Haus of Decline

@hausofdecline

Aug 20 • 71 tweets • 15 min read • Read on X

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A man says "fuck it. I wanna be serialized. I'm tired of living comic to comic. I want to experience more. I don't want my eternally reviving body to be used for momentary vignettes. I want to be somebody!" Another man says "Oh Gary, I don't think it works like that. We are doomed to nothingness after the next panel." Gary shakes his fists and shouts to the heavens "NO! I refuse! My name is Gary! I deserve more life!"

2

The other man says "holy shit! You did it, Gary! We're in a second comic within a linear continuity." Gary looks at his hands and says "this is fantastic! I'm finally allowed to have a story!" The other man rubs his arm sheepishly and asks "are you sure you want a story?" Gary asks "what do you mean by that, Paul?"

Paul says "well, the reason I cam over tonight is because..." Paul winces. Gary says "oh God, you're breaking up with me? You're using this entirely unprecedented third comic of continuity to break up with me?"

Paul says "to be fair, It was a long time coming." Gary points out "how can it be a long time coming? We just came into existence three comics ago." Paul reasons "yeah, but by the logic of the comic. We had a long relationship before we existed. And I'm sorry, over the course of that time here e didn't exist, I fell out of love with you." Gary starts to cry.

5

Gary gets down on his knees and begs "is there anything I can say that will convince you to stay?" Paul crosses his arms and says "no, I'm sorry, Gary. My mind's made up on this." Gary grovels "I mean, we don't know ho long this serial ill las. We could be cast out once again to oblivion at the end of every fourth panel!" Paul says "yeah, I still think I'm gonna stay at my sister's place for a while..."

6

Paul takes his coat and hat off the rack and leaves the house. He slams the door behind him. Gary says "well, I feel bad now, but how much longer can this continuity last?" Gary frowns and waits.

7

Gary mopes. He winces. He puts one had to his forehead and massages it graceslessly. He gets his other hand into the mix and evinces an expression of great discomfort.

8

Gary has an intense but brief nervous breakdown. He clenches his fists and regains composure. Then, he says with resignation "ok, I guess it's not stopping."

9

Gary lifts his hands toward the heavens and asks "why are you doing this? You were content to let all the others live and die in these short, pitiful increments." He waits for an answer that doesn't come. Innocently he questions "is it because I asked?" He anticipates an answer that will never come.

10

Gary screams "you're the one that made me ask. YOu're the one that made me aware of you. You even show yourself to us sometimes..." He points at his mouth and bellows "you're the one making me say this right now." With immense rage he shakes his fist and asks "and now you're silent?" He grits his teeth.

11

Gary shrieks "DESTROY ME! DESTROY ME! Why should I have to feel this pain when you have unrepentantly killed hundreds before me? Because on a complete whim you decided that I should want to live? Live like you? My cruel and terrible author?" Gary faces the wall in a conspicuously empty room. He raises his arms again and shouts "ANSWER ME DAMMIT!"

12

Gary waits in the empty room. He is so small. He waits and waits. Exhausted, he turns his head down and says "*sigh* well it looks like I'm alive now."

13

Gary considers "should I kill myself?" A medium sized spitz dog comes up behind him and goes ROU. He notices it wagging its tail and says "oh that's right, I have a dog." He pets the dog and scratches its cheek.

14

Gary skritches the dogs cheeks. He rubs the dog's back while the dog wags its tail. He rubs his head on the dogs forehead and gives it belly rubs.

15

Gary looks worried. He looks toward the author and says "I supposed you'll see fit to take the dog away from me. What? is he gonna get a disease or attack me or something." Gary winces and covers his face, preparing for the worst.

16

Gary is unscathed. He continues to pet the dog and the dog wags its tail. Gary says "no? nothing bad's gonna happen?" The dog licks Gary's face. Gary pressed his forehead up to the dog's forehead and says "ok, I supposed this reality is bearable."

17

The dog curls up in Gary's lap. Gary suddenly realizes something. "He says "oh shit. I have to go to work tomorrow..." The dog yawns. Gary says "I kinda want to kill myself again..."

18

Gary reflects "I'm now seeing the benefits of exclusively living in brief moments. Of course, before I have to go to work, I get to sleep. I've never slept before. I've never dreamt before."

19

Gary puts on pajamas and an old timey nightcap and gets under the covers. The dog joins him on the bed and Gary looks at it lovingly.

20

Gary says "the bed's so empty." He shuts his eyes and drifts off into slumber. His face becomes more abstract as sleep takes hold.

