The Immortal Gazette: Time Travel Tales
The air crackled with a strange energy as the usual gathering of immortals settled into their chairs around the fireplace. Alice and Loki were once again in a curious mood, their conversation full of playful banter, but tonight, Rumplestiltskin seemed to have something particularly unusual in mind.
He leaned forward, his eyes gleaming with intrigue. “Tonight’s story involves one of the most curious—and dangerous—concepts known to the world of both mortals and immortals alike.” He paused dramatically, his grin widening. “Time travel.”
Loki’s face lit up with mischief. “Ah, time travel! Now that is a subject I can get behind. I’ve dabbled in it a bit myself, but I’m curious to see what you have in store.”
Alice raised an eyebrow. “Time travel? You mean... like those mortals who think they can hop around in time and change everything? I bet it’s more trouble than it’s worth.”
“Oh, it is,” Rumplestiltskin said, eyes narrowing as he began his tale. “But let me take you back to a very peculiar incident involving a time-traveling machine—and a most unexpected outcome.”
The Tale of the Time Traveler
Long ago, there was a man known as Professor Horace Pendleton, a brilliant inventor, a man obsessed with the idea of bending time to his will. Unlike the Clockmaker of our previous tale, Pendleton had no interest in the mechanics of time itself; rather, he sought to travel through it, to visit both the past and future.
“A man with a vision,” Loki murmured, grinning. “Not unlike some of the best minds out there. How romantic.”
Rumplestiltskin shot him a sideways glance but continued. “Pendleton spent years constructing a device he called the Chrono-Vessel—an elaborate contraption of gears, levers, and mirrors, designed to carry its occupant forward and backward in time. His goal was simple: to witness history firsthand. The past. The future. He wanted it all.”
“Ambitious little fellow,” Alice said. “I wonder how many times he got his fingers stuck in the gears.”
“He got more than his fingers stuck,” Rumplestiltskin continued with a chuckle. “On the day of the final test, Pendleton, filled with excitement and nerves, sat in the heart of the Chrono-Vessel, set the levers to the desired date, and pulled the lever.”
“And?” Alice asked eagerly, sensing something was about to go awry.
“Instantly, Pendleton was thrust into the future—or so he thought. The world around him was blurry, unfamiliar, and distinctly wrong. Buildings towered above him, strange vehicles zoomed past, and the people—well, they looked... different. Everything he had read about the future seemed to pale in comparison to what he was seeing with his own eyes.”
Loki leaned forward. “Sounds like he hit a bit of a... wrong future. Couldn’t get any worse than that, could it?”
“Ah, but it did,” Rumplestiltskin said. “Pendleton soon realized the flaw in his machine. His Chrono-Vessel had not merely brought him to the future—it had stranded him there, trapped in a reality where he didn’t belong. The machine had malfunctioned, sending him to a timeline where he was nothing more than a ghost in the system, unable to communicate with anyone or make any changes to the world around him.”
Loki let out a low whistle. “Talk about a bad vacation. This guy’s stuck in the future with no way back? That’s a bit of a time-travel nightmare.”
“Exactly,” Rumplestiltskin agreed. “For Pendleton, it was a time traveler’s worst fear—being trapped in a time that wasn’t his own. But it didn’t end there. As he wandered the future, trying to find some way to return, he made a shocking discovery. The future he had entered was not set in stone.”
Alice’s eyes widened. “What do you mean, not set in stone? You mean it could change?”
“Yes,” Rumplestiltskin said darkly. “Pendleton soon realized that the future he had entered was one that could shift—based on his actions. And here’s the twist: every small decision he made seemed to create ripples in the timeline, altering things in ways he couldn’t predict. One small choice led to massive consequences. A conversation here, a misplaced step there, and suddenly, the future he had glimpsed began to unravel. He was causing chaos without even realizing it.”
“Sounds like a perfect disaster waiting to happen,” Alice said, a hint of amusement in her voice. “So, was he able to fix it?”
“Not quite,” Rumplestiltskin replied. “Pendleton tried to reverse the damage he’d done, but it was like trying to fix a broken mirror—no matter how carefully he tried, the cracks kept appearing. He came to realize the harsh truth: time, once tampered with, was no longer something you could control. He had become a disruptor—a person who ruined the future he was so desperate to explore.”
Loki stretched his arms, smirking. “So what’s the moral here? Don’t mess with the timeline, or else you’ll create an alternate reality where everything’s in chaos?”
“Precisely,” Rumplestiltskin said, his voice growing serious. “Pendleton’s story is a cautionary tale. Time travel may sound like an adventure—seeing the past, glimpsing the future—but it’s a dangerous game. A single choice can shatter everything. Pendleton never found his way back to his own time. He was left in an altered future, where every action was met with consequences, and the timeline was irreparably broken.”
Alice leaned back, considering the story. “So time travel isn’t just about going places. It’s about the weight of your actions, the way you affect the world around you. Even in a blink, things can change forever.”
“Exactly,” Rumplestiltskin said with a faint smile. “And Pendleton’s mistake was thinking that time could be mastered, that it could be controlled. Time, my dear immortals, is a force that does not take kindly to meddling.”
Loki, now fully intrigued, gave a nod. “Fascinating. But I do wonder—if I had the Chrono-Vessel, what kind of mischief I could cause... perhaps I should borrow it sometime.”
Alice rolled her eyes. “Oh please, don’t. I’m already tired of your mischief in this time, let alone across all of time.”
Rumplestiltskin chuckled, his eyes gleaming with mystery. “I wouldn’t recommend it. Time may be a great adventure, but it’s not one you want to embark on lightly.”
As the fire crackled and the clocks ticked on in the background, the lesson of Pendleton’s folly lingered in the air—a reminder that time, no matter how tempting, was not to be played with.
🖋️✨📜🖤
