THE MOMENT
Horace was enjoying his breakfast in the mall for the 36584th time. He'd tried all the menu items he cared to, in all combinations. Yet, it wasn't only about sustenance, nor flavor experimentation. He was wildly fascinated with the downstream effects of his orders.
It only took him a couple of days of repetition to realize he was in a daily timeloop, and he set about exploring the city. Horace quickly settled on the mall as an ideal start for his days. The particular period repeating was a beautiful day in autumn, and something of a shopping holiday. It wasn't quite as busy as the Christmas season, but it was close, and Horace had his choice of threads to follow.
It was during a day tailing a specific individual that he realized how his orders changed the day for people. The gentleman he was monitoring threw a fit because they were out of sausage sandwiches. It caught Horace's attention because it was the first time he'd ordered one from there, and the man made such a scene that it would've been impossible to miss any other day.
The next time through the loop, he did not order the sausage sandwich, and he watched the man come and go without issue. Both days went wildly different for the stranger, and Horace could trace it all back to that incident. After that, he was hooked.
Thanks to the nature of looping, he felt comfortable taking days off from exploring people's lives, and this was one such day. He chose a breakfast that he knew didn't cause anyone problems, coffee & donuts, and was simply enjoying the atmosphere. To him, he felt like he was entirely at home. Everyone around was a close friend going about their business.
And, it only made it that much more dramatic to see a stranger in the space he considered his 'home'. He was stunned to see a head of white hair among the familiar scalps, and slightly more concerned when he realized she was walking directly toward him.
"Hi, my name's Quinn," she arrived at his tableside before he was ready, and he hadn't yet decided how to respond. Her white hair had orange underlights that matched her sparkling orange eyes, and he'd never seen anyone with eyes like that.
"Okay," he nodded from the pressure to say something. And, fortunately, she smiled.
"You don't know what's going on, do you?" she asked. However, she added a second question along with it. "Why haven't you tried to break out of the time loop?"
"I'm Horace," he said. Then, shrugged. He didn't know what was going on, but he did have an answer for her. "I'm not in a hurry, I guess. It's been kind of fun," he said.
"It's a game," she said. "You're not supposed to be having fun, you're supposed to try and break free."
"Game? What game? Whose game?"
"Yeah, I thought it was kind of weird that you weren't even trying...," Quinn sighed and shook her head.
"I can't help you as much as I'd like to. But, about 100 years ago, you used the phrase, 'I bet I could break out of any time loop'. Someone took you up on that, and the time limit is 150 years. The only help I can give is just to tell you that you should focus on trying to break out, and you are capable of doing it," she nodded.
"You can't just put a bet on me randomly, I didn't agree to any terms!"
"I don't know," she shrugged. "There's no one to complain to, that's the situation. Do with the information whatever you like."
"What do I lose?" Maybe Horace didn't actually have to try to win.
"Nothing," Quinn shook her head. "You didn't have to agree to any terms because there aren't any. If you lose, you lose."
"That's not so bad...," was 50 years enough to break out?
"It's more complicated. The terms of the game are essentially 'win or lose'. But that's just for the game, there's a bigger meta-system happening, and any loss counts against you in a pretty major way."
"Why are you helping me?" Horace asked. His real question was 'why should I trust you', but he wasn't going to phrase it like that. He hoped her answer would reveal enough.
"I'm not a fan of people being forced to play games they don't know they're in," she said. As she gave her answer, a black portal opened in the air next to her, and she took a step inside. Then, she gave him a parting bit of advice. "One of these days, you should get a tattoo with your favorite number on it," she said as the portal closed. "It might Awaken you to some ideas."