Forgive the indulgence of an aside here, but as we end the "Awareness" arc and move into the "Escalation" arc, there`s arather important topic coming up that I wanted to warn you about in advance. Consider this a"trigger warning", of sorts? Doing it this way makes it more clear than a "pre-chapter" note would. And hey, I thought I`d throw in some history while I was at it.

　　"Time & Tied"is actually a story that I started writing in University. The writing got progressively slower as I looked for work, found a job, and got involved in other things... in fact, while the first 48 episodes were completed within a year or so, it took nine years for the whole 4-Arc-96-Part taleto come together. The story then spent another three years sitting on a shelf before being revamped and re-edited, partly because I`m now contemplating a sequel, and it doesn`t make much sense to have one of those if the original never appeared anywhere, or was seen as terrible by everyone. (I am possibly a bit older than you realized...?)

　　The end of Part 24, where we are now, is as far as the story ever got when I put it on Wattpad. Some parts literally had zero views, and this was a decent break point, heading into a time skip, so I stopped. (If anyone`s thinking of trying their luck on that site, romance fares better, from everything I`ve read.) Obviously, I`m getting better response to T&T here on RRL, so we`re continuing on. Good news: The pace WILL pick up.IfI were starting to write this story today, that`s something I`d fix, introducing the whole cast and the temporal conflict sooner. Here`s some things you can look forward to in Arc 2:

　　-Actual information about the "future war spilling into the present day" that my synopsis promised you. It`s still going to spool out slowly, but that conflict - and Carrie`s part in it - will finally become clear. (Yes, the shady guy in the car is connected to it. No, we`re not going to get huge battles with guns blazing, sorry.)

　　-We get a resolution to the goals and intentions of Julie LaMille. The pieces are all there, but you`re probably having as much trouble as Clarke at piecing them together, because there`s also some misdirectiontossed in as well. Still, feel free to theorize.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

　　-The romantic issues betweenLuci/Frank and Julie/Clarke are dealt with, lest you fear that relationships in this story linger in limbo forever.

　　-The issue of how the time machine locates geographically, a pervasive dangling thread going back to near the start of the story, does get dealt with.

　　-There`s more aboutthe history ofCarrie`s mother, and Carrie`s relationship withher father.

　　And here`s the big thing incoming, and the main reason behind this whole aside: Suicide. I worry that`s a trigger for some people. I`m not flagging the whole story with "traumatizing content", because the whole story isn`t about it, I`m not about to portray it as a good thing, and plusthere`s a temporal twist to it, but I wanted to give you the heads up. As I did in the earlier aside when Chartreuse saw the gun. Because here`s the thing.

　　The strict definition of suicide is "The act of intentionally causing one`s own death." Time travel adds a whole new layer of "WTF" to that. Allowing us to approach the topic from 90 degrees (180 degrees?) towhat you might expect. But those scenes won`t be played for laughs either, and I urge you now as I will then, if you (or a friend) is ever considering suicide, talk to someone. I used to self-harm when I was young, it`s no laughing matter.

　　Related, if older people screwing with the psyches of teenagers is something you find personally troubling (and we`ve seen hints of it already), I`ll understand if you want to bail. I think my cast of characters have pretty robust personalities though, and trust me, they will be pushing back. Hard. They`re the protagonists, after all. Also, Luci owns a cat! In case you thought there wouldn`t be any happiness or humour incoming.

　　Thanks for taking the time to read through this aside. I hope you`ll stick with me going forwards, but I`ll understand if you decide to skip out. (You`re welcome to rejoin in Part 48, when things settle down. There`s a whole same sex relationship thing that begins then... which might also lose me some people... writing, it`s such a balancing act.) Oh, and it`s equally possible to start reading at Part 25, if anyone wants to tell their friends about the story, because I plan to continue the "previously"s.

　　Coming up next: A time skip! Backwards! Because time travel!