meta project: fashion

Previously: Abel and Eden meet their kidnapper, the man with the scarred face. He demands the time-traveller, promising that the other would go free. Eden pretends to be the Traveller, hoping to get Abel out, but turns out that ‘going free’ was a lie.

As Abel is dying from a fatal wound, he forces Eden to break his seal and then Rewinds back in time.

*

Prompt 3: Fashion

F I R S T   R E W I N D

Abel woke up.

The amulet he wore habitually on his ear… dissolved. There was no other way to describe it. Abel blinked blearily through his bangs as the amulet dissolved into a cloud of light, like fireflies. He could already feel the magic branding itself into his skin, carving swirls into the side of his neck, a lattice of patterning.

He had woken lying on his side, like he had the first time round, so he flopped onto his back instead to watch the gleaming light linger in the air.

It reminded him of weddings and Promises, where couples and partners would traditionally Rewind together after the initial seal-breaking, lighting the night with blue magic. He had only seen it once during–

“I TRUSTED YOU!”

Abel whimpered as a lancing pain shot through his head. His head pounded and his mouth felt sand-dry. He had only seen the light once, during the Missus’ wedding, and nowhere else.

What was that?

He tried to recall, but could only cringe when his migraine intensified. There was a coppery taste in his mouth— he grasped his shoulder to make sure that the gunshot wound was not there.

The light disappeared, the branding complete. Against his will, Abel dragged himself upright and looked around. Across the room, Eden was collapsed in an ungainly heap, rope back around her wrists. Abel crawled over to her, too tired to stand.

He tugged her into a more comfortable sleeping position and pulled his hoodie off, arranging it into a makeshift pillow, then again began the arduous process of untying her wrists. He spat out the blood in his mouth and started the process. It involved a combination of gnawing with his teeth and picking at knots with his fingernails, and had taken him at least an hour to do it the first time.

By estimate, it would be at least three hours before scar-man entered. They would have to find a way out before that.

Eden’s fingers twitched. She was waking earlier than he expected. He was only halfway through untying her. Abel wondered if it was because of the Promising ritual (he refused to consider himself married) or if it was because his Rewind had not brought him as far back as he thought.

“Why’s your neck glowing,” Eden mumbled, voice thick with disuse. She was like a cat, Abel thought, or a magpie, drawn to shiny things. She’d asked him that sometime the first round too.

“So’s yours,” he said. His voice was muffled from the rope. He studiously continued to untie her as Eden blinked herself awake. Her eyes flickered around the room, bright and curious.

When the rope finally gave, Eden rubbed her wrists. “Thanks,” she said.

Abel nodded. His eyes flicked to the grimy mirror on one side of the wall.

“That tattoo of yours stopped glowing,” Eden mumbled. “And it’s gone, too.”

Abel rubbed the side of his neck. “It’s still there. It only glows for a moment after a Rewind.”

When Eden furrowed her brows, confused, he clarified, “Rewind means traveling back in time. I can do that. Travel back in time, I mean.”

Her eyes gleamed with curiosity. “Can you do that? Travel back and prevent us from getting caught in here? I don’t know where this is, but it doesn’t look very… welcoming.”

Abel snorted. “Sorry, can’t,” he was sure the next Rewind would render him unconscious, at least, considering the state he had just woke up in.

Eden sat up. “What did you mean when you said my neck was glowing, too?”

“It means you’re my, uh,” Abel flushed, not sure how to explain this. While Promisings were not romantic, they were still very intimate. He gave up trying to define that, and instead said, “I’m bonded to you. Long story short, if I die, you die. You’re the reason why I can Rewind. It’s because sometime in the future you helped me break my amulet – the thing that stops me from traveling back.”

“Oh,” Eden said, eyes wide. “That’s wicked cool. And I’ve always wanted a tattoo.”

One side of Abel’s lips tilted up in a smile.

At that moment, Eden shivered. “It’s cold,” Eden muttered, rubbing her bare arms.

Abel blinked, only now noticing that she was wearing a threadbare, short-sleeved shirt. He picked his hoodie up from its place on the floor, shaking it out from its previous purpose as a pillow before wordlessly handed it to her.

She blinked. “Oh, thanks!” Pulling it on, she commented, “it’s really soft. What’s it made of?”

“Uh, wool. Goat’s wool?”

Eden blanched. “That’s cashmere!” She yelped. “This stuff is expensive, Abel!”

He shrugged. “It cost me months of coin, but it was worth it. Goat’s wool lasts longest and it’s always cold back home. Most of our clothes are made with it.”

