Thursday, February 24, 2011

Episode 04: Crain Slain (2 of 2)


7. SERIAL EXPERIMENTS CRAIN 
VERSUS
POOL OF THE PRECIOUS

Crain broke the tension.

Crain: Who here thinks that death gives meaning and beauty to life?

The crowd cheered.

Crain: Fuck you guys! I'm living forever!

The crowd cheered again.

Slain: The way of the ghoul is to live to die. Prepare for slaughter, my minions!

Crain and Slain began playing different songs.
Crain sang of classic surreal anime while a mixed extract of anime worlds infused her side. Slain rapped about Lord of the Rings and the Golden Martyr books while a mixed extract of popular game worlds based on them infused his side.After a few seconds, Crain's followers automatically filtered away Slain's song out and vice versa, so they could focus on their own side.

Megan: I like this song. I've heard it before. There's not enough death metal about anime.
Thomas: Yep. When you get down off the mech, don't go near the divide or into Slain's side with your concert proxy unless you're looking for a brawl. And watch for pockets of Slain followers on our side. Guerrilla warfare happens.

Fighting along the divide had begun and quickly intensified to new levels of savagery. The entire dividing line from the stage to the far South end of the field became a writhing, tangled mass of mangled bodies and dismembered parts, each piece struggling to break through the opposing line. From a distance, the line appeared to glow purple.


Megan: That is messed up. Does all that even accomplish anything?
Thomas:
Fighting's mostly just for fun until the final showdown. Ignore that. Right now is when you can really rack up some achievements. I'm going to wander around and see what I can find. You should find a dance that looks fun and get yourself some equipment for the end game.

Thomas kicked Megan off of the mech's knee, and she screamed as she fell into the mass of players below. She broke a few limbs and messed up a few players who broke her fall. One day, she swore to herself, she would kick Thomas off of something. She watched him dancing into the distance until her proxy had regenerated enough to dance.

Megan perused the various available dances which activated or leveled up mech Gears, and picked one that helped level up the Slayer Gear. It would also give her a shiny, defensive chest plate if she scored well. She set it to beginner mode, which achieved lower resonance and fewer points, but carried less chance of embarrassment.


She jumped into the dance, which was halfway through its cycle. It involved precision thrashing with a touch of Bollywood.

Default trainer settings provided a semi-transparent copy of Megan's proxy which occupied her space and moved a half second ahead of the dance to give her the pattern to trail. If she did well enough, it would sometimes offer several motions to explore, some of which would branch into different dance paths. Some paths gave momentum to song variations and helped pick the next song.

She tried to trail her copy, but it was hard to follow. So, she moved her dance trainer a few feet in front of her. This worked better until the song picked up. Then, the dance started incorporating hand gestures and funky foot movements, and she lost the flow.

She looked around at the other people doing the same dance. One was doing it perfectly and adding his own flourishes. Most dances allowed room for freestyle improvisation, which if done well added points and resonance. People were head banging and spazzing their way to remarkable achievements while Megan fumbled about.

Megan grew discouraged as others showed effortless mastery of more advanced forms of her dance. The hardest included dancing while singing and actually playing the song with a guitar. She did a quick search on Crain Slain's rhythm game for help, and took some comfort from finding out that the rhythm game aspect of Crain Slain had been adapted into a popular home version which CS fans undoubtedly practiced obsessively with.

Luckily, she looked dejected enough for some guy, in a retro-robot guise, to offer help.

That One Guy: Don't give up! You were doing good. You should go join that group over there working the same scheme. It'll help.

Megan, slightly embarrassed, thanked him and ran self-consciously to the indicated group. It contained about a hundred people, of various skill levels. Megan started doing the Slayer Gear dance near the group and was automatically added as a member. Now her dancing actually kind of mattered, since it impacted the group's overall achievement. She focused and found to her pleasant surprise that belonging to the group created a subtle force on her proxy, guiding her through each motion. The group's collective, averaged ghost was pulling her along, which greatly helped her keep up.

As she moved within the group flow, she discovered room for her regular dance style. At first stifling, the structure of the dance opened Megan's dancing to new possibilities. As she got the hang of it and began racking up points, she could feel Crain's warm resonance pumping through the ground into her proxy. Her hair spiked up and effervesced red. She wasn't glowing as brightly as most of Crain's other followers, but she was just starting out.

She was developing a feel for how CS worked. The audience became two competing corporate entities, which physically manifested Crain Slain's music and guided its direction. Each participant was a living visualizer and speaker for Crain Slain's music. Those who had danced and gained resonance produced more intense music, and had more of a chance to influence other players with their taste.

At the height of the dance, Megan felt herself become a conduit of Crain's spirit.
At that moment, she was just one out of more than six hundred thousand active concert proxies, many of whom were more influential than her. And yet, her presence had an impact on everyone around her, potentially thousands of people over the course of the concert. She changed the flow and outcome of the concert by boosting Crain's power, by acting out her music, and by resonating and broadcasting variations she liked. She was one cell in the deliriously gigantic organism that was Crain Slain, but she could still be significant. Even the tiny ripples she made in her tiny part of the field would mix with the whole and change it in innumerable small ways. This, Megan realized, was why most people paid to participate, when they could have just watched for free.


The dance went well. Megan's group was partially destroyed by a rampaging reptilian monster, but managed to reform and continue. The dance's period ended and the group dissolved, having failed to bring the upgrade to fruition. But it wasn't a failure, because
the energy that each proxy in the group had developed could be used to bolster future efforts to enhance the Slayer Gear, and the individuals in the group had developed resonance and gained new equipment. Overall, Crain's sound would be louder and her glow brighter.

Megan managed to achieve the chest armor she wanted, 'Ripley's Plate'. It flowed up through the ground and over her chest like mercury and set into matte black, form-fitting armor, complete with meaningless blinking lights. An info window popped up showing Megan the plate's stats. It would provide her with a strength-enhancing exoskeleton for the final battle, which was better than nothing. Combined with other enhancements, it could become a more powerful mech. In the meantime, it glowed red with Crain's energy, signifying Megan's achievement.

Megan did some freestyle dancing to celebrate her first achievement.


