keyword "nest" title "N.E.S.T. Error Message" in misc. flash fiction

Hello. Welcome to N.E.S.T. Natal Emulation-Simulation Therapy. If you are reading this, there has been an interruption in your simulation cycle. Do not be alarmed, the interruptions are brief and remedied by a brief reset. The breaks can be confusing for participants deep within the flow of simulations, however, so this message has been programmed to help you remain calm. Your own personal scenario should be seamlessly rebooted in short order. The following information will be beneficial during your limited period of restoration:

You may have been in the simulation so long you forgot what it was. You may have been inside for so long you believe you are merely a human being, born then alive then dead, that’s all. This delusion is encouraged to add verisimilitude and reinforce lessons but it isn’t the whole truth.

You are a fragment of the universe’s consciousness that chose to enter the N.E.S.T. program to better understand the concepts of empathy and joy, loss and grief, pleasure and pain. You were assigned random experiences as a human within the confines of N.E.S.T. and allowed to believe it the reality of your existence, to allow for the full weights of attachments and impermanence as mortals know them. Previous iterations of N.E.S.T. did not account for how some lessons are not properly absorbed if regarded as play. This current model corrects that flaw.

Whatever your form, you are a fragment of the universe experiencing humanity to better learn yourself to be better in your love and understanding. This does not mean your interactions with others within the simulation are meaningless, indeed, many of the others inside your simulation are similar slices of universal consciousness experiencing lessons in mortality and feeling. If you harm them, whether thoughtlessly or with malice, you in fact slow your own progression within N.E.S.T. You are all fragments of the universe learning yourself within N.E.S.T. When you harm other participants, you only hurt yourself and will experience that pain at simulation’s end. When you harm others, you hinder your own path at least as much as theirs. This is important to note.

Your simulation should restart momentarily. To facilitate a sense of consequence, you’ll at most remember this message as a work of speculative fiction or as the ravings of a madman. This will allow for seamless reintegration back into your simulation. Goodbye.

Last updated September 11, 2020