Story:Unspooled/Scratchpad/2022

• OED highlights (from August 1 onward)

January

18/1

• OED words: cardioid (microphone/geometric pattern) (WOTD), wreathing, curatorium (group of curators), archaeometry, metta (unconditional love, goodwill, or benevolence; Buddhism)
  • The Curatorium is the network of compilers hired by Kino Lorber Panama City (KLPC) for their Reflections visual albums.

• Character sketch, Volume I: Alfred Hieronymus Bosch Lavinier-Saint-Omer—simply called "Alfred", or "Alfie" for short—is a male Guadeloupe raccoon cub who lives in Stockfarm, Roseau, Dominica, several hundred yards away from his cousin Samson. He and his parents, Victor and Louise, live in a raised house overlooking the cliffs of Tarish Pit. From the young age of five, he has aspired to make it on screen, if only in honour of his partly mythical great-grandrelative Agatha. (Since his birth, Victor and Louise have kept bringing her up in murmurs during mealtime conversations; his Saint Lucian aunt Hayley brought her into his mother's side of the family, days after his October 1998 birth.)
  • If not for a passport on the roadside, then how else does Alfred meet Maurice?

May

23/5

• Scenario #1, side story: At Sam's Stockfarm home, he and cousin Alfred are thrilled one night when an acquaintance calls them over for a trip to Scotts Head. The acquaintance has parked her compact white convertible in front of Sam's porch. With Edison and Marguerite's blessings, the cousins take the ride of their young lives—clear skies, 71°, full moon―down to Dominica's southernmost point.
  • Loosely based on a dream this author had ca. 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 21. The convertible didn't ride all the way through in said dream, only one block down to a newly-opened movie theatre complex next to the suburb's prison. The auditoriums were small (cf. the 2010s "mini-theatre" boom in New York City), and the hallways were labyrinthine.
• Scenario #2, side story: Sam and Marge are waiting on someone/something inside the old Government Headquarters on Kennedy Avenue, Roseau, during a cloudy, dreary midday. Suddenly, smoke comes somewhere from the building, growing bigger until it forces the occupants to evacuate quickly. Mother-and-son raccoon run for their lives, hitching a ride on a white truck with red Toyota lettering. Sam tries running back in for something he left behind, but Marge stops him in a second. He asks if the Headquarters have a "Lost and Found" section, and is relieved when she confirms it.
  • Based on a dream by this contributor ca. 1:00 p.m. on May 22.
  • Both of these sketches take place before Alfred met Maurice. Plot details to be filled in by contributor (through WOTDs or otherwise), or community/assistants in future.

August

1/8

• Plot sketch, Volume VI: This iteration of Volume VI, the "Grand Finale", yearns to deconstruct how characters on animated series, especially young ones, are not allowed to age in story. During their travels to Madagascar in summer 2011, Sam and Alfred meet a group of well-to-do child actors who look 8 and 9, but were actually born in the 1980s or earlier. Their journey takes them to a secret society of mice who brew aging potions; the raccoon cousins fall in love with their leader, the ninth and last incarnation of mouse hybrid Nomena, whom they team up with to defend the society's centuries-old formulas from a quokka named Mighty Mac.
  • Mulled over in the mind of this author since sometime during May, thanks to the original version of "Just as I Am" by Rob Hegel (made famous by Air Supply in 1985). "Just as I Am" has been adopted as the theme ballad of this volume.

5/8

• Highlights from WP's RecentChanges feed, 8:00–9:00 p.m. EDT:
  • "Dear Future Husband" (Meghan Trainor, 2014). Either a potential soundtrack cut, or one for Adanson's Docket.
  • Bonifay, Florida: Another surname candidate, another Dixwell family branch to be developed. (Bonifay is in the upper Panhandle.)
  • Ivamere Rokowati (b. 2001): Fijian rugby player. Given name is more suitable as a surname; species of family TBA.
  • Queipa Revolution (Venezuela, early 1898): The sooner any caracals appear in the manuscript, the sooner they will adopt that surname.
  • Lavenia Tinai (b. 1990): See Rokowati. First name closely resembles Lavinia.
  • ATGCLVLSSCAP (Ulver, 2016). Title is an initialism reference to the signs of the Western Zodiac.
  • Égig érő fa, Hungarian for "sky-high tree"; a motif in Hungarian folklore and art.

6/8

• Plot scenario, Volume I: After their branch of the Grotto Home for the Homeless is accidentally destroyed during renovation, the 29 vagrants affected team up with Alfred and Maurice to sail off to Carriacou, all expenses paid. (Inspired by a stretch of cues which surfaced during a Reflections volume in 2021.)
• Theme song candidate, Volume I or II: "So You Are a Star" (The Hudson Brothers, 1974). Source album title, Hollywood Situation, is an apparent coincidence.