LEADS
Lexi/FAVOR
In the first scene of the show, LEXI is about to finish her senior year of college and has an assignment to make a speech in class about which of these three words could she not live without: money, love or freedom. She phones BOB, who she met at a political rally for her father, and asks Bob which word is most important to him. That night, both Lexi and Bob dream about the word they can’t live without. In Lexi’s dream, she becomes FAVOR, the daughter, as in real life in the Human Domain, of a politician. In the Human Domain, Lexi’s father is the Governor; in the dream where she lives in the World of Words, her father is the Grand Alpha, the often-conflicted ruler of the World of Words.
Favor’s college speech, then, is about her choice of Love as her favorite Word. In the meantime, she tells her father, Fearagon that she no longer wants to be the person to whom the Words ask favors for him to fulfill. In the meantime, Favor’s childhood friend, Money, goes on strike. This precipitates a series of decisions by Favor that bring her calamity and success, neither of which prepare her for her inherited mission in life, which is to follow her father as Grand Alpha. When Zero, Favor’s former boyfriend and Chief of Staff to her father, dupes Favor’s older friends and role models, Love and Freedom, into becoming Hate and Tyranny,
Favor has to make a decision that takes her out of her comfort zone.
Bravely, she chooses to release the love and freedom within Hate and Tyranny and transforms the World of Words, while opening her heart to own her future.
Dani/MONEY/Debt
DANI is Lexi’s childhood friend from the other side of the tracks, who went to work in the Word House right out of high school. As Lexi dreams herself into Favor, Dani then becomes MONEY in the dream. And Money goes on strike because she says she is over-worked and under-paid in her job of being Money and trying to meet the soaring demand by the Human Domain’s use of her and many other Words. Badgered by the Bad Words to lure Freedom away from Love so that this couple no longer will want to get married, Money is rescued from the Bad Words by Favor, who supports Money’s strike, much to the wrath of Favor’s father, the Grand Alpha, Fearagon.
Money has her own eyes set on Zero, Fearagon’s Chief of Staff, who Money is unaware is her pal Favor’s secret boyfriend. After Bob arrives in the World of Words from the Human Domain in order to find out why money has gone missing from the Human Domain, Money disappears and becomes DEBT. When Zero has a little too much Emptyvia to drink at Café Emptyvia, he starts making fun of Debt. She shucks her disguise and reveals that she in fact is Money, whereupon she sings and dances to seduce Zero. With Zero she helps to create the Word Bank that loans money to the Words so that they don’t have to ask Favor for favors.
Later, when Money takes possession of the missing Fearagon’s bloody shirt, she secretly takes it to her old friend, Favor. This signals to everyone that Favor is in line – against Zero’s will -- to succeed her father as the next Grand Alpha. When Zero finds out what Money has done, he cuts her out of the Word Bank and prepares to banish her. But ultimately, it’s Zero who is banished by the new Grand Alpha, Favor.
FREEDOM/Tyranny
FREEDOM is a young prof at Word U in Wordtopia, the capital city of the World of Words. He has great charisma and is a passionate champion of the Rights of Words, which is the title of his first book, a book that Fearagon read and told Zero, his chief of staff, that he threw across the room. Freedom has fallen for Love, a yoga studio owner. And, as required in the World of Words, Freedom and Love have submitted their application to be married to the Office of the Grand Alpha. Normally, such applications are granted pro forma. But when two powerful words want to marry, the application goes up to the desk of the Grand Alpha for his personal decision, which, in this case, is a big “No!” In the pain and emptiness that follows Favor’s disappearance, Fearagon tells Freedom and Love that he will marry them if they can find and return home with his absent daughter.
So off Freedom and Favor go, eventually finding Favor after she’s been beaten for attempting to open a Freedom School in the horrid area known as Lexiconnia. But the search for Favor has taken too long for Fearagon, and by the time they return, it’s Fearagon himself who has disappeared to search for Favor. In his absence, Zero has assumed power in the World of Words, but he tells Freedom and Love that he is willing to marry them and, as a gift, he will give each of them a new name.
Too late, Freedom discovers his new name is Tyranny, and Love discovers her new name is Hate. In the end, Freedom is restored to his true self by Favor when she assumes her powers as Grand Alpha. And she marries Freedom in Love to climax the story before we return to the Human Domain for the final scene.
LOVE/Hate
LOVE in an entrepreneur, the founder of her own yoga studio. One of the studio regulars is Favor’s mother, Joy, who is the divorced former wife of Fearagon, the Grand Alpha of the World of Words. Joy herself owns a business, the Café Emptyvia. Love admires Joy’s daughter, Favor, and Favor returns that admiration, choosing Love as her favorite Word in her college speech. Love has accepted Freedom’s ring and is looking forward to life’s adventures in marrying Freedom. She and Freedom both support Money’s strike and hold a big party in the Plaza in support of Money.
She is devastated when Favor goes missing and is more than happy to go off with Freedom to find Favor, only to be heartbroken when she and Freedom find Favor has been left for dead in Lexiconnia. She sits vigil with Freedom at Favor’s bedside, helping her younger friend survive through this darkest of nights. Later, willing to be married to Freedom by Zero in Fearagon’s absence, she becomes absorbed into Hate and, with Freedom becoming Tyranny, helps to terrorize both the Human Domain and the World of Words.
Ultimately, she is rescued from her own dark side by Favor, when Favor taps into the Love that was still alive within Hate. And Love and Freedom are then married for good.
BOB
BOB works as a financial analyst for a major bank in the Human Domain. One afternoon on his way home from work he’s in the supermarket at the checkout when, suddenly, money becomes non-functional. Why? Because Money has gone on strike in the World of Words. Or so Lexi, as Favor, dreams. And in her dream Bob appears in the World of Words, wanting to convince Money that she needs to go back to work because of the horror that’s occurred in the Human Domain now that money has lost its use and purpose. Civilization is starting to crumble, and Bob wants to turn things around. When Bob appears in Wordtopia, the capital city of the World of Words, its Grand Alpha, Fearagon is un-nerved.
But Favor is intrigued. That’s because Favor is the daughter of a former visitor from the Human Domain who, in search of joy, found the then 20-something Joy, and got her pregnant, before he was forced to return to the Human Domain. Fearagon wants Bob gone, but both he and Bob want Money to return to work; Favor finds Bob sympathetic to her desire to find her own voice. After Money finds wealth and satisfaction in the Word Bank, Bob knows that money has also been restored in the Human Domain. Job done, he can return home. He leaves Favor standing alone as he walks off into the distance. But when Love and Freedom absent themselves from both the World of Words and in the Human Domain when they are tricked into the roles of Hate and Tranny, Bob returns to the World of Words to plead his case that Hate and Tyranny are destroying humanity.
Bob helps Favor understand that love must be blended with power in order for a good life to exist both in the World of Words and in the Human Domain. Of course he must return to the Human Domain after Favor restores Hate to Love and Tyranny to Freedom, because he has given Favor the support she needs to assume her role as the next Grand Alpha.