The Voted Most Likely Tag: Involving Characters from The Comic Space Opera

Hullo my good beans! I am back! (It's not that I've forgotten I have a blog or anything, it's just that life gets busy, don't you know.) In any case the lovely Sam @ Bookshire has tagged me with a tag that involves showing off one's own characters, and it looked fun. Especially since I've never done this particular tag with my space opera characters. 

And so, I hereby introduce to you, or, more likely, reintroduce to you, the cast of my current WIP.

There's no proper blurb for the WIP in question, but if you're not familiar with it, all you really need to know is that it takes place in a world very much like our own (pizza parlors, mocha lattes, classic rock and roll) but with royalty and space travel and evil empires thrown into the mix. (And the space travel isn't, like, realistic space travel, it's just, people jump into their flying convertibles and the next thing you know they're on another planet.)

The story is currently sitting at some 250,000 words across three different books. Which I am currently trying to streamline and condense into a single book in the 100k range. 

(hAlp editing is not my strength and this is the most ambitious editing project i have ever undertaken.)

But we are not here to groan about editing! We are here to squeal about characters. 

Let the festivities commence. 

Most Likely to Be a Poet

Caroline Summers is 17 years old, a stereotypically spunky redhead, the proud owner of a teal convertible and teal sneakers, and is unapologetically passionate about three things: her coffee, her music, and her friends. Not necessarily in that order. 

Someday she's going to be a songwriter. I mean, she probably writes songs already, but someday she's going to make it as a songwriter.

(And if you don't think of songwriters as poets--my dear. Have you listened to Simon and Garfunkel?) 

Most Likely to Dance in the Rain

I mean, also Caroline, BUT since she already took a prize in the yearbook MOVING ON--

Prince Ferdinand. 

Prince Ferdinand, aka Ferdy, also 17, gangly of form and beaming of face, is probably the sweetest and most naive creature in the book. He has unbounded enthusiasm for life, and always wears turtleneck sweaters because his parents are overly paranoid about him catching cold. To be fair to them, he really does catch cold easily. 

So what would happen is Ferdy goes out to dance in the rain, gets soaked to the skin, and comes down with pneumonia.

Who are we kidding, that probably has happened a good number of times.

Caroline was probably with him most of the times it happened.

Most Likely to Look Good in a Kilt

I feel unqualified to answer this question. What characteristics are they, exactly, that make a man Look Good in a Kilt? 

If I can't confidently assess what looks good on me 100% of the time, how am I supposed to confidently assess what looks good on my fictional characters? 

Dar Beauregard is whispering in my ear that he would look stunning in a kilt because he looks stunning in everything. 

I am giving him my most skeptical look. 

I don't think he's the kilt-wearing type. 

Maybe Senator Brett Summers. Caroline's dad is a pretty dapper individual and I feel like he's incapable of being self-conscious, so he really could pull off just about anything. 

Most Likely to Get Punched in the Face

That would be Raff Summers. Caroline's big brother and Ferdy's best friend/bodyguard. He's about 19 and a bit of a jock. Also very protective, with a fiery temper where his friends are concerned. 

He's very punchable. 

Most Likely to Drop Everything and Become a Sheep Herder

Thaaaaat would be--

No waitasecond. I was gonna say it would be Caroline's other big brother, Jude (mid-20s), but I'm second-guessing it because Jude is kind of a city slicker. He lives in an apartment downtown where he can walk to work at his bureaucratic government job, and he thrives on pushing paperwork.

Would he also thrive on the rural, rugged silence of Heidi's Alpine ranges? 

Yes, I think he would. He's not afraid of hard work and he's not actually a sissy, even though he might strike you that way at first. 

But the thing is, he would never drop everything and move to the mountains just because he would be content there. Not when he's already so content where he is. Jude is, above all, a creature of habit. 

OOH.

CHRISTINA. She would get sick and tired of her spaceship gas station and say "blast it--" 

...No not Christina she loves her machinery too much.

*sigh* What a lot of happy city people I have in this book. 

I think Jude really is the best bet for now. If I think of someone else I'll come back and change it.

Dear Jude.

OH WAIT. I got one. Gubrettij. Gubrettij Strike of the Festerlonian (those are the bad guys) Army. He's perfectly content where he is right now, too, but if he ever got the idea that there was something deeply wrong with his current life, he wouldn't think twice about deserting and running off to some quiet rural area. And he would absolutely love taking care of sheep. Frustrations and all. He would just embrace the whole shebang and be the best shepherd ever. 

(Other than Jesus, of course.)

Most Likely to be Found in the Library

You know what, Dar Beauregard.

My charming rogue of a space thief (about 20) is actually a rather literary person. Well. "Literary" isn't the right word. Scholarly, though. He likes to know things so that he can rattle off quotations from famous authors or facts about scientific subjects and look Smart and Multifaceted and Witty and Profound. And he just digs the aesthetic of a good old library, don't you know.

I just got this mental image of Dar hanging out in this story world's equivalent of the New York Public Library, long after visitor's hours are over, probably sipping tea over a Very Old Book which should have hot liquids Nowhere Near It Whatsoever. 

It's a pleasing image. 

I didn't realize sneaking into historic libraries was a hobby of Dar's but it probably totally is. 

And he probably has a pretty sick library in his hideout, too. 

