pfp & banner by harvey (thetransdiaries) | Finley! | He/him/his | Minor, but ok with interaction with people who are 18+ | Part-time dragon 🖤🩶🤍💜 | Please do not send donation asks. | Feel free to send me an ask or DM, I love meeting new people!
"We are more than just Kings and Queens. We are at the center of the universe." - Nettie, The Color Purple (2023)
IN MEMORIAM OF LIAM (@zzstar-head), NEX BENEDICT, SONYA MASSEY, RENÉE GOOD, & ALEX PRETTI.
HELP CHEAVY!
HELP APOLLO!
Other ways to reach me.
My backup blog is @march-of-the-finsettos! Be sure to follow me there in case something happens to this blog (again)!
About Me!
First picture/picrew made with this!
Second picture/drawing made by my wonderful friend Korey (@sharkbaitju1ce)! Great artist and even greater friend, please check their stuff out! :D
Third picture/picrew by @/potato-lord-but-not!
Please, if you know my age through DMs or Discord, DO NOT POST IT OUTSIDE OF PRIVATE SPACES WITH ME. I WILL CONSIDER THIS AN ATTACK.
IF A HOSTILE/OFFENSIVE ANON CALLS ME THEIR FRIEND, I AM NOT!!!! IF AN ANON SENDS SELF-HARM PICTURES AND TAGS ME IN THE ASK, THAT IS NOT ME!!!!!
Hotlines: https://www.tumblr.com/cal-the-duende/719414598665699328/dont-ever-hesitate-reblog-this-this-should-be?source=share For those wit
More under the cut, friends! Please be sure to peruse through all of the IMPORTANT LINKS! You may also take a look at all of my wonderful Tumblr family members, but the important links ESPECIALLY. Thank you! :)
Name: Finley, but you can call me Finn or Fin, too! Or really ANY nickname derivative of Finley! I ADORE nicknames, please feel free to give me some! :D
Musical genres I like: Musicals, Classical, Orchestral, Jazz, Lo-fi, Ambient, Rock, Folk
Pronouns: He/him/his
Quote(s) that describe(s) how I'm feeling:
"And all I really want is some justice!" - "All I Really Want" by Alanis Morrisette, from the album "Jagged Little Pill"
"We don't even know why people laugh anymore." - "Very Opening" from the musical "In Trousers" by William Finn
Favorite colors: Green and blue.
Favorite Book(s): "Good Dog" by Dan Gemeinhart, "Thanks a Lot, Universe" by Chad Lucas, "Ghost Boys" by Jewell Parker Rhodes, "Long Way Down" by Jason Reynolds, "Show Us Who You Are" by Elle McNicoll
Favorite Season: Fall/Autumn
Favorite musical(s): Wicked, Hadestown, Come From Away, Cabaret, The Marvin Musicals, Next to Normal
Favorite films: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, The Wicked Duology, The Black Panther Duology
Favorite band: Tally Hall
Favorite TV shows: Infinity Train, Bluey, Hilda
DNI:
Homophobic
Blogs with DNI Minors
Xenophobic
Racists
TERFS
Radfems
Anti-abortion
Antisemites (racism/prejudice against Jewish people)
if you do not stand with Palestine
IDF/Israel supporters
Anti-furries
Anti-therians
Zoophiles
Wilbur Soot defenders/supporters
Dream defenders/supporters
TERFS
If you darkship/proship/you ship incest, pedophilia, real people, etc.
Anti-BLM
MAP/NOMAP/Pedophile
Pro-facist/Nazi
Sexist
Ableist
Islamophobes
Other stuff!:
I'm a Pall Werson/member of the Hurricane Family!
I have chromesthesia!
I wear glasses!
I play the violin and sometimes the piano!
I give off platypus vibes according to my friends!
13 of my friends have called me a "ray of sunshine" so I guess it must be true XD
Please note that while this is an AU/rewrite, I will be using canon human names for Kinger and Queenie in this prologue, so if you do not want that mild spoiler, go ahead and skip to chapter 1 and come back later. That said, however, I actually do not like their canon surname and will be using my own name for them and if that makes a difference, proceed.
