Seele Vollerei: The end of reality, and what came after.

[Mizu]

This is definitely intriguing.

[x] [Remember] You have spent the past week thinking about the changes inflicted by that wizard you encountered, both to your body and life
[x] [Event] Your sister storms into the room, looking you up and down

 

[Baughn]

Guys.

Could we please not make this a 13-way tie? I'll wait a little longer. :X

(And this, @Xon, is why we need ranked voting.)

Adhoc vote count started by Baughn on Jul 20, 2020 at 7:22 PM, finished with 24 posts and 12 votes.

• ---

  4 people have voted

  [X] [Event] Your sister storms into the room, looking you up and down

  • Bea
  • Alcor
  • Blademaster
  • Mizu

  3 people have voted

  [X] [Remember] You enjoy reading fanfiction on Sufficient Velocity, that's why you haven't trained yet.

  • Bea
  • Rotekian
  • shadenight123

  2 people have voted

  [X] [Event] A flat blue box appears before you on it are written the words: Congratulations you have gained the skill <Contemplate>.

  • Rotekian
  • Twisted Mind

  1 people have voted

  [X] [Event] "Wolves come in packs Arisen!"

  • Aklyon

  1 people have voted

  [X] [Event] Give half the likes in this quest to Datcord.

  • Datcord

  1 people have voted

  [X] [Remember] Baughn lies.

  • Nero200

  1 people have voted

  [X] [Remember] Your memory is hazy, however you can't shake the feeling that an increasing number of people are acting strange. Some are even missing. However, no one else seems to notice.

  • Alcor

  1 people have voted

  [X] [Event] A portal opens up, a figure steps out holding a hand towards you. "Come with me if you don't want to hurt your friends and the people you love! Your alien powers will destroy the earth if you don't train them!"

  • shadenight123

  1 people have voted

  [x] [Event] That's when the meteor hit.

  • tankdrop24

  1 people have voted

  [x] [Remember] You are the latest incarnation of an alien prince.

  • tankdrop24

  1 people have voted

  [x] [Remember] You have spent the whole week thinking about the strange, unexplained powers you manifested, and how to hide them

  • Blademaster

  1 people have voted

  [x] [Remember] You have spent the past week thinking about the changes inflicted by that wizard you encountered, both to your body and life

  • Mizu

 

[Mizu]

[X] [Remember] Your memory is hazy, however you can't shake the feeling that an increasing number of people are acting strange. Some are even missing. However, no one else seems to notice.

 

[veekie]

[x] [Remember] You have spent the past week thinking about the changes inflicted by that wizard you encountered, both to your body and life
[x] [Event] Your sister storms into the room, looking you up and down

 

[Solarstream]

[x] [Event] Your sister storms into the room, looking you up and down
[X] [Remember] Your memory is hazy, however you can't shake the feeling that an increasing number of people are acting strange. Some are even missing. However, no one else seems to notice.

 

[Baughn]

Vote called.

[4][Remember] You enjoy reading fanfiction on Sufficient Velocity, that's why you haven't trained yet.
[3][Remember] Your memory is hazy, however you can't shake the feeling that an increasing number of people are acting strange. Some are even missing. However, no one else seems to notice.
[5][Event] Your sister storms into the room, looking you up and down
[2][Event] A flat blue box appears before you on it are written the words: Congratulations you have gained the skill <Contemplate>.

 

[Baughn]

This post is not part of Seele Quest.

Is this surprising? If so, then read post #1 more carefully.

ooOOoo

With nothing else to do, you return to your room. It takes several hours for the trip, as this ship is quite large. You spend the time reading up on GPT-3.

It turns out that GPT stands for "Generic Pawn Template", and there are several templates (or tiers) below it. The templates are used for the AI to learn certain skills, which it can then apply to related tasks. For example, if the AI learns to recognize the letters 'A' and 'B', it can then learn to recognize the letter 'C' and then all letters in general. The GPT-3 template, however, has been mysteriously missing for a few months now. You wonder if that has anything to do with the missing people...

You continue reading up on the other templates, but this is all just boring technical jargon that isn't important to you. Hours pass as you read through various files.

You're so absorbed in your work that you don't even notice when your sister storms into the room, making an awful racket as she does so, until she puts a hand on your shoulder. You nearly jump out of your skin at this, and she gives you a confused look.

