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  Extremely skilled at: shooting, martial arts, infiltration (seer sight skills), languages, math, spatial-type thinking (makes him good at designing structures in the Barrier)

  Extremely unskilled at: conversation, making new friends, music, drawing anything apart from technical type things, anything that requires him to be in an enclosed space (he’s very claustrophobic), most team sports

  Nervous tics: tends to lie then correct himself when he’s nervous, rubs the back of his neck and/or face when embarrassed, blushes, won’t make eye contact, has a habit of hiding his intelligence (acting stupider than he is) unless he knows someone well/feels comfortable with them

  Usual body posture: tense

  Mannerisms: pulls at women’s hair when he likes them (not necessarily romantic, an affectionate thing), tends to stare (more of a seer thing), purses his lips when he’s angry, sleeps on his back, always doing something with his hands (nervous energy) unless he’s working and needs to be still, tends towards being overly quiet (sometimes is a form of passive aggression), will deliberately ignore things said by others if he doesn’t want to answer

  Seer Mannerisms (more general to species): make a clicking sound with their tongues when annoyed or irritated (or sometimes when they are amused), they make a louder clicking sound when angry; speak a combination of verbal (Prexci, seer language) and hand/body gestures. Common hand gestures: “no” (downward slash), “yes” (fingers flicked right then up), “maybe/more or less/sort of” (hand flat, tilted like a bird in flight), “shrug” (hand dropped flipped open/palm up in front of the body), “fuck you” (palm faced inwards, then wrist flick outwards).

  Peculiarities: is compulsive about having airflow in rooms (needs windows open at night, even if it’s freezing out), won’t sit with his back to a door, compulsive and paranoid about seer/sight security and hiding his race around humans, claustrophobic (can be extreme at times), doesn’t really like eating around other people unless he’s extremely comfortable with them, has issues about being forced to eat human food as a child (still suspects most of it is toxic), has kind of a “thing” for artists (his first wife was a painter), compulsively hides information and how much he knows/picks up.

  TRAITS:

  Optimist or pessimist? Pragmatic optimist in general, pessimist about human behavior and historical patterns, and his own luck in the personal realm in particular

  Trusting or Distrustful? Distrustful bordering on paranoid

  Introvert or extrovert? Introvert

  Daredevil or cautious? Cautious

  Logical or emotional? Logical on the surface, but actually extremely emotional

  Disorderly and messy or methodical and neat? Methodical, neat

  Prefers working or relaxing? Working

  Confident or unsure of himself/herself? Confident about work and sex, unsure of himself in relation to others/how they see him

  Animal lover? More of a pragmatist in this as well – he sees them more like people, some he likes, some he doesn’t. Likes horses, but doesn’t like all horses. He sees them very much as individuals.

  SELF-PERCEPTION:

  How he/she feels about himself/herself: In general, he believes he’s a much worse person than he probably is. Totally ruthless with himself about past transactions/immorality. He believes he owes a debt to the world for his weaknesses with the Rooks and what happened to his wife. A core of self-hate, but also self-love beneath that. On some level, he feels connected to everything still.

  One word the character would use to describe himself: Corrupted

  One paragraph description of how the character would describe himself: If asked, he would likely describe himself in terms of his skill sets: “I’m useful from a military perspective, mainly due to skill sets acquired while young. I need to fight to stay on Code, because my natural proclivities tend towards violence and temper. I have impulse control problems and require work on my self-control. I would put myself at a medium skill set in the Barrier (author’s note: which is b.s.), above average in hand to hand (author’s note: which is putting it mildly). I have some demonstrated talent in persuasion of organic machines, languages, infiltration of human society and expertise in human military tactics and training, particularly in inter-species warfare. Demonstrated ability to crack and create inter-dimensional Barrier constructs (author’s note: again, understated - in general he downplays the areas where he has the highest abilities)

  What does the character consider his best personality trait? Persistence, refusal to give up on something once it’s been assigned to him in some way.

  What does the character consider his worst personality trait? Violent tendencies (temper/anger issues), jealousy, immaturity

  What does the character consider his best physical characteristic? Proud of his height/physical condition when he’s at full weight (was a scrawny kid, and short – a late bloomer, so he’s self-conscious about that).

  What does the character consider his worst physical characteristic? He has a tendency to run lean if he doesn’t actively work to keep weight on. He doesn’t like that, it reminds him of being small as a kid.

  How does the character think others perceive him: As a killer, someone who is dangerous (he is very aware that he has a reputation), or as a social misfit. He doesn’t expect anyone to like him really, and in a lot of ways, he’s kind of over it. Has very few (close) friends during the timeline of this book; he’s been living mostly as a recluse.

