Characters / Gunnerkrigg Court – Annie's Inner Circle

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Shadow 2

A very young Glass-Eyed Man — a Living Shadow — from Gillitie Wood, and the first person at the Court to make Annie's acquaintance. He kicks off the plot of the comic by asking for Annie's help returning to his home, as the only way between the Court and the Woods is brightly lit to prevent Shadow-Men like himself from crossing. After a few months in the Woods, he meets Annie again, and jumps at the chance to go back to the Court with her.

It's explained in Chapter 35: Parley And Smitty Are In This One that he refused to hate the humans in the Court, which estranged him from his fellows in the forest and led to his family forcing him out.

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Associated tropes:

• Ambiguous Gender: Mentioned early on. Because he learned how to speak by copying Annie, he sounded like her for some time, but eventually developed his own male identity that he continues when he becomes three dimensional
• Bizarre Alien Biology: The Glass-Eyed Men were originally human shaped, but since they've become living shadows, they don't seem to need food or other necessities. Since becoming three-dimensional, Shadow has developed human needs, including eating without a mouth.
• Black Bead Eyes: Inverted, owing to being a shadow. His are white instead.
• Cuddle Bug: As part of being a living shadow, he hangs on people a lot. Even after becoming three dimensional, he's shown clinging to Robot a lot.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Despite being made of living shadow, he's one of the nicest members of the cast.
• Defector from Decadence: Shadow apparently did not share the envy and hatred that the rest of his species had for humans, which is why he was forced out of his home after returning.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": "Shadow 2"; there are many Glass Eyed Men who resemble him, but it's not known if he even has a name.
• Living Shadow: Although Kat figures out that he's actually made of a very thin layer of matter. Thanks to Coyote's Tooth, he has become....detached from his two-dimensional form and turned three dimensional.
• Official Couple: After Chapter 35 when Shadow becomes three dimensional, Robot realizes he loves Shadow and begins to act more intimate with and protective of him. Chapter 41 even begins with them cuddling. As of Chapter 56, it appears Robot's crush on Shadow is reciprocated.
• The Quiet One: The only moment he talks after he learns how to is in company of Robot, and even then, he doesn't speak much. Even when he does talk to other characters, it's mostly about Robot.
• Satellite Character: He's mostly around to be one of Annie's friends and Robot's best friend / boyfriend, unlike how Robot is tied into the central plot about Jeanne as well as being a major player in Kat's story. Even since becoming three dimensional and attending classes, he hasn't been super involved in the story.
• Tagalong Kid: Despite presumably being older than Annie or Kat, he still ends up acting like this to them.
• Those Two Guys: With Robot.
• Token Heroic Orc: Most Glass-Eyed Men hate humans because Coyote loves them more. However, Shadow 2 was trapped in the Court for several decades and grew up not hating them. When he finally returned home in an early chapter, he was ostracized because he didn't hate humans.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: He displayed the ability to change shape while stuck to a flat surface like a regular shadowman; he evidently retained that power after being cut off the floor by Coyote's Tooth, only with far more utility.

S 13 / "Robot"

A Robot that Annie built from spare parts to escort Shadow2 into Gillitie. Life has not been kind to him since: His attempt to find a replacement for his missing arm leads to him being possessed by a Shadow and eventually losing everything except his CPU. He maintains a very bright outlook on life in spite of this, while waiting for Kat to build him a new body.

He regards Annie as his "mommy", and the thought of her coming to harm is the only thing that distresses him. He also greatly appreciates that Annie was the first person to offer him a free choice, even though the consequences of his choice were so disastrous.

At one point, his Heart Drive was placed in the body of the prototype robot S1, and he acted very strangely; what came over him is not precisely explained, but it seems to have been out of his control.

Kat built a new body for him, so he can do some mad Le Parkour.

