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Yuri (Yura) Beletsky
- "Oh just another troubled youth on the diagram"
The titular "loser," a troubled teen from a poor family who smokes, breaks things, and goes to nightly parties to forget about his problems. One night, Yura and his friend Sanya meet the runaway mutant KT and become friends with her. After she's arrested, he makes it his mission to find a way to save her.
- Accidental Murder: He shoots a guard at the end of "The Mill" because said guard had just shot Nikita, and he panicked.
- Determined Defeatist: Despite believing Katya's rescue to be unlikely at best, especially after Sergei completely cuts ties with him, he is still dead-set on doing it.Yura: It's a dead-end endeavor, of course I understand. Seems the devil has found business for my idle hand.
- Disappointing Older Sibling: He's this to his sister Anya, as she also just dismisses him as a loser.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: When he removes the bandaid in "Occam's Razor" it reveals he has been left with a scar straight across his cheek from the bullet that passed by him and killed Nikita.
- Hidden Depths: Despite appearances, Ferry's notes on the character relate that he's actually working hard to help support his family. The reason he's spending so much time with Sergei, for example, is to learn to be a Stalker, which is a dangerous job but one that pays well.
- Loser Protagonist: He's the loser of the first song, portrayed as a kid who spends all night partying and doesn't have a very steady future ahead of him.
- Perpetual Smiler: Not normally, but he doesn't stop smiling a single time in the video for "Convergence". Given that he's given up on everything except the longshot odds of saving KT, it's probably of the broken variety.
- Spider-Sense: As a Stalker in-training he has the Talent - a "feel" for the Zone and its anomalies - that every Stalker possesses which help them survive missions through the Zone. It goes off when he first meets KT, cluing him in that she is a mutant. And later it goes off again when he sees Dmitry with Anya.
- Stepford Smiler: The first song suggests his relaxed, cool attitude is an act and that he's covering up how much he's suffering.
- Toxic Friend Influence: Yura was meant to be Sanya's tutor but helped her sneak out to underground parties. Later, he found her venting her anger in an alleyway by kicking trashcans and actually encouraged her with an even more violent outburst to vent his own frustrations using a baseball bat. All this awakened something within Sanya which turned her into the tough, rebellious gang leader she is in the present.
- By the time of "Strike 3", Sergei finally wises up to this and tells Yura that he doesn't want him anywhere near his house and especially nowhere near Sanya.
- The Unfettered: "Occam's Razor" shows him deciding that there isn't really anything left in his life but KT, so he's going to save her by any means necessary. In "Convergence" he opens his plan by blackmailing Dima into helping by threatening Olga.
Alexandra (Sanya) Kazarina
- "Destructive ones like me fold when there is nothing to bust"
The daughter of a famed late Stalker who, as a result of her father's work, is a minor mutant (having albinism.) Despite her medical condition she's the leader of a gang of teens, who meets KT after defending her from a rival gang leader at a party one night. Following KT's arrest, Sanya keeps the girl's discarded jacket with her and hopes she can be rescued.
- Batter Up!: Her weapon of choice is a baseball bat.
- Gilded Cage: She views her home life as this with her older brother as the "prison guard" who tries to keep her locked up and under control to protect her.
- Green-Eyed Monster: In "False Disposition", she throws her first violent tantrum because she sees Yura flirting with another woman at a party.
- Handicapped Badass: Her introduction to KT is saving her from a much less friendly gang leader with a baseball bat, establishing her badassery. Despite this, Sanya's albinism is also treated as the disability it is in real life, with her burning in the sun easily and having weak eyesight (she's not even able to go swimming in the non-canon Beach Episode comic.)
- Homeschooled Kids: Part of her sheltered upbringing organised by her brother was to have her homeschooled. Fortunately for her, her tutor was Yura.
- Just Friends: In the flashbacks of "False Disposition" she appears to have a crush on Yura and is disappointed when her begins flirting with other women and doesn't seem to see her that way. In the present, it's uncertain if she still has a crush on him but it's clear they're very close friends.
- Neighbourhood-Friendly Gangsters: Despite their violent tendencies, she and her gang are shown to be quite altruistic and happy to protect people like KT.
- Sibling Rivalry: She doesn't get along with Sergei because of all of his rules, referring to him as a "prison guard" in her Point of View song. It gets worse when Sergei has KT arrested.
