Category: Aurora Adonai

Aurora Goes to Therapy!

Just in case you’ve missed this plug in my other online outlets, I’m pleased to announce that one of my more dangerously unhinged characters has finally gone to therapy!

You may remember Aurora Adonai from a past blog entry. Jeannie Campbell, the Character Therapist, did an excellent reading of Aurora and what I might need to consider when writing about her to make her more believable as a character.

Treatment Tuesday – The Hitman Hitwoman

“This week features a science fiction/action character created by Angela. Her character is Alaura*, an orphan who witnessed her mother’s violent murder when she was 4 or 5. At age 8, the orphanage caretaker began to engage her in molestation. He liked it rough and would get very angry if Alaura cried or showed signs of pain. Alaura endured for several years before she hid a knife in the sheets and murdered him. The other orphans helped cover up the crime and Alaura moved on to become a hitman for a criminal organization. She feels that nothing she does can make her any more “unclean” than she already is. She thinks she’s damaged goods and irredeemable…”

(Read on at Jeannie’s blog)

At this rate, perhaps Melakim might show up on her couch? I always did say they went to the same therapist.

Many thanks to Jeannie for providing such an excellent service to writers. Where psychological problems are involved with our characters, it’s definitely helpful to look beyond our own scope of experience.

The New Improved Kooky Character Quiz!

With as stressy as things have been getting lately with deadlines and such, I thought we could use a break with something completely different! So I present to you, the new, improved kooky character quiz! Be warned! Your characters will never be the same again!


Character Name:
Age:
Species/Race:
Piercings/Tattoos:

1. What kind of modern music would your character like? Any specific group or band? Or would they hate music?

2. If your character had a theme song, what specific pre-existing song would it be?

3. If your character had a speaking or singing voice, what actor or singer would they sound like? Can your character sing at all?

4. If you were to cast a movie of your character’s story, what actor would play them?

5. If your character could play an instrument, what would it be?

6. What is their favorite meal?

7. If your character was in a high school drama, what subject in school would they have been the best in? What about the worst?

8. What normal, everyday job would your character have if he or she were in modern times?

9. What would their favorite hobby be if they were in normal, every-day, modern times?

10. What pasta or fruit could your character’s endowments be compared to? (ie. For guys: angel hair noodle, penne, thick spaghetti, etc. For gals, apples, melons, watermelons, etc. Hey…just answer the question!)


And here are a couple of my own characters to answer the call!

Character Name: Aurora Adonai
Age: 20’s
Species/Race: Cybernetic Elf (Goblinized Human)
Piercings/Tattoos: Tons mostly along the ear lobes. Aury’s fully tattooed on her stomach, face, wrists, shoulders, and ankles. No ‘secret’ tattoos or piercings to speak of.

1. What kind of modern music would your character like? Any specific group or band? Or would they hate music?

Aurora would probably like lots of angry, angsty screaming rock and metal or monotonous with a hard beat, like trance and techno that she could lose herself to dancing. Evanescence, Lacuna Coil, Metallica, Paul Oakenfold.

2. If your character had a theme song, what specific pre-existing song would it be?

Too many to count on Aurora’s Playlist, but if I had to limit to one song, Haunted by Evanescence.

3. If your character had a speaking or singing voice, what actor or singer would they sound like? Can your character sing at all?

Angelina has the perfect voice and way of speaking for Aurora (well when she’s not doing a horrid accent a la Beowulf). Angelina can yell with the best of them and she’s good at taking on a dark, cutting tone when insulted (see Girl, Interrupted for the best example).

4. If you were to cast a movie of your character’s story, what actor would play them?

Angelina Jolie, of course. She has that sort of self-destructive anger and beauty combined with a sensual, deadly aura that’s just perfect. Alternatively, Kira Knightley MIGHT work, but Angelina would be my first choice (and yes, I have thought about this more than a person should).

5. If your character could play an instrument, what would it be?

Something to get all her anger and violence out, like drums.

6. What is their favorite meal?

She loooves the taste of beef, but is allergic to it, being an Elf. Therefore, her favorite meal is a Caesar Salad.

7. If your character was in a high school drama, what subject in school would they have been the best in? What about the worst?

