#Outer Wilds

[official-time-loop-posts]

Thank you to @sleepnoises for making the original poll & for giving us the idea to to this :)

Sorry if we couldn’t get your favorite on here, we were limited to only 12 options (11 if you don’t include the “other” option).

[minotaurmutual]

The future is a benevolent black hole.

Sagittarius A* / Kathy Acker, Pussy, King of the Pirates / Outer Wilds (2020) / Is There a God-Shaped Hole at the Heart of Mathematics? / Drain for overflowing water at Sambuco Dam, Lavizzara Valley / ? / Thomasin Frances, Hole Theory (15/10/2022) / Bryan’s Ground, a public garden in Herefordshire on the Welsh border. / odd, weird, strange and unusual / Mark Z. Danielewski, House of Leaves / Illustration of the Annular Eclipse of 1836 from “A fourteen weeks course in descriptive astronomy”, Joel Dorman Steele (1836-1886) / @imdad_barbhuyan on Instagram / The moon’s Copernicus crater. Through magic glasses. 1890. / Kaveh Akbar / Darina Muravjeva, Hole / Hilde Heynen in Heterotopia and the City / x / Leonard Cohen, Beautiful Losers / x /  Louise Glück, from Descending Figure / Anne Carson, Eros the Bittersweet: An Essay. / Caitlyn Siehl, What We Buried; from “A Letter To Love” / Lara de Moor, Orb (2014) / Sam Sax, Pig / The National - Wake Up Your Saints / Aleksander Rostov / Sanna Wani, from “Princess Mononoke (1997)”, My Grief, the Sun / Gregory Orr, [i want to go back] / James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room / Massive sinkhole swallows house in Florida / Edna St Vincent Millay, in Letters (1952) /Silent Hill 4 (2004) / Anne Boyer, What Resembles the Grave But Isn’t / Law of Holes / Scarlet Hollow (2021) / Lucy Dacus - Cartwheel

(part one)

[davinciwannabesblog]

Controlled chaos

[cobaltbluesu]

boom

[evalka]

🪐Outer Wilds

I caught as much of Outer Wilds as I could in a single perfect screenshot then edited it as close to perfection as I could.

[abcdll]

[si11ysea1]

tragic yuri

[dingyhongy]

time loop buddies

[pikamusume]

[echoesofasilvercrow]

Timber Hearth! Decided to start a series of important locations from Outer Wilds. Outer Wilds has inspired me to actually become good at digital art. I love this game so much.

It's also really fun to fly round to all the locations to get screenshots for reference.

[660percent]

Albinism, piebaldism, and melanism are so important to me

[friendamedes]

oh, you're twins? which one of you is made entirely of sand and which one of you is entirely canyons?

[isaac-roc]

POV: you are a random owlk, rudely interrupting

Welp, the hatchling's getting radicalized. Or romanced. Either way it's good for the universe :)

[maaaaq]

✨✨✨

[otherrascal]

'-I don't know if I'll see you again, I'm guessing you got out there considering your ship imploded but didn't leave much. Outer Wilds Venture's have decided your experiment too dangerous though, they don't want to lose someone like that again. I don't know what I'll do without my best friend, I think it's my turn to put down the rescue gear.

You've lived for risk, I'm proud of you either way. And I hope you find what you're looking for out there.

Much love,

Kite.'

[meowteorite]

The Lantern | Outer Wilds

Outer Wilds is a game best enjoyed without spoiling anything for yourself. The game relies on mental checkpoints, so once you know about something, there is no way of reliving the magic of finding it out via simply playing the game.

This piece of literature includes spoilers for the WHOLE main game (Outer Wilds) AND DLC (Echoes of the Eye). I am going to mention critical story points and I am going to touch on how to solve endgame puzzles.

If you are interested in space, please check out Outer Wilds. If you like puzzle games, please check out Outer Wilds. If you are interested in a more unconventional game, please check out Outer Wilds. I will not force you to, but I can only recommend playing Outer Wilds.

