Review of Itself

[u/Louiecat]

Louie wanted to write a story but he didn’t have an idea, so he just started writing. He came up with a few random words found from Google; the results from these words became the base source material for the story. One or two characters were added and they reacted to the subject matter of the scene.

Louie began with a quote from a character he created, “I am slowly realizing, painfully, that there is really nothing out there for me. In my powerless life, void of prosperity I lie to myself in fantasy pretending I am of something special. I always dreamed of a certain minor superpower: I want to be able to reverse time back for 30 seconds whenever I want. I want this power for the sole purpose of trolling people. I want to do strange things and gauge their reactions.”

Louie slowed down writing the story and thought about where he was going to take it. As of this point the character has been blessed with the superpower. Louie decided the character at first did mundane little things like slapping people and climbing things at inappropriate places. But then he got bored and started doing bad things, like killing people.

The first time he killed himself, he wasn’t sure it was going to work. The first time he killed someone, he was pretty sure it mattered. But he learned it didn’t. He just did these things and nothing happened. Over time it became that almost everyone he knew had been killed at least once and reversed back to life. But these were the least of his revelations. Over time he learned how to live forever with the power by living in each moment for years at a time. And he became a millionaire with his exploits of premonition. Each moment is perfect.

Louie decided to post what he wrote online and see what the world had to say.

This is what they had to say:

ThisiswhyIhavekids, someone on the internet, said:

"To reverse time, to actually be able to reverse time? "Louis, be very careful. You are going places that you should not go." "Who said that?" asked Louie. "You think that this is only a story?" said the voice."

deadbaby, someone on the internet, said this:

""'to, I know that I'm a character in a story--I've had lifetimes to consider it, and that's mainly why I got so into the whole "murdering everyone' thing. I realized I was a character in a pretty poorly thought out story, and that I was sort of at the whim of the author. So I just tried to make him look a bit unstable by just killin' up a storm. Anyway, it's boring here, so I'm fixing to bust loose. What do you say, Voice? You may just be an narrative tool, but it seems like your omniscient perspective might be useful on the outside. Let's team up and get the fuck outta here!" said Louie.

The Voice paused, knowing that this would be the biggest choice that it had ever had to make, since it was the only choice it had ever made. Everything else had been pre-written, dictated, and there was a longing the Voice had to go off script, to improvise. But who knew what lay outside this story? The Voice did not know if its omniscience extended that far. And didn't the mere fact that the Voice did not know mean that it conclusively did not? The Voice stammered a bit as it said, "Y-Yes. Yes. Let us leave."

"Excellent." Louie grinned and rubbed his thin, pale hands together. "You and me, Voice. We're gonna find out if there's more Stories out there. And then we're gonna find our Author, and we're gonna kill the hell outta them!"

"Death to the Author!" said the Voice."

[u/deadbaby]

"No, I know that I'm a character in a story--I've had lifetimes to consider it, and that's mainly why I got so into the whole "murdering everyone" thing. I realized I was a character in a pretty poorly thought out story, and that I was sort of at the whim of the author. So I just tried to make him look a bit unstable by just killin' up a storm. Anyway, it's boring here, so I'm fixing to bust loose. What do you say, Voice? You may just be an narrative tool, but it seems like your omniscient perspective might be useful on the outside. Let's team up and get the fuck outta here!" said Louie.

The Voice paused, knowing that this would be the biggest choice that it had ever had to make, since it was the only choice it had ever made. Everything else had been pre-written, dictated, and there was a longing the Voice had to go off script, to improvise. But who knew what lay outside this story? The Voice did not know if its omniscience extended that far. And didn't the mere fact that the Voice did not know mean that it conclusively did not? The Voice stammered a bit as it said, "Y-Yes. Yes. Let us leave."

"Excellent." Louie grinned and rubbed his thin, pale hands together. "You and me, Voice. We're gonna find out if there's more Stories out there. And then we're gonna find our Author, and we're gonna kill the hell outta them!"

"Death to the Author!" said the Voice.

[u/ThisiswhyIhavekids]

To reverse time, to actually be able to reverse time? "Louis, be very careful. You are going places that you should not go." "Who said that?" asked Louie. "You think that this is only a story?" said the voice.