“Thanks though, I’ll take care of it.” Eden grinned. Her hands ran along the seams and sleeves of the blue wool, like she couldn’t get enough of the texture. Abel thought it was amusing. “So, what’s my name?”

“What?”

“I must’ve told you my name,” Eden said in a matter-of-fact manner. “What’s my name? And what’s yours?”

“Eden,” Abel said blandly. “I’m Abel.”

She nodded. “Okay, and how many pets do I have?”

Abel gave her a blank stare. “No clue,” he said.

“Okay, now you know,” she said. “I don’t have any pets, but I have a little sister. Her name is Tabby and she likes apple juice and Pokémon Go.”

Abel wrinkled his nose. “Why did you tell me all that for? And what’s… poe-kay-mon?”

Eden looked at him in horror. Abel frowned. “What?”

“How do you not know Pokémon, what rock did you live under?!”

Abel flushed, mumbling defensively. “At least I know what apple juice is.”

Eden stared at him incredulously.

“I do!” Abel said, offended.

“But… Pokémon,” Eden said, gesturing helplessly. “Okay that settles it! That’s the first thing we’re going to do when we get out. I am making you play Pokémon even if it’s the last thing I do.”

Abel blinked in the face of her unwavering faith that they would get out… and alive. Something inside him strengthened.

Determination.

Abel let it sweep through him and give him strength.

“Okay,” Abel said, smiling. “Once we get out of here.”

Eden grinned. “Anyway, I told you that so that you can answer me on your next Rewind.”

“How do you even know that you’re going to ask me that?” Abel huffed, amused. Eden just smiled.

In lieu of replying, Eden said, “You know, we should have some kind of code? So I know you Rewinded.”

“Honestly I think telling you that I haven’t played Pokémon would send you into a tizzy, no matter what universe.”

Eden huffed. “You’re not wrong. Anyway, how about, ‘Tabby hates ice-cream’?”

Abel didn’t know what ‘ice-cream’ was, but didn’t think it was very wise to tell that to Eden. The both of them made to stand. Eden stood first then helped Abel up, and they looked around the room again.

“I guess… why not. Why do I feel like by the end of this, I’ll know too much about your sister?” Abel said with exasperation.

Eden laughed. “That’s good, because she’s the light of my life. Okay, escape room. Any ideas?” Eden said.

Hmm. Well. “The numbers to the safe are…” then he rattled off the six digit combination.

Eden was staring at him.

“What? I saw it when the bad guys came in. Some of scar-face’s lackeys were getting something from the drawer. I don’t know what, but the key’s in the safe.”

“Oh yeah, time-travel, I forgot,” Eden muttered.

The two of them approached the safe.

“What else did you find out?”

Abel thought as Eden keyed in the numbers. “…Sorry, no. I was too busy, er, trying not to die.”

Eden hummed. “It’s kay, we’ll get it next time.”

The safe clicked open. Inside, there was stacks and stacks of green paper and a handful of keys. Eden gasped. Abel blinked at her. “What’s wrong?”

“There’s so much money!” Eden squeaked.

This time, Abel couldn’t help himself. “Er, what’s money?”

Eden stared at him. “You’re joking…?” She saw the look on his face. “Okay, no you’re not. Wow. Uh, basically you can exchange these,” she waved at the papers, “for things like food, haircuts, trips and stuff? Almost everything can be bought by money.”

“Oh,” Abel said, looking relieved. “You mean like coin, or silver?”

“Yeah, I guess you could say that.”

Abel nodded. He grabbed the keys in the safe, eyes darting around for ideas. The door was… definitely out. There was no simple keyhole to it, only a system of cogs and wheels in a complicated lattice that reminded him of the gears in a watch. He headed over to the desk instead.

Eden had begun taking out stacks on stacks of paper… money. Abel had to get used to calling it that. Maybe she thought there was something in there they could use?

They worked in silence.

“Nothing in here,” Eden said, stacking the money back into the safe and closing it. She came over and crouched by Abel as he worked – finally, the lock clicked open. Abel tugged the drawer open, relieved to make some progress, but his heart fell at the sight of… nothing.

But Eden reached over and knocked on the wood. It produced a hollow sound. Abel shifted over to let her explore, eyebrows raising when she pried the bottom of the drawer apart with her fingernails, lifting the thin sheet of wood to discover a set of runes inscribed in the true base of the drawer.

“How in Hel did you even know to do that?” Abel muttered, astonished.

