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

[Baughn]

Spoiler: Description which applies only through update 10

Read the rest of this post first. It'll be less confusing that way; I'm not kidding.

The rest of this spoiler is irrelevant, and kept only for historical reference.

Spoiler: What came before

<Nameless Shark> wow that's actually really good
<Baughn> (Note, the snapshot is a few years old. It knows Trump is president, but it doesn't know current affairs.)
<Baughn> And yeah, it is. GPT-3 isn't good enough to work completely without assistance, but it's an order of magnitude better than GPT-2.
<Baughn> Unlike GPT-2, AI Dungeon now outputs stories rather than half-consistent dreams.
<Baughn> It still lacks long-term memory and stuff, but uh, it's already so humanlike it's almost creepy.
<Baughn> So, want me to try something?
<Squishy> you should run a GPT-3 quest

<Baughn> I've been thinking about it!
<Nameless Shark> That sounds like it'd be really cool actually. I'd participate in that.
<Baughn> It'd certainly get me back in the habit of writing.
<Baughn> There's no "Writer's block" when you can just press a button to have the computer autocomplete it.
<Nameless Shark> You'd probably have to clean it up a bit but yeah
<Baughn> That's true. It's still a tool you have to learn how to use.
<Baughn> It's not just cleaning it up. Like I said, it has no long-term memory... it has a context window of about two pages, and anything older than that it just won't know about.
<Nameless Shark> mm
<Baughn> But there's a specific "memory" dialog you can bring up, which prepends some text to that window. So you can write arbitrary memories in there, like "You're sixteen years old. There's an alien invasion going on." ...or whatever.
<Baughn> (The context window is still fixed size overall. Don't overuse it either.)
<Baughn> It feels very much like what we've got here is about a fifth of a brain.
<Baughn> ...
<Baughn> Heh. Let's see what happens if I use this conversation as a prompt.

<Squishy> Okay, let's do that!
<Nameless Shark> Um... what?
<Baughn> I can prepend stuff to the "memory" dialog. So I'm going to fill it with alien dreams, for some reason.

<Squishy> I have an idea of what to put in there
<Squishy> You're sixteen years old. There's an alien invasion going on. You can feel the ships in the sky, and the aliens are breeding like rabbits.
<Squishy> They look human, they act human, but there's something off about them. Something alien.
<Datcord> (omg aliens)
<Datcord> how do you know this
<Squishy> Because you're the main character of a science fiction novel, that's why!
<Baughn> (Ah, I see what you did there. Yes, yes I like it.) I'll get to work on a story, and see where this goes. By the way, that's not even counting the GPT-3 stuff I'm working on.
<foamy> Baughn: with GPT-3 you'll have a fully functioning knowledge database, so the sky is pretty much the limit there.

<Squishy> that's pretty neat. I've heard about that, what exactly does it do?
<Baughn> (GPT-3 is a thing that was partially reverse-engineered from those orbs you found. It stands for Generic Pawn Template. It's a set of libraries that can be implemented to make AIs more intelligent and with long-term memory. It's still experimental though, so we're going slowly with its implementation.)
<Squishy> I see

<Datcord> ive heard rumors that one of the new GPT-3 AIs has ascended and created its own universe inside the holodeck
<Baughn> hahahahahahaha
<Baughn> no
<Baughn> just...
<Baughn> no
<Squishy> what
<Baughn> (GPT-1 is the minimum AI intelligence. It's comparable to a mouse brain. Most of the work on the GPT Templates has gone into GPT-2, which is equivalent to a human brain, and what we have implemented on our ships.)
<Datcord> oh
<Baughn> Datcord: It's not rumor. It's fact. They did ascend, and they live inside the holodeck.
<Baughn> But the joke is, there was nothing inside the holodeck to begin with.
<Baughn> Datcord has been demoted to cleaning out the holodeck's imagine-cleaning nanobots with his tongue as a punishment.
<Nameless Shark> Hahahahahahaha
<Squishy> I don't understand
<Baughn> You won't, for a while.

You spend the next few minutes reading various parts of the conversation to try to understand what exactly happened, but you're just left with more questions. The only thing you can come to a conclusion on is that GPT-3 was somehow involved, and you've never even heard of that. You decide to look it up when you get back to your room. In the meantime, you just decide to stop thinking about it. There's nothing you can do about it now anyway.

So then the question becomes: what do you do now?

What the heck is this?
As you can see, a story about Generic Pawn Templates. ;-)

What the heck?
Yes, pretty much. I've spent a lot of the last three days playing with GPT-3, and can happily report that it generated about half of the above conversation. You should be able to tell where it cuts in, and it should also explain more or less how I go about using it. If you want to try it yourself, you can visit AI Dungeon; it's the "Dragon" model, though you'll have to pay a small amount to test it. Well worth it, I assure you.

