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Codrin Bălan#Artemis — 2346

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Convergence T-2 days, 0 hours, 37 minutes
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Codrin#Artemis

I am finding myself overwhelmed by the strangeness of the goings on during this whole venture. I know that you have it worse, given the fact that you are having to deal with meeting four alien races as well as experiencing an entirely new system, complete with an entirely new take on reality.

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Codrin#Castor

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When I first got your note, I was worried that I’d not have time to squeeze in a response, until I remembered the tools at my disposal. This keeps happening over here. I’ll find myself feeling rushed to complete something, then remember “oh, wait, I’ll just move to fast-time, and then I can do whatever I want.” I’ve even got some writing done during our rests. As such, you’ll probably get this seconds after you sent your letter, modulo transmission time.

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When I first got your note, I was worried that I’d not have time to squeeze in a response, until I remembered the tools at my disposal. This keeps happening over here. I’ll find myself feeling rushed to complete something, then remember “oh, wait, I’ll just move to fast-time, and then I can do whatever I want.” I even got some writing done during our rests. As such, you’ll probably get this seconds after you sent your letter, modulo transmission time.

For reasons I’ll get into momentarily, talks are going somewhat slower here than I think anyone expected. The Artemisians are incredibly patient with all of us, though, for which we’re grateful.

The reasons for this are almost entirely up to the Odists. True Name and Why Ask Questions are both struggling with the time skew, WAQ more so than TN. Michelle quit forty years ago, and since then, I’ve not seen the shifting of form that she struggled with.

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WAQ, however, immediately fell back into that. She’s hardly spoken at all, and seems to be continually on the verge of getting sick or losing control completely. She seems to be able to either speak or maintain her form but not both, and even then, it comes at a dear price. When outside unison rooms (see below), she has a very hard time remaining in common time. Often, the best she can manage is to stay within ±1 of it.

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WAQ, however, immediately fell back into that. She’s hardly spoken at all, and looks to be continually on the verge of getting sick or losing control completely. She seems to be able to either speak or maintain her form but not both, and even then, it comes at a dear price. When outside unison rooms (see below), she has a very hard time remaining in common time. Often, the best she can manage is to stay within ±1 of it.

TN is also struggling, though to a lesser extent. She is striving to remain as in control as she can, but there will still be the occasional silence as she struggles, as did Michelle. During these, she will clench her fists or grit her teeth, and there will be the occasional glimmer of Michelle in there. As such, this has put a damper on our discussion, though, to Dear’s worries, no, we don’t seem to be in any danger.

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To that end, we’ve moved the talks to a unison room. These rooms ensure that everyone within them remains synchronized to the same time skew, though the room itself can skew faster or slower than common time (which, I’m assured, is the same as ours, based on similar constants; managing time skew feels much like most System interactions such as forking or traveling, and common time feels like a pin in a lock clicking into place as you move faster or slower). To that end, the unison room has become TN/WAQ’s rest area while the other three of us have our original room. I don’t know what to call it. Phasic room? They haven’t been able to provide an answer because it’s just “the rest of the world” to them.

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To that end, we’ve moved the talks to a unison room. These rooms ensure that everyone within them remains synchronized to the same time skew, though the room itself can skew faster or slower than common time (which, I’m assured, is the same as ours, based on similar constants; managing time skew feels much like most System interactions such as forking or traveling, and common time feels like a pin in a lock clicking into place as you move faster or slower). To that end, the unison room (or wing, perhaps) has become TN/WAQ’s rest area while the other three of us have our original room. I don’t know what to call it. Phasic room? They haven’t been able to provide an answer because it’s just “the rest of the world” to them.

As you mention, Iska is somewhat out of their element because of this. They’re a skew artist, analogous to Dear’s instance artistry. They seem uncomfortable in a unison room, though they remain very polite about it.

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To your question about breaks, you’re right that they are used to stepping away to talk about something before providing an answer. Before our shift to the unison room, they would readily shift up to fast time to discuss topics. After about skew +1 (moving twice as fast as common time), sound does not transmit the barriers, so it acts as a cone of silence, in that sense. Tangentially, I’ve found that touch also does not transmit after skew ±0.5, probably to prevent injuries.

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To your question about breaks, you’re right that they are used to stepping away to talk about something before providing an answer. Before our shift to the unison room, they would readily shift up to fast time to discuss topics. After about a relative skew of ±1 (moving twice as fast as common time), sound does not transmit to others, so it acts as a cone of silence, in that sense. Tangentially, I’ve found that touch also does not transmit well after skew ±0.5, probably to prevent injuries.

Tycho and Stolon are, as you suspected, quite frustrated with the lack of scientific discussion going on. Several times during breaks, they’ve shifted to fast time to get as much chatting in as they can. Tycho honestly seems quite taken with Stolon, and I suspect he’s found a kindred spirit, though he has expressed some frustration about their lack of mastery over our common tongue. He said that they’re both studying during their breaks in order to better converse.

All in all, though, I quite like it here. It is very different, and I find myself missing my family (and the food!) quite a bit, but honestly? I am also finding that I truly enjoy time skew. Codrin#Assist, don’t tell Dear this.

In terms of knowledge share, you’re spot on in much of what you bring up. The firstracers are hard to read, as you say, though you can add ‘rocking head side to side = amusement’ to your list. You don’t mention much about Iska, but they’re really quite nice after one gets past the clipped nature of their speech. I like them plenty. I’ve already spoken about Stolon.