Inside the Room and Mind of Fraulein Fennix - RP post for <lj site="livejournal.com" user="metody_gr

[clockwork_phoenix]

Bella's almighty claimed sideroom is one of the larger ones.

It is so, for a reason. Various mechanical objects and devices litter the room in parts, and in various states of completion, and off to one side is the start of a new portal generator. Bella's managed to clean off most of the black soot from where the first one exploded.

One might notice her sheets from her bed hanging outside her window for that same reason, as well as her more beat up clothing.

This is not, however, what she's doing currently.

As life is never dull for the average Spark (combined with, perhaps, a certain subset of Luck), Bella has a predicament.


"Look, I'll give you the wrench for it, how about that?"

Ding. Ding.

Ding the scorpionish-crab-clank is sitting on Bella's workbench, just out of reach, and he's carrying one of her left boots (Yes, she has more than one, the heeled one to go with the dress for that dance comes to mind). And Ding is holding it up triumphantly in all three claws, both arms and the tail. Having the beaming (n) expression. Ding!

"Then what do you want to trade for it?" Apparently, Bella's grown tired of chasing the Clank around for the boot. That little guy's fast when he needs to be.

Of course, into this comes another factor....

Comments

[metody-green.livejournal.com]

....a Metody! He makes everything, better, right? Right?!

He's figured out which room is Bella's (it's the one with the starburst of soot sprayed out from under the door) and knocks. He's wearing his usual clothing of soot-stained jeans and a t-shirt, and has a nice big plastic bag over his arm. Metody...has been shopping.

[gears-of-gold.livejournal.com]

Ding! DINGding! The dinging's almost musical, different pitches and tones to it.

"Yes, I heard it," Louder, "One second." Several things being moved, and lo, Bella opens the door to reveal--!

"Ah! Hello Metody." She grins, "What brings you by?"

Bella's wearing her newer clothing, the greyish trousers and the long sleeved blouse. She's not wearing her boot, as Ding dances about across the workbench triumphantly carrying the pilfered shoe. Ding ding Ding~!

[metody-green.livejournal.com]

"I got some broken clocks and thought you'd like them for - shouldn't you wear your shoes in h- oh, hello, Ding!"

Stream of conciousness is a go! He offers her the bag while smiling at Ding. Inside are two alarm clocks and a few watches, all forever stilled.

[gears-of-gold.livejournal.com]

Judging from the various mechanical guts strewn about, wearing shoes would probably be a good idea, "Ooh." She takes the bag and examines the clocks inside, "I can definitely use these, thanks." She gestures, "Want to come in? It's a bit of a mess, but, uh." Few ticks of her mechanical limbs, "Well, let's just say there's something of an organization to my chaos."

Ding waves cheerily with one arm, and Bella carefully makes her way to the work bench, making sure to avoid some of the things on the floor. Ding, on the other hand, skitters away with its captured boot and dances on the bed. Come on! DING!

Bella just shoots the Clank a look. Ding just beams.

[metody-green.livejournal.com]

He takes a step in, moving delicately through the chaos. He's headed towards Ding. "He stole your shoe?" he asks with a half-laugh, grinning. Such a cute thing! He holds his arms out to it for a hug.

[gears-of-gold.livejournal.com]

Bella sets the bag down on the bench, taking the contents out and setting them near a large rifle with glass tubing and a large glass filament-based-thing on the back, "More or less, before I could put it on this morning." Ding drops the boot and springs onto Metody for a scorpion-like hug.

Or rather like a face-hugger, if you want the standard pop-culture reference. Although its going for his chest rather than his face.

Bella uses this moment to snatch her boot off of the bed while the Clank's distracted, she leans on the wall to pull it on and tie it quickly, "There, I've been chasing him half-heartedly all morning--he's a lot faster than he looks on all those legs. Had him up on the walls at one point."

Up on the walls indeed, close examination merits little clawmarks from where it climbed up and all around. The other clockwork devices range from interesting (she made her own clock from about three, self winding!), to bizarre (..Is that a weird looking flower that constantly turns moves and ticks on a time scale?), to the weapons (The death ray rifle on the workbench, the improved heat ray), and so forth.

Also on the workbench is a half finished necklace with a winged gear at its center, and some sort of other bizarre contraption.

[metody-green.livejournal.com]

"Oh, dear. That must have been frustrating."

He accepts the leap with relative calm, grinning and hugging Ding tightly. If it had gone for his face, there would have been considerably more screaming involved. But there's not, so he isn't.

"You - " this is directed at Ding, " - should be nicer to your Mom. Moms are for listening to. That's how you know they're Mom."

