External Conflicts: Father abusive to mother, if not Kay. Squamata are generally distrusted and considered unpredictable and dangerous.
Notes:Squamata, poison tongue (incapacitates), fast reactions.
Rachel Camata
Role in Story:Close friend of Kay’s
Occupation:Student
Physical Description:Tentacles instead of head hair, referred to as ‘dreads’. Lightly scaled skin, as she is also Squamata. Dreads secrete a poison which give people legal highs.
Personality:Quirky. Imaginative. Non-political. Just wants to have fun. Kind. Very liberal social values. Not a long-term thinker.
Habits/Mannerisms:Frequently distracted, partly due to continually being high on her own product.
Background:Rich, well positioned parents, who have always been disappointed that their daughter was not only squamata but a dread squamata - and thus not terribly effective.
Internal Conflicts:Wants to impress her parents but they’ve already given up on her. She doesn’t like to think about the future, so just lives hedonistically in the present.
External Conflicts: Parents want her to have a well paid, powerful job in business. She just wants to join an aid convoy, or something, man.
Notes:Squamata: poison dreads.
Marvin ‘Marv’ Thermivore
Role in Story:Becomes part of the Scooby Gang.
Occupation:Dropped out of high school, now doing odd jobs to support his parents.
Physical Description:Tall, dark skinned, sharp features. Wears sunglasses during the day.
Personality:Lively, witty, confident. Not afraid to speak his mind. Takes no shit, but gives none either.
Habits/Mannerisms:Talking to cute girls (but never quite getting anywhere). Staring off into space (due to heat vision).
Background:Born to working class parents. Dad injured in an industrial accident, now needs constant support. Mum suffering from early onset dementia. Sister younger and studying best she can, with Marv’s support. It’s up to Marv to support everyone.
Internal Conflicts:Has so many dreams. Can’t pursue any of them. He inherently intrudes on people’s privacy, whether he wants to or not.
External Conflicts: Stuck in a situation he can’t get out of. But he’s the kind of guy who will stick at it to the bitter end, because he loves his family.
Notes:Thermal - so he has heat vision.
Kay’s dad
Role in Story:Antagonist for the first half of Arc 1.
Occupation:Recently made redundant from a mindless city council role.
Physical Description:He’s a rodentia - mouse-like, in other words. Furry. Cute ears.
Personality:He’s nothing like his cute appearance. He’s violent, abusive, short tempered.
Habits/Mannerisms:Blames everything and everybody for his own problems and shortcomings. Especially blames Kay for halting his career/prospects.
Background:Bullied as a child (as were many rodentia), always found it hard to be taken seriously in the workplace. Subservient at work, but his home is his castle - and he rules it with an iron fist.
Internal Conflicts:Always wanted to be more. Thought having a son would also give him a future. Instead he had a squamata girl. Feels like everything always goes wrong. Life is unfair.
External Conflicts:Can’t hold down a job. Abusive relationship with his wife.
Notes:Most rodentia have no particular unique skills.
Kay’s mum
Role in Story:Minimal role, but informs Kay’s situation.
Occupation:Housewife.
Physical Description:Rodentia, like Kay’s dad - albeit a different type.
Personality:Drifting. Very subservient to Kay’s dad. Goes through each day without any real purpose.
Habits/Mannerisms:Alcoholic. Depressive.
Background:Happy but sheltered childhood. Met Kay’s dad when he was younger and nicer. That relationship progressively soured and turned into one of domestic violence. Unable to extricate herself from her situation. Has no agency.
Internal Conflicts:Has no way out of her situation, so instead sinks into the bottle.
External Conflicts:Physically abusive husband.
Notes:Her lack of agency and drive had a direct impact on Kay, who strives to be the opposite.
Wynton Simons
Role in Story:Mysterious tangential character, injected halfway through Arc 1 in a narrative break.
Occupation:Unclear - some kind of research/analytical role.
Physical Description:Average height, glasses, unremarkable. Human.
Personality:As a younger man he had a streak of anti-authority, but is now entirely absorbed into the status quo and the realities of every day work. He still tries to maintain an ethical outlook on life.
Habits/Mannerisms:Sardonic. A little distant from his colleagues. World-weary.
Background:Has a wife and a young infant child.
Internal Conflicts:Want to change his life, get a new job, do something that ignites some passion, but can’t find a way to make it happen.
External Conflicts:Surrounded by colleagues he finds annoying in an organisation that makes him uncomfortable.
Notes:The name is a slight (non-relevant) nod to the villainous character in Deus Ex.
