TruthHurts22

Kept In Mind - Arc X: it dont exist yet

Well I don't... love it. It sorta immediately goes against several points I made about characters, being too young and not seeming to have the important parts in their backstory as the rest. And, you know, eugenics was not what I was expecting to get into here, so that part is also kinda weirding me out a bit. I think it might be best to shelves the idea, or at least, tweak the aspects I mentioned.

Kept In Mind (Mind-Bending, Brain-Exploring, Psychic Action!)

Good news, everyone! The thing is happening, now! Wow!

roleplayerguild.com/topics/186566-kep…

@sassy1085@artexercise@Potemking@Dead Cruiser@Nakushita

Kept In Mind - Arc X: it dont exist yet

Psychic powers exist. And they're terrifying.

Like with any powerful tool, accidents happen, and malicious people can do much worse. Your brain could be rewritten, the floor could catch fire right where you stood, or you'd suddenly find yourself fifty miles due north! The fact that anything could happen in the blink of an eye, and it was impossible to see coming, meant that the world of psychicstry was a dangerous one.

In an effort to combat the nebulous powder keg that was psy-crime, the Extrasensory Securement & Protection (ESP) Agency was formed, which picks up the slack the rest of the world's governments leave behind - they might be able to identify and watch over those who have psychic powers, but they can't realistically stop anything bad from happening. The ESP does that and more, from psychic clean-up to extrasensory protection.

People are complicated, though. The most dangerous psychics are the ones that fall through the cracks. The ones that can't overcome the problems in their own head. When an insecure mind gains phenomenal powers, there's no telling what could happen. So there's another, much more secretive facet to the ESP: projecting into a person's psyche and manipulating it from within. These operations are rare, however, as precious few psychics are truly able to do so.

Luckily, you're one of those psychics!

Unluckily, that fact just got you in a heap of trouble with the ESP.

Something big is happening, though, and your detainment might have come at the best possible time, both for them and for you. You new skills will be put to good use, for the greater good of course, and you might just learn how to use 'em right while you're at it.

It doesn't matter who you are, where you came from, or what you can't do. With the ESP, everyone will be...



~ ~ ~
P R E M I S E

Inspired by Mob Psycho 100, Psychonauts, AI: The Somnium Files and a smattering of Persona, Kept In Mind is a roleplay set in a world where people can possess psychic powers. One such power, a rarity among the psychic populace, is the ability to project themselves into another person's mind, a mental world to explore and manipulate. For obvious reasons, this kind of power is kept under wraps, most of the psychic community not knowing of its existence. Your characters will have this power, and because of it, are under the ESP's thumb - as a detainee for now, but eventually, as an agent.

It won't be all telekinetic sunshine and psychedelic rainbows, though. The shadows you're put up against are moving, schemes arising, problems forming, problems you might not have made but you will have to face. A mind's an awfully fragile thing, too. One wrong move could make things a whole lot worse...

I N F O

This section will have, well, info! About the setting, about rules, and about everything you'd need to know.

Note, this RP will most likely tackle topics that can be distressing, dreary, or sensitive. I have no way of knowing what, exactly, but its nature lends itself to representations and explorations of mental illness, trauma, and other similar areas. All I can do is assure everyone that I will try my best in keeping the overall tone light and showcasing such things with tact and empathy. Anyone wanting to join should do the same.