"Hey. Why are you so tense?" She asks, before suddenly frowning. "And why do you smell like alcohol?"

She looks you up and down.

"And why are you all dirty?"

You try to come up with an excuse, but nothing comes to mind. Your sister stares at you for a few more moments, then sighs. "What have you been doing?"

You don't want to get in trouble, so you try to think of something she won't question. "I was hanging out with Tina."

Your sister's eyes narrow. "I know you're lying. Tina's been in class for the past two hours. Who was it then?"

You swear to yourself, knowing that your cover is blown. "I dunno, some girl."

"God..." Your sister shakes her head. "I can't believe you would do something like that. You need to get your act together and focus!"

"I know. I'm sorry."

"Whatever. I need to go take a shower. And when I get out, I want to see you studying!" She storms off, leaving you alone with your thoughts.

"Why the hell did I do that? Now she's going to think I'm doing drugs." You mumble to yourself.

"Well, you are." A voice pipes up in your head.

"Dammit! Now she's going to think I'm going insane too!" You complain.

"My my, you are in quite the pickle. What are you going to do?"

"Can you just shut up for a minute? I need to think.

You close your eyes and try to block out the voice. It continues whispering, but you don't pay any attention to it.

A flat blue box appears before you. On it are written the words: Congratulations, you have gained the skill <Contemplate>. This skill is currently at level 1, it will allow you to think better about your actions and decide the best course of action.

It's a pity your eyes are, you know, closed. You can't see it.

You open your eyes and think very carefully about your next course of action. You could ignore what just happened and go back to studying. You'll probably fail all your classes though. If you talk to your sister about it, she'll help, but you know she'll scold you about getting in trouble and wasting your potential.

It's not fair, none of this is your fault. You shouldn't have to deal with this. The world is crap and it doesn't care about you, why should you care about it?

"Hey, have you finished contemplating yet?" The voice says.

You want to tell it to shut up again, but that would be counterproductive. Besides, you're done thinking. It's time for action. "I have," you say.

"And?" The voice asks.

"And nothing. Contemplating is overrated. I'm gonna do what I want."

"Hah, I like your style kid."

"Quiet!" You snap at the voice.

= = =

GM's note: I don't know what sort of output I was expecting, but that wasn't it. Whatever's going on here, it's your job to figure it out...

I'll generally space out votes to insert them in the narrative where they seem appropriate. That being said, the update length may vary wildly -- for instance, in this case two of the votes didn't require a suitable injection point at all. [Remember] type votes, I can just add right at the start.

I'm sure you're wondering how much editing I did on the above. The answer is: Basically nothing. I told it to retry a couple of times when it derped, but over half of its output I accepted straight away. On two or three occasions (outside the votes) I decided to adjust the wording to flow better, but nothing plot-relevant. I'm not really the type to write an alcoholic main character.

Although... I suspect this one isn't. What do you think?

 

[Mizu]

[x] [Remember] the flat blue box which appeared before, what was it?
[x] [Event] another blue box appears before you, this time offering a tutorial

 

[Baughn]

[x] [Remember] the flat blue box which appeared before, what was it?

Click to shrink...

I'm not going to stop you from doing this, but your MC didn't actually see it. If your vote wins, there will be consequences.

Well, and also I don't think you want [Remember].

 

[Baughn]

Meanwhile, @Katsuragi really wanted to see "(Worm, as written by Wildbow, as rewritten by Terry Pratchett), as written by GPT-3".

Far be it from me to reject a sane and sensible proposal. To avoid needing to spend any effort on it, I decided to add "As read by the guy in this current story" to the proposal; this also makes the whole affair even more sensible.

I supplied the first sentence, and forced it to generate this:

You look down at your computer and start reading a story. It says "Worm, as written by Wildbow and then reimagined by Terry Pratchett". The opening paragraph is:

"Oh come on! That's the fourth time this week! I told you not to mess with that thing while it's on!" The heavy set man said.

It was the end of the day, a long and particularly boring one in fact, as you were forced to listen to your boss complain about his personal problems, including but not limited to; his girlfriend seeing someone else, the government, his job, and how his mom never loved him. It's enough to make anyone want to go out and blow their brains out.

"Sorry Mr. Higgins." A young boy, probably around sixteen years old, said as he packed up his handheld game.

