-Not how I want it to be, but it's good enough for now. I'm still working on the second part. Hopefully have it done before Christmas.
-I've tried to keep it from becoming technical, but it is kind of the layout for my entire gaming system, so some of that can't be helped.
SOMEWHERE OUTSIDE
Megan ran freezing through the field, pausing regularly to listen for moans. It was night, but daylight wouldn't have helped her see~-n -tense is set in past by 'wouldn't have' anything through the crops. Was it wheat? Did wheat grow 10 feet tall? She didn't bother to look it up.
She fell into a shallow ditch and collided with some sort of irrigation equipment. She paused there long enough to try to locate the unmistakable stench of rotting flesh now assaulting her. It seemed to be coming from the direction she was heading, so she took off to her right. She found the edge of the field, burst out into the clear and ran full tilt toward a large house, the only shelter in sight, without looking back.
It was more of a mansion, styled like a classic plantation house. The front door was locked, so she let herself in through one of the porch window~+s with the help of a rock. The first thing she did inside was to barricade the front door with a couch. They usually tried to get in the front way first, at least on beginner mode.
The house smelled of death ~[awkward usage- you might want to say smelled like or smelt of, as they are more common phrasing]. She hastily searched the first floor of the mansion and found it clear. Then she ran upstairs and tripped over what was left of a little girl, slowly dragging herself toward the stairs. The "girl" was decayed enough that she could no longer moan, which made her stealthy. Luckily, her legs were useless, and Megan scampered away from her with a gag and a shudder.
Megan found the upstairs rooms clear, except for a few locked doors. She went back to the child, which was crawling toward her. She gagged again from the smell.
Megan[to herself]: Crap, crap, crap. Why must you be so lifelike? So to speak.
She ran downstairs to the kitchen and found a heavy skillet, lugged it upstairs, and beat the child's brains out. Destroying the brains didn't stop them completely, but it rendered them lethargic. Making them completely inert, and thus suitable for consumption, was a more involved process. [Your brain is delightfully gross.]
Then an alarm reminded her of the Crain Slain concert. She was going to be late if she didn't hurry. Why did she allow herself to get stuck at that gas station for so long? Now there was no way she could secure the house to protect her character. Something was definitely going to find her, and the thought of her poor proxy being defiled by undeath creeped her out. But how to kill herself?
She heard scratching at the front door as she ran back to the kitchen. She grabbed a knife, checked it for sharpness, turned her discomfort setting all the way down, and stabbed herself in the neck as hard as she could. She fell on the ground and pulled the knife out. She grew weaker as her blood slowly covered the kitchen floor. Those puss buckets wouldn't be using her body as one of their necrotic puppets. [What, no pause buttons in the future? Even my grandmother's Atari can pause a game.]
Sam and Thomas stood in front of Chimera Field's gate, invisible to the throng of proxies and physicals streaming through them to the concert.
Thomas: I'm gonna beat my record this time. I've been practicing.
Sam: That's fine, but you should go incognito. Remember last time?
Thomas: It was fun!
Sam: Not for everyone.
Thomas: Spoilsport.
Sam: Do you remember when they had to pause the concert because of the lag?
Thomas: OK, yeah, it got a little out of hand.
Thomas switched his local public SIS from "Thomas" to his "Guy Incognito" identity.
Thomas: No one will recognize me now.
Sam: Should probably change your face too.
Thomas became a portly, elderly scientist in a lab coat with a white Santa Clause beard and bushy hair. The crowd would recognize him as Dr. Light, creator of Mega Man.
Thomas[sulking]: Now I won't cause any trouble.
Sam[patting him on the back]: I'm sure you can still contribute to a riot or two.
Mike's car pulled up to the curb near the gate. Mike and Dexter got of it and it drove away to park, guided by Chimera Field's parking system. Mike watched the process through the car's cameras until it was safely parked. They walked up to Thomas and Sam.
Thomas: Hey guys! Welcome to Chimera Field!
Chimera Field
Physical capacity: ~7000 physical bodies.
Proxy capacity: Frakking huge. Has exceeded 800,000.
Format: Large outdoor field with a stage and massive server capacity. ~[Technical specs would list bandwidth and processing numbers, informal language suggests personal involvement -audience will wonder who is sourcing these informational interludes.]
Mike and Dexter, being on T's "close friends" list on his SIS, recognized him through his cunning disguise.
Dexter: I like the new look, Mr. Incognito.
Mike: Yep. What a good idea. Probably Sam's.
Thomas: Sam suggested it, yes. But I will have you know that I was going to do this anyway. I'm not daft.
Mike: Just teasing. But do try not to overdo it. Big shoot tomorrow.
Thomas: Yeah, yeah. But if I'm called to duty, I have to go.