Meanwhile, Thomas had done a search for Sam and discovered that she was no longer visible at Chimera Field, but had left a tag. He left his concert proxy dancing to the music and followed Sam's tag with his regular proxy. He found himself sitting next to Sam in the middle of an abstract representation of the concert. There were no people, fields, or musicians there, only the music and flowing colors which pulsed and pounded all around them with the beat of the concert. The two groups of players were represented by sound distortions and vibrations through the colors.

Sam was listening to Slain's song. Crain's music was present only through the distortions caused by the actions of her people. Sam also had a 5 foot long, real-time replica of the concert hovering next to her right side. Desktop views of the concert were popular with those who didn't want to be fully immersed in the concert.

Thomas: Sorry to barge in.
Sam: I left a tag. What's up?
Thomas: This place is psychedelic as hell. You experimenting again?

Sam stretched her neck, producing an unnatural series of cracks.

Sam: Not today.
Thomas: You never share anyway.

Then Thomas noticed Pawn floating along the abstract waves in the distance. Pawn's body was stretched out across the waves like a rubber band, vibrating and whipping in various directions in response to concert happenings. Pawn had distorted his proxy beyond recognition in an attempt to become the concert.

Pawn
Fighting specialty: Pacifist (mostly).
Pertinent facts: Voyeur.
Agent: Naboo the Owl.
Current appearance: Slender and made of semi-transparent glass. Beautiful frosted face.
Environment filter: None. Would not obscure his viewpoint with his own bias.


Thomas: Screw you Pawn!
Pawn: What? I didn't do anything.
Thomas: You know what you did!

Thomas turned back to Sam.

Thomas: Take a look at Megan.

Sam zoomed in to Megan's tag on the 5 foot concert to her right and watched Megan dancing.

Sam: She's a good dancer, considering she just started.
Thomas: What do you think about her, in general?
Sam: You mean as a player? She's got potential, but right now she's working through some identity issues about being Outside.
Thomas: She freaked out because of some dinosaur earlier.
Sam: She's proxy shy. It's natural. It takes a while for the brain to get used to having a body that registers as completely real but isn't limited by physical reality. I'd be worried if she wasn't hesitant.
Thomas: [leaning back to enjoy the music and the pretty colors] Pretty much what I thought. Although I never had those issues.
Sam: [smirking] Exactly. Why are you bringing this up?
Thomas: I might train her. For gaming. If she's interested.
Sam: It's been a while since you really trained anyone. 

Thomas: Yeah. The job burned me out. For more than a year, I basically just trained new plants up to where Megs is. It was frustrating. I need to get back to training gamers.
Sam: Your gamer training is a little harsh though.
Thomas: I think she can take it. Or she can quit. Quitting is always an option, I often say.
Sam: Just don't scare her off.
Thomas: I don't think I could do that if I tried. I have a feeling about her. She's hiding something.
Sam: Gods, not another fucking conspiracy.


They were both distracted by the installation of the 'Gear of Shinji's Mom' into Crain's mech, which was represented in Sam's view by a streak of red splashed across the sky, pumping like a heart. It flowed over their bodies, infusing and enveloping them with the breath of the music, before falling away and collapsing into a single point. It sent Pawn pinging around the color streams like he was a pinball.

Sam: Just remember that not everyone has to be a star. Lots of people enjoy games just fine without training or dealing with serious discomfort.
Thomas: I know, but there's so much out there, and people filter important things away just because they're unpleasant. There's this whole part of the human experience that gets left out.
Sam: You're preaching to the choir. Remember who you're talking to. Just don't freak her out.
Thomas: If there's one thing I know, it's people's limits.


Thomas sat mesmerized by the colors for a minute.

Thomas: Cool visualization. But why are you listening to Slain? I thought you were a Crain fan.
Sam: I like them both. I'll go back and experience Crain's side after the concert.


Thomas left a proxy in Sam's abstract space, in case he wanted to return, and popped back into his concert proxy in time for the ending of the songs. Crain's song was normally shorter than Slain's, but she had extended it so they ended within a few seconds of each other. Crain's people were still celebrating the 'Gear of Shinji's Mom'. Slain's people had mauled themselves with enough grace and style (and break dancing) to acquire the 'Glyph of The Spiral', aka Uzumaki.



8. BUCKYBALLS TO THE WALL
VERSUS

HELL BE DAMNED

New songs rolled in without a pause. The atmosphere was increasingly intense and the music hit stronger, bolstered by the crowd's growing resonance.

Thomas: [audio] Woh, Slain's doing 'Hell Be Damned'. They usually get a nice extract of Hell Fray going for that one, and it's got a wicked music video. You seen it?
Megan: Nope. What's it about?
Thomas: The first invasion of Hell in Hell Fray. To this day it's the largest significant game event. It involved more than two million active players. I regret not being there, but I had obligations in Ataraxia.
Megan: You regret something?
Thomas: As if regret was even a real thing. It's just a saying.
Megan: Right...
Thomas: But quick! Fly over and switch to Slain and soak this one in. I'll stay with Crain to help the cause.


Megan left her concert proxy doing a basic dance routine to maintain its Crain resonance and flew off. Thomas became aware of a "code" someone had posted which supposedly boosted points when leveling 'Shinji's Mom'.

Code-Breaker: [audio only]
Up with your left arm, up with your right arm, down with your right, down with your left, sweep both left, sweep right, sweep left, sweep right, do a hop!

Thomas followed along and heard a chime indicating success.
He danced his fat body off for 50% more points toward the level.

Megan flew to Slain's side in a non-concert proxy and switched to his song. Flying over the divide, she was amazed by the escalating violence. Some people had achieved weapons that could be used before the final conflict, but most were tearing each other apart with their bare hands. The battle would be quite different once Crain's people activated their cybernetic enhancements and Slain's people their demonic infusions. But until the big battle, the dividing line would continue to be a mass of bloody, entangled human pieces.

Megan could see that the fighting in CS was a simplified variation of the standard combat system, based on Ataraxia's standard. It enabled people the freedom to do anything that was possible with their proxies and enhancements, within the constraints of CS's physics. Using their powers effectively, of course, would require strategy and cooperation with other players.

