Whereas we, the Institute, attract most of the cold, hard liner types. I do promise you that were my character someone else our interactions might well have gone differently, but the default stance of Halifax in both the histories and the modern game seems to have been one of dismissal. I, as a player, enjoy Iytha (even.when our shameless making stuff up is working at cross purposes), but I would be lax if I ignored the whole dismissing thing. Sorry!

"Sentinel Company Incident Reports", By the Sentinels Guild (Page 6)

=========================
Induced Temporal Skipping
=========================

=========
Overview:
=========
The following report details the temporal anomaly event of the period
270-273 CE. At the turn of the New Year, time accelerated and the Basin
underwent temporal skipping, experiencing the New Year and other events
numerous times. The Company's preliminary analysis of possible causes
for this event is detailed below.


===============
Company Report:
===============

Incident Report SC-S-271/273
By Peacekeeper Aloysha La'Saet
------------------------------

At the last hour of the year 270, an anomaly occured: The year
progressed ahead to the year 273, rather than to 271 as expected. Three
suspects were established:

- a misweave
- the Illuminati
- temporal experimentation

A misweave report was submitted and we waited for word from the Fates
about the possibility of a misweave. Until the Fates reported back to
us, we could only investigate other possibilities.

The Illuminati had caught my suspicion due to their leader: Chixsanga.
She had, soon after the anomaly, been reaged to her original age after
having, allegedly, been deaged to a state of extreme youth by the
Fleshpots of Vortex. I am privately suspicous of this claim, but played
along.

Chixsanga, prior to the anomaly, had been deaged to be tweleve years of
age and then aged, by the progression of time, to fourteen. During the
anomaly, Chixsanga aged, as did everyone else, ahead two years. After
this, Chixsanga was aged by an Institute researcher who she refused to
name to the age of twenty-one.

Chixsanga claims that the original deaging, from 16 when she exited the
portal to the age of 12, was the result of experimentation with the
Fleshpots Lovashi and Uurulu. After extensive questioning, Chixsanga
eventually agreed to send me her notes regarding the Fleshpots. They
have been enclosed.

It is my conclusion that Chixsanga is not, so far as I can tell, the
cause of the S-271/273 anomaly. She is merely a violator of various
laws. This leaves an experiment or a misweave.

<<< EXTRA STUFF ABOUT INSTITUTE &
BEGINNINGS OF REPORT ON TEMPORAL EXPOSURE >>>>

This concluded Sentinel Company investigations of the event.


===========================
Supplemental Documentation:
===========================

Supplemental Document 1
-----------------------

]

"Through the use of ribbachi, I have managed to successfully draw
aggressive behaviour from each fleshpot of the Vortex without drawing
aggression towards myself from both the fleshpots and the other denizens
of Vortex.

Two fleshpots have drawn my attention in particular - Lovashi and
Uurulu. Lovashi has proven to be the most powerful in terms of defensive
capability, perhaps owing to the abundance of care it receives from
fellow guild members.

Experimentation with Lovashi proved to be the easiest, as it is
considered one of the most basic flesh pieces to manipulate. After
feeding the fleshpot in our usual manner, I withdrew flesh from one of
the newest-grown petals and imbued it with power from my own reserves,
before preparing my flesh for transmological alterations.

The result was unexpected - my scales grew softer, the chamber appeared
to grow larger, my robes became uncomfortably heavy. I suspect a surge
of power had passed through the Plane, somehow - but lacking proper
equipment, and given the plane's constant state of flux, I would be
unable to discern it from my own eye.

A second experiment - a failed one - occurred with Uurulu. Considered
the most advanced flesh, uurulu was beyond my capabilities of altering,
so such efforts were abandoned.

However, provoking assault from Uurulu - in the event that my ribbachi
was not destroyed outright - revealed that, among its variety of
attacks, the fleshpot has an attack that causes a lengthy blackout and a
rather lengthier affliction of aeon.

Considering that Uurulu is housed in the 'Chamber of the Unseen', this
raises a great variety of questions as to Uurulu's true functions, as it
is largely considered to be the flesh that manipulates auras..."

The fleshpot's defensive response appeared thusly:

The Fleshpot of Uurulu's aura spreads outwards, enveloping you in its
light.

