2112: Casting Call

[Lady_J]

http://www.geocities.com/orpg2112/
Check out our game webpage!

The year is 2112, after a decade of chaos and rebellion, a new leadership has emerged in the US. The new government rules with an iron fist, and the citzens have gladly forfeited personal freedom for security. Citizens look the other way as the government quitely "deals" with any resistence. When young college-aged kids begin to go missing from towns across the nation, parents silently mourn, and communities pretend they never exsisted.

As a player, you awake in a cold metal cell in a government facility. A few minutes later, a man known only as The Doctor comes in to reveal that you are the newest "recruit" in a secret government agency studying various psy-abilites. Your cooperation is..... requested.

If you're interested, submit your bio including your major ability that may or may not have emerged as of your recruitment, and also your major weakness. See further details on plot and character details below.

This is my first attempt, so be patient. Hope you'll join me!

New Recruits: As Played by:

Cassandra K. Holden__________Zircon
Lauren H. Byrnes_____________Lauren.Hynde



Agency Handlers: As Played by:

Kelson Eversilver____________Kelson

 

[Lauren Hynde]

Hi, Lady_J

I could find myself interested on this, but could you please elaborate a little on what kind of abilities you are refering to? I mean, are you talking about being capable of complex mathematic calculations on the blink of an eye, or more along the lines of moving objects with your mind? and the weekness, is it being a sucker for tall handsome secret government agent types, suffering from agoraphobia, or having your x-ray vision blocked by lead walls? Let me know...

 

[Kelson]

Heh, actually, I was waiting for someone to post a character here so I could tune my character accordingly. I would love to join in, but you didn't define psychic abilities at all so I don't know how much you mean by it.

 

[Guest]

Hello Lady_J,

I'm a newbie, so bear with me if i make any mistakes.
I'm interested in joining a role-playing forum & your idea sounds a like a good jumping off point for me.
From your description, the premise sounds like a bold government "sponsored" black ops type of deal to create and hopefully, control and use "superhumans", i.e "Homo Superior".

These experimental subjects are "given" and/or born with just that little bit of abilities that sets them apart from the rest of the "Homo Sapiens".

Of course, playing God should always be left to God alone. This premise that you have set certainly got a lot of potential, so I am in.

"Here goes an attempt at creating a character:

Name: Cassandra K. Holden
Age: 29
Status: Single
Ability: Create illusions so real that other people in her "Sphere" of influence will believe that the illusion is reality. Sights, sounds and even solidity of the illlusions.
Weaknesses :
1. Sphere of influence is limited, 25 meters radius only.
2. The illussions lose effectiveness as they move away from the source.
3. Concentration must be absolute when creating these illusions, which makes her vulnerable during the time when she exercises her powers.
4. Using the mind in this case is more tiring than working 14 hours a day. So Cassandra is drained, both mentally and physically each time she uses her powers. The longer she use her powers, the more tired she becomes and thus prolonging the time that she needs to "recharge" before she can "safely" use her powers again.

Brief Bio on Cassandra:
She comes from a middle class family with a nice house in the subburbs, a great future planned out in a world where the future is planned and excuted according to a government master plan.

After going to the motions of growing up in a controlled society, she has found a job as a secretary in a government "Sponsored" Corporation - the Quorum Corporation, "QC". This Corporation is involved in research and development of Pharmaceutical Products.

Unbeknownst to her, QC has been observing and recording their employees for some time now, in fact ever since Cassandra joined five years ago. Their motive is to "recruit" subjects suitable for the "psy-abilities" project. Moreover, QC has successfully researched and developed a serum that will grant the recipient "abilities".

Cassandra was chosen for the experimental phase of the serum because of her "comforming" background and up to now, loyalty to the system and corporation. So QC quietly infected Cassandra with a non-lethal cold virus first. This meant that
Cassandra had to go to the Corporate Health Center for treatment, since medical insurance and facilities are paid for by the Corporation. There at the Health Center, Cassandra became one of the first recipients of the experimental serum. The dosages were small in the begining, increasing with each visit, as Cassandra's "cold" took a long time to dissapate.

As each day passes, the serum began to take effect with Cassandra have migraine size headaches every night. Then one morning, feeling tired but still able to go to work, Casssandra got dressed ready to face another miserable day at the office.

