The Secret World of Faeries

[Crimson Flame]

I have autism and ADHD, and it probably bleeds over into my characters, but I’m not going to confirm Conner has it to.

[CaptainManbeard]

Sounds pretty cool! :D

I'll probably do that, then.

Honestly, though, I'm pretty interested in how the dynamic between the teen and their schizophrenia would play out. I'm assuming that the teens are at least 18, yes? So, if the teen is male, then that means that the teen has had to deal with schizophrenia for three years.

How would their relationship play out, when the teen has resented their schizophrenia for years at this point and now has to deal with them somehow becoming sentient? There's also the point that the schizophrenia could cease becoming, well, schizophrenia at some point in the sentience process, and basically end up as a small child that the teen would have to become a guardian/friend/big brother to. How would the teen handle that, and slight tangent, but how would the schizophrenia deal with slowly losing control over the teen's mind?

Overall, I'm excited to answer all these questions, and also hear your thoughts, of course.

@Dragonfly 9

Yeah, around 17-18 since they just graduated high school. And yeah, you could use the schizophrenia almost as a separate personality, like a fictive in someone with DID. For instance, you could say the biggest symptom of the teen's disorder is that he keeps seeing and hearing a fictional character that isn't there, like maybe a favorite adventurer in films or something. And then once he has shrunk down and has been exposed to the growing magic in himself, it begins to cure the part of his brain that is causing the misfires in his neurological activity that trigger hallucinations/delusions/psychosis. But the magic could also give a spark of life to that character he kept seeing, turning it into a fictive personality within the new gland he has been subconsciously gathering matter into, sort of like a second, mini-brain.

I don't know how much you know about DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder, formerly called Split Personality Disorder), but here's a video explaining what Fictives are. In the case of your character, since it's Schizophrenia and not DID, it wouldn't be exactly the same, but it still gives a good idea of the term:

I have autism and ADHD, and it probably bleeds over into my characters, but I’m not going to confirm Conner has it to.

@Crimson Flame

I have never been officially diagnosed with anything as an adult, but I do exhibit symptoms of Autism/Asperger's and ADHD as well, in addition to OCD and Bipolar Disorder. And likewise, it probably bleeds into my characters too XD.

[LuckyBlackCat]

@Crimson Flame Yay!! Looking forward to seeing Conner again!

[Dragonfly 9]

@CaptainManbeard Or I could have it as a completely original "personality" that just seems to want to torment the teen at first, and then has an identity crisis as its personality starts to develop beyond its original "purpose".

Decisions, decisions. xD

[CaptainManbeard]

@CaptainManbeard Or I could have it as a completely original "personality" that just seems to want to torment the teen at first, and then has an identity crisis as its personality starts to develop beyond its original "purpose".

Decisions, decisions. xD

@Dragonfly 9

Maybe an inner sense of guilt manifested? You could add some past trauma, like a loved one dying in a car crash, and he has internally blamed himself for years, which gave birth to the hallucination of a tormentor who then gains sentience? Like, when he was in school trying to focus on a test, there could be the silhouette of a man standing in the corner who whispers hateful taunts at him, telling him it's his fault their loved one is gone. Then when he begins to gain sentience, he could have severe anger issues at first until he works through them. Prior to him getting his own permanent body, he could take on the external form of a floating misty wisp-like thing that follows the group around, but he has to stay close to your character as long as the gland is still in his head. Or the entity could be something like a wizard's familiar to him until they are fully separated. If you go with the dragon egg idea, it could hatch and the other personality is in the body of a baby dragon. Once the dragon begins to grow, your character could eventually ride it as a flying mount or something, lol.

Just some ideas, ultimately it's up to you XD. But I'm excited regardless!

[Dragonfly 9]

Oooh, sounds good! I'll probably do that.

Could be that the other personality doesn't really know the loved one who died, they just started tormenting the poor boy because they "noticed" his guilt(AKA, it started being affected by it; previously, they were just annoying and made the teen forget things) and "capitalized on the opportunity"(I'm putting certain things in air quotes because the schizophrenia can't really think at this point(not being real and all) and can only really repeat things the teen has seen and the teen's personal fears, lol-). Then, when the teen calls them out on it, they don't really have an answer. xD

Then they have an identity crisis because they're supposed to be the teen's personal tormentor for letting their loved one die, and they don't even know the loved one in the first place? And, they're losing control over the boy as well!? THIS WASN'T SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN!

[CaptainManbeard]

Sounds good!

So, it seems we have me, CrimsonFlame, Dragonfly, and LuckyBlackCat on board for sure. I'm gonna give it the weekend to see if we get any more co-writers, and then I'll post the IC and Character Sheet template on Monday.

[Dragonfly 9]

Okay!

[CaptainManbeard]

If you guys want, feel free to start working on your intro posts now in a word doc or something. My first post will have Sully, Cammy, and whoever my third character ends up being standing outside the industrial plaza with a huge crowd of people while we are waiting to be let in. Then the scientist - posing as a masked party man named Mr. Dude - will come out and let everyone into the atrium. We can have a few posts back and forth of our characters mingling at the party, give us a chance to portray their various personalities pre-shrinking, and then Mr. Dude will usher them into his "holodeck."

[Dragonfly 9]

Oooh-

Will do!