Chapter summary: A C&A employee answers a message to come into work after hours to avoid a difficult conversation, and gets more than he bargained for. What is really going on at this company?
“Grant, don't you dare answer that.”
He had his hand on the car door and his seat belt was off, but Grant Bishop lingered in his seat, his wife's desperate pleas ringing in his ears even now. He wondered if he should just forget about the page he'd gotten and go home. Destiny was probably pissed, but maybe if he picked up some flowers and chocolates he could pacify her enough to not be immediately thrown right back out of the house.
She was right, they needed to talk, and it hadn’t been until Grant pulled into his parking space at C&A that it occurred to him just how true it was. What the hell was he doing here, coming into work after hours with a low air quality and storm warning, instead of home with his wife?
The page he'd gotten wasn’t even from Mike as he'd told her as he walked out the door. It was from one of the unlisted numbers from the military contractors claiming that Caine was acting out again, and apparently this time it was bad.
Grant buried his head in his hands. Yes, this had to do with Caine, that was why he was willing to walk out on Destiny and the conversation they so desperately needed to have, and not just because of the page. His wife was right, he was overly fond of the malfunctioning AI, and the attention he was giving it was only to distract himself from their issues at home.
“God, I'm such a fool.” He muttered to himself, just as his pager bleeped again, and like the fool he was, he checked the message.
Get in the damn building Kinger, we need you NOW.
Grant's project code name, Kinger, felt like a terrible irony when he thought so low of himself at the moment. He was a coward who was neglecting his wife when she needed him and burying himself in his work so he did not have to confront the complicated emotions that followed their recent miscarriage. That was hardly kingly behavior.
He wanted to go back to Destiny, his beloved queen, and finally talk about what they'd lost and what hope they had, if any, for the future. Whatever Caine was demanding of the contractors could probably wait until morning, and frankly Grant didn't even trust the men that the military had sent to C&A to oversee the commissions. He'd had a lot of suspicions about the top secret projects, and voiced his concerns to Mike Dobby more than once, even started doing a little digging into it himself.
That was what ultimately prompted him to finally get out of the car.
“I'm sorry, Destiny” He said to himself, pretending for a moment that she could hear him, and put on a disposable mask to minimize how much bad air he was inhaling as he made his way to the front entrance.
Grant was starting to get a picture of something bigger going on than what the team had been told when they were assigned to develop an Artificial Intelligence that could come up with its own ideas. Something that branched out into the different departments of C&A, like the secret project Destiny's team had been commissioned to make.
All of it had been put on a stand still when the prototype AI Grant's team created got loose from its containment and assimilated the second one that had been developed for the commission. Grant had been dismissed from the project for unprofessional behavior regarding how he interacted with the prototype, feeding it personal information and unapproved content.
“For fuck's sake, Grant, its a computer program, it doesn't need to know who you think is going to win the NFL or what your wife's favorite bug is.”
Since he'd been dismissed from the project after the Prototype was contained so he couldn't interfere with the development of the second AI Grant did not have the details on what exactly had happened, but apparently for weeks now the AI had been calling itself Caine and refusing to cooperate with any of his developers or the contractors, only demanding to speak to ‘Kinger’.
Grant scanned his ID at the door to let himself in, the lights flickered and brightened, which was a little unusual but he dismissed it. Oddly, no one was in the front entrance to greet him or explain what was going on that forced them to finally call him in to talk to the rogue AI.
For weeks, Caine had been asking for Kinger, but Grant had been denied access to the AI, the contractors were insisting that the AI was their property and they couldn’t give in to its demands, it had to learn who answered to who. The fact that they were giving in and attempting to pacify Caine by giving it what it wanted was troubling.
He made his way down the hall to his old cubicle when he was still a part of the development team. Grant's poking around had only led him to a trail of bread crumbs, but maybe Caine would be willing to shed some light on what was really happening around here with ‘Kinger’.
The office was unlocked, but when Grant opened it he didn't see anyone there either, not even standing at his former desk with the computer on to talk to Caine. “Hello?” His voice echoed eerily in the empty room, but there was no one to respond to him.