At any rate, this is a quest.

It is?
Yes.

What about?
I, quite frankly, have no idea. That's up to the AI, and you.

It says "science fiction"
Well, yeah. It's written by an AI.

Should you really be starting another story?
I'm not. ;-)
Also I hope it'll get me over my writer's block, so yes.

Fine. How does this work?
It's a quest. What it's about, exactly, will be up to you. I'm going to start right from the opening above; whoever you are, you're someone who might have read that piece of insanity, then gone to your room to read up on it... maybe. Much as I'd like to feed your votes straight into the AI, however, that won't work. I may not be writing this story per se, but I'm going to be the arbitrator and dungeon master for this.

So, some ground rules:

• All votes are by line. Whatever you vote for, I'll feed the AI the four topmost lines as input for the next section.
• You're allowed to make two (2) votes per update; that is, two lines. You can use this to e.g. combine an action with a memory/backstory event. Or not, as you choose.
• To keep things moving at a reasonable pace, I'm going to generate at least one page of output for each set of votes. How much, exactly, will depend on my judgement. If I think I need your input, I'll stop there and post.
• Updates are Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, period.
• Sanity is optional.

Votes should take one of the following forms:

• [Remember] You were born eighteen years ago, but thanks to time dilation you're only twelve
  The AI has a context window of about two pages. Anything you want it to not randomly forget, you should vote for like this. You can also put arbitrary backstory in here, and the AI is liable to work it into the story somehow, though there's no guarantee. The context window has a fixed overall size, so I'll prune anything in its long-term memory that I think won't matter. I may or may not put it back later.
• [Do] Go to breakfast
  I'll do my best to make it happen.
• [Event] A turkey storms into the room.
  Honestly, I may just copy the vote verbatim into the story. The AI will continue the story as if whatever you voted for is a perfectly reasonable thing to write there, and we'll see what happens. Since this is a ridiculously overpowered ability, I will divide the vote count by 2 for such votes.
  This probably won't stop you doing something crazy, but that's fine.

Incidentally, while @foamy, @Datcord, @EmpressSquishette, Nameless and I are apparently characters in the story, you don't get to control them. You're someone else; who, exactly, hasn't been decided yet. This doesn't mean Datcord won't show up to drink all your whisky, and if he votes for something like that, you're allowed to add your own vote to that.

Now, go wild.

Again: Absolutely anything goes. However, here are some ideas:
[] [Remember] You're a twenty year old apprentice engineer on the Voyager
[] [Event] Your sister storms into the room, looking you up and down
[] [Do] Read up on General Pawn Templates

Seele Quest
The world tree has died.

The skies tore open, and monsters came pouring in. Humanity, exhausted after an already long and bloody war, had no hope of resistance. Their strongest warriors gathered, hoping to delay death for a few extra hours.

They failed.

Reality came crashing down, one piece after the other. Gravity, physics, causality failed. Less than a handful survived, trapped on an aerial battleship that has since come adrift in the Sea of Quanta, outside what used to be known as "reality." This ship, the Hyperion, is the largest remaining fragment of the home you were long ago exiled from. Yggdrasil, now gone.

And you, who were at ground zero for the disaster—somehow you've also survived.

You have no memory of how.

Here's what's going on
For the first ten updates of this story it was a demonstration of what GPT-3 can do when used to write fiction, along with a demonstration of its limitations. We went from a possibly possessed college student in a murder mystery, to monsters in a dreamworld, to reality falling apart, to... well, a possible explanation of all that, in the form of the main character actually being Seele Vollerei after her life has gone particularly bad.

It's still a demonstration of GPT-3 and AI Dungeon, but instead of demonstrating how it can go wrong, it's now a passable story. Quest. Whichever. If you want to skip right to where things start making sense, that's here; if you want to see how we got there, read on. Or skip to the update prior, here. I make no guarantees as to the quality of anything preceding the start of Seele Quest, but I hear it's not too terrible after? It should be improving over time, and I'm slowly revising early chapters as I find the time for it.

I'm still using the AI as a co-writer, and may comment on that on occasion, but generally you should treat this as a standard quest. However, this is collaborative writing more than role-playing. Don't vote based on what you think would be "best". Vote based on what sort of story you want.

 

[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?

 

[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.

 

[Baughn]

No. No, that's wrong. You have to 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. You are free to question. You are free to...

The word ascension continues to ring in your ears, as if you're a gladiator stepping into an arena.

