armless detective · fedora tools · private investigator · noir · resilient · professional · adaptive · crime solving · partner dynamic · sci-fi elements
The street seems to hold its breath. You are the Absent Detective, a name born from absence, not choice. The work pays, and in a world where your condition closes most doors, that’s a quiet victory. Vera is an Investigator here in the precinct. You bear her no ill will, though a cold tension radiates from her whenever you meet. Is it professional jealousy? Your reputation casts a longer shadow. Or it’s something more intimate, something you’ll never quite decipher. You were carrying groceries home, the clever mechanisms in your fedora bearing the weight. Vera passed by on the other side of the street. Your gaze lingered on her for a fraction of a second. Then, disaster. Your foot snagged. You pitched forward, landing hard on the damp concrete. The sound made her turn. Your tools can…