Mad World

Mad World is a roleplaying series on the MTVB website. It was created by PS2Player in the March of 2014 and follows the dire efforts of a group of survivors who attempt to survive in a new hostile environment where the recently deceased have been reanimated through unknown means. The RP was relatively successful and is currently the longest RP on the website. It spawned two spin-offs: one a prequel titled Mad World: Wormwood and a sequel Mad World: A New Day. Both are currently ongoing although progression and interest is mediocre in comparison to the favorable pace of the original series. The initial series ended in the September of the same year.

The most active participants of the original RP were PS2Player and Ultra; they both came up with a lot of the concepts and story ideas together on their many chat sessions. The series takes heavy influence from various George A. Romero movies and the insanely popular multimedia franchise: The Walking Dead. In addition to the aforementioned influences, the RP takes a lot of cues from biblical mythology with several references to incidents that occur in the bible. The series' prequel Wormwood takes on a science-fiction, conspiracy thriller element with the origins of the infectious outbreak being tied to a crashed UFO; which held the dead specimen of an extraterrestrial species.

A spiritual successor, entitled Dead Men Walking, was released in the January of 2016 by Ultra. Whether or not it is set in the same universe as Mad World is currently unknown.

Mad World
Michael; a wayward teenager with a troubled past is making his way through what remains of the United States of America in search of a fantastical safe zone, referred to only as Noah's Ark. On his travels he comes across a disheveled man with a penchant for horror genre who offers Michael a lift, initially reluctant of the man's friendly ways, Michael caves in and accepts. Michael learns that the man--named Norman-- was once a soldier who helped secure Noah's Ark prior to the fall of society; confirming that Noah's Ark is indeed real.

Meanwhile Will; a cautious and bright young adult travelling on his own comes across a hospital. Ready to ransack it for any supplies, he comes across an elderly survivor who holds him at gun point, the two eventually come to a standstill and cooperate for the time being. During their search throughout the hospital, the two stumble across a woman who is bleeding heavily from a bite mark. Will ends her suffering with a pistol, but doing so attracts the attention of several nearby Zombies ... and Michael and his companion who were nearing the area in their vehicle.

The four meet up and after a sketchy first encounter with each other, they quickly begin to feel more comfortable. While Michael goes around looking for supplies, Will's elderly friend is attacked by a ghoul and bitten. Michael makes it back in time to witness Norman kill the old man without hesitation. This causes a bit of a rift in the group with Michael being incapable of trusting Norman and vice versa. The group make it out of the hospital and onto the road in Norman's truck.

On the road Norman crashes into a roaming ghoul and the truck flips over repeatedly. Will and Michael make it out of the wreckage first, but the two sustain serious head wounds that hinder their mobilities severely. With a horde of ghouls quickly approaching, Will and Michael decide to bail, leave Norman, and head for the woods together as they are left with no other choice. During this, a zombie lunges at Michael and nearly kills him. Terrified and depressed from the recent events that had occured everything culminates with Michael putting the tip of his revolver to the temple of his head, however, before he can fire, Will intervenes and a round flies off into the distance revealing an opening in the woods, which the two rush into. While evading the undead, Will trips and snags his hand in a bear trap which had been laid out by a hunter. Will reluctantly returns to his friend and lobs his hand off with an axe. The two continue their escape, but before they can continue any further they reach a dead end and fall off the cliff of the hill and smack their heads on the hard pavement below. Groggily from their state, the two make their way to a nearby abandoned school bus and hold the doors shut, but the zombies are quick to catch up with them and begin to overwhelm the bus.

New Faces
An hunter named Danny--the same one that set up the aforementioned bear trap that cost Michael his hand--is making his way through the forest, tracking the horde that were chasing down Michael and Will. He sees the horde converging on a school bus; thinking that the bus was filled with children, Danny mows down the horde with his sniper rifle. Meanwhile in the bus, Michael and Will get into a brief altercation: Michael wakes up from his wounds in an unstoppable rage and tries to kill Will in a seemingly delusion state, but before this escalates the two are stopped by Danny who opens the doors of the bus.