Mike: Like Crain needs another "Expert of Justice".
Sam: Oh, Mike, about tomorrow...
Sam followed Mike and Dexter through the gates, leaving T outside, practicing dance moves. A few minutes later, an ornate door frame popped up from the ground next to T. Megan walked through it and the frame disappeared back into the ground.
Thomas: Hey Megs! [*hugs*]
Megan: This is exciting! I've heard crazy things.
Thomas: And crazy things shall be delivered.
Megan: Why are you Dr. Light?
Thomas: I'm in disguise. There was an incident last time when everyone in the stadium recognized me. Someone put up a bulletin. It really wasn't my fault!
Megan[eating the donut]: I believe you.
Chimera Field was fenced in. When there wasn't a concert, it was mostly empty except for the bar near the entrance and the stage at the Northern fence. It was mostly covered in green grass, with some bald areas of dirt. At that moment, the field was occupied by a few thousand physicals. Most physicals were projecting into proxies or at least had appropriate proxy overlays.
There were also untold hundreds of thousands of mostly invisible proxies roaming around, which wouldn't be visible until the concert started.
Thomas: You look too normal. Go ahead and customize your Crain Slain proxy any way you want. Only thing that's required is hair or a hat that signifies your status.
Megan: Status?
Thomas: Yeah, whose side you're on. Red for Crain, blue for Slain. You'll decide during the concert.
Megan: What exactly have I gotten myself into?
Thomas: Oh, relax. Crain Slain is a general audience thing. Kids love it. It's kid friendly.
Megan: Kids love Hell Fray too.
Thomas: Right. Well, it's.... parent friendly. Mostly.
Megan opened a window and zoomed the view around looking for accessories to steal. She decided to copy some petite (flaming!) devil wings and a fetching mechanized, translucent face. The skin of her face became clear, revealing dozens of gears which moved with her expression, like they were creating it.
Megan and T followed Sam's path and found her sitting in a plush chair a hundred feet from the stage. As they walked up, the lights went on, illuminating the central stage.
Thomas: It's starting! You gonna do the concert Sam?
Sam: I think I'm going to chill this time. I always feel like I'm missing something in the middle of the action.
Thomas: What about you Megs?
Megan: What do you mean, "do the concert"?
Thomas: Catch the wave when it comes and find out. The Crain Slain proxy you're inhabiting is all you need.
Megan: Yeah, what's the deal with this thing? [flailing arms] It's kind of stiff.
Thomas: You have to build it up. Don't you ever research anything?
Megan: I like surprises.
Thomas: That's a truly dangerous statement. ~[only around some people]
The concert layer formed about 20 feet above the ground. Megan felt herself being drawn up into it, leaving the physicals below. T grabbed her hand on the way up when they started to diverge. Sam stayed behind.
Thomas: Stay near me so I can show you the ropes.
Once inside the layer, the physical world disappeared, leaving an enhanced virtual replica of Chimera Field. The grass completely covered the ground now, and it was vibrant purple. The clouds in the sky were gone, as well as nearby city lights, revealing an ocean of stars as clear and bright as humans had ever seen them. Megan gazed up at them. She had always found a full view of the stars to be comforting, like a blanket.
Concert proxies were visible on the concert layer. There were already more than two hundred thousand people projecting in. To fit their increasing numbers in the field, proxies were made smaller relative to the field.
Mike and Dexter shared a view of the virtual layer from below. [Is watching feet really that interesting? Or do you mean "had a good view of the virtual layer even from below"?] Its central stage appeared numerous times larger than the physical stage to them. They played with different settings as the concert went on, superimposing the virtual layer onto the physical field, or even shrinking it to view the action as if they were watching it from far above. They considered even inhabiting proxies and participating depending on how exciting the concert was.
Megan braced herself as the ground shook repeatedly. The grass of the West half of the field glowed red. A gigantic mass rose from the ground there, covered by a tarp and rusty scaffolding.
She opened a window to view it from above. From the shape, it could only be a covered giant robot. People started climbing on it. A giant crane appeared, hovering hundreds of feet above the ground.
The grass of the East half of the field glowed blue. A large, ominous mound of dirt emerged from the ground. It was obscured in mist, though Megan could make out some sort of gravestone on its South side. Dark shapes flitted about underneath and around it, glowing blue through the ground.
A contagious, elated enthusiasm gripped Chimera Field, which now had the population of a small city. Proxies wore every imaginable costume and style of outfit. They were dressed as demons, angels, androids, aliens, anime heroes, Ataraxia Pans, and every other character from popular media or Outside games that had caught their imaginations.
