Headspace Plot

[stick.livejournal.com]

"But Stick, we just had a plot! What's going on?" Well, it was mentioned in our last How’s The Game post that people wanted to see some more introspective plots, and I aim to deliver. What could be more introspective than wandering around inside the physical manifestation of a character’s mind? Allow me to introduce...
The Headspace Plot
This short plot is designed to get you into your character's heads--literally! It can be funny, angsty, serious, or ridiculous; it all depends on how you, as a player, want to roll with it.



Starting in about a week (September 2nd), characters' rooms in the castle will suddenly start to change. Over the course of a leisurely (or disorienting) ten minutes, they will be replaced with a space that represents the mind of the character the room belongs to.

Characters will be free to wander in and out of these new "headspaces" and explore the minds of people they know--and maybe people they don’t know! Just be careful. While some headspaces are perfectly hospitable, others might not be so cozy. There’s always the chance you could stumble over something you've always wanted to know... or even something you’ll wish you never found.

This plot will last for five days, after which the rooms will change back like nothing ever happened.

So the rooms are our characters' heads now? What does that even look like?
That is completely up to you and your interpretation of your character. But here are some possible examples to get you thinking: if your character is a very meticulous kind of person, maybe their "headspace" is a room full of filing cabinets. If your character is really worried about people back home, maybe their headspace is their office at work, and the desk is covered with pictures of their loved ones. If your character has lived forever, maybe their head is like watching a fast-motion movie full of old memories. Maybe there is a representation of your character inside the room that always says what they’re honestly thinking. Maybe their headspace is just an empty black room filled with classical music, a lava cave full of hell hounds, a snowy field, or a carnival maze. Maybe it changes depending on who starts to poke around inside of it. Maybe it has layers. Like a parfait. Players have a lot of freedom in deciding what they want to be part of their character's headspace.

What would posting look like for this event?
I think the preferred format would be that everyone gets to make their own post describing what the headspace looks like so that other characters can wander in, comment, explore, talk to whoever else is in there, and so on. There are really no limits to how you want to tackle this but the limits of your own imagination. If you have questions regarding whether or not something would work as part of a person's headspace, feel free to ask.

So does that technically mean a character could walk into their own headspace and talk to their inner selves?
Well, sure. Why not? It kind of takes "talking to yourself" to a whole new level, huh.

Is there anything we can't do with a character's headspace?
There are just a few of things. (1) As expected, nothing that would break Paradisa’s rules, and definitely, definitely put a warning on anything that goes above an R rating (this is a family establishment!). (2) No one can be killed or even physically wounded during this event--because it’s all in your head. If a character’s headspace is dangerous or incredibly inhospitable to people who decide to wander around inside of it, any injury inflicted on those visitors will take the form of a headache, which gets worse and worse the more harm is done. Eventually it might get so bad that the character is literally forced out of the headspace and back out into the hallway. They might want to wait until they can see straight again before charging into another person’s head. (3) Doors can't be locked, blocked off, or otherwise made impossible to enter unless you are opting out (see below). Otherwise, no matter what you try, it'll all be undone the second you glance away.

My character lives out in town/in the Dead Zone/shares a room. What happens then?
Regardless of where they live, everyone gets a headspace. The room affected would be whatever room they would normally have if they lived in the castle. If your character literally does not have their own room in the castle, their headspace will occupy one of the empty rooms higher up in the towers. And the headspace will go on, doors open invitingly, regardless of whether or not the character is actually in the castle.

There is no way my character would sleep in their own head. That is just weird. Where do they stay?
I hear the lounge couches are nice this time of year. The hallways are crowded, but you could watch who goes into your room that way... The roof is cold, but has a nice view. And weirdly, the ballroom will be filled with pillows. Big pillows, little pillows, feather pillows, beanbag pillows... Maybe the castle is suggesting a giant sleepover or something?

Woah, wait! I don’t want the whole castle to see what the inside of my character’s noggin looks like! (Alternatively: Stick, I am tired of plots. Can I just sit this one out?)
This is totally okay. You can opt out of this plot if you want, in which case the castle just decides that your character’s brain isn’t delicious enough to show to the world. Their room stays totally normal, but the character is still free to wander around and look at other people’s headspaces... or go about their lives like normal and pretend that the castle isn't being crazy.

I have other questions, thoughts, or concerns!
Excellent. You can leave any questions you have in a comment on this post, and I’ll answer to the best of my ability (and maybe add it up here as well). You can also contact me in any way you feel is hip and convenient and I promise I'll get back to you as soon as I can. I'm going to put a plotting post up in a day or so where you can generate ideas, plot things, and share what you've got planned. Hurray!


* Thank you for your input, everyone! The plot has been changed from three to five days long.

ALSO, there is now a plotting post.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/_fredless/]

I cannot count all the ways this is epic!


And I SO vote for longer!

[stick.livejournal.com]

Sweet! Vote counted.

[longaevus]

/raises hand

QUESTION. :)

Because I am particularly unimaginative. Walls of guilt... halp?

/in before sad puppies

But. I forsee some particularly interesting rooms :D

[stick.livejournal.com]

Is the question that you're not sure what to do with the WALLS OF GUILT thing in a headspace scenario? If so, then I'd suggest commenting with that on the plotting post as soon as it goes up so that people can throw ideas at you. :'> Myself included! I think that'll go up tomorrow evening.

IF THAT WAS NOT THE QUESTION, then I just fail at reading comprehension and you may ask away. |D;

[alias_savant]

... Oh, this is a shiny plot.

I personally, am for the extension? Mostly because I know I have five characters, would like to delve into their headspaces if I can, as well as tag around to other people's. So three days ... it just seems like a lot crammed into a small space?