If she had known what a day today will turn out to be, she would have just pulled her blanket tighter around her and went back to sleep.

As Lady Fate would have it, Cassandra woke up in a metal cell, her head fuzzy and with absolutely no memory of how she got there....."


I hope that this character will get the game going. I also hope that someone will offer feedback as this is really the first time that I'm posting a reply.

Thanx.

 

[Lauren Hynde]

OK, I'd be interested in this, but I'm going to let Lady_J answer my question first, since SHE IS the game master, and if she agrees with the direction Zircon is taking this, I'll submit a character. Cool with that?

 

[Lady_J]

Answers and such

Good posts all. As to my idea for the world, it's not so much X-men as it is a hint of Dark Angel mixed with Alias. (Sorry for all the copyright infringement I just did.) So, along those lines, ablities could include anything done with the mind, only intensified. For example, I'm thinking of abilities like telekenetics including the ability to self-levitate, various psychic powers such as fortelling the future, talking with the dead, mind manipulation (the governement really likes this one as it leads to complete control of the population), healing abilites, and anything that runs more towards abilities a "normal" human can have with an abnormally developed psychic ability.

Zircon, love the character! It totally works as I consider the ability to create illusion a variation on mind manipulation. Imagine how effective production hallucination-like images could be as a crowd control. Anything to keep the population submissive, eh? As for the plot point about a secret government serum, I like it, but how about expanding it to a "vitamin supplement" given to elementary school children, and the results only show up in young adulthood. This would lead to constant watching of a huge portion of the population and it fits right in with the Big Brother aspect.

As always, I'm open to ideas, feel free to submit them.

 

[Lauren Hynde]

But to be honest, Zircon, I think you may have over ellaborated it... now, everybody will have to somehow be involved with this QC, and I honestly doubt that was what Lady_J had in mind... And one more thing: She did mention "college-aged kids" so that would make them what, 18-23? Maybe you need to re-think Cassandra a bit... And go easy, this is just the Casting Call Thread still, the real game will probably take some time to kick-off...

(BTW, How many characters are you expecting to cast, Lady_J?)

 

[Lady_J]

re: numbers

I'd like to get a core group of five or six new recruits, and then as they develop and advance in the agency, more can be recruited. However if I get a huge response, we can see about expanding that number a bit more.

As for other character possibilities, the recruits will be trained by several more experienced handlers who are 100% loyal to the agency. These characters are open to play, with more advanced abilites, but also complete belief that what they are doing is right. As a recruit you can choose to go along with the program, pretend to go along, or out and out revolt, just don't think that sort of behavior will be well-looked upon.... Muhaha.

 

[Lauren Hynde]

So, let me see if I got this straight:

This governmental agency is administring this serum to wide numbers of the population while they're infant and kept under close surveilance. In their 18-23s some of them show signs that they may be reacting positively to the serum and are "recruited".

So they may have absolutely nothing to do with this agency, like that secretarial position of Cassandra?...

Is that it? One day, they just wake up in a metal cell...

 

[Kelson]

I'll take over training the people! Power! -squeals in delight- -gacks at himself-

Okay...

----------Classified: Security Clearance Beta 343------------------------
Name: Kelson Eversilver (Kelson sticks out in posts, although this is a completely fictional name I s'pose)
Gender: Male
Height: 5'11"
Weight: 164
Eyes: Green
Hair: Black

Current Occupation: Classified Requires Additional Clearance

Previous Occupations: Unites States Ranger (Marksmen, Team
Leader, Demolitions Expert), Central Intelligence Agency
(Marksmen, Information Gathering, Interrogation), Bodyguard,
United States Air Force (Classified)

Military Training: Expert Marksmen (9mm, Steryl Scout, m4a1)
........................ Hand-to-Hand Combat (Advanced)
........................ Commando Operations
........................ Urban Combat
........................ Intelligence Gathering (Advanced)
........................ Demolitions (Advanced)
........................ Rescue Missions (Advanced, Team Leader)
........................ Classified

Background: Classified

Psychological Profile: Classified

 

[Lady_J]

Filling in the plot...

I don't want to change any of Zircon's bio info without permission, but perhaps this will fill things in.

