Destination, because journey is to frustrating

[Red_Tower]

"The cat is fine in my book, so long as it doesn't mess with my stuff." Bill said, standing on the beach for a while longer. He watched the waves for a long time. Finally he headed back into the town, sticking to alleyways and small passages. He avoid people wherever he could. Where was he going? The alchemist stopped when he realized that he was standing in the place he had an hour ago. He rushed back to the inn and shut himself in his room, throwing his coat off of him into the corner. He sat down on his bed for a while, thinking. Finally he went over to the table with the things he had bought earlier that day, taking a wide piece of wood and started painting on it. Tomorrow he'd open up shop, so he had to be ready.

[Deleted]

Grabbing her new clothing and heading back Kano flopped onto the bed. After a few moments she was knocking on Bill's door. 'how many kinds of oil do I need for this? What was broken in the clasp watch again? How many carousels did the old man make again? 1, a delicate gear because someone stupid wound it to far and it couldn't take that much force, 153 and counting. What direction would the last gear turn if the number was odd? How are the tinkering picks right now? The opposite way of the first, most likely counter-clockwise unless it was made by an apprentice who didn't know what they were doing, ummmm.. Fine I think, I'll check later.'

"I'm done bothering the tailor can I bother you instead?"

[Red_Tower]

Bill looked up from the sign he had just painted. He put it off to the side, standing and grabbing his red coat off the chair in the room. It was nicely dried out now, so he put it on before heading to the door. "It would be my pleasure." He said with a grin as he opened the door and let Kano in. "So what exactly did you get from the tailor anyways?" The mage asked her as he started closing small vials of paint.

[Deleted]

"A shirt and pants because I was silly enough to leave with three different coats in my bag and nothing else. Unless you count all the things in my pockets, which amounts to quite a lot else." Noting the paint and sign she spoke up again, "Where do you plan on setting up?"

'Ready, set, drill some more. Pay enough attention so you can know what he said. How many letters in your name? Is it better to use many small gears or a few large ones? If you had made a toy mouse do you think you would have gotten out? Favorite pie? Old man's cat? 4, depends on the project, nope, pumpkin it tastes good, which one? The skinny grey one who's older than you? Beth. Can a cello play treble cleft? Ye-no. No it can't.' Standing near the wall and spotting her cat in the corner they did their routine of glaring than looking away. Her mentor during her time as an apprentice would either cuff them both behind the head or laugh and shake his head. It was just something they always did.

[Red_Tower]

"I'm not sure yet, I want to be close enough to the center to get people coming and going, but far enough away as to not draw too much attention or be in the way. I don't know what the people are like here yet, so I need to be careful." Bill told her as he put the sign over with the materials for the shop. He walked over to the wash basin and splashed some water on his face. The alchemist glanced over to the side where he forgot the pile of gold on the dresser. Hoping Kano wouldn't noticed he walked over to the bed and sat back down, gesturing to the spare chair. "Feel free to sit." Bill told her as he glanced into the corner and saw Tuono, trying to remember if it had followed him or if it came with their companion just now.

[Deleted]

"Mm. Second ring would work for that I guess. Most of what I get from towns like this is being yanked from place to place to fix things and a bit of random harmless mischief..." Sitting down in the chair she grinned a bit, noticing that Tuono had been there long enough to be comfortable. She did a lot of things as she went and so never had any long term plans, provided you didn't count living and going places. Plans she did have were short and adaptable, providing few negative consequences.

The drilling she did in her head to pass time was a way of providing constant and immediate recall of anything she may need to remember. Having saved it for now the girl was using it to pass time until nightfall at which point her focus would be on tuning up and repairs as well as not falling and getting hurt.

[Red_Tower]

"Thanks for the suggestion, I'll have a look for a good spot to set up somewhere in there then. And I doubt it, since I don't have much experience, but if you ever need a helping hand on a job, these two work well." Bill told her, leaning back a little on the bed. He was curious to see her at work, but he knew that people with precise jobs like they both had did not enjoy being closely observed while at work. At least, he knew he didn't. He didn't really need to set up shop, but he knew if he just waited around all the time while they were here waiting for Kano to get done working it would drive him extra crazy. Besides, he was curious to see what peoples reaction to him in these parts would be like.

