SIMULATION: ANOTHER BORDER

[returnjourney]

SIMULATION: ANOTHER BORDER

"I am walking forever on the path from the border to base camp. It is taking a long time, and I know it will take even longer to get back. There is no one with me. I am all by myself. The trees are not trees the birds are not birds and I am not me but just something that has been walking for a very long time..."

― Jeff VanderMeer, Annihilation

Introduction

April 1st – April 7th, 2022
Welcome to our first simulation.

Simulations are large events where the Peregrine transforms into another location completely. All passengers live out new lives, intended to give inmates a look at other walks of life and wardens new experiences through which to examine their own. Functionally, these take the form of complete AUs and players can form whatever backgrounds and CR as they see fit. A backstory log will go up tomorrow, set before a simulation begins, so players can voicetest this version of the character, thread out important background events, and so on. During this time, Peregrine life will continue as normal; it hasn't entered the simulation yet! But it'll give players a head start on ironing out the specifics of their AUs.

Unlike ports and squalls, a simulation affects every character aboard the ship. Players can arrange a mission, seminar, furlough, etc that conveniently falls during the event, if they do not wish to participate for any reason. Characters will have advance warning of what they are going into.

After the simulation, characters will remember big moments of their AU lives, like an intense, felt-so-real dream that lingers with you for a few days. Skills or knowledge/expertise specific to the setting do not carry over.

You can use this post for any OOC plotting! If you have any questions about the event, please ask here. You can familiarize yourself with simulation basics on our events page.

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Questions & Answers

Premise

Twenty years ago, a strange phenomena overtook an undisclosed area of Florida coastline. It manifested as a metaphysical border, visible only as a shimmering halo. Animals, humans, vehicles, radio signals, internet, waves — anything that crosses the border is lost. Nothing has ever returned, but year by year, the border creeps forward, engulfing more and more of the land. It could be decades before it reaches the nearest city, but considering it has eluded all understanding thus far, it feels like time is running tight.

Every few years, the government sends new recon parties into "Area X", hoping this team will find the source of the phenomena, return, or simply establish communication from within. And it's time to send in another crew.

Knowing there is likely no return, all crew have a reason for venturing into the Area. Some people long for escape from their everyday lives, while others are so desperate to fight their circumstances that they would risk whatever lies on the other side. Nothing to lose. Everything to gain. The will to survive is a fickle thing.

Every person will find something different within Area X. On the surface, it's a wild zone. Any subsumed human structures are overgrown with hybrid plants; the underbrush, swamps and woods infested with strange animals. Deeper inside, experiences may vary. Time passes erratically. The nature within the halo is aberrant, but maybe you are, too: most of the natural world doesn't carry baggage. Alligators don't have emotional wounds. Key deer don't contemplate their mortality. Manatees don't ruminate on history.

Human feelings and turmoils are what's unnatural here, and with everything else being stripped away, what do you do with what's left?

What will it be? Change, or self-destruction?

The OOC Stuff

In Plain Speak
Oh shit, an unknown organism has taken over the wetlands and is breaking down the lifeforms within it to their base parts. Your character, once they enter its domain, are subject to this, too. This goes all the way down to their atoms; Area X is like a prism, where DNA and matter bounce and interact with each other to create new things. Characters might even experience blending with each other.

So what are they when the rote parts of their lives are stripped away, and all that's left are the base elements of their being? Do they fight it or do they accept it? Do they confront their grief? Their traumas?

Characters who confront some part of themselves and change (even in small ways!) survive to escape Area X, and in turn wake up on the Peregrine. They can also remain in the Area to help others.

Characters who refuse to change choose self-annihilation. They "die" of exposure to the Area, whether by losing their minds and becoming part of nature or physically perishing. When they wake up on the Peregrine, they'll experience side effects associated with dying aboard the ship, aka dizziness, confusion, nausea, and impaired motor skills.

