Chapter Text
“It’s not what it looks like!” Danny spoke nervously, “I can explain.”
“Mhm,” said Clockwork, dubiously. He surveyed the scene calmly. “I see. What, exactly, do you imagine this looks like?”
“Um,” said Danny, because he wasn’t actually sure what it did look like from the outside. Especially not to a being who could see the future, among other things.
Far above, something went tock and one of the chains wrapped around Danny’s legs moved upward by about a foot, dragging him with it.
“To me,” said Clockwork, a slight rumble in his voice, “it looks like you went exploring somewhere you didn’t have permission to go, and tangled yourself in the driving chains of Long Now’s central mechanisms.”
“O-oh. That’s pretty accurate, then,” admitted Danny. Something went tick and the chain principally responsible for keeping Danny immobile, the one wrapped securely around his arms and torso, dropped, leaving Danny dangling upside-down. “Can you, um, help me out?”
“I intend to.” He kept floating there, arms crossed.
“But?” prompted Danny.
“I am attempting to determine how to remove you without being forced to sever the chains. They are not easily replaceable, and as you have no doubt discovered, phasing through them is not possible.” He paused, growing younger, and added, “Also, out of all the things you could have stumbled upon, this is relatively benign. Harmless, even. You could learn a lesson from this.”
Danny squinted at his mentor. “You’re leaving something out.”
“Not anything terribly relevant.”
Something above moved again, leaving Danny dangling. “But there is something else, isn’t there?”
“If you insist. You look ridiculous. Like a cat tangled in a set of blinds.”
Danny blushed. Then blushed harder when one of the chains smacked him in the face. Not hard enough to hurt, but hard enough to be a surprise. A disgruntled and not entirely human sound rose from his chest.
“How did you get so tangled, in any case?”
“I don’t know,” said Danny. “It was like they grabbed me or something.
“Interesting,” said Clockwork. He reached out and pushed Danny slightly so he swung back and forth. “Hm.”
“That hm is because you’re figuring things out, not because you think I’m stuck -stuck, right?”
“I am simply making an assessment at this juncture.”
“Well,” said Danny, as he was pulled higher. “That’s– I don’t want to rush you, or anything, but I also really don’t want to get pulled up into the gears and crushed to death. You’re not going to let that happen, right? Even to teach me a lesson or whatever?”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Daniel,” said Clockwork, obviously somewhat distracted by one of the chain knots in the vicinity of Danny’s ankle. “Going through the gears wouldn’t kill you.”
“What do you mean, it wouldn’t kill me?”
“Daniel, you are already dead,” said Clockwork, in the vaguely exasperated manner of someone reminding a child or elderly person something for the umpteenth time.
As a point in fact, Clockwork had pointed out Danny’s life state on a number of occasions.
“ Half dead. And it’d crush me, at least. I’d be hamburger.”
“You would be fine,” said Clockwork. “Hamburger and other ground meats are chopped, not crushed.”
“So I’ll just be tenderized, then?”
“You might be changed,” allowed Clockwork, as the chain pulled Danny up again, “but you wouldn’t be harmed.
Danny was skeptical of that claim. He’d seen the gears he was being dragged up to. Small and sharp and huge and heavy were the major features.
“Genuinely, Daniel. Long Now likes you.”
“Long Now is a building.”
“Long Now is a lair,” corrected Clockwork. “You’ve been avoiding the readings Frostbite gave you about ghost culture.”
“Not avoiding them,” said Danny, as Clockwork finally started to pull at the chains. “I just haven’t had time.”
“But you had time for this?”
“It’s a bit different,” said Danny, defending himself. “Walking around doesn’t require that much thought.”
“Obviously. Or else you might have thought twice.”
Danny wilted. “Sorry.”
Clockwork clicked his tongue. “You should be. You’ve made a mess.” Another loop of chain came off. “ But if you have learned not to go places I have told you not to go, I will take this as a victory and we can leave it at that. I did not create these rules for no reason, Daniel.”
“I know,” said Danny, “but…” He trailed off. How could he explain how curiosity itched at him sometimes, how it pulled at him, how it haunted him? He imagined, sometimes, that his parents must feel the same way, or else why would they have built the ghost portal in the first place.
“I am aware of your curiosity,” said Clockwork over the clinking of chains. “But in the future, if you truly cannot contain yourself, ask. There are many things stored here that are dangerous. You know this.”
A certain beaten up thermos came to mind. “Right. But, um, speaking of that…”
“Yes?”
Danny twisted to look up into the shadowed recesses of the ceiling. “What would happen if I got pulled into the gears?”
“You would wreak havoc with the calibration,” said Clockwork. “Throw off all my time-viewers. It would take quite some time to set them right.”
“I mean… how would I change, exactly?”
A loop of chain slipped from around Danny’s shoulders and hit the underside of his chin. It didn’t quite wrap all the way around his throat, but it was a near thing.
“It is unclear,” said Clockwork before looking Danny in the eye and raising an eyebrow. He started to grow old. “The exact consequences of actions are difficult to see, here, in the heart of my power, so close to myself. To answer your question, you would have to go through with it. Do you want to?”
“Uh, no,” said Danny. “I don’t want to be crushed.”
“I didn’t think so,” said Clockwork, gently unwinding the chain from Danny’s neck. “But considering the topic at hand…”
“Come on,” said Danny. “I’m not going to get myself killed just to satisfy my curiosity.”
“Daniel.”
“What?”
“Please examine what you just said.”
The blush returned. “I didn’t mean it like that,” he said. “You know that. I mean, I meant now. Here. Whatever. And there were other circumstances.”
“I am aware.
“But why are you so sure I’d be fine but changed or whatever?”
“Because of the nature of time. It destroys, yes, but more accurately, it changes. Besides, simply because something isn’t clear doesn’t mean it is entirely undetectable. Can you bend your left leg?”
Danny complied.
“Everything changes with time. Some things are broken. Others are healed. And Long Now likes you.” The last loop of chain fell away, but Clockwork grabbed Danny’s ankle before he fell. “And Daniel?”
“Yeah?” said Danny.
“Please read the books Frostbite has lent you. It will make things easier in the future.”