Hey everyone. I am planning to bring back my study break and proofreading stories after a long hiatus. I am going to change a couple of things about the format.
I first started these types of stories when I was doing very different work than I am now. (I've gone from studying studying to research studying which is a very different ballgame sometimes.) I used to do 20 minute study periods and then write 100 words and repeat. That amount of time is now a bit short for the types of tasks I'm doing in my line of work. So, I'm going to adjust the time I give each study session before a study break. It's going to be a bit of trail and error, but right now I'm planning on writing after I finish certain tasks. I'm going to see what works though so that is subject to change. The main takeaway is that it probably won't be as consistent as it was in ages past.
Also doing two of these types of stories at once is a bit too much to handle sometimes. Little Kestrel was supposed to just be a temporary one when I was proofreading Kill Dear, but it got quite... long. Since Little Kestrel only has about 7 chapters left and Folds in Paper has a lot left, I'm going to temporarily work on Little Kestrel until it's done and then go back to Folds in Paper.
Also we have polls so that will be fun (and take some stress off of me when it comes to keeping track of results over asks, reblogs, and replies). You can still send asks with comments or questions about the stories! However, I would prefer you cast your votes in the poll if possible. (I will still accept 1/2 point requests in asks as well as asks from people not on Tumblr if any of those exist.)
I'm hoping I can work on these 2-3 times a week, but it does kind of depend on what's going on with my irl responsibilities. I'm going to do a bit tonight and hopefully more tomorrow.
Here is my starting post for today’s study break stories session. I will reblog this post with the story as I write them today. Feel free to send in asks about anything at any point, even if it’s not for the part of the story I’m currently on.
If you aren’t interested and don’t want all of these posts clogging your dash, please feel free to block the tag “study break stories” as all posts and voting about it will go there. You can still see the finished product of the story even if you are blocking that tag as I will not tag the edited chapters with “study break stories” but with the tag “folds in paper.”
See the Folds in Time Universe Master Post for edited chapters. Not yet edited chapters are under the cut. I also have a playlist on youtube for this story.
Note, today I’m editing things so I won’t be doing consistent uploads, just whenever I take a break.
Chapter 47
The museum ended up being interesting to Virgil. Though, this was not because any of the exhibits taught him anything more about the events they displayed. No, it was interesting to learn what history people in the 21st century cared about and how they presented past events. It was an angle he’d never really thought about studying, but he might put a pin in the idea of going to different museums from this time period to study how the 21st century viewed history.
His and Logan’s conversation quickly became a game of not only finding the mistakes made in the exhibits, but of hypothesizing why those mistakes had been made: prejudice, missing information, and unreliable secondary sources all contributed. Logan’s contributions were a whole lot less technical than the theories Virgil threw out, however he seemed to keep up well.
They spent a few hours in the museum before deciding it was time to head back to Logan’s apartment. However, not before stopping at a small hole-in-the-wall bar inhabited only by day drinkers.
“I have to bring home a peace offering after running off this morning,” he explained to Virgil when questioned. “Patton will forgive me easier if I do and will be more likely to agree to a time travel mission for me.”
“…And Patton likes… vodka?” Virgil asked with an eyebrow raise.
“No,” Logan replied, seemingly amused at the thought. “This establishment serves cheeseburgers which are apparently the ‘best in the city.’ It is the only thing they cook. They don’t even serve fries.”
Virgil gave the location a dubious look but didn’t question it. Sometimes good food was found in the weirdest of places. The best tacos he’d ever eaten had been bought out of a window on the side of a laundry mat in the late 1900s.
When Logan handed him one of the unlabeled brown paper bags that looked as though it had been dipped in hot oil instead of just its contents, Virgil shot him a raised eyebrow.
“Ah yes,” said Virgil dryly as they left the restaurant, “the quintessential 21st century American meal.”
“You once ate only bagged pepperoni slices meant for pizzas as your breakfast for an entire week,” Logan pointed out.
“I told you that in confidence!” Virgil said, smacking him lightly with the bag of grease.
“And I have told no one,” Logan responded. “Therefore, I have not violated any part of our agreement.”
“You’re making fun of me. That’s a part of the agreement too,” Virgil said.
“I don’t remember there being any clauses like that in our verbal contract,” Logan replied with a slight smirk. Virgil rolled his eyes. “Besides, I’m not truly making fun of you. The decision to fuel your body solely with pepperoni is, while not the best strategy and one that would certainly prove detrimental in the long run, better than eating nothing.”
“Oh,” Virgil said. “Well, good.”
“I am simply citing another example where not perfectly healthy food can be good in the short term,” Logan said.
“But in this case instead of depression eating to stay alive, the purpose is bribery?” Virgil asked.
“Precisely,” Logan said with a smile. “Bribery to end the time distortion and get you back to the proper time.”
“Alright, fair enough,” Virgil conceded. “It’s still horrible nutrition wise.”
“You don’t have to have any if you don’t want it,” Logan promised.
“Oh, no, I’m going to,” Virgil said instantly.
Logan paused and turned to look at him. “Then why are you complaining?”
“I just thought you should know your time has much too greasy food.”
“Thank you for the information,” Logan said dryly. “I’m sure it will be very useful going forward.”
They’d made it to the apartment by then, and Logan stuffed the bag he was carrying under his arm to unlock the door.
“And where have the two of you been all morning?” Patton’s voice called as soon as the two of them walked through the door.
“I have cheeseburgers for you,” was how Logan answered, following his roommate’s voice towards the kitchen. Virgil followed in his wake.
Patton rolled his eyes as Logan set the bag down in front of him. He was sitting at the kitchen table typing on a laptop, but he paused to peak into the bag. “The French toast wasn’t that bad,” he tried to convince them.
“I will take your word on that,” Logan said.
Patton just shook his head and reached into the bag for one of the cheeseburgers. Logan kept looking down at Patton, and obviously that meant something that Virgil didn’t know, because Patton glanced up at him after eating a couple of bites. “What?” he asked, suspiciously.
“Virgil and I went back to the location he arrived at,” Logan told him. “There are signs that one of the devices that cause time distortions caused the crash and is still active in this time.”
“There aren’t any weather disturbances though,” Patton pointed out with a frown.
“It seems to be a more advanced version of the devices we’ve seen so far,” Logan explained. “Which will make it much more difficult to trace.”
“Okay,” Patton said. There was still a good amount of distrust in his tone. “Then what are we going to do about it?”
“Well,” Logan said, “if we could gain access to an older version of the device, we could likely study it and reverse engineer a way to track the current one’s location.”
“And how exactly are we going to get an older version?” Patton asked, eyebrow raised.
“I do understand that you have only been back from your last trip for a little over a week,” Logan said quickly. Patton was already frowning, “and that your last trip through time was a challenging one, but,” he nodded at Virgil, “we do know of the time and place one of these devices exists and I have it on good authority that you have a good chance of finding it, deactivating it, and bringing it home if you travel to Camaguey Cuba 1755.”
Patton groaned. “And judging by the obvious source of this information, I’d be stealing it off of the TPI.”
“Well, yes,” Logan admitted.
“Excellent.”
“At least, in this particular circumstance, you will go into it knowing there will be no major disasters.”
…
Should Virgil… say something? It’d be rude to not mention the whole time shredding almost full party drowning experience, wouldn’t it? Then again… giving him foreknowledge could be a danger to the timestream and he was going into an already messy time disturbance.
Virgil debated with himself on whether general social courtesy should trump the possible destruction of all of space and time.
…
Maybe he’d just suggest a boat if they weren’t already planning to pack him one. Just in case.
“Fine,” Patton said with a sigh, “but you’re finishing your tech updates and my survival pack before I make any jumps. I am not making the same mistakes again.”
Logan nodded. “I can do that,” he agreed. “Give me a list of what you want in your survival pack by tomorrow.”
“I’ve already been working on a list,” Patton said. “It’s in the Google Drive.” He turned back to the computer he’d been working on and typed a few things to pull up a google document. “You can add to it if you think of anything.”
Logan looked over his shoulder at the list. “…Do you really need all of this?”
“Yes,” Patton said, taking another bite of his cheeseburger.
“I will do my best,” Logan said.
“You will do it,” Patton returned.
“Right.”
Patton sighed and turned back to his laptop. “And I’ll start researching Cuba in the 1700s,” he said.
Virgil watched him pull up google on his computer. He looked at the 21st century computer and then back to Patton. He couldn’t help but think of the museum he and Logan had been to earlier, in particular, all of that museum’s inaccuracies.
“Do… you want help?” he offered.
Chapter 48
It took a little over two weeks for Logan to get everything in order. He’d already been in the process of updating all of their equipment for quite some time, and their current situation spurned him to complete these improvements even sooner. That was easy.
What was more difficult was trying to meet all of Patton’s demands for his new survival kit. His list had already been quite long when Logan had started, but Patton had continued to add to it. It seemed like the list would be endless for a short while as Patton had been adding things as fast or faster than Logan could address them.
He’d even slipped in a request for a boat at one point despite Logan’s protests that Camaguey was nowhere near the sea.
Virgil, thankfully, didn’t seem to mind the delays too much. In fact, he may have had a hand in causing some of them. His natural inclination towards anxiety seemed to infect Patton who had already been stressed given his last trip through time. Patton’s request for the boat had come after one of their brainstorming sessions.
Virgil and Patton were spending a good amount of time together, actually, as Logan worked on supplies. Virgil had offered to help Patton with researching. While Patton was fairly good at doing his own research for time travel destinations at this point, Virgil was undeniably more experienced with that sort of thing considering his profession and his involvement with the TPI. Patton seemed to appreciate his input.
Roman, on the other hand, decidedly did not appreciate Virgil’s input on things. The two of them were prone to arguments about clothing which had gone beyond talking about Cuban clothing days ago. They were currently refusing to speak to each other after a discussion about the fabric composition of Ancient Greek clothing over dinner the night before.
Logan honestly… could not tell if these fights were friendly debates or not. There seemed to be a lot of anger around the topics, but they also seemed to enjoy their arguments to an odd degree.
Logan had inquired after Patton’s opinion on the matter, but he’d shrugged and claimed he also could not tell.
Neither Roman nor Virgil’s responses when asked directly about the nature of their relationship was helpful either, but Logan had noticed Roman slightly change the design of the outfit he’d made for Patton’s trip to Cuba.
Virgil was helpful in preparing for the mission, taking some of the stress of research off of Patton and Roman which was nice. He was not much help to Logan’s endeavors unless you counted the original intel. He had a basic understanding of mathematics and physics, but not enough to help in that regard.
He was, however, very good for company. It helped that his sleep schedule much more closely resembled Logan’s own in those weeks unlike the other occupants of the apartment. Typically, Roman and Patton went to sleep at a much earlier hour than Logan did himself and Logan would work alone in the living room. However, with Virgil living in the apartment, there was constant companionship while Logan worked. If it was less volatile company than he was used to working with, that was just a bonus.
Virgil fit into their little group in a way that Logan had not anticipated. (Well, socially he fit. Physically, there were simply not enough beds and Logan had been sleeping on the couch for over two weeks now.)
Eventually, with all of their combined efforts, everything was ready to go. Patton was supplied with three different time appropriate outfits, a good amount of knowledge about the festivities he was about to step into, new time travel equipment, and a survival pack that could help him survive in an apocalypse if needed.
Patton planned to arrive in Cuba two days earlier than the TPI protocol would dictate Janus be sent in. That way, he would have more than adequate time to get set up and acclimated before the TPI sent in their agents.
For now, however, he was busy examining his new and improved timepiece.
“This is cool,” Patton breathed, flexing his fingers to see the hidden screen on his palms light up with a map of the area.
“The controls are the same configuration as on your previous device. The only thing new is the control panel to control the cloaking technology and the button to access the survival kit features.
“It looks great, Lo,” Patton said, still flexing his fingers to get used to it. He changed it to its default state of a metal band projecting the screen and then back to the time appropriate bracelet Roman had designed. There weren’t many options for the device’s form yet, but more could be designed and added in the future. For now, it only had the default band, the bracelet, and a simple wristwatch.
“I’ve already tested it a good number of times, but you should familiarize yourself with it anyway before your trip.
Patton nodded, flicking his fingers. He disappeared for a moment before reappearing in the same place. Then, he did it again and reappeared directly next to where he’d been standing. He did a few other simple mini trips before predictably growing bored and starting to do ‘tricks’ which mostly involved landing in ridiculous poses and “accidently” jump scaring everyone in the apartment at least twice.
Eventually, Logan confiscated the device for the evening so they could have dinner in peace.
Patton went to bed early after dinner, planning on leaving the next morning. Roman also retired to his room shortly after leaving Logan and Virgil alone in the living room.
Despite knowing his calculations were perfect, Logan still found himself sitting on the couch and checking over them one last time, just to be sure. Virgil sat on the floor with his back against the couch watching videos on Logan’s cell phone with headphones borrowed from Patton’s collection.
He glanced up when Logan shifted positions and Logan flashed him a smile.
Virgil removed the headphones to speak. “Thanks, by the way,” he said. “I already said it to Patton and will again in the morning, but thanks for helping me out with all of this.”
“It wouldn’t have been particularly kind of us to leave you stranded,” Logan pointed out.
“Sure,” Virgil said, “but you still all have been working really hard. Right now you’re up at 3am working on it.”
Logan shrugged. “I’d likely be up working at 3am on something anyway,” he replied.
“Maybe,” Virgil said, “but this time you’re doing it for me, so yeah, thanks.”
“You’re welcome then,” Logan replied. “Any time.”
Virgil titled his head and grinned at him. “Was that a time travel pun?” he asked.
Logan scowled instantly. “No.”
“It sounded like a time travel pun…”
“It was not intentional. I will never intentionally say a pun,” Logan said.
“You’re telling me you live with Patton and never make any puns?” Virgil asked.
“I, unlike my roommates, am a responsible adult,” Logan insisted.
Virgil seemed skeptical. “Is that why you’re drinking forbidden coffee out of an orange juice carton at 3am?”
“Not so loud!” Logan hissed instantly. He leaned forward to put his hand over Virgil’s mouth while glancing back towards the hallways to see if anyone was about to come storming into the living room with yet another intervention.
Logan’s hand was bit.
“Ow!” Logan exclaimed, tearing the hand away.
Despite his childish violence (or perhaps because of it), Virgil’s eyes were shining.
“How do you know?” Logan asked in a whisper. The ruse had been working on Roman and Patton for years as neither of them liked orange juice.
Virgil rolled his eyes. “I can smell it,” he said. “I’m not dumb.”
“It’s worked on everyone else,” Logan said.
“No,” Virgil said. “It’s worked on one dramatic idiot and one man who trusts people not to lie to him way too much. I, however, am a paranoid bastard with a doctorate degree in human bullshittery. You cannot fool me.”
Logan couldn’t help but smile. “I suppose I have met my match then,” he said.
Virgil titled his head back all the way, so his skull rested on the couch cushion, and he was staring straight up at Logan with his piercing hazel eyes. “Heck yeah you have,” Virgil said with a grin.
Logan was not much for sentimentality, especially not romantic sentimentality, but there was something about the shadows softening the edges of the rooms and the almost golden glint in Virgil’s eyes from the reflection of the lit lamp that suddenly made it more difficult to breathe.
Virgil was relaxed here in Logan’s apartment at 3 in the morning. His eyes were softened with sleepiness as he looked up at Logan with a smile on his face.
He fit here, Logan thought. He slotted into Logan’s life with an ease Logan could never have anticipated. He’d found Professor Virgil Eran interesting from the moment he’d first heard him speak over the telephone. He’d found him endearing when they’d corresponded through emails and occasionally one-sided video chats. Yet it was different with him right here in front of Logan.
Logan could reach down right now and touch him with ease if he chose to. He could brush his slightly unruly hair out of his eyes. Logan wondered what Virgil would do. Would his eyes shine the same way they had after biting Logan earlier. Would he grin wider than he was now? Would he get embarrassed like he did the first day in the coffee shop after oversharing?
“You… good man?” Virgil asked, pulling Logan from his musings.
“I am perfectly well,” Logan replied, clearing his throat. He glanced away from Virgil. “I think perhaps my roommates have a bit of a point when it comes to caffeine.”
“What do you mean?” Virgil asked.
“I find myself a bit disconcerted at the moment.”
“Well, maybe a carton full of iced coffee at 3am is not the best choice,” Virgil said in good humor. “You aren’t a college kid anymore.”
Logan glanced down at the college professor on his living room floor. “Well, thank goodness for that,” he mumbled.
Virgil gave him an odd look but didn’t comment.
“You know,” he said instead. “I think your calculations are probably fine anyway,” He reached up to gently taking the papers out of Logan’s grip. “Why don’t you put the coffee away and we do something else?”
“Like sleep?” Logan asked.
“Do you think you’ll be sleeping anytime soon?” Virgil inquired with an eyebrow raised.
“Fair point,” Logan replied ruefully.
Virgil grabbed the television remote from the coffee table. “Why don’t we watch a bit of that time inappropriate copy of the Epithet File I know you have.”
“Sure,” Logan agreed. He glanced down at Virgil who was already turning on the television. “You can come onto the couch if you like.”
“Nah,” said Virgil without looking at him. “You can come to the floor.
Logan sighed. “Very well,” he agreed and slid to the floor.
Chapter 49
Patton left in the morning and from there it was just a waiting game. Which, was Virgil’s least favorite type of game. He tried to keep his anxiety on the down low considering it was Logan and Roman’s lifelong friend who was running around some other century, and they were both obviously nervous as well, since the last trip had ended in disaster.
…
This trip was going to end in disaster a little bit too, but Virgil was going to ignore that. At least he wouldn’t be gone for months.
The point was, Roman was constantly going to the gym which was, reportedly not normal behavior and Logan spent his days re-checking calculations that were too late to correct and had worked considering Patton had been in contact occasionally.
Yet, despite the fact that he was clearly an anxious wreck as well, Logan eventually forced himself to put his lined notebook paper away for a bit. Roman was out once again when he did so and Virgil was doom scrolling on his phone.
“We should go out to dinner,” he declared suddenly.
Virgil glanced at the pile of take-out containers stacked near the kitchen trashcan. “Sure,” he agreed.
Which was why Virgil was leaving the apartment for the first time in the last three or so days. Logan had asked him if he wanted anything in particular, but he didn’t care and also didn’t know what restaurants were around, so he was just letting Logan lead him wherever he wanted.
He should not have trusted him.
He glared at Logan, but the man only seemed entertained by his ire. “Really?” Virgil asked.
“I wanted to see for myself if you were really that bad with chopsticks.”
“I’m not,” Virgil said, crossing his arms. “It was just the anxiety about the social situation, and I resent this.”
Logan just laughed, knowing well enough that Virgil wasn’t actually irritated. Honestly, he felt fonder than anything that Logan had chosen to take him here. “It’s actually pretty good sushi.”
“21st century American Midwest sushi,” Virgil drawled. “I’m simply quivering with anticipation for that authenticity.”
“It’s unanimously considered the best sushi in town by my friend group,” Logan said as if the fact that Mr. Asiago Cheese Bread For French Toast and Mr. Went Along With Cooking Asiago Cheese Bread French Toast approved of the restaurant would inspire any confidence in Virgil. If he could even call the place a ‘restaurant.’
“It’s. In. A. Mall.”
“So?” Logan asked.
“It’s a sushi stand in a mall. There isn’t even seating.”
“There is seating,” Logan argued nodding at the five chairs sitting in front of the counter. The seating was completely empty which could be because their eating schedule was off and they were eating dinner at 3pm, but more likely meant everyone else in the time had more sense than the man in front of him.
“Where is your sense of adventure for trying new things?” Logan asked. “Are you not an anthropologist. Don’t you want to experience the culture of the time first hand.”
Virgil glared at him.
“Please try it,” Logan said sill amused. “It really is good.”
“If I get food poisoning, I’m blaming you,” he warned.
“Noted,” Logan said, inclining his head. Then, Virgil reluctantly allowed him to lead him over to the sushi stand from where they’d been hiding behind a trash can so as not to be in the direct line of sight of the man standing behind the counter.
The man greeted them as they approached. He obviously recognized Logan and even asked about Patton and Roman as they took a seat. Virgil did have to admit, despite his instinctual misgivings about mall sushi, what he could glimpse of his set up seemed legit. It looked like a real sushi bar if a bit smaller than usual. Where they had sat, there was a glass case in front of them with chilled fish on display and Virgil could see a large rice cooker behind the man along with a normal refrigerator.
Laminated menus were handed to them. They were only one page front and back, but honestly that was probably a good thing. If it had a bunch of complicated or fancy stuff, Virgil might have been worried.
Well, he was still worried, but he wasn’t running screaming. At least his setup looked like it probably wouldn’t give him too much food poisoning. Logan suggested a rainbow and a snake roll and they got some different types of nigiri.
The chef was nice, and he assembled the sushi fully in Virgil’s view which made him a whole lot less leery about the meal. He seemed to know what he was doing at least. Of course, the fish was not as fresh as it would have been in a coastal area, but it was clearly properly handled. When he was finished, he handed it to them all on one big plate.
He had to admit, when correcting for ingredient availability, it was actually pretty good sushi. He would not say it was the best sushi he’d ever had, but it was worlds better than he’d expected. Logan could obviously tell what his opinion was and was overly smug about it.
“Yeah, yeah,” Virgil said when they were finished. “You’re good at picking restaurants.”
“I’m sure you are also when in a place you are familiar with.”
“I’m not actually,” Virgil said with a laugh. “I always panic choose the worst option.”
“Well, I tend to be quite decisive about such things,” Logan said. “I guess we make a good match.”
“Yeah,” Virgil said. “Uh, what are we going to do when we get home? Because sitting there drowning in anxiety like we have been for the past couple of days isn’t the greatest.”
“Do you have anything in mind?”
“You guys have Blockbuster still?”
“No,” Logan said. He paused. “We do have a Family Video store I think.”
“Is it close? Let’s go there.”
“And why are we not just using a streaming service?” Logan asked. “Or using my… library of movies.”
Virgil shrugged. “It’s the charm of it,” he said.
“The charm of a business already made obsolete and on the brink of collapse?”
“Exactly,” said Virgil with a smile.
“Very well,” Logan said. “If that is what you’d like to do I will look up its location on my phone.”
They were in a building that would look abandoned if there wasn’t a light on inside within 15 minutes. The video rental store had clearly seen better days. Its carpet’s pattern was clearly from another decade and had been trampled over so often it was basically like walking on the linoleum beneath. There was a door on the sign asking patrons to close it behind them because the spring used to close it had long since ceased working.
There was only one person working, a guy in his 30s who glanced at them briefly and then went back to looking at his phone. Ah, yes, Virgil’s favorite type of employee.
“What movie would you like to watch?” Logan asked. He glanced at one small, but still surprisingly present section filled with DVDs.
“I don’t know,” Virgil said. “Isn’t that the point? Stop by a movie rental place on a Friday night, grab a more than likely crappy movie and some Milk Duds and proceed to sit and watch the stupid thing anyway because you already paid for it.”
“Virgil, I grew up in the 90s. This isn’t exactly exciting for me. There is a reason streaming sites took over the market,” Logan replied. “Also, it is Tuesday.”
Virgil rolled his eyes. “Just panic choose a movie with me, nerd.”
“Great!” Virgil dragged him off in the direction of the movies that started with ‘S’.
“This is just… gross,” Virgil said a little under an hour and a half later and about an hour into the film.”
“It is a random romantic comedy from 2002,” Logan responded. “What did you expect?”
“Yeah, but there’s weird sex jokes and actors that are probably from Mars and then there’s actual on screen physical abuse between the romantic couple.”
“I will concede that point,” Logan said, “but I will remind that this could have all been avoided if you had allowed me to do proper investigation of the movie choices before renting it.”
“Ugh, yeah, yeah,” Vigil replied, leaning back to stare at the ceiling. “Just turn it off.”
Logan complied, reaching over to eject the DVD from his computer. The three roommates didn’t actually have a DVD player connected to their TV, so they’d chosen to use the desktop computer in Logan’s room.
Virgil was laying on Logan’s bed with Logan sat propped up against the headboard. Logan leaned over to peer down at him. “Thanks for helping distract me,” he said. “Despite the fact that we now know more about what we’re doing, I still get worried about sending Patton through time. His last time travel experience didn’t improve my confidence. I have been… rather nervous.”
“Well, I’m glad I could help, at least a little,” Virgil replied.
“You did,” Logan replied. “A lot.” His hand reached down to touch pat his shoulder, but then lingered there for a moment too long.
Virgil sat up suddenly and Logan had to jerk back to keep their heads from colliding. “I…” Virgil choked out once he was sitting up. “Um…”
Logan’s mouth curled into a half smile. He offered a hand and Virgil took it.
Virgil glanced at the hand. “I, uh, I am an anthropologist.”
“I am aware,” Logan said with a raised eyebrow.
“And, uh, you were born in this time, so technically I’m studying you…”
“I’m a time traveler, Virgil,” he said amused. “I doubt I am a pure specimen for any studies you may be doing.”
“Right,” Virgil said. “That’s a good point. You’re right.”
70210
There was a pause. “So then,” Virgil said. “No moral quandaries. Just two people sharing a bed and watching a romance movie.”
“It was a bad one.”
“It really, really was,” Virgil said with a grin and then Logan was leaning forward and Virgil’s hand was on Logan’s shoulder.
And then the door was flinging open. “I’m home!” Roman declared as Virgil scrambled back, banging his head on the bed’s headboard.
“Fuck,” Virgil hissed.
“Roman! You need to knock!”
“Since when?” Roman asked, plopping down on Logan’s bed between them.
“Since we have a guest,” Logan said meaningfully. Virgil hid his reddening face in his hands, curling into as tight of a ball as he could.
“You were both in here, it’s not like one of you were naked,” Roman said flippantly. Virgil debated the merits of staying curled up in a ball for the rest of his life. There was a second of silence, and Virgil was glad he couldn’t see the expressions on their faces from his ball when Roman said, “Oh my god!”
Chapter 50
The breakfast table was silent the next morning. Though if one could call it a breakfast table when Logan was only drinking a cup of tea, Roman was chewing on a slice of unbuttered, untoasted bread, and Virgil was still either asleep or avoiding them both in Logan’s bedroom was debatable.
“…Look,” Roman said.
“We aren’t talking about it.”
“How was I supposed to know the two of you were getting it on?! Put a sock on the door next time or something. It’s common courtesy!”
“We weren’t having sex,” Logan hissed. Roman opened his mouth. “Shut up and learn to knock,” Logan said, pointing his spoon at him threateningly.
Yet, still, because it was Roman, the other man opened his mouth again. Luckily, before he could say anything else on the matter, there was a loud crack from the living room.
“I’m going to need a towel please!” Patton called.
“I’ve got it,” Roman said instantly, jumping to his feet, leaving Logan to walk to the living room.
“Why are you wet?” Logan asked immediately upon taking in the sight of his roommate. He was soaked, water dripping from his form like he’d just gotten out of a pool seconds before.
“There was an ocean in the church,” Patton said.
“What?” Logan asked.
Patton pushed his sopping wet hair out of his eyes. “The time distortions were a lot more intense than ones we’ve seen before,” he said. He held out a small innocuous appearing device whose only mechanism appeared to be a switch to him. “Be really careful with that. It’s unstable and we might have damaged it getting out.” Patton winced and removed his timepiece. “Actually, speaking of that. This might need a checkup too.”
“Were there issues with the tech?” Logan asked taking both devices in his hand.
“…No,” Patton said looking a bit sheepish. “We just… may have turned off all of the safety protocols.”
“Patton I just made this for you!” Logan said, horrified.
“And you did a really good job!” was Patton’s reply, “but we didn’t really want to drown in a church.”
Logan took a slow breath. “I’ll make sure it wasn’t damaged,” he said.
“Thanks, Lo!”
Roman entered the living room then, bright blue towel in hand. “I have returned bearing gifts!” he declared.
“My hero,” Patton said with a laugh, taking the towel and using it to wipe off his face and then start to dry his hair.
“So, an ocean in a church?” Logan asked.
Patton nodded. “I’ll have to thank Virgil for suggesting the inflatable raft.”
He paused as he finished running the towel through his hair and started to dab at his clothing. “I saw Remus,” he said.
Roman froze. “You did?”
“Uh huh,” Patton replied. “He was with Janus. I didn’t think I should say anything to him since that trip was way out of sync though, sorry.”
“Yeah, no, that make sense. That’s fine.” Roman hesitated. “How was he?”
“He seemed good,” Patton said. He flashed them a smile. “Happy. He’s quite the character actually. He and Janus seem like they’re good friends.”
“Oh,” Roman said. “That’s… that’s good.”
Patton’s face screwed up slightly. “He did flirt with me though, so that was weird.”
Roman took a moment to think about it before pulling a face that one would expect to see on a small child trying a lemon for the first time. “That’s disgusting! That’s like… that’s like my brother flirting with my brother. Gross!”
“It was… it was weird,” Patton said.
“What did he even say?” Roman asked.
“Mostly it was comments on my…” he made a motion with his head that apparently Roman could interpret.
“He talked about your butt!”
“…Well, he didn’t exactly use that word.”
“That sounds about like Remus,” Virgil said, poking his head into the hall.
“Oh, you’ve finally decided to join the land of the living, Emo?” Roman asked.
“Shut up,” both Logan and Virgil said at the same time.
Of course, he did not. “You know, Pat-pat, speaking of posteriors…”
“One more word out of you and I will actually kill you,” Virgil threatened.
“Um, what’s going on?” Patton asked.
“I’ll tell you later,” Roman promised.
“You will not,” Logan said. “Keep your gossiping tendencies under control.”
“Okay, but now I want to know,” Patton said with a pout.
“You go take a shower,” Logan ordered.
Patton shared a look with Roman that told Logan there was no way he wouldn’t have the whole story along with a good number of embellishments by the end of the night. Then he shrugged. “Yes, boss,” he said. Logan rolled his eyes as he turned towards the bathroom, the towel still on his shoulders. He was dry enough that he wasn’t dripping anymore, and he slipped off his waterlogged shoes and socks so he wouldn’t track water to the bathroom.
“Put that in the biohazard hamper,” Logan called after him.
“I know!” he called back.
“And you,” Logan said to Roman, “clean up all of the water he got on the carpet in the off chance there are any pathogens in it.”
“Why do I have to do it?!”
“Because you’ve annoyed me,” Logan said, “and I need to insure these two devices do not explode.”
“Ugh, fiiiine,” Roman said, dipping back into the hall.
Virgil glanced over at him, the picture of awkwardness. “Uh,” he said. “Hey.”
“Hi,” Logan said.
“…Are those things really at risk of exploding right now?” he asked.
Logan glanced at him. “Technically they are always at least slightly at risk of exploding, but admittedly the chance is further from 0 than I would like it to be at this point.”
“Great,” Virgil said. “One more thing to be anxious about.”
“You don’t need to be anxious about it, Virgil,” Logan said.
“Uh, I think I do need to be anxious about the maybe bomb in your hands.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“I know,” Virgil said with a sigh.
“We are two mutually consenting adults. There isn’t any shame to it.”
“Can we please talk about our very embarrassingly interrupted kiss after you’ve dealt with the explosives?”
“Very well,” Logan said. He walked to the other side of the room to grab a statis chamber from a cabinet drawer.
“What’s that?” Virgil asked as the cube shaped device popped up.
“It’s a stasis cube,” Logan said as he put the two devices in his hand into it and activated. “It will allow them to cool down completely from their earlier use in a safe environment. It will be less dangerous to work with them later.”
“If it just takes 5 seconds to deal with them, why are you making Roman clean up?” Virgil asked amused.
“Like I said,” Logan said. “He annoyed me. Speaking of,” he glanced into the hallway where Roman currently was. “How do you feel about leaving before he gets back to get coffee.”
Virgil smiled at him. “Sure,” he said. “Escape the apartment for coffee part two.”
Chapter 51
It took a few days after Patton got home for Logan to first make sure the timepiece and the distortion device were not at a risk of exploding and then to study the distortion device.
“It’s similar to what little we’ve seen of TPI technology,” Logan had mused, sitting on the couch while studying the information he’d managed to get off of it. “It’s definitely derived from the same technology unlike my time travel device, but it looks a bit different, and this version at least is rather shoddily made. Of course, creating disorder and almost ripping apart time is easier than seamlessly moving through it.”
“So, they’re probably from my time then?” Virgil asked.
“Most likely,” Logan agreed. “Though it could always be a Remus situation where they were from another time originally but accidently ended up in the TPI time. Either way, the origin of their purposeful time travel was certainly around your time.”
Virgil glanced at the device he’d set on the table in front of them all. It looked innocent sitting there, but it had the power to destroy so much, and they didn’t even know why. “Do you think whoever made this trapped me here on purpose?” Virgil asked.
“It would be a big coincidence if you in particular got trapped in this time in particular,” Roman said.
“I was thinking the same thing actually,” Logan said. “You do work with the TPI and with Janus, a time agent who both often is caught in the middle of devices similar to this being used and who runs into Patton frequently. Plus you know Remus, Roman’s brother even if we didn’t know that connection before you were trapped here and we already had a correspondence before you landed here. It would be strange for you to have ended up here on accident.”
“But why?” Virgil asked. “I am somehow connected to all of you, but I’m still not a time agent myself.”
“All I am to the TPI is a walking history book. I’m not actually involved.”
“Well,” Logan said. “Perhaps someone knows something we don’t.”
“Or maybe it’s just a happy accident!” Patton said. Virgil highly doubted that and it made anxiety churn in his gut.
“Well,” Logan said, “accident or not, we do now have a solution to the issue. I’ve managed to use this device to recalibrate my calculations and we’ve gotten a ping. I know where the signal blocking Virgil’s time device is coming from.”
“Where?” Roman asked.
“It looks like a local trash dump,” Logan replied. “It must have just ended up in a trashcan that day and was emptied before we checked.”
“Well, that should be easy enough to get,” Patton said. “Give Roman and I the exact coordinates and we can go and get it now.”
“Wait, why are we the only ones who have to dig through a garbage dump?” Roman asked.
Patton gave him a look.
“Oh,” Roman said, eyes lighting up. “Oh right!” Then, he scowled remembering he was going to be going through a garbage dump. “Fine,” he sighed.
“Think of it as an adventure!” Patton said.
“We’re time travelers. We have so many more exciting adventuring opportunities than dumpster diving, Pat-Pat,” he whined, but he still got up. “I’ll go get changed.”
Patton stood up and handed Logan his phone, so Logan could program the location of the distortion device into it while he changed as well. “We’ll text you when we’re heading back! I’ll give you a 15- and 5-minute warning,” Patton said with a wink. Virgil immediately hid his face in his hands.
“Do you think the TPI is hiring?” Logan asked as the door closed. “I’d love to move to a different century without those two.”
“Time agents don’t usually live in 4500s,” Virgil said, face still hidden behind his hands. “They’d probably still place you in this century, especially since you’re comfortable here.”
“No escaping them then,” Logan sighed.
“Mmm,” was Virgil’s response.
He felt Logan shift on the couch next to him and a warm palm touched his wrist, gently tugging his hand away from his face in a way that Virgil could resist if he really wanted. Virgil let the hand fall with a sigh. Logan smiled at him when he could see his face and Virgil smiled back despite how he could still feel heat in his cheeks.
“You will be going home this evening, I’d imagine,” Logan said.
“Yeah,” Virgil agreed softly.
“I would like to give you a gift before you go, if you’ll allow it.”
“Uh, okay,” Virgil agreed.
Logan nodded and leaned back to grab something out of the pocket of a jacket that was currently hanging over the side of the couch. “Ah,” he said when he found whatever he was looking for. He glanced at Virgil. “It is a ring, by the way, but this is not a proposal.”
“Well, I’d certainly hope not,” said Virgil dryly. “An impulse elopement would be a little off brand for us both.”
Logan smiled at him. “Very true,” he agreed. Then, he opened his palm revealing a small ring.
“So, then, what is it?” Virgil asked.
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“It is an emergency time travel device,” Logan explained. “It’s not particularly complex. It can only take you here to this room between 2 weeks and one year from now, but if you ever need something from me, you can use it.”
He offered the ring and Virgil opened his palm to let him put it in his hand. He studied the ring for a moment. It was a rose gold and very light.
“It also has some security measures,” Logan said. “It wouldn’t do to make an emergency time travel device that someone else might easily try to take from you. It’ll disappear when you put it on. You’ll still be able to feel it and take it off whenever you wish. It’ll become visible again if you take it off.”
“An invisible ring?” Virgil asked, curious.
“Yes,” Logan said with a smile. “It is designed to store your space time coordinates for up to 48 hours just so you’re aware, but as I said you can take it off whenever you wish and… I won’t use it against you.”
Virgil looked at him. “Okay,” he said. “Can I put it on?” Logan nodded, and Virgil slipped it on his finger. As promised it disappeared from view as soon as he did. He could still feel the weight of it on his finger though.
“You turn it three times counterclockwise to activate it,” Logan said, making Virgil look up from the seemingly empty space on his finger he’d been staring at.
“It would drop you right about where you are sitting.”
“Thanks,” Virgil said. It wasn’t nearly enough to say how much he appreciated the gift, but he hoped his tone said enough.
“Don’t use it against me?” Logan asked with a half-smile, and Virgil realized just how much trust was being put onto him by giving him a device that was directly linked to their base of operations despite knowing Virgil worked with the TPI.
Virgil shook his head. “I won’t,” he said. Deciding to throw out his nervousness and embarrassment over last time he shot forward to kiss Logan quickly on the lips. They bumped noses and Logan’s glasses ended up askew in the process, but Logan didn’t seem to mind judging by his delighted laugh when they parted.
“Thank you,” Virgil said again.
“Of course,” Logan replied.
Virgil could still feel the ring on his finger even after Patton and Roman got back from the dump with the device that had caused this whole mess. He could still feel it when Logan turned it off and his time piece reactivated. He could still feel it there when he made it home and gave an excuse as to why he’d left his trip early. He could still feel it when he got an email from an unknown sender making sure he got home okay.
Arc IV: (To Be Named)
Chapter 52
“What’s this?” Janus asked when a giant bowl was set on the coffee table in front of him.
“We’re eating on the couch tonight,” Emile said cheerfully.
Janus raised an eyebrow and switched off the tablet he’d been using to look at him. “Why?” he asked.
Emile shrugged and set a second huge bowl down next to Janus’s. “For fun,” Emile said. He turned back towards the kitchen and Janus leaned forward to look in the bowl. It was spaghetti with some sort of creamy sauce and a few different vegetables mixed in along with some shrimp.
“I made green tea,” Emile said, coming back into the room with two mugs.
“Thanks,” Janus said, taking one of the mugs with a small smile.
“What were you doing?” Emile asked as he took a seat beside Janus. He nodded at the deactivated screen now sitting on the end table.
“Just doing some puzzle games,” Janus said.
“That sounds fun,” Emile said with a smile.
“Head doctor said they might be a good thing to do to pass the time when I told him to fuck off after suggesting reading.”
Emile sighed. “Dr. Figueroa is my colleague. You could try to be polite.”
“I thought I was supposed to be my authentic self in therapy,” Janus replied.
Emile just huffed and rolled his eyes. Janus couldn’t help but smile as he picked up his mug of green tea.
The last few months had been…different. In a lot of ways, Janus’s life had become harder than it had been before. It had been easy to do nothing but eat pre-prepared meals, go to work, and pass out in his empty house every day. It wasn’t good for him. He’d known it even then, but it had been easy. This was not.
Emile had offered, insisted really, that Janus move into his house for a bit just to get back on his feet.
He’d taken time off of the TPI which would have been given to him anyway since he’d spent so trapped in the past. He’d had to give a report of what had happened, and he’d mentioned Patton, but he hadn’t mentioned everything. They’d offered him a shrink when he’d asked.
Janus had told Emile he needed to tell him something about why he’d been distant, so he wouldn’t end up chickening out, but he’d asked for a bit of time to figure out what to say. He’d finally worked up the courage to talk about it with Dr. Figueroa two weeks ago. Much like with Patton, it was easier to talk to someone who hadn’t been involved in Janus’s mistake, but it still wasn’t easy.
He was running up on the deadline he’d given for having that talk with him. It had to happen soon, and they both knew it, but Emile was just patiently waiting for him to suck it up. It felt… wrong to use his kindness without him knowing, but it was also nice to get to spend time with his brother. He didn’t even dare to hope that he’d still have the chance once he told him.
He was moving back into his own house in less than a week. He’d tell him then so if Emile ended up kicking him out of his life, he wouldn’t have to kick him out of his home too.
For now, though everything was fine. Harder, more complicated, and in threat of exploding at any moment, but fine. Fine wasn’t something he’d really felt in a long time. Or at least, fine while in his own time wasn’t something he’d felt in a long time. There’d been a few moments with Patton sitting next to the fire outside the hole in the ground they’d slept in for those few months where the man would turn to look at him and he’d felt fine. Yet, Patton had been right. Those moments were unsustainable with how Janus was actually feeling deep down.
“This is good,” Janus said, after taking a couple of bites of the pasta in front of him.
“Well, I always was the only one in the house that could cook,” Emile said, and that was true. “It was either learn to defend for myself or eat a cheeseburger for every meal.”
“Hey, I had a good burger seasoning.”
“Not for every meal, Janus.”
“Meat, dairy, bread. What more could you want?”
“Vegetables, Janus.”
“You could have put pickles on!”
“I don’t like pickles.”
“That sounds like your problem, not mine,” Janus argued.
Emile shook his head, turning his eyes to the ceiling. “How have you been surviving on your own?”
“Well, I mean,” Janus said. “Badly.”
“Right…” Emile said. He leaned over to bump their shoulders together. Janus flashed him a smile.
“Speaking of,” said Janus. “Could you physically force me to pack tonight? I meant to do it today and instead I ended up playing puzzles games.”
Emile chucked. “Sure, I’ll help you after dinner.”
“You don’t have to help me,” said Janus. “Just make me do it.”
“Maybe I want to help,” said Emile.
“Oh, yes, packing. The most entertaining of Thursday night activities.”
Emile hummed and then glanced at him. “Remember when you helped me pack for college?” he asked.
“Mmm, I do,” Janus replied.
“I was so stressed about going somewhere new,” Emile said, “that I avoided packing for weeks. Every time Mom would ask me how packing was going, I’d tell her it was going fine but in reality, I hadn’t even started. You’d come home two days before I had to leave because you were going to help me move into my dorm. It’s like you could sense no packing had been done the moment you stepped through the front door.”
“You were doing your ‘hiding the broken horse statue from mom’ shuffle,” Janus said with a smirk.
“Well, you walked me straight to my room and we packed everything up in those two days,” Emile said. “You made it so much easier.”
“Yeah, because I hovered over you until you did it and did half of it for you,” Janus snorted.
“It wasn’t just that,” Emile said. “You also found the music streaming station run by the university and put that on and talked about what your freshman year was like. You also had tips on what things I should and shouldn’t pack when moving into the dorm.”
“You still took all of the cartoon stuffed animals despite my advice.”
“I thought there’d be more space on the bed,” Emile frowned.
Janus snorted.
“But anyway, just having someone else around made me happier. It wasn’t just about the workload being halved either. You being there made me feel less lonely and reminded me I’d always have someone to come back to.”
Janus internally winced. He was sure Emile hadn’t meant to make him feel guilty in any way. In fact, he probably was trying to do the opposite, but him saying that just reminded Janus that it hadn’t been true. Janus had abandoned him for literal years and hadn’t been someone he could always come back to.
Emile had proven himself to be at least close to who he was before Janus messed with time the few last months. There were a couple of differences here and there, and Janus could not be sure if they were from him changing time or from him avoiding his brother for the past three years and him naturally changing. Most memories they shared that Janus cautiously brought up or Emile mentioned on his own were consistent with what Janus remembered, but he hadn’t pushed too hard or dug too deep. It just made him feel more guilty about avoiding the man for so long.
It made him want to ignore the man more, because it seemed every choice Janus ever made only hurt him.
…
Well, perhaps not the college radio station when helping an anxious 18-year-old pack up his childhood bedroom.
He should probably tell Emile that his words made him feel guilty because that was obviously not the intention and he’d want to know. He should probably apologize properly for leaving him alone for three years without an explanation. He should probably provide an explanation for those three years.
He should probably go see the head doctor again soon.
(He should probably stop calling Emile’s colleague who was in the same field as him a head doctor derogatorily in his head.)
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For now, he just glanced at Emile. “You’re trying to bully me into letting you help pack with logic, aren’t you?”
“I am,” Emile confirmed without remorse.
“Fine,” Janus sighed, “but only if you let me do the dishes for you.”
Emile took a long moment to consider the offer. “You drive a hard bargain,” he said, “but okay.”
“And no doing anything sneaky like getting bags ready for me on your own while I’m doing it or the deal is off,” Janus said.
“You always think of all possible loopholes, Janus,” Emile sighed.
There was a long silence.
“Agree, you prick,” said Janus.
“No promises,” Emile replied cheekily with laughter in his eyes, and things were good for a moment more.
Chapter 53
Today Janus was moving into his house in 24th century for the second time in his life, and honestly, the house wasn’t going to look much different than it had when he’d first moved in. Janus had unpacked his things more at Emile’s house in the past almost 6 months than he had in the two and a half years he’d liven in his house. His house held clothes, bare bone furniture, and exactly one skillet from when he’d decided to be daring and tried to cook himself an egg. All he’d really customized for himself was the setting on the LXC device which controlled the lights, media across the home, and prepackaged food ordering and prepare.
He almost felt embarrassed that his house was so empty. Emile, of course, knew that his mental health had been fucked, but the blankness of his house was a physical reminder of this fact especially considering how he used to keep house before all of this. He’d warned Emile about the fact that his house was empty, and he had said he understood, but still.
They gathered all of the luggage in a pile in Emile’s guest room. They’d had to get permissions from the TPI to allow Emile to travel to his house, and Janus went ahead and filed to give him permanent permission to travel there.
The decision felt far too hopeful for someone who hadn’t had that conversation with his brother yet, but it had made Emile smile in the moment.
Emile took three of the bags and Janus took the rest. He waved his arm and selected the third saved location on the device. In a moment, he was standing in the living room of his dark, empty house.
…
His supposed to be dark and empty house. More of the lights were on than Janus had ever switched on himself, and half of the windows were open. (He didn’t even know some of those windows opened.)
They were letting in the sounds of birds that made the lakeside their home as well as cool late fall breeze. There was also a racket coming from the kitchen. Emile was beside him a second after he himself had appeared. He looked around for a moment. “Did you leave it like this?”
“No,” Janus replied.
“Do you have squatters?” He had a security system from 2 millennia in the future on his house. He highly doubted it.
“I’m going to go check the kitchen,” Janus said, moving towards the noises coming from the other room.
He stopped in the doorway to his kitchen only to see Patton standing at his kitchen counter cutting up a carrot on a cutting board Janus didn’t think he owned, and if he did, it was buried in a box somewhere.
“What are you doing?” Janus asked.
“Cooking!” was the immediate reply.
“In my house?” Janus asked. “How do you even know where my house is?”
“I may be just a little bit ahead of you,” Patton said with a wink while tapping the side of his nose.
Janus sputtered. “This is my house!”
“I know!” He said it so cheerfully while being a purposefully obtuse asshole that Janus could help but crack a smile and shake his head. He’d missed him after spending so long alone with him though he wasn’t go to admit that to him when he’d broken into Janus’s house to…
“Again, what are you doing?”
“I’m making you soup.”
“Why?” Janus asked.
“Well,” Patton said. “I know it’s a bit of a rough time for you, so I thought I’d give you a nice welcome home present and what better present than food!” He smiled at him widely.
Janus looked closer at what he was making. “You’re trying to prove to me you can cook.” Patton frowned at him. “Have you considered I have had enough fish stew for a lifetime?”
“Nope!” he said. “It’s entirely different this time anyway. I have carrots!”
“I don’t like carrots,” Janus lied blandly.
“Liar!” Patton declared.
“No, I’m not,” Janus continued to lie.
“I mean, that was definitely a lie,” Emile interjected from behind Janus. He was looking at them curiously. “Er, hello, who are you?”
“This is Pat,” Janus said.
“The illegal time traveler you’ve been tracking?” Emile asked with a questioning lilt to his tone.
“Ah, yes, well,” Janus said with a cough. “We came to an understanding when stuck in pre-history.”
“And now he is cooking you soup in your house?” Emile asked.
“I’ve long since stopped trying to make sense of him,” Janus grumbled.
“Well,” Emile said. “Hello Pat.”
“You can call me Patton,” he said easily. “I hope it’s nice to meet me, because I’ve already met you.”
“We haven’t been meeting in the correct order,” Janus informed Emile. “So, he’s apparently already met you which will happen in your future. It is also something he shouldn’t be talking about,” he scolded. Patton took that with a shrug.
“I hate time travel,” Emile said, his nose scrunching up. “Isn’t life already confusing enough.”
Janus winced, not relishing the upcoming conversation with him about how confusing his life was now because of time travel.
“Don’t you work with the TPI too?” Patton asked.
“That doesn’t mean I like time travel,” Emile said. “I’m a stationary agent and I like that just fine.”
“Time travel can be a bit complicated sometimes,” Patton acknowledged, “but I don’t think it’s all bad.” He finished chopping up the carrot and turned to put it in the self-regulating soup pot. Janus squinted at it. It was certainly not something Patton had in the 21st century. So, the question was. Had he gone out and bought time appropriate cookware before breaking into Janus’s house or had he gone through Janus’s storage to find it?
“You’re a free agent time traveler, right?” Emile asked.
“Depends on what you mean by free agent,” Patton said. “I have always worked with a group of people, and we have rules and procedures. It’s basically a time agency itself, just not the TPI.”
“And you’ve met me before?”
“I have,” Patton confirmed, “but Janus is right in that I can’t say much more than that about it. In fact,” he said wiping off his hands on a towel hanging from his apron. (The apron was covered in cartoon squirrels and totted the phrase ‘I’m a nut for baking.’) “I should probably be getting out of here.”
“You’ve never been worried about us meeting out of order before,” Janus pointed out with a frown. He didn’t particularly want Patton to go even though the man had broken into his house and possibly went through his boxes of kitchen equipment.
“Well,” Patton said. “There’s meeting wildly out of order, there’s meeting in order, and then there’s what I’m doing.”
“What are you doing?” Janus asked alarmed.
Patton just shrugged with a smile.
“No, Patton, what are you doing?”
“Soup should be done in about an hour, but you can leave it on all day. I got a pot that’s fridge safe, so just shut it off and stick it in there before going to sleep.”
“Patton.”
“See you later! Bye!” He said and disappeared into thin air.
Janus sighed and rubbed the bridge of his brow. “Why is he like this?”
“Janus,” Emile asked. “Why did your self-declared mortal enemy make you soup?”
“Because he’s an asshole, that’s why.”
“Uh huh,” Emile said, looking at him oddly.
“What?” Janus asked.
“What exactly happened when you were stuck in the past?” Emile asked.
Janus sighed. “A lot happened. A lot.” He glanced at the soup pot happily performing its function on his kitchen counter. ‘I hope it’s nice to meet me, because I’ve already met you,’ rang in his ears. Fucking Patton with his little hints about the future. It gave Janus just a bit of courage though knowing that Emile at least didn’t flee the continent after the conversation they had to have. He was at least around enough to meet Patton. “In fact,” Janus said. “It’s probably time I told you what happened. Everything that happened.”
Chapter 54
They sat down in the living room. Janus let Emile have the couch and sat on one of the matching armchairs. There was a squeaky sound when he sat. The plastic covering the chair had been delivered in was still on it.
Emile had a pleasant, open but curious expression on his face and Janus suddenly had an idea what it felt like to be his patient.
“I,” Janus began after a moment, shifting uncomfortably on the squeaky chair. “I don’t know how to start this conversation. I talked about what I wanted to say and possible ways to say it with Dr. Figueroa, but I… I still don’t know.”
“I guess I should start by saying that I did something horrible that I need to apologize for and I’m not sure if apologizing will even be enough. The problem is you don’t even know what that horrible thing is.” Janus stared at his feet. “So, first, I should probably explain what I did. I just don’t know where to start.”
“Maybe start with what happened before it,” Emile suggested. “Just lead up to it. It might help explain why whatever it was happened too.”
Janus took a breath. “Okay,” he said. “That day was just like most that I remember. We both woke up early. I was going to the TPI and you were going to where you worked your residency. We ate leftover pizza for breakfast because both of us were exhausted. You because it sucks to be a resident and me because I’d been working on a big case.”
“I was getting frustrated with the case. That was my first mistake: being impatient and angry. It was just a thief, but a slippery one. She’d stolen a half-broken time piece and was using it to rob banks within about a 50-year time frame. I had an idea of where she might go, but no one would listen to me. Or at least,” Janus quirked a half smile, “that’s how I interpreted it. They said they’d look into my idea, but they were being extra cautious because of how close in the timestream her actions were to most of the agents’ lives.”
“I was so tired of the case and so egotistical. I decided to check it out on my own without being cleared by the TPI. I went back in time without thinking of the consequences and that was the worst thing I’ve ever done.” Janus took a breath. “I’m not sure how, but somewhere in the course of my self-appointed mission…” He trailed off. He didn’t know how to say it. He really didn’t.
“What happened?” Emile asked when he didn’t continue.
“I…” and his next words probably sounded like crackly nonsense to Emile’s ears because he couldn’t get his thoughts straight and his tongue wouldn’t make the words right.
“I don’t even remember living in that town or the fact that Mom used to work at that bank,” he choked out. “I didn’t think and I didn’t check and…” There was a long silence. “I erased you,” he finally managed to say in a whisper, but in the quiet of his barely lived in house, the words were loud.
There was more silence. “But I…” Emile said after a moment.
“I went back and fixed it,” Janus said, “but I… didn’t do a perfect job. I don’t even know how much I messed things up. It would have been one thing if it’d just been me. If it had just impacted my life, but I did it to you and I don’t even know how to start to apologize.”
Nothing was said for a long moment. Janus didn’t look at him.
“…Huh,” Emile finally said.
Janus risked a glance at him. He didn’t look irate, but he did still look confused which was probably the reason for that.
“I’m sorry,” Janus said. It was really the only thing he could say at this point.
Emile tilted his head to the side. He took off his glasses and cleaned them with the edge of his shirt with slow circles. Since he was 15, Emile only cleaned his glasses with specially designed wipes, but he’d held onto the habit of cleaning his glasses with his shirt anytime he needed a moment to think. Janus wasn’t sure if Emile even realized he was doing it, but he knew it was a signal for Janus to be quiet for a few seconds.
The glasses were perched back on Emile’s nose after a few seconds. “I think I remember that,” he said contemplatively.
“…What?” Janus asked, and he was no longer avoiding looking at Emile. He was now blatantly staring at him.
“Well, I didn’t know what it was,” Emile said, “but I did have a very odd dream on the day you mentioned and suspiciously I had said dream in the middle of the day and woke standing up.”
“A dream?” Janus asked.
“A very vivid dream,” Emile said. “I don’t believe you actually erased me completely from existence. My life was simply shifted slightly. I was working as a social worker for about 5 hours and then I was back in my appropriate place.”
76874
“Why didn’t you tell me about that?” Janus asked, but then immediately wince at his own hypocrisy. “Er… never mind.”
“I didn’t know it was possibly real,” Emile said. “Honestly, I thought I was just really tired. I’d been overworking myself a lot. I took the rest of the day off after that.”
“You shifted reality for a few hours, and you didn’t realize it?” Janus asked.
“Like I said, I was really tired and nothing seemed to be wrong…”
“Wait, but things were different,” Janus said. “Didn’t you notice things were different.”
“Not… really,” Emile said. “Like what?”
“Like…” Janus said. “Like a whole bunch of things!”
“Like…?”
“Like you had a different job title and you worked different hours.”
“I thought I’d fallen asleep standing up or had a vivid audio-visual hallucination at work from stress. I asked for a switch a couple of weeks later.”
“You used to hate time travel, but then you took a job at the TPI.”
Emile gave him a drawl look. “I still hate time travel,” he said. “I literally just said that not 5 minutes ago.”
“Well then why would you work for the TPI.”
“Because time travel is so confusing and distressing that people doing it on a regular basis as a career need psychological support.”
“Plus, Lia asked for my consultation when developing the mental health part of the Agent Management Office,” Emile continued. “Considering I already knew quite a bit about time travel from being around you, she knew me personally, and I’d finished my residency, she decided to give me a job offer when my advice panned out.”
“W-well,” Janus said. “You were allergic to pineapples.”
“You mean my childhood allergy?” Emile asked. “That has since resolved itself in my adult life?”
“It has?” Janus asked.
“Janus have you considered,” Emile said, “that some if not all of the inconsistencies you were seeing in my life have to do with the fact that you hadn’t spoken to me in 3 years?”
“I… uh… hadn’t considered that,” Janus admitted honestly.
“You were looking for information to support your incorrect world view,” Emile said sounding very much like a head doctor and not like a brother, “and you found some.” He sighed. “It makes sense after having faced a traumatic event where you effectively thought you’d killed a loved one that you weren’t thinking clearly.” The head doctor analysis voice slipped just a bit. “I just wish you’d talked about it with someone.”
“Sorry,” Janus said, because no matter which way this conversation had gone and no matter the revelations, the point was an apology. “I’m sorry.”
Emile sighed. “I would have forgiven you even if you had erased me,” Emile said. “You didn’t mean to, and you did your best to fix it. You did fix it even if you were an idiot about it.”
“What about for being an idiot and not talking to you for three years?” Janus asked.
“I already did forgive you for that Janus,” Emile said pointedly. “What did you think the last 6 months were?”
“Pity?”
Emile gave him his disappointed and exasperated head shake. “Promise to never do anything like that to me again,” he said, “and I’ll forgive you.”
“I promise,” Janus said immediately.
“And in the future, you’ll talk to me if you have any issue even if you think it’s horrible.”
“I think I’ve learned by lesson on that one.”
“And that goes for other people too,” Emile said. “If anything goes wrong with someone, you talk to them or if that’s too hard you talk to someone so they can convince you to talk to that person.”
Janus nodded.
“Great!” Emile said. “Then you’re officially forgiven for everything. Though I expect you to go to therapy and keep working on making yourself feel better, so these things don’t happen again.”
And Janus… didn’t know how to feel about that. He should probably feel happy and thankful or at least relieved, but if he was being honest, he just felt kind of empty in that moment like an old well that had finally run dry. Fuck his head doctor and fuck Patton. Wasn’t this supposed to make him feel better? Everything was fine. He hadn’t actually erased Emile permanently from the timeline, in fact, he’d apparently still existed in some form in the alternate timeline Janus had temporarily made. Emile had forgiven him both for erasing him and ignoring him even though that was far more than Janus deserved. This was something he’d never even dared dream would happen, but it had been exactly what he’d wanted.
Yet, he still didn’t feel good, not really, not like how he remembered feeling before all of this happened.
Though was that really a surprise? Things were not like how they were before. He and Emile were no longer close. There was love and affection there, but they didn’t really know each other. The last six months had been nice. He’d been able to pretend for a bit that everything was back to normal, but in the moments he hadn’t been able to pretend that, it’d been a bit stilted and awkward speaking to his brother especially at the start.
Beyond that, Janus was just used to misery at this point. It was his default state. Not being miserable took effort and energy he didn’t always have. He felt himself slipping into sadness or numbness even during times he should be feeling good. He’d noticed himself experiencing a sense of desolation when Emile cooked his favorite meal or in the middle of watching a ballet performance Emile had suggested they go to and he’d been looking forward to in the days before or even now when he should be so happy, so ecstatic. Everything should be okay, but it wasn’t.
“You doing alright over there?” Emile asked, and Janus didn’t know how long he’d been silent.
Instinct said to say yes and force himself to move on, but he wasn’t going to break his promise that fast. “Not really, no,” he admitted.
“That’s okay,” Emile said. “Anything I can do to help?”
“I really don’t know.”
“Why don’t we go taste the soup your arch nemesis,” there was a light teasing tone to his voice, “made for you. Some of the vegetables won’t be completely cooked yet, but I’m sure it’s already good.”
“Yeah,” Janus agreed. “Yeah, okay,” he got to his feet, the chair making that plastic squeaking sound again. “Maybe we could unwrap the furniture in here before you go home.”
“I think that’s a good idea,” Emile said with a smile.
Chapter 55
Somehow, the strangest thing about his life right now was a picture on the wall. It was one that he’d gotten after college when he moved into his first actual house. It wasn’t anything special. It was just something that had caught his eye when he was specifically looking for something classier to put on his wall than the posters he’d hung in his college dorm and apartment with Virgil. It was a tall painting of a tree, but segmented into four parts, each representing the state of a tree in different seasons. In the top left, the three had small leaves and little buds, on the top right it had full leaves bathed in sunlight, in the bottom left the leaves had changed colors and started to fall off, and in the bottom right the tree was devest of leaves but covered in snow.
It was on the wall near Janus’s bed. It was one of the first things he saw when he opened his eyes in the morning and was usually what reminded him that everything was different now when he woke.
The picture had been in a box in the houses garage up until the Saturday before the last. Saturdays had become his and Emile’s unofficial unpacking Janus’s house day. They would usually pick one or maybe two boxes that had been sitting untouched for years, unpack it, talk, and eat dinner together.
Notably, dinner was usually not provided by either of them.
Patton had gotten into the habit of breaking into Janus’s house. Janus would sometimes catch him doing it briefly, but often Patton managed to avoid him. This was quite the feat considering Janus was not currently working and thus stayed at home a lot of the time. Patton had repeatedly reprogrammed Janus’s kitchen taking away the option for pop tarts entirely and replacing the option with real food. Janus’s kitchen was constantly stocked with something to eat that wasn’t trash. He also liked to leave around different smelling hand soaps, flowers, and paper cranes. Janus had an entire drawer in his nightstand dedicated to storing paper cranes now.
The newest one was still on his nightstand from the night before, sitting cheerfully in the way of his view of the tree paining when his alarm woke up that morning. He sighed. He had not missed getting up early for work.
He was finally going back to working at the TPI this morning. His therapist had signed off on it last week, saying his was fit for duty. Considering they were apparently still understaffed at the TPI and Janus was a senior agent, this was met with much relief. Janus himself still wasn’t sure how he felt about it.
He turned off the alarm and stood. Dr. Figueroa had him write out a morning schedule to follow when he’d expressed his struggle to get the day started. Either Patton or Emile had taken it upon themselves to copy the schedule on virtual sticky notes that appeared in every location necessary for getting ready in the morning.
First, he took a shower. He threw his nightclothes in the laundry chute. There were currently dozens of different scented soaps in his shower all in small bottles that had about 2 or 3 uses. Janus presumed they were curtesy of Patton. He decided to use one at random and it ended up being cotton candy scented.
Next, he got dressed. That was easy enough since he always wore the same outfit to work every day. It didn’t matter what he wore much since missions would force him to redress anyway.
Then he went to his kitchen and sat down at the counter. He pushed the pop tart button. As expected at this point, he did not get a pop tart for breakfast. Instead, he got two eggs, toast, a sliced apple, and a few cherry tomatoes with green tea. He ate his breakfast while finishing one of the puzzles he’d been working on the night before.
Once he finished, it was time to finally face going back to the office. He sighed, stood up and pulled up the screen on his timepiece. He selected his office as his destination and was off.
The first thing that happened upon appearing in his office was he got a face full of… something.
He sputtered, smacking the things fluttering about his face out of the air. “What is wrong with you?” was the first thing out of his mouth before he’d even really confirmed that the culprit of this attack was who he’d automatically assumed he was.
Remus, as anticipated was standing not 2 feet away from him.
Remus had apparently gotten into the prop department again because he had some type of softly glowing glittery confetti was no all over Janus as well as their entire office.
“Remus, I told you no!” Lena snapped. “You know it’s impossible to clean up 3150s sparkle nukes.”
“Welcome back!” Remus crowed.
“I hate you,” Janus replied. “I just took a shower.”
“You’re fine,” Remus said with an eye roll.
“This shit doesn’t come off in decontamination,” Janus spat. “If my first mission back sends me to a time where I’ll be tried as a witch for glowing, I’m blaming you.”
“We’re going to 2510,” Remus informed him. “You’ll fit right in.”
Janus grimaced. “Ugh, that decade.”
“It’s my favorite decade!” Remus exclaimed.
“Of course, it is,” Lena grumbled. “Just don’t bring anything gross back this time.”
“No promises,” Remus replied.
Janus chose to disengage from the conversation as Remus and Lena argued about was and what wasn’t allowed to be brought back to their shared office from what was well known as the least tasteful decade in history. It was also one of the least turbulent decades in history. The population was too busy making shitty ice cream flavors to wage war.
At least they were giving him an easier assignment for his first time back. He turned to his desk and pulled up the files on his next mission, glancing through them. It was just a small blip that the TPI had noticed in a small town in 2510. It probably wasn’t much of anything, but they had no record of what had caused it, so they were going to send someone to look. Honestly, they’d usually just send in a surveillance agent and be done with it, but they’d probably handpicked this one for Janus in particular. He’d be insulted if he didn’t honestly still feel a bit off kilter being in the office.
To his surprise, he didn’t have a scheduled meeting with Rhi. It wasn’t particularly important to see a mission coordinator for something this small, but it still wasn’t the usual protocol. Instead, he was just instructed to pick up his costume at the costuming department and leave in about an hour.
“Do we really not have an appointment with Rhi?” Janus asked.
“Senior agents haven’t really been meeting with Rhi unless it’s a high priority mission,” Lena told him. “We have too many newbies running around and there’s not time.
“That’s concerning…” Janus said.
“It’s better than trying to rush the inexperienced ones through. We at least have a general idea of what we’re doing. They’re trying to train up more mission coordinators, but that’s taking a while.”
Janus still frowned, but he glanced back at the mission instructions. He’d have to make sure he thoroughly understood what was being asked of him before leaving if he wasn’t meeting with Rhi. “We should go get changed,” he told Remus. “2510s clothing is notoriously difficult to put on.”
“Five minutes back and he’s already dying to get my clothes off,” Remus said cheekily.
“I would rather tear my own eyeballs out of my socket than see you without your pants on again.”
Remus just wiggled his eyebrows.
“I’m so glad you’re back,” said Lena when Janus looked at her in exasperation. “He’s finally not Fred’s and my problem anymore.”
Chapter 56
Getting ready for the mission was a bit of a mess honestly. The costume department barely even spared them a glance before sending them on their way. Remy at least was still there to give them one last debrief before sending them off into 2510, though he looked exhausted.
“Are you sleeping?” asked Janus.
“I’m drinking coffee,” was the reply as he shooed them out onto the streets.
The timeline disturbance that had been picked up was somewhere in one of the shops on that street.
“Do you want the bakery or the karaoke/stripper bar?” Remus asked.
Janus raised an eyebrow at him, and Remus clapped him on the back.
“This is why we’re partners,” he said.
He plodded off towards the building to their right, and Janus turned to the building on the left. It was a small bakery and coffee shop painted in bright colors and sporting the Brazilian and Albanian flags.
There was a soft tinkling bell sound when he entered the shop, and the person behind the counter glanced over at him briefly before finishing putting a pastry in bag for a customer.
Unfortunately, their attention meant Janus wasn’t going to get away with snooping around the store without buying anything. He glanced around the interior of the shop as he walked up to the till.
He glanced into the bakery display case the worker was standing behind. Oh… oh that all looked disgusting. He was not depressed enough anymore to willingly eat any of that.
“Uh,” Janus said when the worker looked at him. He glanced up at the wide selection of drinks over their head and winced at the ways the letters moved on the screen. He was pretty sure his dyslexia wasn’t quite that bad. Why did anyone choose to make letters move around and shake on purpose? As someone who had to deal with that on a daily basis, it wasn’t exactly entertaining.
“Is it possible to get a banana and chocolate potato chip smoothie, but without the potato chip part?” he asked.
“Sure,” the worker replied. “Anything else?”
Janus shook his head.
“Can I have a name for that?”
“Jay,” Janus replied.
“Alright. It’ll be out in a minute.”
Janus nodded and turned, able to take in the rest of the establishment now that there weren’t eyes on him. It was as colorful on the inside as it was on the outside and seemed to have a retro cowboy-space theme mixed with posters from a contemporary werewolf romance movie. Janus had actually seen that movie one. It was surprisingly tolerable.
The seats at least looked comfortable. There were a good number of tables and three couches. All of them were mix-matched. A few of the tables were outfitted with holographic chess and checkers, but most were normal tables. There were even a few physical boardgames and some bookshelves full of books, though he thought some of the bookshelves might just be there for decoration. He wasn’t sure which were and which weren’t.
He pretended to be very interested in the decorations as he waited on his drink, using that as an excuse to look around the entire shop. He was turned away when the door chimed again.
“Hello,” a familiar voice said, making Janus turn around instantly. Janus could immediately tell that the man hesitantly lingering in front of the bakery display was not the Patton that he’d spent months holed up with or who had broken into Janus’s house repeatedly to replace his soaps and cook him meals. He seemed out of place which was saying something in 2510. He had the air about him that he was an 80-year-old grandpa trying to embrace youth culture, but not quite getting it. He also spoke in an accent that people around him would probably assume was him just not being fluent in Spanish but was actually him not being completely comfortable speaking Spanish from half a century ago.
“Uh…” said Patton looking at the menu, a crease between his eyes.
“I’d suggest the banana and chocolate potato chip smoothie without the potato chips,” Janus said. Patton startled, whipping around to face him in surprise. “That’s what I got, though I would leave out the potato chips.”
Patton’s eyes narrowed on him. It was not, of course, the first time that Patton hadn’t been thrilled to see him, but it was the first time Janus had been happy to see him and he hadn’t been happy to see him in turn. Janus had gotten used to a Patton that liked him and he found himself not quite prepared for the way he pursed his lips in annoyance at the sight of Janus.
“I’ll do the banana and chocolate potato chip smoothie, but with the potato chips,” he said in a way that made it sound like he thought he was getting one up on Janus for some reason.
“What flavor of chips?” the worker asked.
“Er, what flavors do you have?”
“Uh, I think drywall, oak wood, and limestone.”
Janus almost laughed at his expression. “Uh, do you have any naturally edible flavors?” he asked.
“We might have grass.”
Patton squinted as the worker bent to look under the cabinet. “Oh, wait, no, it’s glass. Is that alright?”
“…Maybe just no on the chips.”
Janus did his best to school his features, so it wasn’t obvious he was laughing at him. He didn’t think he did a very good job considering Patton was glaring at him after turning around. That or he was just already pissed at Janus by default. It could go either way honestly.
“So,” Janus said when the worker turned away to start making Patton’s drink. “What are you doing here.”
“It’s none of your business,” Patton said with narrowed eyes.
“I mean, we could both be here for the same reason,” Janus pointed out. “We could share intel.”
“I doubt we’re here for the same reason.”
“How would you know?” asked Janus.
Patton just looked away from him. He immediately looked confused at the movie poster his eyes landed on.
“Unless,” Janus said curiously, you aren’t here for a reason, reason.” Patton said nothing. “It was a pretty small disturbance, so it would make sense that your equipment might not pick up on it.” At least at this point. “Acting the tourist, Pat?”
“I’m just doing research,” Patton said, crossing his arms.
“Research?” Janus asked.
“I’ve never been here before,” Patton admitted. “I wanted to get a feel for it and other places just in case there ever was an issue.”
“You just did France, didn’t you?” Janus asked.
Patton frowned and Janus smiled slightly. “It was recent,” he admitted.
“Well,” Janus said. “If you want some advice. I’d start with figuring out accents when you’re in different times.”
“I don’t need your advice,” Patton said and then smugly, “Janus.”
It took a bit for Janus to scan back through his memories and remember that Patton hadn’t known Janus’s name in France. He would have only figured it out after his friend Lo hacked into Silver Mountains University’s system and figured out Virgil had an appointment with him. Janus raised an eyebrow. “You sure about that, Patton?”
He frowned, pouting like whenever Janus told him he wasn’t allowed to try to catch a bird and make it their pet. It was strange to meet a version of Patton who had not lived in a hole in the ground with him for months when Janus had already done that. Patton was on the back foot for once throughout this conversation. Every time before this, he’d managed to somehow twist it around even when he’d been younger than he was right now. When Janus had arrested him at the University, he’d managed to figure out his equipment wouldn’t be stopped by the TPI’s despite having no idea what the TPI was.
In France, even when Janus had thought he’d been winning by taking his phone, he ended up getting access to a University in Janus’s time with information on the TPI, a situation that still had not been resolved.
Today, however, Janus knew far more about Patton than Patton expected. He still didn’t know exactly what his agency or whatever it should actually be called did, but he knew some things about it. He knew Patton was from the 21st century which explained the anachronisms in his speech in different times.
“You could help me look if you’d like,” Janus offered casually.
“Why?” Patton asked suspiciously.
Janus shrugged. It was not because he missed him, he insisted to himself. It wasn’t because after spending so much time with him, not getting to talk with him all day was strange. It had nothing to do with the fact that the few times he’d ran into a farther along version of Patton since he’d moved back home, their interactions had been brief and tinged with something. No, the only reason Janus was inviting him along was so he could teach this younger version a few things, so he hopefully didn’t go about messing up time. “We worked well together in France, didn’t we?” he asked. “Besides, it’s just a small mission without much danger to the timeline.”
“Pat,” the person at the counter called. Patton turned to him to go grab his smoothie, thanking the worker before turning back around and walking over to Janus.
“Fine,” he said. “I’ll help, but you have to answer my questions.”
“I’ll answer the questions that won’t endanger any timelines or secrets of my agency.”
Patton considered it for a moment, taking a sip of his drink. “Fine,” he agreed.
“Good,” Janus replied. “We’ll start by looking around the coffee shop for anything unusual. Did you have any questions now. It’d look more natural to be walking around if we were having a conversation.”
“Does the glitter in your hair have to do with the style of the time or…?”
Janus sighed.
Chapter 57
Luckily, the cashier didn’t seem to think them snooping around was very odd. To be fair, the shop had quite a few odd decorations to look at. So, perhaps employees were just used to people walking around and looking at all of the different things. It helped that Janus and Patton were talking as they searched. They just looked like a couple… of friends… casually chatting and exploring the coffee shop together.
“So,” Patton said, keeping his voice quiet, though luckily the few patrons were on the other side of the shop. “What exactly is it that you do working for the TPI?”
“Well,” Janus said. “I’m a senior field agent. That means I am the person who actually goes on missions in different times. These missions can range from tracking down people who are committing crimes using time travel, stopping anything or anyone that could damage the timestream, and helping waylaid time travelers.”
“So, there are different types of agents?” Patton asked, curiously.
“Yes,” Janus replied. “There are a lot, but only four type time travel on a regular basis.” Should he be telling a very young version of Patton this? Probably not, but he couldn’t find it in himself to care too much.
“There are surveillance, touchdown, field, and cleanup agents,” he explained. “Surveillance agents do a bunch of things including research about the exact time field agents are going to and figuring out the best places for them to enter the timestream. Touchdown agents come slightly before field agents to do last second checks and stay when field agents are out. They mostly are just there to intervene if there are any unforeseen issues. Field agents actually interact with people from other times on a daily basis as they slip into the timestream and find whatever person or object they’re looking for. Cleanup agents come in afterwards and tie up any loose ends as well as observe the area for a few days to make sure nothing happened that no one caught.”
“Everyone else who works at the TPI is mostly in research and management. They don’t usually travel, though everyone who works there is licensed to travel if necessary.”
“That’s a lot of people,” Patton commented.
“What we do is important. We want to make sure we are doing it correctly.” It was honestly not meant to be a jab, but Janus could see Patton frown. He decided to change the subject. “Right now, we’re looking for something that’s causing a small disturbance.”
“What type of thing could cause a disturbance? Is it always a machine like the one in France?”
“No,” Janus replied. “That was actually unusual.” He thought for a second. “At least that used to be unusual, but lately we’ve seen more and more of that sort of thing.”
They were currently standing at a bookshelf, but nothing pinged Janus’s interest or time piece, so they moved on to look at a few of the movie posters. Patton seemed to grow more and more concerned the longer he looked at the posters.
“So, what is it usually?”
“Well,” said Janus. “Some things are natural events. No one’s really sure what causes those. There are theories, but I’m not really involved in that. We leave those alone for the most part if we find those. They’re usually small things, though on occasion they’re a bit bigger. Usually, time disturbances are caused by someone messing up. They say something wrong that gets someone curious and creates a butterfly or they leave an object that doesn’t exist in the time.”
“So, what do you think this one is?” Patton asked curiously.
“Well,” Janus said. “It’s a rather small disturbance, so it won’t be anything too major. Probably just an object out of place.”
“Hmm,” Patton replied. “Well, I’ve always been good at those find the difference games.”
“Have you now?” Janus said, unable to stop a slight grin from ghosting over his face.”
“Mhmm,” replied Patton. He drained the rest of his smoothie and then turned around, facing away from the wall of posters they’d been looking at. He slowly scanned the room, an action a lot less inconspicuous than what Janus had them doing, but he didn’t protest for now.
“That’s weird,” Patton declared, pointing rather obviously at a shelf. Janus noticed a woman looking at him funny. “Well,” Patton continued. “More like it isn’t weird, which is weird for here.”
Janus glanced at the shelf full of small figurines. Most of them were of mythical creatures: werewolves, dragons, and even one not even Janus recognized. Janus would guess, especially judging by the plethora of movie posters that they were all from movies or something of the like. However, Patton was correct there was one that stuck out from the rest. It was still a figurine, but unlike the rest, it was of a real animal: a cow.
“That is odd,” Janus agreed, peering at the cow. Figuring Patton had already been obvious enough, Janus stepped over to the shelf to study it more closely. When looking at it more closely, it became obvious that the cow was very unlike everything else on the shelf. It wasn’t even really a figurine like the ones around it. It looked more like a children’s toy. It’s fur was made out of a soft looking material instead of the stiff plastic of the werewolf next to it.
“It doesn’t really fit in with the collection, does it?” a voice asked from behind Janus.
Janus winced internally at the fact that a civilian had just noticed him acting oddly, but kept his face smooth externally as he turned to face the woman standing behind him.
“My friend and I were wondering what it was from,” Janus said evenly. “We recognized the rest of the figures, but I’m not sure where this one came from.”
“Well, that’s because it didn’t come from anything,” the woman said. “At least that I know of. I just didn’t know where to put the thing, so I put it on my movie figurine shelf.”
“Ah,” said Janus, a politely interested crinkle to his brow. “Where did you get it then?”
“A young kid came by about, oh, a week ago. He looked like a high school kid or maybe college. He seemed right confused and upset. He said he didn’t have any money on him, and got weird when I tried to ask him about his parents. I ended up giving him a free drink and let him sit here for a couple’a hours. We got to talking about my collections. See, I have a deal that if someone brings me back something of interest for my displays, they get a free drink. He insisted on giving me that in exchange for the drink even though I told him I’d given him the drink ‘cause he seemed upset.”
“I don’t even particularly want the thing, but he said he didn’t want it anyway, and he insisted, so I took it.”
“Interesting,” Janus said. “Do you mind if I touch it?”
“Go ahead,” she said with a shrug.
He reached forward to pick up the cow and felt the softest of fizzles that only someone who regularly time traveled would feel. Despite already knowing this must be what he’d come for, he still subtlety set his timepiece to scan it.
Patton was peering over her shoulder now. “If both you and the person who gave it to you don’t care much about it, do you think we could buy it off of you?” he asked. “I’m a big fan of cows.”
She shrugged her shoulders. “I guess,” she agreed. “If you really like it. I don’t know what else I’d do with it.”
“How much?” Janus asked.
“Well it only cost me a Lemon CastelWalk and a scone, so about 12.”
“Sure,” Janus agreed, pulling out his wallet and forking over the currency. “Thanks,” he said.
“No problem,” she replied. “Hope you can find some use for it.”
Janus gave her a smile and then looked at Patton. “I think it’s about time to go, don’t you think.”
Patton nodded. “Thank you for the cow statue,” he told the woman as they left the shop. They walked a bit down the street. Patton turned to him once they were out of sight of the shop window. “So, that’s it?” he asked.
Janus nodded and checked his time piece which had finished it’s scan. “The fabric is from the late 43rd century,” he confirmed, “but that’s not all. It’s stranger than that.”
“Stranger how?” Patton asked.
“The materials are definitely from the 43rd century,” Janus said, “but it’s not from the 43rd century.”
“What do you mean?”
“This,” Janus said, looking at the cow. “This doesn’t exist. Every object has traces of where it’s been no matter how much you clean it. My timepiece can register debris sticking to an object down to the microscopic level and give a general idea where and when they came from. There’s no time travel residue implying it came from the 43rd century or even just dust or dirt from that time period. There isn’t even anything on it from this time period from more than the week the shop owner said it was in her possession. My scans seem to be saying, this thing popped into existence a week ago and didn’t exist in any time or place before that.
Patton frowned. “Well then, what does that mean?”
“I don’t know,” answered Janus frowning down at it. “I have absolutely no idea.”
Chapter 58
Janus didn’t know what to make of the cow he’d gotten in 2510. He’d said goodbye to the young version of Patton and grabbed Remus before heading back to the TPI. He’d immediately handed the time anomaly over to the labs, but even after a few weeks, he hadn’t heard anything back yet. The labs seemed just as stumped as he was.
The older version of Patton still drifted in and out of his life, usually unseen, like a ghost in the night. Well, a ghost that cooked him plenty of healthy food.
It felt odd slipping back into his old routine of missions.
Sometimes it felt like no time had passed, but then he’d see the faces of new recruits or get a mission where he didn’t see Rhi and remember that things were different now. The TPI was strained, constantly running after time distortions with no idea what or who was causing them. The new recruits were stumbling to catch up to the agents who knew what they were doing but were still needed to fill the gaps. It made Janus grimace, but he didn’t know what the solution was.
It was nice to be able to talk to Emile about these things.
If Patton made sure he was taking care of himself at home with nice meals and an ever-changing option of soaps and shampoos, Emile made sure he was taking care of himself at work. Janus was now forced to have a water bottle at his desk to make sure he wasn’t spending the day dehydrated and, assuming he was not on a mission, Emile would either drag him away to eat lunch or bring lunch too him if he was too busy. Today was the later kind of day. Emile had messaged him about 45 minutes ago asking if he was free and then had taken his order for a local restaurant when Janus said he had too much to do.
There was a knock on the door and both Fred and Janus, the only two occupants of the office at the moment looked up.
“I’ll get it,” Janus said, getting up before Fred did. He knew Fred was currently in the middle of a report on a trip to 2000B.C. he and Lena went to. They’d let a new recruit tag alone for training purposes. It had gone badly to say the least. Fred looked exhausted and stressed which was unlike the usually cheery man.
Janus shuffled to the door and opened it. A man in his early 30s that Janus didn’t recognize was standing there.
“Hi,” he said. “I, uh, moved into the office next door. My name is Dave.”
There was a moment of silence. “Did you need something Dave.”
“Right,” he said. “Yeah, I was just wondering if your integrator is running, because mine isn’t.”
Janus glanced back at the report he’d been working on. “Yeah, it’s fine.”
“Well, is it, like, connecting to the TPI system?”
“I don’t know,” said Janus, “I was working locally.”
“Yeah, well that’s the problem with mine. I was wondering if anyone else was having the same problem.”
“Let me check,” said Janus, walking over to his desk. He went to open his email and an error message popped up.
That was… odd to say the least. The TPI had very, very reliable technology. If it was just Janus who could not access the system, he’d assume it was just a local problem, but if the next door neighbor also was having an issue, that could smell trouble.
“Fred,” Janus called. “Are you connected to the internet?”
Fred glanced down at his integrator and clicked a couple of buttons. “No,” he said.
“Hmm,” Janus said. He pulled up his timepiece. That at least connected to the TPI servers, so the servers themselves weren’t down, just the offices’ connection to them. “Well, I can still connect with my timepiece.”
“Same,” said Fred.
“So, what’s wrong?” Dave asked. “How do we fix it?”
“We don’t fix it,” Janus said. “We submit a tech support request.”
“Oh,” said Dave. “…How do you do that?”
Janus sighed and flicked his wrist to project a screen. “If you go to the web on your timepiece, it’s literally on the page that automatically pops up,” he said pointing.
“We can connect to the internet through our timepieces?” Dave asked.
“…Did you have any training?” Janus asked.
“Don’t be rude,” Fred said absently, still typing on his report.
Janus just rolled his eyes.
“Not on… that part. They did give me a handbook.”
“Have you read it?” Janus asked.
Dave shrugged which told Janus everything he needed to know.
“Just go back to your office,” Janus told Dave. “I’ll submit the tech support request this time since it’s affecting me as well but read your handbook and familiarize yourself with your timepiece for goodness’s sake.”
“Okay,” Dave said, turning around and wandering back to his office with no thoughts in his eyes.
“I’m not your fucking preschool teacher,” Janus muttered under his breath as he returned to his desk. “It’s not my job to hold your hand and wipe your ass.”
Fred glanced up at him. “Thanks for not saying that when he was still in the room,” he said.
Janus shot him a thumbs up.
He sat down at his desk and quickly submitted a tech support request. By the time he finished that, Emile was knocking on the door with a bag of food.
“Come in,” Janus said to him, and he did, pulling over Remus’s chair and plopping down the food on Janus’s desk.
“You look stressed,” Emile commented.
Janus sighed, already reaching into the bag to look at what Emile had bought. “Everything’s disorganized, everything’s broken, and no one knows how to do anything.”
“Yeah,” Emile said. “I’ve noticed the TPI is understaffed. Even with all of the new recruits, there never seems to be enough people to go around.”
“Yeah,” Janus said, pulling out a burger on a pretzel bun and going to unwrap it. “How about you? This all been messing up your job too?”
“In general, for the AMO, yes, because they have to get all of the new agents houses and everything. For my department, not as much, but we are seeing some agents getting stressed because they’re overworked. Mostly the more senior agents.”
“Honestly, I’m lucky stress makes me throw myself into work to avoid thinking about it. I shudder to think how all of the mentally healthy people are holding up.”
“Janus,” Emile scolded.
“Plus, I’m already set up to have an appointment with a head doctor at least twice a week, so I’m good on that front.”
“I guess that’s true. Just don’t overwork yourself,” Emile said.
“I’m fine Emile. Plus, they need me. I seem to be one of the few people around here who actually know what they’re doing.”
“I just worry…” he said.
“I can handle it well enough,” Janus promised. “I’ve got the toolkit or whatever the head doctor calls it. Plus… work wasn’t ever actually the problem.”
“I know. I know…Just…you aren’t even taking lunch.”
“I have a bit more time free in the afternoon,” Janus said.
“I was just in the middle of something today. If you’re free for a half hour or something, we could get a cup of coffee. How about that? Would that assuage your worry about me a least a bit?”
“Yeah,” Emile said. “Yeah, it would a bit. I have a break at 2, would that work?”
“Sure,” Janus said. He technically had a good amount of stuff to do, but Emile was right in the end. He should try to take breaks. It wasn’t his duty to do everything at the TPI. “A quick lunch now and coffee at 2.”
Chapter 59
Janus did fulfil his promise to Emile to take a short coffee break at 2pm. It was nice for both of them, Janus thought and was well worth it… even when he came back to a stack of work and an extra mission on his docket.
“Where did this one even coming from?!” Janus asked as he and Remus speed walked to costuming. “I was gone for less than 30 minutes. They can’t give us more than an hour warning anymore?”
Remus shrugged. “I just got back from a mission,” he said. “I haven’t even had time to write my report on that one.
“This is a mess,” Janus said. “Everything’s a mess.” Readings of a fairly large time distortion had popped up in 2158 Lille, France out of seemingly nowhere according to write up they’d been given. Though, honestly, with how disorganized the TPI has been, Janus wasn’t 100% confident they hadn’t just missed the thing somehow. It also was apparently giving very similar readings to the time device they’d ran into in Cuba. That’s why they were sending both Remus and Janus, despite the two of them mostly having been split up for missions in the past few weeks. If it was as bad as Cuba, they wanted them to have backup.
Of course, that was where the TPI’s consideration had ended. Remus and Janus were still being rushed through to this mission and not even seeing Rhi once more. Costuming barely even glanced at them when they got there. They just tossed clothing at them and only gave them a superficial look over before sending them off to decon.
It was almost disorienting how quickly they ended up in a completely different time and place. Janus was lucky that he was used to traveling through time. He could easily slip into the right language and accent and knew how to walk in the shoes they gave him. He worried about other people though.
They arrived, of course, a bit before the time distortion was meant to begin, especially knowing their devices might not work once whatever it was hit. They waited around on a bench near a small shopping area for a while.
“So,” Remus said. “How’ve you been?”
Janus glanced at him. “Better overall,” he said. “Shit’s fucked with the TPI right now though.”
“I know,” Remus said. “It’s been interfering with my many extracurricular activities.”
“You’re extracurricular activities?” Janus asked. “Do I even want to know?”
Remus show him a smile. “Probably not,” he said. “It’s just the usual: sex, drugs, alcohol, making sure Diesel Fuel has whatever she could ever want.”
Yet, even as he said it, there was something else in his eyes that gave Janus pause. “Are you sure things are alright?” he asked. “I could help with something if you need.”
“With what time, Janus?” he asked, with a raised eyebrow.
“I could make time,” Janus said.
Remus just shook his head. “It’s nothing,” he claimed.
Janus wanted to press the issue, but then there was a buzz from both of their time pieces.
“Well,” Remus said, getting to his feet. “Duty calls.”
Strangely enough, despite giving off the same signals as the device from Cuba did, their time pieces did not shut off. The detected the time distortion like they were supposed to, but otherwise stayed active.
It was… incredibly easy to use their time pieces to find the source of the time distortion. Apparently, the caution about it considering that it was similar to the Cuba incident was unfounded.
The tracked the distortion down to a small children’s playground in the middle of the city. There was a device attached to the bottom of one of the slides. Janus flipped it off and balance was restored to time.
“Weird,” Janus said. “It definitely does look like the device we found in Cuba, but…”
“We aren’t currently swimming in an ocean,” Remus filled in.
“Yes,” Janus said. “You’d think the same type of device would have the same effect, but this one was pretty stable.”
“The main question is still who is putting them,” reminded Remus. “These are clearly not natural. Someone is doing this, but all we’re doing is running around trying to turn them all off instead of getting to the root of the problem.” The last bit was a frustrated mumble.
“You’re right,” Janus had to agree, “but so far these things have been practically untraceable. We can’t even figure out when they’re from. The most we can do is see when they’re active.”
“This doesn’t make any sense,” Remus said.
“No it-” Yet, before Janus could finish, he was cut off by a shout.
“Janus,” Patton’s voice called from the opposite side of the playground. “Hi!”
“Uh…” Janus said as he approached. “Hi.” He probably shouldn’t be too shocked to see Patton hanging around time distortions. He’d shown up at many of them before, but something about him showing up after the time distortion was already fixed threw Janus off. “We already dealt with time distortion…”
“Oh, good!” Patton said. “That’s good.”
“Yea-”
“So, I was actually wondering something.”
“Er, alright,” Janus said. There was a pause. “What?”
“Oh,” Patton said. “Um. You. Well, you once mentioned that you liked ballet.”
He hadn’t actually that he could remember, but he wouldn’t be surprised if a future version of him had. “Yes,” he said. “That’s true.”
“Yeah,” Patton said. “Cool, so I have a… nephew who’s been getting into ballet. And I’m trying to learn more about it. I was wondering if you had any suggestions for things to see about ballet to help me, er, get a better idea about how… it… is. You know?”
Before Janus could think of a response, Remus spoke up. “You were a much better flirt in Cuba,” he remarked idly. Janus elbowed him harshly in the side.
“Hey, Remus, honey,” Patton said, glancing at him with a sweet smile. “I saw an interesting looking coffee shop down the road.” He started digging in his pocket. “If I give you money, would you mind getting us all something to drink.” He pulled a few bills out of his pocket.
“Yeah… okay,” Remus said with a smirk. “I see how it is.”
Patton just smiled at him and handed over the money.
“Have fun you two,” Remus said, turning on his heels and striding off.
Janus glanced back at Patton once he was gone. “So, a nephew?” Janus asked.
Patton nodded. “Yep!”
“What exactly did you want to know?”
“Erm… I dunno,” Patton said. “I don’t know enough about ballet to know what to ask about ballet.”
“Well do you want to know more about the watching side or the dancing side.”
Patton bit his lip. “Well, I guess I’d like to know more about the watching side first,” he said. “Then maybe learn some basics about the dancing stuff if my nephew wants to dance.”
“Well, I actually do know more about watching ballet than participating, so that’s good.”
Patton ended up pulling him over to sit on the swings even though there was a perfectly good bench at the edge of the playground. Janus talked a bit about ballet in general and then gave him a list of particular shows he liked. He did try to stick to the 21st century and before under the assumption that this nephew was from the same time as Patton. There was still plenty of things to talk about even with those restraints.
Patton seemed interested as he talked, pressing his face against the chain of the swing to look at him as he talked with a smile.
They spoke about ballet for about 20 minutes before Remus eventually returned from the coffee shop.
“Thanks Remus,” Patton said, taking the cup he’d offered to him.
“No problem,” Remus replied, flashing a smile.
“Well,” Patton said, “thank you for the info Janus, but I really need to be going now.”
“Oh,” Janus said. “Okay.”
