Freight Train - Character Backstories

This document will give you a further insight into the characters and where they come from.

Tyler Johnson - Tyler is an orphan whose mother died while giving birth to him.  He doesn’t know who his father was and to his knowledge he has no other family. Tyler is a graphic designer.

 

Extended Bio: Tyler is a pacifist, he has never believed in using violence to solve anything.  When he was in high school he put more time into doodling on his homework then the actual homework itself.  He had a special talent for lifting people up through his drawings.  One year a favorite teacher of his named Mr. Reid asked him to create some posters for the new special needs campaign the school the starting which Tyler was resistant to doing.  This was the school’s first attempt to educate the students about special needs people in the hope of bridging the gap between the rest of the students and the special needs students.  This is how Tyler met Cadence.  She was on the Students’ Council and it was her idea to do this campaign.  It wasn’t love at first sight with them as Tyler was pretty immature and she had a boyfriend.  Cadence brought Tyler to the special education room so he could meet the students the campaign was for.  Tyler held himself together for a whole 30 seconds when he felt so uncomfortable he just left. 

 

Tyler told Mr. Reid he couldn’t do the project, it made him feel uncomfortable.  Mr. Reid sat down with him and said, “You know, we are very fortunate you and I.  We can walk down these halls and smile at someone and they will smile right back without hesitation.  But if one of those special needs students was walking down the hall, smiled at someone and said hello, your fellow peers would become just as uncomfortable as you were and all because they are different.  You fear what you don’t understand and the only way to combat that fear is through education. The more you know about them, the less afraid you become and I always felt that you are a smart guy.  Someone needs to take a chance on them and I’ve seen how people take to your drawings Tyler.  I wanted you for this campaign because I knew you could bridge the gap but maybe I was mistaken…”

 

Tyler couldn’t get Mr. Reid’s speech out of his head.  For days he kept asking himself if he was right, that he was just scared.  Finally one day during lunch Tyler was sitting out in the sports field eating and drawing.  Across the field was a few of the special needs kids that he had met with their S.E.A.’s. He watched them as they played and took joy in what they were doing.  They seemed almost like children and for the first time Tyler was able to shift his view of them and he wasn’t scared anymore.  All of the sudden he was overcome with an image for a poster and he sat there until he was finished.  He ended up missing his class after lunch but he didn’t care. Once he was finished he ran to Mr. Reid’s class which was in session and showed him the drawing. 

 

The next day Tyler went back to the special needs class where he took the time to get to know those kids more and that entire day gave him enough material to create 20 unique posters which were used around the school district.  This is also how Cadence fell for Tyler. She walked in to the special needs class to find Tyler bonding with the kids which changed her mind about him.

 

After he graduated from high school he went on to do graphic design at the Art Institute and he did very well.  Once he graduated he had quite a few job opportunities, all of which he sabotaged.  The work he was doing wasn’t fulfilling his needs, sure he got a good pay check but there was something missing.  After a while he started sleeping in during the week and leaving work early.  He couldn’t understand why he couldn’t stay interested in his jobs; he was doing what he loved right?  Eventually Tyler started freelancing and got enough jobs to get by but just barely. 

 

One day Tyler got a call out of the blue from Cadence and she told him about his new campaign United Citizens was doing on homelessness and he got excited about it.  He was more excited about seeing her as he had been thinking about her a lot.  It was this job that made Tyler come to the realization of what he was missing.  He had to do something he believed in, not just mindless advertising.  Every experience he was having was making him a better person by educating him on the things he once had a hard time understanding.  And he also believes that Cadence is the key to all of it because she was his muse.  He knew that he wanted her in his life one way or another and even though he never fully committed to her, he never looked anyone else’s way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lexie Biel - Works for Glenda in her magic shop. While Lexie doesn’t really believe much in magic, it is her only tie to the other side.  She also performs as an investigator into the unknown.  She stays away from being called a paranormal investigator as it sounds too much like “hokum”.  She considers herself to be a seeker of truth and so most people call her the seeker. She does not get along with Sage at first but they become closer over time.

 

Lexie is also a bit of a techno dweeb, she is always building random machines that don’t work as well as they should.  She never throws any of her inventions out. Later on in the series Sage will end up enchanting her inventions giving them a practical use.

