[...] what I find the most irritating about a time machine just randomly appearing with absolutely no explanation is that it would have been incredibly easy to come up with an explanation for why Aperture has a time machine lying around. I mean, seriously now.
- - Skepkitty, in xyr MST of ITS MY LIFE!
Various different methods of time travel exist in MarissaTheWriter stories. The stories particularly stand out in this manner because, as they incorporate different time travel paradigms from different stories, sometimes time travel ideas clash, creating an ad-hoc unified theory.
Theories of time travel
Our universe's time is flexible, but it isn't infinitely flexible.
ITS MY LIFE! and other Doombly stories typically treat time as two distinct locations: the present, in which ITS MY LIFE! and THE MARRISSA GAMES take place, and the past, in which TEEN FORTRESS 2 and HARRY POTTER AN THE KILL OF SNAPE take place. Both the present and the past incorporate elements from many other source works, often inappropriate to their time (e.g. The Hunger Games actually takes place in the distant future), but the past often avoids such elements, stating that they "haven't been invented yet". This also means that since the present and the past are treated as two different locations in space, not in time, paradoxes cannot occur. A third location, described as being a more distant past than that of TEEN FORTRESS 2, is also introduced in THE KILL OF SNAPE, and exhibits many properties similar to those of the original past.
ASBusinessMagnet stories generally fluctuate between two different views on time travel. The first one is the alternate timeline theory, which states that many chronologies can exist concurrently. It sees use in Post-SCrash Session 3: Spectators of the Host, where Marrissa Roberts is able to exploit the resources of an alternate timeline without any repercussions on her own timeline.
The second theory is the "ripple effect" theory, popularized by Back to the Future, which states that there is only one timeline, but changes can be made to it due to time travel, which are later reflected to other objects. Its most notable use is in Marrissaverse Stories 2015, where time travel prevents Janet Roberts and Jack London from ever being born, and therefore they disappear after spending time in the "bad" Marrissaverse.
Concrete uses of time travel
In ITS MY LIFE!, Marrissa Roberts finds a "werd machine" that she uses to go back to the time of "Portal 1". Later, she ends up even further in the past by misusing her powers, and has to return to the future by a time machine built by Ingineer. Much later, she would misuse her powers in a similar fashion and end up in AG 1964, where she would be inspired to take on the role of Violet Beauregarde.
Portal: The 4th Millennium: The Trollfic Edition features a "werd switch" that Zim and Dib use to get to the future. Later, after Principal Business Man ends up in the future, it is revealed that Atlas and P-Body have had chips installed that allow them to travel in time haphazardly, and Principal Business Man rides them to the past. Still later, Emprase Contone Ovasere has been shown to use a motorcycle to drive around Portal High School's underground part, effectively using Portal High School as a time machine.
The story also features the "time travel exam" that the Ingineer took, and Principal Business Man in particular focuses on what appears to be the grandfather paradox.
In THE MARRISSA GAMES, Agents J and K are in possession of a time machine (given to them by President Abraman Linkan); however, it can only take them to the time streem, where they must go to another location by themselves. Later, Robot and Roslalonde Lettuce employ a similar method of time travel.
Post-SCrash Session is the first story to introduce the delirious time car, pulled from Back to the Future. It appears to function both in the Marrissaverse and in the universe created by Sburb Alpha, the Incipisphere, without problem. It is also able to transport Janet Roberts and Dick Stiller to Welcome to Night Vale, if the "time Serkets" are abused; however, when it's returned, it brings Janet and Dick to an alternate timeline in which Skepness Man was never adopted by Violet Beauregarde.
Skepness Man's own choice of time vehicle is a "rusty BMW". He has been shown to have reverse-engineered a BC Corp sendificator he found at the site of the falmer Hunger Games and make a time travel watch, and later installs the same technology into a car from AG 1. The watch, after Skepness Man had been adopted, is taken on by Janet Roberts and co., and the car is found by Aranna Sorket, who retrieves Cranky Vasquez and Flashlight Girl so they can become chronomads. The same watch has been picked up by Violet from an alternate universe and handed to Janet and co. as a gift, and therefore they are in possession of two watches.
Marrissa Picard owns the Enterprise, a spaceship and portable city that also functions as a time machine able to move backwards, once it exceeds the speed of light and enters "warp speeds". It appears that the higher the warp speed and the longer it is attained, the more the Enterprise travels back in time.
HARRY POTTER AN THE KILL OF SNAPE is the first to demonstrate the possibility of entire settings being transported in time. In particular, Gobo Fraggle is able to transport the setting of the fight between himself, with the monsters he created, and Jenny Weasley, with Queen Elizabeth, to a past where Taylor Swift and Harry Potter's parents were Hogwarts students.
A time machine that is described as an elevator from Portal 2 is used by Doombly to travel from 2013 to 2005 in Violet and the Horrible Fanfic Writer.
See also
Appearances
- ITS MY LIFE! (First appearance)
- TEEN FORTRESS 2
- Portal: The 4th Millennium: The Trollfic Edition
- THE MARRISSA GAMES
- Post-SCrash Session
- Post-SCrash Session 3: Spectators of the Host
- Violet and the Horrible Fanfic Writer
- HARRY POTTER AN THE KILL OF SNAPE
- Marrissaverse Stories 2015
- Meanie Pixies' Hour of Fame