Amebel wind up doll
She was beautiful, a work of art really. Alfred watched her graceful movements completely transfixed as she twirled and moved across the stage. The air seemed to part around her, light seemed to follow her wherever she went, and not even her cold violet eyes could change that. Alfred is startled out of his transfixion by the sound of roaring applause as he stands up with the others in the crowd in a standing ovation. The ballerina studied the crowd with a vacant look upon her face as she fell into a graceful curtsy. Her white platinum hair was held up in a high bun, her white tutu, pale skin and the spotlight being shined on her all worked together to give her the impression of being an angel.
Alfred cheered along with the upper class as he watched his creations join the single human ballerina on stage as they also fell into a bow, like they were programmed to. The mechanical wind up ballerinas made soft creaking noises as they moved, their gears gleaming in the lights of the stage. They were made of silver so they would shine in the lights of a stage, with painted on faces to at least seem human, even though everyone knew that they were dolls. Even if you did not a quick check of their backs would show their wind up mechanism, exposing their true identities.
Finally they left the stage, along with the human girl who suddenly looked a bit wobbly, and Alfred joined the other men, donning his top hat and goggles. He walked outside and looked up at the familiar New York skyline as it was filled with electric lights and air blimps moving through the air, the sound of them almost like buzzing bees. The year was nineteen sixteen and more inventions were being made every day in glistening bronze, gold and silver. This was the world Alfred lived in, and it was the one that he had helped create. Alfred thinks back on his life with a content smile as he walks down the street back to his apartment, or rather the building that housed his lab.
If any common person had heard the name Alfred F. Jones four years ago, or even three, they would have just scratched their heads and inquired as to who he was. That was no longer the case as now the young scientist was a household name. Known for his wind up doll ballerinas, private transporters, a stove that you wound up, and even a new type of air blimp that moved through the air even faster and made much less noise than its previous design, as anyone could see the man was going places, and the only question was who would be going to the top with him. Yes surely this man was a man of intelligence and prestige.
"ALFRED F JONES WAKE UP THIS INSTANT."
Alfred started awake his glasses hanging off of his head and drool forming a pool on his table as he looked around his lab for the source of the interloper on his precious sleep.
"Must I remind you that you have a meeting this morning with the board? Or perhaps your forgot with all your going about in the city! Where were you this time?"
Alfred sighs looking at Arthur, his British butler, which he had built himself. Unfortunately when he decided to give him character he did not anticipate the headache that he would receive from it. Oh well at least he manages to keep his lab in order…. Mostly.
"Sorry Iggy, I just feel asleep again. You know going over the blueprints… Like you suggested. And don't get all riled up; your gears are going to lock up again. I was just at the ballet"
Arthur gives him a critical look before brushing aside pens, wadded up bits of paper and random gears to put down the tray of breakfast which was a horribly burnt… something, and coffee.
"Yes well you had better hurry and eat your breakfast or else you will be late. And do clean up in here, I don't know what's junk and what's not!"
He surveyed the lab with a critical glowing green eye, noting the bubbling cylinders full of chemicals, the whirling of another invention (this time a small cat with red glowing eyes… He would have to deal with that one later), half eaten food everywhere and to top it all off boxes were strewn about where anyone could trip on them. Namely Alfred.
"Mr. Jones when was the last time you slept in a proper bed? Or eaten something other than… Oh what is it that you call them?"
Alfred looked up wearily as he slyly drops the burned thing into a trashcan where it was incinerated. Alfred never had never been able to figure out how to fix Arthurs cooking mechanism; it seemed to be stuck on bland, burned and poisonous.
"I don't know… And I call them hamburgers!
Arthur sighs and looks Alfred in the eyes, his own robotic green eyes glowing as he scans him checking his vitals.
"Mr. Jones how many times must I remind you? You're not one of your inventions; you can't just be wound up and be ready to go! You need a proper rest. You're lucky that you seem to somehow be in perfect health."
Alfred sighs heavily as he rubs his eyes. Sometimes it seemed that his butler was his mother.
"Don't worry Arthur as soon as I get my next idea approved then I will sleep in my bed ok? And I will even eat a salad if that makes you happy."
Arthur nods his gears whirling contently as he begins to clean up some of the lab, wiping up chemicals harmlessly with a gloved hand.
"Good, and do something about that infernal cat! It's so hyper I swear it must be a pup."
