Clangor & Hiss Proposal

Character descriptions, setting, etc. for the contest "Invalid Item" .

"Clangor & Hiss: Steampunk Detectives"

The setting is alternate history Victorian England.

Clangor: A well dressed man in his 50's, Clangor's salt and pepper hair garners him regular compliments from ladies of all ages. He's 6 ft. tall and is still a handsome man with green eyes and a strong jawline. Fit, Clangor still gives crooks a run for their money when necessary, but he prefers to leave the more physical aspects of the job to the younger generation, when possible. He has a powerful reputation with the police and Scotland Yard, known as someone who can get things done when the official constraints of law enforcement prevent them from doing so. Clangor enjoys a stiff drink from time to time, but never loses control. He's reserved, well-mannered, and generally a typical British gentleman.

Clangor got his nickname as a young man because of his tendency to spend his free time in his workshop clanging around with his projects, usually steam powered. His brothers, a baker and tailor, dubbed him "Clangor" because "Maker of weird things we don't always know what to do with" was too long. He'd grown up reading detective novels which had inspired him to follow his current line of work and he believed that technology was a part of the future of crime-fighting, so it's common to find him working on a new project to solve a problem in a current case he's working on.

Hiss: A young, slim-built, twenty-ish girl with honey-brown eyes and hair to match, spent much of her early life as a street urchin. She lost her parents at an early age, though she can't recall exactly what happened, so she simply tells people it was in a carriage accident because that seems as likely as any other scenario. She grew up in and out of orphanages, running away when things got too unbearable. In her teens, she's not sure exactly how old she is, so she can't say exactly how old she was at the time, she met Clangor when trying to pick his pocket. It was only luck that he turned at that moment and caught her. He grabbed her by the wrist, took her to the nearest pub for a meal, and set about trying to solve the mystery of who she was and how she came to be picking his pocket. It took her a long time to trust him, but he immediately saw the potential in her. Hiss, who doesn't know her real name, but got this nickname because of the hissing sound she'd make to scare away potential predators, both man and animal. Because of how she was raised, Hiss is the perfect one to work slightly outside the law, when necessary and the police turn the other way because of the results she and Clangor get. Though it's not uncommon for Clangor to have to reign in her enthusiasm for coloring outside the lines.

Hiss often hangs out in Clangor's workshop, but more for companionship and curiosity than because of any interest in creating things herself. She prefers to take things apart instead of putting them together and in the early part of their relationship, Clangor had to reconstruct many of his projects after Hiss spent a few too many minutes alone in his workshop.