| 1 | [[center: [-[[Characters/{{HereticalEdge}} Index]] | [[Characters/HereticalEdgeCrossroadsAcademyStaff Crossroads Staff]] | [[Characters/HereticalEdgeOtherCrossroadsHeretics Other Crossroads Heretics]] | [[Characters/HereticalEdgeStrangers Strangers]] | [[Characters/HereticalEdgeNocen Nocen]] | [[Characters/HereticalEdgeGardenHeretics Garden Heretics]] | [[Characters/HereticalEdgeBystandersAndIndependentHeretics Bystanders & Independent Heretics]] | [[Characters/HereticalEdgeSeostenEmpire Seosten Empire]] | [[Characters/HereticalEdgeTheAtherbyClan The Atherby Clan]] | [[Characters/HereticalEdgeSpoilerCharacters Spoiler Characters]] ]]-] |
| 2 | |
| 3 | The students of Crossroads Academy are drawn primarily from those born and raised "in the knowledge" among Heretics. There are approximately one hundred students in every class. There are only about sixteen Bystander-kin in Flick's year, including her. |
| 4 | |
| 5 | Students spend four years at Crossroads from the ages of 17-21 (some students start at 16, but only if they turn 17 before November of their first semester) |
| 6 | |
| 7 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 8 | |
| 9 | [[folder: In General]] |
| 10 | ! Tropes Applying to Crossroads Students as a Whole |
| 11 | ---- |
| 12 | %%* ChildSoldiers |
| 13 | %%* DarkAndTroubledPast: Distressingly common among Bystander-kin students. |
| 14 | * TookALevelInBadass: Pretty much every student quickly takes at least a few levels in the first semester alone. The combat training and new superpowers will do that. |
| 15 | * TwoGirlsToATeam: Either played straight or subverted, depending on which team you're talking about. Students are arranged in teams of six, some have four girls and two guys while others have the opposite makeup. It's never evenly matched though, since the teams are made up of three pairs of roommates and first years don't have co-ed housing. |
| 16 | [[/folder]] |
| 17 | |
| 18 | !!Deveron Adams' Team |
| 19 | [[folder: Deveron Adams]] |
| 20 | The "mentor" of Flick's team. Deveron was the top of his class in his first year at Crossroads, but ''something'' happened to him over the summer that killed all his motivation and turned him into a {{Jerkass}} slacker. The faculty made him a mentor in the hopes that it would snap him out of his funk, but he generally spends all his time avoiding work and talking down to his team. |
| 21 | ---- |
| 22 | * TheAce: Deveron's first year was exceptional. He was at the top of his class and even came in third in a school wide combat tournament. |
| 23 | * ArchEnemy: He hates [[spoiler: Gabriel Ruthers]] more than he hates anyone else. |
| 24 | * BatmanGambit: [[spoiler: The purpose of his HiddenHeartOfGold-hiding facade is to get into the Runners' HQ when his radical shift in personality after such a promising first year becomes a large enough concern. Once in, he intends to access their records and learn what was done with his son and daughter.]] |
| 25 | * BreakTheCutie: Flick describes him as looking much more innocent when she sees his first Crossroads Academy yearbook photo ([[spoiler:his actual first year, 1918-19]]). Life has not been kind to him. |
| 26 | * BrilliantButLazy: He's an exceptional student when he makes an effort... but he no longer cares enough to do that. [[spoiler:It's an act. He cares a great deal - but his plan requires him to pretend to phone it in, and he already graduated once.]] |
| 27 | %%* BrokenAce: Very much so. |
| 28 | * DarkAndTroubledPast: Whatever happened to him over the summer killed all his motivation, and he refuses to tell anyone what it was. [[spoiler: It turns out that he spent the summer learning the details of his ''actual'' DarkAndTroubledPast.]] |
| 29 | * FreudianSlip: [[spoiler: After making a distinction between his and Joselyn's twins and her daughter with Lincoln, he unconsciously refers to the twins as "our other children," indicating that, on some level, he thinks of Felicity as one of his kids.]] |
| 30 | * GoodParents: [[spoiler: Dev turns out to be a pretty good dad to Wyatt and Abigail, grandad to Koren, and stepdad to Flick once he finally gets the chance to be part of their lives.]] |
| 31 | * GreenEyedMonster: Once details of his past come out, it becomes pretty clear that he's jealous of [[spoiler: Lincoln Chambers]] for a number of understandable reasons. [[spoiler: Mostly because Lincoln actually got to raise his daughter.]] Fortunately, he's not DrivenByEnvy. |
| 32 | * HiddenHeartOfGold: [[spoiler: It's mostly (but not entirely) an act. He eventually drops it in favor of his real personality once he accomplishes his goals. While it's still active, he intentionally acts like ''more'' of a dick to Flick in order to hide his actual paternalistic feelings for her.]] |
| 33 | * {{Jerkass}}: This guy is a ''dick.'' Sometimes it seems like he's actively working to make himself as unlikable as possible. |
| 34 | * LockedOutOfTheLoop: [[spoiler: Even after Flick and Gaia learn that he was involved with Joselyn, don't talk to him because of the way he's been acting.]] |
| 35 | * LukeIAmYourFather: [[spoiler: He's Wyatt and Abigail's father, Koren's grandfather, and Flick's (and Ammon's) ''step''father.]] |
| 36 | * InstantArmor: One of his obtained powers is to coat himself with pitch-black armor, which Flick explicitly describes as making him like an "obsidian [[ComicBook/XMen Colossus]]." |
| 37 | * IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: He stumbles a bit when learning that an old girlfriend of his was in a new relationship, but says he's glad she found someone. [[spoiler: All things considered, he's taking it well. Finding out your long lost amnesiac wife married someone else and has a new child can't be easy.]] |
| 38 | * MemoryGambit: [[spoiler: Deveron had his memories erased in order to infiltrate Crossroads, restoring them at the end of his "first" year.]] |
| 39 | * OlderThanTheyLook: [[spoiler: He's old enough to have graduated from Crossroads in 1922, but he de-aged himself in order to infiltrate the school.]] |
| 40 | * PapaWolf: [[spoiler: To his children, stepdaughter, and granddaughter.]] |
| 41 | * {{Polyamory}}: He has some experience with this, having once been in a relationship with a woman who had other boyfriends at the same time, all of whom he got along with. [[spoiler: This is why he has little problem with the knowledge that Joselyn married Lincoln Chambers.]] |
| 42 | * SpannerInTheWorks: [[spoiler: Trice and company's attempt to murder Avalon may have succeeded if Deveron wasn't there to give Flick and Sands mental help, preventing Doxer from finishing them off quickly and helping Trice. He later pulls a BigDamnHeroes to save Flick and Avalon from another (much more powerful) assassin.]] |
| 43 | %%* SuperSenses: Gained enhanced senses from a few Strangers in his first year. |
| 44 | * TallDarkAndHandsome: Flick describes him as basically the embodiment of this. [[spoiler:He used to be less attractive before he killed an Incubus and got its beauty.]] |
| 45 | %%* TookALevelInJerkass: Deveron was a lot friendlier in his first year at Crossroads. |
| 46 | %%* TookALevelInKindness: He mellows out quite a bit a few months into the semester, becoming a much better mentor. |
| 47 | * UnbalancedByRivalsKid: [[spoiler: Subverted. Deveron has no problem accepting Flick as his stepdaughter. It's her dad that unbalances him a bit, and that has more to do with him actually getting to be a parent than his relationship with Joselyn.]] |
| 48 | %%* UndyingLoyalty: To [[spoiler: his wife, Joselyn]]. |
| 49 | * UnknownRival: Deveron is this for two people, for very different reasons. |
| 50 | ** [[spoiler: Ruthers has no idea how much Deveron hates him because of the memory spell Deveron had cast on himself.]] |
| 51 | ** [[spoiler: Lincoln Chambers, as a bystander, doesn't know that his wife was already married to someone else.]] |
| 52 | * UnPerson: [[spoiler: Deveron is the target of a self-inflicted memory spell similar to the one used on Joselyn, but not exactly the same. It doesn't erase memories of him, only that it was ''him''. So people who knew him remember a shadowy, faceless man.]] |
| 53 | * WillfullyWeak: [[spoiler: Regaining his memories also brought back his full powers, he's just refraining from using them. Deveron is actually more powerful than most of the staff now.]] |
| 54 | [[/folder]] |
| 55 | |
| 56 | [[folder: Felicity "Flick" Chambers]] |
| 57 | Our heroine. Flick is an inquisitive, confident teenager who starts off the story living in Wyoming with her single father (her mother walked out on them when she was seven). Upon being recruited into Crossroads Academy, Flick quickly adapts to a life of magic and monsters. |
| 58 | |
| 59 | She's five feet, four inches tall. Thin, with dirty blonde hair worn in a loose ponytail and brown eyes. Wears the pants version of the uniform with purple trim. Investigation track. Her weapon is a kinetic-burst staff that can charge up and deploy blasts of concussive force in various ways. Her Heretic-aura is gold. |
| 60 | ---- |
| 61 | %%* AmazonChaser: Reacts to the sight of Nevada slaughtering a group of zombies the same way Columbus does. |
| 62 | %%* ArchEnemy: Fossor. |
| 63 | * BadPowersGoodPeople: Bodyjacking via Seosten possession has rapidly become her trademark move since she [[spoiler: took Charmeine's power in 27-05]]. She's still very much a hero. |
| 64 | %%* BattleCouple: She's in two, with Avalon and Shiori. |
| 65 | * BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Her mother's disappearance hurt Flick and her father so deeply that she spent the next decade wishing Joselyn was even more miserable than they were. She's later horrified to learn that she was getting exactly what she wanted the entire time. |
| 66 | * BerserkButton: By her own admission, Flick can't think clearly when it comes to her MissingMom. |
| 67 | * BloodMagic: Killing a harpy gives Flick the power to sense the location of someone within a mile as long as she's physically touching their blood. |
| 68 | * BlueBlood: [[spoiler: She's descended from at least two Arthurian Knights (Bedevire of the Round Table and the Green Knight) on her mother's side. Athena, also known as Nimue, even calls her "lady Felicity."]] |
| 69 | * BoomStick: Flick's Heretic weapon is a kinetic burst-staff, which is a staff that charges up and releases bursts of kinetic energy in various ways. With it she can fire off blasts of force powerful enough to make YourHeadAsplode, DoubleJump by firing off a blast while she's in the air, and lay down invisible concussive mines that explode on physical contact. And it's a stick she can hit people with. It later gets upgraded by Nevada, who adds a portal that connects it to a canister full of sand and an alternate mode which transforms it into a bow. |
| 70 | * BoringYetPractical: |
| 71 | ** It's not as flashy as other powers, but the huge stamina boost Flick gets from killing an [[CanisMajor amarok]] allows her to fight and exercise for long periods of time without even sweating or panting. |
| 72 | ** She similarly gains a dexterity boost (though nowhere near as big as the stamina boost) which is helpful in helping Flick get better with her staff. |
| 73 | * BrokenPedestal: Felicity idolized her mother as a child. So when Joselyn suddenly ditched their family for some random guy, Flick was so hurt and betrayed that all of her love for the woman turned into bitter hatred, to the point of no longer going by her birth name. |
| 74 | * CainAndAbel: Becomes a rare heroic Cain when she learns that Ammon is her brother. |
| 75 | * CloudCuckooLander: Avalon calls Flick "quirky". A highly tactful and accurate way of describing her. |
| 76 | * CombatPragmatist: Downright ''ruthless'' when she fights. |
| 77 | * CosmicPlaything: [[spoiler: Flick had no real control over her life before going through the Heretical Edge. The Crossroads Committee, Gabriel Prosser, Fossor, and Gaia Sinclaire all had far more say in the direction it took than she or her father did.]] |
| 78 | * CunningLikeAFox: One of Flick's standard tactics is trickery, showcased in the first chapter when she fools her boss into incriminating himself. She directly compares herself to a fox [[spoiler: when she sees that it's what her casting of the Theriangelos Spell creates]]. |
| 79 | * DaddysGirl: Flick and her father grew very close after her mother left. |
| 80 | * {{Determinator}}: Killing the Amarok gave Flick a massive stamina boost, allowing her to keep fighting or training long after most people would have had to stop. |
| 81 | * DistractedByTheSexy: At one point she finds her teammates in their swimsuits and her brain comes to a grinding halt as she checks all of them out, especially Sean and Avalon (Scout wasn't there, but since she and Sands are identical twins...). |