 

Lexie is a direct descendant of Leonardo Da Vinci and her parents were:

 

Dr. Samuel and Evie Biel

 

Extended Bio: Samuel is 23 years older than Evie.  He worked for many years with the military developing technologies for them.  He was against making weapons which was the thing that eventually led to his dismissal with the military.  He later started teaching at a university where he first met Evie. She was a student in his theoretical physics class and later became his teaching and research assistant.  Samuel is an eccentric man who is for the most part oblivious to things like when a woman is interested in him.  Evie fell in love with his brilliant mind and had such undying faith in him. Lexie was 5 when Samuel and Evie finally tied the knot. Their reason for it was because Lexie thought it was stupid they weren’t married and she wanted a proper family structure.  Their wedding was anything but traditional. Samuel pulled some strings and managed to have their ceremony in Science World where he had helped with creating the attractions.  They were married May 5^th 1989, the night before Science World officially opened. It was a small wedding, Lexie, Bill Chambers and his wife and Evie’s mom’s best friend Julie.

 

In 1996 Samuel was working on his Mechtoform.  He always knew that his family was being watched over by an old spirit (Leonardo Da Vinci in the beginning and then Cyrus).  He created the Mechtoform in the hopes he could give the spirit corporeal form again. If it worked then he in a sense could be immortal and of course his wife and daughter would never have to fear death again.  When they went to do its initial test run the consciousness (Da Vinci) that entered it ended up killing both Samuel and Evie.  This is when Leo stopped watching over them and Cyrus took over.

 

Train Conductor - The Conductor of the train was once Aristotle. He is the caretaker of the train and this is his own choosing.  He has lost faith in his own abilities because of the incident at Chernobyl. He is seeking redemption through his job as caretaker.

 

Extended Bio:  His back-story shouldn’t be revealed too quickly.  I prefer to keep a shroud of mystery around it until things start to come out slowly overtime.  The Conductor was once the great philosopher Aristotle.  He was the one who coined the term purpose destinies which was inspired by the Latin meaning of his own name which is “excellent purpose”. 

 

“Ari” (Aristotle) was investigating unusual behaviors by the strays.  It was Saturday April 26^th, 1986 and Ari’s investigation brought him to the Ukraine.  It seems a group of 3 strays were attempting to harness the power of a reactor. It is thought that the nuclear power would have given them an energy boost but at a high price.  Because nuclear energy is highly radioactive, if the strays absorbed that power, they would become radioactive even in the corporeal world.  They would end up infecting places around the world with radiation poisoning and no one in that world would know what to do.

 

Ari and his partner Xander decided to cleanse the spirits before they could do any harm.  The strays were prepared for the Ministry to send walkers after them and set up booby traps.  Ari and Xander manage to elude the traps but being the pacifist that Ari is, he used his Tear to cleanse one of the warp bubble traps making it useable to him.   

 

They reach the reactor where they find the 3 strays preparing to absorb the power. A fight ensues but the 3 strays are strong and kick the s**t out of them.  Just as two of the strays are about to absorb Xander, Ari throws the Warp Bubble Trap at him and sends him to New York.  During those moments Ari was going through his transformation, he was faced with a choice, flee or sacrifice himself to save Xander.  After Xander is teleported away the strays turn their attention to Ari and then it happens.  Ari’s transformation into a Paragon happens and for the first time ever it is happening in the middle of a nuclear reactor.  When Ari used the Warp Bubble it caused an unexpected power surge in the reactor.  Moments later as the people at the plant tried to do an emergency shutdown Ari’s transformation occurred causing an exponentially larger spike in the power output, which eventually led to what we now call the Chernobyl disaster.

 

Stricken with grief for causing so much destruction he quit the Walker biz and asked to be punished.  Michael would not punish him for something that was just a series of unfortunate events and Ari refused to move on.  They found a compromise and Michael made him the Conductor of the Freight Train.  He would watch over the souls of the children of the earth until they were ready to move on.

 

Beau �" He is a walker and Tyler’s partner. He is black, has a broken southern accent, really short hair, a well trimmed beard and gentlemen’s clothing and cane (They are inspired by suites from his time with a modern twist. As he is also a Dark Walker, his clothes will be darker in appearance. At first his clothes will be lighter with a small bit of darkening to it.

 

Extended Bio:  Beau LaFayette was born in the late summer of 1911 in the Atlanta, Georgia.  His entire family worked for the Armstrong family as servants. Beau had a gift when it came to speaking, his mom always said it was because he was a good listener and picked it up from listening to the white folks talk. He had such a unique take on the world and how people should treat each other.  Like many at the time, Beau heard about Mahatma Gandhi’s non-violent activism and this was something that interested him.

