Asylum Oblivia - Roleplaying Open!

[Elcie]

The Asylum Oblivia is not an ordinary mental institution. The mental states of the patients range from dangerously unbalanced to perfectly sane, but the one factor every person has in common is amnesia: not a single one of them can remember what life was before waking up in the Asylum. Ostensibly the purpose of the Asylum is to help its patients recover their memories, but no one can remember seeing any progress. The patient who has been in the Asylum for three years has as blank a memory as the patient who has just arrived.

There is surprisingly little staff at the Asylum. When patients first awake in their cells, there is no one attending them to explain what is going on; nearly all of what the inmates know about the Asylum is spread by word of mouth, and it is quite possible that most of it is not true. In fact, the one thing that everyone seems to know about is something called “the Rift” that is occasionally mentioned by a nurse or by a patient who talks in his sleep. It seems to have something to do with the amnesia and memory lapses, but no one is sure what it means.

No one has ever seen a doctor there, only the nurses who bring meals and medications. There is also surprisingly little supervision, unless there is hidden surveillance equipment that no one sees. The most unstable patients are administered treatments or even confined, but beyond that no one seems to care how the patients spend their time. It isn’t as if anyone is going anywhere. All of the windows are barred, glazed and impossible to see through, and the doors at the ends of each “residential” hallway are locked and reinforced.

The only times anyone ever sees the locked doors open is when the nurses come to collect patients for their treatments. People will vanish for hours, sometimes days, and come back with no memory of what had happened during the time they were gone. Occasionally someone will vanish and never return. Supposedly they have been cured. Some people doubt this.

The one certain thing is that the Asylum Oblivia is not what it seems, and many of its so-called patients are growing uneasy and suspicious. Why are they here? Where do the vanished patients go? And perhaps most importantly, what is the Rift?

[Elcie]

Setting



1: The main hallway, where the patients’ rooms are. The rooms are identical, and each contain two beds on opposite sides of the wall, two chairs, and a metal writing desk. The beds and desk are bolted to the floor. Each room on the west side of the hall also has a single window, set high into the wall. It is glazed and barred. On the other side of the hallway there are, as well as the rooms, four doors. The first (north) door leads to the dining hall, the second to the exercise yard, and the third to the isolation wing. No one knows where the fourth door leads; it is locked, not by a padlock system as with every other locked door, but by an electric system that the patients have learned to leave alone after several have received electric shocks for messing with it. Men’s showers and bathrooms are on the north end of the hall, women’s on the south. Gender assignments to the rooms generally correspond to this, with men’s rooms toward the north end and women’s rooms toward the south.

2: A disused hallway full of empty rooms; unlike the residential rooms, these are all different shapes and sizes. Some of these are locked for no apparent reason, using padlocks. Some are interconnected, and rather mazelike. There's even a few hidden passages to other parts of the asylum, though not many know about them. There are doors on the west side of the hallway which correspond to the doors in the residential hallway: dining hall at the north end, a locked door at the south end. This locked door is the only other door which uses electrical locks. Also, this hallway has glazed, barred windows on the north and south ends.

3: The common area and dining hall, filled with long square tables. There is a bell here which rings for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, when food is brought to the tables. It is the brightest room, with windows along the north and south walls. The north windows are barred and glazed, while the south windows are not and overlook the exercise yard.

4:The exercise yard, which would be an open-air courtyard except for the fact that there is, inexplicably, a metal grille covering the top. There has never been any explanation for its presence. The courtyard is mostly overgrown by weeds, and even these do not thrive, though there are some places where patients have attempted to cultivate garden plots. In the courtyard, one can see that the asylum is actually three or four stories high, although the only windows are on the north and south walls of the first floor. The northern windows, looking into the dining hall, are not barred, while the southern windows are small, barred and glazed.

5: The isolation wing. These rooms are nearly identical to the residential rooms, with the difference that they are smaller and contain only one bed. The northern rooms have windows also identical to the windows in the regular rooms, while the southern rooms do not have windows. Though the hallway itself is unlocked, the isolation rooms are kept locked.

The gray-shaded area is the section connected to the rest of the asylum by the two electrically-locked doors. No patient in the asylum can ever remember going there, or is even aware of the asylum’s layout beyond the areas allowed to patients. There is, however, a basement that a few of the more experienced, curious patients are aware of - it is accessible through one of the passages in the east hall.

[Elcie]

General Information

• This RP is my “test run” for a concept I’ve considered starting as a LiveJournal RPG. If this goes well and I don’t get bored with it, I’ll be creating a community there, so you all will be invited to join it if that happens. ^_^
  
• Actual play will start when we have at least 5 characters, and the more the merrier. Once we're underway, newcomers will also be welcomed - you'll have to introduce your characters as new patients to the asylum, though. Edit: Play will start on Sunday! <3 We're open for business now. ^__^ Enjoy.
  
• You can join even if you have no prior RP experience, but know that this is (hopefully) a fairly complex game. If you feel like you need some advice on how to proceed, PM me; also check out KitC’s roleplaying guide, which is very useful.
  

