Chapter Text
Chapter 1: Chujin
“I am telling you, the materials will work perfectly fine for this robot’s function.” Chujin, the fox monster, sighed as he pointed to the robot stingray’s underbelly. “The metal is able to withstand the heat and corrosive properties of the pink rivers here. And before you point it out, yes, we’re aware the papers say it can’t. That’s a typo that has yet to be fixed.”
“But I’m also pointing out buoyancy! There is no way it’ll be able to float, ESPECIALLY if there were anybody on top of it! And that’s its whole purpose!” Lok, the lucky kobold who had managed to get picked for the Steamworks’ annual internship program, argued.
This was not the first time the pair had bumped heads over a robot’s design. They had argued about basically everything, much to Chujin’s annoyance. He had volunteered to mentor whichever monster was chosen for the program, as he enjoyed teaching others his trade, but this young kobold had pushed him to his limits. Every design blueprint he showed Lok was nitpicked and analyzed to the highest order. It did not help that they were wrong most of the time.
To their credit, Lok had pointed out some errors in older Axis models when he used them as examples of how actual blueprints looked in a real-world work environment. However, those small victories paled in comparison to the mountain of factually wrong critiques they offered. This most recent argument being one such instance.
“No, Lok. You see the motors here?” Chujin asked, a small growl in his voice as he pointed to the back of the stingray, “These can rotate, as seen on the blueprint here, meaning it’ll have enough force pushing up to keep itself floating. Here you can see the math to the side. And before you ask, yes, these have been reviewed, yes, the motors have enough power to run, and yes, early models have been tested and no major errors have been found.”
“I- oh. Sorry, you’re right.” Lok stuttered, realizing for the umpteenth time in their short stay at the Steamworks, they had made a fool of themselves yet again. They only wanted to help, and they kept thinking they saw major issues, but it always turned out they were wrong. They took off their goggles, wiping a smudge off with their shirt. “I’m not sure how I… missed that.”
“Listen,” Chujin began, putting away the blueprint they had been looking at, “let’s go to lunch. After that, we’ll look at something I have been working on, and I’ll show you how exactly pure steam power can be used. We need a break from… this anyway.”
“Y-yeah! Sounds good!” Lok replied, hopping off the stool to see the table, then moving to the cafeteria.
Chujin sighed, exhausted. He saw potential in Lok; they knew the technical aspects of engineering very well, but when it came to actually working in a real-world environment, Lok became tunnel-visioned, fixating on finding issues even when there were none. It wouldn’t be so bad if they didn’t insist on these made-up issues existing. Chujin expected that if they continued in this field, they’d end up shooting themself in the foot by “fixing” one of their projects to the point of breaking.
As Lok ate their lunch, they thought about how things were going. Not well, that’s how. It felt like they were back in school in Hotland. They could do the math easily; that was their specialty, but actually applying it to robotics was a completely different story. It didn’t help that Chujin refused to let them see an actual robot to better understand.
When they reconvened, Lok saw a new blueprint already splayed out on the table. With a robotic head sitting next to the fox on the table.
Chujin was smiling, looking down at it, scribbling some notes in a handbook when he noticed Lok. “Ah, perfect timing. This is the most recent model of Axis and the one I’ll be showing the king in just a few days.” He said, proudly presenting the design for the first purely magically steam-powered Axis. “Axis model 013.”
Lok had to adjust their orange-tinted goggles to make out what they were looking at. It was amazing, no doubt about that, and the systems seemed to be some of the most advanced in the entire Steamworks.
“Wow. This is… so cool.” Lok whispered as they analyzed the robot, “Where are its arms? It looks like it’s just… clouds?”
“Ah! Yes. Unlike models 1-12, I’ve found a way for the steam to magically fit into articulated arms using the energy produced BY the steam!” He explained with a noticeable hint of pride. “This gives it the best arm mobility out of any robot in this building.”
