When you wash the carriage, and give the raincoat to Franklin, the kite sequence will start. Fail it, and now every time you get close to Franklin, the screen will scroll and Franklin will ask "Ready for another brush with destiny?".

Just like it happened with the cigar salesman (see part 5 and part 6), if you're already in a cutscene when that happens, the two cutscenes will take place at the same time. However, there's a difference. Franklin's question immediately starts a conversation. That means that looking at the stamp (or the "help wanted" sign, or the flier), or flushing items, won't do the trick.

That leaves the gum glitch, which works the same way we saw in part 6, only this time you need to get Bernard to the past. We could do that, although there aren't any known routes where this is done.

Precisely the fact that you can get characters to the past means that you can quantum-swap items, which gives us a new option we didn't have with the salesman. Let's see how to take advantage of that.

Time-traveling during the battery plans cutscene

When you quantum-swap the patent application (also known as the battery plans), the game starts the plans cutscene. That's the cutscene at the beginning of the game, when Bernard gets the plans and Dr. Fred flushes them to Hoagie. By itself, this could already be useful, since it can be used to get Bernard back to the present or to get Dr. Fred back to the basement.

But, if you quantum-swap the plans while you're next to Franklin, and Franklin is waiting for you to start the kite sequence, the screen will scroll to the right, Franklin will start talking, and the two cutscenes will be running at the same time.

Once the conversation with Franklin is over, you'll be in the middle of the plans cutscene. And, this time, you'll have control of your characters. You'll be able to move your characters, switch them, start conversations, ... And, most importantly, this will allow you to time travel to any era.

For instance, during the cutscene, there's a moment where the camera switches to the Chron-O-John landing place in the future. At that point, click on the left side of the screen, and your current character will go to the future, outside of the former motel.

Similarly, when the camera switches to the present basement, you can click on the stairs, and your current character will make it to the lobby in the present.

Finally, when the camera switches to the Chron-O-John landing place in the past, you can click near the bottom of the screen and your current character will make it to the fields in the past.

You can see this sequence in swimfan's 13:50 run, when the timer shows 3:28. In this run, swimfan uses this cutscene to get Bernard to the future and Laverne to the present. At the end of the cutscene, Bernard is sent back to the present, so swimfan finishes by getting Bernard back to the future thanks to the conversation with the tentacle guard, similar to what we saw in part 5.

Whatever you do, you'll have to talk to a character right before the cutscene is over. Otherwise, ScummVM will show the "cursor state" error message and will crash, just like we also mentioned in part 5.

The battery plans cutscene can be used to send Laverne to the basement without using the skunk. We'll see how in part 8: getting Laverne to the future basement.

We've now managed to get any kid to any time period! There's one exception: if you get Hoagie to the present, he'll go back to the past at the end of the cutscene. There's no known way to keep him in the present.

Triggering the kite sequence without washing the carriage

We began this section by saying that Franklin will wait for you to start the kite sequence after you wash the carriage, give the raincoat to Franklin, and fail the kite sequence.

Thankfully, there are three ways to skip that.

Quantum-swapping the crowbar

Get the crowbar (we'll assume you're using Bernard for this), and get Bernard to the past. Get both Bernard and Hoagie near Franklin, but not too near so they aren't in the area that will trigger the "brush with destiny" cutscene. To quantum-swap the crowbar, you can't click on an item in Hoagie's inventory. So click on the crowbar, switch to Hoagie, and click on the portraits on the right of the inventory.

Now, walk to the right with Hoagie. Franklin will ask whether you're ready for another brush with destiny. Say "I'd rather mope around some more". Move Bernard and Hoagie to the same spot, and quantum-swap the plans. As the quantum-swapping the crowbar to trigger the kite sequence video shows, you'll gain control during the plans cutscene and will be able to get Bernard or Hoagie to the future.

Note that you can't flush the crowbar, so the character who gets the crowbar in the first place is the one that will have to go to the past.

Quantum-swapping the right-handed hammer

Get the right-handed hammer and get Bernard (or Laverne; we'll assume Bernard) to the past. Get both Bernard and Hoagie near Franklin, but not too near. Quantum-swap the hammer. Just like it happened with the crowbar, to quantum-swap the hammer you'll have to click on the portraits on the right of the inventory.

Now, click anywhere (trying to switch to a different character will work as well). Hoagie will fail the kite sequence. When Franklin asks you to restart it, refuse. Move Bernard and Hoagie to the same spot, and quantum-swap the plans. Once again, you'll be able to gain control during the plans cutscene, as shown in the quantum-swapping the right-handed hammer to trigger the kite sequence video. Notice how Franklin doesn't even have to be there for this to work (this applies to quantum-swapping the crowbar as well).

Quantum-swapping the right-handed hammer has got one disadvantage. Due to a bug in the original game, after you fail the kite sequence (which is what quantum-swapping the hammer causes), every time you move to a different screen or you switch to a different character, there will be a transition lasting about 0.4 seconds. If you do this near the end of the game, overall you'll lose about 10 seconds. Even though getting the crowbar takes at least 14 seconds, those screen transitions and the faster kite sequences mean that overall getting the crowbar is faster.

Talking to Washington

Get both Bernard and Laverne to the past. Get Hoagie next to Franklin (but don't get Laverne too close). With Bernard, talk to Washington until there are only two options left. Press "3" to switch to Laverne, and finish the conversation. This will trigger a conversation between Hoagie and Franklin about using the kite again. Refuse to try again. Move Laverne and Hoagie to the same spot, and quantum-swap the plans.

Check the talking to Washington to trigger the kite sequence video to see the whole sequence.

Under the hood: controlling characters who aren't in the room during a cutscene

When you first pick up the battery plans at the beginning of the game, the game starts global script 44, and the cutscene begins. At this point, Bernard is on the right side of the screen. So, when you quantum-swap the plans, the game starts global script 44 once again, and the camera scrolls to the right, where Bernard is supposed to be. This activates Franklin's floor trigger.

During the plans cutscene, the camera occasionally moves to different places in the future, the present, and the past. When that happens, you still keep control of your character, and, just like we mentioned in part 3, you can instantly interact with anything on the screen.

The main difference is that here you're in the middle of a cutscene, so you can't use verbs like "pick up", and you can't access the items in your inventory either. Or, at least, you shouldn't be able to access your inventory. We'll see how to do so in part 8: getting Laverne to the future basement.

To take control of your characters during the plans cutscene, you have to quantum-swap the plans in the past. There's no known way to do it in the future. You can do it in the present thanks to the cigar salesman floor trigger, but for that, you need two characters in the present. And the only known way to get characters to the present is this trick, so to do it in the present, you'll first have to do it in the past.

The cigar salesman floor trigger only works once, so in the present you can only use this glitch once. In the past, you can repeat it over and over.