The Five Ws

WHO?
The Extrasensory Securement & Protection Agency, aka "The ESP", is an international organization tasked with handling issues involving psychics and psychic powers. While not having the authority to police citizens, the ESP has immediate jurisdiction over anything related to psychistry; civilian arrests of suspected mentalists, disasters caused by errant power usage, the protection of a prominent psychic, etc. The ESP actually operates separate from any government, an independent entity that's allowed to do what they do primarily because it needs to be done. However, this means that the ESP is always in friction with the world's governments, who can and will squash its presence if they ever step out of line. But, as any paramilitary organization will tell you, some lines need to be overstepped.
WHAT?
Entering another person's mind, to 'Dive' or 'Pscope' (the latter term used by the ESP to hide its real nature), is very, very bad. It's kept secret for a reason; psychics are already regarded as untrustworthy just on the off-chance they can read minds. If the general public found out they could do a lot more than read them, there's no telling what might happen. The saving grace is that the ability to Dive isn't something that you can learn or be born with. It requires a psychic to be broken. Most people, even ones with psychic powers, live their lives free of anything that could do that to them. Not all, though...
WHERE?
The ESP's main headquarters is located in the state of New Jersey, USA, not without reason. All those witch trials of the past were actually the result of psychic activity, before anyone was aware such a thing existed. There are also satellite offices scattered across the world to deal with issues in foreign continents. This RP will take mainly take place within the United States, as I'm an American and don't feel confidant in trying to represent other cultures accurately, though there may be times where the story takes characters to other parts of the globe. As a result, don't feel like you have to make solely American characters! Life's a melting pot, and psychics come from all walks of, uh, life.
WHEN?
Our story will take place in a vague 'Modern Day' with a soft sci-fi slant - there are smart phones, drones, and psychic computer uplinks for cross-country telepathy! The in-universe timeframe will span multiple months, perhaps even more than a year. Of course, we can't roleplay every single day, so there will be chunks of time skipped over for the sake of the story, with the focus being primarily on times when something big and bad is happening.
WHY?
At the start of the RP, your characters will be doing... not much of anything. They have all been arrested, all for the same reason: a Dive. Your characters have, at some point, used their gift to change the mind of others, and because of that have been detained by the ESP. As for how, well, that's up to you. Maybe the effects of your Dive were immediate, causing problems due to a mishandling of their mind. The Dive could've taken place in the past, perhaps successfully so, having only just been uncovered through one means or another. Or you could have simply turned yourself in because of it. Whatever the reason, you're all right here, right now, in the same room after some time in detention, unaware of the direction your life will take within the ESP.

The Rules

- Standard Roleplayer Guild rules apply, of course
- Only one character per player, for the time being at least. I'm also keeping a soft player cap: up to 12 people can join, and if we start with less or we have drop-outs I'll accept later applications, though depending on when you apply you might be in the wings for a while.
- There will not be a strict schedule for posting. You can post as many times as you want or as often as once a week. However, when things start happening for real (action, fights, important events, etc), I expect everyone involved to be prompt and keep the pace of it going. If you fall behind, I will have to take your character's actions into my own hands to keep the ball rolling.
- Relating to that, if you're ever unable to post for a long period of time, for vacation or work or school or anything, please say so! I can write around your absence easier if I know it's happening.
- If you can, please join the Discord that I made for this roleplay! It'll help everyone keep in touch, allow for easier collaboration on posts or ideas, and be the quickest way to reach me. If you're unable to for whatever reason or are generally skeeved out by Discords, that's fine, won't force you into it or anything.
- Less of a "rule" rule, but I'm always, always willing to hear people out. If you have any questions, concerns, ideas, or just want to chew me out for being a dick or portraying a part of the RP in a way you don't like, hit me up! Either toss me a PM or blow up my Discord, I'll almost always be able to get to either relatively quick.

Dives: The Archetype and YOU

This part will go over two important details pertaining the "Dives" within the roleplay: what an Archetype is and means, and how we, both me as the GM and you as a player, will go about Dives.

First, the Archetype; personality is an important facet of life as a psychic. It's unknown whether a person's personality affects what powers they have access to or if naturally attuned powers affect how the brain develops, but regardless, the two are inextricably linked (severe changes in mood can cause surges of power, unstable psyches can cause unstable powers and vice versa, etc). As such, the ability to Dive is dependent on if a psychic has developed an "Archetype", a piece of their psyche that they can splinter out of themselves and into other minds.

To that end, an important part of character creation is determining your character's archetype - based off the 12 Jungian Archetypes (which you can get an overview of here), you should try to center your character's main personality traits around one of these, or pick the best fit for them. This is not me saying you HAVE to make a character who ONLY embodies what these archetypes are, just that the archetype should be related to how they act.

How does one gain an Archetype of their own? Simple: they break. A psychic who suffers extreme mental stress, encounters serious trauma, has a complete change in their worldview, even gets physically broken, will have their psyche fracture and end up with the ability to project their Archetype. It doesn't matter if this 'break' is recent or if you have properly healed from it or if it was actually a positive experience. So long as an event in your past has caused it, you can Dive.

Now, onto Dives themselves, namely, how they will function within the RP. Obviously, if I were to dictate exactly everything, this RP will feel like little more than a connect-the-dots that you follow along. To hopefully avoid too much railroading, I'm putting the possibility of a Dive in the hands of you, the players! There will be times where I have a set end in mind, something for the characters to achieve or get to, but the act of reaching that point will be (near) totally up to you. Want to get into the nightclub by Diving into the Bouncer's mind and making him more open to strangers? Do you think you should take a detour to help your friend get over the issues that keep piling up? Maybe, somewhere down the line, the most obvious brain to Dive into next is... yours!

