So, I've been playing Annette and I'm not sure if she is kind of annoying to interact with. The whole typing and phrasing she uses with the stutters and general psychosis mixed with twitches seems to portray crazy pretty well. Just wondering what general thoughts are about her, ideas for making her crazier, or just ideas in general. Things I've changed recently. -I tried to stop using phrases to eliminate fast talking unless she is really upset or stressed out. For example "T-that guy is l-lame... Ididn'tmeanthatheisprobablyaniceguy." I thought that was a little annoying to read so I've pushed into more special occasions. -Gonna scrap the dual personality shit. Bio on Annette Biddles: Born into a rich family she was treated like garbage. The Zalduci's brought little Annette up as the bastard child of the Husband's mistress, Abigail Biddles. After Annette had been treated for many cases of attempted suicide she was falsely given correctional medicine to cope with suicidal thoughts. Annette knew she wasn't crazy but her family kept trying to make her kill herself 'accidentally'. Eventually, Annette decided to take revenge after she realized her family had been trying to off her. She systematically murdered every family member. She staged each murder to look like a suicide case to keep her hands clean. She didn't know how good criminal technology could be though. At every crime scene they found a strand of her hair, a silky golden color, which was enough to confirm her DNA. After extensive court cases she was given two life sentences for murder with recommendation to a Supermax Asylum instead of a regular prison. Being there for some time really fucked her up. The constant correctional drugs, beatings, stripping of free will, and being demoralized changed her. She didn't feel pity when people were beaten around her, raped, or stabbed. She just went about her business. After being locked in the Supermax for about a year, constantly getting denied parole, an alarm came on around her lunch hour. She was mostly confused as the ground started to shake. She wondered if it was an earthquake. Then she wondered if Ohio usually had earthquakes. The guards pushed the criminals into the courtyard. This seemed outside standard procedure. She looked at the guards who were armed with some older modeled M4s. One guard stepped up "There is news reports of alien sightings. Huge monsters wrecking cities. Most people will evacuated. Unfortunately, those people will not be you individuals." The crowd murmured momentarily in disbelief before anger set in and the crowd got rowdy. The crowd quickly hushed by the sound of the Warden's lugar shooting in the air. "You will all return to your cells. You will stay in your cells and repent for your sins. Lights out is early today." The cell door closed with its usual sliding effect, followed by a clang. Annette thought about what she did. Was she wrong? They didn't want her. She didn't want them. She was alone in her world. She sighed staring at the ceiling noting the lights flickering. Not too long after the lights were out. She looked out the window with the metal grates wrapped in razor wire and sighed. The sun was still up which gently illuminated the small cell. Her stomach started to rumble as she got up. She sat on her toilet, water fountain combo, backwards as she usually did sipping from the fountain while doing her business. Her stomach rumbled again this time a little more violently. Her eyebrow quirked as she thought to herself. "Weird..." She shook her head hoping she would just do her business and be able to go lay down. Her stomach rumbled so hard it shook the room. She thought "Wait that's not my stomach." She looked down at the water fountain noting the constant ripple in the water as it drained down a sort of stagnent wave of rumbling. After that she could feel the quiet rumble. She shook her head running her hands through her hair. A guard walked by to check on her. "Hey go to bed... Lights out means lights out. I don't wanna' have to get an orderly in here." She turned to look at her. "S-s-sorry. I j-just feel a r-rumble. I w-wonder if its the aliens." The guard sighs. "I'm sure that stuff about aliens is just some kind of staged terrorist thing or some stuff. No need to worry out here in good old Shady Oaks, Ohio." She laughs. "Now if kids started walking' out of these cornfields with red eyes and sh--.." She was cut off by a voice from down the hall. She sighs. "Like I said go to bed." The guard walked off and Annette got up to go to bed as she was ordered. She barely slept that day. The rumble just kept getting slightly more intense. Like a Rossini crescendo in an opera. It just kept getting more intense with little falter. She got up with the sun waiting to be let out of her cell for breakfast. She kicked her feet by the edge of the bed since her feet barely touched the floor. "W-what is t-taking so l-long d-did they forget about me?" She strolled over to the door she placed her ear against it so see if she could hear footsteps. Nothing. She looked up at the lights. Still off... "W-what t-the.. F-f-uck is going on?!" She grabbed at her hair nervously thinking about how she was trapped in a cell like an animal left to die. She sighed and took some deep breathes. She decided to just sleep. If she was to die she wanted it to be peaceful. After a long nap she woke up to muffled voices and a heavy rumble. The light in her cell was off and shaking idly left and right. Suddenly a huge crashing sound and violent shaking occurred outside her cell. Suddenly, the