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.

KC

So... I finally figured out where Keith comes from and how he's connected to the rest of what I've written thus far. That requires a little bit of background info, though.

In the chess story I am planning out, various students at RHS are competing for the top slot in the school, but I've never really said what that means. Whoever wins the RHS final match will meet the school champion from Northpointe Academy. The Northpointe champion is Keith Chandler.

This actually makes a lot of sense because he's told me that he knows Rem Argentium (who graduated from Northpointe) and I know he's related to Aislynn. She tends to mimic other people's physical looks and mannerisms, but he does that with personality and quirks, so it would make sense if they're related.

The champion between RHS and Northpointe will then go onto play against the champion of the Alcantha vs. Melanthios match. Hmm... this makes me wonder if Callisto is going to show up somewhere because both she and Hana (Emiko's half-sister) go to Alcantha. I don't know yet.

But I was sitting at some meal over the past couple of days when I realised where KC comes in. It was totally wierd because I did not know that before. Yes, most people call him KC.

I still don't know where Seven McAllistair comes into all of this. I know he's really good with computers and it wouldn't surprise me if he had also gone to Northpointe at one point or another. Northpointe is located in British Columbia, Canada; it's a magnet school for the gifted and talented, especially those who live up north and on the western half of the USA. Melanthios works the same way for those who live on the East Coast and Alcantha is similar for those who live in (or around) the UK.

Hoorah for random new characters and the fact that they actually fit into the story!!!

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.

Joint Story Characters

So, one of my friends and I decided that we should write a story together and we were each pulling characters from other things we'd written. I haven't actually written a lot of these characters very much or recently, but it should be interesting.

Lucius is from a piece that never really got off the ground. We needed a captain for the ship and he'd make a good one. Original character concept for him was medical, but I think captain fits him better... honestly. Janus is... uhm, interesting, to say the least. His real name isn't widely known, so he's usually called Janus by everyone else. I've written Kiran before quite a bit and I'm getting comfortable with her. Nate hasn't been around much recently, but he's an old character of mine and was originally in a fantasy story. Aislynn is orginally from the alternate universe... and she was originally Canadian. And Seven... well, Seven is just plain wierd. He comes from Seattle, Washington, but about 100-200 years into the future.

Lucius Touchstone

Lucius is the captain of the ship. He appears to be of northern European descent, of medium height and have rather paled features. He prefers to dress in casual clothing instead of the uniform and he holds a special hatred for dress clothing. He has an athletic build.
He is usually patient with the other members of the crew and is easy-going, but he does have his limits. There are a few rules that are his pet peeves around the ship and if you follow those, you’re good. He is celibate, but enjoys flirting. He also enjoys having a drink every now and then, though (according to Janus) he drinks too much.
Lucius possesses the ability to pass through solid objects. In other words, he can walk through walls and whatever else pleases his fancy. Since he has the tendency to run late for meetings, this can come in extremely handy at times. Originally, he was trained at helm/navigation controls.

Touchstone squirmed as he tried to sit patiently in the dress uniform. Whoever had made these things must have wanted the officers to be as uncomfortable as possible. His hair was neatly combed back and everything looked nice. He glanced at the time-keeper in the room on the star base. It read 2103 STT, which meant it was approximately 9:00 PM, standard Terran (Earth) time. He sighed; the dinner had started four hours ago. Even his patience was starting to run low and the Admiral had not yet given her speech.
“Hey, light beam,” a voice whispered over towards him. Only one person would have called him that: Lucius turned to see Maria Hernandez, the head of the science team on the SS Dreamer – the ship that had been forced to retire from service – lean over towards where he was sitting. He nodded a quick acknowledgement. “Just thought I’d let you know that it was fun serving with you. Ana’s going to miss seeing you.”
Lucius smiled as he thought of Maria’s four-year-old daughter. He had taken a liking to the little girl during their two year mission. Things would not be the same on the new ship he was going to be assigned to. For one thing, the SS Dreamer had primarily been a science research vessel, so most of the crew members aboard were devoted to the sciences, with minimal staffing in other areas. He had been the chief medical officer and the third officer – the person who usually commanded when both the captain and the first officer were detained.
The new assignment would be on the SS Veritas, which was an investigation ship. Touchstone would have frowned, but didn’t want to give Admiral Preston – Junior Admiral as though she may be – even the slightest hint that he was frowning at her speech.
“And, lastly,” Lucius breathed a sigh of relief; the Admiral was almost finished with her long-winded speech, “I would like to congratulate Commander Lucius Touchstone, who will be the First Officer of the SS Veritas.” There was applause coming from all over the room. Lucius gasped, completely shocked that he had been named as the first officer. Surely there were others with more experience than he had. “Congratulations, Commander.”
It was a full hour later when Lucius finally arrived back at the quarters he was staying in at the star base. He had started to undress when he heard a buzz that indicated someone was outside his door, waiting to see him. He slipped a grey t-shirt over his bare chest. “Come in.”
The admiral entered, still dressed as formally as ever. “I just wanted to offer my congrats, Luc,” she said with a smile. “There’s a full report coming later, but you won’t be leaving for another week. Perhaps we can get together for some coffee and chat for awhile?” The admiral’s overall demeanour had changed drastically from her formal self.
Lucius thought for a moment and nodded. “Yeah,” he said, suddenly thinking it odd that he had so many nicknames. “How about tomorrow, Sarah?” He returned the first name address just as Admiral Preston had given it, though there was a sudden clip to the tone that was unusual for him. Admiral Sarah Preston agreed. The two would meet the next day. They had so much to talk about; the cousins hadn’t seen each other since before Lucius had begun medical school. But talking could wait until later; right now, all Lucius wanted to do was catch up on some well-needed sleep.

