It wasn't new, the solitude, the insolation, the seenly endless hours by himself, though being honest with himself Clockwork prefered that at the company of the Observans. Those pompous one eyed ghosts were the most irritating beings he had ever saw, and he had saw a lot.
The thing was that this wasn't a self imposed isolation, it was mostly his reserved nature, mixed with his habit of making everything around himself seem mysterious and untouchable. But the biggest factor in it were the rumors, they varied every decade, in ones he is a god and judges everyone for every little thing they do and in others he is some kind of emotionless officinist working all the time without rest.
All rumors have a piece of truth, he is very powerful but definitely not a god and yes, he worked a lot but when you can control time you can have as much time as you want to relax, the thing was that he didnt use for it, he worked because he was bored and had nothing better to do and he definitely had emotions.
He also didn't have many guests over the years, most were ghosts as old as life and natural phenomena, like Nocturne, Pandora, Frostbite and Overgrowth. Vortex had been banned from visits after the last one, too much destruction around delicate things were a recipe for disaster. even if these powerful ghosts visited it wasn't often enough to be routine, the only ones visiting more were the ones he didn't want in his lair, one eyed nuisances.
Though recently that insolation had been broken by his new friend.
"Hi Clockwork" said friend said at entering the room he was in.
"Hello Daniel. How are you today?" Clockwork greeted.
The young half ghost had been visiting more often than any other ghost before, sure he had been his usual mysterious self the first time they met and all answers from the future were in riddles that only made sense once the event happened. Even after all of that Danny kept visiting, probably because he hadn't heard the rumors surrounding his name, or namesakes, or because they share the same kind of humor. Though it was most likely because he was the only ghost to give him answer about the Ghost Zone, ghost biology and everything else that's not the future.
"Stressed" Danny answered grumbling.
"Do tell?" Clockwork said.
"Oh you know, school is the same as always,bullies and classes being interrupted by ghost fights. I had detention, then more ghost fights. Made some homework, got destroyed in a ghost fight. Avoided the automatic anti-ghosts security in the house, eat, sleep interrupted by ghosts fights and repeat. For the last week" Danny said sounded exhausted.
"How much have you slept?" Clockwork asked
"Five hours" Danny said.
"This week?"
"Yup"
"You can sleep in the sofa, and no, you won't bother me Daniel" Clockwork offered.
"Thanks Clockwork! You are the best" Danny said while hugging the time ghost.
Clockwork smiled at his young friend, insolation may be the norm of his existence but he was glad someone like Danny brough a break to it.