GEARS

The story centers around two brothers born from the goddess Eostre.

The setting is a world where most are born with an inner spirit that grants them a variety of powers, though these spirits can die or be traded over time. In this world every year students are culled in a battle/ offering to the goddess in a year end battle.

It’s easy to assume that religion is nothing but a persons overactive imagination or as I would like to put it a longing or wish that someone out there somewhere cares and loves you. One could call it a delusional love story. Though despite my beliefs there is a God or rather Goddess that watches over our unnamed world. She’s been watching over us for some time now making sure that there is balance in our universe.

Eostre, my mother. I wasn’t birthed into this world like any of the recipients here. Eostre the Goddess of this world is my as well as my brother’s mother.

Simply put She created us as supernatural beings on this planet.

The Clockwork Tower, is an abandoned clock tower where at the center holds an endless spring of water. Though honestly I do not know whether or not to call it a clock tower. From the outside it appears as an old fashioned tower with various kinds of plants growing through the crevasses of the bricks but, once entered it’s a mystical labyrinth. Inside the plant life is much more abundant. Many gears litter the Clockwork and only few are still moving due to the water of the spring falling down them.

The water from this tower is known for guaranteeing everlasting life. Ha, how ridiculous does that sound? Anyway, anyone who consumes this water will have their growth stunted immediately and continue on to live forever no matter the circumstance. Even if their world were to be destroyed their physical body and soul would be taken to the next location of the Goddesses choosing.

Ah… I miss drinking from the spring...

Me and my older brother, Slo, have been alive for quite some while now. Amazing, truly amazing. I marvel at the sheer diversity of everyone who has lived and is now living on this planet. Every person is different no matter the timeline, is different.

Ah, well never mind me and my mindless ranting I should introduce myself to you.

My name is Toma. Eostre ,my mother, had fed me water from the spring at age fifteen and Slo at the age of twenty-three. Before mother had given us from the Clockwork Tower she had an actual physical form. She was quite beautiful actually though I hardly remember her.

Well I assume that you’re here to see some more back-story to this whole ordeal. So I suppose I’ll tell you about the Clockwork’s key.

Years ago the Clockwork spring was sealed off due to mother becoming worried that others were to find out about the spring. Even as her children we were sealed off from the spring we had spent most of our lives in.

Due to Slo’s increasing atheistic behavior she in trusted me with the key to the spring. Sooner or later Slo found out about the key and has made it his soul purpose to steal it from me. Amazing how he has changed, once a wise older brother now an easily irritable hermit, amazing.

Though the reason that Slo is acting hostile towards me is simply because he wants to reset our universe.

Don’t worry I’ll explain.

You see he wants to completely obliterate the tower. If the tower is destroyed then all the water would flow out into the world. You’d think that anything and everything the water was consumed by would just grant people the power to live forever but no. If the water was to be released then it would cause a chain reaction of the over usage of mother’s power.

This would cause the world to cave in on itself.

Though you can only destroy the Clockwork Tower through the inside out.

“Thanks Mom,” I called looking back at her from the carriage. It was really nice of her to drop me off at school today.

Plade’s School for the Extraordinary. Wow what a name. I’m still shaken by the thought of me being accepted into this school.

Wow.

Plade’s School for the Extraordinary is a school for people (such as me) who are born and “blessed” with the goddesses power. Basically it’s just like school but they train or teach you how to use your mecha.

Though sadly I really don’t know what a mecha is. All I know is that I passed the qualifying test with only a string of my life to hang on to. Maybe I’ll be able to finally control my mecha or at least find out what it is. I really hope going to this school is worth it.

I sauntered my way into the assembly room and found an empty chair next to the procession. The ceremony was about to begin.

“ Welcome students, to Plade’s School for the Extraordinary,” the silver haired man's voice boomed through the entire room.

The man was wearing a black tuxedo and a striped tie with the horizontal pattern of red and maroon.

From behind the podium, he continued.

