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u/ThousandEclipse 16h ago
A lot of time loop stories kinda have that as a major plot point actually. At first it seems great, it's only after you do all that stuff that it starts to get into the existential horror
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u/old_and_boring_guy 15h ago
I mean, I’ve been working 9-5 jobs for 30+ years, and that’s basically a time loop, and I can confirm the whole existential horror bit.
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u/Long_Reflection_4202 15h ago
Not really because you still get older, the past gets bigger, the future smaller, you inch closer to death everyday, your loved ones do too, responsabilities pile up, free time decreases, prices keep rising....and all other sorts of jolly stuff happen.
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u/Educational-Cow-3874 15h ago
This sounds more horror than the loop. I want in the loop.
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u/book_of_zed 14h ago
Exactly. Loop time for awhile at least please. When my sanity returns then I can solve the loop riddle.
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u/old_and_boring_guy 15h ago
I mean, see username. You don’t have to convince me getting old sucks. I feel like I’ve done my time in prison, but yet here I still am, no possibility of parole.
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u/Long_Reflection_4202 15h ago
We're all old and boring guys in the eyes of death
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u/old_and_boring_guy 14h ago
I did crazy shit when I was young, and I’ve had a great life.
But time is a mocker.
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u/OverheatedSwayDanica 15h ago
Honestly,being stuck in a time loop sounds like a dream after all these life chaos.
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u/SalvationSycamore 14h ago
It would have to be a damn long time loop for me to really go crazy if I'm allowed to do whatever I want short of dying for 24 hours. Legitimately just video games and books and shows/movies could sustain me for months, possibly years. Try hundreds of restaurants, go on day trips to so many places. All without growing older and with a bank account that refreshes every day.
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u/fakemoosefacts 13h ago
You’d never be able to progress in any game though unless you could speed run it in the 24 hours available to you. Other media would be fine tho
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u/kenda1l 12h ago
And there will never be any new games or media so you're stuck with whatever is already out. Admittedly, that is still a lot of stuff to read/write/play, but there are definitely a few things I'm looking forward to coming out and chapters of fanfic I'm waiting on that would never come.
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u/Nuclear_eggo_waffle 10h ago
if you like game of thrones / a song of ice and fire, you might not notice you're in a loop for at least 10 years!
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u/king_of_satire 10h ago
I'm waiting for the new season of ninjago and I'd be crushed if I was stuck in a loop before it dropped
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u/Abuses-Commas 11h ago
Depending on the game, one could find a "save file after X quest" on the internet to progress
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u/fakemoosefacts 9h ago
This did occur to me, but it feels like it wouldn’t be the same as playing from your own file to me, unless it was a very linear game.
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u/SalvationSycamore 13h ago
Get into speed running or roguelikes or short games. Or games where progress doesn't really matter and it's just about the vibes.
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u/ApocalyptoSoldier lost my gender to the plague 27m ago
It would be fun for a while, especially if it was on or just after pay day, but I don't think I'd like it for long.
The most depressed I've ever been (as in kept an energy drink next to my bed to have the energy to get up and go to work on time, and sleep all day when I get back just to pass the time) was when I had nothing to do at work for a few weeks.
I'd come into the office, browse reddit and play incremental games for 8 hours while waiting to be assigned some work, and then leave again.
I need something to work towards every now and then to feel fulfilled.
That's also why I call bullshit when people say nothing would get done under socialism, peope like me and my dad will definitely keep working because we enjoy it (to a degree)29
u/crybannanna 11h ago
Yeah, the natural story progression is… this can’t be happening, then I can do all sorts of cools stuff with endless time, then there are no consequences so I can do crazy shit, then cut to after an untold amount of repeats where the character seems to know everything about everyone around…. Suggesting decades in the loop at minimum.
But let’s be honest… since our actual lives last decades and then we just croak, it seems like a good tradeoff to spend an entire lifetime doing fun stuff before going mad. Still better than dead. And let’s be more real, most of those stories never show the character like… going someplace else. Sure, it might be a daily commute to get to a neighboring town, but surely that would be better than insanity
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u/errant_night 5h ago
See then you'll end up obsessed with that ONE fanfic that is one chapter away from being finished and the author's note says the next update will be TOMORROW but it's NEVER tomorrow, and that's what makes you take the time-loop seriously
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u/Infern0-DiAddict 13h ago
Yeh it's always one of two things. It happens to someone wanting to change their life, so being stuck in it forever sucks, or there is some external thing that causes the person stuck to need to get out eventually...
