Character List: Once Upon an AU

So, there are quite a few characters in Once Upon an Alternate Universe, so I thought I should organise a list and show them to you, along with a bit of connection so that you can know who's who when you're reading.

There are more students, family and staff members (as well as other characters) in this story, but here is a bit of an outline of a few important ones.

Just a brief note about student alliances...
Fellowship: Fully dubbed as the "fellowship of misfits" by Evan Saunders, this group includes Saunders, Tyler Martin, Michael Liu, Scott and Samantha Adams, Marie Wilson and most recently, Kiran Shasthri.
Comrades: Unofficial name (again, given by Saunders) for the group that follows Emiko Takahashi around. Emiko Takahashi, Tatiana Valdez, Katie Myst, Ricardo Martinez, Ron Flinn. There are more...

Maplewood Students, circa 2005
Michael Liu: A fairly level-headed sophomore at Maplewood Academy. Provides a voice of reason for his friends. Member of the Fellowship.
Samantha Adams: One of Michael's two best friends who would do just about anything to help one of her friends if they needed her. One of the best students in their sophomore class. Fellowship.
Scott Adams: Samantha's younger twin brother whose plans (or lack thereof) get him and his friends into a whole lot of trouble sometimes. Fellowship.
Evan Saunders: Future class valedictorian at Maplewood Academy. Though bossy at times, he generally means well. Fellowship... and the one who gave them their name. Often just called by his last name.
Tyler Martin: Athlete and all-around nice guy. He and Saunders are best friends. Known for being one of the few Christians on Maplewood's athletic teams. Also a member of the Fellowship.
Marie Wilson: A fairly quiet friend of Samantha's whose aspirations are to work with special needs students. Fellowship.
Kiran Shasthri: The exchange student living at the Liu's house for the semester. Outspoken about what she belives, but sincere. Newest member of the Fellowship.
Emiko Takahashi: Archrival of the Fellowship (especially Evan Saunders). Slightly spoiled daughter of Tetsuya Takahashi. Knows Hideaki Sato from Japanese school. Comrade.
Katie Myst: Close acquaintance of Emiko Takahashi. Blonde cheerleader. Peppy past the point of annoyance and seems to have something particularly against Samantha. Comrade.
Tatiana Valdez: Emiko's sidekick who is always seen with her. Enjoys gossipping.
Victoria Chapel: Evan Saunders' girlfriend who is very involved in music and theater. On good terms with almost everyone. No alliance.
Julianna Miller: Shaun Ackerman's niece and a close friend to Katie Myst. Was dating Scott Adams for a few months during their freshmen year.
Hideaki Sato: Transfer student to Maplewood Academy who happens to know Emiko Takahashi from Japanese school.
Kyle Wilson: Marie's older brother who is in eleventh grade. Plays sports and is a close friend (and fellow Christian Athlete) to Tyler Martin. Has been dating Kathryn Saunders for over a year.
Kathryn Saunders: Evan's older sister who enjoys cheerleading. Is dating Kyle Wilson. Gets along with Katie Myst, but thinks that the situations that Katie gets herself into are immature.

Staff Members at Maplewood, circa 2005
Jedediah Sharpe: Former chemistry teacher at Maplewood. Graduated Maplewood in 1988. Now teaches Latin and AP chemistry. Tough taskmaster and difficult man to get along with and tends to be disliked by most of his students. Runs the Chess Club and Forum Philosophorum.
Candace Pruitt: Chemistry teacher at Maplewood. She has been teaching there since at least 1980. Strict, but fair. Helps out running the chess club.
Shaun Ackerman: History teacher at Maplewood and a Maplewood graduate in 1987. Outspokenly Catholic, highly energetic and loved by almost all of his students. Uncle to Julianna Miller.
Peter Screwtape: Principal of Maplewood Academy who has been working there since 1995. Named after two of CS Lewis' characters.
Hugh Avery: Former physics and now math teacher at Maplewood. Graduated in 1983. One of the few teachers who gets along well with Sharpe. Hosts Operation Numbers, the math club.
Josiah Alton: Administrator at Maplewood and former biology teacher. He has been teaching there nearly as long as Candace Pruitt has and they are close friends. Surrogate father to Sharpe. Father to Jennie Alton.
Laura Clarkson: Young biology teacher at Maplewood who recently moved from Texas to California. Talkative.
Anthony Wilson: Physics teacher at Maplewood. Single father to Kyle, Marie and their three younger siblings. Hosts the Film club. Enjoys having a lot of fun with his students. Addicted to movies and coffee.
Aislynn Celeste: The young math teacher at Maplewood who graduated from Northpointe in 2001. Older cousin to Keith Chandler.
Seven McAllistair: The IT worker for several of the local private schools. Recent college graduate. Expert with computers and anything technical.
Amy Kerrington: Technology teacher at Maplewood. Works closely with Seven McAllistair whenever he comes to the school.
Rem Argentium: A young history teacher. Enjoys art and is quite good at it. Younger brother to Seneca Argentium and a graduate of Northpointe. Former classmate of Aislynn Celeste. Quiet.

Family Members
Jonathan and Mei-lani Liu: Michael's parents who are hosting Kiran Shasthri for the semester. Jonathan graduated from Maplewood in 1985.
Tetsuya Takahashi: Emiko's father and a local politician. Maplewood graduate in 1988. Archrival of Sharpe.
Jennie Alton: Eldest daughter to Josiah and Sherry Alton. Mentor to Marie Wilson. She is working on getting her master's degree so she can work with special needs students.
Priya Shasthri: Kiran's aunt who is a professor of physics at a local university. She was Sharpe's university advisor.
Stephanie Rei: Emiko's mother. Divorced from Tetsuya Takahashi. Mother to Hana Rei. Lives in the UK with her younger daughter.
Seneca Argentium: Rem's slightly older sister who does research at Nicholae Kwaitkowski Labs, Inc.

Other Characters
Ming-yue Tam: Kiran's best friend from back home at Melanthios.
Nate Winters: Scott and Samantha's cousin who also attends Melanthios and is a good friend of Kiran's. Enjoys playing with fire and technical stuff.
Keith Chandler: Chess champion from Northpointe Academy and younger cousin to Aislynn Celeste.
Hana Rei: Emiko's younger and estranged sister who lives in the UK and attends Alcantha. She is genuine and sincere. Her best friend is Callisto Verity.
Callisto Verity: Hana's best friend and the chess champion from Alcantha. Enjoys getting into arguments and is very competitive. Thirteen-years-old.
Donovan Isaacs: A slightly crazy student at Alcantha who is the same age as the Fellowship. He goes to church with Hana's family on a regular basis.
Sophia McAllistair: Cousin to Seven McAllistair and the same age as Nate Winters. Lives just outside of Phoenix, Arizona with her family.

Alternate Universe

So... last night I was thinking about the alternate universe and here are a few things I've come up with.

1. Maplewood Academy is still in existence. A few of the teachers from Maplewood are still there (ie, Candace Pruitt, Josiah Alton). Yes, they were characters at RHS, so that's not too odd.

This presents a bit of a problem, as Maplewood required Latin for all its students. There is no Latin teacher at RHS (he retired around 1990, which is about fifteen years before Once Upon an AU takes place).
My solution? Well, we know that Sharpe is fluent in Latin (and took at least three years of it in university). I'd like to get him teaching Latin. But that would leave us without a chemistry teacher at RHS, right? Wrong. Both Candace Pruitt and Josiah Alton are definitely capable of teaching science classes. Candace used to be the chemistry teacher at Maplewood (in the CU), whereas Josiah taught biology. Neither of them really teach anymore by the time the RHS stories take place. Candace is working in the office as the vice-principal and Josiah works with other administration stuff... and occasionally substitutes for other teachers.

2. Hideaki needs to transfer to Maplewood partway through the year. He can't be there in the beginning, but he has to come into the storyline somehow.

If he does end up staying with the Liu family, this could potentially be interesting. This takes place their sophomore year of high school, which would mean that Kiran is staying with Michael's family. If Hideaki joined them, there would be seven kids in the house; that's quite a lot!
If this was not AU, this could cause some potential problems with the general timeline of the other stories. Hideaki isn't supposed to get to know anyone in the fellowship (Michael, Scott, Sam, etc.) until the end of their junior year. However, he does know Emiko quite well by that point.