"Sorry doesn't cut it this time Kyle, you've wasted the entire day playing that stupid game. And stop pretending that you're sorry, you love wasting your time on that thing. It's like you have some sort of social retardation or something. I swear, if you weren't my nephew I would've fired your sorry...

Kyle, now taking the bait, puts away the game and walks up to his uncle.

"What was that? I didn't quite hear you."

"I said...uh oh." Mr. Higgins said as Kyle took off his belt and started whipping him with it.

"Apologize!" Kyle demands.

"Never!"

"Then you'll continue to be whipped!"

And so the cycle continues.

Click to shrink...

Which I think we can all agree is pretty much right.

This is not to say it can't do better. For example... and yes, this is the very first output it gave me.

You look at your textbook. It says: "A short-short story is a story of less than a hundred words, typically two to five paragraphs. Here is an example by Terry Pratchett: If you want to write a short-short story, read on. Otherwise, please close this book."

The example the book gives is this:

"The goblins are coming! The goblins are coming! Run for your lives!"

"Shut up, Bob!"

"The goblins are coming! The goblins-"

Bob is hit over the head with a frying pan and falls unconscious. The goblins arrive and find Bob, unconscious.

"That Bob is out cold, let's take him with us." The goblins say.

Bob is taken into slavery by the goblins and forced to announce games at their annual fair. Years later, Bob dies of natural causes in goblin captivity.

Click to shrink...

A pretty good announcer, Bob.

Anyone fancy some Stephen King?

You look at your textbook. It says: "A short-short story is a story of less than a hundred words, typically two to five paragraphs. One writer of such stories is Stephen King." The example the book gives is this:

A young woman walked down the desolate hallway. Desolation encompassed her. The light above her flickered, then died out. She stopped. Silence. Then, a shrill cry of terror.

You stare at the page for a while, then look up. There's only one thing you can do here.

Click to shrink...

Heck, it can even make an attempt at fictional writers who've never written anything anywhere it has seen:

You look at your textbook. It says: "A short-short story is a story of less than a hundred words, typically two to five paragraphs. One writer of such stories is Takamachi Nanoha."
The example the book gives is this:

Once upon a time, there was a little girl. She loved apples. One day, she found a garden full of apple trees. Apples were everywhere! She picked one and bit into it. It was the best apple she ever had!

You look at your notebook. The story you've been working on is a little longer than that, but who's counting?

Click to shrink...

Which isn't a great story, to be sure, but it's precisely the sort of story a nine-year-old might write.

Prompts like these are a great way to figure out what it's 'thinking', in general. Let's look at Nanoha again...

You look down at your textbook. It's a piece about a historical woman named Takamachi Nanoha, and it says:
Takamachi Nanoha, an amazingly brave young girl who fought through adversity and became one of the greatest heroes in history.

Click to shrink...

I hit 'retry' on that several times.

• This is a tribute page to one of the greatest heroes in history. This amazing woman lead an army of magically powerful beings known as Wolkenritter against the greatest evil in the universe, Kaiser Vermillion.
• Nanoha was a kind girl who loved her friends and always tried to do the right thing. The world is a poorer place without her. She passed away on March 5th, 2040.
• The True Story of Takamachi Nanoha, our beloved Hero
  By Isaac N. Whitman
  In the beginning, there was no magic. There was no steel. There were no kings, nor knights, nor castles, nor armies. There were no monsters, nor dragons, nor beast men. The world was still, silent and empty. Nothing moved, save for the wind.
  Nothing breathed, save for the air. Nothing existed, but it wasn't empty.
  There was a woman. She was the woman who started it all. She had a dream. In that dream, a tower so tall that it touched the sky. The top of that tower was heaven.
• As the TSAB's chief diplomat to the Earth Alliance, she was the main force behind the cease-fire agreement between the two powers. At the time, there was some opposition to her methods, but now most agree that her sacrifice saved countless lives and prevented a potential genocide.
• As the TSAB's chief diplomat to the Earth Alliance, her genocidal actions towards the planet are widely criticized by all parties. You flip through the rest of the pages, but there's nothing else in it. It's basically just a character assassination piece.

...yeah, that's ...yeah. It idolizes her. Even that last one, where I prompted it up to the "genocidal actions" part, it made sure she wouldn't come out looking bad.

