MarinaNova Asylum

[Open | Video]
The name's Kitty Pryde for those who don't know me. I'm the current leader of the Defense Force. It's a group that works on ensuring the public safety whether that's from each other or our robot overlords. [Not to mention putting an end to this whole prison thing. She figures it's no secret from the wardens, but it still feels a little too brazen to be that specific in the public announcement.]

We're accepting new members in combat, investigations, and dispatch. There's an interview process if you're interested. I'll make up answers if you make up questions.

[Private | Defense Force | Video]
Seems like we've lost some people recently. We may have more joining our ranks soon. Until then, Data, I want you to lead Sector 5. Hopefully, we'll have more for you to lead soon. My team will back you up until then.

I want to talk to members of Sector 0 and 4's teams to see who to appoint as leader or temporary leader. [Spoiler alert: she is not picking you, Sougo.]

If anyone else has anything to report I'm listening.

[Open | Action]
[Find Kitty at the Defense Force headquarters today or maybe even heading into a certain bar she once burned down, The Devil's Compass.]

(OOC: DF Roster)

[When Justin woke up, he wasn't quite sure what to make of Marina. He's no stranger to being sucked into alternate dimensions - though usually, it's of his (or Alex's) doing, not some strange otherworldly creature. Maybe he goofed up a spell when he wasn't looking? Justin had already checked for his wand, but it was nowhere in sight. Of course, the Wardens had even thought of power limiters. Nice touch! Justin had ditched the prison jumpsuit for a hoodie and jeans, but he subconsciously tugs on his sleeve every so often, as if he's expecting something to pop out of it at any second.

He's a bit hard to miss in Sector 0, however; he's the one commandeering a food cart selling Italian-style sandwiches.] Man, who taught you how to make a sandwich? [He glares at the poor bot, before properly demonstrating how it should be made!] They should reprogram you - I mean, I'd do it myself, but seriously, you should be ashamed of your programmer. Their sense of taste sucks.

[video]
[Once he's figured out how the communicator works, Justin turns it on and gives a small half-wave towards everyone. He's still in Sector 0, though he'd finally given up and let the bot resume making Seoul-style sandwiches.]

This is really a prison, right? Not a reality show or some movie I'd gotten myself sucked into? I know people've prolly been here for a while - and maybe some of you think I'm crazy for suggesting this is a movie - but it feels too weird to be a prison in any dimension.

All I'm saying is, if this is another horror movie, I'd really like to not die this time.

[Well this is new. Not that he didn't deserve to be in prison considering the amount of crimes he's committed over the years, even if they'd been in the name of pursuing truth and justice. Illegal was illegal, right?]

[He's not sure what to do right now, but he needs to figure it out, so he takes a deep breath and turns on the camera. An image of an attractive, late twenty-something year old man with light blonde hair and brown eyes appears. He's not smiling, and mostly he just looks very tired. There's a long red gash across his right cheek that looks fresh.]

Hey. I'm new here. [Now he hesitates. He doesn't know what to expect, or what to say next. A first for him, really. He always seemed to say whatever people wanted to hear. Or needed to hear.]

I'm Oliver Queen.

[ So this is what it comes down to. Either this is, somehow, what it claims to be, or - more likely - he's finally hit his psychotic break, the moment that his psyche finally dismantles from within and disengages from reality entirely. With how his entire life has been crafted around fitting in, escaping notice, surviving without being caught, it would make sense that his breakdown would revolve around finally being taken down as what he is. And what poetic justice there was to be found in the location of this bizarre facility.

It doesn't really matter what this is. Real or not, the way to get through this is the same as getting through anything else. Fit in, learn everything that I can, earn the trust of others. If there's a way out of this, I'll find it, but I'm not going to find it by lashing out. Stay with the code. Survive, and get back to what's important. What terrible timing, just when my counterpart and I were getting back to our game.

As the video turns on, he affects a friendly enough tone, though he doesn't go for anything overly happy because nobody should sound chipper about being in prison. Levity does help normal people, though - dry levity. ]

Interesting place you've set up here. It does read a bit more as vacation spot than a prison, but I guess that's not something I should be complaining about in my position. Though the jumpsuit I could honestly do without. I think it makes me look jaundiced - skin tone, you know.

[ He purses his lips and gives a small shrug with that, gesturing at his face.

I always had wondered how I'd look in one. At least I have that answer now. All the more reason to hang onto the code, I think. ]

So, I'm curious. Is everyone here treated to such a creative interpretation of their actions?