[CaptainManbeard]

I'm still getting all my character stuff together, but to give you guys a chance to start working on yours, I figured I'd share the character sheet template I'm using for mine. I'm using LimeGreen for Sully, Thistle for Cammy, and LightSteelBlue for my third character, Kamran Qaarn.

Here is the incomplete sheet for Sully as an example:

Sullivan “Sully” Zucco

Age: 18
Birthday: May 15th
Height: 6’3”
Body Type: Athletic
Eyes: Green
Hair: Dark Brown
Pronouns: He/His
Orientation: Pansexual

Voice

Musical Theme

Personality

(No explanation needed)

Talents & Skills

(Non-magical stuff of note here)

Faerie Powers

(The abilities they gain after being exposed to the magic of the Crystal Battery)

Biography

(No explanation needed)

[CaptainManbeard]

Working on the stuff for the IC and plotting out a plethora of possible paths depending on what decisions the characters make, and I thought of a cool idea for a future arc to continue to allow people to join after the RP has started - a special faerie/human school set up under the guise of a private university to help the survivors cope with their new lives as faerie hybrids while also getting an education. I mentioned the possibly that the scientist had other experiments besides just the one our characters are in, so if new people want to join after we've gotten into the climax of the first arc, the idea of a school-based second arc gives them another chance to join by saying they are survivors of a different experiment and that's why they weren't with us in the first arc. We can discuss it more when it becomes relevant in the story, but wanted to throw that out there now to get some imaginations fired up XD.

[CaptainManbeard]

I said second arc, but I guess it would really be more like a third arc. Here are my ideas for that as they stand now, but they will, of course, fluctuate based on how the story unfolds. We are all co-writers here, after all XD.

Arc I: We get shrunk down and have to survive the backyard, and then decide which side we're each on when it comes time to destroy or defend the Crystal Battery.

Arc II: We leave the yard and live among the faeries while trying to find a way to return to our normal sizes, including some adventures around the world to different spots of magical potency. At the end, we're able to somehow return ourselves and all the other survivors found to normal size, but we retain our faerie powers and have the ability to change back and forth between Human Size and Faerie Size at will.

Arc III: All the survivors from the various faerie experiments are given the option of joining the private school, which as far as the media is concerned is just a normal learning center set up for survivors of the kidnappings. The fact that they were shrunk down or developed faerie powers is, of course, a closely guarded secret, though perhaps government agents could come sniffing around to help create conflict, we'll see XD.

[LuckyBlackCat]

I like it! You've really thought this out.

Hmm, still not sure which faerie archetype to go with. I'm drawn to either stone or psychic, or something like shadow faerie (teleport through shadows, create temporary doubles of themselves from their shadow, etc). That or a character inspired by the Cait Sith, so enhanced agility/senses, can partially shapeshift to gain feline traits such as claws... I create so many kitty characters it's predictable though xD

[Dragonfly 9]

Question: What would my character's faerie archetype be?

[Crimson Flame]

I’m tempted to make Conner’s sister a second character. But I’m not sure about it.

[CaptainManbeard]

I like it! You've really thought this out.

Hmm, still not sure which faerie archetype to go with. I'm drawn to either stone or psychic, or something like shadow faerie (teleport through shadows, create temporary doubles of themselves from their shadow, etc). That or a character inspired by the Cait Sith, so enhanced agility/senses, can partially shapeshift to gain feline traits such as claws... I create so many kitty characters it's predictable though xD

@LuckyBlackCat

I was thinking of going with a Void Faerie for Kamran, which would give him a powerset that is like a mix of Nightcrawler and a Rogue/Ninja by channeling dark energies from and traveling through the Void, but if you'd like to go with a shadowy teleporting powerset for your character, I can change Kamran up, or we could have two teleporters. What would you prefer? If you decide to use shadowy teleporting for one of your characters, I can think up something different for Kamran.

Question: What would my character's faerie archetype be?

@Dragonfly 9

What archetype are you interested in playing?

I’m tempted to make Conner’s sister a second character. But I’m not sure about it.

@Crimson Flame

Go for it!

Sorry it took so long to reply, I actually had my responses typed up but forgot to hit Reply and went to go do Halloween stuff with family, lol. The IC with the char database will be up tonight (it's just after 9:00PM my time right now), but my intro post won't be done until much later tonight or early tomorrow.

[CaptainManbeard]

Took longer than I thought, but here is the new thread: https://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/189250-the-secret-world-of-faeries/char

I left Kamran's powerset blank for now, Lucky, to give you a chance to decide if you want a telelorter or not XD. Right now it's just the character sheets, still gonna be a bit for the intro post.

[CaptainManbeard]

I decided to go ahead and make Kamran a Spirit Faerie with the ability to channel Spirit Energy to amplify his physical capabilities. Been hunting for various images to use for the RP, and my folder currently sits at 47 files, LOL. And that's just for my characters and the first part of Arc I - I imagine I'll have saved hundreds of image files by the time we get to Arc II and Arc III, XD. It's taking a lot longer than I had hoped to get everything going, but hopefully soon. After I finish proofreading and editing my character biographies and the intro post, I'm gonna hop into GIMP to create headers for my characters and the title header for the RP.

[LuckyBlackCat]

@CaptainManbeard Nice! It's ok, I won't go with the shadow faerie idea anyway, I'll go with one of the other three.