Time Abyss/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: A living individual or an artificial construct older than recorded history.

  • Straight: Alex the Occult Detective meets Betty the Mysterious Waif who comments on his resemblance to the palace guard chieftain of King Alulim of Ancient Sumer. His investigation eventually uncovers hard evidence of Betty's presence during the Crucifixion, the Sack of Troy, the Exodus, and the construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza.
  • Exaggerated: Betty witnessed the Big Bang. Twice. And then some.
  • Downplayed: Betty is pretty old, and has some very good memory, but she really couldn't tell you anything a knowledgable historian couldn't.
  • Justified: Betty is Immortality.
  • Inverted: Alex meets Celine who looks like a teenager. It turns out, she Really Was Born Yesterday, pumped with Fake Memories, and will die of old age before midnight.
  • Subverted: Betty laughs it off, explaining that she majored in Ancient History twice and that Alex has a too wild imagination.
    • Betty has been around for a hundred thousand years, but was frozen for most of them.
    • Alternatively, Betty is a time traveler.
  • Double Subverted: Well, she did major in history twice: in 2003 and 1787. Which in no way nullifies her affairs with Khufu and Ajax.
    • Betty was frozen for most of her existence... but still conscious.
    • Betty is a time traveler... who's experienced thousands of years of subjective time while exploring the past and future.
  • Parodied: Betty had a bunch of wacky adventures with almost every famous historical person.
    • Alternatively, Betty is a slacker, and spent the last million years chilling. She knows very little of history, not much more than the Average Joe would know, because even though she was there, she didn't care.
    • "Name: Betty* Date of birth: None, predates time *predates last names"
  • Deconstructed: Alex attempts to learn even more from Betty but her revelations eventually make him crack.
    • Betty has seen countless wars, murders, enslavements, acts of racism, dictatorships... One too many, and and she snaps. Results may vary...
  • Reconstructed: Alex's insanity is just a stepping stone in himself becoming just like Betty.
    • No matter was she saw, Betty has proof (Humans Rights, better treatment for diseases, regress of famine...) that no matter what, things CAN go better.
  • Zig Zagged: ???
  • Averted: All characters have reasonably human lifespans.
  • Enforced: Betty is introduced solely to explain historical backgrounds to the target audience.
  • Lampshaded: "You just wait until she claims to be Really Seven Hundred Years Old, man."
  • Invoked: "I will be there long after you humans are gone, to tell the future masters of Earth about your fate."
  • Defied: Betty gives up her one shot at immortality to spend a regular lifetime with her lover.
  • Discussed: "Have you seen her eyes?" "Yeah, it's like an abyss of time. Creepy."
  • Conversed: ???

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