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 Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 4:22 pm
This situation was very discomfiting. He had never been without his watch before. The little thing was all gears and a tiny little battery that he had to fill with water every so often to make it run. Well, that was well and good, except it was filled and the silly bronze watch was broken. So he'd scoured the phone books and called upon one Dr. Calgori for assistance in fixing it. After all, back home he hadn't exactly paid attention to fixing watches, or anything except his job and his family, really. But supposedly this man knew how to fix things so... steampunk as his favorite watch, so Luka had arranged a meeting at a local cafe and brought the cabbage with him as an identifier, as if his red halo and amber-bronze eyes weren't enough.
Idly, he patted the Magdelen-cabbage as he stirred three sugar cubes into a large cup of flavored coffee. Hopefully the man would arrive soon- what if his little girl were to be born into someplace like this? (He imagined her for a moment: her hair would be black as his, eyes that rare shade of storm-gray... Pale skin, of course-) Well. It was of no consequence. The watch really was important.
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Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 6:33 pm
Doctor Richard Calgori rarely ventured out of his lab if he could help it. He didn't much care for people, with their eyes full of pity for the lonely bachelor. It didn't matter how they tried to hide it, to him it looked like pity.
There was not much in the outside world that could draw his attention away from his lab for any extended amount of time, but sometimes it was almost a relief to escape the house full of memories.
A broken pocket watch, that's all it taken this fine day to bring him from the dark depths of his laboratory. But he'd donned his coat and scarf, placed a tiny tool kit in his pocket, and tucked a large leafy cabbage under his arm. He didn't feel safe leaving the plant at home, it was almost as if it would be gone when he returned.
He entered the cafe and looked hopefully around. With any luck the other man would fail to show and he could enjoy a cup of tea in peace before hedding home. Instead he spotted a flash of red. A golden-eyed man sporting a cabbage of his own was sitting at a small table, coffee already in hand. He sighed. So much for hope.
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Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 6:42 pm
He looked up, spotting the large cabbage first, then the man. "Doctor Calgori," called out Luka, sedate as he raised one hand in greeting. With a slow groan, he got up and hooked one arm around his cabbage. "I see you have one, too," he noted, leaving his coffee and winter coat at the table to save their place, but bringing the cabbage with him. "Thank you for coming all this way, it's very kind of you."
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Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 7:00 pm
Richard nodded thoughtfully, looking at the other man's cabbage. They appeared to be roughly the same size and likely the same weight. Both leafy and green, almost certainly identical.
"Yes. . ." He muttered to himself under his breath. "Yes, I have got one too."
Then, seemingly without warning he silently extended his hand to the other man.
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Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 7:07 pm
With a grin, he shifted the plant over and shook Dr. Calgori's hand. "Why don't we go sit," he said, in a way that wasn't a question. Damnit, the great green plant was heavy! He returned to his seat, set down the Magdelen-cabbage, then realised how rude he was being so he stood once more and traversed the fairly empty central space to the other man. "Sorry, I don't get out much," Luka said, which wasn't a lie. "Would you like something?" And then he slipped both hands into his pockets, keeping a firm eye on his future daughter. Magdelen, he sighed, a more genuine sigh appearing on his face. It made him look a great deal younger than he was, which was an impressive feat since he didn't look that old to begin with.
"This place has great lattes," he said, "and the almond kahlua coffee is to die for! Also, tea. Earl grey with lemon is the best. Oh! Or a mocha, that's always nice." Luka looked at Richard expectantly, waiting for him to make a choice.
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Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 7:37 pm
Dr. Calgori trailed behind the other man slowly to the table, even though they were probably close in age, he somehow felt so much older than his companion, as though his years were weighing more heavily. He placed his own cabbage on the table wearily, very close to his side so there would be no confusion.
"Oolong tea." He said simply. "Two lumps of sugar, nothing fussy like cream or milk." He sat back and observed the other man, who appeared very energetic and fidgety.
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Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 8:02 pm
"Hm, I wouldn't call it fussy," said Luka in a rather picky fashion. He put half-and-half in his coffee all the time. But then, he preferred his tea bitter as wormwood, as the saying went, so! A visit to the register and he returned with a cup of the tea for the doctor. This he set down quietly- obviously he had some culture, because it didn't clatter and not a drop spilled. Then he sat down across from the Doctor again and the bright grin came back. He carefully loosed the broken pocket watch from his jacket pocket, rolled it around his fingers a few times- it gave a few halfhearted ticks- before setting it down gently on the table.
