((What can I say, I'm a masochist for challenges. So... Challenge accepted. Hard mode!
Incidentally, this is my first time playing Masterwork, so I have a large learning curve.))
Year 51, Age of Myths
I am Ustuth Lurshorast, or Ustuth Hatewired in the common tongue. For years I had studied a large variety of subjects. Mathematics, agriculture, animal husbandry, toxicology, you name it. But it wasn't until I took a class in Philosophy that I truly found a subject that fascinated me. I'm not sure what it was, but probably the discussions and theoretical questions intrigued me most. And still do.
As a graduate student I finally came up with this brilliant idea to verify, conclusively, that rational thought exists on an individual level and not a shared consciousness as has recently been proposed in literature. Admittedly the author argues quite validly that it is practically impossible to verify individually with any degree of certainty, and that only by examining the macroscale collective results of thought does it truly show evidence. My proposal was to address this practical impossibility and to make it into a concrete certainty.
In order to establish rational thought on an individual level I proposed the following set of assumptions that had to be made.
1. That only the individual's thought could be considered as valid, lest outside influence contaminate the reasoning.
2. All knowledge previously gained could only assumed to be true inasmuch as it is verified by the individual to comply with the percieved world around themselves.
3. Evidence of rational thought could only be measured as such by an accumulation of individual thoughts and actions over time. And time would illustrate the effects.
4. As a caveat, individual thought would have to be measured independently on multiple people, in order to disprove the null hypothesis. A sufficiently large sample size would be needed.
I myself proposed to be the test candidate, but during my dissertation defense there was some sort of accident. I do not recall exactly what happened. Some sort of explosion I think. My memory is only very vague for about a week.
Next thing I recall with any lucidity is travelling in my handcart with my dog. At least I assume he's my dog, since it's entirely possible he's just a construct of my imagination. There were other potential hallucinations as well. People, or I think they were. Again, it got a little fuzzy once we arrived at the coast. There was perhaps some sort of disagreement as to whether we should move on, or stay. The location seemed agreeable to me, though and I informed the others that I was staying, regardless of their decision. My dog agreed with me.
The first few days were a little fuzzy. It was cold, the air crisp and clear. All I had was the wood from my wagon, which I used to make a crude axe to get some additional lumber. I needed shelter, that was one priority. There were several lakes nearby for water, and berries for food. So I got to work.
A crude carpentry workshop was erected, and I smoothed some of the logs into proper boards to build the initial frame of my shelter, Rough-hewn fitted logs were used for my roof, they would weather better and resist decay longer than boards. Besides, there was still ice down at the beach, so I was quite sure I would need a solid roof.
I had never cut down trees before, so my knowledge was indeed put to the test, but it was not that difficulty in the loose soil and soon I had fashioned crude, fire-tempered wood tools as well, using rocks and available lumber. A craftsman workshop soon followed.
I think it was at least a few months before I even noticed I was naked. At first it didn't bother me. There was nobody around to see me.
And then I had some visitors. I assume they were visitors. Looked ugly and they knocked down my buildings, but left the framing for my shelter in place. Ugly matted wet greenish fur. They didn't pester me too much though. Kind of remind me of a math teacher I once had. Looked like a Toad.
I think I'll call them swamp trolls.
A month or two later I heard dog barking. Probably. I may have made it up and just went to investigate on my own. I must have tripped and hit my head since the next week is fuzzy as well. I woke up standing in the frigid ocean water up to my chest, there was a pinkish tinge in the water around me which creeped me out so I made quickly for shore. I didn't want to catch some funky algae based illness. Red tide right?
I did find a shiny new titanium axe and a few new sheep. Wierd for them to be out here. More funny hallucinations. Very disturbing but now that I'm awake again the sun helps assure me that things will be ok.
I drew an image on a piece of bark what my place looks like. I'm slowly improving it. I made a rudimentary pump out of wood to drain a lake nearby, just as a test of mechanical systems and will continue to check things out that I have learned previously.
I had more bad dreams near the end of summer. I must have eaten some funny berries. More vivid hallucinations, and people and whatnot. They can't have been real.
I did find some more tools though. Funny, must have been a lumber camp up here somewhere. I found a black bronze axe and another titanium one in the woods. And a stray cow wandered into camp the other day as well.
Perhaps my mind is saying I need them. The cow would certainly taste good after all those berries. Maybe I need more variety. It's possible that the cow itself isn't real as well and that I'm just imagining that I've been eating too many berries.
On that thought, for all I know I'm lying in a coma in a hospital after the accident. Is anything I do truly real? How could I, as an individual possibly tell? Without a frame of reference I'm not sure I could. I'll have to think about this one. How can I create for myself a valid frame of reference, internally to use to gauge validity of existance?
Ok, winter is here. I've been very cranky because it's cold, the ocean and ponds have frozen and I'm still naked. Time to do something about it. I found a few bolts of cloth near the old wagon that I've used to make clothes. I still don't know if they are real, or even if the cold is real. I could be imagining it, but better safe than sorry in case I'm wrong. My rudimentary shelter is up, and I even have a bed, a small table and chair. Things are gradually improving and I managed to brew some sort of berry mash that I was able to ferment so it wouldn't freeze in this cold winter air. Thank goodness for chemistry and learning about azeotropic mixtures and the freezing point depression of mixtures. The freezing point of alcohol is just below -110 degrees celsius, so a concentrated perfect azeotropic mixture should freeze at roughly -80 or so, assuming the 80:20 ratio. No worries there, but what about 20:80? Would it freeze at -20? I suppose I can use the crystallization method to remove excess water and drive the alcohol content up closer towards ideal.
I has been a full year since I've been out here. I've hope I've finally put all my regrets behind me. I'm really looking forward to testing my hypothesis out here in the real world now that I've gotten Maslow's basic needs established. I still see occasional hallucinations but I'm finding them more tolerable now than I used to. They used to disturb me deeply but after writing this I feel much better.
((Incidentally, I have the same problem with unburied regrets. There were 6 regrets to start, then a migrant wave of 9, then 3 or 4 more. Only 12 fill coffins. Despite having more designated coffins I cannot do anything with the other regrets. Is that deliberate?
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Topic: ☼The Hermit Challenge☼ - Contestants wanted! (Read 6908 times)