MarinaNova Asylum

[Jake has been bumming around the alphapartment, depressed and watching movies and trying both to isolate himself and to find solace in whatever company he could get. It's been a few days and Dirk still hates him, or so he's convinced himself, and he is very depressed that he's lost his best friend.

He's on the couch with a huge pile of movies on the floor next to it, watching somewhat blankly with an empty bowl of popcorn. He's never been so unenthusiastic about watching movies in his life.]

Wake up! The day has begun. Day 239 to be specific. I'm certain you wouldn't want to miss it. Today is another chance to work toward your rehabilitation. Maybe you will be less hopeless today.

In other news, there is lovely display on paperweights* in the museum. To celebrate it will be breezy today. Enjoy!

(OOC: Kiosk requests will be handled by Veridical unless otherwise requested. Mail submissions can be left here. *You can use the paperweight link for some inspiration, but feel free to google any sort of paperweight to be found there.)

[ As shitty as Dirk feels, he really doesn't like spending so much time by himself. It would have been fine, once upon a time, but now after having gotten used to interacting with his friends 24/7 (24/10? Marina seems to operate with ten-day weeks, he thinks, if the school schedule is anything to go by) it just makes him frustrated to be by himself.

So after having spent maybe 18 hours shut up alone in a random apartment he picked out after therapy ended, he decides he needs to hang out with someone. Not Jake, though. Not Roxy, either. He likes Dave, but he can only imagine how Dave feels about him, having been raised by his Alternate Douchebag Self. Aradia would be a good choice, but she was there at that session the day before when Dirk went off on himself. Ugh, why did he even do that. Fuck fuck fuck. Not Helix, he keeps getting existential around Helix and he's sick of getting existential.

So that leaves the cherubs, who frankly he should have decided on from the start, because hey, he's been friends with Calliope even longer than Jane or Jake, and Caliborn's always good for a laugh. ]

[ Voice / Filtered to the cherubs / Early afternoon ]

Hey.

[ Action / Open / Late evening ]

[ Sometime after he and Calliope get done hanging out, he decides to go for a walk. It's evening, there shouldn't be too many people milling about. Get some fresh air. Yeah, that's a good plan. ]

[ 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! ]

[The relationships group therapy attendees will all get a message telling them to report to The Winery in Sector 2. Sadly for them the alcohol is locked away, but there is an assortment of food and non-alcoholic beverages along the bar for consumption. Many of the tables have been cleared out and the chairs rearranged into a circle with booths along the edges for more intimate therapeutic discussions.

And don't forget the party favors! The wardens have left some helpful games and activity ideas to get them started. There's a bowl full of folded slips of papers with various questions.]

( Possible Questions )

[In addition to the questions there are cards with various prompts. One explains the game, I Never. Another suggests people pair off and roleplay they are in a relationship and then deal with various scenarios like what do to if one partner flirts with someone else or comes home late without calling.]

( Additional scenarios )

(OOC: Mingle style. You are not limited to the questions, scenarios, or games listed above. Assume there are more! I recycled a lot of this from last time so if someone was in this group twice they can feel free to notice, but assume there are lots of questions and prompts, so they probably didn't see them all.)

[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.]

[ Closed because I'm still actually on hiatus, and so as not to distract from the newbies. ]

( Read more... )

... 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.

I am not pleased by whatever the fuck is going on here, and I would like for it to be rectified immediately.

[The look on her face is stern, she ain't playing right now and anyone who gets in her way of getting out is fucked.]

[ Hanging out with Calsprite is the bomb.

But unfortunately it could not last forever. Calsprite seemed to have other business (probably harassing Caliborn, which Dirk 100% endorses), so now Dirk is just. Sort of. Hanging out alone.

And kind of surreptitiously keeping an eye out for familiar faces during this temporary influx. ]

[The face looks human. If not for the fact it is only a face. Beyond that is wires and clear casing in the shape of a hairless human head. It even has eyebrows, but they do not move. The voice that comes with it is light and cheery, but not noticeably manufactured.]

Curious. Yes. Oh yes. Very, very curious. It is fascinating how people come together, is it not? Whether through internal choice or external force, sentient beings drawn together (linked, dare I say) are fascinating to observe. They always manage to surprise one when it is least expected, but only when their limits are pushed. It's never their first choice, oh no. One must force them to acknowledge each other and their common fates. But when it happens, oh the meeting of the minds is an invigorating experience.

