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Well, I have a huge chunk of the ghost town fic done. I also now have two problems. I need reader input, please!
First and foremost, I wonder how they're going to outsmart the evil ghost of Mel Barnes, who is always watching them, and escape the town. Any ideas?
Second, I wonder if I'm going too far by having Tony forced to acknowledge the existence of evil, possessing spirits. Also, what has become a big part of this fic is Tony and Kolchak having a huge argument over Tony's refusal to talk about the time Kolchak was dead for an hour. Finally, after the horrible experience of nearly being strangled by Kolchak, possessed by Mel Barnes, Tony confesses that he doesn't want to talk about the time Kolchak was dead because he knows it's true. And if that's true, how many other things are true that Kolchak's been saying?
I'm not fully sure that Tony outright disbelieves in the supernatural. After studying him closely in the series and the movies, it almost seems that instead, he doesn't want to be fired by publishing the weird articles. And he possibly also hopes that the explanations are not supernatural, but something else. He's truly skeptical, but he can be brought around to at least being open on the ideas, if you present him with enough facts and evidence, as shown in The Night Strangler.
But regardless of whether he outright disbelieves or not, this fic is pretty firm on him being forced to acknowledge evil spirits. What do you think? Does that take away from the charm of the character? (I'm trying to make sure it doesn't.) Does it change things too much? I think Tony would still be pretty firm against publishing the weird stories. He wouldn't just believe every oddity that came along. And of course, he would still argue with Kolchak.
I also have another fic idea, that would call for Tony to end up with amnesia due to some monster's power. But I'm thinking it would be a very specialized type of amnesia, making him forget only his ties to people and not the people themselves. So he knows Carl Kolchak is a "nutcase" trying to make people believe in the paranormal. He doesn't know that he has been one of Kolchak's only true friends for years, or indeed, that they have any connection at all. And he wants nothing to do with Kolchak. It might force Kolchak to realize just how much Tony actually has helped him.
During the climax, Kolchak has to fight the monster. Tony still doesn't remember him, but he's aware of the battle. And despite not remembering, and wanting nothing to do with Kolchak, he's still a good person and realizes he can't just abandon Carl to the fight. So he goes to try to help. He's able to protect Kolchak from a vicious attack, but ends up knocked unconscious by the beast. After Kolchak defeats the thing, he has to revive Tony. And Tony remembers him then. (No, being knocked out did not restore his memories. I never want to do that silly cliche. Defeating the monster wasn't the key, either. Exactly what restored his memories probably won't actually be said; it's not really important to the plot what did it.)
First and foremost, I wonder how they're going to outsmart the evil ghost of Mel Barnes, who is always watching them, and escape the town. Any ideas?
Second, I wonder if I'm going too far by having Tony forced to acknowledge the existence of evil, possessing spirits. Also, what has become a big part of this fic is Tony and Kolchak having a huge argument over Tony's refusal to talk about the time Kolchak was dead for an hour. Finally, after the horrible experience of nearly being strangled by Kolchak, possessed by Mel Barnes, Tony confesses that he doesn't want to talk about the time Kolchak was dead because he knows it's true. And if that's true, how many other things are true that Kolchak's been saying?
I'm not fully sure that Tony outright disbelieves in the supernatural. After studying him closely in the series and the movies, it almost seems that instead, he doesn't want to be fired by publishing the weird articles. And he possibly also hopes that the explanations are not supernatural, but something else. He's truly skeptical, but he can be brought around to at least being open on the ideas, if you present him with enough facts and evidence, as shown in The Night Strangler.
But regardless of whether he outright disbelieves or not, this fic is pretty firm on him being forced to acknowledge evil spirits. What do you think? Does that take away from the charm of the character? (I'm trying to make sure it doesn't.) Does it change things too much? I think Tony would still be pretty firm against publishing the weird stories. He wouldn't just believe every oddity that came along. And of course, he would still argue with Kolchak.
I also have another fic idea, that would call for Tony to end up with amnesia due to some monster's power. But I'm thinking it would be a very specialized type of amnesia, making him forget only his ties to people and not the people themselves. So he knows Carl Kolchak is a "nutcase" trying to make people believe in the paranormal. He doesn't know that he has been one of Kolchak's only true friends for years, or indeed, that they have any connection at all. And he wants nothing to do with Kolchak. It might force Kolchak to realize just how much Tony actually has helped him.
During the climax, Kolchak has to fight the monster. Tony still doesn't remember him, but he's aware of the battle. And despite not remembering, and wanting nothing to do with Kolchak, he's still a good person and realizes he can't just abandon Carl to the fight. So he goes to try to help. He's able to protect Kolchak from a vicious attack, but ends up knocked unconscious by the beast. After Kolchak defeats the thing, he has to revive Tony. And Tony remembers him then. (No, being knocked out did not restore his memories. I never want to do that silly cliche. Defeating the monster wasn't the key, either. Exactly what restored his memories probably won't actually be said; it's not really important to the plot what did it.)