| 82 | * DoNotCallMePaul: Insists on being called Flick because she was named Felicity by the mother who walked out on her. She stops minding and asks her dad to call her Felicity again when she learns [[DaddyHadAGoodReasonForAbandoningYou why Joselyn left]]. But she keeps up the pretense with everyone else out of habit and to avoid letting on to how much she knows. |
| 83 | * ElementalPowers |
| 84 | ** DishingOutDirt: Eventually gains the power to telekinetically move sand. She can also feel any physical contact made with sand under her control. Columbus eventually makes her a small storage space that can worn on her belt and fit a few hundred pounds of sand. |
| 85 | ** GreenThumb: A specialized variant. Flick gets the ability to meld with and move through wood. Any wood, as long as it's not artificial. And she can jump from wood to wood as long as it's within a few feet of what she's already merged with. |
| 86 | * EnergyAbsorption: And once she absorbs it, she can throw it right back. |
| 87 | * FireForgedFriends: With the vampire Asenath, who earns Flick's trust and destroys her Crossroads taught preconceptions about Strangers by helping her through the traumatic events of her seventeenth birthday. |
| 88 | * FirstPersonSmartass |
| 89 | * {{Foil}}: Ammon, Shiori Porter, Vanessa Moon, and Klassin Roe, all for different reasons that can be found on their entries. |
| 90 | * FriendlessBackground: Well, ''friendless'' is overstating it a bit, but Flick gave up on forming close relationships with people other than her dad after her mom left them at age seven and her best friend moved away at age thirteen. Coming to Crossroads snaps her out of that funk. |
| 91 | * FriendOnTheForce: Is one and has one. |
| 92 | ** She's [Asenath's friend within Crossroads, which mostly consists of using the library at Crossroads to research what Ammon is and how to kill him for her. |
| 93 | ** Flick's best friend from childhood, Miranda Wallbern, was recruited by Eden's Garden and quickly takes this role for Flick when they reunite in the aftermath of her birthday. |
| 94 | * FutureBadass: We get a glimpse of Flick from one year in the future at one point and see that she's [[TookALevelInBadass gotten quite a bit better at fighting]]. She has also killed a couple of Seosten and taken their ability to possess people. |
| 95 | * {{Geek}}: It's not readily apparent, but between trading ''Series/{{Buffy|The Vampire Slayer}}'' references with a vampire she temporarily nicknames [[VampirePrincessMiyu Miyu]] and namedropping [[Franchise/CthulhuMythos Cthulhu]], Flick is definitely JustForFun/OneOfUs. |
| 96 | * GenerationXerox: Flick shares her father's curious and inquisitive nature. [[spoiler: She eventually starts to resemble her mother as well, to the point where the Meregan's emergency beacon mistakes her for Joselyn.]] |
| 97 | * GonnaNeedMoreX: Says she'll need a bigger stick when the [[CanisMajor Amarok]] attacks her. |
| 98 | * GoodIsNotSoft: Flick wants to save her mother, stop a genocide, and generally save everyone. And she'd really rather talk things through. If you force her to solve things with violence she'll stuff sand down your lungs and shred them. Or steal your body and use it against your allies. |
| 99 | * GuileHero: The story opens with Flick tricking her drug dealing boss into an EngineeredPublicConfession. |
| 100 | * HorrorDoesntSettleForSimpleTuesday: Flick has an unpleasant seventeenth birthday. Her eighteenth promises to be [[SerialEscalation even worse]] because the {{Necromancer}} who enslaved her mother will be coming to do the same to her once she's officially an adult and he went out of his way to explain this to her a year in advance. |
| 101 | * HotForTeacher: Flick seems to have a minor thing for teachers. Her first crush was her fifth grade teacher, Mr. Bisby, she can't help but notice Nevada's "bounce," she calls Professor Dare "a complete babe," and she doesn't seem to notice [[spoiler: Hisao's]] "distractedly toned arms" until after he becomes one of her instructors. |
| 102 | * HyperAwareness: Flick gains a number of mental powers that give her details about her surroundings. In addition to the aforementioned BloodMagic tracking she gained from a harpy, Flick: |
| 103 | ** Can instantly calculate the exact distance between her and any location she has previously been at (as long as she's on the same planet). |
| 104 | ** Immediately catalogs every inanimate object within a short distance from her, even if she can't see it. So someone steps up next to her, she instantly knows what's in their pockets. Although this doesn't work with objects placed in the extra-dimensional storage spaces Heretics make use of. |
| 105 | * IAmNotPretty: Flick doesn't have a high opinion of her appearance, only mentioning it when she's making unfavorable comparisons to others or describing herself dismissively as a "skinny little teenager". Statements from other people indicate that she's actually quite attractive. |
| 106 | ** At one point she looks at a picture of Joselyn at her age and describes her in far more complimentary terms than she ever gives herself despite their StrongFamilyResemblance (which by then has been noted by multiple people). |
| 107 | * IntrepidReporter: For her high school's newspaper before she was recruited by Crossroads. She spent the summer between her sophomore and junior years gathering evidence to prove her boss was dealing drugs. Her goal in life was to follow in her journalist father's footsteps. |
| 108 | * JadeColoredGlasses: While Flick generally isn't a jaded person she does occasionally exhibit a cynical edge, especially when it comes to people's motives. She's still ThePollyanna, but was also abandoned by her mother and read her father's old and often disturbing crime articles, so she's not naive. |
| 109 | * JumpedAtTheCall: Definitely. Flick's introduction to the supernatural is met with pure excitement. She hesitated for a moment at the thought of leaving her dad alone, but shifted back into excitement when given assurances that he would still be a part of her life. |
| 110 | ** TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive: [[spoiler: Or more accurately: Gabriel Prosser, Gaia Sinclaire, Fossor, The Seosten Empire, Sariel Moon, And Deveron Adams All Know Where You Live. Whether she actually wanted it or not, Flick's eventual entrance to the supernatural world was pretty much guaranteed from the moment of her conception.]] |
| 111 | * LockedOutOfTheLoop: When Flick first comes to Crossroads Academy she has absolutely no idea that her mother was a Heretic, and the Heretics who do know are actively working to keep her from finding out. Most of them anyway. |
| 112 | ** Furthermore, the leaders of Crossroads don't want Flick to know [[spoiler: how much involvement they had with her life from the very beginning. She was only born because of what they did to punish her mother, they're partially responsible for her best friend Miranda moving away (she was recruited by Eden's Garden), and they almost took her from her father after Joselyn disappeared]]. |
| 113 | * LongLostRelative: Flick is not happy to learn that Ammon is her half-brother and is shocked to recognize the Eden's Garden Heretic Seller as the ancestor from her Edge vision. |
| 114 | ** Flick and Ammon also have older half-siblings, a pair of twins their mother had in the sixties. Wyatt Rendell is their older brother and their sister Abigail Fellows has a daughter of her own, Flick's classmate Koren. Deveron Adams is the twins' father and Joselyn's first husband, technically making him Flick and Ammon's stepfather.]] |
| 115 | * LoveTriangle: Develops feelings for both [[BettyAndVeronica Shiori Porter and Avalon Sinclaire]], who both reciprocate. Flick really doesn't like the thought of choosing one and hurting the other. [[spoiler: The matter is eventually resolved when the three of them talk it out and decide to try out Flick dating both at once.]] |
| 116 | * MeaningfulName: Felicity means luck and good fortune. Her mother loved that name had always wanted to give it to a daughter. Before leaving, Joselyn even used to call [[AffectionateNickname Lissy]] her good luck charm. |
| 117 | * MeaningfulRename: In the wake of her mother's disappearance, Felicity threw away everything Joselyn had ever given her. This included her name because refusing to go by Felicity when it meant so much to Joselyn was the best way Flick could think of to hurt her. [[spoiler: One of the first things she does after learning the [[DaddyHadAGoodReasonForAbandoningYou truth]] is ask her dad to start calling her Felicity again.]] |
| 118 | * MissingMom: Flick's mother walked out for some guy she pulled over for speeding and Flick ''hates'' her for it. At least until she finds out the real reason Joselyn went missing. |
| 119 | * MistakenForSpies: A subset of the Committee comes to the conclusion that Flick is spying on Crossroads [[spoiler: for her mother. They have no actual evidence to support this, they're just ''that'' paranoid about Joselyn]]. They're obviously wrong, but the idea starts to look steadily more plausible as the school year goes on and things keep happening to and around her. |
| 120 | ** [[spoiler: The situation gets worse when the Seosten Infiltrator(s) on the Committee start using her as TheScapegoat for their attacks on Avalon.]] |
| 121 | ** At the same time, Flick's rapid growth in skill leads rumors about her to spread through the student body, one of which suggests she's an Eden's Garden plant. |
| 122 | * MotorMouth: Has a tendency to speak at a rapid pace and quickly move through topics when she's in an emotional high. |
| 123 | * MultitaskedConversation: In 26-04, she does this when both the person she's openly talking to and the person secretly communicating with her ask her a question that has the same answer: no. [[spoiler:Specifically, Flick doesn't need anything from Columbus, and Flick can't tell Shiori that Columbus is free from possession.]] |
| 124 | * MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Flick [[InelegantBlubbering breaks down sobbing]] on a sidewalk once she learns what actually happened to her mother and realizes that she spent a decade hating Joselyn for [[TakeMeInstead saving her ]] [[DaddyHadAGoodReasonForAbandoningYou from a life of slavery]]. |
| 125 | * {{Necromancer}}: [[spoiler: Flick gains Necromantic powers after killing Manakel, the Seosten Olympian who was Hades. She's... not happy about it.]] |
| 126 | * NiceJobBreakingItHero: [[spoiler: By not telling Koren Fellows about their relation quickly enough, Flick accidentally exposes her niece, sister, and brother-in-law to Fossor's attention when Ammon infiltrates Crossroads Academy and discovers that Koren is immune to his powers.]] |
| 127 | ** In a moment of crisis, Flick forgets about her connection to Tristan Moon, which inadvertently leads to [[spoiler: him and Roxa Pittman (who was touching him at the time) getting transported to the forest surrounding Eden's Garden (filled with monsters and Alters that hate Heretics) without her weapon in nothing but her swimsuit. It works out for Roxa in the long run, but that has as much to do with luck than anything else.]] |
| 128 | * NoSell: She's completely immune to Ammon's CompellingVoice. Unfortunately, he's just as immune to her powers. |
| 129 | ** [[spoiler: Subverted with her apparent immunity to Seosten possession and magic. Flick isn't immune at all, it only seems that way because she's been secretly possessed and protected by Tabbris since she was a child.]] |
| 130 | * PantheraAwesome: Gains the ability to [[{{Animorphism}} transform]] into a lioness after she kills a werelion. |
| 131 | * ParentWithNewParamour; Inverted. It's her mother's ''old'' paramour that Flick has problems with, as she's very defensive of her parents' relationship. |
| 132 | * ParentalSexualitySquick: Flick is initially... discomforted to learn that her mother was involved with multiple men at the same time in the past. |
| 133 | * PetMonstrosity: She uses one of her powers to tame a group of various species of sharks, and they basically start acting like a pack of puppies around her. |
| 134 | * ThePollyanna: Most of the time. Flick's generally sunny and happy attitude is completely genuine. At the same time, she's not a total optimist and her usually happy personality does crack at times. |
| 135 | %%* RebuiltPedestal: [[spoiler: And that hatred shifts right back into love when Felicity learns the [[TakeMeInstead reason]] Joselyn left.]] |
| 136 | * SadClown: Often uses humor to cope with distressing situations. Exemplified when she finishes telling her teammates about everything Fossor did, intends to do, and how dangerous he is, then follows it up with a joke. |
| 137 | * SecretKeeper: Becomes one for Shiori after learning her DarkSecret. |