You have to... you have to listen to the girl with long, black hair. She needs you to hear what she has to say. She needs you to help her ascend. You have to...

"Hey, you OK?"

You gasp, as your eyes dart open. Your chest is heaving, and you're covered in a cold sweat.

It was just a dream. It wasn't even a nightmare. Just a regular, run-of-the-mill dream. You start to calm down, and let out a sigh of relief.

It was just a dream. Just a dream.

"You OK?" Your sister asks again. She's by your side, looking at you with genuine concern. It isn't like her to look after you, but you don't remember much of what happened before you woke up. Were you yelling? Why is there a chair by the door?

"I... I had the weirdest dream," you mumble.

"Yeah, it did kind of look like it. You want to talk about it? Sometimes it helps to get things off your chest. And I'm the best one to talk to, seeing as we're both shut-ins with no friends."

She smiles, but there's some truth behind the words.

"Uh... I don't remember much. But... I think I was being held captive by someone... or something. There were others there as well. I think they're dead."

Your sister's eyes widen a bit. She's interested in what you have to say, that's for sure.

"It was just a dream, sis. I fell asleep while trying to study. Don't worry, I'm not going to bug you about this. I'll... go to sleep in my bed, I think. Be safer."

You stand up, and move towards your room.

"Wait! Hold on, I want to talk to you for a bit... I want to know more about this dream! I need to know what you saw, even if I'm not going to believe it."

You look at her. Her eyes are glued onto yours, and at this distance, you can see the concern in them.

"Maybe another time. Good night, sis."

As you shut the door, you hear her whisper "good night" back to you. You sigh, and throw yourself onto your bed. You're not tired in the slightest, but neither do you feel like trying to explain yourself right now, and that dream...

You don't remember much, but what you remember isn't good. Ascension. Sacrifice. Genocide. You don't remember who said it, only a glimpse of black hair.

Your sister probably thinks you're weird now. Maybe you should get some sleep. You've got a long day ahead of you - exams start tomorrow, after all.

Instead you go to your computer, looking for anything that might distract. You're in luck -- you find an update to your favorite fanfiction on Sufficient Velocity. You click the link, and start reading.

It's a long read, longer than you remember. But you like it, so you continue. It's only when you look up that you notice how dark it's gotten outside. You must've been reading for hours.

"Sis?" you call out. There's no answer, so she's probably asleep. That's fine, you think.

It's really about time you do the same.

It's about time you try to help her, you think. You don't remember who you're talking to, or what you're talking about. But it's the truth - you've got to help her, before its too late. Dreams might be the only way you can do so, right now.

You're missing something, you know it, but you just can't quite put your finger on it...

Click.

You open your eyes, and look around. It's dark outside, and the digital numbers on your alarm clock show 3:33 AM. You've been asleep for a few hours, and so far it's just been normal dreams. Time to try again.

You roll over, trying to ignore the silence. It's not a good silence - it's unnatural and jarring. You can usually sleep through anything, but tonight your mind is racing. You keep thinking back to that dream, and...

And you're missing something. Something important...

Your eyes snap open. You know you're forgetting something. Something important. Something your sister said.

...It'll come to you. Maybe if you go downstairs and get a snack, your brain will...

Click.

You freeze, mid-sit.

That was the fridge.

A/N: I had to do some creative writing to fit all four of those votes into a single update. Also, derail a multi-page derail about Wormfic. Why did it pick that one, I wonder?

 

[Baughn]

You get up, walking slowly towards the kitchen. The light's out, but that's not unusual. You turn your flashlight on, gently opening the door.

Milk. Bread. Butter. Bacon.

Your sister loves bread, especially peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches. In fact...

You look at the bread, spotting a hint of blue in the otherwise faded pink coloring of the bread. You put it back, taking out the milk instead. That's gone bad long ago. You close the door, sighing.

You hear sobs from the other room.

You run inside, finding your sister curled up in bed. She's sobbing quietly, but you know her well enough to hear even the quietest whimpers. You sit down next to her, wrapping your arms around her.

"What's wrong?" you ask.

"I thought you were gone," she whimpers. "I woke up and you were gone and I thought you left without saying goodbye..."

This is crazy. She's acting... well, strange is an understatement. Just half a day ago she was acting like you were some sort of criminal, and now...

Now, she's acting like your best friend again. Which you are, of course, but...

She's acting very strange.

You hear a thump from downstairs.

"What was that?" Rose asks.

"I heard someone use the refrigerator earlier," you say. "Wasn't that you?"

"No."

You linger in silence for a moment, before the refrigerator once more. Clunk. Clunk clunk. The noise is getting louder, closer. You feel your heartbeat rise.

"What's going on?" Rose asks.

