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PostPosted: October 10th, 2007, 9:14 am 
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Previous Discussion on "Where In The World Is Chelsea Aberdeen?"

Previous Discussion On "Transition"

Where in the World Is Chelsea Aberdeen? Part One
By Fritz Baugh

2004--Timeline Year Twenty Two
The GBWC has fallen apart, and Fritz Baugh is not far behind--the love of his life has vanished, leaving only mystery and confusion in her wake. Will the help of Vincent Belmont, Bo Holbrook, and Jen Spengler be enough to help him find her--and pull himself from the brink of dispair?

Where in the World Is Chelsea Aberdeen? Part Two

A chance discovery by Jen Spengler leads the investigation into a new direction that bears fruit. As Fritz investigates a run down amusement park with Bo Holbrook, Jen and Vincent Belmont confront Chelsea Aberdeen's aunt Dorothy--and make more than one shocking discovery.

Where in the World Is Chelsea Aberdeen? Part Three

The truth behind Chelsea Aberdeen's disappearance is revealed, as Vincent uncovers the tale of Fergus Aberdeen, Danise MacDuff, and Lucindra Williams. A tale that binds Chelsea, her aunt Dorothy, and the cursed hybrids of Toad Island together.

Where in the World Is Chelsea Aberdeen? Part Four

The harrowing conclusion. The Ghostbusters have infiltrated the Deep One's caves. Bo Holbrook has a violent confrontation with Arvis. Fritz Baugh finds Chelsea Aberdeen...but after coming across a continent to find her, is this meeting going to be their last?

Transition

He saved Chelsea...but Fritz lies on the brink of death as his friends, teammates, family, and the woman he loves stand helplessly by. Whatever the outcome....the Ghostbusters West Coast will never be the same.

Titled "Transition" because it completed the change from the pre-"Where In The World..." status quo to that of Act Two

Bonus: Arvis
--------------------------------------------
LINER NOTES FOR "WHERE IN THE WORLD IS CHELSEA ABERDEEN?" AND "TRANSITION"

This story had it's genesis in a decision by the Ghostbusters West Coast's founding CEO, Joey Williams (Ludicris) : to get everyone, for the teams "second season" (post-Curtain Call and Chronicles of Gozer) to write at least one story centered on their character, and revealing new facts about their backstory. My idea gelled around my character and his relationship with Client Administrator Chelsea Aberdeen...she would disappear, and a witch named Lucindra would be behind it. Fritz would go nuts trying to find her, and have to journey accross the country to do so, including a visit to his home town of Indianapolis. I vaguely thought, at the time, Leon Hogan would probably be with him (due to their own backstory established in Home Turf). I even decided to title the story "Where In The World Is Chelsea Aberdeen?", as a swipe of the "Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego?" series popular in the 1990's.

I freely admit I patterned the two somewhat after Egon and Janine Spengler, whom I'd been writing in other stories, but because of that, and the desire to avoid repeating myself as much, overdoing the romance, and staying away from the dreaded Mary Sue-dom, their relationship had been handled low key and mostly off camera. I mean, hey, I figured that one big way to make them different from the Spenglers is to NOT have it take fifteen years to get married.

There was another relationship I patterned them after: my real life relationship with a former co-worker. That relationship, unfortunately, has been nowhere near as close or successful, and is basically over at this point.

On September 27, 2004 I ended up in the hospital with a bad infection that led to the amputation of my left leg below the knee. I was in the hospital for almost a month, and one of the many thoughts that came to me was "Will I do something like this to my character, too?

In late 2004, right after I got out of the hospital, a big situation was dropped in my lap: Joey resigned both his position and his membership of the team, passing that duty on to me. Several ideas were thrown around--most notably Andy's idea to have some of the GBWC spend time as members of GBTennessee--and it all came together with the story Act Two, which jumped to January 2005 and presented a radically different status quo for the team.

