is at least a consistent and genuine strategy to rely upon, and that Jack's almost constant joking around in even the seemingly most serious and dangerous of situations is not necessarily the most reassuring behavior to engage in to give off the feeling that he's taking his work or the situations at hand seriously. And he's also not at all wrong to call Jack out on for seemingly never thanking him for his work in helping to rescue Yolanda, who is a close friend to Jack as well as to him) from getting mauled by the crassigyrinus over the course of the events of South Of Heaven.
• Jumped at the Call: Despite the three of them having drifted apart for a while after college, he eagerly accepts the chance to work at Prehistoric Park alongside Drew and Adrian once given the chance.
• Kick the Dog: Calls Jack "a brainless maniac" and likewise seemingly implies that he considers Jack to be a reckless moron because of his tendency to go recklessly rushing into situations seemingly without thinking, planning, or showing any regard for his own personal safety.
• Kick The Son Of A Bitch: That being said, Jack had admittedly somewhat been acting like a lot more of a jerk towards Leon first beforehand.
• The Lancer: Initially wished to be this for the rescue team thanks to his Undying Loyalty to Drew.
• Laser-Guided Karma: An especially ill timed moment of his and Jack's Teeth-Clenched Teamwork results in him and Jack both getting appropriately punished when the incident in question very nearly gets Drew either killed or deprived of one of his arms.
• The Load: Shows signs of this as early as the first mission.
• Loner-Turned-Friend: Initially was one of the most solitary people at his school (though not always out of his own choice), but has since become one of a trio of close companions that are now working together at Prehistoric Park.
• Malicious Misnaming: With the low opinion Jack soon shows signs of having of him, Leon proves a victim of this by virtue of the nickname 'Dolittle'...which then inspires him to figure out an oddly thematically appropriate unique idea on how to improve his skills at rescues and animal care.
• Mighty Roar: Learns how to weaponize this trope via his specially designed 'broadcasting device'.
• Naïve Animal Lover: A sizable number of the park staff view him as too big of a fan of animals for his own good during his earlier days at the park before he proves himself worthy of their respect and his hiring to work at the park.
• Nepotism: The majority of the staff strongly believe that he was only hired to work at the park as a result of a cronyism based variant of this on Drew's part.
• Nice Guy: He's a very decent fellow in his own right underneath his insecurities, occasionally abrasive behavior, and autism; especially towards those he's willing to let his walls down around.
• No-Respect Guy: His unpleasant instance of tripping while working with Jack to attract the attention of the ceratosaurus, amphicotylus, and diplosaurus in Novum Initium, an event that only happened once, is enough to thoroughly solidify him as this amongst most of the park staff during the earliest chapters of the story.
• No Social Skills: Being autistic, he's not the most socially adept.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: As Adrian takes note, the fact that he ends up interacting so smoothly with Yolanda (complete with engaging in extended periods of talk between her and himself) after only just starting to properly meet and get to know her on the specific day South of Heaven takes place is quite noticeable due to how difficult he's found it in the past to interact with all the other girls his age back in school.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The calm, collected, and attentive blue to Drew's hot-tempered, reckless, and short attention spanned red.
• Sarcasm-Blind: Comes with his autism.
• Ship Tease: With Yolanda.
• Shipper on Deck: Personally works to play cupid for Simba and Nala the cave lions.
• The Smart Guy: As the resident animal expert, he plays this role in the rescue team.
• Smart People Wear Glasses: Helps with reading. Though he takes them off when going swimming.
• Speaks Fluent Animal: Ok, calling it fluent may be pushing things a little. But he's certainly skilled enough with both use of pre-recorded animal vocalizations on a specially designed 'broadcasting device' as well as occasional animal impersonations to start taking his first steps at increasing his competence.
• The Spock: The scholarly and knowledgeable, yet also rather emotionally guarded, animal expert of the team.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Just like in Prehistoric Earth, he shows signs of having this with Jack during the early episodes of Phase 1. And also much like in Prehistoric Earth, this eventually comes back to bite him and Jack hard after it very nearly gets Drew killed or maimed by dunkleosteus.
• Took a Level in Badass:
  • As of Oozing From the Pit, he shows signs of starting to become a fair amount more competent and skilled by virtue of his specially designed 'broadcasting device'. And by the time of Alien Empire, he's proven willing to tag along on a mission in which the broadcasting device is unnecessary (if not useless altogether) despite being openly unnerved by many of the potential animals to be rescued in said mission.
  • Takes this a step further in South of Heaven by both working to overcome his nerves around invertebrates as well as to dive in to save Yolanda when she's accidentally knocked into the crassigyrinus pool (though he admittedly does end up requiring some additional assistance from Andrias the proterogyrinus in the process).
• True Companions: With Adrian and Drew. Not even their briefly drifting apart after college and a gig together at a pet store was enough to stop them from eagerly accepting the chance to come back together to work at Prehistoric Park.
• Undying Loyalty: To Drew.
• Well-Trained, but Inexperienced: He is very well read and knowledgeable on animals in general, and he has technically had a form of training in animal care prior to his work at Prehistoric Park via prior work as an animal caretaker at a pet store and several zoos. However, due to just how little experience he has with the kind of work required for him to undertake on missions with the rescue team by the time he first gets hired to work at the park as well as the world of difference there is between reading about something in a book and actually working with said thing in the field, he initially starts out as The Load.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Is not afraid to call Jack out on both criticizing him for using his noise broadcasting devices as a crutch in lieu of actual talent when Jack himself seemingly does the same all the time with his insanely good luck when charging recklessly into situations instead of planning and showing regard for basic safety and seemingly taking Yolanda (a close friend to both of them) for granted and never thanking him for his help in saving her from the crassigyrinus.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Is highly unnerved by multiple types of invertebrate (with spiders in particular being the only ones he's legitimately terrified of).