3. Keith Chandler, Aislynn Celeste, Rem Argentium and Seven McAllistair?

I need to figure out some way to bring these four characters in. Aislynn helps Hugh Avery run the after-school math program at RHS, so she'd probably do something similar at Maplewood. I was thinking that Rem Argentium is the new history teacher. I am not so sure about Seven and what he could do, other than he could potentially come in and fix computers or something like that. And... Keith. I have no idea where he's going to come in. Same thing with some of the Alcanthan students (ie, Callisto Verity, Hana Rei and Donovan Isaacs... and some of their friends).

4. Since this is the AU, then I can give my characters cool powers... maybe. Or maybe not. *shrugs* I've been debating back and forth with that for quite some time and weighing the pros against the cons of the situation.

I already know that Seven has a photographic memory, but that's not too special. And he's always had that; it was part of his original character concept. I'll have to figure out how "realistic" I want to make it. The more realistic it ends up being, the fewer characters who are able to do crazy things will be running around. Though a certain character still needs the ability to disguise herself extremely well...

And those are just a few of the things I've been thinking of recently. Hopefully this piece might actually get written for once, instead of just sitting there with nothing to do. But it'll all depend on how much I figure out about this particular version of the AU I want to build.

Checkmate!

So, I was playing chess last night with a friend of mine and an idea came to me. Chess has an important place in almost everything that I write, so I was thinking about bringing it in one major time and uniting a lot of my characters, especially those from the younger generation.

Later, I should probably get out my chess set and actually play out various games or something.

Scene: The Intrascholastic Chess Tournament
Universe: Alternate Universe
Location: Riverdale High School gymnasium
Finalists: Michael Liu, Emiko Takahashi, Evan Saunders, Hideaki Sato
Coach: Sharpe

Four advance to the finals.
Going into finals (by points scored):
First Place: Hideaki Sato (x)
Second Place: Michael Liu (x-5)
Third Place: Evan Saunders (x-7)
Fourth Place: Emiko Takahashi (x-8)
Whoever wins a game will advance to the next round.
X is an arbitrary positive integer.

First Round:
Evan Saunders (white) vs. Emiko Takahashi (black)
Verdict: Emiko ends up beating Evan Saunders. Her strategy is to develop her pawns and bishops, whereas Evan plays heavily with knights, rooks and often his queen. At the end of the game, one of Emiko's pawns reaches the end of the board and turns into a queen, forcing checkmate and ending the game.

Second Round:
Michael Liu (white) vs. Emiko Takahashi (black)
Verdict: Midway though the game, Michael checks Emiko's king with one of his rooks. Her queen captures the rook (eliminating the threat), but one of Michael's knights captures Emiko's queen. A few moves later, he lost his queen to one of Emiko's bishops. At the end of the game, Emiko has a bishop and a knight, while Michael has a rook and two bishops out on the board. You can probably guess how this ends.

Third Round:
Michael Liu (white) vs. Hideaki Sato (black)
Verdict: Unknown. None of the characters will tell me what happened yet, which makes me think it ends in a stalemate.


In other news (which is completely off-topic!), I came up with a new character idea. I don't know what he's like or where he fits into the story, but here's what I have of him so far...

Name: Keith Chandler (aka KC)
Age: 15
Race: Human (at least, he'd better be!)
Gender: Male
Appearance: Straight hair that is long enough to be tied back into a pony-tail (slightly longer than shoulder-length). Always wears a scarf and gloves of some type. Usually wears either regular glasses or sunglasses.
Quirks: Tends to adopt mannerisms of people he is around. Doesn't wear a watch, but can tell the time within a minute.
Pets: Lewis, a gold dust day gecko (rather on the larger side)

Other than that, I really don't know anything about him yet. There is definitely a chance that he knows Rem Argentium, which would tie him into Once Upon an AU. But I really don't know for sure yet. KC's brand-new, so there are still a lot of mysteries about him that I don't yet know.

But he's a character who knows a heck of a lot more than he's saying, which is really starting to irk me!

Edited to Add: I know where KC comes in. And I know what happens at the end of the RHS chess tournament. Hideaki doesn't want to participate in the Interscholastic Chess Championship, so he forfeits to Michael. Michael doesn't want to do it, either; he just wanted to see whether or not he could beat Hideaki. So Emiko ends up playing. And I think I'm going to let Sharpe narrate this piece, even if it's from a third-person POV.

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.

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.

Character Feature: Sharpe

Just to let you know, I will be finishing this when I am able to type more proficiently, which may or may not be anytime soon. I was going to release this on Thursday, which would be Sharpe's thirty-ninth birthday, but I decided to release what I had earlier.

This picture was drawn by leedom111. The artwork
belongs to her, not to me.

Full Name: Jedediah Victor Sharpe
Date of Birth: February 19, 1970
Birth Family: Gabriel (father), Amanda (mother), Michael Hosea (older brother)
Adopted Family: Josiah and Sherry Alton, Jennie and Mandie (younger sisters)
Place of Birth: New Jersey, USA
Place of Residence: Riverdale, CA. A small apartment (313B Janus Avenue) close to RHS.

High School: Maplewood Academy
Year of Graduation: 1988
Extracurricular Activities: Interscholastic Chess Team, Students Assisting Teachers (SAT)
Faculty Advisor: Candace Pruitt

University: Silicon Valley Institute of Higher Learning (in San Jose, CA)
Years Attended: Fall 1988-Spring 1994
Academic Degrees: BS in Chemistry, Minors in Biology and Physics, Masters in Chemistry
Faculty Advisor: Priya Shasthri, PhD
Extracurricular Activities: Research, Tutoring underdivision students

Former Jobs Held: Research Associate at Kwaitkowski Laboratories International
Current Employment: Chemistry teacher at Riverdale High School, head of the science department, homeroom instructor
Current Employer: Peter Screwtape
Extracurricular Activities Led: Forum Philosophorum (aka Debate Club) with Shaun Ackerman, Interscholastic Chess Team with Candace Pruitt

Series Connections: Maplewood, Riverdale
Allies: Candace Pruitt, Josiah Alton (despite disagreeing most of the time), Jennie Alton, Jonathan Liu, Shaun Ackerman, Hugh Avery, Amy Kerrington
Enemies: Tetsuya Takahashi, Kiyoshi Sato, Laura Clarkson, Peter Screwtape
It's Complicated: Michael Liu, Emiko Takahashi

Stories:
Snapshots Through Time: Chapter One: The Leather Book; Chapter Three: A History Lesson; Chapter Four: Sharpe's Dark Secret; Chapter Five: The Eleventh Hour
Maplewood Chronicles: Making the Squad; Maplewood Chronicles 2; Seeking Solace
University Days: Just Alright
Riverdale and Beyond: A Christmas to Remember; A Good Idea; Substitute Teacher; A Sophomore Saga; Annoyance; Jellyfish; The Dance; Bombing?; Just Another Ordinary Day

Character Connections:
Tetsuya Takahashi: Tetsuya Takahashi and Sharpe went to school together. They were in the same homeroom when they were students at Maplewood (Snapshots, ch1) and were both part of the Interscholastic Chess team (Snapshots, ch5). Sometime during the first month of school, Sharpe made a snide comment at Tetsuya's expense. Takahashi retaliated and things only got worse from there. They have never gotten along with one another and they will never get along with each other, either. However, at the end of their senior year, something of a most curious nature happened. On their day of graduation, Sharpe slipped an old chess piece into Takahashi's hand with a short note. Since then, they have been civil to one another, but barely so. It is only a matter of time until things explode in their faces and something very bad happens.
Candace Pruitt: Candace was Sharpe's high school chemistry teacher and the person who originally recommended him for the SAT program (see above). She was also the faculty sponsor for the chess team. Although strict, Candace has a good understanding of people and she is willing to take chances in order to get the job done. This has saved Sharpe on a number of occasions, most notably when she hired him as the physical sciences teacher at RHS for the 2000-2001 school year. Their relationship mostly consists of mutual respect mixed with a bit of annoyance.
Shaun Ackerman: If you didn't already know this, Shaun Ackerman is the history teacher at RHS and is incredibly religious. He and Sharpe have been acquainted with one another since high school because Shaun graduated in 1987. Shaun also co-runs the Debate Club with Sharpe; having two people who are extremely polarized in opposite directions may not have been the best choice on Candace's part when she asked both of them to be staff advisors. They seem to interact in a similar manner as Captain Picard and Q (on Star Trek: TNG) do. Despite all of this, there is a mutual respect. When Shaun is killed at the beginning of Once Upon an Alternate Universe, Sharpe is both upset and regretful.
Laura Clarkson: Sharpe and Laura have a love-hate relationship taken to the extreme. She's the biology teacher at RHS and originally from Texas. He is her boss and they are both able to figure out every possible way to irk the other. She finds out he is afraid of jellyfish when he is helping her prepare for one of her labs and she (innocently) asks him if he wants to go to the staff Valentine's Day party.
Hugh Avery:
Jennie Alton:
Jonathan Liu:
Hideaki Sato:
Michael Liu:
Emiko Takahashi:
Kiyoshi Sato:
Rose McGonigall: Rose was probably Sharpe's only close friend in high school.
Peter Screwtape:
Priya Shasthri:

Background:

Personality:

Physical Appearance:

to be finished at a later date

Happy Late Valentine's Day...