If that makes any sense.

[stick.livejournal.com]

That's actually a really good argument, I think. Five characters in three days is almost two posts a day (tagging to other posts not included), which I know would drive me crazy.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_fredless/]

PS OMG YOUR ICON!!!!

That is so win I can't even.

[stick.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't killing us taste better... with a Red Vine?

Aha, it's one of my favorite things ever. :')

[modernholmes.livejournal.com]

Oh, this looks fun. Now how to say 'Hi! I'm secretly a ghost/secretly a teenage detective" in a room.

[senri.livejournal.com]

oooh... *^*

[foolreversed]

So strange creatures in the headspace are also a go so long as no death/serious injury occurs? (well... can't occur anyway I should say)

Because haha, Adachi technically already has a canon headspace, but it ain't complete without his little friends :')

[stick.livejournal.com]

Absolutely! Bizarre headache-inducing creatures are A-OK.

[deminuit.livejournal.com]

sweet +_+

as for people who share rooms, what's the protocol there? should we smoosh headspaces together, have half of the room one way and the other half another way, something else entirely... ?

[stick.livejournal.com]

The idea is that they'd still each get a separate room. FOR EXAMPLE.

Say that Character A and Character B share a room. The room originally belonged to Character A, so that room would be turned into Character A's headspace. Character B might wake up in Character A's headspace (which would be disorienting, I'm sure), but if that character has another room somewhere off in the castle, then that room is the one that would get turned into Character B's headspace.

If Character B doesn't actually have a room because someone else got put in it, or it's just not listed, then Character B's headspace would occupy one of the empty rooms higher up in the castle. They'll unfortunately have the added challenge of finding the damn thing, but it'll still be there. Somewhere.

D-Does that help? OR... did I manage to make it even more confusing? sdjfkls.

[lord-wizard.livejournal.com]

How large are these headspaces? Do they can to fit within the confines of an actual room, or can they be larger?

Also, can the headspace have people in it?

[stick.livejournal.com]

The headspaces can be as large as you want. They don't even need to have walls or anything, they can just go on forever. The normal dimensions of time and space are for squares. o-or something.

And it can absolutely have people in it.

[gottaknockhard.livejournal.com]

I am so excited for this (and totally will do a better job at participating than the last one;;). It's an awesome idea!

ALSO I'm really all for it being longer than three days. That's a lot of potential to cram into that short of time. /votes for five! cc:

[biwinning]

This sound so cool +A+

[alabaster-blood.livejournal.com]

Oooooh, I like this. I vote for longer, it'll give us all time to tag around, and really get some awesome CR going, having a person's inner self all exposed and stuff. I already have some ideas for my characters' headspaces =3

[jamesholmes.livejournal.com]

This is just, yeah totally awesome xD I was wondering how you were going to go about it and I have to say, I like this. I agree longer would be better, just because it is a con-weekend (not that I'm going) and for other factors as well.

The temptation to...Idk....make graphical aides for certain chunks of his room is tempting >< Just as soon as I figure his room out, dratted old fashioned dude.

[longaevus]

do it.

[inafadingcrown.livejournal.com]

This sounds amazing. Also, count another vote for longer.

[hulloeverything.livejournal.com]

Looking forward to thiiiiiiiis. I... have to figure out what Eleven's will look like lol. ... also where it will be. The great thing is that even though he'll wake up in Five's headspace he'll be right at home since, well, same person and all that.

Also, one more vote for longer pleeeeeeaaaaaaase

[hullo-sweetie.livejournal.com]

Since there can't be any locked doors, I'm not sure River should be a part of this. But she'll love exploring the Doctor's mind XD

[itwas-raining.livejournal.com]

Oh wow, this sounds neat! And I'd vote for five days, maybe.

[likethetragedy.livejournal.com]

This plot. *.* I'm going to have to vote for five days. I will need that extra time to cover all of the crazy going on in her head.

[mouthiness.livejournal.com]

I ALREADY HAVE DEADPOOL'S ROOM ALL PLANNED :DDD SO EXCITE

[cloakand_danger]

Longer, plz! I have so been waiting for this. /has it all planned out already

that reminds me, I need to find some appropriate icons

[hesam-bb.livejournal.com]

uggggggh I wish so badly this wasn't clashing with my trip away.

BACK-TAGGING, I CAN HAZ??

ALSO - I do have a question though, for characters that have a memory for their loss, would the headspace be able to somehow reflect that (like gaps in the room being absent to mirror the memory loss?) Or can the headspace not give away the loss like that?

[stick.livejournal.com]

You can haz all the backtagging, I would hope! ;A; If it helps, the plot is probably going to be extended into being a little longer, too.

As far as losses go, I think that's totally fine to have representative gaps. It's no different than a person searching their memory and going, "Wait. :| I can't remember what my wife looks like. :|||" or something like that. As long as the headspace isn't doing anything to somehow... give what they lost back to the character, it should be fine.

[cricketycricket.livejournal.com]

I vote for an extension, as well, because this sounds AMAZING.

BRB, off to write up headspaces for my four.

Don't go in Barney's without a hazmat suit. JUST SAYING.

[tomatoandbasil.livejournal.com]

A bit late, but voting for longer! There's a lot of stuff going on right now and it'd give busy people and muns with more characters more time to have fun!

Can't wait for this~

[luckyvalentine.livejournal.com]

Belated question!

Does *everyone* wake up in their rooms for this plot? >.>

[stick.livejournal.com]

That's actually entirely up to the player. If you want the character to wake up there, that's cool. But they could just as easily wake up out in town or wherever they fell asleep.

It'd be kind of cool if they heard about this weird stuff happening at the castle and then only came to investigate to see if their room had changed too. :')