Adrian Sky

Drew and Leon's other close companion from school and college and fellow younger keeper at Prehistoric Park. Of Malaysian descent, a bit quiet and aloof (though not quite as much as Leon), and has a particularly keen interest in working with birds.

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• Adaptational Personality Change: In Prehistoric Earth, he largely came across as The Generic Guy thanks to a lack of focus on him brought about by changes of plans behind the scenes of the story's writing. Here, the narrative makes it clear that he is the aloof and quiet loner of the team who can nonetheless occasionally engage in some surprisingly zany behavior of his own when he feels in the appropriate mood for as much while also being intensely loyal and talkative to those he really considers to be good friends.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: In Prehistoric Earth, he seemed to at least be able to show signs of developing a close friendship with Alice before his role got gradually reduced. Here, he seems to be forming a close friendship with her while also potentially harboring a small crush. Furthermore, in the former fanfic, he largely didn't interact that much with Cirrus the ornithocheirus. Here, Adrian is the one that PPR!Cirrus (who is a quetzalcoatlus in this continuity instead of an ornithocheirus) is forming a close bond with. He is also shown in this story to have already started becoming good friends with Alice's trio of close friends amongst the younger members of the research division (whose counterparts he never really interacted with in Prehistoric Earth).
• Aloof Ally: Is considerably more withdrawn and willing to keep to himself compared to Leon and Drew. In fact, as he himself puts it, Leon's more of a friend to Drew than he himself is.
• Amazon Chaser: Is visibly impressed at Alice's managing to goad a subadult male Florida jaguar through the portal in Building Bridges (even openly gaping in awe at her afterwards).
• Animal Lover: Is very pleased with having the ability to work with animals; with birds and pterosaurs in particular being his clear specialty.
• Asian and Nerdy: Of Malaysian descent, and has the appropriate intelligence level needed for the job.
• The Beast Master: With multiple birds and pterosaurs.
• The Big Guy: The silent, dutiful, and relatively most physically capable member of the team.
• Brainy Brunette: Has dark black hair, and is smart enough to competently handle birds and pterosaurs, have a proficient degree of training in falconry, and prove himself worth hiring at the park without too much difficulty despite his lack of experience at Novum.
• Commonality Connection: Inferred to have bonded with Leon and Drew over shared love for and desire to work with animals.
• Death Glare: Clearly not amused at being called 'Tall, Dark, and Asian' if the look he gives to Jack afterward is any indication.
• Everyone Has Standards: While he is Drew's friend and did not condone any of Cynthia's less then pleasant behavior during her time dating Drew, he also did not at all approve of Drew deliberately not attending the funeral of Cynthia's grandmother alongside her for no reason other than spite towards the woman for having a low opinion of him while she was alive.
• Friendless Background: Didn't really have any friends before he met Leon and Drew. Unlike Leon though, he was largely ok with being a more solitary and aloof lone wolf prior to this.
• Interspecies Friendship: Has formed a particularly strong bond with Cirrus the quetzalcoatlus; a fact that is especially notable since their counterparts in Prehistoric Earth never really interacted all that much, if at all. Also has a decently strong bond with Hayabusa the la brea caracara.
• Jumped at the Call: Despite the three of them having drifted apart for a while after college, he eagerly accepts the chance to work alongside Drew and Leon at Prehistoric Park once given the chance.
• Loner-Turned-Friend: Was a bit of a lone wolf in school, and is still somewhat a lone wolf at his current age. Nonetheless, he ends up making close friendships with Leon and Drew.
• Moment Killer: Cannot resist the urge to make a meaningful 'ahem' at the sight of Leon seemingly quite happy while being hugged in gratitude by Yolanda.
• Nice Guy: While he can be rather quiet and aloof, he's not a bad guy.
• Not So Above It All: Despite being one of the only sane men in the rescue team, he is perfectly capable of being zany in his own way at times; as indicated by his exaggerated Aussie accent he starts speaking in to 'get into character' when his being assigned water gun duty for capturing the meganeura reminds him of how he used to always love playing as a 'sniper' character in Team Fortress 2.
• Only Sane Man: Shares this role with Alice in the rescue team. Unlike Drew, he actually notices the rising tensions between Jack and Leon very early on and understandably has some reservations about Drew's willingness to allow them to travel together.
• Parental Substitute: To Hayabusa the orphaned La Brea caracara.
• Sarcasm-Blind: Not quite to the same extent as Leon, but it's still there.
• Ship Tease: He shows a couple subtle signs of possibly having a small crush on Alice.
• Token Minority: The only non white member of the rescue team, but thankfully not of the entire park's staff.
• True Companions: With Leon and Drew. Not even their briefly drifting apart after college and a gig together at a pet store was enough to stop them from eagerly accepting the chance to come back together to work at Prehistoric Park. He also appears to be forming a decently strong bond with Alice, Will, Matt, and Kaisumi.