Quick VD musing here, so please bear with me. I don't normally write anything romance and for a very good reason, but I'm bored AND I finished 40 chapters of Genesis AND I finished my homework for math class, so here goes nothing.

Michael glanced over at the girl and shook his head. "You deserve better than what I could give you." He was quiet for a long moment and did not meet her eyes. Instead, he stared down at the tiled floor, counting the brown specks on one of the linoleum blocks.

The girl crossed the room towards where Michael sat on the couch and plopped down next to him, taking little notice of his personal space. She was one of the few people who had always been able to do this to him without making him too uncomfortable and right now, she chose to take advantage of that. As most girls would do. Sam turned towards him and for a moment, she hesitated before setting her hands on his shoulders. She had always believed that physical touch was a most excellent way of expressing affection and many times, her brother had playfully referred to her as a cuddler.

"Michael?" One of Sam's finger's flicked a strand of Michael's hair. "This isn't about them." She was, of course, referring to Hideaki and Emiko, who had been seeing one another seriously for the past four years. Sam suspected the only reason why they weren't married yet was because of certain objections voiced by several people. "And before you start again, my opinion counts for something."

The young man opened his mouth to protest, about to give Samantha a lecture about how the rights of women hadn't always been to have a say in the affairs of others... or of themselves. But he already knew what she would say. This was twenty-first century America, not some country in the Middle East or two hundred years ago.

"And who's to say that I deserve better than you? What if I don't want that?" She glanced at the calendar, which read February 19, 2015. It had been almost four years since she'd finished college and most of her classmates and friends - her brother included - were already married. So why had she waited? For a long time, she had thought about her decision, even seeking counsel from the most unlikely of sources. Her high school self would have scoffed at her older persona asking for help like she had, but Sam had been desperate and she wanted an opinion other than that of her twin. As much as she respected him, she disagreed wholeheartedly when Scott told her that Michael wasn't coming back. And she had been right, hadn't she?

There was a long pause where Michael watched Sam carefully, as if trying to figure out what to say to her. He was quiet during the entire time; the only sound in the room came from the second hand of the clock keeping track of the moments that passed.

I can't even bring myself to finish this right now. Okay. There is a very good reason why I don't write romance. Now you've seen why. Please don't bug me to write it again.

Brief Snippet?

So... my roommate and I were talking last night about characters and such and something struck me that I really hadn't thought of before. Sharpe is a lot more rough (for lack of something better to call him) towards Michael than he is towards Hideaki... or even really anyone else. The thing is that he knows Michael can handle it and Hideaki can't as well as Michael can. Plus, if Michael's going to grow as a person, he needs to be pushed and Sharpe realizes that.

Sharpe's pretty unique amongst my characters, I think. He possesses the unique ability to read people insanely well, but it's a learned skill for him. I don't remember whom he's talking to at this point (possibly Hugh Avery), but he remarks that he has always been a loner and studies people in order to learn more about them. This implies that his ability to read people hasn't always been as good as it is now. Well... or if you read anything about him when he's younger, you can find out that's true. Sharpe's just wierd.

But that wasn't what I wanted to talk about right now... I wanted to talk about something that happens later in Snapshots. And yes, there are spoilers here. So, Sharpe is spending time with both Michael and Jonathan Liu and when all is said and done, Michael has heard some things that he would have really rather not heard... and that Jon's not sure Michael should have been told yet. So Michael basically runs away (unlike Scott, Michael has a good sense of direction, so getting lost isn't an issue).

The door slammed shut and Jon turned to leave. He had to follow Michael... he had to go after his son. This never should have happened. Michael was too young to know all of this. Even though Michael was a good sixteen years of age, Jon would never have expected his own mistakes to weigh so heavily on his son.

Sharpe placed a hand on Jon's shoulder, stopping the older man in his steps and holding him back."Let him go. He needs to take care of this on his own." There was a certain gravity to Sharpe's voice that could not be mistaken for anything other than concern. "There is nothing we can do for him now." He was aware that those words sounded insensitive, cruel even, but he had to say them.

"What'd we do wrong?" Jon's voice was doubtful, questioning. He glanced up at Sharpe and their eyes met for a long moment.

Sharpe could only shake his head. "Nothing," he replied in a near whisper. "He needs to work this out on his own and there is nothing you could have done that would have made this any easier." The lines on his face creased as his thin lips drew into a frown. "He will come back, but please, do not go after him... not now."

Not only is Michael going to get it when he gets back, but apparently Sharpe knows him better than anyone thought was the case. Michael does come back... it just takes awhile.

But that is it for now. I just thought I should update this... and actually write something for once. I am still working on chapter six.

Snapshots Chapter Five: The Eleventh Hour

Well, I've finally got the fifth chapter finished and typed up. Since I had to put a warning up on DA about it, I decided to put it here in case anyone wanted to read it who isn't a member on DA. Just make sure you read the other chapters before this one...

Chapter One: The Leather Book
Chapter Two: Deliberate Ambiguity
Chapter Three: A History Lesson
Chapter Four: Sharpe's Dark Secret

MPAA Rating: Mild PG-13 for character death by suicide.
Characters: Sharpe, Jonathan Liu, Michael Liu, Jennie Alton, others
Word Count: 4920
Summary: The fifth chapter in Snapshots...

A boy sat at the top of the stairwell, unable to believe what he had just heard. Had his ears betrayed him? Or had what he thought had happened actually come to pass? Either way, Michael realized that someone had some explaining to do and for once, that someone was not his best friend. He slumped down and let his head fall to the more comfortable position of resting on his arms as he tried to ignore whispers from his parents that were coming from downstairs.

When he finally could not handle things anymore, he jumped up. This merited the attention of both his parents, as Jon exchanged nervous glances with his wife. He was just starting up the stairs when Michael turned and bolted in the direction of the school room, grabbing a blue and grey stuffed animal as he passed by the room he and Andy shared. Andy, who was still patiently working on transposing music, paid his older brother little or no attention.

The door to the school room would have slammed shut had Jon not arrived in time to prevent that from happening. As he glanced down at his son, he saw the face and body of a livid teenager. Michael’s normally pale cheeks were red and his eyes narrowed in anger. One hand was clenched into a fist at his side and the other was holding the stuffed manta ray by one of its pectoral fins.

“Michael, please,” Mr. Liu held one of his hands up in the air in a placating gesture. Ironically enough, this was the same stance that Michael often assumed when mediating arguments between Scott and Samantha Adams. “Just listen to me.”

Michael hardly moved a muscle. For nearly five minutes, he stood there, rarely blinking and barely breathing. There was a tension mounting in the air, but Michael outwardly appeared immune to it. Silence prevailed for that period of time until he finally spoke. “Why was he here?” His voice was perfectly calm, but serious and almost deadly.

Jon drew in a sharp breath of air. “Please, Michael,” he began. “Let’s both go downstairs, have some tea and I’ll answer your questions, okay?” He sent up a silent prayer that Michael would oblige. The boy considered for a brief moment, but nodded and followed his father out of the schoolroom, still holding the poor manta ray in one hand.

Once Jon had poured both himself and Michael tea, he sat down on the couch. Michael was sitting in the chair that Sharpe had occupied only moments before, wrapped up in a flannel blanket that rested on the back. He showed little interest in the cup of tea; instead it sat on a coaster on the coffee table in the center of the living room.

Jon sighed. He knew he would have to take the initiative; if Michael did, accusations would follow. He could see into his son’s eyes that the boy was a simmering combination of angry, hurt, upset, confused and frustrated. This was a dangerous combination in almost any human, but especially someone who kept so many of his emotions typically hidden. “Mr. Sharpe decided to come by to make sure you and Sam arrived home safely.” At this statement made by his father, Michael arched an eyebrow. So Sharpe had been following them earlier. “He wanted to catch up on old times for awhile, so that’s what we were doing. We went to high school together.”

Michael leaned back, clearly unimpressed. “He mentioned that,” he replied in a non-committal voice. “Several times, in fact.” There was a short pause and Michael’s fingers ran along the seam of the blanket. “Why was he here? I know Mom gave him dinner.” Although the Liu family was gracious to their guests, Michael hadn’t expected his mother to feed Mr. Sharpe dinner.

