Viewing as __RSPTN__
(12:50)__RSPTN__: Then perhaps it's time we elaborate. A shatterpoint, put simply, is the vehicle by which Gaia enters a universe. /message ((Delta)) Very well. I'm investigating your claims about Padlock. If they're actually a spy... well, we'll see.
(12:52)Padlock: I don't understand. "[A] universe"? (12:52)__RSPTN__: Patience, patience! Yes, there are multiple, but we'll get there in due time. (12:52)Seabiscuit: S- so, if a shatterpoint... happens, Gaia shows up? System: Incoming private message from user Unum_Relicuum:
(12:52)Unum_Relicuum: Ignorance!
(12:53)__RSPTN__: Not quite. A shatterpoint is an event that must happen in a specific way. That not happening is what attracts Gaia. /message reply You said it yourself, a prophet's visions are rarely complete. Think about how much we don't know.
System: Incoming private message from user Unum_Relicuum:
(12:53)Unum_Relicuum: Would that their understanding be greater, so close to the end.
/message reply Is it not an article of faith that Gaia will provide for its own defeat?
System: Incoming private message from user Unum_Relicuum:
(12:54)Unum_Relicuum: Of course. I speak not to question It, merely our new friends.
/message reply Let us not discount that which may be a gift so quickly.
(12:54)Padlock: So, my dreams mean that a shatterpoint is going to happen wrong? (12:54)__RSPTN__: That's difficult to say. Gaia objects to universes mixing, and as the faithful must respect its wishes, we have very limited data. System: Incoming private message from user Unum_Relicuum:
(12:55)Unum_Relicuum: Be careful how much you give away.
/message reply Technical truths are something of a guilty pleasure of mine.
(12:56)Padlock: Okay, so what are some possible interpretations? (12:56)__RSPTN__: I think I'll let UR handle this one. /message reply Sorry to put you on the spot.
System: Incoming private message from user Unum_Relicuum:
(12:56)Unum_Relicuum: No, it's appreciated. We really must get on the same page about what must be kept secret.
/message reply Indeed. For the time being, then, I will trust your judgement over mine.
(12:58)Unum_Relicuum: A universe that misses shatterpoints is unclean. Gaia is just, but merciful. Your visions are a warning to the faithful. System: Incoming private message from user Unum_Relicuum:
(12:58)Unum_Relicuum: It is becoming increasingly difficult to trust these people.
(12:58)__RSPTN__: There's a certain pressure away from events that would invite the totality of Gaia's wrath. /message reply If they prove untrustworthy, we'll simply have them killed.
/message ((Delta)) I fear UR may move against Padlock before I have a chance to.
(12:58)Padlock: Okay, how does that work? (12:59)__RSPTN__: If something would cause a shatterpoint to be missed, it becomes less likely. /message Unum_Relicuum Am I still good?
(12:59)Unum_Relicuum: I haven't heard of It intervening through visions like the ones you've been having, but these are strange times. System: Incoming private message from user Unum_Relicuum:
(13:00)Unum_Relicuum: Yes.
(13:00)Padlock: Okay, what other ways does Gaia intervene? And if It's already here, does that mean we've already failed? (13:00)__RSPTN__: How's your quantum mechanics? System: Incoming private message from user Unum_Relicuum:
(13:00)Unum_Relicuum: For the love of Gaia, Ashley!
*(13:00)Seabiscuit cringe*
/message reply :( Should I stop?
System: Incoming private message from user Unum_Relicuum:
(13:01)Unum_Relicuum: No, the damage has already been done. See how they react.
/message reply Very well.
(13:02)__RSPTN__: I promise, this isn't so bad. The short version is, at a sufficiently small scale, reality becomes probabilistic. An electron isn't anywhere in particular, but a superposition of multiple places. (13:03)Seabiscuit: You have an interesting definition of "not so bad", mister! (13:04)__RSPTN__: The point is... The probabilistic nature of quantum reality gives Gaia many, many places to intervene. After all, a human brain works by transmitting electron pulses... System: Incoming private message from user Unum_Relicuum:
(13:06)Unum_Relicuum: IGNORANCE!
(13:06)Padlock: Well, It's been giving me dreams... (13:08)Seabiscuit: S- sorry, this is a lot to take in all at once ;^; (13:09)__RSPTN__: Of course. We could break here, if you'd like. (13:10)Padlock: I'd had a second question. If Gaia is already in this universe, does that mean the faithful have failed? (13:13)Padlock: Wait. If Gaia can mind control people, can't it just take control and fix things? System: Incoming private message from user Unum_Relicuum:
(13:14)Unum_Relicuum: IGNORANCE UPON UNFATHOMABLE IGNORANCE!
/message reply Temper yourself!
(13:15)Padlock: I'm sorry, my finger slipped. (13:16)__RSPTN__: That's quite alright. But if Gaia could control you at that level, why would It have permitted that mistake? No, It is indirect. (13:16)Padlock: Well, does It actually care? (13:16)Unum_Relicuum: Gaia doesn't care. Not about you, not about me, not about anything. Its entire existence is predicated upon the need for a force of preservation. System: Incoming private message from user Unum_Relicuum:
(13:17)Unum_Relicuum: Their response here, I'm sure, shall tell us what we need to know.
/message reply Agreed.
