At the top of the tower multiple pins light up the scene of a hasty disassembly, a dozen or so of the elevator hand-rails lay stacked to the side as the ballista was moved onto the elevator and sent down to the bottom of the tower. There the man rolls the ballista onto the rails and after bringing it to a rest, tries to lock the brakes but to no success. He checks around the lever concerningly but quickly hides his worry as he sees Elio walking past with his head hanging low and tears in his eyes. He sits on the platform of the ballista, dusting off the wayward splinters that still remain and using his sleeves to clean the wayward tears that fall down every now and again. The man takes a step over to Elio, before stopping to think of what to say, his mind working away as he looks down at the jagged and splintered wood where the right arm of the bow used to connect. Not willing to tell the painful truth, he settles on lies and comfort instead, and sitting down next to Elio he says, “c'mon kid, it's not that bad, I'll fix it easily I swear”. Elio brightens up to some success, breaking a small smile at the earnesty of the man's words.
Elio's smile slowly fades as the man gets up and walks to the hall and he is left to simmer in his own guilt, but not for long. Not able to bear this feeling any longer he stands up and turns to face the ballista in hopes that he maybe can help and get rid of his guilt. Just by looking he can tell that most if not all the levers are broken as their handles hang off centre. Walking around to the other side, he shudders at a groove in the ballista's, made by the string whipping back and striking the body, though that is surface level compared to the bow. In his morbid curiosity he also notices something else, looking towards the flight groove he notices the latch that would hold the projectile launcher is gone, but upon closer inspection he finds that it is broken, the L-shaped piece now unrecognisable. His heart sinks at the realisation, another cornerstone of the ballista's design broken, possibly forever. Moving before he thinks he begins to rush out of the tower and to the hall to find a way to fix it, but stops short of reaching the door as he realises, he doesn't even know where to start, and even if he did he is too doubtful of himself to even try. With no way to help, he sits back down on the ballista's base, and waits for the man to return.
The man silently enters the hall, the red dot in his eyes flaring into a thin ring which then spreads like blood in water. his hands clenching into a fist, frustration spelled clearly on his face, as he enter his room he breaks his silence, “why did i let him go up the tower” he says in frustrated whispers, “he was clearly tired before hand, and tired after, and never once did i think to stop him, or go check”. he rubs his temple as his monologue subsides, and he begins searching his room for some blueprints of the ballista.
He had retrieved everything, from the floor plan of the house, to the blueprints of the towers mechanisms and everything in between, and as all has been accounted for, the chest emptied, every drawer swung wide open, it leaves this large sheet of blotter paper as the blueprint of the ballista, or more accurately what's left of it. He stares at the blueprint, his eyes slowly moving from smudged ink, to smudged ink, before calmly folding the paper, and pinching the bridge of his nose for an equal amount of time. From what he could gleam the paper was subject to water at some point and the ink had been ruined as a result. “This complicates matters," the man says as he tosses the paper onto the table and goes into the hall to retrieve the tools and materials with not but a faintest understanding of the ballista to go on.
In the tower, the man had gathered plenty of materials and a slew of tools. Placing the last of many planks down, he turns to the ballista to see that Elio had taken the medical box that he brought; just in case; and has begun to bandage parts of the ballista, the man with neither the heart or willpower to stop him. With everything gathered the man begins analysing the damage further, just to get a clear image of what he needs to do. starting with the arms are the obvious, the right one shattered, and the left brought to the breaking point, he will most likely have to make a new set with planks, though it would be weaker. next is the levers, and from what he can see, it's not good either, opening a small panel he can see that the inside of the ballista is a mess of loose and rusted gears, and from the way he found the ballista, it is not much of a surprise. When he came up the tower, the ballista was sitting perpendicular with the rail track, derailed from the force of the arm breaking, and while the ballista is designed to handle the force of its bow, it isn't designed to handle that same force from its side.
As he works, he is constantly putting up a façade to hide his worry, though Elio isn't concerned about the internals of the ballista as he is about the latch and he bow. In his mind, gears can be pushed back to place, the levers readjusted easily, but rebuilding the bow? Making a new latch? He’s not so confident about those, and can only imagine the time it would take to replicate them, and that's ignoring their quality. And as if the uncertainty isn't enough, he has no way of helping, and can only look on with hope, and frustration. Of course it was only a matter of time before the man noticed the broken latch, and very much like Elio, he too is worried. It would take some difficulty to remove the piece, as both the latch and the bolt that held it in place were warped beyond measure, and he would end up having to open that side of the ballista just to remove the piece. Even then the bolt and the latch still remained together, nothing less than bending it back to free them, though it would risk breaking the bolt.
The latch on the other hand, was irretrievable. Holding it up in the light he can see that it is a one inch thick, and composed of an alloy unaffected by time, compared to the bolt the metal shines as if newly made, though now missing one side. Analysing the damage, he notices Elio's gaze in the reflection change towards him and the latch, his eyes constantly darting at the damage of the latch and the reaction of the man. Seeing Elio's attention squarely at him he turns to place the piece on a small wooden round table, with Elio quickly following. The man says “well then, I'm done looking, and I'm going to start fixing, I'll start with the inside of the ballista, and-”, as he talks, he notices Elio's attention turning to the latch, “and don't worry Elio, I'll fix it, I always do” Elio turns up at the man, and seeing his unflinching smile nods, and smiles back.
