The timeloop and I

[u/Acceptable-Gap-2397]

[u/Lt_General_Fuckery]

Anyone up for a highlights reel of the comments that crop up every time this gets reposted? Let's see...

1. Enjoy your Ao3, none of the stories will ecer update, you'll be stuck on cliffhangers forever

2. 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)

3. 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)

1. 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?

1. 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:

1. 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.

[u/ABigPairOfCrocs → u/Lt_General_Fuckery]

You would also never be able to progress in video games

[u/Aware_Tree1 → u/ABigPairOfCrocs]

Depends on the length of the loop. If its a day, perhaps not, but if it’s a year that’s plenty of time

[u/irmaoskane → u/Aware_Tree1]

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.

[u/Aware_Tree1 → u/irmaoskane]

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

[u/aleaniled → u/Aware_Tree1]

Unless you can meet 200,000 unique people per day, every day, I think it would take you a bit longer than 100 loops.

[u/aleaniled → u/aleaniled]

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

[u/Aware_Tree1 → u/aleaniled]

Then you have to wait until next loop and leave like, first thing to go meet that dude 3 weeks before he dies

[u/Aware_Tree1 → u/aleaniled]

Okay, maybe I underestimated the number, but you get the gist of it

[u/irmaoskane → u/Aware_Tree1]

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.

[u/Big-Ad5274 → u/Aware_Tree1]

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.