Clockwork Castle

I was used to waking up and feeling like something's off. It was what happened when you were a ghost for the majority of your life, only to suddenly have a second (or third, if you count ghosthood) chance. But this wasn't how I felt when I woke up in the morning - the surprise then was always the feeling of flesh on bones. I didn't feel any flesh this time, and I didn't feel any bones, either.

I just felt metal.

Cold, hard metal.

My eyes opened - or, I guess, I turned them on. Even before I looked down and saw the bits of metal peeking out underneath ratty, dark clothes, I knew that I was some kind of robot.

I let out a sigh.

Great.

Just great.

Before I could even begin to figure out how I got into this robot in the first place, I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. I was in some kind of alleyway, but the sight I saw wasn't something I would have associated it with - a man came out of what looked like darkness shooting out of the ground, gold and green eyes scanning the alleyway with what looked like childlike curiosity.

Now, I was a robot. I shouldn't have been talking. But the guy looked weird. He had hair as white as snow thrown up in a messy ponytail, and the gold eye looked fake. It had a weird golden rim where he should have had an eyelid. The guy was dressed in a long black jacket, but it was in better shape than the ratty one I had found myself in. His hands were almost skeletal - but they weren't made of bones. They were made of bronze, and I could see what almost looked like little gears in them.

I moved.

He noticed me.

I stared at him.

He stared at me.

And then he went scrambling back into the alleyway, trembling as tears sprung to his eyes.

Megara woke up, a surprise in itself, and blinked at her new surroundings.

She was in what was best described as a hut, with various herbs and bottled somethings hanging from the rafters by every beam and corner she could see. The door and windows were open, allowing the spring breeze to fill the place with the scent of wild flowers.

A person was here too, a tall man, maybe eighteen or nineteen, with spiky blonde hair the color of honey and loose fitting clothes covered in grass stains and the occasional burn mark. He turned to face her, revealing the cauldron he was attending over the fire, and jumped.

"Oh, you're awake," he said, "How are you feeling?"

She refrained from looking at her arm. It had been a bloody mess last time she saw it and she wasn't really looking foreword to seeing how it had fared in the time she'd been unconscious.

"Who are you?" she asked instead of answering.

"Oh, uh," he shifted awkwardly and busied himself going through the shelf of bottled powders next to him, "I'm Fidel. I found you in my fields...you were in pretty bad shape..."

She glared at his unspoken question, "Yeah, thanks," she said shortly, "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have places to be." She swung her legs over the edge of the cot and tried to get up, but Fidel dashed over to place a restraining hand on her uninjured shoulder.

"I'm sorry," he said, "I can't let you leave in this condition. At least wait until I can give you something for the pain," he gestured at the cauldron, which was on the verge of overboiling.

He spotted that fact at about the same time she did and hurried back over. In his rush, he knocked the row of glass bottles containing various powders and liquids into the bubbling pot.

Before either of them could do anything, there was a blinding flash of light and suddenly the cottage was gone.

In its place we're cold stone walls and colder corridors, all in cool blacks and greys.

Megara looked over to find Fidel with the leg she previously hadn't noticed was prosthetic beneath his worn trousers now on full coppery display. His other leg was fully covered with a pair of nice looking black slacks and his ratty shirt had been replaced with a white cotton one in pristine condition and a black waistcoat.

She dragged herself to her feet and in doing so found out that she was wearing a corset and skirt. Her heart skipped a beat as she frantically searched herself for her weapons. They were there. She released her captive breath.

She glared at Fidel and opened her mouth to make a sarcastic remark when she spotted the others.

Down the hallway or, alley as she realized it truly was (the grey was of the sky and lack of any kind of wind had created the illusion of indoors), were two beings of the same metal as Fidel's leg. She weighed her options and made a decision, leaving Fidel to investigate.

Or, she tried to. As soon as she began to walk past him he shot to his feet and momentarily lost his balance, apparently unused to the new leg.

"Stop!" He said, "You shouldn't even be standing! Do you have any idea how badly you hurt your leg?"

She raised her eyebrows. Yeah, it was true that the dogs had gotten a pretty good bite out of her leg, but that was hardly a dull throb to her by now. Her arm was the real problem, feeling a bit like it was on fire under the layers of visible bandages that could only claim to be so due to her sleeveless dress, and that had nothing to do with her ability to walk.

"Listen," she sighed, "You can tag along with me so long as you can keep up, alright? But don't try to give me orders, or you'll wish I'd have ditched you."

She then turned on her heel and approached the newcomers, Fidel spluttering behind her as he tried to simultaneously keep up with her brisk pace on his new leg and come up with an answer.

"Hi," Megara greeted the others, "I seem to be a bit lost, would you mind telling me where I am?"