Supporting this event, and all the people participating by telepresence, was Chimera Field's immense server capacity. Crain Slain concerts were designed to reduce the effects of lag as much as possible. Lag wasn't a problem for those simply observing the concert, but it could be for those participating in it.
The geographical area which could actively participate in this particular Crain Slain event was effectively all of America, along with some parts of Europe and Asia. Outside of those areas, lag could potentially hurt your performance, mostly when fighting other players, although that didn't stop people outside the recommended area from participating and having fun. With such a wide area of participation, CS easily toured the globe several times each year, hopping from continent to continent.
Lag would not be a problem for Megan or Thomas, both with physicals less than a few hundred miles from the concert.
1. DESTROY ALL VAMPIRES!
An air raid siren pierced the air. Spotlights tracked a zeppelin approaching from the West. The lettering on its side said "Kobayashi Maru". Megan tried to zoom in to the compartment under the zeppelin, but it was too fuzzy to make out. The flight compartment collapsed in on itself, forming into a large, metallic sphere. The sphere released from the zeppelin as it came over the center stage.
It crashed in front of the stage and rolled to a stop, killing dozens of thrilled people who quickly regenerated. The ball sprouted spidery legs which carried it on stage. It unraveled itself across the stage, forming a complicated drum set and large set of keyboards.
A man stood up from behind the drums and dusted himself off. He took a seat there and sprouted two extra pairs of arms. A woman appeared behind the keyboards with even more arms and other technical looking appendages.
A red-headed woman rose in the middle of the stage, to wild applause. She was wearing a leather flight suit, a bolted corset, goggles on her forehead, and whirling gears on her boots. In short, she was steampunk. She strummed a sleek chrome guitar. There was no microphone because she didn't need one. The crowd chanted "Crain".
Crain
Fighting specialty: Mech. Really big mech.
Musical style: Heavy metal laced with 8-bit mania.
Appearance: Stark red hair. Steampunk.
Crain: Have we got any mech heads in the audience?
There was a loud reaction from the audience with hoots, laser guns firing in all directions, and proxies imitating the sound of Excelsior class mech engines whirring to life.
Crain held one hand palm up and a rotating holographic display of a giant robot appeared above it. Inside the robot were numerous interlocking gears. One of them pulsed red.
Crain: I'm gonna be a little ambitious tonight. I'll need your help developing that giant robot under the tarp over there. You guys have the schematics. Use them to activate the circuits for these gears. Together, we're gonna build that mech and give it a name. All I know so far is that it's a Star class.
The crowd clearly approved.
Thomas: Star class means she's going to war. This will get nuts.
Megan: I have no idea what you're talking about.
Crain: All you have to do is dance and sing along while I tell some stories. The first one is about a little girl who saw monsters consume everything she loved. So she built a 5 foot mech and paid the monster king a little visit. It's called 'Destroy All Vampires'!
Crain started hard. The onslaught of thrashing metal energy rolled out like a wave across the field, knocking unprepared proxies over, including Megan. The ground rippled with the music and the energy of the crowd, which danced and convulsed with the beat. The red glow of the West field spread a bit into the East.
Megan lowered the music volume a tad. She heard the music via her plant, so the volume didn't hurt her ears, but she didn't want to have to mute the music to hear T.
Megan: Is this song about Drain? The little girl who basically wrecked an instance of Hell Fray by herself?
Thomas: Yep. Most of Crain Slain's songs are true stories based on actual game events. This is an incendiary beginning. Slain's not going to like this.
Some proxies stood and watched, but most danced along with the music. Megan noticed that the areas with the best dancers glowed the brightest red, even if they were dancing on the blue grass.
She jumped as a multi-hooked chrome claw dropped suddenly from the crane high above into a group not that far from her. Their screams of delight were oddly juxtaposed with their dismembered bodies. Something resembling red mercury seeped out of their bodies and collected in the center of the claw. The claw glowed red as it rose, moved over, and dropped the liquid metal onto the head of the giant mech.
Thomas: Sweet. That was a tricky upgrade for this early on.
Megan: OK, what?
Thomas: Dance with the music for a moment.
Megan danced and found that her proxy was loosening up and feeling warm. Her hair glowed red.
Thomas: Now watch this.
Thomas danced like he normally did, but threw in some strangely specific flourishes. His pure white hair, including his beard, slowly turned a light shade of red.
Thomas: It's a rhythm game. Dancing, or singing, in sync with the music gives you resonance with the singer's energy. This makes the singer stronger, and it makes you stronger. Any dancing with ~[with what? needs object] will do for that, but to help build the robot or to get weapons you have to complete a dance challenge like that group that was just destroyed. Crain's schematics show you how to do the dance, you just have to follow along.
The victorious, dismembered group was already mostly regenerated and still celebrating. They had planned their dance for days.
Megan: Don't people just use dance ghosts?
