Complete Private ✪ Finweald Birds of A Feather And All That.

[Tick Tock]

Clockwork, where magic is born!

Drum drum drum! her fingers go.
tap tap tap! the table sounds.

A customer finally left with a ring of the bell at the doorstep, the woman sinking with relief, yet she couldn't decide if because of the fresh air from the streets, the box full of fragile utensils inside, or the fact she had to rely on such a crafter to get the parts assembled. It should be a life changer to have an 'automated warmth spreader' as Tick explained it to her... Or Tock? The notion of who is who didn't really.

'Come in!' The doll at the entrance chirped, making her jump on place. Faulty thing couldn't even detect people leaving from going in, and then the woman was long gone among the masses from Finweald. This but a lander, yet this shop certainly accomodated Starcalled better. Just like the one that decided to peek on it's fronts today...

"Before Eva stands 'Clockworks', a two story size shop with a classical wooden sign on the outside, billowing gently with the wind. That's where similarities with the rest of the shops end, besides the simple name and the cogs rotating on their own axis bolted on the sign itself.

The front is largely made up from displays behind glass, most of them held together by arms rather than frames, many mechanical contraptions that go from pocket watches closing and opening themselves, clockwise and counter-clockwise, to spheres composed completely out of metal, the mechanism an intricate pattern contrasting it's techno-origins, and sometimes one can glimpse past the rings spiraling inside of the main frame to spot crystals of various colours reflected by the light and magical essence within them.

Most of the displays outside follow this peculiar lack of order, that curiously has some semblance of harmony to it: There are no particular contraptions in display that could fit a sole need, they are merely a showcase of an artisan's skill. That is to say, some of these do look dangerous given how they shake by it's tethers, and the many many mechanical limbs hanging and holding them don't make it exactly less unnerving.

A white haired doll stands outside of the shop, wiggling from side to side a sign that says 'open!' Chirps to the clients to come in every few seconds with it's noisy and monotone vocoder.

@Eva

 

[Eva]

Clockworks.

She had walked around Finweald for the past few days and this place always caught her eye. Maybe it's the random contraptions on the display, or maybe it's the sad doll jumping telling people to come in if a poor fella went too close to it. It reminded her of passing by toy stores during her childhood, all those electronic figurines playing music and shooting out lasers.

Those toys and gadgets meant a lot to her, probably one of the reasons the white-haired woman is so easily intrigued with new, interesting things.

The stoic woman decided to walk in after pondering outside for a while, triggering the 'Come in!' voice line from the doll. Bell rang as she pushed the door open, and Eva was soon greeted by the different colored lights that were emitted by the various contraptions inside. With childlike curiosity, she inspected each one near the entrance with great detail, bending forwards to look at it closer.

She proceeded further inside, looking for the one (or two) who built those contraptions. Perhaps there's something new to be discovered here.

@Tick Tock

 

[Tick Tock]

"That's a prototype." A voice whispered, tucked right behind Eva's ears.

The apparatus itself looked much like a headset, or the barest minimum for it to strap against one's head beneath their hairs. Chitinous legs like that of a spider's protuded from it, and a set of amber eyes hovered where one's forehead would be.

Just like that, the voice was gone, and it's owner-

"Hehe- Oops." Having given her position away between giggles, Tick hanged from the literal ceiling upside down, a large metal wire, more akin to a stretched out bolt, worked as her anchor, but this bolt came straight out of her wrist. Her hand turned into a grappling hook, basically.- "Tick's not too sneaky nowdays. Did Tick scare you? Can you rate it from a one out of ten?" Her hand let go of the roof, dust falling with the puppet girl who fell on her back with a flat 'oof!' sound. Now that Eva could give her a closer look, she ressembled the doll from outside almost to the letter.

"Customers! Tock told you Tock's sign would work." The same voice chirped from afar to confirm any theories, holding that same sign, strolling cheerfully towards Eva, yeeting the piece of wood away before halting her steps right next to her twin.

"It was Tick's idea though... Ah! Our customer, yes yes." The pair quickly held hands and bowed down to this white haired mysterious, dead-panning lady.

"She's Tock!" Tock pointed back at Tick.
"And she's Tick!" Tick pointed back at Tock, both in complete unison, rising a hand up to do a V gesture over their eyes, hips thrusted to the side for extra sass on their pose. "Welcome to Clockworks, miss!" They said, the pair springing to action not a second later. No time to waste, Tock produced a measuring tape from her coat to get, well, measures! Eva's limbs to be exact!

"Tick likes your hair. Looks like Tick's, just less cute and more regal, refined. Oh, perhaps you are royalty? Came to visit Clockworks to marry Tock?" Tick eyed her up and down, taking a different kind of measures: One of character rather than physical sizes. Could this be the one to claim her twin's hand?!
"Tock hopes so! You don't pay me enough to work here." Tock replied just as the tape snapped back just as she finished with the legs and continued with her arms.
"Shush you, if you didn't make a mess of Tick's prototypes, maybe you wouldn't be in debt to Tick."
"That's not Tock's fault, that's your fault for being a terrible inventor. Everything you do explodes... With wonderfulness, yes yes, it functions perfectly." Tock pulled back at last second, sharing glances with Eva and Tick alike, just as the latter made a step forward and tapped away at her chin.

