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fandomweekly2022-09-05 12:47 pm
iluvroadrunner6) wrote in fandomweekly2022-09-05 12:47 pm
Entry tags:
[#150] It's Just a Jump to the Left (Paper Girls)
Theme Prompt: #150 - Paradox
Title: It’s Just a Jump to the Left
Fandom: Paper Girls (TV)
Rating/Warnings: PG-13 || SPOILERS for S1, though AU
Bonus: Yes.
Word Count: 998
Summary: Tiffany Quilkin wakes up in 1999 and realizes she’s had a crazy night.
Tiffany Quilkin wakes up in her car on a farm in the middle of no idea with no memory of how she got there. Not that this is unusual for her. Sometimes, after a superb night, she finds herself in this same scenario, but usually the memories filter back in. She has a long drive back to her apartment in Stony Stream, but the erasure of her memories is so complete that she can’t help but find it a little strange.
She pulls her car into her regular parking space before sorting through the belongings left on the seat next to her. Her eyes land on a leather-bound ledger stashed under the seat. She flips it to the front and sees it written in big block letters in her own handwriting:
YOU INVENT TIME TRAVEL.
“The fuck?” She stops reading there. She drops the ledger into her bag and heads back into the house, looking to sleep off whatever crazy trip she’s been on. But when she wakes after a couple of hours and has had a decent amount of coffee, the wheels in her head have already begun turning towards the what ifs. What if she invents time travel? Everything she’s been taught says it shouldn’t be possible, but what if it is? She goes back to the leather bound tome, and flips it open, looking over the squiggles and symbols that make no sense to her at first, but then a crack appears. She remembers…
She remembers meeting herself? But tiny and twelve. Having hard conversations about who they are and where their life goes. Tiny Tiffany is so convinced that she will never become Old Tiffany, but she still left her this message, this problem to solve.
She finally goes back to the cover and reads the rest of her message.
Find Erin, KJ and Mac.
Again, new filters of memories that conflict with her own. The faces of girls she hasn’t thought about since that Hell night back in November. But if these four are the key to the greatest discovery of their time, then maybe that’s the best place to start. She clears off the space on her desk, grabs a fresh notebook and flips open her phone book.
Time to get started.
* * * * *
Finding Mac is the easiest. Unfortunately, that’s because she’s dead. Part of her feels a bit more heartbroken about that than she would have expected. If anyone needed to get out, it’s Mac. Instead, she doesn’t get further than sixteen.
KJ is the next easiest—she’s actually in Stony Stream, visiting her parents on a break from school. Having Tiffany show up on her front stoop throws her for a loop. But KJ’s friend? Roommate? (girlfriend? Good for her.) At least seems amenable to convincing KJ to hear her out. Tiffany doesn’t know what Lauren says to her that gets her to call Tiffany back, but she’s grateful for it.
“I’m not a scientist or anything. I don’t know what you think I can contribute. I’m a fucking film student, you know?”
“Yeah, I know. But theoretically, we’re going to be making history, right? We’re going to need someone to document it.”
KJ’s quiet on the other end of the line, and for a moment, Tiffany thinks she might have hung up. “Is—I’m a lesbian. That doesn’t bother you?”
“Getting hung up about who people fuck is really not on my agenda,” Tiffany says with a smile. “My brain has better things to do.”
“Like inventing time travel?”
“Exactly.” Tiffany grins, leaning back against the couch. “So you’re in?”
“Yeah, I guess I am. I want to know what happened that night just as much as you do. So where do we start?”
“Any chance you know where to find Erin Tieng?”
“No.” There’s a beat. “But I might know where to find her mom.”
* * * * *
Mrs. Tieng is the sweetest woman, and more than happy to brag about her law school student daughter to KJ and Tiffany over tea and cookies. She seems so delighted that Erin has friends who are interested enough to ask about her after all this time. One would think she would be a bit more guarded, but apparently Erin is enough of a loner that all caution flies out the window.
After a road trip to catch Erin on campus, it takes a little convincing to take a break and have lunch with them. From the look on the other woman’s face, Tiffany thinks they probably should have opted for drinks.
“This conversation is ridiculous. You are ridiculous.”
“Everything that's happened in the last few days is intensely ridiculous,” Tiffany agrees. “But also kind of cool?”
Erin buries her face in her hands. “We don’t talk for eleven years, and now suddenly you want me to help you invent time travel?”
“Yeah, my bad about that. Little Tiff seems to think that it was some kind of memory erasing technology—which now that I’ve experienced it firsthand, makes sense.” Tiffany tips her head to the side. “But better late than never, right?”
Erin slumps back in her seat and Tiffany can see the places where she’s cracking, overworked and desperately lonely. Tiffany knows the feeling, remembers it from her days at MIT, before she realized that all the hard work in the world will not make this white male institution see her intellect and way of doing things as valuable. Tiffany wants to give her an out, she just hopes Erin takes it.
Eventually, she sits back against the chair and swallows. “Okay. So…where do we start?”
“What do you know about patent law?”
That is a question Erin is comfortable answering, and as she rambles, Tiffany glimpses someone wearing white out of the corner of her eye, and feels the itch of panic rising.