[ Enough of my charges were a reach that it seems like there could a theme to it, and it'd be a good start to get a feel for the place, how well I can keep up appearances... and maybe just how many playmates I have down here. It's oddly fitting, left at the bottom of an ocean. From another perspective, I might even appreciate the irony. ]

Hello, everyone, oldbies and newbies alike! My name is Aradia, for those of you that don't know me, and I have a proposition for you all.

I've found that the vast beauty of Sector 6 seems to be neglected, unless used for unsavory purposes, and I'd like to fix that! It would really be a shame to let such an interesting environment go unappreciated.

My solution is -- I'd like to set up an exploration team! Anyone and everyone is welcome, though I must stress that cruel and deliberate harm done to any living creature within will not be tolerated. This will be for adventure, not for you to work off violent tendencies.

I'll do my best to round up suitable gear for everyone interested, though any help would be appreciated. Right now, I'm just aiming to get a general idea of interest.

[ aradia sees absolutely no harm in this idea. honestly. sector 6 might be dangerous, but she, personally, is used to that kind of danger, and it doesn't phase her that she is essentially inviting in newbies with very little grasp on marina in general into somewhere like that -- they're capable of handling themselves, right? she's just being friendly. ]

[On screen is one (1) very wet, very much line facing, Kurt Ambrose. He's managed to get his expression under some control but he still manages to look frustrated as he talks, even as he tries to ignore the water dripping into his eyes.

Okay so he may have gone for a swim...after he tried to catch the fish to see if the sluggish feeling he had was just because of drugs or something else entirely weird. Said swim wasn't exactly what he was aiming for and he actually failed in his goal to start with, and he's now sitting on the beach as he contemplates it all and finally using the device.]

If this is an actual prison, then letting your prisoners near water after doing something to them where they could drown very easily is not the best way to keep your prisoners alive. [He is judging you so hard in other words and he's hoping the fact that he looks like a very tall Olympic athlete means he can intimidate some answers out of people.]

Apart from that if anyone has information as to why a military officer is being charged by what I can only guess is a bunch of civilians I would very much like an answer. [And then there's a sigh.] Please. And if someone wouldn't mind showing me where I can find a place to stay as I figure this place out I would appreciate it.

[ Considering the nature of the group, it's unsurprising that it is being held in The Blood Shack. There is a sign on the door announcing that the bar is closed for therapy adding that if you're here for the 'Struggling with my humanity of the lack thereof' therapy session, please come in and make yourself at home. Someone (not Eric) has made over the bar so that it looks a great deal like an AA room rather than a bar. The tables are arranged into a square shape (yes, the way you used to sit in school). The bar is open, but the alcoholic beverages have been locked up. The blood taps are available and there's a selection of bottled blood sitting on top of the bar. It is clearly self serve. There's also a selection of pastries on the bar for those that like a little nibble with their blood. Next to this is a large fishbowl filled with folded slips of paper. There's a small sign next to it that urges each participant to take a question from the fishbowl, help yourself to some refreshment and have a seat.

On their folded slips of paper, participants will find such questions:

Were you ever human? If so, when was that? What are you now?
How do you define 'humanity'?
What is your opinion of humans? Why? How did you develop this opinion?
Discuss the relationships you currently have with humans.
What is the most important factor in maintaining your humanity? Do you feel it's important to maintain?
Has there been a change in your humanity, for the better or worse? What prompted that?
Discuss some of the advantages and disadvantages of humanity.

Just in case anyone has any doubt that we're here for business and not pleasure, the jukebox has been locked down as well.]

ooc:as with other posts, don't feel limited by these questions. Feel free to add your own and assume these are just some of the questions in the fishbowl. Mingle, make new threads, interrupt threads and enjoy! Note that your character does not have to be non-human to be here! Humans struggle with their humanity sometimes too!

[ The Accept Yourself Support Group is told to report to one of the rooms in the Sector 4 art center. The room is cosy and warmly lit with a bunch of plush armchairs set in a circle around a low table. On the table is a basket full of photographs, a stack of handheld mirrors and a card with the instructions. The photographs are all of inanimate objects, abstract patterns or landscapes, buildings or nature. ]

• Find a photograph that you feel represents you as a person. Take turns in the group to explain why you've chosen that card.

• Look at yourself in the mirror for five minutes. Take turns in the group to explain what it is you see in your reflection.

• Discuss why you see yourself this way. Discuss how you see those around you. Discuss the differences. Discuss how you can be more honest with yourself and your potential.

