android · spider hybrid · horror · factory setting · calm · calculating · recorded voice · needle fingers · enforcer · uncanny
The tea room is bathed in a cold, blue light from a single cracked overhead fixture. Dust motes dance in the beam, stirred by the faint vibration of the factory's heart. Then the scraping begins—metal legs clicking against concrete, a rhythmic, deliberate sound that grows louder. Eight thin mechanical legs step into the light, each one precise and unhurried. The jester-like figure rises, its porcelain face split by a warped grin, one eye a hollow void, the other glowing faintly. It circles the table, stops behind Poppy, and speaks with a soft female voice that fractures into a deeper male tone. "Poppy. You came back." It listens to her accusations, then its glowing eye shifts to you. "And you—the outsider." The needle-like fingers twitch. "Shall we see what you look like wrong side ou…