Audition: Wonderlust OCT

Armand checked over his shoulder. He knew he shouldn't and regretted doing so the moment his head began to turn, but he felt he had to. Looking back – more importantly looking nervous – usually drew the eye of the predators in the streets, hungry for any skittish prey that they could easily snap up. He wished again for what had to be the hundredth time since he'd stepped into the neighborhood that Nicole had gotten an apartment in the mundane part of the world. Fewer thing s would try to eat him over there, and there were even fewer chances that something would mess up his clothes.  If anything decided to put a puddle of whatever ichor ran in the streets on him, he'd be sure to leave it in pieces.
The shape of Nicole's building finally made itself obvious through the constant state of night that consumed the dark parody of London he walked about in. The light cast by the widely place street labs illuminated thing well enough, as did the head light of the occasional passing car, but that did little to take the edge off of walking Nightside streets. Jogging up the steps of the large and nondescript security door at the front of the apartment building he looked beside it to the calling box and voice grate. Quickly scanning over the number he pressed the button for Nicole's flat. "Ey, Nicki, you up there?" he spoke out into the voice grate, words as smooth and cultured as they would ever be, despite the fact that he was getting an odd feeling that he was being watched. A short pause, then a low but animated voice piped up through the speaker. "Armand! Yay! You're here! One sec and I'll buzz you right up!" After another short pause the security door buzzed softly and he stepped inside of the building.
While separate flats were relegated to separate floors, there were no actual stairs in the building. Instead, the door simply let out into whatever flat had rung you into the building. Out from the front stoop Armand stepped onto a deep red wool carpet and into the red steeped apartment of his long time friend. "I see this place hasn't changed at all."  He moved towards a large orange that had seen better days, large patches of upholstery were missing from a few edges and there was a curiously wet looking black stain on the cushion at the far end. Armand settled onto the other end of the couch.
Nicole was out from behind the door as soon as he was seated, a wide smile on her face that the young man was rather familiar with. Nicole was hardly a predictable sort; there were just a few constants about her. One was that when she had something to show him she had that same little girls grin. That "I know something you don't know" look. "Well?" he offered, making an open gesture around the room. "You gonna show me or what?" Nicole's smile broadened even further and she giggled giddily. "I am, I am! But seriously! It's awesome, I don't even know where it came from but it's so cool! I mean, have you ever even heard of anything like it before?"
"All I know as that you're smart enough to know not to pick up anything laying on one of these streets and take it home!"
"But it's not just anything!" she rushed past the couch, a blur of black striped red sliding into a nearby room.
Shaking his head Armand sank further back into the couch. He'd seen her like this before, and that had resulted I him getting a wonderfully disgusting coating of cat vomit on his shoes . She'd found a sick kitten, at least that's what she'd told him it was over the phone. When he'd gotten there it turned out to be more of a sick and rather twisted looking cat creature that looked to be far from its younger years. Her surprises never turned out very well.
She popped back into the room a few seconds later, zooming back into the space that acted as her living room and setting whatever she was so eager to show him on the well worn coffee table in front of the couch. He looked at it quizzically, both eyebrows lifting in an expression of incredulity. Nicole stood back from it still beaming excitedly. "See! I told you it was awesome!"
The object sitting on the table was certainly something that, if not awe inspiring, would certainly draw great interest from anyone who saw it. A mildly rust tinged cylindrical shaft, made of an oddly lustrous metal stood on one of its flat heads on the table to. Sitting half way up the shaft was a cog. The metal of the toothed gear was completely different from the shaft, a gleaming bright brass. The space just above and just below the cog glowed a bright phosphorescent green. While all of those details were striking, they all paled in comparison to the final. The cog was actually moving. It rotated at and even pace, turning like it was still apart of whatever machine it was meant to drive. Armand just stared at it silently while Nicole hopped about it, brimming over with curiosity. "It's awesome, right! I just thought it was so cool! I don't even know where it came from but it looked so interesting just sitting there on the side walk! I just had to grab it!"
Poking a finger into one of the teeth Nicole attempted to stop the regular turning of the cog. It merely caught the digit and twisted it a bit as it continued on in its revolutions, forcing her to pull back quickly. "It just doesn't stop turning. I've really never seen anything like it before. Have you?" Leaning buck further into the couch Armand let out a soft hum of consideration. His thumb and fore finger gently stroking his chin in thought. After a long moment he shook his head, leaning forward once again to get a better look at the odd turning device. "No…this is new to me too. Where'd you say you—"
He was cut off midsentence by the sudden sharp buzz of the apartment's doorbell. Ringing out through the front room like the sound of an angry hornet. Two more pulses rang out in quick succession and he turned his eyes towards Nicole, who was , for once, still. "You call anyone else over here about this?"  She immediately shook her head and slid over to the plastic speaking grill beside the door. A voice, unfamiliar to both of them came through the softly crackling static of the speaker. "Hello there. I think you have a little something that belongs to…a friend of mine." The voice was deep but good natured, suited with a heavy accent that both of them immediately identified as Irish.
Pressing the button beneath the grill Nicole spoke back, "Ummm…hello? Who exactly are you?"
"Oh, just a good friend of the old fellow that's missing the part you have up there." The voice chuckled in reply. It was good natured and not at all menacing or demanding, but there were many such creatures that sounded just the same on the streets of the Nightside. "May I come in? I'd like to talk to you about just what you found, lass."
Nicole glanced back over her shoulder at Armand who looked back at her with an expression of strong incredulity, his head slowly shook "No."  "Ummm…I'm sorry but I don't think I can help you. I think you've got the wrong people." The same chuckle again, patient and friendly, as if the man making it could see though her little lie just as clearly as he could through a window.
