SOMEWHERE OUTSIDE
Megan ran, freezing, through the crops, pausing regularly to listen for moaning. It was night, but daylight wouldn't have helped her see anything through the wheat. Was it wheat? She didn't have time to look it up.
She fell into a shallow ditch and then collided with irrigation equipment. She paused there to sniff out the direction of the rotting flesh that was subtly assaulting her sense of smell. It seemed to be coming from the direction she was heading, so she took off to her right. She finally found the edge of the field, burst out into the clear, and without looking back ran full tilt toward the only shelter in sight, a large plantation house.
The front door was locked, so she used a rock to let herself in through one of the porch windows. The first thing she did inside was barricade the front door with a couch. They usually tried to get in the front way first, at least on beginner mode.
The front door was locked, so she used a rock to let herself in through one of the porch windows. The first thing she did inside was barricade the front door with a couch. They usually tried to get in the front way first, at least on beginner mode.
The inside of the house smelled of death. She hastily searched the first floor and found it clear. Then she ran upstairs and in her haste tripped over what was left of a little girl, slowly dragging itself toward the stairs. She was decayed enough that she could no longer moan, which made her stealthy. Luckily, her legs were shredded, and Megan scampered away from her with a gag and a shudder.
Megan found the unlocked upstairs rooms to be clear. She went back to the child, which was crawling toward her. She gagged again. The smell was authentic, as close to that of a dead rotting girl as anyone could ever want. But it was the child's mutilated, decaying face that truly disturbed her.
Megan: 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 severely lethargic. Making them completely inert, and thus suitable for consumption, was a more involved process.
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 severely lethargic. Making them completely inert, and thus suitable for consumption, was a more involved process.
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. Plus, she would be used against the other players. 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 this time.
CHIMERA FIELD
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 lag?
Thomas: OK, yeah, it got a little out of hand.
Thomas switched his local public SIS from his "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 out of it and the car drove away to park, guided by Chimera Field's parking system. Mike kept an eye on 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
Format: Large, fenced in outdoor field with a bar and a stage.
Physical capacity: More than 7000 physical bodies.
Proxy capacity: Has server capacity capable of hosting more than a million active proxies.
Dexter: I like the new look, Mr. Incognito.
Mike: Yep. A disguise was 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 gate, leaving T outside, practicing dance moves. A few minutes later, an ornate door frame popped up from the ground next to him. Megan walked through it and the frame disappeared back into the ground.
Thomas: Hey Megs! [hugs her]
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. Well, enough people did. Someone put up a bulletin. It really wasn't my fault!
Megan: [eating the donut] I believe you.
The physical Chimera Field had only two points of interest- a bar by the entrance and a stage at the Northern fence. The rest was covered in grass, with occasional bald spots. At that moment, the field was occupied by a few thousand physicals.
Most physicals there were projecting into proxies or at least had appropriate proxy overlays. There were also hundreds of thousands of invisible proxies roaming around, waiting for the concert to start, inhabited by people all over the world.
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 the crowd looking for accessories to steal. She decided to copy some petite flaming devil wings and a fetching translucent, mechanized face. The skin of her face became clear, revealing dozens of gears which moved with her face, giving the illusion that they were creating her expressions.
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 gonna 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 by "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 is a truly dangerous statement.
The concert layer appeared 20 feet above them. Megan felt herself being drawn up into it, leaving the physical 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. Vibrant purple grass completely covered the ground now. 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 and found them as comforting and awe inspiring as always.
Official concert proxies became visible, revealing more than two hundred thousand people projecting into the virtual layer of the concert. The average proxy size was made slightly smaller relative to the field to fit the increasing number of players.
Lying side-by-side on a blanket on the physical ground, Mike and Dexter looked up at the virtual concert layer. They had chosen to share a perspective on the concert that either one could change at will. At that moment, they saw the concert perpendicular to them, so that the virtual stage, much larger than the physical stage, was straight up in the sky from them. They could watch the entire concert, from any perspective they wanted, including high above it, without having to even raise their heads.
