A Future In Time (grey987 & Kami)

[Kami]

"Thanks, Mr. B."


She grabbed her bags of sour candy from the counter, and shoved them in her large coat pockets. On the way out the door, she heard the short jingle of bells that announced her exit. Skell had been there so many times, she knew the entire store like it was the back of her hand. It was a small corner-store, so it wasn't like it was hard to get to know anyways. Usually, her visits there would take place right after school. The cashier, 'Mr. B', was basically her friend— knowing what types of candy she likes, and seeing her everyday. Sometimes they would have small conversations here and there, about this and that.


Upon her arrival at her bland, grubby house, she noticed a familiar black cat. That cat was somehow always in the same spot whenever she came home from school. It was like a routine for her now, to give the cat a piece of the candy she just bought, maybe pet it a little, and go inside. "I wonder who you belong to," She thought aloud.


Skell walked inside to the sound of her brother blaring his lame techno music again. She rolled her eyes as she inquired to herself if she should even bother asking him to turn it down. Nonetheless, she made her way to the door to his room. Knocking viciously she shouted, "Can you turn it down? I can barely think properly with your garbage music deafening my ears!" As usual, the music was turned up even louder. Her brother might have said something, but the music was too loud to hear anything now.


Skell let out a long, irritated groan as she left the house. Sitting on the front step, she took out her phone. The music could still be heard as if she was playing it from a boombox right beside her. Looking through her contacts, she finally stumbled upon Greg, and tapped the 'call' button.


"Hey, do you wanna come over? Todd's being an ass with his music again, as you can probably hear. But we could probably head up to the attic and maybe look through all of the old crap we have up there. It could be fun."

 

[grey987]

"I'm not even gonna bother to sugar-coat this, man: you suck at this game."


"Hey dude, I'm tryin' my best over here! And I'd really appreciate it if you could give me some help."


"It wouldn't make a difference if I did; I'd just end up taking the kill."


There was a sigh on the other end of the line as Greg continued to almost absent-mindedly operate the PS3 controller in his hands. Playing "Call of Duty: Black Ops II" with his friend Josh was one of the things that he did more frequently in his spare time, wanting to be able to keep himself occupied rather than being restless and bored for an entire day. Outside of school, which was mandatory and just a pain in the ass for him to try and sit through, he felt like there was not quite much to do and often found himself reading, listening to music or doing something of the sort until one of his friends called and asked if they wanted to do something with him (he never really had been one to take the initiative on those sorts of things).


Interestingly enough though, Greg heard his cell phone ring from where it sat on the table in front of him, and he let out a groan after it caused him to become distracted and left him open to be killed by someone else. "Hold on Josh, someone's calling me," he said before setting aside his headset and game controller, reaching over to pick up the phone and not even reading the caller ID before he answered it.


"Yo."


"Hey, do you wanna come over? Todd's being an ass with his music again, as you can probably hear. But we could probably head up to the attic and maybe look through all of the old crap we have up there. It could be fun."


"That's an interesting thought, coming from you... I didn't ever think that you were a nostalgic kind of person. But sure, I can come over. Just give me a few minutes."


After dropping the call, Greg exited the game and informed Josh that he'd be leaving, turning off the console afterwards and setting aside his headset and game controller again before putting his phone in his pocket and standing up from the couch. What Skell suggested that they do was honestly a bit unexpected for him, but he was actually kind of intrigued to see what they could find up in that attic of hers. Soon enough, he arrived at her house and saw her sitting on the front step outside while loud noise echoed from inside.


"It doesn't seem like your brother ever knew what the word 'intolerable' means..." Greg muttered as he looked past her at the house. "He never knows when to just turn down the volume for once."

 

[Kami]

Skell closed the call, and browsed her phone while waiting for her friend. Time seemed to pass surprisingly quickly; Skell didn't even notice Greg until he was three feet away from her. Her eyes darted up towards Greg, and she put her phone back in her pocket, replacing it with one of the bags of candy she bought from earlier.


"It doesn't seem like your brother ever knew what the word 'intolerable' means..." Greg muttered as he looked past her at the house. "He never knows when to just turn down the volume for once."


Skell smirked in agreement, "I know. You're lucky you're not the one who has to live with him."


