Rhythminthemind

Character directory? Ok. The Big Three: James: Protagonist. Casper: Cuddly emo bestie. Tasha: Strong as heck. Also cuddly. Main Fam: Peter: James' dad. Sarah: James' mom. Bex: James' kid sister. Hideyoshi: James' grandpa. Tsuru: James' grandma. (Do not heck with). The Government: Natalie Sharpe: James' therapist. Ray Sullivan: Casper's dad. Government agent. Linda Sullivan: Casper's mom. Government agent. Jacqueline Vance/Jackie: Peter's partner. The woman who makes portals. Government agent. Theo and Kym: A pair of goblins who saved Casper when the elves attacked. Nearly died doing it. He's grateful. Assorted Manhattanites: Lewis Themps: A tracker who works for various criminal groups. Kidnapped Tasha. Sorta friends with Casper. Mel and Freja: Unlicensed magical instructors. Sorta friends with Casper. Tuva: That one summoner girl Hideyoshi took as an apprentice. She lives in New York now. The Family: Father: Magically superpowered cult leader and sexual predator. Is extremely weird about Casper. Marcus, Samson, Lara: Father's underlings. Marcus is the leader of the new york branch. Samson's his boyfriend. Lara has force breath. Alistair: That one kid Casper talked to when he was at the family building. ???: Caleb/13: A mysterious boy with an unknown agenda. 23: Caleb's equally mysterious partner in crime.

Caleb: Caleb followed the figures through the mall at a distance, keeping his eyes locked on the two adults of the group. Why were they so powerful? When he’d caught their scent the previous night, he’d thought that the scraps of power floating past his new familiar’s senses must have come from some dangerous mercenary commune, or perhaps a government garrison house. But no. It was a normal family, as far as he could tell. He watched, perplexed, as the little girl tugged on her father’s sle

Oh. Yeah. Not telling Mel and Freja was DEFINITELY a bad call. If they'd known that, they'd have marched Casper to James' front door THEMSELVES.

I mean, fair. Safety is a thing. That said, they do have valid reasons. James' parents don't know that Father's after Casper, and he never said he was gonna turn up alone. He said he was staying with a friend. I think it's reasonable for them to assume he'd get there safely. I'm not sure it would've been the right call to try and push him into either being escorted to them, or divulging his location. Not when he already has very little trust for them. Casper doesn't want to get the people who helped him in trouble, which is a valid fear. Providing shelter to a child runaway without reporting it to the authorities is kind of a serious crime. Peter and Sarah, for their part, don't want to scare Casper off by pushing him too hard on how to make his way over to them. Manhattan has a pretty good public transport system. It's not unreasonable to trust a teenager to make his way to a mall in broad daylight without assistance.

I mean, not really. To Freja and Mel's perspective, the elves were dealt with, and so were the birds. They had no reason to insist on accompanying him. They didn't realize he was in danger from Father too, because he never told them about Father.

Casper: Casper held the toothbrush under the tap for a second, then lifted it to his mouth. It was the third time he’d brushed his teeth that morning. The first two had been to get rid of the lingering taste of vomit. This one was in hopes of chasing away the memory of Father’s lips. He ran the brush over his tongue, forcing the minty foam in between his taste buds in an attempt to force everything else out. It didn’t work. He brushed harder. He heard a knock on the bathroom door behin

Casper calling is the point. He's done it once, and there's a decent chance he'll do so again. It's worth trying and that's as deep as it goes. Also, James does amazing pancakes. 😜

I certainly hope they are. 🙂

Honestly, he plans to just hold onto it for a while in case Casper tries to call again. Casper's already called James once since running away. It's quite possible he'll try and call him again, even after breaking his phone. It's not beyond reason for Casper to have noted James' number down or simply committed it to memory before breaking his phone. He's a reasonable kid, after all. He's not going to throw all his contacts away if he can help it.

"Peter comes across as relatively involved in this chapter, but if he really was involved in his children's lives; then how can he not know that his child is sneaking out at all hours of the day and night, how can he not have some idea that his own child is in turmoil?" Because James has only snuck out three times in totality. Once when Casper was covering for him, and once while Peter was established to be out of the house. So, really, that leaves Peter a single instance to realize that his kid has snuck out. One twenty minute window. And, during that instance, James had already made sure his parents were watching a movie before he left. No parent checks up on their kid every twenty minutes, every single day. Especially not when said kid has made it clear that he wants some personal space. It is possible to be involved in a kid's life without realizing that they're hiding stuff from you. As for not realizing that James is in turmoil, I want to make this very clear: Peter is extremely aware that his son is in turmoil. His son was raped like, three weeks ago. Of course he's in turmoil. James' therapist has even mentioned that his parents are worried he's hiding things from them, and has told them to give him some space on it, because pushing him on his trauma will not help. So he's trying to give the kid space. He more than likely has noticed James acting weirder since he got his powers. But how's he going to distinguish "acting weird cuz of powers" from "acting weird cuz of recent trauma." I wanna be clear here. I'm not saying this out of anger. I'm not trying to tell you that you're wrong. But this is where Peter's coming from. This is why he's unaware. You seem to think it's a pretty sizeable plothole or character flaw, but from where I'm standing, his level of perception on the matter is about what I'd expect of an involved parent. These are my explanations for what you've given me thus far, and if you still have reasons to think otherwise, I'm happy to hear them. I welcome critique, especially if it might help me to improve my work. Also yes. Bex is annoying and James loves her. @centexhairysub

Heh. Tasha trained by Hideyoshi. That's gonna be fun.

Indeed we do.

Definitely some kind of zoid. The zoid is quite important.

Possibly a few more dragons.

Heh. Hideyoshi's an interesting guy.

Yep. It wasn't complex enough yet.

Heh. Things were slightly easier to track on my main site, because I published each chapter with character tags to identify who'd been in the story before.

🙂

It may well be.

James: “Hey.” James grumbled something, buried his face in his pillow, and let out a snore. “Heeey.” Something cold prodded the back of his skull, pushing his head a fraction of an inch to the side and forcing him just a little more awake. Then, his barely conscious mind registered the voice. “Heeey! Get up. I want pancakes.” “Noooo,” he mumbled, his voice muffled by the pillow still wedged against his face. “Go away, Bex. I wanna sleep.” For a few seconds, the

We shall see. And thank you for your words. 🙂

Caleb's brand new. Promise.

Heh. Really? Not Casper's teachers or James' therapist?

Heh. She is indeed.

You think so? I mean, I'm not sure that I agree, but I'm interested to hear your thoughts on it. What makes you say so? As for what Tasha overheard, very little, seeing as they were speaking quietly to avoid being overheard.