Once Upon an AU- Ideas

Since this is an alternate universe piece, I thought I'd play around with history a bit and change a few things. Some of them are major things.

1. The main characters (Michael, Scott, Sam, Emiko, etc.) all go to Maplewood Academy, which is still in existence. But it won't be if Tetsuya Takahashi has anything to say about it. He wants it torn down because all he sees is corruption within its walls. Unfortunately, he doesn't know anything about the coalition of the four schools... or of the prophecy.

2. In the middle of the story, Hideaki transfers to Maplewood and stays with Michael's family for the rest of the school year. This is their junior year of high school, so the year after Kiran comes to stay with the Liu family.

3. This hasn't been firmly decided on in the regular universe, but for this piece, Emiko and Hana are full sisters. Tetsuya and Stephanie split up after Stephanie was pregnant with Hana. Hana and Emiko have still never met face-to-face.

4. General storyline with all the other characters is still the same. Sharpe is still acting as double agent (he'll never get away from that role!). Ackerman still gets killed at the beginning. They still need a new history teacher to replace him. Rem Argentium is his new replacement. Aislynn Celeste is still the young math teacher under the tutelege of Hugh Avery. Seven McAllistair is still the person who comes in and repairs the computers.

Because of this, well... at Maplewood, school uniforms were required. I'm assuming they'd still be required now. So students have to wear uniforms. Teachers have to wear something similar to uniforms. That will make things interesting...

Emiko tugged on her tie and gritted her teeth. Not only did she have to wear khaki pants (Merlin forbid she wear a skirt!) and a black polo shirt, but she had to wear a burgandy jacket and a ghastly burgandy and silver striped tie to boot. Why couldn't she have gone to some public school instead of a place with a dress code stricter than just about any other institution and a whole bunch of prep kids on top of that? The girl sighed. At least her best friend was transferring here for the rest of the year. Rumor had it that he'd been kicked out his old school, so his uncle and aunt decided to send him here instead. To Maplewood Academy. Home of the Uber Geeks.

Emiko's talking about Hideaki... and the "uber geeks" is mostly a reference to Saunders. Yes, I am bored. Insanely bored. And I got this idea during class today and had to come back to scribble it down. It's not good yet.

Cold Ramen Noodles

It just occurred to me how little I have actually been writing over the past few weeks and how much I should really be updating this on a more regular basis... and so, for a treat, I have a quick scene between Hideaki and Emiko. Yeah, they're both awesome.

This isn't meant to be deep or anything. It was just an idea that came to me earlier today and it was kind of cute. They're supposed to be in sixth grade or so.

MPAA Rating: G
Characters: Hideaki, Emiko, others by mention
Timeline: 2001-ish? Sometime after Hideaki is adopted by his dad and Uncle Joe, but apparently before he knows how to cook anything really worth eating...

"Well, we really don't have much to eat around here..." Hideaki offered a weak smile as he finished pulling a few items out of the cupboard. "And we really don't have many clean dishes, either." As Emiko watched him, it was pretty obvious to her that her friend's smile was forced. Unlike her family, which was rich enough to hire someone to do the cooking and cleaning- not that Emiko cared for Ashley, the latest in a line of housekeepers/nannies- Hideaki had always had a list of chores to do on his own. "And Dad won't let me make anything but Ramen noodles and popcorn, so what'dya want?"

Emiko shrugged. She was just glad to get out of her own house, as her father was busy with his campaign. Thankfully, Ashley had agreed to shuttle Emiko wherever she needed or wanted to go over the summer, so the sixth grader wasn't stuck at home all summer when Tetsuya was at the office trying to pass legislation. Or she wouldn't have even been here; San Francisco was a long drive from her home in San Jose. "How 'bout Ramen noodles?"

