A Ticking Heart is a story project created by Maerichii in January 2023 and published in December 2025. The story features steampunk and gaslamp elements, and it is set in the Victorian era of London, Britain.
Cynthia lived a life of luxury as the star actress at the Great Marionette Theatre until her selfish heart was replaced by a ticking time bomb. Forced to locate a hidden treasure by a serial killer, Cynthia has to sacrifice her precious reputation for her life, which leads her to meet a mysterious inventor and a child detective, who accompany her on her journey, as well as to discover many secrets—before time runs out.
Genre: Adventure, Fantasy, Comedy
Date Created: Mid-January 2023
Date Published: December 2025
Chapters: 26
WIKI Status: WORK IN PROGRESS…
In steampunk London 1856, Cynthia, a star actress at the Great Marionette Theatre, accuses her maid named Miss Acacia, of attempting to steal her expensive clock necklace, which she does out of jealousy for her beauty. After being confronted by her director, Mangiafuoco, Cynthia leaves the theatre in rage. Alone in the streets, Cynthia gets surrounded by fog, where she is abducted by Jack the Ripper, a serial killer who is the cause of the suicides of five women after their hearts were replaced with time bombs. No one exploded since their hearts stopped, which paused the countdowns of the bombs. Cynthia finds herself chained in an abandoned laboratory. Through a phonograph, Jack explains that a time bomb is implanted around her heart, along with a clock attached to her chest. Jack tells Cynthia that he will bring her the key to defusing the bomb only if Cynthia succeeds in finding a lost treasure called Pandora's Box within three days.
After finding the keys to unlock her chains, ****Cynthia escapes the laboratory and returns to the theatre, where Mangiafuoco fires her for being absent for a week and missing out on her plays. Cynthia ends up drinking in a bar and gets drunk, eventually passing out. She awakens in a workshop where she meets a doctor and the inventor of Mechanical Hearts, which serves to temporarily replace failed hearts, called Mr. Marionette, who examines her clock heart. He takes Cynthia to the British Museum to examine the Paramythia Crystal, a magical crystal that serves as the key to Pandora's Box. According to a young boy proclaiming to be a junior detective called Herlock JR, Pandora's Box can be found in the two islands that link to London: Neverland and Extraordinarium. Arsene Lupin, a renowned thief, strikes a heist and steals the Paramythia Crystal. Cynthia, Mr. Marionette, and Herlock chase after Lupin, who later secretly meets Cynthia and reveals that the crystal glows when she is around, deeming her to be its ‘Key Maiden’. He suggests talking to the crystal enthusiast Captain Hook at the docks of Neverland to gain more answers. Lupin leaves Cynthia confused. After returning the crystal to the museum, Cynthia explains to the two what Lupin told her.
The next morning, Cynthia encountered a journalist named Philip Jester who demanded answers for her sudden unemployment and the reasons behind her disappearances. Mr. Marionette whisks her away to the train station, along with Herlock. In the train, Cynthia encounters Jack the Ripper, who reminds her of the days she has remaining before disappearing into the fog. The group arrives in Neverland but discovers Hook is absent as he is hunting for jewels around the Mermaid Lagoon. The group goes to the lagoon and enters the cave, where there are more Paramythia Crystals that glow upon Cynthia's presence. They discover a puzzle box and get chased by sirens. After being rescued by a group of pirates, they are taken hostage on an airship called the Jolly Roger, where they meet Hook. Captain Hook examines Cynthia and the Paramythia Crystal which he revealing that Cynthia is indeed the Key Maiden of both the crystal and Pandora's Box—making her the only one able to open the treasure. He notices a mark on Cynthia's palm that began to form when Cynthia touched the crystal. The Jolly Roger is then chased by Queen Victoria's ship, guarded by General Mister Joe. Captain Hook drops the group off in the Extraordinarium, where they meet Miss Acacia, who saves them from the citizens’ chaos.
Cynthia ends up arguing with Acacia and storms out in the rain. She finds shelter in an abandoned workshop on a hill and countless blueprints of inventions. Jack appears and reveals his past, that the real identity of Mr. Marionette is his mother, Madeleine, the one who hid Pandora's Box and left behind two puzzle boxes that contained riddles to locate the treasure. Herlock comes, and Jack leaves. Cynthia explains her discoveries to Herlock, and the two began to suspect that Mr. Marionette has been with them. They return to Acacia, and Cynthia apologizes for her previous behaviour. Acacia forgives her and offers them the knowledge of the Key Maidens. Acacia reveals that Key Maidens are women who are cursed to open Pandora's Box, which contains evil. Only one Key Maiden can live, lest the curse be transferred to another should one die. The group learns that Madeleine was a Key Maiden who was captured and imprisoned in the Queen’s Buckingham Palace on a floating island called Laputa, after stealing the box and hiding it.
