Original Character Exploration: Penn and Kevin

A gallery of some of my best work of my two favorite original characters, Penn and Kevin! (They're also the protagonists to my thesis film: To Belong.) They are the first official characters I've ever written and developed, and writing them has been a fun and rewarding learning experience that I've grown to be very passionate about.

Penn is a sentient and emotion-based robot, and Kevin is your average every day human college student. Their story takes place in a futuristic alternative 1988 where technology is 1000 years more advanced than the year in our world.

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Penn’s character is a friendly and fascinating robot who loves making people happy and being with his friends. He’s a male-identifying, fully functioning AI unit who primarily functions based on his emotions. As stated before, he’s programmed to be 21 years old, and loves things that are neon and brightly colored! He loves bright colors so much because he thinks his grey color pallet is boring and doesn’t match his outgoing personality enough. He's mostly extroverted, optimistic, and is extremely social. HIs favorite hobbies are collecting and listening to music, and exploring the world around him. Although he has hidden struggles with deep fears of past memories from the laboratory he was built in, along with depression and fear of rejection, he still never lets anything get in his way. He's new in this world, and nothing is going to stop him from making the best of it all! New-Retrowave and Cassette-Futurism doesn't even begin to describe this lovely robot and his environment.

Kevin's character is quite the opposite of Penn in terms of personality. Where as Penn is over all optimistic and outgoing, Kevin is more quiet, reserved, pessimistic, and introverted. He goes out of his way to come off as being masculine and tough with his punk sense of fashion, but deep down he's a shy and caring personality that want's everyone around him to be safe and happy. He's much like Penn in this regard, he's a very emotional person deep down. He has a few friends around his campus, but he still goes out of his way to hide his more feminine and emotional side behind his exterior in fear of being negatively judged. His biggest fear is being judged, rejected, and alone. He only started letting his inner self shine through when he met Penn for the first time. It doesn't feel as necessary to keep up an image when you're talking to a robot who's a complete neutral slate who's also so accepting and kind.

The two of them together makes for one crazy yet inseparable pair.
After spending a year together, they end up falling in love. Together, they continue to grow and explore their world together.

(Alternative Universes: Below)
AU#1 - "Magjical Fighter-bot AU." - Penn has magical control over electricity and fights crime! He can also summon weapons like his trusty sword to assist in battles! He's a crime-fighter with a flashy outfit he transforms into, and is the cities greatest defender against the forces of evil. (Inspired by the likes of Sailor Moon)

AU #2 - "Human VS Robot War/Apocalypse AU"
Humans and robots are at war with one another. Unlike the canon storyline, in this universe there's an entire species of robots that rose up and challenged humanity for dominance of Earth. Penn and Kevin don't know each other at all, and are on opposing sides. Eventually however, a brutal battle leaves them both stranded together in hiding while tending to their injuries. In the time they're trapped together in the torn-up building, they becomes friends against all odds once they learn they have so many perspectives in common. Both of them only joined the war because they didn't have any other choice, not wanting to become a casualty. After finally healing enough to re-join their armies, they vow to visit each other in secret. They both keep that promise, and after a few weeks of secrecy; they fall in love. What does this mean for them? What does this mean for the war?

And here's an AU where the alternative-future year is 1958 instead of 1988! One really great thing about developing a character well, is that you can place them in any context and still know exactly what they'd be like either way! It's a very fun idea to play around with when exploring a character and their personality.