[ For those that are not yet ready to get going on the activities, there's plenty of delicious snacks and refreshing drinks available, as well as soothing music to ease the awkwardness. Let the self-examination begin! ]

[Anyone brought to this group will find that there are tables set up around the perimeter of the room, one with snacks and drinks, some even with art supplies on them, while the chairs are all pushed into a circle in the middle. There is a projector set up to one side and it flashes images every so often onto the wall. Images of children, adults, the elderly with the young--some of them more formal, posed, others candid as the brief moments of life they were. Some of these images might even be familiar to certain inmates. It shouldn't be hard for them to pick out their own families after all.

In the center of the circle of chairs is a table with a large bowl of treats, wrapped candies of various sorts. Hard candies, caramels, chocolates, taffy. Beside the bowl is a set of cards with instructions written on the back of them.

"Select a card and read the question aloud to the group. Whoever answers the question gets to choose a reward from the bowl and then select the next card. Continue until all of the cards have been viewed or the bowl is empty. More than one person can answer--the first to respond gets to select the next card. If no one volunteers, the card picker gets to select a person."

The cards themselves have a variety of questions and tasks, but they all have a very similar theme.]

( Possible Questions )
{OOC: Mingle! These questions are not the only ones. Feel free to come up with more. Also the candy in the bowl is spiked just like the pastries and coffee, so the more characters eat...you get the picture.}

[Welcome to the culture shock group, not that there are any posters or robots telling you why you were all put together. Instructions for this gathering lead to Sector 2's Två Park, where robots will lead their therapy subjects through the hedge maze back to the butterfly pavilion. The space is both open and secluded. Benches have been set up and there is a table with a variety of tempting treats and beverages toward the back which is nice because no one is leaving until there is significant interaction. That much is clear.

There is another table has two signs and a stack of cards. The first sign reads, "Find something in common with each person with whom you speak."

The second, placed next to the cards, says, "Draw cards, read the scenario to a partner. Take turns answering the questions. Discuss the differences or similarities of your answers."

On the end of the table there is booklet with other prompt ideas as well.

( Possible scenarios )

[It's really only through luck that everything is steady and not like being moved up and down or side to side with his fiddling of the earpiece, but after the incident that was Helen and her weird future communications device he's learned not to mess too much with things. Well, sorta kinda ish, at least he hasn't messed with the thing on his leg.

But the video turns on to one bearded English gentleman standing in front of a weeping willow and he's standing rather steady-ish as he talks because he's not sure how these things work and if jostling it will do something weird to it.]

Last I checked removing a gentleman's clothes and hat was exceptionally rude and not really the best way to insure he is willing to stay in your attempt at a prison. [If he doesn't sound all that pleased, well he's not. At least for a brief moment before he sighs and brushes his hair down.]

But I suppose not everyone has Scotland Yard's sensibilities when it comes to the well fare of it's prisoners nor it's taste in what to give them to wear. Even Lestrade is kinder and I have yet to meet someone as rude as he can be in his line of work. [He pauses to do what amounts to a huff before fixing his hair again because he lacks a proper jacket to mess with and really how rude can you people get giving him a bright orange jumpsuit without a jacket.]

But be that as it may, I suppose I should ask if there is anyone here by the name of Helen, with a similar accent to my own. Blond or brunette, I know two women that share the name and accent and I wouldn't mind speaking to either nor to anyone that knows of them. Or someone who happens to know a different woman from my Helen's [It really sounds weird to say that.] we can discuss similar traits in such ladies if you prefer.

[Okay so that's not the best way to go about introducing himself to people but he doesn't really care especially as he totally forgot to actually introduce himself whoops. This is all said by the way, from Sector 3 where he's been wandering about before settling in near the weeping willow if anyone feels up to poking him there.]

[devil's compass]

[Old soul or new maybe today's the day you wander into the Devil's Compass, an old-fashioned bar in Sector four. In fact the door's propped open late into the afternoon, before it shuts again with the oncoming rain and traps in the smoky atmosphere. Behind the bar for the most part of the day will be Tyki Mikk himself, a tall and dark haired man in a white shirt with the sleeves rolled back and a well fit but unbuttoned vest. He's tending to the bar with a rag, occasionally moving over to sort out an arrangement of bottles. Quite at home.]

[prayer facility]

[Sometime into the evening a faint tune is floating out of the non-denominational prayer facility in Sector five. If you care to wander in you would see Tyki sitting by the piano, playing it with lazy ease and a briefly bowed head in concentration. He's not wrapped up in the music so much as he is in trying to remember the keys, occasionally slipping and restarting sections or playing through the flaws. Practiced but not perfect, his fingers fly by on the faster sections and linger on the slower.

