The Watchmaker's Widow

Synopsis
The first chapter of the story. The scene takes place in Milton Station, where Catherine Clarke and her husband John Clarke own a small house and workshop down the road. John works as a tinkerer and repairman, spending most of his time in his workshop. The two have been married for a few years now, and are very much in love.

This scene depicts daily life between the two, from Catherine cleaning and runnng errands, to John building machines and making messes. Occasionally, Catherine just spends time with John in the workshop, doing some work herself. Her fine fingerwork is an asset to John in his repairs of watches.

John himself lately has been acting as though someone was watching him. He triple-checks the locks before bed and is always restless. He doesn't let whatever is bothering him get between him and Catherine, however.

All across the town are posters advertising boarding tickets for the S.S. Providence, a huge land ship with a destnation in a bright, new future. John pitches the idea of hopping on board and starting a new life in the new world. Catherine is taken aback as they already have a well established business here in town. She says she'll think about it.

She eventually desides to join after talk of The Hunger, a plague that has been spreading throughout the destitute alleys and sewer system. Clarke cites it as a great reason to leave, if they plan on starting a family, they'd want their child to be safe. Anyhing Catherine suggests, John immediately agrees with, all the while trying to push her into taking the voyage.

However, this dream is cut short when one morning, Catherine wakes up to find John missing. She isn't too worried at first, as he usually wakes up early to get a start down at the workshop. She gets downstairs, throws on some boots, and heads down to the workshop. When she arrives, she comes to find her husband dead on the workshop floor.

She breaks down and starts wailing and pleading him to come back, but nothing. She then calls for help, and soon afterward the some members Bureau of Security and Intellegence show up to investigate. Arriving along with them is Joseph Bell, a forensic consultant who usually deals with mysterious circumstances like this.

The BSI seem to bully Bell around, which he finds as odd. He soon comes to realise he isn't appreciated, so he makes a snide comment or two and then leaves. The BSI deems that this was the work of a criminal responsible for several break-and-enters lately. They state that they will keep an eye out for the wares that were stolen and that her husband's murderer will be brought to justice. They collect the body to hold for evidence before they can release it back after cremation. This is to avoid the potential spreading of The Hunger.

A few days later, the BSI arrive back with John's remains and begin interrogating Catherine. They ask her very specific questions about what he was working on, what was stolen, and if she knew anything about whatever project he was working on. She knows nothing, and tells the BSI this.

Catherine begins to feel like something was odd about how the BSI acted, but makes up her mind. She will commit to the voyage on board the S.S. Providence and bring John's remains to the New World as it would have been what he wanted. She has to move on and accept that she's in this world alone. It will be her chance to being a new life.

Behind the scenes

 * John is paranoid because he discovered the nature of the machine he was working on and its relation with the Reaper project.
 * The machine is part of a weaponization of the brainwashing contagion created by The Trust and Nicholas Vorherr
 * John wants to leave on the S.S. Providence because it would mean he'd be taking the component far away from Milton Station and away from The Trust
 * John was brought to the workshop by Calvin Todd under the false assumption he was there to collect it to keep within the safety of the BSI, in reality, he led John to his death after he didn't turn over the machine without a fight
 * Nicholas Vorherr and Frommholtz were waiting for John in the workshop the night of the murder.  Frommholtz killed John, and they took the component as Calvin stood watch.
 * The BSI team that was sent to the crime scene included Calvin, which whom Bell identified as having slightly wet pants near the bottom of the leg as well as marks made from scraping mud off one's shoe
 * The BSI wasn't directly aware of what went on.  Nor were they away of Calvin's involvement.  They simply new what he was working on, and were working with The Trust to make sure that nobody knew of the component's existance and were trying to scoop it up for themselves (namely Abraham Arkwright)
 * The S.S. Providence project was taken care of by Nicholas Vorherr, upon The Trust's advisement.

How this translates to the player
More to come