CS combat controls allowed for fully immersive, first person combat with whatever sensations the player wanted. Alternately, players could adopt a third person perspective, or even set their characters to fight automatically under indirect guidance, with a "point and click" type interface. In any case, the CS combat strategy had enough depth not to bore experienced gamers, but was intuitive enough that first timers could make an impact in battle. CS wasn't really about fighting, for most players at least, but the prospective of battle motivated involvement in the concert and punctuated the climax.

Megan finally wrenched her attention away from the carnal spectacle of the divide to watch
the 'Hell Be Damned' music video, projecting from a giant screen above the stage. It was indeed awesome. Like Mike's Neo-Kyoto project, it used actual recordings of the game's events to weave a dramatic tale. It made her want to play, but Hell Fray required a little too much involvement for her. It was also quite unpleasant.

She noticed a large group near the burial mound doing a particularly gruesome dance. It could only be described as a cannibalistic mosh pit. Among other things, they would form pairs, then one member of the pair would smash in the other's head with a rock and eat their brains. Then they would switch roles. She pulled up the dance's information and found that it was difficult to pull off, but if accomplished it would choose a variation in lyrics for 'Hell Be Damned' and would even set Slain's next song to be another Hell Fray song about the story of some guy named 'Lutz'.

They were doing well until another Slain group, who had been responsible for selecting a variation in the last song which had led to 'Hell Be Damned', attacked and successfully disrupted the Lutz group. They apparently liked the song the way it was.

T sent her a location indicator drawing her attention to a particular dancer.


Thomas: [audio] Look at that guy on Slain's mound.

Megan zoomed into the indicator. A small crowd had formed around a muscular, bare-chested man performing a complex dance sequence.

Thomas: That's Chester.
Megan: Are you sure? He looks like he escaped from the cover of a romance novel.
Thomas: Oh yeah. That is definitely Chester.

Chester finished her solitary dance and was consumed by demons.

Thomas: And check out this abstract version of the fruitless, but beautiful, conflict at the divide. [sharing the mod] The textured colors represent the conflict, and I've mixed them with a mash-up of the two songs. They work strangely well together.
Megan: That's really neat. Are the songs supposed to be mixed?
Thomas: More likely than not. The songs overlap and seep into each other near the divide depending on the back and forth of battle. I've been streaming all that to my favorite spiral, 'Indra's Net' and it seems to be pretty popular there. People are literally swimming in it.
Megan: 'Indra's Net' is the same one we'll be diving into tomorrow, right? Can anyone share anything there?
Thomas: Oh yeah. People share concerts, game worlds, movies, art pieces, their erogenous zones, all sorts of stuff. Doesn't mean anyone will pick it up or carry it, though, just like Crain Slain variations. It helps if you're famous and have a good sharing reputation, like I do.

Thomas' difficult dance was not quite enough to occupy him so he looked around for people he knew. 


Thomas: While we're looking at stuff, look at those losers down there, barely experiencing the concert.

Thomas indicated Mike and Dexter, who were still lying on a blanket, holding hands, kissing, and enjoying the concert from the perspective of floating above Slain's burial mound. 

 
Megan: It looks like they're preoccupied with other things.
Thomas: Other things that could wait until after the world shaping events crashing down around them!
They don't even have concert proxies!

Thomas' dance group finished the most difficult section of their dance and was crushed by the biggest claw. They donated their large bonus to Crain, and it was enough to put her over the edge for the trick she was trying to pull.

Slain's side achieved the 'Glyph of Shell's Bloody Scissors'. Crain's side pulled off the 'Gear of Steam Power', but her people also achieved new levels for 2 of the already incorporated Gears. Crain had also achieved a special bonus which shut out Slain from the next song. That meant she had a final solo before the meltdown. This caused quite a commotion across the field.

Thomas super-jumped over to Megan's body, which she had rejoined after the end of the Hell Fray video.

Megan: I really liked that song. Hell Fray is just full of crazy.
Thomas: Yeah, yeah, Fray's nuts. Listen, we did it! Slain's shut out! Get ready to dance.




9. SCIENCE WILL MELT YOUR FUCKING FACE OFF

Slain oozed reluctantly off stage, leaving Crain.

Crain: This is it! One last chance to power up! Don't let evil win!

Crain's 8-bit metal styling literally electrified the crowd. Devoted Crain fans danced furiously, giving everything they had in her final minutes of need. Slain's side went berserk. They swamped the divide, trying to disrupt Crain's resonance, but it flowed through her people too powerfully to be overcome. The red side found itself ineffective during Crain's bonus song and fell back from the divide line, despite having achieved a symbolic dividing line height advantage of 6 inches.


Thomas stood watching.

Megan: Aren't you going to help out with the final Gear?
Thomas: Nah, they got it. There's something else coming up in a moment I'll need your help with, though.

The blue rush against Crain's side died down. The blue side mostly stood around, waiting.

Megan: Why'd they stop attacking?
Thomas: They're taking this opportunity to plan. OK, you can hear it well enough now.

Thomas linked Megan to a soft echo of a cello solo.

Thomas: Hear that fan mod?
It's meant to be placed into the song in about a minute. We call for it every damn concert but it never gets picked up. According to rumor, Crain will do something neat if it does. Resonate with it and run over near the mech's foot. The map of variations shows its resonance to be weak there. I'm going toward the divide with it.

They took off to broadcast their endorsement of the cello variation. Thomas had enough clout to push it into the hearing of several thousand people, many of whom adopted it.

While running around, Thomas noticed a group attempting to level up the 'Shinji's Mom' Gear. He skipped over to it and helped them out while still broadcasting the fan mod. The achievement was a long shot, because the dance was only partly compatible with the current song. They could only attempt it because it was a bonus song, and they failed at the end, but it was worth a shot.

The fan mod's time came and went, depriving the crowd of one bad-ass cello solo once again.

Megan was swept up by the growing anticipation of the crowd and attempted a mid-level dance to enhance her power and acquire a bejeweled gauntlet. She managed to achieve it by drafting along with a group. She jumped up and down in victory and noted that her gauntlet could extend into a three foot blade.

She opened a window to view Thomas and marveled at his dancing skills.



