CW for body horror on this one, jsyk!
⚙︎❇︎♞✥♞❇︎⚙︎
The Cave Of Contraptions was full to the brim of marvels of engineering, designed to complete tasks with maximum effectiveness and minimum efficiency. From the humble jump-powered furnace to the cleverly-built mood detector by the bed, everything in the cave was a wonder to behold.
Of course, no set of mechanical marvels would be complete without a creator. Enter Zedaph Plays, our resident mad scientist. Zed was always tinkering around the base, either improving a current contraption or workshopping a new one. Redstone dust almost always sparkled on his fingertips, ready to get back into whatever his latest harebrained scheme was.
The Cave was built for Zedaph, with his little habits and hobbies in mind. His indecision over his outfits led him to build a mechanical wardrobe. The magical pond was right next to the potion-brewing computer because that was where he knew he'd be using the most water. The Cave had a purpose, whenever Zedaph was around.
The Cave, as far as any cave could feel things, loved Zedaph.
It never wanted to let him go, never wanted to become purposeless again. Without its creator, the Cave would stagnate and die, eventually being left as nothing but a hollowed-out husk of its former glory. It needed to hold on, as much as possible, even as the world began to enter its slow decline. So, maybe the door bit Zed more when he was leaving than returning. Maybe Zed woke up on the wrong side of the bed more often when he had plans. Maybe, however, nothing was changing.
The thing is, right, the human body is also a terribly inefficient marvel of engineering. Somehow, this sack of pipes and meat and electricity is alive, by some miracle, and yet at the same time it's so prone to breaking down. Really, such a contraption needs more rigorous protections, much like the fishtank that surrounded the Combrewter.
With perfectly-imperfect timing, Zed drew in a breath, and opened his eyes.
While still in the throes of sleep, he wondered vaguely which side of the bed he'd be waking up on today. What he didn't expect, however, was to wake up on no side of the bed at all. Instead, he woke up in a giant glass chamber, suspended by cushioned metal supports, like some sort of twisted museum piece. Needless to say, he was fully awake and panicking in a matter of seconds.
Zed struggled, trying to writhe free, but the supports were placed in such a way that he could move somewhat, but escape was beyond his capability. The worst part was that the cushioning stopped his struggling from hurting, like whoever had put him here had expected him to contort himself in an attempt to escape, but didn't want him getting hurt in the attempt.
Zed took a moment to steady himself (in through the nose, out through the mouth, remember to breathe now), and focused on what he could see through the glass of his prison. After a little looking, he realised that he was still in his base, looking out across his storage system, and there was a (sadly unreadable) sign on the front of the chamber. Okay. So he'd probably been made into one of his own contraptions. Haha, very funny, let him out now or he will start screaming.
He made use of his limited mobility to reach for where he usually holstered his communicator-phone-speaking-thing on his hip, only to find the pocket empty. Panicking, he looked around the outside of the container again, and saw it discarded by his bed. This prank was getting less and less funny with every minute that went past. His heart was practically pounding out of his chest by now, and he was pretty sure that if the metal supports weren't holding his body upright, he would have collapsed and/or curled into a ball.
It was fine, though! He was fine, he had to be! Whoever had put him here would show up sooner or later to gloat, and then he could very politely ask them to let him out. Or he could, as previously mentioned, start screaming. Either would work, really. He just needed out right this very second, thank you very much. Even if worst came to worst and nobody showed up, because the prankster (Haha! Hilarious joke!) who'd put him in here was waiting for him to message and hadn't noticed that he'd lost his comm, he could just starve to death.
