Time. From the day you were born until the day you die, time won't stop. It's waves of continuous ticking and tocking from a clock. To go back and forth is like unwinding a clock or fast forwarding it to a desired time. But to adjust the clock against it's gears will leave it broken and distorted. If time were to break, it wouldn't be pretty. That's why I exist. Born from nowhere, I travel through time to fix paradoxes that occur in each timeline. They're easy to fix and never a huge problem that would affect everything else in the Space Time Continuum. I don't get noticed by others for my job, but at times they'd acknowledge my work and pay me even though I try to convince them not to. After my job's done I hop back into the timeline and wait around for another problem to appear. The timeline, in a nutshell, is basically a space-looking tunnel with tunnels leading to a place in time. Gravity doesn't affect the timeline other than pulling me forward like a river that leads me nowhere.
There's no home or place I need to be at and no worries unless if there are huge problems. Which for the time being doesn't happen. To waste time I'd float around in the timeline with a ukulele that I got from a small island that was bombed once. Most of the songs I'd play are from all over the place, Aetas is a song that came in a late future in 2075 from Earth, Giant Woman from a cartoon series that supported ukulele-ers (a rare breed of people like me who waste time playing ukuleles), and finally Hidden from a future that had a bloody history that resulted in a race being extinct. I listen to the songs countless of times before I lost my music playing device. Though, I swear I would see it floating around but I think it's because I haven't eaten in awhile. On the subject of seeing things I swear I would see shadows but whenever I chase the shadows it disappears. But after the fifteenth time as of now I declare to not chase after them anymore because it wastes my time having peace and quiet. I floated my way back into the timeline stream and relaxed. I pulled out my ukulele from my back and tuned it.
"I wish this wasn't always getting out of tune" I said frustrated as I tried to tune it to perfection.
The ukulele was meant to be a collector's item and to be displayed to show off according to the antique lady that ran the antique shop on the tiny island long time ago. She priced it at a pretty low price for a so called 'collector's item' but she lectured me about authenticity, worth over time, blah blah stuff that doesn't matter for over an hour before she let me purchase it. To me it doesn't look like a collector's item, warm colors layering on top of each other with a scribble and a drawing of a character looks more like someone labeling their property. After I finished tuning, I strummed the ukulele and began playing the song Hanashi Session 23, though it's incredibly hard to play without listening to the original song I know how it's supposed to go. Plus I knew the lyrics by heart. It reminds me of the emptiness but largeness feeling that I get from traveling along the timeline. I hummed the tune as I slowly moved forward. "Three angels watch to me" I sang in a inside voice "Three little wings… When at night, I go to sleep...To guide my steps to blue…"
"CRK!"
"Huh?" I stopped playing and looked around for the source of the sound. One of the tunnels began to crack along its outer rims. "Sheesh, haven't I already fixed you?" I swam my way towards the problem and pulled around my satchel. I dug around and pulled out my tool box, which is really a first aid kit that contains medical supply if I'm injured and Paradox tools. I took out one of the Paradox tools, a small dull crystal chunk, and held it on top of the crack. 1, 2, 3, I counted in my head 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. I pulled the crystal away and like magic the crack disappeared. "There we go" I put away the tool and brought out my ukulele again. I strummed the strings and one of the strings break. "Oh come on!" I exclaimed, I pulled around my ukulele case and took out a replacement string. I unwound the broken string from the pegs and inserted a new one. As I was wounding the new string into the ukulele, something was wrong. I looked around to see if anything was nearby but it was just me. After I finished re tuning my ukulele, I observed the tunnel just in case and saw discoloration along the rim. It looks purple than an amber color, that's not a good sign. I put away my ukulele and tightened all of the straps on me to a point of uncomfortability. I inched closer to the entrance of the tunnel then turned over onto my back. The tunnel started to pull me closer into the black pit, I quickly straightened myself up and had my eyes shut before the tunnel pulled me in completely.
I woke up falling into a huge city with no fluffy things for me to land on or soft grass. I quickly took out an umbrella and opened it up, breaking my fall. "Thank goodness for parachute umbrellas for comical reasons" I said relieved then looked down. Down below me was a humongous futuristic city, complete with tall buildings, roads overlapping each other, and holographic images sparsely all over the place.
"At least there's no flying cars this time" I muttered to myself as I gotten closer to the ground "The air traffic was horrendous, not to mention not having a umbrella at the time." At least I didn't break anything, except the cars that crashed into each other. People stared at me as I floated down while also making room for me to land. Once I landed, kids swarmed me with questions like 'are you Mary Poppins?" (no idea who that person is) or 'are you magical?'. The parents held them back with a awkward laugh and smile as they gripped the small children's hands away from me. The other adults, however, bypassed me as if it was normal for a oddly dressed person coming down from the sky by an umbrella. I stuff the umbrella back into my messenger bag then began looking around for abnormalities.
