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In the course of packing up the house, it finally became necessary to tackle the back bedroom. Not having children, pets, or roommates, we've been using this room as storage. It's primarily where the video tapes live. It's also an absolute pig sty. In the last two+ years, we've only been back there long enough to retrieve a tape, drop off a tape, or vow "to do something about the mess one of these days."

I spent most of the afternoon in there today. Amongst the shelves and shelves of tapes, I found the notebooks. I'd forgotten about the notebooks.

While it's true that I do most of my writing on the computer, occasionally I get the fancy to write long hand. Usually it lasts exactly as long as it takes for me to find a computer, which has resulted in most of the notebooks being filled with odd little half-paragraphs, incomplete thoughts, and notes to myself.

There were some interesting bits, stories that I'd planned to write once and which either never happened, died for The Good of All Mankind (tm), or morphed into some other story entirely.

A note about my writing style. Almost every story starts with a title. Then I write a rough plot synopsis, TV Guide style, to keep things on track. This initial plot synop never, ever has borne any resemblance to the final story. Which I guess only goes to show that it really failed in its function.

Some of the highlights in no particular order:

The Lethe Incident
This story was intended to be the follow-up to The Atropos Project. It never grew beyond the following synop and never will since many ideas intended for it got appropriated for Grimm's Law:

Rachel and Megabyte are induced to forget everything about their powers, including all knowledge of the TP and their TP friends. OPUSS is back, on both sides. Sean has been released from the hospital and is up to his old tricks again, trying to get back into OPUSS' good graces--and he's not at all happy with Samantha. Samantha is back, too, on the side of the TP. She's got a new recruit in the form of Alejo, Rachel's new and only friend at school. The TP have their own problems, as it seems Megabyte isn't the only one losing his memory: Adam is affected too, just when his mysterious past begins to catch up to him.

Spiral
The intended sequel for When the Music Stops, which was planned as story one of a trilogy. The third story was to be called "The Laws of Nature".

Nothing can stop Beth from getting what she wants ... not even success. Meanwhile, Wade learns that there's right, there's wrong, and then there's the law.

The Morpheus Solution
The intended followed up to Lethe. Just as Lethe involves the TP losing their memories, Morpheus was going to play with dreams. This one really got appropriated by Grimm's Law. However, the central element did not. In this story, the TP were going to dream of the life they would have had had they never become TP. More importantly, they were to be offered the option (by entity or entiries unknown) of living that option. Ami was to accept it, as indicated in the following scenette, which was to be at or near the end of the story.

"I wish ...." The thought died before it finished leaving his mouth. Adam stared down at the sleeping form sprawled supine across the bed. One arm was thrown over her head, the other tucked close to her face. She looked so clam and defenseless, her breaths coming slow and regular, undisturbed by the young man next to her bed or the breaking morning shining through her window.

There was a quiet in the room, a stillness that can only be found before dawn. Adam hesitated to speak again, afraid that she might hear him and wake. He drew a deep breath and squeezed his eyes shut, letting the morning settle over him. Her image burned the inside of his eyelids: Ami laughing at one of Megabyte's jokes, Ami exhausted after a night spent saving the world, and the glow in her eyes of a job well done.

He'd only known her for a few years and he already realized how badly he was going to miss her. But she had what she wanted, what she always wanted, and he couldn't begrudge her that happiness.

He heard her turn over and he opened his eyes to see her facing him now, still asleep. A small smile played about her lips.

Adam wondered if she'd ever been truly happy with them, or if she'd just accepted the Tomorrow People because she'd been given no choice before now. As he watched her sleep, he felt the answer come to him.

It had been a foolish question.

He extended a hand over her face, as if to touch her one last time, but didn't. Concentrating, the power swept down his arm and out, a variation of the healing ability he'd once possessed. His hand began to glow.

It was all he could do. A gift not just for her, but for all of them. Months, years down the road when she'd forgotten the Tomorrow People and relegated alien space ships and teleporting back to the realm of fantasy, she'd still remember that once there'd been people who'd accepted her. She'd never consciously remember them--that wasn't part of the solution--but she'd never entirely forget them.

It would be enough.

Waiting To Be Seated
Right. Okay. This is not fanfic at all. Never was, never will be. But it will probably show up in a fanfic or two along the way. Waiting To Be Seated is my fictional response to the rash of NBC-esque shows that involved groups of twenty-somethings being dumb. It's a soap/drama/comedy about six twenty-somethings who are waiting for the table at a posh restaurant. Yes, that's it. They spend the entire first season waiting for the their name to be called. IIRC, the November sweeps episode had their name being called, but every member of the group being elsewhere. Since they don't hear their name, the table is given away and they have to go to the bottom of the list.

Waiting to Be Seated

Characters: Craig, Marc, Terry, Mercy, Hannah, Natasha

Random synop: Craig goes out for a smoke after catching Marc and Mercy behind the potted plant together. Terry gets into a fight with the busboy. Will he get ejected from the restaurant? Stay tuned.

Something Called Forever
A story I would still like to write someday, this is the Richie (Highlander) meets Adam (TP) story that I've flirted with a number of times under a number of other titles.

Richie is back in Seacouver after dying in Paris (post "Testimony"). He's working on a relationship with a new girl. Meanwhile, he's being hunted by an Immortal who wants to avenge Kristov's death. Then his girlfriend disappears for three days without warning. When she returns, she has a new companion (Adam Newman) who's got a few secrets of his own.

IOW, Richie's girlfriend breaks out. Since he can't tell her what's going on with the being hunted, she draws some wrong conclusions. Since she won't tell him what's going on, he initially thinks that she's been kidnapped by the Immortal hunting him, then starts to believe that she's cheating on him with Adam. The hold up with this story is trying to keep OFC from becoming Mary Sue, since I am playing with two of my favorite characters.