Preliminary Notes

Setting:  In and around present day Louisville, Kentucky.  This will include some workplace scenes, street scenes, outdoor scenes, scenes inside apartment/homes, and a creepy laboratory. 

Premise:  A group of friends stumble upon what they perceive to be an urgent environmental threat, a fork of Beargrass Creek whose waters have been tinged red.  After their report of this phenomenon is ignored by the authorities, they begin their own investigation.  They make an awful discovery:  an enormous fast-food conglomerate based in the city is conducting experiments about new additives to make their foods even more addictive, and have unwittingly created a monster they don’t know how to control.  These friends must make a choice: do they try to find a way to rescue the once-human subject of these experiments, or destroy him along with the rest of what they’ve uncovered?  And if they do rescue him, what next?

Principal Characters (names are placeholders):

Justin:  Delivery cyclist for a local fast food chain, also a musician (guitar, etc.).
Justin is a friendly and upbeat.  He has many friends and acquaintances through his job and his involvement in the local arts scene.  His endless curiosity and love of the outdoors helps initiate the discovery of the creek’s red waters.  Justin also knows a great deal about natural foods and medicine, which is slightly ironic given his day job.  He likes teaching his friends about these ideas, and makes some damn tasty meals and teas as a result.

Max:  Bookseller at an independent bookstore, also a writer.  Max is also an outgoing artistic type, but sometimes wavers in his mood between a tired sadness and an energetic enthusiasm.  Like Justin, he also loves riding his bike, and considers exercise the best cure for his “blues”.  Max is into conspiracy theories, and even though he doesn’t take them completely seriously, he finds them fascinating and is deeply suspicious of corporations and authority in general.  He’s also deeply spiritual.  In his mind, he connects his strange moods with his own spirituality, even though he knows some people might say this makes him crazy.  

Clover:  Clover is a financial aid advisor at the University of Louisville.  She works in a typical office setting, and has to maintain a very professional demeanor throughout the day.  Outside of work, she feels like she can be herself:  a dead-pan wit who is occasionally vulgar.  Clover likes to practice yoga and knows a lot about Buddhism, even though she was raised Catholic.  Sometimes, she’s very vulnerable and has some guilt associated with her job:  even though she knows the importance of education, she feels the loans she helps facilitate are unfair.  She went to the same high school as Justin, and knows Max as a fellow writer.  Clover is a poet.