Subject: All right: agent concepts.
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Posted on: 2015-04-29 09:19:00 UTC
1/ The mild-mannered azhdarchid from #42 in 'Getting Some Exorcise'. Sandra and Freckles think he might not have been a canon character, and given that there are exactly two talking azhdarchids in fiction that I can see (a Quetzalcoatlus in one of the 'Land Before Time' movies, and a Skybax in one of the 'Dinotopia' books), they're probably right.
I see this character as a sort of reverse Indiana Jones. Where Indy was a professor who'd rather be out adventuring, this azhdarchid is a field agent who'd much rather be researching. He's good at his job, and does it without complaining - but his heart is elsewhere.
2/ An ordinary human being from World One is somehow required to take a job at the PPC. This is a character with a very clear story arc - over the course of, say, six missions, she learns to cope with the frankly bizarre world she's ended up in. She's a realistic viewpoint on what it would be like to fall into the PPC: not the usual 'hey, magic, cool', but how someone would actually respond to having flora for bosses, horrendous working conditions, magic technology, and a job which occasionally involves cold-blooded murder.
3/ A World One human... from a very long time ago. Let's say Ancient Rome. She's someone who not only doesn't understand PPC technology, she literally doesn't have the framework to come to understand. And, significantly, she doesn't care. She has the idol that summons the magic doorway, she knows it must be provided by one of the gods, and those people who witter on about 'remote activators' are to be ignored. For best results, written in first person, and keeping the theme all the way through.
From that, you can tell that she's very confident in her worldview - y'know, sort of like most people are. ^~ I don't picture her as trying to persuade the others, though. It could be that she was a Roman slave, accustomed to holding opinions without showing them; I'm not sure. But I think she'd be fascinating.
She's basically a reaction to all those agents who are from places without tech, and get it instantly. Seriously, how? (Actually, come to think of it: she's Leela, isn't she?)
4/ and 5/ An agent team. Our first agent is one of the Greenwitches from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TheDarkIsRising_Sequence#Greenwitch">Greenwitch: basically a magic-powered woman made of sticks. There's a new one made every year, so she's not quite a canon character. Like the Greenwitch from the book, she's selfish, petty, quick to anger: all that good stuff.
But... she lives off the Wild Magic, and that's in short supply at HQ. When she runs low, she literally comes apart - she bursts into a storm of twigs and rage and fear.
That's where her partner comes in: Saranésë. He's a Tolkienian nature spirit in the mold of Bombadil, and he's basically an incarnation of the Wild Magic. Like Tom, he invokes it through singing - which means he spends a lot of time singing to his partner to 'pull herself together' (har har). Being an incarnation of the landscape, he's pretty calm, but also playful - again, see Bombadil.
In the original version of this idea, he was a singing Green Man, but I can't remember... uh, why. He could still be, if someone can come up with a decent rationale.
I'm not sure I want all of these up for adoption, actually. 2/ and 3/, definitely, but 1/ and 4-5/, I think I'll keep for myself. I might still do something with them.
hS