Walnut has a minion!

Almond the Veegle

Everything can be taken apart.

Everything has a rhyme or reason to the order in which it is assembled.

Everything has a plan.

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Thomas Rhodes, known mostly as Walnut by even his own family members, loved to discover this order. Ever since he was a small boy with a very inquisitive mind, his favorite hobby had been taking his tool set to his toys and dismembering them, piece by piece. Even more fun than this was trying to figure out how each piece could go back together again. Needless to say, Walnut had a lot of broken toys in his childhood. He looked at everything as a learning experience, however, regardless of whether he succeeded or not -- which he usually did not.

As soon as he turned 18, Walnut moved out of his parents' home in the quiet southern province of Halaith to attend Pridd University in the country's capital city, Cydry, to study engineering. Cydry was a bustling, modern city, and Walnut loved everything about it. He threw himself into his studies, and discovered much more about Pridd's rich history of steam power than he had ever known before. Partway through his education, he applied to and was hired at the Pridd Historical Society as a mechanic. The pay wasn't glamorous, but it was enough to get by on, and Walnut got to do what he loved. Walnut dropped out of the university to pursue his work, as it was far more interesting for him to work hands-on than to only read lessons from books.

Walnut worked at the Historical Society for several years, thoroughly enjoying what he did, when one year, a position opened up -- head of the steamworks department, something Walnut had been hoping for. He applied, hopeful that he would get the position, but the Society opted to hire from outside the company instead -- they hired Fen Whiting, descendant of the famous Aeron Whiting, instead of him. Walnut was furious; positive that they had hired him purely by virtue of his name (after all, Fen was only 17 - Walnut was not only 8 years his senior, but he'd also been at the company longer!), Walnut took an immediate dislike to this young man who was now his direct supervisor. For the first several weeks that they worked together, Walnut was short with Fen, hardly spoke to him unless necessary, and generally sulked around the workshop all day.

However, the more time Walnut spent with Fen, the more he realized the young man was quite good-natured, and had genuinely earned his position. He was very bright, incredibly kind, and immensely shy, and Walnut found himself liking him more and more. Once he began to get over his initial hostility, they were able to start working as partners instead of rivals. Fen and Walnut started working to bring about more awareness of the steam power that used to run Pridd, and Walnut got to work on putting together (and taking apart) a variety of Fen's steam-powered inventions.

The discovery of a set of tattered old blueprints in a forgotten corner of their workshop one day brought them even closer together, however -- it was a set of plans to build an airship. The discovery of mage energy in Pridd had caused the country to completely stagnate in its technological innovation; inventions that were nothing but chalk to paper, such as this airship, had been all but forgotten by the people. If they could restore that blueprint and create that airship, the people of Pridd would surely see that there was merit in steam power, and perhaps they could be made to see that the mage energy they were relying on could never move them forward like steam could...

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When he's not crawling underneath machinery or sorting through gears and grease, Walnut very much enjoys going out and hitting the bars in town, where he smokes, drinks, debauches, and stays out late. Needless to say, he does not take very good care of himself. He often forgets to eat while he's working, and his evening meals are typically comprised of things like peanuts, pretzels, and beer. Mornings in the workshop often find Walnut nursing a hangover, trying to figure out a way to keep Fen from finding out just how late he was out the night before.

Walnut is also well-known in Cydry as being an incorrigible flirt. He's fairly good-looking and he knows it, and he has broken many a young woman's (or young man's) heart after a one-night stand. Though his reputation for short-lived relationships is well-known, it doesn't stop any number of people from thinking maybe they'll be the one who settles him down -- though when it does happen, it happens with the most unlikely of people: nobody would have ever expected Thomas "Walnut" Rhodes to fall in love with a short, chubby, socially-awkward mechanic 8 years younger than himself...

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Overlay/Chibi by me, hagane; tiny chibi by Cupcake, adorbs couple by mini - lookup coding by Damien