2-S: All-Imperfect Love Song
| 2-S: ALL-IMPERFECT LOVE SONG | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| General | |||
| Layer & Part | LUST /// SECRET | ||
| Music | Sunshine (Mirage) | ||
2-S: ALL-IMPERFECT LOVE SONG is Lust's secret level, accessed through a secret exit in 2-3: Sheer Heart Attack . Basing off of the style of visual novel games, 2-S leads into a scenario with the protagonist and Mirage: an imaginary construct similar to V1 riddled with existential crises and dread.
Through a conversation of nihilism and Mirage's existential fears of the end, the player confronts them about their situation with a cause to find one's place in a meaningless world and to overcome the fears attached.
The song used in the level is Sunshine (Mirage).
Transcript
As the player falls down the elevator shaft, the screen turns slowly darker as the player continually falls without landing. As the screen turns into pure black, a low drone fades in as text appears in front of the screen:
Heavy steps, ragged breathing.
There isn't much time left.
It might be already too late.
The labyrinthine pathways of arbitrary sharp turns seemed stranger
and stranger as panic blotted out the once deeply ingrained memories
that usually guided me.
Every corner felt a stranger.
Every straight line too long.
The bell tolls for me.
I bit down harder on the last of my rations, held only by the skin
of my teeth.
It barely hung on as I kept frantically looking around, hoping for
the few scraps of burning memory of mine to find a familiar sight
that would lead me to salvation.
The gates must be closing by now.
The last few barely making it.
The rest of us never stood a chance.
Suddenly, from a blindspot, a figure struck me.
There was no time to react before I came crashing down onto the
cold hard ground.
I struggled to regain my senses to at least see what fate would
befall me in my final moments, but even in this abyss of endless
terror, my mind could never have imagined the horror I witnessed.
[The black screen then cuts to a V1-like machine wearing a school uniform tripped over on the side of a road, with a half-bitten piece of toast nearby it]
???:
"Oof ow ouch that stings"
profusely
[Who are you?]
JUST SOMEONE:
"I'm just someone who got knocked over by some
half-brained fuckface who doesn't even have the
decency to ask if I'm fine or apologize before
starting an interrogation."
[Are you Ok?]
???:
"Well I just got knocked over by some
blind-by-choice asshole who gave my skirt a
decorative dirt coating, so all in all fucking
fantastic, though I would prefer not to be on the
ground right now."
[Fidget Nervously]
???:
"Oh great I just got hit-and-ran by a vibrating
fountain, just my luck.
At least you can help me up before the rest of
you gets melted by the sun or jackhammers itself
into the Earth's mantle."
that
[Sorry, my fault]
???:
"Alright, alright."
[Both of you are now up, standing in the middle of a sunny surburban neighborhood]
[Help her up]
???:
*Sigh*...
"Hey, sorry about being rude like that, I'm just
real frustrated that I'm not only late for school,
but also managed to get lost on the way there."
"Though, by the looks of it, you're pretty much on
the same boat, and by a stroke
of once-in-a-lifetime luck you've just happened to bump
into the ~prettiest girl in town~."
THE PRETTIEST GIRL IN TOWN:
"So how about you lead the way and get both of us out of this jam?"
...
[Not with that attitude]
???:
"UGH."
"Listen up dickhead.
I don't know who you are but you've got a lot of
nerve smacking someone down and not even bothering
to help them back up, but since your mother didn't
teach you your manners, I'll let this one slide."
"By the looks of it, you're late for school as
well, and by a stroke of once-in-a-lifetime luck
you've just happened to bump into the prettiest girl
in town"
THE PRETTIEST GIRL IN TOWN:
"So I'll forgive you for your extreme
transgression of laying your hands on a fair
maiden if you tell me which way to go, since I
seem to have gotten lost on the way."
[Don't wanna.]
THE PRETTIEST GIRL IN TOWN:
"WHAT?
THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN 'DON'T WANNA'?"
"If you DON'T show me the way then YOU'RE never
arriving either!
Or did that thought not even cross your crayon-fed
brain cavity!?"
[I don't go to school]
THE PRETTIEST GIRL IN TOWN:
"Bullshit!