door and wall was ripped off. Outside her cell was a scene of extreme chaos prisoners stabbing one another, big tentacle-like things pulling and ripping the prison, and prisoners, apart. The guards were nowhere to be found. They left the prisoners to die... She was awestruck at the scene before her. She bolted down one of the hallways still left standing as she headed for an exit. She ran down the twisting and mind bending halls designed to keep people confused for days. No one ever escaped, ever. She kept running until she met a dead-end. "F-f-uck!? Wh-where do I g-go?" She looked around pacing. She turned to run back but another prisoner covered in blood with a shiv was walking towards her and blocking the way. "Where do you think you're going?" He laughed. "Welcome to hell! Yah' gonna scream before I fuck yah'?" She paced around nervously like a feeder mouse in an snake's cage. There was a sudden heavy rumble which threw off her footing. She landed on her ass. After that she looked up to face her attacker before realizing he was buried in rubble. A tentacle slide of the decimated segment and retreated. She bolted out of the new opening. After walking a few miles she started to feel dizzy from the lack of food. She saw a small town in the distance. She looked down at her prison garb. "N-no way anyone is gonna help me l-looking like this." She walked along the nearby road and followed it to town realizing she didn't have any other choice. She got to the town. It seems the same fate befell this town. The roads were defaced and the town had only a hollow hiss of wind in the town bereft of people. She read the sign "Welcome to S-shady Oaks. Population t-two-th-th-thousand..." She looked around and found a small diner and grabbed a can of beans. It tasted way better then the prison food. After that she walked over to the clothing store. "I've n-never seen clothes l-like this. H-how long was I l-locked away?" She muttered to herself. She swapped out her prison clothes for a sundress and some short boots. She found a ushanka in a novelty shop dawning it she continued to search for other useful this. First hitting up the pharmacy for some drugs. She was pretty much addicted to anti-psychotics. She sighed looking at mostly busted syringes. She found a small box of syringes with some medicine. It was a more generic version of the anti-psychotics she took in the prison but they would have to do for the time being. She stuck it in the messenger bag she lifted from the clothing store. The ramshackle Inn's sign that would read 'No vacancy' read 'O vaca'. She laughed at it for some reason liking the sound of it. She treaded into the inn and found a room not completely destroyed and slept in it. She woke up to the sound of a vehicle. She peered out the doorway. She saw something approaching her little paradise. She grabbed her messenger bag and walked out to get a better view. She saw some people in what looked like a military hummer. She thought to herself. "I wonder if they are like a scavenger party to kill the inmates... Maybe they are looking for survivors?" She hotly debated this in her head as the vehicle moved closer. As the vehicle approached it ran over the already mangled gate. She sneaked out the back way of the inn into an open field and she started running towards the direction they came from, hoping they wouldn't back track. She could hear their voices in the background as they were identifying bodies and other random things. She didn't want to stick around to find out. She bolted across the field. After getting a few yards out, maybe the length of a football field, she stopped to catch her breathe. She heard some kind of holler in the distance then she turned to note that she had been spotted. So, she continued to run. The guards hopped in their truck to chase after her. They followed the road as long as they could. She looked back with a twitch every once and a while. They were gaining. She thought to herself. "They are going to get me and kill me." The scavengers went off-roading at this point chasing her into the open field. A guy came out of the hatch with some kind of rifle. She was scared. She never felt scared. Not this scared. All of a sudden she heard a 'pzzlt' then as she ran she felt light-headed as her vision slowly faded and she fell to the ground. One thought went through her mind as she faded from consciousness. "Am I dead?" She stirred awake in some kind of vehicle. Their were other people and they looked destitute and beaten down like they had gone through the same troubles she did. They were sleeping, mostly, besides a little girl. Annette looked at the little girl for a moment as she clawed at her mom for something. Annette stood up shakily and walked to a window of the moving vehicle. Out the window she saw space. Bits of debris floated in the darkness illuminated by the sun casting shadows in different directions. A voice shook her from her trance. "It really happened. Ragnarök, except I don't think it's coming back. Who would have guessed tentacle monsters would destroy the earth? Crazy, huh?" He laughed. "Its okay were going to a trade colony. They'll have food and work for us. If the other people haven't taken them... Space has roughly seven point one two five billion immigrants now, yah' dig?" He sighs. Annette looks him over he is some kind of guard uniform. "Get comfortable kid. You'll be one of the pioneers of a new frontier for the human race. Might as well rest while you can." Annette laid down on the cold metal floor missing her prison cell bed.
