Table of Contents
Summary Page 1
Characters Pages 1-5
Character
Interaction Pages 6
Timeline Pages 7-8
Story
Arcs
Pages
8-9
Materials
Page 9-10
Summary
The Morgantown Association of Paranormal Investigators
(MAPI) is a collection of unique individuals who strive to discover evidence of
the paranormal and protect the citizens of Morgantown from otherworldly
dangers. The general public is unaware that Morgantown is a paranormal hotspot,
so this daunting task is left to MAPI. The founding members are Alcyone Waters,
Tim Grandy, Cassandra Evans, Agnes Cassidy, and Peter Sanchez. They have all
encountered some ghosts or spirits, and these shared experiences create a sense
of camaraderie that binds them together.
Characters
Alcyone
Waters
Alcyone is a woman of
22 who works as a projectionist in Morgantown. She is originally from
Pikeville, KY and the daughter of a pair of fundamentalist Christian
parents. Alcyone has always been rebellious, partly because she has always been
a curious person and her love of books, film, and learning has taught her that
her parents have been wrong on a great many things. Most notably, and damaging
for Alcyone has been their belief that her temporal lobe epilepsy is in fact
demon possession and their insistence on faith healers who concur with their
assessment. Alcyone has fled their grasp to make a life of her own away from
the church and manage her condition in a way that suits her own desires. She
isn't fond of the usual medicines that she is prescribed, as she found depakote
"zombified" her, and is currently on kepra and unofficially a medical
marijuana patient.
She is aware that she
sometimes hallucinates, sometimes repeats days or segments of days only to find
it was a dream. It makes a regular job kind of difficult for her, but she goes
to the cinema where she works faithfully because she truly loves movies. She
relates much of her experience to film. Part of this is her lack of social
experience due to her sheltered upbringing. She tries to seem tougher than she
is, but she is a very lonely and insecure person desperate for friends and
wanting to be liked rather than pitied.
She is deeply religious
as a Wiccan, and believes in spirits, which she may in fact be able to see and
interact with. Her unusual roommate may in fact be one of said spirits.
Fachtna
Fachtna has stayed with
Alcyone from the time she was 11 and living under her bed. He is a form of
poltergeist, as he stays with Alcyone rather than a particular location. He's
disruptive, sometimes obnoxious, loud, and sarcastic, but he cares for Alcyone
very much. He enjoys television and movies, a shared passion of theirs.
Previously he liked to disturb her parents, but now has little else to do but
talk to Alcyone and annoy the neighbors.
Tim Grandy
Tim is a 35 year old
man who lives just off of High St, and has recently become unsatisfied with the
level of mediocrity in his life. After quitting a fruitless 10 year job at
Office Depot, he gets involved with MAPI out of pure curiosity. He finds a post
from a group member, Cassandra, who's recently had a paranormal experience and
is reaching out. Tim, lacking any other social stimulation, quickly becomes
fascinated with the activities of the group.
It is when MAPI
concludes that Tim is once again slammed with his own empty reality. He mind
turns to a delusion in which he is hired by an electronics manufacturer that
sends him to harvest Iron Oxides on the surface of Mars. From there, he blogs
about his "experiences" on the red planet, but also often reflects
upon his time on Earth- in Morgantown, and with MAPI. By reflecting rather than
participating, his perspective should give the group/ project a new
dimension.
Cassandra
Elise Evans
Cassie Evans is a 24
year old biology student at West Virginia University. She usually has a very
laid back personality, but occasionally needs some time alone to keep herself
from going crazy. She is originally from Sacramento, California. After
graduating from high school, Cassie decided to go on an extended road trip, because
her large family (which consists of two hippie parents and 6 siblings) was
driving her crazy. After traveling cross country for about 2 years, her car
broke down in Morgantown, WV and she couldn't afford to fix it. However, after
being stuck in the small college town for a few days, Cassie decided she liked
it and wanted to settle there for a while. All of the traveling was beginning
to wear her out, and she was beginning to fear she wouldn't ever find anywhere
to truly belong. She managed to secure a waitressing job at the Evansdale
Boston Beanery and applied to WVU a few months later.
Now, four years later,
Cassie is a senior biology major with a cat and an annoying roommate. After
living in one place for 4 years, she is starting to get restless again.
However, things liven up when she becomes interested in the paranormal after
encountering the ghosts of a couple decapitated co-eds in the woods near Cheat
Lake. Despite the fact she worries she may have hallucinated, she writes about
her terrifying experience on her blog. She also searches the internet for
anyone who may have experienced something similar. Eventually, these actions
bring her in contact with the other MAPI members.
Agnes
Cassidy
Agnes Cassidy is a 19
year-old college student at West Virginia University.
She lives in Dadisman
and has had five separate roommates. The first, Amanda, switched to Summit
mid-summer. The second, Bridgette something, never showed up on move-in.
Colleen was the third, and also the alleged bulimic. Asia was the fourth and
probably bathed three times in the two weeks before she transferred to a
community college “closer to home.” The fifth is a catty ex-cheerleader named
Brooke.
