Lines in Chalk [IC]

[mrwest13]

You wake up this morning with a new sense of purpose, readiness even. It was only yesterday afternoon that you discovered that you could time travel.

Well, not really time travel. To you, it feels like a quick hop from point A to point B. Some odd properties come along with this, all of which you're sure you don't fully understand yet. In the process of experimenting last night, you managed to lose your wallet, including your driver's license, cash, and credit cards. On the plus side, you still have your passport, and now you have two of the same kitchen timer in your apartment.

These ghostly, chalky-looking lines that were the demise of your wallet have disappeared overnight, but have been replaced by an only slightly more substantial looking red line over your bed. Testing recalling to this point, you find yourself back in your bed with the alarm clock going off: 6:00 A.M.

It's significantly easier to get out of bed this time, as your brain is already awake. The original plan was to sleep and recall back to last night and keep figuring this thing out. As you begin to experiment again, you find that this odd red line doesn't stop you from creating the two chalk lines that you could draw last night, so that's a plus.

It's 6:05 on September 4 and you, Steven Marquist, are wallet-less.

[Re'ozul]

'Not my smartest move, I have to admit. Kinda limits my options for a while.'

Going about his morning hygene, Steven thinks about how to use his newfound abilities to work around that little problem.
After dressing, he makes sure his travel-pocket as he has come to call it is empty and sets a line. The red one may work but he isn't about to trust it just yet. Once more cursing the fact that he lost his wallet he goes scrounching through his flat to see if he can find any loose change or maybe a fiver he put somewhere sometime.

[mrwest13]

The jar of change in your bedroom comes to mind after your search for a bill comes up fruitless. You dig out a mundane-looking quarter and put it in your pocket.

[Re'ozul]

Looking through the jar for a few more larger denomination coins, he puts a handful on the counter and makes a second line. Putting all of them into his pocket he jumps back to this one putting the now duplicated coins on the counter. He makes a new line, puts the coins into his pocket and repeats the process three more times.

'There, that should be enough to get me through the day. I should probably stop by the bank first to exchange these for notes. Then work, then the DMV for a new license. Wonder wether I should have my credit cards notified as missing or stolen, no ones gonna use them anymore either way.'

Grabbing his Jacket, he puts all the coins into the inner pockets, somewhat emabarssed at how unwieldy it makes the jacket feel. He erases his money making lines, creates a new one as he is about to leave and moves onto the streets for the bus stop. He knows he could take the car, but potentially being stopped and having to rewind just for transportation is not something he looks forward to.

[mrwest13]

A man at the bus stop looks at your slightly overstuffed pockets, but looks away when you shoot him a glance. Within 10 minutes, a bus comes by to pick you up. You pay your $2 fare, leaving you with about $43 in change.

After a couple stops, you get off the bus and walk a block to a branch of Citibank. They are just opening their doors at 7:30.

[Re'ozul]

A quick line along an unobtrusive grout in the exterior of the bank, Steven walks in looking for a coin counter machine that would allow direct exchange from coins to notes.

[mrwest13]

You can't seem to find a coin machine, but all of the teller windows are open. You're the only one in the bank at the moment, so you decide to exchange the change in person, which you know this bank will do. The teller is so used to exchanging large amount of change and small bills, that he doesn't look twice when you empty change from your pockets. In a few minutes, you have $41, denominated into one $20, $10, and $5. The leftover six $1 bills are just as crisp and pristine as the other notes you are given, as it is the beginning of the day.

You slip the money into your pocket.

[Re'ozul]

Finding a small alley nearby that is not currently in use by a vagrant, Steven repeats his small duplicating trick until a set of bills lines every non-transitional pocket.
Feeling a bit adventurous considering just how easy this all seems, he waves in a cab and tells the driver to bring him to work, writing a line as the drive starts.