---

Suggested Character Roles
Researcher — Sent in to study Area X. Perhaps it's as an accomplishment or prestige; perhaps it's for money.
Military — Security, to protect the researchers. Perhaps it's about the money, perhaps it's about proving something, perhaps it's a too-pervasive sense of duty.
Explorer — Unaffiliated with the government crew, you've sought entry to the Area all the same. Perhaps it's the unknown, perhaps it's the forbidden, perhaps it's a really bad livestream choice.
Lost — Part of a previous research mission or ill-advised venture, you went mad inside the field. Somehow you survived; perhaps you melded with the local flora and fauna, perhaps you're a shell of your former self.
Wildcard — Whatever you'd like, whatever you imagine. That goes for everything!

---

Environment
Florida — The terrain is black pine forests, reedy swamps, marsh flats, natural canals, and ocean coast.
Area X — All organisms within this zone are mutated, DNA melded into a primordial soup. It's produced animals that share genetic material with flora, other fauna, and even humans. Plants may grow in the shape of human effigies. Humans may take on these traits, too, over time.
Animals — Strange hybrids of species native to Florida, including but not limited to: alligators, panthers, manatees, sea turtles, snakes, burrowing owls, key deer, owls, lizards, black bears and bob cats.
Ruins — There are frequent signs that the area used to be perfectly ordinary. There are ruins of a small town and all its trappings, but it looks like it has been derelict and abandoned for much longer than the Area has existed, perhaps by hundreds of years.
Corpses — The remains of previous researchers and explorers may be found scattered within, sometimes in unexpected states.

Jump to IC Announcement @ returnjourneynet
Jump to Backstory Log @ returnjourneylogs
Jump to Event Log @ returnjourneylogs

Comments

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS.

[returnjourney]

Question

[lessandmorethanhuman]

So this has the potential to be very very interesting in 'bad' ways for Alex--and by bad I mean good. Our chars are essentially "AU'd" as in as if we'd always existed in this world? Alex already has a 'dominant' personality/template (that of Alex Mercer), but hundreds of other memories/lives that are a part of him thanks to his consuming.

I kind of want him to have a breakdown during this event and go possibly feral due to overload of identities. Would that be possible, since they'll be broken down to their base parts? Feral in this case would be non-verbal/barely verbal, focused on survival above all. I need to figure out what 'feral' looks like for him. If he doesn't have a breakdown/crisis of identities during the event, I def. want him to have one after because that could be the impetus he needs to start opening up and trusting someone. "Am I even a real person?" and so on are not questions one can answer easily by themselves.

[shiftedshape]

Characters who confront some part of themselves and change (even in small ways!) survive to escape Area X, and in turn wake up on the Peregrine. They can also remain in the Area to help others.

So can people shake the simulation and go back to being themselves while still in Area X in order to help people? Or do they just go back to their normal simulation!self?

[omniavincit]

Is it okay to age chars up (or down) for this?

Rhys Strongfork | Borderlands

[smugreport]

Kicking this post off to say I'm super excited about our first sim! And as a mod have had the luxury to think about what I want to do with Rhys for a little while now:

Though he was formally a proficient engineer and coder at a lucrative tech company, Rhys will be a severely in debt gambling addict who's gone so far as to sell his right arm and left eye in an attempt to pay off his debts.

At this point, Rhys has gotten into owing a lot of shady people (re: body parts were acceptable payment) is out of a job and has exhausted pretty much all his options. The final push for him to go on what is basically a suicide mission is his best friend (and regular accomplice) Vaughn, getting killed as a warning shot.

The guilt and a need for an escape, even if it means death, will be his driving force for coming onto this mission as a tech assistant. Whatever this is, he thinks, it's a better fate than being slowly dismembered by the mafia as they harvest his organs or something. If things do go well, the job is paying enough to get him out of debt and thensome, so it's a gable he's willing to take.

POSSIBLE ARCS:
-Rhys confronts the guilt of his own hasty gambles costing the life of his best friend, helps others in the shimmer instead of only looking out for his own best interests, trust and friendship??? (good end)

-Rhys doesn't manage to confront his past and his responsibility regarding himself and those effected by his actions, double crosses and screws over others lost in the shimmer in an attempt to survive, dies. (bad end)

Conner J | Original

[defensemechanisms]

Conner here is gonna be a protector! He'll be military or personal security, preferably sent to guard researchers or explorers. Some real die-hard loyal wiling to put his life on the line for whoever he's protecting type shit.