Holt
Role in Story:Largely mysterious and threatening character in Arc 1.
Occupation:Unclear - some kind of mercenary or soldier.
Physical Description:Tall, broad-shouldered. Heavily scarred face. He’s seen some action.
Personality:Cold, pragmatic, unemotional, calculating.
Habits/Mannerisms:Utter lack of empathy.
Background:Unknown for now.
Internal Conflicts:Holt doesn’t do internal conflict.
External Conflicts:Anything which gets in his way.
Notes:Holt’s appearance in Arc 1 should raise more questions than it answers.
LOCATION NOTES
Perlyn
Role in Story:The city setting for Arc 1. An odd mash-up of 1940s Los Angeles and British culture.
Related Characters:Cal, Kay, Marv, Rachel
Unique Features:Government is located here. City is dominated by the Aviary, a huge tower containing all the apparatus of government. The top floors are accessible only to those with wings. The rest of the city spins out from this central point.
Description:Very zoned, with clear areas for different classes, and even genotypes. Culturally not very integrated.
Sights:The Aviary, towering over everything. Sunny, clear days. Sprawling suburbs. Parks.
Sounds:Trams, malls.
Smells:Vehicle exhaust. Sewers in the summer.
Notes:This should feel deliberately a bit ‘off’.
Lecture hall
Role in Story:Where we first meet Kay. She’s a student: this is where she spends her days.
Related Characters:Rachel, classmate
Season:Summer term
Unique Features:Designed like a classic 1950s American school. The kind of school Marty’s parents go to in Back to the Future.
Description:The lecture hall is more reminiscent of classic British university lecture halls, as you might imagine to find in Oxford or Cambridge. Wood panelled, raised seating areas like in a theater, large blackboard with desk at the front.
Sights:Many teachers are 360s, drawn to the job by their heightened awareness of their surroundings.
Sounds:Students. Giggling. Teaching. Snoring.
Smells:Students. Boys not quite understanding how deodorant works.
Notes:Not a hugely important part of the story - unlikely that we’ll return to it down the line.
The Black Jasmine
Role in Story:Where Kay first meets Marv and sees Cal in action, plus extra introduction to the world.
>
Related Characters:Marv, Cal, Rachel, Kay
Season:Party time.
Unique Features:Fire escape running from ground to roof. Hidden back-rooms.
Description:A club known specifically for its tolerant attitudes. Indie/hipster-ish.
Sights:Dark, neon, lasers. Dancing. Fornication.
Sounds:Indie. Gothy. Industrial.
Smells:Sweat. Booze. Smoke.
Notes:Like a non-shitty version of the Waterfront in Norwich.
Kay’s house
Role in Story:Kay lives here. Major location in Arc 1, and serves a key plot point in Arc 2.
Related Characters:Marv, Cal, Rachel, Kay, Kay’s parents
Unique Features:Backs onto a graveyard.
Description:One of a row of identical terraced houses, with tiny front gardens but long and thin back gardens. Shed at the bottom of the garden.
Sights:Dad sitting in darkened lounge watching TV. Mum keeping out of the way. Kay staying in her bedroom.
Sounds:Constant TV. If the TV isn’t on, there’s arguing.
Smells:Alcohol. Overcooked food.
Notes:This place should feel very normal, even as events become increasingly unusual.
Records office
Role in Story:Public records building, where Kay finds out/corroborates key plot information
Related Characters:Cal, Kay
Unique Features:Large, library-like. Important to know that Locque is a pre-computer society, much like the 1940s/50s. Records are all paper/microfiles.
Description:Large building with a single floor for public access, stacked full of shelves and desks for working at. Numerous machines for trawling through newspaper clippings.
Sights:Researchers poring over records at the various desks. Away from the desks it’s all a bit dark, dingy, brown and old.
Sounds:Low murmurs and occasional coughs/sneezes.
Smells:Musty. Books. Paper. Ink.
Notes:This location is unremarkable itself, but it is useful for delivering some exposition in a more interesting manner.
The Facility
Role in Story:The cluster of buildings on Earth responsible for the dimension bridge and implementing much of the Locque experiments.
Related Characters:Wynton Simons, Cal, Kay, Marv, Holt
Unique Features:Huge warehouse in the centre known as ‘the bunker’, containing the zero-point turbine which runs the dimension bridge. Nearby is the enormous mock-Aviary structure.
Description:Aside from the bunker and the mock-Aviary, the compound looks like a fairly standard industrial complex. Heavy security, though, with tall fences.