Thomas: You can, but what's the fun in that? Plus, CS is constantly changing stuff up and throwing curves. You definitely won't get high achievements just using an old ghost.
Smaller hooks shot out from the crane destroying smaller groups of people or even just individuals and using their power to construct the Star class giant robot.
Megan: Doesn't that hurt?
Thomas: Depends on your settings. Duh.
Megan: Also, what is wrong with the music? It sounds like it's missing something.
Thomas: Check out the keyboard player and the drummer.
Megan zoomed in and saw that they weren't using all of their arms.
Megan: Let me guess, someone has to unlock their full abilities.
Thomas: Yep. Actually, before they lock down teleporting of game proxies, wait here a moment...
Thomas teleported near to the stage to dance along with a large group of more than three hundred proxies doing variations on a series of weird movements. Megan would have taken it for spastic moshing except that the beat of their convulsing seemed to complement the music in an almost hypnotic way. Thomas' fat, elderly body didn't seem to hold him back. The entire group was soon glowing bright red and were soon destroyed by the large claw.
The claw dropped the group's flashing red power onto the stage. It merged with the drummer and transformed him, giving him an awesome and elaborate jester's cap and several cybernetic attachments to his arms. The ground rumbled and a violent wind swept across the field, throwing proxies around like leaves as the drummer added his full beat to the song.
T's mangled corpse, guts hanging out, teleported back over to Megan. It spurted blood as politely as possible while it knitted itself back together again.
Thomas: Sorry about the mess.
Megan: That was kind of cool.
Thomas: Oh my gods. Look at his hat!
Thomas formed one side of a portal next to his intact hand and one portal next to the side of the drummer's head. T reached through and grabbed the cap. This theft wasn't on the primary concert layer, of course, because people weren't allowed on the stage. So only he and Megan saw it happen and the drummer kept his hat. But now T had a copy, which he promptly put on his head. It turned as red as T's hair.
The giant claw hit another group on the other side of the field, and deposited their achievement in the robot. The entirety of the lying [<-- why is this word here? It's not doing anything] giant robot flashed red. A gear had been unlocked.
Thomas: They achieved the 'Gear Of The Slayer' just in time. Gears are harder to achieve if not completed in one song.
With a final musical thrust, Crain stepped through a portal and was gone.
2. RETURN OF THE REVENANT
The massive burial mound in the East sent waves of blue pulsing through the grass, shaking the ground and beating back the red glow which had invaded from the Eastern half. A still anticipation came over the crowd. The mound's North side split open and spiders poured from it. They streamed toward the stage, consuming every proxy in their path and leaving a wide swath of skeletons in their wake. The still clapping skeletons regrew their innards and skin, with exacting anatomical detail, as the spiders engulfed the stage. They coalesced on stage and their mass collapsed into the form of a man. He was dressed in a ratty t-shirt and blood covered jeans. The crowd chanted "Slain".
Slain
Fighting specialty: Sword and/or sorcery.
Musical style: Nerd-punk.
Appearance: Funky blue hair. Dead and beginning to rot. Somehow still hot as heck.
The steampunk look of the stage remained.
Slain: Crain sets a nice stage. Now let's mess that bitch up with a real horror show!
Slain: Crain's been naughty. So we'll have to be wicked. There's a certain Old One with a taste for machines and an undying itch for carnage. First help invoke the 'Glyph of Alucard's Recurring Nightmare' with our song 'Return of the Revenant'. We shall summon Bath of the Abyss!
The crowd liked this announcement. Slain's infectious punk tune, accented by his tasty nerdcore flow, swept across the field. Megan involuntarily hopped in surprise as blue tendrils of Slain's energy whipped at her shoes. As Slain heated up, human sized holes formed in the ground around the fields. Colorful demons popped out of them, grabbed people and pulled them under. Megan picked up a feed from one of the victims who was dragged at breakneck speeds through a series of tunnels underground before being ejected from another hole on the other side of the field. It looked fun.
Thomas: Bath's a nasty one. This is going to be a good concert.
Megan: So if the crowd activates enough glyphs, it summons an Old One. What if the audience fails?
Thomas: They may not get Bath, but they'll get something. Oh, check that out.
A group jumping up and down and smashing into each other turned effervescent blue. Horned red demons, classic but horrid, popped out of the ground underneath them and quickly ate them until only gnawed skeletons remained. The demons, now glowing blue, took off for the mound, rudely clawing and climbing over everyone in their way. Once atop the mound they vomiting blue ooze onto it and then burrowed back into the Earth. The blue ooze collected and formed a holographic semicircle popping out of the side of the mound.
Thomas: That's the first part of the glyph. Two more and it's sealed to the mound.