Most Likely to Sleep Through an Earthquake

Funny you should ask. I've been thinking recently about the nature of exhaustion, and how effective it is in stories to see an exhausted character fall asleep at the drop of a hat. Like, I dunno, in Enemy Brothers I feel like if you give Dym a cup of tea in a room with a fire he falls asleep because he's an exemplary British airman doing his duty in the hell of WWII. And it's poignant because Dym's not making a fuss about how tired he is. When he's awake he's super cheerful and chill. But then when he nods off you realize how much the man is sacrificing, even though you don't get to see the actual work.

So I've actually been trying to decide which person in this cast would be most likely to fall asleep when not planning to take a nap. And the guy I'm leaning towards is Java. He's bodyguard to the Young Empress of Festerlon and his job comes with more stress than you might imagine.

.....But then again, that doesn't really answer this question, because here we're looking for a HEAVY sleeper, and I don't think Java is capable of heavy sleeping because he's always gotta be so darn vigilant.

Oh well. It's the best I got. Although I can certainly imagine Dar's sidekick Dick sleeping through an earthquake and then waking up and being all groggy and "what did I miss?" 

Most Likely to Steal Food from Other People's Plates

In this story-world, you see the word "steal" your mind goes to Dar Beauregard.

Dar yelps that that's not FAIR because stealing food is uncouth, and he never does anything uncouth. When he steals he steals with style. 

Ironically, Caroline, who is Most Indignant at Dar for stealing with style on the grounds that wrong things can never truly be done with style, would totally steal food from someone else's plate.

Especially if that someone else was Jude.

I now need to write a scene in which all the characters are at a fast-food restaurant and Caroline steals Jude's French fries just after berating Dar for his kleptomaniac tendencies. 

Most Likely to Cheat on a Test

The tempting answer here would once again be Dar, but actually I don't think he would because of the intellectual snobbery hinted at above (see: Most Likely to be Found in the Library). Stealing someone else's answers, like stealing someone else's French fries, is just uncouth. It's beneath him. Why would he want anyone else's answers when he has his own answers which are probably far superior to the ones in the answer key?

Also, Dar was totally homeschooled by his evil uncle/homeschooled himself (being raised by robbers leaves you very few education options), so I don't think he's ever been subjected to a written test. 

So the Actual cast member Most Likely to Cheat on a Test would be...

Dorian.

Captain Dorian of the Festerlonian Space Force.

He is, ahem. Quite the opportunist. He will do whatever it takes to claw his way to the top. He's probably been stealing Tortxof Strike's answers as long as they've been friends. 

Most Likely to Say "Oops" After Setting Something on Fire

Dick the Sidekick.

(That was the easiest question in the tag.) 

Naturally Dick wouldn't set anything on fire on purpose. But it is an undeniable fact that he is only too likely to set something on fire. Maybe even everything, sometime. 

(Then again, Christina is very bad in the kitchen.) (She just wouldn't say "oops." She would have a mental breakdown.)

Most Likely to Open an Orphanage

Veronica Summers!!!

That one was, if possible, even easier than the last one. Raff & Caroline & Jude's mom is the BEST when it comes to taking in people who need to be loved. She welcomes them into her house and pours them coffee and makes them food. She goes and visits them in the hospital. She insists that they stay a little while longer. She is the best.

We may or may not give her actual orphans to adopt, at some point. But her heart is definitely already a home for the weary. 

Most Likely to Run Off With the Circus

Caroline again. 

Gubrettij again. 

FERDINAND again. (He wouldn't even realize he was running away, though, he'd just show up back at home five days later in a clown costume and be like "sorry I'm late, mom, there were these people with an ELEPHANT and I went up to say hi because I thought maybe it was Nora's long-lost brother and if it was I would want them to be able to see each other again, and they also had monkeys and I asked where they were going and they said to the next town and I said can I come and they said sure and--") 

Yeah I have a lot of characters who would join the circus on a whim. They're a fun cohort. 

Maybe that's why I'm still writing this story eight years after starting it?

Most Likely to Survive the Zombie Apocalypse

I think maybe Dar's uncle. 

(Don't ask me his name right now, it used to be Dow but then there were too many Ds so I changed it to Maxwell but Maxwell isn't sticking so I'm conflicted.) 

A lot of my characters with skill sets (i.e. Raff, Java) also have consciences and human attachments that would lead them to put their life on the line to save someone else, but I think Dar's uncle would be coldhearted enough to stick by his friends as long as they helped him survive and leave them behind as soon as they were putting him in danger. 

Or, y'know, maybe push them in the way of danger to buy himself some time.

(I really do Not like Dar's uncle.)

Most Likely to Fake Their Own Death

Java. 

Most Likely to Die and Haunt Their Friends

Also Java. 

Java is just....death dogs Java's heels, okay? He's too cool not to be a target. He's ASKING for it because he can TAKE it. 

Whether the authoress can take it is another matter.

WELL that was a lot of fun. Thank you, Sam, for the opportunity to gush about my own characters! I hereby invite anybody who wants to gush about their own characters to nab the tag from me. Just let me know that you nabbed it so I can enjoy the gushing, don't you know. 

Which characters are your favorite? Which of these would you be most likely to do? I think I'm the most likely to be found in the library. Shocker.