He cuddles the metal critter happily, looking over her lab, then gravitates towards the flower thing. Really, anything vaugly plant-like could attract Metody. "Gosh. This is pretty."

[gears-of-gold.livejournal.com]

Ding makes several dinging noises at Metody, and will skitter to sit on his head again if this action's allowed. It likes him!

Bella snrks, "I think it's mainly because Ding's still newly constructed, and is curious. I'm not really sure."

The flower, as it is, is completely artificial, made out of spare tubing and gears, and constantly turns and moves slowly as the gears click about their rotation in the pot. She blinks, "Oh, that?" A bit of a sheepish look, "I just made it out of spare parts I couldn't use for much else..."

[metody-green.livejournal.com]

"He's awfully neat. And friendly, which is great." He laughs happily at Ding's scrambling, reaching up a hand in case he should slip. But the bulk of his attention is on the wondrous clockwork plant. He reaches out and doesn't quite touch the pretty thing, his eyes sparkling. "Was it hard to make? It's so intricate."

[gears-of-gold.livejournal.com]

Ding's got a pretty firm grip, not too hard of one, but more than enough--and this is thanks to the tail as a counterbalance--capability to stay on Metody's head on its own.

"Not really, once I got started on it--!" Blink, "One second." She makes a 'one second' gesture with her mechanical hand as she pokes around the workbench and produces, much to the awe of the Internet, goggles that do in fact do something.

Made of somewhat polished brass with glass lenses--magnifying lenses, at that. Bella walks over and offers them, "I used these and some of my smaller tools to make it, since I was using parts that were too small for me to use for anything else."

[metody-green.livejournal.com]

Thank goodness it isn't firm. Metody's skin isn't nearly as sturdy as the walls. He gives him a gentle pat, then takes the goggles and puts them on. He looks around a bit wonkily, his eyes magnified into huge seas of blue, then leans forward to study the plant.

"...gee."

[gears-of-gold.livejournal.com]

She smiles a bit, "What do you think?" Bella asks, watching him study it.

There's something to be said about a Spark in her element, and mechanical work with clockwork, engines, and the occasional death ray interspersed between all that? That's Ms. Fennix's element. Ding is an exception to the rule, due to the power of super-caffeinated Tea of Doom. Ding, for his part, leaaans to look as well.

It's an intricate design, following the lines of the pot in a gentle, slow rotation of movement. Quiet, spinning gears all moving one another in a constant motion. The plant itself is made from tubing, and the leaves are made from various metallic bits, and the occasional bent up gear (several of which are somewhat blackened--presumably from the blown up portal device). "It doesn't really do anything aside from, well, that, since it's just me making a use out of stuff I can't really use anywhere else."

Sparks are Packrats, in some senses, but Bella likes to find a place for everything, too.

[metody-green.livejournal.com]

"I think its charming," he says honestly, ducking down a bit to get a better look at it. Fear the big-eyed Metody! He feels all sparkly with delight.

"Not everything is immediately useful - look at a lot of art. Things aren't worthless just because what they do is look beautiful and interesting. And this is like some kind of slow ballet. I really like it."

And he likes this place. It's all...Bella. Gears and thoughts and bits of half-made things. Like an idea paused midway through.

[gears-of-gold.livejournal.com]

It really is, it's rather like she pictures the inside of her own head. Scattered parts everywhere, ('Sort of like a Clank exploded, except a lot more parts', is how she'd describe it in her own words).

She beams, though, smiling, "Thanks. You should see what I can do when I've got my tools, really. Yeah, I can work with any set, but I know my tools, their intricacies, their tics."

Ding! Di-Ding!

"Yes, I made you," She pokes Ding on the top of its head, "Without my tools, but you're pretty much a standing exception to most of the rules I seem to operate on most of the time."

A sort of sagely ding results from the Clank.

[metody-green.livejournal.com]

Metody would picture a boil of gears, if asked. Bella's got that look.

"What happened to your tools?"

He wanders over to the next thing, quite content to observe her work if she'll let him. He's very, very careful to not touch or dislodge Ding.

[gears-of-gold.livejournal.com]

Ding is happy to ride, wheeee! Arms and tail in the air, hi-ho Metody! AWAY!

"More or less, they got left behind when I got sent to the Nexus. I'm hoping I can track down the airship I was on, I stashed them away in a hiding place since I had to stow away." She doesn't mind having people watch, although watching her is a hell of an experiance in itself.

She plops down on the chair next to the workbench, "If not that, there's my set in Kintotech Castle, but that'd take some doing to actually reach."

