"Wow, pa, these robots are real cool! One day, can you teach me how to make one?"
"Sure, I can, little one, but I hope there never comes a time where you have to. These things are for war, an' I don't want you gettin' all mixed up in that nasty business like me."
"Okay, pa, I won't."
"That's my girl."
~~~
"Welcome home, dear!" Alyssa called from the kitchen, putting the final touches to her and her husband's dinner as she heard him come through the door.
"Mm."
She tucked a stray lock of brown, grey-streaked hair behind her ear, trying to act like her feelings weren't hurt by her husband's unenthusiastic response. Alyssa plated up the food and set the table before going to see her husband.
"Dinner is rea-...Joe, whose lipstick is that?"
"What?"
"That lipstick on your collar?"
Joe huffed and hung up his coat, heading up to his room as he unbuttoned his shirt, "No-one's. I'll be down in a minute, eat without me."
Alyssa felt her heart twist, and her eyes filled with tears as she watched her beloved husband walk away. She managed to drag herself over to the table as she reluctantly sat down and ate her dinner alone.
This behaviour only became more common. She wouldn't only notice lipstick stains. Sometimes, it was being home from work late, his shirt being buttoned wrong, smelling like another woman's perfume, his hair being messy. Every time she noticed something, Alyssa felt her heart shatter a little more every time. She would start staring at herself in the mirror for a little bit too long, nit-picking at herself and noticing all her imperfections. Her grey hairs, the laugh lines and faint creases in her skin, her figure not being quite as shapely as it once was, her nose being the wrong shape, her eyes not being as bright and youthful anymore.
Alyssa just wanted it to stop. She wanted her husband to love her again. She would do anything for her love to be requited like it used to be. When they were both younger.
And then it hit her. If her husband wasn't attracted to her the way she was now, she could make a version of herself that would always stay young and beautiful. Then he could have physical love with that version of her and emotional love with the real her again. Even if it meant he was still technically being unfaithful, at least she knew he would be with something modelled after herself rather than it being strangers.
Alyssa opened the door to her father's old workshop. It had been quite some time since shed last been inside that place. Her father would bring her there to watch him make Warforged robots, so the place meant a lot to her.
Alyssa rolled up her sleeves and got to work straight away.
This model would be more advanced than the ones her father would build. She would have hair and skin and personality. Alyssa hadn't focused on something so intensely in years. Every single part of this creation had to be flawless and beautiful. So much trial and error, glitches, malfunctions, broken pieces et cetera.
But finally, it was worth it. After hours of hard work, she was done. At first, she worried that her husband would wonder where she had been all that time, but something told her that he probably wouldn't have noticed. But most importantly, her creation was complete.
Her father's skills had clearly been passed down onto her, as this 'warforged' was to an incredible standard. She looked just like Alyssa did when she was younger, the only difference being her eyes. She could only find a blue eye and a green eye.