 

In 1941 Beau had heard some men talking at his church (Ebenezer Baptist Church); they were expressing their anger of how they were tired of being treated so badly by white folks.  There was talk about the civil rights movement and how they were going to protest by picking up arms and going after those people.  He approached the men and began telling them how their actions will only cause more problems.  He began teaching them the ways of non-violent activism and was able to inspire these men to find a better way. 

 

Just as he was walking away the Reverend called to him and asked where he learned all that from.  Beau had a passion for knowledge and peace and based his life around those things. He wasn’t even really religious but enjoyed the message in the teachings.  The Reverend invited him to speak at Sunday service which coincidently was his birthday. 

 

The church was packed in attendance that day and Beau’s family was right up in the front row.  Beau was nervous and to this day can’t remember what he said but in the end everyone was on their feet and they were clapping.  It was at that moment an aneurism popped in Beau’s head killing him. He just stood there at the podium with a smile on his face and blood coming from his nose.  He could taste the copper flavor and then he was dead. 

 

Xander had been watching Beau for most of his life.  He had always been aware of a defect in Beau’s brain. There was no way to tell how it would affect him so he studied him.  Xander approached Michael about making Beau a Walker.  This was usually not the case as normal souls went into their after lives until they reached ascension. But Xander made his case and after Michael consulted with his “superiors” they granted him Walker Status. 

 

You will see from the start that there is something a little off about Beau, he has a dark side.  Beau is “infected” with negative energy and has been trying to hide it for some time.  After almost revealing his dark side to Tyler in the well house he decides to let Tyler in on his problem.  An encounter by a stray reveals the existence of the Order and their symbol.  Tyler discovers the Order symbol in the Celestian archive and that they have somehow hacked their way into their system.  Beau begs Tyler not to say anything but he does and Beau goes into hiding.

 

He leaves the Ministry for a short time leaving Tyler with a new partner.  Beau is befriended by a Ashka of the Order. She teaches Beau their philosophies and he joins them.  They tell Beau what they know about Cyrus and in return he tells him about Lexie’s magi-tech.

 

Beau returns to Tyler to tell him what has transpired and Tyler believes him.  Tyler works it out with Michael to let Beau remain his partner. Tyler sees it as an opportunity to learn more about what they are saying but Michael sees it as an opportunity to get someone on the inside of the Order.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cadence Campbell - Is a full time university student majoring in English. She is Tyler’s girlfriend and is very kind.

 

Extended Bio: Cadence has a younger brother Connor who is 12 years younger than her and is autistic.  Her parents are both workaholics and she often plays his parent as well as big sister. 

 

Now that she is taking on Tyler’s destiny, a new journey is about to start for her. Cadence’s journey will take her into the human condition.  She will be faced with real world issues like poverty, sickness, education, employment, environment, etc, which will in turn lead her The Social Project. This journey can be happen either throughout one season or you could drag out for a while.

 

She and Tyler met in high school but didn’t start dating until she was 21.  She starting crushing on him when she saw him bonding with the kids in the special needs class.  They became good friends and she even brought him over to her house to meet her baby brother. Once Tyler had graduated they slowly drifted apart as most people do when they go away to college.  Over the years she had a lot of boyfriends but didn’t know how to handle her brother as he was different then other kids.  It was important to her that any guy she was with could deal with that fact. 

 

Years later she started working with the non-profit organization called United Citizens. They had started a new campaign on homelessness and she thought of Tyler right away.  She recommended him to the board and they brought him in to see his work. They were very impressed and hired him to create their billboards and ads. 

 

Cadence was the one who asked Tyler out for a beer after and he of course agreed.  One beer turned into many and the next thing you know they end up in bed together.  At first they tried being friends with benefits but it just grew into a relationship over time.  It was this reason that their relationship had always been so rocky, they were both unwilling to make any formal commitments which drove each other crazy.

 

Thomas Ferguson �" 34 yrs old Scottish/Canadian, and is a Private Investigator.  He and Lexie are connected.

 

Extended Bio: All Tom ever wanted was to be a police man.  It was a family tradition dating back to his Great Grandfather who worked for Scotland Yard, so did his grandfather and father until they moved to Canada and started working with the RCMP.  He has 3 brothers who are also policemen.  Tom is considered the “runt” of the litter.  His father William Ferguson II is an inspector with the RCMP.  His older brother William ‘Bill’ Ferguson III is a Staff Sergeant Major.  His younger two brothers are twins, Richard “Dicky” Ferguson and Terry (Terrence) Ferguson.  Dicky is a Corporal with the RCMP but Terry is a Detective with the District 1 VPD.  Terry and Dicky are very competitive with each other. So much so that they had to separate them because they were very distruptful. That’s why Terry joined the VPD.

