The Wastewright and the Wind-Up Maid (A Tale From The Sixth Age)

[Squidfam]

Spoiler: Author's note and content warning

Still finding myself deep in the grip of writer's block for Azure Eight, I figured I might as well write another one-off story set in the same fantasy setting as my last work (very NSFW) to put my brain to some kind of productive use. As indicated by the "Chapter 1" title, things did not go quite according to plan. I am not sure how far this story will go, but i have a vague outline for it with an ending planned and i will hopefully reach it, regardless of if that ends up taking three or twelve chapters.

Content warnings for themes of abuse, objectification and self-harm apply to the entirety of the work.

Chapter 1: Beautiful Things​

The time had finally come for Liselotte to be thrown out.

They found her stowed away in the attic whilst clearing out the mansion ahead of winter. Her wooden frame had been scratched and dented in several places and the pale lacquer that served as her skin had begun to crack and flake, especially around the joints. Any way you looked at it, she simply had to go. Besides, servant-dolls had fallen out of fashion two summers ago.

She was disposed of along with the furniture, stacked alongside broken stools and old bookshelves in the covered wagon of some dustmen already on their way to the Un-Time Bazaar. Liselotte was still coming to after being unearthed from the dusty basement, but the bumping of the wagon wheels against the cobbled road shook her out of her stupor. She couldn't move without being wound up, but with what she could see from her vantage point inside the dark wagon it wasn't hard to put the pieces together.

In all honesty, Liselotte didn't really mind. She was a tool made for a purpose and now that her purpose had been served, she was being disposed of. So she stayed quiet and didn't make any fuss as she was unloaded and placed among all the other discarded things that littered the dustmen's little stall. She stayed quiet and didn't make a fuss as the days came and went with no one taking an interest in her, the weather slowly wearing down her layers of protective lacquer and varnish. She stayed quiet and didn't make a fuss as in the last days before winter, one of the dustmen picked her up and unceremoniously tossed her into an alley next to a cluttered pile of other refuse. She stayed quiet and didn't make a fuss as the snow slowly piled up, one of her arms came loose and one of her porcelain eyes slipped from its socket. Soon the snow covered her, trapping her in a silent world of pure, cold white.

Eventually, at long last, Liselotte stopped thinking.

***​

For once, it was a beautiful spring day in Kel-Karkansa. The snow had shrunk back into little heaps of white and brown, the sun was shining unusually bright and the warmth had made the inhabitants of the city venture outside in force for the first time since the broken moon faire.

Spring brought forth creatures of every kind as the world sprouted back to life and in this respect The City Between The Ribs was no exception. Hawkers were already lining the streets and vendors had to cling their wares close to their chest as they pushed through the teeming mass of people, most of whom were themselves running errands of one kind or another. But along with these crowds of respectable citizens the scavengers also emerged, skulking about in alleys and side-streets looking for what hidden treasures the melting snow might have uncovered.

Azebansis would perhaps scoff at being called a scavenger, but scavenging was nonetheless one of her great passions in life. The roughspun brown cloak that hid most of her features might have marked her out to most as a pickpocket, but the raccoon-girl had little interest in mere petty theft. She loved nothing more than to uncover the many precious things the city's inhabitants so thoughtlessly discarded, the work of cleaning and restoring serving as a balm upon her soul and reminding her of home in the faraway forests of the dawnlands.

It was thus with a mix of surprise, delight and horror that Azebansis stumbled across the hunched-over body of a cracked and worn life-sized doll, its appearance more akin to that of a corpse than a mere discarded toy. Looking closer, Azebansis at once noticed that the hand of the doll's still-attached arm was clenched in a desperate grip, as if expending every effort to hold onto whatever was inside it for dear life. Despite this it offered no resistance when the scavenger gently pried it open, revealing a small golden key carrying the at once unmistakable but unidentifiable scent of magic.

Azebansis wracked her brain for a moment to try and make sense of it all, her ringed tail wagging rhythmically back and forth as she tried to concentrate. In a flash, everything clicked into place. This was a servant-doll, a creature of clockwork and magic that she remembered accompanying every person of means and talent in the city only a few summers ago before inexplicably vanishing, replaced once more by living servants. Was this where they had all gone? Tossed aside and forgotten?