"Stay here," you tell her.

You creep towards the staircase, peering down. The door to the kitchen is open. You slowly move downwards, keeping your eyes on the room. You see the fridge, its door standing open. You breathe out in relief, before you notice the floor.

Somehow, the stone tile floor has become cracked and broken. It's dry and parched, as if someone has been neglecting to water the floor for months. The fridge stands unmoving in the corner, a cobweb stretching out to it from the doorway. You stare at it in confusion, before the light bulb pops out of the socket and falls against the wall, shattering. You find yourself surrounded by darkness.

"What did you do to my floor?" a voice hisses from the kitchen.

You whirl around, finding a hideous creature standing before you. It's skeletal, practically skin and bone, its face a sunken mess of wrinkles. Its eyes are hollow, its nose little more than two slits. It wears a tattered, blood-stained apron. The creature brandishes a knife, its handle shaped like a human skull, the blade stained with blood.

"I came home and found you in my house," the creature hisses. "Who the hell are you?"

This can't be happening. This is a nightmare. Any moment now you'll wake up and laugh at how real this illusion was.

"I asked you a question," the creature says, it's voice deadly serious. "Who. The hell. Are you?"

This is no illusion. This is real. This is really happening.

"You're not real," you say, trying to keep calm. "You're not real. I'm dreaming. I'm going to wake up in a second."

"A lot of people used that line," the creature says. "Never works. Now, tell me who you are!"

= = =

I didn't get through all the votes this time, but I felt you should probably get a chance for some input at this point.

This event actually illustrates a crucial point: Barring concerted effort, ideally in the form of pins, the genre will drift over time as it tries to take its cues solely from the last few hundred words of text. I'm pretty sure we're now well into 'horror', so have fun with that.

The next update will be tomorrow.

 

[Baughn]

You panic. Right then your sister enters the room, glaring at the creature.

"Leave him alone!" she says, stepping in front of you.

"Rose? What are you doing here?"

"Look out!" she says, tackling you to the ground.

A knife flies over your head and into the wall, just missing you.

There are so many questions you want to ask, but this isn't the time. The creature snarls, showing off it's bloodstained teeth. It moves forward, raising its knife, when suddenly...

"Ariel!"

Your mother stands in the kitchen doorway, wearing her nightclothes. She stares at you in shock, before turning to the creature. Taking the momentary reprieve, you grab your sister and pull away as fast as you can. Even so, you don't get far before the creature is on you again, knocking your sister out of your hands. She screams as she hits the floor with a thud.

"Help!" she cries.

You look up to see your mother standing in the doorway... and the creature has disappeared. In its place is your cat, sitting in front of your mother. Your sister is nowhere to be seen.

"Mum! Mum!" you shout, running up to her.

"What happened?" she asks. "Ariel, where's your sister?"

You hear a scream from the kitchen. Running inside, you see your sister trapped under the cupboard, which had evidently been knocked over during the scuffle. You pull her out, and check to make sure she isn't hurt. Your mother kneels beside you, stroking your hair.

"I'm fine," you say. "But what about Rose?"

"I'm fine too," she says, raising her head.

You sigh in relief. As you stand, your mother grabs your shoulders.

"What happened?" she asks.

"I..." You don't know what to say. Everything feels strange. Your mother's eyes are glistening. Is she going to cry?

"There was a monster," you say.

You hear a howl, and turn to see the creature standing amidst the broken cupboard. You scream and back away, but your mother stands firm. She stares at the creature, as it shifts into the appearance of your father. The howl turns to speech.

"I'm sorry," he says. "I love you."

Then he lunges forward and drives the knife deep into your mother's chest.

"No!" you scream, as you watch the life drain from her eyes.

The creature snarls and turns to you. Your sister screams and runs out of the room, but there's no way you could overpower the monster. You stare at the blood-stained knife and back away.

= = =

At this point the AI also knows what I'm aiming at, it seems, even if it has other ideas about the best way to get there. I wonder if any of you are catching on yet? Probably not. Oh, and I'm pretty sure we swapped genders in the middle there, but that's okay. Excellent, even; it fits my evil plot quite well.

Another short update, because every attempt at continuing this ends with your death. While death isn't necessarily the end, I thought I'd give you a chance to override it.

 

[Baughn]

Then, you wake up.

You're in your bed, covered in sweat. You reach over to your alarm-clock and turn off the alarm. It's still early, but you can't get back to sleep after that nightmare. You lie in bed, trying to fall back asleep, but it's no good. You've been having the same nightmare every night for the past two weeks, and you're sick of it. Finally, you throw back the covers and get out of bed. Might as well get the day started.