Alfred laughs lightly bouncing up from his seat and grabbing the cat as it wiggled around in his arms making angry puffs of steam.
"Don't worry, I've got it handled! I'm going to keep it and name it Alpha cat! You know as in "first", since I'm going to be making a whole line of these cats!"
Arthur sighs watching the cat with distaste, and wincing at Alfred's outburst. He was going to have to start making him take less sugar in his coffee.
"Just keep it away from my kitchen; I need room to work in there."
As Alfred watches Arthur leave to go back to his baking he sighs looking at the now not moving machine.
"Ok your new mission is to go into his kitchen as often as possible ok?"
When he didn't get a response he looked into the cats eyes and noticed that they were no longer glowing and sighed with annoyance. He winds the cat back up again and it studied him, steam puffing out even more in annoyance.
"Sorry about that buddy, I'll look into getting you a longer wind up gear, and then we won't have to wind you up as often. How does that sound?"
The cat looked at him still annoyed, almost as if with contempt. As the cat was painfully aware, if he stayed unwounded for too long he would be stuck like that and Alfred would have to disassemble him and rebuild him. This was not a very pleasant experience for either of them. The cat always ended up losing some of its memory and had once forgotten how to walk properly. Alfred couldn't count the times the cat had run into a wall.
"Errr and how about a wind up rat for you to play with?"
At this the cat brightened up immensely flicking its tail with sharp clicks hanging in the air.
"I thought you would like that! Now remember your mission!"
The cat nods determined and hops out of Alfred's arms to go spread chaos in Arthur's kitchen. Alfred stands there and admires his handy work on the cat. It was completely bronze and without any fur, (He had yet to find a suitable fabric), and his gears all moved smooth only making a soft sound when he moved, or when very excited. Arthur on the other hand looked nearly human if it was not for his glowing eyes, and the giant wind up gear sticking out of his back. But other than that he looked completely human. And if the meeting today went according to plan, then he would be one step closer to an actual human machine hybrid.
"Ahhhh the meeting!"
Alfred ran out of his lab only just catching his lab coat and top hat on his way out the door, Arthur calling out after him, something about "I told you!" Alfred tuned him out with ease and made his way to the street hailing a carriage. The taxi driver pulled over his bronze horses gleaming in the sun making little puffs of steam. Alfred's ride to the office was spent anxiously pouring over his blueprints making sure that he had his speech together, he couldn't seem crazy, which was a distinct possibility. This was a crazy plan after all.
Alfred arrived at the office and paid the taxi driver before staring up at the imposing building, the buzzing of his air blimps suddenly all too loud. He takes a moment to compose himself patting down his wild and unruly hair, sighing as one curl stood up stubbornly. He used his top hat to hide it and proceeded to walk inside the building, giving himself the usual pep talk.
"You can do this just act mature, act mature, act ma- Is that food?"
Alfred's stomach grumbled in rebellion at the sight of a table full of pastries for the office workers, reminding him of his failed breakfast as Alfred sneakily slides over to the table of pastry's and cookies. He snags an apple turnover and a cookie for later, hiding it in his lab coat pocket. He hurries up to the stairs with his stolen treats and walks up quickly as he munches on the pastry. 'Someone should invent moving stairs….hmm.' Alfred had no more time to mull over this new idea as he soon arrived at the top and stood in front of the office room.
Taking a deep breath he steps inside giving all the stuffy looking business men a wide grin.
"Hello everyone! How's it going?"
A few of the men smile slightly at him and wave, being used to Alfred's personality by now. Most however… Were not used to it, so to say. Alfred sighs, but not one to be discouraged he moves right on with his speech. He takes off his top hat and winces inwardly at his curl, but had to move right along.
"Well I won't bore you all with a long speech about why you should give me a loan for my invention, and instead I will let the invention do the talking itself. And here it is gentlemen.'
Alfred unrolled his blueprints and put them up on the wall grinning broadly at the confused looks from the investors.
"But… That's just another one of your animatronics!" A man from the back of the room protested, and all the other men muttered their agreement starting to look annoyed. This was perfect for dramatic effect.
"Yes, indeed it does look like a human machine…. Because it is one. This friends, is the perfect hybrid of a human and a machine."
Some investors stared at the blueprints again to check Alfred's words and they looked back at him amazed and in disbelief. Surely this couldn't be possible?
