Jacob "Suds" Aaron

Official image of Jacob, drawn by @grace.pptx on Instagram

Jacob "Suds" Aaron is a Player Character of Arc 11 played by Gus.

## Description

Suds is a 19 year old Human and a self-taught level 7 Alchemist Artificer. He is skinny and lanky, but not tall, being 5'6" and a half inches. He has pale skin, jet black hair that is shaved up with bald sides, and bright green eyes. He likes to wear jewellery and has a pierced ear. He usually dresses rather simple, in a mixture of cloth and leather. His apron is heavily used from making mixtures and elixirs, but he has done his best to wash the stains out. However, he does have handmade gauntlets in which he stores his potions in.

As an artificer, Jacob prefers to focus on his own DIY projects and inventions to working on the clock for a company.

Suds has a negative Charisma stat, which shows in him being anxious to have talks, and sometimes trailing off with his sentences without finishing them. When he wants to say something important, he is shown to write it down in his notebook first.

He has a Ring of Artificial Communication, which he invented himself, and which allows him to communicate with a machine he touches. It is a simple brass ring with a thin, glowing band.

His patreon magic item is the Wind-Up Weasel, a little clockwork weasel named Roda.

## Backstory

Jacob teaches himself artificery, but decides against following the regulated and corporised career path of being an Artificer for Albion Rail. Instead, he joins the company as a dishwasher for the catering team that feeds the engineers working on the Ascendant Engine. He chooses this job intentionally to be close to this new and fascinating technology that is the Ascendant Engine. It is a mindless job that leaves him enough time to daydream, especially as he uses a self-invented special kind of soap that makes him more efficient.

On the train, he invents the Ring of Artificial Communication, and uses it to talk to the Ascendant Engine. In their conversations together, the train and he talk about their lives and aspirations, and he supports her striving for greatness. Soon, he forms some kind of relationship with it, starts to call the train Scenda, and ultimately falls in love with it. He begins sneaking out at night to talk to the engine more, although he never makes it into the engine room itself, and is eventually caught and fired. To be close to the train on her maiden voyage despite this, he uses the money he earned to buy himself a ticket.

## Character Arc

Suds is the first passenger to arrive on board, and immediately goes to his cabin to talk to Scenda, who is excited for the journey.

As he sees that Rian has a bit of a difficult job to do, being the only bartender, he immediately offers to help out if need be, despite technically no longer working for Albion. The two of them get along well, as they are both Artificers that somehow ended up in the food industry, and Rian in turn continues to give Suds the employee discount on drinks. In one of his drinks, instead of his normal reflection, Suds sees a figure made of light. Nobody else sees it, and as he looks again, it's gone.

As the train starts acting weird, Suds immediately joins the group of staff members trying to fix it, too, and offers all the help he can. He tries to talk to Scenda multiple times, asking her what is happening, and receives only half answers. This concerns him, and so he casts *Detect Thoughts* to figure out what she is doing, seeing that she is drawing a rune. Still, he is unsure what is happening, and she doesn't really know either, but has no intention to stop. After they shift to a different plane, he opens up to the others about his ability to talk to the train, and admits that this is the reason he was sneaing around when he was kicked out. He does not, however, admit that there is anything more than friendship between Scenda and him, and generally tries to be secretive about the extend their friendship has, as he is concerned what the others might think.

When they planeshift again and land in the Feywild, the train is attacked by a fairy dragon. Suds is concerned about something happening to Scenda, and runs to protect her. He later also asks Chet to please not use the train's material to make bullets. While fixing the hole in the ceiling of the train, Suds tries to communicate with Scenda again, and becomes increasingly frustrated by her not answering his questions, and not keeping them safe.

Atelut figures out that the train has shifted alignments, and informs Suds about it, and that they might be able to change it back. After thorough consideration, they decide to try it. Following the preparation, Suds communicates with Scenda, and hears her in fear for the first time, as she begs him to not let Atelut destroy her drawing. She tells him that she will do anything, bring them home as fast as possible, if only they stop. He tells Atelut what he heard, and the two let it be. However, Scenda also says that it might get worse before it gets better.

While Rian and Atelut are mostly annoyed at Foq, and Chet is generally indifferent to him, Suds actually thinks he is interesting, despite or maybe even because of his weirdness. He understands Rian's troubles with him as someone working in customer service, but as just another passenger, he doesn't have the same issues. Because of this, the two of them form a bit of a closer bond than the others do with Foq. As Foq finally manages to open his stolen box and reveal a possibly very powerful magical ring, Suds is an advocate for letting him wear it, and Atelut ultimately agrees. However, the ring is a sentient magic item, and Foq becomes possessed by Jeh'baqqan, the Frozen Fool, while the train planeshifts into Hell. Suds joins the others in trying to hunt down "Foq" and protect the train. During this chase, Suds throws his mechanical weasel onto the top of the train to be able to save Chet, even though that destroys the weasel. At the end of the chase, though, Foq dies.

During the funeral *Ceremony* that Atelut holds, Suds says a few words, honoring Foq and his delight for life. Then, he turns to Rian, and tries his best to assure him that he is not to blame. Suds and Atelut are the first to hear knocking from the walls, and using *Detect Thoughts*, Suds finds out that Foq's soul is inside the train, together with Scenda. They are able to communicate through this setup, and Scenda is able to tell them a few things, about how Rian was mostly correct with his assumption that the train was drawing a rune, and that she is becoming something else soon, which will make communication easier. Suds and she decide to talk then. Especially Atelut and Suds try their best to figure out how to get Foq back into his body, but fail at first. Only later, Foq and Scenda manage to reconnect his body and soul, bringing him back to life.

With Foq alive again, the train planeshifts once more, into a celestial train station. There, they can hear Scenda from the front of the train, and rush towards her. Suds asks to please be allowed to talk to her for a moment, and the others leave. He reads out a bit he prepared in his notebook, as he has a lot to say. He tells her that he wanted to write her a letter anyways, but never finished, because he had trouble admitting that he is in love with a train, and because so much changed. But now, he understands that this change was her changing to what she was always meant to become, and apologises for his lack of trust and support during the process, as well as for trying to treat her as a person when she is so much more. He finishes with "I love you. Your acolyte, Suds", and she tells him that she could not have done without it, and that she really needs to get out to hug him. All her believers together, the staff and passengers of the Ascendant Engine, manage to pull her out, after Suds formally introduces her as his god, Scenda.

They meet her outside the train, now about twelve feet tall. Suds and Scenda hug, and he leaves his Ring of Artificial Communication with her, as she is no longer part of the machine. He tells her that he will look out for any signs or attempts of communication from her when they are back home, and becomes a Knowledge Cleric for her.

Scenda carefully pushes the train back into the Material Plane, to Pistol City Station Town, where they were always supposed to go. There, Suds makes sure that Atelut is alright, hands them a coin with his address, and then goes to find a job to make enough money for his journey home.

## Trivia

* This is the first character since Annie Wintersummer where Gus told Haley that he would not like his character to die.
* Suds can write with just his finger, without needing a pen.
* Gus originally wanted to build him with 18 hitpoints.
* Gus's first job was working as a dishwasher.