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After her last visit, she'd been itching to go back and work on things. Once the last of the customers had left for the night, she packed a bag full of supplies for the work she was gearing up to do. With the floor fixed in the main room, tonight she was planning on looking into the clock's mechanisms and seeing what she could figure out between it and the schematics that were in that other language.

Locking up, she circled around the backside of the building before powering up. Hefting the bag over her shoulder, she started down the street with a set pace. The storm or whatever had been going on seemed to ease up, which was great because she didn't like the idea of getting rained on. Something else was up with it, but for now it didn't matter to her, other than the fact it seemed to take longer for her to power up. There was almost a hiccup to things, it felt like, almost like the connection was smothered but she didn't know what might be doing it.

If it persisted, she'd send a letter to Aaru through her ring, hopefully he would know something since he'd been at this longer. Fiddling with her signet ring as she walked, she only needed to get a bit farther to get to the clearing she liked to leave from. It was normally quiet and rarely was she bothered while heading to Pluto from there.

Tapping her staff to the ground, she was startled as she heard a familiar voice. It was later than usual, so she hadn't expected them, and she didn't expect them tonight. s**t. They'd seen her power up, this wasn't good, was it?

She reached out to take his hand, but the next moment, they weren't in the city anymore. This was her turf and it gave her the time she needed to figure things out as she looked at Kinsley sternly.

"Spasskaya, not Luciana." She said firmly, not leaving room for them to say otherwise. "Did anyone else see?" She squeezed his wrist, only gently, to make sure they knew this was important.

This was a mess but at least it was someone she knew, someone who had been good at listening and seemed to enjoy her presence. Now was the time for them to prove they were a good little puppy and not get her in trouble. "No one can know, not anyone."

Then she let go and looked back towards her clocktower. Something was different this time, the air felt heavy instead of stagnant. "Something's... different. s**t."

"It's... fine," she sighed and then started off as lightning crackled across the sky. Only looking back once or twice at them, she motioned for them to follow before returning her eyes to the sky.

"Well, you can stay here for a while tonight, I need to work on some clocks. But nobody needs to know." With another flash, a bolt struck the metal spire coming from the top of the clocktower. "s**t." Cursing more and more as she picked up the pace, reaching back to pull Kinsley along.

"Spasskaya is where we are, my clocktower, my workshop now and then." Smiling slightly at that knowledge, even if it was still getting pulled together with the flashes that came with her visits, she pushed the door open with a smooth motion just as another crack of lightning came.

Then she froze as something started to move. "It... ticked." Speaking softly, as she saw one of the large hands on the floor shiver slightly. One small sound breaking the silence she'd been used to.

"No, it's not." Closing the door behind them she set the large duffle bag down on the floor and pulled out the large maglight that she had in subspace. Swinging the beam of light over the floor, she saw the hands of the clock shivering, trying to move but not making progress. It was as if something wasn't exactly in place, something she had been going to look into this evening, either way.

"Two clock faces, in synchronization. The one here on the floor and one up in the tower. I fixed this one last time, but I need to look at the mechanism again. I made some springs and gears, but I can only get time away so often." It wasn't their fault, but she couldn't get back here more often because of something else. It was annoying but she couldn't do much about it.

Eyeing Kinsley, she wasn't exactly sure what he was saying. "So you do have other places to go besides my shop and home when you're not in school?"

Walking across the floor, her heels clicked on the repaired stonework as she carefully stepped over the shivering hands of the in-floor clock. Her flashlight beam slowly trailed up the glass backwall, looking over the gears that all seemed to be jostling and shivering. Something was jammed but it was powered now. Progress even if she wasn't sure she liked that such unnatural weather had struck her clocktower. "Something up there or in the workshop up top. I fixed the holes in the floor so you don't need to worry about that. Just watch for the clock hands."

Turning back, she looked at him and then flicked her light to land on the bag. "Bring that along, I guess tonight's lesson will be up there. The stairs are solid but uneven, so watch your step, I've fallen twice so far while moving things between the floors."

"I can't see how normal lightning could be here and on Earth, something about it has been giving me trouble going out." Like she'd been wading through sludge to power up.

"I don't like it either, which was why I wanted to check on things here." Looking back periodically as she climbed the stairs, she made sure the flashlight gave them both enough visibility so as to not trip. The last thing she wanted to do was fall and eat the stone stairs in front of them.

Reaching the top, she fought with the door for a moment before stepping into the upstairs workshop. It was still dusty, though not as much as it was before she'd hit it with a mop. Everything still smelled of old paper and oil though.