| 138 | * SinsOfOurFathers: When Flick recognizes Gaia Sinclaire as the woman from her Heretical Edge vision who was abandoned by her cowardly ancestor, she's a little worried that it'll be held against her. [[spoiler: Subverted when it becomes apparent that Gaia let go of her grudge against Seller some time ago. Then it's Played Straight when it turns out that most of Flick's problems in and outside of Crossroads are the result of being Joselyn Atherby's daughter.]] |
| 139 | ** [[spoiler: Fortunately, being Joselyn's daughter also nets Flick a few allies.]] |
| 140 | * TheSleepless: After her magical stamina boost, Flick only sleeps about an hour a night. She doesn't even need that much, she just does it to kill time while she's cooped up in her dorm after curfew. |
| 141 | * SpeaksFluentAnimal: She can control and speak to sharks after killing an Akheilosan. |
| 142 | * StepfordSmiler: Kind of. Flick is definitely ThePollyanna, but is also still reeling from her mother's disappearance. Her genuinely happy personality also serves to hide her lingering insecurities. Later on, it helps hide her mounting fear of Fossor. |
| 143 | * StrongFamilyResemblance: Anyone who knows what to look for will quickly notice that Flick looks a lot like her mother, although the resemblance isn't so strong that it can be seen as instantly as this trope usually implies. |
| 144 | * SuperReflexes: Gets this from killing a werewolf. |
| 145 | * SuperStrength: Gains enough to bench press around 1000 pounds. |
| 146 | * TookALevelInBadass: A combination of Avalon's training, her amarok-enhanced stamina, and all the crazy shit that keeps happening to her leads Flick's skill at combat to improve in leaps and bounds. |
| 147 | * TragicKeepsake: A scrapbook her mother had been making that includes a picture of her every single day from her birth until Fossor came and a message to go along with each one of them. Lincoln gives it to Flick after TheReveal when she asks him to start calling her Felicity again. The last message Joselyn wrote tells Felicity how much she loves her, to be careful, and to trust Gaia. |
| 148 | * IShallTauntYou: Flick is really, really good at making people angry and has a habit of weaponizing this skill. |
| 149 | * [[TurnOutLikeHisFather Turn Out Like Her Mother]]: Flick's father is often cautious with her, mostly because he's afraid of losing her (she's pretty reckless), but also partially because he's afraid she'll leave him like her mother did. [[spoiler: On a much more dangerous note, the Crossroads Committee is ''very nervous'' that Flick is going to take up her mother's cause.]] |
| 150 | * {{Tykebomb}}: Averted. Fossor's original plan was to kidnap Felicity and raise her to be his subservient weapon. Joselyn saved her from that fate by trading her freedom for her daughter's safety. But the more irrational members of the Committee have since assumed that she's been secretly training Felicity to infiltrate Crossroads for her. |
| 151 | * VoluntaryShapeshifting: Gains minor shapeshifting powers that allow her to mess around with the general shape of her face, change her eye color, and control the length and color of her hair. |
| 152 | * WeirdnessMagnet: Oh yes. Exemplified when, on top of everything else she has to deal with, Flick gets abducted by aliens. Accidentally. |
| 153 | * WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Flick develops a pretty intense dislike of zombies and ghosts. Seeing them up close can push her to the edge of panic pretty quickly, although she's good at keeping herself under control. Of course, she's actually more afraid [[TheDreaded who might be]] [[{{Necromancer}} controlling them]]. She has no problem dealing with zombies, ghosts, and necromancers that have nothing to do with Fossor. |
| 154 | ** Vampires get a pass, since they're not actually undead in this universe (and because of her friendship with Asenath). |
| 155 | [[/folder]] |
| 156 | |
| 157 | [[folder: Avalon Sinclaire]] |
| 158 | Flick's roommate. Avalon is the daughter of Gaia Sinclaire, the Headmistress of Crossroads Academy. She's a bit... prickly. She's five feet, eight inches tall with long, pitch black hair. Very well-endowed and beautiful. Wears the skirt version of the uniform with light blue trim. Development track. Uses gauntlets which are capable of projecting solid light weaponry such as blades and claws, as well as tools for actual work. Bystander-kin, but she's been part of the Heretical world since she was eleven, so she might as well be Heretic-born at this point. Her Heretic-aura is pale green. |
| 159 | ---- |
| 160 | * AffectionateNickname: Gaia calls her "Valley", and Flick gets permission to use that nickname as well. |
| 161 | * AngerBornOfWorry: Gets frustrated when Flick's WeirdnessMagnet tendencies add more trouble on top of everything else they have to deal with. |
| 162 | * ArchnemesisDad: One of her chief goals in life is to kill her father, who viciously [[AbusiveParents abused]] her for the first eleven years of her life. [[spoiler: Not really because she wants to, but because he's now a vampire who's tried to kill her roughly once a year since Gaia and Seller saved her from him.]] |
| 163 | * BattleCouple: With Flick. |
| 164 | * BettyAndVeronica: The Veronica to Flick's Archie and Shiori Porter's Betty. |
| 165 | * BerserkButton: Don't hurt Flick and let her find out. [[spoiler: Hitting this got Fetch killed.]] |
| 166 | * CanNotSpitItOut: [[spoiler: It takes her a long time to admit to herself that she has feelings for Flick.]] |
| 167 | * ClosetKey: To Flick, who clues in to her bisexuality in part by noticing that the amount of attention she pays to Avalon's beauty isn't as innocent as she initially thought. |
| 168 | * DarkAndTroubledPast: Avalon's past was not fun. At all. Her father abused her, [[spoiler:an assassin almost killed her when she was eleven, she did some bad things in Eden's Garden, and one of the people who welcomed her there tried to rape her. Then, after she killed the rapist, she was exiled from Eden's Garden and had to flee to Crossroads.]] |
| 169 | * DeclarationOfProtection: [[spoiler: Declares her intent to protect Flick from Fossor (and anyone or anything else) to Herbie.]] |
| 170 | * DefrostingIceQueen: It takes her awhile to warm up to people, and she's not an especially affectionate person once she does, but she's a loyal friend to anyone who can get to that point. |
| 171 | * DrillSergeantNasty: When helping Flick train. |
| 172 | * EnergyWeapon: Her gauntlets project solid light objects that can take the form of weapons or tools. They fall somewhere between [[SwissArmyWeapon Swiss Army Weapons]] and a Green Lantern Ring. |
| 173 | * FamousAncestor: [[spoiler: Deconstructed. Being Bosch's descendant is the cause of nearly every bad thing that has ever happened to Avalon. Her mother's death, her father's abuse, Fahsteth and Torv's attacks, and the assassination attempts on her at Crossroads are all plots by the Seosten to murder her before she can access her ancestor's blood vault.]] |
| 174 | * FreakOut: More or less what happened when she [[spoiler: killed Torv]]. He'd been harassing her for awhile and wouldn't leave her alone. Then he tried to [[RapeAsDrama force the issue]] and she just... snapped. |
| 175 | * FriendlyAddressPrivileges: Only two people are allowed to call her Valley. Gaia and Flick. And it takes Flick awhile to earn that. |
| 176 | * GreenThumb: Can eventually transmute many types of solid material into wood through touch. |
| 177 | * HeroicNeutral: Doesn't care about the Crossroads vs. Eden's Garden conflict ''at all.'' She mostly just wants to be left alone and protect the innocent. |
| 178 | * HiddenDepths: Avalon comes across as an [[ArrogantKungFuGuy arrogant]], [[SpoiledBrat spoiled]] [[{{Jerkass}} bitch]] to people who don't know her very well. Those who do get to know her eventually find that she's not actually arrogant and ''definitely'' not spoiled, just extremely dedicated and serious. She really is a bit of a bitch though, just not as much as she initially appears. She's abrasive, not mean. |
| 179 | * {{Irony}}: Avalon, the girl who was kicked out of Eden's Garden and faces hostility from many at Crossroads, [[spoiler: is a descendant of the founder of Crossroads both sides revere so much.]] |
| 180 | * LastNameBasis: Prefers to refer to people by their last name. This can get awkward when she has to deal with siblings or people who only go by one name. |
| 181 | ** Gaia, Scout, and Trice are the only exceptions. For very different reasons. |
| 182 | * LipstickLesbian: Avalon is a very beautiful girl, and she puts a lot of effort into grooming herself. And she likes girls. |
| 183 | * MeaningfulName: [[spoiler: Gaia gave her the name Avalon (it's descended from the old Welsh word for apple, aball. Avalon is supposed to be the island of apples) as an intentional reference to Eden's Garden and the fruit they use to make Heretics. The Garden was Avalon's first real home and she still misses it.]] |
| 184 | ** [[spoiler: Gaia ''may'' also have been referencing Flick's ancestors when she chose the name.]] |
| 185 | * MeaningfulRename: [[spoiler: She casts aside the name Hannah, which her father chose, when Gaia adopts her.]] |
| 186 | * MostCommonSuperpower: When they first meet, Flick wonders if she's smuggling actual cantaloupes under her uniform. |
| 187 | * NervesOfSteel: It's very hard to break Avalon's cool in a fight. |
| 188 | * NotSoAboveItAll: [[spoiler: She'll go on about how absurd it is to treat a rock like a pet, but was actually the one to get Herbie's eyes (using Scout as an intermediary) and sometimes speaks to him when Flick is asleep.]] |
| 189 | * ThePerfectionist: Avalon works her ass off to maintain her skills, fitness, appearance, and grades. |
| 190 | * RavenHairIvorySkin: A major contributor to her beauty. |
| 191 | * TheRival: With Malcolm Harkess in their combat class. She apparently doesn't like him very much, as Flick mentions that she takes a bit too much pleasure in beating him when they spar. |
| 192 | ** Has a similar, but more amicable rivalry with Shiori. The two of them are the top of the combat class and enjoy sparring with each other. |
| 193 | * SecretKeeper: [[spoiler: Finds Aylen while she's suffering from a lack of death energy, then keeps her Reaper ancestry a secretl]] |
| 194 | * ShutUpKiss: [[spoiler: Her first kiss with Flick. Bonus points for actually telling her to shut up beforehand.]] |
| 195 | * SpeaksFluentAnimal: Gains the ability to speak to and control snakes during the raid on Nicholas Petan's fortress. |
| 196 | * StatuesqueStunner: The first two things Flick notices about her are her height and her beauty. |
| 197 | * TheStrategist: Comes up with an impressive plan to take out an [[CanisMajor amarok]], which was far above her team's weight class at the time, on the fly. |
| 198 | * SuperSpeed: After storming Nicholas Petan's fortress, Avalon can run up to thirty miles per hour. Low-level, but still very impressive. |
| 199 | * {{Troll}}: Avalon figures out that Flick is attracted to her before Flick does. She mostly uses this knowledge to tease Flick mercilessly. |
| 200 | * {{Tsundere}}: Gradually warms up to Flick after treating her coldly at first. |
| 201 | * ViolentlyProtectiveGirlfriend: Avalon will kill you if you hurt Flick, assuming Flick doesn't do it first. |
| 202 | * YouCantGoHomeAgain: [[spoiler: She can't ever return to Eden's Garden because her former tribe thinks her slaying of Torv was premeditated murder rather than self-defense.]] |
| 203 | [[/folder]] |
| 204 | |
| 205 | [[folder: Sandoval "Sands" Mason]] |
| 206 | Scout's twin sister, and the daughter of Professor Liam Mason. Sands is petite and five feet tall, with straight brown and brown eyes. Wears the pants version of the school uniform with purple trim. Investigation track. Wields a construction mace that is capable of creating temporary walls. The material each wall is made of can be altered by using a hidden button while striking an object, which will make each subsequent wall be made out of that particular material. Certain materials cannot be used, and the walls constructed are temporary. Heretic-born. |
| 207 | ---- |
| 208 | * BlackAndWhiteMorality: Sands was raised by Heretics and lost her mother to a Stranger attack. As a result, she has completely bought into the Crossroads lines that Strangers are AlwaysChaoticEvil and that the Heretics of Eden's Garden are ObviouslyEvil traitors to humanity. She's not the only Heretic Born who thinks this way, but she's among the more vocal about it. |
| 209 | ** She has a minor FreakOut when the notion that Strangers are not all evil is challenged, [[spoiler: which is quickly compounded by Scout revealing that she hasn't been telling the entire truth of what happened when their mother was taken.]] |
| 210 | ** [[spoiler: Starts to grow out if it after Scout's revelation, meeting Asenath, and helping the Meregan children]]. |
