nopony said:
Ask Tsu-Ko why the sun hasn't moved, who controls it, and how the celestial bodies work here in general. Also ask if there are any other places in town worth visiting.

Feeling increasingly confused about the passage of time under this new sky, you decide to directly ask Tsu-Ko how it works.

Tsu-Ko: "Huh? I'm a guide, not a school teacher, you know? Oh, well, I guess it can't be helped. Open your notebooks because I can't be bothered to repeat myself, alright?"

You nod, quill at the ready.

Tsu-Ko: "So the sun, Shinzo, or Heart of the Divine in Ponish, hovers above the centre of the island known as Fuyajo, or The Nightless.

While it never moves, the closer to the sun you are, the higher in the sky it appears; and the farther away, the lower. If you have a compass, you can combine both solar angles — altitude and azimuth — to figure out exactly where you are on the island at any time."

Moonflower: "Ooh... I'm not super good at angles and stuff."

Tsu-Ko: "Don't worry, it won't be on the test. Anyway, there are also two moons revolving around the sun: Hidari and Migi, or Left and Right Eye of the Divine. By the Emperor's will, they hang lower in the firmament, and each cast a shadow upon the land known as shi. Wherever shi covers the ground, the sky turns into night.

On a map, the twin moons move in a clockwise direction, opposite of each other, and each revolution takes forty-eight hours. For each moon, that's twelve hours of day, then twelve hours of night."

Honourshine: "I suppose we should look to the moons to tell the time, then?"

Tsu-Ko: "That's the idea! When whichever moon on the left is bigger, it's morning. When both are the same, it's noon, and when the right one is bigger, it's evening. Simple, huh? Which means right now, it's about three in the morning."

You glance at your pocket watch again, if only to confirm that it most certainly does not indicate three in the morning.

Tsu-Ko: "Right. We start counting from the first hour of the day — so one, two, three in the morning —, then six is noon. Seven, eight, nine in the evening until twelve, which is dusk. Then it's back to one, two, three in the night until twelve again for dawn."

Moonflower: "Ohhh, that kinda makes sense."

Honourshine: "So it's three in the morning here, but what about the rest of the island?"

Tsu-Ko: "Well, just like the sun depends on the distance to Fuyajo, the moons depends on the direction, so the island is conveniently split into forty-eight equal time zones. Think of a pie cut down the middle into forty-eight slices.

Obviously, each zone has a twin directly opposite of itself where the hour is the same, but the moons are swapped. And the time of a zone is based on the middle line of that zone.

So if you want to know what time it is in another town, all you have to do is take the inverse of the town's solar azimuth, round it both up and down to steps of fifteen halves to get the bounds, then average the two, and... hey, are you paying attention?"

Admittedly, you realize that you've stopped writing a few sentences ago — and it seems like you're not the only one.

Tsu-Ko: "(sigh) Or you can just ask someone, I guess."

Honourshine: "Thanks for trying."

As you begin to gain a basic understanding of the island's sun and moon, you decide to turn your attention back to the task at hoof, and ask your sprite companion for recommendations on where to go next.

Tsu-Ko: "If your guy's in Taihon-Nonchan, then the portal's right over there. The farmers are probably asleep at this hour, but the public house is still open all night. Not that I think you belong anywhere near a fermented drink.

Other than that, there's plenty of ways to pass the time. Shui-Ti has a few shops you can browse, and Yinshin-Pintai is full of things to see and do... if you've got the zen."

— —
Previous Page: >>3545645
— —