Jack Denham

One of the other younger keepers at Prehistoric Park, fellow rescue team member, and Alice's younger brother.

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• Actor Allusion: Prior to his work at Prehistoric Park, Jack had already traveled through time twice and both been associated with crocodilians and had an older sister.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
  • Was never seen interacting with Yolanda very much (if at all) in Prehistoric Earth. But in this version of the continuity, he and Yolanda are explicitly described as having become close friends thanks to similar personalities and senses of humor.
  • In the former fic, Cynthia largely treated him with suspicion and hostility during the time in which she considered him a possible traitor to the park and then later settled into a tense Sitcom Arch-Nemesis dynamic with him once it became clear that he wasn't the traitor she was looking for. Here, despite initial hostility towards him during their first mission together, Jack ends up being arguably the very first member of the rescue team to truly become her friend after a rough start she has to working at the park.
• Animal Lover: A reptile and amphibian oriented one to be more specific.
• Annoying Younger Sibling: Can be this to Alice every now and then.
• The Beast Master: When it comes to reptiles, he tends to know exactly the right way to go about handling and training them. He's even going so far as to work to train all the rescued raptor species to view him as their alpha in the style of Owen Grady.
• Big Damn Heroes: Jumps into the midst of a frenzied float of brachychampsa just in time to save a basilemys in Return of the King. He and Leon also manage to put aside their Teeth-Clenched Teamwork just in time to save Drew from dunkleosteus in Devils of the Deep.
• Birds of a Feather: He and Yolanda manage to become good friends due to having a similar sense of humor and generally being able to get along quite well.
• Boys Like Creepy Critters: Loved catching and releasing insects when he was little, and he is not at all ashamed to admit that he's proud to work with reptiles (an animal type he is well aware that many people feel unnerved by).
• Brainy Brunette: Has black hair and is a lot smarter than his penchant for jokes and thrill seeking can lead people to believe.
• Butt-Monkey: While not quite to the same extent yet as in Prehistoric Earth, Jack has his moments of this a couple of times during the earliest chapters of the story.
• Book Dumb: Whilst he has a vast amount of practical knowledge, he openly admits that academics aren't really his thing, due to his impatience.
• Deadpan Snarker: While not to the same extent as his sister, he can throw a good zinger every once in a while, usually at the expense of someone he's annoyed by or similar dislikes.
• Death Glare: Ends up on the receiving end of this more than once.
• Foil:
  • To Leon. Both of them are emotionally uncertain people who hide their insecurities and are very eager to impress. But while Jack is extroverted and outgoing, Book Dumb, and rather hot-headed and emotional, Leon is introverted, scholarly, and heavily emotionally guarded.
  • Also to Cynthia. Both of them are very insecure people who obsess over how other people view them and tend to overcompensate in their efforts at ensuring that people have good opinions about them. But while Jack masks his insecurities under a carefree joker persona and is all too happy to trust the people he considers friends, Cynthia walls herself up and holds such reluctance to trust even the people she considers friends that she unwittingly makes herself come across as a snide Control Freak.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: The wisecracking, excitable, and thrill seeking foolish sibling to Alice's responsible sibling.
• Friendless Background: Downplayed in that he at least met and formed genuine friendships with Aaron, Carmen, Maria, and Hugo before his work at Prehistoric Park, but a Wham Line he gives to Nikolai at the end of their conversation in Alien Empire heavily hints that, before he met these four friends of his amongst the reptile/amphibian keepers, Alice may very well have been his only friend in his life.
• Hidden Depths: He may be an excitable thrill seeker, and also act as the comic relief of the team, but he's certainly smart enough to at least be able to identify Ornitholestes and Stokesosaurus. In fact, he's in general a lot smarter than he often makes himself look.
• Hypocrite: Leon paints him out to be this in Devils of the Deep by virtue of his criticizing him for using his personal noise broadcasting device and similar machines as a crutch in lieu of actual skill during rescues while shamelessly seemingly doing the exact same thing with his insanely good luck over the course of his more reckless and seemingly thoughtless and disregarding of personal safety style of work.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: Jack is secretly very lonely and craves true friendship; this basically means he latches on to any nice action as a sign of friendship, particularly from authority figures.
• Indy Ploy: As he says to Alice after rescuing a pair of Ornitholestes in a somewhat daring fashion, he just loves to improvise.
• Interspecies Friendship: Has formed a decently strong bond with both Duke the dromaeosaurus and Kaa the dinilysia, as well as with several smaller species of reptile.
