Psyren: Pursuing Time (OOC)

VampiricTouch

Cold Selfish Bitch
Joined
Dec 18, 2008
Posts
3,877
A meteor crashes into the earth in the near future, marking the end of civilization as we know it. The meteor's impact briefly disrupted the gravitational force of the earth, which caused massive upheavals across the planet as buildings, and ground terrain drifted towards the sky. When the disturbance reverted back to normal, such things came raining back down. This disruption of the earth's magnetic field also produced a severe planet wide EMP, knocking out and disabling all electronic units. Finally, the impact released a series of atmospheric changes, completely blocking out the sunlight as well as changing the make up of the air. Certain people, after exposure to the air obtain the ability to use psi (after practice and understanding).

In this 'future', an unknown entity(s) established a way to connect back to our present by way of Psi. Randomly, people are chosen from the present and teleported ten years into the future, after the apocalypse has occurred and left to fend for themselves, to find out the truth behind the destruction of their world and a way to prevent it.

Choosing of players - The first call:
Players are chosen at random out based upon their age and ability to master Psi. The first call will register the person as a player in the game, and embed a Psi program into the player's body. This allows the player to be teleported into the future, and force the player to abide by "game rules", etc.

It starts with a survey. A small post card tucked into random magazines with a prepaid mail label. Typical questions with nothing out of the ordinary and a chance to win a cash card should people mail it in. Whether the survey is mailed in or not, doesn’t matter. It’s the process of filling out the survey that triggers the selection process. Selected players receive a card in the mail. When the card is used, the person is ‘saved’ as a player and finalizes the PSI program that will eventually teleport the player to Psyren.

The Call to Psyren:
On an average of every 2 weeks, all active players will receive a call from Psyren. It will start as a soft ringing in the mind, that only players can hear and in about 30 minutes, it will have escalated into a roaring ring and a pounding headache. You can lose your hearing and can probably lose far worse if you attempt to neglect the call. Once the ringing begins in a player's mind, the moment their ear touches a phone, they will be teleported to Psyren, the future.

Arriving in Psyren:
All players will arrive within a loading room. Here, the players will be briefed on the objectives of the game. They will be told the following:
  1. One must find the "exit" for that round in order to conclude a round of the game and return to their world.
  2. A map with the start and end locations marked.
  3. An image of the exit ATM will be provided.
  4. A Psyren Card to leave Psyren when the exit is found
  5. Their point standing within the game. A player's points represent how far along the game they've gotten, and will be crucial in "Beating the game"
  6. Game Rules.

Game Rules:
  • Losing the card in Psyren means, a player will be stuck in the Psyren until their card can be found.
  • One may not tell non-players about Psyren.
  • When one's game points have reached zero, one will have beaten the game and cannot return to Psyren.
Once briefed, all players will be ported to the same vicinity of each other. Typically within a block of an ATM.

The exit is typically another ATM, as briefed in the loading room and indicated on the map. Once the exit ATM is found, the Psyren card can be used at the ATM to teleport out of Psyren. Even if the machine is not working, sliding the card into the machine will suffice. When a player finds the exit, that player will be teleported back to the same location as in their present time. In other words, all players will arrive at the same place when they exit, and the location will be the present day equivalent of the future spot they used.

Their unstated purpose in Psyren is to find out that the world they are traveling in is the future of their earth, Why the world ended up that way, when it occurs and how to prevent it. Of course it would be nice to know who is pulling the strings behind the so called game - Psyren.
  • Death in the game is a literal death. Game Over, the body turns to ash. There is no reset, no resurrection, no "Try again".
  • Time functions the same way in Psyren. If you spent 5 days in Psyren, then 5 days would have passed in the present time.
  • You can bring things in and out of Psyren. Limited to inanimate objects you can pick up.
  • Losing the Psyren card while in Psyren means the player will be unable to leave until the card is found.

How to Beat the Game:

The program is defined under the pretense of a game, therefore there are ways to finish the game. Each registered player has a set number of points they start out with. Every trip to Psyren will deduct points until the number has dropped to zero. More points will be deducted for difficult trips and less points for easier ones. When your number drops to zero, you have 'beaten' the game and will no longer receive the call to go to Psyren. Players can talk to exe players about the events in Psyren.

Activation of Psi:

After exposure to the atmosphere in Psyren, given some time, the body will react to the atmospheric change. It usually occurs after returning to the present time. However if prolonged stay in Psyren occurs, it will happen while there. The symptoms of such 'reaction' include but are not limited to, high fever, blood shot eyes, nausea... in other words, choose your poison(s), but it's not fun. When the adjustments pass, which they should by the next morning, a person should be able to take baby steps towards using psi.

Choose a super power. The following is if you care about psi technicalities.