 

Tom was never really book smart but he has a very strong intuition which has never steered him wrong.  He could never pass the entrance examine to the RCMP or the VPD. He is just not “Police Officer Material”.   Tom always felt that there should be more than one way to judge a person’s abilities and if he could only be given a chance, he could prove them wrong.

 

He decided to start his own Private Investigations Office.  It hasn’t turned out quite the way he pictured but it’s how he met Lexie. They were both hired by the same client to investigate the death of a loved one.  Things happened to them that night they could not explain and they formed a bond.  Tom has a thing for Lexie.

 

Michael �" Known to the world as the Archangel Michael.  He is the one who sends Tyler and Bo on their missions. Not much is known about him.

 

At some point we could focus on Michael’s Origin story.  We won’t be able to show life before Earth as I don’t think we could represent what his existence would be like to the viewers.  I would like to show his side of history and the roles he has played in it. 

 

Connor Campbell �" He is Cadence’s younger brother who is 12 years old and a high functioning autistic. He doesn’t talk all that often, only when he has something important to say. He carries around a backpack and he always has a screw driver with him. He is fascinated with technology and seems to understand it better than most.  He will be known for tinkering with Lexie’s inventions.

 

Extended Bio: His favorite TV Show is Doctor Who and he connects the most with the 11^th Doctor.  This was something that he and Tyler shared and is what caused them to bond.  While Tyler thinks of himself as the Doctor and Connor as him Companion, it is Connor who thinks it’s the other way around.

 

Connor will eventually grow up to be a big part of the change that is happening in the world.  Connor has P.D. that would have been inspired by Tyler but now will be his sister. 

 

As Connor get’s older he will begin to speak more

 

 

Supporting Characters

 

 

Glenda Cousins �" Has unique ability is that she can see the events that led up the tragedy that happened in a certain place.  She also owns a Metaphysical Shop and employs both her niece and Lexie.

 

Extended Bio:  Glenda grew up in the country. Her family was quite poor as it was just her, a brother and her parents.  Her father served in the marines during the Vietnam War from 1964 to 1967.  He had a dishonorable discharge for purposely shooting himself in the leg.  He was diagnosed with Vietnam Veterans Syndrome which is now commonly known as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He became a very heavy alcoholic and abusive towards Glenda and her mother.  In 1972 Glenda’s father had a really bad flashback in which he accidently killed his wife and then when he realized what he had done and turn the gun on himself.

 

Glenda had been sleeping over at a friend’s house while her brother was away serving in the navy when she came home and found her parent’s bodies.  This was the first time she had a psychic experience.  Her father reached out to her and was able to show her the torment he was living and why this had happened.  It took her years to understand what she saw or what was happening to her.  She befriended an older lady who she met at the YWCA. She was a powerful psychic who took her under her wing and helped her develop her powers. 

 

Many years later her brother got married and had a daughter.  Her brother was never the same after what happened to their parents and when he was laid off and got into money troubles he ended up taking his own life.  Glenda stuck around to help Sage’s mother raise her.

 

*Note: She lied to Lexie about her parents because she was never able to find out what happened to their souls.  Lexie was going through a hard time so she made up their crossing over. 

 

Cyrus �" He is a Paragon (Dark Paragon who took over watching Lexie after Leonardo Da Vinci took off). Cyrus was an inventor in the late 1700’s.  History records him as a mad scientist who believed he could harness astral energy.  Most of his designs didn’t survive over time but from the few things that were recovered it appears he designed what looks like a microchip.  It is said that Cyrus was plagued with visions of these things but he couldn’t understand what they meant. Overtime he became better at what he was doing but then one tragic night during a storm his workshop was struck with lightning causing a large explosion. Nothing was left. 

 

Cyrus became a walker and in March 1917 during World War One (The fall of the Russian Tsar Government)he was collecting fallen soldiers when he came across Lexie’s great great grandfather. Leonardo Da Vinci was his partner and had told Cyrus about his family lineage. 

 

Cyrus didn’t let being dead stop his research into imbuing technology with astral energy.  He learns that he can imbue a limited amount of energy into technology from his side but if you wanted to really see s**t work you have to do it from the corporeal world.

 

Cyrus is co-founder of The Order alongside of Leonardo Da Vinci.  He distanced himself from the Ministry when they condemned his experiments on technology. He believes that Celestians are wrong about negative energy, it isn’t evil and it can be harnessed for the good of everyone. Word started getting out and that’s when other walkers and strays would come to him.  It was then he and Leo created the Order to protect those who would go against the Celestians belief and further his cause by allowing walker who were infected with negative energy and strays to change their ways.