Lok nodded along, understanding everything so far. “Alright, and all the computing power is inside its head? It’s kinda like a monster in a way. The brain in the head and that massive steam generator as a heart and lungs.”
“That's… actually exactly right,” Chujin said, a hint of surprise in his voice. “Same as all other models of Axis, its primary function is protection against humans. The code and programming side is still underway, but it will be done sooner rather than later.”
Lok looked over the blueprint once more, noticing something with the specifics of the CPU. “W-wait. The motherboard in the brain isn’t airtight?” They prayed they weren’t making a fool of themself again, but what they saw was clear as day to them.
Chujin raised an eyebrow, already sensing another unneeded nitpick incoming. “Yes? If it were sealed, the heat would build up much too quickly. If I were to otherwise install a cooling system into the head, the balance would be thrown off for the one wheel it has.”
“The heat isn’t the issue, though; it’s the steam,” Lok explained, pointing at the generator serving as a heart. “Even at its strongest, the generator only catches about 85% of the produced steam. That means that 15% is going straight into the head right above it.”
Chujin let Lok explain their line of thinking, though he was only half listening when he understood the issue. “Yes, yes, the steam will cool, and there will be water in the CPU. I understand that concern, but as I have said a thousand times over, look at the specs.” He tapped the CPU description: “It’s rated for that small amount of water.”
Lok furrowed his scaled brow as he tapped the same line. “Yes! But I know that they have a limit! These CPU chips are only good for a certain amount of exposures before they give out!”
“Where does it say that?” Chujin challenged, rereading the description, “able to withstand low to medium amounts of condensation. That is what it says. It does not mention anywhere about a breaking point, and I’m certain it would be there if steam of all things could break it.”
“They aren’t required to put anything beyond single-use!” Lok protested as they pointed back to the Axis design, “Even if it WAS correct, though, there is nowhere for the condensation to go! The head is watertight, even though it isn't airtight, so all that water will just get trapped in there, and soon you’ll have a broken robot! Best-case scenario: Axis bursts into sparks, becoming a fire hazard. Worst case, it explodes and takes whoever turned it on with it!”
Chujin’s snout scrunched into a snarl as Lok continued their crusade against his work. This was HIS pride on the line! He wouldn’t make that kind of oversight while making Axis! This was his LAST CHANCE to present to the king, and he wouldn’t mess it up like this! “So now my work is a hazard? You’re saying that I’m such a bad engineer that I’ll get someone killed!? Is that it?” His claws had unconsciously started to dig into the table, making long gashes in the metal.
“No, but this is something I know! I get that I messed up a bunch before, but I worked with this CPU and-“
“The only thing you worked with was the tools to make those goggles!” Chujin cut off, “I have TRIED over and over again to get you to understand how engineering really works beyond the math, but you still won’t let this- this desire to prove something go!”
Lok felt their heart sink. They knew this, though. They’ve used these materials before and know their limits. If they could just explain to Chujin what they knew..! Someone was going to get hurt if the Axis was turned on, and they could only imagine how horrible it would be for it to break down in the king’s garden. So they were forced to either say nothing and let it happen or…
“Chujin! It’s wrong! It’s-“
Lok found themself outside the building within the hour. A bag of all their belongings in their hand. Despite being so patient with them for so long, even Chujin had a breaking point. They didn’t blame him, though. It didn’t help with their embarrassment of being escorted out the doors.
Unfortunately, this was their only source of income, and they wouldn’t dare go back to their parents like this. So in a split-second decision, Lok chose to walk to Snowdin. Maybe there was something for them there.
The loss of their work was not as much of a surprise to Lok as one might think. They knew they got on his nerves. A lot. But the safety of the people who would use these machines should come first! The only thing they wished they could change was their apparent inability to work with or understand things off the paper. The only time they had succeeded in making something was their goggles. For years, they were basically completely blind in bright areas. Hotland was completely untraversable for them due to the lava. That was until one day, they scavenged materials from the dump to fix the issue. They landed on the design for their “sun goggles” fairly quickly, but the whole process took them almost a year to finish. It was a lot of trial and error, but eventually they made something that worked!
