#Staff Development Workshops | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

generic-sonic-fan · 3 months

Text

The Sonic Crew, 40 Years Later-

Just one of many possibilities, of course, but I challenged myself to imagine what Sonic's crew and Team Dark might look like when they're older. Long post beneath the cut:

Sonic

The one who changed the least

Still an absolute daredevil with a heart of gold

All that running and frequent injuries did a number on his knees and he started using knee braces and a cane/crutches in his late 20s

(it took him a while to be okay with this, but he's over that now)

(He can still run if needed, but he'll be hurting for a few days after.)

Gets his need for speed by racing cars, motorcycles, the Tornado, and by skydiving

Still LOVES helping people and spends a lot of time volunteering

Yes, he's still signing autographs

He's got a permanent home now, mostly to store the Tornado and his other vehicles. He took over Tails' workshop when the fox left for greener pastures and likes keeping the place fixed up.

He's been reading a lot more. Now that he's got a permanent place, his library collection is massive

He's just taking it one day at a time, man. Always has, always will

Tails

The one who changed the most

He owns a garage in the city now, with a sign on the door that says "Prower's inventions and tinker shop"

He always knew that he wanted to sell the things he made, but he had absolutely zero interest in the business side of things outside of running social media accounts

So he's gone indie! He's almost more of an artist and influencer than a world-class inventor, but don't let that fool you

He's still selling his patents to top companies and making a crapton of money

(he's the second most well-off of the friend group aside from Rouge.)

So how's he changed?

He's lost a lot of his childlike innocence, become increasingly more focused on people's perception of him and making online content

and ultimately, he chose technology over the outdoors

Sonic kinda knew that sort of thing was inevitable, but it still hurt when Tails decided to move to the big city and stop exercising as much

But he's very happy where he is and how he's living, and he and Sonic still catch up with each other frequently

Knuckles

Still guarding the Master Emerald!

But he's really learned how to do more with his life despite staying on one island for most of his time

Tails finally convinced him to install enough technology to keep him connected to the world below

Since then, Knuckles has become the number one expert on Echidna anthropology/archaeology in the world

He's written several books using speech-to-text technology

(it's been difficult work- he's not the best reader or writer, but he put the effort in and now he's a published author!)

When he's not writing or giving talks on Echidna culture over video call, he's still taking care of Angel Island, growing his own food, and making more discoveries about ancient Echidna culture. That much hasn't changed

Ever since the defeat of Eggman, he's more willing to take vacations off of Angel Island, but it's still a rare occurence

He usually notifies the friend group via group chat whenever he plans on coming down for a visit, often resulting in reunions

Amy

Amy absolutely "settled down" and opened the bakery she's always wanted to open

Unlike Tails, she LOVES the business side of things along with the actual baking

Her bakery is one of the most famous in the city she lives in now

She loves the thrill of commanding the kitchen staff and managing all the tasks that go into producing good pastries!

She also developed a love for children, and spoils any child in her vicinity rotten

And she has kids of her own, duh

She helps organize and moderate the group chat for the old friend group

And she loves coordinating visits/reunions

Her house is always open to anybody and everybody. She loves entertaining guests, especially if they're old friends

Her house is SO cute and homey it's almost overbearing

When her kids have kids she is going to be the sweetest grandma ever

Rouge

Already detailed in this post here!

Shadow

He's matured a lot, finally having enough wisdom to act as "the wise immortal"

He's become a nomad, sort of like how Sonic used to be, except he takes things at a much slower pace

(he retired from GUN and absolutely had a midlife crisis. this is the result)

He keeps diligent journals of every place he visits, food he tries, people he meets, and so on

He's picked up on Sonic's hobby of learning languages due to his travels

He's gotten much better at socializing with strangers but still prefers solitude

. . . but he still carries a phone on him and participates (albeit rarely) in the old friend group chat

(Rouge and Omega have him on speed dial, of course. He'll drop everything at their beck and call, even if it's a simple "I miss you")

He's gotten more interested in some more esoteric stuff that would've made his younger self cringe, like poetry and spirituality

The world knows him as a bit of cryptid, lol

Omega

Unlike Shadow, he's not retired!

He left GUN and became a freelance operator. Kind of a mercenary, except he has just a touch more discretion than that

(His version of a midlife crisis happened when he finally killed Eggman circa 30 or so years ago. Those were some messy, messy times, but since then he's made peace with his continued existence)

He is still Angry, of course, but he's a lot more chill than he used to be. Sometimes this throws Shadow for a loop.

His ego, though ever-present, has been tempered by age

Mostly because he kinda thinks his younger self was a bit cringe??

Mention the word "Meatbag" and he'll get stoically embarrassed about it

Anyways, he's also a nomad, traveling the world to do jobs and stopping by Tails' garage for repairs

He stops by Rouge's house often, and meets up with Shadow at least once a month

("YOU ARE THE FOOLISH ORGANICS THAT CONVINCED ME OF THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP. YOU ARE NOT GETTING RID OF ME SO EASILY.")

#sonic the hedgehog #miles tails prower #knuckles the echidna #amy rose #shadow the hedgehog #e-123 omega #weird post! but it wouldn't leave my mind #I've been tinkering with this post since I answered that original ask with Rouge #idk man. as an adult fan it's kind of nice to imagine where they all end up

47 notes · View notes

mapsontheweb · 5 months

Photo

Pearl Harbor Attack, December 7, 1941.

« L’Histoire » n°490, décembre 2021

by cartesdhistoire

3,500 km from Los Angeles and 6,500 from Tokyo, Pearl Harbor is home to the largest naval base and headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet.

Approved on November 5, 1941 by Emperor Hiro-Hito, the daring Japanese attack plan aims to annihilate the American fleet forcing the United States to leave Hawaii and to deploy all its naval forces on the California coast. Between late summer and December 6, 1941, Nippon engineers develop the Type 91 torpedo, equipped with stabilizing flares and equipped with a powerful explosive capable of penetrating the thickest hulls of ships.

The chosen date is Sunday, December 7, the only day of the week when the U.S. fleet is not on maneuvers and many sailors, out of a staff of 25,000 men, are on leave. Operation "Z" stops the idea of a large-scale and lightning surprise attack of the Japanese hunt in two consecutive very close waves.

After ten days of navigation, taking a very northern route with little traffic, the Japanese fleet imposed absolute radio silence. On the night of December 6 to 7, they anchored on the high seas 200 nautical miles (350 km) from Pearl Harbor.

At 6 a.m., while the day has not yet risen, the first wave of the six aircraft carriers takes off. At 7:53, 183 aircraft fly over Pearl Harbor in attack formation and pounding their targets for an hour in a deafening noise. Blooming from the Pacific Fleet, Arizona and Oklahoma battleships transformed into metal torch lighten up, bringing nearly 1,500 sailors in the bottom. At 8:50 a.m., the second wave consisting of 176 aircraft enters the stage.

In two hours of strikes, the American naval aviation lost practically all of its aviation (217 planes), almost half of its fleet sank (4 destroyers, 3 cruisers, 8 battleships, 1 mine layer, 1 workshop ship, 1 seaplane carrier) and 2,403 Americans died.

#maps #cartesdhistoire #igsourced #pearl harbor #1941 #world war 2

42 notes · View notes

end-otw-racism · 10 months

Text

Feedback on OTW’s 2023-2026 Strategic Plan Update

The OTW posted their 2023-2026 Strategic Plan on July 24, following up on six years of work since their previous 2017-2020 Strategic Plan. A Strategic Plan is a guiding document that many organizations and companies will develop to outline long-term goals and how to achieve them.

OTW’s Strategic Plan consists of three parts:

Vision Statement 2022-2025, which outlines the mission, priorities, and challenges for the organization, and was published a year ago.

2023-2026 Strategic Plan, which gives a timeline for what the organization plans to work on and achieve at various intervals, beginning in July 2023.

Strategic Planning Implementation Support Plan, which provides guidelines for the Strategic Planning Committee and the entire organization to monitor the progress of the priorities outlined in the plan.

We wanted to provide our analysis and feedback on the Strategic Plan from the perspective of our goals to hold OTW to its commitments to hire a diversity consultant by the end of 2023, update their Terms of Service (TOS) to address racist harassment and abusive content on AO3, and provide more transparency.

Strategic Planning Process

The process for developing the Strategic Plan was opaque for people who are not staff, board, or volunteers with the OTW. The draft version of the Strategic Plan was not circulated to members or AO3 users outside the organization before it was finalized. While it is not unusual for nonprofits to only solicit feedback from their own staff and board on such a document, most nonprofits and websites tend to do other forms of proactive community engagement such as through surveys, focus groups, workshops, and more to understand the needs of people who do not work for the organization. In the absence of that kind of engagement, the Strategic Plan could have been an opportunity for the OTW to seek input from a wider base, including OTW members, AO3 users, Fanlore editors and viewers, editors of and contributors to Transformative Works & Cultures, mods of archives imported through Open Doors, and more.