Got any ideas to spice it up a little? I was just trying rough out a bio. It is still pretty mailable. I just tried to go somewhat believable avoiding edge lord stuff.
Honestly, the most important part of playing a mentally unwell character is research. Realize what people are really like, when they deal with these mental illnesses; try to find out what the symptoms, causes, and in the end, effects, of these mental illnesses are. My greatest recommendation would be to figure out exactly what mental illness the character has, and then play to that; there's not really a generic 'crazy' sort of thing. Mental illnesses are very hard things to live with, and schizophrenia, for example, is an awful, mind-destroying disease. It's not just something that causes hallucinations. Commit fully to playing a character who is visibly mentally sick, not just a murderer; good examples of this from media are Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs and the 'Tooth Fairy' from Red Dragon. It's not that they kill, it's the way in which their murders are performed and why they perform them that betrays them as psychologically sick.
Thanks been rolling that over in my head. I've been looking into disassociative personality disorders mostly. Basically she keeps changing her image and "remolding herself." Believing each one of her personas are somewhat different people. Basically every time she commits a crime she leaves the guilt on her old image. Other then that she is just heartless, and care free. Going to do a little more research though. Thank you.
Dissociative identity disorder is a very complicated illness. Due to her history, I would recommend that it be therapist induced; improper hypnosis therapy and other kinds of mental health processes that are done poorly or in a pseudo-scientific way can induce it, due to the pressing of different personalities onto a person's psyche caused by the therapy. That said, dissociative identity disorder typically manifests itself in suggestible and relatively submissive people, because the psychological environment in which it most easily takes hold is one that is, for obvious reasons, without a strong and forceful personality. It's typically also associated with borderline personality disorder, which causes severe fears of abandonment and periods of intense rage. They also tend to place people on very polarizing scales; they either worship those they know and are terrified of being left by them, or hate them to nigh nonsensical lengths. Usually, the 'primary' identity tends to display the extremely passive and dependent traits, desperately 'needing' those they care about while also being extremely submissive, while the 'alternate' identities will tend towards much more violent and angry outbursts; that said, even most of the non-primary identities tend towards submission, in real clinical cases of the disorder. Weak personalities generally tend to be more submissive, and, as noted before, most people with the disorder have extremely weak personalities.
She has displayed more borderline personality disorder symptoms then dissociative personality disorder symptoms. I was planning on making it more of cormorbidity illness between the two. Basically, she forms personalities to release the guilt from robbing and hurting people. She has a heavy dependency on her "brothers" and "sisters" and switches from being cheerful to angry in snap moments. Whenever she "switches personalities" she disassociates that old personality as her. For example, she was changing out of her armor one time and her "brother" took a picture of her in her underwear and threatened to basically show all his friends. After she changed personalities and was shown the picture she no longer felt embarrassed, or attached, to the image in fact she saw it as another person entirely. I was searching to see if that was a pre-existing disorder but I can't seem to find anything about it. The only thing I can find is something called Fugue State.
