bakerstreet | The Mindscape Meme

☄ The Mindscape Meme ☄

If you've played Psychonauts, you have some idea of what's going on with this meme. (It doesn't have to play out much like Psychonauts if you don't want it to, though.) Your character has something going on in their inner mental world that needs to be confronted by psychic voyagers, and that's what's going to happen here. It's nothing but metaphor and symbolism from here on out, and you can be as dark or as silly as you want about it.

»» how to play
1. Post a comment (with your character's name and canon as the subject line) with a quick summary of what your character's mental world is like. It doesn't have to be long. "A colorful amusement park with inexplicably Arctic-themed rides" could work for a childish hedonist hiding the emotional scars of a terrible polar-bear-related incident, for example. Give it a snappy name if you feel like it. If you have some imagery or music that fits the atmosphere, you can even link that.
2. If you have any preferences you want to stick with, be sure to make a note of them in your initial comment.
3. Respond to other people's threads with a character to explore their mindscapes. Pick or roll the RNG for an option for what part your character winds up in--or suggest another one if you've got a wildcard idea.
4. First player, your character is the host. Second player, your character is the visitor.
5. The first player writes tags about the mental world that's being explored, explaining how it reacts and adapts to the visitor's presence there. You can do more than set the mood and describe how the environment changes, though: people can crop up inside the mindscape representing various aspects of your character's personality, and the visitor can interact with them. Or if you'd rather, you can have your character accompanying the visiting character through the mindscape, trying to help or misdirect them as they please.
6. The second player tags with their character's attempts to navigate the strange mindscape and solve the inner conflict plaguing the host character--or simply escape back to the material world. Or maybe their motive is less pure, and they're trying to uncover a secret that the first character is hiding deep within. You get to decide why they're there, really.
7. There isn't any right or wrong way to do this meme, so take as much or as little as you want from the options given.
8. Do your best to communicate OOCly with other players if you run into any trouble or confusion, provide warnings if it becomes necessary, and don't be afraid to tag around!

»» prompts for the mental voyagers
1. AT THE GATES. You're about to jump off from the outermost layers of your host's personality and start getting into the stuff that really makes them tick. Can you find the key to the lock, or the hidden door, or whatever wacky trick will lead you there? Of course, the more this character tends to hide their true self, the more their inner world will try to convince you there's nothing lurking behind this facade.
2. YOU WEREN'T SUPPOSED TO FIND THIS. You've stumbled into a hidden place where the host keeps a secret that they never wanted anyone else to know. What is it and how does it manifest in the mindscape? Are they going to attack you somehow for revealing it?
3. NIGHTMARE TIME. Oops, you've gone the wrong way, and now you're squaring off against the host's worst fears embodied within their head. What do they look like and what do they represent? Can they be defeated in combat or do you have to take a more delicate approach? Maybe they don't appear as obvious enemies at all, and they pose a more subtle danger.
4. FREE ADMISSION FOR CHILDREN. Hey, look, it's where your host keeps their most important childhood memories...good and bad. Be careful: they might not be all that accurate or trustworthy. Kids don't have the most objective perceptions of their lives.
5. THE BEST PART OF ME. You've finally found the host's greatest ideals and noblest inspirations--the things that drive them to do good and be a better person. Or maybe what you're dealing with here is the actual personification of their own greatest virtues. Perhaps they're under siege for some reason and need some help getting their strength back, or maybe they have something to teach you. On the other hand, in some characters, this part of the mindscape could be in pretty bad shape.
6. COME TO THE DARK SIDE. This isn't good. You've reached a part of the mindscape that represents or is controlled by the shadow--all the bad things about your host that they don't want to admit. Unless they have admitted it, in which case this place is under better control by them...but that doesn't necessarily make it any less dangerous for you. How will you escape, or will you try to help the host come to terms with this part of themselves first? Of course, you could also try to get them to give in to all these dark temptations and embrace them, if that's your preference...
7. FINAL BOSS. You're facing the embodiment of the core issue that haunts this character. Whatever it is, you have to think of a way to defeat it, whether through violence or other means. Are they too emotionally stable to have such a thing? Then it's the embodiment of their deepest motivation and you have to defeat it to get out of here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Welcome to hell.]

