The First Debate part II

I remember this shot.

It was after the Debate brainstorming we had, and it was a fruitful session. We have all the points we need for Friday, and it's just about polishing up the language we use. I'm actually excited for this whole thing.

The First Debate

And so I find myself in the Debate competition again.

Old friends

So today, on a whim, I decided to pick up Magic the Gathering again. I was debating whether Magic would affect the timeline, but my personal timeline wasn't built around the game.

NOW HERE'S THE IRRITATING PART. The only game shops that were around (or technically "are" around) in 2008 are relatively unknown in my present time. So I managed to find a pretty nice gameshop down by Parkway Parade.

Silent Screams

I fear for my sanity.

What if, after everything that we've discussed, calculated and analysed, we still fail? What if we can't change the future? What if Melanie and Felicity still die?

The circumstances in our timeline for their deaths were out of my control. Mel's illness happened without our knowledge in 2010. Felicity chose in 2012. I have no reason to feel as guilty as I did, and do. Yet they meant so much to me, and I never got the chance to say goodbye. I never got the chance to talk Felix out of the rope. I was too late to say goodbye to Mel.

That was my greatest failure. I never got to say goodbye to Mel.

Do you know what Mel's last words were in 2010 our time?

"Where's Ted?"

My last words to her were a week prior.

"I'll see you soon, Mel."

I couldn't stop Death from taking them both from me. I couldn't do anything from where we came, and by God, I will steal them back.

I must. I don't want to bury them again.

-Ted

(Originally published 12/4/2016)

Rules

I think we have to set rules to this whole time travel thing, Ming.

For instance, I've switched our blogs to 'locked', to ensure that we're able to communicate and talk about the 'future' on our blogs to each other. Remember that Cloud storage isn't easily accessible yet, and Google docs only started getting reliable in a year or so.

Besides, I'm sure we can get by with locked blogs for now. 

To start off--

1)We're in an alternate universe, or so it seems. Everything so far seems to be the same as it was with 2008 in our world. The Recess Group has been formed with Marianne, Nadiah, Eddard. You're still texting that gal I seem to forget the name of at this time, and we're no longer taking that stupid 3rd Language Class.

2)I have a few things I want to alter in this timeline. Namely, to ensure Mel never...leaves. Also to see if I can still salvage the remnants of my own relationships. See if I can save the ones we've lost over the years.

3)We can make money off online sites. Pretty sure we can make a few huge bets on the outcomes of elections, book spoilers, stuff like that. The next shot we have would be Obama's election. Google shows that he's still a relative unknown to the public.

We're going to need that money. I for one want to search out and find Hunter, Even if it means we just keep an eye and make sure he's safe. We need operating capital, even if we don't make much money off these bets.

4) Above all else, we need to keep a low profile, and keep it a secret. Keep the idea that we're from the future a secret.

We can't approach Dahlia too early, even if she knows us. I know you want to see her before she went off the deep end, and hopefully change her SOMEHOW, but we're going to have to bide our time out. We have 8 years.

That being said, it was a bit stupid of us to hang out that late. I think we're both still shellshocked about being back in time. Going to a 7-11 Counter and asking for Cigarettes with baby faces in the middle of the night at 2 am on a school night, with a Police Officer getting his Big Gulp, was definitely not one of the wisest things we've done.

-Ted

The First Step.

I blame my stupid mouth.

It all started when Ming and I were taking a cigarette in the middle of the night out of boredom. When my mind brought me to Life is Strange.

"What if we manage to time travel to an earlier era of our lives?"

What if we could change the future with the knowledge of the current present? What if we had the weapon of knowledge? What if we could have saved her?

So we didn't think too hard or too much about it, but it was obvious that I had the most general regrets about my life. Ming didn't have too much he wanted to change. Perhaps never having dated half the gals he's dated.

That was in April of 2016.

So, I woke up in a familiar but different room. My room was back to how it was in 2008, and I spent the morning groggy. The curtains were different, my desk was rearranged, and everything about it was...altered. It felt so surreal and dream-like, that I didn't think much of it, until a phone rang. I sprang up, thinking it was my iPhone, but the tone was much different--it was my Motorola phone from my Secondary school years.

'Wei Ming HP'

I picked it up, and Ming immediately started on a tirade.

"What the fuck did you do, Ted."

I hung up, and walked out the door, and saw Mel's door left ajar.

I don't think much else matters right now. I knocked, went into her room and saw her brushing her hair. I just hugged her tightly, without a word.

"What do you want, you weirdo?" She said, annoyed.

I think whatever the consequences of this weird time travel thing, nothing else matters right now.

Melanie's back.

-Ted

(IRL published on the 10th of April, 2016)