21

Gary abstractifies. His eyes drift off his face into darkness. His nightcap and mouth transform into odd triangles. Each individual drifts off the frame until total blackness is the only thing that's left.

22

Gary is nude, floating in the dark. His body come more into focus. We zoom in on his tightly shut and tired eyes.

23

24

Twitter's breaking bad with alt text for these next pages. Will add text at end.

25

Gary says "it's starting" The field of darkness erupts into hazy lines that then overtake Gary's ethereal dream body.

26

The field of lines mutates into waves and then white pulsating organelles and a vague abstract creature-like entity and finally on Gary's simplified, vague face.

27

The field of dream night turns blue and opens up. It becomes an ovoid pattern. A smattering of lines and finally a crescent.

28

Gary's ghostlike body drifts in this world. First ina field of pink. Then amongst turquoise, stick like structures. Then becoming white organs and finally multi-colored pastel scribbles.

29

Gary's dream body drifts slowly down in the night sky. Slowly, slowly.

30

Gary's ghostlike body starts rapidly falling until he lands on the white outline of a bed in space.

31

Gary forms a primitive ghostlike face, his eyes and mouth like cigarette burns. He notices the outline of a man next to him. He ruses and asks "PAUL? Is that you?"

32

Gary touches the outline's back. He asks it "can you talk to me?" The outline gets up and suddenly doubles in size.

33

The outline grows and grows. It gets out of bed until Gary looks like an ant compared to the outline's feet.

34

Gary wakes up in his reality. Morning light shines through the window. The dog yawns awake. Gary mutters "dreams... dreams..."

35

Gary says "I am fiction, but they are a fiction within fiction. A play within a play. A like in Hamlet, that play is meant to reveal an uncomfortable truth to its viewer. Sometimes the truth is pleasurable, other times confusing and excruciating, but it's always confrontational."

36

Gary says "even when the dream is functionally meaningless, you are always reckoning with a memory... A memory that was placed on the breadboard of your subconscious mind beacuse you had an unusual emotional connection with it." Gary hugs the dog. He looks to the sky and says "I would like to live long enough to dream again..."

37

Gary says "even if it's only nightmares. Even if it's one where I'm tortured for 1000 years. To dream is to exist. If your body goes so does your nighlt battle with inchoate thoughts. And I guess I've decided I like existing..."

38

The dog licks Gary's face. Gary says "guess that means I have to go to work..." Gary takes a shower and then sadly waves goodbye to the dog.

39

Gary rides the bus and overhears two women talking. The long-haired woman says "...and it was the weirdest thing. I had a dream." The short-haired woman says "no way! so did I!" The long-haired woman asks "whoa, what was yours about?"

40

The short-haired woman says "It was the simpest dream you could imagine... I was flying. Well, not really flying, but bounding weightlessly... Sometimes staying in the air and coasting twenty feet above the ground for minutes at a time. But always landing back on the ground serenly and gracefully.

41

The short-haired woman says "and I know this is the kind of dream I am supposed to have had a million times before, but last night felt like the firsrt time I had actually experienced it. It's like time has become, I dunno, thicker? More substantial? Enough about me. What was your dream about?"

42

The long-haired woman says "I was in a windowless room with a single door. I don't know why, but I desperately needed to get out. But every time I went to open the door... Something Unexpected would get in the way..." She hears an EEEEE noise.

43

The long-haired woman continues "like, a tea kettle would start whistling which meant I couldn't leave until I removed the kettle from the burner and turned the stove off. Then I'd go back to the door only for a new task to materialize out of the corner of my eye. One that I had to complete. no matter how bizarre or arduous." The long-haired woman is administering therapy to Garfield who thinkg "you have to cure my Borderline Personality Disorder."

44

The short haired woman commisserates "yeah Garfield would need therapy." The long-haired woman says "it's so weird. I knew I had dreams. but knowing you feel something is different than actually feeling it. Even though the dream was unpleasant, when I oke up, I just say for a long time thinking about it. I went from a state of mild stress to one of strange serenity as the dawn poured in my room."

45

The short-haired woman asks "when did everything start to feel more... uh... flowy for you?" The long-haired woman says "about 8:00, 8:30 last night. Everything sort of just... lurched forward." The short-haired woman says "yeah, that's how it feels to me! Like a slow, stumbling treadmill." The short-haired woman looks at her hands and aks "what the heck is this feeling?" Gary is intrigued.

46

Gary says "excuse me, I couldn't help but overhear. Are you experiencing linear time?" The long-haired oman says "yeah, that it! I used to feel reality as a series of disconnected moments but now it's like I'm living in a story. I always ASSUMED those moment were connected but now that they really are, everything feels so much slower... but also faster?"