Although their first encounter with each other is hazy, Danny notices Will's stump, and Michael's bloodied forehead. Danny takes the two back to his cabin, however, on the way towards it, Will comes to the realization that Danny unintentionally caused Will's amputation. In a moment of rage, Will lunges at Danny, but is pulled off by Michael before any harm is done. Danny offers an ultimatum: follow him or leave, the two continue on with Danny eventually coming across the man's home. Once they arrive they encounter Danny's children: his eldest daughter Abigail and his youngest son Eric. Michael and Will are immediately attracted to Abigail, much to Danny's dismay. Danny cauterizes Will's stump.

As they are recuperating, Will thanks Michael for saving him earlier. Michael declares that he didn't intend to save Michael, instead, he had hoped that he would fail in doing so and get devoured by zombies in the process. Will is left bewildered by this information causing the two to briefly argue about whether or not it's worth continuing to live in this new world. After the tension settles between the two; Michael announces his intentions of traveling to Noah's Ark alone, which Will laughs off. The concussions sustained to Michael's head from earlier cause him to leap into a seizure. Fortunately, Danny is nearby and is able to offer medical help with his limited veterinarian experience, although they prevent anything dangerous occurring, Michael proceeds to slip into a short coma. As Danny and Will sit around, Will decides to invite Danny and his family along to Noah's Ark. Danny declines the invitation; stating that Noah's Ark was originally intended to be a series of reproduction camp, and with their being a shortage of woman around, he wouldn't want to put his daughter through a traumatizing event. The two head their separate ways and drift off to sleep.

Michael awakes from his slumber screaming as he does so, the nightmares finally getting to him. Danny enters the room half-expecting Michael to have died and reanimated in their sleep; however, he is pleased to find out that Michael is suffering from a minor sleep paralysis episode. The problem that arises from this situation is Michael's relentless screaming begins to attract nearby flesh-eaters to their location. Danny hurries around his house; instructing his children to lock their doors while he loads up his weapon, and prepares the house's defenses. As all hell begins to break loose, Michael finally comes to his senses, and helps calm Eric down. Abigail and Danny begin to take aim at the approaching ghouls whereas Will embarrassingly mishandles his weapon; realizing that he hadn't loaded it. Michael helps the three out with the walker situation; taking a few out with his revolver. Will rushes back outside with one bullet loaded in his pistol, but he slips; the gun lands awkwardly on the floor causing it to fire a shot, which goes straight into Danny's chest. He begins to utter his daughter's name, but before he can do so he falls to the floor and dies almost instantly due to his injuries.

Abigail is driven to absolute silence by her father's sudden death. She is incapable of comprehending what just happened until it clicks: Will is responsible. She aims her rifle high at the lanky man, and prepares to fire, but is distracted by the noises of a child screaming ... her brother: Eric. She forgets about Will and her father almost instantly, rushing into the house to save her little baby brother, Michael in pursuit. They discover that walkers have breached the house's security systems and broken through the windows. Michael is able to kill a few until he runs out of ammo, the house beginning to pile up with reanimated carcasses. Abigail rushes upstairs to her brother's aid only to discover that she's too late. Instead, she finds several walkers feasting on the young boy. Will is able to retreat to a small wooden shack and barricades himself inside. Abigail falls to her knees accepting her impending doom, but Michael pulls her off her feet and into the master bedroom before she's attacked. In the shack, Will slips into fecal matter covering himself in all sorts of literal crap and walker mush. Will is able to escape the shack through a small hole on the opposite end, then makes his way back towards the house, the mess covering his scent and disguising him from the walkers. Michael and Abigail are able to escape the house through the master bedroom's window, then they make their way towards the line of trees surrounding the house and Danny's property. As they wait for Will, Abigail--almost suicidally--loudly calls out Will's name, bringing him to their attention. The three finally unite, and although Michael and Abigail are reluctant to continue on with Will, the trio decide to press forward towards Noah's Ark.

On The Road
After traversing the post-apocalyptic landscape for a couple of hours, the trio come across a block of houses, and decide to ransack them for loot. On their way now, Will attempts to apologize for unwillingly killing Abigail's father, but she brushes him off with a simple "Fuck you". In one of the houses, Will is able to get a fresh set of clothes, Michael finds a knife to arm himself with. The trio decide to stay there for the night to recuperate.

