Not an open ended question, but I’ll leave it up as it seems to be generating some discussion.
Stuck in a different dimension sounds the least bad. Also like most of my dreams.
VR seems the most like death, and if you’re on hardware and have infinite time you can probably eventually find a security exploit for root access, at which point you can build your chosen reality
Everything about that is entirely unconvincing to me, but I agree VR because there was nothing to suggest that the VR experience itself need seem unpleasant. Also exponential time dilation is just incredible
These all sound awesome. Hmmmm. I think stuck in a different dimension sounds most interesting. Let’s go with that.
Hmm, I guess I’ll go with the VR thing. It could serve as some kind of afterlife. Maybe you can meet your friends and family there!
The higher horror because at least you are in reality and still have agency. Fuzzled to oblivion, totally dominated by that eater and lost in videogames, not so much.
(I actually have a little experience with higher horrors. Worst thing in the world, for sure. But after bumping against the threshold a hundred times one learns to navigate that territory successfully. You can figure out literally anything)
The only reason nobody is picking Stuck in a Different Dimension is because you know you could succeed there if you applied yourself and got more social with the local demi-denizens.
Ya’ll asocial fuckers rather suffer in a bug-god’s body for eternity than try to get good at climbing a social ladder.
Yeah man I wanna see what this higher horror is all about
Top left sounds pretty much how i’d expect death to be like anyways. Whatever emotion you’re feeling as you pass just gets freeze-framed like a tv glitching out, and then you just experience that. Period. Confusion being that emotion doesn’t sound too horrible.
Then again, whatever the VR thing is could be fine. If it’s too small a space, though, then perhaps not. Also, if it’s a bad place then that’s just a form of hell.
Getting torn apart in the resource wars sounds like an upgrade tbh, just feeling confusion and no other horrors, chores, work or biological functions, really doesn’t sound too bad.
Grimdark 17776 seems so much more likely than actual 17776. Maybe grimdark 17776 is the precurser and when they somehow eventually reset reality, they still couldn’t die, but nobody remembered any of the bad stuff and american football really took off instead.
If the bottom left scenario sounds interesting to you, make sure to check out the Noc+10 ARG.
The VR one is about the only one with a possible positive outcome
Especially since you are going to experience an infinity of time either way, so time dilation doesn’t really matter in any appreciable way. If that’s the big corruption, that’s totally workable. One would also assume you aren’t entirely alone there, if it’s a facility.
Colonizing another dimension could turn out alright
Idk, ‘higher horror’ doesn’t sound like a super cool dimension to hang out in
Nah I’ll win
Right, what are they gonna do, kill me? Bring it, aura boy
Top left for sure since confusion is one of my natural states of being, I swear. Always curious how things work and all that alongside confusion because I mishear things or am not always on the same page as everyone else around me, so nothing super serious.
The top left reminds me of Alzheimer’s, so I ruled that one out immediately. Spending enough time in a nursing home, seeing people who are perpetually confused… it’s terrifying. Their emotions take over as their rational mind deteriorates, leaving some people angry or depressed every waking moment (at least. That is, I wouldn’t be surprised if their dreams are horrifying too.) People rarely know what year it is, and start to panic because they realize they haven’t fed their baby in a while (which is technically true, as “their baby” is now 60 and fully capable of feeding themselves. But the Alzheimer’s patient doesn’t know that.) Those are the ones who can still talk. Not everyone is that lucky. Some stare at the wall catatonically for hours, or are so lost they don’t understand that the “toy” they found in their pocket is actually shit from their diaper. Disintegrated minds are a horror I wouldn’t want to wish on anyone.
Whether in the top left scenario or when suffering from Alzheimer’s, you’re an isolated, broken brain that can barely communicate with itself, let alone with others. Other people are around, but they aren’t going to fix you. The difference is, someone with Alzheimer’s eventually gets the release of death.
All of these scenarios suck, but I think the bottom left sounds the most potentially-enjoyable. If the worst thing happening is a “time dilation glitch” and I’m already conscious for eternity in each scenario, then does it really matter? Time would eventually be meaningless anyway. At least my mind would be intact and there’s no explicit pain (physical or emotional) involved.
I think Alzheimer’s is complicated by having a body, though. My grandma had it and was happy, not angry. It sucked for us and for her because she eventually forgot how to eat & take care of herself at all. To have that lack of understanding of reality doesn’t seem nearly as bad if you are a disembodied consciousness, as this suggests. It seems more like a death than the other choices.
Alternate Dimension I would go for only if it was a gamble not a certain “being torn to shreds by demons over and over” situation.
All right, man made horrors beyond my comprehension.
Sleeping in the Hereafter isn’t on the table lol.
Unfortunately Gerryon’s Ark doomed us all 💀.
Starting to think the VR one is a more macabre way to describe The Amazing Digital Circus and/or I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream (I really need to read the story). Trapped in a virtual world without any knowledge of the goings on in reality, including time dilation.
In regards to I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream, they aren’t in a virtual reality , at least not based on the descriptions given. It seems that the machine is just so powerful that it can keep those it is tormenting alive indefinitely.
Appreciate the context. I have the PDF of the short story, so I’ll be reading that soon, and I may take a crack at the PC game as well. I just recall how much Gooseworx utilized the narrative of IHNMAIMS and plopped it into the world of C&A. Curious to see what these last two episodes bring. Ep7 was something.
