Character Lexicon

OKay–I know, this is two blogs in one night and the other one ain’t short. But I was asked to do a ‘Character Lexicon’–and I kept wondering if had all the characters on the list that I needed. And then I thought, “Well, why don’t I ask the people who know?” So here’s my character lexicon–let me know if I missed anybody, eh?

Character Lexicon

Cory—Corinne Carol-Anne Kirkpatrick op Crocken Green started this little adventure as a gas station clerk who was working her way through college, and then she met Adrian, a vampire who loved her, and Green, who loved them both. She is now married to Green, Bracken, and Nicky, carries three of Adrian’s marks and so leads his kiss of vampires, and is still trying to get that degree.

Green—Vernal Green, Lord of Leaves and Shadows—the leader of most of the supernatural peoples in Northern California, Green is not a warrior. Instead he leads and heals with sex and love, and people would die to protect him.

Bracken—The youngest full-blooded sidhe on the hill, Bracken was Adrian’s lover and fell in love with Cory at first sight. He stepped away from her then, because Adrian loved her and they didn’t share well, but upon Adrian’s death he became her full-time lover.

Adrian—Adrian started life as the sexually abused cabin boy whom Green rescued on his way to America. Adrian became a vampire so he wouldn’t age and leave Green alone, and even after he fell in love with Cory, he couldn’t survive without his ties to Green.

Nicky—Nicky is an Avian–a shapeshifter who turns into a bird. He met Cory while she was attending C.S.U. San Francisco immediately after Adrian’s death, when he was working for Goshawk, the bad guy. Nicky accidentally bonded to Green and Cory in the course of saving Bracken’s life, but because he was trying to atone for his assault on Cory at the time, Green and Cory took them into their family—and their bed.

Max—Max is the police officer who tried to ‘save’ Cory from Green’s hill when she first met him. In the end, Green’s hill saved him, and he ended up beguiled by a girl who was more cat than human.

Renny—Renny became a werecat to follow her first husband, Mitch, into the life. When Mitch was killed, Renny’s cat personality became dominant and nearly feral. She’s become more human since she and Max have become a couple and gotten married… but not by much.

Marcus—Marcus was a history teacher with a passion for snow skiing. He’s got curly brown hair, big brown eyes, and a teacher’s affection for Cory, who wants to document the world they’ve found themselves in now that he has fangs and a taste for blood.

Phillip—Phillip was a stockbroker with a passion for snow skiing. After Marcus found him buried in an avalanche and brought him over as a vampire, the two spent twenty years struggling with their sexuality and their boundless love for each other. What they finally decided upon was a relationship based on the sentiment, “I apparently can’t live without you, asshole,” and that seems to be working for them.

Mario—Mario was an Avian who worked for Goshawk, the bad-guy in Wounded who convinced Nicky to mind-rape Cory on their first date. Mario’s wife, Beth, was killed in an assault on Green’s hill, and Green gave Mario back his will to live. Mario is mid-height, stocky, and very proud of his Mexican heritage.

La Mark—La Mark is another sweet-tempered Avian who had the misfortune to meet up with Goshawk while struggling with his identity. Unfortunately, La Mark’s identity is not a comfortable one—a gay, black Avian is sort of doomed wherever he goes, isn’t he? In spite of that, La Mark is a nice guy with a sense of humor and a blinding smile.

Arturo—Arturo came from the jungles of South America to the new world in the ‘50’s, trying to find an easier life. He found Green’s hill instead, and instead of conquering, fell exquisitely in love (in a very heterosexual way) with a leader who would lead with compassion instead of violence.

Grace—A devoted family woman, Grace was dying of untreated breast cancer in Redding, when Adrian heard her yearning to see her family grow, with or without her. He granted her wish and made her a vampire, and Grace has come to love her Green’s hill family even more intensely than she loved the mortal family she left.

Chloe—Grace’s bitter, unpleasant daughter. Chloe had to have her memories of her vampire mother and of Green’s hill wiped in Bound because she was not the kind of mortal Green allowed at the hill. (i.e., she was a REAL bitch.)

Gavin & Graeme—Chloe’s sons, they adored Green’s hill and completely accepted all of the strangeness within. Once a year they come back to the hill—Green has arranged a sham ‘camp’ to cover for their chance to visit with their grandmother and all the other people they have come to love.