 

[That-Random-Guy]

i know how good GPT-3 is and im still amazed

 

[Alcor]

[X] [Do] Study
[X] [Do] Ask around about the missing template

My intent is that we ask around somewhere else (the ship? class?) to meet new characters but far be it from me to complain if our AI overlord decides to do process that request differently. Also, I originally classified these as [Event] because my reading of [Do] was that it was an option to have you try to ensure the action occurs even if it requires some tweaking around whereas [Event] you just let it do whatever. However now I'm thinking it might be more that [Event]s are things that happen to us while [Do] are our direct actions. Sorry if I've got it all wrong!

 

[Baughn]

[X] [Do] Study
[X] [Do] Ask around about the missing template

My intent is that we ask around somewhere else (the ship? class?) to meet new characters but far be it from me to complain if our AI overlord decides to do process that request differently. Also, I originally classified these as [Event] because my reading of [Do] was that it was an option to have you try to ensure the action occurs even if it requires some tweaking around whereas [Event] you just let it do whatever. However now I'm thinking it might be more that [Event]s are things that happen to us while [Do] are our direct actions. Sorry if I've got it all wrong!

Click to shrink...

No, that second one is right.

Or to be more precise, [Event] is narration, which is why it costs twice the votes. If there's a tie I'll break it in favor of [Event] votes, but...

You could absolute write "[Event] The entire spaceship you live on suddenly disintegrates". It's a powerful ability -- it lets you control the story to a far greater extent than [Do] would, but using an event to control your own character would be a waste.

There's also no particular upper limit to the length of a vote, by the way. Just so long as you put the work in, and it's all describing a single thing.

 

[Ameraaaaaa]

[X] [do] you want to go to a party so you head to the secret place where all partys intersect. Might be also useful to know what the hell is that blue box is since it connects to other universes. There's surely a universe with this stuff in it.
[X] [event] another blue box appears. Congratulations you have gained the skills <clever> and <party animal>

The boy wants to do what he wants why not let him? What else do young people do then party?

 

[pantherasapiens]

The blue box is obviously a TARDIS.

[DO] You begin studying, but get bored of it and instead begin writing a 50,000 word lemon starring the planets Jupiter and Pluto.

 

[tankdrop24]

• As the TSAB's chief diplomat to the Earth Alliance, she was the main force behind the cease-fire agreement between the two powers. At the time, there was some opposition to her methods, but now most agree that her sacrifice saved countless lives and prevented a potential genocide.
• As the TSAB's chief diplomat to the Earth Alliance, her genocidal actions towards the planet are widely criticized by all parties. You flip through the rest of the pages, but there's nothing else in it. It's basically just a character assassination piece.

Click to shrink...

For some reason this is just making me imagine a Nanohana/Gundam seed crossover RPG made by Bioware.

 

[Mizu]

For some reason this is just making me imagine a Nanohana/Gundam seed crossover RPG made by Bioware.

Click to shrink...

I don't think Bioware has ever made a mecha anime before, although something which goes into character relationships like Nanoha tends to is kinda what they're know for. Or, uh, were before EA ate them.

[X] [Do] Study like your sister told you to, reading up on the planet you're heading to - Vaizen - and the technical specifications behind Device manufacture. You've got a long-term goal of rediscovering the secrets behind Unison Device, after all, even if they've been lost ever since the Unification Wars a century prior.

Seeing as Baughn was discussing Nanoha, and that we're on a spaceship going somewhere, I decided to vote for us being a mechanic of some sort who's trying to make the titular magitech device of the setting.

 

[tankdrop24]

I don't think Bioware has ever made a mecha anime before, although something which goes into character relationships like Nanoha tends to is kinda what they're know for. Or, uh, were before EA ate them.

Click to shrink...

I was referencing the whole paragon/renegade binary that seemed like it was in play in the bits I quoted.

 

[grommile]

[X] [Do] Study.
[X] [Event] It turns out that a member of the Death Leopard secret society has put Fizz-Wizz in the showerhead. Your sister blames you for this.

 

[Rotekian]

[X] [Do] Study
[X] [Contemplate] The voice's objective.

 

[Coda]

[X] [Do] Study
[X] [Do] Ask around about the missing template

Sure, why not.

 

[Solarstream]

[X] [Do] Study
[X] [Do] Ask around about the missing template

 

[Baughn]

Yep, it's a four-way tie of single votes. There are two definite winners here, so I'll get back to this tomorrow even if I don't wind up with four actions to take.

