The Conscious of a King (A Clockwork Tale)
By
AzureSkyCiel,
Posted on: 2007-04-29 14:32 in Roleplaying
Nice work. 
Very nice!
Is this inspired from that thread in COH General?
EDIT: Damn... That made my eyes burn. I don't mean it was bad... That's just as close as I get to crying these days. Good stuff. Really good stuff.
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Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
[ QUOTE ]
Is this inspired from that thread in COH General?
[/ QUOTE ]
Seeing as how I started that thread, I think the answer is.. yeah. 
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There wasnt supposed to be blood.
Hes kneeling by the burnt, broken body of a police officer like a child trying to awaken a sleeping mother. He knows the man is dead, but he cant stop himself. Its wrong. The man shouldnt be dead. There shouldnt be blood.
He cant breathe. Cant concentrate. The warehouse is filled with smoke-- so much smoke. His Clockwork are buzzing like an angry beehive, but he can still hear men and women screaming and cursing as they fight for their lives. Bits and pieces of his faithful little friends lie scattered on the old warehouse floor like discarded toys
Its wrong. Its all gone horribly wrong.
Theres blood on his hands. Blood on his Clockwork. Thats not how its supposed to be. Hes not a killer. Hes a scientist, like Positron. He was supposed to be a hero, like Blue Steel.
There wasnt supposed to blood.
The smoke is choking him, and he knows that he cant stay. Maybe he should. Maybe he should let the fire take him, but he cant. Hes not built that way. He wants to live. He wants to find a way to make this right.
But its so hard to breathe
He doesnt want to be here anymore. He needs air. He needs time. He needs to fix this.
And the next thing he knows, hes being carried out of the warehouse on the backs of his tiny metal men. They move so fast that in no time at all he finds himself in the wreckage of Boomtown, in the small house that had once belonged to his grandparents.
Its as much a mess as he is.
He cant stop coughing. He knows that he should see a doctor. He knows that he needs help.
Hes afraid hes going to die. Hes going to die and theres blood on his hands and he knows where hell go if he dies now
The door to the bungalow shatters and a man-- no, something more than a man-- steps through it.
Blue Steel.
He wants to talk. He wants to tell Blue Steel how sorry he is. Blue Steel is a hero. Hell know what to do. Hell save him
But Blue Steel is shouting at him so hoarsely that he cant understand the words, and he cant stop looking at Blue Steels clenched fist
He only sees the first blow.
And the Clockwork King awakens with the memory of choking on his own blood. Penny!
Im here, CK. Whats wrong? You sound awful
I had the dream again. Hes surprised at how easily it is for him to tell her this. He hasnt told her who he really is yet, but hes still surprised by how easily it is admit to human weakness to this little girl with the powerful mind
Its okay, CK. Im here. Ill always be here.
He clings to that assurance like a drowning man. He wants to believe her. He knows he cant.
Monsters dont happily ever afters.
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I'm assuming she thinks his name is CK, not Clockwork King?
No...He probably told her his initials without telling her his actual name. Methinks that under that kind of trauma, he may have forgotten his name entirely, or even using or hearing it is very upsetting and hurtful to him emotionally. Now he can't let her know he is the Clockwork King. At her age, she probably knows that the clockwork are bad. BAAAAD! Yet he doesn't have anything else to address himself as, so he probably refrained from telling her his actual identity and stuck with the next best thing. The initials of his actual identity.
Time used to have little meaning to him.
He does not eat. (Cannot eat.).He does not sleep. (Except when exhaustion overcomes him and a gloved fist comes roaring out of his nightmares to make him remember that which he strives so mightily to forget.) His Clockwork work all hours of the day and night. He lives his life like a man in a fever delirium. If his faithful automatons were not capable of keeping track of time down to the smallest decimal point, he would exist only in an eternal, timeless NOW.
At least that was his life before Penny.
Now, he measures time by the aching of his non-existent heart that ebbs and flows in direct correlation to how long its been since he last spoke to her. He even has a vague idea as to what day of the week it is now due to Pennys chatting about her schoolwork and her favorite television shows and when she will be getting together again with her friends.
Friends.
The mere thought of the word is painful to him.
Even when he was a man, he doesnt think he ever had a friend.
Until Penny.
