So You Think You Can Dance?
- by A. A. Albright
- Novel
- Fantasy, Romance, Mystery and Crime
- Adults
- Definite Time Travel
- English
- So You Think You Can Dance? by A. A. Albright (self-published, September 2023).
Essie is missing Julian, who’s in witness protection, and she’s caught a chill that simply will not go away, even though it’s summer. The Wayfarers (magical police) are avoiding her, which only makes her suspicious that they’re using him for bait. So, when her boss needs to go undercover at a dance class to investigate a possibly fraudulant insurance claim, Essie demands to join him to distract herself from her woes.
—Tandy Ringoringo
‘You know if I could stop what happened to Vince, I would,’ I told her. ‘But Time Witches can’t really change things without bringing a crapstorm down on their heads. If I thought there wouldn’t be consequences, I’d do it in a heartbeat.’
Tags
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- Time Periods
- Circa AD 2000 to 2099: circa 2023
- Timeline Models
- Do Over: [. . .] he’d managed to carve the quartz into what he called Redo Stones—that way, you could simply return to whatever point in time you wanted. You wouldn’t be watching from the side, in secret, you’d be travelling back into your own body and reliving everything all over again—the future you’d come from would just be—undone, I suppose.
- Remembering Other Timelines: Among other things, Essie remembers the timeline that was pruned in the redo.
- Pruned Timeline: the future you’d come from would just be—undone, I suppose.
- Viewing the Future: While we were still connected, she had a sudden vision of my future. She tried to pull it back, but by then I’d already seen a lot.
- Viewing the Past: Look, the thing is, Ess, she didn’t just tell me what happened when my parents died, she showed me—mind to mind, the image flowing from her vampire brain and straight into mine.
- Time Travel Methods
- Limited Span Time Machine: No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t make stones that would take me back any further than ten minutes.
- Pocket Time Machine: It turns out that the Pendulay Pocket Watch is needed only to help Essie focus on creating time travel and other time phenomena. However, another pocket time machine turns up
- Themes
- Frozen Time
- Invisible Traveler: She’s invisible, except when under stress: Stress and fear were clouding my mind, making it impossible for me to think. And my mind wasn’t the only thing affected—my invisibility was failing, too.
- Never Change the Past!: There are exceptions: You and Julian, you’re connected, truly connected. That means that the universe gives you certain breaks. You can save each other, and use any means to do so – in fact, you must save the other if the bond’s been severed. And you won’t be punished, because with a connection like that, saving the other is virtually the same as saving yourself.
- Time Travel Sickness, Injuries, and Mixed-Up Body Parts: a nauseating jolt
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Travels into Yourself: Swallowing down my nerves, and hoping to God that this would work, I clicked my heels together one, two, three times, and then . . . then I jumped.
I felt a nauseating jolt, followed by a spinning sensation, except . . . I was spinning in Julian’s arms. He was still in Brendan’s body, and we were dancing, moving as one in a perfect, delicious rhythm.
- Fictional Tags
- Familiars
- Shapeshifters: the Púca, who can shapeshift themselves or transform others
- Vampires and Soul-Suckers
- Werecreatures
- Witches, Warlocks, Wizards, Magicians, etc.
- Groupings
Variants
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- So You Think You Can Dance? by A. A. Albright (self-published, September 2023).