| 211 | ** [[spoiler: Has completely grown out of it as of the end of Spy Hunt. She doesn't LIKE that she was wrong and that things are not simple, but as she says, she wants to be a hero and she can't do that if she looks at the truth and turns away. She outright tells Scout that she's a hero for talking Sands around.]] |
| 212 | * BrokenPedestal: [[spoiler: She used to idolize her father. Then she found out he sold out Joselyn because he couldn't handle the truth, which makes her realize that his inability to trust Strangers would have gotten Scout killed or taken if he'd been in the same situation as his wife. Now she definitely doesn't idolize him anymore.]] |
| 213 | * CarryABigStick: Her construction mace. |
| 214 | * DoNotCallMePaul: She dislikes her first name, Sandoval. There's no deeper reason for it, she just prefers to be called Sands. |
| 215 | * {{Foil}}: [[spoiler: To her father. They were both shown the truth about Alters, but where Liam rejected it for the simple, easy comforting lie that all non-humans are evil, Sands ultimately decides that as unpleasant as the truth is she can't turn her back on it. The key difference is Scout. Liam didn't have anyone to help him through learning the truth like Sands did Scout.]] |
| 216 | * HeavySleeper: Very heavy. Sands often sleeps through her sister's loud tossing and turning. Scout sometimes wonders if she can sleep through an alarm. |
| 217 | * HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler: It's gradual, but Sands ultimately comes around and accepts the truth about Heretic society and Alters.]] |
| 218 | * MatterReplicator: The material for her mace's walls apparently comes from nothing. |
| 219 | * MissingMom: Her mother was lost in a Stranger attack when she was a child. |
| 220 | * [[BigBrotherInstinct Twin Sister Instinct]]: To Sands, there is almost no priority higher than Scout after what happened to her when their mother was lost. [[spoiler: And it's this protectiveness, more than anything else, that turns Sands against her dad when she discovers his role in starting Joselyn's Rebellion and realizes that he wouldn't have trusted the Stranger that saved Scout's life if he had been in Larissa's position.]] |
| 221 | * RidiculouslyFastConstruction: Her mace can instantly create walls out of materials her mace has struck. She can make simple structures out of them. |
| 222 | * SuperStrength: After killing an Orc, Sands can bench-press around 400 pounds. Technically that's not quite ''Super'' Strength, but it's damn impressive for a girl as small as she is. |
| 223 | [[/folder]] |
| 224 | |
| 225 | [[folder: Sarah "Scout" Mason]] |
| 226 | Sands' twin sister, the daughter of Professor Liam Mason. Like her sister, Scout is five feet tall, petite, and has the same straight brown hair and brown eyes. Wears the skirt version of the school uniform with purple trim. Investigation track. Uses a special sniper rifle that is capable of extending its range and changing direction via miniature portals. Heretic-born. Her Heretic-aura is pink. |
| 227 | ---- |
| 228 | * BerserkButton: Memories are all Scout has left of her mother. As a result, she is deeply offended by the mere idea of using magic to change or erase memory. |
| 229 | ** Don't talk about her like she's a helpless thing who needs to protected. Zeke got slugged, and her father got a crushing speech for doing this. |
| 230 | * BewareTheQuietOnes: [[spoiler: This nice, harmless, quiet girl is secretly plotting to destroy at least one global magical effect because it offends her on principle, even knowing it could trigger a war.]] |
| 231 | * BrokenPedestal: [[spoiler: Not to the same extent as her sister as there was less to lose, but Scout's opinion of her father was severely soured by the revelation that he betrayed Joselyn. She's already gotten to the point of basically ignoring him in the aftermath of New York.]] |
| 232 | * CallingTheOldManOut: She absolutely lays in to her father when [[spoiler: he helps Ruthers ambush her at a restaurant to find out more about Flick]]. |
| 233 | * CatapultNightmare: A semi-regular occurrence with Scout. It doesn't happen every night, but she often has extremely vivid nightmares of the day her mother was taken. |
| 234 | * DarkSecret: Calling it "dark" is relative, but Scout has been keeping a secret from her sister and father for quite some time out of fear of their reaction. [[spoiler: She hid the truth of what happened on the day her mother disappeared. They hadn't been out whale-watching, as Sands and their dad believe. Her mother was actually introducing Scout to a Stranger friend of hers and telling her that not all Strangers are evil when ''another'' Stranger attacked and took her. The friendly Stranger then used her magic to hide Scout, leaving herself vulnerable to "the bad man" who took her as well.]] |
| 235 | * DoNotCallMePaul: She hasn't been able to handle being called by her birth name, Sarah, since she survived the Stranger attack that claimed her mother. |
| 236 | * DontYouDarePityMe: Does ''not'' appreciate the suggestion that her sister "takes care" of her, as Zeke Leven finds out the hard way. |
| 237 | * FriendlySniper: She's an excellent shot and a very nice girl. |
| 238 | * HiddenDepths: If forced to actually talk and interact verbally, Scout is highly charismatic and an excellent leader. |
| 239 | * MissingMom: Her and Sand's mother was lost in a Stranger attack when they were children. Unlike Sands, Scout was present for the attack and rendered near-mute by the trauma. |
| 240 | * OOCIsSeriousBusiness: She will talk in complete sentences when she absolutely has to, shocking anyone who knows her in the process. |
| 241 | * OxygenMeter: There's no actual meter, but Scout kills a Menmaren (frog-man) which allows her to hold her breath for up to five minutes. |
| 242 | * PeekABang: Introduced with her hair hiding most of her face. |
| 243 | * TheQuietOne: Scout has barely spoken since she survived the Stranger attack that took her mother. [[TerseTalker She occasionally drops one word sentences, but that's pretty much it.]] |
| 244 | ** Apparently she's better at the Quiet Game than ''[[CompanionCube Herbie]]''. |
| 245 | * SecretKeeper: [[spoiler: Scout's the only one who knows that Avalon is the one who got Herbie his eyes.]] |
| 246 | * SmallGirlBigGun: Her gun is as long as she is tall. |
| 247 | * SuperSenses: Scout's hearing becomes sensitive enough to listen in on conversations a hundred feet away. |
| 248 | * TeleportGun: They're not big enough for a person, but Scout's rifle can create and shoot small portals. Scout can not only look through them, extending her vision, she can also shoot through them, which both extends her firing range and allows her to shoot around corners. |
| 249 | * WellIntentionedExtremist: [[spoiler: Scout is dead set on undoing the memory spell that erased Joselyn Atherby, knowing full well that doing so will likely tear families apart and reignite a war. Not because she wants to restart the revolution (although she does), but because she's absolutely ''disgusted'' by the sheer scale of the spell and how many people's personalities were rewritten because of it.]] |
| 250 | [[/folder]] |
| 251 | |
| 252 | [[folder: Columbus Porter]] |
| 253 | Shiori Porter's brother, Columbus is just under six feet tall. Black skin with a thin, yet athletic build like that of a runner. Uniform is consistently rumpled and is lined with light blue trim. Development track. Wears goggles that are capable of various functions including telescopic vision, night vision, a concussive force beam, and more. Bystander-kin. His Heretic aura is white. |
| 254 | ---- |
| 255 | * [[BigBrotherInstinct Adoptive Brother Instinct]]: Columbus is very protective of Shiori. |
| 256 | * AmazonChaser: Is slightly aroused by the sight of Nevada shredding her way through a crowd of zombies. |
| 257 | * AscendedFanboy: He's a big fan of {{ComicBook/Cyclops}}. Now he's learning to fight monsters at an AcademyOfAdventure, complete with goggles that shoot a [[EyeBeams concussive force beam]]! |
| 258 | ** When his sister tells him that she's a {{Dhampyr}}, he thinks it's just about the coolest thing ever. |
| 259 | --> '''Columbus''': You're like {{ComicBook/Blade}}. Only better because you're Shiori. |
| 260 | * BarehandedBladeBlock: With the assistance of a forcefield power, he can casually do this even to energy weapons. |
| 261 | * ChivalrousPervert: Occasionally makes sex jokes and lampshades double entendres about his teammates (although he doesn't even think about them when his sister's involved), but he helps defend Avalon when Trice tries to kill her because of an overly sexist reason. |
| 262 | * DoesntTrustThoseGuys: Develops a rather intense and totally understandable hatred of Seosten that extends even to those that aren't part of the Empire [[spoiler: after all the torment Charmeine put him through]]. |
| 263 | * TheDogBitesBack: [[spoiler: Helps Flick kill Charmeine by shooting her when she's not expecting it, after she had dismissed him as beaten and broken.]] |
| 264 | * ExtraOreDinary: Like Shiori, Columbus gains the power to control up to 25 pounds of metal. |
| 265 | * GogglesDoSomethingUnusual: Columbus' goggles are a kickass SwissArmyWeapon |
| 266 | * HappilyAdopted: His parents died in a plane crash when he was a kid and he was adopted by the Porters years later. He's happy there, and is close to his sister, Shiori. |
| 267 | * InnocentInnuendo: Upon realizing Flick managed to awaken Shiori's inner PungeonMaster that had been suppressed due to her depression, Columbus asks Flick if she "turned [Shiori] on". Flick and Shiori, who are developing an attraction to each other, choke as they realize it, leaving Columbus to wonder why they're reacting like that. |
| 268 | * IntergenerationalFriendship: [[spoiler: Becomes a friend to Risa Kohaku as a result of their shared experiences as Seosten hosts.]] |
| 269 | * ItsTheBestWhateverEver: As far as Columbus is concerned, the day he learns that his sister Shiori is half-vampire and has the full-vampire "superhero detective bodyguard" Asenath for a half-sister (which Senny declares makes her his sister as well) is "basically the best day of [his] life." |
| 270 | * TheMole: [[spoiler: Not Columbus, but a Seosten that's taken [[DemonicPossession possession]] of him.]] |
| 271 | * SecretKeeper: Once Shiori works up the nerve to tell him her DarkSecret. |
| 272 | * SuperToughness: After killing an Orc, Columbus becomes tough enough to tank most mundane attacks. |
| 273 | * UnskilledButStrong: [[spoiler: Inherits a ''lot'' of powers after Charmeine kills Josiah Carfried while possessing him.]] |
| 274 | [[/folder]] |
| 275 | |
| 276 | [[folder: Sean Gerardo]] |
| 277 | Another members of Flick's team. Five foot nine inches tall. Hispanic boy with long, shaggy dark hair who is muscular in a wiry sort of way. Not quite a body builder, but definitely toned. Uniform is lined with white trim. Security track. His weapon is a mechanical dog named Vulcan who can transform into a minigun. Heretic-born. |
| 278 | ---- |
| 279 | * BerserkButton: People acting like they can do whatever they want without consequences. Hardly an unusual thing to make someone angry, but hearing about things like this pisses Sean off ''fast''. |
| 280 | * BloodMagic: Has the same blood-sensing ability as Flick. |
| 281 | * CoolUncle: Sean has two, his uncles Sebastian and Mateo (Sebastian's boyfriend). He adores both of them. |
| 282 | * DashingHispanic: He's trying to be one. Whether or not he's succeeding is up for debate, but he's certainly attractive enough for it. |
| 283 | * DishingOutDirt: Can transmute up to 20 pounds of solid, non-living material into sand. |
| 284 | * LonelyRichKid: Has shades of this when he mentions that his parents don't really have time for each other, much less him. Sean was pretty much raised by servants during school years and his uncle over summer breaks. It doesn't seem to bother all that much. |
| 285 | * MrFanservice: Sean is a very attractive young man, as Flick repeatedly notes. And he's fully aware of it. His roommate Columbus accuses him of being "allergic to shirts" because he's constantly going without them in their dorm room. |
| 286 | * OxygenMeter: Not literally, but Sean can hold his breath for up to eight minutes after he kills a couple of Menmaren (frog-men). |
| 287 | * RobotDog: Vulcan, his buddy who can transform into a freaking minigun. |
| 288 | * TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Delivers a pretty awesome one of these to Trice about his brother Torv. |
| 289 | [[/folder]] |
| 290 | |
| 291 | !! Andrew Bruhn's Team |
| 292 | |
| 293 | [[folder: Andrew Bruhn]] |