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Associated tropes:

• Ambiguous Gender Identity: S13 goes by male pronouns, but his appearance in the mental interface is feminine.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": His true name is S13 (the "S" standing for "Seraph"). But everyone usually just calls him "Robot". Antimony manages to attract a stare when she mentions him by this name while talking to another robot.
• Gossipy Hens: This is what his fellow seraph models dismantled him for. He has a bad tendency to spread misinformation and rumours. This is also how the seraphs manage to find him again when he is installed in a new body; he has been spreading rumours that Kat is an angel and been forming a Robot Religion.
• Interface Screw: When he starts contemplating his broken finger and the new sensation he dubs "pain" the panels get bright red edges. Just as he's wondering how living beings can live with the suffering and distraction caused by pain he sees his beloved Shadow and the red edges suddenly disappear.
• Le Parkour: In his temporary body. Pretty impressive.
• Limb-Sensation Fascination: Robot is given a new arm by Kat in Chapter 56, which is supposed to simulate human musculature, and how it can self-heal and grow stronger with use. The new experience is so overwhelming that mere moments after the new arm is activated, Robot forces himself into a reboot. His subsequent attempt to explain the new sensations to Kat immediately afterward is summarized in a two-page spread... depicting a giant, eldritch abomination connected to his left side where the arm should be.
• Luminescent Blush: When Robot gets a limb with a brand-new sense of touch, Shadow's first response is to pet it. Robot is... unprepared.
• Meaningful Name: The "S" in his name stands for Seraph. Both the body Annie built for him and his original body (which Kat found in Chapter 18) had the shape of an angel.
• Meat-Sack Robot: Gadgeteer Genius Kat vat-grows organic components for Robot that can grow and adapt to his needs, which he describes as a really weird sensory experience. They also have the disadvantages of having concerning implications for the Court's Robot Religion, and of being high on the Court's Scale of Scientific Sins.
• Messianic Archetype: The story actually chronicles his path from rejection by the other robots to eventual widespread acceptance. By the end of Chapter 41, even the extremely dogmatic Seraphs have been persuaded by him.
• The Missionary:
  • He saw an angel, guys...and is going to make this fact known to everything more advanced than a toaster in the whole Court, and remind them about Jeanne, of course.
  • It's getting kinda creepy (see Shadow 2's expression).
  • Apparently he's been doing this before he met Annie, which is what got him dismantled in the first place.
  • It's getting really creepy now. "And the Angel looked down upon the corpse, a life taken by her own hand, and she said...it was worth it."
  • It's gotten even creepier.
• No Place for Me There: He believes that his actions to hasten Kat's work and create the New People make him deserving of death, and he anticipates that Kat will destroy him rather than give him an organic body like all the rest of the robots.
• Official Couple: After Chapter 35 when Shadow becomes three dimensional, Robot realizes he loves Shadow and begins to act more intimate with and protective of him. Chapter 41 even begins with them cuddling. As of Chapter 56, it appears Robot's crush on Shadow is reciprocated.
• Organic Technology: As of Chapter 59 his chest and both arms have become "biological" revealed when Jeanne sliced him up.
• Parental Substitute: He calls Annie "Mommy" for a long time, since she put him back together in Chapter 1. She eventually gets him to stop, but he clearly still sees her that way.
• The Pollyanna: His old body is a bag of paperclips now? "Well, it's good to be useful!"
• Psycho Supporter: In recent chapters has become willing to endanger the lives of others in order to speed along Kat's work.
• Purple Is Powerful: Inverted, his new biological purple limb is less powerful than his robotic body and much more fragile. Three chapters later he's strong enough to fence Jeanne as long as she thinks she's a human and not a super-powered phantom.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: In his more advanced humanoid body, the normally-green lights turn red when he is attacking a threat with apparent intent to damage (as opposed to when he is attacking with intent to restrain, where his lights remain green).
• Robot Religion: Seems to have formed one around Kat.
  "Let it be known: in this tomb of ancients, the angel called forth the spirit of the dead. You see how easily she gave life, and how easily she took it away."
• 13 Is Unlucky: Other robots say that he tends to cause a lot of trouble and they have condemned him to serve as scrap at least twice. His name is fittingly S13.
• Those Two Guys: With Shadow 2.
• Wrestler in All of Us: It seems that even a robot can pull out a single leg Boston crab.

