Quoted By:
Well ... as you have already come this far, then doesn't it stand to reason that it would be rather silly to <span class="mu-i">not</span> close the distance and find what you have been fretting and fussing over since you set foot back in the kitchen? Buoyed by your conclusion and spurned on by the prospect of how many other things you have to do tonight, your long legs start to make short work of the remaining distance - until, at about a distance of a yard away from the table and the mechanized sculpture that sits on top of it, the ticking stops - seemingly halfway through a 'tick'. A bit startled, you stop in your tracks and stare. You can see no movement anywhere on the sculpture - or anywhere else in the room, for that matter - but you suppose you shouldn't expect to, considering that you couldn't see anything moving when there was ticking, either. Confused, you bend down to peer under the table, as it has just occurred to you that whatever was responsible for the noise might have been underneath the table. You cannot see anything - but the table does have a bit of a lip, just thick enough to hide ... something just large enough to make noise that could be heard on the far side of the house.
Looking to get to the bottom - or rather, the underside - of this, you straighten up abruptly. Too abruptly; as you end up getting jabbed in the leg again with the Pinning Needles on the remains of the strickening striker as it swings freely. You jolt back a bit, and off balanced and encumbered as you are, you have to backpedal a few steps to steady yourself. Just as you get your feet solidly underneath you once more, the ticking resumes, as abruptly as it stopped. Now as concerned as you are confused, you approach once more, only for the ticking to stop again. A step back, and it resumes. Suspicion forming in your head, you walk around the table with it to your left, keeping a constant distance between you while the ticking continues as if it had never been interrupted. Choosing a point at random, you side-step to your left, and as you had thought it might, the ticking stops again.
That settles it, then - whatever is going on here is beyond the ability of any ... instrumental device that you know of. This has to be a Construct of some sort - one with either a secreted away set of eyes, or it is Form-facing. But if it is effecting you in some way, then it is subtle enough that you cannot distinguish it from the background effect of the ranged-remediation cast and your mundane aches, pains, tiredness and malaise. Surely, it has to do more than tick - but what, and why only start now? Is it even going to be safe to approach it any further - moreover, should you even bother approaching it even further?