Mr. Liu frowned slightly. “Just how much did you hear?” He took a sip of his tea and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees and folding his hands together.

Michael shrugged. “Enough to know what happened.” His voice was level and calculating as he spoke, as if he was testing to see how his father would react before he said anything else. “After so long, I thought you or Mom would’ve realized that I often pretend to sleep.”

Jon’s glance fell to the ground suddenly. “Michael, please tell me exactly how much you heard.” His voice was level as he matched that of his son, but there was a deep pleading undertone within his emotional signature that betrayed him. He was very uneasy of what would happen next and this frightened him.

Michael hardly wished to respond and he kept fiddling with the blanket in his hands. “I know that Mr. Sharpe gave you something that he intended for me to have. And yes, I heard almost everything.” An eyebrow quirked upwards as Jon’s face paled slightly.

Jon, who was still almost white, pulled an envelope from his pocket and handed it to Michael. It was slightly wrinkled along the corners, but Michael ripped it open and removed the piece of paper inside. It was a handwritten note and probably the handwriting of a teenager, he guessed, and transcribed onto spiral-bound notebook paper.

[[Michael, if you’re reading this, please don’t shoot the messenger. He’s only doing it on my request and that’s it. If you want to send a reply, please trust him to get it to me. But that’s not what I was going to talk about anyways. I really wanted to you to know that Sharpe’s a good guy and I’d like to invite you to visit me sometime. Maybe pick up a game of chess? He mentioned that you play... so do I! Or just hang out... or whatever. It doesn’t really matter to me.

I wish I knew how to say this to you, but you’ve really been a good friend to me. All the times we’ve talked and Sharpe’s told me that you really do care about your friends. I’ve never heard him say that about anyone else, except probably your dad. He’s a good guy, too, I think. Maybe I’m wrong, but I have a hunch he knows more than he says he does.

Which is why I’m actually writing to you. He really has a soft spot for some of his students and I’d like to ask you a favor. Has he told you anything about a guy called Kiyoshi Sato? I know they used to know each other. I asked Sharpe last time, but he wouldn’t say anything more. Weird, huh? That and his family are the only things he never talks about.

You probably won’t trust me on this. Sharpe told me to put proof in the envelope. Silly guy. But there’s the camp pic of you, the twins and red-head down at the archery range. The flash that he thought was lightening was my camera. Sorry ‘bout that... and thanks.

I look forward to seeing you again soon.
Signed, The Black Rook]]

Michael read the letter once and then again. One of his hands held the picture. Surely enough, the photograph clearly showed Scott and Nate arguing in the background. Sam was preparing to shoot the arrow and Michael had been standing next to the two cousins, deciding whether or not to watch them argue or to step in and play peacekeeper.

“Michael,” Mr. Liu’s voice was clear. “Mr. Sharpe was very insistent that you had that. In fact, he was sure you needed it. I don’t know why; you’d have to ask him.” He glanced down at his son. Michael’s face was carefully crafted into that same stoic expression he had nearly mastered that revealed almost none of his feelings. The only sound coming from the living room was the soft chime that signalled that it was 10:30 PM. Upon hearing the chime, Michael jumped up. “What’s–” Mr. Liu started to ask, but Michael cut him off before he could say anything.

“I... I need to go somewhere.” Michael threw the blanket back down on the chair. Because he had not actually gone to bed yet, he was still wearing the same clothing he wore at school: a blue turtleneck and slacks. He slipped on his tennis shoes that were lying on the floor next to the front door over the socks he wore. He also grabed his long trench coat and shoved the letter and picture into a pocket. He shut the door before his father could stop him and he was gone.

---------

“Who is it?” A voice called from inside and a girl opened up the door just a crack. The girl was easily a few years older than Michael was and she sported a casual purple sweatshirt, jeans and sneakers. Her long brown hair was pulled back loosely into a braid. “Oh, hi Michael! I... uhm, didn’t expect you here so late, but please, come in.” She smiled and moved to the side, allowing Michael entrance to the house.

Michael followed Jennie into the living room. The house was remarkably like his own in so many ways. Plush blue carpet covered the floor of the room in which they stood and a few chairs and the couch had been arranged around the room in roughly an elliptical shape. Jennie took a seat, but Michael remained on his feet, far too uneasy to sit down and stay still.

“Michael, you okay?” Jennie glanced over at him. “I’ve never seen you out this late.” Even at church functions, Michael had been well-known amongst his peers for getting home at a reasonable hour.

Michael shrugged. “I need to talk to Mr. Sharpe,” he stated after a moment. His voice was shaky; he was still pacing back and forth along the carpet. He clasped his hands behind his back and stopped for a moment.

Jennie placed her hands on her left knee. “Okay... let me know why you need to see my brother,” she replied, her voice equally as apprehensive as Michael’s had been. She was not concerned that Sharpe would be asleep; it was still early enough that the thought passed through her mind. She was well-aware of the fact that her older brother stayed awake far into the night on a regular basis.

Michael’s hands came unclasped. “He... he said something to me and I wanted to ask him what it meant.” There was a short pause. “It’s Latin and I need to ask him about the translation.”

Jennie opened her mouth slightly. “Let me call him and see what he says,” she answered. “While you’re waiting, we made cookies this afternoon if you want some.” She spent part of her time working at Riverdale High and many of her afternoons were spent volunteering at the community center with kids who had special needs. Fridays were usually devoted to fun projects, like cooking. Apparently more cookies had been made than they were able to eat or take home.

“No thanks,” Michael shook his head. Between dinner and the odd things that had happened that day, he was hardly hungry anymore. After a moment, Jennie grabbed the telephone and took it into the other room. Michael drew his lips into a tight frown. Very few things were running through his mind and the only main thing was concerning Mr. Sharpe. Nearly five minutes later, Jennie emerged from the kitchen.

“My brother agreed to let you come over,” Jennie smiled, holding the phone loosely in her right hand. “I’d walk you over myself, but Mom and Dad want me home.” She wrote and address on a piece of paper and sketched out a quick street diagram. “This is what he told me to do, so here. I trust your ability to follow directions is better than Scott’s?” She smiled slightly and handed the paper to Michael.

Michael nodded. Scott was the kind of person who would get lost giving instructions from his house to school, despite the fact that it was only three streets away and the trio had been going to Riverdale for over two years. Michael glanced down at the paper. The address read 313 B Janus Avenue. With a split second thought, Michael knew exactly where that apartment complex was located; it was only a short distance from Riverdale High. In fact, Tyler Martin had used to live in the same complex with his mom and younger sister Emily until they had moved just a few months before.

As he walked down Chestnut Avenue, the wind whipped around his body, blowing his coat in all directions. The boy pulled in closer into his body as he kept putting one foot in front of the other. His dark eyes blinked a couple of times as he made his way down the street. It would be a long walk; that much he was certain of.

While he was walking, he contemplated the letter he had received. He was certain he knew the person who had sent it. Perhaps it had been someone from Sola Scriptura, the summer Bible camp that he, the twins, their cousin Nate, Tyler Martin, Marie Wilson and Kiran Shasthri had all attended the summer before their sophomore year. It had been a wonderful time. Michael had made some close friends that summer, like Nate Winters and Hideaki Sato and Kiran Shasthri, who had later stayed with the Liu family for a semester as an exchange student. All the teenagers spent time not only in worship, but also intense Bible study. The smaller group that Michael had been in had studied Job. As memories of Sola flooded his mind, he smiled; maybe the walk did not feel so long after all.

The apartments on Janus Avenue were not far from Riverdale High. Michael kept walking along as he realized that it made sense for Sharpe to live there if, as he said, he did not own a car. It would take Michael approximately five minutes to walk from the apartments to Riverdale; he assumed it would take Sharpe slightly less than that based on the fact that the chemistry teacher had much longer legs than he. The teenager entered the apartment complex and wandered around for a few moments. It was a nice feeling to walk around in peace... the lonely atmosphere contrasted with his home, which was ever bustling with people.

After about ten minutes of walking, he came to realize that the A apartments were on the first floor and the B apartments were on the second. He sighed and ran a hand through his dark hair, eyes darting around into the distance. He came upon the apartment marked 313A and his glance shifted upwards to the heavens. For just a moment, he marveled at the majesty of all that was happening. Despite the foul weather, the night sky was absolutely amazing: he could see the small flecks of light that were really stars, all of them many light years away. Though he couldn’t find any of the constellations, he knew that the closest star other than the sun was approximately four light years away. A gentle smile touched his lips; the heavens had not yet seemed this close to him since he and a small group of friends had gone star gazing at Sola.