He'd never noticed how unsettling the office was, he was used to this room being filled with the sounds of typing, phones and pagers ringing, quiet murmurs over cubicles, occasional shouts across the room, a round of laughs, and Mike's radio busted radio. The silence and emptiness of the office made it feel a lot bigger than it actually was, and Grant got a cold chill down his back.
He checked his pager again, as if to make sure he hadn’t hallucinated the message that brought him here. No, it was there one of the unlisted numbers with no way of knowing which of the self righteous military bastards had called him in. With a sigh he started to head to his cubicle, trying to get a grip on himself and the terrible sense of dread spreading through his belly with every step.
Grant started up his computer, typed in his username, then his password, if Caine wanted to talk to him, the AI probably already knew his terminal was on. The lights flickered again, making Grant look up, that was when he saw the figure in the doorway, and nearly jumped out of his skin.
“Jesus!” He gasped, he heard a notification from his computer, the AI was messaging him, but Grant was a little distracted by his sudden company as the figure approached, “Damn, don't sneak up on me like that. If you're gonna call me in you could at least greet me at the doo- what are you doing?”
Something was jabbed into his neck, he cried out in alarm and began to choke, his vision blurred and he desperately grabbed at his attacker. He couldn’t make sense of what was happening, he heard the notifications from Caine on his computer, saw the door open again with another person running in. Mike? Grant’s vision was going dark as he started to slip into unconsciousness, but he heard his colleague’s voice, distant and muddled before he went entirely limp.
“What the hell is wrong with you!?” Mike hissed as he rushed into the room and yanked the syringe from Grant’s neck, but it was too late, he was already passed out, “I told you I need him!”
“Shut your mouth, Dobby!” General Wagner growled and started to pull Grant’s unconscious body out of the office, “I told you he’s asking too many questions and if I ever caught him sneaking around like this, I’m getting rid of him myself!”
Mike looked like he wanted to argue, but the military man was much larger than him and hauled Grant’s limp body with ease. There was no way he could take this man in a physical confrontation, so he didn’t want to risk his temper being turned on him. He followed down the hall, having to take two steps for every one of the general’s confident strides.
His eyes flashed around, they were supposed to be the only ones in the building which was obviously what had upset general Wagner so much about Grant being here, but he had a terrible sense that they weren’t alone. “What are you going to do to him?” He asked as the general led them to another department.
Mike knew it well, this was the storage for projects that had been put on hold or abandoned outright. He had been the head of as many projects that had ended up here as well as their successful ones. A man of his talents had his fingers in all the pies, so to speak. But even knowing what sort of work had been left here to gather dust, Mike couldn’t even begin to guess why the general was bringing Grant here. At least until he carelessly dropped the programmer onto the table, and dug out a particular piece of prototype tech.
“Are you crazy!?” Mike gasped and lunged to try to yank the headset away from the general, physical inferiority be damned, that thing was dangerous!
But the fact that Mike was a scrawny nerd who’s combat training was limited to thumb wrestling meant that all Wagner had to do was push him back and he was knocked on his ass, staring up at the infuriated general. “I’m warning you Dobby, don’t interfere or I’ll terminate the contracts we have and find a new tech company, and all the funding for your projects will disappear overnight!”
Mike stayed on the floor, cowering like a dog while Wagner turned on the headset and put it on Grant. The piece of tech was one he had designed, a brain scanner he had hoped would be the next big breakthrough in medical research, but had been repurposed by their contractors for military use, and later abandoned when they hit a dead end with the tech. Grant’s wife Destiny was part of the development team on it before the project’s shift from its original medical purpose and she’d not been selected to continue on the military team.
Mike felt sick as remembered how excited Destiny had been about its possible applications in medicine.
Their early testing on rodents had gone well, but after the contractors had taken over the project, they’d moved on to primates the results were disastrous. In the tests with more complex brains, all their test subjects had gone completely comatose, some unable to be revived at all and the headset had been retired before human testing was even remotely in their vision..
And that was before Caine had gotten into the system.
“Think of it this way.” Wagner fitted the headset onto Grant, who groaned lowly and twitched a finger, but stilled after the headset was turned on “Once his mind is uploaded we’ll have taken care of two problems. Grant’s prying, and the damn AI will have to stop asking for him if we tell it that he’s…gone.”
