Derek can be incredibly forgiving.
Many of the problems of Time Travel are caused by petty anger issues, Derek opines. Being so angry with someone that you decide to pop back a few decades and assassinate them can result in the death of your grandparent. Which then causes you to cease to exist. Which then tumbles over into a paradox. Derek explained, in some slurred detail, that the best defence against a Time Travelling Enemy has always to become their grandparent. The problem with killing grandparents is that it either causes the loss of free will or the splitting of the Universe into two time streams.
This kind of grandparent paradoxing can become complex. Going back in time to impregnate your grandmother, apart from the moral qualms, becomes more complex if you also have a sex change to become your grandmother. Derek likes to stress the importance of keeping sex and anger outside of his transtemporal adventures. There is no real paradox here, just an unusual sequence of events. A kind of Bootstrap non-Paradox.
Which is why Derek forgave me.
In return for £100 investment in a scheme that would turn him into a billionaire, Derek forgave me. Take £100 in small denomination notes back to 1960 and invest in a reasonably stable stock that grows well. Say IBM. Then when the stock value has grown to a 2020 value, simply cash in and repeat the process. I pointed out the practical problem of this being the changing appearance of the small denomination notes. Not to mention the small problem of not having £100 spare.
Derek was flabberghasted.
The mugging in 1979 should have given me £100. Admittedly in notes with the wrong appearance. However, that would simply make the journey back to 1960 easier for Derek. I could hand over the antique notes and he could continue onwards to 1960. The singular problem with this was the £100 had already been invested in a pub in Leeds. Which, Derek, with a flourish, insisted could be rectified with a good, old fashioned, pub crawl. Which is how Derek came to be in Leeds in the 1980 on various Thursdays at last orders asking Landlords for £100.
Expressed that way, the situation does look bad. It does look as though Derek was some kind of Gangster. From the point of view of the Landlords, at least. Which is where Derek devised his unique and flawless plan to become the grandparent of the Landlord and so being able to be the Landlord. Derek announced the plan is uniquely flawless. Which was one opinion. Other opinions ranged from suggesting it was a unique form of performance art, to: it was a strange way to come out as transsexual; it was a guarantee of failure to announce your plan to someone who mugged you; it might be easier to give it all up as a bad job; and, that plan could only work if you were the Landlord to begin with.
The worst part about Time Travel is the amount of detail required for even the simplest acts.
Derek announced the solution would be for me to be the cover Landlord at the Pub in the 1980s. With would remove the need for gender reassignment operations and make the complications that might bring. It reduced the entire problem down to a seedy robbery of a pub, in Leeds, in the 1980s. Which, given the poverty and deprivation in Leeds in the 1980s did seem a little amoral. When Derek announced that it could not be simply one pub but would need to be several in order to cover up the heist. Derek does like to go down to the pub, drink beer, smoke fags, and talk shite. Which is a phrasing that he says has not aged well in the vernacular.
Derek is no a Master Criminal. Sometimes forgiveness is less desirable than anger.
Derek Gives Up On Time Travel: How It All Became Personal.
Derek Gives Up On Time Travel: The Thickening Of The Plot.
Derek Gives Up Time Travel: How It All Became Tense.
Derek Gives Up Time Travel: How It Unravelled.
Derek Gives Up Time Travel: How It Got All Complicated.
Derek Gives Up Time Travel: How It All Began.
