You find an alien artifact

[Lord Revan]

Yeah, they're not.

Being insane is a bit like being drunk, in that the more of it you have, the weaker your defense against it gets. Once you've had two drinks you're more likely to have the third; three makes you more likely to have the fourth, and so on. Past a certain point, the part of your brain that says "I think I've had enough" just shuts down and you start binge-drinking until you throw up or black out or whatever.

Anything that fucks up your mind is very insidious. The more you get of it, the less likely you are to make a rational decision about what to do. You're more likely to attempt things beyond your capacity, more likely to forget something important that just doesn't matter to the crazy-part of your brain, and more likely to do stupid things that reinforce your own bad behavior patterns.

that's quite a good way of saying it, I was trying to find a way to describe just powerfull the totally unrational feeling you get is.

I know this a personal, but I remember when I was in the worst phase, I honestly and without any hint of irony belived that people would thrown a "finally got rid of that asshole" celebration if I had died. Obviously this is crazy talk, but it felt rational to me at the time, not now anymore but I've been able to deal with it since, however it wasn't easy and it wasn't fast, it wasn't until lukio (more or less the equilevant to highschool) when people started to treat me as fellow human and not just a way to bump their insecurities did I truly start to heal and as I stated I'm not fully healed yet and I'm nearly 30 now.

EDIT:I'm not saying this due to some need of pity but rather to demonstrate how fucking hard being insane is.

[Ahriman238]

So, the Last Mimzy produced with CthuluTech turns you into a mad vampire? Does that sound about right?

First I will purchase a good, solid lead safe which I will lock the box inside. Then I will encase the safe in concrete. On each face of the concrete cube I will draw (while the cement is wet) a large skull and warnings to leave this thing the hell alone in every ancient and modern language I know, or is available to google translate. I may have to keep it as simple as "danger! leave alone!" to keep the software from screwing it up. Then I sail far enough out to sea to be well in international waters, and when I am satisfied by depth readings I will dump it.

With an addendum that I might use the thing if there were an immediate threat to myself or my loved ones, and I was sufficiently desperate. I still wouldn't trust the thing, and would hope to rid myself of it the moment the mortal peril stopped, but I might.

I'm reminded of something Chuck said when he reviewed the Clone Wars. The Dark Side takes the most noble and selfless emotion in the world, loving a person and being willing to do anything for them, and turns it into an inherently selfish emotion, fear of loss and the willingness to do anything to keep your loved one safe. Until you end up destroying all you embraced corruption to protect.

I'd have to pretty damned desperate to resort that, to risk my sanity, my self, my soul, and the safety of everyone I care about for power.

[PeZook]

As for the government finding out I really don't think so unless I'm flaunting it to the world for some reason.

You really don't think anyone will notice you turning into a vampire and constructing a mad scientist's lab in your basement?

[Lord Revan]

just to add to what's already been stated, you don't go insane by having crazy thoughts (we all have them), but having your "lens"(for lack of a better word) you use to judge what's crazy and what's not twist and warp so that you think that those crazy things are rational and the rational things are crazy, sounds crazy doesn't it?

[PeZook]

The OP even describes how the cube eventually begins to tell you to do things.

And without it you will die. AND it needs to eat souls in order to work. Add two and two together, gamer. Where do you think this is going to end?

Hell yeah people will find out you have it, when those you know begin to mysteriously disappear. And while you can probably deal with a random cop showing up to see what's going on, the government has more ways to escalate than you could possibly acquire as a paranoid schizo supergenius.

[Lord Revan]

The OP even describes how the cube eventually begins to tell you to do things.

And without it you will die. AND it needs to eat souls in order to work. Add two and two together, gamer. Where do you think this is going to end?

Hell yeah people will find out you have it, when those you know begin to mysteriously disappear. And while you can probably deal with a random cop showing up to see what's going on, the government has more ways to escalate than you could possibly acquire as a paranoid schizo supergenius.

Tbh I think that gamer has no idea on how one goes insane.

[Simon_Jester]

He may be thinking "insane" in terms of behavior- an insane person is, say, someone who blurts things out at inappropriate times. Which everyone does, so an insane person just does it more often, so it can be controlled, right?

No. An insane person is someone who, when they blurt something out at the wrong time, they really think it was logical for them to say that.

[gamer]

"the road to hell is paved with good intentions"

Yes, I have alot of trust in myself I deal with distressing insane thoughts all the time everyday but the only way I could see myself attacking the people I love would be through direct mind control, and the cube isn't directly controlling you.

didn't you read the part that one of the first things you do when going insane is stop acting rationally, like for example saying to yourself self "just a bit longer what harn could it do", also I said harm not attack, I mean there's plenty of ways to hurt someone without attacking them outright, even by simply saying or doing the wrong thing and realising it.

unless you actually have(or had) mental problems it's kind of hard realise just how fucking hard it is to "deal" with it, thanks to those mental problems I mentioned, I suffer from rather nasty periodic cases of depression. I've learned to deal with them enough that it doesn't totally ruin my life but it's still not fun to live with and I dout I'll ever be fully "cured", also it got bad that I seriously thought of killing myself, I got over it thanks to my friends and family seeing the warning signs early enough that I didn't actually try to do it, but I can tell it's not just something you can "deal" with, it takes alot of effort and more importantly help from others to realize you need to deal with it.

sorry for the rant but it just pisses me off when people think mental problems are something that you deal with easily

Sorry about your experience Revan.

