[voice]

[scanningutterly]

[The speaker is clearly annoyed. But if you listen for it, there are notes of worry and even panic beneath the irritability.]

I checked this thing an hour ago, why does it say it's been months?

Comments

[dual_wield_hax]

Because you've been gone for months. Welcome back.

[scanningutterly]

But I haven't! It was two hours at the most!

[dual_wield_hax]

Well it's been a few months for us. You dropped off around the middle of August I think? Somewhere around there? September maybe?

[scanningutterly]

Looking back for my activity, that looks right.

It's just- [he takes a moment, takes a breath] Is this just the community being weird, or is it something on my end?

[dual_wield_hax]

Looks like it's the Community's end. For us, it's been a few months and for you it's been a couple of hours or so.

[scanningutterly]

I hope so. I don't really have any way of being sure of the time here.

[dual_wield_hax]

That sucks. No time pieces or just anything huh.

[scanningutterly]

No. Time's different in different simulations and we don't have access to any information that's really outside of them. I think I'm getting tired around normal times, but...who really knows?

[dual_wield_hax]

Bah. That's not good. In SAO we have full 24 hour days.

[scanningutterly]

Every simworld in this network is so specialized, it's hard to predict anything. The puppets in this simworld talk about there being a day, but I'm not sure it's something that actually happens.

[dual_wield_hax]

It sounds like a day in game-time to me so to speak. One that isn't bound by a 24 hour clock. Honestly, you'd probably have better luck finding more info inside the sim than you would anywhere else.

[scanningutterly]

And that's about our only option at this point, anyway. [He sighs.]

How are things with you?

[dual_wield_hax]

Better than expected. I've leveled up more, and rejoined a guild. I've also made some progress in finding the next dungeon.

[tenminutes]

Time flies when you're having fun?

[ That's the worst response to this, tbh.. ]

[scanningutterly]

Yeah, all the fun I'm having being trapped in some billionaire's pet virtual reality project is just killing me.

[Because he's actually dying irl, get- oh no she won't, oh well.]

[tenminutes]

[ She gets that it's a joke, but she doesn't think it's about him. ]

Ha ha. Very funny.

[scanningutterly]

[how many people on here have found out about him? oh well, that makes things easier in the end.]

It's probably just the community being weird, like people are saying.

[elloran]

Sometimes it does that. For me it is usually the other way around; I'll be too busy for years to remember it, and yet when I check it things are right where I left off.

[scanningutterly]

...So it doesn't really mean anything about time in your world, right?

[elloran]

No, not really.

[scanningutterly]

Good. That's good.

[elloran]

Why do you ask?

[scanningutterly]

...I don't know what time it is, in the real world.

[elloran]

Oh. Is it important?

[scanningutterly]

If months are going by without me having any idea, of course it's important!

[elloran]

Personal time is more important than external time, one would think. Surely it will be easy enough to reintegrate once you return to the outside world. A few years of time-disparity is hardly meaningful.

[scanningutterly]

...Do you live in a time where space travel is common, or something? Because a few years of time-disparity here are a huge deal.

[and would be a significant percentage of his lifespan]

[elloran]

I do, in fact. But if families in my galaxy can reunite after a decade or four and adapt, then surely your family and friends would adapt as well.

[boostup4beetbuster]

Dunno. The community might've dropped you for a bit.

[scanningutterly]

Yeah, but...time wasn't like this before. Things were a little slower here than on the community, but not that much.

[boostup4beetbuster]

Well, when I figure out how this place works, I'll let you know.

[scanningutterly]

Thanks.

I'll do the same.

video;

[fairyofwind]

[Izumi has an excited smile on her face!]

Orlando! You're back!

voice;

[scanningutterly]

Izumi!

I guess, uh, I've been gone for a while.

voice;

[fairyofwind]

It's really only been an hour for you?

voice;

[scanningutterly]

About that, as far as I know.