I'd love it if it's somebody he knows/knew, like family, friend, partner, someone he has a history with, somebody he'd die for. Maybe a little just found out they're going, not gonna let them go without him?

I'm also cool with meeting a stranger on a team and flash trauma-bonding.

In any case, it'll be a good opportunity to strip him down to his guilt and give him an opportunity to feel like he's done Right by somebody if he can keep them safe. Use his skills to help instead of hurt.

He's quick to loyalty, so anyone he bonds with in here will likely have a nice solid foundation for carry-over!

[dealwiththe]

If you want Conner can be Lucifer's right hand demon bodyguard! A charming but arrogant wealthy failson going into Area X in a misguided "I wanna be Indiana Jones" way they could get into some Bad Shit together :D

Loki Odinson | MCU

[shiftedshape]

Loki is going to be one of the "we don't know what to do anymore" researchers thrown at Area X in the hopes that his particular abilities will somehow help. He's a career psychic, the kind that claims to speak to the dead and make predictions about the future. While there's the chance that his actual abilities-- lol he's not psychic he's just observant and persuasive and assumes that means he's got mind powers --might be useful, he's mostly there because he convinced those in charge that he might be the only one who could bring back information about those that have been lost. His own motivation is finding a loved one he encouraged to go into Area X who never returned.

Loki will need to either overcome his guilt and realize his loved one wouldn't want him to die too, or admit that he isn't actually psychic in order to escape Area X. I'm undecided at this point if I want him to do so or not.

SO. What I'm looking for, if anyone wants to play it, is someone to be his loved one who went missing. I'm open to any kind of loved one (friend, spouse, sibling, parent, etc.) and I'm open to any kind of reunion. Fuck him up, boys.

[expectaspectre]

hello i want your CR c:

it would be cool if Grace met up with Loki inside the Zone of Doom or whatever and started to just follow his lead because he claims to be psychic and Know Stuff and whatever and it turns out he doesn't know shit and gets them into trouble/gets Grace hurt or killed by his HUBRIS?? Would that be useful for his guilt complex c:????

Alex Mercer | Prototype

[lessandmorethanhuman]

Alex is going to be similar to what he is in RL; specifically here he's going to be a parasitologist (studying parasites whether they be viruses, bacteria, worms, or insects). He's in it for the money, or so he proclaims. What's really motivating him is the money so he can help save his little sister who's in desperate need of an expensive life-saving medical treatment. They were estranged for a while and he feels guilty about it but now he wants to make it up and help her. He's going to fall victim fairly quickly to the effects of area X and start having some mixed identities of the flora/fauna of the area, as well as some of the people who've entered in before. His curiosity and desire to study what's going on will lead him to a bad-end. (And leave one of his very very few loved ones helpless.)

What I'd love some help with, is 'other people' who've gone into Area X who he could start having merges with. Especially if those other people are important to the PCs. I'm already going with some body horror roots re: flora of the area.

I also don't really see anyway out of this that doesn't involve Alex 'dying' via self-annihilation. Mostly because he's going to be trying to figure out who he is. Is he even a person anymore? Which will in turn lead to a bit of a breakdown post event, and force him to actually open up and TRUST someone so he can get HELP with his issues/start down his path of Redemption.

Thoughts? Comments?

Theon Greyjoy | A Song of Ice and Fire

[reek]

HEYYY a chance at not being an old-timey person for a bit.

Theon will be an obnoxious vlogger/livestreamer. Just think about the Paul brothers and that’s essentially the level of obnoxious he’s at. He will record literally anything for views and has absolutely made at least three apology videos that for things he’s done or said—all of which include fake crying and heavy sighs, of course.