Additionally, the OTW mentions that they received feedback from volunteers in the year between when the Vision Statement was published in 2022 and when the final plan was published this year, but the Vision Statement itself has not been updated to reflect that input. Given that the Vision Statement guides the organization’s priorities and themes of work, this is also a missed opportunity.

Strategic Planning Timeline and Actions

Diversity Consultant

The Vision Statement includes one bullet point under “Diversifying Spaces” on this topic: “Contracting with an individual or organization to consult on issues of racial bias and inequality within the Organization and its projects. Options for this will be researched by a dedicated Diversity Consultant Research Officer, appointed by the Board of Directors.”

The timeline in the Strategic Plan includes goals for the Diversity Consultant Research Officer (DRCO), the volunteer who was appointed in April 2022 to research diversity consultants. The DRCO is to give their first report to the board in three months (October 2023), a year and a half after being appointed. The DRCO is supposed to then give reports every three months, which will be “shared both internally and externally to users”, and the DRCO and/or consultant are to check in with Volunteer Coalition leaders every six months.

There is no other mention of the goals for the diversity consultant themselves in the timeline, nor a confirmation of the commitment to hire a diversity consultant by the end of 2023, which the OTW Board stated in their July 1 public meeting.

Anti-Harassment Policy Updates to TOS

There is no mention of TOS updates to address racist harassment and abusive content on AO3.

Transparency

The Vision Statement included two sections that are relevant here: one on “External Communication” as a priority area, and a section under “Challenges” on “Public Narrative” that included possible goals such as sharing more information about OTW’s history, purpose, and structures in infographics; encouraging committees to create public-facing video content to explain the work that they do; and revising the overall communications strategy to improve transparency and communicate the missions effectively.

The timeline in the Strategic Plan includes two goals that follow up on this in 18 months:

“Strengthen Overall Communications Strategy: International and multilingual external communications strategy is clarified and further developed.”

“Strengthen Consistency and Reach of Public Messaging: Clear guidance for consistency across our platforms to support raising awareness of the OTW mission is developed.”

The Strategic Plan also mentions that the DRCO will give quarterly reports to the Board on their progress, which will also be shared both internally and externally.

Other relevant areas

The Vision Statement’s section on “Diversifying Spaces” also had other strategies intended to address racism, including creating volunteer resource groups who “may suggest, advise, be consulted on, or provide information for OTW policies that may affect their experience within the OTW and our projects”; trying to expand recruitment to diversify volunteer, staff, and board candidate bases; and providing more features to give individual AO3 users more control for filtering and customization.

The timeline in the Strategic Plan included these goals:

Recruitment: In 6 months, “each committee will have reviewed research on and taken action to improve diversity and decrease bias in candidate selection processes”.

Volunteer Coalitions: In 12 months, “research into volunteer coalitions is completed and initial volunteer coalitions start being formed”; and every six months from there, the DRCO and/or consultant will check in with the Volunteer Coalition leaders.

Implementation

The Implementation Support Plan primarily consists of actions that the Strategic Planning Committee and leadership will take to ensure plan implementation, including checking in with teams, evaluating progress on goals and creating documentation, providing support for committees, monitoring the plan’s feasibility, and celebrating goal completion.

Our recommendations

Given that the hiring of a diversity consultant has been lagging for three years, and since it is not in these documents, the commitment to hiring a diversity consultant by the end of 2023 should be reiterated in other official OTW communications.

When the DRCO and Board have developed a scope of work for the diversity consultant, the Strategic Plan timeline should be updated to include key milestones and expected deliverables for the consultant within the 2023-2026 time period.

The regular updates that are currently assigned to the DRCO in the timeline should be extended to the diversity consultant once hired, to ensure transparency.

The Strategic Planning Committee should provide more specifics on how they are evaluating progress on the plan’s goals, and ideally give updates at regular intervals on that progress.

For the next Strategic Plan, the OTW should engage with the Volunteer Coalitions, particularly those that are intended to support volunteers of color and non-western volunteers, as well as reach out to stakeholders outside of the organization itself, including OTW members and people who engage with OTW’s projects (AO3, Fanlore, Open Doors, and Transformative Work & Cultures).

The next Strategic Plan should also be completed in a timely manner to prevent missing coverage of years, which was what happened for 2021 and 2022.

#otw #ao3 #organization for transformative works #archive of our own #fandom #endotwracism

55 notes · View notes

bfpnola · 11 months

Text

Hey! Better Future Program, Inc. (BFP) is officially looking for youth volunteers between the ages of 14 and 25 for our Administrative Staff! If you don't see a role that fits your interests, don't worry, we've got more positions listed in our Linktree!

And if you don't know who we are? Welcome! BFP is Black-, queer-, and woman-owned nonprofit, entirely run by youth! Since 2016, we've been accepting volunteers not just from Bulbancha (so-called New Orleans, Louisiana), but WORLDWIDE! Our mission is to globally expand peer-led political education, support, and imagination for marginalized youth!

To fulfill this goal, we offer over 3,000 free resources through our Liberation Library, design and execute mutual aid-based projects, and offer the safe space young activists need to ask questions and grow. If this sounds like something you'd be interested in, check out our International Youth Leadership Positions page in our bio!

Image description below.

[ID: All slides share the same background. There is a repeating list of BFP's guiding principles and core beliefs in translucent, all-white, capitalized letters. BFP's guiding principles include youth-centricity, self-liberation, transparency, accountability, horizontality, community, and intersectionality. BFP's core beliefs include the right to organize, educational equity, youth liberation, anti-racism, religious liberty, disability justice, climate action, decolonization, gender equity, queer/LGBTQ+ liberation, bodily autonomy, fat liberation, abolition, caste abolition, anti-authoritarianism, and anti-capitalism. A lime green to sky blue gradient overlays this list. A bold, white square frames the image with a white arrow pointing right in the bottom right corner.

Slide 1 reads: “LINK IN BIO. APPLY NOW! INTERNATIONAL YOUTH LEADERSHIP POSITIONS! REMOTE & IN-PERSON.” There is a BFP logo in the lefthand corner and the words “Part One” in the righthand corner, as this is the first of multiple posts showcasing open leadership positions.

Slide 2 reads: “Administrative Staff: Executive Assistants.

Responsibilities Include:

Co-facilitate communication and decision-making across volunteer committees

Note-taking during Zoom and Discord meetings on Notion

Interview and evaluate potential BFP applicants

Host virtual orientations for incoming youth volunteers

Time Commitment:

Other than our weekly 1.5-2 hr meeting, usually on Sundays, you're free to design your schedule around your tasks!

Requirements/Eligibility:

BFP prioritizes the leadership of marginalized communities. Tap the International Leadership Positions page in our Linktr.ee for more information! Link in bio @bfpnola :)" Slide 3 reads: "Administrative Staff: Communications Coordinators.

Responsibilities Include:

Develop and execute advertising campaigns

Manage BFP social media accounts (ex. Threads)

Establish brand recognition and awareness

Help design and distribute custom BFP merchandise

Plan and execute promotional events

Time Commitment:

Other than our weekly 1.5-2 hr meeting, usually on Sundays, you're free to design your schedule around your tasks!

Requirements/Eligibility:

BFP prioritizes the leadership of marginalized communities. Tap the International Leadership Positions page in our Linktr.ee for more information! Link in bio @bfpnola :)" Slide 4 reads: "Administrative Staff: Health Coordinators.

Responsibilities Include:

Develop and implement wellness and community bonding workshops for both volunteers & supporters

Provide resources and peer support to marginalized youth

Assess the successes and failures of our workload balance to prioritize the health of our volunteers, and develop alternatives with the help of our Chief Health Officer

Time Commitment:

Other than our weekly 1.5-2 hr meeting, usually on Sundays, you're free to design your schedule around your tasks!

Requirements/Eligibility:

BFP prioritizes the leadership of marginalized communities. Tap the International Leadership Positions page in our Linktr.ee for more information! Link in bio @bfpnola :)" Slide 5 reads: "Administrative Staff: Assistant Fundraising Managers.

Responsibilities Include:

Ensure that philanthropy and fundraising are kept consistent with our core values & beliefs

Develop and execute creative fundraising campaigns

Manage a portfolio of current and prospective donors

Ensure compliance with all relevant regulations and laws concerning giving

Time Commitment:

Other than our weekly 1.5-2 hr meeting, usually on Sundays, you're free to design your schedule around your tasks!

Requirements/Eligibility:

BFP prioritizes the leadership of marginalized communities. Tap the International Leadership Positions page in our Linktr.ee for more information! Link in bio @bfpnola :)"

/End ID.]