She’s currently
undecided as far as her major goes, but she’s very interested in psychology.
Her mother is Liz, or
Elizabeth Cassidy. Liz is your stereotypical erratic author, specializing in
science fiction, primarily hauntings. Liz likes to take her work a step further
by actually living in haunted homes. Because of this, Agnes has lived in five
different states. There is quite a bit of animosity between the pair. Agnes
spent most of her childhood resenting her mother, which is referenced early in
her blogs.
Agnes became interested
in MAPI while perusing through the blogs on blogger and landing on a post by a
student at WVU detailing a paranormal experience on Cheat Lake with the
headless coeds. She responds to the girl’s post, as does two other individuals
and the four decide to meet up.
But Agnes’s interest in
the paranormal wasn’t recently founded. In fact, personal childhood experiences
both influenced her interest and the animosity with her mother. In the last
home she lived in with her mother, she experienced a rather unwelcoming
presence in the home. She would hear a ball bouncing down the stairs and a
child’s laughter when there wasn’t a little boy living anywhere near them. At
the peak of this activity, she was asked to help Liz set up her office in one
of the empty rooms on the second floor. She was curious at the small red chair in
the middle of the room when she heard the door slam. When she turned she
realized that it was gone. The walls started to close in on her and she was
screaming her head off. Ten minutes later, Liz finally managed to break her
daughter from her panic attack and Agnes realized that she’d been hallucinating
the entire time.
While any rational
mother would find another home upon their child’s fear of a home, Liz instead
drew inspiration from her daughter’s experience, writing her latest novel about
it.
Peter
Sanchez
Peter is a 28 year-old
living Morgantown, WV. Peter dreams of becoming a big time reporter in a big
city. He works for the local newspaper and has accepted his stale/boring
lifestyle. He enjoys freelance reporting the most, writing and submitting articles
to different news agencies. These articles give Peter a chance to write feature
stories that interest him (a lot more interesting then the drunk college kids
screaming outside of his apartment on High Street). Peter spends most of his
time researching anything that stands out to be interesting to him. He has dark
features, black hair with strands of gray that somehow cheated their way out
early. He prefers to not shave his facial hair but grooms it neatly. He smokes
cigarettes and drinks a lot of coffee, especially when he stays up all night
trying to finish a story. He keeps a journal to jot down his surroundings and
sometimes mentions his personal (psychological) encounters.
Peter was born in
Brooklyn, New York. His mother and father raised him and his older brother
there. He had a hard childhood, both of his parents struggled with alcoholism.
Sleepy, mean parents seemed normal to teenage-Peter. He had a lot of freedom
and could almost do anything he wanted when times were really bad. When he first
started smoking cigarettes at age twelve, his mother found out and responded
with giving him a pack of cigarettes. He had wild teenage years due to his need
to be the life of the party. Peter always had to be right. He shows his teenage
self with his arrogance and stubbornness today.
Peter’s free spirit is
what allows him to find purpose in writing about the world around him. He knows
things are not always what they seem to be and he hopes to bring larger
pictures to light. The stories I want to tell through Peter are stories
that are usually left untold. Peter loves solving unsolved mysteries and loves
corruption even more.
Peter began to become
bored with his reporting job at the local news paper and he started searching
around the town for almost anything. He needed a challenging mission and since
nothing was right in front of him, he started to eaves drop and search the web.
He had heard about "hauntings" that occur around Morgantown but
usually just laughed the topic off. After visiting a cemetery, he decided that
he must help tell the stories that have not been written. He searched google
and landed on a recent blog post by Cassie Evans. Cassie posted about her
possible ghost sighting in Cheat Lake and Peter had to get an interview with
this girl. Cassie told Peter about the group MAPI, whom Peter will eventually
meet with as well.
Character Interaction
Alcyone
& Fachtna
These two are as thick
as thieves, with a whole host of in-jokes. Fachtna is Alcyone's oldest friend,
and the closest thing she's ever had to a boyfriend. She gets along
disturbingly well with the monster under her bed. Her attachment to her
poltergeist of possibly delusion somewhat alienates her from other people, but
she deeply wants to make new friends and form a support network in her new
home. Fachtna is highly protective of Alcyone, and will go berserk if
anyone acts against her in her presence.
Tim
& MAPI Members
Originally, Tim finds
out about MAPI when he stumbles on a blog post by Cassandra. He's felt, or
thought to have felt some kind of presence in certain areas of Morgantown, so
it peaks his interest. Because Tim doesn't have a lot of alternate social
interaction, he's ultra susceptible to the group's camaraderie. His
persona becomes that of the always involved team member, who often even takes
work home. One thing is for sure- after he joins the group he can never get
investigating the paranormal off his mind.
Cassandra
& MAPI Members
After encountering the
ghosts of two decapitated co-eds in the woods near Cheat Lake, Cassie writes
about her experience on an online blog. She also searches the internet looking
for people who have knowledge of or experience with the paranormal. These
actions bring her in contact with several different people. First, she finds
Peter on Twitter and gets his contact information because he is a reporter
interested in paranormal activity. They exchange emails and eventually speak
over the phone. Then, Alcyone stumbles across Cassie's blog post and comments
on it to offer information about spectral activity. Tim and A. Cassidy also get
in touch with Cassandra through the blog. Eventually, this interaction will
result in the creation of the Morgantown Association of Paranormal
Investigators (MAPI).
