Post by Beaver Dude on May 24, 2009 20:49:11 GMT -5
Username: Dei Ex Machinis
Current canons: None
Canon you're auditioning for: Shera
Media canon is from: FF7
Is the current canon taken?: Apparently not.
Audition post (400 words):
-----------------------
The day the world ended, something beautiful happened.
Shera would later think of it as a short-circuit: an easier path that had overloaded the entire system and caused it to shut down, delay, destroy. At the time (retrospect, ah, how thou art deadly) she hadn't really thought of it in such convenient terms, or any terms at all really. Just a nut and a bolt-
left-loosey, righty-tighty
-being screwed together because they were loose and because being honest and meticulous were the more important bits when it came to being an engineer.
Not that Cid, supposed aviator extraordinaire, ever evidenced any such routine attention to detail. But geniuses could get their way especially if they loved what they did and say what you would about the man, Cid Highwind certainly loved the sky. Whatever he touched gained wings and he was-
(beautiful and perfect and pleasant and Shera had fallen hopelessly in love with him every time he took off. Not all things could be explained through attention to detail.)
uncompromising when it came to what he loved.
"Slow." He would have usually judged when examining such a trivial task. "Shera, how many times do I hafta say it? Speed's everything! Whether you're in the air or on the ground- it's all about speed!"
Shera would have mopped her brow with the sleeve of her lab coat. Not precisely sanitary, but nothing a good shower wouldn’t have cleared. Her livelihood wasn't dependent on her good looks so she didn't particularly care. And she was pretty certain Cid didn't either. "I'm sorry Captain."
"Don't 'sorry' me." He would have grumbled. "Sorry don't mean anything."
"I'm sor..."
And Cid would have sighed and stomp off.
But, ah, this was the day the world ended.
-----------------------------
"You could have died, Shera."
-------------------------------
"That's an oxygen tank, Captain."
"So it is!" Cid was in rare form. He only cussed good-naturedly and hadn't used any engineer swears, something which Shera personally considered far harsher than any random interjection EFFIN', BLOODY, DESPOTIC, BUREAUCRAT which Cid could occasionally turn into a song and dance number. It was only mildly amusing the first three times.
Shera dot, dot, dotted (like so: ...) hoping that Cid would start making sense soon. The man had never once shown the slightest interest in deep-sea travel though with his intuition and skills he could have probably made a good case for himself at any R&D department in Radiant Garden. It was appalling, really, how focused and how close-minded the man could be.
But then again, he wouldn’t be Cid Highwind if he wasn’t.
The grizzled pilot sighed dramatically before flourishing the oxygen tank like an old and treasured family heirloom: "I got one bleepin word for ya Shera: space travel!"
"Two words, Captain." Shera told him automatically, mind racing. For him space and travel had always been one contiguous statement of fact. And then she stuttered: "That's not... that's not possible."
Cid grinned.
"Remember that bloody meteor shower? The one where they were digging up all those darned ‘gummi block’ things?"
Shera stared while Cid's smile just grew and grew and grew.
"Space Travel, baby!"
-------------------------------
“You could have DIED!”
-------------------------------
There was a catch.
“I know speed ain’t your strong suit, Shera, but everyone wants these Gummi blocks. I got Saith to pull a few strings but Shinra wants em’ next, the bastard.”
How long? Shera wanted to ask, dreading the answer. How long before I wear black and you’re an empty suit in a box? It was only a matter of time, with Cid’s penchant for risk-taking. But here... in a mission with no room for compromise or error...
“So we got until midnight tonight. I’m thinking about converting the Tiny Bronco-”
Shera took off her glasses. Rubbed her eyes. “Captain-”
it’s. not. possible.
“Don’t worry, you’re good enough. I’m good enough. We can do this.”
“Captain.”
“Time and tide wait for no man.” The pilot considered his engineer for a moment. “Or woman. Get your butt in gear Shera!”
She wanted to tell him that there would be other Gummi blocks and other chances at finding those planets that Cid somehow knew existed. She wanted to tell him that a patch job on a plane would be like signing a death warrant but sometimes, when it mattered most, Shera could be a coward.
And Cid... Cid was radiant.
-------------------------------
"You can't do that to me, Shera."
-------------------------------
She had gone over the entire machine with a fine tooth-combed, ready to scrap and sabotage the entire project if it couldn’t be done. But, much to her surprise, when Cid got down and decided to do something there probably wasn’t a force in the Universe that could stop him. In less than twelve hours he transformed a small two-seater plane into something that could dare to travel the stars.
They nearly made it. If he had had the extra day, the extra hour, the extra minute-
But that oxygen tank, the one that Cid had so carelessly shown her had been mounted ever so slightly mis-aligned. It was a sense Shera had around machines, a niggling little sensation of wrongness or rightness and while that tank might not have reeked lazy incompetence, it had still been too large a margin of error for the engineer’s comfort. At a quarter to midnight, she began the laborious process of dismantling it and re-attaching it.
At four minutes to midnight, she was about to tell Cid to call the whole thing off when she had a minor epiphany. The numbers worked out. She could make it. She had enough time to fix the damn thing – maybe not enough time to actually make it out of the launch area but they could make it. She could be part of history, part of-
Cid’s dream
something larger than herself.
So when Cid asked her what she was doing there, Shera told him not to mind her. She would help, in her own way and when he still pushed the button, saved her life, aborted his dream-
it was the day the world ended.
