User blog:GamerNerd i/It's About (Messing Up) Time: Act V

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Transcript
Nadia stands at a chemistry set in the Recreators’ spatially unstable lab. It looks more like an alchemy set considering some of the medieval implements it has, but whatever. Her hair is tied back in a ponytail, and she’s wearing goggles.

“We just sent a kid back to the future. Well, hopefully at least. And now we have to go there?” Something begins bubbling as she mashes some leaves.

Aidan is also working on something in the background. He's working with red-hot metal, trying to make steel string. “It's not the same dimension he's from,” he says, his voice muffled by a welder’s mask. “This is the weird dimension where we're looking for that message.”

“Oh, that. We're going back to that again?” Nadia carefully sprinkles a few mashed leaves into her formula. “Alrighty.”

Rotom roams between the two workstations. Aidan's side looks like a mix between a blacksmith’s forge and a mechanic’s workshop. A furnace, anvil and accompanying tools are on one side and a bench littered with power tools are on the other. Aidan is using a blowtorch while his string cools. Nadia’s side looks like it came out of a wizard’s lair. Aside from her alchemy set, there's a large case of books and colored liquid. I didn't notice it before, but she's actually reading recipes from a floating book.

“Now, just turn down the heat and add some of this…” Nadia turns a knob and drops a tiny bit of red liquid into the mix. It turns the same color as Aidan’s humanizing serum. “I think that's it!” She says excitedly. “And first try too!” Then the flask starts steaming. “Nevermind. Rotom, get out of the way!” She crouches under the table as the flask explodes.

“Well, we won't need it right now, so it's fine,” Aidan says, without looking behind him. He puts down his blowtorch and dunks his project in water. “Now, let’s test this,” he mutters to himself, picking up what looks like a yo-yo. Aidan tosses it out as you would a normal yo-yo and starts pointing directly to his left. The yo-yo follows, moving straight left. He points right and the yo-to goes that way, leaving its string as it goes. Spinning his hand in a circle, he manages to loop the up-to around Nadia's floating book. He yanks back suddenly, and the rope tightens around the book and returns to him, following the path it originally took.

“Yes! The navigator works!” Aidan grabs the book and catches the yo-yo with his other hand. He frowns. “This isn’t supposed to be this warm. Oh, son of a—“ He cuts the wire before tossing the main yo-yo apparatus into the furnace. It explodes shortly after.

“Naelc aera,” Nadia commands. Both her and Aidan's workplaces clean themselves up as the two Recreators remove their safety equipment.

“What would our parents think of us working on projects that explode?” Aidan muses.

“What would they think if they knew how much time we spent together?” Nadia asks mischievously.

Aidan shudders. “Considering that both of those are linked to the fact that we share a secret, I don't want to know. You're dad is nice enough, but I don't want to get in trouble with him.”

Nadia laughs. “And I know your parents wouldn't approve of secretive activity with a girl, especially with what they've seen of me.”

Aidan shakes his head. “Rel- er,” he starts, before self-consciously glancing at the camera. “Friendship problems aside, we should go.” He opens a portal and steps through.

Nadia winks at the camera. “He doesn't want to admit it,” she whispers, “but he likes me.” She too walks through the portal, leaving Rotom slightly confused. I was too a little bit so I don't blame him.

“Zzz… Okay? I hopezzz you got that, .” Rotom flies through into a world that looks like the Jetsons.

The color blue dominates the entire scene. A light blue sky. Cobalt exteriors with red highlights and reflective glass make up the houses along the street. A similar metallic blue reflects off floating satellite dishes and decorative rings on tall poles. The sidewalk, and even the road, despite being mostly grey, have a notable blue tint. The ground itself is made of blue metal.

