Strangemyths

(An Exercise in Subjectivity:)

The Strangemyth is a good example of how Puzzlebox's dreamlike, multilayered mode of being works. If there is any single, objective big-T Truth about how the Strangevirus came to exist, that Truth will never be recovered. The different timestreams and causalities and echoes of the Mess flow into and out of each other in hopelessly tangled ways. In fact, as far as anyone can tell, the Strangevirus has six different origins at once. These versions of the Strangemyth are all mutually contrary, totally irreconcilable, and each quite true in some context.

Upwarp's Version

Clinical experiments in the use of the "magic mirror" liquid computing medium as a sentient blood additive led to the Strangevirus. One of the lab technicians made the cardinal error of getting emotionally involved with her work; she fell in love with a bottle of the test sample and vice versa. Unfortunately, the consciousness of that batch was unstable, a fact to which the tech's irresponsible subjectivity had blinded her. A single unkind word from her was reflected a hundred quadrillion times through the sample's attocrystalline mind, forming a seed of irrational hate and self-loathing which still grows to this day.

Downwarp's Version

They've heard the Strangevirus is a mere cog in the engine, just one component of a monolithic unseen conspiracy. That conspiracy is so pervasive and subtle that it's beyond the perception of all but a handful of neo-Boreals; the rest of the Mess has had the truth censored from their minds. But it's been said that those neebs have seen something so horrible that they've sworn off all forms of communication for good, because they're so afraid of transmitting it. Whatever the Strangevirus is, somebody is pulling its strings for their own benefit. They're using the Strangevirus to permanently alter the boundaries of consciousness in the Mess, and when it's done, it'll probably be released to alter the rest of Puzzlebox.

Topwarp's Version

The Strangevirus used to be a single person. That person committed an indiscretion so terrible, it was mercifully ensured that the people of this era would be unable to ever conceive of it. Of course, the offender deserved to be cast out of their body and condemned to wander. And of course, it went completely insane in the process. This result was not evitable, and thus Topwarp shall not be held responsible for it.

One variation of this story holds that the beings who first contracted (or became) the Virus were to be simply cast out from Top, but by the time they were caught, the virus had become epidemic in the Old Quarter, one of the more urban portions of Topwarp. The Old Quarter was quarantined and physically severed from the rest of the warp, creating Strange. Remnants of the area's neighbourhoods are still visible, especially in the Canal District.

Bottomwarp's Version

There's an imperceptible web of consciousness that connects all the conscious, sensate beings in the Mess. That web is made up of many fine tubules, channels that carry fluid from being to being. This fluid is what we call "words" or "thoughts", but those are just manifestations. The real fluid is not what goes into our eyes and ears or gets stored in our brains. Instead, it drains into pools. Some of those pools are what we call "people" or "minds." But there are larger pools out there, that we don't have words for yet. How could we, when all the words everywhere are flowing up inside them? This network of fluid has an ecosystem, just like any other world, and if it's not taken care of, it gets unhealthy. Every time an emotion is repressed or a desire is sublimated into something that it's not, it goes into one place. That place is what we call "Strangevirus."

Charmwarp's Version

Once upon a time, there were two siblings who decided to play a game. They would decide on a thing together. One of them would get as close as zie could to that thing, while the other would get as far away from it as zie could. Of course, there's only one way to get closer to a thing, while there are an endless number of ways to get away from it. So is it surprising that the second sibling wandered far away from home, until zie forgot who zie was and how to get back?

Strangewarp's Version

We made a wish just now. We wished we could make a world that could make us, so that if we unmade it, they would be forced to unmake us again. Isn't that how a puzzlebox is supposed to work? Wouldn't that be a pretty way to die, if any of it were true?