Commander Jane Shepard (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
earthborn) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
abraxasnet2022-04-10 09:20 pm
earthborn) wrote in abraxasnet2022-04-10 09:20 pm
To: Everyone
This is Commander Shepard of the SSV Normandy SR-2, Systems Alliance.
I know by now that that won't mean a lot to most of you; this world, this planet at least, is a bit farther down the tech curve than my normal. I'm given to understand that for a certain portioned of my fellow summoned, this is not the case. So I'll ask:
How many spacers are here, aside from myself?
Sound off. I'm willing to bet we have a hell of a lot more in common than anything else, no matter who says we ought to be at whoever's throats, or why.
I know by now that that won't mean a lot to most of you; this world, this planet at least, is a bit farther down the tech curve than my normal. I'm given to understand that for a certain portioned of my fellow summoned, this is not the case. So I'll ask:
How many spacers are here, aside from myself?
Sound off. I'm willing to bet we have a hell of a lot more in common than anything else, no matter who says we ought to be at whoever's throats, or why.
no subject
I almost got court-martialed about that one; explicit disregard of orders, violation of war convention, yadda yadda. [It's war, Gid. Shepard does think there should be lines not to be crossed, but none of those came into play in the dark under Torfan.] In the end, they pinned the N7 on me, handed off a promotion, and told me to stop being such a pain in the ass. Which I of course was, ever after; hazard of the job.
[This is why we drink.]
So, what's a Chevalier do? Professionally speaking.
sorry I'm so slow at the moment!! Work is kicking my ass ;;
She reaches for her ale, almost disappointed to have to answer a question when she has so many more of her own.]
So on one level I'm the brawn to Harrow's - my necromancer - dark arts. Like, she pulls off the necromancy, which can take a shit tone of energy and leave her vulnerable to close range attacks, and I see to it that no one can get close to her. We kind of thought that was the whole deal, and that the one flesh, one end pact was just a weirdly kinky way of saying we'd be prepared to die defending each other. Sounds likely, right?
[She waits one hot second before making a rude noise with her mouth and jerking her thumb downward.]
Wrong. Turns out in the event of being called to Lyctorhood by the King Undying, the cav is meant to sacrifice themselves and become absorbed by the necro, to create like, an near-immortal weapon. Basically Harrow's gotta eat me and we become one, only it's not neeeaaarrrly as hot as it sounds.
[A pause just the length of a heartbeat, and then--]
Yeah, yeah, I know. I come from a weird place.
nooo it's fine! you're good
[There is a moment that a less tired person might punctuate with a sigh. Shepard, who has lived to see her basement for the behavior of sentient beings continuously dig a new and deeper hole in which to bury the high bar for acceptable... takes a drink.]
Y'know, Gideon, I'm not even surprised anymore. Of course you come from a world where people are acting like Reapers. Why not? Everything else is fucked, might as well start eating our own kind. [There is a beat] What d'they need a weapon like that for, anyways?
<3
[She says, before knocking back a swig of her own drink. Sometimes you just get dealt shitty hand after shitty hand...but she wouldn't take back the way things had played out. Not now. Not for anything.]
And I didn't get that far along. We were only told that the Necrolord Prime was in great need of reinforcements because some of his old Lyctors had kicked the bucket over the last ten thousand years, or something like that. If I'm honest he sounds like kind of a dick. Like, why not just tell us from the outset what he expected us to do? But I'd put my money on some big cosmic battle that would probably be awesome if it wasn't for the whole one flesh, one end thing.
[She wipes the foam from her lips on the back of her hand, makes a vague motion with her shoulder that suggests it's all irrelevant now. They're here, not there. Personally she has no intention of ever going back.]
What's a Reapers, anyway?
no subject
[Hoo boy. How to explain Reapers? Start at the beginning, or just throw it all out there? Shepard considers a moment, and then make a face and simply launches into it.]
So, your basic spacefaring race; it evolves somewhere, builds a society, makes tech, finds a way out of its solar system, eventually it joins the bigger galaxy, right? Basic progression. Asari did it, Salarians did it, Turians, Krogan, Humans, all of us.