SO that’s why he’s here! His views are at an all-time low because of his most recent scandal which involved filming a dead body. So now he’s desperate to get his numbers up to snuff again. You don’t understand, He can’t work a normal job (and maybe his dad will be proud of him if his numbers are high enough). What better place to go and find some interesting things to film than Area X? Where he will...probably repeat his mistakes again and vlog people at their lowest moments. Theon will have no regard for others and will pretty much step on anyone if it means he gets to keep his success.

My plan for him is that in the end he’ll annihilate via slowly losing his mind because his pride isn’t quite ready to let him change or admit he’s a shitty person. YAY. But that could change depending on how things go. We'll see.

BUT YEAH I'm open for all sorts of CR. Throw out some ideas. Someone should break his camera at some point though.

[shiftedshape]

Loki's going in to rescue or find the remains of his loved one so he'd be pretty cheesed off if Theon was just taking selfies with what's left of them :T

Grace Gibson | OC

[expectaspectre]

Grace is An Unskilled Civilian sneaking into Area X after someone she cares about, whom she feels guilty for allowing to leave/not speaking up to convince them otherwise, and decided she can't live without, so she's following them into the unknown, because what else is there? Who that person is, is.......... I don't know!! Family, maybe? Some other kind of loved one? Could it be... you?

What I'm aiming for is some sort of lesson relating to her larger arc: will she learn to not be such a follower and make her own choices, even when it's difficult and the consequences are dire? Will she die a horrible death caused by her own lack of independence and paralysis in the face of danger? Either way, she learns a thing or two.

Ideally I'd need at least one person for an established close relationship prior to going in, as motivation for doing so, and a few others to either enter with, or people to meet up with on the way. C'mon, you know you wanna have fucked up lingering feels about this ghost while she slowly turns into a crocodile or whatever!!

[oinks]

I've been tossing around the idea of Amanda being a religious follower type so if Grace needed an extra nudge toward 'here's why blindly going along with shit is Quite Bad Actually', that might work 🤭

[goty]

ellie here is gonna be a protector but not like,,, a good one. if you brought her on you're okay with her being possibly suspiciously cheap and not military-trained. she's here because area x is basically the purge-- her violent instincts are legal, even useful, here.

i'm looking for a very intense bad ending experience for ellie. ideally i'd like her to go full rambo survivalist in area x, possibly losing whoever she's there to protect, and will probably die from some mushroom related body horror.

come plot with me if you want ellie to
- fail to protect / lose track of your character
- hunt your character down for questionably motivated revenge
- some sad gross death scene bullshit
- have a shared backstory with your character involving some traumatic shit that made ellie so violent and weird
- anything else you can think of tbh none of this is writ in stone for me

[lessandmorethanhuman]

Char conflict with one of the researchers being a parasitologist going in, and having some body horror/survivalist stuff of his own? Would that be a good option?

Theo Crawford | OC| inmate

[sanctus_dei]

Head's up: I'm off to a convention from the 24th to the 27th. I really want to participate, but I'm on staff there so I'm gonna be busy. So I may not really get into threading this all out until next week!

AUs are always tough for me so I'm open to ideas! What I'm thinking is this:

AU Theo is a botanist researcher who's angry at Southern Reach (or whatever equivalent we might be using) for several reasons. His brother, a military specialist of some sort I'll come up with later, went into Area X awhile ago and never came back out. IRL, Theo does have an older brother, the only person he cares about. AU Theo is so angry and devastated by this loss, that he wants to figure out a way to accelerate the expansion of Area X to fuck with Southern Reach and anyone else who dares to get in the way. Would that end up killing lots of people and destroying untold amounts of the world? Yep, too bad, it's what you all deserve for killing Greg, apparently.

I've been looking for a way to bring his brother up in game, as he's a topic Theo will absolutely avoid at all costs.

Theo will not tell anyone of these plans, of course. Frankly I have no idea how he'd manage this, but it's not like he'd be successful anyway. Theo will fall victim of self-annihilation - there's no way yet that this boy is ready to face all his demons, and he's going to be very, VERY freaked out. If anything, this nightmare is only going to fuel his escape plans back in the real world. Being Theo, he's going to attach himself to a group, not wanting to be alone in this place, but hanging back while he tries to hatch his grand plan. So if anyone wants to plan out some history, let me know! Maybe you know Theo, maybe you knew his brother?