Mort

A young ghost haunting Gunnerkrigg. In spite of being a Shapeshifting Master of Illusion, Mort is rather poor at his job of scaring people. His choosing to appear as a Bedsheet Ghost doesn't help. After Annie gives him a few pointers (#1: Be subtle, #2: No one likes clowns), he gets better.

He's infatuated with Annie, and he doesn't do a very good job of hiding it.

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Associated tropes:

• A Death in the Limelight: He gets a lot of screentime in chapter 47 which finally reveals the circumstances surrounding his death. It's the same chapter where his spirit willingly "dies" by departing into the ether.
• Bedsheet Ghost: His default form. Makes sense when you realize he was a child when he died and that's how he thought ghosts looked.
• Blitz Evacuees: Part of his backstory, when he was alive.
• Crush Blush: When Antimony thanks him for his gift, and later when he reverts to his human form before going into the ether.
• Ghost Amnesia / Victory-Guided Amnesia: Mort starts to lose his memories as he goes into the ether; this apparently happens to everyone.
  Annie: We will never forget you.
  Mort: Thank you... miss.
• Go into the Light: "The Realm of the Dead" chapter ends with him being willing to go into the ether to make up for Annie not giving her mother a "final record" (basically one's last words after death).
• Gory Discretion Shot: During the flashback to his death. First we see a cutaway diagram of the German bomb. The next page, Jones is staring at a bloody helmet.
• Heroic Sacrifice / Senseless Sacrifice: He died trying to save Jones from a bombing raid.
• Master of Illusion: Though he isn't very good at it until Annie gives him some tips.
• Meaningful Name: "Mortis" meaning "death", and "Mort" itself also meaning "death", in French. His full name is Mortimer.
• Metaphoric Metamorphosis: Mort transforms into a tombstone featuring a pictogram of a foot getting put into a mouth after he embarrasses himself while talking with his crush. It has the added bonus of Mort being a Master of Illusion, therefore capable of pulling this In-Universe.
• Monster Clown: How he was able to scare Paz in Chapter 4.
• Mysterious Past: Until Chapter 47, the only hint to his demise was the appearance of the quote "Dulce et decorum [est pro patria mori]" ^note Sweet and fitting [it is to die for one's country] in the background when he was present, leading to widespread speculation that he was a soldier. In truth, he was a young boy during World War II. While heading for shelter during an air raid, he comes across Jones, who is intentionally subjecting herself to the bombs. He dies trying to convince her to seek shelter as well. When he is about to be taken in the ether by Ankou, Jones intervenes, blaming herself for his death. Submitting to Jones' seniority, the ROTD allows him to stay on Earth as a ghost.
• That Came Out Wrong: He notes that Annie is attractive, then quickly takes it back to clarify that it's in the sense of an etheric magnet rather than looks, then... a tombstone, with Open Mouth, Insert Foot depicted on it. Annie finds it funny rather than insulting.
• Think Nothing of It: When he gives Annie the blinker stone.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Of the illusionary variety.

Reynardine / Renard

A fox-demon under Antimony's thrall. He's capable of possessing anything with eyes, and can Body Surf from host to host. He's also a killer: every time he takes a new body, his old host dies.

Formerly, he was the Cunning Like a Fox Renard. Though hailing from Gillitie wood, he was a friend of humans. He changed his name to Reynardine because of his love towards a human, and Coyote gave him his body-snatching powers. Though unhappy with the cost of his body-snatching, he proceeded with his plan anyway — killing a young man from the Court, and subsequently getting imprisoned there.

When Annie first meets Rey, he's in the body of a Rogat Orjak named Sivo, attempting to escape his imprisonment in the Court. He mistakes Annie for her mother, and is naturally grieved to learn of Surma's death. Despite this, he shows no remorse when, on the next day, he attempts to possess Annie in a bid to escape. This fails, due to Eglamore's timely intervention, and Rey instead possesses Annie's wolf doll.

