bakerstreet | cuckoo nest

cuckoo nest

Cuckoo Nest: The premise of the Cuckoo Nest plot is that a character is convinced that they are in an insane asylum (a Bedlam House is a popular choice), where they are told that the events of the series are actually hallucinations. -tvtropes

Post in with your character name, canon, etc., along with a brief description of how your character would end up committed and any diagnoses.

The Hospital

1. Your first time "waking up". How do you react to it? Firm denial? Or does it maybe make a little too much sense?

2. Time to meet your friends. Or are they? Are these really the people you know and love, or are they just the templates you used to imagine your friends?

3. Time to go exploring. That huge corporation that's been haunting your every move? Yeah, that's the cafeteria. Fortress of Solitude? Blanket fort. At least it's still pretty kickass.

4. Time to talk to your doctor! Maybe, between the two of you, you can work out a solution for your, er, problems.

5. Time to see your loved ones. Is someone dead in your reality but alive here? Maybe that person you've always had your eye on but never reciprocated is actually your spouse? Every Cuckoo Nest needs a Lotus-Eater Machine thrown in.

Reality(?)

6. Well, you're back. Everything's fine, right? But it's a little hard to shake that feeling that maybe this isn't quite.... real.

7. Your friends are starting to notice you're acting detached, weird. How are you going to explain this?

8. Maybe you should go do a little soul-searching, try to figure things out. No one will mind if you disappear from your responsibilities without explanation, right?

In-Between

9. You're starting to flash between realities now. Talking to friends, talking to your therapist... everything's starting to get muddled. How well are you keeping everything straight? Or are you at all?

10. It's now or never. You have to do something drastic to let go of this reality and make the leap to the really real one. How do you do it? And which one do you choose?

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[Committed due to an abnormal mental shutdown when certain criteria are met + claims to be a robot from a very distant future where the Earth is in nuclear winter. Diagnosis would be somewhere along the lines of schizophrenia with heavy states of delusion.

RNG or pick and choose, I don't mind! If you want me to start, just let me know.]

((Though I was fairly tempted for Prompt 10, as well. In any case, how does Quark as a fellow patient, sound? He'd be committed as a child with suicidal tendencies that have surfaced within the depressive low points of his early-onset bipolar disorder. Also seems to have an overactive imagination that feeds his mood swings.))

[Quark is practically pouting from where he sits in what appears to be a really boring, really gray sort of recreational center. He has a paper and some crayons, but he's spending more time actively turning the wax utensils over in his small hands than actually using them to create any fantastic pieces of art.]

Hmm...

[He settles, eventually, on one that's a shade of aqua. It reminds him of his Grandpa's favorite shirt.]

[Having everything upended on what one believed wouldn't be easy for anyone. Luna knew that... in theory, at least. Human behavior and processing could, after all, be attributed to many previously observed patterns and information. Even what she'd seen in the time spent at Rhizome 9 proved that well enough.

Personal experience, however, was something else entirely. Coming to this place and being interrogated, poked, prodded, and then told that everything she retained as memories were only lies... it was hard. It left too many open lines of logic in her mind, too many contradictions with too little evidence out in the open to help solve it. With no access to the quantum computer that housed her superior processes, plus no guidance from Dr. Klim or Akane, Luna now found herself lost. Much of her time had been spent in the corner of a room - she wasn't sure which - simply letting her head rest against the wall as her body attempted not to completely override its own core processes in search of an answer.

What was she to do... what was she to do...

Something clicks, long enough for her to gain awareness of her surroundings. The room is bleak, practically barren, a few people of various ages shuffling around in the same white, featureless clothing that she herself wore. The few specks of color were from a far table, at which a young boy sat.

His familiar appearance instantly draws her over, her hands clutched to her chest as she looks over him anxiously.]

It's... Quark, isn't it? Is that your name?

[Her words are a bit hollow and metallic - as close to a plea as she can get right now.]

[Quark looks up. With the hand that wasn't holding a crayon, he reaches up to touch the ridiculous hat that isn't actually there anymore, then settles for scratching the scalp that presumably sits beneath the bushy waves of his hair.]

Yeah! That's my name. You're...

[He hesitates. She was new there, and as far as he remembered they hadn't spoken directly, but he'd seen her around. Thinking about it...hadn't he heard one of the orderlies talking to her? After a second of wracking his brain, he produces a name, and smiles brightly up at her much more pensive expression.]

...Miss Luna, right? Hi! Do you want to sit with me?

[The clarification alone eases Luna a bit, even if the apparent lack of memory is startling. But it's not anything new to her to have to deal with someone whose memories are a little on the peculiar side. She offers the edges of a smile, nodding gently.]

...That's right. You wouldn't mind, would you?

[Her eyes flicker to the box of crayons, lingering on the colors for a little longer than she probably should.]

I wouldn't mind at all!

[Quark notices her gaze, and looks down at the rainbow variety of sticks.]