Megan: Sweet. So what's with this muffled backbeat? It seems to come and go.
Thomas: It's a potential variation of the current song. Most CS songs have variations. The audience can resonate with whatever variation they like and if enough people want it, CS uses it and everyone hears it. Some variations are provided by CS, but others, like that backbeat, come from fan mods. If you loosen up your audio filters, you'll hear traces of fan mods all around you. Most CS songs have evolved using fan mods in one way or another, whether it's a bass line or the popular hell slide you see in action.
Megan: So we can change songs. What else?
Thomas: Variations help determine musical themes for the entire concert and pick the next song. The setlist determines the branching of the story, so we can pretty much determine everything. If we can get organized, that is. People pay for the concert so they can participate like that. Here, add that mod and dance with it to make it stronger.
They both added the backbeat and danced along with it. Thomas' jester cap jingles as his large body cut loose.
Megan: We're turning blue. Should we be helping Slain?
Thomas: Until there's conflict, most people help both sides as much as possible. Makes it more interesting. Besides, we're on the East side [after the initial layout, it would be easier on the audience to refer to sides as Red and Blue to simplify keeping track], so best not to play nice with the natives. ~[Confusing. If you mean 'best to play nice' you have an extra word. If you mean 'beast to play not-nice with the natives' as an invitation for conflict, that should be worded a different way.]
Their dancing didn't accomplish much, as the crowd stopped carrying the fan mod.
During an instrumental section of his song, Slain performed a quick ritual summoning a small meteorite which crashed into the midsection of Crain's mech, sending nearby people flying in all directions.
Slain: Death to metal monsters and their pathetic inventors!
Megan: Wow, they really seem to hate each other.
Thomas: Most of the time. Wait, you know that Crain and Slain are the same person, right?
Megan: Really? But they're so different.
Thomas: Crain and Slain are almost certainly both played by Heather Crain. The drummer, keyboardist and bassist are probably separate people, but no one knows who they are.
Megan: How mysterious. No one knows who the rest are? ~[Smart people in books do not parrot dialog from the line before. Characterization issue.]
Thomas: Not for sure. Even Heather's involvement isn't ironclad. She's only been spotted geographically near CS concerts a few times, but she could orchestrate the concert from a good distance away. Since she's setting the pace and doesn't have to make split second decisions, lag wouldn't necessarily be a problem for her. She's one of the few people I know that could pull off both roles by herself. Also, I haven't seen her around much since Crain Slain took off.
Thomas: It's a long story.
A group of blue dancers completed a particularly gruesome and difficult rhythm "ritual" and were consumed by demons, which vomited the last part of the needed sacrificial energy onto the mound. It formed a pentagram in the middle of the glyph, completing it. It turned to stone, sealing it to the mound.
Thomas: Alucard's Recurring Nightmare is a nice edge. Crain is definitely not going to like this.
Megan: But they're the same person?
Thomas: You have so much to learn.
By the end of the song the blue part of the field had extended a good deal into the West side, part of it almost touching the foot of Crain's mech. Thomas led Megan into the red. He knew what was coming next.
3. LIFE AS WE KNOW IT
A portal opened above Slain's head and Crain fell through it. She hit him in the head with her guitar as she landed, knocking him to the East side of the stage. He rose and they faced each other. Slain flipped Crain off and she stuck her tongue out at him. Then they began singing together about a current conflict in Ataraxia. Crain took the side of the mech-based Kirin and Slain sang in favor of the monstrous Faint.
Thomas: The battle's starting up early. OK, we fight for Crain this song.
Megan: How do we do that?
Thomas: Dance with Crain's resonance. Maybe do a simple rhythm game. And watch out for attacks.
Megan: Attacks like what?
Thomas: Oh, you'll see.
There was a continuous stream of red and blue proxies moving respectively to the West and East of the field. A jagged dividing line formed between them. Large groups of opposing colors remained behind "enemy" lines, resulting in localized tussles.
Thomas left Megan, ran to the dividing line, and threw hundreds of donuts into the blue side.
Thomas: Join the Crain revolution! We have donuts! ~[And you say meme overuse is too common. :)]
A few people ate them, but most were wary of weird food thrown from random Crain-tainted video game characters.
As the song picked up, skirmishes broke out along the line. Megan tried to dance as the ground quaked from the tension between the two singers. For a while it was like treading a wave and she felt like she was on the verge of being swept away with the slightest misstep. But the more she danced, the more agile her character became. She was just getting the hang of dancing in resonance with Crain when things took a turn.
Crain struck first. Dozens of car-sized robotic locusts descended from the sky onto Slain's side, harassing blue colored proxies and exploding in a dazzling array of colors. In retaliation, Slain sent mutant, zombie dinosaurs rampaging through Crain's side. They stomped proxies and gnashed them in their teeth as they ran into the distance.
