This is my dumping ground for bits of speculation, research and creative bits relating to Lindsay.

Where did she come from???

Telepathy has always fascinated me. From books I read as a teenager, to episodes of Sci-Fi shows, in all it's many forms, as blessing and bane.

Weirdly enough, I have always felt very prone to the influence of other people's emotions. Just the odd incident now and again. And some very interesting conversations with friends who have had similar experiences. Thinking back, most of us seem to remember these things started to happen around about puberty. So I guess Lindsay, like most of my roleplaying characters, is also made up of some parts of me, magnified and distorted.

Yeah, she's angsty. What can I say? Bright bouncy characters just don't interest me that much (although some times I get to play them as a GM :). But for my own roleplaying, I'm interested in the struggle. In setting my characters a real challange they have to work out. After all, the future can go so many different ways for her. Some of them even look pretty bright...

*looks at Liam* Well I guess we'll just have to wait and see. ;)

Research

Playing someone who has something that sounds alot like a mental disorder, and who medicates herself with heavy duty perscription and illegal drugs required some research. I mean, how does lithium or thorazine effect someone? And what is it like coming off heroin cold turkey (really, REALLY unpleasant is the short answer). So I went digging on the Web. Here is some of the stuff I found useful.

Creative Sources

I really love music, and draw alot of inspiration from it. I find certain music tends to jump out at me when I really get inside a character's head (or vice versa). It's usually how I tell when I'm really getting hooked on a character. Lindsay recently started tapping me on the shoulder when I was listening to pieces of music. Which is odd, since she doesn't actully like music. Too much emotion.

Still, I think this probably means she's going to be taking up residence in my head for awhile. :)

• Cohabitants by Happy Rhodes (from Equipoise) The entropic speaks.

• Cocoon by Joydrop (from Metasexual) I think this is a place Lindsay has been in quite a few times.

• Dog Star Radio by Joydrop (from Metasexual) I love the image of Lindsay walking around with a radio in her head, one that picks up everything in range at once. She may have learnt to find the on/off switch, but wouldn't be interesting if she could learn how to tune it?

• The Fragile by Nine Inch Nails (from The Fragile) This was playing while I was writing up Lindsay's first meeting with Carlos. The more I listened to the lyrics, the more eerie it got.

• Tam Elbrun, played by the wonderful Harry Groener (you may know him better as Mayor Wilkins from Buffy), in the ST:TNG episode "Tin Man". The idea of telepathy as something overwhelming to the individual.

• I love the whole Psi Corps stuff of Babylon 5, although it's not really relevant to Lindsay (yet! :).

Speculation

This is just odd bits and pieces of insight or specualtion about Lindsay, and where the game is going.

• It came to me while we were playing through the stuff where Lindsay told Carlos her life story. She will not want to meet her family again until she is cured - with her telepathy either cautarised or under control. She needs to go back as a "success" - this probably has a lot to do with meeting her father's expectations.

• Lindsay is really under-developed socially. And horribly over controlled in her emotions. Which means it is very difficult for her to release natural emotions like fear and sorrow. This is going to lead to some really nasty internal pressures building up...