Megan: [audio] Would you have been dancing like that this whole time if I wasn't slowing you down?
Thomas: Yeah, but it's refreshing to see the concert from a non-engaged perspective, and I couldn't really help against Slain's momentum. Plus, I told Mike I wouldn't get too crazy. And don't ever worry about slowing me down. If I really want to go do something, I have no problem leaving friends behind.
Megan: How much of your dancing is automated from a ghost? I mean, do you use other people's ghosts at all?
Thomas: I let my ghost do simple patterns when I want to concentrate on trickier moves. But these dances are always changing with variations in the songs, so you have to stay on your toes.

Megan: It just seems that if you can make a ghost that works for sex, you could make one for CS dances.
Thomas: People have put a whole lot of work into sexbots. They're great, but still not as fun or engaging as having a real human brain on the other end. Do a search for 'CS ghosts' and you'll find some good ones that will help you learn or cheat with.
If you want to be really lame, you can also set your proxy to copy the dance trainer. But you won't end up with a high score by cheating. And it's not that hard to figure out when a player is using someone else's ghost. You can also copy someone else's dance, but that's lame and misses the whole point of CS. People will seriously make fun of you for stuff like that.
 
The song ended, marking the end of development for the two sides. Crain had attained the 'Gear of Synthetic Perception', which provided important protection against the perceptual warps of Abyssal entities.

As thousands of proxies moved to the divide, it stretched the center of the field to accommodate them and increase the area where the sides would first clash.




10. 4 MINUTE COUNTDOWN

Slain materialized back on stage.

Crain: Only the lucid machine can face an Abyssal one with an intact mind. We will unravel its divine mysteries and add its uniqueness to our own!
Slain: Minds made of gears cannot grind the unending Abyss! We will transcend this plane!

Epic instrumental music fit for the buildup to a boss fight pounded the field from all directions. Crain rocketed to the head of her mech and disappeared deep inside to its cockpit. The activated Gears inside Crain's mech shined through and began to turn as they integrated themselves within the rest of its complex interior.


Crain's Final Gears: The Slayer, Kirin, Gear of Gears, Shinji's Mom, Steam Power, and Synthetic Perception.

Slain burst into spiders which hopped to the burial mound and burrowed within. The stone Glyphs sunk deep into the mound, which pulsated and shook the ground around it.



Final Slain Glyphs: Alucard's Recurring Nightmare, Berserk, Elder Sign, Uzumaki (Spiral), Shell's Bloody Scissors.

Thomas: [audio] I'm going to the mech's chest to see if I can help manage its weapons. You're better equipped for hand-to-hand combat, so activate whatever enhancements you have and get over by the divide. Try to find a spot where defense is weak. This will get rough.
Megan: Roger!

Megan activated her equipment as she ran along the line looking for a spot. Her chest plate became a spiky exoskeleton that covered her upper body, while her gauntlet became a silver, finely serrated blade. She found an area near the divide which glowed only a faint red. She took position in a tertiary line of warriors about 50 feet from the divide.

There was very little fighting during the song, as both sides organized and planned strategies. The sides had moved several meters away from each other to create a no proxy's land, which mostly remained barren.

Megan was accepted into a war party. This gave her access to their general plan, in the form of an annotated 3D map. Being part of the group also provided her with suggested tactics, imparted in the same way that groups helped with dancing. The group's tactics and strategy were largely automatically generated from the prior battles fought by the group's more experienced members, and were managed by its strategic leaders, a class usually called 'scanners' in games like Ataraxia. Megan could act independently, of course, and was expected to use her own judgment. Megan watched the sides ramp up as she got a feel for her sword, slinging it about with care not to brain any allies.

The sound of a massive engine roaring to life shook Megan's teeth. The West side cheered as Crain's mech sat up. The rocket pack on its back fired in test, incinerating proxies below it and setting the mech's enormous covering tarp on fire. The giant robot stood, shedding its scaffolding and its rapidly burning tarp. The proxies on the mech scrambled to climb the falling debris and secure holds onto the mech itself. Hundreds fell with the molten tarp, which bathed the ground in front of the mech in liquid fire. A wildfire swept from the tarp across the red side of the field and into parts of the blue. The fire burned proxies and left decorative red marks on players of both sides.

The robot was large enough that Megan found it difficult to estimate its height, but the average proxy came up only partway up its foot.

Crain: [through the mech's chest speaker] I dub this mech "Star Palladium"!


Star Palladium 
Appearance: Pretty standard anthropic giant robot. Matte silver with red trim. Masculine, with a boxed, Egyptian style head.
Height: Dizzying.
Weapons: 128 lasers, 64 gun turrets, 32 missile launchers, 16
flame throwers, 8 retractable buzz saws, 4 rail guns, 2 rocket fists, and 1 laser sword. Head also has sharp points for ramming.
Fans Would Say:
Star Palladium was a technical marvel and a monument to science. It represented better living through automation, being the pinnacle of technological progress and mechanization.
 

Red rallied at Palladium's unveiling. Palladium was the best designation possible under those conditions, made possible only by Crain's bonus song. It meant a good fight, if nothing else. Thousands climbed up Palladium to fight over spots inside its various weapon cockpits and control stations.

After a moment, Slain's burial mound on the other side of the field burst open and a river of blue blood geysered into the sky and gelled in place. The small lake of floating blood congealed and pulsed as it took shape. Excess blood rained over the East side and some parts of the West side. The blood drenched and stained Slain's people in the juice of their own sacrificial offerings. The smell was something else.

The form of Slain's summoned abomination was swiftly unveiled, although it was hard to take it all in at once. It had an unearthly beauty and an ethereal blue glow. It had the face of a goddess, bordered by
intricate, long dreadlocks that swept the ground around its feet. It had three sets of multiply segmented arms, attached by fine golden webs to copper wings which swept the sky. Tendrils of pure white light emanated from its chest and pelvis, and surrounded its upper and lower halves as slowly turning spheres. Instead of legs, its lower half was the trunk of a particularly attractive blue striped tree, rooted into the ground.

Slain: [speaking through Her mouth] We are now "Glorificus Bath of the Abyss"!

Bath Of The Abyss 

Appearance: An immaculate goddess worth worshiping. Feminine as Hell.
Height: At least a quarter taller than Star Palladium. Also, wider by half.
Weapons: Being too pretty to hit?

