Tropes relating to the various unaffiliated and independent characters. For other characters in Twig, see here.
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People
Brigadier Tylor
A military officer in the Academy's service, a veteran of numerous wars against various enemies of the Crown.
- The Brigadier: Not so much on the "good" part, as he works for the Academy, but nevertheless is a competent leader, and refuses to make stitched using his fallen troops (on the grounds that it would be disastrous for morale).
- Reasonable Authority Figure: He makes use of the Lambs to the best of his ability, treats them with kindness, and listens to their advice.
The Fishmonger
The leader of a gang of thugs that Sy and co encounter during the Bleeding Edge arc.
- Asshole Victim: While most of the other foes the Lambs fight against have some qualities that make them seem not completely evil, the Fishmonger is so unpleasant an individual that Sy and Lillian make sure he dies slowly over a long period of time by poisoning him with the former's blood. No one sheds any tears.
- Bigger Is Better in Bed: Invoked, he's had cosmetic surgery to make his penis bigger, but everyone who sees it thinks its disgusting instead.
- Jerkass: Is enough of a thoroughly unpleasant individual that Sy decides to make sure he dies in the most painful way possible.
- Potty Failure: Sy presses a laxative compound of some kind into his wounds while Lillian is patching him up. Just so that his remaining days are as fraught, humiliating, and ignoble as possible.
- Would Hurt a Child: Had no trouble attempting to horrifically scar Lillian with a large parasite.
Bounty Hunters
Arachne
An axe wielding woman with a durable exoskeleton. She's partnered with Arthur and works with Sanguine during Arc 11.
- An Arm and a Leg: Dog bites off one of her arms and a chunk of her side.
- Attack Its Weak Point: She's killed when she's shot in the hole in her side left by Dog's bite.
- Made of Iron: Very literally, her exoskeleton's red coloration comes from a high iron concentration in its makeup.
- Sole Survivor: There used to be seven Arachnes, she's the last.
Arthur
A tentacled experiment that puppeteers bodies. He's partnered with Arachne and works with Sanguine during Arc 11.
- Body Horror: He looks like a man with holes burrowed through his flesh all across his body, through which you can see the tentacles of the true Arthur slithering to protrude from whichever entrance is most convenient.
- Combat Tentacles: He has many extendable tentacles he can use as bludgeoning weapons.
- Evil Smoking: Frequently seen smoking throughout Arc 11.
- Puppeteer Parasite: According to Arachne, he can shed his human body and embed himself in a new one.
- Tentacle Rope: One of his favored tactics is to send some of his tendrils slithering out along the ground to snare the legs of his opponents.
- Uncertain Doom: He's last seen crumpled in a belltower during the Red Tide plague. He was already infected with the spores, but given his comments about surviving in harsh conditions, his ability to slough off his human body, and the ambiguity of whether it was his host or Arthur himself who was infected, he may have survived.
The Clawed Ghost
A Ghost modified with a set of claws. Compatriot of Dog and Catcher.
- Cyborg: Her claws are voltaic technology, a stand out in the biotech focused setting of Twig.
- Shock and Awe: Her claws electrocute whoever they hit.
- The Speechless: Like all Ghosts, she's mute. Unlike all Ghosts, Catcher taught her some of the Lamb's hand signals so she can communicate with others.
- Super-Senses: Like all Ghosts, she has a potent sense of echolocation.
- Undying Loyalty: Sylvester hypothesizes she has this to Catcher, as he gave a purpose when she was lost and her a way to communicate with others. All of that's just compounded by her biological drive to work with a group.
Scale, Magda, and Agnes
A sibling team of bounty hunters.
- Lizard Folk: What they resemble thanks to their augmentations.
- Trojan Prisoner: Sylvester recruits them to help him pull this.
Experiments
The Snake Charmer's 'Snake'
The lizard-like creature the Snake Charmer created in an attempt to impress The Academy. Spoiler, It didn't work. It resembled a komodo dragon in shape and primarily used scent to navigate and hunt.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: It has a mouthful of corrosive spit and consumes its prey like a python. Ouch.