Later the man has been slowly disassembling the ballista, and at every turn writing down what he has done in his notebook in hopes of reverse engineering the ballista. On the ground the admittedly old gears lay organised and numbered via a chisel, and slowly but surely the man is beginning to discover how the ballista works. Meanwhile Elio has been bouncing back from his room and tower, he has left the ballista to the man, but has consistently come back to check, frustrated that he can't help. Not being able to focus on anything else, he walks past the line of gears and behind the man working on the ballista he sits on a chair and fiddles around with the latch.
No use, he just feels terrible again. The duality of wanting to stay and wanting to leave he is stuck in a paradox of discontentment and tries to occupy himself with something to do. Eventually his search stops on a line of wrenches, and seeing one of them missing decides to go looking for it. Entering the hall he doesn't find it under or on the work table, and thinking back remembers the man leaving the wrench on the tower after disassembling the elevator handrails. Climbing onto the elevator he hears the man approaching. “Going up?” he says, and Elio nods, the man replies, “alright, keep your hands down at all times, don't walk to the edge, and stay in the middle alright, and…. Here, take this pin, there's more up so you'll be able to light your way much better”.
Elio nods as the man gives him the pin and he pulls the lever to move higher, making note to stay away from the edges due to the lack of railing. On the ground floor the man is making absolutely sure Elio doesn't do anything dangerous. On the settling at the top of the tower Elio shakes the pin, causing the eye to glow and the others to glow as well, and lighting the area with a tint of green. using the light he dodges all the wayward screws and handrails in search of the wrench and finds it quickly, its surface reflecting the green glow. as he does so notices another metal reflecting the light, and after closer inspection he finds that it's a bolt. It's not the oddest thing in the world, the man has a tendency to use different screws here and there, most of the time in response to running out and being too lazy to get more of the same type, but this one here, it is familiar and he can't remember why. Wishing to return the wrench as soon as possible but not wanting to ignore this feeling he grabs the bolt of the ground before taking the elevator back down.
After the elevator comes to a rest Elio gives the missing wrench to the man, who is surprised and thanks him, “i was wondering where i left it, thanks Elio'' and then returns to work. Elio goes back to sitting near the small table and pulls the bolt out of his pocket, staring at it as he tries to figure out the familiarity. Looking at the bolt in the light, he notices that the end of the bolt has a ring at the bottom, which is when he notices the broken latch with the bolt still in it on the table, he lifts them up and compares, finding them to be a match, in fact an exact match. Quickly he gets off the bench and rushes to the man to grab his attention.
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“Yes?” the man says as he pulls himself out of the ballista, Elio shows of the latch and the bolt next to it, but the man misunderstands and says “I'll fix it later Elio, let's focus on the doing what we can first-'', Elio is confused as to why the man doesn't notice, but realises quickly that he is holding the bolt at the bottom, and so after readjusting his grip, shows it again. The man's eyes widen as he opens his booklet and checks all the items confirming quickly that the bolt in Elio's hand has to be a spare, and he looks at Elio, “where did you find the bolt?!” he asks with surprise in his voice. Elio explains that he found it near the elevator railings.
The man thinks for a second, the gears in his own mind turning Elio watching intently with baited breath. Suddenly the man stands up with incredible speed, not unlike a lemur, and says “I have to go check” before rushing to check the boxes of screws and bolts within and outside of the tower, with Elio following closely. Sifting through the pile it doesn't take the man long to find another bolt akin to the one with the latch stuck in it. At the same time Elio finds another two bolts similar in make but different in shape, the man says, “those look similar as well, and then there's the in my hand, come, let's compare!” They both rush to the neatly arranged pieces where Elio is instantly able to find matching pieces. The man says as Elio points them out, “they match, and by my guess, they are not the only spares”, and so the ballista repairs are pushed back and with a new found vigur they begin to sift through the boxes.
As they search they find more than just bolts, hinges and the such, all of which match with those on the ballista, with the only difference being that they are shinier from lack of use. Elio begins to glow with hope once again. If they are able to find this many bolts, then it's not completely out of the realm of possibility that there is a spare of the latch. With energy in his step he rushes to the hall to grab another box from under the table to drag it out when he notices a large rapped disc was sitting in between it and another box. He climbs his way under the table to pull it out, but struggles from how heavy the gear is, and he ends up having to roll it out from under the table having barely been able to lift it.
At the same time the man enters the hall and looks down and asks “what's this?” as he takes a closer look. The disc is about the size of a dinner plate and half an inch thick, the entire thing is also covered in an old cloth, brittle to the touch. Still very much curious, Elio begins to unwrap, or more accurately break away, the cloth, though he never could have imagined what's inside. As the brittle cloth is brushed away Elio sees a glistening surface, and speeding up he finds that it is a gear, so spotless that Elio can see his reflection on the metal's surface.