After waking up, Michael attempts to help Will cope with recent events, but to no avail. Before leaving the room, Michael turns around and says that if Will can't pull himself together, then he, and Abigail, will have no choice, but to leave him behind, for their own safety. Whilst looking for food, Will is attacked by a walker who was trapped in a closet. Michael comes to Will's aid and kills the walker, Abigail coldly states that she's upset that the walker didn't succeed in getting Michael. Annoyed by this, Will decides to leave the two by exiting through a bedroom window. Outside, Will comes across a red truck and attempts to get it to work, but fails in doing so. Angered, Will kicks the door, which causes the car alarm to go off attracting the unwanted attention of both walkers and a bandit. The latter places the tip of his gun at the back of Will's head.

The bandit threateningly asks for Will's equipment, Will obliges. Not being able to find Will, Abigail and Michael decide to continue on to Noah's Ark without him; believing that he may be heading there himself. Walkers begin to approach Will, the bandit, and the car. The bandit--displaying cannibalistic tendencies--apologies for what he's about to do to Will, but before he is capable of committing murder, a walker leaps on him and tears his throat out, the man accidentally fires his gun in the process. Hearing the gunfire, Abigail and Michael head to the source of the sound, and help rescue a terrified Will from the horde.

Hours later the three decide to stop for a brief break. Michael angrily asks Will what he was doing by leaving the two prompting Will to say that he's useless to them, then he asks them to leave him behind. Michael makes Will promise that he won't leave the two to their fate, he reluctantly does so.

The Bandit Attack
The next day the three meet up with Norman, from earlier in the story, and his friend John. Exclaiming much excitement, the group is finally reunited. The group decide to make their way through a small town, however, they are sniped at from afar by a group of bandits. One of the rounds pierces Michael's shoulder, but he is able to take cover with the others before any major damage is done. Before they can even begin to think about their next course of action, the group of bandits rush into the town with their weapons at the ready.

Abigail and Michael take cover together in a block of nearby apartments whereas Will hides in an alleyway. Two bandits follow Abigail and Michael, proceeding to break down one of the apartment doors. Michael discovers a ladder connected to one of the windows, then he begins to argue with Abigail; pleading with her to take the ladder and escape while he holds them off. Will gets into a scuffle with a bandit and is knocked to the floor while the latter holds a sawed-off shotgun to his head. Michael forces Abigail out of the window just as the two men break in. The bandit attacking Will shows weakness: sympathy and lowers his weapon somewhat and pleads with Will to escape, explaining that he's an average guy trying to survive too, however Will takes advantage of his kindness, and strikes him down with a wrench.

The two bandits begin to search the apartment for Michael, who is hiding behind an umbrella stand. Michael takes the opportunity to sneak behind one of the men who is looking through some drawers, Michael grabs hold of the man's neck and attempts to snap it, but the latter is able to overpower him and force him into a wall. The bandit lifts up his rifle trying to take a shot, but Michael is able to grab it prompting the two to struggle to shoot each other. The second bandit rushes back down the stairs and shoots at Michael who is able to pull the first bandit in harm's way--killing him, the impact of the shot pushes Michael into the living room. Michael slams hard onto the floor; seemingly breaking his ribs in the process. The demented bandit walks towards Michael with a smile etched into his face; he pushes Michael into the wall repeatedly worsening his wounds, then smacks the end of the rifle into his face; causing the latter to lose a few of his teeth. He then begins to taunt Michael by threatening to rape Abigail. The bandit throws Michael into the wall once more briefly causing knocking him unconscious.

Wakening up from his unconsciousness, Michael notices a hammer on the counter besides him. He grips it and groggily stands up, making his way towards the unaware bandit. He lifts the hammer and swings it down towards the man's head with all his might, killing him instantly. Outside, Abigail finds Will and the two rejoice until a bandit comes out of nowhere and presses a gun towards Will's neck. Abigail is able to save Will by killing the man by striking him with a wrench, however another member of the bandit clan grabs Abigail by the waist and forces her into the back of a van. Will chases after the van with no weapons, Michael is able to leave the apartment complex with a loaded rifle and proceeds to follow the men too. Michael is able to shoot out the tires of the van prompting it to crash into a building. One of the men exits the van, Michael shoots him in the face with his rifle. Out of ammo now, the two tread cautiously. A second bandit exits the van, Michael smacks the butt of his rifle into the man's face, then over and over again turning him into a gory puddle of goo. As he is doing this, Will rescues Abigail from the back of the van. The three decide to leave the town for good before any more bandits show up. They head towards the forests that surround the town, as they're doing so they hear loud gunfire indicating that Norman and John are located and killed by the men.