“See you soon!” he said, typing something into his timepiece and immediately disappearing without even checking his surroundings. He was lucky the playground was strangely empty today. He left his drink on the ground without taking a sip.
“Well,” Janus sighed once he was gone. “We should probably be getting back to the TPI anyway,” he said, taking a sip of the drink Remus had gotten him.
“A London Fog?” Janus asked.
“It was the special,” Remus said, taking a sip of his own drink.
Janus shrugged. “We’ll finish these and head back,” he said. “The mission was shorter than expected anyway. They can deal with us being gone a couple of extra minutes.”
“Mhmm.”
Janus took another sip. “About the conversation from early,” he said.
“Uh, could we maybe talk about it later?”
“Remus, you’re my friend and clearly something is bugging you.”
“It’s nothing,” Remus said. “Really.”
“It’s clearly not ‘nothing,’ Remus.”
“I… well,” Remus said. “Maybe not, but let’s not talk about it right now. We’re on a mission.”
Janus snorted. “Remus, I’ve seen you drink on the job.”
“…Right,” Remus said. “But still. Things are busy. We should probably actually head back now.”
Janus sighed. “You’re probably right,” he agreed, “but really, we should talk sometime.”
“Sometimes,” Remus agreed, “just… not now.”
“Fine,” Janus said. “Ready?” Remus nodded and Janus pulled up his timepiece and pushing the correct button to get them back to decon. Remus copied him and they both were off.
Chapter 60
Remus pretty much bolted out of decon to get away from Janus when he tried to talk to him again or at least ask if he could come by and talk to him after work. Janus felt a pit of worry start to grow in his gut. There was something wrong, but Janus didn’t know what. In fact, thinking back, maybe there had been something wrong for a while, but Janus had been too caught up in his own shit of a brain to properly address it.
He walked back to his office still thinking about it. Maybe he’d get Emile’s opinion on what to do.
The lights flickered as he entered the hallway his office was in, and he paused. That was strange. Very strange.
He frowned, planning to message someone right away about whatever the fuck that was. It was one thing to be a chaotic mess of a time travel agency; it was another to literally not be able to keep the lights on. What was going on in this place?
He stepped into his office shaking his head. To his surprise, someone was already sitting at his desk.
“Virgil?” Janus asked, confused. “What are you doing here?” It wasn’t completely unheard of for someone in cultural outreach to come physically to the TPI, but usually agents went to them. It was more convenient to them and a bit more secure for the TPI.
“Oh,” Virgil said in a tone that made Janus narrow his eyes and expect the dish washer not to be loaded. “Hey Janus. What are you doing here?”
“In my office?” Janus asked, glancing at Fred who had obviously let him in. Fred shrugged. Glad to know they had great security here.
“Right, yeah,” Virgil said. “It would be your office, huh?”
“…Yes?”
Virgil paused for a split second and took a breath to regroup. “I was actually looking for your partner.”
“Remus?” Janus asked. “Why?” Then he paused. “What on Earth did he do?”
“Nothing,” Virgil said. “Well, I mean… probably something knowing him, but that’s not why I’m here.”
“Probably,” Janus agreed. “I don’t know where he is right now though. He ran off when we got back from our last mission.”
“And you have no idea where he could have gone?”
“I actually would like to talk to him too,” Janus said. “So, if I did, I wouldn’t be here.”
“Chances he’ll come back to the office?” Virgil asked, hopefully.
“Very low since he’s avoiding me.”
“Great,” Virgil said, rubbing his temples. “That’s great. Why does this have to be physically difficult as well?”
“What exactly do you need with Remus?” Janus asked, noting the way Virgil was holding himself very tensely.
“I just need to talk to him,” Virgil said.
“Yes,” Janus said. “About…?”
Virgil didn’t say anything. He just looked off to the side.
“Why is everyone acting weird today?” Janus said, almost to himself.
“I’m not!” said Fred from his corner.
Janus shot him an unamused look. “Thank you for your contribution to this conversation, Fred.”
“Look,” Virgil said, “can you just tell him I need to talk to him about something private the next time you see him?”
“What on Earth do you need to talk privately to Remus about?” Janus said.
“Just leave it, Janus,” Virgil said.
He had his lips downturned in stern way that meant he was trying to hide something from Janus by feigning annoyance. Janus titled his head. “You two aren’t…”
“No! Ew!” Virgil said, looking disgusted. “He’s somehow the worst of two options which is saying something considering the French Toast.”
“What?”
“Nothing,” said Virgil. “Just, can I leave a note for him, or something?”
Janus paused, looking at him. Virgil squirmed under his gaze but didn’t seem like he was going to give in anytime soon. “Fine,” Janus finally relented. “You can leave a note on his desk. I’m not sure why you didn’t just email him.”
“It’s an in-person type of conversation,” Virgil said, wringing his hands.
“Whatever you say,” Janus said, walking over to Remus’s desk and clicking the memo button that brought up a screen people who weren’t Remus could write on. “There you go,” he said.
“Thanks,” Virgil said with a relieved grin, clearly happy he was no longer being interrogated. He grabbed the stylus tied to the side of Remus’s desk. (If Janus hadn’t tied it there, it would be in Mesopotamia by now, he was sure.)
Janus turned to go back to his own desk.
“Wait,” said Virgil. “It isn’t working.”
“What do you mean?” Janus asked. “It’s a note app.”
“It’s not tracking what I write,” Virgil said. He tapped the screen with his finger. “It’s not even responding.”
Janus leaned over to take a look for himself. He tapped it a few times and there was nothing, so he tapped it a bit more aggressively. A fuzzy line went across the screen and then it shut off abruptly.
“What is wrong with things in this office lately?” Janus asked with a frown.
“My stuff just froze too,” Fred said.
The door opened then, and Lena entered the room. “The coffee makers are all offline.”
“What do you mean the coffee makers are offline?” Janus asked.
“I went to get some coffee for Fred and I and they’re not working. Any of them.”
“That’s odd,” Fred said.
“You know,” Virgil said, shifting nervously on his feet. “This seems like a bad time for me to be here. Why don’t I just come back another time or better yet, Janus, just tell Remus to come find me.”
“Yeah,” Janus agreed. “There’s a lot of things going on apparently, so it’s probably best if you leave.”
With that, Virgil brought up the time device he was using and pushed a couple of buttons to return to his university.”
However, instead of disappearing like he was meant to do, he flickered once and then was immediately on his knees with his hand over his nose.
“Shit,” Virgil hissed.
“Are you okay?” Janus asked, kneeling next to him. There was blood coming from his nose which was concerning, but his eyes focused on Janus easily enough, though he looked very startled.
“I think I just hit the shield.”
“Is your timepiece not approved?” asked Janus, pulling on his arm to see the timepiece.
“I got it approved this morning,” Virgil said, taking a tissue Fred handed to him to press it to his nose. “It’s supposed to have access to the TPI all day. I used it not even 10 minutes ago.”
Lena was already on her own time device. She pushed a button and disappeared for a moment before appearing a couple of steps away. She stumbled and was caught by Fred. “Mine’s blocked too,” she said, “I only put in to go to the entrance of the building.”
That’s when the lights went out.
Chapter 61
There was screaming from somewhere down the hall.
“Do you think that’s like when kids would scream when the teacher would turn out the lights in elementary school for a movie?” Virgil asked hopefully, voice a bit nasally since he was still holding his nose.
Janus gave him a tightlipped stare.
“Yeah,” Virgil said, “that’s what I was afraid of.”
Fred calmly reached over and shut and locked the office door.
“And what good is that going to do?” asked Virgil.
Fred glanced at him, already moving to shove Remus’s desk in front of the door. Janus instantly went to help him. “Gives us time to regroup.”
“Or it locks us in,” Virgil argued.
Janus glanced over at him. “Don’t panic,” he said.
“The fuck do you mean, don’t panic?” Virgil asked, panicking, “Do you even know me?”
Janus sighed. “Fine,” he said. “Panic as much as you want but do it quietly.”
Virgil opened his mouth to speak.
“We know what we’re doing. You do not. Contributions from you that are only fears no matter how rational are not helpful at the moment.”
Virgil shut his mouth.
Janus turned Lena and Fred. “Okay, what do we know?”
“Malfunctioning coffee makers,” Lena said. “Malfunctioning tech in general really.”
“And not just now,” Fred added, now working on barricading the window with the cabinet he kept his hot chocolate in. “There’s been issues with the whole system for a while now, and they’ve been getting worse.”
“Right,” Janus said. “I’d been blaming that on new recruits messing things up out of ignorance or IT not having enough time do normal maintenance, but if everything is down when the shields are malfunctioning, that implies something else.”
“Are the shields even malfunctioning?” Lena asked. “That implies something went wrong with the program, but what happened to Professor Eran and I is what it’s supposed to do to people who don’t have permission to cross them.”
“So, the shields might be malfunctioning,” Janus said, “or someone went in and changed the permissions.”
“Considering the tech problems we’ve been having,” Lena said, “it’s possible someone’s been playing around in the TPI the system without knowing what they’re doing.”
“Or maybe they know exactly what they’re doing,” Janus suggested, “and they wanted to see our usual protocol for small issues before giving us a big one.”
There were a few moments of silence where they all were lost in thought.
“People are still screaming,” Virgil pipped in.
“Yes,” Janus confirmed. “This is obviously not just a virtual attack.”
“Which should be the priority?” Lena asked. “The virtual attack or the physical one?”
“The virtual part will be complicated, and if we stabilize the building physically, we’ll have more time and have everyone safe,” Fred said, “but on the other hand the virtual attack is obviously what’s letting the physical attack persist. If people had access to time travel and communication, the physical attack wouldn’t matter.”
“I think-” started Janus, but he was cut off suddenly by a horrible screeching noise like metal on metal. The room they were in jolted like they were in a car that suddenly stopped and then the world was turning sideways, and they were all toppling as the floor became the wall. Janus landed on top of Virgil. Hopefully the blood now staining his shirt was from the man’s already bloody nose. “-we should probably start with the time anomaly attack!”
Lena was a few feet away from him. She’d luckily been to the right of her desk, so she landed on top of it instead of it landing on top of her. Fred was a couple of feet away, already crouched. Judging by the state of the furniture around him, he’d had to dodge the cabinet he’d been putting over the window.
“What’s going on?” Virgil asked. Good, he was conscious after that.
“Time distortion,” Janus answered.
“What the hell type of time distortion is this?!” Lena exclaimed, holding one of her arms with the other. Janus couldn’t tell what type of injury she’d gotten.
“One like the one Remus and I ran into in Cuba,” Janus said.
“So…” Fred said.
“I think we’ve finally found whoever has been mucking up time with time distortion devices. Or, more, I think they’ve found us.”
There were more screams from down the hall. “We can still hear other people in the building screaming,” Janus noted. “That’s good.”
“How is that good?” Virgil asked.
“That means the building is still connected to itself,” Janus explained. “Which, means that while the shields are screwed up, they’re still in place and keeping the building from being ripped apart and sent through time and space.”
“Oh well that’s good at least,” Virgil said, sounding honestly a bit hysterical. He looked over at Janus. “If the building is intact, can’t we just leave? Just through the front door?”
The three time agents in the room exchanged a look.
“Well,” Fred said, “first of all, it’s probably not going to be that easy to get to the front door considering the screaming we’re hearing every so often.”
“Also, we wouldn’t be able to get out if we did make it to the door.”
“What?” Virgil asked. “Why not?”
“It’s kind of a secret that most people don’t know unless they’ve worked here a long time,” Janus said, “but the TPI headquarters isn’t exactly… in a place.”
“What do you mean it’s not in a place?” Virgil asked. “I’ve seen the outside of the building. It’s on a normal street with restaurants and a park and all of that.”
“It’s really not though,” Janus said.
“It’s kind of floating,” Lena cut in. “Somewhere in deep space. The doors auto-teleport you the doors of a building on Earth which is why you think that it’s there.”
“The building’s a shell?” Virgil asked, flabbergasted.
“Yes, and unfortunately, without time travel being accessible, going out of the front door would be ill advised.”
There was a long pause as Virgil seemed to reboot. “We’re floating in space right now?!”
“Well,” Janus said. “We were always floating in space. You just didn’t know that.”
“Great, yeah, nice, that’s great,” Virgil said, rubbing his temples.
“So,” Janus said, turning to Fred and Lena. “I think first we need to find whatever is sending out time quakes before they get worse. Then, we’ll figure out the rest along the way.”
“How are we going to find it though?” Fred asked. “It could be anywhere.”
“I’m not sure but standing in here isn’t going to get us anywhere,” Lena said.
“The closer we get the more chaos there will be,” Janus said. “Game of hot and cold with time distortions anyone?”
Lena and Fred nodded, but Virgil just looked queasy. Luckily, when the room had gone sidewise, the door had landed in a place still accessible enough with a bit of crawling.
Fred and Lena had to pull the desk away from the door, but then they were able to cautiously open it. Fred poked his head out. “Seems clear,” he said. “Sideways, but clear.”
“Good,” Janus said.
Fred started slowly crawling out into the hallway and Lena went after him. Janus turned back to a very green looking Virgil. “You can stay here,” he said. Maybe go in the supply closet to prevent any more injury from falling office supplies. It won’t be comfortable, but it’ll be better. We’ll come get you when things are stable.”
Virgil nodded. Yet, right as Janus turned away to go follow Fred and Lena, there was another rubble and the ground shook. Virgil, still a bit wobbly on his feet from the last couple of falls tumbled down, but luckily the room’s walls stayed in their places.
Unluckily, the walls outside of the room didn’t. Looking through the office door one could see what was outside the room was very much not a hallway anymore, but a different room entirely. There was no Lena or Fred in sight. “You’ve got to be kidding,” Janus said to the universe.
Chapter 62
“I thought you said the building was stable!” Virgil said.
“I said it’s not being ripped apart,” Janus corrected, “and it still isn’t. We’re still inside the headquarters. The rooms just got a bit… scrambled.”
“Great, great, fuck.”
“It’s fine, Virgil,” Janus said, though he himself was a bit worried. He knew if he showed that, however, Virgil would just panic more, and the last thing Janus needed at the moment was a panicking civilian, let along a panicking Virgil.
“It is not fine,” Virgil said. Luckily, he looked a bit pissed off at Janus’s flippant reply. Good. A pissed off Virgil was better than one having a panic attack.
Janus just rolled his eyes, making Virgil bristle even more. “Well,” he said, “either way, I need to attempt to find what is causing this time distortion. Come with me or stay here, though I am unsure if the closet is a closet anymore.”
Virgil eyed the closet and then eyed Janus.
“Make your choice quickly though,” Janus cautioned, already steeping towards the open doorway.
He heard Virgil curse after a moment and then a hand was gripping Janus’s arm. He was coming with then.
They both climbed out of the sideways doorway into the room on the other side.
“Where are we?” Virgil asked, still holding onto Janus’s sleeve. It reminded Janus of welcome week in their freshman year of college.
They’d been randomly assigned as roommates in the dorms. Janus had mostly ignored him the first day after small attempts at making conversation had failed miserably. He’d assumed the boy simply didn’t want to make friends, and Janus had taken that in stride, sure he could make friends elsewhere.
That lasted until that night when he’d found his roommate on the bathroom floor, dry heaving into the toilet. After figuring out that it was from nerves and not some drug his body was trying to desperately expel (Janus had been very glad he didn’t have to drag some dumbass to the hospital on his first day living away from home), he decided to take pity on the poor fool and socially adopted him.
He'd been a nervous wreck during all of Welcome Weekend even with Janus’s literally leading him by the hand (and sometimes dragging him) to the many social events the university put on. He’d slowly calmed down, however being around a lot of people still sometime freaked him out. He’d warmed up to Janus quickly though and when they were alone, he’d come out of his shell.
He’d proved himself to be a witty, smartass, bastard as soon as he got over his crippling social anxiety. He’d matched Janus perfectly, honestly, and had always been around to help with homework, especially reading and writing. He’d also known more about how to clean himself and his environment more than most college freshman even if sometimes his anxiety had prevented him from using that knowledge appropriately.
He'd actually managed to stop Janus from making poisonous gas in their apartment by mixing cleaning fluids in their junior year.
Janus glanced around them trying to answer the question of where they were. It was a medium sized room, about the size of the living room in his house and was mostly baren except for a large hollowed out circular desk with one gap for people to be able to walk through. Under the desk was a long line of old school computer towers humming softly with only a few centimeters between them. There was a mess of cords all over the place, connecting to different parts of the computers and thrown over parts of the desk.
“I’m not sure where we are,” Janus admitted. “This is a pretty archaic set up. I’m not sure what it’d be used for.”
Virgil stepped forward towards the desk with a curious tilt to his head. He bent down to study one of the computers for a few moments. He squinted. “It’s not an archaic set-up. Well,” he amended. “It is, but it’s intentionally an archaic set-up. The techs current, it’s just put in a shell that looks old for some reason.”
“That’s odd,” Janus said.
Virgil pushed a button on the side of one of the towers and the machine started rumbling louder, lighting up Virgil’s face in a soft blue light as it did.
Virgil stood as the computer tower next to it lit up the same the next moment and the one next to it the moment after that until all of the computers were on. Only after that did the top of the desk light up, a full 3-D hologram lighting up with Virgil inside.
Janus stepped through the gap in the desk to stand inside the hologram too.
He was met with a lock screen, but more worrying.
“Oh no,” Janus said.
“What?” Virgil asked, glancing at him.
“The date,” Janus said.
The date behind the prompt for the password read almost 10 years in the future of the year they were supposed to be in.
“So much for your shields,” Virgil grumbled.
“We really shouldn’t be here,” Janus said.
“Oh really?” Virgil said. “Thanks for your useful information, Mr. Time Agent. I thought likely stepping on our own personal time streams, especially by going to the future was a good Thursday afternoon activity.”
Janus glared at him.
“Oh wait,” said Virgil, glancing at the date on the screen, “I mean Sunday at 2am.”
“Does being an asshole help?” Janus asked.
“Would you prefer an actual mental breakdown because I have two modes of behavior open to me right now.”
“Asshole it is,” Janus grumbled.
“Great,” said Virgil. “Fuck you, fuck Remus, fuck time travel, and fuck…”
And, of course, that’s when the room decided to tilt once more. They both went tumbling, but luckily the fall was softer this time. Janus simply landed on his backside as though he’d tripped backwards while walking. Meanwhile, Virgil ended up on his hands and knees having caught himself.
“Fuck this!” Virgil completed his sentence a bit too loudly for Janus’s taste.
“Shh,” Janus said.
Virgil looked up at him and seemed to realize what Janus had. They were no longer in the room they’d just been in. Or perhaps they were in the same room, but the computer wasn’t there, and the lighting was different. It was rather difficult to tell if they’d moved rooms since it was just a rectangular box of a room.
Instead, they were in what seemed to be just an office, much like Janus’s office, but with six desks instead of four. There was a half-eaten lunch on one of the desks and a hologram with a mission report pulled up on the wall.
There also blood on the floor next to where they had landed.
“Where are we?” Virgil asked in a whisper.
“Back in action,” Janus said. “It’s one of the offices, but I don’t know which at the moment, but I’m going to go ahead and assume it’s in the right time. The shields must have righted us.
Here is my starting post for today’s study break stories session. I will reblog this post with the story as I write them today. Feel free to send in asks about anything at any point, even if it’s not for the part of the story I’m currently on.
If you aren’t interested and don’t want all of these posts clogging your dash, please feel free to block the tag “study break stories” as all posts and voting about it will go there. You can still see the finished product of the story even if you are blocking that tag as I will not tag the edited chapters with “study break stories” but with the tag “folds in paper.”
See the Folds in Time Universe Master Post for edited chapters. Not yet edited chapters are under the cut. I also have a playlist on youtube for this story.
Going to work on this for a bit. Hoping to get a good amount done, but we will see. I’m a bit tired because I had to get up early.
Chapter 46
Virgil was correct about his ability to find the location of the farmer’s market. After they ate and finished their coffee, they set out to investigate the location of the time anomaly. “I ended up under the stage,” Virgil informed him. The stage had already been taken down, but it was easy to see where it had once been based on the depressions on the ground.
Logan had brought a few of his tools when they had left that morning and he pulled out a modified iPad.
“You hide your time travel tech as an iPad?” Virgil asked curiously.
Logan glanced at him and said nothing.
“…You made your time travel tech out of an iPad!” Virgil exclaimed.
“It is one of the most easily accessible technologies of this time that is also portable,” Logan shrugged. “I use what I can get.”
“How did you manage to invent time travel with 21st century technology?” Virgil asked.
“It took me a couple of decades,” Logan replied.
“It took them literal centuries.”
“Well, I knew it could happen, so I simply made it happen.”
“You’re terrifying,” Virgil stated.
Logan just hummed and set the iPad scrolling through its diagnostic programs. It scanned the area around them for anything that might indicate time travel.
“Well,” Logan said. “There is definitely an anomaly, but we already knew that. It’s a strange one, however.”
“What do you mean?” Virgil asked.
“I’d assumed whatever had caused you to end up here had dragged you here, but what I’m finding doesn’t seem to be remnants of something to cause time travel. On the contrary, it seems to be similar readings to what stopped Janus time travel to stop working in previous circumstances. I don’t know a lot about the time travel technology from your time, but I have noted they tend to briefly ping off of times near to your destination in order to recalibrate when going a certain amount of time. Perhaps your device did a brief landing here at the wrong time and then was deactivated much like TPI devices have been deactivated beforehand and you got stuck.”
“What does that mean for me?”
“Well, it means your device isn’t broken,” Logan said.
“Then why isn’t it working?” Virgil asked.
“Because,” Logan said. “whatever is deactivating it is still here.”
Virgil looked at his feet as though expecting to see the device sitting on the ground somewhere.
“Not here here,” Logan clarified, “but close by. They have a limited range from what I understand, though I don’t know precisely how far. It’s definitely in this time however. But it’s strange,” Logan tapped out a few things on his device, double checking that he hadn’t missed anything with his regular monitoring.
“It’s not causing any other problems.” Logan continued. “We’ve only ran into them once or twice before and we’ve never managed to get our hands on one too actually study it, but each time we’ve seen them, they created some sort of issue in the environment, but there are no obvious time abnormalities or weather problems. In fact, if I wasn’t looking for it, I wouldn’t have noticed.”
“Okay, well then, can’t we just find it and shut it off?” Virgil asked. “That’s what I know Janus did when he ran into them.”
“It is,” Logan confirmed. “The only issue is without the obvious environmental clues I have no idea where it actually is to turn it off.”
“How the hell do we find it then?” Virgil asked.
“I’m not sure,” Logan said. “It definitely was here when it switched on, but it’s definitely not here anymore.” He looked around. “Perhaps it was attached to the stage or put in the musician’s instrument cases. Then again, by that logic, it could have been put in anyone’s bags or in a since emptied trashcan.”
“So, it could basically be anywhere?”
“Basically,” Logan agreed. “We will check the easiest possibilities to track down and if that produces no results, I’ll… figure out something.”
Virgil grimaced. “That sounds promising.”
“I will do my best,” Logan promised. “I just wish I knew more about these things.”
Virgil seemed to hesitate. “How would you go about learning more about it?”
“Well,” Logan said, “if I can get my hands on a similar device, I could probably figure out a more reliable way to track it.”
“You do,” Virgil said.
“I do what?”
“You do have one.”
Logan frowned. “I assure you, I do not.”
“But you do,” Virgil said. “Eventually.”
“…Oh, I see.” Logan replied. “Do you perhaps know where we do eventually find it?”
Virgil pressed his lips together. “I think I might already be saying too much,” he said. “It’s stuff you shouldn’t know about yet in your personal future. People aren’t supposed to…”
“Time is not nearly as sensitive as the TPI seems to believe,” Logan said with an eyeroll. “In fact, most of Janus and Patton’s interactions so far involve accidently giving more information than necessary.”
“I don’t know…”
“I’m a time traveler from the 21st century who lives with a French man from the 1800s,” Logan said. “I’m not asking for a run down of every part of the event, just a time and place to point us in the correct direction.”
Virgil still didn’t seem convinced.
“It would really only be a time saver,” Logan argued. “I could just blindly look for time distortions, but it’d take a while…”
“Fine,” Virgil said after a moment. “This is probably entirely stupid, but fine. Give me a moment to think about what exactly I can tell you, so I don’t mess everything up.”
Logan smiled slightly at his overly cautious behavior but waited patiently.
“Janus met Pat once in Cuba. There was a time distortion during Camaguey Carnival of 1755. Pat took the device that had been causing the disturbance and left before Janus could catch him.”
“Camaguey 1755,” Logan repeated. “Got it. I’ll look into it, and we can see what we can do. It’ll still take a few days to prep however.”
Logan would need to find exact coordinates and he’d have to talk to Patton considering he’d just recently gotten back from an unwillingly long trip to pre-history. He’d probably be willing to go, but he’d mentioned Logan making him a “time survival pack” before he was willing to go back into the timestream. They’d need to talk about what exactly that entailed and get the supplies for it. His mind was already making plans about what he needed to do.
Virgil nodded. “Should we head back to the apartment then?” he asked, interrupting Logan’s thoughts. Logan glanced at him. He had actually planned to show the man around a bit today instead of spending all of their time thinking about time travel.
“I cannot be sure that my roommates will have cleaned up their French toast nonsense by now,” he said. “We should likely wait to return until at least the lunch hour. It is not as though we could do anything about it today. We will need to plan.”
“Okay,” said Virgil, “then what are we going to do for the next 3-4 hours?”
“Well,” Logan said. “Perhaps I can show you around the town a bit more so as to not make more of a liar of myself than I already have.”
“Sure,” Virgil agreed with a smile. “What will you be showing me.”
“I was thinking we could visit the local museum. We can compare notes about how wildly inaccurate the exhibits present history.”
Virgil rolled his eyes at Logan, but there was something warm underneath his expression. “Fine,” he said, “but I bet I know more than you.”
Chapter 47
The museum was interesting, not because it taught him any more about the events behind the exhibits on display, but more that learning what people in the 21st century cared about and how they presented past events was an anthropological lesson in its own right. Their conversation became a game of not only finding the mistakes made in the exhibits, but also Virgil hypothesizing why those mistakes were made: prejudice, missing information, and unreliable secondary sources all contributed, and Virgil spent a lot of time talking through the possibilities.
They spent a few hours there before heading back to Logan’s apartment.
Not without stopping at a small, hole in the wall, bar inhabited only by day drinkers. When Virgil gave Logan a weird look, he explained, “I have to bring back a peace offering for running off this morning if I want Patton to agree to a time travel mission for me.”
“…And Patton likes… vodka?” he guessed.
“No,” Logan replied, amused. “This establishment serves cheeseburgers which are apparently the ‘best in the city.’ They do not, however, cook anything else. Not even fries.”
When Logan handed him an unlabeled brown paper bag that looked as though it had been dipped in hot oil instead of just it’s contents, Virgil shot him a raised eyebrow. “Ah, yes,” he said, “the quintessential 21st century American meal.”
“You once ate only bagged pepperoni meant for pizzas for breakfast for a week once.”
“I told you that in confidence,” Virgil said, smacking him lightly with the bag of grease.
“And I have told no one,” Logan responded. “Therefore, I have not violated any part of our agreement.”
“You’re making fun of me. That’s definitely a part of the agreement,” Virgil said.
“I don’t remember there being any clause like that in our verbal contract,” Logan replied with a slight smirk. Virgil rolled his eyes. “Besides, I’m not truly making fun of you. The decision to fuel your body solely with pepperoni is, while not the best strategy and one that would certainly prove detrimental in the long run, it is better to eat that then nothing.”
“Oh,” Virgil said. “Uh, good.”
“I’m simply citing another example where not as healthy food in the long term can be good in the short term.”
“But in this case instead of depression eating to stay alive, the purpose is bribery.”
“Exactly,” Logan said. “Bribery to end the time distortion and get you back to the proper time.”
“Alright, fair enough.”
“You don’t have to eat any if you don’t want to.”
“Oh, no, I’m going to.”
“Then why are you complaining?” Logan asked amused.
“I just thought you should know your time has way too greasy food,” Virgil said.
“Thank you for the information,” Logan said dryly. They’d made it back to the apartment by then, and Logan stuffed the bag he was carrying under his arm to unlock the door.
“And where have the two of you been?” Patton asked when they walked into the kitchen.
“I have cheeseburgers for you,” was how Logan answered.
Patton rolled his eyes as Logan set the bag down in front of him. He was sitting at the kitchen table typing on a laptop. “The French toast wasn’t that bad,” he said.
“I will take your word for it,” Logan said pleasantly.
Patton just shook his head and reached into the bag for a cheeseburger. Logan kept looking at him, and that obviously meant something Virgil didn’t know, because Patton glanced up at him after eating a couple of bites. “What?” he asked suspiciously.
“Virgil and I went back to where he arrived,” Logan said. “There are signs that one of the devices that cause time distortions is present.”
“There aren’t any weather disturbances though,” Patton pointed out.
“It seems to be a more advanced version,” Logan answered. “Which will make much more difficult to track.”
“Okay,” Patton said, “then what are we going to do?”
“Well,” Logan said, “if we could get our hands on an older version, we could probably use it to narrow down the current one’s location.”
“And how exactly are we going to get an older version?” Patton asked, eyebrow raised.
“I understand that you have only been back from your last trip for a little over a week and that your last trip through time was a bit difficult, but,” he nodded towards Virgil, “we do know of the time and place one exists that you would have a good chance of being able to find, deactivate, and bring home.”
Patton groaned. “And judging by the source of this information, steal off of the TPI.”
“Yes.”
“Excellent.”
“At least, in this case, you will go into it knowing there will be no major disasters.”
…
Should Virgil… say something. It’d be rude not to mention the whole time shredding almost drowning bullshit, wouldn’t it? Then again… giving him foreknowledge could be a danger to the timestream. He debated with himself whether general social courtesy should outrank the possible destruction of time or not.
…
Maybe he’d just suggest a boat if they didn’t plan to take one? Just in case?
“Fine,” Patton said, “but you’re finishing your tech updates and making me a survival pack before I make any jump. I’m not making the same mistake again.”
Logan nodded. “I can do that,” he agreed. “Just tell me what you want in your survival pack.”
“I’ve already been working on a list,” Patton said. “I’ll email it to you.” He turned back to the computer he’d been working on and typed a few things. “You can add to it if you think of anything.”
Logan looked at his phone as it dinged. “…Do you really need all of this?”
“Yes,” Patton said, taking another bite of his cheeseburger.
“…I’ll do my best?”
“You’ll do it,” Patton returned.
“Right.”
“I’ll start researching Cuba in the 1700’s,” he said.
Virgil saw him pull up google on his computer. He looked at the 21st century computer and then back to Patton. He couldn’t help but think of the museum he and Logan had been to earlier that day. “Do you want help?”
Chapter 48
It took a little over two weeks to get everything set up. Logan had already been in the process of updating their equipment for quite some time, and this situation only spurned him on. He also then had to figure out a way to meet all of Patton’s demands for his new survival kit. His list had already been quite long before he’d started to add to it. He’d even slipped in a request for a boat at some point despite Logan’s protests that Camaguey Cuba was nowhere near the sea.
Thankfully, Virgil didn’t seem to mind the delays too much.
In fact, he may have had a hand in the delays as his natural inclination towards anxiety seemed to infect Patton and cause him to add and add to his list of safeguards for Logan to make. He and Patton were spending a good amount of time together, actually. Patton was fairly good at researching the places he planned to go at this point, but Virgil was undeniably more experienced with that sort of thing considering he worked with the TPI. Patton seemed to appreciate his input.
Roman, on the other hand, decidedly did not. The two of them were prone to arguments about clothing which had gone beyond talking about Cuban clothing to arguments about clothing from pretty much all of time.
Logan could not tell if they were friendly debates or not. He’d even asked Patton who had claimed he also could not tell. Neither Roman nor Virgil’s responses when asked directly about the nature of their relationship were helpful either. Logan did notice that Roman changed the fabric of the outfit he made for Patton after one of their conversations.
Virgil was not much help to Logan unless you counted the intel, he’d given that helped Logan choose the correct time and place. At least, not in the sense that he was able to help with the mathematics and physics Logan was dealing with.
He was, however, good for company. Especially as his sleep schedule much more closely resembled Logan’s own in those weeks. Typically Roman and Patton went to sleep at a much earlier hour than he did himself and Logan would work alone in the living room, but with Virgil living in the apartment, there was constant companionship while he worked, and less volatile company than he was used to working with (assuming, of course, Roman had gone to sleep by that time). It was nice.
He seemed to fit into their little group in a way Logan had not anticipated. Or at least, socially he did. Physically, there were simply not enough beds and Logan had been sleeping on the couch for two weeks.
Eventually, with all of their combined efforts, everything was ready to go. Patton had three different time appropriate outfits, a good amount of knowledge about the festivities he was about to attend, new time travel equipment, and a survival pack that could help him survive an apocalypse. Patton was planning to arrive in Cuba two days earlier than the TPI protocol would send agents like Janus. That way, he would have time to set up and get acclimated before the TPI sent in their surveillance and touchdown agents.
“This is cool,” Patton said, flexing his fingers to see the hidden screen on his palms light up with a map of the area.
“It’s organized the same as your previous device, except for, of course, the control panel to control the cloaking technology and the access to the survival kit.
“Looks great, Lo,” Patton said, still fiddling with it. He changed it to its default state of a metal band projecting the screen and then back to the time appropriate bracelet Roman had designed. There weren’t many possibilities programed for hiding the device yet, but more could be designed in the future. For now, it only had the default band, the bracelet, and a wristwatch.
“I’ve already tested it a good number of times, but you should familiarize yourself with it anyway before leaving.”
Patton nodded, flicked his fingers and disappeared for a moment before reappearing in the same place. Then, he did it again and reappeared directly next to where he’d been standing. He did similar things a few times before predictably getting bored and starting to do ‘tricks’ which mostly involved landing in ridiculous poses and also accidently jump scaring everyone in the apartment at least twice. Eventually, Logan confiscated it for the evening so they could have dinner in peace.
Patton went to bed early, planning on leaving the next day. Roman quickly retired to his room shortly after leaving Logan and Virgil alone in the living room.
Despite knowing already his calculations were perfect, Logan still sat on the couch checking over them one more time just to make sure. Virgil sat on the floor with his back against the couch watching videos on Logan’s cell phone with headphones borrowed from Patton’s collection.
He glanced up when Logan shifted positions and Logan flashed him a smile.
Virgil removed the headphones to speak. “Thanks by the way,” he said, “I already said it to Patton and will again in the morning, but thanks for helping me out with all of this.”
“It wouldn’t have been particularly kind of us to leave you stranded,” Logan pointed out.
“Yeah, but still, you’ve all been working really hard. Right now you’re up at 3am working on it.”
Logan shrugged. “I’d likely be up working at 3am on something anyway,” he said.
“Sure,” Virgil said, “but this time it’s for me so, yeah, thanks.”
“You’re welcome then,” Logan said. “Any time.”
Virgil tilted his head back to grin at him. “Was that a time travel pun.”
Logan scowled. “No.”
“It sounded like a time travel pun.”
“It was not intentional. I will never intentionally say a pun.”
“You’re telling me you live with Patton and never make puns?” Virgil asked.
“I, unlike my roommates, am a responsible adult,” Logan insisted.
Virgil seemed skeptical. “Is that why you’re drinking forbidden coffee out of an orange juice carton at 3am.”
“Not so loud,” he hissed, leaning forward to put Virgil’s mouth and glancing back towards the hallway to see if anyone was about to come storming into the living room with another intervention.
His hand was bit.
“Ow!” Logan exclaimed, taking his hand back. “How do you know?” he hissed. The ruse had been working on Roman and Patton for years because neither liked orange juice.
Virgil rolled his eyes. “I can smell it,” he said. “I’m not dumb.”
“It’s worked on everyone else.”
“No,” Virgil said. “It’s worked on one dramatic idiot and one man who trusts people not to lie to him way too much. I, however, am a paranoid asshole with a doctorate. You can’t fool me.”
Logan couldn’t help but smiled. “I suppose I have met my match,” he said.
He tilted his head all the way back, so his skull rested on the couch cushion and he was staring straight up at Logan with his piercing hazel eyes. “Heck yeah you have,” Virgil said, and Logan was not much more sentimentality, especially not romantic sentimentality, but there was something about the shadows making the room seem cozier and the almost golden glint in his eyes from the lit lamp beside Logan that made it more difficult to breath.
68261
He was relaxed here in Logan’s apartment at 3 in the morning, looking up at him with warm eyes. He fit, slotting into place with an ease Logan had not expect. He’d found Professor Virgil Eran interesting from the moment he’d first heard him speak and had glanced through his university profile for information on whoever had plugged his virus into their computer. He had found him endearing when they’d corresponded through emails and occasionally one sided video chats. It was different with him right in front of Logan, within arm’s reach. He could reach down barely a few inches and brush his slightly unruly hair out of his eyes.
“You good man?” Virgil asked.
“I am perfectly well,” Logan said, clearing his throat. He glanced away from Virgil. “I think perhaps my roommates have a bit of a point when it comes to caffeine.”
“Maybe at 3am,” Virgil said in good humor. “You’re not a college kid.”
Logan glanced at the college professor on his living room floor. “Well, thank goodness for that,” he mumbled
“I think your calculations are fine anyway,” Virgil said, gently taking the papers out of his grip. “Why don’t we do something else?”
“Like sleep?” Logan asked.
“You think you’ll be sleeping anytime soon?” Virgil inquired with a raised eyebrow.
“Fair point.”
Virgil grabbed the television remote from side table. “Why don’t we watch a bit of that time inappropriate copy of the Epithet File I know you have.”
“Sure,” Logan agreed. “You can come onto the couch if you would like.”
“Nah. You can come to the floor.”
“…Fine.”
Chapter 49
Patton left in the morning and from there it was just a waiting game. Which, was Virgil’s least favorite type of game. He tried to keep his anxiety on the down low considering it was Logan and Roman’s lifelong friend who was running around some other century, and they were both obviously nervous as well, since the last trip had ended in disaster.
…
This trip was going to end in disaster a little bit too, but Virgil was going to ignore that. At least he wouldn’t be gone for months.
The point was, Roman was constantly going to the gym which was, reportedly not normal behavior and Logan spent his days re-checking calculations that were too late to correct and had worked considering Patton had been in contact occasionally.
Yet, despite the fact that he was clearly an anxious wreck as well, Logan eventually forced himself to put his lined notebook paper away for a bit. Roman was out once again when he did so and Virgil was doom scrolling on his phone.
“We should go out to dinner,” he declared suddenly.
Virgil glanced at the pile of take-out containers stacked near the kitchen trashcan. “Sure,” he agreed.
Which was why Virgil was leaving the apartment for the first time in the last three or so days. Logan had asked him if he wanted anything in particular, but he didn’t care and also didn’t know what restaurants were around, so he was just letting Logan lead him wherever he wanted.
He should not have trusted him.
He glared at Logan, but the man only seemed entertained by his ire. “Really?” Virgil asked.
“I wanted to see for myself if you were really that bad with chopsticks.”
“I’m not,” Virgil said, crossing his arms. “It was just the anxiety about the social situation, and I resent this.”
Logan just laughed, knowing well enough that Virgil wasn’t actually irritated. Honestly, he felt fonder than anything that Logan had chosen to take him here. “It’s actually pretty good sushi.”
“21st century American Midwest sushi,” Virgil drawled. “I’m simply quivering with anticipation for that authenticity.”
“It’s unanimously considered the best sushi in town by my friend group,” Logan said as if the fact that Mr. Asiago Cheese Bread For French Toast and Mr. Went Along With Cooking Asiago Cheese Bread French Toast approved of the restaurant would inspire any confidence in Virgil. If he could even call the place a ‘restaurant.’
“It’s. In. A. Mall.”
“So?” Logan asked.
“It’s a sushi stand in a mall. There isn’t even seating.”
“There is seating,” Logan argued nodding at the five chairs sitting in front of the counter. The seating was completely empty which could be because their eating schedule was off and they were eating dinner at 3pm, but more likely meant everyone else in the time had more sense than the man in front of him.
“Where is your sense of adventure for trying new things?” Logan asked. “Are you not an anthropologist. Don’t you want to experience the culture of the time first hand.”
Virgil glared at him.
“Please try it,” Logan said sill amused. “It really is good.”
“If I get food poisoning, I’m blaming you,” he warned.
“Noted,” Logan said, inclining his head. Then, Virgil reluctantly allowed him to lead him over to the sushi stand from where they’d been hiding behind a trash can so as not to be in the direct line of sight of the man standing behind the counter.
The man greeted them as they approached. He obviously recognized Logan and even asked about Patton and Roman as they took a seat. Virgil did have to admit, despite his instinctual misgivings about mall sushi, what he could glimpse of his set up seemed legit. It looked like a real sushi bar if a bit smaller than usual. Where they had sat, there was a glass case in front of them with chilled fish on display and Virgil could see a large rice cooker behind the man along with a normal refrigerator.
Laminated menus were handed to them. They were only one page front and back, but honestly that was probably a good thing. If it had a bunch of complicated or fancy stuff, Virgil might have been worried.
Well, he was still worried, but he wasn’t running screaming. At least his setup looked like it probably wouldn’t give him too much food poisoning. Logan suggested a rainbow and a snake roll and they got some different types of nigiri.
The chef was nice, and he assembled the sushi fully in Virgil’s view which made him a whole lot less leery about the meal. He seemed to know what he was doing at least. Of course, the fish was not as fresh as it would have been in a coastal area, but it was clearly properly handled. When he was finished, he handed it to them all on one big plate.
He had to admit, when correcting for ingredient availability, it was actually pretty good sushi. He would not say it was the best sushi he’d ever had, but it was worlds better than he’d expected. Logan could obviously tell what his opinion was and was overly smug about it.
“Yeah, yeah,” Virgil said when they were finished. “You’re good at picking restaurants.”
“I’m sure you are also when in a place you are familiar with.”
“I’m not actually,” Virgil said with a laugh. “I always panic choose the worst option.”
“Well, I tend to be quite decisive about such things,” Logan said. “I guess we make a good match.”
“Yeah,” Virgil said. “Uh, what are we going to do when we get home? Because sitting there drowning in anxiety like we have been for the past couple of days isn’t the greatest.”
“Do you have anything in mind?”
“You guys have Blockbuster still?”
“No,” Logan said. He paused. “We do have a Family Video store I think.”
“Is it close? Let’s go there.”
“And why are we not just using a streaming service?” Logan asked. “Or using my… library of movies.”
Virgil shrugged. “It’s the charm of it,” he said.
“The charm of a business already made obsolete and on the brink of collapse?”
“Exactly,” said Virgil with a smile.
“Very well,” Logan said. “If that is what you’d like to do I will look up its location on my phone.”
They were in a building that would look abandoned if there wasn’t a light on inside within 15 minutes. The video rental store had clearly seen better days. Its carpet’s pattern was clearly from another decade and had been trampled over so often it was basically like walking on the linoleum beneath. There was a door on the sign asking patrons to close it behind them because the spring used to close it had long since ceased working.
There was only one person working, a guy in his 30s who glanced at them briefly and then went back to looking at his phone. Ah, yes, Virgil’s favorite type of employee.
“What movie would you like to watch?” Logan asked. He glanced at one small, but still surprisingly present section filled with DVDs.
“I don’t know,” Virgil said. “Isn’t that the point? Stop by a movie rental place on a Friday night, grab a more than likely crappy movie and some Milk Duds and proceed to sit and watch the stupid thing anyway because you already paid for it.”
“Virgil, I grew up in the 90s. This isn’t exactly exciting for me. There is a reason streaming sites took over the market,” Logan replied. “Also, it is Tuesday.”
Virgil rolled his eyes. “Just panic choose a movie with me, nerd.”
“Great!” Virgil dragged him off in the direction of the movies that started with ‘S’.
“This is just… gross,” Virgil said a little under an hour and a half later and about an hour into the film.”
“It is a random romantic comedy from 2002,” Logan responded. “What did you expect?”
“Yeah, but there’s weird sex jokes and actors that are probably from Mars and then there’s actual on screen physical abuse between the romantic couple.”
“I will concede that point,” Logan said, “but I will remind that this could have all been avoided if you had allowed me to do proper investigation of the movie choices before renting it.”
“Ugh, yeah, yeah,” Vigil replied, leaning back to stare at the ceiling. “Just turn it off.”
Logan complied, reaching over to eject the DVD from his computer. The three roommates didn’t actually have a DVD player connected to their TV, so they’d chosen to use the desktop computer in Logan’s room.
Virgil was laying on Logan’s bed with Logan sat propped up against the headboard. Logan leaned over to peer down at him. “Thanks for helping distract me,” he said. “Despite the fact that we now know more about what we’re doing, I still get worried about sending Patton through time. His last time travel experience didn’t improve my confidence. I have been… rather nervous.”
“Well, I’m glad I could help, at least a little,” Virgil replied.
“You did,” Logan replied. “A lot.” His hand reached down to touch pat his shoulder, but then lingered there for a moment too long.
Virgil sat up suddenly and Logan had to jerk back to keep their heads from colliding. “I…” Virgil choked out once he was sitting up. “Um…”
Logan’s mouth curled into a half smile. He offered a hand and Virgil took it.
Virgil glanced at the hand. “I, uh, I am an anthropologist.”
“I am aware,” Logan said with a raised eyebrow.
“And, uh, you were born in this time, so technically I’m studying you…”
“I’m a time traveler, Virgil,” he said amused. “I doubt I am a pure specimen for any studies you may be doing.”
“Right,” Virgil said. “That’s a good point. You’re right.”
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There was a pause. “So then,” Virgil said. “No moral quandaries. Just two people sharing a bed and watching a romance movie.”
“It was a bad one.”
“It really, really was,” Virgil said with a grin and then Logan was leaning forward and Virgil’s hand was on Logan’s shoulder.
And then the door was flinging open. “I’m home!” Roman declared as Virgil scrambled back, banging his head on the bed’s headboard.
“Fuck,” Virgil hissed.
“Roman! You need to knock!”
“Since when?” Roman asked, plopping down on Logan’s bed between them.
“Since we have a guest,” Logan said meaningfully. Virgil hid his reddening face in his hands, curling into as tight of a ball as he could.
“You were both in here, it’s not like one of you were naked,” Roman said flippantly. Virgil debated the merits of staying curled up in a ball for the rest of his life. There was a second of silence, and Virgil was glad he couldn’t see the expressions on their faces from his ball when Roman said, “Oh my god!”
Chapter 50
The breakfast table was silent the next morning. Though if one could call it a breakfast table when Logan was only drinking a cup of tea, Roman was chewing on a slice of unbuttered, untoasted bread, and Virgil was still either asleep or avoiding them both in Logan’s bedroom was debatable.
“…Look,” Roman said.
“We aren’t talking about it.”
“How was I supposed to know the two of you were getting it on?! Put a sock on the door next time or something. It’s common courtesy!”
“We weren’t having sex,” Logan hissed. Roman opened his mouth. “Shut up and learn to knock,” Logan said, pointing his spoon at him threateningly.
Yet, still, because it was Roman, the other man opened his mouth again. Luckily, before he could say anything else on the matter, there was a loud crack from the living room.
“I’m going to need a towel please!” Patton called.
“I’ve got it,” Roman said instantly, jumping to his feet, leaving Logan to walk to the living room.
“Why are you wet?” Logan asked immediately upon taking in the sight of his roommate. He was soaked, water dripping from his form like he’d just gotten out of a pool seconds before.
“There was an ocean in the church,” Patton said.
“What?” Logan asked.
Patton pushed his sopping wet hair out of his eyes. “The time distortions were a lot more intense than ones we’ve seen before,” he said. He held out a small innocuous appearing device whose only mechanism appeared to be a switch to him. “Be really careful with that. It’s unstable and we might have damaged it getting out.” Patton winced and removed his timepiece. “Actually, speaking of that. This might need a checkup too.”
“Were there issues with the tech?” Logan asked taking both devices in his hand.
“…No,” Patton said looking a bit sheepish. “We just… may have turned off all of the safety protocols.”
“Patton I just made this for you!” Logan said, horrified.
“And you did a really good job!” was Patton’s reply, “but we didn’t really want to drown in a church.”
Logan took a slow breath. “I’ll make sure it wasn’t damaged,” he said.
“Thanks, Lo!”
Roman entered the living room then, bright blue towel in hand. “I have returned bearing gifts!” he declared.
“My hero,” Patton said with a laugh, taking the towel and using it to wipe off his face and then start to dry his hair.
“So, an ocean in a church?” Logan asked.
Patton nodded. “I’ll have to thank Virgil for suggesting the inflatable raft.”
He paused as he finished running the towel through his hair and started to dab at his clothing. “I saw Remus,” he said.
Roman froze. “You did?”
“Uh huh,” Patton replied. “He was with Janus. I didn’t think I should say anything to him since that trip was way out of sync though, sorry.”
“Yeah, no, that make sense. That’s fine.” Roman hesitated. “How was he?”
“He seemed good,” Patton said. He flashed them a smile. “Happy. He’s quite the character actually. He and Janus seem like they’re good friends.”
“Oh,” Roman said. “That’s… that’s good.”
Patton’s face screwed up slightly. “He did flirt with me though, so that was weird.”
Roman took a moment to think about it before pulling a face that one would expect to see on a small child trying a lemon for the first time. “That’s disgusting! That’s like… that’s like my brother flirting with my brother. Gross!”
“It was… it was weird,” Patton said.
“What did he even say?” Roman asked.
“Mostly it was comments on my…” he made a motion with his head that apparently Roman could interpret.
“He talked about your butt!”
“…Well, he didn’t exactly use that word.”
“That sounds about like Remus,” Virgil said, poking his head into the hall.
“Oh, you’ve finally decided to join the land of the living, Emo?” Roman asked.
“Shut up,” both Logan and Virgil said at the same time.
Of course, he did not. “You know, Pat-pat, speaking of posteriors…”
“One more word out of you and I will actually kill you,” Virgil threatened.
“Um, what’s going on?” Patton asked.
“I’ll tell you later,” Roman promised.
“You will not,” Logan said. “Keep your gossiping tendencies under control.”
“Okay, but now I want to know,” Patton said with a pout.
“You go take a shower,” Logan ordered.
Patton shared a look with Roman that told Logan there was no way he wouldn’t have the whole story along with a good number of embellishments by the end of the night. Then he shrugged. “Yes, boss,” he said. Logan rolled his eyes as he turned towards the bathroom, the towel still on his shoulders. He was dry enough that he wasn’t dripping anymore, and he slipped off his waterlogged shoes and socks so he wouldn’t track water to the bathroom.
“Put that in the biohazard hamper,” Logan called after him.
“I know!” he called back.
“And you,” Logan said to Roman, “clean up all of the water he got on the carpet in the off chance there are any pathogens in it.”
“Why do I have to do it?!”
“Because you’ve annoyed me,” Logan said, “and I need to insure these two devices do not explode.”
“Ugh, fiiiine,” Roman said, dipping back into the hall.
Virgil glanced over at him, the picture of awkwardness. “Uh,” he said. “Hey.”
“Hi,” Logan said.
“…Are those things really at risk of exploding right now?” he asked.
Logan glanced at him. “Technically they are always at least slightly at risk of exploding, but admittedly the chance is further from 0 than I would like it to be at this point.”
“Great,” Virgil said. “One more thing to be anxious about.”
“You don’t need to be anxious about it, Virgil,” Logan said.
“Uh, I think I do need to be anxious about the maybe bomb in your hands.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“I know,” Virgil said with a sigh.
“We are two mutually consenting adults. There isn’t any shame to it.”
“Can we please talk about our very embarrassingly interrupted kiss after you’ve dealt with the explosives?”
“Very well,” Logan said. He walked to the other side of the room to grab a statis chamber from a cabinet drawer.
“What’s that?” Virgil asked as the cube shaped device popped up.
“It’s a stasis cube,” Logan said as he put the two devices in his hand into it and activated. “It will allow them to cool down completely from their earlier use in a safe environment. It will be less dangerous to work with them later.”
“If it just takes 5 seconds to deal with them, why are you making Roman clean up?” Virgil asked amused.
“Like I said,” Logan said. “He annoyed me. Speaking of,” he glanced into the hallway where Roman currently was. “How do you feel about leaving before he gets back to get coffee.”
Virgil smiled at him. “Sure,” he said. “Escape the apartment for coffee part two.”
Chapter 51
It took a few days after Patton got home for Logan to first make sure the timepiece and the distortion device were not at a risk of exploding and then to study the distortion device.
“It’s similar to what little we’ve seen of TPI technology,” Logan had mused, sitting on the couch while studying the information he’d managed to get off of it. “It’s definitely derived from the same technology unlike my time travel device, but it looks a bit different, and this version at least is rather shoddily made. Of course, creating disorder and almost ripping apart time is easier than seamlessly moving through it.”
“So, they’re probably from my time then?” Virgil asked.
“Most likely,” Logan agreed. “Though it could always be a Remus situation where they were from another time originally but accidently ended up in the TPI time. Either way, the origin of their purposeful time travel was certainly around your time.”
Virgil glanced at the device he’d set on the table in front of them all. It looked innocent sitting there, but it had the power to destroy so much, and they didn’t even know why. “Do you think whoever made this trapped me here on purpose?” Virgil asked.
“It would be a big coincidence if you in particular got trapped in this time in particular,” Roman said.
“I was thinking the same thing actually,” Logan said. “You do work with the TPI and with Janus, a time agent who both often is caught in the middle of devices similar to this being used and who runs into Patton frequently. Plus you know Remus, Roman’s brother even if we didn’t know that connection before you were trapped here and we already had a correspondence before you landed here. It would be strange for you to have ended up here on accident.”
“But why?” Virgil asked. “I am somehow connected to all of you, but I’m still not a time agent myself.”
“All I am to the TPI is a walking history book. I’m not actually involved.”
“Well,” Logan said. “Perhaps someone knows something we don’t.”
“Or maybe it’s just a happy accident!” Patton said. Virgil highly doubted that and it made anxiety churn in his gut.
“Well,” Logan said, “accident or not, we do now have a solution to the issue. I’ve managed to use this device to recalibrate my calculations and we’ve gotten a ping. I know where the signal blocking Virgil’s time device is coming from.”
“Where?” Roman asked.
“It looks like a local trash dump,” Logan replied. “It must have just ended up in a trashcan that day and was emptied before we checked.”
“Well, that should be easy enough to get,” Patton said. “Give Roman and I the exact coordinates and we can go and get it now.”
“Wait, why are we the only ones who have to dig through a garbage dump?” Roman asked.
Patton gave him a look.
“Oh,” Roman said, eyes lighting up. “Oh right!” Then, he scowled remembering he was going to be going through a garbage dump. “Fine,” he sighed.
“Think of it as an adventure!” Patton said.
“We’re time travelers. We have so many more exciting adventuring opportunities than dumpster diving, Pat-Pat,” he whined, but he still got up. “I’ll go get changed.”
Patton stood up and handed Logan his phone, so Logan could program the location of the distortion device into it while he changed as well. “We’ll text you when we’re heading back! I’ll give you a 15- and 5-minute warning,” Patton said with a wink. Virgil immediately hid his face in his hands.
“Do you think the TPI is hiring?” Logan asked as the door closed. “I’d love to move to a different century without those two.”
“Time agents don’t usually live in 4500s,” Virgil said, face still hidden behind his hands. “They’d probably still place you in this century, especially since you’re comfortable here.”
“No escaping them then,” Logan sighed.
“Mmm,” was Virgil’s response.
He felt Logan shift on the couch next to him and a warm palm touched his wrist, gently tugging his hand away from his face in a way that Virgil could resist if he really wanted. Virgil let the hand fall with a sigh. Logan smiled at him when he could see his face and Virgil smiled back despite how he could still feel heat in his cheeks.
“You will be going home this evening, I’d imagine,” Logan said.
“Yeah,” Virgil agreed softly.
“I would like to give you a gift before you go, if you’ll allow it.”
“Uh, okay,” Virgil agreed.
Logan nodded and leaned back to grab something out of the pocket of a jacket that was currently hanging over the side of the couch. “Ah,” he said when he found whatever he was looking for. He glanced at Virgil. “It is a ring, by the way, but this is not a proposal.”
“Well, I’d certainly hope not,” said Virgil dryly. “An impulse elopement would be a little off brand for us both.”
Logan smiled at him. “Very true,” he agreed. Then, he opened his palm revealing a small ring.
“So, then, what is it?” Virgil asked.
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“It is an emergency time travel device,” Logan explained. “It’s not particularly complex. It can only take you here to this room between 2 weeks and one year from now, but if you ever need something from me, you can use it.”
He offered the ring and Virgil opened his palm to let him put it in his hand. He studied the ring for a moment. It was a rose gold and very light.
“It also has some security measures,” Logan said. “It wouldn’t do to make an emergency time travel device that someone else might easily try to take from you. It’ll disappear when you put it on. You’ll still be able to feel it and take it off whenever you wish. It’ll become visible again if you take it off.”
“An invisible ring?” Virgil asked, curious.
“Yes,” Logan said with a smile. “It is designed to store your space time coordinates for up to 48 hours just so you’re aware, but as I said you can take it off whenever you wish and… I won’t use it against you.”
Virgil looked at him. “Okay,” he said. “Can I put it on?” Logan nodded, and Virgil slipped it on his finger. As promised it disappeared from view as soon as he did. He could still feel the weight of it on his finger though.
“You turn it three times counterclockwise to activate it,” Logan said, making Virgil look up from the seemingly empty space on his finger he’d been staring at.
“It would drop you right about where you are sitting.”
“Thanks,” Virgil said. It wasn’t nearly enough to say how much he appreciated the gift, but he hoped his tone said enough.
“Don’t use it against me?” Logan asked with a half-smile, and Virgil realized just how much trust was being put onto him by giving him a device that was directly linked to their base of operations despite knowing Virgil worked with the TPI.
Virgil shook his head. “I won’t,” he said. Deciding to throw out his nervousness and embarrassment over last time he shot forward to kiss Logan quickly on the lips. They bumped noses and Logan’s glasses ended up askew in the process, but Logan didn’t seem to mind judging by his delighted laugh when they parted.
“Thank you,” Virgil said again.
“Of course,” Logan replied.
Virgil could still feel the ring on his finger even after Patton and Roman got back from the dump with the device that had caused this whole mess. He could still feel it when Logan turned it off and his time piece reactivated. He could still feel it there when he made it home and gave an excuse as to why he’d left his trip early. He could still feel it when he got an email from an unknown sender making sure he got home okay.
Arc IV: (To Be Named)
Chapter 52
“What’s this?” Janus asked when a giant bowl was set on the coffee table in front of him.
“We’re eating on the couch tonight,” Emile said cheerfully.
Janus raised an eyebrow and switched off the tablet he’d been using to look at him. “Why?” he asked.
Emile shrugged and set a second huge bowl down next to Janus’s. “For fun,” Emile said. He turned back towards the kitchen and Janus leaned forward to look in the bowl. It was spaghetti with some sort of creamy sauce and a few different vegetables mixed in along with some shrimp.
“I made green tea,” Emile said, coming back into the room with two mugs.
“Thanks,” Janus said, taking one of the mugs with a small smile.
“What were you doing?” Emile asked as he took a seat beside Janus. He nodded at the deactivated screen now sitting on the end table.
“Just doing some puzzle games,” Janus said.
“That sounds fun,” Emile said with a smile.
“Head doctor said they might be a good thing to do to pass the time when I told him to fuck off after suggesting reading.”
Emile sighed. “Dr. Figueroa is my colleague. You could try to be polite.”
“I thought I was supposed to be my authentic self in therapy,” Janus replied.
Emile just huffed and rolled his eyes. Janus couldn’t help but smile as he picked up his mug of green tea.
The last few months had been…different. In a lot of ways, Janus’s life had become harder than it had been before. It had been easy to do nothing but eat pre-prepared meals, go to work, and pass out in his empty house every day. It wasn’t good for him. He’d known it even then, but it had been easy. This was not.
Emile had offered, insisted really, that Janus move into his house for a bit just to get back on his feet.
He’d taken time off of the TPI which would have been given to him anyway since he’d spent so trapped in the past. He’d had to give a report of what had happened, and he’d mentioned Patton, but he hadn’t mentioned everything. They’d offered him a shrink when he’d asked.
Janus had told Emile he needed to tell him something about why he’d been distant, so he wouldn’t end up chickening out, but he’d asked for a bit of time to figure out what to say. He’d finally worked up the courage to talk about it with Dr. Figueroa two weeks ago. Much like with Patton, it was easier to talk to someone who hadn’t been involved in Janus’s mistake, but it still wasn’t easy.
He was running up on the deadline he’d given for having that talk with him. It had to happen soon, and they both knew it, but Emile was just patiently waiting for him to suck it up. It felt… wrong to use his kindness without him knowing, but it was also nice to get to spend time with his brother. He didn’t even dare to hope that he’d still have the chance once he told him.
He was moving back into his own house in less than a week. He’d tell him then so if Emile ended up kicking him out of his life, he wouldn’t have to kick him out of his home too.
For now, though everything was fine. Harder, more complicated, and in threat of exploding at any moment, but fine. Fine wasn’t something he’d really felt in a long time. Or at least, fine while in his own time wasn’t something he’d felt in a long time. There’d been a few moments with Patton sitting next to the fire outside the hole in the ground they’d slept in for those few months where the man would turn to look at him and he’d felt fine. Yet, Patton had been right. Those moments were unsustainable with how Janus was actually feeling deep down.
“This is good,” Janus said, after taking a couple of bites of the pasta in front of him.
“Well, I always was the only one in the house that could cook,” Emile said, and that was true. “It was either learn to defend for myself or eat a cheeseburger for every meal.”
“Hey, I had a good burger seasoning.”
“Not for every meal, Janus.”
“Meat, dairy, bread. What more could you want?”
“Vegetables, Janus.”
“You could have put pickles on!”
“I don’t like pickles.”
“That sounds like your problem, not mine,” Janus argued.
Emile shook his head, turning his eyes to the ceiling. “How have you been surviving on your own?”
“Well, I mean,” Janus said. “Badly.”
“Right…” Emile said. He leaned over to bump their shoulders together. Janus flashed him a smile.
“Speaking of,” said Janus. “Could you physically force me to pack tonight? I meant to do it today and instead I ended up playing puzzles games.”
Emile chucked. “Sure, I’ll help you after dinner.”
“You don’t have to help me,” said Janus. “Just make me do it.”
“Maybe I want to help,” said Emile.
“Oh, yes, packing. The most entertaining of Thursday night activities.”
Emile hummed and then glanced at him. “Remember when you helped me pack for college?” he asked.
“Mmm, I do,” Janus replied.
“I was so stressed about going somewhere new,” Emile said, “that I avoided packing for weeks. Every time Mom would ask me how packing was going, I’d tell her it was going fine but in reality, I hadn’t even started. You’d come home two days before I had to leave because you were going to help me move into my dorm. It’s like you could sense no packing had been done the moment you stepped through the front door.”
“You were doing your ‘hiding the broken horse statue from mom’ shuffle,” Janus said with a smirk.
“Well, you walked me straight to my room and we packed everything up in those two days,” Emile said. “You made it so much easier.”
“Yeah, because I hovered over you until you did it and did half of it for you,” Janus snorted.
“It wasn’t just that,” Emile said. “You also found the music streaming station run by the university and put that on and talked about what your freshman year was like. You also had tips on what things I should and shouldn’t pack when moving into the dorm.”
“You still took all of the cartoon stuffed animals despite my advice.”
“I thought there’d be more space on the bed,” Emile frowned.
Janus snorted.
“But anyway, just having someone else around made me happier. It wasn’t just about the workload being halved either. You being there made me feel less lonely and reminded me I’d always have someone to come back to.”
Janus internally winced. He was sure Emile hadn’t meant to make him feel guilty in any way. In fact, he probably was trying to do the opposite, but him saying that just reminded Janus that it hadn’t been true. Janus had abandoned him for literal years and hadn’t been someone he could always come back to.
Emile had proven himself to be at least close to who he was before Janus messed with time the few last months. There were a couple of differences here and there, and Janus could not be sure if they were from him changing time or from him avoiding his brother for the past three years and him naturally changing. Most memories they shared that Janus cautiously brought up or Emile mentioned on his own were consistent with what Janus remembered, but he hadn’t pushed too hard or dug too deep. It just made him feel more guilty about avoiding the man for so long.
It made him want to ignore the man more, because it seemed every choice Janus ever made only hurt him.
…
Well, perhaps not the college radio station when helping an anxious 18-year-old pack up his childhood bedroom.
He should probably tell Emile that his words made him feel guilty because that was obviously not the intention and he’d want to know. He should probably apologize properly for leaving him alone for three years without an explanation. He should probably provide an explanation for those three years.
He should probably go see the head doctor again soon.
(He should probably stop calling Emile’s colleague who was in the same field as him a head doctor derogatorily in his head.)
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For now, he just glanced at Emile. “You’re trying to bully me into letting you help pack with logic, aren’t you?”
“I am,” Emile confirmed without remorse.
“Fine,” Janus sighed, “but only if you let me do the dishes for you.”
Emile took a long moment to consider the offer. “You drive a hard bargain,” he said, “but okay.”
“And no doing anything sneaky like getting bags ready for me on your own while I’m doing it or the deal is off,” Janus said.
“You always think of all possible loopholes, Janus,” Emile sighed.
There was a long silence.
“Agree, you prick,” said Janus.
“No promises,” Emile replied cheekily with laughter in his eyes, and things were good for a moment more.
Chapter 53
Today Janus was moving into his house in 24th century for the second time in his life, and honestly, the house wasn’t going to look much different than it had when he’d first moved in. Janus had unpacked his things more at Emile’s house in the past almost 6 months than he had in the two and a half years he’d liven in his house. His house held clothes, bare bone furniture, and exactly one skillet from when he’d decided to be daring and tried to cook himself an egg. All he’d really customized for himself was the setting on the LXC device which controlled the lights, media across the home, and prepackaged food ordering and prepare.
He almost felt embarrassed that his house was so empty. Emile, of course, knew that his mental health had been fucked, but the blankness of his house was a physical reminder of this fact especially considering how he used to keep house before all of this. He’d warned Emile about the fact that his house was empty, and he had said he understood, but still.
They gathered all of the luggage in a pile in Emile’s guest room. They’d had to get permissions from the TPI to allow Emile to travel to his house, and Janus went ahead and filed to give him permanent permission to travel there.
The decision felt far too hopeful for someone who hadn’t had that conversation with his brother yet, but it had made Emile smile in the moment.
Emile took three of the bags and Janus took the rest. He waved his arm and selected the third saved location on the device. In a moment, he was standing in the living room of his dark, empty house.
…
His supposed to be dark and empty house. More of the lights were on than Janus had ever switched on himself, and half of the windows were open. (He didn’t even know some of those windows opened.)
They were letting in the sounds of birds that made the lakeside their home as well as cool late fall breeze. There was also a racket coming from the kitchen. Emile was beside him a second after he himself had appeared. He looked around for a moment. “Did you leave it like this?”
“No,” Janus replied.
“Do you have squatters?” He had a security system from 2 millennia in the future on his house. He highly doubted it.
“I’m going to go check the kitchen,” Janus said, moving towards the noises coming from the other room.
He stopped in the doorway to his kitchen only to see Patton standing at his kitchen counter cutting up a carrot on a cutting board Janus didn’t think he owned, and if he did, it was buried in a box somewhere.
“What are you doing?” Janus asked.
“Cooking!” was the immediate reply.
“In my house?” Janus asked. “How do you even know where my house is?”
“I may be just a little bit ahead of you,” Patton said with a wink while tapping the side of his nose.
Janus sputtered. “This is my house!”
“I know!” He said it so cheerfully while being a purposefully obtuse asshole that Janus could help but crack a smile and shake his head. He’d missed him after spending so long alone with him though he wasn’t go to admit that to him when he’d broken into Janus’s house to…
“Again, what are you doing?”
“I’m making you soup.”
“Why?” Janus asked.
“Well,” Patton said. “I know it’s a bit of a rough time for you, so I thought I’d give you a nice welcome home present and what better present than food!” He smiled at him widely.
Janus looked closer at what he was making. “You’re trying to prove to me you can cook.” Patton frowned at him. “Have you considered I have had enough fish stew for a lifetime?”
“Nope!” he said. “It’s entirely different this time anyway. I have carrots!”
“I don’t like carrots,” Janus lied blandly.
“Liar!” Patton declared.
“No, I’m not,” Janus continued to lie.
“I mean, that was definitely a lie,” Emile interjected from behind Janus. He was looking at them curiously. “Er, hello, who are you?”
“This is Pat,” Janus said.
“The illegal time traveler you’ve been tracking?” Emile asked with a questioning lilt to his tone.
“Ah, yes, well,” Janus said with a cough. “We came to an understanding when stuck in pre-history.”
“And now he is cooking you soup in your house?” Emile asked.
“I’ve long since stopped trying to make sense of him,” Janus grumbled.
“Well,” Emile said. “Hello Pat.”
“You can call me Patton,” he said easily. “I hope it’s nice to meet me, because I’ve already met you.”
“We haven’t been meeting in the correct order,” Janus informed Emile. “So, he’s apparently already met you which will happen in your future. It is also something he shouldn’t be talking about,” he scolded. Patton took that with a shrug.
“I hate time travel,” Emile said, his nose scrunching up. “Isn’t life already confusing enough.”
Janus winced, not relishing the upcoming conversation with him about how confusing his life was now because of time travel.
“Don’t you work with the TPI too?” Patton asked.
“That doesn’t mean I like time travel,” Emile said. “I’m a stationary agent and I like that just fine.”
“Time travel can be a bit complicated sometimes,” Patton acknowledged, “but I don’t think it’s all bad.” He finished chopping up the carrot and turned to put it in the self-regulating soup pot. Janus squinted at it. It was certainly not something Patton had in the 21st century. So, the question was. Had he gone out and bought time appropriate cookware before breaking into Janus’s house or had he gone through Janus’s storage to find it?
“You’re a free agent time traveler, right?” Emile asked.
“Depends on what you mean by free agent,” Patton said. “I have always worked with a group of people, and we have rules and procedures. It’s basically a time agency itself, just not the TPI.”
“And you’ve met me before?”
“I have,” Patton confirmed, “but Janus is right in that I can’t say much more than that about it. In fact,” he said wiping off his hands on a towel hanging from his apron. (The apron was covered in cartoon squirrels and totted the phrase ‘I’m a nut for baking.’) “I should probably be getting out of here.”
“You’ve never been worried about us meeting out of order before,” Janus pointed out with a frown. He didn’t particularly want Patton to go even though the man had broken into his house and possibly went through his boxes of kitchen equipment.
“Well,” Patton said. “There’s meeting wildly out of order, there’s meeting in order, and then there’s what I’m doing.”
“What are you doing?” Janus asked alarmed.
Patton just shrugged with a smile.
“No, Patton, what are you doing?”
“Soup should be done in about an hour, but you can leave it on all day. I got a pot that’s fridge safe, so just shut it off and stick it in there before going to sleep.”
“Patton.”
“See you later! Bye!” He said and disappeared into thin air.
Janus sighed and rubbed the bridge of his brow. “Why is he like this?”
“Janus,” Emile asked. “Why did your self-declared mortal enemy make you soup?”
“Because he’s an asshole, that’s why.”
“Uh huh,” Emile said, looking at him oddly.
“What?” Janus asked.
“What exactly happened when you were stuck in the past?” Emile asked.
Janus sighed. “A lot happened. A lot.” He glanced at the soup pot happily performing its function on his kitchen counter. ‘I hope it’s nice to meet me, because I’ve already met you,’ rang in his ears. Fucking Patton with his little hints about the future. It gave Janus just a bit of courage though knowing that Emile at least didn’t flee the continent after the conversation they had to have. He was at least around enough to meet Patton. “In fact,” Janus said. “It’s probably time I told you what happened. Everything that happened.”
Chapter 54
They sat down in the living room. Janus let Emile have the couch and sat on one of the matching armchairs. There was a squeaky sound when he sat. The plastic covering the chair had been delivered in was still on it.
Emile had a pleasant, open but curious expression on his face and Janus suddenly had an idea what it felt like to be his patient.
“I,” Janus began after a moment, shifting uncomfortably on the squeaky chair. “I don’t know how to start this conversation. I talked about what I wanted to say and possible ways to say it with Dr. Figueroa, but I… I still don’t know.”
“I guess I should start by saying that I did something horrible that I need to apologize for and I’m not sure if apologizing will even be enough. The problem is you don’t even know what that horrible thing is.” Janus stared at his feet. “So, first, I should probably explain what I did. I just don’t know where to start.”
“Maybe start with what happened before it,” Emile suggested. “Just lead up to it. It might help explain why whatever it was happened too.”
Janus took a breath. “Okay,” he said. “That day was just like most that I remember. We both woke up early. I was going to the TPI and you were going to where you worked your residency. We ate leftover pizza for breakfast because both of us were exhausted. You because it sucks to be a resident and me because I’d been working on a big case.”
“I was getting frustrated with the case. That was my first mistake: being impatient and angry. It was just a thief, but a slippery one. She’d stolen a half-broken time piece and was using it to rob banks within about a 50-year time frame. I had an idea of where she might go, but no one would listen to me. Or at least,” Janus quirked a half smile, “that’s how I interpreted it. They said they’d look into my idea, but they were being extra cautious because of how close in the timestream her actions were to most of the agents’ lives.”
“I was so tired of the case and so egotistical. I decided to check it out on my own without being cleared by the TPI. I went back in time without thinking of the consequences and that was the worst thing I’ve ever done.” Janus took a breath. “I’m not sure how, but somewhere in the course of my self-appointed mission…” He trailed off. He didn’t know how to say it. He really didn’t.
“What happened?” Emile asked when he didn’t continue.
“I…” and his next words probably sounded like crackly nonsense to Emile’s ears because he couldn’t get his thoughts straight and his tongue wouldn’t make the words right.
“I don’t even remember living in that town or the fact that Mom used to work at that bank,” he choked out. “I didn’t think and I didn’t check and…” There was a long silence. “I erased you,” he finally managed to say in a whisper, but in the quiet of his barely lived in house, the words were loud.
There was more silence. “But I…” Emile said after a moment.
“I went back and fixed it,” Janus said, “but I… didn’t do a perfect job. I don’t even know how much I messed things up. It would have been one thing if it’d just been me. If it had just impacted my life, but I did it to you and I don’t even know how to start to apologize.”
Nothing was said for a long moment. Janus didn’t look at him.
“…Huh,” Emile finally said.
Janus risked a glance at him. He didn’t look irate, but he did still look confused which was probably the reason for that.
“I’m sorry,” Janus said. It was really the only thing he could say at this point.
Emile tilted his head to the side. He took off his glasses and cleaned them with the edge of his shirt with slow circles. Since he was 15, Emile only cleaned his glasses with specially designed wipes, but he’d held onto the habit of cleaning his glasses with his shirt anytime he needed a moment to think. Janus wasn’t sure if Emile even realized he was doing it, but he knew it was a signal for Janus to be quiet for a few seconds.
The glasses were perched back on Emile’s nose after a few seconds. “I think I remember that,” he said contemplatively.
“…What?” Janus asked, and he was no longer avoiding looking at Emile. He was now blatantly staring at him.
“Well, I didn’t know what it was,” Emile said, “but I did have a very odd dream on the day you mentioned and suspiciously I had said dream in the middle of the day and woke standing up.”
“A dream?” Janus asked.
“A very vivid dream,” Emile said. “I don’t believe you actually erased me completely from existence. My life was simply shifted slightly. I was working as a social worker for about 5 hours and then I was back in my appropriate place.”
76874
“Why didn’t you tell me about that?” Janus asked, but then immediately wince at his own hypocrisy. “Er… never mind.”
“I didn’t know it was possibly real,” Emile said. “Honestly, I thought I was just really tired. I’d been overworking myself a lot. I took the rest of the day off after that.”
“You shifted reality for a few hours, and you didn’t realize it?” Janus asked.
“Like I said, I was really tired and nothing seemed to be wrong…”
“Wait, but things were different,” Janus said. “Didn’t you notice things were different.”
“Not… really,” Emile said. “Like what?”
“Like…” Janus said. “Like a whole bunch of things!”
“Like…?”
“Like you had a different job title and you worked different hours.”
“I thought I’d fallen asleep standing up or had a vivid audio-visual hallucination at work from stress. I asked for a switch a couple of weeks later.”
“You used to hate time travel, but then you took a job at the TPI.”
Emile gave him a drawl look. “I still hate time travel,” he said. “I literally just said that not 5 minutes ago.”
“Well then why would you work for the TPI.”
“Because time travel is so confusing and distressing that people doing it on a regular basis as a career need psychological support.”
“Plus, Lia asked for my consultation when developing the mental health part of the Agent Management Office,” Emile continued. “Considering I already knew quite a bit about time travel from being around you, she knew me personally, and I’d finished my residency, she decided to give me a job offer when my advice panned out.”
“W-well,” Janus said. “You were allergic to pineapples.”
“You mean my childhood allergy?” Emile asked. “That has since resolved itself in my adult life?”
“It has?” Janus asked.
“Janus have you considered,” Emile said, “that some if not all of the inconsistencies you were seeing in my life have to do with the fact that you hadn’t spoken to me in 3 years?”
“I… uh… hadn’t considered that,” Janus admitted honestly.
“You were looking for information to support your incorrect world view,” Emile said sounding very much like a head doctor and not like a brother, “and you found some.” He sighed. “It makes sense after having faced a traumatic event where you effectively thought you’d killed a loved one that you weren’t thinking clearly.” The head doctor analysis voice slipped just a bit. “I just wish you’d talked about it with someone.”
“Sorry,” Janus said, because no matter which way this conversation had gone and no matter the revelations, the point was an apology. “I’m sorry.”
Emile sighed. “I would have forgiven you even if you had erased me,” Emile said. “You didn’t mean to, and you did your best to fix it. You did fix it even if you were an idiot about it.”
“What about for being an idiot and not talking to you for three years?” Janus asked.
“I already did forgive you for that Janus,” Emile said pointedly. “What did you think the last 6 months were?”
“Pity?”
Emile gave him his disappointed and exasperated head shake. “Promise to never do anything like that to me again,” he said, “and I’ll forgive you.”
“I promise,” Janus said immediately.
“And in the future, you’ll talk to me if you have any issue even if you think it’s horrible.”
“I think I’ve learned by lesson on that one.”
“And that goes for other people too,” Emile said. “If anything goes wrong with someone, you talk to them or if that’s too hard you talk to someone so they can convince you to talk to that person.”
Janus nodded.
“Great!” Emile said. “Then you’re officially forgiven for everything. Though I expect you to go to therapy and keep working on making yourself feel better, so these things don’t happen again.”
And Janus… didn’t know how to feel about that. He should probably feel happy and thankful or at least relieved, but if he was being honest, he just felt kind of empty in that moment like an old well that had finally run dry. Fuck his head doctor and fuck Patton. Wasn’t this supposed to make him feel better? Everything was fine. He hadn’t actually erased Emile permanently from the timeline, in fact, he’d apparently still existed in some form in the alternate timeline Janus had temporarily made. Emile had forgiven him both for erasing him and ignoring him even though that was far more than Janus deserved. This was something he’d never even dared dream would happen, but it had been exactly what he’d wanted.
Yet, he still didn’t feel good, not really, not like how he remembered feeling before all of this happened.
Though was that really a surprise? Things were not like how they were before. He and Emile were no longer close. There was love and affection there, but they didn’t really know each other. The last six months had been nice. He’d been able to pretend for a bit that everything was back to normal, but in the moments he hadn’t been able to pretend that, it’d been a bit stilted and awkward speaking to his brother especially at the start.
Beyond that, Janus was just used to misery at this point. It was his default state. Not being miserable took effort and energy he didn’t always have. He felt himself slipping into sadness or numbness even during times he should be feeling good. He’d noticed himself experiencing a sense of desolation when Emile cooked his favorite meal or in the middle of watching a ballet performance Emile had suggested they go to and he’d been looking forward to in the days before or even now when he should be so happy, so ecstatic. Everything should be okay, but it wasn’t.
“You doing alright over there?” Emile asked, and Janus didn’t know how long he’d been silent.
Instinct said to say yes and force himself to move on, but he wasn’t going to break his promise that fast. “Not really, no,” he admitted.
“That’s okay,” Emile said. “Anything I can do to help?”
“I really don’t know.”
“Why don’t we go taste the soup your arch nemesis,” there was a light teasing tone to his voice, “made for you. Some of the vegetables won’t be completely cooked yet, but I’m sure it’s already good.”
“Yeah,” Janus agreed. “Yeah, okay,” he got to his feet, the chair making that plastic squeaking sound again. “Maybe we could unwrap the furniture in here before you go home.”
“I think that’s a good idea,” Emile said with a smile.
Chapter 55
Somehow, the strangest thing about his life right now was a picture on the wall. It was one that he’d gotten after college when he moved into his first actual house. It wasn’t anything special. It was just something that had caught his eye when he was specifically looking for something classier to put on his wall than the posters he’d hung in his college dorm and apartment with Virgil. It was a tall painting of a tree, but segmented into four parts, each representing the state of a tree in different seasons. In the top left, the three had small leaves and little buds, on the top right it had full leaves bathed in sunlight, in the bottom left the leaves had changed colors and started to fall off, and in the bottom right the tree was devest of leaves but covered in snow.
It was on the wall near Janus’s bed. It was one of the first things he saw when he opened his eyes in the morning and was usually what reminded him that everything was different now when he woke.
The picture had been in a box in the houses garage up until the Saturday before the last. Saturdays had become his and Emile’s unofficial unpacking Janus’s house day. They would usually pick one or maybe two boxes that had been sitting untouched for years, unpack it, talk, and eat dinner together.
Notably, dinner was usually not provided by either of them.
Patton had gotten into the habit of breaking into Janus’s house. Janus would sometimes catch him doing it briefly, but often Patton managed to avoid him. This was quite the feat considering Janus was not currently working and thus stayed at home a lot of the time. Patton had repeatedly reprogrammed Janus’s kitchen taking away the option for pop tarts entirely and replacing the option with real food. Janus’s kitchen was constantly stocked with something to eat that wasn’t trash. He also liked to leave around different smelling hand soaps, flowers, and paper cranes. Janus had an entire drawer in his nightstand dedicated to storing paper cranes now.
The newest one was still on his nightstand from the night before, sitting cheerfully in the way of his view of the tree paining when his alarm woke up that morning. He sighed. He had not missed getting up early for work.
He was finally going back to working at the TPI this morning. His therapist had signed off on it last week, saying his was fit for duty. Considering they were apparently still understaffed at the TPI and Janus was a senior agent, this was met with much relief. Janus himself still wasn’t sure how he felt about it.
He turned off the alarm and stood. Dr. Figueroa had him write out a morning schedule to follow when he’d expressed his struggle to get the day started. Either Patton or Emile had taken it upon themselves to copy the schedule on virtual sticky notes that appeared in every location necessary for getting ready in the morning.
First, he took a shower. He threw his nightclothes in the laundry chute. There were currently dozens of different scented soaps in his shower all in small bottles that had about 2 or 3 uses. Janus presumed they were curtesy of Patton. He decided to use one at random and it ended up being cotton candy scented.
Next, he got dressed. That was easy enough since he always wore the same outfit to work every day. It didn’t matter what he wore much since missions would force him to redress anyway.
Then he went to his kitchen and sat down at the counter. He pushed the pop tart button. As expected at this point, he did not get a pop tart for breakfast. Instead, he got two eggs, toast, a sliced apple, and a few cherry tomatoes with green tea. He ate his breakfast while finishing one of the puzzles he’d been working on the night before.
Once he finished, it was time to finally face going back to the office. He sighed, stood up and pulled up the screen on his timepiece. He selected his office as his destination and was off.
The first thing that happened upon appearing in his office was he got a face full of… something.
He sputtered, smacking the things fluttering about his face out of the air. “What is wrong with you?” was the first thing out of his mouth before he’d even really confirmed that the culprit of this attack was who he’d automatically assumed he was.
Remus, as anticipated was standing not 2 feet away from him.
Remus had apparently gotten into the prop department again because he had some type of softly glowing glittery confetti was no all over Janus as well as their entire office.
“Remus, I told you no!” Lena snapped. “You know it’s impossible to clean up 3150s sparkle nukes.”
“Welcome back!” Remus crowed.
“I hate you,” Janus replied. “I just took a shower.”
“You’re fine,” Remus said with an eye roll.
“This shit doesn’t come off in decontamination,” Janus spat. “If my first mission back sends me to a time where I’ll be tried as a witch for glowing, I’m blaming you.”
“We’re going to 2510,” Remus informed him. “You’ll fit right in.”
Janus grimaced. “Ugh, that decade.”
“It’s my favorite decade!” Remus exclaimed.
“Of course, it is,” Lena grumbled. “Just don’t bring anything gross back this time.”
“No promises,” Remus replied.
Janus chose to disengage from the conversation as Remus and Lena argued about was and what wasn’t allowed to be brought back to their shared office from what was well known as the least tasteful decade in history. It was also one of the least turbulent decades in history. The population was too busy making shitty ice cream flavors to wage war.
At least they were giving him an easier assignment for his first time back. He turned to his desk and pulled up the files on his next mission, glancing through them. It was just a small blip that the TPI had noticed in a small town in 2510. It probably wasn’t much of anything, but they had no record of what had caused it, so they were going to send someone to look. Honestly, they’d usually just send in a surveillance agent and be done with it, but they’d probably handpicked this one for Janus in particular. He’d be insulted if he didn’t honestly still feel a bit off kilter being in the office.
To his surprise, he didn’t have a scheduled meeting with Rhi. It wasn’t particularly important to see a mission coordinator for something this small, but it still wasn’t the usual protocol. Instead, he was just instructed to pick up his costume at the costuming department and leave in about an hour.
“Do we really not have an appointment with Rhi?” Janus asked.
“Senior agents haven’t really been meeting with Rhi unless it’s a high priority mission,” Lena told him. “We have too many newbies running around and there’s not time.
“That’s concerning…” Janus said.
“It’s better than trying to rush the inexperienced ones through. We at least have a general idea of what we’re doing. They’re trying to train up more mission coordinators, but that’s taking a while.”
Janus still frowned, but he glanced back at the mission instructions. He’d have to make sure he thoroughly understood what was being asked of him before leaving if he wasn’t meeting with Rhi. “We should go get changed,” he told Remus. “2510s clothing is notoriously difficult to put on.”
“Five minutes back and he’s already dying to get my clothes off,” Remus said cheekily.
“I would rather tear my own eyeballs out of my socket than see you without your pants on again.”
Remus just wiggled his eyebrows.
“I’m so glad you’re back,” said Lena when Janus looked at her in exasperation. “He’s finally not Fred’s and my problem anymore.”
Chapter 56
Getting ready for the mission was a bit of a mess honestly. The costume department barely even spared them a glance before sending them on their way. Remy at least was still there to give them one last debrief before sending them off into 2510, though he looked exhausted.
“Are you sleeping?” asked Janus.
“I’m drinking coffee,” was the reply as he shooed them out onto the streets.
The timeline disturbance that had been picked up was somewhere in one of the shops on that street.
“Do you want the bakery or the karaoke/stripper bar?” Remus asked.
Janus raised an eyebrow at him, and Remus clapped him on the back.
“This is why we’re partners,” he said.
He plodded off towards the building to their right, and Janus turned to the building on the left. It was a small bakery and coffee shop painted in bright colors and sporting the Brazilian and Albanian flags.
There was a soft tinkling bell sound when he entered the shop, and the person behind the counter glanced over at him briefly before finishing putting a pastry in bag for a customer.
Unfortunately, their attention meant Janus wasn’t going to get away with snooping around the store without buying anything. He glanced around the interior of the shop as he walked up to the till.
He glanced into the bakery display case the worker was standing behind. Oh… oh that all looked disgusting. He was not depressed enough anymore to willingly eat any of that.
“Uh,” Janus said when the worker looked at him. He glanced up at the wide selection of drinks over their head and winced at the ways the letters moved on the screen. He was pretty sure his dyslexia wasn’t quite that bad. Why did anyone choose to make letters move around and shake on purpose? As someone who had to deal with that on a daily basis, it wasn’t exactly entertaining.
“Is it possible to get a banana and chocolate potato chip smoothie, but without the potato chip part?” he asked.
“Sure,” the worker replied. “Anything else?”
Janus shook his head.
“Can I have a name for that?”
“Jay,” Janus replied.
“Alright. It’ll be out in a minute.”
Janus nodded and turned, able to take in the rest of the establishment now that there weren’t eyes on him. It was as colorful on the inside as it was on the outside and seemed to have a retro cowboy-space theme mixed with posters from a contemporary werewolf romance movie. Janus had actually seen that movie one. It was surprisingly tolerable.
The seats at least looked comfortable. There were a good number of tables and three couches. All of them were mix-matched. A few of the tables were outfitted with holographic chess and checkers, but most were normal tables. There were even a few physical boardgames and some bookshelves full of books, though he thought some of the bookshelves might just be there for decoration. He wasn’t sure which were and which weren’t.
He pretended to be very interested in the decorations as he waited on his drink, using that as an excuse to look around the entire shop. He was turned away when the door chimed again.
“Hello,” a familiar voice said, making Janus turn around instantly. Janus could immediately tell that the man hesitantly lingering in front of the bakery display was not the Patton that he’d spent months holed up with or who had broken into Janus’s house repeatedly to replace his soaps and cook him meals. He seemed out of place which was saying something in 2510. He had the air about him that he was an 80-year-old grandpa trying to embrace youth culture, but not quite getting it. He also spoke in an accent that people around him would probably assume was him just not being fluent in Spanish but was actually him not being completely comfortable speaking Spanish from half a century ago.
“Uh…” said Patton looking at the menu, a crease between his eyes.
“I’d suggest the banana and chocolate potato chip smoothie without the potato chips,” Janus said. Patton startled, whipping around to face him in surprise. “That’s what I got, though I would leave out the potato chips.”
Patton’s eyes narrowed on him. It was not, of course, the first time that Patton hadn’t been thrilled to see him, but it was the first time Janus had been happy to see him and he hadn’t been happy to see him in turn. Janus had gotten used to a Patton that liked him and he found himself not quite prepared for the way he pursed his lips in annoyance at the sight of Janus.
“I’ll do the banana and chocolate potato chip smoothie, but with the potato chips,” he said in a way that made it sound like he thought he was getting one up on Janus for some reason.
“What flavor of chips?” the worker asked.
“Er, what flavors do you have?”
“Uh, I think drywall, oak wood, and limestone.”
Janus almost laughed at his expression. “Uh, do you have any naturally edible flavors?” he asked.
“We might have grass.”
Patton squinted as the worker bent to look under the cabinet. “Oh, wait, no, it’s glass. Is that alright?”
“…Maybe just no on the chips.”
Janus did his best to school his features, so it wasn’t obvious he was laughing at him. He didn’t think he did a very good job considering Patton was glaring at him after turning around. That or he was just already pissed at Janus by default. It could go either way honestly.
“So,” Janus said when the worker turned away to start making Patton’s drink. “What are you doing here.”
“It’s none of your business,” Patton said with narrowed eyes.
“I mean, we could both be here for the same reason,” Janus pointed out. “We could share intel.”
“I doubt we’re here for the same reason.”
“How would you know?” asked Janus.
Patton just looked away from him. He immediately looked confused at the movie poster his eyes landed on.
“Unless,” Janus said curiously, you aren’t here for a reason, reason.” Patton said nothing. “It was a pretty small disturbance, so it would make sense that your equipment might not pick up on it.” At least at this point. “Acting the tourist, Pat?”
“I’m just doing research,” Patton said, crossing his arms.
“Research?” Janus asked.
“I’ve never been here before,” Patton admitted. “I wanted to get a feel for it and other places just in case there ever was an issue.”
“You just did France, didn’t you?” Janus asked.
Patton frowned and Janus smiled slightly. “It was recent,” he admitted.
“Well,” Janus said. “If you want some advice. I’d start with figuring out accents when you’re in different times.”
“I don’t need your advice,” Patton said and then smugly, “Janus.”
It took a bit for Janus to scan back through his memories and remember that Patton hadn’t known Janus’s name in France. He would have only figured it out after his friend Lo hacked into Silver Mountains University’s system and figured out Virgil had an appointment with him. Janus raised an eyebrow. “You sure about that, Patton?”
He frowned, pouting like whenever Janus told him he wasn’t allowed to try to catch a bird and make it their pet. It was strange to meet a version of Patton who had not lived in a hole in the ground with him for months when Janus had already done that. Patton was on the back foot for once throughout this conversation. Every time before this, he’d managed to somehow twist it around even when he’d been younger than he was right now. When Janus had arrested him at the University, he’d managed to figure out his equipment wouldn’t be stopped by the TPI’s despite having no idea what the TPI was.
In France, even when Janus had thought he’d been winning by taking his phone, he ended up getting access to a University in Janus’s time with information on the TPI, a situation that still had not been resolved.
Today, however, Janus knew far more about Patton than Patton expected. He still didn’t know exactly what his agency or whatever it should actually be called did, but he knew some things about it. He knew Patton was from the 21st century which explained the anachronisms in his speech in different times.
“You could help me look if you’d like,” Janus offered casually.
“Why?” Patton asked suspiciously.
