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Dear Beans - Character Guide

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~ About ~ Characters ~ Chapters ~ Gallery ~ Timeline ~




List of Characters

(with ages relative to the main characters) 


the quartet
Chris Sun
Seth Go
Alan Kim
Emily Huang

the teacher
Mr. Miyamoto (+10)

the siblings
A.J. Sun (+3)
Zach Go (+5)
Liz Go (+8)
Timothy & Titus Huang (-3)

the friends
Derek Castillo (0)
Kate Tsai (+5)

the parents
Victor & Charlene Sun (+31/+28)
Jonathan & Evelyn Go (+32/+31)
Mr. & Mrs. Huang (+26/+24)
Mr. & Mrs. Kim (+30/+30)



Notes:
  • Anything denoted ‘something’-American implies that they were born in the U.S.
  • Don't mind the subheadings too much. ^^; This would be mostly from the point of view of Chris being a silly adolescent. That is, I couldn't think of what to write.


The Quartet

Chemistry lab table partners 



Christina (Chris) Sun: age 13/grade 8; Taiwanese-American
tomboyish, dislikes wearing dresses/skirts; energetic and positive, talkative; likes k-pop (Super Junior), video games (Pokemon/DS), sports (tennis, basketball), and manga (as well as novels); plays 1st violin in orchestra and a bit of piano; mediocre grades; blames her chemistry teacher for failing science grades

DB - Chris Sun [Profile Sheet] by Sorcaron


Seth Go: age 13/grade 8; Cantonese-American
intelligent, responsible, diligent; mostly serious, but also has a dry sense of humor; left-handed, wears contacts in place of glasses most of the time; plays 3rd chair in the 1st violin section of Sinfonia, is the concertmaster of 8th Grade Orchestra, takes piano lessons from Mr. Sun; sucks at sports; loves math and science, perfect grades, pays attention in class

DB - Seth Go [Profile Sheet] by Sorcaron


Alan Kim: age 13/grade 8; Korean
lives with aunt and uncle since his parents are back in Korea; is fobby, wears glasses, dresses relatively stylishly; brilliant but lazy, grades suffer due to atrocious handwriting and lack of interest; tends to be anti-social, speaks tersely; has played piano since he was 5, plays trumpet in band, can't sing; started programming in 5th grade

DB - Alan Kim [Profile Sheet] by Sorcaron


Emily Huang: age 13/grade 8; Taiwanese-Korean-Canadian-American
pastor’s kid; rather shy and timid, rarely speaks up, likes to keep to herself and read numerous library books; works hard to maintain good grades and understand the material; enjoys playing soccer; ends up in the IB program in 11/12th grade; plays the clarinet and oboe in band

DB - Emily Huang [Profile Sheet] by Sorcaron




The Teacher

Evil and, unfortunately, good-looking 



Lance Miyamoto: age 23; Japanese-American
born in the United States, but spent much of his childhood in Japan; fluent in Japanese, English, and Organic Chemistry; used to play baseball; new chemistry teacher at Harbor Pointe Middle School; B.S. in Chemistry and Master's and Credential in Science and Mathematics Education (MACSME) from UC Berkeley; in a relationship with Liz Go

DB - Lance Miyamoto [Profile Sheet] by Sorcaron




The Siblings

Sometimes annoying; quite often more intelligent 



Aaron Jedidiah (A.J.) Sun: age 16/grade 11; Taiwanese-American
older brother of Chris. smart and lazy, good grades but slacks off; watches anime and reads manga; plays on the school basketball team; played viola in orchestra during middle school, plays electric bass for worship band/Zach's band; ends up going to Caltech (to play basketball) but then transfers to UCLA

DB - A.J. Sun [Profile Sheet] by Sorcaron


Zachariah (Zach) Go: age 18/freshman; Cantonese-American
older brother of Seth. intelligent unless otherwise noted; confident and charismatic; well-known face at church since he often leads worship for Youth Group (guitar and vocals); also plays piano and saxaphone (band/jazz band); composes songs and does covers (some popularity on YouTube xD); was on the high school water polo and swim team; Music and Economics double major at UCLA

DB - Zach Go [Profile Sheet] by Sorcaron


Elizabeth (Liz) Go: age 21/senior; Cantonese-American
older sister of Seth. intelligent unless otherwise noted; plays piano and flute/piccolo (orchestra/band); played softball at some point; likes to draw, owns a tablet, occasionally attends anime conventions but is usually too busy; drives a green punch buggy; completed IB Program; Molecular Cell Biology major at UC Berkeley; in a relationship with Lance Miyamoto


Timothy & Titus Huang: age 10/grade 5; Taiwanese-Korean-Canadian-American
younger fraternal-but-wait-they-look-identical twin brothers of Emily. very bright (walking calculators); typically Double Perfect achievers for Children’s Bible Quizzing; play cello and bass beginning in middle school (now about figuring out who's playing which one...)




