The totally innocent default icon.
Kon Ran
is a panfandom mystery roleplay game on Dreamwidth.
In a beautiful, charming city, an odd epidemic has begun to take hold. Ordinary civilians from all walks of life have begun collapsing due to a mysterious incident, falling into comas with no seeming sign as to the cause. They sleep for days, or weeks - or longer. And when they wake up, they have no recollection of their prior lives, believing themselves to have had an entirely different life. Undergoing treatment, these people must now reacquaint themselves with their new/old lives and come to terms with them before re-integrating themselves into their society again.
Originally slated to be on LiveJournal, the game changed over to Dreamwidth before its opening and has been there ever since.
This roleplay contains examples of:
- Alternate History:
- So far, the characters have learned that they are (apparently) in a universe where Imperial China never fell, became a powerful constitutional monarchy of some sort, allied with Japan and currently own Alaska, northern Korea, and some other places. Also because of this the World Wars didn't affect Asia as they did, and World War II isn't even considered as such - its called the "War of the European Fascists". Then again, for all we know...
- The Boxer Rebellion also occurred, except that the Chinese government joined the West and slaughtered them. Said event, which took place in the city, is now celebrated annually, according to one mod plot. On the other hand, this also gave birth to even more extremist and nationalist resistance movements, culminating in existence of the KIM.
- Divided States of America: Though thus far all we know of is that Alaska is in Chinese hands... But then this happened. Thanks to that, the multi-continent, 60-state United States of Columbiana is now canon. Alaska and Hawaii not being part of the country notwithstanding...
- Body Horror: The August plague is causing several victims to transform into beasts. It's not pleasant. According to a conversation with one of the mods over Skype, if a cure hadn't been found, the plague would have ended with every victim's genetic structure breaking down completely. Every citizen of Kon Ran would have been a pile of goop.
- Have We Met Yet?: Liz, Donatello and Roxas all ran into Dr. Kwan in the past, not even aware they'd gone back in time, and were shocked to find him in prison, and that he didn't recognize them.
- Meaningful Name Fay's true name roughly translates to "flying fish star". Guess what the Visitors were partially based on.
- Meet Cute: Jesse and Kate, technically, since Jesse still seems to be suffering from his amnesia. She brought him cookies on Valentine's Day and past that, it was clear neither of them knew what to do. Subsequent events make it far less endearing, though.
- Noodle Incident:
- The...aptly-named Incident which caused everything to happen in the first place. It apparently involved the tower, it apparently involved nukes of some kind, and it apparently involved KIM. And the patients, of course. If that's actually what happened, since the Viceroy and KRIMP are not above lying about things. Meanwhile almost no one seems willing to talk, apparently because it might make the patients snap completely; on the other hand there are other incentives not to dwell on the past. So far only Dr. Kwan has actually explained anything about what might have happened - except they weren't actually present when the Incident happened. As of end game, this incident has been de-Noodled.
- Phlebotinum-Handling Requirements: Only the characters, the Viceroy, Chief Oppenheimer, Fay, Santa Claus, the Visitors, and the enemy Others fulfill this in any way, be it to prolonged exposure and experience, having the genes of a Visitor, or not being from Kon Ran's universe at all.
- Running Gag:
- Mechakara's alleged vibrate function.
- 'TRISTAN CARINO, etc. etc. etc.
- She Is the King: Fay. Or, rather, Fēiyúxīng, aka the Wànwǔ Emperor.
- We Will All Be History Buffs in the Future: Dr. Victor Nolan is such a history buff that he can spot all of the key events when this setting has diverged from our world. This regularly proves invaluable.
- Wham Episode:
- A terrorist group approaches the patients with an offer to join them, but not before attacking the city and placing bombs in some of the patents' homes.
- Liz, Don and Roxas all suddenly find themselves wandering lost in a prison...five years ago. As they end up wandering death row, just moments after listening to someone choke to death on their poisoned dinner, who should they find but Dr. Ang Kwan. Meanwhile, Hajime, Neku, and the Eighth Doctor all discover that Lisa Owens not only used to be a police officer, but is - an Oppenheimer. Not only that, but she's Arthur Oppenheimer's wife.