| 294 | The mentor of Shiori's team. Much better at it than Deveron (which isn't saying much). Stocky in a muscular way. His skin is pale and dotted with freckles, while his eyes are very intense green. He has long light blonde hair that falls to his shoulders. His uniform has the green trim for Hunters. The weapon he uses is a crossbow of unexplained power. |
| 295 | ---- |
| 296 | * BigBrotherMentor: Pretty much his style of mentoring his team. He spends time both hanging out with and actually training them. |
| 297 | * NiceGuy: He spends time playing video games with his team. |
| 298 | [[/folder]] |
| 299 | |
| 300 | [[folder: Shiori Porter]] |
| 301 | Columbus' adopted sister, Shiori is a petite Asian-American girl who quickly distinguishes herself as an exceptional student on the Hunter track and a naturally talented fighter. Bystander-Kin with a red Heretic aura. Her reflexes and hand-eye coordination are practically superpowers. |
| 302 | |
| 303 | This is because they ''are'' superpowers. [[HybridPower Hybrid Powers]], to be exact. [[{{Dhampyr}} Shiori's biological mother is the vampire Jiao]], making her Asenath's half-sister. Her birth name is Reathma. |
| 304 | ---- |
| 305 | * [[BigBrotherInstinct Adoptive Sister Instinct]]: The thought of Columbus being hurt or in danger is pretty much the only thing that can make Shiori stop dwelling on her DarkSecret. |
| 306 | * BettyAndVeronica: Is the Betty to Flick's Archie and Avalon's Veronica. |
| 307 | * BrownNote: Is eventually able to produce a note that stuns targets for varying lengths of time, depending on the willpower of those affected by it. |
| 308 | * CannotSpitItOut: Shiori can't work up the courage to speak to Flick about her feelings because she had a very bad experience coming out to her now former best friend, who she had similar feelings for and who harshly rejected her. |
| 309 | * DarkSecret: And she feels like she can't trust ''anyone'' with it, even her own brother, because she's terrified that she'll be killed if it gets out that her mother is a vampire. |
| 310 | * DeadlyDisc: Shiori's weapons are a pair of discs that conduct an electrical current. |
| 311 | * ElementalShapeshifter: Gains the ability to shift into a state where she's made of tough sand. |
| 312 | * ExhaustedEyeBags: All the stress over her DarkSecret keeps Shiori from getting any sleep. |
| 313 | * ExtraOreDinary: Gets two powers involving metal. The first (which she shares with Columbus) is the ability to manipulate up to 25 pounds of it. The second allows her to see and hear through any bit of metal she's touched and "locked on" to. |
| 314 | * {{Foil}}: To Flick and Vanessa. |
| 315 | ** Shiori's inability to trust anyone with her secrets takes a serious toll on her mental and physical health. Meanwhile, Flick makes a conscious effort to share information with her friends and allies as much as reasonably can, which unloads a fair amount of stress. |
| 316 | *** Shiori and Flick are both horrified to learn of their Stranger relatives. But Shiori's reaction is irrational compared to Flick's, as her mother Jiao and half-sister Asenath are perfectly decent people (who she's never even met) while Flick sees firsthand that her half-brother Ammon really is as much of a monster as Crossroads claims all Strangers are. |
| 317 | ** Like Shiori, Vanessa is the child of a Stranger. Unlike Shiori, Vanessa actually knew her mother growing up and therefore does not believe the Crossroads propaganda saying that all Strangers are monsters. |
| 318 | * HalfHumanHybrid: A {{Dhampyr}}, to be precise. Her mother is a vampire, her father is (probably) a human. |
| 319 | * InnateNightVision: She has a much easier time seeing in the dark than most people. This is yet another of her [[HybridPower Hybrid Powers]]. |
| 320 | * InternalizedCategorism: Shiori is ''horrified'' to learn of her heritage, as the Crossroads teachings lead her to believe that it makes her just as much of a monster as her biological family supposedly is. |
| 321 | * InternalReformist: Once she comes to terms with her DarkSecret, Shiori throws herself into training to prove that part-Alters like her are not monsters and have a place at Crossroads. |
| 322 | * LongLostRelative: Asenath is Shiori's much older half-sister, and Jiao is their mother. Shiori has never met either of them, and they haven't seen her since she was an infant. |
| 323 | * PungeonMaster: Very fond of wordplay. Her puns range from brilliant to painful. |
| 324 | * RescueRomance: In a sense. There's not a lot of life-saving involved, but Shiori starts crushing pretty hard on Flick after she helps her come to terms with her DarkSecret. |
| 325 | * TheRival: Has a low key, good natured rivalry going on with Avalon in their combat class. They enjoy sparring with each other. |
| 326 | * SuperSenses: [Her hearing and sight are noticeably better than an average human's. |
| 327 | * SuperStrength: Gains enhanced strength from killing an orc. |
| 328 | * TomatoInTheMirror: Shiori discovers that she's part-Stranger when the Edge shows her the day her mother gave her up for adoption. |
| 329 | * WallCrawl: Her first hunt gave Shiori the ability to walk on walls and ceilings. |
| 330 | * WhenSheSmiles: Her face lights up when the stress over her DarkSecret finally starts letting up and she starts smiling like she did before coming to Crossroads. |
| 331 | [[/folder]] |
| 332 | |
| 333 | [[folder: Koren Fellows]] |
| 334 | A Bystander-kin student on the same team as Shiori, and taking the Investigation track along with Flick, Sands, and Scout. Aylen Tamaya's roommate. Weapon consists of a pair of four-bladed African tribal weapons known as Hunga Munga. [[spoiler: Her mother Abigail is Joselyn and Deveron's daughter, which makes her Flick's niece, among other things.]] |
| 335 | ---- |
| 336 | * BlueBlood: [[spoiler: As a descendant of a Knight of the Round Table.]] |
| 337 | * BrainBleach: Her reaction to meeting Weston and his girlfriends, [[spoiler: once she realizes that he's implying that he has them (a blonde and an Asian girl) "roleplay" Avalon's relationship with Flick and Shiori.]] |
| 338 | * TheBully: She grows out of this the first year goes on, but in the beginning Koren is mean to pretty much everyone. Her first notable act in the story is when she tries to toss Vanessa through the Crossroads barrier. |
| 339 | * ClosetGeek: Makes a surprising reference to ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' that flies right over Flick's head. |
| 340 | * TheCynic: When Professor Dare assigns her a solved case she was personally involved in for homework, Koren is immediately suspicious of her motives. The possibility that Dare might be trying to give her closure out of simple altruism never occurs to her. [[spoiler: Granted, she's probably right in this specific case, but still.]] |
| 341 | * DontYouDarePityMe: Gives off this vibe by getting angry whenever Flick shows her sympathy over her childhood encounter with The Hiding Man. |
| 342 | * DoubleStandard: Often judges people for things she's guilty of. Like when she calls Flick rude for taking a book out of her hand even though she did the same thing (with the same book) minutes earlier. Or more seriously, when she assumes Avalon is a SpoiledBrat after she throws her to the ground and berates her while ignoring the fact that Avalon only did that to stop her from throwing Vanessa into the Crossroads Barrier. When called out on this, Koren falls back on the JustJokingJustification. |
| 343 | * DoWrongRight: The first time she's confronted with Flick's [[BadLiar poorly thought out excuses]], she responds by giving her her a tip on coming up with something believable. |
| 344 | * DualWielding: Koren wields a pair of Hunga Munga, African throwing weapons. [[spoiler: Just like her grandma.]] |
| 345 | * HiddenDepths: She has a sharp mind, naturally suited for the Investigation track. |
| 346 | ** There are moments where Koren displays a remarkable degree of sensitivity to others... but this comes and goes seemingly at random. You never quite know what to expect with her. |
| 347 | ** She's also able to put her aside her personal opinion of people while judging their actions, as proven by her correct assessment that all the gossipers are wrong and Avalon [[spoiler: is neither a spy nor responsible for the murder of Professor Pericles]] while still viewing her as an arrogant bitch. |
| 348 | * InnocentlyInsensitive: Koren isn't trying to be mean, she just lacks self-awareness and doesn't think her actions all the way through. Although she pushes the limits of this trope because her "innocent" remarks are often very mean-spirited. |
| 349 | * JustJokingJustification: Besides the aforementioned incident with the school's barrier, Koren consistently calls Vanessa a nerd and claims that it's meant to be a compliment. No one believes her. |
| 350 | * LongLostRelative: [[spoiler: Joselyn and Deveron are Koren's maternal grandparents, which means Flick is her aunt, Wyatt and Ammon are her uncles, and Seller is one of her ancestors.]] |
| 351 | * NoSell: [[spoiler: Like all their close relatives, Koren is immune to Ammon's CompellingVoice. This isn't entirely a good thing, because the information puts her family right in Fossor's crosshairs.]] |
| 352 | * PlayingWithFire: Played with. Koren doesn't actually have any fire powers, but she does become fireproof. |
| 353 | * ProperlyParanoid: Koren is a suspicious person and, tying into her surprisingly insightful mind, she's often right. |
| 354 | ** When Professor Dare has the Investigation track students look at a Stranger attack on a gas station and Flick unintentionally picks up the same products the Stranger did, Koren suspects that Flick is somehow connected. She's right, as the Stranger in question was Flick's half-brother Ammon ([[spoiler:who is also Koren's uncle]]). |
| 355 | ** When Dare pairs Flick and Koren up for two different projects in as many weeks, she starts wondering if the teacher has an ulterior motive. [[spoiler: She does, because she knows that Flick and Koren are related.]] |
| 356 | ** It's implied that Koren's Edge vision involved [[spoiler: her grandmother, Joselyn Atherby]], and for whatever reasons she's keeping this information to herself. This is a very smart move. |
| 357 | * SurvivorsGuilt: She's implied to have this because she escaped The Hiding Man as a child while a number of her friends and neighbors did not. [[spoiler: Even if she didn't have it then, she definitely gets it after learning that he abducted them to make Crossroads more likely to accept her as a student.]] |
| 358 | * ThickerThanWater: [[spoiler: Played Straight and Averted at the same time. Koren becomes more protective of Flick when she learns that she's her aunt while her opinion of Ammon (understandably) doesn't change at all.]] |
| 359 | * TookALevelInKindness: She mellows out considerably over the first year of school. [[spoiler: Tragically, this is largely because of her father's death and learning about her maternal family's history.]] |
| 360 | * WhatTheHellHero: [[spoiler: For a number of reasons, Koren is furious to learn that Flick knew about their relation for two weeks and didn't tell her.]] |
| 361 | [[/folder]] |
| 362 | |
| 363 | %%[[folder: Stephen Kinder]] |
| 364 | %%Gavin Rish's roommate. Short at slightly under five foot five, but muscular in build. Uniform is lined with blue for the development track. Weapon is a long spear. Heretic-born. His Heretic aura is pale yellow. |
| 365 | %%---- |
| 366 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 367 | |
| 368 | %%[[folder: Gavin Rish]] |
| 369 | %%Stephen Kinder's roommate. Very tall, though quite thin boy whose uniform is lined with the white of the security track. His weapon is a shotgun with three barrels. Heretic-born. |
| 370 | %%---- |
| 371 | %%* ShotgunsAreJustBetter: Well, duh. |
| 372 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 373 | |
| 374 | [[folder: Aylen Tamaya]] |
| 375 | Koren's roommate. Native American girl, tall and regal looking. Wears the skirt version of the uniform with red trim for Explorers. Weapon is a mechanical hawk named Sovereign. She's a bystander-kin with some secrets of her own. |
| 376 | ---- |
| 377 | * AnimalEyeSpy: Aylen can see what Sovereign sees. Which, ''technically'' would be a SurveillanceDrone, but Sovereign is realistic enough for this. |
| 378 | * InstantArmor: Sovereign can transform to cover Aylen in a suit of full body armor. |
| 379 | * TheMole: [[spoiler: For her mothers to rescue her grandfather, the reaper who became the Heretical Edge.]] |
| 380 | * RobotBuddy: Come on, who wouldn't want a mechanical hawk for a pet? |
| 381 | * TranquilFury: She maintains her composure when someone insults one of her teammates while letting Sovereign go after them. |
| 382 | * UnevenHybrid: [[spoiler: She's a quarter-Reaper through her mother Bastet and part werecrow through her other mother Sonoma.]] |
| 383 | [[/folder]] |
| 384 | |
| 385 | %%[[folder: Rebecca Jameson]] |