Ophiuchus “Janus” Dylan

Orphiuchus Dylan is much better known as Janus around the crew. This is because no one knew his real name for the longest time. Occasionally, he will be called by his surname, Dylan. As an inhabitant of the desert planet, Janus’ darker skin tone helps protect him from the sun. He also has dark hair and dark eyes and is taller and thinner than an average human. He is never seen in anything not covering his arms and legs; even when he does medical exams, he usually leaves his sleeves pulled down all the way. He is used to a warmer, drier climate and gets chilled easily on the ship.
Janus is fairly anti-social and has a rather snappish bedside manner. He is easily annoyed, but slow to anger. He believes that knowing is better than not knowing and will tell his patients exactly what is going on, even if they do not want to hear. When annoyed, he gets very blunt in his mannerisms. He keeps most of his personal life hidden from the other crew members. He is a brilliant man, but difficult to work with for most people. Despite being a doctor, he tends to neglect his own physical and mental health at times.
On the ship, Janus is basically in charge of everything medical-related. He is not the ship’s counselor (that job falls to Danielle, as she is empathetic). He performs check-ups and has the power to authorize incompetence for medical reasons. He doesn’t usually fight physically, but rather chooses to heal or use his powers for defense. He is telekinetic, meaning he can move objects with his mind. He is also weakly telepathic, but he hates using this unless it’s necessary.

Janus frowned to himself, making a careful note of where each object had been laid out by the previous chief medical officer on board the ship. Whoever it had been obviously lacked any apparent reason for arranging the instruments as such. Gritting his teeth together in annoyance, he set to work, arranging things as he saw fit. With a wave of one hand – this was unnecessary – he moved the main computer monitor over to the opposite side of the room. A good doctor should be able to operate without all this fancy equipment; people from the city were ridiculously spoiled.
Just as he was finishing up, the door leading to sickbay from the main corridor opened up with a whoosh and Janus turned around. He still had not figured out how to lock the doors around here. In walked Seneca Argentium, one of the young science trainees who worked under Tiffany Aigel, one of the crew members for whom Janus held a decent amount of respect.
“Ensign.” Janus’ greeting was curt and he stood up in a less-than-graceful motion. He locked eyes with Seneca for a moment. She had absolutely no ability to hide her thoughts; even a weak telepath could easily pick up on what she was about to say. “Aigel sent you down here. Tell her things are all working.” Likely Aigel would come down later and check things out for herself... or Touchstone would. Or he might send Seylem or McAllistair. The lab tech was about to protest, but she left the room and Janus was left to his own company again. This was just how he liked it. So why had he signed up for this, again?

