Quest 313

[primrosella]

[Accidental Voice Post]

[The audio opens here with a clatter, as a Network device accidentally knocked askew goes tumbling to the ground and switches on by mistake--]

Oh, that horrible--it's ticking!

[There's an aghast pause, and then a shuffling flurry of movement, and then--]

Oh, no, no, no, it can't be, it--no, no, it can't--

[And with a little more rustling...]

--a machine!

[And it's quite impressive, really, how much horror and disgust and loathing she manages to compress into that one single word, and in the silence that follows before the feed switches off, the very faint sound of clockwork gears clicking can be heard.]


[OOC: Posting kind of early because I have an exam on Monday (ugh) but I didn't want to risk missing this curse because machines. TL;DR, Rosella (and everyone from Daventry) canonically loathes machinery, specifically of the clockwork-and-gears variety, so being turned into a clockwork princess today is...well. Subtle body horror at its finest? WELCOME TO OCTOBER IN THE CITY, I suppose. o/]

Comments

[primrosella]

In my back, it's--I'm ticking...

[synanthrope]

Do you want me to look at it?

[primrosella]

I want it out!

[synanthrope]

Let me see it, Rosella.

[primrosella]

[Okay, well, simple imperatives are good.]

I'm...I'm in my room. Still. I didn't...I'm in my room.

[synanthrope]

[The door opens a few minutes later, and Saya slips in]

Rosella.

[primrosella]

[There is, as expected, a pronounced brass key protruding from her back, and Rosella herself is approximately as mussed as one might expect of someone who's just spent a fair amount of time being downright hysterical.]

Oh, Miss Saya, I--

[Tickticktickticktickticktickticktick.]

[synanthrope]

Shhh.

[Saya is looking at the key, toeing around Rosella, looking over the key]

Relax.

[primrosella]

[It's far, far easier said than done, but for once Saya's eerie impassivity is surprisingly comforting as opposed to unsettling.]

I just woke up and...it was...

[Slow breathing.]

And I was ticking...

[synanthrope]

If you panic, it ticks faster.

[primrosella]

And if it winds down...someone told me it can wind down. And then we--whoever has one, they stop.

[synanthrope]

I have some experience with clockwork.

[She touches the key and there's the sound of it winding up.]

[primrosella]

[The look that crosses her face at the feeling of being wound is equal parts disbelief, disgust, and disquieted curiosity. Because really, it's just strange.]

Oh...oh, that's terribly odd...

[And suddenly she feels...peppier?]

[synanthrope]

[Saya watches this, her fingers on the key]

But better?

[primrosella]

Different. I don't...

[She pushes at her hair a little, collecting her thoughts.]

I'm not happier, but I'm better, if that...makes any sense at all?

[synanthrope]

Curses don't usually bother you this much.

[primrosella]

They don't often bring around machines like this. And when they do--the last time they did--they were all around, but they weren't...inside of us.

[synanthrope]

Clockwork is easy to take apart if it scares you.

[primrosella]

Even like this? If it's--part of me?

[synanthrope]

I could take it apart, but it would most likely kill you.

[primrosella]

Well, goodness, I don't want that!

[synanthrope]

I don't either, particularly. Relax. I will not kill you.

[primrosella]

I should hope not, thank you...

[She's just shaking her head a little.]

If it's a curse there's nothing to be done about it anyway, I suppose. Other than to wait.

[synanthrope]

Don't get so overwhelmed, Rosella.