HERE IS THAT LONG OUTLINE I PROMISED. I got a 'it's good' from my narrative teacher but I want to see what other people think because 'different tastes' ya know?
- The story opens up with the protagonist, Kevin (early twenties- freelance graphic designer; generic hipster with glasses and an attempt at ironic facial hair) entering a diner where Casey (former classmate, more acquaintance than legitimate friend) works. Casey is an English BA with aspirations to become a young adult best-selling author. He and she make small talk while he orders coffee and attempts to work out some sketches for a client, but it's obvious that his flirting is not going to get to her.
- Casey, however, invites Kevin to her birthday party, stressing that the shindig is gift-optional. Kevin takes this as a way to impress Casey and resolves to get her the best gift that will get her to notice him as a potential boyfriend. He's far too unassertive to just ask her out, so he rather get her to come to him.
- After searching for a few days, including asking his film-school alum roommate what he should get her, Kevin comes to the terrible conclusion that he doesn't know Casey that well at all. This crisis leads him into the pawn shop, searching and hoping until something catches his eye
- And what catches his eye is the Boombox. All quirky-cool and definitely something that Casey would like (functioning on the assumption that Casey liked music and throwback tech; fortunately for Kevin, this was correct), Kevin buys it without hesitation, despite getting a talk down on how crappy it was. Kevin assures the cashier that he's good with electronics and can fix the boombox up no problem
- After taking the boombox home, Kevin notices that there's a tape left in the tape deck. Curiosity wins and Kevin simply has to push 'play' to have a listen. The tape appears to be a recording of nothing, though Kevin swears he can hear a faint voice underneath. His roommate, however, hears just the scratching of the old tape. He also makes it clear to Kevin that this was the worst gift ever.
Kevin blames his hearing of voices on his lack of sleep and crashes in his room, leaving the tape playing. As the tape plays, the soul (ie; Jones) is embedded into the boombox.
- Jones is PISSED and wakes Kevin up by electroshocking him and demands an explanation. Kevin is unable to give him one and is more than a little freaked out by the sudden manifestation of a BEING OF ELECTROMAGNETIC ENERGY (aka a GHOST) in his room. He promptly passes out again, leaving Jones free to rummage about his things and make a general mess while he tries to figure out what happened to him and where he's been and why he has no body now.
- Unfortunately, his impromptu fainting session means that Kevin misses Casey's party. Which is just as well, because what if he had given her an apparently possessed boombox. That's a dealbreaker right there.
- Kevin wakes up and finds to his dismay that this is not a dream and that he really does have this angry entity living in his room via the boombox. With the initial shock worn off, Jones introduces himself and tries to explain what he can about how he probably ended up in this stereo anyhow.
- As it turns out, Jones was a fairly average guy, if not a kind of horrible one. He cheated on his girlfriend at the time with another chick that he met at a bar, and then tried to break up with her. She didn't take it too kindly, obviously. She revealed herself to be a witch of sorts, and used a soul-displacement spell via a personal tape recorder, essentially recording and locking his essence into the tape that had been in the boombox.
- Playing the tape transferred Jones' essence from the tape and into the boombox, allowing him to manifest. Kevin coins the name Boombox Jones for the spirit. Jones kind of digs the name, but can tell Kevin is a weenie because of the fainting. But what choice does he have?
- Kevin is not going to have any of this, and he attempts to get rid of the boombox by chucking it. However, he starts to feel pain, sick, and weak when he gets too far from where he's left the piece of equipment. He storms back to Boombox Jones and demands what's going on.
- Jones explains that since Kevin 'released' him, they are more or less bound together. Kevin just can't 'ditch' Jones or he'll die. Kevin cannot handle all these feels right now and decides he needs coffee to calm his jangled nerves. Jones promises that for the time being, he'll stay unseen to avoid complicating thins further, He's a jerk, not irrational.
- Kevin comes across Casey at the coffee shop and tries to apologize for missing the party. Casey forgives and compliment's Kevin's rad new boombox. And for the briefest of moments, it looks like she and Kevin might get together after all.
- And then Casey's new boytoy shows up. His name is Ben and guess what? Ben's a new star in the YA fiction scene, and he's wanting to help Casey break into the business. He seems almost too good to be true for her. Kevin's a nothing in compare.