The Friends

What's the definition of a 'friend'? 



Derek Castillo: age 13/grade 8; Spanish-Filipino-American
eventual math bff and study buddy of Emily Huang. generally happy and quite gregarious; slow but diligent at schoolwork; plays trumpet and bass clarinet in band/marching band, picks up bassoon during university and also a bit of guitar; later studies Math (major) and Physics (minor) at PLNU

DB - Derek Castillo [Profile Sheet] by Sorcaron


Kathryn (Kate) Tsai: age 18/freshman; Taiwanese-American
girlfriend of Zach Go. intelligent unless otherwise noted; dislikes chocolate and mint, though she does appreciate flowers; currently out-of-state, studying to be a pharmacist




The Parents

Ze old fogies 



Victor T. Sun: age 44; Taiwanese
father of Aaron and Chris. adjunct piano professor at a local university (APU); plays piano for the Mandarin/Cantonese congregations at church; teaches private piano lessons; wears reading glasses/contacts;  light-hearted, likes to tell lame jokes; only knows how to cook pasta


Charlene Sun: age 41; Taiwanese
mother of Aaron and Chris; stay-at-home mom until Chris was in 4th grade; works at a clothing design company, specializes in dresses for special events; typically more serious than Victor, acts older than him most of the time; no glasses; often involved in church events
  

Jonathan & Evelyn Go: age 45 & 44; Cantonese (Hong Kong)
parents of Liz, Zach, and Seth. Mr. Go works as a software engineer, sometimes traveling overseas; Mrs. Go is the manager of Sunshine Café


Paul & Melody Huang: ages 39 & 37; Taiwanese-Canadian & Korean-Canadian
parents of Emily, Tim, and Titus. Mr. Huang is the Chinese (Mandarin) congregation pastor at their church (different one from the Suns' and Gos'); Mrs. Huang is, of course, the pastor’s wife; they enjoy worship through music and often are found singing


Mr. & Mrs. Kim: age 43; Korean
parents of Alan. Mr. Kim is a chemistry professor at a fairly well-known university in Seoul, Korea; Mrs. Kim works as a nurse




Locations

Mostly fictional but not really 



Harbor Pointe Heights
hometown of our main characters; fictional suburb east of Los Angeles located in the eastern part of San Gabriel Valley (SVG)

Harbor Pointe Middle School
one of three middle schools in the Harbor Pointe Unified School District; has excellent band and orchestra programs
6th, 7th, and 8th Grade Band/Orchestra: divided by grade; classes offered during 1st - 6th period (regular school hours)

Wind Ensemble / Sinfonia: audition-only band and orchestra, respectively; comprised of mostly 7th and 8th graders with a few 6th graders;  offered during zero period (before school); usually perform at Carnegie Hall every other year

Sunshine Café
a small Chinese take-out restaurant run by Mrs. Go; nicknamed “Sunny-Go Café” by Chris, Zach, and A.J.; stocked with Shounen Jump issues; Chris likes to visit often

Yet-to-be-named Church of the Nazarene
home church of the Suns and Gos; located in the western end of SVG about 20 mins away from Harbor Pointe Heights; mostly full of 3rd or 4th generation Chinese-Americans; Friday Night programs include Caravans and Children's Quizzing (elementary school), Teen Quizzing and Youth Group (middle+high school)


~ Dear Beans ~
A slice-of-life story focusing on four friends and their relationships as they grow up.

{ABOUT | CHARACTER GUIDE | CHAPTER LIST | GALLERY | TIMELINE}
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Original comment (Mon, June 3, 2013):

Some notes:

Seth has white/silver hair. Obviously this doesn't make sense in real life, but oh well. :shrug: Gotta have at least one anime character xD
Deemed no-longer-official as of mid-2015 because I couldn't figure out how to color white hair and not make it look funny. Seth has black hair. Like a normal Asian. :clap:

2010 will be the base year for when our main 4 characters are in 8th grade. This matches the age of my 2nd little brother. Unfortunately, this means that the years in which they are in college and afterwards have yet to occur, so... some of that might be historically inaccurate. :XD: Oh wellz.
Re: "Intelligent unless otherwise noted." It seems that I have issues trying to create characters without perfect grades.

