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I thought I’d give you guys a little background on Isaac today, and his relationship with Garrett.

Isaac was born in August of 1984. He was an only child, not planned, nor particularly wanted. His mom and dad had invested in a lot of cheap real estate in the early 80’s, and when Starbucks, Microsoft (and later, Grunge) drove property value up, they started raising rent accordingly and became very well off. They hired a full-time nanny, did a lot of traveling and lived well. Isaac was raised by his nanny and MTV. Because it was easier to spend money than to actually parent, Isaac’s parents bought him an electric guitar and he began playing when he was an adolescent. When he asked to be sent to Harbinger Academy, (a private school focusing on music and the arts) they realized that it was cheaper than paying the nanny and that he would only be home three months a year and Christmas break, so they agreed to send him. When he turned sixteen and started rebelling against them, he started asking for outrageous things just to see if he could get them. Clothes, a Car, and finally, his own apartment during vacations. (His parents sub-let it the rest of the year.)

When he arrived at Harbinger, Isaac met Garrett (who had already been there for one year, and was a grade older than him, although most classes at Harbinger were not segregated by grade.) and they became good friends. They had good musical chemistry together, and for their two years together at the school, they participated in projects and contests at the school together. Since Garrett couldn’t afford to fly home for Christmas Break, he spent that week with Isaac with no parents around. They spent the week reveling in their independence and learning about porn, weed and hangovers. The following year, Isaac threw a huge Christmas party with all of their school friends, and it went down in history as the biggest, drunkest throw-down that the students of Harbinger had ever seen. (Garrett believes that his mom doesn’t know about it, but she found out through old friends that now teach at Harbinger. She also knew that Garrett was staying with Isaac without parents, even though he didn’t tell her. She trusted him and knew that he needed to find his own limits, rather than fight with ones that she enforced.) Isaac and Garrett each hooked up that night, Garrett with a flautist he found vaguely attractive, and Isaac with a Classical Piano student named Meghan.

Isaac and Meg continued to “go together” for the rest of the year, and after Garrett left for Michigan that year, they would continue to date. When they graduated Meg enrolled in college at University of Washington and because he wanted to be around her, so did Isaac. Isaac’s parents gladly paid his way and he now lived in his apartment year-round. Meg lived in the dorms, but stayed over at Isaac’s place frequently, since she didn’t care for her roommate. Isaac’s parents tried to be supportive, encouraging him to look into the business side of music, since that’s where he could really make money. After the first semester their second year, however, Meg was losing interest in Isaac and told him so. Devastated, and slightly embarrassed at being “dumped,” Isaac avoided any class that she was in and his grades began to slip. With his pre-reqs out of the way, the business-y classes that now filled his schedule bored him, and he had a hard time doing the work for them. Even in the music-related classes, which he enjoyed and had natural talent for, he now lacked enthusiasm. His failure to make an effort in any group project had set most of his classmates against him, and he quickly realized that he didn’t have many friends. He finished out the semester but didn’t bother to sign up for classes the following year. It took a few months before his parents found out and they were furious. When he came home for Christmas, he was sternly lectured and given “one more chance.” Isaac looked around to find a band to play in, but nothing really worked out. He would go to a practice or two before giving up. He got a job at a coffee shop, but just stopped going. His dating life was remarkably similar. The only constant in his life was phone calls and AIM chats with Garrett, and he even flew out to visit for a week one summer. It was no Seattle, but he had a good time being with Garrett, they drove to a show in Detroit, hung out around town and just caught up on what had happened since Garrett left Seattle.

As Book One began, Isaac has just been (finally) officially “cut off” by his parents. They told him that he could continue to live where he is, but he had to pay (a reduced) rent. He begged for his job at the coffee shop back, telling his manager that he’d had family problems but was too embarrassed to come back to work after not showing up. Working for the first time in his life, he quickly gets tired of it and starts dreading it. With no new band opportunities and even fewer girl opportunities, he began looking for a fresh start. He woke up one morning and left for Elsing, figuring he had nothing to lose.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 14th, 2007 at 12:00 am and is filed under Comics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.