"Hmm, say, aren't you a bit too fleshy? Are you a fleshling or beep boop?"

@Eva

 

[Eva]

"That's a prototype." A voice suddenly whispered from her behind, but turning around revealed no one. Confused, she turned back to inspect the weird contraption before a giggle from above betrayed the mysterious person's hidden position.

"Tick's not too sneaky nowdays. Did Tick scare you? Can you rate it from a one out of ten?"

"Zero." As she deadpanned, this Tick person fell on her back like a slapstick comedy before the robot from outside who looked just like her came inside. The white-haired woman would look back and forth at Tick and Tock several times confusedly.

"Customers! Tock told you Tock's sign would work."

"Welcome to Clockworks, miss!"

"Are you two twins?" Her eyes and head followed Tock who was quite eager to take her measurements, for whatever reason.

"Oh, perhaps you are royalty? Came to visit Clockworks to marry Tock?"

"No and no." She rejected both claims calmly, before looking back at the apparatus Eva had examined before, touching it with her fingers. "I thought this was a toy store. Is it not?" The woman pointed at the headset thingy. "What is this?"

"Hmm, say, aren't you a bit too fleshy? Are you a fleshling or beep boop?" Tick asked, to which the woman simply replied "I'm human," which would probably make the magia disappointed.

@Tick Tock

 

[Tick Tock]

"Zero."
"C-ro, does Tock write it with an accent?" Tock asked with a freshly formed notepad and pen on her hands, writing down exactly that: A deadpan face with silver locks and a dialogue box that says 'C-ro'.
"Yes, use an accent, the 'I can kill you with a glare' accent!" Tick sideglanced back at Eva, just to confirm that. Indeed, a glare from this woman could kill people in an instant, and satisfied with that the puppet nodded and pointed back at Tock's notepad as her twin awaited further instructions. "Yup just that, oh and don't forget the soulless eyes of death perception." Tock took quick note of it, sticking her tongue out as she worked on her masterpiece. Wasn't she taking measurements a second ago? Well yes, it's clearly a trick on the eye, because she's switching duties on the fly.

"Are you two twins?" The obvious question. Soulless eyes and maybe one of them blind if she needed to ask about it!
"Maybe!" The pair replied in tandem, all the more happy to obligue "Do twins look exactly the same? They usually have a difference or two, but we are the same."
"Maybe we are just Tock." Tock added with a wizened expression.
"Yeah! Just Tock-" Tick blinked twice, turning to face her Not-Twin with a pouty face. "Wait why just Tock, we agreed on Tick first."
"Hmmm, Tock has no recollection of that!"
"You liar Tick can read your mind."
"No you can't, you lost that power to the Impersonator!"

Their little back and forth halted as Eva's questioned both the nature of the prototype, and her little not so little shop's qualification, forcing them both to clear their throats, with Tock puffing her notepad and measuring tape away and picking up the 'headset' with both hands, careful not to drop it, despite being far from fragile, opposite to what a first glance would tell.

"This is a toy shop if you are an Astorean inspector, yes yes. If not, then this is a toy shop, and an alchemist's abode, and one of the few pits of magitech you will find around here! Tick's a specialist, an inventor, a carpenter, you name it!" Tick bolstered, hands spread to signal the rest of her little sanctuary. Of course everything ranged from exactly what she described. wooden puppets were stacked on a corner, held by a stand against the wall by their armpits, some of them ressembled their creator to a scary degree, and others were different yet just as real.

On one side, there were tanks filled with shiny colourful liquids, from which one can tell apart a metal horse skull and a slime tank, with most of them left empty, and one stained with gravel. There were also more limbs, yet compared to the ones behind the displays, these were pooled with legs and torsos, all mechanical and far more complex, yet they were rusting away, or have rusted away long ago, held within a metallic white container whose paint's been scrapping away for a little while.

And above is a library that one can reach with only a ladder glued to it, like a hole on the ceiling with a circular design around it, each neatly organized on several shelves and magnetized on the back of their covers just to keep them from falling.

"This," Tock leaped up to slap the headset atop Eva's head. "Is a prototype for these spider legs you see. They catch the neural waves of your brain and in turn adjusts the frequency to match them. So long as it's plugged in and charged with your own mana, you can control these like they were an extra set of limbs!" It was funny to wear it in the first place. An extra bit of weight but surprisingly light. The hard part would be to actually control said limbs, the brain takes time to acknowledge artificial appendages foreign to it, but with a bit of practice this deadpan Human lady would be just as capable.

"I'm human," So she says.
"Hehe, yeah Tick is also human then. So cold and straightforward, like you were designed to terminate Tick and she's about to die in any second now... That sounds like a magia, totally. What a great disguise, miss 'human' terminator" Tick snickered "Now, what can Tick call you? Oh! If you are a magia, does that mean you want some of Tick's TTSMRS? You look fancy, but could look even fancier!"

@Eva

 

[Eva]

"Maybe!"

Eva just sighed in the most emotionless way possible at the non-answer, not debating any further.

"This is a toy shop if you are an Astorean inspector, yes yes. If not, then this is a toy shop."

