Tentacles

So, KRAKEN... A bunch of incompetent losers who may be considered responsible for the end of the world.

It's been a while since I've thought about them. After what happened in Seattle It wouldn't be entirely unexpected that they'd be gone for good. Unfortunately though that is not the case. See on top of being surprisingly competent fighters, they are also surprisingly large and multi-faceted with multiple "Tentacles" operating in different areas. Their failure in Seattle while devastating to the country and possibly the world was only a setback to the organization.

It seems as well that other Tentacles have moved back in trying to re-establish dominance in this area. I haven't been able to learn too much, but it seems they have some kind of plan now for The forest.

Maybe I can learn more... As for how I'm learning any of this. That would be because apparently these incoming KRAKEN agents found my abandoned little base and decided it would be a great temporary headquarters. Luckily for me they don't seem to know who I am and think I'm just some runaway kid who took shelter in this abandoned place.

They do know about me apparently though. One of them tried to tell me how lucky I was that they got here and that I didn't run into the previous owner. Told me terrifying stories about the horrible monster who used to live here. It was insulting and also strangely complimentary.

They're also sexist assholes who have been treating me like a maid. One even tried to get me to wear a maid costume... Well actually I said tried, but I guess he technically succeeded.

I am essentially powerless at the moment and making them mad seems like a bad idea so I suppose I'm technically their maid for the moment. Hopefully I'll come up with some kind of plan to deal with them soon.

Pompous assholes...

I imagine I won't live if they find out about me though so my updates will be limited for the moment.

Normality?

I made it back home and as long as I'm out of the Forest now my memories seem to be getting better.

Returning back to the base was... Disheartening. It was completely abandoned. Everything was still working, but all of my Towerborn were gone. I had left quite a few behind when I went to see Rioter and I guess with me being gone so long they... Just left. I'm all alone now.

I don't like it.

On another note! I tried food for the first time in a while. I don't normally have much use for money, but it is occasionally useful and so we had a small store of cash just in case we needed to bribe someone or something. I took a few dollars and went to a local restaurant. Some fast food place. I'd have preferred something more fine, but I didn't want to spend too much money and after my time in the forest and the time it took to get back home I was starving so, I settled.

I ordered a hamburger and some fries and well... Food tastes good. I'm assuming this is not a new bit of information for most of you, but you cannot imagine what it's like to taste food for the first time. At least the first time you can remember.

I am smart enough to know I shouldn't eat too much as that will result in a negative impact on my health. I will restrain myself to only eat when I am hungry. I don't have the money to spend on tons of food anyway.

So, that out of the way... as well as various other body related issues it's time to figure out what to do now.

I'm not sure. I'm not going back to the forest... Definitely not. Not without a lot more preparation.

I could probably seek help from The AMU, but they might be mad at me for my little trick with the book and I'm not sure I want to go to The Archive in my current state. I mean there's no guarantee they won't try to take advantage of my vulnerable form to run all kinds of experiments on me.

There's ARC, but I never really looked into them all that much and don't know much about them at all. I think I'm still on my own. I'll figure something out...

Right now though... I think I'm going to sleep. I am just so tired...

Escape

I'm not going to be dramatic. Before I tell you how it happened I'm gonna tell you that I am out of The forest and I am... Mostly fine. I... Memory a bit... Have to check my name and blog to remind myself of stuff. Pretty constantly hungry... Which by the way Hunger is a fairly new sensation to me and I don't like it. Hungry, tired and um the third thing.

So... As for the forest. Well... After my last post I...

Sorry got distracted and forgot to continue writing for a bit there. This is going to be a problem. My perfect mind and perfect body are both failing me now. I hate this...

Anyway right! So... After that last post I just picked a direction and started heading in that direction.

At some point I started struggling to remember why I was even moving, but I always remembered that I was supposed to keep going in that direction so that worked out even if it was horrifying. I always thought the Blind Man was honestly kind of funny. I'd laugh at the idea of humans being scared of some kind taking their memories from them, but it is damn scary just suddenly losing those. Struggling to recall things. It's a goddamn nightmare. I mean...

