video

[masked_god]

[The video opens on Karakael halfway through what appears to be a workout. He's twirling a large black flag, flicking the cloth and doing twirls with a flexibility that belies his frame. He fumbles several times as the video watches, but protrudes such an air of confidence in his work that it is sometimes difficult to guess whether a mistake was intentional or simply a demonstration of the difficulty.

Finally, his mask grins gold, he twirls, and sends the black flag vaulting to the ceiling...

where it hangs, ripples of color pulsing through the apparently black fabric. He watches, smirking, as the slow-field catches and freezes the dark-flag's movement.]

Have you ever noticed how malleable time is around this place? A hundred stories repeat over and over, while others skip and start across their timeline as their actors appear and disappear from this place while others linger on, plodding through their world's time with out noticeable upset.

Its amazing, if you think of it. My galaxy skips along at three times the speed of most of the other worlds connecting here, and yet friendships can still be held and companions found.

How about you? Have you checked this community one day, only to find months worth of material when you returned the next? Or the opposite - years passing for you yet the community remaining the same?

You thoughts are, as always, appreciated.

- Karakael

Comments

[text]

[former_endboss]

Isn't time relative though? Especially in different universes You shouldn't expect it to flow consistently outside your own frame of reference, that's basic stuff.

[masked_god]

Indeed. What surprises me is how consistent this place is. My universe seems to be an outlier rather than the norm, which is strange indeed.

[former_endboss]

Hmmm, well it could be synching up other frames of reference. Possibly. It's been a busy day here, I haven't had time to experiment.

[masked_god]

I wonder what those frames might be?

You have only connected to this place for a day?

[former_endboss]

I adapt very quickly. It is a skill I pride myself on.

[fearleads]

Every body else seems to have weird calendars. It should have been years since I've been here, and it feels like it has, probably, but it hasn't, but it has? I don't get it. Maybe my world's the weird one. Of corpse, I probably should have figured that out when I found out that nobody else had eight-day weeks.

[masked_god]

Your world has eight day weeks? Interesting...

How much time has passed for you since you've joined the community?

[fearleads]

Hmm... well, it was just spring break! And I came a little before back-to-school or so, but I feel like I wasn't a year old yet, even though I'd already gone through a school year -- wow, this is really confusing. I'm going to have to get out the chart again.

*MH time, it never makes sense.*

[masked_god]

Heh. You world sounds more like mine that I would have imagined. Worlds with time travel and dilation are always difficult to track linearly.

[Oh, The Inquest is very similar. Try to make a timeline when some characters move a different speeds through the same story...]

video;

[selfished]

[ Kyouko by now knows her world is even more weird since it keeps repeating over and over even though their community relationships stay the same.. although she's not sure how much of that is common knowledge, so she doesn't immediately mention it. ]

How does this place do that either way?

[masked_god]

I have no idea. It would be interesting to find out, correct?

[Karakael is a bit of a lazy bum when it comes to keeping track of the various canon timelines that connect to the community, but he has seen many, many canons repeat in the seven/hundred years he's been a member. Kyouko's universe is hardly a surprise.]

[selfished]

I dunno if it'd be "interesting" as much as it's probably disturbing.. it makes it sound like this thing has a mind of its own. Wouldn't that make it some kinda alien or something else creepy?

[masked_god]

I've always thought of it much like a thinkhive. They are organic computers tasked with caring for worlds in my universe. After a few millennium they tend to go a little...insane. Given access to unlimited power, I'm sure many would create something akin to the community. After all, they do rather enjoy making puppets of their masters.

text

[thatoneboss]

pretty cool show there!

well, this guy i know was talking to me from the future, i guess. does that count?

[masked_god]

That does indeed! Did you find it strange?

sadly I don't have a good "well, duh" icon

[thatoneboss]

um, yeah? who wouldn't?

[masked_god]

Well, one becomes used to it after a while.

[spiritually]

This past year has been pretty strange time-wise.. my friends even threw me a birthday party on the community's calendar instead of my own this year.

[masked_god]

Would you rather have kept time flowing according to your world, or the community's?

[spiritually]

I like time according to my world, since I get to do more on the community and spend more time with the people from both. It's a little busier, but I think it's worth it.

[masked_god]

I cannot imagine the community flowing as quickly as a day of my time to a day of its...but perhaps when one has more time for such things it would be a treat.

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[answerer_sword]

I am of the first category. The time of the community is faster than the time of my home universe. Sometimes it is a little unnerving.

[masked_god]

Is it ever strange to watch the lives of other community members speed faster than yours?

[answerer_sword]

A little bit. It feels that too much passes by if I looked away for but a second.

[masked_god]

I believe I prefer the community moving slower than faster. It would be so easy to miss important moments if one was always attempting to catch up.