Of course, if I gave y'all COMPLETE run of the place, then it'd leave me to flounder around trying to pick up the threads. "Uhh, uhmm, okay, so the bouncer's head is full of... spiders? That are on fire!" It'd just be frankly embarrassing, no fun to play, and cause the RP to drag. So to keep me ahead of the game still, Dives will need permission and "permission". Permission from me, the GM, letting me know of your intent beforehand so I can form an idea for you to get into. I'll probably write up a 'Dive Form' later on when we get to that point so to make it a smoother activity. And keep in mind that Dives should be climactic, or at least have decent build-up to it. Jumping into Jerry the Janitor's head just cuz he's a fun dude will sorta deflate any tension surrounding the act, y'know?

Then there's "permission"; your characters will not be acting just on their own, but in tandem with and underneath the ESP. And Dives are tricky, sticky, ooey gooey business, a misstep could make more problems, could worsen problems, could even get the whole operation demolished and agents killed. Characters won't be able to Dive into, say, the Head of the ESP's head right after meeting them. Clearance, consent, maybe just for someone to look the other way so you can do it - something needs to happen IC-ly to justify a Dive.

But even between both those assurances, your characters can still affect the plot. A Dive in the wrong, or right, spot, a complete blunder of a mission, even who you choose to Dive into and why will have consequences, good and bad. Be aware of your actions, if you can. You never know when a Dive could end up breaking your neck on the diving board.

C H A R A C T E R

And now, all the bits about Characters. You're free to fill this out however you want, the structure is more a guideline, the 'least' it should be. If you can make it fancier than me, go ahead! You can also work on it wherever you wish, can do it as a WIP in the OOC, PM it to me to keep it all secret hush-hush, or some other third thing that might not exist as an option!

Like I said before, the maximum cap for the RP (for now at any rate) is 12, which might already be too high but I'm willing to take that chance. If there's spots left open after we start for any reason, you can still apply to join, but may have to wait a bit to actually get in.

Character Sheet

• Name: Full name, nicknames, codename, monikers, whatever y'wanna give 'em, though if you are going for an "only known by their nickname" thing it would help to have the whole of it too.
• Appearance: If you're using a picture, please avoid faceclaims of Real Life people, it really just rubs me the wrong way. Even then, I would like a bit of writing, make the character your own!
• Age: Any age 16 or up is fine. Kids wouldn't really fit the narrative or the vibe, though if the case is compelling enough, I might allow it.
• Personality: How they like, act and think and shit! Try to make your characters interesting, complex, deep. Give them room to grow, even if you have an end in mind, they shouldn't be fully formed before their first post.
• Powers: The stuff they can do with their mind, yo. Remember, a psychic's Powers and Personality are tied together, however that manifests for your character. What you put here is the 'mundane' things that you can do, such as Telekinesis or Telepathy, but their range and strength is up to you. And, of course, every one of your characters can Dive. Try to avoid any huuuge powerful things - Masterful Pyrokinetic, can lift a whole building, etc - for their...
- Psychic Specialty: What your character can really do. We're playing this a little fast and loose; you could say your guy is great at levitating stuff, can remotely view locales and people, or can summon and control fire, but you can be creative with it! You can have your Psychic Specialty be anything, from duplicating yourself to converting yourself into goo to having a very specific but strong telekinesis that only works with cars. It's all up to you.
- Weak Link: Yet for all we're good at, there's things we're bad with, and the same is true for psychics. There's something your character is really bad with, abilities weaker than normal, avenues you're locked out of, or a gap in your existing range. This is also related to your character's personality, ie someone who's very open and extroverted may have horrible mental defense. Again, it's up to you how to interpret it all.
- Archetype: Both the name of the Archetype you've chosen, and how they both look and act like when projected. Because yes, when you're Diving, you're only a fraction of your full self - the most prominent fraction, but still only part of the picture. How this affects personality is dependent on you, though it should logically be closer to the actual archetype you've chosen. For the looks, think of it like this: if this is your character's regular self, then THIS is their Archetype. Your Archetype also has a better grasp of its Powers, both strong and weak, due to being a full-on psychic projection in a mental capacity. Physical barriers do not restrict it!
Skills: Regardless of how hard you can flex your noodle, you're still a person, and people learn stuff. This is for any and all ordinary skills or talents your character can do, or at least what you think is relevant. They can be anything - took up fencing? Got really into psychology? Maybe you eat good!
History:The big one, what everything up there has coalesced into and grown from. While, again, the specifics you include and how detailed you are is up to choice, but there's a few key notes that everyone should have in at least decent detail: the moment they Broke and gained the ability to Dive, the first time(s) they've used their Dive and how it went, and the when, why, and where of their detainment by the ESP. Outside of that, their History can be anything. You can even be an existing member of the ESP if you want.
Misc: I'm sure there's plenty of stuff up there to feed a whole antelope, but in case there's any fun tidbits or important facts you can't fit anywhere else, place 'em here.