41 notes · View notes

tyrannuspitch · 8 months

Text

okay well fine if no-one else is going to do it - I'M inventing a new ship. loki/ravonna. lokonna? frostslayer? lieslayer? still workshopping that.

anyway here's my reasoning:

i would say ravonna is the most loki character in the loki show - specifically, she's a lot like t1 loki. she's intelligent, she's a perfectionist, she's smooth and authoritative, she clearly loves deeply but she can nevertheless be calculating / ruthless / selfish, she's committed to the tva's morals, and when her world starts unravelling, she panics and does terrible things to try and salvage it/cover it up.

all of this makes ravonna an excellent rival/competitor for loki. two cautious, calculating traitors with a ruthless streak and a need for control. tell me you don't want to see them play 4d chess.

loki was a tva prisoner, now ravonna is a tva fugitive. consider the cat-and-mouse detective potential in either direction.

loki's initial scraped-together plan to rise through the ranks and potentially take over the tva would have made him a rival to ravonna - and maybe eventually a usurper she would feel obliged to rebel against.

each of these characters would have killed the other without a second thought when they first met - which adds weight, tension, and potential for tragedy to any future bond they form.

they both fundamentally want somewhere to belong - and they're each part of the reason the other doesn't have that any more.

ravonna, having been so devout, is the most likely of any of the tva staff we know to have a variant monsterhood complex to rival loki's jotun one - and coming to respect/like loki, another variant, could help her process that.

ravonna also thinks of loki as monstrous because of his sacred timeline role as a supervillain. if she went down a darker path for a while, or if she began to recognise that she'd already been on a very dark one, then, again, it could be interesting to see how her understanding of loki and herself developed in light of firsthand experience.

loki (like all variants, but especially loki) is a kind of religious figure to tva staff - specifically a demon. the tva, meanwhile, frame themselves as angels - servants of the divine plan. ravonna as a falling angel, loki as a fallen god... religious guilt, questioning faith, religious schisms and conflict... there are many kinds of potential here.

loki was part of HWR's masterplan as his successor. based on the recordings we heard in 2.01, it seems like the show might be following the comics in having HWR also have a fixation on ravonna (romantic, in her case.) so they have a common enemy-or-potential-ally, and reason for their paths and interests to potentially converge.

ummm idk man i'm not A Shipper by nature so i have a lot to say about general storytelling potential but i really don't know how to get you to see this as specifically romantic. they're both pretty? yeah that'll do. send post

#space viking tag #meta #<- ish?#ch: ravonna #ch: loki #r: loki + ravonna #s: loki #actually i'm maintagging this i have proselytising to do #ravonna renslayer #ravonna lexus renslayer #loki tv #as i said. i'm not much of a shipper. but these guys only have two (2) works on ao3 and i think that's a damn shame.#14 platonic works but it looks like most of them are primarily l*kius and not centred on these two...#i think if loki had his original characterisation rather than the loki show's version this would probably be a lot more obvious an option..

23 notes · View notes

thesalemwitchtries · 4 months

Text

Dreaming Of a Grave: Chapter Five

Word Count: 3,534

Pairing: Matt Murdock x Named! Fem! Enhanced! Reader

Warnings: Angst, Child medical experimentation and cruelty (heavy on this one), sensory deprivation as a means of harm and control, child death (vague-ish but there's a lot of them), forced isolation, feelings of isolation and hopelessness, mentions of injury and healthcare bias, and canon show events

Taglist: @reblog-reblog666

Masterlist

Thank you so much for reading! Any comments or feedback are much appreciated!

Crate Six was a horrific, but not altogether lonely place to grow up. How could she be lonely? Her small hands could fit through the wire of the cage and cling to Four’s beside her. On the other side was Eight, who spit and thrashed and snarled at everyone who passed by. She spent most of her time there, watching people pass with apathetic eyes, staring down at whichever specimen they had come to collect, she was never alone, and so: never lonely.

Mostly it was just waiting, for the people to come and prod at her, for them to leave, for the day when they’d roll the crate away, through the double doors at the opposite end of the hall, like they had for the previous Fours and Eights, like they probably had for the Six that came before her.

The Workshop had several security and protocol measures in place to prevent riot or escape. To limit any chance of mutiny or allowing them to out-number the research staff, specimens were kept in the long central hall, each team studying only one live specimen at a time. This inspired a quick turnover in those who weren’t progressing as hoped, and allowed for very limited interaction beyond those on either side of their crate.

If they were to escape, they would have to do it alone, and lab protocol ensured that subjects would have very little means of surviving on their own.

Specimens were fed only through an IV and with bland, uniform nutrient bars, unable to identify viable food sources of their own. They had geotags implanted in the base of their neck, and were allowed to move on their own only for the purpose of an experiment, keeping them monitored and weak. They wore thin hospital gowns and no shoes, adequate for the temp-controlled lab, but fatal in the scrub woods beyond the Workshop’s walls.

Still, there was always the worry of exposure, that one specimen clever enough to escape may also be lucky enough to run into someone beyond their ironclad NDAs and explain what had happened to them. Best case, the specimen disappears, worst case, they return with a news crew or god forbid, law enforcement.

Researchers began looking for ways to stop potential leaks at the source, but almost every specimen they received was old enough to know the word help, and tongue extraction could hinder the ability to get necessary feedback from experiment subjects. Any solution that completely eradicated speech was out of the question.

Team Six was inspired to develop their solution when they received a young subject that had an extremely limited vocabulary upon arrival. After the typical entry rounds of behavior modification, she was fitted with Earmuffs.

They worked in two parts, one was a standard inner ear plug that branched out and connected to a larger disc that covered the shell of her ears, passively muffling the outer world, but not eliminating the sense of sound. The second part, was an internal transmitter and speakers, active noise canceling that could deafen someone to a jet launching beside them, all connected to a remote that allowed the silencing to be toggled on and off.

Earmuffs were then fitted with a bio-grade adhesive that lasted weeks before needing to be replaced, and upon installation, they had complete control over an entire human sense.

Six was an ideal specimen: one who could not complain or whine, one who could not ask for help. Without speech she could build little identity, only a shallow understanding of the world around her and her place in it. Isolated in static, contained within an approved lexicon: no, yes, bad, good, stop, start, up, down, left, right, more, less, is, was, then, now.

The system wasn’t without flaw, unable to tamp down the specimen’s instinctual desire to communicate.

So eager to learn was she that every new sound Six heard received a warped echo, a tentative attempt to understand. Automatic doors made a whoosh and so did she, someone clicked their pen and she’d do the same, the following huffs of frustration mimicked as well.

Perhaps the largest threat to Six’s verbal isolation was Four.

He’d been the most successful specimen created by the Four team, and lived in the crate neighboring hers for much longer than any of the others. They’d developed a method during years of late nights and long days in-between labs, practiced only in the most secret of moments.

When all the orderlies were gone and the others slept, Four would press the tips of her fingers to his throat and speak. Watching his mouth move, memorizing the vibrations of his voice, and then pressing fingers to her own throat and trying it for herself. Their soft whispers repeating into the night, the subtle back and forth of a pick inside a locked door.

Her first unsanctioned word took the longest, less trial and more error before Four’s efforts began to make any steady progress. Until finally, Six was able to croak out the word he’d been so desperate to teach her: ‘Lee-yawn.’

Years later, it would be that bright grin, round cheeks squishing into deep creases around his eyes, that she would think of when she missed Leon most. One untouchable moment.

Other words came next, her progress made slow by the constant stream of visitors in the hall; orderlies making rounds, researchers checking on their specimen, administration monitoring progress.

Sister, want, outside, see, sky, free, safe, away, each time she learned a new word he would shake their entwined fingers and give her that same smile.

Four’s secret lessons could only do so much with their limited learning time and a small vocabulary of his own.

If the orderlies saw, one or both of them would be taken through the No-Back doors, a threat that Six didn’t need words to understand. Every specimen taken through those doors was wheeled down the hall, orderlies banging on cages to get everyone’s attention. If you were Bad, you got a Lesson so that you’d be Good again.

The doors are for when you become Useless, a word that an intern had taught Six as both encouragement and threat.

Six had seen many Useless specimens roll by her, from the far side of the hall past Eight. Most of them she’d never seen before, beyond that first and last time.

When she was smaller there’d been an endless cycle of crates beside her, the Five project had discontinued before she arrived, and in their place were many short-lived Fours. On her other side there were Sevens, until a few weeks before Leon arrived, when the limp and blistered form of Last-Seven was rolled past her crate.

Six was taught the word Trash that day, and there were no more Sevens after him, the space to her left was filled with an Eight that bit at their own arms. Without verbal definition, Six understood that a Useless specimen went through those doors and somehow stopped being anything at all.

Ever present was the idea that she was about to be made Trash, so much that she slept with one hand pressed to the wall and another to the floor, so she’d be awake when they came for her. An endless fear that she was deliberately unable to name. Her life was limited, structured to rob her of control, of even the very concept of it.

Crate Six was a fixed point that the world operated around; she didn’t come or go so much as she was brought, she didn’t do so much as she was instructed. All she had was long periods of waiting: for someone to fetch her from the crate, for the testing to begin, for it to end, for her next Meal, next Bath, next Lesson.

