“
Well, violence is appropriate when… [chuckles] I’m not the person to ask here, necessarily.”
Fourteen Fifteen is the Dying, played by Jack de Quidt. They are a body-swapping assassin and bounty hunter in Twilight Mirage.[1]
They do not have 'their own' body, but they are a human: they were born, they lived a life, they joined the Castlerose agency, and now they are data. Their name is not numbers, nor a call sign or tag, but the name their parents gave them.[2]
Their jam is being a bounty hunter. They can be transported to a location as data packets, whereupon they take on a body prepared for them, and are thus able to track targets functionally anywhere disguised as functionally anyone.[1]
With each jump and body swap the data gets more and more corrupted, degraded, or in some cases completely lost; eventually, they will die because of it. However, until that disease claims them they cannot truly die. They can be hurt, they can lose time, but they cannot technically die.[3]
Beliefs[edit | edit source]
The Veil[edit | edit source]
- "I don't know why, but Tender is important; always keep her in my sights."[3]
- "Always shine a light into shadowed corners."[3]
- "I am not afraid of death, but others are. I will never manipulate someone with a deadly but empty threat."[4]
Scum and Villainy[edit | edit source]
- “In order to aid my unpredictable memory, I will always take records of people, places, and events.”[5]
- “I will give no time to those who seek to control or exploit the Quire system.”[6]
Appearance[edit | edit source]
In all bodies, Fourteen carries a kinetic handgun, akin to Deckard's gun from Blade Runner, but with a stock made of glass instead of wood, with laser-cut designs of birds and flowers.[3]
Gunslinger[edit | edit source]
Fourteen's first body the audience sees is a gunslinger. They appear in their late forties or mid-fifties, with stubble, thinning hair, and are wearing a white shirt and a bandolier.[3]
During the Beloved Dust's time in the Steady during "We Want You to Come Home", Fourteen wears a crisp white shirt with a fancy collar and dark trousers, the way they think a bounty hunter should look in a bar. They are wearing sunglasses but have pushed them up onto their head to get a better look at a gambling game. They have a jeweled ring on one hand, and are wearing a holster with no gun, having decided "a cowboy should leave it out".
Worthy of Grace[edit | edit source]
Fourteen's second body is the virtual singer Worthy of Grace. Unlike most of the bodies Fourteen inhabits, this was not just a body with a cover story provided by Castlerose. Worthy of Grace was intended to simply have an opera singer cover story, but something went wrong. Worthy was actually a genuine virtual kei idol who performed with a mix of opera, high fashion and pop music, and upon awakening Fourteen finds themself this virtual singer, miraculously transferred into a 'real body'.[7]
A certain image of Rosario Dawson with turquoise earrings and a messy bob is apparently a good reference for their appearance. There are patterns rippling over their dress: it's one part the projection mapping on Jennifer Lopez's dress on American Idol, one part the sort of projection mapping done on buildings, and one part Liu Bolin's performance art and photography series, "Hiding in the City". Their dress is constantly reflecting the scene they're in, flickering, or playing advertisements for their performances.[8]
The Body Politic[edit | edit source]
The Body Politic is a public defender. They're short, compact and full of energy. They have a mop of messy blonde hair that's swept into a high ponytail when they're working, and resemble Holly Hunter's character in the movie The Big Sick. They wear glasses.[9]
The Body Politic was one of the many bodies produced from the data of the people of Quire by Castlerose, but was not finished and processed. As such, they still have horns on their head and the distinctive marks of vestigial third and fourth arms on their back.[10] The Body Politic was once a lawyer in the Glassed Age of Quire who worked to help people; although this body is only a copy of the original, a vague memory of that time still remains in their mind.[11]
Carcanet's Ironclad[edit | edit source]
Carcanet's Ironclad is a stalwart and slightly square synthetic originally held in The Restitution of All Things. They are the size of a large person, and their model is similar to the Torch Unit in its movement and the design of its joints. Aesthetically they resemble an Arthurian knight, Joan of Arc, or Zendaya at the 2018 Met Gala, and wear sparse yet ornate armor.[12]
History[edit | edit source]
They were born on the Sky Reflected in Mirrors[2], a dark place, which is why they often wear sunglasses.
During a previous, routine job involving the rest of the Beloved Dust, they died and then introduced themself to the crew the next day as the gunslinger.[13]
They have divulged that they were dying only to Miss's Castlerose, their handler.[3] ⸢Signet⸣ knows something about Fourteen-Fifteen's illness that they are not aware of.[14]
Memories[edit | edit source]
Fourteen Fifteen has forgotten a lot of things. They think they have forgotten a past friendship with Tender Sky. They did not remember (until being told) that, in truth, they were sent to kill Tender.[3]
As of Downtime on Skein, they have forgotten the majority of their work for Castlerose, and believe they only ever performed three assassinations.[15]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Episode 01, 0:23:35.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Episode 01, 0:30:20.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Episode 01, 0:26:25.
- ↑ Episode 06.
- ↑ Episode 47, 26:47
- ↑ Episode 47, 28:13
- ↑ Episode 11, 0:11:41.
- ↑ Episode 17, 0:47:40.
- ↑ Episode 20, 0:15:30.
- ↑ Episode 20, 0:19:10.
- ↑ Episode 20, 0:21:40.
- ↑ Episode 54, 1:48:00.
- ↑ Episode 01, 0:33:15.
- ↑ Episode 01, 0:36:40.
- ↑ Episode 54, 1:21:00.