• Jerkass Has a Point: While he acts like a complete ass about it and has absolutely zero filter in expressing his thoughts on Leon, he is nonetheless not entirely wrong about Leon not having all that much natural talent as an animal keeper or reason to be considered useful outside of having a treasure trove of animal knowledge to provide and the ability to masterfully man a noise broadcasting machine. And as much as Leon was able to keep the crassigyrinus at bay for a fairly decent amount of time, the fact still also remains that he and Yolanda would still have ultimately ended up overwhelmed and mauled by the vicious temnospondyls if Adrian hadn't been able to successfully release Andrias the proterogyrinus into the pool with them to scare off the crassigyrinus long enough for the two of them to escape.
• Jumped at the Call: When given the chance to work at Prehistoric Park as keepers by Theodore, he and Alice very much did this.
• Kick the Dog: Does this to Leon multiple times over the course of their enmity, with one especially meanspirited case being his downplaying of his work in helping to rescue Yolanda (who just so happens to be a close friend to both Jack and Leon) from the crassigyrinus float in South of Heaven to Leon's face.
• The Lancer: As per his tendency to latch onto all good actions and comments towards him by figures of authority, he wishes to be this for the rescue team.
• Laser-Guided Karma: An especially ill timed moment of his and Leon's Teeth-Clenched Teamwork results in him and Leon both getting appropriately punished when the incident in question very nearly gets Drew either killed or deprived of one of his arms.
• Leeroy Jenkins: His tendency to rely almost entirely on improvising and his insanely good luck gives off this impression more often than not; a fact that Leon is very quick to bring up against him in Devils of the Deep.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: As much as he tends to joke around and behave very recklessly, he is plenty capable of taking things seriously when he absolutely has to.
• Malicious Misnaming: With the low opinion he comes to indicate having of Leon, his chosen nickname for Leon (Dolittle) proves a case of this. He is also noticeably not amused when this nickname, which he'd planned to be a means of 'letting [Leon] down gently' ends up instead inspiring him to think up the idea for using animal recordings on the broadcasting device in an attempt to improve his skill.
• The McCoy: The immensely excitable and thrill seeking team prankster of the team who is a lot smarter than he occasionally lets on.
• Morality Pet: To Colette. He's even implied to have gotten her to be willing to hang out and talk with Yolanda (a person she's said to have had a largely ambivalent opinion on) a couple times.
• Nice Guy: Whilst his sense of humour rubs a few people up the wrong way, most of the time, he's a pretty friendly guy.
• The Nick Namer: Has so far referred to Drew as 'Fearless Leader', Leon as 'Dolittle', and Adrian as 'Tall, Dark, and Asian'. Has also referred to Linda as 'Doc' and is not above referring to Alice as 'Ally'.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: As Nikolai himself lampshades after a conversation with the younger man at the end of Alien Empire, "He may act the fool, but he's more than he seems."
• Plucky Comic Relief: Just like in Prehistoric Earth.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The excitable and thrill seeking red to his sister's blue.
• Sad Clown: For all his joking, he's very lonely and desperate for companionship deep down.
• Ship Tease: With Colette.
• Shout-Out: He shares a first name with Jack Driscoll and a surname with Carl Denham, both of whom are characters from King Kong.
• Stepford Smiler: Jack's response to Nikolai after the latter makes note of how everyone seems to like him thoroughly cements his status as this:
  Jack: Anyways, you're wrong. People don't like me – they just laugh at my jokes. There's a difference. A big difference
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Much like in Prehistoric Earth, he and Leon shows signs of this existing between them in the earlier episodes.
• Tempting Fate: Occasionally takes part in this, something that Colette points out he should probably try to avoid.
• True Companions: With his four fellow reptile and amphibian specialists Aaron, Carmen, Maria, and Hugo.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Quite jarringly, he apparently never thanked Leon for helping to save Yolanda (a close friend of both of them) from getting mauled to death and eaten by the crassigyrinus in between the events of South of Heaven (the mission where Yolanda's rescue occurred) and Devils of the Deep. Leon calls him out on this during their final scuffle in the latter episode. Subverted in Extras chapter Truce when Jack finally does thank Leon for helping to save Yolanda.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Subjects Leon to one of these after overhearing Leon whisper "no thanks to Captain Fisherman" under his breath after a round of successful rescues despite the fact that Jack had personally rescued 1/3 of the animals that had been rescued by that point in Devils of the Deep. He also calls Leon out over almost always acting like a stick in the mud with No Sense of Humor.