She wondered for a moment if anyone would truly be so cruel as to discard another thinking and feeling being like trash in the gutter. She then quickly reminded herself of where she was.

After a moment's consideration she stuffed the key and loose body parts into her satchel and hooked her arms around the doll's body, heaving it against herself. To her surprise she found the girl much lighter than she had expected, especially compared to a flesh-and-blood woman of her approximate size. Soon she was on her merry way, choosing to walk down the public street with her newfound friend. Lawless though it was, Azebansis could do without anyone mistaking the broken doll for a dead body. Though of course, in one sense it was a dead body. Just a body no one cared about.

She shook the morbid thought from her head and chose to instead muse about just how much she looked like a groom carrying her bride, to the point that she was getting the odd once-over look from some passing in the crowd. The green dress the doll wore was certainly not without its charm, but in its soaked and tattered state it made for rather poor wedding attire.

More used to skulking in alleys than carrying heavy burdens in the open street, the road back home quickly proved arduous. She briefly considered taking the hangrail to a station near home, but there was every chance the doll-girl would be mistaken for a corpse pilfered from one of the gibbets that hung beneath the carriages. In the end there was no choice but to keep on trudging through the crowd, doing her best to ignore the occasional odd looks she caught from passing strangers in the crowd.

After an all too long time spent wandering, the sight of the well-worn oak door to the basement she called home was a sight for sore eyes. Unlike many others in the city, Azebansis had gotten lucky enough to rent a dwelling inside the flaxstone walls. The walls were the first of the inner rings, an older part of the city built before the time of industry and the great stretch of shoddy rookeries in which most ordinary workers were forced to seek shelter. It served triple purpose as storage space, workshop and living quarters and sometimes the rent made her cry, but every year when the cold and damp struck the city she thanked her lucky sun she did not have to live in a drafty tenement.

Azebansis' line of work did not have a guild or even a proper name to call its own, but in popular speech artisans like her were known as "wastewrights". Their work was to dig through the broken and discarded things others considered waste and either repair or repurpose them into something useful. Most of the time it was a matter of simply fixing broken furniture or selling metal scrap, but the most rewarding job by far was scavenging the trash from the innermost rings and selling the repaired items to the highest bidder.

This was not a practice the patricians of the inner rings looked upon fondly, but despite their best efforts to prevent it some of the things they discarded eventually ended up in the hands of the hoi polloi. The raccoon-girl was not experienced or adventurous enough to pilfer from the inner rings on the regular, but she still fondly remembered the small ornate pendulum clock she had managed to snag from the trash of the Van Ruyten estate while on an excursion with some of her fellow wastewrights.

But something told her that the doll-girl who now sat limply on her workbench was her biggest find yet. Her hands betrayed only a slight tremble as she slid the dress down the doll-girl's shoulders to expose her wooden frame beneath, tracing her finger along the groove running down the middle of her chest until it popped open with a click, exposing an elaborate interior clockwork mechanism of dulled brass. Gingerly she pulled the golden key she had found in the doll's hand out of her pocket and inserted it into the heart of the mechanism, taking a moment to brace herself for disappointment before giving it a few firm twists.

The mechanism came to life with a cacophony of ticks and clacks as the gears started to turn. The limp and lifeless body of the doll shuddered and straightened itself as energy once more flowed through its limbs, the thousand-yard stare in her remaining eye slowly fading as her mind slowly reawakened.

The first noise from the doll-girl's lips was a gasp of confusion and surprise. Her eye darted downwards and she ran her remaining arm across her worn-out body in confusion, evidently still trying to get her bearings.

"Wh-What is this? Where am I? Who are you?" She finally spoke, giving the strange girl in front of her a look that was equal parts confusion and distrust.

Azebansis raised her hands in a reassuring motion and took a step back, only speaking up once she had ascertained that the doll-girl wasn't going to burst into full-blown panic.

"My name is Azebansis. You're in my workshop. I found you discarded in an alley and decided to take you home and fix you."

