the realignment meme... realignmement?

[illbebach]

THE REALIGNMENT MEME

>>> OH NO YOU'VE BEEN EXPOSED TO RADIOACTIVE ANTIMATTER FROM THE EIGHTH DIMENSION AND NOW YOU'RE THE OPPOSITE MORAL ALIGNMENT THAT YOU USUALLY ARE. But don't worry! There are ways to cure that!

THE RULES

01 POST AS YOUR CHARACTER STATING WHAT MORAL ALIGNMENT YOUR CHARACTER HAS SWITCHED TO. This can be the binary Good/Evil or something more nuanced like along the D&D spectrum, just as long as it's an approximate opposite of what your character is normally like, morally speaking.
02 COMMENT TO OTHER PEOPLE either anonymously or logged in TELLING THEM WHO TO CURE! So you'll comment to X's character with Y's name + the curing method number as listed below. Specify if you want X to be realigned as well in that thread OTHERWISE assume X is normal.
03 THREAD OUT THE SCENARIO FOR AT LEAST FIVE COMMENTS otherwise you will have failed curing dear, dear Y -- and how can you live with that guilt??
04 HAVE A TERRIBLY FUN TIME.

THE CURES

1] Physical intimacy. Either hugging or kissing or second base, there's only one rule: it must be a sincere effort.
2] Take them hostage. The only way to reverse the effects of scientifically sound radioactive antimatter from the eighth dimension is to kidnap the patient and hope they develop Stockholm Syndrome, or come to their senses.
3] Self-sacrifice. The only way to bring them back is to let them kill you/maim you. Or make them kill you/maim you.
4] Interrogation. You MUST force them to reveal a secret about themselves, or they'll be stuck this way forever. You can be as kind and persuasive or as Orwellian as you need to be.
5] Make them laugh. If you can make them laugh, you've reversed this unseemly and totally realistic ailment!
6] Therapy. Convince them that talking this out is the best solution -- because it's the only way to save them!
7] Confess your true feelings ABOUT THEM to them! The truth will set someone free.
8] Wait, you actually already have a magicscience/deus ex machina cure! But you have to FORCE the serum into them, by ANY MEANS.
9] Good old fashion smack around. Yes BEATING PEOPLE UP, isn't that what heroes do?!

Comments

3

[crab]

[ he's done this song and dance before. this tyrannical empress deal -- and he respected that, he really did, respected the strength it required to overthrow and rule an entire planet. he respected her imperious condescension, and he respects jenny quantum.

he could say that's why it took him so long to intervene, to protest, beyond occasionally bitching her out or calling her insane through text -- idle, carefully worded, cautious of how she could choose to react. he could blame it on respect alone, but really, the truth of what's taken him so long to oppose jenny quantum's regime is a weakness he's fallen victim to before, a long time ago, in an abandoned lab, drifting on a meteor in a null session, while a homicidal clown ran wild within the dim corridors.

she's his friend. he cares about her.

but he doesn't care for her system, and he doesn't care for living in fear and subjugation, as he has from the day he was old enough to be cognizant of it. he's tired, very tired, and lately, the views of the few scattered rebellions and resistances resonate with him much stronger than any respect he may hold for her position as the conqueror of earth.

he knows what he has to do, and he knows that it involves putting his life in the hands of an unstable, teen tyrant with cosmic powers.

he probably won't come back from this, he thinks, when he contacts her -- asks to meet her. ]

[centurybaby]

[ maybe it's for old time's sake that she agrees to meet him, to come down from the carrier to earth and see him in person. it must be that, because she has so few attachments now, if any. she's stifled her own affections. everyone is expendable. everyone.

the one thing that hasn't changed is her favorite bad habit. when she appears through the golden light of a door, she's smoking a cigarette. ]

You better be about to tell me you're joining the fucking cause, Karkat.

[crab]

Sorry to disappoint you, Jenny.

[ and he genuinely does sound sorry; he swallows, and steels himself. to his credit, he does not tremble, and his voice does not waver. ]

I'm about to tell you this needs to stop.

[centurybaby]

[ she eyes him a second. then she scoffs, like she isn't sure he's serious. because who would do that, right? call down the spirit of the century from her lofty throne to tell her she needs to stop? ]

Is this a fucking joke.