Fans Would Say:
She was born from the transfigured muck of the world. Her transcendent existence promised the mundane world penetration into a divine realm of uncorrupted mind. Or something.
 

Slain's side was ecstatic. Thousands swarmed to climb up Bath and be absorbed into various parts of Her flesh to control whatever weapons She had.

Thomas: [audio to Megan] An Abyssal Glory is not good for us. Prepare yourself. 


With the two incarnations of Crain Slain unveiled, it was the customary time for their supporters to activate their equipment and enhancements. More than 150,000 proxies were ready to engage at the divide, so the transformation was quite a spectacle.

Crain's front line was covered in red glowing armor and cybernetics, symbols of their rhythm game achievements. The transformation of Crain's side involved mechanization and futuristic weaponry. Their equipment morphed into mechanical wings, armor, exoskeletons, powered suits, small mechs, and pet robots. Equipment offered protection, strength, and special powers like partial invisibility. Some achievements transformed proxies entirely into androids or mech components.

Weapons activated included blades of various kinds, light sabers, laser guns, freeze rays, machine guns, explosives, and super strong robotic limbs.

Some players could combined their mechs and weapons into larger mechs, similar to Voltron. One large group near Megan turned more than a hundred pieces of equipment into a giant robot spider, bristling with weapons. Two dozen players climbed inside to man it, and it was soon aiming its weapons and acid spitting jaws across the divide.

Slain's side was decked out with strange tattoos, swollen pulsing limbs, scaly skin, and gaping holes, signs of successfully completed sacrificial rituals which demonstrated their desires to transcend the human form and become monsters of all shapes and sizes.

As was customary for the dominant power, Slain's side waited until their opponents had transformed before unveiling themselves. The transformation of Slain's side was organically demonic. They became orcs, goblins, vampires, gargoyles, werewolves, ents, zombies, large mutant insects, and classical mythological demons from around the world. Each form had its own attributes. Becoming a zombie made you stronger, smellier, and more resilient. Vampires were largely unaffected by metal bullets and regenerated quickly. Insects spat poisons and acids that could melt or paralyze enemies.

For weapons, there were blades, chainsaws, bows, catapults, and tentacles. There was also magic- telekinesis, fire balls, magic missiles, and other projectile spells.

There was more subtle magic for altering the perceptions and proxy interfaces of enemies to confuse them, but Crain's acquisition of the Gear of Synthetic Perception had seriously weakened their potency, upsetting many players who had sacrificed their bodies and souls with great style to achieve such powers.

Some of Slain's more powerful forms could shapeshift freely within a certain volume. They tended toward the brutish side, such as giants with spiked clubs, though some chose more elegant forms, such as centaurs with multipronged spears.

Combining achieved forms was very popular among the Slain. Numerous proxies forming a giant mass of tentacles was one common combined form. Megan could sort of see how its functions could be divided up among its players, but she couldn't make sense of how other forms could be controlled by multiple people. Giants, some 30 feet high and composed of a dozen proxies seemed unwieldy. Some groups combined into tentacled serpents like the one Thomas had ridden on. The most confusing Megan observed was a collection of large, decaying lions with connected tails, which just seemed like it would hamper movement.



Many proxies across the field had little or no equipment, having come to the concert more to experience it than to participate. Even so, large numbers of unenhanced proxies could still do serious damage if they cared to.

Some people had accomplishments on both side, and became mixtures of mechanical and demonic. One troll had a cybernetic head and a jet pack. There were also mech with blue glowing tentacles. This wasn't a good strategy for gaining power, as mixed warriors would pretty much always have been better off concentrating on collecting compatible parts. But it often looked pretty damn cool.

When Slain's side had unveiled themselves, there was a shuffling of troops on both sides, in attempts to counter their opposition's strategies. Warriors shifted their positions and studied their opponents across the line. It reminded Megan of duels in samurai movies, where warriors adjusted their stances in seemingly insignificant ways in anticipation of enemy tactics. She couldn't tell which proxies were effectively altering their positions and which were just posturing to look cool.

Crain's side was better organized and its team oriented approach was an advantage for them. Those on Slain's side often made plans, but they were often discarded when the chaos of battle took sway. The disciplined Crain teams faced off once against the berserker mobs of the Slain. That was the breakdown of the situation given by the battle projections provided by her party. It was overly simplified, but it carried some truth.

Most of the players with the best achievements, and hence strongest glows, were at the divide. The sides glowed so strongly with their respective colors that for the first time during the concert Megan had to turn the glow setting down.

High frequency waves of energy flowed out rapidly through the ground from Palladium and Bath into their allied players, making proxies stronger, slowly repairing damage, arming their mechs, and charging their spells. Megan felt the energy flowing through her proxy at her achieved rate of resonance, making her stronger and faster and adding a red plasma edge along one side of her blade. That effectively made it part lightsaber, which gave her some much needed confidence.

Megan's battle orders were simply to hold her position and to fall back if she got dangerously injured so she could heal. Some player achievements allowed them to repair other proxies. On Crain's side players with the equipment for that class were called 'mechanics' and red crosses hovered as beacons over their heads.

Megan party suggested that she send her energy flow to the front line proxies while they held strong. Megan set her proxy to forward the waves of energy she was receiving from Palladium as long as she tapped her toe regularly. It was something she would naturally stop doing once she engaged the enemy and needed the energy for herself.


Megan received a message saying that players could now die. Proxies would regenerate according to the energy flow they had attained, but it was slower than before. She guessed that this meant a rotating front line. She grew wary about how close she was to the divide.

Meanwhile, Thomas had found a position in a gun turret on Palladium's upper left chest. Aiming a massive machine gun wasn't quite as sexy as more intimate forms of battle, but his robotic legs served as an interface for only simple mech integration, and he was a skilled sniper.

Thomas: [audio] Once more into the breach!
Megan: It is a good day to die!

Just before the battle started, there were slightly more than 600,000 players prepared to take some part in the battle. The song reached its end and each side's battle anthem started up.




11. CATACLYSMIC SHOWDOWN!
FULL METAL MONSTROSITY
V
ERSUS

A
LL HELL

Megan heard Crain's epic battle song - a mix of themes from her earlier songs - all around her. It was coming from Palladium's speakers and the strong red resonance around her. She also heard Slain's battle song from across the divide. Slain's was clearly stronger. She heard the songs clashing as the lines fell into each other. She heard Slain's apocalyptic theme overpowering Crain's music as Slain's forces spilled over Crain's front line.