The next nearest object is Bella's self winding clock. It uses a pendulum to swing and tick-tock time away, but the mechanics subtly keep the pendulum from losing momentum. Tick tock tick tock.

[metody-green.livejournal.com]

"Oh, dear." He leaves off his snooping and heads towards Bella to wrap his arms around her shoulders and kiss her cheek. If he were suddenly forced to start from first concepts for geology, he'd go mad. Completely mad.

This does explain the expressions she gets sometimes.

[gears-of-gold.livejournal.com]

Well, she's a madgirl to begin with, although she hugs him and gives a cheeksmooch just the same. Ding skitters off of Metody's head to wind onto Bella's shoulders, anchoring himself with his tail.

She shrugs a little, though, "I've got a plan, at least, and that's something to go on. After that, though, I'm not sure what to do next." A few ticks of a beat, "Although I'm saying now, I'm not leaving the Nexus permanently. Seen too much to leave it behind." She grins.

"What's your world like, anyway?" She asks thoughtfully, "From asking around and talking to people, a lot of the key things from mine are missing. Sparks, Constructs, Clanks," Ding! "Which is.. really, really weird."

[metody-green.livejournal.com]

He grins at Ding and takes a seat.

"I'm glad you're not leaving forever. I'd miss you terribly."

His question makes him frown.

"We don't have anything like that, except in stories. Which is a pity. Um. We have a lot of people, especially in cities, and a lot of industry. My city, especially, has a lot. There's a curse put on it, and people sort of figure it's easier to build a factory there than deal with pollution laws elsewhere. Especially since most industries deal with us anyway. We're maybe the biggest city in the whole world, and there's a ton of factories. There's snows of soot, and the rivers catch on fire every few months."

"I like it here better."

[gears-of-gold.livejournal.com]

Bella blinks, both eyes wide, "Mein gott, we don't have anything quite that bad, at least, to my knowledge."

She also resolves to take Metody to her world one day (Herr Yellow already has a ticket, if only to see Castle Wulfenbach once from the distance), maybe one of the open fields outside the Badlands (Which, as she's stated, aren't quite bad in that sense--not to mention she'll be armed). "No filtering system or anything?"

She always suspected factories were bad news--hand making things tended to make for better quality. But this, just earns a shake of her head and a sigh.

"I can see why you do." Among other reasons, cleaner air. "Mine's.. a lot cleaner, but we've got more going on. Sparks trying to rage war on each other, making Constructs and Clanks for that purpose..." She shakes her head, making a small, frustrated sound.

[metody-green.livejournal.com]

There is a reason he often smells of gasoline or sulphur, and all his clothing is depressed with a dinge of soot. Ask Pat about a red sky at night and the river catching fire.

"There's filters in all the newer buildings, and everyone has several in their apartment. I've got five, but that's because they're all pretty lousy. And the air gets a little cleaner when it rains." Black. It rains black. With an oily slick on each drop, like what a gothic peacock would cry.

"Gosh, that sounds awful. We've got wars, but none of them are close to home."

[gears-of-gold.livejournal.com]

To her credit, Bella tends to smell like gear grease, machine oil, metal (thanks to the arm and leg), and that kind of thing, so she didn't really think about it until now.

She nods, thoughtful, "If.. you wanted, I could probably improve upon the filters if you brought them to me or something." 'Or something' being taking her to the filters, maybe. Or something. Yes.

Of course, it doesn't occur to her she might stand out a little.

For reasons that might've cost her an arm and a leg.

Badum pssh.

[metody-green.livejournal.com]

"...I...would very much like you to visit. But we'd have to stay in my apartment and you'd have to be ready to PIN out if anyone got close. People missing them are relatively common, but the replacements you've made would probably get us arrested on suspicion of being witchkin. And then there's a good chance we'd both be executed." Not that Metody is a witchkin. At all.

He smiles at her. "But it would be wonderful if you could visit. I love having guests."

[gears-of-gold.livejournal.com]

She grins, then blinks, "'Witchkin'?" That's a new term and it's not really translating right in her head, "Although I didn't make these, I've modified them enough that at least three of the seven popes probably would gawk," Maybe four, "But... Anyway." Ehheh, sheepish grin, "My father did."

[metody-green.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, they're..sort of supernatural things. They can look just like people, and they think they're people, but they're really not. They grow up perfectly normal, then one day they have powers, and soon after that, they start the killing. Sometimes they can stay hidden for months, killing people."

But Metody's not one of them. Despite looking human and having unexpected powers and all.

He glances down, then back up at her with a smile. "Whoever made them, you have lovely legs. Both of them."