But that was when she caught what he was saying and turned to look at him closer, leaning in as she looked them over much as she looked over any of her projects. "Where? This is Pluto and I know of a fellow Russian who is of Saturn. Do you see things there as well?" Though she still was conflicted on how vulgar they were, something that reminded her too much of her ex. She did wonder if they had the same sort of sleep walking visions that she had, times where she felt like she was pulled into the past and another life. They weren't as easy to differentiate from reality sometimes, which was bothersome when it happened while she was on the stairs, but she'd quickly picked things up as she went.

"Staying isn't so much of a problem if you prepare. It was a few days I stayed last time I was here cleaning, but I packed food and water, aside from all the things I needed for cleaning and repairs. But I also don't have school or parents to worry about."

Crossing her arms, she had an idea that parents weren't the thing that needed to be worried about for them. Not after they'd mentioned not having grandparents around. Family might not be something they focused on, which was fine in some ways. If anything she'd played pawn to her family's requests, going as far as even entertaining that shithead ex of hers until he'd ******** everything up.

"The issue I have is the delay between visits, though it gives me time to get things together and get parts machined and ready to replace."

Rolling the name of that planet in her mind, she wasn't sure if she knew it, but then again, she only knew a few others so far.

"I see, can't say I've heard of it but..." Trailing off as they powered up, she noticed it seemed to lag a moment just as things had for her. It was.... an interesting look on them as was the cane.

"So... well then. Guess if Rene tries to cause me anymore trouble, then I know you won't get in trouble for stepping in." Smiling slightly, she tapped their hat with her staff.

"From what Aaru told me, as we get stronger the time between visits gets shorter. So there is that to look forward to for you." If they did need more time away, she could understand that, after al,l with all the work she needed to do it would be easier if her trips were more often.

Taking the bag form them and setting it on the desk, she pulled out the LED lantern and popped it open, illuminating the entire room with its cool and bright white light.

"You can clean if you want but, I thought you might want to look more at the clockwork, see the whole wall here used to be glass. I finished cleaning it up but really, I have no way to replace it, so I'll need to figure something out. But this isn't a tourist attraction so it might be fine to remain open as long as I keep oiling it and looking for corrosion." Pulling the few parts out of the bag, she wandered over to the wall and started looking for a stuck or trapped gear. It wasn't particularly safe but it would need to be managed before things would be able to properly move again.

"Alright, I can remember that. There needs to be some sort of magical dump, honestly." Sighing at the fact they had a similar issue to her own, but with fabric instead of glass and stone.

"I've been breaking the stone down into dust to then use in cement to do the repairs, but for fabric... I have no idea." Shaking her head, it probably smelled much worse there than it did here.

With a few cursory pokes of her staff into the gears, she noticed where there seemed to be something white stuck in the gears. It was solid but other than that she couldn't quite make it out. It looked to be the cause of things as well as the gears she knew she needed to replace so she did that first. Setting her staff aside, she pried one of the large gears out of the clockwork before setting in a new one, taking advantage of the jam to keep from losing a finger.

Grunting with the effort of getting it back in place, she ended up slightly checking it with her shoulder at the end. It wasn't as delicate as she'd like, but with a clock this big it could handle some precussive maintenance.

"You can, not every time but every once in a while. I need Aaru for the big things, useless lummox otherwise." Mutteirng several other nasty things about the man in russian, she was still glad for someone to b***h at in her own language from time to time. It also helped that they seemed to have a better idea of things too.

"I'd like to see the shop, maybe I can help you get rid of things since I have to pay extra anyway for disposing of metal and machinery with my shop in the city. I doubt they would have questions about fabric here and there."

It definitely felt like things were going smoother with company. At least company that wasn't vulgar and obnoxious. It had her chuckling slightly until they mentioned a bone and someone dying.

Shaking her head, she pressed a palm to her temple as she felt like such a thing was familiar. She felt a pain in her hand, shooting up her arm as she stepped back and gasped from the shock and sharpness of it. That usual demeanor of hers shattered for a moment as she got a flicker of something before she closed her eyes to it.

"I... maybe? I think I'm going to be sick." Shuffling back she slumped into the creaky wooden chair by the desk as she sat for a moment to collect herself. Turning her hand over and over, she didn't see anything wrong now but that didn't mean she was going to be extra careful.

"We need to get it out, we should probably use my staff to hook it if possible." Pointing over at it, she wasn't exactly sure if they should do it or she should do it herself.