Tag: student

#7 Esme Velez & “Martin Riggs”

When asked to assist a team of scientists for a secret project at her university, Paleontology Grad student Esme Velez was taken back. There were a couple of students slightly more qualified, but no one had heard from them in a week. Or her professor for that matter. As she was driven to an offcampus facility she met with members of the faculty & an independent security force. That’s when she found out about her mission, as a member of a rescue squad.

You see, the physics department had developed a time machine & as a test, sent her professors & two students to go back in time, testing their new device while giving the palentology department the opportunity to study dinosaurs up close. She decided to accept the mission & joined a team with goal of bringing the original team back alive. Before leaving, the physicists tried to instill the importance of not screwing up the time stream, but there was a reason Esme went into a more biological field of study. She was very lost, & mostly very frightened to do anything.

The time machine was supposed to drop them off in the same exact spot millions of years prior, when it was believed to be a clearing. And it was. What no one would’ve predicted was the stampede of raging sauropods trampling through that very field at that very time. The rescue squad Esme was part of arrived at the same time her professor’s team did, only to watch in horror as they & their only means of getting home were squashed under dino-foot. Esme was among the few survivors. They limped out of the clearing away from the commotion, only to find the cause of the stampede: a pack of hungry velociraptors. Figuring the humans would be an easier meal, they turned their sights, ripping into the remaining mercenaries first. Esme barely got away. She didn’t know who else did. She just ran. And then she got very lost.

Stranded in the late Jurassic alone, Esme was at first paranoid that even just breathing the air funny might cause a ripple in time that would lead to a Hitler presidency or mankind never even existing at all. But after a few days, she began to wonder what the point of being paranoid was. She resigned herself to being stuck & laughed at the idea of how her bones would be found & carbon dated to a time prior to man supposedly existing, & the uproar created. She thought of how to just live comfortably on her own in prehistory. She always liked dinosaurs more than people anyhow. With her new pet, a member of a previously unknown species she named “Martin Riggs”, she sets off just looking to survive, no matter the consequences.

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So first off, I don’t have proper TV. There are shows I like & I seek them out streaming or buy the dvds. I don’t know what’s new or whatever. But listed as a jump-off idea, I had “stranded time traveler.” My next thought was “when’s a good time to get stranded? Ah, Dinosaurs!” Completely forgetting there’s a show like that now. With the realization coming after drawing this, I debated about including it or not, & ultimately did only because I’m falling so far behind. So because of that, I’m less happy with this than I thought I was.

The bigger idea for the story was a time traveler going back & causing weird changes in the time stream that play out in weird flashes a la Run Lola Run. Like stepping on this twig causes Greenland to never be discovered or something else absurd. It works better in high concept though than execution. The pet dinosaur’s name Martin Riggs comes from of course Lethal Weapon, but also me wanting to name a dog Martin Riggs because I think Martin Riggs is an awesome name for a hyperactive dog. Think like a border collie.

Anyway, that’s three more bringing me to a week. And now I need another week’s worth to catch up. I’m going to try, but no promises.