#update: characters

[daywalkers-fic]

08. meet the cast (pt. 2)

yeehawgust day 1: gather the posse

To kick off the first day of Yeehawgust (THAT I HAD MISSED AHHH I AM CATCHING UP), I will be introducing the first cohort of characters I had originally drafted for this storyworld. What’s a western without a rag-tag team of outlaws!

“Teddy” Lee Valentine (30), an ex-military scout and veteran outlaw. He had an early start to the life of crime at thirteen, when he helped a local gang kidnap a wealthy banker. His face may be lined with the harsh years of his past, but once in a blue moon, you’ll be able to see a boyish charm to his smile when he’s in a good mood.

Célie Blais (29), a sharpshooter with wit as quick as her draw, and a tongue as deadly as her aim. Not the type to start fights, but will not hesitate to finish them. Tailors her own clothes to make secret pockets and holsters for extra guns.

Frances Ashley (25), a con-artist with a disarming smile. Having been raised in a bordello by working women, they learned how to use their charm for profit and protection. They have a catalogue of characters they use in rotation on jobs, each with their own elaborate backstories.

Rio Miranda (32), the resident Horse Girl with everything and anything you need in his saddle bag. Vaquero blood runs in his family, along with strong arms, an impeccable knowledge of the frontiers, and competitive riding skills. Helped to name everyone’s horses.

Birdie (19), a trader of secrets, favours, and the occasional shiny thing. If you need something, he probably has a guy, who knows a guy that can help you. His eye for DIY makes anything he can get his hands on a dangerous weapon.

Aquiles Nevarro (41), the drifter with a colourful resume of crime: from robbery, to gambling, to manslaughter, and fraud. Rumour has it they used to ride with the notorious Del Lobo gang out of Mexico, but was left for dead after a job gone wrong took their right eye and nearly their life. Since joining Teddy, they have opted to work behind the scenes rather than out in the field.

Meet some of the other characters here!

[daywalkers-fic]

05. meet the cast (pt. 1)

The Company: a traveling mortuary company that provides services for both hire and charity. Some of their services include, but are not limited to: corpse preparation, funeral ceremonies, headstone design, coffin crafting, memento mori commissions. Their mode of travel is this really peculiar hearse caravan.

The idea of The Company came about in part because I had read somewhere that some cowboys were buried with custom designed cowboy boots to be placed by their graves – then I wondered, what about all the folks that were left alone in the wild and are left alone to just perish? Or what about in settlements that don’t really have an undertaker or formal funeral company to help one of their own? Everyone ought to be sent off, remembered. My initial thought was that it would be cool to have a specific company/group that travels the West that specializes in cowboy burials – memento mori pieces, custom headstones things, burials etc. Then, during that time where I was trying to pivot to a more gothic-fantasy-western sort of direction, I thought the idea of this company would be so freaking cool. They would be the in-betweeners of the “monsters” vs. “hunters” in this universe, and be associated with all things Death. Soul senders? Collectors? Unsure if I have totally written that off yet hmm.

Anyways! I’m still flushing out the members of The Company, but so far, I’ve sketched out enough to formulate a group of six individuals. These folks share a deep and respected relationship with death/death culture. Their “titles” only highlight their role of expertise within The Company’s services, but they are more than capable of intersecting and assisting each other when needed. Folks!!! I’d like to introduce you to:

Rupert Fritz Worth (46), The Surgeon that has been accused of being a time travel on three separate occasions—from the Austrian Empire to America. Others might be offended, or a little self conscious, but he sees it all as a compliment to his eclectic fashion sense. Like many other professionals in the field, he began his career as a barber—his speciality was impressive facial hair styling—until necessity and opportunity called him to train his skills with deeper, and more invasive kinds cuts.

Ed McCullen (25), The Carpenter more fearful around the living than the dead. Though he can handle the sight of blood and rotting flesh without so much as a flinch, the idea of engaging in small talk with a stranger is enough to make his stomach hurt with anxiety. Whittling is something that helps to calm and ground him. He has quite the collection of wooden animals he carved himself.

Dara Quinn (28), The Undertaker leading The Company and all of its logistical duties. When they aren’t organizing funeral services or meeting with patrons, they’re dabbling in the occult.