[The head turns and looks down before lifting up a hand that is similarly clear with silver joints and colored wires throughout.]

But how do you all handle such physicality? Having a body is so superfluous when you can use your minds to speak to one another. This prison appears to be woefully outdated. What a pity. I am sure your wardens would have less complications if they could do away with it altogether. How are inmates to connect to one another when they are separated by these boundaries?

Oh, what poor manners I am showing. I am Sync, co-warden of Nexus Asylum. I haven't traveled to one of the other prisons before so this is a unique experience for me. I will have to collect a sufficient amount of data to take back with me.

(OOC: Say hello to the warden of a different Asylum prison! Sync is intrigued by having a body and everyone else having one, too. Please be aware this is a fourth wall character and not pertinent or related to any plot or clues related to plot in the game. Sync from an entirely different prison system in an alternate universe and just thinks that MarinaNova is part of its system.)

[The face of a wide-eyed, smiling, affectionate puppet fills up the screen, pure white save for the glowing orange that seems to radiate from it warmly. He doesn't blink, just appears to be moving slightly up and down due to its abnormal state of being. He's almost ghostly in form but not translucent or transparent like they show in the movies. Large wings spread from his back as he stands in the park, though the video only shows glimpses.

He's silent for a good while until-]

HAA.

HEE HEE. HOO HOO HEE. HAA HAA HEE HEE HOO HOO.

HEE HEE HEE.

[A dog face peers into the communicator. She would be familiar to those who have been around for a while; the strange mish-mash look that comes with the power of the Queen's Ring. Those powers are dampened, of course, as they were before.]

[What is particularly new lies in the hardened look on her face. She blinks once, slowly, and remains silent for a stretch longer.]

[She called this place home, once. It's a distant dream, a life lived not by her, but someone else also named PM. The Parcel Mistress. Someone else with a little knowledge of Jack's evils, a little of the rage that now consumed her, and a little of the loneliness that was now a normal background hum. But here she is, and it is her, waking up as though it were nothing more than another normal day after the last normal day. The date is wrong. It doesn't surprise her that it's been a while, but not as long as she would have thought.]

[Her life has been years of chasing a murderer across empty void. Talking to no one. Never resting. Never doing anything more than wearing him down, bit by bit, just as he wore her down in turn.]

[She swivels her ears forward, and tries her voice at something not an expression of canine rage. The question comes more brusquely than she intended.]

Who's delivering the mail?

[ It's a sweltering hot day under the sea! Luckily the wardens have provided the necessary means to keep cool: whether you're sunbathing at the beach, sniping your fellow inmates with a fully loaded super soaker or just cooling off under a tree with a cold treat, this is the place to do it! ]


(( ooc: Mingle away! You are of course encouraged to make your own posts and mingles for this event, should you want to! Event information can be found over HERE! ))

[The feed opens up and focuses on the blue teen and for anyone familiar with him they might notice he's a little pale. His cheeks are flushed a darker blue though and his nose looks a little sore from blowing it all day and the day before. It's clear he's feeling under the weather and has the sniffles! Which leaves him looking fairly miserable and tired.]

I hope you all enjoyed your gifts. [Stuffed up and pathetic sounding.]

Needless to say I am not going out in the snow ever again. [He wiggles his nose and winces a bit as a sneeze comes on. There's a bit of a struggle before there's a loud "ACHOO!" and the device falls off his face and onto the bed. There's a soft "Ugh" before he picks it up and brushes the off button with his thumb.]

((ooc: I'm open for anything, he's not really gonna want visitors but I'm sure Aidan won't object if someone wants to bring him tea or soup or something.))

[The network opens to Jessica who's taken the time to find some other outfits before doing this this time.]

Feels I went home for a bit, or somethin'. Or I got new memories anyways -- I remember hearin' bout that happenin' to other people. Last thing I remember was it bein' day 216 -- that was twelve days ago. The orange don't suit me much better than it did the first time. Whatever's goin' on it's sure as hell fuckin' weird.

[There's a pause, and then she adds.]

I gotta question for everyone though. If someone you loved, someone you really hurt but still care about, if they wanted to forget about you completely -- what would you do? Like if you could do that for them, would you?

[Because she did. But she's still not sure how she feels about it. Even if she's not in love with Hoyt anymore she still cares about him. For what that's worth.

There's other things, things with Bill and the Authority but that she doesn't want to talk about so publically. How he 's turned into a religious fanatic like her birth parents used to be. It makes her skin crawl. The memories are fresh and make her feel sick to her stomach. She'd rather not focus on them too much.

