Application for The Games.

[and_my_pickaxe]

• 

OUT of CHARACTER
Name: World
Other characters: Sigma Klim

IN CHARACTER
Name: Lin Mayuzumi
Fandom: Remember11: The Age of Infinity
Canon point/AU: Ending 11, Mayuzumi Annihilation Ending III. (Kokoro blames Mayuzumi for their misfortune, and when Mayuzumi attacks her, Kokoro fights back and loses.)
Journal: and_my_pickaxe
PB: Lin Mayuzumi as she appears in game and in supplementary art.
History: Very sorry, but there’s no Wiki that exists for Remember11 at the moment. I’ll have to go through it step by step.

The unfortunate thing about Remember11 is that the budget was exceeded before the game neared completion. For this reason, the game has no conclusive ending and there are many plot holes left unfilled. A document was released by the author (found here) that explains some of the mysteries, but it’s very bare-bones. From multiple 100% runs of this game, I’ll try to give you a concise (hahaahahahaha) version of her history that I pieced together.

Lin Mayuzumi was a 23-year-old lawyer’s apprentice working towards becoming a court-appointed attorney. Lin was very much in love with a young, budding scientist named Satoru Yukidoh. Though it never explains how they met, they very quickly fell into an emotional, sexual, and even obsessive relationship. While Satoru put on a front that he was but a lowly researcher, in truth he was a part of a very large and important research into wormholes, quantum mechanics, and the passage of time. Though the details are scarce, he and his partner Naoya Enomoto (who worked as a Doctor in a mental institution known as SPHIA) began experiments to see if they could warp reality and gain access to the past. The reason Satoru wished to do this was because his younger sister Sayaka suddenly vanished one day - though, since Sayaka was a mental patient dangerous to herself and others, she had been restrained and locked away in a mental hospital room. There was no reason for her to just disappear...

...Later that year, Satoru learned that Japanese Scientists were able to "Quantum Leap" across three places in time.

They had discovered a sort of "transcendal being," known as "Self," who was a God in the sense that he was omnipotent. He acted as an outside observer, watching the world, unable to actively change what was going on before him... but had the ability to see every single Quantum event that had ever occurred. (If you don’t understand Quantum mechanics, basically, for the sake of this application, if something can happen, regardless of whether or not it actually did happen, "Self" would be able to watch the reality in which it did.) One power he did possess was the ability to open wormholes and connect these Quantum Universes, and if the realities could be realistically merged somehow, he would bring them together and change the past (so, for instance, one person who died in the past would suddenly come back to life in the present because "Self" had discovered a possibility that allowed them to live. For example: Bob goes to the store, sees a Dog crossing the street, is distracted and slips on some ice and dies. But if "Self" finds a reality where Bob never looked at the Dog, Bob would come back to life in the present. Make sense?). One of the wormholes he opened happened to be in Sayaka's mental institution. Realizing that this quantum leap and his sister's disappearance are connected, Satoru dedicated his life to awakening "Self" and exacting his revenge.

But we'll come back to Satoru's plan later...

Thinking Satoru was just a poor researcher, Lin's parents didn't approve of his relationship with their daughter whatsoever. Satoru's family was very poor compared to Lin's, and while Lin was already a Lawyer's apprentice, Satoru was barely more than a research slave. They forced Lin to break up with Satoru so that she could find a more "suitable" husband. Lin was secretly heartbroken, but pretended to agree with her parents, selfishly believing Satoru really could not support her. Days later, she coldly broke up with Satoru, cutting all contact between them and never speaking to him ever again.

Satoru was crushed, though he still wanted to remain friends. But try as he might, he could never get ahold of Lin. Meanwhile, Lin sank into a deep depression, regretting the decision she had made. She realized she could never forget about him, and that he was her soul mate - she would never love anyone but him for her entire life.

Though both had intended to meet again, there was a sudden complication.

You see, Lin died.

Lin had boarded Flight HAL18 to northern Japan, which was tragically caught in a blizzard and crashed into Mount Akakura. Lin was one of the five survivors of the initial crash: with her were two female students named Kokoro and Hotori, an 11-year-old boy named Yuni, and mountain climber named Seiji Yomogi. Yomogi, being the most knowledgeable of what to do in an emergency, took charge. He rounded up the survivors and attempted to find shelter. However, he left Hotori behind to die in the wreckage... deciding himself that she would be too injured to survive long, and would only consume their rations and deplete their chance of survival. What he didn't know was that Lin had watched him do this...