- Strict Parents Make Sneaky Kids: All of Sergei's attempts to keep Sanya safe just leads to her sneaking out and becoming more rebellious.
KT003-405 (Katya)
- "And just like that she turns into a monster"
A young girl who meets Yura and Sanya when the latter saves her from a gang leader she accidentally spilled her drink on. Claiming she ran away from home, KT spends the next few weeks hanging out with her new friends, until it's revealed she's actually a mutant. She's recaptured after Sergei calls the police on her and she's brought back to the facility she escaped from.
- Bad Powers, Good People: A relatively nice, (at least at first) optimistic young girl.. with horiffic and disgusting flesh powers.
- Body Horror: Her powers are to spawn flesh from her arms and legs like something from Akira. The creator confirmed that that flesh doesn't just go away, it has to be cut off of her. Her arms and legs are covered in hardened scars as a result.
- Broken Bird: Once she is recaptured she seems to lose all hope at ever having her freedom and even agrees that she's too dangerous and needs to be contained.
- The Confidant: Becomes this to Yura, who opens up to her about being a Stepford Smiler hiding all his fears and frustrations behind his laid-back and carefree attitude.
- Death by Childbirth: Not KT herself, but the creator has made statements on their blog to the effect that KT's mom did not survive giving birth to a baby that could generate a lot of excess flesh near-spontaneously when under stress.
- Despair Event Horizon: Seems to cross it at the end of "KT's Official Guide To Coolness", having learnt the truth about her ability she accepts her imprisonment and believes that things like her are meant to be contained.
- Foil: To Dmitry; while both mutants, Katya was cruelly experimented on and treated like a lab rat while Dmitry was privileged (as much as a mutant locked up in a research lab can be, anyway,) and unlike him her powers are both inconvenient and viscerally terrifying. Despite this, Katya is the one that quickly makes friends of her own volition and wants to go enjoy the life that was denied to her, while Dmitry is at first more concerned with keeping isolated from other people.
- The Runaway: She claims to have run away from home, and she did—-her home being a science facility.
Sergei Kazarin
- "This world is a cruel place to people like you, I'll keep you safe"
Sanya's older brother who raised her after their father was killed. Like their father, he used to work directly as a Stalker but now just conducts Zone business from home, where it's less dangerous. He's also training Yura to become a Stalker, himself. As such, Sergei quickly recognized KT's true nature and turned her in to keep his sister safe from the threat hanging out with a mutant posed.
- Aloof Big Brother: Despite how protective he is of her he's also this to Sanya (and to Yura, in a metaphorical way.) Aside from the fact that he's both constantly grim and far more knowledgeable about Stalker business than either of them, he and Sanya get along very poorly because of his strict attitude.Sergei: She doesn't talk to me, not that I care.
- Always Save the Girl: Hinted in that he saved Olya from The Grinder but didn't manage to save Nikita's brother Kolya, which Nikita attributes to him showing favoritism to his girlfriend.
- Big Brother Instinct: Nearly everything Sergei does is for his sister's future, albeit this often puts a strain on their relationship.
- Dirty Cop: Whilst not excatly a cop, he is a former Stalker and now works closely with the militia to identify and resell objects from the Zone and plan travel routes for other Stalkers.
Ferry stresses in "Strike 3" that Sergei will use bribery, favours with the militia, and jump through any other not-so-legal hoops necessary to try to cover up the Accidental Murder from "The Mill" and secure Olya's freedom. - Perpetual Frowner: Frowning is his default expression, to the point that he's even shown scowling in one of his baby pictures.
- Promotion to Parent: Sergei raised Sanya since their father was killed, when he was fifteen and she was five.
- The Stool Pigeon: He rung the authorities about KT in an effort to keep Sanya away from danger.
Anna (Anya) Beletskaya
- "I won't settle for a boring life, I have no ammo but an ambition to fight"
Yura's younger sister. Frustrated with being from a poor family, Anya is full of rage at the world and aspires to fight what she sees as an oppressive society. She also regularly follows Sergei's girlfriend Olya, fascinated by her. One day, she's caught at this by a group of thugs, only to be rescued by Dmitry. She quickly falls head-over-heels for her rescuer.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: This is the relationship she has with Yura, the two barely talking (according to Ferry, they don't mesh well.note ) Yura's only interaction with her in "Punch It, Punk!" is to go after her when she steals his cigarettes.
