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The illusion is breaking, gradually we are seeing past the mundane world and into the darkness of Metropolis. There is, however, no time in Metropolis (or indeed Metropolis time certainly works differently to our time) so what is causing the illusion to break down as time progresses through our world? This is an attempted explanation of the contradiction and some ideas about the new nature of time.
It is possible to consider that the illusion isn't only now breaking down, rather it is breaking down at a constant rate throughout all periods of history, we no longer have the old past which was thoroughly enshrouded by illusion, all our pasts are infected. We have proof of this, which can be readilly accepted by society: history has changed, and we all know it. If you allow your mind to think, you will realise that in the past history was always more sentimental. In the past, we remember the middle ages being knights in shining armour atop a white stallion, now days we call this fantasy and recognise instead the squaller in which people lived. Possibly we simply know more and do not romanticise, more probably we are allowing ourself to see the changing world and time in its full glory - we meerly rationalise the changes thus preserving a portion of our personal illusion. It is possibly better to consider that while takes place in our world, the illusion has broken just that bit further, making shadows just that bit darker.
There is no time, as we know it, within Metropolis. That said, there is still cause and effect. One thing still follows another, hands on clocks still move, sand still falls through an hourglass. The problem is that time is no longer consistant in the same way that the dimentions of space seem somewhat wrong. Just as you could pass due north for several yards and move several miles to the south, it is just as possible for time to do the same sort of flips, just because a watch starts moving backwards doesn't mean cause will follow effect, sand will still fall under the weight of whatever Metropolis's equivalent of gravity is although there is no reason to think the size of the pile of sand will increase - we have to think in non-euclidean terms here folks.
Something my games have already had to handle is the problem of someone in an area where the illusion is breaking comparing times with someone outside the area. This is easily solved by use of the illusion as a means of control.
"I had seen the watch moving backwards with my own eyes. There was no reason why, as a jeweler I could tell that the mechanism was working, the laws of physics were blatently being defied, although I could not figure which laws, things were just plain odd. I had to solve this enigma before my mind totally fell into the mists of insanity - I reached for my portable phone and called my mother.
"Naturally my mother was somewhat bemused by her son phoning her and asking the time, but she was more than happy to humour me - then again she has noticed my gradual descent into oblivion and may well be following the advice of the shrink she sent me to, no matter. I set my watch to 6:32 as she instructed and waited, how long for it seems somewhat impossible to tell
"When my watch reached 6:15 I telephoned my mother again, she seemed somewhat suprised to hear from me again so quickly. I asked here, relieved that I had found the problem surrounded only me, the time. I only begam to scream as she told me in that matter of fact voice it was 17 minutes since I last phoned her, exactly 6:15 pm"
In this situation the illusion is breaking for the author while his mother remains firmly within it. Time will move the same way at a break in the illusion as it does within the illusion, the difference is that there is no illusion to make us rationalise or obscure impossibilities from our minds. The mother correctly reports the time within the illusion both times, however her clouded mind fails to notice that it is now earlier than it was several minutes ago. We enter the world of non-euclidean chronology. Had the author managed to explain to his mother what was going on, he would possibly bring about the breakdown of her illusion. My suggestion for such a situation would be to make an ego roll. If the roll is failed, the character in the illusion is unable to comprehend what the hell the person within the crack is talking about - things seem perfectly normal within the illusion. If the roll is successful, but the effect is less than 10 the character will notice the weirdness of the situation - a rationalist will rationalise it and a new age pagan will call it weird. An effect of greater than 10 will cause a rip in the illusion for the character, your players won't mind being responsible for the phone going dead and their mothers body found stuffed as if by a professional taxidermist and covered in arcane runes next time they visit her. Honest.
We now have to consider how this new view of time affects magic related to it. We must now forget about previous definitions of time and consider that spells relate directly to time as we perceive it now. See through Time & Space will only allow you to see time and space as it was in our chronology, not as it was before the illusion split (thus we see plague ridden villages not camelot). There is no way to contact 'previous' realities without manipulating reality directly.
Written by Ben Chalmers <Ben@BENCH.DEMON.CO.UK>