Character details GO (because it's incredibly unlikely I'll ever finish the actual game)
NB: Subject to lots and lots of change! Don't shoot me! Aaa!
The "unseen"
These are people with strong psychic powers, essentially allowing them to enter other people's minds (to "jump", so to speak) as if they were physical planes, and make changes to memories and thoughts while inside. The downside of this ability is that repeated modification of people's minds starts to cause their psyches to collapse and elements of the intruder's psyche to invade, eventually causing one of two things: death, or the victim's unwitting transformation into an unseen themselves.
They are named as such because they ten'd to hide their presence around ordinary humans, modifying their memories to make their victims falsely believe that they are other, trusted people. (For example, the first person to be jumped in the Path of Rui has a couple of long-lost grandchildren, male and female, and Rui changes memories around to make that person believe that Rui and Marissa are those grandchildren).
A mysterious block prevents them from wilfully physically harming themselves or any other unseen, causing them to be unable to end their pain. Instead, they are compelled to survive, no matter what it takes.
Most of the unseen haven't been around for long at the time of the game - none of the original unseen recall being born, but instead "waking up" at about the same time with only base instincts - and their first victims provided them with their grasp of language and the trappings of civilisation.
Path of Rui
Rui (aka emo kid)
Age: about 17.
Gender: male.
Likes: survival.
Dislikes: untidiness.
Lives for: tomorrow.
In a word: emo?
Rui is a quiet, calm person who seldom lets emotion guide him. The only person he cares about, besides himself, is Marissa, a fellow unseen that he met shortly after waking up.
Unlike Marissa, who took the persona of the first person she jumped, Rui has not let himself become attached to any of his victims. To him, his entire life is and will always be centred around moving the furniture around in other people's minds, and occasionally resting in it.
Rui's name comes from the only thought he had after waking up for the first time. He doesn't know what it means, but it is essentially his entire persona, so it makes sense to him to have it for a name, too. (In other words, it isn't Portuguese or Japanese - at this time even I don't know what it means, but it'll eventually come to stand for
something)
He hasn't changed hair style since the moment he woke up, even though the thoughts of others suggest that it might be a good idea to do so.
Marissa Colwood*
*assumed name
Age: about 16.
Gender: female.
Likes: helping people.
Dislikes: her mode of existence.
Lives for: hope for a better life.
In a word: stressed.
Marissa is Rui's friend, though the relationship between the two is possibly more of a brotherly/sisterly bond - each has only the other to rely on in the world.
Unlike Rui, she feels a great deal of pain from her actions as an unseen, and hopes that a higher meaning for their lives will reveal itself. She sometimes gets annoyed with Rui when she feels he is going too far, and wishes that he would treat his powers as a means to an end rather than the purpose of his life.
Path of Dan
Daniel de Vorzon
Age: 18.
Gender: male.
Likes: power.
Dislikes: Ashe.
Lives for: himself.
In a word: megalomaniac.
Quite unlike many of the other unseen, Dan received his abilities and curse from another unseen, having lived as a normal human until recently. With all the failings of human nature accompanying his new-found power, he has decided to use it for his own ends, "fixing" humanity by stripping away those traits of the human psyche he deems to be uncivilised, with his fallen friend Joe as his first thrall.
At the start of the MZX project, he has already created a small army out of his neighbours, transferring some of his power to them to let them expand his control over his empire. Exactly how this translates into gameplay, I'm still yet to decide.
His name was going to be Danny Gabriel, but I figured I needed to name one of my characters semi-after Barry de Vorzon, so
Ashe
Age: about 20
Gender: male
Likes: ??
Dislikes: ??
Lives for: ??
In a word: fucked.
Ashe is an unseen that jumped Dan and his family months ago, meticulously rewriting their memories to include himself as an older brother to Dan. His work on Dan's parents slowly drove them to insanity and later death, after which Ashe completely obliterated Dan's memories of his parents to remove all sense of grief from the boy. However, whereas the act of jumping killed his parents, for Dan it caused something worse to happen; he began to absorb Ashe's abilities, eventually surpassing him in power, and with them was able to restore his memory to its former state. Though a mysterious mental block prevented Dan from killing Ashe in retaliation, he found himself more than able to jump Ashe, completely destroying his mind from inside and forcing him to endure violent nightmares every second of his life.
Like Rui, Ashe's name comes from his own thoughts, and has a meaning that I'm yet to decide upon.
Joe Grantham
Age: 19.
Gender: male.
Likes: whatever Dan likes.
Dislikes: whatever Dan dislikes.
Lives for: whatever Dan lives for.
In a word: subservient.
Joe was once Dan's childhood friend, until he fell in with the wrong crowd, slowly becoming addicted to drink, hard drugs and violence. Dan, discontent with seeing his only friend become a wreck, long wished to be able to not only "save" Joe, but the entire human race - a lofty wish that eventually became all-too achievable.
Upon becoming an unseen, Dan immediately used his abilities to jump Joe, transforming him into his idea of a model human. However, Dan did not stop with purifying Joe; he decided to change Joe's entire personality to suit him, making him a sycophantic acolyte agreeing with Dan's plan for the world to the letter. Eventually, Dan even decided exactly how Joe should look, basing the appearance of not only Joe, but every male human under his control, on his own.
At the start of the chapter, Joe will be the commander of Dan's army, the instrument with which his friend plans to take over the village and, eventually, the world.
This post has been edited by hayashi: 06 January 2011 - 12:02 AM
I appear to still be here. Wat