"What?" The doll-girl gasped incredulously. "Bring me back at once! I have served my purpose already, and if the master of the house sees fit to discard me then the refuse is where I belong."

Before the raccoon-girl could break out of her shock to answer, the doll-girl carried on, her voice rising with emotion.

"I'm done! I've done my duty and I will not be bartered and sold by some vagabond who snatched me off the street!"

She reached down and grabbed the key in her chest with a dramatic gesture, but before she could turn it she found that the raccoon-girl had taken her hand in a soft but firm grip of her own. Liselotte's voice swelled with sadness as she met Azebansis, taking on a soft and pleading tone.

"Please, please put me back where you found me. I don't want to be resold again. I've already served my purpose. I'm tired."

Liselotte's heart sank as she felt the other girl's grip grow tighter, but what she didn't expect was the softness with which Azebansis spoke when she answered.

"I'm not going to re-sell you."

"B-But why? Why do this? Why carry me here and wake me up if you're not-"

The doll-girl lost her words as the other girl's grip around her hand tightened. Azebansis was staring straight at her now, looking for all the world like she was about to burst into tears herself.

"You want to know why? Because my purpose, my pride and joy in life, is to restore beautiful things."

 

[NemoMarx]

Cute!!!

I love Liselotte's vibes, and a raccoon girl is an excellent (if on the nose) aesthetic for her job. This seems like it has a ton of potential.

 

[Hellothere_1]

Dawwww, inject that shit straight into my veins. Liselotte really deserves to ne pampered and polished (and possibly cistomized after her own wishes) after all her hard work.

I do find it a bit suspicious though, that all the servant have almost completely disappeared again so quickly. Like, I can definitely see how rich people would first quickly jump onto a shiny new trend to show off their wealth, only to quickly realize that actually, bossing around real humans is way more satisfying than a bunch of (supposedly) unfeeling machines who can't even properly appreciate how far above them you are.
But you'd think that there'd still be some kind of aftermarket for them for people who have some money but can't usually afford a human servant. For dolls to have pretty much completely disappeared again from tye public eye reeks of something deeper.

 

[Squidfam]

I love Liselotte's vibes, and a raccoon girl is an excellent (if on the nose) aesthetic for her job. This seems like it has a ton of potential.

Click to shrink...

I know writers who use subtext, and they're all cowards. Interestingly enough, Azebansis' job as a Wastewright was actually conceived after her general Raccoon Aesthetic, so the job was a natural follow-on to the aesthetic rather than the other way around.

I do find it a bit suspicious though, that all the servant have almost completely disappeared again so quickly. Like, I can definitely see how rich people would first quickly jump onto a shiny new trend to show off their wealth, only to quickly realize that actually, bossing around real humans is way more satisfying than a bunch of (supposedly) unfeeling machines who can't even properly appreciate how far above them you are.
But you'd think that there'd still be some kind of aftermarket for them for people who have some money but can't usually afford a human servant. For dolls to have pretty much completely disappeared again from tye public eye reeks of something deeper.

Click to shrink...

Part of it could be explained by that as mentioned the rich don't particularly enjoy the thought of The Proles getting their grubby little mitts all over their garbage and that a lot of dolls are probably hidden away in cellars and attics alongside all the other expensive fads like Liselotte was. That doesn't explain how all of them have so thoroughly vanished, though...

Thank you both for your comments! I'm glad you're enjoying the story so far, especially because this isn't the most polished stuff i've put out there

 

[RusselsSilvrware]

Point of clarification: was Liselotte's detached arm still sitting beside her when Azebansis found her? Did she also take it when she took Liselotte? Did she reattach it before winding her up? Especially because at the end there, you mention Azebansis's grip on Liselotte's "hands," plural.

 

[Squidfam]

Point of clarification: was Liselotte's detached arm still sitting beside her when Azebansis found her? Did she also take it when she took Liselotte? Did she reattach it before winding her up? Especially because at the end there, you mention Azebansis's grip on Liselotte's "hands," plural.

Click to shrink...

I meant to imply that the other parts were still lying next to her when Azebansis found her and that she also carried them back with her. The "hands" thing is just a typo. This is what happens when you just throw your chapters out without a beta reader, folks