I have this character who spends several billion years floating in space. She is both immortal and has rapid healing, but she also has a sense of touch. My question is, what do you think it would be like to have to float around in space for billions of years and what kind of psychological effects could it bring?
If this is natural for her, then it wouldn't be a big deal. It would be her norm. However if something happened to her to become this way - that's another matter entirely. Unless of course, she comes from a race of space-floaters and is the only one left - then she might be lonely.
Whose story is this? You're the writer. What does your imagination tell you the effects would be? That's what a writer does. He or she poses a set of conditions, imagines where that would or could lead, and presents it to the reader.
I think the character will be amazed by sound as they would have never heard sound before (just saying)...and they probably wouldn't be able to talk (unless they can lip read or have sign language as communication?) And the obvious one is that they would be lonely.
Thanks for the replies. I just realized that I forgot to mention that the character is a human scientist who discovered immortality. She's currently floating through space due to surviving the eventual destruction of Earth. I want this to be as realistic as possible, or as realistic as something like this can be. I know some basic things, like that heads don't explode when exposed to the vacuum of space and I've read that your skin can swell up. I've tried looking up other effects of this as well as total isolation can have, but I found it difficult to get a clear answer.
She probably isn't breathing. The thing is, she can't die no matter how much she wants to, even if she stopped breathing completely.
Food for thought: If she isn't breathing in any oxygen, then how is her brain operating? I'm sure she would be brain dead by now? Or is her brain somehow unharmed by this? Hmm, this idea is workable but it's going to take loads to research to makes sure there's no holes in it.
As far as story interest, give me a relationship to read about. I hope you give her passions and interests and clear motivation to continue living. And she better feel something for someone.
I think she'd have gone utterly bananas, either living in a fantasy within her own mind, or more likely completely shut down, a husk of a person.
I'm actually working out the backstory for the villain, so her going "utterly bananas" makes a lot of sense for her character.
From a physical perspective, she would be completely dessicated/mummified. Being immortal. she could rehydrate like freeze-dried camp food if she fell onto a planet with unbound water, but while in space, all volatiles would outgas over time. Without hydration, neural processes would slow and halt, so the passage of time might be subjectively much less. It's up to you whether consciousness exists without neural activity. And that is all the help I will offer. It really is your job to come up with the consequences of prolonged vacuum storage of an immortal's body and mind.
I wonder if she went back to a planet with light, she'd get temporarily blinded or something since space is completely dark except for the stars, nebulae, clouds and planets, etc. You might want to make her see planets as dull places (if she does land on a planet) because of all the different types of things she might see in space.You could research some parts of the universe she could float to?
It really is your job to come up with the consequences of prolonged vacuum storage of an immortal's body and mind. ^I think this is a funny sentence.
Hi, I'm sure she would be living in her own thoughts, sane or insane (they probably wouldn't be useful definitions for her any more.) Because lets face it the only senses that would be working for her in that situation would be sight and kinesthesia - the internal body movement sense. I mean she can't touch anything, hot and cold would be constant whatever they are, smell and taste are useless without air and food, hearing doesn't work without air, and she wouldn't even know the feeling of gravity and weight on her frame. And even sight would be limited since without air and lots of solid objects all around there would be limited light scattering. Like the others I would wonder how she could have metabolic processes working, like the brain thinking, with no oxygen, even if she couldn't die. And my thought would be that for her to be able to survive she would still have to shut down. And if she loses heat and moisture to space, then she would be essentially freeze dried anyway. If she doesn't, then her body isn't made of normal flesh and blood. Cheers, Greg.
Hey Greg. Above quoted words mean/show a lot. Not that I can see much "If she doesn't, then her body isn't made of normal flesh and blood."<---hahahha yeahhh
For a human the physiological effect is known. Basically a couple of Russians have been put in a vacuum accidently- they crapped themselves- they're eyes did not pop out. You would not freeze because it is a vacuum and acts like ur granny's flask of coffee. You would die from asphyxiation. That aside- if you could survive and had human sensibilities you would go mental in no time, however, if ur race had evolved to live in space... who knows.
Well she is immortal.... maybe her material self doesn't matter. Her emotional self is what the story is about. She can clearly survive. WTH are the emotional effects/consequences of being stranded in space? I'd research astronauts. Screw physical desires of lonely space life. What else do you WANT? crave? "what kind of psychological effects could it bring?"
Should ask yourself a couple more details about the character. Is this person an immortal human with human psychology? How strong is your character mentally? A human who could survive being adrift in space and live for billions of years would be torture. If they are super human, like say Superman, and it's physically not a problem then the mental aspect of being in isolation for the life time of some planets could make her a blank slate. I don't know. It's up to you on how you ultimately want to craft this character.
