Backtrack Shot

Reblog from Tumblr by deviantknight25

I was on my bed frustrated as I mindlessly scroll through my social media and honestly the more I scroll, the more frustrated I become, eventually locking my phone and setting it aside. I stare at the ceiling as I let out some steam. Either selfies were edited in some way or they were group photos, which were problems for me in itself. I immediately sat up when I recalled one of the names of the friends I’ve made and remembered something I should have earlier. I grabbed my phone and opened up my gallery, scrolling through photos right around the time I chatted with one of them. My mood lightens up when I find exactly what I was looking for.

Devin ft. Unknown

It was one of the photos he took of his friend while they were working out. Without hesitation, I began to focus on the guy in the shot, my surroundings getting blurrier and blurrier until the image itself glows bright white. Once the sensation of being swallowed by the light fades, I found myself standing up and face to face with my friend holding up his phone. At first he has this look of confusion before it quickly turns to interest.

“Dakota?” He asked.

I looked at Rory in surprise, this picture was taken around the time I started to talk to him about what I can do. Of course, I kinda picked up that he doesn’t believe me from the get go, probably because I talked about it along with our other fantasies. Now that I think about it, this was probably my first ‘jump’ into a photo that Rory took himself.

“How did you know it was me?” I cough lightly, it became a habit whenever I start talking after hopping in a photo like this.

He gives me a smug look, “You always told me that you always flinch whenever you do that photo thing that you do. Never thought that I’d get to see you do it in front of me, as Devin, no less!” He replied enthusiastically.

“C’mon, that can’t be the only reason-”

“Devin’s stoic as hell whenever he’s pumping iron. Seeing him with a wide grin on his face was a dead giveaway.” He followed up.

I could only chuckle, I was so used to my ‘friends’ assuming that I was having an off day whenever I couldn’t keep the facade that I was who I said I was. It was a common occurrence in friend photos like this.

“Wait, does that mean you’re from the future? How far ahead were you before you got here?” He questioned.

I shrug. “About three months.”

There was a brief moment of silence before Rory responded. “Got any spoilers for me?”

“Would it matter? You won’t remember any of it once I hopped out of this moment.”

I’m a total idiot when it comes to working with the equipment in the gym, along with the form you need to have with weights so as to pass the time. Rory runs me through how to actually work out, having Devin’s body as it was then definitely helped me ease into the groove of things. In exchange, I give Rory a refresher on how my ability works.

I’m honestly not sure how or why I have these abilities, I still assume that I inherited it from my parents but I could never bring myself to ask. I just happened to stumble upon it when I was younger after a stranger dropped a photo of himself and I stared into it. Then, I found myself in a different area a few hours earlier than it should have been. I only found my way out when the photographer handed me the exact same photo.

Basically, the photo is a still moment that I could experience myself countless times as a different person unless I was actually in the photo. Everything I do here is inconsequential as long as I still have access to the photo that got me here in the first place as the present can’t be altered and the photo just resets back to the moment it was taken if I hopped back in shortly after backing out of it.

There are some caveats to it, photos that were edited in any way were basically useless to my ability now, even watermarks or one pixel being colored differently through an editor ruins it. Videos work just fine but with the same restrictions so live action superhero stuff were off the table for me but raw sports footage and the like are totally safe, just hard to watch the raw footage again for me to back out. And the last bit is that time stops for my present while hopping, not even a second goes by until I hopped out of the photo. That last part was a blessing whenever I had to cram for something since I essentially had unlimited time.

I was out of breath along with Rory after going through an entire workout routine with him. I couldn’t deny that it was fun not having to keep up a facade around him despite having a different body. I still find it funny that he had to keep correcting himself whenever he calls me “Dakota” until I mentioned that it doesn’t really matter, although I insisted that he call me “Devin” to make things less confusing for him. When I had my fill of adventure for the day, I asked Rory for his phone to show me the photo that he took. I stopped focusing when I remembered something.

“You know, the Rory of my time is still skeptical of my abilities, got anything for me to convince him?” I asked.

He ponders this for a moment. “Ah, that’s easy, just make him, me, remember about the ski trip a month before meeting you.” He shudders at the thought of that moment but I decided to keep quiet about it before returning focus back onto the photo…

Until I found myself in bed. Unlimited time but I still bring back the mental fatigue of staying active. I sink into sleep in a blink of an eye.