From The Exodus
Alistaire Johannessen
The main character of Dark Flying, Alis died running after a classmate in the middle of a lightning storm. Lucky for her, there's life after death, and bonus: odd deaths give you magic powers. Downside? Her hands are charcoal, she can't see the world she's in yet, and she's been "employed" by a bunch of crazy people on a ship. And then there's the whole being dead thing. Surviving death shouldn't be so hard.
Brenton Thomas Jonathon James III
Brent is the medic aboard the Exodus, and, well, they need him. With Lelaine giving people concussions, Alis zapping them, everyone getting into brawls with other crews, people they meet in bars, and trees (if they're drunk enough), it's a wonder he manages to sleep at all. Of course, Brent gets very bored when no one is injured and follows Jacob around in the hope that he will get a splinter. Despite being medic, he also gets to boss most of the crew around due to a lot of general knowledge, probably gathered from serving on The Exodus for most of his death. He shares the same rank as Jacob, and hence can only boss Jacob around if Jacob is bleeding profusely. Unfortunately for Jacob, that happens more than it should.
Hang
Hang lived in the 18th century. He is the Navigator of The Exodus, which means that he gets to make pretty scribbles on maps all day. As long as he is prettily scribbling people don't care much what he does, even if the scribbles are very obviously not maps or even on maps. It is widely assumed that Hang's real name is rather stupid, and that he has dubbed himself Hang since he died via hanging. This rumour is further fuelled by the fact that he always wears a bandanna around his neck, and nobody has seen him without it. Ever. It may or may not be a crew sport to try to steal the bandanna. He and Ina seem to enjoy riling each other up, much to the crew's amusement.
Ina
Ina is the First Mate of The Exodus as well as the strategist, although she frequently strategises while she is fighting most of the battle instead of staying back like Lelaine wants. Ina is the shortest person in the crew and carries a lot of knives at all times. She is somewhat sadistic but usually limits her torture to Hang unless she hasn't had enough sleep. If she hasn't had enough sleep then everyone is fair game. Nobody seems to know where she's from, when she died, or even her last name. Hence it is assumed she's British (since everyone else seems to be), that she died a long time ago (since everybody else did), and that she has no last name (because it's just safer to assume that than to run the risk of getting knifed because she wants it kept a secret). In this way, Ina is possibly even more mysterious than Lelaine. The only thing that the crew agree on about Ina is that, when treated with caution and a ten-foot pole, she's a pretty good first mate.
Jacob Smith
Jacob is quite young having lived his life in the early twentieth century. So far, he wins award for most normal name in the crew. He serves as Gunner on The Exodus. And hey, they need him pretty badly too. It's a dangerous world out there, even if everyone is dead. Pirates, ship battles, people who Lelaine reeeeally doesn't like (even if she doesn't know who they are at the time)... Well, Jacob's gotten a lot of experience in his role as Gunner. He shares the same rank with Brent, which means that in theory there are about three or four people he can't order around. Realistically, most of the crew will ignore him unless he yells "Someone'sabouttoattackus!" in their ears. Either that or "Iknowyoucheatedatblackjack!" That tends to get people moving. He was, in fact, a dealer at a casino in Las Vegas until his employment was terminated, along with his life. They don't mess about in casinos.
Lelaine Meyers
Lelaine is usually referred to as 'Captain' by anyone who does not want a bullet wound in the near future. She has a sadistic nature which she usually hides by being sarcastic but is still generally quite likeable unless she is horribly maiming people, at which point she becomes quite scary. Lelaine is insanely curious and often pokes a gun where it shouldn't be, having more foresight than Jack, and thinking that if anything bad comes at her she can just shoot it and run.Her idea of logic is also a bit different to others' and she has been banned from offering incentive to the crew by Ina unless it involves giving them a raise. Lelaine instead threatens to maim people unless they do as they are told. Her crew speculate that she likes being manipulative and getting into fights. They don't speculate too loud though, as she controls all of the betting pools on The Exodus, and people would prefer she was manipulative in their direction. Lelaine has the power to manipulate pressure or something similar as far as her crew knows.She carries a lot of guns at any one time but rarely uses them unless the person she is annoyed at it is too far away to clock with binoculars. When she does use the guns she is a very good shot.
