serialskiller | SAIL IC Inbox

Do you know where you might be in about 10 days

Little ellipses for many moments too long.

I have a favor to ask

Sound a little more ominous, could you? What do you need?

Ha, sorry! It's nothing big.

I just wonder if you're free the night of the 2nd. I'm

It's an important day for me and I don't think I'm going to get a lot of sleep.

[ ~~And you're safe, and I don't want to be alone.~~ Wait that still sounds ominous ]

I'm going to watch the sunrise. Come with?

Edited 2023-01-23 21:37 (UTC)

Clarification: by 'night of the 2nd', do you mean the night of the 1st into the 2nd or the night of the 2nd into the 3rd? Either way, I will clear my schedule for you. The entire day, if you'd like.

2nd into the 3rd.

... Are you sure? I would, but I don't want to take up too much of your time.

Have I made you believe that I'm the sort of person who offers to do a thing if it's going to be too much for me to tolerate?

[ "Sort of person." Turn of phrase, but hey, now. ]

No, but you've made friends with a guy who always wants to give an out.

I'd like that a lot. If I start acting really weird or saying crazy shit on the 2nd, I apologize in advance.

[Oh, they can dissect that more in person. The bot has made some firm decisions about what it wants to be.]

Are you going to give me the relevant information to know when I need to worry?

[ ... oh, hoopla. ]

... When I think about it, I don't know if I'll be coherent enough to explain anything, so I should probably do it now.

[ The idea of having to explain over and over again for the next potential forever is exhausting. He doesn't wanna, though. ]

It's related to the time I mentioned I had thousands of tries to do something I couldn't. I'd rather do this in person. Let me know when you have a minute?

My cabin or yours? I have a couple things to tell you as well, but they're not time-sensitive.

Let's do mine. See you in a bit?

No response on the phone. Less than five minutes later, a knock on the cabin door.

Phil smiles as he opens the door, though the expression is thin. He hasn't been sleeping. "That was quick. Come on in. We can talk on the couch."

One side of the room is relatively untouched; Rosalind's leftover scraps of engineering projects sit piled neatly in a corner, dusty and still. The rest is significantly more lived-in.

He crosses his legs and his arms once he takes a seat at the corner of the couch. Sighing, he grumbles, "You'd think it'd be easier by the fourth time. Sec, how's time travel fare where you're from?"

"One of ART's favorite serials is Timehoppers. It likes seeing the ship get featured in the show. But. Time travel isn't real in my universe."

It shrugs slightly. "Why?"

"Because I..." He frowns. Scratches his head. "A few years ago, I was still frozen in time. There was this--this thing... Sec, I've lived most of my life on the exact same day."

He pauses. He pauses again and again as he works out what to say. "I don't know how it happened. I don't know how it ended. All I know is that one day I stopped moving forward. I was on assignment, I was covering the Groundhog Day ceremony because it's a stupid holiday about predicting the weather and I'm a weatherman, so they sent me to the town of Punxsutawney and I--back then I hated all of it and I hated everyone, and I wanted to get out as soon as I could. A blizzard was coming in, which cut off everyone's cell and closed all the roads. So I had to stay the night. And when I woke up the next morning, it just--it wasn't. It wasn't February 3rd, it was the 2nd. It was still Groundhog Day.

"I was the only person who... carried over, I guess? I thought I was going fucking nuts. Groundhog Day was happening over and over again and everything was the exact same thing except for me and I was stuck. I don't..."

A long, drawn-out pause.

“Phil, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but that’s like the polar opposite of time travel. It’s time stasis. And…it sounds like a fucking nightmare. Of course I’ll be with you on February 2nd here.”

"Yeah--yeah, I know it isn't." It comes out sharper than he means it to. "It's time shit, I don't know. I'm--"

His talons scrape his skin as he starts getting twitchy, adding red lines to the ones already criss-crossing his arms under his sleeves. "But. Thank you. God, I... I'm still not used to time moving so fast. You know? It's still weird to see people remember my name and recognize who I am. It's so weird to realize people, like, remember conversations. Or that I have to shave. Or do laundry. Or see the sun. I feel like I'm lagging all the time. Or like I'm always having some kind of headache.

"It was--it was--it was nice, you know, to not have any consequences, sometimes. I eventually... Punx is home now. I mean, it kind of had to be. I lived there longer than I've lived anywhere else. The people were nice. Are nice. I've gone back. I don't know what it's going to be like here, though, and it's, I just... I think... it would be better, if you were there for the next eternity."

"You feel that strongly about me?" It is touched and also confused. But this is an aspect of love--even the confusion.

It can't truly understand what Phil's going through, but the choice to want to be around it is. A lot.

“… You know, you’re the only one who’s ever actually told me that I’m safe even if I shouldn’t have thought I wasn’t,” he says quietly. “If things start getting dangerous, like if I… just, go crazy or something, you’d—I know you’re responsible enough to help out. And I’m not afraid that you’ll be completely ruined or something if I do.”

Most importantly: “And if everything turns out fine, then I just get to spend the day with you. Doesn’t sound like a bad deal.”

Edited 2023-01-30 04:16 (UTC)

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