Kiran Shasthri

Kiran is on the shorter side of average, but still within normal height and weight range for a human. She has very dark hair, dark skin and eyes that look almost black. Her hair reaches down just past her shoulders and she usually ties it back with a bright hair tie. When not in uniform, she can be seen wearing brightly colored clothing. She also has her ears pierced.
Kiran is emotional, caring and fairly confident most of the time. She loves her friends and family more than anything else in the world. Amongst the members of the Squad, she’s fairly talkative and good at offering ideas... and asking them if they’re sure something will work. She has a fairly scientific mind and she would have gone into medical training, were it not for the discrimination on her home planet against elementalists becoming doctors. She is also known for her occasional sarcastic humor that creeps into the conversation at unexpected moments and for carrying her flute around almost everywhere with her.
As a member of the Investigation Squad, Kiran works to help uncover the mysteries of anything that might have gone wrong on the planets they visit and help fix things. She is also a dual elementalist, controlling light and dark. Light is more dominant and takes the form of a light ray radiating from her left hand and occasionally a sphere floating in mid-air. She can also bend light rays. Darkness is harder for her to control and it manifests itself in a shadow cloud coming from her right hand. She cannot create light or dark.

Fifteen-year-old Kiran Shasthri awoke with a start to the sound of her bedroom door opening. She blinked a few times and pulled a few strands of dark hair out of her face before sitting up. Much to her chagrin, it was Ming-yue Tam, her best friend and roommate, who had woken her – and Shelby and Monica, the two other girls in their room – up.
“You’ll never guess!” Ming grinned, plopping down on her bed. Kiran rolled her eyes and jumped off the top bunk, landing on her feet with a soft thud.
“What happened this time?” Kiran groaned. Leave it to Ming to be awake at this unearthly hour. Granted, Kiran knew that her best friend didn’t sleep; it was part of her mutation. The two girls had met when Kiran first started attending Melanthios Academy about a year and a half ago.
“You got a letter,” Ming replied, handing Kiran an envelope. It was addressed in perfect script and old-fashioned lettering, complete with a seal and a mysterious logo.
Kiran pulled her dark hair back and arched an eyebrow, taking the envelope from her friend. After examining it carefully for a trap, as they had been taught to do, she opened it carefully. “Our esteemed science professor is going to have my corpse as the next anatomy specimen,” she muttered under her breath.
Dear Kiran “Yin-Yang” Shasthri,
Your presence has been requested at a celebration. Please come to my house on December the second. The address is enclosed.
Sincerely,
Mr. W
Ming snatched the letter from Kiran’s head and skimmed it quickly. “So?” she asked, the pitch of her voice rising nearly an octave. “You going or not?”
Kiran frowned. She hadn’t been away from the Academy since she came, with the exception of going home briefly last Christmas. She was one of the fortunate ones. Most of the students were run-aways and outcasts from their own families. At least she still had a family who cared about her enough to want to do what was best for her. And as much as she fought with her older brother, Ekram, they were still close.
“We have a biology exam later today,” Kiran pointed out. “And band rehearsal after that.” She was one of the flutists in the band at their school. “And like I said, I’ll probably be the next cadaver if I leave.”
Ming shook her head. “So, if anything happens, just use your powers. How bad can it be?”
Kiran sighed. “Ming,” she began, carefully considering what she was going to say. Her best friend was one of the few recipients of her outbursts; she was usually pretty calm, but this was something she felt strongly about. “I believe that we were given our powers to help other people, not to make personal gains and certainly not to hurt other people. It’s what Dad was always trying to tell us when we were younger, but before I came here, I never really heard what he was saying.”
Kiran paused for a minute to observe Ming’s reaction. “It’s one of the things I’ve learned since coming here,” she continued. “Not only from the professors, but from you and George as well. I used to always be afraid of what my powers would do, but now I’m not, thanks to you guys.” George was a friend of theirs at school. She smiled slightly. Her power to turn herself and whatever she was touching invisible or into a shadow or beam of light had manifested itself when she was at school one day, nearly hurting one of her classmates. “I can’t go.”
Ming groaned. “Aww,” she pleaded. “That’s just the reason why you have to!” A sly smile crossed her face. “Or I’ll ask the Professor to use an alternate means of convincing you.” She grinned. “Sheesh, take your flute and books with you. Study while you’re there and you can’t miss anything too important here!”
Kiran arched her eyebrows as she stood up, put on a comfortable shirt and leggings and wrapped her blue and purple sari around her. She knew that she shouldn’t be leaving – not with the biology lab later that afternoon – but her curiosity wouldn’t leave. She just had to know who this mysterious Mr. W was and what he wanted.