[Deleted]

'Do I have a gear that small with five nobs? The two story building that is the orphanages has how many creaky spots on top? Would Bill even be capable of following me while I'm up there? No but I have a slightly bigger one with three, I can shave it down and split them. 10 mostly on the edges with one in the very middle. I don't really think so.' Kano gave a glance to the window, it was almost purple in the sky.

"I know I wasn't here very long but it's time for me to get moving." Standing and exiting both the room and building the shifter scaled the stone wall just outside what was her room. This was the fun part.

[Red_Tower]

Bill gave her a wave as she left, getting up a moment later to lock the door again. He didn't know what she was up to, but he figured it best not to poke his nose where it wasn't wanted. At least, this time he knew better. Instead he thought about the short visit she paid him. She seemed like she was thinking a lot, about what Bill hadn't a clue. "Of course, she shouldn't have a clue what I've been thinking either, right? Probably not, because no sane person thinks about the things you do. Do you really want to live forever like that? We'll see..." The mage plopped down on his bed, staring at the ceiling. He was a little thirsty, and he didn't want to use up any of his rations right now. So he jumped out of bed, out of the inn, and headed for the woods, and started tracking down an animal.

[Deleted]

Rooftop to rooftop, faster, more efficient, quickly turn! Don't scare the kid. The air pulled against Kano as she skidded over the tops of restaurants shops and warehouses the grin on her face pure and unfiltered. No one looked, no one ever did. So no one was lied to and she got to have fun. Undershooting a jump and swinging through a stall left unattended by the night Kano landed on a canopy laughing at the feel of adrenaline.

Pulling herself up to the ledge outside a window the shifter heard a gasp from the child inside. With her grin unfaltering she held a finger in front of her nose and nodded once. 'Careful~' Jumping to the roof the clockmaker began her meandering run to the tower once again with airy laughter and silent steps.

[Red_Tower]

The longest part of Bill's hunt was just getting out far enough to find tracks. It tooks him mere minutes to stalk down a deer and snap its neck. He tied a rope to its rear legs and hung it from a tree. After a moment he pierced its neck with his fanged teeth, collecting the blood that flowed forth in small vials. "I wonder what Kano would think if she saw this..." He muttered to himself as he continued to fill bottles, setting the full ones off to the side. It took him awhile, but eventually it was almost completely drained of blood. At least to the point where he wouldn't be able to bottle any more. So he drank right from the creature's neck until it was empty. The mage cut the deer down and hauled it on his shoulder back to the outskirts of town, putting it under shade until tomorrow morning when the butcher opened. Satisfied he headed back towards the inn.

On his way back he thought he saw someone running on a distant rooftop. Bill disregarded it though; it wasn't his job to watch these people's rooftops for suspicious figures. Besides, this town seemed peaceful enough. Unless a traveller was going for a crime spree here it seemed unlikely it was anything to be concerned about. However, it did give him the idea to sit on the roof for a bit. After taking a moment to figure it out, the alchemist started to scale the inn wall. Hand, hand, foot. One grip followed by the next, followed by moving upwards. "This use to be so much easier..." He grunted as he climbed. It took him a while, but eventually he stood there on the inn roof, staring at the moon hanging overhead.

[Deleted]

An old warehouse roof almost collapsed underneath her but with agility and speed Kano leapt onto a house and down to the door to the inside of the clocktower. Gears rhythmically spun around her and the whirr was welcomed by the girl so familiar to the sounds of machinery. Maneuvering past large gears the shifter carefully headed to the top, the her concentration the same as it was on the rooftops.

Pulling out a small carousel and the metal bird she placed in a card and wound the carousel. No one would be bothered by it and it gave her something more complex to listen to. "Quickly quickly, winding winding, rustle rustle, clatter clatter," Carefully Kano brought the tower to a standstill and began work on the winding mechanism for the giant machine. Meticulously using a small hot flame to harden the metal that had been worn on by the air and being careful not to overdo it. Several hours passed in silence as the girl worked on each gear individually. Suddenly remembering the music she started it up again and began winding it.

"I'll wind up your key too. Barely barely, turning turning, rustle rustle, clatter clatter~" It was going to take far less time to wind it than repairing this one piece of this tower had, the shifter had the entire rest of the tower to work on. "I'll have to wind it until you break, huh? Quickly quickly, winding winding, rustle rustle, clatter clatter." The timing of her voice to the music of the carousel alongside her winding was perfect and created an odd mechanical song made up long ago by a ten year old Kano. "Barely barely, turning turning, rustle rustle, clatter clatter."