Hes jealous of her friends. The ones that can see her every day. The ones who can talk to her and hear her voice, see her with human eyes. The ones who could touch her.
He dreads the thought of Penny ever seeing him. He knows that he is a grotesque sight. And he would never ever touch her with the cold, unfeeling metal that makes up his hands
But he doesnt think of hurting her friends. That would hurt Penny, and he would NEVER hurt her.
What time is it? Inwardly, he winces every time he hears his voice, but though he could have gotten the same information with a curt mental command, thoughts of Penny always cause him to want to do things as a man would.
The Sprocket that he spoke to doesnt pause in its work, but it nevertheless tells him, The time is 1:43 a.m.
Thank you.
If the Sprocket is surprised-- and sometimes his creations surprise him with the sophistication of their awareness-- it doesnt show it.
Penny is asleep. He hopes that her dreams are good ones. Sometimes he even hopes that she dreams of him.
As for himself, he cannot sleep, but he has another way to dream.
He sends out tendrils of his consciousness to the Clockwork that roam Paragon City. His Clockwork are as individual as snowflakes. Some of them do nothing but perform their assigned duties over and over again. Others appear to have quirks and left to their own devices will do things that surprise even their maker.
A sprocket sits on an open window in a bar in Kings Row. His vision is poor, but his audio receptors are among the best of the Kings creations, and unless hes ordered otherwise, he comes to this bar every night and listens to the patrons as they use a karaoke machine. The owner of the bar has learned if he leaves the window open he doesnt suffer from losses to the scavenging Clocks.
In another part of Kings Row, the Paladin has once more come to the small park that always seems to be his final destination. No one knows that one of the few happy childhood memories the King has is playing in that park
And in Boomtown, the mighty Babbage angrily patrols the wreckage, fruitlessly searching for the man who maimed his creator
again and again he returns to the ruined bungalow, but Blue Steel is never there
In Steel Canyon a Perfected Oscillator soars through the night sky seemingly exuberant with the power of flight.
I am a part of the city, the Clockwork King thinks, smilingly mentally at the Oscillators joy. I have a place here.
And then a blast of blue energy shatters the Oscillators rotors and send it plummeting towards the ground. The last thing its optic sensors detect is the laughing face of a hero, his fist still crackling with power
And the peace of the Clockwork King breaks along with his creation
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Dammit, man...
The last thing I need is to feel pangs of conscience when I tear apart the Clockwork!
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Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
One thing that confuses me. In I10 Lady Grey TF, We see that Penny obviously know who her psychic friend really is. Question being, Sister Psych would have already told Penny all about the Clockwork King's bad behavior. So why does Penny continue to contact him...?
[ QUOTE ]
One thing that confuses me. In I10 Lady Grey TF, We see that Penny obviously know who her psychic friend really is. Question being, Sister Psych would have already told Penny all about the Clockwork King's bad behavior. So why does Penny continue to contact him...?
[/ QUOTE ]
This is the start of their relationship.
By the time we meet Penny in the Faultline Story, she not only knows who CK is, she's being guarded by his Clockwork ... and they helped her escape an attack by the Lost.
My plan is to show how they got to that point.
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It seems I have found another great story being written up in the CoH Forums.....Another story that I'll have to keep my eyes on.....Awesome work BlueBattler, can't wait to see more! 
Global - @El D
Servers - Protector
Hes not renowned for his hospitality, but even the Clockwork King sometimes gets visitors.
The man-- if you can call him that-- is named Cortex. Hes a disciple of the infamous Dr. Vahzilok. Clad all in black, hes inhumanly tall. Your Majesty, I am honored to speak to you.
He hates his voice, but the thought of linking his mind to Cortex is too repellant to even contemplate. How did you find me?
I have certain
gifts, Your Majesty. They enabled me to find you. And Cortex taps his skull for emphasis.
What do you want?
My master proposes an alliance, Your Majesty.
The sewers of Paragon are an efficient transportation route throughout the city, and his Clockwork often use it as such. More than once, there have been clashes between his minions and those of Dr. Vahzilok. Although he has little use for humanity-- except for Penelope-- even he is disgusted by the foul work of the mad doctor.
What makes the patchwork doctor think I would be interested in allying myself with him and his filthy creations?