They're really kind of dull, and someone ripped the paper labels off of them which wasn't very nice. I'm just trying to think of a picture to draw for my Grandpa. He said he'd visit me every day but I haven't seen him in awhile. [They boy looks sad as he pauses in his rambling, but then perks up again.] It's okay, though. He's probably working really hard. Before I came here I'd help him every day so it must be a lot busier all alone...I thought maybe he'd like a letter, or something.

[He stares down at the blank paper for a long moment, then back up at Luna.] I can't figure out what to draw for him, though. Maybe you can help!

O-oh, of course. I'd be happy to.

[Her smile broadens as she lowers herself into a nearby chair. Tenmyouji wasn't here? He didn't seem like the type of man to leave Quark behind. He was always so protective of the boy before. Had something changed?

...

She takes a look at the selection of colors again, plucking up a particularly rich shade of green and holding it carefully between her fingers.]

Let's see...

Oh, I know. Maybe you could think of a special memory you share. Something just between the two of you. Would that be okay?

[As Quark watches her and listens to her speak, his face falls in quiet contemplation. But after a minute, he perks up again, and nods.]

Yeah...yeah! I think that would work.

[He starts pulling out a couple colors then and organizing them. Once he's made a selection of blues and browns, he grabs the black crayon and begins to draw an outline, slowly and carefully, because he wants to make it look good.]

Do you like that color, Miss Luna? Green?

Oh yes, I do. It's my favorite.

[It's something this building lacks so very much - any sense of life that colors like this bring. The crayon is held like a gentle treasure in Luna's palm, her voice growing warm as she continues to speak.]

Have you ever seen a grove of trees, Quark? Or, um, any group of plants, really. Flowers, bushes, fields of grass - all of those are part of the great outdoors. Thinking about so many living things together, all green and plentiful... it makes me happy.

[Would you be interested in doing something with Zero here? What I'm not quite sure because he's a rabbit but :D]

[yesssssssssss

we could try something along the lines of 9, and Zero could be a borderline "hallucination"? if that makes sense, at least.]

[Damn it. Luna has gone and run off somewhere - he knew he should have just killed her and taken her bracelet, he knew it! - but there's a door they have to go through and only a short amount of time before they all get killed if they don't go through it. He's already sent off the third member of their little party to go look for her; the more ground they can cover, the better.]

Luna? Luna! Where the hell did you go?!

[He doesn't sound very happy at all. But, of course, that's what happens when someone is half-living in the Nonary Game and half-living in an insane asylum.]

[It goes against her natural programming to ignore the announcement that had been echoing throughout the building. But ever since the end of the last AB game, Luna hadn't felt quite... right. Hadn't she just been in that hospital? Everyone there had been so insistent. Luna knew she couldn't be just imagining things - how she came to conclusions and located her own memories relied on pre-developed circumstances, codes, and personal experience. Surely she would know whether there was a flaw or other discrepancy in the reality she had been placed in.

But the more she thought it over, the more it just continued to confuse her. Even when her surroundings were, once again, the moon base that she had been a part of for so long, it's very difficult for her to keep her mind on the task at hand. When the group had lulled into an awkward pause, she had slipped away, off to the infirmary to watch over the still-unconscious Quark. Or pretend to, at least. It gave her the time to let her try and cipher her way through the computer's database. She knows she shouldn't be so suspicious... there wasn't anything here that was different from what she'd always known, and if Lagomorph caught her...

Dio's voice breaks her out of her nearly trance-like state, and she jumps in her seat. It sounds like he was still in the hallway... and he doesn't sound very pleased. With hesitant steps, Luna slips her way to the nearest door, poking her way out into the hall.]

O-o-oh, um... Dio? Were you looking for me?

Who the hell else would I be looking for?

[He sounds annoyed, but that's mostly because at this stage in the game he can't act like a complete dickhead. He's still got an image to maintain if he wants these people to cooperate with him (even though he's really not good at maintaining it, even though they all think he's a jerk anyway, but as long as they believe he's just looking out for himself that means they'll behave predictably and that's what he wants), so he had to go and look for Luna.

Also he really didn't want to get offed this early because she was off worrying her pretty little head about things she can't change.]

What are you even doing in here?

[I swear he's not blushing this is just the closest thing to a disgruntled icon I could find.]

Looking for Quark... Did no one tell you?

[She looks slightly hazy, just because of how fast her processors are having to run through banks of information on top of her own confusion. Quark wasn't here. Someone else must have grabbed him earlier, to make sure he was going through the doors without being penalized. So how was she supposed to keep Dio from questioning her about being in an empty room?

It wasn't important, though. Her task at hand was to play the game and guide the players... or at least, that's what she had been told.

The constant contradiction of ideas is making her feel heated. She grimaces a bit, her arms crossed tight against her waist. They were wasting time - they needed to go.]

...Anyway, we should get to the doors, right? Phi should be waiting for us...

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

cuckoo nest

Luna | Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward

Prompt 2

this works!

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... hi

oh my god

Rolled an 8. Let me know if I need to change any of this!

I can work with this!

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omg if only I could use the companion icon I have from that fanart