She opened the door and walked in, holding it open for Greg. He had been over at her house so many times, she didn't even need to tell him the basic terms of her house. There weren't many, anyways. It was mostly what you don't have to do (like how you don't have to take off coats/shoes). Skell simply ran up the stairs, and down the hallway, knowing Greg would be right behind her. Looking up, she found the string that was attached to the ceiling. Thinking about it now, Skell realized she had never been up there. Or at least she didn't remember ever being up there. Pulling on the string, she hoped no spiders would fall from the ceiling. It wasn't known how long it had been since someone opened this door, so it was surely possible.


The door opened, and the stairwell/ladder unfolded. Skell gave a mischievous look to Greg before climbing into the unknown-attic-of-mysteries. Thankfully, if any spiders did make a home in the attic, none of them came out to greet them. Although, Skell breathed in a huge intake of dust. She coughed, and swatted the air. Skell noticed a box that said 'Junk', and instantly became curious. She placed her bag of candy on the floor next to the box, and sat down. Taking a look inside, she glanced upon stacks of old yearbooks, and photos, along with some random nick-nacks. Skell began to dig through the box before Greg was even in the attic.

 

[grey987]

"Agreed," Greg said simply, stepping inside the house once Skell opened the door for him. As usual, despite her seemingly nonchalant demeanor, the girl still had a lot of energy to go about her and was already bolting past him before he could make it down the hall. He didn't let her go that far however, jogging behind her with long strides up to the second floor where the attic was. He himself wondered if any creepy-crawlies were going to drop out of the place once she opened the door, but fortunately there were none of the sort as the stairway unfolded from the top. He looked back at Skell rather impassively when she gave him a very familiar look, taking slow steps forward while she raced up the ladder.


He heard her coughing as he made his way up, figuring that it had to have been pretty dusty up their and getting a taste for it himself a moment later, breathing in and coughing almost less than a second later. Wrinkling his nose, he let out a sneeze into his clothed arm before sniffling, lowering his arm and joining Skell over by a box that she was currently digging through. "I guess you were pretty eager to get your 'Indiana Jones' on, huh?" he joked blandly, taking a seat beside her and looking into the box with her.

 

[Kami]

Skell snickered, "Yeah."


After skimming through a couple of photo albums, she found one that was full of pictures of her brother. Laughing to herself, she said, "Yeah, this really is junk." Skell moved the album onto her lap and slid towards Greg to show him. They laughed as they looked at the bunches of pictures of Todd as he grew up. The pictures ranged from Todd as a three year old, to Todd as a troublesome eight year old. His school photos were in the album as well, and they all looked hilarious to Skell. Todd looked like a dork with his circular glasses.


Occasionally, there were photos of Skell herself. As a kid, Skell wasn't very fond of photos, and didn't care much about being in them. Usually in the pictures that Skell was in, she wasn't aware that a picture was being taken. They came across one photo, though, of Skell and Todd in the bathtub together. She was splashing him in the face, causing a huge wave of soapy water to push towards Todd. Her cheeks immediately went red, and she skipped past the page as quick as she could. Not quick enough, however, as Greg had obviously already seen it.

 

[grey987]

Greg smiled and raised an eyebrow at Skell's comment as she passed the album over to him, picking it up and letting it rest in his lap before flipping it open. "Why, because it's filled with pictures of your brother? Then yeah, I'd say so too," he replied, briefly looking over at her with a smirk before looking back at the album in front of him. He often found himself laughing quite a bit as he scanned over the pictures with Skell, even more so when they came across one where Todd was actually wearing glasses. "Didn't know your brother was such a nerd back then," he commented through fits of laughter, wiping tears away from his eyes with the sleeve of his jacket before finally regaining his composure a few moments later.


When Greg started to see Skell in a couple of the photos he chuckled, finding the images of her as a kid quite adorable. "Seems like you didn't quite like photos as a kid, huh?" he asked, before flipping another page and suddenly seeing a picture of her and her brother taking a bath together. He didn't get that much time to look at it, as she quickly flipped past the page once she herself saw it, but he'd still gotten enough. He looked over at his friend with a wide smirk, finding the blush on her cheeks amusing. "Hm... It also seems like you two are a lot closer than I thought," he teased. "In a very literal sense."