- Cuteness Proximity: She gets this way around Dmitry, declaring that he is "the cutest, coolest boy" she has ever seen even if he is a "monster mutant death machine."
- Facial Markings: She's got little gold triangles on her cheeks; according to the creator, it's "war paint".
- Genki Girl: She's a lot more animated and comedic than the rest of the cast, and her hyperactivity routinely gets her into mischief such as trying to smoke Yura's cigarettes and trying to stalk Olya despite being the most indiscreet person to ever grace planet Earth.
- I'm Taking Him Home with Me!: An odd example, since the person in question is Dmitry who is older and taller than Anya. Still, she pleads with Olya to let him stay with her and promises to feed and walk him every day.
- Love at First Sight: She's smitten with Dmitry as soon as he comes onto the scene.
- Manic Pixie Dream Girl: This hyperactive teenager explodes into Dmitry's life and he's clearly uncertain what to make of her as he's dragged along into her daily shenanigans. He's so dazed that when she asks to be his girlfriend he just sort of goes along with it out of confusion.
- Plucky Comic Relief: Adds a fresh air of comedy with her antics to the otherwise quite serious and depressing events of the narrative.
- Rebellious Spirit: She hates the society she lives in and has quite a dim view of most of the people in it.
- The Runaway: Subverted. She regularly "runs away from home", but pretty much everyone knows that she is just going to hang out at Olya's place for a few days before coming back to her family. Dmitry offers to leave the city with Anya since she appears to hate it so much but despite wanting to agree she suddenly feels unsure whether she's ready to actually go through with something like that.
- Secret-Keeper: She and Olya both keep Dmitry being an escaped mutant a secret.
- Snooping Little Kid: She is suspicious of Olya, who despite being an "office lady" carries a glock around with her and manages to afford quite expensive clothing.
- Stalker without a Crush: Follows Olya around more out of boredom and curiousity than any malicious intent.
- With Catlike Tread: She’s incredibly unsubtle, yet still attempts to stalk Olya regardless.
Olga (Olya) Orlova
- "It's getting harder to act like I don't really care"
Sergei's mysterious girlfriend, who gives Yura rides to his place and has become something of an unofficial big sister to Anya. After Dmitry rescues Anya from being attacked, Olya begrudgingly allows him to stay at her apartment as he's run away from home. But she soon catches on that things aren't as they seem with Dmitry.
- Alliterative Name: Olya Orlova.
- Beneath the Mask: She's revealed to be hiding her insecurities and issues (such as the tension between her and Nikita after what happened to his brother) under a calm unflappable demeanor. She feels that she can't even open up to her boyfriend Sergei about them because she fears he won't support her and might even leave her if he knew.
- Cool Big Sis: To Anya; though she's not Anya's sister by blood, Olya has that relationship with her now, with the former coming over to her place often to get away from things.
- Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: Despite being the head of the Facility's Logistical Department she volunteers to go into the Zone with Stalkers on missions because she wants to experience a thrill and excitement she isn't getting from her job. Unfortunately, once the novelty wears off, she finds even Stalking to be mundane and boring.
- Foil: To Sergei. Once he notices something's up with KT, he immediately turns her in and leaves her to be abruptly arrested by a SWAT team. When Olga suspects Dmitry is a mutant, she calmly confronts him about it and makes clear she's not planning to turn him in.
- Hiding Behind Your Bangs: She has her right eye always covered by her hair. This covers up the eye injury she received once as a Stalker.
- The Load: Viewed as this in-universe by the Stalkers. Not only are women Stalkers rare due to the complications that entering the Zone can give them, but Olya in particular never develops the Talent that other Stalkers do regarding the Zone and things affected by it. To make matters worse, Sergei showed a clear bias to her over his other teammates in his days as a Stalker. As a result, she's treated with suspicion and resented.
- Nerves of Steel: She just smiles and speaks calmly whilst having telekinetically floating knives pointed at her by Dimtry.Olya: "I see you kids sure love being dramatic, huh? I think you should calm down before you go too far."
- Secret-Keeper: She and Anya both keep agree to keep the fact Dmitry is an escaped mutant a secret.