If anyone wants to suggest names, feel free to do so! o/ Or middle names, if you'd like. :D :D
:bulletblue: People that need names: Mr. & Mrs. Huang, Alan's parents & aunt and uncle

I apologize for any inaccuracies. Unless it's something I'm actually familiar with, I’m probably just making stuff up. :dummy:



Comment (Sat, June 20, 2015): Sometimes I've wondered if I have too many characters. Writing advice always says to get rid of/combine characters that don't do much to affect the plot/story. But technically there isn't much of a plot. It's just life. :shrug:



List of Changes:
Edit (Thurs, March 12, 2015): Changed journal skin (to old dA journal style); added Derek Castillo and Kate Tsai.
Edit (Sun, March 22, 2015): Changed journal skin to ft.DB/Simple. Added notes to explain subheadings...
    (ft.DB/Simple is just how I'm referring to this edited journal skin... idk what to call it because "Simple Journal Skin" is really generic.. But yeah, I guess I'll use it for DB stuff for now. =D)
Edit (Sun, May 10, 2015): Combined/shortened descriptions for Mr. and Mrs. Go; added LOCATIONS section.
Edit (Wed, June 17, 2015): Removed 'plays soccer' from Alan's description; changed 'plays soccer' to 'enjoys playing soccer' in Emily's.
    *a few minutes later* Added more information personality-wise for Chris, Seth, Alan, Emily, and Zach. Included links to the character memes for Seth and Chris. Text on plain version has not been changed.

Edit (Thurs, June 18, 2015):
- Lance: added baseball
- AJ: added electric bass
- Zach: clarified that leading worship was done with guitar and singing
- Liz: added softball and IB
- Derek: added bass clarinet and bassoon (guitar added Tues 6/23)
- Kate: added dislike of chocolate/mint and appreciation of flowers
- Mr. Sun: replaced 'classic service worship leader at church' with 'plays piano for church'
- Mr. Go: added 'sometimes traveling overseas'

Edit (Fri, June 19, 2015): Clarified that Emily's dad pastors a different church. (*church history still being worked on)

Edit (Sat, June 20, 2015):
- Chris: clarified section of violin
- Seth: clarified 3rd chair for Sinfonia, concertmaster for 8th Grade Oke; added left-handed (which apparently I didn't think to mention haha)
- Tim & Titus: added cello and bass (*have yet to determine who plays which; maybe they both play both to continue confusing people XD)
- HPMS: added information about orchestra/band
- Mr. & Mrs. Huang: removed hymns (*it's confusing to project onto two sets of parents. Hm.)

Edit (Sun, June 21, 2015): Added 'in a relationship' to Lance and Liz (sshhhh, it's a secret. ;D)

Edit (Thurs, Feb 18, 2016):
- Alan: added 'can't sing'
- Liz: added '/piccolo' (did I forget this before??)
- Tim & Titus: removed 'usually quite rowdy and wreak a lot of havoc, especially when working together'; unsure about their personalities
- The Teacher: put quotation marks around 'evil'; lol poor Lance xD;;

Edit (Fri, May 27, 2016): Removed 'class president' from Seth because I'm not quite sure what I'm doing with that...

Edit (Sun, May 29, 2016): Added thumbnails of profile sheets to Chris (old), Seth, and Zach. Tried to change the code for the black border surrounding the thumbnail, but it was confusing me. Just left it as the original in the end.

Edit (Tues, June 14, 2016): Changed 'Mr. & Mrs. Huang' to 'Paul and Melody Huang' since I semi-randomly/finally decided on names to put them on Emily's profile sheet. 

Character descriptions subject to change.
© 2013 - 2024 Sorcaron
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Porsheee's avatar
It's really funny and slightly revolting to come here and see my old comment, where I haven't even capitalized all the 'I's. Then again, I guess some months can make a huge difference :D (Plus, there are probably things I do now that I'll look back at and mental throw up at...) 

And this is extreeeemmmeelllyyy helpful. Also, now that I've gone through 9th grade English, I've realized Seth and Chris are like perfect characters foils of each other xD