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Plot Information

• The plot is intended to be long-term and in-depth, focused on the main conspiracy, though character sub-plots are encouraged.
  
• This isn’t exactly a linear RP. There’s a plot and a general goal, but exploration and investigation are necessary for the plot to proceed.
  
• Though the format of this RP will be pretty free-form, I do have a lot of things planned out already that I can’t tell you guys about yet, and I want to keep them intact. So if you’re about to reveal something important, try to check in with me first to make sure it fits into the general idea of the asylum and the world it is in. Don’t worry, I’m flexible – I might have a basic idea of what’s going on here, but I’m relying on your contributions to flesh out the plot beyond my basic outline. Make it surprising and unpredictable, even for me. Otherwise it won’t be much fun at all.
  
• Concerning the asylum: the electric locks cannot be broken (though there will, of course, be other ways to find out what’s going on back there). Padlocks can be broken (a lot of them aren’t in great repair, so it’s easier than it looks) though the staff may or may not turn a blind eye to that sort of behavior, so be warned. There are also probably hidden passages. I don’t really have much of a floorplan laid out beyond the general ideas in the post above, so have at it – there are lots of empty rooms to be explored, as well as two levels above and a basement no one knows about yet. Just remember to keep in touch if you’re revealing anything important about the asylum.
  
• Patients are permitted to have personal belongings, but own nothing that personally relates to their past (letters, diaries, photographs, etc) and nothing that gives them any clues about where they came from or who they were before. Some may even have hobbies and ask the nurses to bring them things – paper to keep a diary, for example, or paints or books – but there is no guarantee that these requests will be carried out. One of the disused rooms in the east hall has, over time, become a sort of library and rec room filled with a motley assortment of old books and games.
  
• Though the technology level inside the open parts of the asylum is relatively primitive (think early 20th century) the rest of the world is pretty high-tech, including the closed-off parts of the asylum - hence the electric locks.
  

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Character Guidelines

• One per person, at least for now.
  
• All characters must be human.
  
• Though characters’ pasts won’t be important for quite a while (because, you know, amnesia) keep in mind while formulating them that this is a nearly-real-world scenario. Also, don’t invent reasons for your character’s amnesia – I have one. XD
  
• It’s really up to you if you want your character to be truly crazy or not. The only unifying factor about the patients is their amnesia, but some probably do have actual mental illnesses, which would be fun. Some mental illnesses might even have plot-related origins…
  
• It is also up to you whether you want to play a new arrival to the asylum, or an established patient. Either way, you’re not going to know anything important. Yet.
  
• This is really a sci-fi plot once we get deeper into it, so magic powers are out. However! Psychic powers will be a main focus of the plot, and it is up to you whether you want your character to have them or not (keep in mind that no one will be aware of this in the beginning) or else develop them later. I’m not limiting this to telepathy/telekinesis: anything goes so long as it can be reasonably explained as a psychic gift (for instance, fire-affinity might work, but shapeshifting is getting too close to “magic powers” to work well). There is a plot-related cause behind these psychic powers manifesting themselves. If you have questions about this aspect, PM me – I have to be vague here to preserve the mystery. ^_~
  

[Elcie]

Characters

Fill out this form to join. If you need ideas for your character’s psychic powers, check here. (Thanks to Omni for sending me the link!) You aren’t by any means limited to the list, of course, and there’s probably a few that won’t fit into this universe. PM me if you’re confused or want ideas~

Notice there is no “History” section to fill out – because, obviously, none of the characters knows anything about anyone’s past. Since one of the goals in the plot is for the characters to regain their memories, though, it’s probably best to at least think about this. Keep in mind that the universe is similar to the real world with slightly advanced technology – this is a sci-fi RP.

Name: [possible for your character to remember it, but it can also be a self-given name]
Gender:
Appearance: [not including clothes, as clothing is issued by the asylum]
Personality:
Ability:

[OG Loc]

((How would we fill in the character's name knowing that they have amnesia?))

[Elcie]

Feb 13, 2009 15:02:31 GMT -5 OG Loc said:

((How would we fill in the character's name knowing that they have amnesia?))

((Either their name is the only thing they remember, or it's what they call themselves, or it's what the asylum staff call them - up to you.))

[Lizzie]

Name: Fallon(its what the staff calls her)
Gender: Female
Appearance:Blonde and dark eyed, with braids and pink ribbons in her hair. She is 11. She has white skin with rosy cheeks.
Personality: Funny, a little creepy when her dark eyes flash angrily. Random and bubbly. Likes Ponys, bubbles, the color pink, and the courtyard.
Ability:Mental Disruption
(She just joined the Asylum.)

