A Clockwork Princess (Hope's Story)


Agent79

 

Posted



The time: a future that may or may not happen. The place: the Throne Room of the Mighty Clockwork King. The people: The Mighty Clockwork King himself, his beloved Penelope Yin, and the great Sister Psyche.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Sister Psyche knows the answer before she asks, but she feels like she has to give them the option one more time.

“Penny, are you sure?” To a casual observer, the electronic monotone of the King would reveal nothing, but the love behind the words burns in Sister Psyche’s mind like a torch. “The risk—“

“I can live with the risk, CK.” The voice of Penelope Yin is calm, certain. She reaches out and grabs one of his mighty metal hands. “But I need this. You need this.”

You think that this will heal his madness, don’t you? Sister Psyche asks with a thought.

Yes, Penny replies. Nothing else has worked. He doesn’t mean to do bad things, but sometimes he can’t help himself. This union—this joining—will cleanse him of his madness or at least beat it back so he’ll be able to control himself. I’ve got it all figured out, Shalice. But we can’t do this without your help. Help me. Help him. Please.

You know that it will cost you most of your power to do this, Penelope. Why are you doing this?

Because I love him, Shalice.

Reason enough then.
“Ck. Penelope, hold onto each other and give me your free hands.”

Without hesitation, they do so.

“Concentrate, Penny, CK. Concentrate on each other.”

The human woman and the inhuman monstrosity stare deeply at each other. Psionic energy crackles around their heads.

With the precision born of decades of practice, Sister Psyche weaves the threads of power provided by two of the most powerful minds the world has ever known. Deftly, she shapes it, letting it build to the point where it can shape itself.

What will It be? Sister Psyche wonders. Is she helping to midwife a miracle … or a monster?

The energy pulses brighter and brighter.

The Clockwork King and Penelope Yin collapse to their knees. The energy continues to pulse around the King’s head, but the aura around Penny is much fainter than it was before.

Sister Psyche knows that she only has seconds left before the strain takes its toll on her as well. “Live, little one! Live!”

The energy crackles and sinks into a pile of metal. The metal shakes and shivers … and something crawls out of it. It looks around and begins to cry.

Sister Psyche picks it up and looks into its eyes. She laughs and turns to her companions. “Congratulations, you two. It’s a girl.”


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What the...


GIVE TANKS DARKNESS/ELECTRICAL MASTERY! =3
Level 50's: Komrade Kommunism (T); King Darksource (T); Burning Red Star (T); Komrade Kosmonaut (WS); Vredesbyrd (Br); Anarchery (Bl)

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]

"Oh no, not again!"

[/ QUOTE ]


 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
What the...

[/ QUOTE ]

Heh. This is somewhat of a gamble, but I don't plan on it being nearly as long as my Mynx story was...


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Posted

*Reads*

Huh. That's wierd. I swear I saw Sister Psych's name in there.

*Rereads*

Aha! I knew it! Wait. Was she in the SAME ROOM?!?!?

*Rerereads*

What.

*Rererereads*

Errrrrrrr........What?


 

Posted

Odd, I just recently created a Technology Origin Psychic Blast/ Electric Manipulation Blaster named Clockwork Princess, but she is not the offspring of Penny and CK, she is Penny's replacement, CK grew tired of waiting for Penny, so he took a psychic brain from Crowne Memorial and created his own Clockwork Princess, who left him.


 

Posted

CK: "This is my daughter."

Leader of Synapse TF: "I-..." *brain blows a fuse*

Healer of Synapse TF: "She's you're... You're..."

Clockwork King: "Yes. My daughter."

Healer: "With...?"

Clockwork King: "Penny!"

Healer: *blows a brain fuse* "Guh..."

Hope: "Hello!"

Scrapper: "She's... She's adorable... Oh well. Time to start killing. Remember, just because they're decapitated don't mean they're dead..."

CK: "I think you're missing the point here..."


My Stories

Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.

 

Posted

whoa.

interesting.


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QR

Very curious!

And Mr Grey: That post was priceless

<3 Scrappers


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Posted

“Hope Shalice Yin-King! Get your metallic butt out from under that bed this minute! We are not going to be late for your first day of school!”

It’s really tough to hide from your mother when she can read your mind. It’d been worth a try, though. I really didn’t want to start kindergarten.