[“Isn’t that amazing?” One of the teenagers marveled as he looked up at the night sky. The moon was only a small sliver that night. “Hey Michael, look up there. The Big Dipper... or Ursa Major as Dad calls it.”

“Hmm?” Michael arched an eyebrow towards the other boy. He had been counting specks of light for the past few minutes. “What did you say again?”

Hideaki smiled. “The only vacation Dad took me on was camping and we spent lots of time watching stars.” His dark eyes lit up and he held his hands out to get them warmed up by the fire that was barely smoldering. “They’re so far away... Alpha Centauri’s the closest and we can’t even see it here.”]

Michael cherished that memory – like all the others – that he received from Sola and he smiled. It gave him both the strength and courage to climb the stairs to Sharpe’s apartment. His hand hesitated when he reached to knock on the door. He couldn’t follow through. As much as he was curious about what Sharpe had said to him and how he got the letter, the sensible part of Michael’s mind urged him to give up right then.

He would have left had the door not opened right at that moment. “Mr. Liu, I presume.” Long fingers opened the door from the inside as the cold voice spoke. So many times had Michael heard this voice; to him it sounded both caustic and slippery, like one of the alkaline bases they used in the chemistry lab. “Come in. We have been expecting you.”

---------

Light streamed from the inside of the small apartment as Michael blinked a few times. He could hardly believe he was in the apartment complex, much less that he was entering the room. The man ushered him inside quickly and firmly shut the door, not allowing the wind to enter or to exert chaos upon the sparsely decorated room. Michael followed Mr. Sharpe inside and removed his tennis shoes, setting them beside the door. As he looked around, he took in every detail he could. The walls were a light grey and the thinning carpet was dark green.

“Sit.” Sharpe motioned towards a computer office chair. There was a grey striped cat sitting in the seat. As Michael began to sit, the cat lazily jumped down and pranced across the carpet and into the kitchen. “Nernst is hardly used to anyone being here.” Sharpe followed the cat across the room and allowed his long legs to carry him towards the dining room with little effort. “As am I.” He grabbed two ceramic mugs and brought them to the living room, offering one to Michael, who gladly accepted.

Michael swished the contents of the mug around and smelled the liquid. It was a smell he would recognize almost anywhere and it belonged to Jennie and Mandie’s apple cider. Every Sunday during the cold weather, Jennie would make it for the kids in the youth group at church. He silently gave thanks for something familiar around here; the whole day had just been too odd for him. The boy was pensive for a moment as he saw, waiting for the steaming liquid to cool. Apparently the contents of Sharpe’s mug were less hot because the chemistry teacher was able to drink. There was an awkward silence that built up inside the room. Michael was contemplating how the day had begun by walking out of homerooms and letting the door slam behind him. The series of events that followed had led to this: being out of his house after curfew hours and sitting in the apartment of the very teacher he had been determined to hate earlier that day.

“When my sister called, she said that you had a question that you needed to ask me,” Sharpe’s voice had the slightest hint of a drawl, which Michael had never noticed before. The middle-aged man set his half-emptied mug down on the small table near his own chair.

Michael nodded. “Who’s Kiyoshi Sato and what does he have to do with me?” Michael’s eyes narrowed. This was a good question to begin with and he was well-aware of the fact that Sharpe was probably going to avoid fully answering his question; he had overheard just enough of the conversation before.

Sharpe folded his hands and took a deep breath. The ambient lighting, though dim, still seemed bright on his eyes. He resolved to fix that, but it would have to wait until later. “Kiyoshi Sato was a classmate of mine when we were in high school,” Sharpe began. He chose his words carefully; now was neither the time nor the place to speak more than was necessary. “He and Emiko Takahashi’s father were close friends. They happened to be in the same year that I was and both delighted in giving a certain amount of grief to their classmates.” Sharpe’s angular nose wrinkled ever-so-slightly at the very tip. “Your father and your aunt were both acquainted with him. Why do you care to know?” Sharpe arched an eyebrow, choosing to ignore Nernst, who had pranced back into the living room and was now rubbing up against Michael’s leg.

Michael shrugged and his glance dropped to the cat. “It’s just something I was thinking about., that’s all.” Michael was lying through his teeth and he knew it. He was also aware that Sharpe probably knew this, but he didn’t care. “Could I pet him?” He glanced down at Nernst, suddenly changing the subject.

Sharpe frowned slightly. “If he lets you, then you may pet him.” He watched as Michael bent down and Nernst jumped into the youth’s lap. The man took a long sip and set the mug back down. “That is not everything you were going to say, was it?”

Michael shook his head. “Is Mr. Sato still alive?” He stopped paying attention to the striped feline long enough to ask the question. After remembering the crumpled paper in his jacket pocket, he resolved to inquire about the contents of that later.

“No,” Sharpe let out a sigh. “He died sixteen years ago as a direct result of a decision he made.” Sharpe’s voice was about half an octave lower than it normally was.

[Sharpe was silent as he moved through the alley way. It was a dark and cloudy day in the middle of March, much like what one would expect to find in Seattle, not the sunny Bay Area in California. He had nothing better to do; there were no assignments due for any of the classes the college junior was taking. Even Dr. Shasthri – a difficult professor if he’d ever encountered one – had not assigned homework for the advanced thermodynamics class she taught.

This may have not been the best idea he had, but the twenty-one-year-old decided to duck into an abandoned alleyway. He hardly had reason for doing this, except that a police car was about half a block from where he stood; he did not want more of a headache than he already had from the sirens and flashing lights of emergency vehicles. In the shadows, he saw something that would make his headache much worse: Kiyoshi Sato. Sato’s narrow features had grown even narrower in the past year and a half since Sharpe had seen him last.

He heard a cry coming from the basket that Sato held under one arm and he gasped aloud, barely reaching his hand up in time to muffle the sound. It was the cry of a small child. He’d heard it once before, many years ago when he was in the hospital for his own surgery, but he’d paid little attention then.

“What’re you doing here, coward?” Sato’s scathing voice addressed Sharpe. “I know you’re here, so y’might as well show yourself.” Sato set the basket down on the ground next to an old trash bin and turned around, looking for Sharpe to appear.

Sharpe decided to step out from the shadows. “Ah, Sato,” his voice was sickly sardonic as he answered Sato’s accusations. “And who is the coward this time? Impregnating a girl three years younger than you? Running away so you don’t have to face her parents? Taking one of the children with you?” He paused for a moment, pointing a long stick at the ratty basket and the torn blanket that draped over its edges. “And who was the true coward before? Bullying someone who’s half your size? Insisting that the fight is five-to-one? Now, if I were you, I’d put that knife down on the ground. Oh yes, I know you’ve got a knife in your pocket…” Sharpe nodded towards the front right pocket of Sato’s jeans.

Sato seethed though his clenched teeth. “You…” he hissed. This was followed by a string of expletives. “I don’t have time for this!” He removed the knife from the pocket of his jeans, opened it up and thought for a moment, debating at whether to lunge at Sharpe or to slit his own throat open. He decided on the latter. He brought the knife up to his own carotid artery. Sharpe stood frozen, unable to do anything. Instead of going through with his plans, Sato used his knife to slice the side of his neck. He screamed out in pain and fell to the ground.

Sharpe hurried over and held his – former – enemy in his arms. “Here,” he said, holding up a vial to Sato’s mouth. “It’ll work faster… and not be as painful.” The contents of the vial were poisonous, but it would allow Sato to die without so much pain. After all, that was what he obviously wanted. Sharpe knew Sato was a coward; what about the infant? However, Sato’s breathing stopped just before he swallowed the substance.

As soon as he had realized what happened, Sharpe wove his way around the trash cans to reach the infant. He immediately noticed an envelope in the basket. Opening it up, his dark eyes skimmed the contents.

[Attention: J. Victor Sharpe
If I am to die here and today, please take the child into your care. His name is Hideaki.
K. Sato]

The date and a signature were placed on the side of the note and Sharpe frowned, his lips drawing themselves into a thin line. As carefully as he could, he picked up the basket. The young child inside was about a year old and looked almost exactly like his father did. Sharpe knew he couldn’t bear to look at the youth every day for the rest of his life. It would bring back too many memories of being teased and pushed down into the mud day after day. Even if the boy stayed with the Altons – Sharpe was sure Josiah and Sherry would take him in – the memories were still too strong.

He shook his head. He would have to take the boy into a foster care center instead. With that choice being made, he set off towards home, carrying the basket under his arm.]