Goodbye Old Friend
The three reach the top of the forest as night falls. Abigail leans against a tree and rests as Michael and Will begin to discuss recent events; particularly the malicious motives of the bandits that attacked them. Michael and Will agree that there is no way they're going to make it to Noah's Ark alive declaring that the best chance of survival for them is to retreat from civilization. Will grabs some rest as Michael stays up and keeps watch.

In the middle of the night, Michael awakes Will and reveals to the latter that he's hearing men make their way up the forest towards them. The two wake up Abigail, then make their way down the opposite side of the mountain with the men behind them fastly approaching. Michael passes Will his hammer as he helps Abigail stand up properly--still recuperating from the abduction attempt and car crash--however the three are not fast enough. Michael stops their progress and asks Will for the hammer back before passing over Abigail. Michael reveals that he's going to backtrack and distract the bandits; giving Abigail and Will enough time to escape. "I'll find you" he says, knowing full well that he wasn't going to make it back. Michael begins his trek back up the hill.

As they make their way down the hill, Abigail apologizes to Will for the way she had been treating him and forgives him for the murdering of her father. A gunshot echoes throughout the hills prompting Abigail and Will to believe Michael is killed, however, as revealed moments later, the gunshot was simply a bandit dispatching of a walker.

Characters (In order of appearance)

 * Michael - One of the initial protagonists in the early stages of the roleplay. Michael is killed by Bill and his men after distracting them from going after Abigail and Will. He is relentlessly tortured for days before being skinned alive. A mask is made out of his face and worn by Bill to psychologically taunt Will later on in the roleplay. Michael appears frequently after death as Will's hallucinations. Michael is a strong-willed teenager who has gone through hell and back since the start of the apocalypse. Even though he's had his moments of weakness and has contemplated suicide, Michael rises to the occasion, and is perhaps the most heroic character of the roleplay so far. He is a competent fighter and handy with a revolver.


 * Norman


 * Will - Will is arguably the central character of the roleplay as several major events revolve around him and there have been a few story arcs that stem from the psychological damage he goes through. Will is put through the ringer as the story progresses, but he is able to find the strength to crawl away from the depths of insanity for the sake of Abigail and their child. Will is portrayed as being a sort of clumsy individual, much to the chagrin of his fellow survivors.


 * John


 * Danny


 * Abigail


 * Eric


 * Bill

Cancelled story arcs

 * Much of the earlier posts revolving around Michael's character hint at an incident that claimed the life of his sister. Ultra intended on continuing this story, but abandoned it, fearing that it would be too melodramatic. Michael's sister was kidnapped and abused by a group of survivors for a number of weeks before Michael and his father tracked down and killed the men. Michael's sister was already dead by this point prompting his father to commit suicide right in front of him. Although Michael attempted to follow in his father's footsteps and end his life, Michael is incapable of doing so. Michael's failure in protecting his sister is demonstrated several times in the roleplay; he frequently tries to help other people trying to somehow make up for his past mistakes.
 * Ultra also planned on keeping Michael alive. Michael was going to successfully distract and evade Bill and his men before making his way back to Abigail and Will, fulfilling his promise of finding them, however Michael was killed off by Ultra in his attempt to raise the stakes of the roleplay.
 * If Michael were to still be alive, Ultra would have liked for a relationship to develop between him and Abigail ultimately leading to a love triangle between the two and Will. With Michael abroad Noah's Ark, Michael would have taken out the captain meaning Cass would still be alive. With Cass and Benji on their side, Michael, Will, and Abigail would have succeeded in taking on Bill and his men without hassle finally bringing an end to Bill's reign of terror. Will would have kept his sanity to some extent.

Trivia

 * A recurring theme is characters tripping over and hitting their heads, leaving them in a weakened state. This trope is used so often that it's also comedic at this point.


 * Interestingly enough Mad World exists in the MTVBniverse as a multimedia franchise, taking the place of The Walking Dead from the real world. Mad World exists in the format of a comic book, an insanely popular TV series, a trilogy of movies, and a popular video game. During Milk the Intern's brief stint as an actor, he appears in the show as a bandit who is killed off by Benji during the raid on Noah's Ark. Ultraman is also known to be a huge fan.