Amorpheous
Human Human
Da Flea
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- Posted: Wed, 28 May 2008 03:17:18 +0000
My story is NEAR completion. surprised
It needs to have a couple things filled in or rewritten because of changes I made as I wrote. (My character focus shifted, one of my songs changed and I only half followed my little outline. @_@ ) Although I probably won't get to that rewriting for a couple days. *ish easily distracted* XD But I can officially say now that there WILL be an entry. Huzzah!
It needs to have a couple things filled in or rewritten because of changes I made as I wrote. (My character focus shifted, one of my songs changed and I only half followed my little outline. @_@ ) Although I probably won't get to that rewriting for a couple days. *ish easily distracted* XD But I can officially say now that there WILL be an entry. Huzzah!
Gabbing Gabby
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- Posted: Wed, 28 May 2008 03:28:45 +0000
The only reason why mine might possibly be PG-13 is because there's a bit of detail on someone who's dead, like someone who's died in a car crash or something, and it's fairly vague and not very bad. It's not even real, either ... It's just a nightmare.
Over 3500 words! I've still got quite a bit to write, though; I still need to write where the entry has something to do with the song I chose. But I also need to edit it, too ... it seems kinda drawn-out to me.
Over 3500 words! I've still got quite a bit to write, though; I still need to write where the entry has something to do with the song I chose. But I also need to edit it, too ... it seems kinda drawn-out to me.
Da Flea
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- Posted: Sun, 01 Jun 2008 17:01:45 +0000
*Notes:
Terra means Earth. It's supposed to be a nod to an alien reference point. Plus it makes me feel clever. XD
Since I didn't find my main song on youtube, I'll upload it if you'd like to hear it.
I have a love of cheesy character names. I'm sorry. XD*
Username: Da Flea
Would you like your ratings to be PMed after the end of the contest? Yes, please.
Word Count: 10,178 (measured with formatting and all)
Song(s) Used: "The Tick Tock Treasury" by Joy Electric Lyrics, and a touch of "If You're Going to San Francisco" by Scott McKenzie
Prompt: Three people survive the end of Earth through a self-sustaining paradox. No, seriously. o_O This story... evolved in strange ways. I started with the idea of strangers brought together by a clock shop and eerie coincidences, and with the song, I just got this feeling like Fate, everything happening on time as part of a grand design, and even the people who are central to it don't entirely know why it happens. They only play their parts as best they can.
So the way it's written, jumping back and forth, is meant to create that feeling of connection between all the stages. You start to wonder if it's really the past leading to the future or the future reaching back to the past.
Title: History Repeats; Let's Stop For Tea
Story:
It was a warm day in June, the kind where clouds resemble cotton-candy - or at least, they would, if the confectionary delight ever came in vanilla - and in a San Francisco not yet swallowed by smog, three teenagers were enjoying lunch at a street cafe. In just four short hours, they would be in a theater, wrapped in nostalgic comfort as they watched the very first showing of Jaws.
"Rocky Horror Picture Show in a few more months," Jiff pointed out. "And two more years till Star Wars." His hands rolled into fists and shook with the pure excitement.
"While I do look forward to the birthing of the goth movement," Aeon stated, "I am missing the Internet horribly."
"Yeah," Jiff agreed. "It's strange not having mindless surfing and porn at our fingertips. Sometimes I wonder what we'll do when historic novelty wears off."
Epoch rolled her eyes. "Oh, I dunno. Go down to the beach and try some mindless surfing, then hit a cabaret show?"
"Adaptation!" Jiff shouted, pumping a fist to the heavens and attracting plenty of attention. "We have mastered thee!"
Aeon tried to burst his bubble by stating, "You realize there's no surfing here, right?"
"Maybe we invent it," Jiff suggested.
"No, there's... Oh, nevermind."
Epoch raised her cup in a toast. "Here's to a wonderful, future past."
"Tick tock. Tick tock." Jiff tapped the round, golden watch which hung around his neck. "We don't have time for this."
"There's always time for tea," Aeon insisted as she poured three successive cups. They each had a stylish black cat design, its tail curving up for the handle, and the teapot matched, like a mother cat bestowing an afternoon treat upon her kittens. It was the little things, Aeon knew, which made life really worthwhile.
"Have you looked outside?" Jiff asked. "The sky's the colour of blood, half the street's caved in, sirens are wailing and people are running around with arms flailing." He raised his arms over his head and did a short dance around the kitchen floor to illustrate, but despite the condition of the outside world, the inside of their home was calm and peaceful as always, filled with the steady ticking and chiming of innumerable clocks.
"In three hours, it's leaving time," Aeon said. "Now is tea time."
"But-"
"Relax." Epie put a hand on his shoulder as she entered the room. "If every hour began with tea..."
"This isn't exactly the time-"
Aeon and Epie each raised an eyebrow, and Jiff resigned himself to his fate.
"Don't worry," Aeon told him. "We're right on schedule. Time takes the time Time takes."
Epie nodded with exaggerated motion. "Mmhm. Mmhm."
"Oh, like you're so knowledgable," Jiff muttered at Epie. "A few months ago, you didn't even believe any of this."
It was a chill day made all the more irritating by the red and pink which decorated every shop window and several people. The 25th day of the second month, and Epie hated it. Two-twenty-five was like universal code for 'catastrophe'. Every year, it brought a new sorrow. Her father left her mother, her mother died in a car crash, and she ran away from an orphanage - all on the 25th.
Well, okay, running away hadn't been all bad. It had lead her to a strange woman by the name of Amea, who had taken her in seemingly without question, like an unofficial grandmother, and saved her from many years of the unglamorous life of a street urchin; but a year ago, on the 25th, Amea had passed away. Just a call from the hospital, the message left on an answering machine. Then bureaucratic run around.
'No, you can't see the body. Well, you aren't legal family, are you? The State will handle this.' That was the end of it. She knew nothing more of Amea past that day.
"Oh yeah," Epie muttered. "Today owes me."
A woman in a bulbous fur coat, her arms loaded with bags and boxes, bumped into Epie. The woman didn't apologize, only lifted a corner of her mouth in a sneer which showed exactly what she thought of the girl in the tattered brown jacket and scarf. Epie,unwilling to be intimidated, narrowed her eyes until the woman huffed and walked away.
Epie sighed and watched the cloud of visible breath as it rose past her face. She didn't really know what she was doing in this city by the bay, but there had been nothing left for her in Maine, and then there was that ticket - a pre-paid, one-way ticket she had discovered in a book. It was such an eerie coincidence to find it on the exact day of scheduled departure, in a book which had been packed away since Amea's death. Though Epie didn't believe in fate, she hadn't been able to resist investigating.
"Kinda regret that now," she whispered to herself. She was seventeen, in an unfamiliar city, with only the clothes on her back and the money in her pocket. The 25th of February had struck again.
The 'Don't Walk' sign flashed on at the next corner, and Epie obediently waited as cars zipped by. Her eyes wandered over the scenery, the clean white buildings, potted trees, and the red balloon tied to a mailbox. It bobbed with the breeze and rotated to reveal white lettering.
'Hey, Epoch'.
Epie's breath caught in her throat. She rushed over, tugged the balloon down and glared at the lettering which dared to call her by a name she never used, a name which only existed on a few documents on the other side of a continent.
There was a paper tied to the balloon's string. Epie pulled it free and found only an address and the phrase 'Time's a' wastin'.'
An information booth sat not five feet from the balloon, and Epie quickly typed the address into the computer. It was only two blocks from her current position, another street of local shops. Conflicting emotions tugged at her mind, but she finally decided to go. It had to be a coincidence, a cruel joke from a universe determined to make a bad day worse. There would be a street vendor, an art display, something which had nothing to do with her; and then she could continue in her pleasant obscurity.
At the address in question, sixteen-year old Jiff sat on the edge of a second-story balcony and swung his legs over the edge so that the baggy pants swished as they brushed together. Strands of messy hair fell in front of his round, gold-rimmed glasses, and he blew a puff of air to clear them from his vision. He stared at one of his many watches and counted down. "Three... Two... One."
Right on time, Epie rounded the corner, paper in hand and a look of confusion on her face. She examined each shopfront as she passed - the coffee shop, the book store, the empty building, and now the clock shop, which happened to be Jiff's perching point.
"Hey-o!" he called out before jumping down. It was a good-sized drop of seven feet, but his thick-soled sneakers and bending knees absorbed the impact. He stood up and thrust an arm forward. "You must be Epoch."
It took a moment for Epie to register the words over the boy's appearance. Around his neck hung several stopwatches, including one much larger than the rest and full of strange buttons and dials, and each of his arms was entirely covered by watch after watch after watch. Various rates of ticking came from him, as if he were a timebomb. She might have passed him off as simply insane, greeting any passer-by with the same enthusiasm, except he'd used her name. For that, she grabbed his collar and pushed him back until he hit the shop's window.
"How the hell do you know who I am?"
"Well, I, um-"
She pulled him forward and slammed him against the window again.
"I know you." He blinked and fumbled for a more correct response. "Did know you. Will know you."
"If this is a joke, I am not laughing."
The door of the shop opened, and Aeon stepped out. Her long, black hair blended in with her black, sleeveless dress, which she wore over a black-and-white striped sweater. She adjusted her glasses and said, "Would you like to come in? Or would you prefer to continue abusing the window."
There was something about the girl that felt very familiar to Epie, familiar enough that the scolding had effect. She released Jiff and stepped away.
"Good," Aeon said. "Now come in. You're just in time for tea."
"No, thanks." The situation had become too unsettling, and Epie wanted only to leave, but as she passed the door, Aeon called out to her.
"Epoch-"
Epie stopped long enough to point a finger in the girl's face. "My name is Epie."
"Didn't anyone ever tell you it's rude to turn down a free cup of tea?"
Epie froze at the words. Her adoptive grandmother had said that very thing on the first day they met, and now she knew why this girl was familiar. Her face, her voice - it all reminded Epie of the old woman. Coincidence, that's what it was - just horrid, horrid coincidence.
"Things don't happen by accident." Aeon stepped aside and held a hand toward the door, inviting Epie inside. "Not anymore."
Something tugged at Epie's heart. It was curiosity but more than that, a desperate longing for something she didn't want to admit; but it made her turn from her retreat and approach the shop. She insisted "just one cup" and stepped inside.
As expected, the interior was wall to wall clocks of every kind. Wall clocks hung on both sides, modern and retro and novelty, including the cat with the swinging tail and shifty eyes. Shelves down the center of the store held mantle clocks, alarm clocks, and designer items; and a stately row of grandfather clocks lined the back wall. Tick and tocks, high-pitched and low, blended together into something wholly outside the realm of normal sound. It became transcendent, even musical. Somewhere out of sight, the breathy whistle of a tea kettle joined in.
Jiff bounced with the unconventional tune, and when he noticed Epie watching, he only said, "There's a reason musicians call it 'keeping time'."
At the back of the shop was a doorway leading to a small kitchen. Aeon poured the water from its kettle into a teapot as Epie took a seat at the center table. Jiff dropped into a seat beside her and let his overly-decorated arms rest in front of him.
"So what's with the watches?" Epie asked. He grinned and held his arms out straight to either side.
"One for every time zone," he proudly informed her. He looped his arms to form a circle in front of him, then pointed to the first one on his left wrist. "Starts out with Coordinated Universal Time and goes all the way to UTC +11."
He tapped his chin. "Although, that's not technically every timezone because of daylight savings and all, so it gets rather complicated. That's what this is for." He pulled up one of the smaller stopwatches and began hitting the button to cycle through times and labels. "Adjusts automatically for global time dogma. Programmed it myself."
"That's... obsessive," Epie commented. A cup was placed before her and dark tea poured in. The aroma of vanilla wafted up. Black vanilla had been one of Amea's favourites. Once again, Epie was struck by the similarity, and she watched the girl intently, unconcerned with how rude it might be. Far from bothered, Aeon pointed to herself and stated, "I am Aeon, and this," She motioned to Jiff. "Is Jiffy."
"Jiff, for short." He held out a hand, and Epie looked at it but made no move to shake.
"Weird names," she mumbled.
"Time names," Jiff corrected. "Like yours."
"So what, you searched some directory and started stalking me because my parents had a shitty sense of humour?"
