Zk | Idumea

Pinocchio escapes Samsara by giving up humanity. Except Pinocchio is a tenth stanza Odist and Geppetto is a seventh stanza Odist and the blue fairy is Dry Grass.

Notes

A version of Pinocchio told sys-side in reverse: someone unhappy with humanity endeavoring to lose it, goes through all the plot-beats in reverse order.

Question: how heavy-handed should it be? Should it be very little? Someone naming themselves Occhioni P.? Trying to turn themselves into a literal puppet? Designing sims to include the big fish? Finding their Geppetto (G from Oteppe, Belgium) who unmakes them, and then a blue fairy, a sympathetic systech kicks them into quitting? Or they turn into a tree? Told as a fairy tale? Quote the first lines of the original?

Once upon a time there was—

“A king?” my little readers will immediately say.

No, children, you are mistaken. Once upon a time there was a piece of wood. It was not fine wood, but a simple piece of wood from the wood yard,—the kind we put in the stoves and fireplaces so as to make a fire and heat the rooms.

More at https://nebula.tv/videos/jacob-geller-pinocchio-is-a-story-about-art-and-god

Epigraph:

And am I born to die? To lay this body down? And must my trembling spirit fly Into a world unknown? A land of deepest shade, unpierced by human thought, The dreary regions of the dead, Where all things are forgot? Soon as from Earth I go, What will become of me? — Charles Wesley, 1763

At the end (maybe?),

Eternal happiness or woe Must then my portion be; Waked by the trumpet’s sound, I from my grave shall rise, And see the Judge with glory crowned, And see the flaming skies. How shall I leave my tomb? With triumph or regret? A fearful or a joyful doom, A curse or blessing meet?

Characters

The Woman (End Of Endings) — suffering some severe mental health stuff, wants to rescind her humanity
Her Friend (No Hesitation) — her companion striving to help her in general, accidentally helping her in particular
The Blue Fairy (Dry Grass) — helps with the forking process

Outline

001 — The Woman’s life is too real, and she would like that to not be the case / Living forever waiting for time to come/as a real person — 2339
002 — The Woman runs into Her Friend, who is having a very bad day, and shares her idea / Saving Geppetto
003 — The Woman sees why Her Friend was having a bad day (seventh only ever says talk to a therapist rather than offering friendship, tenth does the same sometimes, narrator starts to peek through), has a similar bad day / Swallowed by the big fish
004 — The Woman aims for greater pleasure to try and re-ground herself, narrator questions pleasure vs productivity / Pleasure Island
005 — The Woman tries being creative with Her Friend to create meaning, narrator really showing through by now / Puppet show to prove no strings/earn money for Geppetto
006 — The Woman muses on the clade and her past, the ways she was taken advantage of, narrator talking about obsessions and balance / Honest John and Gideon the cat
007 — The Woman begins to wish for an escape from the cycle, and Her Friend has feelings, narrator talking about urges to quit (both storytelling and suicide) / Comes to life after a wish
008 — The Woman talks with Dry Grass with her idea, who mentions Serene, they talk and she turns into a tree, unclear if she quits, the narrator struggles with how they feel about this, modern vs postmodern, earnest vs ironic, subversion vs playing straight, living vs not / Carved from wood