Character Bio: Commander Englewood and Lieutenant Jenkovich

The fourth entry in our Character Bio feature focuses on two of AVARAD's top soldiers: Commander Timothy Englewood and Lieutenant Seth Jenkovich

As mentioned in the last Character Bio feature, one of the crowning achievements of Director Bloom's early career was his ability to position AVARAD to become the militaristic arm of the AVA. This meant special operations, recon assignments, and a variety of para-military directives. To carry out these tasks, Director Bloom needed soldiers, willing participants in what essentially amounted to black ops work. To find those soldiers, he turned to Commander Englewood and Lieutenant Jenkovich.

Timothy Englewood served as a General in the US Army for the majority of his military career before retiring after twenty-five years of service. Three years into retirement, he was approached by his contacts at the White House and offered a position with a new agency that was being developed. He was promised complete autonomy of his team and a chance to make a difference for the country, but what really sold him in the end was the opportunity to work out of his home in Washington DC, which would allow him to remain close to his family.

Seth Jenkovich followed a similar path to AVARAD, serving as a US Marine for over a decade before coming to work for Director Bloom. Unlike Englewood, however, Jenkovich was plucked straight from the line of duty before being established as the Commander's second-in-command. Jenkovich saw this as an opportunity to further his career, as well as his chance to do more work on the home front as opposed to overseas.

Both Commander Englewood and Lieutenant Jenkovich are exceptional leaders and soldiers, but their personalities differ in a few distinct ways. As quoted in the book: While Commander Englewood was the heart and soul of the team, its emotional and intuitive leader, Lieutenant Jenkovich was its eyes and ears. He was perceptive and cunning, the kind of calculating and logical man that men felt comfortable following, even if he led them straight into darkness. The differences between the men couldn't be stated better than this. Englewood is an expert at creating team camaraderie and feeling out situations, while Jenkovich's strength lies in his tactical prowess. Each is invaluable to the team, and each has a heavy hand in the success of the team as a whole.

At the start of the book, Commander Englewood and Lieutenant Jenkovich are tasked with finding out what happened in Manhattan. Here, they come across the final character featured in this series: Cael.

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Viral Teaser 2

The second, slightly more intense viral teaser trailer for THE DARKENER. Check it out!!!

Music Credit: Save Me by Avenged Sevenfold

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.

Character Bio: The Variants

Our first Character Bio will focus not on a specific character, but an entire group that forms the basis for the fantasy elements of the story. This group is, of course, the variants.

The variants are a race of genetically-evolved humans born with all sorts of incredible abilities, not unlike the superheroes or super-humans you often see in today's media. Some of them can fly, some of them can move things around with their minds; it's the typical "person born with a superpower" type of deal. What makes them a little different, however, is how their abilities work. Often there's no attempt at explanation for how a character's gift actually functions, or how and why it's able to be so perfectly efficient all the time. People with abilities on TV or in the movies never seem to get tired from using their ability, nor do they ever really seem to have to expend much effort to use it. I never quite understood that. Where were they getting the energy to do these incredible things? How were they able to sustain them for so long?

With the variants, I wanted to shake up the archetype a bit. I wanted to put a more "realistic" spin on the concept of having a superpower. The variants have incredible abilities, yes, but their abilities take energy to use, just like any other activity. Flying makes them tired. Constantly moving things with their minds wears them out, just like constantly moving things with your arms would. Despite their gifts, they are biologically still human, and thus are limited in their power.

At the same time, the condition of genetic variance is incredibly rare in society, to the point where the variants' existence is not public knowledge at the onset of the book. They are myths, stories, and nothing more as far as the world knows. The only people aware of their existence is a small sect of the United States government, which will be covered in the next Character Bio focusing on the AVA.