Nathaniel “Nate” Winters

Nate has bright red hair, pale skin and freckles all over his face and body. He’s a little taller than average in height and the only thing that stands out significantly is his bright hair. He also has green eyes. When not dressed in uniform, Nate often wears jeans and a solid colored t-shirt.
In personality, Nate is very quick to react to anything and everything. He’s generally good around people and well-liked by his peers, though he does have a temper. He can be incredibly charming one moment, but yelling at the other members of the Squad the next. He is – and always has been – fascinated by all things technological.
Nate is also a member of the Investigation Squad and has the ability to control fire. He cannot create fire, so he must have a constant source of flame with him (usually in the form of an old lighter he carries around with him).

“That’s the last time you’re put in charge of the computer club, young sir!” An angry voice pierced through the disgustingly wet air of New York City. Nate could feel his freckled skin grow nearly the same color as his red-orange hair and he sank into his chair.
“Sorry, sir,” Nate muttered under his breath. So far, this was the second time during this summer that his foolishness had caused trouble, but who was counting? The first time was creating a computer program that was able to solve math and science problems by simply being told. This time was for creating a program that judged art and had poorly judged the skills of their school art teacher.
“Now, kindly take your things and go home,” the supervising teacher ordered, pointing a long, bony finger towards the door.
Nate picked up his backpack and could feel his heart sinking further and further down. Frances, a close friend of his, excused herself, telling the teacher that she needed to go home to take care of her baby brother. She met up with Nate in the halls outside.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, shifting her books to a more comfortable position as they walked through the streets of NYC together. She and Nate lived in the same apartment building and always walked to and from school together.
“Nothing,” Nate said, narrowing his eyes. He could still feel that envelope in his pocket. Frances frowned and Nate regretted that they were such close friends.
“Okay.” He dug the envelope out of his pocket and handed it to Frances. She read the writing on the paper inside and smiled.
Attention: Nathaniel Winters
Your attendance has been requested at Camp Aestas. You will leave tomorrow morning from the New York airport. Please see the list of items to bring.
Cordially,
Mr. Docens
“Isn’t that good? At least you won’t have Mr. Frost mad at you for the rest of the summer,” she offered.
“Whatev,” he muttered. But he knew he had to go, partially because only ten people had been accepted. It wasn’t like there were going to be a hundred kids and he wouldn’t be missed; he had the odd feeling that this was something important, unlike all those e-mails he’d received in his inbox before he finished writing the program to weed out spam messages and installed it.

Aislynn Celeste

Aislynn is a shapeshifter, so her appearance tends to vary based on whatever mood she finds herself in. She’s slightly less than five feet tall and naturally has blonde hair that’s short and blue eyes and light skin with a few freckles. She likes to dress in casual clothing whenever she has the chance, which consists of skirts and blouses. She has a tattoo on her shoulder, but often uses her powers to disguise this into her skin.
At a first glance, Aislynn is fairly happy-go-lucky. She often smiles when she works and spends time getting to know her fellow crew members. She is incredibly talkative and enjoys discussing various subjects, whether they be personal or academic in matter. Speaking of academics, her favourite subject in school was mathematics. On a closer examination, one will find out that Aislynn has always hid the deepest of her emotions from other people and she will often go into her room and start crying for no apparent reason.
Aislynn is fresh out of the academy and works at the helm and navigation controls.

It had been the first time Aislynn stepped into the Dance Hall since she had taken waltz lessons when she was in her fourth year as a student here. Having declined Justin's invitation to go during their final year, she had not come here at all that fall, winter or spring and the young professor sighed. Around her were beautiful pictures and the ceiling had been painted to look like a faerie tale castle. Like she was home once again where she truly belonged.
She laced up her dance shoes moved out onto the hardwood floor. As she closed her eyes, she felt like she was her father’s little girl once again, that her dad would come home after a long day of work and ask her how her dance lessons with Madame Barnes went. She would smile, giggle and show him how they learned to point their toes or spin around in circles. Her mother would not smile, but Demetry... Demetry would pick her up and twirl her around in his arms, lifting her high enough to touch the sky. She was his little princess.
And then it all changed when Demetry didn’t come home from work one night. Aislynn could barely remember, but she remembered Clarissa screaming at the government official who came around to their house... then her mother started crying, objects started getting thrown and eventually things got so bad she went to live with her grandparents. She was no longer her daddy’s little princess. Aislynn spun into a pirouette and as she made her second revolution, she spotted someone standing in the doorway out of the fleeting glance of her peripheral vision.
As soon as she could get both feet back on the ground, she turned to see who had been lurking in the doorway. The professor turned and could feel her cheeks glowing red as she found herself looking into the face of Nicholas Gunner. “Oh!” She glanced around, hoping that the other professor wasn’t taken aback by her horrible dance skills. “I’m sorry about that... did you want to come in and dance?” There was a short pause as she looked at him, still unsure of what to say.

