I officially picked up Lightning Ranger Part Three a few days ago. This takes place ten years after Part One and Lightning has made all sorts of new friends. My sister had reminded me several months ago about a bunch of characters I had forgotten existed. They were originally "her" characters so I needed to stick them in somewhere (they were important in their day!) so I have this entire group of arabic type people that I've thrown them in with.
Unfortuanatly, these are very old characters the "Original" companions of LIghtning Ranger. Back then the only resource I had for naming was using the books of the bible. So they all have bible names... and I'd like to change that. I'll use their current names for the time being but the quicker I change them (to something Arabish preferably) the happier I'll be.
Matthew: Matthew is old
er, more sober and mature than many of my characters. He's not old, just older than most of the people he's with. He has a mustache, prefers the sabre, gives his counsel even when unasked for, and tends to see the obvious loopholes that his irrational companions would prefer to ignore.
Luke: is daring, rash, bold, and reckless. he does death-defying acts just to see if he can. He has no regard for anyone's life, including his own. The concept of thinking things through before rushing into them has never even crossed his mind. He's handsome, daring, intelligent and about as rational as a six-year-old.
Jasmine: (Originally names Josie, one of the characters I have named.) Jasmine is Luke's young wife. She was kidnapped and married, technically against her will, but she doesn't mind. Random male relatives are always showing up trying to kill Luke. It's a sort of dare to catch him, since he does his best to make himself uncatchable. If he had settled down and built a nice home for Jasmine her family most likely would have just let it go but since he offers such a tempting chase to them they can't help but take it. Luke never stays in the same place for long so Jasmine rides with him, often passing herself off as a man in his company.
Timothy: Timothy was originally two characters. One was the youngest brother of some people I can't remember who are probably remarkably unimportant, and the other one was a Spanish Stranger who not only knew most of the languages in the world but could learn a new one in it's entirety within a matter of minutes. I have decided to meld these two characters into one person who has some of the skill and mannerisms of Timothy Two and most of the personality of Timothy One. (Lightning actually called them that too! Read my first draft! Wait, don't...)
So what we have in Timothy is an exceptional linguist, who's also a foreigner. He's been among the Saracens so long that they've accepted him, but he looks different, talks different, and acts different. He has a slightly different code of honor and a very different outlook on life. He might be sort of like a gypsy... he's a pragmatist, can be cuttingly sarcastic, and eventually becomes a sort of pawn as various ignorant factions fight over his remarkable ability. I'm growing increasingly certain that he's the one who teaches Lightning to read, although I'm not at all sure when this happens. He has some kind of remarkable and mysterious past that he never talks about and that is never revealed. (I used to spend nights sleepless trying to work out Timothy's past, I thought it was a crucial plot point and eventually I learned that it was entirely irrelevant to the story.)
And more to come as I think them up.
(I need my sister's list...)