He strikes up a conversation with the driver about the weather and family, for once not caring if he is embarassing or angering the driver as in either case he can simply go back and start over again.
The thought creeps him out somewhat as he begins to feel inadequate in the face of the overwhelming possibilities the power offers.

Spoiler

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Since I don't want to play out the entire conversation due to repeated rewinds, I'm going to define his mode of operation for it.
1: start asking about family and friends. Remember all information. Dig as deep as driver permits to the point where he gets angry.
2: Rewind to start and start again, but letting information from first go flow into it indirectly such as being told the driver has an older sibling and now saying how he read something about sibling rivalry.
3: In doing this several times, he is basically attempting to use his power to be able to strike up a deep and personal conversation with a total stranger, by abusing his abilities as a test run for further manipulations later on.

Active lines:
- Walking out the apartment door
- Start of Taxi Drive

[mrwest13]

The taxi drive is short, only held up occasionally by lights. Your strategy seems to work somewhat, although the taxi driver doesn't seem as interested in talking as others you have met. It may just be because it is early in the morning, or because he is a naturally cautious person, but the most you can seem to get from him by the end of the cab ride is a smile and a handshake.

The trip takes 15 minutes and costs $13, leaving you with 5 minutes to spare before being late to work and $233 in your various pockets.

[Re'ozul]

Setting another line just before he enters the building, Steven walks in and takes seat in his cubicle. He could probably just relieve the day several times and not have to go to work, but for now his trust in these abilities in still shaky and he doesn't want to risk them burning out on him in a situation where he might lose his job.

The workload seems as dull and uninteresting as usual, at least he'll be able to save some time whenever he needs to look something up.

Spoiler

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Gotta go to bed now:
Unless something out of the ordinary happens he will simply work, not even really using the lines.

Active Lines:
- Leaving apartment
- Entering Workplace

[mrwest13]

The workday seems painfully mundane. Much more so than usual. The contrast to your morning just creates an even more stark picture of how your life as a desk drone has been up to this point.

A couple co-workers come by to make general banter and drop off paper copies of work orders. You find it somewhat difficult to behave normally, but none of them seem to pick up on anything out of the ordinary. You do have to turn down an offer for happy hour after work due to the lack of a driver's license, however.

[Re'ozul]

'Dear Lord. Working while you know you have this kind of ability is even more monotonous and boring. I'll have to expedite gaining freedom of that soon.'

Knowing that he wouldn't be able to stand another run through this drudgery should something unforeseen happen, he draws another line.

'Now lets see if the DMV is even still open.'

He hails another cab and lets himself be driven there. He is starting to like not really having to worry about money and such.

Spoiler

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Active Lines:
- Entering Workplace
- Exiting Workplace

[mrwest13]

The cab makes it to the DMV, but you find that they are closing in 20 minutes, and the line is certainly too long to make it to the front in time. It is 15:40.

[Re'ozul]

Deciding to see nonetheless how far he could make it, Steven draws another line and takes a place at the end of the queue.

Spoiler

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Active lines:
-Exiting Work
-Entering DMV

[mrwest13]

As expected, you make it to about 4 people from the front and then the employees turn you away as they prepare to close for the day.

[Re'ozul]

Now knowing how far he would come normally, Steven jumps back to when he entered the DMV and attempts to bribe the 4 people in front of him with twenty dollars each to let him advance.

Spoiler

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Active lines:
-Exiting Work
-Entering DMV

[mrwest13]

Two of the patrons are bribed easily enough, but the third also needs a new driver's liscence, as his expires today. Talk about waiting until the last minute.

The fourth person seems to be a little too well off to take a $20 bribe.

[Re'ozul]

While the man waiting for his new license could probably be bought off, the last one presents a bit of a problem. Not having counted on someone evading the lure of money, Steven is too tired from his day at work to truly come up with a more complex solution.
Jumping back to when he exited work, he decides to go home instead, planning to tackle the DMV problem tomorrow. To that end he hails a cab and tells the driver to get him to his home adress.

