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[Fniff]

   You can't sleep. It started like that for all of us, back when we were garden variety insomniacs.
   Maybe you had nightmares – gods know we all do now – or maybe you just had problems that wouldn't let you get a good night's rest. Hell – maybe you were just over-caffeinated. It doesn't matter. Whatever it was, eventually you got to a point where sleep became a choice, rather than a mandate... and then it just dropped off the list.
   And then, and only then, something clicked.
   That's when you started noticing the extras. An extra door here or there. An extra window looking out onto a city packed with surplus buildings, hodgepodge towers standing shoulder to shoulder, roofs angling into one another. Clocks chiming the thirteenth hour and unfamiliar stars twinkling in the too-clear sky. Streets and alleys that weren't there before, leading to late-night markets that sold things like laughter and indecision.
   When you took a long walk down the streets of the Mad City, you stopped being a Sleeper and started being Awake.
   But that click you heard wasn't from the secret world snapping into place. It was the sound of the Nightmares flicking off the safety and pointing a gun at your head. When you crossed over you became a target. They can smell you now, if they get close enough. The Paper Boys are closing in, and you'd better pray you don't become a headline.
   You're chum in the water, my friend, and it's time you got ready for it – before the clock chimes thirteen again. You're gonna get tired, more tired than you ever have before, but mark my words: sleep isn't just off the list now, it's an outright enemy that'll strip away your vitality and leave you vulnerable. There's no going back, and from here on out, there's just on simple rule that must dominate your life.
   Stay Awake.
   Don't rest your head.

   Don't Rest Your Head is a horror RPG where you play insomniacs with self-destructive superpowers. I'm not going to go into too much detail: if you're interested, go here. And buy it, it's good.

   This is a suggestion game, so it's just you guys yelling at this random dude to do stuff. But we need a dude first. I know, we'll make one. I'll be asking some questions and I want answers, hopefully not from the same person. Come one, come all: let's make a mess of a human being. Together.

   First:
What's been keeping you awake?
   This is the source of our character's insomnia, and sets up what their immediate history has been like.
   Think about what troubles them. What pressures turned them into an insomniac? Are they running from something? Do they stay awake due to nightmares or substance abuse? Have they lost someone dear to them and the grief is robbing them of sleep?

[Fniff]

Spoiler: Our Dude (click to show/hide)

What's been keeping you awake?
   Staying up late surfing internet websites.
What just happened to you?
   A mannequin pickpocketed me.
What's on the surface?
   Nerdy fast-food worker/amateur game designer with a handlehorse mustache.
What lies below?
   Devout but doubtful orphan who hates his grandmother, desires order, and fears death.
What's your path?
   Make sense of my dumb life.

Responses: 2 Flight, 1 Fight
Madness Talent:
Exhaustion Talent:
Current Exhaustion: 1

Scars
None... Yet

Despair Coins: 1

[Glass]

They've been going onto Tvtropes when they should've been asleep.

[ATHATH]

~Carry on my wayward son~
~There'll be peace when you are done~
~(DON'T) Lay your weary head to rest~
~Don't you cry no more~

[ATHATH]

We're trying to set a world record.

[omada]

That looks...nice.

and scary


What's been keeping you awake?
He was a fresh and full of ambitions cop, he had to neutralize some criminal that had been doing shit, the guy was nuts screaming about a kind of "city between the city" and pointed a gun on our protagonist face.

It was to shoot or to be killed.

He shot, and listened in slow-motion because of the adrenaline, the cry of the madman's son.

"dad, no"

[Fniff]

   While I like all three options on display here (Especially 'city between the city', I'll have to remember that one), I'm gonna have to pick Glass.

They've been going onto Tvtropes when they should've been asleep.

   Why? Well, it implies a few things about the character for one. Another is that it's so painfully mundane. When our character finishes their journey through the Mad City, beaten down, sanity shattered, they'll know they could have prevented all of this if they just closed the browser window and stopped looking through the Touhou TV Tropes page.

   And what better to contrast your humble origins with...

What just happened to you?
   This is what happens to our character in their very first scene of the game – it's not in my hands, it's in yours! Such a moment should always be a moment of high stress for the character. This may be different from what's been keeping the character awake.
   Think about what would make an exciting, stressful scene. Is the source of the stress mundane or supernatural? Did you just lose your job? Did a monster jump out of the closet? Did you walk in on your spouse in bed with someone else? Did you fall off a building – and land without a scratch?

[Glass]

He's being dangled above a boiling cauldron by a couple of Fuckwits. It's been, like, two hours now.
Also, some guys made of molten wax are approaching.

EDIT: Also, for when we get our powers... well, while there probably isn't a Madness power for this, I want us to be able to channel memes and tropes.
Do you want to have a bad time?

[overseer05-15]

Dude got pickpocketed by a mannequin.

Also, let's never give him a name. Just 'Dude'.

[Fniff]

   I think I'll go with overseer05-15's answer on this once, especially since the aside in his answer

Dude got pickpocketed by a mannequin.

Also, let's never give him a name. Just 'Dude'.

gives me an idea for what exactly was stolen.

   By the by, Glass, although there isn't a specific Madness power listed in Don't Lose Your Mind for memery and tropes, there's no reason we can't create one ourselves. Let's not jump the gun just yet, though.

   Next,
What's on the surface?
   This determines the first impressions our character gives off, and tells what is obvious about them.
   Think about what does our protagonist appear to be at first blush (as opposed to what they actually are). How do others see them? What's their physical appearance? What sort of personality do they have? Do they put their best foot forward – or their worst? All we know is that they're an avid troper, and the stereotype of that is a young white male nerd: do they conform to or subvert that stereotype?

[Glass]

Well, first and foremost, they are perpetually lost. That was always true, mind you, just more so now.
Mostly, they just look like a normal person. They don't tend to put either foot forward, and in fact is more likely to be running away. And yes, of course they're a nerd. But just passively, not actively.

[FallacyofUrist]

Male. College dropout. Works a 9 to 5 at a fast food place, spends his free time programming games that never take off and doing internet stuff, especially TV Tropes and forum games.

[overseer05-15]

He has a nice 'stache. Handlebar.

[Glass]

He has a nice 'stache. Handlebar.

Ah, yes. The sheriff's 'stache. A classic.
EDIT: I feel like I'm thinking of the wrong 'stache.
EDIT2: Horseshoe. I'm thinking of a horseshoe or full mustache.

[Harry Baldman]

He has a nice 'stache. Handlebar.

Goes well with the greasy undercut and the plunging v-neck shirt. The head shape is a little wrong though, so it never quite comes together the way we would want to.