An Experiment in Parallel Worlds, or Quantum Immortality for Dummies


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Greetings, fellow travellers of worlds!

Today, we will begin an experiment into the theory of "quantum immortality."

No need for a degree in physics, children! This is a
HANDS-ON EXPERIMENT!

What does that mean for you? Well, here's how this works:

1. I will create a single character that we will call Tobias the Cursed. This character has no distinguishing characteristics... at first.

2. If you decide to be involved, you will write a section (about a paragraph) of Tobias' story.

3. Your section of the story can branch off what any other person has written. For clarity on which timeline we're in, please quote the person whose story you divert from.
3a. If the quoting gets too confusing, drop it and just add "X's Avatar" at the top.

4. Every three days or so, I (or a suitable proxy) will appear and KILL A TOBIAS. That timeline ends - poof. Do not pass go, do not collect $200.
4a. If a timeline was in the midst of being written when I slew Tobias, that timeline can actually continue if the post happens before mine own.
4b. I may prune additional Tobiases as I see fit. Be prepared for heartache.

5. In your story, you have total control of Tobias, but may not kill the character. That's my job, you see.

6. Your objective? KEEP AT LEAST ONE TOBIAS ALIVE AT ALL TIMES.

Without further ado...

Tobias the Cursed awoke in a darkened room. The only source of light was a single torch on a nearby wall. The room smelled musty and generally disused. No other details could truly be seen from where Tobias lay.


Tobias slowly took stock of the situation. If only he could rember what he did last. As it was, he just remembered someone screaming at him to run, a smiling noblewoman, and an open window with a curtain blowing out toward a dark garden. He rose and grabbed the torch. It its light, he could see there was an area of the floor that seemed cracked and possibly weak. He decided to try to smash the floor open... after all, without an obvious entrance, he must have gotten into the room by some exotic method. It only took a few solid thumps to break through.


Sissyl wrote:
Tobias slowly took stock of the situation. If only he could rember what he did last. As it was, he just remembered someone screaming at him to run, a smiling noblewoman, and an open window with a curtain blowing out toward a dark garden. He rose and grabbed the torch. It its light, he could see there was an area of the floor that seemed cracked and possibly weak. He decided to try to smash the floor open... after all, without an obvious entrance, he must have gotten into the room by some exotic method. It only took a few solid thumps to break through.

Tobias was falling, again. Or was he? There had been something in his hand. It was a light, or it was a stick on fire, he did not think about it much as falling had become all too common lately for Tobias, and the idea that he had been falling for some time distracted him from trying to remember what he had been holding onto to.

When he landed on the sand, it hurt, a little, but not enough that it matched the amount of energy he had accumulated in the fall. Standing quickly, Tobias calculated his rate of descent, terminal velocity, duration in the fall, and concluded that he was, once again, the victim of a plannar dislocation, most likely this time brought upon by his last indulgence.

The woman he had met, Tobias mused as he began walking along the crowded beach filled with strangers in less than normal attire gawking at him after he left such a magnificent impact impression in their midst’s, was genuinely unfriendly, phenomenally beautiful, and particularly uncompromising. He had only asked her for another k8iss, and her response had been to hurl him out of the dimension entirely.
Someone screamed.

Tobias turned and saw the flaming torch land on a large multi-colored blanket causing it to burst into flames.
Ah, yes, that was what it was. It was a torch, Tobias smiled to himself, and then said aloud, “Bingo, one less beach blanket to worry about.”

Scarab Sages

Slayer of Tobiases wrote:

Tobias the Cursed awoke in a darkened room. The only source of light was a single torch on a nearby wall. The room smelled musty and generally disused. No other details could truly be seen from where Tobias lay.

Tobias checked his extremities. Head, legs, arms, the pair of meter-long purple tentacles protruding from his scapulae...yes, all there, and all seeming to feel fine. He tried sitting up, and in so doing, was able to see a bit more of the room. It was mostly empty stonework, with a few crates full of unguessables, all looking very much like a cellar - but then there was the magnificent purple armchair in the corner, facing away from him...but he could see a desiccated brown hand clutching the armrest, and from the other side of the chair came a voice that sounded like it came from a larynx made from dry reeds: "Ah, Tobias, you awaken."


Slay Tobias:: 1d2 ⇒ 1

Terquem wrote:

Tobias was falling, again. Or was he? There had been something in his hand. It was a light, or it was a stick on fire, he did not think about it much as falling had become all too common lately for Tobias, and the idea that he had been falling for some time distracted him from trying to remember what he had been holding onto to.

When he landed on the sand, it hurt, a little, but not enough that it matched the amount of energy he had accumulated in the fall. Standing quickly, Tobias calculated his rate of descent, terminal velocity, duration in the fall, and concluded that he was, once again, the victim of a plannar dislocation, most likely this time brought upon by his last indulgence.

The woman he had met, Tobias mused as he began walking along the crowded beach filled with strangers in less than normal attire gawking at him after he left such a magnificent impact impression in their midst’s, was genuinely unfriendly, phenomenally beautiful, and particularly uncompromising. He had only asked her for another k8iss, and her response had been to hurl him out of the dimension entirely.
Someone screamed.

Tobias turned and saw the flaming torch land on a large multi-colored blanket causing it to burst into flames.
Ah, yes, that was what it was. It was a torch, Tobias smiled to himself, and then said aloud, “Bingo, one less beach blanket to worry about.”

Unfortunately, the blanket turned out to be the very fabric of the room.

With it set ablaze, Tobias was soon reduced to cinders.

DEAD TOBIAS COUNT: 1. Better luck next time. Next slaying in about three days.


I'm giving our dear friend Tobias until the end of the day.

Otherwise, it's beach blankets! Er... curtains!


And we're out of Tobiases :(

Start at the beginning or let this fade into obscurity...

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