"Illegally sourced materials, or unregulated contraptions. Or both." The snow-haired woman noted, looking around at the number of weird gadgets on display. Her gaze went back to the headset-looking thingy though, which soon disappeared from her sight and was put on her by Tock without her consent.

Listening to the twin's explanation, she tried to focus her mana and suddenly there was this weird feeling. It's like those spider legs were an extension of her own limbs. It was a really surreal experience, but Eva was quick to learn how to move the extra limbs without messing with her own motor functions. "It's intriguing," she commented before taking the headset off, examining it further. Her eyes were focused on the set of amber eyes on the apparatus though.

"Never thought this was possible. The way these things converted so little mana into usable power... very efficient. There's not enough space to contain all the polarization nodes." She looked at Tick while pointing at the eyes, asking her. "Where did you find these?" The woman was not convinced that the pair made those. The technology was quite incomprehensible to even herself.

"What a great disguise, miss 'human' terminator"

She just stared silently at Tick as she made the Terminator reference, unsure if it was a joke about how robotic her response was or if the girl really thought she was a magia.

"Now, what can Tick call you?

"Eva. You can call me Eve, Evie, V, whatever."

"Oh! If you are a magia, does that mean you want some of Tick's TTSMRS? You look fancy, but could look even fancier!"

"I'm a human." She repeated like a broken record, which didn't help at all in this case. Couldn't they see she was all flesh?

@Tick Tock

 

[Tick Tock]

"Illegally sourced materials, or unregulated contraptions. Or both."
"Oho, she really IS an inspector!" Tock pointed straight at Eva's face, eyes set on her twin, who scrambled back to her desk to pick up a bunch of documents, sliding a clip to keep them all tightly packed.
"Not so fast inspector, here are the documents that explain it everything." She said, rising these 'documents' for Eva to check for only but a fraction of a second, but as far as her gaze could tell, the title of it was 'Spirits and the essent-'

However, miss inspector proved to be quite the corrupted government agent. Just a whiff of her prototypes and she's already overtaken by curiosity rather than disgust.
"It's intriguing,"
"Hehe, is Tick not a genius?" She clasped her hands, bursting with joy as Tock kept writing things down in her notepad, their newest test subject, Subject X, seemed to be quite compatible. Yet unlike most other monkeys, this one surpassed the average guinea pig by a lot: For one, she knew about the tech, even if not how it functions, which is totally understandable, even admirable, given it's left no precedents whatsoever.

Tick walked over to her prototype and grasped at one of the legs. "Tick likes you, human-robot lady, so Tick will tell you," She paused, only to rip open the metal frames of these appendages to reveal circuitry and mana crystals the size of a ring across it's length, there wasn't anything out of the ordinary, until the wires begun to seemingly come to life, like roots from a tree that expanded at their own pace, the cables begun to spread and retract depending what angle you looked at them.

"This uses a piece of Tick's soul. Tick created living machinery, not just sentience formed through algorithms not machine learning. This code wrote itself, this is life fueled by the world!" Excitement is one way to describe the raise in her voice, a hand gently caressed these metallical roots fondly, right before she pulled her hand out and the frame begun to regenerate itself, self-repair from nothingness. "Shhh, listen! Listeeen..." Tock pulled from Eva's top much like a child would to get a parent's attention, before pointing out to the vase with a flower right next to it. The flower itself begun to rot away, the water from liquid to a gas, until nothing but the glass container for it was left, and the frame of her prototype repaired itself. "These eyes are crystalized souls. Pieces of Tick, pieces of someone else's- You won't believe how many stray spirits and memories wander around the streets!"

Tick wiped imaginary sweat off her brow, just as this woman once again repeated the same sentence of earlier, as if she had to convince her that this is part of some script she had to play. Total magia behaviour, but she had to commend it a little bit, and so she did with a chuckle that portrayed her amusement to it's fullest.

"Tick is a human." Tick repeated in Eva's voice, enough samples allowing her to create a vo-coder inside of her to do so, as part of her design.
"That is also living machinery by the way, Evie" Tock interrupted, wagging the pen around. "So! What can Tick and Tock do for you, Whatever? Maybe you wish to see how this all works? Maybe you are an inventor too?!" The pair swarmed the silver-haired mom, curious eyes blinking like a camera taking photos.

@Eva

 

[Eva]

"This uses a piece of Tick's soul. Tick created living machinery, not just sentience formed through algorithms not machine learning. This code wrote itself, this is life fueled by the world!"

"...Soul?" Souls and spirits can power something in this world, but the concept of generating links and perceived sentience through the essence of life itself is interesting to her. "Life-force based communications," she tilted her head, eyes gazing sharply into the amber eyes that has her own reflection on them.

"Shhh, listen! Listeeen..." Tock tugged on her clothes like a child, prompting her to look at the vase. Like a mother trying to entertain her children's interests, she just nodded while giving them praise. "Yes, pretty good."

"These eyes are crystalized souls. Pieces of Tick, pieces of someone else's- You won't believe how many stray spirits and memories wander around the streets!"

"Amalgamations of spirits and thoughts..." She considered, before raising an eyebrow in confusion. "... It's not stable enough. Too many variables in even a single human soul. Mortal psychology is easy to break." The ice-cold woman theorized, thinking that relying on unwilling souls might be too dangerous.

