Call me Viper. It's my hacker name.

Everyone should have That One Friend.

That One Friend is the guy you call when you’re lost in the middle of Amarillo and need someone to look up directions to your hotel. She’s the friend who calls you on your shit when you can’t see past your own nose to the obvious solution that’s right in front of you.

Maybe, just maybe, he’s the friend you turn to when the world is ending.

In our story, That One Friend is named Paul. You can call him Viper. Viper Apex.

If Alex is the hero of our story (and ultimately, he is), then Viper is his sidekick. He’d describe himself as Obi Wan Kenobi, but let’s be honest – he’s probably more like Jar Jar Binks.

(Just kidding. Nobody in this story is like Jar Jar.)

Viper, it must be noted, can be a complete idiot. He’s a computer geek, a science fiction geek, a roleplaying geek. He’s usually the smartest person in the room, if only because he’s often the only person in the room. He claims that he’s not allowed to leave the state due to some “outstanding legal issues that led to his unfortunate incarceration some time ago.” In truth, he’s still on probation for hacking the university mainframe in an effort to change a girl’s GPA. He not only got caught, the girl never even knew his name.

So, yeah. He’s that guy. But he’s a solid friend, and he always has been. When Alex needs help, he knows that Viper is the one person he can turn to without hesitation. They’ve been friends for almost 20 years, and honestly I don’t know how they originally met. River and I were talking about this relationship a while ago, and it occurred to me that if they’ve been friends since they were 10…well, you don’t really need a reason for being friends at that age. That’s one of the best parts about being that age.

He fills an interesting role in our universe. It's been said that everyone is the hero in his (or her) own story, but I'm not so sure that this is true for Viper. He's one of those rare people who is content to be a supporting character. He's like the character actor who always plays That One Guy - you might not remember the actor's name, but you'll remember that you liked him in that one movie that you can't reliably remember the name of.

The thing is, Viper may be bad with women. He may be a complete dork. He may speak in codes that only he understands. But in his way, he's incredibly competent. That "Call and ask for directions in the middle of Amarillo" thing? That's the tip of the iceberg. If you want to know where something is, you call Viper. If you want a 2 minute summary of the best way to lose someone tailing you, you call Viper. If you need to borrow his truck on no notice because it's time to hit the road and find someone to sucker into taking over the job that you were born to do, Viper will give you his keys without a second thought. His ideas might be brilliant or they might get you into more trouble than you were in to begin with, but he'll always be able to tell you which episode of McGuyver he stole the idea from.

From a storytelling standpoint, Viper is a great character for one simple reason. We like Viper, a lot. River and I are both a bit more like him than we should probably admit, and that makes him pretty easy to write, and our readthroughs with him are great fun. We're also very protective of him - as we would be in real life, come to think of it - and I suspect that choosing someone to voice Viper will be a challenge. I suspect this will be the only character for whom we would not accept bribes in exchange for serious consideration for the role. It's good to know that we have some standards, anyway.