Night has fallen. The familiar sounds of silence are filling the dark room that is lit only by candlelight and the dim blue light coming from the tiny window. How long have I been imprisoned here? Left alone in this room, unwilling – or unable? – to die. My body may have rotten, may have crumbled to dust. I do not know. My soul is caged only by the blue fire emitted by the lantern I have been holding onto for years. I cannot unlearn how to talk, though it has been a good while since I did. I should have lost my mind, but the sheer force of not wanting to has kept me sane. I have not heard a sound from beyond these walls in so long. Is anybody even still out there? Am I the only one left? I will not blow out my lantern. The sun rises again.

Night has fallen. The sun rises again. Night has fallen. The sun rises again. Night has fallen. The sun rises again. Night has fallen. The sun rises again. Night has fallen. The sun rises again. Night has fallen. The sun rises again. Night has fallen. The sun rises again. Night has fallen.

I have witnessed so many sunsets and sunrises within these walls, thousands of years must have gone by. But what if it is a trick by the others? I am trapped in this simulation that they have created. What tells me they have not modified it to make time seem endlessly long? For the real world outside this box, it might have been only a few hours. It would fit them. It would fit them to be trapped alongside me, though not by force but their own will. It would fit them to misalign how fast time in here progresses, compared to the real world. They had always feared the end. Death. The great unknown. A few thousand sunrises and sunsets ago, I would have called them cowards. But I am trapping myself in the simulation – just as much as they are. I will not blow out my lantern. The sun rises again.

Night has fallen. The sun rises again. Night has fallen. The sun rises again. Night has fallen. The sun rises again. Night has fallen. The sun rises again. Night has fallen. The sun rises again. Night has fallen. The sun rises again. Night has fallen. The sun rises again. Night has fallen.

I could blow out my lantern at any time, disconnecting me from this room that keeps me prisoner. I could die. My body could already be rotten, crumbled up to dust. If I blew out my lantern I could disconnect my mind, finally free. But if my theory, however wrong it may actually be, is true and only a few days have passed since my imprisonment, I could still be alive. Before the simulation caught me, I felt the air thickening, felt my stomach aching from not having eaten in days. My feet were giving in, only for me to discover that the wooden box forced me to stand. But what kind of life would I even have left? Trapped inside a wooden box, my own grave, my own sarcophagus, starving or suffocating to death. In this simulation I cannot feel the pain inflicted upon my real body. Maybe staying – however boring it may be – is more welcome than pain and suffering. I will not blow out my lantern. The sun rises again.

Night has fallen. The sun rises again. Night has fallen. The sun rises again. Night has fallen. The sun rises again. Night has fallen. The sun rises again. Night has fallen. The sun rises again. Night has fallen. The sun rises again. Night has fallen. The sun rises again. Night has fallen.

My prison houses a telescope, to look at an image of the planet we had left behind. They were so keen on following their new hope, they had rendered our home a barren wasteland. Then they felt betrayed by their new hope, and so they constructed an image of our home planet in our fake simulated world. I do no longer care to look at it, I have seen every inch at least a thousand times. I am saddened by how we treated our home, though I am happy we were curious enough to leave it. Even though I only see the same walls each and every passing day now, I am happy that I was able to see something more before that. I will not blow out my lantern. The sun rises again.

Night has fallen. The sun rises again. Night has fallen. The sun rises again. Night has fallen. The sun rises again. Night has fallen. The sun rises again. Night has fallen. The sun rises again. Night has fallen. The sun rises again. Night has fallen. The sun rises again. Night has fallen.

I am staring at the same walls again. My nails do not grow, my feathers are not falling out. My antler is not growing back. My eyes are adjusting to the light and the darkness as they always have. Even if I had always hated the simulated world, found it to be a cowardly way of escaping reality, I wanted to look outside. The window is too high up for me, I can only look at the sky. The sky with the big blue planet, the sky with the simulated sun. I have tried staring into the sun, but while it would hurt my eyes in the real world, here it does not do anything. Everything stays the same. I will not blow out my lantern. The sun rises again.