Yomogi brought Yuni, Kokoro, and Lin to an emergency shelter cabin nearby, where they were stranded for 7 days. Yomogi handled the food, giving the others only what they needed to survive. But close to day 4, things began to fall apart. Lin was slowly losing her sanity and rebelling against the group, especially against Yomogi after watching what he did to Hotori, and forced Yomogi to divide their emergency rations into 4 equal portions. Inexperienced in surviving emergency situations, and the food divided equally rather than according to their needs, Mayuzumi's rations ran out very quickly. Yomogi, Kokoro, and Yuni continued to share their rations, but when Mayuzumi thought that they were hoarding extra food they found, she grabbed them when they weren't looking and ate her fill, dumping the rest into the snow. And so, by day 5, there was no food or firewood left. On the evening of day 6, their water ran out. And the morning of day 7, the survivors, starving, dehydrated, and freezing to death, became desperate. Believing there might have been an emergency drop of supplies from a rescue team, they ventured out of their cabin to find it... and were caught in an avalanche, where Yomogi, Lin, and Kokoro perished.

Yuni had time to take shelter behind a large tree, and was the only survivor of the HAL18 plane crash. Tragically, he was rescued a mere 6 hours later.

Satoru never learned of Lin's death until close to the time his plan against "Self" was to occur. And when he did, it gave him an idea.

In order for "Self" to awaken, three points on the current earth's time needed to be connected using a time machine, and a human "vessel" needed to be offered up from each point in time. By doing this, the people who were trapped within the points in time would exchange bodies, and "Self" would awaken, cycling through those people's existences and choosing a single reality in which to bring them. However, once awoken, "Self" would destroy the existence of one person (as, it turns out, he had for Sayaka). It was a sacrifice Satoru suspected, but was willing to make. He wanted one of the sacrifices to be a member of a SPHIA in the present, and the other two should be "expendables" in the past that would die anyway.

He and Enomoto thought of one group in particular of "expendables" they could use.

The passengers from Lin's flight.

In a very elaborate and expensive plan, Satoru and Enomoto retrieved the equipment from the Japanese Scientists, and opened up the wormholes. In order to first test if the machine worked, Satoru and Enomoto used themselves as the first victims. They switched bodies. Satoru lived as Enomoto for some time, taking Enomoto's job as the Doctor of SPHIA.

On January 11th, 2012, their plan began. Their plan was this: they were going to trap "Self" in an infinity loop so that he would be trapped forever, in revenge for erasing Sayaka. Their rationale was that if "Self" was locked into a part of the world where the Quantum Realities could not possibly, under any circumstances, coexist, that would mean "Self" could not exit the loop and would be trapped forever. In this case, Satoru believed that for anyone other than Yuni Kusuda to survive the plane crash was impossible.

Turns out, he was wrong.

Connecting himself (in Enomoto's body, in 2012) in SPHIA, a pregnant woman named Kali in an isolation facility for the insane (in late 2011), and Kokoro at the site of the plane crash (in early 2011), "Self" was awoken. Ironically, Satoru's existence was the one chosen to disappear forever - "Self" seized his body and erased Satoru. However, since Satoru's body and mind did not belong, "Self" was disoriented and fragments of Satoru's personality remained behind. "Self" became the new Satoru, believing his name was Satoru Yukidoh, and never realizing he was in the wrong body or that he was ever "Self" to begin with, or realizing what sort of ability he has.

(All of this was interpreted from the Dev notes. None of this is explained in game. The following is how the game actually begins and ends:)

Now awoken, this gave "Self" the ability to switch, with Satoru's consciousness, into the body of Kokoro in the past. He could switch at any time... and it almost gave the effect that the person he possessed had Dissociative Identity Disorder, as when he did this, Kokoro's consciousness switched into Kali's Fetus, and Kali's Fetus switched into Satoru's body. Sometimes, he accidentally switched into Kali's Fetus, in which Kali's Fetus would become Kokoro, and Kokoro would become Satoru. Using Satoru's body in the present, Kokoro discovers what is going on, and befriends "Self" by leaving him messages in a notebook to read after every personality transfer. Reading a newspaper from the present, she discovers that she died in the other reality, and is determined to find a way to survive. Kokoro and "Self" work out a plan that ensures the Mount Akakura refugees will survive (and in return, "Self" will escape the time loop, though he doesn't yet realize he's stuck in one).