- Eyeless Face: Has no eyes due to them being mostly redundant in a creature that uses its nose to navigate.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: The Snake Charmer wanted to prove his worth to The Academy by managing and making his own experiment without needing their assistance and resources. Not only could he not keep a handle on his monster but it ultimately prompted The Academy to dispatch a team of their own experiments to neutralise him as a threat.
- Super Spit: Its resemblance to Komodo dragons extends even to its saliva, being mostly made of corrosive enzymes that liquefy flesh. Its strong enough to do a number on Sy of all people.
- To Serve Man The Snake was fed on a controlled diet by the Snake Charmer, but given the opportunity after its master lost track of it, eagerly consumed a human.
- Turned Against Their Masters: On one hand, The 'Snake' didn't really possess the mental power to consciously rebel against the Snake Charmer. On the other hand it had no problem eating him after the feeding pheromone got all over him.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: The fate of the 'Snake' didn't really get much coverage due to being an introductory chapter focused mostly on introducing The Lambs but it's a safe bet that The Academy had it disassembled.
Primordial Life
A forbidden form of experimentation, primordial life is biological matter that rapidly adapts and adjusts to new circumstances.
- Adaptive Ability: A successful primordial learns to self-modify and alter its own muscle and flesh to suit the circumstances.
- A God Am I: The final primordial declares itself to be god (in the process demonstrating the ability to speak) before Mauer kills it. Subverted in that it didn't seem to really understand the concept of god... only that humans considered "god" to be the highest form of authority, and it was desperate to find a way to stop them from harming it.
- Being Tortured Makes You Evil: There is a strong whiff of this going on about the development process often used to produce them. Because they generally get treated worse than even most other experiments do thanks to the terror they inspire even in those who create them, getting opportunities to learn positive behaviour is highly unlikely.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: Not being human, the primordials have little motivation beyond their own survival...at first. Mauer's treatment of them helps them develop the very human motive of vengeance.
- The Dreaded: As the Lambs point out, even the Crown is scared of primordials.
- Dwindling Party: Mauer has seven primordials made. Three are deemed unnecessary and killed before the battle for Lugh, three more die in the fighting, and he has the last destroyed himself.
- Dying Curse: The last of the seven primordials Mauer creates generates a final, spiteful plague designed to survive the immolation of its parts.
- Enemy to All Living Things: The Academy figures that, given how blatantly superior to every other form of life on the planet they are, a successful primordial would become this by default.
- Extendable Arms: The POV primordial showcases these.
- Extreme Omnivore: The primordials can rapidly incorporate new organic material into their own flesh, and other materials can find use as armor for vital organs.
- Gray Goo: The danger of becoming this is why it's a forbidden path of experimentation. If the Academy finds out someone has been experimenting with primordial life, then they and everyone they might have interacted with is dead. As we read, this comes across as less of an overreaction and more like common sense.
- Healing Factor: Developing this is the key to a successful primordial.
- It Can Think: Mauer realizes that the primordials he's had made have developed sapience and understand human language by listening to the doctors around them.Do you know? When I said that, you relaxed your muscles at your shoulder, your mouth sagged, and your wings dropped. You subconsciously prepared yourself to wait. And you just tensed. That took you about twenty seconds. You damn well understand me, don’t you? It’s not just tone of voice.
- Kill It with Fire: The preferred method, as otherwise the primordial will just adapt to the damage. You might have to blast it to pieces first to get past the armor, but small enough chunks will burn.
- Living Weapon: Mauer's intent was for the primordials to be nothing more than this. Unfortunately, this treatment led to them learning spite.
- Monster Progenitor: In the Crown, Primordials are grown under controlled conditions and then killed, with professors studying their remains to reverse engineer their work.
- Mother of a Thousand Young: The primordials attempt to generate smaller spawn which can make their way to the ocean and survive, but the attempt is met with cannon fire.
- Villainous Legacy: The plague that starts affecting people in Cut to the Quick is implied to be the very same one created as a Dying Curse by the last surviving primordial.
- You Are Who You Eat: The primordials can eat each other to learn their adaptations, though they refuse to do this unless the other is dead or dying.
