In this world nothing can be said to be certain..

...except death and taxes. But in the world of undeath, what was there left? Everything and anything, smiled Charlie as he sat, his feet dangling over the clifftop, reading an ancient copy of Milton's Paradise Lost. The island was stretched out beneath him, acres of forest, what appeared to be a small clearing, but was inactualty the immense campus of Starlight Academy, and off, in the distance, the cold blue of the pacific ocean which surrounded the island.

Somewhere, thought Charlie, somewhere out there is my island. I wonder where it is now. Charlie's island was not a normal island. It has a strange tendency to move about. It was everywhere and nowhere at once. He could always find it, but others who found it could never return. All they would find is empty sea.

He closed the copy of paradise lost and placed it in his sachel, withdrawing another book, a copy of Dr Seuss' Green Eggs and Ham, a much shorter book. He finished this book quickly. "I do not like green eggs and ham" he said aloud and laughed. In all his years, he had tired many things, but the eggs of the Olive Egger, a chicken which laid olive green eggs, were among the worst.

He replaced this book into his satchel as well, content to just sit on the clifftop and watch the world go by. The sun rose in the sky, burning with the light of midday as people moved around like insects in the city in the distance. the sun began fall once again, and was just barely touching the horizon as sundown began...


@Saber

Charlie turned at the interruption of the stranger. It was a boy, most likely a student. His appearance put Charlie in mind of a stick of liquorice. Tall, thin, and dressed in black. He was dressed in an immaculate black uniform.

Charlie was dressed in what had become a slightly dirty shirt and waistcoat. He stood up and patted his trousers, brushing off the dust that had gathered on his trousers from the dusty clifftop.

"Ah no problem. It's beautiful isn't it?" Charlie said, briefly looked back and casting a hand towards the vantage "the view, I mean. Sorry, how rude of me. Judging from your age, are you a student? I'm Professor Charlie Rotmoore. Nice to meet you." Charlie stuck his hand out, ready to be shook.

@Saber

Charlie smiled at the boy, his kind blue eyes flashing in the setting sun. Probably the setting sun anyway. Charlie didn't know much about the island, but he wondered how it compared to his own island, somewhere out there, where it was always 11:45PM. Clocks stopped as soon as Charlie brought them to the island, which irritated him. Eternal midnight had a nice ring to it, but eternal quarter to twelve was kind of a mouthful.

"Just arrived eh? me too. I arrived a few weeks ago. Haven't even taught yet. Met some interesting characters though. And, in regards to the island, there are lots of beautiful places in the world, you just need to look carefully" He winked at the boy. "Lots of things don't change, my boy, but it's all about seeing as many of those things as possible, and finding the new things when they change"

The boy asked him what he did. It was a common enough question, new student, probably hasn't picked his courses yet. And Charlie had nothing but enthusiasm for his course.
"No problem at all. I am the new professor of Necromancy, the study of death magic, although in layman's terms I teach people how to make zombies and generally everything about the undead" Charlie laughed at this, but distilling his life's work down to a sentence was irritating, but necessary, He had tried talking about controlling the balance, but the only person who had understood him so far had been a reaper.

@Saber

The boy looked at him curiously, and charlie looked back at him with equal curiosity. Was the boy undead? He had done nothing to indicate this, but his curiosity was intriguing.

"How? Imagine an emmense bottle of water, bigger than you could possibly imagine. Then imagine a bunch of small glasses. I am the bottle of water, the glasses are things to be reanimated. I simply move the water from the bottle to the glass. Why? Well i make other undead as a means to an end. A tool. Most of my undead are unintelligent, incapable of higher though. Some people, like myself, choose a life of undeath. I chose it because a moral life, the idea of an end before i chose, was not something i wanted. I turned myself undead to see more, to learn more. Being undead is not a curse. It is a gift."

Charlie had been undead longer than anyone he knew. And he knew a lot of people. He had seen the world, but it was the world to come that intrigued him. The world had changed and shifted so much in the last hundred years. And you know what they say - Shift happens.

@Saber

"one of the things that i've learned" Charlie said, looking out to sea "Is that, with lives such as ours, if you look at the big picture, the big picture keeps getting bigger, and bigger, until it turns you mad. Yes you go on forever, but isn't that the same as being alive? you just get more of it. Focus on the everyday, your studies, whatever you are learning. Find the beauty in the little things, the new things."

He smiled, and pulled out a cylindrical metal thermos flask from his bag, and unscrewed the lid. He poured a deep brown liquid into the lid, and took a sip.

"Like tea." he lifted the metal lid "And sunrises, and achieving goals, and watching mountains become plains, plains become valleys, all because of a little river of water. The world changes, and you change with it. You get to see everything you ever wanted to. Because it's not like you don't have the time..."

((AHH i forgot this existed))