Eric Levens (disambiguation)

Eric Levens

Eric Levens is a minor character in The Gerosha Chronicles of Dozerfleet Comics. He is the father of Denny and Jessie Levens, the husband of Patti Levens, and the father-in-law of Candi Levens. Much like his wife Patti, he was originally to appear in Ciem 2. He never got the chance due to that webcomic being canceled. He was scheduled for a return in Ciem: Vigilante Centipede and a cameo in Ciem: Nuclear Crisis before being written out of continuity completely.

Ciem: Vigilante Centipede
Main article: Ciem: Vigilante Centipede

Eric is established as having lived with his family in Milwaukee originally. At some point, they move to the Viron area. Denny stayed behind in Milwaukee the longest, before relocating to be closer to family. Eric is a very opinionated agnostic leaning toward atheist, and feels that Candi and Denny's choice to marry given their conflicting religious backgrounds was extremely unwise. He lectures Denny about it at length in Vigilante Centipede, while Patti gives Candi gentler advice.

Ciem: Nuclear Crisis
Main article: Ciem: Nuclear Crisis

Being slightly more accepting of Candi as a Levens following Denny's having been murdered by Musaran, Eric still harbors a grudge. He hides in a side room when Candi comes over, staring at his collection of globes and other artifacts from his past adventures as a globetrotter.

Personality
While not malicious or evil per se, Eric can be very cold and unresponsive to those he deems "unfit" for his presence. He harbors grudges and can be very short-sighted. He treats anyone of faith with suspicion and cynicism, maintaining a tradition of a similar attitude in the Levens family reaching back three generations before him. He is more tolerant of Denny's coming to faith and of his marriage to Candi than what his predecessors would be; and he also detests the modern ACLU declaring full-out war on Christendom; feeling it is disingenuous on multiple fronts. This is especially in regards to the fact that he observes their double standard in refusing to use the same harsh measuring rod on Islam, which he feels has committed atrocities far above and beyond what can be blamed on any Christian leaders. He can be proud and stubborn, but generally does not go out of his way to make trouble for anyone. He does, however, side with church leaders on one thing: the need to resist the Hebbleskin Gang at all costs. His anti-Hebbleskin sentiments intensify after Denny's murder.

Development
Back in Gerosha Prime, before Candi and Denny's self-control issues became a major plot, it was assumed that Candi and Denny innocently met at college and got married. Her love triangle complications involving Donte didn't come in until much later. This was reversed in the 2006 webcomic first, and intensified in 2010's Ciem: Vigilante Centipede. However, an off-hand comment by Denny states that he saw no value in going to church until he met Candi. The logical conclusion appeared to be to explore his motives for saying that. Therefore, it was drafted that his father was an avowed atheist or agnostic of some type. It wasn't until Classic Gerosha planning that Mr. Levens was given the name Eric, and the retired adventurer/explorer background. Eric was supposed to appear in Ciem, but was cut out of the process for time constraints. He was to appear again in Ciem 2, but that was canceled due to the author's poor health and lack of sufficient backup authors.

He was to return again for Ciem: Vigilante Centipede and Ciem: Nuclear Crisis. Those novels were canceled, however, in response to the 2012 election results. Therefore, Cataclysmic Gerosha was pursued. The new timeline and paradigm of an alternate history where America was destroyed by the Muslim Brotherhood - enabled to do so by Obama's policies in his second term - made the entire Donte-Candi-Denny love triangle plot seem implausible. Therefore, Denny was written out of continuity in Earth-G7. Since he does not appear in Sodlity, Denny's entire family except for Candi was also written out. This meant that Eric, Jessie, Patti, and even Angie were thenceforth to be treated as though they had never existed.

It was not until 2010 with the establishment of Comprehensive Gerosha, in fact, that the Gerosha Earth Number system was implemented. Before then, earlier versions of stories were simply ignored in favor of pretending the currently-active version of a story was the only version. This made discussing development history difficult, especially for characters with as rich a history as Candi's. Earth Numbers allowed for characters to be handled according to relevant version, with previous treading of feet not being disregarded.

Ciem: Vigilante Centipede
Main article: Ciem: Vigilante Centipede

Patti didn't appear in this story until after Denny takes Candi to Milwaukee and announces to his family that he and Candi are married. Eric doesn't take the news very well, as he feels everything about Denny's relationship with Candi was poorly planned. Patti arrives while Eric is lecturing Denny, offering Candi some small amount of assurance while admitting that she too feels the young couple is very foolish.

Ciem: Nuclear Crisis
Main article: Ciem: Nuclear Crisis

By this story, Patti appears to have accepted Candi's role in the Levens family. They have a brief discussion about Candi's plans to marry Donte. What happens to Patti beyond this point is unknown.

Personality
Pattie is shown to be reserved, and harkening to her own opinions on things. While she is as disapproving of Denny and Candi's relationship as is Eric, she is a little more social and tolerant of it. Little else is known about her.

Development
Patti was always to be Denny's mother, but little was explored with her for the longest time. Failure to include her in Ciem led to the Dozerfleet founder making sure that there would be a time slot devoted to her in Ciem 2. However, that time slot was canceled along with every other portion of the webcomic when the Dozerfleet founder had to put all Gerosha-related works production on hiatus due to poor health in 2009. Patti was to return in Ciem: Vigilante Centipede and Ciem: Nuclear Crisis. However, those novels were also canceled in favor of the series Sodality. Since Denny was written out of that continuity, his whole family save for Candi was also written out.