- Defeated, Kevin returns home. Jones sees his opportunity and offers a deal. Kevin can help him track down his ex and get his body back, and Jones will help Kevin out in hooking up with Casey. He also mentions that there's something off about Ben, but he can't figure out what. They shake on the deal, and Jones electroshocks Kevin again because, frankly, it's fun.
- Now, Kevin has to balance the delicate tasks of maintaining his job, relationships with friends and his roommate, and hiding Boombox Jones while simultaneously being unable to stray too far from the piece of equipment and not look insane.
- At the same time, at encouragement and jabs from Jones, Kevin continues to attempt to flirt and win Casey's affections despite Ben being pretty much perfect.
- One night, Kevin is assaulted by a goth-looking fangirl, who doesn't seem to be all in her mind, and only speaks in bad prose. It is by sheer fluke that Kevin discovers that Jones makes a good weapon, if only because he had the radio on when they were attacked. Boombox Jones draws spiritual energy from sound energy, which makes him powerful enough to interact with things on the physical realm aside from Kevin. The strange catch is that 'how' he does that is determined by the mood or even the lyrics of that sound, or song playing'.
- Jones is about to lay a finishing blow because he's worked up and has no qualms about killing before Kevin intervenes. He couldn't KILL anybody! How in the hell was he going to explain that away to the cops? He really can't. Fortunately, at this time, a commercial for a sleep aid comes on, and Jones simply sends their goth girl attacker to sleep and they make their getaway.
- Fascinated by this discovery, Kevin sets out to test the limits of Jones' capabilities and decides that he will arm himself with a mixtape that he can play should trouble rear its ugly head again. The random attack kind of unnerved him.
- And it should, because a few days later, he was attacked again by more prose-spouting people at a bus stop. Once again, Jones does his thing using the mixtape Kevin's provided, but pretty much destroys the tape in the process. Kevin is mildly distraught because that was such a BOSS mix too.
- At this point, Kevin's become a pro at making mixtapes and he decides he's going to give one to Casey as a gift to make up for the fact that he failed to get her one for her party. When the time comes, he has second thoughts and misses his chance, and after dropping Casey off at her apartment, he kicks himself on the way home.
- He doesn't make it very far, however, before he's yet again attacked by a prose-spouting weirdo. Although, the large, would-be pro-fighter seems to be all the wrong kinds of person to be spewing this stuff. Kevin- reluctantly- gives Jones the mixtape he'd made for Casey in order to fend this more formidable enemy off after fumbling with the radio failed to yield results (and he probably gets roughed up for it). Jones defeats their adversary, at the expense of wrecking the tape pretty violently.
- Casey hears the commotion and goes out to investigate to find the laid-out mugger, and a beaten Kevin. She coddles him and asks if he's okay before picking up the discarded fragment of the mixtape, reading her name on the label. She asks if this was for her and Kevin sheepishly says 'yes'. Casey finds this gesture cutely romantic and in the moment, kisses Kevin.
- Kevin is left pining and little does he know that Ben saw the whole thing.
- The following days are suspiciously quiet. Jones and Kevin both suspect that something strange is happening. And then, in a random internet search, they uncover the source of the bizarre prose their attackers have been spouting- excerpts from Ben's book.
- Ironically, Casey invites Kevin with her to one of Ben's book signings. Jones, who as a now 'occult' being, can determine that things are going really strange. Ben has the power to make people submit to his will by autographing their copies of his book. These must have been the people attacking them! Everything clicks into place.
- Before Kevin and Jones can sneak away, Ben calls them out as the store closes. A FIGHT is going to go down. Casey tries to defuse the oncoming fight between Kevin and Ben, but Ben pushes her to the side. Ben calls Jones out and laughs, but won't explain why. This whips Jones into a fury and he and Kevin fight with such vigor! Naturally, Ben summons a small horde of fangirls, crying 'kill KILL for your [insert teenage heartthrob romance novel character name here]' and man do they try! When they are dispatched, Kevin and Jones turn on Ben next. A proper song comes on and Ben is sapped of his mind-bending ability and is left what he really is- a talentless hack.