Your memory is all that you are really? Without your memory you're not you anymore. You're something else with your body...

Ugh... Just thinking about it and how close I came to losing it all makes me shiver...

I got distracted again didn't I?

Fuck where was I?

Right! I made it to a point where I could see the forest moving and even in my addled brain I remembered that meant I was near the edge... Which is when one of Jeer's psychos found me.

I remembered that I was afraid of him, but at the time I was so tired and addled that I didn't really remember why. I didn't remember if I was supposed to run or fight and upon spotting me he just stood there and watched. Like he was expecting something. When whatever he was expecting didn't happen he started to approach and then well... He just kind of exploded... Everything above his stomach just kind of exploded into red and then a few seconds later a waxy feeling object grabbed me and started dragging me. I didn't struggle. I didn't remember why I should.

I woke up a bit later outside the forest. It took me a while to figure out what happened. Someone wearing a haz-mat suit and wielding some seriously high caliber weaponry apparently based on what happened to Jeer's guy saved me. I vaguely remembered being pushed into the passenger seat of a car... and then I woke up in an abandoned house. The area I'm in is abandoned since it's close enough to the forest it will probably be engulfed soon. The area was therefore evacuated meaning there were conveniently abandoned houses for my unknown saviour to leave me in.

When I came too I was actually in a bathtub and my body was covered in powder. What kind of powder was a mystery that was pretty quickly discovered. Apparently my saviour also saw fit to disinfect me with some kind of powder that I assume was meant to cleanse any remaining spores from my body. Anyway I'm gonna get the hell out of here now and hopefully I can remember the way back to my actual home. I doubt I'll have much luck trying to find my saviour so that's hardly worth it and I really just want to be back somewhere familiar.

To fear is Mortal

It's been a while hasn't it? Well partly that's because I lost the ability to update this blog for a while. I needed to get access to a computer to do so.

I can no longer hear anything in my mind, but my own thoughts... What little of my mechanical body remained is gone. I'm completely flesh and blood now. A human just like the rest of you.

Luckily so are Rioter and Jeer. I'm stuck in the jungle still and I'm worried. I thought the spores wouldn't affect us anymore, but I was wrong. Extremely wrong. Every second I'm here it gets harder to think. If I had started as a normal human I'd probably be no better than an animal by now, but luckily for me I started as a god machine and it took some time for me to regress to this level.

I need to get out of here before it's too late. Before I regress to the intelligence level of an animal or before Jeer, Rioter or any of the others find me. They've all regressed. Jeer and his group of "Forest Wardens" or whatever the hell they were called are mere animals now. I watched one tear the head off of one of Rioter's followers and he then began just... Just eating his face... It was horrible.

I'm not gonna be able to travel for a bit so I suppose if I need to wait I might as well tell you what happened.

Rioter's group returned and told us Jeer had agreed to meet us. We were brought deeper into the jungle and found Jeer. He was at that point of course completely human... Well subhuman... He was a complete animal and he and his group almost immediately attacked us. Which was when we learned that we had been affected by the spores and had become pretty much completely human now. The fight didn't go very well for us. I watched Rioter's men try to fight and get mostly slaughtered. Jeer's men fighting with tooth and claw as well as rocks and sticks. I didn't stay very long to see what was happening. I fled when the person closest to me got their arm cut off and went down screaming and bleeding.

I ran as quickly as I could. I had thought being able to feel pain was terrible, but earlier I had not truly understood what pain was. The ground was covered in debris and thorns and other things and I could feel my feet and legs being cut to pieces and eventually I collapsed and crawled for a while. I found... Well I found a laptop. I think the place I am right now was once a park in Seattle. I found a laptop covered in lichen on a mass of wood and flowers that I think was once a bench. The laptop worked somehow...

I couldn't tell you how. Nothing else technological seems to be working in this place. Weirder than that it has a full battery and internet access.