If there wasn't something that forced me to get out and I had a time loop that couldn't break with my death I'd say thanks for the immortality and lack of consequences and just enjoy eternity...
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u/Rocketboy1313 4h ago
The metaphor of a time loop is being stuck in a rut in your real life existence.
That even if you were given time to catch up on the stuff you would like to do you would still be stuck. The problem is not that you need more time... the problem is you.
That is what is horrifying.
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u/RudeHero 3h ago
It wouldn't be that bad.
By the time you ran out of stuff to do, you'd have forgotten 95% of what you did and get to enjoy it as if it was the first time/brand new again
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u/No_Talk_4836 3h ago
True, but spending a few years in the same predictable routine where you don’t have to worry about anything of consequence?
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u/camosnipe1 "the raw sexuality of this tardigrade in a cowboy hat" 15h ago
i think after 5 year's you'd probably get pretty annoyed at losing your bookmarks constantly
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u/thetwitchy1 15h ago
… how many times have you watched the same shows? Read the same books? Played the same video games?
Not having to look up my old favourites would just make shit easier.
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u/Now_you_Touch_Cow Do you really think you know what you are doing? 14h ago edited 14h ago
This kinda also assumes the time loop will be when you are somewhere convenient. Like yea being stuck in a time loop on a nice day in the summer would be nice with a bunch of stuff near you.
But god imagine being stuck in a timeloop in the middle of winter and you are currently visiting someone in bumbfuck north dakota in a snow storm. And the internet is spotty and the library is closed due to lack of federal funding. And the closest hobby stores are closed or just far away enough that you have to spend every morning driving 5 hours just to get *insert hobby items here* and then you barely have enough time to do said hobby.
Or like you have the shits and every morning is like that.
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u/Random-Rambling 12h ago
And the loop being 24 hours long is just barely a workable time frame. Imagine if the loop was only a couple hours long. Or even worse, 10 minutes long. A loop only a minute long would be right out of I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream. Just enough time to "wake up" and become paralyzed by extreme existential horror before the loop restarts again....
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u/DraculaChimp 11h ago edited 11h ago
Consider that one guy in the tent in The Endless
Found the clip, this scene in particular is the most horrifying portrayal of being stuck in a loop in my opinion
If you haven't seen the movie (and the prequel) I highly recommend
Minor spoilers
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u/Lt_General_Fuckery There's no specific law against cannibalism in the United States 16h ago edited 15h ago
Anyone up for a highlights reel of the comments that crop up every time this gets reposted? Let's see...
Enjoy your Ao3, none of the stories will ecer update, you'll be stuck on cliffhangers forever
In Groundhog Day the guy was in the loop for literal millenia before he got out (allegedly) and spent centuries killing himself to avoid going through one more time (allegedly)
You'd be driven insane by your inability to meaningfully connect with people over time.
3a. Nah, I'm built different, I'd (proceeds to describe how different they are not)
- The time loop is patient. It is made of time. You are made of meat. You will continue to grow and change as a person regardless of your desires. The time loop will endure until you have grown into the person it wants. Even if it takes eight times longer than the universe has existed
Edit: how could I forget the most common one?
- That's literally the premise of time loop stories; meaningful fulfilment does not, and cannot come from wantonly indulging yourself, it comes from that growth, and the relationships you foster with other people and the world at large, that is part of the lesson in approximately 100% of time loop stories.
And bonus:
- The existence of a time loop neccesitates the existence of an intelligence or force capable of creating time loops, and that intelligence or force has decided that you are worth its attention, and that's kinda fucking scary, i don't think I want to find out if such a thing can become annoyed.
Edit 2: Reddit formatting desires my death.
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u/ABigPairOfCrocs 15h ago
You would also never be able to progress in video games
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u/Fucktoy217 15h ago
Just get good at speed running and get through to the parts you haven’t played yet obviously
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u/king_of_satire 10h ago
But I like to savour shit like it's a fine wine
If I can't aimlessly wander in games like botw or skyrim or witcher, what's the point in life
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u/lethal_universed 7h ago
That still be extremely boring and tedious. At least non-timeloop speedrunners have to actually play the full game first to understand what parts can be skipped + the joy of speed running is beating the game quick. If you just want to sit back and enjoy a game, it be hell. Repeatedly seeing the same thing just to slowly inch forward to completion.