As for myself I don't know but lately I am not feeling so normal. I was at first feeling kind of depressed and feeling like I was worthless since I was failing out of university even after putting in enormous amounts of effort (for me grades and things like that are one of the most important things in my life, failure in anything is extremely painful) I was even feeling kind of suicidal. Now my mood is feeling better and my grades have improved by a lot its like all of a sudden I became far more intelligent I used to study but now I don't and my grades have changed for the better dramatically. I feel like I can absorb alot more information, remember easier, and notice small seemingly insignificant details alot better now for some reason. Strangely though I have been feeling not quite normal my thoughts are extremely disorganized, racing, disturbing and insane like I can be driving my car and I'll have thoughts about running over people slamming my car into on coming cars or other off-the-wall insane thoughts that race around in my head day and night essentially 24/7 since my dreams can be pretty messed up as well. I try to be a devout Christian but now for some reason I want sex BAD though this could be caused by me just being a virgin in college and lonely. I've always had nightmares but it seems my dreams are getting more and more horrific and bizarre. Sometimes when I'm talking my mind is getting so crazy gibberish comes out but this is thankfully very rare. I've even had some wierd physical symptoms like getting sudden headaches or adrenaline rushes or just feeling plain wierd for no reason and at times feeling extremely figgidity and anxious. Sometimes I feel like I'm just going to explode (its hard to describe in words) but I try to be as normal as possible but it seems other people might be taking notice like my parents who keep asking me if I'm mentally okay for some reason. Not saying I'm insane or anything but I guess I can relate a little, and I just deal with it.

[gamer]

The OP even describes how the cube eventually begins to tell you to do things.

And without it you will die. AND it needs to eat souls in order to work. Add two and two together, gamer. Where do you think this is going to end?

Hell yeah people will find out you have it, when those you know begin to mysteriously disappear. And while you can probably deal with a random cop showing up to see what's going on, the government has more ways to escalate than you could possibly acquire as a paranoid schizo supergenius.

Actually I lessened the effects of the cube in page 1 of the thread since that was a bit too much you still go slowly insane just not Chaos insane. Most insane people aren't actually murderous psychopaths or really even that threatening, their lives are harder due to whatever form of insanity they have, but the kind that kill their kids or whatever just really aren't that common or at least about as common as the clinically sane people who harm and hurt others. Many famous geniuses were actually insane like Sir Isaac Newton and John Nash.

Also it doesn't need souls to work it works on its own but if you want serious power like teleportation, super strength and other "magical abilities" you are going to have to feed it "life energy" essentially living things said living things don't have to be people even a tree will do as long as its alive.

As for the government finding out its not like people go searching into your home for alien artifacts and its not like you are doing anything illegal and when they do find out its going to be on my terms where I don't ever reveal the cube's existence but If I manage to make something useful I could show it to the world like functional AI or designs for a new ship drive or just a book I wanted to write.

Now if I start building nuclear reactors in my backyard then it will end up like this :

[gamer]

"the road to hell is paved with good intentions"

Yes, I have alot of trust in myself I deal with distressing insane thoughts all the time everyday but the only way I could see myself attacking the people I love would be through direct mind control, and the cube isn't directly controlling you.

didn't you read the part that one of the first things you do when going insane is stop acting rationally, like for example saying to yourself self "just a bit longer what harn could it do", also I said harm not attack, I mean there's plenty of ways to hurt someone without attacking them outright, even by simply saying or doing the wrong thing and realising it.

unless you actually have(or had) mental problems it's kind of hard realise just how fucking hard it is to "deal" with it, thanks to those mental problems I mentioned, I suffer from rather nasty periodic cases of depression. I've learned to deal with them enough that it doesn't totally ruin my life but it's still not fun to live with and I dout I'll ever be fully "cured", also it got bad that I seriously thought of killing myself, I got over it thanks to my friends and family seeing the warning signs early enough that I didn't actually try to do it, but I can tell it's not just something you can "deal" with, it takes alot of effort and more importantly help from others to realize you need to deal with it.

sorry for the rant but it just pisses me off when people think mental problems are something that you deal with easily

Sorry about your experience Revan.

As for myself I don't know but lately I am not feeling so normal. I was at first feeling kind of depressed and feeling like I was worthless since I was failing out of university even after putting in enormous amounts of effort (for me grades and things like that are one of the most important things in my life, failure in anything is extremely painful) I was even feeling kind of suicidal. Now my mood is feeling better and my grades have improved by a lot its like all of a sudden I became far more intelligent I used to study but now I don't and my grades have changed for the better dramatically. I feel like I can absorb alot more information, remember easier, and notice small seemingly insignificant details alot better now for some reason. Strangely though I have been feeling not quite normal my thoughts are extremely disorganized, racing, disturbing and insane like I can be driving my car and I'll have thoughts about running over people slamming my car into on coming cars or other off-the-wall insane thoughts that race around in my head day and night essentially 24/7 since my dreams can be pretty messed up as well. I try to be a devout Christian but now for some reason I want sex bad though this could be caused by me just being a virgin in college and lonely. I've always had nightmares but it seems my dreams are getting more and more horrific and bizarre. Sometimes when I'm talking my mind is getting so crazy gibberish comes out but this is thankfully very rare. I've even had some wierd physical symptoms like getting sudden headaches or adrenaline rushes or just feeling plain wierd for no reason and at times feeling extremely figgidity and anxious. Sometimes I feel like I'm just going to explode (its hard to describe in words) but I try to be as normal as possible but it seems other people might be taking notice like my parents who keep asking me if I'm mentally okay for some reason. Not saying I'm insane or anything but I guess I can relate a little, and I just deal with it.

I hate once I post something I can't edit it later so many things that need to be edited there it isn't even funny or maybe it is, oh well the quoted material isn't important anyway.

But anyway I'm not insane but I've known insane people its not fun but the person I know isn't exactly some dangerous psychopath their reality is just a bit off than normal I guess. But really if I could get tech and knowledge that could potentially cure cancer and other benefits for humanity that sounds like a reasonable sacrifice.