twelveheart | Day 1 Night

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Day 1 Night

[ Over the murmur of conversations, explorations and violent attempts at escape, there comes a sound tick tick tick tick tick.............. CLICK.... The sky above snaps across the dome from blue to black... and everything goes dark.

A glow comes from the front door of each of the inns and one by one, you can see street lanterns begin to light up steadily past each of the gates.

The only flickering, organic light comes from above in the tower, spluttering high, high above everyone, through the slats of the closed shutters. After a moment, it's gone. ]

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........... [ even if training hadn't taught him anything about sticking body parts down dark crevices common sense helps

kneeling by the drain again, putting the butt of the candle between his teeth. Takes the broom in two hands for better control, and carefully probes at what's down there ]

[The broomstick handle very, very quickly meets something solid, almost immediately. Changing the angle reveals some flat, smooth surface that when swept to the right, there's an audible thunk as it dips down, revealing some curvat-

It meets something solid... There's a clatter and a faint skittering sound as something is ... dislodged?]

Damn--

[ freezes at the clatter, straining his ears to listen for how far it--- drops? Slides? ]

[Not far by the sound of it.]

[ ....tries to reach it with the broom, if only to make contact with it. If he can get an idea of the distance involved... ]

[ At least, if there's something down there waiting to bite unwary limbs, one might as well check if the attempt is worth it. ]

[The rotation of the broom hit's that awkward point where it's practically under you, before you hear that faint sliding noise again, just a tiny tap against the broomhandle.]

[ ...grips the point of the broom resting on the edge of the drain, and pulls it out again, measuring the distance against the length of one of his own arms ]

[A little past the elbow, by your best estimate.]

....

........

[ PULLS OFF HIS SHIRT

WRAPS IT AROUND HIS FOREARM AND HAND

makeshift glove get ]

[ reaches into the hole. CAREFULLY. Feeling out the interior of the drain with his fingers, mentally mapping it out... ]

[Your fingers brush across a smooth, smooth surface. Almost slick with how polished and unblemished it is... Your knuckles brush first, then fingers close around something sloped, something of a rounded wedge shape.]

[Against your shoulder, the pads of your fingers, you feel and hear that loud, heavy clockwork ticking begin...]

[ ---!

LET GO AND PULL HAND OUT ]

[Your hand pulls free... it's a few moments of the sound, rising in intensity... before it dies away entirely, as quickly as it started.]

[ hhhhheart pounding excitement

...nngh. Better not risk that further while he's on his own out here. Gets to his feet and eyes the guttersweeper again... ]

[It's strange, in a way, with the broom gone, it looks more like the sweep's own twisted fingers are the subject of his curiosity than the drain at his feet.]

....

[ you came here to do a job. Do it, Chrysos.

...sets the broom over the drain and against the wall, and sets to work removing the sweep's jacket and shirt. ]

[It takes a little clever movement and some patience to tug the cloth around unmoving arms, but you eventually get both garments off.

The chest and neck exposed have been carved with a good eye for detail, following human musculature and bone structure. The sweep neither has nipples or bellybutton, the area just smooth where either should be.

You do find faint lines, almost hidden by lines and indentations of the body itself, they make a long rectangle around the chest and abdomen.]

[ Clever movement and patience at least when it comes to these things he can do. He folds the clothes quickly and carefully after taking them off, setting them beside the sweep's feet, and runs his fingers over the grooves of that panel. ]

...there's a start.

[ Mumbled around the candle in his mouth. Takes out his lone screwdriver-- flatheaded, and a good thing too. If there's no screws to be undone on this, maybe he can just carefully pry it open.

...taking care not to strain any other components. (Another almost-guilty glance at the bent fingers.) ]

[The casing comes off easily enough showing a breathtaking number of complex mechanisms. Long and short pistons are set to power the turning of series of more and more complex cogs and wheels of different sizes and groove spaces. Brass valves seem to vent for some sort of piping, but it's hard to tell what it is... or what would power it.

Dazzling, complex, this simple figure has a lifeswork of automation arts in it, rivaling easily some of the Pavionian works you've dissembled.... except... pegs and screws on the inside, here and there, stand empty. Here and there, a gear wheel sits with noting connecting it to push or power in turn.]

[ Just stands there for a moment, one hand against the doll's side, the other holding the candle closer to the components, studying everything with wide eyes. Intent on tracing connections, the interplay of parts....

...wouldn't put it past a Pavo's hand at all. And it would explain some things about this whole place, in fact.

... ]

"Decored"....? Or at least missing a few...

[ reaches in to carefully feel at the pegs and screws surrounding one of the empty spaces, feeling for any traces of a forced removal-- rough edges, or flakes of metal... ]

[Gone, simply gone.

Above you, you begin to hear a loud ticking, and the first plucked notes of a music box.]

[ --pulls his hand out and stares upwards, trying to place the ticking-- looks down at the doll again, it's clearly not coming from there but--- ]

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Day 1 Night

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