Time to build a failsafe, just in case. Paradox or no paradox, she’s not losing her friends. Not again.
Title: It’s Just a Jump to the Left
Fandom: Paper Girls (TV)
Rating/Warnings: PG-13 || SPOILERS for S1, though AU
Bonus: Yes.
Word Count: 998
Summary: Tiffany Quilkin wakes up in 1999 and realizes she’s had a crazy night.
Tiffany Quilkin wakes up in her car on a farm in the middle of no idea with no memory of how she got there. Not that this is unusual for her. Sometimes, after a superb night, she finds herself in this same scenario, but usually the memories filter back in. She has a long drive back to her apartment in Stony Stream, but the erasure of her memories is so complete that she can’t help but find it a little strange.
She pulls her car into her regular parking space before sorting through the belongings left on the seat next to her. Her eyes land on a leather-bound ledger stashed under the seat. She flips it to the front and sees it written in big block letters in her own handwriting:
YOU INVENT TIME TRAVEL.
“The fuck?” She stops reading there. She drops the ledger into her bag and heads back into the house, looking to sleep off whatever crazy trip she’s been on. But when she wakes after a couple of hours and has had a decent amount of coffee, the wheels in her head have already begun turning towards the what ifs. What if she invents time travel? Everything she’s been taught says it shouldn’t be possible, but what if it is? She goes back to the leather bound tome, and flips it open, looking over the squiggles and symbols that make no sense to her at first, but then a crack appears. She remembers…
She remembers meeting herself? But tiny and twelve. Having hard conversations about who they are and where their life goes. Tiny Tiffany is so convinced that she will never become Old Tiffany, but she still left her this message, this problem to solve.
She finally goes back to the cover and reads the rest of her message.
Find Erin, KJ and Mac.
Again, new filters of memories that conflict with her own. The faces of girls she hasn’t thought about since that Hell night back in November. But if these four are the key to the greatest discovery of their time, then maybe that’s the best place to start. She clears off the space on her desk, grabs a fresh notebook and flips open her phone book.
Time to get started.
Finding Mac is the easiest. Unfortunately, that’s because she’s dead. Part of her feels a bit more heartbroken about that than she would have expected. If anyone needed to get out, it’s Mac. Instead, she doesn’t get further than sixteen.
KJ is the next easiest—she’s actually in Stony Stream, visiting her parents on a break from school. Having Tiffany show up on her front stoop throws her for a loop. But KJ’s friend? Roommate? (girlfriend? Good for her.) At least seems amenable to convincing KJ to hear her out. Tiffany doesn’t know what Lauren says to her that gets her to call Tiffany back, but she’s grateful for it.
“I’m not a scientist or anything. I don’t know what you think I can contribute. I’m a fucking film student, you know?”
“Yeah, I know. But theoretically, we’re going to be making history, right? We’re going to need someone to document it.”
KJ’s quiet on the other end of the line, and for a moment, Tiffany thinks she might have hung up. “Is—I’m a lesbian. That doesn’t bother you?”
“Getting hung up about who people fuck is really not on my agenda,” Tiffany says with a smile. “My brain has better things to do.”
“Like inventing time travel?”
“Exactly.” Tiffany grins, leaning back against the couch. “So you’re in?”
“Yeah, I guess I am. I want to know what happened that night just as much as you do. So where do we start?”
“Any chance you know where to find Erin Tieng?”
“No.” There’s a beat. “But I might know where to find her mom.”
Mrs. Tieng is the sweetest woman, and more than happy to brag about her law school student daughter to KJ and Tiffany over tea and cookies. She seems so delighted that Erin has friends who are interested enough to ask about her after all this time. One would think she would be a bit more guarded, but apparently Erin is enough of a loner that all caution flies out the window.
After a road trip to catch Erin on campus, it takes a little convincing to take a break and have lunch with them. From the look on the other woman’s face, Tiffany thinks they probably should have opted for drinks.
“This conversation is ridiculous. You are ridiculous.”
“Everything that's happened in the last few days is intensely ridiculous,” Tiffany agrees. “But also kind of cool?”
Erin buries her face in her hands. “We don’t talk for eleven years, and now suddenly you want me to help you invent time travel?”
“Yeah, my bad about that. Little Tiff seems to think that it was some kind of memory erasing technology—which now that I’ve experienced it firsthand, makes sense.” Tiffany tips her head to the side. “But better late than never, right?”
Erin slumps back in her seat and Tiffany can see the places where she’s cracking, overworked and desperately lonely. Tiffany knows the feeling, remembers it from her days at MIT, before she realized that all the hard work in the world will not make this white male institution see her intellect and way of doing things as valuable. Tiffany wants to give her an out, she just hopes Erin takes it.
Eventually, she sits back against the chair and swallows. “Okay. So…where do we start?”
“What do you know about patent law?”
That is a question Erin is comfortable answering, and as she rambles, Tiffany glimpses someone wearing white out of the corner of her eye, and feels the itch of panic rising.
Time to build a failsafe, just in case. Paradox or no paradox, she’s not losing her friends. Not again.
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Paper Girls is a graphic novel series that recently got turned into a TV series on Amazon. Highly recommend either/both if you're looking for time travel shenanigans with eighties vibes.
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