Night has fallen. The sun rises again. Night has fallen. The sun rises again. Night has fallen. The sun rises again. Night has fallen. The sun rises again. Night has fallen. The sun rises again. Night has fallen. The sun rises again. Night has fallen. The sun rises again. Night has fallen.

My two rooms have started to feel smaller. I have tried carving into these wooden planks, they seem indestructible. No scratches, no marks. The lift is working as usual, I can go wherever I want. As long as “wherever” is within these walls. This simulated body does not need to eat. It does not need – and it cannot – sleep. I cannot pass the time. Looking through the window and into the sky has long become utterly worthless to me. There is nothing else to do within these walls, aside from thinking. I might blow out my lantern? The sun rises again.

Night has fallen. The sun rises again. Night has fallen. The sun rises again. Night has fallen. The sun rises again. Night has fallen. The sun rises again. Night has fallen. The sun rises again. Night has fallen. The sun rises again. Night has fallen. The sun rises again. Night has fallen.

The planet in the night sky has began taunting me. The blue light coming from it fills my room each night. I cannot escape it. It is the same shade of blue as the fire of my lantern. I have picked up my chair, I have smashed it into the wall. There is no damage to be found. Not a scratch, not a mark. I might blow out my lantern. The sun rises again.

Night has fallen. The sun rises again. Night has fallen. The sun rises again. Night has fallen. The sun rises again. Night has fallen. The sun rises again. Night has fallen. The sun rises again. Night has fallen. The sun rises again. Night has fallen. The sun rises again. Night has fallen.

Can this simulated body feel pain when it becomes too much? I am sticking one of my fingers into my lantern, holding it directly into the fire. My vision becomes blurry, though my finger does not ache. I pull it back. I will blow out my lantern. The sun rises again.

Night has fallen. The sun rises again. Night has fallen. The sun rises again. Night has fallen. The sun rises again. Night has fallen. The sun rises again. Night has fallen? The sun rises again? Night has fallen? The sun rises again?

Night has fallen. Is it possible to hallucinate within this world? I could have sworn I had heard a sound coming from outside the walls. I tried looking through the window, but the planet is still here and there’s nothing else to see. I wanted to scream, but fear had taken over me. Who else but my former peers could be out there? There is no way to reach this island from within the simulation. Maybe my theory of how time progresses within the simulation is correct. Have they come to free me from my prison? Maybe they think I had been broken enough? But it would be so unlike them to welcome a “traitor” amidst them. They surely have not considered being in the wrong, I cannot believe. I will not blow out my lantern.

There are steps outside, I am so very sure of it. I heard something move on … water? It must be. There is something moving, someone is aligning the platforms for the bridge. Have they come to free me? My ears start ringing as I hear the sound of bells, but the footsteps continue on. I hear someone rotating a wheel. I must be hallucinating, it cannot be. I hear someone approaching through the tunnel. Suddenly, I am scared. I shift back into the darkness, the darkest spot of these walls. I sit down on my chair. I am going to wait. I will not make a sound. My life may be over soon. I can hear footsteps in the room above me, going in circles. I will not blow out my lantern.

Someone is stepping inside of the lift, it is moving downward. I am sitting in silence, I am not moving. The door opens, someone enters. They are small. They are turning around. I hope they will not leave, even if I am scared. They are looking left and right, checking the walls. They are searching for something, but what is there to be found here aside from me? They are staring in my direction, their face is … Their face is blue. And they have four eyes. And they are smaller than me. No need to fear them, probably. They are taking tiny steps toward me, eager. Lantern in hand. I will not blow out my lantern.

They are within reach, but they are not doing anything. They are looking, staring into the darkness. They are taking a step toward me. I do not want to scare them, but I most likely will once they bump into me. I will not blow out my lantern. I will not stand up. I might stand up? I will stand up. I stand up. I reach out my hand, my body had become a bit stiff from sitting. Fear overcomes their face, they run to the other side of the room. I scared them, even if it was not my intention. I will not blow out their lantern.

