Vermillion Desterenephous

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I don't know how long ago the virus hijacked all of our neuros. A lot of people have been lost in an infinite dream as they waste away back in the primary thread of reality. Some of us have learned how to live with the virus though. We can jump from one thread (ie: a simulated universe) to the next at will. But we still need help from those on the outside, those that never had neuros in the first place, to bring us back to the primary thread from time to time. Most of us, those like myself that can jump from one thread to another, spend our time exploring the threads. I have a particular fascination with Vermillion Desterenophous.

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In many threads Vermillion Desterenophous has no meaning whatsoever. I know it means nothing in the primary thread. I once found a world in which vermillion desterenophous is a type of plant/animal hybrid that secretes a sweet, reddish jam-like substance which attracts passing animals. After ingesting the fragrant substance the animal soon becomes lethargic and falls into a euphoric stupor. Once the prey is sufficiently disoriented and tired the vermillion desterenophous extends a broad and very soft leaf, usually about two meters long and a meter and a half across. The prey, upon noticing the leaf, will lie down on it and fall asleep. The vermillion desterenophous will then secrete more of its' jam-like substance to further incapacitate its' victim. The leaf then envelopes the prey and secretes a caustic acid which quickly dissolves and digests the slumbering animal.

In another thread I found that Vermillion Desterenophous was the name of a punk band that overthrew an oppressive government and took the reigns of power. Very quickly Vermillion Desterenophous became even more despotic and sadistic than the government they overthrew. They began a mass extermination of anyone who listened to or played country music. Those unfortunate souls that enjoyed country music were given a chance to convert by being locked in a plain white room with lights on twenty-four hours a day. Music from Black Flag was piped in constantly, and once they pledged allegiance to Vermillion Desterenophous and the Dead Kennedys they were freed. Those who did not convert were beheaded. The severed heads of the victims were then shout out of t-shirt cannons into the audiences at Vermillion Desterenophous concerts. The heads of these apostates quickly became collector's items and a speculative-bubble soon formed over the ever rising prices of these severed heads. Eventually over thirty million people were beheaded for being punk apostates. With the market saturated the price of severed heads eventually dropped dramatically, the bubble burst, and within a week the economy had come to a halt. Amid rising unemployment, hyper-inflation, and mass beheadings the people quickly grew weary of Vermillion Desterenophous. Vermillion Desterenophous was overthrown in a military coup lead by the renegade general and country singer Hart Headly. The Headly regime proved to be just as despotic.

Perhaps the best incarnation of Vermillion Desterenophous that I saw was in a thread where the whole world was at peace. Vermillion Desterenophous was a poet, playwright, and philosopher who came up with a philosophy of radical empathy towards all living creatures. He was given the title of Supreme Bard and Philosoph of a nation, Gondwanaland, already dedicated to charity and egalitarianism. His concept of radical empathy was quickly embraced and spread throughout the world via Gondwanalands' foreign policy. I think one of the reasons why radical empathy worked so well in this world was because the total population of sentient beings numbered only fifty million.

In one world vermillion desterenophous is a radical economic and political ideology that has caused centuries of despotism, violence, and war across the whole world.

There was one thread where vermillion desterenophous is just a weed.

In another it is a type of concrete.

This is what is so amazing about the virus. This is why I love jumping worlds. I've learned to control it perfectly. It's like an old time google search. I just think of a term or a concept and I'm there. It's fantastic! I can search anything, absolutely anything. Even something as meaningless as Vermillion Desterenephous. Who would of thought that something so absurd as Vermillion Desterenophous could actually mean something in so many worlds! In the primary thread it is utterly meaningless, but in so many others it's everything. I can come up with anything and I almost always find a thread in which my non-nonsensical babel actually means something. Take for example something totally ridiculous, even more so than vermillion desterenephous, like Henry Kissinger. Again, totally meaningless in the primary thread and many others. But I found one thread in which the United States engaged in a brutal and aggressive war in Vietnam. In this thread Henry Kissinger was Secretary of State to President Richard Nixon and one of the key architects of a secret war in the country bordering Vietnam, Cambodia. Not only did Henry Kissinger have meaning in this world, but he was also a war criminal. In that thread President Nixon was forced to resign amid a growing scandal over the release of a secret history of the wars in Vietnam and Cambodia. Henry Kissinger, along with many others, were never held to account for their crimes. It was very similar to what happened in the primary thread, but there the aggressive war was fought in Algeria instead, and the president who was disgraced and impeached over it was John F. Kennedy.

And of course there are many other worlds where Henry Kissinger means something. In most worlds Henry Kissinger is an invasive species of fungus that destroys whole ecosystems. Such similarities between threads is actually quite common. I have found that the words, names, and phrases I make up often have the same or similar meanings in different threads. It seems that there is a continuum of existence for all things. A certain essence which life maintains across realities. The closer one thread is to another the more subtle the differences between them. One can judge the distance between threads by the abruptness of a jump. The more radical the difference between one thread and another the further they are away from each other. So if you are reliving your childhood one moment and then orbiting a gaseous planet in a distant solar system the next then you just made a big jump. Conversely if the only difference between two threads is the existence or non-existence of a single leaf on a tree then your jump was minute and probably imperceptible. In fact most jumps are imperceptible with the differences between threads simply being the placement of a single atom.

Often the similarities are not to be found in a creatures physical manifestation but in its effects of the wider world. This is why Henry Kissinger is a war criminal in many threads and an invasive species of fungus in others.