Chapter 7 - Blue Sounds
After the small rush hour chaos, the cafe returned to regular speeds as some of the employees seemingly merged into the golden eyed employee. Alexander was nearby, taking a break as he chuckled towards the employee. "Sometimes I feel like you could handle the cafe very well completely on your own, Lisa"
"Incorrect statement. Employee Code Retina Flee 34 is incapable of handling social business on her own, repeating sentence 23 of the guide book." The feminine voice was robotic but still humanoid, it was calculated and mostly devoid of emotion. "Sentence 23: Androids ar-"
"Are unable to handle businesses that are meant to induce social wellness, such as cafes or restaurants, blah blah, I know, I'm only joking, dear" he pats her on the head as the other employees in the cafe seem pleased from the action. "How many copies are currently made?" Alexander asks her as her golden eyes scan the whole area.
"There are currently 30 active Silver Copies of Employee Code Retina Flee 34. 15 are working at the Magnetic Cafe. 10 are watching the town's available entrances. 5 are obtaining goods and ingredients for the cafe. Copy Efficiency is at 47%."
"Ah, I see. Good girl, now then, guess I’ll have to do my ‘social business’, as you say, dear~” he said as he looked out the window towards the alleyway as he shrugged. “Wonder how it’s going for him in the workshop…”
-
Kade approaches the object that caught his eye as he grabs ahold of it. It was a familiar necklace with an hourglass hanging from it. There also seems to be golden sand within.
"Ah, I see you've caught the eye of an ancient artifact…well, a copy of it, one of many. The Hourless Glass, it was the first thing people found when they first explored The Timeless City after the attack, near Trench Line 3, the first place. The original is said to be able to stop time for quite a few seconds when the sand starts to fall down the opposite end, although it never worked again, and has been locked up in the town’s vault…this is just some crude souvenir really, not as brilliant as the real thing" Bonny explains to Kade as he listened intensely.
"I see…this just seems so familiar to me" Kade places it back down. "Well, is there anything useful for a detective like me?" he asks Bonny as she thinks for a moment. "A device for a human detective…I do have one in mind…" she goes over to a bunch of random scattered papers in a box as she looks through it, eventually pulling out a blueprint. "I had this idea of a monocle you can use to do various perspectives without filling your bags with large pesky machines. So it could zoom in and out like a magnifying glass, change lenses with the command of your voice to ones like night vision, dark light vision, temperature vision, and any other. Never went to make it because who needs some gadget when you have your Knowledge…until now! But this will take a day or two, so maybe come back next time…time…though I feel like you should have a bit of extra help in your little team…" she looks over to some of the youths with a small smirk, the blue haired Popoto was eating from a box of what seemed like cookies, while the red haired Emily looked into a small pocket mirror, a tinge of melancholy in her eyes.
"They are excellent at spying and their Knowledge may come to use some day, you know? You should ask them nicely, as long as you make sure they stay behind in more dangerous situations"
"I rather not put them in danger, but I'll ask for any information they might know relating to this whole thing…but just one more thing, what'll be the exact price of the device?" Kade asks. Bonny thinks for a moment before coming up with a price tag.
"78 Silver Cogs!" she said as Kade tilted his head.
"In Heaven's currency…"
"Oh, uh…I think 39 Dollars"
"Alright, bet, I can pay Sugar later," Kade said as he nodded.
"Excellent, then I'll begin working immediately, you may visit anytime you need to, dear" she gives a small smile before flying off into a different room. He nods as he approaches two of the siblings, leaning a bit on a random table as he looks at Emily. He caught a glimpse of the mirror but couldn’t see well enough before Emily closed it immediately upon seeing him take a peak.
“P-Please no peeking in others’ reflections!” she said as Kade chuckled a bit nervously. “Sorry, curiosity came by but…well…I’m sure you heard what your guardian said…but hi! A pleasure to meet such a lovely lady~” a small bow as she giggled a bit with a blush. “T-Thank you…um…well…” she thought a bit before she continued.
"So you're The Wrong Man the Good Machine told us about…" she said so casually as Kade was confused by this sentence. "The…title 'The Wrong Man'?"
"Mhm! She said that a Wrong Man needs to come here and instructed us to lead you here!" she said as Kade nodded.
"I see…funny, Sugar also mentioned about me being The Wrong Man, at the right time, and by now I would assume…the right place…” he said as she nodded. “Oh! Is Sugar the woman that came down here with you?”
“Yes, yes, she is indeed, although not as sweet as her name suggests” he said as Emily giggled. Popoto would finally speak up once he was finished with his cookies. “So…what do you want us to help you with, mister?” he asks as Kade thinks for a moment. “Maybe something to help our little rebellion going on? Info and such?”
