InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Laugh while you can, monkeyboy"

• it begins with toby standing at the bottom to glare up and declare "I HEARD YOU YESTERDAY. I KNOW YOU CAN DO SHIT.", just in case the tower can be intimidated into working. (it can't.)
• the door's nearly rusted shut and refuses to open despite an enthusiastic application of toby's muscles (1). and some pounding near the hinges (3). it finally opens when she kicks it (13)... but just barely.
• then it's time to climb up the inner staircase. between her gear and being followed by a curious, nearly-six-foot-long lindworm, she doesn't make great time, but she isn't falling over (11). until she does (4), and when she's righting herself she nearly does again (9), both times earning a "FUCKER" that echoes through the skinny tower.
• at LONG LAST toby arrives at the clock proper, lays out her tools, and gets to questin'. she's never worked on something so big before — she's fixed a couple watches, a few alarm clocks, a cuckoo, and a grandfather clock, and while this is kinda one write large, it's writ very large and still has a bunch of elements with which she's unfamiliar.
• the good news? her gearhead power, which allows her to intuitively understand mechanical objects, comes in extra handy and the repair process goes perfectly (19).
• the less-good news? as careful as she is with tools, an unfortunate slip (1) and fumble (3) leads a wrench to fall out of her grasp, then out of the tower — landing only a couple feet away from passerby bonny pyke. wrigley slithers out of the tower a minute later to retrieve it, then pauses to look expectantly at the snack in bonny's hand. are those... (octopus) puppy eyes?
• although toby'd packed provisions for an entire afternoon, it only takes her a couple hours (17) to clean, repair, and restore the clock's function.
• toby eats her lunch with her legs dangling off the side of the tower, then packs up and heads back down the stairs. balance is not on her side today (7).

• MEANWHILE, BACK IN GOOSETOWN, VOLUNTEER 2 notices that their clocktower's hands have frozen. when their watch turns to 2pm a few minutes later, although the octoberville clock rings proudly, goosetown's emits nothing. (obviously this is noticeable by anybody but just gonna Make Sure It's Noticed with a vspot.)