Eden grinned. “Time-travel, duh.”

Abel stared at her, unimpressed.

She laughed. “Okay, I was just kidding; I can’t say I knew, but back home Dad would bring Tabby and I for Escape Room games.”

Abel looked alarmed. “Your father locks you into rooms for sport?”

“No, no!” Eden snorted, looking amused. “It’s a game where people set up a locked room and we have to get out in an hour or so. There are all these puzzles everywhere that lead to clues to letting us escape.”

Abel looked skeptical, but decided to move on. He directed his attention to the runes on the drawer. “You people are so weird.”

“And you are so deprived.”

He ignored that and said instead, “I can’t understand it.”

Eden peered at the words. “Oh,” she said. “It’s french. I can read it. Here, gimme.”

“You speak… French?”

Oui,” she said. “Je suis Canadienne.”

Abel shook his head exasperatedly and pointed at the ‘runes’, which were apparently ‘in french’.

screen-shot-2017-02-06-at-11-11-48-am
It looked as if someone had taken a burning rod and branded the words into the wood.

Eden furrowed her brows. “Okay, here’s what it says… To my travelling cousin and his companion… ‘to stay safe you must stay in touch’. I can’t read the third line, then… ‘may frayer guide your path’.”

“Freyr, not ‘frayer’,” Abel corrected. He peered over her shoulder. “The third line is Old Tongue. Dyrr… opnask meõ ævi…?”

“What does it mean?”

“‘To my travelling cousin’… This is written by a Traverser— someone who travels through space. They usually call us Travellers ‘cousins’—“

CLICK-CREAK-CLICK.

Abel and Eden jumped, startled, both turning to the door. The gears were shifting and moving. The door was opening. The scarred man was here, they were out of time.

Abel’s shoulder throbbed, remembering a wound from another time.

“Rewind!” Eden hissed, even as she dragged them to the furthest corner of the room, near the grimy mirror. “Go back, now!”

Heart thudding in his throat, Abel closed his eyes. Instinct guided him, compelling him to  grasp Eden’s hands and he reached deep into himself—

“The mirror,” Eden said, startling him. “The mirror!”

“What?”

The gears on the door stopped creaking.

“We don’t have time!” Eden said, eyes wild. She grabbed his shoulders and looked him in the eye. “Tell me to check the mirrors later. Earlier.”

He nodded and she smiled grimly.

”Now go!”


To my travelling cousin and his companion,

The key to staying safe is staying connected.

Door be opened with/by means of time.

And let Freyr keep you and guide you in his ways.


Terms introduced: 

  • Old Tongue: known to us as Old Norse

 

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meta project: character design

Eden & Abel 

Initially, at the brainstorming stage of the universe, I wanted to do something related to deafness.

Although I eventually scrapped that idea, Eden’s character design had its beginnings here. I was interested in drawing and possibly animating a deaf character who would need to rely mainly on expressions and hand gestures to communicate.

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First drafts

As I was sure that I wanted to include a supporting character as well, I thought of a younger boy as a complement to the older, more mature yet otherwise still optimistic Eden. The plot was meant to be a simple one with the same universe as ours, but with these two kids up to shenanigans – the genre was something more along the lines of ‘daily life’.

It was then I referred back to XM’s prompt – I was also influenced by my classmates, who all very boldly built fantasy worlds from scratch. Furthermore, I wasn’t sure what I could do with so little and I also very much wanted to create something. I began thinking about alternate universes, with developments inspired mostly by “Trollhunters” and “Voltron” by Dreamworks, as well as the famous children’s book author, Enid Blyton. At this point, I was thinking more about the genre Magic Realism.

That’s how I ended up with Travellers, instead! I’ll be posting more about inspirations in a separate post, as I mainly want to showcase my character design process here.

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Eden & Abel, catching a break

Eden & Abel’s dynamic didn’t change much from the initial idea. I am very against the idea of romance between them as they’re still really young – and not quite ready for romance, honestly. Also not very compatible. But generally, they have a very sibling/familial dynamic.

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Abel, wary
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draft cover design for Eden
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draft cover design for Abel

It was only after this random doodle (and cover design concepts) that I finally managed to come up with something satisfactory. Presenting: Abel & Eden.

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Eden
img_4449
Abel

 

Eden retained her sunny disposition, but Abel became a bit of a darker character. Their names have some kind of plot significance as well! I’ll probably have a part 2 to this with cleaner art and a character profile, because I am WAY TOO INVESTED.

