This page helps me keep the story tidy and is ever changing. It functions as an informal Wiki for the ‘verse and will expand and contract as I work through the edits. Spoilers abound!
This is a story-specific worldbook. If you are looking for the combined worldbooks that covers information from all the stories, check out the link from the ‘verse page instead.
Cast | Empath Facts | Werewolf Facts
Locations
Right now this universe is present-day with some fancy tech (as all good Spy movies tend to have) and is based in the sort-of-UK. Whether it stays there or not depends on how the rough drafts evolve.
Locations are grouped by geography.
> First City
This is a metropolitan city near the Agency, but not the one the Agency is in. It’s where Eighth lived before his part in the story began.
>> The Tunnel
This is where Eighth first comes up on The Agency’s radar. I have no idea what tunnel this really is, but they let explosive tanker trucks in… so, yeah.
>> Eighth’s First Apartment
Generically nondescript. Sparsely furnished with comfortable but bland trimmings. There are a few photos on the wall from trips he never took and friends and family he never had.
>> Row House Safehouse
This is an average looking row house in the same general area as Eighth’s apartment. It has hand-me-down looking furnishings, but a state of the art security system that prevents all signals going in or out. So no internet, woe.
> City with the Agency
The Agency is mainly underground, so I’m not sure how close to a real city it would be located. Most likely it’s connected to a normal city by a train line so that the employees can ‘go to work’ without being suspicious.
>> Agency/Control Bunkers
This is the underground headquarters of the not-MI6. There are barracks for personnel who are not allowed to live off-premise, cafeterias, interrogation rooms, jail cells, and a vast and awesome IT and R&D department.
The werewolves have their own small wing are not allowed to go unaccompanied in various areas, but rules are lax and if they go when no one else is there they don’t get in trouble.
Locations | Empath Facts | Werewolf Facts
Cast
This is a rough draft, so there’s no guarantee that any of these folks will be the same fictive at the end. In fact, since many of them are based on fandoms the whole point is to have them grow into someone new.
> Eighth and his Family
The overall arc of the Bitter Mint’verse is about found families, so Eighth’s ‘real’ family plays a much smaller role in things. At least that’s the plan…
>> Eighth (Henry)
Based incredibly loosely on James Bond fictive Q, and fancast thusly as Ben Whishaw.
His name is Henry and his nickname is (the) Eighth, due to his erratic dating habits as a teenager. He keeps the names as he moves between personas because it’s easier and no one was really looking for him.
He is a very powerful empath and has the ability to ‘Sink’ or remove other people’s emotions. He can also Sense a wide range of emotions as smells. The smells are linked to his own childhood (or adult) memories, as this is the way his brain makes sense of them.
He has a bit of a split personality as he learned instinctively to sink himself in times of stress. He considers himself Henry during those times and Eighth otherwise. Henry is not really a distinct personality, but he will have internal conversations with himself (as folks do normally).
Eighth’s skills are highly unusual and as such he would be underestimated even by other empaths.
>> not-Mycroft
This is a Sherlock fictive, fancast thus as Mark Gatiss.
He is the oldest of the three brothers and is the one somehow involved with politics and spywork that keeps Eighth off the radar.
>> not-Sherlock
Fancast thus as Bumblebee Cucumberpatch.
He is the middle brother and is some sort of cop/detective, but obviously can’t be Sherlock properly. Being around Eighth’s semi-controlled powers during his younger years has given him a somewhat sociopathic outlook.
>> not-John
Fancast thus as Martin Freeman. He is Sherlock’s roommate and partner-in-sleuthing. Whether or not he is also a werewolf is as of yet undetermined.
> The Agency
The people who aren’t MI6. They aren’t very nice people, at least when it comes to werewolves and empaths who don’t want to work for the government.
Control is the portion of the Agency that monitors the werewolves and is a sub-entity. The handlers and wolves don’t report through normal channels and don’t have a lot of interaction with the rest of the Agency staff.
Only some folks in the Agency know about Control and have been through training on how to interact with the werewolves (read as: avoid at all costs).
>> not-James Bond
Fancast thus as Daniel Craig.
He works for the Agency as a spy and a saboteur. He served in the Navy prior to becoming a werewolf and was then transferred to his current role.
He is almost always sent out on missions with Alec, because no one else can control him. However since he can work alone or with other agents, sometimes they do send him out without Alec.
His wolf is Mother and no one other than Alec knows what she is (a wolf spirit capable of ‘making’ other werewolves). He never discusses how he became a werewolf or how Alec was created.
>> Mother
Is the oldest of the wolf spirits currently in the UK. She is ruthless when it comes to defending her host (even when he doesn’t want her to be!) and is a formidable fighter.