 

[Kami]

Skell laughed at Greg's remark, her cheeks still flushed from before. "Todd and I were never close. Don't you see me splashing him in the face? I obviously wasn't willingly that close to him," She said, jokingly glaring at him.


Looking at the photos now were becoming awkward, so she closed the album and looked around for something else to rummage through. As Skell stood up, the photo album that was shared on both of their laps, was now on the floor, leaning against Greg. Skell wasn't one to 'put things away', as she was always messy. A large box lingered in the very back of the attic that sparked Skell's attention. She quickly made her way around the several forgotten objects that littered the room. The box was covered in layers of dust, forcing Skell to use the side of her hand to read the label. The box read 'Jerry'. Her dad's name. Her heart skipped a beat. She hadn't thought of that name in a long time. As soon as Skell read the word, she turned the opposite direction to look for something else. She did not feel like going through a box like that right now. Or ever.


Luckily, something else caught her eye. The old bookshelf that Skell's brother used to have in his room. Now that she thought about it, it was unusual that the bookshelf was up here instead of in his room. Todd was obsessed with that thing. His entire collection of science books, and whatever junk he read was always there. If you even went near it, he would freak out. Skell suddenly felt powerful that she had so much opportunities with the bookshelf. Maybe it really was important. It had been passed down for generations.


She grazed her finger along one of the shelves with a smirk on her face, and her back turned to Greg.

 

[grey987]

"Heh. Alright, point taken."


After Skell stood up and left the photo album leaning against Greg's left leg, he put the album aside after closing it up and also got to his feet, searching through some of the other stuff that had been stored in the dusty area. For a few moments, he left his friend to do her own searching through the place, but then he decided to go over to her and take a look at what she was seeing, giving him enough time to see that she had turned away in a rather noticeable fashion after reading the label of one particular box. Curious, he approached it and leaned in a bit to see what was written on it.


'Jerry'


Greg's eyebrows were no longer narrowed and his expression became placid when he read the name, leaning back and standing upright once more while his gaze lingered on the label of the box. 'Jerry'. Skell's dad. She hadn't talked about him much, obviously very uncomfortable with the past those two shared... but he believed that he knew enough to know that she didn't like her dad. That she didn't want anything to do with him, that she hated him for somehow faulting her in the past. And he knew enough that she couldn't just keep that grudge buried forever. So when Skell turned back to him with a smirk, the one that indicated that she wanted to cause some mischief, he did not smile back. Instead, he met her gaze with a fairly determined expression of sorts.


"You know, you can't keep running from this, Skell," Greg told her almost flatly, but also in a voice that could be considered comforting. "I know you just want to forget whatever you know about him- believe me, I know- but the memory of him just isn't going to go away." Deciding to keep it simple and saying nothing more on that particular topic to avoid making himself sound corny (he was still very conscious of what he was saying despite the seriousness of it), he gestured with his head towards the box and said, "Come on. Let's see what your old man's been keeping in here."

 

[Kami]

Upon hearing Greg mention her dad, her smirk was immediately wiped from her face. He must have saw the box. She turned around, becoming angry now. Skell was so excited to look through Todd's old stuff, and Greg had to mention her dad. Why did he even want to look through that box? What does he have to do with her dad? It's not like it matters to him. He shouldn't care about that.


"I really don't think that's a good idea, Greg," She said. Skell tried to contain her anger for now, not wanting to hurt her friend. Turning around to face the bookshelf once more, she suggested, "Why don't we look through this old junk? It would be way more fun than..." She couldn't finish the sentence. Skell didn't even want to say his name. If she remembered, all of her old feelings would come back. She would become vulnerable. The emptiness of not having her dad with her would come back and consume her. She hoped Greg would understand.

 

[grey987]

"I really don't think that's such a good idea, Greg." Now it was his turn to become a bit frustrated with his friend; just how long was she going to keep this under wraps? Sure, there was a similar situation involving Wade where he sometimes had trouble accepting the truth about him, but something about this just irked him so much. About how she thought she could let this slide, and think she could ignore it forever. For some reason, it was almost infuriating.


"Why don't we look through this old junk? It would be way more fun than...


