Help with characters

I'm working on a new story concept*

and I'm having trouble deciding what combination to use for the main characters.

The setting: A heading-towards-dystopian modernistic world where magic exists in two (related) forms: nature-generated (i.e. it's just there as part of the natural world, similar to oxygen) and human-generated. Humans who can generate magic are rare; before the government started falling apart, all those with magic power would be placed in special schools where they would learn how to use their talents to protect the generality of citizens from the raw magic. (Those with magic can refuse to go to the schools, but doing so would be approximately equivalent to living in a hurricane-prone area, having the latent ability to stop hurricanes, and refusing to learn how.) However, as things have gone down the drain, less and less people have been found for those schools, meaning the the magic safety force has been growing smaller and smaller, even as the ambient magic has been growing stronger and more chaotic. As a result, most communities are stuck trying to deal with the results of out-of-control raw, chaotic magic: random magic storms, magic-created monsters, and the occasional bizarre happenings.

The characters: A group of friends, in their late teens/early twenties at the time of the story, who have latent magic but don't realize it. All they know is that they're better than average at dealing with the magical dangers that crop up (because their magic kicks in subconsciously) and thus have organized themselves into an informal task-force which works to keep their neighbors/town safe.

My problem: Each character has a type of device they instinctively work best with and can most naturally imbue with magic (and thus use to fight). I'm planning on having three main characters, but I've come up with four possible domains, and I'm trying to figure out the best combination.

The domains:

• Technology/mechanical: computers, cars, toaster ovens, etc.
• Household objects: rolling pins, watering cans, brooms, etc.
• Arts and crafts: needles, paper, pencils, etc.
• Nature/plants: anything green and growing or previously green and growing

The things I'd like help with:

1. The character with the technology domain is female. I've been going back and forth over whether I should make her a tsundere tomboy or a girly girl.
2. The household objects domain character is going to male (very much so). I've been debating whether or not I should merge the household objects and arts and crafts into a single domain, and give it to him. If so, the third character would be female, of the opposite personality type for whatever I decide on for the technology domain girl.
   
   I've also considered dropping the nature domain, and having the third character be male and have the arts domain. He would be much more towards the camp end of the scale.

Thoughts? Preferences? Advice?

And to everyone who's taken the time to read this, and particularly to those who respond, thank you in advance.

I managed to read through it.

1. You could go either way, but I suggest you think extra-hard about using the girly-girl. With Real Women Don't Wear Dresses around, there is some possibility there to play with it.
2. Since nature is the odd one out (being the one domain completely organic), I suggest dropping that one.

I find the premise of using mundane objects for magic amusing.

Object magic is pretty old-school, actually. Reading any book on superstitions will give you good ideas. Cool stuff.

Real Women Don't Wear Dresses is an awful trope, even given the fact that wearing dresses isn't as much of a thing anymore. Hell, maybe especially.

On the first question, I'd go with somewhere in-between: A tomboy with a fascination with frilly things, for example. The tsundere element, I am not a fan of, mainly because it's kind of an irritating trope when not played very particularly.

As to the other questions, I'm thinking, for various reasons, that you could have the three be "artificial object" users while still having natural magic bouncing about, but making the art-object controller campy feels... stereotypical, I guess? Granted, not the least justified stereotype out there, but still, keeping subtle is something I'd encourage.

edited 9th Feb '12 8:34:14 AM by JHM

I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.

This reminds me of To Aru Majutsu No Index and Law Of Ueki.

I've never read/heard of either, so any resemblance is unintentional.

And thanks for the input, chihuahua and JHM. It's helped.