Later, the stories that explained the changes needed to be told. "Where In The World Is Chelsea Aberdeen?" ended up becoming one of those stories. In a wierd way, we've been working backwards..."Act Two" established the new status quo, "Where In The World...?" started with the team already broken, and chronicled one member's fall and rise, while the story of the team's actual split-up, tentatively titled "The Mask of Ashram" (to be written by Kyle Stevens), is yet to be completed.

The last piece I needed to fit the story together came, literally, in a dream. I dreamt one night I was trying to find "Chelsea" (meaning the real person who inspired the character) in an amusement park. I remembered an amusement park in Now's RGB#8, Toad Island--Kenneth Grahame, Nogad, and the entire community of Deep One/human hybrids comes from that story. Vincent Belmont and Bo Holbrook had both previously asked to be involved in the story where Fritz loses his leg, and it just so happens their characters are based in New York. With that, the backstory and agenda of Lucindra fell into place...

I'd already decided she was going to be Scottish. Chelsea's family name is of Scottish extraction (Aberdeen's a major city). I also took the opportunity to nod slightly to my affection for Carl Barks and Don Rosa's Uncle Scrooge comics; Chelsea's ancestory, Fergus Aberdeen, got his given name from Scrooge's father (Fergus McDuck) and his beloved got her family name from a real name that sounded close to McDuck--McDuff.

"Corey Jones" and "Blaine", two of the employees of the K-Mart Fritz used to work at, are based off two people I worked with in real life. "Corey" in fact is one of my best friends to this day--he started only a few weeks after I did in 1996, and he's celebrating his eleventh anniversary there this month.

"Bernice Roderick" is another co-worker of mine. In fact...honestly, she and Chelsea Aberdeen are two sides of the same coin. They were both inspired by the same real person--you might say Chelsea is the one who embodies the way I wish our relationship had gone, Bernice is closer to the way it actually went. That's simplifying a lot, but then again the real woman is more than a little schizo.

This story also serves as the first appearance in the GBWC stories of Rose Prevost, the fictional version of the user "Miss Janine". Her fictional backstory includes a stint with the "real" Janine back during the mid-90's, when Janine was slogging through her unhappy relationship with Louis Tully. Later stories suggest Rose--along with Janine's returning memories--helped Janine drop Louis and go back to Egon (just in time for EGB and "Darkness At Noon"). Rose meets Egon later in Word To Your Mummy. There was a bit more to the flashback of Rose's hiring that I cut before posting the story that might make it into "Mask Of Ashram"

Jim and Pauline Aberdeen were based pretty directly off of the real "Chelsea" 's parents, though their dynamic is quite different. The real Jim and Pauline were married for over forty years before Jim died in late 2005; the real "Chelsea" (not her real name, by the way) had an older sister. The family backstory was warped around to make it a little different, and to accomidate the idea Kyle had of a little brother for Chelsea seen in The Bugbear's Revenge.

Dorothy Aberdeen is a completely original character; at some points, I envisioned her as more sinister, a more knowing and willing participant in Lucindra's scheme.

The scene where Fritz arrives at the airport was originally a little different; I first wrote it as Fritz meeting Bo and Jen for the first time, but then, when Bo asked me to rewrite (and write "myself" into) All Hell Breaks Loose the scene was revised to hint at that prior meeting, a year before in story terms.

I mention Vincent's posession by the essence of Scorpio in The Zodiac Imperative. I also mention the marriage of the Vincent Belmont and Jill Valentine characters, which Vincent says took place about a month before.

Fritz grumbles at a Bush campaign clip. In real life, he actually made that remark on a campaign stop a day or two before the time frame of the scene (source: Bushisms )

Mention of Krazy's is a reference to Ghostbusters: Legion #2

"I DROPPED A MASSIVE DEUCE!!!" --inspired by an actual post Bo made on GBHQ.

I hadn't originally intended to have the kids from South Park cameo in the story, but to paraphrase Ray "It just popped in there" and I ran with it.