Before her arrest, she left behind the two puzzle boxes and died in prison, resulting in Jack's vengeance, which led him to become a serial killer to find a Key Maiden who can solve his mother's riddles, thus targeting five potential Key Maidens that resulted in their suicides in fear of being painfully killed by their bomb hearts. The second music box is located in the tower of Extraordinarium. Despite the dangerous obstacles, the group manages to find the box, but the tower rings out a siren alarm. Mister Joe, the Queen's general who is also Acacia's husband, arrives at the tower with his guards. He chases the group until they get on board the running train in time. During the ride, Mr. Marionette and Herlock attempt to solve the puzzle boxes, much to their failure, making Cynthia panic since the last day before her time limit would be tomorrow.
Upon their arrival in London, Jester exposes Mr. Marionette’s real identity as a criminal called ‘Pinnocchio to which the latter is forced to flee the crowd, taking Cynthia with him and leaving Herlock to handle the situation. They hide in the slums, and Mr. Marionette reveals that he was accused of murdering his foster father, Geppetto, and took on the name of his dead teacher, Madeleine, the identity of the pseudonym she used to become an inventor. Mr. Marionette takes out the first music box to solve it. After some time, Cynthia and Mr. Marionette solve the puzzle of the music box and find a riddle saying, “Always escaping and running and going, and can never be stopped no matter the aching, yet I live always and older than earth,” which results in Time. Herlock, meet up with the two, and solve the riddle: “As still as a statue, mighty as a whale, but forever stuck as birds rest to tell a tale,” which results in a Building. With these two answers, the result is the Big Ben.
With Lupin's help, the group puts on disguises and passes through Big Ben. Despite being caught and chased, Cynthia reaches the peak of the Big Ben and finds Pandora's Box, unsealing it. Jack appears behind her, demanding she open the box in exchange for the key to defusing her bomb heart, much to Cynthia's reluctance. However, Mr. Marionette catches up and knocks down the two.
Cynthia awakens in a prison cell and meets the queen, Alexandrina, and discovers that she is in Laputa and Buckingham Palace. Alexandrina attempts to convince Cynthia to open the box for the greater good, but Cynthia still refuses, aware of her wicked ideals. Alexandrina leaves, and Herlock arrives to bail Cynthia out. They find Jack, who is also imprisoned and refuses their help, finding no reason to bail him out after his crimes. He revealed that the key to Cynthia’s heart was kept by Mr. Marionette, who caught them and has been Alexandrina’s spy after he was forced to manipulate Cynthia into locating the box and unlocking its seal, and is motivated by wanting to solve Madeleine’s puzzles as well as Jack’s. Cynthia notices that Mr. Marionette is pained by his actions, and she convinces him to turn his back on the Queen, who later appears and threatens Mr. Marionette at gunpoint.
Cynthia then throws a flash bomb that was given to her by Lupin as a distraction and escapes with Herlock. Mr. Marionette decides to turn his back on the Queen and leads the two to the rescue airships to return to London. They are caught and chased. The impact of the chase causes Cynthia to fall, with Pandora's Box in her hand. As the countdown in her bomb heart decreases each second, Cynthia is willing to die if it means destroying the box. The epilogue reveals that Cynthia is still alive after a year in a coma, with her bomb heart replaced with a Mechanical Heart that was implanted by Mr. Marionette before he fled London from his captors after his identity was exposed. The mark in Cynthia's palm remains, but Pandora's Box is lost in the deep oceans where no could could survive. Cynthia and Herlock rejoice in the success of their adventure along with Lupin, Hook, and Acacia.
CYNTHIA
MR. MARIONETTE
HERLOCK JR.
JACK THE RIPPER
ARSENE LUPIN
MISS ACACIA
MISTER JOE
ALEXANDRINA
CAPTAIN HOOK
MANGIAFUOCO
PHILIP JESTER
MADELEINE
Steampunk London is ruled by Queen Alexandrina Victoria, who resides in the floating castle of Laputa above London. The city is blessed with two stars, which lead to two different magical places that can open at certain times. The star to the right leads to Neverland, a magical place inhabited by fairies, mermaids, and pirates. This land is accessible from midnight until morning. The star to the left leads to Extraordinarium, a mysterious place inhabited by those born with the strangest abilities and talents. This land is accessible from morning until dawn. It would take an airship to arrive in Neverland and a train to Extraordinarium.
London is inhabited by many inventors, scientists, and artists. Ever since the Great Britain War ended, which took the lives of many soldiers and the queen’s husband, Queen Victoria had aggressively pushed for more technological innovation to secure her land. Thus, her people are overworked and forced to come up with new inventions. The Mechanical Hearts were then invented by a mysterious and unseen inventor whom the public calls Mr. Marionette, a device that can force a failed heart to pump, but it ****cannot guarantee to successfully save a person’s life.
During the few years of the Mechanical Hearts’ time, London became haunted by a serial killer called Jack the Ripper, who implanted Mechanical Hearts with time bombs around his female victims’ hearts, giving a quick and destructive death. Many claim that he secretly held a permit from the Queen, which caused scandals, while others started to accuse Mr. Marionette. Since then, Mechanical Hearts have been abolished by the Queen, and Mr. Marionette was forgotten. Queen Victoria became stricter with her land and people, causing them hardships to endure, all for the sake of London, in fear of war.
