Globally, what defined the first two weeks wasn't understanding. It was reaction. Governments scrambled to maintain legitimacy, institutions rushed to understand a change that hadn't shown itself yet, and people—everywhere—did what humans always do when the impossible becomes real. They argued. They prayed. They screamed. They made jokes. They tried to go to work. And underneath it all, they waited. Not for C to return, but for the change to reveal itself. Because the worst part of it wasn't the flash. It was the waiting. The knowledge that something had shifted in reality, and the countdown had begun.
When people asked scientists—what did C do?—the answer wasn't satisfying. "We don't know," they'd say. "But we'll know soon." Because when someone that powerful says "I'll leave it as a surprise," and gives you a countdown, what they're really doing is watching you react to the ticking clock. And that's what unified the scientific consensus more than any discovery: the knowledge that we were now part of an experiment. One with real-world implications. One that would alter lives, not through cataclysm, but through the slow, unfolding reveal of something new. Not beyond physics—but adjacent to it. Real. Measurable. And almost certainly... visible.
So, everyone was working, prepairing. As that 5 week mark got closer, and closer. As data was collected. After the 4th week, a statistical pattern... was found. Reports came in of weird neurological conditions in actors, or imaginative individuals, and cases related to imagination, roleplay, acting, or personas. The data shows... weird alignments. All describing one thing... feeling as if they are becoming more like there charictor. Finding it harder to stop roleplaying. Crying at things that they know are fake. Oddities. As many describe it like "IT feels as if... my charictor is real... and... part of me... becoming more, and more real! I can't stop it! It just... keeps showing up! And... i feel insane!" As many show personality shifts that... should be impossible.
What terrified the phycologists realizing this pattern most wasn't that people were becoming their characters. It was that they didn't want to. Every subject interviewed so far had expressed resistance. Fear. Pain. And yet, they kept imagining. They couldn't stop. Some described the act of stopping as suffocating. Others said they felt "alone" when not inside the imagined world. In one case, a D&D player wept on camera, describing how she had dreams where she experenced the same horrible situation as her charictor, and kept having PTSD over something fake. "It's not like hearing voices," she said. "It's like... I'm splitting. But not in a broken way. In a designed way." It was deeply... weird. Just weird. Denied by the wider scinetific community, yet those who noticed it... looked on unsure. As it was also learned... that there was a correlation between fame, and how famous a individuals connection to there specific character, and the strength of the effect. As one signtist looked into the entertainment industry, and saw a nation... no global slow down of actor sign ups. Especially from A, or B-list actors.
Of course, the nature of this was greatly disputed, and many considered it fake, and only a few groups studying it actively even know it was around. Only by day 5 into the 5th week was it even being covered by the news. As it was most well known when Tom Holland, Robert Downey Jr, and others on interview... were noticed to not be acting like themselves as much. The loved ones, and others noticed there loved ones were... acting off, acting more like there charictors, frustrated, embarassed over it even. Trying to hide it, out of anxiety. As slowly stories leaked out, and the public shruged, calling it 'weird', and moving on, looking for some crazy event from C for the 5th week.
Chris Evans sits in a chair, drinking coffie, he feels weird. His mussles seem to be almost building themselves. As he shakes, and holds his head. His mind keeps returning to captain america, that role. He has been unable to hold parties, or anything. He has been feeling, more and more like he should donate... he shakes, as the glass shatters in his hand. The mug... its peaces falls to the ground. He sighs... its the 3ed one these last few days. He looks at his hands unsure... it feels as if he is gaining... strength, very strong strength. His instincts... are so... light, he feels lighter, healthyer. He sighs "I need to go to a doctor." He gets up, and goes to his gym, he is finding it more, and more confronting to box, run, or exercise. As he runs on a treadmill, he runs faster, and faster absentmindedly, until he frowns... reading 25.3 mph. He frowns deeply. He goes to a hand strength tester... and pushes it in, with all his effort... and it breaks. He droped the crumpled metal, breathing heavly... "What... is wrong with me!" He backed away... no human... should be able to do that.
He booked a private clinic appointment that afternoon. As the nurse eyed his abs, and took his blood work. There eyes grew collectively... more wide. Until, he returned home, and recived several calls from his doctors "Your... body. Something very weird is happening! Your immune system is off the charts, even your... DNA... its... weird as hell." 3 days after the 5th week. As the world was... weirded out, and confused, calling C's actions a scam. Reports came in... real... reports. Biology in famous actors... was changing. Robert Downey Jr was reported to be acting weird. Tom Holland was reported to be hiding from the public, freaking out over something. Then... medical reports... came in.
Pepole... famous actors... there biology was changing, and soon, a major paper realsessed saying... quite simply "What C did... was suttle, but... weird. It seems the so called 5th force is related to cognition, and what C did... was somehow make actors, roleplayers, and anyone. Have famos roles they take on, slowly become, and merge with there own personalities. The mask is becoming them. Even biologically... as medical reports have came in that show changing DNA in those with extremely popular roles. The strength of this effect... is dependent on two factors as far as we can tell. First... popularity, and public association between a individual, and a role. Second... how detailed, and invested the individual was in the role, without any of this new effect."
The one report... that broke alot of pepole. Was a single X-ray from a Vtuber... where there bones were shifting, and it appeared as if there body was prepairing to grow a tail. While... the internet went fucking crazy. As they looked up, and cheaked on everyone famous, in a role. Jshlat... had over the past few weeks no longer streamed at all, saying on his last stream "I... just... weird... memories, and erges keep coming. Sorry, whatever." Vtubers, many with inhuman avatars took offline. VRchat roleplayers, D&D groups, and others... began to feel... more and more like there charictors. Acting like them, and even... if they played a gender reversed charictor... there bodies began to show signs... of reversal. It was predicted to take months for large biological changes that are far from base-line human, but for changes that match well with base-line human. Superhuman strength, speed, instict, it was found far faster. Everyone... was kinda in horror, and awe. Many wonedered... how far this could go. Could... someone gain real supernatrual power? Could someone become a DND race? Could someone become a hyper-advanced robot... just because they pretend to be one? No one knew, and that was... scary.
No one knew the limits, but studies did show it depended on two factors, personal investment, and external preception. If pepole saw you as something, you would become it, if you were crazy famous, even if you had little personal investment, if you had just a tiny bit, it could act as a seed. If you were deeply, deeply invested in a persona, so much so you pretended to be it often, even with only 3-10 pepole seeing that persona, even with none of them seeing it as real... it would result in the same effect. Both at once... and it was rather fast. It first targeted phycology, and only once phycology was nearly finished, it would begin on biology. It would never modify memories, only skills, intelegence, habits, and personality. Its biggest limit is it works best on single-character associations. A prevention measure has been found via focusing and immersing in several characters, resulting it in failing to pull you towards any character. Second, it only works in the most extreme cases, and speed is dependent on scale, and quality. Like your personal investement is the width of the river, and the external connection is the force pushing thru it. Where... eventually, it results in biological shifts. But... even now, biological shifts are continuing, getting more extremes, and very... very slowly. It was simply... unknown how the energy for these biological shifts were forming, as it was measured, cleanly, even in a closed system... somehow... mass was being gained, or disappearing for the transformations.