| “ | ...a veritable smorgasbord of incredibly original character design... | ” |
The Zhivago Twelve (or the Zhivago Eleven after one member was ejected by Philge) are the group of elite hackers who assisted the Dragon Friends in penetrating security at Freeside. It is largely composed of the alienated children of the elite families of Freeside who have grown bored and want to overthrow the establishment there. Known as the “Z-12“ by the corporate IT experts who are terrified of them.
- Sirius-6 Dumbleboy, the 6th clone of the president of Horizon Corporation; likely killed by the destruction of Freeside
- Hermione the Ranger Danger; accidentally killed by Philge
- Haggis; killed by Mr Terminal
- Reville Rongbottom, the talking dog who hacks and is considered the best hacker on the team; killed by Mr Terminal
- Snapes-On-A-Plane
- DJ Satoshi Nakamoto, the cryptocurrency creator, kept alive through his great wealth, carries a Thor-brand shock hammer powered by 6 D-cell batteries; seriously wounded in battle then killed by Mr Terminal
- Laura Norder and Lauren Order, psychically conjoined twins, armed with a Laser Susan (a spinning flat disk that shoots lasers); killed in battle against security guards
- Serial Nightvale, bored housewife who took up hacking because she hates her husband, has a personal dental USB port; killed by Mr Terminal
- Mail Chimp, unknown seductress and e-mail spammer, armed with laser eyes and equipped with an inverted nipple USB port and a Medi-Tit(tm); likely killed in the destruction of Freeside
- Ching Chong, who was immediately kicked out by Philge for having a racist name (in spite of actually being Scottish) which was supposedly suggested by Michael Hing
- Philge, who was admitted to the Zhivago Twelve after defeating Sirius-6 in a hacking duel
Serial Nightvale, Haggis and Reville Rongbottom were killed by Mr Terminal remotely overloading their neural links after he caught the Friends entering the Voss-Saito airlock. Laura Norder, Lauren Order, and Satoshi Nakamoto gave their lives to allow Baston and Bobby Pancakes a chance to reach the Voss-Saito airlock and were overwhelmed. Hermione the Ranger Danger was technically killed by Philge stepping on Mr Terminal's overload controller.
Their team cry is “Expecto Radtronum”.
Behind The Scenes[]
The names of the Zhivago Twelve are a parade of pop culture references that the hackers probably think they're quite edgy for adopting:
- Sirius-6 Dumbleboy, Hermione the Ranger Danger, Haggis, Reville Rongbottom, and Snapes-On-A-Plane are all more or less convoluted variations on the names of Harry Potter characters.
- Satoshi Nakamoto, almost certainly an alias, was the name used by the original designer of Bitcoin.
- Laura Norder and Lauren Order are variations on the title of the American police drama Law & Order, though legally distinct from it. And each other.
- Serial Nightvale is a combination of the podcasts Serial and Welcome to Night Vale, which is a terrifying thought.
- MailChimp is an email marketing service that is widely advertised on seemingly every podcast ever.
Since it's mentioned that Laura and Lauren occupy a single slot and Philge was not an original member, the podcast only gives 10 names for members of the Twelve. The summary comic added several more:
- Harry Snotter, Warlockhart, and Arcane Bellatrixter (further Harry Potter references, with the last also a nod to "Arcane Trickster", Bobby's rogue subclass)
- Ebony Darkness Dementia Ravenway (the lead character of My Immortal, a notoriously bad Harry Potter fanfic)
- Beedle the Bard, from a book The Tales Of Beedle The Bard which originally existed in the Harry Potter universe and then was actually written by J. K. Rowling
- TR3VOR, an awakened frog, from Neville Longbottom's pet toad in the Harry Potter books