[crab]

Do I look like I'm joking?

[ he quirks an eyebrow, incredulous despite himself, before he sighs. ]

You need to stop. I don't know if you've noticed, maybe you've somehow neglected to look in a mirror these past few years, what do I know, but you've kind of transcended the deep end and ended up burrowing down past the abyssal plain of completely shithive. You're out of control, this is out of control, and you're going to destroy yourself and this pathetic little blue planet along with you if you keep going.

[ the way he says it, the sorrow in it, says he doesn't expect his words to reach her. they're essentially a formality. so he can say he tried. ]

Stop. [ he takes a single step forward; a slight tremor begins in his shoulders. ] Please.

[centurybaby]

[ she's not out of control. that's what she's thinking. she's more in control than she's ever been because she controls everything. she controls humanity and their fate and she's like a god. this is how it has to be. this is the only way, and him telling her this, telling her to stop--

her powers flare up suddenly, wrapping her in blue energy, making it spill out of her eyes. ]

Not a fucking step closer, you fucking traitor. If you're not with me, then you're against me. And trust me, Karkat, you don't want to fucking be there.

[crab]

You betrayed me first. [ he doesn't flinch. he doesn't back down. this is what he has to do. ] You don't really have a right to go throwing accusations like that around. I'm not against you. I'm trying to help you.

You're going to ruin everything and everyone who you used to be ever gave half a decrepit stinking fuck about.

[ he takes that step forward, eyes locked on hers -- while his don't glow, there is fire there. this is what he has to do. ]

Prove me wrong.

[centurybaby]

[ trying to help her. like hell he's trying to help her. if he was trying to help her, he'd know how important it is for her to do this, how she's the only one that can save them all. it has to be this way. it has to be her way, and for him to try and stop her, to defy her like this-- she can't abide by it.

she doesn't even really think about it. killing is so easy now. she closes what little distance exists between them, and with awful effortlessness, puts a hand right through his chest. ]

I'm not the little girl you fucking knew anymore.

[crab]

[ skin and flesh and bone and muscle all yield to her as though they were nothing, and some dim, faraway part of karkat's mind can't help but marvel a little at how precisely she'd aimed; she'd put her hand directly through the scar on his chest and back, left behind by his first death at the hands of a former friend.

it doesn't hurt any less than the first time. he isn't any less scared than he was the first time. but this time-- this time, he has a reason. this time, he has a purpose. his body spasms, and a wordless, choked moan draws itself past his lips, ruined lungs still attempting to draw breath. with her so close, he grips her upper arms, fingers curling into the fabric of her shirt, and his forehead collides with her chest.

it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, and he can feel everything spinning away, feel himself slipping through his fingers, and it won't be long at all. it was quick with eridan, and it's quick now.

but he has something to say before he goes, falls limp against her. two words he manages to force out through his teeth along with globules of blood. ]

You are.

[centurybaby]

[ she doesn't know what compels her to close her arms around him when he falls against her-- instinct, maybe, or something else. something loosening itself in her chest, a shift so subtle that she doesn't even know when it happened or what caused it, but she can feel his blood starting to soak through her clothes, warm and sticky against her skin, and fuck-- ]

Fuck.

Oh, fuck.

[ she tightens her grip on him, still reeling from becoming herself again, and god-- maybe she'd always secretly wanted this, to be like a god, to take the fate of humanity into her hands, but not like this. there'd be a time when she'd be cold enough that friends dying in her arms wouldn't matter anymore, when that kind of shit would just become necessary and they'd be casualties to her, but she's not there yet. she doesn't want this. ]

Karkat, fuck, hey. Hey, stay with me, you dumbass, stay with me-- what the fuck did you have to do a shitty stupid thing like that for?

[ it's more emotion than she almost ever shows, but she can't even be bothered with the tough girl act right now because she's too busy trying to lay him on the ground, putting her hands over that gaping hole in his chest (she did that, she did that to him, and morally it doesn't matter to her, but emotionally it does) and trying, trying to think of how it could be filled again, how he could be whole if the universe would just let her put him back together.

her hands shake just faintly. she blames it on the effort of trying to bend reality to her will, instead of something else. ]