Janus shrugged. It was not because he missed him, he insisted to himself. It wasn’t because after spending so much time with him, not getting to talk with him all day was strange. It had nothing to do with the fact that the few times he’d ran into a farther along version of Patton since he’d moved back home, their interactions had been brief and tinged with something. No, the only reason Janus was inviting him along was so he could teach this younger version a few things, so he hopefully didn’t go about messing up time. “We worked well together in France, didn’t we?” he asked. “Besides, it’s just a small mission without much danger to the timeline.”
“Pat,” the person at the counter called. Patton turned to him to go grab his smoothie, thanking the worker before turning back around and walking over to Janus.
“Fine,” he said. “I’ll help, but you have to answer my questions.”
“I’ll answer the questions that won’t endanger any timelines or secrets of my agency.”
Patton considered it for a moment, taking a sip of his drink. “Fine,” he agreed.
“Good,” Janus replied. “We’ll start by looking around the coffee shop for anything unusual. Did you have any questions now. It’d look more natural to be walking around if we were having a conversation.”
“Does the glitter in your hair have to do with the style of the time or…?”
Janus sighed.
Chapter 57
Luckily, the cashier didn’t seem to think them snooping around was very odd. To be fair, the shop had quite a few odd decorations to look at. So, perhaps employees were just used to people walking around and looking at all of the different things. It helped that Janus and Patton were talking as they searched. They just looked like a couple… of friends… casually chatting and exploring the coffee shop together.
“So,” Patton said, keeping his voice quiet, though luckily the few patrons were on the other side of the shop. “What exactly is it that you do working for the TPI?”
“Well,” Janus said. “I’m a senior field agent. That means I am the person who actually goes on missions in different times. These missions can range from tracking down people who are committing crimes using time travel, stopping anything or anyone that could damage the timestream, and helping waylaid time travelers.”
“So, there are different types of agents?” Patton asked, curiously.
“Yes,” Janus replied. “There are a lot, but only four type time travel on a regular basis.” Should he be telling a very young version of Patton this? Probably not, but he couldn’t find it in himself to care too much.
“There are surveillance, touchdown, field, and cleanup agents,” he explained. “Surveillance agents do a bunch of things including research about the exact time field agents are going to and figuring out the best places for them to enter the timestream. Touchdown agents come slightly before field agents to do last second checks and stay when field agents are out. They mostly are just there to intervene if there are any unforeseen issues. Field agents actually interact with people from other times on a daily basis as they slip into the timestream and find whatever person or object they’re looking for. Cleanup agents come in afterwards and tie up any loose ends as well as observe the area for a few days to make sure nothing happened that no one caught.”
“Everyone else who works at the TPI is mostly in research and management. They don’t usually travel, though everyone who works there is licensed to travel if necessary.”
“That’s a lot of people,” Patton commented.
“What we do is important. We want to make sure we are doing it correctly.” It was honestly not meant to be a jab, but Janus could see Patton frown. He decided to change the subject. “Right now, we’re looking for something that’s causing a small disturbance.”
“What type of thing could cause a disturbance? Is it always a machine like the one in France?”
“No,” Janus replied. “That was actually unusual.” He thought for a second. “At least that used to be unusual, but lately we’ve seen more and more of that sort of thing.”
They were currently standing at a bookshelf, but nothing pinged Janus’s interest or time piece, so they moved on to look at a few of the movie posters. Patton seemed to grow more and more concerned the longer he looked at the posters.
“So, what is it usually?”
“Well,” said Janus. “Some things are natural events. No one’s really sure what causes those. There are theories, but I’m not really involved in that. We leave those alone for the most part if we find those. They’re usually small things, though on occasion they’re a bit bigger. Usually, time disturbances are caused by someone messing up. They say something wrong that gets someone curious and creates a butterfly or they leave an object that doesn’t exist in the time.”
“So, what do you think this one is?” Patton asked curiously.
“Well,” Janus said. “It’s a rather small disturbance, so it won’t be anything too major. Probably just an object out of place.”
“Hmm,” Patton replied. “Well, I’ve always been good at those find the difference games.”
“Have you now?” Janus said, unable to stop a slight grin from ghosting over his face.”
“Mhmm,” replied Patton. He drained the rest of his smoothie and then turned around, facing away from the wall of posters they’d been looking at. He slowly scanned the room, an action a lot less inconspicuous than what Janus had them doing, but he didn’t protest for now.
“That’s weird,” Patton declared, pointing rather obviously at a shelf. Janus noticed a woman looking at him funny. “Well,” Patton continued. “More like it isn’t weird, which is weird for here.”
Janus glanced at the shelf full of small figurines. Most of them were of mythical creatures: werewolves, dragons, and even one not even Janus recognized. Janus would guess, especially judging by the plethora of movie posters that they were all from movies or something of the like. However, Patton was correct there was one that stuck out from the rest. It was still a figurine, but unlike the rest, it was of a real animal: a cow.
“That is odd,” Janus agreed, peering at the cow. Figuring Patton had already been obvious enough, Janus stepped over to the shelf to study it more closely. When looking at it more closely, it became obvious that the cow was very unlike everything else on the shelf. It wasn’t even really a figurine like the ones around it. It looked more like a children’s toy. It’s fur was made out of a soft looking material instead of the stiff plastic of the werewolf next to it.
“It doesn’t really fit in with the collection, does it?” a voice asked from behind Janus.
Janus winced internally at the fact that a civilian had just noticed him acting oddly, but kept his face smooth externally as he turned to face the woman standing behind him.
“My friend and I were wondering what it was from,” Janus said evenly. “We recognized the rest of the figures, but I’m not sure where this one came from.”
“Well, that’s because it didn’t come from anything,” the woman said. “At least that I know of. I just didn’t know where to put the thing, so I put it on my movie figurine shelf.”
“Ah,” said Janus, a politely interested crinkle to his brow. “Where did you get it then?”
“A young kid came by about, oh, a week ago. He looked like a high school kid or maybe college. He seemed right confused and upset. He said he didn’t have any money on him, and got weird when I tried to ask him about his parents. I ended up giving him a free drink and let him sit here for a couple’a hours. We got to talking about my collections. See, I have a deal that if someone brings me back something of interest for my displays, they get a free drink. He insisted on giving me that in exchange for the drink even though I told him I’d given him the drink ‘cause he seemed upset.”
“I don’t even particularly want the thing, but he said he didn’t want it anyway, and he insisted, so I took it.”
“Interesting,” Janus said. “Do you mind if I touch it?”
“Go ahead,” she said with a shrug.
He reached forward to pick up the cow and felt the softest of fizzles that only someone who regularly time traveled would feel. Despite already knowing this must be what he’d come for, he still subtlety set his timepiece to scan it.
Patton was peering over her shoulder now. “If both you and the person who gave it to you don’t care much about it, do you think we could buy it off of you?” he asked. “I’m a big fan of cows.”
She shrugged her shoulders. “I guess,” she agreed. “If you really like it. I don’t know what else I’d do with it.”
“How much?” Janus asked.
“Well it only cost me a Lemon CastelWalk and a scone, so about 12.”
“Sure,” Janus agreed, pulling out his wallet and forking over the currency. “Thanks,” he said.
“No problem,” she replied. “Hope you can find some use for it.”
Janus gave her a smile and then looked at Patton. “I think it’s about time to go, don’t you think.”
Patton nodded. “Thank you for the cow statue,” he told the woman as they left the shop. They walked a bit down the street. Patton turned to him once they were out of sight of the shop window. “So, that’s it?” he asked.
Janus nodded and checked his time piece which had finished it’s scan. “The fabric is from the late 43rd century,” he confirmed, “but that’s not all. It’s stranger than that.”
“Stranger how?” Patton asked.
“The materials are definitely from the 43rd century,” Janus said, “but it’s not from the 43rd century.”
“What do you mean?”
“This,” Janus said, looking at the cow. “This doesn’t exist. Every object has traces of where it’s been no matter how much you clean it. My timepiece can register debris sticking to an object down to the microscopic level and give a general idea where and when they came from. There’s no time travel residue implying it came from the 43rd century or even just dust or dirt from that time period. There isn’t even anything on it from this time period from more than the week the shop owner said it was in her possession. My scans seem to be saying, this thing popped into existence a week ago and didn’t exist in any time or place before that.
Patton frowned. “Well then, what does that mean?”
“I don’t know,” answered Janus frowning down at it. “I have absolutely no idea.”
Chapter 58
Janus didn’t know what to make of the cow he’d gotten in 2510. He’d said goodbye to the young version of Patton and grabbed Remus before heading back to the TPI. He’d immediately handed the time anomaly over to the labs, but even after a few weeks, he hadn’t heard anything back yet. The labs seemed just as stumped as he was.
The older version of Patton still drifted in and out of his life, usually unseen, like a ghost in the night. Well, a ghost that cooked him plenty of healthy food.
It felt odd slipping back into his old routine of missions.
Sometimes it felt like no time had passed, but then he’d see the faces of new recruits or get a mission where he didn’t see Rhi and remember that things were different now. The TPI was strained, constantly running after time distortions with no idea what or who was causing them. The new recruits were stumbling to catch up to the agents who knew what they were doing but were still needed to fill the gaps. It made Janus grimace, but he didn’t know what the solution was.
It was nice to be able to talk to Emile about these things.
If Patton made sure he was taking care of himself at home with nice meals and an ever-changing option of soaps and shampoos, Emile made sure he was taking care of himself at work. Janus was now forced to have a water bottle at his desk to make sure he wasn’t spending the day dehydrated and, assuming he was not on a mission, Emile would either drag him away to eat lunch or bring lunch too him if he was too busy. Today was the later kind of day. Emile had messaged him about 45 minutes ago asking if he was free and then had taken his order for a local restaurant when Janus said he had too much to do.
There was a knock on the door and both Fred and Janus, the only two occupants of the office at the moment looked up.
“I’ll get it,” Janus said, getting up before Fred did. He knew Fred was currently in the middle of a report on a trip to 2000B.C. he and Lena went to. They’d let a new recruit tag alone for training purposes. It had gone badly to say the least. Fred looked exhausted and stressed which was unlike the usually cheery man.
Janus shuffled to the door and opened it. A man in his early 30s that Janus didn’t recognize was standing there.
“Hi,” he said. “I, uh, moved into the office next door. My name is Dave.”
There was a moment of silence. “Did you need something Dave.”
“Right,” he said. “Yeah, I was just wondering if your integrator is running, because mine isn’t.”
Janus glanced back at the report he’d been working on. “Yeah, it’s fine.”
“Well, is it, like, connecting to the TPI system?”
“I don’t know,” said Janus, “I was working locally.”
“Yeah, well that’s the problem with mine. I was wondering if anyone else was having the same problem.”
“Let me check,” said Janus, walking over to his desk. He went to open his email and an error message popped up.
That was… odd to say the least. The TPI had very, very reliable technology. If it was just Janus who could not access the system, he’d assume it was just a local problem, but if the next door neighbor also was having an issue, that could smell trouble.
“Fred,” Janus called. “Are you connected to the internet?”
Fred glanced down at his integrator and clicked a couple of buttons. “No,” he said.
“Hmm,” Janus said. He pulled up his timepiece. That at least connected to the TPI servers, so the servers themselves weren’t down, just the offices’ connection to them. “Well, I can still connect with my timepiece.”
“Same,” said Fred.
“So, what’s wrong?” Dave asked. “How do we fix it?”
“We don’t fix it,” Janus said. “We submit a tech support request.”
“Oh,” said Dave. “…How do you do that?”
Janus sighed and flicked his wrist to project a screen. “If you go to the web on your timepiece, it’s literally on the page that automatically pops up,” he said pointing.
“We can connect to the internet through our timepieces?” Dave asked.
“…Did you have any training?” Janus asked.
“Don’t be rude,” Fred said absently, still typing on his report.
Janus just rolled his eyes.
“Not on… that part. They did give me a handbook.”
“Have you read it?” Janus asked.
Dave shrugged which told Janus everything he needed to know.
“Just go back to your office,” Janus told Dave. “I’ll submit the tech support request this time since it’s affecting me as well but read your handbook and familiarize yourself with your timepiece for goodness’s sake.”
“Okay,” Dave said, turning around and wandering back to his office with no thoughts in his eyes.
“I’m not your fucking preschool teacher,” Janus muttered under his breath as he returned to his desk. “It’s not my job to hold your hand and wipe your ass.”
Fred glanced up at him. “Thanks for not saying that when he was still in the room,” he said.
Janus shot him a thumbs up.
He sat down at his desk and quickly submitted a tech support request. By the time he finished that, Emile was knocking on the door with a bag of food.
“Come in,” Janus said to him, and he did, pulling over Remus’s chair and plopping down the food on Janus’s desk.
“You look stressed,” Emile commented.
Janus sighed, already reaching into the bag to look at what Emile had bought. “Everything’s disorganized, everything’s broken, and no one knows how to do anything.”
“Yeah,” Emile said. “I’ve noticed the TPI is understaffed. Even with all of the new recruits, there never seems to be enough people to go around.”
“Yeah,” Janus said, pulling out a burger on a pretzel bun and going to unwrap it. “How about you? This all been messing up your job too?”
“In general, for the AMO, yes, because they have to get all of the new agents houses and everything. For my department, not as much, but we are seeing some agents getting stressed because they’re overworked. Mostly the more senior agents.”
“Honestly, I’m lucky stress makes me throw myself into work to avoid thinking about it. I shudder to think how all of the mentally healthy people are holding up.”
“Janus,” Emile scolded.
“Plus, I’m already set up to have an appointment with a head doctor at least twice a week, so I’m good on that front.”
“I guess that’s true. Just don’t overwork yourself,” Emile said.
“I’m fine Emile. Plus, they need me. I seem to be one of the few people around here who actually know what they’re doing.”
“I just worry…” he said.
“I can handle it well enough,” Janus promised. “I’ve got the toolkit or whatever the head doctor calls it. Plus… work wasn’t ever actually the problem.”
“I know. I know…Just…you aren’t even taking lunch.”
“I have a bit more time free in the afternoon,” Janus said.
“I was just in the middle of something today. If you’re free for a half hour or something, we could get a cup of coffee. How about that? Would that assuage your worry about me a least a bit?”
“Yeah,” Emile said. “Yeah, it would a bit. I have a break at 2, would that work?”
“Sure,” Janus said. He technically had a good amount of stuff to do, but Emile was right in the end. He should try to take breaks. It wasn’t his duty to do everything at the TPI. “A quick lunch now and coffee at 2.”
Chapter 59
Janus did fulfil his promise to Emile to take a short coffee break at 2pm. It was nice for both of them, Janus thought and was well worth it… even when he came back to a stack of work and an extra mission on his docket.
“Where did this one even coming from?!” Janus asked as he and Remus speed walked to costuming. “I was gone for less than 30 minutes. They can’t give us more than an hour warning anymore?”
Remus shrugged. “I just got back from a mission,” he said. “I haven’t even had time to write my report on that one.
“This is a mess,” Janus said. “Everything’s a mess.” Readings of a fairly large time distortion had popped up in 2158 Lille, France out of seemingly nowhere according to write up they’d been given. Though, honestly, with how disorganized the TPI has been, Janus wasn’t 100% confident they hadn’t just missed the thing somehow. It also was apparently giving very similar readings to the time device they’d ran into in Cuba. That’s why they were sending both Remus and Janus, despite the two of them mostly having been split up for missions in the past few weeks. If it was as bad as Cuba, they wanted them to have backup.
Of course, that was where the TPI’s consideration had ended. Remus and Janus were still being rushed through to this mission and not even seeing Rhi once more. Costuming barely even glanced at them when they got there. They just tossed clothing at them and only gave them a superficial look over before sending them off to decon.
It was almost disorienting how quickly they ended up in a completely different time and place. Janus was lucky that he was used to traveling through time. He could easily slip into the right language and accent and knew how to walk in the shoes they gave him. He worried about other people though.
They arrived, of course, a bit before the time distortion was meant to begin, especially knowing their devices might not work once whatever it was hit. They waited around on a bench near a small shopping area for a while.
“So,” Remus said. “How’ve you been?”
Janus glanced at him. “Better overall,” he said. “Shit’s fucked with the TPI right now though.”
“I know,” Remus said. “It’s been interfering with my many extracurricular activities.”
“You’re extracurricular activities?” Janus asked. “Do I even want to know?”
Remus show him a smile. “Probably not,” he said. “It’s just the usual: sex, drugs, alcohol, making sure Diesel Fuel has whatever she could ever want.”
Yet, even as he said it, there was something else in his eyes that gave Janus pause. “Are you sure things are alright?” he asked. “I could help with something if you need.”
“With what time, Janus?” he asked, with a raised eyebrow.
“I could make time,” Janus said.
Remus just shook his head. “It’s nothing,” he claimed.
Janus wanted to press the issue, but then there was a buzz from both of their time pieces.
“Well,” Remus said, getting to his feet. “Duty calls.”
Strangely enough, despite giving off the same signals as the device from Cuba did, their time pieces did not shut off. The detected the time distortion like they were supposed to, but otherwise stayed active.
It was… incredibly easy to use their time pieces to find the source of the time distortion. Apparently, the caution about it considering that it was similar to the Cuba incident was unfounded.
The tracked the distortion down to a small children’s playground in the middle of the city. There was a device attached to the bottom of one of the slides. Janus flipped it off and balance was restored to time.
“Weird,” Janus said. “It definitely does look like the device we found in Cuba, but…”
“We aren’t currently swimming in an ocean,” Remus filled in.
“Yes,” Janus said. “You’d think the same type of device would have the same effect, but this one was pretty stable.”
“The main question is still who is putting them,” reminded Remus. “These are clearly not natural. Someone is doing this, but all we’re doing is running around trying to turn them all off instead of getting to the root of the problem.” The last bit was a frustrated mumble.
“You’re right,” Janus had to agree, “but so far these things have been practically untraceable. We can’t even figure out when they’re from. The most we can do is see when they’re active.”
“This doesn’t make any sense,” Remus said.
“No it-” Yet, before Janus could finish, he was cut off by a shout.
“Janus,” Patton’s voice called from the opposite side of the playground. “Hi!”
“Uh…” Janus said as he approached. “Hi.” He probably shouldn’t be too shocked to see Patton hanging around time distortions. He’d shown up at many of them before, but something about him showing up after the time distortion was already fixed threw Janus off. “We already dealt with time distortion…”
“Oh, good!” Patton said. “That’s good.”
“Yea-”
“So, I was actually wondering something.”
“Er, alright,” Janus said. There was a pause. “What?”
“Oh,” Patton said. “Um. You. Well, you once mentioned that you liked ballet.”
He hadn’t actually that he could remember, but he wouldn’t be surprised if a future version of him had. “Yes,” he said. “That’s true.”
“Yeah,” Patton said. “Cool, so I have a… nephew who’s been getting into ballet. And I’m trying to learn more about it. I was wondering if you had any suggestions for things to see about ballet to help me, er, get a better idea about how… it… is. You know?”
Before Janus could think of a response, Remus spoke up. “You were a much better flirt in Cuba,” he remarked idly. Janus elbowed him harshly in the side.
“Hey, Remus, honey,” Patton said, glancing at him with a sweet smile. “I saw an interesting looking coffee shop down the road.” He started digging in his pocket. “If I give you money, would you mind getting us all something to drink.” He pulled a few bills out of his pocket.
“Yeah… okay,” Remus said with a smirk. “I see how it is.”
Patton just smiled at him and handed over the money.
“Have fun you two,” Remus said, turning on his heels and striding off.
Janus glanced back at Patton once he was gone. “So, a nephew?” Janus asked.
Patton nodded. “Yep!”
“What exactly did you want to know?”
“Erm… I dunno,” Patton said. “I don’t know enough about ballet to know what to ask about ballet.”
“Well do you want to know more about the watching side or the dancing side.”
Patton bit his lip. “Well, I guess I’d like to know more about the watching side first,” he said. “Then maybe learn some basics about the dancing stuff if my nephew wants to dance.”
“Well, I actually do know more about watching ballet than participating, so that’s good.”
Patton ended up pulling him over to sit on the swings even though there was a perfectly good bench at the edge of the playground. Janus talked a bit about ballet in general and then gave him a list of particular shows he liked. He did try to stick to the 21st century and before under the assumption that this nephew was from the same time as Patton. There was still plenty of things to talk about even with those restraints.
Patton seemed interested as he talked, pressing his face against the chain of the swing to look at him as he talked with a smile.
They spoke about ballet for about 20 minutes before Remus eventually returned from the coffee shop.
“Thanks Remus,” Patton said, taking the cup he’d offered to him.
“No problem,” Remus replied, flashing a smile.
“Well,” Patton said, “thank you for the info Janus, but I really need to be going now.”
“Oh,” Janus said. “Okay.”
“See you soon!” he said, typing something into his timepiece and immediately disappearing without even checking his surroundings. He was lucky the playground was strangely empty today. He left his drink on the ground without taking a sip.
“Well,” Janus sighed once he was gone. “We should probably be getting back to the TPI anyway,” he said, taking a sip of the drink Remus had gotten him.
“A London Fog?” Janus asked.
“It was the special,” Remus said, taking a sip of his own drink.
Janus shrugged. “We’ll finish these and head back,” he said. “The mission was shorter than expected anyway. They can deal with us being gone a couple of extra minutes.”
“Mhmm.”
Janus took another sip. “About the conversation from early,” he said.
“Uh, could we maybe talk about it later?”
“Remus, you’re my friend and clearly something is bugging you.”
“It’s nothing,” Remus said. “Really.”
“It’s clearly not ‘nothing,’ Remus.”
“I… well,” Remus said. “Maybe not, but let’s not talk about it right now. We’re on a mission.”
Janus snorted. “Remus, I’ve seen you drink on the job.”
“…Right,” Remus said. “But still. Things are busy. We should probably actually head back now.”
Janus sighed. “You’re probably right,” he agreed, “but really, we should talk sometime.”
“Sometimes,” Remus agreed, “just… not now.”
“Fine,” Janus said. “Ready?” Remus nodded and Janus pulled up his timepiece and pushing the correct button to get them back to decon. Remus copied him and they both were off.
Chapter 60
Remus pretty much bolted out of decon to get away from Janus when he tried to talk to him again or at least ask if he could come by and talk to him after work. Janus felt a pit of worry start to grow in his gut. There was something wrong, but Janus didn’t know what. In fact, thinking back, maybe there had been something wrong for a while, but Janus had been too caught up in his own shit of a brain to properly address it.
He walked back to his office still thinking about it. Maybe he’d get Emile’s opinion on what to do.
The lights flickered as he entered the hallway his office was in, and he paused. That was strange. Very strange.
He frowned, planning to message someone right away about whatever the fuck that was. It was one thing to be a chaotic mess of a time travel agency; it was another to literally not be able to keep the lights on. What was going on in this place?
He stepped into his office shaking his head. To his surprise, someone was already sitting at his desk.
“Virgil?” Janus asked, confused. “What are you doing here?” It wasn’t completely unheard of for someone in cultural outreach to come physically to the TPI, but usually agents went to them. It was more convenient to them and a bit more secure for the TPI.
“Oh,” Virgil said in a tone that made Janus narrow his eyes and expect the dish washer not to be loaded. “Hey Janus. What are you doing here?”
“In my office?” Janus asked, glancing at Fred who had obviously let him in. Fred shrugged. Glad to know they had great security here.
“Right, yeah,” Virgil said. “It would be your office, huh?”
“…Yes?”
Virgil paused for a split second and took a breath to regroup. “I was actually looking for your partner.”
“Remus?” Janus asked. “Why?” Then he paused. “What on Earth did he do?”
“Nothing,” Virgil said. “Well, I mean… probably something knowing him, but that’s not why I’m here.”
“Probably,” Janus agreed. “I don’t know where he is right now though. He ran off when we got back from our last mission.”
“And you have no idea where he could have gone?”
“I actually would like to talk to him too,” Janus said. “So, if I did, I wouldn’t be here.”
“Chances he’ll come back to the office?” Virgil asked, hopefully.
“Very low since he’s avoiding me.”
“Great,” Virgil said, rubbing his temples. “That’s great. Why does this have to be physically difficult as well?”
“What exactly do you need with Remus?” Janus asked, noting the way Virgil was holding himself very tensely.
“I just need to talk to him,” Virgil said.
“Yes,” Janus said. “About…?”
Virgil didn’t say anything. He just looked off to the side.
“Why is everyone acting weird today?” Janus said, almost to himself.
“I’m not!” said Fred from his corner.
Janus shot him an unamused look. “Thank you for your contribution to this conversation, Fred.”
“Look,” Virgil said, “can you just tell him I need to talk to him about something private the next time you see him?”
“What on Earth do you need to talk privately to Remus about?” Janus said.
“Just leave it, Janus,” Virgil said.
He had his lips downturned in stern way that meant he was trying to hide something from Janus by feigning annoyance. Janus titled his head. “You two aren’t…”
“No! Ew!” Virgil said, looking disgusted. “He’s somehow the worst of two options which is saying something considering the French Toast.”
“What?”
“Nothing,” said Virgil. “Just, can I leave a note for him, or something?”
Janus paused, looking at him. Virgil squirmed under his gaze but didn’t seem like he was going to give in anytime soon. “Fine,” Janus finally relented. “You can leave a note on his desk. I’m not sure why you didn’t just email him.”
“It’s an in-person type of conversation,” Virgil said, wringing his hands.
“Whatever you say,” Janus said, walking over to Remus’s desk and clicking the memo button that brought up a screen people who weren’t Remus could write on. “There you go,” he said.
“Thanks,” Virgil said with a relieved grin, clearly happy he was no longer being interrogated. He grabbed the stylus tied to the side of Remus’s desk. (If Janus hadn’t tied it there, it would be in Mesopotamia by now, he was sure.)
Janus turned to go back to his own desk.
“Wait,” said Virgil. “It isn’t working.”
“What do you mean?” Janus asked. “It’s a note app.”
“It’s not tracking what I write,” Virgil said. He tapped the screen with his finger. “It’s not even responding.”
Janus leaned over to take a look for himself. He tapped it a few times and there was nothing, so he tapped it a bit more aggressively. A fuzzy line went across the screen and then it shut off abruptly.
“What is wrong with things in this office lately?” Janus asked with a frown.
“My stuff just froze too,” Fred said.
The door opened then, and Lena entered the room. “The coffee makers are all offline.”
“What do you mean the coffee makers are offline?” Janus asked.
“I went to get some coffee for Fred and I and they’re not working. Any of them.”
“That’s odd,” Fred said.
“You know,” Virgil said, shifting nervously on his feet. “This seems like a bad time for me to be here. Why don’t I just come back another time or better yet, Janus, just tell Remus to come find me.”
“Yeah,” Janus agreed. “There’s a lot of things going on apparently, so it’s probably best if you leave.”
With that, Virgil brought up the time device he was using and pushed a couple of buttons to return to his university.”
However, instead of disappearing like he was meant to do, he flickered once and then was immediately on his knees with his hand over his nose.
“Shit,” Virgil hissed.
“Are you okay?” Janus asked, kneeling next to him. There was blood coming from his nose which was concerning, but his eyes focused on Janus easily enough, though he looked very startled.
“I think I just hit the shield.”
“Is your timepiece not approved?” asked Janus, pulling on his arm to see the timepiece.
“I got it approved this morning,” Virgil said, taking a tissue Fred handed to him to press it to his nose. “It’s supposed to have access to the TPI all day. I used it not even 10 minutes ago.”
Lena was already on her own time device. She pushed a button and disappeared for a moment before appearing a couple of steps away. She stumbled and was caught by Fred. “Mine’s blocked too,” she said, “I only put in to go to the entrance of the building.”
That’s when the lights went out.
Chapter 61
There was screaming from somewhere down the hall.
“Do you think that’s like when kids would scream when the teacher would turn out the lights in elementary school for a movie?” Virgil asked hopefully, voice a bit nasally since he was still holding his nose.
Janus gave him a tightlipped stare.
“Yeah,” Virgil said, “that’s what I was afraid of.”
Fred calmly reached over and shut and locked the office door.
“And what good is that going to do?” asked Virgil.
Fred glanced at him, already moving to shove Remus’s desk in front of the door. Janus instantly went to help him. “Gives us time to regroup.”
“Or it locks us in,” Virgil argued.
Janus glanced over at him. “Don’t panic,” he said.
“The fuck do you mean, don’t panic?” Virgil asked, panicking, “Do you even know me?”
Janus sighed. “Fine,” he said. “Panic as much as you want but do it quietly.”
Virgil opened his mouth to speak.
“We know what we’re doing. You do not. Contributions from you that are only fears no matter how rational are not helpful at the moment.”
Virgil shut his mouth.
Janus turned Lena and Fred. “Okay, what do we know?”
“Malfunctioning coffee makers,” Lena said. “Malfunctioning tech in general really.”
“And not just now,” Fred added, now working on barricading the window with the cabinet he kept his hot chocolate in. “There’s been issues with the whole system for a while now, and they’ve been getting worse.”
“Right,” Janus said. “I’d been blaming that on new recruits messing things up out of ignorance or IT not having enough time do normal maintenance, but if everything is down when the shields are malfunctioning, that implies something else.”
“Are the shields even malfunctioning?” Lena asked. “That implies something went wrong with the program, but what happened to Professor Eran and I is what it’s supposed to do to people who don’t have permission to cross them.”
“So, the shields might be malfunctioning,” Janus said, “or someone went in and changed the permissions.”
“Considering the tech problems we’ve been having,” Lena said, “it’s possible someone’s been playing around in the TPI the system without knowing what they’re doing.”
“Or maybe they know exactly what they’re doing,” Janus suggested, “and they wanted to see our usual protocol for small issues before giving us a big one.”
There were a few moments of silence where they all were lost in thought.
“People are still screaming,” Virgil pipped in.
“Yes,” Janus confirmed. “This is obviously not just a virtual attack.”
“Which should be the priority?” Lena asked. “The virtual attack or the physical one?”
“The virtual part will be complicated, and if we stabilize the building physically, we’ll have more time and have everyone safe,” Fred said, “but on the other hand the virtual attack is obviously what’s letting the physical attack persist. If people had access to time travel and communication, the physical attack wouldn’t matter.”
“I think-” started Janus, but he was cut off suddenly by a horrible screeching noise like metal on metal. The room they were in jolted like they were in a car that suddenly stopped and then the world was turning sideways, and they were all toppling as the floor became the wall. Janus landed on top of Virgil. Hopefully the blood now staining his shirt was from the man’s already bloody nose. “-we should probably start with the time anomaly attack!”
Here is my starting post for today’s study break stories session. I will reblog this post with the story as I write them today. Feel free to send in asks about anything at any point, even if it’s not for the part of the story I’m currently on.
If you aren’t interested and don’t want all of these posts clogging your dash, please feel free to block the tag “study break stories” as all posts and voting about it will go there. You can still see the finished product of the story even if you are blocking that tag as I will not tag the edited chapters with “study break stories” but with the tag “folds in paper.”
See the Folds in Time Universe Master Post for edited chapters. Not yet edited chapters are under the cut. I also have a playlist on youtube for this story.
No idea how long I’ll last today, but let’s see.
Chapter 45
They arrived at the coffee shop after a short walk. It was a cute little location and very early 21st century with the décor. There were falling apart board games on a bookshelf and a few magazines left on the table in front of an older looking couch. The lights were slightly dimmer than most places would have them, making how close one sat to the window important to getting the lighting one wanted. There were also fairy lights and little boards with inspirational quotes laying around on every free shelf.
Logan instantly ordered a coffee from the barista with a few extra expresso shots. It was… probably more caffeine than a man who was banned from caffeine probably should have, but honestly, who was Virgil to judge? Virgil ended up ordering the same thing (minus the expresso shots). Then, they ordered a couple of pastries to eat, which Virgil could already tell were way too sweet for breakfast. Oh, 21st century America, Virgil thought to himself with a smile.
Logan seemed to catch the smile. He raised an eyebrow and cocked his head. Virgil shook his head. “It’s nothing,” he said. Just casually judging your entire time and country.
Logan didn’t question him more, getting distracted as his phone chimed with a text. He probably didn’t notice his own fond smile he sent the phone as he typed and answer. “I told them I’m showing you the town a bit,” he informed Virgil. “Which is not technically a lie.”
“Not, technically, no,” Virgil replied, as Logan led him over to one of the tables to sit while they waited for their drinks. Virgil reached forward and grabbed a cinnamon roll. He took a dubious bite and grimaced slightly. That’s about what I’d expected, he thought.
“What?” Logan asked.
“Oh,” Virgil said. “It’s just that your time has a thing for artificial sweeteners.” He kept his voice down despite being in a far back corner with no one near them.
“My apologies, would you like something else?” Logan asked.
Virgil waved him off. “I’ll acclimate. If I could get used to 1950s post war, society is getting used to instant gelatin, recipes during my post-doc, I can figure out how to stomach an overly sweet pastry or two.
“You spent time in the 1950s?” Logan asked, doing that think where he cocked his head slightly to the left again.
“Mmm, not my favorite, but the direct results of World War II are important to study.”
“You spent your time in the United States?” he asked.
“For a bit, but I hopped around a lot and also went to the 60s and 70s. I was basically tracing the evolution of different social issues in the wake of World War II for both the Axis and Allied Powers.”
“An interesting topic,” Logan replied. “I imagine even in the 21st century, I would not have a fully unbiased perspective, especially when it comes to different countries.”
“Oh, you definitely don’t,” Virgil confirmed.
“Perhaps I’ll take a look at your work from then sometime,” he suggested.
“Oh, uh,” Virgil said, and he really shouldn’t be flustered about that. He’s gone to conferences and presented his work before. “Yeah, if you want. It’s a bit older and from when I was less experienced, but I mean…”
“I’m sure it’s still exceptional.”
Virgil was saved from the mortifying ordeal of responding to that by the barista calling their names to say their drinks were done. Logan got up to grab them. Get it together, Virgil, he begged himself while shoving another too sweet piece of pastry into his mouth.
Logan set the coffees down on the table in front of them and Virgil took his with a closed mouth smile of thanks, while still chewing on his cinnamon roll.
Chapter 46
Virgil was correct about his ability to find the location of the farmer’s market. After they ate and finished their coffee, they set out to investigate the location of the time anomaly. “I ended up under the stage,” Virgil informed him. The stage had already been taken down, but it was easy to see where it had once been based on the depressions on the ground.
Logan had brought a few of his tools when they had left that morning and he pulled out a modified iPad.
“You hide your time travel tech as an iPad?” Virgil asked curiously.
Logan glanced at him and said nothing.
“…You made your time travel tech out of an iPad!” Virgil exclaimed.
“It is one of the most easily accessible technologies of this time that is also portable,” Logan shrugged. “I use what I can get.”
“How did you manage to invent time travel with 21st century technology?” Virgil asked.
“It took me a couple of decades,” Logan replied.
“It took them literal centuries.”
“Well, I knew it could happen, so I simply made it happen.”
“You’re terrifying,” Virgil stated.
Logan just hummed and set the iPad scrolling through its diagnostic programs. It scanned the area around them for anything that might indicate time travel.
“Well,” Logan said. “There is definitely an anomaly, but we already knew that. It’s a strange one, however.”
“What do you mean?” Virgil asked.
“I’d assumed whatever had caused you to end up here had dragged you here, but what I’m finding doesn’t seem to be remnants of something to cause time travel. On the contrary, it seems to be similar readings to what stopped Janus time travel to stop working in previous circumstances. I don’t know a lot about the time travel technology from your time, but I have noted they tend to briefly ping off of times near to your destination in order to recalibrate when going a certain amount of time. Perhaps your device did a brief landing here at the wrong time and then was deactivated much like TPI devices have been deactivated beforehand and you got stuck.”
“What does that mean for me?”
“Well, it means your device isn’t broken,” Logan said.
“Then why isn’t it working?” Virgil asked.
“Because,” Logan said. “whatever is deactivating it is still here.”
Virgil looked at his feet as though expecting to see the device sitting on the ground somewhere.
“Not here here,” Logan clarified, “but close by. They have a limited range from what I understand, though I don’t know precisely how far. It’s definitely in this time however. But it’s strange,” Logan tapped out a few things on his device, double checking that he hadn’t missed anything with his regular monitoring.
“It’s not causing any other problems.” Logan continued. “We’ve only ran into them once or twice before and we’ve never managed to get our hands on one too actually study it, but each time we’ve seen them, they created some sort of issue in the environment, but there are no obvious time abnormalities or weather problems. In fact, if I wasn’t looking for it, I wouldn’t have noticed.”
“Okay, well then, can’t we just find it and shut it off?” Virgil asked. “That’s what I know Janus did when he ran into them.”
“It is,” Logan confirmed. “The only issue is without the obvious environmental clues I have no idea where it actually is to turn it off.”
“How the hell do we find it then?” Virgil asked.
“I’m not sure,” Logan said. “It definitely was here when it switched on, but it’s definitely not here anymore.” He looked around. “Perhaps it was attached to the stage or put in the musician’s instrument cases. Then again, by that logic, it could have been put in anyone’s bags or in a since emptied trashcan.”
“So, it could basically be anywhere?”
“Basically,” Logan agreed. “We will check the easiest possibilities to track down and if that produces no results, I’ll… figure out something.”
Virgil grimaced. “That sounds promising.”
“I will do my best,” Logan promised. “I just wish I knew more about these things.”
Virgil seemed to hesitate. “How would you go about learning more about it?”
“Well,” Logan said, “if I can get my hands on a similar device, I could probably figure out a more reliable way to track it.”
“You do,” Virgil said.
“I do what?”
“You do have one.”
Logan frowned. “I assure you, I do not.”
“But you do,” Virgil said. “Eventually.”
“…Oh, I see.” Logan replied. “Do you perhaps know where we do eventually find it?”
Virgil pressed his lips together. “I think I might already be saying too much,” he said. “It’s stuff you shouldn’t know about yet in your personal future. People aren’t supposed to…”
“Time is not nearly as sensitive as the TPI seems to believe,” Logan said with an eyeroll. “In fact, most of Janus and Patton’s interactions so far involve accidently giving more information than necessary.”
“I don’t know…”
“I’m a time traveler from the 21st century who lives with a French man from the 1800s,” Logan said. “I’m not asking for a run down of every part of the event, just a time and place to point us in the correct direction.”
Virgil still didn’t seem convinced.
“It would really only be a time saver,” Logan argued. “I could just blindly look for time distortions, but it’d take a while…”
“Fine,” Virgil said after a moment. “This is probably entirely stupid, but fine. Give me a moment to think about what exactly I can tell you, so I don’t mess everything up.”
Logan smiled slightly at his overly cautious behavior but waited patiently.
“Janus met Pat once in Cuba. There was a time distortion during Camaguey Carnival of 1755. Pat took the device that had been causing the disturbance and left before Janus could catch him.”
“Camaguey 1755,” Logan repeated. “Got it. I’ll look into it, and we can see what we can do. It’ll still take a few days to prep however.”
Logan would need to find exact coordinates and he’d have to talk to Patton considering he’d just recently gotten back from an unwillingly long trip to pre-history. He’d probably be willing to go, but he’d mentioned Logan making him a “time survival pack” before he was willing to go back into the timestream. They’d need to talk about what exactly that entailed and get the supplies for it. His mind was already making plans about what he needed to do.
Virgil nodded. “Should we head back to the apartment then?” he asked, interrupting Logan’s thoughts. Logan glanced at him. He had actually planned to show the man around a bit today instead of spending all of their time thinking about time travel.
“I cannot be sure that my roommates will have cleaned up their French toast nonsense by now,” he said. “We should likely wait to return until at least the lunch hour. It is not as though we could do anything about it today. We will need to plan.”
“Okay,” said Virgil, “then what are we going to do for the next 3-4 hours?”
“Well,” Logan said. “Perhaps I can show you around the town a bit more so as to not make more of a liar of myself than I already have.”
“Sure,” Virgil agreed with a smile. “What will you be showing me.”
“I was thinking we could visit the local museum. We can compare notes about how wildly inaccurate the exhibits present history.”
Virgil rolled his eyes at Logan, but there was something warm underneath his expression. “Fine,” he said, “but I bet I know more than you.”
Chapter 47
The museum was interesting, not because it taught him any more about the events behind the exhibits on display, but more that learning what people in the 21st century cared about and how they presented past events was an anthropological lesson in its own right. Their conversation became a game of not only finding the mistakes made in the exhibits, but also Virgil hypothesizing why those mistakes were made: prejudice, missing information, and unreliable secondary sources all contributed, and Virgil spent a lot of time talking through the possibilities.
They spent a few hours there before heading back to Logan’s apartment.
Not without stopping at a small, hole in the wall, bar inhabited only by day drinkers. When Virgil gave Logan a weird look, he explained, “I have to bring back a peace offering for running off this morning if I want Patton to agree to a time travel mission for me.”
“…And Patton likes… vodka?” he guessed.
“No,” Logan replied, amused. “This establishment serves cheeseburgers which are apparently the ‘best in the city.’ They do not, however, cook anything else. Not even fries.”
When Logan handed him an unlabeled brown paper bag that looked as though it had been dipped in hot oil instead of just it’s contents, Virgil shot him a raised eyebrow. “Ah, yes,” he said, “the quintessential 21st century American meal.”
“You once ate only bagged pepperoni meant for pizzas for breakfast for a week once.”
“I told you that in confidence,” Virgil said, smacking him lightly with the bag of grease.
“And I have told no one,” Logan responded. “Therefore, I have not violated any part of our agreement.”
“You’re making fun of me. That’s definitely a part of the agreement,” Virgil said.
“I don’t remember there being any clause like that in our verbal contract,” Logan replied with a slight smirk. Virgil rolled his eyes. “Besides, I’m not truly making fun of you. The decision to fuel your body solely with pepperoni is, while not the best strategy and one that would certainly prove detrimental in the long run, it is better to eat that then nothing.”
“Oh,” Virgil said. “Uh, good.”
“I’m simply citing another example where not as healthy food in the long term can be good in the short term.”
“But in this case instead of depression eating to stay alive, the purpose is bribery.”
“Exactly,” Logan said. “Bribery to end the time distortion and get you back to the proper time.”
“Alright, fair enough.”
“You don’t have to eat any if you don’t want to.”
“Oh, no, I’m going to.”
“Then why are you complaining?” Logan asked amused.
“I just thought you should know your time has way too greasy food,” Virgil said.
“Thank you for the information,” Logan said dryly. They’d made it back to the apartment by then, and Logan stuffed the bag he was carrying under his arm to unlock the door.
“And where have the two of you been?” Patton asked when they walked into the kitchen.
“I have cheeseburgers for you,” was how Logan answered.
Patton rolled his eyes as Logan set the bag down in front of him. He was sitting at the kitchen table typing on a laptop. “The French toast wasn’t that bad,” he said.
“I will take your word for it,” Logan said pleasantly.
Patton just shook his head and reached into the bag for a cheeseburger. Logan kept looking at him, and that obviously meant something Virgil didn’t know, because Patton glanced up at him after eating a couple of bites. “What?” he asked suspiciously.
“Virgil and I went back to where he arrived,” Logan said. “There are signs that one of the devices that cause time distortions is present.”
“There aren’t any weather disturbances though,” Patton pointed out.
“It seems to be a more advanced version,” Logan answered. “Which will make much more difficult to track.”
“Okay,” Patton said, “then what are we going to do?”
“Well,” Logan said, “if we could get our hands on an older version, we could probably use it to narrow down the current one’s location.”
“And how exactly are we going to get an older version?” Patton asked, eyebrow raised.
“I understand that you have only been back from your last trip for a little over a week and that your last trip through time was a bit difficult, but,” he nodded towards Virgil, “we do know of the time and place one exists that you would have a good chance of being able to find, deactivate, and bring home.”
Patton groaned. “And judging by the source of this information, steal off of the TPI.”
“Yes.”
“Excellent.”
“At least, in this case, you will go into it knowing there will be no major disasters.”
…
Should Virgil… say something. It’d be rude not to mention the whole time shredding almost drowning bullshit, wouldn’t it? Then again… giving him foreknowledge could be a danger to the timestream. He debated with himself whether general social courtesy should outrank the possible destruction of time or not.
…
Maybe he’d just suggest a boat if they didn’t plan to take one? Just in case?
“Fine,” Patton said, “but you’re finishing your tech updates and making me a survival pack before I make any jump. I’m not making the same mistake again.”
Logan nodded. “I can do that,” he agreed. “Just tell me what you want in your survival pack.”
“I’ve already been working on a list,” Patton said. “I’ll email it to you.” He turned back to the computer he’d been working on and typed a few things. “You can add to it if you think of anything.”
Logan looked at his phone as it dinged. “…Do you really need all of this?”
“Yes,” Patton said, taking another bite of his cheeseburger.
“…I’ll do my best?”
“You’ll do it,” Patton returned.
“Right.”
“I’ll start researching Cuba in the 1700’s,” he said.
Virgil saw him pull up google on his computer. He looked at the 21st century computer and then back to Patton. He couldn’t help but think of the museum he and Logan had been to earlier that day. “Do you want help?”
Chapter 48
It took a little over two weeks to get everything set up. Logan had already been in the process of updating their equipment for quite some time, and this situation only spurned him on. He also then had to figure out a way to meet all of Patton’s demands for his new survival kit. His list had already been quite long before he’d started to add to it. He’d even slipped in a request for a boat at some point despite Logan’s protests that Camaguey Cuba was nowhere near the sea.
Thankfully, Virgil didn’t seem to mind the delays too much.
In fact, he may have had a hand in the delays as his natural inclination towards anxiety seemed to infect Patton and cause him to add and add to his list of safeguards for Logan to make. He and Patton were spending a good amount of time together, actually. Patton was fairly good at researching the places he planned to go at this point, but Virgil was undeniably more experienced with that sort of thing considering he worked with the TPI. Patton seemed to appreciate his input.
Roman, on the other hand, decidedly did not. The two of them were prone to arguments about clothing which had gone beyond talking about Cuban clothing to arguments about clothing from pretty much all of time.
Logan could not tell if they were friendly debates or not. He’d even asked Patton who had claimed he also could not tell. Neither Roman nor Virgil’s responses when asked directly about the nature of their relationship were helpful either. Logan did notice that Roman changed the fabric of the outfit he made for Patton after one of their conversations.
Virgil was not much help to Logan unless you counted the intel, he’d given that helped Logan choose the correct time and place. At least, not in the sense that he was able to help with the mathematics and physics Logan was dealing with.
He was, however, good for company. Especially as his sleep schedule much more closely resembled Logan’s own in those weeks. Typically Roman and Patton went to sleep at a much earlier hour than he did himself and Logan would work alone in the living room, but with Virgil living in the apartment, there was constant companionship while he worked, and less volatile company than he was used to working with (assuming, of course, Roman had gone to sleep by that time). It was nice.
He seemed to fit into their little group in a way Logan had not anticipated. Or at least, socially he did. Physically, there were simply not enough beds and Logan had been sleeping on the couch for two weeks.
Eventually, with all of their combined efforts, everything was ready to go. Patton had three different time appropriate outfits, a good amount of knowledge about the festivities he was about to attend, new time travel equipment, and a survival pack that could help him survive an apocalypse. Patton was planning to arrive in Cuba two days earlier than the TPI protocol would send agents like Janus. That way, he would have time to set up and get acclimated before the TPI sent in their surveillance and touchdown agents.
“This is cool,” Patton said, flexing his fingers to see the hidden screen on his palms light up with a map of the area.
“It’s organized the same as your previous device, except for, of course, the control panel to control the cloaking technology and the access to the survival kit.
“Looks great, Lo,” Patton said, still fiddling with it. He changed it to its default state of a metal band projecting the screen and then back to the time appropriate bracelet Roman had designed. There weren’t many possibilities programed for hiding the device yet, but more could be designed in the future. For now, it only had the default band, the bracelet, and a wristwatch.
“I’ve already tested it a good number of times, but you should familiarize yourself with it anyway before leaving.”
Patton nodded, flicked his fingers and disappeared for a moment before reappearing in the same place. Then, he did it again and reappeared directly next to where he’d been standing. He did similar things a few times before predictably getting bored and starting to do ‘tricks’ which mostly involved landing in ridiculous poses and also accidently jump scaring everyone in the apartment at least twice. Eventually, Logan confiscated it for the evening so they could have dinner in peace.
Patton went to bed early, planning on leaving the next day. Roman quickly retired to his room shortly after leaving Logan and Virgil alone in the living room.
Despite knowing already his calculations were perfect, Logan still sat on the couch checking over them one more time just to make sure. Virgil sat on the floor with his back against the couch watching videos on Logan’s cell phone with headphones borrowed from Patton’s collection.
He glanced up when Logan shifted positions and Logan flashed him a smile.
Virgil removed the headphones to speak. “Thanks by the way,” he said, “I already said it to Patton and will again in the morning, but thanks for helping me out with all of this.”
“It wouldn’t have been particularly kind of us to leave you stranded,” Logan pointed out.
“Yeah, but still, you’ve all been working really hard. Right now you’re up at 3am working on it.”
Logan shrugged. “I’d likely be up working at 3am on something anyway,” he said.
“Sure,” Virgil said, “but this time it’s for me so, yeah, thanks.”
“You’re welcome then,” Logan said. “Any time.”
Virgil tilted his head back to grin at him. “Was that a time travel pun.”
Logan scowled. “No.”
“It sounded like a time travel pun.”
“It was not intentional. I will never intentionally say a pun.”
“You’re telling me you live with Patton and never make puns?” Virgil asked.
“I, unlike my roommates, am a responsible adult,” Logan insisted.
Virgil seemed skeptical. “Is that why you’re drinking forbidden coffee out of an orange juice carton at 3am.”
“Not so loud,” he hissed, leaning forward to put Virgil’s mouth and glancing back towards the hallway to see if anyone was about to come storming into the living room with another intervention.
His hand was bit.
“Ow!” Logan exclaimed, taking his hand back. “How do you know?” he hissed. The ruse had been working on Roman and Patton for years because neither liked orange juice.
Virgil rolled his eyes. “I can smell it,” he said. “I’m not dumb.”
“It’s worked on everyone else.”
“No,” Virgil said. “It’s worked on one dramatic idiot and one man who trusts people not to lie to him way too much. I, however, am a paranoid asshole with a doctorate. You can’t fool me.”
Logan couldn’t help but smiled. “I suppose I have met my match,” he said.
He tilted his head all the way back, so his skull rested on the couch cushion and he was staring straight up at Logan with his piercing hazel eyes. “Heck yeah you have,” Virgil said, and Logan was not much more sentimentality, especially not romantic sentimentality, but there was something about the shadows making the room seem cozier and the almost golden glint in his eyes from the lit lamp beside Logan that made it more difficult to breath.
68261
He was relaxed here in Logan’s apartment at 3 in the morning, looking up at him with warm eyes. He fit, slotting into place with an ease Logan had not expect. He’d found Professor Virgil Eran interesting from the moment he’d first heard him speak and had glanced through his university profile for information on whoever had plugged his virus into their computer. He had found him endearing when they’d corresponded through emails and occasionally one sided video chats. It was different with him right in front of Logan, within arm’s reach. He could reach down barely a few inches and brush his slightly unruly hair out of his eyes.
“You good man?” Virgil asked.
“I am perfectly well,” Logan said, clearing his throat. He glanced away from Virgil. “I think perhaps my roommates have a bit of a point when it comes to caffeine.”
“Maybe at 3am,” Virgil said in good humor. “You’re not a college kid.”
Logan glanced at the college professor on his living room floor. “Well, thank goodness for that,” he mumbled
“I think your calculations are fine anyway,” Virgil said, gently taking the papers out of his grip. “Why don’t we do something else?”
“Like sleep?” Logan asked.
“You think you’ll be sleeping anytime soon?” Virgil inquired with a raised eyebrow.
“Fair point.”
Virgil grabbed the television remote from side table. “Why don’t we watch a bit of that time inappropriate copy of the Epithet File I know you have.”
“Sure,” Logan agreed. “You can come onto the couch if you would like.”
“Nah. You can come to the floor.”
“…Fine.”
Chapter 49
Patton left in the morning and from there it was just a waiting game. Which, was Virgil’s least favorite type of game. He tried to keep his anxiety on the down low considering it was Logan and Roman’s lifelong friend who was running around some other century, and they were both obviously nervous as well, since the last trip had ended in disaster.
…
This trip was going to end in disaster a little bit too, but Virgil was going to ignore that. At least he wouldn’t be gone for months.
The point was, Roman was constantly going to the gym which was, reportedly not normal behavior and Logan spent his days re-checking calculations that were too late to correct and had worked considering Patton had been in contact occasionally.
Yet, despite the fact that he was clearly an anxious wreck as well, Logan eventually forced himself to put his lined notebook paper away for a bit. Roman was out once again when he did so and Virgil was doom scrolling on his phone.
“We should go out to dinner,” he declared suddenly.
Virgil glanced at the pile of take-out containers stacked near the kitchen trashcan. “Sure,” he agreed.
Which was why Virgil was leaving the apartment for the first time in the last three or so days. Logan had asked him if he wanted anything in particular, but he didn’t care and also didn’t know what restaurants were around, so he was just letting Logan lead him wherever he wanted.
He should not have trusted him.
He glared at Logan, but the man only seemed entertained by his ire. “Really?” Virgil asked.
“I wanted to see for myself if you were really that bad with chopsticks.”
“I’m not,” Virgil said, crossing his arms. “It was just the anxiety about the social situation, and I resent this.”
Logan just laughed, knowing well enough that Virgil wasn’t actually irritated. Honestly, he felt fonder than anything that Logan had chosen to take him here. “It’s actually pretty good sushi.”
“21st century American Midwest sushi,” Virgil drawled. “I’m simply quivering with anticipation for that authenticity.”
“It’s unanimously considered the best sushi in town by my friend group,” Logan said as if the fact that Mr. Asiago Cheese Bread For French Toast and Mr. Went Along With Cooking Asiago Cheese Bread French Toast approved of the restaurant would inspire any confidence in Virgil. If he could even call the place a ‘restaurant.’
“It’s. In. A. Mall.”
“So?” Logan asked.
“It’s a sushi stand in a mall. There isn’t even seating.”
“There is seating,” Logan argued nodding at the five chairs sitting in front of the counter. The seating was completely empty which could be because their eating schedule was off and they were eating dinner at 3pm, but more likely meant everyone else in the time had more sense than the man in front of him.
“Where is your sense of adventure for trying new things?” Logan asked. “Are you not an anthropologist. Don’t you want to experience the culture of the time first hand.”
Virgil glared at him.
“Please try it,” Logan said sill amused. “It really is good.”
“If I get food poisoning, I’m blaming you,” he warned.
“Noted,” Logan said, inclining his head. Then, Virgil reluctantly allowed him to lead him over to the sushi stand from where they’d been hiding behind a trash can so as not to be in the direct line of sight of the man standing behind the counter.
The man greeted them as they approached. He obviously recognized Logan and even asked about Patton and Roman as they took a seat. Virgil did have to admit, despite his instinctual misgivings about mall sushi, what he could glimpse of his set up seemed legit. It looked like a real sushi bar if a bit smaller than usual. Where they had sat, there was a glass case in front of them with chilled fish on display and Virgil could see a large rice cooker behind the man along with a normal refrigerator.
Laminated menus were handed to them. They were only one page front and back, but honestly that was probably a good thing. If it had a bunch of complicated or fancy stuff, Virgil might have been worried.
Well, he was still worried, but he wasn’t running screaming. At least his setup looked like it probably wouldn’t give him too much food poisoning. Logan suggested a rainbow and a snake roll and they got some different types of nigiri.
The chef was nice, and he assembled the sushi fully in Virgil’s view which made him a whole lot less leery about the meal. He seemed to know what he was doing at least. Of course, the fish was not as fresh as it would have been in a coastal area, but it was clearly properly handled. When he was finished, he handed it to them all on one big plate.
He had to admit, when correcting for ingredient availability, it was actually pretty good sushi. He would not say it was the best sushi he’d ever had, but it was worlds better than he’d expected. Logan could obviously tell what his opinion was and was overly smug about it.
“Yeah, yeah,” Virgil said when they were finished. “You’re good at picking restaurants.”
“I’m sure you are also when in a place you are familiar with.”
“I’m not actually,” Virgil said with a laugh. “I always panic choose the worst option.”
“Well, I tend to be quite decisive about such things,” Logan said. “I guess we make a good match.”
“Yeah,” Virgil said. “Uh, what are we going to do when we get home? Because sitting there drowning in anxiety like we have been for the past couple of days isn’t the greatest.”
“Do you have anything in mind?”
“You guys have Blockbuster still?”
“No,” Logan said. He paused. “We do have a Family Video store I think.”
“Is it close? Let’s go there.”
“And why are we not just using a streaming service?” Logan asked. “Or using my… library of movies.”
Virgil shrugged. “It’s the charm of it,” he said.
“The charm of a business already made obsolete and on the brink of collapse?”
“Exactly,” said Virgil with a smile.
“Very well,” Logan said. “If that is what you’d like to do I will look up its location on my phone.”
They were in a building that would look abandoned if there wasn’t a light on inside within 15 minutes. The video rental store had clearly seen better days. Its carpet’s pattern was clearly from another decade and had been trampled over so often it was basically like walking on the linoleum beneath. There was a door on the sign asking patrons to close it behind them because the spring used to close it had long since ceased working.
There was only one person working, a guy in his 30s who glanced at them briefly and then went back to looking at his phone. Ah, yes, Virgil’s favorite type of employee.
“What movie would you like to watch?” Logan asked. He glanced at one small, but still surprisingly present section filled with DVDs.
“I don’t know,” Virgil said. “Isn’t that the point? Stop by a movie rental place on a Friday night, grab a more than likely crappy movie and some Milk Duds and proceed to sit and watch the stupid thing anyway because you already paid for it.”
“Virgil, I grew up in the 90s. This isn’t exactly exciting for me. There is a reason streaming sites took over the market,” Logan replied. “Also, it is Tuesday.”
Virgil rolled his eyes. “Just panic choose a movie with me, nerd.”
“Great!” Virgil dragged him off in the direction of the movies that started with ‘S’.
“This is just… gross,” Virgil said a little under an hour and a half later and about an hour into the film.”
“It is a random romantic comedy from 2002,” Logan responded. “What did you expect?”
“Yeah, but there’s weird sex jokes and actors that are probably from Mars and then there’s actual on screen physical abuse between the romantic couple.”
“I will concede that point,” Logan said, “but I will remind that this could have all been avoided if you had allowed me to do proper investigation of the movie choices before renting it.”
“Ugh, yeah, yeah,” Vigil replied, leaning back to stare at the ceiling. “Just turn it off.”
Logan complied, reaching over to eject the DVD from his computer. The three roommates didn’t actually have a DVD player connected to their TV, so they’d chosen to use the desktop computer in Logan’s room.
Virgil was laying on Logan’s bed with Logan sat propped up against the headboard. Logan leaned over to peer down at him. “Thanks for helping distract me,” he said. “Despite the fact that we now know more about what we’re doing, I still get worried about sending Patton through time. His last time travel experience didn’t improve my confidence. I have been… rather nervous.”
“Well, I’m glad I could help, at least a little,” Virgil replied.
“You did,” Logan replied. “A lot.” His hand reached down to touch pat his shoulder, but then lingered there for a moment too long.
Virgil sat up suddenly and Logan had to jerk back to keep their heads from colliding. “I…” Virgil choked out once he was sitting up. “Um…”
Logan’s mouth curled into a half smile. He offered a hand and Virgil took it.
Virgil glanced at the hand. “I, uh, I am an anthropologist.”
“I am aware,” Logan said with a raised eyebrow.
“And, uh, you were born in this time, so technically I’m studying you…”
“I’m a time traveler, Virgil,” he said amused. “I doubt I am a pure specimen for any studies you may be doing.”
“Right,” Virgil said. “That’s a good point. You’re right.”
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There was a pause. “So then,” Virgil said. “No moral quandaries. Just two people sharing a bed and watching a romance movie.”
“It was a bad one.”
“It really, really was,” Virgil said with a grin and then Logan was leaning forward and Virgil’s hand was on Logan’s shoulder.
And then the door was flinging open. “I’m home!” Roman declared as Virgil scrambled back, banging his head on the bed’s headboard.
“Fuck,” Virgil hissed.
“Roman! You need to knock!”
“Since when?” Roman asked, plopping down on Logan’s bed between them.
“Since we have a guest,” Logan said meaningfully. Virgil hid his reddening face in his hands, curling into as tight of a ball as he could.
“You were both in here, it’s not like one of you were naked,” Roman said flippantly. Virgil debated the merits of staying curled up in a ball for the rest of his life. There was a second of silence, and Virgil was glad he couldn’t see the expressions on their faces from his ball when Roman said, “Oh my god!”
Chapter 50
The breakfast table was silent the next morning. Though if one could call it a breakfast table when Logan was only drinking a cup of tea, Roman was chewing on a slice of unbuttered, untoasted bread, and Virgil was still either asleep or avoiding them both in Logan’s bedroom was debatable.
“…Look,” Roman said.
“We aren’t talking about it.”
“How was I supposed to know the two of you were getting it on?! Put a sock on the door next time or something. It’s common courtesy!”
“We weren’t having sex,” Logan hissed. Roman opened his mouth. “Shut up and learn to knock,” Logan said, pointing his spoon at him threateningly.
Yet, still, because it was Roman, the other man opened his mouth again. Luckily, before he could say anything else on the matter, there was a loud crack from the living room.
“I’m going to need a towel please!” Patton called.
“I’ve got it,” Roman said instantly, jumping to his feet, leaving Logan to walk to the living room.
“Why are you wet?” Logan asked immediately upon taking in the sight of his roommate. He was soaked, water dripping from his form like he’d just gotten out of a pool seconds before.
“There was an ocean in the church,” Patton said.
“What?” Logan asked.
Patton pushed his sopping wet hair out of his eyes. “The time distortions were a lot more intense than ones we’ve seen before,” he said. He held out a small innocuous appearing device whose only mechanism appeared to be a switch to him. “Be really careful with that. It’s unstable and we might have damaged it getting out.” Patton winced and removed his timepiece. “Actually, speaking of that. This might need a checkup too.”
“Were there issues with the tech?” Logan asked taking both devices in his hand.
“…No,” Patton said looking a bit sheepish. “We just… may have turned off all of the safety protocols.”
“Patton I just made this for you!” Logan said, horrified.
“And you did a really good job!” was Patton’s reply, “but we didn’t really want to drown in a church.”
Logan took a slow breath. “I’ll make sure it wasn’t damaged,” he said.
“Thanks, Lo!”
Roman entered the living room then, bright blue towel in hand. “I have returned bearing gifts!” he declared.
“My hero,” Patton said with a laugh, taking the towel and using it to wipe off his face and then start to dry his hair.
“So, an ocean in a church?” Logan asked.
Patton nodded. “I’ll have to thank Virgil for suggesting the inflatable raft.”
He paused as he finished running the towel through his hair and started to dab at his clothing. “I saw Remus,” he said.
Roman froze. “You did?”
“Uh huh,” Patton replied. “He was with Janus. I didn’t think I should say anything to him since that trip was way out of sync though, sorry.”
“Yeah, no, that make sense. That’s fine.” Roman hesitated. “How was he?”
“He seemed good,” Patton said. He flashed them a smile. “Happy. He’s quite the character actually. He and Janus seem like they’re good friends.”
“Oh,” Roman said. “That’s… that’s good.”
Patton’s face screwed up slightly. “He did flirt with me though, so that was weird.”
Roman took a moment to think about it before pulling a face that one would expect to see on a small child trying a lemon for the first time. “That’s disgusting! That’s like… that’s like my brother flirting with my brother. Gross!”
“It was… it was weird,” Patton said.
“What did he even say?” Roman asked.
“Mostly it was comments on my…” he made a motion with his head that apparently Roman could interpret.
“He talked about your butt!”
“…Well, he didn’t exactly use that word.”
“That sounds about like Remus,” Virgil said, poking his head into the hall.
“Oh, you’ve finally decided to join the land of the living, Emo?” Roman asked.
“Shut up,” both Logan and Virgil said at the same time.
Of course, he did not. “You know, Pat-pat, speaking of posteriors…”
“One more word out of you and I will actually kill you,” Virgil threatened.
“Um, what’s going on?” Patton asked.
“I’ll tell you later,” Roman promised.
“You will not,” Logan said. “Keep your gossiping tendencies under control.”
“Okay, but now I want to know,” Patton said with a pout.
“You go take a shower,” Logan ordered.
Patton shared a look with Roman that told Logan there was no way he wouldn’t have the whole story along with a good number of embellishments by the end of the night. Then he shrugged. “Yes, boss,” he said. Logan rolled his eyes as he turned towards the bathroom, the towel still on his shoulders. He was dry enough that he wasn’t dripping anymore, and he slipped off his waterlogged shoes and socks so he wouldn’t track water to the bathroom.
“Put that in the biohazard hamper,” Logan called after him.
“I know!” he called back.
“And you,” Logan said to Roman, “clean up all of the water he got on the carpet in the off chance there are any pathogens in it.”
“Why do I have to do it?!”
“Because you’ve annoyed me,” Logan said, “and I need to insure these two devices do not explode.”
“Ugh, fiiiine,” Roman said, dipping back into the hall.
Virgil glanced over at him, the picture of awkwardness. “Uh,” he said. “Hey.”
“Hi,” Logan said.
“…Are those things really at risk of exploding right now?” he asked.
Logan glanced at him. “Technically they are always at least slightly at risk of exploding, but admittedly the chance is further from 0 than I would like it to be at this point.”
“Great,” Virgil said. “One more thing to be anxious about.”
“You don’t need to be anxious about it, Virgil,” Logan said.
“Uh, I think I do need to be anxious about the maybe bomb in your hands.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“I know,” Virgil said with a sigh.
“We are two mutually consenting adults. There isn’t any shame to it.”
“Can we please talk about our very embarrassingly interrupted kiss after you’ve dealt with the explosives?”
“Very well,” Logan said. He walked to the other side of the room to grab a statis chamber from a cabinet drawer.
“What’s that?” Virgil asked as the cube shaped device popped up.
“It’s a stasis cube,” Logan said as he put the two devices in his hand into it and activated. “It will allow them to cool down completely from their earlier use in a safe environment. It will be less dangerous to work with them later.”
“If it just takes 5 seconds to deal with them, why are you making Roman clean up?” Virgil asked amused.
“Like I said,” Logan said. “He annoyed me. Speaking of,” he glanced into the hallway where Roman currently was. “How do you feel about leaving before he gets back to get coffee.”
Virgil smiled at him. “Sure,” he said. “Escape the apartment for coffee part two.”
Chapter 51
It took a few days after Patton got home for Logan to first make sure the timepiece and the distortion device were not at a risk of exploding and then to study the distortion device.
“It’s similar to what little we’ve seen of TPI technology,” Logan had mused, sitting on the couch while studying the information he’d managed to get off of it. “It’s definitely derived from the same technology unlike my time travel device, but it looks a bit different, and this version at least is rather shoddily made. Of course, creating disorder and almost ripping apart time is easier than seamlessly moving through it.”
“So, they’re probably from my time then?” Virgil asked.
“Most likely,” Logan agreed. “Though it could always be a Remus situation where they were from another time originally but accidently ended up in the TPI time. Either way, the origin of their purposeful time travel was certainly around your time.”
Virgil glanced at the device he’d set on the table in front of them all. It looked innocent sitting there, but it had the power to destroy so much, and they didn’t even know why. “Do you think whoever made this trapped me here on purpose?” Virgil asked.
“It would be a big coincidence if you in particular got trapped in this time in particular,” Roman said.
“I was thinking the same thing actually,” Logan said. “You do work with the TPI and with Janus, a time agent who both often is caught in the middle of devices similar to this being used and who runs into Patton frequently. Plus you know Remus, Roman’s brother even if we didn’t know that connection before you were trapped here and we already had a correspondence before you landed here. It would be strange for you to have ended up here on accident.”
“But why?” Virgil asked. “I am somehow connected to all of you, but I’m still not a time agent myself.”
“All I am to the TPI is a walking history book. I’m not actually involved.”
“Well,” Logan said. “Perhaps someone knows something we don’t.”
“Or maybe it’s just a happy accident!” Patton said. Virgil highly doubted that and it made anxiety churn in his gut.
“Well,” Logan said, “accident or not, we do now have a solution to the issue. I’ve managed to use this device to recalibrate my calculations and we’ve gotten a ping. I know where the signal blocking Virgil’s time device is coming from.”
“Where?” Roman asked.
“It looks like a local trash dump,” Logan replied. “It must have just ended up in a trashcan that day and was emptied before we checked.”
“Well, that should be easy enough to get,” Patton said. “Give Roman and I the exact coordinates and we can go and get it now.”
“Wait, why are we the only ones who have to dig through a garbage dump?” Roman asked.
Patton gave him a look.
“Oh,” Roman said, eyes lighting up. “Oh right!” Then, he scowled remembering he was going to be going through a garbage dump. “Fine,” he sighed.
“Think of it as an adventure!” Patton said.
“We’re time travelers. We have so many more exciting adventuring opportunities than dumpster diving, Pat-Pat,” he whined, but he still got up. “I’ll go get changed.”
Patton stood up and handed Logan his phone, so Logan could program the location of the distortion device into it while he changed as well. “We’ll text you when we’re heading back! I’ll give you a 15- and 5-minute warning,” Patton said with a wink. Virgil immediately hid his face in his hands.
“Do you think the TPI is hiring?” Logan asked as the door closed. “I’d love to move to a different century without those two.”
“Time agents don’t usually live in 4500s,” Virgil said, face still hidden behind his hands. “They’d probably still place you in this century, especially since you’re comfortable here.”
“No escaping them then,” Logan sighed.
“Mmm,” was Virgil’s response.
He felt Logan shift on the couch next to him and a warm palm touched his wrist, gently tugging his hand away from his face in a way that Virgil could resist if he really wanted. Virgil let the hand fall with a sigh. Logan smiled at him when he could see his face and Virgil smiled back despite how he could still feel heat in his cheeks.
“You will be going home this evening, I’d imagine,” Logan said.
“Yeah,” Virgil agreed softly.
“I would like to give you a gift before you go, if you’ll allow it.”
“Uh, okay,” Virgil agreed.
Logan nodded and leaned back to grab something out of the pocket of a jacket that was currently hanging over the side of the couch. “Ah,” he said when he found whatever he was looking for. He glanced at Virgil. “It is a ring, by the way, but this is not a proposal.”
“Well, I’d certainly hope not,” said Virgil dryly. “An impulse elopement would be a little off brand for us both.”
Logan smiled at him. “Very true,” he agreed. Then, he opened his palm revealing a small ring.
“So, then, what is it?” Virgil asked.
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“It is an emergency time travel device,” Logan explained. “It’s not particularly complex. It can only take you here to this room between 2 weeks and one year from now, but if you ever need something from me, you can use it.”
He offered the ring and Virgil opened his palm to let him put it in his hand. He studied the ring for a moment. It was a rose gold and very light.
“It also has some security measures,” Logan said. “It wouldn’t do to make an emergency time travel device that someone else might easily try to take from you. It’ll disappear when you put it on. You’ll still be able to feel it and take it off whenever you wish. It’ll become visible again if you take it off.”
“An invisible ring?” Virgil asked, curious.
“Yes,” Logan said with a smile. “It is designed to store your space time coordinates for up to 48 hours just so you’re aware, but as I said you can take it off whenever you wish and… I won’t use it against you.”
Virgil looked at him. “Okay,” he said. “Can I put it on?” Logan nodded, and Virgil slipped it on his finger. As promised it disappeared from view as soon as he did. He could still feel the weight of it on his finger though.
“You turn it three times counterclockwise to activate it,” Logan said, making Virgil look up from the seemingly empty space on his finger he’d been staring at.
“It would drop you right about where you are sitting.”
“Thanks,” Virgil said. It wasn’t nearly enough to say how much he appreciated the gift, but he hoped his tone said enough.
“Don’t use it against me?” Logan asked with a half-smile, and Virgil realized just how much trust was being put onto him by giving him a device that was directly linked to their base of operations despite knowing Virgil worked with the TPI.
Virgil shook his head. “I won’t,” he said. Deciding to throw out his nervousness and embarrassment over last time he shot forward to kiss Logan quickly on the lips. They bumped noses and Logan’s glasses ended up askew in the process, but Logan didn’t seem to mind judging by his delighted laugh when they parted.
“Thank you,” Virgil said again.
“Of course,” Logan replied.
Virgil could still feel the ring on his finger even after Patton and Roman got back from the dump with the device that had caused this whole mess. He could still feel it when Logan turned it off and his time piece reactivated. He could still feel it there when he made it home and gave an excuse as to why he’d left his trip early. He could still feel it when he got an email from an unknown sender making sure he got home okay.
Arc IV: (To Be Named)
Chapter 52
“What’s this?” Janus asked when a giant bowl was set on the coffee table in front of him.
“We’re eating on the couch tonight,” Emile said cheerfully.
Janus raised an eyebrow and switched off the tablet he’d been using to look at him. “Why?” he asked.
Emile shrugged and set a second huge bowl down next to Janus’s. “For fun,” Emile said. He turned back towards the kitchen and Janus leaned forward to look in the bowl. It was spaghetti with some sort of creamy sauce and a few different vegetables mixed in along with some shrimp.
“I made green tea,” Emile said, coming back into the room with two mugs.
“Thanks,” Janus said, taking one of the mugs with a small smile.
“What were you doing?” Emile asked as he took a seat beside Janus. He nodded at the deactivated screen now sitting on the end table.
“Just doing some puzzle games,” Janus said.
“That sounds fun,” Emile said with a smile.
“Head doctor said they might be a good thing to do to pass the time when I told him to fuck off after suggesting reading.”
Emile sighed. “Dr. Figueroa is my colleague. You could try to be polite.”
“I thought I was supposed to be my authentic self in therapy,” Janus replied.
Emile just huffed and rolled his eyes. Janus couldn’t help but smile as he picked up his mug of green tea.
The last few months had been…different. In a lot of ways, Janus’s life had become harder than it had been before. It had been easy to do nothing but eat pre-prepared meals, go to work, and pass out in his empty house every day. It wasn’t good for him. He’d known it even then, but it had been easy. This was not.
Emile had offered, insisted really, that Janus move into his house for a bit just to get back on his feet.
He’d taken time off of the TPI which would have been given to him anyway since he’d spent so trapped in the past. He’d had to give a report of what had happened, and he’d mentioned Patton, but he hadn’t mentioned everything. They’d offered him a shrink when he’d asked.
Janus had told Emile he needed to tell him something about why he’d been distant, so he wouldn’t end up chickening out, but he’d asked for a bit of time to figure out what to say. He’d finally worked up the courage to talk about it with Dr. Figueroa two weeks ago. Much like with Patton, it was easier to talk to someone who hadn’t been involved in Janus’s mistake, but it still wasn’t easy.
He was running up on the deadline he’d given for having that talk with him. It had to happen soon, and they both knew it, but Emile was just patiently waiting for him to suck it up. It felt… wrong to use his kindness without him knowing, but it was also nice to get to spend time with his brother. He didn’t even dare to hope that he’d still have the chance once he told him.
He was moving back into his own house in less than a week. He’d tell him then so if Emile ended up kicking him out of his life, he wouldn’t have to kick him out of his home too.
For now, though everything was fine. Harder, more complicated, and in threat of exploding at any moment, but fine. Fine wasn’t something he’d really felt in a long time. Or at least, fine while in his own time wasn’t something he’d felt in a long time. There’d been a few moments with Patton sitting next to the fire outside the hole in the ground they’d slept in for those few months where the man would turn to look at him and he’d felt fine. Yet, Patton had been right. Those moments were unsustainable with how Janus was actually feeling deep down.
“This is good,” Janus said, after taking a couple of bites of the pasta in front of him.
“Well, I always was the only one in the house that could cook,” Emile said, and that was true. “It was either learn to defend for myself or eat a cheeseburger for every meal.”
“Hey, I had a good burger seasoning.”
“Not for every meal, Janus.”
“Meat, dairy, bread. What more could you want?”
“Vegetables, Janus.”
“You could have put pickles on!”
“I don’t like pickles.”
“That sounds like your problem, not mine,” Janus argued.
Emile shook his head, turning his eyes to the ceiling. “How have you been surviving on your own?”
“Well, I mean,” Janus said. “Badly.”
“Right…” Emile said. He leaned over to bump their shoulders together. Janus flashed him a smile.
“Speaking of,” said Janus. “Could you physically force me to pack tonight? I meant to do it today and instead I ended up playing puzzles games.”
Emile chucked. “Sure, I’ll help you after dinner.”
“You don’t have to help me,” said Janus. “Just make me do it.”
“Maybe I want to help,” said Emile.
“Oh, yes, packing. The most entertaining of Thursday night activities.”
Emile hummed and then glanced at him. “Remember when you helped me pack for college?” he asked.
“Mmm, I do,” Janus replied.
“I was so stressed about going somewhere new,” Emile said, “that I avoided packing for weeks. Every time Mom would ask me how packing was going, I’d tell her it was going fine but in reality, I hadn’t even started. You’d come home two days before I had to leave because you were going to help me move into my dorm. It’s like you could sense no packing had been done the moment you stepped through the front door.”
“You were doing your ‘hiding the broken horse statue from mom’ shuffle,” Janus said with a smirk.
“Well, you walked me straight to my room and we packed everything up in those two days,” Emile said. “You made it so much easier.”
“Yeah, because I hovered over you until you did it and did half of it for you,” Janus snorted.
“It wasn’t just that,” Emile said. “You also found the music streaming station run by the university and put that on and talked about what your freshman year was like. You also had tips on what things I should and shouldn’t pack when moving into the dorm.”
“You still took all of the cartoon stuffed animals despite my advice.”
“I thought there’d be more space on the bed,” Emile frowned.
Janus snorted.
“But anyway, just having someone else around made me happier. It wasn’t just about the workload being halved either. You being there made me feel less lonely and reminded me I’d always have someone to come back to.”
Janus internally winced. He was sure Emile hadn’t meant to make him feel guilty in any way. In fact, he probably was trying to do the opposite, but him saying that just reminded Janus that it hadn’t been true. Janus had abandoned him for literal years and hadn’t been someone he could always come back to.
Emile had proven himself to be at least close to who he was before Janus messed with time the few last months. There were a couple of differences here and there, and Janus could not be sure if they were from him changing time or from him avoiding his brother for the past three years and him naturally changing. Most memories they shared that Janus cautiously brought up or Emile mentioned on his own were consistent with what Janus remembered, but he hadn’t pushed too hard or dug too deep. It just made him feel more guilty about avoiding the man for so long.
It made him want to ignore the man more, because it seemed every choice Janus ever made only hurt him.
…
Well, perhaps not the college radio station when helping an anxious 18-year-old pack up his childhood bedroom.
He should probably tell Emile that his words made him feel guilty because that was obviously not the intention and he’d want to know. He should probably apologize properly for leaving him alone for three years without an explanation. He should probably provide an explanation for those three years.
He should probably go see the head doctor again soon.
(He should probably stop calling Emile’s colleague who was in the same field as him a head doctor derogatorily in his head.)
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For now, he just glanced at Emile. “You’re trying to bully me into letting you help pack with logic, aren’t you?”
“I am,” Emile confirmed without remorse.
“Fine,” Janus sighed, “but only if you let me do the dishes for you.”
Emile took a long moment to consider the offer. “You drive a hard bargain,” he said, “but okay.”
“And no doing anything sneaky like getting bags ready for me on your own while I’m doing it or the deal is off,” Janus said.
“You always think of all possible loopholes, Janus,” Emile sighed.
There was a long silence.
“Agree, you prick,” said Janus.
“No promises,” Emile replied cheekily with laughter in his eyes, and things were good for a moment more.
Chapter 53
Today Janus was moving into his house in 24th century for the second time in his life, and honestly, the house wasn’t going to look much different than it had when he’d first moved in. Janus had unpacked his things more at Emile’s house in the past almost 6 months than he had in the two and a half years he’d liven in his house. His house held clothes, bare bone furniture, and exactly one skillet from when he’d decided to be daring and tried to cook himself an egg. All he’d really customized for himself was the setting on the LXC device which controlled the lights, media across the home, and prepackaged food ordering and prepare.
He almost felt embarrassed that his house was so empty. Emile, of course, knew that his mental health had been fucked, but the blankness of his house was a physical reminder of this fact especially considering how he used to keep house before all of this. He’d warned Emile about the fact that his house was empty, and he had said he understood, but still.
They gathered all of the luggage in a pile in Emile’s guest room. They’d had to get permissions from the TPI to allow Emile to travel to his house, and Janus went ahead and filed to give him permanent permission to travel there.
The decision felt far too hopeful for someone who hadn’t had that conversation with his brother yet, but it had made Emile smile in the moment.
Emile took three of the bags and Janus took the rest. He waved his arm and selected the third saved location on the device. In a moment, he was standing in the living room of his dark, empty house.
…
His supposed to be dark and empty house. More of the lights were on than Janus had ever switched on himself, and half of the windows were open. (He didn’t even know some of those windows opened.)
They were letting in the sounds of birds that made the lakeside their home as well as cool late fall breeze. There was also a racket coming from the kitchen. Emile was beside him a second after he himself had appeared. He looked around for a moment. “Did you leave it like this?”
“No,” Janus replied.
“Do you have squatters?” He had a security system from 2 millennia in the future on his house. He highly doubted it.
“I’m going to go check the kitchen,” Janus said, moving towards the noises coming from the other room.
He stopped in the doorway to his kitchen only to see Patton standing at his kitchen counter cutting up a carrot on a cutting board Janus didn’t think he owned, and if he did, it was buried in a box somewhere.
“What are you doing?” Janus asked.
“Cooking!” was the immediate reply.
“In my house?” Janus asked. “How do you even know where my house is?”
“I may be just a little bit ahead of you,” Patton said with a wink while tapping the side of his nose.
Janus sputtered. “This is my house!”
“I know!” He said it so cheerfully while being a purposefully obtuse asshole that Janus could help but crack a smile and shake his head. He’d missed him after spending so long alone with him though he wasn’t go to admit that to him when he’d broken into Janus’s house to…
“Again, what are you doing?”
“I’m making you soup.”
“Why?” Janus asked.
“Well,” Patton said. “I know it’s a bit of a rough time for you, so I thought I’d give you a nice welcome home present and what better present than food!” He smiled at him widely.
Janus looked closer at what he was making. “You’re trying to prove to me you can cook.” Patton frowned at him. “Have you considered I have had enough fish stew for a lifetime?”
“Nope!” he said. “It’s entirely different this time anyway. I have carrots!”
“I don’t like carrots,” Janus lied blandly.
“Liar!” Patton declared.
“No, I’m not,” Janus continued to lie.
“I mean, that was definitely a lie,” Emile interjected from behind Janus. He was looking at them curiously. “Er, hello, who are you?”
“This is Pat,” Janus said.
“The illegal time traveler you’ve been tracking?” Emile asked with a questioning lilt to his tone.
“Ah, yes, well,” Janus said with a cough. “We came to an understanding when stuck in pre-history.”
“And now he is cooking you soup in your house?” Emile asked.
“I’ve long since stopped trying to make sense of him,” Janus grumbled.
“Well,” Emile said. “Hello Pat.”
“You can call me Patton,” he said easily. “I hope it’s nice to meet me, because I’ve already met you.”
“We haven’t been meeting in the correct order,” Janus informed Emile. “So, he’s apparently already met you which will happen in your future. It is also something he shouldn’t be talking about,” he scolded. Patton took that with a shrug.
“I hate time travel,” Emile said, his nose scrunching up. “Isn’t life already confusing enough.”
Janus winced, not relishing the upcoming conversation with him about how confusing his life was now because of time travel.
“Don’t you work with the TPI too?” Patton asked.
“That doesn’t mean I like time travel,” Emile said. “I’m a stationary agent and I like that just fine.”
“Time travel can be a bit complicated sometimes,” Patton acknowledged, “but I don’t think it’s all bad.” He finished chopping up the carrot and turned to put it in the self-regulating soup pot. Janus squinted at it. It was certainly not something Patton had in the 21st century. So, the question was. Had he gone out and bought time appropriate cookware before breaking into Janus’s house or had he gone through Janus’s storage to find it?
“You’re a free agent time traveler, right?” Emile asked.
“Depends on what you mean by free agent,” Patton said. “I have always worked with a group of people, and we have rules and procedures. It’s basically a time agency itself, just not the TPI.”
“And you’ve met me before?”
“I have,” Patton confirmed, “but Janus is right in that I can’t say much more than that about it. In fact,” he said wiping off his hands on a towel hanging from his apron. (The apron was covered in cartoon squirrels and totted the phrase ‘I’m a nut for baking.’) “I should probably be getting out of here.”
“You’ve never been worried about us meeting out of order before,” Janus pointed out with a frown. He didn’t particularly want Patton to go even though the man had broken into his house and possibly went through his boxes of kitchen equipment.
“Well,” Patton said. “There’s meeting wildly out of order, there’s meeting in order, and then there’s what I’m doing.”
“What are you doing?” Janus asked alarmed.
Patton just shrugged with a smile.
“No, Patton, what are you doing?”
“Soup should be done in about an hour, but you can leave it on all day. I got a pot that’s fridge safe, so just shut it off and stick it in there before going to sleep.”
“Patton.”
“See you later! Bye!” He said and disappeared into thin air.
Janus sighed and rubbed the bridge of his brow. “Why is he like this?”
“Janus,” Emile asked. “Why did your self-declared mortal enemy make you soup?”
“Because he’s an asshole, that’s why.”
“Uh huh,” Emile said, looking at him oddly.
“What?” Janus asked.
“What exactly happened when you were stuck in the past?” Emile asked.
Janus sighed. “A lot happened. A lot.” He glanced at the soup pot happily performing its function on his kitchen counter. ‘I hope it’s nice to meet me, because I’ve already met you,’ rang in his ears. Fucking Patton with his little hints about the future. It gave Janus just a bit of courage though knowing that Emile at least didn’t flee the continent after the conversation they had to have. He was at least around enough to meet Patton. “In fact,” Janus said. “It’s probably time I told you what happened. Everything that happened.”
Chapter 54
They sat down in the living room. Janus let Emile have the couch and sat on one of the matching armchairs. There was a squeaky sound when he sat. The plastic covering the chair had been delivered in was still on it.
Emile had a pleasant, open but curious expression on his face and Janus suddenly had an idea what it felt like to be his patient.
“I,” Janus began after a moment, shifting uncomfortably on the squeaky chair. “I don’t know how to start this conversation. I talked about what I wanted to say and possible ways to say it with Dr. Figueroa, but I… I still don’t know.”
“I guess I should start by saying that I did something horrible that I need to apologize for and I’m not sure if apologizing will even be enough. The problem is you don’t even know what that horrible thing is.” Janus stared at his feet. “So, first, I should probably explain what I did. I just don’t know where to start.”
“Maybe start with what happened before it,” Emile suggested. “Just lead up to it. It might help explain why whatever it was happened too.”
Janus took a breath. “Okay,” he said. “That day was just like most that I remember. We both woke up early. I was going to the TPI and you were going to where you worked your residency. We ate leftover pizza for breakfast because both of us were exhausted. You because it sucks to be a resident and me because I’d been working on a big case.”
“I was getting frustrated with the case. That was my first mistake: being impatient and angry. It was just a thief, but a slippery one. She’d stolen a half-broken time piece and was using it to rob banks within about a 50-year time frame. I had an idea of where she might go, but no one would listen to me. Or at least,” Janus quirked a half smile, “that’s how I interpreted it. They said they’d look into my idea, but they were being extra cautious because of how close in the timestream her actions were to most of the agents’ lives.”
“I was so tired of the case and so egotistical. I decided to check it out on my own without being cleared by the TPI. I went back in time without thinking of the consequences and that was the worst thing I’ve ever done.” Janus took a breath. “I’m not sure how, but somewhere in the course of my self-appointed mission…” He trailed off. He didn’t know how to say it. He really didn’t.
“What happened?” Emile asked when he didn’t continue.
“I…” and his next words probably sounded like crackly nonsense to Emile’s ears because he couldn’t get his thoughts straight and his tongue wouldn’t make the words right.
“I don’t even remember living in that town or the fact that Mom used to work at that bank,” he choked out. “I didn’t think and I didn’t check and…” There was a long silence. “I erased you,” he finally managed to say in a whisper, but in the quiet of his barely lived in house, the words were loud.
There was more silence. “But I…” Emile said after a moment.
“I went back and fixed it,” Janus said, “but I… didn’t do a perfect job. I don’t even know how much I messed things up. It would have been one thing if it’d just been me. If it had just impacted my life, but I did it to you and I don’t even know how to start to apologize.”
Nothing was said for a long moment. Janus didn’t look at him.
“…Huh,” Emile finally said.
Janus risked a glance at him. He didn’t look irate, but he did still look confused which was probably the reason for that.
“I’m sorry,” Janus said. It was really the only thing he could say at this point.
Emile tilted his head to the side. He took off his glasses and cleaned them with the edge of his shirt with slow circles. Since he was 15, Emile only cleaned his glasses with specially designed wipes, but he’d held onto the habit of cleaning his glasses with his shirt anytime he needed a moment to think. Janus wasn’t sure if Emile even realized he was doing it, but he knew it was a signal for Janus to be quiet for a few seconds.
The glasses were perched back on Emile’s nose after a few seconds. “I think I remember that,” he said contemplatively.
“…What?” Janus asked, and he was no longer avoiding looking at Emile. He was now blatantly staring at him.
“Well, I didn’t know what it was,” Emile said, “but I did have a very odd dream on the day you mentioned and suspiciously I had said dream in the middle of the day and woke standing up.”
“A dream?” Janus asked.
“A very vivid dream,” Emile said. “I don’t believe you actually erased me completely from existence. My life was simply shifted slightly. I was working as a social worker for about 5 hours and then I was back in my appropriate place.”
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“Why didn’t you tell me about that?” Janus asked, but then immediately wince at his own hypocrisy. “Er… never mind.”
“I didn’t know it was possibly real,” Emile said. “Honestly, I thought I was just really tired. I’d been overworking myself a lot. I took the rest of the day off after that.”
“You shifted reality for a few hours, and you didn’t realize it?” Janus asked.
“Like I said, I was really tired and nothing seemed to be wrong…”
“Wait, but things were different,” Janus said. “Didn’t you notice things were different.”
“Not… really,” Emile said. “Like what?”
“Like…” Janus said. “Like a whole bunch of things!”
“Like…?”
“Like you had a different job title and you worked different hours.”
“I thought I’d fallen asleep standing up or had a vivid audio-visual hallucination at work from stress. I asked for a switch a couple of weeks later.”
“You used to hate time travel, but then you took a job at the TPI.”
Emile gave him a drawl look. “I still hate time travel,” he said. “I literally just said that not 5 minutes ago.”
“Well then why would you work for the TPI.”
“Because time travel is so confusing and distressing that people doing it on a regular basis as a career need psychological support.”
“Plus, Lia asked for my consultation when developing the mental health part of the Agent Management Office,” Emile continued. “Considering I already knew quite a bit about time travel from being around you, she knew me personally, and I’d finished my residency, she decided to give me a job offer when my advice panned out.”
“W-well,” Janus said. “You were allergic to pineapples.”
“You mean my childhood allergy?” Emile asked. “That has since resolved itself in my adult life?”
“It has?” Janus asked.
“Janus have you considered,” Emile said, “that some if not all of the inconsistencies you were seeing in my life have to do with the fact that you hadn’t spoken to me in 3 years?”
“I… uh… hadn’t considered that,” Janus admitted honestly.
“You were looking for information to support your incorrect world view,” Emile said sounding very much like a head doctor and not like a brother, “and you found some.” He sighed. “It makes sense after having faced a traumatic event where you effectively thought you’d killed a loved one that you weren’t thinking clearly.” The head doctor analysis voice slipped just a bit. “I just wish you’d talked about it with someone.”
“Sorry,” Janus said, because no matter which way this conversation had gone and no matter the revelations, the point was an apology. “I’m sorry.”
Emile sighed. “I would have forgiven you even if you had erased me,” Emile said. “You didn’t mean to, and you did your best to fix it. You did fix it even if you were an idiot about it.”
“What about for being an idiot and not talking to you for three years?” Janus asked.
“I already did forgive you for that Janus,” Emile said pointedly. “What did you think the last 6 months were?”
“Pity?”
Emile gave him his disappointed and exasperated head shake. “Promise to never do anything like that to me again,” he said, “and I’ll forgive you.”
“I promise,” Janus said immediately.
“And in the future, you’ll talk to me if you have any issue even if you think it’s horrible.”
“I think I’ve learned by lesson on that one.”
“And that goes for other people too,” Emile said. “If anything goes wrong with someone, you talk to them or if that’s too hard you talk to someone so they can convince you to talk to that person.”
Janus nodded.
“Great!” Emile said. “Then you’re officially forgiven for everything. Though I expect you to go to therapy and keep working on making yourself feel better, so these things don’t happen again.”
And Janus… didn’t know how to feel about that. He should probably feel happy and thankful or at least relieved, but if he was being honest, he just felt kind of empty in that moment like an old well that had finally run dry. Fuck his head doctor and fuck Patton. Wasn’t this supposed to make him feel better? Everything was fine. He hadn’t actually erased Emile permanently from the timeline, in fact, he’d apparently still existed in some form in the alternate timeline Janus had temporarily made. Emile had forgiven him both for erasing him and ignoring him even though that was far more than Janus deserved. This was something he’d never even dared dream would happen, but it had been exactly what he’d wanted.