Once in the doll, Rey discovers he has new powers and new limitations. He has limited Shapeshifting (particularly the ability to assume the form of a full-sized wolf), and a built-in set of lockpicks (which Annie had hidden in the toy at the time he took possession). But, as the body is Annie's toy, Reynardine himself is now Annie's possession, as indicated by the alchemical antimony symbol that is sometimes visible on his forehead. He's unable to take a new body without her permission and unable to disobey her commands. Thus prevented from doing any real harm, Rey settles for being surly and antisocial toward the girl who could make his life miserable if she wanted.

Though initially presented as a sympathetic figure, and then as a deceitful antagonist, it's become increasingly unclear whose side (if any) Reynardine is on. He's become more helpful to Annie over time (going so far as to put himself between Annie and Ysengrin's blades), and seems to have taken a fatherly interest in her. In fact, according to Coyote, Rey's love for Annie is the only reason he remains in the Court.

Reynardine's names derive two sources. Renard is a reference to Reynard the Fox, trickster hero of a cycle of medieval French folktales opposite one Isengrim (see Ysengrin, on the Gillitie Forest page). Reynardine is from the folk-song of the same name, about a highwayman (and in some versions of the song, a were-fox) who seduces a maiden — much as Rey attempted when he first met Annie.

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Associated tropes:

