Learning to Love Time Loops Without Going Insane

Cal, Stan, Ethel and Jen were sitting around the table with Bug lounging on the floor nearby. “I’m sorry about my brothers, but there has to be more to it, we can start working on a trip to Ralth first thing tomorrow.” Cal tried to reassure Jen and his dad.

“So you’re sure that it was exposure to the energy that brought us all into the loops?” Ethel asked, her voice sounded worried.

“I mean I’m not sure of anything anymore, but that’s the working theory, why what’s wrong?” Cal looked her in her eyes.

“Well you see, I was in a room with several scientists” She paused for a second “and Many Legs.”

Cal’s jaw dropped. “How many scientists, and why Many Legs?”

“I’m old and I wanted to make sure Bug and I had support if we needed it. We did need it. Besides, she was very nice. I think there were eight scientists.”

“I like Many Legs, she gives the best ear scratches.” Bug piped in.

“Okay, so we potentially have eight more people in the loop, who I assume we do not know anything about, as well as Many Legs.” Cal wasn’t happy about this, but he didn’t blame Ethel. Things like this were bound to happen. They weren’t some perfectly trained unit running on exact orders. They guessed their way through most of the loops learning what they needed to as they went. That probably needed to change, they each needed to start focusing on different things to learn and start really covering each other’s weaknesses.

“Ethel, how soon do you think you could get to Many Legs, she needs to be brought up to speed as much as possible before she gets herself in trouble. We are going to need to find an easy and quick way to move her and Many Eyes somewhere safe at the start of loops now I think.” Cal started rambling off his thoughts.

“Yeah I agree, too dangerous for them to be left there. Especially with the scientists out there who we know nothing about loyalty wise. We will need to start purchasing a large compound as early as possible in the loops. At this point I think I remember enough gambling results to pull that off rather fast.” Stan said.

“And yes, I can reach out to Tim and arrange a flight out there easily enough, assuming Miss Bug is ready for the trip? I’ll need her help.”

“Always. There are great smells in Alaska.” Bug laid her head on Ethel’s leg once she finished speaking.

“So I think the next question…” Cal was interrupted by a knocking at the door. “That’s new.”

“Coming.” Stan shouted to the other room. He stood up and walked to the door. Cal followed and looked through the peephole before his dad could. He was greeted by the sight of Ralth dressed in an oversized trench coat and hat. He was hunched down, probably trying to hide his size, Cal thought.

“Open the door dad. It’s Ralth.”

Stan opened the door. “Ralth, my wife and I wanted to speak to you, nice of you to join us.” Stan said that in a firm loud voice.

“What Ralth is here?!” Jen yelled from the other room.

“Please everyone calm down, I promise I can explain. I also promise the boys are okay.” Ralth ducked through the door and carefully made his way to the dining room with everyone else. He sat down on the floor, finally no longer in danger of his head scraping the ceiling.

Jen looked down at the giant man and froze before her lips. Ralth looked up at her in return. “Hi mom, I’m sorry I scared you so much, but this is how it happened as I remembered it and I needed to make sure it closed again the same way. I couldn’t risk any danger to the loops. There’s so many Gryalth across the universes and so few people able to fight back, I had to make sure we could continue our fight.”

Jen jumped out of her chair and leaned down, hugging her son. “Oh Christopher, why didn’t you tell us, we could have figured something out. Where’s your brother?”

Stan joined his wife in hugging Ralth. “Is Camden okay?”

“He is, only one of us could make the return trip with the powers we had on hand, Camden was just better suited to stay and fight. When I returned I ended up in the distant past, it took me a very long time to find my way home to you.”

“Just promise me that someday you will tell us everything.” Stan said.

“I will, but it will be a very long story when I do. For now I have a pebble for you Cal, Albert wanted you to open a crack here. All the capybaras are now in the loop as well and they requested access to future Andy.”

Cal stood up and took the offered pebble from his younger brother, though he supposed this man was much older than him, the only one who was anymore. “Thanks, and due to Andy and his future self splitting we are calling future Andy just Andrew now.”

“Oh wonderful, they became unique persons. I was hoping that Andrew may end up being viewed as a native of the void realm and not be merged back into his younger self.”

Cal smashed the pebble on a free wall in the dining room. Several capybaras immediately stepped through. “You were right Albert, he does have a nice place here.” One of them said as they looked around.