Yet, he still didn’t feel good, not really, not like how he remembered feeling before all of this happened.
Though was that really a surprise? Things were not like how they were before. He and Emile were no longer close. There was love and affection there, but they didn’t really know each other. The last six months had been nice. He’d been able to pretend for a bit that everything was back to normal, but in the moments he hadn’t been able to pretend that, it’d been a bit stilted and awkward speaking to his brother especially at the start.
Beyond that, Janus was just used to misery at this point. It was his default state. Not being miserable took effort and energy he didn’t always have. He felt himself slipping into sadness or numbness even during times he should be feeling good. He’d noticed himself experiencing a sense of desolation when Emile cooked his favorite meal or in the middle of watching a ballet performance Emile had suggested they go to and he’d been looking forward to in the days before or even now when he should be so happy, so ecstatic. Everything should be okay, but it wasn’t.
“You doing alright over there?” Emile asked, and Janus didn’t know how long he’d been silent.
Instinct said to say yes and force himself to move on, but he wasn’t going to break his promise that fast. “Not really, no,” he admitted.
“That’s okay,” Emile said. “Anything I can do to help?”
“I really don’t know.”
“Why don’t we go taste the soup your arch nemesis,” there was a light teasing tone to his voice, “made for you. Some of the vegetables won’t be completely cooked yet, but I’m sure it’s already good.”
“Yeah,” Janus agreed. “Yeah, okay,” he got to his feet, the chair making that plastic squeaking sound again. “Maybe we could unwrap the furniture in here before you go home.”
“I think that’s a good idea,” Emile said with a smile.
Chapter 55
Somehow, the strangest thing about his life right now was a picture on the wall. It was one that he’d gotten after college when he moved into his first actual house. It wasn’t anything special. It was just something that had caught his eye when he was specifically looking for something classier to put on his wall than the posters he’d hung in his college dorm and apartment with Virgil. It was a tall painting of a tree, but segmented into four parts, each representing the state of a tree in different seasons. In the top left, the three had small leaves and little buds, on the top right it had full leaves bathed in sunlight, in the bottom left the leaves had changed colors and started to fall off, and in the bottom right the tree was devest of leaves but covered in snow.
It was on the wall near Janus’s bed. It was one of the first things he saw when he opened his eyes in the morning and was usually what reminded him that everything was different now when he woke.
The picture had been in a box in the houses garage up until the Saturday before the last. Saturdays had become his and Emile’s unofficial unpacking Janus’s house day. They would usually pick one or maybe two boxes that had been sitting untouched for years, unpack it, talk, and eat dinner together.
Notably, dinner was usually not provided by either of them.
Patton had gotten into the habit of breaking into Janus’s house. Janus would sometimes catch him doing it briefly, but often Patton managed to avoid him. This was quite the feat considering Janus was not currently working and thus stayed at home a lot of the time. Patton had repeatedly reprogrammed Janus’s kitchen taking away the option for pop tarts entirely and replacing the option with real food. Janus’s kitchen was constantly stocked with something to eat that wasn’t trash. He also liked to leave around different smelling hand soaps, flowers, and paper cranes. Janus had an entire drawer in his nightstand dedicated to storing paper cranes now.
The newest one was still on his nightstand from the night before, sitting cheerfully in the way of his view of the tree paining when his alarm woke up that morning. He sighed. He had not missed getting up early for work.
He was finally going back to working at the TPI this morning. His therapist had signed off on it last week, saying his was fit for duty. Considering they were apparently still understaffed at the TPI and Janus was a senior agent, this was met with much relief. Janus himself still wasn’t sure how he felt about it.
He turned off the alarm and stood. Dr. Figueroa had him write out a morning schedule to follow when he’d expressed his struggle to get the day started. Either Patton or Emile had taken it upon themselves to copy the schedule on virtual sticky notes that appeared in every location necessary for getting ready in the morning.
First, he took a shower. He threw his nightclothes in the laundry chute. There were currently dozens of different scented soaps in his shower all in small bottles that had about 2 or 3 uses. Janus presumed they were curtesy of Patton. He decided to use one at random and it ended up being cotton candy scented.
Next, he got dressed. That was easy enough since he always wore the same outfit to work every day. It didn’t matter what he wore much since missions would force him to redress anyway.
Then he went to his kitchen and sat down at the counter. He pushed the pop tart button. As expected at this point, he did not get a pop tart for breakfast. Instead, he got two eggs, toast, a sliced apple, and a few cherry tomatoes with green tea. He ate his breakfast while finishing one of the puzzles he’d been working on the night before.
Once he finished, it was time to finally face going back to the office. He sighed, stood up and pulled up the screen on his timepiece. He selected his office as his destination and was off.
The first thing that happened upon appearing in his office was he got a face full of… something.
He sputtered, smacking the things fluttering about his face out of the air. “What is wrong with you?” was the first thing out of his mouth before he’d even really confirmed that the culprit of this attack was who he’d automatically assumed he was.
Remus, as anticipated was standing not 2 feet away from him.
Remus had apparently gotten into the prop department again because he had some type of softly glowing glittery confetti was no all over Janus as well as their entire office.
“Remus, I told you no!” Lena snapped. “You know it’s impossible to clean up 3150s sparkle nukes.”
“Welcome back!” Remus crowed.
“I hate you,” Janus replied. “I just took a shower.”
“You’re fine,” Remus said with an eye roll.
“This shit doesn’t come off in decontamination,” Janus spat. “If my first mission back sends me to a time where I’ll be tried as a witch for glowing, I’m blaming you.”
“We’re going to 2510,” Remus informed him. “You’ll fit right in.”
Janus grimaced. “Ugh, that decade.”
“It’s my favorite decade!” Remus exclaimed.
“Of course, it is,” Lena grumbled. “Just don’t bring anything gross back this time.”
“No promises,” Remus replied.
Janus chose to disengage from the conversation as Remus and Lena argued about was and what wasn’t allowed to be brought back to their shared office from what was well known as the least tasteful decade in history. It was also one of the least turbulent decades in history. The population was too busy making shitty ice cream flavors to wage war.
At least they were giving him an easier assignment for his first time back. He turned to his desk and pulled up the files on his next mission, glancing through them. It was just a small blip that the TPI had noticed in a small town in 2510. It probably wasn’t much of anything, but they had no record of what had caused it, so they were going to send someone to look. Honestly, they’d usually just send in a surveillance agent and be done with it, but they’d probably handpicked this one for Janus in particular. He’d be insulted if he didn’t honestly still feel a bit off kilter being in the office.
To his surprise, he didn’t have a scheduled meeting with Rhi. It wasn’t particularly important to see a mission coordinator for something this small, but it still wasn’t the usual protocol. Instead, he was just instructed to pick up his costume at the costuming department and leave in about an hour.
“Do we really not have an appointment with Rhi?” Janus asked.
“Senior agents haven’t really been meeting with Rhi unless it’s a high priority mission,” Lena told him. “We have too many newbies running around and there’s not time.
“That’s concerning…” Janus said.
“It’s better than trying to rush the inexperienced ones through. We at least have a general idea of what we’re doing. They’re trying to train up more mission coordinators, but that’s taking a while.”
Janus still frowned, but he glanced back at the mission instructions. He’d have to make sure he thoroughly understood what was being asked of him before leaving if he wasn’t meeting with Rhi. “We should go get changed,” he told Remus. “2510s clothing is notoriously difficult to put on.”
“Five minutes back and he’s already dying to get my clothes off,” Remus said cheekily.
“I would rather tear my own eyeballs out of my socket than see you without your pants on again.”
Remus just wiggled his eyebrows.
“I’m so glad you’re back,” said Lena when Janus looked at her in exasperation. “He’s finally not Fred’s and my problem anymore.”
Chapter 56
Getting ready for the mission was a bit of a mess honestly. The costume department barely even spared them a glance before sending them on their way. Remy at least was still there to give them one last debrief before sending them off into 2510, though he looked exhausted.
“Are you sleeping?” asked Janus.
“I’m drinking coffee,” was the reply as he shooed them out onto the streets.
The timeline disturbance that had been picked up was somewhere in one of the shops on that street.
“Do you want the bakery or the karaoke/stripper bar?” Remus asked.
Janus raised an eyebrow at him, and Remus clapped him on the back.
“This is why we’re partners,” he said.
He plodded off towards the building to their right, and Janus turned to the building on the left. It was a small bakery and coffee shop painted in bright colors and sporting the Brazilian and Albanian flags.
There was a soft tinkling bell sound when he entered the shop, and the person behind the counter glanced over at him briefly before finishing putting a pastry in bag for a customer.
Unfortunately, their attention meant Janus wasn’t going to get away with snooping around the store without buying anything. He glanced around the interior of the shop as he walked up to the till.
He glanced into the bakery display case the worker was standing behind. Oh… oh that all looked disgusting. He was not depressed enough anymore to willingly eat any of that.
“Uh,” Janus said when the worker looked at him. He glanced up at the wide selection of drinks over their head and winced at the ways the letters moved on the screen. He was pretty sure his dyslexia wasn’t quite that bad. Why did anyone choose to make letters move around and shake on purpose? As someone who had to deal with that on a daily basis, it wasn’t exactly entertaining.
“Is it possible to get a banana and chocolate potato chip smoothie, but without the potato chip part?” he asked.
“Sure,” the worker replied. “Anything else?”
Janus shook his head.
“Can I have a name for that?”
“Jay,” Janus replied.
“Alright. It’ll be out in a minute.”
Janus nodded and turned, able to take in the rest of the establishment now that there weren’t eyes on him. It was as colorful on the inside as it was on the outside and seemed to have a retro cowboy-space theme mixed with posters from a contemporary werewolf romance movie. Janus had actually seen that movie one. It was surprisingly tolerable.
The seats at least looked comfortable. There were a good number of tables and three couches. All of them were mix-matched. A few of the tables were outfitted with holographic chess and checkers, but most were normal tables. There were even a few physical boardgames and some bookshelves full of books, though he thought some of the bookshelves might just be there for decoration. He wasn’t sure which were and which weren’t.
He pretended to be very interested in the decorations as he waited on his drink, using that as an excuse to look around the entire shop. He was turned away when the door chimed again.
“Hello,” a familiar voice said, making Janus turn around instantly. Janus could immediately tell that the man hesitantly lingering in front of the bakery display was not the Patton that he’d spent months holed up with or who had broken into Janus’s house repeatedly to replace his soaps and cook him meals. He seemed out of place which was saying something in 2510. He had the air about him that he was an 80-year-old grandpa trying to embrace youth culture, but not quite getting it. He also spoke in an accent that people around him would probably assume was him just not being fluent in Spanish but was actually him not being completely comfortable speaking Spanish from half a century ago.
“Uh…” said Patton looking at the menu, a crease between his eyes.
“I’d suggest the banana and chocolate potato chip smoothie without the potato chips,” Janus said. Patton startled, whipping around to face him in surprise. “That’s what I got, though I would leave out the potato chips.”
Patton’s eyes narrowed on him. It was not, of course, the first time that Patton hadn’t been thrilled to see him, but it was the first time Janus had been happy to see him and he hadn’t been happy to see him in turn. Janus had gotten used to a Patton that liked him and he found himself not quite prepared for the way he pursed his lips in annoyance at the sight of Janus.
“I’ll do the banana and chocolate potato chip smoothie, but with the potato chips,” he said in a way that made it sound like he thought he was getting one up on Janus for some reason.
“What flavor of chips?” the worker asked.
“Er, what flavors do you have?”
“Uh, I think drywall, oak wood, and limestone.”
Janus almost laughed at his expression. “Uh, do you have any naturally edible flavors?” he asked.
“We might have grass.”
Patton squinted as the worker bent to look under the cabinet. “Oh, wait, no, it’s glass. Is that alright?”
“…Maybe just no on the chips.”
Janus did his best to school his features, so it wasn’t obvious he was laughing at him. He didn’t think he did a very good job considering Patton was glaring at him after turning around. That or he was just already pissed at Janus by default. It could go either way honestly.
“So,” Janus said when the worker turned away to start making Patton’s drink. “What are you doing here.”
“It’s none of your business,” Patton said with narrowed eyes.
“I mean, we could both be here for the same reason,” Janus pointed out. “We could share intel.”
“I doubt we’re here for the same reason.”
“How would you know?” asked Janus.
Patton just looked away from him. He immediately looked confused at the movie poster his eyes landed on.
“Unless,” Janus said curiously, you aren’t here for a reason, reason.” Patton said nothing. “It was a pretty small disturbance, so it would make sense that your equipment might not pick up on it.” At least at this point. “Acting the tourist, Pat?”
“I’m just doing research,” Patton said, crossing his arms.
“Research?” Janus asked.
“I’ve never been here before,” Patton admitted. “I wanted to get a feel for it and other places just in case there ever was an issue.”
“You just did France, didn’t you?” Janus asked.
Patton frowned and Janus smiled slightly. “It was recent,” he admitted.
“Well,” Janus said. “If you want some advice. I’d start with figuring out accents when you’re in different times.”
“I don’t need your advice,” Patton said and then smugly, “Janus.”
It took a bit for Janus to scan back through his memories and remember that Patton hadn’t known Janus’s name in France. He would have only figured it out after his friend Lo hacked into Silver Mountains University’s system and figured out Virgil had an appointment with him. Janus raised an eyebrow. “You sure about that, Patton?”
He frowned, pouting like whenever Janus told him he wasn’t allowed to try to catch a bird and make it their pet. It was strange to meet a version of Patton who had not lived in a hole in the ground with him for months when Janus had already done that. Patton was on the back foot for once throughout this conversation. Every time before this, he’d managed to somehow twist it around even when he’d been younger than he was right now. When Janus had arrested him at the University, he’d managed to figure out his equipment wouldn’t be stopped by the TPI’s despite having no idea what the TPI was.
In France, even when Janus had thought he’d been winning by taking his phone, he ended up getting access to a University in Janus’s time with information on the TPI, a situation that still had not been resolved.
Today, however, Janus knew far more about Patton than Patton expected. He still didn’t know exactly what his agency or whatever it should actually be called did, but he knew some things about it. He knew Patton was from the 21st century which explained the anachronisms in his speech in different times.
“You could help me look if you’d like,” Janus offered casually.
“Why?” Patton asked suspiciously.
Janus shrugged. It was not because he missed him, he insisted to himself. It wasn’t because after spending so much time with him, not getting to talk with him all day was strange. It had nothing to do with the fact that the few times he’d ran into a farther along version of Patton since he’d moved back home, their interactions had been brief and tinged with something. No, the only reason Janus was inviting him along was so he could teach this younger version a few things, so he hopefully didn’t go about messing up time. “We worked well together in France, didn’t we?” he asked. “Besides, it’s just a small mission without much danger to the timeline.”
“Pat,” the person at the counter called. Patton turned to him to go grab his smoothie, thanking the worker before turning back around and walking over to Janus.
“Fine,” he said. “I’ll help, but you have to answer my questions.”
“I’ll answer the questions that won’t endanger any timelines or secrets of my agency.”
Patton considered it for a moment, taking a sip of his drink. “Fine,” he agreed.
“Good,” Janus replied. “We’ll start by looking around the coffee shop for anything unusual. Did you have any questions now. It’d look more natural to be walking around if we were having a conversation.”
“Does the glitter in your hair have to do with the style of the time or…?”
Janus sighed.
Chapter 57
Luckily, the cashier didn’t seem to think them snooping around was very odd. To be fair, the shop had quite a few odd decorations to look at. So, perhaps employees were just used to people walking around and looking at all of the different things. It helped that Janus and Patton were talking as they searched. They just looked like a couple… of friends… casually chatting and exploring the coffee shop together.
“So,” Patton said, keeping his voice quiet, though luckily the few patrons were on the other side of the shop. “What exactly is it that you do working for the TPI?”
“Well,” Janus said. “I’m a senior field agent. That means I am the person who actually goes on missions in different times. These missions can range from tracking down people who are committing crimes using time travel, stopping anything or anyone that could damage the timestream, and helping waylaid time travelers.”
“So, there are different types of agents?” Patton asked, curiously.
“Yes,” Janus replied. “There are a lot, but only four type time travel on a regular basis.” Should he be telling a very young version of Patton this? Probably not, but he couldn’t find it in himself to care too much.
“There are surveillance, touchdown, field, and cleanup agents,” he explained. “Surveillance agents do a bunch of things including research about the exact time field agents are going to and figuring out the best places for them to enter the timestream. Touchdown agents come slightly before field agents to do last second checks and stay when field agents are out. They mostly are just there to intervene if there are any unforeseen issues. Field agents actually interact with people from other times on a daily basis as they slip into the timestream and find whatever person or object they’re looking for. Cleanup agents come in afterwards and tie up any loose ends as well as observe the area for a few days to make sure nothing happened that no one caught.”
“Everyone else who works at the TPI is mostly in research and management. They don’t usually travel, though everyone who works there is licensed to travel if necessary.”
“That’s a lot of people,” Patton commented.
“What we do is important. We want to make sure we are doing it correctly.” It was honestly not meant to be a jab, but Janus could see Patton frown. He decided to change the subject. “Right now, we’re looking for something that’s causing a small disturbance.”
“What type of thing could cause a disturbance? Is it always a machine like the one in France?”
“No,” Janus replied. “That was actually unusual.” He thought for a second. “At least that used to be unusual, but lately we’ve seen more and more of that sort of thing.”
They were currently standing at a bookshelf, but nothing pinged Janus’s interest or time piece, so they moved on to look at a few of the movie posters. Patton seemed to grow more and more concerned the longer he looked at the posters.
“So, what is it usually?”
“Well,” said Janus. “Some things are natural events. No one’s really sure what causes those. There are theories, but I’m not really involved in that. We leave those alone for the most part if we find those. They’re usually small things, though on occasion they’re a bit bigger. Usually, time disturbances are caused by someone messing up. They say something wrong that gets someone curious and creates a butterfly or they leave an object that doesn’t exist in the time.”
“So, what do you think this one is?” Patton asked curiously.
“Well,” Janus said. “It’s a rather small disturbance, so it won’t be anything too major. Probably just an object out of place.”
“Hmm,” Patton replied. “Well, I’ve always been good at those find the difference games.”
“Have you now?” Janus said, unable to stop a slight grin from ghosting over his face.”
“Mhmm,” replied Patton. He drained the rest of his smoothie and then turned around, facing away from the wall of posters they’d been looking at. He slowly scanned the room, an action a lot less inconspicuous than what Janus had them doing, but he didn’t protest for now.
“That’s weird,” Patton declared, pointing rather obviously at a shelf. Janus noticed a woman looking at him funny. “Well,” Patton continued. “More like it isn’t weird, which is weird for here.”
Janus glanced at the shelf full of small figurines. Most of them were of mythical creatures: werewolves, dragons, and even one not even Janus recognized. Janus would guess, especially judging by the plethora of movie posters that they were all from movies or something of the like. However, Patton was correct there was one that stuck out from the rest. It was still a figurine, but unlike the rest, it was of a real animal: a cow.
“That is odd,” Janus agreed, peering at the cow. Figuring Patton had already been obvious enough, Janus stepped over to the shelf to study it more closely. When looking at it more closely, it became obvious that the cow was very unlike everything else on the shelf. It wasn’t even really a figurine like the ones around it. It looked more like a children’s toy. It’s fur was made out of a soft looking material instead of the stiff plastic of the werewolf next to it.
“It doesn’t really fit in with the collection, does it?” a voice asked from behind Janus.
Janus winced internally at the fact that a civilian had just noticed him acting oddly, but kept his face smooth externally as he turned to face the woman standing behind him.
“My friend and I were wondering what it was from,” Janus said evenly. “We recognized the rest of the figures, but I’m not sure where this one came from.”
“Well, that’s because it didn’t come from anything,” the woman said. “At least that I know of. I just didn’t know where to put the thing, so I put it on my movie figurine shelf.”
“Ah,” said Janus, a politely interested crinkle to his brow. “Where did you get it then?”
“A young kid came by about, oh, a week ago. He looked like a high school kid or maybe college. He seemed right confused and upset. He said he didn’t have any money on him, and got weird when I tried to ask him about his parents. I ended up giving him a free drink and let him sit here for a couple’a hours. We got to talking about my collections. See, I have a deal that if someone brings me back something of interest for my displays, they get a free drink. He insisted on giving me that in exchange for the drink even though I told him I’d given him the drink ‘cause he seemed upset.”
“I don’t even particularly want the thing, but he said he didn’t want it anyway, and he insisted, so I took it.”
“Interesting,” Janus said. “Do you mind if I touch it?”
“Go ahead,” she said with a shrug.
He reached forward to pick up the cow and felt the softest of fizzles that only someone who regularly time traveled would feel. Despite already knowing this must be what he’d come for, he still subtlety set his timepiece to scan it.
Patton was peering over her shoulder now. “If both you and the person who gave it to you don’t care much about it, do you think we could buy it off of you?” he asked. “I’m a big fan of cows.”
She shrugged her shoulders. “I guess,” she agreed. “If you really like it. I don’t know what else I’d do with it.”
“How much?” Janus asked.
“Well it only cost me a Lemon CastelWalk and a scone, so about 12.”
“Sure,” Janus agreed, pulling out his wallet and forking over the currency. “Thanks,” he said.
“No problem,” she replied. “Hope you can find some use for it.”
Janus gave her a smile and then looked at Patton. “I think it’s about time to go, don’t you think.”
Patton nodded. “Thank you for the cow statue,” he told the woman as they left the shop. They walked a bit down the street. Patton turned to him once they were out of sight of the shop window. “So, that’s it?” he asked.
Janus nodded and checked his time piece which had finished it’s scan. “The fabric is from the late 43rd century,” he confirmed, “but that’s not all. It’s stranger than that.”
“Stranger how?” Patton asked.
“The materials are definitely from the 43rd century,” Janus said, “but it’s not from the 43rd century.”
“What do you mean?”
“This,” Janus said, looking at the cow. “This doesn’t exist. Every object has traces of where it’s been no matter how much you clean it. My timepiece can register debris sticking to an object down to the microscopic level and give a general idea where and when they came from. There’s no time travel residue implying it came from the 43rd century or even just dust or dirt from that time period. There isn’t even anything on it from this time period from more than the week the shop owner said it was in her possession. My scans seem to be saying, this thing popped into existence a week ago and didn’t exist in any time or place before that.
Patton frowned. “Well then, what does that mean?”
“I don’t know,” answered Janus frowning down at it. “I have absolutely no idea.”
Chapter 58
Janus didn’t know what to make of the cow he’d gotten in 2510. He’d said goodbye to the young version of Patton and grabbed Remus before heading back to the TPI. He’d immediately handed the time anomaly over to the labs, but even after a few weeks, he hadn’t heard anything back yet. The labs seemed just as stumped as he was.
The older version of Patton still drifted in and out of his life, usually unseen, like a ghost in the night. Well, a ghost that cooked him plenty of healthy food.
It felt odd slipping back into his old routine of missions.
Sometimes it felt like no time had passed, but then he’d see the faces of new recruits or get a mission where he didn’t see Rhi and remember that things were different now. The TPI was strained, constantly running after time distortions with no idea what or who was causing them. The new recruits were stumbling to catch up to the agents who knew what they were doing but were still needed to fill the gaps. It made Janus grimace, but he didn’t know what the solution was.
It was nice to be able to talk to Emile about these things.
If Patton made sure he was taking care of himself at home with nice meals and an ever-changing option of soaps and shampoos, Emile made sure he was taking care of himself at work. Janus was now forced to have a water bottle at his desk to make sure he wasn’t spending the day dehydrated and, assuming he was not on a mission, Emile would either drag him away to eat lunch or bring lunch too him if he was too busy. Today was the later kind of day. Emile had messaged him about 45 minutes ago asking if he was free and then had taken his order for a local restaurant when Janus said he had too much to do.
There was a knock on the door and both Fred and Janus, the only two occupants of the office at the moment looked up.
“I’ll get it,” Janus said, getting up before Fred did. He knew Fred was currently in the middle of a report on a trip to 2000B.C. he and Lena went to. They’d let a new recruit tag alone for training purposes. It had gone badly to say the least. Fred looked exhausted and stressed which was unlike the usually cheery man.
Janus shuffled to the door and opened it. A man in his early 30s that Janus didn’t recognize was standing there.
“Hi,” he said. “I, uh, moved into the office next door. My name is Dave.”
There was a moment of silence. “Did you need something Dave.”
“Right,” he said. “Yeah, I was just wondering if your integrator is running, because mine isn’t.”
Janus glanced back at the report he’d been working on. “Yeah, it’s fine.”
“Well, is it, like, connecting to the TPI system?”
“I don’t know,” said Janus, “I was working locally.”
“Yeah, well that’s the problem with mine. I was wondering if anyone else was having the same problem.”
“Let me check,” said Janus, walking over to his desk. He went to open his email and an error message popped up.
That was… odd to say the least. The TPI had very, very reliable technology. If it was just Janus who could not access the system, he’d assume it was just a local problem, but if the next door neighbor also was having an issue, that could smell trouble.
“Fred,” Janus called. “Are you connected to the internet?”
Fred glanced down at his computer and clicked a couple of buttons. “No,” he said.
“Hmm,” Janus said. He pulled up his timepiece. That at least connected to the TPI servers, so the servers themselves weren’t down, just the offices’ connection to them. “Well, I can still connect with my timepiece.”
“Same,” said Fred.
“So, what’s wrong?” Dave asked. “How do we fix it?”
“We don’t fix it,” Janus said. “We submit a tech support request.”
“Oh,” said Dave. “…How do you do that?”
Janus sighed and flicked his wrist to project a screen. “If you go to the web on your timepiece, it’s literally on the page that automatically pops up,” he said pointing.
“We can connect to the internet through our timepieces?” Dave asked.
“…Did you have any training?” Janus asked.
“Don’t be rude,” Fred said absently, still typing on his report.
Janus just rolled his eyes.
“Not on… that part. They did give me a handbook.”
“Have you read it?” Janus asked.
Dave shrugged which told Janus everything he needed to know.
“Just go back to your office,” Janus told Dave. “I’ll submit the tech support request this time since it’s affecting me as well but read your handbook and familiarize yourself with your timepiece for goodness’s sake.”
“Okay,” Dave said, turning around and wandering back to his office with no thoughts in his eyes.
“I’m not your fucking preschool teacher,” Janus muttered under his breath as he returned to his desk. “It’s not my job to hold your hand and wipe your ass.”
Fred glanced up at him. “Thanks for not saying that when he was still in the room,” he said.
Janus shot him a thumbs up.
He sat down at his desk and quickly submitted a tech support request. By the time he finished that, Emile was knocking on the door with a bag of food.
“Come in,” Janus said to him, and he did, pulling over Remus’s chair and plopping down the food on Janus’s desk.
“You look stressed,” Emile commented.
Janus sighed, already reaching into the bag to look at what Emile had bought. “Everything’s disorganized, everything’s broken, and no one knows how to do anything.”
“Yeah,” Emile said. “I’ve noticed the TPI is understaffed. Even with all of the new recruits, there never seems to be enough people to go around.”
“Yeah,” Janus said, pulling out a burger on a pretzel bun and going to unwrap it. “How about you? This all been messing up your job too?”
“In general, for the AMO, yes, because they have to get all of the new agents houses and everything. For my department, not as much, but we are seeing some agents getting stressed because they’re overworked. Mostly the more senior agents.”
“Honestly, I’m lucky stress makes me throw myself into work to avoid thinking about it. I shudder to think how all of the mentally healthy people are holding up.”
“Janus,” Emile scolded.
“Plus, I’m already set up to have an appointment with a head doctor at least twice a week, so I’m good on that front.”
“I guess that’s true. Just don’t overwork yourself,” Emile said.
“I’m fine Emile. Plus, they need me. I seem to be one of the few people around here who actually know what they’re doing.”
“I just worry…” he said.
“I can handle it well enough,” Janus promised. “I’ve got the toolkit or whatever the head doctor calls it. Plus… work wasn’t ever actually the problem.”
“I know. I know…Just…you aren’t even taking lunch.”
“I have a bit more time free in the afternoon,” Janus said.
“I was just in the middle of something today. If you’re free for a half hour or something, we could get a cup of coffee. How about that? Would that assuage your worry about me a least a bit?”
“Yeah,” Emile said. “Yeah, it would a bit. I have a break at 2, would that work?”
“Sure,” Janus said. He technically had a good amount of stuff to do, but Emile was right in the end. He should try to take breaks. It wasn’t his duty to do everything at the TPI. “A quick lunch now and coffee at 2.”
Chapter 59
Janus did fulfil his promise to Emile to take a short coffee break at 2pm. It was nice for both of them, Janus thought and was well worth it… even when he came back to a stack of work and an extra mission on his docket.
“Where did this one even coming from?!” Janus asked as he and Remus speed walked to costuming. “I was gone for less than 30 minutes. They can’t give us more than an hour warning anymore?”
Remus shrugged. “I just got back from a mission,” he said. “I haven’t even had time to write my report on that one.
“This is a mess,” Janus said. “Everything’s a mess.” Readings of a fairly large time distortion had popped up in 2158 Lille, France out of seemingly nowhere according to write up they’d been given. Though, honestly, with how disorganized the TPI has been, Janus wasn’t 100% confident they hadn’t just missed the thing somehow. It also was apparently giving very similar readings to the time device they’d ran into in Cuba. That’s why they were sending both Remus and Janus, despite the two of them mostly having been split up for missions in the past few weeks. If it was as bad as Cuba, they wanted them to have backup.
Of course, that was where the TPI’s consideration had ended. Remus and Janus were still being rushed through to this mission and not even seeing Rhi once more. Costuming barely even glanced at them when they got there. They just tossed clothing at them and only gave them a superficial look over before sending them off to decon.
It was almost disorienting how quickly they ended up in a completely different time and place. Janus was lucky that he was used to traveling through time. He could easily slip into the right language and accent and knew how to walk in the shoes they gave him. He worried about other people though.
They arrived, of course, a bit before the time distortion was meant to begin, especially knowing their devices might not work once whatever it was hit. They waited around on a bench near a small shopping area for a while.
“So,” Remus said. “How’ve you been?”
Janus glanced at him. “Better overall,” he said. “Shit’s fucked with the TPI right now though.”
“I know,” Remus said. “It’s been interfering with my many extracurricular activities.”
“You’re extracurricular activities?” Janus asked. “Do I even want to know?”
Remus show him a smile. “Probably not,” he said. “It’s just the usual: sex, drugs, alcohol, making sure Diesel Fuel has whatever she could ever want.”
Yet, even as he said it, there was something else in his eyes that gave Janus pause. “Are you sure things are alright?” he asked. “I could help with something if you need.”
“With what time, Janus?” he asked, with a raised eyebrow.
“I could make time,” Janus said.
Remus just shook his head. “It’s nothing,” he claimed.
Janus wanted to press the issue, but then there was a buzz from both of their time pieces.
“Well,” Remus said, getting to his feet. “Duty calls.”
Strangely enough, despite giving off the same signals as the device from Cuba did, their time pieces did not shut off. The detected the time distortion like they were supposed to, but otherwise stayed active.
It was… incredibly easy to use their time pieces to find the source of the time distortion. Apparently, the caution about it considering that it was similar to the Cuba incident was unfounded.
The tracked the distortion down to a small children’s playground in the middle of the city. There was a device attached to the bottom of one of the slides. Janus flipped it off and balance was restored to time.
“Weird,” Janus said. “It definitely does look like the device we found in Cuba, but…”
“We aren’t currently swimming in an ocean,” Remus filled in.
“Yes,” Janus said. “You’d think the same type of device would have the same effect, but this one was pretty stable.”
“The main question is still who is putting them,” reminded Remus. “These are clearly not natural. Someone is doing this, but all we’re doing is running around trying to turn them all off instead of getting to the root of the problem.” The last bit was a frustrated mumble.
“You’re right,” Janus had to agree, “but so far these things have been practically untraceable. We can’t even figure out when they’re from. The most we can do is see when they’re active.”
“This doesn’t make any sense,” Remus said.
“No it-” Yet, before Janus could finish, he was cut off by a shout.
“Janus,” Patton’s voice called from the opposite side of the playground. “Hi!”
“Uh…” Janus said as he approached. “Hi.” He probably shouldn’t be too shocked to see Patton hanging around time distortions. He’d shown up at many of them before, but something about him showing up after the time distortion was already fixed threw Janus off. “We already dealt with time distortion…”
“Oh, good!” Patton said. “That’s good.”
“Yea-”
“So, I was actually wondering something.”
“Er, alright,” Janus said. There was a pause. “What?”
“Oh,” Patton said. “Um. You. Well, you once mentioned that you liked ballet.”
He hadn’t actually that he could remember, but he wouldn’t be surprised if a future version of him had. “Yes,” he said. “That’s true.”
“Yeah,” Patton said. “Cool, so I have a… nephew who’s been getting into ballet. And I’m trying to learn more about it. I was wondering if you had any suggestions for things to see about ballet to help me, er, get a better idea about how… it… is. You know?”
Before Janus could think of a response, Remus spoke up. “You were a much better flirt in Cuba,” he remarked idly. Janus elbowed him harshly in the side.
“Hey, Remus, honey,” Patton said, glancing at him with a sweet smile. “I saw an interesting looking coffee shop down the road.” He started digging in his pocket. “If I give you money, would you mind getting us all something to drink.” He pulled a few bills out of his pocket.
“Yeah… okay,” Remus said with a smirk. “I see how it is.”
Patton just smiled at him and handed over the money.
“Have fun you two,” Remus said, turning on his heels and striding off.
Janus glanced back at Patton once he was gone. “So, a nephew?” Janus asked.
Patton nodded. “Yep!”
“What exactly did you want to know?”
“Erm… I dunno,” Patton said. “I don’t know enough about ballet to know what to ask about ballet.”
“Well do you want to know more about the watching side or the dancing side.”
Patton bit his lip. “Well, I guess I’d like to know more about the watching side first,” he said. “Then maybe learn some basics about the dancing stuff if my nephew wants to dance.”
“Well, I actually do know more about watching ballet than participating, so that’s good.”
Patton ended up pulling him over to sit on the swings even though there was a perfectly good bench at the edge of the playground. Janus talked a bit about ballet in general and then gave him a list of particular shows he liked. He did try to stick to the 21st century and before under the assumption that this nephew was from the same time as Patton. There was still plenty of things to talk about even with those restraints.
Patton seemed interested as he talked, pressing his face against the chain of the swing to look at him as he talked with a smile.
They spoke about ballet for about 20 minutes before Remus eventually returned from the coffee shop.
“Thanks Remus,” Patton said, taking the cup he’d offered to him.
“No problem,” Remus replied, flashing a smile.
“Well,” Patton said, “thank you for the info Janus, but I really need to be going now.”
“Oh,” Janus said. “Okay.”
“See you soon!” he said, typing something into his timepiece and immediately disappearing without even checking his surroundings. He was lucky the playground was strangely empty today. He left his drink on the ground without taking a sip.
“Well,” Janus sighed once he was gone. “We should probably be getting back to the TPI anyway,” he said, taking a sip of the drink Remus had gotten him.
“A London Fog?” Janus asked.
“It was the special,” Remus said, taking a sip of his own drink.
Janus shrugged. “We’ll finish these and head back,” he said. “The mission was shorter than expected anyway. They can deal with us being gone a couple of extra minutes.”
“Mhmm.”
Janus took another sip. “About the conversation from early,” he said.
“Uh, could we maybe talk about it later?”
“Remus, you’re my friend and clearly something is bugging you.”
“It’s nothing,” Remus said. “Really.”
“It’s clearly not ‘nothing,’ Remus.”
“I… well,” Remus said. “Maybe not, but let’s not talk about it right now. We’re on a mission.”
Janus snorted. “Remus, I’ve seen you drink on the job.”
“…Right,” Remus said. “But still. Things are busy. We should probably actually head back now.”
Janus sighed. “You’re probably right,” he agreed, “but really, we should talk sometime.”
“Sometimes,” Remus agreed, “just… not now.”
“Fine,” Janus said. “Ready?” Remus nodded and Janus pulled up his timepiece and pushing the correct button to get them back to decon. Remus copied him and they both were off.
Chapter 60
Remus pretty much bolted out of decon to get away from Janus when he tried to talk to him again or at least ask if he could come by and talk to him after work. Janus felt a pit of worry start to grow in his gut. There was something wrong, but Janus didn’t know what. In fact, thinking back, maybe there had been something wrong for a while, but Janus had been too caught up in his own shit of a brain to properly address it.
He walked back to his office still thinking about it. Maybe he’d get Emile’s opinion on what to do.
The lights flickered as he entered the hallway his office was in, and he paused. That was strange. Very strange.
He frowned, planning to message someone right away about whatever the fuck that was. It was one thing to be a chaotic mess of a time travel agency; it was another to literally not be able to keep the lights on. What was going on in this place?
He stepped into his office shaking his head. To his surprise, someone was already sitting at his desk.
“Virgil?” Janus asked, confused. “What are you doing here?” It wasn’t completely unheard of for someone in cultural outreach to come physically to the TPI, but usually agents went to them. It was more convenient to them and a bit more secure for the TPI.
“Oh,” Virgil said in a tone that made Janus narrow his eyes and expect the dish washer not to be loaded. “Hey Janus. What are you doing here?”
“In my office?” Janus asked, glancing at Fred who had obviously let him in. Fred shrugged. Glad to know they had great security here.
“Right, yeah,” Virgil said. “It would be your office, huh?”
“…Yes?”
Virgil paused for a split second and took a breath to regroup. “I was actually looking for your partner.”
“Remus?” Janus asked. “Why?” Then he paused. “What on Earth did he do?”
“Nothing,” Virgil said. “Well, I mean… probably something knowing him, but that’s not why I’m here.”
Here is my starting post for today’s study break stories session. I will reblog this post with the story as I write them today. Feel free to send in asks about anything at any point, even if it’s not for the part of the story I’m currently on.
If you aren’t interested and don’t want all of these posts clogging your dash, please feel free to block the tag “study break stories” as all posts and voting about it will go there. You can still see the finished product of the story even if you are blocking that tag as I will not tag the edited chapters with “study break stories” but with the tag “folds in paper.”
See the Folds in Time Universe Master Post for edited chapters. Not yet edited chapters are under the cut. I also have a playlist on youtube for this story.
My hope is to do a good amount today. (Though every time I say that...) Anyway, we’re about to get into the complicated part of this story and I’m so excited! Pay close attention in the next few days I write this. See if you can spot my machinations.
Chapter 44 (Escape from French Toast)
Logan was woken up earlier than he would have liked the next morning by chaos in the kitchen. He’d stayed up late on his laptop running through various programs he’d designed to track time related metrics. So far, he’d run the programs to scan the last 48 hours and had synthesized all of the data, putting it into an Excel document for easy viewing.
At some point he didn’t recall, he’d fallen asleep on the couch. (He’d given up his bed to Virgil.) Of course, both of his roommates tended to rise with the sun and were incapable of being quiet ever, so Logan had gotten a maximum of 3 hours of sleep depending on when he’d actually lost consciousness.
Logan glared at Patton as he shuffled into the kitchen to get a cup of tea, but the other man didn’t notice. He was too busy trying to figure out the right flavor profile for making asiago cheese bread into palatable French toast.
Roman was hovering over him making loud, likely inane suggestions while also vehemently defending his bakery choices. Patton was agreeing wholeheartedly with everything he said and adding his own ridiculous suggestions about how to make the French toast edible while blatantly not following any of his own or Roman’s suggestions.
Logan pushed past Roman to get to the tea shelf without a word.
“Uh oh, he’s grumpy,” Roman said.
“I have not even said a word,” Logan replied, swatting him away as he began picking at Logan’s sweatshirt to remove a few fabric pills near the shoulder.
“Exactly,” Roman replied. “You didn’t sleep last night.”
“I did,” Logan replied.
“And for how long?”
Logan did not respond.
“You know, sleeping can be very helpful for your mental and physical health.”
“So can you keeping your mouth shut,” Logan grumbled back.
“I’ll have you know people love when I talk. You are just being a grouchy old nerd. Isn’t that right, Patton?”
Patton hummed. “Yes, your voice is great, sweetie,” he replied.
“See,” Roman said. “Two against one.”
“Two against two actually, a voice even more tired sounding that Logan’s spoke up from the door to the kitchen, “and since you’re the subject of the vote, your opinion’s too biased to count. So, Logan wins.”
Virgil was standing in the doorway looking as though he’d never heard of the concept of mornings and did not like the new information he was being given on them right now. He was leaning against the doorframe as though at any moment he might slump over and fall back asleep while still standing. The yellow bottom of the slightly too wide nightshirt Patton had given him the night before stuck out from the black hoodie he’d came in.
Roman was sputtering. “Excuse me?!” he squawked.
Virgil made a show of wincing. “My point exactly,” he muttered.
“You’re rude!” Roman exclaimed. He turned to Patton. “Patton, he’s being rude to me!”
“You woke me up,” Virgil hissed. He pulled up the hood of the hoodie and pulled on the strings to tighten it around his face.
“It’s 7am!”
Virgil grumbled something that sounded more like an animal growling than any words.
Patton and Logan shared a look. Patton frowned scoldingly at Logan’s amused smirk as though he wasn’t also finding this argument amusing.
“Well,” Patton interrupted the two’s quickly developing staring contest. “I’m making French toast for breakfast, Virgil, but it’ll be a few minutes yet. I’m sure Logan has something to show you on his computer since he was working on stuff so late last night.”
Logan did not actually have much to show for his efforts yet. It was all just numbers at the moment, but the look in Patton’s eyes said, ‘We’re separating the children.’ Logan half wanted to shrug him off and see where this went as the look on Roman’s face was amusing, but then Logan looked at the tea bags in his hands, the disaster in the making that was the French toast ingredients, and the man tiredly rubbing his eyes.
“Of course,” Logan said evenly. “We will just be in the living room.” He walked over and shoved Virgil gently through the door. “Go get dressed,” he said under his breath.
“Wha?” Virgil asked with a squint.
“We’re fleeing the morning people.”
Virgil just gave him a confused look.
“Unless, of course, you want to be forced to eat French toast made from asiago cheese bread.”
Virgil’s expression darkened and he nodded before turning towards Logan’s bedroom. Logan had grabbed nightclothes and an outfit for the morning for himself before Virgil had gone to bed the night before (not that he’d actually changed into the nightclothes). He grabbed the outfit for today and quickly changed in the bathroom.
Virgil was already fully dressed and waiting in the living room by the time he’d finished. He’d changed into one of Logan’s grey hoodies. It was an older thing that Logan rarely wore, but it seemed to fit him. It had the vibes of a very tired college professor going to work on his research in a coffee shop on the weekends. He was also wearing blue jeans from an unknown source (they had appeared in the laundry one day and no one in the apartment claimed them) that were just a touch too large and thus held up by a belt.
Virgil raised an eyebrow at him without saying a word. Logan gestured with his head towards the front door. He grabbed his keys and wallet from the table near the entrance, being careful not to let the keys clang together and make noise.
He swiftly unlocked and opened the door before gesturing Virgil through. Virgil made less noise than Logan had thought possible as he walked outside of the apartment, but then again, Logan’s own experiences with sneaking out of anywhere were with one or two of the loudest people that had ever existed.
“Where exactly are we going?” Virgil asked once the door had closed behind Logan.
“We’re going to get coffee,” Logan said.
“And we can’t just tell your roommates about that?” Virgil asked.
“I’m not allowed to drink anything more caffeinated than tea since the hamster incident of 2011.”
Virgil’s lips quirked up into a half smile. “Do I even want to know?”
Logan hummed. “Did you notice the hamster cage in our apartment with seemingly no hamster?” he asked.
“…Yes?”
“Once a few years ago, I did not sleep for 72 hours and my caffeine addled brain accidently invented a device that turns things invisible,” Logan told him. “It’s temporary on plants and inanimate objects, but it’s seemingly permanent on animals or perhaps just on rodents. We haven’t tested it on any other animals.”
“W-what?” Virgil sputtered.
“To be fair, I thought I was making the rocks and flowers I’d tested the device on first travel through time. It was a bit of confirmation bias on my part as I was attempted to invent time travel and I did not properly observe the experiment before moving on in my testing.”
“How do you accidently invent an invisibility ray or whatever when trying to invent time travel?”
“It’s a spray,” Logan told him, “and I missed a negative sign.” They’d been walking side by side but needed to make a sharp left turn to get to their destination, and Logan found himself grabbing Virgil’s upper arm in order to guide him.
“Uh,” Virgil said which is when Logan realized it might be odd for a practical stranger to grab someone like that. “Er, where is the coffee shop?”
It’s just a couple of blocks north,” Logan answered, letting him go after they finished the turn and flashing him a small smile. Virgil smiled back. The concept of invisible hamsters seemed to have left his mind. “It’s a smaller place, but gets fewer actual college students, not that it matters since it’s summer break for them.”
“So, do you frequently perform coffee acquiring heists?” Virgil asked.
“Sometimes I drink tea there,” Logan replied, “but yes. How else am I meant to get my work done?”
Virgil laughed. “That’s probably not healthy. I don’t disagree, but it’s probably not healthy.”
Logan found himself chuckling as well as he led him down the path to the shop. “You’re probably correct,” he said, “but they have very good coffee.”
Chapter 45
Logan did end up ordering himself more caffeine than a man who was banded from caffeine probably should have, but honestly, who was Virgil to judge. They also ordered pastries to eat for breakfast which Virgil could already tell were way too sweet, but he wasn’t complaining.
Logan got a text from one of his roommates as they were waiting for their drinks to be finished. He probably didn’t notice the fond smile he sent the phone as he answered.
“I told them I’m showing you the town a bit,” he informed Virgil. “Which isn’t technically a lie.”
“Not, technically, no,” Virgil replied. He took a bite of the cinnamon roll in front of him and grimaced slightly. “Your time has a thing for artificial sweeteners,” he said, keeping his voice down. They were in a far back corner and it wasn’t busy at this hour, so he didn’t see too much of an issue.
“Apologizes, would you like something else?” Logan asked.
Virgil waved him off. “I’ll acclimate. If I could get used to 1950s post war, society is getting used to instant gelatin, recipes during my post-doc, I can figure out how to stomach an overly sweet pastry or two.
“You spent time in the 1950s?”
“Mmm, not my favorite, but seeing the direct results of World War II are important.”
“In the United States?”
“For a bit, but I hopped around a lot and also went to the 60s and 70s. I was basically tracing the evolution of different social issues in the wake of World War II for both the Axis and Allied Powers.”
“An interesting topic,” Logan replied. “I imagine even in the 21st century, I would not have perspective especially on different countries.”
“Oh, you definitely don’t,” Virgil confirmed.
“Perhaps I’ll take a look at your work sometime.”
“Oh, uh,” Virgil said, and he really shouldn’t be flustered about that. He’s gone to conferences and presented his work before. “Yeah, if you want.”
The barista called their drink names then, and Logan got up to go grab them. Get it together, Virgil, he begged himself while shoving another piece of too sweet pastry into his mouth.
Logan set the coffees down on the table in front of them and Virgil took his with a closed mouth smile of thanks, while still chewing on his cinnamon roll.
“So,” Logan began. “More than just escaping the disaster breakfast my roommates had in mind, I would like to perhaps return to the location you arrived at and see if there is anything there physically that wasn’t picked up on my devices. Do you think you’ll be able to find the location if I get you in the general vicinity of the farmer’s market?”
“I don’t always have the best memory,” Virgil said, “but I’ve had a deep-seated fear of being kidnapped since I was a small child, so I could probably lead you to the farmers market, let alone to where I came from.
“Ah.”
“My mom let me watch a horror movie when I was too young about a boy my age being kidnapped and taken out to the middle of the desert to be hunted like an animal, and he had no idea how to get back home. So, then I would spend any ride in any vehicle trying to memorize the path we took with my eyes closed.”
“I see.”
“And I’m really oversharing for having met you in person less than 24 hours ago, aren’t I?”
Logan crinkled his eyebrows. “Are you?” he asked.
“Uh, yeah, I think so,” Virgil said. “Traumatic childhood memories might be a bit much this soon.”
“I have never been the best at knowing social norms,” Logan said. “Would you like me to share a traumatic childhood memory with you, so we are even?”
“I…” Virgil said. “Can’t tell if you’re joking.”
“I am a bit,” Logan said with a small smile, “but if it would make you feel more comfortable, I am willing. We might not have known each other in person for very long, but we aren’t exactly strangers.”
And that was true. Lo had been emailing him for months at this point. They’d argued about the correct order to watch a television show in, they’d watched videos together with Lo logging onto his desktop (promising not to dive into his search history and private files), and Lo had somehow attended all of his publicly streamed lectures without getting caught by the university’s firewall. He’d even managed to make Virgil feel better when he’d had one of his bad days by ranting for hours about airplanes.
He hadn’t known Logan’s face for long, but they did know each other pretty well in spite of that.
“I got distracted on a fieldtrip once,” Logan said, and oops, Virgil had taken too long to say ‘you don’t have to be emotionally vulnerable in a coffee shop to make me feel better’ and now it was too late.
“Somehow, despite the fact that my teacher really should have been taking attendance before allowing the bus to leave the orchard we were visiting, they managed to overlook my absence. I had no friends in the class, and I was so quiet at that age no one noticed me not being there. I couldn’t find my way back to the entrance or find any workers. No one was aware I was gone until my parents came to pick me up and no one could find me. My parents were very unhappy with the teacher once they managed to find me.”
“That experience along with others in my formative years gave me a dislike of being ignored, which combined with my innate desire to have time alone has made friendships difficult to sustain.”
“Oh,” Virgil said, unsure how to respond. “Er, well, that sucks.”
“Luckily Patton is hyperempathetic and Roman cannot be removed from a person he deems his friend with a crowbar,” he said, “which helped me at a younger age. As an adult, I am aware of the issue and am able to work through it with logic most of the time.”
“What do you think about someone who is so anxious he can’t ignore anything, especially a person?”
“I think that would be someone worth knowing,” Logan said. He paused. “Though I would not wish social anxiety onto a person to be clear.”
“Thanks for the clarification,” said Virgil, amused.
They lapsed into silence for a few minutes then. It was still a bit awkward but not completely uncomfortable.
Logan took a bite of his pastry and spoke once he’d swallowed it. “Tell me more about what your plans were with your research before they were disrupted,” he requested, breaking the silence. “Why 2005 in particular? What had you planned to do? How long were you going to stay?”
Virgil smiled and drank his coffee as he did a short rundown of what his plans had been before they were interrupted by time travel. Logan listened careful and even though it sucked that he’d been stranded in a time he hadn’t even meant to visit, he wasn’t all too upset about it for the moment.
Chapter 46
Virgil was correct about his ability to find the location of the farmer’s market. After they ate and finished their coffee, they set out to investigate the location of the time anomaly. “I ended up under the stage,” Virgil informed him. The stage had already been taken down, but it was easy to see where it had once been based on the depressions on the ground.
Logan had brought a few of his tools when they had left that morning and he pulled out a modified iPad.
“You hide your time travel tech as an iPad?” Virgil asked curiously.
Logan glanced at him and said nothing.
“…You made your time travel tech out of an iPad!” Virgil exclaimed.
“It is one of the most easily accessible technologies of this time that is also portable,” Logan shrugged. “I use what I can get.”
“How did you manage to invent time travel with 21st century technology?” Virgil asked.
“It took me a couple of decades,” Logan replied.
“It took them literal centuries.”
“Well, I knew it could happen, so I simply made it happen.”
“You’re terrifying,” Virgil stated.
Logan just hummed and set the iPad scrolling through its diagnostic programs. It scanned the area around them for anything that might indicate time travel.
“Well,” Logan said. “There is definitely an anomaly, but we already knew that. It’s a strange one, however.”
“What do you mean?” Virgil asked.
“I’d assumed whatever had caused you to end up here had dragged you here, but what I’m finding doesn’t seem to be remnants of something to cause time travel. On the contrary, it seems to be similar readings to what stopped Janus time travel to stop working in previous circumstances. I don’t know a lot about the time travel technology from your time, but I have noted they tend to briefly ping off of times near to your destination in order to recalibrate when going a certain amount of time. Perhaps your device did a brief landing here at the wrong time and then was deactivated much like TPI devices have been deactivated beforehand and you got stuck.”
“What does that mean for me?”
“Well, it means your device isn’t broken,” Logan said.
“Then why isn’t it working?” Virgil asked.
“Because,” Logan said. “whatever is deactivating it is still here.”
Virgil looked at his feet as though expecting to see the device sitting on the ground somewhere.
“Not here here,” Logan clarified, “but close by. They have a limited range from what I understand, though I don’t know precisely how far. It’s definitely in this time however. But it’s strange,” Logan tapped out a few things on his device, double checking that he hadn’t missed anything with his regular monitoring.
“It’s not causing any other problems.” Logan continued. “We’ve only ran into them once or twice before and we’ve never managed to get our hands on one too actually study it, but each time we’ve seen them, they created some sort of issue in the environment, but there are no obvious time abnormalities or weather problems. In fact, if I wasn’t looking for it, I wouldn’t have noticed.”
“Okay, well then, can’t we just find it and shut it off?” Virgil asked. “That’s what I know Janus did when he ran into them.”
“It is,” Logan confirmed. “The only issue is without the obvious environmental clues I have no idea where it actually is to turn it off.”
“How the hell do we find it then?” Virgil asked.
“I’m not sure,” Logan said. “It definitely was here when it switched on, but it’s definitely not here anymore.” He looked around. “Perhaps it was attached to the stage or put in the musician’s instrument cases. Then again, by that logic, it could have been put in anyone’s bags or in a since emptied trashcan.”
“So, it could basically be anywhere?”
“Basically,” Logan agreed. “We will check the easiest possibilities to track down and if that produces no results, I’ll… figure out something.”
Virgil grimaced. “That sounds promising.”
“I will do my best,” Logan promised. “I just wish I knew more about these things.”
Virgil seemed to hesitate. “How would you go about learning more about it?”
“Well,” Logan said, “if I can get my hands on a similar device, I could probably figure out a more reliable way to track it.”
“You do,” Virgil said.
“I do what?”
“You do have one.”
Logan frowned. “I assure you, I do not.”
“But you do,” Virgil said. “Eventually.”
“…Oh, I see.” Logan replied. “Do you perhaps know where we do eventually find it?”
Virgil pressed his lips together. “I think I might already be saying too much,” he said. “It’s stuff you shouldn’t know about yet in your personal future. People aren’t supposed to…”
“Time is not nearly as sensitive as the TPI seems to believe,” Logan said with an eyeroll. “In fact, most of Janus and Patton’s interactions so far involve accidently giving more information than necessary.”
“I don’t know…”
“I’m a time traveler from the 21st century who lives with a French man from the 1800s,” Logan said. “I’m not asking for a run down of every part of the event, just a time and place to point us in the correct direction.”
Virgil still didn’t seem convinced.
“It would really only be a time saver,” Logan argued. “I could just blindly look for time distortions, but it’d take a while…”
“Fine,” Virgil said after a moment. “This is probably entirely stupid, but fine. Give me a moment to think about what exactly I can tell you, so I don’t mess everything up.”
Logan smiled slightly at his overly cautious behavior but waited patiently.
“Janus met Pat once in Cuba. There was a time distortion during Camaguey Carnival of 1755. Pat took the device that had been causing the disturbance and left before Janus could catch him.”
“Camaguey 1755,” Logan repeated. “Got it. I’ll look into it, and we can see what we can do. It’ll still take a few days to prep however.”
Logan would need to find exact coordinates and he’d have to talk to Patton considering he’d just recently gotten back from an unwillingly long trip to pre-history. He’d probably be willing to go, but he’d mentioned Logan making him a “time survival pack” before he was willing to go back into the timestream. They’d need to talk about what exactly that entailed and get the supplies for it. His mind was already making plans about what he needed to do.
Virgil nodded. “Should we head back to the apartment then?” he asked, interrupting Logan’s thoughts. Logan glanced at him. He had actually planned to show the man around a bit today instead of spending all of their time thinking about time travel.
“I cannot be sure that my roommates will have cleaned up their French toast nonsense by now,” he said. “We should likely wait to return until at least the lunch hour. It is not as though we could do anything about it today. We will need to plan.”
“Okay,” said Virgil, “then what are we going to do for the next 3-4 hours?”
“Well,” Logan said. “Perhaps I can show you around the town a bit more so as to not make more of a liar of myself than I already have.”
“Sure,” Virgil agreed with a smile. “What will you be showing me.”
“I was thinking we could visit the local museum. We can compare notes about how wildly inaccurate the exhibits present history.”
Virgil rolled his eyes at Logan, but there was something warm underneath his expression. “Fine,” he said, “but I bet I know more than you.”
Chapter 47
The museum was interesting, not because it taught him any more about the events behind the exhibits on display, but more that learning what people in the 21st century cared about and how they presented past events was an anthropological lesson in its own right. Their conversation became a game of not only finding the mistakes made in the exhibits, but also Virgil hypothesizing why those mistakes were made: prejudice, missing information, and unreliable secondary sources all contributed, and Virgil spent a lot of time talking through the possibilities.
They spent a few hours there before heading back to Logan’s apartment.
Not without stopping at a small, hole in the wall, bar inhabited only by day drinkers. When Virgil gave Logan a weird look, he explained, “I have to bring back a peace offering for running off this morning if I want Patton to agree to a time travel mission for me.”
“…And Patton likes… vodka?” he guessed.
“No,” Logan replied, amused. “This establishment serves cheeseburgers which are apparently the ‘best in the city.’ They do not, however, cook anything else. Not even fries.”
When Logan handed him an unlabeled brown paper bag that looked as though it had been dipped in hot oil instead of just it’s contents, Virgil shot him a raised eyebrow. “Ah, yes,” he said, “the quintessential 21st century American meal.”
“You once ate only bagged pepperoni meant for pizzas for breakfast for a week once.”
“I told you that in confidence,” Virgil said, smacking him lightly with the bag of grease.
“And I have told no one,” Logan responded. “Therefore, I have not violated any part of our agreement.”
“You’re making fun of me. That’s definitely a part of the agreement,” Virgil said.
“I don’t remember there being any clause like that in our verbal contract,” Logan replied with a slight smirk. Virgil rolled his eyes. “Besides, I’m not truly making fun of you. The decision to fuel your body solely with pepperoni is, while not the best strategy and one that would certainly prove detrimental in the long run, it is better to eat that then nothing.”
“Oh,” Virgil said. “Uh, good.”
“I’m simply citing another example where not as healthy food in the long term can be good in the short term.”
“But in this case instead of depression eating to stay alive, the purpose is bribery.”
“Exactly,” Logan said. “Bribery to end the time distortion and get you back to the proper time.”
“Alright, fair enough.”
“You don’t have to eat any if you don’t want to.”
“Oh, no, I’m going to.”
“Then why are you complaining?” Logan asked amused.
“I just thought you should know your time has way too greasy food,” Virgil said.
“Thank you for the information,” Logan said dryly. They’d made it back to the apartment by then, and Logan stuffed the bag he was carrying under his arm to unlock the door.
“And where have the two of you been?” Patton asked when they walked into the kitchen.
“I have cheeseburgers for you,” was how Logan answered.
Patton rolled his eyes as Logan set the bag down in front of him. He was sitting at the kitchen table typing on a laptop. “The French toast wasn’t that bad,” he said.
“I will take your word for it,” Logan said pleasantly.
Patton just shook his head and reached into the bag for a cheeseburger. Logan kept looking at him, and that obviously meant something Virgil didn’t know, because Patton glanced up at him after eating a couple of bites. “What?” he asked suspiciously.
“Virgil and I went back to where he arrived,” Logan said. “There are signs that one of the devices that cause time distortions is present.”
“There aren’t any weather disturbances though,” Patton pointed out.
“It seems to be a more advanced version,” Logan answered. “Which will make much more difficult to track.”
“Okay,” Patton said, “then what are we going to do?”
“Well,” Logan said, “if we could get our hands on an older version, we could probably use it to narrow down the current one’s location.”
“And how exactly are we going to get an older version?” Patton asked, eyebrow raised.
“I understand that you have only been back from your last trip for a little over a week and that your last trip through time was a bit difficult, but,” he nodded towards Virgil, “we do know of the time and place one exists that you would have a good chance of being able to find, deactivate, and bring home.”
Patton groaned. “And judging by the source of this information, steal off of the TPI.”
“Yes.”
“Excellent.”
“At least, in this case, you will go into it knowing there will be no major disasters.”
…
Should Virgil… say something. It’d be rude not to mention the whole time shredding almost drowning bullshit, wouldn’t it? Then again… giving him foreknowledge could be a danger to the timestream. He debated with himself whether general social courtesy should outrank the possible destruction of time or not.
…
Maybe he’d just suggest a boat if they didn’t plan to take one? Just in case?
“Fine,” Patton said, “but you’re finishing your tech updates and making me a survival pack before I make any jump. I’m not making the same mistake again.”
Logan nodded. “I can do that,” he agreed. “Just tell me what you want in your survival pack.”
“I’ve already been working on a list,” Patton said. “I’ll email it to you.” He turned back to the computer he’d been working on and typed a few things. “You can add to it if you think of anything.”
Logan looked at his phone as it dinged. “…Do you really need all of this?”
“Yes,” Patton said, taking another bite of his cheeseburger.
“…I’ll do my best?”
“You’ll do it,” Patton returned.
“Right.”
“I’ll start researching Cuba in the 1700’s,” he said.
Virgil saw him pull up google on his computer. He looked at the 21st century computer and then back to Patton. He couldn’t help but think of the museum he and Logan had been to earlier that day. “Do you want help?”
Chapter 48
It took a little over two weeks to get everything set up. Logan had already been in the process of updating their equipment for quite some time, and this situation only spurned him on. He also then had to figure out a way to meet all of Patton’s demands for his new survival kit. His list had already been quite long before he’d started to add to it. He’d even slipped in a request for a boat at some point despite Logan’s protests that Camaguey Cuba was nowhere near the sea.
Thankfully, Virgil didn’t seem to mind the delays too much.
In fact, he may have had a hand in the delays as his natural inclination towards anxiety seemed to infect Patton and cause him to add and add to his list of safeguards for Logan to make. He and Patton were spending a good amount of time together, actually. Patton was fairly good at researching the places he planned to go at this point, but Virgil was undeniably more experienced with that sort of thing considering he worked with the TPI. Patton seemed to appreciate his input.
Roman, on the other hand, decidedly did not. The two of them were prone to arguments about clothing which had gone beyond talking about Cuban clothing to arguments about clothing from pretty much all of time.
Logan could not tell if they were friendly debates or not. He’d even asked Patton who had claimed he also could not tell. Neither Roman nor Virgil’s responses when asked directly about the nature of their relationship were helpful either. Logan did notice that Roman changed the fabric of the outfit he made for Patton after one of their conversations.
Virgil was not much help to Logan unless you counted the intel, he’d given that helped Logan choose the correct time and place. At least, not in the sense that he was able to help with the mathematics and physics Logan was dealing with.
He was, however, good for company. Especially as his sleep schedule much more closely resembled Logan’s own in those weeks. Typically Roman and Patton went to sleep at a much earlier hour than he did himself and Logan would work alone in the living room, but with Virgil living in the apartment, there was constant companionship while he worked, and less volatile company than he was used to working with (assuming, of course, Roman had gone to sleep by that time). It was nice.
He seemed to fit into their little group in a way Logan had not anticipated. Or at least, socially he did. Physically, there were simply not enough beds and Logan had been sleeping on the couch for two weeks.
Eventually, with all of their combined efforts, everything was ready to go. Patton had three different time appropriate outfits, a good amount of knowledge about the festivities he was about to attend, new time travel equipment, and a survival pack that could help him survive an apocalypse. Patton was planning to arrive in Cuba two days earlier than the TPI protocol would send agents like Janus. That way, he would have time to set up and get acclimated before the TPI sent in their surveillance and touchdown agents.
“This is cool,” Patton said, flexing his fingers to see the hidden screen on his palms light up with a map of the area.
“It’s organized the same as your previous device, except for, of course, the control panel to control the cloaking technology and the access to the survival kit.
“Looks great, Lo,” Patton said, still fiddling with it. He changed it to its default state of a metal band projecting the screen and then back to the time appropriate bracelet Roman had designed. There weren’t many possibilities programed for hiding the device yet, but more could be designed in the future. For now, it only had the default band, the bracelet, and a wristwatch.
“I’ve already tested it a good number of times, but you should familiarize yourself with it anyway before leaving.”
Patton nodded, flicked his fingers and disappeared for a moment before reappearing in the same place. Then, he did it again and reappeared directly next to where he’d been standing. He did similar things a few times before predictably getting bored and starting to do ‘tricks’ which mostly involved landing in ridiculous poses and also accidently jump scaring everyone in the apartment at least twice. Eventually, Logan confiscated it for the evening so they could have dinner in peace.
Patton went to bed early, planning on leaving the next day. Roman quickly retired to his room shortly after leaving Logan and Virgil alone in the living room.
Despite knowing already his calculations were perfect, Logan still sat on the couch checking over them one more time just to make sure. Virgil sat on the floor with his back against the couch watching videos on Logan’s cell phone with headphones borrowed from Patton’s collection.
He glanced up when Logan shifted positions and Logan flashed him a smile.
Virgil removed the headphones to speak. “Thanks by the way,” he said, “I already said it to Patton and will again in the morning, but thanks for helping me out with all of this.”
“It wouldn’t have been particularly kind of us to leave you stranded,” Logan pointed out.
“Yeah, but still, you’ve all been working really hard. Right now you’re up at 3am working on it.”
Logan shrugged. “I’d likely be up working at 3am on something anyway,” he said.
“Sure,” Virgil said, “but this time it’s for me so, yeah, thanks.”
“You’re welcome then,” Logan said. “Any time.”
Virgil tilted his head back to grin at him. “Was that a time travel pun.”
Logan scowled. “No.”
“It sounded like a time travel pun.”
“It was not intentional. I will never intentionally say a pun.”
“You’re telling me you live with Patton and never make puns?” Virgil asked.
“I, unlike my roommates, am a responsible adult,” Logan insisted.
Virgil seemed skeptical. “Is that why you’re drinking forbidden coffee out of an orange juice carton at 3am.”
“Not so loud,” he hissed, leaning forward to put Virgil’s mouth and glancing back towards the hallway to see if anyone was about to come storming into the living room with another intervention.
His hand was bit.
“Ow!” Logan exclaimed, taking his hand back. “How do you know?” he hissed. The ruse had been working on Roman and Patton for years because neither liked orange juice.
Virgil rolled his eyes. “I can smell it,” he said. “I’m not dumb.”
“It’s worked on everyone else.”
“No,” Virgil said. “It’s worked on one dramatic idiot and one man who trusts people not to lie to him way too much. I, however, am a paranoid asshole with a doctorate. You can’t fool me.”
Logan couldn’t help but smiled. “I suppose I have met my match,” he said.
He tilted his head all the way back, so his skull rested on the couch cushion and he was staring straight up at Logan with his piercing hazel eyes. “Heck yeah you have,” Virgil said, and Logan was not much more sentimentality, especially not romantic sentimentality, but there was something about the shadows making the room seem cozier and the almost golden glint in his eyes from the lit lamp beside Logan that made it more difficult to breath.
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He was relaxed here in Logan’s apartment at 3 in the morning, looking up at him with warm eyes. He fit, slotting into place with an ease Logan had not expect. He’d found Professor Virgil Eran interesting from the moment he’d first heard him speak and had glanced through his university profile for information on whoever had plugged his virus into their computer. He had found him endearing when they’d corresponded through emails and occasionally one sided video chats. It was different with him right in front of Logan, within arm’s reach. He could reach down barely a few inches and brush his slightly unruly hair out of his eyes.
“You good man?” Virgil asked.
“I am perfectly well,” Logan said, clearing his throat. He glanced away from Virgil. “I think perhaps my roommates have a bit of a point when it comes to caffeine.”
“Maybe at 3am,” Virgil said in good humor. “You’re not a college kid.”
Logan glanced at the college professor on his living room floor. “Well, thank goodness for that,” he mumbled
“I think your calculations are fine anyway,” Virgil said, gently taking the papers out of his grip. “Why don’t we do something else?”
“Like sleep?” Logan asked.
“You think you’ll be sleeping anytime soon?” Virgil inquired with a raised eyebrow.
“Fair point.”
Virgil grabbed the television remote from side table. “Why don’t we watch a bit of that time inappropriate copy of the Epithet File I know you have.”
“Sure,” Logan agreed. “You can come onto the couch if you would like.”
“Nah. You can come to the floor.”
“…Fine.”
Chapter 49
Patton left in the morning and from there it was just a waiting game. Which, was Virgil’s least favorite type of game. He tried to keep his anxiety on the down low considering it was Logan and Roman’s lifelong friend who was running around some other century, and they were both obviously nervous as well, since the last trip had ended in disaster.
…
This trip was going to end in disaster a little bit too, but Virgil was going to ignore that. At least he wouldn’t be gone for months.
The point was, Roman was constantly going to the gym which was, reportedly not normal behavior and Logan spent his days re-checking calculations that were too late to correct and had worked considering Patton had been in contact occasionally.
Yet, despite the fact that he was clearly an anxious wreck as well, Logan eventually forced himself to put his lined notebook paper away for a bit. Roman was out once again when he did so and Virgil was doom scrolling on his phone.
“We should go out to dinner,” he declared suddenly.
Virgil glanced at the pile of take-out containers stacked near the kitchen trashcan. “Sure,” he agreed.
Which was why Virgil was leaving the apartment for the first time in the last three or so days. Logan had asked him if he wanted anything in particular, but he didn’t care and also didn’t know what restaurants were around, so he was just letting Logan lead him wherever he wanted.
He should not have trusted him.
He glared at Logan, but the man only seemed entertained by his ire. “Really?” Virgil asked.
“I wanted to see for myself if you were really that bad with chopsticks.”
“I’m not,” Virgil said, crossing his arms. “It was just the anxiety about the social situation, and I resent this.”
Logan just laughed, knowing well enough that Virgil wasn’t actually irritated. Honestly, he felt fonder than anything that Logan had chosen to take him here. “It’s actually pretty good sushi.”
“21st century American Midwest sushi,” Virgil drawled. “I’m simply quivering with anticipation for that authenticity.”
“It’s unanimously considered the best sushi in town by my friend group,” Logan said as if the fact that Mr. Asiago Cheese Bread For French Toast and Mr. Went Along With Cooking Asiago Cheese Bread French Toast approved of the restaurant would inspire any confidence in Virgil. If he could even call the place a ‘restaurant.’
“It’s. In. A. Mall.”
“So?” Logan asked.
“It’s a sushi stand in a mall. There isn’t even seating.”
“There is seating,” Logan argued nodding at the five chairs sitting in front of the counter. The seating was completely empty which could be because their eating schedule was off and they were eating dinner at 3pm, but more likely meant everyone else in the time had more sense than the man in front of him.
“Where is your sense of adventure for trying new things?” Logan asked. “Are you not an anthropologist. Don’t you want to experience the culture of the time first hand.”
Virgil glared at him.
“Please try it,” Logan said sill amused. “It really is good.”
“If I get food poisoning, I’m blaming you,” he warned.
“Noted,” Logan said, inclining his head. Then, Virgil reluctantly allowed him to lead him over to the sushi stand from where they’d been hiding behind a trash can so as not to be in the direct line of sight of the man standing behind the counter.
The man greeted them as they approached. He obviously recognized Logan and even asked about Patton and Roman as they took a seat. Virgil did have to admit, despite his instinctual misgivings about mall sushi, what he could glimpse of his set up seemed legit. It looked like a real sushi bar if a bit smaller than usual. Where they had sat, there was a glass case in front of them with chilled fish on display and Virgil could see a large rice cooker behind the man along with a normal refrigerator.
Laminated menus were handed to them. They were only one page front and back, but honestly that was probably a good thing. If it had a bunch of complicated or fancy stuff, Virgil might have been worried.
Well, he was still worried, but he wasn’t running screaming. At least his setup looked like it probably wouldn’t give him too much food poisoning. Logan suggested a rainbow and a snake roll and they got some different types of nigiri.
The chef was nice, and he assembled the sushi fully in Virgil’s view which made him a whole lot less leery about the meal. He seemed to know what he was doing at least. Of course, the fish was not as fresh as it would have been in a coastal area, but it was clearly properly handled. When he was finished, he handed it to them all on one big plate.
He had to admit, when correcting for ingredient availability, it was actually pretty good sushi. He would not say it was the best sushi he’d ever had, but it was worlds better than he’d expected. Logan could obviously tell what his opinion was and was overly smug about it.
“Yeah, yeah,” Virgil said when they were finished. “You’re good at picking restaurants.”
“I’m sure you are also when in a place you are familiar with.”
“I’m not actually,” Virgil said with a laugh. “I always panic choose the worst option.”
“Well, I tend to be quite decisive about such things,” Logan said. “I guess we make a good match.”
“Yeah,” Virgil said. “Uh, what are we going to do when we get home? Because sitting there drowning in anxiety like we have been for the past couple of days isn’t the greatest.”
“Do you have anything in mind?”
“You guys have Blockbuster still?”
“No,” Logan said. He paused. “We do have a Family Video store I think.”
“Is it close? Let’s go there.”
“And why are we not just using a streaming service?” Logan asked. “Or using my… library of movies.”
Virgil shrugged. “It’s the charm of it,” he said.
“The charm of a business already made obsolete and on the brink of collapse?”
“Exactly,” said Virgil with a smile.
“Very well,” Logan said. “If that is what you’d like to do I will look up its location on my phone.”
They were in a building that would look abandoned if there wasn’t a light on inside within 15 minutes. The video rental store had clearly seen better days. Its carpet’s pattern was clearly from another decade and had been trampled over so often it was basically like walking on the linoleum beneath. There was a door on the sign asking patrons to close it behind them because the spring used to close it had long since ceased working.
There was only one person working, a guy in his 30s who glanced at them briefly and then went back to looking at his phone. Ah, yes, Virgil’s favorite type of employee.
“What movie would you like to watch?” Logan asked. He glanced at one small, but still surprisingly present section filled with DVDs.
“I don’t know,” Virgil said. “Isn’t that the point? Stop by a movie rental place on a Friday night, grab a more than likely crappy movie and some Milk Duds and proceed to sit and watch the stupid thing anyway because you already paid for it.”
“Virgil, I grew up in the 90s. This isn’t exactly exciting for me. There is a reason streaming sites took over the market,” Logan replied. “Also, it is Tuesday.”
Virgil rolled his eyes. “Just panic choose a movie with me, nerd.”
“Great!” Virgil dragged him off in the direction of the movies that started with ‘S’.
“This is just… gross,” Virgil said a little under an hour and a half later and about an hour into the film.”
“It is a random romantic comedy from 2002,” Logan responded. “What did you expect?”
“Yeah, but there’s weird sex jokes and actors that are probably from Mars and then there’s actual on screen physical abuse between the romantic couple.”
“I will concede that point,” Logan said, “but I will remind that this could have all been avoided if you had allowed me to do proper investigation of the movie choices before renting it.”
“Ugh, yeah, yeah,” Vigil replied, leaning back to stare at the ceiling. “Just turn it off.”
Logan complied, reaching over to eject the DVD from his computer. The three roommates didn’t actually have a DVD player connected to their TV, so they’d chosen to use the desktop computer in Logan’s room.
Virgil was laying on Logan’s bed with Logan sat propped up against the headboard. Logan leaned over to peer down at him. “Thanks for helping distract me,” he said. “Despite the fact that we now know more about what we’re doing, I still get worried about sending Patton through time. His last time travel experience didn’t improve my confidence. I have been… rather nervous.”
“Well, I’m glad I could help, at least a little,” Virgil replied.
“You did,” Logan replied. “A lot.” His hand reached down to touch pat his shoulder, but then lingered there for a moment too long.
Virgil sat up suddenly and Logan had to jerk back to keep their heads from colliding. “I…” Virgil choked out once he was sitting up. “Um…”
Logan’s mouth curled into a half smile. He offered a hand and Virgil took it.
Virgil glanced at the hand. “I, uh, I am an anthropologist.”
“I am aware,” Logan said with a raised eyebrow.
“And, uh, you were born in this time, so technically I’m studying you…”
“I’m a time traveler, Virgil,” he said amused. “I doubt I am a pure specimen for any studies you may be doing.”
“Right,” Virgil said. “That’s a good point. You’re right.”
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There was a pause. “So then,” Virgil said. “No moral quandaries. Just two people sharing a bed and watching a romance movie.”
“It was a bad one.”
“It really, really was,” Virgil said with a grin and then Logan was leaning forward and Virgil’s hand was on Logan’s shoulder.
And then the door was flinging open. “I’m home!” Roman declared as Virgil scrambled back, banging his head on the bed’s headboard.
“Fuck,” Virgil hissed.
“Roman! You need to knock!”
“Since when?” Roman asked, plopping down on Logan’s bed between them.
“Since we have a guest,” Logan said meaningfully. Virgil hid his reddening face in his hands, curling into as tight of a ball as he could.
“You were both in here, it’s not like one of you were naked,” Roman said flippantly. Virgil debated the merits of staying curled up in a ball for the rest of his life. There was a second of silence, and Virgil was glad he couldn’t see the expressions on their faces from his ball when Roman said, “Oh my god!”
Chapter 50
The breakfast table was silent the next morning. Though if one could call it a breakfast table when Logan was only drinking a cup of tea, Roman was chewing on a slice of unbuttered, untoasted bread, and Virgil was still either asleep or avoiding them both in Logan’s bedroom was debatable.
“…Look,” Roman said.
“We aren’t talking about it.”
“How was I supposed to know the two of you were getting it on?! Put a sock on the door next time or something. It’s common courtesy!”
“We weren’t having sex,” Logan hissed. Roman opened his mouth. “Shut up and learn to knock,” Logan said, pointing his spoon at him threateningly.
Yet, still, because it was Roman, the other man opened his mouth again. Luckily, before he could say anything else on the matter, there was a loud crack from the living room.
“I’m going to need a towel please!” Patton called.
“I’ve got it,” Roman said instantly, jumping to his feet, leaving Logan to walk to the living room.
“Why are you wet?” Logan asked immediately upon taking in the sight of his roommate. He was soaked, water dripping from his form like he’d just gotten out of a pool seconds before.
“There was an ocean in the church,” Patton said.
“What?” Logan asked.
Patton pushed his sopping wet hair out of his eyes. “The time distortions were a lot more intense than ones we’ve seen before,” he said. He held out a small innocuous appearing device whose only mechanism appeared to be a switch to him. “Be really careful with that. It’s unstable and we might have damaged it getting out.” Patton winced and removed his timepiece. “Actually, speaking of that. This might need a checkup too.”
“Were there issues with the tech?” Logan asked taking both devices in his hand.
“…No,” Patton said looking a bit sheepish. “We just… may have turned off all of the safety protocols.”
“Patton I just made this for you!” Logan said, horrified.
“And you did a really good job!” was Patton’s reply, “but we didn’t really want to drown in a church.”
Logan took a slow breath. “I’ll make sure it wasn’t damaged,” he said.
“Thanks, Lo!”
Roman entered the living room then, bright blue towel in hand. “I have returned bearing gifts!” he declared.
“My hero,” Patton said with a laugh, taking the towel and using it to wipe off his face and then start to dry his hair.
“So, an ocean in a church?” Logan asked.
Patton nodded. “I’ll have to thank Virgil for suggesting the inflatable raft.”
He paused as he finished running the towel through his hair and started to dab at his clothing. “I saw Remus,” he said.
Roman froze. “You did?”
“Uh huh,” Patton replied. “He was with Janus. I didn’t think I should say anything to him since that trip was way out of sync though, sorry.”
“Yeah, no, that make sense. That’s fine.” Roman hesitated. “How was he?”
“He seemed good,” Patton said. He flashed them a smile. “Happy. He’s quite the character actually. He and Janus seem like they’re good friends.”
“Oh,” Roman said. “That’s… that’s good.”
Patton’s face screwed up slightly. “He did flirt with me though, so that was weird.”
Roman took a moment to think about it before pulling a face that one would expect to see on a small child trying a lemon for the first time. “That’s disgusting! That’s like… that’s like my brother flirting with my brother. Gross!”
“It was… it was weird,” Patton said.
“What did he even say?” Roman asked.
“Mostly it was comments on my…” he made a motion with his head that apparently Roman could interpret.
“He talked about your butt!”
“…Well, he didn’t exactly use that word.”
“That sounds about like Remus,” Virgil said, poking his head into the hall.
“Oh, you’ve finally decided to join the land of the living, Emo?” Roman asked.
“Shut up,” both Logan and Virgil said at the same time.
Of course, he did not. “You know, Pat-pat, speaking of posteriors…”
“One more word out of you and I will actually kill you,” Virgil threatened.
“Um, what’s going on?” Patton asked.
“I’ll tell you later,” Roman promised.
“You will not,” Logan said. “Keep your gossiping tendencies under control.”
“Okay, but now I want to know,” Patton said with a pout.
“You go take a shower,” Logan ordered.
Patton shared a look with Roman that told Logan there was no way he wouldn’t have the whole story along with a good number of embellishments by the end of the night. Then he shrugged. “Yes, boss,” he said. Logan rolled his eyes as he turned towards the bathroom, the towel still on his shoulders. He was dry enough that he wasn’t dripping anymore, and he slipped off his waterlogged shoes and socks so he wouldn’t track water to the bathroom.
“Put that in the biohazard hamper,” Logan called after him.
“I know!” he called back.
“And you,” Logan said to Roman, “clean up all of the water he got on the carpet in the off chance there are any pathogens in it.”
“Why do I have to do it?!”
“Because you’ve annoyed me,” Logan said, “and I need to insure these two devices do not explode.”
“Ugh, fiiiine,” Roman said, dipping back into the hall.
Virgil glanced over at him, the picture of awkwardness. “Uh,” he said. “Hey.”
“Hi,” Logan said.
“…Are those things really at risk of exploding right now?” he asked.
Logan glanced at him. “Technically they are always at least slightly at risk of exploding, but admittedly the chance is further from 0 than I would like it to be at this point.”
“Great,” Virgil said. “One more thing to be anxious about.”
“You don’t need to be anxious about it, Virgil,” Logan said.
“Uh, I think I do need to be anxious about the maybe bomb in your hands.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“I know,” Virgil said with a sigh.
“We are two mutually consenting adults. There isn’t any shame to it.”
“Can we please talk about our very embarrassingly interrupted kiss after you’ve dealt with the explosives?”
“Very well,” Logan said. He walked to the other side of the room to grab a statis chamber from a cabinet drawer.
“What’s that?” Virgil asked as the cube shaped device popped up.
“It’s a stasis cube,” Logan said as he put the two devices in his hand into it and activated. “It will allow them to cool down completely from their earlier use in a safe environment. It will be less dangerous to work with them later.”
“If it just takes 5 seconds to deal with them, why are you making Roman clean up?” Virgil asked amused.
“Like I said,” Logan said. “He annoyed me. Speaking of,” he glanced into the hallway where Roman currently was. “How do you feel about leaving before he gets back to get coffee.”
Virgil smiled at him. “Sure,” he said. “Escape the apartment for coffee part two.”
Chapter 51
It took a few days after Patton got home for Logan to first make sure the timepiece and the distortion device were not at a risk of exploding and then to study the distortion device.
“It’s similar to what little we’ve seen of TPI technology,” Logan had mused, sitting on the couch while studying the information he’d managed to get off of it. “It’s definitely derived from the same technology unlike my time travel device, but it looks a bit different, and this version at least is rather shoddily made. Of course, creating disorder and almost ripping apart time is easier than seamlessly moving through it.”
“So, they’re probably from my time then?” Virgil asked.
“Most likely,” Logan agreed. “Though it could always be a Remus situation where they were from another time originally but accidently ended up in the TPI time. Either way, the origin of their purposeful time travel was certainly around your time.”
Virgil glanced at the device he’d set on the table in front of them all. It looked innocent sitting there, but it had the power to destroy so much, and they didn’t even know why. “Do you think whoever made this trapped me here on purpose?” Virgil asked.
“It would be a big coincidence if you in particular got trapped in this time in particular,” Roman said.
“I was thinking the same thing actually,” Logan said. “You do work with the TPI and with Janus, a time agent who both often is caught in the middle of devices similar to this being used and who runs into Patton frequently. Plus you know Remus, Roman’s brother even if we didn’t know that connection before you were trapped here and we already had a correspondence before you landed here. It would be strange for you to have ended up here on accident.”
“But why?” Virgil asked. “I am somehow connected to all of you, but I’m still not a time agent myself.”
“All I am to the TPI is a walking history book. I’m not actually involved.”
“Well,” Logan said. “Perhaps someone knows something we don’t.”
“Or maybe it’s just a happy accident!” Patton said. Virgil highly doubted that and it made anxiety churn in his gut.
“Well,” Logan said, “accident or not, we do now have a solution to the issue. I’ve managed to use this device to recalibrate my calculations and we’ve gotten a ping. I know where the signal blocking Virgil’s time device is coming from.”
“Where?” Roman asked.
“It looks like a local trash dump,” Logan replied. “It must have just ended up in a trashcan that day and was emptied before we checked.”
“Well, that should be easy enough to get,” Patton said. “Give Roman and I the exact coordinates and we can go and get it now.”
“Wait, why are we the only ones who have to dig through a garbage dump?” Roman asked.
Patton gave him a look.
“Oh,” Roman said, eyes lighting up. “Oh right!” Then, he scowled remembering he was going to be going through a garbage dump. “Fine,” he sighed.
“Think of it as an adventure!” Patton said.
“We’re time travelers. We have so many more exciting adventuring opportunities than dumpster diving, Pat-Pat,” he whined, but he still got up. “I’ll go get changed.”
Patton stood up and handed Logan his phone, so Logan could program the location of the distortion device into it while he changed as well. “We’ll text you when we’re heading back! I’ll give you a 15- and 5-minute warning,” Patton said with a wink. Virgil immediately hid his face in his hands.
“Do you think the TPI is hiring?” Logan asked as the door closed. “I’d love to move to a different century without those two.”
“Time agents don’t usually live in 4500s,” Virgil said, face still hidden behind his hands. “They’d probably still place you in this century, especially since you’re comfortable here.”
“No escaping them then,” Logan sighed.
“Mmm,” was Virgil’s response.
He felt Logan shift on the couch next to him and a warm palm touched his wrist, gently tugging his hand away from his face in a way that Virgil could resist if he really wanted. Virgil let the hand fall with a sigh. Logan smiled at him when he could see his face and Virgil smiled back despite how he could still feel heat in his cheeks.
“You will be going home this evening, I’d imagine,” Logan said.
“Yeah,” Virgil agreed softly.
“I would like to give you a gift before you go, if you’ll allow it.”
“Uh, okay,” Virgil agreed.
Logan nodded and leaned back to grab something out of the pocket of a jacket that was currently hanging over the side of the couch. “Ah,” he said when he found whatever he was looking for. He glanced at Virgil. “It is a ring, by the way, but this is not a proposal.”
“Well, I’d certainly hope not,” said Virgil dryly. “An impulse elopement would be a little off brand for us both.”
Logan smiled at him. “Very true,” he agreed. Then, he opened his palm revealing a small ring.
“So, then, what is it?” Virgil asked.
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“It is an emergency time travel device,” Logan explained. “It’s not particularly complex. It can only take you here to this room between 2 weeks and one year from now, but if you ever need something from me, you can use it.”
He offered the ring and Virgil opened his palm to let him put it in his hand. He studied the ring for a moment. It was a rose gold and very light.
“It also has some security measures,” Logan said. “It wouldn’t do to make an emergency time travel device that someone else might easily try to take from you. It’ll disappear when you put it on. You’ll still be able to feel it and take it off whenever you wish. It’ll become visible again if you take it off.”
“An invisible ring?” Virgil asked, curious.
“Yes,” Logan said with a smile. “It is designed to store your space time coordinates for up to 48 hours just so you’re aware, but as I said you can take it off whenever you wish and… I won’t use it against you.”
Virgil looked at him. “Okay,” he said. “Can I put it on?” Logan nodded, and Virgil slipped it on his finger. As promised it disappeared from view as soon as he did. He could still feel the weight of it on his finger though.
“You turn it three times counterclockwise to activate it,” Logan said, making Virgil look up from the seemingly empty space on his finger he’d been staring at.
“It would drop you right about where you are sitting.”
“Thanks,” Virgil said. It wasn’t nearly enough to say how much he appreciated the gift, but he hoped his tone said enough.
“Don’t use it against me?” Logan asked with a half-smile, and Virgil realized just how much trust was being put onto him by giving him a device that was directly linked to their base of operations despite knowing Virgil worked with the TPI.
Virgil shook his head. “I won’t,” he said. Deciding to throw out his nervousness and embarrassment over last time he shot forward to kiss Logan quickly on the lips. They bumped noses and Logan’s glasses ended up askew in the process, but Logan didn’t seem to mind judging by his delighted laugh when they parted.
“Thank you,” Virgil said again.
“Of course,” Logan replied.
Virgil could still feel the ring on his finger even after Patton and Roman got back from the dump with the device that had caused this whole mess. He could still feel it when Logan turned it off and his time piece reactivated. He could still feel it there when he made it home and gave an excuse as to why he’d left his trip early. He could still feel it when he got an email from an unknown sender making sure he got home okay.
Arc IV: (To Be Named)
Chapter 52
“What’s this?” Janus asked when a giant bowl was set on the coffee table in front of him.
“We’re eating on the couch tonight,” Emile said cheerfully.
Janus raised an eyebrow and switched off the tablet he’d been using to look at him. “Why?” he asked.
Emile shrugged and set a second huge bowl down next to Janus’s. “For fun,” Emile said. He turned back towards the kitchen and Janus leaned forward to look in the bowl. It was spaghetti with some sort of creamy sauce and a few different vegetables mixed in along with some shrimp.
“I made green tea,” Emile said, coming back into the room with two mugs.
“Thanks,” Janus said, taking one of the mugs with a small smile.
“What were you doing?” Emile asked as he took a seat beside Janus. He nodded at the deactivated screen now sitting on the end table.
“Just doing some puzzle games,” Janus said.
“That sounds fun,” Emile said with a smile.
“Head doctor said they might be a good thing to do to pass the time when I told him to fuck off after suggesting reading.”
Emile sighed. “Dr. Figueroa is my colleague. You could try to be polite.”
“I thought I was supposed to be my authentic self in therapy,” Janus replied.
Emile just huffed and rolled his eyes. Janus couldn’t help but smile as he picked up his mug of green tea.
The last few months had been…different. In a lot of ways, Janus’s life had become harder than it had been before. It had been easy to do nothing but eat pre-prepared meals, go to work, and pass out in his empty house every day. It wasn’t good for him. He’d known it even then, but it had been easy. This was not.
Emile had offered, insisted really, that Janus move into his house for a bit just to get back on his feet.
He’d taken time off of the TPI which would have been given to him anyway since he’d spent so trapped in the past. He’d had to give a report of what had happened, and he’d mentioned Patton, but he hadn’t mentioned everything. They’d offered him a shrink when he’d asked.
Janus had told Emile he needed to tell him something about why he’d been distant, so he wouldn’t end up chickening out, but he’d asked for a bit of time to figure out what to say. He’d finally worked up the courage to talk about it with Dr. Figueroa two weeks ago. Much like with Patton, it was easier to talk to someone who hadn’t been involved in Janus’s mistake, but it still wasn’t easy.
He was running up on the deadline he’d given for having that talk with him. It had to happen soon, and they both knew it, but Emile was just patiently waiting for him to suck it up. It felt… wrong to use his kindness without him knowing, but it was also nice to get to spend time with his brother. He didn’t even dare to hope that he’d still have the chance once he told him.
He was moving back into his own house in less than a week. He’d tell him then so if Emile ended up kicking him out of his life, he wouldn’t have to kick him out of his home too.
For now, though everything was fine. Harder, more complicated, and in threat of exploding at any moment, but fine. Fine wasn’t something he’d really felt in a long time. Or at least, fine while in his own time wasn’t something he’d felt in a long time. There’d been a few moments with Patton sitting next to the fire outside the hole in the ground they’d slept in for those few months where the man would turn to look at him and he’d felt fine. Yet, Patton had been right. Those moments were unsustainable with how Janus was actually feeling deep down.
“This is good,” Janus said, after taking a couple of bites of the pasta in front of him.
“Well, I always was the only one in the house that could cook,” Emile said, and that was true. “It was either learn to defend for myself or eat a cheeseburger for every meal.”
“Hey, I had a good burger seasoning.”
“Not for every meal, Janus.”
“Meat, dairy, bread. What more could you want?”
“Vegetables, Janus.”
“You could have put pickles on!”
“I don’t like pickles.”
“That sounds like your problem, not mine,” Janus argued.
Emile shook his head, turning his eyes to the ceiling. “How have you been surviving on your own?”
“Well, I mean,” Janus said. “Badly.”
“Right…” Emile said. He leaned over to bump their shoulders together. Janus flashed him a smile.
“Speaking of,” said Janus. “Could you physically force me to pack tonight? I meant to do it today and instead I ended up playing puzzles games.”
Emile chucked. “Sure, I’ll help you after dinner.”
“You don’t have to help me,” said Janus. “Just make me do it.”
“Maybe I want to help,” said Emile.
“Oh, yes, packing. The most entertaining of Thursday night activities.”