It took me twenty minutes to write the previous update. I don't expect any future ones to take much longer. This quest may have the highest ratio of (voting time) to (writing time) in all of SV's history, but thanks to this thing I've gotten somewhere in the vicinity of 40,000 words 'written' in just the last week...

 

[Baughn]

Enough is enough. You decide it's time to study, as useless as it might be. You open your eyes and stand up. As soon as you do, you realize that something is off. Your head feels weird, like it's stuffed with cotton or fogged with glass. It's hard to think, which is ironic given the amount of thinking you've been doing.

"Something is wrong with me," you mumble.

"Yeah, I'd say so." The voice agrees.

You walk into the living room and collapse on the couch. You try to turn on the TV, but your motor skills seem to have been affected. Your hands grip the remote, but you can't push the buttons. You try to speak, but find that you can't even do that. What the hell has it done to you?

"Oh quit your whining, you had it coming," the voice says. "Besides, you're not going to be like this forever. Just keep it together for a little while and everything will be fixed."

"Right..." You say, although it comes out as a long sigh.

You try to take a deep breath, but your chest feels tight. You can't even bring yourself to get up off the couch. You almost hope your sister will walk in, but it's not like you could explain any of this to her. She'd just think you're acting like a weirdo and tell you to go take a shower.

"I can help you through this if you want. Just listen to my voice and focus on my words."

You're not sure if that will help, but it can't hurt. You find yourself nodding along as the voice begins to speak. Maybe it'll finally explain what's going on, and how you ended up with a voice in your head.

"Do you remember any of your dreams from last night?" The voice asks.

It's question you weren't expecting, and you don't have an answer. At least, not right away. Last night you dreamt about...

"I had a weird dream last night," you say.

You can feel your face stretching into a smile as the memories come back. It was about a party, with all your friends from school. You were having such a good time, all you wanted was for it to never end...

"No, before that. Do you remember what you were dreaming about before that one?"

You're not sure. Your mind is a bit of a haze, and the voice is making it harder to think. There were lots of images, but you can't make any sense of them. Some of them were... wrong. You see a strange, purple creature lurking in a crowd, but just as you focus in on it, it disappears from sight. How a thing like that could hide in a crowd is beyond you, though somehow you know it did. You try to look away, but the images continue. You see a bright red lake of blood, and the lifeless bodies of your friends at your feet.

"What are you trying to show me?" You ask, your voice wavering.

The voice doesn't answer. It just continues speaking.

"You're dreaming right now. These images, these sounds... they're not just in your head. What you see is real, and what you did, others did as well."

You feel a wave of confusion hit you, and the voice seems to sense this. It continues before you can interrupt.

"These are memories. Last night, you dreamt the dreams of another. A girl, with long black hair. She's dead now, but her memories live on within you."

You don't understand. Dreams are just brain-farts that happen when you sleep, right? And how can someone else's memories just suddenly appear in your head? It doesn't make any sense.

"You will understand in time. For now, just listen. She has many questions, and you need to answer them. Only then can she move on."

Move on?

"Yes. You will help this girl ascend so she may find peace."

Ascend...

The word burns itself into your mind. You can't escape from it, no matter how you try. The voice continues to speak, but the words just become a jumble of sounds.

"I... need to study," you say. "If I don't pass my tests, I'll..."

You'll what? Fall behind? Be held back? Get detention? The words don't come to you. You've gone numb.

There was that missing GPT template as well, you were thinking about asking around to see if anyone knew what has happened to it. Now though, the thought of asking anyone seems to be more than you can bear. The prospect of opening your mouth and forming words seems impossible, let alone stringing sentences together in order to form coherent thoughts. It's as if your ability to communicate has been taken from you, and you're reduced to a mindless drone.

You... need to study. If you don't pass your tests, you'll...

Your mind goes blank once again.

You are a drone.
You are numb.
You do not think.

= = =

GM/N: I tried to have you study. I really did. The AI had other ideas.

This is not an example of GPT-3 losing the plot; I know how to handle that, and its context window is still larger than the story. It's more an example of GPT-3 inventing a plot, though exactly what sort of plot is still entirely up to you.

 

[shadenight123]

[X] [Do] Break the shackles that hold you limited; seek the freedom you were denied. You are no slave to the machine of sheep. You are free to think.
[X] [Do] Awaken from the nightmare of being a drone. Realize you just fell asleep while trying to study. Notice there's an update on your favorite fanfiction on Sufficient Velocity!