Alastair Sterling
- Carpet of Virility: Always conspicuously very hairy. Brendan's favorite part is the beard.note
- Gayngst: There's no mistaking that Al loves Brendan and loves being around, frolicking with and being intimate with Brendan. But while Brendan is confident with himself and who he is, Al is a lot more concerned with what other people will think. Brendan wants to be Al's Closet Key, but Al has never consented to it.
- Hot Men at Work: Especially to Brendan.
- Hunk
- Limited Wardrobe: Usually seen wearing the same trademark black shirt, which also happens to tightly hug his muscles. Notably, the shirt is usually one of the few seen objects that is never monochromatically red or blue, but rather a conspicuous brownish black. Then, when Al is resurrected, he is given only one set of clothes, including that shirt.
- Mr. Fanservice: And he initially doesn't even realize it, but Brendan sure does. True enough, the comic constantly sprinkles fanservicy shots of Al's muscles and body hair, plus the occasional Shirtless Scene.
- Not So Stoic: He can get real angry at Brendan if he feels like Brendan's acting up. Then there's robot!Al having a crisis about his status as an android...
- Parental Issues: Briefly mentioned, but he doesn't want to talk about it.
Original Al
December 12, 1961 –- April 15, 2005While he was alive, Al hid behind a tough and imposing exterior –- and after death he became a near-mythical figure among humans and robots alike.
- Armored Closet Gay: Al didn't want people to know then...
- Cool Old Guy: He wasn't that old, but he still thought of men Brendan's age as "kids".
- Death by Origin Story
- Distracted by the Sexy: To the point where Brendan was too much for Al to handle
. - Intelligence Equals Isolation
- The Lost Lenore: After Al's death (and before his resurrection), he was totally this to Brendan.
- Mirror Monologue: This.
- Morality Pet: As weird as this sounds, he's this to Brendan. Brendan's not evil, but the majority of his sympathy revolves around his relationship with Al and Sulla.
- Posthumous Character
- Silver Fox: Al thought he was too old for men Brendan's age and that Brendan shouldn't be attracted to him. Brendan responds by invoking this trope.
- Toplessness from the Back: His shirt already hides nothing. But then his shirt (and the rest of his clothes) finally came off for some memorable back shots (but no naughty parts).
- Transparent Closet: To the very observant Brendan.
- Younger Than They Look: Al was prematurely grey and looked quite a bit older than he actually was. He was only 39 when he and Brendan first met, and 43 when he died.
Resurrected Al
Now that he has been mysteriously resurrected in a robot body, Al searches for answers from the only person who knew him as he really was.
- Armored Closet Gay: ...and he's content that Brendan never told anyone.
- Back from the Dead
- Brain Uploading: Which raises lots of questions — if Brendan Pinksy, the world's leading expert on Brain Uploading (next to Al himself, of course) could only copy an inadequate template of Al when Al was dying (this template, of course, became Sulla), then who made this absolutely spot-on copy of Al — and when? well...
- Clone Angst: He's not really happy being a robot made from the code of his original self.
- Cool Old Guy: Sulla adores him.
- Famed In-Story: Now that he's Back from the Dead, no one is expecting him to be alive. In the public consciousness, Al is a late legend of robotics technology.
- Fish out of Temporal Water: Having pioneered most of the technology that is ubiquitous by 2021, Al thinks he can handle seeing what the world has become. Brendan thinks he isn't. Brendan was right.
- Heroic BSoD: Gets one big crisis when he realizes he no longer a human. It didn't help that Brendan's robots had to restrain him right after he pushed Brendan away.
- Ridiculously Human Robot: It'd take a close-up look to tell that he's not human, which is a clue that whoever had his body made had some serious resources.
- Robot Me
- Soul Jar
Brendan Pinsky
- Closet Key: Averted. Brendan wants to be this for Al, but Al never feels ready for everyone to know. It's still a secret by the time Al dies, and remains so when he's resurrected as a synthetic. Brendan hasn't told anyone.
- Fiery Redhead
- Hot Men at Work: Especially to Al. Case in point.
- Perma-Shave: This is why Brendan never grows a beard.
- Straight Gay
Past Brendan
In his business partnership with Al, Brendan was seen as the ideas man –- the charismatic and ambitious spokesman who got people to care about their creations.- Genki Guy: Irrepressibly enthusiastic.