Even though Cortex is little more than a blur to him, he can sense the Eidolon swell up with indignation over his words. If he could, the Clockwork King would smile.
My master can give you something that you want.
And whats that? He was suddenly alert to danger. He could crush this fool with one hand, but the Eidolon was very powerful in human terms. Instinctively, he feared for Penny.
My master can make you human again.
Human? The word hurts. Its like a dagger between the eyes.
Human. To be able to see clearly. To hear. To touch. To feel hot or cold again. To be able to smell a flower
or Pennys hair
Work with Dr. Vahzilok, and he will return your brain to a human body. You will be a man again. There are advantages to flesh, are there not, Your Majesty?
He knows! Somehow he knows about Penny!
I
see. Dreams of humanity turn to ash in his mind. What would Penny think of him if he made such a bargain? His hands now were metal and ugly, but at least they belonged to him. To steal the flesh of another--- to use one of Vahziloks monstrosities to touch her--- it would be foul, corrupt.
Penny would never forgive him.
And why does the good doctor want an alliance at this time?
Dr. Vahzilok has plans that involve Faultline right now, and he has reason to suspect the Circle of Thorns have interests of their own that could present a problem with the doctors wishes. Your aid could make dealing with them substantially easier.
I will consider your masters offer. You may go now.
Cortex opened his mouth to speak again, but thought better of it when half a dozen of his mightiest Princes came up to lead the Eidolon away. My master hopes to hear from you soon, Your Majesty!
Faultline? A threat to Faultline was a threat to Penny. He couldnt allow that. He wouldnt. But even if he crushed Cortex like the bug he was, that wouldnt guarantee Pennys safety. No, he would have to be cautious. There had to be another way
And he would find it. Nothing would threaten Penny while he lived.
Nothing!
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great story.
you are a very good writer. description is easy but you work dialog and thoughts very well. It flows and has character
Keep up the great work, man.
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Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
This is very good indeed.
I´ll look forward to read more o´from you.
If he could, he would smile.
Joy is a rare thing to him, as distant a memory as the taste of food. Hed thought himself incapable of it now, but he could not deny that he was happy now.
Penny was safe!
Positrons little heroes had managed to stop the mad plans of Dr. Vahzilok and the Circle of Thorns, and never once guessed that he had been working to STOP them, not engage in some kind of mad scheme of his own. He had managed to help save Faultline without once revealing that was his intention.
As for Cortex
he would no longer be a threat to Pennys safety. He had seen to that personally. He had not killed him-- blood on his hands, blood on his Clockwork-- but he had made sure that Cortex would not be telling anyone anything for a long time to come.
Penny was safe.
For now.
He knows that he is not exactly sane, but he is not a fool either. The world is a dangerous place, Paragon City even more so. He has many enemies, and if any of them should find out that he cares for a single living person
He knows that he should break off contact for her, but he also knows that he wont. He aches when he talks to her because he knows that what his non-existent heart wants can never be. He aches when he doesnt speak to her because the silence inside threatens to destroy whats left of his sanity.
I dont even know what she looks like.
He flinches as he says the words. That way lies nothing but danger and heart ache. He knows what he is, and he knows what she is. She can never see him. She can never know who he is, what he is.
And yet
and yet the thought wont go away.
I dont have to go there. I dont have to bring her to me. I can just send one of my Clockwork. If I can just see her once
even secondhand. That will be enough for me.
He knows it wont. He knows he will always want more than he can have. He knows he shouldnt do this. But he will.
He will because he has no other choice.
Hes a monster, but Penny makes him feel all too human.
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Hes flying.
His life is strength and power, the solidity of steel, the certainty of metal. But he lives his life at a pace of slow thunder. He has precision, but no grace. Force, but no speed. He is the Clockwork King, as inevitable as time itself.
But today, hes also an oscillator.
Flight. Agility. And speed.
Its like riding a roller coaster. Hes acutely aware of how fragile this body is compared to the one that even now sits on a throne of rusted metal and gears in a warehouse far from Faultline. He can feel joints strain and rotors flex with each and every twist and turn. Hes poured so much of himself into this fragile Clockwork that he may be risking death or worse. If it should be destroyed the feedback might--
No. He wont think about that.
The risk is worth it. The chance to see Penny-- to see her in the only way hell ever be able to see her-- is worth the risk.