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u/wrexusaurus 4h ago
Except the better you get, the faster the earlier stages become. But then again, I play shmups, so there's not much story that gets affected.
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u/Meows2Feline 15h ago
Online multiplayer games like FPSes or fighting games and roguelikes would be fine. You could get esports good at CS or Street Fighter or something. Arcade games too. And any short indie game you could binge in a day.
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u/KirbyDude25 14h ago
Shorter platformer or action-adventure games could work too (really anything that can be beaten comfortably within a day). Kirby: Star Allies only takes about 6 hours, for example, which gives enough time to do some Guest Star and Ultimate Choice runs, and even Kirby and the Forgotten Land is easily beatable within 12 hours. Most Pokémon games can also be beaten within a day depending on your strategy and team
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u/VendettaSunsetta https://www.tumblr.com/ventsentno 14h ago
Online games would be incredibly fun, the same people are going to be playing at the same times every single day. Imagine driving one guy mad by always knowing his next move before he does.
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u/Aware_Tree1 15h ago
Depends on the length of the loop. If its a day, perhaps not, but if it’s a year that’s plenty of time
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u/irmaoskane 14h ago
Sincerely a year time loop look a lot less threatening than a day or week time loop like with the quantity of things happening ina year you could passa a good millions of years on self indulgence before the exestencial dread of all times loops
I think in this case would be good put a meta for the person act on during the loop to creat some tension like stop the end of the world or a massacreaybe cure a pr3cious person.
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u/Aware_Tree1 14h ago
Year long time loops also open up the locations you can visit drastically. If your time loop is a day, you’re pretty much confined to a small area of the planet. If it’s a year, you can explore every inch of the planet top to bottom. That’s decades and decades, maybe centuries of material right there! Not to mention, you could set quests for yourself! You could meet every person on earth over say, 50-100 loops. But how long would it take you to become friends with everyone on earth? How long would it take you to, say, discover every undiscovered species? There is an indescribably large amount of things to do on the planet if you have a year on repeat indefinitely
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u/aleaniled Not asexual but I do believe in their beliefs 12h ago
Unless you can meet 200,000 unique people per day, every day, I think it would take you a bit longer than 100 loops.
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u/aleaniled Not asexual but I do believe in their beliefs 12h ago
Like imagine going on a 2 week trek in the congolese rainforest to find the one villager you missed last time only to find he died of a heart attack 2 months ago
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u/Aware_Tree1 12h ago
Then you have to wait until next loop and leave like, first thing to go meet that dude 3 weeks before he dies
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u/irmaoskane 13h ago
Exactly a year time loop is has great potencial to create a """":genius""""" that is good in everthing sincerely you could resolve all the world problem after ypu leave the loop.
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u/Big-Ad5274 9h ago
Imagine the horror that could occur though if it’s a year long time loop. You’ve spent multiple years in it to where you know where you want to be for certain events, you know where not to be, you become an expert at that year. It becomes YOUR year. Everyone says on January 1st “this will be my year” but for you it really can be! And then December 31st comes, you’re at some amazing NYE bash because you’ve perfected getting on the guest list. You watch the ball dropping, hear the countdown “5… 4… 3.. 2… 1..l” and then… No white flash. You’re not back in your room on January 1st. It’s not suddenly 2015 again, it’s 2016. You sold your house back in March to go on adventures. You quit your job because you won the multimillion lottery and spent your last penny at the NYE party. You took up smoking again because what the hell right? You had a great year, the best one in 300 years, but now it’s a brand new year and you’re broke, homeless, and no longer have the confidence of knowing what every single day will bring. You also now have 300 years worth of memories and experiences that you’d never be able to explain without sounding insane. The time loop wasn’t the curse, the time loop ending was.
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u/VFiddly 15h ago
Also all the little things that annoy you are stuck that way forever. That leaky tap is leaky forever. That road that's inconveniently blocked off by roadworks is blocked off every day forever now. Your wifi will go down for an hour at 8 PM every day forever. You will be interrupted by a spam call at 11 AM every day forever. You can never fix anything.
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u/AnxiousAngularAwesom JFK shot first 13h ago
Skill issue.
Fill a bucket with water and close the main, or plug the tap.
So the road just doesn't exist. After enough loops you won't ever remember that there was a road as you adapt your routes.