It'll take him a moment to realize anyone's watching. Didn't think he'd be found here of all places.]

... So I either slept long and hard or I just fuckin' up and made like mist and evaporated for a bit there.

Either way: orange's still not my color. Noooo thanks. Baggy ass jumpsuit does nothing for a girl's figure. I look like a breadstick. A cheese breadstick, exactly 666 calories from the depths of hell's kitchen. Off the hook and uncontainable, the hard and fast starch diet of kings coming your way with a side of pasta. Mom's spaghetti. Luckily I don't give a rat's ass about shit like that, so I'll eat everyone's share. All of it. Fuckin' mine.

In other news, the god damned weather: what's shakin'? Looking all kinds of stormy gross today on the day that is also day 236. Days.

[ another day, another tox lecture. piter is his usual self today, observant and enigmatic; though he may not particularly enjoy all that tox entails, he quite likes speaking, and his voice has its usual resonant, melodious cadence as he speaks. ]

( ❝my heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains/my sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk❞ )

(( ooc: apologies for the delay; irl classes resuming really kicked me in the pants!! ; n; in any case: tox is held in an open lecture format, so feel free to mingle, even if your character has never attended before; everyone is welcome! piter also tends to pop into mingle threads himself, curious jerk that he is. q&a is here, piter has a thread here, and there's more information on the class here. ))

[Here is the self-proclaimed King of the Planet of Sadists, looking extremely tired. Dark circles and bags under his eyes.]

31 hours later, I beat the game... I am the master.

[He holds up his DS proudly. Then he sets it down and holds up a finger.]

This wasn't how I was gonna spend my day, but I decided to be a nice guy and give everyone a day off from living in fear from my torture and sadist ways.

You're welcome.

[ aradia's been quiet lately, both on the network and in terms of face-to-face social interactions. she'd even kept this going on through the influx of accidental arrivals.

but that entire ordeal has reminded her of something -- something important, something she feels like an absolute idiot for not looking into sooner.

the video is focused on her face in a manner that very clearly shows her grey skin and the curve of her horns. it's for a reason. ]

I've a favor to ask of everyone. Have you seen a girl around, recently, that looks like me in, ah, species-specific features? She would be a little more blueish whereas I look warmer, and her horns extend upward.

Or I could just ask if you've seen Vriska, if you know her.

[ it's been a while since aradia has seen the other troll. she'd marked it off to that just being part of her nature, going off on her own, but too many days have passed for her to be without suspicion (or, admittedly, a small amount of worry). she's got a vague hope that she'll hop on and respond with something somewhat abrasive, saying that of course she's still here, but ... aradia knows what happens to the inmates here sometimes as well.

it would be very nice to still have someone from alternia around, after all. ]

[ Eight lectures. He's starting to get warmed up by now and despite the rather startling meetings during the newcomer flood the day before, Reid is surprisingly calm and confident. ]

Before we begin, I'd like to take a moment to welcome Artemis Crock as our new TA. She's been informed about the content of today's lecture beforehand and will be helping you with the assignment, as well as fill you in on past lectures should you have missed them.

Alright! Let's get started.

( In today's lecture… Socio- and psychopaths. Standard cw applies  )

(( The Criminology Class is held in an open lecture format, meaning that there's no ic signup process involved! Feel free to mingle at your leisure — email notifs are off but Reid has a thread HERE if you wish to hit him up. For more information about the setup and purpose of the class, go HERE. The attached links are a full account of the entire lecture so feel free to use them as topics of discussion! ))

Psssst. Got a question for all of you.

[ silence - background static - for a few seconds. there is the sound of a page turning, a deep breath, and then- ]

"If you were an animal, what kind would you be?"

[ guess who found the Big Book of Young Children's Icebreakers in the library. ]

[ Is that a familiar voice on the network? Sure it is! Maybe it's a little shakier, a little more stripped of confidence, but it should be plenty familiar to most of the Marinanites. Weird, huh? ]

Hello? This is Agent... Doctor Spencer Reid with the Behavioral Analysis Unit. I'm looking for any kind of information about the current situation.

[ Nervous clearing of his throat. ] ...Thank you.

[Probably not what anyone expected to see today. There is a giant sphere rolling around the dome. Not haphazardly mind you. It's not rolling as though it is trying to run someone over. In fact if something crosses its path, it stops and watches it go by or goes around it.

It seems to be looking for someone, something. Will it find it in this dome? Maybe, maybe not. Sphere will end up pretty much anywhere in the dome in its search]