Gearhead Story

>be me
>30 something mechanic
>talk with coworker one day
>”Hey anon, have you heard about this thing called steampunk?”
>He shows me the cosplay
>Old steam era clothes with goggles
>Nerf guns painted bronze
>And the gears
>Dear god, the gears on everything
>Start to go full autism on this crime against steam
>Gets even worse upon seeing airships
>Sure, blimps and zeppelins were things but these just looked slapped together
>No thought. No class.
>Years later, daughter gets into cosplay
>She starts asking the missus about making steampunk stuff
>She starts making a costume and I see the nerf gun getting spray painted
>Oh hell no
>If my girl’s gonna go out and start sticking cogs on shit, she’s gonna do it right
>Start spending weekends working on a “proper” steam weapon
>Months later I’m driving her to a convention
“Hang on, before you go…”
>Hand her model chemical thrower
>Looks like a rifle with tubes and vats and shit on it
>The look on her face when she saw it
>Never been a more proud father
>I drive off and already see people asking her about it
>Today was a good day




>It was around then that the truck hit me




>Be me
>Weird dragon horse mutant
>feel younger for some reason
>like I’m in my prime again
>Spent the first week or so freaking out about dying and being a horse mutant
>tfw never see wife and daughter again
>Weird looks don't help self greif
>Keep moping as a homeless horse in magic horseland
>Recognize this as some show my little girl used to watch
>No tears anon
>Too late for that
>Bum around in some nice winged horse’s house
>Finally get to see a mirror
>This is me now
>Some brass colored clawed horse freak
>Continue to mope for another week when I hear about a shipyard
>Apparently they have airships in magical horse land
>And they actually work
>Decide to check it out
>Might as well get a job so I can help pay this dude’s rent
>Start after a day and see the ass piping job in the engine room
>No wonder they didn’t wanna fly this, it was a ticking timebomb
>Mechanics and I gotta rework the entire piping system
>Start looking over plans
>Gear setup is inefficient as all hell
>Start reworking entire plan
>Add a gear shift feature just for good measure
>mfw I impress them and get to lead the reworking
>Start changing things out and notice someone left the engine on
>Fucking amateurs
>Rest of mechanics just leave because of the safety hazard
>I say fuck it and go back to getting this ship working
>Get face full of hot steam
>Dont even care
>Dragon horse bitch
>Turn off engine
>Keep working
>Get the room safe for the rest of the normal horses
>mfw get promoted to lead engineer
>mfw I basically own this ship
>mfw they start calling me Gearhead

>Start hearing about ships getting sent to Star Harbor
>Captain wants to send us there
>Navigator and I both tell him we can’t handle the Magistorm
>He goes anyways
>Ship gets harder to control
>mfw navigator and I called it
>mfw captain tries to jump ship while we try and pilot the thing to safety
>Get the rest of the crew to leave
>”What about you Gear?”
>This thing’s my baby now, I’m not losing it
>Crash and burn hard
>I’m okay, barely
>The crew made it to the Harbor anyways
>They save me from the wreckage and get me back to good health in the town
>Lost second daughter
>Check back on wreckage a while later
>Balloon’s toast and the engines are mostly out
>Hull still in good enough quality
>Some patchwork done on it and it could at least be seaworthy
>Shame it’s so far out from the harbor
>Still, the crew and I made it
>They’re all planning to go home when they can
>I wanna see what the captain was so excited about with the veil here