01. Text

[hopefanatic]

There's something I've been thinking about for a while so I hope all of you will be patient enough to indulge me.

A good deal of fantastic and seemingly-impossible things happen in this place, ranging from all of us raising dragons to encountering killer plants like ones out of an old horror movie. I know that I don't just speak for myself when I say that a lot of the things we encounter here simply don't happen where I'm from... In fact one could even call all of it downright impossible and against the laws of nature and physics! I mean, the moons changing us into animals? Some mysterious space society that we've "mysteriously" encountered right when they need our help? It almost sounds like a video game!

Which brings me to the question I'd like to pose to all of you...

How do you know that any of this is reality?

Comments

[hopefanatic]

Well in comparison I guess #1 does seem the most plausible out of them all. I especially don't think any alien race would waste the time abducting someone like me.

[timemachine]

that's what i think too.

though your video game statement also has me thinking this could be an advanced simulation. back home i'm a neuroscientist and my theory is that memory can be stored as data, but nothing as advanced as actually feeling like we're in an alternate reality.

that said, i have managed to digitize my own memories and upload it to a computer and it took on its own life

i've also managed to digitize memories and send them back in time with a makeshift time machine a few colleagues made.

tl;dr theory #5 we're in a really advanced simulation

[hopefanatic]

Wonderful, now we're on the same page!

I happen to have a little experience with advanced simulations myself so I was thinking that this situation seems a little eerily close to what I've dealt with before. What a coincidence, right?

[timemachine]

tell me more about these simulations, plz. as far as i know nothing should be this advanced, but here i am in a place where we turn into furries and want to cuddle. so i'll be a little less skeptical this once.

[hopefanatic]

Its' original intent as to influence the building of friendship and camaraderie through activities and bonding, that sort of thing. But thanks to someone sneaking an addition into the program myself and my classmates had to kill each other.

[He's not going to go into what the point of the Program actually was. Or the fact that they were more or less originally in on the plan.]

[timemachine]

i feel like you're telling me something that could be straight out of an anime.

i can't believe i'm asking this, but what was added to the program to cause you to kill one another?

[hopefanatic]

It really does sound pretty far-fetched, doesn't it?

I guess you could call it a virus, although I don't know if that term is really the most accurate. Basically something extra was installed into the program that overwrote what it was supposed to originally do and changed the way it worked while making it difficult for the failsafes to be enabled.

[timemachine]

a virus that causes the people in a simulation to kill one another. that actually does make sense, especially if it did overwrite the program and the failsafes.

may i ask how it affected the people physically?

[hopefanatic]

It technically didn't make us do the killing, it just encouraged it.

You mean how dying affected them? Well they were in a pretty dangerous comatose state and almost didn't wake up. I especially caused a lot of problems on that front from what I've been told!

[timemachine]

that's horrible...

and yes. so i imagine their memory was overwritten with what happened in the program. that would make perfect sense. if they died in the program and overwrote their memories that they died, then it's no surprise they could potentially go braindead.

[hopefanatic]

Well that was the original intention, but the memory rewrite didn't end up happening. Call it another unexpected glitch, if you will.

Since we weren't aware of the simulation in the first place the danger came from one's brain being told that it was dead and should cease functioning when in reality the body was still intact and unharmed.

[timemachine]

this is all really intriguing to hear. though i do feel bad for being fascinated with the outcome, but the neuroscientist within me is seeing a lot of valuable data.

were the people who died in the simulation able to be revived at all?

[hopefanatic]

There's no reason to feel bad, especially since the ultimate outcome was hope!

Yes, all of us were.

[timemachine]

that's good news to hear.

how was hope involved in this?

[hopefanatic]

Do you really have to ask? The clashing of hope and despair was the whole point of it all!

[timemachine]

honestly? that sounds awful. there's nothing worse than having hope in a situation only to realize there is none.

[hopefanatic]

There's always hope.

[timemachine]

what makes you say that? Sometimes there are situations that are hopeless and hope only hurts a lot.

[hopefanatic]

Hope is the ultimate form of good! Without it how else is the world supposed to overcome despair? Believing that there is always hope no matter how great the despair is the only reason that I'm alive right now.

[That's not entirely accurate but close enough.]

[timemachine]

sure that’s neat and all and i admire people who have it. Sometimes that’s what drives a person to do what they need, but it can also drive a person mad. Logic and hope sometimes don’t work well together and you have to listen to one or the other, sadly. Like, for instance, if there was a scenario where someone had to die— there’s no way to save them both. Hope doesn’t work in that situation, you just have to accept that one person must die. Or i guess the happier way to think about it, you have to choose who to save.

[hopefanatic]

Why can't you have hope in the face of death? If someone is going to die then it's just because they don't hold enough hope within themselves so the outcome can't be helped. The only sin would be not using that person's death as a stepping stone to inspire those that lived into striving for an even brighter future.

[timemachine]

If only it was that simple.

If only hope cured everything.

I want to believe that.

[hopefanatic]

You clearly aren't hopeful enough. What a shame.