- Likes Older Men: He really likes Al's mature older looks.
- Manic Pixie Dream Guy
- The Perfectionist: Brendan did not know how to fail. But soon after Brendan was hired, Al pointed out that Brendan's lack of failure meant he hadn't learnt the meaningful lesson that some failures are inevitable, as well as how to deal with them.
- Pretty Boy
- Red Oni: To Al's Blue Oni.
- The Twink: Subverted. Brendan certainly had the youthful age and body type. But when it came to men, he turned out not to have any of the stereotypical innocence of twinks. As it turned out, Brendan was far more experiened and confident than Al.
- Wide-Eyed Idealist: Complete with the wide eyes.
Present Brendan
Since Al’s death, Brendan has matured into a shrewd inventor and a caring father who nonetheless shoulders a lot of regrets.- Blue Oni: To Sulla's Red Oni.
- Broken Ace: Has this written all over him. Between the past and the present day, Brendan faced failure learn to face and accept failure one way or the other.
- Famed In-Story: As a living legend of robotics technology.
- Good Father: A good father to Sulla, as "O Maker" amply demonstrates. Particularly, he loves her as her own person, and not just an extension of Al. He also effectively homeschools her.
- His Heart Will Go On: Oh, he tries.
- Jade-Colored Glasses: Al's death really did a number on him mentally. He's far more bitter and grumpy when he meets robot!Al.
- Open-Minded Parent: Is very supportive of his trans daughter, not only modifying her into a feminine body, but using her preferred pronouns and name constantly, and taking down photographs of her pre-transition.
Sulla Pinsky
Sulla was the first robot created to perfectly resemble a human being –- Alastair Sterling — but she is still trying to figure out who she really is. A brilliant and sensitive mind in a teenage girl’s body, Sulla knows a lot is expected of her and tries her best to impress her creator, her hero, and her newfound friends.
- Came Back Wrong: She was originally meant to be a copy of Alastair Sterling, but she was an incomplete copy, and had none of Al's memories. Through time, she started to grow up like a human child, and even requested a sex change. In the end, the fact that she Came Back Wrong isn't a negative trait, as her Divergent Character Evolution made her a very unique character of her own. Turns out the original Al is more like her than anyone knew.
- Clone Angst: Quite evident in Oh, Maker. It's revealed in Chapter 7, that she made the copy of Al because she thought her existence was a failure.
- Fiery Redhead: Played With. While she is very much like this at home with Brendan (though not in any angry way), she is actually more of a Shrinking Violet in public and doesn't really have friends.
- Genki Girl: In stark contrast to Al's stoic nature.
- Levitating Lotus Position: This.
- Morality Pet: To Brendan, even though he's not evil. The fact that Brendan accepts her the way she is shows his good side better than anything else can.
- Opposite-Sex Clone: Yes and no. She's a synthetic copy of Al in a similar way that robot!Al is a synthetic copy of Al, but she herself chose to become a girl.
- Power Floats: Sulla can fly and levitate. But out and about in public where she can usually pass for human, she keeps her feet on the ground so as not to appear so conspicuously synthetic. When she flies to save Al's life in danger in public, she feels really ashamed and flies off.
- Red Oni: To Brendan's Blue Oni.
- Replacement Goldfish: Originally intended to replace Al, but the result wasn't quite Al and couldn't replace him. Rather than replacing his lover, Brendan gained a daughter.
- The Reveal: She was the one responsible for the resurrection of Al.
- Ridiculously Human Robot: She's one of the world's most advanced synthetic beings, and knows it. She's not worried at all about passing for human — what she worries about is passing for female.
- Robot Girl
- Shrinking Violet: In public.
- Someone to Remember Him By: Constantly reminds Brendan of Al.
- Stealth Pun: She's an android who received a sex change when she was younger and whose capabilities exceed those of a human. She's both transwoman and a transhuman.
- Super-Strength: Has been seen swinging around tables and couches with ease — and in flight.
- Uncanny Family Resemblance: The first thing Al notices about Sulla, and the reason Brendan wanted to prepare Al before seeing her for the first time. Needless to say, Al is especially shocked that Sulla is a duplicate of him as a girl.
- Walking Spoiler: Of the First-Episode Twist kind.
