It Could Be Worse – 01

[trust_the_fuckhead]

I've been laying low since I arrived here, watching you people on the network, learning what I could about this place. I've watched the bubble go crazy with a body swapping curse, watched friends, acquaintances, lovers, enemies find each other after being torn to this new reality. I've watched ad-hoc cross-dimensional families discuss their plans for the evening. I've watched trolls hate flirting, magicians planning, and self described geniuses trapped in some sort of Moriarty and Holmes like mental cat and mouse. Mostly I've watched people go about their lives, their relationships, their hobbies. Very few of you seem to be at all concerned with what this place is, or how it works. So many of you are focused on the here and now. I've learned what I can from passive observation, I think. I have decided it's time to start writing again. It's time for me to do my job and get out there, back on the streets.

My name is Spider Jerusalem, and I am a journalist. I write articles for a living. I write about the things that make us, society as a whole, great. I write about the things that make us pathetic and disgusting and worthless.

I write about The Truth.

---

One month ago, I was born again.

Not in a religious sense, fuck no. I landed in a strange world, wet, cold and naked. Nothing from the place I came from mattered beyond how it shaped me to enter this one.

The mammals out there in the audience know what I'm talking about.

So here I am, taken from my home in The City, and dropped here in the land where nothing matters. None of the rather serious shit I was dealing with back home has any affect here. None of the banal bullshit going on here will ever have an effect when I go home.

A brand new life.

And what a new life this is! Every need provided for! No hunger, no homelessness, and with a touch of the coral, no disease. We are told that we are effectively immortal here, that we will be brought back less than a week after our death! Is this not liberating? With all worldly needs taken care of, with even death a fear of the past, who can deny the fact that we are free to spend out lives in pursuit of whatever art or entertainment we could want? What an astounding new freedom to live a life solely dedicated to what you want to do without need to work mindlessly to afford menial, petty, mortal things.

"If you are not paying for it, you're not the customer; you're the product being sold." Sure. This seems like freedom, like paradise. Quite the gilded cage we're in.

Just what will happen if any of you produce offspring in this world-disconnected? What happens to a pregnant woman who gets sent back home on the capricious whim of some scientist, or the coral, or whatever fucking forces are out there controlling all of this?

---

Comments

[TEXT] so long as you don't mind a late tag, now that I've got my app out of the way

[bethehugejerk]

YOU WATCHED SOME OF US HATEFLIRTING?
WHO?
AS FOR THE REST
1) I HAVE NO CLUE ABOUT THE MECHANICS OF HUMAN PREGNANCY, AND EVEN THE ADULT TROLLS HERE ARE INCAPABLE OF REPRODUCTION WITHOUT A MOTHER GRUB, SO THIS POSSIBILITY IS OUTSIDE THE REALM OF FUCKS FOR ME TO GIVE.
2) FOR A "GILDED CAGE", AND DON'T GET ME WRONG BECAUSE I KNOW IT IS ONE, IT'S STILL BETTER THAN WHAT SOME OF US WOULD HAVE OTHERWISE.
SOME WOULD ONLY HAVE DEATH BACK IN THEIR WORLDS.
AND WHEN WE'RE STUCK HERE FOR MONTHS OR YEARS AT A TIME
I'VE BEEN HERE LIKE AN EARTH YEAR AND A HALF, ALMOST
SETTLING IN AND FORMING A LIFE IS BASICALLY WHAT WE HAVE TO DO.
TRUST ME, I KNOW THERE ARE CHANCES TO FIND SHIT OUT ABOUT THIS PLACE
BUT THE LOCALS ARE TIGHT-LIPPED AS FUCK, THE PEOPLE IN THE KNOW ARE SECRETIVE BASTARDS WHO ONLY HAND OUT THE OCCASIONAL CRUMB OF INFO, AND THE SCIENTISTS ARE AS EVER A COLLECTION OF SHAMELESS COWARDS HIDING OUT WHEREVER THE HELL THEY ARE WHILE THEY RUN THEIR SO-CALLED "EXPERIMENTS".

Sure, as long as you don't mind me derping on it for five days. whoops.

[trust_the_fuckhead]

I saw two instances of trolls flirting, one of which involved the phrase hateflirting. I really didn't care enough to see who they were, as you're the only troll I've really met.
As for point 1, fair enough.
As for point 2, excellent counterargument. It's worth examining things from that angle as well I think. What exactly do you mean by only having death to return to?

it happens!

[bethehugejerk]

TEXT QUIRKS OR HORN SHAPES ARE GENERALLY DISTINGUISHING ENOUGH, BUT WHATEVER.
BACK ONTO THAT POINT, I MEAN IT LITERALLY.
SOME OF US, IF WE WENT BACK TO OUR WORLDS, WOULD EITHER BE ALREADY DEAD, OR ELSE WAITING TO DIE IN SHORT ORDER.
I HAVE FRIENDS HERE WHO ARE CORPSES BACK ON OUR PLANET OR IN THE VEIL
OR PEOPLE WHO, THROUGH KNOWLEDGE GIVEN BY TIME SHENANIGANS, WOULD ONLY END UP DYING A CERTAIN WAY.
AND I DON'T MEAN FROM OLD AGE OR ILLNESS OR "NATURAL CAUSES"
I MEAN BEFORE THEIR TIME
WHETHER OR NOT THEY DESERVED IT THEN, BUT WITHOUT THE CHANCE OF REFORM THIS PLACE GIVES AND SOME HAVE EARNED
OR JUST WITHOUT THE CHANCES THIS PLACE IMPARTS ON US.
SOME OF US WOULD NEVER HAVE MET BECAUSE IT'S A CHRONOLOGICAL IMPOSSIBILITY.
OTHER TIMES FRIENDSHIPS, RELATIONSHIPS, AND SO ON WOULD BE TORN APART BY ONE THING OR ANOTHER
SOCIAL CIRCUMSTANCES, OTHER CHAOS, DISTANCE, SEPARATION BY WORLDS
WITH NOT ONE THING WE COULD DO ABOUT IT.
SURE, NO ONE REMEMBERS IF THEY RETURN HOME
I HAVE ONCE MYSELF
BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN I WANT TO LOSE WHAT I HAVE HERE
AND I KNOW PLENTY OF OTHERS WHO FEEL THE SAME.