Sights:Hundreds of employees. But it’s no big secretive place - it’s just a mundane job for them.
Sounds:It’s a scientific place. The sound of concentration and (unethical) innovation.
Smells:Clinical. Medical. Office space. Grease.
Notes:This is where the Arc 2 showdown kicks off.
Marv’s place
Role in Story:Marv’s house! Cal and Kay hang out there after the events of ‘Nurture’.
Related Characters:Marv, Cal, Kay
Unique Features:Large basement, which is basically Marv’s private zone. It’s his refuge.
Description:Ordinary house - pretty old, wooden, more like something you’d find in Texas or Florida. Been in the family for years, but quite decrepit now.
Sights:Peeling wallpaper. Outside is pretty ragged. But Marv does his best.
Sounds:Laughter. It’s a happy place, even if times are difficult.
Smells:Great exotic cooking.
Notes:Mostly a cameo appearance. Might return to it waaaay down the line.
Zhangao
Role in Story:Equivalent of Shanghai. Cal travelled here to find the last remaining Spectre.
Related Characters:Cal
Unique Features:Very old culture, with very different historical and cultural beliefs. Worship a religion representing diversity of appearance.
Description:A wet, monsoon climate. Swampy. Always cloud-shrouded.
Sights:Huge population. The city is massively over-crowded and under-supported.
Sounds:Bustle.
Smells:Food stalls, steam, industry.
Notes:Off-screen in Arc 1.
Aviary
Role in Story:Centre of government in Perlyn. Arc 1 climax goes down here.
Related Characters:Cal, Kay, Marv, Holt
Unique Features:Hidden in the top floors is a secret room which holds a device connecting inter-dimensionally to parts unknown.
Description:“It was a spire, reaching hundreds of feet into the sky. Most of the spire was office space…As you go higher up the… offices [get] fancier, and the view better. Then, right at the top, perches the Aviary, inaccessible to anybody without wings… The spire ended, and then the Aviary sat on top, with no connecting walkways or elevators or stairs.”
Sights:Enormous tower. Surrounded by gardens.
Sounds:Business. Government. Efficiency.
Smells:Beautiful garden smells outside, clinical offices inside.
Notes:Kind of a big deal.
1. Tonally, hitting that collision of the mundane and the fantastical was essential to establish up front. This first paragraph pretty much informs a reader as to whether or not they’re going to enjoy the rest.
2. This is another element that’s supposed to unsettle the reader - it’s a familiar date, but in this context feels anachronistic. Familiar, but with an as-yet unexplained twist. Getting that balance right - weird, but not off-putting - was quite tricky in this first chapter.
3. The awkward collision of Americana and Britishness is something I will be returning to later in the story. At this stage, it should simply feel a bit ‘off’ - like something doesn’t quite make sense.
4. I’m very proud of the pun inherent in this chapter title.
5. When I wrote this chapter, this was intended to be the last time we’d see Marv. He was only ever meant to be a minor scene-setting character - but I kinda liked him, so he stuck around.
6. Figuring out whether to spell this ‘arsehole’ or ‘asshole’ took longer than you might think. The cultural mash-up that is the world of Locque makes decisions like that oddly critical.
7. My house is actually somewhat like this. It freaks out a lot of people. I rather like it.
8. After the more-or-less consecutive action of the first five chapters, this is the first jump cut. It’s something I do repeatedly to keep the pace up, and to avoid trudging through too much exposition or character shuffling. This makes it easier to skip to the point, and also keeps you, dear reader, on your feet.
9. Kay is a character who has agency most of the time. Writing a female lead is a first for me, and my general approach has been to approach it in exactly the same way I have approached male protagonists. Even if she didn’t have repitlian abilities, she’s still be just as strong a force. Kay’s mother represents the flipside of a character entirely without control - that’s a big part of what drives Kay to forge her own path.
10. The story that gets glimpsed in this chapter was always planned and unknown about, but I didn’t initially intend to reveal it at this stage. It was only in the middle of writing Arc 1 that I realised it could function as an interesting and unexpected intersection. It lays foundations while also raising a whole bunch of questions.
11. In the original version serialised on Wattpad, Rachel was also waiting in the basement, and was going to be part of the scooby gang. This never quite happened, and Rachel’s involvement to that level introduced one too many elements to juggle in the Arc 1 finale. It’s OK - she’ll get her moment down the line.
12. This concept owes a slight debt to the Fables comic.
A Day Of Faces Page 9