Stories

It is August of 2004, the month that the Olympics were held in Athens. Will Schluter will be there, then he'll start his freshman year at Harvard with his cousin Marie. It's a bittersweet event because the man he loves, Travis Buck, has to remain in Hollywood to work on his acting career, and they'll have to deal with being separated by thousands of miles.

Meanwhile, Will's brother JJ is firmly established in New York City, trying to deal with the inevitable challenges life throws at him, while his father Brad will face a crisis that could ruin his marriage.

The French Revolutionary War is finally coming to a conclusion, and after eight years of conflict, George Granger is going to have to adapt to a world at peace. While the conflict with France may be at an end, George has his own challenges to face. He has returned home to find himself richer, but estranged from his wife. His best friend and lover, Francis Calvert, has been wounded in the Caribbean and has not yet returned to England. Join George as he navigates this fraught era, which may be even more dangerous than when England at France were at war.

In an old, dusty teapot, unfulfilled dreams linger. Faint cracks run across its surface when past promises collide with current realities in a whirl of questions and emotions.

It is January 2004 and the United States and its “allies” have just completed the successful invasion of Iraq and Saddam Hussein has been captured. US Presidential Elections are on the horizon. Howard Dean is the frontrunner to be the Democratic candidate to take on George W. Bush.

These events weigh lightly on the mind of Will Schluter. He just graduated from high school a semester early and is looking forward to spending the next eight months in the pursuit of hedonistic pleasure and mind broadening experiences.

Neither Will nor his country had any idea about the challenges that lurked ahead.

George Granger has been separated from his command, and how finds himself in limbo, waiting for Valiant to return. In the meantime, the Admiralty has found other things for him to do. Little does Granger know that when his ship finally does return, he'll be given an entirely different challenge, one that will take him to entirely new waters.

Harlon Eldrick's mother is dying of recurrent breast cancer and wants him to go tell his father. Harlon lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and his father lives across the country in a small collection of buildings called Black Dog, Washington. Harlon wants to make this an adventure. He will take the train to Chicago and hitchhike from there to Black Dog. It's been over a week, since Harlon left Chicago on a trip that's been anything but an adventure. He is welcomed into a semi by Steve Lennard for what he hopes is his last ride.

"Man in Motion," follows Be Rad and begins in 1985. To most Americans, 1985 was about the second Reagan term and the economic boom that was following the stagnant 70's. The culture was wrapped up in materialism, so it's no wonder that Madonna's "Material Girl" was popular then. Then there is this parallel culture, the gay culture, reeling from the onslaught of AIDS.

At the time it seemed a good idea, but how it played out nearly cost Charlie his life. He had the big ranch, but his wife had died and all the kids didn't want anything to do with ranching. So he decided to sell and move into the city. Everything was good great until he decided to take that walk in the park.

Potluck Theme: Through a Glass Darkly

The Moresby Collective Association controls life for Terrans living on Moresby’s Planet in the Andromeda galaxy. Twenty-one teens are running away from Village 31K2.6 because of unspoken horrors afflicting young people. There goal is the land on the other side of the Great Western Sea where legend says they will live free for the rest of their lives. Chasing them are thirty-one adults who will kill every teen, except for their leader Edgar Christiansson. He will be returned to the village to be executed in a way only humans can imagine.

This story starts in June of 2003. The invasion of Iraq is over, George Bush has landed on the aircraft carrier and proclaimed "Mission Accomplished", and the insurgency has yet to begin. Some may think America is at the height of its power.

Meanwhile, in the CAP world:

JJ and Will, both in doomed relationships that seem to be working. Will they unravel, and if they do, who is behind it?