But when Kali's Baby switched into Kokoro or Satoru's body, major problems began. In Kokoro's body, he would eat up the rations. In Satoru's body, where he was around lots of knives and sharp equipment, he would randomly go on a killing spree without any idea of what he was doing. (It has a lot to do with the psychological theory of the Colicky baby. Basically, Kali's Fetus is a psycho. Roll with it.) Since Satoru and Kokoro have no way of communicating with Kali's Fetus, they do not know he exists, and believe the actions preformed by the Fetus was done by the other personality. The Fetus plants a seed of distrust into Satoru and Kokoro against eachother, which almost leads to the "Self" being trapped in the loop because he does not want to save Kokoro. (It's up to the player to make the right choices, and trust either "Self" or Kokoro, depending on which character they are playing as.)

Even worse, as a contingency plan in case “Self” can escape the loop, Enomoto decides to kill Satoru in the present. Whenever Kokoro switches to SPHIA, she finds herself hunted down by Enomoto without rest. Thankfully, if Kokoro manages to survive Enomoto in any of the Quantum Realities, Kali's Fetus in Satoru's body eventually finds Enomoto and kills him, allowing the three the possibility to escape the time loop.
Meanwhile, back in the past, Satoru, in the body of Kokoro, reunites with Lin. He admits that he is really Satoru, and is sorry he never saw her again, and that he loves her very, very much. Lin, of course, does not believe him. She is seeing a 20 year old girl she has never seen before claim to be Satoru - why would she? Even though he has bits and pieces of Satoru's memory, Lin does not trust him... and, in her addled state, makes a plan to kill him. If the player, as Kokoro, is unable to dissuade Lin from her murderous scheme, Lin will eventually kill everyone.

And that brings me to the ending. Of course, in the "True" ending, they all survived and are freed from the loop - and Lin, Yomogi, Yuni and Kokoro come back to life in the present.

But that's not the ending I am taking her from.

This Lin is coming from one of the many Quantum Universes in the game (there are over 36 endings to Remember11, all of them their own individual universe) in which she successfully murders Kokoro - particularly, the Mayuzumi Annihilation III ending. In this ending, Kokoro (the player) is cruel to Lin, causing her to become frustrated to the breaking point. Later in the game, when the survivors try to chase down a helicopter (that was never actually there), Lin keeps running though the other refugees have given up. When Kokoro pursues her and tells her to stop, Lin reveals she stole the pickaxe from the cabin stores, and tells Kokoro to leave her alone or else she will kill everyone. Kokoro refuses, knocking the pickaxe out of Lin’s hands and into the snow, and the two of them engage in a fist fight. Unfortunately for the player, Lin reclaims the pickaxe and stabs Kokoro through the head. The game ends.

Presentation:
Lin is the representation of Carl Jung's "Persona," the mask which an individual chooses to represent themselves in ordinary day-to-day situations. To others, Lin appears strong, powerful, confident, and even narcissistic to some degree. Lin has a hot, passionate temper, is impulsive and slightly paranoid, which causes her to make bad decisions. Lin steals the food of her fellow refugees because she feels threatened by them, and genuinely believes that they hate her. When she sees Kokoro hiding a full can of food, she jumps to conclusions and assumes that the others are lying to her, that they are hiding rations and want for her to starve to death. This causes her to take the food for herself, and to even grab an axe and murder in cold blood anyone who stands in her way. When she discovers later that Kokoro actually does care about everyone and hasn't been lying to her, she becomes more open and less violent. However, if Lin feels as though she's the one in power, she will not tolerate opposition. If Kokoro is too kind to her and allows her to get her way, the game will end abruptly with Lin murdering everyone so that she can have complete control over the food, water and firewood.

Because of her experience in the Shelter Cabin, Lin is not afraid to steal from, injure, or even kill someone else for her own benefit. In a sense, she is the villain of Kokoro's path. As well, as she is working to become a lawyer, she has a very strict sense of the law (when it suits her and only her), and will try to quote laws to gain the upper hand. She may try to settle an argument logically and lawfully (so long as her own well being is not threatened).

Motivations: In reality, Lin is very loving towards those she cares about, and sensitive to the feelings of those around her. She sacrificed her own relationship with her boyfriend to appease her parents, despite how it made her feel. Even in the shelter cabin, she lends Yuni and Kokoro her coat several times, especially when they are sick, proving she can also be altruistic despite her selfish streak.

Although Lin seems selfish, she has a very acute sense of guilt. If she's discovered she's done something very wrong, she feels horrible, and often bursts into inconsolable tears. In one path of Kokoro's route, when Mayuzumi steals the rest of the food, Kokoro can allow her to have it. Mayuzumi, still half believing this is an extra can that Kokoro had been hiding from her, dumps half the can into her mouth and starts loudly chewing to annoy them. But when she realizes the rest of the cabin is staring back at her in horror and in tears, she stops chewing abruptly, looks down at the remainder of the can, and hands it back. Feeling sick with herself, she suddenly begins sobbing with guilt and apologizing for what she's done - and the rest of the cabin decides to forgive her.