"Running from the past?" The boy stared Skell down with a fire in his eyes that he refused to hide unlike his friend. His head was tilted and his gaze was questioning, almost insulting. "I thought you of all people would understand best that we keep on running. We don't let anything bog us down and stop us from running." It was almost interesting and perhaps frightening to see how quickly the two turned on each other the moment Skell's father came into play... In some respects, it was a subject of debate that had lingered between the two of them for years, but one that wasn't quite fully discussed until today. But instead of continuing, Greg paused, staring at his friend for just a moment longer before shaking his head and letting a quiet breath pass out through his nose, turning back towards the box.


"Fine then. You just keep doing what you're doing; I'll look through this myself."

 

[Kami]

"I thought you of all people would understand best that we keep on running. We don't let anything bog us down and stop us from running."


Skell could feel her insides beginning to feel empty already. She didn't turn around, only closed her eyes and leaned against the bookshelf for a moment. It had been a long time since they had an argument like this. It bothered her to do this with him, Greg was a really close friend of hers. Ignoring him like this probably wasn't a good idea, but she didn't know what else to do. She didn't want to look through the box. She hoped Greg would stop trying, but of course he didn't.


"Fine then. You just keep doing what you're doing; I'll look through this myself."


Each footstep she heard pushed her more and more into the dark pit she's been trying to avoid for a long time. Skell let out a long sigh, "Looking through Todd's stuff wouldn't be fun by myself." Finally turning around, she slowly made her way to the dreaded box. Skell was still angry with Greg. She avoided eye contact with him, hating him for making her do this. The entire time she did this, it was like she was outside of her body, not controlling what she did. Something had to push her really hard for her to take any sort of action. Moving things out of the way to make room for the box, she dropped to the ground to wait for Greg to open it. She couldn't do it herself.

 

[grey987]

As Greg was in the process of pulling the box out from the place it had been shoved into amongst countless other things that had been kept beside it, he heard Skell tread behind him slowly until she finally stood beside him and pushed things out of the way so there would be room for it. He looked over at her as she sat down beside him, her gaze now pinned firmly to the box and not even shifting in the slightest direction towards him. He just took in and let out a deep breath before looking away; things like this normally didn't bother him, especially when he was agitated, but Skell was a very close friend of his and it kind of hurt for them to fight like this, and to know that she was now ignoring him. He knew how hard this was for her, but... There was just no way that she'd get over this or forgive her father unless she started to face what was in front of her. This was a chance for her to reach closure, and he really wanted that for her.


Because despite his own continuous troubles involving his older brother, he knew how much it meant to reach closure.


"We'll take a brief look, and then we can go and look through whatever other junk Todd seems to have up here. Alright?" he assured in a voice much more calm than a few moments prior to this one. When he received no response from her of any sort, he let out another deep breath before turning his gaze back to the box in front of them. Just what exactly did her dad keep in here? Was it anything special? Greg wasn't at all sure of what they'd find, but... perhaps it was worth the look.


"Alright... Let's see what your old man's been keeping in here," he muttered, finally popping open the lid on the box and peering inside.

 

[Kami]

Skell stood up now, and glanced at Greg before looking inside of the box. As expected, there was a pile of some of his old clothes he wore. Skell picked up the pile, and moved it aside. They still smelled like her father. Memories began to come back into her mind from her childhood.


Skell always loved her dad. As a kid, she told herself he was her favourite. He was funny, charming, and greatly intelligent. Skell was in the backyard, on the metal swingset she loved to use. It always made her feel like she was flying. Reaching for the clouds, she pretended she could touch them and form them into new shapes. It was easy for her to get lost in the clouds, from the constantly changing shapes. The sound of tires on gravel caught her attention. Her dad must be home! Skell jumped off of the swing mid-air, and ran to the driveway. Once she caught sight of her dad, she pounced on him, hugging him tight. The familiar smell of his worn jacket calmed her down, made her feel at home. "Hey, sweetie," He greeted her. Skell let go of him, following him into the house. "Did you have fun at work?" She asked.


"Um, yeah... Yeah, I did," He replied, uncertainty in his voice. There was something he wasn't telling her, but Skell was too young to notice.