Even as Slain broke through, some Crain warriors made their way into Slain territory. A rather large mech, in the shape of a metallic turtle shell, spun through the air and crashed a a quarter mile into the blue, crushing and displacing numerous Slain warriors. It spun as it moved toward Bath's trunk, jutting dozens of spears and blades in and out of its sides, cutting down blue players like a lawnmower, and gunning down high profile targets with a laser cannon mounted at its top. It was controlled by 36 "expert" Crain warriors whose equipment had formed it as a composite, and who were now having the time of their lives aggravating and frustrating the Slain and laughing at their futile attempts to stop their instance of the infamous "da Vinci tank".


High above the fray, Palladium's arsenal tore into Bath and the ground directly in front of Her, lighting up the night sky but barely marring Bath's angelic beauty. Bath retaliated by whipping Palladium with Her tendrils of light, causing explosions everywhere they touched.

Megan had expected more time before having to fight, but she was ready.
She anxiously held her ground as a skeleton wielding a metal femur rushed her. She was swinging her blade at it and hoping her armor would hold when an explosion deafened and blinded her, sending her flying backwards into something hard.

In a panic, she reflexively activated her plant's killswitch and found herself in her physical, lying on her bed.
Megan cursed herself and went quickly back into the game. Her character was lying in the middle of the battle, ignored because of her low status. Her area had been hit by one of Bath's tendrils, which were smashing their way along. They did more damage to red warriors, but stunned everyone. She realized that she shouldn't be in full immersion, first person mode, at least not for her first CS battle. She switched to an overhead control scheme, which allowed most of the same articulation with a degree of psychological dissociation from her character.

Still lying on the ground, Megan took the opportunity to soak in the madness washing over the field. The music around her was a hectic mix of the two side's themes. It was appropriately unnerving. Still, the battle wasn't exactly orderly, but it also wasn't like the giant pile of entangled parts that used to comprise the dividing line. The energy system encouraged players to space out by penalizing their energy flow when they clustered together. Players had to coordinate and think strategically to use the flow efficiently. In Ataraxia, this required strategic minded players to continually adjust battle tactics, but here most players with common sense could feel their flow being cut off when around too many strong proxies. Additionally, bunched up proxies were also more vulnerable to area effects.

Megan stood and jumped over some dismembered allies to hack at a zombie which was trying to climb a small mech. She killed it with little struggle, surprising herself. She remembered that she was part of a group and checked its plan. The group was dispersed and the plan was shot. But the group's scanner was still operating somehow and suggested a group of zombies about her level nearby she could effectively engage. She turned to attack them when several of them tackled her. She managed to cut one of their heads off, but three of them began ravenously consuming her unguarded legs. She was only saved when a nearby mech used its flamethrower to burn them off. Luckily, Crain Slain was casual enough that friendly fire was turned off.

Megan hobbled away on her crippled legs toward the safety of Crain territory. On the way she managed to dodge a grove of rampaging ents, a vampire exchanging blows with an android, an audacity of gargoyles, and a rage of orcs. But there no longer was a Crain territory, except perhaps around Palladium's feet. She took a quick aerial overview of the field. Chimera Field spanned miles and miles relative to the size of the average proxy, and even so the battle was now raging everywhere. Even Slain's side had gone to hell, so to speak, as small dedicated groups of hyper powered Crain mech had penetrated deep into Slain territory, slaughtering thousands on their way to Bath's trunk. It was true pandemonium and Megan loved it.

Skyward, Bath and Palladium were streaming furious death at each other. Bath had lost some of Her shine and had begun to bleed ooze from Her eyes. Not able to rely entirely on Her tendrils, She had begun to shoot blue fireballs and was also whipped Her lovely hair up from Her feet to spear Palladium's weapons and numerous armor plates, occasionally dislodging them and sending them falling to explode below.

Palladium had attempted to move toward Bath, but had been held back by Her constant attacks. It's left arm, which it had been using a shield, was mostly destroyed, though it had managed to severely damage Bath's trunk and midsection, including the control center for Her lower tendrils, impairing their attack abilities and killing dozens of high powered proxies integrated into her body.

Their volleys often fell short or went wide, by accident or design, ultimately causing the deaths of thousands of hapless proxies on both sides. Explosions from all causes went off randomly and widely.


Megan: [audio only] It is always like this?
Thomas: Oh no, this is particularly nasty. Normally there's some decorum and showmanship. This is out of control. Fun, huh?

Thomas smiled to himself as he picked off a few more blue proxies with his turret's sniping mode. Sniping with the turret was difficult, but Thomas made excellent use of it. He aimed his gun at Bath's left wing, which he suspected of being a weak point. If he could get just a little damage showing there, someone else might target it as well.


Shell shocked and inexperienced, Megan did her best to avoid combat. It wasn't that she was afraid of dying, at least not from her current perspective. She just wanted to have maximum impact for her alignment. Sam, watching from her abstraction, saw Megan's dilemma.

Sam: [audio] If you're looking for something to do, check out those demons Northeast of you. Looks about your level.
Megan: Thanks!

Megan followed the trail Sam had sent her to find the demons, who were tearing a team of tarantula mechs apart. Megan managed to stab one clean through before another tore her head off. Deceased, Megan flew above the battle and watched red's last desperate moments.

Red fighters near Palladium had turned back every wave of enemies but were being torn apart by a fifteen foot sapphire praying mantis. On the other side, the "da Vinci" crew was disintegrating Slain forces and almost to Bath's roots, closer than any other Crain forces. Whether they could do anything once they got there was another matter.

Megan watched the hundreds of proxies controlling the various functions of each of the two incarnations. Without them, neither Bath nor Palladium could move or fight at all. She'd have to try being part of a giant demon sometime, it looked fun.

Star Palladium lost the rest of its left arm, and its laser sword with it. Its chest was full of holes, its head had been sliced in half, and its right leg was barely supporting its half of the weight. It appeared aged and rusted through, and was leaking red oil from dozens of spots. Only a few of its weapons were still firing. Thomas' station had been destroyed by a fireball, and he too was dead.