Room to Grow

Characters will start out fairly weak, with only one thing they're good at and probably plenty they aren't. They won't have to stay that way the entire RP, though! There's plenty of opportunities to get strong, flex your strongest muscle, or even gain entirely new abilities.

This can come about in three different ways:

Experience
The more you do something the better you get at it. That's a fact of life. Whenever we switch Chapters you will be able to give your character's current powers a small boost, to range or effectiveness or control, etc. This way of getting stronger won't show bounds and leaps, but over time you'll be able to cultivate what you can do even better.

Training
Putting actual effort into yourself is the best way to get anywhere in life, so training is important! During larger timeskips in the story, you can have your character train their powers, either solo or with a trainer, letting them really beef up their skillset. When this happens you can give your existing powers substantial boosts or alternate uses that you couldn't before.

Diving
Wait, you can get cool stuff in people's heads? Kinda! Since Psychics and Personalities are pretty intermingled, exploring a can make some odd things happen. While in a Dive, you might stumble across something that causes a part of the Dive-ee's personality to literally rub off on you, granting you entirely new ranges of powers! Don't worry, this won't cause actually changes to your own personality, just affecting what you can do.

Kept In Mind (Mind-Bending, Brain-Exploring, Psychic Action!)

@artexercise@malmshodes@Dead Cruiser

Forgot to tag people for this one :b

Kept In Mind (Mind-Bending, Brain-Exploring, Psychic Action!)

Sweet, this feels like enough people to justify making a proper thread. I'll get to writing it soon enough, but in the meantime, I made a small Discord for all your prospective players to join: discord.gg/F9rsMXfV Not much in it yet but it's a place to gather, discuss, and get easier access to my mind about things!

Kept In Mind (Mind-Bending, Brain-Exploring, Psychic Action!)

Interest expressed... but you already knew that... didn't you? You were in my mind!

@artexercise

Don't go blabbing about that! Reading people's minds for ideas is probably plagiarism :p

Thanks for the interest, you two!

Kept In Mind (Mind-Bending, Brain-Exploring, Psychic Action!)

Psychic powers exist. And they're terrifying.

Like with any powerful tool, accidents happen, and malicious people can do much worse. Your brain could be rewritten, the floor could catch fire right where you stood, or you'd suddenly find yourself fifty miles due north! The fact that anything could happen in the blink of an eye, and it was impossible to see coming, meant that the world of psychicstry was a dangerous one.

In an effort to combat the nebulous powder keg that was psy-crime, the Extrasensory Securement & Protection (ESP) Agency was formed, which picks up the slack the rest of the world's governments leave behind - they might be able to identify and watch over those who have psychic powers, but they can't realistically stop anything bad from happening. The ESP does that and more, from psychic clean-up to extrasensory protection.

People are complicated, though. The most dangerous psychics are the ones that fall through the cracks. The ones that can't overcome the problems in their own head. When an insecure mind gains phenomenal powers, there's no telling what could happen. So there's another, much more secretive facet to the ESP: projecting into a person's psyche and manipulating it from within. These operations are rare, however, as precious few psychics are truly able to do so.

Luckily, you're one of those psychics!

Unluckily, that fact just got you in a heap of trouble with the ESP.

Something big is happening, though, and your detainment might have come at the best possible time, both for them and for you. You new skills will be put to good use, for the greater good of course, and you might just learn how to use 'em right while you're at it.

It doesn't matter who you are, where you came from, or what you can't do. With the ESP, everyone will be...



.
.
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Hi there, thanks for clickin' the Interest Check! Inspired by Mob Psycho 100 and Psychonauts, Kept In Mind is a roleplay about psychics, people that can do crazy things using only the power of their mind, and how that actually might be a scary world to live in! It's also about a clandestine taskforce, exploring mental worlds made manifest, power and how to wield it, empathy towards others, and some really cool stuff happening.

I'll go into further details on how things work should this get off the ground, so for now, I'll put in the important elements down below.

