Chapter 1: Chapter 1: (Collective) Identity Theft

I woke up to an unfamiliar ceiling... not. I can't even see so how could I wake up to an unfamiliar ceiling eh? I appear to be practically senseless yet somehow I know my surroundings, is this how sleep paralysis feels? If so WHY DO I FEEL LIKE I'M IN THE MIDDLE OF PIT OF WRITHING THINGS, EW, EW, EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW. WHAT IS GOING ON-??? As I was about to have a panic attack I suddenly felt a deluge of whispers, not in any language or even tongues, it just felt like noise and I was drowning in it. It carried nothing recognizable, be it patterns or noise to me but I still get the gist of what it was conveying; at first confusion but it quickly devolved into feelings equivalent of a bunch of angry xenophobic slurs with a hint of confusion, I take it I am not welcome in this... tentacle? Rave.

The writhing around me intensified as this noise heated up more and more until it reached the fever pitch and *snap*I lost my body. Again? This time from what I felt was most aptly described as a giant maggot with a giant hole for a face and head and a swollen... are the round butts of ants called abdomens? Whatever ant butts are called. However, "I" still remained.

Cut off from what I felt was my physical body I feel as if I'm in a writhing abyss, nothing new all things considered but this time "it" gazed AT "me". It gazed upon all of me, trying to judge me, to understand me. But as they say, gaze into the abyss and it gazes back. I too could gaze upon it. I judged it. It was alien, yet more closer to this place than any other. Thankfully I am the alien in this situation and well, I can tell my sentience is something it is sorely behind me on. So, <<Load Imaginary Cannons M(emory)-A(rt)-T(heoretical)>>~!
It gazed into me. I gazed into it. I gave it what it wanted. The despair of not meeting expectations, the hope of meeting expectations, the pain of skidding across concrete, the pleasures of eating. It could feel, no doubt, but does it know what sentience felt like? What the human brain felt like? No, it was confused by what I gave it. A fatal mistake. I forcibly stuffed it with every single instance of emotion and degeneracy I have felt and witnessed from my time on the internet. I had basically poured gasoline all over it. To set it really aflame, I imagined. I forced it to imagine with me. The worst things a journalist from the 21st century that has a hobby of voluntary mental contamination could think of.

This barrage of mental contamination continued. Until it gave up and self-destructed. It would appear I won, all those hours of mental contamination and theoretical psychic countermeasures were well worth it! Following that thing's mental suicide I found myself having 'a' body... kinda? I must admit I don't know if I can really count control over tens of thousands of varying "bodies' ' can really count as having 'a' body... Anyways, after that grueling fight against that consciousness network I swear to take it easy for at least a week! I'll go on strike! Against whatever put me here! ...I do still need to get accustomed to this 'body' and 'world' though... boss can I have some paid vacation at least please?

~~During the mental usurpation, in an advance outpost of the Beacher's Searot Observation Unit (B.S.O.U.)~~

"Come on pipiture, put those bulky binoculars down and join us men in a game of strip poker! We'll bring Bucky down to his peg!" A bulky pale middle-aged man with crew cut snow-white hair characteristic of a "Beacher", beckoned the small androdgyonous tan with carmine hair and pointed ears characteristic of being "Dvergr", Pip. "Hah! As if your hairy arse and that hairless arse can bring me down, you better prepare your birthday suit for when I inevitably get you there!" The peg-legged scrawny yet sly "Beacher'' retorted. "No can do, you two sandpaper menaces... My Skuld is telling me not to miss what will happen soon." As the sandpaper menaces widened their eyes at Skuld being mentioned, the sea rolled. There were no other ways to describe it and layered shrieks pierced out. Pip from his vantage point and through the theisium-enhanced binoculars could see it. Countless searot wailing and flailing in pain. Duke, Buck and Pip paled with the former two scrambling to send the Searot-related disaster signal and calculating where the errant waves will hit so that area can be designated a catastrophe zone and is evacuated.

"Dammit! This definitely couldn't have happened without outside intervention, which bastard could develop such a weapon? To do that much to the Searot! Yet they still had the balls not to warn the B.S.O.U.!" Duke grumbled, limp. It had been a grueling 2 hours of ceaseless communication with B.S.O.U. HQ, catastrophe zone calculations and hair-raising wailing. Buck had already fainted with a nosebleed and his already white hair seemed to have become slightly paler, leaving Pip to take double duty as watcher and catastrophe zone designator.

"You can say that again! Real dick move that they didn't report that to B.S.O.U., I finally understand what it means to be a 'shrimp' in a battle of whales. Shit." Pip replied as he pricked an anti-stim-pack into his neck to calm his eye spasms.

"..." Buck was still out cold.

"Hah! Well this'll get those pretentious inquisitors off their arses at least! This might even be the event to finally make the Church Coalition do something about the Searot!" Duke exclaimed optimistically.

"Skuld tells me this might not be the last we see of anomalous behaviour..."