Tough one. She sucks at cooking, drawing, and just about anything dealing with domestic skills. She is rather interested in dance and martial arts so the closest equivalent would be Physical Education. Her worst topic would definitely be Home Economics.

8. What normal, everyday job would your character have if he or she were in modern times?

Pretty much what she does in her own universe: Waitress, Exotic Dancer, and/or Bounty Hunter.

9. What would their favorite hobby be if they were in normal, every-day, modern times?

The same hobby she has in her universe: Reading comic books and collecting swords and guns!

10. What pasta or fruit could your character’s endowments be compared to? (ie. For guys: angel hair noodle, penne, thick spaghetti, etc. For gals, apples, melons, watermelons, etc. Hey…just answer the question!)

A decent set of modest sized melons!


Character Name: Ry Phirunaden
Age: 200’s
Species/Race: Elf (Half Fae, Half Human Descent)
Piercings/Tattoos: Tattooed on the biceps with the military emblem of his unit. In an older design, he had “Have Ye Merry Day” tattooed somewhere, but I’m not sure if that still stands or not. It’d make a nice tattoo across the buttocks.

1. What kind of modern music would your character like? Any specific group or band? Or would they hate music?

Being a bouncy fellow who likes a good jig to dance to, I can see Ry liking Swing and Jazz and possibly some techno. The serious side of him would probably enjoy a good classic ballad as well. I will forever associate him with Cherry Poppin’ Daddies thanks to Windfalcon.

2. If your character had a theme song, what specific pre-existing song would it be?

Again, When I Change Your Mind by Cherry Poppin’ Daddies.

3. If your character had a speaking or singing voice, what actor or singer would they sound like? Can your character sing at all?

Hands down, Ry would completely sound like Iarla Ó Lionáird from Afro Celt Sound System. Ry’s a rather accomplished singer, despite appearances

4. If you were to cast a movie of your character’s story, what actor would play them?

Torn on this one. Seann William Scott has the look, but I prefer the more tongue and cheek sarcasm of James Marsters as Spike.

5. If your character could play an instrument, what would it be?

A fiddle or violin suits Ry and his propensity for breaking out into song to pass the time.

6. What is their favorite meal?

An Ale and YOU, baby!

7. If your character was in a high school drama, what subject in school would they have been the best in? What about the worst?

He would have been good on the Track team and one of the sexy popular Drama class students who sells drugs on the side to afford a nice car and to date a different chick every night of the week. And maybe he’d be in Band too. Worst topic would be History.

8. What normal, everyday job would your character have if he or she were in modern times?

The high class Drug Dealer and Conman conning old ladies out of their money and selling Weed to their husbands.

9. What would their favorite hobby be if they were in normal, every-day, modern times?

His job IS his hobby, in addition to womanizing.

10. What pasta or fruit could your character’s endowments be compared to? (ie. For guys: angel hair noodle, penne, thick spaghetti, etc. For gals, apples, melons, watermelons, etc. Hey…just answer the question!)

A robust penne!

Introducing the Muses – Aurora Adonai

So far, you’ve met the lovable rogue, the faithless Hunter, and the werewolf Prince. For the last of the muse series, I’d like to introduce the first of my character muses, the beginning of my redhead obsession, and the most foul mouthed Elf I know, Aurora Adonai, street samurai extraordinaire.

Aurora’s Artistic Evolution:

The Short Bio: Aurora has little memory of the life she had before she was brought to the Home for Goblinized Children ran by David Becker at the tender age of 9. She grew up plagued by the abuses and unwanted affections of David, who labeled her his ‘Little Butterfly’ and sought to control her in every way. At the age of 18, however, something snapped in this once sweet, unassuming child and David was found murdered one morning with 41 stab wounds coupled with the words “Little Butterfly” cut across his chest.

The home was shut down and the children scattered to the wind, none of them willing to admit just who it was who murdered the home’s owner. Aurora struck out on her own with the help of her best friend from the home, David’s daughter, Natalie. The girls found the only work they could as exotic dancers in the red light district of Seattle.