Elio looks up, and sees the sheer surprise on the man's face, and they pause for a moment as they gawk at the gear, before rushing to the tower to see if it is a match, and to the joy of them both it is. After matching the gear the man looks up to see Elio with fire in his eyes, now more than ever the latch seems in sight, for if there is a chance to help he’ll take it. The man smiles as he sees Elio happy, and seeing as this is more important he says, “Well then, let's turn this house upside down, shall we?”.
They begin their search in the man’s room, leaving the hall for last as it would be the hardest to do. They finish searching in the room rather quickly as there aren't a lot of boxes or drawers for the pieces to hide in, and as a result they don't find much and are able to cross the room off the list quickly. As they search though, Elio is keeping an eye out for the latch, knowing its importance it is top priority, any other pieces are just extra. Either way they move to searching the greenhouse and then the barrel room, the former giving some select parts, while the latter nothing much. After that they move to Elio's room where his toys prove bountiful with bolts. The tower is excluded because it would take days to check every single strut and beam, and the bolts aren't as important as the gears, the top of the tower unable to provide. And so with all other rooms checked, they begin searching the hall.
All the cleanliness and tidiness of the hall is quickly undone as they search through boxes and cabinets with speed and fervour, as if prospectors finding a goldmine. In every box, on the wall and in the handles of pans there seems to be another bolt, a hidden gear, and even hinges, but even as they disassemble the kitchen counters, the latch that Elio so wishes to find eludes him. They eventually finish up the search as the sun is setting behind the tower, the hall a great big mess of emptied drawers and half disassembled kitchen cupboards. As the man moves the last of the gears into the tower Elio rests on the middle bench within the hall, dead tired from today in general, the ballista breaking feeling like so long ago even though it was this morning. But even as he is in the midst of falling asleep he simply can't, not with his mind stuck on the latch. With how many spares and unique metal pieces they found it is very much within the realm of possibility that the latch should be somewhere, it has to be, but where.
The ceiling rafters were searched, the bottom and the top of the kitchen counter checked twice, under the tables, the legs of the benches and practically any ninety degree angle was checked to no avail. Even the tower is out of the realm of possibility as by the man’s own words there aren't a lot of ninety degrees along its scaffolding, and even if there were, he wouldn't use a perfectly good L-pierce when he can just nail them together. Not willing to give in, he pushes aside his fatigue and scans the ceiling rafters once again in hopes that he will find the latch somewhere there, when his focus is cut off by the sound of something creaking. Turning to his side, he sees one of the partially disassembled kitchen cupboards, its door with its missing top hinge slowly swinging open from a loose shelf pushing out a pot. Naturally enough Elio walks to the cupboard to stop the pot from falling and puts the shelf back, but stops as he sees the shelf pins, and a realisation hits him. they haven't checked the underside of the counters. Going even lower and looking up and towards the corners he sees multiple L-pieces holding up the counters and the cupboard walls, and so reinvigorated Elio begins to search each counter thoroughly.
In the tower the man stands up after organising the pile and walks back into the hall where he finds that Elio has disappeared from the bench he was resting at moments ago. looking around he is about to call out when he notices Elio pop out from behind the table and then disappear back down with a sense of urgency, when only moments ago he was half asleep. Curious he walks around to the other side to get a better view when he hears a loud *thud* and the clanking of metal rattling on the counter and rushes along to see Elio crawling out of a cupboard while holding the top of his head, he asks in surprise, “Elio! Are you-” but is cut off by Elio grabbing his sleeve and pointing towards the inside of the cupboard. Concern subsiding and Elio compelling, he enters into the cramped cupboard and searches around in confusion, only to notice in the corner a rather large looking L-piece.
Another loud *thud* is heard as the man jumps with surprise as well and after crawling out of the cupboard looks towards Elio, and says “the latch…” before they both rush to grab some tools. A few minutes pass of baited breath as the man disassembles the awkwardly placed L-piece, and Elio paces back and forth. Suddenly the sound of a screw dropping is heard and Elio stops as the man crawls out, and looks at the L-piece in the light, and the man declares, “it's the latch!!”. Elio jumps into the air in joy, but instead of landing is suddenly picked up by the man, “and thank you for helping Elio, thank you so much” he says, a well of emotion rises from Elio as he nods, happy to help. The man lets Elio down to go and place the latch with a pile but while walking into the tower stops short as he remembers, “RIGHT, dinner!!” doubling back, he rushes to the kitchen to see what he can prepare quickly and as he does so asks Elio, “Elio, where's the pan, where's everything?” but looking back, I find Elio in the midst of falling asleep. “Right, today happened…huh” the man comments as he goes silent while navigating to the bench where Elio is resting to lift him up, and quietly place him in bed, before whispering “sleep well” and walking back into the hall. The man walks along the mess floor, his eyes focussing on a rusty lantern that was retrieved in the search. He fills it up, lights it with his match as darkness falls across the house, lantern in hand he walks into the tower and sets it to his side, as well as a slew of shaken and glowing pins, he begins working on the ballista, losing track of time.