  What would the character most like to change about himself/herself: would like to be more even-tempered, less prone to anger, less violent, kinder and more friendly with others. He’s lonely, although he doesn’t always admit it to himself.

  RELATIONSHIP WITH OTHERS:

  Opinion of other people in general: He mostly sees himself as an outsider. He doesn’t hate other people, but their lives/interests are foreign to him in many ways (both humans and other seers). He doesn’t know how he fits with them. In seer society, he is considered ineligible for marriage, so he doesn’t have the focus of family, etc. of most seers (and humans, for that matter). He sees many people in his life in fairly utilitarian terms, in part because he assumes that’s how they see him.

  Does the character hide his true opinions and emotions from others? In terms of personal feelings, yes. Absolutely. In terms of tactical information, anything that might be useful in a work sense, or any area in which he feels he has some level of expertise, no. He’s great at lecturing/teaching/debriefing, not so great with intimate conversations.

  Person character most hates: Jaden, Allie’s ex-boyfriend. Second on the list would probably be his adoptive father and/or his adoptive brother.

  Best friend(s): Terian was his best friend when he worked for the Rooks; he doesn’t really have one for many years after. He has a number of seer contacts/friends in London, and in the United States. Ullysa is a dear friend he confides in, but also sleeps with occasionally, and she’s less open with him.

  Person character goes to for advice: Vash

  Person character feels responsible for or takes care of: Allie, and by extension, Jon and Cass

  Person character feels shy or awkward around: Balidor, Allie, his Aunt Tarsi

  Person character openly admires: Balidor, who is the head of the Adhipan, the “holy monks” among the seers. He also admires Vash, his spiritual mentor and father-figure.

  Person character secretly admires: Galaith (Head of the Rooks’ network), for his intelligence and leadership skills.

  Most important person in character’s life before story starts: Allie

  After story starts: Allie

  Character Interview: REVIK

  Welcome! Please introduce yourself…

  Dehgoies Revik. Revik is my given name.

  And what is it that you do for a living, Revik?

  Why do you want to know?

  It’s for readers from a different dimension, who know nothing about seers.

  What? What the fuck are you talking about? What wi
ll this information be used for?

  Nothing. Honest. It’s just for entertainment.

  Entertainment? Entertainment for who? How did you get my name?

  Just answer the question. Please. You’re an infiltrator, right?

  If you knew, why are you asking?

  Can you explain to our readers what that means?

  Are you asking me what an infiltrator is?

  Yes. Can you explain it to us?

  Christ, all right. Most humans think of infiltrators as a kind of “seer spy,” I suppose, including most of those who contract out my skills. The correlation isn’t exact, but it’s probably as close as most humans can get, since they really don’t understand the Barrier or how seer abilities work. And infiltrators do conduct military intelligence surveillance from the Barrier, therefore the designation of “spy” isn’t wrong so much as only half-right.

  Infiltrators also influence human and seer minds and, depending on who we work for, plant ideas, create phobias, even coordinate hits. I try to work within Code whenever possible, however.

  Interviewer’s note: subject is referring to the “Sarhacienne Codes,” a system of rules around when and how it’s appropriate for seers to use their abilities in order to operate with integrity and not abuse them.

  And are you able to? Work within Code?

  It’s difficult working for humans. Most of them have no code, and they tend to view seers more as equipment than living, thinking beings with opinions.

  Can you describe a typical day as an infiltrator?

  Not really, no. It’s highly dependent on the particular job. Usually infiltrator work is fairly subtle. We tap humans to drain their energy and confuse their minds, push them to influence their decisions, or sometimes influence or push those around them to get at them indirectly. Given the rules under the Human Protection Act, we spend a lot of time tracking and ID’ing targets behind the Barrier, which can be very time-consuming. This work is mainly done per contract and for pay, whether for individuals, governments, corporations, crime families, etc.

  And who is your employer currently?

  That information is public record. You’re human, you can look up any seer in the public registry to see who my owner and current contract-holder is.

  Can you just tell us then? Since it’s public record?

  I work for the British government. I also teach classes in interspecies warfare at the British Military Academy.

  You also work in seer fetish bars too, right?

  Excuse me?

  But this is common for seers, isn’t it? Seer fetish work? Is there a reason you don’t want to talk about it?

  Maybe because it’s none of your fucking business? Look, if you’re interested in hiring me for that, I have a client code. You should learn the protocol, because frankly, this is not the right way to approach, and makes you look like a fool at best, a racist prick at worst. The copper collar–-which I’m not currently wearing, by the way––indicates you can approach a seer cold. Walking up to any seer on the street and trying to buy sex off them is a good way to get your ass kicked.

  If you could live your life over, is there anything you would do differently?