Their simple life changed forever when the two girls witnessed a Yakuza hit by the famous Elven hitman, Oberon, son of the local Oyabun. Instead of disposing of these witnesses, he took them under his wings, Oberon taking a liking to the young Aurora who had a strange fascination with his deadly trade. He was responsible for aiding her in cyberization. Aurora was tattoed with the tribal style butterfly wings at her own request instead of the traditional Yakuza markings, her way of ‘honoring’ her murder of David, who used to give her the gift of fake cloth butterflies which sparked her obsession with them.

Now, she works the bar by day and does the dirty work of her Yakuza employers by night.

Written Stories:
Jade Tears – | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 |
Jade Tears Character Sketch: Serenade – Available Here

What Inspired this Character?

Aurora came about from my first concerted effort to put deep thought into a character for the purposes of a roleplaying game called Shadowrun, which takes place in an alternative future where magic has begun to re-emerge in a modern world. I didn’t want just another cardboard cutout who was a reflection of myself. I wanted someone different, someone dark, someone with real issues. She was my first step in getting outside of my own psychology and towards a character who was wholly different, an imbalanced, violent woman with little tolerance for others. I was fascinated by the concept of an untrustworthy hero, for that is what Aurora is. She may seem beautiful and like someone you want to nurture, once you see her emotional scars…

…but by the same token, she killed a man…and enjoyed it just a little too much. Aurora is damaged goods and she knows it.

She is plagued by that thought daily, that her soul is stained because she took that slightest bit of pleasure in ending another person, and does it daily for her current employers. And yet that little demon inside of her, the one she echoes with her cyber fangs and horns, delights in that feeling of power and the righteous justice she brings. Aurora stands on the edge of that bloodthirsty abyss, fearing the monster she might become of she loses her humanity, but listening to the little whispers that tell her “Come on. It feels so good. Why not do it again? You have the power now…” A hint, also, that she suffers from a possible Multiple Personality Disorder.

Aurora is a sado-masochist, a boiling angry soul, and someone who is anything but ‘good’. And yet, she still has a basic sense of morality, like many of my characters, an inclination to do the right thing. Perhaps sparing a child after killing the child’s parents, or saving a woman by maiming her abusive boyfriend. Like Melakim, the more years pass without hope, the less she will begin to care. That little light of hope in her soul is why she was named Aurora Adonai, meaning roughly “First Light of God”.

Come to think of it, Melakim and Aurora probably go to the same therapist.

Amazingly, this is the first time Aurora’s back story has seen the light of day outside the little known comic pages and stories, and yet I’ve had so many individuals come to me professing their adoration for this character. I believe this exemplifies how sometimes a visual presence is enough to garner a viewer’s interest, even if I’ve always thought she looks like a reject from KISS.

On a final note, I’ve actually had people ask after reading her story if her life experiences involving sexual abuse are inspired by my own. They are not, thank heavens! But it is the fascinating battle with inner duality and her own off-kilter sense of sanity, morality, and self-worth that echoes so true of those who have survived abuse which make her so convincing. I have known those who have suffered similar circumstances and who have come to fear the strange things they enjoy or the state of their souls after enduring something that no person should. But like Aurora, the ability to overcome these challenges lies within and only needs an ember of love to begin the healing.

I still have many plans for this character, despite the fact my tabletop roleplaying days are long over. A web comic is on the horizon and I fully intend to push her story as far as I can go with it. My ultimate dream is to see her animated or portrayed cinematically.

How do you get inspired to create for this character?

Movies with Angelina Jolie tend to get my juices flowing for Aurora. This character was NOT based on Jolie originally, but over the years I was attracted to this actress’ self-destructive beauty, her seething intensity, and her propensity for bladed weapons. Consequently, Aurora began to echo Jolie’s looks more closely, though I’ve recently tried to bring her back to her non-Jolie roots. Kill Bill‘s story of bloody revenge and sword swinging action also lend themselves well to portraying my foul-mouthed muse. If there was ever an Aurora movie in my lifetime, Jolie would star in it with Tarantino as the director.

Aurora’s Playlist: Available Here

I hope you have enjoyed this glimpse at the characters playing poker in my head and that hopefully next time a piece of character-centric art pops up in my gallery that your first reaction won’t be “who the heck is that and why should I care?” I hope as well that those of you who have mentioned that you don’t have any characters will read this series and be inspired for your own creations.

May the muses guide thee just as you guide them.