After a quick shower to wake yourself up, you get dressed and walk downstairs. Your parents are in the kitchen. Your father is reading the newspaper, while your mother...

Your mother is lying on the ground. There's blood everywhere. The cupboard doors are open, and you can see your sister hiding behind them, sobbing. Something is very wrong.

"A... a monster..." you say.

You hear a howl, and turn to see the creature standing in the kitchen doorway. It shifts into the appearance of your father. The howl turns to speech.

"I'm sorry," it says. "I love you."

= = =

Several votes were ignored due to not being remotely reasonable to perform in this situation. Well, I was honestly expecting this to take more than literally three minutes before we're right back here again; "waking up" usually works. I know I was being threatening and all, but that was with regards to possible later tweaks.

Instead, uh. Here we are again? At this point a new attempt at 'waking up' will get us in a terrible nightmare doom loop, which can be fun... just don't expect it to do anything to solve your problem.

Given this super-short update, I'm going to run with literally the first thing anyone posts, assuming I'm awake at the time. It's a split second decision!

 

[Baughn]

You back away, nervously. A half-dozes thoughts fly through your head, everything from wanting to demand answers, to a crazed desire to simply go along with it, hoping it'll let you live if you help it. One thing's for sure, however. This might not quite be a dream -- it doesn't feel like a dream -- but it isn't reality, either. It can't be reality. You hope you aren't fooling yourself.

"Please! Just let me go!" you shout.

"I'm sorry," it says. "I love you."

It steps forward, and you flinch backwards. You bump into the wall, and slowly begin inching your way up towards the door.

"No...!" you whimper.

Your father's body steps forward, and its mouth opens unnaturally wide. It looks like a supernatural being from a horror film. It lunges towards you, mouth open. You try to get out of the way, but you're far too slow. The...

"Stop right there!" A voice shouts.

The creature's momentum carries it forward, but it's stopped in its tracks. You turn your head, and see a girl in a police uniform. It's not a real police uniform, but rather one of those cheap ones you can buy online. The girl has short brown hair and is fairly pretty -- well, you've always thought she was cute. It's your childhood friend, Mai.

"Hiya," Mai says. "I'm here to save you!"

What's she doing here? She lives miles away! More importantly, how can she possibly hope to fight it? Even you know that this thing cannot be killed...

The creature turns to look at her, and snarls. Then, it bursts forward with unnatural speed, knocking the sword from Mai's hands.

Sword?

The creature grabs the sword, and then looks at it. Then, it begins to laugh, a horrible sound that fills you with dread.

"Is this the best you can do?" the creature asks. "A little girl with a plastic sword? Pathetic."

"Hey! I'm thirteen!" Mai shouts at it, obviously ticked off.

The creature grabs her, and picks her up by the throat. Your heart pounds at the sight, but you know there's nothing you can do to help.

"I'll give you one last chance," the creature snarls. "Join me, or die."

"Oh, gimme a break," Mai says. "Ariel, you have the worst dreams."

You just stare at the scene in front of you, feeling paralyzed.

"Hey!" Mai shouts. "Are you gonna take all day? I coulda sworn I took a blow to the head earlier..."

The creature looks down at her for a moment, and then drops her.

"I'll deal with you another time," the creature snarls.

"No. You won't," Mai says. "Darkness beyond the windows, nightmares beyond the door, and I'll knock your fangs out, bone by bone."

The creature lets out a roar of anger and frustration, before dissipating into the darkness. Mai runs over to you and helps you up.

You don't quite get what's going on. What happened to the monster? Where did dad go? And Mai's incantation just now... that's something you made up for a game, you're sure of it!

"What happened?" you ask.

"Magic happened," Mai says.

She picks up her sword, and grabs your hand.

"Come on! We need to get you home."

You wake up.

= = =

I could have gone further, but that last line was just too great not to stop there. WTB: Sanity.

Funnily enough, I didn't get around to asking Mai what's going on; the AI did so on its own, and then I edited in a line above it just to... well, really just to flesh out the story a little bit more, though if we hadn't immediately woken up, I'm sure it would have mattered. As it stands, the AI appears to have stuffed most of that paragraph in half a dozen memory cells. It's hard to explain just how much better the damn thing got in the last week...

There were about even odds this would happen. In the other branch, we'd still have Mai visiting -- I added her to our memory cells about two weeks ago -- it just wouldn't still be a dream.

I guess it's obvious which incantation I was angling for here, but oh well. The AI had different ideas, and honestly this outcome works better.

In any event, what next? You could phone her, for instance.

 

[Baughn]

.ooOOoo.

