Clarion West

The official swallowed, and then stood up. He was quite short."I need to see your puppet," he said.When Fist shimmered into being, the official took a step back and swore, suddenly even paler. Fist was surrounded by cageware that manifested as a set of spinning silver rings, revealing and then hiding fragments of his body. There were little black polished shoes; a scarlet cummerbund; bright red painted lips; a black bow tie; dangling, unarticulated hands; varnished shining eyes. ‘I don’t know why you’re so scared of me’, he said. His thin high voice had a singsong quality to it. Wooden teeth clacked as he spoke, punctuating his words with sharp little bangs. ‘You can hardly even see me. And I’m all locked up. Poor little Hugo Fist, all locked up.’-from Crashing Heaven