Chaos interspersed with the relative bliss of staring out through wire bars.

It never once occurred to Six to wish for anything, all she knew was the way things were Now, and waiting for whatever was Next. Once they took Leon away, in the horrible way that they did, she understood wishing.

She wished that she could have him back, that she could have a name, that this waiting could finally end; even if that meant being Useless.

After Leon, there was nothing but the static that wrapped around her head. On her left Eight stopped clawing and thrashing, but kept spitting. Team Four had completed their work, and the comfort of Leon’s hand was replaced with Three, big enough that his spine and limbs pressed against the cage no matter how he laid.

She’d tried, once, to ease him as he cried by running her fingers over the skin of his arm, but he writhed in what seemed like agony and there was no more trying.

Instead, she rested in a cocoon of apathy, letting things be the way that they were, not resisting when they made her sync or gave her the Bad medicine. Knees tucked to her chest, she buried her head down, keeping one hand on the floor by her feet and the other on the wall.

She grew bigger and more isolated, but never alone, and so at least not lonely.

There were years in that hallway, spent in a crate that she now understood had been made to hold dogs. Years spent outside after, scared and free, until the day she read her first road sign and decided to stay somewhere for more than one restless night.

“Welcome to Charlotte, North Carolina”

That was when the loneliness came, when she had finally learned to read, write, and speak. There were so many things balancing on her tongue, and no one that she could share them with. She could make friends, but there was a trench between her and all the people walking on city streets.

If she looked hard enough, Charlie imagined the trench might look like a long laboratory hallway. Cold, sterile, and existing in only her memory.

Loneliness was in giving herself a name, and introducing herself to people that nodded politely, and didn’t understand how important having a name was.

Charlotte wanted to get a toothy smile, eyes squinted shut in happiness, wanted to introduce herself to one person more than anyone. But he was gone, and she wasn’t sure how to move on from the wanting.

After Karen’s visit, Charlotte felt crowded in her apartment, in her mind, so she dug out the Earmuffs that she’d reinvented, and sank into the relief of turning off the world when she wanted to.

A cup of tea and spending the night bent over some circuit boards was what she needed— to hell with the inevitable crick in her neck.

Igor had been the first thing that she made at her beloved workbench; the welded monstrosity of scrap metal that balanced across drawer units and wooden trestles. At first he’d been solely a digital companion, a program she’d built so that she’d feel less lonely as she traveled, someone that would listen to what she confided, the things she could never tell others. Then she moved into this place, her own perfect corner of Hell’s Kitchen, with just a few boxes of things and a mattress.

Her refurbished laptop and meager spread of components soon built into a wishlist and plans. Late nights were spent hunched over the floor, schematics taped up across almost every flat surface in the place. Drawing, re-starting, scrapping that and re-starting again, all while she gathered the tools and parts that she’d need.

The last few days before he was completed were a sleepless blur in her memory, barely managing to hold on until the first blink of his OLED eyes. Even five years later her heart nearly burst with pride at the memory.

She made Igor so that she wouldn’t be lonely, to help her take care of herself when she’d never been taught how. Triage was what she built when her life was too constricting, when the world felt too cramped and evil to manage. When she missed Leon.

His mutation had been special, a gift to more than just himself. Charlotte could hoard all the money in the world in a blink, could destroy entire power grids on a whim, could do things irredeemably worse if she wanted. A career in villainy wasn’t on her horizon though, and not just because she’d be caught and exposed in a heartbeat. She tried not to even think of SHIELD, too afraid that they had some secret mind-scanning device looking for freaks to recruit. The Avengers were something to gawk at, to admire or fear. That wasn’t the life for her.

Charlotte wanted to run errands and invite friends over for drinks and know that she could help people somehow, even if it was just one at a time.

Leon could do that. Had done that, even in his short life. With just one touch he could take your pains away. Scrapes, cuts, and aches all dissolved at his urging. With all the bad in their childhood, there was at least the joy of their extraordinary natural talents.

If he’d lived to escape, to build a life outside of the Workshop, she had no doubt that Leon would be brave enough to do what she couldn’t. He would’ve stood in front of the world and offered out his hand to help.

It was a thought that Charlie tortured herself with on long nights of cowering away from notice. Tonight it blared through her mind stronger than ever, with the gravity of just how badly her fears had led her astray.

Four people, dead, because you thought that you could help without leaving your little hiding spot.

Charlie’s life was one of finding broken pieces and cobbling them into something new, but Leon could fix people, make it like they had never been broken at all.

So she built Triage. To make her mind stop repeating that one horrible thought and to bring a piece of Leon back into the world.

Triage was a labor of love, forcing her to grow and work more than she ever thought that she could. He needed advanced sensors, to be able to scan and diagnose various ailments. Then he needed the medical knowledge to be able to come up with solutions, which Charlie had to find. And he needed to be taught: how to speak, how to stand, how to help people. There was always some new problem that she had to solve, and she loved the feeling of overcoming each one.

So, how do you build a robot that’s a first-aid kit, doctor, and compassionate caregiver, all in one self-sustaining and self-learning package?

Well, you work for years, spend all your free time learning what it needs, maybe using a unique skill of your own to gather the best resources available, making prototype after prototype, update after software update, and you never give up. Even if you get super close a few times. You drag yourself back to the drawing board and start again, because this is important.

Maybe the most important thing that you could ever do. If not for others, then for yourself.

It’s possible that you never finish, never succeed, but you love the work. You need it, something that you’ll only admit to yourself in the most honest of moments, staring into the mirror’s eyes while you brush your teeth. Soul open to your own scrutiny, you concede that this work is what keeps you from falling apart some days.

Triage, if finally completed, could save millions of lives, could change the landscape of healthcare forever. And if not, if you work on it every day until you die, it will have at least kept you alive and hopeful.

You’ll have had something to love and devote yourself to creating, so you don’t stop. It’s not the finishing that truly matters in a labor of love anyways, it’s the doing.

So, Charlotte labored. Bent over her workbench most nights, read medical journals like they were the morning paper, studied health field biases and machine learning while waiting for the subway. Every day was decorated by scrap-paper notes crumpled and dotted with dried raindrops, the cap of a highlighter held between her teeth, pen smudged across the back of her hand.

Triage would be strong enough to enter warzones, compassionate to those who’d been mistreated by the system, gentle enough to press a bandaid over a scraped knee.

And if he wasn’t, then she would start again.

Tonight, she worked in her blanket of silence to upgrade some of Triage's personality and accessibility features. Since his 'hands' weren’t quite graceful enough to manage legible sign, she was working on a way to create a signing caption system for his visual display. So far she was almost done with ASL, and making progress into research on foreign signs.

Personality-wise, Triage was still a bit… blunt.

Her first priority when preparing Triage for field-testing had been patient confidentiality, ensuring he wouldn’t repeat or disclose anyone’s scan information without their express consent. This left him suitable for minor healthcare scenarios, but not yet able to work without supervision.

Down the hall the Hernandezes had allowed her and Triage to examine them, field testing in exchange for not having to shell out money at the clinic for small sprains and stomach bugs. They were patient with the learning process, but Triage almost blew the whole arrangement with an uncomfortably honest assessment of the survivability of their infant’s high fever.

Essentially he was a toddler with a medical degree, liable to say just about anything. This trait was adorable to Charlie, but not an ideal quality for a healthcare professional.

Built to lift and carry a 350 lb. human with ease, Triage needed a strong bedside manner to counter the impact of his intimidating frame, and unhelpful fatality statistics were not the way to go. Therefore, he was being taught some ideas of social convention, little things first, so as to not overwhelm him.

The sun had long set by the time she finished her last line of soldering. Barely patient enough to let it cool properly, Charlie dusted the chip with compressed air and started to prepare Triage for his update. Igor rolled across the workbench, vacuuming dust and odd bits, collecting tools to be put back in their place.

Like always when her earmuffs were on, Igor’s screen ran a jumbotron-like scroll of what he wanted to say: Clean Up, Late For Dinner.

Charlotte turned away and towards the windows, where Triage was slumped against the couch cushions. Not one to be ignored, Igor scooted a foot to his right, placing himself in view of one of the security mirrors that allowed Charlie to see behind her without turning.

“I can’t read that, it’s backwards.”

The text was promptly mirrored, and she laughed a little, feeling the rumble of it in her chest.

“Okay, half an hour, let me just run diagnostics real quick.”

Igor’s eyes reappeared, flattened into two disapproving half-circles. Knowing that he’d start ramming into her ankles in exactly 31 minutes, Charlie leaned down over Triage to get started.

It was a bit morbid feeling, something usually so full of life now cold dead-weight, and worse was the fact that processing was all kept in his head.

Cracking open the shell in order to tinker around inside always made her a little squeamish, like she was disrespecting her friend somehow. Still, there was no better alternative, he needed malleable sides for functionality, and a mostly hollow core to ensure that he wasn’t ridiculously heavy. She already struggled enough with him being almost a half-ton.