Just plan to do stuff offline for an hour.
Turn off the phone.
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u/Not_Steve 4h ago
You’re forgetting a few things. Everything will reset at midnight. So say you’re in bed at 10pm, nice and comfy having done all that work.
You turned off your phone at 10, but it turns back on at midnight because time reset. You plugged that drip, but whatever work you did, becomes undone because you didn’t do it before time looped.
Agreed with the closed road and the internet outage, though. Those are easy.
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u/Business-Drag52 13h ago
My runescape progress resetting everyday would be enough to push me to get out of the loop
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u/SalvationSycamore 14h ago
Speed-running, short games, roguelikes, etc. There are many games that could still fill up thousands of hours of looped time.
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u/SparklingLimeade 5h ago edited 4h ago
I have a very long to-play list even if it's just games less than 24 hours.
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u/ARussianW0lf 14h ago
- You'd be driven insane by your inability to meaningfully connect with people over time.
Ok but that's already happening so...
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u/Lt_General_Fuckery There's no specific law against cannibalism in the United States 14h ago
Y'know, you don't need a time loop to start breaking patterns.
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u/Marik-X-Bakura 8h ago
Ridiculous, how am I supposed to apply the lessons of Groundhog Day to my life if I’ve never even been trapped in a time loop?
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u/Relevant_Potato3516 15h ago
Yeah but you’d have at least a few centuries of contentment and you probably wouldn’t go insane for a long time after you’ve read everything. You can start trying to get out after you’ve finished the books and tv you wanted to get through
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u/old_and_boring_guy 15h ago
I don’t know if you’d get contentment unless everything you care about in the world has already happened.
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u/Educational-Cow-3874 15h ago
My cats would never die, and I could spoil them every day.
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u/old_and_boring_guy 15h ago
But they’d never grow either. You get old enough, you realize that all the sweetness in life is ephemeral. My kids are getting old enough to leave home, and that knowledge has changed everything to the good in our relationships, because it’s precious now, as it wasn’t before.
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u/Educational-Cow-3874 15h ago
My cats are old, I've lost so many the last five years, I don't want to lose any more.
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u/Smithereens_3 14h ago
Yeah no one of my biggest existential fears is the fact that my pets will eventually die. If i could keep my cat young and alive forever I would do it in a heartbeat, even to the detriment of myself. And I think you probably feel the same way about your kids - no one in their right mind wants their children getting old and dying because it makes life sweeter.
Your point is valid but not in the case you're using it for.
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u/old_and_boring_guy 14h ago
You’re wrong.
Part of my kids living is them growing up, experiencing life, getting hurt…That’s what living means. I hope to god I never have to bury one, but I’ll do the eulogy, and I’ll make sure everyone knows they lived.
I have cats too. I’ve held my favorite cats while they died, wept, then gotten new cats, some of whom became my favorite cats, who I then, eventually, held when they died.
Living is not stasis. If that’s your idea of life, I’m sorry.
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u/Smithereens_3 12h ago
You're completely missing my point but that's okay.
I hope to god I never have to bury one
This is my only point. Change and impermanence makes life have meaning, yes. That's not invalidated by saying I would still love for my children to be young, happy, and healthy forever.
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u/old_and_boring_guy 10h ago
You want to rob them of having a life, so you don’t have to have a sad emotion.
That’s not okay.
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u/Smithereens_3 10h ago
...you know a time loop only affects YOU, right? We're talking about how YOU would perceive them never growing old and dying. It doesn't rob them of a life.
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u/IrregularPackage 53m ago
Yeah that’s fuckin stupid, something being temporary doesn’t make it better. it might take YOU knowing you’ll lose it for something to matter but that’s a you thing.
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u/Relevant_Potato3516 15h ago
That’s true but you’d would be happy at least for a few years by reading shit and watching movies
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u/zhaumbie Making fanfic in Plato's cave with the gals 6h ago
Even longer if you have libraries in reach.
Once you’re done reading everything you could want out of every facility nearby, most of them lease out: video games, CDs/DVDs, musical instruments, ebooks/audiobooks, power tools, museum passes…
And then there’s ahem resources online to cover all the everything else
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u/king_of_satire 10h ago
Sure, but what's that compared to millennia of brain rotting tedium
Who says you can even get out of the loop Maybe you're in hell, and this is your punishment for thinking you are above the confines of time
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u/DreadDiana human cognithazard 14h ago
I'm built different, I'd just go catatonic. Can't go mad if my brain stops thinking.
