We The Shadow: Origins

System Control: Violet Sanders

"Miss Sanders, this report is late."

Hearing those words, the young cinnamon blonde pursed her lips. For a moment, she diverted her eyes away from the suited man sat behind the desk, not wanting to show any signs of frustration on her lightly freckled face.

"My apologies. There was a hold up with the marketing team-"

"Are you blaming a mistake on someone else?"

The older man spun around in his chair, turning to face the huge glass window pane that spanned the width of the office room. Perched on the fiftieth floor of a high rise building, this office had a great view of the central Los Angeles cityscape below illuminated by the midday sun in the cloudless sky.

With a short sigh, the man readjusted his glasses, "This company serves as the foundation for many of the giants of Silicon Valley. A single mistake could be disastrous and an apology won't be enough to rectify that."

Violet rolled her eyes, listening as the floor's senior director gave her the same speech she had heard too many times before. The cinnamon blonde fixed her glasses, tucking a strand of loose hair behind her ear with a forced smile.

"Is that all, sir?"

The senior director turned around in his chair, looking to Violet with stern eyes, "You should be more aware of the privilege you have working for us. Dismissed."

Turning on her heels, Violet exited through the glass door, taking a left so that she was out of view. She caught sight of the water cooler at the end of the hallway, feeling a little worked up from the earlier exchange.

Now that she was a few months into her job, she expected that the sly comments would fade away. But her co-workers still persisted with their remarks, taking every opportunity they could to show their seniority.

It didn't slow her down because she expected to be shown some disinclination, especially considering the field of work she had shown interest in. After all, how many young women go onto work in the field of technology and business?

Violet had always been interested in computers and how they worked. This curiosity stemmed from her parents. Her father was a skilled programmer working in video game development and her mother was a digital artist, who gave her father's ideas the life and colour they needed to be realised.

From a young age, she had been exposed to the world of computers and so she naturally followed her interests through school. After graduating high school a year early, she went on to study computer science and business at MIT and during her last year, she was scouted by numerous big tech companies for her advanced programming skills, creative spark and willingness to learn and improve.

Ironically enough, these same attributes would lead her coworkers to become jealous of the blooming starlet. But she wouldn't let this deter her.

Violet still wanted to work her way to the top of the industry so that she could make a positive change with her ideas. Although it was becoming obvious to her that the garden she found herself in was littered with snakes and poisonous flowers.

"You gonna hog the cooler all day?"

A voice stirred the cinnamon blonde from her thoughts. As she looked over her shoulder, another coworker approached her with a small smile.

With short black hair, tanned brown skin and a bounce in his step, the young man filled up a plastic cup at the cooler. His face was one of the few faces Violet wasn't put off by.

Cam, an office worker who had taken a very similar path to her, understood Violet's situation well. Although he didn't put in half as much work and only showed up to the office three days out of five, his similar interest in computers connected him to the cinnamon blonde.