The next day, Jasper was waiting for Lila when she ducked out of the café after the morning rush.
She entered the downstairs kitchen to pull out a bowl of bread dough that she had put in the fridge to bake for the lunch rush that would come in two hours or so.
Jasper looked a lot more well rested, with his hair slightly damp that Lila could only assume was from a shower. He wore the new set of clothes that Lila had laid out for him, his limbs and face slightly more full and filling up the arm holes of the shirt.
He was perched on one of the stools in her kitchen and was eating the rest of the smoothie that she had made him for breakfast, made from all of last week’s remaining fruits and berries, more berries than fruit thanks to a strawberry sale.
“Everything alright?” Lila asked him as she moved to put on an apron and sprinkle some flour down on her workspace, dusting her hands with the white powder as she did so, before opening one of the fridges an
“I could speak my own language to you, but you wouldn’t understand what I was saying, and if you went to the future, your words would probably be recognised and understood, but you wouldn’t be able to understand what was being said to you,” Jasper explained to Lila. “Ne… tu mari muu nu boulet?” Lila then asked Jasper, switching to a different language that Jasper had never heard before. “I understand what you’re saying, but I really couldn’t answer you now. You’re asking me if I can speak the language that you switched to. I have nothing to fill the blanks in and I have nothing in front of me to help me gain a fuller understanding of the language. Also, I’ve never been exposed to the text either, so I’ll be almost completely illiterate in it because I’ve honestly forgotten most of what’s in the chip,” Jasper answered her. “Common dit on en anglaise ‘raten gift’ en anglaise?” Lila questioned further, deciding to mix up two more languages to test Jasper’s limit
“It would be far more likely that some part of Emmet’s writings did survive and did bear a great resemblance to something within the times that it was discovered, and that someone chose the dates that Emmet put down in his diary as some kind of novelty. No one believes predictions about times in the future and it was more of a joke on this little scrap of paper than anything… and yes, I’ve told Emmet about this as well,” Jasper tried to rationalise. Even from where Lila was stood, she could still clearly see the distress on Jasper’s face, and she didn’t believe that he believed what he was saying. She could easily refute his words, by mentioning the fact that Ada Lovelace came up with the idea of machines that could display images and sounds, and the fact that Nikola Tesla predicted the modern phone fitting into people’s pockets and connecting people everywhere, but chose not to, for his own sake. “Jasper… what are the chances of someone in your future making
Gretel took the sheet and ID card that she was given, and did not remember what had happened immediately afterwards. She remembered packing her bags with a smile on her face, her mother's face projected in front of her as she moved around, the contacts that she wore making her appear as if she were in the room with Gretel as she moved about her room, only needing to reach towards her clothes for them to be automatically marked out for her to pick up and be put in her bags, the computers of her contacts picking up on her hand gestures as she looked at them and storing the information away, letting all the notices be picked up and seen visibly in front of her, unable to be ignored, even when she closed her eyes. She didn't even need to take them out, no damage done to it and her eyes because of the film that coated it ensuring the tiny, layer of atoms thick air pockets between the contact and the squidgy surface of her eyes. Her mother moved around the room, th
“You can’t tell Emmet about this. The moment that I opened up about my childhood, he looked horrified. Don’t tell him about this,” Jasper told her. “Yes, dad. I won’t tell mother about all the reckless, stupid things that we’re doing, discussing time travel mechanics in my kitchen,” she answered, putting on a fake, higher sing song voice. “Right…” was the only thing that Jasper answered, closing his eyes for a moment and closing up his fists, his body filling up with tension that Lila was only now realising he had been carrying this entire time. “It’s fine, Jasper. You don’t have to try. Everything’s going to be okay now. Nobody can hurt us except ourselves now,” Lila tried to console him. “You’re right and I know, but the comparisons still hurt and they remind you,” Jasper explained, letting out a sigh. “Going back to what we talking about before, the time machine works as: first, type in place: second, you disintegrate, all of you, including
Gretel, as soon as she arrived at the commute station platform at her destination, at her new home indefinitely, she had been immediately flanked by a large group of burly men, dressed almost identically in the same shade of dark grey. At first, when she had been their clothing, she had thought that they were a group travelling next on the train and just so happened to be getting on at her particular door out of there. She didn't particularly know of any troupes that dressed in such a fashion, and had attempted to move out of their as quickly as she could. As she flattened herself back to stand on the temporary nanobot platforms between the train and the actual platform proper, she stared down at the material that made up their clothing. The quality of the fabric was immediately obvious and glaring, at least military grade, and high, high above the civilian grade of clothing that theoretically nobody could buy with any amount of money. The alm
