Q: What’s Christine’s origin?
A: Christine is one of my favorite characters I’ve ever come up with, and she wasn’t even planned as a main character. She originally started as a passing reference between Caren and Poe up on the Crest in a scene in A Division of Souls, but she soon took on a life of her own when I needed her later in a scene at the Moulding Warehouse. From there she took on a life of her own and ended up part of the main cast. Her name is two Tuckerizations: her first name is one of my cousins and her last name is that Lamb song I posted under Caren’s entry the other day.
I like to describe Christine as one of those characters that doesn’t quite fit into the story’s universe — or as my wife says of such characters, “She’s in a completely different movie.” Someone who’s unlike everyone else, just that little bit peculiar. And yet she’s an integral part of the story’s universe, for many and varied reasons. She serves as the ‘alternate viewpoint’, as it were, to what’s going on. Someone who’s far enough away from the situation and can provide a needed clarity.
Q: What is her history in the Mendaihu Universe?
A: She was a longtime agent of the Alien Relations Unit, joining a year or so before Caren and Poe. She’s extremely dedicated in whatever work she does, sometimes to her detriment; it’s because of this (well, and a few other things that aren’t revealed until a bit later in the trilogy) that she’s taken an extended leave of absence from the ARU. In the meantime she’s been freelancing as a private investigator as well as a certified soulhealer. She’s still close friends with her former ARU teammates, and they fully understand that she had to take some personal time off and distance herself from everyone for a while.
Q: Is she Mendaihu as well?
A: [REDACTED]
Q: Oookay then. What about a description? I don’t see a picture here. Is she not based on anyone famous?
A: She’s a mix of various people. She has long curly blond hair that she often keeps loosely tied back. She’s incredibly fit (she exercises regularly and goes on occasional runs, a holdover from her ARU days). She’s about the same height as Caren, maybe a slight bit taller.
Q: She has a close relationship with Alec Poe. What’s the background on that?
A: There isn’t much to explain, really. They’re just longtime friends that have grown very fond of each other. There’s nothing romantic or sexual there, nor is it familial…it’s just another example of two spirits who happen to connect and interweave with each other easily and naturally. They learned this quite early on while they were starting out at the ARU and would often work on cases together because of it. This is why she was the first person Poe thought of when they were trying to calm the Rain of Light in A Division of Souls.
Q: Anything else?
A: She owns the building that she works and lives in; she has a storefront office on the ground floor, three floors of apartments that she rents out (she lives in the front apartment on the top floor), and has a spiritwork shed set up on the roof. She’s somewhat introverted when it comes to nonwork socializing; she’d rather be the one sitting back and listening to everyone else than be the center of attention. She really loves (and misses) hanging out with her former ARU teammates, and is planning some get-togethers after the current Season of Embodiment is over. She never seems to be able to sit still for more than a few minutes. She used to smoke ‘socially’ — she’d only light up if anyone else (like Poe for instance) was doing the same. Otherwise she doesn’t smoke as a habit. [Yes, she’s well aware of how smoking kind of defeats the purpose of her exercising, but embraces that personality conflict as just a part of who she is.] She has a lovely singing voice, but never sings in front of anyone. She’s a bit of a foodie, but loves Meraladian cuisine in particular.
She doesn’t have a theme song, but her character tends to lean towards moody atmospheric instrumentals along the lines of Boards of Canada or Sigur Rós.
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