Septimus “Seven” McAllistair

In appearance, Seven is of average height and average build. Nothing seems atypical about him at a first glance. He has pale skin that often carries a jaundiced tinge and non-descript brown hair. Glasses cover his orange-grey eyes. He often wears clothing that does not appear to be well-kept, a result of growing up in a lower-class family and getting used to dressing as he does. He cares little about his appearance or how he comes off to people.
Seven is probably one of the most awkward, unemotional people you would ever meet. This is largely due to the fact that he has a computer chip implanted in his brain and has since he was a young child, the result of a scientific experiment. He is naturally good with facts and uncomfortable with what he doesn’t know. He is also uncomfortable around people and their emotions.
He possesses a naturally photographic memory, but due to scientific research when he was younger, he has a computer chip implanted in his brain, which allows him to control computers with a single thought or to teleport himself (and occasionally others) through a computer network. Seven works tactical on the ship, but can also help out in engineering if need be.

He logged off of his computer and told it to shut down. Normal people would have needed to push buttons on their computers to do such a thing or at least speak to the machine, as technology had advanced enough for the newest computers to take verbal commands, but all he needed to do was think at the machine and it would do his will. The adolescent’s grey eyes stared at the blank screen curiously, as if he wished he would have persevered at that last project he was working on; he needed to crack that code.
With a slight frown on his face, he ordered his computer back on. This particular code was much trickier than any of the ones he had worked with before and the fourteen-year-old’s lips thinned in sheer determination, the one human emotion he could still feel thoroughly and with the intensity of any normal person. Septimus was well aware that he could be over-analyzing the situation, but perhaps he was wrong.
The boy flexed his hands and pulled the knitted fingerless gloves back onto his wrists. These blue garments had been his latest project, along with perfecting the latest violin piece his mother had chosen for him to learn. His glasses reflected the rows and rows of letters, numbers and various colors that littered the screen of the computers. With one thought, all the numbers were put in bold font and the letters in italics.
Seven stroked the side of his head. Brilliant. With another thought, the numbers had disappeared and the letters rearranged themselves to reveal the message, which read McAllistair: Meet me at the South End of the computer labs at the University tomorrow at precisely 17:45. I have something to give you. If you are not there at the designated time, you will not see me. He had solved the code; now all he had to do was find out the identity of the mysterious sender.

NB: Neither Justin nor Nicholas Gunner belong to me. Danielle also does not belong to me, nor does Aigel or Seylem. All the other characters do. This list of characters is for a story that one of my friends and I are writing together, so it should be interesting.

Character Featurette: Seven McAllistair

I fail at posting when I'm at home. Anyhow, I thought I'd do a brief character feature because it is someone's birthday today! Apart from being JRR Tolkien's birthday, it is also Septimus (AKA Seven) McAllistair's birthday. So happy birthday to him. I sound so wierd, saying happy birthday to someone who doesn't even exist. Seriously.

I don't know a lot about Seven, but here's what I do know. He was born to William and Clarissa McAllistair as the seventh of eight children. William is a professor of classical studies (Latin and Greek) at WSU in Seattle. Clarissa teaches music and plays in the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. His family isn't particularly rich, but they have enough to live on. Seven went to the local public schools throughout primary and secondary schooling.

Nothing about Seven's appearance stands out as particularly unusual, except for his eyes. He has slightly paled skin (due to being inside all day) and straight hair the color of light mud. His eyes are a sort of grey-orange color; the closest natural color one can describe them as is amber. He usually dresses in hand-me-down clothing and he almost always wears a pair of black fingerless gloves he knit himself. Yes, he does knit.

I'm still trying to pin down Seven's personality. On one hand, you see a geek. He's kind of... awkward, for lack of something better to call him. He's that geeky kid who knows the answer to literally every question a teacher asks (having a photographic memory kind of helps!). His speech is so incredibily stilted that it isn't funny anymore. He doesn't use contractions. At all. On the flip side, he believes in using any means necessary to achieve what he needs. So he could be pretending to be kind of clueless and awkward, but I really don't know... I guess the only way to answer that would be to write him more!