[OG Loc]

Name: M.P.G. (Multiple Personality Guy)
Gender: Male
Appearance: A man who appears to be in his mid to late thirties, M.P.G. has pale skin, dark hair, and green eyes. His build is slight and frail.
Personality: M.P.G. has three personalities, each named after the initials that he is known by in the asylum.
M is pure logic. He looks at everything in a very impartial and analytical way. He is not hindered by emotions or rational thoughts. He does whatever makes to most sense to him at any time, not sticking his neck out for others, but not going out of his way to endanger them either. He is based upon efficiency and survival.
P is the exact opposite. He is based on emotions and empathy. He expresses all of his emotions openly, being kind and compassionate towards others. Of all his personalities, P is the most sensitive. He goes out of his way to help others, often at his own expense, but has no capacity for rational thought.
G is based on the most animalistic of instincts. Fear, hatred, and lust drive this side of M.P.G. He may go out of his way to hurt others, and he is unforgiving and distrustful. G is mainly fueled by testosterone, and all the aggression and lust that comes with it.
Ability: In addition to possessing a near-genius mind as M, MPG also has a mind control power. These powers of suggestion allow him to control the thoughts and, in effect, the body of one person at any one time. How he uses this ability, of course, varies wildly depending on which personality he is.

[Elcie]

((After talking to Rain I added something in about the basement - look at the setting post and I may add more details later~))

[Omni]

Name: 'The Artist' (Not really a name, just what she's been come to be known by.)
Gender: Female
Appearance: In her twenties. 'White,' but not pale. Shoulder-length, black hair. Hazel eyes.
Personality: As the name suggests, she is artistic, and enjoys pretty much anything related to creating visual art that she gets a chance to do. It will be noted that she likes to see things up close. Cautious, maybe even a bit cowardly in some cases. She's not the most outgoing, but she's not cold or particularly timid, either.
Ability: Metacreativity (able to create, and in some cases shape, various things)

(Is it okay to have her as has been in the asylum for awhile, but not for very long?)

[Gelquie]

Name: Miri (not her real name)
Gender: Female
Age: 13
Appearance: She's a white, shorter than average girl with short, dirty-blond hair that goes to the top portion of her neck. Her grey eyes are slightly larger than normal size, although not terribly so.
Personality: Acts much, much younger than she is, probably from being in the asylum for so many years. She is extremely curious, and can stare at something for hours, even other people, though she prefers staring at the glazed windows or staring up through the bars in the exercise yard. However, she has developed an extreme fear of the staff at the asylum, and will scream, run away, hide, and/or attack the staff member, depending on the situation, though sometimes she attacks for poor reasons. Despite her curiosity, Miri does not have the greatest analytical mind. Mostly, she just watches and observes.
Ability: Clairvoyant Sense

[Elcie]

((Omni: the length of time your character's been in the asylum is completely up to you. ^_^))

[♥ Rain]

Name: Nour (self-given)
Gender: Female
Appearance: She's in her late teens, and is quite small boned. She's very possibly under five feet by a couple inches. Her dark brown hair is cut boyishly in that the back of her hair only comes down to about her ears before it tapers down her neck. Her bangs are swept back behind her ears, which have have a small golden earring in them. Her eyes are light brown. She has a pale complexion, most likely because she never goes out into the courtyard.
Personality: Because she's been in the Asylum for several years, she's rather cynical. She waits and watches and makes grim comments about the future. Has many conspiracy theories about the Asylum, but always quiets down whenever a nurse comes into view. Around fellow inmates, she is loud about her views and certainly will not budge an inch on calmer, nicer points of view. If one word could sum her up, it would most likely be "stubborn."
Ability: The ability to control light. This manifests in two ways:
1) The ability to compact all light in a given room to a shape which can also morph after light accumulation begins. The more light given out from a lighting source in the room, the more this compacts the light, eventually creating heat.
2) The ability to dim lights even down to zero visibility. Zero visibility cannot be attained in a room without blinds.

Both manifestations of this power are limited by the current energy of Nour. Ignoring that, it starts to sap fat and so on. Basically... past the point that you're on the floor shivering and can't get up, it starts to be like a very vigourous exercise, except it doesn't sap energy?


((I guess this means I'm joining.))

[Amneiger]

Name: Simon
Gender: Male
Appearance: A small man who looks like a timid accountant in his mid-twenties. He has brown hair, brown eyes, and light skin.
Personality: Simon has Capgras Delusion: the belief that somebody he knows has been replaced with an exact duplicate. So far he's convinced that two nurses have been replaced multiple times. He has not been able to come up with a reason for somebody to be replacing asylum staff; he has become more fearful and paranoid as he becomes more obsessed with the question.
For the most part Simon has nothing to do then wander the halls and courtyard endlessly, jumping at noises or the sudden appearance of other people. Occasionally he tries to look out the windows, in the hopes of catching a glimpse of the outside world despite the impossibility of doing so.
Ability: Small, almost imperceptible illusions tend to appear in the area around Simon. These illusions tend to "pick" something or someone and make them look slightly off. This has only fueled his paranoia. It is unlikely that he will ever be able to control this ability.

Simon has been in the asylum for about a month now. His stay has done little for his mental state.

[Elcie]

((Okay, slight change as far as psychic powers go. I don't think it will work out to have characters completely powerless, because then we'll have plot holes. Sorry... I wanted to make it a choice. Still, you don't have to change your characters too much. Everyone, eventually, will have the ability to sense the Rift - I swear that will make sense eventually - so that will be the minimum, so to speak. A lot of people with affinity to the Rift have additional psychic powers, but some don't. So...

*facedesk* I hope that made sense... sorry...))