The United States, and much of the world fell into chaos as guerrilla groups and terrorists fought for control throughout the early 2000's. The United States government sought various ways of controlling the rebelling population, going as far as creating a psychic research agency. As the strife continued, the darker, black-ops organizations began to take over the governement, eventually removing all elected officials from office. Through the research of a man later known only as The Doctor, various chemical reactions within the brain were isolated revealing the mysterious origin of psychic abilities. The Doctor, along with other more sinister government officials developed a serum that when administered to the population could result in increased pyschic abilites in some. This serum became a part of the daily vitamin packets given to all school-aged children, packets which also included mild sedatives and focus-increasing drugs. The agency, using the survelliance system established by the new governement, began watching the population for evidence of these new psychics emerging. The first wave began three years later, in 2011, showing up in young adults whose physical maturity had been reached. (Yes, people still grow until their early 20's, even women, not in size but there are definite pysical changes occuring.) As these recruits were taken and trained, more emerged, each batch with slightly stronger abilites than those before as they had spent more time taking the serum while growing. It is now 2002, and the latest group of recruits has been brought in, with unused, but stronger abilites than any group before.

Hope that helps- I liked the serum idea, it's very evil. Speaking of government Big Brother things, did you know that school lunch programs in the US are sponsered by the Dept of Defense? It started in WWII as a way to ensure our soliders got proper nutrition so they could make good fighting men. I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but it kinda fits into the plot.

 

[Kelson]

There was a typo, for anyone interested...the year is 2112, like thread name says... ;-)

I'd like to ask though...does this mean that quite a bit of the population is going to have the same power as us?

 

[Lady_J]

He's so evil he's Eeviiiil

Kelson, ooo, I'm getting excited now, we have our first government spook!

I'm going to stop posting plot stuff as I don't want to squelch everyone's good ideas until we start.

 

[Lauren Hynde]

I can play along, as a recruit, but do you mind if I don't post a bio until tomorrow, I'm pretty tired right now, and will call it a night...

I'd like to hear kelson's question answered, though, it's of extreme relevance, even if i was assuming that the serum only opened the doors to the training, and that without it, this subjects would never even be aware of their possibilities (how else would the government be able to control such a powerfull population?)

 

[Lady_J]

Re: population

Nope, consider the pyschic abilites as latent in us all, but some can access it, and some can't. The serum just ups those chemical reactions in the brain that control ability. So instead of John Edwards talking to the dead on a tv show, the dead now visit him in a more "tangible" way. Most people can't tap into the potential, but those who can, and who have the boost from the serum, who knows how far they may be able to go...

p.s. Sorry for the John Edwards reference, I admit that I have accidentally stopped for half an hour or so on his show while changing channels, um, but I never liked it.

 

[Lauren Hynde]

Great!

I'll post a bio later, but save me a seat, ok?

 

[Lady_J]

Reopulation (again)

I am having a fit trying to edit my posts, sorry everyone.

 

[Zircon]

First off i apologize for taking so much liberties and making so much assumptions without the permission of Lady_J.

I guess I just got carried away. I'm sorry.

The serum/vitamin deal sounds not too far fetch. In fact, it makes you want to think twice about drinking all those free milk that they give out in public school. Remember the time that they started adding all those "extra" supplements" in milk, those that are not normally found in pure milk. Extra iron, extra this, extra that.....Hmmm!!!

Anyway, I'll "re-invent" Cassandra more to fit the premise as we go along, as I am definitely in.

Talking about control, how about the idea of television commercials and/or shows having subliminal messages, sort of like a cold machine-made mind device. One of the classes I took in college (philosophy) dealt with the issue of subliminal messages. The proffesor is an avid collector of advertisements which contain images and/or words that when you look at it in a certain direction the message is there. Since taking that class and looking at the Proffesor's collection, I am convinced that subliminal messages exist, although as to the extent of the effectiveness, i'm not too sure.

Again I apologize if i had seemed to take liberties with Lady_J's ideas.

 

[Lady_J]

Things that make you go Hmmm

No no Zircon, I love the creativity, it gives me something to build off, and when it comes from everyone, then I know they are into the ideas. As for sub-msg, sounds perfect, I'm sure in a controlling government situation like this, the propaganda deptment would use every advantage, think Nazi Germany, you tell a big enough lie, often enough and the populace just might believe you. In this case, tell them they are safer with the government being in complete control, and tell them in every way possible.

