Time is The Essence (the pals time travel au)

Past self ponderings

Alex Orman (Past self)

Emotion: hopeful

Today's the day we meet our future selves. I'm not sure how we're able to exist in a place where time doesn't exist, or how any of us from any timeline can just be pulled into this reality. It's a very interesting technology if you think about it.

I'm excited for what is to come, but I feel like there's really no reason for our future selves to do this. I'm not sure why they would want to spoil the future to us, isn't the future supposed to be discovered on it's own? And besides, who would want to interact with their past selves anyways?

This inter-dimensional waiting room is nice. It's a stereotypical suburban park, with perfect weather and a lovely breeze that blows through the trees nearby, sending green leaves aflutter. I sit on the ground and lean my back against a tree as I watch Denis and corl sit on a bench and play rock-paper-scissors with Elijah cheering them on. Sub is sitting next to me eating a sandwich as I write in my notebook while my other hand feels the cool grass beneath it. 

I check my wristwatch. The time reads as an indistinguishable smudge. I decide not to focus on the fact that we aren't in the same dimension as our other friends and family, and instead focus my gaze on the innocent yellow wildflowers that have sprouted amongst the grass. 

I was told our future selves came from 2022, five years from where we're from, 2017. I wonder if the pals went viral, to the point of everyone knowing who we are. I wonder if we ever went on tour, I wonder if we make it to stardom...

Or I wonder if the pals broke apart.

I push that thought away. No, there's no way that could happen, I mean, even if we stopped the channel we'll all surely do collabs and meet up sometimes and hop on discord at 3 in the morning and make silly little jokes and laugh until our sides hurt. Surely we still do that, right?

Well, I suppose only time will tell. I close my eyes and let the breeze soothe my anxious thoughts. 

"Alex?" Sub asks. 

"Sub?" I respond. 

"What are you writing in your diary, and more importantly, how did you even bring that here?" Sub ponders. 

"Well, It was actually given to me by a lady that led us here. She said that someone needs to document this feat of technology."  I explain, noticing that Denis and corl have stopped playing rock paper scissors, and are now engaging in a conversation with Sketch. 

"Well, I think it's pretty cool that she chose you for the job." Sub says with a smile. 

"Hey look, there's a rainbow!" I notice. Far off in the distance, the curved spectacle of light displays itself hidden in the clouds. 

"Well, isn't that something." Sub says, looking at it with me. 

A rainbow can travel many many miles, taking you from one place to another if you were really determined to follow it. Much like that rainbow, I believe that this experience will take us somewhere we've never expected to go in our entire lives.