June Event: Chaos, Chaos!

[lifeaftr_mods]

JUNE EVENT: CHAOS, CHAOS!

Who: Anyone and everyone!
What: It's just a little chaos...
When: June 17th - June 22nd
Where: Primarily Io, though also across Ensō and the islets if applicable
Warnings: Violence, possible body horror, potential anxiety and dysmorphia associated with body-swapping

Who Keeps Spinning the World Around?

The morning of June 17th, you'll probably notice things are amiss rather quickly. Your hands aren't your hands, or you're no longer in a squishy human flesh shape, or worse. Maybe your Lawful Good persona has plummeted into an outright Chaotic Evil one. Or maybe you wake up with a brand new power in your hands! Whatever the case is, no explanation is going to be immediately forthcoming, from Eleu or the Storyteller or anyone else. You'll have to figure out this mess on your own. Adjust to your new circumstances, master your new powers, and do what you can to make it through the next few days...because they're going to be some very interesting ones, for certain.

Catch Me If You Can!

Come June 20th, whether you're back to normal selves or not, Eleu has a job for you. A request, even. They're going to need your help to take care of this little problem and put a stop to all this absolute madness.

Those interested in helping can get in touch with any of the honeybees buzzing anxiously about Io, and they will redirect you to the Honeycomb, which has now been provided with several barrels of Honeycomb Sledgehammers for your use. You don't have to take one if you don't need it, but they make a very powerful weapon. Additionally, Eleu will take care to assure that, in exchange for your help, you may keep the Sledgehammer, if you so choose. Those interested in assisting may access our boss fight at its top-level below. This is a single thread with no order, but anyone may participate, regardless of their current state of being. Don't worry about how you contribute, or tag speed. Anyone who's concerned about being left out is welcome to reach out to us to handwave or backtag their involvement, if necessary!

The Clown Box is going to put up a fight, though. And it's not going to be pretty.

Event Timeline

[ ♆ ] June 17th: Chaos begins!
[ ♆ ] June 21st: On the eve of the final battle, Storytelling commences.
[ ♆ ] June 22nd: Characters confront the Clown Box, and all parties return to normal.
[ ♆ ] June 25th: All parties become privy to the final outcome involving the Clown Box.

LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Comments

[motherfucking_ghost]

Uh, yeah! Like I can sense when you're being an asshole! Okay okay, just. Take a deep breath. You don't need to, but it's like, a motion familiar to you that should help calm you down? Don't panic or your brain will shoot off in like a hundred different directions, it's called anxiety, that's normal but we don't want it right now.

[counterblows]

I know what anxiety is. How does a computer chip have an anxiety problem? No, wait -

[He's asking all the wrong questions. He knows what all of this is; it's the fact that A.I. don't come from nothing, the fact that they are built from human brainwaves, from cloned synapses, and that their reactions are literally made to mimic the ones that originated them.]

[That doesn't make it any easier to bear.]

Am I just a copy of myself?

[motherfucking_ghost]

You're not a copy. [He says this with a touch of--anger? Fiery conviction. Not just because, with all the fucking weirdness going on and the negligible technology levels, that can't have happened at all, but also...he just wants to reject the idea outright. He still is not a fan of it.]

There's just weird shit going on. When did this happen? I was looking for you, but I never found you until now, and you can't just have been stuck like this for days.

[counterblows]

[At the very least, that diverts his train of thought, derailing incipient panic. He doesn't have to think twice about his projection's body language. It shifts its feet, he shifts his feet, and tries to look nonchalant.]

I was...stuck in a different body for a bit. I thought after I woke up here I'd be back to normal, but I guess not.

[motherfucking_ghost]

This can't last forever. Probably.

I know you're not physical--this form, it's just more of a projection. Like--[a ghost. But. No. Let's not go there.] A hologram. But it helps to think of yourself as having a physical form. I never just winked into any bodies; I always just...physically went into them and took over from there.

It always felt kind of like waking up. Maybe--maybe it just came so naturally to me I never thought about how I did it.

[counterblows]

Just walking into them and...

[Walking into a house and deciding it's yours for a bit - and while you're staying there, you might as well do something useful.]

[Is it really that simple?]

[One way to find out.]

Don't have anything to lose, then.

[Just walk forward and - ]

[Get up.]

[It's weird, looking at hands that are and aren't his own, looking at all of this through the lens of someone much smaller. But at least he's back in his "body" again. For however long that lasts.]

Huh.

Thanks.

[motherfucking_ghost]

That worked? Okay, good, because I was all out of ideas. It just comes naturally, okay, I didn't read a manual on how to be a ghost. Or, [dismissively] an AI in a robot or whatever.

How do you...feel? Besides weird.

[counterblows]

"Weird" just about covers it.

[Panicky too, though a little less so now. Mercifully.]

...better, now. It's not exactly a fun time to see your own body just lying there. Or, uh -

I guess you knew that.

[motherfucking_ghost]

You get used to it. It's when I'm sharing a head with someone else that it gets--

...And...you...would know about that, too.

