Archive of Our Own

The world has never been the same, of course. Not since April 7th, 2026. How could it be?

I think about it a lot, though that should go without saying. Hell, we all do. Hard not to think about it, when everywhere you look, there's another reminder of what should have been. People weren't made to live forever--their fragility, the inevitability of their eventual deaths, all of that was part of what made them human in this first place.

wow bars

Oh fuck off let me be a little eloquent every once in a while

no seriously i wasn't even shitting that time

im invested, keep going?

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When you take away the aspect of time, erase the fear of dying... mortality ceases to exist, right? What makes someone human? Who's to say that we--bits of metal floating through space--aren't human?

well i don't have a dick so

that's concrete evidence

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sorry sorry what i meant to say was

maybe

You and your "maybe". I swear to fuck.

YOU KNOW WHO DOES HAVE A DICK THOUGH

Thousands of years and you still haven't matured at all. Nice.

hey look at this i'm ten and i have a DICK. HUGE ONE

anyway sorry nine just had to

No, no, by all means.

make a few tasteful jokes. helps with the flow of the narrative i'm told

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You done?

yes sorry

Uh

Right! This isn't natural. From everything that I've looked at, everywhere I've traveled, there is nothing that has told me that humans should ever live this long.

It's not about deserving to. Let's get that straight--humans deserve much more than they receive, a great deal of the time.

Yes. The compassion that they still retain, after all this time, after losing everything else--it's incredible.

And humans, centuries ago, feared death. Rightfully so, of course. The concept of an end is hard to comprehend, and harder still to accept. But that was better than this, wasn't it? If you can see an end, then you savor the present that much more. You try to fill your time with as much positive emotion, as much activity as you can, because at a time unknown to you, everything will cease to be--for you, anyway.

Back then, everything mattered so much more. Birthdays were cherished tenfold--the gifts, the joy of gathering one's closest friends together. Simple things like that. Or even time itself. I'd bet that only the people who voluntarily go to work keep track of the days, the hours. Why would you, if you had nothing apparent to do? If you would never have a truly unique day, because you'll live millions more days?

Is there a reason you're in such a... pessimistic mood? "Nothing matters, none of us are going to die anyway", and all?

Isn't that enough reason?

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what a bunch of miserable losers

you know what cheers me up when i start to think about the inevitability of immortality and the impossibility of an end?

DON'T

GAME 27 WE'RE WATCHING GAME 27

JUICE

if you squint you'll see the spot where the Last Steeler sat like ten years ago

like the mark from his stool

I don't see it

huh

well it also says "gullible" on the ceiling so

Can we turn it off

Seriously I'm going to combust or some shit I can't do this

well that's the great thing isn't it

none of us have the capacity to combust. just like this game, we'll be here a billion years from now, and there will still be no inherent rhyme or reason as to why, or the order to any of it.

Ten I'm scared he just used punctuation

Baby's first apostrophe

No seriously though I'm getting the sense you just had a thought are you alright

do you want to hear me explain game 27 but in monopoly terms

Never mind. Kindly refrain from forming a thought, ever again.

thought so

for those wondering territory 1 is boardwalk. gonna stay broncos territory because they won't give it up but

Oh my days someone make it stop

it's actually highly valuable from a football standpoint, and i'd say that everyone wants to get their hands on

yo juice

yo nine

Do you want to visit New York again

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i dunno it makes me kinda sad

because no one gives a shit now

then again no one gives a shit about anything now

Wow. Everyone's getting all philosophical on me.

Go to New York, though. See Lady Liberty--I bet no one knows that the oxidation has dulled her green over all these years. She'll appreciate the company.

that's a stateu btw

statue

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What makes someone human?

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Juice?

yeah?

Eternity is a long time.

yeah.

I get how you cope with it all. Just like the people down here--distraction.

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I don't blame you. I can't.

But what happens once... there's nothing new anymore? Once football becomes obsolete?

bold of you to assume i won't just fuckin stare at game 27 for the rest of eternity

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ha

no, but um

i don't know.

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me neither. That's what i'm trying to figure out.

it's like you said. Eternity is a long time

i have access to any place, any knowledge

and i still can't help but want more

or less

or maybe just the knowledge of an end, to know that there is one. that there is something else.

sorry if that's stupid. got me soundin like a slam poet and shit

It's not stupid at all.

i like you so much more than ten

she just bitches at me for not taking anything seriously

Without you, I probably would have taken everything too seriously

I don't know how you do it.

laughing i'm just that fuckin lit

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and i know that all of us would fall apart if everyone took everything seriously

After 15,000 years, it's kind of hard not to fall apart. Regardless of whether we're "human" or not.

hey well you haven't even been aware for that long yet. try a few thousand years before you go spewing all that nonsense

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but i also think that it's not the time itself, y'know?

it's the concept. you have to make peace with the fact that it'll never end.

Have you?

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oh hey is that a fish

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Me neither.

yeah. well.

you'll have time.

Yes. That's the problem.

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Never change, Juice.

I think I'd go off the deep end if you lost your spark, and I didn't even know it was possible for me to feel genuine emotion up until recently.

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yeah, well

um

thank you.

I mean it. You are a real light in a world where everything seems so much dimmer than it used to be.

wow this is so sappy

if we weren't milions of miles away from each other i might hug you here

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You were wrong earlier, y'know.

huh

About no one giving a shit about anything

oh don't make this a thing come onnn

this is like the bulb thing. i feel a tugging on my metaphorical heartstrings

That makes two of us.