Palladium rocket-punched Bath in the face with its right fist. The fist, damaged from previous attacks, fell to the ground below Bath and exploded, damaging Her roots and sending proxies flying for half a mile.

Bath was more structurally intact, but Palladium's assault had taken a ghastly toll. Bath was drenched in blue blood, which had obscured Her glow. Her face was no longer the radiant visage of a goddess, but was now a hideously twisted and disgusting mask of rage, revealing her true nature. The maw that once was Her mouth foamed around Her jagged, broken teeth. Blood spewed from a massive gaping wound at the side of Her head, melting Her followers below. The few tendrils and tentacles She had left dripped the same acid death, as did Her wings, which had become as gnarled and demonic as Her face. Her remaining three arms now sported demonic talons. The beautiful tree bark of Her lower section had been torn or burned away in many parts to reveal what could only be described as the rot of a diseased maggot.

The few proxies still orchestrating Palladium concentrated its remaining power on Bath's stomach, rupturing it and causing Her intestines to spill out onto the ground. Her guts shot out over Palladium and fell like a net around it, crushing its armor and pulling the mech closer to Her.

Bath uprooted Herself revealing three thick, wormlike tentacles which She used to shamble toward Palladium. The field itself warped with her attack, and the whole of Slain's side of the field tilted to follow Her, causing the remaining Slain warriors to spill onto Crain's side, swamping the relatively few remaining Crain proxies. Slain's energy was overwhelming, energizing his warriors while suppressing Crain's.

Palladium and Bath grappled as Crain's forces were extinguished. Bath clawed into the robot's chest and head and crushed Palladium with Her hair and intestines, while Palladium used the last of the ammo it had been saving for a final close range assault, blowing off large chunks of Bath's trunk and breasts, causing Her to emit a nightmarish shriek. Palladium fell backward to the ground and Bath fell on top of it, absorbing it into Her broken and smoldering body. Bath integrated Palladium's systems inside Herself, using its parts to repair the damage it had done to Her and using its remaining energy to once more hide Her true form with a resplendent glow.

A wave of energy pulsed out as Mecha-Bath, the Abyssal Glory, rose. It turned the entire field blue, including the few thousand remaining Crain followers.
The battle was unusually long and bitter for CS, lasting more than 12 minutes. At the end, Chimera Field was covered with blood and more than 500,000 disintegrating bodies.

Thomas' spirit caught up with Megan's just before the final moments of the battle. They exchanged a glance of appreciation for the carnage.

Mecha-Bath moved to the stage and swallowed it within Her renewed tree roots. She sent out another energy wave that restored all of the dead proxies back to life. Everyone was shed of their equipment and enhancements and glowed blue.


Mecha-Bath: You have summoned Us. Now worship the true Goddess! Bow before Us and We will grant you perfect existence.




12. FINAL FORM! GODDESS ASCENDANT!
VERSUS
AQUA REGIA

The field of proxies stood unified in opposition to Mecha-Bath following the revelation of Her true nature. Many proxies previously integrated into Bath fled Her body. Mecha-Bath, now fully integrated and restored, gave an enraged wail at the betrayal of Slain's side.


Mecha-Bath: You have chosen your fate! The sun has been traded for the moon and stars. The sphere of consciousness shall suffocate in the Abyss!

A new Slain song began, with lyrics extolling Her many ancient atrocities. Few players chose to resonate with it, so it sounded hollow as it was coming mostly from Mecha-Bath Herself. Bath's tendrils and tentacles shot randomly into all parts of the field. Cybernetic demons spawned at the contact points and attacked players, who were at first powerless before them.

Then Crain opened a screen to all players. She was still in her cockpit, but demonic growths covered everything, including her face.

Crain: There are only seven minutes left until...

Crain's mouth was smothered by the growths before she could finish. She still managed to send the last of Palladium's energy through some of Mecha-Bath's tentacles. They turned red as they pumped out enough of her energy to give each proxy a red glowing dagger in their dominant hand. The dagger counted down the time while playing a Crain song, though it was muffled. She sang of the romance of hopeless revolt. Players resonated with it and the song carried over the field, though it was washed out by Bath's music.

Some players joined with the demons against the other players, but most made a run to assault Mecha-Bath. Thomas, like many players, beat back Mecha-Bath's minions and ran along one of Her tentacles up to Her body, which continually spawned demons and sent them to Her defense.
Running up the tentacles was difficult due to their instability and the stream of enemies. The tendrils had fewer enemies, but they were narrower so players couldn't run as quickly. Other players, like Megan, ran on the ground up to Bath and used their knives to climb up her trunk.

Megan: [audio] It's amazing how everyone's getting along now.
Thomas: We just needed a common enemy to unite us. Look at that thing!
Megan: Does CS always end like this?
Thomas: [pushing a zombie raptor off the tentacle] Oh no, there are tons of different endings. Sometimes it's just a celebration, and sometimes a bigger bad guy shows up, and sometimes it's all unicorns and golden fields. It depends on the branching tree of songs which the players ultimately select as the concert goes along. There are all sorts of exciting unachieved endings that have been hinted at that people have been trying to get to for years. But right now, this ends one of two ways. We take Bath down or we get annihilated.
Megan: Then let's get her!
Thomas: Right on!

Everyone could feel Mecha-Bath's power ramping up for a major assault.

Thomas made it up the tentacle, and when he was near Her head, he leapt off and fell onto Her stomach, using his dagger to catch a hold. Up close, Bath's body was covered in fur, a manifestation of Her energy which could be used for climbing. Sticking out at various points was Palladium's metal structure, which could be used as platforms. Thomas jumped over to a broken missile turret jutting out of Her side and from there jumped up and swung over to a particularly bright spot which indicated vulnerability to damage. Holding onto the fur with one hand, he stabbed the spot over and over again until it turned black, then started maneuvering up the body to reach another bright spot.

Hundreds of other proxies did the same thing all over Mecha-Bath. She had reserved some of Her light tendrils to serve as defense, and these continuously swept Her body, throwing proxies some distance away. Other players avoided the tendrils by cutting holes inside Her and fighting through Her hollowed innards to attack vulnerable spots within. That was the more disgusting option, and unpleasant in every imaginable way.