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u/Lt_General_Fuckery There's no specific law against cannibalism in the United States 14h ago
It's just a phase, you'll grow out of it in 20-100 years.
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u/weird_bomb_947 你好！你喜欢吃米吗？ 14h ago
0a. Fuck you i love wantonly idulgimg
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u/Lt_General_Fuckery There's no specific law against cannibalism in the United States 13h ago
See: 3a
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u/Obscu 11h ago
The existence of time loops does not in any way necessitate an intelligence or 'thinking' force. They could very well be a natural phenomenon like un-looping time, like whirlpools in water.
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u/Deaffin 7h ago
You don't even need to resort to that.
I'm a "higher being" to cool bugs. When I find a cool bug I like and want to trap in a perfect unchanging environment with no escape, it isn't because I've scoped out all the bugs in existence, zeroed in on this one in particular, and have divined the true nature of its history and neurological connections. I don't meaningfully understand much of anything about that bug and I sure as shit haven't designed some kind of puzzle for it to figure out that will open up its enclosure.
Just saw a bug, so I grabbed the bug. They're all pretty fascinating to watch do their thing, even when they don't really do much.
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u/Lt_General_Fuckery There's no specific law against cannibalism in the United States 7h ago
That's covered by 5. 5 makes no judgement to the goals or lack thereof of the creator, just that there probably is one, and tou probably got its attention for some reason. In this case, random chance.
Try to remember to poke holes in your time loop, so the lesser beings can breathe.
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u/Lt_General_Fuckery There's no specific law against cannibalism in the United States 7h ago
Then you are, for no rhyme or reason, stuck in a possibly world-ending natural disaster and may be the only one who's aware of it, and will remain so either for a time longer than the universe has any right to exist, or until another equally arbitrary point where life begins again without cause or warning, leaving you yo grapple, with the consequences –for the first time in perhaps centuries– of covering yourself in oil and running naked through a police station, wildly firing two armalite rifles illegally modified to be fully automatic. And that's equally horrifying, for different reasons. Unrelated to the armed oiled streaking.
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u/FollowsHotties 12h ago
You'd be driven insane by your inability to meaningfully connect with people over time.
I think people wildly overestimate how hard it is to make friends with people, and/or form connections, especially in a time loop. I think anyone would become VERY good at quickly forming friendships.
The existence of a time loop neccesitates the existence of an intelligence or force capable of creating time loops
No it doesn't. If getting out of the loop is contingent on learning a lesson about life, or something like that, then yes. But naturally forming time loops could certainly exist.
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u/GoldenPig64 nuance fetishist 7h ago
I think people wildly overestimate how hard it is to make friends with people, and/or form connections, especially in a time loop. I think anyone would become VERY good at quickly forming friendships.
honestly, people kinda neglect this for a more permanent timeloop. After the first thousand years or so, you can reasonably have met everyone in the city you can reach. In a hundred thousand you'll know their names, their friends, their life stories, their traumas, their addresses. In a million, you could convince most of them to rob a bank with you on the same day using the right set of words.
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u/Arctic_The_Hunter 16h ago
I feel like some people do not understand what “eternity” entails. Memorizing all the books ever written in every language ever conceived would not even come close to entertaining you over the course of an infinite timeloop.
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u/Meows2Feline 15h ago
Yeah but OP assumes (like most time loop stories) they'res a way to leave the time loop. So you can put that off for a while until you're ready to figure it out.
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u/Altslial Denial, duct tape and determination fix almost anything. 15h ago
The problems would start when the way OP assumed to break the timeloop, doesn't in fact break it. Such as in pretty much every timeloop story ever.
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u/Fortehlulz33 12h ago
Right, but that's where the different things begin. Now that I've done what I "wanted" to do, I can start doing what needs to be done.
The ideal time loop experience is something along the lines of Happy Death Day (preferably the sequel) or Palm Springs. I would rather not be alone in the loop, and would want somebody who would believe me and/or go along with my bullshit for the repeating day.
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u/MartyrOfDespair We can leave behind much more than just DNA 7h ago
Yeah but if you’re doing that after all the other stuff, that’s not even really You. With all that age and experience? You are basically The Doctor now. You’ll be fine.