“It is an honor to have such talented students at our school here today and we expect much from you. Firstly here at Plade you will be split into groups of three out of the members of your class, these are the people you will be training with for the rest of the year. At the end of the third semester we will pick two groups at random and pit them against each other for the Year End Battle which will take place in front of the entire school,” he finished.

Ah yes, the Year End Battle… hopefully me and my team won't get picked. Not saying that I doubt their abilities or anything ,but the whole aspect of dying right in front of the entire school would be really embarrassing.

The silver haired man who I just recently found out was the Principle continued on with his speech continuously mentioning morals and guidelines. Soon after he finished I rushed myself to class hoping that the team-mates that were assigned with me were strong.

I really don’t want to die.

Soon all the students filed into their assigned homerooms. The teachers all gave the students their schedules and then assigned them into their teams.

O. M. G.

If I could, I would kiss our homeroom teacher right now. My team is totally hot!

First I took time to sort out what I had to deal with.

Black haired guy or Zoh Siria:

Well there’s nothing else to him other than his complete and utter shyness with me and the other guy. I mean, I tried saying hi to him but I got nothing but endless stuttering. I bet completing the sentence “Hello, my name’s Zoh” was some sort of huge accomplishment for him. He’s real cute but the other guy is who I really want to talk about.

Toma Formatio ~

Well again there is nothing to say about him other than the fact that he’s completely hot! Gosh, how did I get so lucky? Okay BB as long as you play your cards right we could be best friends by the end of the semester.

He. Will. Be. Mine.

Ah~ If I had a friend as cute as him then-

“Um, B-Brun..? Class is starting. We should, uh, go now. People are leaving the classroom,” Zoh stuttered out.

Oh, right. I nodded and thanked him for reminding me.

Time to establish the perfect friendship!

Oh splendid! Such beautiful character’s. This Brun character and Zoh character seem quite interesting it’ll be a pleasure training with these two. Now who will this century’s teacher be.

You see, I would not want to be “discovered” so waiting one-hundred years before going to school again is my general plan. Though the curriculum does get a little tiresome always having to restart, but I go through it one-thousand times, and I have, just to meet all these wonderful characters.

Soon our teacher had entered the training room and, oh my, what an unexpected surprise. My very own brother. I couldn’t help but to grin.

“Hello my name’s Slo Formatio and I’ll be your teacher. You can call me Slo, Mr. Formatio, I don’t really care,” his introduction was cold and bold.

My brother…!

It was apparent that Brun and Zoh were quite shocked not only by his personality but by his appearance.

A pink sweater, dark circles under his eyes, and the middle of his bangs dyed white in his unkempt hair. He was quite a sight I’ll tell you that.

He truly was my brother.

“So,” he began dragging out the last syllable, “ who here has or has recognised their mecha” he directed a hateful stare towards me.

I rose my hand along with Brun.

Zoh spoke up,” I-I don’t know if I have one but I got into this school so-” Slo interrupted him

“Its alright some mecha’s delete all memory of you using them after a battle while others take over their host’s body during a battle. I’m here to help you control you mecha’s ,strengthen them, and maybe in your case help with your memory problem.”

Zoh’s face lit up. It was so nice seeing Slo act kind towards others.

Slo began to speak again,

“ Well without further ado let's begin training shall we?”

Wow,this teacher sure is nice. I honestly thought that I was picked for no reason maybe this is it!

Well duh, what else was it? If I didn’t jump in you would’ve been toast.

Huh? That voice just now, it wasn’t any of the others. Was that my imagination?

I started thinking more about the current situation. Perhaps Mr. Formatio and Toma were related, though they didn’t look anything alike. I had to ask though.

I turned over to Toma,” A-are you and Mr.Formatio related?” I managed to say.

Ugh. What was with that smile he had on his face? Maybe he had a good day so far or something. Yeah that’s probably it. I’ve always had this weird thing about me where I’m awkwardly scared for no apparent reason and sometimes I just go into a full panic. It usually affected my speech.