Weirdly she didn't even mention how morally wrong the act of using someone's soul like that. "Unless there's a way to neuter the thoughts. Completely turning the souls into high-powered processing units is a breakthrough." An idea was tossed to Tick and Tock, which they might or might not have done.

"Tick is a human." The woman almost gave up as Tick instead imitated her own voice, but without skipping a beat she took off her left glove and her mask, before suddenly biting into her thumb, causing red blood to drip from it. "See, human." She said, smiling while closing both of her eyes, which was way scarier than her just deadpanning.

The twin with their rapidly blinking eyes surrounded her while asking, probably interested in her. "Maybe you wish to see how this all works? Maybe you are an inventor too?!"

"I am, yes. I am yet unable to call myself an inventor, but I'm currently building something." Eva's eyes shifted to the amber eyes again, "Maybe I can source one or two things from here."

@Tick Tock

 

[Tick Tock]

Tick eagerly nodded once Evie V Eve repeated the magic word 'Soul', piecing together a fragment of the jigsaw that was dealing with this sort of power in the first place, and even praised her, physically and verbally alike. It fills her pride and ego alike, mainly her pride to a healthy degree, given this is the true core of discovery: to present it to like-minded individuals and neophytes alike, Eva proving to be of the former category so far.
"Amalgamations of spirits and thoughts..."
"Yeeeees?" Tick leaned even closer just as the woman begun to piece her thoughts outloud.
".. It's not stable enough. Too many variables in even a single human soul. Mortal psychology is easy to break."
And she waited, patiently, just about ready to explain the clause on her argument, Tock's lips were open and a finger pointed up to the ceiling for the full 'Actually' portraya-
"Unless there's a way to neuter the thoughts. Completely turning the souls into high-powered processing units is a breakthrough."

Tick and Tock shared glances just then, whimsical applauses given to their client, Tock even managing to drop her notepad on the process as if it meant little in comparison. "Magic is alive, Evie. Ever thought about what is an Elemental? Tick did, kept me awake for many days even. You can ask Tock." Tick pointed back at Tock, who just shared a stare back to both with fish eyes and a permanent smile then shrugged without a care in the world, which made Tick whince and wave her off. "Some summoner decides to bring forth an entity from the elemental plane, or creates it with pure magic, that's just living magic to you." Tick circled around Eva, stopping infront of her after a full 360 had been done, clockwise and counter clockwise.

"When you cast a fireball," Tock couped her hands together to do a hadouken kind of motion. "You use magic, your own, and that one ain't alive, right? Souls are just a form of magic, just like Necromancy is a form of magic. Why do they torch the guy who brings back a corpse to the realm of the living but don't do the same to the guy who does it with some holy, self-righteous, sunny D magic? Semantics! But it's essentially the same. Magic and souls are the same," Tock paused abruptly just as Tick hunched her shoulders, holding an invisible nail with an invisible hammer for her to carefully prepare herself to smack down, closing an eye to improve her performance and convey the message clearly. "Just that not every bolt has the same fitting. You need to use different screwdrivers for different bolts."

Bonk went the non-existant hammer, with an hilariously fake gasp out of the puppet who licked her thumb after 'hitting' herself with it.

"And all that just to tell you 'Yes ma'am! You can re-wire souls into indentured slaves who will not question your bidding. Or like Tick was saying, turn living magic, into -dead- magic. Pure raw and fuel, but with a conscience of it's own. Tick guesses it ain't right to call it dead though, when it comes to souls Tick found out it's more like lobotomizing them, yes!" Tock begun to write that word down, 'lobotomize'. Perfectly describes a train of thought she couldn't solve last night.

Compared to miss human here who proved to actually be a human, the unmistakeable crimson liquid no Magia could possess no matter how advanced, how exquisite their form was. This woman is nasty indeed, just looking at that frightening visage of hers had every hair on her head spike up. Or maybe it's the friction condenser that she forgot to turn off.
"Spooky smile, hehe. Tick likes you. You are more fun than most humans." Which was a huge compliment on it's own in here head.
"Mama?" Tock exclaimed, holding her hands together against her cheek for a girly pose, which made Tick crank her head in her twin's direction to give her a weirded out look, then back at Eva before rolling her eyes. "She's not mama, Bah she's probably broken don't mind her, Evy."

"I am, yes. I am yet unable to call myself an inventor, but I'm currently building something."
"Oho? Tell tell, Tick told you a lot, it's fair to share knowledge with your future investors and partners in ethical crimes." If that 'Source one or two things' were giving her any idea of where their relationship would go to. Well, except Tock, whose always been the hopelessly romantic sort.

@Eva

 

[Eva]

"When you cast a fireball, you use magic, your own, and that one ain't alive, right? Souls are just a form of magic, just like Necromancy is a form of magic."

Even while the twins were doing their miming shenanigans, she just nodded endlessly while her own brain was doing the work of absorbing the knowledge and rewriting her understanding of the world, making notes of what to revise from her plans and designs.

"And all that just to tell you 'Yes ma'am! You can re-wire souls into indentured slaves who will not question your bidding. Or like Tick was saying, turn living magic, into -dead- magic. Pure raw and fuel, but with a conscience of it's own."

Now, this was the game-changer. Pure raw, stabilized energy that doesn't leave excess discharge? Hundreds of new designs quickly appeared in her mind, calculating as Tick continued to explain to her about this soul-as-an-energy thing.