"Nope." He rested his chin atop his hands and grinned, as if he could barely contain a secret joke.
Epie tossed the crumpled paper with the address onto the table. "You left that balloon, right? How'd you know where I was if you weren't following me?"
"Because that's how it happens." He barely stifled a giggle.
Epie glared at him as she took a sip of tea.
"You'll have to forgive him," Aeon stated. "He's a bit over-enthusiastic."
"I prefer to think of it as boisterous and full of life," he countered.
Aeon ignored his preference and continued to address Epie. "I know how crazy this will sound, but you and we are inextricably linked."
Epie leaned back in her chair, prepared for some kind of scam. "And how's that?"
"I could lie and tell you we're all the spawn of a hit-and-run father, but the truth is something even more fantastical. It begins with... Well, I believe it begins with you, later today..."
Epie had escaped the Clockshop of the Mentally Ill, as she had dubbed it, and found a quiet park where she could sit on a wooden dock overlooking a pond. She watched swans lazily traverse the water's surface and, as afternoon turned to evening, tried to keep her mind off how homeless she was.
Trouble was first noticed by the swans, who trumpeted and flew from the water in a panic, but it took several more seconds for the Epie's mind to connect the dots between their actions and the growing vibration in the wood. By the time she realized, the earthquake was at full strength. All over the park, people fell to their knees. Cars on the nearby street swerved to a stop, and a deep rumble seemed to be coming from everywhere at once.
"I knew it," Epie growled. "I knew the 25th couldn't go by that easily!"
The center of the pond bubbled and formed a whirlpool as it leaked downward. Muddy slopes were left as the waterline fell, and the dock gave way, boards snapping as displaced columns no longer carried their weight. Epie had to scramble back, and she made it to shore only moments before the dock collapsed.
The earthquake itself was short-lived, but as the tremors faded and people regained their senses, Epie looked toward the pond and spotted an animal, wiry like a greyhound. It slapped its front legs helplessly against the water as it was pulled around the swirling pool.
Someone in the crowd spotted the same animal and cried, "Oh my god, is that a dog?" There were gasps and a calls for someone to do something, but no volunteers came forward to brave the whirlpool. Though logic told her better, Epie felt a tug of conscience and ventured out on the splintered boards which still clung to shore. As the creature came around again, she grabbed for a leg. She missed, but the motion caused her to lose balance, and she fell into the water.
The crowd became even louder with this new development, and Epie was almost amused to find that the whirlpool wasn't that strong. It could carry away a small, frail dog but not a human being. She swam towards the animal and grabbed hold. After a brief but frenzied struggle, it surrendered. She noticed that it was not a greyhound. In fact, it didn't look like ANY dog she'd ever seen, but it really wasn't the time for breed analysis. With the dog in one arm, she swam towards the dirt embankment.
Climbing out was the harder part, and the slope she'd chosen was free of bystanders, which meant no one could help, but maybe that was for the better. Epie was in no mood for fussing people. She dug the tips of her shoes and fingers into the damp soil and scaled her way out. Once she reached the top, the animal renewed its fight for freedom.
"Easy. Easy!" Epie's words were no use, and the animal broke free. It ran a few steps forward, then paused and looked back. Though it was small and wiry, it mostly stood on the hind legs and even rubbed at its large head with a front hand, and that was a hand, complete with little, clawed fingers. The eyes blinked, one set of lids sliding over another, and Epie knew without a doubt that it was not a dog.
This was only a brief glimpse, and then the creature raced into the nearest bushes. Epie took a step after it, but the sudden appearance of a towel made her jump. It was not just a towel but an arm holding it - an arm which belonged to none other than Jiff.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Epie demanded. "Are you still following me?"
"I told you I'd meet you."
Indeed, he had. In fact, Aeon had hinted at an earthquake and the rescue of a "mysterious being", and as Epie made a quick getaway from any further conspiracy theories, Jiff had called out that he'd see her at 7:06 and that he'd bring a towel. As memory brought it all back, Epie felt a tightening in her chest, a kind of terror that didn't even know what it was reacting to. She looked around, then at Jiff's arms. He lifted one obligingly and pointed to the correct watch.
"7:10," he stated. "I was here four minutes ago, but you were still swimming."
Epie looked away from him and saw a crowd coming around the pond, some with cameras. They were obviously eager to make a big to-do about the animal's rescue. Epie felt stuck between insanity and spectacle.
"You can come with me." Jiff held the towel in front of her again. "Or stay with them."
"Fine. Let's go." She ripped the towel from his hands, wrapped it over her shoulders, and followed him to the street, where a yellow taxi was waiting.
The crowd shouted for Epie to wait, but she pulled the taxi door shut and Jiff directed the driver back to the shop. A few of the faster people caught up with the vehicle as it pulled away, but they could only knock on the window and try to get a quick picture through the glass. Epie held up the towel to block them.
"What the hell is wrong with people?" she asked. "So I pulled a dog out of a pond. So what? It's not like I cured cancer."
"That was no dog," Jiff stated.
Epie glanced at him and suspected he knew something about the animal, but the thought made her feel even more paranoid, so she dismissed it.
"You can let me out anywhere," she told the driver.
"Aren't you coming back to the shop?" Jiff asked.
"Why would I?"
The taxi pulled up at the curb, and Epie started to climb out, but Jiff leaned over and grabbed her arm. She tugged the towel from her shoulders and tossed it inside, but still, he held on.
"Aren't you curious about all this?" Jiff's tone was almost pleading. "Who we are and what that was and where it's all going?"
"Actually? No. I just want to go..." She faltered on a place and settled for, "To go anywhere, as long as it's less weird than here." She pulled her arm free and slammed the door. Jiff dumped a wad of money in the driver's lap and chased after her.
"Epoch!" he called. "Epie! Wait!"
She turned back just as he reached her and shoved his shoulders roughly.
"This is called 'harassment'," she insisted, "Bordering on 'stalking', and it's illegal."
Jiff sighed and watched the passing traffic. "No one told me this'd be so difficult."
Epie wanted to walk away, but she had the feeling he would keep following, so she crossed her arms and demanded, "What is this obsession you have with ME? And don't say it's some stupid name connection."
"See, that's why we were going back to the shop." Jiff gestured toward the curb, recalling the cab which was now long-gone. "To explain everything - or most of it." He shrugged. "Some of it."
"Yeah, see, that sounds less and less appealing as you go on."
Another rumble started beneath their feet.
"Aftershock?" Epie murmured.
"Actually, it's another earthquake," Jiff replied. "There's going to be several. With scattered aftershocks beginning at 7:45, but it'll be hard to tell those apart."
"How the hell would you know that?" The rising intensity of the quaking street brought both of them to their knees. Traffic went into chaos as cars slammed to a halt, collided or spun off the road. One slammed into a bench mere feet from Epie and Jiff.
"The shop's a lot safer," Jiff called over the deep grumbling of the planet.
"Oh yeah, glass shelves, fragile timepieces, real safe," Epie muttered. Still, she didn't like the idea of wandering a city at night during a plague of earthquakes. When it was again safe to walk, she stuffed her hands into her pockets and followed Jiff. He tried to strike up more conversation, but she refused to acknowledge anything he said beyond "Turn here" or "Watch that broken curb."
Barely two blocks later, they passed a four-car pileup near a sinkhole in the road. One of the vehicles was their taxi from earlier, its entire rear end crushed by a pickup truck.
"And you wanted to stay in the taxi," Epie scoffed.
Jiff paused to stare at the scene. It was beginning to make sense for him. Epie's skepticism, their bickering - it all added up to the correct sequence.
"Tick Tock goes the melody," he whispered to himself.
"Hey!" Epie called. "This is your trip, remember? You coming?"
He jogged to catch up and gave her a wide smile.
"You're creepy," she muttered in return.
"Someday, you're gonna look back on all this and laugh."
"Fat chance."
Two women in their seventies sat atop a hillside, one blanket wrapped over both their shoulders, and watched their final Earthian sunrise.
"So everything's taken care of, then?" Epoch - or Epoch Sr., as she was known these days to lessen confusion - asked her companion.
"All according to plan." Amea slid the lid of her travel mug open and took a sip of the black vanilla tea. "Aeon received the final notebooks, and I'm certain Epie will find the ticket right when she needs it."
"Epie." Epoch laughed and leaned against Amea. "Hard to believe how much I hated my real name back then."
"'Epie' does have a certain charm."
"And the death records?"
"All taken care of. I'm quite good with planning, you know."
"I know." Epie took a deep breath as the sky lightened from orange to pink. "I can still feel it, the pain of losing you - or Amea Sr., I should say."
"You're free to call me Aeon now. Might be less... awkward."
Epoch wrapped her arm around Amea's shoulder and grinned. "Yeah, a lover with the name and face of your grandmother DOES take a bit of getting used to, but thankfully I'm such a mentally stable, old bird."
"Oh yes, never a day of disturbance in your life."
"Okay, now you're just mocking me."
"You're the mentally stable bird. I'm the mocking bird."
Though she tried to stifle it, Epoch had to laugh at the cheesy joke. The round watch strung on her necklace beeped, and she lifted it.
"Time's up," she said. She helped Amea to her feet and folded the blanket. With a whir and a flash of light, a rectangular booth appeared behind them. It was about the size of a phone booth, but its sides were made of an iridescent metal, the surface of which appeared to flow like a kind of flattened, multi-colour lava lamp.
"How very Bill & Ted," Epoch commented.
"I would've said Doctor Who." Amea shrugged. "But to each their own."
The machine's front panel split down the middle, and the sides folded to reveal the creature within. He was eight feet tall, with bright blue eyes and features that resembled an insect.
"Aeon and Epoch." He folded his hands beneath his cloak and bowed. "I, Sik'nacorr, will be your guide to the Outzone."
Amea bowed in return. "A pleasure."
Epoch held out a hand, which Sik'nacorr shook before stepping aside and motioning them in. Amea immediately accepted the invitation, but Epoch turned for one, last look at her home planet.
"Something wrong?" Amea asked.
"No, just thinking." Epoch took a deep breath of the Earth's air, recognizing the smell of morning frost. She laughed and added, "You'd think I'd be used to radical new ideas by now." She closed her eyes, turned from the scenery and stepped towards the box.
"Here we go, brave new world," she whispered.
"Holy s**t," Epie exclaimed as she stared up at the central core of the not-so-average-after-all clockshop. It was in the basement, which was more of a cavern, and it was unlike anything she'd ever seen. A massive cylinder, patched together with many squares of a bronze material, turned in the middle of the room. It was separated into segments with bars that spun at different rotational rates. Each bar was also attached to grooves along the outer edges of the room, which were covered in similar sheets of metal. Carved into the surface of everything were lines and dots like a circuitry pattern. Flashes of light sometimes zipped along them.
"Is is some kind of generator?" Epie asked.
"SOME kind of generator." Jiff chuckled and dropped into a cushioned chair near a blinking console.
Aeon sat at the console's edge with a journal open in front of her. "So you arrived on time?"
"Yeah," Jiff let his legs fall over a chair arm. "But when I met her, it was 7:10. Should we be worried about that?"
"No, it happened last time, too."
Epie looked nervously at Aeon's journal and reached for her jacket pockets only to remember she didn't have any. In place of her still wet clothes, Aeon had given her baggy pants and a dark-red sweater which was rather long and came partway down her thighs. With nothing else to occupy her hands, Epie tugged at the sleeves.
Jiff called out to Epie. "Y'know, I helped build a lot of this."
"Pay attention," Aeon told him. "I need to get this down."
"What's so important about where I've been?" Epie asked.
"Not just you," Aeon assured her. "I journal everything."
"Must be time consuming," Epie murmured. Jiff giggle-snorted, as if she'd just said a very funny private joke - one that she, herself, didn't get.
"So," Epie turned back to the spinning column. "What is it?"
Jiff jumped from his seat and wrapped an arm around her shoulder, which she glared at as he led her closer to the front console.
"This," he stated proudly, "Is the most accurate chronometer on the planet."
"It's a big clock?" Epie gave him a funny look, but she really wasn't that surprised.
"Yes, but it's more than that." Jiff's clicked a few switches and began typing. The bars of the cylinder shifted their position, and the whole thing spun a bit faster, whirring like a blender as sparks raced along the outer walls.