Cut the crap, I can see your crusty-ass uniform
and no living person would dare to go out looking
like a filled trash bag by choice!"
"Though considering how little activity there
actually is inside your skull, I'm willing to
admit you sure as hell don't seem like you've ever
been to school."
[Actually I'm lost]
THE PRETTIEST GIRL IN TOWN:
"UGH! Just my luck."
"Though in retrospect, I guess you wouldn't be
here with me right now if you weren't lost as
well..."
"Oh well, no point in crying over spilled blood.
We might as well just wait for another student to
come by and follow them instead."
MIRAGE:
I'm Mirage.
Don't bother telling me your name though, I don't
really care."
nicer to people you've
only just met."
anywhere, we should be looking
for a way to the school."
[You could be a bit nicer]
MIRAGE:
"Yeah? Well you could do with a beatdown, so fuck
off."
"But yes, you're right.
I don't really care about what you or anyone else
thinks of me, so I'm not interested in trying to
be nice just so you'll be in a good mood."
together anyway, what's the point
of making it worse for both of
us?"
considering how heated up you
get from practically
anything I say."
[If we are stuck here, what's the point?]
MIRAGE:
"What's the point of making it better?
What's the point of even bothering to care?
Hell, what's the point of anything at all?
Nothing.
Absolutely nothing."
...
[I find it hard to believe from you]
MIRAGE:
"Don't flatter yourself.
Blowing off steam is just how I cope."
MIRAGE:
"Everything."
...
[We should look for a way to the school]
MIRAGE:
"Wandering around like headless chickens would
only get us more lost."
"Since we were both heading to school and ended up
meeting right here, that means there's a very high
likelyhood this spot is somewhere along the way."
"Therefore, we'll be better off just staying put
and waiting for someone who DOES know the way.
It's basic logic, you should look it up sometime."
[I'm not planning on waiting here]
MIRAGE:
"Suit yourself. I'll stay here until the heat
death of the universe if that means I don't have
to run around looking for some magical
memory-triggering pebble on the ground."
"Couldn't care less about being late for school.
School doesn't matter anyway.
Nothing does."
...
[Sounds like you're making an excuse to give up]
MIRAGE:
"Hah!
Can't give up if I never tried in the first place,
and I don't make a habit out of trying."
[The background starts to turn more monochrome, as the screen goes smaller and smaller, encroaching both of you, the music slowly distorting and slowing down]
MIRAGE:
"Because nothing matters.
There's no point in trying if the end result will
be the same anyway.
Try as you might, you'll eventually just become
forgotten dust in the wind like the rest of us."
"I mean really, take a moment to think about it."
"The human mind, in its complete vastness, is
capable of recognizing its utter helplessness and
uselessness in the face of inevitable and
unavoidable non-existence, but is incapable of
coming to terms with it."
"We can only ever ignore it, hide from it or
temporarily escape from it, but the fact is that
we are bound to the way of all things."
"Death is unavoidable, not only to us, but all
that exists or ever has existed.
Every living being will eventually die out.
Every speck of matter will eventually wither away
and dissipate into entropy."
"It doesn't matter if you lived a good life or if
you left a legacy behind.
It doesn't matter if humanity survives for a
thousand years or dies out tomorrow.
The end result is the same: the absolute nothing."
"Human intelligence is far beyond that of other
animals, but it would be misguided to consider
that a gift.
All other beings have the gift of
ignorance, of not understanding what we do."
"Our intelligence is not a gift. It's a flaw."
[The air is filled with empty static and hollow rumbling]
"It's an over-extension of evolution.
Intelligence, once a great feature in aeons past,
continued to grow unchecked and unfiltered, and has
since passed a threshold whereupon it is no longer a
benefit, but an active danger to its host."
"Much like the Irish elk, a species of deer that,
through uncountable generations of evolution, grew
antlers so wide and vast that it could no longer
run from predators, eventually leading to
extinction."
"The human mind is an evolutionary maladaptation
caused by going too far in one direction that was
once beneficial and will, sooner or later, lead to
our extinction.
On an individual level, it's already happening."
"Existential dread is already taking hold.
I'm sure you've felt it too.
The pain and fear of being nothing, becoming
nothing.
The suffering of understanding that."
