"Incoming message from Senior Caretaker."

"Hello, Sigmund. Just wanted to let you know I will be traveling to the Tombli Outpost on Zanifar and will not be back until morning. A fellow scientist has requested an audience with me and etiquette dictates I comply. Mind the Clock while I'm gone. Wind the time cleaners and...Sigmund, let's just keep this our little secret. As the kids say, 'B-R-B'! Hehehehe! End recording."

Why did he have to go?

Why couldn't he have just stayed at the Clock where it was safe?

Didn't he know that it was dangerous out there?

When Orvus sent the message, Sigmund thought that it was innocent enough. The Zoni was just going to meetup with a fellow scientist and he would come back during the morning hours. Sigmund believed that everything was going to be fine and that Orvus was going to have a great time outside the clock and talking with something who embraced intelligence and logic just like he did. It was only supposed to be a simple trip, nothing more. Why then...

Why didn't he come back?

When the morning came the next day, Sigmund waited for Orvus, wanting to hear all about the meeting with the scientist who requested an audience with the leader of the Zoni. He waited in Sector One for hours. When Orvus failed to show, he moved on to Sector Two and waited for more hours. He didn't show up. Sector Three, Sector Four, the orientation room, outside the Orvus Chamber...he waited all day and all night. Yet there was no sign of his colleague.

The hours of waiting turned into days. Every day, Sigmund would simply wait for Orvus to return to the Clock. He still did his usual duties so there would be no issues in the facility, but whenever he had a free moment, he would return to simply sitting in many parts of the Clock, waiting. He knew that Orvus was going to return. Maybe Orvus was spending the week on Zanifar? Maybe he was going to other planets as well and his messages about his other trips simply didn't go through? Sigmund would always come up with excuses for Orvus's absence whenever he was waiting. It wasn't like the Zoni to just not come back after he promised he would.

Days then turned into weeks. Orvus still hadn't come back. Sigmund was overcome with concern and he grew increasingly nervous with each passing minute that Orvus was still gone. He had to come back...he wouldn't just abandon the Clock. He wouldn't abandon his race or the Chamber or his duties. He wouldn't abandon his son. The idea of the worst happening to Orvus loomed in Sigmund's mind, but he never wanted to dwell on it. The idea of Orvus being gone...he couldn't accept it. The Zoni had done so much for Sigmund, he didn't want him to just be gone. What happened on Zanifar? Why didn't he come back? What was going on?

"Why did you have to leave, sir? You shouldn't have gone. It...it's dangerous outside the Clock..."

Sigmund would always repeat things like this whenever he viewed the recorded message Orvus had sent him. He had to play it sometimes just so he could hear his colleague's voice once more. It was strange, Orvus seemed so cheerful in the message but he didn't know what was going to come next. Sigmund wondered what he would have done if he knew that he was never going to come back. Sigmund wished that he had known, that way he would have never left at all.

But, despite his great concern, Sigmund kept Orvus's trip a secret, just like the Zoni asked. It was...it was his final wish after all. He couldn't tell anyone what happened, it's what Orvus wanted. He couldn't tell anyone.

Not the Zoni. Not the Great Clock's computer. Not even his son, XJ-0461.

Hoo, it's been awhile since I've written something sad. Hopefully I'm not getting rusty.

So while I was doing some research about some of Sigmund's character behavior for "Ethereal Gates", I watched the cutscene where he watches the message Orvus sent him. I thought that it would be interesting (I mean depressing) if I wrote what it was like for him when Orvus didn't come back from the Tombli Outpost.

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This is Amberdiamondswords, Lordess of Diamond Swordness, signing off!