The four kids are spread out in different locations but have to work together to create a new universe, so those instant message conversations are vital to the plot.
There are four main human characters for the first half of the series: crappy movie-loving dork John Egbert, intellectual Rose Lalonde, hyper-ironic Dave Strider (seriously livening up Act 2) and quirky, powerful Jade Harley (introduced in Act 3).
One of the clear strengths of the series is how convincingly its main characters are written.