“Yet that holds little concern for either of us now, Mr. Liu,” Sharpe’s voice had reverted back to its typically cold tone. “And tomorrow, things will be made clearer.” An eyebrow arched upwards as his hands clasped the warm mug.

Michael glared at the older man defiantly for several moments. Down the hall, the clock ticked and Nernst rubbed his head against the side of the chair. “Alright...” Getting Sharpe to answer his inquiries about this Kiyoshi Sato was clearly not working, so he decided to take another route. “You went to high school with Emiko Takahashi’s father, didn’t you?” This question was merely one of curiosity; earlier Sharpe had mentioned Takahashi being a bully.

Sharpe set the mug down on the table that was at the left side of his chair without regard to use a coaster of any sorts. “We were both on the interscholastic chess team.” Absently, Sharpe reached into his pocket and pulled out an old chess piece. It was carved from a wood that looked that almost black in the dimmed lighting of the room and judging by the general shape and the cross on the top of it, Michael assumed it was a king. After a moment of twiddling it in his thin fingers, Sharpe placed the piece back into the pocket of his pants. Maybe it had been too long since he played a game of chess... that is, played and lost a good game. “If you had been listening to what I said earlier, you would have been able to deduce that.” He glanced over at Michael, observing the Asian boy with a dark glance. “I know you are brighter than people–” The last bit of Sharpe’s sentence was cut off by the ring of the doorbell.

“Excuse me for a moment.” Sharpe pushed himself into a standing position with quite a bit more effort than Michael would have expected for someone with his scrawny stature. Soundlessly mouthing words, he made his way towards the door, limping ever so slightly. The Asian boy noted the anomaly. He had never seen Sharpe limp before or if he had, Michael had never actively noticed it before.

As Sharpe opened up the door, his normally darker skin paled to the color of light parchment. A woman in her early fifties stood outside the door, wearing an oversized travel coat. From the inside of the apartment, Michael could see that her skin was dark and the only remarkable aspect of her appearance – other than the fact that she looked somehow familiar – was a blue and purple cloth wrapped loosely around her head, neck and shoulders.

tbc in chapter six...

Snapshots Update

I finally figured out where I think I want to go with Snapshots and it's great because it'll tie into the chess story I've been playing with in the back of my mind for quite some time.

Chess is kind of a recurring theme throughout my stories. Hideaki Sato is known online as the black rook, Sharpe was the Interscholastic Chess Champion for three (out of four) years in high school and it's quite often that the fellowship members are seen playing chess while hanging out. Usually it's Michael and Evan... and sometimes Tyler. It's also stated that Hideaki teaches Emiko how to play chess.

So that got me thinking... how do I bring this theme into Snapshots? This morning, I came up with a logical answer and it answers two of my questions at once! The other question was (of course) what is Dr. Shasthri doing at Sharpe's apartment at some unearthly hour?

I figured that the only reasonable answer was that she needed him for some reason. Most likely, he had requested something from her before he graduated and left university. I decided to run with this idea... with no thoughts as to what he had asked her for. This morning, I got my answer: a chess piece.

When he was a student at Maplewood, Sharpe bought a used chess set at a garage sale. A few of the pieces were missing when he originally bought it, amongst them a white queen. Somehow, Dr. Shasthri is able to find the person who sold Sharpe the chess set (something I don't want to reveal until later, as major spoilers are contained within) and he was able to find some of the missing pieces. Originally, only the white queen and two black pawns were missing, but I am changing that so it was the white queen, a black pawn and one of the black rooks.

So she is able to get this and the man is fairly reasonable. He claims he would deliver it himself, but he doesn't remember to whom he sold the set or how to contact said person when Dr. Shasthri tells him. Now that she has the piece Sharpe requested, she's tried to hunt him down. He doesn't leave a forwarding address or anything when he leaves university, so she has to go see where he applied for work and then contact them. By some amazing coincidence, she talks to her niece on the telephone and Kiran gives her the necessary information she's been missing all along: where Sharpe works. From that, she is able to find out where he lives fairly easily.

And thus she shows up at his apartment at an unearthly hour. She would have come earlier, but she was hosting dinner and a movie for some of her chemistry and physics students.

Now I know and all is good with the world. Okay, not really, but Snapshots is back on. I also happen to know who gets which chess piece, so that should be fun to work with. As to be expected, Takahashi still holds the white king; that wouldn't change. I've modified it around a little bit according to what happens in Once Upon an AU and some of the other brief stuff I've written since originally thinking of the idea. ^_^

Resolutions

I suppose I should really update this today, so I'll blog about New Year's Resolutions. But since this is a writing journal, then they are going to be related to writing.

1. Write on a regular basis. That includes updating here at least twice a week once Hollidailies is over and working as often as I can (with schoolwork and everything else) on other ongoing writing projects.

2. Get to know some of my minor characters better and their relationships. I'd really like to focus more on Emiko Takahashi... because she's important.

3. Finish at least one large piece (either Snapshots or Once Upon an Alternate Universe or the chess story I've been thinking about). Snapshots would likely be easiest because I've already written a lot of that.

4. Finish the short-term projects I have. This includes the piece where Kiran comes to stay at the Liu house (and gets involved with the debate club), the Christmas Eve story I've been sort of working on, the incident where Wilson is teaching a physics class and decides to use a rather interesting method to keep his students awake and the more recent piece with Hideaki and Emiko.

5. Delve deeper into the relationships that first generation has (or had). I'd love to write a piece with the Maplewood students. And not just a short piece that's a page long, but something real.

6. This may be the wierdest one of them all, but I'd like to find a fellow writer whom I can critique and who will critique me (well, my writing).

7. Just because seven is a much nicer number than six, I'd like to develop Seven McAllistair a bit more as a character and find out where he fits in... if he does. By extension, same kind of idea with Aislynn Celeste.

And those are my New Year's Writing Resolutions. Happy 2009, everyone!

New Year's Eve Party

To make up for my patheticness at posting yesterday (I was trying to do five different things at once and I was a bit distracted), I'll write something for you today.

First off, a little bit of background information. I wanted my characters to have a (slightly disastrous) game of truth or dare at a New Year's Eve party at the Liu's house. So the characters present would be Michael's parents (duh), Mr. and Mrs. Adams, Hideaki's dad, Wilson, Tyler's mom, Nate's parents and maybe others. Oh, and Sharpe because Jon invited him over and for some reason, he agreed to come. Younger people present would have to include Michael, Scott, Sam, Evan, Tyler, Marie, Hideaki, Emiko, Kiran and Nate. Wouldn't that be a fun group?

So the extended fellowship goes into the other room. They've each had a little bit to drink (they're all at least 21, so no big deal) and the door between the room they're in and the room the adults are in is about half opened. Someone (Saunders?) suggests they play a game of truth or dare. Needless to say, neither Michael nor Sam is particularly excited about that proposition and Tyler's being cautious (as always). But they make a few rules and the game gets underway... needless to say, it'll be interesting.

No really. I'm just deciding how to narrate this piece before I start in on it. I could do the same third person narration I usually do or I could do first person. If I did first person, the most logical choice would be first person to Michael's POV. More amusing would be first person to Sharpe's POV, as he realizes that something is going on and he goes to stand by the door between the rooms. But none of the younger people can know he's there... or if Michael (or Sam) figures it out, neither can say anything to anyone else.

And this brings me to where I was meaning to go... to share something that I wrote with you guys. It was too late last night to post it here, so here it is today. Enjoy! This piece is actually going to be rated PG by the time I'm done with it, but this particular section is harmless. Trust me. Okay, it's just a short little paragraph-length teaser, but still. I actually wrote something. >.>

MPAA Rating: G
Characters: Michael, Emiko, Evan Saunders, others are present.
Word Count: 134

Michael stopped before he said anything and put a hand on Emiko's shoulder. Such an uncharacteristic motion for him. With a firm grasp, he pulled the Japanese girl closer to him and when she was facing him, her face only centimeters away from his, he gave her one look and hissed a few words in her left ear. "Don't even consider it" was all he said. Those words were meant for her alone to hear. He let his hand drop down to his side and quickly turned and paced out of the room. If she went through with Saunders' proposition, that would probably be just about the stupidest thing she'd ever done. Which is quite the accomplishment for her, he thought, the bitter taste of bile rising up in the back of his throat.

tbc.

Short Post Today...

Yet another half-effort entry in this journal because I'm pressed for time trying to finish Christmas presents and all that before tomorrow... hopefully I'll get more done in the actual story later on this week. Sorry it won't be done before then.