A puss-oozing, half decayed stegosaurus slammed its tail into Megan, impaling her on one of its spikes and flinging her proxy through the air. Her ruptured proxy split in two as it fell to the ground. It was a bit much for her. She left her concert proxy before it hit the ground and hovered nearby with her regular proxy.
Inhabiting a non-concert proxy in the concert layer meant that she couldn't participate with the concert and wouldn't automatically appear to concert goers on that layer. But she could still fly around and experience the various sensations of the concert.
She set her broken concert proxy to mimic her prior dancing and flew off to watch the crowd. Despite the carnage below, and Slain's multiplying attack monsters, the predominant smell above the Crain's side was that of musty old books. Crain's followers were making inroads into Slain's territory as they moshed and thrashed. A small red group was fighting blue players near Slain's burial mound. Some of them were doing the robot to mock Slain's side.
Body parts flew in all directions on Crain's side as small and large claws fell into the red crowd from the crane above, extracting the energy achieved by dancers successfully following Crain's schematics to activate some part of the giant robot or other.
Megan flew over Slain's side. It smelled like the ocean. And blood. Crain had sent a variety of mechanical creatures of indeterminate shapes to Slain's side, and they were laying down over-the-top brutality on Slain's people. Not that they needed help dismembering themselves. Slain's side featured the most horrifying synchronized dancing she had ever seen. There was biting, gashing, clawing, and furious self-mutilation. Some people repeatedly cut their own heads off and reattached them as part of some dance ritual. All in good fun, of course.
Demons, large and small, consumed Slain's dancers as they completed sacrificial rituals to turn their energy into proper sacrifices to invoke the glyphs that would harmonize with each other to summon some unspeakable ancient deity.
Megan spotted Thomas dancing atop a giant freaky serpent, evading its whipping tentacles while pulling off some oddly specific dance maneuvers. She flew over to him and waved. He threw her a donut.
Thomas: What are you doing outside of your concert proxy? Get it and get up here!
Megan: Up on the snake?
Thomas[weaving and dodging]: Cmon megs, ride the snake!
Megan: Yeah... I'm not going to do that.
Thomas: Well, go dance somewhere. This is a dueling song, you know.
There was a commotion to the East. Crain had sent a ginormous cybernetic squid to wreck psionic havoc among Slain's followers. It crushed Slain's people with its giant tentacles, temporarily mixed up their proxy control schemes to impair their coordination, and blasted their senses with scenes of barren alien landscapes [Watchmen shoutout] and obnoxious dancing mechanical crabs with high pitched voices. The crabs were the worst part.
Megan flew over to her concert body. She was feeling a little insecure being away from her physical body, so she checked one of her apartment's camera feeds and saw it lying peacefully on her bed, still breathing. There were tons of sensors and alarms in place for the sake of safety, but it was still good to check every once in a while. For a moment, she switched off her virtual tactile input so she could feel her physical. She kept her vision and hearing at the concert as she stretched out her physical body. Her left arm had fallen asleep, which wasn't dangerous, but she readjusted it anyway so she wouldn't have to deal with it later.
She returned her tactile senses to the game and jumped into her autonomously dancing concert proxy. She put new effort into it, turning a brighter shade of red as her proxy resonated with Crain. She was soon mauled to death by a group of satanic penguin, but kept her wits about her and kept dancing as her body knitted back together, pushed on by the crazy energy of the concert. The mood was getting almost apocalyptic with the insane destruction being unleashed in all directions.
Thomas, still some distance away, spoke to her over an audio feed.
Thomas[via audio]: This is starting off a little rough. I just almost got killed. So to speak.
Megan: A little rough? It's like a warzone.
Thomas[chucking]: It's only the third song. It's not even serious yet.
Megan: Right. So how could Heather Crain be both Crain and Slain during a duet?
Thomas: It's easy enough to train a ghost to sing a song and dance on the stage. Actually, both proxies could be running ghosts, especially with Crain Slain's accumulated on-stage experiences as aggregate data. It takes more focus to manage all the mods than to actually play a song. Holy crud, hold on....
Thomas had been partly flattened by a tentacle, but still managed to complete his dance. A crane fell from the heavens, smashing him to pieces and extracting his energy. More importantly, the crane pierced through the giant serpent too, leaving it with a gaping hole which slowed it enough for other players to tear into and kill it.
Thomas, having helped to vanquish the mega-serpent, found Megan again. Teleportation of game proxies had been locked down once the C/S conflict had begun, but luckily he had attained some cybernetic leg enhancements from scoring high enough on the dance. As soon as his legs had reformed, he used the powered leg bracers to jump over to her.