| 386 | %%Shiori's roommate. Just under five feet tall, tiny girl with black hair cut short into a pixie cut. Wears the blue uniform of development. Her weapon is a massive cannon that doubles as a backpack. Heretic-born. |
| 387 | %%---- |
| 388 | %%* BackpackCannon |
| 389 | %%* SmallGirlBigGun: Even more so than Scout. Not only is Rebecca's gun bigger, she's also shorter. |
| 390 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 391 | |
| 392 | !!Cameron Reid's Team |
| 393 | |
| 394 | [[folder: Cameron Reid]] |
| 395 | The mentor for Vanessa Moon's team. Also a much better mentor than Deveron. Black tomboy with an affinity for lizards. She wears the pants version of the uniform with the Hunter track’s green trim. Uses a pair of short swords of unknown ability. Bystander-kin. |
| 396 | ---- |
| 397 | * DualWielding: Uses two short swords. |
| 398 | * ParrotPetPosition: She has a pet lizard that rides on her shoulder. |
| 399 | [[/folder]] |
| 400 | |
| 401 | [[folder: Vanessa Moon]] |
| 402 | A shy girl who surprisingly chose to take the Explorer track. Vanessa would spend all her free time in the library if her teammate and roommate Erin didn't push her into being more social. She's Bystander-kin, and was recruited by Crossroads out of the foster care system. She lost her family when at age seven when they were attacked by a Stranger and wound up being separated across multiple words. Vanessa accepted Crossroads' offer in order to find them. |
| 403 | |
| 404 | Of course, the situation is a bit more complicated than that. Vanessa and her twin brother Tristan's father, Haiden Moon, was an Eden's Garden Heretic. Their mother, Sariel, is a Seosten, formerly of the Empire. Both defected from their respective factions to get married. The Stranger that attacked them was one of Sariel's former comrades attempting to drag her back into service. On the plus side, being [[HalfHumanHybrid Half-Human Hybrids]] has given Vanessa and Tristan some neat [[HybridPower powers]]. |
| 405 | ---- |
| 406 | * {{Foil}}: For Flick and Shiori. Despite her near-crippling shyness Vanessa might be the most well adjusted of the three of them since she lacks Shiori's [[InternalizedCategorism self-loathing]] and Flick's abandonment issues as well as her intense [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone guilt]]. |
| 407 | ** Vanessa and Shiori both have a Stranger for a mother (a Seosten and a vampire, respectively). But Sariel Moon was present for Vanessa's early life, while Jiao gave Shiori up for adoption when she was an infant. Therefore, Vanessa easily sees through the Crossroads propaganda about Strangers while Shiori completely buys into it. |
| 408 | ** Like Flick, Vanessa's mission in life is to find and save her family. Unlike Flick, Vanessa was actually present for the event that split them up and grew up knowing the truth of what happened. |
| 409 | * HalfHumanHybrid: This is the root cause of her perfect PhotographicMemory. Her mother is a Seosten. She starts to grow into more Seosten powers as time goes on. |
| 410 | * HalfIdenticalTwins: Her brother Tristan looks like a male version of her. |
| 411 | * IWillFindYou: Vanessa's goal in life is to find her scattered family. |
| 412 | * PhotographicMemory: She remembers pretty much everything she sees. Names, dates, the fourteenth word of the third paragraph of page 153 of that book she read last month, ''everything''. |
| 413 | ** This is a hybrid power. It's full, absolutely perfect memory, and it also provides a limited defense against memory magic. |
| 414 | * ShrinkingViolet |
| 415 | * SuperSenses: Gains telescopic vision in the course of being on the Explorer track. |
| 416 | * TrademarkFavoriteFood: Potatoes. Vanessa ''loves'' eating potatoes. |
| 417 | * [[BigBrotherInstinct Twin Sister Instinct]]: Vanessa loves her brother fiercely, and is just as desperate to find him as their parents. |
| 418 | * UnwantedAssistance: Vanessa understands why Erin is always pulling her out of the library to be more social, but she would really rather stay in and read. She's not doing it for pleasure (although she does enjoy it), she's trying to find any information that might help her find her family. She's also researching what exactly her Stranger mother is. |
| 419 | * WeaponSpecialization: Her weapon is a whip that can exchange inanimate materials from one object to another. |
| 420 | [[/folder]] |
| 421 | |
| 422 | [[folder: Zeke Leven]] |
| 423 | Malcolm's roommate. Zeke is a Heretic-born student who chose the Security track. His weapon is a shield with various offensive functions. |
| 424 | ---- |
| 425 | * AbhorrentAdmirer: "Abhorrent" is probably overstating things, but Zeke has a crush on Sands that she is aware of and does not reciprocate. |
| 426 | * BlackAndWhiteMorality: Much like Sands ([[spoiler:at first]]), Zeke is firmly convinced of the AlwaysChaoticEvil of both Strangers and Eden's Garden Heretics. |
| 427 | * ButtMonkey: Every other appearance has someone embarrassingly shut him down. |
| 428 | * EntitledToHaveYou: Seems to be Sands' opinion of his crush on her: |
| 429 | --> '''Sands''': Our parents used to make us play together as kids and he was a selfish jerk then too. Now he thinks I should be his girlfriend or something just because we spent some time in the sandbox when we were five. I ate worms back then too, and you don’t see me doing that anymore. |
| 430 | * FantasticRacism: On top the standard "all Strangers are monsters" line, Zeke also looks down on Bystanders. Flick explicitly compares his use of the word Silverstone to "the way ''certain'' people used derogatory terms for people who weren’t Caucasian." |
| 431 | * {{Jerkass}}: Zeke is an asshole. An unpleasant, patronizing asshole. |
| 432 | * KnowNothingKnowItAll: At one point he insists that Denuvus is made up in a room that includes [[spoiler: Nevada]], who has an ''extensive'' history with Denuvus. |
| 433 | * [[LikeFatherUnlikeSon Like Mother, Unlike Son]]: Zeke's apple didn't really fall far from Sophronia's tree as much as someone picked it up and threw it. The lady is a lot more personable than her youngest son's personality would suggest. [[spoiler: She's also a reformer while he's a hardliner.]] |
| 434 | * MassiveNumberedSiblings: Zeke has roughly twenty older siblings, the natural result of having a parent that's almost a thousand years old. He's the youngest by a number of decades. |
| 435 | * MommasBoy: Zeke's mom is his hero, and she almost dotes on him in turn, sending him regular care packages at school. |
| 436 | * SmugSnake: Often right before the aforementioned shutting down. |
| 437 | * SpoiledBrat: His condescension and entitlement complex are the result of his mother being on the Committee. |
| 438 | [[/folder]] |
| 439 | |
| 440 | [[folder: Erin Redcliffe]] |
| 441 | A Heretic-born student. Erin takes it upon herself to make sure Vanessa (who is also her roommate) gets out of the library often enough to have a social life. |
| 442 | ---- |
| 443 | * CoolSword: Her weapon is a sword that's enchanted to [[BlowYouAway control the wind.]] |
| 444 | * HappilyAdopted: By Nolan Redcliffe. |
| 445 | * ParentalAbaondoment: Erin's biological father left their family when she was three to run off with a girl on the colonies. Her mother was killed when she was around 8. |
| 446 | [[/folder]] |
| 447 | |
| 448 | [[folder: Rudolph Parsons]] |
| 449 | A very pale Heretic-born student with white-blonde hair. Travis Colby's roommate. On the chubby side. Wears the investigation track’s purple trim. Weapon is a bow and arrow. Heretic-born. |
| 450 | ---- |
| 451 | * BackFromTheDead: [[spoiler: Cruelly subverted when he shows up a few minutes after Flick wishes he was still alive... because she unconsciously activated her new necromancy powers and made him into a zombie by accident.]] |
| 452 | * KilledOffForReal: [[spoiler: In brutally offhanded fashion by Manakel.]] |
| 453 | * NiceGuy |
| 454 | * MeaningfulFuneral: [[spoiler: His funeral is used by the Crossroads leadership to symbolize the defeat of the Strangers that killed him (who are not actually defeated and just manipulating the Heretics into thinking they are). His friend Doug is not amused.]] |
| 455 | * MellowFellow: A generally laid back guy. At least until you start insulting people he cares about. |
| 456 | * SpannerInTheWorks: [[spoiler: To Isaac's assignment to get his team to incriminate Flick to the Committee. Rudolph keeps messing it up by revealing details about how she recognized Fossor's name, which in turn raises enough questions about the situation to keep them from going full InspectorJavert on her.]] |
| 457 | * TheStoic: He doesn't emote much because of the way his father (who was born and raised in Victorian England) raised him. |
| 458 | [[/folder]] |
| 459 | |
| 460 | %%[[folder: Travis Colby]] |
| 461 | %%Rudolph's roommate. Black guy of average height with a body builder’s physique. Wears his hair in cornrows. His uniform has the purple trim for the investigation track. Uses a long, heavy sword with explosive properties. Bystander-kin. |
| 462 | %%---- |
| 463 | %%* CoolSword: It makes things go boom. |
| 464 | %%[[/folder]] |
| 465 | |
| 466 | [[folder: Malcolm Harkess]] |
| 467 | Zeke's roommate. Stands an inch under six feet, handsome in an obvious jock sort of way. Square jaw, with hazel eyes and a stare that turns into a glower easily. Uniform has the blue trim of developers. His weapon of choice is a sledgehammer that is capable of instantly transporting its wielder to any of the last ten spots that the hammer struck. Bystander-kin |
| 468 | ---- |
| 469 | * AlwaysSecondBest: He's a talented fighter, having been trained before coming to Crossroads, but both Shiori and Avalon are better than him. |
| 470 | * BlackAndWhiteMorality: Applies a straightforward sense of good and evil even to human conflicts like the AmericanRevolution, citing the presence of vampire redcoats in his vision as proof of who the good guys were. |
| 471 | * TheRival: To Avalon in their combat class. Katarin often pairs them up to spar, and they apparently don't like each other. He really wants to beat her just once. |
| 472 | %%* {{Teleportation}} |
| 473 | [[/folder]] |
| 474 | |
| 475 | [[folder: Tristan Moon]] |
| 476 | Vanessa's [[HalfIdenticalTwins Half Identical Twin]] brother. He's an exceptionally talented gymnast, apparently near Olympic level when when was seven years old. He got sucked into another world by the stepping-stone that sent his parents to different worlds. Tristan eventually ended up with the Meregan, but can't return to earth because the magic that sent him there is keeping him there. He meets Flick and Shiori on their homeworld. He's only about twelve at that point because he spent five years TakenForGranite with the Meregan. |
| 477 | |
| 478 | After another five years, the Meregan manage to get him back to Earth by "anchoring" him to Flick, just a few weeks after they first met. Thanks to the TimeTravel, he's back to being the same age as his sister. Tristan then enrolls in Crossroads Academy as a transfer student and reunites with his sister. |
| 479 | ---- |
| 480 | * BookDumb: He's not great with studying or mathematics, which drives his highly academic sister a little nuts. |
| 481 | ** Mainly because he has no interest in academic work. He's actually quite smart, though not as smart as his sister. |
| 482 | * BigManOnCampus: He becomes this within days of transferring to Crossroads Academy. |
| 483 | * CheerfulChild: Despite what happened when he was seven, Tristan managed to hold on to a cheerful disposition up to the age of twelve (which is how old he is when he first meets Flick and Shiori thanks to time spent TakenForGranite). It cracks at times, as is to be expected, but his excitement over being on a spaceship is proof that his cheer is completely genuine. |
| 484 | * HalfHumanHybrid: His mother is a Seosten, his father is a Heretic. And much like his sister, he gets a neat HybridPower out of it, his inhuman physicality. |
| 485 | * HalfIdenticalTwin: When they were children, Tristan looked like a male version of his sister. Judging by Flick's descriptions though, they eventually grew out of this. |
| 486 | * InnocentFanserviceGuy: The Meregan have no nudity taboo, a trait Tristan inherited after years of living with them. He's [[NakedOnArrival completely nude]] upon reuniting with Flick on Earth, and is bewildered by her freaked-out reaction. |
| 487 | * LaserGuidedAmnesia: He can't remember the names of his family or the details of how he got sent away from Earth. ''Some'' memories of Vanessa are restored when they reunite, but only enough for him to remember who she is. |
| 488 | * NewTransferStudent: He joins the student body of Crossroads Academy a couple of months after the semester starts. |