Jerry • Tales from the Gas Station

[murderology]

So, Jerry is going to be an electrical engineer in the military. He is very much All About looking out for people so he will definitely do that, but he is mostly there to man equipment, radar, electrical things, communication equipment, etc, all that good shit. As for the reason he's here, he really just loves what he does and he's all about throwing himself into precarious situations. Also, he wanted to run away from his rich ass family and do something that he felt actually mattered in the grand scheme of things. He's looking for a purpose and he's not sure if he's actually finding it or not, so he continuously does dangerous shit like this in an effort to find one.

I am ALL about that established CR. Friends, rivals, partners, and so on. Jerry's also super easy to friend in most cases so bonding through all this bullshit is totally possible.

Having his AU self making this choice on his own with no outside influence is a good chance for him to maybe see that running away from home in reality, joining a goddamn cult, and fully immersing himself in that way of life was probably the work of a shitty influence over him and his young disillusioned stupid brain. I'm also being careful to be vague about canon stuff right now because the last book of his series is out and I'm still reading it so...please bear with me. Anyway, he will most likely be nudged gently in that direction because you know cults kinda get way in your brain so whether or not he manages to in the simulation oooor fails but maybe gets hit with some realization after the fact is up in the air. He's a stubborn butt so any progress will be very small, think of it like a seed being planted.

[oinks]

First pass at an idea for Amanda: the strange phenomena Area X is a deliberate manifestation of some higher being's will/displeasure and she has big cult-type opinions on what all of it means. This includes thinking whatever caused it is speaking directly to her, and that some bigger power has plans for the future of humanity. She would like to help it achieve those plans.

So she's going in as a '''''researcher'''' but she's gonna turn on everybody once she's in there and sacrifice as she feels is required and necessary/rush right into the middle of everything and get herself body-horror turned into something beyond recognition. There being no return is fine cuz she's gonna go be one with Area X and isn't that wonderful and aren't you jealous of her

HMU if you're interested in having your more rational character have to interact with a violent zealot (whether she's having a go at them or if they're trying to genuinely understand her viewpoint), or if you're leaning toward exploring the death/body horror prompts for your characters (she could have a hand in that).

Change is such a negative buzzword for Amanda that I don't wanna get into it this early in her journey on the Peregrine, so I'm gonna kill her off at the end of all this

[shiftedshape]

What if, because they run in similar fringe-groups, Loki recognizes Amanda but can't place her until it's too late? Maybe she was already woo woo before she became an Area X truther so they knew each other in passing, and then she joined up with that cult when Area X came about and more or less disappeared?

Travis Touchdown | No More Heroes

[rank1]

Travis Touchdown is in his mid thirties, divorced, and adrift in life. He used to have a lot of passions, but some rocky life experiences have consumed him: his first wife died in an accident he feels largely responsible for, and the resulting tendency towards cramming shit down before it explodes outward ruined his second marriage in the long run.

He works a fairly routine and unexciting job as a sample analyst in a research lab; he doesn't look like someone who would have a job like that, but he's detail oriented and more than happy to put on his headphones and hang his head over petri dishes for seven hours. After that, he heads home, plunks down on the couch, and zones out to reruns of 00s adult animated shows. On weekdays he's looking forward to the weekend, but his weekends are just spent waiting for another work week to start. It's been that way for a couple years now. Something's gotta give.

So he's going into Area X. I'm undecided on whether he'll be able to change, and he most likely won't, but at the very least he'll try.

The real kicker for him coming out of simulation will be having been a person who experienced grief and particularly guilt in a way that forced him to do something about it. In his real self, he doesn't fuck with guilt at all. He just pushes it down and buries it with distractions. I want to dig into grief being a terminal process, "time remembered is grief forgotten" and all, but guilt doesn't go away with time. If you don't do something about guilt, it does just hang around. Both AU Travis and actual Travis are refusing to face their guilt, but AU Travis doesn't have the distractions to avoid confronting it for a even minute longer.