She is a white wolf with winter/ice powers who prefers a smaller form unless she’s in a fight with someone worth wolfing out for.
She refuses to deal with the Control or the Agency and they’ve given up on trying to communicate with her.
Her name is actually a memory of a place, which is why Alec calls her silly things at times.
>> not-Alec Trevelyan
Fancast thus as Sean Bean.
James brought him home with him after a mission and he works for the Agency because that’s where James is.
He is the fandom version of Alec who is best friends with James and never turned to the dark side. However, this version of Alec didn’t meet James until he was turned, so they never served together in the Navy.
Mother helped him become a werewolf while James was imprisoned. He has worked with James ever since. No one else will work with him and it isn’t safe to let him work along (unless you are just looking for him to rampage and destroy things because he’s grumpy James is gone.)
>> Alec’s Wolf (aka Wolf)
Most wolves end up with nicknames bestowed by their human partners, but Alec and James simply refer to him as Wolf.
He is a massive red wolf with fire powers and much like Alec loves causing epic levels of havoc where it’s deserved. The two of them are like peas in a pod and Alec is one of the few werewolves that are 100% comfortable with their wolf spirits.
So… pretty much the opposite of Mother, but everyone gets along anyway.
>> Cat
Alex has a cat (possibly).
>> Jeremy
One of the other Agency werewolves. Got into a fight with Alec when Alec first met him (after Alec followed James home).
>> not-M
Person in charge, grumpy and non-descript.
>> Reconnaissance techie #1
Snarky techie who has a soft spot for the werewolves.
>> Reconnaissance techie #2
Another slightly less snarky techie who is much more fond of Sinks than wolves.
> The Bad Guys
No clue who they are or what they want, but otherwise what it says on the tin.
>> The Other Mercenaries
The folks who were attempting to ‘rescue’ Jru (aka kidnap back from Control), most of whom were slaughtered by Alec in the tunnel. (Woe.) They had successfully broken into the Agency and stolen the list of inactive sinks with Jru’s help. She was in the midst of double-crossing them when James and Alec showed up.
> Jru’s Team
Torchwood with more espionage. And werewolves. American-based, international range. ‘Werewolf liberationists’ of a sort, as they try and recruit/free them when they find them.
>> Jru (werewolf)
Dosen’t know her real name, nickname is Puppy in Arabic. Early twenties, orphan of unknown middle-eastern descent, and turns into a dusty-brown Arabian wolf. Was a street kid who was adopted into the group.
>> Donal (werewolf)
He appears to be in his seventies, but no one’s brave enough to ask.
>> Yursa (werewolf)
Mid-fifties.
> Everybody Else
There have to be other people, but I haven’t yet thought them up, so. Yeah.
Locations | Cast | Werewolf Facts
Empath Facts
Most empaths detect other people’s emotions as smells because that’s one of the things brains link strongly to memories. Some empaths do sense them differently, but not many.
Empathy is not an inherited trait and seems to pop up randomly in the population. Select pediatric medical folks are trained on how to recognize potential empaths and get their parents help, because it’s incredibly dangerous to live with an untrained empath.
Empaths are not a ‘known’ thing and all empaths work for the government. (Either by choice or by coercion.)
Empathy should (in theory) be control over the neurons and chemicals in the brain, as those are the cause of emotion, so it will be interesting to see how this works out…
Sinking and Sensing
Most empaths can either strongly Sink or Sense, very few can do both equally well. They are also normally tied to a single emotion or group of related emotions.
Sinking
Sinking is the ability to remove emotions in other people. Most empaths are trained and will only remove what they want to (with varying degrees of skill). Self-sinking is usually only mild and done instinctually by those that have an ability related to a negative emotion.
Sensing
Sensing is the ability to sense other people’s emotions. The only known way to block this power is focusing on a different emotional memory in order to override what you are actually feeling.
Locations | Cast | Empath Facts
Werewolf Facts
Werewolves are humans who have bonded with a Wolf Spirit. The spirit is an independent intelligence that shares their body and gives them several abilities in exchange for the rent.
Werewolves can change into wolves ranging from the equivalent weight of their human all the way up to near-polar bear scale. Some wolves, like Alec’s and Mother, also have an elemental magic ability.
The wolf-forms are not true wolves and have none of the biological limitations of a real form. They don’t need to eat or drink and are less under the thrall of the laws of physics.
Damage taken in human form remains, unless healed, and damage taken in wolf-form has yet to be determined.
They might also be able to partially-shift, but it hasn’t come up in the story yet. *pokes plot bunny*