See y’all soon!

meta project: authority

Previously: Eden wakes up in a strange place that isn’t home and encounters a strange boy.

*

Prompt 2: Authority

“What sane kidnapper would leave clues for us to get out, anyway?”

Eden let out an irritated huff. “If you’re not going to be helpful, then just keep quiet.” She continued to rummage through the room. There was a sullen moment of silence. Then Eden heard Abel shuffle back to the door and fumble with the locks. She gave up on the locked cupboard and wandered over. “What are you doing?”

Abel had taken off his earring and was picking the lock with the tip of the feather. Or attempting to, rather. The door did not have a simple locking mechanism – rather, it looked to be a complex patterning of gears, nuts and bots. It reminded Eden of the insides of a clock or watch.

“Just… trying something,” he mumbled.

“Isn’t that pretty important to you?” Eden said. “It’s the thing that lets you time-travel, right?” She’d manage to wheedle out the purpose of the glowing-blue-feather-earring sometime ago. Turns out that Abel came from a tribe of time-travellers. Who knew, huh?

“The thing that stops me from time-travelling,” Abel corrected absently.

“Yeah, that,” Eden said impatiently. “Why can’t you get rid of it, and just time-travel out of here? Back in time before you – we – get kidnapped? Anyway, how does this time-travel business even work?”

“I don’t know much about it either,” Abel admitted. When Eden looked incredulous, he snapped, “Don’t look at me like that! All I know is that I can’t remove the seal myself, just that someone else has to do it!

“The seal is so that we don’t trap ourselves in eternal childhood,” he continued, poking around the lock. “In our hands it’s like steel, but it snaps like a branch when someone else does it—“

“Then what are we waiting for?!” Eden gasped, reaching for the amulet. “Come on, give it here— I’ll snap it for you, then you can go back in time and stop all this from happening!”

“No, no no no wait—”

“What’s there to wait for? It’s a brilliant plan!”

“No!”

“Abel!”

Eden!”

They scuffled, Abel holding the brilliant blue feather out of Eden’s reach, but Eden’s superior height won out in the end. She held the feather triumphantly in her hand. “The answer to all our problems!”

“NOOO,” Abel’s face was the perfect picture of pure panic. “I’M TOO YOUNG TO BE MARRIED.”

Eden made a face. “What?”

Abel grabbed the amulet back; Eden let him have it. “It’s like some kind of binding vow,” he babbled, stuffing the feather into his pocket. For something so sacred, he sure did treat it pretty irreverently. “You get tied to the person for the rest of their lives and you can’t be separated and stuff or something bad will happen and—”

Eden raised her eyebrows.

“I don’t know!” Abel wailed. “They were supposed to teach us this stuff next year! Next year! I’m too young to be married. I’m too young to die!”

“Calm down,” Eden said.

“You calm down!”

The door rattled. Both of them tensed, then scrambled away as far from the door as they could go.

Eden pushed Abel behind her. Abel made a noise of protest.

“Shut up and stay back,” Eden murmured. “I’m older.”

Before Abel could protest further, the door slammed open. Men filed into the room – if Abel had to describe them, ‘sinister’ was probably the word. One man stood out in particular as he walked forward, flanked by who appeared to be his subordinates.

“I am in charge here,” the man said. Abel thought that he was smiling, but the scar on his lip twisted the expression, so he couldn’t tell for sure. “…we only want the Traveller. Which of you is it?”

“What do you want with us?” Eden demanded, ignoring his question.

“You misunderstand,” the man said, hands held out placatingly. “It’s not the both of you we want. We just want the one with the gift. The other one goes free.”

Abel tensed. ‘She’s going to give me up and escape,’ he thought hysterically. His hands fisted in the back of her shirt, almost like a desperate plea for her not to throw him to the wolves. He was going to be sold and bought and used, he was never going to see the village again—

In his panic, Abel must have missed part of the conversation, because in the next moment…

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

“She must be the Traveller,” the man was saying. “Then… we don’t need you anymore.”

A shot rang out. Eden was screaming. Fingers wet and slippery with his own blood, Abel struggled to reached out for her. She was still screaming as he snapped his seal with her hands.

Abel was gone before he heard the next shot.

*

Once, when Abel was eight, his mentor had been mid-sentence when she just… crumpled..

The class erupted into a flurry of whispers when moments passed and the missus did not pick herself up, assuage their fears and cheerfully carry on. “Is she sleeping?” Cain had stage-whispered to Abel, who bit his lip and shrugged. He felt anxious. 

