Gemotions

He found himself pacing the small workshop, the concrete floor cold beneath his bare feet. Dust motes danced in the single overhead bulb, illuminating the half-finished robot he’d been toiling over. The silence was deafening, punctuated only by the rhythmic tick of an old clock on the wall. The whirring of the robot's motor was missing.

He slumped onto a stool, elbows on his knees, head in his hands. Days blurred together, each one a repetition of the last. The emptiness of the space around him felt heavy, like a physical weight. Then, a message on his forum: someone else had posted details of a strikingly similar build. He clicked the link, a knot forming in his stomach.