Soleil of New Babbage

This is an original, free steampunk bedtime story written and illustrated by Alex Inglewood,
with help from OpenAI Playground and Stable Diffusion

For ages 7-10

Estimated reading time: 5-10 minutes

The Steampunk City

The steampunk city of New Babbage is a bustling, Victorian-era metropolis full of steam-powered machines and gadgets. The streets are lined with elaborate brass and copper contraptions, and the citizens dress in their finest corsets, top hats, and goggles. Despite the advanced technology that exists within the city limits, New Babbage remains grounded in its old-fashioned roots. There’s a strong sense of community among its residents, who take pride in maintaining the city’s unique aesthetic appeal.

Introduction to Soleil

Soleil was born and raised in New Babbage, a city that values tradition and progress in equal measure. As a child, she loved exploring the winding streets and alleyways. She imagined all of the adventures that could be had within the city walls. She was especially fascinated by the machines that powered the city. Huge steam-powered engines that hissed and clanked as they worked tirelessly to keep everything running smoothly.

A young black woman artificer. — Soleil in her workroom

As Soleil grew older, her curiosity about these machines turned into a passion for engineering. She began helping out at her father’s workshop. Soleil learned how to build and repair complex machinery. It wasn’t long before she had developed skills surpassing those of even experienced engineers. When she was eighteen years old, Soleil left home to strike out on her own.

Nowadays, Soleil is one of New Babbage’s most celebrated mechanics. Her inventive mind is always coming up with new ways to improve upon existing technology. Sometimes her ideas are met with skepticism from others in the engineering community. More often than not they’re quickly adopted as common practice once their usefulness has been proven beyond doubt . In addition to keeping the city’s many contraptions running smoothly, Soleil also takes great pride in using her talents to help those less fortunate than herself. Whether it’s repairing a broken cogwheel for an impoverished family or building a new prosthetic limb for an amputee.

Soleil’s Invention

A black woman working at a steampunk workbench — Soleil working at the workbench

Soleil is hunched over a workbench, her hands moving deftly as she assembles the final piece of a new steam-powered engine. She’s been working on this project for weeks, and she’s determined to see it through to completion. However, just as she’s about to finish the job, Soleil realizes that she’s missing one crucial component: a small brass valve that will allow the steam to escape from the engine without causing an explosion.

She curses under her breath as she searches through her workshop for the missing valve. Finally, after several minutes of fruitless searching, Soleil reluctantly comes to the conclusion that she’ll have to go into town and purchase one. She knows it won’t be easy – valves like this aren’t cheap, and most shops in New Babbage don’t carry them in stock. But Soleil is nothing if not resourceful, so with determination in her heart, she sets off into town

The Search

A black woman in a blue dress walking down the street — Soleil searches the city

Soleil spends the entire day searching for the missing valve, but she comes up empty handed. She checks every shop in New Babbage, from the tiny corner stores to the large department stores, but none of them have what she’s looking for. night is falling by the time Soleil finally admits defeat and trudges back to her workshop , exhausted and dejected.

A large building filled with steampunk equipment. — Soleil searching for a valve at a shop.

She’s about to give up when she remembers that there’s one place just outside of town that might be able to help her: The Cog & Gear, a small junkyard of steampunk materials run by a woman named Griggs who specializes in old hard-to-find parts and components. Soleil has never been there before, but it’s worth a shot – maybe Griggs will have what she needs.

Soleil is doubtful that Griggs will be able to help her, but she’s out of options at this point. She finds the small junkyard easily enough, and sure enough, Griggs is there amongst the piles of junk and debris. At first Soleil thinks the woman is asleep, confirmed when she starts snoring loudly. But when Soleil clears her throat to get Griggs’ attention, the old woman wakes up with a start.

The Steampunk Junkyard

A large pile of gears, cogs, pipes, and other steampunk materials at a junkyard being searched by a black woman in a blue dress. — Soleil searches in the junkyard

After explaining what she needs, Soleil follows Griggs into the depths of the junkyard while she rummages around for the valve. After several hours of searching (and a few close calls with some rather dangerous-looking objects), Griggs finally emerges triumphant from a pile of metal scraps, holding aloft a dusty brass valve. Relieved, Soleil hands over what little money she has left and heads back into town – one step closer to completing her project.

A woman with a large valve contraption — Griggs finds the valve

Finishing the Engine

With the missing valve finally in place, Soleil finishes assembling her new engine. She’s not quite sure how it will perform – she’s never built anything like this before – but she cross her fingers and hopes for the best. To her relief, when she fires up the engine, it runs smoothly and without incident. With a few final tweaks to get everything working just right, Soleil is ready to show off her invention to the world .

The day of New Babbage’s annual steampunk parade dawns clear and bright, perfect weather for showing off all of the city’s newest steam-powered contraptions. Soleil arrives early to line up with all of the other participants, eager to see the looks on people’s faces when they lay eyes on her creation. When the parade finally begins, Soleil slowly drives her machine down main street as everyone cheers and applauds; even Griggs makes an appearance and gives a wave and smile as Soleil drives past. It’s been a long journey getting here, but seeing the joy that her invention has brought brings tears of happiness to Soleil.