On the virtual layer, Megan was stretching her proxy, with little success, when the ground shook so hard she had to brace herself. The grass of the West half of the field shifted from glowing purple to glowing red. A gigantic mass rose from the ground in the middle of the West half, covered by a tarp and rusty scaffolding. She opened a window to view it from above. The shape under the tarp could only be that of a giant robot. People immediately started climbing on it. A giant crane appeared, hovering hundreds of feet above the robot.
The grass of the East half of the field changed to glowing blue. A large mound of dirt emerged from the ground there, displacing hundreds of proxies. It was obscured in mist, through which Megan could make out only a large gravestone on its South side. Dark shapes flitted about underneath and around it, shining blue through the dirt.
A contagious, elated enthusiasm gripped Chimera Field, which now had the population of a small city projecting into it. Proxies wore every imaginable costume and style of outfit. They were dressed as demons, angels, androids, aliens, anime characters, 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 occasionally was for those participating in it.
The geographical area which could actively participate in this particular Crain Slain event was effectively all of North and South America, along with some parts of Europe and Asia. Outside of those areas, lag could potentially hurt performance, especially when fighting other players. This 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 having 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 over the center stage. It crashed in front of the stage and rolled to a stop, killing dozens of thrilled players 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 a large set of keyboards and other musical devices.
A masculine robot stood up from behind the drums and dusted himself off. He took a seat and sprouted two extra pairs of arms. A feminine green alien appeared behind the keyboards with even more arms and several hard to identify appendages.
A red-headed woman rose from 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 bulky 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. Mousy.
Crain: Have we got any mech-heads in the audience?
The audience responded with hoots, laser noises, and loud imitations of the sound of an Excelsior class mech engine 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 my 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 cheered with approved.
Thomas: Star class means she's seriously 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 their God Emperor a little visit. It's called 'Destroy All Vampires'!
Crain started hard. The onslaught of thrashing metal energy rolled out like a shockwave across the field, knocking over Megan and thousands of other unprepared proxies. 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's blue.
There was no physical band present at Chimera Field. The stage only contained speakers broadcasting the sounds of the virtual concert. At some venues, the virtual concert would be shown on large screen, but that was unnecessary because of the ubiquity of augmented reality gear. Unaugmented concert goers at Chimera Field would miss most of the Crain Slain experience.
Megan lowered the music volume a tad. She heard the music via her plant, so the volume didn't hurt her ears, but she wanted to be able to hear other people clearly.
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 also noticed that proxy designs had been altered slightly to appear more like the character designs of Hell Fray.
Megan: Are things supposed to look like Hell Fray?
Thomas: Right again, Megs. Crain is mixing an extract of Hell Fray with Chimera Field to match the song. Smells a bit like sulfur, too.
A multi-hooked chrome claw dropped suddenly from the crane high above into a group not that far from Megan, causing her to jump. Their screams of delight were oddly juxtaposed with their dismembered bodies. Something resembling red mercury seeped out of their bodies and was drawn into 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 turned light red.
Thomas: Now watch this.
Thomas danced as usual, but threw in some strangely specific flourishes. His pure white hair, including his beard, slowly turned a light shade of red.
Thomas: CS has a robust rhythm game component. Dancing or singing in sync with the music gives you resonance with the singer's energy. This makes both the singer and the dancer stronger. You might notice that Crain's music is coming not just from the stage, but from all around you. Every player who resonates with her music broadcasts it and whatever other sounds they like. All music sources sync up for each player so you don't hear any echoing. One of the advantages of a virtual concert.
Megan: What if you can't dance though?
Thomas: Everyone can dance! Any attempt to dance with the music, however awkward, increases your resonance. You do need to put in some amount of effort to complete a dance routine like that group that got crushed. Those are to accelerate your resonance, help build the robot, and acquire weapons and enhancements for the final battle.
The victorious, dismembered group was already mostly regenerated and still celebrating. They had spent some time practicing their dance before the concert.
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 a ghost.
Smaller hooks shot out from the crane destroying smaller groups of people and individuals and dropping their liquid power into the Star class giant robot.
Megan: Doesn't getting crushed 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, wait here a moment...