He knows he can find her. He can feel her in the back of his mind. The trick will be making sure that she doesnt recognize his mental signature. She is powerful-- he knows that she is, in her way, more powerful than he is-- but he believes that he can fool her.
He hopes he can fool her.
Along with Boomtown, Faultline has long provided his Kingdom with the materials necessary for the expansion of his Clockwork army. He cant recall if he ever had been there when he wore flesh-- sometimes it seems like he has always been a thing of metal-- but he has a good idea of the layout of the community. Penny has told him much, and he has the memories of his scavenging Clockwork to rely on.
He knows where her fathers store is, and he knows that sooner or later she will come there. Theres still enough wreckage near the store that a Clockwork will not be out of place.
All he has to do is wait.
Its not a long wait before a girl rides up on a scooter. Shes pretty-- and young. And full of life.
And power.
The power from her almost blinds him.
What could he accomplish with power like that on his side? Statesman himself would fall at his feet
And then Penny turns her head and looks straight at him.
Theres surprise in her eyes. Maybe even fear. His Clockwork do not normally attack humans, but in their quest for metal they sometimes inadvertently hurt those who get in their way
Fear
and something else.
CK?
Instinct makes him want to run-- to fly away
but something else urges him to stay.
Penny holds her hand out to him. CK?
He descends down towards her, stretching out his tiny metal arm
And then the Lost burst out of her fathers store, grabbing Penny with mutated, misshapen hands.
Penny! Angrily, he fires furious bursts of electrical from his surrogate fingertips. He calls to his Clockwork, urging them to come to his aid
And a huge thing that only looks vaguely human draws forth a giant blade and slices him in half.
The last thing his pain-wracked mind sees is Penny being dragged screaming into the sewers
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Write more!
Please
Penny!
Its the thought of her peril that brings him back to himself. Its his fear for her that makes him claw his way out of the abyss of oblivion, clawing, crawling
one inch at a time back from the sweet nothingness that beckoned him like a lovers promise.
No more pain. An end to an empty existence as a brain in a brass prison. The peace of the grave. It tempts him, this idea of destruction. Before Penelope Yin, he might have just let go and let the pain drown him.
But Penny is in the hands of the Lost, and she needs him.
So he fights.
He fights and he wins. Not because hes the Clockwork King. Not because hes one of the greatest psychic minds the world has ever known. Not because hes a powerful Archvillain.
He fights because of Penelope Yin.
Penny! Can you hear me, Penny?
Hes back in his metal prison. Back to being a brain floating in a bell jar. God help him, hes back.
CK?
Its little more than a whisper. He can feel her pain, and he aches in sympathy. I hear you, Penny! Ill find you! Ill save you!
CK-- youre the Clockwork King.
Yes. It hurts to admit this. He flinches, steeling himself to hear the inevitable rejection, to feel the disgust in her thoughts.
Why didnt you tell me? You could have told me
I-- couldnt.
How does he tell her what their conversations have meant to him? How does he explain what hes risked to just see her? How do you explain to someone that they are everything to you?
How can a monster lo-- no! He wont think it. Hes mad, but hes not that mad. Monsters dont have happy endings. If he forgets that, hes lost.
I couldnt, Penny. I couldnt.
CK-- I hurt. Im so cold. The fire-- the fire helps.
Hes heard that phrase before. He knows he has, whispered by someone near his many Clockwork. But who? And why does it send a chill down his mechanical spine?
Penny! Ill find you! Ill save you! No matter what it takes, Ill save you!
CK-- hurry, CK. The Change
the Change comes quickly
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wow, beautiful
Youre not welcome here, hero!
He can feel the pride the Aberrant Rector has in his own abilities. He recognizes the kind of bittersweet vindication that comes from having the power to strike back at those who made you an outcast, regardless of the price you paid for it. There is a power in pain, after all.
The Rectors pride shatters like a pain of glass when his deadly blade is caught by a hand of steel.
Unfortunately for you, I am no hero. He yanks the sword out of the Losts hands with a clumsy effort and snaps it in half. Ive come for the girl.
She belongs to us now! The Rector unleashes the full fury of his considerable psychic talents.
If he could, the Clockwork King would blink. Thats all the effect that it has on him.
Idiot. He slaps the Rector aside and continues on his journey.