Looking for AU CR:
- Research lab coworkers, people who have a passing familiarity with him about the workplace and have maybe witnessed some bad moments
- Maybe a friend? If not an actual friend, then someone he crosses paths with regularly in the neighborhood, drinks with at the local bar, or once got into a fender bender with and ended up keeping in touch periodically... low bars for friendship but he's bad at it.
- Someone (or someones) to travel with in Area X, presumably to get lost with, and maybe something fun or crazy or exciting happens with them with some weird-ass animal and someone dying or killing the other in a pique of breakdown induced insanity, who knows!

aki hayakawa | chainsaw man

[spanning]

aki is gonna come in as security (??? possibly with dubious credentials, because this job probably isn't picky about who it hires, just like his canon yayyy). he has no family (is it too fucked up to say his parents desperately sought out the shimmer and took his sick lil brother into it in a last resort bid to find a cure for him? you decide), but he's going in after someone else, whether it's his aforementioned family / surrogate family / someone who looked after him when he was a kid.

anyway, the only reason he's going in now is bc he was a minor at every other previous opportunity. and now is his chance! to do some really poorly thought out bullshit! he's probably going to bite it at the end of this, because while he's very malleable by the people around him, he's also really fucking stubborn about the shit that's worst for him. so. lol.

end goal is him having cr who know this about him and also who he has to look in the face after seeing it screw them (and himself) over, since before this he's always been the last one standing and no one could like. hold this over his head to talk him out of garbage.

come hither, if you would like:
— an excessively loyal idiot
— an excessively stubborn idiot who will not take your advice to do something, literally anything else and by the time he figures it out one of you is dead or something equally tragic
— to be (one of) the reason(s) he's gotten himself into this mess and now you're a fungus or smth idk
— body horror! possibly your own or his, in very real time! (alternatively: ¿por qué no los dos?)
— shared backstory with a really bitter, angry child before he gets too fucked up to make facial expressions
— idk anything else, am willing to fuck around and change things to better serve plotting

[counterstep]

aki no don't turn into denji

bucky can maybe save him or try to and fail because stubborn something or another?

claire fraser | outlander

[nineteenfortyfive]

Note: I'm out of town from the 1st to the 5th, so tagging might be spotty, but I'll be down to backtag and handwave what isn't wrapped up in a timely manner.

Claire's a researcher looking for her long lost husband. She's been obsessed with Area X since it claimed him back in the day while he sent her to safety or some shit like that, and that's what motivated her to became a legit researcher and not some hobbyist. DAMN ALL YOU KIDS THIS ISN'T A GAME etc. She would straight up go alone if not for government shit getting in the way, and she might consider this whole team as getting in her way, too :') she will promptly wander off, insistent on dOiNg tHiS aLonE, so!

- someone please save her ass before or during her merging with some flora and fauna or, uh, you??
- someone convince her ass she doesn't need to do things alone
- really just be like "what would your husband want" and watch her cry
- a chance for an interesting twist of CR with claire outside of adoptee #353 and Friend--she doesn't really let people see her sad or frightened, no maternal instinct to protect here
- carryover being that she doesn't have to go it alone, be it wardening or just feeling emotions and coping with why she's on the ship to begin with :') maybe it will stick...
- idk anything else to throw at me, also willing to just have her be LOST in the zone (join ya husband, girl) after trudging off like a dumbass and people point that out haha oops

Re: claire fraser | outlander

[rank1]

wanna be coworkers, or, perhaps weirder: wanna have met initially at a support group for dead spouses and it makes it weird to pass each other in the halls at work because uhhhh sure was weird to talk about Feelings in a community center/library with cheap coffee and a box of Costco cookies...

Lucifer from That Lucifer Show

[dealwiththe]

AIGHT SO

Lucifer Morningstar is the youngest child of a super big, super rich, super powerful family. Like, the Kennedys or something. He's the rebellious black sheep with delusions of being Indiana Jones - charming and arrogant and reckless and "I can do what I want, do you know who I am" bullshit -

But of course under the veneer is a guy who was neglected by his parents who had better things to do than actually raise their kids, who wants love but doesn't know how to find it or maintain close emotional connections and also kind of hates himself because obviously his parents left him to his own devices because he was unlovable right??????