I looked in nearby alleyways, roads, and asked a several people if they saw anything strange but they said they didn't, except the homeless guy who had a few empty pill canisters nearby him. "If nothings wrong here, why was the tunnel purple?" I thought out loud to myself as I walked back to the landing place. "Maybe it's just special like that? Or something is in it?" But that wouldn't make any sense, there's no one that can time travel like me, not that I know of.
"Hey you" a man in a uniform ran up to me with an eager expression. He looked like he belonged to a business group that has their employees wear strange suits and maybe a few strange people who dye their hair with abnormal colors, and in this case crimson red.
"Yes?" I said startled, gripping the knife on the back of my belt. "You need something?" Crap crap, I do not want to speak with people, the last thing I need today is to speak people.
"I heard from some of my workers that you came from the sky?" He asked me with bright wide eyes. This guy is creepy…!
"Why?" I lifted the knife a few centimeters from its loop
"We had some strange things happening recently and we were curious if you knew anything of it?"
"What kind of… things?" I asked gripping the knife tighter.
The man smiled "I think I found the right guy I was looking for" he said warmly then stuck out his hand "My name is Maurice, I'm the leader of a team of researchers that don't waste our town's funds for something that's totally possible!"
That sounds promising, but better than some I guess. I shook his hand "Quill, just Quill"
"Interesting name, follow me. I have something that might interest you" Maurice said. We walked towards a building north of us that looked like a humongous glass building.
"By the way, why did you come down by an umbrella?" Maurice asked
"To protect myself from being a pile of human parts in a pool of blood and people taking those parts for other reasons?" I guessed. Maurice's eyes widened.
"Uh no, more like where did you come from?" He asked in a frightened voice "Surely you aren't the type of guy to skydive with a umbrella, right?"
"Oh I came from the timeline" I said casually "I travel along the streams of timelines and fix paradoxes that appear. You can say that I'm a time traveler, but I don't usually go into a period of time unless if there's a problem."
"Good" he muttered to himself as he looked ahead. I wonder if he even listened to what I said.
Once we entered in the building Maurice announced "Welcome to the Avenir Sauver Lab!"
People in a similar uniforms walked around busily, ignoring us as we enter the building. The 'lab' looked more like an entrance to a office building except for a several computers along the walls in the back. Two women and a man were taking phone calls in a circular desk in the center of the room while typing on a computer at the same time.
"Follow me" Maurice said then we began to walk towards one of the elevators.
"I've never been in an elevator before" I said as we went into the elevator
"Really?" He looked at me strange then laughed a little saying "It's not that bad, I'm quite surprised that you haven't tried it yet"
"I didn't need to, usually the places I need to go to don't require elevators" I explained
"You are a very interesting man" Maurice said smiling "I like you"
You're just very suspicious! I thought as the elevator went down. It was a strange sensation of feeling stretched apart but not so much to a point of having my head or upper half of my body being torn apart. Once the elevator light above the door flashed a light with a "Ding" sound, Maurice said "Be prepared to be asked some questions, there will be a lot"
"Like what?"
"You'll see" the doors open to a small room where people all wearing drastically different clothes compared to other people that I saw earlier.
"I have found him!" Maurice announced to the group. They all stared at me, making me feel uncomfortable.
"Oh crap" One of the people on the couch. A woman dressed with a summer dress walked up to Maurice and crossed her arms.
"What are you doing" she said in a stern voice.
"I found the person that can solve our problem" Maurice said in a cheerful voice.
"Yeah, a cosplayer that's probably in character right now"
I looked down at my clothes. I doubt they're that outlandish, are they?
"There's no conventions around here right now, so finding one under ten minutes is impossible" Maurice said "Plus, this guy doesn't look like a character from a anime or video game series right Noct
A teenager with dark blue hair (needing to be dyed again) looked up at me from his book and said "If a blend of characters, I'd say Steven Universe and Noel from somewhere, can't say where but as one character I have no clue."
"See!" Maurice said excitedly "And on top of that he came down from an umbrella from the sky"
"If he were to come down from an umbrella why isn't he not soaking in blood or to put it more logically a splattered human." The woman said
"Uh that's because I picked that umbrella up from a few years from today" I quietly spoke up "They're parachute umbrellas, mostly used for stage productions and sky divers even though it's risky to do it as a sky diver."