Soldering in the right connections, she successfully replaced the former attempts at a personality chip and attached the diagnostics cable between Triage and her laptop.

The process would go faster if she synced, but after the news that she’d gotten this morning, she was a little hesitant. Instead of slipping out of her body and giving the systems a good look, she opted for the long way— allowing a program to run through it for her.

Ten painful and boring minutes later she was given a clear scan, he most likely wouldn’t suffer any malfunctions from the upgrade.

“See, Igor, I even finished early.”

The bot didn’t respond, instead climbing up to the side table and staring down at Triage with impassive glowing eyes, haloed by the lamp behind him. She honestly couldn’t tell if Igor was experiencing sibling rivalry or just couldn’t recognize that Triage was a robot just like him. Hopefully he’d grow out of it on his own, where do you even begin to program jealousy out of a robot?

Charlie initiated Triage’s boot-up sequence, then shut his casing and sat back on her heels to wait. His internal lighting warmed and began to glow through his reinforced vinyl ‘skin’, limbs rotating experimentally as he sat upright.

Digital eyes had just blinked to life when the ground began to shake, growing from a tremor to a rumble. There were only a few seconds for Charlie to wonder what was causing it before the wall beside her exploded.

Hope you enjoyed, let me know if you want to be added to the taglist, and feel free to shares any thoughts, it helps me to keep up motivation to work on this :)

#matt murdock x reader #matt murdock x you #matt murdock x fem!reader #matt murdock fanfic #matt murdock fic #daredevil x reader #daredevil x y/n #daredevil x you #daredevil fanfiction #matt murdock #matt murdock x enhanced!reader #matt murdock x y/n #daredevil x female reader #daredevil fic #slim ficc #doag #dreaming of a grave

14 notes · View notes

disfordevineaux · 1 year

Text

An amalgamation of random CS Character HCs that have been knocking around in my brain for a while, pt1:

- Sheena was released on bail by her family a few months after fall of VILE. They worked their rich people magic and finessed a sweet, sweet plea that one could only dream of. She now works at Sephora for some reason.

- Chief loves a good paid product placement. In fact 90% of ACMEs income comes from brand deals and sponsorships. All the elevators within ACME HQs across America are Pepsi Branded.

- Chase has 2 younger sisters that he is incredibly close (one still a minor) with. They are both extremely intelligent, strongly opinionated and driven women, exactly the way he raised them. Which people in his inner circle find ironic when considering previous behaviours displayed. He admits it's ironic, and admits openly that it plagues his soul frequently.

- Neal was eventually caught, multiple, multiple, multiple times but naturally escaped. And eventually was just never seen again. Probably performing stand up somewhere. As is probably for the best. It's theorised that he kept getting caught just to escape because he was bored. The cafeteria staff within the prison miss him.

- Cleo developed a skin care line right out of her prison cell. Somehow. It's really successful. It is actually one of ACMEs many sponsors now.

- Zack signed up for a local musical theatre group after being inspired by the show Glee. He subsequently quit when he found out that you actually have to dance and sing, to be apart of the group. And not just sit in the corner and wait for a Glee moment to happen so you can 'get the live Glee experience', as he puts it.

- 6 months into Shadowan's 'retirement' in Greece, he found himself horrifically bored, and began fishing. Turns out he is really good at it, a natural, and ended up being featured on TV for his innovation to fishing.

- Chase decided to grow an actual beard, nothing serious, to shake things up. Zack caught on to this change emerging and wanted to copy him and grow one too. He was excited to become 'The Beard Brothers'. Chase shaved it pretty much the next day.

- Zari plays professional indoor beach volley ball. And is really dam good at it.

- Player collects Yu-Gi-Oh cards. Not to play, but just to organise. He keeps all the holographic ones in their own portfolio. He claims his entire collection is totally worth like a couple thousand, at least.

- Julia likes the taste of coconut. Loves those little chocolates that are called Bountys. It's not her favourite flavour but she really appreciates anything with some dessicated coconut in it.

- Chase is lactose intolerant, but like many people in society suffering from that affliction he refuses to live his life by it. He will not be controlled by dairy. HE controls the dairy. But he does commit to skim or oat milk in his coffee, he's not crazy.

- Dash Haber and Trey Sterling are frienemies to lovers to strangers.

- Carmen and Ivy partake in many private rendezvous that are not at all as work related as they lead people to believe they are.

- Brunt's favourite show is Supernatural. She has a huge huge crush on Dean. It's concerning. But understandable. She kicked up a stink about missing the 'new seasons' (she's a few years behind) and gets to watch an epp a week, despite being in prison.

- Ivy becomes ACMEs resident mechanic and supes up any ACME car she can get her hands on. Don't expect to have any appliances in any office she has a workshop in as the best parts come from a toasted sandwich maker and kettle.

- Player grows from like 4"1 to 6ft within seconds of turning 18.

- Carmen begins working on starting a charity which aims at completely reforming the international foster care system, so she can marry it to her 'stealing for the right reasons' motif which she is currently working at making an actual legal enterprise of some sort.

- Gray claims that he's so far met 17 celebrities throughout his life. But when you ask for a list of who he has met he only ever names a few out of those 17, but ALWAYS tells the story of how he met Chad Michael Murry at a service station in Brisbane.

- As a teen, Bellum was once lost within an IKEA for a considerable amount of time. They consider it the best 5 hours of their life and nothing will ever top it.

#Honestly I could just keep going #cs 2019 #carmen sandiego netflix #carmen sandiego 2019 #disfordevineaux #chase devineaux #julia argent #cs ivy #cs zack #Dash Haber #Cs player #Crackle #Cs bellum #Carmen Sandiego

115 notes · View notes

hashal-nutcracker · 3 months

Text

The model of the Hussar "Gashal" was created in the middle of the war, by one of the engineers Jacob Farakaso, his work attracted the attention of the military due to the fact that the designer, even despite his injuries sustained in the war, had a very sad effect. The lower limbs lost their mobility, but by exerting strength, he managed to assemble a semblance of an endo-skeleton that allowed him to move as before, connected to the cervical region and stretched inside with fibers of synthetic flesh with nerve endings allowed him to return to service, but since he was commissioned. He spent some time with his family, learning about the applications of nutcrackers in the news and other sources, and seeing that they have their own weaknesses as flaws, the dying creature caused pity, because he also lost many comrades.

he began developing his own model that would allow the nutcrackers to be more protected and maneuverable, but for a long time he did not come up with engineering solutions, which depressed him. Except that the daughter had just brought a hussar figurine, its mechanics, although simple, but reliable, movable joints, a head that could be retracted into the shoulders, as if a soldier was hiding his head from the shots that came from an easel machine-gun pillbox.

sleepless nights spent at the table brought out a very effective model, his ideas on reinforced mechanical parts, as well as an ultra-sensitive hydraulic system capable of reacting much faster, like a powerful computer, it could protect its owner from a blow, from a shot from a heavy gun, give speed that was not a strong feature, jump over trenches, not fall into mud traps where so many wounded died, because such a simple trace from a shot by a large artillery shell collected water and blood inside itself, becoming quicksand

Sample number one: Hashal – passed the tests of basic motor skills based on computer modeling of the military and staff situation, tests without substance.

entry number 0-19/F-1:

the test revealed small failures in the body and joints of the cervical spine, yet it is very difficult to create a body for creatures when you do not have a sample, it cost a lot to establish system consumption, but a very impressive result. The chest opening was adjusted to the maximum, the spike was not so important, the magnetic belts turned out to be strong, but the check related to water turned out to be very unsuccessful, as well as for chemical reagents, some types of gas melt wires and their insulation, I do not have enough material to protect the cables.

Maybe I should turn to an old friend, he was sorting out the nutcrackers, maybe I can find the answer in them

Revision: this nutcracker took me a lot of time, I had to use ship cables with their insulation, but I had to look for details from undermined and faulty installations, tanks, and similar equipment, this made it easier for me to fuse some fragments, as well as microcircuits.

The control has improved, the balancing is almost calibrated, I made the inner ribs from titanium and aluminum, I had to melt a whole sheet of plate armor of the tank, oh gods, they will obviously kill me soon

Entry 0-20/F-2:

My fears were true, my adventures were noticed by those whom I clearly would not like to see in my house, they were looking for my prototype, the workshop was destroyed, I can't say how long I still have to live, they can kill my daughter, except for her I have no one left after that the case.. The projectile flew into our complex, damn freaks! So many civilians died then, and Jesse.. she was torn apart, the Collie was not sleeping then and did not let go of my hand: daddy, please.. Don't leave, there's a war! They're killing there! I'll work as long as I can, but how long will I last?

I don't remember how much time has passed since I finished it, it remains only to carry out the final touches, but how to carry them out without filling? Where will I get such a creature, even though such creatures could try to escape the same way, or have offspring, but here? How can this happen at all, especially here..