[Re'ozul]

Noticing that his 'future'-line is still in place, Steven stops for a moment. He had not experimented this way the other night. This made for greater opportunities.

Still in thought he rides the cab home, and gets ready for bed.
Remembering that the red line had sent him to 6:00am, he sets his alarm for 6:15. At least now he knows that, should the red line stay the same tomoroow and an attempt to use it push him back to today, at least he'll be able to jump back to the "future" he then came from by first inscribing a line at 6:15 tomorrow.

Spoiler

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Active Lines
- Exiting Work
- Going to bed

I am very much reminded of the "Brows held high" review for Primer with this possibility in the lines system, so I made the last sentence a bit more convoluted on purpose.

[mrwest13]

You wake up 7 minutes before your alarm is set to go off. The habits of work at play.

The red line on your bed seems to be unchanged from the state it was in yesterday. You can feel your chalk lines from yesterday, still where you left them.

It's 6:08 A.M.

[Re'ozul]

'Should I try it or not? Last time I had no personal lines active, what if it erases my own lines? I'd have to go through work again. Not if I can help it.'

Deciding, not to chance his luck, Steven gets up and does his morning hygiene routine. He once again multiplies his money to have 41$ in each pocket.

Drawing a line he is about to leave the flat, when he realizes he has no idea when the DMV actually open, only having had eyes for the closing time yesterday. Sitting down at the PC for a moment he attempts to find the opening times.

[mrwest13]

The DMV appears to open at 8 A.M., and will take about 25 minutes in the current traffic to get to. It's currently 7:00.

[Re'ozul]

Looking at his watch, Steven considers the circumstances.

'So I have maybe another half-hour before I have to go.'

Deciding to prepare, he combes his apartment for any and all papers he has for himself, from birth certificate to high school diploma.
After collecting everything, doing some jumps inbetween to minimize search time, he looks over his appearance again, then draws a line and leaves the appartment.

He calls a cab and has it bring him to the DMV.

Spoiler

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Active Lines:
- mid-search for papers line
- Leaving the appartment

[mrwest13]

You grab your birth certificate, social security card, and some old mail addressed to your apartment. Hailing a cab, you arrive at the DMV about 5 minutes before it opens. It seems like the more you use lines to save time, the more obnoxious waiting becomes.

Just as the doors are being unlocked, a man in a suit talking on his cell phone walks right in front of you and goes up to the one employee working the counter. You know he saw you. He just seems to think his time is more valuable than yours.

[Re'ozul]

Having made a line as he arrived at the DMV (to not have to take the cab again in case of a jump), Steven jumps back to that point.
While objectively he knows that waiting another 5 minutes will be tedious and most likely not worth it, he came here this early for a reason and won't be denied.

Thirty seconds before the opening, he replaces the arrival line with a new one and positions himself in a way he hopes will discourage the suited man from cutting in line.

Spoiler

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Active lines:
- Leaving appartment
- 30 seconds timer

[mrwest13]

This time, the man simply pushes you out of the way to get to the clerk.

[Re'ozul]

Not wanting to let this rest, but also not wanting it to escalate into a physical confrontation, Steven follows the man inside staying as close as is possible for seeming polite and listens carefully for any information on the man as he talks to the worker. His Name, occupation and such are the most important to him.

Spoiler

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Active lines:
- Leaving appartment
- 30 seconds timer

[mrwest13]

You can't make out much from his half of the phone conversation, and the man does a pretty effective job of blocking your view of his documents. He keeps pointing at things and miming to the worker to get her to understand what he wants.

[Re'ozul]

Deciding that repeating the entrance over and over without further information would be pointless, Steven decides to wait for now and gauge how long Mr. Rude's stuff will most likely take. After all, he'll have plenty of time for a measured revenge later.

[mrwest13]

The man takes about 7 minutes at the counter, and stuffs all of the documents into his breast pocket before turning to leave.

The clerk looks at you, "Can I help you?"