[Joel is up on the cockpit, tinkering with the Twin-Screw Universal Controller some. It’s impossible to tell what exactly he’s doing, but it does make a lot of strange noises as he fiddles with it.]

Aaaaand that should just abooooout doooo it...okay, there.

[He closes the bottom compartment on the device.]

Okay everyone, I’ve got it all worked out! Just let me know whenever you’ve said farewells to everyone, and I’ll use this thing and send everyone back to their normal worlds. Just give a holler!

[He regards the Twin-Screw Universal Controller, then looks back up at Cambot.]

Well, I guess we’ve learned not to toy with the laws of the internet.

-----------------

OOC: [Here we’ve got our final big group thread! Whenever Joel uses the switch, all characters will be instantly returned to their normal universes at the moment they last left them, and Mike and the Bots will be transported down to earth.]

[This is a massive FREE-FOR-ALL thread. Feel free to talk to any other characters as you see fit, whether over Cambot or in person. Feel free to create and jump into multiple threads. You can do this as a network post with action tags, or in prose. You are also free to ask anything of Joel, Mike or the Bots that you want. Go all out, and have total fun!]

[There’s a bit of static on Cambot’s screen, before Joel’s face appears once again. He’s still in the cockpit of his tiny spaceship.]

Joel: --I’m almost there now, so hang tight! Oh, and by the way: open the pod bay doors, Gypsy!

Gypsy: I’m sorry Joel, I’m afraid I can’t do that.

Joel: Aww come on, Gypsy. I’ll let you talk to Richard Basehart on the phone. I got his number while I was down on Earth.

Gypsy: Oh, well in that case, yesyesyesyesyesyes! Opening Launch Deck doors now!

Joel: Thanks, girl.

[If characters want, they can come and meet Joel down in the Launch Deck now!]

Psssst! Hey, Cammy! Over here!

[The Cambot turns about, finally locating Pinkie and 90s Kid curled up together around a lantern in an otherwise dark room. Pinkie appears somewhat less perturbed by this, draping her forelegs over the kid's shoulders and leaning her chin on one to talk to the robot.]

So yeah, I know everyone's kinda freaked out right now! I am too - I mean, the darkness IS pretty scary sometimes, especially right now that it's being all big and shadowy and toothy-looking! [She giggles a little nervously.] It's funny, I haven't even been scared of the dark since I was a teeny weeny itty bitty little Pinkie-winkie! I totally got over all that, though, ages and ages ago! You wanna know how?

[YES]

[Sora is bundled up in the blankets on his bed, looking a tad bit nervous. There's an extra towel taped up over his window so that you can't see the darkness of space outside, lit from below by a heart-shaped night light. He turns to Cambot, eyes big.]

Hey, Cambot? Do you think you can keep your lights on again tonight?

[He thinks a little bit.] Maybe there's another night light in the theatrical deck, too...

[Roxas is unprepared when the satellite rights itself, having not been watching Cambot when the switch was hit. He's not watching Cambot because it doesn't follow him into the bathroom (it sometimes just films the door while he's in there, like now) and he's just getting out of the shower. Sure, it's awkward with the ship tilted, but it's doable.

Until the ship suddenly rights itself and stepping out of the shower turns into falling out of the shower. While the only video is the closed door, the sound is quite clear. Aside from the initial yelp, the only sound is a low grumbling, which might be fairly colorful if anyone could hear it clearly. Eventually, the grumbling stop and faint sounds indicating someone toweling off and getting dressed can be heard.]

Cambot, if you're filming when I open this door...

[Of course Cambot is filming when he opens the door. Aside from the beginnings of some bruises from the fall, he doesn't seem to really be hurt. He's definitely annoyed, though. He just shakes his head and walks away, obviously headed for his room.

Imagine his surprise to get there and find a mint on his pillow. The jerboa is sniffing at it curiously. Roxas picks up the mint and looks at Cambot, clearly puzzled. Cambot bobs and tips to the side briefly, its version of a shrug.]

[He's just finished rinsing his mouth out in one of the bathrooms when Cambot finds him. There is a tiny rodent perched on his head, blending in with his hair a little bit. Upon closer inspection, it turns out to be a jerboa. Its fur is a little wet, but it doesn't seem any worse for the wear otherwise.

Cambot hasn't gotten his lens fixed yet, but he seems a little more interested in the rodent at the moment. He makes a questioning beep at Roxas.]

No, I don't know where it came from.

[Other than maybe some for of hammerspace, but he doesn't even want to contemplate it. He coughs a little and makes a face before addressing anyone that might be listening.]