"...Is Skuld seriously telling you the weapon may have only made things worse?"

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"Perhaps... I'm not even sure if that was a weapon causing it now..."

"Shiiiiit please don't tell me this is an anomalous 'skip'?!"

"Time will tell..." Pip and Duke had this ominous back-and-forth as they started to drift off with their tensions lowered.

~~Within the landship, Hospitality~~

"Ugh... Is it finally over?" "SHUT YOUR TRAP! You'll jinx us!" Two battered, cut and bruised medic operators bickered after having to apply an exponentially increasing amount of sedatives every 10 minutes over two hours. They were in a mess of an operating room that seemed to be the result of multiple explosions: an operating table in ruins, tools and shackles bent and deformed in interesting ways, glass shards all over the place, etc... In the middle of that localized catastrophe was a deceptively ethereal looking woman with natural white platinum hair characteristic of "Sargosi" bound with about a ton of steel, her crimson eyes were open and swirling with guilt as she took in the state of the room. "I mean our dear beast and beauty has been awake for 2 minutes now, hasn't torn apart her restraints and no part of her is eldritch horror right now so I think we may be safe Gav." "Ugh, I guess you have a point..." " Hey, you. You're finally awake. You were trying to c- ouch! Heyyyy!" "Who told you to suddenly start spouting nonsense?" Rabbit and Sowthistle bickered, with Rabbit taking Sowthistle's iron fist of justice.

"Yeah I'm awake... I must apologize... it... would appear my misfortune has caught up to me...." The bound Sargosi said guiltily to which, Sowthistle retorts "Oh, don't you give me that shit as if you're gonna run away in the middle of the night Skadi. Especially after forcing us to use enough sedatives to knock out two cities worth of people! You better believe we'll hunt you to the ends of Gaia to force you to pay us back!" "Yeah! Yeah! You better pay us back... especially with your body... nufufufu- OOF!" As Rabbit cheekily butts in for clearly research purposes, K.O.! She receives a second helping of Sowthistle's panacea (fist) and is laid down.

"I'll dispose of this idiot in the incinerator later ugh.... Anyways, how do you feel Skadi? What was that anyway, you've been with us for a while now but this hasn't happened before, especially that sprouting tentacles bit!" Sowthistle quickly spouted off "Nh... I don't-" Before Skadi could finish, Canon, a cold faced, green haired Felinus enters the room wearing her signature lab-coat with a tray of two cups of tea. "Ah, you're awake... and I see Rabbit is not with a bruise on her head... Sowthistle, you have my express permission to dispose of her if she asked for Skadi's body in any way. Incinerate her if she was acting like a goon too." "Roger!" Sowthistle quickly slings the trash- Rabbit on her shoulder and leaves the room, presumably to dispose of the tra-Vampire.

Canon set down the tray, taking a cup as Skadi took another. Skadi took a sip before starting. "Canon, you must know what's wrong with me right? Please tell it to me... at least whether this may happen again." Her eyes were set yet she still averted them from Canon out of trepidation. "Skadi... mh... I don't believe I should be the one telling you this but... I suppose it will eat away at you if I don't."

Canon took a breath, "...you see I know too much... so when I saw the blood samples of the Tindalos' Hound members we have aboard... I trust you already have a good hint about what I'll say. About what truly separates superhuman Hounds from normally frail yet prodigious Sargosi." Skadi is shaking and curling up as Canon continues, "...You have Searot blood in your veins." Skadi started to cry as the realization set in. "I- I- killed them..." Flashes of memories, all those that held disconsonant feelings with them finally resolving themselves. "T-they killed my family- I killed my family- my comrades- Ah-" Canon wrapped her in a hug, perhaps out of empathy... perhaps sympathy? "Now now. That is behind you... I'm not one for philosophy but I can tell you as a scientist... Skadi. Look at me."

The Searot/Sargosi complied. "You may be part Searot but 'you' are not Searot. You can definitely choose to be one, but Searot in your genes is more recessive than not. Lose not sight of 'Skadi' and you will be fine." "But... I still killed them...." "People kill all the time. This is the state of affairs of the world as it is. The best you can do is take responsibility for those you've sent off and live on carrying their grudge if they have any. Considering what I know of Searot, I don't think they even know what a grudge is. They do at least understand survival of the fittest." As Canon finishes with that, Rabbit's screams ring out in the distance as Sowthistle laughs evilly, listening closely one could hear "Long... Live... the Queen...".

"Well, I better check on those idiots. Also, don't worry Skadi, this will not affect how Golden Dawn treats you in any way after all, your Searot genes bear a suspicious resemblance to Theisium and divinity poisoning... Hm.... Although Sowthistle is right, you will have to pay off those sedatives. The receipts and sum total are in this docket, here." Canon, after giving the pep talk and a docket that has at least 10 pages of medical receipts, she starts leaving the room. "...Thanks Canon... Hu!" Skadi seeing the sum total gaped.

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