Day one of work under Sisyphus.
Mr. Sisyphus told me to keep a notebook about the experiment we are apparently undertaking and everything that's going on in my day. He did promise not to snoop around in it, which made the purpose of doing this quite unclear.
Uncertain what the purpose this task holds, I've decided to simply write it like a diary.
Sisyphus has been quite vague about what he is trying to achieve with my assistance, but he's constantly swarming about how revolutionary it would be.
If it succeeds. He truly did not seem confident.
The vigor he puts into his work could be described as admirable or crazed. It's uncertain which of the two truly applies.
To date, I've only been involved in siphoning my Notium into a few contraptions of Sisyphus, uncertain of what they're supposed to achieve. I am trying to heed the advice of Sisyphus's colleague, who seems to be called Carn, to stay alert around the guy and not to fall asleep near him.
How would that even happen? The workdays are shorter than my usual job, and it's not like I stay here overnight. The lab in which I work, or at least the space I'm allowed to enter, is rather small and compact. There are a few areas off-limits because the items stored there are apparently very delicate.
This is all I have to write down for now, as my daily routine has changed little, with me taking a quick stop at my sector's team before heading here.
I hope this is what you wanted from me, Sisyphus.
Day two of work under Sisyphus.
Up to now, I have yet to see any destructive or suspicious behavior from Sisyphus, aside from our first…explosive meeting. He just seems a bit socially awkward and overeager to experiment. Maybe Carn was just exaggerating?
Nah, I shouldn't make an eager judgment. More observation is required.
Today he showed me a few new, peculiar devices. Some looked like an interesting imitation of an arm, mostly built of gears and less futuristic tech. Why is it that so much of the machinery here has such an ancient touch?
Another device sucked up almost half of my Notium supplies straight out of my body after my finger was pricked by a sort of needle-like thing.
And as a result, the giant machine, built in the same style as the other machines scattered throughout the lab, after rumbling and shaking for a while, spat out a small, maybe head-sized rock of metal.
A truly insignificant amount, for what it swallowed up. After asking about the reason for the meager return for almost half my reserves, Sisyphus explained that there was a certain loss at the transition of the Notium that I produced naturally into a neutral version and from there into one that was fit for creating such materials.
He noted aswell that he had changed exactly that in my own trusted glove. He had taken out the step of changing my Notium into a neutral version of itself and instead directly let the glove work with the Notium I used.
He seemed quite impressed that I had only lost half of my reserves after creating a rock of such size.
Was I underestimating how much it would cost to create matter?
Maybe as a reward, he asked me if I wanted to see something interessting. After agreeing, he told me to pour a droplet of Notium into three new devices, each with a cone-shaped outlet on top of the machine.
After hesitantly dropping a single drop into each machine, a flame in different colors flashed up for a few seconds, jumping out of the outlets.
It might have been a nice light show, but I couldn't fully enjoy it. Who does he think I am, literally burning money!
Those were three drops of pure Notium taken from my savings of thirty, or now twenty-seven drops.
And ever since, he has not even lost a word about the whole incident. This is robbery!
Day three of work under Sisyphus.
After we used the machine to create an ore of sorts once and burned a bit of my savings, we moved on, rather quickly. It seemed that these machines weren't the reason for my being here and were more of an experiment stemming from curiosity.
Today I was told to use my symbolism and see how it reacted with a few certain devices.
It wasn't quite proper to thoughtlessly reveal my trump cards, and it was seen as a taboo between Authority Wielders to directly ask to reveal such things. But considering the obvious aftermath of using it, and the guy being no Authority Wielder, I decided to agree in the end.
If, of course, he did not record anything pertaining to it.
The first object was like a light of sorts, not quite up tup to the city's modern standards but near them, and when my newly woven threads were wrapped around the device, it suddenly ceased to function, flickering in and out in an unnerving fashion. It was a truly peculiar phenomenon.
This was a surprise to say the least.
I had experimented with this symbolism of mine for over a year now, and yet I had never seen such a phenomenon and never considered it, since its origin was completely unconnected to technology of any kind.
After further inquiry, Sisyphus told me that it wasn't a specialty of my symbolism in particular, but the nature of it itself. That technology and the rules of nature and physics worked differently from realm to realm, with each realm holding its very own rules, some having very little distinction from the space realm where we lived, others so vastly different that it was difficult to even compare the two.
But when my symbolism became concentrated on a specific spot, the rules of its origin started to interfere with and even overwrite the current realm's rules. Thus leading to the machine no longer working as it should. After all, it wasn't conceived to work within the Realm my own Authority originated from.
This was the largest reason technological progress was very inconsistent across the entirety of all realms, and rituals had consistently been the preferred method of development.
They were stronger and more consistent, at least when pulling strength from oneself and not a higher being.
The whole topic managed to pique my interest, especially since I've never heard of it.
I might ask about it tomorrow. Trisha is also quite gifted in ritualistic magic. I might ask her about it aswell.
Didn't I plan on meeting up with her a while back?
Day four of work under Sisyphus.
I talked about the phenomenon with Sisyphus for a while. He was very enthusiastic about the topic, too much, even for my liking.
