About O5-1 and Gears
I was infodumping my friends about Gears earlier and now I have to share lore I made up for Gears as well as the O5-1 Position.
So in Context, Recollection AU takes place where multiple senior staffs are now O5 Council Members. And Gears is one of them. He is now O5-1, alternatively known as "Prodigal Son".
Each seat of the Council has it's own role, plot and purpose. It's a figurehead and a symbolism all with anomalies tied to it. And the Seat of O5-1 is tied to Mekanites (still need to read up on Mekhane Lore)
The thing is, in my canon, O5-1 Seat is only available to the Siegel family, because the Siegel Family is a very very very distant descendant of the Mekanites and a lot of their family traditions are based on the anomalies Mekanites have. And for an O5-1 be able to fulfill it's "purpose" and wield its power fully, it requires a sacrifice.
In Mekanite lore, the god Mekane broke itself up in order to imprison Yaldabaoth to preserve human intelligence and knowledge. An act of securing, containing and protecting. Not to mention, by breaking itself up, it's committing sacrifice. And what is The Foundation's motto? "We Die In The Dark So You May Live In The Light." literally sacrificing itself.
So like, in my Canon, the Seat of O5-1, the Founding Seat of the SCP Foundation, is tied to Mekanites (but also broken off so far out)
The writing is on the wall. The poem wrote itself. It's THERE.
AND THE NAME GEARS??? AND HE'S ALSO FOUNDER'S SON???? I'm going rabid. The writing is on the wall.
God more on the seat of 1, to be able to complete it's "purpose", or to come into the true power of O5-1, it it requires a "sacrifice of self". But the "self" is blurry. What counts as a self? You can sacrifice your identity, yes. And maybe even a body part. But if you can, you can sacrifice blood as well right? And what about family? Do they not count as a "self" since you are a reflection of the people who raised you?
What I'm getting is, there are instances when an O5-1 would sacrifice their own blood.
In my canon, Aaron Siegel has two children; Cordelia Siegel and Charles Odgen Siegel (now known as Dr Gears). Aaron had decided to make Cordelia the successor and spent time training her since young to be able to take on the mantle. Gears was brought into this to be used by Cordelia as a sacrifice for her to fulfill her "purpose" and gain her "power".
Aaron Siegel is an ambitious man who would sacrifice small numbers for the greater good. He is the Founder and he is cold and calculative. But he is also a father and he loved Cordelia as his own. He allowed her to preserve parts of herself, allowed her to marry for love, allowed her to pursue whatever she wanted, and let her grow in the foundation.
That is his ruin because Cordelia's betrayal and defection to the Chaos Insurgency broke not only his ambitious plans, but also his maybe mechanical heart.
And he only has Gears now, the supposed sacrificial lamb. Spare parts. A copy. He doubled down on Gears. Made sure he doesn't repeat the same mistakes he did on Cordelia. Forced him to come back to the Foundation, made him went through rigorous training that stripped his ability to feel. Took away everything he gave Cordelia. If he had taken away what he had given Cordelia, then there would be no Cordelia.
So that's why Gears is Like That, but even with all that, Gears still preserved because he remembered how to be human, and he remembers his humanity. The split between his inability to express, but still feeling human feelings deep deep inside was a result of this.
And then, Gears finally became O5-1. But really, what power does he have? He has no real "self" to sacrifice. All of it stripped away from him. All he is, is just a temporary replacement and an extension of Aaron Siegel.
Aaron Siegel may have stripped Gears away from any sense of self, but he never took away Gears' love for humanity. For Gears' own daughter.
He won't sacrifice The Black Queen to be O5-1, of course. That's not who Gears is. He would never use his own daughter for a glorified and deitified title. Not his humanity. His love.
And so, Gears once more becomes the Sacrificial Lamb for the Black Queen. He knows the Black Queen will never accept her role, her heritage, so he has to change. He has to change the Foundation to be something that she can accept, and lead, with pride and honor and not resentment from a bloodline.
Maybe he changed because of his daughter, but maybe. Just maybe, he wanted change because deep down inside, he wanted it for himself too. To be different from what his father expects, to be petty, a small rebellion against his role.
And when that day comes, when he has finally brought the change he sought, he will lay down peacefully and pass The Black Queen the mantle.
Dr Gears will die still as a sacrificial lamb, but at least this time he chooses who he dies for. And he would make god damned sure he dies human.
