World's End

Well, it's gone. The idea-world is gone, and it's not coming back. The man who created it is dead. I saw his body, and there was no way I could've been mistaken.

I think I understand a little more now, at least about the nature of the idea-worlds. As I've always assumed, they are simulations, elaborate and impossibly real, but still only virtual. Which still does not explain how I can be pregnant if I never had sex with anyone real. Yeah, that's still a mystery....

If I seem lucid, it's because I'm high. I would probably be screaming and freaking out otherwise.

When I plugged in and returned to the idea-world, I did not find myself in the city with its glass buildings and giant ferns. There were no ram-people strolling around. Instead, I was surrounded by jagged crystals and spires, like obsidian, stretching away from me and above me, pointing at me from every direction. I recognized the vision: I'd caught a tiny glimpse of it once before. This time, I could see it clearly. I seemed to be inside a giant orb, the inside of which was lined with these jagged shards. And within the fused glass of the crystals, I made out millions of tiny lights, lights in every color of the rainbow, blinking and flickering. Like my own computer hardware. Like my Church.

I was in someone else's Church.

I was terrified, afraid of being sliced up by the shards or being unable to pull away, to return to my own real world. I didn't move, just stood and looked around. It wasn't long before I spotted the one feature breaking up the spherical landscape. He lay about a hundred yards off, body wedged in between the glassy shards and streaked with dried blood, skin like a fish's belly. I couldn't see his face, but I recognized him anyway. It was the creator of the idea-world, dead. I could not see how he'd died; there was blood but no obvious wounds. But he was dead. I watched him for a few minutes to be sure.

Eventually, I disconnected and returned to the comfort of my Church, hidden away in the old Masonic building. I was shaken and confused.....but strangely relieved. The idea-world is gone. How can it still exist, with its creator dead?

Those giant shards were computers, I think. A type of computer than was not built by any human I know of. But if they were silicon-based crystals, and if you had the proper degree of technology...yeah. I was looking at some sort of fantasical server farm. Hardware. Most certainly the hardware that generated the virtual world of Arkenesia. Someone built it, then took this random dude and stuck him in the middle of it, let his own mind create a world which the computer-shards then built as a highly realistic virtual environment. One that changed and become more complex over time, at his whim.

Like it was all some huge experiment.

I'm refusing to think about the implications right now. I'm back at Comet's place, drinking from her endless supply of tea. Soon enough I'll dwell on this information, and what I should do next. For now, I choose the calming influence of pot and herbal tea. All I feel now is nervous relief, but I fear the withdrawal symptoms may show up soon....

--Blue's Still Here