text | un: finch | subject: notes left by 'scylla'

[ornithologist]

I have collected all the notes left by the individual Scylla after Mission 012 that I could find available and uploaded them to the shared data repository.¹

According to Ms. Won in her post here, there are 10 in total, meaning that one note remains missing. If you are in possession of this note, please contribute it to the data repository. These notes are the biggest credible lead on getting to the truth of things that I've seen in my time here; I cannot emphasize enough how imperative it is that you share the missing document.

There are two sides to these pages, one side being narrative journal entries and the other complex higher-order math. I have been working with Accelerator (un: accelerator) on deciphering what we can of the mathematics, and we have drawn the following conclusion with reasonable certainty:² this is a mathematical representation of the inevitable decline and resulting destruction of the fabric of reality. In other words, it demonstrates proof of Echo's claim that worlds are falling apart from natural causes.

Based on my own knowledge of 20th century Earth scientific discoveries, this is plausible. The universe is infinitely expanding and at an accelerating rate, and though we have a poor understanding of the eventual consequences of that, that is a measurable fact.³ It appears whoever took these notes was working through the implications on their own with far more advanced instrumentation available than what is familiar to either Accelerator or myself.

Reviewing the text of the pages leads me to several further conclusions:

    (1) These were most likely written by Echo themselves as they came to the mathematical conclusion I just described.
    (2) The author demonstrates sincere remorse and went to incredible lengths to attempt to resolve this problem, but it was beyond their capabilities. If these are written by Echo, then they have become some kind of god-like being in their pursuit of saving worlds, but that still was not enough.
    (3) Ultimately, they placed their hopes in the idea that if they could buy time, someone else could find a solution, whether it be a mysterious blacked-out name referenced in the entries or someone from a different world entirely.
    (4) It is possible that our task to prove the 'worth' of our worlds is being measured on this scale, that of how likely our societies are to be able to address this problem, making it a pragmatic determination and not one based on any inherent qualities of 'worthiness' otherwise.
    (5) The time scale on which this is all taking place is likely literally astronomical.

Furthermore, reports of conversations had with Scylla indicates it is highly likely that Scylla personally knows Echo. He stated in one conversation that the math was intended for our receipt and would have been provided by Aurora, but the journal entries were not, and he deliberately intercepted them and ensured their distribution throughout Etraya. Scylla intimated to Ms. Won that the pages reveal something about what he and Aurora are cursed not to speak of. What that might be, I'm unsure.

Most importantly, Scylla provided verbal confirmation to Ms. Won that he also believed the worlds are unraveling. All of these facts combined, I think we must take that as true going forward.

Please share in the comments any other inferences you feel could be reasonably drawn, and we may discuss further.

¹This was posted about recently, but if you haven't seen it, there is now a data repository available for communal use. It is maintained by Sunday (un: sunday) and myself (un: finch). Please contact us if you have any questions on how to make use of it.
²Certainty would, of course, increase with the final note included in our analysis.
³For further reading on the topic, I suggest Barbara Ryden's Introduction to Cosmology published in 2003. It is available at the library.

Comments

un: XxBlackKnightxX

[pullit]

[Please note, he reads this three or four times before he comments.]

im sorry, can you fraze that in laymans terms please??

like.... the worlds ending thing is real?

[ornithologist]

[ Harold genuinely appreciates the attempts and is used to people asking him for the short version, so he doesn't mind the request. ]

Yes, I have substantial reason to believe that what we have been told in that regard, at least, is true. The worlds are ending on their own.

[pullit]

well fuck


so how is Echo or whoever able to stop it then??

un: Accelerator; text

[levelshift]

How many people do you think will actually go and try reading that book?

[The fact that Accelerator is even asking means he thinks that number is very, very low....]

[ornithologist]

At least one. I thought I'd save myself the question from Mr. Talis.

audio, un: antigoneiguess

[rudelanguage]

[you gotta understand that even a quarter of that in TTS is a nightmare and Knife TRIED. What the FUCK is a footnote.

wearily:] Heyyyy...Can you...sum it up short-wise? The thing I gotta get.

audio

[ornithologist]

[ Harold sounds completely patient in his response. ]

What we've been told about our worlds ending is likely true, but Echo doesn't know how to fix it yet.

un: Sunday; voice

[choirmaster]

Natural causes? You mean heat death?

audio

[ornithologist]

It could be. I'm less an astrophysicist and more of a math nerd, so that's a bit beyond me. But the author of the notes believed something like that to be the case.

text, un: superman2

[newsbeat]

Be nice if someone had been more straightforward about points 4-5, if they're correct.