 

[Zircon]

Thanx for the encouragement.

With this age of information, Big Brother is finding it easier to watch, "silently", than ever before. Imagine in the year 2112 (I hope i got that year right), the government will know everything about you, even what you had for lunch. Big brother is silently watching, recording and even analyzing your every move, so that your moves will not disturb the status quo. It is like playing chess with the moves restriction on you but the Government(actually just a handful elite) has no such restrictions.

Any rocking of the boat will bring swift action. I would imagine that the recruits will be the tip of the sword that cuts whoever is rocking the boat.

Besides, it is cool that you, as a recruit, can do "anything" you pretty much desire, as long as the mission is accomplished. It is like having a perpetual free get-out-of-jail pass.

"Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely."
I'm quite excited about Cassandra having powers and a free get-out-of-jail pass.

 

[Lauren Hynde]

plot-line: society

The last few posts made me think even more about George Orwell’s 1984, and I think a little input on this world’s society might be in order. It would certainly help me come up with a more focused character...

Maybe something like this:

Most of the population has a controlled but oblivious existence, going about their business as usual, just like today, only living in a permanent militarized environment that, officially, exists only to protect them from the invisible threat of terrorism and mayhem. This military based regime would obviously want to perpetuate itself, and that’s really the reason of all the surveillance and psychic abilities research: to crush all signs of insurrection and organized internal opposition. This a known fact amongst the eldest, but with all the mind controlling devices and techniques being developed, the younger generations are really beginning to not only accept the regime, but to love it and submitting themselves to it’s authority gratefully. Of course that the only real beneficiaries of this whole situation are those at the head of the government, that elude all the control, and those under their direct orders, i.e. their operative personnel, their human instruments of power.

So now we have a series of reasons that could make these recruited youngsters do give themselves wholly to this training program:

1. Because they’re being conditioned from the cradle to love the Big Brother;
2. Because they just want to escape all the control and this will give them, like Zircon put it, a perpetual (as far as they know) get-out-of-jail pass;
3. Because they want to overthrown the regime and what better way to do it than from within (not only do they escape detection but they also get trained! How ironic is that?);
4. Because they’re ambitious little bastards and want to climb the power-ladder themselves;
5. Because they’ve been kidnapped and well, they must!

(Wow, now that I think of it, maybe nr.5 was enough...)

 

[Lady_J]

Chanel No. 5

Um, yeah, being kidnapped by an omnipotent government agency kinda puts a damper on your personal freedoms.


(Edited for clarity of timeline... Yes I'm a goober)

 

[Kelson]

so that'd make them what...over 100 years old? No, it is 2112 ;-), we were probably born around the 2090s

 

[Lady_J]

Doh!

Doh! Doh!

Ok, new game plan, old idea out, new idea in... Yes Lady_J was under the misguided idea that she had put in 2012, however in an attempt to make a better title, 2112 came out. Hee hee. Ok, sorry bout that one. (Smack head several times)

Ok, lemme rethink one or two things, for example the period of chaos lasted from 2032 or so until the new government fired all elected officials and began to reign in totallity in the year 2083. Things weren't horrible for the entire time, but the current government began to collaspe around 2075 leaving pleanty of time for the darker government agencies to arrange a coup. What had been a period of occasional terrorist attacks became an out an out war between the failing government and various resistence groups in the US and abroad. Many citizens declared the government defunct and began a vigilante governement in their own area, these were quickly put down when the new government came to power.


So, yes you were all born in the time of the new government, raised in a controlled environment, but you heard stories from your parents about the times before, of freedom and of chaos.

Once again, big oops on my part, I'm working on making an official timeline/bio webpage, I'll let you know when I get it up and running. I figure it should help clear up everything.

 

[Lady_J]

Our new web page~

http://www.geocities.com/orpg2112/index.html

Ok, this is where I'm going to keep all the info that is mostly set in stone. This includes bios, maps, the offical new and improved timeline, and more. This way we can discuss other things here, and always have an encyclopedia of 2112 handy. If you want to put anything up on the site, just post it here and I'll cut and paste it there, this includes bio updates and such, or email at:
ORPG2112@yahoo.com

p.s feel free to send in pics of your character, or yourself if you want.