Her heart was pounding, she was trying so hard to hold in her tears. She couldn't dare look at Greg now. Looking deeper into the box, she recognized the many objects that were piled up at the bottom. His reading glasses, his watches, shoes, favourite tapes. But there were also the things her family put in there for him as well. She saw the craft of an elephant she made for him out of popsicle sticks, and glue. She made it at school. Her young self had no idea she would be giving it to her dead dad. Skell had to take a deep breath to collect herself.

 

[grey987]

... I am... such a fucking idiot... Greg swallowed hard as he watched Skell sifting through the contents of the box, watching as unease came to her eyes and indicated an inner struggle that she was trying desperately to win. But both of them knew that she was losing; facing her past was much more difficult than he made it out to be. And now that he was watching her as memories of her father plagued her mind, he realized that he'd made a mistake in forcing her to do this. A very big mistake.


With a sigh, he picked up the lid to the box and closed it shut, immediately turning over to Skell and wrapping his arms around her in a hug. "I'm sorry," Greg whispered quietly, feeling a large amount of guilt swell up in his chest after he forced his best friend to go through something so emotionally painful. "I'm really sorry. I just... I wanted to try and help, somehow." A dry chuckle escaped his lips after that statement. "But I never have been good for helping you, have I?" Even now, he wanted to be something in her eyes for some reason that he couldn't quite remember, to let her know that he had her back for everything. He was sure that she already knew that, but...


He didn't quite remember why he even still bothered to try and 'make things better' for her. She'd always been fine on her own.

 

[Kami]

Relief washed over her as the box was closed, and she felt Greg's arms wrap around her. She hugged him back, and couldn't stop the tears from streaming down her face. Hearing his apology made her realize that he was only trying to help her. She couldn't be angry at him for that. Maybe she needed to remember her father once more. "It's okay," Skell managed to say between her shaky breaths. She felt so stupid now, having to cry in front of her best friend. Having him see her like that... Does he think differently of her now? She is supposed to be strong, to be able to get through anything with no help at all. It seems like the opposite now, after that entire dilemma with the box.


She wiped the tears from her eyes, and took a few deep breaths after pulling away from the hug. What Greg was trying to do, was something she probably does need. But if she starts now, it would take forever to finish. Her emotions about her dad don't just come and go. They stay for a long while. It was easy to forget about him when she couldn't remember much about being with him. But now that she's looked through the box, the memories are becoming more clear. Looking through Todd's stuff would surely take her mind off of it.


Skell locked eyes with Greg for a minute before turning to go to the bookshelf. She looked into his eyes, and gave him the biggest smile she could manage (which wasn't very big at all) to sort of thank him for caring so much about her. It didn't last long, Skell thought she might cry again if she continued to stay in that moment. Instead, she walked to the shelf, taking out a random book. It happened to be one of Todd's journals from middle school. A small chuckle managed to come from Skell, "I still can't believe he used to write journals..."

 

[grey987]

Greg never thought any less of Skell for seeing or hearing her cry. The fact that she had a tough time acknowledging her father's existence was simply a weakness that she had, and there was nothing wrong with her showing that. He, on the other hand, wouldn't have had the courage to do that if he were faced with a similar situation; he probably would have shrugged her off, or said he was fine and attach a false smile to his words as he'd done a few other times before. There was just no way that he could let her see him being vulnerable. Perhaps it would have been a sexist view from the perspective of others, but that was not how he thought of it; he just didn't want to show anyone that he himself had weak moments at times.


Greg could have said all of that to Skell, told her that she was still strong even if she cried. But instead he said nothing more than he already had, allowing his friend to move away from his embrace a few moments later and briefly meeting with her gaze before she turned hers back towards the bookshelf she'd been looking at earlier. She'd need time before facing the truth of everything once and for all, and he was willing to give that to her. So he dismissed the topic of her father for now, humoring her once more in her search for all of the relics that her brother seemed to be keeping in this attic.


"Well, from the looks of things so far, it seems like your brother was a huge nerd back then," Greg replied with a chuckle. "So yeah, it figures that he would have also kept a journal of some sort."

