I think I've figured out why we can't meet in Ethel consistently, even when we can share dreams elsewhere.
It's time. Ethel's geography isn't just spatial - it's temporal.
What I've Been Noticing
For weeks, I've been interviewing inhabitants about their history and culture. I keep running into inconsistencies that don't make sense:
- The shrine keeper told me a festival happened "last year." Another inhabitant described the same festival as "twenty years ago."
- A market vendor said their shop opened recently. Someone else remembered it from childhood.
- Historical events that everyone agrees happened get placed in completely different sequences by different people.
At first I thought this was dream-fuzziness, or translation issues, or my own confusion. But the pattern is too consistent to be random.
The Hypothesis
What if different visits to Ethel go to different periods of the city's history?
We all visit Ethel. We all see the same geography. But Charlotte visiting Ethel on Monday might arrive during what Ethelians call the Year of Amber Light. Harlan visiting on Tuesday might arrive in the Year of Longing - a completely different era. We're in the same place, but not the same time.
This would explain:
- Why the mapping project has inconsistencies (buildings that exist for some visitors but not others)
- Why interviews produce contradictory timelines (we're interviewing people from different eras)
- Why synchronized dreamers can't meet in Ethel (they arrive at different points in the timeline)
Testing This
If I'm right, we should be able to confirm it. When you visit Ethel, try to determine:
- What "year" it is (Ethelians use named years, not numbers)
- What festival is approaching or just passed
- Any distinctive events or circumstances
If we correlate these observations across visits, we should see whether our arrival times are random or follow some pattern.
What This Means for Meeting
If we can figure out when we're each arriving, maybe we can learn to synchronize temporally as well as spatially. Agree on a specific time as well as a specific place.
The question is how to navigate to a particular point in Ethel's timeline. Any ideas?