But I know who kills Shaun Ackerman!!!!! In the Once Upon an Alternate Universe piece, I mean. Not in the real world or anything like that. Hideaki sees Ackerman get shot, but doesn't know who did it. Sharpe has a pretty good idea of what's going on, but he'd never say anything unless he's certain. No one else knows what's going on... not even Candace.

And I am enjoying myself greatly right now. Plotting is so much fun! Especially plotting whilst procrastinating on finishing up Christmas presents. Alas, I'll just work on them tomorrow, right?

Lost Chess Pieces, Part 2

I'm stress writing right now, so this may not make a whole lot of sense. I'm just going to warn you in advance... just in case you'd rather not read on. But we finished exams and then it's home for me tomorrow.

Onto the actual writing portion and continuing sort of where I left off with the chess idea...

MPAA Rating: G
Characters: Hideaki, Emiko Takahashi
Word Count: 497
Warning: Mild swearing. Once again, it's Emiko...

Buzzzzzz. Buzzzzzz. Buzzzzzz. Hideaki's cell phone vibrated its way off the table and onto the hardwood floor of the San Rafael apartment he was living in with his dad and Uncle Joe. For the last three hours, he had been trying to do the homework Mr. Umeki assigned, but it was no use. He could translate from Japanese to English just fine, but going the other way still confused him, even after years of studying the language and the culture on Saturday mornings. He ran a hand along the line his bandana made until it reached the tight knot tied in the back of his head. Right now, his writing looked like knots to him. Time to take a break and see who had called. It was probably a wrong number again - he seemed to get a lot of those - but it wouldn't hurt to check. Oddly enough, she hadn't left a message; he frowned.

Emiko usually left messages, unless something was really wrong. Last time she'd called and not left a message was when her dad's political campaign went horribly awry and he'd ended up throwing her out of the house for the night in a fit of rage. She had ended up spending the night at his house... and the rest of the weekend. And that was when he had taught her how to play chess. That had been about a year ago and he smiled fondly at the thought as he pushed the redial button and waited for an answer.

"What the hell's going on with you?" The shrill voice came from the opposite side of the phone line and Hideaki winced, nearly dropping the phone onto the messy floor of his bedroom. Well, that answered his question. He could feel the heat rising to his cheeks and there was an awkward silence in which neither party spoke.

"I... uhm..." Hideaki frowned and picked up an old wooden chess piece, this one a black rook. It had been given to him by a friend and absently, he twiddled it in the forefingers of his right hand as he held the phone to his left ear. "You were the one who called me." Sometimes stating the simple truth was the best. "Hey, maybe you should come over or somethin'." He could hear the clicking of fingernails against something hard on the other side of the phone as he awaited an answer.

"Yeah, sure. Whatever. I'll be there in half an hour." Emiko grabbed her car keys and slammed the door shut, not even bothering to leave a note for her father. He wouldn't ask where she was; he never did. Despite the fact that it would be nearly an hour drive in commute traffic from her San Jose home, Emiko automatically halved the time it took. "Bye." Without waiting for Hideaki to answer, she flipped the phone shut and dropped it into her purse, climbed into the car and sped down the street.

Random Little Factiods

Here's a list of random little factiods...

• Michael plays violin and is known for enjoying and being much better at the faster pieces than the slower pieces. Andy also plays violin, but plays the faster pieces in a much slower tempo.
• Emiko has a half-sister, Hana Rei, who lives in England and goes to school with Callisto Verity and Donovan Isaacs.
• Sharpe used to play an instrument (though I'm still not sure which one). He doesn't anymore. I'm soliciting feedback if anyone cares to answer.
• A number of my characters share birthdays with people I know or with "famous dead guys" (Dr. Shasthri, Sharpe). None of my characters have the same birthday I do.
• Evan Saunders has the most stereotypically American family: dad, mom, two kids (brother and sister), family pet. Scott and Samantha's family also follows this pattern.
• Hideaki, Emiko, Tyler, Marie, Aislynn Celeste and Sharpe all come from "non-typical" homes. They were either adopted, in foster care, lived with relatives or have single parents.
• The largest families in my stories are the Liu family (two parents and five kids, two of whom are adopted), the Wilson family (five kids and one parent), the Page family (six kids, two parents and one cousin) and the McAllistair family (two parents and eight kids).
• Forum Philosophorum, the debate forum for controversial issues, was originally Sharpe's idea and he ran it. It was abolished in 2005 upon the insistence of Peter Screwtape. (Which reminds me that I'll have to share a brief snippet of a conversation between Sharpe and Kiran that I wrote...). I'm thinking the secondary staff sponsor is Shaun Ackerman, just because of the way he and Sharpe interact. That would be a lot of fun to write.
• Aislynn Celeste was actually originally sort of a shapeshifter. She can change her natural coloring at will.
• Emiko and Hideaki actually met each other in Japanese school and became friends there.
  

Thirty Pieces of Silver, Anyone?

I've been plotting for Once Upon an Alternate Universe, also known as the continuation to this piece (go read that first!) and I have something really cool in mind for Aislynn Celeste. Simply because she is who she is and I'm planning to take advantage of that, as any author would. Basically what happens is that Sharpe's life ends up being one giant lie for a good cause, Emiko must ignore her father's wishes and take matters into her own hands as far as her life goes and Kiran Shasthri and Nate Winters go on a secret mission to uncover what really happened to Ackerman. Meanwhile, the Fellowship (Michael, Scott, Sam, Hideaki, Evan, Tyler and Marie) must decide where they're going to stand in the conflict and remember that betrayal comes from within their ranks... and with thirty pieces of silver.

Starring
Sharpe
Emiko Takahashi
Peter Screwtape
Aislynn Celeste
Kiran Shasthri
Nathaniel "Nate" Winters
Donovan Isaacs
Tetsuya Takahashi
Hideaki Sato
Michael Liu
Scott Adams
Samantha Adams
Marie Wilson
Tyler Martin
Evan Saunders
Featuring
Shaun Ackerman
Dr. Shasthri
Laura Clarkson
Hugh Avery
Sophia McAllistair
Ming-Yue Tam
Callisto and Ali Verity
and many, many more...

No, but seriously... this is going to be so much fun to write!!! I'm really excited to actually get around to writing it. I've been planning some out as ideas have come (mainly at meals when I've had a few extra minutes and my notebook with me). I have huge plans for certain characters and I am greatly excited about that... particularly for Aislynn Celeste. I know what I'm going to do with her and how I'm bringing her into the story.

This piece is going to involve a lot of my characters, not only from second generation, but also from first generation and from abroad. Like the teachers at Riverdale (Laura Clarkson, Hugh Avery, Ackerman and Sharpe are the only ones metioned specifically) will be making appearances or be in the story. Peter Screwtape is the principal of RHS. Dr. Shasthri (Kiran's aunt) was Sharpe's university physics professor. I'm not sure what she'll be doing in the story, but it'll be interesting. Callisto, Ali and Donovan live in the UK. Sophia is from Arizona, but she knows Donovan. Ming, Kiran and Nate are all from New York. Laura Clarkson is originally from Texas and Aislynn's originally from Canada somewhere. Sharpe was born on the East Coast, but moved to California when he was a teenager. I'm pretty sure most of the other characters are SF Bay Area California local.

Oh, do I love playing around with symbolism, allegory and the meanings of names!!!

Since other characters come into this story, I guess I should mention the sister schools. There's four of them.

Maplewood Academy:
Location: California.
School Colors: Burgandy and Silver
Mascot: Gryphon
Known Students: Sharpe, Tetsuya Takahashi, Shaun Ackerman, Jonathan and Jeremiah Liu, Rose and Felicia McGonigall, Mac O'Brien (et al.)
History: Was founded in 1953. First Dean of Students was Angel Carlston. Lost ability to exist due to lack of funding and was forced to close in Spring of 1999. Campus is now the site of Riverdale High School.
Culture: Maplewood is the only one of the four schools that is not a boarding school. It schools kids from sixth through twelfth grade. Uniforms are required.

Northpointe Academy:
Location: Canada
School Colors: Dark Purple and White
Mascot: Falcon
Known Students: Aislynn Celeste (also her father)
History: Northpointe was founded in 1950.
Culture: Most students here are exceptional at various forms of art. School uniforms are not required for most purposes. Classes are taught in both French and English; nearly all students who attend are bilingual. This is a mandatory boarding school: starting at age ten, students are offered dormitory rooms to share with others their age.

