2 Aug 2018

dba LTV Paranormalists - Hauntings Anonymous - Commentary 2

Early legwork at the warehouse, in dba LTV Paranormalists Chapter 2.

I make no apology for the title.  It comes from two places.  The first is a joke I try using during fantasy RPG sessions, just to see if anyone reacts to the image of a man turning into a house at the light of the full moon.  For the record, one person cracked up.  The other comes from early in Young Frankenstein.  For the record, I always crack up at the scene.  Since I have a warehouse at the centre of the story, I failed my Willpower save and tossed the joke into the chapter title.

Writing Ginger is interesting.  She has a sense of child-like wonder coupled with a cat's attitude that she's the centre of the universe.  I did some quick research on the Fair Folk before and during NaNoWriMo to get a better idea of what sort of fae Ginger might be.  With urban fantasy and tabletop fantasy RPGs being wso popular today, it was hard to separate the traditional lore from other people's works.  The end result - Ginger is Ginger.  Her name, though, was easier.  I decided on some sort of wildflower that is local and ran across the wild ginger.  The name sums her up, so that's what she got named.

Once I detatched my expectations of the fae from gaming, that gave me room to figure out how Ginger and magic get along.  Can the fae detect magic?  Why not?  It moves the plot along and it means I don't need Kieu to be sleep deprived all the time.  This also lets me have the rest of the cast do normal investigations while still covering the magic angle.  Remember, the goal here was to be Scooby-Doo except monsters do exist.

The regular investigation, as limited by provincial regulations, lets me show Ayel and Kristi's abilities.  I also can get some of the clues laid out, though I'm not going to hold them up here.  Besides, some might be red herrings.  Ayel gets to deal with the client directly.  Kristi is more Ginger's handler here, though she gets to use her people skills.  Each of the young women bring something unique.  Ayel was supposed to bring skepticism, but the missing arc showed her otherwise.  She still has the business sense.  Kristi is the creative side, the business is her idea.  Kieu is the technical.  Yet, sometimes, things do get shaken up.

Ginger and coffee became an odd combination.  She's small, coming up to Kristi's knee.  A regular cup of coffee contains far too much caffeine for such a small being.  The cat Ginger references lives with Ayel and her family.  The setting is starting to expand beyond the core cast.  Families will start to appear this arc.  All part of my writing style; start with the core and build out, sometimes going in unplanned directions.  Someday, I should learn to outline, By the Numbers notwithstanding.

Friday, myth, legends, and Ginger, in Hauntings Anonymous Chapter 3, "Fair Folk".
Also Friday, over at Psycho Drive-In, why remaking horror and mysteries is difficult.
Saturday, over at The Seventh Sanctum, the language barrier.

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