guys this is so dumb I can’t lie 😭 Also I haven’t thought through all the characters yet or really brought in the whole Captain Trips thing, so by all means, please chime in with more ideas if you have any! This au is deeply unserious, please have fun with it!
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-So it’s Camp Boulder vs Camp Vegas
-Boulder’s like locally owned, funded by residents, a beloved place for many people. Small operation, but staff is hardworking and campers love it
-Vegas is owned by a big corporation. (Cough North Central Positronics if you’re a Dark Tower fan lol cough) Flagg, who works there, is so hyped to have “creative control over this project,” which is to say he wants to make the worst camp ever and also kick out the Boulder camp so they can take Camp Boulder’s land (it has a slightly nicer lake)
Lloyd & Flagg:
-Lloyd is a criminal drifter who accidentally hits and kills his buddy Poke on Camp Vegas land. While trying to hide the body, he gets trapped in a cave where he starves for days. As he’s understandably freaking out over this situation, Flagg shows up, sets him free, and hides the body. This is his leverage for getting Lloyd to work there. If Lloyd slips up, Flagg will very easily reveal that he’s guilty of murder.
-So out of fear and also gratitude for saving his life, Lloyd allows Flagg to get away with some really awful shit (Flagg needed an employee that would allow this)
-It seriously disturbs him but he’s convinced himself that if he quits Flagg will take it out on the kids—as if Lloyd hasn’t been completely complacent with all the bad things Flagg is already doing to the kids
-Like Flagg has them physically fight, he wants to run his own little Lord of the Flies simulator or some shit this is hella fun for him
-Lloyd is a good counselor tho, the kids adore him. And he does manage to keep some semblance of order.
-When Flagg is finally arrested, Lloyd goes down with him
-In the epilogue, Flagg is given a plea deal + a lighter sentence for turning Lloyd in for killing Poke. Plus his company pays his bail and he’s basically allowed to walk free when all is said and done.
-Lloyd’s campers visit him in jail tho which is sorta nice he supposes
-Idk man I’d love for Lloyd to have a happy ending but it just doesn’t seem true to his character to give him one 😭
Larry:
-After getting one of his songs in the top 40, and also breaking up really badly with a girlfriend, Larry impulsively quit his job in LA and signed up to be the music counselor at some random summer camp where people will finally leave him alone
-It’s a point of contention that he’s too selfish and impatient to work with others so he’s all like “fuck you watch me become a bunch of kids’ favorite counselor eat my damn shorts”
-And then he gets there and hates it until the kids start to grow on him. By the end, he cares more about directing the kids’ band than he does about his own musical career, and is sorta shocked when he remembers that he’s actually lowkey famous outside of this camp in the middle of nowhere
-Lucy’s a nice, girl next door type counselor who he initially dismisses, but then discovers she’s actually really fun to work with and eventually grows pretty smitten
Franny:
-Working here to hide from her ex Jesse and also her mother
-Used to go to a different camp every summer, so it’s very nostalgic and allows her to imagine some normalcy while she’s dealing with being pregnant and single and all.
-Harold is her friend’s kid brother who signed up as a junior counselor just because he heard she was. He follows her around a lot, making her pretty goddamn uncomfortable
-She hides from Harold in the camp wood shop where Stu works, and they hang out
-She also becomes pretty close to Lucy and Larry. She refuses to believe Larry is The Famous Larry Underwood though, which is mostly just to ragebait him
Nick:
-Started out as an on-site odd jobs/handyman type, sorta accidentally right-place-right-timed his way into being a head counselor and is generally not sure how he got here, much like how he was deputized so fast in the book
-He’s awesome at it though. He’s great at connecting with people, which is ironic considering his condition, but true.
-He’s also one of the ones more initially riled up by Flagg and Camp Vegas. Everyone else is like “Yo that’s not a big deal man they can’t actually get rid of us. Chillax.” And then Flagg gets Harold and Nadine to damage camp property and Nick ends up with a broken arm and is extremely vindicated
-He fills a whole notebook with “I TOLD YOU SO” printed in all caps
-Nick also gets Tom Cullen a job at camp
Nadine:
-Worked at Camp Boulder for a long time before her boyfriend convinced her to work at his place instead
-Flagg manipulates her a lot and is generally The Worst. He fucks things up in the system so that it seems like everyone in Boulder hates Nadine when they very much don’t—like setting it up so she works alone, she’s always doing jobs no one else wants, it just generally seems on her end like she’s being majorly excluded
-Nadine tries to tell Larry about all the confusing stuff that’s happening to her, but he tells her he can’t handle it + she rejected him recently so she can’t just play around like that
-So feeling isolated and confused, Nadine agrees to help Harold ruin everyone else’s fun
-Once she’s in Camp Vegas, she’s technically co-director, but this is just a title. Mostly Flagg just has her hang out and do nothing, maybe read books to the kids. As she realizes how awful he is, she tries to resign, but Flagg won’t let her. She ends up unearthing the murder problem, which she uses as leverage to force him to finally give in and fire her
-Lloyd actually got along with her really well until finding out that she did that, and in feeling betrayed by her, he’s drawn closer to Flagg
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Anyway that’s all I’ve got for now—I’d have to reread the book again to come up with more detailed ideas, but as it is, this au is so open and if you have an idea just add it!! There’s definitely parts of the book I’ve overlooked here that I’d love to touch on, like Dayna, Trashcan Man, plenty of other main characters, and more.