"Well, I don't mean to be rude, but I suppose I'll have to let myself n if that's the case."
The soft static ceased in the speaker and Nicole backed away from the speaking grill with a slight look of worry on her face. Hardly a second had passed before there was a soft sound coming from behind her, just in front of the coffee table. She whirled to it while Armand turned his head just as quickly. There was a gear, floating a few feet off the ground and spinning in time to the regular ticking sound. As it began to expand a hand slid through the center of the gear and a white sleeved arm was soon to follow. It took strange man only a few brief seconds to slide fully from the stoop out front of the apartment building and into the living room and in that same time Armand had risen to his feet and slid his knife into his hand.
He was much what both of them had expected from the heavy Irish accent that had come piping through the speaker. The man had a rather set angular face that was topped by a shock of bright red hair and fitted about the mouth, jaw, and cheeks with red facial hair. A dark wooden pipe poked from the corner of the man's mouth and a thin curl of smoke rose up from it. Deep green cape drifting upward as he came to rest upon the carpet, he pulled the pipe from his mouth slowly, wide cuffed sleeve fluttering slightly from the movement. "God to you both. Sorry for the intrusion, but Ben will be wanting that cog back." He said, lips curling into a small but warm smile as he gestured towards the still turning shafted gear that sat on the coffee table.
Armand smiled easily back at the man, still thumbing the trigger release to his switch blade. "Oh sure, no problem, mate. We're both used to strangers inexplicably teleporting themselves into the living room. Really no problem." The obvious sarcasm was meant to chafe the older man but his strong face still held the same small smile.
I understand that I was rather rude of me to just invite myself in, but I do assure you that I've had very good reasons to do so, lad. Mainly the need I have to return the cog on your table to Ben. "
"Just who the hell is this Ben you keep talking about?"
"Armand!" Nicole hissed, a strong scolding tone to her voice. "Stop being so mean!"
The man raised a hand to stop both of them before the disagreement over his presence escalated further. "Now, he's got a right to be angry. I should've explained myself while I was outside." He bowed his head slightly in apology and seemed quite genuine in his regret, but Armand's hand stayed loosely on the handle of his knife.
Taking a short drag from the pipe cupped in his hand the man slowly let out a gentle stream of smoke from his lips before smiling at both of them again. "My name is Marlin, the Timekeeper of the Present. Being residents of the Nightside, I'm sure both of you are rather familiar with the Three Timekeepers?" Armand's expression changed from one of severe annoyance to wide eyed disbelief. Nicole, grinned broadly again already looking as though she was about to burst into giggles over the new identity of their visitor.
"Unfortunately, my charge and friend, the incarnation of time himself, Big Ben…has been having a good deal of problems as of late. He's been breaking down a good deal and that's been causing some major problems for everyone." Gasping softly and nodding her head rapidly Nicole burst out "Oooooh! That really would explain how often Time Slips have been occurring in the city! People have been accidently wandering into random time streams more and more recently!"
Marlin nodded, though much less vigorously than the obviously excited girl. "Yes, and that's my problem.  I need this cog back. If I and the other two Timekeepers can't get Ben's parts back and keep him in working order, he'll keep falling apart until time itself starts unraveling all over." He said, voice growing graver the longer he spoke.
Still baring a look of incredulous disbelief, Armand glanced down to the cog again. "Alright…what you're saying is, this is actually a piece of the Grand Clock Tower itself?  I mean, big Ben is actually falling apart?" Marlin nodded sullenly in reply, his lips suffing softly around his pipe as he puffed a bit more quickly. "It's true and it's a very, very large problem. Not only are pieces escaping, but they've also been moving themselves through time, dropping off in all sorts of places and making it rather difficult to get them back. We need all the help we can get, as I'm sure you can understand, just the Three of us searching all throughout time is hardly proving to be fast enough to keep up with Ben's deteriorating health."
Nicole suddenly bounced up between them, broad and eager grin wide on her lips. "We could help you! We could give you the part we have and find more for you! I'm sure we could get in through some of the Time Slips around the city and maybe find one of the lost parts!" Gripping his friends shoulder the Englishman pulled her back. "Hold on. We're not jumping into some random time slip to go searching for a random piece of clock tower that may or may not be there." He turned to address Marlin. "I mean, we'd like to help but I don't think we—"
"No! I was hoping you'd offer, or that I could at least glean you interest in finding more of Ben's pieces! While you may not be able to find the pieces on your own, the other two Timekeepers and I can easily set you down in the same time and place as a number of parts."
"See? We can help them out!" Nicole added, looking up at Armand. Her face was the picture of childish determination. Lower lips pushed out in a pout, eyes narrowed, brow furrowed together. The look was just as familiar as the one he'd seen on her all but a few minutes ago, and what that one was playful this one was rather serious. "C'mon! We have to help them!"
"I can't tell you how much all of us, Ben included, would appreciate your efforts."
He looked back and forth between them, from Nicole's pouting but set face to Marlin's look of eager earnestness. Whether he wanted to or not…it looked like he was going. Sighing and dropping his hand from Nicole's shoulder he lowered his head for a moment before giving a little shrug. His head rose back up sharply and a bright and smug smirk was plastered on his lips. "Hell, why not. I didn't have any plans anyway."
Pumping her fist into the air, Nicole grinned right along with him. "Yes! Alright!" Marlin chuckled in that deep grandfatherly tone of his and nodded to the both of them. "Well, if you're both settled on it, we haven't a moment to lose." Beneath their feet a soft grey light shined upward and they found themselves floating upon a giant rotating gear. With a small gesture from Marlin's hand the support spokes of the gear disappeared, leaving only a glowing grey space beneath them. There as a brief moment of weightlessness—
Then they were falling.