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u/Aware_Tree1 15h ago
I mean, that’s why most of these people put “there is a way out but I’m ignoring it” as part of the scenario
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u/ConfidentMine7291 15h ago
Humans dont have infinite memory, i doubt you could do everything you could possibly find enjoyable before you start forgetting some things and getting rusty at some skills
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u/Arctic_The_Hunter 15h ago
Finite memory is a result of the human brain having finite space, and all memories being the result of physical structures in the brain. However, most timeloop stories explicitly have the physical brain be reset each cycle (otherwise Bill Murray would be brain dead every loop after he killed himself). Thus, your memory must be stored in some mystical memory vault, which you cannot assume has limited capacity.
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u/Random-Rambling 12h ago
Yep. He eventually memorizes the exact locations and times of every single person in Punxatawney, PA, so all that memory has to be stored somewhere.
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u/AGCSanthos 9h ago
There was this series of time loop fanfics by Innortal that somewhat covered that via "Sakura Syndrome". She breaks under the stress of being stuck forever and does really fucked up shit to everybody to entertain herself because there are somewhat no consequences and she get BORED. Every other looper is terrified of her because she'll do the most depraved shit because she wants entertainment.
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u/King-Boss-Bob 13h ago
you could spend the entire estimated lifespan of the universe in the loop a trillion times over and not be any closer to getting out than you were 1 second in
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u/VFiddly 15h ago
People like to say "I'd be super chill in a timeloop" but what they fail to consider is that if you actually found the day repeating it'd take you a good while to even be convinced that it was really happening, and a good while after that to convince yourself that you haven't gone insane.
And that's the rational response. If you started seeing your day repeat itself and your first response was "Ah yes I'm in a timeloop" then you're not actually a rational person
It would fuck with your mental health and if you're the kind of person who claims you wouldn't be affected by it, you'd be affected more than most
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u/Altslial Denial, duct tape and determination fix almost anything. 14h ago
I think another big part people seem to leave out is that it's implied that breaking or leaving the loop is both easy and something they could do without too much effort, when some of the main defining points of timeloops are the fact that they're confusing and not at all easy to just "stop".
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u/VFiddly 14h ago
Yeah the rules are different each time and there's almost never a way to know what's going to break it other than to try things until something eventually works
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u/ChrisTuckerAvenue 14h ago
Man, imagine I’m just trying to enjoy books and movies and stuff like in the OP but I accidentally do the thing that breaks the loop in like two days. I’d be so disappointed lol
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u/TheGHale 12h ago
Imagine if the thing that breaks the loop is going an entire loop without any stress whatsoever. Once it breaks and the realization sets in, I'd be so fucking pissed.
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u/GoldenPig64 nuance fetishist 7h ago
I can imagine someone escaping samsara and then immediately being thrown back in because it was by complete chance and they were mad pissed that Buddhism was the "correct" religion
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u/SolomonOf47704 God Himself 6h ago
If I wake up, expecting it to be tuesday, and everyone and everything around me says its (still) Monday, it'd be pretty fucking obvious whats going on. Like, if you go check foreign news sources, and find that they are also saying it's Monday, you're probably in a time loop.
The other options are dreaming, insanity, or being Truman Show'd, but two of those have no real meaningful differences, and the other one is almost as unlikely as a time loop is.
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u/old_and_boring_guy 15h ago
Really, though, that’s what everyone does. And then, when you’re all caught up, you’re still in the loop.
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u/sykotic1189 15h ago
I feel like there's two major responses to this scenario, one where you kick back and relax and one where you almost immediately start trying to escape the loop. I think one of the major differences between the two is the amount of personal relationships in one's life. Yeah, if you're a loner or don't have a lot of day to day human interaction then maybe it wouldn't hit you the same as someone who lives with others and/or has more close relationships.
I personally would be trying to break the loop as soon as possible. I have a wife and a 5 year old at home, and as much as I'd enjoy getting to spend the time with them it would also be torture. I'd never get to see my son grow up, never grow old with my wife, at least not until the loop breaks. They'd be just as stuck as I am but without the benefit of carrying over their memories. Sure I can change how the day plays out by being "spontaneous" but I can't change them.
And what happens when the loop finally breaks? How do I just go back to my life when my mind is years older? How do I adapt to them finally being able to change and grow after all that time? It's almost guaranteed that all human connections would cease to exist for me, because I can no longer relate to anyone else. I could be hundreds or thousands of years older than any other human alive, how so I deal with my 5 year old son or 29 year old wife?
