#Time Loops

[prokopetz]

Well, the good news is that you've broken the time loop.

The bad news is that the reason you've broken the time loop is because whatever force was responsible for maintaining it looked at the shit you did on that particular iteration and thought to itself: "you know what would be really fucked up?"

[transfemmbeatrice]

time loops where you’re trapped and it keeps resetting and you’re trying to figure out how to escape. vs time loops where you are in control, you keep slamming the reset button in panic because no not yet, no not THIS, trying to find an outcome you can live with. are you the only one who remembers? is it worse if you aren’t? imagine trying to break out of a time loop and discovering the god you’re trying to please is your friend. they keep dragging you back through this because you’re not getting the outcome they want. maybe that’s the same thing you want. maybe it’s not.

[specialagentartemis]

If I got stuck in a time loop I would simply spend 2-3 weeks enjoying it before I would start trying to figure out how to break it. Yes please give me a couple weeks where I am not obligated to do anything but read my backlog of books and catch up with tv shows and podcasts and sleep and swim and go hiking and not have to worry about obligations at All. Like I don’t want to be stuck in a time loop long term but I am not gonna try to get back to linear time right away

[composeregg]

edit (10/23/2024) now that the poll is over: Original version, with 10 questions, from April 2023 here

And, given that the original is from April 2023, that means I can very easily say:

No, this was not an ISAT reference!

Just because I use parentheses and 2nd person pov and love the same concepts of what a time loop can do to a person doesn't mean it's ISAT

(Yes, I like ISAT, the original poll is why I was recommended the game! But if you look at the original, you can see all the origins of the options to choose from, including what spurred me on with the moss option from the replies)

If I were going to make something for ISAT, I would never be so vague, you can simply look at my ao3 for proof of that

[flwrkid14]

Tim and Danny: The Couple That Could Have Been

Tim Drake and Danny Fenton weren’t just Gotham’s it couple—they were the couple.

Tim, the poised and brilliant CEO, and Danny, the charismatic streamer with a chaotic streak, were the kind of pair that inspired faith in love. Their relationship was public but never performative. The candid photos, the impromptu livestreams where Danny would drag Tim into the frame to tease him about his “ridiculously expensive suits,” the way Tim would smile when he thought no one was looking—it all seemed so real, so untouchable.

For years, they were inseparable, the picture of what love should look like. And Gotham believed in them. People joked that they’d be together in every timeline, every universe, because how could they not be? They were made for each other.

So when Danny uploaded a new video one unassuming Tuesday, everyone thought they knew what was coming.

The engagement announcement.

Danny’s setup was different this time—gone were the familiar vibrant backgrounds and playful chaos. The walls were bare, his face somber, his voice quieter than anyone had ever heard.

“Tim and I…” He paused, swallowing hard. “We’ve decided to go our separate ways.”

What?

No, that couldn’t be right.

This was Tim and Danny. The couple everyone was convinced would make it through anything. The couple people joked would find each other in every timeline, every universe, because it was always them.

But Danny kept talking, his voice trembling as he explained—without really explaining—that they couldn’t make it work. No details, no messy drama, just a quiet goodbye that left everyone feeling like the air had been stolen from the room.

———

The Batfamily found out the same way everyone else did—through Danny’s video. They hadn’t even realized anything was wrong. The last time they saw Tim and Danny together, they’d been the same as always: teasing, bantering, comfortable in each other’s presence.

Bruce was the first to confront Tim about it, cornering him in the Manor with that familiar stern frown.

“Tim, what happened?”

Tim didn’t answer. He couldn’t.

Because he didn’t know either.

Danny had been the one to end it. One day they were fine—perfect, even—and the next, he was breaking up with Tim over coffee, quiet and somber, like he was grieving something Tim couldn’t see.

“I just… we can’t,” Danny had said, his voice trembling. “I’m sorry, Tim. I love you. I’ll always love you. But we can’t keep doing this.”

And that was it. No further explanation.

Now, Tim was left packing up his things from the apartment they’d shared, trying to piece together what went wrong. Danny was on the other side of the room, just as quiet, boxing up his own belongings. They didn’t speak. Couldn’t.

The space between them had never felt so vast.

“I love you,” Danny had said, his voice breaking. “I’ll always love you. But I can’t… we can’t keep doing this.”

And just like that, it was over.

