#blindflying

Welcome to the club.

Such wisdom gets you far in the universe. Or at the end of a pissed-off alien’s blaster. Either, or. I’m not too picky myself. Don’t deny your brat the same chance.

If you two do have a brat, I will personally ensure it knows curse words in 5,000 languages. That would be a proud moment.

(( Most everyone called him “Foreman” or “The Foreman”, but his real name is Skyfall. He’s an average sized, medium-build mech who by now could be considered ancient — he remembers a time when the caste system worked, when everyone had their purposes because it was needed, and it wasn’t a bad thing if you were a miner or a politician. He also remembers when things went completely to hell.

Foreman was a slave owner, and among his peers of medium-upper class, he was unremarkable. He owned a sizable team of miners of different levels, he was moderately successful and seemed to run a tight ship. He did, but not in the ways that his ‘peers’ really expected. Foreman appeared to the rest of the upper class to be as rich and snooty as they were, but he wasn’t. He had a few nice items, some dressy, nice sets of armor he would wear when hobnobbing with them, but when he went back home, he lived in a shack in Kaon that wasn’t any better than the rest of the population there.

This was because he spent the vast majority of his earnings on his ‘slaves’. They all had individual living quarters rather than nasty barracks, they were all given proper health care, and they all were allowed the sort of freedoms and entertainment that slaves in Kaon were not typically given. But that wasn’t the primary cost — Foreman had promised himself when things went sour and slaves began to become a thing that he would be different. He would buy some of them to spare them the lives they would have otherwise lived licking someone else’s boot. He never required anything from his team besides that they did their jobs, and in turn, he cared for them, befriended those that wanted it, and educated the ones that that desired it.

Of the ones who wanted to learn, those who wanted to become something better were given the opportunity. Most slaves under his care were too terrified about life outside of what they knew to try, but some were not. Blackout was one of those that showed promise. Foreman educated him, and others before him, eventually sending him to further his teachings in Iacon, and with time, his “debt” was paid off and he was a free mech. It was how Foreman operated. Those who wanted out, he would help out. Those who didn’t, he ensured they got all the care and dignities that he believed they deserved. In turn, they mined for him, and supported him as a sort of father figure/coach.

That was the easiest victory ever.