- Survivor Guilt: Downplayed in regards to the incident where Sergei saves her over Kolya from The Grinder. It's stated she doesn't generally think of herself as being responsible for it, but it's implied Nikita's constant insinuations to the contrary get under her skin, and her song "The Mill" has her seeming to flash back to that incident several times over her suitably morose lyrics.
DT001-319 Dmitry (Dima)
- "I know what it means, how it feels to be atypical."
A boy who saves Yura's sister Anya from a group of thugs... somewhat. He claims to have run away from home, so Anya volunteers Olya's apartment as a place for him to stay and quickly latches on to him. Just like KT, though, he's hiding things about himself, and turns out to have been a mutant who escaped from the same facility with KT.
- Animal Motifs: Frequently compared with dogs. First by Anya in "Punch it, Punk!" while trying to convince Olga to let him stay, then by Dr. Temnova in all of "LIKE A DOG." and by Yura in "Convergence."
- Cornered Rattlesnake: Despite being loyal to the facility his whole life and showing no signs of wanting to escape, he broke out after discovering he was scheduled to be killed, badly injuring several scientists in the process. Later, in "Convergence" he almost kills Yura for blackmailing him, only being stopped by Anya.
- Fantastic Racism:
- Before his escape, Dmitry saw himself as being naturally "better" than the less-privileged mutants because his own mutation granted him a convenient superpower while many of theirs were ugly and inconvenient Body Horror abilities, outright calling them "scum" in the song "Comfort Zone". This is implied to be a mentality drilled into him so he wouldn't feel bad about helping his handlers perform painful experiments on the other children. He's forced to reevaluate it when he learns that, to the Facility, he's exactly as expendable as all the mutants he sneered at.
- Seemed to believe all humans would be as insincere and fearful towards mutants as the Facility's staff and wanted nothing to do with the species following his escape. This led to him and KT going their separate ways after their escape since she wanted to make friends with humans. This view is challenged by Anya, who gives him unconditional love and devotion to him despite knowing he's a mutant, and by Olya, who's being willing to be his Secret-Keeper too even after he threatens her.
- Fearless Fool: His introduction in "Punch It, Punk" has him leaping into a fight with a pair of thugs to protect a random stranger he'd never met (Anya). Despite his heroics, it quickly transpires that he must have gotten a lucky punch in by catching them by surprise, is a lot weaker than he looks, and he proceeds to be on the painful receiving end of a Curb-Stomp Battle.
- Foil: "KT's Official Guide to Coolness" and supplementary info about it reveals that he and KT are opposites in every way—while they're both mutants and imprisoned in a research facility, Dmitry was given much better privileges than the other mutants and his powers were even routinely used to conduct other experiments. Unlike Katya, he's certain that other normal humans can't be trusted and that there's no way he and Katya will find acceptance as mutants, perhaps because of his realization that the kindness he saw in the facility was a facade.
- Gilded Cage: In contrast to Katya, who was treated like a lab rat and subjected to many inhumane tests to study her powers, the facility's fear of Dmitry led them to treat him as well as possible, giving him cushy living quarters, clothes, and treating him nicely, claiming that he wouldn't be treated so well anywhere else. In the end, though, the kindness of the staff was fake and Dmitry wasn't any more free than Katya was.
- Heel–Face Turn: While just as much a prisoner as the others, in "Comfort Zone" Dmitry is shown helping the Facility with their experiments on the other mutants without question, even espousing a belief that they should be glad to be given a purpose as test subjects. He realizes that he's being used when his handler leaks that they plan to kill him for being too powerful, and his very next experiment has him breaking out of the facility and rescuing Katya in the process.
- Mind over Matter: This is revealed to be his power, as shown in the end of the video he's introduced in.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: After learning that the Facility plans to terminate him after his next experiment because he's too powerful for them to contain, despite how obediently he'd upheld their scientific goals, Dmitry becomes disgusted with them all and escapes with Katya.
- No Social Skills: Ferry's notes on Dmitry state he isn't a very social person. His whole reason for splitting up with KT after their escape was due to wanting to stay away from people whilst she was eager to explore their newfound freedom and meet new people. By the time of "Punch It, Punk" he only really seems to speak to Anya.
- Rescue Romance: Anya eagerly starts a blooming relationship with him after he saves her from a pair of thugs.
- The Runaway: Like Katya, he claims to have run away from home. It's technically true.
Nikita
- "Go out with a whimper, not with a blast."