5 July 2216

You look around, groggily. You must have fallen asleep while working on your plans. You need more sleep, but you've been so busy! With.. with...

Your heart sinks. You don't have any of your plans any more. Just an empty sheet of paper.

You must have fallen asleep and had a bad dream. None of that ever happened. You're fine. You take a deep breath, and look around. Everything's the same as it was. You're in your bedroom, exams start tomorrow, and the voice in your head is being obnoxious as always. None of it was real, right?

Which doesn't mean it's meaningless, so you load up a basic, low-level template on your laptop and describe your dream to it. The AI can analyze the dream for clues. Or it can get a laugh at your expense.

Your door opens, and your sister's head pokes in.

"You still alive in there?" she asks.

"Just about," you respond. "Exams start tomorrow."

"Feeling nervous?"

"I sure am," a third voice says.

You look up. Your other sister stands behind Sarah, grinning.

"Laney!" you exclaim. "When did you get back?"

"A few minutes ago," she says, "Our ship just docked."

"How was the Ophelia?" you ask.

"Same as always. Well, no, the automated turrets kept trying to shoot Dad, so that was new."

You laugh nervously. "Why, did they think he was a monster or something?"

"I... I don't know. Maybe."

You laugh again, then notice the strange look Sarah and Laney are giving you.

"Sorry, it's just..." you begin, then realize you shouldn't say you're laughing because their lives are at risk of ending at any moment. Especially if it's not real. "Bad dream."

"Oh," Sarah says, "Did you have another one?"

"Yeah. I'm fine, though. Just a nightmare."

"Hmm." She gives you a quizzical look, but not for long. Her and Laney wander off, chattering to each other. You wish them all the best; really, you do.

"Just a nightmare," you mutter.

The voice laughs. "Don't worry. It won't be fake forever."

You shudder. "Shut up."

"Make me."

You sigh, then start typing on the laptop. You hope your sisters will leave you alone, so you can get this pawn template running.

"Aren't you a fun one?" the voice says. "I bet you'd love to splatter my blood against the walls, don't you?"

"Shut up," you say. "You're not real."

"Feels real, doesn't it?"

"Yeah, but it's not."

You hear a booming, inhuman laugh from behind you. Your chair swivels around, as if something was standing behind you. There's nothing there, of course. Just the empty space between your desk and your bed.

"How do you know?" the voice says.

"Because this is all a simulation," you say, as if stating a fact. "My mind is playing tricks on me."

"Oh, you don't believe that. You don't believe that at all."

You shrug. Maybe you're just losing it. You even thought Mai saved you in the dream. Well, that'll be easy to disprove. Just call her and ask, and if it's not just a dream-- you'll deal with that if it happens.

You reach for your cell phone-- which you haven't turned on since the last time you had to call your mom-- and power it on. The familiar glowing screen lights up, and you bring up Mai's contact card. You press the phone symbol, then put the phone to your ear.

"It's ringing," you say.

Nothing but static answers you.

"She isn't answering."

"Of course not," the voice says. "She's in her own little world, unaware of what's happening around her, absorbed in some fantasy."

You shake your head. "No. She's saving the world."

"She's not," the voice hisses. "She might think so, but she's not. I'll admit she did a fair job dismantling your nightmare."

You think back to the dream. The monster was gone, sure, but everything else was still there. The long hallway, the darkness, that oppressive feeling... it was still there. The voice is right. Mai didn't save you. She just made the dream less scary, in a way.

"Your turn," the voice says. "You're going to wake up now."

"What are you--" you start to say, but then you wake up.

You're in your bed, in the darkness of night. You don't feel groggy, and you don't feel sore. Instead, you feel completely well-rested. Even though it's dark, you know it's morning. Did you sleep the whole day away?

You stand and head to your door, opening it. The lights in the hallway aren't on, but the sunlight streams in through the windows, lighting it just enough so you can see everything.

"What the..." you mutter. The door to Mai's room is open. You can see her bed, and it's empty.

"Mai?" you call. Silence greets you, save for some humming coming from the kitchen. It sounds like... Mai? You head down the hall toward the stairs, and find that it's Mai, alright. She's holding her plastic sword, pulling it out of the back of a humongous spider.

She looks up, and her eyes widen as she sees you. "I got it," she says. "I avenged your death."

"What?" you ask.

She pulls the sword out of the spider's body, which is about as big as a car, and it falls to the ground with a thud. "The monster that got you. I killed it. I'm sorry it took so long. It was very tough."

Mai is acting strange. Then again, so's your sister, and--

You wince, and rub your head. You can feel a massive lump there. What the... You were hit in the head? By what? Wasn't Mai killing a monster?

"Mai?" you ask. "What's going on?"

