HAIII
I have a QUESTION!
what piece of world building do u really like that makes a lot of sense in your au?
HELLOOO SORRY THIS IS LATe i swear everything in my inbox is rotting from neglect. BUT I'M GONNA ANSWER ITALL
hopefully i answer this right but.... i really like all the machine lore in my wip ! the whole "time is currency" thing that i mentioned obviously takes the spotlight in terms of my world's defining features, but machines and the energy that powers them also plays a pretty big role! the gist of it is basically, CLOCKED OUT's city of klairva is mainly fueled by electricity, which is generated in power plants and produced by huge watches wound up by the Clockmaker when he was alive. it's one of the reasons why the city is able to survive with so little land area and such a dense population; essentially, there's an infinite source of energy. however, since the energy source is tied to magic (like a lot of things in my world lmao), it will undoubtedly collapse if the magic ends up dying. or if, you know, the creator of that magic has been considered dead for half a century...
exempt from all this, though, are automatons - half-sentient machines who can take orders but not think for themselves. this is where lola comes in with her mechanic expertise: she makes and fixes automatons! automatons aren't powered by electric batteries, but rather by "keys" - which must be blessed by a Cardinal. the only magical aspect of these keys are the ability to bestow the machine with a half-consciousness (think modern day AI/robots, who can respond to stimuli but don't think or themselves), and keep the machine running without constantly having to be winded (an automatic key instead of a manual one!)
lola, however, has nothing to do with the magic of it all. she deals with the grit, the gears and the grease and the details and dimensions. the design. and i want to capitalize on this human/machine, creator/creation dynamic throughout the whole story - what defines humanity? if your body is ruined into metal, if someone tells you what to do and you obey, does that mean you are more of a machine? if someone else controls how long you live for, are you no different than a generator? the human as a machine and the god as its creator....hm.....
but anyway! i hope this relationship becomes clearer as i write it bc.... all i have rn are vibes LMAOOOO and i don't fully know how i'm gonna represent this or if i have too many elements interacting with each other etc etc TT i might end up toning this down so that my world isn't so magic-reliant (maybe have them use fossil fuels or something idk lmaooo) - but yeah, i like how the whole "time is currency" interacts w the city's machinery as a parallel representing humans as the machines and the cardinals/the Clockmaker as their creator. (i just realized i could've just said that last sentence instead of that massive info dump but.... oh well KLDJALKDJKD)