My Games

Thursday, April 7, 2022

Weird Mecha: A Metaphor for Embodied Cognition

This is the second batch of tables/Mecha, see first post here and an explanation of how this word-based Mecha Gear system works here.

Mecha are sometimes described as being a metaphor for the body- which makes sense, they are humanoid giant robots, often unnecessarily anthropomorphized, and often used to tell stories about the adolescent experience or the brutality of war. I don't mean to suggest this is all that Mecha entail, but this alone can be explored in ways that I have rarely if ever seen.

In the first post, the Golem (the MRD2 term for Mecha) were mostly extrapolations of humans as units within greater superorganisms- Entropy Elancer existing partially in the Fourth Wall outside spacetime, Lycaon Strain a macroscopic distributed organism, and Hibernating Hyberia an encrypted civilization.

In this post, I explore the Golem as extrapolations of an individual consciousness and the mind-body connection, which I described as Embodied Cognition in the title although I'm only using that technical term loosely. These Golem are externalizations of thoughts, feelings, states of consciousness and their intermediaries; the biological expressions of them, and how they drive perception.

First, the three tables:










Golem 1 (Emotion + Psychoactivity tables)



CORE: (DREAD + BARBITURATE)
Silent Scream Surf
A perturbation across spacetime; a cry for help never to be answered. A sharply cresting wave crashing and collapsing along the intermediary state of consciousness between terror and resignation. These are its emanations, but it is not the wave, it is the perceptual distortion in the act of surfing along its transient edge.

GEAR1: (LONGING + ANALGESIC)
Karmic Orbitoclast
A blunt but effective solution to resolving Karma but not its root cause. A tool for puncturing, especially through the third eye socket. It will dull the pain of loss and desire, but also any wisdom or joy accrued from it.

GEAR2: (APOLOGETICNESS + DISSOCIATIVE)
Tsunami of Truth Serum
Rising of the multidimensional tide separating consciousness from the corporeal. Those within this dissociated state may finally detach from their pride and guilt and shame, apologizing as much to themselves as others. Though there may be consequences, few regret the release.

GEAR3: (COMPULSION + LIMINALITY)
Exit Field
A glossy forcefield euthanizing those within and trapping them between life and death. There is a thrill in the novelty and immortality of this undead hypo-existence; a compelling and alien perspective. A drug like any other, not to be taken lightly.

Golem 2 (Sensation + Psychoactivity tables)



CORE: (CHEMORECEPTION + CAFFEINE)
Chemysterious Cascader
Convoluted chemical cascade like a Rube Goldbergian neural synapse. A coffee-powered paradox summating serialized events into absurd outcome chains, proportionally as powerful as complex. A mobile platform like a deconstructed humanoid head.

GEAR1: (MIRAGE + ETHANOL)
Porcelain Prayer
Fermented feelings fuel tantalizing truths from a technicolor yawn. In the hazy, yeasty, fruity field of disinhibition, desires supersede reality. This is not always such a bad thing, until the vomitted fuel particles crystallize into shards like slamming jaw-first into porcelain.

GEAR2: (SMELL + DREAM)
Mucus Morpheus Missiles
A slimy schnoz apparatus bursting macroscopic odorant particles fractally extruding, crawling up noses, extracting dreams never to be remembered again. The memories transduced into chemical messages train the Chemysterious Cascader's AI.

GEAR3: (TASTE + SSRI)
Synesthetic Serotonin Starshine
A lolling tongue apparatus beaming starshine. Piercing tendrils seeking slick tongues to rest beneath, inducing bright light synesthestic explosions, washing out emotions and replacing them with a taste like a pina colada on vacation or a big ball of bubble gum in the mouth of a child.

Golem 3 (Emotion + Sensation tables)



CORE: (SCHADENFREUDE + SWEET)
Blue Raspberry Crush
Partially projected collage of ever shifting bodies of many-valued beauty and many uncanny faces smiling with ambiguous intent. An ozone field of artificial fragrances and fresh plastic from flitting cherubic projectors. A hologram simulacra ever on the verge of embrace. An ethereal thirst for touch that cannot be quenched. A sickly aftertaste.

GEAR1: (LOVE + VISION)
Eros Pulse
Beaming waves on broadband frequencies of love, spurned and reflected back like radar. The full tapestry of love and all its shades laid bare. Seen but not touched, yet impactful like a voyeur exposed.

GEAR2: (DISGUST + FORM(PLATONIC))
Love Bomb
Mashing meat and putrid hormonal lubricants and invasive proteins. A suppressed immune response for the sake of carnality. A necessary compromise of the self in service of another. An exchange of spit dribbling down onto the erotic shadow. Lowers inhibitions and opens up those in its exposure to the experience of another, in any genuine sense, and only with mutual consent.

GEAR3: (TENDERNESS + TEXTURE)
Icy Hot Touch
A tingling sensation from a reiki touch. A kaleidoscope of textures like silk and matte and fur. Provides positive pleasure-pain, invigorating but not restoring. A compelling constraint drawing desire, subversively disempowering.

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