She closes the feed at that.]

[ And here is one (1) Roxy Lalonde, a little hung over and a little disheveled, but in one piece. She switches the camera on the moment she wanders out of the apartment building and is totally not dressed properly for the weather but like she gives a fuck. She is positively beaming. ]

I slept the whole day long, and I am real regretful. Look at this shit. It's fluffy, it's white, it's wet and cold, it's the snow, the for reals Jack Frost, the goddamn Old Man Winter, would you take a fuckin' look at this??

Never saw snow before. And there's no way anyone else missed this, unless they also decided on the fly that sleepin' all day's the way to go, so I'm just sayin' shit you already noticed. But I don't care. It's diamond sparkle brilliance, ice queen beauty, off the handle prettiness, and this shit needs to be admired, you get it.

Pass on the eggnog and holiday cheer, and someone's gotta build a snowman with me. Anyone. Everyone.

[Ianto has, predictably, gone a bit overboard for the Christmas party he and Jack are throwing. The entire apartment has been decorated; there's a tree with gold and silver ornaments and twinkling lights, garlands draped over doorways, candles in every window and festive nicknacks scattered about. It looks like something out of a magazine, and may make visitors a little afraid to actually touch anything. There's also a lot of mistletoe around (one of the side effects of living with Captain Jack Harkness) so it's probably a good idea to keep one eye on the ceiling at all times.

Of course he's made plenty of coffee and some appetizers, so he hopes people really do respond to the invitation Jack sent out, otherwise there are going to be a hell of a lot of leftovers.]

I was thinking back to the handful of days I've spent here and how I've been spending them. It got me to wondering. I've been keeping track of the days, how long I've spent here and I wanted to know if there's anyone else here who keeps track of the day it would be back home. This is, of course, assuming that the way the wardens keep track of time is the exact same as in your home worlds.

[ She looks thoughtful. ] This place seems to operate on exactly the same number of hours and minutes, though the days don't seem to be much different. No weekends off, for instance. [ That's a joke, people. ] I was simply curious if anyone else had thought about it or if I was simply the odd man out. Today would be November 5 for me. Rather odd, having Christmas in November, though I suppose it could always be worse. We could be moved to a new location on Halloween.

[ For the record, that totally happened. They were moved to Squall on the day that would have been Halloween in her world. The irony was not lost on her.

Action: Today she'll be spending time in various places. The clinic will see her the most, but she will also take a little time to wander around the snow-covered lanes to see if she can find a handful of people among the drifts. Everyone she's met in-person will receive a small card with various good wishes written on the inside in her neat, precise handwriting. For some, she has more:

Euphemia li Britannia - "I do hope the holiday, whatever it means to you, is a good one. Perhaps in the future, you and I can become better acquainted. Until then, I should hope you remain well. Yours, as ever, Helen Magnus"

Jean-Luc Picard - "I've enjoyed our conversations so far. Perhaps the future will hold more. Helen"

Martha Jones - "Take the day off, if you weren't already planning to. Dr. Magnus"

Rebekah - A light blue scarf that will go well with her hair and a note: "I hope all is well with you. Helen"

Rose (TVD) - "The answer to your question is, 'It's a genetic mutation: longevity.' Any other questions?"

It occurs to her that she doesn't know where most of them are, but that's never deterred her before. ]

( Closed action, Helix )

[Video; open ]

Hey, y'all. Happy holidays and uh... and all that. [ Unsure if he did that right. They don't do Christmas where he's from and that's very much the point of this transmission. ] I was thinkin', I bet there's plenty of us that don't celebrate th' way the Wardens've set this up. We've got people from all over the worlds after all, it'd be weird if everyone did it just like this.

How do you do it back where you're from? Do you celebrate... Christmas or is it somethin' else?

Oh, and uh... I'll be doin' a little celebration type thing of my own down at th' beach, if anyone wants to join. Just a little somethin' from back home... bring a cup, if you're comin' down.

[ Action; open. Aidan can be found down at the beach together with Helix. They've set up a fire in one of the fire pits and anyone interested will get an introduction to the godless earth-worshipping religion that Aidan is a surprisingly devout follower of. He can also be found scurrying over the dome throughout the day, delivering GIFTS to friend and foe alike! If your character isn't on the list but has some kind of CR with Aidan, feel free to assume they got something useful and generic like a pair of gloves or a scarf! ]