"Don't take it past Level Two," Aeon called.
"Don't nag," Jiff replied.
"What's Level Two?" Epie asked. "Or One, for that matter."
"One is creating the shell." Jiff pointed to the glowing field which now painted the walls. Circles and lines of various colours zipped along, each playing its mysterious part in the program. "Level Two creates the preview feature, which means the viewscreen will work." Jiff grabbed a lever and pulled it down with an exaggerated motion. He then stood on his chair and threw an arm out toward the wall of light which appeared several feet off the ground.
"Behold!" he cried. "1986!"
The wall crackled and popped, then brought them a crystal-clear picture. If not for the glowing edges, a person might think they were looking into another room. Epie approached the screen and stared in nervous awe at the same basement she was in now - except it was still under construction. Amid the scattered parts, there were two women who looked exactly how Epie and Aeon might look in another ten years. Screen-Aeon sat on a crate and scribbled in yet another journal while the screen-Epoch paced in front of her.
"I just can't believe you KNEW about it," Epoch stated. "And you just let it happen, anyway."
"I make sure things happen the way they're supposed to," Aeon replied. "I'm not supposed to make life perfect."
"Oh, but Jiff breaking three ribs and an arm, that just falls under 'Things Not Worth Improving'."
Jiff turned to Aeon. "You'd let me break my arm?"
"I have before," she replied without looking up. Jiff stuck his lower lip out in a pout, though she couldn't see it.
The screen-Aeon stated, "I told him to be careful, but he never listens."
"Yeah, but if you'd told him what the journal said-"
"Then we would start relying on the journal for everything," Aeon said sharply. "And THAT would change the course of history, not to mention I can't write every single detail, so how much of life would we simply miss because a book didn't tell us to do it."
Epie cast a suspicious look at the journal which Aeon had finally stopped writing in.
"But you tell us some things."
"I do what I feel is best, Epoch. I trust that's how history is meant to be."
"You're infuriating."
"You're used to it."
Epoch lifted the journal out of Aeon's lap and held it behind her back as she leaned in close.
"You're right. And I hate that." She grinned, revealing her words to be a tease, and pressed her mouth to Aeon's.
"Okay, that," Epie laughed nervously as she glanced at Aeon."Will never happen."
"Of course not." Aeon stood up and smoothed her clothing. "It was 1986, wasn't it? Years before either of us was born. Why, we'd have to travel back in time for something like that to happen." She tucked the journal under her arm and left the room.
Epie watched her go, then turned to Jiff. "Was she being sarcastic? It's hard to tell."
"I think she was mocking you." Jiff pulled the lever and shut the viewscreen down.
"Mocking..." Epie sighed and scratched her head. "But that wasn't really 1986. I mean, how could it be?"
Jiff pointed to the cylinder. "It's not just a giant, complex, highly accurate clock. It's also a time machine."
"Right. Of course. Silly me."
"It can show anything within the city in the past or the future."
"So you've seen the future?"
"Of San Fran." Jiff nodded. "Not that there's much to see."
"What, the future not very bright?" she teased.
"Something like that." Jiff spun a random dial. He was obviously not at ease with the conversation, and Epie decided to be kind and not push it.
"Why only this city?"
"Limitation of the system," Jiff replied. "See, it's not so much that a person travels through time. It's that time changes around the person. It's all just an arrangement of particles playing across the web of space, encrypted with history, and this-" He tapped his hands on the keyboard. "Is a computer that speaks its language."
"So you're talking with time?" Epie sat down, crossed her arms and leaned back. She had to admit it was an interesting story.
"Running a Time Program." Jiff typed in a new command, and the monitors of the console blinked to life with line after line of complex, neon green data that zipped past. "That's the code for right here, right now."
Epie glanced between Jiff and the screens.
"It includes the arrangement of every molecule in the city, everything that makes up you or me or that sinkhole." He was gaining energy again, eager to show off. "And when you have access to that code, when you know how to communicate with it, you can change things. Best of all, time is a self-correcting web, so if you go back to a point in the spatial history and change one thing - like putting yourself there - then it ripples outward and everything after that, everywhere, changes to fit the new data."
Epie stared at him with "Just like that?"
Jiff snapped his fingers. "Instantaneous."
"And you've... done this?"
Jiff's face fell, and he toyed with the watches on his wrist. "Not yet."
"Right." Epie laughed with relief. It was so elaborate, she'd almost believed him.
"The Time Program," Jiff explained. "It's like a trial version. It needs an activation key."
Epie wondered if she should explain the word 'delusion' to him.
"I can't time travel, but I can do something almost as impressive," Jiff offered.
"Like what?"
"Teleportation."
Epie snickered.
"I'm serious. It's Level Three."
"Comes in the trial version?"
"With limits. I can shift from here to the other side of the room. Far enough to get the point."
"But not far enough to be useful." Epie nodded. "Good marketing. So you could actually demonstrate that? Right now?"
"Well... technically, I shouldn't mess with it, but I bet you'd believe everything if I showed you, right?"
Epie rested her chin on her palm. "I'd consider it."
Jiff rubbed his hands together and grinned in an almost maniacal way. He typed in several fresh commands which brought the cylinder humming back to life, then he cracked his knuckles. "Here we go, Level Three."
Just as his fingers pressed to the keyboard, a voice similar to his own called out, "I know you're not doing what it looks like you're doing."
With a nervous laugh, Jiff turned to face the old man in the doorway. Despite the age difference, the brown and gray speckled hair and moustache which drooped on either side of his mouth, the man definitely bore a resemblance to Jiff. Epie looked between them and wondered if they were father - or grandfather - and son.
"You know we don't toy with Level Three," the man scolded as he approached the console.
"I know, Senior, but I thought just once, to show Epoch."
"Some rules don't get to be broken," the man insisted as he powered down the console. "Misuse of time manipulation technology is a high crime."
"Sorry." Jiff rubbed the toe of his sneaker across the floor.
Epie had been too busy observing to correct the use of her name. She could see the old man wore several watches, though not as many as Jiff, and around his neck was an older, scuffed version of the same watch-necklace Jiff possessed. Simultaneously, both of the watches beeped, and Jiff and the old man clicked them off.
"Better get upstairs before you miss him," the man said. Jiff motioned for Epie to follow, but she paused for one more thing.
"I'm Epie." She held out a hand. "Nice to meet you."
The old man smiled and shook her hand. "We've met."
She narrowed her eyes in confusion. "How...?"
"It'll make sense. Eventually." He waved her away. "Now go meet your guest."
Epie backed away. She tried again for the pockets which weren't there and grumbled "I don't like this place" as she headed for the stairs.
Ding-do~ong. The front doorbell had a rich, vibrant sound that stood out among the ticking and echoed to the kitchen, where the trio of teenagers was waiting.
"That's him!" Jiff leapt to his feet and rushed to the door. Epie leaned back in her chair to look down the aisle, but all she saw was Jiff's back and a small shadow blocking light from the street. After a few moments of unheard words, the shadow stepped inside, the door closed, and the dark haze melted away to leave the grey creature which Epie had pulled from the lake.
Epie let her chair fall back to the ground and rested her face in her hands. "This can't be happening."
"Please try not to be rude," Aeon chided. She then poured a fresh cup of tea and offered it as the creature walked into the kitchen.
"Oh." The creature looked between the three humans, then took a seat. "Thank you."
Aeon bowed slightly and returned to her chair.
"I can't say I'm used to this on Terra," the creature said. "I am correct that alien contact hasn't been made?"
"Not officially," Jiff replied.
"But this is an unusual little place, after all." The creature sipped the tea. "My, that's good. But did you know you're emitting chronitons?"
"Absolutely," Jiff replied.
"Couldn't run a time machine without it," Aeon added.
"I get the strangest feeling," the creature stated, "That this is one of those paradoxical situations where I ought to know something but don't yet."
Aeon nodded. "Most likely."
The creature turned to Epie. "I originally tracked you here to erase your memory, but I think that would be the incorrect action, given current circumstances." When he blinked, a set of pale green lids slid sideways over the eyeballs, and then a second set of normal, gray lids came down over those. This took no longer than an average blink, but the layers were hypnotic, and Epie forgot to be her usual, sarcastic self.
"Thank you," she said quietly. "I think."
"According to record," Aeon stated, "We are chosen to be the first - possibly only - human Watchers."
The creature cocked his head to one side. "Is that right?"
"And you'll be back in a month to give us our locator keys." She took a drink of tea. "I assume you'll be fully informed by then."
"Well, then!" The creature looked around the table and smiled. "I'll be getting more tea, yes? Oh, and maybe a pastry or two. Yes, with white icing and blueberry filling."
"I'll make a note of it," Aeon said.
A thin, purple tongue darted from the creature's mouth to lick his lips, but the anticipation was interrupted by a beeping. He pressed his temple and a holographic bar appeared in front of one eye. A few seconds later, it disappeared, and the creature looked Jiff up and down.
"My good man, you wouldn't happen to have Inagaddadavidian time, would you? I need to be there at seven cropus past a durner, and I'd hate to be late."
"Sorry," Jiffy replied, holding up his arms. "Just Terra times."
"Well, I best be going then, just to be safe. Always touch-and-go with those fellows." The creature hopped down from his seat and bowed. "I will see presumably all of you in a month, your time."
Jiff said a farewell, but Epie could only manage a small wave out of politeness. Aeon walked the creature to the door, where it returned to its earlier shadowy state before heading into the night.
"Why can't Epoch be that easy-going?" Jiff mumbled to himself.
Epie leaned over his shoulder and stated firmly, "It's Epie."
Jiff rolled his eyes.
"And I suppose you'll expect me to stick around for another month? As if I don't have anything better to do than play into your delusions."
Jiff gave her an exasperated look and motioned toward the door. If an alien couldn't convince her, what could?
"And do you?" Aeon asked as she leaned against the doorframe. Though Epie shot her an angry glare, Aeon continued to wait for an answer.
"I might," Epie grumbled.
"You don't," Aeon corrected. "You've got no home and little money. Amea saw no need to leave you anything because you're supposed to stay here."
Epie felt her breath catch in her chest upon hearing the name. "Did I tell you about my grandmother?"
Aeon gave her a look almost of pity. "Epie... Stay the summer, and I promise everything will be fine."
Terra means Earth. It's supposed to be a nod to an alien reference point. Plus it makes me feel clever. XD
Since I didn't find my main song on youtube, I'll upload it if you'd like to hear it.
I have a love of cheesy character names. I'm sorry. XD*
Username: Da Flea
Would you like your ratings to be PMed after the end of the contest? Yes, please.
Word Count: 10,178 (measured with formatting and all)
Song(s) Used: "The Tick Tock Treasury" by Joy Electric Lyrics, and a touch of "If You're Going to San Francisco" by Scott McKenzie
Prompt: Three people survive the end of Earth through a self-sustaining paradox. No, seriously. o_O This story... evolved in strange ways. I started with the idea of strangers brought together by a clock shop and eerie coincidences, and with the song, I just got this feeling like Fate, everything happening on time as part of a grand design, and even the people who are central to it don't entirely know why it happens. They only play their parts as best they can.
So the way it's written, jumping back and forth, is meant to create that feeling of connection between all the stages. You start to wonder if it's really the past leading to the future or the future reaching back to the past.
Title: History Repeats; Let's Stop For Tea
Story:
***Tick-tock goes the melody***
Terra Date - 21 June 1975, 2:45 PM Pacific Time
Terra Date - 21 June 1975, 2:45 PM Pacific Time
It was a warm day in June, the kind where clouds resemble cotton-candy - or at least, they would, if the confectionary delight ever came in vanilla - and in a San Francisco not yet swallowed by smog, three teenagers were enjoying lunch at a street cafe. In just four short hours, they would be in a theater, wrapped in nostalgic comfort as they watched the very first showing of Jaws.
"Rocky Horror Picture Show in a few more months," Jiff pointed out. "And two more years till Star Wars." His hands rolled into fists and shook with the pure excitement.
"While I do look forward to the birthing of the goth movement," Aeon stated, "I am missing the Internet horribly."
"Yeah," Jiff agreed. "It's strange not having mindless surfing and porn at our fingertips. Sometimes I wonder what we'll do when historic novelty wears off."