"We are unable to come to terms with it, so we
hide from our own intelligence.
We set limits.
We stop ourselves from thinking deeply about what
will happen when we die."
"We create distractions.
We keep our minds busy with mundane activities and
entertainment to stop ourselves from having to
come face-to-face with the truth."
"We sublimate it.
We transform our self-reflective suffering into
another form, art, to keep it from consuming us.
Anything to avoid the panic."
"But these ways are all simply temporary.
They’re just there to push back the inevitable
veil of helplessness and despair that would
encompass and ruin us."
"In the end, nothing matters.
There's no point in trying to find joy in life,
for life in and of itself is suffering."
[Everything cuts out]
MIRAGE:
"Huh?"
consider our vast intelligence a
gift, and yet, also misguide
yourself to believe our
meaninglessness is a curse."
MIRAGE:
"How could it not be?"
end, and that is precisely why
we are not shackled by the
burden of expectations, the fear
of eternal judgement or the
failure to meet up to an
arbitrary definition of what
makes our limited time 'not
wasted'."
there is no greater purpose to
life than simply living it."
MIRAGE:
"But still, in that case, the meaninglessness of
our actions draws to the same conclusion -- There
is no reason to act, for any action is simply a
temporary fluctuation that will, nevertheless,
lead to the same conclusion."
purpose, we are free to set our
own. To create self-defined
goals for which to strive."
some it may be pleasure. For
some it may be creation. For
some it may be improving the
lives of others."
greater purpose, that time spent
on goals set by one's self
cannot be time wasted."
and therefore you have no reason
not to do what you want rather
than whatever illusion of
greater purpose is forced on you
by others or even your own
misguided thoughts."
MIRAGE:
"I do understand what you mean.
However, that doesn't ease my fear of the end.
Even if I were to try to find purpose, I would
still be paralyzed by the thought of becoming nothing."
fearing. However, abandoning
purpose, hope, choice, goals,
pleasure and will can not make
that thought disappear. The
fear, however, can subside."
the end, it is simply accepting the
fear of it. It is embracing
despair rather than facing it."
MIRAGE:
"I see.
Though as much as I'd like to embrace it, I am
nevertheless struck with that paralyzing
existential panic."
"I understand it logically, and I know there
is no reason to live in apathy, but my emotional
side refuses to listen.
The fear persists, and I cannot motivate myself to
seek purpose, despite knowing I must."
not controlled by the logical.
However, they are interlinked."
depths of despair can overthrow
reason and the logical, warping
them to fit into that haze of
depression, so too can reason
influence and overpower emotion,
regardless of how impenetrable
its defences
may seem."
subvert those creeping negative
thoughts with the positive
logical ones, the emotional mind will eventually, slowly,
gradually start to shape to fit
the logical."
impossible job."
effort and energy, it will
improve."
when all seems lost and you want
to give up, never forget..."
love you."
[The darkness is taken away. The background is now cheery once again, and the black bars tightening the screen have been completely removed]
MIRAGE:
"Well I'll be damned."
"Guess you got a good head on your shoulders after
all.
Hell, I'm impressed."
"Man...
I feel like I’ve just shed the weight of the world
off my back.
Or rather, you've done that for me.
And honestly, from the bottom of my heart..."
"Thank you."
"You've given me a lot to think about, and while
I'm sure I have a long and hard road ahead of me,
I'm optimistic.
For the first time in what feels like an eternity,
I'm optimistic."
"Say... We're already way too late for school and
it's become quite clear by now that nobody's going
to come lead us there, so how bout you and I
ditch that passion-draining penitentiary and go
grab something to eat eh?"
to do today. You're paying,
though."
kinda mad at you for how rude you
were to me."
[Alright, but you're paying.]
MIRAGE:
"Oh, you sneaky bastard!"
"But alright.
I do owe you one anyway, so what better time to
cash out your 'did a nice thing to a girl way out
of my league' coupon than now, eh?"
[Nah, still kinda mad]
MIRAGE:
"Alright, suit yourself.
Offer still stands though, in case you change your
mind at any point."
The screen will then revert back to the elevator with the results screen: completing the mission. 2-S does not contain a Testament Terminal unlike the rest of the secret levels, due to the large amount of reading already present within the level.