"Yes, this is a cyborg if you will. A machine with the mind and memories of a human, but with this wind up gear they can live indefinitely. "
Alfred stares out at the crowd pleased with his work as they all stood silent, dumfounded. That is until the main boss looked up a scowl set on his wrinkled face.
'I don't like it."
Alfred looks up stunned out of his joy and pride.
"W-What?"
The man sighs his scowl deepening.
"I don't like it, you're playing with things you don't understand boy! You can't play God and expect that there won't be any repercussions from it! Have you even considered the effects of this? What if an evil men were to get his hands on this and made himself immortal? Then what would people do?"
Alfred blinks and flounders for a response to this attack on his logic.
"Oh well, si-"
"No, now listen have you even gotten a volunteer for this project? Someone willing to be made into a… cyborg?"
The other investor's turned to Alfred waiting; their gazes making his confidence shrivel up.
"N-no sir…. I haven't found a volunteer...Yet! My old…"
He trailed off felling his ideas shatter under the unwavering glare of the business men.
"You haven't even found a willing volunteer yet?"
Alfred pales slightly nervously touching his top hat beside him.
"Well no…. But I've done so many projects before that have worked please just give me a chance!"
The main boss sighs cracking his knuckles, the rings on his fingers gleaming.
"I'm sorry Alfred but we can really only trust you with…. Robotic animals and ballerinas, not with human lives. You have a brilliant young mind, but that's just the problem. You're still too young and… childish. Now leave, we have other affairs to tend to."
Alfred looks at all the faces in the room searching for anyone who would speak up for him, but found no one. He turned on his heel and left, disappointment tugging at his heart as the business men went back to their plans.
"I'm sorry" my butt, he didn't sound sorry at all!"
Alfred sighs heavily storming out of the stairwell, and for good measure he took another pastry from the food table. He steps outside and looks across the street at the hospital shivering slightly.
Him, childish?! He knew that he could be sometimes but didn't he deserve to be childish once in a while? Alfred sighs and tries to bury his disappointment deep within him.
As he was walking away munching on a muffin he noticed a flash of white platinum hair coming out of the hospital across the street. The woman was walking alone and with a determined step towards the park in the middle of the city her head held high. He immediately recognized her from the ballet and in desperate need of talking to someone, anyone, he quickly walks up to her side.
"H-hey… I saw your performance yesterday, you were great!"
The woman turned around with a cold look in her violet eyes. Alfred stared into those eyes seeing a familiarity in them, he felt like he had seen that cold glare before.
"Good. Because that was my last performance."
Alfred blinked stunned and then looks at her pale face, and how her eyes kept on glancing back to the hospital. What he had taken for stage makeup the other night he could see now was actually a sickly complexion. She was bundled up in a large coat that fell over her dark blue dress with ruffles and a bustle skirt as was the fashion. Something from England as Arthur was fond of informing him.
"O-oh your sick aren't you? If it makes you feel better I just failed at my job...Anyway what's your name?"
The woman raised an eyebrow adjusting her coat so that it was more snugly fit as she studies him.
"My name is Natalia, and no that does not make me feel better. As you have already pointed out I am sick."
She turns to leave but Alfred knew he had to help her; something was tugging him to her. Besides, if he couldn't help the world with his cyborgs he could at least help one person.
"Hey maybe I can help! I'm an inventor after all; maybe I can whip up something to help you! I was the one who made those wind up dolls that were on stage with you last night."
Natalia stiffens and turns around looking at him with distrustful eyes.
"No one in that hospital could help me, what makes you think that you can?"
Alfred grins at her undeterred by her cold gaze.
"I'm much more creative than those stuffy guys in the hospital! So what's the issue?"
Natalia regards him some more but sighs softly putting a small delicate hand over her heart.
"My heart is too weak to keep on pumping… They do not know what is exactly wrong and they say that they do not have the technology to fix it yet."
Alfred blinks stunned by this news, he wasn't a doctor and what did he know about hearts? However… He had to try.
"Huh… a heart issue? Well….. Hey, this is good! I can't do anything about a disease because I can't make up a new drug, but I can do something about a heart! After all it's kind of like a machine right? It's just a pump, and I can handle pumps! Natalia I swear I will fix your heart!"
Natalia blinks a bit confused by his sudden enthusiasm, here was a man that she had just met and he was already promising to save her life.