I crawled out from under the bed and looked up at her. “Do I have to go, Mama?”

“Yes. Yes you do. I know it’s scary, Hope, but you’ll have fun. You’ll make lots of new friends.”

“I don’t need new friends. I have you and Daddy and Grandpa and Uncle ‘Line and Auntie ‘Nette. I don’t want to go. People are going to look at me.”

“Hope.” Mom knelt beside me and looked into my eyes. “You’re not going to be a little girl forever. You’re only a year old and you’re already as big and smart as a five year old. Yes, people are going to look at you. They’re going to stare. Some of them may even say mean things to you. But you can’t hide away all your life.”

“Daddy does.”

Mama paused then. “Your father … your father was sick for a very long time, Hope. He did a lot of things that he regrets. Someday … someday he’ll do something that will make him feel that he’s finally paid the price for the things he did.” She straightened up. “But that’s still not going to get you out of going to kindergarten.”

“I’m afraid, Mama.”

“I know, baby.” She picked me up and hugged me. “But you know that your father and I love you very much, don’t you?”

“Yes.” That was the one thing I had always known. I never doubted my parents’ love.

“Then trust me when I say that this is what’s best for you.”

“Okay.” I wasn’t convinced, but like my mother said, I was pretty smart for my age. I knew that I wasn’t going to win this fight. Daddy I could wrap around my little finger; Mama never gave in once she made up her mind no matter how much I begged and pleaded.

“All right, then. Let’s go say goodbye to Grandpa.”

Mama and I stayed with Grandpa Yin in Faultline. During the day when Mama was at work—she taught at Paragon University—I spent the day with Daddy and his Clockwork. I loved Grandpa Yin a lot, but I hated staying with him in the store when Mama was running late. Everybody looked at me when they came into the store … sometimes they came in just to look at me.

I hated it.

“Be good at school, little one,” Grandpa said as he gave me a goodbye hug and slipped a package of AAA batteries into my coat pocket. I didn’t eat food; I absorbed energy. Mama insisted on giving me rechargeable ones, but for some reason they didn’t “taste” as good as the one use ones. “Don’t let your mother see those.”

“I won’t.” I hugged him back. He knew why I was so afraid. He had been with me that day at the park when all the children had run away from me …

Mama took my hand and walked with me towards the Leonard P. Conway Elementary School. Our neighbors knew me and waved at me as we walked, and that made me feel better. As we got closer to the school, I braced myself for the stares. I could see a news van parked outside the school with a reporter waiting for us.

Mama didn’t stop and the reporter didn’t try to talk to us. I knew she was waiting for us; I could hear her speaking into microphone about waiting for the “Clockwork Princess” to show up for her first day of school. Why didn’t she even look at us?

“Mama, why didn’t the lady talk to us?” I was wearing my school outfit, but even with the necessary modifications for it to fit my metal body it wasn’t hard to see the large gears that made up part of my shoulders. How could she miss us?

“I didn’t let her see us, Hope.” Mama smiled at me brightly.

I knew that Mama wasn’t as powerful as she used to be before I was born. I had heard her and Auntie ‘Nette talking about it. I was too young to understand it then, but I never forget anything. It made me feel a little happier knowing that Mama still had some power.

When we walked into the school, my teacher, Mrs. Robinson, was waiting for me. She wasn’t much older than Mama, but not nearly as pretty. She was nice, though. Her husband was one of the Recovered Lost and the picture of her son on the desk showed that he had taken after his father’s side of the family.

“I’ll be back to pick you up at lunch, Hope,” Mama said as she handed me over to Mrs. Robinson. She hugged me. Walked away. Waved, then ran back and hugged me again. “It’ll be all right, baby.”

I didn’t know if she was trying to convince me or herself. I knew I had to be brave for her. “I’m fine, Mama. You go to work. I’ll see you at lunch.”

Mama waved, dabbed at her eyes with a tissue, and walked away.

“Come on, Hope. I’ve told the class all about you. We’re coloring now, but later on I’m going to read the class a story.” Mrs. Robinson took my hand without flinching and led me towards her classroom.

“I can read.” And I could. I could already read and write. I had been talking within two days of my birth. Like Mama said, I was smart for my age.