Lora-Mae Powell (26), The Right Hand and curio collector.

Chester Reeves (32), The Reverend who is impressively handy with a gun. Was he naturally skilled? Or did his profession call for him to learn how to handle firearms? His past has greatly shaped his views on life, fate, and death. Vic, his albino corn snake, enjoys napping in his inner coat pocket.

Delfina “Della” Rivera (39), The Chemist with a keen talent for brewing. Tonics, moonshine, balms, perfume, poison—you name it, she can make it. She had no interest in profiting from her creations, as she is much more content with experimenting new recipes and sharing with others she meets. When she isn’t buried in her chemistry kit concocting something new, she is usually with Rupert assisting with embalming and the dressing of corpses.

[daywalkers-fic]

17. visualizing characters

been on ye old pinterest playing around with mood boards for different characters. as someone with very vivid imaginaries, I always appreciate somewhat of a curation of photos, music, and vibes for characters. It gets me to know them more.

I see how various interactive fiction authors introduce their characters and it’s really cool to see the different ways in which a character are introduced to readers depending on the writing style of the author, aesthetic of the story; what features and physical descriptions are given, if there are any concept photos or art, or if there are moodboards and such.

when building characters, they come to me with details, and yet the finer details of their face and appearance are quite vague. with pinterest, I couldn’t help but toy around with looking for inspiration to see what comes to mind when it comes to their actual visage.

It’s also been interesting reading takes on regarding the “faceclaims” conversation in writing spaces on the internet—from interactive fiction, to fanfiction, to roleplayers. my unsolicited two cents: if they are a working professional in the entertainment industry as an actor (and/or maybe model), of which their talents and likeness are used, I feel less weird about it. it feels like fan-casting a live-action for your work. influencers and internet personas? that turns me off simply because of the ethics of people finding random people on social media and aestheticizing them. the common denominator is that those that end up in people’s faceclaim selections can be a little too pretty sometimes lmao

gimme the gremlins, the ordinary, the uglies, the normies, the oddities, the freaks, the spookies.

maybe one of these days I’ll save money to commission an artist to help bring someone to life. I considered using sims or even the rdo character creator to help me fill in the faces of my little ones. picrew has been fun too lol

[daywalkers-fic]

16. what’s in a name?

Combing through census data and civil war records for ideas for time-period-accurate character names. Stumbled upon the Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System database from an official government website. Thanks, public accessibility. The site has information on coloured regiments + an option to browse based on where people served/are from, including territories that were not yet absorbed into the U.S. 1861-1865 + an option to browse people in service based on their units and occupation, including musicians, sailors, sharpshooters.

looking through the Union’s New Mexico Cavalry unit and these are some names that tickled a little part of my brain:

Rogue Aguilar

Perfidia Amaya

Sabino Aquirria

Teodocio Aranda

Ylario Barela

Pilar Bella

Sisto Benevides

there are +3,500 results and I only browsed so far through last names sorted alphabetically A to B ;;;

[daywalkers-fic]

02. a halloween gay discovers the PBS Antique Roadshow

last night the algorithm blessed my recommendations to bring me to the “Spooky and Kooky” special of a show called the Antique Roadshow, where regular folk basically come in with their collectables or antiques to get them appraised, talked about, and shown off. my god I am in love. as a halloween gay, a history nerd, and a knick-knack thrifter, it brought me so much joy. I was so excited, I ate my dinner too fast and got sick some time after (but is that excitement or my regular digestive issues oo). anyways, I was reminded how much I love learning about death, death rituals, death ceremonies, death customs across history and different cultures. this woman had a collection of the most beautiful mortem mori rings + mourning jewelry that literally had me open-mouthed in shock.

I am still in the midst of drafting characters; I drafted up this idea of a traveling mortuary company. The death business and culture of the 1800s was quite a thing on its own already -- listen: a funeral home on wheels; essentially a group of misfits and goths riding across the old west to give dead cowboys burials, maintain graves, sell coffins and trinkets out of their wagon. I mean that time was riddled with death, after all. 

this new gang of characters was not my originally planned set of main characters, but as previously said: I’ll see where the wind goes and wait where it takes me with this.