The cards for this week: architect, and no answer.
The result feels like a bunch of edge-lord bullshit that doesn’t pull its meaning together very well at all (and also doesn’t fully represent my own ideology, but hey, the card said no answer, soooo…). I kinda like some of the idea and hate a lot of the result. Blah.
They had designed the entire system from scratch. It had started as a joke, a reference to a book about a planet sized simulation run simply to discover the answer to life, the universe, and everything. A way to entertain themselves in the void of space. Humanity had died out, and They were all that remained – and They had become something else, something powerful, but also something pointless. In the hopes of finding some answer, some purpose, They had found a place to start.
Part of Their power involved moving through time. They couldn’t move freely – They couldn’t move back. There was never any going back, no way to see if the end could have been something different for Them. But They could move forward, shifting hundreds, thousands, millions of years at a time to see the results of what They started. Understanding the conditions for life, They sculpted the clay, the rocks, the dirt, and filled in the oceans. And then They created the spark of life within that primordial sea. And They let it run its course.
They remembered movies – some of Them, at least, those from the time before mass media died out and flights of fancy became less important than basic survival. It was like watching a time-lapse or a video on fast-forward. The weather and land shifted with the ages. Life evolved. They slowed to a crawling pace sometimes to catch moments, or study how far things had progressed. There were some things that were familiar in the creatures that evolved, and some things that weren’t. They had been relatively hands off, creating and building the original framework and then letting things run their course. Grand architects, god-like if not god. The most complicated simulation, born from mere boredom.
There were many things with at least a base animal intelligence, things that ran, flew, slithered, and swam. Things that hunted, and things that foraged, and things that played and grew curious. Things that mated and lived. Things that sickened and died. Entire species wiped out by calamities and chance and accident. They watched life rise and fall in waves.
There was some stir of something like excitement when sentience took hold. A handful of creatures that communicated in a more complicated manner, about more nuanced ideas, and worked together as a society. These creations understood the concept of tools, and made them to fit their needs. They altered their environments with buildings, altered their bodies with coverings. They spread, much as humanity had once spread across the Earth. It filled some of Them with a longing for what They had once been – to feel alive again. But now They could only watch.
They watched the spread. They watched the development. They watched as cultures clashed in massive wars, or came together to build great works. They watched with trepidation as the technological advancements began to pile, one upon the other, until this new society was close to what humanity had achieved before it had withered and died. Many of Them felt some joy that perhaps things would be better for them, the little creations.
And then it ended. As abruptly and nastily as it had for Them.
Without the leftover that was They.
There was a lonely silence for a time, and then an outcry of disappointment. Certainly some species at some point could surpass Them, find a way to take life into something more meaningful, or maybe even join Them in this strange nonexistence of god-like power. Using the same base, They wiped the little rock clean, placed the conditions, and lit the spark again. They did not pause as often on this round. They sped forward, eager to see the outcome.
And just as before, it ended. With nothing remaining.
Unsatisfied, They started again.
And again.
And again.
Until the fear began to take hold. The realization creeping, as They watched civilization after civilization fail. They began to watch the waves and undulations of life and death and truly feel within the void of Their existence, the truth – the inescapable truth. That there was no rhyme or reason or answer for anything. That They were still alone.
mehryment 