"How will you do that?"
Alfred blinks and suddenly gets an idea pulling out some blueprints from his pocket.
"We can build you a new mechanical heart! It will be made out of bronze, it can function as a normal heart…."Alfred continues in his rant making furious scribbles and sketches on his blueprints muttering a bit to himself as he goes. He finally holds up the blueprints of a mechanical heart, one with a watch in the middle of it.
"Ok so what do you think? Oh and don't be intimidated by the watch thing, that's just there so that it makes a ticking noise. You know just in case you pass out or something and someone needs to know that you're alive."
Natalia looks over it with a critical eye before looking back up at him
"Why?"
Alfred blinks a bit stunned.
"What do you mean why? I mean you want people to know that you're alive right?"
"I mean why are you doing this for me?"
Alfred silently folds up the blueprints and tucks them away in his shirt pocket where they would be safe. To be honest he didn't really know why he wanted to do this, no why he had to do this. Sure he wanted to help at least one person, but it ran deeper than that, and even he did not know it. However he had to come up with some answer, after all she might think he was crazy if he did not.
"Oh well uhh… You see I just got my new invention rejected…So if I do this for you it will prove that I can blend humans and machines!"
He looks up at her excited but only got a blank look back. He quickly explained what had happened to him that morning and his invention ideas. After a few minutes Natalia finally speaks.
"Why would they not approve you? This is a…. Noble idea."
Alfred looks at her surprised once again; this seemed to be a trend for him this morning.
"You really think it's a good idea? You don't think I'm messing with things I shouldn't?"
Natalia shrugs giving him a blank look, her eyes trailed up to the tall building that Alfred had walked out of and she seemed to glare right up to the top of it.
"I don't see why not, we already have those machines of yours walking among us, why not use that power to help ourselves? But tell me, what made you think of doing that? What made you want to build a cyborg?"
Alfred blinks and looks down taking off his top hat that had some simple words written on its inner band in neat cursive.
"To Alfred, From Matthew."
"Oh well…About that.. It was my brother you see? He was always sick and nothing the people at the hospital could do would help, they said his immune system was beyond repair. I used to make toys to keep him entertained while he was at the hospital. He always encouraged my crazy inventions; he even bought me this hat saying that I needed to look professional if I was going to sell my blueprints. He…. Died a few years ago, it was pneumonia. "
Natalia looks at Alfred her purple eyes softening just slightly.
"I am sorry, that must have been awful for you to go through."
Alfred sighs placing the top hat back on his head and adjusting it so that his curl would not peek through.
"Yeah well… that's why I wanted so badly to make a human machine hybrid so that people wouldn't die of things like that anymore. I just wish that I had made it in time for him, he was supposed to be my volunteer."
Alfred eyes gazed down at the ground avoiding her eyes. That story was always hard for him to tell, it was his worst failure. Even Arthur was supposed to be for Matthew, someone to help him out but even he didn't get to see Matthew. Alfred was about to excuse himself from her when Natalia takes his hands in her own delicate ones.
"…..Don't you need to work on my heart?"
She slides her hands out of his seemingly having reached her limit of interaction. Her obvious plan to move him away from that topic had worked however as now Alfred was focusing on the heart, and ideas were running wild in his mind.
"Really? You'll let me work on your heart?"
"Da of course."
"Great! Thank you so much! Ok you just go home and rest easy and in a few weeks I will have you a new heart!"
Natalia sighs looking away angrily, once again catching Alfred off guard.
"I can't do that. I either have to go back to my country, or live on the streets here. The ballet is a cruel field and once they heard of my heart condition I was kicked out."
Alfred looks at her his head tilted in confusion; surely they couldn't be that cruel.
"They kicked you out? Already?"
"Yes, I collapsed last night after the performance. My boss brought me to the hospital last night and that was when they found my condition. Once they heard that I could never dance again I was 'kicked out' as you say."
Alfred takes off his top hat scratching his head perplexed by this new information. Although he really shouldn't be that surprised, people could be cruel. Oh well, his brother always did say that he was an optimist.
"Oh well… you can stay with me. After all I live alone in a big apartment! I have a really nice guest room too; I think you would like it. It has a great view, from that window you can look out and watch the air blimps as they cross over to the Ellis Air Station from the other countries!"
Natalia seems to consider this and nods slowly.
"Alright, I will stay with you… Thank you."