Epoch rolled her eyes. "Oh, I dunno. Go down to the beach and try some mindless surfing, then hit a cabaret show?"
"Adaptation!" Jiff shouted, pumping a fist to the heavens and attracting plenty of attention. "We have mastered thee!"
Aeon tried to burst his bubble by stating, "You realize there's no surfing here, right?"
"Maybe we invent it," Jiff suggested.
"No, there's... Oh, nevermind."
Epoch raised her cup in a toast. "Here's to a wonderful, future past."
***whistles blown for bells to ring***
Terra Date - 19 May 2025, 1:48 PM Pacific
Terra Date - 19 May 2025, 1:48 PM Pacific
"Tick tock. Tick tock." Jiff tapped the round, golden watch which hung around his neck. "We don't have time for this."
"There's always time for tea," Aeon insisted as she poured three successive cups. They each had a stylish black cat design, its tail curving up for the handle, and the teapot matched, like a mother cat bestowing an afternoon treat upon her kittens. It was the little things, Aeon knew, which made life really worthwhile.
"Have you looked outside?" Jiff asked. "The sky's the colour of blood, half the street's caved in, sirens are wailing and people are running around with arms flailing." He raised his arms over his head and did a short dance around the kitchen floor to illustrate, but despite the condition of the outside world, the inside of their home was calm and peaceful as always, filled with the steady ticking and chiming of innumerable clocks.
"In three hours, it's leaving time," Aeon said. "Now is tea time."
"But-"
"Relax." Epie put a hand on his shoulder as she entered the room. "If every hour began with tea..."
"This isn't exactly the time-"
Aeon and Epie each raised an eyebrow, and Jiff resigned himself to his fate.
"Don't worry," Aeon told him. "We're right on schedule. Time takes the time Time takes."
Epie nodded with exaggerated motion. "Mmhm. Mmhm."
"Oh, like you're so knowledgable," Jiff muttered at Epie. "A few months ago, you didn't even believe any of this."
***wind the arms to work the springs***
Terra Date - 25 February 2025, 3:45 PM Pacific
Terra Date - 25 February 2025, 3:45 PM Pacific
It was a chill day made all the more irritating by the red and pink which decorated every shop window and several people. The 25th day of the second month, and Epie hated it. Two-twenty-five was like universal code for 'catastrophe'. Every year, it brought a new sorrow. Her father left her mother, her mother died in a car crash, and she ran away from an orphanage - all on the 25th.
Well, okay, running away hadn't been all bad. It had lead her to a strange woman by the name of Amea, who had taken her in seemingly without question, like an unofficial grandmother, and saved her from many years of the unglamorous life of a street urchin; but a year ago, on the 25th, Amea had passed away. Just a call from the hospital, the message left on an answering machine. Then bureaucratic run around.
'No, you can't see the body. Well, you aren't legal family, are you? The State will handle this.' That was the end of it. She knew nothing more of Amea past that day.
"Oh yeah," Epie muttered. "Today owes me."
A woman in a bulbous fur coat, her arms loaded with bags and boxes, bumped into Epie. The woman didn't apologize, only lifted a corner of her mouth in a sneer which showed exactly what she thought of the girl in the tattered brown jacket and scarf. Epie,unwilling to be intimidated, narrowed her eyes until the woman huffed and walked away.
Epie sighed and watched the cloud of visible breath as it rose past her face. She didn't really know what she was doing in this city by the bay, but there had been nothing left for her in Maine, and then there was that ticket - a pre-paid, one-way ticket she had discovered in a book. It was such an eerie coincidence to find it on the exact day of scheduled departure, in a book which had been packed away since Amea's death. Though Epie didn't believe in fate, she hadn't been able to resist investigating.
"Kinda regret that now," she whispered to herself. She was seventeen, in an unfamiliar city, with only the clothes on her back and the money in her pocket. The 25th of February had struck again.
The 'Don't Walk' sign flashed on at the next corner, and Epie obediently waited as cars zipped by. Her eyes wandered over the scenery, the clean white buildings, potted trees, and the red balloon tied to a mailbox. It bobbed with the breeze and rotated to reveal white lettering.
'Hey, Epoch'.
Epie's breath caught in her throat. She rushed over, tugged the balloon down and glared at the lettering which dared to call her by a name she never used, a name which only existed on a few documents on the other side of a continent.
There was a paper tied to the balloon's string. Epie pulled it free and found only an address and the phrase 'Time's a' wastin'.'
An information booth sat not five feet from the balloon, and Epie quickly typed the address into the computer. It was only two blocks from her current position, another street of local shops. Conflicting emotions tugged at her mind, but she finally decided to go. It had to be a coincidence, a cruel joke from a universe determined to make a bad day worse. There would be a street vendor, an art display, something which had nothing to do with her; and then she could continue in her pleasant obscurity.
At the address in question, sixteen-year old Jiff sat on the edge of a second-story balcony and swung his legs over the edge so that the baggy pants swished as they brushed together. Strands of messy hair fell in front of his round, gold-rimmed glasses, and he blew a puff of air to clear them from his vision. He stared at one of his many watches and counted down. "Three... Two... One."
Right on time, Epie rounded the corner, paper in hand and a look of confusion on her face. She examined each shopfront as she passed - the coffee shop, the book store, the empty building, and now the clock shop, which happened to be Jiff's perching point.
"Hey-o!" he called out before jumping down. It was a good-sized drop of seven feet, but his thick-soled sneakers and bending knees absorbed the impact. He stood up and thrust an arm forward. "You must be Epoch."
It took a moment for Epie to register the words over the boy's appearance. Around his neck hung several stopwatches, including one much larger than the rest and full of strange buttons and dials, and each of his arms was entirely covered by watch after watch after watch. Various rates of ticking came from him, as if he were a timebomb. She might have passed him off as simply insane, greeting any passer-by with the same enthusiasm, except he'd used her name. For that, she grabbed his collar and pushed him back until he hit the shop's window.
"How the hell do you know who I am?"
"Well, I, um-"
She pulled him forward and slammed him against the window again.
"I know you." He blinked and fumbled for a more correct response. "Did know you. Will know you."
"If this is a joke, I am not laughing."
The door of the shop opened, and Aeon stepped out. Her long, black hair blended in with her black, sleeveless dress, which she wore over a black-and-white striped sweater. She adjusted her glasses and said, "Would you like to come in? Or would you prefer to continue abusing the window."
There was something about the girl that felt very familiar to Epie, familiar enough that the scolding had effect. She released Jiff and stepped away.
"Good," Aeon said. "Now come in. You're just in time for tea."
"No, thanks." The situation had become too unsettling, and Epie wanted only to leave, but as she passed the door, Aeon called out to her.
"Epoch-"
Epie stopped long enough to point a finger in the girl's face. "My name is Epie."
"Didn't anyone ever tell you it's rude to turn down a free cup of tea?"
Epie froze at the words. Her adoptive grandmother had said that very thing on the first day they met, and now she knew why this girl was familiar. Her face, her voice - it all reminded Epie of the old woman. Coincidence, that's what it was - just horrid, horrid coincidence.
"Things don't happen by accident." Aeon stepped aside and held a hand toward the door, inviting Epie inside. "Not anymore."
Something tugged at Epie's heart. It was curiosity but more than that, a desperate longing for something she didn't want to admit; but it made her turn from her retreat and approach the shop. She insisted "just one cup" and stepped inside.
As expected, the interior was wall to wall clocks of every kind. Wall clocks hung on both sides, modern and retro and novelty, including the cat with the swinging tail and shifty eyes. Shelves down the center of the store held mantle clocks, alarm clocks, and designer items; and a stately row of grandfather clocks lined the back wall. Tick and tocks, high-pitched and low, blended together into something wholly outside the realm of normal sound. It became transcendent, even musical. Somewhere out of sight, the breathy whistle of a tea kettle joined in.
Jiff bounced with the unconventional tune, and when he noticed Epie watching, he only said, "There's a reason musicians call it 'keeping time'."
At the back of the shop was a doorway leading to a small kitchen. Aeon poured the water from its kettle into a teapot as Epie took a seat at the center table. Jiff dropped into a seat beside her and let his overly-decorated arms rest in front of him.
"So what's with the watches?" Epie asked. He grinned and held his arms out straight to either side.
"One for every time zone," he proudly informed her. He looped his arms to form a circle in front of him, then pointed to the first one on his left wrist. "Starts out with Coordinated Universal Time and goes all the way to UTC +11."
He tapped his chin. "Although, that's not technically every timezone because of daylight savings and all, so it gets rather complicated. That's what this is for." He pulled up one of the smaller stopwatches and began hitting the button to cycle through times and labels. "Adjusts automatically for global time dogma. Programmed it myself."
"That's... obsessive," Epie commented. A cup was placed before her and dark tea poured in. The aroma of vanilla wafted up. Black vanilla had been one of Amea's favourites. Once again, Epie was struck by the similarity, and she watched the girl intently, unconcerned with how rude it might be. Far from bothered, Aeon pointed to herself and stated, "I am Aeon, and this," She motioned to Jiff. "Is Jiffy."
"Jiff, for short." He held out a hand, and Epie looked at it but made no move to shake.
"Weird names," she mumbled.
"Time names," Jiff corrected. "Like yours."
"So what, you searched some directory and started stalking me because my parents had a shitty sense of humour?"
"Nope." He rested his chin atop his hands and grinned, as if he could barely contain a secret joke.
Epie tossed the crumpled paper with the address onto the table. "You left that balloon, right? How'd you know where I was if you weren't following me?"
"Because that's how it happens." He barely stifled a giggle.
Epie glared at him as she took a sip of tea.
"You'll have to forgive him," Aeon stated. "He's a bit over-enthusiastic."
"I prefer to think of it as boisterous and full of life," he countered.
Aeon ignored his preference and continued to address Epie. "I know how crazy this will sound, but you and we are inextricably linked."
Epie leaned back in her chair, prepared for some kind of scam. "And how's that?"
"I could lie and tell you we're all the spawn of a hit-and-run father, but the truth is something even more fantastical. It begins with... Well, I believe it begins with you, later today..."
***tick tock goes the melody***
Terra Date - 25 Februray 2025, 7:02 PM Pacific
Terra Date - 25 Februray 2025, 7:02 PM Pacific
Epie had escaped the Clockshop of the Mentally Ill, as she had dubbed it, and found a quiet park where she could sit on a wooden dock overlooking a pond. She watched swans lazily traverse the water's surface and, as afternoon turned to evening, tried to keep her mind off how homeless she was.
Trouble was first noticed by the swans, who trumpeted and flew from the water in a panic, but it took several more seconds for the Epie's mind to connect the dots between their actions and the growing vibration in the wood. By the time she realized, the earthquake was at full strength. All over the park, people fell to their knees. Cars on the nearby street swerved to a stop, and a deep rumble seemed to be coming from everywhere at once.
"I knew it," Epie growled. "I knew the 25th couldn't go by that easily!"
The center of the pond bubbled and formed a whirlpool as it leaked downward. Muddy slopes were left as the waterline fell, and the dock gave way, boards snapping as displaced columns no longer carried their weight. Epie had to scramble back, and she made it to shore only moments before the dock collapsed.
The earthquake itself was short-lived, but as the tremors faded and people regained their senses, Epie looked toward the pond and spotted an animal, wiry like a greyhound. It slapped its front legs helplessly against the water as it was pulled around the swirling pool.
Someone in the crowd spotted the same animal and cried, "Oh my god, is that a dog?" There were gasps and a calls for someone to do something, but no volunteers came forward to brave the whirlpool. Though logic told her better, Epie felt a tug of conscience and ventured out on the splintered boards which still clung to shore. As the creature came around again, she grabbed for a leg. She missed, but the motion caused her to lose balance, and she fell into the water.
The crowd became even louder with this new development, and Epie was almost amused to find that the whirlpool wasn't that strong. It could carry away a small, frail dog but not a human being. She swam towards the animal and grabbed hold. After a brief but frenzied struggle, it surrendered. She noticed that it was not a greyhound. In fact, it didn't look like ANY dog she'd ever seen, but it really wasn't the time for breed analysis. With the dog in one arm, she swam towards the dirt embankment.
