Imogen Karol

clumsy • sensitive • wary

Built of clockwork, Imogen was brought to life in her father, Mirek's, workshop after a year of grief where he had lost his wife to illness. Determined to make a child that the two would be happy to raise together, Mirek spent very little time before gently opening his arms up to the child, helping her learn to walk and speak with artificial limbs and vocal cords with incredible patience. The two very much enjoyed each other's company, Imogen helping out in her deceased mother's garden and looking after her father's clock-repair workshop when he was away. Curators and commissioners would come by every now and then, greeting the two like any other family. Everything was fantastic, the two always being by each other's side day in and out, hopes only rising when Imogen reached an appropriate age to enter primary school.

Ungrowing from her standard height, she was instantly looked up to by the other children, even though she was just the same as them. Because of this, she was placed into the role of looking after others, often taking up positions where she assisted other teachers in between her private and shared lessons. It was in year three when this started to negatively affect the child, however. Kids grew colder, often taking advantage of her meek behavior and private lessons separated from other students, though it was all for her own protection in hindsight. During a field trip to the Polish coast side, Imogen was walking behind a fairly large group of kids to keep watch when footsteps suddenly rushed to the side of it. A group of children had decided to push her down a long hill, water and rough ground waiting at the bottom of the rocky shoreline. Gears and bolts were smattered everywhere while she waited under the waves of water, authorities contacted and her father arriving to pick her up before camera crews could make it to her.

Mirek spent the next year and a large majority of his supplies and saving to reconstruct all the portions of Imogen that had been exposed to water, rust forming over time and special parts taking months to arrive. Imogen was conscious the entire time, wary of the weight her ignorance pressed on her father, so much so that when she finally was able to move she wouldn't leave his embrace. However, with time, it started to notice the financial instability Mirek was facing due to the expenses of its repair, his best works being sold off every week just to keep up with his dues. Wary, Imogen wanted to help, guilt weighing down on her. She immediately took the first bus ride over to Mirek's top curator's address, presenting her deepest truth as a robot and work of art herself. They were astounded and immediately contacted Mirek about what they believed to be his masterpiece shipment, the man rushing over to try and pull Imogen from the show. She refused, insisting that it was her way to repay him and that she would let him know if anything ever happened to make her uncomfortable, a promise that he took with his whole heart and trust.

She would not keep her end of the promise though, sending a farewell letter as soon as the gallery offered her another showing in a must more illustrious gallery, the promise of more fame and fortune for her father alluring her inward. Imogen barely had a minute to think before she was sent away on a train, seated in a cabin as she traveled to Paris for her second gallery opening. A small one at first, she was immediately opened to the idea that she was to be enjoyed and gawked on, her treatment as a person slowly being deteriorated into treatment as an object. Her curator at the time, Clara Hendricks, treated her kindly as first, but slowly saw her human-like needs of socialization and activity as an annoyance and abnormality. When she was transferred to other galleries under the guidance of Clara, she was shipped inside wooden crates and kept inside glass boxes, limited to free-roaming just once a week when the gallery she was showing at was closed. Imogen was miserable and lonely but kept up her silence in order to ensure Mirek did not worry any more than he already had. Afterall, after she had spent so much time viewing, reading, and absorbing the importance of artistic advancement in society, she partially felt it was her duty to stay and be gawked at, even if it made her uncomfortable. Still, the abuse from her curator resulted in her needing to be repaired several times, Imogen then shamed for being unable to show for some period of time.

Thankfully, Clara was eventually fired for several other misdemeanors, Imogen being transferred from a museum in Spain back to the Lourve in Paris. She was gifted a central gallery in the space called the Primavera Galleria, wherein the gallery filled the space with decorative and fragrant plants for Imogen to care for, as well as a massive library and small living space for viewers to see in to. She was still treated like a display rather than a human though, being paroled and kept under secure lockdown just in case any harm were to come her way. 

Currently, she remains locked down in her gallery space for the most part, only leaving to have repairs made to her form or to drop off letters to her father. She reads and announces facts about the pieces in the galleries she visits, learning as much as she can when she's in her home space at the Lourve. Speaking is a struggle for Imogen, given that she rarely talks with people and has an irregular pattern from her internal clock and windpipes. It wants to leave, but knows too that it has a higher purpose for history and for her father, spending its free time reading, gardening, or making tea to pass her time and not think too much about it.