Penny? Are you there?
As he expected, he gets no response. Hes been looking for her for hours, crawling through the wreckage of yet another abandoned Supergroup base. He knows that shes still alive, but he cant hear her. At times, he can almost imagine that he hears her whisper, but its like her voice is drowned under an ocean of silence.
If he thought anyone would listen to him, hed be praying right now.
And then he feels it. At first he thinks its Penny, but he knows almost immediately its not. The power it has surpasses hers as the sun exceeds a candle flame. The power is not organic, but somehow it seems almost alive. Alive with possibility, with potential
And theres yet another of the Lost kneeling beside the burning small device. The hood it wears conceals its features, but he knows from experience that there would be little of humanity left in the creature.
Where is the girl?
The Pariah Prelate turns burning eyes at him. Shes gone. Nothing of her remains now.
No! Shes not dead!
She is not dead. She is gone. You will never hear from your precious Penny again
CK.
With a roar of anger, he lumbers towards the Prelate. Hell tear it apart, rip its throat out
!
And hes knocked back by a blast of psychic energy.
You cannot win, CK. Youre just a brain in a bottle, a mockery of a man. Do you really think she would have loved you? You?
Hes pinned to the wall by sheer telekinetic might. All his formidable strength is useless without leverage. He struggles to unleash his hatred and power at the Prelate, but every thought seems to take an eternity.
Youre still the same small little man you were when Blue Steel smashed you to pulp. Youre nothing. And with the PsychoChronoMetron, the Lost will be able to bring the future even more swiftly than we thought! For a second, the voice of the Prelate seems
sad? She counted on you to save her.
What? He cant move. Hes like some an insect pinned on a board. Why did he think he could save Penny when he cant even move his own metal limbs?
She expected you to save her. She believed in you so much. She fought so hard
Penny. Penny had fought. How can he not fight on?
Penny needs me!
He does not know why this Prelate is so much more powerful than the others he has fought were. He does not know how its strength can seem to exceed his own. All he cares about now is that the Prelate must be overcome in order for him to save Penny.
And he is not just a brain in a bottle. He is more than just a living engine of destruction. He is the Clockwork King!
Penny
The Prelate looks at him expectantly. Expecting his admission of defeat, perhaps?
No. He will not fair. He cannot fail. There has to be a way
The Base was all but destroyed. Fallen girders, shattered pieces of rebar, all sorts broken machinery litter the ground. He looks at it with greedy eyes.
And because of Penny, for the first time in his life he lets himself know how he truly builds his Clockwork.
Live my faithful minions! Live!
One of the most powerful minds on Earth put together steel springs, brass gears, and pieces of pipe together with nothing but sheer will. Where there was nothing but rubble, he creates life. From nothing, he creates
hope.
The Prelate makes a startled cry as the Clockwork swarm over it. It has time for little more than a gurgle before its hold over him is shattered.
His Clockwork respectfully step aside to allow him to look at the body of his foe. One of them hands him the device-- the PsychoChronoMetron, the Prelate called it. He takes it in hand, somehow able to feel its heat through his metal hands
CK
Penny? And then he understands just who the Prelate is
rather, who it had been. Who she had been.
CK. The Prelate coughs, and he gently pushes the hood from its-- from HER-- face. Even through the Change, he can still recognize her innocent features.
Penny! He wails psychically because he cannot do so physically. No! Im supposed to save you! Im supposed to save you!
You
still can. Use it, CK. Use the
PCM.
Use it?
Fix me. Fix you. Fix time
And Penny says nothing more.
He stares at the device, his grief momentarily lost in the feel of its power.
Fix her. Fix me. Fix time
.
And just like that, history changes.
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This is truly incredible. A rare gem. Thank you for writing this.
You know, CK, I dont think Ive ever seen anyone get so choked up over a tuna sandwich before.
Its a really good sandwich, Jimmy.
I guess. Its just-- who would have thought that the mighty Clockwork Kid, sidekick to Blue Steel himself, would wind up teary eyed over a tuna sandwich?
Penny made me this sandwich.
Yeah, well, Fusionette made me coffee this morning and you dont see me getting all sentimental over it.
Ive had Fusionettes coffee. Being a tank is probably the only thing that lets you drink it and survive.
