happy caroline appreciation day 2024! have a fic originally written in 2019 đ
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On her lunch breaks Caroline goes and sits in the chassis room. Itâs off-limits to everyone but the engineering team, technically, but Caroline would love for someone to try and tell her to leave. Honestly, it would make her day.
She likes to stare up into that yellow bit that looks like an eye. Itâs high enough above her that she canât quite make it all out -her eyesightâs been going the past few years, sheâs noticed- but she likes to think she can see herself reflected back. She likes to think she looks unafraid.
Caroline doesnât think sheâs afraid- she certainly doesnât feel it. So maybe when Cave first brought it up she balked. But that was edging up on a quarter century ago, and things certainly look different to her now than they did at forty-five.
She didnât think it would be this different without him, for a start.
Sure, her jobâs still the same- on paper. But everythingâs on paper, isnât it? Sign this, fill out that, toss that one, mail it, file it, cash the check, approve the schematic. She watches every cog in the great machine turn, she feels each tooth grind and each spark fly and knows what needs oil and what needs time, and yet she does it from behind a wall of paper. She clocks in and clocks out and no one talks to her, she skims what she needs to get by from the books and no one notices, she even reads classified emails and hasnât gotten one question about it. Caveâs the one who died and yet somehow Carolineâs the one whoâs become a ghost.
Sometimes she considers hiring an assistant, but buying new toys to medicate boredom was always more Caveâs style.
She hears movement beyond the glass of the control room window and sees shapes through the tint- theyâre watching her again. Cowards, Caroline thinks, and lights a cigarette (sheâs taken up smoking again; when Cave died his intolerance for woman smokers went with him; itâs one of the few things she doesnât miss). They let her take her time. After all, theyâre taking plenty of their own. They have all the gear set up -sheâs even seen the chair, medieval restraints and all- and the machine itself certainly looks ready, all shiny and white and massive, and yet sheâs still here.
Theyâre scared of the procedure, she thinks. Theyâre putting it off. Not because of the ethics -Caroline is sure that some of them want nothing more than to strap her down and pump her full of Clonidine- no, she thinks theyâre scared of her. They donât like how much she knows about the robot- about its design, its mechanisms, their many trials and triumphs in getting the thing built. (It was mostly trials, something that draws a strange, almost parental pride out of Caroline.) She even knows how they want to go about the transfer. And they donât understand how she could know all that, and know how badly they want it to hurt, and still go through with it.
She thinks even the kinder ones harbor a secret wish to see her run for the hills, the hysteria apparently inherent to her sex finally getting the better of her. She wonders if some of them dream of chasing her down.
But Caroline hasnât run yet, and she has no intention to. In fact, sheâs not even running now- look at her, sheâs enjoying a nice smoke in the shade of the sprawling mechanical monster that has somehow become both her present and her future. She turns to look again into that as-yet-dim yellow eye, dangling above her like some great bird, and imagines what it might be like to look down instead of up.
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Eventually, after some aggressive conferencing, one of the junior engineers is pushed through the doors to shoo the secretary out. He enters the chamber to find her standing directly underneath the chassis, gazing up at it like itâs about to say something important and she desperately wants to listen. Nothing new. He clears his throat, asks her to leave. Heâs nice about it, or at least he feels that he is. Heâs got nothing against her- sheâs the one who smiled at him and gave him a pin for his backpack when he came for Career Day with his third grade class. He likes her.
He has to ask again- the first time she didnât hear him, or maybe she pretended she didnât. But after the second time she turns around and looks at him instead. Five more minutes, maâam? he says, because he wants to be the good guy. Yes sir, she says, and he knows she isnât actually in the robot yet but it still feels like an automated response. After that he goes back to his coworkers so they can tell him he tried, they know, she can be so difficult, but hey, thatâs what the boss saw in her, right? And when five minutes is up he comes back to find her standing in the same spot, and in the quiet that settles around his hesitation he hears her say to the machine,
âItâll be you, wonât it? Itâs always been you.â
And now he thinks sheâs really lost it so he goes to take her arm and escort her out, but before he can she turns on her heel and does it for him and the look she shoots him on the way out makes him wonder whether, once they upload her, the only thing that will change is how much is standing in her way.
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YOURE SO RIGHT FOR THIS ACTUALLY. o droole is set up as the antagonist just... because, if you look at him as a whole there isnt really a reason as to why he shouldn't try running for president. like hes right in questioning stratos anyway? the show itself does joke that stratos is not a good leader its so?? banger analysis benny :]
* the funniest part about betrayus turns up the heat to me is that the writers want you to side with stratos as if he isn't blatantly in the wrong here. you're supposed to view o drool as the bad guy because he's mean as if his actions aren't completely justified and logical.
it was by some miracle [and the age rating] that he wasn't hurt by the machine backfiring, let alone anything serious. it's made worse by how he never consented to being a test subject in the first place and was practically shoved in there against his own will. this is all on live television as well, you can throw in a side order of public humiliation.
while he did give it the once over and seal of approval that doesn't really mean anything. it has been show to us extensively that sir c's inventions have a tendency to backfire or not work as intended. the assumption that the machine itself is to blame is entirely fair game.
it's why when they later go to paint his decision to shut down sir c's lab as an unfair abuse of power it's an argument that's dead in the water. a machine he created could've seriously injured someone and while it malfunctioning wasn't his fault in this case who's to say it couldn't be repeatable? he's still responsible to some degree and this a very reasonable response to the situation, a light slap on the wrist even.
trying to paint o drool as being a bad person for harbouring a grudge against sir c and being a bit catty as a result holds no weight to it. he has every right to mistrust the guy who could've gotten him hurt and wants him to face repercussions for it, how is that wrong of him?
if we want to talk about an actual abuse of power then stratos is right there and his utter refusal to hold his own friends accountable. it was by sheer luck that nothing serious happened but instead sir c is the one who gets the apology as if he's the real victim in this situation.
instead o drool gets stripped of his rank and that's supposed to viewed as the correct choice, as if it's a fitting punishment. what did he do again? deem your friend as an active risk to public safety for nearly getting him killed and punishing him accordingly, you know his JOB?
if being mean is now valid grounds to remove someone from power then maybe stratos should go into hiding, it's the only thing he's good at anyway. like how in invasion of the pointy heads stratos is shown instantly surrendering before running to safety, leaving everyone to defend themselves, while o drool is actively taking part in the fight-
maybe that's the real reason why stratos removed his badge. he felt threatened that someone competent held a high position of power and how that not only reflected badly on him but called into question his own standings. o drool for president he's already more qualified.
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In case you lost it - a link to the eSIM donation guide. Even if you feel sick and powerless, you can at least do this. And even if you really, really can't donate, you can always at least share this and remind others.
https://gazaesims.com/esim-purchase-tutorial/
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