“Yes! Sl- I mean Mr. Formatio is my brother,” Toma responded back.

Oh so that explains it, but why was he working here? He seemed to be a bit young to be a teacher...

Slo paid no attention to Toma the entire class, though when helping to train Brun he made her run an extensive amount of laps around the field. Though she didn’t think much of it, it was like running that much was normal to her. She never got tired.

When he walked over to help me out his expression was blank, like he was taunting me. The entire throughout the training session he just talked to me, asking what I remembered or felt during the qualifying test.

“I think...” I began,” It felt as if I was half-conscious, like there was another person controlling me ,but not really. It was as if my soul was...was extended,” I managed to choke out clutching my chest. It hurt; the pain stopped soon enough though.

“Are you alright?” Slo asked me.

I nodded my head. Slo sent me outside to catch my breath, but before I could a huge explosion could be heard from behind me. I turned around and amidst the smoke was Toma.

He was smiling.

Slo decided to come to me first, completely paying no mind to Toma. Probably some family thing, an only child like me wouldn’t get all of this. I was excited, although he looked scary I thought everything about having him as our teacher would be really fun! I couldn’t wait!

“Why are you so happy?” he asked me.

“ Because I’m making so many new friends and this is my first year training with my mecha!” I responded cheerily. It’s always good to stay positive, at least for me that is.

“So many?” he began “I’d hardly call two people ‘many.’”

I tilted my head. I was confused. What did he mean? I had tried to help everyone I saw and started conversations with anyone who was willing to listen.

“Siria and Toma those are the only people you have made friends with today,” he said numbering off the two’s names on his fingers.

“Do not mistake your kindness as some secret strategy to make friends instantly. You can’t make friends that quickly. Since you have been with these two for an elongated period of time there is a high chance of you becoming friends with them. See how I said becoming instead of already being?”

Woah.

“Good. Now that we are on the same page let's drop the boring school life and personal shit let's begin training shall we?” Slo finally finished.

I… wow.

“So,”he began, “what do you know about your mecha?” he asked.

After that whole rant he gave me I was still a bit shaken up I still managed to answer him, “ Running. Whenever I run a weird beat starts in my head.”

“And? How did you pass the qualifying test?”

“When I was fighting my opponent, I don’t really know... My mouth opened a little and the ground and rock around me started shifting, shaking and then... It started crushing the opponents. To the beat in my head.” I explained.

It was surprising seeing it all during the test. I was amazed.

I was also scared.

“ Hmm, and how do you feel about running? How quickly do you get tired?” he interrogated.

“ Usually for five to seven minutes,” I replied.

“ Well this is what I want you to do Brun” he began,” run, run and do not stop. Do you understand?”

I nodded.

Again. The beat started up. It was weird. A simple melody but then the octaves, pitch, and tones just started fluctuating. I could feel the beat in my chest and resonating throughout my entire body. Although I didn’t want to call it this it like some form of music.

It was kind of cool.

Soon the beat stopped.

A ginormous blast.

I stopped running and turned around to see that amidst the smoke was Toma.

He was smiling.

Oh, my brother. Ignoring me again? I surely cannot blame him though. I do wonder what he is planning by teaching us... I am sure his intentions are great! Surely he wouldn't kill them seeing as how close to them I have become.

I decided to sit down.

“I might as well try to get her to agree,” I muttered to myself.

Letting my head rest on my right hand I closed my eyes and began to think. Soon I was in my own world.

It was a beautiful land of nothing but skies. The hue of the skies was lined with various shades, from the bottom purple, red, orange, and the top with green and light blues.

“Juliana? Where are you?” I spoke out looking left and right for the girl.

“Up here!” she called form above.

Of course! How could I be so naive as to forget.

She flew downwards toward me, gusting through the clouds. Her angelic wings were hued with the blues of the skies. She wore a pale blue dress and on the ends were sewn on beautiful white lace. Her feet were bare and on both of her arms had sapphire bracelets with a golden chain interlocking the beautiful gems. She finally met me at my level of height in her land.