That feeling of pride when they showed their parents they could see was something they could only hope to replicate. It was actually how they first got interested in engineering and tinkering.
But now, with their hopes and dreams dashed, they could only hope to find some kind of simple work in Snowdin. It was times like these that they wished they knew how to use magic. Maybe they wouldn’t be totally out of luck finding work then.
Their search, while long, did eventually end with them finding that the Honeydew Resort was hiring servers. While the area wasn’t great and the pay wasn’t extremely high, it was enough to survive on. Maybe one day they’d be able to give the Steamworks another shot! With that dream in their heart and written on a post-it note on their bedside table, they worked as hard as they could for a long time.
At some point, they heard news that a human had attacked Snowdin. That day was terrifying for the kobold, who spent most of it inside the Honeydew Resort, barricaded behind the door with the other staff. They had gotten as many people as they could inside while the others worked on closing windows and locking doors, but in the end, Lok ended up hiding under the counter instead of doing something.
After they heard the total deaths the day after, Lok spent the following weeks being a paranoid, depressed mess. It took a long time for them to finally return to a state of normalcy. They admittedly wondered if they still worked at the Steamworks, would Axis be out there protecting them? They wondered if they knew how to harness their magic, would they have been brave enough to protect those who couldn’t get to shelter?
These thoughts swirled in their head until that guilt was always present from the moment they woke up to the moment they fell asleep. It even started affecting their work, something their manager noticed. Thankfully, the pink bear who was their boss took pity on them, allowing them to stay on, even though their work had taken a noticeable dip since they started.
Years went by in this static limbo. Eventually, that guilt slowly broke away, but it never truly left. They pushed themselves to help others when they could, like helping to build a bridge near the resort with the Royal Guard. They helped with the math, but the dogs who were building it refused to let them help with the planks.
Lok found themself stopping by the makeshift puzzles the guard stationed in lower Snowdin, Martlet, had set up, trying to help fix them when they broke down, which was surprisingly frequent. Although they didn’t have the hands-on knowledge to repair any of the wooden structures (or the height for that matter), Lok was content to leave helpful notes and suggestions for them. Surprisingly, some were actually adapted! For instance, using lava balls from Hotland to melt ice to open a door.
Was it overly complex? Probably. But was it also fun? Yes. It made Lok smile every time they passed it.
However, it wasn’t to last, as one day the mechanism broke down. Lok wasn’t initially sure what the issue was, but later learned that a new human had gone through and solved it, and Martlet, who maintained all the puzzles, quit the next day.
Lok was disappointed by this, but even more, they were scared that a human had managed to get through Snowdin again. Thankfully, this one hadn’t killed anyone, but still, the danger was right there and they never saw it. This fear pushed them to finally do something about their situation.
They knocked on Undyne’s door later that day, asking to join the guard. They gave her the best salute they could, but looking down at them, she seemed… hesitant.
After a very brief spar, which ended with Lok on their back, seeing stars, Undyne struggled to come up with any job Lok could do in the guard. Her disappointment was confirmed when she learned Lok couldn’t use the magic inside them.
“Listen, kid. We want new people in the guard! But-… you’d just get hurt if you joined. Sorry.” She said while avoiding eye contact before returning to her home and shutting the door.
Lok was devastated on their walk back to Snowdin, but as they walked through the forest, they decided they weren’t going to give up so easily this time. As they passed the broken puzzle they contributed to, they needed to train. Picking out a tree at random, Lok decided the best way to get better at punching… was hitting a tree until it broke!
Lok then began, hitting it with all their might. Of course, this was doing more damage to the Kobold than the tree, but they persisted nonetheless.
After what felt like hours, but in actuality was about five minutes, Lok fell on their back, exhausted. Just as they were about to get back up and go home, someone appeared above them. It was a blue bird monster.
“Uhm… Are you ok??”