I had a name for this character in mind while at work last week but it has faded from my memory. Perhaps it will return to me, but so far Molly the Redemption Shark is in a world with a few characters. One is the easy going beach guy pastor/reverend who conducted Molly's baptism. As Daaberlicious described him accurately, a cool old beach dude. There are two other vaguely concepted characters within the same fellowship as Molly, though I've not figured out enough to talk about them.

In thinking of characters, I imagined at work an exchange between a female wolf character outside a church and a man choosing to confront her for her phone case. This wolf woman is the character I'd like to talk about. Her reply to the man was to inform him that what she has is St. Peter's Cross and he's just assuming things because of films like the exorcist and such which have given the image an unchristian connotation. The man doesn't except her explanation even though he does look up the history on his own phone, and for the rest of my imaginings at work he referred to her as 'the clever witch'. In her mind, he might be willing to sacrifice the symbol to evil- but she's not. She'd rather wear it for its original meaning rather than let the enemy steal it.

This prompted me to come up with more about her. I grew up in a nondenominational home with some strong opinions regarding certain catholic practices. I decided that this character should be the sort to have a saintly shrine in her home, the whole candle lighting and devotional practice to. In the traditional I have been brought up in this would be taboo for me but I understand it is an accepted practice among Catholics.

I've considered her possibly partaking in certain folk practices as I considered stretching her Christianity to a form of mysticism. She'd be the sort of person to explain that the word translated from Hebrew as Witch actually means seer so divination is forbidden biblically but not all practices considered such in other faith systems are considered divination in Judaism. For example, the practice of drawing lots or receiving dreams. Using herbs to incite a dream while seeking information would be forbidden, but like Joseph simply receiving dreams and interpreting meaning from them is not evil. Such would be her position. Divination like most forms of magic or even all magic entirely is forbidden in Christianity because it is 'seeking power outside of God'.

I'm not sure how far I could take it, but the general concept is that this character should mean well but still be uncomfortable to be around- so that most characters avoid her. I figure if I ever do take her beyond something excusable it'd just mean that everyone in the church community of the main island is right about her.

What I imagine is that she lives on the Southern Island and travels to the main island for the stores there. I imagine this character always means well, but something about her has 'strange ripples' on those who do accept her company. She would call herself Christian, but have a very odd practice of it compared to those of the main island. The general conflict between her and the rest of society is that she's not permitted to fellowship.

I don't intend to have a mortal antagonist, but so far this character is close- but she wants to help, so she's not really antagonistic- she just has peculiar impacts on those who do treat her as a friend.

Such is my present concept for the character. She'd be the sort of person to put salt around her windows but she'd also pray for protection instead of relying on the salt alone. She's meant to be questionable, even while meaning well and really wanting acceptance. The issue is- I don't know what message I'm sending with that. So before I actually try to write, as my history writing Christian Fiction has not been well, I wanted to share what I'm thinking regarding her.