Character Bio: Director Bloom

The third entry in our Character Bio feature focuses on the man in charge of AVARAD and all its operations: Director Harrison Bloom.

Director Bloom is a government executive with a background in military research and development. Before stepping into his leadership role with the AVA, he served as a strategic consultant, advising the infant agency on the most effective and efficient methods for exploring the existence of the variants. He stressed the importance of surveillance and information gathering, while at the same time reinforcing the agency's original stance that genetic evolution had the potential to be a serious threat to the country.

When the AVA began to expand its reach, Director Bloom was appointed to the Research and Development division as a full-fledged employee. He quickly rose to a leadership position, garnering more and more influence as AVARAD's station within the AVA strengthened. With increasing levels of freedom and an expanding budget, Bloom was able to position AVARAD to become the militaristic arm of the AVA, complementing its R&D directives with an array of para-military operations and special projects. Chief among these were efforts to police variants deemed potentially dangerous to society.  

In terms of personality, Director Bloom is a very private man, who prefers to focus his attention on work rather than social endeavors. He is not particularly liked by his employees, due to his intensity and questionable methods, and on more than one occasion he's been accused of being prejudice and/or morally astray. Still, the influence he's had on the agency and variant policy is undeniable, and thus at the very least he's positioned himself as a man not to be trifled with.  

Director Bloom's most trusted operatives are a pair of men named Commander Timothy Englewood and Lieutenant Seth Jenkovich, the subjects of our next Character Bio.

Full Length Trailer 1

Never posted the first full length trailer on the blog, so check it out below!

 

Character Bio: The AVA

The second entry in our Character Bio feature focuses again not on an individual character, but on a group of people that have tremendous influence on the structure and direction of the story. They are a major driving influence on the narrative that leads up to the events of the book, serving as an antagonistic presence in several characters' back stories, while also playing an integral role in what plays out on the pages themselves. This group is called the AVA.

The AVA, or Anti-Variant Agency, began as a government-mandated task force designed to investigate the existence of genetic variants in society. At the time, the idea of genetic evolution or mutation was seen as a serious threat, as research suggested that a human mind mutated to the point of true genetic variance would be incredibly unstable. Abilities and mental illness would go hand-in-hand, and the United States would have a serious problem in its midst...or at least that's what the geneticists believed. This theory was quickly debunked as the variant's existence was confirmed and several subjects were brought in under examination. At the same time, the AVA was promoted to a full-fledged government agency and tasked with a new challenge: regulating the variants and keeping their existence out of the eye of the public.

To accomplish this, and to extend it's influence, the AVA split into branches, the most notable of which was AVARAD: the Anti-Variant Agency's Research and Development wing. This particular branch grew into the militaristic arm of the AVA, tasked with policing the variants as well as developing tools and software aimed at keeping their existence a secret. While many variants felt oppressed by AVARAD, others joined the agency as civilian liaisons, hoping their contributions would show the government that the variants were of no threat to the country.

AVARAD was headed up by the next entry in our Character Bio feature: Director Harrison Bloom.