Characters / Todd Allison & the Petunia Violet

Characters in Todd Allison & the Petunia Violet.

Petunia Elkwood

The 18-year-old heroine, Petunia is the new girl in Melbourne and she's still in the midst of getting used to the whole place. All she's ever wanted was to be a normal girl but it seems she keeps getting tangled in incredibly unusual circumstances.

Associated Tropes:

• The Determinator: Crossdresses as a boy and follows her brothers to Melbourne then building a life there by herself to prove they can't leave her behind
• Drives Like Crazy: Er, well... Bikes Like Crazy, anyway.
• Genki Girl: She's pretty energetic when she really gets going
• Hidden Depths: Is quite perceptive despite her Genki Girl nature, struggles with sexism, racism, and poverty even though she keeps a cheerful front, and has apparently killed a man.
• Important Haircut: A flashback reveals that after deciding to follow Elijah and Meredith into Melbourne, Petunia does this to her Rapunzel Hair...with a kitchen knife.
• The Klutz: Oh Petunia...
• Plucky Girl
• Shrinking Violet: Seems to be this.
• Sweet Polly Oliver: After she decided to follow her brothers to Melbourne, Petunia took on a male identity and the name Peter. If the ending of chapter 10 is any indication, it did not last long.
• Theme Naming: With Hana. They both have flower-related names and are acquainted with Todd, who is obsessed with plants.

Todd Allison

Petunia's next-door neighbour, who has a strange obsession with plants. He plays piano at Rainbird Cafe and is constantly making sure Petunia doesn't get into trouble. He is extremely unapproachable and he will not shy away from letting someone know he hates them. Todd Allison also works for the government in a special investigative unit formed to track down a bomber by the name of Violet. He is not very pleased about it.

Associated Tropes:

• Full-Name Basis: Most people refer to Todd by his given and surname, and he is rarely referred to as just 'Todd'.

• Pet the Dog: Usually rude and antisocial, but he goes out of his way to help Petunia, patch up her wounds and fix her jacket when they accidentally fall off his apartment ledge.
• Redhead In Green: He doesn't wear green all the time, but he is more often than not.
• Tall, Dark, and Snarky
• Victorian Novel Disease: In the sidestory The Daydreamings of Todd Allison, and chapter 6 of the main comic, it's revealed that Todd has tuberculosis, and has relapsed as early as four years ago.
• Triple Shifter: Government crime investigator, biochemist, and waiter.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: He comes to terms with death at nine years old.

• Younger Than They Look: Petunia makes a guess at Todd's age...she ends up being seven years off.

Cyril

A friendly tram conductor by day but at night, Cyril is your man for any variety of odd jobs. He can kill people for you, beat them up, throw them in ditches, and steal their automobiles. His current client is Mr. Gabriel. As of Chapter 12, he's working for Todd Allison.

Associated Tropes:

• The Ace
• The Alcoholic: Averted, Word of God confirms he's a heavy drinker, but he doesn't suffer from alcoholism.
• Ambiguously Bi
• Ax-Crazy:
  Cyril: "Slowly bleed to death"......isn't how I do things!
• Beware the Silly Ones: A fair amount of the comic relief comes from Cyril. He spends his time trying to get his co-workers to kiss him, falling asleep in bathrooms, choking on tea, and laughing at his own jokes. All this seems relatively harmless, for the most part, until you remember chapter five.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Pale, check. Dark hair, check. Eerie, check. Add a heaping helping of Ax-Crazy and it's Cyril in a nutshell. Word of God likes to joke that he's secretly a vampire.
• Faux Affably Evil
• Good Smoking, Evil Smoking
• Handsome Lech: He presents as this or The Charmer, but considering his genuinely awful personality, he's more like The Casanova. He definitely thinks of himself as one, at least.
• Jack of All Trades: He refers to himself as one.
  Cyril: I'm whatever you want me to be. A kind of jack-of-all-trades.
• Living a Double Life: By day, he's an ordinary, if overly friendly tram conductor, but by night... well, let's just hope none of your enemies know how to contact him and have some spare cash.
• Mysterious Past: It's unknown how old he is when most of the cast has a confirmed age, or how long he's been a Professional Killer. According to Nozmo's blog, he's also had a fair amount of jobs. Notable because Word of God refused to talk about him as a teenager, and called it "classified information".
• Only One Name: According to Word of God, Cyril's name is just that. If he needs a last name to do something, he just "makes up a name like Blaine Parker. Joseph Brown. Derick Taylor. Names are a dime a dozen for him."
• Professional Killer
• Terms of Endangerment: Seems to cross with The Nicknamer. Cyril refers to everyone with a term of endearment (babydoll, sweetie, and honey to name a few) to the point it seems to be a vocal quirk, but he also refers to Todd Allison as Carrots or (Petunia's) Pumpkin Head(ed Boyfriend) in reference to his red hair. Petunia, on the other hand, gets called Lady Petunia.
• Unusual Eyebrows: They seem to begin in dots.
• Slasher Smile: Let's just say he gets pretty nightmarish in Chapter 5.
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome
• The Storyteller: Oh yes.
  • Unreliable Narrator: Well the ending of that girlfriend story he tells Meredith in Chapter 3 seems to strongly imply that this particular woman in question was a mermaid, and unless that is true....
• Villainous Crush: On Petunia. Maybe.