When we entered the classroom, all the children stopped what they were doing and looked up at me. There were five boys and eight girls. One of the boys had the facial features that marked him as being related to a Recovered Lost and one of the girls had blue skin, white feathers instead of hair, and little white wings on her back.

“Class, this is Hope Yin-King. Say hello to everyone, Hope.”

“Hello.”

“You don’t sound like a robot,” the Lost Boy said.

“I’m not a robot! I’m a girl.” My voice sounds utterly human. Grandpa said that I sounded just like Mama did at her age.

“You look like a robot,” the Lost Boy pointed out.

“I’m not. I’m—“ I thought about the answer that Mama had given me when I asked her why I was so different from everyone else. “I’m my Daddy’s little girl.”

“Who’s your daddy?” The girl who asked this was the prettiest girl that I had ever seen. Her hair was a soft golden blonde that seemed to shine with its own light.

I was bitterly jealous of that hair. I didn’t have any of my own.

“My Daddy’s the Clockwork King.”

The class gasped then. The girl laughed. “Your Daddy’s just a brain in a bottle! How can you be his daughter?”

“Don’t you talk about my Daddy!” I balled my hand into a fist—and stared at it in surprise.

It was glowing, crackling with energy.

“Jill, don’t be such a doofus.” One of the boys got up from his table and walked over to me. He held out his hand and offered me a jumbo-sized blue crayon. “My name’s Colin. Want to color?”

The energy faded from my hand as I took the crayon. “Sure!”

His hair was curly and brown. His eyes were bluer than the crayon. He was shorter than me. His smile was warm and friendly, and he had no fear at all as he took my hand and led me back to his table.

Maybe Mama was right. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all.

Maybe.


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Auntie 'Nette...

*Giggles*

...

*Giggles some more*

I find that impossibly funny, for some weird reason. <3 Fusionette


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Approval of everything expect for...

HOPE? What kind of sick person names their kid HOPE?


 

Posted

"Esperanza".

In Spanish it'd be a rather common name.

Dunno, is it that bad in English?


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It's actually a little common in English, too.

I've known a few girls named Hope.


My Stories

Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.

 

Posted

bravo.

*claps*


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Huzzah! Follow-up to The Conscious of a King!


#69397 Get Grog a Drink!
#155312 No Good Deed Goes Unrewarded
#229565 Take Back the Park! (lowbie friendly)

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Posted

Had a funny thought last night about the Clockwork King using King as his last name. I didn't even think about Hope's last name when I read it the first time. It seemed so natural. So, when he fills out forms, his first name is "Clockwork" and his last name is "King"?

Not taking a shot at you, BlueBattler, it's just that similar hilarity has ensued on my server when I tell people to call me "Mr. the Big".


#69397 Get Grog a Drink!
#155312 No Good Deed Goes Unrewarded
#229565 Take Back the Park! (lowbie friendly)

Praetor of the [url="http://www.forgottenlegion.net"]Forgotten Legion[/url] SG and mod for the HUB player community. All hail the mighty Grog!

 

Posted

For that joke, we deduct 500 Internets.


My Stories

Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
"The" is his first.

[/ QUOTE ]

There is a precedent. Skull the Troll, of PVP Online, possesses the middle name "the", which is short for Theodore.


 

Posted

Heh.

Time for a serious reply. 8-)

The reason I used King for her last name is because we don't really know CK's true human name-- its not impossible that it was king.

I thought about just having her use the last name of Yin, but it didn't feel right to not have part of CK's name as hers as well...


My COX Fanfiction:


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Posted

Ha another great piece. I respond only to favorite them to read more. I am selfish like that.

Master Gabriel


 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
Heh.

Time for a serious reply. 8-)

The reason I used King for her last name is because we don't really know CK's true human name-- its not impossible that it was king.

I thought about just having her use the last name of Yin, but it didn't feel right to not have part of CK's name as hers as well...

[/ QUOTE ]

It's also possible that the Clockwork King go so involved in creating his "Tinker Bots" that he actually forgot his real name. At this point, The Clockwork King is probably his real name.

Or it could be Elvis. Hail to the King, baby.


My Stories

Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.

 

Posted

Y'know, a PM to Hero 1 might turn up the real answer to that question according to the story bible. I've found out such minor details in the past by virtue of asking about them.