]

Bearing a tender resemblance to the lotus flower, the Fleshpot of Uurulu
grows up from the ground on a tender, semi-erect stalk of transparent
flesh. Great leaves of calloused skin fan out from its base, looking
vaguely like lily pads, floating delicately across the semi-consistent
ground upon which the fleshpot grows. Casting a faint glow of prismatic
colours, the aura of light about the Fleshpot of Uurulu swirls and
changes haphazardly with a sudden twist into an entirely new display.
Perhaps made worse by the proffered light, the transparent flesh of the
stem reveal countless streams of pulsating fluid and taught tendons,
semi-translucent muscle and tissue drawn about the bundles of macabre
mishmash of half-formed organs, pulsating glands and even the odd,
squirming creature within that resembles a hungering parasite. The
source of the glow radiates gently from the seed cup of the flower,
surrounded by swaying petals, some of a pink, weeping tissue and others
formed of smooth skin, each petal a different tone and colour.

I am beginning to approach the edge at which it becomes imprudent to
grant you further information beyond what I currently have, so I hope
your theories reach a conclusion soon.

In addition, the time leap appears to have decayed the furniture in our
post office. I shall be writing the Institute a strongly worded letter
of disapproval, along with a copy of the bill so that the loss can be
recompensated and our postal wakabi service can continue to run
smoothly.

-Chixsanga

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

This is the first I've heard of this, outside from the market announcements and public news post - which, to be honest, I thought was just a complete joke trying to make fun of Hallifax. If Iytha approached Wuy, I don't think I'd take her seriously but I'd also be very cautious.

You guys got a nerd complex over there or what?

Totez!!

If this is all about your proposed Muian (sp?) aeonic study thing from the public post, I think you can also relate this to what happens in real academic circles. The 'publish, or perish' attitude means you do not collaborate with your rivals, nor do you use dubious sources of data. I would suggest you go ahead and publish your own research from the Mu Labs or whatever and force Hallifax into trying to repudiate your results. The vicious flurry of contrary research back and forth is something you see in real academic circles, and I'd love to see it occur in game.

For those curious, the experiment in question is to see if Newcomb's Paradox is in effect with regards to Aeonics by having one or more aeonicists stand in for the all-knowing predictor in the thought experiment. So, I do sorta need an aeonicist for the experiment; it isn't viable to publish anything besides "Here's a neat experiment, but the Institute was too chicken to let me try it on them." without actual Hallis helping me.

So, work on other stuff first. Publish lots of things to build up your cred as a researcher. Heck, the US and Russia collaborated on space stuff after a while, so why shouldn't Gaudi and Halli wind up working together on something once some confidence was built up that neither side was looking to ruin the other? It's like the day after sputnik launched, the US called up Russia and said, "Hey guys! Let's work on a manned rocket together!"

Or something.

I'm hungry so my analogy making suffers.

Yeah... go eat. Russia and the U.S worked together because they both realized they were making progress and wanted to keep tabs on one another. With Hallifax's mentality, they think no one else is capable of understanding science to their level... So (in Hallifax's mind) it's more like someone from Jamaica going to CERN and asking to play with the LHC.

I've always thought this would be fun to see happen and would be an awesome form of alternative to bloodshed conflict. Then again, it'd kinda be funny/awesome if someone got ganked and when they died, their attacker said, "I read your paper on the dynamics of magic induced weather and your research was so shoddy I had to come do something about it!"

Iytha, as a player, I like you and I'd like to think we get along.

But, you can't expect the Institute to be cooperative in your pursuit to study temporal sciences any more than a Celestine can expect a Nihilist to help them study Demon Lords. The Institute is the organization devoted to temporal sciences, if you want to study temporal science with their full blessing, join it!

There are many, many avenues for scientific study outside of areas that are the domain of the Institute. You could study Paradigmatics and Transmology with little difficulty and full cooperation... as would be expected of an Illuminati. However, expecting full - or even partial - disclosure about the fundamental concepts of a guild from an organization that is the game-designated enemy of your organization just seems a bit naive.

I was a Celestine and I didn't have too much problems bugging Mags to talk to me. So tbh, it's probably just Hallifax being snooty.