Climbing out was the harder part, and the slope she'd chosen was free of bystanders, which meant no one could help, but maybe that was for the better. Epie was in no mood for fussing people. She dug the tips of her shoes and fingers into the damp soil and scaled her way out. Once she reached the top, the animal renewed its fight for freedom.
"Easy. Easy!" Epie's words were no use, and the animal broke free. It ran a few steps forward, then paused and looked back. Though it was small and wiry, it mostly stood on the hind legs and even rubbed at its large head with a front hand, and that was a hand, complete with little, clawed fingers. The eyes blinked, one set of lids sliding over another, and Epie knew without a doubt that it was not a dog.
This was only a brief glimpse, and then the creature raced into the nearest bushes. Epie took a step after it, but the sudden appearance of a towel made her jump. It was not just a towel but an arm holding it - an arm which belonged to none other than Jiff.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Epie demanded. "Are you still following me?"
"I told you I'd meet you."
Indeed, he had. In fact, Aeon had hinted at an earthquake and the rescue of a "mysterious being", and as Epie made a quick getaway from any further conspiracy theories, Jiff had called out that he'd see her at 7:06 and that he'd bring a towel. As memory brought it all back, Epie felt a tightening in her chest, a kind of terror that didn't even know what it was reacting to. She looked around, then at Jiff's arms. He lifted one obligingly and pointed to the correct watch.
"7:10," he stated. "I was here four minutes ago, but you were still swimming."
Epie looked away from him and saw a crowd coming around the pond, some with cameras. They were obviously eager to make a big to-do about the animal's rescue. Epie felt stuck between insanity and spectacle.
"You can come with me." Jiff held the towel in front of her again. "Or stay with them."
"Fine. Let's go." She ripped the towel from his hands, wrapped it over her shoulders, and followed him to the street, where a yellow taxi was waiting.
The crowd shouted for Epie to wait, but she pulled the taxi door shut and Jiff directed the driver back to the shop. A few of the faster people caught up with the vehicle as it pulled away, but they could only knock on the window and try to get a quick picture through the glass. Epie held up the towel to block them.
"What the hell is wrong with people?" she asked. "So I pulled a dog out of a pond. So what? It's not like I cured cancer."
"That was no dog," Jiff stated.
Epie glanced at him and suspected he knew something about the animal, but the thought made her feel even more paranoid, so she dismissed it.
"You can let me out anywhere," she told the driver.
"Aren't you coming back to the shop?" Jiff asked.
"Why would I?"
The taxi pulled up at the curb, and Epie started to climb out, but Jiff leaned over and grabbed her arm. She tugged the towel from her shoulders and tossed it inside, but still, he held on.
"Aren't you curious about all this?" Jiff's tone was almost pleading. "Who we are and what that was and where it's all going?"
"Actually? No. I just want to go..." She faltered on a place and settled for, "To go anywhere, as long as it's less weird than here." She pulled her arm free and slammed the door. Jiff dumped a wad of money in the driver's lap and chased after her.
"Epoch!" he called. "Epie! Wait!"
She turned back just as he reached her and shoved his shoulders roughly.
"This is called 'harassment'," she insisted, "Bordering on 'stalking', and it's illegal."
Jiff sighed and watched the passing traffic. "No one told me this'd be so difficult."
Epie wanted to walk away, but she had the feeling he would keep following, so she crossed her arms and demanded, "What is this obsession you have with ME? And don't say it's some stupid name connection."
"See, that's why we were going back to the shop." Jiff gestured toward the curb, recalling the cab which was now long-gone. "To explain everything - or most of it." He shrugged. "Some of it."
"Yeah, see, that sounds less and less appealing as you go on."
Another rumble started beneath their feet.
"Aftershock?" Epie murmured.
"Actually, it's another earthquake," Jiff replied. "There's going to be several. With scattered aftershocks beginning at 7:45, but it'll be hard to tell those apart."
"How the hell would you know that?" The rising intensity of the quaking street brought both of them to their knees. Traffic went into chaos as cars slammed to a halt, collided or spun off the road. One slammed into a bench mere feet from Epie and Jiff.
"The shop's a lot safer," Jiff called over the deep grumbling of the planet.
"Oh yeah, glass shelves, fragile timepieces, real safe," Epie muttered. Still, she didn't like the idea of wandering a city at night during a plague of earthquakes. When it was again safe to walk, she stuffed her hands into her pockets and followed Jiff. He tried to strike up more conversation, but she refused to acknowledge anything he said beyond "Turn here" or "Watch that broken curb."
Barely two blocks later, they passed a four-car pileup near a sinkhole in the road. One of the vehicles was their taxi from earlier, its entire rear end crushed by a pickup truck.
"And you wanted to stay in the taxi," Epie scoffed.
Jiff paused to stare at the scene. It was beginning to make sense for him. Epie's skepticism, their bickering - it all added up to the correct sequence.
"Tick Tock goes the melody," he whispered to himself.
"Hey!" Epie called. "This is your trip, remember? You coming?"
He jogged to catch up and gave her a wide smile.
"You're creepy," she muttered in return.
"Someday, you're gonna look back on all this and laugh."
"Fat chance."
***tick tock***
Terra Date - 26 Februray 2024, 7:24 AM Eastern
Terra Date - 26 Februray 2024, 7:24 AM Eastern
Two women in their seventies sat atop a hillside, one blanket wrapped over both their shoulders, and watched their final Earthian sunrise.
"So everything's taken care of, then?" Epoch - or Epoch Sr., as she was known these days to lessen confusion - asked her companion.
"All according to plan." Amea slid the lid of her travel mug open and took a sip of the black vanilla tea. "Aeon received the final notebooks, and I'm certain Epie will find the ticket right when she needs it."
"Epie." Epoch laughed and leaned against Amea. "Hard to believe how much I hated my real name back then."
"'Epie' does have a certain charm."
"And the death records?"
"All taken care of. I'm quite good with planning, you know."
"I know." Epie took a deep breath as the sky lightened from orange to pink. "I can still feel it, the pain of losing you - or Amea Sr., I should say."
"You're free to call me Aeon now. Might be less... awkward."
Epoch wrapped her arm around Amea's shoulder and grinned. "Yeah, a lover with the name and face of your grandmother DOES take a bit of getting used to, but thankfully I'm such a mentally stable, old bird."
"Oh yes, never a day of disturbance in your life."
"Okay, now you're just mocking me."
"You're the mentally stable bird. I'm the mocking bird."
Though she tried to stifle it, Epoch had to laugh at the cheesy joke. The round watch strung on her necklace beeped, and she lifted it.
"Time's up," she said. She helped Amea to her feet and folded the blanket. With a whir and a flash of light, a rectangular booth appeared behind them. It was about the size of a phone booth, but its sides were made of an iridescent metal, the surface of which appeared to flow like a kind of flattened, multi-colour lava lamp.
"How very Bill & Ted," Epoch commented.
"I would've said Doctor Who." Amea shrugged. "But to each their own."
The machine's front panel split down the middle, and the sides folded to reveal the creature within. He was eight feet tall, with bright blue eyes and features that resembled an insect.
"Aeon and Epoch." He folded his hands beneath his cloak and bowed. "I, Sik'nacorr, will be your guide to the Outzone."
Amea bowed in return. "A pleasure."
Epoch held out a hand, which Sik'nacorr shook before stepping aside and motioning them in. Amea immediately accepted the invitation, but Epoch turned for one, last look at her home planet.
"Something wrong?" Amea asked.
"No, just thinking." Epoch took a deep breath of the Earth's air, recognizing the smell of morning frost. She laughed and added, "You'd think I'd be used to radical new ideas by now." She closed her eyes, turned from the scenery and stepped towards the box.
"Here we go, brave new world," she whispered.
***The workshop ready to bring songs to sing.***
Terra Date 25 February 2025 8:22 PM Pacific
Terra Date 25 February 2025 8:22 PM Pacific
"Holy s**t," Epie exclaimed as she stared up at the central core of the not-so-average-after-all clockshop. It was in the basement, which was more of a cavern, and it was unlike anything she'd ever seen. A massive cylinder, patched together with many squares of a bronze material, turned in the middle of the room. It was separated into segments with bars that spun at different rotational rates. Each bar was also attached to grooves along the outer edges of the room, which were covered in similar sheets of metal. Carved into the surface of everything were lines and dots like a circuitry pattern. Flashes of light sometimes zipped along them.
"Is is some kind of generator?" Epie asked.
"SOME kind of generator." Jiff chuckled and dropped into a cushioned chair near a blinking console.
Aeon sat at the console's edge with a journal open in front of her. "So you arrived on time?"
"Yeah," Jiff let his legs fall over a chair arm. "But when I met her, it was 7:10. Should we be worried about that?"
"No, it happened last time, too."
Epie looked nervously at Aeon's journal and reached for her jacket pockets only to remember she didn't have any. In place of her still wet clothes, Aeon had given her baggy pants and a dark-red sweater which was rather long and came partway down her thighs. With nothing else to occupy her hands, Epie tugged at the sleeves.
Jiff called out to Epie. "Y'know, I helped build a lot of this."
"Pay attention," Aeon told him. "I need to get this down."
"What's so important about where I've been?" Epie asked.
"Not just you," Aeon assured her. "I journal everything."
"Must be time consuming," Epie murmured. Jiff giggle-snorted, as if she'd just said a very funny private joke - one that she, herself, didn't get.
"So," Epie turned back to the spinning column. "What is it?"
Jiff jumped from his seat and wrapped an arm around her shoulder, which she glared at as he led her closer to the front console.
"This," he stated proudly, "Is the most accurate chronometer on the planet."
"It's a big clock?" Epie gave him a funny look, but she really wasn't that surprised.
"Yes, but it's more than that." Jiff's clicked a few switches and began typing. The bars of the cylinder shifted their position, and the whole thing spun a bit faster, whirring like a blender as sparks raced along the outer walls.
"Don't take it past Level Two," Aeon called.
"Don't nag," Jiff replied.
"What's Level Two?" Epie asked. "Or One, for that matter."
"One is creating the shell." Jiff pointed to the glowing field which now painted the walls. Circles and lines of various colours zipped along, each playing its mysterious part in the program. "Level Two creates the preview feature, which means the viewscreen will work." Jiff grabbed a lever and pulled it down with an exaggerated motion. He then stood on his chair and threw an arm out toward the wall of light which appeared several feet off the ground.
"Behold!" he cried. "1986!"
The wall crackled and popped, then brought them a crystal-clear picture. If not for the glowing edges, a person might think they were looking into another room. Epie approached the screen and stared in nervous awe at the same basement she was in now - except it was still under construction. Amid the scattered parts, there were two women who looked exactly how Epie and Aeon might look in another ten years. Screen-Aeon sat on a crate and scribbled in yet another journal while the screen-Epoch paced in front of her.
"I just can't believe you KNEW about it," Epoch stated. "And you just let it happen, anyway."
"I make sure things happen the way they're supposed to," Aeon replied. "I'm not supposed to make life perfect."
"Oh, but Jiff breaking three ribs and an arm, that just falls under 'Things Not Worth Improving'."
Jiff turned to Aeon. "You'd let me break my arm?"
"I have before," she replied without looking up. Jiff stuck his lower lip out in a pout, though she couldn't see it.
The screen-Aeon stated, "I told him to be careful, but he never listens."
"Yeah, but if you'd told him what the journal said-"
"Then we would start relying on the journal for everything," Aeon said sharply. "And THAT would change the course of history, not to mention I can't write every single detail, so how much of life would we simply miss because a book didn't tell us to do it."
Epie cast a suspicious look at the journal which Aeon had finally stopped writing in.
"But you tell us some things."
"I do what I feel is best, Epoch. I trust that's how history is meant to be."
"You're infuriating."
"You're used to it."
Epoch lifted the journal out of Aeon's lap and held it behind her back as she leaned in close.
"You're right. And I hate that." She grinned, revealing her words to be a tease, and pressed her mouth to Aeon's.
"Okay, that," Epie laughed nervously as she glanced at Aeon."Will never happen."
"Of course not." Aeon stood up and smoothed her clothing. "It was 1986, wasn't it? Years before either of us was born. Why, we'd have to travel back in time for something like that to happen." She tucked the journal under her arm and left the room.
Epie watched her go, then turned to Jiff. "Was she being sarcastic? It's hard to tell."