A Stalker introduced in "The Mill", an old associate of Sergei's. He accompanies Olya and Yura on their first outing into the Zone to help teach Yura the ropes. As that song reveals, he's got an unfortunate history with the Zone and with Olya in particular.
- Beware the Quiet Ones: One of his character notes is that he says very cruel things in a soft voice. Although he seems chill and laid-back like Yura, he's actually one of the meaner characters in the story.
- Death Song: It appears "message lost" is this for him as its his Point of View song in which he contemplates the events of his life and the line "my ultimate snapshot - the sky overcast" refers to the last thing he sees as he lies on his back dying from a gunshot wound to the chest.
- Disappeared Dad: Of the deadbeat type; he broke up with his girlfriend when he found out she was pregnant. The video for "The Mill" hints at this, and it's confirmed by Ferry's explanation for the song.
- The Resenter: He's shown to be resentful of Olya because he believes (perhaps not unjustifiably) that Sergei could have saved his brother from The Grinder if he hadn't favored her instead. The fact that she never develops a Talent for the Zone also leads him to look down on her as a Stalker.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: He's killed in the song that he's introduced in, presumably as a demonstration of how dangerous being a Stalker really is.
- You Should Have Died Instead: He makes it clear that he wishes Olya had died in The Grinder instead of his little brother Kolya.
Doctor Temnova
- "Oh, it's noble to serve as means to meet an end. So sentiment aside, why don't you take pride in being an important asset for our experiment?"
A high-ranking scientist working for the facility that held DT001-319 and KT003-405 before their escape. She worked closely with DT001-319, being a big influence in constructing his worldview and willingness to work with the facility. When budget cuts meant the containment cost for DT001-319 was too expensive and a termination order was placed on him, Doctor Temnova slipped a note in his next experiment folder to warn him and push him to escape to avoid the loss of a precious potential resource for scientific progress.
- Batman Gambit: Implied in "Like A Dog". She sings about knowing that someone will eventually come crawling back to her. Given her actions thus far and the song's visuals, it's likely she deliberately set Dima loose after crushing his sense of self-worth so that he'd be hurt by both the facility and the outside and be left with nobody but her. What her end-game is is unknown, but some of her lines could be read as planning to recreate the incident that created the Zone.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: Her entire morality revolves around the scientific applications of the facility's mutant specimens. She seems to view it as giving the subjects' lives a purpose beyond just being defective scum. She gives DT001-319 a warning about the termination order the facility placed on him to push him to escape, but it was more because she viewed his termination as an insult to scientific taste and a waste of a precious specimen than due to any personal attachment.
- "Like A Dog" expands on her worldview: Having gained agelessness, if not immortality, from the creation of the Zone has caused her to view herself as something more than human and "outgrow" her sense of empathy. She also refers to the Zone like a living thing, which could mean many things...
- Brainy Brunette
- For Science!: Her arguments to the board against terminating DT001-319 had too much to do with pure scientific interest and too little with risk prevention costs.
- Mad Scientist: She gleefully experiments on mutant specimens for the facility."A life of fun giving purpose to scum."
- Manipulative Bastard: Warped Dima into a self-righteous Super Supremacist so that he'd follow her orders, then crushed him emotionally when the board threatened to take him away. "Like A Dog" implies that she already expects him to come back due to having rendered him unable to function without her.
- Older Than They Look: By about fifty years. The same amount of time that the Zone has existed.
- The Sociopath: "COMFORT ZONE" and supplemental material make her come off as very cheerful but also very cold and analytical. The value she places on her specimens revolve around their scientific potential, making some too precious to waste and others necessary to discard. She also constructs DT001-319's entire worldview about seeing being a means to an end as noble, then tears it down effortlessly with a single note when she wants him to stop thinking that way and escape instead."Now, sympathy has no place in a righteous heart. The only use for a motor not meant to start is to become an expendable part to fill the testing chart."
- So Proud of You: She has controlled and monitored Dima's development since his arrival to the facility. To her, DT001-319 is a truly standout specimen and his potential is beyond that of any anomaly she's ever managed in the past. She is very, very proud that he chose to escape rather than passively accept his termination.
- Villain Song: "Like A Dog", a song about her single-minded devotion to science and her manipulations of Dima. Interestingly, it was originally intended to be the final song of the entire PAFL cycle, but was finished ahead of schedule.
