Talk:What You Deserve/@comment-7706473-20140512101635

I used to never want myself as a character in simulations, though I did break my own rule a few times. Some people would place themselves in games like the sims, or in RPG parties, or the like. I was always slightly scared that somehow, in some way, those faux-characters, those false me's would grow resentful. It was a childish thought, I guess, but it stuck with me the entire time I read this - and re-read it.

That's because this story deserves being read twice. The amunt of character development Ash goes through, mostly in retrospect(!) make this a gutwrenching read, more in my favorite genre of disturbing and plausible pasta then anything disturbing just because of the game itself. Even if you discount all the 'magical' elements - because who believes in magic, anymore..? - there's more then enough to feel unpleasantly similar to the hardships of changing and not wanting to remember everything in your past; and how it made you (feel like) an unsatisfactory person in the present.

We create worlds because the world isn't right; we escape worlds when our world falls into linkstep with what we want it to be... Or close enough.

The section about being alone and working and deserving it hit a bit too close to home, even coming from a mostly loving and encouraging family; but the story was full of places where empathy and sympathy fed fear and unsettlement in the best of ways.

Seconding Babylon, this is a fantastic read, and I'm glad you mentioned it to me, as otherwise I would not have noticed it; and that would've been an absolute shame. (And on a far less serious note, it kind of made me want to play the Sims!)