"I think she was mocking you." Jiff pulled the lever and shut the viewscreen down.
"Mocking..." Epie sighed and scratched her head. "But that wasn't really 1986. I mean, how could it be?"
Jiff pointed to the cylinder. "It's not just a giant, complex, highly accurate clock. It's also a time machine."
"Right. Of course. Silly me."
"It can show anything within the city in the past or the future."
"So you've seen the future?"
"Of San Fran." Jiff nodded. "Not that there's much to see."
"What, the future not very bright?" she teased.
"Something like that." Jiff spun a random dial. He was obviously not at ease with the conversation, and Epie decided to be kind and not push it.
"Why only this city?"
"Limitation of the system," Jiff replied. "See, it's not so much that a person travels through time. It's that time changes around the person. It's all just an arrangement of particles playing across the web of space, encrypted with history, and this-" He tapped his hands on the keyboard. "Is a computer that speaks its language."
"So you're talking with time?" Epie sat down, crossed her arms and leaned back. She had to admit it was an interesting story.
"Running a Time Program." Jiff typed in a new command, and the monitors of the console blinked to life with line after line of complex, neon green data that zipped past. "That's the code for right here, right now."
Epie glanced between Jiff and the screens.
"It includes the arrangement of every molecule in the city, everything that makes up you or me or that sinkhole." He was gaining energy again, eager to show off. "And when you have access to that code, when you know how to communicate with it, you can change things. Best of all, time is a self-correcting web, so if you go back to a point in the spatial history and change one thing - like putting yourself there - then it ripples outward and everything after that, everywhere, changes to fit the new data."
Epie stared at him with "Just like that?"
Jiff snapped his fingers. "Instantaneous."
"And you've... done this?"
Jiff's face fell, and he toyed with the watches on his wrist. "Not yet."
"Right." Epie laughed with relief. It was so elaborate, she'd almost believed him.
"The Time Program," Jiff explained. "It's like a trial version. It needs an activation key."
Epie wondered if she should explain the word 'delusion' to him.
"I can't time travel, but I can do something almost as impressive," Jiff offered.
"Like what?"
"Teleportation."
Epie snickered.
"I'm serious. It's Level Three."
"Comes in the trial version?"
"With limits. I can shift from here to the other side of the room. Far enough to get the point."
"But not far enough to be useful." Epie nodded. "Good marketing. So you could actually demonstrate that? Right now?"
"Well... technically, I shouldn't mess with it, but I bet you'd believe everything if I showed you, right?"
Epie rested her chin on her palm. "I'd consider it."
Jiff rubbed his hands together and grinned in an almost maniacal way. He typed in several fresh commands which brought the cylinder humming back to life, then he cracked his knuckles. "Here we go, Level Three."
Just as his fingers pressed to the keyboard, a voice similar to his own called out, "I know you're not doing what it looks like you're doing."
With a nervous laugh, Jiff turned to face the old man in the doorway. Despite the age difference, the brown and gray speckled hair and moustache which drooped on either side of his mouth, the man definitely bore a resemblance to Jiff. Epie looked between them and wondered if they were father - or grandfather - and son.
"You know we don't toy with Level Three," the man scolded as he approached the console.
"I know, Senior, but I thought just once, to show Epoch."
"Some rules don't get to be broken," the man insisted as he powered down the console. "Misuse of time manipulation technology is a high crime."
"Sorry." Jiff rubbed the toe of his sneaker across the floor.
Epie had been too busy observing to correct the use of her name. She could see the old man wore several watches, though not as many as Jiff, and around his neck was an older, scuffed version of the same watch-necklace Jiff possessed. Simultaneously, both of the watches beeped, and Jiff and the old man clicked them off.
"Better get upstairs before you miss him," the man said. Jiff motioned for Epie to follow, but she paused for one more thing.
"I'm Epie." She held out a hand. "Nice to meet you."
The old man smiled and shook her hand. "We've met."
She narrowed her eyes in confusion. "How...?"
"It'll make sense. Eventually." He waved her away. "Now go meet your guest."
Epie backed away. She tried again for the pockets which weren't there and grumbled "I don't like this place" as she headed for the stairs.
***9:27 PM***
Ding-do~ong. The front doorbell had a rich, vibrant sound that stood out among the ticking and echoed to the kitchen, where the trio of teenagers was waiting.
"That's him!" Jiff leapt to his feet and rushed to the door. Epie leaned back in her chair to look down the aisle, but all she saw was Jiff's back and a small shadow blocking light from the street. After a few moments of unheard words, the shadow stepped inside, the door closed, and the dark haze melted away to leave the grey creature which Epie had pulled from the lake.
Epie let her chair fall back to the ground and rested her face in her hands. "This can't be happening."
"Please try not to be rude," Aeon chided. She then poured a fresh cup of tea and offered it as the creature walked into the kitchen.
"Oh." The creature looked between the three humans, then took a seat. "Thank you."
Aeon bowed slightly and returned to her chair.
"I can't say I'm used to this on Terra," the creature said. "I am correct that alien contact hasn't been made?"
"Not officially," Jiff replied.
"But this is an unusual little place, after all." The creature sipped the tea. "My, that's good. But did you know you're emitting chronitons?"
"Absolutely," Jiff replied.
"Couldn't run a time machine without it," Aeon added.
"I get the strangest feeling," the creature stated, "That this is one of those paradoxical situations where I ought to know something but don't yet."
Aeon nodded. "Most likely."
The creature turned to Epie. "I originally tracked you here to erase your memory, but I think that would be the incorrect action, given current circumstances." When he blinked, a set of pale green lids slid sideways over the eyeballs, and then a second set of normal, gray lids came down over those. This took no longer than an average blink, but the layers were hypnotic, and Epie forgot to be her usual, sarcastic self.
"Thank you," she said quietly. "I think."
"According to record," Aeon stated, "We are chosen to be the first - possibly only - human Watchers."
The creature cocked his head to one side. "Is that right?"
"And you'll be back in a month to give us our locator keys." She took a drink of tea. "I assume you'll be fully informed by then."
"Well, then!" The creature looked around the table and smiled. "I'll be getting more tea, yes? Oh, and maybe a pastry or two. Yes, with white icing and blueberry filling."
"I'll make a note of it," Aeon said.
A thin, purple tongue darted from the creature's mouth to lick his lips, but the anticipation was interrupted by a beeping. He pressed his temple and a holographic bar appeared in front of one eye. A few seconds later, it disappeared, and the creature looked Jiff up and down.
"My good man, you wouldn't happen to have Inagaddadavidian time, would you? I need to be there at seven cropus past a durner, and I'd hate to be late."
"Sorry," Jiffy replied, holding up his arms. "Just Terra times."
"Well, I best be going then, just to be safe. Always touch-and-go with those fellows." The creature hopped down from his seat and bowed. "I will see presumably all of you in a month, your time."
Jiff said a farewell, but Epie could only manage a small wave out of politeness. Aeon walked the creature to the door, where it returned to its earlier shadowy state before heading into the night.
"Why can't Epoch be that easy-going?" Jiff mumbled to himself.
Epie leaned over his shoulder and stated firmly, "It's Epie."
Jiff rolled his eyes.
"And I suppose you'll expect me to stick around for another month? As if I don't have anything better to do than play into your delusions."
Jiff gave her an exasperated look and motioned toward the door. If an alien couldn't convince her, what could?
"And do you?" Aeon asked as she leaned against the doorframe. Though Epie shot her an angry glare, Aeon continued to wait for an answer.
"I might," Epie grumbled.
"You don't," Aeon corrected. "You've got no home and little money. Amea saw no need to leave you anything because you're supposed to stay here."
Epie felt her breath catch in her chest upon hearing the name. "Did I tell you about my grandmother?"
Aeon gave her a look almost of pity. "Epie... Stay the summer, and I promise everything will be fine."
To be continued...
Da Flea
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- Posted: Sun, 01 Jun 2008 17:03:27 +0000
*continued*
***tick tock goes the melody***
Terra Date - 19 May 2025, 3:12 PM Pacific
***tick tock goes the melody***
Terra Date - 19 May 2025, 3:12 PM Pacific
From the viewscreen in the clockshop basement, Jiff watched the chaos unfolding outside. A building on their street corner collapsed and buried two people who had been cowering in its doorway. Jiff winced and spun a dial, which swerved the camera to a new location.
"And you complain that I waste time," Aeon commented. She opened a duffel bag and checked the contents against her list.
"I'm curious," Jiff admitted. "I wonder if they'll be right, y'know, about the Rapture and horsemen and all that."
"They won't," Jiff Sr. said.
"Oh, ruin it for me, why doncha," Jiff scoffed. The old man only shrugged and slung a backpack over his shoulder.
"Now when the time comes - 4:46 - you start the machine up to Level Four."
"I know," Jiff said without looking away from the screen. "We've been over it a hundred times, and I've got the manual."
"It'll ask for verification, which is when you press your hands to the touchpad."
"I know."
"Then it'll ask for its complimentary side dish."
"I know, Sen- Wait, what?" Jiff looked up with confusion, and Jiff Sr. chuckled.
"Paying attention now?" he asked. "Make sure you insert the disk and that it accepts the coordinates and time."
"Then keep all limbs and packages inside the chamber while the ride is in motion," Jiff finished. "It's not rocket science."
Epie leaned toward Aeon and whispered, "Why is he the one in control of this again?"
Aeon grinned and replied, "Because when men get to push the buttons, they feel important."
Epie snickered, and Jiff shot the both of them dirty looks. His older self chuckled quietly as he slipped from the room.
Aeon went back to checking bags, and Epie, unable to help much with the machine or the packing, sat on a nearby table and stared at the set of circles emblazoned on her left palm. The pattern was something she'd expect in crop circles, and it made her wonder if there was some deeper connection in that.
She pulled her shirt forward and looked down at the similar symbols over her heart. Jiff and Aeon had them, too, the activation 'keys', delivered through a mysterious labelling gun by their friend, the Greyhound Alien.
"Wait," Epie had protested, "I thought we were getting a key or an activation code or something, not a tattoo."
"That's what this is," the creature told her. "It does more than mark your outside. It binds to your DNA, creating a unique code. Once its filed, you'll be identifiable to any Watcher, and you'll be cleared for that little time skip. We'll locate you in 1975 and work out the rest of the details."
The device was pressed against her hand, and a blinding, white light moved up her arm. There was a slight burning, and then the marks were there, forever casting her as a player in the elaborate science-fiction game which had become her life.
Speaking of lights, a bright flash from just beyond the doorway pulled Epie from her reverie. Jiff ran to the door in time to see a thin mist dissipating. A shiver went up his spine, and he ventured through the rest of the building, calling for his older self. When he finally returned to the basement, he said only "Senior's gone."
"He was scheduled to go with the Watchers today," Aeon replied.
"Yeah, but I wanted to SEE it." Jiff paced the room in frustration.
"You will."
"When I'm old." Jiff tapped his fingers on the console and let his eyes wander over the controls. "We're on our own now, you know."
"Not entirely" Aeon lifted a notebook.
"But what if we misinterpret?" he asked. "What if we do something stupid in the 'folly of youth'."
Aeon shrugged. "We've gotten it right every time so far."
"First time for everything," Epie murmured. The others looked at her, and she pressed her palms forward in a placating gesture. "Just saying."
Jiff plopped into a chair and lamented, "Watch ME be the me that breaks the time stream."
"If you don't stop the melodrama, I'll make you drink more tea," Aeon warned. Jiff visibly shuddered, which made Epie giggle.
Aeon completed her checklist and lined up the bags - three backpacks, three duffel bags and a small knapsack with some food. She brushed her hands across each other, satisfied at a job well done, then went to the only unpacked item - a lone journal. She scribbled something in it, checked Jiff's watch, then scribbled some more.
Epie watched Aeon's motions and thought of her grandmother. She tried to suspect the connections but couldn't, because the truth was she already knew. She knew but still wished she didn't, and everyone else had obliged her denial. They danced around the relation of Aeon to Amea and even Jiff to Jiff Senior. It could be assumed that the absence of an Epie Senior was to spare her even more stress, but she hated not knowing things and hated even more when they were hidden from her. How much had been kept from her during her time with Amea? How much could have been revealed, if she'd ever bothered to really see?
