red thread

Friday? So it's presumably still November 3, 1995 for you at the moment...

I highly recommend you write about this in your thread. People have been discussing the possibility of upgrading your situation to a Case File. It might be worth trying.

Once you're able to send me that private message (assuming it's a location and not something esoteric), I'll likely be vanishing for a little bit and unable to help for a few days, but getting your case upgraded to a Case File may pull someone in who knows how to handle time-based phenomena like yours.

It's Friday. At least I thought it was Friday till you brought it up. Am I wrong?

Marcus, if you can bear with me, can you tell me what day it is for you today? Not the year, but the day.

Of course I will send you a PM with the information you requested as soon as I feel comfortable allowing myself go back there, to Brooklyn. This most recent translation has exhausted me.

To answer your question about translating: when I am working on your translation I am back in Brooklyn in 1995. The text is there in the book, the old copy of Tacitus' Annals, I just need to find it.

More importantly it is today again, November 3rd, 1995. The book has just arrived in the mail and I am at my desk translating it. I am me again, I am young. I am the person I feel I am. When I force myself back to here suddenly I am old. I don't recognize myself. I am stiff when I get up. My back hurts when sit too long. My knee tightens up on me and aches for hours. Even my fingers get stiff and start to hurt.

Also when I am back there I feel that there is something that I know and understand and that knowledge is comfortable to me. I know it is there but I can't comprehend it anymore. I don't understand why.

Perhaps this might help you understand my confusion. It is November 3rd, 1995 to me. It has always been November 3rd, 1995. However when I pull myself back here you tell me it is November 3rd, 2025. I have no idea where the time between then and now went. All I know is that I am old here.

I will fetch the information you want from the book when I feel able to go back there and return. I feel drawn there. I want to be me again. I don't like the me here. I don't want to hurt every day and be stiff when I walk. I don't want to wake up at night with my hips killing me no matter what position I sleep in. I don't want these holes in my memory.

I am sorry to be so longwinded. It is not like me. However, I hope you understand now that it might take me a little while to retrieve the information you are seeking.

Marcus Tullius

Marcus, you are a godsend.

While I'm still not sure I LIKE what's in that translation...or whatever you call it, I cannot express enough how much this means to me.

But, I BEG you, if you can, if it's not going to cause you any great trouble, please, can you send me a private message telling me what you redacted in the section where it says "Meet me in ██████ by the fourth"? You might have given me exactly what I need.

To answer your questions, where I currently am, it's currently November 3, 2025 in the Americas, November 4, 2025 elsewhere. It's been two days since your last post.

Of course, how reliable that information is really depends on where you are, but I hope it gives you some help?

I wanted to update you again.

I have been working on the code when I have felt able to. I have translated most of the text save for a small section. In addition to the blurring of my vision that I was having, this untranslated section was making me feel physically ill. I felt as if my vision were sliding past it at some points and I was seeing the decoded words clearly the next. I lost several hours or perhaps days while working on it and had trouble concentrating in order to return back. Is the year correct? How long was I gone?

I am not sure if it is advisable to decode this section. This is the text that I was able to translate:

a hermetically sealed vessel large enough for subject no matter current pose buried two plus feet deep quicksilver infused paraffin painted i

██████

allow candles in any arrangement not wax infusion with sulfur helps a symbol of departure world best is an item from the rede tailed info about departure world also makes it easier a visual representation of subject more detail is better only perform if subject is a deeply cherished friend or loved one ritual must be performed in a location on destination world equivalent to exact location subject is occupying in departure world for your case meet me in ██████ by the fourth will lead you to spot i divined if ██████ will give up their frequent flyer card bring it do not handle quicksilver without gloves and respirator you will get her back in lucem verit atis ██████

Marcus Tullius

Thank you, Marcus.

The more this gets revealed, the more I hate what it says, but I'd rather know than pretend everything's okay. I'm gonna go through her things again tonight. Maybe I'll find something that doesn't make this sound as horrifying as it looks.

I felt up to having a crack at the second section today. I am afraid I came up with following sentences several characters into the block which I can add to the first section:

"a hermetically sealed vessel large enough for subject no matter current pose, buried two-plus feet deep, quicksilver-infused paraffin, painted i... is a deeply cherished friend or loved one. The ritual must be performed in a location on the dest..."

Unfortunately I could get no further before my vision started to blur again.

Marcus Tullius

No, please don't apologize. I want to get to the bottom of this, and that was extremely helpful.

I've been trying my best to look into what that translated portion might be. The fact that quicksilver symbolizes things like the life force, the spirit, the mind, etc...and it talks about burying a capsule that can fit someone in it...that sounds really human sacrifice-y, but I'm gonna try to hold out hope that my sister is not that messed up. I know she wouldn't do that. Not her.

Regarding your own situation, I'm really sorry if this thread brought up some uncomfortable feelings for you. I really don't want others to get hurt trying to get through this, so please don't push yourself further than you're ready to. Let whatever process you're going through stabilize. I should still be here, and maybe someone else will be able to help in the meantime. Thank you, Marcus.

I see your point. I am sorry I startled you by bluntly putting out the cypher text like that.

To be honest, when I logged on I was certain this entire thread would not be here. I felt like I had dreamt the entire incident up. While I was working on deciphering the text I was back in Brooklyn working on translating the book somehow. The contents of her message felt...normal...for some reason as if I had translated it or things in that same vein before. I know that makes no sense and hence I had the feeling that it would all turn out to be a dream.

To be honest with you I am feeling very displaced today and am having trouble focusing on being here if that makes any sense. I think I may need to take a pause from the cypher for a bit until I feel less out of sorts.

Marcus Tulliius