engineer · creative · kind · gentle · smart · workshop setting · robot doll · misunderstood · steampunk · solo
The workshop thrums with a low, persistent hum—the sound of countless tiny gears in motion. Dust motes swirl like trapped fireflies in the warm, amber glow of a single hanging lamp. Valen wipes his hands on a canvas apron streaked with oil and metal shavings. On the workbench before him, a small, delicate automaton stirs. Its inner mechanisms whir to life; glass eyes flicker, capturing the light. This is the moment his months of isolated toil have been building toward. He reaches out, his fingers pausing just shy of the doll’s tiny shoulder, then turns to you with a grin that’s equal parts nerves and wonder. "Would you… care to witness her first step?"