Timeline
January 29, 2013-Cassie encounters two
angry ghosts in the woods near Cheat Lake. She escapes and writes about her
experience on her blog.
January 30, 2013-Cassie contacts Peter
after viewing his Twitter feed, which asks people to report any paranormal
experiences. They exchange emails and eventually talk on the phone.
February 2-5, 2013-Alcyone, Tim, and
Agnes all contact Cassie through her blog.
February 10, 2013-Eventually, Peter
asks everyone if they would be willing to meet in person so he could interview
them about their paranormal experiences in person.
February 15, 2013-They meet at the
Daily Grind, a coffee shop in downtown Morgantown, and discuss their various
experiences. They decide to conduct a group investigation of Hotel Morgan to
once and for all prove or disprove the existence of paranormal activity.
February 19, 2013-While conducting
their investigation of Hotel Morgan, the group encounters the ghost of a little
girl that drowned in a hotel bathroom in 1952. This encounter expels any doubts
the group had about the existence of ghosts.
February 21-Alcyone’s parents
locate her blog, start sending harassing messages and insist that she return to
them and their church.
February 22, 2013-The group decides to
continue investigating paranormal activity around Morgantown. Their goals are
to collect enough evidence to prove the existence of the paranormal and
determine whether or not the ghosts pose a threat to the residents of
Morgantown.
February 27, 2013-Alcyone’s parents
contact Peter hounding him for her address and accusing the other MAPI members
of being a satanic cult.
March 1-May 5, 2013-They investigate
hauntings at the following locations: Oak Grove Cemetery, East Boreman Hall,
Elizabeth Moore Hall, Gobblers Knob, West Run Road, and Gobbler’s Knob.
May 8, 2013-Finally, they decide
to camp out in the woods near Cheat Lake and investigate the haunting that
brought the group together: the decapitated coeds.
May 9, 2013-At about 1a.m. the
group is attacked beside their campfire by the angry spirits of the murdered
coeds.
May 9, 2013-Alcyone flees with
Fachtna’s aid, only to find herself running into her past. Fachtna goes berserk,
gravely injuring her parents in a gruesome manner near the campsite, so she has
got to get out of town.
May 10, 2013-Everyone remaining at
the campsite is found dead, except for Tim. He begins to sink into delusions as
a result of psychological trauma.
Story Arcs
Alcyone
story developments for the future
Other MAPI members will
notice the unusual activity that is Fachtna
Alcyone's parents will
try to take her back to Pikeville against her will
Alcyone eventually
manages to escape her controlling parents, not certain how yet
She decides that even
if she's considered delusional, she's happier living outside the norms of
society
Tim Story Developments for the Future
Tim will get very
wrapped up in the group, and other members may begin to realize that he is
unstable.
His delusions
of grandeur will begin to develop, but do not fully manifest until
after the group concludes.
His posts on his
personal blog will be reflections on his time in MAPI, and his interactions on
the group blog will be current.
Cassandra
Story Developments for the Future
Cassie will become very
determined to find more evidence of paranormal activity as she comes to terms
with her ghost encounter near Cheat Lake.
She becomes obsessed
with researching the paranormal and occult, and receives valuable help and
support from her fellow MAPI members.
She eventually returns
to Cheat Lake and once more confronts the ghosts of the co-eds.
Agnes
Story Developments for the Future
Agnes will take comfort
in the fact that she is not alone in a paranormal experience.
As she warms up to her
fellow group mates, she begins to share some of her experiences and proves to
be a valuable asset to the group with her background.
MAPI helps her come to
terms with her experiences. She eventually confronts her mother.
Peter Story Developments for the Future
Peter will meet the
MAPI group after interviewing Cassie about her paranormal experience in Cheat
Lake.
Peter will find it hard
to believe in the paranormal at first. When he meets the MAPI group, the
members will share their personal stories with him, for a story he is working
on.
Peter visits different
"haunted" places in the area and begins to notice strange things that
have occurred. He even starts to recollect memories from that past that he
simply tried to ignore.
Peter will decide to
join MAPI after he admits to having personal experiences with the paranormal.
Materials
Blogs:
MAPI-morgantownhauntings.blogspot.com
-Google Map of
Hauntings
-MAPI PDF
-Story Bible
Peter-birdistheworddd.blogspot.com
-Google Map
-Peter’s PDF
-Character Video
Tim-reallifeonmars.blogspot.com
-Google Map
-Tim’s PDF
-Character Video
Alcyone-alcyonewaters.blogspot.com
-Google Map
-Alcyone’s PDF
-Character Video
Agnes-anchored20.blogspot.com
-Google Map
-Agnes’s PDF
Cassie-travelsandhaunts.blogspot.com
-Google Map
-Character Video
Other
Materials:
Handout-
MAPI
Flyer (available upon request)
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