Hi.
Most people say it started in 2019, but I think it’s impossible to know by the very nature of it. Maybe it started a thousand years from now and only appears to have started in 2019 because of the wall. Frankly I think it could even have started earlier and traveled forward first before hitting the wall on the way back. For me, it started just a couple of years ago, (Exactly two years ago in fact, February 26 2025(wait! Is that significant? I don’t know.))which would make it four years ago for me, two years for most of you.
Or, rather two for most of my friends, but actually still 14 years away for you…
So, if I’m right, and I’ve found a way to break the wall, at least online, then you will be reading this in 2011, probably completely confused at this point…cause no matter what it hasn’t happened yet.
So (deep breath), let me try again. (Organized thinking is hard these days, well at least for me, and for a lot of us I suspect. Or at least, linear forward chronological thinking: There’s so little reason for it and so many reasons opposed to it)
Sorry, trying to reign it in: TSCS.
Time Stabilizer Collapse Syndrome.
How do I explain it? How can you, who sits there at rest in your chair watching one moment follow the next simply, easily, predictably, begin to understand what it’s like to bounce, ricochet, skip and float. Words that mean nothing to you, or at least much less than they mean to us.
How can you begin to know the gulf that separates you from us; the incredible isolation of the wall; a gulf completely foreign to those of us on this side, from those of you on your side.
A gulf even wider than the normal distance of history which separates you from those who came before..”before” What a strange word. It used to mean so much.
Now? I don’t even know what it means.
Sorry rambling again. It’s so hard to keep it together.
Maybe if this works (and I strongly doubt it) I can create some sort of glossary to send along as well and not try to explain everything here; maybe I can ultimately leave this space for the stories, the histories.
So, trying to keep it simple.
We’ve learned a lot about time and space since 2019. Well, at least about time. It turns out that time is not something that moves around us, or a car which carries us along it’s trajectory, but more something we travel as one travels in space. Or some say it’s more a way that we look at the world, a perception that controls our own movement through time.
One way to see it is to think of time as a series of stationary boxcars through which we walk, rather than a train moving which we ride. The reason we don’t recognize our own movement through the boxcars is that this movement is controlled autonomically by our brain, like our heart beating. Each of us moves at the same pace from car to car, reliably and always forward.
But now think, what if that part of us which controlled such movement (our temporal Smiata–or Time Stabilizer in the colloquial) through time could be controlled. Then I could walk backwards through the cars, visiting previous times, or I could move more quickly forward, or I could simply pause in one car as long as I liked.
Well that has never happened, but tragically consider what did happen. What if that part of us which controlled our movement through these “time cars” simply failed. What if our TS malfunctioned? What if someone traveled unpredictably, not only moving faster or slower than everyone else in either direction, but what if they skipped cars altogether. First here, then 40 years ahead, and then 20 years behind. Of course, such terms as “first” and “then” suddenly take on different meaning, but one think it would mean is that for this poor unfortunate soul, he would appear to himself to be moving in the same linear direction while the rest of the world was bouncing around him. To us he would simply be dissapearing and reappearing over time, rapidly changing ages; older, then younger, now radically older, now younger again…
I know, it’s a lot to grasp from when you sit, and it probably sounds completely crazy to you, and believe me, the implications are worse than you’ve now realized. But this is precisely what happened in 2019. Someone became unstuck. The story of the baby’s disappearance on March 5, 2019 and reappearance one week later but 3 months older, and then the discovery of where(when actually) he’d done his 3 months of aging will be to hard to explain in this first message. Should there be others, I will have numerous stories to tell, including the unfortunate case of this young baby, John.
Because…well, because it spread. This one isolated case soon was not so isolated. From all over the world, people started becoming unstuck. TSCS became an epidemic, and one impossible to count. For who can tell whether a dissapearance is TSCS related or not. Perhaps some disappearances have bounced so far as to just not have “come back to us” yet as it were.
We know so little bout TSCS.
What we do know:
- There seems to be no connection, no discernable relationship between TSCS victims. It does not limit itself by age, gender, race or culture.
- Treatment is not very hopeful. Some few have learned some limited control, but the dreams of TSCS sufferers learning to control their movement through time seems to be only that…dreams.
- Stress seems to exacerbate it.
- Some studies suggest that migraine and other seizure sufferers are more prone to TSCS.
- Symptoms vary wildly. Some speed up, some slow down. Some relive certain days and events over and over. (Oddly some replicate themselves and some replace themselves–startling implications for both) Some have predictable symptoms, most do not. Some go years with limited events, some never travel “normally” living their whole life backwards , or at hyperspeed.
- THE WALL.
The wall is the point at which no TSCS sufferer ever passes. It seems pretty clear no one has ever bounced, ricocheted, floated, or in any other way traveled to a point earlier than March 5, 2019. No TSCS sufferer has ever reported such a bounce, and no historical records ever indicate the presence of such a TSKer.
As with everything else about TSCS we have no idea why. Whether that first baby on March 5 set the limits or simply reflected them, no one knows.
Anyway, I need to wrap this up to see if it’s gonna work. If it does I suspect it will be another week your time before it shows up (wait! March 5? That can’t be conincidence).
I’ll scour the holonet for any sign of it, cause I don’t really know where it will show up. If it does I’ll try again right away. if I truly have broken the wall in this small way, maybe I can give some warning, figure out what started it, maybe prepare you the pre-wall world for what’s coming. Possibly spare you some of the chaos and confusion we underwent. From everything I’ve seen (and I’ve seen plenty) I can assure you no universe shattering paradox will occur from my actions. More likely than not, nothing at all will change, but still there are reasons to hope it can make some difference. Merely breaking the wall has got to mean something.
If nothing else I can at least journal the stories of the tragic people I work with, the strange community of TSCS sufferers. How we cope, how we communicate, our tragic stories, our hopeful ones.
It will be a one way communication I suspect, but maybe there will be some way you can give me a sign you’re reading. Something you might leave on the holonet, near this message.
Here’s hoping,
Professor Hinklemen,
TSCS Treatment foundation and fellow TSCS sufferer
I am really enjoying my adventure in catching up on all of your serial wiritngs! Keep it up, if only for those of us who are loving it!
Thanks Kelli, That means alot.
Hello Professor Hinkleman, or whatever your name really is. I object to you hijacking my blog in this way for your own stories. I was supposed to post my own sci fi story here this day and instead yours shows up. I don’t know how you did that but please stop.
I’m in the middle of reading another book and want to finish it tonight but started reading this and almost put my book down. Any way, I didn’t finish reading this but it has a very intriguing beginning. Sounds great… Professor Hinklemen? I really do need to finish reading before I comment, I guess.
Great concept! I like the originality of the time issues. (At least it’s original to me) I hope there is more to come.
There is more to come. I’m going to finish up Otis first and then get back to this one Thanks for reminding me about it Daniel!