I have (or will have) a series of steamwork pets who are "alive" but who also serve a function that would be familiar to us in the real world.

For example, Catricia is a Steamwork Feli, but she's also a Kindle - she has a chest cavity in which she stores scrolls for the convenience of the Librarian to read at her leisure.

Then there's Cia, a Steamwork Neela, who is basically like modern-day surveillance - she can record conversations that she hears and things she sees (like video) to be played back at her convenience.

But I'm not sure what to do with Galyn, my Steamwork Kora.

A Steamwork Kora has a lot of limbs, so I've been kinda thinking something really handy or fix-it-y, but my mind goes blank when I try to think of a modern convenience like that.

I'm open to any suggestions, because I have a fourth steamwork pet, species yet to be decided, who also needs a function.

I give some ideas I would have for some possible functions :

• Galyn could be a medical assistent type in surgery or for a doc in general
• helping with repairs of cars
• Clockmaker
• jewelery maker
• barber

Thanks, but none of those things exist in the real world as some type of machinery (or if it does, it's not really a common, well-known thing). I want it to be something that already exists, like the Kindle, or Alexa, or a smartphone, or GPS, etc., which I can then retool to work in my fantasy world.

I like your spirit, though!

The only thing that came to my mind are those robots they use for archaeologic excavations like some years ago in the Cheops pyramid. Or the robots they are using in space, Curiosity and so on.

Her hoses make me think of a Roomba, like she could be going around cleaning up things... (As far as that goes, those little grabby things make me think of the spinning sweeper bits on them as well.) One thing I'd like to mention is that as handy as Roombas are, they just kind of wander around, so they often miss messes. (My sister has a love-hate relationship with hers.) So you could either lean into that or have Galyn be an improved version.

I totally forgot about roombas! That's perfect! The Librarian would definitely create a cleaning robot, and since vaccuums aren't a thing in my fantasy world, she'd definitely need hands to hold a broom, a mop, a cleaning rag, etc. I'm also digging the idea that Galyn is a bit ditsy and misses stuff. (Or maybe is constantly trying to throw out important things.)

I think my last one will be something like a GPS, because the Librarian has a very, very large library and would need help locating specific tomes. It also could know the geographical whereabouts of everything outside the Library.

Space/archaelogical robots aren't exactly mundane, but I think I'll keep those in the back of my head for a possible future idea. Thanks!

I like that! Sounds like a very cute idea! I'm glad I could help!

I kinda like the Steamwork Torrey for a GPS, but other species could work better depending on your interpretation of what they do and how they do it. -nods-