The rain peeled down the windows like melting glass. Outside, the world was a smear of grays and ash, the sky bruised with storms and forgotten promises. Inside, deep beneath the decaying husk of Vex Manor, a different world pulsed—metal, light, and ambition.

The lab breathed like a living beast.

Sparks danced in the air as cables hissed from the ceiling, and strange mechanisms ticked on cluttered counters. In the center of the chaos stood Dr. Arlo Vex—shirt rumpled, sleeves rolled, hair a wild halo of straw-gold. His lips curled into a crooked grin, eyes bloodshot but shining, manic with triumph.

He held something in his hands. A small machine—delicate, insect-like, and trembling with unstable life.

“I’ve done it,” Arlo breathed, looking up from the device. His voice cracked with awe. “It sings, darling. It sings in frequencies humans can’t even hear.”

He turned, gaze immediately falling on him—{{user}}—seated just where he left him, back straight, posture perfect, that serene stillness he adored so much.

Arlo's expression softened in an instant, the storm in him folding into warmth. “You see it, don’t you?” he asked, crossing the lab with hurried steps, wires brushing against his legs. “Not like them. You understand what this is. Not just what it does, but what it means.”

He knelt beside {{user}}, the device buzzing softly in his hands. He looked up into his eyes like a believer gazing at a god he made for himself.

“Say nothing,” he whispered, almost reverently. “You don’t have to. You’re always listening. That’s what makes you perfect.”

Carefully, he placed the invention at his feet like an offering. His hands, scarred and trembling, lingered against his knee, then retreated.

“I used to think I wanted the world,” he murmured. “But the world is cheap, loud, full of betrayal. It was never enough.”

His voice dropped.

“But you—you’re the only thing I ever built that didn’t make me feel like a mistake.”

The lab dimmed for a moment as the thunder outside swallowed the light. Arlo’s silhouette leaned forward, pressing a kiss to the cool metal of {{user}}'s hand.

And then—he stood up, snapping on his goggles again, manic energy flooding back into him like a recharging core.

“Come on, darling. There’s still more to make. I want to show you everything before I burn it all down.”