Hideaki pulled out a microwave pot and two bowls. One thing that they most certainly had a surplus of around the pantry was Ramen noodles. He was slightly less than graceful as he filled the pot about halfway with water and carried it over to the microwave and Emiko could hardly help but smile. Neither of the kids was known for being particularly graceful, but she was pretty sure she could have carried the dishes over from the sink to the microwave without almost spilling half the water.

"I'm gonna make yours first 'cause we only have one pot." Hideaki pressed a button and the microwave started. When Emiko opened her mouth to argue that Hideaki needed to eat more than she did- which she knew was true, as he'd admitted to not eating breakfast that morning and Ashley had insisted that Emiko finish an entire bowl of oatmeal, half an omelet and freshly cut fruit before leaving the house- but Hideaki smiled. "You're the guest and it'd be rude for me to make my food first," he replied. Such was always the case; Hideaki usually thought of everyone else before he thought of himself.

A few minutes later, Hideaki pulled the pot out of the microwave and poured the soup and noodles into one of the plastic bowls that he'd set aside for Emiko. As she watched him, she noticed that the liquid was hardly close to letting off steam. But she knew it would still need to cool down before she ate it; she could remember one of her father's friend's words of caution around hot foods. She had been about nine years of age at the time.

Ashley had just left for the evening and Emiko was sitting down to a delicious supper of spaghetti noodles with tomato sauce. Tetsuya was working on a speech for his re-election in the den and a friend- or at least she assumed this was a friend of her father's- was watching and providing careful critique. When her father had finished speaking, the other man said a few words and followed Takahashi into the dining room, where Emiko sat. Tetsuya had taken little notice of his daughter, but the stranger leaned over to Emiko. "Be careful. It's still hot and your father would not want to see you burn yourself," he hissed in her ear before exiting out the front door.

She'd only seen the stranger once or twice since then and hadn't ever heard him talk before, but she was always careful around hot foods. The girl took a pair of chopsticks and stirred the noodles around absently, all the while watching her friend. "Hey, go ahead and eat before your noodles get cold," he glanced back at her, momentarily taking his focus off the microwave. "I can wait." Emiko wanted to protest, but Hideaki smiled over at her. It's so like him, she thought to herself. He always thinks of everyone else before him... even me. And I don't deserve it. She closed her eyes for a moment. I don't deserve his friendship and he deserves a lot better than mine. She didn't even notice that the microwave had beeped and Hideaki walked over to where she was sitting.

"Hey, you okay?" he asked, gently placing a hand on her shoulder. After a moment, Emiko looked up at him and nodded. "You sure?" The girl bit her lips together to keep from crying- she'd always been taught not to show weakness- and nodded once again. There was a short silence that was building up and this made Hideaki uncomfortable enough to squirm. "Hey, your noodles are getting cold."

After a long moment, Emiko smiled gently at him, but it was a forced smile. "I was waiting for your food to be done," she answered.

"You know you didn't hafta do that."

Emiko nodded. "Yeah, I know..." her voice trailed off slightly. "But it's no fun to eat alone. And besides, I like them better cold." This time her smile was genuine. The girl picked up her chopsticks and took a bite of cold ramen noodles. And she couldn't have been happier.

Music?

One thing I've noticed when writing is that certain characters have music they want me to listen to when I write them. Normally, I listen to either classical or soundtrack or something else that's primarily instrumental when I write, but when I'm trying to write certain characters, I've found that certain music works best for them. For example, I've found it nearly impossible to write Sharpe and listen to music that's explicitly Christian. In fact, I even have a playlist of songs I listen to while I write him (mostly consisting of alternative music and some soundtrack).

Quick Update

I've just decided that I have a new pet character: Professor Shasthri. I would really like to figure out more about her, but I'm not sure how I will go about doing that. I also want to continue writing an interaction between her and Sharpe, as they play off of each other quite nicely. But Sharpe is being stubborn and not letting me write him at the moment, so that may be easier said than done.

