Hebedee

Template:Character Hebedee was briefly mentioned during a single post in which he rocked in his rocking chair outside of his countryside home singing the songs from the Oklahoma! musical. He remained unattached to the main narrative of the Story Arc, Totallyevil (Story Arc). The minor Character was later brought back as in a major role for the story Clear and The Hopeless where he acted as a mechanic for the ship known as The Hopeful. When The Hopeful, a long silent derelict, suddenly makes a jump across the galaxy the small crew of three, Hebedee, Green and Clear, must seek out a new power source for the ship to keep jumping. They came across the Oh My Love! and board it, meeting The Boss. However when Hebedee tried to steal one of the Oh My Love!'s many power cores, he was stopped by The Boss. Hebedee tried to grab the power source but is absorbed into the device as a source of fuel to recharge itself.

Description

Appearance

Hebedee dressed in blue dungarees and a flannel shirt. On his head would be a blue cap. All of which was usually covered in grease stains. Hebedee didn't take much care in his appearance or how dirty his clothes were. He was tall and fat, though there was plenty of muscle in his strong arms. He had a big nose and small blue eyes. His hair was cut short and was muddy blonde. He often winced and had ugly, malformed teeth.

Voice

Hebedee's voice, as described from Clear's perspective, was either incompetent or masterful but she could never tell which because in either case it was incomprehensible most of the time.

Personality

Hebedee didn't have great social skills and mostly kept himself busy with work. He was happiest when working on a machine of some kind _{(citation needed)}. However he wasn't shy and didn't deliberately keep to himself with the intention of avoiding others_{(citation needed)}. His unusual mannerisms, and difficult accent, meant he was often considered peculiar by those that knew him. He considered others his friends long before they considered him to be their friend. Quick to trust and quick to settle in one place, he enjoyed his time aboard The Hopeful and was always keen to help Clear in whatever way he could - even though she didn't usually want it. He was fairly naïve and didn't see that Clear didn't enjoy his company. However he earned her trust, despite her disliking humans, and his skill with machines made him a necessity aboard The Hopeful_{(citation needed)}. He would often treat certain machines as though they were alive and deserved the same respect as a person_{(citation needed)}. He liked to sing to himself and although he loved his machines, he also enjoyed the great outdoors and admiring the world he was in_{(citation needed)}.

Powers & Talents 

Mechanic

Hebedee was a mechanic first and foremost. He was able to assess how a machine ought to function even if he had never seen one. He was resourceful in finding use for obsolete hardware and their parts. He worked hard on salvaging parts for The Hopeful from the junk that Clear would find on Mars and would work on keeping the ship patched up. He often worked on the smaller, internal problems of the ship while Note, the ship's A.I., would work on the larger structural problems_{(citation needed)}.

History

The Never-ending Story

_{Main article: The Never-ending Story}

TBA

Clear and the Hopeful

_{Main article: Clear and the Hopeful (Story Arc)}

Hebedee had taken up position as mechanic aboard a ship called The Hopeful, an old derelict orbiting Mars. The ship is in a severe state of disrepair and it's A.I. is constantly struggling to maintain it, using salvaging acquired by Clear, the de facto owner of the ship, from the planet below. After one such salvaging mission Note, the A.I., suddenly forced the ship to jump through space - something Clear assured him had never been done in her lifetime aboard the ship. Hebedee had been observing navigational instruments at the time and had noticed a strange occurrence where the Earth had suddenly disappeared from the Sol System. Hebedee senses a link between the two events and pins the blame on bug-eyed aliens. Note is unable to jump back to Mars without fuel and so Clear has to go trade goods at a local spacestation. She decides to take the third, and newest, crew member Green, with her. Hebedee stays aboard the ship to investigate his suspicions about the Earth. Green and Clear return sans salvage and Clear shuts herself up in her room with drink. After ignoring Note's requests for salvage, Hebedee tries to speak with her through the door only to have a bottle smashed in his direction. He leaves her be but gets an invitation to board a strange, crystalline vessel in the vicinity and, hoping to gather the needed salvage, he, and Green, go there. Later, aboard the ship which is called the Oh My Love!, he found himself fleeing from guards, who shot at him with laser guns, and is seen by Clear who chases after them. After Clear saves him from the guards, he reveals that he has power source that can fuel the power core of The Hopeful, which he stole from the Engine Room of the Oh My Love!. The Boss then arrives a demands that they return it. He tells them to put it down gently and Hebedee, sensing a problem with the box if mishandled, throws it at The Boss and his guards. The power source sends out a blast that knocks everyone down. Hebedee, in the confusion, reaches to grab the power source, ignoring the calls for him to stop from The Boss. When Hebedee touches the sphere, he instantly disintegrates into energy and is absorbed by the object - dead and gone. His energy would then serve as a source of energy for The Hopeful until Clear installs a new jump-drive that burns out the power core and uses up the very last of what was left of Hebedee _{(citation needed)}.

Notes

Britt's Commentary

"One of the ideas behind Clear and the Hopeless was to use completely forgotten, cast-off or terribly minor characters and give them some light and characterise them in ways that may never have been envisioned by their original writers. Hebedee was a one-shot writer/character from the earliest pages of the original Never-ending Story and ultimately epitomises this idea of using these long-unused characters. His character was based upon the image presented by Hebedee the Writer, an American farmer singing on a wooden patio - this became a hill-billy mechanic character in CatH."

"Ultimately though I had no direction for the character and didn't know where to take him and, as I, the writer, would become infamous for doing with many characters, I killed him off. His death, however, helped to further the character of Clear who has always been haunted by his death and because his essence became the fuel for The Hopeful. She was upset when, eventually, his essence was all used up by the bagon noz drive at the beginning of Clear and the Hopeless: The Living Daylights." - Britt the Writer