And Danny? Danny knew exactly why.

———

Danny Fenton was a coward.

He’d gone to Clockwork for help after the first heartbreak, unable to bear the thought of living in a world without Tim Drake. He couldn’t undo the pain of losing Tim to the Justice League’s doomed mission, but he could relive the good years.

Clockwork had hesitated.

“This is dangerous, Daniel,” he warned, but Danny didn’t care. He didn’t want to forget Tim. He didn’t want to move on.

So Clockwork granted him his wish.

Again and again, Danny went back. Every time their relationship reached the point of no return—where Tim’s inevitable death loomed on the horizon—Danny would break up with him, retreat to Clockwork, and start over. He couldn’t bear to see Tim die, not again.

But the cycle wasn’t perfect. The cracks showed with each repetition. Danny’s breakups became harder to explain, his excuses more transparent. He could see the hurt in Tim’s eyes, the way his walls went up higher and higher with every iteration.

And still, Danny went back.

Because he couldn’t stop.

Because he couldn’t let go.

———

This time, though, it was different.

This time, as he packed his things, Danny felt the weight of what he’d done pressing down on him like never before. Tim wasn’t angry. He wasn’t even questioning it anymore.

He just looked tired.

And Danny hated himself for being the reason why.

The world moved on, but Gotham felt the loss of Tim and Danny like a phantom limb.

The bats watched Tim retreat further into himself, his work becoming his sole focus, an impenetrable wall between him and everyone else. They wanted answers, but Tim wouldn’t give them. And Danny? Danny disappeared from Gotham entirely, his absence leaving a wound that never seemed to heal. Maybe that’s why Tim would find himself on that mission, before Danny's loop restarted everything again—caught in the endless cycle of fate, unaware of how close he was to losing it all for good.

Clockwork didn’t say anything when Danny returned again, his face pale and his hands shaking. He just stared at Danny with quiet pity, his form shifting through time as if he were trying to decide what version of himself could make Danny stop.

“You can’t keep doing this, Daniel,” Clockwork said softly.

Danny didn’t answer.

Because he knew he’d be back.

Because he couldn’t stop.

Because he’d rather relive the heartbreak a thousand times than face another world where Tim Drake was gone for good.

[captainkirkk]

Currently thinking about the people who AREN'T stuck in the time loop and how jarring that must be

Imagine: You wake up to a morning like any other morning and suddenly you don't recognise your friend. Your friend has lived for years - decades, maybe - in worlds that you can't possible understand and it shows. You don't understand. Your friend was fine yesterday.

And even if you find out about the time loops, you have no memory of them. You can plan, but it's probably something your past selves have already tried. You can offer comfort, but you can't tell them anything they haven't heard before. And you can't go with your friend into tomorrow. You're just a ghost.

[deviousevilton]

@jonmartinweek

day 3: Timeloops

[theshadowrealmitself]

All those videos of people being so distraught about the tiktok ban and then stitching it being like “😬 anyways-“ is exactly why you would never see me do wild shit during a timeloop, cause the second I did, the loop would break, everyone would remember what I did, and I’d have to pretend I didn’t have a little breakdown

[terri-theslime13]

Thinking about time loops thinking about time loops thinking about time loops

"Why would you go back?" "why would you do that to yourself?" "Doesn't it hurt so much?"

You don't understand you can't understand you weren't there you didn't experience it you don't know

It hurts but it's all I have left it's going to be better next time I know it I know it even as the knife goes in my back again even as it stays the same I know it's going to be better because it can't keep going this way

It gets better it gets better it getsbetteritgetsbetterITGETSBETTERITGETSBETTER

I have to get out I need to stay

just one more loop, just one more loop, just one more loop

day after day after day after day after day after day after day after day after day after

it's always the same, but there's still that glimmer of hope, isn't there? Because it's gonna be different, just one more loop

just one more. just two more. just three. just ten. just fifty. just a hundred. just one more loop.

"Doesn't it hurt?" isn't the hurt all I have left? There's comfort in the repetition the repetition the repetition. How could there not be? In here you don't have to face out there. And that hurt is much, much, more painful

The same pain over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again dulls over time, even while it takes more and more each loop. But out there? That's new pain, that's a change in schedule, that's something different, and you don't want difference, do you? That's why you're here isn't it? Desperately hoping for the next loop to change, when the change is out there. You know it's out there. Deep down the repetition is comforting, the blade in your back keeps you steady, you wouldn't want to face the unknown, would you?