Emile hummed and then glanced at him. “Remember when you helped me pack for college?” he asked.
“Mmm, I do,” Janus replied.
“I was so stressed about going somewhere new,” Emile said, “that I avoided packing for weeks. Every time Mom would ask me how packing was going, I’d tell her it was going fine but in reality, I hadn’t even started. You’d come home two days before I had to leave because you were going to help me move into my dorm. It’s like you could sense no packing had been done the moment you stepped through the front door.”
“You were doing your ‘hiding the broken horse statue from mom’ shuffle,” Janus said with a smirk.
“Well, you walked me straight to my room and we packed everything up in those two days,” Emile said. “You made it so much easier.”
“Yeah, because I hovered over you until you did it and did half of it for you,” Janus snorted.
“It wasn’t just that,” Emile said. “You also found the music streaming station run by the university and put that on and talked about what your freshman year was like. You also had tips on what things I should and shouldn’t pack when moving into the dorm.”
“You still took all of the cartoon stuffed animals despite my advice.”
“I thought there’d be more space on the bed,” Emile frowned.
Janus snorted.
“But anyway, just having someone else around made me happier. It wasn’t just about the workload being halved either. You being there made me feel less lonely and reminded me I’d always have someone to come back to.”
Janus internally winced. He was sure Emile hadn’t meant to make him feel guilty in any way. In fact, he probably was trying to do the opposite, but him saying that just reminded Janus that it hadn’t been true. Janus had abandoned him for literal years and hadn’t been someone he could always come back to.
Emile had proven himself to be at least close to who he was before Janus messed with time the few last months. There were a couple of differences here and there, and Janus could not be sure if they were from him changing time or from him avoiding his brother for the past three years and him naturally changing. Most memories they shared that Janus cautiously brought up or Emile mentioned on his own were consistent with what Janus remembered, but he hadn’t pushed too hard or dug too deep. It just made him feel more guilty about avoiding the man for so long.
It made him want to ignore the man more, because it seemed every choice Janus ever made only hurt him.
…
Well, perhaps not the college radio station when helping an anxious 18-year-old pack up his childhood bedroom.
He should probably tell Emile that his words made him feel guilty because that was obviously not the intention and he’d want to know. He should probably apologize properly for leaving him alone for three years without an explanation. He should probably provide an explanation for those three years.
He should probably go see the head doctor again soon.
(He should probably stop calling Emile’s colleague who was in the same field as him a head doctor derogatorily in his head.)
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For now, he just glanced at Emile. “You’re trying to bully me into letting you help pack with logic, aren’t you?”
“I am,” Emile confirmed without remorse.
“Fine,” Janus sighed, “but only if you let me do the dishes for you.”
Emile took a long moment to consider the offer. “You drive a hard bargain,” he said, “but okay.”
“And no doing anything sneaky like getting bags ready for me on your own while I’m doing it or the deal is off,” Janus said.
“You always think of all possible loopholes, Janus,” Emile sighed.
There was a long silence.
“Agree, you prick,” said Janus.
“No promises,” Emile replied cheekily with laughter in his eyes, and things were good for a moment more.
Chapter 53
Today Janus was moving into his house in 24th century for the second time in his life, and honestly, the house wasn’t going to look much different than it had when he’d first moved in. Janus had unpacked his things more at Emile’s house in the past almost 6 months than he had in the two and a half years he’d liven in his house. His house held clothes, bare bone furniture, and exactly one skillet from when he’d decided to be daring and tried to cook himself an egg. All he’d really customized for himself was the setting on the LXC device which controlled the lights, media across the home, and prepackaged food ordering and prepare.
He almost felt embarrassed that his house was so empty. Emile, of course, knew that his mental health had been fucked, but the blankness of his house was a physical reminder of this fact especially considering how he used to keep house before all of this. He’d warned Emile about the fact that his house was empty, and he had said he understood, but still.
They gathered all of the luggage in a pile in Emile’s guest room. They’d had to get permissions from the TPI to allow Emile to travel to his house, and Janus went ahead and filed to give him permanent permission to travel there.
The decision felt far too hopeful for someone who hadn’t had that conversation with his brother yet, but it had made Emile smile in the moment.
Emile took three of the bags and Janus took the rest. He waved his arm and selected the third saved location on the device. In a moment, he was standing in the living room of his dark, empty house.
…
His supposed to be dark and empty house. More of the lights were on than Janus had ever switched on himself, and half of the windows were open. (He didn’t even know some of those windows opened.)
They were letting in the sounds of birds that made the lakeside their home as well as cool late fall breeze. There was also a racket coming from the kitchen. Emile was beside him a second after he himself had appeared. He looked around for a moment. “Did you leave it like this?”
“No,” Janus replied.
“Do you have squatters?” He had a security system from 2 millennia in the future on his house. He highly doubted it.
“I’m going to go check the kitchen,” Janus said, moving towards the noises coming from the other room.
He stopped in the doorway to his kitchen only to see Patton standing at his kitchen counter cutting up a carrot on a cutting board Janus didn’t think he owned, and if he did, it was buried in a box somewhere.
“What are you doing?” Janus asked.
“Cooking!” was the immediate reply.
“In my house?” Janus asked. “How do you even know where my house is?”
“I may be just a little bit ahead of you,” Patton said with a wink while tapping the side of his nose.
Janus sputtered. “This is my house!”
“I know!” He said it so cheerfully while being a purposefully obtuse asshole that Janus could help but crack a smile and shake his head. He’d missed him after spending so long alone with him though he wasn’t go to admit that to him when he’d broken into Janus’s house to…
“Again, what are you doing?”
“I’m making you soup.”
“Why?” Janus asked.
“Well,” Patton said. “I know it’s a bit of a rough time for you, so I thought I’d give you a nice welcome home present and what better present than food!” He smiled at him widely.
Janus looked closer at what he was making. “You’re trying to prove to me you can cook.” Patton frowned at him. “Have you considered I have had enough fish stew for a lifetime?”
“Nope!” he said. “It’s entirely different this time anyway. I have carrots!”
“I don’t like carrots,” Janus lied blandly.
“Liar!” Patton declared.
“No, I’m not,” Janus continued to lie.
“I mean, that was definitely a lie,” Emile interjected from behind Janus. He was looking at them curiously. “Er, hello, who are you?”
“This is Pat,” Janus said.
“The illegal time traveler you’ve been tracking?” Emile asked with a questioning lilt to his tone.
“Ah, yes, well,” Janus said with a cough. “We came to an understanding when stuck in pre-history.”
“And now he is cooking you soup in your house?” Emile asked.
“I’ve long since stopped trying to make sense of him,” Janus grumbled.
“Well,” Emile said. “Hello Pat.”
“You can call me Patton,” he said easily. “I hope it’s nice to meet me, because I’ve already met you.”
“We haven’t been meeting in the correct order,” Janus informed Emile. “So, he’s apparently already met you which will happen in your future. It is also something he shouldn’t be talking about,” he scolded. Patton took that with a shrug.
“I hate time travel,” Emile said, his nose scrunching up. “Isn’t life already confusing enough.”
Janus winced, not relishing the upcoming conversation with him about how confusing his life was now because of time travel.
“Don’t you work with the TPI too?” Patton asked.
“That doesn’t mean I like time travel,” Emile said. “I’m a stationary agent and I like that just fine.”
“Time travel can be a bit complicated sometimes,” Patton acknowledged, “but I don’t think it’s all bad.” He finished chopping up the carrot and turned to put it in the self-regulating soup pot. Janus squinted at it. It was certainly not something Patton had in the 21st century. So, the question was. Had he gone out and bought time appropriate cookware before breaking into Janus’s house or had he gone through Janus’s storage to find it?
“You’re a free agent time traveler, right?” Emile asked.
“Depends on what you mean by free agent,” Patton said. “I have always worked with a group of people, and we have rules and procedures. It’s basically a time agency itself, just not the TPI.”
“And you’ve met me before?”
“I have,” Patton confirmed, “but Janus is right in that I can’t say much more than that about it. In fact,” he said wiping off his hands on a towel hanging from his apron. (The apron was covered in cartoon squirrels and totted the phrase ‘I’m a nut for baking.’) “I should probably be getting out of here.”
“You’ve never been worried about us meeting out of order before,” Janus pointed out with a frown. He didn’t particularly want Patton to go even though the man had broken into his house and possibly went through his boxes of kitchen equipment.
“Well,” Patton said. “There’s meeting wildly out of order, there’s meeting in order, and then there’s what I’m doing.”
“What are you doing?” Janus asked alarmed.
Patton just shrugged with a smile.
“No, Patton, what are you doing?”
“Soup should be done in about an hour, but you can leave it on all day. I got a pot that’s fridge safe, so just shut it off and stick it in there before going to sleep.”
“Patton.”
“See you later! Bye!” He said and disappeared into thin air.
Janus sighed and rubbed the bridge of his brow. “Why is he like this?”
“Janus,” Emile asked. “Why did your self-declared mortal enemy make you soup?”
“Because he’s an asshole, that’s why.”
“Uh huh,” Emile said, looking at him oddly.
“What?” Janus asked.
“What exactly happened when you were stuck in the past?” Emile asked.
Janus sighed. “A lot happened. A lot.” He glanced at the soup pot happily performing its function on his kitchen counter. ‘I hope it’s nice to meet me, because I’ve already met you,’ rang in his ears. Fucking Patton with his little hints about the future. It gave Janus just a bit of courage though knowing that Emile at least didn’t flee the continent after the conversation they had to have. He was at least around enough to meet Patton. “In fact,” Janus said. “It’s probably time I told you what happened. Everything that happened.”
Chapter 54
They sat down in the living room. Janus let Emile have the couch and sat on one of the matching armchairs. There was a squeaky sound when he sat. The plastic covering the chair had been delivered in was still on it.
Emile had a pleasant, open but curious expression on his face and Janus suddenly had an idea what it felt like to be his patient.
“I,” Janus began after a moment, shifting uncomfortably on the squeaky chair. “I don’t know how to start this conversation. I talked about what I wanted to say and possible ways to say it with Dr. Figueroa, but I… I still don’t know.”
“I guess I should start by saying that I did something horrible that I need to apologize for and I’m not sure if apologizing will even be enough. The problem is you don’t even know what that horrible thing is.” Janus stared at his feet. “So, first, I should probably explain what I did. I just don’t know where to start.”
“Maybe start with what happened before it,” Emile suggested. “Just lead up to it. It might help explain why whatever it was happened too.”
Janus took a breath. “Okay,” he said. “That day was just like most that I remember. We both woke up early. I was going to the TPI and you were going to where you worked your residency. We ate leftover pizza for breakfast because both of us were exhausted. You because it sucks to be a resident and me because I’d been working on a big case.”
“I was getting frustrated with the case. That was my first mistake: being impatient and angry. It was just a thief, but a slippery one. She’d stolen a half-broken time piece and was using it to rob banks within about a 50-year time frame. I had an idea of where she might go, but no one would listen to me. Or at least,” Janus quirked a half smile, “that’s how I interpreted it. They said they’d look into my idea, but they were being extra cautious because of how close in the timestream her actions were to most of the agents’ lives.”
“I was so tired of the case and so egotistical. I decided to check it out on my own without being cleared by the TPI. I went back in time without thinking of the consequences and that was the worst thing I’ve ever done.” Janus took a breath. “I’m not sure how, but somewhere in the course of my self-appointed mission…” He trailed off. He didn’t know how to say it. He really didn’t.
“What happened?” Emile asked when he didn’t continue.
“I…” and his next words probably sounded like crackly nonsense to Emile’s ears because he couldn’t get his thoughts straight and his tongue wouldn’t make the words right.
“I don’t even remember living in that town or the fact that Mom used to work at that bank,” he choked out. “I didn’t think and I didn’t check and…” There was a long silence. “I erased you,” he finally managed to say in a whisper, but in the quiet of his barely lived in house, the words were loud.
There was more silence. “But I…” Emile said after a moment.
“I went back and fixed it,” Janus said, “but I… didn’t do a perfect job. I don’t even know how much I messed things up. It would have been one thing if it’d just been me. If it had just impacted my life, but I did it to you and I don’t even know how to start to apologize.”
Nothing was said for a long moment. Janus didn’t look at him.
“…Huh,” Emile finally said.
Janus risked a glance at him. He didn’t look irate, but he did still look confused which was probably the reason for that.
“I’m sorry,” Janus said. It was really the only thing he could say at this point.
Emile tilted his head to the side. He took off his glasses and cleaned them with the edge of his shirt with slow circles. Since he was 15, Emile only cleaned his glasses with specially designed wipes, but he’d held onto the habit of cleaning his glasses with his shirt anytime he needed a moment to think. Janus wasn’t sure if Emile even realized he was doing it, but he knew it was a signal for Janus to be quiet for a few seconds.
The glasses were perched back on Emile’s nose after a few seconds. “I think I remember that,” he said contemplatively.
“…What?” Janus asked, and he was no longer avoiding looking at Emile. He was now blatantly staring at him.
“Well, I didn’t know what it was,” Emile said, “but I did have a very odd dream on the day you mentioned and suspiciously I had said dream in the middle of the day and woke standing up.”
“A dream?” Janus asked.
“A very vivid dream,” Emile said. “I don’t believe you actually erased me completely from existence. My life was simply shifted slightly. I was working as a social worker for about 5 hours and then I was back in my appropriate place.”
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“Why didn’t you tell me about that?” Janus asked, but then immediately wince at his own hypocrisy. “Er… never mind.”
“I didn’t know it was possibly real,” Emile said. “Honestly, I thought I was just really tired. I’d been overworking myself a lot. I took the rest of the day off after that.”
“You shifted reality for a few hours, and you didn’t realize it?” Janus asked.
“Like I said, I was really tired and nothing seemed to be wrong…”
“Wait, but things were different,” Janus said. “Didn’t you notice things were different.”
“Not… really,” Emile said. “Like what?”
“Like…” Janus said. “Like a whole bunch of things!”
“Like…?”
“Like you had a different job title and you worked different hours.”
“I thought I’d fallen asleep standing up or had a vivid audio-visual hallucination at work from stress. I asked for a switch a couple of weeks later.”
“You used to hate time travel, but then you took a job at the TPI.”
Emile gave him a drawl look. “I still hate time travel,” he said. “I literally just said that not 5 minutes ago.”
“Well then why would you work for the TPI.”
“Because time travel is so confusing and distressing that people doing it on a regular basis as a career need psychological support.”
“Plus, Lia asked for my consultation when developing the mental health part of the Agent Management Office,” Emile continued. “Considering I already knew quite a bit about time travel from being around you, she knew me personally, and I’d finished my residency, she decided to give me a job offer when my advice panned out.”
“W-well,” Janus said. “You were allergic to pineapples.”
“You mean my childhood allergy?” Emile asked. “That has since resolved itself in my adult life?”
“It has?” Janus asked.
“Janus have you considered,” Emile said, “that some if not all of the inconsistencies you were seeing in my life have to do with the fact that you hadn’t spoken to me in 3 years?”
“I… uh… hadn’t considered that,” Janus admitted honestly.
“You were looking for information to support your incorrect world view,” Emile said sounding very much like a head doctor and not like a brother, “and you found some.” He sighed. “It makes sense after having faced a traumatic event where you effectively thought you’d killed a loved one that you weren’t thinking clearly.” The head doctor analysis voice slipped just a bit. “I just wish you’d talked about it with someone.”
“Sorry,” Janus said, because no matter which way this conversation had gone and no matter the revelations, the point was an apology. “I’m sorry.”
Emile sighed. “I would have forgiven you even if you had erased me,” Emile said. “You didn’t mean to, and you did your best to fix it. You did fix it even if you were an idiot about it.”
“What about for being an idiot and not talking to you for three years?” Janus asked.
“I already did forgive you for that Janus,” Emile said pointedly. “What did you think the last 6 months were?”
“Pity?”
Emile gave him his disappointed and exasperated head shake. “Promise to never do anything like that to me again,” he said, “and I’ll forgive you.”
“I promise,” Janus said immediately.
“And in the future, you’ll talk to me if you have any issue even if you think it’s horrible.”
“I think I’ve learned by lesson on that one.”
“And that goes for other people too,” Emile said. “If anything goes wrong with someone, you talk to them or if that’s too hard you talk to someone so they can convince you to talk to that person.”
Janus nodded.
“Great!” Emile said. “Then you’re officially forgiven for everything. Though I expect you to go to therapy and keep working on making yourself feel better, so these things don’t happen again.”
And Janus… didn’t know how to feel about that. He should probably feel happy and thankful or at least relieved, but if he was being honest, he just felt kind of empty in that moment like an old well that had finally run dry. Fuck his head doctor and fuck Patton. Wasn’t this supposed to make him feel better? Everything was fine. He hadn’t actually erased Emile permanently from the timeline, in fact, he’d apparently still existed in some form in the alternate timeline Janus had temporarily made. Emile had forgiven him both for erasing him and ignoring him even though that was far more than Janus deserved. This was something he’d never even dared dream would happen, but it had been exactly what he’d wanted.
Yet, he still didn’t feel good, not really, not like how he remembered feeling before all of this happened.
Though was that really a surprise? Things were not like how they were before. He and Emile were no longer close. There was love and affection there, but they didn’t really know each other. The last six months had been nice. He’d been able to pretend for a bit that everything was back to normal, but in the moments he hadn’t been able to pretend that, it’d been a bit stilted and awkward speaking to his brother especially at the start.
Beyond that, Janus was just used to misery at this point. It was his default state. Not being miserable took effort and energy he didn’t always have. He felt himself slipping into sadness or numbness even during times he should be feeling good. He’d noticed himself experiencing a sense of desolation when Emile cooked his favorite meal or in the middle of watching a ballet performance Emile had suggested they go to and he’d been looking forward to in the days before or even now when he should be so happy, so ecstatic. Everything should be okay, but it wasn’t.
“You doing alright over there?” Emile asked, and Janus didn’t know how long he’d been silent.
Instinct said to say yes and force himself to move on, but he wasn’t going to break his promise that fast. “Not really, no,” he admitted.
“That’s okay,” Emile said. “Anything I can do to help?”
“I really don’t know.”
“Why don’t we go taste the soup your arch nemesis,” there was a light teasing tone to his voice, “made for you. Some of the vegetables won’t be completely cooked yet, but I’m sure it’s already good.”
“Yeah,” Janus agreed. “Yeah, okay,” he got to his feet, the chair making that plastic squeaking sound again. “Maybe we could unwrap the furniture in here before you go home.”
“I think that’s a good idea,” Emile said with a smile.
Chapter 55
Somehow, the strangest thing about his life right now was a picture on the wall. It was one that he’d gotten after college when he moved into his first actual house. It wasn’t anything special. It was just something that had caught his eye when he was specifically looking for something classier to put on his wall than the posters he’d hung in his college dorm and apartment with Virgil. It was a tall painting of a tree, but segmented into four parts, each representing the state of a tree in different seasons. In the top left, the three had small leaves and little buds, on the top right it had full leaves bathed in sunlight, in the bottom left the leaves had changed colors and started to fall off, and in the bottom right the tree was devest of leaves but covered in snow.
It was on the wall near Janus’s bed. It was one of the first things he saw when he opened his eyes in the morning and was usually what reminded him that everything was different now when he woke.
The picture had been in a box in the houses garage up until the Saturday before the last. Saturdays had become his and Emile’s unofficial unpacking Janus’s house day. They would usually pick one or maybe two boxes that had been sitting untouched for years, unpack it, talk, and eat dinner together.
Notably, dinner was usually not provided by either of them.
Patton had gotten into the habit of breaking into Janus’s house. Janus would sometimes catch him doing it briefly, but often Patton managed to avoid him. This was quite the feat considering Janus was not currently working and thus stayed at home a lot of the time. Patton had repeatedly reprogrammed Janus’s kitchen taking away the option for pop tarts entirely and replacing the option with real food. Janus’s kitchen was constantly stocked with something to eat that wasn’t trash. He also liked to leave around different smelling hand soaps, flowers, and paper cranes. Janus had an entire drawer in his nightstand dedicated to storing paper cranes now.
The newest one was still on his nightstand from the night before, sitting cheerfully in the way of his view of the tree paining when his alarm woke up that morning. He sighed. He had not missed getting up early for work.
He was finally going back to working at the TPI this morning. His therapist had signed off on it last week, saying his was fit for duty. Considering they were apparently still understaffed at the TPI and Janus was a senior agent, this was met with much relief. Janus himself still wasn’t sure how he felt about it.
He turned off the alarm and stood. Dr. Figueroa had him write out a morning schedule to follow when he’d expressed his struggle to get the day started. Either Patton or Emile had taken it upon themselves to copy the schedule on virtual sticky notes that appeared in every location necessary for getting ready in the morning.
First, he took a shower. He threw his nightclothes in the laundry chute. There were currently dozens of different scented soaps in his shower all in small bottles that had about 2 or 3 uses. Janus presumed they were curtesy of Patton. He decided to use one at random and it ended up being cotton candy scented.
Next, he got dressed. That was easy enough since he always wore the same outfit to work every day. It didn’t matter what he wore much since missions would force him to redress anyway.
Then he went to his kitchen and sat down at the counter. He pushed the pop tart button. As expected at this point, he did not get a pop tart for breakfast. Instead, he got two eggs, toast, a sliced apple, and a few cherry tomatoes with green tea. He ate his breakfast while finishing one of the puzzles he’d been working on the night before.
Once he finished, it was time to finally face going back to the office. He sighed, stood up and pulled up the screen on his timepiece. He selected his office as his destination and was off.
The first thing that happened upon appearing in his office was he got a face full of… something.
He sputtered, smacking the things fluttering about his face out of the air. “What is wrong with you?” was the first thing out of his mouth before he’d even really confirmed that the culprit of this attack was who he’d automatically assumed he was.
Remus, as anticipated was standing not 2 feet away from him.
Remus had apparently gotten into the prop department again because he had some type of softly glowing glittery confetti was no all over Janus as well as their entire office.
“Remus, I told you no!” Lena snapped. “You know it’s impossible to clean up 3150s sparkle nukes.”
“Welcome back!” Remus crowed.
“I hate you,” Janus replied. “I just took a shower.”
“You’re fine,” Remus said with an eye roll.
“This shit doesn’t come off in decontamination,” Janus spat. “If my first mission back sends me to a time where I’ll be tried as a witch for glowing, I’m blaming you.”
“We’re going to 2510,” Remus informed him. “You’ll fit right in.”
Janus grimaced. “Ugh, that decade.”
“It’s my favorite decade!” Remus exclaimed.
“Of course, it is,” Lena grumbled. “Just don’t bring anything gross back this time.”
“No promises,” Remus replied.
Janus chose to disengage from the conversation as Remus and Lena argued about was and what wasn’t allowed to be brought back to their shared office from what was well known as the least tasteful decade in history. It was also one of the least turbulent decades in history. The population was too busy making shitty ice cream flavors to wage war.
At least they were giving him an easier assignment for his first time back. He turned to his desk and pulled up the files on his next mission, glancing through them. It was just a small blip that the TPI had noticed in a small town in 2510. It probably wasn’t much of anything, but they had no record of what had caused it, so they were going to send someone to look. Honestly, they’d usually just send in a surveillance agent and be done with it, but they’d probably handpicked this one for Janus in particular. He’d be insulted if he didn’t honestly still feel a bit off kilter being in the office.
To his surprise, he didn’t have a scheduled meeting with Rhi. It wasn’t particularly important to see a mission coordinator for something this small, but it still wasn’t the usual protocol. Instead, he was just instructed to pick up his costume at the costuming department and leave in about an hour.
“Do we really not have an appointment with Rhi?” Janus asked.
“Senior agents haven’t really been meeting with Rhi unless it’s a high priority mission,” Lena told him. “We have too many newbies running around and there’s not time.
“That’s concerning…” Janus said.
“It’s better than trying to rush the inexperienced ones through. We at least have a general idea of what we’re doing. They’re trying to train up more mission coordinators, but that’s taking a while.”
Janus still frowned, but he glanced back at the mission instructions. He’d have to make sure he thoroughly understood what was being asked of him before leaving if he wasn’t meeting with Rhi. “We should go get changed,” he told Remus. “2510s clothing is notoriously difficult to put on.”
“Five minutes back and he’s already dying to get my clothes off,” Remus said cheekily.
“I would rather tear my own eyeballs out of my socket than see you without your pants on again.”
Remus just wiggled his eyebrows.
“I’m so glad you’re back,” said Lena when Janus looked at her in exasperation. “He’s finally not Fred’s and my problem anymore.”
Chapter 56
Getting ready for the mission was a bit of a mess honestly. The costume department barely even spared them a glance before sending them on their way. Remy at least was still there to give them one last debrief before sending them off into 2510, though he looked exhausted.
“Are you sleeping?” asked Janus.
“I’m drinking coffee,” was the reply as he shooed them out onto the streets.
The timeline disturbance that had been picked up was somewhere in one of the shops on that street.
“Do you want the bakery or the karaoke/stripper bar?” Remus asked.
Janus raised an eyebrow at him, and Remus clapped him on the back.
“This is why we’re partners,” he said.
He plodded off towards the building to their right, and Janus turned to the building on the left. It was a small bakery and coffee shop painted in bright colors and sporting the Brazilian and Albanian flags.
There was a soft tinkling bell sound when he entered the shop, and the person behind the counter glanced over at him briefly before finishing putting a pastry in bag for a customer.
Unfortunately, their attention meant Janus wasn’t going to get away with snooping around the store without buying anything. He glanced around the interior of the shop as he walked up to the till.
He glanced into the bakery display case the worker was standing behind. Oh… oh that all looked disgusting. He was not depressed enough anymore to willingly eat any of that.
“Uh,” Janus said when the worker looked at him. He glanced up at the wide selection of drinks over their head and winced at the ways the letters moved on the screen. He was pretty sure his dyslexia wasn’t quite that bad. Why did anyone choose to make letters move around and shake on purpose? As someone who had to deal with that on a daily basis, it wasn’t exactly entertaining.
“Is it possible to get a banana and chocolate potato chip smoothie, but without the potato chip part?” he asked.
“Sure,” the worker replied. “Anything else?”
Janus shook his head.
“Can I have a name for that?”
“Jay,” Janus replied.
“Alright. It’ll be out in a minute.”
Janus nodded and turned, able to take in the rest of the establishment now that there weren’t eyes on him. It was as colorful on the inside as it was on the outside and seemed to have a retro cowboy-space theme mixed with posters from a contemporary werewolf romance movie. Janus had actually seen that movie one. It was surprisingly tolerable.
The seats at least looked comfortable. There were a good number of tables and three couches. All of them were mix-matched. A few of the tables were outfitted with holographic chess and checkers, but most were normal tables. There were even a few physical boardgames and some bookshelves full of books, though he thought some of the bookshelves might just be there for decoration. He wasn’t sure which were and which weren’t.
He pretended to be very interested in the decorations as he waited on his drink, using that as an excuse to look around the entire shop. He was turned away when the door chimed again.
“Hello,” a familiar voice said, making Janus turn around instantly. Janus could immediately tell that the man hesitantly lingering in front of the bakery display was not the Patton that he’d spent months holed up with or who had broken into Janus’s house repeatedly to replace his soaps and cook him meals. He seemed out of place which was saying something in 2510. He had the air about him that he was an 80-year-old grandpa trying to embrace youth culture, but not quite getting it. He also spoke in an accent that people around him would probably assume was him just not being fluent in Spanish but was actually him not being completely comfortable speaking Spanish from half a century ago.
“Uh…” said Patton looking at the menu, a crease between his eyes.
“I’d suggest the banana and chocolate potato chip smoothie without the potato chips,” Janus said. Patton startled, whipping around to face him in surprise. “That’s what I got, though I would leave out the potato chips.”
Patton’s eyes narrowed on him. It was not, of course, the first time that Patton hadn’t been thrilled to see him, but it was the first time Janus had been happy to see him and he hadn’t been happy to see him in turn. Janus had gotten used to a Patton that liked him and he found himself not quite prepared for the way he pursed his lips in annoyance at the sight of Janus.
“I’ll do the banana and chocolate potato chip smoothie, but with the potato chips,” he said in a way that made it sound like he thought he was getting one up on Janus for some reason.
“What flavor of chips?” the worker asked.
“Er, what flavors do you have?”
“Uh, I think drywall, oak wood, and limestone.”
Janus almost laughed at his expression. “Uh, do you have any naturally edible flavors?” he asked.
“We might have grass.”
Patton squinted as the worker bent to look under the cabinet. “Oh, wait, no, it’s glass. Is that alright?”
“…Maybe just no on the chips.”
Janus did his best to school his features, so it wasn’t obvious he was laughing at him. He didn’t think he did a very good job considering Patton was glaring at him after turning around. That or he was just already pissed at Janus by default. It could go either way honestly.
“So,” Janus said when the worker turned away to start making Patton’s drink. “What are you doing here.”
“It’s none of your business,” Patton said with narrowed eyes.
“I mean, we could both be here for the same reason,” Janus pointed out. “We could share intel.”
“I doubt we’re here for the same reason.”
“How would you know?” asked Janus.
Patton just looked away from him. He immediately looked confused at the movie poster his eyes landed on.
“Unless,” Janus said curiously, you aren’t here for a reason, reason.” Patton said nothing. “It was a pretty small disturbance, so it would make sense that your equipment might not pick up on it.” At least at this point. “Acting the tourist, Pat?”
“I’m just doing research,” Patton said, crossing his arms.
“Research?” Janus asked.
“I’ve never been here before,” Patton admitted. “I wanted to get a feel for it and other places just in case there ever was an issue.”
“You just did France, didn’t you?” Janus asked.
Patton frowned and Janus smiled slightly. “It was recent,” he admitted.
“Well,” Janus said. “If you want some advice. I’d start with figuring out accents when you’re in different times.”
“I don’t need your advice,” Patton said and then smugly, “Janus.”
It took a bit for Janus to scan back through his memories and remember that Patton hadn’t known Janus’s name in France. He would have only figured it out after his friend Lo hacked into Silver Mountains University’s system and figured out Virgil had an appointment with him. Janus raised an eyebrow. “You sure about that, Patton?”
He frowned, pouting like whenever Janus told him he wasn’t allowed to try to catch a bird and make it their pet. It was strange to meet a version of Patton who had not lived in a hole in the ground with him for months when Janus had already done that. Patton was on the back foot for once throughout this conversation. Every time before this, he’d managed to somehow twist it around even when he’d been younger than he was right now. When Janus had arrested him at the University, he’d managed to figure out his equipment wouldn’t be stopped by the TPI’s despite having no idea what the TPI was.
In France, even when Janus had thought he’d been winning by taking his phone, he ended up getting access to a University in Janus’s time with information on the TPI, a situation that still had not been resolved.
Today, however, Janus knew far more about Patton than Patton expected. He still didn’t know exactly what his agency or whatever it should actually be called did, but he knew some things about it. He knew Patton was from the 21st century which explained the anachronisms in his speech in different times.
“You could help me look if you’d like,” Janus offered casually.
“Why?” Patton asked suspiciously.
Janus shrugged. It was not because he missed him, he insisted to himself. It wasn’t because after spending so much time with him, not getting to talk with him all day was strange. It had nothing to do with the fact that the few times he’d ran into a farther along version of Patton since he’d moved back home, their interactions had been brief and tinged with something. No, the only reason Janus was inviting him along was so he could teach this younger version a few things, so he hopefully didn’t go about messing up time. “We worked well together in France, didn’t we?” he asked. “Besides, it’s just a small mission without much danger to the timeline.”
“Pat,” the person at the counter called. Patton turned to him to go grab his smoothie, thanking the worker before turning back around and walking over to Janus.
“Fine,” he said. “I’ll help, but you have to answer my questions.”
“I’ll answer the questions that won’t endanger any timelines or secrets of my agency.”
Patton considered it for a moment, taking a sip of his drink. “Fine,” he agreed.
“Good,” Janus replied. “We’ll start by looking around the coffee shop for anything unusual. Did you have any questions now. It’d look more natural to be walking around if we were having a conversation.”
“Does the glitter in your hair have to do with the style of the time or…?”
Janus sighed.
Chapter 57
Luckily, the cashier didn’t seem to think them snooping around was very odd. To be fair, the shop had quite a few odd decorations to look at. So, perhaps employees were just used to people walking around and looking at all of the different things. It helped that Janus and Patton were talking as they searched. They just looked like a couple… of friends… casually chatting and exploring the coffee shop together.
“So,” Patton said, keeping his voice quiet, though luckily the few patrons were on the other side of the shop. “What exactly is it that you do working for the TPI?”
“Well,” Janus said. “I’m a senior field agent. That means I am the person who actually goes on missions in different times. These missions can range from tracking down people who are committing crimes using time travel, stopping anything or anyone that could damage the timestream, and helping waylaid time travelers.”
“So, there are different types of agents?” Patton asked, curiously.
“Yes,” Janus replied. “There are a lot, but only four type time travel on a regular basis.” Should he be telling a very young version of Patton this? Probably not, but he couldn’t find it in himself to care too much.
“There are surveillance, touchdown, field, and cleanup agents,” he explained. “Surveillance agents do a bunch of things including research about the exact time field agents are going to and figuring out the best places for them to enter the timestream. Touchdown agents come slightly before field agents to do last second checks and stay when field agents are out. They mostly are just there to intervene if there are any unforeseen issues. Field agents actually interact with people from other times on a daily basis as they slip into the timestream and find whatever person or object they’re looking for. Cleanup agents come in afterwards and tie up any loose ends as well as observe the area for a few days to make sure nothing happened that no one caught.”
“Everyone else who works at the TPI is mostly in research and management. They don’t usually travel, though everyone who works there is licensed to travel if necessary.”
“That’s a lot of people,” Patton commented.
“What we do is important. We want to make sure we are doing it correctly.” It was honestly not meant to be a jab, but Janus could see Patton frown. He decided to change the subject. “Right now, we’re looking for something that’s causing a small disturbance.”
“What type of thing could cause a disturbance? Is it always a machine like the one in France?”
“No,” Janus replied. “That was actually unusual.” He thought for a second. “At least that used to be unusual, but lately we’ve seen more and more of that sort of thing.”
They were currently standing at a bookshelf, but nothing pinged Janus’s interest or time piece, so they moved on to look at a few of the movie posters. Patton seemed to grow more and more concerned the longer he looked at the posters.
“So, what is it usually?”
“Well,” said Janus. “Some things are natural events. No one’s really sure what causes those. There are theories, but I’m not really involved in that. We leave those alone for the most part if we find those. They’re usually small things, though on occasion they’re a bit bigger. Usually, time disturbances are caused by someone messing up. They say something wrong that gets someone curious and creates a butterfly or they leave an object that doesn’t exist in the time.”
“So, what do you think this one is?” Patton asked curiously.
“Well,” Janus said. “It’s a rather small disturbance, so it won’t be anything too major. Probably just an object out of place.”
“Hmm,” Patton replied. “Well, I’ve always been good at those find the difference games.”
“Have you now?” Janus said, unable to stop a slight grin from ghosting over his face.”
“Mhmm,” replied Patton. He drained the rest of his smoothie and then turned around, facing away from the wall of posters they’d been looking at. He slowly scanned the room, an action a lot less inconspicuous than what Janus had them doing, but he didn’t protest for now.
“That’s weird,” Patton declared, pointing rather obviously at a shelf. Janus noticed a woman looking at him funny. “Well,” Patton continued. “More like it isn’t weird, which is weird for here.”
Janus glanced at the shelf full of small figurines. Most of them were of mythical creatures: werewolves, dragons, and even one not even Janus recognized. Janus would guess, especially judging by the plethora of movie posters that they were all from movies or something of the like. However, Patton was correct there was one that stuck out from the rest. It was still a figurine, but unlike the rest, it was of a real animal: a cow.
“That is odd,” Janus agreed, peering at the cow. Figuring Patton had already been obvious enough, Janus stepped over to the shelf to study it more closely. When looking at it more closely, it became obvious that the cow was very unlike everything else on the shelf. It wasn’t even really a figurine like the ones around it. It looked more like a children’s toy. It’s fur was made out of a soft looking material instead of the stiff plastic of the werewolf next to it.
“It doesn’t really fit in with the collection, does it?” a voice asked from behind Janus.
Janus winced internally at the fact that a civilian had just noticed him acting oddly, but kept his face smooth externally as he turned to face the woman standing behind him.
“My friend and I were wondering what it was from,” Janus said evenly. “We recognized the rest of the figures, but I’m not sure where this one came from.”
“Well, that’s because it didn’t come from anything,” the woman said. “At least that I know of. I just didn’t know where to put the thing, so I put it on my movie figurine shelf.”
“Ah,” said Janus, a politely interested crinkle to his brow. “Where did you get it then?”
“A young kid came by about, oh, a week ago. He looked like a high school kid or maybe college. He seemed right confused and upset. He said he didn’t have any money on him, and got weird when I tried to ask him about his parents. I ended up giving him a free drink and let him sit here for a couple’a hours. We got to talking about my collections. See, I have a deal that if someone brings me back something of interest for my displays, they get a free drink. He insisted on giving me that in exchange for the drink even though I told him I’d given him the drink ‘cause he seemed upset.”
“I don’t even particularly want the thing, but he said he didn’t want it anyway, and he insisted, so I took it.”
“Interesting,” Janus said. “Do you mind if I touch it?”
“Go ahead,” she said with a shrug.
He reached forward to pick up the cow and felt the softest of fizzles that only someone who regularly time traveled would feel. Despite already knowing this must be what he’d come for, he still subtlety set his timepiece to scan it.
Patton was peering over her shoulder now. “If both you and the person who gave it to you don’t care much about it, do you think we could buy it off of you?” he asked. “I’m a big fan of cows.”
She shrugged her shoulders. “I guess,” she agreed. “If you really like it. I don’t know what else I’d do with it.”
“How much?” Janus asked.
“Well it only cost me a Lemon CastelWalk and a scone, so about 12.”
“Sure,” Janus agreed, pulling out his wallet and forking over the currency. “Thanks,” he said.
“No problem,” she replied. “Hope you can find some use for it.”
Janus gave her a smile and then looked at Patton. “I think it’s about time to go, don’t you think.”
Patton nodded. “Thank you for the cow statue,” he told the woman as they left the shop. They walked a bit down the street. Patton turned to him once they were out of sight of the shop window. “So, that’s it?” he asked.
Janus nodded and checked his time piece which had finished it’s scan. “The fabric is from the late 43rd century,” he confirmed, “but that’s not all. It’s stranger than that.”
“Stranger how?” Patton asked.
“The materials are definitely from the 43rd century,” Janus said, “but it’s not from the 43rd century.”
“What do you mean?”
“This,” Janus said, looking at the cow. “This doesn’t exist. Every object has traces of where it’s been no matter how much you clean it. My timepiece can register debris sticking to an object down to the microscopic level and give a general idea where and when they came from. There’s no time travel residue implying it came from the 43rd century or even just dust or dirt from that time period. There isn’t even anything on it from this time period from more than the week the shop owner said it was in her possession. My scans seem to be saying, this thing popped into existence a week ago and didn’t exist in any time or place before that.
Patton frowned. “Well then, what does that mean?”
“I don’t know,” answered Janus frowning down at it. “I have absolutely no idea.”
Chapter 58
Janus didn’t know what to make of the cow he’d gotten in 2510. He’d said goodbye to the young version of Patton and grabbed Remus before heading back to the TPI. He’d immediately handed the time anomaly over to the labs, but even after a few weeks, he hadn’t heard anything back yet. The labs seemed just as stumped as he was.
The older version of Patton still drifted in and out of his life, usually unseen, like a ghost in the night. Well, a ghost that cooked him plenty of healthy food.
It felt odd slipping back into his old routine of missions.
Sometimes it felt like no time had passed, but then he’d see the faces of new recruits or get a mission where he didn’t see Rhi and remember that things were different now. The TPI was strained, constantly running after time distortions with no idea what or who was causing them. The new recruits were stumbling to catch up to the agents who knew what they were doing but were still needed to fill the gaps. It made Janus grimace, but he didn’t know what the solution was.
It was nice to be able to talk to Emile about these things.
If Patton made sure he was taking care of himself at home with nice meals and an ever-changing option of soaps and shampoos, Emile made sure he was taking care of himself at work. Janus was now forced to have a water bottle at his desk to make sure he wasn’t spending the day dehydrated and, assuming he was not on a mission, Emile would either drag him away to eat lunch or bring lunch too him if he was too busy. Today was the later kind of day. Emile had messaged him about 45 minutes ago asking if he was free and then had taken his order for a local restaurant when Janus said he had too much to do.
There was a knock on the door and both Fred and Janus, the only two occupants of the office at the moment looked up.
“I’ll get it,” Janus said, getting up before Fred did. He knew Fred was currently in the middle of a report on a trip to 2000B.C. he and Lena went to. They’d let a new recruit tag alone for training purposes. It had gone badly to say the least. Fred looked exhausted and stressed which was unlike the usually cheery man.
Janus shuffled to the door and opened it. A man in his early 30s that Janus didn’t recognize was standing there.
“Hi,” he said. “I, uh, moved into the office next door. My name is Dave.”
There was a moment of silence. “Did you need something Dave.”
“Right,” he said. “Yeah, I was just wondering if your integrator is running, because mine isn’t.”
Janus glanced back at the report he’d been working on. “Yeah, it’s fine.”
“Well, is it, like, connecting to the TPI system?”
“I don’t know,” said Janus, “I was working locally.”
“Yeah, well that’s the problem with mine. I was wondering if anyone else was having the same problem.”
“Let me check,” said Janus, walking over to his desk. He went to open his email and an error message popped up.
That was… odd to say the least. The TPI had very, very reliable technology. If it was just Janus who could not access the system, he’d assume it was just a local problem, but if the next door neighbor also was having an issue, that could smell trouble.
“Fred,” Janus called. “Are you connected to the internet?”
Fred glanced down at his computer and clicked a couple of buttons. “No,” he said.
“Hmm,” Janus said. He pulled up his timepiece. That at least connected to the TPI servers, so the servers themselves weren’t down, just the offices’ connection to them. “Well, I can still connect with my timepiece.”
“Same,” said Fred.
“So, what’s wrong?” Dave asked. “How do we fix it?”
“We don’t fix it,” Janus said. “We submit a tech support request.”
“Oh,” said Dave. “…How do you do that?”
Janus sighed and flicked his wrist to project a screen. “If you go to the web on your timepiece, it’s literally on the page that automatically pops up,” he said pointing.
“We can connect to the internet through our timepieces?” Dave asked.
“…Did you have any training?” Janus asked.
“Don’t be rude,” Fred said absently, still typing on his report.
Janus just rolled his eyes.
“Not on… that part. They did give me a handbook.”
“Have you read it?” Janus asked.
Dave shrugged which told Janus everything he needed to know.
“Just go back to your office,” Janus told Dave. “I’ll submit the tech support request this time since it’s affecting me as well but read your handbook and familiarize yourself with your timepiece for goodness’s sake.”
“Okay,” Dave said, turning around and wandering back to his office with no thoughts in his eyes.
“I’m not your fucking preschool teacher,” Janus muttered under his breath as he returned to his desk. “It’s not my job to hold your hand and wipe your ass.”
Fred glanced up at him. “Thanks for not saying that when he was still in the room,” he said.
Janus shot him a thumbs up.
He sat down at his desk and quickly submitted a tech support request. By the time he finished that, Emile was knocking on the door with a bag of food.
“Come in,” Janus said to him, and he did, pulling over Remus’s chair and plopping down the food on Janus’s desk.
“You look stressed,” Emile commented.
Janus sighed, already reaching into the bag to look at what Emile had bought. “Everything’s disorganized, everything’s broken, and no one knows how to do anything.”
“Yeah,” Emile said. “I’ve noticed the TPI is understaffed. Even with all of the new recruits, there never seems to be enough people to go around.”
“Yeah,” Janus said, pulling out a burger on a pretzel bun and going to unwrap it. “How about you? This all been messing up your job too?”
“In general, for the AMO, yes, because they have to get all of the new agents houses and everything. For my department, not as much, but we are seeing some agents getting stressed because they’re overworked. Mostly the more senior agents.”
“Honestly, I’m lucky stress makes me throw myself into work to avoid thinking about it. I shudder to think how all of the mentally healthy people are holding up.”
“Janus,” Emile scolded.
“Plus, I’m already set up to have an appointment with a head doctor at least twice a week, so I’m good on that front.”
“I guess that’s true. Just don’t overwork yourself,” Emile said.
“I’m fine Emile. Plus, they need me. I seem to be one of the few people around here who actually know what they’re doing.”
“I just worry…” he said.
“I can handle it well enough,” Janus promised. “I’ve got the toolkit or whatever the head doctor calls it. Plus… work wasn’t ever actually the problem.”
“I know. I know…Just…you aren’t even taking lunch.”
“I have a bit more time free in the afternoon,” Janus said.
“I was just in the middle of something today. If you’re free for a half hour or something, we could get a cup of coffee. How about that? Would that assuage your worry about me a least a bit?”
“Yeah,” Emile said. “Yeah, it would a bit. I have a break at 2, would that work?”
“Sure,” Janus said. He technically had a good amount of stuff to do, but Emile was right in the end. He should try to take breaks. It wasn’t his duty to do everything at the TPI. “A quick lunch now and coffee at 2.”
Here is my starting post for today’s study break stories session. I will reblog this post with the story as I write them today. Feel free to send in asks about anything at any point, even if it’s not for the part of the story I’m currently on.
If you aren’t interested and don’t want all of these posts clogging your dash, please feel free to block the tag “study break stories” as all posts and voting about it will go there. You can still see the finished product of the story even if you are blocking that tag as I will not tag the edited chapters with “study break stories” but with the tag “folds in paper.”
See the Folds in Time Universe Master Post for edited chapters. Not yet edited chapters are under the cut. I also have a playlist on youtube for this story.
Already started late, so idk how long I’ll go.
Chapter 46
Virgil was correct in his ability to find the location he’d crashed landed at. It was impressive honestly. Logan knew how different the farmers market looked like compared to the same location every other day of the week. The main road had been opened and the stage where musical performances took place had been removed. However, Virgil was able to retrace his steps rather easily.
“I ended up under the stage,” Virgil informed Logan. “It’s been taken down now, but you can see where it was based on the grass.” He pointed to where the grass had been flattened and then walked around the indent a bit. “I was in the back,” he said, looking towards where the sidewalk was with a contemplative look, “so it would have been almost exactly here.” He tapped his foot on the spot.
Anticipating this part of their excursion, Logan had packed some of his tools before leaving this morning. He pulled out one of his modified iPads.
“You hide your time travel tech as an iPad?” Virgil asked, curiously.
Logan spared him a glance, but said nothing.
“…You made your time travel tech out of an iPad?!”
“It is one of the most easily accessible technologies of this time that is also portable,” Logan said with a shrug, booting it up. “I use what I can get.”
“How on Earth did you manage to invent time travel with 21st century technology?” Virgil asked, peeking over his shoulder.
“Well, it took me a couple of decades,” Logan replied.
“It took everyone else literal centuries,” Virgil said dryly.
“Well, I knew time travel was possible already, so I simply made it happen.”
“You’re terrifying,” Virgil stated.
Logan just hummed and set the iPad scrolling through his diagnostic programs. In a few moments, it would come back with any readings time travel related.
Virgil watched the device intently, though Logan doubted he had any understanding about what the different things scrolling past meant.
It gave a soft beep when it was done.
Chapter 47
The museum was interesting, not because it taught him any more about the events behind the exhibits on display, but more that learning what people in the 21st century cared about and how they presented past events was an anthropological lesson in its own right. Their conversation became a game of not only finding the mistakes made in the exhibits, but also Virgil hypothesizing why those mistakes were made: prejudice, missing information, and unreliable secondary sources all contributed, and Virgil spent a lot of time talking through the possibilities.
They spent a few hours there before heading back to Logan’s apartment.
Not without stopping at a small, hole in the wall, bar inhabited only by day drinkers. When Virgil gave Logan a weird look, he explained, “I have to bring back a peace offering for running off this morning if I want Patton to agree to a time travel mission for me.”
“…And Patton likes… vodka?” he guessed.
“No,” Logan replied, amused. “This establishment serves cheeseburgers which are apparently the ‘best in the city.’ They do not, however, cook anything else. Not even fries.”
When Logan handed him an unlabeled brown paper bag that looked as though it had been dipped in hot oil instead of just it’s contents, Virgil shot him a raised eyebrow. “Ah, yes,” he said, “the quintessential 21st century American meal.”
“You once ate only bagged pepperoni meant for pizzas for breakfast for a week once.”
“I told you that in confidence,” Virgil said, smacking him lightly with the bag of grease.
“And I have told no one,” Logan responded. “Therefore, I have not violated any part of our agreement.”
“You’re making fun of me. That’s definitely a part of the agreement,” Virgil said.
“I don’t remember there being any clause like that in our verbal contract,” Logan replied with a slight smirk. Virgil rolled his eyes. “Besides, I’m not truly making fun of you. The decision to fuel your body solely with pepperoni is, while not the best strategy and one that would certainly prove detrimental in the long run, it is better to eat that then nothing.”
“Oh,” Virgil said. “Uh, good.”
“I’m simply citing another example where not as healthy food in the long term can be good in the short term.”
“But in this case instead of depression eating to stay alive, the purpose is bribery.”
“Exactly,” Logan said. “Bribery to end the time distortion and get you back to the proper time.”
“Alright, fair enough.”
“You don’t have to eat any if you don’t want to.”
“Oh, no, I’m going to.”
“Then why are you complaining?” Logan asked amused.
“I just thought you should know your time has way too greasy food,” Virgil said.
“Thank you for the information,” Logan said dryly. They’d made it back to the apartment by then, and Logan stuffed the bag he was carrying under his arm to unlock the door.
“And where have the two of you been?” Patton asked when they walked into the kitchen.
“I have cheeseburgers for you,” was how Logan answered.
Patton rolled his eyes as Logan set the bag down in front of him. He was sitting at the kitchen table typing on a laptop. “The French toast wasn’t that bad,” he said.
“I will take your word for it,” Logan said pleasantly.
Patton just shook his head and reached into the bag for a cheeseburger. Logan kept looking at him, and that obviously meant something Virgil didn’t know, because Patton glanced up at him after eating a couple of bites. “What?” he asked suspiciously.
“Virgil and I went back to where he arrived,” Logan said. “There are signs that one of the devices that cause time distortions is present.”
“There aren’t any weather disturbances though,” Patton pointed out.
“It seems to be a more advanced version,” Logan answered. “Which will make much more difficult to track.”
“Okay,” Patton said, “then what are we going to do?”
“Well,” Logan said, “if we could get our hands on an older version, we could probably use it to narrow down the current one’s location.”
“And how exactly are we going to get an older version?” Patton asked, eyebrow raised.
“I understand that you have only been back from your last trip for a little over a week and that your last trip through time was a bit difficult, but,” he nodded towards Virgil, “we do know of the time and place one exists that you would have a good chance of being able to find, deactivate, and bring home.”
Patton groaned. “And judging by the source of this information, steal off of the TPI.”
“Yes.”
“Excellent.”
“At least, in this case, you will go into it knowing there will be no major disasters.”
…
Should Virgil… say something. It’d be rude not to mention the whole time shredding almost drowning bullshit, wouldn’t it? Then again… giving him foreknowledge could be a danger to the timestream. He debated with himself whether general social courtesy should outrank the possible destruction of time or not.
…
Maybe he’d just suggest a boat if they didn’t plan to take one? Just in case?
“Fine,” Patton said, “but you’re finishing your tech updates and making me a survival pack before I make any jump. I’m not making the same mistake again.”
Logan nodded. “I can do that,” he agreed. “Just tell me what you want in your survival pack.”
“I’ve already been working on a list,” Patton said. “I’ll email it to you.” He turned back to the computer he’d been working on and typed a few things. “You can add to it if you think of anything.”
Logan looked at his phone as it dinged. “…Do you really need all of this?”
“Yes,” Patton said, taking another bite of his cheeseburger.
“…I’ll do my best?”
“You’ll do it,” Patton returned.
“Right.”
“I’ll start researching Cuba in the 1700’s,” he said.
Virgil saw him pull up google on his computer. He looked at the 21st century computer and then back to Patton. He couldn’t help but think of the museum he and Logan had been to earlier that day. “Do you want help?”
Chapter 48
It took a little over two weeks to get everything set up. Logan had already been in the process of updating their equipment for quite some time, and this situation only spurned him on. He also then had to figure out a way to meet all of Patton’s demands for his new survival kit. His list had already been quite long before he’d started to add to it. He’d even slipped in a request for a boat at some point despite Logan’s protests that Camaguey Cuba was nowhere near the sea.
Thankfully, Virgil didn’t seem to mind the delays too much.
In fact, he may have had a hand in the delays as his natural inclination towards anxiety seemed to infect Patton and cause him to add and add to his list of safeguards for Logan to make. He and Patton were spending a good amount of time together, actually. Patton was fairly good at researching the places he planned to go at this point, but Virgil was undeniably more experienced with that sort of thing considering he worked with the TPI. Patton seemed to appreciate his input.
Roman, on the other hand, decidedly did not. The two of them were prone to arguments about clothing which had gone beyond talking about Cuban clothing to arguments about clothing from pretty much all of time.
Logan could not tell if they were friendly debates or not. He’d even asked Patton who had claimed he also could not tell. Neither Roman nor Virgil’s responses when asked directly about the nature of their relationship were helpful either. Logan did notice that Roman changed the fabric of the outfit he made for Patton after one of their conversations.
Virgil was not much help to Logan unless you counted the intel, he’d given that helped Logan choose the correct time and place. At least, not in the sense that he was able to help with the mathematics and physics Logan was dealing with.
He was, however, good for company. Especially as his sleep schedule much more closely resembled Logan’s own in those weeks. Typically Roman and Patton went to sleep at a much earlier hour than he did himself and Logan would work alone in the living room, but with Virgil living in the apartment, there was constant companionship while he worked, and less volatile company than he was used to working with (assuming, of course, Roman had gone to sleep by that time). It was nice.
He seemed to fit into their little group in a way Logan had not anticipated. Or at least, socially he did. Physically, there were simply not enough beds and Logan had been sleeping on the couch for two weeks.
Eventually, with all of their combined efforts, everything was ready to go. Patton had three different time appropriate outfits, a good amount of knowledge about the festivities he was about to attend, new time travel equipment, and a survival pack that could help him survive an apocalypse. Patton was planning to arrive in Cuba two days earlier than the TPI protocol would send agents like Janus. That way, he would have time to set up and get acclimated before the TPI sent in their surveillance and touchdown agents.
“This is cool,” Patton said, flexing his fingers to see the hidden screen on his palms light up with a map of the area.
“It’s organized the same as your previous device, except for, of course, the control panel to control the cloaking technology and the access to the survival kit.
“Looks great, Lo,” Patton said, still fiddling with it. He changed it to its default state of a metal band projecting the screen and then back to the time appropriate bracelet Roman had designed. There weren’t many possibilities programed for hiding the device yet, but more could be designed in the future. For now, it only had the default band, the bracelet, and a wristwatch.
“I’ve already tested it a good number of times, but you should familiarize yourself with it anyway before leaving.”
Patton nodded, flicked his fingers and disappeared for a moment before reappearing in the same place. Then, he did it again and reappeared directly next to where he’d been standing. He did similar things a few times before predictably getting bored and starting to do ‘tricks’ which mostly involved landing in ridiculous poses and also accidently jump scaring everyone in the apartment at least twice. Eventually, Logan confiscated it for the evening so they could have dinner in peace.
Patton went to bed early, planning on leaving the next day. Roman quickly retired to his room shortly after leaving Logan and Virgil alone in the living room.
Despite knowing already his calculations were perfect, Logan still sat on the couch checking over them one more time just to make sure. Virgil sat on the floor with his back against the couch watching videos on Logan’s cell phone with headphones borrowed from Patton’s collection.
He glanced up when Logan shifted positions and Logan flashed him a smile.
Virgil removed the headphones to speak. “Thanks by the way,” he said, “I already said it to Patton and will again in the morning, but thanks for helping me out with all of this.”
“It wouldn’t have been particularly kind of us to leave you stranded,” Logan pointed out.
“Yeah, but still, you’ve all been working really hard. Right now you’re up at 3am working on it.”
Logan shrugged. “I’d likely be up working at 3am on something anyway,” he said.
“Sure,” Virgil said, “but this time it’s for me so, yeah, thanks.”
“You’re welcome then,” Logan said. “Any time.”
Virgil tilted his head back to grin at him. “Was that a time travel pun.”
Logan scowled. “No.”
“It sounded like a time travel pun.”
“It was not intentional. I will never intentionally say a pun.”
“You’re telling me you live with Patton and never make puns?” Virgil asked.
“I, unlike my roommates, am a responsible adult,” Logan insisted.
Virgil seemed skeptical. “Is that why you’re drinking forbidden coffee out of an orange juice carton at 3am.”
“Not so loud,” he hissed, leaning forward to put Virgil’s mouth and glancing back towards the hallway to see if anyone was about to come storming into the living room with another intervention.
His hand was bit.
“Ow!” Logan exclaimed, taking his hand back. “How do you know?” he hissed. The ruse had been working on Roman and Patton for years because neither liked orange juice.
Virgil rolled his eyes. “I can smell it,” he said. “I’m not dumb.”
“It’s worked on everyone else.”
“No,” Virgil said. “It’s worked on one dramatic idiot and one man who trusts people not to lie to him way too much. I, however, am a paranoid asshole with a doctorate. You can’t fool me.”
Logan couldn’t help but smiled. “I suppose I have met my match,” he said.
He tilted his head all the way back, so his skull rested on the couch cushion and he was staring straight up at Logan with his piercing hazel eyes. “Heck yeah you have,” Virgil said, and Logan was not much more sentimentality, especially not romantic sentimentality, but there was something about the shadows making the room seem cozier and the almost golden glint in his eyes from the lit lamp beside Logan that made it more difficult to breath.
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He was relaxed here in Logan’s apartment at 3 in the morning, looking up at him with warm eyes. He fit, slotting into place with an ease Logan had not expect. He’d found Professor Virgil Eran interesting from the moment he’d first heard him speak and had glanced through his university profile for information on whoever had plugged his virus into their computer. He had found him endearing when they’d corresponded through emails and occasionally one sided video chats. It was different with him right in front of Logan, within arm’s reach. He could reach down barely a few inches and brush his slightly unruly hair out of his eyes.
“You good man?” Virgil asked.
“I am perfectly well,” Logan said, clearing his throat. He glanced away from Virgil. “I think perhaps my roommates have a bit of a point when it comes to caffeine.”
“Maybe at 3am,” Virgil said in good humor. “You’re not a college kid.”
Logan glanced at the college professor on his living room floor. “Well, thank goodness for that,” he mumbled
“I think your calculations are fine anyway,” Virgil said, gently taking the papers out of his grip. “Why don’t we do something else?”
“Like sleep?” Logan asked.
“You think you’ll be sleeping anytime soon?” Virgil inquired with a raised eyebrow.
“Fair point.”
Virgil grabbed the television remote from side table. “Why don’t we watch a bit of that time inappropriate copy of the Epithet File I know you have.”
“Sure,” Logan agreed. “You can come onto the couch if you would like.”
“Nah. You can come to the floor.”
“…Fine.”
Chapter 49
Patton left in the morning and from there it was just a waiting game. Which, was Virgil’s least favorite type of game. He tried to keep his anxiety on the down low considering it was Logan and Roman’s lifelong friend who was running around some other century, and they were both obviously nervous as well, since the last trip had ended in disaster.
…
This trip was going to end in disaster a little bit too, but Virgil was going to ignore that. At least he wouldn’t be gone for months.
The point was, Roman was constantly going to the gym which was, reportedly not normal behavior and Logan spent his days re-checking calculations that were too late to correct and had worked considering Patton had been in contact occasionally.
Yet, despite the fact that he was clearly an anxious wreck as well, Logan eventually forced himself to put his lined notebook paper away for a bit. Roman was out once again when he did so and Virgil was doom scrolling on his phone.
“We should go out to dinner,” he declared suddenly.
Virgil glanced at the pile of take-out containers stacked near the kitchen trashcan. “Sure,” he agreed.
Which was why Virgil was leaving the apartment for the first time in the last three or so days. Logan had asked him if he wanted anything in particular, but he didn’t care and also didn’t know what restaurants were around, so he was just letting Logan lead him wherever he wanted.
He should not have trusted him.
He glared at Logan, but the man only seemed entertained by his ire. “Really?” Virgil asked.
“I wanted to see for myself if you were really that bad with chopsticks.”
“I’m not,” Virgil said, crossing his arms. “It was just the anxiety about the social situation, and I resent this.”
Logan just laughed, knowing well enough that Virgil wasn’t actually irritated. Honestly, he felt fonder than anything that Logan had chosen to take him here. “It’s actually pretty good sushi.”
“21st century American Midwest sushi,” Virgil drawled. “I’m simply quivering with anticipation for that authenticity.”
“It’s unanimously considered the best sushi in town by my friend group,” Logan said as if the fact that Mr. Asiago Cheese Bread For French Toast and Mr. Went Along With Cooking Asiago Cheese Bread French Toast approved of the restaurant would inspire any confidence in Virgil. If he could even call the place a ‘restaurant.’
“It’s. In. A. Mall.”
“So?” Logan asked.
“It’s a sushi stand in a mall. There isn’t even seating.”
“There is seating,” Logan argued nodding at the five chairs sitting in front of the counter. The seating was completely empty which could be because their eating schedule was off and they were eating dinner at 3pm, but more likely meant everyone else in the time had more sense than the man in front of him.
“Where is your sense of adventure for trying new things?” Logan asked. “Are you not an anthropologist. Don’t you want to experience the culture of the time first hand.”
Virgil glared at him.
“Please try it,” Logan said sill amused. “It really is good.”
“If I get food poisoning, I’m blaming you,” he warned.
“Noted,” Logan said, inclining his head. Then, Virgil reluctantly allowed him to lead him over to the sushi stand from where they’d been hiding behind a trash can so as not to be in the direct line of sight of the man standing behind the counter.
The man greeted them as they approached. He obviously recognized Logan and even asked about Patton and Roman as they took a seat. Virgil did have to admit, despite his instinctual misgivings about mall sushi, what he could glimpse of his set up seemed legit. It looked like a real sushi bar if a bit smaller than usual. Where they had sat, there was a glass case in front of them with chilled fish on display and Virgil could see a large rice cooker behind the man along with a normal refrigerator.
Laminated menus were handed to them. They were only one page front and back, but honestly that was probably a good thing. If it had a bunch of complicated or fancy stuff, Virgil might have been worried.
Well, he was still worried, but he wasn’t running screaming. At least his setup looked like it probably wouldn’t give him too much food poisoning. Logan suggested a rainbow and a snake roll and they got some different types of nigiri.
The chef was nice, and he assembled the sushi fully in Virgil’s view which made him a whole lot less leery about the meal. He seemed to know what he was doing at least. Of course, the fish was not as fresh as it would have been in a coastal area, but it was clearly properly handled. When he was finished, he handed it to them all on one big plate.
He had to admit, when correcting for ingredient availability, it was actually pretty good sushi. He would not say it was the best sushi he’d ever had, but it was worlds better than he’d expected. Logan could obviously tell what his opinion was and was overly smug about it.
“Yeah, yeah,” Virgil said when they were finished. “You’re good at picking restaurants.”
“I’m sure you are also when in a place you are familiar with.”
“I’m not actually,” Virgil said with a laugh. “I always panic choose the worst option.”
“Well, I tend to be quite decisive about such things,” Logan said. “I guess we make a good match.”
“Yeah,” Virgil said. “Uh, what are we going to do when we get home? Because sitting there drowning in anxiety like we have been for the past couple of days isn’t the greatest.”
“Do you have anything in mind?”
“You guys have Blockbuster still?”
“No,” Logan said. He paused. “We do have a Family Video store I think.”
“Is it close? Let’s go there.”
“And why are we not just using a streaming service?” Logan asked. “Or using my… library of movies.”
Virgil shrugged. “It’s the charm of it,” he said.
“The charm of a business already made obsolete and on the brink of collapse?”
“Exactly,” said Virgil with a smile.
“Very well,” Logan said. “If that is what you’d like to do I will look up its location on my phone.”
They were in a building that would look abandoned if there wasn’t a light on inside within 15 minutes. The video rental store had clearly seen better days. Its carpet’s pattern was clearly from another decade and had been trampled over so often it was basically like walking on the linoleum beneath. There was a door on the sign asking patrons to close it behind them because the spring used to close it had long since ceased working.
There was only one person working, a guy in his 30s who glanced at them briefly and then went back to looking at his phone. Ah, yes, Virgil’s favorite type of employee.
“What movie would you like to watch?” Logan asked. He glanced at one small, but still surprisingly present section filled with DVDs.
“I don’t know,” Virgil said. “Isn’t that the point? Stop by a movie rental place on a Friday night, grab a more than likely crappy movie and some Milk Duds and proceed to sit and watch the stupid thing anyway because you already paid for it.”
“Virgil, I grew up in the 90s. This isn’t exactly exciting for me. There is a reason streaming sites took over the market,” Logan replied. “Also, it is Tuesday.”
Virgil rolled his eyes. “Just panic choose a movie with me, nerd.”
“Great!” Virgil dragged him off in the direction of the movies that started with ‘S’.
“This is just… gross,” Virgil said a little under an hour and a half later and about an hour into the film.”
“It is a random romantic comedy from 2002,” Logan responded. “What did you expect?”
“Yeah, but there’s weird sex jokes and actors that are probably from Mars and then there’s actual on screen physical abuse between the romantic couple.”
“I will concede that point,” Logan said, “but I will remind that this could have all been avoided if you had allowed me to do proper investigation of the movie choices before renting it.”
“Ugh, yeah, yeah,” Vigil replied, leaning back to stare at the ceiling. “Just turn it off.”
Logan complied, reaching over to eject the DVD from his computer. The three roommates didn’t actually have a DVD player connected to their TV, so they’d chosen to use the desktop computer in Logan’s room.
Virgil was laying on Logan’s bed with Logan sat propped up against the headboard. Logan leaned over to peer down at him. “Thanks for helping distract me,” he said. “Despite the fact that we now know more about what we’re doing, I still get worried about sending Patton through time. His last time travel experience didn’t improve my confidence. I have been… rather nervous.”
“Well, I’m glad I could help, at least a little,” Virgil replied.
“You did,” Logan replied. “A lot.” His hand reached down to touch pat his shoulder, but then lingered there for a moment too long.
Virgil sat up suddenly and Logan had to jerk back to keep their heads from colliding. “I…” Virgil choked out once he was sitting up. “Um…”
Logan’s mouth curled into a half smile. He offered a hand and Virgil took it.
Virgil glanced at the hand. “I, uh, I am an anthropologist.”
“I am aware,” Logan said with a raised eyebrow.
“And, uh, you were born in this time, so technically I’m studying you…”
“I’m a time traveler, Virgil,” he said amused. “I doubt I am a pure specimen for any studies you may be doing.”
“Right,” Virgil said. “That’s a good point. You’re right.”
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There was a pause. “So then,” Virgil said. “No moral quandaries. Just two people sharing a bed and watching a romance movie.”
“It was a bad one.”
“It really, really was,” Virgil said with a grin and then Logan was leaning forward and Virgil’s hand was on Logan’s shoulder.
And then the door was flinging open. “I’m home!” Roman declared as Virgil scrambled back, banging his head on the bed’s headboard.
“Fuck,” Virgil hissed.
“Roman! You need to knock!”
“Since when?” Roman asked, plopping down on Logan’s bed between them.
“Since we have a guest,” Logan said meaningfully. Virgil hid his reddening face in his hands, curling into as tight of a ball as he could.
“You were both in here, it’s not like one of you were naked,” Roman said flippantly. Virgil debated the merits of staying curled up in a ball for the rest of his life. There was a second of silence, and Virgil was glad he couldn’t see the expressions on their faces from his ball when Roman said, “Oh my god!”
Chapter 50
The breakfast table was silent the next morning. Though if one could call it a breakfast table when Logan was only drinking a cup of tea, Roman was chewing on a slice of unbuttered, untoasted bread, and Virgil was still either asleep or avoiding them both in Logan’s bedroom was debatable.
“…Look,” Roman said.
“We aren’t talking about it.”
“How was I supposed to know the two of you were getting it on?! Put a sock on the door next time or something. It’s common courtesy!”
“We weren’t having sex,” Logan hissed. Roman opened his mouth. “Shut up and learn to knock,” Logan said, pointing his spoon at him threateningly.
Yet, still, because it was Roman, the other man opened his mouth again. Luckily, before he could say anything else on the matter, there was a loud crack from the living room.
“I’m going to need a towel please!” Patton called.
“I’ve got it,” Roman said instantly, jumping to his feet, leaving Logan to walk to the living room.
“Why are you wet?” Logan asked immediately upon taking in the sight of his roommate. He was soaked, water dripping from his form like he’d just gotten out of a pool seconds before.
“There was an ocean in the church,” Patton said.
“What?” Logan asked.
Patton pushed his sopping wet hair out of his eyes. “The time distortions were a lot more intense than ones we’ve seen before,” he said. He held out a small innocuous appearing device whose only mechanism appeared to be a switch to him. “Be really careful with that. It’s unstable and we might have damaged it getting out.” Patton winced and removed his timepiece. “Actually, speaking of that. This might need a checkup too.”
“Were there issues with the tech?” Logan asked taking both devices in his hand.
“…No,” Patton said looking a bit sheepish. “We just… may have turned off all of the safety protocols.”
“Patton I just made this for you!” Logan said, horrified.
“And you did a really good job!” was Patton’s reply, “but we didn’t really want to drown in a church.”
Logan took a slow breath. “I’ll make sure it wasn’t damaged,” he said.
“Thanks, Lo!”
Roman entered the living room then, bright blue towel in hand. “I have returned bearing gifts!” he declared.
“My hero,” Patton said with a laugh, taking the towel and using it to wipe off his face and then start to dry his hair.
“So, an ocean in a church?” Logan asked.
Patton nodded. “I’ll have to thank Virgil for suggesting the inflatable raft.”
He paused as he finished running the towel through his hair and started to dab at his clothing. “I saw Remus,” he said.
Roman froze. “You did?”
“Uh huh,” Patton replied. “He was with Janus. I didn’t think I should say anything to him since that trip was way out of sync though, sorry.”
“Yeah, no, that make sense. That’s fine.” Roman hesitated. “How was he?”
“He seemed good,” Patton said. He flashed them a smile. “Happy. He’s quite the character actually. He and Janus seem like they’re good friends.”
“Oh,” Roman said. “That’s… that’s good.”
Patton’s face screwed up slightly. “He did flirt with me though, so that was weird.”
Roman took a moment to think about it before pulling a face that one would expect to see on a small child trying a lemon for the first time. “That’s disgusting! That’s like… that’s like my brother flirting with my brother. Gross!”
“It was… it was weird,” Patton said.
“What did he even say?” Roman asked.
“Mostly it was comments on my…” he made a motion with his head that apparently Roman could interpret.
“He talked about your butt!”
“…Well, he didn’t exactly use that word.”
“That sounds about like Remus,” Virgil said, poking his head into the hall.
“Oh, you’ve finally decided to join the land of the living, Emo?” Roman asked.
“Shut up,” both Logan and Virgil said at the same time.
Of course, he did not. “You know, Pat-pat, speaking of posteriors…”
“One more word out of you and I will actually kill you,” Virgil threatened.
“Um, what’s going on?” Patton asked.
“I’ll tell you later,” Roman promised.
“You will not,” Logan said. “Keep your gossiping tendencies under control.”
“Okay, but now I want to know,” Patton said with a pout.
“You go take a shower,” Logan ordered.
Patton shared a look with Roman that told Logan there was no way he wouldn’t have the whole story along with a good number of embellishments by the end of the night. Then he shrugged. “Yes, boss,” he said. Logan rolled his eyes as he turned towards the bathroom, the towel still on his shoulders. He was dry enough that he wasn’t dripping anymore, and he slipped off his waterlogged shoes and socks so he wouldn’t track water to the bathroom.
“Put that in the biohazard hamper,” Logan called after him.
“I know!” he called back.
“And you,” Logan said to Roman, “clean up all of the water he got on the carpet in the off chance there are any pathogens in it.”
“Why do I have to do it?!”
“Because you’ve annoyed me,” Logan said, “and I need to insure these two devices do not explode.”
“Ugh, fiiiine,” Roman said, dipping back into the hall.
Virgil glanced over at him, the picture of awkwardness. “Uh,” he said. “Hey.”
“Hi,” Logan said.
“…Are those things really at risk of exploding right now?” he asked.
Logan glanced at him. “Technically they are always at least slightly at risk of exploding, but admittedly the chance is further from 0 than I would like it to be at this point.”
“Great,” Virgil said. “One more thing to be anxious about.”
“You don’t need to be anxious about it, Virgil,” Logan said.
“Uh, I think I do need to be anxious about the maybe bomb in your hands.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“I know,” Virgil said with a sigh.
“We are two mutually consenting adults. There isn’t any shame to it.”
“Can we please talk about our very embarrassingly interrupted kiss after you’ve dealt with the explosives?”
“Very well,” Logan said. He walked to the other side of the room to grab a statis chamber from a cabinet drawer.
“What’s that?” Virgil asked as the cube shaped device popped up.
“It’s a stasis cube,” Logan said as he put the two devices in his hand into it and activated. “It will allow them to cool down completely from their earlier use in a safe environment. It will be less dangerous to work with them later.”
“If it just takes 5 seconds to deal with them, why are you making Roman clean up?” Virgil asked amused.
“Like I said,” Logan said. “He annoyed me. Speaking of,” he glanced into the hallway where Roman currently was. “How do you feel about leaving before he gets back to get coffee.”
Virgil smiled at him. “Sure,” he said. “Escape the apartment for coffee part two.”
Chapter 51
It took a few days after Patton got home for Logan to first make sure the timepiece and the distortion device were not at a risk of exploding and then to study the distortion device.
“It’s similar to what little we’ve seen of TPI technology,” Logan had mused, sitting on the couch while studying the information he’d managed to get off of it. “It’s definitely derived from the same technology unlike my time travel device, but it looks a bit different, and this version at least is rather shoddily made. Of course, creating disorder and almost ripping apart time is easier than seamlessly moving through it.”
“So, they’re probably from my time then?” Virgil asked.
“Most likely,” Logan agreed. “Though it could always be a Remus situation where they were from another time originally but accidently ended up in the TPI time. Either way, the origin of their purposeful time travel was certainly around your time.”
Virgil glanced at the device he’d set on the table in front of them all. It looked innocent sitting there, but it had the power to destroy so much, and they didn’t even know why. “Do you think whoever made this trapped me here on purpose?” Virgil asked.
“It would be a big coincidence if you in particular got trapped in this time in particular,” Roman said.
“I was thinking the same thing actually,” Logan said. “You do work with the TPI and with Janus, a time agent who both often is caught in the middle of devices similar to this being used and who runs into Patton frequently. Plus you know Remus, Roman’s brother even if we didn’t know that connection before you were trapped here and we already had a correspondence before you landed here. It would be strange for you to have ended up here on accident.”
“But why?” Virgil asked. “I am somehow connected to all of you, but I’m still not a time agent myself.”
“All I am to the TPI is a walking history book. I’m not actually involved.”
“Well,” Logan said. “Perhaps someone knows something we don’t.”
“Or maybe it’s just a happy accident!” Patton said. Virgil highly doubted that and it made anxiety churn in his gut.
“Well,” Logan said, “accident or not, we do now have a solution to the issue. I’ve managed to use this device to recalibrate my calculations and we’ve gotten a ping. I know where the signal blocking Virgil’s time device is coming from.”
“Where?” Roman asked.
“It looks like a local trash dump,” Logan replied. “It must have just ended up in a trashcan that day and was emptied before we checked.”
“Well, that should be easy enough to get,” Patton said. “Give Roman and I the exact coordinates and we can go and get it now.”
“Wait, why are we the only ones who have to dig through a garbage dump?” Roman asked.
Patton gave him a look.
“Oh,” Roman said, eyes lighting up. “Oh right!” Then, he scowled remembering he was going to be going through a garbage dump. “Fine,” he sighed.
“Think of it as an adventure!” Patton said.
“We’re time travelers. We have so many more exciting adventuring opportunities than dumpster diving, Pat-Pat,” he whined, but he still got up. “I’ll go get changed.”
Patton stood up and handed Logan his phone, so Logan could program the location of the distortion device into it while he changed as well. “We’ll text you when we’re heading back! I’ll give you a 15- and 5-minute warning,” Patton said with a wink. Virgil immediately hid his face in his hands.
“Do you think the TPI is hiring?” Logan asked as the door closed. “I’d love to move to a different century without those two.”
“Time agents don’t usually live in 4500s,” Virgil said, face still hidden behind his hands. “They’d probably still place you in this century, especially since you’re comfortable here.”
“No escaping them then,” Logan sighed.
“Mmm,” was Virgil’s response.
He felt Logan shift on the couch next to him and a warm palm touched his wrist, gently tugging his hand away from his face in a way that Virgil could resist if he really wanted. Virgil let the hand fall with a sigh. Logan smiled at him when he could see his face and Virgil smiled back despite how he could still feel heat in his cheeks.
“You will be going home this evening, I’d imagine,” Logan said.
“Yeah,” Virgil agreed softly.
“I would like to give you a gift before you go, if you’ll allow it.”
“Uh, okay,” Virgil agreed.
Logan nodded and leaned back to grab something out of the pocket of a jacket that was currently hanging over the side of the couch. “Ah,” he said when he found whatever he was looking for. He glanced at Virgil. “It is a ring, by the way, but this is not a proposal.”
“Well, I’d certainly hope not,” said Virgil dryly. “An impulse elopement would be a little off brand for us both.”
Logan smiled at him. “Very true,” he agreed. Then, he opened his palm revealing a small ring.
“So, then, what is it?” Virgil asked.
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“It is an emergency time travel device,” Logan explained. “It’s not particularly complex. It can only take you here to this room between 2 weeks and one year from now, but if you ever need something from me, you can use it.”
He offered the ring and Virgil opened his palm to let him put it in his hand. He studied the ring for a moment. It was a rose gold and very light.
“It also has some security measures,” Logan said. “It wouldn’t do to make an emergency time travel device that someone else might easily try to take from you. It’ll disappear when you put it on. You’ll still be able to feel it and take it off whenever you wish. It’ll become visible again if you take it off.”
“An invisible ring?” Virgil asked, curious.
“Yes,” Logan said with a smile. “It is designed to store your space time coordinates for up to 48 hours just so you’re aware, but as I said you can take it off whenever you wish and… I won’t use it against you.”
Virgil looked at him. “Okay,” he said. “Can I put it on?” Logan nodded, and Virgil slipped it on his finger. As promised it disappeared from view as soon as he did. He could still feel the weight of it on his finger though.
“You turn it three times counterclockwise to activate it,” Logan said, making Virgil look up from the seemingly empty space on his finger he’d been staring at.
“It would drop you right about where you are sitting.”
“Thanks,” Virgil said. It wasn’t nearly enough to say how much he appreciated the gift, but he hoped his tone said enough.
“Don’t use it against me?” Logan asked with a half-smile, and Virgil realized just how much trust was being put onto him by giving him a device that was directly linked to their base of operations despite knowing Virgil worked with the TPI.
Virgil shook his head. “I won’t,” he said. Deciding to throw out his nervousness and embarrassment over last time he shot forward to kiss Logan quickly on the lips. They bumped noses and Logan’s glasses ended up askew in the process, but Logan didn’t seem to mind judging by his delighted laugh when they parted.
“Thank you,” Virgil said again.
“Of course,” Logan replied.
Virgil could still feel the ring on his finger even after Patton and Roman got back from the dump with the device that had caused this whole mess. He could still feel it when Logan turned it off and his time piece reactivated. He could still feel it there when he made it home and gave an excuse as to why he’d left his trip early. He could still feel it when he got an email from an unknown sender making sure he got home okay.
Arc IV: (To Be Named)
Chapter 52
“What’s this?” Janus asked when a giant bowl was set on the coffee table in front of him.
“We’re eating on the couch tonight,” Emile said cheerfully.
Janus raised an eyebrow and switched off the tablet he’d been using to look at him. “Why?” he asked.
Emile shrugged and set a second huge bowl down next to Janus’s. “For fun,” Emile said. He turned back towards the kitchen and Janus leaned forward to look in the bowl. It was spaghetti with some sort of creamy sauce and a few different vegetables mixed in along with some shrimp.
“I made green tea,” Emile said, coming back into the room with two mugs.
“Thanks,” Janus said, taking one of the mugs with a small smile.
“What were you doing?” Emile asked as he took a seat beside Janus. He nodded at the deactivated screen now sitting on the end table.
“Just doing some puzzle games,” Janus said.
“That sounds fun,” Emile said with a smile.
“Head doctor said they might be a good thing to do to pass the time when I told him to fuck off after suggesting reading.”
Emile sighed. “Dr. Figueroa is my colleague. You could try to be polite.”
“I thought I was supposed to be my authentic self in therapy,” Janus replied.
Emile just huffed and rolled his eyes. Janus couldn’t help but smile as he picked up his mug of green tea.
The last few months had been…different. In a lot of ways, Janus’s life had become harder than it had been before. It had been easy to do nothing but eat pre-prepared meals, go to work, and pass out in his empty house every day. It wasn’t good for him. He’d known it even then, but it had been easy. This was not.
Emile had offered, insisted really, that Janus move into his house for a bit just to get back on his feet.
He’d taken time off of the TPI which would have been given to him anyway since he’d spent so trapped in the past. He’d had to give a report of what had happened, and he’d mentioned Patton, but he hadn’t mentioned everything. They’d offered him a shrink when he’d asked.
Janus had told Emile he needed to tell him something about why he’d been distant, so he wouldn’t end up chickening out, but he’d asked for a bit of time to figure out what to say. He’d finally worked up the courage to talk about it with Dr. Figueroa two weeks ago. Much like with Patton, it was easier to talk to someone who hadn’t been involved in Janus’s mistake, but it still wasn’t easy.
He was running up on the deadline he’d given for having that talk with him. It had to happen soon, and they both knew it, but Emile was just patiently waiting for him to suck it up. It felt… wrong to use his kindness without him knowing, but it was also nice to get to spend time with his brother. He didn’t even dare to hope that he’d still have the chance once he told him.
He was moving back into his own house in less than a week. He’d tell him then so if Emile ended up kicking him out of his life, he wouldn’t have to kick him out of his home too.
For now, though everything was fine. Harder, more complicated, and in threat of exploding at any moment, but fine. Fine wasn’t something he’d really felt in a long time. Or at least, fine while in his own time wasn’t something he’d felt in a long time. There’d been a few moments with Patton sitting next to the fire outside the hole in the ground they’d slept in for those few months where the man would turn to look at him and he’d felt fine. Yet, Patton had been right. Those moments were unsustainable with how Janus was actually feeling deep down.
“This is good,” Janus said, after taking a couple of bites of the pasta in front of him.
“Well, I always was the only one in the house that could cook,” Emile said, and that was true. “It was either learn to defend for myself or eat a cheeseburger for every meal.”
“Hey, I had a good burger seasoning.”
“Not for every meal, Janus.”
“Meat, dairy, bread. What more could you want?”
“Vegetables, Janus.”
“You could have put pickles on!”
“I don’t like pickles.”
“That sounds like your problem, not mine,” Janus argued.
Emile shook his head, turning his eyes to the ceiling. “How have you been surviving on your own?”
“Well, I mean,” Janus said. “Badly.”
“Right…” Emile said. He leaned over to bump their shoulders together. Janus flashed him a smile.
“Speaking of,” said Janus. “Could you physically force me to pack tonight? I meant to do it today and instead I ended up playing puzzles games.”
Emile chucked. “Sure, I’ll help you after dinner.”
“You don’t have to help me,” said Janus. “Just make me do it.”
“Maybe I want to help,” said Emile.
“Oh, yes, packing. The most entertaining of Thursday night activities.”
Emile hummed and then glanced at him. “Remember when you helped me pack for college?” he asked.
“Mmm, I do,” Janus replied.
“I was so stressed about going somewhere new,” Emile said, “that I avoided packing for weeks. Every time Mom would ask me how packing was going, I’d tell her it was going fine but in reality, I hadn’t even started. You’d come home two days before I had to leave because you were going to help me move into my dorm. It’s like you could sense no packing had been done the moment you stepped through the front door.”
“You were doing your ‘hiding the broken horse statue from mom’ shuffle,” Janus said with a smirk.
“Well, you walked me straight to my room and we packed everything up in those two days,” Emile said. “You made it so much easier.”
“Yeah, because I hovered over you until you did it and did half of it for you,” Janus snorted.
“It wasn’t just that,” Emile said. “You also found the music streaming station run by the university and put that on and talked about what your freshman year was like. You also had tips on what things I should and shouldn’t pack when moving into the dorm.”
“You still took all of the cartoon stuffed animals despite my advice.”
“I thought there’d be more space on the bed,” Emile frowned.
Janus snorted.
“But anyway, just having someone else around made me happier. It wasn’t just about the workload being halved either. You being there made me feel less lonely and reminded me I’d always have someone to come back to.”
Janus internally winced. He was sure Emile hadn’t meant to make him feel guilty in any way. In fact, he probably was trying to do the opposite, but him saying that just reminded Janus that it hadn’t been true. Janus had abandoned him for literal years and hadn’t been someone he could always come back to.
Emile had proven himself to be at least close to who he was before Janus messed with time the few last months. There were a couple of differences here and there, and Janus could not be sure if they were from him changing time or from him avoiding his brother for the past three years and him naturally changing. Most memories they shared that Janus cautiously brought up or Emile mentioned on his own were consistent with what Janus remembered, but he hadn’t pushed too hard or dug too deep. It just made him feel more guilty about avoiding the man for so long.
It made him want to ignore the man more, because it seemed every choice Janus ever made only hurt him.
…
Well, perhaps not the college radio station when helping an anxious 18-year-old pack up his childhood bedroom.
He should probably tell Emile that his words made him feel guilty because that was obviously not the intention and he’d want to know. He should probably apologize properly for leaving him alone for three years without an explanation. He should probably provide an explanation for those three years.
He should probably go see the head doctor again soon.
(He should probably stop calling Emile’s colleague who was in the same field as him a head doctor derogatorily in his head.)
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For now, he just glanced at Emile. “You’re trying to bully me into letting you help pack with logic, aren’t you?”
“I am,” Emile confirmed without remorse.
“Fine,” Janus sighed, “but only if you let me do the dishes for you.”
Emile took a long moment to consider the offer. “You drive a hard bargain,” he said, “but okay.”
“And no doing anything sneaky like getting bags ready for me on your own while I’m doing it or the deal is off,” Janus said.
“You always think of all possible loopholes, Janus,” Emile sighed.
There was a long silence.
“Agree, you prick,” said Janus.
“No promises,” Emile replied cheekily with laughter in his eyes, and things were good for a moment more.
Chapter 53
Today Janus was moving into his house in 24th century for the second time in his life, and honestly, the house wasn’t going to look much different than it had when he’d first moved in. Janus had unpacked his things more at Emile’s house in the past almost 6 months than he had in the two and a half years he’d liven in his house. His house held clothes, bare bone furniture, and exactly one skillet from when he’d decided to be daring and tried to cook himself an egg. All he’d really customized for himself was the setting on the LXC device which controlled the lights, media across the home, and prepackaged food ordering and prepare.
He almost felt embarrassed that his house was so empty. Emile, of course, knew that his mental health had been fucked, but the blankness of his house was a physical reminder of this fact especially considering how he used to keep house before all of this. He’d warned Emile about the fact that his house was empty, and he had said he understood, but still.
They gathered all of the luggage in a pile in Emile’s guest room. They’d had to get permissions from the TPI to allow Emile to travel to his house, and Janus went ahead and filed to give him permanent permission to travel there.
The decision felt far too hopeful for someone who hadn’t had that conversation with his brother yet, but it had made Emile smile in the moment.
Emile took three of the bags and Janus took the rest. He waved his arm and selected the third saved location on the device. In a moment, he was standing in the living room of his dark, empty house.
…
His supposed to be dark and empty house. More of the lights were on than Janus had ever switched on himself, and half of the windows were open. (He didn’t even know some of those windows opened.)
They were letting in the sounds of birds that made the lakeside their home as well as cool late fall breeze. There was also a racket coming from the kitchen. Emile was beside him a second after he himself had appeared. He looked around for a moment. “Did you leave it like this?”
“No,” Janus replied.
“Do you have squatters?” He had a security system from 2 millennia in the future on his house. He highly doubted it.
“I’m going to go check the kitchen,” Janus said, moving towards the noises coming from the other room.
He stopped in the doorway to his kitchen only to see Patton standing at his kitchen counter cutting up a carrot on a cutting board Janus didn’t think he owned, and if he did, it was buried in a box somewhere.
“What are you doing?” Janus asked.
“Cooking!” was the immediate reply.
“In my house?” Janus asked. “How do you even know where my house is?”
“I may be just a little bit ahead of you,” Patton said with a wink while tapping the side of his nose.
Janus sputtered. “This is my house!”
“I know!” He said it so cheerfully while being a purposefully obtuse asshole that Janus could help but crack a smile and shake his head. He’d missed him after spending so long alone with him though he wasn’t go to admit that to him when he’d broken into Janus’s house to…
“Again, what are you doing?”
“I’m making you soup.”
“Why?” Janus asked.
“Well,” Patton said. “I know it’s a bit of a rough time for you, so I thought I’d give you a nice welcome home present and what better present than food!” He smiled at him widely.
Janus looked closer at what he was making. “You’re trying to prove to me you can cook.” Patton frowned at him. “Have you considered I have had enough fish stew for a lifetime?”
“Nope!” he said. “It’s entirely different this time anyway. I have carrots!”
“I don’t like carrots,” Janus lied blandly.
“Liar!” Patton declared.
“No, I’m not,” Janus continued to lie.
“I mean, that was definitely a lie,” Emile interjected from behind Janus. He was looking at them curiously. “Er, hello, who are you?”
“This is Pat,” Janus said.
“The illegal time traveler you’ve been tracking?” Emile asked with a questioning lilt to his tone.
“Ah, yes, well,” Janus said with a cough. “We came to an understanding when stuck in pre-history.”
“And now he is cooking you soup in your house?” Emile asked.
“I’ve long since stopped trying to make sense of him,” Janus grumbled.
“Well,” Emile said. “Hello Pat.”
“You can call me Patton,” he said easily. “I hope it’s nice to meet me, because I’ve already met you.”
“We haven’t been meeting in the correct order,” Janus informed Emile. “So, he’s apparently already met you which will happen in your future. It is also something he shouldn’t be talking about,” he scolded. Patton took that with a shrug.
“I hate time travel,” Emile said, his nose scrunching up. “Isn’t life already confusing enough.”
Janus winced, not relishing the upcoming conversation with him about how confusing his life was now because of time travel.
“Don’t you work with the TPI too?” Patton asked.
“That doesn’t mean I like time travel,” Emile said. “I’m a stationary agent and I like that just fine.”
“Time travel can be a bit complicated sometimes,” Patton acknowledged, “but I don’t think it’s all bad.” He finished chopping up the carrot and turned to put it in the self-regulating soup pot. Janus squinted at it. It was certainly not something Patton had in the 21st century. So, the question was. Had he gone out and bought time appropriate cookware before breaking into Janus’s house or had he gone through Janus’s storage to find it?
“You’re a free agent time traveler, right?” Emile asked.
“Depends on what you mean by free agent,” Patton said. “I have always worked with a group of people, and we have rules and procedures. It’s basically a time agency itself, just not the TPI.”
“And you’ve met me before?”
“I have,” Patton confirmed, “but Janus is right in that I can’t say much more than that about it. In fact,” he said wiping off his hands on a towel hanging from his apron. (The apron was covered in cartoon squirrels and totted the phrase ‘I’m a nut for baking.’) “I should probably be getting out of here.”
“You’ve never been worried about us meeting out of order before,” Janus pointed out with a frown. He didn’t particularly want Patton to go even though the man had broken into his house and possibly went through his boxes of kitchen equipment.
“Well,” Patton said. “There’s meeting wildly out of order, there’s meeting in order, and then there’s what I’m doing.”
“What are you doing?” Janus asked alarmed.
Patton just shrugged with a smile.
“No, Patton, what are you doing?”
“Soup should be done in about an hour, but you can leave it on all day. I got a pot that’s fridge safe, so just shut it off and stick it in there before going to sleep.”
“Patton.”
“See you later! Bye!” He said and disappeared into thin air.
Janus sighed and rubbed the bridge of his brow. “Why is he like this?”
“Janus,” Emile asked. “Why did your self-declared mortal enemy make you soup?”
“Because he’s an asshole, that’s why.”
“Uh huh,” Emile said, looking at him oddly.
“What?” Janus asked.
“What exactly happened when you were stuck in the past?” Emile asked.
Janus sighed. “A lot happened. A lot.” He glanced at the soup pot happily performing its function on his kitchen counter. ‘I hope it’s nice to meet me, because I’ve already met you,’ rang in his ears. Fucking Patton with his little hints about the future. It gave Janus just a bit of courage though knowing that Emile at least didn’t flee the continent after the conversation they had to have. He was at least around enough to meet Patton. “In fact,” Janus said. “It’s probably time I told you what happened. Everything that happened.”
