Day Eight: evil plan guide

Today was chairlift day. When I’m not in Whistler, I forget that the chairlift is my favourite thing in the entire world, but as soon as we get here there is nothing else on my mind. Father wanted the Peak to Peak, but I don’t like gondolas because the whole reason I love the chairlift is because of the wind, and the motion, and how quiet it is. Only the motion exists in a gondola. So, as a compromise, we did chairlift-extravaganza! Up a chairlift, up another chairlift, up the Peak to Peak, HIKE (barf), up another chairlift, explore, hike again (double barf), down a chairlift, down the Peak to Peak, bus ride, up another chairlift, down that same chairlift, then down two more chairlifts. I wore sunscreen, but I think I got windburn. BEST DAY EVER.

Anyway. The whole time I was enjoying the wind on my face, I was thinking about Ben, the town mascot. I knew already that he hated the down, and that he refuses to talk about why he is the town mascot, but I didn’t know WHY he would be the town mascot. I wrestled with this for the entire day yesterday, and half the day today. I felt like if I knew why, then I could determine his personality. However, text-message consultation with my story-writing friend and discussion with my mother made it clear that I had to decide who he was, and then from there I could figure out why he would be the mascot for a town he hates.


I was throwing the ball into the lake for my dog, when all of a sudden it hit me. Ben is an indecisive individual, who needs lots of encouragement to stick to his own ideas and is easily persuaded. Thusly, he was persuaded to a ridiculous bet (details of which are still to come), which he lost, and the consequence is that he has to be the mascot for an undisclosed amount of time. The reason why he hates the town is because people are always taking advantage of how gullible and persuadable he is.

He is a movie buff, always quoting movies and referencing how what’s happening in real life is like a movie. “Like in Star Wars?” “No, not like in Star Wars. Blah blah blah.” “So, like in Star Wars.” Knows a lot of random facts. Always has a comment on something because of something he’s read or heard or seen, but nothing he’s done. Is not adventurous, but likes to hear/learn about adventures. Doesn’t really get attached to things as a defense mechanism. Sarcastic sense of humour, as he has become a jaded individual. Really wants to go somewhere where no one knows him, so he can find people who really care about him or whatever, and then he can try to be a less gullible individual.

Motivation: to not get rescued. Foils all attempts to rescue him, because he doesn’t want to go back to work.
Short Term Goal: stop being the mascot (Is a goal and a motivation the same thing? Must research.)
Long Term Goal: to be taken seriously in the Yukon
- repeated line: “I don’t want to talk about it.”

Family: middle of three children, older brother and younger sister. Older brother is not really in his life much; they don’t hate each other, don’t try to avoid each other, they just don’t really talk or anything. He is one of the only people who never took advantage. Younger sister plays at being supportive, but takes advantage of him just the same as everyone else, just in a sneaky way. Parents own a chain of sock-and-shoe stores, are always traveling around the country checking in on them.

Friends: doesn’t have any, because he can’t find anyone who won’t try to take advantage of him. The last friend he had resulted in his current predicament. Is working part time at the sock-and-shoe store in town to save money to move out of town, to start a sock-and-shoe store in the Yukon. “They have sock-and-shoe stores in the Yukon?” “It'll be mostly winter boots and long underwear.”

What is his storyline? Make some kind of reference to him in the background of one of her stories, maybe one of her “Status: failure” flashbacks. Begins with him as the mascot, people are jeering. Making fun of him, show him falling for a trick of some kind. (Someone wants to take a picture with him and wants him to pose in a certain way, then runs off or sprays himself with something. “I can’t believe you fell for that again!”) Makes comments about how miserable he is, how much he hates everyone whilst outwardly smiling because he can’t get fired. (Is not allowed to – part of the bet.) City tours always include him and make reference to how important he is to town morale, there has always been a town mascot since day one, and if anything happened, tourism would be ruined, the town would dissolve into anarchy, etc. “The Duncan boys have donned this costume for generations, but… well, you all know the story.” Laughter. Then he sees an angry woman, who looks familiar but he can’t quite place her, in a strange outfit. She marches straight up to him and grabs his arm, holds a knife to his neck. “My name is Greta and I am a villain!” she yells. “I am taking this mascot hostage as a precursor to my evil plan!” Everyone stares in disbelief, but nobody moves to stop her because they are in shock. He’s thrown into the trunk of a sedan. Saw on Oprah how to escape from a trunk, but he thought he’d just see how this played out for a bit. Then is thrown into an old basement bathroom, doesn’t want to go back to work but also refuses to talk to the girl – who knows what she will try and persuade him to do. She finds out about his major character flaw and promises to not use him in any nefarious schemes; all she wanted was something to get everyone’s attention. He is taken to her new lair and becomes more of an accomplice than hostage, when it becomes clear that he is not interested in escaping and turning him in. Different groups of people keep trying to rescue him (cops, group elected by city, bunch of men in suits). After Greta garners her media attention/love interest, he moves to the Yukon to own the sock-and-shoe store. Government agents, impatient with his parents’ lack of desire to sell, attempt a hostile take-over at his location. Greta possibly comes to save him with her weather machine.

Day Eight Highlights: chairlifts, more character development, figuring out the troublesome romantic foil

Day Eight Lowlights: wind burn, gondolas, but not much else. Nothing creativity-wise, anyway. Woohoo!

Tomorrow: how the heck does a person thieve the moon and control the weather, more conflicts to hammer out exactly what is going to happen, other characters?