“You should learn to fly T,” she started, “ This is my least favorite level to fly at.”

“Well then you should become my mecha then. It would be wonderful if we could fly together Juliana,” I replied.

“J.”

“Call me J, I hate it when you call me that,” she explained.

“ Er… Alright J, Why are you so averse as to become my mecha?” I asked.

“I suppose it's time to tell you,” she said brushing her long hair out of her face from the previous descent, “Once I tried becoming a mecha for my previous owner. We were friends and since she couldn’t fly we hung out down here." She sat down folding her wings inward. She continued, “One day she asked if she could fly with me and of course unknown to the circumstances of my actions I said yes. I told her she had to accept me as her mecha and I had to accept her as my user. We both agreed to the contract. Soon an an explosion erupted from inside her and… she died. It was horrible I never wanted to be anyone’s mecha after that.”

“There, you happy T?” she finished.

Poor girl I feel horrible the heart ache she had to go through must’ve been excruciating. Though she didn’t have to go through that with me.

“ It’s alright, you know how long I’ve kept you. You know that I cannot die,” I told her.

“But you are a Goddess’ child! If I kill you I’d...” she tried to explain losing herself in her own thoughts.

“ Please. I promise you I wont die,” I reassured her.

She sighed and nodded her head.

“Fine,” she muttered out, “Please don’t die.”

Soon the contract was formed and in a burst of light I returned, conscious, I my original world.

Fantastic! I finally got through to Juliana! It’s always a good thing to commune with your mecha’s. Meditation, I feel is the best way to talk to them. Although she was reluctant at first I’m glad she finally agreed.

Hm? Oh my, this must’ve been what happened to her old host.

I smiled.

See Juliana? Now you don’t have to worry anymore.

Everyone was staring at me in horror and in awe.

I made sure to reassure Brun who was nearby me that everything was alright.

Brother?

I went outside to get some fresh air. My chest has never hurt like that. Honestly, it was excruciating. Another team was training as well. It was amazing seeing them and their mecha’s. Hopefully I’d be able to find out what mine is before the Year End Battle.

Wow, oh w-ow. I swear watching everyone else fighting is boring, right? We should train. Well... if you can anyway. Hey? Are you listening to me? I thought you could hear me before… or was I mistaken? Anyway get back into the training room, you’ll never get stronger like this.

Ugh, my chest. I thought the pain had stopped.

Ignoring the pain I went back into the room and sat down on the bench. Slo had appeared to be lecturing Toma. He was yelling at him and Toma looked mortified. I wonder what he was saying...

Let’s go find out!

Again?! What was wrong with me? A rare emotion flooded my being. Annoyance. I punched my chest thinking that somehow the pain would just go away but boy was I wrong. I didn’t feel my fist touch my chest. There was no pain, it was as if my sensory nerves just shut down at some point. Oh well, at least I feel better.

Slo walked over to me after a few minutes. I refrained from talking about the ordeal that happened before. Slo sat down beside me and let out a big sigh before continuing our conversation from before.

“So as you said before in the test you felt as if your soul was extended right?” he asked

“Yes, but that’s all I really remember, sorry,” I replied

There was a silence between the two of us for a few minutes, soon the bell rang and we all left for home. I said goodbye to Brun,Toma and, Slo.

I’m surprised that I was assigned to this team though I’m even more surprised that they are letting me work here.

First I had to tell off the happy-go-lucky maniac Brun Baya that she cannot have everyone in the world as her friend. I’ve seen characters like hers. They are annoying unless put in their place. Absolutely detestable.

Zoh on the other hand was easy to talk with. His character is easy to see through though. He is shy but he is comfortable to talk to people who he trusts so naturally he has an easier time talking to me than his fellow team- mates. Though the case of his mecha is peculiar. I’ve never came across a mecha like this. An extension?