Thomas: It looks like you did a good job dancing. You know, the next time you could just turn off discomfort if things get crazy.
Thomas: But Crain needs you! You can't just leave your body. Where's your game ethic?
Megan: I'm trying. It's kind of scary here. Even with pain off, it's disconcerting to be run over by a hell-tainted dinosaur.
Thomas: Yeah, it is kind of scary. Don't let me bully you into something you're not comfortable with. You're doing great. The people that at first don't feel the way you do are the ones I worry about.
Megan: Did you feel this way?
Thomas: Can't remember.
4. SYZER'S FOLLY
Crain: This one's about a doomed soldier who cheated death and rode a wave of bloody chaos over the foul demons of the Faint realm.
There was a short pause in the fighting at the great divide at the beginning of the song, but it didn't last. Crain's side slowly pushed the dividing line East.
Thomas: Another one about Ataraxia. This song is good evidence that Heather Crain wrote this, but mostly only to me.
Megan: Why mostly only to you?
Thomas: Because the perspective of this song fits with Heather Crain's during the incident. And an inside joke we had. Someone else looking at the recording could probably figure it out, but I can't imagine why they'd work it into a song.
Megan: Are you saying you're in this song?
Thomas: Yeah, this one time in Aataraxia I kind of tricked Heather Crain into helping me out during a fight. Her character was the Pandemonium Syzer.
Megan: Do you know her then?
Thomas: Yeah. We had this thing and uh... anyway, her role as Syzer proves she's fully capable of pulling off Crain Slain.
Megan: And that is the end of your story?
Thomas: Listen a second.
Crain: ...plans of waste, Pan vain and pulled her strings, Hanged Man drown their depraved campaign. In the Synk, brain their kinks...
Megan: Hanged Man? Like you?
Thomas: Yeah. This is the song where the riot started last time so now I have to be fat. [grabbing his belly for emphasis]
Megan: Seriously, this song is about you?
Thomas: I'm mentioned in another song too. Anyway, she calls herself vain. It's an completely inane inside joke.
Megan: So, Heather Crain was a Pandemonium in Ataraxia?
Thomas: More than that. She was the first true god of string manipulation. Why does no one study history?
Megan: Isn't 'Gear of The Gears' redundant?
Thomas: You're really gonna have to play Ataraxia sometime. The Gears are kind of like dungeon masters. It's a good achievement. We might just have a chance of winning.
5. ANCIENT INEFFABLE ECHOES OF FORSAKEN AEONS FROM BEYOND THE WALL OF SLEEP, PART 4
Slain: This one's for Lovecraft. Rot for eternity, you filthy liar!
A full orchestra of revenants appeared on the roof of the stage, which grew walls to house them. The walls, like the members of the orchestra, were bleeding and crawling with insects. Slain started up the song and his energy filled Chimera Field. It sent spikes of molten blue death up through the ground of Slain's half, disintegrating thousands of proxies.
It was a catchy song. Crain's side danced along with it as much as Slain's. Megan danced for Slain while Thomas ran over and climbed up the left knee of Crain's mech. It took some effort due to the relatively small concert proxies compared to the giant robot.
Thomas[over audio]: Come on up! This is a great spot for dancing!
Megan: Yeah, I don't know about that. That's kind of high.
Megan haltingly climbed up the metallic mesh draped over the mech and after several near slips stood beside Thomas and looked out at the sea of people. It somehow felt like a more impressive view than when she had flown over the field. Maybe that was because of the thrill of knowing that she could fall.
Thomas: Are you afraid of heights?
Megan: A little.
Thomas: But they can't hurt you. Well, sometimes they can, but you know. Plus, you obviously fly.
Megan: Yeah, but when you're flying like that, you control the gravity. I know it's silly, but being gravity bound and high up is freaky.
Thomas nodded. They looked out over the throng below. Mechanical bears and crocodiles tore through Slain's followers while large jawed clowns attempted to chew on, and feel up, Crain's people. The clowns were new, and maybe just a little too creepy for the audience.
Megan: Are we supposed to be up here?
Thomas: Wouldn't it be awesome if we weren't? Anyway, remove your filters so you can see everything.
Megan[seeing everything]: Well, now I can see an orgy near the stage.
Thomas: Oh, that's not important. That's just the designated orgy section. I don't really understand it.
Megan: Orgies?
Thomas: Just having one during Crain Slain. Kind of disrespectful. They might as well be napping.
Megan: They are moving rhythmically to the music.
Thomas: Forget about the orgy. I just didn't want you to miss the upcoming uh... ambiance.
