Black Temple: Back on Break .(

[The Long Man]

>HONK the HORN program

[One]

Question friend's (apparent) cybernetic robolegs.

[Sanzh]

Delete your computer's clock setting.

[SandieSandwicheadman]

>_ Open electronic photo album of your friend.
>_ Use opportunity to wildly exposit about said contact to no one in particular, using run-on sentences whenever possible.

[Jacquerel]

You go ahead and click on a whole load of random things.


This doesn't look like the right one.


This isn't it either, you don't actually know how to upload music into your head so you only have the one song your friend preloaded for you.
You aren't exactly sure why he thought you'd enjoy Rick Astley, it's not really your kind of music.


Ah here we go. Your friend seems to be online, how convenient.
That's a joke, he's always online.


CHATLOG:

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RW: Hey, Coat
RW: You there?
MC: Of course I'm here, when am I not here?
RW: Well I just thought it would be polite to make sure
MC: Well I'm not set to busy or away or anything, am I?
RW: I can never remember what those different icons stand for
MC: Well that's hardly my problem is it!!!
MC: Haven't figured out how to change your username either I see.
RW: Why would I want to do that?
MC: You can't just use your real name!
MC: What if someone you didn't know found it and used it to steal your bank details or something?
MC: Also it looks stupid!
RW: But you're the only person on my friends list
MC: But still! I'm pretty sure it's the law or something that you have to have some weird nonsense as a username
MC: Although you've hardly picked useful initials for it
MC: I can't really think of how to fit your interests into the letters R and W
MC: What do you even DO apart from wander around burning buildings anyway
RW: Well
RW: Not much to be honest
RW: Watch TV
RW: Talk to you
RW: Sleep
MC: Damn that's pretty depressing
RW: It's not so bad
MC: Yeah but you're just saying that because you don't want to be a burden or something stupid like that
MC: I need to find you some more friends or something
RW: No no I'm perfectly happy, honest
MC: Suuure you are
MC: God you're so nice and polite all the time
MC: It makes me feel sick!!!
RW: Sorry
MC: Don't say that!
MC: You're still doing it!
RW: I can't really help it
MC: Oh whatever
MC: I'm guessing you aren't just here to chat
MC: Because it's like an hour after you'd usually go to sleep
RW: Yeah I've got a bit of a problem I could do with some help with
MC: Wait don't tell me
MC: Your clock is broken
MC: It's stuck at 8 AM
MC: The alarm won't stop ringing despite the fact that you didn't even set the alarm to 8 AM
MC: It doesn't even stop if you unplug it
RW: Yeah
RW: Wow how did you know?
MC: Oh God
MC: Don't even fucking ask

CHATLOG:

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RW: Oh
RW: It's not just my clock then?
MC: It is so much just not your clock
MC: You wouldn't even believe how fucking not just your clock it is
RW: Uhh
MC: I am seriously contemplating building a time machine
MC: Finding out whatever genius decided to invent this piece of shit
MC: And shove one of these fucking alarm clocks down his throat
MC: No, two alarm clocks
MC: Five alarm clocks
MC: I don't know how many alarm clocks I can fit in a time machine but I'm just going to stuff in as many as can
RW: I thought you said a working time machine was impossible after your last one exploded
MC: I was just frustrated
MC: I'll get it eventually
RW: But if you invent a time machine wouldn't you have seen yourself from the future
MC: I made a pact with myself
MC: If I ever invent a time machine I am not going to tell myself how to do it because that would be really really stupid
RW: So uh
RW: Can you fix my clock
MC: I have absolutely no idea what is wrong with your clock
MC: I have a workshop full of other people's clocks right here and they're all flipping out and I have no idea why
MC: Please do not bring your clock here
MC: If hear one more of these things in my life I swear I will go insane
RW: Oh
RW: Well thanks anyway I guess
MC: Don't mention it
MC: No seriously don't
MC: I didn't do anything you don't need to thank me
RW: Oh sorry
MC: FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

You can now BE THAT GUY
Or just carry on being Robert I mean maybe there's something interesting hiding under his bed or something, you haven't looked

AUTHORLOG

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Sorry that last animation is a bit lazy and the room's not very interesting, I left this longer than I thought I had and underestimated how long these panels would take, and if I don't sleep soon then I will DIE

[One]

Continue to be Robert. Ransack your own apartment.
Go outside and see how many other peoples' clocks are ringing.

[NateDude]

Woah, Woah, Woah, Not that great at art? Are you kidding? That's much better than what i could ever do.

Anyway. >Double Click the big "e".

[SandieSandwicheadman]

>_ MC: Do cool robot shit. Preferably something with your tube-arm.
>_ Sandie: Rudely inquire if MC is another author insert. Be rightfully ignored.

[Jacquerel]

You empty all of your drawers, feeling a sudden strange urge to remove everything even remotely useful from your apartment.
Despite having like seven drawers you don't actually keep a whole load of stuff in there.


You stick the TAPE, FIRST AID KIT, KEYS, WALLET and FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHS in your inventory and decide to leave the RECEIPTS, PAPERWORK and DRAWINGS where they are because there's not much point taking them with you.
You also bring the BUCKET which now also contains your clock again and one of the AXEs for good measure.