/message ((Delta)) If these two are spies, we should interrogate them. If not, we should protect them. Whether you are lying or not, they are in danger, and I do not believe it is to our advantage.
So, here we go.
First, local time
for i in {1..3}; do date -u +%Y/%j/%H/%M/%S/%N; sleep 1; done
Unichat time - not sure whether Unichat supports delaying commands or parts of commands, I suppose you could assume a script is issuing these commands on a 1s delay.
/channel stat -time
[sleep 1 local time]
/channel stat -time
[sleep 1 local time]
/channel stat -time
As for the in-universe time, this might be the hardest to get. Ostensibly, the command would go along the lines of this:
sudo date -s "$(wget -qSO- --max-redirect=0 google.com 2>&1 | grep Date: | cut -d' ' -f5-8)Z" -u +%Y/%j/%H/%M/%S/%N; for i in {1..2}; do date -u+%Y/%j/%H/%M/%S/%N; sleep 1; done
but I doubt it would show anything other than our time. As far as we know, our only window into this world is Unichat. Perhaps we could try some sort of connection over Unichat? Maybe SSH through it to a computer on the other side? Good bet would be Algernon University, as it might have an atomic clock, or perhaps something even more accurate we haven't invented yet.
Though I doubt anyone's going to do that just to figure out whether or not time passes at the same rate. (Also, the date commands include the year and day of the year, which would give us the current in-universe date as well)
P.S. This might or might not be in response to SecundaSonja's and future pwnz0rz's 20 minute to christmas remark and DeepDark's supposedly long delay, which didn't turn out to be long after all. edit delete reply
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Clearly there are time shenanigans of some description going on, since it's canon that the amount of time elapsed from DeepDark's perspective was different from bloodshoes' perspective, but that doesn't seem to be something we can actively control. I don't think there's any sort of constant relationship between the flow of time on our side and the flow of time on theirs, aside from the fact that directionality seems to preserved for the most part (we can't send a message back in time and save bloodshoes, for instance, since that's in the past from both perspectives and always will be.) Then again, the weird thing that happened with Sans' message to meta might be an exception...
~
So whatever we are, I doubt we exist at the same time as the characters, because if we did we'd expect time to flow much more linearly for us. Whether we canonically exist in their world is another question. I mean, in-story me is on record as referring to himself as "the best fan" and asking if DOGFOODLID wants to be "plot-relevant", but as the foremost expert on Arbiter I can confidently say that those are the kind of things he'd say even if he weren't talking to fictional characters.
~
There's also the possibility that we might not even all be the same thing. It seems pretty likely, actually. Xeno is canonically in a different dimension than the rest of us, DeepDark and Delta are readers who've interfered with the plot but are not affiliated with the council, DeepDark's account was said not to exist but endsoftime's got banned, and if the A.D.D.R. Online thread on the forum is anything to go by Delta might be an inter-dimensional traveller too. Maybe Xeno and Delta are from another dimension, I actually am from the real world, Sans is a time-traveller, and ends is actually someone who exists in-universe.
TL;DR ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. edit delete reply
just like real life edit delete reply
I mean, we're pretty ridiculous IRL too, but I suppose nothing quite tops appearing to be suddenly possessed or something and having ?? time stamps edit delete reply
The short version is that, originally, Unichat didn't have any shell functionality, and /whatever was just handled by pattern matching. Later, as Unichat's capabilities (cough) expanded, Gods decided it would be helpful to give it a scripting language, so he added a bizarro bash variant (obviously not POSIX-compliant, heh) called bush (the u stands for Unichat). An initial / sends the rest of the line to that shell; it's not a path separator in that context, so invoking a regular bash shell is either /bash or //bin/bash (ick), and running foo.sh in the current directory is /./foo.sh (mega-ick). This makes Unichat more than a little impractical for any serious computing, though that doesn't stop our characters from doing so when it's convenient for the story. It does mean that Unichat has a very rich plugin ecosystem, which is where things like Hades' Realm come from. edit delete reply
/message _RSPTN_ I doubt interrogation would work on Padlock; too unpredictable. Corner Seabiscuit and ask about their council.
/message _RSPTN_ Oh, and I wish to apologize for questioning you faith. You have already given me all the answers I need.
/message --file="RasputinLog01" Arbiter
/message Arbiter Ashley, what a lovely name... edit delete reply
with the exception of games night at Tempie's,ourscreaming matchesnegotiations had pretty much come to a screeching halt./message ((Delta)) Should I know who this Ashley/__RSPTN__ person is?
/message ((Delta)) ...Wait.
/message ((Delta)) OMG Delta, do you have a crush on her? Is that why you commented on her name?
/message ((Delta)) I'm flattered that you're coming to me for relationship advice, but I'm sorry to tell you that I don't think she's a good choice for you. She seems really into that whole Gaian scene, man. Trust me, you do not want to get mixed up in that. You go on one date, and the next thing you know she's asking you to come with her on a three-week trip to Russia to go blow up a monument.
/message ((Delta)) Besides, your buddies might think you're cheating on them with another cult. That would make games night awkward. edit delete reply
I propose the ship name ΔtoAsh edit delete reply
Noooo
Rasputin/Vampire otp ;~; edit delete reply
There's a lot going on, I need some time to process this edit delete reply
[5:48:26 PM] Xenocartographer: Would the title theme be "cruel mapmaker's thesis"? edit delete reply