[ornithologist]

I must agree. Though I do see how knowing that at the outset would make us -- or some of us -- less likely to be cooperative with our mission assignments.

Or maybe that's completely outdated information at this point, and Echo has moved on from that approach. Hard to know.

un; champion (text)

[twin_blade]

"We" don't have to do shit.

[ He's tired of people telling him what to believe. ]

You think you can trust Scylla? What do you actually know about them?

[ornithologist]

Believing something to be true based on multiple corroborating sources really has nothing to do with trusting them.

But I'm not interested in trying to convince you or anyone else of anything, in any case.

un: e-soul; text

[neonrain]

Thanks for sharing your conclusion. It might be worth asking Aurora to pin this so that newcomers don't have to dig for it in the future.

After reading the journal entries, shouldn't we be questioning Echo's name?

[ornithologist]

You're welcome. Things to do with Echo appear to ride a difficult line for Aurora, so I'm not certain that request is the wisest course, however.

In what way do you mean?

un: punkrock99

[krtaps]

So Heat Death or Big Crunch or whichever it is is happening NOW?

I thought we had a couple billion years left

[ornithologist]

It might be -- not being an astrophysicist, I feel woefully underequipped on that end of things.

But I do think the time scale at which things are happening must be, shall we say, malleable.

un: skullwing

[crimsonsphere]

Oh, swell. Nothing like a mathematically guaranteed apocalypse to brighten up your evening.

How long have they been working on the problem?

[ornithologist]

It's almost impossible to tell, unfortunately. Echo may have a lifespan that makes the event seem looming and urgent to them but generations removed for us.

un: Athos

[goodcommunist]

[ Bless his buddy Nero for getting it spelled out for the laymen out here, because this was a skim, pause, skim and immediately look in the comments moment for Pavel.

Also he does not realize he's interacted with the author here before yet but his own identity is pretty clear. ]

Yo-moyo, this is more than I can wrap my brain around! But the effort does not go unnoticed!

So, my question is, if someone wise enough to elevate themselves to the status of a god can't figure out what to do, what are the actual chances this group of randoms can?

[ornithologist]

[ Harold is going to add a tl;dr version in the future, that's for sure. He was so caught up in his own thoughts he forgot they might be impenetrably opaque to someone less in the weeds on the matter.

As for recognizing Pavel, he's not totally sure at first... Auriel was some time ago now, and their Fae selves different enough, and this conversation taking place via text instead of in person. But then he clocks the username and it connects. Harold is impeccable at remembering names. ]

It's hard to say. We really don't know much about what "god-like status" might be in this case. If you only have a hammer, everything begins to look like a nail, as the saying goes. And we're all given to our own predispositions and biases. I fear we don't have enough information to really deduce more.

I'm glad to see you made it out of Auriel in one piece, however. I believe when we met there I was going by Wren.

un: romano

[badlydisarmed]

Thrilled to know other people doing absolutely thankless work.

Footnotes? Really?

[ornithologist]

I've been thanked a few times already, actually.

Including them in the body of the text disrupted the flow and distracted from the main point in an already overly-long missive.

un: Wolfman | audio

[will_chase_balls]

I'm confused. If the people who are picked to represent our worlds are so Echo can figure out which worlds could solve the universes getting destroyed problem, why was I picked? I don't think I'm the best person to show whether or not Eberron can solve this problem. We have powerful wizards and stuff who make really fancy magical contraptions. I'd think Echo would get a better idea from one of them about what my world is capable of.

audio

[ornithologist]

[ It's a savvy question; Harold doesn't mind entertaining it, and doesn't waste time on reassurances about relative value. ]

I'm only speculating, but if the most accomplished minds and the most unimaginable power have been unable to solve it, Echo might be casting a wider net purely out of desperation.

When you've tried everything that seems like a good idea, sometimes you're left with just the bad ones.