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Lakewood Times

Lakewood Times

Written Character Sketches & Dialogue by William Barker

 

Character #1

Amelia is a spacey college student who lives in a big city. She is 19 and has just stepped into the adult world. Her life is spent lost in thought, and she’s lost in thought so often that she often needs her friends’ notes from their professors’ lectures. She is almost always calm, as even when great misfortunes happen to her she seems barely bothered. Despite how it seems, she is not apathetic and cares about her friends deeply. They all go to the same university and hang out together after school. Even though she’s always lost in thought, she still has really no clue what she wants to do with her life, but has chosen to major in Computer Science and is taking multiple music electives. 

She doesn’t often see her family as they work internationally, however she is beloved by her friend group that has been with her since she was in high school. She mostly wears hoodies and sweaters in the winter, and graphic t-shirts in the summer. Her favorite hoodie is a white graphic hoodie she got from a concert for one of her favorite bands, which is decorated with orange, pink, and black designs. She often wears it with black jeans and black Converse sneakers. There are often red and black headphones around her neck, as she greatly enjoys music and the headphones help her focus when she works. She is very pale as she does spend much time outside besides walking the city streets and also because the city she lives in doesn’t get much sunlight.

She isn’t very tall, standing at around only 157 centimeters, and is the shortest of her friend group. Her hair is straight and on the shorter side in length, it’s so black that sometimes when it’s dark it doesn’t look like she has any hair at all. She has dark brown eyes the color of the bark of a maple tree. At night when she’s doing her homework she finds it beneficial to wear gold reading glasses, as her eyesight isn’t perfect but not bad enough to justify getting prescription glasses. She mostly keeps a calm expression on her face, with her eyes seeming to be looking at something far away.

She enjoys playing music, but never considered majoring in it. She plays three instruments: the piano, the viola, and the bass. She has started to look for jobs around her dorm as her parents have bugged her to do so. She plays a lot of games on her phone and computer and enjoys rhythm based games. She has trouble sleeping at night but she’s always a bit sleepy during the day, this causes her slight frustration.

 

Character #2

Kel is a salaryman. He’s 24 and graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business and has become an accountant. Most of his days are long and tedious, however he is appreciated at his job for his keen ability to focus. He doesn’t have any friends as he’s in a new city and he’s two exhausted from work to socialize. He’s unfulfilled because he doesn’t get to do anything interesting with his time. He does however love music, and he’ll often spend the small amount of time he gets at home during the week playing guitar and listening to music. He can be serious and uptight due to his anxiety, causing him to endlessly worry about a situation. When he isn’t stressed he is usually a calm and friendly person.

He lost touch with his friends in college, so most of his outfits revolve around his work. He has varying colors of dress shirts, his favorites’ being his black, red, and white ones. He has a shiny brown belt that he’ll wear with lighter khakis, and a black belt that he’ll wear with his black dress pants. He has three pairs of shoes, black dress shoes with laces, and brown dress shoes without laces. He still has all of his old band t-shirts from college in his closet, and he’ll wear one on the weekend. Overall he doesn’t have a particular style in which he likes to dress.

He’s a man of average height, standing around 178 centimeters and in a crowd he wouldn’t stand out too much. He has chestnut brown hair of medium length, with its most noticeable feature being its abundance of curls. He has pale green eyes which resemble jade. While at work, he maintains a forced neutral face, that looks like he is almost struggling to do so. At home it’s hard for him to keep his eyes open. When he’s having fun or excited about something his eyes light up.

The thing he enjoys doing the most is cooking, and he specifically enjoys making soups and stews. He binges shows on streaming services quite often as his fatigue from work causes him to look for an easy form of entertainment. He ends up worrying so much about work the next day that he’ll often try to accomplish something extra after he gets home. He takes sleeping medication so he doesn’t have trouble sleeping. He hasn’t talked to his parents since they kicked him out at 19, and as a result he’s still paying off quite a bit of student debt. His favorite kinds of music are rock, punk, and jazz.

 

Dialogue Activity

Character 1- Amelia

Character 2- Kel

Scenario- They run into each other again in the concert venue after they accidentally bumped into each other exiting the parking lot.

“Well hello again,” Kel said with a quick wave.

“Oh… hi! You’re that guy from the parking lot,” exclaimed Amelia.

“Haha yeah, this song is awesome isn’t it? This is my favorite one from them,” Kel remarked.

“Oh cool, me too,” stated Amelia with a slight grin on her face. She was glad to have found someone else who appreciated this song, she felt it was underrated.

“What’s your name? My name is Kel,” Kel asked.

“My name’s Amelia, nice to meet you,” replied Amelia.

“Nice to meet you too,” Kel responded.

“Oh, uh yeah, sorry I was a bit rude in the parking lot when we bumped into each other. I don’t know what my problem is. I guess I just get frustrated too easily,” Kel looked down bashfully.

 

“Hmm? Oh, yeah no worries. I didn’t take it personally,” Amelia reassured.

“Thanks,” Kel’s shoulders relaxed a bit.

Kel focuses back on the band, the singer is hopping around wildly as the guitarist shreds his solo. He always enjoyed the energy at concerts, it felt like he was in a different world from the one he spends his days in, working and sleeping. Amelia spaces out as the music fills her ears, she idly stares forwards as she’s enveloped in the music. This is where she feels true freedom, liberated from any thought or worry in the world. 

When the song ends Kel turns to Amelia and remarks, “Wow I wish I could play guitar as well as he can, it gives me inspiration. I’d love to be like one of these guys someday.”

“Oh, do you play guitar?” Amelia inquired.

“Yeah, whenever I can. It helps get rid of some of the stress. How about you, do you play any instruments?” replied Kel.

“Oh uh yeah, three of them actually. Bass, piano, and viola,” Amelia declared with a proud look on her face.

“Oh cool, what’s your favorite?” asked Kel.

“It’s always been the bass for me, the rhythms that can come from the bass are enchanting,” Amelia answered enthusiastically.

“Enchanting eh?” Yo, would you wanna like, play something together sometime?” implored Kel, with a hopeful tone of voice.

“Play something? Yeah that could be fun, here, give me your Instagram I’ll add you.” Amelia responded.

“Sure, sounds good,” replied Kel.

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