The boy worked diligently, hardly taking a moment to rest despite the unforgiving heat of the main boiler room. His white hair littered with specks of light grayish-orange because of the metal dusts. His green eyes shining with determination to finish the first iteration of "The Machine," as he liked to call it. This could revolutionize the future of steam. Sure, there were many other flying machines, such as the one that served as our city, but they were clunky and unconventional compared to the new design the boy was working on. Before, many trained professionals would have to man the machine at all times to ensure that they stayed in the air, but now, with this, it would only take one. This would allow the expansion of the land in the sky. The boy would prove that Advancements are still good and possible, even if things were fine as they were. That even someone as young as him, could be could be a Tinkerer. He would earn the title, only given to the best of the Artificers, through pure hard work and determination. He had put the past three months, along with blood, sweat, and tears, into this new and advanced system. Three, maybe four, days until his creation would finally be finished.
Ashe is the name of this boy, and this boy is me. My secondary name is Edward, after my grandfather. He is a great guy, in perfect shape, and one of the head Engineers, despite being in his mid sixties. I am sixteen, meaning that if I can manage to make this new system actually work soon, then I have a chance of being the youngest to be given the title of "Tinkerer," which would be a monumental achievement. The current record for it is twenty-seven, which belongs to the designer of our current flying machines. It used to belong original creator of flying mechanisms, the age being thirty-one, who later went on to reform that technology to be closer to what we have today. There hasn't been any improvement to the current mechanisms since before my grandfather was born, despite the many attempts. Eventually those who sought out the reformation of the mechanisms gave up and focused on technologies other than flying. Everyone else may have thrown in the towel, but I can feel it. It WILL work eventually.
The prototype may have been a metaphorical and literal train wreck, but it has to work eventually, right? According to the results of previous iterations, this one should be able to at least hold up a ship. I've realized that it may not be a good idea to go straight for the main goal, but rather to work up to it. I created miniature versions of this one before fully committing to this one and tested them with a miniature version of a ship I designed. It had the ability to stay suspended in the air as well as elevate and de-elevate. I doubt that the first itertion is going to work well enough for the ultimate goal, but hopefully it'll at least work well enough to reliably power a flying ship.
I look over at the clock I made for this ship and realize how late it is. 10 PM. No wonder I'm getting a bit tired. I finish up the last few things I was working on and go to the deck of the ship. I really take in my situation for the first time. I, a sixteen and a half year-old boy, have designed and created an airship, along with a steam power engine that would hopefully become revolutionary, and I did it all in the span of three months. This in itself is a massive feat even if it doesn't work properly. To have gotten this far without the use of alchemy to speed up the processes is quite challenging, but I've managed to do so.
I climb down the rope ladder and head inside my house. I have a fire going, but it's just for looks, really, because even though it's cold so high up, the mechanisms keeping the city afloat make enough heat to where that doesn't matter indoors.
After a few days of working, i finally finish. I fire it up(literally), and everything seems to be going well. Nothing's exploded yet. That's a good sign, but the keyword there is "yet," because with my luck, it is only "yet," and will explode as soon as I'm confident that everything is going smoothly. That's exactly why I can't be absolutely sure everything works until I have concluded all of the tests. I prepare to take off with this new one-man operation, and try to think of a backup plan for if, no, when, all hell breaks loose. I very quickly whipped up a makeshift paraglider with the leftover cloth and cord from making the air bag for the ship. This should at the very least assure that I have a safe landing and hopefully land close to my home in the sky rather than on the surface of the world with the ship. I excitedly run up to the deck(I'm still a child, after all), and make sure the levers to change how much air is being let out are working properly. After all that work, it would suck to have that of all things be the reason this fails. Now for the moment of truth. Time to see whether this engine works as well as the scaled down variant. I pull the lever and the air release valve shuts completely. My spirits rise as the ship rises as well. Screw not getting my hopes up! This is way too exciting for that! I'm going to dub this engine "Iteration 1," despite this technically being the second because of its predecessor, "The Prototype," but it's my creation, so I can call it whatever I want. I continue to go higher and higher until I reach the desired elevation and set the respective lever back to its default position. I open the sails and let the wind take me.