A/N Disclaimer: I do not own the show Tin Man which is the property of RHI Entertainment and I do not own any of the characters either (damn). Enjoy and please review. I did this in a few hours and felt like posting it. Hope it's good enough.
He didn't know where he was let alone who he was. He had only a vague idea that he needed to be somewhere but he had no idea where that somewhere was. He knew he should know these things but he just didn't and it aggravated him to no end.
He only truly remembered waking up curled into a ball underneath a tree and that could have been a few moments ago or a year ago, he couldn't remember. He did recall that he had been cold and the dew did nothing to alleviate it. He was shivering as he tried to get up. His legs shook from in-use and he tried to remember how to move them since he was sure that was their purpose.
He had fallen many times before he finally got the hang of moving everything in such a way that not only made him move but a way that did not involve him falling flat on his face.
He soon began to come into towns, some with barely any people inhabiting them and some were so packed with people that in order to move one had to push and shove those in front.
No matter how big or small these towns, the reaction towards him was the same. Men would tense in subtle ways as if they expected a fight and if they had wives they would take their hand in theirs as they picked up the pace. Mothers grabbed their children to them, the little ones complaining their hold was too tight, but the mothers ignored them as they averted their eyes from him.
They gave him a wide birth as if he had a contagious disease that they would catch if they got too close.
He heard them whispering, felt it was about him especially when he would draw near to hear them and see their eyes widen in fear as they fled as fast as they could.
The man wondered who they were afraid of. It cant be me. I'm not dangerous am I? You know I would love to have a dog.
He tried to think if he was indeed dangerous as these people thought him to be, at least that's what he thought their reactions meant. He couldn't think right. Every time he tried he forgot what he was trying to think about in the first place and another random thought would take its place.
He continued walking down the main street of yet another town, a town's name he could not for the life of him remember.
One of the citizens of the town who was afraid for her safety went up to the local tin man to tell him of the trespasser.
"He's just walking down the main street and he could become violent!"
"There ain't no law against people walking…"
He's a headcase!"
The tin man fell silent at that and replied, "I'll watch him."
He began to follow the man at a distance so he wouldn't feel threatened and try to defend himself. Headcases had been notorious for attacking anyone they thought might be a threat and that included anyone who got too close.
The tin man thought this particular headcase looked better off than the rest. Most never even remembered how to talk let alone walk after they were released. Most died a few weeks later from starvation because they no longer knew what the pain in their stomachs meant and could not go through the thought process of how to fix it.
However, this headcase was different. The tin man knew from the way he was walking, he held himself almost in a regal way and the tin man was sure he had seen such an outfit in the palace long ago when he had been summoned by the Queen to tell him she was reassigning him to keep him safe from the sorceress.
The tin man's curiosity was peaked and he began to walk faster to catch up with the headcase. As he began to get closer he approached more slowly since he did not want to have to kill this man.
He was within an arms distance when the headcase suddenly spun around.
"Why are you following me?" he asked both defensively and curiously.
The tin man gave the headcase a moment before he answered , "I just wanted to make sure you didn't start any trouble."
The headcase scrunched his features in thought.
Am I here to start trouble? I don't think I am.
"Where are you headed?" the tin man asked with compassion. He could tell this headcase was higher functioning and must have been a man who had been quite smart. He also knew this was man was not a criminal as other headcases had been and was most likely someone who had lost half his brain as punishment under the sorceress, she always saved the most creative tortures for those who defied her.
The headcase looked at the tin man, still thinking about an answer to the question the tin man had posed. Somewhere within what brain he had left he knew it would be bad not to answer this man, he had to say something.
"I'm going to….I'm going to….I'm going to…." he couldn't seem to say anything else, he could hear himself saying it over and over in the exact same way with the same movements as if he was saying it for the first time.
The tin man didn't know what to do, the man sounded like a record that was stuck in one spot and the only way he knew to fix that was to hit the player, so he hit the man on the arm making the headcase fall silent.
"You were glitching," the tin man said in response to the childish look of what was that for in the headcase's eyes.
The headcase looked at his feet in embarrassment at the explanation and said in a moment of clarity, "I wasn't always this way. I was advisor to the Queen…or at least I think I was…"
The tin man looked more closely at the headcase as he said this, there was something familiar about his appearance and this confession had sparked something in his memory. He took in the coat of brown that was slowly starting to show the effects of constant use. Took in his facial features, the unruly curls on either side of the zipper that scared his scalp, they eyes of brown with the longest eyelashes he had ever seen; and finally a name came to the front of his mind.
"Ambrose? Is that you?"
The headcase's head snapped up at the name but his eyes showed no acknowledgement that he was indeed Ambrose. The name did sound familiar to the headcase but he could not think of a reason to explain away the familiarity of it.
Do I know that man named Ambrose? Is it me?
As soon as the thought was there then it wasn't anymore.
The tin man was in shock, he was sure it was Ambrose, the man who had been the Queen's advisor. What had he done to deserve this fate? No one deserved a fate like this and that's why so few headcases were left. The practice had been discouraged by the Queen and it was rarely performed except in the rarest of cases. It was the sorceresses favorite punishment but most did not disobey her for fear they would end up like the man in front of him.
The headcase looked at the tin man and said, "That name….so familiar…I think I knew him…" he petered off, looking around as if the landscape around him held the answer.
He looked back at the tin man as he asked, "Have we met before?"
The tin man shook his head no, he could have told him that they had once long ago in Finaqua but he knew as soon as he told him the man would forget.
"You never did say where you were going."
"There's somewhere I have to be…someone I have to meet…the Queen told me she was alive and would need my help…that she would help me with something too…I have to go there…to meet her when she returns…"
The tin man looked at him as if he had given him too much credit in assuming he was higher functioning.
"Where is it you have to go?" he asked playing along.
"Have to go….have to go…have to go…"
Another hit on the arm and he continued on, "Have to go meet her when she gets here."
"Does that happen often?"
The headcase cocked his head in question.
"Do you glitch a lot? You know…repeat yourself?"
The headcase beamed and said, "Yes, sometimes my synapses don't fire right. Sometimes my synapses don't fire right."
This time the tin man only touched his arm and the headcase stopped glitching and looked at him as if he knew him but couldn't place him.
"You look familiar. Have we met before?" he said with a goofy grin.
"Yes we have."
"Good. Do you remember my name?"
"Yes, your name is Glitch on account of your synapses don't always fire right."
"Of course. Now I remember. Thank you. Now I have someone to meet so I must go."
The tin man nodded and said, "Just be careful and don't get into any trouble on the way to where ever it is you're going."
Glitch nodded his head in affirmation and began walking in the same direction as before.
He knew somewhere in the O.Z. was the woman he was meant to help with something, something important that involved not just him but all the inhabitants of the O.Z.. He hoped she could help him remember a past that was no longer clear to him. He wished he could remember more but right now he couldn't. He decided he would only walk in a straight line, it was safer then making too many turns and risk not meeting who he was meant to help.
He tripped over a log that he could have sworn had not been there a second ago and looked around nervously to make sure no one had seen him almost fall.
Now what was it I needed to do?