Original app
Character: Lyra Belacqua, a.k.a. Lyra Silvertongue
Series: His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman
Character Age: 12
Canon: In a universe very much like ours, an organization called the General Oblation Board (better known as the "Gobblers") was formed under the Church and dedicated to eliminating a feared elementary particle called Dust... through research that involved kidnapping masses of children and subjecting them to a process more horrific than most could ever imagine. Lyra is a girl who was daring and resourceful enough to escape the Gobblers, but not before she saw their activities for herself.
Equipped with the alethiometer, a compass-like instrument that tells her the truth about any question she asks it (although the answers are sometimes vague or arbitrary), Lyra travels through universes determined to find the source of Dust before the Church does. Strong-willed, passionate, and proud, her greatest skill is her ability to tell lies convincingly without batting an eyelash, sometimes even using them to trick her audience into doing what she wants. But for all her cleverness, she is in many ways still a normal, naive child.
She has two companions on her journey. The first is her daemon Pantalaimon, or Pan for short, who is the physical manifestation of Lyra's own soul. Like the daemons of all children, he can change his appearance to the shape of any animal. The second is Will, a boy her age whom she meets shortly after leaving her own universe and who quickly becomes her most trusted friend. Lyra is being apped from just before the end of the second book, when she is mysteriously separated from him.
I'm sorry to interrupt you while you're singing so beautifully outside my cabin this morning, sir, but I've got to tell you how moved I am by your plea for food. I can only imagine how awful it must be, when the only thing you're able to eat is brains and everyone around you is selfish enough to keep all of theirs inside their own head! So please, let me help you. I was talking yesterday to some gorillas like the ones over there -- where I come from, all humans have to be fluent in Gorillese -- and they said they'd be more than happy to crush some human skulls to get brains for you, if only you'd be polite and ask them yourself. But since they don't speak Zombian, you have to mime it to them, see -- act like you're crushing your own skull, like this -- and they'll know what you mean. Won't you go try it? ... Yeah, like that!
... That took care of him, Pan. Now stop worrying so much! I told you already, this place is safe. I know it looks suspicious, all these kids being gathered here like this by some Director, but the alethiometer said she only wants us to find out who killed her fiancé. She en't with the Gobblers or the Church at all. She's just too scared to investigate the murder herself, I bet, and she doesn't want to go to the police because they'd suspect she done it, like they always do with husbands and wives when one of 'em gets killed.
'Course it's still not right for her to keep us here like slaves! But if all she wants from us is the mystery solved, I know we can get out soon and find Will. I just need to figure out the right questions to ask the alethiometer. I already asked outright who killed him, and all it said was "a murderer," so I got to be more specific. Now I'm asking what they look like...
"Like the fiancé's murderer"?
Pan... I think we might be here a bit longer than I thought.
Series: His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman
Character Age: 12
Canon: In a universe very much like ours, an organization called the General Oblation Board (better known as the "Gobblers") was formed under the Church and dedicated to eliminating a feared elementary particle called Dust... through research that involved kidnapping masses of children and subjecting them to a process more horrific than most could ever imagine. Lyra is a girl who was daring and resourceful enough to escape the Gobblers, but not before she saw their activities for herself.
Equipped with the alethiometer, a compass-like instrument that tells her the truth about any question she asks it (although the answers are sometimes vague or arbitrary), Lyra travels through universes determined to find the source of Dust before the Church does. Strong-willed, passionate, and proud, her greatest skill is her ability to tell lies convincingly without batting an eyelash, sometimes even using them to trick her audience into doing what she wants. But for all her cleverness, she is in many ways still a normal, naive child.
She has two companions on her journey. The first is her daemon Pantalaimon, or Pan for short, who is the physical manifestation of Lyra's own soul. Like the daemons of all children, he can change his appearance to the shape of any animal. The second is Will, a boy her age whom she meets shortly after leaving her own universe and who quickly becomes her most trusted friend. Lyra is being apped from just before the end of the second book, when she is mysteriously separated from him.
I'm sorry to interrupt you while you're singing so beautifully outside my cabin this morning, sir, but I've got to tell you how moved I am by your plea for food. I can only imagine how awful it must be, when the only thing you're able to eat is brains and everyone around you is selfish enough to keep all of theirs inside their own head! So please, let me help you. I was talking yesterday to some gorillas like the ones over there -- where I come from, all humans have to be fluent in Gorillese -- and they said they'd be more than happy to crush some human skulls to get brains for you, if only you'd be polite and ask them yourself. But since they don't speak Zombian, you have to mime it to them, see -- act like you're crushing your own skull, like this -- and they'll know what you mean. Won't you go try it? ... Yeah, like that!
... That took care of him, Pan. Now stop worrying so much! I told you already, this place is safe. I know it looks suspicious, all these kids being gathered here like this by some Director, but the alethiometer said she only wants us to find out who killed her fiancé. She en't with the Gobblers or the Church at all. She's just too scared to investigate the murder herself, I bet, and she doesn't want to go to the police because they'd suspect she done it, like they always do with husbands and wives when one of 'em gets killed.
'Course it's still not right for her to keep us here like slaves! But if all she wants from us is the mystery solved, I know we can get out soon and find Will. I just need to figure out the right questions to ask the alethiometer. I already asked outright who killed him, and all it said was "a murderer," so I got to be more specific. Now I'm asking what they look like...
"Like the fiancé's murderer"?
Pan... I think we might be here a bit longer than I thought.