• All Love Is Unrequited: He and Surma.
• The Atoner: Reynard deeply regrets having attempted to kill Annie when he first met her. By the time of the Quicksilver arc, he considers his current body his penance for what he attempted to do, and admits that whenever Annie smiles at him, it fills him with shame over what he nearly did to her... and that he wears Annie's symbol of ownership with pride. Renard also regrets killing a man in the past while attempting to woo Surma, and has taken to regularly visiting his grave.
• Badass Adorable: While his stuffed toy form is pretty adorable in itself (and he's perfectly capable of kicking ass in it), Puppy Renard takes it to a new level.
• Body Surf: Courtesy of Coyote, he has the ability to possess people. He even provides the picture for the trope page.
• Character Development:
  • The impish anthro-wolf doll slowly fades into a good-natured but troubled fox spirit.
  • He and Annie eventually become dear friends. Look.
  • Although he does retain a bit of impishness. He is Cunning Like a Fox after all.
• Chivalrous Pervert: He's obviously become quite fond of Annie's friends, and helps Kat through a really difficult moment in her life when she discovers she's not quite straight, but he can't resist teasing her a bit over choosing Paz as her first girlfriend
• Cunning Like a Fox: His status as a trickster was what drew Coyote's attention to him and Ysengrin in the first place.
• Cutting the Knot: Antimony's lock picks were stowed away into the toy body Reynardine came to occupy. When she first tells him to use them to open something, Reynardine uses them to smash through it instead of picking it properly since he doesn't know how to pick locks.
• A Day in the Limelight: Chapter 43: Quicksilver focuses on on him, his reflections and regrets on his past decisions and actions, and his interactions with Hetty.
• Deadpan Snarker: Very much so in his wolf form. In the doll form, however, he snarks with a huge grin on his face.
• Demonic Possession: For a given value of "demonic". Originally possessed a human male because he was attracted to a human female; has body surfed his way into a small stuffed toy owned by Annie.
• Dirty Old Man: As old as Coyote, or damn close to it, and a Chivalrous Pervert. Though Annie doesn't let him get away with it.
  Annie: How do you feel, Reynardine?
  Reynardine: A little... better. If Jones could just... clutch me to her chest!
• Fantastic Foxes: Prior to possessing Daniel's body.
• Happiness in Slavery: He stays with Annie of his own accord, as she has offered to allow him to return to the Forest before. In Quicksilver he explicitly states that he wears Annie's symbol, which indicates who has control over him, with pride.
• Hidden Depths: Turns out, he's the best at drawing of the main characters!
• In-Series Nickname: Reynardine is not actually his name, it's a nickname given to him by Surma.
• Jerkass / Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's a little hard to pin down. He was moody and quite obnoxious when he found out his escape from the prison only brought him slavery. Later, he adapted and mostly became Annie's self-appointed guardian and Parental Substitute, though just as eager to embarrass (or frighten) people. Also, it looks like everything linked with Surma is still almost sacred for him.
• Love Makes You Evil: His crimes were a combination of a misunderstanding of his new powers and a desire to woo Surma.
• Love Martyr: He was in love with Surma, and she manipulated his feelings and used them to allow the Court to capture him.
• Magic A Is Magic A:
  • Rey's Demonic Possession follows specific rules, and he's able to occupy a toy simply because it has eyes; it's implied that the same is true of all magic. For example, in order to take a new body, his/her/its eyes have to be open.
  • The symbol shown on the face of his body indicates who has ownership of his body and thus who he has to obey. While in Annie's doll, it's the symbol for antimony. When Kat takes possession of the doll, it changes to the symbol for bismuth.
• Mind-Control Eyes: His attempted possession.
• The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: Invoked and inverted. Reynardine actually describes his situation as "Well, the mind is nothing but a plaything of the body, correct?" He's actually being sarcastic. It's actually Reynardine's mood and mental state that affects which form he takes. Thus, when he's in a crude or ashamed mindset, he's likely to be a plushy, but when he's feeling protective or otherwise more noble he's more likely to be a wolf.
• Monochromatic Eyes: Of the solid white variety.
• My Greatest Failure: Sees his attempted possession / murder of Annie as this.
  • In the same vein, his original possession/murder of a friend, which got him hated and branded as a demon, and whose grave he seems to visit regularly.
• My Sensors Indicate You Want to Tap That: Lightens the mood a bit with Kat by sniffing her and commenting:
  Reynard: Ohh, Paz? Good choice!
  • He also smells that Parley and Smitty have been making out/sleeping together, and is highly amused.
• "No More Holding Back" Speech: He explains to Hetty how he's come to feel about Antimony, how he deeply regrets trying to kill her, and how every time she smiles at him, he feels deep shame for trying to take her body. Then he adds that when he wears his alchemical symbol in full-sized wolf form, he wears it with pride, right as he sets Hetty on fire and tears her krill form from her host body.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Jones calls him out on constantly referring to Zimmy as a "demon", stating that it is merely a label for something that is feared and misunderstood, and one which has been applied to himself as well.
• Out of Focus: Has gone from being as important as Annie and Kat to being relatively minor in Year 3.
• Parental Substitute: Sometimes he's like this, though not always. And sometimes it looked like he had the same problem as James Eglamore, but solved it much quicker.
  Kat: Are you like her dad in disguise now?
• Perverse Sexual Lust: In-universe, there has been a hint he feels this way towards Moro no Kimi from Princess Mononoke when he whispers her name while wistfully watching the sunset.
• Progressively Prettier: Somewhat. As he becomes a more serious character, he seems to stay more time in his wolf form.
• Restraining Bolt: It seems that he is not pleased by this, though he springs to Annie's defense on his own initiative.
• Sealed Evil in a Teddy Bear: Due to possessing an object that someone (Annie) owned, he has to obey the owner's orders and can't take a new body without her express permission. Anthony tries to take control of him by forcing Annie to give him up, but she gives the doll to Kat instead.
• Servile Snarker: Unable to go against Annie, but that doesn't stop him from complaining and being sarcastic and getting in some truly nasty digs on one occasion.
• Subordinate Excuse: An unusual form. He always was fascinated with humans and became Annie's Parental Substitute, so he prefers to remain as a shapeshifting doll on a leash, but in the Court and refuses a straightforward proposal to return him into the original body.
• Trapped in the Host: After possessing Annie's stuffed animal, he discovered that possessing an object that was someone's property meant he had to obey the owner and could not leave it without their permission. So much for that Body Surfing ability...
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Renard can control the form his body takes, but only in non-living bodies such as Annie's toy, according to Tom.
• What You Are in the Dark: In Chapter 43, after a discussion of his attempted possession of Annie with Hetty, he makes making his feelings on the matter absolutely clear.