- Shamed and defeated, Ben runs off with his tail between his legs, saying something along the likes of 'she's not going to be happy about this!'
- She?
- Of course, this means Casey is aware of a) occult things are going down and b) Jones. To everybody's relief, Casey not only takes well, but is delighted by this turn of events, confessing herself to be a bit of a fan of such things. She wants in on their goings-on, provided she can use it to write about.
- They agree, and it's looking good for Kevin AND Jones on both fronts.
- With Casey in tow, Kevin and Jones steal into Ben's now-abandoned apartment to search for clues and discover a tape. They play it- it's a documentation of Ben and the Witch [Jones' ex] striking a deal. The Witch sounds doting, affectionate, and willing to turn her 'sweetheart' into a famous author through her occult means. This, and some other mementos that had a distinctly occult feel to them left in the flat, pinpoint to a terrible truth- Casey and the Witch were being so PLAYED by Ben.
- Casey is of course horrified that she was cheated on and has the typical post breakup meltdown, and Kevin of course offers his shoulder to cry on.
-Casey realizes that Kevin's been caring and awesome all this time, and they get together. Sure, it's a rebound, which Jones later points out, but he's got the girl. Achievement unlocked! Bonus for not having to keep Jones a secret from Casey any longer.
- Jones is paranoid that Kevin is just going to leave him hanging since he has Casey now. Kevin reassures him that Jones is his bro now and he's ready to see this through to the end because he's not a mean person. He also says that Jones could learn from that, Good Samaritan-like.
As expected, the Witch comes to town, looking for revenge, looking for Casey. She's very subversive, merely asking around because she doesn't want to start something in public. She actually comes to the diner Casey works at and pretends that she is an average diner, scoping out the area.
- She does this for several nights, asking the different servers their names until she gets Casey. Fortunately this is the night that Kevin's visiting her, and Jones warns Casey that her customer is the Witch, and that she should use a different name if she asks. It will buy them some time.
- Casey does this, the Witch continues to be a perfect patron. Jones and Kevin slip outside to cause a distraction involving setting off car alarms. Startled and shrieking about hoodlums and her car, the witch leaves the diner, leaving her bag in the seat.
Casey roots through her bag and produces a tape marked with her name. She shows Kevin and Jones who confirms its a hoodoo tape. Thinking quickly, Kevin scrawls Casey's name in the Witch's handwriting on one of his mixtapes and slips it into the bag as a decoy before the Witch returns.
- Their success is very short-lived however, as they leave the diner at the end of Casey's shift and clean-up, they are ambushed by the Witch. She talked to the manager and learned that her server's name WASN'T Allison like Casey claimed, but Casey. And man is she PIIIISSED.
- All three of them brace for a fight and the Witch is stunned by Jones' appearance, citing that she thought he was too cool to be stuck with people like Kevin and Casey. Jones demands his body back and she laughs and whistles.
- From the back of her car crawls out Jones' empty shell of a body, only it isn't empty, and its rather zombie-like. Naturally it attacks them and a fight ensues. Jones is holding back, obviously, because he doesn't want to damage his own body! But if he fails, Kevin and Casey will get destroyed. It's the moment of truth. One or the other.
- Jones chooses his friends, and with one last tape change, the hoodoo tape, he deals a devastating blow that wrecks not only the witch, but destroys the empty hull of his would-be body, and messes up quite a few cars in the parking lot in the process.
- Damaged, the Witch snarls at all of them, especially Jones. A battle-damaged Kevin crawls to the boombox and presses record on the hoodoo tape.
- The Witch is furious at how Jones could ever choose some hipster losers over HER- HER! And then she says her name. The name is recorded onto the hoodoo tape. The light in her eyes fades and arcs for the tape. She drops.
- Jones ejects the tape and goes quiet, staring at both the Witch's now empty body and the smudge that was his. He sighs before turning and grinning to the damaged couple. “So should we burn it?”
- Kevin takes the tape and stuffs it in his pocket and nods, fishing for another tape to pop into the boombox. It is a hilarious fire-themed song- I'm thinking Disco Inferno or We Didn't Start the Fire. A fire is burning, and Casey and Kevin share a post-battle snuggle to which Jones growls 'get a room'. Smoke rises.
THE END.
