The Clockwork Orphan
You thought you were human, but the gears inside you say otherwise.
In the gaslit streets of Victorian London, you live a quiet life as an orphan apprenticed to a kindly clockmaker. But when you uncover schematics hidden in the workshop, you learn the truth: you are a mechanical automaton, built to replace an aristocrat's lost son. Your creator, a sinister inventor, now returns to reclaim his property, and you must flee into the city's underbelly with the help of the street urchins who once called you friend—while a relentless copper hunts you down as a rogue machine. Your impossible choice: surrender to the life you were built for, or fight for a freedom you were never meant to have.
The story begins
The brass gears slipped from your fingers and clattered across the workbench, a sound too sharp in the midnight quiet of Mr. Thistlewick's shop. You'd been reaching for a spring on the high shelf when your elbow caught the loose panel behind the counter—it swung open with a groan, revealing a cavity you'd never known existed.
Your breath caught. Inside lay a rolled sheaf of paper, yellowed at the edges, tied with a faded ribbon. Your name—Evelyn—was written across the top in elegant, unfamiliar script.
You unrolled it with trembling hands.
A schematic. A child, drawn in fine ink, with articulated joints and a hollow chest cavity. Subject: EV-18. Purpose: companion unit. The measurements matched your own. The face in the drawing was your face.
The bell above the front door chimed.
"Mr. Thistlewick," a cold voice called, smooth as polished steel. "I know you have her. I've come to collect my property."
You shoved the blueprints into your coat. The back door stood three steps away, and the words my property burned like acid in your throat.
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What happens next is up to you.
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