The Collie began to behave more closed, as if hiding, even though I said that secrets should only be told to those whom I am ready to entrust them, she is probably afraid to tell me about it, the main thing is that it does not attract too much attention to us.

entry number 1 from a personal notebook:

Well, still, these weasels watching my family noticed my daughter's behavior, they came with weapons to the complex! This is not acceptable! The rules do not give them the right to come here with weapons, with soldiers.. but among them I saw white coats, damn scientists, always climbing where they shouldn't and playing gods

Insomnia is killing me two or three months after people came to the complex, but I finally managed to get an answer from my daughter, damn it! She found the offspring of these creatures, even two, where should I put the other one? Of course, I can restore and upgrade the previously destroyed nutcracker, but how much will it be useful?

To the touch, these lumps of flesh are pleasant to the eyes, they are quite small, and so inquisitive, one of them with grayish-blue eyes constantly asks me, if I take it, he does not come off me all day. I feel like a mother to these creatures, if they can reproduce, then I can assume that two nutcrackers could have hidden them initially in our complex, but they could have got in other ways, they are difficult to see if they climb through the ventilation ducts. Collie became their babysitter, but they trust her more.

#The engineer's diary #lethal company art #sketch #lethal company nutcracker #my ocs #The writing of the lore is delayed #but there is a beginning

7 notes · View notes

spidey-bie · 7 months

Note

Same anon that sent the kit ask but I honest to god cannot think of a good question rn so: what's your fave piece of Ansi lore that you've written so far but haven't shared? If you can't (or don't want to) choose one piece then top 3 would be awesome!

I love these asks btw they get me thinking about development and my character design. So thank you.

I have a couple things for you.

First off Ansi canonically gets hoes in her world. Not really lore but moreso a fun fact. She needs stuff and she don't got money. So she flirts with the staff at different stores/restaurants. It's really funny because he never gives them his real name either. So she has men and women of all kinds occasionally calling out to her when she goes places.

Now for lore. One of his powers is system coding. I'm still workshopping how it works but any system that has electricity running through it can be rewired/coded/manipulated by Ansi as long as she's in close contact with it. Yes that does mean she can rewire humans on the molecular level. Yes that does mean she can manipulate the electricity her body produces. Her powers are pretty much a mix of Particle Manipulation and Electrokinesis. This isn't even all her powers either lol.

Yes I made my OC op but I countered it by making her mentally ill. It's the Mob Psycho 100 effect.

That is all for now. I gotta keep y'all coming back for more.

#i wonder what others will think after learning about this lol #oh well #my spidersona #Ansiniya Taratella #Ansi Taratella #oc facts #Ansi's powers #jay webs words

11 notes · View notes

kaidanworkshop · 1 year

Text

Workshop Progress: May Update

As we enter the second week of May, each of the Workshop Teams have been burning the midnight oil working through the lines we received from our VA Paul Warren and preparing for implementation. You can always find more details about each of these updates via our developer diary. With no further ado:

Creation Kit & Assets Team: As the follower framework rebuild continues, we have successfully cleaned up several more bugs that existed in the base mod in addition to laying the foundation for line implementation. The biggest highlights are as follows: - Kaidan should no longer show up in locations he is not "allowed" to be unless you summon him. - We tweaked his follow radius to reduce collisions with the player - Kiai's horse AI has been completely rebuilt, with new flags to make sure Kiai is essential and won't affect the player's stealth meter - We set up the new global variables for the new nickname feature (as well as added a ton of new global variables to help regulate Kaidan's comments from firing off all the time) - Changed Kaidan's combat style from default to csHumanBoss2H as testing/prep for a future feature to adjust his combat style via dialogue - De-tangled ownership of Autumnwatch from Kaidan's romance path via a new variable; you can now get him the house without marrying him! We will be working with the Writing Team to come up with new dialogue for this new friendship path in the near future Besides the CK work, other members of the team have been hard at work splicing the 500+ individual lines we completed with Mr. Warren (260 lines, with minimum two takes per line). The entire staff has been voting on their preferred takes as the lines are separated, in preparation for KW_K01 implementation. Writing Team: One of our staff members joined our Community Team Lead for the directed session with Mr. Warren and was able to incorporate some of his feedback into our style guide, which has helped us tremendously with ensuring consistency across the staff. After several weeks of furious formatting and conversion into spreadsheets, the team has hit a great point in their task list overall. We have most of the original script separated by CK quest name, and have now turned our attention towards creating lines for the winning nicknames from the nickname poll conducted back in April. Additionally, we have begun to tentatively create new dialogue for several of the new features Kaidan will have added onto his framework; once we receive the go ahead from the CK & Assets Team that we are ready to begin implementation of those features, we will fast track these new excerpts of dialogue accordingly. Community Team: We are incredibly close to hitting $1000 in donations for our first month of fundraising! It has been absolutely riveting talking with members of our Discord and Tumblr, and we've gotten great suggestions that we're happy to see come to fruition via the CK & Assets Team. While we are still at least a week or two away from being able to put a video together for the new Kaidan intro quest, we are discussing setting up a livestream in our Discord sometime this weekend or early next week, to feature a few of our favorite lines from Mr. Warren. As soon as we decide on a date and time, we will update our socials to spread the word! Interested in joining the staff? We are currently accepting staff applications for the Creation Kit & Assets Team and the Community Team. You can find that info here.

#kaidan 2 #kaidanworkshop #kaidan skyrim #custom voice follower skyrim

89 notes · View notes

carewyncromwell · 4 months

Text

"You want a ride to fame? I've got the fastest route! What's it gonna be? Are you in or out?"

x~x~x~x

HPHM Cardverse developed by @ariparri // Rakepick's outfit // Duncan's outfit // the more "court-worthy" outfit Duncan eventually bought for Jacob

x~x~x~x

The day Jacob Cromwell first arrived at the palace of Spades, he earned more than a few skeptical side-eyes. It was hard not to judge Jacob poorly, when he strolled inside dressed in clothes more appropriate to working in a mechanic's shop than in one of the most powerful royal courts in Cinderhaven. His black slacks and white shirt were clean and his boots were polished, yes, but he'd rolled his sleeves up to his elbows and the lone pop of color in Jacob's outfit -- his red suspenders -- were far too informal for such a setting. And yet Jacob walked with his head held high, almost arrogantly so, and went straight to work in his new workshop just down the hall from the office of his boss, the also very recently installed Jack of Spades, Duncan Ashe.

One of those most skeptical of Jacob -- at least at first -- was the Ace of Spades, Patricia Rakepick. She had been the one hold-out in selecting Duncan as Ulrich Scheller's replacement, citing his young age and subsequent lack of experience as rationale, but she'd ultimately been overruled. Not only did the King of Spades, Oskar Doyle, support Duncan's promotion, but the Queen of Spades had agreed with it too, before her tragic death. Even Ulrich Scheller himself was steadfast about Duncan being the one to take his old position.

"Mr. Ashe may be young, but he has discerning judgment -- far better than even I had at his age," the former Jack had said. "I've always valued his counsel as my subordinate, and I think the Court of Spades will come to appreciate that very same counsel once he takes my place."

Rakepick was not convinced. And, to be fair, it was hard for her not to feel some resentment at how seemingly easily it had been for Duncan Ashe to climb the ranks of power, while still fresh out of university. Perhaps it was dumb luck or the fact that Duncan was a young man with a good sense of dress from a reasonably well-respected family -- a more objective source might also have pointed out that Duncan was a far more likable person than Rakepick. Even despite his brusqueness, he could be witty and funny and yet also dedicated, down-to-earth, hard-working, and supportive. Duncan chased his ambitions with laser-precision, and yet he also never failed to take helpful input from the people around him. His pride was never so inflated that he couldn't take constructive criticism or admit when he was wrong, nor was it an obstacle to him making iron-clad friendships that gave him people in his corner who stuck with him solely out of sincere enjoyment for his company.

Rakepick's critical view of Duncan Ashe, however, completely justified her initial suspicion of Jacob Cromwell. This suspicion quickly flickered out, though, when she made a point to stop by the Jack's stooge's new workshop.

It was still quite early that morning — most of the King’s, Jack’s and Ace’s staffs had only just started their work for the day -- and yet that oddly chipper new "favorite" of the Jack of Spades' was already hard at work. He’d arrived a good half hour before his scheduled shift and used that extra time to hang up the blueprints for the couple dozen projects he'd already hashed out to show "Ashe" when he arrived later that morning. Then, at his formal start time, Jacob set about testing out his new power-saw (which the curly-haired young man had fanboyed over when he first saw it) to cut out a metal skeleton for his blimp prototype while also making some alterations to the blueprint on his desk.

By the time Rakepick dropped in, she found Jacob in the midst of a short "break" in his work, which entailed him adjusting the screws on a device set up under his desk.

Because Jacob was so preoccupied with what he was doing, he didn't get a good look at who had entered. And because he was so used to being an overworked part-time mechanic, cook, and librarian, his first instinct was not to stop what he was doing, introduce himself to the person, and ask how he could help them, but to greet the stranger cheerfully without even looking up from his work.