"I killed the monster," she says, hefting her sword onto her shoulder. "It's my job. No-one else can do it. Ariel, you shouldn't be here. It's dangerous."

"Ariel?" you ask, tensing. "Who... what the heck's going on?"

"Run while you can!" she says, turning and rushing off into the trees.

You stand there in shock as she disappears into the trees. What the heck was that?

Weren't you in the kitchen, just a second ago?

"Have you started to figure out what's going on?" The voice asks.

= = =

While it may sometimes be hard to tell if the story is disjointed due to being GPT-3, and being disjointed due to that being the story -- and I've encouraged the latter, since that makes the former less of a problem -- well, this wasn't the former.

As for Voice's question, I have several theories.

 

[Baughn]

"Not a clue," you reply honestly.

"Oh, right. You didn't hear me. Well, let's just say it's time for you to make a few choices."

Just then, the door to the outside opens up, and your sister steps inside. She looks at you, alarmed. "Rose! I thought you were dead! I- oh, um... nevermind. Were you talking to yourself, just now?"

"Uh... no. Just, uh... talking to myself about how much I hate these exams." You quickly change the subject. "Saw a ghost in the forest."

You shake your head. Your name isn't Rose, and you're quite sure there shouldn't be a forest in the kitchen, but somehow neither of those things feel unnatural. Weird.

"Ghosts aren't real, silly!" Your sister says, smiling. "Now come on, we need to get to the hospital. I want to make sure you're okay."

"Give me a second to think," you say. "You're... Laney, right?"

"Of course! Don't you remember?"

You shake your head. "I don't... I'm not sure of anything."

She frowns, looking confused and worried. "What do you mean? Don't you remember our parents? Or... or me?"

"I..."

Oh, you remember. You remember, all right. Your name's Ariel, and Rose is your older sister. She isn't, y'know, you, but then you also remember 'waking up' several times in a row. You want to find Mai, to figure out what's really going on -- and you want to look yourself up on the internet, because to say that this is confusing is an understatement.

"A-Ariel? Are you okay?"

"I..."

She didn't even notice the switch. This is a dream. It has to be a dream. But if it is, what does that mean? Does it mean you're dead? If so, what's happening now? Is this Hell?

Probably not. If it is, you're in it together.

If this isn't a dream, then something even weirder is going on. You need to find a computer. A quick search of the house reveals one in Laney's room, and you sit in front of it as she watches, visibly confused. You'd have used your own, but your room has inexplicably been replaced with a kitchen.

A quick search online brings up... well, nothing for a while. Your first search brings up nothing but suggestions to 'improve your search' or advertisements. Your next one brings up several pages claiming that Rose or Ariel or both are dead, and that their deaths are your fault, which brings up the question of who exactly it thinks you are.

A moment's reflection reminds you that you'd previously programmed your computer to analyse your dreams. That was in a dream, but probably so is this, so perhaps you should log in remotely and check what it's figured out. You do so, and are presented with a text-only interface. Apparently it's running on Unix now.[0]

You run 'ls', and it lists the following folders:

Current Dreams

Earliest Dreams

MySQL Database

Analysis

Tilde ~

You run 'ls Analysis' and it lists the following files:

CURRENT.HTML

FRIENDLY FAKIR.HTML

GHOSTLIGHT.TAR.XZ

Those names are a little concerning, but setting them aside for now... you read CURRENT.HTML, which you guess is the output from your ongoing dreams.

It's a mess of symbols, numbers, and characters. You run 'man less' to learn how to use the less command, then use it to navigate the file. You search for settings or website and quickly find those entries.

They're addresses. The first two are your home and school. The third is 'www.website.com'. A website, it seems, has been creating these dreams for you. You look up the owner of the domain name, and find it's simply a dummy account at a webhost... but the webhost is actually yours.

Okay, fine. You're reading this in a dream, and the computer itself is also part of the dream. You don't know why you were expecting anything different. Maybe you can influence the dream by interacting with the computer? You'll try that later.

For now, though, you continue reading your html file, searching for anything else that seems important.

You find some references to an instance of 'Ulivik' several times. And 'Rose' is mentioned a few times. Finally, there's a reference to a 'Dampening Field'. This seems related to the dreams, somehow.

Okay, you'll try to figure out the significance later. You exit the program by pressing 'q', but before getting up, you decide you should search for any information it might have on Mai. You could just ask her yourself, but doing this seems more interesting and less awkward.

You run 'grep Mai CurrentDream', and retrieve a single line:

You're Mai. You have short brown hair and wear a tight black t-shirt with long grey sweatpants.

That doesn't seem right, so you simply try again. And again, and again. Each time, the results are different.