Alice Denham

One of the younger keepers at Prehistoric Park, fellow rescue team member, and Jack's older sister.

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• Action Girl: She is quite capable of taking care of herself over the course of the missions.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Was briefly shown to seemingly start developing a close friendship with Adrian (and potentially be the subject of a small crush on his part) during an earlier chapter of Prehistoric Earth before an initially planned arc involving her and Adrian ended up scrapped, which resulted in the two never really being seen hanging out together all that often outside of the context of missions. And while described in the narrative as being close friends with Will and Matt in that same story, only the former really got the chance to prove this to in fact be the case due to the latter ending up Demoted to Extra and never really getting the chance to ascend back to his originally planned level of prominence that Will got. Furthermore, she was never really shown interacting with Yolanda, but was at least implied to have known her well enough to answer some important questions Leon had to ask her about her, and Kaisumi she never even shared any scenes with in Prehistoric Earth due to Kaisumi only appearing in a single brief scene alongside Will, Jack, and Collete (and didn't even speak to boot) before suddenly vanishing altogether for the rest of the story. In this version of continuity, however, she is explicitly shown to very much be just as much close friends with Adrian, Matt, Kaisumi, and Yolanda as she turns out to be with Will (and is heavily implied to be the subject of a possible crush on Adrian's end).
• Affectionate Nick Name: Presumed to be the case with Jack occasionally calling her 'Ally'.
• Always Someone Better: In this continuity, she has an older brother, whom she herself states she was almost always compared to throughout her childhood and time in school.
• Anger Born of Worry: Jack's antics tend to cause her to react in this fashion every now and then.
• Animal Lover: A mammal oriented one to be more specific.
• Beware the Nice Ones: While much more calm and collected compared to her brother, moments in which she's angry are a real sight to behold.
• Big Sister Instinct: Has this for her younger brother Jack.
• Brainy Brunette: Brown haired and pretty smart.
• Deadpan Snarker: One of the snarkiest characters in the story.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: The calm, methodical, and serious responsible sibling to Jack's foolish sibling.
• Friend to All Children: Or at least she's potentially implied to be this to some extent for baby animals, as the sight of two arctotherium cubs being shielded by their mother from a fire is noticeably enough to swiftly spur her into action.
• The Heart: Is by far the most likely to try to provide emotional/moral support amongst the rescue team and also consistently one of the team's resident peace keepers.
• Interspecies Friendship: Has formed a strong bond with Eshe the American cheetah and several other mammals amongst the park's animal repertoire.
• Jumped at the Call: When offered the chance by Theodore to work as keepers at Prehistoric Park, she and her brother eagerly accepted without hesitation.
• Nice Girl: One of the friendlier staff members.
• Only Sane Woman: She and Adrian appear to be the only sane people on the rescue team in comparison to the reckless, abrasive, and short attention spanned Drew, the scholarly and desperate for approval Leon, and the excitable and thrill seeking Jack.
• Parental Substitute: She's raising an orphaned theriodictis pup.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The calm and collected blue to her brother's red.
• Ship Tease: Adrien and Will have both shown signs of potentially having a crush on her. Whether or not she reciprocates, however, is still up in the air.
• Shout-Out: Shares a surname with Carl Denham of King Kong fame.
• The Smurfette Principle: Is initially the only female regular member of the rescue team.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: A tomboy to Yolanda and Kaisumi's girly girls.
• True Companions: With Will and Matt (and potentially Kaisumi).