[trust_the_fuckhead]

[Spider just chuckles to himself. He had hoped someone would offer a dissenting opinion, and he just happened to get it from someone with a good gift for words.]

Well done kid.
You've convinced me.
I'll look into this side of things more, probably even make that the subject of my next article.
There are many people contemplating escape, return to the places they came from.
Maybe I can at least get them to think of more than just themselves. I wouldn't doubt that many of them would send everybody home without stopping to think of what other people might want.

[bethehugejerk]

GOOD.
FOR SOME SUPPOSED SEEKER OF "THE TRUTH", YOU OUGHT TO DO THAT ANYWAY.
AS IT STANDS, IF I DO FIGURE OUT HOW THESE JACKASSES IN CHARGE ARE PULLING AND PUSHING US BACK AND FORTH BETWEEN THE UNIVERSES
I WANT THERE TO BE AN OPTION TO SEND BACK PEOPLE WHO WANT TO BE SENT BACK
BUT LET THE PEOPLE WHO WANT TO STAY REMAIN HERE.
UNFORTUNATELY THAT'S STILL A LONG WAYS OFF.

[trust_the_fuckhead]

Exactly.
It's always worth it to observe from every angle.
Proper journalism is, as a former assistant of mine once said, "treating life as an autopsy".
Giving people the choice sounds like the best solution, if we can get it to work like that.
An plan that sends everybody home would be just as bad if not worse than one that traps everybody here.
If you want to talk about it more, or if anybody you know with death waiting for them would like to talk to me, I wouldn't mind doing a proper interview. It would help an article like that to really hit hard.

[bethehugejerk]

WOW, ISN'T THAT INVITING.
BUT YES, OF COURSE IT'S THE BEST SOLUTION, AND I AM NOT GOING TO SETTLE UNTIL I FIND A WAY TO DO THAT
WHICH SHOULD BE ENTIRELY POSSIBLE GIVEN HOW THEY PULL AND SEND PEOPLE BACK AT RANDOM.
WELL I GUESS PEOPLE ARRIVING IS USUALLY MORE STRUCTURED, BUT SENDING THEM BACK STILL HAPPENS WHENEVER.
ALSO
I KNOW PEOPLE ENOUGH WHO ARE IN THAT POSITION OR HAVE OTHER STUFF WAITING FOR THEM THAT WOULDN'T BE WORTH RETURNING TO
BUT HELL IF I KNOW WHO WOULD BE WILLING TO TALK ABOUT IT OPENLY.
IT'S NOT EXACTLY THE HAPPIEST SUBJECT.
FOR THE RECORD I'M PRETTY SURE I'M NOT GOING TO DIE BACK HOME, AT LEAST NOT IN THE NEAR FUTURE
BUT I ALSO HAVE ENOUGH TO TALK ABOUT THAT I GUESS YOU COULD INTERVIEW ME
PROVIDED YOU ARE FUCKING DRESSED AT THE TIME, I MEAN HOLY SHIT THAT WAS NOT HOW I WANTED TO MEET ANYONE EVER
AND THAT YOU DON'T ASK ME STUPID QUESTIONS.
HM.
YOU MIGHT ALSO WANT TO TRY THE SIGNLESS
HE'S MY ANCESTOR, AND HE LOOKS LIKE ME BUT OLDER WITH DUMB PANTS AND A FACIAL CONDITION THAT CAUSES HIM TO SMILE ALMOST PERPETUALLY.
HIS STORY IS A LONG ONE AND HE'S BEEN THROUGH A LOT
BUT HE WOULD PROBABLY BE WILLING TO TALK TO YOU AT LEAST SOMEWHAT.
IF IT TELLS YOU ANYTHING, ONE OF MY FRIENDS COMPARED HIM TO YOUR EARTH JESUS IN THE PAST
THOUGH I CAN'T COMMENT TO THE ACCURACY SINCE I DON'T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT RELIGION.

[trust_the_fuckhead]

Well now, I think this Signless sounds like the perfect person to talk to.
I'll look into that.
And once again, it wasn't my fucking choice to get dragged through dimensions and dropped in front of you naked.
I wish people would stop acting like I just arrived and tossed my clothes at a whim or something.

[bethehugejerk]

CONGRATULATIONS, YOU HAVE ACTUALLY EASED SOME OF MY CONCERN.
YOU GET ABSOLUTELY NOTHING FOR YOUR PRIZE.
DON'T BE A DICK TO HIM EITHER WHEN YOU GO
HE SPENT HIS DAYS PREACHING SO HE'LL TELL YOU ENOUGH IF YOU ASK AND LISTEN.