Psi breaks down into three main parts. Burst, which is the manifestation of thought. This includes things like pyrokinesis, telekinesis, teleportation, and the like. Trance, which is the control of the mind. This includes abilities like mind control, telepathy. Finally, Rise, which is the strengthening of the self. This will drastically increase a person's speed, strength, stamina, senses and or healing. A very rare case and combination of extreme specialization in Burst and Rise gives Cure, which allows the user to impart their own healing abilities upon someone else and heal another. Another rare ability, Visions, or foresight occurs by combining Rise (heightened senses) and Trance.

All psi users can use all three on a fundamental level even if they do not have the aspect specialized. When I say fundamental I mean, if a person is not specialized in Burst, they will still be able to do very limited and relatively weak telekinesis. If not specialized in Trance, a person will still be able to hear words spoken via telepathy and converse back if another person establishes the connection. (Non psi users will not be able to hear telepathy.) if not specialized in Rise, a person will still heal at a much faster speed than a normal human. Now faster healing does not imply werewolf, vampire healing of wounds where an open cut and severed limb regenerates itself. Faster healing means, that if a wound normally takes 3 weeks to heal, it will take a psi user about 1 week to recover. This is under the situation of maximum rest where a body can focus it's psi on restoring the body. This does not apply if the person is still placed under stress of battle.

Humans only use about 10% of their brain capacity. There is a natural limiter that prevents humans from utilizing more and overtaxing their brain. However, the atmosphere in Psyren removes this natural limiter which gives rise to psi. Initial learning of psi will cause massive headaches until a certain amount of 'stamina' is built up to use more. Even after a person is well versed in psi, such overtaxing use can still occur and it will kill a person if s/he over uses their ability.

Psi is unique to each person. Its development is a reflection of the person's environment and personality. It is only after long amounts of consistent practice that a person achieves a higher level and mastery of psi. I do expect powerful abilities, but I do not expect them to come into the level of full fledged mass destruction until at least a few weeks of practice have occurred.

More information to come as I sort things out. For now, I need to sleep.
 
Last edited:
Bios:
Personally, I really dislike doing bios, but it helps ground the character, and might help with further story planning. But because of my own dislike, I'm not going to hold too tightly to this laundry list. The following is a list of possible things to cover. I will try to put mine up when I've had more time to think about it.
  1. Name
  2. Age
  3. Appearance
  4. Background
  5. Veteran or Newbie Psyren player
  6. If your character is a veteran, a brief blurb on what your character might have encountered in previous rounds would be appreciated
  7. Weakness
  8. Ability
  9. How you see the ability developing
  10. How does the ability link to your character's personality

Unanswered Questions:
  1. Who set up the game Psyren and why? Vigilante? Organization? For benevolent reasons or otherwise?
  2. Encounters in the future? Monsters? Humans? Are humans hostile? if so, why? if not, why?
    We'll start with smaller monsters that will eventually escalate when their human handlers notice their minions are missing. Yes the humans are hostile.
  3. How have humans survived? What sort of technology do they have? What is the level of civilization and organization?
  4. Location? Preferably a major city, makes it easier to ID landmarks and clue players in.
    We will be playing in Manhattan. I think tripping over the Wall St street sign, dented and barely readable amongst busted sewer caps might be interesting. That and maybe a glimpse of the statue smashed to pieces.

 
Last edited:
Sorry I'm slow. My weekend was a complete loss. I've got fragments of a character put together, but I'm not sure about certain pieces. Still sorting through it all.

Name:
Valerie

Age: 25

Occupation: Nurse in the Urgent Care Center of NY in Manhattan.

Ability: Healer. Able to extend her own healing to other people to rapidly speed up the recovery.

Weakness: Healing ability does not extend to herself. She doesn't get to speed up her own healing. Therefore is quite susceptible to damage.
Development: She works in a hospital. It should be pretty easy to find guinea pigs to practice on. I can see it start with shallow cuts. small lacerations and wounds are closed when she spends a lot of time with the patient. The patients that get extensive exposure to her tend to get better much faster.

Background: Valerie is fortunate to be out of China to study in the states. She isn't a US citizen, but has since worked to obtain her green card to stay in the states. It's a decision that has made her parents quite upset that their only daughter will not be returning to further their small clinic in a rural town of China, especially after all that was invested in her. The decision to stay in the states eventually led to cutting ties. She isn't happy about the situation, and hopes that in time, her family will be able to accept her decision.


I can't decide whether to make her a veteran or a newbie. I'm leaning towards a veteran player. I'm also curious how all the players know each other, or whether it's strictly "I met you in game" acquaintance.

There are other things like how exactly does "healing" take place. I see it happening several ways and I need to decide on one.
1. The rapid "aging" of an isolated area, which will cause the body to experience several "days" of self restoration in a short time span.
or
2. Return to prior state, a "turn back time" on an isolated area to before the damage took place. (This means that latent abilities could potentially regenerate lost limbs, but is unable to cure a disease one is born with)
or
3. ???? There's plenty of ways to skin a cat. It's a matter of choosing one.
 
I do have a plan.
Been plotting her with VT.
Her power is...
Uh...
(how do I describe that? Transmittal?)
 