It was a bronze thing, the same shade as Luka's eyes. The outside was painstakingly worked into an engraved image of a many-pointed star (forty-three points, if one bothered to count) with a simple button lock. This Luka pressed, and the mechanism popped open. Inside was a faded, but well-cared for photo of a woman with black hair and gray-blue eyes. A blue circle hovered just behind her head, and one arm was slung over a younger version of Luka. Appearing embarrassed, he plucked the photo out and then scrambled to pick up a small gem shard that fell out with it. The face of the watch was ivory and had a small hinge to get at the inner workings.
"It doesn't work," he blurted, sliding the photo into one of the pockets in his black slacks. "I don't get it, everything is all fine as far as I can tell. The battery looks like it works and everything, it just won't go."
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Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 8:30 pm
Calgori observed the man's actions carefully. The pocket watch was unusual, as was the photograph and the gem shard, and while it was not anything he's exactly seen before, it was similar to other artifacts, and he was confident that he could fix it, assuming he could find the problem in the first place.
He absentmindedly took a sip of the tea, and was pleasantly surprised to discover it was quite good. He silently mulled the best way to approach the problem of the broken watch, it had been the reason he's been called from his home in the first place.
"When did it stop working?" He asked absently, setting down his tea cup with only a faint 'c***k', and picking up the item he turned it over in his hands.
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Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 8:49 pm
"The other day," Luka said, still occupied with the relocation of the photo. "Uh, while I was taking Magdelen home. I bumped into the door and I suppose it must've been then. I mean, I haven't done anything else to it within recent memory, but there's no dents." The image tucked safely away, he folded his hands and the grin made its third appearance. "Magdelen, of course, being the cabbage. She'll be beautiful, I know it, just like her mother." He turned his attention back to the watch.
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Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2008 7:27 pm
He looked hard at the man following his comments, but didn't say anything. I wasn't his business, and Calgori was good about keep only to his own business. He examined the watch carefully, trying to find the way to pry the face open. He didn't want to risk breaking it by forcing it.
"Where do you open the watch face?" He asked, his tone serious and business-like.
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Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2008 7:39 pm
Gingerly, he moved both hands of the clock to the three- it had stopped at 12:34, effectively blocking the two switches. Then he pushed in, and the semitranslucent face popped upwards. "Sorry if I was making you uncomfortable there," he said, moving the face up its hinges. The gears inside were gleaming orange metals- some of them had clearly been knocked loose. A tiny governor occupied a good deal of the inner workings, but it was clear that the gears were the important part of it. "I talk a lot, do forgive me, Doctor. It's a vice, I admit it." Then Luka fell silent, drinking his coffee with his free arm slung around the cabbage.
That didn't last long; he turned his face towards the cabbage and began to monologue to it in a soft voice. Only occasionally snippets were audible: "...and the room is pink, you'll love it...", "-Asmadai did agree to be the godfather-"; "I wonder what you'll look like!" and so on.
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Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2008 8:12 pm
Calgori tried his best to ignore the blathering of his companion, and focus all his attention on the inner workings of the watch. Whoever had crafted it had been a genius, he thought silently to himself. It was a beautifully constructed contraption.
He pulled the tiny tool-kit from his coat pocket and then set about carefully examining each tiny piece of the watch. There were hundreds of them, but he was certain he could find the problem.
"Ah-ha." He muttered softly after a bit. "I think I may have found the problem."
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Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2008 8:48 pm
After a moment, Luka seemed to realize he wasn't helping matters at all, so he settled down and shut up, sipping his coffee so he didn't feel tempted to start going again. He even bit his tongue to keep from saying Amaleen, the Melicze word for ho s**t yes! or thank you, depending on inflection. "Awesome," he decided to say politely.
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Posted: Sat Dec 27, 2008 8:53 am
He offered the watch to the other man so he could point out the problem.
"These two cogs are not meeting properly." He explained, pointing at a tiny mechanism within the watch. "One of them must have slipped loose at some point."
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Posted: Sat Dec 27, 2008 9:35 am
"That would do it," he said, leaning forward to peer at the gears and cogs. "I never would've seen that. How do you fix something like that, Doctor?" Just moving a cog would be too easy. It would probably be something completely different and annoying.
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