Chapter 54
They sat down in the living room. Janus let Emile have the couch and sat on one of the matching armchairs. There was a squeaky sound when he sat. The plastic covering the chair had been delivered in was still on it.
Emile had a pleasant, open but curious expression on his face and Janus suddenly had an idea what it felt like to be his patient.
“I,” Janus began after a moment, shifting uncomfortably on the squeaky chair. “I don’t know how to start this conversation. I talked about what I wanted to say and possible ways to say it with Dr. Figueroa, but I… I still don’t know.”
“I guess I should start by saying that I did something horrible that I need to apologize for and I’m not sure if apologizing will even be enough. The problem is you don’t even know what that horrible thing is.” Janus stared at his feet. “So, first, I should probably explain what I did. I just don’t know where to start.”
“Maybe start with what happened before it,” Emile suggested. “Just lead up to it. It might help explain why whatever it was happened too.”
Janus took a breath. “Okay,” he said. “That day was just like most that I remember. We both woke up early. I was going to the TPI and you were going to where you worked your residency. We ate leftover pizza for breakfast because both of us were exhausted. You because it sucks to be a resident and me because I’d been working on a big case.”
“I was getting frustrated with the case. That was my first mistake: being impatient and angry. It was just a thief, but a slippery one. She’d stolen a half-broken time piece and was using it to rob banks within about a 50-year time frame. I had an idea of where she might go, but no one would listen to me. Or at least,” Janus quirked a half smile, “that’s how I interpreted it. They said they’d look into my idea, but they were being extra cautious because of how close in the timestream her actions were to most of the agents’ lives.”
“I was so tired of the case and so egotistical. I decided to check it out on my own without being cleared by the TPI. I went back in time without thinking of the consequences and that was the worst thing I’ve ever done.” Janus took a breath. “I’m not sure how, but somewhere in the course of my self-appointed mission…” He trailed off. He didn’t know how to say it. He really didn’t.
“What happened?” Emile asked when he didn’t continue.
“I…” and his next words probably sounded like crackly nonsense to Emile’s ears because he couldn’t get his thoughts straight and his tongue wouldn’t make the words right.
“I don’t even remember living in that town or the fact that Mom used to work at that bank,” he choked out. “I didn’t think and I didn’t check and…” There was a long silence. “I erased you,” he finally managed to say in a whisper, but in the quiet of his barely lived in house, the words were loud.
There was more silence. “But I…” Emile said after a moment.
“I went back and fixed it,” Janus said, “but I… didn’t do a perfect job. I don’t even know how much I messed things up. It would have been one thing if it’d just been me. If it had just impacted my life, but I did it to you and I don’t even know how to start to apologize.”
Nothing was said for a long moment. Janus didn’t look at him.
“…Huh,” Emile finally said.
Janus risked a glance at him. He didn’t look irate, but he did still look confused which was probably the reason for that.
“I’m sorry,” Janus said. It was really the only thing he could say at this point.
Emile tilted his head to the side. He took off his glasses and cleaned them with the edge of his shirt with slow circles. Since he was 15, Emile only cleaned his glasses with specially designed wipes, but he’d held onto the habit of cleaning his glasses with his shirt anytime he needed a moment to think. Janus wasn’t sure if Emile even realized he was doing it, but he knew it was a signal for Janus to be quiet for a few seconds.
The glasses were perched back on Emile’s nose after a few seconds. “I think I remember that,” he said contemplatively.
“…What?” Janus asked, and he was no longer avoiding looking at Emile. He was now blatantly staring at him.
“Well, I didn’t know what it was,” Emile said, “but I did have a very odd dream on the day you mentioned and suspiciously I had said dream in the middle of the day and woke standing up.”
“A dream?” Janus asked.
“A very vivid dream,” Emile said. “I don’t believe you actually erased me completely from existence. My life was simply shifted slightly. I was working as a social worker for about 5 hours and then I was back in my appropriate place.”
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“Why didn’t you tell me about that?” Janus asked, but then immediately wince at his own hypocrisy. “Er… never mind.”
“I didn’t know it was possibly real,” Emile said. “Honestly, I thought I was just really tired. I’d been overworking myself a lot. I took the rest of the day off after that.”
“You shifted reality for a few hours, and you didn’t realize it?” Janus asked.
“Like I said, I was really tired and nothing seemed to be wrong…”
“Wait, but things were different,” Janus said. “Didn’t you notice things were different.”
“Not… really,” Emile said. “Like what?”
“Like…” Janus said. “Like a whole bunch of things!”
“Like…?”
“Like you had a different job title and you worked different hours.”
“I thought I’d fallen asleep standing up or had a vivid audio-visual hallucination at work from stress. I asked for a switch a couple of weeks later.”
“You used to hate time travel, but then you took a job at the TPI.”
Emile gave him a drawl look. “I still hate time travel,” he said. “I literally just said that not 5 minutes ago.”
“Well then why would you work for the TPI.”
“Because time travel is so confusing and distressing that people doing it on a regular basis as a career need psychological support.”
“Plus, Lia asked for my consultation when developing the mental health part of the Agent Management Office,” Emile continued. “Considering I already knew quite a bit about time travel from being around you, she knew me personally, and I’d finished my residency, she decided to give me a job offer when my advice panned out.”
“W-well,” Janus said. “You were allergic to pineapples.”
“You mean my childhood allergy?” Emile asked. “That has since resolved itself in my adult life?”
“It has?” Janus asked.
“Janus have you considered,” Emile said, “that some if not all of the inconsistencies you were seeing in my life have to do with the fact that you hadn’t spoken to me in 3 years?”
“I… uh… hadn’t considered that,” Janus admitted honestly.
“You were looking for information to support your incorrect world view,” Emile said sounding very much like a head doctor and not like a brother, “and you found some.” He sighed. “It makes sense after having faced a traumatic event where you effectively thought you’d killed a loved one that you weren’t thinking clearly.” The head doctor analysis voice slipped just a bit. “I just wish you’d talked about it with someone.”
“Sorry,” Janus said, because no matter which way this conversation had gone and no matter the revelations, the point was an apology. “I’m sorry.”
Emile sighed. “I would have forgiven you even if you had erased me,” Emile said. “You didn’t mean to, and you did your best to fix it. You did fix it even if you were an idiot about it.”
“What about for being an idiot and not talking to you for three years?” Janus asked.
“I already did forgive you for that Janus,” Emile said pointedly. “What did you think the last 6 months were?”
“Pity?”
Emile gave him his disappointed and exasperated head shake. “Promise to never do anything like that to me again,” he said, “and I’ll forgive you.”
“I promise,” Janus said immediately.
“And in the future, you’ll talk to me if you have any issue even if you think it’s horrible.”
“I think I’ve learned by lesson on that one.”
“And that goes for other people too,” Emile said. “If anything goes wrong with someone, you talk to them or if that’s too hard you talk to someone so they can convince you to talk to that person.”
Janus nodded.
“Great!” Emile said. “Then you’re officially forgiven for everything. Though I expect you to go to therapy and keep working on making yourself feel better, so these things don’t happen again.”
And Janus… didn’t know how to feel about that. He should probably feel happy and thankful or at least relieved, but if he was being honest, he just felt kind of empty in that moment like an old well that had finally run dry. Fuck his head doctor and fuck Patton. Wasn’t this supposed to make him feel better? Everything was fine. He hadn’t actually erased Emile permanently from the timeline, in fact, he’d apparently still existed in some form in the alternate timeline Janus had temporarily made. Emile had forgiven him both for erasing him and ignoring him even though that was far more than Janus deserved. This was something he’d never even dared dream would happen, but it had been exactly what he’d wanted.
Yet, he still didn’t feel good, not really, not like how he remembered feeling before all of this happened.
Though was that really a surprise? Things were not like how they were before. He and Emile were no longer close. There was love and affection there, but they didn’t really know each other. The last six months had been nice. He’d been able to pretend for a bit that everything was back to normal, but in the moments he hadn’t been able to pretend that, it’d been a bit stilted and awkward speaking to his brother especially at the start.
Beyond that, Janus was just used to misery at this point. It was his default state. Not being miserable took effort and energy he didn’t always have. He felt himself slipping into sadness or numbness even during times he should be feeling good. He’d noticed himself experiencing a sense of desolation when Emile cooked his favorite meal or in the middle of watching a ballet performance Emile had suggested they go to and he’d been looking forward to in the days before or even now when he should be so happy, so ecstatic. Everything should be okay, but it wasn’t.
“You doing alright over there?” Emile asked, and Janus didn’t know how long he’d been silent.
Instinct said to say yes and force himself to move on, but he wasn’t going to break his promise that fast. “Not really, no,” he admitted.
“That’s okay,” Emile said. “Anything I can do to help?”
“I really don’t know.”
“Why don’t we go taste the soup your arch nemesis,” there was a light teasing tone to his voice, “made for you. Some of the vegetables won’t be completely cooked yet, but I’m sure it’s already good.”
“Yeah,” Janus agreed. “Yeah, okay,” he got to his feet, the chair making that plastic squeaking sound again. “Maybe we could unwrap the furniture in here before you go home.”
“I think that’s a good idea,” Emile said with a smile.
Chapter 55
Somehow, the strangest thing about his life right now was a picture on the wall. It was one that he’d gotten after college when he moved into his first actual house. It wasn’t anything special. It was just something that had caught his eye when he was specifically looking for something classier to put on his wall than the posters he’d hung in his college dorm and apartment with Virgil. It was a tall painting of a tree, but segmented into four parts, each representing the state of a tree in different seasons. In the top left, the three had small leaves and little buds, on the top right it had full leaves bathed in sunlight, in the bottom left the leaves had changed colors and started to fall off, and in the bottom right the tree was devest of leaves but covered in snow.
It was on the wall near Janus’s bed. It was one of the first things he saw when he opened his eyes in the morning and was usually what reminded him that everything was different now when he woke.
The picture had been in a box in the houses garage up until the Saturday before the last. Saturdays had become his and Emile’s unofficial unpacking Janus’s house day. They would usually pick one or maybe two boxes that had been sitting untouched for years, unpack it, talk, and eat dinner together.
Notably, dinner was usually not provided by either of them.
Patton had gotten into the habit of breaking into Janus’s house. Janus would sometimes catch him doing it briefly, but often Patton managed to avoid him. This was quite the feat considering Janus was not currently working and thus stayed at home a lot of the time. Patton had repeatedly reprogrammed Janus’s kitchen taking away the option for pop tarts entirely and replacing the option with real food. Janus’s kitchen was constantly stocked with something to eat that wasn’t trash. He also liked to leave around different smelling hand soaps, flowers, and paper cranes. Janus had an entire drawer in his nightstand dedicated to storing paper cranes now.
The newest one was still on his nightstand from the night before, sitting cheerfully in the way of his view of the tree paining when his alarm woke up that morning. He sighed. He had not missed getting up early for work.
He was finally going back to working at the TPI this morning. His therapist had signed off on it last week, saying his was fit for duty. Considering they were apparently still understaffed at the TPI and Janus was a senior agent, this was met with much relief. Janus himself still wasn’t sure how he felt about it.
He turned off the alarm and stood. Dr. Figueroa had him write out a morning schedule to follow when he’d expressed his struggle to get the day started. Either Patton or Emile had taken it upon themselves to copy the schedule on virtual sticky notes that appeared in every location necessary for getting ready in the morning.
First, he took a shower. He threw his nightclothes in the laundry chute. There were currently dozens of different scented soaps in his shower all in small bottles that had about 2 or 3 uses. Janus presumed they were curtesy of Patton. He decided to use one at random and it ended up being cotton candy scented.
Next, he got dressed. That was easy enough since he always wore the same outfit to work every day. It didn’t matter what he wore much since missions would force him to redress anyway.
Then he went to his kitchen and sat down at the counter. He pushed the pop tart button. As expected at this point, he did not get a pop tart for breakfast. Instead, he got two eggs, toast, a sliced apple, and a few cherry tomatoes with green tea. He ate his breakfast while finishing one of the puzzles he’d been working on the night before.
Once he finished, it was time to finally face going back to the office. He sighed, stood up and pulled up the screen on his timepiece. He selected his office as his destination and was off.
The first thing that happened upon appearing in his office was he got a face full of… something.
He sputtered, smacking the things fluttering about his face out of the air. “What is wrong with you?” was the first thing out of his mouth before he’d even really confirmed that the culprit of this attack was who he’d automatically assumed he was.
Remus, as anticipated was standing not 2 feet away from him.
Remus had apparently gotten into the prop department again because he had some type of softly glowing glittery confetti was no all over Janus as well as their entire office.
“Remus, I told you no!” Lena snapped. “You know it’s impossible to clean up 3150s sparkle nukes.”
“Welcome back!” Remus crowed.
“I hate you,” Janus replied. “I just took a shower.”
“You’re fine,” Remus said with an eye roll.
“This shit doesn’t come off in decontamination,” Janus spat. “If my first mission back sends me to a time where I’ll be tried as a witch for glowing, I’m blaming you.”
“We’re going to 2510,” Remus informed him. “You’ll fit right in.”
Janus grimaced. “Ugh, that decade.”
“It’s my favorite decade!” Remus exclaimed.
“Of course, it is,” Lena grumbled. “Just don’t bring anything gross back this time.”
“No promises,” Remus replied.
Janus chose to disengage from the conversation as Remus and Lena argued about was and what wasn’t allowed to be brought back to their shared office from what was well known as the least tasteful decade in history. It was also one of the least turbulent decades in history. The population was too busy making shitty ice cream flavors to wage war.
At least they were giving him an easier assignment for his first time back. He turned to his desk and pulled up the files on his next mission, glancing through them. It was just a small blip that the TPI had noticed in a small town in 2510. It probably wasn’t much of anything, but they had no record of what had caused it, so they were going to send someone to look. Honestly, they’d usually just send in a surveillance agent and be done with it, but they’d probably handpicked this one for Janus in particular. He’d be insulted if he didn’t honestly still feel a bit off kilter being in the office.
To his surprise, he didn’t have a scheduled meeting with Rhi. It wasn’t particularly important to see a mission coordinator for something this small, but it still wasn’t the usual protocol. Instead, he was just instructed to pick up his costume at the costuming department and leave in about an hour.
“Do we really not have an appointment with Rhi?” Janus asked.
“Senior agents haven’t really been meeting with Rhi unless it’s a high priority mission,” Lena told him. “We have too many newbies running around and there’s not time.
“That’s concerning…” Janus said.
“It’s better than trying to rush the inexperienced ones through. We at least have a general idea of what we’re doing. They’re trying to train up more mission coordinators, but that’s taking a while.”
Janus still frowned, but he glanced back at the mission instructions. He’d have to make sure he thoroughly understood what was being asked of him before leaving if he wasn’t meeting with Rhi. “We should go get changed,” he told Remus. “2510s clothing is notoriously difficult to put on.”
“Five minutes back and he’s already dying to get my clothes off,” Remus said cheekily.
“I would rather tear my own eyeballs out of my socket than see you without your pants on again.”
Remus just wiggled his eyebrows.
“I’m so glad you’re back,” said Lena when Janus looked at her in exasperation. “He’s finally not Fred’s and my problem anymore.”
Chapter 56
Getting ready for the mission was a bit of a mess honestly. The costume department barely even spared them a glance before sending them on their way. Remy at least was still there to give them one last debrief before sending them off into 2510, though he looked exhausted.
“Are you sleeping?” asked Janus.
“I’m drinking coffee,” was the reply as he shooed them out onto the streets.
The timeline disturbance that had been picked up was somewhere in one of the shops on that street.
“Do you want the bakery or the karaoke/stripper bar?” Remus asked.
Janus raised an eyebrow at him, and Remus clapped him on the back.
“This is why we’re partners,” he said.
He plodded off towards the building to their right, and Janus turned to the building on the left. It was a small bakery and coffee shop painted in bright colors and sporting the Brazilian and Albanian flags.
There was a soft tinkling bell sound when he entered the shop, and the person behind the counter glanced over at him briefly before finishing putting a pastry in bag for a customer.
Unfortunately, their attention meant Janus wasn’t going to get away with snooping around the store without buying anything. He glanced around the interior of the shop as he walked up to the till.
He glanced into the bakery display case the worker was standing behind. Oh… oh that all looked disgusting. He was not depressed enough anymore to willingly eat any of that.
“Uh,” Janus said when the worker looked at him. He glanced up at the wide selection of drinks over their head and winced at the ways the letters moved on the screen. He was pretty sure his dyslexia wasn’t quite that bad. Why did anyone choose to make letters move around and shake on purpose? As someone who had to deal with that on a daily basis, it wasn’t exactly entertaining.
“Is it possible to get a banana and chocolate potato chip smoothie, but without the potato chip part?” he asked.
“Sure,” the worker replied. “Anything else?”
Janus shook his head.
“Can I have a name for that?”
“Jay,” Janus replied.
“Alright. It’ll be out in a minute.”
Janus nodded and turned, able to take in the rest of the establishment now that there weren’t eyes on him. It was as colorful on the inside as it was on the outside and seemed to have a retro cowboy-space theme mixed with posters from a contemporary werewolf romance movie. Janus had actually seen that movie one. It was surprisingly tolerable.
The seats at least looked comfortable. There were a good number of tables and three couches. All of them were mix-matched. A few of the tables were outfitted with holographic chess and checkers, but most were normal tables. There were even a few physical boardgames and some bookshelves full of books, though he thought some of the bookshelves might just be there for decoration. He wasn’t sure which were and which weren’t.
He pretended to be very interested in the decorations as he waited on his drink, using that as an excuse to look around the entire shop. He was turned away when the door chimed again.
“Hello,” a familiar voice said, making Janus turn around instantly. Janus could immediately tell that the man hesitantly lingering in front of the bakery display was not the Patton that he’d spent months holed up with or who had broken into Janus’s house repeatedly to replace his soaps and cook him meals. He seemed out of place which was saying something in 2510. He had the air about him that he was an 80-year-old grandpa trying to embrace youth culture, but not quite getting it. He also spoke in an accent that people around him would probably assume was him just not being fluent in Spanish but was actually him not being completely comfortable speaking Spanish from half a century ago.
“Uh…” said Patton looking at the menu, a crease between his eyes.
“I’d suggest the banana and chocolate potato chip smoothie without the potato chips,” Janus said. Patton startled, whipping around to face him in surprise. “That’s what I got, though I would leave out the potato chips.”
Patton’s eyes narrowed on him. It was not, of course, the first time that Patton hadn’t been thrilled to see him, but it was the first time Janus had been happy to see him and he hadn’t been happy to see him in turn. Janus had gotten used to a Patton that liked him and he found himself not quite prepared for the way he pursed his lips in annoyance at the sight of Janus.
“I’ll do the banana and chocolate potato chip smoothie, but with the potato chips,” he said in a way that made it sound like he thought he was getting one up on Janus for some reason.
“What flavor of chips?” the worker asked.
“Er, what flavors do you have?”
“Uh, I think drywall, oak wood, and limestone.”
Janus almost laughed at his expression. “Uh, do you have any naturally edible flavors?” he asked.
“We might have grass.”
Patton squinted as the worker bent to look under the cabinet. “Oh, wait, no, it’s glass. Is that alright?”
“…Maybe just no on the chips.”
Janus did his best to school his features, so it wasn’t obvious he was laughing at him. He didn’t think he did a very good job considering Patton was glaring at him after turning around. That or he was just already pissed at Janus by default. It could go either way honestly.
“So,” Janus said when the worker turned away to start making Patton’s drink. “What are you doing here.”
“It’s none of your business,” Patton said with narrowed eyes.
“I mean, we could both be here for the same reason,” Janus pointed out. “We could share intel.”
“I doubt we’re here for the same reason.”
“How would you know?” asked Janus.
Patton just looked away from him. He immediately looked confused at the movie poster his eyes landed on.
“Unless,” Janus said curiously, you aren’t here for a reason, reason.” Patton said nothing. “It was a pretty small disturbance, so it would make sense that your equipment might not pick up on it.” At least at this point. “Acting the tourist, Pat?”
“I’m just doing research,” Patton said, crossing his arms.
“Research?” Janus asked.
“I’ve never been here before,” Patton admitted. “I wanted to get a feel for it and other places just in case there ever was an issue.”
“You just did France, didn’t you?” Janus asked.
Patton frowned and Janus smiled slightly. “It was recent,” he admitted.
“Well,” Janus said. “If you want some advice. I’d start with figuring out accents when you’re in different times.”
“I don’t need your advice,” Patton said and then smugly, “Janus.”
It took a bit for Janus to scan back through his memories and remember that Patton hadn’t known Janus’s name in France. He would have only figured it out after his friend Lo hacked into Silver Mountains University’s system and figured out Virgil had an appointment with him. Janus raised an eyebrow. “You sure about that, Patton?”
He frowned, pouting like whenever Janus told him he wasn’t allowed to try to catch a bird and make it their pet. It was strange to meet a version of Patton who had not lived in a hole in the ground with him for months when Janus had already done that. Patton was on the back foot for once throughout this conversation. Every time before this, he’d managed to somehow twist it around even when he’d been younger than he was right now. When Janus had arrested him at the University, he’d managed to figure out his equipment wouldn’t be stopped by the TPI’s despite having no idea what the TPI was.
In France, even when Janus had thought he’d been winning by taking his phone, he ended up getting access to a University in Janus’s time with information on the TPI, a situation that still had not been resolved.
Today, however, Janus knew far more about Patton than Patton expected. He still didn’t know exactly what his agency or whatever it should actually be called did, but he knew some things about it. He knew Patton was from the 21st century which explained the anachronisms in his speech in different times.
“You could help me look if you’d like,” Janus offered casually.
“Why?” Patton asked suspiciously.
Janus shrugged. It was not because he missed him, he insisted to himself. It wasn’t because after spending so much time with him, not getting to talk with him all day was strange. It had nothing to do with the fact that the few times he’d ran into a farther along version of Patton since he’d moved back home, their interactions had been brief and tinged with something. No, the only reason Janus was inviting him along was so he could teach this younger version a few things, so he hopefully didn’t go about messing up time. “We worked well together in France, didn’t we?” he asked. “Besides, it’s just a small mission without much danger to the timeline.”
“Pat,” the person at the counter called. Patton turned to him to go grab his smoothie, thanking the worker before turning back around and walking over to Janus.
“Fine,” he said. “I’ll help, but you have to answer my questions.”
“I’ll answer the questions that won’t endanger any timelines or secrets of my agency.”
Patton considered it for a moment, taking a sip of his drink. “Fine,” he agreed.
“Good,” Janus replied. “We’ll start by looking around the coffee shop for anything unusual. Did you have any questions now. It’d look more natural to be walking around if we were having a conversation.”
“Does the glitter in your hair have to do with the style of the time or…?”
Janus sighed.
Chapter 57
Luckily, the cashier didn’t seem to think them snooping around was very odd. To be fair, the shop had quite a few odd decorations to look at. So, perhaps employees were just used to people walking around and looking at all of the different things. It helped that Janus and Patton were talking as they searched. They just looked like a couple… of friends… casually chatting and exploring the coffee shop together.
“So,” Patton said, keeping his voice quiet, though luckily the few patrons were on the other side of the shop. “What exactly is it that you do working for the TPI?”
“Well,” Janus said. “I’m a senior field agent. That means I am the person who actually goes on missions in different times. These missions can range from tracking down people who are committing crimes using time travel, stopping anything or anyone that could damage the timestream, and helping waylaid time travelers.”
“So, there are different types of agents?” Patton asked, curiously.
“Yes,” Janus replied. “There are a lot, but only four type time travel on a regular basis.” Should he be telling a very young version of Patton this? Probably not, but he couldn’t find it in himself to care too much.
“There are surveillance, touchdown, field, and cleanup agents,” he explained. “Surveillance agents do a bunch of things including research about the exact time field agents are going to and figuring out the best places for them to enter the timestream. Touchdown agents come slightly before field agents to do last second checks and stay when field agents are out. They mostly are just there to intervene if there are any unforeseen issues. Field agents actually interact with people from other times on a daily basis as they slip into the timestream and find whatever person or object they’re looking for. Cleanup agents come in afterwards and tie up any loose ends as well as observe the area for a few days to make sure nothing happened that no one caught.”
“Everyone else who works at the TPI is mostly in research and management. They don’t usually travel, though everyone who works there is licensed to travel if necessary.”
“That’s a lot of people,” Patton commented.
“What we do is important. We want to make sure we are doing it correctly.” It was honestly not meant to be a jab, but Janus could see Patton frown. He decided to change the subject. “Right now, we’re looking for something that’s causing a small disturbance.”
“What type of thing could cause a disturbance? Is it always a machine like the one in France?”
“No,” Janus replied. “That was actually unusual.” He thought for a second. “At least that used to be unusual, but lately we’ve seen more and more of that sort of thing.”
They were currently standing at a bookshelf, but nothing pinged Janus’s interest or time piece, so they moved on to look at a few of the movie posters. Patton seemed to grow more and more concerned the longer he looked at the posters.
“So, what is it usually?”
“Well,” said Janus. “Some things are natural events. No one’s really sure what causes those. There are theories, but I’m not really involved in that. We leave those alone for the most part if we find those. They’re usually small things, though on occasion they’re a bit bigger. Usually, time disturbances are caused by someone messing up. They say something wrong that gets someone curious and creates a butterfly or they leave an object that doesn’t exist in the time.”
“So, what do you think this one is?” Patton asked curiously.
“Well,” Janus said. “It’s a rather small disturbance, so it won’t be anything too major. Probably just an object out of place.”
“Hmm,” Patton replied. “Well, I’ve always been good at those find the difference games.”
“Have you now?” Janus said, unable to stop a slight grin from ghosting over his face.”
“Mhmm,” replied Patton. He drained the rest of his smoothie and then turned around, facing away from the wall of posters they’d been looking at. He slowly scanned the room, an action a lot less inconspicuous than what Janus had them doing, but he didn’t protest for now.
“That’s weird,” Patton declared, pointing rather obviously at a shelf. Janus noticed a woman looking at him funny. “Well,” Patton continued. “More like it isn’t weird, which is weird for here.”
Janus glanced at the shelf full of small figurines. Most of them were of mythical creatures: werewolves, dragons, and even one not even Janus recognized. Janus would guess, especially judging by the plethora of movie posters that they were all from movies or something of the like. However, Patton was correct there was one that stuck out from the rest. It was still a figurine, but unlike the rest, it was of a real animal: a cow.
“That is odd,” Janus agreed, peering at the cow. Figuring Patton had already been obvious enough, Janus stepped over to the shelf to study it more closely. When looking at it more closely, it became obvious that the cow was very unlike everything else on the shelf. It wasn’t even really a figurine like the ones around it. It looked more like a children’s toy. It’s fur was made out of a soft looking material instead of the stiff plastic of the werewolf next to it.
“It doesn’t really fit in with the collection, does it?” a voice asked from behind Janus.
Janus winced internally at the fact that a civilian had just noticed him acting oddly, but kept his face smooth externally as he turned to face the woman standing behind him.
“My friend and I were wondering what it was from,” Janus said evenly. “We recognized the rest of the figures, but I’m not sure where this one came from.”
“Well, that’s because it didn’t come from anything,” the woman said. “At least that I know of. I just didn’t know where to put the thing, so I put it on my movie figurine shelf.”
“Ah,” said Janus, a politely interested crinkle to his brow. “Where did you get it then?”
“A young kid came by about, oh, a week ago. He looked like a high school kid or maybe college. He seemed right confused and upset. He said he didn’t have any money on him, and got weird when I tried to ask him about his parents. I ended up giving him a free drink and let him sit here for a couple’a hours. We got to talking about my collections. See, I have a deal that if someone brings me back something of interest for my displays, they get a free drink. He insisted on giving me that in exchange for the drink even though I told him I’d given him the drink ‘cause he seemed upset.”
“I don’t even particularly want the thing, but he said he didn’t want it anyway, and he insisted, so I took it.”
“Interesting,” Janus said. “Do you mind if I touch it?”
“Go ahead,” she said with a shrug.
He reached forward to pick up the cow and felt the softest of fizzles that only someone who regularly time traveled would feel. Despite already knowing this must be what he’d come for, he still subtlety set his timepiece to scan it.
Patton was peering over her shoulder now. “If both you and the person who gave it to you don’t care much about it, do you think we could buy it off of you?” he asked. “I’m a big fan of cows.”
She shrugged her shoulders. “I guess,” she agreed. “If you really like it. I don’t know what else I’d do with it.”
“How much?” Janus asked.
“Well it only cost me a Lemon CastelWalk and a scone, so about 12.”
“Sure,” Janus agreed, pulling out his wallet and forking over the currency. “Thanks,” he said.
“No problem,” she replied. “Hope you can find some use for it.”
Janus gave her a smile and then looked at Patton. “I think it’s about time to go, don’t you think.”
Patton nodded. “Thank you for the cow statue,” he told the woman as they left the shop. They walked a bit down the street. Patton turned to him once they were out of sight of the shop window. “So, that’s it?” he asked.
Janus nodded and checked his time piece which had finished it’s scan. “The fabric is from the late 43rd century,” he confirmed, “but that’s not all. It’s stranger than that.”
“Stranger how?” Patton asked.
“The materials are definitely from the 43rd century,” Janus said, “but it’s not from the 43rd century.”
“What do you mean?”
“This,” Janus said, looking at the cow. “This doesn’t exist. Every object has traces of where it’s been no matter how much you clean it. My timepiece can register debris sticking to an object down to the microscopic level and give a general idea where and when they came from. There’s no time travel residue implying it came from the 43rd century or even just dust or dirt from that time period. There isn’t even anything on it from this time period from more than the week the shop owner said it was in her possession. My scans seem to be saying, this thing popped into existence a week ago and didn’t exist in any time or place before that.
Patton frowned. “Well then, what does that mean?”
“I don’t know,” answered Janus frowning down at it. “I have absolutely no idea.”
Chapter 58
Janus didn’t know what to make of the cow he’d gotten in 2510. He’d said goodbye to the young version of Patton and grabbed Remus before heading back to the TPI. He’d immediately handed the time anomaly over to the labs, but even after a few weeks, he hadn’t heard anything back yet. The labs seemed just as stumped as he was.
The older version of Patton still drifted in and out of his life, usually unseen, like a ghost in the night. Well, a ghost that cooked him plenty of healthy food.
It felt odd slipping back into his old routine of missions.
Sometimes it felt like no time had passed, but then he’d see the faces of new recruits or get a mission where he didn’t see Rhi and remember that things were different now. The TPI was strained, constantly running after time distortions with no idea what or who was causing them. The new recruits were stumbling to catch up to the agents who knew what they were doing but were still needed to fill the gaps. It made Janus grimace, but he didn’t know what the solution was.
It was nice to be able to talk to Emile about these things.
If Patton made sure he was taking care of himself at home with nice meals and an ever-changing option of soaps and shampoos, Emile made sure he was taking care of himself at work. Janus was now forced to have a water bottle at his desk to make sure he wasn’t spending the day dehydrated and, assuming he was not on a mission, Emile would either drag him away to eat lunch or bring lunch too him if he was too busy. Today was the later kind of day. Emile had messaged him about 45 minutes ago asking if he was free and then had taken his order for a local restaurant when Janus said he had too much to do.
There was a knock on the door and both Fred and Janus, the only two occupants of the office at the moment looked up.
“I’ll get it,” Janus said, getting up before Fred did. He knew Fred was currently in the middle of a report on a trip to 2000B.C. he and Lena went to. They’d let a new recruit tag alone for training purposes. It had gone badly to say the least. Fred looked exhausted and stressed which was unlike the usually cheery man.
Janus shuffled to the door and opened it. A man in his early 30s that Janus didn’t recognize was standing there.
“Hi,” he said. “I, uh, moved into the office next door. My name is Dave.”
There was a moment of silence. “Did you need something Dave.”
“Right,” he said. “Yeah, I was just wondering if your integrator is running, because mine isn’t.”
Janus glanced back at the report he’d been working on. “Yeah, it’s fine.”
“Well, is it, like, connecting to the TPI system?”
“I don’t know,” said Janus, “I was working locally.”
“Yeah, well that’s the problem with mine. I was wondering if anyone else was having the same problem.”
“Let me check,” said Janus, walking over to his desk. He went to open his email and an error message popped up.
That was… odd to say the least. The TPI had very, very reliable technology. If it was just Janus who could not access the system, he’d assume it was just a local problem, but if the next door neighbor also was having an issue, that could smell trouble.
“Fred,” Janus called. “Are you connected to the internet?”
Fred glanced down at his integrator and clicked a couple of buttons. “No,” he said.
“Hmm,” Janus said. He pulled up his timepiece. That at least connected to the TPI servers, so the servers themselves weren’t down, just the offices’ connection to them. “Well, I can still connect with my timepiece.”
“Same,” said Fred.
“So, what’s wrong?” Dave asked. “How do we fix it?”
“We don’t fix it,” Janus said. “We submit a tech support request.”
“Oh,” said Dave. “…How do you do that?”
Janus sighed and flicked his wrist to project a screen. “If you go to the web on your timepiece, it’s literally on the page that automatically pops up,” he said pointing.
“We can connect to the internet through our timepieces?” Dave asked.
“…Did you have any training?” Janus asked.
“Don’t be rude,” Fred said absently, still typing on his report.
Janus just rolled his eyes.
“Not on… that part. They did give me a handbook.”
“Have you read it?” Janus asked.
Dave shrugged which told Janus everything he needed to know.
“Just go back to your office,” Janus told Dave. “I’ll submit the tech support request this time since it’s affecting me as well but read your handbook and familiarize yourself with your timepiece for goodness’s sake.”
“Okay,” Dave said, turning around and wandering back to his office with no thoughts in his eyes.
“I’m not your fucking preschool teacher,” Janus muttered under his breath as he returned to his desk. “It’s not my job to hold your hand and wipe your ass.”
Fred glanced up at him. “Thanks for not saying that when he was still in the room,” he said.
Janus shot him a thumbs up.
He sat down at his desk and quickly submitted a tech support request. By the time he finished that, Emile was knocking on the door with a bag of food.
“Come in,” Janus said to him, and he did, pulling over Remus’s chair and plopping down the food on Janus’s desk.
“You look stressed,” Emile commented.
Janus sighed, already reaching into the bag to look at what Emile had bought. “Everything’s disorganized, everything’s broken, and no one knows how to do anything.”
“Yeah,” Emile said. “I’ve noticed the TPI is understaffed. Even with all of the new recruits, there never seems to be enough people to go around.”
“Yeah,” Janus said, pulling out a burger on a pretzel bun and going to unwrap it. “How about you? This all been messing up your job too?”
“In general, for the AMO, yes, because they have to get all of the new agents houses and everything. For my department, not as much, but we are seeing some agents getting stressed because they’re overworked. Mostly the more senior agents.”
“Honestly, I’m lucky stress makes me throw myself into work to avoid thinking about it. I shudder to think how all of the mentally healthy people are holding up.”
“Janus,” Emile scolded.
“Plus, I’m already set up to have an appointment with a head doctor at least twice a week, so I’m good on that front.”
“I guess that’s true. Just don’t overwork yourself,” Emile said.
“I’m fine Emile. Plus, they need me. I seem to be one of the few people around here who actually know what they’re doing.”
“I just worry…” he said.
“I can handle it well enough,” Janus promised. “I’ve got the toolkit or whatever the head doctor calls it. Plus… work wasn’t ever actually the problem.”
“I know. I know…Just…you aren’t even taking lunch.”
“I have a bit more time free in the afternoon,” Janus said.
“I was just in the middle of something today. If you’re free for a half hour or something, we could get a cup of coffee. How about that? Would that assuage your worry about me a least a bit?”
“Yeah,” Emile said. “Yeah, it would a bit. I have a break at 2, would that work?”
“Sure,” Janus said. He technically had a good amount of stuff to do, but Emile was right in the end. He should try to take breaks. It wasn’t his duty to do everything at the TPI. “A quick lunch now and coffee at 2.”
Chapter 59
Janus did fulfil his promise to Emile to take a short coffee break at 2pm. It was nice for both of them, Janus thought and was well worth it… even when he came back to a stack of work and an extra mission on his docket.
“Where did this one even coming from?!” Janus asked as he and Remus speed walked to costuming. “I was gone for less than 30 minutes. They can’t give us more than an hour warning anymore?”
Remus shrugged. “I just got back from a mission,” he said. “I haven’t even had time to write my report on that one.
“This is a mess,” Janus said. “Everything’s a mess.” Readings of a fairly large time distortion had popped up in 2158 Lille, France out of seemingly nowhere according to write up they’d been given. Though, honestly, with how disorganized the TPI has been, Janus wasn’t 100% confident they hadn’t just missed the thing somehow. It also was apparently giving very similar readings to the time device they’d ran into in Cuba. That’s why they were sending both Remus and Janus, despite the two of them mostly having been split up for missions in the past few weeks. If it was as bad as Cuba, they wanted them to have backup.
Of course, that was where the TPI’s consideration had ended. Remus and Janus were still being rushed through to this mission and not even seeing Rhi once more. Costuming barely even glanced at them when they got there. They just tossed clothing at them and only gave them a superficial look over before sending them off to decon.
It was almost disorienting how quickly they ended up in a completely different time and place. Janus was lucky that he was used to traveling through time. He could easily slip into the right language and accent and knew how to walk in the shoes they gave him. He worried about other people though.
They arrived, of course, a bit before the time distortion was meant to begin, especially knowing their devices might not work once whatever it was hit. They waited around on a bench near a small shopping area for a while.
“So,” Remus said. “How’ve you been?”
Janus glanced at him. “Better overall,” he said. “Shit’s fucked with the TPI right now though.”
“I know,” Remus said. “It’s been interfering with my many extracurricular activities.”
“You’re extracurricular activities?” Janus asked. “Do I even want to know?”
Remus show him a smile. “Probably not,” he said. “It’s just the usual: sex, drugs, alcohol, making sure Diesel Fuel has whatever she could ever want.”
Yet, even as he said it, there was something else in his eyes that gave Janus pause. “Are you sure things are alright?” he asked. “I could help with something if you need.”
“With what time, Janus?” he asked, with a raised eyebrow.
“I could make time,” Janus said.
Remus just shook his head. “It’s nothing,” he claimed.
Janus wanted to press the issue, but then there was a buzz from both of their time pieces.
“Well,” Remus said, getting to his feet. “Duty calls.”
Strangely enough, despite giving off the same signals as the device from Cuba did, their time pieces did not shut off. The detected the time distortion like they were supposed to, but otherwise stayed active.
It was… incredibly easy to use their time pieces to find the source of the time distortion. Apparently, the caution about it considering that it was similar to the Cuba incident was unfounded.
The tracked the distortion down to a small children’s playground in the middle of the city. There was a device attached to the bottom of one of the slides. Janus flipped it off and balance was restored to time.
“Weird,” Janus said. “It definitely does look like the device we found in Cuba, but…”
“We aren’t currently swimming in an ocean,” Remus filled in.
“Yes,” Janus said. “You’d think the same type of device would have the same effect, but this one was pretty stable.”
“The main question is still who is putting them,” reminded Remus. “These are clearly not natural. Someone is doing this, but all we’re doing is running around trying to turn them all off instead of getting to the root of the problem.” The last bit was a frustrated mumble.
“You’re right,” Janus had to agree, “but so far these things have been practically untraceable. We can’t even figure out when they’re from. The most we can do is see when they’re active.”
“This doesn’t make any sense,” Remus said.
“No it-” Yet, before Janus could finish, he was cut off by a shout.
“Janus,” Patton’s voice called from the opposite side of the playground. “Hi!”
“Uh…” Janus said as he approached. “Hi.” He probably shouldn’t be too shocked to see Patton hanging around time distortions. He’d shown up at many of them before, but something about him showing up after the time distortion was already fixed threw Janus off. “We already dealt with time distortion…”
“Oh, good!” Patton said. “That’s good.”
“Yea-”
“So, I was actually wondering something.”
“Er, alright,” Janus said. There was a pause. “What?”
“Oh,” Patton said. “Um. You. Well, you once mentioned that you liked ballet.”
He hadn’t actually that he could remember, but he wouldn’t be surprised if a future version of him had. “Yes,” he said. “That’s true.”
“Yeah,” Patton said. “Cool, so I have a… nephew who’s been getting into ballet. And I’m trying to learn more about it. I was wondering if you had any suggestions for things to see about ballet to help me, er, get a better idea about how… it… is. You know?”
Before Janus could think of a response, Remus spoke up. “You were a much better flirt in Cuba,” he remarked idly. Janus elbowed him harshly in the side.
“Hey, Remus, honey,” Patton said, glancing at him with a sweet smile. “I saw an interesting looking coffee shop down the road.” He started digging in his pocket. “If I give you money, would you mind getting us all something to drink.” He pulled a few bills out of his pocket.
“Yeah… okay,” Remus said with a smirk. “I see how it is.”
Patton just smiled at him and handed over the money.
“Have fun you two,” Remus said, turning on his heels and striding off.
Janus glanced back at Patton once he was gone. “So, a nephew?” Janus asked.
Patton nodded. “Yep!”
“What exactly did you want to know?”
“Erm… I dunno,” Patton said. “I don’t know enough about ballet to know what to ask about ballet.”
“Well do you want to know more about the watching side or the dancing side.”
Patton bit his lip. “Well, I guess I’d like to know more about the watching side first,” he said. “Then maybe learn some basics about the dancing stuff if my nephew wants to dance.”
“Well, I actually do know more about watching ballet than participating, so that’s good.”
Patton ended up pulling him over to sit on the swings even though there was a perfectly good bench at the edge of the playground. Janus talked a bit about ballet in general and then gave him a list of particular shows he liked. He did try to stick to the 21st century and before under the assumption that this nephew was from the same time as Patton. There was still plenty of things to talk about even with those restraints.
Patton seemed interested as he talked, pressing his face against the chain of the swing to look at him as he talked with a smile.
They spoke about ballet for about 20 minutes before Remus eventually returned from the coffee shop.
“Thanks Remus,” Patton said, taking the cup he’d offered to him.
“No problem,” Remus replied, flashing a smile.
“Well,” Patton said, “thank you for the info Janus, but I really need to be going now.”
“Oh,” Janus said. “Okay.”
“See you soon!” he said, typing something into his timepiece and immediately disappearing without even checking his surroundings. He was lucky the playground was strangely empty today. He left his drink on the ground without taking a sip.
“Well,” Janus sighed once he was gone. “We should probably be getting back to the TPI anyway,” he said, taking a sip of the drink Remus had gotten him.
“A London Fog?” Janus asked.
“It was the special,” Remus said, taking a sip of his own drink.
Janus shrugged. “We’ll finish these and head back,” he said. “The mission was shorter than expected anyway. They can deal with us being gone a couple of extra minutes.”
“Mhmm.”
Janus took another sip. “About the conversation from early,” he said.
“Uh, could we maybe talk about it later?”
“Remus, you’re my friend and clearly something is bugging you.”
“It’s nothing,” Remus said. “Really.”
“It’s clearly not ‘nothing,’ Remus.”
“I… well,” Remus said. “Maybe not, but let’s not talk about it right now. We’re on a mission.”
Janus snorted. “Remus, I’ve seen you drink on the job.”
“…Right,” Remus said. “But still. Things are busy. We should probably actually head back now.”
Janus sighed. “You’re probably right,” he agreed, “but really, we should talk sometime.”
“Sometimes,” Remus agreed, “just… not now.”
“Fine,” Janus said. “Ready?” Remus nodded and Janus pulled up his timepiece and pushing the correct button to get them back to decon. Remus copied him and they both were off.
Chapter 60
Remus pretty much bolted out of decon to get away from Janus when he tried to talk to him again or at least ask if he could come by and talk to him after work. Janus felt a pit of worry start to grow in his gut. There was something wrong, but Janus didn’t know what. In fact, thinking back, maybe there had been something wrong for a while, but Janus had been too caught up in his own shit of a brain to properly address it.
He walked back to his office still thinking about it. Maybe he’d get Emile’s opinion on what to do.
The lights flickered as he entered the hallway his office was in, and he paused. That was strange. Very strange.
He frowned, planning to message someone right away about whatever the fuck that was. It was one thing to be a chaotic mess of a time travel agency; it was another to literally not be able to keep the lights on. What was going on in this place?
He stepped into his office shaking his head. To his surprise, someone was already sitting at his desk.
“Virgil?” Janus asked, confused. “What are you doing here?” It wasn’t completely unheard of for someone in cultural outreach to come physically to the TPI, but usually agents went to them. It was more convenient to them and a bit more secure for the TPI.
“Oh,” Virgil said in a tone that made Janus narrow his eyes and expect the dish washer not to be loaded. “Hey Janus. What are you doing here?”
“In my office?” Janus asked, glancing at Fred who had obviously let him in. Fred shrugged. Glad to know they had great security here.
“Right, yeah,” Virgil said. “It would be your office, huh?”
“…Yes?”
Virgil paused for a split second and took a breath to regroup. “I was actually looking for your partner.”
“Remus?” Janus asked. “Why?” Then he paused. “What on Earth did he do?”
“Nothing,” Virgil said. “Well, I mean… probably something knowing him, but that’s not why I’m here.”
“Probably,” Janus agreed. “I don’t know where he is right now though. He ran off when we got back from our last mission.”
“And you have no idea where he could have gone?”
“I actually would like to talk to him too,” Janus said. “So, if I did, I wouldn’t be here.”
“Chances he’ll come back to the office?” Virgil asked, hopefully.
“Very low since he’s avoiding me.”
“Great,” Virgil said, rubbing his temples. “That’s great. Why does this have to be physically difficult as well?”
“What exactly do you need with Remus?” Janus asked, noting the way Virgil was holding himself very tensely.
“I just need to talk to him,” Virgil said.
“Yes,” Janus said. “About…?”
Virgil didn’t say anything. He just looked off to the side.
“Why is everyone acting weird today?” Janus said, almost to himself.
“I’m not!” said Fred from his corner.
Janus shot him an unamused look. “Thank you for your contribution to this conversation, Fred.”
“Look,” Virgil said, “can you just tell him I need to talk to him about something private the next time you see him?”
“What on Earth do you need to talk privately to Remus about?” Janus said.
“Just leave it, Janus,” Virgil said.
He had his lips downturned in stern way that meant he was trying to hide something from Janus by feigning annoyance. Janus titled his head. “You two aren’t…”
“No! Ew!” Virgil said, looking disgusted. “He’s somehow the worst of two options which is saying something considering the French Toast.”
“What?”
“Nothing,” said Virgil. “Just, can I leave a note for him, or something?”
Janus paused, looking at him. Virgil squirmed under his gaze but didn’t seem like he was going to give in anytime soon. “Fine,” Janus finally relented. “You can leave a note on his desk. I’m not sure why you didn’t just email him.”
“It’s an in-person type of conversation,” Virgil said, wringing his hands.
“Whatever you say,” Janus said, walking over to Remus’s desk and clicking the memo button that brought up a screen people who weren’t Remus could write on. “There you go,” he said.
“Thanks,” Virgil said with a relieved grin, clearly happy he was no longer being interrogated. He grabbed the stylus tied to the side of Remus’s desk. (If Janus hadn’t tied it there, it would be in Mesopotamia by now, he was sure.)
Janus turned to go back to his own desk.
“Wait,” said Virgil. “It isn’t working.”
“What do you mean?” Janus asked. “It’s a note app.”
“It’s not tracking what I write,” Virgil said. He tapped the screen with his finger. “It’s not even responding.”
Janus leaned over to take a look for himself. He tapped it a few times and there was nothing, so he tapped it a bit more aggressively. A fuzzy line went across the screen and then it shut off abruptly.
“What is wrong with things in this office lately?” Janus asked with a frown.
“My stuff just froze too,” Fred said.
The door opened then, and Lena entered the room. “The coffee makers are all offline.”
“What do you mean the coffee makers are offline?” Janus asked.
“I went to get some coffee for Fred and I and they’re not working. Any of them.”
“That’s odd,” Fred said.
“You know,” Virgil said, shifting nervously on his feet. “This seems like a bad time for me to be here. Why don’t I just come back another time or better yet, Janus, just tell Remus to come find me.”
“Yeah,” Janus agreed. “There’s a lot of things going on apparently, so it’s probably best if you leave.”
With that, Virgil brought up the time device he was using and pushed a couple of buttons to return to his university.”
However, instead of disappearing like he was meant to do, he flickered once and then was immediately on his knees with his hand over his nose.
“Shit,” Virgil hissed.
“Are you okay?” Janus asked, kneeling next to him. There was blood coming from his nose which was concerning, but his eyes focused on Janus easily enough, though he looked very startled.
“I think I just hit the shield.”
“Is your timepiece not approved?” asked Janus, pulling on his arm to see the timepiece.
“I got it approved this morning,” Virgil said, taking a tissue Fred handed to him to press it to his nose. “It’s supposed to have access to the TPI all day. I used it not even 10 minutes ago.”
Lena was already on her own time device. She pushed a button and disappeared for a moment before appearing a couple of steps away. She stumbled and was caught by Fred. “Mine’s blocked too,” she said, “I only put in to go to the entrance of the building.”
That’s when the lights went out.
Chapter 61
There was screaming from somewhere down the hall.
“Do you think that’s like when kids would scream when the teacher would turn out the lights in elementary school for a movie?” Virgil asked hopefully, voice a bit nasally since he was still holding his nose.
Janus gave him a tightlipped stare.
“Yeah,” Virgil said, “that’s what I was afraid of.”
Fred calmly reached over and shut and locked the office door.
“And what good is that going to do?” asked Virgil.
Fred glanced at him, already moving to shove Remus’s desk in front of the door. Janus instantly went to help him. “Gives us time to regroup.”
“Or it locks us in,” Virgil argued.
Janus glanced over at him. “Don’t panic,” he said.
“The fuck do you mean, don’t panic?” Virgil asked, panicking, “Do you even know me?”
Janus sighed. “Fine,” he said. “Panic as much as you want but do it quietly.”
Virgil opened his mouth to speak.
“We know what we’re doing. You do not. Contributions from you that are only fears no matter how rational are not helpful at the moment.”
Virgil shut his mouth.
Janus turned Lena and Fred. “Okay, what do we know?”
“Malfunctioning coffee makers,” Lena said. “Malfunctioning tech in general really.”
“And not just now,” Fred added, now working on barricading the window with the cabinet he kept his hot chocolate in. “There’s been issues with the whole system for a while now, and they’ve been getting worse.”
“Right,” Janus said. “I’d been blaming that on new recruits messing things up out of ignorance or IT not having enough time do normal maintenance, but if everything is down when the shields are malfunctioning, that implies something else.”
“Are the shields even malfunctioning?” Lena asked. “That implies something went wrong with the program, but what happened to Professor Eran and I is what it’s supposed to do to people who don’t have permission to cross them.”
“So, the shields might be malfunctioning,” Janus said, “or someone went in and changed the permissions.”
“Considering the tech problems we’ve been having,” Lena said, “it’s possible someone’s been playing around in the TPI the system without knowing what they’re doing.”
“Or maybe they know exactly what they’re doing,” Janus suggested, “and they wanted to see our usual protocol for small issues before giving us a big one.”
There were a few moments of silence where they all were lost in thought.
“People are still screaming,” Virgil pipped in.
“Yes,” Janus confirmed. “This is obviously not just a virtual attack.”
“Which should be the priority?” Lena asked. “The virtual attack or the physical one?”
“The virtual part will be complicated, and if we stabilize the building physically, we’ll have more time and have everyone safe,” Fred said, “but on the other hand the virtual attack is obviously what’s letting the physical attack persist. If people had access to time travel and communication, the physical attack wouldn’t matter.”
“I think-” started Janus, but he was cut off suddenly by a horrible screeching noise like metal on metal. The room they were in jolted like they were in a car that suddenly stopped and then the world was turning sideways, and they were all toppling as the floor became the wall. Janus landed on top of Virgil. Hopefully the blood now staining his shirt was from the man’s already bloody nose. “-we should probably start with the time anomaly attack!”
Lena was a few feet away from him. She’d luckily been to the right of her desk, so she landed on top of it instead of it landing on top of her. Fred was a couple of feet away, already crouched. Judging by the state of the furniture around him, he’d had to dodge the cabinet he’d been putting over the window.
“What’s going on?” Virgil asked. Good, he was conscious after that.
“Time distortion,” Janus answered.
“What the hell type of time distortion is this?!” Lena exclaimed, holding one of her arms with the other. Janus couldn’t tell what type of injury she’d gotten.
“One like the one Remus and I ran into in Cuba,” Janus said.
“So…” Fred said.
“I think we’ve finally found whoever has been mucking up time with time distortion devices. Or, more, I think they’ve found us.”
There were more screams from down the hall. “We can still hear other people in the building screaming,” Janus noted. “That’s good.”
“How is that good?” Virgil asked.
“That means the building is still connected to itself,” Janus explained. “Which, means that while the shields are screwed up, they’re still in place and keeping the building from being ripped apart and sent through time and space.”
“Oh well that’s good at least,” Virgil said, sounding honestly a bit hysterical. He looked over at Janus. “If the building is intact, can’t we just leave? Just through the front door?”
The three time agents in the room exchanged a look.
“Well,” Fred said, “first of all, it’s probably not going to be that easy to get to the front door considering the screaming we’re hearing every so often.”
“Also, we wouldn’t be able to get out if we did make it to the door.”
“What?” Virgil asked. “Why not?”
“It’s kind of a secret that most people don’t know unless they’ve worked here a long time,” Janus said, “but the TPI headquarters isn’t exactly… in a place.”
“What do you mean it’s not in a place?” Virgil asked. “I’ve seen the outside of the building. It’s on a normal street with restaurants and a park and all of that.”
“It’s really not though,” Janus said.
“It’s kind of floating,” Lena cut in. “Somewhere in deep space. The doors auto-teleport you the doors of a building on Earth which is why you think that it’s there.”
“The building’s a shell?” Virgil asked, flabbergasted.
“Yes, and unfortunately, without time travel being accessible, going out of the front door would be ill advised.”
There was a long pause as Virgil seemed to reboot. “We’re floating in space right now?!”
“Well,” Janus said. “We were always floating in space. You just didn’t know that.”
“Great, yeah, nice, that’s great,” Virgil said, rubbing his temples.
“So,” Janus said, turning to Fred and Lena. “I think first we need to find whatever is sending out time quakes before they get worse. Then, we’ll figure out the rest along the way.”
“How are we going to find it though?” Fred asked. “It could be anywhere.”
“I’m not sure but standing in here isn’t going to get us anywhere,” Lena said.
“The closer we get the more chaos there will be,” Janus said. “Game of hot and cold with time distortions anyone?”
Lena and Fred nodded, but Virgil just looked queasy. Luckily, when the room had gone sidewise, the door had landed in a place still accessible enough with a bit of crawling.
Fred and Lena had to pull the desk away from the door, but then they were able to cautiously open it. Fred poked his head out. “Seems clear,” he said. “Sideways, but clear.”
“Good,” Janus said.
Fred started slowly crawling out into the hallway and Lena went after him. Janus turned back to a very green looking Virgil. “You can stay here,” he said. Maybe go in the supply closet to prevent any more injury from falling office supplies. It won’t be comfortable, but it’ll be better. We’ll come get you when things are stable.”
Virgil nodded. Yet, right as Janus turned away to go follow Fred and Lena, there was another rubble and the ground shook. Virgil, still a bit wobbly on his feet from the last couple of falls tumbled down, but luckily the room’s walls stayed in their places.
Unluckily, the walls outside of the room didn’t. Looking through the office door one could see what was outside the room was very much not a hallway anymore, but a different room entirely. There was no Lena or Fred in sight. “You’ve got to be kidding,” Janus said to the universe.
Chapter 62
“I thought you said the building was stable!” Virgil said.
“I said it’s not being ripped apart,” Janus corrected, “and it still isn’t. We’re still inside the headquarters. The rooms just got a bit… scrambled.”
“Great, great, fuck.”
“It’s fine, Virgil,” Janus said, though he himself was a bit worried. He knew if he showed that, however, Virgil would just panic more, and the last thing Janus needed at the moment was a panicking civilian, let along a panicking Virgil.
“It is not fine,” Virgil said. Luckily, he looked a bit pissed off at Janus’s flippant reply. Good. A pissed off Virgil was better than one having a panic attack.
Janus just rolled his eyes, making Virgil bristle even more. “Well,” he said, “either way, I need to attempt to find what is causing this time distortion. Come with me or stay here, though I am unsure if the closet is a closet anymore.”
Virgil eyed the closet and then eyed Janus.
“Make your choice quickly though,” Janus cautioned, already steeping towards the open doorway.
He heard Virgil curse after a moment and then a hand was gripping Janus’s arm. He was coming with then.
They both climbed out of the sideways doorway into the room on the other side.
“Where are we?” Virgil asked, still holding onto Janus’s sleeve. It reminded Janus of welcome week in their freshman year of college.
They’d been randomly assigned as roommates in the dorms. Janus had mostly ignored him the first day after small attempts at making conversation had failed miserably. He’d assumed the boy simply didn’t want to make friends, and Janus had taken that in stride, sure he could make friends elsewhere.
That lasted until that night when he’d found his roommate on the bathroom floor, dry heaving into the toilet. After figuring out that it was from nerves and not some drug his body was trying to desperately expel (Janus had been very glad he didn’t have to drag some dumbass to the hospital on his first day living away from home), he decided to take pity on the poor fool and socially adopted him.
He'd been a nervous wreck during all of Welcome Weekend even with Janus’s literally leading him by the hand (and sometimes dragging him) to the many social events the university put on. He’d slowly calmed down, however being around a lot of people still sometime freaked him out. He’d warmed up to Janus quickly though and when they were alone, he’d come out of his shell.
He’d proved himself to be a witty, smartass, bastard as soon as he got over his crippling social anxiety. He’d matched Janus perfectly, honestly, and had always been around to help with homework, especially reading and writing. He’d also known more about how to clean himself and his environment more than most college freshman even if sometimes his anxiety had prevented him from using that knowledge appropriately.
He'd actually managed to stop Janus from making poisonous gas in their apartment by mixing cleaning fluids in their junior year.
Janus glanced around them trying to answer the question of where they were. It was a medium sized room, about the size of the living room in his house and was mostly baren except for a large hollowed out circular desk with one gap for people to be able to walk through. Under the desk was a long line of old school computer towers humming softly with only a few centimeters between them. There was a mess of cords all over the place, connecting to different parts of the computers and thrown over parts of the desk.
“I’m not sure where we are,” Janus admitted. “This is a pretty archaic set up. I’m not sure what it’d be used for.”
Virgil stepped forward towards the desk with a curious tilt to his head. He bent down to study one of the computers for a few moments. He squinted. “It’s not an archaic set-up. Well,” he amended. “It is, but it’s intentionally an archaic set-up. The techs current, it’s just put in a shell that looks old for some reason.”
“That’s odd,” Janus said.
Virgil pushed a button on the side of one of the towers and the machine started rumbling louder, lighting up Virgil’s face in a soft blue light as it did.
Virgil stood as the computer tower next to it lit up the same the next moment and the one next to it the moment after that until all of the computers were on. Only after that did the top of the desk light up, a full 3-D hologram lighting up with Virgil inside.
Janus stepped through the gap in the desk to stand inside the hologram too.
He was met with a lock screen, but more worrying.
“Oh no,” Janus said.
“What?” Virgil asked, glancing at him.
“The date,” Janus said.
The date behind the prompt for the password read almost 10 years in the future of the year they were supposed to be in.
Here is my starting post for today’s study break stories session. I will reblog this post with the story as I write them today. Feel free to send in asks about anything at any point, even if it’s not for the part of the story I’m currently on.
If you aren’t interested and don’t want all of these posts clogging your dash, please feel free to block the tag “study break stories” as all posts and voting about it will go there. You can still see the finished product of the story even if you are blocking that tag as I will not tag the edited chapters with “study break stories” but with the tag “folds in paper.”
See the Folds in Time Universe Master Post for edited chapters. Not yet edited chapters are under the cut. I also have a playlist on youtube for this story.
I am going to get so interrupted. I’m not sure if I should even start this lmao.
Chapter 49 (Dinner and a Movie)
Patton left in the morning and almost immediately sent a confirmation text to Logan saying that he’d made it to the correct time and place with no issue. From there it was just a waiting game for Patton and for those left in the apartment.
That was Virgil’s least favorite type of game.
Even with Patton checking in every so often, Virgil couldn’t help but be nervous. This was why he was a professor and not an employee of the TPI. So many things could go wrong with trips like these!
Virgil did his best to keep his anxiety on the down low. It was, after all, Logan and Roman’s lifelong friend who was running around some other century at the location of a time distortion. They were both obviously nervous since Patton’s last trip had ended in disaster.
…
This trip was going to end in disaster a little bit too, Virgil knew, but for his sanity, he was going to ignore that fact.
The point was, Roman was constantly going to the gym which was reportedly not normal behavior, and Logan spent his days re-checking calculations that were far too late to correct even if Patton hadn’t already confirmed they were perfect by arriving when he should have.
Yet, despite being an anxious wreck, Logan eventually forced himself to put his lined notebook paper away. Roman was out once again when he finally shoved it in a drawer to get it away from himself.
Virgil looked up from doom scrolling on his phone.
“We should go out to dinner,” he suggested suddenly.
Virgil glanced at the pile of take-out containers stacked near the kitchen trashcan. They hadn’t left the apartment in days. “Sure,” he agreed.
They got changed and exited the apartment with no plans in mind. Logan asked him if he wanted anything in particular but Virgil didn’t know many places in this time, so he decided to trust Logan to pick something.
He should not have trusted him.
He glared at Logan from where they stood awkwardly in the middle of a mall. Logan appeared to only be entertained by his ire.
“Really?” Virgil asked.
“I wanted to see for myself if you were really that bad with chopsticks,” he said with a grin.
“I’m not,” Virgil said, crossing his arms. “The anxiety had gotten to me. I resent this experiment.”
Logan just laughed, knowing well enough that Virgil wasn’t actually irritated. In fact, Virgil couldn’t help but feel a fond squeeze in his chest. It was almost an inside joke, just between the two of them.
“It is actually decent sushi,” Logan said.
“Ah yes, 21st century American Midwest sushi,” Virgil drawled. “I’m simply quivering with anticipation for the authenticity we are about to enjoy.”
“It’s unanimously considered the best sushi in town by my friend group,” Logan said as if the fact that Mr. Asiago-Cheese-Bread-For-French-Toast and Mr.-Went-Along-With-Cooking-Asiago-Cheese-Bread-French-Toast’s endorsement would inspire any confidence in Virgil. Patton may have Japanese blood, but he’d grown up in the Appalachians. Don’t even get Virgil started on Roman.
“It’s in. A. Mall.”
“So?” Logan asked.
“It’s a sushi stand in a mall,” Virgil said. “There isn’t even seating.”
“There’s seating,” Logan argued, nodding at the five chairs sitting in front of the counter.
The seating was completely empty, which could be because their eating schedule was off and they were trying to eat dinner at 3pm, but more likely had to do with everyone else having more sense than the man standing in front of Virgil.
“Where’s your sense of adventure?” Logan asked. “Are you not an anthropologist? Do you not wish to experience the culture of the time first-hand.”
Virgil glared at him.
“Please try it,” Logan said, still amused. “It really is good.”
“If I get food poisoning, I’m blaming you,” Virgil warned.
“Noted,” Logan replied with a nod. Then, Virgil reluctantly allowed himself to be led over to the sushi stand.
The man behind the sushi stand greeted them jovially as they approached. He obviously knew Logan and even asked about Patton and Roman as they took a seat.
Virgil did have to admit, despite his instinctual misgivings about mall sushi, what he could glimpse of the man’s set up seemed legit. It looked like a real sushi bar if a bit on the small size.
They’d sat down in front of a glass case filled with chilled fish, and Virgil could see a large rice cooker behind the man and a normal refrigerator for non-fish ingredients.
Laminated menus were handed to them. It was only one page and didn’t even have a back, but honestly that was probably a good thing. If this place served a bunch of complicated or fancy dishes, Virgil would have been worried.
…
Well, he was still worried (it was mall sushi), but he wasn’t running screaming. The place looked like it wouldn’t give him food poisoning at the very least.
Logan suggested they get a “rainbow” and “snake” roll to split as well as a few different types of nigiri and Virgil didn’t argue.
The chef was kind, and he assembled all of the sushi fully in Virgil’s view which made him a lot less leery about the meal. The man seemed to know what he was doing. The fish wouldn’t be as fresh as it would have been in a coastal area, but it was clearly properly handled. When he finished making their order, he handed it to them all on one big plate.
They ate and talked with each other and the chef. Virgil was ribbed gently about his chopstick anxiety and the chef apparently decided to be on Virgil’s side of the conflict because as soon as he heard Logan talking about it, he pipped in with a story about Logan mistaking wasabi for avocado once.
By the end of their dinner, Virgil had to admit, when correcting for ingredient availability, it was pretty good sushi. He would not say it was the best sushi he’d ever had, but it was worlds better than what he’d expected.
Logan could obviously tell what his opinion was as they thanked the chef and paid, because he looked overly smug about it.
“Yeah, yeah,” Virgil said as they left the mall. “You’re good at picking restaurants.”
“I’m sure you are also when you’re in a more familiar location,” Logan said, still smiling smugly.
“I’m not actually,” Virgil said with a laugh. “I consistently panic choose the worst option every time.”
“Well, I’m usually the opposite,” Logan said. “So, I guess we balance each other out in that regard.”
“Yeah,” Virgil said with a grin. He shoved his hands into his hoodie pocket. “Uh, what are we going to do when we get back to the apartment?” he asked. “Because sitting there drowning in anxiety like we’ve been for the last few days isn’t the best for my mental health.”
“I’m not sure,” Logan said. “Did you have anything in mind that you wanted to do?”
“Hmm,” Virgil said. “You guys still have Blockbuster?”
“No,” Logan said, “but we do still have a Family Video store nearby.”
“Is it close enough to walk there?” Virgil asked.
“It is,” Logan said, “though if you wish to watch a movie, we could use a streaming service or my… library of movies.” Virgil doubted the legality of that ‘library’ both with the current authorities and the TPI.
Virgil shrugged. “It’s the charm of it,” he said.
“The charm of going to a business already made obsolete and on the brink of collapse?” Logan asked.
“Exactly,” said Virgil with a smile.
“Very well,” Logan said, turning to head in a slightly different direction. “If that’s what you want, we can go there.”
They were in a building that would look abandoned if there wasn’t a light on inside within 15 minutes.
The video rental store had clearly seen better days. Its carpet pattern was clearly from another decade and had been trampled over so often they might as well be walking on the linoleum underneath. A sign asked patrons to close the door behind them when entering as the spring that was supposed to make it close on its own had long since worn down to nothing. Virgil doubted anyone planned to replace it.
There was only one person working, a guy in his 30s who glanced at them briefly before returning to looking at his phone. Ah yes, Virgil’s favorite type of employee.
“What movie would you like to watch?” Logan asked. He glanced at one small, but still surprisingly present section filled with VHS tapes.
“I don’t know,” Virgil said. “Isn’t that the exciting part? Stop by a movie rental place on a Friday night, grab a more than likely crappy movie and some Milk Duds and proceed to sit and watch the stupid thing anyway because you already paid for it.
“Virgil, I grew up in the 90s. This is nowhere near exciting for me. There is a reason streaming sites have taken over the market,” Logan replied. “Also, it is Tuesday.”
Virgil rolled his eyes. “Just panic choose a movie with me nerd.”
“Great!” Virgil dragged him off in the direction of the movies that started with ‘S.’
~~~
“This is just… gross,” Virgil declared a little under an hour and a half later and about an hour into the film.
“It’s a random romantic comedy from 2002,” Logan responded. “What did you expect?”
“Yeah, but on one hand there’s weird sex jokes and actors that might as well be from mars for all they know about human behavior… then on the other there’s actual on-screen physical abuse between the leads in a romance.
“I will concede that point,” Logan said, “but I will remind you that this could have been avoided if you had allowed me to do proper investigation of the movie choices before renting.”
“Ugh, yeah, yeah,” Virgil replied, leaning back to stare at the ceiling. “Just turn it off.”
Logan complied, reaching over to eject the DVD from his computer. The three roommates didn’t have an actual DVD player connected to their TV, so he and Virgil had chosen to use the desktop computer in the bedroom Virgil had been using during his stay.
Virgil was currently laying on Logan’s bed with Logan sat propped up against the headboard. Logan leaned over to hover over him, interrupting his staring contest with the ceiling.
“Thank you for helping distract me,” he said. “Despite the fact that we now know more about what we’re doing, I still worry about sending Patton through time. His last trip did not improve my confidence. I have been… rather nervous.”
“Well, I’m glad I could help,” Virgil said. “At least a little.”
“You helped a lot,” Logan replied. His hand reached down to pat Virgil’s shoulder, but then lingered there for a moment too long.
Virgil found himself sitting up suddenly. Logan had to jerk back to keep their heads from colliding. “I…” Virgil choked out once he was sitting up. “Um…”
Logan’s mouth curled into a half smile. He offered a hand and Virgil took it.
Virgil glanced at their now entwined hands. “I, uh, I’m an anthropologist.”
“I am aware,” Logan said.
“And, uh, you were born in this time, so technically, I’m studying you…”
“I’m a time traveler, Virgil,” he said, sounding amused. “I doubt I’m a pure specimen for any studies you may wish to run.”
“Right,” Virgil said. “That’s a, uh, good point. You’re right.”
Virgil paused and Logan waited for a long moment.
“So, then,” Virgil said slowly. “No moral quandaries. Just two people sharing a bed and watching a romance movie.”
“It was a bad one,” Logan said.
“It really, really was,” Virgil agreed with a laugh, and then Logan was leaning forward towards him, and Virgil was putting his hand on his shoulder.
The door flung open. “I’m home!” Roman declared as Virgil scrambled back, hitting his head on the headboard in his haste to put distance between himself and Logan.
“Fuck,” Virgil hissed, the sharp pain almost distracting him from his mortification. Almost.
“Roman! You need to knock!” Logan yelled.
“Since when?” Roman asked, plopping down on Logan’s bed between them.
“Since we have a guest,” Logan said meaningfully. Virgil hid his reddening face in his hands, curling into as tight of a ball as possible.
“You were both in here. It’s not like one of you was going to be naked,” Roman said flippantly.
Virgil debated the merits of staying curled up in a ball for the rest of his life.
There was a second of silence, and Virgil was glad he couldn’t see the expressions on the other two’s faces from his ball when Roman said, “Oh my god!”
Chapter 50
The breakfast table was silent the next morning. Though, if one could call it a breakfast table when Logan was only drinking a cup of tea, Roman was chewing on a slice of unbuttered, untoasted bread, and Virgil was squirreled away in Logan’s bedroom either still asleep or avoiding them both was debatable.
“…Look,” Roman said.
“We aren’t talking about it.”
“How was I supposed to know the two of you were getting it on?!” Roman said, talking about it. “Put a sock on the door next time or something. It’s common courtesy!”
“We weren’t having sex,” Logan hissed. Roman opened his mouth. “Shut up and learn the ‘common courtesy’ of knocking.” He pointed his spoon at his roommate threateningly.
Yet, still, because it was Roman, the other man opened his mouth once more. Luckily, before he could say anything else on the matter, there was a loud crack from the living room.
“I’m going to need a towel please!” Patton called.
“I’ve got it,” Roman said, jumping into motion and sprinting towards the bathroom. Logan meanwhile, stood and headed towards the living room.
“Why are you wet?” Logan asked immediately upon taking in the sight of his roommate. His very, very soaked roommate. He was dripping water like he’d just crawled out of a pond.
“There was an ocean in the church,” Patton replied, seeming unconcerned by the fact that he was getting their carpet wet.
“What?” Logan asked.
Patton pushed his sopping wet hair out of his eyes. “The time distortions were a lot more intense than the ones we’ve seen before,” he said. He held out a small innocuous appearing device whose only mechanism seemed to be a small switch. “Be really careful with that. It’s unstable, and we might have damaged it getting out.” Patton winced and removed his timepiece from his write. “Actually, speaking of that… this might need a checkup too.”
“Were there issues with the tech?” Logan asked, taking both devices.
“…No,” Patton said, looking a bit sheepish. “We may have… had to turn off all of the safety protocols.”
“You what?!” Logan asked, snatching away the timepiece and clutching it to his chest. “Patton, I just made this for you!”
“And you did a really good job!” was Patton’s reply, “but we really didn’t want to drown in a church.”
“It was a completely new design!”
“And it’s really good. We didn’t blow up!” Patton said with a smile.
Logan took a slow breath. “I’ll make sure it wasn’t damaged.”
“Thanks Lo!”
Roman entered the living room then, bright blue towel in hand. “I have returned bearing gifts!” he proclaimed.
“My hero,” Patton said with a laugh. He took the towel and used it to wipe off his face and then start to dry his hair.
“So, an ocean in a church?” Logan asked.
Patton nodded. “I’ll have to thank Virgil for suggesting the inflatable raft,” he said. “Though I think he might have cheated on that suggestion.” He paused then as he finished running the towel through his hair. “I saw Remus,” he said.
Roman froze instantly. “You did?”
“Uh huh,” Patton replied. “He was with Janus. I didn’t think I should say anything to him since that trip was way out of sync though. I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, no, of course,” Roman said. “That makes sense. That’s fine. How was he?”
“He seemed good,” Patton said. He flashed Roman a smile. “Happy. Not exactly what I expected though. He’s quite the character. I can tell he and Janus are good friends.”
“Oh,” Roman said. “That’s… that’s good.”
Patton’s face screwed up slightly. “He did flirt with me though, so that was weird.”
Chapter 51
It took a few days after Patton got home for Logan to first make sure the timepiece and the distortion device were not at a risk of exploding and then to study the distortion device.
“It’s similar to what little we’ve seen of TPI technology,” Logan had mused, sitting on the couch while studying the information he’d managed to get off of it. “It’s definitely derived from the same technology unlike my time travel device, but it looks a bit different, and this version at least is rather shoddily made. Of course, creating disorder and almost ripping apart time is easier than seamlessly moving through it.”
“So, they’re probably from my time then?” Virgil asked.
“Most likely,” Logan agreed. “Though it could always be a Remus situation where they were from another time originally but accidently ended up in the TPI time. Either way, the origin of their purposeful time travel was certainly around your time.”
Virgil glanced at the device he’d set on the table in front of them all. It looked innocent sitting there, but it had the power to destroy so much, and they didn’t even know why. “Do you think whoever made this trapped me here on purpose?” Virgil asked.
“It would be a big coincidence if you in particular got trapped in this time in particular,” Roman said.
“I was thinking the same thing actually,” Logan said. “You do work with the TPI and with Janus, a time agent who both often is caught in the middle of devices similar to this being used and who runs into Patton frequently. Plus you know Remus, Roman’s brother even if we didn’t know that connection before you were trapped here and we already had a correspondence before you landed here. It would be strange for you to have ended up here on accident.”
“But why?” Virgil asked. “I am somehow connected to all of you, but I’m still not a time agent myself.”
“All I am to the TPI is a walking history book. I’m not actually involved.”
“Well,” Logan said. “Perhaps someone knows something we don’t.”
“Or maybe it’s just a happy accident!” Patton said. Virgil highly doubted that and it made anxiety churn in his gut.
“Well,” Logan said, “accident or not, we do now have a solution to the issue. I’ve managed to use this device to recalibrate my calculations and we’ve gotten a ping. I know where the signal blocking Virgil’s time device is coming from.”
“Where?” Roman asked.
“It looks like a local trash dump,” Logan replied. “It must have just ended up in a trashcan that day and was emptied before we checked.”
“Well, that should be easy enough to get,” Patton said. “Give Roman and I the exact coordinates and we can go and get it now.”
“Wait, why are we the only ones who have to dig through a garbage dump?” Roman asked.
Patton gave him a look.
“Oh,” Roman said, eyes lighting up. “Oh right!” Then, he scowled remembering he was going to be going through a garbage dump. “Fine,” he sighed.
“Think of it as an adventure!” Patton said.
“We’re time travelers. We have so many more exciting adventuring opportunities than dumpster diving, Pat-Pat,” he whined, but he still got up. “I’ll go get changed.”
Patton stood up and handed Logan his phone, so Logan could program the location of the distortion device into it while he changed as well. “We’ll text you when we’re heading back! I’ll give you a 15- and 5-minute warning,” Patton said with a wink. Virgil immediately hid his face in his hands.
“Do you think the TPI is hiring?” Logan asked as the door closed. “I’d love to move to a different century without those two.”
“Time agents don’t usually live in 4500s,” Virgil said, face still hidden behind his hands. “They’d probably still place you in this century, especially since you’re comfortable here.”
“No escaping them then,” Logan sighed.
“Mmm,” was Virgil’s response.
He felt Logan shift on the couch next to him and a warm palm touched his wrist, gently tugging his hand away from his face in a way that Virgil could resist if he really wanted. Virgil let the hand fall with a sigh. Logan smiled at him when he could see his face and Virgil smiled back despite how he could still feel heat in his cheeks.
“You will be going home this evening, I’d imagine,” Logan said.
“Yeah,” Virgil agreed softly.
“I would like to give you a gift before you go, if you’ll allow it.”
“Uh, okay,” Virgil agreed.
Logan nodded and leaned back to grab something out of the pocket of a jacket that was currently hanging over the side of the couch. “Ah,” he said when he found whatever he was looking for. He glanced at Virgil. “It is a ring, by the way, but this is not a proposal.”
“Well, I’d certainly hope not,” said Virgil dryly. “An impulse elopement would be a little off brand for us both.”
Logan smiled at him. “Very true,” he agreed. Then, he opened his palm revealing a small ring.
“So, then, what is it?” Virgil asked.
“It is an emergency time travel device,” Logan explained. “It’s not particularly complex. It can only take you here to this room between 2 weeks and one year from now, but if you ever need something from me, you can use it.”
He offered the ring and Virgil opened his palm to let him put it in his hand. He studied the ring for a moment. It was a rose gold and very light.
“It also has some security measures,” Logan said. “It wouldn’t do to make an emergency time travel device that someone else might easily try to take from you. It’ll disappear when you put it on. You’ll still be able to feel it and take it off whenever you wish. It’ll become visible again if you take it off.”
“An invisible ring?” Virgil asked, curious.
“Yes,” Logan said with a smile. “It is designed to store your space time coordinates for up to 48 hours just so you’re aware, but as I said you can take it off whenever you wish and… I won’t use it against you.”
Virgil looked at him. “Okay,” he said. “Can I put it on?” Logan nodded, and Virgil slipped it on his finger. As promised it disappeared from view as soon as he did. He could still feel the weight of it on his finger though.
“You turn it three times counterclockwise to activate it,” Logan said, making Virgil look up from the seemingly empty space on his finger he’d been staring at.
“It would drop you right about where you are sitting.”
“Thanks,” Virgil said. It wasn’t nearly enough to say how much he appreciated the gift, but he hoped his tone said enough.
“Don’t use it against me?” Logan asked with a half-smile, and Virgil realized just how much trust was being put onto him by giving him a device that was directly linked to their base of operations despite knowing Virgil worked with the TPI.
Virgil shook his head. “I won’t,” he said. Deciding to throw out his nervousness and embarrassment over last time he shot forward to kiss Logan quickly on the lips. They bumped noses and Logan’s glasses ended up askew in the process, but Logan didn’t seem to mind judging by his delighted laugh when they parted.
“Thank you,” Virgil said again.
“Of course,” Logan replied.
Virgil could still feel the ring on his finger even after Patton and Roman got back from the dump with the device that had caused this whole mess. He could still feel it when Logan turned it off and his time piece reactivated. He could still feel it there when he made it home and gave an excuse as to why he’d left his trip early. He could still feel it when he got an email from an unknown sender making sure he got home okay.
Arc IV: (To Be Named)
Chapter 52
“What’s this?” Janus asked when a giant bowl was set on the coffee table in front of him.
“We’re eating on the couch tonight,” Emile said cheerfully.
Janus raised an eyebrow and switched off the tablet he’d been using to look at him. “Why?” he asked.
Emile shrugged and set a second huge bowl down next to Janus’s. “For fun,” Emile said. He turned back towards the kitchen and Janus leaned forward to look in the bowl. It was spaghetti with some sort of creamy sauce and a few different vegetables mixed in along with some shrimp.
“I made green tea,” Emile said, coming back into the room with two mugs.
“Thanks,” Janus said, taking one of the mugs with a small smile.
“What were you doing?” Emile asked as he took a seat beside Janus. He nodded at the deactivated screen now sitting on the end table.
“Just doing some puzzle games,” Janus said.
“That sounds fun,” Emile said with a smile.
“Head doctor said they might be a good thing to do to pass the time when I told him to fuck off after suggesting reading.”
Emile sighed. “Dr. Figueroa is my colleague. You could try to be polite.”
“I thought I was supposed to be my authentic self in therapy,” Janus replied.
Emile just huffed and rolled his eyes. Janus couldn’t help but smile as he picked up his mug of green tea.
The last few months had been…different. In a lot of ways, Janus’s life had become harder than it had been before. It had been easy to do nothing but eat pre-prepared meals, go to work, and pass out in his empty house every day. It wasn’t good for him. He’d known it even then, but it had been easy. This was not.
Emile had offered, insisted really, that Janus move into his house for a bit just to get back on his feet.
He’d taken time off of the TPI which would have been given to him anyway since he’d spent so trapped in the past. He’d had to give a report of what had happened, and he’d mentioned Patton, but he hadn’t mentioned everything. They’d offered him a shrink when he’d asked.
Janus had told Emile he needed to tell him something about why he’d been distant, so he wouldn’t end up chickening out, but he’d asked for a bit of time to figure out what to say. He’d finally worked up the courage to talk about it with Dr. Figueroa two weeks ago. Much like with Patton, it was easier to talk to someone who hadn’t been involved in Janus’s mistake, but it still wasn’t easy.
He was running up on the deadline he’d given for having that talk with him. It had to happen soon, and they both knew it, but Emile was just patiently waiting for him to suck it up. It felt… wrong to use his kindness without him knowing, but it was also nice to get to spend time with his brother. He didn’t even dare to hope that he’d still have the chance once he told him.
He was moving back into his own house in less than a week. He’d tell him then so if Emile ended up kicking him out of his life, he wouldn’t have to kick him out of his home too.
For now, though everything was fine. Harder, more complicated, and in threat of exploding at any moment, but fine. Fine wasn’t something he’d really felt in a long time. Or at least, fine while in his own time wasn’t something he’d felt in a long time. There’d been a few moments with Patton sitting next to the fire outside the hole in the ground they’d slept in for those few months where the man would turn to look at him and he’d felt fine. Yet, Patton had been right. Those moments were unsustainable with how Janus was actually feeling deep down.
“This is good,” Janus said, after taking a couple of bites of the pasta in front of him.
“Well, I always was the only one in the house that could cook,” Emile said, and that was true. “It was either learn to defend for myself or eat a cheeseburger for every meal.”
“Hey, I had a good burger seasoning.”
“Not for every meal, Janus.”
“Meat, dairy, bread. What more could you want?”
“Vegetables, Janus.”
“You could have put pickles on!”
“I don’t like pickles.”
“That sounds like your problem, not mine,” Janus argued.
Emile shook his head, turning his eyes to the ceiling. “How have you been surviving on your own?”
“Well, I mean,” Janus said. “Badly.”
“Right…” Emile said. He leaned over to bump their shoulders together. Janus flashed him a smile.
“Speaking of,” said Janus. “Could you physically force me to pack tonight? I meant to do it today and instead I ended up playing puzzles games.”
Emile chucked. “Sure, I’ll help you after dinner.”
“You don’t have to help me,” said Janus. “Just make me do it.”
“Maybe I want to help,” said Emile.
“Oh, yes, packing. The most entertaining of Thursday night activities.”
Emile hummed and then glanced at him. “Remember when you helped me pack for college?” he asked.
“Mmm, I do,” Janus replied.
“I was so stressed about going somewhere new,” Emile said, “that I avoided packing for weeks. Every time Mom would ask me how packing was going, I’d tell her it was going fine but in reality, I hadn’t even started. You’d come home two days before I had to leave because you were going to help me move into my dorm. It’s like you could sense no packing had been done the moment you stepped through the front door.”
“You were doing your ‘hiding the broken horse statue from mom’ shuffle,” Janus said with a smirk.
“Well, you walked me straight to my room and we packed everything up in those two days,” Emile said. “You made it so much easier.”
“Yeah, because I hovered over you until you did it and did half of it for you,” Janus snorted.
“It wasn’t just that,” Emile said. “You also found the music streaming station run by the university and put that on and talked about what your freshman year was like. You also had tips on what things I should and shouldn’t pack when moving into the dorm.”
“You still took all of the cartoon stuffed animals despite my advice.”
“I thought there’d be more space on the bed,” Emile frowned.
Janus snorted.
“But anyway, just having someone else around made me happier. It wasn’t just about the workload being halved either. You being there made me feel less lonely and reminded me I’d always have someone to come back to.”
Janus internally winced. He was sure Emile hadn’t meant to make him feel guilty in any way. In fact, he probably was trying to do the opposite, but him saying that just reminded Janus that it hadn’t been true. Janus had abandoned him for literal years and hadn’t been someone he could always come back to.
Emile had proven himself to be at least close to who he was before Janus messed with time the few last months. There were a couple of differences here and there, and Janus could not be sure if they were from him changing time or from him avoiding his brother for the past three years and him naturally changing. Most memories they shared that Janus cautiously brought up or Emile mentioned on his own were consistent with what Janus remembered, but he hadn’t pushed too hard or dug too deep. It just made him feel more guilty about avoiding the man for so long.
It made him want to ignore the man more, because it seemed every choice Janus ever made only hurt him.
…
Well, perhaps not the college radio station when helping an anxious 18-year-old pack up his childhood bedroom.
He should probably tell Emile that his words made him feel guilty because that was obviously not the intention and he’d want to know. He should probably apologize properly for leaving him alone for three years without an explanation. He should probably provide an explanation for those three years.
He should probably go see the head doctor again soon.
(He should probably stop calling Emile’s colleague who was in the same field as him a head doctor derogatorily in his head.)
74430
For now, he just glanced at Emile. “You’re trying to bully me into letting you help pack with logic, aren’t you?”
“I am,” Emile confirmed without remorse.
“Fine,” Janus sighed, “but only if you let me do the dishes for you.”
Emile took a long moment to consider the offer. “You drive a hard bargain,” he said, “but okay.”
“And no doing anything sneaky like getting bags ready for me on your own while I’m doing it or the deal is off,” Janus said.
“You always think of all possible loopholes, Janus,” Emile sighed.
There was a long silence.
“Agree, you prick,” said Janus.
“No promises,” Emile replied cheekily with laughter in his eyes, and things were good for a moment more.
Chapter 53
Today Janus was moving into his house in 24th century for the second time in his life, and honestly, the house wasn’t going to look much different than it had when he’d first moved in. Janus had unpacked his things more at Emile’s house in the past almost 6 months than he had in the two and a half years he’d liven in his house. His house held clothes, bare bone furniture, and exactly one skillet from when he’d decided to be daring and tried to cook himself an egg. All he’d really customized for himself was the setting on the LXC device which controlled the lights, media across the home, and prepackaged food ordering and prepare.
He almost felt embarrassed that his house was so empty. Emile, of course, knew that his mental health had been fucked, but the blankness of his house was a physical reminder of this fact especially considering how he used to keep house before all of this. He’d warned Emile about the fact that his house was empty, and he had said he understood, but still.
They gathered all of the luggage in a pile in Emile’s guest room. They’d had to get permissions from the TPI to allow Emile to travel to his house, and Janus went ahead and filed to give him permanent permission to travel there.
The decision felt far too hopeful for someone who hadn’t had that conversation with his brother yet, but it had made Emile smile in the moment.
Emile took three of the bags and Janus took the rest. He waved his arm and selected the third saved location on the device. In a moment, he was standing in the living room of his dark, empty house.
…
His supposed to be dark and empty house. More of the lights were on than Janus had ever switched on himself, and half of the windows were open. (He didn’t even know some of those windows opened.)
They were letting in the sounds of birds that made the lakeside their home as well as cool late fall breeze. There was also a racket coming from the kitchen. Emile was beside him a second after he himself had appeared. He looked around for a moment. “Did you leave it like this?”
“No,” Janus replied.
“Do you have squatters?” He had a security system from 2 millennia in the future on his house. He highly doubted it.
“I’m going to go check the kitchen,” Janus said, moving towards the noises coming from the other room.
He stopped in the doorway to his kitchen only to see Patton standing at his kitchen counter cutting up a carrot on a cutting board Janus didn’t think he owned, and if he did, it was buried in a box somewhere.
“What are you doing?” Janus asked.
“Cooking!” was the immediate reply.
“In my house?” Janus asked. “How do you even know where my house is?”
“I may be just a little bit ahead of you,” Patton said with a wink while tapping the side of his nose.
Janus sputtered. “This is my house!”
“I know!” He said it so cheerfully while being a purposefully obtuse asshole that Janus could help but crack a smile and shake his head. He’d missed him after spending so long alone with him though he wasn’t go to admit that to him when he’d broken into Janus’s house to…
“Again, what are you doing?”
“I’m making you soup.”
“Why?” Janus asked.
“Well,” Patton said. “I know it’s a bit of a rough time for you, so I thought I’d give you a nice welcome home present and what better present than food!” He smiled at him widely.
Janus looked closer at what he was making. “You’re trying to prove to me you can cook.” Patton frowned at him. “Have you considered I have had enough fish stew for a lifetime?”
“Nope!” he said. “It’s entirely different this time anyway. I have carrots!”
“I don’t like carrots,” Janus lied blandly.
“Liar!” Patton declared.
“No, I’m not,” Janus continued to lie.
“I mean, that was definitely a lie,” Emile interjected from behind Janus. He was looking at them curiously. “Er, hello, who are you?”
“This is Pat,” Janus said.
“The illegal time traveler you’ve been tracking?” Emile asked with a questioning lilt to his tone.
“Ah, yes, well,” Janus said with a cough. “We came to an understanding when stuck in pre-history.”
“And now he is cooking you soup in your house?” Emile asked.
“I’ve long since stopped trying to make sense of him,” Janus grumbled.
“Well,” Emile said. “Hello Pat.”
“You can call me Patton,” he said easily. “I hope it’s nice to meet me, because I’ve already met you.”
“We haven’t been meeting in the correct order,” Janus informed Emile. “So, he’s apparently already met you which will happen in your future. It is also something he shouldn’t be talking about,” he scolded. Patton took that with a shrug.
“I hate time travel,” Emile said, his nose scrunching up. “Isn’t life already confusing enough.”
Janus winced, not relishing the upcoming conversation with him about how confusing his life was now because of time travel.
“Don’t you work with the TPI too?” Patton asked.
“That doesn’t mean I like time travel,” Emile said. “I’m a stationary agent and I like that just fine.”
“Time travel can be a bit complicated sometimes,” Patton acknowledged, “but I don’t think it’s all bad.” He finished chopping up the carrot and turned to put it in the self-regulating soup pot. Janus squinted at it. It was certainly not something Patton had in the 21st century. So, the question was. Had he gone out and bought time appropriate cookware before breaking into Janus’s house or had he gone through Janus’s storage to find it?
“You’re a free agent time traveler, right?” Emile asked.
“Depends on what you mean by free agent,” Patton said. “I have always worked with a group of people, and we have rules and procedures. It’s basically a time agency itself, just not the TPI.”
“And you’ve met me before?”
“I have,” Patton confirmed, “but Janus is right in that I can’t say much more than that about it. In fact,” he said wiping off his hands on a towel hanging from his apron. (The apron was covered in cartoon squirrels and totted the phrase ‘I’m a nut for baking.’) “I should probably be getting out of here.”
“You’ve never been worried about us meeting out of order before,” Janus pointed out with a frown. He didn’t particularly want Patton to go even though the man had broken into his house and possibly went through his boxes of kitchen equipment.
“Well,” Patton said. “There’s meeting wildly out of order, there’s meeting in order, and then there’s what I’m doing.”
“What are you doing?” Janus asked alarmed.
Patton just shrugged with a smile.
“No, Patton, what are you doing?”
“Soup should be done in about an hour, but you can leave it on all day. I got a pot that’s fridge safe, so just shut it off and stick it in there before going to sleep.”
“Patton.”
“See you later! Bye!” He said and disappeared into thin air.
Janus sighed and rubbed the bridge of his brow. “Why is he like this?”
“Janus,” Emile asked. “Why did your self-declared mortal enemy make you soup?”
“Because he’s an asshole, that’s why.”
“Uh huh,” Emile said, looking at him oddly.
“What?” Janus asked.
“What exactly happened when you were stuck in the past?” Emile asked.
Janus sighed. “A lot happened. A lot.” He glanced at the soup pot happily performing its function on his kitchen counter. ‘I hope it’s nice to meet me, because I’ve already met you,’ rang in his ears. Fucking Patton with his little hints about the future. It gave Janus just a bit of courage though knowing that Emile at least didn’t flee the continent after the conversation they had to have. He was at least around enough to meet Patton. “In fact,” Janus said. “It’s probably time I told you what happened. Everything that happened.”
Chapter 54
They sat down in the living room. Janus let Emile have the couch and sat on one of the matching armchairs. There was a squeaky sound when he sat. The plastic covering the chair had been delivered in was still on it.
