Gears {And More Gears}

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Gears {and more gears}

Amalia Gaffy was not one to take criticism lightly. It was one of her many faults, along with being overly timid. She usually wound up pushing her feeling of failure down deep into her stomach until she couldn't hold it in any longer. Then she would burst into tears, or snap at one of her three siblings for the smallest reasons.

This was a time of swallowing her feelings and plastering a smile onto her face.

She was at the small dingy shop that sat smashed in between two other small dingy shops on Main Avenue. The small Steamer town was equipped with all sorts of 'charming' buildings like Jibb's odd inventions shop. Although Jibb's shop was small, he was quite well known throughout the inventing community. He had dealings with some of the biggest corporations, but he managed to stay in his humble little shop on Main Avenue in a nearly nonexistent, dusty, Steamer town. Lia couldn't imagine him and his gear-filled prostatic arm anywhere other than the Odd Inventions shop.

Jibb's arm let out a series of clicks and pops as he set Lia's latest invention attempt down onto the work table he sat at.

"It's nearly there, Lia. Just a few more tweaks and I'll buy it from you."

"Yeah, no I get it." Lia swept the miserable little music box into her satchel and fastened the straps.

"It just doesn't have the razzle pop, yet. You know what they say," By 'they', Jibb always meant him. "Don't stop 'till it has that razzle-pop." It was more or less his catchphrase.

"I know." Lia couldn't help but smile at Jibb's enthusiasm.

"That thing on your shoulder though, that thing has got the razzle-pop. I'll take a look at it if you'll permit."

Lia's hand subconsciously went to her shoulder, where her mechanical bee sat, its wings flitting for balance every time she moved. The only person she'd told about it was her brother Abram, and he'd promised to keep it under wraps until she'd finished it. It wasn't that Lia was a terrible inventor, she wasn't, it was more that she had too many ideas all coming to her at once that it was hard to pick just one to focus on for long enough to finish it.

"I'd rather keep that one to myself, for the time being. It's still in the...uh...testing stages."

Jibb nodded and smiled knowingly. "I know that game."

Lia nodded and glanced to the small clock that was sitting on Jibb's desk. "Yeah. I have to go, it's getting late. I'll be back when I finish my box."

"I know you will kid." He said, shaking his head admirably at her undying persistence.

The shop door closed after her and she began the journey back home. At that hour the streets were mostly empty, save for her and a few other lone people. It wasn't necessarily very late, but it was dark, and with nothing to light the streets it usually was safer to remain indoors.

Her heels clicked on the pavement and echoed all around her. As she neared the end of the street she clutched her crossover bag tighter. In that area, there were only a few who were brave enough to rob someone. Lia saw a swath of shadows shift and she squeezed a concealed button in both of her gloves. Instantly a feeling of calm washed over her as her defense weapons clicked out of their hiding spot over her knuckles.

Her eldest brother had made the gloves for her after she'd been mugged on Main Avenue a few years back. He had used his mechanical skill, which seemed to run in their entire family, to add a pair of collapsible brass knuckles into a couple of fingerless leather gloves that their older sister had sewn.