Now that you've finished stuffing yourself with random objects you decide to stick your head out of the window to see how many other people have broken clocks.
From the noise, it seems like quite a few.
There are a lot of people down on the street too, presumably woken up by the racket. More than you'd usually expect on a Sunday morning anyway.
You're suprised you didn't hear it until you opened the window, but most people around here do tend to have very thick, soundproof double glazing. It can be pretty loud outside even at night time here in uh...
Here in...
You know, you've suddenly forgotten what the city is even called despite living here for your entire life. How stupid of you!
What was it again?


While you ponder you decide to be the OTHER GUY and introduce yourself to thin air.
Your name is METAL COAT and you chose it for yourself (not having ever known your parents). It is a true and accurate name, and a good example of your skill at naming things.
Naming things is but one of your many skills however it would be pointless to list them all here because you excel at EVERYTHING (although you are particularly proud of your affinity for building and maintaining complex machinery).
You have a tendency to speak your mind and "help" other people with their problems even when they haven't asked you to (or have specifically told you that they don't even have any problems) because clearly you are smarter than them and know better than they do. You are incredibly popular have many friends who are suitaly impressed by your clear superiority and you are definitely not prone to wild, violent mood swings.
Also it turns out that you're a really biased and unreliable narrator, who knew?

You are currently standing in your workshop on your mechanical spider legs, surrounded by several self-built pieces of machinery that have been there the whole time as well as many malfunctioning clocks that you are being paid to repair. You would use this opportunity to rapidly spout insults about their creator and his incompetence but it just so happens that you made all of them yourself and then put them up for sale in your shop.
Obviously the only conclusion you can draw from this is that all of the people you sold them to have been tampering with them somehow because nothing you built could possibly break down on its own.

[One]

City name: Metrovania
Robert: Dig through your memories. See if there's anything else you've forgotten.
Investigate second set of drawings.
Metal: Take the clocks apart and see what makes them beep. Then smash that bit.

[Andorxor]

The clocks must get there energy from somewhere.Did you build something in them that could generate the power?

[DragonSpawn]

>_ MC: Use your tube-like arm, which is very obviously a vacuum cleaner, to suck the possessing spirits out of these demon clocks.

City name: Ogdenburg

[epoxy]

> MC: see if one of your high-tech tools can "scan" the alarm clocks to instantly and reliably determine the problem.

[Jacquerel]

You "Scan" the broken clock you're being paid to fix and locate the problem.


You use your tube arm to "Repair" it.


It's not beeping any more.

[One]

Quickly! Build a new clock!
And see where you get your parts from, if you don't make them all from scratch.

[Andorxor]

I don't think your customers will pay you for smashing their clocks

[Eagle0600]

Shoosh, I want to see if he can figure it out on his own.

[AJfriss]

Wait if robert is made of sand, does he have to regularly replace sand due to it being turned to glass in fires?

[Eagle0600]

^^^
The readers want to know.

[Jacquerel]

Wait if robert is made of sand, does he have to regularly replace sand due to it being turned to glass in fires?

Sometimes, yes, but this is actually what makes you so well suited to being a firefighter!
While it is true that sand melts into glass it takes some pretty sick fires to generate that kind of temperature, about twice the amount of heat that you get around the place in your average house fire in fact although you get some hotter chemical fires. You can usually just wade through flames without doing much more than giving yourself a pair of glass soles on your feet.
And besides, glassed sand is so much easier to replace than burnt flesh!

You are hardly unique in this regard though, in fact you're not sure there's actually any members of your shift who don't have some kind of special resistance to fire. You'd have to be pretty crazy to sign up otherwise, considering the high rate of "accidental" fires around the city.
that said, you've never met anyone else made of sand.

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Don't have time to draw right now because I'm between lectures but there should be a picture update when I'm done for the day

[Jacquerel]

Quickly! Build a new clock!
And see where you get your parts from, if you don't make them all from scratch.

No! You can rebuild it!
You have the technology!


Nanotechnology.


While you have great technical knowhow, it always helps to also have millions of tiny robots that can do the hard work for you.


See? Good as new!
And it's not ringing now either!


This is bullshit

[AvzinElkein]

Wait, use your nanotech to investigate the cause!

[One]

Change the time. Maybe it'll stop.

[Eagle0600]

There is only one possible cause. Your nanobots.

> MC: Diagnose nanobots.

[Jacquerel]

There is only one possible cause. Your nanobots.

> MC: Diagnose nanobots.

It... It's not you is it?
I mean, some kind of virus? Simply a programming flaw you overlooked? One oddly specific one, targetting only clocks?
No, this can't be true. You are and always will be 100% perfect in every single way. There can be no room for doubt!
And besides you didn't personally build every clock in the city. I mean you made a fair few but from the sounds of things out there it's more like "every clock ever" than "every clock made by Metal Coat."


For the first time you can remember you are honestly stumped.
You have checked these things inside and out, taken them apart, rebuilt them, even built new ones. They aren't even recieving power and yet they are still going!
The only reasonable explanation you can think of is that someone is beaming power through the air and setting all the alarms off remotely, but why they would do this is about as mysterious as how.
All they have done is woken a bunch of people up! Some people get up on Sundays anyway! This is more of a very minor annoyance than an evil plot!
I mean God, seriously WAITAMINUTE

Did they... did they all just stop by themselves when you were monologuing?
For some reason this enrages you more than their continued beeping (and to be honest you'd sort of tuned it out by now).
You felt like you were getting somewhere! Ok, maybe that's a lie, but you probably would have worked it out eventually! Maybe you would anyway! It's possible! There's a slight chance that you might have stumbled across what was going on! Perhaps!

You hope you'll still get paid for this.