Emily and Popoto simply think for a moment before Emily looks up to him. "We don’t have anything new at the moment, no, but I can see if I can find anything in town or in the city, maybe break a robot and eavesdrop on signals" she said as Kade nodded. "That would be useful, Emily, thank you" he would pull out his phone and write down everything he heard before checking the time.
And right on time, Alzo came back with 3 items. The strange security cam, the oiled covered tape, and the tablet, which seemed intact at least as they come over to Kade, handing it over. “Only 2 times, okay? The Good Machine told us so…” they said as Kade nodded. “Of course!”
Kade would pick up the tablet, turning it on and scrolling through until he found the video again, sitting down onto a nearby couch in the workshop as he watched. Emily and Popoto would sit next to him to watch along as Alzo stayed by the hallway. It played like it did before, no new details but the increased gained knowledge (hah) helped to understand the situation more, with some of the first hand encounters. And then he decides to watch it a second time, ignoring the entire event and looking for other details. And finally, something, a detail he never saw.
At the gate of the park with the lake he came through, for a few seconds, a small figure in a black dress shirt quickly passed by, and with them a Living Machine, but it didn’t seem to be chasing her, and was more like leading her. And as the footage changed to the other park, the one connecting to Frostbite Park, he saw them again quickly passing by another gate, but he swore that the Living Machine following the little figure suddenly began to stare at the camera, a slight glitch he had noticed before, before it continued on with them. And then the footage was over like before.
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“See? Who is this figure?” Kade rewinded the video and pointed at it as Popoto got closer to look at it. “Oh! It’s that girl, and with her The Good Machine!” he said, Emily nodded with him as she got closer as well to look. “Mhm! I wonder what they are doing there?”
“Maybe…getting the camera? I don’t doubt your abilities but that city is dangerous…”
“Oh? Is that how we got the camera, tape, and letter?” Popoto exclaimed as Alzo chuckled in the background.
“You are good, detective…yeah, they mailed us those two…old devices to us with a letter, telling us specifically where and when to deliver. Popoto did it for us, might be familiar as that jumping shadow you saw, mister…” they said as Popoto nodded very proudly. “Mhm! That was me! Did I do good?”
“Guess I can’t deny how much of a speedster you were, Popo” Kade said with a small smile as he turned the tablet off, putting it onto a table as he laid back onto the couch. “Well…that doesn’t help me too much but I could ask or maybe at least recognize who this Good Machine and the girl is if I ever meet them..as if they won’t recognize me first, hah!” Kade said as he got right back up. “Well! I have places to be, you know! A wonderful meeting, I say, and no more stealing from me, please!”
“Yes, mister!” Emily said as Popoto nodded, Alzo could only give a small wave before they left down the hallway, probably to their room or something as Popoto grabbed the tablet, opening it up and trying to see if there was anything else on it while Emily got up as well.
Kade walked to the door to exit, Emily following along until she stopped behind him. He goes to open the door, looking down to see the young lady as she looks up to him curiously.
“You know…my office is always open for visitors. Besides! It might be nice to have someone around Silvia’s age” he said, although that looked to annoy her as she pouted.
“I’m not a kid, you know! Just…it’s complicated but I am an adult, okay!” she said as Kade chuckled. “Ah, sorry then, miss, but…it’ll still be nice for her to have someone who also lives down here, so visit anytime, okay?”
“I will, Mister Wonder!” she responded as he nodded with a smile, opening the door and going out into the hallway, looking back to wave goodbye to Emily as she waved back before he closes the door, leaving down the colorful hall before getting out the door, but something caught his mind again.
Kade looked up to turn back to inspect the door again, but noticed…he was in The Timeless City now instead of the alley, and the door that should’ve been there was not anymore. And as any calm detective would do…
He panicked inside.
To See Through Different Eyes...
As Kade closed the door, Emily sighed as she pulled out the pocket mirror again, staring into it with sadness in her eyes. In her reflection was a very young boy who stared back at her as she sighed. Popoto then speaks up after having found some strange video on an equally strange site. “Staring into the mirror again, Emi?” he asked her as she sighed. “Y-Yeah…” she sits down next to him, looking over to the tablet, seeing some sort of person in a tiny box playing a scary game as she sighed. “Really? Again? Emi! You know it isn’t good for you to stare!” Popoto said as Emily shrugged. “I…know, I just…can’t help it…” she said, her emotions were in flux again once it had gotten quiet with Kade gone as she got right up again.