“Hey Cal, buddy where’s the void crack, we’ve got science to do.” One of the capybaras asked Cal in a mostly friendly tone.

“Uh, it’s in my bedroom. Albert, what's going on?” Cal’s confusion bled into his voice.

“Oh several of the capybaras want to check out the tech in the void room, they figure if we are all stuck in loops, they will need to build their lab there to keep ahead of the reverting lab equipment.” Albert answered.

“That, that makes sense, I guess. Probably should have thought of that ourselves, but yeah. Alright let’s go.” Cal started leading them to the bedroom. He could hear Ethel laughing in the background. It sounded like everyone had decided to follow.

Five minutes later Cal was being berated by a flabbergasted Andrew. “Really, and you didn’t think to ask me if I wanted to share my residence with a bunch of rodents?”

“I mean, no I didn’t, you could use some real socialization, plus I bet they could build you an actual bedroom, maybe help you start living a bit more like a real person again.”

“Hrm, they do know how to cook I suppose.”

“That’s the spirit” Ralth cut in. “You will all be friends in no time.”

“Oh good, you’re all back, I found this platform way out in the darkness. It has a blinking message I can’t read, can someone read it for me?” Barron appeared out of the darkness dragging the platform behind himself. Cal and Andrew quickly went to work helping him reel it in and attaching it to the other platforms just as they had done before.

“What does it say?!” Barron asked excitedly.

“Please enter primary user, it’s probably just one of Andrew’s computer terminals from the lab.” Cal answered.

“It’s not, that looks like something from a nineteen fifties sci fi film. It’s certainly nothing we would have been using.” Andrew responded.

“Huh, well then what happens if I do this?” Cal entered his name own name into the prompt and pressed the enter key.

The new message on screen read “Hello Cal, Welcome to the R.I.S. Please select from an option below” Cal read this message and the list of options out loud.

Enter Party Members

Status Screen

Remove White Flash Event

Help

“Wait, how does the computer know about the white flash event? Something weird is going on.” Andrew asked.

“It’s possible this is a gift from the universe, maybe she found a way to directly aid us.” Ralth said.

“Is that even possible, is the universe sapient?” Cal asked his brother.

“Of course, I’ve spoken to a few universes on the verge of death thanks to the Gryalth. I’m sure ours doesn’t want to join them. Try hitting help and seeing what it says.”

Cal did as his brother commanded and was greeted with more options.

What is the R.I.S.?

What are Party Members?

What is the Status Screen?

What is the White Flash Event?

Everyone had now crowded around the area trying to read the screen. Several people were trying to ask questions and give Cal orders at once. “Everyone relax, I will go through each option one at a time. I’ll read off what each thing says for less literate members as well.”

“Thanks Cal.” Bug and Barron said in unison.

Cal picked the first option and read the resulting text aloud. “The Reality Insight System allows for the primary user to see various background universal effects in a form that they can understand. Since the primary chosen user is Cal Marshall, a hybrid between tabletop role playing games and video games has been chosen as the medium to convey these results.”

Cal moved onto the second help option. “Party members are people that Cal has chosen as allies, and have accepted his invitation to be such. This allows them to use and review data in the R.I.S. as well as Cal.”

He moved onto the next option. “The Status Screen is a representation of the selected entries’ abilities, education, growth, knowledge and other traits defined as levels.”

He picked the final option. “The White Flash Event is the current natural end of a loop. It is in place to give the champions a chance to grow and fight the gryalth on equal foot. Now that there is a primary user, the White Flash Event can be disabled. In this the natural end of a loop is now directly tied to the primary user’s life. If they die the loop will restart, no matter how early or often it occurs.” Cal looked around after he finished reading the help options to everyone.

“We should disable the white flash event.”

“And why should we do that Andrew? I’m not sure if I want the loops entirely tied to me.”

“Because Cal, it will let progress past the point we are stuck at. We can start learn from the full Gryalth invasion and begin to see what are really against.”

“Andrew is correct, brother. It’s the only way we can truly begin to prepare.” Ralth added.

“Look, I agree, I just don’t know if I like it. Am I really main character material here?”

“No, but I’m stuck here, so someone has to do it. Just go enter us as your party and then disable the event. We can then start playing around whatever the status screen says.” Andrew suggested.

“Fine.” Cal selected option three. The screen flashed the words White Flash Event disabled and returned back to the main screen with only three options now. Cal had made himself the focal point of the loops. For better or worse it really was on him to save the world.