You were born with a special gift...
...but the people around you treat it like a curse.
Your mother is afraid of you
and your father looks at you with shame in his eyes.
Come to Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp,
and you can show them all.
Back home, your powers make you a loner...
an outcast...
a circus freak.
But in this dojo...
in this psychic dojo, they make you
a hero.
You fold up the gold, crimson bordered pamphlet and place it square on your desk, glaring at its face. A large illustration of Agent Ford Cruller, one of the greatest Psychonauts to have ever lived, decorates the page.
To soar across the astral plane,
to wage psychic warfare against the enemies of free thought. Receiving a boost of inspiration from Cruller's words, you hastily scavenge through your desk for something to write with; after flipping the brochure, you fill in the application form with a dreary, chewed pencil.
Cerebral Chaos This is an RP based off of Psychonauts (a 2005 video game by Double Fine), the story of Razputin, a young boy with psychic abilities that runs away from the circus to go to Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp to train (as a Psycadet) to become a Psychonaut - a spy with extraordinary mental powers. As you progress through the game, you delve into the minds of many abstract minds as you develop your character and his PSI powers. I'm not gonna spoil it for you, it's an amazing game you should pick up sometime.
It's not necessary that you've played the game to join; there'll be none/few of the cast involved and only teeny tiny references to the story may be made. If you haven't then here's a few things you'll need to know.
As I mentioned earlier, Psychonauts are international secret agents with psychic abilities; not everyone is a psychic, but a small number of psychics either become Psychonauts or nefarious, rogue psychics whom the Psychonauts prevent from doing harm. Some psychics may find some powers easier to harness than others, and it's often related to their personality. For example, a constantly angry character may be skilled in Pyrokinesis or the PSI Blast. Some psychics can easily learn all abilities, whilst some may find it difficult to (or never) develop specific PSI powers.
There is a variety of PSI Powers available to your Psycadet, with many offensive, defensive and manipulative powers. Many powers are not recognised, however the most notable include:
- Telepathy - Nearly all psychics have this - it is often the first PSI power they discover. It allows one to hear somebody's thoughts.
- PSI Blast (or Marksmanship) - This ability channels the users hatred into a bolt of pure anger. This is used as a general attack, but can tire the user out and will be weaker if somebody is calm etc.
- Pyrokinesis - This PSI power allows the user to set things on fire, given a few seconds of concentration.
- Levitation - A bubble of raw psychic energy appears beneath the user. It is mostly used as a form of transport, being incredibly bouncy and easy to run on (with it rolling). It can also be used as a parachute.
- Invisibility - This ability clouds the opponents mind, making them think they're not seeing the user.
- Clairvoyance - Similar to Telepathy, but allows the user to see what somebody sees.
- Shield - The user braces him/herself for enemy attacks, blocking nearly physical contact and stopping psychic attacks (besides those with incredibly strong minds).
- Teleportation - A rare ability discovered late in a psychics life that acts similar to Invisibilty. It "freezes" the mind of people nearby for a second or two, giving them chance to move, but can tire the user out and "scar" their psyche.
- Confusion - This one's quite literal. It confuses the mind of the victim, causing them to mess up PSI powers, hit themselves or even dance. Those that have strong mental defences will require more effort to confuse; the opposite applies to those with weaker minds.
(by all means, suggest any other psychic powers you have in mind)
Everybody has a unique "world" embedded in their subconscious. This "world" is reflective of their past, their personality and any mental disorders one may have. For example, a chess expert that lost his parents in a fire may have a mental world full of chess pieces and fire. Not the best explanation, but nevertheless.
Machines such as the Brain Tumbler (which allows a person to enter their own psychic world) and the Psycho-portal (a small door thrown onto a person's head for a psychic to enter) are used by the Psychonauts to conquer enemies and/or vanquish personal demons causing one to act insane. Worlds are connected through the "Collective Unconscious", a mental world composed of a path, littered with doors that lead to the minds of different people. However, it is necessary for people to have formed a mental bond to travel through these, whether somebody enters a person's mind using a Psycho-portal or they're friends (however those are just two scenarios).
Within one of these mental landscapes, lies not only a persons secrets, dreams and memories, but also a range of beings that will try to kill your Astral Projection. Everyone has so many Astral Projections (or lives, if you will) in a mind, however these can be regained over time. When you "die", it can (rarely) harm your brain. What can kill you, I hear you ask? These nasties:
- Censors - the most common enemies. The white bloods cells of the brain, they will hunt you down and try to eradicate you. You are a foreign entity in their mind and they detect that as a threat. The three main kinds are: the basic Censors that run up to you and hit you, the larger Censors that attack you from afar, and the big-arm censors that deal heavy damage by punching you.
- Personal Demons - these little nuisances run up to you and explode. They are quite weak, easily dispatched with a PSI Blast, but in large numbers... Let's just say you wanna levitate on outta there.
- Unique Enemies - these are adversaries you will find unique to each person's mind - a bakers mind may be full of bread monsters, who knows?
- Nightmares - quite rare, these beings are an incarnation of someone's deepest fears. Different nightmares are handled differently, but usually a little Marksmanship handles it. Either that, or it eats all your hate as a little snack.
Rules: - General Roleplayers Guild rules apply, no racism etc.
- I expect decent grammar/spelling with at least one paragraph of writing. Should you get attacked by the mental demon known as Writer's Block then I won't kill you ;p
- Romance and violence (little blood/gore please) are allowed as long as we keep it clean >_>
- As per usual, no mary-sues, and nobody starts with Teleportation.
- While this isn't a rule per se, I advice that you don't go too deep with your character, so we can get some tasty development in there ;p
- No swords/guns. I mean seriously, who needs guns when you can shoot hate from your face.
- I won't urge you to post every hour or anything silly like that, but try and keep active whenever you can (be bothered :p)
I guess that's it for the rules -_-"
Anyway, character sheet time.
Character Sheet etc. said
Name: (include a nickname as well, if you'd like - can be related to someone from the game)
Age: (anywhere from 10 to 16? I suppose ;p)
Appearance: (a picture or description, whatever >_<)
Strongest PSI Power: (what is your character's main ability?)
Other PSI Powers: (maybe two or three others for now?)
Personality: (I'm not gonna insult your intelligence, you know what to do >_<)
History: (was s/he abused as a child? did he run away from the circus etcetera ;p)
Extra: (does your character have any flaws? mental disorders and the like? what is their mental world like? any other skills, maybe?)
So you need not bother removing all the stuff in brackets -_-" said
Name:
Age:
Appearance:
Strongest PSI Power:
Other PSI Powers:
Personality:
History:
Extra:
When everybody's signed up we'll get going I suppose. Sorry if this isn't entirely what you expect from a first OOC post ;p
Our story begins with everybody arriving at Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp, getting to know everyone etc.
