Osprey University

I think it’s the gamer in me that makes me revel in creating settings.  I like situations, certainly — a lot of BDSM erotica is about interesting situations.  But I like settings: places to play and tell stories in.  I think that’s why a lot of my stories secretly fit into two or three ‘universes’ other than the real one.  One of those universes that I’ve returned to time and time again is the universe of “William H. Osprey University.”  I’ve only ever published one story, Body Double, which was set in that universe, but there are thousands upon thousands of words in my work in process folders which fits one way or another into this universe.

{Body Double can be read on my ASSTR website. It’s not bad, and was one of the longest things I’ve written/published until recently. It suffers from confusion and drift, but was fun to write. It’s been close to a decade since I wrote it, and may not be my best work, for what it’s worth.}

I recently had an idea that seems to be shaping up into a nice story or sequence of stories about a bit of technology that nicely fit into the Osprey universe.  I’m working on it now, and thinking of rewriting Body Double so it fits better and makes more sense, particularly since one of the character in the new story is Alyson’s roommate from Body Double.  So, I thought it’d be nice to write a bit out my setting, and my plans about it.

William H Osprey University, or “WHO U” or just “Osprey University” is a small private university near Greensboro, NC.  [Technically, Osprey, the city, and Osprey University sit in the same location as Elon, NC, about twenty miles east of Greensboro.]  William Osprey was a man interested in science and learning and had, perhaps, too much money.  At his death, he left an endowment that founded William H Osprey College, and set its goals of creating an excellent academic institution.

The College did fairly well, turning out top quality scientists until the 50s, when things were getting slim. North Carolina formed the UNC system, which was cheaper and more accessible to students, and things were looking bad for a small college in a small town.  One of the alumni, one with perhaps stranger ideas, created an endowment to the school, again for the sciences.   He preferred fringe science, but didn’t require the school to consider that;  he did, however, set up incentives for academic scholarships, and got Osprey enough money to convert to full University status.

A couple of the first scientists recruited, and selected by the alumnus, were successful in some of their experiments with Kirlian photography and parapsychology. One of those scientists went quite mad, and had to be imprisoned after threating to make sex slaves of the cheerleading team

Since that time, Osprey has grown its science departments with all manner of strange and fringe science.  They’ve added a full medical school, and offer more academic scholarships than any other school in North Carolina, and perhaps the American South. There’s also a bit of a reputation for eccentricity, if not outright madness, amongst the Osprey Faculty.

Still, their science seems to create results, no matter how fantastic or weird.

I suspect that if he were in the same Universe, Otto Von Madd would have attended Osprey, but left because they were to staid for his theories. Like many graduate student alumni that weren’t offered permanent positions, he’s sure to show them, show them all.

Most of the stories I’ve written or envisioned for Osprey revolve around auras and aural connections — it plays a key role in Body Double, as well as the first (unpublished) Osprey story, Time Enough.  Later ones picked that up as a key element, as well as the story I’m currently working on, “The Empathy Machine.”  It’s probably not confined to that, but it’s nice to have a thematic element to tie the stories together (besides the basic setting, anyway).