Cura Te Ipsum – A Digital Comic by Neal Bailey and Dexter Wee

CHARLIE EVERETT (AKA CHARLIE PRIME)
Charlie Everett hates his life. He’s a guidance counselor who tells other people how to live their lives, but he has no idea what he wants to do with his own. After he’s fired, he goes home, sticks a pistol in his mouth, and prepares to kill himself. At the last second, Leo appears (an alternate version of Charlie) and tells him that there is a team of Charlies (including girl Charlies) who go from world to world stopping their own suicide across time and space.

Charlie is our hero. He is brave, sad, and after he meets the Dark Everett, he is steadfastly committed to keeping himself and other versions of himself alive, and also to ending the threat the literal and philosophical threat of the Dark Everett.

CHARLENE
Charlene is a female version of Charlie. While statistically less probable than a male Charlie, female Charlies exist, and are a huge part of Cura Te Ipsum. Unlike most Charlies, our Charlene has a pleasant relationship with her father, and thereby is a more assertive individual, where other Charlies lean toward timidity. She’s got a tough exterior and a tough interior. It’s hard to rattle her, and she abides no guff. She’s protective, to the point that her mothering instinct toward Squirt is often semi-violent. She loves weaponry, and serves as the arms expert of the team. She also drinks a bit too much, mostly as a result of the way that her father was more protective of her, and forbid her excess, where Charlie’s typical father is more apathetic toward Charlie, and thus he has only a passing affinity for the drink.

LEO
Leo is the Charlie that brings Charlie Prime into the multiverse. A slick dressed, assertive version of Charlie, Leo is what happens when you take Charlie out of his suicidal state and let him live a healthy life for five or so years with a supportive family, a loving group of friends, and a massive financial support network. He is the de facto leader of the team until Charlie Prime arrives, then things get… complicated. He’s prone to being overbearing, given his assertiveness. He and Charlene are very close friends. He is against wasting time, given that every second wasted is a potential Charlie killed.

NERD
One version of Charlie got obsessed with science, and The Nerd is the result. An anomaly, the Nerd is socially maladroit, hyper-intellectual, and near-vulcan in his cold regard for difficult situations. His love of science sometimes blinds him to emotional realities.

SQUIRT
Squirt is a child version of Charlie that the team found just outside of headquarters. He has no stone, and no memory of how he found the Anchor Universe. He also sometimes wakes up in strange places sometimes… where worlds are dying.

HANK
Hank is Charlie’s best friend, growing up. A tragic figure, his father dies young and he travels the world, leaving Charlie behind. In Cura, he’s reunited with his old friend, a merry prankster who sees the light in every dark situation. The Hank in Cura is unusually lucky… or at least the team believes he is.

THE DARK EVERETT
A bitter, self-loathing version of Charlie who hates himself, and all versions of himself. A murdering figure who strikes from the shadows without care or mercy for collateral damage, the Dark Everett cut off his own nose to spite his face. He shares powers with Charlie Prime, and there is concern among the surviving members of Cura that the Dark Everett may be a future version of Charlie Prime, though the truth may be more complicated…

WEAPONS
Weapons Everett will be explored through story in the near future. Check back here for updates.

JUNIOR EVERETT
A hulking brute, Junior has been… damaged, let’s put it that way. His origin will be explained through story.

ANDRUS
Andrus is a Charlie who, in trying to kill himself, opened up a hole in time and space when his brain refused to die. He can travel back in time; never forward, and with certain consequences. He has a bargain with the Dark Everett. In exchange for the Dark Everett finding a way for him to die, Andrus will help the Dark Everett in his quest whenever he needs to move a universe back and kill a Charlie at a younger age, among other useful tricks…

UNDERTAKER
The Undertaker is a version of Charlie who is strangely older than the others, who tasks himself with burying all of the dead Charlies he can find. His motivations and the reason for his age are unknown, but both the evil Charlies and good Charlies leave him be. A neutral figure. He dies in the Dark Everett’s attack on the Anchor Universe, but continues to appear, given a story so fluid in space and time…

EXTRA-DIMENSIONAL TRANSLOCATORS
An iPod sized rock which can open up portals to other dimensions, when held by a Charlie. Specific to each user, they are typically found in the apartment next door, in Mrs. Artnzen’s jewelry box, for reasons of yet unknown. When a Charlie or a Charlene opens a portal, an ovoid circle opens to another world, typically a random world that can never be visited again once they leave. There are exceptions, however. Charlie Prime, for instance, can go back to places he has once been, as can the Dark Everett, and any Charlie can “anchor” their place and return in the Anchor Universe, which is why the Dark Everett destroys it with nuclear missiles…