Moving further down to work on the gears that turned the hands and were slightly warped alongside the air damage her work began again. "Barely barely, turning turning, rustle rustle, clatter clatter~" First she would deal with the air damage through the entire tower and then the warped gears would come next. Only after that could she work on the softened and worn edges that had to face time while they kept it. "Barely barely, turning turning, rustle rustle, clatter clatter.." The music was soon forgotten as the clockmaker worked on the large gears from various nerve wracking perches.

[Red_Tower]

Bill watched the crescent moon above, felt like it was staring back, grinning at him, ready to devour him. The mage shook his head and scanned the area from the rooftop. "This town is so peaceful..." He muttered to himself. As peaceful as home use to be. That old cottage, moss covered stone, with a nice garden out front. The worn road that went to town felt like it went on forever. He remembered after a long day out playing in the hills he would rush home, smelling dinner cooking , saw the smoke from the fireplace rising over the hill as he returned home. The young Bill would slide down the last mound, charge through the old metal gate and into the house, where he was greeted by his mother's warm smile. "You had to let yourself think about her again. You know what you did, you know there's no way to fix it, and you know that you can never go back. Couldn't I start anew? Have a new home? Where, here? Forget it, fool, that life isn't for you anymore and you know it."

Bill walked over to the edge of the inn roof, sighed, and dropped. It hurt like hell twice over, he'd easily broken several bones in his arms, his ribs. The alchemist laid there for a solid hour. He had healed a bit before, but he let himself wallow in the pain. "I wonder what twice the height would do..." He slowly stood back up, staff in hand, he started walking around town aimlessly again. He was concerned when he found a large pool of blood, before he realized it was his from just a moment ago. The mage snapped his fingers and consumed the spot in a incinerating flame, burn, drying, cleansing the blood. He continued on his pointless journey throughout the small city, almost wishing he was wearing his black coat again. "Where am I going?"

[Deleted]

A loud clang resounded through the tower. Golden eyes followed the decent of the tool she had been using to get the edges of the gears straight again. Kano followed it down, sliding through gaps and swinging on the shafts of gears larger than her. Catching the tool before it fell all the way to the bottom the shifter sighed, by now she may as well work on the lower gears. The grinding noise of her tool as easily ignored as the music and lack of lighting had been.

After another hours time the clockmaker's trained efficiency paid off and left her with two tasks. Moving up past the winding mechanism and to the panel that would allow her access to the ledge just below the clock face there was a moment of internal cringing. It was windy, she was high up, and the light tower a ways to the left was the only other building nearly this tall in town. Securing her watch on her wrist so that the time set on the giant towering clock would be correct; Kano approached the large hour hand that had remained still all night. 'Oh fun. Not.' Moving such large hunks of metal with barely enough room to plant her feet was just a part of her job, and why many clocktowers were made with pendulums but due to the nature of the air such a thing was impossible here.

[Red_Tower]

Bill continued to wander around, glancing up at the clocktower to check the time. He noticed it hadn't changed since last he check. "Guess I know what Kano will be working on tomorrow." He murmured as his gaze shifted over, spotting the lighthouse. "That would be fun..." And so he started towards it. The mage didn't realize quite how far he was from it, so it took him awhile to get to it. He walked up to the door to find a small padlock on it. He grinned, pressing his thumb to the keyhole and with a small spark of light it clicked open. The alchemist headed inside and started climbing up to the top of the tower. He wasn't sure why he made a habit of jumping off of things; there was no thrill to it, it hurt horribly when he landed, and sometimes it took awhile to heal the damage. Still, these things never stopped him.

He reached the top of the tower quickly enough, but decided to sit up there for a while, enjoy the view of the sea and town, and just take a moment to relax. He stood up, getting ready to jump, when he thought he saw something on the clocktower. Sure enough, after a moment of staring he saw a figure on the clockface. "Who would be crazy eno- Oh, so that's what Kano was doing tonight." He muttered, deciding instead of jump to just watch her work from afar. This way he got to see a little of her work without being in the way, without her even knowing. After all, he was just going to jump off a building, so he wasn't really doing anything.