Ray Lorric

Looks like a gnome in a leather jacket
Drives an old Honda Civic
Description
The house where the couple had lived was now occupied by a single man, who liked to sit at the front door on a wooden bench, watching the world go by. He was middle-aged, but his beard was long and white. He wore a blue woollen cap and looked so much like Duckman’s friend the gnome that for a moment he was confused.
Chapter 8: After they were settled, Helen boiled the kettle and stoked the fire. He was fatter she thought, and still wearing that ridiculous tatty old hat if you could believe it. With the bushy white beard, he looked like Captain Birdseye or a human sized garden gnome. ~ With the tassels on your coat, you look like a novelty Elvis Presley gnome.
Works for the The Evermarch Divine Trace Centre (EDTC)
He is 'in with' the church a bit
Chapter 11:
Eventually he spoke again. ‘I give up. I should have remembered there is no talking to you. I don’t know what else to say. Life was baffling enough for me even before the reditus. I spent years of my life trying to figure out how to make you happy. I could never work out what I was doing wrong. And when you left me, honestly it was a blessing. I was broken hearted, but I felt like a great weight had been lifted from my shoulders. Life has never made any sense to me. I was still leading the bachelor life when it all changed. I still hadn’t figured out what I was meant to be doing. And now look at us. You don’t think I can help you, and you are most likely right. I can barely help myself. I don’t know what I’m doing, I just kept my head down during the purges and as one by one the people above me got purged, or fled, or died of a Splinter virus I moved up the management chain to where I am now. Do you think any of this makes any more sense to me than it does to you?’
~
‘Yeah, I guess your life had a bigger upheaval than mine,’ Ray paused. He seemed to chew something over then went on. ‘Just three days ago there was a dead body at the end of my street. It was there days before it was taken away. I’ve started sleeping with a loaded gun under my pillow again. Everything is in chaos again since the army got back. I’ll do what I can do, that’s all I can say. You’ll just have to wait until things calm down.’
I took this Expo out:
Lorric had been married four years before his wife had left him, running off with his best friend Gary to Australia. He heard later that she when she married Gary she had the same wedding over again, same flowers, same setting, even the same minister who was a friend of the family and happy. He’d lost contact with them, and the years had rolled on. He left his old job and got one in a call centre. Was promoted to management at the age of 50, so he could work from home. He only needed to do about one hour’s work a day to keep things ticking over so the rest of his day was his own. 
When everything changed, and the world got turned on its head he at least got some satisfaction that Perth Australia was now up north. Whenever he felt down, he would think of Gary and Helen freezing their nuts off in an Arctic winter. 
His life went into stasis, form a year nothing changed. He spent his days watching TV and VHS. 
They were down to three channels now. He ordered VHS, the list of legal ones was ever decreasing. No one made new films any longer. 
He was promoted a second time, and was moved out of his flat into a house that had been left vacant after the post-regitus expulsions. The company he worked for was friendly with the muta, in some dodgy one-hand-washing-the-other way that he knew it best not to ask about, but it did mean he was safe from persecution. 
Ray does not use bad words shit, fuck or cunt etc
Duckman lives on his street.
He is the head of a big call centre that gathers info from people who have heard from
god recently. He's a 'Tracer'
Direct Line to God
Chapter 11
‘Don’t you have a direct line to God? Get on the phone then! What’s the use of being able to talk to the big man unless you use it?’
‘It doesn’t work like that.’
‘How then?’ she asked with genuine curiosity.
‘Mostly we gather information from people that have had God speak to them. Then send it on to the church. Well, I say “we”, there is a team of people do that and I supervise them. When I put in my monthly report I, well… I have an online meeting with God, but mainly He talks, and I listen.’
Duck Man
CHARACTER GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT:
# Keep Ray going for now, interlinked Helen stuff
# Later though, when TT starts killing people, Ray tries to stop it
# TT bribes him (Ray can help Helen etc)
# Ray has a word with God. God sorts him out
# Ray goes to warn TT
# TT has gone too far by now and decides to slay Ray (Ray can get wind he's a target - little realising its Randy and Nathan haha - dramatic tension!!!)
# Randy and Nathan won't do it though
# This starts TT turning back to good.
See notes below:
I guess he works out TT is offing people? there is duck man fun to be had as well.
Uncovers TT stuff, maybe gets with Shadwell. Sees that TT has gone doolally and tries to stop it. 
TT bribes him with power - and maybe Ray is ok with that to begin with as he can help Helen et al, but then he sees that TT has gone too far.
Plus - Talks to God etc. Some big plot thing... Oh yeah, that would be good. God lays some truth on him that he then has to deal with. Maybe... not reveal it, to keep the reader in suspense
Maybe Randy and Nathan are going to off him because he's going to blab, but then the realise he's a decent man and have second thoughts.
~
Helen (after he's properly saved her) - So you love me do you? You want to get back together?
Ray: No chance!
Ray knows he would rather be alone that with her. In his mind she's not changed, in fact, she is worse. 
Well, see how we feel when we get this far, but there is no real character development for Ray at this stage, he's more of a player in other people's stories.
It might be nice for him to meet someone though. A Muslim woman maybe.
Category:Paradise
Category:Paradise Characters