Oh it's beautiful? Well it hurts just as much, and you know it. You know you can't face it out there, with no one to help you, none of that disconcerting familiarity. The familiar pain is oh so much better than unfamiliarity, isn't it? Isn't it? Isn't it?

You can keep going around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and hope it changes, the only change that will happen is if you make it. But you're not willing, you're too easily taken in by the familiar, comforting, pain.

It's so much easier to hope for change than to work for it. Just one more loop, right? One more loop, right? One more loop one more just one one one one one one

Just one more loop and I'll get to the end of the circle, one more loop and there's something different, right?

You can get out whenever you want, but you don't want to, do you? You don't want to, you don't want to

You can stay here forever, right? You can stay here forever. You can stay here forever. You can stay here forever. Stay here forever. Stay here forever. Stay here forever. Stay here forever. Stay here

"Why don't you just leave?" I can't, you don't understand, I tried, I can't, I don't want to, it hurts so much, but out there? Out there it hurts even more

Don't ask me how I know, because I don't. I only know what the time loop told me and it told me I can't leave, it told me I don't want to, that it will hurt, that we're already so deeply connected that to escape would kill us both. You don't understand, it hurts too much. You haven't died the way I have, you haven't lived, haven't hurt, haven't seen what I've seen.

Let me out, please let me out, please let me out, please let me out, please let me do it again, please let me do it again, please let me do it again, please let me do it again, please let me do it again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again I can't leave just let me leave let me loop let me leave let me loop let me leave let me loop let me leave let me loop

Don't go, don't go or we both die because too much of ourselves is contained within the other, I can't leave you and you can't leave me, a self sustaining system

You're me and I'm you and I can't leave without killing you and I can't kill you without dying in the process

[hopeworth]

time loops made with noble intentions but instead subject the person who got trapped to an eternal torment nexus because they either have no idea how to break it or the condition for breaking it is something they are not willing to do

[batwynn]

You’re caught in a time loop but you’re chronically ill and maybe it just happens to be one of those rare Good Days that’s now on repeat so you stay in the loop for as long as you can before the universe kicks you out for not Learning the Lesson but you’ve accomplished so much and finally had enough time and spoons to spend with all your friends and it’s been the nicest year of your life.

Or, alternatively, you down a handful of painkillers and speed run this fucking thing because it’s a Bad Health Day and shit is hard enough so fuck your lesson, universe.

[canadiancryptid]

So, hypothetically, if you were stuck in a time loop, how many loops would it take to read all of Ao3?

just want to check before I waste any more loops on this plan

[marlynnofmany]

It would be interesting to write a time loop story where something small actually did change each time, but it takes the character a while to notice it, and longer to figure out what to do about it.

Maybe a single plant is getting taller while the others look exactly the same. Maybe the paint/clay/etc for an art project are actually drying while other things are still wet. Maybe one piece of food left out is actually getting moldy among the rest.

What's special about that one? Is it tied into the reason for the time loop, and the key to break it?

What else is subtly different?

[dapper-nahrwhale]

If mash hadn't given exact dates for certain things, then doubled back on those dates by years, by seasons, both of the show and of time (seasons like spring, summer), then I don't think the mash time loop theory would hold as much credence as it does. But as they did commit the mistake of giving specific dates to times, they fall into the time loop even more easily. The very nature of the show adds to it in the first place. The things they say, about have we been here before? Cue laughtrack. It makes it relatively simple to say yeah this is a time loop. There's more of course, the intrinsic cyclical nature of sitcoms/dramedies and eternal recurrence when it goes on along as mash, as an explanation for the consistent inconstancies in the timeline. And of adaptations being timeloops, having been a book then movie then show, this really has happened many times before. And there's also something to be said for the characters, and how they act about it and how this has happened before. How that is part of the war, it being repetitive and consistently purgatorial, it feeling as though they are stuck with no escape day in and day out, the same surgical theater, the same dirt ground, the same olive drab. It feels like a time loop to them, in not a real sense, but a metaphysical one. So they break up the monotonous horror with whatever they can. Much like how a person would act in a time loop, doing something anything they can to change the outcome they know will always occur. But maybe this time, they'll get out of it.