I want him to realize who is actually important in his life and actually change for the better to get out of the simulation. Maybe do so by being willing to sacrifice himself for someone else!

- Who wants to be on his stupid non-governmental team?
- Who wants to be his Nemesis or whatever?
- Who wants to be in his big, fucked-up family???
- Who wants to be a Very Important Person Lucifer cares about enough to change for?
- idk idk hit me up with any ideas you have, mostly I just want him to really develop some good CR from this sim (by "good" I mean "trauma bonding" or some shit)

[kaijuice]

silco & ellie are going in as non-government (read: vague mob connections and costco discount bodyguard) and could def be on lucifer's team going in. i'm volunteering pel for this as well because if it doesn't work for his stuff for whatever reason, well, it's area x shit is weird and people remember things differently in canon anyway.

alice quinn

[helenite]

LOST

Previously a researcher, Alice went missing in Area X some time ago.

(How long? Time doesn’t pass as it might elsewhere —)

Her body has merged with pieces of the surrounding environment, seemingly, around heliotropic flowers and the very sunlight. She is as much a wraith as in any campfire story, and moves accordingly; she can be found throughout the simulation.

Remaining traits: Curious, playful, attached.
But make it: Ethereal, amoral, wrathful.

Goals:

Start shit in other people’s threads.

Bring up a bunch of her bad traits to have to reckon with later as she tries to be nice to everyone.

Possible lead-in to not exactly being dead at home.

Pounds fist on table: BLEN-DING. Blend with her!! Maybe that's even how they escape.
(Would your character be worried about what they're bringing back?)

[oinks]

Amanda would be honoured to blend w somebody already so in tune w Area X 🤝 if Alice would like to be lightly revered by an off the rails zealot that is

silco

[kaijuice]

SUIT

A local ‘businessman’, Silco has come to Area X chasing down a fellow traveler (Rhys) for what he’s owed. It isn't the cash, it's the principle: You have to settle a score.

In the process, he’s left behind a family that he’d like to get back to. Also, he has two healthy eyes now.

Remaining traits: Intense, proud.
But now: More to lose personally, less to lose politically. Fewer trust issues.

Goals:

Write gross body horror. Something's gonna hatch out of his eye. (I will not spring this on you unless I know it’s ok)

Make him choose between family and revenge, again, but with the stakes inverted.

... As a way to make him actually discuss death with someone after.

[counterstep]

choose family silky!!

William | Westworld

[omniavincit]

cw: suicide (but like...normal Annihilation levels of suicidal shit)

I'm aging William up for this! He'll be an old man (who does not dress all in black, but I don't have high hopes of finding other icons of Ed Harris...) heading into Area X to "go home"--implicitly to die. Maybe he grew up in Florida, the shimmer spread to his hometown, and he'd like to see it one last time. That's probably it, right?

- no, because he is crazy
- he's ventured into the shimmer before, years and years ago when nobody had any clue what was going on and it covered a much smaller area
- he left his companion for dead and then took over the guy's company (his feelings about this are complicated! guilt, satisfaction, uh...jealousy...)
- it was a formative experience and he considers Area X home :)
- he and Claire have A Past
- bald

He'll start out pretty normal and innocuous-seeming but as he gets further into Area X he will become increasingly obsessive and start doing weird shit...I have to rewatch the movie but DELIBERATELY SPILLING HIS OWN BLOOD TO ~SEE WHAT HAPPENS~ that kind of thing.

This is all basically a play on William's feelings about Westworld--in order to change/escape, he'll need to disentangle his sense of self from Area X, move on from the past, and/or decide there's something worth going back to in the outside world. I'M FINE WITH THIS GOING EITHER WAY (since he'll learn from it regardless) but he definitely won't succeed at it alone.


