Now, this idea is actually a combination of several ideas. It started off as a fic for Siege's Coulda Shoulda Woulda, but as I continued developing it, it got harder to fit it in the CSW universe. I then thought of revising it into a TV show that's broadcast within the CSW 'verse, but by then the connection would've been really, really thin. So I decided to shelve the idea.
Right around when I was starting to revise my art style, I also wanted to come up with a unified setting I could fit most of the revised versions of my characters in. Originally I was developing another idea, but then I remembered this one a few weeks ago. I decided to use this setting instead, polish it up a bit, and here I am.
The series bible shown below is still incomplete, and I won't start this 'verse proper until I've filled out most of it. I'll fill this up over the coming weeks. It'll never be a complete series bible, though, since I will be omitting some of the details that might spoil the seasons and episodes I have planned.
The Geist of It Series Bible
LOGLINE
“Astra ‘Blue Cheese’ Vluchis is bored out of her mind a week after moving to Prestonne, Washington. A case of girl meets boy meets twelve-ton dump truck changes all that as she finds that Prestonne is built upon secrets, conspiracies, and psychic abilities.”
OVERVIEW
The Geist of It revolves around the titular geist, a blanket term for psychic and parapsychic phenomena. A small fraction of people can manipulate geist to varying degrees, mostly unwittingly. Often these manifest in the form of so-called ghostly phenomenon and hauntings, with the more severe forms being poltergeists. These originate from negative feelings and are often temporary, but more powerful manifestations often become separate, self-sustaining entities in their own right.
Geist is often strongest in the adolescent years (which is why poltergeists are usually associated with young victims) and fade as the person ages. For a select few, however, geist manifests in the form of psychic abilities that they can learn to control. Training in the use of these abilities usually prevents their loss due to aging, but degradation still occurs. These select few are called geistmeisters by NATO while the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic—the USSR’s successor state after its chaotic dissolution in 1996—has no general term and uses iekstrasensi (espers; also used to refer to psychokinetics) or telepati (telepaths) depending on the primary ability of the person in question.
The rarity of geist and its tendency to fade has resulted in its dismissal as nonsense by most people, but events in World War II and immediately after have caused serious but secretive interests in both major sides of the Cold War. This interest has resulted in initiatives to study and weaponize geist. These studies have noted a growing incidence in geist manifestations worldwide, especially after an infamous incident in Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947.
Publicly, geist and everything about it are still not taken seriously by the public at large—they’re not even aware of the usage of geist as a blanket term—with the truth lost in the clutter of exaggerated conspiracy theories, misinformation, and made-up falsehoods. Presently the USA, its NATO allies, and the RSFSR have created several towns and cities where geistmeisters are secretly collected, studied, and trained. These secret cities are basically massive illegal operations and operate according to whatever rules their parent organizations set for them. The DSR (Directorate of Special Research) operates the American secret cities while the GRU now operates the Russian ones after it supplanted most of the KGB’s functions when the latter was purged and dissolved following their major role in the ill-fated coup of the midnineties.
The overall story focuses on the secret machinations of these groups—particularly of those stationed in Prestonne, Washington—as well as the inevitable factionalism and infighting. Complicating things is the rise of the Chosen Heralds Advancing New Glorious Emergence*, a secretive global movement of geist manipulators become increasingly troublesome to both sides, and what may or may not be aliens.
*Yeah, CHANGE. I came up with that before the Obama political campaign ruined it for everyone else —it’s used in an old 2004 idea somewhere in my DeviantArt account.
FORMAT
Genre: Action-Adventure/Mystery
Episode Length: 22 minutes
Episode Release Structure: Myth arc episodes alternating with standalone (but sometimes related) episodes
Number of Episodes: 25 per season
Number of Seasons: 5 (projected)
SETTING
Prestonne, Washington, is one of the towns in the secret DSR network, housing some of the influential DSR figures and a small number of the WMD-class psychokinetic geistmeisters and their families. It also contains the families of the support personnel and other miscellaneous nongeistmeisters. Outwardly, it seems to be nothing more than a typical isolated small town in Chelan County, Washington, but it is supported by a sizeable subterranean network of tunnels and facilities rivaling that of NORAD’s Cheyenne Mountain Complex.
Officially Prestonne is listed as an unincorporated community in Chelan County even though its population approaches that of some of the larger census-recognized communities. It does appear on the map, but information about it is usually understated. Not all of its denizens are in on the secret, but there is at least one member of every household who is. Most of the people in the local government, the sheriff’s department, and the civil maintenance and academic facilities are DSR agents.
WORLDBUILDING
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CHARACTERS
John Son of John "Jack" Baylor
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LOOK AND FEEL
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VISUAL REFERENCES
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GLOSSARY
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