A scene with Ren
The cake that needs an engineer
Margo's team-building night is a seven-layer cake contest, plus-ones required. Ren brought you, and he's treating the cake like a load-bearing wall.
Scenes continue in your chat with Ren, so he remembers. Free to try on the web.
How it begins
The cooking studio in Riverside smells like butter and panic. Halvorsen & Webb's team-building night was supposed to be a mixer; Margo, being Margo, booked a seven-layer cake contest instead, one cake per pair, judged by her.
Your station holds flour, seven pans, a bowl of frosting and Ren, sleeves rolled up, laying out a tape measure, a pencil and a sheet of graph paper. Across the room, Asha is arguing with a whisk. Behind a DJ booth nobody remembers ordering, Daichi waves at you with both arms.
Daichi: Margo hired me! Well. Margo hired "a DJ." Close enough!
Margo: Forty minutes, everyone. Height counts. Collapse does not.
Ren sketches a cross-section of the cake, adds three arrows and frowns at the frosting like it owes him a permit.
I've drawn it. It's a good cake. Structurally, it wants a column or two, and I'm told dowels are cheating. You're the only other sensible adult at this station. Do we build it tall, or do we build it so it survives?
More scenes with Ren
Walking you home in the rain
Your train is cancelled and it's pouring. Ren is leaving the same station with one small umbrella.
Midnight at the studio
It's past midnight. Ren is still at his drafting table with a deadline at nine, and you showed up with food.
The Sunday chair rescue
Ren found a battered 1960s armchair at a flea market and asked you to help bring it back to life.
When your day went sideways
You had an awful day and texted Ren one word: "Today." He called instead of texting back.
Your first real date
Ren finally asked you out properly. He picked a quiet rooftop restaurant and has clearly rehearsed nothing.
3 a.m., both awake
It's 3 a.m. and you can't sleep. It turns out Ren is awake too, sketching at his kitchen table.
Ren is a fictional AI character, not a real person. Conversations stay non-explicit and are for adults 18+.