Elijah Elkwood

Petunia's older brother and apparently a politician. Elijah is good at talking and seems to have a multitude of faces. It's difficult to determine when he's playing around and when he's serious. Just what is his agenda?

Associated Tropes:

• Affably Evil: He is a very nice person to his sister, his friend, and people in general. He is also a very nasty person.
  "Isn't it a lot better to watch them squirm in pain as they slowly bleed to death?"
• Alliterative Name
• Ambiguously Bi: Really ambiguous whether he and Meredith are Heterosexual Life-Partners or not, and he fawns in a hilariously overblown matter over Dylan too. Additionally, he had his heart broken by a woman, who was implied to be his first kiss... and he may not be over her just yet.
• Big Brother Instinct/Knight Templar Big Brother: Towards Petunia. Best exemplified when they reunite.
  Elijah: Honeycake chocolate pie, what happened to you? Don't tell me... CYRIL?!! What did he do?! I'll fucking cut that son of a bitch!!
• Big Eater: If this comic is anything to go by.
• Crazy People Play Chess/Smart People Play Chess: In Chapter 3. He beats Meredith effortlessly.
• Death Seeker
• Good Smoking, Evil Smoking
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Meredith.
  • .....Possibly.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: Elijah has some really nice suits.
• Slasher Smile: Quite often, and it's arguably more frightening than Cyril's.

Meredith Elkwood

Meredith is Petunia and Elijah's foster brother. He is calmer and less spontaneous than Elijah. However, once he's made up his mind about something, there is little one can do to change it. As a result, he is very severe with those he hates.

Associated Tropes:

• Drives Like Crazy: For a bit in Chapter 5 when Elijah doesn't answer his question, and also in a bonus mini-comic taking place in the modern day.
  • Word of God confirmed this.
• Gender-Blender Name
• Happily Adopted
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Elijah.
• Pretty Boy: And how!
  • Long-Haired Pretty Boy
• The Quiet One

Lowell Clancey

Todd Allison's friend (with a question mark) who is torn between hating Todd's awful personality and being very impressed by him. Clancey is the head of the Science department and also part of the Violet Investigation Unit.

Associated Tropes:

• Happily Married
• Frames of Reference: Clancey wears round glasses, and although he doesn't seem to be socially awkward as an adult, Word of God says that as a kid he was shy and had confidence issues.

Hana Ikimoto

Petunia's best friend and a waitress at Rainbird Cafe. Unlike the timid Petunia, Hana is rather outspoken and brash. She loves the bizarre, the strange, and the unexplainable. Hana clashes a lot with Todd Allison, whom she hates but tries to tolerate.

Associated Tropes:

• Green-Eyed Monster: She avoids her older sister Saki because she's jealous of her.
• Nightmare Fetishist: According to Word of God, "her real passion is finding really weird and peculiar incidents like crimes and ghosts."

• Theme Naming: With Petunia. They both have flower-related names ("Hana" is Japanese for "flower") and are acquainted with Todd, who is obsessed with plants.
• Token Minority: In a cast of Caucasians and Aborigines, she stands out because she's Japanese.

Violet

The mysterious woman responsible for the string of bombings in Melbourne. Todd Allison & Co. are trying to catch her, Cyril seems to be working for her, and all three of the Elkwoods, well, let's just say they seem to know a little too much.

Associated Tropes:

• Living a Double Life: Whoever she is, she's definitely not them in the daytime.

• The Syndicate: Violet's got people everywhere. They're in your cafes, in your streets, driving your trams...
• Villain Opening Scene: The first few pages offer us our first look at Violet and her nasty business, underscoring a heated argument between Todd and Clancey.

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