“She’s probably hurt,” Abel stood and declared loudly. His classmates turned to look at him, falling silent. His insides quivered from the attention. 

“Yeah!” A familiar voice piped up. Cain stood to join Abel, casting him a reassuring grin. “And if she’s hurt, we gotta help, right guys? Just like the Headmaster said!” The class murmured their agreement and Abel couldn’t help feeling relieved. Cain was the brave one, not him. 

Before the two of them could check on the missus, however, adults swept into the room. Headmaster was one of them. He explained that the missus was going away for a while as the adults very carefully bundled the missus’ limp form on a gurney and carried her out. A mister carried on with the lesson promptly, to the chagrin of a dozen small eight and nine year olds hoping that the absence of missus meant playtime. 

A few days later, Cain hugged Abel and told him that the missus wasn’t coming back. The newly wedded Missus’ husband had been attacked by a beast. He didn’t make it and, as such, neither did the missus, whose life was intwined with her husband’s.

As he lay in bed, Cain pressed warm and close to his back, Abel understood something very significant. Just as he had watched the thread that was missus’ life being snipped so effortlessly by the hand of fate, he understood that his life was very much the same as well. 

He wondered where would a person go when they were dead. 

He wondered if there was anyone he could life without, who he would rather die with rather than carry on living without. 

Abel didn’t get much sleep that night. 

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meta project: setting & world-building, premise

[WORLD-BUILDING Part 1]

Firstly, let me introduce you to the three types of time travel. The 3rd type, the multiverse, is the theory in which the Travellers’ universe subscribes to.

The Travellers’ universe is very similar to ours

  • Everything’s the same except for the fact that time-travel (and also space-travel) exists
  • Although I will only be focused on time-travel in this story (for now), time-travellers are called Travellers while space-travellers are Traverses
  • The ability to time-travel is called Rewind

About the Ability

  • Children are born with the ability to use it naturally.
  • In order to protect them (and prevent a child from looping eternally in their toddler/childhood days), their ability is locked away in an amulet, which takes the appearance of a glowing blue feather.
  • Whoever who snaps the stem of the feather breaks the seal, allowing the Traveller to Time-travel from then on.

Important note: the seal can only be broken ONCE. Travellers only have ONE HOST in ONE LIFESPAN

  • Hypothetically: Traveller Lee’s feather is broken by Tan
  • Traveller Lee and Tan get into an argument
  • Traveller Lee regrets binding himself to Tan, and attempts to travel back a week ago before his seal was snapped
  • However, he finds that the moment he Rewinds back a week ago, his seal breaks – Lee discovers that he is stuck with Tan forever.

Conditions of Time-travel

  • Travellers must be in contact with their Host
  • Travellers can only travel within the lifespan of a Host
  • Travellers cannot travel too far back into the past due to the great strain on the body.
  • Symptoms include (but are not limited to) vomiting, migraines, weakness of muscles and death.

Clauses

  • Travellers can only travel BACK in time, but NOT FORWARD.
  • Travellers die when their Hosts die. Their lifespans are tied to the Host.

Master list of links:

Setting, World-building

Story

meta project: home

Prompt 1: Home

“…Wake up…!”

Eden stirred. Her body ached like she’d been out camping with Dad again: there was a crick in her neck, her eyes felt glued shut, like the aftermath of one all-nighter too many, and her head ached. All she wanted to do was sleep, but the voice —

“Hey, I said, ‘wake up’!”

“You’re so noisy,” Eden groaned, turning onto her side and pressing her face into the roll of soft fabric under her head, the only saving grace of this entirely too-horrible experience of waking.

Abruptly, the soft pillow beneath her head disappeared – Eden squeaked as she barely managed to stop her head from knocking into the rock that lay beneath the bundle. She glared at the perpetrator, but ire gave away to bewilderment at the sight before her.

“…the only reason why you slept so well – this is my hoodie, you hag!” The boy spoke gruffly, dragging the hoodie over his head. It muffled his voice but he continued to talk. “Since you’re awake, we can finally work on getting out of here.”

Now Eden could see his head again. He’d reemerged, dark hair fluffed and tousled from wrestling on the article of clothing, as did the cause of her bafflement.

He was still talking, but she couldn’t help the words that tumbled from her mouth to interrupt him. “What’s that in your ear?!” Eden gasped, sitting upright too quickly and nearly braining herself on rock. Scrambling out of the small stony enclave she had – apparently – been resting in, she crowded in on the shorter boy. “Why are you wearing an earring? Is that a feather? It’s glowing– Why is there a glowing blue feather in your ear?” Her voice had risen. She thought it might’ve cracked a bit when she said the word ‘glowing’. Twice.