LOOKIN FOR:
- maybe a protector type? he wouldn't want to bring anyone but he might for the sake of appearances (and then he'll try to offer you a wad of cash to fuck off or something)
- lost/fucked up people for lost/fucked up times (he could be inspired to help someone! he could also definitely make things worse)
- anyone who would twig to his shit...conversely anyone who would want to help out a senior citizen

[smugreport]

Here for fucked up times.

james buchanan barnes | mcu

[counterstep]

PLANNING:

• military
• already in area x.
• went in after person A's family member, person B, went missing; person A suspected person B had gone into area x since they weren't in known areas. no concrete proof, so it's a hunch. person A manages to bypass bucky despite his trying to stop them. they get separated after fauna attacks.
• will not be find person A, but will keep searching out of sense of duty.
• needs to confront: caring about his own life, which isn't going to happen so he's going to die.

SEEKING:

• potential roles for whoever he's chasing after and/or whoever went missing
• chimeric body horror
• someone getting his arm maybe
• people to rescue that aren't person A so it's like a "the more you look for person A, you start to wonder if they were real of if you'd gone mad already."
• high chaos dumbassery

[expectaspectre]

o shi---

Grace is going in after Jason, and technically SNEAKING in without permission, so possibly somebody could be trying to find her???

If that doesn't make sense then for sure she's gonna get attacked by a Bad Florida Animal at some point so maybe he could encounter that?

viktor / arcane

[grindset]

Viktor is an evolutionary biologist specializing in mycology. His research partner was originally slated to be on the team, but he's very popular and busy so they got the little guy instead.

He is here to identify, record, and take samples of indicator species of fungi to help determine this shiny phenomenon's effects on the local ecosystem.

He's also carrying a bomb.

The plan, as privately dictated by the military entity responsible: should his team reach the source of the phenomenon, he will destroy it. The rest of the team knows nothing about it. Why him? Because, 1) he's pretty much the last guy who would ever be involved in a covert operation, and 2) he lost someone to Area X and could be convinced it's the right thing to do.


Hey guess what, the above actually happened on an early expedition from which no one returned. Viktor has been in Area X since then.


DEFINITELY:

• a member of guilt club
  
• not ready to let go of his secrets
  
• tripping balls in the wilderness
  
• becoming close friends with a salamander
  
• experiencing both hallucinatory and actual body horror
  
• still has the bomb

WHAT IF:

• your loved one was on V's team / a subsequent team
  
• you were on V's team / a subsequent team
  
• you want Answers
  
• uhhh hey there lil buddy whatcha got there
  
• something else?
  
• jk
  
• unless...

Imagine if achieving nirvana by just anticlimactically blowing up the lighthouse were an option. I'm going to assume it's not, so ya boy is destined to flunk this sim.

[counterstep]

hey vicky u wanna trip balls and befriend animals while melting into them 2gether??

bucky will help u with that bomb if he learns about it

and idk maybe they crossed paths before somehow as civilians who knows 🎉

Blue Sargent | TRC

[findthefuture]

I know I am late to this party (there's no party like a simulation party!) but I would love to join in the AU fun-times.

I'm thinking maybe Blue joins the Peregrine and the simulation before she is introduced to anyone on the ship. Might make for fun double-takes once the simulation is over!

Blue would be a researcher and pretty pumped about entering Area X. She might have been part of one of the early teams sent in, specifically selected for her work with rainforests all over the world. She's the type of hands-on researcher who focuses on field work and writes articles and research papers in tents while camping in the Amazon, faxing or emailing them to her publisher, depending on the Internet access in the area.

Since time works kinda screw-y in the bubble, I would love to play out both entering the bubble with a team and being found lost in Area X by some subsequent expedition. Blue will have fared better than most, but when she is found she might be in the process of bonding with a tree.

I know it's really late, but I would also love to do some backstory threads. (Maybe concurrently with the simulation thread to do that juxtaposition of normal vs. horror?)

Dream scenario would be that Blue's ex (husband? longterm boyfriend? friend with complicated benefits?) is part of the expedition that finds her. Maybe they broke up over her going on the mission in the first place. Maybe the break-up happened earlier.

Either way, let's get complicated!

Re: Blue Sargent | TRC

[defensemechanisms]

hello you rang for an ex rescue