Chapter Text
Timothy is what can be considered a lonely person.
He has exactly 3 hours a day where Timothy can socialize, and the rest, he tends to keep himself secluded. Mostly because Timmy isn’t exactly… a people person, as Timothy likes to say it. He’s better off hidden away from sight. Unfortunately, Timothy’s tight schedule doesn’t exactly allow him to socialise with the other objects too often – He has to make sure everyone’s on time, after all. And that doesn’t leave much time for friendship.
After meeting the human, however, and falling in love with them (how could he not, when they were the only ones in the house, sans a certain someone else, who understood his love for timeliness and scheduling?), something in him seemed to loosen up.
He got happier, and despite the human not really coming back to talk to him often, he had definitely broken his schedule for them a few times, and… surprisingly, he felt fine. And the other objects seemed to notice the change – he got less commanding, less restrictive with his schedules.
The change was pretty noticeable, considering that before it he would yell at the others if they weren’t on time with their purposes. But now, he just gives small reminders if he deems it necessary, instead spending most of his time on his clocks or – on the rare occasion that they come to see him again – his master.
Other than those 2 things, his schedule is filled with what can best be simplified into people-watching. He sits around, and observes. Mainly in the kitchen or the bedroom, occasionally in the living room. Those were his favorite spots to watch the house and make sure everything’s going according to schedule. Well… according to his schedule.
Something else Timothy was also aware of was the amount of gossip in the house; Until the human, they were all alone on this plane of existence, only having each other for company. And it’s clear as day that most of them do not get along. Therefore, they turn to gossip. Among other things, like flirting and casual relationships.
Timothy never engaged in gossip, not frequently, anyways. He had no reason to, nor any time to discuss silly things like that.
-
“I would put money down that he’s the easiest to get with. At least from the ones I know.”
“Money? Really? How much?”
“What are you guys talking about?” Dorian budged in on Bathsheba and Rebel, unable to help his own curiosity.
“We’re betting on who’s the easiest to duck.” Rebel turned to him with a smirk, while Bathsheba just chuckled from the side, watching Dorian’s disapproving expression as he stood back in his spot, probably regretting ever asking. Curt, on the other hand, seemed thrilled to get in on the conversation.
“Oh, shit, really? Who’s winning?” he asked, stepping away from the window despite Rod’s annoyance at his leaving.
“The clock, according to Reb.” Bathsheba said, her tone mocking more than anything.
Rebel rolled her eyes. “Come on, you KNOW I’m right! All you have to do is act interested in his stupid ducking clocks and he’ll bend over.”
“Kind of harsh, b- HEY!” Curt began, but was pulled back to the window by Rod.
“ANYWAYS,” Rebel continued, “As I said, I would put money down that he’s easy.” “Oh please, no he’s not. How would you even prove that?” Bathsheba rolled her eyes playfully, crossing her arms.
Rebel paused for a moment, and then smirked. “Actually… I have an idea. But we’re going to need everyone in on it.”
Bathsheba looked… mildly concerned for a moment, but intrigue overtook it in mere seconds. “Go on… In fact, I know just the person to spread the information.”
-
“Seriously?” Lux asked, giving a judgemental look towards the gorgeous woman in front of them. “This is beneath me.”
“Come on, Lux, don’t you see the potential? This could cause a lot of drama, that we can gossip about later! I mean, it’s not like you’re actually getting involved, it’s just… spreading a little rumor.”
“And how will you even keep track of how many people fell for it?”
“We’ll figure something out.”
“You don’t have a plan.” “Why does it matter to you?” Bathsheba pouted a bit, but her eyebrows were furrowed so it came out as more of a scowl.
“It’s extra effort for me, and we won’t even be able to gossip about it because you’d have no way of knowing.” Lux opened their phone, clearly hinting towards the end of the conversation.
“Fine, fine… how about… Oh!” Bathsheba perked up, snapping her fingers at Lux to get their attention before continuing. “What if we just have them tell us?”
Lux, unconvinced, rolled their eyes. “Wow. Brilliant plan. Except they wouldn’t tell us, genius.”
“No, we’ll have everyone put in a little bit of money if they want to participate! We’ll have… some sort of– anonymous way to say you did it, we can plant a camera or something!” Bathsheba quickly explained, brushing off the insults for the sake of stirring drama. “Come on, this is a plan. Do it for an old friend?”
“...”
Lux sighed, glancing at their phone, and then up at Bathsheba. “Fine. This better be worth it…”
-
Dorian had been staring down at his phone for a good minute, almost neglecting his duty to guard the entrance to the office when some big curly hair caught his attention, and he looked up.
“Heyyyy Dorian, so did you, like, also get added to this groupchat, where, uhm…” Penelope showed him her own phone, the group chat open on hers too, and he nodded.
“I did, yeah. Do you know who made it?” Dorian asked, glancing at his phone again before placing it away in his pocket.
“No… I was hoping you would. It’s just called ‘Settling A Bet’?” Penelope looked down at her phone too, letting her gaze linger longer than Dorian’s did.
Ping!
From both of their phones, a notification sound went off, and they went to check it. The message read as such:
“Hello, fellow inhibitors of the house.
Unfortunately, me and a friend of mine got into a mild disagreement about how easy it is to sleep with Timothy Timepiece, and we have money on it. The bet is this:
If he agrees to have sex with more than 5 people in the next week (starting tomorrow night), anyone who bet on him being a whore wins. Otherwise, we win.
Feel free to try all you want to sleep with him (as long as it’s consentual)
Place bets here:
[randombettingsite.link.com]
Otherwise, if you sleep with him, mark it down in the following file (it’s anonymous): [randomfile]
Goodluck!”
After a few awkward seconds of both of them reading, Dorian looked up with a sigh.
“On second thought… I know exactly who made this.”
Penelope closed her phone. “I’m not getting involved in any of this. It’s too mean.” She paused for a moment, looking up at Dorian. “...Do we tell him?”
Dorian shrugged, placing his phone away again.
“He’s bound to find out one way or another, isn’t he?”
-
Meanwhile, back in the bedroom, Timothy was cleaning one of his pocket watches, unfortunately aware of Betty’s occasional glances at him. He wasn’t sure why she was looking, and he couldn’t quite bring himself to care. She’s most likely just jealous of his exquisite collection of watches.
He only has about 10 minutes until Timmy, but he’s luckily almost done with his routine cleaning. Perfectly on time, as always. Timmy will probably just take a nap or something. Things have been quite boring lately for Timothy, but that’s the way he likes it; mundane and predictable.
As he put the last watch back in place and watched the final seconds tick down, he sighed, hoping that tomorrow will be the same as today. No distractions.