Tilde
Also known as 'that guy chained to the wall and what's with all the random weaponry in there anyway?'. He is a Spanish devil. "How can he be Spanish?" you ask, "He is far too Aryan!" Your answer would be that, yes, Tilde is a Spanish albino. Needless to say, his hair is white, his skin is pale and his eyes are (usually) blue. Why does he get a random glowy circle? And why is he standing on Pi? Questions that may never be answered... He is presumably dangerous in a supernatural way. Tilde is visited by Lelaine on a semi-regular basis out of fear he may not be chained to the wall any more. The poor child ended up as the servant half of their servant-master relationship. Although he does not do much serving being chained up all day. Good for a chat though. If you like hundred year old troubled teens. Who believe all your problems could be solved with a little killing.
From Contraption
Finneas Bengtson
Fin for short, Finneas is the captain of Contraption and is in the same business as Lelaine. That is, legally shipping goods to mask the stuff they are probably smuggling. Finneas is continually harassed by his mage who thinks he is an idiot. The mage is probably correct, not having a lot of evidence to the contrary. Finneas also enjoys teasing Lelaine until she shoots at him, at which point he tends to run away. Finneas is very flexible and is rarely hit by the bullets in any case. It is a wonder that he has survived. Many people attribute this to the fact that he is dead already. It is rumoured that Finneas and Lelaine were smuggling partners while they were alive as they have a relatively good relationship as far as relationships with Lelaine go. Finneas considers them to be friends that occasionally enjoy a good old fashioned shoot-out.
Sebastian Anderson IV
Sebastian is a fire mage on Contraption. Despite being lower on the chain of command than Finneas, he spends much of his time treating him like an inferior. However, unlike Lelaine and Ina who torture people because they enjoy it, Seb tortures Fin out of what may be a sense of duty as the more intelligent being. Apart from this, Seb seems to be somewhat quiet and bookwormish, although it is very likely that he is just bored. One wonders why he joined a ship in the first place. It has been theorised he was browbeaten into it by Finneas. This is probably true, as whenever Finneas needs Sebastian to do anything he either browbeats him or Sebastian beats his head against the wall.
From Elsewhere
Jack Romano
A.K.A Jack/John/Mordecai/Mordy/Romano/Demon/YOU. A man of many names, no one is ever quite sure what to introduce him as. The whole debacle surrounding his name is confusing. His real name is John. Jack is a nickname for John. However, he calls himself Mordecai, and is called Mordy by everyone who knows him. Hence, when people are introducing him, they are never quite sure what to introduce him as. He is a vampire. He is, so far, still alive/undead, although many people are surprised at this fact. He has developed a habit for sticking his nose into places it shouldn't be, and has, at many times, almost lost his life for his hat. His hopes for a dramatic name were crushed when, upon naming himself Mordecai, people immediately began to call him Mordy. His past has left him with a British accent he can turn on and off. At one point Jack got himself a vaguely occult tattoo to commemorate one of his many (not that he'd admit it) stupid mistakes. Soon after, lots more vampires had vaguely occult tattoos for the same reasons. Jack was very proud about starting his own piece of trivia. 'Vampires often have vaguely occult tattoos.' Jack may also be responsible for the myth that vampires will disappear in sunlight.
Maximillian Friedman
A creepy Russian guy who seems to be stalking the Exodus across continents. It seems that he has a nefarious purpose in mind. He likes to hypnotise Alis and use her as his pawn, but he doesn't realise that everyone on the Exodus is insane, and winning a single-handed battle against them is rather unlikely.