Andrew Smith

A student from two years above Annie. He's quite mellow and laid-back, and easily takes ribbing in stride. It's fitting that his extra-normal talent is the ability to create order from chaos (He can throw a pack of cards into the air, and they fall into a perfectly squared unshuffled deck). Due to this power, Jones considers him a promising candidate to be the Court's next Medium — he's training under her to prepare for the job.

Speaking of being laid-back, Smith is the object of much teasing from fellow Medium-in-training Parley. He bears it (mostly) silently because he thinks she's "hotter than hell" — but he's the last person in his class to figure out that she's flirting, not mocking him.

And those eyebrows: damn.

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Associated tropes:

• Amazon Chaser: Towards Parley, who is much more physical and action-focused than he. Especially after her training as Court Protector gives her a suite of Charles Atlas Superpowers and a lot of muscle.
• And Here He Comes Now: Here, Andrew demonstrates that he's the only person who can predict when Parley is going to arrive via teleportation. (Smitty is actually just guessing, but because of his order-causing powers, his guesses just happen to be right.)
  • Gets an interesting deconstruction later when he mentions that while he can predict when, he never knows why she's coming. Hence why he holds off on doing this too much: for all he knows, she might teleport in because something bad has happened, and she needs his help.
• Ascended Extra: Has gone from being one of many characters in the school to the Court's Medium, and is very central to the main plot arc.
• Big Ol' Eyebrows:
  • So big that it takes a second to realize those big floating blocks above his head in panel 3 are his eyebrows.
    Tom: This chapter is going to take twice as long to draw because I have to fill in Smith's eyebrows.
  • In Chapter 41 even Coyote comments on them, calling Smitty "Mighty Eyebrows Boy".
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: A light case but still very much there. Andrew loves to help people, and it's his talent at doing so that made his first trip to Gillitie Wood a resounding success with the natives.
• Darkhorse Victory: He's become the new medium between the Court and the Woods as of Chapter 41. This falls under the judge with veto power category, as the Headmaster seems to have come to this decision by himself since both Jones and the rest of the Court members in attendance are shocked that Annie wasn't the one chosen. Even Andrew himself thought Annie would get the position and doesn't think his being chosen is a good idea.
• Dungeon Bypass and/or Cutting the Knot: He can do this unconsciously. The mechanics of his powers are still loosely defined, but this is the most straightforward manifestation of them.
• Face Death with Dignity: Tells Parley he's fine with being stabbed by Jeanne because it meant Parley wasn't hurt Jeanne was actually aiming for him. A few chapters earlier he mentioned that he had to be careful about wanting to see Parley least she appear before him because someone had been severely injured.
• Heart Is an Awesome Power: Once he starts exploring what his powers are capable of, he discovers ways to make near-impossible throws, help Parley in combat, and deploy a pseudo-prediction ability.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Andrew's much more calm and laid back than Parley. He's not "girly" as in being effeminate, but as in being the more shy and laid-back personality of the two.
• Nice Guy: VERY polite and friendly with everyone he meets.
• Oblivious to Love: In no small part due to her Tsundere-like treatment of him, Andrew refused to believe that Parley liked him until she confessed in Chapter 30.
• Official Couple: With Parley, after a Relationship Upgrade.
• One Head Taller: The usual gender roles are inverted as it's Parley who's much taller than he is.
• Opposites Attract: He and Parley could not be more dissimilar, but they have great chemistry and share a mutual attraction.
• Power Incontinence: A more harmless variety than most; see Cutting the Knot. He seems to be able to predict what using his power will do, but not how it will happen.
  • In Chapter 58 he tells Annie how he has to be careful when "summoning" Parley in case the reason she wants to see him is because of an emergency. Basically his power could cause someone to get hurt just because he wanted to see his girlfriend.
• Red String of Fate: Literal and non-romantic (except where Parley is concerned): Chapter 58 reveals there's multicolored aetherical threads wrapped around his right hand, implying that's how he "controls" fate. Interestingly Bugsy, an ex-fairy, claims she can't see them even inside the aether.
  • Jeanne can see them and tries cutting them off but they keep reappearing so she decides to cut him instead.
• Reality Warper: It's started to be applied for more things than just making order out of chaos, and working with Parley it becomes very potent.
• Relationship Upgrade: In Chapter 30, after Parley is shaken from her encounter with Jeane. After his initial shock, Andrew takes it quite well.
• Shoot the Medic First: Jeanne can see Smitty's "strings" and is aware Parley doesn't want her near him so she stabs him in the chest with a main gauche (a kind of dagger)
• What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: Subverted. His abilities look pretty lackluster when he's using them to sort cards and assemble puzzles, but once he starts exploring what they're capable of, they turn out to be extremely useful and powerful.
• Winds of Destiny, Change!: He basically has the power to subconsciously create order by manipulating chance.

