Chapter Fifteen

Vapor is my man of mystery.  He didn’t give up his secrets easily.  He knows a great deal about the Babylon legacy and the Harris family.  He has a wide variety of contacts and information at his fingertips.  Initially I conceived of him as a spider sitting in a web and collecting information, but that image didn’t end up suiting the character.  I ended up seeing him more as a guard dog, protective and powerful.

Dani’s family home was a combination of charming cottage and creepy haunted house.  Usually, they would have kept moving to avoid attention but Gwen’s circumstances forced them to stay put.  I don’t see them as having a lot of home repair skills and I could see Walter allowing things to fall into disrepair as a sort of camouflage.  They would be the creepy family that you almost never see and who local kids point out as being weird, daring each other to sneak up to the house.

Virginia and Dani have a combative relationship.  Virginia is determined that her daughter won’t repeat her failures but doesn’t want to acknowledge those failures, which makes for an odd combination of pressure and silence.  She doesn’t have a lot of patience.  Her gifts as a clairvoyant mean that she knows what people are going to do before they do it.  She believes she knows best but is much better suited to command than diplomacy.  Walter is her complement, equally dedicated but more accepting of life as it is rather than trying to control it.