 

It was common knowledge to most that Cyrus was infected with negative energy and he believed that he would evolve even though he was infected. Oswald Croll was very interested in Cyrus’s research and kept a close eye on him. Oz figures out that just before a walker evolves that there is a giant spike of energy and usually when they are on the brink of getting their asses handed to them. To test his theory, a few months before Tyler dies Oz sends a small army of Stray’s to attack Cyrus. He leads them away from the city but just barely. He is pushed to the brink and then it happens, Cyrus evolves into a Dark Paragon and drops the Neolithic Shard. Oz takes it and uses it against Cyrus trapping him within it.

 

Shortly after his disappearance the Order noticed that their leader had stopped communicating with him. They sent two Dark Walkers to investigate the relation of Cyrus’s disappearance to the disappearance of their leader.  They eventually find out what happened to him and they decide to approach Beau about it seeing as he is infected with negative energy.  This is what brings Beau into the fold and is Tyler’s liaison to the Order.

 

Mr. Bill Chambers - Is a long time friend of Lexie’s Family. He runs an advertising agency.

 

Sage Cousins �" She is Glenda’s niece who is also into the psychic business however she is more into the dark arts. Her personal beliefs are that the dark arts are misunderstood and she is seeking to prove that.

 

Sage’s Mother �" She has stage 4 lung cancer and wants her daughter to stop obsessing over trying to save her. She tries to get her daughter to make peace with it but dies before she gets the chance.  She manages to activate the same psychic powers Glenda had and send her a final message which helps her find her peace.

 

Oswald (Oz) Croll was an alchemist in the late 16^th century.  He became a walker after his death and found that he could use the basis of his research to help him come up with ways to manipulate energy such as the Celestians do.  The Celestians however do not agree with his ways as they do not believe they are ready for such power.  This drove Oz towards the dark side and he sided with two other Strays. 

 

Carmen �" A southern very sexy looking woman who is Michael’s receptionist.  She is bisexual but claims to be a lesbian because Walkers are always hitting on her.  She is really just eye candy but once in a while she will surprise you.  She use to be a very talented thief when she was alive.

 

Ashka �" She is a Dark Walker that is a part of the Order. She recruits Beau and is also one of the two Dark Walkers that was investigating Cyrus’s disappearance.

 

Ashka is Evie Biel but she has no memories of her former life. Leo blocked those memories as the incident that killed her was so traumatic that she was destroying herself. For reasons unknown the Freight Train would not allow her to stay there so Leo had her memories blocked and gave her a new identity.

 

It is unknown what happened to Samuel Biel.

 

Leonardo Da Vinci �" Even in death Leonardo was the most curious of people.  He really took to this new life and learned a lot, so much that he resented not being able to share his findings with the people of earth. 

 

He chose to spend most of his time watching his over descendants as he was curious if his lineage would produce another scientist like himself.  When Samuel Biel was born he knew that he would be something special. Samuel was born a little different, he had a unique mutation in his brain that allowed non corporeal beings to kind of communicate with him.  The mutation wasn’t a strong one but Leo was able to fill his head with ideas which eventually led to his inventions later on in life.

 

When Samuel developed the Mechtoform Leonardo was excited as he could once again step out into the spot light and teach the world about what he has learned over the past 500 years. The problem that he did not foresee was how the Mechtoform actually worked.  Because it runs off of creative energy when Leo interfaced with the machine he couldn’t control it and he ended up killing both Samuel and Evie.

 

This affected Leo deeply; he questioned himself and decided to banish himself from Earth.  He felt the universe has much to teach him and when he was ready he could return. He leaves Cyrus in charge of the Order and asks him to watch over Lexie. 

 

He eventually returns when he finds out that Cyrus was trapped in a Neolithic Shard and has a way to set him free. He is also responsible for the disappearance of Lexie’s parents after they died.

 

The Corporation �" By the end of season 1 you will find out that the 3 Strays were in league with people in the world of the living.  These guys need to be on the down low as they will be this invisible force that appears to be controlling the outcome of the world.  You won’t ever see who are the masterminds behind this until much later.  The corporation must feel like a smart unbeatable enemy for a long time.  The people behind it all will in fact appear in the series but won’t be revealed until much later.  It should give people the shock value. 

 

Xander (Alexander The Great) *Paragon*- Former walker gone Paragon.