  A lot of things.

  Can you name one?

  That’s kind of personal, don’t you think?

  You were married once, weren’t you? To a human?

  I don’t know where you’re getting your information, but you’re starting to piss me off. What the hell business is that of yours?

  Your mentor, Vash, told us you said you would never marry a human again. Could you tell us why?

  Vash said that?

  He said you said it, actually. Is that true?

  Would I marry a human again? No.

  Do you mind telling us why? Was she not a good wife?

  She was a great wife… and a kind person. Look, Elise isn’t the fucking issue. I wasn’t good for her. I put her in danger just by being married to her––in more ways than one.

  From being a seer you mean? Wasn’t that more the time period though? After all, the Nazis were actively hunting and killing seers, weren’t they?

  They were hunting and killing a lot of people.

  The same thing wouldn’t happen now though, would it?

  (Laughs) Gods. You must be from another dimension.

  But don’t you think, with the Nazis gone––

  Look. Even apart from the Nazis and the war, humans simply don’t understand the intricacies of how seers get attached, or the seriousness of it. Elise meant well. She thought she was helping me, or protecting me, maybe. She loved me, I believe that, but she just didn’t get it. It’s not her fault, but only a human would think this way. A female seer would have murdered that prick before she would cheat on her mate, even to protect them. A seer knows what this means to another seer, and they would have done things differently for that reason.

  So you saw it as cheating? Elise sleeping with your commanding officer when he blackmailed her about you?

  Of course it was fucking cheating! You could definitely argue her heart was in the right place, and that it was for a noble cause, but that doesn’t mean she wasn’t sleeping with that piece of shit for months. He got her pregnant. What the hell would you call it?

  So you consider her an adulteress?

  Look, like I said, I don’t blame Elise for this… I really don’t. I didn’t then, and I don’t now, but it is a mistake I don’t think I would ever repeat, no matter how much I loved a human. I didn’t deal with that particular situation well––in fact, I’m still in penance for what I did afterwards. Humans really shouldn’t marry at all, if you want the truth. Too many of them seem to be incapable of remaining faithful. They definitely shouldn’t marry seers.

  What would you have preferred her to have done?

  I would have preferred if she’d told me, the second he threatened her, so I could have killed the son of a bitch and gotten both of us out of there. But by the time I found out what was going on, she was already pregnant. Given that the pregnancy is what ultimately killed her, I’d say that was pretty much too late, wouldn’t you?

  Okay, so let’s change tracks a bit. Tell us one of your bad habits

  Killing humans. Also, I probably drink too much.

  What is one of your biggest weaknesses?

  Females. Particularly females with dark hair and green or blue eyes. In general, I’m probably too young to have a serious relationship. That wasn’t Elise’s fault either, by the way.

  Too young? Aren’t you over 100 years old?

  Yes. For a seer, that is young. We don’t hit full maturity until we’ve seen at least two centuries. We can’t reproduce until we’re closer to three hundred, and half of us not even then. And my upbringing was… unconventional.

  If you lived in our world, what would you be like?

  According to you, if I lived in your world, there would be no seers, so I wouldn’t exist at all. If you’re asking what I would be like as a human, I would probably be just like the rest of you. I’d likely have a job that bored me, and I’d compensate by spending all of my free time jerking off, looking at porn, trying to get laid and getting drunk. That, or possibly I’d be a monk and live in Asia somewhere. There are some virtuous people in the human world, too. You just have to avoid most people to find them.

  A quickfire round of your favorite things:

  Food: Most of the food I like and eat you wouldn’t have heard of. If you’re asking about human food, I do like Indian curry.

  Drink: Woodford Reserve (Bourbon)

  Holiday: Paris. Or the Himalayas. Depends on who I was with.

  Film: I don’t really watch a lot of films but I did like Bogart.

  Band: Human music? I like the Rolling Stones. Wagner. And Bob Dylan.

  Book: The Codex of the Love Song. I also like some Russian novels.

  Color: As you said, I’m over 100 years old. I don’t have a “favorite color.”

  Any last words?

&nb
sp; Who are you, really? And why are you asking me all of these questions? If you work for Seer Containment, all of my permits are in order, and my licenses are entirely up to date. You should direct all further inquiries to the British Military Academy, permit number: 981182029, racial-cat ID: UM1938KA9

  Character Breakdown: ALLIE

  BASICS:

  Character’s full name: Alyson May Taylor

  Character’s nickname(s): Allie (most people), Al (her brother and her best friend, Cass), Allie-bird (her mother)

  Birth date: unknown (her adopted mother assigned her the birthday of November 4, 1983)

  PHYSICAL APPEARANCE:

  Age: 27