Thomas Franzen

Thomas Franzen (1992-present) is a member of the crew, the basis for the character Gael Serris, and arguably Spencer Eck's best friend.

Life
Thomas Michael Franzen attended lincoln elementary school, along with several other key members of the crew. At one point, he lived in Ohio, effectively separating him from the others. Eck and himself were reunited in the fifth grade at Persell middle school, sharing the same home room and recalling their previous friendship. They were also brought together by their mutual attraction to Maddie Schlick, a childhood friend they both shared. As the years progressed, Eck and Franzen would spend countless days with each other, to the point where their families generally expected them to be over at some point during the day. Although they would conflict several times over the course of their friendship due to various reasons(girls, events, and the like) they managed to retain their close bonds. The summer of 2009, Franzen was diagnosed with Diabetes, but despite the illness has managed to continue on with his life largely uninterrupted.

Contributions
Franzen was among the first to discover Eck's story. Eck and Franzen, both avid video game players, would often come up with fantasy situations. Eck shared his basis for the story, and Franzen encouraged him to develop it further. Franzen has assisted with brainstorming on several occassions, including ideas for names and events within the story itself. Franzen is still today one of Eck's largest centers of motivation, constantly demanding the next parts of the story to be written so he could read them.

Connection to Gael
Thomas Franzen serves as the inspiration for the secondary protagonist in the story, Gael Serris. Gael frequently is portrayed as a laid back, casual young man, parallel to Franzen's own mannerisms. Gael is shown as somewhat of a joker, and yet he knows when to take a situation seriously. This characteristic was inspired by Franzen's typical response to any problem, to first try to make the problem seem less severe and laugh it off, and approach the problem seriously if it becomes a major obstacle. Often very rash to rush into something without thinking, Franzen and his character both share the ability to think on their feet in a situation and come up with solutions. The connection to Eck's own character, Dyne, is similar to the bonds that the pair share in real life. In the story, Gael is the adopted son of the Serris family, a situation which was always humorously referred to by Eck's mother "oh look, my adopted son is over today."