Soon a loud boom was heard and a large cloud of smoke emitted from the middle of the room. I sent Zoh out since he was looking a little pale and walked over to Toma.

“What are you doing, Toma?” I asked him.

“ B-brother! I finally got her to make a contract with me,” he said. Obviously he was unaware as to what just happened.

“Idiot! Forming a contract with your stupid new mecha here?! Did you want to kill your team?” I yelled at him. Always with that dumb smile on his face. I hated it. Why would Mother act so kind to him?

I looked at him. Oh wow. What was this? He looks scared.

Heh.

“I thought you were smarter than this. This is seriously disappointing. And here I thought in all this time you’d grown a brain in that head of yours,” I said.

“ I-I’m sorry… I will never do anything so reckless again, brother.” he stuttered.

Honestly?

“Ugh, why do you call me that? Can’t you call me by my name?” I asked, annoyed.

“Anyone can call you Slo, but only I can call you brother,” he muttered.

...

I promptly walked away to continue my conversation with Zoh.

Soon the bell rang signaling the end of the day.

It was time to go home.

My home.

The explosion shocked me regardless of Toma’s repeated ‘it’s okay’ and ‘I was just training’. Honestly I guess him and Slo had been through this at their house.

I began to think more and more about the two’s home life. As I began running again I looked back towards Toma to see that Slo was lecturing him as any good teacher would. Though instead of laughing it off and apologizing like I’d thinks would happen Toma looked terribly mortified as if he was going to die. Well... honestly I don’t know why he would be scared at the fact of dying, I mean if we were picked for the Year End Battle then he would have to come to terms with the 50% chance of survival like the rest of the students training here.

I continued running until in the various mix and patterns of what I now called a melody in my head formed a strange arrangement of sounds. Words, the music was talking to me.

“Name… My name…” it repeated changing pitch, tone, and rhythm as if it didn’t want to repeat the same pattern of sounds again.

I wondered about what it meant.

I continued running I needed to know more regardless of the strain I was putting on my body. Perhaps these sounds ringing constantly inside my head could tell me more and explain more to me about how to use my mecha. Hopefully.

Slo soon abruptly blocked my path. I didn’t even see him I was as if I lost myself in the sounds playing in my head. I stopped and although the immediate interruption the melody managed to fade off beautifully as if it had the entire symphony planned out from the beginning of when I started running.

As the music faded out my sense of hearing came back into place.

“I’m guessing you didn’t hear the bell did you?” Slo asked, “you need to go home now.”

Oh dear! I guess I wasn’t paying enough attention.

I thanked him and walked breathlessly home. Usually the journey lasted five minutes but today it only took twelve. I approached my house.

Once inside I took off my shoes.

A wondrous smell wafted through the air. Using my nose I followed it into the kitchen. Per usual the hardwood floor was creaky the entire walk. I leaned myself up against the pale brown walls.

At the gas stove was my mother. She gave me a stern look as if to say ‘Go away. You’ll eat later’.

With that I turned around and headed down the hall to my room. The hall in which my room was situated in was extremely narrow and horribly dark seeing as that the light had given out. I walked into my room and set my books down on the floor. Unlike the rest of the rooms in the house only the bedrooms have carpet, thankfully.

I plopped myself onto my bed and took a nap.

All that running sure can tire a girl out.

Arriving home took longer than expected the pain in my chest that I thought was gone had returned. I stopped by the clinic to get some medicine for it but the pharmacist said that I just needed a bit of rest and water. I honestly thought that he was brushing off my symptoms as if they didn’t matter.

It was my speech wasn’t it? I should’ve known, that’s why. Such an idiot if only I had communicated in a different manner. Maybe the pain would go away. Why? Why am I so horrible at this everyone is better, smarter, happier than I am. Why am I like this.

Or...

Maybe they were out of stock of the medicine I needed and he didn’t want to burden me with telling me how long it would’ve took to arrive. That must’ve been it. The pharmacist looked relatively nice. Yeah... I’m sure they were just trying their best I’m mean it is their job isn’t it? isn’t it..?