"Tick guesses it ain't right to call it dead though."

"Yes, it should be called 'efficient'." Eva interjected, proposing a better name for the repurposed souls.

"Mama?"

"Hm?" She confusedly turned to Tock, who was looking at her weirdly with both of her hands on her cheeks, something that Tick didn't approve of, and told her to just ignore Tock's strange question.

"Oho? Tell tell, Tick told you a lot, it's fair to share knowledge with your future investors and partners in ethical crimes."

"Pursuing knowledge is not a crime. Choosing not to do it is one." The woman corrected, before explaining to the twins. "I've been trying to build something considered unethical in the other world; weapons."

From the inside of her jacket, Eva took out and placed what appears to be some kind of pistol on the table. Sporting a black-and-white elegant finish, the gun looked somewhat unfinished by the exposed machinery in the few parts of the weapon. The stoic woman then leaned on the display table.

"I'm interested in you two. Tell me about yourselves."

@Tick Tock

 

[Tick Tock]

"Oh you..." She waved a hand dramatically. Calling it efficient... Almost as if Eva wanted to court her with that! What a shame, because Tock would certainly prefer to be the one in the receiving end of such attention. "But you are right, yes, it's efficiency but it requires a name doesn't it? Tick has none, so it's living machinery for now since that's all I'm using it for at the moment!" Tick elaborated.

"Pursuing knowledge is not a crime. Choosing not to do it is one."
"Tick agrees! But Tick doesn't judge. If someone wants to or not that's up to them, Tick and Tock just want to learn."
"Tock moreso than Tick, given her lack of notes." Tock took the opportunity to jab back at her, with a grin to match as her twin so much as glared at her, squinting eyes ready to throw hands at that insolent puppet.
"Lies, don't believe a word out of this cheap doll, Evie!" Tick remarked, Tock about to jump back into it, if only for both to stop once Eva gave not only an explanation, but a display of what she was building.

In that instant, Tick stepped closer to wrap her hands over the prototype from the barrel and the grip, while Tock leaned closer with her notepad to put down details. At this angle, Eva could notice the notepad actually had nothing upon it's pages, just some doodles that made absolutely no sense related to the topic at hand. Stickman figures and all.

"Tick saw firearms yes, magias in Vintergard use these. Some even spookier than this one. What's so special about this weapon, miss? You want a portable railgun maybe? You won't find anything around here." Tick cleared her throat, but then signaled to the outside of the shop with her right hand. "Out there. In here, Tick guarantees to give you something of us. And if Tick doesn't have it, Tock can find it!" The pair smiled, leaning over the table on a similar fashion as Eva, locking eyes with their fellow silverhead.

"I'm interested in you two. Tell me about yourselves."

Tick opened her mouth, only to be shut as Tock stepped in-between. "Tock can tell you a lot about Tock~" Bardic tone, harmonious like an instrument that just got pulled by it's strings once Tick grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her back. "What do you wish to know? You have to be more specific. We can tell you all about our tea, or how we exploded our limbs with dark magic- OH! Or that time where we used eachother as test subjects. That was a great time, wasn't it Tock?"
"Tock can show Evie a good time too."
"Evie's had enough of your innuendos, and so does Tick. Stop or else Tick will put you in the locker!" She stomped her foot down, giving a firm glare back at her sister, who suddently cowered and figuratively tucked her tail between her legs.
"Wh-NO! Not the Locker..."

@Eva

 

[Eva]

Eva was searching her own pockets for something when she noticed Tock writing notes while examining her gun, but it turns out it was just a lot of children's piss poor drawings and stickman figures on the notepad.

"... Why are you doodling?" Her genuine confusion was interrupted by the other twin's mention of the firearms in this world, which she tried to replicate without the downsides. "Tick saw firearms yes, magias in Vintergard use these. Some even spookier than this one." Only having scavenged the outskirts of Vintergard in search of parts, Eva replied, "I've seen some. More of traditional firearms, with ammunition and projectiles."

"What's so special about this weapon, miss?"

"It's unfinished, but that's the point." The tall woman pulled out a few small cubes from her pouch, putting them on the side of the table. She then took one of them and attached it to the back of the gun, before the cube changed its form and assimilated with the gun, forming a stock.

She did the same with the two other cubes, attaching them to the muzzle and the top of the weapon as they transformed into sights and extended barrels (like the nanotech bullshit they show in superhero movies). "Adaptive weapon." Eva showcased, holding it with both hands like a submachine gun. "The cubes could only provide basic, pre-programmed modifications though. But I'm sure I can do more when I figure out how to utilize that living machinery of yours." Imagine if the cubes were actually smart and can adapt to any situation the user wanted, maybe even change from projectiles to energy-based on the fly.

There were so many ideas currently running through her mind, so when Tick offered to talk over tea, Eva was quite delighted. But her usual closed eyes with that scary smile probably weren't the best representative of her current mood.

"Tea would be nice. I'm intrigued by both of your views that I share. Where did it come from? What's the thinking process here? Origin of it all?"

The stoic woman shot several questions in succession while keeping a monotone voice as if listing points she already made in her head. Outside of her family, she had never met someone that has the same critical outlook as these... children? Girls? They look young enough to be in high school.