 

[Kami]

Skell opened up the journal to the first page. It was from three years ago. The first page was simply full of Todd's blabbering about school, and his friends. She didn't feel like reading his entire journal, as that would surely be a waste of her time. So she skimmed through it, looking for odd words and stopping to read a few sentences every now and then. His journal was mostly boring, until Skell came across one page that mentioned a 'time machine'. The memory of Todd whining about time machines suddenly sparked in Skell's memory. He used to talk about that stuff a lot, now that she thought about it. Skell was always too busy ignoring him, so she never really understood what he was talking about. All she remembered was that Todd was in some lame club in school where they talked about science related to time or something.


We finally figured out the puzzle we've been trying to solve for so long. It's going to take a couple more years to build, but we know what we're doing now. Kazz and I worked on the time machine today, and the progress is just beginning. I'm so pumped for this... It's a life long dream I've had. To travel in time could mean so many possibilities. The future could be dangerous, but that's a risk I'm willing to take.


So he actually built a time machine?, Skell thought. Just to make sure, she read the last page. The time machine was mentioned, but it was still in progress at the end of the journal. Curiosity consumed Skell, and she grabbed the next one, and the next one. His journal from one year ago. It had to be it. Opening up the journal, she flipped to the last page, too lazy to go through the entire thing.


I've ended my studies of time and space. I can't do this anymore... It's too dangerous. I'm sorry, grandfather. I tried, I really did.


Hiding everything related to this is probably the best option. I wouldn't want anyone going through this stuff and trying it on their own. Whatever you do... DON'T USE THE TM17





The last words were written in giant letters, filling up the bottom of the page. What did TM17 even mean? Todd specifically stated he was hiding something, and if he was it would surely be around that bookshelf. Skell pushed all of the books off the shelves, and looked deeply into each one. She pushed onto all of the walls of them too, just in-case there was some kind of secret button. The bookshelf moved forward a little when Skell pushed on the left side, slanting the entire shelf. There must be something behind it. Skell peeked her head around it, and finally saw it. The "time machine" Todd was talking about. He actually made one. Did he really travel in time?


Skell pushed the bookshelf as far away as it could go. Which wasn't very far. There was still a small space that was big enough for her to reach it. It was very heavy, so all she could do was drag it. Skell placed it in front of her and Greg, so they could both get a good look at it. The machine was very large, and looked like a giant cube full of random gears and buttons. She had no idea what any of them did. There was also a ripped piece of paper taped to the top of it that read: DO NOT TOUCH.


"Is this some joke that Todd planned for me to find?" She wondered aloud.

 

[grey987]

Greg peered over Skell's shoulder as she flipped through one of her brother's journals, finding the first few entries to be typically uninteresting and boring. He was about to move away to take a look at the rest of the bookshelf, but then she turned to a page that caught his eye and his feet remained planted to the hard, wooden floorboards beneath their feet as he read along with her. A time machine... He's kidding, right? This was probably just him being a geek or something, he thought to himself, though in truth he didn't know what to think as she kept reading through the entries. There was no way that Skell's brother and her friends could have actually been building a real time machine... Right?


However, if there was one thing that was perhaps concerning, it was the last page of a journal that Todd had written just a year earlier, which stressed for the "TM17" not to be used. Did that mean that the machine was completed, lying around somewhere nearby? Greg stepped back a bit as Skell began to search almost frantically through the bookshelf, supposedly looking for said machine and eventually pushing it aside so she could have a look further. He saw her reaching forward and dragging something out, finding it to be some sort of box comprised of all sorts of mechanisms. Was this the supposed time machine that her brother had been working on for so long? How did it work? Just how the hell did he even make this? So many questions raced through his mind at this point, and there was no way for him to get his thoughts in order.


When Skell wondered aloud about whether this was supposed to be some sort of joke, Greg found himself shrugging his shoulders. "I don't know... But if by some chance in Hell that it isn't, are we sure that we can even get it to work?"

 

[Kami]

Skell stood in her thinking stance, with her head resting on her hand, and her elbow supported by her other hand. She had no idea how this machine worked at all. Asking Todd was out of the question, considering if he knew they found this he would probably murder one of them. The instructions could be in one of the journals or books but... Skell really didn't feel like searching through everything. She ripped the paper that said "DO NOT TOUCH" off of the cube-like machine, and examined it closely. Getting up close to it, she turned it around, looking for anything that could explain what it was, or what it did. Nothing made sense to her.