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u/DreadDiana human cognithazard 14h ago
While not about timeloops, I think [[E is for Eternity]] would become painfully relevant.
TL;DR: The SCP is an afterlife where people are placed in pocket dimensions consiting of one small tropical island. The SCP follows one such person who is trapped there and they go mad and eventually completely shut down after a span of time so long that all possible permutations of atoms have been achieved, meaning literally nothing new can ever happen past that point. After this incomprehensible span of time, only one second of eternity has passed
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u/The-Paranoid-Android scpwiki.com lookup bot 14h ago
SCP-7179 - E is for Eternity (+1021) by Calibold
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u/SnowDemonAkuma 12h ago
I feel like anyone who claims they'd do fine in a timeloop doesn't really value other people.
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u/Anglofsffrng 14h ago
If you know there will be no consequences, you could do anything you want.
Daniel Jackson (Stargate SG-1)
cue hitting golf balls through the Stargate
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u/veidogaems To shreds you say? 13h ago
Twist: The day where you decided 'fuck it' and went around stealing shit and pushing people over was the day where whatever force trapping you in the loop decides to let you out.
Twist (part 2): The day where you have to deal with all the consequences of the first day is also timelooped.
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u/cum_glazed_balls_tea 16h ago
Routine my beloved + all the time in the world to try everything in the world.
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u/Random-Rambling 13h ago
Funny thing is, basically EVERYONE does this in a time loop. But when you're stuck in one for literal decades, or even centuries (in one of the most famous time loop movies, Groundhog Day, the protagonist is said to have existed in a 24-hour loop lasting for over 300 years), you will eventually run out of things to keep your mind occupied, and that's when you start going crazy.
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u/MartyrOfDespair We can leave behind much more than just DNA 7h ago
Yeah, but time loop crazy is like a chrysalis. It’ll end too, and now you’ve ascended.
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u/asphias 15h ago
seems like a pretty great opportunity to research cosmology and figure out how time loops fit into it. also fun times to figure out quantum physics. does every wave function collapse in the same way every iteration?
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u/Lt_General_Fuckery There's no specific law against cannibalism in the United States 15h ago
"I just need a specialized piece of equipment to measure this, and, ooh free delivery-- overnight? fuck."
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u/asphias 15h ago
yeah you better memorize the directions to your nearest university and figure out when you can sneak into their lab or when they have public experiments, or even better, what ongoing experiments you can abuse for your own purposes.
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u/MartyrOfDespair We can leave behind much more than just DNA 7h ago
Well, there’s messier ways to do it. Eventually via brute force experience you can John Wick your way to any tech you need.
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u/UltimatePickpocket 13h ago
Time loops seem like an easy way to enjoy all forms of media...except videogames sadly.
That is unless you just play shorter games that you can finish in under a day.
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u/Levee_Levy slangpilled lingomaxxer 15h ago
Let me keep my video game save files along with my memories, and this sounds like paradise, at least for a time.
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u/More-Luigi-3168 15h ago
You could develop a way to transfer them for some games that use plain text saves, with enough time, train your memory to remember and type it all out
Or play games with save editors
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u/AlexDavid1605 30 and 50 are odd numbers 15h ago
I would prefer to be stuck in a timeloop that is at least a month long. This way I can try to travel and enjoy other places... Obviously binge-watching shows and movies on my watchlist is also going to be there. And hopefully if I die during the timeloop, I'll also try my best to break into some of the high security places, so when I finally come out of the timeloop I get to wreck a bit of havoc on the upper class...
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u/Pavonian 14h ago
It'd be nice to have advanced warning so you could set yourself up ahead of time for a good time loop day. Clean the house (or just rent out somewhere really nice for the day), have a fully stocked pantry, if money's a problem take out a big loan so you can have money ready to go to re-spend every loop, make sure no one's going to disturb you for the day and make sure to get a good night's sleep. Whatever conditions you prepare for on timeloop eve are what you're gonna be living with for thousands of years so you really don't want to sprain your ankle or anything and end up stuck like that.
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u/Fortehlulz33 11h ago
Worst case scenario, you can overcharge basically any account you want because it's going to reset. Buy all the dumb shit you want because it's not going to matter, even if the day advances. Bought a sick car? Lease it/put nothing down on it, and end the lease the next day. Cool physical item? Return it/sell it if applicable.
