Problem
A woman sat in the corner booth, frozen. Not "scared" frozen, but physically locked in a loop. Every ten seconds, she would lift a sugar packet, tear it halfway, and then—zip—her hands would snap back to the table, the packet whole again.
"Third one this week," Elias muttered, pulling a small, brass device from his trench coat.
The Fix
He slid into the booth across from her. To any bystander, he looked like a guy talking to a statue. To Elias, the air around her looked like cracked glass.
"You really picked a boring moment to loop, kid," he said, adjusting a dial on his device.
The physics of a Time-Stutter were simple but annoying. If he didn't sync his pulse to her localized field, he'd get sucked into the loop too. He began to calculate the frequency:
f=
T
1
With a period (T) of exactly 10 seconds, the frequency was a steady 0.1 Hz. He tapped the brass device until it hummed a low, vibrating note that matched the shimmer in the air.
The Snap
He reached out and flicked the sugar packet.
CRACK.
The sound was like a lightbulb breaking. The woman blinked, gasped, and dumped a mountain of sugar onto the table. She looked at Elias, her eyes wide.
"I... I've been doing that for a long time, haven't I?" she whispered.
"Forty-two minutes," Elias said, standing up and pocketing his gear. "The coffee's cold. Get a fresh cup and don't think about the physics of it. It'll give you a headache."
The Aftermath
As he walked out into the rain, Elias felt that familiar tug at his sleeve. He looked down. His watch was ticking backward.
"Great," he sighed, adjusting his collar. "Now I'm the one who's late."
Would you like me to continue Elias's story, or shall we try a different genre entirely?