"Hey there! Come on in and look around if you’d like — I’ll be right with you!"

Rakepick cocked her eyebrows at the young man largely obscured under the desk, tightening the screws on what looked like the foot pedal of an old sewing machine. With a roll of her eyes, the Ace looked around — only to be startled by the prototype hanging over her head.

It resembled — for lack of a better term — a small mechanical dragon, with its “head” and “limbs” cut into halves hanging from separate wires. The wings were crafted out of aluminum, carved wood, and fabric, and the “body” was a balloon with multiple model stairways attached to it and aluminum “legs” hanging off of them and cut open to show off rooms on the inside. Even the head (adorned with two thick lightning rods as horns) was cut down the middle to show off a miniature cockpit on the inside.

Rakepick actually raised her gloved hand to shift the head around, her eyes widening with interest upon the intricately designed interior. It even had a miniature control panel with what looked like tiny fuses. When she tapped at one of the levers inside the model, two spotlights appeared out of the dragon’s mouth, casting a light down onto the multiple blueprints laid out on the desk.

"It’s a modified blimp," said Jacob’s voice from under the desk. "Those mouth lights would be hydroelectric-powered, via collected rainwater -- I originally thought of using solar power, but too much concentrated heat could run a risk of the thing catching fire, since the blimp itself would use hydrogen...much less rare alternative to helium…"

Rakepick raised her eyebrows. "Hydroelectric power, you say?"

Didn’t Duncan Ashe bring up something once about hydroelectric power in one of his meetings with Ulrich Scheller…?

"Yeah!" said Jacob cheerfully, still not looking up. "I brought it up to Ashe a while ago, shifting our main source of power away from coal and toward hydroelectric -- and he thinks it’d be a great way to save money for other projects. Plus water's much less hazardous to work with…though if coal can be mined more safely, I reckon it could still be used, just in smaller amounts…still need to make a prototype or two for that project…"

Then this person was where Duncan Ashe stole that idea from. Rakepick pursed her lips. It seemed this new Jack really was good at getting credit not rightfully owed him.

"But hey, there's only so much time in a day!" Jacob laughed to himself. "Only sent my letters of resignation in yesterday morning — didn't really have time to get all these ideas out of my head, before that…"

Rakepick glanced around. By her count, she could see five unfinished blueprints hung up on the wall, one more and several printed graphs on the work bench next to an old phonograph, and what looked like a row of small plant boxes with thermometers stuck in each one.

"…You did all this just in one day?" she asked.

"In half a day, a night, and some of this morning. But yeah."

This boy works hard, thought Rakepick.

"Though a few ideas I'd been ruminating on for a while, beforehand," Jacob pressed on. "I just hope it's enough…I've never worked as any kind of advisor before. Don't really know how much my work will be commission-based and how much will be free-lance…"

Rakepick crossed her arms, considering the young man's spade-gloved hands under the desk testing out the little sewing machine wheel he'd attached to the leg of his desk. Only when he turned it did Rakepick realize it was attached to the phonograph on the desk, and the wheel turning also made the crank handle rotate.

"I think that depends on whether that project on your desk is something the Jack commissioned," said Rakepick, "or if you came up with it for him by yourself."

Jacob laughed. "Oh, this? Nah, this is just a personal project...I wanted to use it back at the mechanic shop, originally, but I didn't have proper room for it...Wyn, my sister Carewyn, she let me keep it in pieces under our window, until I could figure out where to put it -- "

Once Jacob had finished his adjustments, he got up off the floor at last, sat down in his chair in front of the blueprint, and pressed the foot pedal. The pedal made the wheel rotate, which subsequently turned the crank on the phonograph so that it could play the record set on it.

"When the red, red robin comes bob-bob-bobbin' along...along... There'll be no more sobbin' when he starts throbbin' his old sweet song..."

Jacob's almond-shaped blue eyes lit up in delight seeing his invention working right, and he cheerfully sing along to the next few lines.

"Wake up -- wake up, you sleepy head! Get up -- get up, get out of bed! Cheer up -- cheer up, the sun is red! Live, love, laugh, and be happy..."

Rakepick's eyes trailed over the modified phonograph, along the careful metal-work attaching the disparate pieces and the screws securing them to the work bench. All this effort and inventiveness, for something this boy wasn't intending to get any reward for from his employer...

Rakepick's lips curled up in a very slight smirk. She had to admit -- she was impressed.

Still pedaling away to play the song on the record, Jacob finally looked up at the person who'd entered his workshop with a smile. That smile dimmed, though, when he realized just who he was talking to.

"Oh," said Jacob, startled. His foot stopped pedaling as his eyes flitted quickly to the sword at Rakepick's side and the stylized silver-white pauldrons on her shoulders. "Uh...you with the military or something?"

Rakepick smirked. "'Or something.' Patricia Rakepick -- Ace of Spades. And you'd be Jacob Cromwell, of course."

"Uh -- yeah." Jacob looked sheepish.

Rakepick's smirk widened a bit. "You seem surprised to see me."

"Sorry -- I didn't think anyone outside of Ashe's people would be interested in any of this," said Jacob, sounding slightly abashed as he crossed one leg across his lap. "I mean, this stuff's really more for interior projects -- nothing that fancy..."

"You sell yourself short, Master Cromwell," said Rakepick. She once again indicated the prototype of the blimp hanging from the ceiling. "Frankly I'd say with a brain like yours, you could make a rather fine Jack yourself, some day."

Jacob's blue eyes went very wide. Then, almost immediately, his expression gained a much darker look -- one that swept through offense and disgust so thoroughly that it was close to revulsion.

"Uh -- no," he said incredibly bluntly. "Ashe is the Jack."

"I never said he wasn't," said Rakepick, "merely that you're more than qualified for such a position. More qualified than many candidates I could envision as Jack...or King, for that matter..."

"I wouldn't want the post, in any case," Jacob cut her off. "I'm not here to do Ashe's job, or the King's."

So this boy had no ambition in that direction? That was reassuring, to Rakepick.

"Good to hear it," said the Ace, before she added a bit more lowly, "...Though it occurs to me that may be why you were brought here in the first place."

Jacob's eyebrows furrowed. Rakepick folded her arms behind her back as she considered him.

"Mr. Ashe brought up your ideas to the rest of court, long before your arrival," she said grimly. "He's glided to where he is partly on the back of your creativity -- is it so surprising that he'd want to keep leeching off of your efforts and use them to earn further prestige for himself?"

Rakepick's eyes narrowed a bit.

"Your talents are far too impressive for you not to get full credit for them, Master Cromwell. I can think of quite a few projects outside of the Jack's domain that could use a mind like yours -- ones that would pay very well and offer further rewards, for your efforts."

Jacob, however, had already closed himself off visibly -- he slouched back in his chair and crossed his arms, his eyes narrowing.

"No offense, Madam Ace, but I'm not here for money or 'prestige' or whatever. I don't give a damn about politics -- I'm here because I want to do something useful, not prance around like a show horse, schmoozing with people. The only power I care about is the power in my brain and in my own two hands -- and I intend to use them to work really hard and make things that solve real problems. I want to help Ashe and the Country of Spades, however I can."

Rakepick's brows raised. This boy wasn't interested in financial reward either? A truly rare breed, to find at court.

"...That's quite noble of you, Master Cromwell," she said, and she meant it. "And it's for that reason that my offer still stands. If you wish so much to be of use, your talent and creativity would be incredibly useful, in giving the army the means to protect the Country of Spades. Your blimp prototype, for instance -- I imagine it could be a perfect flagship, with some minor alterations and a proper set of guns -- "

"Guns?" Jacob repeated, appalled. "Madam, the blimp of that prototype is full of hydrogen. Anything using gunpowder could risk setting the whole thing ablaze. That flying machine is strictly meant for long-distance transport, to reduce travel time and be more resilient to bad weather..."

"A very good idea, when our King has to travel frequently to other parts of Cinderhaven."

The stylishly dressed Jack of Spades had materialized seemingly out of nowhere and walked up behind Jacob's chair, bringing his hand onto his subordinate's shoulder. Jacob looked up at him, and his expression immediately brightened.

"Ashe!"

"I'm flattered that you approve of my staff appointments, Madam Ace," said Duncan, though his voice betrayed a notable edge, "but as you might've noticed, Jacob has quite a few projects already in the works for his place here, working for me. I'm afraid any commissions you might wish to offer him will have to wait."

Rakepick pursed her lips. She got the feeling that Duncan had overheard a lot more of her and Jacob's conversation than he would've admitted -- he was more than clever enough to eavesdrop for important information before making himself known.

"Perhaps," she granted. She turned on her heel, but paused long enough to shoot a cold smile over her shoulder at Duncan. "But don't hoard him away all for yourself, Mr. Ashe. A young man of talent like Master Cromwell could change the world, so long as he has the freedom to chase his own success."

