Ed & Sir Squeaks is a speculative fiction short story I developed, wrote and illustrated the cover art for in Emerging Media Trends during my exchange at TAMK. It follows Edlyn, known as Ed, an adventurous rag-tag girl and her pet rat, Sir Squeaks, as they investigate a power outage in their tech-infused city. While the tone of the story is light and aimed for a younger audience, the world I've imagined subtly reflects on contemporary social themes like technology's role in society, environmental issues, and the effects of corporate dominance on daily life.
Story & Characters
I started designing the story with the main character Edlyn and her pet rat Sir Squeaks. Once I had the main characters down, I developed the plot and basic outline and then I just started to write. Alex came to me as I started writing. It just felt right to have someone living with Ed, and her entire character just kind of formed. Chief Inspector Wright originally was supposed to play a bigger role, but the story got too long, so I decided to just hint at their history together and leave the rest for another time. I also hand-illustrated Ed and Sir Squeaks for the cover art.
Emerging Media Technology
A lot of thought went into building a layered world that subtly critiques social and tech issues, centered around Ed’s AR headset. Inspired by real-world advancements like Apple Vision Pro and tools from Samsung and Google, OmniLingo offers real-time subtitle translation, making the near-future feel very plausible.
I wanted Ed to talk to her rat, but realistically, a profit-driven company wouldn’t focus on animal translation due to limited demand. So, I made it an “accidental” discovery—something that, like many tech innovations, could reveal unexpected value after an unintentional breakthrough.
Worldbuilding
Thinking about a near-future world was a big challenge for me. It gave me the opportunity to dream of what I personally would like the future to look like, but I also wanted to stay true to what I think it would realistically be like. Aspects like the smog, little to no nature in the city, a designated “lower city district” where everyone is kind of poor and crime flourishes, were born from that realism. On the other hand, I was able to shape topics like I went heavy on a female cast, partly to counter male-dominated stories and partly to imagine a world where gender roles just fade away. Ed is androgynous, Alex has a gender-neutral name, and their relationship is undefined—family, friends, or something else. I wanted the story’s world to be fluid in how it handles gender, family, and sexuality. Ethnicities are also blended: Ed speaks English, Alex is French, and Wright knows Xhosa. In a future where instant translation erases language barriers, I wanted this society to leave racism, xenophobia, and ableism behind—though social status issues, evidently, persist.
Ed’s story kicks off with her waking up, a classic opening but perfect for setting up worldbuilding details—like her room’s automatic lights and Alex’s broken English, showing how dependent people are on tech like OmniLingo for communication now that international languages have faded.
When Alex gives Ed her headset, it subtly highlights themes of enshittification and self-reliance. Like any big tech company, OmniLingo monetizes its services, but a little rule-bending keeps Ed ad-free. This latest OmniLingo update also happens to capture animal sounds, which comes in handy with her pet rat, Sir Squeaks.
OmniLingo translating animals was inspired by research into how rats use high-frequency sounds to communicate simple emotions like playfulness and stress. Instead of having rats “speak” in sentences, I imagined how the device might interpret body language and sounds into basic words. Squeaks, being smart and social, can “say” more than stray animals, whose translations remain simple.
In the end, Ed, though bold, is still a practical kid who sees the value in calling authorities rather than going it alone. Using single quotes for translated text felt right since, for her, it’s just how communication works. And as for whether Squeaks is able to express "no" or even genuinely understands Alex’s question—it’s best left to the imagination!