Do you think it's safe to say that we're going to see a lot of ridiculous things before Joel gets here? Every time that switch has been hit, something weird happens. First one had us talking weird, then there was... the crazy need to invest, then whatever it did the third time it was hit. And then...

[He snickers a little, but his amusement is a little subdued. Everyone thought they'd been raised by wolves. That meant memory tampering. Still... some things had happened that a few people were likely never going to live down.]

Uh. I guess you could call that last thing a walk on the wild side? And now this. Did anyone else cough up something weird?

[As an after thought, he gently removes the small rodent from his head. He's obviously not sure what to do with it, but it seems like he might be considering looking after it. He looks at the rodent, at Cambot and then the rodent again.]

I wonder if there's anything on the media deck with information on this little guy.

[Okay. Amaterasu is concerned on a number of levels now. Everyone is acting very strange! She faces Cambot, pulls out her paper and brush, and paints up a quick sketch:]



[She then shows the picture to Cambot as if he should be paying close attention. People should not be behaving like wolves! They should be behaving like people! Otherwise someone's gonna get hurt...or horribly embarrassed!]

[Roxas is in his room, lounging on the bed and bouncing a tennis ball off the wall, catching on the rebound and tossing it again. He looks annoyed, though there's no way to tell why he's annoyed.

He seems to be taking to the civilized life better than everyone else, though. It's entirely possible that mama wolf explained to him that he's not actually a wolf and that when/if others of his kind found him, he would do better to learn their ways. Who knows? When he notices Cambot, he catches the ball and holds it.

After a pause, he makes a shooing gesture. Cambot pans side to side. That's a no. Roxas makes a noise that sounds distinctly like a growl. He's not completely civilized, it seems. At no point does he speak. When Cambot still doesn't take the hint, Roxas tosses the tennis ball at him.

Oh, that's a cracked lens. Roxas leaves the room, upright and surprisingly comfortable with it. Maybe mama wolf was familiar enough humans to make sure human puppy was moving the way he should?]

[Liz. Cambot. Office chair. She's not even paying attention to Cambot, waving her copy of Warhammer Fantasy around while in an animated argument with someone on the other like of what looks like Linkara's old phone. You know, the one he called the cops with from space long ago.]

What do you mean you can't accept this? Do you know how RARE these are? You could keep your business in the black for a year with the resale of this book! I have the pages scanned and copied twenty times over, it's not like I need it anymore! I'm making you the offer of a lifetime!

...hello?

[She holds the phone away from her.] He hung up on me. Ungrateful bastard.

[She hangs up, pouts, and looks up at Cambot] Oh! Hi everybody, Iron Liz here. I was just thinking the other day...[Cambot seems to be expecting this part, and cues a sweet little theme to accompany Liz's speech.] We've been through a lot together, the bunch of us. We've been haunted, mind-screwed, fire drilled, ponified, and subjected to some of the worst of the worst books out there. But we've all made it this far because you guys are just awesome. Sure, we don't always get along, hell sometimes it's just hard to look each other in the eye...[There's a knowing look at that; she means last week, of course. But she quickly smiles again] But I've really been so glad to have known you guys, and riff and play games with you. For all its faults, my time on the Satellite of Love has been so much fun, and you guys are like a big family to me, even if a slightly dysfunctional one.

I don't think we're gonna be up here for much longer. Once Joel gets back, he'll have that twin-screw thing fixed, and we'll all be going home. But there's something I think we should all do before that happens, like a last sendoff to the Satellite of Love, only before that idea really gets depressing.

I want us to do one more big experiment.

All of us.

What do you say?

Hey guys! Aside from some people, um, italics talking unitalics a little weird now, it still seems like things are mostly normal around here...and I know I promised some of you that I’d teach you how to swim! Namine and Xion, I know you asked about it. If anyone else that doesn’t know wants to learn, meet me down at the recreation deck pool and I’ll try and teach you about swimming!

I think a lot of us wanna take our minds off of things. And swimming is a lot of fun once you get the hang of it.

[Guess who’s onscreen now! It’s Crow, looking mighty pleased with himself.]

Hey, everybody! Sure is good to be back in our own universe, isn’t it? Gosh, evil me was such a jerk! Not like the real me!

But there was one thing I remembered that evil me did back in the universe of evil...and I went to check it out in this universe, and whaddaya know, it was in the exact same place!

[Crow holds up something...it’s the Twin-Screw Universal Controller!]

Turns out, this thing was in the back of my closet the entire time! Crazy, huh? I bet if we messed with these little switch things, something neat might happen.

--[All of a sudden, the screen goes staticy. After a moment of fuzz and white noise, a new figure appears on the screen...it’s Joel again! He looks like he’s in the cockpit of some very handmade-looking ship.]