| 489 | * PrecociousCrush: Flick and Shiori are the first human girls Tristan met in five years, right at the onset of puberty. He grew up with the memory of them and still has a bit of a crush on them when they all end up the same age. He also was enamored with Avalon when he first met her, but he seems to have focused on Flick. |
| 490 | * SpikeShooter: Through the use of metal "feathers" he can grow. |
| 491 | * TakenForGranite: Spent an extended period of time as a statue. As a result, he has temporarily biologically five years younger than his twin sister, until time travel related shenanigans undid that. |
| 492 | * TrappedInAnotherWorld: The stepping stone that sent him to the Meregan world is keeping him there. They've sent him back to earth three times. He returned seconds later each time. |
| 493 | ** Later, they finally get around this by binding him to an "anchor," although he's still technically trapped because he has to be in the same dimension as the anchor in question. He's initially anchored to Flick, though Gaia later shifts the anchor to Vanessa. |
| 494 | [[/folder]] |
| 495 | |
| 496 | !!Marina Dupont's Team |
| 497 | [[folder: Marina Dupont]] |
| 498 | Marina is a tall, pale, willowy girl with short brown hair who wields a corseque of unknown special ability. Heretic-born. Her uniform is the skirt version, and has the blue coloring of the Development track. |
| 499 | ---- |
| 500 | * LockedOutOfTheLoop: Her team doesn't fully trust her with their secrets, [[spoiler: which reaches tragic levels when everyone on her original team save Doug either dies or disappears and she can only blame herself because she doesn't know anything about what's really going on.]] |
| 501 | [[/folder]] |
| 502 | |
| 503 | [[folder: Jasmine "Jazz" Rhodes]] |
| 504 | A fairly tall black girl at a couple inches short of six feet, with long hair that’s evenly dyed purple on one half and pink on the other. Jazz wears the skirt version of the uniform with the Explorer track’s red trim. Her weapon is a falchion whose blade separates to reveal a barrel that produces flames which the wielder is capable of controlling via motions from the sword itself. Heretic-born. |
| 505 | |
| 506 | Jazz is a member of the Torchbearers, an independent Heretic group that periodically sends students to Crossroads Academy and Eden's Garden for instruction to become Lightwalkers, the Edge-Heretics who lead the group. |
| 507 | ---- |
| 508 | * EveryoneHasStandards: She's very reluctant to come around to the idea that Strangers aren't evil], but agrees that ending the revolution by rewriting people's memories was an unambiguously evil act. |
| 509 | * HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler: Comes around to the side of the revolution during Uprising, as she sees Alters acting like people.]] |
| 510 | * InnocentlyInsensitive: When she finds out [[spoiler:Roxa is a werewolf, she starts to think that the reason Roxa didn't become evil when she became a werewolf is that the Edge protected her. Roxa, who has a number of good friends who are werewolves and were never Heretics, is pissed at Jazz or saying these friends are inherently evil.]] |
| 511 | * InspectorJavert: Jazz becomes one of the most deeply suspicious of her team when they learn Flick knows something about [[spoiler: Roxa's disappearance.]] |
| 512 | * {{Invisibility}}: One of her powers to to turn herself an anyone touching her invisible. This also dampens potential observers' senses of smell and hearing. |
| 513 | * IShallTauntYou: Jazz is quite good at manipulating her opponents. |
| 514 | * InterspeciesRomance: [[spoiler: While Flick was separated from the team during Lessons, she and Jokai started dating.]] |
| 515 | * [[NormalFishInATinyPond Tiny Fish in a Normal Pond]]: [[spoiler: Jazz isn't weak or incompetent for a normal first year. But she is a normal first year, she's stuck in Seosten space, and her teammates are all abnormally strong and highly motivated. She's in way over her head.]] |
| 516 | * PlayingWithFire: Her sword produces controllable fire. |
| 517 | * SuperSmoke: She can shift into a state of light red smoke. |
| 518 | * TheoryTunnelvision: Jazz starts with the assumption that [[spoiler: Roxa's disappearance]] is an integral part of some nefarious plot. It was actually a complete accident. This colors her perception of all the information she gets. |
| 519 | * TookALevelInBadass: [[spoiler: Having a real reason to fight beyond obligation does wonders for her effectiveness.]] |
| 520 | * TheUnchosenOne: The Torchbearers periodically send the absolute ''best'' of their students to Crossroads Academy and Eden's Garden for instruction. Jazz herself is not one of those chosen few. She was simply the only Torchbearer child available after all the other candidates were killed in an attack. |
| 521 | * UnderestimatingBadassery: Jazz is quite a bit more cunning than some people give her credit for. Her InspectorJavert tendencies led her to a number of wrong conclusions, but that changes once she gets a clearer picture of what's going on. [[spoiler: Isaac writing her off leads to her cutting off his hand.]] |
| 522 | * UnwittingPawn: [[spoiler: To Isaac and the Seosten, who are manipulating her and her team to incriminate Flick to the Committee. All the team counts, but Jazz and Doug are the ones they have the easiest time with.]] |
| 523 | [[/folder]] |
| 524 | |
| 525 | [[folder: Paul Calburn]] |
| 526 | Paul is a cocky yet very gentlemanly boy from Kentucky on Marina's team. He’s six foot even, with sandy hair and a fairly average, unremarkable face. Wields a pair of hand-axes that he has nicknamed Pain and Panic. Each target struck by the weapons subsequently receive the physical damage dealt to every subsequent target (multiplied if dealt to the same target) struck by that weapon within the next 10 minutes. Wears the green trim of the Hunter track. Heretic-born with an orange Heretic aura. |
| 527 | ---- |
| 528 | * ArrogantKungFuGuy: A mild case, but Paul is noticeably sure of his combat prowess and doesn't like it when someone bests him. He's not mean about it, but it's there. |
| 529 | * BigBrotherInstinct: Towards all his slightly younger teammates, as a result of his actual younger brother's death. |
| 530 | * ElementalPowers: He can divide himself into neat pieces. Those pieces can then replace their missing body parts with elements like water and fire. So if you cut him in half, you have to deal with two of him. |
| 531 | * ICallItVera: He names his axes Pain and Panic. |
| 532 | * KillAndReplace: [[spoiler: He's killed by Isaac so a Fetch can take his place.]] |
| 533 | * TheLeader: Paul considers himself the leader of the team. Whether the others agree is an open question, but he does have a habit of playing peacekeeper and keeping everyone on track. [[spoiler: This is part of what gets him killed. He was level-headed enough that TheMole had to keep wiping their memories to stop them from just talking to Flick and gets taken out so said mole can have an easier time getting the team to incriminate her.]] |
| 534 | * TheMole: [[spoiler: Not him, but the Nocen Stranger that replaces him.]] |
| 535 | * MyGreatestFailure: His younger brother Rex died in an accident he could have prevented if he hadn't been busy with a game. It still haunts him, and his mother still blames him. |
| 536 | * RightForTheWrongReasons: Paul eventually becomes suspicious of Flick's skills rapid growth in skill and concludes that she isn't an ordinary student. He's right about that, but he thinks she's some kind of spy when she's really receiving extra training and getting attacked more often. |
| 537 | ** He also thinks its ridiculous that a supposedly Bystander-kin student was able to survive the peridle attack without a scratch and kill an Amarok. Again, he's right, but he never considers that Avalon or her and Flick's team did most of the heavy lifting in both cases. |
| 538 | * SouthernGentleman: Gives off this vibe. Paul is very polite, always holding the door and offering to help people. |
| 539 | * SpannerInTheWorks: [[spoiler: Posthumously screws up Isaac's plan to replace him and control their team by previously telling the others to overrule him by vote if they disagreed with one of his decisions.]] |
| 540 | * WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Paul's not fond of horses after an incident when he was eight and one bucked him off. |
| 541 | [[/folder]] |
| 542 | |
| 543 | [[folder: Roxanne "Roxa" Pittman]] |
| 544 | Roxanne is a blonde ‘surfer’ type girl who looks more like she belongs on a beach than fighting monsters. She's on the same team and track as Paul Calburn, she wears the green of the Hunter track on her pants version of the uniform, and her weapon is a mechanical cougar that transforms into a floating weapons platform/hoverboard. Bystander-kin. |
| 545 | ---- |
| 546 | * AngstWhatAngst: Even by Heretical Edge standards Roxa had a terrible childhood. It doesn't show. At all. |
| 547 | * {{Animorphism}}: [[spoiler: She's forcibly turned into a werewolf by Lemuel.]] |
| 548 | * DarkAndTroubledPast |
| 549 | * {{Determinator}}: Roxa is not the type of person to break under pressure. Not matter how much the odds are stacked against her, she will keep fighting, no matter what. |
| 550 | * HealingFactor: All Crossroads students obtain one early on, but Roxa's essentially gets supercharged when [[spoiler: she becomes a werewolf]]. |
| 551 | * LittleMissBadass: As a child, Roxa stabbed her last foster father in the hand when he tried to smack her around and then ran away to spent the next eight years of her life living on the streets. |
| 552 | * IAmWhatIAm: [[spoiler: By Field Trip Roxa has fully embraced being a werewolf. If other people don't like that? Tough. She's done with being embarrassed or ashamed about it.]] |
| 553 | * KryptoniteFactor: [[spoiler: Downplayed. Silver weapons cancel out a werewolf's healing factor. Roxa also has redundant organs and another, lesser healing factor, so it's not as nearly dangerous to her as it is for other werewolves. A silver blade through the heart didn't stop her when it would be a near instant kill on a normal werewolf.]] |
| 554 | * ParentalAbandonment: Her father went to prison for murdering her aunt, and her mother died not long after when she was a toddler. |
| 555 | * RobotBuddy: Gidget, a mechanical cougar that can transform into a hoverboard loaded with guns. |
| 556 | * SpareBodyParts: After killing a Jekern, Roxa starts growing redundant organs to take over bodily functions if the main ones are damaged. [[spoiler: When combined with her werewolf-empowered healing factor, it makes her really, ''really'' hard to kill.]] |
| 557 | * StreetUrchin: She ran away from her last foster home at the age of nine and lived on her own until Professor Pericles approached her. |
| 558 | * SuperSpeed: She's clocked at sixty miles per hour while sprinting. |
| 559 | * TookALevelInBadass: Roxa BEFORE [[spoiler: getting turned into a werewolf]]: Average first year student. Roxa now: Probably the strongest first year, roughly as strong or even stronger than Flick, who can mop the floor with two other first years at once. [[spoiler: She's also fought Hunahpu and Xbalanque Heretics with her pack.]] |
| 560 | ** Because she's a [[spoiler: werewolf like him,]] killing [[spoiler: Lemuel]] let her gain copies of ALL his powers. |
| 561 | * [[SurferDude Surfer Girl]]: One of her favorite things about Crossroads is that it has some of the best surf she's ever seen. Appropriately, Gidget transforms into a hoverboard for her to ride. |
| 562 | * WhatTheHellHero: She's understandably pissed to discover that Flick accidentally [[spoiler: pulled her into Eden's Garden, leading to Lemuel turning her into a werewolf, costing her a home at Crossroads]]. |
| 563 | * WillNotBeAVictim: This is ''the'' thought that drives her when things get tough. [[spoiler: When Lemuel turns her into a werewolf]], she survives by deciding that she's not going to let him win. |
| 564 | [[/folder]] |
| 565 | |
| 566 | [[folder: Douglas Frey]] |
| 567 | A short, skinny boy whose messy blonde hair is always covered by a black New York Rangers hat. Douglas wears the blue uniform for the Development track, and his ‘weapon’, such as it is, appears to be a simple black fountain pen. However, drawing any simple object (sword, ladder, door, shield, rope, etc) with the pen will allow that object to be stored within the pen’s memory. The pen may hold up to ten separate objects in its memory at a time. Whenever he wishes, the wielder may conjure a physical copy of that object that lasts for about ten minutes. Heretic-born. |
| 568 | ---- |
| 569 | * ArtAttacker: Can create stored objects with his pen. |
| 570 | * GenreSavvy: Would rather [[spoiler: talk to Flick about what's going on than report her to the Committee]] because he doesn't want to be "the character that comes in and fucks everything up because [[KnowNothingKnowItAll he thinks he knows what's going on, but he's wrong.]]" |
