The Icebound Clocktower and Other Noise Inspired Stories

The Study

Temple Bells, Timemakers, Twilight

The room was one part library, one part clocktower, and one part astronomy tower. A giant model of the galaxy the space was occupying hung in the area above, shifting in time to its corresponding planets. The gears and cogs click and whirr and a steady ticking is occasionally interrupted by the booming chime of the unseen timepiece above. The web of machinery seemed to stretch on forever, long after it was obscured by darkness. The room was mostly lit by floating green orbs that seemed to make a soft twinkling sound when approached. There were ordinary lamps, and bits of the orbs would break off into smaller ones on small little strings of light to illuminate them.

The floor is covered in a thick woven carpet of white, yellow, blue, and green, so footsteps cannot be heard unless from the other side of the large, arching wooden door that is the one of the only variations from the surrounding walls beneath the clockwork, which are one giant bookshelf. The colors clash and interact in a number of complicated ways, without any rhyme or reason. It's comfortable nonetheless. In the center of the room is a big, dark green sofa, a glass coffee table, two armchairs, and one of those fainting couches from Victorian times, a very visibly mismatched set. Probably for specific people.

There is a small, stage-like elevation that takes up a third of the room, the edges around it covered in thick green curtain-like material. There seems to also be a big stage curtain that can be opened and closed as desired, effectively cutting off the rest of the room. On it is a large, smooth, dark brown desk covered messily in papers and notes, and an equally coated freestanding chalkboard. Pages are hung like washing on strings with clothespins, and framing much of the giant, open window, looking out into the deep space outside. Stars had never looked so close, and some of the rest of the building can be seen, jutting out in odd shapes, floating in the middle of nowhere. A sort of green... same shade as the orbs... shine seems to circle the place, like a force-field keeping air in. The window can be shut, but it doesn't seem to be closed often. Whoever stays here must like the view... it certainly is one of a kind.