The Inspirations Behind GhostOps

It started with many hours of Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter and a few bottles of cheap hard cider. In my pleasantly relaxed state, I reflected on the character I was playing, wondering what kind of man he was and what, exactly, Ghost Recon was supposed to do (other than provide plot for a game involving lots of fun, high-tech weapons). And seriously, why call them Ghosts if they're nothing more then men in teched-out armor? I mean, if you're gonna call 'em that they should be more, well, ghost-like . . .

Then came a late-night viewing of The Mothman Prophecies in an old house in the back woods of southeast Ohio (not far from real-life Mothman territory) and the subsequent drive home alone. I don't get scared by movies easily, but that one spooked me because it was . . . accurate. It reminded me of the phantom black cats that used to stalk me and the night I couldn't put my box of matches away because something had convinced me they would light themselves if I let them out of my sight. And then I thought about the stange spiritual atmosphere that pervades southeast Ohio. It's a sort of sense of the surreal, as if normal reality were wearing thin in that patch of the world . . .

At this point, I had some ideas, but they hadn't clicked into a good story yet. The final pieces fell into place when I read two books: Blowing my Cover: My Life as a CIA Spy and The Men Who Stare at Goats. The former informed the atmosphere and main character. The latter gave me my inciting incident - in the form of assurance that yes, the US government will try crazy experiments that have the same chance of working as a cold fusion reactor made of banana peels. Psychics as intelligence-gatherers? Trying to teach soldiers to walk through walls? If they'll do that, anything I can think of is possible . . .

Add that to the practical aspects of spiritual warfare with which I have had to become familiar and the philosphy/theology of story and creativity I've developed (thanks largely to the backstory of the Myst games and a book by Madeline L'Engle), and you have the basic recipe for GhostOps.

Character Development

Regan (aka character #2) has been a significant problem for me. The actual written story has been stuck for months at a point where the narration switches to her perspective. It could go no further because I didn't know her well enough to get into her head.

Tonight, I sat down and started going through my music library, building a playlist for her -- songs that she would listen to or that remind me of her. I do that with almost all my characters; for some reason, it's the most effective way for me to figure out what they're like. The results are almost always surprising.

For example, I found out that Regan is a chopper pilot* who grew up in Georgia but has only the faintest traces of a southern accent (and that only when she allows it).

There are also more characters lurking in my mind now:

One is a Dr. K. Hunter, who will be getting involved on the medical (research?) side of things. 

The other . . . all I now for sure is he's called Red, though whether that's his actual name is up for debate, and he's human (or at least human-looking) but not CIA or military.

*"Banana Republic" by Ill Harmonics. Don't ask why rap song = flying helicopters. I have only the vaguest idea.

What Started All This

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. . . that and too many hours of drinking cheap cider and playing GRAW.

Char #4: G. Garvin

Character #4 has stopped lurking.*

His name is Gabe Garvin, and he is pretty freaking awesome. His presence solves the question of tech (though there's still a lot of work to be done in determining exactly what the tech stuff is and what it does) and adds a whole new dimension to the crew's relationship with Crazydog . . . I suppose I'll elaborate.

All evidence says Gabe is a normal, everyday human being, except that he's technically dead. Not just on paper; there was a body with matching DNA, fingerprints, and identifying marks. Then again, there's this guy who insists that he's Gabriel Andrew Garvin and whose memories and physical traits match his records perfectly. The Company's not going to complain too much about that once they're sure he's not working for anyone else; they wanted to pull him out of his old life anyway. Still, it's raising a lot of questions.
For the GhostOps crew, the main question is whether he's actually human. They have no way of proving anything, because the only odd thing about him physically is that his eyes flash like a cat's if you shine light in them (nobody else seems to care, 'cause Jake's eyes do that and he's still human . . . well, technically). The strange thing about him is that he knows a lot about other realities and the creatures that come from them -- stuff that doesn't come from any known source of human knowledge. He also seems to have some sort of friendship with Crazydog, who is not typically interested in chatting with any of the others.
Of course, they can't complain too much about it either; his skill in building computer systems and electronic gadgets makes him a wonderful addition to the team. With his help, they have a much greater ability to predict events and handle them effectively. They're also more dependent on technology, but they couldn't really do their job on the scale that has become necessary without it.


*Thanks entirely to my current pressing need to make up stories involving Tony Stark. Using different characters forces a different angle on a storyline, and thus fanfiction has an actual purpose.

Rethinking and inspiration

I'm doing a bit of rethinking of how GhostOps works. I have at least three characters (maybe four; another one's lurking in the back of my mind and refusing to tell me who he is), but I don't have much of a framework for them to operate in, which I need to get it past psych-ward scene(s) #2. Which reminds me, I need to get into the head of my female char, and that'll be complicated and annoying.

Then there's the fact that I saw Iron Man tonight, and thinking about why I like Tony Stark so much has enlightened me a bit more about what Shep is and isn't (there are some striking similarities if you approach it from a certain viewpoint, but they come from totally different perspectives). I realized I need to change some things about Shep and the team, though, if I want the story to work from a dramatic perspective. 

And I'm now thinking about what kind of technology I could incorporate, any of which would mean moving away from the spiritual realism that I initially wanted. That's actually a good thing, though; real spiritual war is a little unexciting thanks to the wildly uneven balance of power. ('S like fighting knife-wielding peasants when you have a grenade launcher. Problem is the damned peasants are extremely sneaky.)

And there's also the whole question of what, exactly, the creature called Crazydog is and what role he/it is going to play in the development of the team. 

So I'm gonna go take a bath and think about it.

I really need to get a waterproof notebook one of these days . . .