Aysylum week 1

Arrivals & Departures

(a writeup for the Asylum game)

Flight 31 departs from a New Mexico airport on Thursday March the 3rd 2005, carrying with it 5 particular passengers...

• Lyndon Davenport: An inquistive spectacle wearer always asking questions about things and taking notes about the answers, he is an investigative journalist for the LA Searchlight who boards the flight after some aggravation at the airport involving a collision with someone else's luggage and a shop where the tills stop working. (Played by Matt Sanderson)
• Guiseppe Ramada: A twitchy, menacing-looking Hispanic with a prominent tatoo on the side of his neck, his reasons for going to LA may lead to violence; his time at the airport is characterised by an unhelpful hostess at the departure lounge and some nervous passengers on the flight who seem dismayed at his habit of resting his feet on the emergency exit door. (Played by Jeffery Lay)
• Jerome Johnson: A handsome, strong man, very sharply dressed who moves with the confidence of the expert fighter and who is distracted from other matters by the pretty young woman (Joanna Casper) on the seat next to his on the flight. (Played by Mark Dewhurst)
• Bob Smart: A swarthy, sleek individual with a noticeable growth of stubble and a tendency to perform small conjuring tricks almost without noticing he is doing it, he is heading to LA for a big game on which he hopes to make a killing. (Played by Dave Brennan)

• Paul Battersby: A mild, quiet businessman in his mid-50s who spends his time on the flight hidden by the financial pages, covering the dread he feels as he goes to LA to meet the end of his career. (NPC)

Minutes from LAX, Flight 31 experiences severe difficulties resulting in the failure of all electrics on board and the loss of all engines; shortly thereafter, the flight collides with a light aircraft departing LAX and lands heavily, resulting in the almost total destruction of the left side of the plane and the loss of all passengers there. Fortunately for the above mentioned characters, they are all seated or standing (for various reasons) away from the area of most damage. Giuseppe and Jerome walk from the plane to the Emergency Rescue Centre, while Lyndon, Bob and Paul are carried over, though Lyndon quickly recovers, whilst Bob and Paul require urgent medical treatment. At the ERC, the passengers are questioned by the head of the crash investigation team, Ashe Bayaidah, who is concerned that, out of everyone else recovered from the crash, only these 5 do not appear on the passenger list nor can any other record of their identity be accessed or confirmed. As they try to make calls to friends, family and associates, they come up against a blank, since nobody they call knows who they are.

Lyndon makes 3 other puzzling and disturbing discoveries: first, the luggage of one of the dead passengers contains a crystalline artifact shaped like a bone; second, the security camera footage from New Mexico shows the man with the luggage bumping into a different passenger from Flight 31, instead of him; and third, it is now Wednesday March the 2nd 2005, the day before he boarded the plane...