Cynthia Knightley

The newest Prehistoric Park staff member and rescue team mate, and Drew's ex girlfriend.

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• Adaptational Job Change: In Prehistoric Earth she was hired to work at the titular park as a keeper and member of the rescue team while secretly also working as a spy hired by Theodore to find and expose another spy trying to sabotage the park and steal the portal for the story's Big Bad. Here, she's once again working at the park as a keeper and member of the rescue team; but this time there are zero signs of her being involved in any spy work.
• Adaptational Karma: She was a complete Karma Houdini in Prehistoric Earth who got away with a sizable amount of Jerkass behavior as well as being entirely willing to risk obstructing efforts at foiling the villains' plots for the sake of maintaining a secret long after it had become no longer necessary to remain a secret without receiving any real comeuppance for as much. Here, she gets put through a string of very humbling events as early as the 3rd and 4th episodes featuring her.
• Adaptational Late Appearance: In Prehistoric Earth, she made her debut in the third to last episode of 'Phase 1'. Here, she doesn't get introduced until the season premiere of Phase 2.
• Adaptational Name Change: Downplayed. In Prehistoric Earth, her surname was 'Night'. In this continuity, her surname is 'Knightley'.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Outside of some occasional Pet the Dog moments, Cynthia was largely a run of the mill Alpha Bitch during her earliest appearances in Prehistoric Earth and became even more of a run of the mill Good Is Not Nice spy agent in her later appearances in the same fic while largely treating everyone around her at the park with indifference at best and hostility or suspicion at worst (with Jack in particular ending up her Sitcom Arch-Nemesis). In this continuity, however, despite initial hostilities towards Jack in their first mission together, she genuinely makes an effort to mend fences and befriend him in subsequent missions. And while she does have some lingering hostile feelings towards Leon and Adrian, her anger and hostility is largely directed at Drew while allowing everyone else to mostly be treated with respect. And of course, her less savory behavior displayed in this story is portrayed as having genuinely understandable (if not outright sympathetic) reasons behind as much as opposed to being out of a general Alpha Bitch personality while also getting followed up by her undergoing very humbling events so as to ensure she stays sympathetic and doesn't go too far in any potentially less savory aspects of her character.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
  • In Prehistoric Earth, despite Drew seemingly acting a couple times as if he knew her sometime before in the episode in which she was first introduced, she was largely treated by the narrative to have never met Drew or any of the other characters prior to her being hired to work at the titular park. Here, she is confirmed to have formerly been Drew's girlfriend in high school and college and also personally known Adrian and Leon during that time.
  • In Prehistoric Earth, she also had a very low opinion of Jack, first treating him with immense suspicion during the time in which she suspects him to be The Mole before then largely developing a tense Sitcom Arch-Nemesis dynamic with him even after she's gotten it confirmed that he's in fact not the mole she's looking for. Here, while she initially treats him with immense hostility and impatience during their first mission together, she makes genuine efforts at apologizing and befriending him in the subsequent episodes that follow.
• Always Someone Better: Was always compared negatively to her older brother Alister when she was in school. The fact that Drew was the very first person she met to not automatically compare her to Allister and instead liked her as she already was heavily contributed to how she first fell in love with him.
• Amicable Exes: Thoroughly averted when she's first introduced. The first thing she does upon catching sight of Drew at Prehistoric Park is walk up to him angrily and punch him in the face right as he's in the midst of saying hello to her and awkwardly admitting how long its been since they last saw each other. Downplayed later on, however, in that they are now somewhat more willing to put up with each other's presence for the sake of the greater good.