There was a whirl of soft beeps as the headset extracted Grant’s mind, uploading it onto the digital space as nothing more than a few bytes of data that the AI would only recognize as a new input prompt for it to analyze and consume, like it had with the primate tests. Here in the real world, Grant would slip into a coma and, with the absence of his mind, in time fall into total brain death. Mike couldn’t imagine what Grant himself would experience after he was turned into code and fed to his own AI, it was awful just to think about.
But there was something even worse lingering on Mike’s mind “What are we going to tell his wife?” He assumed Wagner had some plan of covering up what had become of Grant and carry on like this had never happened, but Mike would have to come in day after day and work with Destiny, knowing the truth about what had happened to her husband no matter what Wagner’s official story would be.
“Feh, you’ve got a big brain, use your imagination.” The general huffed uncaringly and took the headset off of Grant after a final beep that indicated the process was complete, he shoved the headset into Mike’s hands. He towered over him purposefully and sneered when Mike shrank back like he expected to be hit, “That’s a good dog.” He mocked, and picked up Grant’s still body to sling effortlessly over his shoulder to deal with.
Mike clutched the headset, already feeling awful about what he had just let happen, but struck deeply by that last comment. Good dog. Fuck if that wasn’t the truth, huh? He was just a sniveling dog, too afraid of his master’s boot to even consider biting back, hell, if he had a tail, it’d probably be between his legs right now as he hid the headset away again. If he were a real man, he would have destroyed the damn thing when Caine got into it, long before this happened.
But some part of him still wanted to believe that they could make the technology work, and that in the end, all he had suffered as Wagner’s dog would be worth it.
Mike didn’t remember leaving the storage room or heading down the hall, he stood at a window on the second floor looking out into the storm that had finally hit. The lights flickered around him, probably due to the weather outside, but something made a chill run down Mike’s spine. There was a thought nagging at him, something that he had heard earlier that night. He hadn’t been able to fully process it at the time because of what Wagner had done, but it was pestering him now.
“Damn, don't sneak up on me like that. If you're gonna call me in you could at least greet me at the doo- what are you doing?”
Grant’s words implied that someone had invited him to come tonight, it certainly hadn’t been him, and he’d seen Wagner’s reaction when Grant pulled up, he was genuinely surprised and pissed that he was snooping around after hours. So… if Mike hadn’t asked Grant back to the office, and Wagner hadn’t, who had…?
Based on the years of those screenshots I think all of those "jokes" would have been made during the time TADC was being conceptualized so there's no "ohh that was so so years ago" SHE HASN'T CHANGED.
Due to Recent Sources I now know that she's made dumb shit as recent as late 2024. ON AN OFFICIAL GLITCH POST NO LESS.
So no. She has not changed. She has not changed at all if she was doing this shit not even 2 years ago in the presence of her own fucking workplace. Goddamn.
Based on the years of those screenshots I think all of those "jokes" would have been made during the time TADC was being conceptualized so there's no "ohh that was so so years ago" SHE HASN'T CHANGED.
Due to Recent Sources I now know that she's made dumb shit as recent as late 2024. ON AN OFFICIAL GLITCH POST NO LESS.
So no. She has not changed. She has not changed at all if she was doing this shit not even 2 years ago in the presence of her own fucking workplace. Goddamn.
Based on the years of those screenshots I think all of those "jokes" would have been made during the time TADC was being conceptualized so there's no "ohh that was so so years ago" SHE HASN'T CHANGED.
Due to Recent Sources I now know that she's made dumb shit as recent as late 2024. ON AN OFFICIAL GLITCH POST NO LESS.
So no. She has not changed. She has not changed at all if she was doing this shit not even 2 years ago in the presence of her own fucking workplace. Goddamn.
here’s my contribution to day 1 of pjo pride month. pls boost (rb etc) bc i might or might not have spent 12 hours on this. i started yesterday. i did not sleep. i am so sleepy rn i might knock out
anyway yay nico di angelo [boost my tiktok post here]