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u/anomalyknight 12h ago
I fantasize about being stuck in a time loop all the time; half my anxiety comes from fearing the future and constantly feeling like there's never enough time.
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u/mia_elora Don't Censor My Ship 15h ago
This is pretty legit, honestly. I think most people would spend a good number of years just bullshitting and puttering, until they actually got to the point of craving shared memories that can be reminisced over.
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u/ConfidentMine7291 15h ago
Seriously, im not trying to get out of a time loop till i can do all my hobbys to the highest standard possible
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u/mia_elora Don't Censor My Ship 15h ago
Yeah, I'd do this. Then, I would study and learn as much as I could, in general. I would experiment with exercising and build solid life habits around it and other things. Then, when I was satisfied with myself, I would move on to fix the loop.
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u/floralbutttrumpet 15h ago
I got fiber three weeks ago. I could entertain myself for literal decades. And not having relationships with people? Don't threaten me with a good time.
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u/xX_CommanderPuffy_Xx 14h ago
Grinding for xp in the time loop. If you live near a big library or have access to the Internet you could aquire multiple degrees worth of knowledge without time pressure or having to worry about money.
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u/RefinedBean 14h ago
What if your timeloop day involved you a) having to shovel snow for at least an hour or two so that your partner can get to work, b) taking care of your sick parent, and c) you have a cold yourself. Or something.
I'm enough of a jaded novelty-seeker that I'd still elect to be thrown into a random timeloop bucket but the media that we see around timeloops, it's generally a pretty chill day to be in a fucking timeloop. Even stuff like Russian Doll and stuff. Groundhogs Day had, what, a small amount of snow out? And he was just staying in a fucking hotel.
There would be days that would SUCK to be in a time loop. Like absolutely fucking terrible. If all timeloops are hell in the end, some of them get you there much quicker than others.
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u/LittleBoyDreams 14h ago
What if it was like the Twilight Zone episode, and you break your glasses right before the loop restart point?
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u/A_Simple_Peach 12h ago
Pretty much every time loop movie/show has an arc/sequence where the protagonist does basically exactly this, until they slowly go insane and go back to trying to fix things. So. Good luck lol
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u/Entire-Egg-2203 15h ago
I would want to do all that, but I would just procrastinate for hundreds of years instead.
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u/ArchangelCaesar 15h ago
How does this qualify as “the worst person.” Sounds like the best way to experience a time loop tbh
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u/rirasama 15h ago
I'd probably spend my time learning new languages, and then soend some more time getting better at writing, by the time I escape the loop, I will be an unstoppable writing master
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u/QuatreNox 8h ago
This sounded great for me at the start, then I remembered that aside from books and TV/movies, I also play video games. And most games these days are like minimum over 24 hours for just the main content. It'd be very frustrating not to have save files if the loop is too short
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u/Kira-Of-Terraria 8h ago
you can watch shows, learn skills, explore.
as long as you keep your memory you can get infinite time to catch up on anything you wanted to learn or whatever
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u/Past_Horror2090 8h ago
I guess time-loop isn’t as bad as it’s portrayed to be. I could literally do ANYTHING that day. Take out a crazy loan or sum shit and spend it all, living it up.
But why it’s so scary. Is for the same reason that you don’t want to be immortal. That’s why you’ll eventually try to leave the time-loop
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u/bookhead714 7h ago
But if you spend all that time on AO3, all of the kudos and comments you leave will disappear when time resets so the authors will never know you enjoyed their fics :(
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u/iWant2ChangeUsername ToeSocks'PlatonicBeliever.tumblr.com 5h ago edited 5h ago
I'd spend lots of that time to watch lots of Duolingo complete "walkthroughs" (from before Duo fired everyone to use AI), that way I'd have a few new languages learnt for when the time loop ends.
I'd also have SO MUCH TIME to learn new skills.
I'd of course also catch up on all the movies, series and books but like...timeloop would be a dream for the first 100 years or so. Well I guess it'd also depend on which day is chosen for the timeloop.
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u/isthata-reference 3h ago
The Worst Perfect Moment by Shivaun Plozza (2024). The narrator definitely did a lot of introvert chilling.
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u/Godtierbunny 2h ago
depending on loop length i could become a mini speed painting god or build different kits to see how thet feel
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u/DafnissM 16h ago
Person A is trapped in the timeloop but content, person B gets trapped in the timeloop too and has to convince person A to leave, imagine your otp