So... There's the story. Rioter and Jeers groups fought. I'm pretty sure Rioter's group got destroyed, but I'm not sure. I'm trapped in this jungle. I'm slowly losing my mind. I have a weird probably magical laptop and I'm bleeding from cuts pretty much all over my body and every muscle in my body aches. I'm desperately trying to work up the will to keep moving, but I just can't. Everything hurts too much and... I'm too scared. I'm scared I'm going to die. IF they find me they'll undoubtedly kill me.

Everything still hurts, but I'm having trouble remembering my name and that's enough to motivate me to try and get the hell out of here again.

Into The Jungle

I... Don't think Rioter wants an alliance. I say that because on the way the last of my Towerborn were killed. Rioter said something about them being traitors, but that's pretty obviously a lie.

I'm not a psychologist, but I'm pretty sure what Rioter wants is control. I mean... I admit I wasn't the nicest person back when we were all perfect electronic minds, but I think he might be a little... Vengeful? He wants me to work for him. Maybe he gets pleasure out of having me at his command. I mean we are becoming human I wouldn't be surprised if that came with all kinds of strange neuroses as well.

Regardless, I'm all alone with Rioter and his Towerborn now and we're standing at the... Well... We were standing at the edge of the spore zone, but it seems to have passed over us while I was writing this...

Rioter sent a few of his Towerborn to try and find Jeer earlier. Hopefully they'll be back soon. Maybe we can just talk to Jeer? I can hope right?

Rioter says they're coming back... I'll update you on what happens.

Riots

So, I went to visit Rioter. I brought what few Towerborn still seemed loyal to me. What I found upon arriving was chaos.

Rioter like myself was inhabiting a flesh body now, but his was a large and imposing figure and when I arrived I found him and many of his towerborn huddled in the burned out remains of his base. They were almost feral, speaking in rapid clipped sentences with simple words. Rioter had never been intelligent, a useful brute was what he was at least comparatively and it seemed now that was what he had truly become. I'm lucky that he recognized me and was not immediately hostile although two of my Towerborn were killed. I'm not entirely sure why, but one of Rioter's towerborn simply decided to bludgeon two of mine to death. My best guess was because I had one more Towerborn with me than Rioter did. Rioter said nothing about it, but I would not be surprised to find out he had somehow ordered it just to make sure he had the advantage. Rioter didn't kill me on sight, but it was not a friendly encounter.

I asked Rioter about Jeer and he responded with this:

"The Infant God dead, we new gods.I know. You not know. You cling to dead god. Jeer worship new god. You join me. We kill Jeer. We kill Plant God. We become god"

I have trouble believing that his speech patterns weren't some kind of intentional act, but that was what he said. I responded.

"We're not gods. The Newborn was a god and this plant monster might be a god, but we're not gods-"

and that's when he grabbed me by the throat, slammed me to the ground and said:

"Join? Die?"

which seemed like a pretty obvious choice. So, now I'm with Rioter and our gathered Towerborn heading into Seattle to try and find and kill Jeer. With luck Rioter will die too and who knows maybe we'll be able to kill the giant plant. Rioter seems to think the spores won't affect us further. Hopefully he's right.

In short. Going to see Rioter might have been a mistake.

Adjustment

So... I'm capable of bleeding now... That's fun. I'm also still capable of feeling pain, which is also fun.

Also Jeer and a bunch of his Towerborn have headed into Seattle and began calling themselves the Forest Wardens... They have been asking others to join them. Some have. A few of my Towerborn have defected to join him... Oh right The Towerborn are gaining autonomy now which is again... Fun. Rioter is still silent and I don't know what he's going to do. I think maybe instead of waiting... I should go see him and try to reason with him.

Yeah the time for sitting back and letting this get worse is over, but... I'm a little... afraid.

I bleed... I feel pain... My mechanical body feels soft and vulnerable now... I'm scared. I think... I might be killable now and I don't want to die.

I'm scared if I leave the relative safety of this place... Anything could happen and what if Rioter's already made up his mind and he attacks me. I don't think I could win a fight with him and I don't trust my Towerborn anymore. I don't know what to do.

I feel so weak and vulnerable... How... How do humans stand this sensation?