Emile had a pleasant, open but curious expression on his face and Janus suddenly had an idea what it felt like to be his patient.
“I,” Janus began after a moment, shifting uncomfortably on the squeaky chair. “I don’t know how to start this conversation. I talked about what I wanted to say and possible ways to say it with Dr. Figueroa, but I… I still don’t know.”
“I guess I should start by saying that I did something horrible that I need to apologize for and I’m not sure if apologizing will even be enough. The problem is you don’t even know what that horrible thing is.” Janus stared at his feet. “So, first, I should probably explain what I did. I just don’t know where to start.”
“Maybe start with what happened before it,” Emile suggested. “Just lead up to it. It might help explain why whatever it was happened too.”
Janus took a breath. “Okay,” he said. “That day was just like most that I remember. We both woke up early. I was going to the TPI and you were going to where you worked your residency. We ate leftover pizza for breakfast because both of us were exhausted. You because it sucks to be a resident and me because I’d been working on a big case.”
“I was getting frustrated with the case. That was my first mistake: being impatient and angry. It was just a thief, but a slippery one. She’d stolen a half-broken time piece and was using it to rob banks within about a 50-year time frame. I had an idea of where she might go, but no one would listen to me. Or at least,” Janus quirked a half smile, “that’s how I interpreted it. They said they’d look into my idea, but they were being extra cautious because of how close in the timestream her actions were to most of the agents’ lives.”
“I was so tired of the case and so egotistical. I decided to check it out on my own without being cleared by the TPI. I went back in time without thinking of the consequences and that was the worst thing I’ve ever done.” Janus took a breath. “I’m not sure how, but somewhere in the course of my self-appointed mission…” He trailed off. He didn’t know how to say it. He really didn’t.
“What happened?” Emile asked when he didn’t continue.
“I…” and his next words probably sounded like crackly nonsense to Emile’s ears because he couldn’t get his thoughts straight and his tongue wouldn’t make the words right.
“I don’t even remember living in that town or the fact that Mom used to work at that bank,” he choked out. “I didn’t think and I didn’t check and…” There was a long silence. “I erased you,” he finally managed to say in a whisper, but in the quiet of his barely lived in house, the words were loud.
There was more silence. “But I…” Emile said after a moment.
“I went back and fixed it,” Janus said, “but I… didn’t do a perfect job. I don’t even know how much I messed things up. It would have been one thing if it’d just been me. If it had just impacted my life, but I did it to you and I don’t even know how to start to apologize.”
Nothing was said for a long moment. Janus didn’t look at him.
“…Huh,” Emile finally said.
Janus risked a glance at him. He didn’t look irate, but he did still look confused which was probably the reason for that.
“I’m sorry,” Janus said. It was really the only thing he could say at this point.
Emile tilted his head to the side. He took off his glasses and cleaned them with the edge of his shirt with slow circles. Since he was 15, Emile only cleaned his glasses with specially designed wipes, but he’d held onto the habit of cleaning his glasses with his shirt anytime he needed a moment to think. Janus wasn’t sure if Emile even realized he was doing it, but he knew it was a signal for Janus to be quiet for a few seconds.
The glasses were perched back on Emile’s nose after a few seconds. “I think I remember that,” he said contemplatively.
“…What?” Janus asked, and he was no longer avoiding looking at Emile. He was now blatantly staring at him.
“Well, I didn’t know what it was,” Emile said, “but I did have a very odd dream on the day you mentioned and suspiciously I had said dream in the middle of the day and woke standing up.”
“A dream?” Janus asked.
“A very vivid dream,” Emile said. “I don’t believe you actually erased me completely from existence. My life was simply shifted slightly. I was working as a social worker for about 5 hours and then I was back in my appropriate place.”
76874
“Why didn’t you tell me about that?” Janus asked, but then immediately wince at his own hypocrisy. “Er… never mind.”
“I didn’t know it was possibly real,” Emile said. “Honestly, I thought I was just really tired. I’d been overworking myself a lot. I took the rest of the day off after that.”
“You shifted reality for a few hours, and you didn’t realize it?” Janus asked.
“Like I said, I was really tired and nothing seemed to be wrong…”
“Wait, but things were different,” Janus said. “Didn’t you notice things were different.”
“Not… really,” Emile said. “Like what?”
“Like…” Janus said. “Like a whole bunch of things!”
“Like…?”
“Like you had a different job title and you worked different hours.”
“I thought I’d fallen asleep standing up or had a vivid audio-visual hallucination at work from stress. I asked for a switch a couple of weeks later.”
“You used to hate time travel, but then you took a job at the TPI.”
Emile gave him a drawl look. “I still hate time travel,” he said. “I literally just said that not 5 minutes ago.”
“Well then why would you work for the TPI.”
“Because time travel is so confusing and distressing that people doing it on a regular basis as a career need psychological support.”
“Plus, Lia asked for my consultation when developing the mental health part of the Agent Management Office,” Emile continued. “Considering I already knew quite a bit about time travel from being around you, she knew me personally, and I’d finished my residency, she decided to give me a job offer when my advice panned out.”
“W-well,” Janus said. “You were allergic to pineapples.”
“You mean my childhood allergy?” Emile asked. “That has since resolved itself in my adult life?”
“It has?” Janus asked.
“Janus have you considered,” Emile said, “that some if not all of the inconsistencies you were seeing in my life have to do with the fact that you hadn’t spoken to me in 3 years?”
“I… uh… hadn’t considered that,” Janus admitted honestly.
“You were looking for information to support your incorrect world view,” Emile said sounding very much like a head doctor and not like a brother, “and you found some.” He sighed. “It makes sense after having faced a traumatic event where you effectively thought you’d killed a loved one that you weren’t thinking clearly.” The head doctor analysis voice slipped just a bit. “I just wish you’d talked about it with someone.”
“Sorry,” Janus said, because no matter which way this conversation had gone and no matter the revelations, the point was an apology. “I’m sorry.”
Emile sighed. “I would have forgiven you even if you had erased me,” Emile said. “You didn’t mean to, and you did your best to fix it. You did fix it even if you were an idiot about it.”
“What about for being an idiot and not talking to you for three years?” Janus asked.
“I already did forgive you for that Janus,” Emile said pointedly. “What did you think the last 6 months were?”
“Pity?”
Emile gave him his disappointed and exasperated head shake. “Promise to never do anything like that to me again,” he said, “and I’ll forgive you.”
“I promise,” Janus said immediately.
“And in the future, you’ll talk to me if you have any issue even if you think it’s horrible.”
“I think I’ve learned by lesson on that one.”
“And that goes for other people too,” Emile said. “If anything goes wrong with someone, you talk to them or if that’s too hard you talk to someone so they can convince you to talk to that person.”
Janus nodded.
“Great!” Emile said. “Then you’re officially forgiven for everything. Though I expect you to go to therapy and keep working on making yourself feel better, so these things don’t happen again.”
And Janus… didn’t know how to feel about that. He should probably feel happy and thankful or at least relieved, but if he was being honest, he just felt kind of empty in that moment like an old well that had finally run dry. Fuck his head doctor and fuck Patton. Wasn’t this supposed to make him feel better? Everything was fine. He hadn’t actually erased Emile permanently from the timeline, in fact, he’d apparently still existed in some form in the alternate timeline Janus had temporarily made. Emile had forgiven him both for erasing him and ignoring him even though that was far more than Janus deserved. This was something he’d never even dared dream would happen, but it had been exactly what he’d wanted.
Yet, he still didn’t feel good, not really, not like how he remembered feeling before all of this happened.
Though was that really a surprise? Things were not like how they were before. He and Emile were no longer close. There was love and affection there, but they didn’t really know each other. The last six months had been nice. He’d been able to pretend for a bit that everything was back to normal, but in the moments he hadn’t been able to pretend that, it’d been a bit stilted and awkward speaking to his brother especially at the start.
Beyond that, Janus was just used to misery at this point. It was his default state. Not being miserable took effort and energy he didn’t always have. He felt himself slipping into sadness or numbness even during times he should be feeling good. He’d noticed himself experiencing a sense of desolation when Emile cooked his favorite meal or in the middle of watching a ballet performance Emile had suggested they go to and he’d been looking forward to in the days before or even now when he should be so happy, so ecstatic. Everything should be okay, but it wasn’t.
“You doing alright over there?” Emile asked, and Janus didn’t know how long he’d been silent.
Instinct said to say yes and force himself to move on, but he wasn’t going to break his promise that fast. “Not really, no,” he admitted.
“That’s okay,” Emile said. “Anything I can do to help?”
“I really don’t know.”
“Why don’t we go taste the soup your arch nemesis,” there was a light teasing tone to his voice, “made for you. Some of the vegetables won’t be completely cooked yet, but I’m sure it’s already good.”
“Yeah,” Janus agreed. “Yeah, okay,” he got to his feet, the chair making that plastic squeaking sound again. “Maybe we could unwrap the furniture in here before you go home.”
“I think that’s a good idea,” Emile said with a smile.
Chapter 55
Somehow, the strangest thing about his life right now was a picture on the wall. It was one that he’d gotten after college when he moved into his first actual house. It wasn’t anything special. It was just something that had caught his eye when he was specifically looking for something classier to put on his wall than the posters he’d hung in his college dorm and apartment with Virgil. It was a tall painting of a tree, but segmented into four parts, each representing the state of a tree in different seasons. In the top left, the three had small leaves and little buds, on the top right it had full leaves bathed in sunlight, in the bottom left the leaves had changed colors and started to fall off, and in the bottom right the tree was devest of leaves but covered in snow.
It was on the wall near Janus’s bed. It was one of the first things he saw when he opened his eyes in the morning and was usually what reminded him that everything was different now when he woke.
The picture had been in a box in the houses garage up until the Saturday before the last. Saturdays had become his and Emile’s unofficial unpacking Janus’s house day. They would usually pick one or maybe two boxes that had been sitting untouched for years, unpack it, talk, and eat dinner together.
Notably, dinner was usually not provided by either of them.
Patton had gotten into the habit of breaking into Janus’s house. Janus would sometimes catch him doing it briefly, but often Patton managed to avoid him. This was quite the feat considering Janus was not currently working and thus stayed at home a lot of the time. Patton had repeatedly reprogrammed Janus’s kitchen taking away the option for pop tarts entirely and replacing the option with real food. Janus’s kitchen was constantly stocked with something to eat that wasn’t trash. He also liked to leave around different smelling hand soaps, flowers, and paper cranes. Janus had an entire drawer in his nightstand dedicated to storing paper cranes now.
The newest one was still on his nightstand from the night before, sitting cheerfully in the way of his view of the tree paining when his alarm woke up that morning. He sighed. He had not missed getting up early for work.
He was finally going back to working at the TPI this morning. His therapist had signed off on it last week, saying his was fit for duty. Considering they were apparently still understaffed at the TPI and Janus was a senior agent, this was met with much relief. Janus himself still wasn’t sure how he felt about it.
He turned off the alarm and stood. Dr. Figueroa had him write out a morning schedule to follow when he’d expressed his struggle to get the day started. Either Patton or Emile had taken it upon themselves to copy the schedule on virtual sticky notes that appeared in every location necessary for getting ready in the morning.
First, he took a shower. He threw his nightclothes in the laundry chute. There were currently dozens of different scented soaps in his shower all in small bottles that had about 2 or 3 uses. Janus presumed they were curtesy of Patton. He decided to use one at random and it ended up being cotton candy scented.
Next, he got dressed. That was easy enough since he always wore the same outfit to work every day. It didn’t matter what he wore much since missions would force him to redress anyway.
Then he went to his kitchen and sat down at the counter. He pushed the pop tart button. As expected at this point, he did not get a pop tart for breakfast. Instead, he got two eggs, toast, a sliced apple, and a few cherry tomatoes with green tea. He ate his breakfast while finishing one of the puzzles he’d been working on the night before.
Once he finished, it was time to finally face going back to the office. He sighed, stood up and pulled up the screen on his timepiece. He selected his office as his destination and was off.
The first thing that happened upon appearing in his office was he got a face full of… something.
He sputtered, smacking the things fluttering about his face out of the air. “What is wrong with you?” was the first thing out of his mouth before he’d even really confirmed that the culprit of this attack was who he’d automatically assumed he was.
Remus, as anticipated was standing not 2 feet away from him.
Remus had apparently gotten into the prop department again because he had some type of softly glowing glittery confetti was no all over Janus as well as their entire office.
“Remus, I told you no!” Lena snapped. “You know it’s impossible to clean up 3150s sparkle nukes.”
“Welcome back!” Remus crowed.
“I hate you,” Janus replied. “I just took a shower.”
“You’re fine,” Remus said with an eye roll.
“This shit doesn’t come off in decontamination,” Janus spat. “If my first mission back sends me to a time where I’ll be tried as a witch for glowing, I’m blaming you.”
“We’re going to 2510,” Remus informed him. “You’ll fit right in.”
Janus grimaced. “Ugh, that decade.”
“It’s my favorite decade!” Remus exclaimed.
“Of course, it is,” Lena grumbled. “Just don’t bring anything gross back this time.”
“No promises,” Remus replied.
Janus chose to disengage from the conversation as Remus and Lena argued about was and what wasn’t allowed to be brought back to their shared office from what was well known as the least tasteful decade in history. It was also one of the least turbulent decades in history. The population was too busy making shitty ice cream flavors to wage war.
At least they were giving him an easier assignment for his first time back. He turned to his desk and pulled up the files on his next mission, glancing through them. It was just a small blip that the TPI had noticed in a small town in 2510. It probably wasn’t much of anything, but they had no record of what had caused it, so they were going to send someone to look. Honestly, they’d usually just send in a surveillance agent and be done with it, but they’d probably handpicked this one for Janus in particular. He’d be insulted if he didn’t honestly still feel a bit off kilter being in the office.
To his surprise, he didn’t have a scheduled meeting with Rhi. It wasn’t particularly important to see a mission coordinator for something this small, but it still wasn’t the usual protocol. Instead, he was just instructed to pick up his costume at the costuming department and leave in about an hour.
“Do we really not have an appointment with Rhi?” Janus asked.
“Senior agents haven’t really been meeting with Rhi unless it’s a high priority mission,” Lena told him. “We have too many newbies running around and there’s not time.
“That’s concerning…” Janus said.
“It’s better than trying to rush the inexperienced ones through. We at least have a general idea of what we’re doing. They’re trying to train up more mission coordinators, but that’s taking a while.”
Janus still frowned, but he glanced back at the mission instructions. He’d have to make sure he thoroughly understood what was being asked of him before leaving if he wasn’t meeting with Rhi. “We should go get changed,” he told Remus. “2510s clothing is notoriously difficult to put on.”
“Five minutes back and he’s already dying to get my clothes off,” Remus said cheekily.
“I would rather tear my own eyeballs out of my socket than see you without your pants on again.”
Remus just wiggled his eyebrows.
“I’m so glad you’re back,” said Lena when Janus looked at her in exasperation. “He’s finally not Fred’s and my problem anymore.”
Chapter 56
Getting ready for the mission was a bit of a mess honestly. The costume department barely even spared them a glance before sending them on their way. Remy at least was still there to give them one last debrief before sending them off into 2510, though he looked exhausted.
“Are you sleeping?” asked Janus.
“I’m drinking coffee,” was the reply as he shooed them out onto the streets.
The timeline disturbance that had been picked up was somewhere in one of the shops on that street.
“Do you want the bakery or the karaoke/stripper bar?” Remus asked.
Janus raised an eyebrow at him, and Remus clapped him on the back.
“This is why we’re partners,” he said.
He plodded off towards the building to their right, and Janus turned to the building on the left. It was a small bakery and coffee shop painted in bright colors and sporting the Brazilian and Albanian flags.
There was a soft tinkling bell sound when he entered the shop, and the person behind the counter glanced over at him briefly before finishing putting a pastry in bag for a customer.
Unfortunately, their attention meant Janus wasn’t going to get away with snooping around the store without buying anything. He glanced around the interior of the shop as he walked up to the till.
He glanced into the bakery display case the worker was standing behind. Oh… oh that all looked disgusting. He was not depressed enough anymore to willingly eat any of that.
“Uh,” Janus said when the worker looked at him. He glanced up at the wide selection of drinks over their head and winced at the ways the letters moved on the screen. He was pretty sure his dyslexia wasn’t quite that bad. Why did anyone choose to make letters move around and shake on purpose? As someone who had to deal with that on a daily basis, it wasn’t exactly entertaining.
“Is it possible to get a banana and chocolate potato chip smoothie, but without the potato chip part?” he asked.
“Sure,” the worker replied. “Anything else?”
Janus shook his head.
“Can I have a name for that?”
“Jay,” Janus replied.
“Alright. It’ll be out in a minute.”
Janus nodded and turned, able to take in the rest of the establishment now that there weren’t eyes on him. It was as colorful on the inside as it was on the outside and seemed to have a retro cowboy-space theme mixed with posters from a contemporary werewolf romance movie. Janus had actually seen that movie one. It was surprisingly tolerable.
The seats at least looked comfortable. There were a good number of tables and three couches. All of them were mix-matched. A few of the tables were outfitted with holographic chess and checkers, but most were normal tables. There were even a few physical boardgames and some bookshelves full of books, though he thought some of the bookshelves might just be there for decoration. He wasn’t sure which were and which weren’t.
He pretended to be very interested in the decorations as he waited on his drink, using that as an excuse to look around the entire shop. He was turned away when the door chimed again.
“Hello,” a familiar voice said, making Janus turn around instantly. Janus could immediately tell that the man hesitantly lingering in front of the bakery display was not the Patton that he’d spent months holed up with or who had broken into Janus’s house repeatedly to replace his soaps and cook him meals. He seemed out of place which was saying something in 2510. He had the air about him that he was an 80-year-old grandpa trying to embrace youth culture, but not quite getting it. He also spoke in an accent that people around him would probably assume was him just not being fluent in Spanish but was actually him not being completely comfortable speaking Spanish from half a century ago.
“Uh…” said Patton looking at the menu, a crease between his eyes.
“I’d suggest the banana and chocolate potato chip smoothie without the potato chips,” Janus said. Patton startled, whipping around to face him in surprise. “That’s what I got, though I would leave out the potato chips.”
Patton’s eyes narrowed on him. It was not, of course, the first time that Patton hadn’t been thrilled to see him, but it was the first time Janus had been happy to see him and he hadn’t been happy to see him in turn. Janus had gotten used to a Patton that liked him and he found himself not quite prepared for the way he pursed his lips in annoyance at the sight of Janus.
“I’ll do the banana and chocolate potato chip smoothie, but with the potato chips,” he said in a way that made it sound like he thought he was getting one up on Janus for some reason.
“What flavor of chips?” the worker asked.
“Er, what flavors do you have?”
“Uh, I think drywall, oak wood, and limestone.”
Janus almost laughed at his expression. “Uh, do you have any naturally edible flavors?” he asked.
“We might have grass.”
Patton squinted as the worker bent to look under the cabinet. “Oh, wait, no, it’s glass. Is that alright?”
“…Maybe just no on the chips.”
Janus did his best to school his features, so it wasn’t obvious he was laughing at him. He didn’t think he did a very good job considering Patton was glaring at him after turning around. That or he was just already pissed at Janus by default. It could go either way honestly.
“So,” Janus said when the worker turned away to start making Patton’s drink. “What are you doing here.”
“It’s none of your business,” Patton said with narrowed eyes.
“I mean, we could both be here for the same reason,” Janus pointed out. “We could share intel.”
“I doubt we’re here for the same reason.”
“How would you know?” asked Janus.
Patton just looked away from him. He immediately looked confused at the movie poster his eyes landed on.
“Unless,” Janus said curiously, you aren’t here for a reason, reason.” Patton said nothing. “It was a pretty small disturbance, so it would make sense that your equipment might not pick up on it.” At least at this point. “Acting the tourist, Pat?”
“I’m just doing research,” Patton said, crossing his arms.
“Research?” Janus asked.
“I’ve never been here before,” Patton admitted. “I wanted to get a feel for it and other places just in case there ever was an issue.”
“You just did France, didn’t you?” Janus asked.
Patton frowned and Janus smiled slightly. “It was recent,” he admitted.
“Well,” Janus said. “If you want some advice. I’d start with figuring out accents when you’re in different times.”
“I don’t need your advice,” Patton said and then smugly, “Janus.”
It took a bit for Janus to scan back through his memories and remember that Patton hadn’t known Janus’s name in France. He would have only figured it out after his friend Lo hacked into Silver Mountains University’s system and figured out Virgil had an appointment with him. Janus raised an eyebrow. “You sure about that, Patton?”
He frowned, pouting like whenever Janus told him he wasn’t allowed to try to catch a bird and make it their pet. It was strange to meet a version of Patton who had not lived in a hole in the ground with him for months when Janus had already done that. Patton was on the back foot for once throughout this conversation. Every time before this, he’d managed to somehow twist it around even when he’d been younger than he was right now. When Janus had arrested him at the University, he’d managed to figure out his equipment wouldn’t be stopped by the TPI’s despite having no idea what the TPI was.
In France, even when Janus had thought he’d been winning by taking his phone, he ended up getting access to a University in Janus’s time with information on the TPI, a situation that still had not been resolved.
Today, however, Janus knew far more about Patton than Patton expected. He still didn’t know exactly what his agency or whatever it should actually be called did, but he knew some things about it. He knew Patton was from the 21st century which explained the anachronisms in his speech in different times.
“You could help me look if you’d like,” Janus offered casually.
“Why?” Patton asked suspiciously.
Janus shrugged. It was not because he missed him, he insisted to himself. It wasn’t because after spending so much time with him, not getting to talk with him all day was strange. It had nothing to do with the fact that the few times he’d ran into a farther along version of Patton since he’d moved back home, their interactions had been brief and tinged with something. No, the only reason Janus was inviting him along was so he could teach this younger version a few things, so he hopefully didn’t go about messing up time. “We worked well together in France, didn’t we?” he asked. “Besides, it’s just a small mission without much danger to the timeline.”
“Pat,” the person at the counter called. Patton turned to him to go grab his smoothie, thanking the worker before turning back around and walking over to Janus.
“Fine,” he said. “I’ll help, but you have to answer my questions.”
“I’ll answer the questions that won’t endanger any timelines or secrets of my agency.”
Patton considered it for a moment, taking a sip of his drink. “Fine,” he agreed.
“Good,” Janus replied. “We’ll start by looking around the coffee shop for anything unusual. Did you have any questions now. It’d look more natural to be walking around if we were having a conversation.”
“Does the glitter in your hair have to do with the style of the time or…?”
Janus sighed.
Chapter 57
Luckily, the cashier didn’t seem to think them snooping around was very odd. To be fair, the shop had quite a few odd decorations to look at. So, perhaps employees were just used to people walking around and looking at all of the different things. It helped that Janus and Patton were talking as they searched. They just looked like a couple… of friends… casually chatting and exploring the coffee shop together.
“So,” Patton said, keeping his voice quiet, though luckily the few patrons were on the other side of the shop. “What exactly is it that you do working for the TPI?”
“Well,” Janus said. “I’m a senior field agent. That means I am the person who actually goes on missions in different times. These missions can range from tracking down people who are committing crimes using time travel, stopping anything or anyone that could damage the timestream, and helping waylaid time travelers.”
“So, there are different types of agents?” Patton asked, curiously.
“Yes,” Janus replied. “There are a lot, but only four type time travel on a regular basis.” Should he be telling a very young version of Patton this? Probably not, but he couldn’t find it in himself to care too much.
“There are surveillance, touchdown, field, and cleanup agents,” he explained. “Surveillance agents do a bunch of things including research about the exact time field agents are going to and figuring out the best places for them to enter the timestream. Touchdown agents come slightly before field agents to do last second checks and stay when field agents are out. They mostly are just there to intervene if there are any unforeseen issues. Field agents actually interact with people from other times on a daily basis as they slip into the timestream and find whatever person or object they’re looking for. Cleanup agents come in afterwards and tie up any loose ends as well as observe the area for a few days to make sure nothing happened that no one caught.”
“Everyone else who works at the TPI is mostly in research and management. They don’t usually travel, though everyone who works there is licensed to travel if necessary.”
“That’s a lot of people,” Patton commented.
“What we do is important. We want to make sure we are doing it correctly.” It was honestly not meant to be a jab, but Janus could see Patton frown. He decided to change the subject. “Right now, we’re looking for something that’s causing a small disturbance.”
“What type of thing could cause a disturbance? Is it always a machine like the one in France?”
“No,” Janus replied. “That was actually unusual.” He thought for a second. “At least that used to be unusual, but lately we’ve seen more and more of that sort of thing.”
They were currently standing at a bookshelf, but nothing pinged Janus’s interest or time piece, so they moved on to look at a few of the movie posters. Patton seemed to grow more and more concerned the longer he looked at the posters.
“So, what is it usually?”
“Well,” said Janus. “Some things are natural events. No one’s really sure what causes those. There are theories, but I’m not really involved in that. We leave those alone for the most part if we find those. They’re usually small things, though on occasion they’re a bit bigger. Usually, time disturbances are caused by someone messing up. They say something wrong that gets someone curious and creates a butterfly or they leave an object that doesn’t exist in the time.”
“So, what do you think this one is?” Patton asked curiously.
“Well,” Janus said. “It’s a rather small disturbance, so it won’t be anything too major. Probably just an object out of place.”
“Hmm,” Patton replied. “Well, I’ve always been good at those find the difference games.”
“Have you now?” Janus said, unable to stop a slight grin from ghosting over his face.”
“Mhmm,” replied Patton. He drained the rest of his smoothie and then turned around, facing away from the wall of posters they’d been looking at. He slowly scanned the room, an action a lot less inconspicuous than what Janus had them doing, but he didn’t protest for now.
“That’s weird,” Patton declared, pointing rather obviously at a shelf. Janus noticed a woman looking at him funny. “Well,” Patton continued. “More like it isn’t weird, which is weird for here.”
Janus glanced at the shelf full of small figurines. Most of them were of mythical creatures: werewolves, dragons, and even one not even Janus recognized. Janus would guess, especially judging by the plethora of movie posters that they were all from movies or something of the like. However, Patton was correct there was one that stuck out from the rest. It was still a figurine, but unlike the rest, it was of a real animal: a cow.
“That is odd,” Janus agreed, peering at the cow. Figuring Patton had already been obvious enough, Janus stepped over to the shelf to study it more closely. When looking at it more closely, it became obvious that the cow was very unlike everything else on the shelf. It wasn’t even really a figurine like the ones around it. It looked more like a children’s toy. It’s fur was made out of a soft looking material instead of the stiff plastic of the werewolf next to it.
“It doesn’t really fit in with the collection, does it?” a voice asked from behind Janus.
Janus winced internally at the fact that a civilian had just noticed him acting oddly, but kept his face smooth externally as he turned to face the woman standing behind him.
“My friend and I were wondering what it was from,” Janus said evenly. “We recognized the rest of the figures, but I’m not sure where this one came from.”
“Well, that’s because it didn’t come from anything,” the woman said. “At least that I know of. I just didn’t know where to put the thing, so I put it on my movie figurine shelf.”
“Ah,” said Janus, a politely interested crinkle to his brow. “Where did you get it then?”
“A young kid came by about, oh, a week ago. He looked like a high school kid or maybe college. He seemed right confused and upset. He said he didn’t have any money on him, and got weird when I tried to ask him about his parents. I ended up giving him a free drink and let him sit here for a couple’a hours. We got to talking about my collections. See, I have a deal that if someone brings me back something of interest for my displays, they get a free drink. He insisted on giving me that in exchange for the drink even though I told him I’d given him the drink ‘cause he seemed upset.”
“I don’t even particularly want the thing, but he said he didn’t want it anyway, and he insisted, so I took it.”
“Interesting,” Janus said. “Do you mind if I touch it?”
“Go ahead,” she said with a shrug.
He reached forward to pick up the cow and felt the softest of fizzles that only someone who regularly time traveled would feel. Despite already knowing this must be what he’d come for, he still subtlety set his timepiece to scan it.
Patton was peering over her shoulder now. “If both you and the person who gave it to you don’t care much about it, do you think we could buy it off of you?” he asked. “I’m a big fan of cows.”
She shrugged her shoulders. “I guess,” she agreed. “If you really like it. I don’t know what else I’d do with it.”
“How much?” Janus asked.
“Well it only cost me a Lemon CastelWalk and a scone, so about 12.”
“Sure,” Janus agreed, pulling out his wallet and forking over the currency. “Thanks,” he said.
“No problem,” she replied. “Hope you can find some use for it.”
Janus gave her a smile and then looked at Patton. “I think it’s about time to go, don’t you think.”
Patton nodded. “Thank you for the cow statue,” he told the woman as they left the shop. They walked a bit down the street. Patton turned to him once they were out of sight of the shop window. “So, that’s it?” he asked.
Janus nodded and checked his time piece which had finished it’s scan. “The fabric is from the late 43rd century,” he confirmed, “but that’s not all. It’s stranger than that.”
“Stranger how?” Patton asked.
“The materials are definitely from the 43rd century,” Janus said, “but it’s not from the 43rd century.”
“What do you mean?”
“This,” Janus said, looking at the cow. “This doesn’t exist. Every object has traces of where it’s been no matter how much you clean it. My timepiece can register debris sticking to an object down to the microscopic level and give a general idea where and when they came from. There’s no time travel residue implying it came from the 43rd century or even just dust or dirt from that time period. There isn’t even anything on it from this time period from more than the week the shop owner said it was in her possession. My scans seem to be saying, this thing popped into existence a week ago and didn’t exist in any time or place before that.
Patton frowned. “Well then, what does that mean?”
“I don’t know,” answered Janus frowning down at it. “I have absolutely no idea.”
Chapter 58
Janus didn’t know what to make of the cow he’d gotten in 2510. He’d said goodbye to the young version of Patton and grabbed Remus before heading back to the TPI. He’d immediately handed the time anomaly over to the labs, but even after a few weeks, he hadn’t heard anything back yet. The labs seemed just as stumped as he was.
The older version of Patton still drifted in and out of his life, usually unseen, like a ghost in the night. Well, a ghost that cooked him plenty of healthy food.
It felt odd slipping back into his old routine of missions.
Sometimes it felt like no time had passed, but then he’d see the faces of new recruits or get a mission where he didn’t see Rhi and remember that things were different now. The TPI was strained, constantly running after time distortions with no idea what or who was causing them. The new recruits were stumbling to catch up to the agents who knew what they were doing but were still needed to fill the gaps. It made Janus grimace, but he didn’t know what the solution was.
It was nice to be able to talk to Emile about these things.
If Patton made sure he was taking care of himself at home with nice meals and an ever-changing option of soaps and shampoos, Emile made sure he was taking care of himself at work. Janus was now forced to have a water bottle at his desk to make sure he wasn’t spending the day dehydrated and, assuming he was not on a mission, Emile would either drag him away to eat lunch or bring lunch too him if he was too busy. Today was the later kind of day. Emile had messaged him about 45 minutes ago asking if he was free and then had taken his order for a local restaurant when Janus said he had too much to do.
There was a knock on the door and both Fred and Janus, the only two occupants of the office at the moment looked up.
“I’ll get it,” Janus said, getting up before Fred did. He knew Fred was currently in the middle of a report on a trip to 2000B.C. he and Lena went to. They’d let a new recruit tag alone for training purposes. It had gone badly to say the least. Fred looked exhausted and stressed which was unlike the usually cheery man.
Janus shuffled to the door and opened it. A man in his early 30s that Janus didn’t recognize was standing there.
“Hi,” he said. “I, uh, moved into the office next door. My name is Dave.”
There was a moment of silence. “Did you need something Dave.”
“Right,” he said. “Yeah, I was just wondering if your integrator is running, because mine isn’t.”
Janus glanced back at the report he’d been working on. “Yeah, it’s fine.”
“Well, is it, like, connecting to the TPI system?”
“I don’t know,” said Janus, “I was working locally.”
“Yeah, well that’s the problem with mine. I was wondering if anyone else was having the same problem.”
“Let me check,” said Janus, walking over to his desk. He went to open his email and an error message popped up.
That was… odd to say the least. The TPI had very, very reliable technology. If it was just Janus who could not access the system, he’d assume it was just a local problem, but if the next door neighbor also was having an issue, that could smell trouble.
“Fred,” Janus called. “Are you connected to the internet?”
Fred glanced down at his integrator and clicked a couple of buttons. “No,” he said.
“Hmm,” Janus said. He pulled up his timepiece. That at least connected to the TPI servers, so the servers themselves weren’t down, just the offices’ connection to them. “Well, I can still connect with my timepiece.”
“Same,” said Fred.
“So, what’s wrong?” Dave asked. “How do we fix it?”
“We don’t fix it,” Janus said. “We submit a tech support request.”
“Oh,” said Dave. “…How do you do that?”
Janus sighed and flicked his wrist to project a screen. “If you go to the web on your timepiece, it’s literally on the page that automatically pops up,” he said pointing.
“We can connect to the internet through our timepieces?” Dave asked.
“…Did you have any training?” Janus asked.
“Don’t be rude,” Fred said absently, still typing on his report.
Janus just rolled his eyes.
“Not on… that part. They did give me a handbook.”
“Have you read it?” Janus asked.
Dave shrugged which told Janus everything he needed to know.
“Just go back to your office,” Janus told Dave. “I’ll submit the tech support request this time since it’s affecting me as well but read your handbook and familiarize yourself with your timepiece for goodness’s sake.”
“Okay,” Dave said, turning around and wandering back to his office with no thoughts in his eyes.
“I’m not your fucking preschool teacher,” Janus muttered under his breath as he returned to his desk. “It’s not my job to hold your hand and wipe your ass.”
Fred glanced up at him. “Thanks for not saying that when he was still in the room,” he said.
Janus shot him a thumbs up.
He sat down at his desk and quickly submitted a tech support request. By the time he finished that, Emile was knocking on the door with a bag of food.
“Come in,” Janus said to him, and he did, pulling over Remus’s chair and plopping down the food on Janus’s desk.
“You look stressed,” Emile commented.
Janus sighed, already reaching into the bag to look at what Emile had bought. “Everything’s disorganized, everything’s broken, and no one knows how to do anything.”
“Yeah,” Emile said. “I’ve noticed the TPI is understaffed. Even with all of the new recruits, there never seems to be enough people to go around.”
“Yeah,” Janus said, pulling out a burger on a pretzel bun and going to unwrap it. “How about you? This all been messing up your job too?”
“In general, for the AMO, yes, because they have to get all of the new agents houses and everything. For my department, not as much, but we are seeing some agents getting stressed because they’re overworked. Mostly the more senior agents.”
“Honestly, I’m lucky stress makes me throw myself into work to avoid thinking about it. I shudder to think how all of the mentally healthy people are holding up.”
“Janus,” Emile scolded.
“Plus, I’m already set up to have an appointment with a head doctor at least twice a week, so I’m good on that front.”
“I guess that’s true. Just don’t overwork yourself,” Emile said.
“I’m fine Emile. Plus, they need me. I seem to be one of the few people around here who actually know what they’re doing.”
“I just worry…” he said.
“I can handle it well enough,” Janus promised. “I’ve got the toolkit or whatever the head doctor calls it. Plus… work wasn’t ever actually the problem.”
“I know. I know…Just…you aren’t even taking lunch.”
“I have a bit more time free in the afternoon,” Janus said.
“I was just in the middle of something today. If you’re free for a half hour or something, we could get a cup of coffee. How about that? Would that assuage your worry about me a least a bit?”
“Yeah,” Emile said. “Yeah, it would a bit. I have a break at 2, would that work?”
“Sure,” Janus said. He technically had a good amount of stuff to do, but Emile was right in the end. He should try to take breaks. It wasn’t his duty to do everything at the TPI. “A quick lunch now and coffee at 2.”
Chapter 59
Janus did fulfil his promise to Emile to take a short coffee break at 2pm. It was nice for both of them, Janus thought and was well worth it… even when he came back to a stack of work and an extra mission on his docket.
“Where did this one even coming from?!” Janus asked as he and Remus speed walked to costuming. “I was gone for less than 30 minutes. They can’t give us more than an hour warning anymore?”
Remus shrugged. “I just got back from a mission,” he said. “I haven’t even had time to write my report on that one.
“This is a mess,” Janus said. “Everything’s a mess.” Readings of a fairly large time distortion had popped up in 2158 Lille, France out of seemingly nowhere according to write up they’d been given. Though, honestly, with how disorganized the TPI has been, Janus wasn’t 100% confident they hadn’t just missed the thing somehow. It also was apparently giving very similar readings to the time device they’d ran into in Cuba. That’s why they were sending both Remus and Janus, despite the two of them mostly having been split up for missions in the past few weeks. If it was as bad as Cuba, they wanted them to have backup.
Of course, that was where the TPI’s consideration had ended. Remus and Janus were still being rushed through to this mission and not even seeing Rhi once more. Costuming barely even glanced at them when they got there. They just tossed clothing at them and only gave them a superficial look over before sending them off to decon.
It was almost disorienting how quickly they ended up in a completely different time and place. Janus was lucky that he was used to traveling through time. He could easily slip into the right language and accent and knew how to walk in the shoes they gave him. He worried about other people though.
They arrived, of course, a bit before the time distortion was meant to begin, especially knowing their devices might not work once whatever it was hit. They waited around on a bench near a small shopping area for a while.
“So,” Remus said. “How’ve you been?”
Janus glanced at him. “Better overall,” he said. “Shit’s fucked with the TPI right now though.”
“I know,” Remus said. “It’s been interfering with my many extracurricular activities.”
“You’re extracurricular activities?” Janus asked. “Do I even want to know?”
Remus show him a smile. “Probably not,” he said. “It’s just the usual: sex, drugs, alcohol, making sure Diesel Fuel has whatever she could ever want.”
Yet, even as he said it, there was something else in his eyes that gave Janus pause. “Are you sure things are alright?” he asked. “I could help with something if you need.”
“With what time, Janus?” he asked, with a raised eyebrow.
“I could make time,” Janus said.
Remus just shook his head. “It’s nothing,” he claimed.
Janus wanted to press the issue, but then there was a buzz from both of their time pieces.
“Well,” Remus said, getting to his feet. “Duty calls.”
Strangely enough, despite giving off the same signals as the device from Cuba did, their time pieces did not shut off. The detected the time distortion like they were supposed to, but otherwise stayed active.
It was… incredibly easy to use their time pieces to find the source of the time distortion. Apparently, the caution about it considering that it was similar to the Cuba incident was unfounded.
The tracked the distortion down to a small children’s playground in the middle of the city. There was a device attached to the bottom of one of the slides. Janus flipped it off and balance was restored to time.
“Weird,” Janus said. “It definitely does look like the device we found in Cuba, but…”
“We aren’t currently swimming in an ocean,” Remus filled in.
“Yes,” Janus said. “You’d think the same type of device would have the same effect, but this one was pretty stable.”
“The main question is still who is putting them,” reminded Remus. “These are clearly not natural. Someone is doing this, but all we’re doing is running around trying to turn them all off instead of getting to the root of the problem.” The last bit was a frustrated mumble.
“You’re right,” Janus had to agree, “but so far these things have been practically untraceable. We can’t even figure out when they’re from. The most we can do is see when they’re active.”
“This doesn’t make any sense,” Remus said.
“No it-” Yet, before Janus could finish, he was cut off by a shout.
“Janus,” Patton’s voice called from the opposite side of the playground. “Hi!”
“Uh…” Janus said as he approached. “Hi.” He probably shouldn’t be too shocked to see Patton hanging around time distortions. He’d shown up at many of them before, but something about him showing up after the time distortion was already fixed threw Janus off. “We already dealt with time distortion…”
“Oh, good!” Patton said. “That’s good.”
“Yea-”
“So, I was actually wondering something.”
“Er, alright,” Janus said. There was a pause. “What?”
“Oh,” Patton said. “Um. You. Well, you once mentioned that you liked ballet.”
He hadn’t actually that he could remember, but he wouldn’t be surprised if a future version of him had. “Yes,” he said. “That’s true.”
“Yeah,” Patton said. “Cool, so I have a… nephew who’s been getting into ballet. And I’m trying to learn more about it. I was wondering if you had any suggestions for things to see about ballet to help me, er, get a better idea about how… it… is. You know?”
Before Janus could think of a response, Remus spoke up. “You were a much better flirt in Cuba,” he remarked idly. Janus elbowed him harshly in the side.
“Hey, Remus, honey,” Patton said, glancing at him with a sweet smile. “I saw an interesting looking coffee shop down the road.” He started digging in his pocket. “If I give you money, would you mind getting us all something to drink.” He pulled a few bills out of his pocket.
“Yeah… okay,” Remus said with a smirk. “I see how it is.”
Patton just smiled at him and handed over the money.
“Have fun you two,” Remus said, turning on his heels and striding off.
Janus glanced back at Patton once he was gone. “So, a nephew?” Janus asked.
Patton nodded. “Yep!”
“What exactly did you want to know?”
“Erm… I dunno,” Patton said. “I don’t know enough about ballet to know what to ask about ballet.”
“Well do you want to know more about the watching side or the dancing side.”
Patton bit his lip. “Well, I guess I’d like to know more about the watching side first,” he said. “Then maybe learn some basics about the dancing stuff if my nephew wants to dance.”
“Well, I actually do know more about watching ballet than participating, so that’s good.”
Patton ended up pulling him over to sit on the swings even though there was a perfectly good bench at the edge of the playground. Janus talked a bit about ballet in general and then gave him a list of particular shows he liked. He did try to stick to the 21st century and before under the assumption that this nephew was from the same time as Patton. There was still plenty of things to talk about even with those restraints.
Patton seemed interested as he talked, pressing his face against the chain of the swing to look at him as he talked with a smile.
They spoke about ballet for about 20 minutes before Remus eventually returned from the coffee shop.
“Thanks Remus,” Patton said, taking the cup he’d offered to him.
“No problem,” Remus replied, flashing a smile.
“Well,” Patton said, “thank you for the info Janus, but I really need to be going now.”
“Oh,” Janus said. “Okay.”
“See you soon!” he said, typing something into his timepiece and immediately disappearing without even checking his surroundings. He was lucky the playground was strangely empty today. He left his drink on the ground without taking a sip.
“Well,” Janus sighed once he was gone. “We should probably be getting back to the TPI anyway,” he said, taking a sip of the drink Remus had gotten him.
“A London Fog?” Janus asked.
“It was the special,” Remus said, taking a sip of his own drink.
Janus shrugged. “We’ll finish these and head back,” he said. “The mission was shorter than expected anyway. They can deal with us being gone a couple of extra minutes.”
“Mhmm.”
Janus took another sip. “About the conversation from early,” he said.
“Uh, could we maybe talk about it later?”
“Remus, you’re my friend and clearly something is bugging you.”
“It’s nothing,” Remus said. “Really.”
“It’s clearly not ‘nothing,’ Remus.”
“I… well,” Remus said. “Maybe not, but let’s not talk about it right now. We’re on a mission.”
Janus snorted. “Remus, I’ve seen you drink on the job.”
“…Right,” Remus said. “But still. Things are busy. We should probably actually head back now.”
Janus sighed. “You’re probably right,” he agreed, “but really, we should talk sometime.”
“Sometimes,” Remus agreed, “just… not now.”
“Fine,” Janus said. “Ready?” Remus nodded and Janus pulled up his timepiece and pushing the correct button to get them back to decon. Remus copied him and they both were off.
Chapter 60
Remus pretty much bolted out of decon to get away from Janus when he tried to talk to him again or at least ask if he could come by and talk to him after work. Janus felt a pit of worry start to grow in his gut. There was something wrong, but Janus didn’t know what. In fact, thinking back, maybe there had been something wrong for a while, but Janus had been too caught up in his own shit of a brain to properly address it.
He walked back to his office still thinking about it. Maybe he’d get Emile’s opinion on what to do.
The lights flickered as he entered the hallway his office was in, and he paused. That was strange. Very strange.
He frowned, planning to message someone right away about whatever the fuck that was. It was one thing to be a chaotic mess of a time travel agency; it was another to literally not be able to keep the lights on. What was going on in this place?
He stepped into his office shaking his head. To his surprise, someone was already sitting at his desk.
“Virgil?” Janus asked, confused. “What are you doing here?” It wasn’t completely unheard of for someone in cultural outreach to come physically to the TPI, but usually agents went to them. It was more convenient to them and a bit more secure for the TPI.
“Oh,” Virgil said in a tone that made Janus narrow his eyes and expect the dish washer not to be loaded. “Hey Janus. What are you doing here?”
“In my office?” Janus asked, glancing at Fred who had obviously let him in. Fred shrugged. Glad to know they had great security here.
“Right, yeah,” Virgil said. “It would be your office, huh?”
“…Yes?”
Virgil paused for a split second and took a breath to regroup. “I was actually looking for your partner.”
“Remus?” Janus asked. “Why?” Then he paused. “What on Earth did he do?”
“Nothing,” Virgil said. “Well, I mean… probably something knowing him, but that’s not why I’m here.”
“Probably,” Janus agreed. “I don’t know where he is right now though. He ran off when we got back from our last mission.”
“And you have no idea where he could have gone?”
“I actually would like to talk to him too,” Janus said. “So, if I did, I wouldn’t be here.”
“Chances he’ll come back to the office?” Virgil asked, hopefully.
“Very low since he’s avoiding me.”
“Great,” Virgil said, rubbing his temples. “That’s great. Why does this have to be physically difficult as well?”
“What exactly do you need with Remus?” Janus asked, noting the way Virgil was holding himself very tensely.
“I just need to talk to him,” Virgil said.
“Yes,” Janus said. “About…?”
Virgil didn’t say anything. He just looked off to the side.
“Why is everyone acting weird today?” Janus said, almost to himself.
“I’m not!” said Fred from his corner.
Janus shot him an unamused look. “Thank you for your contribution to this conversation, Fred.”
“Look,” Virgil said, “can you just tell him I need to talk to him about something private the next time you see him?”
“What on Earth do you need to talk privately to Remus about?” Janus said.
“Just leave it, Janus,” Virgil said.
He had his lips downturned in stern way that meant he was trying to hide something from Janus by feigning annoyance. Janus titled his head. “You two aren’t…”
“No! Ew!” Virgil said, looking disgusted. “He’s somehow the worst of two options which is saying something considering the French Toast.”
“What?”
“Nothing,” said Virgil. “Just, can I leave a note for him, or something?”
Janus paused, looking at him. Virgil squirmed under his gaze but didn’t seem like he was going to give in anytime soon. “Fine,” Janus finally relented. “You can leave a note on his desk. I’m not sure why you didn’t just email him.”
“It’s an in-person type of conversation,” Virgil said, wringing his hands.
“Whatever you say,” Janus said, walking over to Remus’s desk and clicking the memo button that brought up a screen people who weren’t Remus could write on. “There you go,” he said.
“Thanks,” Virgil said with a relieved grin, clearly happy he was no longer being interrogated. He grabbed the stylus tied to the side of Remus’s desk. (If Janus hadn’t tied it there, it would be in Mesopotamia by now, he was sure.)
Janus turned to go back to his own desk.
“Wait,” said Virgil. “It isn’t working.”
“What do you mean?” Janus asked. “It’s a note app.”
“It’s not tracking what I write,” Virgil said. He tapped the screen with his finger. “It’s not even responding.”
Janus leaned over to take a look for himself. He tapped it a few times and there was nothing, so he tapped it a bit more aggressively. A fuzzy line went across the screen and then it shut off abruptly.
“What is wrong with things in this office lately?” Janus asked with a frown.
“My stuff just froze too,” Fred said.
The door opened then, and Lena entered the room. “The coffee makers are all offline.”
“What do you mean the coffee makers are offline?” Janus asked.
“I went to get some coffee for Fred and I and they’re not working. Any of them.”
“That’s odd,” Fred said.
“You know,” Virgil said, shifting nervously on his feet. “This seems like a bad time for me to be here. Why don’t I just come back another time or better yet, Janus, just tell Remus to come find me.”
“Yeah,” Janus agreed. “There’s a lot of things going on apparently, so it’s probably best if you leave.”
With that, Virgil brought up the time device he was using and pushed a couple of buttons to return to his university.”
However, instead of disappearing like he was meant to do, he flickered once and then was immediately on his knees with his hand over his nose.
“Shit,” Virgil hissed.
“Are you okay?” Janus asked, kneeling next to him. There was blood coming from his nose which was concerning, but his eyes focused on Janus easily enough, though he looked very startled.
“I think I just hit the shield.”
“Is your timepiece not approved?” asked Janus, pulling on his arm to see the timepiece.
“I got it approved this morning,” Virgil said, taking a tissue Fred handed to him to press it to his nose. “It’s supposed to have access to the TPI all day. I used it not even 10 minutes ago.”
Lena was already on her own time device. She pushed a button and disappeared for a moment before appearing a couple of steps away. She stumbled and was caught by Fred. “Mine’s blocked too,” she said, “I only put in to go to the entrance of the building.”
That’s when the lights went out.
Chapter 61
There was screaming from somewhere down the hall.
“Do you think that’s like when kids would scream when the teacher would turn out the lights in elementary school for a movie?” Virgil asked hopefully, voice a bit nasally since he was still holding his nose.
Janus gave him a tightlipped stare.
“Yeah,” Virgil said, “that’s what I was afraid of.”
Fred calmly reached over and shut and locked the office door.
“And what good is that going to do?” asked Virgil.
Fred glanced at him, already moving to shove Remus’s desk in front of the door. Janus instantly went to help him. “Gives us time to regroup.”
“Or it locks us in,” Virgil argued.
Janus glanced over at him. “Don’t panic,” he said.
“The fuck do you mean, don’t panic?” Virgil asked, panicking, “Do you even know me?”
Janus sighed. “Fine,” he said. “Panic as much as you want but do it quietly.”
Virgil opened his mouth to speak.
“We know what we’re doing. You do not. Contributions from you that are only fears no matter how rational are not helpful at the moment.”
Virgil shut his mouth.
Janus turned Lena and Fred. “Okay, what do we know?”
“Malfunctioning coffee makers,” Lena said. “Malfunctioning tech in general really.”
“And not just now,” Fred added, now working on barricading the window with the cabinet he kept his hot chocolate in. “There’s been issues with the whole system for a while now, and they’ve been getting worse.”
“Right,” Janus said. “I’d been blaming that on new recruits messing things up out of ignorance or IT not having enough time do normal maintenance, but if everything is down when the shields are malfunctioning, that implies something else.”
“Are the shields even malfunctioning?” Lena asked. “That implies something went wrong with the program, but what happened to Professor Eran and I is what it’s supposed to do to people who don’t have permission to cross them.”
“So, the shields might be malfunctioning,” Janus said, “or someone went in and changed the permissions.”
“Considering the tech problems we’ve been having,” Lena said, “it’s possible someone’s been playing around in the TPI the system without knowing what they’re doing.”
“Or maybe they know exactly what they’re doing,” Janus suggested, “and they wanted to see our usual protocol for small issues before giving us a big one.”
There were a few moments of silence where they all were lost in thought.
“People are still screaming,” Virgil pipped in.
“Yes,” Janus confirmed. “This is obviously not just a virtual attack.”
“Which should be the priority?” Lena asked. “The virtual attack or the physical one?”
“The virtual part will be complicated, and if we stabilize the building physically, we’ll have more time and have everyone safe,” Fred said, “but on the other hand the virtual attack is obviously what’s letting the physical attack persist. If people had access to time travel and communication, the physical attack wouldn’t matter.”
“I think-” started Janus, but he was cut off suddenly by a horrible screeching noise like metal on metal. The room they were in jolted like they were in a car that suddenly stopped and then the world was turning sideways, and they were all toppling as the floor became the wall. Janus landed on top of Virgil. Hopefully the blood now staining his shirt was from the man’s already bloody nose. “-we should probably start with the time anomaly attack!”
Lena was a few feet away from him. She’d luckily been to the right of her desk, so she landed on top of it instead of it landing on top of her. Fred was a couple of feet away, already crouched. Judging by the state of the furniture around him, he’d had to dodge the cabinet he’d been putting over the window.
“What’s going on?” Virgil asked. Good, he was conscious after that.
“Time distortion,” Janus answered.
“What the hell type of time distortion is this?!” Lena exclaimed, holding one of her arms with the other. Janus couldn’t tell what type of injury she’d gotten.
“One like the one Remus and I ran into in Cuba,” Janus said.
“So…” Fred said.
“I think we’ve finally found whoever has been mucking up time with time distortion devices. Or, more, I think they’ve found us.”
There were more screams from down the hall. “We can still hear other people in the building screaming,” Janus noted. “That’s good.”
“How is that good?” Virgil asked.
“That means the building is still connected to itself,” Janus explained. “Which, means that while the shields are screwed up, they’re still in place and keeping the building from being ripped apart and sent through time and space.”
“Oh well that’s good at least,” Virgil said, sounding honestly a bit hysterical. He looked over at Janus. “If the building is intact, can’t we just leave? Just through the front door?”
The three time agents in the room exchanged a look.
“Well,” Fred said, “first of all, it’s probably not going to be that easy to get to the front door considering the screaming we’re hearing every so often.”
“Also, we wouldn’t be able to get out if we did make it to the door.”
“What?” Virgil asked. “Why not?”
“It’s kind of a secret that most people don’t know unless they’ve worked here a long time,” Janus said, “but the TPI headquarters isn’t exactly… in a place.”
“What do you mean it’s not in a place?” Virgil asked. “I’ve seen the outside of the building. It’s on a normal street with restaurants and a park and all of that.”
“It’s really not though,” Janus said.
“It’s kind of floating,” Lena cut in. “Somewhere in deep space. The doors auto-teleport you the doors of a building on Earth which is why you think that it’s there.”
“The building’s a shell?” Virgil asked, flabbergasted.
“Yes, and unfortunately, without time travel being accessible, going out of the front door would be ill advised.”
There was a long pause as Virgil seemed to reboot. “We’re floating in space right now?!”
“Well,” Janus said. “We were always floating in space. You just didn’t know that.”
“Great, yeah, nice, that’s great,” Virgil said, rubbing his temples.
“So,” Janus said, turning to Fred and Lena. “I think first we need to find whatever is sending out time quakes before they get worse. Then, we’ll figure out the rest along the way.”
“How are we going to find it though?” Fred asked. “It could be anywhere.”
“I’m not sure but standing in here isn’t going to get us anywhere,” Lena said.
“The closer we get the more chaos there will be,” Janus said. “Game of hot and cold with time distortions anyone?”
Lena and Fred nodded, but Virgil just looked queasy. Luckily, when the room had gone sidewise, the door had landed in a place still accessible enough with a bit of crawling.
Fred and Lena had to pull the desk away from the door, but then they were able to cautiously open it. Fred poked his head out. “Seems clear,” he said. “Sideways, but clear.”
“Good,” Janus said.
Fred started slowly crawling out into the hallway and Lena went after him. Janus turned back to a very green looking Virgil. “You can stay here,” he said. Maybe go in the supply closet to prevent any more injury from falling office supplies. It won’t be comfortable, but it’ll be better. We’ll come get you when things are stable.”
Virgil nodded. Yet, right as Janus turned away to go follow Fred and Lena, there was another rubble and the ground shook. Virgil, still a bit wobbly on his feet from the last couple of falls tumbled down, but luckily the room’s walls stayed in their places.
Unluckily, the walls outside of the room didn’t. Looking through the office door one could see what was outside the room was very much not a hallway anymore, but a different room entirely. There was no Lena or Fred in sight. “You’ve got to be kidding,” Janus said to the universe.
Chapter 62
“I thought you said the building was stable!” Virgil said.
“I said it’s not being ripped apart,” Janus corrected, “and it still isn’t. We’re still inside the headquarters. The rooms just got a bit… scrambled.”
“Great, great, fuck.”
“It’s fine, Virgil,” Janus said, though he himself was a bit worried. He knew if he showed that, however, Virgil would just panic more, and the last thing Janus needed at the moment was a panicking civilian, let along a panicking Virgil.
“It is not fine,” Virgil said. Luckily, he looked a bit pissed off at Janus’s flippant reply. Good. A pissed off Virgil was better than one having a panic attack.
Janus just rolled his eyes, making Virgil bristle even more. “Well,” he said, “either way, I need to attempt to find what is causing this time distortion. Come with me or stay here, though I am unsure if the closet is a closet anymore.”
Virgil eyed the closet and then eyed Janus.
“Make your choice quickly though,” Janus cautioned, already steeping towards the open doorway.
He heard Virgil curse after a moment and then a hand was gripping Janus’s arm. He was coming with then.
They both climbed out of the sideways doorway into the room on the other side.
“Where are we?” Virgil asked, still holding onto Janus’s sleeve. It reminded Janus of welcome week in their freshman year of college.
They’d been randomly assigned as roommates in the dorms. Janus had mostly ignored him the first day after small attempts at making conversation had failed miserably. He’d assumed the boy simply didn’t want to make friends, and Janus had taken that in stride, sure he could make friends elsewhere.
That lasted until that night when he’d found his roommate on the bathroom floor, dry heaving into the toilet. After figuring out that it was from nerves and not some drug his body was trying to desperately expel (Janus had been very glad he didn’t have to drag some dumbass to the hospital on his first day living away from home), he decided to take pity on the poor fool and socially adopted him.
He'd been a nervous wreck during all of Welcome Weekend even with Janus’s literally leading him by the hand (and sometimes dragging him) to the many social events the university put on. He’d slowly calmed down, however being around a lot of people still sometime freaked him out. He’d warmed up to Janus quickly though and when they were alone, he’d come out of his shell.
He’d proved himself to be a witty, smartass, bastard as soon as he got over his crippling social anxiety. He’d matched Janus perfectly, honestly, and had always been around to help with homework, especially reading and writing. He’d also known more about how to clean himself and his environment more than most college freshman even if sometimes his anxiety had prevented him from using that knowledge appropriately.
He'd actually managed to stop Janus from making poisonous gas in their apartment by mixing cleaning fluids in their junior year.
Janus glanced around them trying to answer the question of where they were. It was a medium sized room, about the size of the living room in his house and was mostly baren except for a large hollowed out circular desk with one gap for people to be able to walk through. Under the desk was a long line of old school computer towers humming softly with only a few centimeters between them. There was a mess of cords all over the place, connecting to different parts of the computers and thrown over parts of the desk.
“I’m not sure where we are,” Janus admitted. “This is a pretty archaic set up. I’m not sure what it’d be used for.”
Virgil stepped forward towards the desk with a curious tilt to his head. He bent down to study one of the computers for a few moments. He squinted. “It’s not an archaic set-up. Well,” he amended. “It is, but it’s intentionally an archaic set-up. The techs current, it’s just put in a shell that looks old for some reason.”
“That’s odd,” Janus said.
Virgil pushed a button on the side of one of the towers and the machine started rumbling louder, lighting up Virgil’s face in a soft blue light as it did.
Virgil stood as the computer tower next to it lit up the same the next moment and the one next to it the moment after that until all of the computers were on. Only after that did the top of the desk light up, a full 3-D hologram lighting up with Virgil inside.
Janus stepped through the gap in the desk to stand inside the hologram too.
He was met with a lock screen, but more worrying.
“Oh no,” Janus said.
“What?” Virgil asked, glancing at him.
“The date,” Janus said.
The date behind the prompt for the password read almost 10 years in the future of the year they were supposed to be in.
“So much for your shields,” Virgil grumbled.
“We really shouldn’t be here,” Janus said.
“Oh really?” Virgil said. “Thanks for your useful information, Mr. Time Agent. I thought likely stepping on our own personal time streams, especially by going to the future was a good Thursday afternoon activity.”
Janus glared at him.
“Oh wait,” said Virgil, glancing at the date on the screen, “I mean Sunday at 2am.”
“Does being an asshole help?” Janus asked.
“Would you prefer an actual mental breakdown because I have two modes of behavior open to me right now.”
“Asshole it is,” Janus grumbled.
“Great,” said Virgil. “Fuck you, fuck Remus, fuck time travel, and fuck…”
And, of course, that’s when the room decided to tilt once more. They both went tumbling, but luckily the fall was softer this time. Janus simply landed on his backside as though he’d tripped backwards while walking. Meanwhile, Virgil ended up on his hands and knees having caught himself.
“Fuck this!” Virgil completed his sentence a bit too loudly for Janus’s taste.
“Shh,” Janus said.
Virgil looked up at him and seemed to realize what Janus had. They were no longer in the room they’d just been in. Or perhaps they were in the same room, but the computer wasn’t there, and the lighting was different. It was rather difficult to tell if they’d moved rooms since it was just a rectangular box of a room.
Instead, they were in what seemed to be just an office, much like Janus’s office, but with six desks instead of four. There was a half-eaten lunch on one of the desks and a hologram with a mission report pulled up on the wall.
There also blood on the floor next to where they had landed.
“Where are we?” Virgil asked in a whisper.
“Back in action,” Janus said. “It’s one of the offices, but I don’t know which at the moment, but I’m going to go ahead and assume it’s in the right time. The shields must have righted us.
“That’s good,” Virgil said, then paused as there was a crashing sound from the hallway. He looked wide eyed at Janus. “Or not good.”
Janus put his finger to his lips and slowly got to his feet. The door had been left open but only slightly. He walked over to it on silent feet to peer through the gap.
The first thing he saw was a body. It wasn’t moving, so it was likely the person was dead, but they could also be unconscious. They were face first on the floor, so Janus didn’t know if he knew them. Their torso was in front of the door, blocking them in.
The second thing Janus noticed was the giant creature stalking through the hallway. It looked sort of like a big cat that stood on its hind legs. It looked like it was probably 8 feet tall when erect, but it was about Janus’s height with how it hunched over.
Ah.
Janus went to step back from the door, but before he could, the creature looked over at him.
They met eyes.
Whatever it was clearly was not here to have a conversation. He could see it in its eyes… even without the blood on its mouth.
Janus slammed the door.
“What?” Virgil asked.
“You don’t want to know,” Janus said, pressing his back against the door. There was a loud thunk as something slammed against the other side.
“What is that?!” Virgil asked, alarmed.
“Just pray the rooms decide to get shuffled soon.”
A clawed arm broke through the door right next to Janus’s head. Janus cursed and jumped away from the door. He grabbed Virgil and pulled him behind a desk.
“This isn’t going to protect us!” Virgil said. “We need to get out of here.”
“I’m currently sourcing for ideas,” Janus spat back. He reached up to dig through the desk drawer.
All he found was a tablet and a half-squished energy bar. At least he could throw the tablet at the cat creature. He wasn’t sure that would do much good considering it was currently shredding the door with its monstrous claws.
“I have one,” Virgil said.
Janus glanced at him to see him staring at his own hand. “Wh-”
“Give me 5 seconds,” Virgil said, holding up a finger. He then made an odd motion with his hands. Two fingers of one hand rubbed around a finger of the other. It looked like he was turning a dial or spinning a ring on his finger, but nothing was there.
He suddenly disappeared with a pop.
Janus blinked at the empty space he’d left for a couple of seconds before he heard the door splintering behind him as the cat finally broke into the room.
He did throw the tablet at it and it glanced off it’s head as expected. Luckily, before it could come and eat him alive for that slight, there was another pop. Patton appeared in front of him.
“Need a lift?” he asked.
He didn’t wait for an answer. He just grabbed Janus by the shoulder and Janus felt the familiar sensation of traveling through time.
Here is my starting post for today’s study break stories session. I will reblog this post with the story as I write them today. Feel free to send in asks about anything at any point, even if it’s not for the part of the story I’m currently on.
If you aren’t interested and don’t want all of these posts clogging your dash, please feel free to block the tag “study break stories” as all posts and voting about it will go there. You can still see the finished product of the story even if you are blocking that tag as I will not tag the edited chapters with “study break stories” but with the tag “folds in paper.”
See the Folds in Time Universe Master Post for edited chapters. Not yet edited chapters are under the cut. I also have a playlist on youtube for this story.
I have a bit of reading today, so I’m going to work on that. :) It is some very difficult reading, so just a warning, I might get frustrated and need breaks...
Chapter 38 (Not Quite Time)
The biggest problem with Patton’s dancing seemed to be less that he was physically and mentally incapable of learning and performing the steps (though his lack of rhythm and easily distractable nature certainly was a factor), and more that he was far more interested in having fun verses doing it right. It was charming in a way though it was infuriating as his teacher.
It reminded Janus of the first time they’d met. He’d blocked it out, for a long while, how he’d been drawn to the man who had led him onto the 1920s dance floor and offered to teach him despite not actually fully being able to do the dance himself.
Past him perhaps would not have believed it, but this Patton was a lot worse at dancing than that Patton.
That Patton must have been an older one than this one then. He wondered if he kept trying to learn to dance after this. He wondered if Janus kept trying to teach him how to dance after this. Perhaps one day Janus would know Patton enough to be able to identify where he was in his timeline just by how he kept rhythm.
…
Well, that was a disgustingly romantic notion. Janus’s face screwed up and Patton seemed to notice considering their faces were inches apart.
“What?” he asked.
“Nothing.” Janus had given up on teaching him any actual dance moves hours ago. They’d taken a break to finish picking berries and maybe-mint as well as grab some fish from the weir before heading back to camp. Now Janus’s goal as dinner cooked was to somehow forcibly shove the concept of rhythm into Patton’s head before doing anything any more complicated. This came in the form of them swaying back and forth together and taking little steps like it was an awkward 2000s middle school dance.
“No,” Patton asked. “What?”
“I was just anticipating getting my toes stepped on once again,” Janus replied.
“You’re using your lying voice,” Patton accused, his tone amused.
“I don’t have a lying voice.”
“You do so!” Patton replied.
“Do not.”
“You do! It goes slightly deeper, and you get a bit of an accent I don’t recognize.”
“You know nothing.”
Patton rolled his eyes and almost stepped on his toes for real in his distraction. This man was a hazard to himself and others. “I believe you,” he said and then leaned in closer to whisper. “That’s my lying voice by the way.”
“You know what I’ve found in our dance lessons?” Janus asked, softly next to his ear. “You have little to no balance. I could easily shove you of a cliff.”
“My balance is fine!” Patton insisted. “As long as I’m not trying to do some ridged dance moves that put my center of gravity in weird places.”
“Uh huh,” Janus said.
“I do yoga.”
“Do you?” he asked.
“Yes, well… okay, so there were these workout DVDs McDonalds was giving out in like 2005 or 2006 and…” Janus laid his forehead on Patton’s shoulder shaking with suppressed laughter. “Don’t laugh! They’re pretty good. I do them all the time! Though not as much anymore because Lo makes me do a training regimen and will only allow them to count once a week.”
They had stopped the gentle swaying and now they were just standing with Janus’s head on Patton’s shoulder and their arms around each other. “You’re something else,” Janus said.
“I will take that as a compliment,” Patton said with pride.
Janus chuckled softly and took his head off Patton’s shoulder, leaning back slightly. “You should,” he agreed. Their noses were just about touching, and he didn’t quite know how it had happened, but one of his hands was suddenly on Patton’s face, the other still lingering near his waist. They stood like that for a long couple of seconds.
Finally, Patton moved, his hand sliding up to cup the side of Janus’s face in turn. “I…” he said, his thumb rubbing across the apple of Janus’s cheek. “I’m not sure if that’s the best idea right now.”
“Right,” Janus said swallowing.
“It’s not that I don’t want to,” Patton said. “I do. I like you. I’m just worried this might not be the right time or place. We’ve been stuck together here without outside things like jobs and other people, and you’ve told me a lot of stuff. I think you were able to sort of put your misery on hold for a bit while we were here, but you haven’t fixed anything. You are hurt. The things you went through, the things you told me, they were horrible, and they’ve made you sad and angry and depressed. I don’t want you to try to bandage that wound with me, because bandages aren’t going to work on that hurt. You need a lot more support than I can’t give you with a kiss in the forest before the beginning of mankind.”
That… hurt. Patton had phrased it nice and gentle, but it basically translated to ‘I don’t want to get romantically involved with someone who is so fucked up.’ Which… was fair, but it still made him feel a bit cracked open.
“I’m not saying no,” Patton said gently. “I’m saying we have plenty of time.” He smiled slightly. “Plus, I’m not abandoning you to it either. I fully plan to make sure you eat right and prove I can cook fantastically when given the right materials in the process, and I want to meet your brother and maybe Virgil too.”
“Yeah,” Janus said. “You’re probably right.” Patton’s smile turned a bit melancholy and he leaned forward slowly to kiss Janus on the forehead. “…Also, your soup is boiling over.”
Patton’s eyes widened and he whipped around, hurrying over to where dinner was cooking with a yelp. Despite still feeling a bit stung, he smiled at the retreating figure and followed him over to help with the soup disaster.
They’d only be there for less than two more days.
Chapter 39
Janus knew the moment he woke up. It was hard to pinpoint what sense was picking up the difference, but he could almost taste something new but also familiar in the air. It was like how some people could feel a thunderstorm rolling in by the ache in their joints. He could sense the strum of time as little pieces of it twisted and folded in on themselves, a striking contrast to the way it had been like a solid, linear, stone road the past couple of months.
He glanced at the timepiece on his wrist. It was still off except for the message about unstable conditions that still flashed every few seconds, but Janus knew it was only a matter of time before it turned back on.
He could tell that Patton must have felt it too since he also looked at his timepiece as soon as he woke. They glanced at each other. “I guess we don’t have to figure out fish jerky.”
“I guess not,” Janus agreed.
“Should we still, uh, go to the river?” Patton asked. They’d done so almost every morning barring rain since landing here to check for fish, get water, or search for edible plants.
Janus’s throat felt a bit tight for some reason. With his luck he was getting sick and would die from some horrible pathogen now of all times. “Yeah,” he said. “We should. We can at least get water just in case.”
“Okay,” Patton agreed. They walked the familiar path to the small river. Patton snuck his hand over to twine their fingers together. Janus allowed it.
Usually, they came with the idea of a task more than just filling up a container with water, which meant they really didn’t know what to do when they arrived. After a bit of hesitation, Patton sat on the bank near the fishing weir. He took off his ruined by this point socks and shoes to stick his feet in the water.
He laid back to look up at Janus who was still standing.
“Tell me your deepest darkest secret,” he requested.
“I’m pretty sure I already told you that,” Janus pointed out.
“No, no, not like that,” he said, and Janus raised an eyebrow, “like ones you’d tell at slumber parties to cement your bond with the other kids there forever.”
“I’m not sure what you mean to be honest,” Janus said.
“Hmm, like when I was about 10, I really didn’t like the book that my teacher assigned us to read, so I buried it in the yard and said it went missing. My mom had known it was on the kitchen table and she and Dad looked for it all day but couldn’t find it. It’s still there.”
“What book was it?” Janus asked.
Patton thought for a moment. “You know. I have no idea,” he admitted, “but I stand by my opinion.”
Janus bent to take a seat next to him. “I once got mad at Emile and switched out the top of all of his markers, so he didn’t know what color they were. I’m not sure if that’s a secret. He probably figured me out, but he never managed to prove it enough to tell Mom.”
“Psychological warfare,” Patton said grimly. “I think that’s a war crime in some countries.”
“It’s definitely a war crime in some countries,” Janus agreed.
Patton shot him a smile. “Is that a sense of humor I hear.”
“No,” Janus said dryly, and Patton laughed.
“Remember when you fell in the water on the first day?” Patton asked, eyes full of mocking humor.
“I remember it was your fault.”
“I remember things differently.”
“Your memory’s shit.”
“I could shove you in on purpose right now and we could compare experiences to see,” he offered sweetly.
“You’ve almost made it out of this situation alive. It would be a shame if I murdered you in cold blood today.”
Patton just grinned at the death threat, sitting up slowly.
He put his hand into the water.
“Do not,” Janus ordered.
Patton flicked water at him. It wasn’t a large amount at all, but Janus still glared at him as though he’d committed treason. He leaned forward and sent a small wave of water back in his direction. This, predictably only encouraged him.
They ended up swimming, of course, because Patton was Patton and Janus was weak. By the time they were finished, it was already past lunch, and they grabbed the container of water they had come for before heading back home. Janus noticed on the way back that the timepiece on his wrist was no longer flashing an error message in red. It must have powered back on while they were distracted in the river. Janus didn’t say a word.
They ate lunch and while Patton didn’t say a word about them not being stuck either, Janus could tell he knew.
“We should probably pack up anything that could be confusing to archeologists,” Patton said when they were finished eating. “The dugout is fine. It’s just dirt and leaves, but the stone and clay can’t stay or any of our clothes.”
Someone from the TPI would definitely be coming back here and making sure everything was cleaned up, but Janus didn’t mention that. He just helped Patton gather up everything they’d brought and everything they’d made since being here.
“Do you want the pot?” Janus offered. “I don’t really have any use for it.”
“I would love to take the pot,” Patton said, his expression warm.
“Okay,” Janus said. “Then… that’s everything.”
“Yeah,” Patton agreed.
“So, dinner?”
“Sure,” Patton said. The food they had left wasn’t anything particularly substantial and they’d already put out the fire, so they couldn’t cook anything. Instead, they just finished up the small store of berries and vegetables they had. It was really more of a snack than a dinner. Patton leaned against him so their shoulders touched once he finished his share of the food. “It’s going to be getting dark soon.”
“Yeah,” Janus said.
Patton sighed. “We do have to go.”
Janus immediately felt a pang when the words were finally said out loud. The feeling was almost akin to grief. Patton drew away from his side, but only to turn a bit so he was facing him.
“We do,” Patton said as though Janus had argued. He reached up to touch Janus’s cheek. “It’s time to go home.”
“I don’t think I have a home,” Janus admitted.
Patton smiled sadly. “You do,” he said. “You just have to go find it again.”
“I…”
“Go home,” Patton said, voice gentle, but stern. “Go talk to your brother. Get help. Then come find me, yeah?” He grinned, almost cheekily and bopped him on the nose. “Or maybe I’ll find you.”
“With the way things are going, we’ll probably find each other.”
“Exactly!”
He got to his feet and Janus stood as well while he gathered up the things he was taking with him.
“I…” Janus said. “Goodbye, I guess.”
“Ah, that’s a little final, don’t you think?” Patton said. “I’m sure we’ll be seeing each other soon. It’s only a matter of time.”
Janus rolled his eyes. “Must you?”
“I must,” he said with a smile. He leaned forward to kiss Janus’s cheek softly. Then he drew back. “I’ll be seeing you,” he said. Then he was gone.
The moment he disappeared, Janus had the thought that maybe Patton was right to think he was too fucked up to have a relationship with him right now. He was pretty sure someone leaving your side temporarily wasn’t supposed to make you want to collapse onto the ground, curl up into a ball, and die.
Yeah, no, that was probably not okay. He’d been aware, of course, already that he was not okay, but between actually talking about the root problem for the first time and Patton’s gentle pushing towards doing something about it, plus his insistence that Janus deserved to do something about it, made it hit differently. He did not curl up into a ball and die. Instead, he reached for the things he was taking, mostly trash, but some of it things he’d made of stone that he might keep. He pulled up the display on his timepiece and selected the return coordinates that would spit him out in decon. Lord knew he needed it.
The feeling of traveling through time was almost strange after the two months of being stuck. It may have taken a moment longer than it usually did as it scraped against the edge of the time flare, but he landed back at the TPI without any major issues a little before 6pm.
Considering that most missions shut down around 5pm, the fact that he came in then certainly drew immediate attention. Not that he expected to be gone for 2 months and then not draw scrutiny. By the time he stepped out of the decontamination room, there was already a small crowd.
Khalid was there at the front staring him down with something between shock, worry, and maybe anger in her eyes. He basically ignored her. “Janus,” she said. “What the hell happened?”
“Give me a minute,” he said pushing past her. “Before I lose my nerve.”
“…What?” she asked. She was probably following him, but he didn’t bother to check. Instead, he walked straight down the hall past Costuming and Rhi’s office and the hallway that would lead to his own office. He walked all the way to the AMO and pushed open the door without a glance at his own last name on the outside of it. The people inside the office stopped and looked at him when he walked inside, likely because the office was closed by now except for emergencies.
The only person he cared about though, was Emile who had been talking to the receptionist at the front desk, his coat already in his hands to go home for the night.
“Janus?” he asked, and Janus just about chickened out, but the expression on Emile’s face was one of abject relief indicating that he had to have been worried for Janus in the time Janus had been gone despite everything Janus had done to him. That expression drew him forward towards him.
“I…” he said, and hesitated. “I’m back, and I’m okay physically, but…”
Emile looked at him intensely for a few seconds before putting a steadying hand on his shoulder: calm and real and alive.
“Help,” Janus said. “Help me,” and he fell into his brother’s arms.
Intermission Arc: An Analogical Interlude
Chapter 40
Patton was a fan of the summer months which was why he was a little unhappy that he’d be missing a good chunk of them. Though, he guessed he didn’t so much miss them as misplace them. He had stopped by to tell Roman and Logan what had happened and why he’d be missing for a good chunk of time over the next few months to make up for it. He was staying with his now technically younger roommates for a week or two to recuperate before hopping forward a bit. He’d duck in for his mom’s birthday and his grandpa’s yearly fishing trip (Though Patton was of the opinion that he did not really want to eat fresh fish for a least a little while yet.) but would mostly be skipping forward a whole two months.
He’d land in early August when it all evened out which was still summer, but he’d miss most of June and July, and that was sad, but at least apples would be fresh around that time. Plus, fall was his second favorite anyway.
Yet, for now, he got to relax a little bit back in late May. Logan had finished up poking and prodding him to make sure he wasn’t sick with anything really bad yesterday, so he was officially allowed to leave the apartment. Since it was Saturday, he and Roman had decided to go grab some stuff from the recently opened Farmers Market.
Roman had gotten bored with the vegetable shopping and had split off to go look more at the arts and crafts (and, knowing him, probably pastries) that the market had to offer, leaving Patton to finish up getting fresh ingredients for the week. He may have also been grabbing a little bit extra so he could make frozen meals at some point this week. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Roman and Logan to feed themselves in his absence, (Okay, well, he did not trust Logan and Roman often got distracted.) but he did want to leave something nice for them while he was away. He knew he’d missed them while he’d been gone.
He wandered down the main path through the market. Most days it was a side street off Main, but on Saturdays in the summer, it was blocked off to cars and hosted a large number of stands selling different things, mostly produce. In a small park off to one side, there was a live band set up and down the ways a bit there were food trucks selling prepared food to people who got peckish while wandering the stands. He mostly tried to stay away from those because they almost exclusively sold unhealthy and overpriced food.
But gosh was it good food.
And Logan wasn’t here to stop him…
Well, it wouldn’t hurt to go have a look at what they’ve got this morning. He turned away from the vegetable stands he was supposed to be shopping at and walked towards the parking lot lined with food trucks. It was, as predicted, mostly food that was horribly bad for you. Most of the things there were sweets, though some had actual meal food such as walking tacos and grilled cheeses. One even was serving pancakes with fresh berries with a sign telling you where you could buy the same berries elsewhere in the market. Patton’s eyes though, went straight past anything most people would consider actual food and landed on small stand with the words “Fresh Donuts and Fried Oreos for Sale.”
Now, he knew for a fact that he could only eat one, maybe two if he stretched it, fried Oreos at a time before he got sick to his stomach. They were just so sweet and greasy, but they sold them in packs of three. Hmm…
He looked around. “Would you like one?” he asked an older man with hair just starting to grey who’d been walking between the stands.
The man stopped, seemingly surprised to be being addressed blinked at him in surprise. “What?” he asked.
“A fried Oreo,” Patton explained. “I love them, but eating more than two makes me sick to my stomach.”
“Just… don’t eat the last one,” the man suggested. He was shifting back and forth on his feet.
“Great!” Patton said, turning back to the employee waiting. “3 please!” They had already been dunked in hot oil while the employee had been waiting for Patton, so they were out within minutes, hot and fresh. Patton thanked her and turned towards the man. He had to grab a napkin to pick one of the Oreos out of the packet and handed it to him. “Here you go!”
“Thanks,” he said with an awkward half smile.
“No problem!” Patton replied.
“Well anyway, I’m really in the middle of something, so I ought to be going now.”
“Oh, okay, bye!” Patton said, but he was already gone. Patton shrugged and reached into his bag of fried Oreos as he started walking in the opposite direction from the one the man took towards the park and the live music there. He’d go take a quick walk around the little park listening to the music to maybe work off the Oreos he was eating and then go back to his shopping.
He was about halfway between the food trucks and the makeshift stage when there was a loud screeching sound which he at first attributed to mic feedback, until he felt a kind of swoopy feeling in his gut like after eating two corndogs before going on a rollercoaster even though Logan had told him not to. Someone was time traveling and not your gentle popping here or there safe time travel. No, something was wrong.
There were popping sounds like those little mini popping firecrackers that kids threw at each other’s feet on the Fourth of July. People near the stage jerked away with little startled shrieks, attributing the sounds to something going wrong with the equipment, but it wasn’t actually coming from the stage, not exactly.
It was coming from somewhere above and behind the stage. Patton made note of the fact that it was so close to the musical equipment almost as though whatever was happening was intentionally set up to make people think it was an electrical problem. He picked up his pace a bit, but not too much as he didn’t want anyone to notice him doing so.
By the time he made it there, the noises had stopped and the feeling of wrong time travel had settled into an annoying hum. The people around and on the stage were starting to settle, though clearly the musicians were confused.
Patton was confused too. What was that? Was it over? Why did something still feel off? He couldn’t scan the area to check what was wrong. He hadn’t brought the timepiece to walk to the local farmer’s market. He usually didn’t wear it about his own time for fear carrying it around frivolously may lead to disaster. Pickpockets snatching time travel devices off of the unaware had caused enough undue trauma, thank you very much.
So, he had only his own eyes and ears to work with. Yet, despite his experience, he didn’t see anything particularly amiss. He kept his eyes out for an object that might have caused the disturbance or clothing that didn’t quite match the times, but he saw nothing.
After a few minutes of slipping his way through the crowds, he finally decided to give up for now. He’d go back to the apartment and tell Logan something had happened. He should be able to figure out something. He weaved his way out of the crowd of people and back onto the sidewalk that surrounded the little concert area. Yet, as he was about to turn away, he heard an unfamiliar voice call out to him.
“Pat!” it called, and Patton turned to look at a man speed walking towards him in an inconspicuous black hoody and blue jeans. “You’re Pat,” he said when he was closer, his tone somewhere between a statement and a question.
Patton tilted his head at the stranger with a frown. “Do you know me?” he asked.
“Not really,” he replied, “but I remembered your face.”
“What?” Patton asked.
He raised an arm and let the hoody sleeve slip down just a touch. Patton could detect a bit of panic in his eyes, and he figured out why when a timepiece much like Janus’s but not quite as fancy was revealed. “It’s broken. Please help.”
Chapter 41
Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay.
This was fine. It was fine. This was fine. There weren’t any problems with this. Nope. No reason to panic. No reason to have a panic attack. Nope. That would be unproductive. It’s fine.
It was just a little bit of turbulence. He wasn’t even dead. Did time devices even have turbulence? He didn’t remember the classes he took about this ever saying anything about it, but maybe he’d just forgotten.
Virgil would not have forgotten something like that because he would have known he’d panic about it if it ever happened and would need to mentally prep himself for the possibility.
The sounds of people talking filtered to him as though through the wall. He couldn’t make out the words, but just the cadence of slight panic and concern. There were yelps, but no prolonged screaming, so that was a good sign. He could also tell it was dark wherever he was even though his eyes were closed.
He should probably open his eyes.
He wasn’t a child. He was well aware the ‘If I don’t see it, it doesn’t exist,’ claim his mind was trying to tell him was a lie.
…
Virgil, he thought to himself. Open your eyes.
He took a deep breath. He needed to open his eyes because he knew himself, and the world he was making up in his head was probably a lot scarier than the one he was avoiding.
Opening his eyes honestly did very little because it was mostly dark, though he could see a bit of light near the ground a couple of feet, lighting up a patch of short green grass that had been recently cut. It was at the earliest the 1900s then, maybe the later 1800s.
Well… guess he had no choice but to go towards the light…
He crawled over to where he saw the light coming from and reached out to touch the wall. It gave a bit under his hand: a tarp then, not a wall. He peered through the gap to look for any nearby feet or legs and upon not seeing any, pulled up the tarp and quickly rolled out from under it.
He looked around himself quickly. There were people within sight, but he didn’t think any of them were looking his way to see him rolling out from underneath what seemed to be a temporary stage of some sort. He was lucky he’d rolled out from under the back and not the front.
He cautiously got to his feet and moved away from the edge of the stage and off towards a sidewalk, hunching into the hoodie he was wearing as much as he could. He could see more people milling around once he got there and was relieved to see that his clothing fit in well enough. Maybe he was lucky and he’d only been knocked off course spatially.
He was supposed to be going to New York in 2005, and he was supposed to land in the bedroom of the apartment he’d rented for his research trip. Everything had seemed perfectly fine when he left. There hadn’t been any alerts or concerns out that would have kept him back. Most civilian time travel, what little of it there was, was almost ridiculously safe most of the time because it was so regulated, and destinations were quadruple checked. So, Virgil hadn’t been more than slightly anxious when he’d been given the go ahead to push the correct buttons on the time piece he’d been given.
Everything had been fine for half a second before it had felt like he’d suddenly hit a brick wall and gotten tossed a few meters. The timepiece had sparked and shocked him as he’d landed on his back. A cursory glance at his wrist now confirmed what he already knew: the display was blacked out without even a warning message flashing on it. Which was… not good.
He covered the device again with his sleeve and walked a little closer to the crowds, eyes searching for clues about where and when he was exactly. It was summer and the conversations he overheard were English speaking mostly with American accents, but more towards the Midwest than he’d have liked considering he’d hoped to be in New York.
Luckily, plenty of people were using their cell phones which was one of Virgil’s specialties. Unfortunately, many of them were iPhones. Virgil cursed to himself. Definitely not 2005. In fact, the latest model he could identify was an iPhone 8. So, it was 2017 or later. Judging by the large amount of people and the fact that it was the summer, it was either 2018 or 2019.
So, he had a wallet with $200 cash in $20 bills, a New York driver’s license that has been expired for a decade, and a flip phone that was probably not supported by any current networks.
What the hell was he supposed to do? Would anyone even be able to find him in this time to rescue? God, he really did not want to be here for 2020.
Yet, just before he was about to tip over into an absolute freak out, he noticed a man make his way out of the crowd in front of the stage and onto the sidewalk Virgil was on. It took him a moment to realize where he recognized him from.
“Pat!” he called as the man was about to turn and walk away. He did his best not to run at him, as the man turned around at his name. Relief crashed over Virgil despite the confusion pinching at the man’s brow. “You’re Pat,” he said. Technically, Pat could be considered an enemy taking into account how closely Virgil worked with the TPI, but he also had access to time travel, so Virgil didn’t give one shit.
“Do you know me?” he asked with a frown on his face.
Probably not, and the one ominous conversation he’d had with Pat a couple of weeks ago suddenly made a lot more sense. He’d have to thank him somehow once all of this was over. “Not really, but I remembered your face.”
“…What?” he asked.
He glanced around them to make sure no one was watching (though people from this time would probably just assume it was a smart watch) before pulling back his sleeve and showing him the timepiece. Recognition flared immediately. “It’s broken. Please help,” he begged.
Pat nodded. “Alright,” he said, “come with me.” He turned to start walking towards the street and Virgil followed close behind. They didn’t speak except for Pat to give him directions until they were away from the dense crowd that had been around what was apparently a farmers’ market. “So, what’s your name,” Pat asked once they were away from most of the people.
“Virgil,” Virgil replied.
“Well, it’s nice to meet you, Virgil,” Pat said with a genuine smile. “Though I am sorry about the circumstances.”
“Yeah, uh, thanks,” Virgil replied. “Er, thanks for helping me.”
“Of course,” Pat said.
“Are you a time agent then?” he asked. There wasn’t any malice that Virgil could sense behind the question despite the fact that he knew his and Janus’s relationship was… something.
Still, he was glad he could truthfully say, “No, I’m a professor of anthropology. I was supposed to be on a research trip to 2005, but something happened.”
“They let anthropologists go on research trips to the past?” Pat asked curiously. Strange, Virgil would have thought he’d know that.
“Only certain ones with a lot of training and tests,” Virgil said.
“Interesting!” he said, turning a corner.
“Where are we going?” Virgil asked.
He hesitated subtlety enough that it could almost be ignored, but Virgil was nothing if not a paranoid bastard and noticed. “I have a contact that lives in this time period,” he said. “I’m taking you to his apartment. It’s not too far from here.”
Virgil narrowed his eyes at him, taking note of the reusable bags half filled with vegetables from the Farmers Market they’d just been at, but he continued to let himself be led to an apartment building a few blocks away from the market.
He saw the man’s hand twitch towards his pocket before he seemed to think better of it, instead closing said hand into a fist to knock at the door.
The door was opened after a few moments by a man wearing a dark blue long sleeved night shirt and fuzzy nebula patterned pajama pants. He looked like he’d probably only gotten up recently by the way his hair stuck up on one side and his eyes looked sleepy behind the glasses perched on his nose. He looked at Pat seeming confused for a moment before opening his mouth.
Pat cut him off before he was able to say anything. “Hi Dr. Hartnell,” Pat said pleasantly. “Good to see you again. May we come in?”
He blinked at Pat and then looked at Virgil.
This man, Virgil thought, is not a good liar. His face was unknown to Virgil, but he so clearly recognized Virgil that it was almost comical. He shoved away his surprise after a couple of moments. “Ah,” he said. “Hello, I’m…”
“Let me guess,” Virgil interrupted. “First name William?” He just got a blink of surprise. “I studied pop culture from the 20th and 21st century. I know Doctor Who.”
“Of course.”
“I’m not an idiot.”
He smiled slightly. “I am well aware,” he replied in a tone that was familiar by this point even though his voice sounded slightly different in person verses over the phone. That in combination with the look on his face felt like a punch to the gut. “It is nice to see you Professor Eran. Would you like to come in?”
Chapter 42
“Would you… like some tea?” Logan asked once Virgil and Patton shuffled into the apartment.
“Uh, yeah, sure,” Virgil replied, appearing to be nervous by the way his fingers were playing with his hoodie sleeve. It was interesting. His clothing was probably more in line with a standard 21st century adult than Logan or either of his roommates. Logan could imagine meeting him at a local grocery store: a tired college professor hoping that if he wore unprofessional clothing on the weekends maybe his students would not recognize him.
Thinking of unprofessional clothing. “I should probably go change,” he said suddenly flustered. “Pat-” and he barely kept himself from completing the name. “Could you put the kettle on?”
Patton was giving him a suspicious look, but Logan chose to ignore it as he dashed out of the living room to his room to get dressed and brush his hair. By the time he’d returned, Patton had already managed to herd Virgil into a chair and put a plate with a cookie on it in front of him.
“So,” Logan said, feeling at least a bit more put together now that he’d had a minute to process. “May I ask what is going on?”
“I was going on that summer trip to 2005,” Virgil answered, “and my timepiece broke, but I ran into Pat and recognized him.”
“Ah,” Logan said. “May I see it?”
“Sure,” Virgil said, taking it off of his wrist and handing it over.
Logan studied the watch like device for a few moments. He tried tapping the display and pushing different buttons, but the device didn’t respond.
“Can you fix it?” Virgil asked after he fiddled around with it for about a minute with no results.
“Hmm?” Logan asked, having gotten slightly distracted. “Oh. No, absolutely not.”
“What do you mean no?” Virgil asked.
“I have no idea how this is supposed to work. Perhaps I could eventually figure it out, but the technology involved in this is doubtlessly incredibly unfamiliar to me.”
“B-but you’re time travelers, aren’t you? And you’re a tech person. You don’t know how to fix your own gear?”
“Oh,” Logan said. “I could fix Patton’s time piece with the use of one arm in a dark room with no tools, but that does not translate to being able to even turn this on. At least not outright. We’ve found it’s a completely different pedigree.”
Virgil looked at him, his brow pinched, and Logan realized belatedly that he might have already said too much. They had agreed as a group to not let people from the future know what century they were traveling from or that they had a completely differently developed form of time travel. It was likely to cause more problems than it was worth, especially considering the first interaction they’d had with the TPI, and Virgil did work with them.
“Great,” Virgil muttered. “He can hack into a highly secured database with an iPhone 5 to rearrange my tv show files, but he can’t turn on a fancy watch.”
“It is a bit more than a fancy watch, Virgil,” Logan said with a frown.
“So…” Patton said. He had taken a seat and leaned his chin on his fist. “Do you two… know each other?”
“He is the person who plugged my device into his computer when Janus stole it from you,” Logan said.
“Mhmm?” Patton said with that lilt that said he thought Logan was leaving something out intentionally or not. He was correct of course in this case, but it still made Logan scowl at him.
“So,” Patton continued. “Virgil Eran, as in Janus’s ex-roommate who burned down the apartment.”
“Oh, he fucking would!” Virgil seethed immediately. His eyes lit up in full blown anger which was a new expression on his face that Logan had not been privy to before now. “I did not burn down the apartment. If anything it was his fault! Towel with cooking oil my ass.”
“Well,” Patton said seemingly unconcerned with the outburst. “At least we have a general idea of when you’re from in case we can’t fix your timepiece and have to drop you off.”
Virgil’s face paled a bit. “Oh god, I would be in so much trouble for illegal time travel.”
Patton laughed. “To be fair. I’d be the one doing the ‘illegal’ time traveling. You’d just be a passenger.”
“Ugh. I don’t know if they’ll see it that way,” Virgil groaned.
