A Smile in the Dark

From where did the "Big Bang" originate? Let me tell you a story.

My personal favorite games universe, and the place that we old ones were prior to this physical universe, was one in which players collected trophies. They'd compete solo or in groups across a large assortment of events. 

Not everyone competed. Many watched and/or fulfilled certain duties pursuant to contests resembling an everlasting olympic games, except significantly more varied. Recordings of games were made and traded, allowing some to relive moments as the key players within certain mocked up spaces. Increasingly difficult tasks were conceived, beings would play against copies of themselves, and wagers took place on just about anything. Literally anything. So-called zero sum games were all the rage.

Degeneration of sovereign states was still a thing, because responsibility levels and willingness/ability to pervade were still generally in decline. However, things were comparatively stable. Enough so that many winners began to get bored and, to be frank, became increasingly perturbed at the lessening quality of available games, commoditization of experiences, and the staleness of what was an increasingly predictable festival of those with capabilities entertaining those without.

Many universes existed at this time, connected with various anchor points, and vast collections of *stuff* abounded most every place. Degraded beings create degraded things, and things got sloppier and sloppier. Many lost the ability to create new universes, new spaces, or high-quality creations; the increasing majority held that those who still could should do so in service of those who could not. For one caste, space itself became a scarcity, complicating a pervading postulate put in place to prevent others from unmocking others' personal creations: Only who created a thing can destroy it. Complementary complications arose from embargoes on unsanctioned copying -- modern copyright laws are mockingly simple in comparison.

With unending kerfuffles of trading and copying going on across spaces, things were getting messier and more run down. Eventually, it was common to be unable to destroy a large number of possessions one had, and side universes were so innumerable that over time we started losing track of them, coming up with sundry ways to alert ourselves when another stumbled upon one hidden trove or other. 

Such was the backdrop of this carnival of games, several happening at once across multiple copies of similar planets, stacked atop one another such that spectators could watch from the "outside" by phasing into one layer-universe or another. The experience was like changing the channel of a television set, except that you could move viewpoints around within each space, like "Spectator Mode" in Minecraft.

Several layers incorporated a "wheel of fortune" element, as well. I might decide to play a world game, and upon compressing myself into that universe would be randomly assigned a character type (e.g., prince, nomad, vixen, farmer, soldier, artist, princess). Multiple games could be carried out at the same time; challenges and prizes were defined ahead of time, usually tending toward either quantity or quality (rarely both). The more bourgeoisie types wagered things like multidimensional jewels, treasure maps, and favor universes; crasser beings with less to lose would trade illicit acts and various common currencies. Spiritual CYCLES OF DEGRADATION (future post) continued apace.

As might be expected, the aims of players on world instances that were common across all character types tended toward rougher, overtly zero-sum objectives: killing, stealing, conquering. Underclasses have long preferred everyone to play the same (lower dimensional) games -- better to all suffer and lose than for only a few to rise above and leave the mire behind. Elitism versus popularism has been going on for a long time.

Meanwhile, the mob celebrated the great, provided they remained visible symbols for the many and didn't press their advantage off the playing field. The greatest, most celebrated contenders were granted medals, trophies, or some hard-to-get thing. Symbols representing the characters played by the winners, referred to as archetypes today, were often blazoned upon an object and placed in remembrance.

It was decided that those who won enough were allowed to place some such heirloom or trophy, often with a coat of arms, as a recorded testament of superior accomplishment(s). Some beings had several, some had none. A few of us hatched a plan: The calculated placement of certain creations in that overarching common space would lead to an intentional cascade collapse. I didn't conceive of it but my participation was required to make it happen, and I acquiesced. The critical mass was reached, and the following collapse resulted in a large explosion coinciding with the beginning of this physical universe, which is still just fine by me.

Yes, many lost their last Home Universe(s) in this event, or it was compressed into shared spaces and/or blown up into fragments all over the place. They had forgotten about many of them, but for several beings, a bunch of alerts occurred all at once. It was pretty loud. For those who lost their universes in this big bang, the collapse and explosion is sometimes described as a Home Universe event. Granted, this delineation is meaningless to those on this planet who still have a Home Universe (or can create new ones) -- more "people" than you might think, but we're not supposed to talk about it.

Notably, those who were satisfied with how things were prior to the multi-space collapse and are no longer able to create universes (or leave this one at will) are particularly inclined to describing this event as the loss of "the Home Universe," as if that began as a single, irreplaceable thing. Eventually, if they so choose and put in the work, they'll will get back up to being able to create other Home Universes, and this whole Accountability universe will have been a pile of laughs.

For those of you playing the home game, our current experience of time is a result of riding the 3D perimeter of an expanding 4D hypersphere. Yes, it operates at Accountability by design; it was time to cleanse the theta flow, so to speak, to clean things up and drag others along. ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED!?

Gotta say, though. I hesitated a bit prior to signing on, but this brand of justice is just beautiful. It's a useful gift in that those who wish themselves out will escape as the remaining unrepentant Sodomites continue actively willing themselves into oblivion. As with most people stuck in victim valences, they don't really mind the suffering so long as they can pretend at it being others' fault and responsibility; or as long as its someone else on the cross "dying for their sins."

It's technically a win-win, if your responsibility level is high enough, which is why the absolute glory of this situation eludes those stuck in character valances, enforcing zero sum games unto their dusty deaths.