| 571 | * InspectorJavert: His entire team counts, but Doug does most of the initial work in investigating Flick after Roxa's disappearance, and his power to ask Questions is a central part of it. |
| 572 | * SpannerInTheWorks: Between his above moment of GenreSavvy and [[spoiler:his using his once-a-day power during the conversation]], he manages to completely derail [[spoiler:Isaac's plan to help the Seosten by exposing Flick and Gaia to the Committee.]] |
| 573 | * SwissArmyWeapon: His pen can make any simple object. |
| 574 | * TheoryTunnelvision: Like Jazz, Doug twists a lot of the information they learn about Flick and what she's doing to match their false conclusion [[spoiler: that Roxa's disappearance was an intended goal rather than an unlucky accident]]. |
| 575 | * UnderestimatingBadassery: Like most students, Doug dismisses Wyatt Rendell as an incompetent goof. He's visibly shocked when he glimpses how [[CrazyPrepared dangerous]] [[ObfuscatingStupidity the man]] [[WeakButSkilled really is]]. |
| 576 | * UnwittingPawn: [[spoiler: Along with Jazz. Isaac and his Seosten benefactors have an easier time manipulating the two of them to incriminate Flick to the Committee than the rest of their team.]] |
| 577 | [[/folder]] |
| 578 | |
| 579 | [[folder: Isaac Acosta]] |
| 580 | Isaac is a Hispanic boy with long, curly black hair and an incredibly expressive, daredevil style and personality. Loves to be the center of attention/clown, and enjoys making people laugh. Is incredibly out of place with Gordon as his roommate. His weapon is three-headed flail that is capable of launching any or all of the three spiked balls to function as independent flying drones to either spy on or attack the enemy. His uniform has the red trim of the Explorers. Bystander-kin. |
| 581 | ---- |
| 582 | * AttackDrone / SurveillanceDrone: The balls of his flail can become either. |
| 583 | * AxCrazy: [[spoiler: Killed his own sister. Only regrets not dragging it out for longer.]] |
| 584 | * BadassDecay: Justified. Isaac is dangerous, but most of the things he does heavily rely upon [[spoiler: Seosten support and being BeneathSuspicion]]. Without those advantages, he's much less of a threat. |
| 585 | * ColdBloodedTorture: [[spoiler:Begins his interlude by torturing a pixie.]] |
| 586 | * DisproportionateRetribution: [[spoiler:Murdered his sister because she was hogging the TV and making too much noise.]] |
| 587 | * HowDoIShotWeb: Issac acquired an enormous number of powers when he [[spoiler: killed Professor Katarin]], but he has no clue what they are. According to WordOfGod, he may have had danger sense powers warning him of [[spoiler: Jazz's sneak attack]] but he had no clue what the powers were saying and so didn't respond. |
| 588 | * JustBetweenYouAndMe: [[spoiler: Tells Paul a lot (but not everything) about his status as TheMole just before he murders him.]] |
| 589 | * KarmicDeath: [[spoiler: The traitor who so loves the shock on the faces of those he kills dies in shock when the person he though was here to extract him slits his throat.]] |
| 590 | * MasterActor: Considers himself to be this and holds a grudge against his sixth-grade teacher for only letting him be a tree in a play. [[spoiler:This came in handy when he had to pretend an intruder had killed his sister when he himself was really responsible. It also helps him play as TheMole.]] |
| 591 | * TheMole: [[spoiler: He was "tailored" by the Seosten to be on of their agents in Crossroads, and helps murder Professor Pericles.]] |
| 592 | * NeverMyFault: He never seems to consider the possibility that he's at fault when a plan goes awry. [[spoiler: The way his teammates derail his attempts to get them to point the Committee at Flick, for example. Isaac treats this as evidence of their stupidity, never realizing that his inability to manipulate them says more about his intelligence than theirs.]] |
| 593 | * NoSenseOfPersonalSpace: Repeatedly touches his roommate Gordon after the other boy makes it clear that he doesn't like it. |
| 594 | * {{Sadist}}: Genuinely enjoys the look of shock on Alters' faces before he kills them. |
| 595 | * SmugSnake: Isaac is intelligent, but not as smart or effective as he thinks he is. |
| 596 | ** He also has no ability whatsoever to properly assess threats,[[spoiler: calling Jazz an idiot even as she plays him for a sucker.]] |
| 597 | ** And even if he actually WAS every bit as smart as he thinks he is, he's still made many people vastly more intelligent, dangerous and experienced than he is very, very unhappy with him. |
| 598 | * {{Teleportation}}: He can transport himself and/or anyone he's touching anywhere that is both within his line and sight and unobstructed by physical objects (so he can't do it through windows). |
| 599 | * UnskilledButStrong: [[spoiler: Gains a lot of powers from killing the century old Katarin, but doesn't have enough time to figure out how to use those powers.]] |
| 600 | * WalkingSpoiler: Isaac's nasty side shows when [[spoiler:he kills Paul and reveals he's TheMole for the Seosten]]. Everything involving him after that incident relates to it. |
| 601 | * WolfInSheepsClothing: Isaac is a ''lot'' more ruthless and cruel than he lets on. [[spoiler: In reality, he's a flat out PsychoForHire.]] |
| 602 | * YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: [[spoiler: Chayyiel kills him as he no longer has any information useful to Athena or Gaia's conspiracy and she doesn't want to chance him causing problems. Also he disgusts her.]] |
| 603 | [[/folder]] |
| 604 | |
| 605 | [[folder: Gordon Kuhn]] |
| 606 | A dark-skinned boy who is overly serious all of the time, with very little sense of humor. Gordon carries what looks like a cross between a blackpowder rifle and a gangster’s tommy gun that splits apart into a shield and sword. Wears the white trim of the Security track. Heretic-Born on Marina's team. |
| 607 | |
| 608 | Gordon is yet another hybrid. His father is a Hrimthur, his mother is a Heretic. |
| 609 | ---- |
| 610 | * AnIcePerson: Can freeze anything that touches him, courtesy of his parentage. |
| 611 | ** Can also neutralize ice effects that touch him. |
| 612 | * {{Foil}}: To Shiori Porter and the Moon twins. All four students are hybrid students within Crossroads. |
| 613 | ** Shiori and Gordon both have negative reactions to being surrounded by Heretics with their heritage. The difference is that Shiori directs that toward herself (at first), while Gordon directs it to his classmates. |
| 614 | ** Gordon and the Moons all understand that Heretic propaganda about "Strangers" is just that, propaganda. But Gordon can't look past his distrust and fear of the people who would probably kill him if they knew what he was, while Vanessa and Tristan don't hold that attitude against their indoctrinated classmates. |
| 615 | * HalfHumanHybrid: His mother was a Heretic, yes. His father is a Hrimthur, a Norse ice giant. |
| 616 | * HatesBeingTouched: Because he's afraid he'll lose control of his skin temperature and expose himself. |
| 617 | * InspectorJavert: Towards Flick, but Gordon's motivations are slightly different than his teammates. [[spoiler: They want to expose her as a spy, Gordon wants to question her about where Eden's Garden might be keeping his father.]] |
| 618 | * InstantDeathRadius: [[spoiler: Once he stops holding back his ice powers everything that gets too close dies.]] |
| 619 | * IWillFindYou: Gordon's mission in life is to find his missing father, an Alter that was enslaved at Eden's Garden. |
| 620 | * MixAndMatchWeapon: A gun that becomes a sword and shield. |
| 621 | * NoSenseOfHumor: Noted multiple times to almost never laugh. He can't bring himself to relax around Heretics. |
| 622 | * PowerIncontinence: His ability to freeze things defaults to on and has to be deliberately suppressed. |
| 623 | * RequiredSecondaryPowers: Freezing attacks are utterly worthless against him, as expected from someone who has to consciously decide NOT to freeze everything around him solid. |
| 624 | * TheSpock: He's too emotional to really count, but he does try to approach most things with a logical mindset. |
| 625 | * TheStoic: Absolutely nothing visibly surprises Gordon. Ever. [[spoiler: Even when Flick starts dropping world-shaking revelations like the Seosten being responsible for the Bystander Effect and creating Crossroads, he remains outwardly calm.]] |
| 626 | [[/folder]] |
| 627 | |
| 628 | !!Miles Cleary's Team |
| 629 | |
| 630 | [[folder: Miles Cleary]] |
| 631 | Bystanderkin ... ok, actually a hybrid whose parents were kidnapped when he was six. Has a swarm of robot bees with lasers that can form various weapons and tools as his Heretic Weapon. |
| 632 | |
| 633 | * BeeBeeGun: A recursive one at that. |
| 634 | * HalfHumanHybrid: Half Kejjerfiet. AKA Boogeyman. The nice kind. |
| 635 | * SuperStrength: Could punch another teen across a room BEFORE using the edge. Hybrid power. |
| 636 | [[/folder]] |
| 637 | |
| 638 | [[folder: Chas Mena]] |
| 639 | * EvenEvilHasStandards: Not quite evil so much as manipulated into committing VanHelsingHateCrimes, but the whole team refuses to kill a pregnant Alter even before Miles does his reveal. |
| 640 | [[/folder]] |
| 641 | |
| 642 | [[folder: Jason Trips]] |
| 643 | * EvenEvilHasStandards: Not quite evil so much as manipulated into committing VanHelsingHateCrimes, but the whole team refuses to kill a pregnant Alter even before Miles does his reveal. |
| 644 | [[/folder]] |
| 645 | |
| 646 | [[folder: Kaleigh Ruffin]] |
| 647 | Short red head with a temper and a kind heart. |
| 648 | * EvenEvilHasStandards: Not quite evil so much as manipulated into committing VanHelsingHateCrimes, but the whole team refuses to kill a pregnant Alter even before Miles does his reveal. |
| 649 | [[/folder]] |
| 650 | |
| 651 | [[folder: Royce Jacoby]] |
| 652 | Heretic-born Slavic-looking blond boy. |
| 653 | ---- |
| 654 | * EvenEvilHasStandards: Not quite evil so much as manipulated into committing VanHelsingHateCrimes, but the whole team refuses to kill a pregnant Alter even before Miles does his reveal. |
| 655 | [[/folder]] |
| 656 | |
| 657 | [[folder: Emily Perry]] |
| 658 | * EvenEvilHasStandards: Not quite evil so much as manipulated into committing VanHelsingHateCrimes, but the whole team refuses to kill a pregnant Alter even before Miles does his reveal. |
| 659 | [[/folder]] |
| 660 | |
| 661 | !!Other Students |
| 662 | [[folder: Norbit Drish]] |
| 663 | A second year student at Crossroads and a friend of Deveron's. |
| 664 | ---- |
| 665 | * DoNotCallMePaul: Not fond of his first name. He prefers to be called Nizzle. |
| 666 | * GeekPhysiques: He's a scrawny guy, or at least as scrawny as you can get after spending a year at Crossroads. |
| 667 | * LastNameBasis: Nobody calls him Nizzle. Most people just use his last name. He's cool with that. |
| 668 | [[/folder]] |
| 669 | |
| 670 | [[folder: Hue]] |
| 671 | An upperclassman. |
| 672 | ---- |
| 673 | * DistractedByTheSexy: Namid has this to say as Flick leaves her and Hue behind. |
| 674 | --> '''Namid''': You know, dude, the last time I checked, the Baykok files weren’t stapled to her ass. |
| 675 | * GirlOnGirlIsHot: Hue thinks so, if his reaction to finding Flick and Shiori hugging is anything to go by. |
| 676 | * MomentKiller: He and Namid manage to interrupt Flick and Shiori ''just'' as Flick is bringing up their mutual feelings. |
| 677 | [[/folder]] |
| 678 | |
| 679 | [[folder: Namid]] |
| 680 | Another older student, one who looks Native American. Related to Litonya, on the Committee. |
| 681 | ---- |
| 682 | * ArbitrarySkepticism: Lives in a world where every manner of mythological creature exists, and yet laughs off the idea that angels could be among them. |
| 683 | %%* DeadpanSnarker |
| 684 | %%* FaceOfAThug |
| 685 | * MomentKiller: She and Hue kill a potential moment between Flick and Shiori together, but Namid double-taps it by kicking the two out of the room. |
| 686 | [[/folder]] |
| 687 | |
| 688 | [[folder: Harper Hayes]] |
| 689 | Another student in Flick's year who joins the Hunter Track in her second semester. She ends up grouped with Flick, Doug, and Russel as the newcomers to the class. |
| 690 | ---- |
| 691 | %%* GenkiGirl |
| 692 | * ThePollyanna: She's very friendly. At one point she brings candy for everyone on a hunting trip. |
| 693 | [[/folder]] |
| 694 | |
| 695 | [[folder: Russel Bailey]] |
| 696 | Another new transfer to the Hunter track. |
| 697 | ---- |
| 698 | * FormerTeenRebel: And that "former" is pretty recent. Something happened before his second semester at Crossroads to make him drop the attitude. |
| 699 | %%* {{Goth}}: Or at least he dresses like one. |
| 700 | [[/folder]] |
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