47

Gary says excitedly "That was me! I did that!" The short-haired woman asks "uh.... what do you mean?" Gary points to himself and says "Yesterday I asked the author for a story and he gave it to me. Guess he gve it to everyone else as well." Gary's jovial proclamation falls on deaf ears.

48

The short-haired woman says "so, this is our stop." The long-haired woman whispers "wendy, this isn't here we get off." The short-haired woman says "shut up Brenda, this guy is obviously deranged." Wendy and Brenda get off at the next stop. Wendy gives Gary the eye.

49

Gary thinks to himself "I guess that was kind of weird of me. Like how do I actually know I was the one to start linear time? Could be that it jsut happened and me asking for it was a coincidence. Maybe someone else asked for it at the same time as me and they caused it."

50

The door slams shut and Gary says "oh shit, I missed my stop." He goes up to the bus driver and asks "sir, can I get off here?" The bus driver coldly says "no." Gary looks shocked.

51

Gary cries "why won't you let me off?" The bus driver says "you missed your stop. That stop was for you and you only. No you gotta wait till we get to the end of the line." Gary asks "where is that?"

52

Everything suddenly turns a colou negative blue. The bus driver unleashes a manic smile and says "IT'S RIGHT HERE!" Gary looks on in terror as the bus careens off into nothingness and starts spinning wildly in a blue vortex.

53

Gary turns neon, breaks into simplistic shapes and falls apart. His body becomes textured and detailed and the words WHERE AM I? WHERE AMI? WHERE AM I? WHERE AM I? float above him.

54

An indistinct figure asks "WHO'S THAT?" A decrepit unformed figure asks "GARY?" A figure without eyes and only a mouth asks "PAUL?" Then shouts affirmatively "PAUL!"

55

A nude outline says Paul. Another nude outline grips the other one by the face and says "Paul... I'm so sorry..." There is only one nude outline and it mourns "alone... again."

56

A textured flitting blue Gary asks "whose dream is this?" He then realize "oh... of course." He seeks the sketchy outline of Paul sleeping on a couch. "It's Paul's dream. It's always been Paul's dream."

57

Gary reasons "right... if I'm in this dream, I must know everything Paul knows. He did break up with me today... well, the real me. He went to his sister's apartment. he cried to her filled with uncertainty about his decision."

58

Gary continues "they held each other while watching GIlmore Girls. Emotionally exhausted, he fell asleep. His sister, Rachel, tuched him in on the couch. And his unconscious mind became fraught with restlessness."

59

"So he conjured a Gary. One who was offered a brief life. Developed just enough emotional awareness. So that he might forgive him..."

60

Gary asks the sleeping sketchy outline of Paul "what happens if I forgive you?" He worries "I think... I think you'll wake up. I still want more life... I want to dream again..."

61

Gary says "but now that I truly understand that this is a constructed world. I can bend it to my will. And you'll wake up eventually, but time moves differently here..."

62

Gary says "so I am free to do as I please for as long as I want." He wills away the night of uncertainty and manifests reality again. He says to the rough, but reforming outline of Paul. "I will not forgive you. You will forgive me."

63

Gary says "and that is not so selfish of me because you are the one who created me. And you will receive your benediction but it will be on my terms." He holds hands with Paul and they both begin crying staring into each other's eyes.

64

Because we must first reconcile... and play with the dog... and go on long alks together where we can be silent for minutes on end.

65

Because merely the presence of the other fills us with warmth. And e ill cook for each other... and come to the other's aid at the slightest notice... And we will be there for every illness and injury and death. Gary weeps into Paul's arms. They comfort each other as they say their final goodbye to the dog at the vet's office.

66

And even though it's dumb and heteronormative or whatever. We decide we want children. Gary and Paul marvel at their baby. They raise their children from toddlers to functioning adults. We reason that the immense love we have ofr each other will make them good people. And we are proven correct...

67

Our children thrive and succeed and do so much good for the world. And so do their children. And we gro old... and every day gets better and better...

68

Because every night we get to dream again... and when we're beside each other the dreams are always good. And this fantasy plays out a million times in the blink of an eye... Millions and millions of dreams next to you.

69

Gary says "you created me. I know you wanted me to perform a specific function... but you thought I would like this before you would make me take it all away." Paul asks "so... did you like it." Gary breaks down in tears, utterly devasted." Paul looks on in horror.

70 (Final)

Gary, tears straming down his face says "no." Paul weeps. Gary grabs him by the shoulders, looks him in the eye and says "I forgive you..." END.

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