But for Shera, it was also the day the world began.
Current canons: None
Canon you're auditioning for: Shera
Media canon is from: FF7
Is the current canon taken?: Apparently not.
Audition post (400 words):
-----------------------
The day the world ended, something beautiful happened.
Shera would later think of it as a short-circuit: an easier path that had overloaded the entire system and caused it to shut down, delay, destroy. At the time (retrospect, ah, how thou art deadly) she hadn't really thought of it in such convenient terms, or any terms at all really. Just a nut and a bolt-
left-loosey, righty-tighty
-being screwed together because they were loose and because being honest and meticulous were the more important bits when it came to being an engineer.
Not that Cid, supposed aviator extraordinaire, ever evidenced any such routine attention to detail. But geniuses could get their way especially if they loved what they did and say what you would about the man, Cid Highwind certainly loved the sky. Whatever he touched gained wings and he was-
(beautiful and perfect and pleasant and Shera had fallen hopelessly in love with him every time he took off. Not all things could be explained through attention to detail.)
uncompromising when it came to what he loved.
"Slow." He would have usually judged when examining such a trivial task. "Shera, how many times do I hafta say it? Speed's everything! Whether you're in the air or on the ground- it's all about speed!"
Shera would have mopped her brow with the sleeve of her lab coat. Not precisely sanitary, but nothing a good shower wouldn’t have cleared. Her livelihood wasn't dependent on her good looks so she didn't particularly care. And she was pretty certain Cid didn't either. "I'm sorry Captain."
"Don't 'sorry' me." He would have grumbled. "Sorry don't mean anything."
"I'm sor..."
And Cid would have sighed and stomp off.
But, ah, this was the day the world ended.
-----------------------------
"You could have died, Shera."
-------------------------------
"That's an oxygen tank, Captain."
"So it is!" Cid was in rare form. He only cussed good-naturedly and hadn't used any engineer swears, something which Shera personally considered far harsher than any random interjection EFFIN', BLOODY, DESPOTIC, BUREAUCRAT which Cid could occasionally turn into a song and dance number. It was only mildly amusing the first three times.
Shera dot, dot, dotted (like so: ...) hoping that Cid would start making sense soon. The man had never once shown the slightest interest in deep-sea travel though with his intuition and skills he could have probably made a good case for himself at any R&D department in Radiant Garden. It was appalling, really, how focused and how close-minded the man could be.
But then again, he wouldn’t be Cid Highwind if he wasn’t.
The grizzled pilot sighed dramatically before flourishing the oxygen tank like an old and treasured family heirloom: "I got one bleepin word for ya Shera: space travel!"
"Two words, Captain." Shera told him automatically, mind racing. For him space and travel had always been one contiguous statement of fact. And then she stuttered: "That's not... that's not possible."
Cid grinned.
"Remember that bloody meteor shower? The one where they were digging up all those darned ‘gummi block’ things?"
Shera stared while Cid's smile just grew and grew and grew.
"Space Travel, baby!"
-------------------------------
“You could have DIED!”
-------------------------------
There was a catch.
“I know speed ain’t your strong suit, Shera, but everyone wants these Gummi blocks. I got Saith to pull a few strings but Shinra wants em’ next, the bastard.”
How long? Shera wanted to ask, dreading the answer. How long before I wear black and you’re an empty suit in a box? It was only a matter of time, with Cid’s penchant for risk-taking. But here... in a mission with no room for compromise or error...
“So we got until midnight tonight. I’m thinking about converting the Tiny Bronco-”
Shera took off her glasses. Rubbed her eyes. “Captain-”
it’s. not. possible.
“Don’t worry, you’re good enough. I’m good enough. We can do this.”
“Captain.”
“Time and tide wait for no man.” The pilot considered his engineer for a moment. “Or woman. Get your butt in gear Shera!”
She wanted to tell him that there would be other Gummi blocks and other chances at finding those planets that Cid somehow knew existed. She wanted to tell him that a patch job on a plane would be like signing a death warrant but sometimes, when it mattered most, Shera could be a coward.
And Cid... Cid was radiant.
-------------------------------
"You can't do that to me, Shera."
-------------------------------
She had gone over the entire machine with a fine tooth-combed, ready to scrap and sabotage the entire project if it couldn’t be done. But, much to her surprise, when Cid got down and decided to do something there probably wasn’t a force in the Universe that could stop him. In less than twelve hours he transformed a small two-seater plane into something that could dare to travel the stars.
They nearly made it. If he had had the extra day, the extra hour, the extra minute-
But that oxygen tank, the one that Cid had so carelessly shown her had been mounted ever so slightly mis-aligned. It was a sense Shera had around machines, a niggling little sensation of wrongness or rightness and while that tank might not have reeked lazy incompetence, it had still been too large a margin of error for the engineer’s comfort. At a quarter to midnight, she began the laborious process of dismantling it and re-attaching it.
At four minutes to midnight, she was about to tell Cid to call the whole thing off when she had a minor epiphany. The numbers worked out. She could make it. She had enough time to fix the damn thing – maybe not enough time to actually make it out of the launch area but they could make it. She could be part of history, part of-
Cid’s dream
something larger than herself.
So when Cid asked her what she was doing there, Shera told him not to mind her. She would help, in her own way and when he still pushed the button, saved her life, aborted his dream-
it was the day the world ended.
But for Shera, it was also the day the world began.
I did post in shades of grey if anyone even remembers that lmao