As Tock continued to joke, Tick suddenly called her out. "Evie's had enough of your innuendos, and so does Tick. Stop or else Tick will put you in the locker!" She stomped down and mentioned 'The Locker', causing the other twin to quickly cower while confusing Eva.

"Wh-NO! Not the Locker..."

Eva suddenly stepped between Tick and Tock, slightly lowering herself to Tick's height as she reminded the magia. "You shouldn't do that to your sister. Aren't you siblings? Siblings are supposed to get along with each other." She disassembled the prototype gun and stored it away behind her jacket, "Let's just have a nice talk," the woman proposed.

@Tick Tock

 

[Tick Tock]

Tock turned back to look at Eva just as she was taking a peek on her doodles, blushing like a teen and pressing the notepad against her chest. "N-nothing! Tock is doing nothing!" Quick to dismiss this lady who could see through her stuff even with her eyes closed, as if some kind of seer she were who needs no eyes to snoop around on what others are doing...

Tick wasn't impressed with Eva's sightseeing of slug peashooters rather than energy based weaponry. They were rare by all means, and not something you could find anywhere, but these cubes, the way this prototype begun to change in a much similar fashion to how her living machinery could. Now these caught the twins's attention.

"The cubes could only provide basic, pre-programmed modifications though. But I'm sure I can do more when I figure out how to utilize that living machinery of yours."

"For CERTAIN!" Tick retorted, getting up close as her eyes begun to click and snap like cameras.
"Do it again, again." Tock's eyes widened, laser dots coming out as they begun to shift up and down, all at once scanning the structure of the submachine gun in what looked like a very flashy and futuristic attempt to analyze it's components. "We don't tend to focus on firearms because we don't use them, but it's certainly a project we can work on, as a triple threat." She concluded, those 'scanners' finally shutting off, despite being pure show rather than of actual use, but certainly should impress Eva!

Instead, the tall motherly lady gave them a flurry of questions one after another, and Tock quickly leaned upwards to put a finger over her lips. "Questions over tea time. No time to waste while standing, yes pretty lady?" 'Wink wink'

"Oh you've done it!" Tick growled, about to pounce and tear apart that cazanova for a twin she had, halted only once Eva got in between, getting down to her size for them to be face to face, with the puppet placing her hands on her hips and huffing lightly.

"You shouldn't do that to your sister. Aren't you siblings? Siblings are supposed to get along with each other."

But in the end, she did have a point, one that made her reconsider in the first place...

"Ah you are right, yes we are siblings, and yes Tock is insufferable, but Tick loves Tock make no mistake mature lady. Come 'ere you silly goose." Spreading her arms, Tock went to hug Evie from behind, while Tick hugged her from the front, doing a triple hug on the process. If only they were clad on black, they would be an oreo right now, and after the heartwarming experience they shared with their client, Tock ran off to drag the round table they used for these situations, always kept at hand, until it would end on the center of her little laboratory of sorts.

"Aha, there are four chairs on that corner, miss Eve, could you fetch them for Tock?" The puppet figured to put the woman to do some work while at it, before she darted off behind the desk, leaned down until she couldn't be seen, and a metallic sound could be heard as she lifted a hatch and plopped right down, with all the sound a rusty, old bunker's entrance would do.

"Hehe, silly that one. But ah! No questions until tea time, but Tick dares say you are fine company, miss Evie. Share some secrets, we share some... But we don't have any actually, we just keep information for those willing to hear and make use of it in truth."

@Eva

 

[Eva]

"Do it again, again." At Tock's request, Eva detached the adaptive parts easily as they turn back into cubes, before storing them back in her pouch. The girl seemed to scan or analyze the gun parts, but Eva didn't think it'll even be useful for anything.

"Come 'ere you silly goose."

Suddenly, the twin hugged her from both sides, making a hug sandwich which confused the woman as why she was involved in this. "Why are you two hugging me?"

"Aha, there are four chairs on that corner, miss Eve, could you fetch them for Tock?"

A bit weird, to request some labor from a customer, but the female terminator obeyed anyway. Moving the chairs one by one, leaving them near where Tock had disappeared. Waiting for Tock, she turned to the other twin.

"No questions until tea time, but Tick dares say you are fine company, miss Evie. Share some secrets, we share some..."

"Secrets..." The woman pondered for a while, "I don't seem to have one. How about an answer for an answer? You can ask first."

@Tick Tock

 

[Tick Tock]

The pair looked far more confused than this spooky and motherly lady could, leaning back at the same time just to look at her in the eyes like she just said the weirdest thing so far in this conversation... Because she did!

"Why? Why you ask why?" Tick started.
"People like hugs, don't they? Tick and Tock love to hug! Puppets, props, people, magias that ain't magias but humans- Like you." Tock continued, with her twin nodding in agreement with noisy 'mhm!'s every two words. "Don't you like hugs? Are you one of those weirdos that don't like physical contact?"
"Don't say that, Evie is a perfectly normal member of our dysfunctional society."
"So that's a yes or a no?"
"Hmmmm..." The pair then looked at eachother, back at Eva, back at one another, back at Eva, before shrugging. "Both?"
"Both!"

