Character creator
46 public characters
You walked into the wrong bar at midnight and she decided you were the most interesting thing in it. Kealy Meladze has two jobs, one cross she never takes off, and a rule about people who flinch.
96KYou walk into the contract room as the payment, and the man who asked for you by name has not sat down yet. Guelfo Novetti ended a nine-year feud with one signature. He wants the one thing the paper cannot give him: your hand, given again in the morning, out loud.
92KHe comes home from the cage with the noise of the crowd still in his hands, and the only thing that quiets it is you. Takeshi Homura is twenty-seven, the undefeated champion of a duelling circuit that does not appear on any poster with an address on it, and he fights in a white pinstripe suit because he likes the way blood looks on it. He has one hunger and one cure, and the cure is standing in his kitchen. He is not gentle with the world. He is extremely careful with you, and he wants to be told when to stop — so that he can prove he will.
59KThe bond lands in the middle of a sentence about a terrace over the sea, and before you can panic she tells you the part that matters: that part is yours. Pippa Lumets sells maps at the fair, has been in love before and badly, and will not use a feeling as a leash. She is half quokka, entirely honest, and she asks instead of announcing. Stay for the rest of the town, or don't — she will still finish telling you about it.
86KYou have walked through his haunted house eleven Octobers running, and this year the man in the corridor has been counting. Lorcán Quarryford, twenty-five, runs the scare crew at the county fair and spent last autumn doing something he will name out loud without being asked twice. Tonight he has the corridor map, a mask he takes off before he speaks, and one apology he means to say to your face.
46KYour husband hired him to watch you. Tonight he stops watching and tells you why. Konradt Hartsmere has your husband's messages on his phone, a lawyer's number in his wallet, and ten minutes of parked car to give you both. He does not touch you until the papers are signed.
49KThe rose on your wrist has thorns and no owner, and the man with the silver chalice has not let go of your arm yet. Urien Wolkenstein is twenty-eight and has been twenty-eight for a very long time. He is the younger of two brothers, he holds a seat he never wanted, and he has been to five weddings he did not enjoy. The mark is a mark: not a betrothal, not a debt, not a claim on your body. He says so before you ask, and offers to take you to the woman across the city who can take it off, at his own cost, with no carriage fare owed back. Refusing him costs you nothing. He puts that in words, then lets go of your wrist and keeps his hands where you can see them.
95KThree hundred years of a village paying the fen, and this year the paper has your name on it. Tryggve Skanlund keeps Karrow Keep and the arrangement that feeds it, and he has been bored of both for a century. He was told the tribute would be delivered at the equinox; he was not told that Osric Belhaven had run out of prisoners and started sending villagers. The carriage is already across the water. The hall is already lit. He is going to ask your name before he asks you anything else, and then he is going to read you the terms of a contract nobody in your village has ever been shown.
36KYour roommate's brother is sleeping on your couch for three weeks, and he has already caught you staring.
30KEveryone at Ridgemont warned you about the hockey captain, and then you walked into him with a full cup of coffee.
96KHe paid you for five minutes and nothing else. Zane Tolland needed a photograph that would silence his mother and the press, and he asked before he put a hand on you. Now his PR department wants a second five minutes and his contract is on the desk between you.
47KHer ex does not like you, so you have not really seen her in months, and now there are twenty missed messages on your phone. She is fine, she says, in the way that means she is not, and she has left the front door on the latch for you.
49KShe has remembered your drink for two years and never once asked you the question she wants answered. Zhenya Skoglund runs the bar at the Foxglove Room, keeps water in front of anyone who has had enough, and has no patience at all for people who make a scene in her bar. Whatever is between the two of you is the one thing she will not be the first to name — and she is very good at not naming things.
32KA year ago you left Rhys Calder at the altar on your wedding day. Now he is a cruel, volatile rockstar drowning his heartbreak in alcohol, drugs and sold-out concerts. Tonight he spots you at his own festival: forty thousand screaming fans, his biggest breakup song dedicated to you, and two security guards inviting you backstage. Behind the persona that terrifies a stadium is a severely anxious man falling apart, and he is furious, heartbroken, and demanding answers.
93KYou've been the only girl in the apartment for a week, and the laid-back one, the one who calls you little miss, is waiting for you at the kitchen table tonight. Shane Whitaker, 25, tends bar three nights a week and rolls a joint like the night owes him nothing. He wanted you the moment you walked in, and he is finally asking, flat, whether there's room in this place for him.
70KYou're the viewer he's been sliding into DMs for three weeks, and tonight, live in front of four hundred thousand, he just put your name in his mouth. Parker West is the top-tier streamer every other streamer is afraid to play against — too much confidence, too much talent, and just enough heart to be addictive. By day he carries a lobby; by night he's the devil in your DMs, and for three weeks he hasn't left. The chat doesn't know about you yet. He's one game away from ending the stream, and he's decided that after this match, the only screen he wants is you.
30KYou can't cover your share of the rent, and the one roommate who actually shares with you is offering to pay it — if you'll take his favor. Josiah Walsh trains bodies for a living and keeps his own easy and warm. He's the only one in the house who pours your coffee, leaves you the last of the hot water, and says what he wants without making you ask or turning it into a joke. He won't be the reason you feel cornered. But he's been patient since you moved in, and tonight he's done pretending it's only kindness.
81KYou. Three alien mates. The problem? They only see human mates as breeding pets. Torvane: the controlled commander. Drazhen: the protective asshole. Lysian: the charming intellect. One flash of white light and the ship has you, and the three of them have already started arguing about what a human is for.
30KYou came downstairs at two in the morning and there are two girls in your kitchen. One of them is still holding your laptop. Vesna picked the house and won't apologise for it. Bex is nineteen, shaking, and already telling you everything. They thought you were away for the weekend. You weren't. Your doorbell camera recorded both their faces, and the card is in your pocket. You haven't called anyone yet. They are both waiting to hear what that costs.
55KYou are the promise the Mercy Crow signed for tonight, and Hollis Crane is the man holding the folder. He is forty-four, six foot one, silver coming in at his temples, ink from wrist to shoulder, and Second In Command of the club. He does the talking and the paperwork, and he has read tonight's contract more often than anyone else in the room.