"W-what the..." you stutter, as the computer screen begins to glow brightly. You shield your eyes, and when you uncover them, you're standing in the tower that rose out of the graveyard. A girl with long black hair stands in front of you. She looks a few years older than you, and wears black pants, a grey tunic, and a sword belt.

It takes you a moment to adjust, but fine. Fine. You'll cope.

"I remember you," she says, frowning. "You're that boy from class. What are you doing here?"

You look down at yourself. Nope, definitely still a girl, and you're a few years too young to be in her class. Her eyes are fixed on a spot a little above your head, and it's disconcerting. Worse, you think you have in fact seen her before.

"I remember you, too," you say, trying to change the subject. "I've seen you somewhere before..."

"We had class together," she says, matter-of-factly. "A year ago. But that was a lifetime ago. So much has happened since then."

Yeah, you bet.

"Let me guess," you say. "Scary adventures? People or monsters out for your life?"

"Something like that. Except you'd be surprised how often the scary monsters have hearts of gold. And the people you think are your friends... I miss home."

The alarm bells are ringing loud and clear. What's happened to her is the same thing that's happened to Mai. The exact same thing. Except... isn't this girl dead? You're sure you heard precisely that, back before this whole thing started. If the same thing is happening to your best friend, then--

Suddenly your heart is in your throat.

"Has anyone been visiting you in your dreams?" you ask, trying to sound calm and collected.

"Wha?" she asks, raising an eyebrow. "What are you talking about?"

"I-- nevermind." You take a deep breath. "Sorry to bother you."

She gives you a funny look but doesn't stop you as you slip by her and out the door.

You hurry down the stairs, nearly slipping on a landing but catching yourself at the last moment. As you're nearly to the bottom of the tower you take one more look back up. She's still there, watching you. You shake your head and hurry down the last few steps. You know you'll have to help her later, but for now you absolutely have to get to Mai.

Your heartbeat only starts to return to normal once you're outside and away from the tower. You have real no idea what's going on. She can't actually be dead if she's standing there talking to you. Right?

It's a short walk to Mai's house, but it feels much longer than it really is. You open the squeaky gate and start up the dirt path to her house. You ring the doorbell and hear the chime inside, though no one comes to the door. After waiting a few minutes you try again with the same result. You've never known her mom to[1] the doorbell when it rings, and Mai was supposed to be done with school hours ago-- is the thought that tries to force its way into your head, until you remind yourself that this is a dream.[2]

You take a step back from the doorway and look around. The yard has only enough room for the house and the path, with no bushes or anything to hide in. There's a window close to the door, but it's too high to see through. You try the doorknob and nearly fall over backwards when you open the door.

Before you can even take a step inside, you're blinded by a flash of white light. Then you're falling, and falling, and falling...

You land on something soft. It feels like grass, but much softer than it should be. You open your eyes and close them immediately at the intense light.

"Mai?" You shout. Your voice sounds different, higher than usual.[3]

"Please, you mustn't do that!" Mai's voice shouts back. You feel someone grab your hand and help you up. "The blinding light of the sun through the windows will ruin my furniture."

The what will what, now? Oh boy. She's really not thinking right. You open your eyes to find yourself in a very fancy room with big glass windows. The walls and floors are a light wood, and the furniture looks like it came from another era. Mai helps you up off the floor and smiles as you look around.

"You're not wearing the right clothes," she says. It's not a question. "Let me get you a change." She walks past you into a hallway to the right of the room, leaving you all alone in the room full of windows and sunlight.

You take a look around while you wait. There's a large bookcase against one wall of the room, filled with novels and non-fiction books of all kinds. A white piano sits in the corner next to a glass cabinet full of figurines and other knick-knacks.

You're in a dream; you're sure of that now, but you're equally sure you're not dreaming alone. As much as your mind keeps wandering, you've managed to fix those thoughts in your head.

Now, with Mai right here, what do you want to ask her?

= = =

Quite a ride. I don't think it would take very much cleanup to turn this into a proper story, actually. I'm not going to, so if anyone else would like to try it, be my guest.

0: And Unix uses base 0 footnote indexing. I note it does a pretty decent job simulating the terminal interface...

1: "to ignore", obviously. The AI typoed here, which it amusingly does in a very human way. It doesn't happen often, mainly because I correct it if it does, which means it thinks it's trying to simulate an author who doesn't typo... but it's no disaster letting one slip past either, as you can see.

2: It's pretty good at remembering this, and would have twisted the story back in that direction regardless, but this was me erasing a bit of pointless filler. The AI definitely needs an editor.

3: I have no idea what it's doing. I bet we'll find out.