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After a severe de-clunking, I've re-posted this coin. Hope you like. Thanks to the commenters in the previous incarnation and in the forums.
UPDATE: New pic due to issues.
Obol photo by Marie Lan-Nguyen (2011)
Photo used under Creative Commons 2.5 Generic License
I don't dislike the idea completely. Sure, there have been plenty of thing what tells the future and plenty of coins to go around. I just don't know if this one has enough original content for myself. I'm not voting for the time being, I'll see if any edits come through to really catch my attention.
Also… I'm good on all the historical references with the exception of the June 12th incident… Just not sure what that is a reference to.
That was a tidbit I ran across in research and it is by far my favorite of the five. It PERFECTLY displays what this does.
In that case…. here's what I've got so far… and I'm just taking a guess on the June 12th one.
Feb 3: Buddy Holly
Jun 12: Independence Day of the Philippines????
Mar 30: Reagan assassination attempt
Jan 27: Michael Jackson burns his hair! (Which I must say, I laughed my ass off when I found that, so I hope that's right)
Mar 31: Brandon Lee
well look at you and your due diligence!
Feb. 3: Correct event! It's never been determined if it actually referred to Buddy Holly; it could be Richie Valens or J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson. hell, could've been their pilot. In my headcanon the coin flipped when Waylon Jennings gave his plane ticket to the Big Bopper, but only myself and the obol know that.
June 12: Spoiler!
all others you're spot on!
And now we've gotten to the core of the article, and it's much better for it.
Living the dream, or dreaming the life?
The chamber is affixed with a satellite-synchronized 24-hour clock set to Greenwich Mean Time. The coin is secured centrally within a free-spinning armature, both ends of which are held in place by way of magnetic levitation to assure against friction.
These procedures seem unnecessary and are detracting to me. The video cameras can record the time of events, and I don't understand the need to carefully suspend the coin.
I like that the writing changes. The events listed that it activates over are a bit quirky, does it activate for all major events, i.e. Neil Armstrong stepping on the moon, the Kennedy assassination, etc?
I would recommend using the terms 'obverse' and 'reverse' rather than 'heads' and 'tails'.
Took your wording suggestion to heart in the description; feels like it shook out a small bit of clunk; thanks!
The activations are person-centric. While it would not flip over the moon landing, it may very well have flipped when Kennedy was shot.
Date: November 22, 1963
Result: Tails (indicates expiration, subject identified immediately)
Translation: a phrase; translated as "grass patch" or "green garden"
Vaguely reminds me of some of my own work- I'm a sucker for historical scavenger hunts. I like how the coin has peculiar ideas about what people and events are important.
Satellite-synchronized clock seems weird- in fact, satellites make lousy timepieces because of relativity. I'd suggest having an atomic clock on site.
I suppose the foundation would want a timepiece connected with this thing that's more accurate than an average cell phone… new clock it is.
Also; Angus mentioned the suspension. i think i'll keep that in, but change the reason.
Great to see this back and in good working condition. I like the list of events, though it seems skewed more toward pop culture rather than political or historical figures. I certainly had fun running to Wikipedia to look them all up though!
A 'person of significance' is defined as a person who is destined to influence events or culture directly and globally. Causality study 1289-Alpha has determined that the coin is neither portentous of nor causal to the death or survival of a person of significance. The item acts as an indicator of nothing less than the fulfillment of destiny by significant persons.
What.
I like the article, especially the list of activation events. Just…how did the Foundation go about determining the "destiny" that must be fulfilled by the subjects of the activation events? Would it be better to simply refer to them as persons who have significantly influenced human history (or something else, I don't know)?
The best answer is a broadened example.
There is a bus crash on 2/25/12. There are a great number of injuries and fatalities. Charon's Obol experiences an activation event when the bus crashes.
Someone on the bus is significant to the state of the future world. at
this point, the Foundation does not know who it is.
Let's say it lands Tails.
The newspaper on 2/26/12 states that among the fatalities is Tom Smith, a local college student; the coin reads "fast dog" or somesuch. Story over; the world goes on and the flip is logged as having "multiple possible subjects"
Now let's talk heads.
The newspaper on 2/26/12 states that among the injured is a college student in a medically induced coma. 3 months later he leaves the hospital. as fate would have it, the student is pre-med. when the nobel prize for medicine is given out in 2041, Dr. Tomas Smith wins for his pioneering work in transplant technology. His research brought the organ rejection rate down to .025%. He often talks about his life changing event where he narrowly avoided death in a bus. Funny that the coin read "acceptance" when it flipped. Recorded entries are poured through, and the heads activation on the date of the crash with it's applicable message is logged in reference to Dr. Thomas Smith.
IMPORTANT FACT: The crash and the flip in either result are concurrent.
Ah. So the subjects of the activation events are just really important people.
Instead of mentioning their destiny and such, could you simply say that the coin reflects the fate of people who would have probably greatly influenced human science and culture? Sounds more professional than "destiny."
This is pretty good- clear and also interesting- but I really, really don't like this sentence:
The item acts as an indicator of nothing less than the fulfillment of destiny by significant persons.
Can you replace it with something or just take it out?
I'm open to ideas. With what I am trying to express, I have no idea how else to say it.
Ditto. I was with you until that line, but then I hit it and had to downvote. "Destiny" isn't a word that should be used in a document like this, because it's meaningless in a scientific sense. Predestination requires that the universe be deterministic, which has not, to my knowledge, been actually proven. And, in fact, I have no idea what that sentence means, if there's no causal or predictive relationship between the coin and the event. Are you trying to say that it's the event that causes the coin to flip and not the other way around?
Piffy is an SCP Foundation Moderator, Lv. 9001 Squishy Wizard, and Knight of the Red Pen.
