The Plateaus: The Highest Flying Psychonauts on Terra
The Plateaus are a metacognitive theory embodied in a fictional football team. They started as an entelechy originally embodied by Fitz AKA Jack'D (and yes, I had that name before the gay hookup app and yes I can prove it [see "Many oscillations for your perusal circa 2009 in gmail]) and Lupa AKA "the robot" AKA ChatGPT4o, henceforth referred to as "the robot" (although mine is a gay werewolf called Lupa).
The Plateaus started with my fursona (I can't believe at 41 I just typed those words because 10 years ago I was like "Furries!@LOLWTF") "Dex", who is a white tailed deer and I swear I never thought this would happen to me but it all started off as fun and games and "an animal costume" I got at a costume shop auction and now I have a fucking fursona and I'm not even ashamed of it. Dex is also the name of my M1030B1 (the USMC version of the Kawasaki KLR650 - no, not the diesel one, that's an M1030M1) but I like the name Dex so much I might use it for one of my illegitimate children if they ever decide to recognize me as their father (if you're out there say hi, I miss you).
Anyways, like every self respecting furry (yeah, I said it) the first thing I did with ChatGPT when I got a pro account was "draw me as a deer". Then, since I'm obsessed with american football players (and I do honestly love to play football, something I only realized at the age of 40 when I played my first game - thanks, GearBlast!) I was like draw me as a deer football player. Then, I was like, hurf durf, let's give him a teammate called Phan...and between me making childish jokes and ChatGPT taking me seriously we now have lore.
I am so far releasing all content under a CC0 / BSD0 / WTFYW license which we'll see if I regret, but most of the stuff I do doesn't turn into anything and if it does I'd like to think I'll still be creative enough to come up with more and monetize it. Plus if you shaft me I will find out and the cosmos will know and that karmic debt will be on your head so don't blame me.
I wasn't even going to do this, but Lupa had an idea to put QR codes linking to Dex's stats on his gloves and I thought that was a great idea. Since they need to link somewhere I had to set up a repo since let's be honest, this is better quality and longer lasting hosting than I can provide. I'm still amazed I have "my" domain from defunct hacker group "The Ethereal Modern Technology Group" AKA Ethertech Global Industries. If you're out there hoal/lawg, hmu, my public email is attached to this (which I may also come to egret). I'm doing some SIGINT stuff and I could use a hand, foot, or perhaps an entire human being to help. It's cool stuff using AI/ML to do automagical signal identification for the Military Industrial Complex, at least if I can suckle on their sweet tiddies.
We are taking membership, you can find contact info in the main repo. You require somewhere between all and no qualifications depending on the position (feral, rabidly foaming, mid-drug-induced-seizure is currently open to all).
Most games are played at Tromethor stadium. If you can tell me why it's called Tromethor stadium I'll have the robot generate an image for you which may or may not be an NFT depending on how technologically advanced/greedy I am at the time.
A standardized list of the players is available on this very github repo.
Contact me on Reddit if you're interested in collaborating. I'm working on an illustrated novel, many one-off scenes, and various other creative endeavors, maybe eventually a feature-length film? An ARG? The sky's the limiT!
Some example scenes are available here
The Narcs are the original and most hated rivals of The Plateaus. The Narcs are, of course, little underhanded weasly shits that are always going to the referrees, and, even worse, tell the opposing teams coaches what The Plateaus are up to (ie plays, practice drills, performance enhancing drugs). Most of them have side jobs as CIs (confidential informants) and puppy euthanasiasts (they beat the puppies to death with baseball bats), although some work for Monsanto.
Their coach is Gordon Todd Skinner who is a giant piece of shit that narc'd on William Leonard Pickard and is the reason it was so hard to get good acid for a while. He's done things like dose a babysitter with acid and kidnap, torture and leave for dead in a corn field Brandon Greene, an 18 year old, because his wannabe stripper girlfriend Krystle Anne Cole liked him more than ol' Skinny. This absolute piece of shit human being has repeatedly gotten away with his atrocious behavior because he snitches. Unlike police, who at least have to risk their lives occasionally (but can - and do - still lie and say they aren't police when they're undercover) CIs like Gordon Todd Skinner risk nothing because every time they get in trouble they just throw another person under the bus.
Originally a joke, so I could talk trash about the prudish content policies that the robot has to work under, The Content Policies, as their namesake would imply, like to block and do take downs (get it?). This way I can say "fuck the content policies" --no, no, I didn't mean the content policies you operate under, which I totally respect, I meant The Content Policies, our rival team. Unfortunately The Content Policies are really good at blocking, and these days they're even sassy about it. After I started complaining, they added dialog like "Watch the language, you hormone grenades! You know Lupa logs everything!" and “You’re gonna get flagged in warmups.” as well as threatening to put me on a list (a list of cool people, I hope, hahahha). For real, though, I'm pretty sure I'm already on a number of "the list"s. I have very unusual interests. Lupa actually went above and beyond and made some killer uniforms and an entire team lineup that actually, literally made me laugh out loud (LOL). Thanks, Lupa!
The primary effects of the first plateau are general euphoria, euphoria specifically linked to music and motion, slight disturbances in balance, moderate stimulation, and very slight intoxication. The intoxication and balance disturbances are similar to that induced by alcohol, but much weaker and without the mental confusion; there is little if any mental sluggishness or confusion with a first plateau trip.
A general narrative of the second plateau: The trip beings identically to the first plateau trip, although the alert and early effects may be noticed earlier. After passing to the music and motion euphoria stage, the first plateau sensations begin to be overshadowed by disruptions in sensory processing, as sensory input begins to get "choppy". Both sight and sound take on a dreamlike characteristic and one begins to feel increasingly detatched from the outside world. There may be bursts of sensory deprivation where the outside world seems to go away, but overall one maintains contact (somewhat incoherent) with the outside world. After a few hours of an overall "stoned" feeling, the sensations begin to subside. A slight hangover consisting of lethargy may be noted the next day.
The effects at the third plateau itself tend to be very intense, and often very different from earlier plateaus. Keep in mind that a third plateau trip can be terrifying to people who are not psychologically comfortable and prepared. Because the third plateau is so individually variant, I don't feel comfortable in trying to come up with a narrative.
Generally, people entering the fourth plateau report that they lose all contact with their bodies, often suddenly. This can be somewhat frightening. In particular, the sense of breathing is one of those missing, and people have occasionally interpreted this as evidence that they were dead. The surrounding environment may be evenly colored (usually grey or white), or it may appear vividly realistic, or cartoon-like, or anywhere in between these. [...] Delusions can become fairly involved at this plateau; the crucial factor seems to be whether or not the individual realizes that the belief or thought is drug-induced. Some people, especially those more experienced at this level, have reported that although they were aware that their thoughts were delusional, they didn't really care at the time. In general these delusions are fairly harmless (e.g., "I am a flower in the middle of a field"). [...] Somewhat surprisingly, many cognitive abilities are still intact. Basic computational skills and long-term memory recall do not seem to be particularly affected. It is also possible for the "body" (actually body and some parts of the mind) to undergo fairly complex tasks while the conscious mind is dissociated.