• Psychic Powers, the Common and the Unique: Telekinesis, pyrokinesis, all the kinesises,telepathy, teleportation, clairvoyance - things psychics do. To keep things interesting, though, characters will have a Psychic Specialty (Pspecialty?). The Pspecialty can be anything, ranging from being able to do a certain class of common psychic activity really well to being able to create mental constructs, control and commune with machinery, or reshape the very structure of metal! Of course, you can't have strengths without weaknesses, so your characters will also have a Weak Link, a facet of their powers that they truly struggle with. With time, they may improve where they lack, or branch out their reach of the psychic realm.

• Pscoping, Mental Exploration and Archetypal Projection: A big part of this roleplay will be entering the minds of other characters, exploring a strange manifestation of their psyche for one purpose or another. Everyone's mind is different, so each 'Pscope' will vary from the rest, but it's not something to be done lightly; while you're in there, your actions can affect the mental state of who you're inside. Personality is important for psychics, so entering a person's mind means you need to project an Archetype in there, a simplified version of yourself - someone can't handle another person's entire consciousness in their head, after all. Doing so is a very rare talent for psychics, something that isn't able to be learned, so having this skill makes you quite the important figure.

• Structure & Player Choice: This roleplay will be structured in two ways: in Arcs and in Chapters. Arcs will be big long, well, arcs, concerning a long-term goal, a plan, or a major event occurring throughout. Arcs are made up in Chapters, detailing individual, short-term goals either furthering or connected to the ongoing Arc. So that this doesn't feel like you guys going from point A to point B, just along for the ride, you, as players, will be able to control the direction a Chapter takes! Basically, each Chapter will have a planned 'ending', a plot-critical mind to explore or some big task to do. How you get to that point will largely be up to you - you'll get to decide whose minds to enter, how you go about your time, and so on. Adding to that, your actions will have consequences - if you screw up, do the wrong thing, or just plain decide to go against better judgement, that will affect the story moving forward.

Like I said, everyone will be laid out in more, better detail, should I get enough of a following to make a thread for this. I'll also answer questions anyone might have, or if you have suggestions for anything involved, I'll be happy to hear 'em! Check your Interest at the door, and thanks again for reading!

Persona - Soldiers of Fortune

Vincent Cawler

Lying on the floor throughout the back-and-forth between the other 'intruders' and Pondwater, Vincent had trouble getting his bearings, or even getting up. On top of the guards' incredible strength, they were brutal; just by shifting on the ground he could tell that he had at least two broken ribs and muscles too bruised to pull himself to his feet. For all intents and purposes he was down for the count. The conversation passed him by as he focused on recuperating, his head swimming in pain, dazed and confused.

Then monsters happened.

There wasn't a better way to describe it, at least for Vincent. One moment there were the guards, big and dark like living shadows pulled from the walls, and the next there were beasts, magnificent and terrifying in their form. It helped center Vincent's thoughts, at least. The shock and fear pushed through the pain-induced haze, snapping awareness back into him. But the surge of energy didn't help that much, since, well, he was still beaten half to death. He struggled to get back on his feet, slipping at the simple task of pushing off the ground as the rest started to run. His only hope was that these animal-looking monsters had the instincts to chase after prey instead of going for easy pickings.

To his surprise, though, Vincent wasn't abandoned to fend for himself. Not entirely, at least. One of the group, a punk-rock looking kid, stooped down and hoisted Vincent up onto his shoulders, to the best of his ability anyway. Their difference in height made it hard, Vincent's tall stature throwing Dakota off balance, but he sure as hell tried. Vincent's mind drifted again; so long kept to himself, sheltered away and never given a second thought. This one simple act of kindness, selflessness... connected to something, somewhere, deep in his heart.

As the two "ran" towards the entrance again, Vincent managed to sway himself onto his feet, the movement and adrenaline helping to mask the pain of it. The amalgamated cranes - the Shaxes, if Vincent heard Pondwater right - flocked to the gate, blocking their path. A thought crossed Vincent's mind, making him almost roll his eyes. Sure, he'd already hurled himself into a possible threat before, but now the 'possible' had turned into 'very much a'. But, again, something tugged at his brain. He wasn't just doing it for his own life, this time. Someone else had helped him. So, he had to help back.

Pushing himself off from Dakota, freeing the younger guy from his weight, Vincent leaned into the momentum of their wobbly stagger of an escape and charged at one of the Shaxes. It was a fight stacked against him, and when that happens, because it usually did happen, you fought dirty. A quick jab at the bird's red eye, two fingers out to really make it sting and, in the ensuing startle, toppling the thing off balance. He turned back to Dakota, Barney, and the others for a quick enough moment to shout.

