the air force, deals with the devil, the F-22 Raptor, and Holloman AFB

[bedlamsbard]

Ah, the week of a thousand LJ entries begins. *girds loins*

I'm working on this story for class -- our ten-page final project -- tentatively called "Now Let the Fire Bathe Us", about a woman who (and I mentioned this briefly before) accidentally sells her soul to the devil in return for bringing her husband back from the dead. Her husband, a captain with the Air Force, was recently killed in Iraq, and because I'm an idiot, this requires me to sit around and stare at Wikipedia and say things like, "But what plane was he flying?" and "Okay, there's the F-15 Eagle and the F-22 Raptor, both of which are currently active. But which plane was he flying?" and "Screw this, he's flying the Raptor because it's shiny and new and damn cool. Also, the Air Force can yell at him for wrecking a really expensive aircraft."

*looks at Wikipedia some more*

...or there's always the F-16 Fighting Falcon. WHAT THE HELL. That wasn't there three hours ago! *hyperventilates* Okay. No, it was, it was just labeled under "multirole" rather than "fighter" like the Eagle and the Raptor. No, damn it, he's keeping the Raptor, even though it's a little bit ahead of its time.

Okay, well, anyway, the Raptor just made it out as an active combat aircraft -- 2005 -- and it looks like the only squadron that flies them that flew them in combat is stationed in Japan right now, which will clearly not work for the purposes of this story. What other squadrons are flying F-22s currently? Well, they're all stationed at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia, which doesn't really work for me. But there are three other squadrons that are scheduled to switch over from the F-15 to the F-22, so let's use one of those. No idea if they're in Iraq right now, since they're not on Wikipedia, but they're based out of Elmendorf AFB (Alaska), Hickam AFB (Hawaii), and Holloman AFB (New Mexico). Well, the first two don't work for various reasons, but the third one is close to perfect.

A little more research, and I have Holloman being six miles from Alamogordo, New Mexico, which happens to be the site where the first atomic bomb was detonated. Cool! I pull up Google Maps to see if there are any obvious crossroads between Holloman and Alamogordo.

No. Crossroads. DEATH.

At this point, I said, "Screw realism," and started making shit up. Hell, the story's already got the devil in it, who cares if the road names are right? I just did all that research to make sure Josh Browder was flying the right goddamn plane and to figure out where the hell this story is set, anyway. I was hoping for Colorado, but I'll settle for New Mexico. Lots of creepy things in New Mexico.

Now I just have to make the devil subtly evil. BE SUBTLY EVIL, DAMN YOU. Because with the initial story, I was told my devil was kitsch and cliched, so I'm trying to compensate by making him an All-American eyecandy high school football player. Thus, the subtly evil part.

Comments

[limmenel.livejournal.com]

Because I'm too lazy to scroll back up through my flist, another Devil-y song that's more subtle is, I believe, "Hotel California"... I'd have to double check on the lyrics, though, but I seem to remember it being kinda satanic-y.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

*stares at lyrics* You know, I think that actually works, at least for the post-deal morning-after "Hurrah my husband is home from the wars and also being dead" period. When Ellie realizes "Oh shit what the hell did I do last night?"

*cough* Things I have learned to do at Brown: jaywalk and swear in public. My parents would not be proud.

[limmenel.livejournal.com]

Haha, yes, two things you learn from being in college in a decent-sized city. Everyone here jaywalks, and me and my friends totally swear like a sailor.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

*laughs* The funny thing is that jaywalking in Seattle is punishable with, like, a hundred dollar fine, so it doesn't happen so much there. But at Brown? Pretty much the first thing I learned to do. The swearing out loud came pretty soon afterwards.

[limmenel.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure it's illegal and punishable by a fine here, too, and everywhere else I've lived, but why wait for the crosswalk when you don't have to? TIME IS MONEY, and alas I am poor.

The great part about living in a bilingual city? Everyone cusses aloud in two languages. So you're walking around and you see someone miss their bus and all you hear is "Shit, tabernac, fuck!"

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

The first week I was here the only thing I'd say while crossing the street was, "Oh my God, oh Lord, oh Lord, I'm going to die, oh Lord, I'm going to get hit by a car, oh my God, I'm going to die," and, "If I get hit by a car it's all your fault!"

*snort* That's awesome.

[limmenel.livejournal.com]

"If I get hit by a car it's all your fault!"

Haha, I totally say that all the time. I cross major 6-lane roads every day, jay-walking to work because I'm too lazy to wait for a cross-walk, and I'm always like "Omg I'm going to die, shit shit shit"

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

My friends are just all, "Yeah, yeah, whatever, cars, okay!" and I'm like, "What the hell, do you want to die?" We don't do it on major roads, though, just around campus.