Melanthios Boarding School:
Location: New York
School Colors: Green and Black
Mascot: Vikings
Known Students: Kiran Shasthri, Nate Winters, Ming-yue Tam (et al.)
History: Founded in 1909, Melanthios is by far the oldest of the four schools in the coalition.
Culture: Melanthios places a high priority on academics. They accept students from seventh through twelfth grade with suggested (but optional) boarding. School uniforms are casual, but must be worn to most classes and on special occasions. When students are not in uniform, there is a fairly strict dress code to follow. Classes are small and there are approximately 500 students attending Melanthios at any given point; about 450 of those are boarding students. Melanthios was originally only a boarding school, but opened its doors in 1972 to become open to daytime students, as well (hence its full name).

Alcantha Instructional Institution:
Location: Northern England
School Colors: Navy Blue and Gold
Mascot: Sharks
Known Students: Callisto and Ali Verity, Hana Rei, Donovan Isaacs (et al.)
History: Alcantha was founded in 1949 and houses students mostly from the UK.
Culture: If nothing else, they're strict. To attend Alcantha, boarding is required. Students must wear uniforms at all times outside the dorms, except if official permission is given; they are not allowed to wander the halls at night and there are many more rules. Many students who attend here come from rich families. Alcantha leans neither towards academics nor arts nor athletics.

Twelve Character Survey

At least this time all these characters know each other, so that should take away some of the awkwardness that was seen in an earlier survey... for the sake of this, I'm also assuming that as the author, I'm allowed to interact with my characters.

There will be spoilers. Nothing hugely major if you haven't read what's on the other site, but please consider yourself forewarned.

1. Evan Saunders
2. Kiran Shasthri
3. Hideaki Sato
4. Samantha Adams
5. Michael Liu
6. Scott Adams
7. Emiko Takahashi
8. Tyler Martin
9. Mr. Sharpe
10. Nate Winters

WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF...

Number 1 (Evan) woke you up in the middle of the night?
--I would wonder what on earth he was doing up in the middle of the night. And I'd hope everything was okay.

Number 2 (Kiran) asked you to go out with her?
--Uhm... I would back away slowly and head for Bernard's Book Shoppe to see if somehow the multiple dimensions had somehow gotten messed up...

Number 3 (Hideaki) walked into the bathroom while you're showering?
--If I was actually in the shower and didn't see him, I don't think I'd notice, but if I did happen to see him, I'd scream. Boys aren't supposed to be in the girl's bathroom.

Number 5 (Michael) cooked you dinner?
--I would thank him. He's a pretty good cook. ^_^

Number 6 (Scott) was lying next to you on the beach, sleeping?
--I'd snicker and make drawings on his back with suntan lotion. He wouldn't wake up...

Number 8 (Tyler) got into the hospital somehow?
--That would really worry me, so I'd go find out what happened. It would probably be some sports-related injury.

Number 9 (Sharpe) made fun of your friends?
--Sharpe would totally do something like that. If I knew him in real life, I'd probably be used to it and pay little attention after awhile. Maybe make a snide remark back at his expense every once in a while. That's what happens when two people with a similar personality construct get together in the same room.

Number 10 (Nate) ignored you all the time?
--Wow... I couldn't imagine Nate ignoring anyone, but I guess he has to ignore someone. No matter, I wouldn't vie for his attention.

~~~~~
WHAT WOULD THEY DO UNDER THE FOLLOWING CIRCUMSTANCES?

Two serial killers are hunting you down. What will Number 1 (Evan) do?
--Kick their behinds. Literally. He'd beat them up.

You're on a vacation with Number 2 (Kiran) and you manage to break your leg. What does Number 2 (Kiran) do?
--She would go hysterical for a few minutes and then realize things aren't that bad and that she's overreacting and splint it.

It's your birthday. What will 3 (Hideaki) give you?
--Knowing Hideaki, he'd probably forget about my birthday.

You're stuck in a house that's on fire. What does Number 4 (Sam) do?
--Sam would make sure that the fire department had been called and was on their way.

You're about to do something that'll make you feel extremely embarrassed. What will Number 5 (Michael) do?
--He'd turn away and pretend not to notice to give privacy, as that's what he would want.

You're about to marry Number 10(Nate). What's Number 6's (Scott) reaction?
--Heh heh... Scott would probably try to convince Nate otherwise, but they're cousins. After Scott sees that Nate really wants to marry me, he'd beg to be as involved in the wedding as possible.

You got dumped by someone. How will Number 7 (Emiko) cheer you up?
--She'd laugh in my face.

You're angry about it afterwards, how does Number 8 (Tyler) calm you down?
--Tyler's probably the best person at calming other people down and he'd talk to me and tell me that there's a lot worse things that can happen in life.

You compete in some tournament. How does Number 9 (Sharpe) support you?
--First, he'd tell me to concentrate and he'd be honest about whatever the tournament was. He shows the kind of "tough love" to his students, so that's probably what he'd do to me.

You can't stop laughing. What will Number 10 (Nate) do?
--He'd laugh with me...

~~~~~
RELATIONSHIP PART
Number 1 (Evan) is all you've ever dreamed of.
--*blushes* Uhm....

Number 2 (Kiran) tells you about her deeply hidden love for Number 9 (Sharpe). Your reaction?
--Well, at least they know each other. But he's so... old. I'd shake her by the shoulders and call her an idiot.

You're dating Number 3 (Hideaki) and introduce him to your parents. Will they get along?
--I think they would. Maybe my parents would actually like to weigh in and answer the question for themselves, but Hideaki's a good guy, albeit a little off the beaten track.

Number 4 (Sam) loves Number 9 (Sharpe) as well. What does that mean?
--Well, they do know each other... but Sam hates Sharpe's guts. It'd be funnier if Laura Clarkson and Sharpe ended up dating, but I sincerely doubt that's going to happen.

Number 6 (Scott) appears to be a player, and he breaks many hearts. What do you do?
--Slap him across the face and tell him he's a jerk. Better yet, get Michael to do that for me.

You had a haircut and Number 7 (Emiko) can't stop looking at you. What goes on in your mind?
--Eh?

Number 8 (Tyler) thinks he'll never get a girlfriend. What will you tell him?
--I'd probably give him the same kind of advice he gave me when I "got dumped" earlier in the survey. And assure him, as the author, that he will find a girlfriend and eventually find true love, if not in the way he expects. *insert evil laugh here*

Number 9 (Sharpe) is too shy to face you, and confesses you their love by sending an e-mail. Now what?
--Uhm..... dare I answer that one? Or do I want to run the risk of being murdered by one of my own characters after the survey is over? No seriously, it's Sharpe. He'd never confess his love to anyone. Not after his heart was broken by *cough*johannahliu*cough*.


~~~~~
FRIENDSHIP PART
Could Number 1 (Evan) and Number 6 (Scott) be soul mates?
--Yeah, they're already pretty close friends, so I don't see why they couldn't pretty much be best friends.

Would Number 2 (Kiran) trust Number 5 (Michael)?
--Yes, Kiran trusts Michael. She stayed with his family for a semester during her sophomore (well, technically her freshman year, but she took sophomore level classes) year, so fall of 2003 as an exchange student.

Number 3 (Hideaki) wants to go shopping, will Number 7 (Emiko) come along?
--Once they start dating then yes.

Number 4 (Sam) is bored and pokes Number 10 (Nate). What happens after that?
--Nate's incredibly ticklish and they're cousins. So it'd probably turn intos some crazy pillow fight/tickle war, especially if Scott is around.

Number 5 (Michael) and Number 1 (Evan) are forced to go back to school together. What study will they pick?
--Well, Michael is a pre-med student in university. Evan studies engineering.

If Number 6 (Scott) and Number 3 (Hideaki) cooked dinner, what would they make?
--Oi, Iluvatar help us...

Number 7 (Emiko) and Number 9 (Sharpe) apply for a job. What job?
--Sharpe already has a job teaching high school chemistry. Emiko would apply for any job that keeps her as far away from her dad as possible.

Number 8 (Tyler) gives Number 2 (Kiran) a haircut. Is that okay?
--Eh...

Number 9 (Sharpe) sketches what Number 6's (Scott) perfect girlfriend should look like.
--Sharpe can't draw.

Number 10 (Nate) and Number 8 (Tyler) are blushing while they talk. What is their conversation about?
--Likely about girls... or about gila monsters or something completely random. Nate tends to blush easily. Tyler doesn't, but his dark skin doesn't lend itself to doing that easily or often. Nate is light-skinned and freckled.

And, uhm, now you know a little bit about some of my characters... I hope that was (a) educational and (b) entertaining. And I also hope that a certain character isn't too upset at me for continually volunteering him for these surveys, but his answers (or lack thereof) are so amusing. ^_^