"I don't believe you."
I went into my satchel and pulled out a Nokia 2146 phone (aka a super old phone) and showed it to her. She stared at it with awe then shakely gave it back to me "Where'd you get that?"
"From Earth in the 1900s, mid 90s. It's the first cell phone of mankind according to the store manager with the mohawk."
"You serious?!" Said another person
"Would you like to try? I think it still works" I turned on the phone and the screen brightly lit a lighter green color. Everyone was impressed.
"Told you!" Maurice said happily
"Well we still can't do anything!" The woman said defeatedly, storming back to her seat "Lunar's torn up in space as we speak"
"Who's that?" Everyone stared at me. I shrinked down a bit.
"It's a bit of a story" Maurice said in a serious tone "but let's get introductions first before we head into that. As you know I'm Maurice Cylus" He went over to the blue haired teen and brought him up to me "This is Jerome Wilson, aka Noctis" His tired eyes gazed at me, he wore a plain pale blue shirt with a black zip up sweater that had a pin of a decorative skull and knee length black shorts. He also wore converse sneakers that have seen better days before he 'artistically' drew on them. "I prefer Jerome but I'll respond to Noctis" he said in a monotonous annoyed voice. Noctis went back to his seat as the next person He was a tall man (or I was just short) that looked like he belonged to a cult or a resistance group. He wore a bandana that went over his platinum blond bangs, showing a logo, a deep maroon colored jacket with a brown plaid scarf hanging out of one of the pockets, torn up jeans that seemed constantly fixed up with patches, and boots that were in need of cleaning. He stuck out his hand towards me with a large smile that seemed inviting "I'm Derek, nice to meet you"
I shook his hand, his grip almost broke my middle finger. After we shook, he went back to his seat and Maurice brought up the next person.
She was a cheerful looking lady who dyes her hair as often as Noctis (it's bright pink), dressed in a beautiful summer dress that belongs to a high-end fashion store. She didn't heavily put on makeup and relied on natural beauty, which I found to be more appealing compared to the last few times I encountered women. "Hiya!" She said in a cheerful happy voice "I'm Ariel, nice to meetcha!"
"Hello" I said awkwardly, she leaned close to me and whispered in my ear "I'm so sorry that you were dragged into this" Ariel then quickly ran back to her seat.
The next person was possibly young man who looks as old as me (early 20s) but it was hard to tell by how short their hair was.
"This is Makoto Yuki" Maurice said
Makoto looked like he was going to say something but ended up slinking down to the floor and escaping back to his seat.
"She's a bit shy" Maurice said. More like afraid. Maurice brought up the next person, who was the woman that argued with him from earlier. She glared at me with disgust, I assumed that she's still mad about losing the argument with Maurice.
"You probably remember from a bit earlier this fine lady" Maurice said
"Don't flatter me" she said trying to keep her temper.
"I'm not" he sighed "This is Alice Edward, she's… well you can guess"
"You're a loon Maurice. Lunar is dead." She stormed to the back of the room and rested against a wall.
"Blues Clues you, Alice" Maurice muttered then said "Alrighty Quill, story time!" We sat down on the couch next to Makoto who squished herself into the corner of the couch. "Us seven used to be a team of revolutionists. We fought against a tyrannical being that ruled over people, anyone who wasn't worthy of being alive was thrown into a game of hide-and-seek. Find and defeat a certain object to claim your worthiness under 30 to 31 days. If not, you'll die."
"That's cruel" I interrupted
"And he hasn't gone into how horrible it was just to defeat it" Noctis mentioned
"Back to what I was saying" Maurice continuing on "We did defeat them but our friend, Lunar, went down with them. We think, except for Alice, that Lunar's still alive but is somewhat trapped inside time… you know what I'm saying?"
"Uhh you mean that you guys think that this Lunar is trapped within a time paradox?" I said questionably "I sort of don't think that's possible but this place did look strange when I passed by here so…"
"Strange in what way?" Maurice asked
"Um nothing you guys don't have to worry about at the moment. Have you been doing any time based experiments?"
"A tiny bit a long time ago" Ariel said "I don't know much of the details but I remember trying to figure out a way to travel through time through paradoxes but it resulted in others coming back in a mutated form"
"Mutated as in… slightly disfigured" Maurice added "Plus it was just a few people that we tried just to see if time traveling was safe"
If they're mutated that means they've encountered something along the way… that's never a good sign. "Well don't do any more time travel experiments" I said in a scolding manner "You people can die from this. Luckily I'm here to solve your problem… if I knew...