Hole! Gas!

Hole! Gas! is a thick, red and primarily gaseous substance found in Layers 1 and 2 of the Hole. When inhaled, one will experience the increasingly unpleasant symptoms of Hole! Gas! Sickness.

## Hole! Gas! Sickness

### Sweet Smell

While this symptom is the least dangerous (it’s actually rather pleasant), it is easily the most recognizable. Ancient races have described the scent as “like a flower, if the flower was a huge amount of terrifying red gas.” In fact, when the Hole was first discovered, Hole! Gas! was used as perfume because of its sweet smell.

### Hallucination

This is the most well-studied symptom to date, and it has been proved that there is a link between these hallucinations, and major world events. It is said that the first person to enter the Hole saw his own death right in front of his eyes. Hallucinations occur after about 1 hour of breathing in Hole gas.

### The Seven Pain Receptors

This is a more mysterious symptom, as it is a particular hallucination that occurs after about 3 hours. The Seven Pain Receptors have become something of a sensation online, with people breathing in entire bottles of Hole gas just to see them, and then recording themselves online. This has actually helped a lot to our research, and we have understood that the Seven Pain Receptors are a group of (unsurprisingly) seven objects that find pain in your body, and just kind of sit there. Moving around will cause them to find another point of pain. We have no clue what this means.

## Uses

### Hole Compass Calibration

A Hole Compass is a compass which can be used to show how deep one is in the Hole, even past the cross into the Hole Dimension on layer 7. These compasses have been equipped in various cameras specialized for Hole exploration, to show the rough coordinates of one's descent.

The method for calibrating a normal compass to create a Hole Compass was originally discovered by Jeffery before he disappeared. It is as follows:

1. Collect a liter of Hole! Gas! and place it in a massless tank. Nearly massless is fine, however the less mass the tank has, the more accurate the reading is.
2. Place a compass above the tank. The needle will now bend downwards.
3. Release the Hole! Gas! very slowly and carefully. Ideally, the release process would take between 2 and 2.5 hours.
4. After the release of the gas, notice that the needle has reverted to pointing north. As you descend in the hole, the needle will bend further downwards, approaching 90o at the theoretical bottom of the Hole.

The angle of bending of a Hole Compass at any depth in the Hole can be found using the following formula:

### Recreational

Hole! Gas! has received notable use as a recreational drug, in order to not only see the future and predict major world events, but also experience the Seven Pain Receptors to find points of pain to be fixed at the next appointment with one's doctor. The effects of breathing Hole! Gas! can have harmful and potentially lethal effects, and it is not recommended to breath in too much at once; a healthy amount for any being with lungs is between 250mL to 1L. Any amount over 1L has the potential to activate the 3 later stages of Hole! Gas! Sickness, resulting in inevitable organ failure.