Despite the trembling man's fear of me, I marched on over to him and jerked him back up to his feet. The two before us looked like they belonged here, wherever here was. I was currently possessing a completely unfamiliar robot, and the man behind me seemed very surprised by his skeletal hands, so I suspected he had just as a little of an idea of where we were as I did.

Admitting that we weren't from here wasn't an option, so I answered with the next best response.

"How about no?" I said. My voice was strange and hollow - it sounded like a cheap copy of my own that lacked everything that had made my actual voice sound alive. This just sounded dead and cold.

Behind me, the man tried to yank his wrist free from my grip. A glance back, and he was full on sobbing. Didn't he see that I was trying to help him? I opened my mouth to whisper something to him to calm him down, but then he jerked my hand to the side. I stumbled as he moved his hands together - he was far stronger than I had guessed - and did what almost look like signing.

Normally, I wouldn't have known what he was saying, but being a robot had its perks - I knew exactly what he was trying to get across.

He was signing help.

...Great.

I tugged on his wrist again, trying to bring him farther back into the alleyway. "We better be on our way now," I said, barely glancing over my shoulder to look at the two. "We've got places to go, people to see, all that jazz-"

The man broke free.

I frantically spun around to see him darting over to the woman's side, desperately signing "Queenie, help!" over and over again as he continued to sob.

Megara blinked. For once, knowing sign language only made this exchange more confusing. Her cheerful demeanor dampened a bit.

As she tried to process, Fidel stepped forward, "Hey, what do you think you're doing? Let the kid go!" He didn't look very intimidating just on principle, but he tried. Unfortunately for him, his awkward stance caused by his unfamiliar robotic leg and general inability to look like he knew how to cause anyone any kind of pain betrayed him, and he was left looking like an ant gearing up to fight a giant. Full of righteous fury, but small and ineffective.

Megara was still caught on the whole 'Queenie' thing.

She wasn't going to get answers, though, if the boy was hauled off by this entirely unfriendly android before she could so much as ask them. Her sword was sheathed (annoyingly) at her back if she needed it, but for now, she subtly took out one of the knives she had found stored in hidden sheaths in the cursed corset and held it at the ready, hidden within her skirts.

"Are you sure you don't know where we are?" she asked innocently, "How about your friend?" she turned to address the mute and pretended she had no idea what he was signing, "Do you know?"

She didn't know how effective a knife would be against an android. He didn't exactly have flesh. But she could still cut wires and pry him apart. It didn't take much skill to tear apart a machine, not if you didn't want it to be put back together.

The man frantically shook his head.

"No!" he signed, staring at me with the same wide eyes as before. He moved closer to the guy with the metal leg, seeming to sense that he was more likely to give him safety than the girl was. I couldn't help it - I let out a groan when I realized he had no intention of coming with me.

"There's been a misunderstanding-" I started to say, sounding as friendly as a creepy robot could, but then I was cut off by more signing.

"I don't know what world we're on, Queenie!" the man promised. "I've never been to this one before!"

I stared at him.

"...Wait," I slowly said. "You can go between worlds?"

He stared at me, then gave a very terrified nod.

Well, he was definitely coming with me now.

"Could you come over here?" I asked. "I just want to talk to you about something - I swear on my life that all I want to do is have a nice conversation. No kidnapping involved this time!"

...Or, at least, that was they had heard. I had slipped in a very quiet "first" before life, which made the promise practically worthless. I was on life three right now.

Megara watched the exchange with veiled interest. She decided to try something.

"I'm sorry, I'm afraid I don't know what you're trying to say," she addressed the android, "Do you mind translating?"

She fully expected him to lie. She would.

But that wasn't what interested her right now. She was on another world. Well, that explained some things, but why, in all the gods names, was she dressed in anything involving the movement-restricting death trap that was a corset?!

A fool with a death wish might point out that 'at least it fit' and that at least the gods of this world hadn't seen fit to subject her to the rare torture of tightlacing.

Even thinking of that made her want to use the knife in her hand.

Before she could do anything rash, Fidel stepped forward, "Get away from him," he said to the android, timidness diffusing any command in his tone as he stepped between the android and the mute, "No one here has any reason to trust you after," he gestured vaguely, apparently trying to reference his past actions, "that. Prove you're trustworthy first."

He was practically shaking with nerves, but Megara had to admire his boldness. Admire it and condemn it. It was pretty much pure stupidity, after all.

The man frowned.

"You know what I'm signing!" he protested, staring at the girl with tears springing to his eyes. His lips quivered. "Why are you lying, Queenie?"

His tears weren't the same terrified ones from before, but there was the same element of panic to them - he apparently didn't like the thought of her trying to trick him. Or, at the very least, he was sad that she recognize him.