We both agree this is immensely fucked up, right?

[counterblows]

...yeah. Yeah, we do.

[Trust him when he says he hates this. He'd still, if slightly, prefer it over being a fucking cat.]

Is this place just trying to single me out personally? I'd like it to stop.

[motherfucking_ghost]

[He reaches out and...hesitates, for a moment, before settling a hand on Wash's shoulder.]

Nah, I think it hates everyone pretty equally, all things considered. But that's particularly fucked. 's not all bad, though. Being a robot, I mean!

[counterblows]

Are you one now? I mean, everyone was...changing species and bodies and stuff.

[He tries to concentrate on the feeling of having a hand on his shoulder. It doesn't feel different from if he were human, sensing the pressure through plates of armor, but it is. Is thinking about it what makes it different?]

[motherfucking_ghost]

Pretty sure my body's still robotic, cuz the person in it can't seem to take the armor off. I mean, they wouldn't, seeing as it's...part of my body and all.

This guy, [with a point to his lanky, older, Faust-y body] seems to be all human far as I can tell, though even Maine's not this stupid-tall. It's been a while since I've been human for any significant length of time. 's kinda nice, actually, aside from all the aches and pains.

[counterblows]

He's human?

[He's nine feet fucking tall. How is that possible? Church is right; even Maine's not that massive.]

...wouldn't have guessed that. Guess he, uh, eats his protein. Must be nice to be...taller...than everyone? [He's trying.]

[motherfucking_ghost]

I've sure got a view. I dunno if he's got arthritis or just has aches from being so freakishly tall, though, cuz man, it's...not always comfy in here. Or maybe I'm just--not used to bodies anymore? Huh.

[And now all his expressions are out in the open, but it doesn't feel weird. He always thinks about making faces under his faceplate, even if they wouldn't translate even if he didn't wear a helmet. He's not been all confidence. He worries. But...but it'll be fine, and they'll both be fine, and they'll all be fine. Right? Right.]

Maybe you can make like the person in my body and just start throwing yourself around without a care in the world. What are you gonna do, break a bone?

[counterblows]

Human bodies are prone to that.

[How long has it been since Church was in an...organic body? Hell if he can say. He doesn't know the timeframes for when he skipped into a robot body, or how long it's been since then.]

Aside from fall out of my body again? Which, in case I need to explain, wasn't exactly fun?

[motherfucking_ghost]

Well, but now you know how to get back in your body. So even if you just kinda fall out and keep walking while your body stays still, you can fix it!

Or you could float around and just be a free range spirit. 's not so bad. You just miss holding things in that case.

[counterblows]

I don't think I can actually get that far away from it. I just...stop every time I try.

[So it's not even that he's an A.I., he's an A.I. tethered specifically to this body. Which is great.]

[motherfucking_ghost]

Like you're leashed to it? I mean...guess it keeps you from wandering off and getting lost from your body... Means less risk of it powering down and...subsequently, you powering down?

I don't know, man, I can't even project myself anymore ever since I woke up on this island nonsense. I'm as tethered to my body as can be now. Except in cases like this. Obviously.

[counterblows]

So I've gathered.

[This place doesn't like you being able to hop from shape to shape. Evidently.]

I guess you could say...yeah. Yeah, I'm leashed to it. So it's figure out how to make it work, or nothing. I just get stuck in one place until I can remember how to get my body to move again.

[It's a nightmare. This entire shit is a nightmare.]

How'd you handle feeling like this all the time?

[motherfucking_ghost]

By not...feeling like that all the time? I guess? Once I figured it all out in the first death and finally got a body to call my own again, it just all started becoming second nature, especially after a couple years. Not being able to hop around if I want to is now the weird thing.

...Epsilon didn't give you any insight, huh? [Y'know, before they both went bugfuck insane and all.]

[counterblows]

Not really.

[Insight wasn't really on the agenda.]

I had the chance to...unpack a lot of it after the fact. Years after. I didn't really think a lot about...I mean, he knew what he was. I don't think that dissonance ever really...

[Well, he was memory. He wouldn't have had to deal with not knowing who he was. At first, anyway.]

[motherfucking_ghost]

Yeah, but, I mean. Being an AI. The matter of being an AI. An AI's existence. How one exists in the form of an AI. I dunno, man, I don't know what kind of...relationship you two had before the whole. Uh. Everything. [It always seemed antagonistic at best to him, but maybe that's because he doesn't think 'drove me insane and gave me information I never asked for' would normally be seen in a positive light.]

But hey, at least you've got a ghost buddy to help you out now, from the outside.

[counterblows]

It wasn't really much of a relationship. [Before or after. There wasn't much time to talk about anything when he lit Wash's brain up with gasoline and set him on fire, and even after all that, what would they have said to one another?]

[Considering that getting Epsilon to talk to Tucker had been its own fucking hurdle to clear, he can't imagine how much of a nightmare it would've been to get him to talk to Wash.]

...I guess I do. Thanks.