Date: 25 May 2015 13:02 Title: Betty Tyler (October 24 – 28, 1929)
Oh, so maybe he's just had a lesson in consequences!
Author's Response:
Big consequences here, but they are not quite big enough.
Date: 20 May 2015 21:13 Title: Betty Tyler (October 24 – 28, 1929)
Ooh, I knew something like this would happen. How does Daniels undo it?
Author's Response:
All will be revealed .... ;)
I'm such a tease.
Date: 20 May 2015 18:27 Title: Betty Tyler (October 24 – 28, 1929)
Well, there's our first big consequence of this whole endeavor; a suicide as a result of someone standing someone up. Got to say, it fits in well with the time period (the Great Depression was an end to so many things). Nicely done capturing that era's unique style in such a short space.
Author's Response:
Oh, thank you - I see Betty as being a kind of Daisy Buchanan wannabe.
And there isn't always going to be a big, fat reset button available ....
Date: 20 May 2015 17:49 Title: Betty Tyler (October 24 – 28, 1929)
One wonders too if he had stayed at the desk and done his job might he have averted the Crash!? Goes to show the ripples that can be caused by the actions of others. Shows too in truth, that our own actions can cause ripples but we don't have the fortune of being able to go back and changing our mistakes.
Author's Response:
I play it as there being 3 kinds of ripples - otric is stuff that matters very little. His dalliances with Lucretia and Irene are definitely in this camp. Pariotric is changes that matter and that mere mortals can effect. Betty is here; Dana would be except she's already in an AU so it doesn't really matter (I don't get into whether the alternate timeline lasts after the prime timeline is fixed and everything jumps back on track. That's philosophy for another day). Megaotric are big-ass changes like the demise of the dinosaurs that people really can't practically change. And yes, they're all named for Otra. She's an eponym.
Date: 20 May 2015 16:26 Title: Betty Tyler (October 24 – 28, 1929)
Standing a girl up causes the timeline to switch! Bad boy! Man this temporal agency seem pretty lax on the interfering. Another great period piece with a Star Trek twist. Well done.
Author's Response:
Aw, thanks - and there are more consequences to come, but Betty is the turning point.
Date: 20 May 2015 13:45 Title: Betty Tyler (October 24 – 28, 1929)
Yes, Rick. These are real people's lives you're, ahem, fucking with.
Will he learn a lesson? Time will tell. Of course, Rick has far too much control over time, which is part of his problem in the first place.
Author's Response:
It is such an uneven situation, it's not funny. He can go back and fix Betty (in a way) or any of them. Sometimes he needs to, sometimes not (e. g. whatever happens to Dana in that iteration).
I have to figure that the situation with time travelers would always be fraught with inequality. If someone from 3101 arrived today, how would they act? They would know, we would not. Mash that up with someone who's depressed and looking for an easy outlet to make him feel better (a bandaid on a deeper wound), and you get someone like Rick.