• Birds of a Feather: One thing they both shared and liked about each other early on in their past romantic relationship was their shared stubborn and determined personality as well as their shared dislike of being told no. This is ultimately deconstructed in that these very same traits that they share ultimately make them unable to meet in the middle when it comes to their otherwise complimentary differences in personality.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Was very territorial and possessive of Drew when it came to his interactions with other girls while she was dating him. It apparently got bad enough that she was even paranoid about him hanging out with his female cousins!
• Feet-First Introduction: Before she gets properly introduced in full, she is first seen when her foot steps down from a helicopter.
• Foil: To Jack. Both of them are very insecure people who obsess over how other people view them and tend to overcompensate in their efforts at securing favorable opinions. But while Jack masks his insecurities underneath an irreverent jokester persona and is incredibly trusting of people he cares about, Cynthia puts up such thick walls around herself that her attempts at proving herself usually come across as acting like a snide control freak and is usually incredibly raw and untrusting towards even people she'd otherwise consider friends.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Initially starts out as a rather unpopular person amongst the rest of the park staff due to unpleasant past history in the case of Drew, Leon, and Adrian and a tendency to be overly bossy and overstep her boundaries in the case of everyone else. She eventually works to improve her relations with the rest of the park staff after a near fatal experience with a sand storm causes her to reevaluate her priorities in life.
• Go-Getter Girl: Is very ambitious and eager to prove herself...much to her detriment.
• Interspecies Friendship: Forms a bond with Mahazatra the adolescent majungasaurus.
• Jerkass to One: While she eventually manages to make peace with the rest of her coworkers, she never really lets go of her disdain for Drew, primarily because he hasn't really moved past the issues that caused them to break up in the first place.
• The Nick Namer: Initially starts out as this in her introductory chapter, where she very swiftly goes so far as to refer to Adrian as 'Gonzo' and Leon as 'Rain Man'.
• Opposites Attract: Downplayed in that they were largely attracted to each other by their similarities. But nonetheless, the fact remains that, in spite of Cynthia's own occasionally reckless tendencies, Drew is a chaotic and somewhat self destructive maverick who rarely plans ahead and more often than not leaps before he looks while Cynthia is a more comparatively cautious and orderly girl who prefers to have things carefully planned out and well organized. Ultimately deconstructed in that the aforementioned similarities they share end up mutually cancelling out any chances their differences could have at influencing each other for the better (with Drew's stubbornness causing him to act out against Cynthia's efforts at reining in his more chaotic tendencies and Cynthia's own stubbornness causing her to take umbrage to Drew's refusal to let her 'help' him be more orderly in his life).
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: What first caused her to fall for Drew back in high school was the fact that, unlike everyone else she knew, he actually respected and liked her as she was without comparing her to her considerably more popular older brother Alister.
• Sixth Ranger: Gets hired to be the newest member of the already five members strong rescue team at the beginning of Phase 2.
• Talk to the Fist: How she chooses to greet Drew after first arriving and seeing him at Prehistoric Park.
• Too Much Alike: While their differing approaches to life certainly didn't help matters, her and Drew's shared rebellious and stubborn personalities and hatred of being told no was what ultimately doomed their relationship due to these very same shared traits causing the more chaos inclined Drew to actively resist Cynthia's efforts at bringing more order to his somewhat self destructive tendencies and the more orderly Cynthia to take umbrage at Drew's seeming refusal to let her 'help' him improve his life.
• Working with the Ex: As of Spirits of the Ice Forest, she has started working at Prehistoric Park alongside her ex boyfriend Drew. Deconstructed in that neither is happy about this arrangement in the slightest. And in fact, her and Drew's inability to work out the issues they still have means that they spend more of "The First Steps" railing each other for something the other did (e.g. Drew skipping the funeral of Cynthia's grandmother because he didn't like her and straight up lying about forgetting it was even happening at all) than they do actually getting anything done.

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