Countdown: 3 Days

Hello, hello, hello, everyone! (To quote from Ethan Daniels.) I'm here once again with the Great Italy Countdown! I will be gone for two weeks on Tuesday, and then, Raistlin will be in charge for those two weeks. I expect you all to behave yourselves...don't get into trouble...
All right, so. We all know that on Saturday I gave you a commission: Give a lengthy description of A Text to Save the World, including ideas for character and plot. Well, I never ask my club members to do something that I wouldn't do myself, so here is my lengthy description of A Text to Save the World. Remember, these are ideas in my mind. This largely relies on your comments, guys. If you disagree with something, COMMENT, or disagree on your own lengthy description. We're on a time crunch here. We should have a general idea by Monday night, because I'm going to be gone Tuesday morning. It's only tomorrow and the day after that, and then I'll be gone, so we need to finish this up quickly.
Okay...Here's my description.

A Lengthy Description of A Text to Save the World

  So, it all started back when a young girl was born and was named Simile...with a last name. (Starling, maybe???) Anyway, she was a bright girl with a lot of talent and a mind for politics. In fact, she was brilliant. She had an idea that could either make the world better, or destroy it. It would start with taking a child and placing into that child the ability to (honestly, I don't know what it could be. Help me out here, guys. I'm stumped. What could she do that would either save the world or destroy it?) However, when she got older, she presented her idea to the government. They thought she was insane. Later, when she tried to get into politics, and run for some offices, they still thought she was crazy. Thus began a lifelong struggle against the government. The straw that broke the camel's back came when she actually tried to perform this experiment. She meant well enough, but she put a child at risk, and the government printed an article against her, and tried to put her in an insane asylum. Simile escaped, and vowed revenge. She would carry out her plan, but it wouldn't be to help the world -- it would be to destroy it. Simile is the exact opposite of Notch. Instead of owing the world, the world owed her. 

  Meanwhile, as Simile was presenting her idea to the government for the first time, another child was born. He was born to an officer in a military base, where they were developing top secret formulas and weapons. They weren't supposed to have children, but this officer did, anyway, and because he was so important, they agreed to keep the kid around, but he couldn't know or see his dad, so that they couldn't get too attached. But when the father died, the base was at a loss as to what to DO with his son. They couldn't throw him out, or he might tell someone about the stuff inside the base. So he was kept. 

  Notch (for that's who the child was) showed a strange adeptness at the complicated systems of the base. He had a surprisingly logical mind and a quick brain, but an eerie sense of revenge and justice. He drank in everything that he could possibly learn about the base. 

  Then, one day, he disappeared. 

  Nobody quite knows why Notch ran away. If you asked him, he would probably say that he didn't need to be there anymore. He had learned all he could learn. Still, the real reason would likely be that Notch never felt at home there. He never felt at home anywhere, I suppose. 

   So he wandered. First he attended a college for one year when he was sixteen years old. He was too young for the students and too smart for the teachers, so he quit. He found himself in Washington, D.C., keeping up with the government and waiting around for a chance to do something worthwhile. 

  It was there that Simile saw the username "Notch" on an online political forum. She recognized his potential, and she hired him immediately as her assistant in gathering everything to perform her experiment on a child once again. 

  Notch trusted Simile completely on the outside. He harbored some wariness on the inside, but he saw nothing to lose. He had never been wanted. He had nothing to fear from prison, because he could easily figure a way out of jail. And in a way, he wanted revenge for the way the world had always treated him -- like a nerd. (A bit like a certain child to be born later, named Flicker Peterson...but that's getting ahead of myself.)

  So, Notch joined Simile. He helped prepare for her experiment. The government realized what “Notch” was doing, and they sent FBI agents after him. Only Notch’s name was connected with the plots of Simile, instead of her name. Notch recognized this, but neglected to say anything to Simile, out of simple respect. When Evan Peterson was sent after Notch, an epic battle ensued. Notch’s brains against Evan’s heroics. Soon after, Simile chose a subject for the experiment -- an orphan named Hope Riley. In the end, when the experiment was ready, Simile took the baby Hope and went out to Indiana, where the whole thing was set up. Evan Peterson showed up, and there was a struggle at the lab out in Indiana. After the experiment was finished successfully, Simile revealed that Notch knew too much, and had served his purpose. She trapped both Notch and Evan inside the building and set some explosives to destroy the evidence.  Evan saved Notch’s life, but in the process was killed himself. After this, Notch had a change of heart, because of Evan's sacrifice. He realized that now he owed his life to Evan Peterson. He directed this into a lifetime's work to save the world that Evan had worked so hard to try and save. He also felt a certain obligation to Evan's yet-to-be-born son, Flicker Peterson, but he considered the best way to help the child was to keep him out of the whole affair. Still, he moved to Chicago to keep an eye on him. 

  Soon after, he stole Hope from Simile. Hope grew up with "Mr. Notch" as a surrogate father, not knowing her own importance, or that she was the only one who could bring hope to the world. 

  Then, when Flicker is thirteen or so, the story begins. Basically, in a VERY short summary, (please do put a longer summary on yours. I just spent a lot of time with the back stories, so I want to make this one quick), Flicker is whisked from his normal life by Notch and Hope Riley. All Notch has to say is the mysterious phrase "Don't do it" and a couple of vague pieces of advice. Then Simile enters the scene, along with Xaq and all her other minions. She leads Flicker (and the reader) to believe that Notch is evil and trying to destroy the world. But in trying to defeat Notch, she is actually trying to get back Hope to destroy the world. But after a series of adventures in which Notch seems the standard villain, Flicker realizes the truth. He discovers that the phrase "Don't do it" is actually referring to the critical moment in which Simile asks him to join her again to defeat Notch. Flicker DOESN'T, in fact, do it, and he helps defeat Simile...but she may yet return. 

  An short overview on Shorty the Gangster: He is basically a comic relief. He's a run-of-the-mill gangster, but without a gang, because he got kicked out of all his previous gangs 'cause he was too annoying and rebellious. So he does under-handed work for money, and constantly does stuff for Notch and Simile, but is always double-crossing both of them. They both know it, but don't really care, as long as he doesn't find out anything important. In the end, he should help Flicker just a bit, proving that he has at least a bit of a heart. 

  

  There's my lengthy deal. Again, your summary of the book can and should be longer, unless you spend a great deal of time on the back stories, as I did. 

  I also have another idea, although it would be very difficult, as we would have to go back and change a lot of things. I kind of don't think Flicker should narrate the story. It narrows down our vision, because we see things pretty much only from his point of view. I think that we should have a mysterious narrator, like in The Name of this Book is Secret. He can tell the story in a unique way, and skip around a lot. 

  That's about it. Also, here is a song from The Ceiling Fan, but it makes no sense without a little context. Basically, this song is an apology from Phil to Ethan (this is way back) about this April Fool's joke that he played in which he quit the show. Ethan got mad, so Phil made an apology song, put it on a tape, and gave it to Intern James to give to Ethan. 

Enjoy! 

  There you go. May your stars shine bright and don't trust Phil if you meet him on a dark road. 

  At least until Episode 42 Part 2 of The Ceiling Fan comes out.

  And may that be soon.

-President Fantasy