I won't say every part of Fritz's monolog to Bo was 100% autobiographical, but it's not totally made up either. He mentions Ann Fishburne, whom some might remember as being, like Vincent Belmont, one of the Zodiac Avatars (she was Libra); and yeah, she's based off my real life high school crush, whom I haven't seen or heard from in fifteen years.

Vincent and Jen pose as "Simon Trevor" and "Kate Henderson". Kate Henderson happens to be the name of someone who works on the Ghostbusters: Animated Series and Simon and Trevor are the names of two of Vincent Belmont's ancestors.

Arvis is semi-based on a character a friend of mine ran in a Vampire game about ten years ago. At least the being massive and having gloves marked "Left" and "Right"

Alice Derleth comes from the RGB episode "Collect Call of Cthulhu", and was presumably named in tribute to Lovecraftian author August Derleth. As she used sorcery in that episode, she's here "officially" established as a member of the Order of Hermes. Vincent alludes to an encounter he had in "Chronicles of Gozer" and to another White Wolf concept, the Sons of Ether.

Bo requested he get to throw down on Arvis, and I obliged. I consulted one of Bo's own stories, the one where he beats up Jason Vorhees, for pointers.

Spectral Seduction Number 5, Chelsea's perfume, had been previously mentioned in Curtain Call.

In the animated episode "Ragnarok and Roll" we see how the overload switch works on a Mark 1 Proton Pack. We saw it again in "Zodiac Imperative". Here, I update it for the Mark 4, with the idea that Ray and Egon improve the safety features to make sure you're postively certain you want to blow yourself up.

The critical moment comes when Fritz finally finds Chelsea. As John Lipsyte points out in "Transition", the whole idea is that these two just about kill themselves for each other. If they hadn't loved each other, they would've never been in this danger. It was certainly different from Egon and Janine's situation, where each basically spent too many years sabotaging their relationship because of their own insecurities. Technically, Fritz fails to save her--Bo, Jen, Vincent, and even Aunt Dorothy have to do that, and then they have to save him. But it's from the trying--the being ready to die for each other--that they score their real victory.

A victory that was solidified in From This Moment and most recently with a certain announcement

In "Transition" we get a glimpse of what the other GBWC members are up to in Tennessee--except Jeff Chrismer, whom we later learn has been training with Sub Zero. Other cameos are of Ben King and Rosey Collins of the GBUK, and Rob Statler, CJ London, and Erin Cummins of Doom Patrol (this was almost a year before CJ's death).

St. Eligus Hospital is a reference to the 80's TV series St. Elsewhere. "Rena Stewart" is based on the actual Orthopedic surgeon who did the operation on me.

I don't think I need to tell anyone who Peter Venkman is. He was catalytic to the founding of the GBWC in Opening Night.

Mary is based off my real Mom, of course, and Al is based off my real brother, who's occassionally posted on the Ectozone message board. We've discussed writing him into the GBWC stories if we can decide why and how.

John Lipsyte, who appears as part of that old cliche--the Out Of Body Experience--was of course one of the original West Coast Ghostbusters. He died defeating Anubis in "Curtain Call". The character was originally created as a place holder for Leon Hogan, previously mentioned, who was the GBN user known as "Ray Parker Jr." (Ray also came up with John's name); John was intended all along to be temporary, and Leon brought in later to replace him. We followed that plan in "Home Turf" and Intermission, but as by then "Ray" had long disappeared from the boards, Leon was shuffled to the reserves soon after.

And the final scene, with Joey Williams "passing the baton" on camera, as it were, leads nicely to "Act Two".

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PostPosted: December 20th, 2009, 6:27 pm 
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There was another relationship I patterned them after: my real life relationship with a former co-worker. That relationship, unfortunately, has been nowhere near as close or successful, and is basically over at this point.


Now I'm sad Fritz :cry:

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