fast forward. #albedo

i.

act I : master of time

"wouldn't it be cool if we could time travel? although, doing the physics to discover that doesn't sound very cool..." you broke the silence in the lab, catching the attention of your equally bored lab partner.

she hummed in response, thinking about your words. "certainly, though i don't even want to begin to imagine the consequences of that. as cool as that sounds, it's a recipe for disaster."

you sighed, picking up your pen and returning to the mountain of research notes scattered on your desk.

"you're no fun. we're physicists! we should be discovering new things. like time travel!"

"my head is already about to split from the amount of science i do daily, you tyrant boss. look at the amount of research projects the two of us have. we'll die before ever finishing these." she groaned, angrily scribbling on a sheet of paper. probably a wrong calculation again.

your head began to whirr, a wave of hypotheses clouding your mind. the notion of time travel had taken control of you, and you felt the urge to write a new research proposal. the title? "investigation of the possibility of time travel using a clearheart crystal".

"hello? are you even listening? there you go again..." she was used to your antics after working with you for so long. once you were determined to test something, you would never stop until you came to a conclusion.

------

2 years had passed since the start of your time travel experiment. relentless writing and reading were a daily occurrence at that point. you were unstoppable, at the very last stretch of your project. albedo, your boyfriend, was impressed with your progress. your heart skipped a beat knowing that you could impress your genius lover.

well, the next problem was actually locating the rare clearheart crystal first. it was a massive problem; only one had ever been found. you had spent the last 2 years searching for it, even opting to research on-the-go so you could hunt it down.

at the thought of that hurdle you'd yet to overcome, you mentally screamed and punched the air. all you needed was a tiny bit of that crystal, but it was nowhere to be seen.

"you seem quite stressed. won't a shiny crystal brighten up your day? please take a look at what i have to offer." a merchant flashed a smile, putting his precious crystals up for display.

you sighed even harder. another pesky salesman to deal with. you were about to walk off when a certain clear crystal in the corner caught your eye.

what? this guy casually has the crystal i spent 2 years looking for? the price is so cheap!

"i see you're interested in the clear crystal. to be honest, i'm not too sure what this crystal is. just happened to find it. since this crystal is merely a common one, i'll sell it to you for a discount! 10,000 mora."

whaaaat? even cheaper? i've won!

you grinned, ready to rip off the merchant. "i'll take it."

------

your lab partner was out of the city for her current project, and albedo was busy with his own alchemy in dragonspine. it was just you in the lab, tinkering and completing the final few parts of the time machine prototype.

the world around you had blurred into the background. the only thing that mattered was the time machine. you worked non-stop, building and testing again and again.

is this it? is it done? no, i need to check just another time...

you were on the brink of changing the world.

------

spoiler: you ended up changing the world. your theory was right, and the time machine wasn't just a ridiculous dream anymore. it was real, it was all right in front of you.

just going to go for a quick test drive before i show albedo! i don't want to put him in danger until i'm 100% certain it's working.

you inputted the numbers for 5 years later and stepped into the machine. the door shut, and you were on the way to becoming the first person who had ever time travelled.