His entire being seemed to be filled with righteous indignation at the plight of all technicians. Apparently, the more complex the technology, the more likely it would be influenced. This at least explains why many of Sisyphus's inventions were mostly built out of springs and gears.
Well, he should be calmed down by tomorrow, and ease off the topic.
After the exhausting day with Sisyphus, I met up with Trisha and Stone to play some cards. Trisha seemed to know rather little about the phenomenon after being tactfully pestered with questions. She truly knew just a few basic facts and that there was an apparent maximum to the overwriting of rules. And when one overstepped that maximum, it would cause something called a "retaliation of the realm".
It sounds quite cataclysmic from what she told me.
It was truly laughable to what her knowledge pertained to.
Of course she would only care about the limits of things. She truly has a taste for driving things just to the brink of collapse, simply to see the limit. Other than that, the night went well.
The strings surrounding Stone had yet to undergo changes, and I have yet to make any progress on understanding what makes him different from all of my other connections, other than that we knew each other before.
Day five of work under Sisyphus.
In all honesty, if I hear one more complaint from the far too vocal madman, I'll kill myself, or better yet, him!!!
If you ever read this, Sisyphus, KNOW THAT I HATE YOU!!!!
It seems that this interference of physical laws- to be more precise, technology- is what I was sent here to help him study, since ever since we started experimenting with my threads, we have yet to do anything else.
He's probably trying to figure out the limits to which his tech can still function even when under the influence of a Symbolism.
Note: Sisyphus wanted to show me something in his lab tomorrow. If it has anything to do with that damn interference of the realms, I swear I'm going to choke that guy out. I dont care anymore if it would be a loss to humanity or the higher-ups wanted him alive!!!
Day Six of work under Sisyphus.
I might scratch the earlier days' entries. I do not intend to get on the bad side of the mad man with his eyes set on the far future. Especially if what he intends succeeds.
The city's higher-ups are truly ambitious to support such a project.
I made the mistake of falling unconscious from Notium exhaustion while testing out one of the machines. When I awoke, I found weird drawings all along my body, from my stomach to my pelvis, outlining certain organs.
Why did Carn tell me to avoid falling asleep near the guy?
Sisyphus played ignorant when I inquired about the incident.
Future note to myself: Do not fall asleep near that guy ever again, and be especially cautious about your Notium reserves!
Day Seven of work under Sisyphus.
We made little progress throughout our work together, a truly disheartening result.
It's a bit weird that Sisyphus has so little reaction to each failure of a machine after being exposed to a mountain of my silk.
Carn accidentally damaged one of Sisyphus's machines in his drunken stupor. Surprisingly, Sisyphus didn't go ballistic over it, but Carn seemed rather tense after realizing what he had done.
The incident of my unconsciousness has not been addressed ever since.
Day Eight of work under Sisyphus.
His constant, consistent drive after tens of failures, with no loss of confidence in sight, is truly respectable.
Say what you want about the man. You can't deny his determination to achieve his goal.
Shortly before leaving today, I saw a knocked-out Carn being dragged off by Sisyphus. I decided to tacitly ignore this for now. If I do not find Carn anywhere tomorrow, I'll investigate further.
Just in case, I'll place this book very openly in my apartment so that if I disappear tomorrow, you, whoever you are, reading this know that I did not do so of my own will. And check Sisyphus's place!
Day nine of work under Sisyphus.
Ever since yesterday, Carn has stopped drinking all of a sudden. Before, I could not find the guy without a bottle in hand. Now he only looks at them with deep longing. I can't help but note that after staring at that bottle for a while, his gaze, filled with deep hatred, occasionally wanders over to the trusted inventor.
Sisyphus's determination borders on depravity!
Hundreds of tests in just a few days. This is madness! Does he intend to work himself to death? Or, more importantly, me?
Day ten of work with Sisyphus.
Despite his apparent fanatical madness, I can't help but admire the guy.
I asked about the reason for the hurry and why he was putting so much effort into this, even if it might not even be useful.
He said. "Because I want to."
The answer was so simple yet so baffling.
It seemed so foolish, yet at the same time, even while knowing how foolish it was in a certain way, envy-inducing.
Day eleven of work with Sisyphus.
…
Day fourteen of work with Sisyphus.
We did it!
Finally, we did it. We reached the goal that we strived for. We found a good sweet spot where the machinery Sisyphus built was largely unaffected by the threads I created.
It wasn't much, but it was finally done.
I just don't understand it.
The guy simply moved on to the next project as if reaching the goal meant nothing to him.
A truly peculiar man.
***
"Urgh," Jawing out loud, Noctis put down the pen to his side.
'Didn't you write too much in there?'
Ignoring Ouroboros's question, Noctis slowly shook his head.
"I stayed very vague about anything that mattered. You only understand it because you already know the nuances."
Picking up the pen leisurely, Noctis started weaving it through his fingers as he added in a slightly wistful voice.
"If one only knows a few small pieces of the larger picture, it's impossible to figure out what exactly its truth is. Hm hm hm..."
Chuckling halfheartedly, the image of Carn being dragged crossed his mind.
"Then again, even if you had all of the puzzle pieces, you would first have the desire to solve it."