Parley

A student from three years above Annie. She's also a Medium candidate, and undergoing training. This is less because of any extra-normal talents she possesses (for her first few years, all she showed was "promise") than because her father — an acclaimed psychic — predicted that she would inherit his power. However, Parley Sr. also predicted that she'd be a boy — that's why her first name is George.

Personality-wise, Miss Parley is loud and always trying to take charge of conversations. She harbors strong feelings for Smith, which she expresses by constantly in getting in Smith's hair, while simultaneously attaching herself to him at every possible opportunity. When Jones prods Smith into giving Parley a flower, Parley is so overcome with emotion that she spontaneously manifests her latent Etheric power of space manipulation... by teleporting the lot of them straight onto her bed. (It should be stated that her power mixed with Smith's organization ability and teleported them there. For those trying to keep up with the math, here's a tip: High Emotion + Order + Teleportation = Her Bed.)

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Associated tropes:

• Action Girl: Apparently an excellent fencer, and possibly good with a gun. Even Jeanne, despite being a spirit composed only of hate and rage, compliments her on her skills.
• Action Girlfriend: Since Andrew's a Non-Action Guy, she's the physical side of their duo.
• Affectionate Nickname: "Georgie", from Andrew after they get together.
• All Women Are Lustful: As mentioned above, her emotionally controlled powers first manifested by teleporting to her bed while being given a flower by her crush. It's later implied that their relationship has become physical.
• Amazonian Beauty: Only tall at first, but soon after beginning her training, she bulks up noticably.
• Ascended Extra: Has gone from being one of many characters in the school to the next in line for the Court's Dragonslayer, and is very central to the main plot arc.
• Big "NO!": When Smith accidentally uses his ability to automatically beat a sim before it even starts.
• Does Not Know Her Own Strength: After getting buff, she accidentally crushes Smitty in a hug and breaks a glass; she says that sort of thing keeps happening.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Everything about her teleporting in general mirrors sexual awakening during puberty. Surprise manifestation, complications flaring up when around the guy she likes, starts to get it under control when she finally admits her romantic desires, and it comes more under her full control as she grows confident and up front about herself.
• Embarrassing First Name: George. Not hard to figure out why she goes by her last name.
• Everyone Can See It:
  • Annie figures it out about a day after meeting them.
    Antimony: Andrew, she's all over you all the time.
    Reynardine: Ah, has a creature ever perfected the art of denial as finely as a human?
  • Later also her classmates, just by looking at her and then Smitty trying to pretend he's not there:
    Cookie Monster: Ooh, saaay, Parley!
    Jan: Not bad, not bad.
• Flashy Teleportation: Her first ability is teleporting, which as seen on comic 949, is not silent. It makes a "bip" sound.
• First-Name Basis: Calls Smith by his first name when she admits she's in love with him, which he lampshades by mentioning that it feels weird having her call him "Andrew."
• Gratuitous German: Her apparent training in the German school of fencing has led to her peppering her speech with one or two German terms.
• Hime Cut: This is in Averted Trope. Like Annie and Kat, she changes her hairstyle regularly so while the hime cut may look accurate it is not indicative of her personality, status etc.
• Hot-Blooded: Parley is very easily excited and boisterous - the idea of going through one of Dr. Disaster's scenarios had her react in the above image, she gets incredibly excited when Robot proves himself capable of defeating her in fencing nigh-immediately, and she's never one to act in half-measures