“So… Jasper and Emmet brought something up,” Lila announced herself, standing in front of the basement stairs after sliding down the railing,” Turns out, no co ordinates were plugged in to bring Emmet to a timeline in his future. He just pressed the button and went off, when by Jasper’s account, he should have either gone to the Antarctic instead of my roof.” Headphone lady and Tweedle Dum where the only people there today, and what she had said was apparently surprising enough that she had decided to end her call early to turn around to her. There was a familiar lady on the other side, this time today wearing a black, Victorian dress in what looked to be a cotton weaving mill. There was a window behind her which led to a swooping view of a dark city filled with towers spewing out smoke. “Are you saying that the time travel transmission was somehow bent to bring him to that location?” she answered after a moment, swivelling around on her chair from side to si
Gretel woke up and found herself in a hospital bed, not unlike the ones that she had previously worked around. It was a dark and dingy place, all the beds of the room pressed together as closely as possible with bags of fluid, empty or not, hanging from the walls above patient's beds, indicating the room was one of the more long term storage spaces, most likely to put people aside to be forgotten while the main team was busy with other priorities. There weren't any windows and the one source of light, coming through the window of the singular door to the place, was a sickly yellow that flickered more than Gretel would like and expect of a place supposed to treat the sick. Gryaz and Sýnnefa weren't at war, yet. Places like these shouldn't be operating at all, outside of simulations meant to train up those going into the millitary, but she was at least somewhat sure that she was in any sort of simulation at the moment. As much as computers had a
“Unfortunately, during this time, when this is all going on, someone could stick some more co ordinates in and then send the machine off on another journey. The journey code having overriding authorisation as well. Whoever designed this system, placed sending the time machine away as a foremost priority, checking if people could survive the environment as second, and then actually materialising last. It’s deeply flawed, and it makes no sense to compartmentalise these functions to this extent or have a checking system this out of date and so untrusting of the software code… despite… well, everything. I’m not sure who would design a system like this, but they clearly were out of their mind,” the Headphone Lady went onto say. “Jasper also mentioned something about height and the preservation of it between jumps, an oversight that let him to almost fall to his death,” Lila added, sitting up and walking towards the Headphone Lady. “Yes, that is another ove
“Why’re you sleeping on the floor like that? Come on, get up. You’ll hurt your back doing that,” Doctor Marigold chided, dragging all her bits of heavy machinery around the office space to prepare for her demonstration.Behind her, Lila remained still.“I know that you’re not dead. Come, get up already,” she called out, stepping over a few sheets of paper that she had laid out to grab Lila by the shoulder and heave her up into sitting.The stubborn girl just flopped down again, not opening her eyes.“If you get the fuck up, we can move the flight a week forward so you can stop worrying about it,” Lucy Marigold shouted across the room.Like a rubber band, Lila snapped back up and finally opened her eyes.It had been harder to see the bags below them when they had been closed and Doctor Marigold wondered if she should buy the girl some sleep tablets.“I’m awake,” Li
Yolanda seemed to understand that she needed to back off and stop teasing Gretel, when the other woman's eyes suddenly misted over, and it was if she was no longer a part of this world.She kept the bubbling annoyance within her away from her face, putting on instead a mask of concern as she reached out and poked Gretel's arms, trying to maybe prod her out of her stupor and bring her back from the recesses of her mind.Yolanda had never actually seen somebody collapse inwards to a catatonic state over her own actions.It was interesting to see it all happen and fold out in front of her.She poked Gretel again, touching her in the face lightly to see if that would possibly work to pull the other woman out of her mind and back into the world where she was needed proper.It wouldn't reflect well on her if Gretel didn't wake up within the hour.It didn't feel as
When she awoke, she was sat ready to eat and was dressed just like her mother, in a pastel blouse and a lungi down to the floor.Lila looked down at herself and jumped when she heard rattling, noticing the ten, or so, bangles on each arm and the lines of mehndi that ran down all the way to the hems of her sleeves, resting halfway between her shoulders and elbows. A pin held her blouse shut at the top and a quick once over of her hair, with one of her hands, revealed that it had been styled in a simple bun and adorned with flowers.“This is weirdly romantic,” Lila commented, staring at the lit candles nestled in the variously sized candelabrums set around the circular room.There was no door, but a giant window which led to a balcony outside. There was no ceiling but the walls reaching upwards, all the way up, until they formed a dome in the same shade of dull brown that coated the floor and the giant, round table in the centre.The only dishes
