Chaos and Order

Ch 01 - Chaos and Order

Chaos sat in the dark. The apartment was always dark. Its side was fun with any number of things to occupy its time; however, eternity is a very long time. It had done everything that it could possibly imagine by itself. Maybe it and its roommate could do something together? Maybe something creative or a game? Its roommate wasn’t very creative, but it liked rules. So, maybe a game?

It asked its friend, “Order, this is just too dull. I need something else beyond just sitting here in the dark.”

Order sighed. It had only been a millennium since the last time Chaos had asked for something to do. It had tried just ignoring its unruly roommate. It had placed a tape line in the exact center of their infinite space and asked Chaos to stay on its side whenever possible. Order had a single mat on its side where it would sit and fold its many limbs underneath for comfort.

Order deflected, “This is peaceful. Calm. I’m thinking. You should try it.”

Chaos hated Order’s superiority complex. Nothing would happen without Chaos; Order is death, it would think to itself often as it rummaged through all its things looking for something to do.

“Let’s do something together! Why are we living together if we never interact?” asked Chaos.

Order asked itself why they lived together as well, but said nothing about it. “Just try to meditate. Watch the thoughts pass and just be. Thoughts will come naturally and you should notice them, and then let them go.”

Chaos harrumphed, sat as loudly as possible, closed its eyes, curled his tail underneath himself, and just thought: Cowbell. Rice. Dragon. Monkey. Sausage. 401k options. Cowbell. Video games.

Chaos asked Order, “Are you up for a game?”

Order sighed, “If it’ll keep you quiet, what game would you want to play?”

Chaos offered, “Call of Duty: Black Ops 7.”

Order said, “What is Call of Duty: Black Ops 7?”

Chaos answered excitedly through gnashing jaws, “It’s AWESOME. You are a sentient monkey with a series of gas powered pellet projectile machines. The goal is to puncture the monkey meat until it falls over! When you use the controller you can feel the pellets leave and the machine jerk in your hands! The monkeys make the funniest faces when they get punctured! You’ll love it! Wait until you see how the grenade works! You put it in a room and leave. Then, SURPRISE! Everyone is meat in like less than a second after it goes off! So much fun!”

Order sniffed, “That game sounds all you. I’d prefer to play Go. There are no monkeys, no machines, just thought. The two of us are reflected in our constant struggle over the universe to be. We, and just our wits, in an eternal struggle over meaning in the universe. A grid. White stones and non-white stones. Rules. Calm reflection leading to intricate patterns from pure simplicity. If we’re going to make a universe, this is perfect already. Just us and our thoughts and the go board to represent our struggle over it all.”

Chaos replied, “NO way! I’m paying half the rent around here. It has to be a video game at least. Plus, it’s dark in here and I know you’ll make me play the black stones. So, no board games. The video game is back lit. So, I picked the game type. You can pick the game. Fair is fair. NO BORED GAMES!”

Order hated to bend, but said, “OK. A ‘video game’. Let me see across time what makes sense for us.”

Chaos turned in circles waiting for Order’s decision.

Order opened its eyes after hundreds of years of waiting, “Pong. We will play Pong to guide our creation.”

Chaos looked back from where it had wandered after Order’s century of silence, “PONG! Ugh! Well, ok, you compromised, I guess I must do so as well. Where did I leave that quarter?”

Chaos started to rummage through the piles and piles of things found on its side of everything. Small animals, building toys, hard and soft covered books were tossed in the air as it pushed through its belongings.

Order said, “My quarters are in my area and carefully stacked into dollars. Over here …” and pointed to its vast empty space.

Chaos ran across the tape and grabbed a quarter from Order’s stack. Chaos grabbed the top coin and the rest scattered. Order slowly and carefully reviewed. It couldn’t deal with the odd number left and tossed one more over the tape to Chaos’ side to keep itself calm. Order folded its transparent wings and stood up.

Chaos found the slot on the cosmic Pong machine. It inserted the quarter and asked Order, “Ready to play?” Order walked over to the yellow console. It grabbed the player-one knob and Chaos dropped the quarter. The coin clattered through; the game started with a ball flying towards Chaos’ side.

Everything became real.

The ball headed to Chaos first and the universe expanded as it headed Chaos’ way. As the ball sailed across the universe’s spacetime, the world screamed in joy and pain as it passed. Order and Chaos shaped existence as the ball sped to Chaos’ portion of the screen.

Chaos managed to get its paddle in place and the ball ricocheted off. The universe headed to Order. Eons of time passed in reverse until it hit the Jurassic age where we began our tail.