“Well, I can at least attempt to fix it,” Logan said.
Patton gave him a look, but it was Virgil who accused, “You just want to know how it works.” Patton was then giving Virgil a look and then after a few seconds he was looking at Logan once again even more skeptically.
“Yes, well,” Logan coughed. “It would be mutually beneficial.”
“Also, I’m pretty sure something caused him to crash,” Patton provided, “so we really ought to make sure we don’t get caught up in whatever that was if we do take him back I would rather not have another jungle adventure if I can help it.”
“You think it was sabotage?” Logan asked.
“It was too convenient,” Patton replied. “He ended up near a music stage during a concert. The crowd just thought the noise the crash made was an issue with the equipment. That seems like a planned cover up for it.”
“Not to mention he happened to land in a time period where we are based,” Logan added. “That is suspicious as well.”
“I am not a spy!” Virgil interjected.
Logan quirked a lip. “I know, Virgil,” he said, and Patton was looking at him again.
“I would be way too anxious to be a spy.”
“I know, Virgil.”
“Why would someone target me?” Virgil asked.
“Well, you do work with the TPI,” Logan pointed out. “In particular, Janus, who has been investigating some of the time distortions with unknown sources. We’ve been running into those as well.” He paused to think for a moment. “Perhaps we have a common enemy we are not aware of.”
Virgil groaned and put his head on the table. “But I don’t want to be all mixed up in time politics bullshit. I want to go to a Panic! at the Disco concert and observe the beginning of YouTube.”
Logan chuckled fondly. “Unfortunately, you seem to already be mixed up in it.”
“This is the worst timeline.”
“You could have gotten stuck in pre-history for 2 months,” Patton pointed out.
“Did that happen to you?” Virgil asked, sounding a bit horrified.
“It’s why I’m tanner than usual,” Patton said as though Virgil knew how tan he normally was. “You can ask Janus whenever he gets back from it.”
“And I get back from this.”
“That too.”
‘Wait, so, Janus was stuck in pre-history?” Virgil asked.
Patton hummed. “I do have to thank you for dragging him to learn to make clay pots. It was very helpful.”
It was clear they were about to continue their conversation, but before they could, they were interrupted by the sound of the apartment door opening. “I’m back!” the voice of their third roommate called. “I know you said to get whole wheat bread, but you’re boring as hell, so I made the executive decision to buy Asiago cheese instead, and there was a buy one get one 50% off deal, so I bought 6.”
Roman wondered into the kitchen with his bags of far too many loafs of bread that Logan did not at all ask for (and likely some other bakery items that Logan also did not ask for). He paused in the entry way visibly confused as to why a stranger was sitting at their kitchen table. Virgil also appeared confused by his presence.
“Remus?” he asked.
Roman froze and his mouth popped open at the sound of his twin brother’s name and, in fact, Patton and Logan froze too.
Now, that out of all of the surprises of the day was the most unexpected.
Chapter 43
Virgil wasn’t sure why everyone in the room was suddenly looking at him like he’d just revealed that he was alien in a human suit.
Pat was the first one who recovered from whatever had come over them all. “You know someone named Remus?” Pat asked. “Who looks like him.”
“Yes…” Virgil said. “Is he not Remus.”
Pat shook his head. “No. That’s Roman. Who has a twin brother named Remus.”
“Oh,” Virgil said with a frown. “I didn’t think Remus had any family.”
“Well,” Lo said. “That would make sense.”
The Remus lookalike, Roman apparently, who had been staring blankly at Virgil since he’d said Remus’s name finally closed his mouth. “Who are you?” he asked. “Why are you in my kitchen? Where are you from? How do you know my brother?”
To be completely honest, Virgil didn’t really like his tone. Or for that matter, his bread choices.
“This is Virgil Eran,” Lo answered for him. “He’s a professor of anthropology who was supposed to be on a research trip to 2005 from the future, but something went wrong with his timepiece and Patton brought him here so we could help.” Patton, huh? Lo turned to him. “However, I would also very much like to know how you know his brother.”
“Remus works for the TPI,” Virgil said. He looked at Patton. “I’m surprised you haven’t ran into him. He’s Janus’s partner.”
Patton thought for a long moment. “Gr-green paint guy?” he asked.
“What?”
“There was a man with Janus in 2999 who was covered in green neon paint,” Patton said. “Could that have been him?”
“That honestly sounds like something he’d wear, yeah,” Virgil said.
“Huh.”
Virgil felt like he was missing something, so he turned to Lo. “What’s going on?” he asked.
“Remus and Roman were separated a long time ago,” Lo replied. “We have been looking for him ever since.”
“Oh,” said Virgil.
“Since we were 8 in particular,” Roman said. He’d seemed to recover from his shock at least a bit (and it must, actually be quite the shock). He moved to put the sacks of bread on the counter.
“I assume you can put us in contact with Remus once we sort out the current issues of getting you back to your time.”
Virgil eyed Roman who seemed to not quite have absorbed what was going on. “Sure,” he said. “It’d be easy enough. I’ll just send him an email.”
“An email?” Roman said, something funny in his tone. Virgil couldn’t imagine what was going through his head. He was pretty sure he didn’t understand the half of whatever was going on here.
Patton at least seemed to have some idea what to do because he stood up. “Hey, Ro,” he said. “Why don’t we go into the other room and talk?”
Patton nudged him towards the door to the kitchen and Virgil looked at Lo once they were out of sight. “Do you want to…?” he asked.
“From experience I am aware that Pat is more adept at helping in these situations,” Lo said. “I will… take them tea when the water finishes boiling.”
“Ah,” said Virgil. “Also, you already let a Patton slip.”
Lo winced. “I did?” he asked, but then he sighed. “Well, we were already aware the TPI would eventually know our names anyway.”
Virgil tilted his head. “Do I get to know your name then?” he asked.
Lo looked at him for a long moment and Virgil could swear he could see math equations in his eyes as he contemplated his response. He pressed his thumb to his lip briefly as he thought. “Logan,” he finally said.
“Well, it’s nice to actually meet you, Logan,” Virgil said, sticking out a hand.
“Likewise,” Logan replied, shaking his hand with a smile.
It fell silent then. It was a slightly awkward silence, but not enough to stress Virgil out too much. That, or he was just too emotionally exhausted from the last hour or so to register this new stressor.
He spent the time trying to connect the stranger’s face in front of him to the person he knew fairly well through emails and a few phone calls. At least, the person he thought he knew fairly well, after all, there was a chance that he was completely different in person. He seemed relatively calm for the situation, though his brow was a bit pinched, and he’d tap the table with his fingertips every so often. Yet, for the most part he was still and steady unlike Virgil who couldn’t stop himself from fidgeting in his nervousness.
The water for the tea finished boiling finally, and Logan rose from the table.
“You’d prefer peppermint over peach green tea or chamomile if I remember correctly,” Logan said. Was it strange for him to know that Virgil wondered? They had never exactly sat down and had a cup of tea together, but Virgil did know he’d mentioned drinking peppermint flavored things often enough. Was it weird that he remembered or sweet?
“Yeah,” Virgil confirmed.
Logan nodded and plopped a bag of peppermint tea into two of the mugs, a bag of peach into another, and chamomile into the third. He must know the tea preferences of his roommates as well. It was sweet, Virgil decided when he plopped the two peppermint teas down on the table and turned to grab the other two mugs. “I’ll be right back,” he said.
He took the teas off through the door the other two had left through a few minutes before. Virgil could hear a brief mumbled conversation from down the hall and Logan returned without the teas.
“That going okay?” Virgil asked awkwardly.
“Roman is resilient to an idiotic degree much of the time,” Logan waved him off. “He’ll be perfectly fine given some time to absorb the new information and confront his feelings about it.”
“Can I ask what happened or is that invasive?”
Logan considered it as he took his seat. “They were separated by a dysfunctional timepiece as far as we can tell,” he answered. “Though Roman didn’t have the timepiece on him when he arrived.”
“We’re not exactly sure what the conditions were that caused the issue. Roman was confused and 8, not to mention there was a language barrier where he landed. We’ve done our best to piece together what happened over the years and where his brother could have landed, but between not precisely knowing their time and place of origin nor knowing even the baseline conditions of the timepiece used to travel, let alone the corrupted ones, we haven’t gotten very far.” He paused. “Well, perhaps not ‘very far’ is not giving ourselves enough credit all things considered, but still, the goal of our project seemed out of reach.”
“The goal of your project,” Virgil repeated. “As in the goal of your time agency?”
“Are we considered an agency?” he asked with an amused note to his tone.
Virgil shrugged. “Probably more like a band of time pirates,” he admitted, “but that’s what you guys have been trying to do?”
“Well,” Logan said. “I do have to admit we often get thrown off course by the TPI and Patton’s moral compass doesn’t allow him to leave a situation he stumbles upon when he is aware it could cause harm, but yes, that has been the driving force behind our actions.”
That was honestly not the image Virgil had had of them, though to be fair, his information had been filtered through what Logan let slip in emails and Janus who was not an unbiased party. “I guess you’re almost done with that goal,” he said.
“Yes,” Logan agreed. “We’ll start working on fixing your timepiece and figuring out what caused your crash, so we can get you home soon. For now, we’ll need to figure out sleeping arrangements and clothing as you’ll be staying here. I do hope you enjoy Asiago cheese bread.”
“I fucking hate it,” Virgil said. “Your roommate is the devil and I hate him on principle.”
Logan sighed, but ended up cracking a smile. “Then this will be interesting.”
Chapter 44
Logan was woken up earlier than he would have liked the next morning by chaos in the kitchen. He’d stayed up late on his laptop running through various programs he’d designed to track time travel related metrics and synthesizing the data from the last 48 hours. At some point he didn’t remember, he’d fallen asleep on the couch since he’d given up his bed to Virgil. Of course, both of his roommates tended to rise with the sun and were incapable of being quiet ever, so Logan had gotten a maximum of 3 hours of sleep depending on when he’d actually fallen asleep.
Logan glared at Patton as he shuffled into the kitchen to get a cup of tea, but he didn’t notice. He was too busy trying to figure out the right flavor profile for making asiago cheese bread into French toast. Roman was hovering over him making loud, and likely inane suggestions while also vehemently defending his choices in bread. Patton was agreeing wholeheartedly with everything he said and adding his own ridiculous suggestions about how to make the French toast edible while blatantly not doing any of them. Logan pushed past Roman to get to the tea shelf without a word.
“Oh no, he’s grumpy,” Roman said.
“I haven’t even said a word,” Logan replied, swatting him away as he began picking at Logan’s sweatshirt to remove a couple of fabric pills near the shoulder.
“Exactly,” Roman replied. “You didn’t sleep last night.”
“I did,” Logan replied.
“And for how long?”
Logan didn’t respond.
“You know, sleeping can be helpful.”
“So can keeping your mouth shut,” Logan grumbled back.
“I’ll have you know, people love when I talk. You’re just being a grouchy old man. Isn’t that right Patton?”
Patton hummed. “Yes, your voice is great, sweetie,” he replied.
“See,” Roman said. “Two against one.”
“Two against two actually,” a voice even more tired sounding than Logan’s own spoke up from the door to the kitchen, “and since you’re the subject of the statement, your opinion doesn’t count.” Virgil was standing in the doorway looking as though he had never heard of the concept of mornings and did not like the information he was being given right now. He was leaning against the doorframe as though at any moment he might slump over and fall back asleep standing. The yellow bottom of the slightly too wide nightshirt Patton had given him the night before stuck out from beneath the black hoodie he’d came here in.
Roman was sputtering immediately. “Excuse me?!” he squawked.
“My point exactly,” Virgil muttered.
“You’re rude!” Roman said. He turned to Patton. “Patton he’s being rude to me!”
“You woke me up,” was Virgil’s response.
“It’s seven am!”
Virgil glared at him.
Patton and Logan shared a look. Patton frowned scoldingly at Logan’s amused smirk as though he wasn’t also finding this argument amusing. “Well,” he interrupted the two’s staring match. “I’m making French toast for breakfast Virgil, but it’ll be a few minutes yet. I’m sure Logan has something to show you on his computer since he was working on stuff so late last night.”
He didn’t actually have much to show anyone yet. It was all just numbers at the moment, but the look in Patton’s eyes said, ‘We’re separating the children.’ Logan half wanted to shrug him off and just see where it went because the look on Roman’s face was amusing, but then Logan looked at the tea bags in his hand, the disaster in the making that was the French toast, and the man tiredly rubbing his eyes.
“Of course,” Logan said, evenly. “We will just be in the living room.” He walked over and shoved Virgil gently through the door. “Go get dressed,” he said under his breath.
“Wha?” Virgil asked with a squint.
“We’re fleeing the morning people.”
Virgil gave him a confused look.
“Unless you want to be forced to eat French toast made out of asiago cheese bread. We aren’t escaping it elsewise.”
Virgil’s expression darkened and he nodded, turning towards Logan’s bedroom. Logan had grabbed nightclothes and an outfit for the morning before Virgil had gone to bed the night before (not that he’d actually changed into the nightclothes). He grabbed the outfit and changed quickly in the bathroom. Virgil was already waiting in the living room when he finished. He’d changed into one of Logan’s own hoodies that Logan had offered him the day before as he rarely wore it and blue jeans from an unknown source (they had appeared in the laundry one day and everyone refused to claim them) that were just a touch too large and thus held up by a belt.
Virgil raised an eyebrow at him without saying a word. Logan gestured with his head towards the front door, grabbing his keys and wallet off of the table near the entrance, careful not to let the keys hit each other and make noise.
He carefully unlocked and opened the door before gesturing for Virgil to go through. He went making less noise than Logan even thought was possible, but then again, his only experience with sneaking out of anywhere was with one or two of the loudest people that had ever existed.
“Where exactly are we going?” Virgil asked once the door was closed behind Logan.
“We’re going to go get coffee,” Logan said.
“And we can’t just tell your roommates about that?” Virgil asked.
“I am not allowed anything more caffeinated than tea since the incident of 2011.”
“Do I want to know?” Virgil asked, lips quirked up into a half smile.
Logan hummed. “Did you notice the hamster cage in our apartment?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“I was sleep deprived and accidently invented a device that turns things invisible,” Logan told him. “It’s temporary on plants and inanimate objects, but it’s seemingly permanent on animals or perhaps just rodents. We haven’t tested it on any other animals.”
“What the actual hell, Lo?”
“To be fair, I thought I was making the rocks and flowers I’d tested it on time travel a few seconds.”
“How do you accidently invent an invisibility ray or whatever while trying to invent time travel?”
“It’s a spray, and I missed a negative sign.” Logan told him. They’d been walking side by side but needed to make a sharp left turn to get to their destination and Logan found himself grabbing Virgil’s upper arm in order to guide him.
“Uh,” Virgil said which is when Logan realized it might be odd for a practical stranger to grab someone like that. “Er, where is the coffee shop?”
It’s just a couple of blocks north,” Logan answered, letting him go after he finished the turn and flashing him a small smile. Virgil smiled back. “It’s a smaller place, but gets fewer actual college students, not that it matters since it’s summer break for them.”
“So, do you frequently perform coffee acquiring heists?” Virgil asked.
“Sometimes I drink tea there,” Logan replied, “but yes. How else am I meant to get my work done?”
Virgil laughed. “That’s probably not healthy. I don’t disagree, but it’s probably not healthy.”
Logan found himself chuckling as well as he led him down the path to the shop.
Chapter 45
Logan did end up ordering himself more caffeine than a man who was banded from caffeine probably should have, but honestly, who was Virgil to judge. They also ordered pastries to eat for breakfast which Virgil could already tell were way too sweet, but he wasn’t complaining.
Logan got a text from one of his roommates as they were waiting for their drinks to be finished. He probably didn’t notice the fond smile he sent the phone as he answered.
“I told them I’m showing you the town a bit,” he informed Virgil. “Which isn’t technically a lie.”
“Not, technically, no,” Virgil replied. He took a bite of the cinnamon roll in front of him and grimaced slightly. “Your time has a thing for artificial sweeteners,” he said, keeping his voice down. They were in a far back corner and it wasn’t busy at this hour, so he didn’t see too much of an issue.
“Apologizes, would you like something else?” Logan asked.
Virgil waved him off. “I’ll acclimate. If I could get used to 1950s post war, society is getting used to instant gelatin, recipes during my post-doc, I can figure out how to stomach an overly sweet pastry or two.
“You spent time in the 1950s?”
“Mmm, not my favorite, but seeing the direct results of World War II are important.”
“In the United States?”
“For a bit, but I hopped around a lot and also went to the 60s and 70s. I was basically tracing the evolution of different social issues in the wake of World War II for both the Axis and Allied Powers.”
“An interesting topic,” Logan replied. “I imagine even in the 21st century, I would not have perspective especially on different countries.”
“Oh, you definitely don’t,” Virgil confirmed.
“Perhaps I’ll take a look at your work sometime.”
“Oh, uh,” Virgil said, and he really shouldn’t be flustered about that. He’s gone to conferences and presented his work before. “Yeah, if you want.”
The barista called their drink names then, and Logan got up to go grab them. Get it together, Virgil, he begged himself while shoving another piece of too sweet pastry into his mouth.
Logan set the coffees down on the table in front of them and Virgil took his with a closed mouth smile of thanks, while still chewing on his cinnamon roll.
“So,” Logan began. “More than just escaping the disaster breakfast my roommates had in mind, I would like to perhaps return to the location you arrived at and see if there is anything there physically that wasn’t picked up on my devices. Do you think you’ll be able to find the location if I get you in the general vicinity of the farmer’s market?”
“I don’t always have the best memory,” Virgil said, “but I’ve had a deep-seated fear of being kidnapped since I was a small child, so I could probably lead you to the farmers market, let alone to where I came from.
“Ah.”
“My mom let me watch a horror movie when I was too young about a boy my age being kidnapped and taken out to the middle of the desert to be hunted like an animal, and he had no idea how to get back home. So, then I would spend any ride in any vehicle trying to memorize the path we took with my eyes closed.”
“I see.”
“And I’m really oversharing for having met you in person less than 24 hours ago, aren’t I?”
Logan crinkled his eyebrows. “Are you?” he asked.
“Uh, yeah, I think so,” Virgil said. “Traumatic childhood memories might be a bit much this soon.”
“I have never been the best at knowing social norms,” Logan said. “Would you like me to share a traumatic childhood memory with you, so we are even?”
“I…” Virgil said. “Can’t tell if you’re joking.”
“I am a bit,” Logan said with a small smile, “but if it would make you feel more comfortable, I am willing. We might not have known each other in person for very long, but we aren’t exactly strangers.”
And that was true. Lo had been emailing him for months at this point. They’d argued about the correct order to watch a television show in, they’d watched videos together with Lo logging onto his desktop (promising not to dive into his search history and private files), and Lo had somehow attended all of his publicly streamed lectures without getting caught by the university’s firewall. He’d even managed to make Virgil feel better when he’d had one of his bad days by ranting for hours about airplanes.
He hadn’t known Logan’s face for long, but they did know each other pretty well in spite of that.
“I got distracted on a fieldtrip once,” Logan said, and oops, Virgil had taken too long to say ‘you don’t have to be emotionally vulnerable in a coffee shop to make me feel better’ and now it was too late.
“Somehow, despite the fact that my teacher really should have been taking attendance before allowing the bus to leave the orchard we were visiting, they managed to overlook my absence. I had no friends in the class, and I was so quiet at that age no one noticed me not being there. I couldn’t find my way back to the entrance or find any workers. No one was aware I was gone until my parents came to pick me up and no one could find me. My parents were very unhappy with the teacher once they managed to find me.”
“That experience along with others in my formative years gave me a dislike of being ignored, which combined with my innate desire to have time alone has made friendships difficult to sustain.”
“Oh,” Virgil said, unsure how to respond. “Er, well, that sucks.”
“Luckily Patton is hyperempathetic and Roman cannot be removed from a person he deems his friend with a crowbar,” he said, “which helped me at a younger age. As an adult, I am aware of the issue and am able to work through it with logic most of the time.”
“What do you think about someone who is so anxious he can’t ignore anything, especially a person?”
“I think that would be someone worth knowing,” Logan said. He paused. “Though I would not wish social anxiety onto a person to be clear.”
“Thanks for the clarification,” said Virgil, amused.
They lapsed into silence for a few minutes then. It was still a bit awkward but not completely uncomfortable.
Logan took a bite of his pastry and spoke once he’d swallowed it. “Tell me more about what your plans were with your research before they were disrupted,” he requested, breaking the silence. “Why 2005 in particular? What had you planned to do? How long were you going to stay?”
Virgil smiled and drank his coffee as he did a short rundown of what his plans had been before they were interrupted by time travel. Logan listened careful and even though it sucked that he’d been stranded in a time he hadn’t even meant to visit, he wasn’t all too upset about it for the moment.
Chapter 46
Virgil was correct about his ability to find the location of the farmer’s market. After they ate and finished their coffee, they set out to investigate the location of the time anomaly. “I ended up under the stage,” Virgil informed him. The stage had already been taken down, but it was easy to see where it had once been based on the depressions on the ground.
Logan had brought a few of his tools when they had left that morning and he pulled out a modified iPad.
“You hide your time travel tech as an iPad?” Virgil asked curiously.
Logan glanced at him and said nothing.
“…You made your time travel tech out of an iPad!” Virgil exclaimed.
“It is one of the most easily accessible technologies of this time that is also portable,” Logan shrugged. “I use what I can get.”
“How did you manage to invent time travel with 21st century technology?” Virgil asked.
“It took me a couple of decades,” Logan replied.
“It took them literal centuries.”
“Well, I knew it could happen, so I simply made it happen.”
“You’re terrifying,” Virgil stated.
Logan just hummed and set the iPad scrolling through its diagnostic programs. It scanned the area around them for anything that might indicate time travel.
“Well,” Logan said. “There is definitely an anomaly, but we already knew that. It’s a strange one, however.”
“What do you mean?” Virgil asked.
“I’d assumed whatever had caused you to end up here had dragged you here, but what I’m finding doesn’t seem to be remnants of something to cause time travel. On the contrary, it seems to be similar readings to what stopped Janus time travel to stop working in previous circumstances. I don’t know a lot about the time travel technology from your time, but I have noted they tend to briefly ping off of times near to your destination in order to recalibrate when going a certain amount of time. Perhaps your device did a brief landing here at the wrong time and then was deactivated much like TPI devices have been deactivated beforehand and you got stuck.”
“What does that mean for me?”
“Well, it means your device isn’t broken,” Logan said.
“Then why isn’t it working?” Virgil asked.
“Because,” Logan said. “whatever is deactivating it is still here.”
Virgil looked at his feet as though expecting to see the device sitting on the ground somewhere.
“Not here here,” Logan clarified, “but close by. They have a limited range from what I understand, though I don’t know precisely how far. It’s definitely in this time however. But it’s strange,” Logan tapped out a few things on his device, double checking that he hadn’t missed anything with his regular monitoring.
“It’s not causing any other problems.” Logan continued. “We’ve only ran into them once or twice before and we’ve never managed to get our hands on one too actually study it, but each time we’ve seen them, they created some sort of issue in the environment, but there are no obvious time abnormalities or weather problems. In fact, if I wasn’t looking for it, I wouldn’t have noticed.”
“Okay, well then, can’t we just find it and shut it off?” Virgil asked. “That’s what I know Janus did when he ran into them.”
“It is,” Logan confirmed. “The only issue is without the obvious environmental clues I have no idea where it actually is to turn it off.”
“How the hell do we find it then?” Virgil asked.
“I’m not sure,” Logan said. “It definitely was here when it switched on, but it’s definitely not here anymore.” He looked around. “Perhaps it was attached to the stage or put in the musician’s instrument cases. Then again, by that logic, it could have been put in anyone’s bags or in a since emptied trashcan.”
“So, it could basically be anywhere?”
“Basically,” Logan agreed. “We will check the easiest possibilities to track down and if that produces no results, I’ll… figure out something.”
Virgil grimaced. “That sounds promising.”
“I will do my best,” Logan promised. “I just wish I knew more about these things.”
Virgil seemed to hesitate. “How would you go about learning more about it?”
“Well,” Logan said, “if I can get my hands on a similar device, I could probably figure out a more reliable way to track it.”
“You do,” Virgil said.
“I do what?”
“You do have one.”
Logan frowned. “I assure you, I do not.”
“But you do,” Virgil said. “Eventually.”
“…Oh, I see.” Logan replied. “Do you perhaps know where we do eventually find it?”
Virgil pressed his lips together. “I think I might already be saying too much,” he said. “It’s stuff you shouldn’t know about yet in your personal future. People aren’t supposed to…”
“Time is not nearly as sensitive as the TPI seems to believe,” Logan said with an eyeroll. “In fact, most of Janus and Patton’s interactions so far involve accidently giving more information than necessary.”
“I don’t know…”
“I’m a time traveler from the 21st century who lives with a French man from the 1800s,” Logan said. “I’m not asking for a run down of every part of the event, just a time and place to point us in the correct direction.”
Virgil still didn’t seem convinced.
“It would really only be a time saver,” Logan argued. “I could just blindly look for time distortions, but it’d take a while…”
“Fine,” Virgil said after a moment. “This is probably entirely stupid, but fine. Give me a moment to think about what exactly I can tell you, so I don’t mess everything up.”
Logan smiled slightly at his overly cautious behavior but waited patiently.
“Janus met Pat once in Cuba. There was a time distortion during Camaguey Carnival of 1755. Pat took the device that had been causing the disturbance and left before Janus could catch him.”
“Camaguey 1755,” Logan repeated. “Got it. I’ll look into it, and we can see what we can do. It’ll still take a few days to prep however.”
Logan would need to find exact coordinates and he’d have to talk to Patton considering he’d just recently gotten back from an unwillingly long trip to pre-history. He’d probably be willing to go, but he’d mentioned Logan making him a “time survival pack” before he was willing to go back into the timestream. They’d need to talk about what exactly that entailed and get the supplies for it. His mind was already making plans about what he needed to do.
Virgil nodded. “Should we head back to the apartment then?” he asked, interrupting Logan’s thoughts. Logan glanced at him. He had actually planned to show the man around a bit today instead of spending all of their time thinking about time travel.
“I cannot be sure that my roommates will have cleaned up their French toast nonsense by now,” he said. “We should likely wait to return until at least the lunch hour. It is not as though we could do anything about it today. We will need to plan.”
“Okay,” said Virgil, “then what are we going to do for the next 3-4 hours?”
“Well,” Logan said. “Perhaps I can show you around the town a bit more so as to not make more of a liar of myself than I already have.”
“Sure,” Virgil agreed with a smile. “What will you be showing me.”
“I was thinking we could visit the local museum. We can compare notes about how wildly inaccurate the exhibits present history.”
Virgil rolled his eyes at Logan, but there was something warm underneath his expression. “Fine,” he said, “but I bet I know more than you.”
Chapter 47
The museum was interesting, not because it taught him any more about the events behind the exhibits on display, but more that learning what people in the 21st century cared about and how they presented past events was an anthropological lesson in its own right. Their conversation became a game of not only finding the mistakes made in the exhibits, but also Virgil hypothesizing why those mistakes were made: prejudice, missing information, and unreliable secondary sources all contributed, and Virgil spent a lot of time talking through the possibilities.
They spent a few hours there before heading back to Logan’s apartment.
Not without stopping at a small, hole in the wall, bar inhabited only by day drinkers. When Virgil gave Logan a weird look, he explained, “I have to bring back a peace offering for running off this morning if I want Patton to agree to a time travel mission for me.”
“…And Patton likes… vodka?” he guessed.
“No,” Logan replied, amused. “This establishment serves cheeseburgers which are apparently the ‘best in the city.’ They do not, however, cook anything else. Not even fries.”
When Logan handed him an unlabeled brown paper bag that looked as though it had been dipped in hot oil instead of just it’s contents, Virgil shot him a raised eyebrow. “Ah, yes,” he said, “the quintessential 21st century American meal.”
“You once ate only bagged pepperoni meant for pizzas for breakfast for a week once.”
“I told you that in confidence,” Virgil said, smacking him lightly with the bag of grease.
“And I have told no one,” Logan responded. “Therefore, I have not violated any part of our agreement.”
“You’re making fun of me. That’s definitely a part of the agreement,” Virgil said.
“I don’t remember there being any clause like that in our verbal contract,” Logan replied with a slight smirk. Virgil rolled his eyes. “Besides, I’m not truly making fun of you. The decision to fuel your body solely with pepperoni is, while not the best strategy and one that would certainly prove detrimental in the long run, it is better to eat that then nothing.”
“Oh,” Virgil said. “Uh, good.”
“I’m simply citing another example where not as healthy food in the long term can be good in the short term.”
“But in this case instead of depression eating to stay alive, the purpose is bribery.”
“Exactly,” Logan said. “Bribery to end the time distortion and get you back to the proper time.”
“Alright, fair enough.”
“You don’t have to eat any if you don’t want to.”
“Oh, no, I’m going to.”
“Then why are you complaining?” Logan asked amused.
“I just thought you should know your time has way too greasy food,” Virgil said.
“Thank you for the information,” Logan said dryly. They’d made it back to the apartment by then, and Logan stuffed the bag he was carrying under his arm to unlock the door.
“And where have the two of you been?” Patton asked when they walked into the kitchen.
“I have cheeseburgers for you,” was how Logan answered.
Patton rolled his eyes as Logan set the bag down in front of him. He was sitting at the kitchen table typing on a laptop. “The French toast wasn’t that bad,” he said.
“I will take your word for it,” Logan said pleasantly.
Patton just shook his head and reached into the bag for a cheeseburger. Logan kept looking at him, and that obviously meant something Virgil didn’t know, because Patton glanced up at him after eating a couple of bites. “What?” he asked suspiciously.
“Virgil and I went back to where he arrived,” Logan said. “There are signs that one of the devices that cause time distortions is present.”
“There aren’t any weather disturbances though,” Patton pointed out.
“It seems to be a more advanced version,” Logan answered. “Which will make much more difficult to track.”
“Okay,” Patton said, “then what are we going to do?”
“Well,” Logan said, “if we could get our hands on an older version, we could probably use it to narrow down the current one’s location.”
“And how exactly are we going to get an older version?” Patton asked, eyebrow raised.
“I understand that you have only been back from your last trip for a little over a week and that your last trip through time was a bit difficult, but,” he nodded towards Virgil, “we do know of the time and place one exists that you would have a good chance of being able to find, deactivate, and bring home.”
Patton groaned. “And judging by the source of this information, steal off of the TPI.”
“Yes.”
“Excellent.”
“At least, in this case, you will go into it knowing there will be no major disasters.”
…
Should Virgil… say something. It’d be rude not to mention the whole time shredding almost drowning bullshit, wouldn’t it? Then again… giving him foreknowledge could be a danger to the timestream. He debated with himself whether general social courtesy should outrank the possible destruction of time or not.
…
Maybe he’d just suggest a boat if they didn’t plan to take one? Just in case?
“Fine,” Patton said, “but you’re finishing your tech updates and making me a survival pack before I make any jump. I’m not making the same mistake again.”
Logan nodded. “I can do that,” he agreed. “Just tell me what you want in your survival pack.”
“I’ve already been working on a list,” Patton said. “I’ll email it to you.” He turned back to the computer he’d been working on and typed a few things. “You can add to it if you think of anything.”
Logan looked at his phone as it dinged. “…Do you really need all of this?”
“Yes,” Patton said, taking another bite of his cheeseburger.
“…I’ll do my best?”
“You’ll do it,” Patton returned.
“Right.”
“I’ll start researching Cuba in the 1700’s,” he said.
Virgil saw him pull up google on his computer. He looked at the 21st century computer and then back to Patton. He couldn’t help but think of the museum he and Logan had been to earlier that day. “Do you want help?”
Chapter 48
It took a little over two weeks to get everything set up. Logan had already been in the process of updating their equipment for quite some time, and this situation only spurned him on. He also then had to figure out a way to meet all of Patton’s demands for his new survival kit. His list had already been quite long before he’d started to add to it. He’d even slipped in a request for a boat at some point despite Logan’s protests that Camaguey Cuba was nowhere near the sea.
Thankfully, Virgil didn’t seem to mind the delays too much.
In fact, he may have had a hand in the delays as his natural inclination towards anxiety seemed to infect Patton and cause him to add and add to his list of safeguards for Logan to make. He and Patton were spending a good amount of time together, actually. Patton was fairly good at researching the places he planned to go at this point, but Virgil was undeniably more experienced with that sort of thing considering he worked with the TPI. Patton seemed to appreciate his input.
Roman, on the other hand, decidedly did not. The two of them were prone to arguments about clothing which had gone beyond talking about Cuban clothing to arguments about clothing from pretty much all of time.
Logan could not tell if they were friendly debates or not. He’d even asked Patton who had claimed he also could not tell. Neither Roman nor Virgil’s responses when asked directly about the nature of their relationship were helpful either. Logan did notice that Roman changed the fabric of the outfit he made for Patton after one of their conversations.
Virgil was not much help to Logan unless you counted the intel, he’d given that helped Logan choose the correct time and place. At least, not in the sense that he was able to help with the mathematics and physics Logan was dealing with.
He was, however, good for company. Especially as his sleep schedule much more closely resembled Logan’s own in those weeks. Typically Roman and Patton went to sleep at a much earlier hour than he did himself and Logan would work alone in the living room, but with Virgil living in the apartment, there was constant companionship while he worked, and less volatile company than he was used to working with (assuming, of course, Roman had gone to sleep by that time). It was nice.
He seemed to fit into their little group in a way Logan had not anticipated. Or at least, socially he did. Physically, there were simply not enough beds and Logan had been sleeping on the couch for two weeks.
Eventually, with all of their combined efforts, everything was ready to go. Patton had three different time appropriate outfits, a good amount of knowledge about the festivities he was about to attend, new time travel equipment, and a survival pack that could help him survive an apocalypse. Patton was planning to arrive in Cuba two days earlier than the TPI protocol would send agents like Janus. That way, he would have time to set up and get acclimated before the TPI sent in their surveillance and touchdown agents.
“This is cool,” Patton said, flexing his fingers to see the hidden screen on his palms light up with a map of the area.
“It’s organized the same as your previous device, except for, of course, the control panel to control the cloaking technology and the access to the survival kit.
“Looks great, Lo,” Patton said, still fiddling with it. He changed it to its default state of a metal band projecting the screen and then back to the time appropriate bracelet Roman had designed. There weren’t many possibilities programed for hiding the device yet, but more could be designed in the future. For now, it only had the default band, the bracelet, and a wristwatch.
“I’ve already tested it a good number of times, but you should familiarize yourself with it anyway before leaving.”
Patton nodded, flicked his fingers and disappeared for a moment before reappearing in the same place. Then, he did it again and reappeared directly next to where he’d been standing. He did similar things a few times before predictably getting bored and starting to do ‘tricks’ which mostly involved landing in ridiculous poses and also accidently jump scaring everyone in the apartment at least twice. Eventually, Logan confiscated it for the evening so they could have dinner in peace.
Patton went to bed early, planning on leaving the next day. Roman quickly retired to his room shortly after leaving Logan and Virgil alone in the living room.
Despite knowing already his calculations were perfect, Logan still sat on the couch checking over them one more time just to make sure. Virgil sat on the floor with his back against the couch watching videos on Logan’s cell phone with headphones borrowed from Patton’s collection.
He glanced up when Logan shifted positions and Logan flashed him a smile.
Virgil removed the headphones to speak. “Thanks by the way,” he said, “I already said it to Patton and will again in the morning, but thanks for helping me out with all of this.”
“It wouldn’t have been particularly kind of us to leave you stranded,” Logan pointed out.
“Yeah, but still, you’ve all been working really hard. Right now you’re up at 3am working on it.”
Logan shrugged. “I’d likely be up working at 3am on something anyway,” he said.
“Sure,” Virgil said, “but this time it’s for me so, yeah, thanks.”
“You’re welcome then,” Logan said. “Any time.”
Virgil tilted his head back to grin at him. “Was that a time travel pun.”
Logan scowled. “No.”
“It sounded like a time travel pun.”
“It was not intentional. I will never intentionally say a pun.”
“You’re telling me you live with Patton and never make puns?” Virgil asked.
“I, unlike my roommates, am a responsible adult,” Logan insisted.
Virgil seemed skeptical. “Is that why you’re drinking forbidden coffee out of an orange juice carton at 3am.”
“Not so loud,” he hissed, leaning forward to put Virgil’s mouth and glancing back towards the hallway to see if anyone was about to come storming into the living room with another intervention.
His hand was bit.
“Ow!” Logan exclaimed, taking his hand back. “How do you know?” he hissed. The ruse had been working on Roman and Patton for years because neither liked orange juice.
Virgil rolled his eyes. “I can smell it,” he said. “I’m not dumb.”
“It’s worked on everyone else.”
“No,” Virgil said. “It’s worked on one dramatic idiot and one man who trusts people not to lie to him way too much. I, however, am a paranoid asshole with a doctorate. You can’t fool me.”
Logan couldn’t help but smiled. “I suppose I have met my match,” he said.
He tilted his head all the way back, so his skull rested on the couch cushion and he was staring straight up at Logan with his piercing hazel eyes. “Heck yeah you have,” Virgil said, and Logan was not much more sentimentality, especially not romantic sentimentality, but there was something about the shadows making the room seem cozier and the almost golden glint in his eyes from the lit lamp beside Logan that made it more difficult to breath.
68261
He was relaxed here in Logan’s apartment at 3 in the morning, looking up at him with warm eyes. He fit, slotting into place with an ease Logan had not expect. He’d found Professor Virgil Eran interesting from the moment he’d first heard him speak and had glanced through his university profile for information on whoever had plugged his virus into their computer. He had found him endearing when they’d corresponded through emails and occasionally one sided video chats. It was different with him right in front of Logan, within arm’s reach. He could reach down barely a few inches and brush his slightly unruly hair out of his eyes.
“You good man?” Virgil asked.
“I am perfectly well,” Logan said, clearing his throat. He glanced away from Virgil. “I think perhaps my roommates have a bit of a point when it comes to caffeine.”
“Maybe at 3am,” Virgil said in good humor. “You’re not a college kid.”
Logan glanced at the college professor on his living room floor. “Well, thank goodness for that,” he mumbled
“I think your calculations are fine anyway,” Virgil said, gently taking the papers out of his grip. “Why don’t we do something else?”
“Like sleep?” Logan asked.
“You think you’ll be sleeping anytime soon?” Virgil inquired with a raised eyebrow.
“Fair point.”
Virgil grabbed the television remote from side table. “Why don’t we watch a bit of that time inappropriate copy of the Epithet File I know you have.”
“Sure,” Logan agreed. “You can come onto the couch if you would like.”
“Nah. You can come to the floor.”
“…Fine.”
Chapter 49
Patton left in the morning and from there it was just a waiting game. Which, was Virgil’s least favorite type of game. He tried to keep his anxiety on the down low considering it was Logan and Roman’s lifelong friend who was running around some other century, and they were both obviously nervous as well, since the last trip had ended in disaster.
…
This trip was going to end in disaster a little bit too, but Virgil was going to ignore that. At least he wouldn’t be gone for months.
The point was, Roman was constantly going to the gym which was, reportedly not normal behavior and Logan spent his days re-checking calculations that were too late to correct and had worked considering Patton had been in contact occasionally.
Yet, despite the fact that he was clearly an anxious wreck as well, Logan eventually forced himself to put his lined notebook paper away for a bit. Roman was out once again when he did so and Virgil was doom scrolling on his phone.
“We should go out to dinner,” he declared suddenly.
Virgil glanced at the pile of take-out containers stacked near the kitchen trashcan. “Sure,” he agreed.
Which was why Virgil was leaving the apartment for the first time in the last three or so days. Logan had asked him if he wanted anything in particular, but he didn’t care and also didn’t know what restaurants were around, so he was just letting Logan lead him wherever he wanted.
He should not have trusted him.
He glared at Logan, but the man only seemed entertained by his ire. “Really?” Virgil asked.
“I wanted to see for myself if you were really that bad with chopsticks.”
“I’m not,” Virgil said, crossing his arms. “It was just the anxiety about the social situation, and I resent this.”
Logan just laughed, knowing well enough that Virgil wasn’t actually irritated. Honestly, he felt fonder than anything that Logan had chosen to take him here. “It’s actually pretty good sushi.”
“21st century American Midwest sushi,” Virgil drawled. “I’m simply quivering with anticipation for that authenticity.”
“It’s unanimously considered the best sushi in town by my friend group,” Logan said as if the fact that Mr. Asiago Cheese Bread For French Toast and Mr. Went Along With Cooking Asiago Cheese Bread French Toast approved of the restaurant would inspire any confidence in Virgil. If he could even call the place a ‘restaurant.’
“It’s. In. A. Mall.”
“So?” Logan asked.
“It’s a sushi stand in a mall. There isn’t even seating.”
“There is seating,” Logan argued nodding at the five chairs sitting in front of the counter. The seating was completely empty which could be because their eating schedule was off and they were eating dinner at 3pm, but more likely meant everyone else in the time had more sense than the man in front of him.
“Where is your sense of adventure for trying new things?” Logan asked. “Are you not an anthropologist. Don’t you want to experience the culture of the time first hand.”
Virgil glared at him.
“Please try it,” Logan said sill amused. “It really is good.”
“If I get food poisoning, I’m blaming you,” he warned.
“Noted,” Logan said, inclining his head. Then, Virgil reluctantly allowed him to lead him over to the sushi stand from where they’d been hiding behind a trash can so as not to be in the direct line of sight of the man standing behind the counter.
The man greeted them as they approached. He obviously recognized Logan and even asked about Patton and Roman as they took a seat. Virgil did have to admit, despite his instinctual misgivings about mall sushi, what he could glimpse of his set up seemed legit. It looked like a real sushi bar if a bit smaller than usual. Where they had sat, there was a glass case in front of them with chilled fish on display and Virgil could see a large rice cooker behind the man along with a normal refrigerator.
Laminated menus were handed to them. They were only one page front and back, but honestly that was probably a good thing. If it had a bunch of complicated or fancy stuff, Virgil might have been worried.
Well, he was still worried, but he wasn’t running screaming. At least his setup looked like it probably wouldn’t give him too much food poisoning. Logan suggested a rainbow and a snake roll and they got some different types of nigiri.
The chef was nice, and he assembled the sushi fully in Virgil’s view which made him a whole lot less leery about the meal. He seemed to know what he was doing at least. Of course, the fish was not as fresh as it would have been in a coastal area, but it was clearly properly handled. When he was finished, he handed it to them all on one big plate.
He had to admit, when correcting for ingredient availability, it was actually pretty good sushi. He would not say it was the best sushi he’d ever had, but it was worlds better than he’d expected. Logan could obviously tell what his opinion was and was overly smug about it.
“Yeah, yeah,” Virgil said when they were finished. “You’re good at picking restaurants.”
“I’m sure you are also when in a place you are familiar with.”
“I’m not actually,” Virgil said with a laugh. “I always panic choose the worst option.”
“Well, I tend to be quite decisive about such things,” Logan said. “I guess we make a good match.”
“Yeah,” Virgil said. “Uh, what are we going to do when we get home? Because sitting there drowning in anxiety like we have been for the past couple of days isn’t the greatest.”
“Do you have anything in mind?”
“You guys have Blockbuster still?”
“No,” Logan said. He paused. “We do have a Family Video store I think.”
“Is it close? Let’s go there.”
“And why are we not just using a streaming service?” Logan asked. “Or using my… library of movies.”
Virgil shrugged. “It’s the charm of it,” he said.
“The charm of a business already made obsolete and on the brink of collapse?”
“Exactly,” said Virgil with a smile.
“Very well,” Logan said. “If that is what you’d like to do I will look up its location on my phone.”
They were in a building that would look abandoned if there wasn’t a light on inside within 15 minutes. The video rental store had clearly seen better days. Its carpet’s pattern was clearly from another decade and had been trampled over so often it was basically like walking on the linoleum beneath. There was a door on the sign asking patrons to close it behind them because the spring used to close it had long since ceased working.
There was only one person working, a guy in his 30s who glanced at them briefly and then went back to looking at his phone. Ah, yes, Virgil’s favorite type of employee.
“What movie would you like to watch?” Logan asked. He glanced at one small, but still surprisingly present section filled with DVDs.
“I don’t know,” Virgil said. “Isn’t that the point? Stop by a movie rental place on a Friday night, grab a more than likely crappy movie and some Milk Duds and proceed to sit and watch the stupid thing anyway because you already paid for it.”
“Virgil, I grew up in the 90s. This isn’t exactly exciting for me. There is a reason streaming sites took over the market,” Logan replied. “Also, it is Tuesday.”
Virgil rolled his eyes. “Just panic choose a movie with me, nerd.”
“Great!” Virgil dragged him off in the direction of the movies that started with ‘S’.
“This is just… gross,” Virgil said a little under an hour and a half later and about an hour into the film.”
“It is a random romantic comedy from 2002,” Logan responded. “What did you expect?”
“Yeah, but there’s weird sex jokes and actors that are probably from Mars and then there’s actual on screen physical abuse between the romantic couple.”
“I will concede that point,” Logan said, “but I will remind that this could have all been avoided if you had allowed me to do proper investigation of the movie choices before renting it.”
“Ugh, yeah, yeah,” Vigil replied, leaning back to stare at the ceiling. “Just turn it off.”
Logan complied, reaching over to eject the DVD from his computer. The three roommates didn’t actually have a DVD player connected to their TV, so they’d chosen to use the desktop computer in Logan’s room.
Virgil was laying on Logan’s bed with Logan sat propped up against the headboard. Logan leaned over to peer down at him. “Thanks for helping distract me,” he said. “Despite the fact that we now know more about what we’re doing, I still get worried about sending Patton through time. His last time travel experience didn’t improve my confidence. I have been… rather nervous.”
“Well, I’m glad I could help, at least a little,” Virgil replied.
“You did,” Logan replied. “A lot.” His hand reached down to touch pat his shoulder, but then lingered there for a moment too long.
Virgil sat up suddenly and Logan had to jerk back to keep their heads from colliding. “I…” Virgil choked out once he was sitting up. “Um…”
Logan’s mouth curled into a half smile. He offered a hand and Virgil took it.
Virgil glanced at the hand. “I, uh, I am an anthropologist.”
“I am aware,” Logan said with a raised eyebrow.
“And, uh, you were born in this time, so technically I’m studying you…”
“I’m a time traveler, Virgil,” he said amused. “I doubt I am a pure specimen for any studies you may be doing.”
“Right,” Virgil said. “That’s a good point. You’re right.”
70210
There was a pause. “So then,” Virgil said. “No moral quandaries. Just two people sharing a bed and watching a romance movie.”
“It was a bad one.”
“It really, really was,” Virgil said with a grin and then Logan was leaning forward and Virgil’s hand was on Logan’s shoulder.
And then the door was flinging open. “I’m home!” Roman declared as Virgil scrambled back, banging his head on the bed’s headboard.
“Fuck,” Virgil hissed.
“Roman! You need to knock!”
“Since when?” Roman asked, plopping down on Logan’s bed between them.
“Since we have a guest,” Logan said meaningfully. Virgil hid his reddening face in his hands, curling into as tight of a ball as he could.
“You were both in here, it’s not like one of you were naked,” Roman said flippantly. Virgil debated the merits of staying curled up in a ball for the rest of his life. There was a second of silence, and Virgil was glad he couldn’t see the expressions on their faces from his ball when Roman said, “Oh my god!”
Chapter 50
The breakfast table was silent the next morning. Though if one could call it a breakfast table when Logan was only drinking a cup of tea, Roman was chewing on a slice of unbuttered, untoasted bread, and Virgil was still either asleep or avoiding them both in Logan’s bedroom was debatable.
“…Look,” Roman said.
“We aren’t talking about it.”
“How was I supposed to know the two of you were getting it on?! Put a sock on the door next time or something. It’s common courtesy!”
“We weren’t having sex,” Logan hissed. Roman opened his mouth. “Shut up and learn to knock,” Logan said, pointing his spoon at him threateningly.
Yet, still, because it was Roman, the other man opened his mouth again. Luckily, before he could say anything else on the matter, there was a loud crack from the living room.
“I’m going to need a towel please!” Patton called.
“I’ve got it,” Roman said instantly, jumping to his feet, leaving Logan to walk to the living room.
“Why are you wet?” Logan asked immediately upon taking in the sight of his roommate. He was soaked, water dripping from his form like he’d just gotten out of a pool seconds before.
“There was an ocean in the church,” Patton said.
“What?” Logan asked.
Patton pushed his sopping wet hair out of his eyes. “The time distortions were a lot more intense than ones we’ve seen before,” he said. He held out a small innocuous appearing device whose only mechanism appeared to be a switch to him. “Be really careful with that. It’s unstable and we might have damaged it getting out.” Patton winced and removed his timepiece. “Actually, speaking of that. This might need a checkup too.”
“Were there issues with the tech?” Logan asked taking both devices in his hand.
“…No,” Patton said looking a bit sheepish. “We just… may have turned off all of the safety protocols.”
“Patton I just made this for you!” Logan said, horrified.
“And you did a really good job!” was Patton’s reply, “but we didn’t really want to drown in a church.”
Logan took a slow breath. “I’ll make sure it wasn’t damaged,” he said.
“Thanks, Lo!”
Roman entered the living room then, bright blue towel in hand. “I have returned bearing gifts!” he declared.
“My hero,” Patton said with a laugh, taking the towel and using it to wipe off his face and then start to dry his hair.
“So, an ocean in a church?” Logan asked.
Patton nodded. “I’ll have to thank Virgil for suggesting the inflatable raft.”
He paused as he finished running the towel through his hair and started to dab at his clothing. “I saw Remus,” he said.
Roman froze. “You did?”
“Uh huh,” Patton replied. “He was with Janus. I didn’t think I should say anything to him since that trip was way out of sync though, sorry.”
“Yeah, no, that make sense. That’s fine.” Roman hesitated. “How was he?”
“He seemed good,” Patton said. He flashed them a smile. “Happy. He’s quite the character actually. He and Janus seem like they’re good friends.”
“Oh,” Roman said. “That’s… that’s good.”
Patton’s face screwed up slightly. “He did flirt with me though, so that was weird.”
Roman took a moment to think about it before pulling a face that one would expect to see on a small child trying a lemon for the first time. “That’s disgusting! That’s like… that’s like my brother flirting with my brother. Gross!”
“It was… it was weird,” Patton said.
“What did he even say?” Roman asked.
“Mostly it was comments on my…” he made a motion with his head that apparently Roman could interpret.
“He talked about your butt!”
“…Well, he didn’t exactly use that word.”
“That sounds about like Remus,” Virgil said, poking his head into the hall.
“Oh, you’ve finally decided to join the land of the living, Emo?” Roman asked.
“Shut up,” both Logan and Virgil said at the same time.
Of course, he did not. “You know, Pat-pat, speaking of posteriors…”
“One more word out of you and I will actually kill you,” Virgil threatened.
“Um, what’s going on?” Patton asked.
“I’ll tell you later,” Roman promised.
“You will not,” Logan said. “Keep your gossiping tendencies under control.”
“Okay, but now I want to know,” Patton said with a pout.
“You go take a shower,” Logan ordered.
Patton shared a look with Roman that told Logan there was no way he wouldn’t have the whole story along with a good number of embellishments by the end of the night. Then he shrugged. “Yes, boss,” he said. Logan rolled his eyes as he turned towards the bathroom, the towel still on his shoulders. He was dry enough that he wasn’t dripping anymore, and he slipped off his waterlogged shoes and socks so he wouldn’t track water to the bathroom.
“Put that in the biohazard hamper,” Logan called after him.
“I know!” he called back.
“And you,” Logan said to Roman, “clean up all of the water he got on the carpet in the off chance there are any pathogens in it.”
“Why do I have to do it?!”
“Because you’ve annoyed me,” Logan said, “and I need to insure these two devices do not explode.”
“Ugh, fiiiine,” Roman said, dipping back into the hall.
Virgil glanced over at him, the picture of awkwardness. “Uh,” he said. “Hey.”
“Hi,” Logan said.
“…Are those things really at risk of exploding right now?” he asked.
Logan glanced at him. “Technically they are always at least slightly at risk of exploding, but admittedly the chance is further from 0 than I would like it to be at this point.”
“Great,” Virgil said. “One more thing to be anxious about.”
“You don’t need to be anxious about it, Virgil,” Logan said.
“Uh, I think I do need to be anxious about the maybe bomb in your hands.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“I know,” Virgil said with a sigh.
“We are two mutually consenting adults. There isn’t any shame to it.”
“Can we please talk about our very embarrassingly interrupted kiss after you’ve dealt with the explosives?”
“Very well,” Logan said. He walked to the other side of the room to grab a statis chamber from a cabinet drawer.
“What’s that?” Virgil asked as the cube shaped device popped up.
“It’s a stasis cube,” Logan said as he put the two devices in his hand into it and activated. “It will allow them to cool down completely from their earlier use in a safe environment. It will be less dangerous to work with them later.”
“If it just takes 5 seconds to deal with them, why are you making Roman clean up?” Virgil asked amused.
“Like I said,” Logan said. “He annoyed me. Speaking of,” he glanced into the hallway where Roman currently was. “How do you feel about leaving before he gets back to get coffee.”
Virgil smiled at him. “Sure,” he said. “Escape the apartment for coffee part two.”
Chapter 51
It took a few days after Patton got home for Logan to first make sure the timepiece and the distortion device were not at a risk of exploding and then to study the distortion device.
“It’s similar to what little we’ve seen of TPI technology,” Logan had mused, sitting on the couch while studying the information he’d managed to get off of it. “It’s definitely derived from the same technology unlike my time travel device, but it looks a bit different, and this version at least is rather shoddily made. Of course, creating disorder and almost ripping apart time is easier than seamlessly moving through it.”
“So, they’re probably from my time then?” Virgil asked.
“Most likely,” Logan agreed. “Though it could always be a Remus situation where they were from another time originally but accidently ended up in the TPI time. Either way, the origin of their purposeful time travel was certainly around your time.”
Virgil glanced at the device he’d set on the table in front of them all. It looked innocent sitting there, but it had the power to destroy so much, and they didn’t even know why. “Do you think whoever made this trapped me here on purpose?” Virgil asked.
“It would be a big coincidence if you in particular got trapped in this time in particular,” Roman said.
“I was thinking the same thing actually,” Logan said. “You do work with the TPI and with Janus, a time agent who both often is caught in the middle of devices similar to this being used and who runs into Patton frequently. Plus you know Remus, Roman’s brother even if we didn’t know that connection before you were trapped here and we already had a correspondence before you landed here. It would be strange for you to have ended up here on accident.”
“But why?” Virgil asked. “I am somehow connected to all of you, but I’m still not a time agent myself.”
“All I am to the TPI is a walking history book. I’m not actually involved.”
“Well,” Logan said. “Perhaps someone knows something we don’t.”
“Or maybe it’s just a happy accident!” Patton said. Virgil highly doubted that and it made anxiety churn in his gut.
“Well,” Logan said, “accident or not, we do now have a solution to the issue. I’ve managed to use this device to recalibrate my calculations and we’ve gotten a ping. I know where the signal blocking Virgil’s time device is coming from.”
“Where?” Roman asked.
“It looks like a local trash dump,” Logan replied. “It must have just ended up in a trashcan that day and was emptied before we checked.”
“Well, that should be easy enough to get,” Patton said. “Give Roman and I the exact coordinates and we can go and get it now.”
“Wait, why are we the only ones who have to dig through a garbage dump?” Roman asked.
Patton gave him a look.
“Oh,” Roman said, eyes lighting up. “Oh right!” Then, he scowled remembering he was going to be going through a garbage dump. “Fine,” he sighed.
“Think of it as an adventure!” Patton said.
“We’re time travelers. We have so many more exciting adventuring opportunities than dumpster diving, Pat-Pat,” he whined, but he still got up. “I’ll go get changed.”
Patton stood up and handed Logan his phone, so Logan could program the location of the distortion device into it while he changed as well. “We’ll text you when we’re heading back! I’ll give you a 15- and 5-minute warning,” Patton said with a wink. Virgil immediately hid his face in his hands.
“Do you think the TPI is hiring?” Logan asked as the door closed. “I’d love to move to a different century without those two.”
“Time agents don’t usually live in 4500s,” Virgil said, face still hidden behind his hands. “They’d probably still place you in this century, especially since you’re comfortable here.”
“No escaping them then,” Logan sighed.
“Mmm,” was Virgil’s response.
He felt Logan shift on the couch next to him and a warm palm touched his wrist, gently tugging his hand away from his face in a way that Virgil could resist if he really wanted. Virgil let the hand fall with a sigh. Logan smiled at him when he could see his face and Virgil smiled back despite how he could still feel heat in his cheeks.
“You will be going home this evening, I’d imagine,” Logan said.
“Yeah,” Virgil agreed softly.
“I would like to give you a gift before you go, if you’ll allow it.”
“Uh, okay,” Virgil agreed.
Logan nodded and leaned back to grab something out of the pocket of a jacket that was currently hanging over the side of the couch. “Ah,” he said when he found whatever he was looking for. He glanced at Virgil. “It is a ring, by the way, but this is not a proposal.”
“Well, I’d certainly hope not,” said Virgil dryly. “An impulse elopement would be a little off brand for us both.”
Logan smiled at him. “Very true,” he agreed. Then, he opened his palm revealing a small ring.
“So, then, what is it?” Virgil asked.
72530
“It is an emergency time travel device,” Logan explained. “It’s not particularly complex. It can only take you here to this room between 2 weeks and one year from now, but if you ever need something from me, you can use it.”
He offered the ring and Virgil opened his palm to let him put it in his hand. He studied the ring for a moment. It was a rose gold and very light.
“It also has some security measures,” Logan said. “It wouldn’t do to make an emergency time travel device that someone else might easily try to take from you. It’ll disappear when you put it on. You’ll still be able to feel it and take it off whenever you wish. It’ll become visible again if you take it off.”
“An invisible ring?” Virgil asked, curious.
“Yes,” Logan said with a smile. “It is designed to store your space time coordinates for up to 48 hours just so you’re aware, but as I said you can take it off whenever you wish and… I won’t use it against you.”
Virgil looked at him. “Okay,” he said. “Can I put it on?” Logan nodded, and Virgil slipped it on his finger. As promised it disappeared from view as soon as he did. He could still feel the weight of it on his finger though.
“You turn it three times counterclockwise to activate it,” Logan said, making Virgil look up from the seemingly empty space on his finger he’d been staring at.
“It would drop you right about where you are sitting.”
“Thanks,” Virgil said. It wasn’t nearly enough to say how much he appreciated the gift, but he hoped his tone said enough.
“Don’t use it against me?” Logan asked with a half-smile, and Virgil realized just how much trust was being put onto him by giving him a device that was directly linked to their base of operations despite knowing Virgil worked with the TPI.
Virgil shook his head. “I won’t,” he said. Deciding to throw out his nervousness and embarrassment over last time he shot forward to kiss Logan quickly on the lips. They bumped noses and Logan’s glasses ended up askew in the process, but Logan didn’t seem to mind judging by his delighted laugh when they parted.
“Thank you,” Virgil said again.
“Of course,” Logan replied.
Virgil could still feel the ring on his finger even after Patton and Roman got back from the dump with the device that had caused this whole mess. He could still feel it when Logan turned it off and his time piece reactivated. He could still feel it there when he made it home and gave an excuse as to why he’d left his trip early. He could still feel it when he got an email from an unknown sender making sure he got home okay.
Arc IV: (To Be Named)
Chapter 52
“What’s this?” Janus asked when a giant bowl was set on the coffee table in front of him.
“We’re eating on the couch tonight,” Emile said cheerfully.
Janus raised an eyebrow and switched off the tablet he’d been using to look at him. “Why?” he asked.
Emile shrugged and set a second huge bowl down next to Janus’s. “For fun,” Emile said. He turned back towards the kitchen and Janus leaned forward to look in the bowl. It was spaghetti with some sort of creamy sauce and a few different vegetables mixed in along with some shrimp.
“I made green tea,” Emile said, coming back into the room with two mugs.
“Thanks,” Janus said, taking one of the mugs with a small smile.
“What were you doing?” Emile asked as he took a seat beside Janus. He nodded at the deactivated screen now sitting on the end table.
“Just doing some puzzle games,” Janus said.
“That sounds fun,” Emile said with a smile.
“Head doctor said they might be a good thing to do to pass the time when I told him to fuck off after suggesting reading.”
Emile sighed. “Dr. Figueroa is my colleague. You could try to be polite.”
“I thought I was supposed to be my authentic self in therapy,” Janus replied.
Emile just huffed and rolled his eyes. Janus couldn’t help but smile as he picked up his mug of green tea.
The last few months had been…different. In a lot of ways, Janus’s life had become harder than it had been before. It had been easy to do nothing but eat pre-prepared meals, go to work, and pass out in his empty house every day. It wasn’t good for him. He’d known it even then, but it had been easy. This was not.
Emile had offered, insisted really, that Janus move into his house for a bit just to get back on his feet.
He’d taken time off of the TPI which would have been given to him anyway since he’d spent so trapped in the past. He’d had to give a report of what had happened, and he’d mentioned Patton, but he hadn’t mentioned everything. They’d offered him a shrink when he’d asked.
Janus had told Emile he needed to tell him something about why he’d been distant, so he wouldn’t end up chickening out, but he’d asked for a bit of time to figure out what to say. He’d finally worked up the courage to talk about it with Dr. Figueroa two weeks ago. Much like with Patton, it was easier to talk to someone who hadn’t been involved in Janus’s mistake, but it still wasn’t easy.
He was running up on the deadline he’d given for having that talk with him. It had to happen soon, and they both knew it, but Emile was just patiently waiting for him to suck it up. It felt… wrong to use his kindness without him knowing, but it was also nice to get to spend time with his brother. He didn’t even dare to hope that he’d still have the chance once he told him.
He was moving back into his own house in less than a week. He’d tell him then so if Emile ended up kicking him out of his life, he wouldn’t have to kick him out of his home too.
For now, though everything was fine. Harder, more complicated, and in threat of exploding at any moment, but fine. Fine wasn’t something he’d really felt in a long time. Or at least, fine while in his own time wasn’t something he’d felt in a long time. There’d been a few moments with Patton sitting next to the fire outside the hole in the ground they’d slept in for those few months where the man would turn to look at him and he’d felt fine. Yet, Patton had been right. Those moments were unsustainable with how Janus was actually feeling deep down.
“This is good,” Janus said, after taking a couple of bites of the pasta in front of him.
“Well, I always was the only one in the house that could cook,” Emile said, and that was true. “It was either learn to defend for myself or eat a cheeseburger for every meal.”
“Hey, I had a good burger seasoning.”
“Not for every meal, Janus.”
“Meat, dairy, bread. What more could you want?”
“Vegetables, Janus.”
“You could have put pickles on!”
“I don’t like pickles.”
“That sounds like your problem, not mine,” Janus argued.
Emile shook his head, turning his eyes to the ceiling. “How have you been surviving on your own?”
“Well, I mean,” Janus said. “Badly.”
“Right…” Emile said. He leaned over to bump their shoulders together. Janus flashed him a smile.
“Speaking of,” said Janus. “Could you physically force me to pack tonight? I meant to do it today and instead I ended up playing puzzles games.”
Emile chucked. “Sure, I’ll help you after dinner.”
“You don’t have to help me,” said Janus. “Just make me do it.”
“Maybe I want to help,” said Emile.
“Oh, yes, packing. The most entertaining of Thursday night activities.”
Emile hummed and then glanced at him. “Remember when you helped me pack for college?” he asked.
“Mmm, I do,” Janus replied.
“I was so stressed about going somewhere new,” Emile said, “that I avoided packing for weeks. Every time Mom would ask me how packing was going, I’d tell her it was going fine but in reality, I hadn’t even started. You’d come home two days before I had to leave because you were going to help me move into my dorm. It’s like you could sense no packing had been done the moment you stepped through the front door.”
“You were doing your ‘hiding the broken horse statue from mom’ shuffle,” Janus said with a smirk.
“Well, you walked me straight to my room and we packed everything up in those two days,” Emile said. “You made it so much easier.”
“Yeah, because I hovered over you until you did it and did half of it for you,” Janus snorted.
“It wasn’t just that,” Emile said. “You also found the music streaming station run by the university and put that on and talked about what your freshman year was like. You also had tips on what things I should and shouldn’t pack when moving into the dorm.”
“You still took all of the cartoon stuffed animals despite my advice.”
“I thought there’d be more space on the bed,” Emile frowned.
Janus snorted.
“But anyway, just having someone else around made me happier. It wasn’t just about the workload being halved either. You being there made me feel less lonely and reminded me I’d always have someone to come back to.”
Janus internally winced. He was sure Emile hadn’t meant to make him feel guilty in any way. In fact, he probably was trying to do the opposite, but him saying that just reminded Janus that it hadn’t been true. Janus had abandoned him for literal years and hadn’t been someone he could always come back to.
Emile had proven himself to be at least close to who he was before Janus messed with time the few last months. There were a couple of differences here and there, and Janus could not be sure if they were from him changing time or from him avoiding his brother for the past three years and him naturally changing. Most memories they shared that Janus cautiously brought up or Emile mentioned on his own were consistent with what Janus remembered, but he hadn’t pushed too hard or dug too deep. It just made him feel more guilty about avoiding the man for so long.
It made him want to ignore the man more, because it seemed every choice Janus ever made only hurt him.
…
Well, perhaps not the college radio station when helping an anxious 18-year-old pack up his childhood bedroom.
He should probably tell Emile that his words made him feel guilty because that was obviously not the intention and he’d want to know. He should probably apologize properly for leaving him alone for three years without an explanation. He should probably provide an explanation for those three years.
He should probably go see the head doctor again soon.
(He should probably stop calling Emile’s colleague who was in the same field as him a head doctor derogatorily in his head.)
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For now, he just glanced at Emile. “You’re trying to bully me into letting you help pack with logic, aren’t you?”
“I am,” Emile confirmed without remorse.
“Fine,” Janus sighed, “but only if you let me do the dishes for you.”
Emile took a long moment to consider the offer. “You drive a hard bargain,” he said, “but okay.”
“And no doing anything sneaky like getting bags ready for me on your own while I’m doing it or the deal is off,” Janus said.
“You always think of all possible loopholes, Janus,” Emile sighed.
There was a long silence.
“Agree, you prick,” said Janus.
“No promises,” Emile replied cheekily with laughter in his eyes, and things were good for a moment more.
Chapter 53
Today Janus was moving into his house in 24th century for the second time in his life, and honestly, the house wasn’t going to look much different than it had when he’d first moved in. Janus had unpacked his things more at Emile’s house in the past almost 6 months than he had in the two and a half years he’d liven in his house. His house held clothes, bare bone furniture, and exactly one skillet from when he’d decided to be daring and tried to cook himself an egg. All he’d really customized for himself was the setting on the LXC device which controlled the lights, media across the home, and prepackaged food ordering and prepare.
He almost felt embarrassed that his house was so empty. Emile, of course, knew that his mental health had been fucked, but the blankness of his house was a physical reminder of this fact especially considering how he used to keep house before all of this. He’d warned Emile about the fact that his house was empty, and he had said he understood, but still.
They gathered all of the luggage in a pile in Emile’s guest room. They’d had to get permissions from the TPI to allow Emile to travel to his house, and Janus went ahead and filed to give him permanent permission to travel there.
The decision felt far too hopeful for someone who hadn’t had that conversation with his brother yet, but it had made Emile smile in the moment.
Emile took three of the bags and Janus took the rest. He waved his arm and selected the third saved location on the device. In a moment, he was standing in the living room of his dark, empty house.
…
His supposed to be dark and empty house. More of the lights were on than Janus had ever switched on himself, and half of the windows were open. (He didn’t even know some of those windows opened.)
They were letting in the sounds of birds that made the lakeside their home as well as cool late fall breeze. There was also a racket coming from the kitchen. Emile was beside him a second after he himself had appeared. He looked around for a moment. “Did you leave it like this?”
“No,” Janus replied.
“Do you have squatters?” He had a security system from 2 millennia in the future on his house. He highly doubted it.
“I’m going to go check the kitchen,” Janus said, moving towards the noises coming from the other room.
He stopped in the doorway to his kitchen only to see Patton standing at his kitchen counter cutting up a carrot on a cutting board Janus didn’t think he owned, and if he did, it was buried in a box somewhere.
“What are you doing?” Janus asked.
“Cooking!” was the immediate reply.
“In my house?” Janus asked. “How do you even know where my house is?”
“I may be just a little bit ahead of you,” Patton said with a wink while tapping the side of his nose.
Janus sputtered. “This is my house!”
“I know!” He said it so cheerfully while being a purposefully obtuse asshole that Janus could help but crack a smile and shake his head. He’d missed him after spending so long alone with him though he wasn’t go to admit that to him when he’d broken into Janus’s house to…
“Again, what are you doing?”
“I’m making you soup.”
“Why?” Janus asked.
“Well,” Patton said. “I know it’s a bit of a rough time for you, so I thought I’d give you a nice welcome home present and what better present than food!” He smiled at him widely.
Janus looked closer at what he was making. “You’re trying to prove to me you can cook.” Patton frowned at him. “Have you considered I have had enough fish stew for a lifetime?”
“Nope!” he said. “It’s entirely different this time anyway. I have carrots!”
“I don’t like carrots,” Janus lied blandly.
“Liar!” Patton declared.
“No, I’m not,” Janus continued to lie.
“I mean, that was definitely a lie,” Emile interjected from behind Janus. He was looking at them curiously. “Er, hello, who are you?”
“This is Pat,” Janus said.
“The illegal time traveler you’ve been tracking?” Emile asked with a questioning lilt to his tone.
“Ah, yes, well,” Janus said with a cough. “We came to an understanding when stuck in pre-history.”
“And now he is cooking you soup in your house?” Emile asked.
“I’ve long since stopped trying to make sense of him,” Janus grumbled.
“Well,” Emile said. “Hello Pat.”
“You can call me Patton,” he said easily. “I hope it’s nice to meet me, because I’ve already met you.”
“We haven’t been meeting in the correct order,” Janus informed Emile. “So, he’s apparently already met you which will happen in your future. It is also something he shouldn’t be talking about,” he scolded. Patton took that with a shrug.
“I hate time travel,” Emile said, his nose scrunching up. “Isn’t life already confusing enough.”
Janus winced, not relishing the upcoming conversation with him about how confusing his life was now because of time travel.
“Don’t you work with the TPI too?” Patton asked.
“That doesn’t mean I like time travel,” Emile said. “I’m a stationary agent and I like that just fine.”
“Time travel can be a bit complicated sometimes,” Patton acknowledged, “but I don’t think it’s all bad.” He finished chopping up the carrot and turned to put it in the self-regulating soup pot. Janus squinted at it. It was certainly not something Patton had in the 21st century. So, the question was. Had he gone out and bought time appropriate cookware before breaking into Janus’s house or had he gone through Janus’s storage to find it?
“You’re a free agent time traveler, right?” Emile asked.
“Depends on what you mean by free agent,” Patton said. “I have always worked with a group of people, and we have rules and procedures. It’s basically a time agency itself, just not the TPI.”
“And you’ve met me before?”
“I have,” Patton confirmed, “but Janus is right in that I can’t say much more than that about it. In fact,” he said wiping off his hands on a towel hanging from his apron. (The apron was covered in cartoon squirrels and totted the phrase ‘I’m a nut for baking.’) “I should probably be getting out of here.”
“You’ve never been worried about us meeting out of order before,” Janus pointed out with a frown. He didn’t particularly want Patton to go even though the man had broken into his house and possibly went through his boxes of kitchen equipment.
“Well,” Patton said. “There’s meeting wildly out of order, there’s meeting in order, and then there’s what I’m doing.”
“What are you doing?” Janus asked alarmed.
Patton just shrugged with a smile.
“No, Patton, what are you doing?”
“Soup should be done in about an hour, but you can leave it on all day. I got a pot that’s fridge safe, so just shut it off and stick it in there before going to sleep.”
“Patton.”
“See you later! Bye!” He said and disappeared into thin air.
Janus sighed and rubbed the bridge of his brow. “Why is he like this?”
“Janus,” Emile asked. “Why did your self-declared mortal enemy make you soup?”
“Because he’s an asshole, that’s why.”
“Uh huh,” Emile said, looking at him oddly.
“What?” Janus asked.
“What exactly happened when you were stuck in the past?” Emile asked.
Janus sighed. “A lot happened. A lot.” He glanced at the soup pot happily performing its function on his kitchen counter. ‘I hope it’s nice to meet me, because I’ve already met you,’ rang in his ears. Fucking Patton with his little hints about the future. It gave Janus just a bit of courage though knowing that Emile at least didn’t flee the continent after the conversation they had to have. He was at least around enough to meet Patton. “In fact,” Janus said. “It’s probably time I told you what happened. Everything that happened.”
Chapter 54
They sat down in the living room. Janus let Emile have the couch and sat on one of the matching armchairs. There was a squeaky sound when he sat. The plastic covering the chair had been delivered in was still on it.
Emile had a pleasant, open but curious expression on his face and Janus suddenly had an idea what it felt like to be his patient.
“I,” Janus began after a moment, shifting uncomfortably on the squeaky chair. “I don’t know how to start this conversation. I talked about what I wanted to say and possible ways to say it with Dr. Figueroa, but I… I still don’t know.”
“I guess I should start by saying that I did something horrible that I need to apologize for and I’m not sure if apologizing will even be enough. The problem is you don’t even know what that horrible thing is.” Janus stared at his feet. “So, first, I should probably explain what I did. I just don’t know where to start.”
“Maybe start with what happened before it,” Emile suggested. “Just lead up to it. It might help explain why whatever it was happened too.”
Janus took a breath. “Okay,” he said. “That day was just like most that I remember. We both woke up early. I was going to the TPI and you were going to where you worked your residency. We ate leftover pizza for breakfast because both of us were exhausted. You because it sucks to be a resident and me because I’d been working on a big case.”
“I was getting frustrated with the case. That was my first mistake: being impatient and angry. It was just a thief, but a slippery one. She’d stolen a half-broken time piece and was using it to rob banks within about a 50-year time frame. I had an idea of where she might go, but no one would listen to me. Or at least,” Janus quirked a half smile, “that’s how I interpreted it. They said they’d look into my idea, but they were being extra cautious because of how close in the timestream her actions were to most of the agents’ lives.”
“I was so tired of the case and so egotistical. I decided to check it out on my own without being cleared by the TPI. I went back in time without thinking of the consequences and that was the worst thing I’ve ever done.” Janus took a breath. “I’m not sure how, but somewhere in the course of my self-appointed mission…” He trailed off. He didn’t know how to say it. He really didn’t.
“What happened?” Emile asked when he didn’t continue.
“I…” and his next words probably sounded like crackly nonsense to Emile’s ears because he couldn’t get his thoughts straight and his tongue wouldn’t make the words right.
“I don’t even remember living in that town or the fact that Mom used to work at that bank,” he choked out. “I didn’t think and I didn’t check and…” There was a long silence. “I erased you,” he finally managed to say in a whisper, but in the quiet of his barely lived in house, the words were loud.
There was more silence. “But I…” Emile said after a moment.
“I went back and fixed it,” Janus said, “but I… didn’t do a perfect job. I don’t even know how much I messed things up. It would have been one thing if it’d just been me. If it had just impacted my life, but I did it to you and I don’t even know how to start to apologize.”
Nothing was said for a long moment. Janus didn’t look at him.
“…Huh,” Emile finally said.
Janus risked a glance at him. He didn’t look irate, but he did still look confused which was probably the reason for that.
“I’m sorry,” Janus said. It was really the only thing he could say at this point.
Emile tilted his head to the side. He took off his glasses and cleaned them with the edge of his shirt with slow circles. Since he was 15, Emile only cleaned his glasses with specially designed wipes, but he’d held onto the habit of cleaning his glasses with his shirt anytime he needed a moment to think. Janus wasn’t sure if Emile even realized he was doing it, but he knew it was a signal for Janus to be quiet for a few seconds.
The glasses were perched back on Emile’s nose after a few seconds. “I think I remember that,” he said contemplatively.
“…What?” Janus asked, and he was no longer avoiding looking at Emile. He was now blatantly staring at him.
“Well, I didn’t know what it was,” Emile said, “but I did have a very odd dream on the day you mentioned and suspiciously I had said dream in the middle of the day and woke standing up.”
“A dream?” Janus asked.
“A very vivid dream,” Emile said. “I don’t believe you actually erased me completely from existence. My life was simply shifted slightly. I was working as a social worker for about 5 hours and then I was back in my appropriate place.”
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“Why didn’t you tell me about that?” Janus asked, but then immediately wince at his own hypocrisy. “Er… never mind.”
“I didn’t know it was possibly real,” Emile said. “Honestly, I thought I was just really tired. I’d been overworking myself a lot. I took the rest of the day off after that.”
“You shifted reality for a few hours, and you didn’t realize it?” Janus asked.
“Like I said, I was really tired and nothing seemed to be wrong…”
“Wait, but things were different,” Janus said. “Didn’t you notice things were different.”
“Not… really,” Emile said. “Like what?”
“Like…” Janus said. “Like a whole bunch of things!”
“Like…?”
“Like you had a different job title and you worked different hours.”
“I thought I’d fallen asleep standing up or had a vivid audio-visual hallucination at work from stress. I asked for a switch a couple of weeks later.”
“You used to hate time travel, but then you took a job at the TPI.”
Emile gave him a drawl look. “I still hate time travel,” he said. “I literally just said that not 5 minutes ago.”
“Well then why would you work for the TPI.”
“Because time travel is so confusing and distressing that people doing it on a regular basis as a career need psychological support.”
“Plus, Lia asked for my consultation when developing the mental health part of the Agent Management Office,” Emile continued. “Considering I already knew quite a bit about time travel from being around you, she knew me personally, and I’d finished my residency, she decided to give me a job offer when my advice panned out.”
“W-well,” Janus said. “You were allergic to pineapples.”
“You mean my childhood allergy?” Emile asked. “That has since resolved itself in my adult life?”
“It has?” Janus asked.
“Janus have you considered,” Emile said, “that some if not all of the inconsistencies you were seeing in my life have to do with the fact that you hadn’t spoken to me in 3 years?”
“I… uh… hadn’t considered that,” Janus admitted honestly.
“You were looking for information to support your incorrect world view,” Emile said sounding very much like a head doctor and not like a brother, “and you found some.” He sighed. “It makes sense after having faced a traumatic event where you effectively thought you’d killed a loved one that you weren’t thinking clearly.” The head doctor analysis voice slipped just a bit. “I just wish you’d talked about it with someone.”
“Sorry,” Janus said, because no matter which way this conversation had gone and no matter the revelations, the point was an apology. “I’m sorry.”
Emile sighed. “I would have forgiven you even if you had erased me,” Emile said. “You didn’t mean to, and you did your best to fix it. You did fix it even if you were an idiot about it.”
“What about for being an idiot and not talking to you for three years?” Janus asked.
“I already did forgive you for that Janus,” Emile said pointedly. “What did you think the last 6 months were?”
“Pity?”
Emile gave him his disappointed and exasperated head shake. “Promise to never do anything like that to me again,” he said, “and I’ll forgive you.”
“I promise,” Janus said immediately.
“And in the future, you’ll talk to me if you have any issue even if you think it’s horrible.”
“I think I’ve learned by lesson on that one.”
“And that goes for other people too,” Emile said. “If anything goes wrong with someone, you talk to them or if that’s too hard you talk to someone so they can convince you to talk to that person.”
Janus nodded.
“Great!” Emile said. “Then you’re officially forgiven for everything. Though I expect you to go to therapy and keep working on making yourself feel better, so these things don’t happen again.”
And Janus… didn’t know how to feel about that. He should probably feel happy and thankful or at least relieved, but if he was being honest, he just felt kind of empty in that moment like an old well that had finally run dry. Fuck his head doctor and fuck Patton. Wasn’t this supposed to make him feel better? Everything was fine. He hadn’t actually erased Emile permanently from the timeline, in fact, he’d apparently still existed in some form in the alternate timeline Janus had temporarily made. Emile had forgiven him both for erasing him and ignoring him even though that was far more than Janus deserved. This was something he’d never even dared dream would happen, but it had been exactly what he’d wanted.
Yet, he still didn’t feel good, not really, not like how he remembered feeling before all of this happened.
Though was that really a surprise? Things were not like how they were before. He and Emile were no longer close. There was love and affection there, but they didn’t really know each other. The last six months had been nice. He’d been able to pretend for a bit that everything was back to normal, but in the moments he hadn’t been able to pretend that, it’d been a bit stilted and awkward speaking to his brother especially at the start.
Beyond that, Janus was just used to misery at this point. It was his default state. Not being miserable took effort and energy he didn’t always have. He felt himself slipping into sadness or numbness even during times he should be feeling good. He’d noticed himself experiencing a sense of desolation when Emile cooked his favorite meal or in the middle of watching a ballet performance Emile had suggested they go to and he’d been looking forward to in the days before or even now when he should be so happy, so ecstatic. Everything should be okay, but it wasn’t.
“You doing alright over there?” Emile asked, and Janus didn’t know how long he’d been silent.
Instinct said to say yes and force himself to move on, but he wasn’t going to break his promise that fast. “Not really, no,” he admitted.
“That’s okay,” Emile said. “Anything I can do to help?”
“I really don’t know.”
“Why don’t we go taste the soup your arch nemesis,” there was a light teasing tone to his voice, “made for you. Some of the vegetables won’t be completely cooked yet, but I’m sure it’s already good.”
“Yeah,” Janus agreed. “Yeah, okay,” he got to his feet, the chair making that plastic squeaking sound again. “Maybe we could unwrap the furniture in here before you go home.”
“I think that’s a good idea,” Emile said with a smile.
Chapter 55
Somehow, the strangest thing about his life right now was a picture on the wall. It was one that he’d gotten after college when he moved into his first actual house. It wasn’t anything special. It was just something that had caught his eye when he was specifically looking for something classier to put on his wall than the posters he’d hung in his college dorm and apartment with Virgil. It was a tall painting of a tree, but segmented into four parts, each representing the state of a tree in different seasons. In the top left, the three had small leaves and little buds, on the top right it had full leaves bathed in sunlight, in the bottom left the leaves had changed colors and started to fall off, and in the bottom right the tree was devest of leaves but covered in snow.
It was on the wall near Janus’s bed. It was one of the first things he saw when he opened his eyes in the morning and was usually what reminded him that everything was different now when he woke.
The picture had been in a box in the houses garage up until the Saturday before the last. Saturdays had become his and Emile’s unofficial unpacking Janus’s house day. They would usually pick one or maybe two boxes that had been sitting untouched for years, unpack it, talk, and eat dinner together.
Notably, dinner was usually not provided by either of them.
Patton had gotten into the habit of breaking into Janus’s house. Janus would sometimes catch him doing it briefly, but often Patton managed to avoid him. This was quite the feat considering Janus was not currently working and thus stayed at home a lot of the time. Patton had repeatedly reprogrammed Janus’s kitchen taking away the option for pop tarts entirely and replacing the option with real food. Janus’s kitchen was constantly stocked with something to eat that wasn’t trash. He also liked to leave around different smelling hand soaps, flowers, and paper cranes. Janus had an entire drawer in his nightstand dedicated to storing paper cranes now.
The newest one was still on his nightstand from the night before, sitting cheerfully in the way of his view of the tree paining when his alarm woke up that morning. He sighed. He had not missed getting up early for work.
He was finally going back to working at the TPI this morning. His therapist had signed off on it last week, saying his was fit for duty. Considering they were apparently still understaffed at the TPI and Janus was a senior agent, this was met with much relief. Janus himself still wasn’t sure how he felt about it.
He turned off the alarm and stood. Dr. Figueroa had him write out a morning schedule to follow when he’d expressed his struggle to get the day started. Either Patton or Emile had taken it upon themselves to copy the schedule on virtual sticky notes that appeared in every location necessary for getting ready in the morning.
First, he took a shower. He threw his nightclothes in the laundry chute. There were currently dozens of different scented soaps in his shower all in small bottles that had about 2 or 3 uses. Janus presumed they were curtesy of Patton. He decided to use one at random and it ended up being cotton candy scented.
Next, he got dressed. That was easy enough since he always wore the same outfit to work every day. It didn’t matter what he wore much since missions would force him to redress anyway.
Then he went to his kitchen and sat down at the counter. He pushed the pop tart button. As expected at this point, he did not get a pop tart for breakfast. Instead, he got two eggs, toast, a sliced apple, and a few cherry tomatoes with green tea. He ate his breakfast while finishing one of the puzzles he’d been working on the night before.
Once he finished, it was time to finally face going back to the office. He sighed, stood up and pulled up the screen on his timepiece. He selected his office as his destination and was off.
The first thing that happened upon appearing in his office was he got a face full of… something.
He sputtered, smacking the things fluttering about his face out of the air. “What is wrong with you?” was the first thing out of his mouth before he’d even really confirmed that the culprit of this attack was who he’d automatically assumed he was.
Remus, as anticipated was standing not 2 feet away from him.
Remus had apparently gotten into the prop department again because he had some type of softly glowing glittery confetti was no all over Janus as well as their entire office.
“Remus, I told you no!” Lena snapped. “You know it’s impossible to clean up 3150s sparkle nukes.”
“Welcome back!” Remus crowed.
“I hate you,” Janus replied. “I just took a shower.”
“You’re fine,” Remus said with an eye roll.
“This shit doesn’t come off in decontamination,” Janus spat. “If my first mission back sends me to a time where I’ll be tried as a witch for glowing, I’m blaming you.”
“We’re going to 2510,” Remus informed him. “You’ll fit right in.”
Janus grimaced. “Ugh, that decade.”
“It’s my favorite decade!” Remus exclaimed.
“Of course, it is,” Lena grumbled. “Just don’t bring anything gross back this time.”
“No promises,” Remus replied.
Janus chose to disengage from the conversation as Remus and Lena argued about was and what wasn’t allowed to be brought back to their shared office from what was well known as the least tasteful decade in history. It was also one of the least turbulent decades in history. The population was too busy making shitty ice cream flavors to wage war.
At least they were giving him an easier assignment for his first time back. He turned to his desk and pulled up the files on his next mission, glancing through them. It was just a small blip that the TPI had noticed in a small town in 2510. It probably wasn’t much of anything, but they had no record of what had caused it, so they were going to send someone to look. Honestly, they’d usually just send in a surveillance agent and be done with it, but they’d probably handpicked this one for Janus in particular. He’d be insulted if he didn’t honestly still feel a bit off kilter being in the office.
To his surprise, he didn’t have a scheduled meeting with Rhi. It wasn’t particularly important to see a mission coordinator for something this small, but it still wasn’t the usual protocol. Instead, he was just instructed to pick up his costume at the costuming department and leave in about an hour.
“Do we really not have an appointment with Rhi?” Janus asked.
“Senior agents haven’t really been meeting with Rhi unless it’s a high priority mission,” Lena told him. “We have too many newbies running around and there’s not time.
“That’s concerning…” Janus said.
“It’s better than trying to rush the inexperienced ones through. We at least have a general idea of what we’re doing. They’re trying to train up more mission coordinators, but that’s taking a while.”
Janus still frowned, but he glanced back at the mission instructions. He’d have to make sure he thoroughly understood what was being asked of him before leaving if he wasn’t meeting with Rhi. “We should go get changed,” he told Remus. “2510s clothing is notoriously difficult to put on.”
“Five minutes back and he’s already dying to get my clothes off,” Remus said cheekily.
“I would rather tear my own eyeballs out of my socket than see you without your pants on again.”
Remus just wiggled his eyebrows.
“I’m so glad you’re back,” said Lena when Janus looked at her in exasperation. “He’s finally not Fred’s and my problem anymore.”
Chapter 56
Getting ready for the mission was a bit of a mess honestly. The costume department barely even spared them a glance before sending them on their way. Remy at least was still there to give them one last debrief before sending them off into 2510, though he looked exhausted.
“Are you sleeping?” asked Janus.
“I’m drinking coffee,” was the reply as he shooed them out onto the streets.
The timeline disturbance that had been picked up was somewhere in one of the shops on that street.
“Do you want the bakery or the karaoke/stripper bar?” Remus asked.
Janus raised an eyebrow at him, and Remus clapped him on the back.
“This is why we’re partners,” he said.
He plodded off towards the building to their right, and Janus turned to the building on the left. It was a small bakery and coffee shop painted in bright colors and sporting the Brazilian and Albanian flags.
There was a soft tinkling bell sound when he entered the shop, and the person behind the counter glanced over at him briefly before finishing putting a pastry in bag for a customer.
Unfortunately, their attention meant Janus wasn’t going to get away with snooping around the store without buying anything. He glanced around the interior of the shop as he walked up to the till.
He glanced into the bakery display case the worker was standing behind. Oh… oh that all looked disgusting. He was not depressed enough anymore to willingly eat any of that.
“Uh,” Janus said when the worker looked at him. He glanced up at the wide selection of drinks over their head and winced at the ways the letters moved on the screen. He was pretty sure his dyslexia wasn’t quite that bad. Why did anyone choose to make letters move around and shake on purpose? As someone who had to deal with that on a daily basis, it wasn’t exactly entertaining.
“Is it possible to get a banana and chocolate potato chip smoothie, but without the potato chip part?” he asked.
“Sure,” the worker replied. “Anything else?”
Janus shook his head.
“Can I have a name for that?”
“Jay,” Janus replied.
“Alright. It’ll be out in a minute.”
Janus nodded and turned, able to take in the rest of the establishment now that there weren’t eyes on him. It was as colorful on the inside as it was on the outside and seemed to have a retro cowboy-space theme mixed with posters from a contemporary werewolf romance movie. Janus had actually seen that movie one. It was surprisingly tolerable.
The seats at least looked comfortable. There were a good number of tables and three couches. All of them were mix-matched. A few of the tables were outfitted with holographic chess and checkers, but most were normal tables. There were even a few physical boardgames and some bookshelves full of books, though he thought some of the bookshelves might just be there for decoration. He wasn’t sure which were and which weren’t.
He pretended to be very interested in the decorations as he waited on his drink, using that as an excuse to look around the entire shop. He was turned away when the door chimed again.
“Hello,” a familiar voice said, making Janus turn around instantly. Janus could immediately tell that the man hesitantly lingering in front of the bakery display was not the Patton that he’d spent months holed up with or who had broken into Janus’s house repeatedly to replace his soaps and cook him meals. He seemed out of place which was saying something in 2510. He had the air about him that he was an 80-year-old grandpa trying to embrace youth culture, but not quite getting it. He also spoke in an accent that people around him would probably assume was him just not being fluent in Spanish but was actually him not being completely comfortable speaking Spanish from half a century ago.
“Uh…” said Patton looking at the menu, a crease between his eyes.
“I’d suggest the banana and chocolate potato chip smoothie without the potato chips,” Janus said. Patton startled, whipping around to face him in surprise. “That’s what I got, though I would leave out the potato chips.”
Patton’s eyes narrowed on him. It was not, of course, the first time that Patton hadn’t been thrilled to see him, but it was the first time Janus had been happy to see him and he hadn’t been happy to see him in turn. Janus had gotten used to a Patton that liked him and he found himself not quite prepared for the way he pursed his lips in annoyance at the sight of Janus.
“I’ll do the banana and chocolate potato chip smoothie, but with the potato chips,” he said in a way that made it sound like he thought he was getting one up on Janus for some reason.
“What flavor of chips?” the worker asked.
“Er, what flavors do you have?”
“Uh, I think drywall, oak wood, and limestone.”
Janus almost laughed at his expression. “Uh, do you have any naturally edible flavors?” he asked.
“We might have grass.”
Patton squinted as the worker bent to look under the cabinet. “Oh, wait, no, it’s glass. Is that alright?”
“…Maybe just no on the chips.”
Janus did his best to school his features, so it wasn’t obvious he was laughing at him. He didn’t think he did a very good job considering Patton was glaring at him after turning around. That or he was just already pissed at Janus by default. It could go either way honestly.
“So,” Janus said when the worker turned away to start making Patton’s drink. “What are you doing here.”
“It’s none of your business,” Patton said with narrowed eyes.
“I mean, we could both be here for the same reason,” Janus pointed out. “We could share intel.”
“I doubt we’re here for the same reason.”
“How would you know?” asked Janus.
Patton just looked away from him. He immediately looked confused at the movie poster his eyes landed on.
“Unless,” Janus said curiously, you aren’t here for a reason, reason.” Patton said nothing. “It was a pretty small disturbance, so it would make sense that your equipment might not pick up on it.” At least at this point. “Acting the tourist, Pat?”
“I’m just doing research,” Patton said, crossing his arms.
“Research?” Janus asked.
“I’ve never been here before,” Patton admitted. “I wanted to get a feel for it and other places just in case there ever was an issue.”
“You just did France, didn’t you?” Janus asked.
Patton frowned and Janus smiled slightly. “It was recent,” he admitted.
“Well,” Janus said. “If you want some advice. I’d start with figuring out accents when you’re in different times.”
“I don’t need your advice,” Patton said and then smugly, “Janus.”
It took a bit for Janus to scan back through his memories and remember that Patton hadn’t known Janus’s name in France. He would have only figured it out after his friend Lo hacked into Silver Mountains University’s system and figured out Virgil had an appointment with him. Janus raised an eyebrow. “You sure about that, Patton?”