***recipes wrote out and made to treat us bountifully***
Terra Date 25 August 2022, 12:38 PM Eastern
Terra Date 25 August 2022, 12:38 PM Eastern
Epie entered the small house and shivered. She loosened her scarf but didn't bother to remove her coat. It was no warmer inside than it had been on the porch. Only her muddy boots were left by the door as she carried the grocery bags inside. She left the food in the kitchen, then carried a hardcover notebook to the living room
"Amea?"
The old woman was seated on the couch, feet tucked up beneath her and heavy blanket wrapped around her shoulders. She sipped from a mug of tea then nestled it in her lap as she listened to the ambient sounds of a stereo.
"I got the book you wanted." Epie held it out. "Why is it you buy so many of these, but I hardly ever see you write in them."
"Oh, I find time." She smiled. "Here and there, when you aren't looking."
Epie shrugged it off. The woman was full of eccentricities, although that didn't explain... "What happened to the heat?"
"There was an error with the payment. Computers crashed; files were delayed; gas wasn't delivered. I called, and they promised that all deliveries will be made in the next few days."
"A few days? In this weather?"
"Be glad it isn't January." She lifted the mug for another sip. "The tea is fresh, still warm." She gestured with her head to the teapot and second mug on the table beside her. "Pour yourself a cup and join the blanket club."
Epie grabbed a remote and turned the stereo off. "Alright, but we're watching TV."
"If you like."
When Epie had settled in beside Amea and found an acceptable station, her interest suddenly drew back to the journals.
"What do you write in them?" she asked. "Daily life's pretty boring, isn't it?"
"That depends on what you find interesting."
Epie rolled her eyes. "I bet whatever you've got in there IS interesting. You've been writing fantasy novels, piece by piece. Or collections of dirty poetry or something."
Amea laughed. "You're always questioning things. Sometimes a journal is simply a journal."
"And sometimes it's not," Epie teased.
"And sometimes it's not." Amea nodded, but her eyes were focused on something far away. For a moment, Epie imagined the woman writing memories. Every night, before bed, she might sit and recall her youth, trying to painstakingly record every experience. It would be like the teacups arranged by height and colour, the obsessive scheduling of activities, and the fascination with time, patterns or anything else where underlying order held the chaotic exterior in place.
Epie wondered if it was a habit of aging or just who Amea was - a woman who ran like a clock. It made her dependable, at the very least, like spheres revolving in space or the familiar bars of a favourite song. Do-re-mi, sunrise-sunset, tick and tock, Amea and...
***join and sing: tick tock goes the melody***
Terra Date - 19 May 2025, 4:46 PM Pacific
Terra Date - 19 May 2025, 4:46 PM Pacific
"Epoch?"
Epie looked up in surprise, once again pulled from her thoughts. She'd really been spending too much time introspecting lately.
"I'm sorry. Epie." Aeon corrected. "It's time to go."
Epie tried to swallow, but her mouth had gone dry, and she made a face at the stale taste.
With a smile, Aeon told her. "The good news is you'll soon know definitively if we're insane."
"No, I'll just know whether or not I've fallen into insanity with you." Despite the cynicism, Epie approached the console, where Jiff was already starting up Level Four. The viewscreen still showed the street, although the scene was dark, like a night without electricity.
"It that part of this?" Epie asked.
"The darkness?" Aeon replied. "No. That's the sun. It's gone out."
"But that isn't how it happens." The protest was weak, as if Epie wasn't certain anymore. "I always heard the sun would devour the Earth, supernova and all that."
"I know of that prediction, but it would be millions of years away." Aeon nodded and rested a hand on Epie's shoulder. "The world's not ending today by natural causes."
"You mean... God?"
A quick laugh escaped Aeon before she said, "No. No, it's something to do with an advanced race, illegal energy sources and reassignment of orphaned planets. It's mentioned in the journals."
Jiff placed his hand over the scanner, and a generic voice stated through the speakers, "Jumper One Authorized." Aeon stepped beside him and held out her own hand. "Jumper Two Authorized."
Epie hesitated. Her earlier statement about falling into madness had been more than a joke. It was a real fear somewhere inside. So much had changed in the past few months. Reality had been broken apart and stitched back together, and she'd been sewn right in the middle, but was it where she really wanted to be?
Aeon and Jiff were nice enough. They'd welcomed her when she had nowhere else to go, and life with them wasn't so bad. If only it didn't have to involve so much complexity and suspension of disbelief...
What if it was all false? She might be as crazy as the rest, playing with simple electronic toys, chasing greyhounds and pretending they talked. Epie rubbed the tattoo on her hand, as if it might somehow smear away, an illusion created with marker, but it stayed. The delusion was consistent even in its complexity. As they had told her many times, the only way for things to make sense was to accept what shouldn't have made sense.
The last threads of her denial hung in the balance. If she really landed in 1975, the barriers which held back unpleasant truths would disintegrate and force her to accept not only the present but the frightening, pre-determined future and worse, the past - the fact that every suffering had been part of a grand design, after all. Not a plan of a god but steady beats on a path, like ticks from a clock. Measurable but infathomable.
Tick, tock, tick, tock - everything a step towards a goal which was only an end merged with a beginning. Depending on where you started counting, today could mark the end of a century, and any hour might mark a new day, and when that moment hit, the next beat skipped over and it was the same cycle, but different. Forward brought you back, and going backward would let you move forward. Clocks might count time, but that didn't help when Epie tried to add things up.
Epie squeezed her eyes shut tight. She swore she could hear the ticking of every clock in the shop above her. It sounded like mockery but couldn't be, because they say time stops for no man.
"Epie?" Aeon's voice was patient despite their looming deadline. She reached into the knapsack and pulled out a hairpin shaped like a rose. "I was saving them for our arrival, but perhaps you'd like it now." She slid the accessory into Epie's hair, and Epie could feel the pressure as it was clicked shut.
"If you're going to San Francisco," Aeon smoothed the other side of Epie's hair and reminded her. "You're gonna meet some gentle people there."
***tick tock goes the melody***
Terra Date - 19 May 2025, 12:24 AM Pacific
Terra Date - 19 May 2025, 12:24 AM Pacific
Epie glared at the green, digital glow of the bedside clock. It was the 19th, the day of reckoning. Whatever happened, things would not be the same twenty-four hours from now.
With a growl, Epie rose from the bed and slid her feet into the fluffy, white bunny slippers which Aeon had bought her. They were childish and embarrassing, and Epie hated to admit that she actually liked them.
Her whole room was like that - eerily comfortable. It had been waiting when they insisted she move in, and though it wasn't overly decorated, Epie found herself approving of the black lacquer desk, orange sheets and rust-coloured blanket and even the art prints on the wall. She didn't choose any of it, but she might as well have.
She padded down the hallway, down the stairs, and to the kitchen, where a light was still on. Aeon sat at the kitchen table and sang softly to herself as she glued an object together.
"Couldn't sleep?" Epie asked.
"Haven't tried yet." Aeon set the object in front of her, and Epie could see it was some kind of barrette with a lily attached. She sat down at the table and watched as Aeon began to assemble another item, this time with a sunflower. Judging by the texture, they were cloth, not real.
"Would you like some tea?" Aeon motioned to a teapot on the counter. "It's chamomile. Might calm your mind."
"No, thanks."
The sunflower barrette joined the lily, and Aeon began affixing daisies to a headband.
"Is there any particular reason for this?" Epie asked.
"It struck me as something to do."
Epie waited a moment, then repeated, "Any particular reason?"
"It was a very old song about going to San Francisco."
"But we're already there."
"And soon we'll be seeing it brand new." Aeon squeezed another daisy in place.
"So this song... it tells you to make cheesy decorations?"
"If you're going to San Francisco." Aeon sang the words as she slid the daisy-band onto her head. "Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair."
Epie's expression was blank as she said, "I just don't get you."
Aeon smiled. "You never really will."
***in theory, now it should sing***
Terra Date - 19 May 2025, 5:51 PM Pacific
Terra Date - 19 May 2025, 5:51 PM Pacific
Epie held her hand out to the scanner, and the computer announced, "Jumper Three Authorized." In the background, Jiff - who'd been silently holding his breath - let out a deep sigh of relief.
"Could we go now?" he pressed. "We were supposed to go at 4:46, you remember."
"That was when we started the leaving," Aeon corrected as she grabbed her bags. Jiff and Epie followed, and they quickly filed into the cylinder's chamber. Even with the stabilizing nature of the building, they were beginning to feel the tremors. The rumble echoed through the room.
Jiff lifted his watch and announced the time as 5:53.
"We're fine," Aeon told him. "The world ends at 5:55."
Jiff tilted his head to the side. "You know, that's an odd time for a random occurrence."
"Nothing's random," Aeon replied.
The trio suddenly froze in place. Their bodies crackled with static like a 3D TV on the fritz - vertical lines of colour and blue sparkles - and in a brilliant flash, they were gone.
It was none too soon, for the room now trembled as a wave of heat liquefied the planet's surface, but that would be the start of another tale, for another time. For Aeon, Jiff and Epie, 2025 would be but a distant memory for the next fifty years.
***tick tock goes the melody***
Terra Date - 19 May 1975, 5:51 PM Pacific
Terra Date - 19 May 1975, 5:51 PM Pacific
The landing was a unique experience. Due to the inevitable shifting of the Earth over time, they were actually dropped off twenty eight and a half miles from where they had left - and three feet off the ground. Thankfully, it was a grassy patch of park upon which they tumbled, all in a heap. For a moment, they all stared up at the sky. They had just narrowly escaped the world's demise, after all.
Epie rose to her knees and surveyed the area. Beyond a row of bushes, she could see people dressed in ways she'd only seen at historical culture fairs. She rolled over and fell to her back beside the others.
"I think," she said quietly, "We may be in 1975."
"Told you so." Jiff reached into their knapsack and pulled out a Hershey bar. After all, it had technically been fifty reverse-years since his last meal.
"How do we just go on like this?" Epie asked, "Knowing major events, knowing that everything's... been done."
"Don't be melodramatic," Aeon stated. "Life is still full of surprises."
"Like Vietnam," Jiff said. "Wonder how that'll turn out. Or... start."
Aeon raised an eyebrow at him, and Epie snickered.
"Okay," Epie said. "So... what now?"
"We should find a tea shop," Aeon said.
Jiff and Epie rolled their heads to look at her with 'You've got to be kidding me' written on their faces. Aeon looked from one to the other, then shrugged and asked innocently, "What?"
The watch-necklace, which rested upon Jiff's chest, began to beep.
"What now?" Epie asked as he clicked it off.
"The world just ended," he replied. "Fifty years from now."
"Well, then." Aeon stood and wiped grass from her clothing. "That makes right now an excellent time to start living."
Jiff jumped up to follow her, but Epie took a moment to look at where they had landed. It was just a patch of grass like any other. She looked to the sky, as if some visible tear might be left from their passing, but there was nothing. It was all so... normal.
"Epie!" Jiff called from several feet away. "C'mon, would ya! Time's a' wastin'!"
"Time takes the time Time takes," she murmured to herself. With a snort of amusement, she ran to catch the others. There was a slight commotion as Aeon insisted on readjusting the flower clipped in Epie's hair, but eventually Epie gave in to the treatment. She stuffed her hands in her pockets and waited until Aeon was satisfied. Then the trio took their first real steps on a journey which had already passed innumerable times and would presumably cycle back on itself ad infinitum - forever...
No wonder Aeon wanted frequent tea breaks.
~*Tick. Tock.*~
Da Flea
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And it's posted! =O
I made the mistake of looking at Days' entry last night, and now my story feels bland with no chance of winning. Curse you, Days. xp
I made the mistake of looking at Days' entry last night, and now my story feels bland with no chance of winning. Curse you, Days. xp
[ .days. ]
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Did you suffer at the end?
Would there be no-one to remember?
Would there be no-one to remember?
Wait, what?
And thanks for making me click here.
I've been needing to add another song to my post.
sweatdrop
And thanks for making me click here.
I've been needing to add another song to my post.
sweatdrop
Did you banish all the old ghosts
At the terms of your surrender?
At the terms of your surrender?