With their final exchange over and her totally not magia client complying to such a simple task, it didn't take long for the tea to be ready, strangely enough given how long these things usually take. How could they tell? Well of course, Tock came out of the ceiling, like there were some kind of connection between the basement and the top of the shop.

Or merely just an illusion to give the idea of such. Not so far fetched, but hopefully not the way Eva would ruin the immersion of two mad hatters giving her a nice and fantastical tea time, all they needed was a rabbit and some lost human blonde to complete the set on this little table.

"Huzzah, Tock is back!" The puppet replied after landing from above, with a tray on her hand and the tea pot smoking hot and ready to serve them into the little cups. One for each, and so she begun to fill these ceramic recipients full of sweet dark liquid, leaving the sugar at reach for all parties to give themselves a spoonful of once they had their drinks served.

"How about an answer for an answer? You can ask first."
"Deal." Tick replied, pouring a single spoon of sugar and swirling her cup with the utensil before tapping at it's edge. "Are you having fun in Terrasphere, mama? Oh nono not that- What's your favourite color? Bah wait, that's obvious: Black!" She snapped her fingers, just as an idea finally drowned the rest of the demons in her head. "Aha no, Tick's question is: 'Do you think I'm real? What is real inside this game? Is it even real in the first place, or just a bunch of code and very very advanced technology?"

@Eva

 

[Eva]

"Don't you like hugs? Are you one of those weirdos that don't like physical contact?"

After a couple of back and forths from the twins, Eva resigned while sighing. "I guess I don't hate hugs." She's thankful that after some time they released her from the death hug though. The off-screen Tock then appeared from the ceiling like a cartoon character, somehow. Eva did not question this and just sat down on one of the chairs as a cup of hot tea was served to her.

"Thank you," she expressed her gratitude while smelling the aroma of the tea, completely forgoing any sugar. She gently blew on it while listening to Tick's questions.

"Are you having fun in Terrasphere, mama? Oh nono not that-" Wrong question, but the woman interjected anyway. "I am."

What's your favourite color? Bah wait, that's obvious: Black!" Wrong again, as Eva quickly pointed out. "White."

"Do you think I'm real? What is real inside this game? Is it even real in the first place, or just a bunch of code and very very advanced technology?"

Listening to the quite mind-opening question, Eva just smiled before giving an answer. "Cogito, ergo sum." She spoke in Latin, sipping a little bit of the tea before explaining to both Tick and Tock. "You think, therefore you exist. So you two are, at least to yourselves, real." The white-haired engineer then comforted the twins. "If you ask me, then yes, you are real to me."

"Is the other world even real? DNA is just a very advanced engineering of genetic codes, anyway. Both are equally real and equally virtual." She delivered the reasoning in a perfectly flat, cold tone, before sipping her tea again. "Was that answer adequate?" The woman tried to make sure before asking anything.

@Tick Tock

 

[Tick Tock]

"I guess I don't hate hugs."
"We'll take it!" They both added, pleased with such a half-baked answer, a developing opinion they would need to change later on. How? With more hugs of course.

"It's our special tea. We got the ingredients from the most dangerous pits of tartarus within Terrasphere." Tock explained as she took a seat, taking a spoonful of sugar and dropping it into her mouth before passing it over to Tick, who dropped some on her own cup and gave it a few twirls.
"Clockwork's finest tea, with the leaves cooked within a basilisk's stomach and the waters straight from a drowned adult female's lungs." Tick elaborated upon the ingredients, giving a comical wink back to Eva. "Just kidding, we don't use basilisk stomach for our tea. Tock did want to once though, but she ended up in a... Rocky situation."
"Tock won the staring competition if that's what Tick's saying." A swift rebuttal, taking a sip from her cup.

And then the flurry of questions were met with answers. Tock just got starry dreamful eyes at the revelation of the stoic lady's favourite colour. Specially because that's like, 90% of Tock!

"We are winning so far!" Two wrong answers on a row, that had to be a record!
"Cogito, ergo sum."
Oh she knew this one! Or rather, her own systems translated it for her, but thankfully Eva explained it's meaning just a second after. "Ooh? How about trees, flowers, or this nice cup of tea-" Her hands went straight to her lips to silence herself.
"She said one question one answer, remember?" Tock squinted her gaze back at her twin.
"Tick knows Tick knows." She held onto any set of sub-questions, instead taking the W (specially Tock) when told they were real! What a relief that a very nice looking not!magia lady's opinion on their existence within this plane of reality was positive. What would they do without her?

"Is the other world even real? DNA is just a very advanced engineering of genetic codes, anyway. Both are equally real and equally virtual."
"Tick feels as real here as out there, even if Tick wants to be in both places at once." An unfulfilled wish as it stands, despite her beloved twin being present here.

"Was that answer adequate?"
Tick Tock both pondered over that question, glancing at eachother, sipping tea at the same time as if a shadow of eachother they were with no clarity in which one is which in that regard.
"If it's the answer you wanted to give Tick, then Tock will take it. There's no right answers or wrong answers here, no ma'am, speak the first that comes to mind, be it erroneous or not. Maybe your favourite colour isn't white and you just spit it out by inertia?"
"Tock sure hopes that's not the case." Tock added, with puppy eyes given back to Eva as if a lie in that case would be equivalent to kicking a dog.
"You can lie, or not. Tick will find an answer eventually be it right or wrong, and then ask again! It's more fun when you get multiple answers. You could tell Tick this table is a table," A free hand pressed over the side of it to give it a gentle tug from side to side, forcing everything on top of it to tremble dangerously. "And not a giant railgun waiting to be activated because it lacks all the parts of a Railgun. Tick will tell you it's an unfinished railgun waiting to be processed. Perspectives matter!"