[Hellboy's mind is fractured between a demonic flesh and human soul. The rent landscape is heated, windswept -- like New Mexico or Southern Utah, perhaps, all jagged red rocks and desert. But there's a military camp at the center here; small, well guarded, and barred. Hellboy's mind is, to say the least, very well guarded, even if it is a bit battered by the harsh winds of uncertainty, and his illusions have been blown away by truth on more than one occasion...]

[The man in the tan overcoat may be only slightly out of place, here. He's got the grim look of a soldier, taking in the scenery and making mental calculations. The weather doesn't seem to trouble him in the least, and he sets off across the rocky, barren ground for the center with a businesslike stride, tie flapping in the wind.]

Edited 2012-08-02 02:30 (UTC)

[You should have stayed in Heaven, Castiel.]

[There is no place for you here. Not where the shadow of Anung un Rama stretches out to darken the land. He--who will lead the Horde of Hell out of Pandemonium, crowned with fire, to bring the end of all things--rules here.]

[It is foretold.]

[It will be.]

[And that is why there is thunder on these plains, but no clouds. Hellboy knows what lurks within him, banishes it to the dark corners of his mind and cages it... but you just happened to be in the land where Anung un Rama rides at the head of phantasmic, unholy hordes.]

[They ride for whoever is fool enough to think outside that safe shelter, whoever is there to bear down upon.]

[Castiel is there, and the hordes of hell come a'riding, baying fo his blood.]

Edited 2012-08-03 00:22 (UTC)

[He's no pretty little cloudsitter, this angel, and he has fought his way through Hell before. Still, it would be awfully nice to have backup.

The angel frowns, and a gleaming silver blade drops into his hand, apparently from nowhere. He'll fight what he must, as well as he can, and if he fails against the horde then so be it. He won't go down easy.

There's an extra rumble of thunder, one that doesn't seem to belong to the forces of Anung un Rama.]

[ Alas, there is no backup coming right now, Castiel. At least, not yet. ]

[ The dust they kick up blots the desert sun out -- not that the sky was clear to begin with, but it robs them of what little light they had. Sackcloth is a good description. So is apocalyptic. These are the darknest of times, the bleakest of places in Hellboy's mind, where he knows -- he knows he has something to fight against, something that will end all things. ]

[ But at least this is not the true Anung un Rama, merely a nightmare share. Still, he is fierce as any of HEll's generals in this incarnation; riding atop a demon steed, he is naked to the waist, and then wears barely more than an armored girdle and loincloth, covering his thighs and leaving his narrow, goatish lower legs visible as he digs his hooves into his steed. ]

I SMELL AN ANGEL ON THE PLAINS. [ His voice reverberates with the thunder. ] LET US SEE WHAT SPORT WE CAN MAKE OF HIM!

[ They bear down; small things first, fast and light, full of sharp teeth and cruel claws that grab at and tear. But they are merely harbingers of greater foes, meant to worry and weary. Easily dispatched, as the bulk of the horde and their leader grew closer. ]

[Expression grim but calm, the angel simply waits, blade in hand. There's no point expending extra energy rushing to meet them when he can prepare his defense while they come to him. It's so terribly tempting to do something quick and flashy, some blast of light to wither the smaller forces in one go. His energies are more limited than they once were, and it might be a waste so early in the fight, so instead he meets the smaller creatures with his blade. Minor cuts and bites he can heal from, in the hopes that approach won't wear him down as much as a bigger move would.

He's kept busy, though, blade flashing in and out as he moves with precision, not an ounce of energy wasted. He fights like he's dancing. His empty hand isn't idle, either; whenever he can grab a hold of a small demon, he does, burning them into raw light and then ash while the blade continues to strike...assuming his angelic ability to burn lesser demons out of existence still functions, here.

He looks confident and calm, determined, but beneath the surface there's far more self-doubt than he's comfortable with, these days.]

((So sorry about the delay, my work schedule got crazy.))

The Mindscape Meme

Hellboy | Dark Horse Comics

Castiel | Supernatural | Rolled a 3!

Re: Castiel | Supernatural | Rolled a 3!

Re: Castiel | Supernatural | Rolled a 3!

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