#ardentcapacitor

One of the characters I wanted to talk about is someone who I am still pretty much developing, and that much of the character talk might be drawn from the story he’s in. The aforementioned story is the resulting osmosis of being inspired by things that are inspired by Twin Peaks, namely a bit of Welcome to Nightvale and a whole heaping lot of the famously unabashed ripoff game that is known as Deadly Premonition.

As a result his name, Zach Green, is based firstly on an imaginary character the protagonist of DP speaks to, and lastly based on the town in that game (Greenvale also happens to be a town name in Silent Hill, which in itself is hilariously inspired partially by Twin Peaks).

Much like the protagonists of Twin Peaks and Deadly Premonition, Zach is an FBI agent sent to a small town to investigate a very abnormal case. He’s something more of a knowingly archetypical character than a real person. What signs could possibly point to this? Is it his annoying eye for details? Is it his boundless appreciation for tea? Or perhaps is it that he unironically speaks to an imaginary friend named Jack, who serves as his devil’s advocate when profiling? Probably the last thing.

For someone in his late twenties, he can be a bit of a child. Or eccentric by older people standards. He quit smoking by replacing cigarettes with suckers (or gourmet/dum dum-size lollipops if that sounds unclear). Turns out he just liked it for the appearance, not the attachment to nicotine. He also tries to act hard-boiled and fails miserably, taking black coffee when he never wants it, and preferring something light over a mature glass of whiskey. Part of him figures the lack of enjoyment might be what makes the taste of those drinks so interesting.

He has a very present inner monologue that has a tendency to point out simple characteristics of people or objects, in tandem with a Sherlock-esque eye for detail. For instance if he sees a cup of green tea he immediately thinks in small bursts while noting its presence, such as “Green Tea. Looks fresh. Bitter taste. Acquired Taste. Delicious Taste.” He’s basically the kind of person who would courteously remove a stray hair from your shirt mid conversation and not make any note of it unless prompted. Zach also talks to Jack out loud, and never in his head. He sees them as a partner on the other side, who shares his interests in addition to being an imaginary experienced killer. As he further investigates a case, he finds that Jack is more of an inside partner than he thinks.

I ended up talking more about the story Zach and Jack are in order to explain further significance, worried that people would take my ideas, realized that the post is worse without these details, and also realized that I have few followers and wrote this at like six in the morning. So here’s the rest of the post:I didn’t really want to use story background to talk about an OC but this is stuff I actually need cemented into my brain so I don’t forget after tonight. The town that Zach finds himself investigating is a port town called Driftwell. It is a humble town that so far is modeled after some of the villages and ports bordering Lake Huron over here in Michigan. It’s also known as the Sleeping City, as it prides itself on having establishments that are only open at certain times of the day. Some places are only open from sunrise until sundown and vice versa. As a result there is a distinction between morning people and night people, and the restaurants, stores, and bars (yes, even bars) work with that idea. People in the town are also more likely to have dreams taking place near the area than anywhere else, and there is a lot of theorizing about people having a “dream life” and a real life. A bar that is only open at night feeds on both of the prior details, serving a drink that allows a person to meet their dream self in person. That dream self is very often different from the real person, and sometimes appears to be an actually separate person more than an alternate version of themselves.The heart of the case is that people are having trouble sleeping. There is talk about people being murdered in their dreams and having their dreams be permanently affected afterwards. Those who are killed in their dreams often go to bed and wake up feeling like they’ve slept for minutes instead of hours, seeing either black void in their sleep or bouts of torment lasting longer than the period of time they slept. Consequently, people are finding themselves awake at times opposite of what they were used to, and those who drink to meet their dream self often see a mutilated body. Having tackled weird murder cases before, Zach pursues the truth of the matter, meeting his dream self in the process.In addition to being his dream self, it turns out that Jack is an amalgamation of traits from past killers Zach has caught. Each trait has its own story of a killer. A leather jacket, a scar, a baseball bat with nails in it, a seemingly live wolf mask, etc. The body and personality of Jack is primarily a woman that fell in love with Zach, and let him get so close to her that she orchestrated her own death at his hands. She wanted him to keep his job, and also to be remembered by someone closer than anyone else she knew. As a result, she has become the body of Jack. While Jack the imaginary friend hasn’t killed anyone in reality, she still has insight from everyone Zach has ever dealt with, and acts in such a way like a fully aware guide to his subconscious.

As a mental construct she knows she isn’t the quite the woman that Zach knew, and can’t have the relationship that the woman would have wanted with Zach. This leads to her humorously becoming a judge of people that Zach meets, which causes conflict between Zach speaking for himself and arguing against Jack speaking from his brain. I’ll close this with an example. One of the ways this happens is when Jack approves of an adorably shy crossdresser at a bed and breakfast, whom Zach nearly proposed to in a fit of joy from the tea he makes. Zach argues with Jack because even though Jack knows Zach has the capacity to bisexual, Zach himself isn’t emotionally sure of it at that point in time.