Hey now--
Jimmy, even the Vahzilok turn aside when you hold up that thermos. Dont even go there.
Yeah, well, I dare you to say that to Nettes face.
I wouldnt do that. Shes a sweet kid. Wouldnt want to hurt her feelings for the world.
Yeah, well, everyone says youre a nice guy.
Tell that to those cops that--
Dont even go there, CK. That wasnt your fault. It was all a tragic mistake. You didnt know what you were doing. Youve done your best to make up for it in the years since. The whole darn Freedom Phalanx testified at your hearing and Blue Steel himself volunteered to be your mentor.
Yes, sometimes I wonder what would have happened if Blue Steel hadnt managed to control his temper when he found me in Boomtown
Well, he did. And he got Sister Psyche herself to teach you how to control your powers. Youve fought as hard as anyone for this city, CK. But you always act like you expect it to all go away-- that were all going to treat you like some kind of monster.
I almost became a monster, Jimmy. There was so much blood
CK, its over. Paragon City has forgiven you. Forgive yourself.
Its not that easy, old friend.
Yeah, well, dont forget you have more penance ahead of you, buddy.
What do you mean?
Pennys senior prom. You know shes expecting you to take her.
That wont be so bad. Why wouldnt I want to spend time with my girlfriend?
I have three words for you, CK: Powder blue tuxedo.
You fiend!
Yeah, well, you know the fruit doesnt fall far from the tree
Now dont you go all maudlin on me, Jimmy. Nettes right. Something about the whole mess with your father doesnt add up. Sooner or later, were going to learn the real story. Doc Delilah has promised to let me know if she turns up anything.
Yeah, I hope so. So whats on the agenda today?
I thought we could maybe run another patrol on the Lost. I dont like the way theyve been sniffing around Mr. Yins store.
Thatll work for me. Want me to see if Fusionette can come with us?
Sure. It wont hurt to have another hero in on this. Fusionettes got a good head on her shoulders. She just needed you to watch her back.
Yeah, well Im still not joining the two of you in wearing spandex.
I dont wear spandex. I wear armor.
You wear giant gears for shoulder ornaments, CK. Thats not exactly better than spandex.
You just wish you had my fashion sense.
Right. Hey, Nette. Its Jimmy. CK and I wanted to know if you could join us on patrol
honey, calm down! I cant understand what youre saying when you get so excited. Breathe. What is it, baby? Whats wrong?
The words come so loudly that even CK can hear them: They took Penny! The Lost took Penny!
No! Not again! It cant happen again!
I was supposed to fix time
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Sometimes, he can almost forget he was human.
The omnipresent chatter of his Clockwork soothes him as they go about their myriad tasks. His Royal Court constantly praises his genius, his power, his leadership. The ground seems to shudder beneath his metallic feet and his steel hands possess unfathomable strength. He is the Clockwork King, and someday the world will bow down before him!
And yet there are times when that isnt enough.
There are times when he wanders his palace like a lost soul. He looks on as his faithful minions make more of their kind and remembers when he had hands that had dexterity rather than inhuman might. Even his vision is a pale shadow of what it was-- he sees better through the eyes of his subjects-- well, some of them anyway-- than he does with his own unblinking orbs. His hearing is sometimes preternaturally acute and other times it is all but useless depending on how well his machinery is functioning.
And when he can hear the sound of his life support equipment threatens to drive him mad.
The small mountains of metal and junk that his Sprockets gather taunt him with reminders of the life that was stolen from him. There are books and magazines that he cant read. Radios and IPods that he cant listen to. Lunchboxes filled with food he cant eat.
Its food and drink he misses the most. Sometimes the memory of something as mundane as a tuna sandwich or a cup of coffee make him want to cry
But he cant. Theres not enough left of him to cry.
And because he cant cry, he screams.
He screams in the depths of his soul, in the abyss of his mind where no one will ever hear him
Until one day, someone does.
Um, hello? Is anyone there?
Who are you? he snarls though if there were anyone to hear other than his Clockwork it would be an emotionless electronic monotone. Where are you?
Im Penny. Penelope. I can kind of hear people think sometimes. I heard you cry out. Can I help you?
Help me? How long has it been since he heard those words?
Yeah. You sound like you can use a friend
A friend
And for the first time in a very long while, he feels human.
Almost.
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