Notes

Becoming a Psychicer

A Psychicer is a person that is able to have all the cells in their brain fire at full activity instead of the 10% that normal people have. There are two ways for a person to be a Psychicer. They can either be born with the ability to manipulate PSI or have breathed in the atmosphere of Psyren which removes the natural limiter in their brain.

Basics


When training and using PSI there are three basics that need to be followed; Concentration, Visualization, and Projection. So when using PSI you need to focus your concentration, visualize a picture of what you are trying to accomplish, then using the energy of PSI project that from your mind out into the real world. This turns your thoughts into reality. By solidifying this image in your mind and training it becomes easier to use and the PSI can be invoked quicker. By far out of the three classes of PSI, Burst is the hardest to control and is the most damaging upon the user. Burst tends to be strongly tied to emotion and volatile.

Emotion


Combining emotion with PSI can produce devastating and nearly uncontrollable powers and so shouldn't be done. Not only are these powers dangerous to other people, but they take an even heavier toll on the mind and body than regular PSI powers.

Programs


By preparing a set of instructions in their mind before releasing their Burst , PSI users can create programs that allow them to lessen the effects of using PSI on their minds and gain a degree of control not otherwise obtainable. A program shouldn't be too complicated because then your PSI has a chance of dissipating or it may even break the rules set by the program and do its own thing ultimately causing more strain on the users mind. Forcibly stopping a program that is in motion creates a large amount of mental fatigue for the user so it is usually better to add an additional program while the first program is still running rather than trying to stop it altogether.

~~~~~~~~​

Edits I've added to the first post:

Choosing Players:

It starts with a survey. A small post card tucked into random magazines with a prepaid mail label. Typical questions with nothing out of the ordinary and a chance to win a cash card should people mail it in.

Whether the survey is mailed in or not, doesn’t matter. It’s the process of filling out the survey that triggers the selection process. Selected players receive a card in the mail. When the card is used, the person is ‘saved’ as a player and finalizes the PSI program that will eventually teleport the player to Psyren.

The Call:

When a game round is about to start, all players will receive a call on their phone. Responding to the call is the entry point into Psyren.

The Loading Zone:

Within the loading zone, the players will find the Psyren card on their person. The rules they will be told are:
  • Losing the card in Psyren means they are stuck in the future until their card can be found.
  • One may not tell non-players about Psyren.
  • When one's game points have reached zero, one will have beaten the game and cannot return to Psyren.

The Entrance and Exits:

All players, after leaving the Loading Zone will arrive near the same ATM. This is the starting point. The exit will be another ATM, indicated through the image and map. Once the exit ATM is found, the Psyren card can be used at the ATM to teleport out of Psyren. Even if the machine is not working, sliding the card into the machine will suffice)


~~~~~~~~​
In case people haven't caught on, we will be playing in Manhattan, NY.

The first round or two with all parties involved will be easier to handle "monsters". Once we all get the hang of our abilities and how to work with everyone else, we can graduate to their human handlers.

I have a vague guess as to why the humans are still around, but I'll keep that part secret. No need to spoil it for you guys. It might all change depending on how we play this story out.


~~~~~~~~~~~​
Vail my dear, I'm sure that whatever you be, will be irresistible. You're welcome to throw your thoughts my way if you want to bounce them off someone.
 
Last edited:
You say that now...but I've been known to be quite bugnuts

I would be ecstatic if you bugged me. I get worried that I bug people too much, or put too much pressure on people. Especially since recently someone complained that I tend to pepper cowriters with questions about the story. I'm very happy when people bug me. Besides, I'd rather you ask and we can all work out a coherent story line, and back story.

Though, I respond much faster over messenger compared to here on Lit or PM. Using a phone to browse and respond to lit is painful, whereas I have my messenger around while at work.

If I am ever overbearing, putting too much pressure, or pestering too much, let me know, and let me know early please. Don't wait until it's at a point where this isn't fun anymore to tell me.
 
I'm at work. My hand will hate me if I try to explain everything here.
I have two roles that should be played. And I had planned to NPC them if no one had no one picked it up.

One of them is a journalist. Whether a seasoned one or a lackey trying to get the scoop that brings him/her to fame. One of our field trips will be a visit to the NYT. It would be good to have someone who knows the "lay of the land" so to speak.

The other would... Would perhaps be a someone who works the floor of the stock exchange, or firm... In any case, it would be nice to be in a place where s/he can take advantage of the "future" information. This gives him/her the ability to take in obscene amounts of money. Greed and power would be personality point for this person

I will go into possible outlets for that money and its ramifications to the game another time when I'm not using my phone.

Choose an ability you like and I'm sure we can work with it. Foxy is making a close range offensive ability. Which puts us as a team extremely deficient and weak against a ranged opponent. Illusions would be useful in hiding us, or a ranged attack would be a good way to balance the books
 
Last edited:
I'm taking far too long in this plotting.
Hopefully have something by weekend.

The most I have... Is a name.
Whoooo.

"Tabitha Lane."
 
Back
Top