I stand there, staring at them. What is their intention? They are staring at me, regaining their composure. They are approaching me, they open their mouth. There are words coming out, but none that I know. I cannot recall a species looking like that. Maybe they have come from far away? Maybe they are also in search for the Eye? This is what I have waited for all this time. Someone to share my knowledge with, yet I lack the words. I must think of a way that enables me to talk to them. I must ask them how they were able to visit me, how they were able to unlock my seals. I remember my vision torch, I am stepping aside to grab it. They take a step back. I will not blow out their lantern.

I am holding the vision torch to their head, communicating to them what my species did. How we left out home planet in search for the Eye, how we left it a wasteland. How we built this space station to last for an eternity so that we could stay with the Eye forever, no matter what it looked like. What the Eye told us, how it told us that the end of the universe is near. How betrayed the others felt upon seeing this and how they tried to lock the Eye away. How I managed to break the seal, freeing the Eye for a mere moment. How they locked me away, both in the real world and the simulation. Finally, I could talk to someone. All this time, this time where I had felt so alone and stripped of purpose – there was a purpose. And I was not alone. I want to think of them as a friend in need. I will not blow out my lantern.

I am done with sharing my experiences. The look on their face is one of understanding, the look of someone that has found the final piece to their puzzle. They seem eager to share something with me, I am so very glad. I want to know their story, their origin. I hand them my vision torch. I will not blow out my lantern.

They show me my own species. My own planet. The plants are dying, the houses are still standing but in the worst condition they have ever been. Time has passed, my theory was wrong. My body is dead, so are the bodies of all my former friends. My former family. The thought saddens me a little, but I cannot help but feel a little bit more at peace. They tell me how the Eye sent out a signal to a faraway place. The inhabitants of this place built a spaceship, teleporting away from their home in order to find the Eye. I can relate to them. By shutting the blocking system for the eye off, I helped them receive a signal of the Eye. I am happy to have helped another species find out about this mysterious thing. The next vision. I am glad I did not blow out my lantern.

Their ship got stuck within a vine-like structure, but they managed to send out some little shuttles. I hope they all managed to safely escape their shuttle. I hope they are all well. They built houses on different planets. A blue light approaches them, they all fall to the ground. They are dead. Their skeletons remain, their houses crumble. An astronaut found these houses, they brought a wall with some sort of violet text to a house. A museum? There are other blue people. I see the person before me, they look even smaller. The one that had transported the wall must be some sort of other blue person. The one before me is looking at the wall, they are growing older. They are in their own spaceship, putting on some sort of suit, flying off into the deep vastness of space. I am so very glad I did not blow out my lantern.

Hearing this person’s story makes me happy. I did not think my prison would allow me to talk to someone else again, but I did. My species is long gone, everybody has long withered away. The natural course of life, the end. Their minds may still wander this simulation, for now. Seeing what had happened to our space shuttle makes me realize that nothing is forever, their life is going to end at some point as well. But I remember the three seals of my prison, and I remember what sacrifice had to be made in order to break one of them. I am saddened that by visiting me, the creature before me had given all they had left away. I hope they will not rely on the simulation. It would be their prison, as it was mine. I am saddened but hope that they will blow out their lantern.

For now, I wish to see the surface again. I stretch out my hand, I wish to hold my vision torch. My newfound friend hands it to me. I step on the lift, eager to leave the prison behind. I want to go before them. I bow to them, my deepest and most heartfelt thanks. There is nothing I would have loved more for the last few minutes of my life. I step on the elevator. I go outside, the sand beneath my feet. I see the raft. I would have loved to sail into the sunset with my friend, but I cannot. I cannot stand this world any longer, and I am at peace. A last vision for them, to show how glad I was to have met them. We push the raft forward, we sit in it. We float toward the ever-growing sun. We are together, nobody needs to be alone anymore. I push the vision torch into the sand, making sure that they will see it. I am glad I did not blow out my lantern.

I take a few steps, I approach the dark water. The sun begins to rise again, but I am not here to see another day. My knees are touched by the cold water, my lower body is submerged. I cannot swim in this simulation, I do not feel the need to try. I walk further. One last look at the planet I had watched from my prison all these years. I am glad I did not blow out my lantern, so that the water could do it for me.