I really really love this concept and definitely want to join this rp
. If you want to read my ramblings on time loops and how I currently envision them working, located below, go ahead. I think I went a little overboard, but the idea is just so cool that I couldn't help myself!
time loops: If we understand a time loop to be a traumatic event that is replayed over and over again like a particular scene from a movie or a memory, you could argue that since nothing in the loop ever changes time must be frozen inside the loop. For example, inside a loop created at 12:23 on May 2nd in 1854 that spans to 12:25 on the same day, it is always that time even if the loop is being played a hundred years later. Time loops could basically function as bubbles of displaced time in the present. So you could explain time travel by saying that the team of ghost hunters first transport their consciousnesses into the bubble/time loop that is being replayed in the present (thus effectively travelling back to 1854), and then break out of the bubble and into 1854 on May 2nd at any time between 12:23-12:25. This would mean that the ghost hunters can't pick and choose exactly what moment in time they want to travel back to, but have to make do with whatever loops exist (loops fade over time, the stronger/more traumatic the experience the longer they stay around, so the further back you want to go, the less loops exist). This would also mean that the whole pesky plot hole usually associated with time travel when travelling forward in time - of whether free will exists or whether the universe is deterministic and everything has already been written - can be avoided as travelling forward in time is impossible.
As an added source of tension loops could also get destroyed the more you use them, as breaking in and out of the bubble/time loop weakens its barriers and eventually releases the spirit(s) trapped inside destroying the loop. OR the destruction of loops could be a thing of the past and now all loops are strengthened, which raises all sorts of ethical questions about trapping spirits inside a horribly traumatic event that would have faded naturally but is now being artificially sustained forever. If someone wants this rp to get political there could also be all sorts of groups (religious or otherwise) lobbying against the profession of ghost hunters or even sabotaging them, as they feel that keeping souls trapped in eternal torment just to serve as gateways to the past is completely unacceptable. One of these groups could also perhaps serve as the antagonists of this rp? However there are so many other story-lines that can be based on this concept and I think they all have potential. Plots such as; the team stumbling unawares into an ancient civilization that can exorcise ghosts and thus them as well, the team getting stuck in the past due to some technical malfunction, an ancient ghost seeing this as a way to gain a body, real ghosts being violent and malevolent spirits that pose a serious threat to the team while they are in the past etc. These are just a few that have occurred to me so far, but I bet that there are so many more possible directions to take this concept in.
I hope more people see the potential in this idea and join, as I think it would work best in a small group format.
