(Author's Note: I know this chapter is very short but I think this fits better than trying to shovel more into it at the moment. I'll be working on the next Tik Tock so expect it soon!)
Tik Tock 11
Boq sat hunched over the campfire poking the embers with a stick. Mulling over the events of a day ago had consumed his thoughts with every turn of the prod as he watched the embers roll bursting into flighty sparks of red before dissipating into the soft blackness of night.
Nimmie had fallen asleep long ago, and he had been keeping an eye on her.
"Hey, Boq, I take it that's your real name? Now that we're being truthful with one another," Tip said pulling up an uninvited log and gently sitting himself down. Reason number one why Boq was watchful. Tip had joined the party, if only to guide them to the cliffs. Somehow Boq knew that Tip would find a way to stick around.
Boq refused to answer, on mere principle if nothing else.
"It's no fun to pester you if you don't fight back," Tip chortled lightly. Boq shook his head and sighed.
"Aw, what's the matter? The angel of dance didn't see the handsome you? The fleshy real person beneath all of that fluff and tin? Doth tin not make fair damsel's heart swoon with passionate delight?" Boq's neck joint squeaked menacingly into place as he glared at his marble persecutor.
"How many times must I tell you! We're friends. There are no hearts involved... especially not mine. It disappeared a long time ago with the rest of me. There's nothing left inside of me to use for anything like that anymore," He rapped his fingers against his chest thoughtfully listening to the dense drum-like rat-ta-tat despondently.
"As long as I live, I enjoy the sight of a pretty female, with curves and crevices enough to please the eye and excite the old memory," Boq rolled his eyes but Tip continued, "I can't smell anymore, or taste, but still I can remember such things as they were and enjoy those thoughts. I have nothing inside of me and yet I still enjoy life for what it is."
"...and what is it really? A punishment? A joke? A lingering heartache? The feelings that stick with me all seem to be the ones I want to forget, or the ones that I've never been able to act upon," Boq prodded a bit harder.
"Life is what you make it, you bucket of slush, you never act, you'll have a life that reflects it," Tip offered his rebuttal. Boq hated to think he was right but something within him was churning uncomfortably, like when you know you're lying and you don't want to, but lie anyway.
Boq looked at his hands, and imagined what he looked like when his hands had really come back, "I didn't even know I was forgetting everything, and now...I have to remember it all. It won't make any sense any other way. What eats away at me is WHY? Why now? Why with her? I just don't understand! It's NEVER happened before...never. The spell must be weakening. That's the only way to explain it."
"Ah, you see things in such flat terms, Tinman. A true artist such as myself always sees the finer aspects of such situations." Boq exhaled his disapproval of the shameless boasting and poked the fire harder still.
"Spells are such interesting things you see. Look at mine for instance! Completely unintentional, and yet, I did it to myself. I wasn't honest with myself you see? I had a lot of time to sit and think about it. My mother and I never got along really. Dear mum, she was...an interesting woman to put it blandly. Liked her whiskey, loved her strange men at night. I became a bard to escape her. When she died...I made that vow not to remember her...but to forget her. I tried to make myself a hero out of a lie. A loving son remembering his mother. I tricked myself into believing it, but never took it seriously. I liked living the life of a vagabond. However, I couldn't forget about her. When I met Mombi, I stayed longer and longer not because she tricked me, but because she reminded me of the one person who had been there with me from the beginning. The one person who I probably never learned to love properly because I was always so quick to think that I was better, or that she never cared about me so I shouldn't have cared about her. But she was the one person I should have loved, more than anyone else. This is my punishment and I heartily accept it," Tip stretched back looking up at the stars. There was something in his words that Boq understood even though he hated to give Tip credit for anything.
The trouble is...I don't remember. I don't remember what could save me. Is it Nimmie? Or something that I did?
"Were you untrue to a promise? Did you lie to yourself like I did? Maybe you forgot something, or worse yet, ignored something that you saw. Maybe you lied to more than one person. It's something to think about. I didn't like thinking about it at first...but at least I understand myself and my predicament better," Tip leaned over, "If you can't remember at first,you should work backwards from what you do."