Jack—Jack is actually a nice, quiet young man. When his sister—who became a werewolf by choice—is killed, Jack asks Green for some answers to her world and the people who would kill her. Paired with Teague to be human liaisons to Green’s hill and to go out and deal with violent and legal matters outside the hill, Jack fell utterly and irrevocably in love with his damaged, noble partner. When the two of them become werewolves (Jack by accident and Teague by choice) Jack’s transition to the hill is marred by his realization that Teague really is the great man Jack has always believed—and that means that his loyalties can not ever be exclusively Jack’s.

Teague—Teague was brutally abused as a child and inculcated in the same ideas of hate and prejudice that killed Jack’s sister. One night while hunting a werewolf, he is injured while saving the life of a young man who looks very human—and Adrian pays him back by bringing him to Green. From that moment on, he is Green’s devoted subject. When Jack is injured and Cory comforts him while waiting for the injury to heal, Teague’s loyalty is transferred to the lady of the house, even while he pursues a relationship with Katy and Jack, whom he loves beyond reason.

Katy—Katy has loved Teague Sullivan since she was barely old enough to talk. When she found that fate had brought him to Green’s hill too, she pursued him—and Jack—with a single-minded quest for happiness. Now that they’re a family, she wants to be a part of Teague’s adventures whenever she can be.

Sweet—Sweet is one of the more promiscuous sidhe at the hill—but also one of the most pleasant. She’s also one of the three sidhe who are known for being a healer.

Ellen Beth—Ellen Beth was brought to the hill when her lover was infected with some poisonous blood. Her lover died horribly, and Ellen Beth was turned over to Sweet for emotional healing. Sweet decided to keep her, and Ellen Beth has been happy to be kept.

Leah—Leah’s little brother died and Leah descended into a spiral of sex, drugs, and self-destruction. Adrian saved her from all of that, but Leah’s emotional make-up does not include any sort of monogamous relationship. Still, she misses the stability of having a small, nuclear family, and has spent years trying to find a balance in the hill.

Lambent—Lambent joined the hill just before Jack and Teague were bitten. He had always been semi-independent of Titania and Oberon, but until he ended up on Green’s Hill, he had no idea how much he’d valued his autonomy—or how much he hated the antique laws that governed sidhe behavior in the old country.

Kyle—The lone survivor of the Folsom vampires, Kyle’s beloved, a girl named Davy, was killed because she and Cory vaguely resembled each other—and because they were friends. Cory took Kyle into her kiss and forced him to want to live.

Andres—Andres is the leader of the San Francisco vampires. In Wounded, he allied his vampires with Cory’s—and passed up on an opportunity to take both Cory and Bracken into his bed.

Orson—Orson is the leader of the San Francisco werewolves. He’s not a particularly physical fighter, but he is an aggressive advocate for his people.

Tanya—Tanya is a sylph who works odd jobs for Green’s people in Redding.

Goshawk—Goshawk was the leader of the Avians in San Francisco. He was working on world domination when he convinced Nicky to mind-rape Cory in order to get her most powerful memories to drive his power. Nicky was guilt-ridden, and turned against his former leader in order to help the girl he hurt.

Timmy & Danny—Timmy and Danny were two of the Avians who were set against Green’s hill. They were captured instead, and given sanctuary. Like La Mark, Mario, and Nicky, they chose to stay at the hill instead of rejoining Goshawk’s forces.

Hallow—Hallow is a sidhe, and a professor at Sacramento State University where Cory and the other students attend school. He is also—by Green’s request—a counselor for the students themselves. Although Green usually counsels his own people, he felt that he was way too close to the situation as Cory’s lover and her leader to be objective or effective, and thus his trust in Hallow.

Titania & Oberon—The traditional leaders of the sidhe in England, Titania and Oberon’s court was full of sexual excesses and cruelty. They held Green a prisoner in their famed Faerie Hill because nobody could provide sexual satisfaction like Green. Green hoarded his power though, and eventually snuck himself and his lime trees out of their garden and across the sea.

Crocken & Blissa—Bracken’s parents, Crocken and Blissa are a study in opposites. Blissa is a flittery, sex-kitten of a four-foot pixie, and Crocken looks like an un-dusted pile of rocks. Together (and with a little bit of Green’s magic to make everything fit the way it should) they managed to produce Bracken, whom they love to distraction.