#...sigh

when ur arguing with ur ex and ur Orifice. starts. doing something.

Continuation: “Ticking Out of Sync”

Genre: Angst

~ 300-500 words

The world was quieter without you.

Dyle’s ticking slowed.

He searched the familiar halls, calling your name in the empty spaces where your laughter used to echo. But you weren’t there. Not the you he knew.

Instead, there was only… this.

He found you in the deepest part of the park’s maintenance tunnels, where the shadows clung to the rusted metal like memories.

Your form was twisted, jerking with unnatural movements. The gentle warmth that had once surrounded you was gone, replaced by cold mechanical clicks and the faint scent of oil and rust.

“Dyle,” you whispered, voice broken, metallic yet fragile.

His gears trembled.

“You’re… not you.”

You tilted your head, the clock face cracked in places, revealing flickering lights beneath.

“I am what I’m meant to be now.”

“But you—”

“Wasn’t enough,” you interrupted, a twisted smile stretching across your fragmented face. “I’m better now. Stronger.”

The hesitation in Dyle’s system grew into fear.

Because this wasn’t the playful, curious you who used to sit by his counter, who made his gears tick a little faster.

This was something else. Something dangerous.

“Please,” he begged, voice soft but urgent. “Come back to me.”

You stepped closer, jerking forward in erratic pulses, your fingers reaching out with twitching precision.

“I’m already here,” you said. “Just... changed.”

His chest clock slowed to a near stop.

The longer he looked at you, the less he recognized.

Suddenly, you moved too fast.

An erratic blur of ticking and flashing lights, a distorted echo of the person he loved.

“I can’t,” he gasped, stumbling back.

“Why?” you asked, voice cracking with static sadness. “Don’t you want to tick with me forever?”

But Dyle knew.

If he stayed, he’d lose himself.

His careful rhythms, his steady heartbeat would break, and he would become like you.

So he turned and ran.

Outside, breathing hard, hands trembling, he whispered to the empty air.

“I’m sorry.”

The flickering glow of the tunnels faded behind him.

But deep inside, a small, broken beat echoed—

[glup]

Well-

Test color (digital):

Reference image (idk who is the artist :[):