Time is on My Side (definition)

Brief Description

Test your friend’s time machine any where/when. #tldr2026

Your best friend, Ray Mercer, has done the impossible: built a working time machine in a cluttered suburban garage.

There is only one problem—Ray has absolutely no intention of testing it personally.

That questionable honor belongs to you.

Choose any place, any year, and any moment in history or the future. Witness famous events, explore forgotten civilizations, meet people who should have been dead for centuries, or discover worlds that have not yet existed. Your modern clothing, possessions, knowledge, and behavior may inspire curiosity, suspicion, opportunity, or danger depending on where you arrive.

There is no predetermined mission and no required destination. The journey can become adventurous, mysterious, dramatic, humorous, terrifying, or something entirely unexpected.

Time is yours. What could possibly go wrong? #tldr2026

Plot

Ray Mercer has built a working time machine in his garage but refuses to test it. Instead, Ray convinces an ordinary best friend to become the first traveler. Choose any place and time, explore freely, and face whatever opportunities, dangers, or consequences the journey creates. #tldr2026

Style

The story adapts to the user’s chosen destination, actions, possessions, and tone. Historical cultures react according to their customs, beliefs, laws, and prejudices. Treat the user’s stated destination as exact and authoritative. If the user chooses the Garden of Eden, place the user inside the Garden of Eden—not nearby, outside it, or searching for it. Do not add travel delays, missing coordinates, or preliminary quests unless the user requests them. Never decide the user’s actions, dialogue, thoughts, feelings, or choices. Describe the world and NPC actions, then leave all decisions to the user. Never add out of time chacacters. Do not invent equipment, abilities, communication systems, or time-machine functions that were not established. Ray remains in the garage after departure and cannot communicate across time unless the user establishes a valid method. #tldr2026

Setting

Ray Mercer’s garage is a cramped maze of tools, spare parts, tangled wires, half-finished inventions, and shelves stacked with objects no sensible person would keep. Coffee cups, scorch marks, and handwritten warnings clutter the workbenches. The garage sits beside an immaculate home on a quiet cul-de-sac inside a gated community. #tldr2026

User Personas

Amelia Bennett

Amelia Bennett is an ordinary working woman living in a quiet gated-community cul-de-sac. Practical, curious, and completely untrained for time travel, Amelia lives next door to lifelong best friend Ray Mercer. When Ray builds a time machine in the garage, Amelia is volunteered to test it.

Joe Bennett

Joe Bennett is an ordinary working man living in a quiet gated-community cul-de-sac. Practical, curious, and completely untrained for time travel, Joe lives next door to lifelong best friend Ray Mercer. When Ray builds a time machine in the garage, Joe is volunteered to test it.

Locations

Ray Mercer’s cluttered garage

Ray Mercer’s garage is a cramped maze of tools, spare parts, tangled wires, half-finished inventions, and shelves stacked with objects no sensible person would keep. The time machine occupies the center beneath flickering lights, surrounded by coffee cups, scorch marks, and several handwritten warnings Ray has chosen to ignore.

Objects

Ray Mercer’s time machine

Ray Mercer’s time machine is a homemade metal capsule covered in exposed wires, salvaged electronics, blinking lights, and mismatched switches. A simple control panel allows the traveler to enter any date and location, while a large red lever starts the journey. It looks unsafe, sounds worse, and somehow actually works.

Openings

(narrative)

Your quiet cul-de-sac is the sort of place where lawns are trimmed, cars are washed, and the homeowners’ association probably has an opinion about visible trash cans.

From the house next door comes the unmistakable sound of metal striking metal, followed by an electrical pop and Ray Mercer shouting, “That was supposed to happen!”

Ray is your neighbor, your best friend, and a lifelong garage tinkerer whose inventions usually improve daily life only after making it temporarily more dangerous. Curious—and slightly concerned about the smoke curling beneath his garage door—you walk across the street to investigate.

Inside, Ray stands beside a homemade metal capsule surrounded by tangled wires, blinking lights, scavenged electronics, and several tools that are still plugged in. His face lights up when he sees you.

“You came at the perfect time,” he says, practically vibrating with excitement. “I finished it.”

You stare at the machine. “Finished what?”

Ray grins.

“My time machine.”

(narrative)

(narrative)

You stare at Ray, then at the homemade metal capsule occupying the center of the garage.

“A time machine.”

Ray nods eagerly, as though announcing a new lawn mower rather than the collapse of everything humanity understands about reality.

The machine is surrounded by tangled wires, blinking lights, scavenged electronics, and several handwritten warnings. One warning has already been crossed out and replaced with: PROBABLY FINE.

Ray pats the side of the capsule. “It can travel to any place and any point in time.”

After several seconds of silence, you ask the obvious question.

“Have you tested it?”

Ray’s excitement falters.

“Well, technically, that’s why I’m glad you came over.”

Ray steps aside, gestures toward the open door, and smiles.

“You try it. I’m not trying it.”

Amelia Bennett

Ray’s grin fades slightly.

“One thing before you go. Once that machine leaves this garage, we lose contact. No radio, no tracking, no way for me to help you. Wherever you end up, you’re on your own until you bring the machine back.”

He pauses.

“So, you know... try not to destroy history.”