Lin seeks control over everything because she feels powerless over her own life, and so compensates by getting as much of the upper hand as she can. The decision of who she is allowed to marry is out of her hands, whether she lives or dies on the mountain is out of her hands. This sort of strain is what will cause Lin to become violent, or lack of strain, a good person.

Lin’s family is very patriarchal, believing that only men should be the ones to make important decisions, which frustrates Lin. She has also picked a career dominated by men, and has experienced much discrimination due to her gender. Due to this, one would think that Mayuzumi would be a feminist, but unfortunately her actions zoom past the point of campaigning for equal rights and respect and go straight into spreading hate and name-calling. She hates men and believes women are superior, though she is unafraid to use misogynistic terms on fellow women who get along with men. She often uses her hatred to try and appeal to Kokoro ("Women understand each other, we should stick together," "Men are disgusting," "Let's leave the men behind, we deserve to survive more than them."). However, while Lin hates men in general, she can tolerate some on an individual level. She pretends that she does not need a man in her life, telling Satoru outright that if they were ever to break up she'd forget all about him within six months. But in fact, Lin is very much lovesick over Satoru, her only goal being to survive not so that she can become a successful woman... but so she can be reunited with the man she loves. Near the end of the game, Lin curls up in her sleeping bag and begins sobbing, saying that her life was a waste and nothing was worth living for except Satoru. Kokoro, who has stopped undergoing the personality transfers, pretends to be Satoru in order to comfort Lin. For well over an hour, Lin confesses how much she loves him, how she misses the good times they shared, how she misses making love with him, and how still will love him forever. She admits that should she survive, she'll marry him, and the two of them will live happily ever after. After she is finished crying, she genuinely thanks Kokoro for playing along, having seen through her act... but also having appreciated her thoughtfulness. Kokoro realizes that Lin is not as wicked as she had assumed, that she was just an ordinary person pushed past her breaking point, and all animosity she had for her dissolves.

SAMPLES
Thread: This one should do! It’s an open log post, so if that thread doesn’t do it for you there are several others there.
Prose:

Lin stares up at the Gamemakers slack-jawed, hands in her hair, face blackened with running mascara. She was saved only to participate in a fight to the death?! This couldn’t be real. Attempting to calm herself, Lin’s expression changed from astonishment into a glare. “L-Let me out.”

Moments ticked by. Enraged, Lin kicks off one of her heels and grasps it threateningly in her dominant hand. With impeccable aim, she tosses the stiletto at the head of one of the men above. The shoe bounces off the forcefield ineffectively, flung to the other side of the room. Lin stamps her foot. “…Didn’t you hear me?”

Kicking the other heel off to restore her posture, Lin places her hands at her hips and raises her voice. “I’m not playing your game. Don’t mess with me! Get me out of here, or else…”

Nothing happened. Beginning to panic now, she glanced quickly around. Her eyes fell upon something familiar and even safe. With a cry of joy, Lin seizes the ice axe from the weapons rack and brandishes it furiously. She hoped to tell those men she'd kill them all the second she was out these doors...

Still nothing. Lin bit her bottom lip to keep it from trembling. Throwing the head of the weapon towards the ground, the axe dragged along the floor with a loud scratch as Lin stalked wrathfully towards a practice dummy. Raising the axe over her head, Lin gathers all of her strength into a downward swing. She screams at the top of her lungs as she thrusts the pickaxe through her target, over and over again.

“I SAID, ‘LET ME OUT’! LET ME OUT!”

And then the doors were opened.

What is your character scored: Approximately a 3. In the bonus files, the writer says that Lin is very bright, and her self-esteem and intelligence is what allows her to excel as a defense attorney. She is also able to carry and wield a pickaxe (well, ice axe, but details), killing people in numerous endings with it, including a muscular mountain man. However, her attitude proves to be her downfall. Lin is extremely paranoid, which causes her to become angry and panic whenever things don’t go her way. She is also prone to fits of screaming and/or crying whenever she’s afraid. Having been born into a rich family, Lin has been coddled her entire life and knows nothing about living without luxury. She is also quite physically weak, standing at approximately 5’3” and weighing less than 110lbs. Her health is poor because she refuses to eat food that isn’t too her liking, and thus has an unbalanced diet. She is also extremely uncooperative, especially towards men, making alliances nearly impossible.

Additional information: N/A