His hobbies and activities include knitting, lots of computer work, violin, tech work for local stage productions and lurking in the library behind a really BIG book.

Lastly, a quote that I think does exemplify Seven's attitude, specifically towards his moral compass... "Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right." It's an Isaac Asimov quote, but it does fit Seven...

Snapshots, a Brief Scene and Seven...

I finally figured out the catalyst I need for Snapshots because Michael and Sharpe have been sitting there for the longest of times and it's getting more than awkward. So, someone's going to knock on the door to Sharpe's apartment... and I know who that someone is!

I've also been toying around with the idea of writing a scene between Sharpe and probably Michael where Sharpe tells Michael to choose his words carefully because they are as influential as one's friends. And then, Michael could snap back at Sharpe about how he thinks Sharpe doesn't choose his own friends carefully enough. Sharpe would totally hate that. He chooses his allies strategically. Sometimes, it's based on duty (like Tem... long story there) and sometimes it's more personal, like how he chooses to cooperate well with Amy Kerrington.

Seven McAllistair's character has also recently intrigued me. He grew up in Seattle with six older siblings and one younger one. His father is a professor of classics (like Greek and Latin, but especially Latin) at WSU (the one in Seattle) and his mom is a music teacher. He is somehow related to Sophia McAllistair (probably cousins or something), but they've never met. This much is about all I know for sure about his character background and there's so much I haven't explored with his character yet. He's kind of wierd... I mean, he has amber-grey eyes that look almost orange. Yes, that's natural for him.

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!

Quick Update, Christmas, Knitting, Quotes...

Since I have been failing so badly to post with anything relating to writing lately (and that's what this blog is about!!!), I feel bad for not continuing my Christmas Eve story today. Yay for writer's block and being sick. Not. I've been knitting like a crazy person over the past few days in a pathetic attempt to get Christmas gifts done by Christmas and today I taught my sister how to knit.

Did you know that one of my characters knits? Yes, Septimus McAllistair (though almost everyone just calls him Seven) does and he's quite good at it. He has a pair of black fingerless gloves he's made himself that he always wears. He's also kind of a computer geek and he's really smart. No wonder he gets teased a lot. Marie Wilson knows how to crochet and I'm guessing she's taught most of her friends how to do that also. Sam, Tyler and Michael probably both know how... Sam and Tyler just because they're willing to go along with whatever is happening and Michael because he is quite artistic.

And this last little bit is kind of completely random (my thought patterns are not linear, in case you haven't already noticed!), but most of my characters are somehow interconnected. There is some way that Sharpe knows Stephanie Rei (see this entry) because despite the fact it's not explicitly mentioned, that is Sharpe. He was the one who delivered the package... but he has no idea about its contents. My guess is that Stephanie contacted him and told him that she had something that was really important that it get to Emiko... and that Tetsuya wouldn't like his daughter having it. Which is rather true.

So yeah... I guess that's all I have to say tonight. Let me end with a quick CS Lewis quote this time. It has nothing to do with writing. "The Son of God became a man to enable men to become sons of God." ~CS Lewis

And God bless us, everyone! Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve Story Background

I don't really have a lot of time to write something decent, so I'll just give a little background on the Christmas Eve story that I've been working on. Plus, we've had storms and our power at home was out all this morning and I was not necessarily here this evening or I would've blogged earlier.

Anyhow, it takes place in December of 2008, which means that the Fellowship et al have been out of high school for about a year and a half. They're all sophomores in college. Kiran Shasthri, Nate Winters and Danny Turner are all freshmen, though Kiran probably has close to sophomore credit as far as her classes go. Ellie Johnson is a senior in high school and Andy and Elizabeth Liu are juniors. Cassandra is (probably) in eighth grade, though I'm not 100% sure.

It's been twenty-five years since Sharpe was in eighth grade, making him now nearly thirty-nine years of age (he'll be thirty-nine in the middle of February 2009, as his year of birth is 1970).

In other news, this is a little bit random, but I really want to write something futuristic/dystopian with Seven and Tem and Aislynn and Kana and Siyamak and all those other characters. Well, maybe not Aislynn, but definitely Seven because he comes from an alternate universe where science and technology are basically worshipped. That has real potential to turn into something interesting. And I'd love to include Tem because she randomly pops up in the most inopportune places at the most inconvenient times. And Kana and Siyamak because they're two of Tem's original AU counterparts and they're just fun to write. Siyamak's a bit of a creep, though...