3A.N.: Hey there, I'm Lai来! |˶˙ᵕ˙ )ﾉﾞ
I don't have much experience with writing but saw this story idea and really wanted to see how it could unfold. ｢( • ﾍ •)
I'll try to be regular posting, probably once a week ^^ ! Any kind of criticism is accepted as long as it's not derogatory or anything of the sorts. I'm here to learn ٩(^ᗜ^ )و ´-
I hope you enjoy the story! ദ്ദി ˉ͈̀꒳ˉ͈́ )✧
You can check the characters' artwork at "unvale . io/world/8ab0f597-bd1b-4479-96fd-a372bea15191"
(No Title)
He should feel relief – elation even. After all, this was the breakthrough he'd been chasing for so long. But instead, a knot of anxiety tightened in his chest, a sensation that had become all too familiar. He rubbed his temples, the faint scent of coffee and stale air clinging to his clothes as he replayed the events that had led him here, to this moment.
Val's apartment had become a labyrinth of paper, books, and discarded coffee cups, a physical manifestation of the chaos in his mind. The space that was once filled with warmth and laughter now became cold and oppressive, each corner a reminder of what had been taken from him. The curtains were perpetually drawn, casting the room in a dim, perpetual twilight that matched the darkness he carried within. His once tidy workspace was now cluttered with a mess of equations scribbled on scraps of paper, blueprints taped to the walls and a tangle of wires that snaked across the floor.
His desk, which had once been neatly organized, now overflowed with papers – equations hastily scrawled in the dead of night, pages torn from old books, and sheets covered in intricate diagrams. It had been months since he last set foot in his lab, unable to face the sterile coldness of it. Instead, he had turned his apartment into his laboratory, filling it with the tools and trappings of his desperate endeavour.
He had stopped eating, sleeping, and living in any real sense of the word. His existence had narrowed to the four walls of the lab, to the relentless pursuit of an answer he wasn't even sure existed. Val was once known for his confidence, a sharp wit and a touch of arrogance that made him the centre of every room. He was the kind of man who thrived under pressure, who could turn any problem into an opportunity with a smirk and a clever remark. But that version of him felt like a distant memory now, buried under layers of grief and guilt. Since it happened, the spark in his eyes had dimmed, replaced by a haunted, desperate determination.
He had never looked back, he didn't doubt his past actions and decisions. Val's physicist brain made him live firmly in the present, sometimes even looking into the future wondering how his research would affect those who came after him. There, crouched over his desk, it didn't matter anymore. He had to fix it, or he'd die trying. This obsession had consumed him ever since he stumbled upon those old, leather-bound notebooks. They had been hidden away, almost forgotten, until that terrible day when he found himself sorting through the remnants of a ghost.
The notebooks had been a shock. They were dusty and worn, edges frayed with age as if they had been handled with both reverence and carelessness over the years. The pages he had previously read had meticulous work within them, yet these books had a strange, haphazard quality to them as if they had been hurriedly assembled, thoughts scrawled in the margins, pages crammed with ideas barely contained within the lines. Val had been hesitant at first, uncertain if he wanted to dive into the personal realm that these notes seemed to hold. But his curiosity, his need to understand, had overwhelmed him, and he found himself drawn into the cryptic world of the research.
The words were filled with references to an artefact believed to hold the power to manipulate time itself. At first, Val had scoffed at the idea. Time travel was the stuff of science fiction, not something a rational, logical physicist like him should entertain. But as he continued to read, the scepticism gave way to something else - something darker. What if it were true? What if this amulet really could do what the notebooks suggested? And more importantly, what if Val could use it to change the course of events that had led him to this point?
This was truly the work of someone fascinated by history - more than fascinated, really. It was someone's life's work, his passion. Val had often teased others about their penchant for digging through ancient ruins and dusty old libraries, in contrast to his love of technology and pragmatic mind. "You belong in the past", he often joked with his more history-tuned friends, "While I'm out there, dragging us kicking and screaming into the future". The memory of those words now felt like a blade twisting in his gut.
He dove deeper into the notebooks, into a world of ancient myths and forgotten histories. The amulet had been discovered in an old excavation site, buried beneath layers of earth and stone, untouched for centuries. Ancient civilisations had been convinced that it was more than just a relic and that it held a power far beyond anything modern science could explain. Val had always dismissed this talk of mysticism and the supernatural, preferring to stay grounded in the hard facts of physics, mathematics and science. But now, those facts had failed him, and he was left grasping at anything that might offer a solution. With this newfound determination, he unwillingly opened the boxes in the attic, finding the amulet while reopening wounds he had hoped to close.
Val had spent countless hours deciphering the notes, tracing the connections between the amulet and the equations that had once seemed so distant from his reality. The books had been onto something, Val realised, something that had eluded even the most brilliant minds of their time. The equations were complex, almost impossibly so, but Val was nothing if not persistent. He began to see patterns, to understand the underlying principles that the notebooks had been hinting at. It was as if the pieces of a long-lost puzzle were finally falling into place, revealing a picture that was both exhilarating and terrifying.
The more he worked, the more the pieces fell into place. Val could feel it in his bones - he was close, so close to something monumental. But the closer he got, the more the fear grew. What if he was wrong? What if this path he was on led to nothing but more pain? Yet, despite the doubts, he couldn't stop. He had to keep going, had to see this through to the end. Every equation, every simulation was a step closer to something he couldn't bring himself to name, a truth too painful to confront directly. The once lively, confident Val had been replaced by a man haunted by the past, by the what-ifs and the could-have-beens that circled endlessly in his mind.
And now, after countless sleepless nights and endless self-recrimination, he had found it - a solution. The numbers lined up, the equations balanced, and for the first time in a long while, there was a glimmer of hope. But that hope has tinged with fear. What if he was wrong again? What if this solution, like the last, was flawed? Val couldn't bear the thought of making the same mistake twice. The possibility gnawed at him, turning his stomach and making his hands tremble as they hovered over the keyboard. He needed to be sure - absolutely certain - but certainty was a luxury he no longer felt he could afford. And with that, he closed his eyes and took a leap of faith.