Old Friends

Old Friends (formerly known as Alternate Canon in previous drafts) is a story Al had started in late 2018, and has been revised a few times by the coming years. As of 2022, Al has decided to cancel the series, as they were never satisfied with whatever direction the story went.

Plot Summary
The main plot focuses on the Kust family who live in an unnamed town in Russia, consisting of hardworking father Nikolai, sweet mother Anastasia, quirky youngest child Zhenya, rowdy middle child Igor, and sorrowful adopted eldest child Yuriy. Yuriy and Zhenya are more of the main focus, as they detail their experiences with life and emotions in general through journal entries.

Zhenya's problems involve her and her fear of losing her friends, as one of her foreign friends is moving back to their home country because of a family problem. Yuriy, however, wants to remember his past prior to being adopted by the Kusts, since all he could remember are glimpses of his biological father, Arkadiy Nikolaev. The three siblings then meet Katerina Karkinos and Yoshirou Miyamoto, two transfer students in their school, and befriend them as they face daily challenges together, while also uncovering mysteries about each others' families.

A side plot is introduced, whereas a man named Frank Brändle wakes up in a hospital with no memory of himself other than his name. He is then cared for by the doctors and nurses of the hospital, who claimed to have seen him jump off a high place. He is later visited by an energetic man named Borko Kovač and a hooded stranger named Gennadiy. Frank's story is similar to Yuriy, wanting to remember everything prior to what incident caused his amnesia.

Both the family and the amnesiac man are tracked down by a woman named Allison Weekes, the reason she is doing this is still unknown. A boy who works for her, Siarhei, was tasked to find Yuriy and take him to her, claiming to be Yuriy's long lost brother. Other characters are introduced, either shown to help the Kusts or otherwise.

The Kust Family

 * Nikolai Kust - The father of the Kust family. Is said to be a caring and hardworking father, but his dedication to work has lead him to neglect his children a lot of times.
 * Anastasia Kust - The mother of the Kust family. Is mostly absent from the story as she is mentioned to have an unnamed illness and is always bedridden in the hospital. She is visited twice a week by her husband, and monthly by her children.
 * Zhenya Kust - The youngest sibling of the family and the deuteragonist of the series. She is described to be a quirky, "weird" teenager who uses her obscure interests as escapism from the problems in her life. She is described to be the cheerful type, and seems to have interest in Western culture, but she has had insecurities about herself, constantly thinking she's dumb and weak. She turned to journal writing one day to document the happenings in her life, so she can cherish the memories forever.
 * Yuriy Kust - The eldest child of the family and the protagonist of the story. He was adopted by Nikolai before he met Anastasia after seeing him all alone in the streets one day. It has been stated he is suffering from a type of depression, possibly from not being able to cope with his biological father's death. He's introverted and barely cracks a smile. His memory and perception of time is all weird and warped for some reason, and thus turned to journal writing just to keep track of his days.
 * Igor Kust - The middle child of the family and the tritagonist of the story. He's known to be a rowdy kid who constantly gets himself into fights, but it's only to protect his siblings who are constantly being bullied for being "weird." He's protective and caring, and acts more like the responsible older sibling than Yuriy. Unlike his siblings, he has no desire to journal writing at all.

Plot B's Protagonists

 * Frank Brändle - The protagonist of the story's side plot. He is a man with no memory of who he is except for a glimpse of his name. He is quiet and soft-spoken, and tends to get lost easily. But he is also a curious fellow, wanting to know everything there is to this world. One plot point of his is he has been having weird dreams, all taking place in a harsh, snowy environment.
 * Borko Kovač - The deuteragonist of the story's side plot. He is shown to be a chill guy who goes with the flow of everything, and claims to know Frank from childhood. However, this happy face is just a façade, for he knows a dark secret about Frank that he doesn't want to admit just yet.
 * Gennadiy Andreev - A mysterious, hooded man who visits Frank occasionally. Not a lot is known about him just yet, though.

Antagonists?

 * Allison Weekes - A mysterious British woman who had stepped into the place with her trusted partners. Her intentions as of current are completely unknown as of now, but she still poses a threat to both the Kust family and Frank.
 * Blanche Boivin - Allison's partner-in-crime. She and her partner have some sort of frenemy relationship.
 * Siarhei Nikolaev - A young boy who worked for Allison, and claims to be Yuriy's long lost brother. Well that is true, but what other intentions does he have other than dragging the poor boy with him to the suspicious woman?

Side/Supportive Cast

 * Olga Medveda - Zhenya's only present best friend. She has shown sympathy to her a few times.
 * Edd Johnson - Zhenya's best friend, but is not in her school anymore, as he has moved due to family problems.
 * Katerina Karkinos - A close friend of Yuriy's in his school. She empathizes with him as she too has not much memory of her childhood, and constantly feels like someone's watching her.
 * Grigory Didymoi - Another transfer student at the local high school. Seems to have interest in Katerina.
 * Arkadiy Nikolaev - Yuriy's long passed father. It is said he had kept a secret from his children and never told them what it was, not even until his untimely death.
 * Miyamoto Yoshirou - One of Yuriy's other close friends. He is a transfer student, and seems to be hiding something.
 * Eric Weekes - Despite his relations with Allison, he does not pose much harm to Yuriy or his family, and just wants to befriend him... And maybe help him escape from the woman before she can do anything to him.
 * Dierk Brändle - Claims to know what Yuriy is going through. Despite implied relation with Frank, he denies any implication of the sort.
 * Jasna Kovač - Dierk's close partner in whatever investigation he's making. Fully confirms she is the daughter of Borko.
 * Jagoda Wolanski - A young woman who is trying to help the Kusts with their predicament of being watched.
 * Felipe Perez - He's just a little guy ;3;
 * Nadiya Nikolaeva - Yuriy's long lost sister. Despite her soft looking appearance, she can be rather violent.
 * Zhuldyz Aibekova - Someone who was related to the Nikolaevs and was close with them before the father's ultimate demise.
 * Chelsea Johnson - The mother of Edd, and the nurse that took care of Frank.

Trivia

 * This story has the most rewrite attempts so far, and was at it's fourth attempt before cancellation.
 * In the earlier drafts, the concepts of the Kust family were not thought of yet until later on.
 * As part of that, Yuriy was still part of his original family, the Nikolaevs. Though he did not get along very well with his biological siblings, almost getting stabbed from a fight with Nadiya.
 * The story was posted in Ficbook, a Russian fanfiction site, however it was written in poorly translated Russian to comply with the site's rules. The following story was never continued because of the cancellation and the fact Al lost access to their Ficbook account, which they planned to fully delete if they gained access again.
 * While that's all lost, some old drafts of the story have been uploaded to Al's Wattpad.