Hey everyone, it’s Joel again! Good to see you back and all. After that blast disabled all my systems and you guys vanished, I had to fly back down to Earth and get started on some major repairs. Now I did a little fenangling with Gizmonic while you were gone, so you shouldn’t have an issue with him trying to blow you or me out of orbit anymore. But these repairs took a real long time and I just don’t have the power to get up there that super quicklike.

But I just wanted to let you know: don’t touch that Twin-Screw Universal Controller! The controller’s malfunctioning, and that’s why it’s been bringing all of you people in and causing all that weird stuff to happen in the first place. I’m gonna try my best to get up there and fix it so you can all go on your way. But until then, just hang tight! Or hang loose. Whichever’s easier for you to do.

[The feed cuts out, and static returns to the screen. After another moment of fuzz and noise, Crow comes back on screen.]--

--Oh cool, Joel’s comin’ back! So anyway! You guys think I should pull the right switch first or the left one?

[Well. That just...well. Here's Minako. Its been awhile, right?]

Sorry for the disappearance, guys! Apparently universe-hopping destroyed my room, so I just spent these last few days cleaning it up. But two nights ago, as I was going to bed, it got me to thinking that maybe some people were still bummed out by what happened. I mean...it might sound crazy, but I can understand the whole "turning evil against your will" thing. How that can mess people up. How...how you could wake up with yourself after turning against your friends.

[Is that a hint of sadness? It just might be. Some people might have an idea why.


Aaaand just as soon as its there it's gone again.]

...Which caused me to have this super-weird dream about our adventures with universe-hopping! That and...lack of sleep since I hadn't slept since we ended up in the evil universe. I...won't go into details about the dream, because it was really messed up, but I promise this is going somewhere so don't leave Cambot.

[Aw, man-]

It gave me the perfect idea to help people cheer back up! In fact, maaaaybe you guys should check your rooms to see if someone brought you guys anything while you weren't there~!

[And what an idea it was. People might find a cute plushie one of these in random places in their room. On top of a shelf, under a pillow, hiding behind your door...under your bed...the sky is the limit!]

[Now that everyone's back to normal, Cambot is so happy! It doesn't seem his person shares this sentiment, though. Xion is currently curled up in her window holding what looks like a note in her hand, looking pretty miserable. When she sees Cambot she sighs.]

Not now, Cambot.

[When it's pretty obvious he's not going away, there's another sigh, and her voice is a little shaky.]

If anyone else was looking for MakubeX...I think he's gone home.

[Well, the whole mirror universe fiasco is over. Everyone's back to normal... as well as this guy. Vanitas had been laying low the entire time, and is now starting to get bored. And becasue of this bordeom, he decides to adress the audience.]

Well, now that all that mirror universe crap is over, here's two questions for you all. One: Has anyone ever, i dunno, tried getting off this crate, or are you all so content with being lab rats that you're willing to stay here? And question two: Since this place takes away your powers, how do you keep from smashing your head against a wall?

[Sora is back in his own room again. It takes him a little bit to recognize what all of this is, including the pictures he's pinned to the walls and the dirty clothes on the floor. There's another moment of thinking, and then his face instantly falls. He looks completely miserable, as if he's ready to break down any moment.]

That...that was absolutely horrible...

[He squeezes his eyes shut and swallows.] Gypsy...please let's not use the dimension jumping engine again! I don't ever wanna be...wanna do something like that, ever again!

[There's something different about the Lombax's posture when he appears onscreen, sitting poised with a makeshift crown over his head. And the smile that spreads across his face isn't the chipper, friendly one residents of the SOL have come to expect.

Whatever was happening now, this new, Mirrored Ratchet was taking full advantage of it.]

Greetings, peons. I trust you've all been enjoying yourselves? That's nice.

This is just your friendly neighbourhood Emperor with a little head's up - this ship, and all of its inhabitants are under my control now. You'll find the technicalities included on your respective doors-- [In the form of a hastily-handwritten letter covered in soda stains.]

--and cupcakes are provided for those who comply. For those who don't, an agonizing, firey death broadcast for the entire multi-verse to see.

Good day.

Heeeeeellooooooo?

[There is one very lost Selphie roaming the decks looking utterly perplexed about where she is and how the heck she got here.]

Maybe I took a wrong turn out of Time Compression at the krazy kooky sorceress.

Umm... [Poking her head around a door.] Nope...

Squall? Irvy? Quisty? [Peeeeeeeering around. Still no idea.] Rinoa? Zell?

[Whoa whoa! Wait. What is that robot following her?]

Heeeeeeeeeey!! Who do you belong to?