"You can time travel?" Karyn asked, her amazement growing at this version of Jon.
DTH Jon nodded. "Technically, yes although it is limited. I can't just go to any place in time I want. I have to go to certain predetermined points in the timeline called branching points. Also, I can't go any earlier than when I told you about the stone." He inspected the display of the DTH again. "This might be a bit tricky. There have been a few branching points already and I don't know which ones I'm, I mean the other Jon is still alive in."
"That gameboy thing doesn't tell you?"
"No and it is called a DTH. That is short for dimensional time hopper. It shows me branching points but not what happens to cause them."
DTH Karyn looked at the display herself. "Hm, what you going to do?" she asked.
Jon rubbed his chin before answering. "First branch point after the origin should be a reasonably safe bet. What are the chances I killed myself so soon?"
"Good idea."
Jon dropped his hands. "Um, Karyn?" he asked her quietly.
"What?"
"I think I should go alone on this one. You know it is all round easier to retrieve someone without taking someone else." He looked into her eyes. "That's okay isn't it?"
"Well, the last time you went off on your own you got drugged and kidnapped," she said sounding a little annoyed.
"I am aware of that but we're dealing with a fairly established timeline here, not some alternate reality."
"Yes a known timeline where you wanted to be a lesbian. I don't know, what could you have been thinking."
"I know," said the other Karyn.
"What?" DTH Karyn asked.
"This," the grieving Karyn said as she pushed the eject button on the video. A loud mechanical sound could be heard coming from it as it went through the process of removing the tape from the mechanism.
"A VHS, how quaint," DTH Karyn said as she looked over the other Karyn's shoulder.
"This is what I was talking about earlier," Jon said. "I told you about history being subtly changed. A video recorder is in my bedroom and judging by the wear and tear on it has seen a lot of use."
"And?" she asked.
"This is the day I told you about the stone and yet to us it is very much obsolete technology. When was the last time you saw a video recorder?"
DTH Karyn could only really remember seeing them in her early childhood. "Yeah," she said not entirely grasping the implications.
As the tape ejected out the front loading mechanism, the other Karyn grabbed it and handed it to DTH Karyn.
DTH Karyn read out the label which was hand written in pencil. "Girls loving girls 17, 19 and 24." She looked into Jon's eyes. "And you wished to be a lesbian. Not much of an imagination have you." Jon looked away sheepishly. "Where did you get this anyway?"
"There is more here," the other Karyn said as she picked up a pile of tapes next to the television. "He got them off his bother."
"Brother?" DTH Karyn asked.
"No his bother," she insisted.
Ignoring her statement, DTH Karyn turned back to Jon. "Isn't your bother, I mean brother just a kid?"
Jon nodded, "Maybe not here, I told you this is all earlier stuff, less structure. The branches have been around longer so more prone to being inconsistent, maybe I have an older one. Call it 'Early Installment Weirdness'."
"What?"
"It is an established trope," Jon clarified as he tapped buttons. "Okay, be back soon," he said just before he vanished.