After five minutes of rapping about indescribable horrors, a stone 'Elder Sign' appeared on Slain's burial mound. Thomas noted the already potent combination of stone glyphs with concern. With Elder Sign, Berserk, and Alucard's Recurring Nightmare, Slain could already summon a fairly powerful demigod, at least compared to the power from the gears that Crain had integrated into her giant robot. The Slayer, Kirin, and Ataraxic Gears would have been the beginning of an impressive collection most concerts, but right then things were looking dire for Crain and her followers.
Slain's Orchestra slowly melted away as the song ended. They screamed the whole time as they turn~+ed into puddles and melted off the stage roof and into the ground.
Crain phased on stage. The two singers moved to the center of the stage as if they were about to fight, but then started singing in harmony. The sun rose and ~shone brightly on Chimera Field. Double and triple rainbows arced across the sky, sprinkling flower petals and delicious gum drops over the crowd. The various demons and mechanical monsters harassing the crowds transformed into unicorns, adorable elves, and friendly hydra. The grass on both sides of the field turned green and all fighting stopped for the duration of the song.
Megan: What's with this song? It's slow. Wait, is this a love song?
Thomas: Yep, it's CS's only love song. Did you miss the special Candy Trail option?
Megan: I thought it was just a... are those really...
Thomas: Crain and Slain's sex ghosts. Grab 'em, they're both yummy.
Megan: OK, so what's this "adult" opt-in... oh...
Thomas: Oral sex for everyone! You randomly get Crain or Slain. They each have their own style.
Megan looked around at the suddenly relaxed crowd from atop the mech's knee. There didn't appear to be a single fight anywhere.
Megan: The oral sex seems sort of extraneous.
Thomas: This is just before the big divide, so it's kind of a breather. What better way to calm everyone down than with rainbows and good head?
Megan: Hey, I thought you said Crain Slain was parent friendly?
Thomas: Everything is properly tagged. If there's a kid running around Outside without proper filters, Crain Slain is a pretty minor concern compared with Omni or thousands of other places.
Thomas: When they distract, yeah. This is integrated into the concert. Plus, only having the sensation without the visuals keeps it from becoming a spectacle.
Those who opted-in to be given oral sex by one of CS's sexbots determined the parts of their proxy bodies which would be stimulated, although most limited it to their genitalia because of the time constraints. All stimulation and its effects was hidden in concert proxies, mostly out of good taste, but also to keep the people engaged with the concert. A few people left their concert proxies to have sex with CS's ghosts in separate private spaces. Others would continue the oral experience long after the song ended. Proxy sex doesn't involve chafing or soreness, unless they're desired.
After a few minutes, colorful flowers bloomed all over Chimera field. They shimmered magically in the sunlight and smelled of all kinds of delicious, dreamy goodness.
Megan: This whole uh... thing is not bad. It is kind of weird though.
Thomas: You probably got Crain. She has a peculiar but effective cunilingus technique.
Thomas: I got Slain this time. He's more straightforward for either genitalia. We can swap if you want.
Megan: I think I can manage. This mass orgy of sorts is not as strange or awkward as I would have imagined.
Thomas: That's because the experience is discrete. Except for the blooming flowers, which are a tasteful and anonymous visual tally of orgasms.
Megan: You mean each of those flowers represents an orgasm? Holy crud. There are a lot of flowers.
Thomas: Yep. You see what I was talking about before at Sam's party? You can have the sensations from all kinds of sex anywhere you want. It's fun, no one has to know, and few would even care if they found out. Shame is for the lame.
Megan: Shame is for the lame? Did you just make that up?
Thomas: I hope so.
The song winded ~[word choice should be wound, as winded is also a homonym for breathing heavily] down and the ending notes creaked and soured. The special Candy Trail oral sex opt-in ended automatically, although many chose to keep it going. The sun set and the stars blanketed the sky once more with their cool glow. The landscape transformed back into a battlefield of red and blue. Something felt different now, like the air was charged.
Megan: That was a beautiful song. And remarkably relaxing.
Thomas: I hope you're rested up, because now the fun really starts.
Crain and Slain went back to their sides of the stage and stood silently with their heads downcast in intense concentration. The crowd was deathly quiet as it separated cleanly into red vs. blue. Then a minor earthquake knocked Megan off her feet and split the ground between the two sides, raising Slain's side a few inches higher than Crain's. Thousands of blue resonating proxies jumped over to Crain's side and moved into the crowd.
Thomas: Holy frak.
Megan: What's going on? What's with the migration?
Thomas: The world is divided. It's unusual, but Slain has too much of an advantage so some of his people are coming over to balance it out a bit. To keep things interesting.
Megan: Are we really in that much trouble?
Thomas: Well, worst case is being devoured by an unspeakable evil that will digest our souls for ten thousand years. So not really. But we still have a chance to win!
posted by flamingsword @ 11:50 PM
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