The Crew's Book of Hermitcraft Season 7 Oneshots

Things Go Very Wrong (Steampunk AU)

Set in the Steampunk AU I made for . Help me I've been brainrotted.

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2:55pm, Friday, 14th May, 19XX

Today was, to say the least, not going well. Impulse's toy shop and freedom to invent what he wanted was in jeopardy, Zed and Doc were in mortal peril, and Tango was desperately dragging himself by the elbows through the engine room of an airship, hoping against all hope that he wouldn't be caught. 

He paused for a break, feeling a bit lightheaded. He had just dragged himself into an awkward gap between two boilers, in order to hide. His movements felt sluggish, exhausted. With a sinking feeling, Tango realised that he was winding down, that the clockwork he ran on was starting to fail. Normally, when he started to get like this, he'd ask Zed or Impulse for help, but that wasn't exactly an option, and his key had been taken anyway.

He closed his eyes, to conserve energy, and thought back to how the hell he'd gotten into this situation.

2:55pm, Wednesday, 12th May, 19XX.

Tango made a startled noise as the device he had been working on blasted a spurt of scalding-hot steam into his face, overheating him for a second. Thankfully, he was much more resistant to that sort of thing, being an automaton. He took a second to let his eyes de-fog, wiped the condensation off his forehead, and got back to work.

"Hey, Tango!" Impulse called, walking around the partition that separated Tango and Zed's personal workspaces in their shared workshop. Tango turned to wave, accidentally releasing the pressure on the device, causing another jet of steam to blast him in the face before he could actually respond.

"...Hey Impy." He replied, once he'd recovered, his voice much more lackluster.

"Oh... are you busy?" Impulse asked, concern tinging his voice.

"Nah." Tango answered, fully putting down the device, finally having the sense to turn it away from himself first. "It's really not going well, and I could use a break. What do you need?"

"Oh, I was just wondering if you wanted to help out at the toy shop. Peak hour is gonna happen in about five minutes."

"Sure." Tango grinned. "Sounds better than this." He gestured at the machine again.

3:00pm, Wednesday 12th May, 19XX

Impulse and Tango talked aimlessly as they neatened up the shelves, Tango moving the little wind-up toys that Impulse had made, making an offhand joke about them being his 'clockwork family'. Soon enough, the grandfather clock in the corner of the shop rang out three sharp notes, and no less than a minute later, the shop had its first customers.

"Tango's here!" One of the kids called out, once a few more of them had come to pay the shop a visit, and soon Tango found himself absolutely mobbed by small children, screaming in excitement that the automaton was there. He chuckled, rolling his eyes at Impulse, who refused to help him out on the grounds that it was Tango's punishment for being more popular than Impulse in his own shop.

Eventually, somehow, the mob died down, and other than a few kids coming up to ask him questions on how things worked, Tango was able to extract himself and stand by Impulse, watching the kids experiment with the toys, one or two of the older ones occasionally coming up to buy one, and then run out of the shop, shouting in delight at their newfound treasure. The atmosphere persisted, by Tango's internal chronometer, at least, for about fifteen minutes before Impulse noticed something out the window.

"Not now." Impulse muttered under his breath, prompting Tango to look up, following Impulse's gaze. On the sidewalk opposite the shop stood a person with a the tinkers' guild crest sewn onto their vest, marking them as a high-ranking member of the corporation. The corporation that disapproved of non-associated tinkers had a high-ranking official lurking outside the shop of Impulse, a non-associated tinker. This could not bode well.