Meet the Seven: The Characters Behind Halfway
Every story has a world.
But worlds don't make you care.
Characters do.
At the center of Halfway are seven teenagers who couldn't be more different from one another. They come from different backgrounds, carry different wounds, and have very different ideas about what they want from life.
Then they discover something none of them can run from:
The myths are real. And they are part of them.
These aren't perfect heroes. They're teenagers trying to understand themselves while being pulled into a world of gods, monsters, ancient powers, and a destiny far bigger than anything they planned for.
So, before the mythology gets any bigger, here's the seven at the heart of Halfway.
Jayden Coren — Son of Poseidon
Age: 17
Divine Parent: Poseidon
Jayden is calm until he isn't.
He's confident, athletic, charming, and has the kind of presence that naturally draws attention. He's also a bit of a playboy, quick to anger, and far more emotionally complicated than he usually lets people see.
As the son of Poseidon, water comes naturally to him. But controlling power is one thing.
Controlling yourself is another.
Jayden has spent much of his life believing he can handle whatever comes at him. The journey slowly forces him to confront the things he can't simply overpower.
His relationship with Torie becomes one of the most complicated emotional threads in the story, especially as both of them learn that sometimes wanting an answer doesn't mean you're ready to hear it.
Jayden's journey isn't simply about becoming stronger.
It's about learning what strength actually means.
Torie — Daughter of Athena
Age: 17
Divine Parent: Athena
Torie is intelligent, observant, analytical, and almost frighteningly good at noticing things other people miss.
She sees patterns.
She connects clues.
She wants answers.
And that's exactly where her greatest weakness begins.
Torie has spent so long trusting her ability to figure things out quickly that uncertainty feels almost like failure.
Her connection to Athena isn't simply about being intelligent.
It's about learning wisdom.
As Circe eventually teaches her, sometimes the smartest thing you can do is not answer a question immediately.
Sometimes you have to let it remain unanswered.
Torie's journey is about discovering that intelligence isn't just knowing.
It's knowing when you don't know yet.
Fiona — Daughter of Aphrodite
Age: 17
Divine Parent: Aphrodite
Fiona might be connected to the goddess of love, but that doesn't mean love comes easily to her.
She's thoughtful, emotional, fiercely loyal, and much more complicated than the assumptions people might make about Aphrodite's daughter.
Fiona has spent a long time trying to understand what love actually means, and whether she can trust it.
Her relationship with her divine heritage is complicated too.
Being connected to Aphrodite doesn't automatically make Fiona feel closer to her mother.
Sometimes it does the opposite.
Her story explores the difference between being capable of love and feeling loved yourself.
And when Fiona begins developing feelings for Jayden, the emotional stakes become even more complicated.
Aurora — Daughter of Zeus
Age: 16
Divine Parent: Zeus
Aurora's story begins with abandonment.
She grew up in an orphanage in Nebraska before eventually running away to New York, carrying far more uncertainty than anyone her age should have to carry.
As the daughter of Zeus, Aurora carries an extraordinary potential for power — particularly when it comes to the sky, lightning, and storms.
But power doesn't automatically come with control.
Aurora is still learning how to command something that can become dangerous when her emotions overwhelm her.
Her journey is about more than learning to control lightning.
It's about learning that she doesn't have to be afraid of the power inside her.
She has to learn how to choose what she becomes.
Evelyn — Daughter of Hermes
Age: 16
Divine Parent: Hermes
Evelyn is one of the group's fastest minds.
She reads rooms quickly.
She notices changes in people's behavior.
She can walk into a situation and understand the atmosphere before most people have even realized there is one.
As the daughter of Hermes, that speed extends beyond her instincts. Evelyn's abilities are built around movement, efficiency, perception, and an almost effortless ability to navigate spaces.
But there's a problem.
Evelyn can read everyone except herself.
She’s spent years relying on speed, quick observations, quick answers, quick decisions.
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So when she encounters feelings she can't immediately name, she doesn't know what to do with them.
Her journey becomes an unexpected lesson in patience.
Not everything has to be understood immediately.
Not every feeling needs a name the moment it appears.
And sometimes the hardest person to understand is yourself.
Jake — Son of Ares
Age: 17
Divine Parent: Ares
Jake doesn't always need to say much.
He's controlled, observant, and often seems more comfortable standing slightly outside the center of things.
But when things become dangerous, Jake is one of the people you want beside you.
As the son of Ares, Jake possesses a natural connection to combat, aggression, courage, and the instincts that come with being built for conflict.
But his greatest strength isn't simply his ability to fight.
It's restraint.
Jake has to learn that being powerful doesn't mean giving every instinct permission to act.
Ares represents war.
Jake has to discover what it means to possess the power of war without allowing war to possess him.
His story is also about emotion. He's spent years believing that not showing what he feels means he has control.
Eventually, he begins to understand that having emotions doesn’t make him weak, and learning how to express them can be just as difficult as learning how to fight.
Star — Son of Apollo
Age: 17
Divine Parent: Apollo
And then there's Star.
If the others walk into a room quietly, Star probably walks into it like he owns the place.
He's funny.
Loud.
Impulsive.
Confident.
Sometimes completely ridiculous.
And underneath all of that is someone carrying a much deeper wound than most people realize.
As the son of Apollo, Star carries a connection to a god associated with the sun, prophecy, music, healing, and the arts.
But Star's relationship with his divine heritage is complicated by grief.
He lost his father, and instead of sitting still with that grief, he turned it into momentum.
He became louder.
Funnier.
More reckless.
Always moving.
Always chasing the next impossible thing.
Because stopping might mean having to feel what he's been running from.
His journey is about realizing that he doesn't have to become a quieter person to heal.
He can still be Star.
He can still joke.
He can still dream ridiculously big.
He can still be loud.
He just doesn't have to build all of that on top of his grief.
And perhaps that's why one of the most important things he learns is that missing someone doesn't mean you're broken.
Sometimes it simply means you loved them.
Seven Different Gods. Seven Different Stories.
What makes these seven interesting to me isn't simply that they're connected to gods.
It's that they're all carrying something human.
Jayden is learning control.
Torie is learning patience.
Fiona is learning what love means.
Aurora is learning not to fear her own power.
Evelyn is learning to understand herself.
Jake is learning restraint.
Star is learning that grief doesn't have to control the person he's becoming.
Their powers may come from mythology.
Their problems don't.
That's what I wanted Halfway to explore.
Because underneath the gods, monsters, ancient powers, and impossible journeys are seven teenagers trying to figure out something almost everyone eventually has to face:
Who am I, when the life I thought I was going to have is no longer possible?
They're halfway between who they were and who they're going to become.
And their journey is only beginning.
— Starreigns | Lostboy ✦