Red and blue. I’d say that the place replicates a computer, but that would be inaccurate. One color was missing: green. Reds, blues, and grays were in abundance, but there wasn’t anything even close to green. That is, until Rotom turned around. Along the edges of the metallic blue lawn were strands of green grass. The grass becomes progressively stronger the closer it gets to the house. There are even full-grown trees in front of it, carefully trimmed to be round. (And with red fruit showing, no less.) The house itself, despite being metal, was painted to look like a present-day (which I guess would be old in this case) house. The sandy walls and red-clay-colored roof stood out among the other, more futuristic designs nearby. There’s also an unusually large, yellow lightbulb on a connected building.

“Well then,” Nadia says, as Aidan closes his portal. “That’s quite a rebel.”

“I mean, in this age, the human protagonists would have died decades ago. Zomboss even says so.” He shrugs indifferently. “I dunno who owns this one, but it’s the base for the plants of this time. Let’s greet them, shall we?”

Aidan strolls up and knocks on the door. A Starfruit with a black beard and baseball cap answers. I don’t understand how that works, but it does. He looks irritated.

“Alroight, wot’s going on here?” The Starfruit says sternly. “My roomies are busy, so you interrupted my recording.”

I can hear Nadia and Rotom trying to withhold a laugh as Aidan gently requests to see the Starfruit’s “roomies.” The trio is allowed inside as the Starfruit closes the door. As soon as he does, he gets into a nearby room and slams the door. I hear him scream something about getting into the news.

Aidan shrugs as the three start exploring the house. It looks relatively normal. Obviously it's more metal and glass than other materials, but it's probably what a future house would look like.

"This is... unnerving," Nadia says. "There's literally no one here except for that guy." Aidan is looking around, peeking into all the rooms. Rotom looks too. There’s a kitchen, a living room, and a library. Aidan whistles to Nadia at the last one.

"You might be interested in this room," He says, gesturing to the bookshelves. Nadia enters with a look of amazement on her face. "Mater Thothis..." she says in disbelief. "Considering that all things natural have been pretty much eradicated, I'm surprised that these still exist." Nadia walks around the room, running her hand over the books' spines. "And they’re real, too... Not just some lame decorative thing." She stops on one book suddenly. She starts tapping it. The sound his hard and hollow.

Nadia frowns. "Except this one, apparently. Which is this?" She squints at the spine. "Fahrenheit 451. Ray Bradbury. That's a shame, this is so appropriate for this time."

Nadia pulls out the book. As soon as it leaves the shelf, something clicks. The whole bookshelf slides downward into the floor as Nadia steps back. Behind it is a staircase of earth, leading down. She opens the book and flips through the pages. "I guess it's even more appropriate now since there was a hidden room in the play version of Fahrenheit."

"It's also another cliche," Aidan says. "Oh well, I guess if it ain't broke, don't fix it." He starts to descend the staircase, followed by Rotom. There's a button on the wall. Aidan presses it and the bookcase slides back into its normal position. Nadia slides the hard book into a slot in the back of the shelf.

"Hey! Who the heck is that?" A voice calls from the bottom of the stairs. "Keem, is that you again?" A star shape appears at the bottom of the stairs.

"No, we're Zombies," Nadia says sarcastically as the three descend toward the star.

"Oh, you three," Starfruit says once they come into the light. "Peashooter told us about you."

"We've gotten that at least once each time we travel," Aidan says. "Anyway, where are your buddies?"

The Starfruit gestures with his eyes. "Citron is trying to get Laser Bean out of the bathroom."

Sure enough, an orange is standing in front of a locked door, banging on it repeatedly. "Dude! Laser Bean! You've been in there for an hour already! Get out!"

"Blover and Turnip are on monitoring duty," Starfruit adds. The distinct sound of a Pac-Man dying is heard as someone yells. "Well, at least, they should be on monitoring duty. Come on, let me show you around."

Aidan whispers aside, "Some resistance force, am I right?" before laughing and following Starfruit.

"Oh uh, by the way," Starfruit says. "Would you mind if your buddy stopped recording? Just for safety reasons."

Nadia shrugs and flicks off a switch to turn Rotom's camera off.