“So, is she finally asleep?” Emmet asked the boy stood behind the counter. He was exceedingly slim for someone surrounded by sugar all day and Emmet could make out the outlines of his spindly elbows through his shirt. His face held a no nonsense, blunt, and almost bored expression. “Yeah, she is. She’s been knocked out on the sofa since I sent her back there,” Kai answered the long haired man in front of him, his hair pulled back by a ribbon matching his eyes before being pulled over his shoulder once more. He looked vain. “Oh good. Don’t tell her that I was involved,” the man asked, putting both his palms up to face Kai. “I’m telling her that you’re a fucking weirdo for that,” was the scowled answer. “No. Seriously, don’t tell her. She doesn’t like me and I don’t like her. She’s known my partner for longer that I’ve known him. She doesn’t trust me with him. Why’re you making that face?” Emmet tried to justify himself before giving up
“Are you sure that you’re getting enough sleep?” Kai asked Lila, watching her sway on her feet and clutching the front counter.“Yes,” she gasped, dropping her head into her hands, elbows on the table.“Go and lie down on the sofa. Go to sleep for a bit. I’ll wake you up when I have to leave for college,” Kai instructed her, tapping her on the shoulders and shepherding her towards the office.“… fine,” she conceded, letting Kai move her along towards the back.“You know that this just proves my point,” Kai pointed out, pushing her through the boundary of the door and closing it behind her.“Fine,” she whispered back to him, talking into the silence of the office.She let herself fall over the sofa, draping her upper body over the arm rest and letting her head be cushioned by the pillows. Shuffling a bit over to put her body entirely on the sofa, Lila f
“One! Two! Three! Four! Five!Now again!One! Two! Three! Four! Five!Now keep on going!”Lila landed each punch, timing her breaths to the count as she moved her fists, dodging underneath the swing that came towards her head, before blocking the second hit that came to her and moving along with the force of the fist that hit her arm.The swinging punching bag forced distance between Lila and Tweedle Dum, and she stepped back to where she was stood before, within the path of the moving bad, to put more distance between him and her.“One! Two! Three! Four! Five!One! Two! Three! Four! Five!”Lila punched the bag once more, landing all of her hits.“Okay, time for a break,” Tweedle Dum announced, grabbing the punching bag and pulling it back to him as Lila moved away from the centre of the room, sitting down on one of the rickety plastic chairs at the side of the room.She took of
“Bitch! Why’d you run off and abandon me like that!?” Lila shouted from behind the counter when Kai finally walked back into the store.She was waving her hands about and wore an apron covered in flour as the single customer in the store, an old man precariously balancing on his cane, slept whilst leaning on the radiator.“I thought that you wanted some bonding time with your family so I left you to do that it private!” Kai answered her, tiptoeing past their unconscious patron, in a combination of whispering and shouting.“They’re hardly my family and you left us in the middle of a public café!” Lila cried, not modulating her voice at all.In the background, the old man began to snore.“But you still talk to them a lot like you do to me, so I let you, and besides, I got about fifty more pages of Good Omens done in Waterstones,” Kai appealed, finally at the counter and opening up the
Gretel and Silver had their fun as he continued to teach her how the interface worked and how he had managed to figure out that the system was an older model from the lack of integration between the screen and the touch pad, and explaining how easily it would potentially be to do so once the technology, as displayed in this device, had been demonstrated and established to work in a functional product."We were working on something like this as well, back in the workshops back home for the company that I was in the research and development department for. We were trying to get our motion sensors to be as small as possible for more commercial and personal use of technology that we could sell to the public and those who couldn't afford the contact computers.We had no idea on how their tech worked, because of trade and company secrets and all, but we managed to piece together a few things by looking at the patents and when we bought a few and m
“Alright, the shop’s free. Why are you actually here?” Lila questioned, crossing her arms and staring down at the tablecloth of Jasper and Emmet’s table.“I’ve got lesson now. I’ll be back in a few hours,” the teenage boy behind Lila announced, picking up a bag that had been hidden behind the counter the entire time and rushing outside.Lila continued to stand there, waiting for a reply.Jasper couldn’t help but notice that she wasn’t meeting either his or Emmet’s eyes.“Are you planning to leave us?” he asked her back.Lila’s fingers dug into the creases of her shirt,” I’m going to be leaving for a trip soon, and I’ll be back as soon as I can. Kai’ll be running the shop and will be looking after things, broadly. He lives here now and I scheduled my leave for when his school term ends so he can take care of things.”“On thi