ataraxion | 001. video

[ If you’ve never seen someone who’s very close to death, you have now. The image broadcast is of a wearied-looking soldier who is fairly torn up, sporting dozens of gashes to the face and badly-cracked military-grade armor. The woman in question looks tired, yes, but there’s something almost relieved about her expression, about the way she sighs long and deep before speaking, taking her time in sending out a message. ]

Never thought being dead would look and feel just like living. [ Does that sound too unamused? Ah, well. She pauses, considers what to say; it’s difficult when you’ve recently been more or less dissolved into atoms and then woke up in a gooey pod. Among... other things. ]

This is Command-- [ The woman cuts off, brows knit as she reconsiders. ] ... This is Shepard, formerly Commander of the SSV Normandy, Alliance Navy. I don’t know where this is, exactly, but I think I know what it’s supposed to be.

[ Do the specifics of the afterlife matter so much once you're dead, though? Shepard smiles distantly, voice surprisingly easy despite all the unknown factors. ]

I need to find the bar. Promised someone I’d be there.

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Negative. [This is serious business, yo.]

Understand complicated... likely better than most would, in this case.

[ She's beginning to realize....... ]

Guess that's reassuring. Mind giving me some idea of what's happening, here?

For starters, you're not dead. Again.

Secondly, we're all aboard a colony ship called the Tranquility. It utilizes a type of spacetime technology called a jump drive. Seemed that you -- the last you that was here -- were unable to make it to the gravity couch in time for the thirty-third jump.

Should probably be more careful this time.

Yeah, starting to realize that. [ How would you really know, though? Fortunately, she's not one to worry about that... at least, not at the moment. ]

Tranquility, huh? [ She'd never heard of it, but then again, it wasn't as if she knew every ship in the galaxy. ] Sounds like it's just using a mass relay.

[ So, that's what happened. Shepard shifts, disquieted. ]

I'll keep that in mind.

Whatever you want to call it. [At least Shepard hails from a reality where it's easy for her to wrap her head around the concept of a jump.] If you want to know who mans the ship or where it's truthfully going, however, that's another matter entirely. Have made an effort to seize control of the bridge for ourselves once. Mission wasn't very successful.

[To say the least. She's so blunt about it, though.]

Good to hear. Might set some people's minds at ease. Nobody likes history repeating itself.

[Har dee har.]

Heavy causalities? [ She can guess by the tone. But... ] Who's in control of the bridge and why's it so well-fortified? If they brought us here--

[ "They." She pauses, unsure, momentarily, how to continue. ]

Funny how often that happens.

Close. Wouldn't be here talking to you if escape wasn't possible. [Then, she shrugs.] Good question. Don't know.

[It's been almost three years now, and it's a little embarrassing to admit that.]

Seems inevitable if you let it.

Well, it'd be a good idea to monitor the situation. If something up there changes, we can make a move.

[ Already in the swing of things, as a good Commander should be. ]

Not the first time anyone's said something like that.

[She'd be lying if she said she wasn't a little embittered by it, either. People she knows have fought and resisted. People who are now either vanished or dead.]

I'd be surprised if it was.

[ Shepard's quiet, sensing the shift in tone, the unstated regret, sadness... maybe fear.

She feels it, too. ]

But if we don't try, then what's the point?

It hasn't been without trying. People have tried. You -- the other you -- died trying.

[Rey didn't know Commander Shepard very well, but she was a commander. A superior officer. And Rey, being the soldier that she is, is hard-wired to acknowledge that. Even respect it. She's been a slave to that inclination for so long that, for awhile, serving as a soldier again under recon had been the most natural effort for her.

[Things were so much easier when she just had someone to tell her what to do. To just march her off on suicide missions and put Humpty Dumpty back together again when she fell apart.

[Now, she's just at a loss. Again. And she may be projecting a little bit of that on Shepard. Sorry about that.]

Wouldn't be the first time. [ She says it gently, in hopeful respect for the other's loss, but it's true; death isn't the worst thing that's ever happened to Commander Shepard. ]

We can't give up just because things so far have been tough.

...

[Scoff.] Fair point.

Would suggest laying low for awhile, though. Wouldn't want to lose you again anytime soon. [Or ever. That would suck. Not many people get an extra chance after dying.]

Can't make any promises. [ She smiles, faintly; at the very least, she'll try to keep out of the way of the others on the ship until she has a better idea of what's going on. ] But don't worry; I don't have plans to get more messed up than this.

[ She says, indicating the damage to her face. ]

No one really plans to get messed up. Unless they're masochistic.

[She did note Shepard's state, though. It's obviously not something she received while on the Tranquility, though the injuries appear to be more recent. It's curious.] Looks like you've already been through hell, anyway.

I know a few of those. [ Uh, Wrex. Grunt. Jack. Tali, sometimes, if there's a straw involved. ]

Something like that. [ Hell on Earth, more like. ] Didn't end well.

Same. [She may or may not even be one of them.

[Ah yes, Hell on Earth. Rey knows that scene all too well.] Would hate to see the other guy.

Wasn't a "guy" as much as it was, uh... an army of killer aliens.

[ And they made out much better, she thinks, dully. ]

["Killer aliens" is definitely not the strangest thing Rey has ever heard of. By all counts, they're all aliens here.]

Sounds significantly more challenging.

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