Then...

Why didn’t they just tell me they were out of stock then?

I heard snapping from above me. It grew louder and louder until I looked upwards. It was my mother. How long had she been there? How long had she been snapping? How long had-

“Oh, Zoh you looked terribly worried please don’t tell me you were over thinking again. Your mind goes to such strange places when you do that dear. Would you like some tea dear? To help you calm down?”

“ How long have you been there, Mother? How long have you-” she cut me off without second thought.

“No, I won't tell you Zoh. It doesn’t matter how long I’ve been here, all that matters is that you’re alright. So do you want some tea or not?”

“Y-yes please. I’m sorry for not answering sooner...” I answered.

“Oh dear... No need to be sorry,” and off she walked back into the kitchen to make some tea.

My dad has been off on “business” for a long time. Business with other women might I add. I don’t particularly hate my father though I’ve never met him. I wonder what he’s like... I wonder if he’d be glad to see me.

I wonder.

I wonder.

I wonder.

I need to rest.

Ever since joining this crazy school I’ve been acting weird.

I need to rest.

“Ah~ Juliana, it's wonderful flying with you,” I said looking at her. I never knew how beautiful her wings looked from this light.

“J. Call me J. I never asked for you to call me by my first name” She snarled at me.

“I thought I’d call you by your first name before being awarded to your nickname Ju-li-an-na,” I softly laughed.

She flew away.

I wonder how my brother is doing though. I do miss him. I remember the days of us running throughout the fields together when we were younger. Much, much younger.

We would have so much fun together just the two of us until we retreated back into the spring for a night's rest. Only to wake up and do it again. People quite frequently would name us the ghosts of the town since we weren’t as smart as to hide our presence. We were often chased out of the town by them. Well until we found our way back to The Clockwork Spring. Luckily for us it was hidden from everyone, it’d just be us. Then we’d wait a long time in the spring before going out again, making sure everyone who’d saw us was long dead or far too old to remember a thing before playing again.

Funny, how they called us ghosts and demons when we were the most holy out of all of them.

I found it laughable whilst my brother began spiraling into madness. Sometimes I’d wake up only to hear him muttering to himself or laughing, or... crying.

“I want to die,” he would repeat over and over. Though despite his minds condition he’d still try his best to act like an older towards me. Asking me if I was alright. Caring for me. Though I was much different back then.

A troublemaker. An immature brat who’d love scaring the villagers. Pretending to curse them, thus driving them into madness…

I found it funny. If I could I would’ve died from laughter a long time ago.

Until a young child approached me. I still remember the words she told me before walking off.

“I don’t think you’re a monster. You’re just you. Don’t you try showing them that you’re as ‘horrible’ as they think you are. Just be you.”

Those words, I remember them leaving me speechless, angry, confused.

It left me wondering “ Are there any others like her in the world?” Thus leading me to become more social. I wanted to learn more and more about people. Their characters and thoughts and opinions and reasons and, and everything. I wanted to know as much as I could.

While Slo had already become delusional. He saw me change and except of accepting me he got angry. He screamed at me asking why my life was so much more fulfilling than his. Why wasn’t he as happy as I was? These question kept hitting me until he gave up.

He gave up on everything. On me, on this world on our Mother.

He didn’t try avoiding me, he just ignored my existence.

I feel as though he is the only person who I hardly know anything about…

Night had befallen the city and curfew had begun long ago. I walked through the grass field until I came face to face with the tower. I knocked gently on the door, making sure no one would hear me.

The door flung open.

“It’s nice to see your back. Was starting to think you were dead or something,” my roommate Jaku laughed as he closed the door right behind my entrance into the house.

“Yeah right, you say that like it’s bad news,” I yawned taking a seat on the couch.

I’d found this place a long time ago when we were kicked out of the Clockwork. Over that period of time I decided to make this place my home. Bookshelves lining every wall...