"Run!"

Not that anyone needed the encouragement.

Persona - Soldiers of Fortune

Vincent Cawler

The first moments of a chase were the most critical.

There's the obvious reason, that if you were caught right at the start then it isn't much of a chase, but there's more to it than people think. How hard do you sprint? It needs to be enough to make a gap behind you but not so much that you'll run out of energy quickly. What's the right stride? You need to adapt your foot placement on the fly, so you don't trip over yourself or slip against the terrain. Your route was important too of course, needing to understand the right time to duck, weave, turn a corner, or keep straight. All of this under the pressure of being pursued, usually by someone who doesn't have your best interests in mind. It was the sort of thing you understood only with experience. An art, not a science.

It didn't matter if your pursuer was human, bear, or super-strong prison guard, once the flow of running was ingrained into your head it really helped. And Vincent sure did know about running.

Flecks of concrete from the guard's swing flew like shrapnel, cutting into his calves. Vincent grit his teeth but didn't let himself falter. If anything it spurred him even further. When he neared the prison gates, Vincent though he had a chance. Until one of the guard's batons clipped him on the arm. Pain shot up, down, all throughout his arm like the very nerves caught fire, and he let out an instinctual scream, but it hardly slowed him down. Vincent just clasped his hand over his bicep and kept running.

He made it a decent distance before he petered out to a stand. It wasn't the pain, or the exhaustion, that made him stop. It was the prison itself. Vincent's eyes gazed over it all, the throngs of chained prisoners marching by the dozens, getting into their desks and having tubes stuck onto their helmets. It was like the situation finally stuck in Vincent's mind, pushed away the dust and cobwebs and overridden his Flight-or-Fight. The pain and the sounds and the smells, it was all too real. It couldn't have been anything but.

Which meant that the two guards catching up to him weren't Barclay police, a thought that actually relieved Vincent. Who or whatever they were, he wouldn't be simply arrested. Being beaten, enslaved, possibly even killed was more preferable to Vincent than ordinary jailtime.

...

The two guards soon returned to the others who fell into this strange world, Vincent carried between them, all limp and ragged, before he was unceremoniously dumped somewhere between the others and the Pondwater lookalike. His limbs were covered in welts and bruises, his face swollen and his lips split. He was still breathing, at least. Vincent didn't try to stand back up, only lifting his head to hack up a small loogie of blood before collapsing again. Now that his fate was purely his own to worry about, his will to fight was gone.

Persona - Soldiers of Fortune

Vincent Cawler

As he stood up from his near-fetal position, still holding the back of his head, Vincent watched as the students all dealt with the situation in their own unique ways. Most of them freaked out, obviously. One thought it was a dream and that jumping in the tar-like oceans around them was the best idea. Idiot. The fall wouldn't have hurt if it was a dream. Another of them couldn't handle the stress and practically crumpled onto the concrete, blubbering like a kid. Vincent sneered before turning his gaze around. The apocalyptic landscape, the roiling waters, the massive and bizarrely-shaped prison, none of it concerned Vincent. His spirit, maybe, was too sanded down to react to such outrageous circumstances.

He stared down, grinding his toes into the ground and kicking up dust, watching the pink particles pulse and splash around. It wasn't a hallucination, at least, Vincent wasn't creative enough to conjure up something so vivid, so specific. Drugs? Looking around at the rest of them again, Vincent was sure it couldn't be that either. He was sure he hadn't ingested anything these kids also did. The only connection between them was the cracks. Maybe that was it? Cracks in the ground... a gas leak?

Before he could ponder any more, the prison guards approached, waving their batons and barking orders as prison guards are wont to do. Their appearance brought out the only tangible reaction from Vincent. His eyes widened, his shoulders tensed, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. Whatever explanation there was to what was happening, cops were still cops, no matter what his addled mind saw them as. Being arrested right now would be a death-sentence either way it went - if he surrendered and his connection was traced back to Orland, he'd be dead in his cell by the end of the day. If he came out of things without suspicion, one of the officers working for the man would bring the news to Orland, and Vincent would be executed for slipping up so bad.

Acting on pure survival instinct, Vincent didn't even pretend to follow the orders to march. He slammed into the nearest guard like a linebacker, toppling the shadowy figure over and into some of his compatriots, capitalizing on the surprise by sprint as fast as his legs could take him through the gap he made. The only way to go was into the prison itself, but running free from the guards gave him much better odds.