Da Flea
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- Posted: Sun, 01 Jun 2008 17:28:31 +0000
I hadn't looked at the other entries before, but I clicked on them last night just to get a feel for what others had posted, and after a few lines of yours, I was thinking, "Yeah, totally not beating this one." XD Great emotion in your story. Makes mine look as interesting as drying paint. Ah well. xp
Gabbing Gabby
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- Posted: Sun, 01 Jun 2008 17:29:23 +0000
Oh god. O-o; I have no chance of winning ... I'll still post mine and hope I get third or something, or at least get some some good comments or critique on it.
.... I'm so stupid. I started mine again because I got a better idea, even though I've only got about a week. I am doing better on this one, though ... I started it yesterday but I've already got about 1300 words. Hopefully this one'll turn out good ... x.x;
.... I'm so stupid. I started mine again because I got a better idea, even though I've only got about a week. I am doing better on this one, though ... I started it yesterday but I've already got about 1300 words. Hopefully this one'll turn out good ... x.x;
[ .days. ]
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- Posted: Sun, 01 Jun 2008 17:33:54 +0000
Did you suffer at the end?
Would there be no-one to remember?
Would there be no-one to remember?
I like watching paint dry.
x__x
Blowing on it and watching the wetness recede. Like water on hot pavement.
[/weird]
I'm glad my English teacher loves me and what I write. Otherwise, I would've had to change it to first or third person, rather than second. It works so well in second. I wonder what she thought when she got into the meat of the story?
rofl
Oh no...
New avatar?
Kyoko: Don't worry. I wrote mine in like, three hours. Pressed for time on a Sunday night when I had to turn it in the next day.
Everyone has a chance of winning. You people are so paranoid.
rofl
x__x
Blowing on it and watching the wetness recede. Like water on hot pavement.
[/weird]
I'm glad my English teacher loves me and what I write. Otherwise, I would've had to change it to first or third person, rather than second. It works so well in second. I wonder what she thought when she got into the meat of the story?
rofl
Oh no...
New avatar?
Kyoko: Don't worry. I wrote mine in like, three hours. Pressed for time on a Sunday night when I had to turn it in the next day.
Everyone has a chance of winning. You people are so paranoid.
rofl
Did you banish all the old ghosts
At the terms of your surrender?
At the terms of your surrender?
Da Flea
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Days: Yeah, I was wondering how you turned that into a class. If I'd ever turned in something like that, I'd have been sent for counselling. (Not an insult on you but on my homophobic school.) Or maybe expelled for "obscene content". Although I did once write about the mindset of a suicide bomber - in 2002 - and no one reported me for that, so maybe my school was more open than I thought and I was just overly cautious.
Kyoko: I've been doing the whole "new idea = restart" for the Identity contest. At least four stories started and dropped now. XD
I've got a 3 Musketeers Mint bar, and I should be good and use it as a reward for SuWriMo writing, but instead I'm eating it now for moral support. domokun
Kyoko: I've been doing the whole "new idea = restart" for the Identity contest. At least four stories started and dropped now. XD
I've got a 3 Musketeers Mint bar, and I should be good and use it as a reward for SuWriMo writing, but instead I'm eating it now for moral support. domokun
[ .days. ]
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Did you suffer at the end?
Would there be no-one to remember?
Would there be no-one to remember?
Ohh...Those mint ones are good.
I actually have a normal one in the fridge upstairs.
ninja
*shrug*
She didn't take points off. Gave me extra credit, actually. A lesbian friend of mine wrote a graphic novel for that class called "The Girl of my Dreams" and wrote a character piece about two lesbians. It was the student teacher then, but still.
Me, personally, even if I was turned off by the content, I would fall for the POV. I've been a fan of second person for a while, so long as it can be pulled off. Neece (wrong name, I know; but it was something like that) gave me a story for one of my contests in second person, and it made me cry all three times I read it. Second person just lets you get inside the character's head so much more than first person and definitely more than third person. My entry works with its title (Everything Left Unsiad) because Scottie is saying all these things to Michael in his head, but never aloud, and that wouldn't work with any other perspective.
[/ramble]
In every one of the stories I turned in to my English teacher, someone died. The first one, the character decided to go jump out a window. The second, they killed a humanoid creature who had brought twilight to a constant. The third was the prologue from my story Never Run Again, in which Simon recounts his brother's suicide. And in this last one, someone dies.
Meh.
A story isn't good unless one of the "good guys" dies.
*firm nod*
I actually have a normal one in the fridge upstairs.
ninja
*shrug*
She didn't take points off. Gave me extra credit, actually. A lesbian friend of mine wrote a graphic novel for that class called "The Girl of my Dreams" and wrote a character piece about two lesbians. It was the student teacher then, but still.
Me, personally, even if I was turned off by the content, I would fall for the POV. I've been a fan of second person for a while, so long as it can be pulled off. Neece (wrong name, I know; but it was something like that) gave me a story for one of my contests in second person, and it made me cry all three times I read it. Second person just lets you get inside the character's head so much more than first person and definitely more than third person. My entry works with its title (Everything Left Unsiad) because Scottie is saying all these things to Michael in his head, but never aloud, and that wouldn't work with any other perspective.
[/ramble]
In every one of the stories I turned in to my English teacher, someone died. The first one, the character decided to go jump out a window. The second, they killed a humanoid creature who had brought twilight to a constant. The third was the prologue from my story Never Run Again, in which Simon recounts his brother's suicide. And in this last one, someone dies.
Meh.
A story isn't good unless one of the "good guys" dies.
*firm nod*
Did you banish all the old ghosts
At the terms of your surrender?
At the terms of your surrender?
Gabbing Gabby
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Three ... hours ...? O_O
Well, if I actually wrote basically nonstop and if I wasn't distracted by Gaia or any other site or anything I could probably write a couple thousand words pretty in that amount of time, probably, but ... I'm a pretty fast typer, it's just I jump between my writing and the Internet and end up spending more time on the Internet.
This is only my second time restarting it, but before I started I had ten songs, easily, to choose from ... And now I'm using a song that wasn't on my list, or if it was then it had an entirely different possible plot. x.x;
My teacher for that subject is kinda ... Well, sometimes she's okay, but she gets really mad at my class for almost no reason. And I don't know how she'd react to character death or anything ... Well, she'd probably be okay with it, seeing as the badly-written-on-purpose short story I wrote last year had something to do with attempted murder, but I could easily get in trouble for certain things like descriptive gore/fighting and 'inappropriate themes in a Catholic school', or something like that. O-o;
At least said teacher could joke about a story one of my friends wrote last year ... It had something like 20 pages, maybe a bit less, when it was supposed to be only a couple. I can't even remember what it was about. And one of my other friends wrote about a girl who was being blamed for a ... murder? Something like that. x.x; But that's enough of my rambling ...
Well, if I actually wrote basically nonstop and if I wasn't distracted by Gaia or any other site or anything I could probably write a couple thousand words pretty in that amount of time, probably, but ... I'm a pretty fast typer, it's just I jump between my writing and the Internet and end up spending more time on the Internet.
This is only my second time restarting it, but before I started I had ten songs, easily, to choose from ... And now I'm using a song that wasn't on my list, or if it was then it had an entirely different possible plot. x.x;
My teacher for that subject is kinda ... Well, sometimes she's okay, but she gets really mad at my class for almost no reason. And I don't know how she'd react to character death or anything ... Well, she'd probably be okay with it, seeing as the badly-written-on-purpose short story I wrote last year had something to do with attempted murder, but I could easily get in trouble for certain things like descriptive gore/fighting and 'inappropriate themes in a Catholic school', or something like that. O-o;
At least said teacher could joke about a story one of my friends wrote last year ... It had something like 20 pages, maybe a bit less, when it was supposed to be only a couple. I can't even remember what it was about. And one of my other friends wrote about a girl who was being blamed for a ... murder? Something like that. x.x; But that's enough of my rambling ...
[ .days. ]
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- Posted: Sun, 01 Jun 2008 19:58:20 +0000
Did you suffer at the end?
Would there be no-one to remember?
Would there be no-one to remember?
I wrote a Romeo and Juliet story that was 44 pages long...
About 11,000 words. Good story, too.
I never got it back...
I can write 1,000 words in an hour on average. My other computer is in my room, where there is no Internet. That's where I do most of my writing.
Right before I wrote my entry, I was obsessing over the Doctor and the Master and I found an image that had song lyrics on it. "Were you there at Armageddon? / Was Paris really burning? / Could I have been the one to pull you / from the point of no-returning." Loved them. Looked them up. Found my main song. Wrote the story. Bought Tokio Hotel's CD while in the process of thinking of a plot. Fell in love with "1,000 Oceans" and realized it fit the story.
The end. XD
I'm not in Catholic school, so my teachers probably aren't as strict. My teacher's last name is "Janerella," and at the beginning of the year, that "Umbrella" song by Rihanna was big.
She hated it. The kids called her "Janerella-ella-ella." But at Christmas, she gave in and wished us a happy holiday from that name. XD
She's been loosening up recently, especially after our student teacher left. She actually said "brain fart" the other week.
O___O
The first thing I gave her was absolute crap. It was so forced, written in 45 minutes at 11:00pm the day before it was due. That's the one with the random person jumping out the window.
It was humiliating for me.
But she was like, "You should try to get this published." And I was like, "I can do so much better than that. T__T"
About 11,000 words. Good story, too.
I never got it back...
I can write 1,000 words in an hour on average. My other computer is in my room, where there is no Internet. That's where I do most of my writing.
Right before I wrote my entry, I was obsessing over the Doctor and the Master and I found an image that had song lyrics on it. "Were you there at Armageddon? / Was Paris really burning? / Could I have been the one to pull you / from the point of no-returning." Loved them. Looked them up. Found my main song. Wrote the story. Bought Tokio Hotel's CD while in the process of thinking of a plot. Fell in love with "1,000 Oceans" and realized it fit the story.
The end. XD
I'm not in Catholic school, so my teachers probably aren't as strict. My teacher's last name is "Janerella," and at the beginning of the year, that "Umbrella" song by Rihanna was big.
She hated it. The kids called her "Janerella-ella-ella." But at Christmas, she gave in and wished us a happy holiday from that name. XD
She's been loosening up recently, especially after our student teacher left. She actually said "brain fart" the other week.
O___O
The first thing I gave her was absolute crap. It was so forced, written in 45 minutes at 11:00pm the day before it was due. That's the one with the random person jumping out the window.
It was humiliating for me.
But she was like, "You should try to get this published." And I was like, "I can do so much better than that. T__T"
Did you banish all the old ghosts
At the terms of your surrender?
At the terms of your surrender?
Da Flea
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Days: Actually, now that I think about it, if you look at the wikipedia page for 2nd person narrative, it's a little different definition. Yours is more like a first person narrative, except its written as if directly addressing "you". So it does capture the emotion a lot. Makes the reader feel like things are being confessed to them. But does it technically count as 2nd or 1st person narrative?
Anyway, I used to write a lot in first person when I was mostly exploring one odd character in relation to a world around them, but I have a tendency to delve into many character's stories. Sometimes it can be hard even for me to tell who the most important character is, and I kind of like that, but I can't stand writing each chapter from a different first person perspective, so I stick to third person, but I'm working on ways that I can integrate other narration, through letters or maybe occasional, special chapters of first person. Hopefully I'll stumble on the right formula one day. X3
And my teachers never worried about violence, really. But if I wrote something involving my cynical worldview, they didn't seem to like that. Bloodshed was alright, as long as I didn't question the sheep-like nature of the human species. XD I was often more worried about anything sexual. Didn't seem like the type of thing the conservative school would tolerate. o_o;;
Anyway, I used to write a lot in first person when I was mostly exploring one odd character in relation to a world around them, but I have a tendency to delve into many character's stories. Sometimes it can be hard even for me to tell who the most important character is, and I kind of like that, but I can't stand writing each chapter from a different first person perspective, so I stick to third person, but I'm working on ways that I can integrate other narration, through letters or maybe occasional, special chapters of first person. Hopefully I'll stumble on the right formula one day. X3
And my teachers never worried about violence, really. But if I wrote something involving my cynical worldview, they didn't seem to like that. Bloodshed was alright, as long as I didn't question the sheep-like nature of the human species. XD I was often more worried about anything sexual. Didn't seem like the type of thing the conservative school would tolerate. o_o;;