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Post by Alma on Jan 1, 2022 21:03:53 GMT -6
Fighting with Mouse, keeping an arm outstretched so that the chain could not tangle with her legs, Alma pulled back one leg and met the toy seeker’s charge with a steel-toed kick. Its metal frame crunched against the boot and went flying back, slamming into the nearest machine and sliding down it with a trail of oil. Steam flowed from the cracks in the cheap metal as it tried to stand on its remaining bent and shattered legs, the last of the steam leaving it in a hiss as the body fell to the floor.
And she heard the hiss.
The machines had stopped, arms and spindles and conveyors sliding into silence, the noise only broken by the hissing of steam from a boiler and her and the seeker’s, the real seeker, breathing.
The silence held as Alma watched the oil pool around the broken toy, unsure what to do next. There could not be only one toy in the whole shop. 16
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Post by Alma on Jan 1, 2022 21:05:15 GMT -6
Maybe the big red button had been a metaphor for the tiny seeker that attacked them?
No, she could not be that lucky.
A faint ticking scratched at the edges of her hearing, so faint that she thought it nothing more than the echoes of the machines. The sound grew louder as she pressed her back to the wall, dragging the growling, then silent as his muscles locked up, seeker to her side. Other sounds joined it, the tapping of metal pins against concrete, of creaking metal as the lights swung to and fro under the guidance of barely visible shadows, the padding of feet against the floor. Mouse resumed his growling, the sound growing in pitch as he and Alma glanced at every ping or snap they heard, the noises growing closer and starting to cascade over one another until they were nearly indistinguishable.
The machines did not move, and the sounds ceased an instant before the sources crawled into sight. 17
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Post by Alma on Jan 1, 2022 21:06:05 GMT -6
Alma had read more than enough stories to know what would come next, memories resurfacing of the bits of red dye and fresh overboiled leather and too white plastic that she knew was bone and-
She tightened her grip on the leash, keeping her head as still as the machines as she scanned what space she could see. There was the way they had come, blessedly empty, another route between a machine that had been smashing button eyes onto dolls and one that heated plastic, and the cart. She held her breath, trying to pick up any noise other than that of her seeker’s growls, failing to hear so much as a pin dropping.
Alma yelled something, a string of gibberish as she scooped up the struggling, then stiff, seeker, and ran two steps towards the path they had come from, the one path she knew she would have a clear shot at the back door.
Then she twisted herself around, pivoting on one leg, and sprinted for the cart.
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Post by Alma on Jan 1, 2022 21:07:57 GMT -6
The shop erupted back into noise. Machines started working at insane speeds, spewing coolant and sparks alongside shrapnel from both tools and materials, chunks of which smashed without regard to where other machines and the tiny toys were. She felt them strike her armor as she ran, forcing her to angle the seeker at the wall to protect him as yet another piece ringed off of her helmet.
The toys lacked the same defenses, a tiny train smashed aside as a chunk of metal larger than her fist skewered it to the wall. Other toys rained down from the tops of machines as the giant metal beasts slowed their rampage, some bouncing free of her armor as they slapped tiny furry hands at her. Larger ones bludgeoned her as they fell, a train that was the twin of the first smashing against her shoulder before tumbling to the ground with an angry whistle.
The metal-digited toys had better luck, and she could see a four-legged metal weaver pulling its unpainted body up alongside a more complete eight-legged version, pointed feet digging into the leather as they climbed up to her side.
And then they hit the box-laden cart, her boot catching on the high edge, and Alma was tumbling through the air. She hid the ground hard with her shoulder, the armor deforming with the hit as she let out a scream of pain. The seeker slipped free of her grasp as her injured arm lost feeling. She saw him turn towards her with his red eyes, jaws partially opened as many more toys swarmed towards them, lunging towards her.
He did not freeze as she expected, his jaws crunching down, and Alma wondered why her leg hurt less than her arm.
Then she saw the twitching silver spider leg, heard the scream-hiss as white steam escaped its tiny body, and Alma forced herself upright. 19
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Post by Alma on Jan 1, 2022 21:09:39 GMT -6
He fell over a moment after spitting out the toy, her leg looking tasty enough to rid the foul thick oil coating his tongue, and Alma grabbed him with her good arm. The bad one made her want to scream as she ran, thick soles crushing dolls calling for their mothers, tiny men and beast of the labs kicked into the air with every step. But a few managed to latch onto her pants and boots, beginning to climb, weighing her down so that she could not move as quickly. She screamed in as much frustration as pain when tiny teeth and blades sought the gaps in her armor, and she dragged her injured side against the wall ribbed with pipes in hopes of dislodging them
She reached the far wall when she realized the noise of the machines and toys had stopped, that there were no new jabs of pain. Looking behind her and the seeker, she could see a path of crushed toys she had left starting halfway back along the wall.
Cautiously, though not above punting a small, unmoving knight with a red-tipped sword, Alma made her way back down the path. At the end, a few steps away from its beginning, a large red button rested between two of the pipes, the button clearly depressed and locked into position.
Alma cursed, then spat praise to Order that one thing in the shop had been in its proper place. She put Mouse on the floor, and failed to do more than chuckle, that action provoking a wince, as he set about the now normal toys with his teeth. “Have fun, Mouse.” she told him leaning against the back of the wall. “Got a few minutes before we go back out there, and I ensure that man gives us a very good prize indeed.” ((Self note: Mouse-8.0/4.0))
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Post by NPC on Feb 23, 2022 21:06:13 GMT -6
Congratulations, you have successfully completed the quest! Your QP will be added to the bank and your prize will be sent out shortly.
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