Time-travel troubles?

[Steerpike]

Having their former selves and future selves there at the same time seems a bit strange. If they present their present selves from ever being captured, then none of what follows with the Fae will ever occur, and if none of it ever occurs, then they could never come back to prevent themselves being captured

 

[Ireth]

Having their former selves and future selves there at the same time seems a bit strange. If they present their present selves from ever being captured, then none of what follows with the Fae will ever occur, and if none of it ever occurs, then they could never come back to prevent themselves being captured

Yeah, pretty much. Uber-headache, best avoided entirely. :/

 

[Ravana]

Out of those, the last suggestion would be best. Having them return decades after they left would be bad. What would people think had become of them in the meantime? They might not have a home to come back to -- it might have been torn down in the inbetween years, or have someone else living in it by now, which would cause even more hassle than any of the other ways it could go.

Well, for them, maybe, just not for you. And who's really the important one here?

Figure they're getting off easy if the worst they have to do is put in a few new windows. (And perhaps explain to the neighbors why they have to… now that could be entertaining.) The hobbits had to deal with a lot worse when they got back to the Shire, after all. Although having to deal with the consequences of being dumped several decades in the future could be entertaining, too… probably make the story a bit longer than you'd planned, however.

 

[Steerpike]

In the YA novel I am working on, where characters also go into another world, they come back roughly 30 earth-years after leaving. They've been missing and presumed dead since they disappeared as teens. Some of their parents are now dead. Not exactly a great homecoming, but given how time flows differently on earth and the other world, it's about right.