Thomas teleported near to the stage to dance with a 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 a 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 a 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 jester's cap and extra attachments to his arms. The drummer unleashed his full skill, causing the ground to rumble and a violent wind to sweep across the field, throwing proxies around like leaves.
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 entire giant robot flashed red. A Gear had been unlocked.
Thomas: They achieved the 'Gear Of The Slayer', and just in time. Some of the momentum to achieve a Gear is lost if it's not acquired by the end of a song and a new song starts.
With a final musical thrust, Crain stepped through a portal and was gone.
2. RETURN OF THE REVENANT
The massive burial mound in the center of the East sent waves of blue pulsing through the grass, shaking the ground and beating back the West's invading red glow. A still anticipation came over the crowd. Then millions of spiders, of every size and species, exploded from the mound's North side and streamed toward the stage, consuming every proxy in their wake down to their skeletons. The skeletons clapped as they regrew their innards and skin with exacting anatomical detail. The spiders engulfed the stage. Some burrowed underneath it while a human sized mass coalesced on stage into a man dressed in a ratty t-shirt and blood stained 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. Still hot as Hell.
Musical style: Nerd-punk.
Appearance: Funky blue hair. Dead and beginning to rot. Still hot as Hell.
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 let's be wicked. There's a certain Old One with a taste for machinery and an undying itch for carnage. First help me 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.
The energy of Slain's infectious punk tune, accented by his tasty nerdcore flow, swept blue energy across the field. Megan involuntarily hopped in surprise as tendrils of Slain's energy whipped at her shoes. As Slain heated up, meter wide 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, smashing into and rhythmically stabbing each other, effervesced blue. Horned demons, classic and horrid, popped out of the ground underneath them and quickly ate them until only gnawed skeletons remained. The demons, now glowing bright 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 sank into the ground and on that spot appeared a holographic semicircle twice as high as a proxy.
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 I can just barely hear?
Thomas: It's one of the many potential variations of this song. All CS songs have them. The audience can choose to broadcast whatever variation they like, bringing it into the concert layer for those around them to hear. The player's level of resonance determines how loud they broadcast their variations relative to the main song. Turn on variations, listen for one you like, or make your own, and put it in your resonance list. You get a custom concert whether or not anyone else picks it up. And if most people resonate with a variation, CS typically uses it and then everyone hears it.
Megan: So some of them are fan mods? What's to stop some jokers from ruining the concert with an obnoxious variation?
Thomas: You can broadcast anything you like, although unless you have some resonance no one will be able to hear it. Some griefers go around blaring car horns and baby cries, but few would resonate with their sound so it's drowned out by more popular mods. Also, variations get less and less intense the more they are actively filtered away by people. The system works pretty well, but occasionally you do have to deal with idiots. That's the price of freedom. But freedom is required for significant fan input! That backbeat you mentioned, for instance, is a fan mod. If you loosen up your audio filters, you'll hear faint fan mods all around you. Most CS songs have evolved using such mods in one way or another, whether it's a bass line, alternate lyrics, or non-music stuff like the popular hell slide you see people being sucked into.
Megan: So we can change songs. What else?
Thomas: Variations determine musical themes for the entire concert and partly determine the next song. The setlist determines the branching of the story, so the audience essentially determines everything. That's part of the reason for paying the participation fee for the concert. We can make awesome things happen, and explore CS' rather large branching event tree. The big deal is getting different endings, many of which are still unexplored. Here, add that mod and dance with it to make it stronger.
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, so best to play nice with the natives.
Their dancing didn't accomplish much, as the crowd stopped carrying the fan mod. It was then that Megan realized that the music from the concert really was coming from all around her. She could hear it clearest from the center stage, but it was beginning to come more and more intensely from the surrounding sea of players who were starting to develop resonance. The main song was coming evenly from all directions, but she could hear other faint variations coming from all around, most intensely from those whose hair glowed brightest.
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 people there flying in all directions.
Slain: Death to metal monsters and their insipid 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 both played by Heather Crain. The drummer, keyboardist, and others are probably separate people.
Megan: How mysterious. No one knows who they are?
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.
Megan: Do you know her? Thomas: It's a long story.