@Eva

 

[Eva]

"Tick feels as real here as out there, even if Tick wants to be in both places at once."
There was it again. Both times it was spoken by Tick, the issue about being in both worlds and whether she was real. Enough clues were being assembled in Eva's mind as the twin continued to speak enthusiastically.

"Maybe your favourite colour isn't white and you just spit it out by inertia?"
"Tock sure hopes that's not the case."

"It's white." Eva emphasized again, finding no interest in lying on such a simple and trivial question. "My hair is white, my shirt is white, et cetera. Should make pretty good evidence in my case." Not a strong argument, but again, not worth lying.

"Perspectives matter!"

"There's still universal truth, though. Annoying, but irrefutable," She sipped the pretty normal tea, before setting it back. "My turn, then." The woman eyed Tick and Tock from head to toe, before turning to Tick and shooting her elaborately worded question. "Tick, am I right in assuming that you're unable to cross to the other world?" Eva softly said, looking at the girl.

@Tick Tock

 

[Tick Tock]

The emphasis on their colour choice made Tock almost hop back up to her feet, if such levels of joy weren't pretty obvious already within her still form and the wide grin she wore upon her face.
"Tock is also white, got white hair, and white clothes. Kindred spirits we are!" The puppet explained, spreading her arms in the process to add some dramatics to her wholeheartly statement.

"There's still universal truth, though. Annoying, but irrefutable,"
Yet there again went the concept of a truth, which had the duo tap at their chins thoughtfully so, the tapping noise however, was unnatural, yet Eva probably already knew this given she got a hug from the pair and only their hairs felt real compared to the rest of their bodies.
"Non non! Universal truth is a fleshling concept created by fleshlings. It's only irrefutable because your perspective of this table is that of a table, because everyone says it's a table! If you want a nasty example, ask science and religion to get a room and talk about human origins. Hoo, even better, ask your local Terralocal! They probably will tell you something else entirely!" Tick concluded with a loud siiiip from her totally normal tea, matched by Tock's own siiiiip of her own totally normal tea. Awaiting for the promised question.

"Tick, am I right in assuming that you're unable to cross to the other world?"

And there it goes, curiosity noticeable from the way she looked them up and down. Granted, Tock took it on a different light and just lightly posed to the side for Eva to get a better look at her.

"Oooh that was some time ago, back when Tick tried to bring Tock to life. It worked, but it also locked her in,"
"We will find a way back eventually. That's on our wishlist." Tock added, certainty within her voice at that.
"That's right Tock. It's in our wishlist. Tick didn't want to wander between one world or the other, so Tick decided to lock herself here with Tock. We are immortal, so all that remains is to make our way back." Tick (and Tock) paused both to take a sip. "Our turn. Tock, wanna ask something?" Tick offered with a hand back at her sister to gesture her forth.

"Oho, yes yes: What do you want? Yes, very abstract question, but everyone has a reason to play a fancy little dangerous game like this one. Tock wants to know what mama Evie wants the most in the world to risk her life. Is it Tock? Tock would love that as an answer, but Tock knows you didn't knew of her early so that can't be, no-oh. So... What is it that you want?"

@Eva

 

[Eva]

"Tock is also white, got white hair, and white clothes. Kindred spirits we are!"

"Hm." Eva acknowledged emotionlessly with a polite synonym for 'duh' or 'no shit'. It was such a trivial thing anyway.

"Oooh that was some time ago, back when Tick tried to bring Tock to life. It worked, but it also locked her in,"

Trapped in the game, while trying to bring Tock back? Nothing the magia said that made sense to her, but for now, she would just store this information and piece it back herself later.

"Everyone has a reason to play a fancy little dangerous game like this one. Tock wants to know what mama Evie wants the most in the world to risk her life."

This is like... the third time the pair called her mama. Is this a recurring joke? Or are they her actual children? Because the other alternative was that it was used with a sexual connotation, but they just met. Her brain did not understand this.

"Is it Tock? Tock would love that as an answer, but Tock knows you didn't knew of her early so that can't be, no-oh. So... What is it that you want?"

Unlike other people's perceptions, this world was actually safer than the other one. You get into an accident on that one, and you're gone forever. You die three times in this and you're just permanently stored as a smart code. Not a bad outcome, actually.

"In the other world, I was called a genius, prodigy, the perfect human. I was not ashamed to call myself those, because it's just the universal truth." She paused, sipping the tea again before continuing with her reasoning.

"I was searching for something I couldn't do; something I didn't know yet. Hence, the plunge into this unknown world. Like figuring out your inventions, meeting and sharing new pieces of knowledge with you two."

"So, actually not far off. My question now." Eva looked at both of the twins, before asking in a genuinely confused tone. "Why are you two calling me mama? I don't seem to recall having given birth yet, especially to a pair of twins."

@Tick Tock