User blog comment:Diexilius/Forsaken/@comment-25569708-20170311042113

"Don't hesitate to get rich in details"

(If this comment is too long I can wattpad-link it on request)

"Sir, we have some important new information from HB-18378."

The large cnidaria leader on the throne sighed, thought for a moment and replied to its servant. "Tat, we've done this experiment many, many times. You know this. And every time it has ended in the human race's extinction, without fail. I must admit, if we do not reach the intended goal at hand, I'm afraid further testing will have to be cancelled. No matter what form it takes, how much time we allow it or the circumstances given, the human being never recognizes The One as I intended. I am tiring of these tests. That is why this one in particular has such abnormal, harsh variables. This Earth, this final one, is a sort of pressure cooker. Either I will have eventual success or a quick failure. Now speak."

Tat hesitated for a moment before slowly responding, "But sir, they have this time. They- they have recognized The One."

The leader froze in its spot for a few seconds, its compound eyes blinking rapidly. For once, he was stunned and slow to speak. "How? Was it really the intelligence factor all along?"

"Well, Research thinks so, sir. But The-"

"Enough. I should have ordered their intelligence to be set much higher long ago. Anyhow, if this iteration of the human race finally passed my test and identified The One, surely they must be my greatest creation yet. Describe them."

Tat obeyed. "Well, we accelerated time on HB-18378 twenty oias in the future, as you ordered, and by then the humans had already reached what could be considered modernity. They have contained a sizeable number of diseases, they have constructed fast, mostly safe means of transportation, the planet's face is host to thousands of high-technology, bustling cities with towering structures, and they have overcome the force of nature and are by far the dominant force on the globe. These humans have done all this at a rate which puts older iterations of themselves to shame."

The leader floated back in its seat, pleased for once at its creation's progress. Never before had the humans reached such a state of supremacy. Usually by ten oias' time they were all gone; eventually picked off by non-human life or ended by the weather. But this, this was extraordinary. Intelligence truly was the key to success. It should have been obvious, but in the past the leader had been wary of making them too intelligent. But apparently that didn't matter. "What are they like, Tat? What do they do?" the leader asked, infatuated with its success.

Tat wanted to speak but did not want to disappoint its master.

"Why don't you see for yourself, sir?" Tat offered.

The leader was taken aback for a moment, but then agreed. "Very well. I should see these splendid humans for myself."

Tat went out of the room, gave the order to a navigator, and the colossal ship they were on started to move. A few instants later they arrived at Earth's proximity, far away but within their viewing distance. The leader floated out of its throne and went over to the large wall windows where Earth, just a speck in the distance, could be seen. Tat came over and handed its master a viewing tube. The leader looked through it and found Earth with it. With their species' perfect viewing technology and its divine, all-seeing mind, the leader studied.

It saw a billion different lives play out, every hopeful start to every awful finish. It witnessed and felt everything. Every man and woman's thoughts, actions, fears, secret shames, cruel words and ignorant acts. Nothing on Earth was unknown to it as it spied. Every killing, invention, scandal, uprising and outrage, every hilarity and mocking and hypocrisy. Tragedy and history and shocking apathy. Trivial labor and useless colored currency. Every suffering and humiliation they visited upon each other. Every facet of this hideous human life played out all at once, and each exhausted itself a hundred million times over. Screaming and swearing and sweating and laughing and rotting. All so inconsequential and so loud. Every stupid word and callow reasoning. Their perceived rationales for living, and their preposterous, invented ethic codes. Their uproarious ideas of "art" and "justice". All of it alien and unexpected to the leader. It went back and forth in the Earth's timeline, and the human beings never changed their putrid ways. Not once. Just more of the same; homely human bodies fighting and flailing, wailing and walking, dreaming and swallowing and blinking and dropping dead and nothing else.

Out of all it could see, the leader saw that only a few hundred humans, if that, actually deserved to breathe (not including The One). But even they deserved much better than that flagrant, fatuous globe.

The leader had enough and handed its viewer to Tat. It silently returned to its throne and sat down. It thought.

"You did not tell me they still had religions," it finally said, looking down at the metal tiles.

Tat didn't know what to say and awkwardly floated near the windows, looking away.

"They're thankful," the leader started again. "They're mostly content there. The majority of them still believe in a god. And I am the closest thing to "god". They're grateful, most of them. They have hope! They have reasons for opening their eyes in the morning. They think I love them. I-"

The leader took a few moments to collect its thoughts. Suddenly a rare anger shot through him. It quickly rose up from its seat and turned in Earth's direction, the equivalent of a scowl on its face.

"I arranged for their sun to give them cancers! I made sure they were plunged into the terrifying dark every day! I allowed for their meager bodies to break down and lose drive in a slow torture! I made their lives an unimaginably short tumble towards a humiliating death! I made sexual pleasure their chief desire, and they are somehow now ashamed of it! They cover their bodies up! I created all manner of mental and psychical disease, for the sole purpose of retarding their daily lives! I designed pain! I included every inconvenience and annoyance imaginable! I cursed the old with a primal bond towards their family members, and callously removed them one by one! I specifically intended for deformation and mutation! I wrote failure on the genetic codes of the innocent young! I provided them with an uncaring and punitive environment! Their lives are entropy and terror! They learn nothing from their savage, agonizing history! Nightmares and fearful shaking and dreadful thoughts should be their chronic bedfellows! They should realize that matter itself hates them! And yet they love the idea of me! I made their existence of the poorest quality, yes, but I wanted them hardened and hateful! I wanted rational, ready beings out of it, not delusional whelps!"

It thought for another moment and spoke to itself quietly. "I expected better. I am ashamed by them. How could this sorry lot be the one to recognize The One? These failures passed my test?"

"But by far the worst; the small minority, that very small minority. The ones who see their fruitless struggles for what they are. The unfortunate few who admit that their surroundings are indeed as futile as I made them. I pity them as much as I am proud of them. Almost always ostracized; isolated by their own hand or forced so by the dull, unknowing others. The drugged, desolate ones. They almost inspire a feeling of regret in me. They are exactly what I feared creating from increasing the humans' intelligence."

The leader eventually calmed himself and stared at the distant dot for a good while.

"Maybe I made it too hard on them. The older humans never acted like this. They fought and hoped, yes, but still they held a sort of droll respect for each other. Mostly peaceful. Maybe these new humans deceive themselves and act out to escape from that wretched world. It must be."

Another uneasy silence on the ship.

"Tat, do you know why I do this test?"

Tat swallowed laboriously. "No, sir."

"It was a jestful idea. I initially wondered that if I created a planet, created a lower-intellect population, gave them a few centuries and then placed a perfect, pristine one among them, would they rightfully worship and exalt him? If they did, then they would be my ideal pet race. 18377 times we have tried this, Tat, and each time failed. Except this time."

The leader continued, "That perfect one, flawless in every conceivable manner; graceful and ideal in every respect. Almost on our species' level. Bringer of resolute joy and quencher of sorrow. Tim Curry. Placed on every one of those Earths, but none among them recognized his excellency and holiness. Until now, on this Earth. Just one person, one. I just barely succeeded."

Tat floated there, unnerved by its master's outburst and revelation.

"...Well, who was it, sir?"