Aurgh!
So last night I watched The Bogus Books and then took a nap. I had some weird but fairly pleasant dream that involved a big house and Gene Torg talking on a phone in a room in the basement. He seemed to be staying there while he was recovering from something. Pearl Chute was around too, but I can't remember if I "was" Pearl or if she was separate. It almost seems like she was separate, and I was going in the basement to check on Gene. I remember lots of boxes and green and blue carpets.
Now I really want to put Gene Torg and Pearl Chute into the next Perry mystery, tentatively titled The Nefarious Necklace. The current idea is that they would have the titular object at first and discover that the thing's possessed when Pearl tries it on. Gene has a terrible struggle getting it away from her, once he realizes it's responsible for her behavior.
The problem is, somehow I got the parallel image in my mind of that Pokemon episode where Jessie puts on a mask and is corrupted. And now I can't stop thinking and worrying that if I try to write the scene with Gene and Pearl, it's going to sound like that episode and they're going to sound like Team Rocket.
It's a ridiculous worry, really. Gene and Pearl are nothing like Team Rocket. The only similarity is that they're on the shady side, too. Or they were; they're trying to go straight in the story. Otherwise, they're extremely affectionate with each other (although they claim to be friends and nothing else) and neither one of them ever acts like an idiot. (I love James, but he really does act nutty sometimes. And not even just James, if we're talking the episodes around seasons 5 and 6. The whole lot of them were written like complete idiots for a while. Even James was never that bad before that point.)
And the Pokemon episode handled things silly, if I remember right, despite the creepiness of being possessed by a mask. My story would be stark serious and dangerous; Gene would end up trying to fight Pearl off because she would attack him once he tried to remove the necklace.
There shouldn't be any parallel whatsoever.
But the image is still there, stuck in my head.
And the very thought of the scenes being similar is feeling very, very weird and wrong.
**headdesk.**
Now I really want to put Gene Torg and Pearl Chute into the next Perry mystery, tentatively titled The Nefarious Necklace. The current idea is that they would have the titular object at first and discover that the thing's possessed when Pearl tries it on. Gene has a terrible struggle getting it away from her, once he realizes it's responsible for her behavior.
The problem is, somehow I got the parallel image in my mind of that Pokemon episode where Jessie puts on a mask and is corrupted. And now I can't stop thinking and worrying that if I try to write the scene with Gene and Pearl, it's going to sound like that episode and they're going to sound like Team Rocket.
It's a ridiculous worry, really. Gene and Pearl are nothing like Team Rocket. The only similarity is that they're on the shady side, too. Or they were; they're trying to go straight in the story. Otherwise, they're extremely affectionate with each other (although they claim to be friends and nothing else) and neither one of them ever acts like an idiot. (I love James, but he really does act nutty sometimes. And not even just James, if we're talking the episodes around seasons 5 and 6. The whole lot of them were written like complete idiots for a while. Even James was never that bad before that point.)
And the Pokemon episode handled things silly, if I remember right, despite the creepiness of being possessed by a mask. My story would be stark serious and dangerous; Gene would end up trying to fight Pearl off because she would attack him once he tried to remove the necklace.
There shouldn't be any parallel whatsoever.
But the image is still there, stuck in my head.
And the very thought of the scenes being similar is feeling very, very weird and wrong.
**headdesk.**