“I-I’m taking a nap” she leaves the main workshop, going down the hallway Alzo went down as she goes into a room on the left at the end of the hallway, closing the door behind her as she slides down the door, hugging her knees, deciding to look around the room again from where she was. It was her room, as it ever was, and it was very cutesy. Pinkish walls stained with red painted dots meant to be ‘scary’, a few posters of pink cats, a very large bed, a walk-in closet, a desk with a laptop-like device, and…a dressing mirror, covered by a long and thick black cloth, alone in the corner of her room. She would stare at it for a while, staying in the same sitting position before getting up, slowly approaching the mirror as she removes the cloth. It falls onto the floor as she would see herself fully. Well…not really herself. A boy her age was in the mirror, his long brown hair pushed by invisible winds as they stared at each other before she spoke up.
“It’d be a miracle if I could see myself…”
And nothing happened.
“It would be a miracle if I could just see myself one time…as I am…”
And nothing happened still. Tears slowly formed under her eyes, and it formed in the boy’s eyes as well.
“It…would be…a miracle…” she couldn’t continue her sentence as another flux of emotions went through her. Anger, sadness, confusion, she couldn’t understand why, they bounced around inside her head like light in a mirror, and yet some cruel joke is played on her, that she is forced to suffer to see the same boy in her reflections and pictures while everyone else sees her as her. But do they really? She remembers the first time she made her discovery, of herself…in a time of loneliness, living to fend for herself, she had spoken of her miracle. A miracle that has stayed for as long as she needed it.
“It’d be a miracle if everyone thinks of me as a girl…is that not what you said before…?"
The boy in her mirror whispered as she looked away, pain struck into her eyes as tears continued to fall on both her and the boy's cheek. But he still stood there, looking nervously around, fidgeting with his fingers as he spoke again.
"...I'm sorry…"
Emily would look over again, looking at the boy, again, another flux of emotions, but she could not grab even just one to keep to herself as she sighed, putting a hand to the mirror's glass, the boy would just stare at it at first before putting his hand against the glass from where he stood, they could feel each other's warmth, but it was a warmth she despised.
"What was your name…" Emily whispered as the boy shook his head. "My name was XXXXX Nightheart…but that isn't your name right…"
"Do you remember anything?" she asked one more time as he shook his head.
"A concrete room…people in red…nothing else…"
"I cannot deny it…" she said softly as she pulled her hand away, the boy copied her movement, pulling his hand away too as she grabbed the black cloth on the floor, ready to cover the mirror. But right as she was about to cover the mirror, the boy would suddenly bang on the mirror's other side.
"P-Please don't leave me alone again! Please! I-I-It's so…cold…and lonely…and so…so quiet…no one to h-hear me, or see me, so please…I beg of you…stay with me…t-talk to me…
Emily would waver for a second, clutching the cloth in her hand, the boy cried harder than she cries now, staining the other side of the mirror. Scared.
“Then why don’t you stop clinging on me, damnit!? Find someone else to fucking cling to, just leave me ALONE!”
Smash
The sound of glass spill onto the floor, her closed hand had smashed against the mirror, now finding itself on the wood on the other side as it bleeds, leaking onto the hardwood floor and soaking it in as she just falls back first onto the floor, ignoring the bleeding and pain as she sighed, wanting to wipe away the tears, but her body was aching already as she heard her bedroom door open. Yellow eyes peer into the room as the yellow hooded sibling enters inside, Alzo would then come close to Emily, sitting down next to her as they use their sleeve to clean her tears before moving the sleeve up to expose an arm and putting it in front of her mouth as she softly bites into their arm.
“...Maybe that’s enough mirrors for this month, sister…” they said to her as they can feel themselves losing a bit of blood as her wounds heal themselves before she lets go as they pull the sleeve back down and get back up. A tentacle pops out from their back, picking up Emily and placing her in a different part of the room before more suckers grow on the tentacle, they would sweep up the bigger glass shards with them, dropping them into a nearby small trash can in the hallway as their left hand turns into a werewolf’s hand, picking up the mirror and putting it out into the hallway as they use the tentacle again to pick up Emily, cleaning off anything that could be on her with their right hand before placing her on her bed. “Take a rest. Or don’t, not my choice.” they said before leaving her room, closing the door again as Emily was left in the silence again. She sighs as she gets right back up to her feet, wiping what remaining tears there might have been as she looked at where the mirror was. Now it really was just a dark spot in her room. She’d notice a glass shard was left behind as she picks it up. It didn’t reflect anything back but her room, and as she moves around, looking into the reflection of her room she can see the boy huddling to himself in the corner where the mirror was as she sighed, cracking the mirror shard in her hand as she throws it to the corner.
“I’m hungry” she tells herself before she has begun to leave her room, having already calmed down now. The 14th mirror this year. Maybe that’s enough mirrors.