When I was a boy, my dad was a pastor at Central Church of Christ, now Riverwalk Church of Christ, in Wichita.
It’s a large building, with a grand, octagonal vault for worship. Underneath that, we had a ringed hallway with classrooms around the perimeter.
Sometimes, I would be with my dad when he needed to stop by his office, so he’d let me wander around the church. The building really had that kenopsic feel, but comforting — in that vault that glowed with golden light through the stained-glass windows.
The basement hallway was a different story in that it was a dark, enclosed circle that was lit by two exit signs near the stairs to the vault. If it wasn’t for the walkway at the back to break the monotony, it would seem to go on forever.
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I used to work in a huge urban hospital in a country where I wasn’t fully familiar with all the holidays. My lab was in the basement (though, luckily, with a window into the courtyard). A couple of times a year, I would show up to work, and there would be no one there. That basement seemed like it went on forever.
I kinda liked it.
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Kenopsia. Now I have a word for it. As an undergrad I worked the graveyard shift security, walking through the dorms and the steam tunnels between them. No biggy, the buildings were full of people. One year, I stayed on and worked a bit during christmas break. The buildings were locked and empty. At 4 in the morning the buildings were not silent. I was creeped out at every corner.
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House of Leaves meets Gunnerkrigg Court. Miles and miles of deserted streets and buildings that grew from the ‘seed bismuth’ in interlocking hopper crystal patterns, plus a house that’s bigger on the inside, and potentially inhabited by a minotaur.
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I’ve had those two myself. I never imagined that anyone else would have a nightmare involving a neglected pet.
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human beings need things
a maze of empty rooms, missing all the things we need, is an implicit threat to our well-being
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Weirdly, while the Myst games do give me this feeling, the one that does do the most is specifically the standalone version of Uru. Both it and the online version are partly set in the ruined city of the D’ni empire, but the offline version is even more solitary because the online version has conditioned me to expect people to be there with me, and I miss them being there. Even when I’m alone in the city online, it still doesn’t feel as desolate as it does when I’m playing the offline version.
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You are in a maze of twisty passages, all alike.
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I wonder if he is the inspiration for the City in Blame!?
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The… fun?.. starts at 4:14
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Reminds a bit of the universe that the BLAME! manga is set in. While not as architecturally homogeneous/claustrophobic, it’s also interior and generated. (In this case by machines and is speculated in the series to extend beyond the perimeter of the solar system).
(eta)
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SEE ALSO:
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Yeah, and i never neglected a pet in my life - in fact, i was accused of being overly devoted to them. Nonetheless, in the dream re-run: “Oh my gawd! i haven’t filled Mr Nibbles food-dish in a week!” Some sort of fiendish guilt center of the brain, perhaps.
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Oh, in the games I’m looking at, the rooms are furnished, albeit with a limited set of items. It’s the fundamental idea of opening a door and finding another room, endlessly - of having an inescapable inside with no outside - that’s disturbing.
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Being in the same boat 100%, I figured that my dream-guilt was purely based on having a pet enter into my dream and — given how non-lucid dreamers accept dreams as reality and just go with the flow — I’d become concerned as to whether or not the pet had been fed. Then the devotion-to-pets kicks in and, “whoa! I don’t remember feeding him!!!” Even when watching YT cat videos of strays being fed, I get pissed off that the kitties aren’t IMMEDIATELY fed as they’re first encountered. I’m always thinking, “feed that kitty!” Bottom Line: I don’t think your subconscious is punishing you with a guilt trip. You’re just an animal lover while awake and asleep.
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Thanks now I’ve fallen down a hole of incomplete and abandoned games about vast empty abandoned places. Why where are all of these games abandoned…
What couldn’t they find?
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