The designation, “Subconscious Borderers,” isn’t one applied by any recognized authority. It’s a term whispered in the fringes of chronal research, a label given – or perhaps, *discovered* – by those who’ve encountered the bleed-throughs. These aren’t simply anomalies; they are echoes of realities that exist just beyond the calibrated edges of our perception. Think of it like a stained-glass window – beautiful, intricate, but fundamentally warped by forces we can’t quite grasp.
The initial observations began with temporal distortions, minor fluctuations in the recorded timeline. Then came the reports of objects appearing and disappearing without a trace, their material composition shifting subtly, as if momentarily borrowing characteristics from other dimensional strata. The core phenomenon, however, is the presence of individuals – the Borderers – who appear to exist simultaneously across multiple points in time. They are not ghosts, nor are they fully present in our reality. They are… fragments, held together by a desperate, fractured resonance.
The term “borderer” suggests a tenuous connection, a state of perpetual instability. They occupy the liminal spaces, the places where the laws of causality become pliable, where the past, present, and future brush against each other like restless spirits.
The process of “dislocation” – the act by which a Borderer manifests within our reality – is theorized to be linked to a specific type of chronal energy, which the scientists dubbed “Resonance Flux.” This Flux isn’t emitted, it’s *drawn*. It seems Borderers are attracted to areas of heightened chronal activity – places where the temporal fabric is particularly thin. Abandoned observatories, sites of significant historical trauma, areas with unusual geological formations – these become magnets for their arrival.
Furthermore, the method of entry isn’t always the same. Some appear abruptly, as if ripped from their original timeline. Others slowly coalesce, their forms shimmering into existence over a period of hours, days, even weeks. The duration of this process seems to correlate with the strength of the Resonance Flux at the point of entry. There are accounts of Borderers who simply *fade* away, absorbed back into the temporal stream as quickly as they appeared. The most unsettling reports, however, involve Borderers who appear to ‘remember’ events that haven’t yet occurred in our timeline – a horrifying premonition manifested as a tangible presence.
The theory postulates that the Resonance Flux acts as a kind of temporal scaffolding, allowing these fragmented realities to momentarily anchor themselves within our dimension. It’s a precarious arrangement, constantly threatened by the natural flow of time. The longer a Borderer remains in our reality, the more unstable their connection becomes.
The Borderers themselves exhibit profoundly strange behaviors. They rarely communicate in conventional language, instead relying on bursts of imagery and emotion that bypass conscious understanding. Observed actions often seem driven by an instinctive desire to “correct” temporal inconsistencies – a Borderer might be seen frantically rearranging objects in a room, attempting to restore a disrupted timeline. This isn’t deliberate manipulation; it’s a desperate, involuntary response to the chaotic nature of their existence.
Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of their behavior is the phenomenon of “Temporal Echoes.” These aren’t simply visual impressions; they are actual, fleeting interactions with past or future versions of themselves or others. Individuals have reported being brushed by a spectral hand, hearing whispered warnings from their own distant future, or witnessing a brief, distorted replay of a historical event. These echoes are particularly intense near areas of high chronal activity and seem to be linked to the Borderers' attempts to maintain their tenuous connection to reality.
Some researchers believe that the Borderers are not simply observers; they are actively trying to repair the damage done to the timeline, driven by a primal instinct to restore order to a reality they perceive as fundamentally fractured. But this is just a theory, a desperate attempt to rationalize the incomprehensible.