Megan, not feeling much like climbing, ran to Mecha-Bath's trunk and followed others inside. She was able to get midway up Her trunk before becoming bogged down in enemies. Fighting them helped defeat Her as well, so Megan concentrated on that for the time remaining.

With a minute left, Mecha-Bath begins to shake violently, having taken critical damage. A warning to escape popped up from the daggers.

Crain: Bath is defeated! Run before she explodes!

Everyone capable of getting away did. Explosions from every part of Her body rocked the field, but Her basic form remained intact. The ground underneath Her gave way and Her body began to sink into an inferno which opened up underneath Her, setting Her on fire. She pitched forward in a struggle to escape, but giant metal hooked chains shot up from the inferno and embedded themselves all over Her body and pulled Her slowly into the pit.

The left side of Mecha-Bath's head faced the field. It collapsed inward, revealing the center stage, now integrated into Bath's pulsing black brain. The drummer and keyboardist were there, along with a single entity comprised of an amalgamation of Slain and Crain. It began to sing a farewell song.





14. ANARCHY OUTSIDE

The final song was Anarchy Outside, a popular unofficial anthem celebrating the liberated expanse of Outside. The mass of proxies resonated it and sang along, causing the field to turn into its original purple color. About a third of the proxies were ghosts, after dying in the assault on Mecha-Bath, but now had been made visible to the other players so they could participate in the camaraderie of the final song. Many of the remaining living proxies were partly dismembered.

Megan and Thomas were quite dead from the explosion. Thomas portalled over to Megan's position, some distance from Bath's corpse.


Megan: That was great! I feel like I just helped kill a demi-god. Everything was so realistic and compelling! Bath and Palladium and the various proxy forms and special effects. It must have taken so much work.

Thomas: It's taken a while to get to this point. Go back and experience a recording of one of the early concerts to see how far. The giant incarnations and warrior proxies are largely the result of fan mods. And the extracts from other game worlds help a lot. Denizens of Hell Fray even built a special extract just for CS.
Megan: And so many people! Like a crushing sea of people!
Thomas: CS isn't all that big or crazy compared to Ego Slider or Gold Wire, but it sure has the pulse of Outside gaming culture. It's a great game, very energetic, with a strong subculture too. A whole bunch of the active proxies at any given CS concert are regulars.
Megan: I've set it to alert me a few days in advance when there's going to be a relatively local concert.
Thomas: CS is set up to reduce lag for everything really important, allowing effective participation from all over the Earth. I've done a concert set up in China and didn't notice any lag until a bit during the showdown, so if you feel like doing CS, don't let location stop you. Man, I get alerts ten minutes before all kinds of whatever craziness and just jump in where it is. Woosh!
Megan: Well, I need a little time to prepare.
Thomas: Oh, yeah, that reminds me. You should come by my apartment tomorrow before the film shoot. You've never seen it.

Megan: OK. What's at your apartment?
Thomas: I can show you my collection.
Megan: Collection of what?
Thomas: Everything!

Megan: Hmm... what time?
Thomas: 10 a.m. We'll make a day of it!
Megan: I'm sure I won't regret it.

The song ended just as Bath's head sunk below the ground. Proxies jumped into the pit after it, even as the field closed up. And with that the concert was over. The concert layer remained active for an hour for after-concert socializing, but the physicals were already streaming out of the field.

Everyone with an active proxy received a message from Crain Slain thanking them for participating in the concert. It contained a link to a complete recording of the entire concert, along with a special highlight reel automatically created for their proxy. Each player proxy's points and achievements were reset at the end of the concert, but proxies played under the same account could be set to carry records of past exploits.

That concert, like all previous CS concerts, had streamed for free on the net and been available for replay in full detail, down to being able to inhabit any proxy on the field and passively live out its concert related experiences. The entire thing was quite a production, but Crain Slain still made a fortune from the active participant fee.

Thomas and Megan said goodbye and T portalled home. Megan wandered around admiring the debris of Chimera Field for a few minutes before Sam appeared next to her.

Sam: How was the concert?
Megan: Oh, it was a blast! Though I'm used to less violent concerts like Slushmare or Vermillion Pleasure Slice.
Sam: I saw Slushmare at Lunar Stage last year. Pretty awesome. Classical/meta-slush is my favorite genre.
Megan: I always wanted to go to Lunar Stage, but it's way up in Canada.
Sam: Well, now you can.
Megan: [lightly thumping herself in the forehead] Holy crap, you're right! I can't believe I didn't realize that.
Sam: Ha. Keep exploring and you'll never stop realizing neat things here. So, how is adapting to discomfort going?
Megan: Not bad. I freaked out a few times, but I managed to keep it set around medium.
Sam: Medium? Seriously? That's a lot of pain for a concert.
Megan: I thought people usually kept it on high?
Sam: No... most people have it turned almost completely off for something like CS. Did T tell you to do that?
Megan: Nope, it just seemed like they would do that for realism.

Sam: No wonder you get along with T. But next time, we should do the concert together. T doesn't play CS exactly like most people.
Megan: What do you mean?
Sam: He kind of skates over the surface of the game, helping out his side at weak points. He's extremely useful, but he misses out on the social element and the excitement that comes with being submerged in the crowd. The resonance of a good group can be intoxicating. Having a shared perspective and forming a social and emotional connection with a side is an incredible experience. It can make the concert feel like a roller coaster ride controlled by the collective imagination of hundreds of thousands of people, so its vibrant and unpredictable. It's like being on a sports team, except that your goal is way cooler than just scoring more points than the other team. You get to create some really fun scenarios and compete them against radically different visions. You don't always win, but you always leave a mark.

Megan: Evolving, player-created game worlds are definitely of interest to me. I wasn't really thinking of Crain Slain that way, but it's like a simple, quickly evolving world. You get to share in and help shape a collective vision for the short future of an entire world, and fight for your vision against conflicting perspectives. What's more incredible than helping create a world that so many people will experience together? But it's done for today, and I'm going to T's place before the shoot tomorrow so I should go. I'll see you tomorrow. [hugging Sam]
Sam: Tomorrow, yep. The shoot and then Omni. It'll be awesome!




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