A group of blue dancers completed a particularly gruesome and difficult rhythm "ritual" involving self-disembowelment 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 side 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 a duet about a current conflict in Ataraxia. Crain took the side of the mech-based Kirin and Slain sang in favor of the monstrous Faint. The entire field mixed with an extract from Ataraxia, changing proxy styles and altering movements and the color scheme.
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.
A stream of red and blue proxies quickly moved 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!
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 waves 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 increasing her resonance by dancing with Crain's song 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 then 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 through the air. Her ruptured proxy split in two as it fell to the ground. It seriously smarted and was all a bit much for her. She left her concert proxy before it hit the ground and hovered nearby in 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, taken straight from Ataraxia, 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 various parts and Gears of the giant robot.
Megan flew over Slain's side. It smelled like the ocean. And blood. Crain had sent a variety of mechanical creatures of indeterminate shapes, again taken from Ataraxia, 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 traced Thomas and spotted him dancing atop a giant freaky serpent, evading its whipping tentacles while pulling off yet more 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] C'mon 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 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. There were tons of sensors and alarms in place for the sake of safety, but it still felt 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 actually 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 her hair a brighter shade of red as her proxy resonated with Crain's energy. She was soon mauled to death by a group of satanic marmots, 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 riding the snake, spoke to her over a private audio feed.
Thomas: [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: [chuckling] 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 data. It takes more focus to manage all the mods than to actually play a song. Holy crud, hold on....
Thomas was 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.
Megan: I'd still get thrown around. This is kind of unsettling.Thomas: But Crain needs you! You can't just leave your body. Where's your game ethic?
Megan: I'm trying. It's scary here. Being cut in two hurt, but it's also just disturbing to be run over by a hell-tainted dinosaur.
Thomas: True. Don't worry, you're doing great. The people that don't have trouble adjusting to the full range of Outside experiences are the ones I worry about.
Megan: Did you have trouble like this?
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 dividing line between the two sides, but it didn't last past the beginning of the song. Crain's side slowly pushed the dividing line East.
Thomas: Another one about Ataraxia. This song is good evidence that Heather Crain at least writes the songs for Crain Slain.
Megan: How so?
Thomas: The perspective of this song fits with Heather Crain's during the incident. And it has an inside joke we shared. Someone else looking at the recording of the events could probably figure it out, but I can't imagine why they'd work it into a song.
Megan: Are you saying you were around for the incident?
Thomas: Yeah, this one time in Aataraxia I kind of tricked Heather Crain into helping me out during a fight. She was the Pandemonium Syzer then.
Megan: [moderately impressed] So, you do know her?
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 something you did?
Thomas: I'm mentioned in another song too. Anyway, she calls herself vain. That's the inane inside joke, that's not even interesting enough to explain.
Megan: So, Heather Crain was a Pandemonium in Ataraxia?
Thomas: More than that. She was the first true god of string manipulation. 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 for Ataraxia. 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. Slain invoked the horror world of Painted Doors, and the environment and proxy designs of the field shifted to match. The field became cold and it began to rain heavily.
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 size of concert proxies compared to the giant robot.
Thomas: [audio] Come on up! This is a great spot for dancing!
Megan: Yeah, I don't know about that. That's kind of high.
Thomas: Oh, whatever. It's not like a fall would kill you.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 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 left over from the last song 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 relatively powerful demigod, at least compared to the potential Star class mech that red was preparing. 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 turned into puddles and melted off the stage roof and into the ground.
6. CANDY TRAIL TO THE LITTLE DEATH
Crain phased on stage next to Slain. 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 brightly illuminated 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 purple, 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 sexbots and trained 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. You only get the sensation, with no change in your concert proxy, so you don't know which one unless you check its tag. But they each have their own style, so concert regulars can immediately tell which one they get.
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.
Megan: And I thought you said orgies were disrespectful? 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 orally pleasured 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. 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.
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 cunnilingus technique.
Megan: I'll say. 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 wound down and the ending notes creaked and soured. The special Candy Trail oral sex opt-in ended by default, 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. The air felt different though, like it 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 can still win!
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