Chapter Text
He finally made it (finish the machine? Nope, he finally managed to get time to work on making the machine!) he successfully sneaked off from the eyes of everyone for enough time to get back down to the hidden lava production just underneath his factory.
Now.. what was he working on now? Oh! Right, testing if calibration was complete, he wouldn't like to use the machine and his molecules be dispersed throught the endless void of time and space if he messed anything up would he? Nono no no sir.
Initial phase of testing was complete, at least that problem wouldn't occur, it had multiple (lots, way too many in his opinion but necessary) fail-safes that if anything goes kaboom within the machine while doing the test travel it would safely (relatively, his concept of safe was slightly askewed) bring him back to this point in time and time stream/thread, well now to see if it was his lucky day!
527 times
"527 TIMES!!"
527 times one of the main components disconnected, which in turn made the time portal explode bringing him back to the beginning! In his time fuckery attempts it had been now 9 hours! But if he's reading the clock correctly it has barely been a few minutes in real time, gods, time is disorienting when you're actively trying to work against it.. and failing, how did he manage this in the first place???
He couldn't get the particles to stay in course and active!
He had managed to narrow it down to the immediate time where the machine ignored the logic of the current time frame and it began using the void logic, it made the redstone in the machine dim momentarily in the initial seconds of travel and immediately fail.. he at this point wanted to scream, pull out his hair! Anything.. gods he needed something small, something that could alter with the machine while exposed to the initial force of the void and it continue being of use, as redstone wasn't cutting it.
"Think.."
He had think, how had he managed it once before..
The huffing of his machinery told him that he was still here, thinking, the clanking of mechanical presses.. the ringing of metal plates..
Soft chiming?..
Where had he listened to that same soft tune?..
"..huh?"
"... Amethyst!" Yeah, maybe that could replace the redstone, after all the reaction of the amethyst to the grand concentration of light and energy might produce enough delay for the machine's logic to catch-up!
Wait-.
Where did he get that idea from??? Well, obviously from- ehhhh.. he couldn't tell, cause as soon as he thought back at that moment if felt like he didn't remember at all, and he felt his head itch.. odd... He could swear he had that image clear in his head..
But. Back to business it is, maybe now he has the right combination of components to do a successful travel!
Now he has to figure out where the amethyst would fit.. the slight kinks would be worked out later.. problem for future Tub's!