But, we're all looking at the same old ruins, the same ancient tech. It's valuable, it's got a lot to teach us, but— where did it come from? Scientists figure there's a precursor race, we called them Protheans. [Pause for dramatics, always important.] ...But they were wrong.
See, there were lots of precursor races. And every fifty thousand years, the Reapers show up, these huge, kilometer-long, half-organic synthetics, and they kill every species that's put a toe into space. Then they go back home, and wait, then come do it again. It's been happening for thousands of cycles, who knows how many trillions of dead people every time. And, get this... [she laughs, and it's so bitter.] Nobody believes me. They're on our doorstep, we've already fought actual battles against their vanguard, but—
[She cuts herself off, and Shepard takes a drink. A long one, longer than is really necessary. Give her a minute.]
...Anyways. I'm going to save the Galaxy or die trying. If it's the last thing I do, then at least I'm goin' down swinging. Except... then I showed up here.
That's why you're paying for the drinks.
no subject
That's pretty fucked up. Any idea why they just keep strolling in and killing everyone? Like, why wait fifty thousand years every time? The fuck is that all about? Why doesn't anyone believe you?
[Do her people fall within the extinction zone? She supposes it's possible, that this may somehow be linked in with the Resurrection-- but she never paid enough attention to the decrepit old nuns who attempted to teach her from their stuffy old tomes to have an answer for that. No pictures of women with their tops off? Not interested.]
But hey, lucky for you I'm good for a couple of rounds. I've been here a while.
no subject
[It had been one of her worst days, honestly, and for all its condescension, Sovereign hadn't been pretentious. It's disregard, its notion of superiority, had come from real threats.]
...Something like that. [Too sober for this.] You know, I've spent a lot of time asking myself that. The only answer that makes sense, is, they're scared. Because if I'm right, then they've all spent the last three years doing fuck-all about the looming threat of complete galactic genocide. And if I'm full of it, then I'm just another crack-pot they can disregard, and go on with their lives.
So which one is an easier pill to swallow?
no subject
Did you tell it to get better lines? It sounds like a comic book villain talking like that.
[She knocks back another swig of ale, and thinks she kinda gets it. Easier, certainly, to bury one's head in the sand. A stupid move if annihilation if on the table, sure. But in her experience, those in power tend to make stupid decisions that she won't pretend to understand.]
Heavy shit.
[She concedes, eventually.]
So I guess you wanna get back to where you were? Finish what you started?
[Unlike her, who has nothing much to go back for. She and Harrow are here. Fuck all the rest.]
no subject
[She gestures vaguely upwards, indicating the ceiling so as to signify the universe entire, as well as their situation here, as summoned.]
It's possible that I never actually left. Like, some kind of split timelines thing, where I'm both places and neither one is the real me unless the whole... quantum thing gets collapsed. I'm not an engineer, I'm a soldier, I don't pretend to know how it works.
But I do know... That there's a friend of mind here, who's months out of synch with me on what the date is. And I know that whatever the singularity is, it's not a joke. And I know that if I'm not there to kick the galaxy's ass into gear, they are all gonna die, so... [She lifts her drink, toasting Gideon with it in a vague approximation of a salute, and then downs the last of it in one incautious chug.] ...No point in getting existential about it. I'm here now, and that's the problem at hand.
Work the problem, not the solution, as they say.
no subject
Even if this is an alternate universe timeline dimension or some shit like that, wouldn't they still be the real version of themselves? Would it mean there are just multiple real versions of themselves? Would this mean there are multiple versions of Harrowhark Nonagesimus skulking around various other universes? A terrifying thought--
--and one that suggests she's getting side-tracked. The toast, at least, is one she understands, and she's swift to knock her own drink back in kind.]
Now we're talking. We're here, so may as well settle in for the ride. And speaking of rides, I'll get another round in. It sounds like you need it. And maaaaaaybe you could tell me about some of the other battles you've been in while we're at it. You know. To lighten the mood.
fin.
[She likes you very much, kid. That fond sort of a smile, shaking her head, definitely shows it.. But, this nerd shit has a use, and you do gotta learn it if you wanna fight properly.]
But thank you. I'll never say no to a free drink. [Shepard laughs] Alright, then. Let me tell you about the time...