• Large Ham: When she talks to Mort. Parley tend to go over the top in everything—her idea of "officially" admitting her relationship is to grab her boyfriend, teleport on her friends' path and start kissing... long enough to get concerned looks from observers.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Parley only shows a hint of a feminine side after her Relationship Upgrade with Smith, and she's still much more action-oriented than he. Exaggerated after her training as Court Protector.
• Meaningful Name:
  • "Parley" meaning a conference between opposing sides and Parley being a medium, whose job it is to... mediate.
  • Also, her name is George. She's to be the next Dragonslayer... that's right, she's (Saint) George the Dragonslayer.
• Muscle Angst: She's a bit worried that her training with Eglamore may have given her too much muscle for Smitty's liking. He does not seem to mind.
• The Nose Knows: Rey and Coyote immediately realize they're together just by sniffing them. Parley and Smitty are mortified. Three guesses what Rey and Coyote were smelling on them...
• No Sense of Personal Space: Mostly while embracing/tormenting Smithy. It finally led to "interesting" consequences when she grabbed by a shoulder Annie who used a magical artifact at this time.
• Official Couple: With Andrew after a Relationship Upgrade; Her experience with the ghost of Jeanne leads her to admitting her feelings for Andrew.
• One Head Taller: Gender-flipped — Parley has to stand a few steps below Smith on the stairs to get him at eye level.
• Opposites Attract: She and Smitty could not be more dissimilar, but they have great chemistry and share a mutual attraction.
• The Pig-Pen: From what we see of her room, she isn't exactly the tidiest person.
• Power Incontinence: On this page she teleports against her will — the third time that week. The next page implies that it may be activated whenever she thinks about Smith.
• Prophecy Twist: Her father was a renowned psychic with a reputation for infallible predictions, so it came as quite a surprise when he incorrectly guessed that she would be a boy when his wife became pregnant, resulting in her embarrassing first name George. Although, considering what she looks like after a full season of dragonslayer training, it's entirely possible her father's vision was accurate and he simply mistook her muscular physique for that of a male.
• Required Secondary Powers: Invoked. Her training as Court Protector comes with plenty of Geometric Magic to keep her enhanced abilities from damaging her body.
• Statuesque Stunner: She's exceptionally tall and bulks up quite a lot during her training.
• Super-Strength: Thanks to some wards that enhance her natural abilities, which thankfully also give her the Required Secondary Power of Super-Toughness.
• Teleport Spam: Has been teaching herself to incorporate this with her already formidable fencing skills.
• Took a Level in Badass: Comes back from her training retreat able to jump like a cricket and break walls with her hands. And though the fight was ultimately a draw, she did briefly beat the crap out of Jeanne with her teleportation technique.
• Tsundere: When she crushes on Smitty, but then again, she has a pretty abrasive attitude in general. Smitty "doesn't mind too much". Sometimes it works out pretty well for him in fact.
  • This attitude is Deconstructed as well. At one point Annie gets completely fed up with Parley's antagonism towards Smitty, basically saying it's stupid to act like you hate the person you love. Shortly after that, Jeanne gets really frustrated. The latter incident spurred Parley to finally stop hiding her feelings.
• Worthy Opponent: To Jeanne, whose defeat is one of Parley's biggest drives to improve her swordsmanship.
  • When Robot stopped going easy on her in their sparring match he beat her instantly. Considering Parley's ultimate goal is to fight Jeanne she was thrilled to have such a partner.

Cvet

The Dragon Slayer of Gunnerkrigg Court is expected to have a partnership with a Rogat Orjak. As part of her training, Parley recruited Cvet, a young Orjak who is throwing herself into life at the Court.

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Associated tropes:

• Boisterous Bruiser: Similar to Parley in this regard.
• Gossipy Hens: Annie is taken aback that Cvet knows more about the lives of Court residents than she herself does - and annoyed that Cvet won't shut up about it.

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