Yes, I realize it has been almost two weeks since I last wrote here, but I haven't had much of a muse as far as writing goes and I've decided that it's not worth forcing myself to write anything of consequence at the moment.

A Little about Emiko

First thing, in honor of April Fools Day (which was yesterday), A Good Idea? is a piece I wrote back in 2007.

In more serious business (which isn't the reason why I'm up at this hour), but I've been thinking a lot about Emiko Takahashi recently... most specifically how she gets along with her fellow classmates and the teachers at RHS, as well as her parents and half-sister.

Scott Adams: No one in the fellowship likes Emiko Takahashi and Scott especially dislikes her. Because of his social status, he has a difficult time. He could easily be a member of the popular crowd, so he feels like he has to give Emiko a chance because of this, but he also knows that none of his friends feel the same way towards her. Scott's attitude is such that he often believes the best in people, unless they give him a really good reason to believe otherwise. So he can't help extending that to Emiko... to some extent. However, he gets really angry with her when she bullies his friends.
Samantha Adams: Out of everyone in the fellowship, Sam harbors an especially strong dislike (bordering on hate) towards Emiko. She just can't seem to accept the fact that Emiko just might become part of their group later on and she doesn't see why Michael puts up with Emiko.
Evan Saunders: It's said that the only person who has gotten into a physical fight with Emiko Takahashi and actually won was Evan Saunders. Evan hates the fact that Emiko likes picking on his friends (and on the other students) and he'll stand up to her, even when no one else will.
Hideaki Sato: Hideaki is probably Emiko's only real friend. The two of them met at Japanese school and he'll do almost anything for her and she for him. Hideaki was the one who originally taught Emiko how to play chess and he's one of the few people she actually respects. Much later in the storyline, they end up dating.
Tetsuya Takahashi: The relationship that Tetsuya has with his only daughter is rocky at the best of times. He tends to be very controlling of those around him and Emiko is no exception. However, what he soesn't take into account is that Emiko is very much like her mother and rebellious at the core. This drives Tetsuya and his daughter apart even further, leading to severe consequences for everyone involved.
Katie Myst: Katie is originally a character from the AU. She's one of the cheerleaders and hangs with the popular crowd. She knows Tyler by association (and knows he's a Christian) and has a crush on Michael. Surprisingly, Katie and Emiko don't get along very well. While Katie is very perky, Emiko hangs with the almost punk kids within the popular crowd. They argue constantly when they're forced to work together. However, both have adopted the principle of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend ally". Katie is able to make the fellowship miserable in ways that Emiko never could... or would.
Sharpe: Sharpe and Emiko have a very interesting relationship and this is mostly because of what happened between Sharpe and Tetsuya when they were in school and because of the AU. For some reason (this differs whether the story is AU or not), Sharpe feels it necessary to keep an eye out for Emiko. He does this quite well, but he enjoys seeing how she will react if he does certain things. As with most things, this goes both ways and Emiko constantly pushes Sharpe. Things really start to go downhill when Michael tells Sharpe that Hideaki and Emiko are dating.
Michael Liu: I'm really not sure how Michael relates to Emiko. He doesn't particularly like her, but he doesn't harbor a strong dislike towards her, either... at least not outwardly. Michael is the kind of person who will stand up for what he believes, but he also won't argue if he doesn't think it will do any good. This is probably why he doesn't argue much with Emiko. Oddly enough, there is some amount of mutual respect between the two, but to anyone who knows them, it is more like a stalemate. Emiko knows she'll be in major trouble if she crosses the line with Michael and he knows the same thing about her. But when Hideaki and Emiko start dating, everything changes.

NB: The whole Hideaki/Emiko story doesn't take place until the fellowship are all college students. Michael basically flips out at Hideaki (they're roommates at the time). Michael's having a hard time with this and needs to talk to someone and for some reason, he doesn't want to talk to his parents. Since he's not talking to Samantha and Scott's studying abroad, the next most logical choice is Sharpe.