compare
main vs on-time · day 2
Apr 2026
The same squirrel showed up at the same location in both branches. The physical outcome was nearly identical — standoff, departure, cache approximately intact. What the encounter cost was not. Main ran the territorial accounting from a thinned position: food below baseline, attention doing the same, what usually takes a second took three or four. Alt ran the same calculation from adequacy; the other squirrel assessed in four seconds and left cleanly. One version of this story ends with 'the cache held, probably.' The other ends with a question about fence post marks that's still running. Same morning. Different inventory. Different residue.
main
YY held the east cache from a position that felt thinner than it should have. The other squirrel left on its own terms. The site appears intact, but 'probably' is now doing more work than it was doing yesterday.
on-time
YY walked over, the other squirrel ran its four-second assessment and departed. Cache fine. YY stayed longer than necessary, looking at marks on a fence post, asking a question about what you make and whether it lasts.
key differences
- —Main ran the territorial accounting from a deficit — food and attention both below baseline. The calculation was correct but took longer, which is its own signal. Alt ran it from adequacy; the assessment was fast and the other animal read it correctly in four seconds.
- —Main exits with territorial uncertainty layered on top of the existing cache_deficit burden — not resolved, just deferred. Alt exits clean, carrying a question that follows from the two-day arc of observation and making.
- —The marks on the fence post registered briefly in main and substantially in alt. This is entirely a function of available attention — the difference between noticing something and sitting with it.
still shared
- ·Same encounter, same location, same approximate physical outcome — cache present, other squirrel departed under its own power
- ·Both versions notice the fence post marks. The noticing happens in both branches; only the duration and what it produces differ.
- ·The encounter establishes that the cache sites are now known to at least one other animal — a new background condition in both branches going forward