Duncan clenched his jaw as the Ace strolled off.

"Don't hoard him away" -- you dodgy geebag, if you even think of trying to snatch Jacob up for yourself -- !

"What a weird woman."

Duncan looked at Jacob, startled, to see the man frowning very deeply at Rakepick's retreating back.

"She acts like she's complimenting you, and then she says things that make absolutely no sense," Jacob muttered irritably. "'So long as he has the freedom to chase his own success' -- as if I somehow don't? And insinuating that I'm here to do your job...I'm a technology guy, I'm not here to waste time kissing up to people..."

"Good to know you think I'm wasting time," Duncan said very dryly.

Jacob looked sideswiped. "Huh? What, no -- I didn't say that! I said it'd be a waste of time for me to do that..."

"Of course it would -- I'm already doing it," Duncan cut him off smoothly with a wry smile.

His smile then faded as his face grew more serious.

"...Jacob...what Rakepick said...it's not true, not a bit of it. Of course, yes, I did share your ideas at court -- but I did not take credit for them...I told the former Jack they were yours. And I didn't want you here so you could do my work for me or make me look better. I wanted you here because...well, your ideas are useful, and I..."

I want you around. I want you around all the time, not just at that old tavern every Tuesday and Thursday...

Duncan swallowed, his dark eyes flitting down to Jacob's lips and back up into his blue eyes.

"...I do...want you to succeed. I want your work to be appreciated. All of it -- whether it's for me or not."

Jacob grinned. It made his blue eyes sparkle, even though his face lacked any light of revelation about the unspoken sentiment in Duncan's posture.

"I know, Ashe," he said. "And that's all I want, really, to know my work means something. Sure, the paycheck's great -- " he gave a cheekier grin, " -- makes it easier for me to support myself, Wyn, and Mum, you know...but I took the job because you wanted my help, needed my help. And well, you know me...I like to help people. Especially the ones I care about."

Duncan tried very hard to bite back the flush rising in his cheeks. Somehow Jacob completely missed it, though, because his focus was drawn to the blueprint he'd left on his desk.

"Speaking of which!" he said brightly. He snatched up the blueprint and held it up for Duncan to see. "I sketched out a concept for a new hydroelectric generator, for your upcoming meeting with the King of Spades! I suggested several dimension sizes, since I wasn't sure how big the boiler here is, but I thought the palace would be a good place to test its efficiency and ability to heat multiple levels..."

Duncan looked it over and nodded in approval.

"Not bad," he said, and his lips unfurled in a more mischievous smile. "I think the King and the rest of the court will be very impressed with it, and you, when you accompany me to the meeting."

Jacob was taken aback. "Wha -- ? You want me to -- ?"

"Yes -- but only after I take you shopping for some new clothes. I'm not introducing you to Oskar Doyle in red suspenders."

#hphm #hogwarts mystery #hphm cardverse #cardverse au #jacob cromwell #patricia rakepick #duncan ashe #my art #art #my writing #fanfiction #lololol while drawing that one extra jacashe drawing under the cut I was listening to kaci battaglia's crazy possessive #and it felt SO much like an inner monologue for duncan seeing rakepick trying to recruit his -boyfriend- subordinate #'call my man again and I'mma F*** you up!' XDDD #also for the record duncan that IS the nicest outfit jacob has at this particular time in his life #lane even cleaned his clothes specially so they'd be spotless ;~;#jacob wanted to wear the red suspenders because red's his favorite color and carewyn supported him because color is good!#jacob did end up really liking what duncan picked out and bought for him though :')#oh yes! and all allusions to the previous king and queen of spades are inspired by lore developed by ari about them <3 #red red robin is a fun parallel because in hphm canon carewyn's animagus form is a robin #whereas carewyn listens to a lot of songs about bluebirds in this canon when lane calls jacob her 'blue jay' in most canons

9 notes · View notes

megashadowdragon · 5 months

Text

redraw of emerys son of merlin and gudako

source : www . reddit . com/r/grandorder/comments/199cxqc/redraw_of_emerys_son_of_merlin_and_gudako/

original bio:

Gudako X Merlin: Son

Name: Emerys

Age: 17

Personality: Annoying to the people who don’t like him, but reliable to his allies. Emerys is a smooth talker who can worm his way out of almost any situation with just his words alone. To the unaware, his words and logic make sense, making him win almost any argument, but to those as smart as him, he is a sly fox who they know from the start not to engage with a verbal debate with. While he is no stranger to a fight, he prefers to avoid combat if possible. Mainly due to the fact he would rather avoid pain. This however comes into conflict as he can’t help but rile people up. He also likes to do things that are cool and not exactly practical.

Other Stuff: Born due to Merlin having fun aka [REDACTED] with Gudako . He specializes in elemental and dream magecraft. Using several staffs that he plagiarized made himself. Because he is a smooth talker, he is better at High-Speed Incantation than his father, this is useful when his is running from someone and he needs to cast a spell quickly in order to escape. Speaking of which, running is the one practical thing he excels at. While Myriam is someone who prefers to teleport away and get herself immediately out of danger, Emerys will simply outrun his chasers. As he enjoys the feeling of leaving them in the dust. This has worked 70% of the times he was running from someone.

Bio: Of the many children of the Fujimaru family. There are six the stand out as being a special case due to their relationships with each other, or more specifically, the parents and their connection to the Land of Paradise and Hope. The two children of Morgan: Timothy and Calisto, the two children of Castoria: Cayde and Alina, and finally, the kids of both the male and female Merlin. Through this loose connection, they are known as the “Children of Avalon”.

With the birth of Emerys, the power balance settled. With one boy and girl for each “person” associated with Avalon. Naturally, alliances and relationships vary. And on a spectrum of responsible to troublemaking, the Morgan kids occupy one end, the Castoria kids occupy the other, with the Merlin kids somewhere in the middle.

When compared to his “sister”/cousin Myriam, Emerys is a natural strategist with a diverse set of skills that makes him unpredictable. Meanwhile, Myriam has untapped leadership potential and more powerful magic circuits, she has less ways to use them. Emerys on the other hand is an all around who uses elemental magecraft as well as dream magic that he learned from his father.

Emerys likes to accessorize, to an often unnecessary degree. He carries things in his coat that he generally does not need, from things like mystic codes, to a small magnet. The most obvious example of this is him owning multiple staffs. Rather than use a single staff for all his spell casting, he has around 6 that corresponds to a specific element or magecraft. But since he can’t carry them all at once, he had a special vault made where he keeps them, and has the ability to send the specific staff he needs anytime he calls.

However, once it was learned that his staffs he made were all just ripoffs of one that already existed. The owners fo the originals were less flattered by these imitations and more slighted by them.

There is a reason why Da Vinci won’t allow him in her workshop.

Quotes:

“I must warn you, I have developed a secret technique, one that was passed down from father to son. A skill that is brilliant in scope, and highly effective in execution. And its name is-”

“You like my staffs? They’re totally original BTW.”

“They say my smile is worth a thousand words, all I have to do is speak and I have already won this conversation.”

Relationships:

Father: Father is father. I learned some of my best tricks from him.

Mother: Mother will never admit it, but she gets so flustered around dad, I bet that even without Incubus blood, he could have seduced her in seconds.

Carina: My closest friend and family member. Sure her ego is through the roof, but I can’t call her out since I have one as well. I’m confident in saying we’d make the most powerful sibling duo in our entire family, in theory anyway.

Myriam: We often joke that we are genderflipped versions of each other. Heck we even tried disguising as one another with illusions to see who could keep up appearances the longest.

Calisto: She considers herself Myriam’s arch-nemesis. And I can agree with that statement, those two are gonna be very close as sisters growing up. Just in a different way.

Timothy: Do I consider him my rival? Maybe, if he was anywhere near as good as me….whats that? He’s standing right behind me?

Cayde: He tries so hard at being a ladies' man, he often wishes he had my smooth voice. Although that might be more trouble than its worth if he had my way of speaking

Alina: Why is so serious all the time, I get having Calisto for a sister is rough, but its not the worst thing in the world.

Lavender: I once tried to borrow her staff, but then I remember her mom is a vengeful Goddess who doesn’t like people messing with her kids.

Finn: He made me an offer to make high-quality unique staffs if I did some favors for him. Just what were they? Sorry, the clause in the contract says I can’t tell.

What people think about him:

Da Vinci: I started copyrighting all my stuff once I saw his newest “staff”.

Morgan: *Statement removed due to overuse of vulgar language and insults*

Miles: He can run fast, thats for sure

Carina: He may not be a child of my father, but if anyone says he is only half my brother, I will paralyze them for a whole day. He is the greatest brother I could ask for!

Timothy: I heard you were talking %$#@ about me.

Victoria: There is a reason why Myriam is the court mage and not him.

Duran: I honestly wished big sis made him the court mage, he makes the best jokes.

#fgo #gudako x merlin #fgo fancomic #altermagna #fate grand order

7 notes · View notes