"I think we might just have to... take a leap of faith I guess? Unless you have a better idea," She suggested. Skell lifted her head to look at Greg. Could he possibly know anything about machines? She knew Greg pretty well, but there were always small things that friends didn't know. Because they weren't important. But, if he was impeccably knowledgeable about machines, she would know. Which means he probably also has no clue what is going on. If anything, Skell should be the one to know more about machines because of Todd. Though, because of their distant relationship, Todd didn't really have the opportunity to teach Skell about that stuff. She didn't care about it, and he didn't care about teaching her.

 

[grey987]

Greg was silent for a moment as he examined the machine in front of them, busy trying to figure out just what the hell was even happening. This had to be some kind of joke, it had to be... But this huge, mechanical gizmo thingy (his mind practically refused to call it a time machine) seemed to coincide with whatever "notes" Todd had taken involving supposed research on time travel, and he didn't even know how it was supposed to work. And it seemed that Skell didn't either, so they were going to have to try and figure this out together somehow since going to ask her brother was definitely out of the question, given the circumstances.


"I think a leap of faith sounds like the best option right now," he sighed with a shrug of his shoulders. "Because honestly, I'm not sure that this is really something that we can just ignore. I mean... What if this is legit? I'm no expert when it comes to mechanics, but I do know that this looks like one very complex piece of machinery that could actually work. That is, if we can even figure out how to do that..."

 

[Kami]

Standing up, Skell realized something. If that machine-thing did work... what would happen afterwards? Going into the future.. or in the past.. was probably a really bad idea. What if they changed something that had a huge effect on the world? Didn't Todd think about that? What did he do in the future? Or past... Or wherever he went. Maybe he had information in one of his 'diaries' about that kind of thing. He must have had a plan. Although, to find out, they would have to read through every journal and read every page thoroughly. That was definitely out of the idea.


While trying to think about the consequences of travelling in time.. Skell also thought about the positive outcomes involved. Would it not be awesome to go to the future? Or anywhere completely different? The people here made Skell sick anyways. She wouldn't mind leaving for a while. Also.. It would be fun with Greg, too. The adrenaline of adventure suddenly rushed through Skell's veins. An eagerness to go through time began to consume her. It must be her destiny.. How else would she have found this?


Her decision was made. They would figure it out. Skell had to do it.


She made her way toward Greg to talk to him about what he thinks, but tripped on something before she could. She felt her body hit the ground, and her eyes instinctively shut before the impact. When she opened them, the entire room was lit with a blue glow. The "time machine" was the source of light, blinding her just by looking near it. There was a sudden pressure which was all Skell could feel. She didn't know if it was because she was in shock, but she also couldn't hear anything. Looking at Greg, she noticed the surprise in his face as well.

 

[grey987]

Greg's gaze had been turned back to the large mechanical box in front of them while Skell was immersed in her own thoughts, but then he caught movement out of the corner of his eye and he turned back towards her just as she tripped over something and fell to the floor. He was about to ask if she was alright, but suddenly the device that sat beside them started to glow, and his eyes snapped back towards it just as a strange compressive feeling hit him, coursing from his head down to his toes. It was a very uncomfortable feeling, and then there was white noise in his ears before he seemed to go completely deaf, unable to hear anything as he looked from Skell back to the box in bewilderment and surprise. What had she just done? Did she... somehow manage to activate the machine?


Greg was tense, trying to figure out just what had happened while he stared at the brightly glowing machine before them. There was no way... This had to be a dream, right? It had to be, some figment of his imagination. There was no way that his and Skell's ordinary (for the most part) lives had just been thrust into some sort of crazy sci-fi scenario. There couldn't be. Just the mere thought of time travel being an actual prospect in real life... It just seemed ridiculous, especially since it was Skell's older brother and a couple of his friends who made this; they were unprofessional scientists, with no way to be able to research something so extensively that they'd be able to create something that would manipulate it. That's at least what it seemed like... but he didn't know anymore.


He was actually afraid, and he hadn't been afraid of anything for a very long time.

