Boredom & Clockwork
By Twin Kats
Beta'd By 1337kitsune

Clockwork stared blankly at the many screens laid out in front of him, watching all of Time flow around him. And below him. And above him. And through him….He watched and thought. Thought and watched. It was, sadly, the typical lifestyle of Clockwork, Master of Time. This particular lifestyle had been his for many millennia. Or more correctly billions of years.

To put it quite simply: Clockwork was bored as hell.

Oh sure, the Master of Time got his entertainment through watching the vastness of the multiverse dance around him, but there was only so many times you could watch The Doctor jaunt off through Time (silly Gallifreyan's claiming Lordship over Time when Time only had one Master, and it certainly wasn't they!)! Or even watching the numerous alternative Sherlock Holmes and John Watsons solve their little mysteries (the ones in the years 2000 were quite the enjoyable pair)….

There was even that Stark guy who built the Ironman suite, or any number of other superheroes that he checked up on every now and then from the future.

He wasn't really trying too hard to keep track of the current date at the moment.

Anyway, the point of fact being was that the Master of Time had, after billions of years, found himself bored. It was a novel feeling, but the novelty of feeling bored had worn off not too long ago. Now it was just irksome, especially since he had no real way of alleviating the boredom.

After all, he must watch Time and not meddle (despite the fact that yes, he does meddle; why just the other day he'd gone and made it so that Uther Pendragon's wife, Ygraine, would fail to conceive again. He really hadn't liked seeing the man cheat on her after all) for if he (obviously instead of sneakily) meddles then he risks bringing the Observants down into his Tower.

And Clockwork really did not like the Observants. They were annoying one-eyed pests who thought they could boss him—HIM, Clockwork, MASTER OF TIME—around! No, Clockwork did not like the Obsverants. At. All. Not that Clockwork was being egotistical. Nope, no egotism there. Really.

…okay maybe a little, but when one can control, actually control, the vastness of Time itself? Well…one does deserve a bit of egotism then, don't they? Just a smidgeon, yes?

…oh screw off! Besides, that's not the point. The point is that Clockwork is bored and there is nothing he can do!

Really can't he just have fun (and no, meddling didn't count as fun...well, sort of) for once? A little vacation from all the nuances of watching Time…? It's not like he really has to be here to see it, does he? After all, he can be in two places at once!

…wait….

Clockwork felt like hitting himself over the head with his Time Scepter. Really. How could he have missed that?

And so, with that simple thought, a rather devious plan began forming. Of course a vacation wasn't really worth it if he found himself randomly wondering and worrying about the Timeline, and really the world his Tower existed in wasn't all that fun to tour…so he would have to find a way to temporarily make himself forget his duties (well, part of him at least) and find a way to vacation elsewhere….

He had always wondered just whatit was like to live like one of those humans he so often watched….

Smirking as the entire plan quite literally fell into place Clockwork calmly raised his Time Scepter up towards the screens. There was no flash of light, nor any other real indication that anything untoward or unusual was going on except that from the floating form of Clockwork stepped—and yes, that was the word stepped, as in with literal legs and everything—out another Clockwork, this one was without the Time Scepter. This Clockwork then reached one gloved hand up and touched the screen that was hovering in front of him…and was gone.

The second Clockwork-who held the Time Scepter unlike the original that had just vanished-calmly tilted the Scepter towards one of the screens, causing the image to change abruptly. It now showed the newborn face of a baby boy born on the outskirts of King Cenred's lands in what would later be known as Albion….A baby boy whose eyes flashed gold.

Clockwork—the second one—grinned. This was gonna be fun.

ONWARDS TO THE AUTHORS NOTE!

Weeee! I'm...having fun XD Would you believe me if I said I came up with this upon lack of sleep?

And yes, for any BBC Merlin fans...that was baby Merlin. Can you connect the dots...? 8D

So, there will be a "sequel" to this oneshot story. The sequel is currently in works, including summary. I had this idea original started with its sequel but then I was like...wait, wouldn't it be better if I gave it some backstory first...? And thus this rather little confusing oneshot thing. Be happy, I was otherwise gonna drop you guys on your heads into a dive bomb of a half-thought-out-upon-sleep-deprivation story. Meh.

Yes, so everyone knows if they wonder, this little thing will eventually be popping up on the LJ archive of mine (once I finally get around to sprucing and adding and fixing that thing up) and will be on the ArchiveOfOurOwn site as well as FFN and my own site that is not LJ (but is still be put up, sadly) but that's...way in the future. So yeah. Enjoy...really.

Beta's Notes :Woo. . . Hi there. I'm Michee/1337kitsune, I'm the new Beta for this story. -bows lightly- I hope to get along with all of you as I help Twin Cats with her story. Also, excuse any mistakes we make. We are human, and this is my first time being Beta. Enjoy. Enjoy what? It's the end of the story! Shut up Kit!

You are such a doll, darling. Really. Just remember…its Kats with a K or TK for short, luv :D