"He says otherwise," I argued. I pointed at the man. "And from the way you've been watching his hands, I think I'm going to side with him over you."

The man stared at me - despite trying to admittedly kidnap him earlier, I was taking his side, and the girl that was supposed to know who he was was pretending that she had never met him. Which seemed more and more strange the longer I thought about it. Why would she lie about something like that?

I mulled it over.

Wait a second.

"You're not from here, are you?" I blurted. "And I don't mean this town, or wherever you are. You're from another world, just like me and just like him."

She made a snap decision and rolled her eyes, "You got it in one," she gestured to Fidel, "My being here is his fault entirely. And, for the record, I was watching his hands because occasionally one can assume the meaning behind a sign without knowing the language."

This kid was clearly mistaking her for someone else. Convincing him he was making a mistake should just be a matter of acting oblivious for the right amount of time.

She second guessed her decision to reveal exactly where she was, or rather, wasn't from. Then she saw Fidel's rapidly reddening face and decided it was worth it. He deserved a little embarrassment in the very least for that little mistake of his.

The man sniffled.

"You know how to sign..." he signed, hands slowly returning to his side when he finished.

I crossed my arms. "He's insisting that you know it," I said, "and I'm inclined to agree. I don't know who any of you are, but you can't understand sign language without actually knowing it. I can't tell sign language most of the time, and the stuff he's been doing with his hands would make absolutely no sense if I wasn't stuck like this."

Megara bit back a sharp retort, "Look, I don't even know this kid, so how the hell would he know what I do and do not know? Spoiler alert, sign language doesn't fall under the former. As you can tell, I am very much not deaf, so why would I bother learning such an obscure language? Honestly, this whole argument is stupid."

It was at that moment that Fidel seemed to remember that she was hurt.

"You need to get off your feet," he blurted out. Wither her glare now on him, his face reddened, if possible. "Your, uh, leg. You're only making it worse by standing on it. You have to be in a lot of pain already..."

Her lips twitched into a murderous smile. Yes, she was in pain. No, he didn't have to point that out.

"Thanks for your input," she said pleasantly and made no move to follow his advice.

The man looked at the girl like she had broken his heart. And while I usually wasn't fond of comforting strangers - especially ones that seemed so weak - something about his demeanor made me feel sad for him. I knew I shouldn't have felt that way.

But it was hard not to, when he seemed so certain that they had met before, and the girl didn't even seem to know his name.

His eyes filled with tears, but there was no more sobbing. He just signed a very, very pathetic, "Can I help you?" at her, even though he had to know that she was going to pretend that she didn't know what he was signing.

"He wants to know if he can help you," I translated - the words were coming out of my mouth before I could even really think about it. "I'd suggest saying yes, considering how you've managed to put him through more emotional trauma in the past few minutes than I have, and I tried kidnapping him."

She slid the knife back into its sheath and crossed her arms, "Look, I have no idea what you're talking about. I don't know him, and if he knows me it's only by reputation. He's not exactly the forgettable sort."

Fidel seemed to realize that the mute was in no more danger, or, at least minimal danger, and stepped closer to Megara, "I'm serious," he insisted, "you were torn up really bad when I found you, you need to sit down or...or something. You need to let your leg heal."

She didn't grace him with an answer this time, just glared daggers at him until he looked away.

I raised a metaphorical eyebrow as the man started to walk away from her, his head facing down towards the ground. There was something else going on here, and it looked like I was going to have to figure things out myself.

But, before I did - I needed to get my body back, wherever it was. I could stay stuck in this robotic one for too long - my body had been alright in the past, but I didn't like the idea of it being tossed aside in a place like this.

I scanned the area.

No sign of an unconscious teenager slumped up against a wall. I should have felt worried, but all I felt was a wave of relief - I didn't have to worry about defending it from one of these guys.

Although only the girl seemed to be a problem.

"By any chance, have you seen a guy about my height lying around?" I asked. It was best to blunt about what I was looking for - maybe they could point me in the right direction. "He's got messy black hair, gray eyes, and looks like a weird combination between street urchin and devilishly handsome."

Spoiler

Would you be down for Skull accidentally taking control of Megara or Fidel in my next couple of posts? They'd still be able to communicate with him, but he would be in control of their actual voice and body for at least a post - I don't think Fidel would be able to get control back, but Megara might be able to because she has a stronger will.

If not, I can just have him possess Kirux by accident instead.

Spoiler

Go for it.

"No," Megara said, "Why?"

Fidel looked increasingly distressed as he watched Megara as though expecting her to collapse at any second. To be fair, she did feel like that was a possibility, but like hell was she going to let him know that.