 

[Kami]

Skell had no idea how long she'd been unconscious for. Or that she had even been unconscious in the first place. All she knew was that when she opened her eyes, she wasn't in the same place, and it felt like she'd been knocked out for a while. Looking to her left, Greg was on the floor, still unconscious. The mystery machine must have knocked them both out cold for some time. Since Skell woke up, Greg was bound to wake up very soon as well. She took a look around, really absorbing where she caused herself and Greg to end up. It looked like some kind of tall building. They were in a fairly large room, with a long table surrounded by chairs. There were a few other scattered things Skell couldn't seem to identify. The room also looked very dirty, and unorganized. Maybe they didn't travel in time, and simply teleported somewhere.


But that was definitely not the case once Skell took a look outside the wide purple-tinted, window. There were rows and rows of many other similar buildings, but they all looked much more looked-after. Although, from the outside, the buildings were shaped so differently than what she was used to seeing. There were odd curved sections, and the material used to build them must have been something Skell had never seen before. Looking farther down, she noticed the vehicles that were being used were hovering, and looked far from the vehicles of her time. The people walking the streets were all wearing very bright colours, and everyone was wearing the same type of jumpsuit. Everything outside looked so orderly compared to the room they were in now. Something was definitely odd about the building they were in. But also, the entire situation was very odd...

 

[grey987]

Greg wasn't able to tear his gaze away from that box as it just sat there in front of them, emitting a bright blue glow and lighting up the room around them. It was nothing he'd ever seen before, and he had no idea at all how he and Skell were supposed to deal with this. But before he could try and come up with any sort of solution at all, there was more white noise in his ears that grew in frequency until it actually hurt his ears, and then there was a flash of white in his vision before everything went black. There was nothing anymore, except for that dark void of unconsciousness that he'd become trapped in.


--


"Ugh... Oooow... My head..." After an indefinite amount of time, Greg finally stirred, awaking to a pounding sort of feeling in the back of his head that caused him discomfort and pain. For a while, he couldn't quite remember anything; where he was, who he was with and what had happened before he went unconscious. Just trying to think hurt his brain, but in time he remembered everything and he sat up with a long groan, looking around and assessing the new surroundings he was a part of before his eyes found Skell, peering out of a nearby window with a strange purple tint.


"Hey... What happened? Where are we right now?" he asked groggily, slowly getting up to his feet and practically stumbling over to his friend before casually pushing her aside and taking his own peek out of the sheet of glass. What he saw ended up "rebooting" his brain in a sense; he was brought out of his tired and exhausted state and a crazy kind of bewilderment settled into his facial expression, and he backed away slowly before he turned his gaze over to Skell again. "This isn't funny, Skell. What the hell did you do!?"

 

[Kami]

She stood in shock, still staring out the window in the same spot. It was hard to fully process what was happening; what just happened. There were so many questions going through her mind all at once. Skell tried to play it cool, and not think too much about what happened. That was always her back-up attitude: to just pretend like everything is okay, and just play along with whatever happens. If Todd got out of this situation, she could do. There was nothing to worry about. Everything will be fine.


Skell suddenly heard the ruffling of footsteps, and knew Greg must have woken up. The footsteps sounded odd, and all over the place. She wondered if he was all right. She opened her mouth to ask him before he began to say something.


"Hey... What happened? Where are we right now?"


Skell didn't know how to respond. She was asking herself the same questions. Before she could even come up with a decent response, Greg spoke again. "This isn't funny, Skell. What the hell did you do!?"


She looked at Greg, who was glaring at her, his eyes lit up with anger. Fear and guilt washed over her all at once. Greg had never sounded so angry before, especially never directly at Skell. Her eyes were wide, the fear was surely noticeable. She had no words, no idea what to say, or do. It was like she was frozen in the spot, unable to move, blink, or speak. It was all her fault. She was the one who wanted to look through Todd's stuff. She was the one to find the machine, and play around with it. Somehow, she put Greg and herself in this terrible situation and there was nothing she could do. What did she do?





"I'm... I'm... sorry," She managed to spit out. Her voice was quiet, and frail. Unusual, for a person like Skell. She was always so confident and determined to be strong. The fear and guilt inside of her was completely consuming her.