“It’s not an earring!” He said indignantly. “I’m not a girl!”

Eden rolled her eyes. “Real mature, short-stack, but you didn’t answer my question!”

He puffed up – no, really, quite literally ‘puffed up’ – the hoodie lent him bulk that belied the smaller stature Eden knew he had before he’d dragged the clothing on. “It’s none of your business!”

By the end of it they were both panting and a little wild-eyed. The kid was looking extremely spooked and giving the best impression of a cornered hedgehog, while Eden knew that she looked in the borderline of hysterics. There was a long bout of silence where they simply stared (glared?) warily at each other.

“Okay,” Eden said. “Okay. We both need to calm down.”

You need to calm down,” the shortie exclaimed.

Eden bit back her retort with such long-suffering that her Dad would have been proud. “We’ve both had a pretty rough start to this, but let’s start over, okay?” She stuck out her hand and took a deep breath. “Hi my name is Eden and I’m going to be fifteen in a week.”

The boy seemed to mull over his answer. Still doing his best impression of a spooked hedgehog, he eyed her proffered hand warily and let the silence drag. When Eden continued to stick out her hand resolutely (and perhaps a little obstinately) he relented.

“…I’m Abel, thirteen.”

Satisfied, Eden turned to take stock of her surroundings. It was like something out of a horror game she’d played once on Tabby’s iPhone. Whatever this place was, it sure as heck wasn’t her bedroom. Eden made a face at the pungent smell of rot and decay. The lights flickered intermittently, illuminating the grimy floor and stained walls, like rust. Was that blood? “Where are we?”

“Home,” Abel said dryly. Eden frowned at him. He rolled his eyes. “Kidnapped,” he said instead. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his hoodie. “Taken. Stolen. Take your pick.”

“…What’s gonna happen to us?”

“Dunno.” Abel grimaced and looked away. “But I’m not waiting to find out. Let’s try to find a way out.”

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meta project: prologue

…in a universe much like ours and a time very much the same, there exists the ability to turn back time.

Oh, not everyone had it, though. This special gift belonged to a race of people whose true name has been somewhere lost in the clouded annals of history. For simplicity’s sake, we shall call them Travellers.

The Travellers were a special race of people – very much a human race like you and I, mind you – human in every way except with the ability to send their minds back in time. Some mistakenly describe it as scrying, amazing foresight, looking into the future… but anyone who has ever asked a true Traveller would receive the reply, with much sobriety and clarity, that they had travelled back in time.

The ability to Rewind.

Of course, there are always rules.

  • Children are born with the ability to use it naturally.
  • In order to protect them (and prevent a child from looping eternally in their toddler/childhood days), their ability is locked away in an amulet, which takes the appearance of a glowing blue feather.
  • Whoever who snaps the stem of the feather breaks the lock and binds the Traveller to him.
  • More accurately: the Traveller’s lifespan is bound to the lifespan of his host.
  • The Traveller can only travel back through time in the span of his host’s lifetime.

(Aside: It would also be useful to note that Travellers do not age as quickly as humans, and the tradition of feather-exchange was intended between Travellers. The binding ceremony was a common wedding tradition, but bindings could also take place between siblings, friends… any form of relationship, really.

Tldr;; a binding was essentially a declaration of “I cannot live without this other person”, due to the binding consequence of conjoined lifespans.)

Knowing this, people exploited the Travellers. Capturing Travellers (often, children) and forcefully snapping their feather-seals was the most common practice. Captured Travellers would be threatened into providing “foresight”, providing the human host the advantage of foreknowledge. Travellers were treated like commodities, slaves, gifts, expendables… Under this increasingly inhumane treatment, the Travellers dwindled in numbers over the centuries.

In order to protect themselves, the Travellers eventually decided that they needed to hide, to isolate themselves from the world. With the help of their cousins – who Traversed through Space  – they carved a niche in the space-time continuum where none could find them, so no one could use them or do them harm, hoping that with time, their presence would fade entirely from humanity’s memory.

However, despite this desperate act, no one ever forgot. Regret was a powerful mistress, and as a flawed race, the very human desire to time travel, to reclaim lost things, to prevent mistakes… it kept the belief in Travelling through Time alive and thriving.

This brings us to… today, so to speak, where two children meet, far from home.

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Master list of links:

Setting, World-building

Story