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snowblindrpg2015-11-01 03:05 am
snowblindmods) wrote in snowblindrpg2015-11-01 03:05 am
Entry tags:
- alphonse elric (fullmetal alchemist),
- brian thomas (marble hornets),
- clayton epps (original),
- cloud strife (final fantasy vii),
- commander shepard (mass effect),
- emmanellain de fortemps (ffxiv),
- enoch (el shaddai),
- frisk (undertale),
- ginger hale (original),
- gregory house (house md),
- haurchefant greystone (ffxiv),
- jim hawkins (treasure planet),
- kunsel (final fantasy vii),
- miranda lawson (mass effect),
- rydia (final fantasy iv),
- sephiroth (final fantasy vii),
- sheena fujibayashi (tales of symphonia),
- steve rogers (mcu),
- tifa lockhart (final fantasy vii),
- tim wright (marble hornets),
- zack fair (final fantasy vii),
- zell dincht (final fantasy viii)
[network] @ADMIN; Arrival [open]
Welcome to Norfinbury. The time is E̛̬̞͖͖̫R҉͖̯̬R̼̻͉̰͎̳̙O̩͓͔̫͇͈̯R and the date is E̛̬̞͖͖̫R҉͖̯̬R̼̻͉̰͎̳̙O̩͓͔̫͇͈̯R. This network has been provided for your use. Please interact politely with everyone else on this network.
@lawbringer, voice, private
[ This is completely unacceptable on every level. ]
[ After everything Shepard had done for the galaxy, hell, everything the entire Normandy crew had gone through to save the ungrateful, shallow, celebrity-obsessed morass of the galaxy. After Miranda had spent a month struggling with the knowledge that Shepard had almost certainly made the ultimate sacrifice and that she would never stop running. After she had worked so hard to establish herself here and rebuild Miranda Lawson from scraps left in the snow - ]
[ Well. Someone is going to fuck with this woman. ]
[ Her voice is perfectly level when she speaks but the rage is obvious just under the surface to anyone that knows Miranda. ]
I don't care who the hell you think you are, but you are not Commander Shepard.
video; private
And then that tone. That makes her eyes widen, and there's a moment of - not fear, but some cold sinking in them, because she is instantly thinking how long and thinking Horizon. Ashley. Her back still feels sore and skin stinging from the blast of the Reaper's attack, though, it can't have been long. It can't. Not again.]
Miranda? [She sounds a little confused, but also a little demanding.] Miranda. It's me. What did they tell you happened?
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It also starts a low thrum of panic coursing through her, magnified by the hyper-focus of the mania. She knows my name, she knows my name and she can tell everyone.
This isn't a worst-case scenario by any means - it's clearly not her father, or the Illusive Man, or heaven forbid Oriana. It's still not good. ]
It's not. Why don't you start by telling me who 'they' are?
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If she's too late - ]
Was it Cerberus? [She breathes out, leaning closer to her tablet, as if she can look Miranda in the eye despite having no video connection.] Can't be the Reapers. I don't believe that. You know me, Miranda, you put me back together, remember? I trust you. [I need you to snap out of this. It's there in the back of her voice, shadowing her face. I trust you. So trust me. Please.]
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[ Miranda's spent a month wishing he was, because so many things just worked out when Shepard decided to fix them.
This is a mockery. ]
Maybe you're another clone, or a delusional fangirl with a hell of a security clearance, but you're not Shepard. And if the Reapers are what brought us here and you're the best we've got - ?
[ She lets it hang, unwilling to put her fears into words. ]
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[If until now Shepard's confusion was laced with the worst of fears, with a variety of scenarios of different degrees of horror, now there's suddenly a moment of pure confusion. She can understand that Miranda's memories might have been altered, but this seems like a pretty ridiculous alteration. Impossible to sustain.
There's another option. She pulls slightly back from the tablet, and her voice hardens. She doesn't appreciate having hope yanked out from under her.]
Or maybe you're not Miranda Lawson, and the Illusive Man knows just how to get under my skin. What the hell kind of game is he playing?
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[ Miranda switches on the video and gives the camera her best glare. She's filthy and unkempt, despite her best efforts. She's lost weight and sleep; if she were perfect before, she isn't any longer. But she is undeniably Miranda Lawson.
And this woman...
Well. Perhaps if Miranda hadn't been speaking to Greed just yesterday, the thought might not have occurred to her. It does, though, and it's somehow worse than the idea of a clone or an imposer.]
If you're Shepard, prove it.
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She knows what this woman, who looks and sounds like her squadmate and friend, wants, though. Something off the record. Something only the two of them know. And she knows that whatever she gives, if she's gambling wrong, could be betraying the real Miranda, wherever she is.
Careful.]
"I had a guardian angel all these years", [she says quietly.] You remember that? She asked me to make sure you come back alive.
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True, Oriana had sent the message privately to Shepard - and Shepard knew Miranda read it. Were Miranda a less paranoid person, maybe that would be good enough.
Unfortunately, Miranda worked for the Illusive Man for almost twenty years. If she could read that message, EDI could too. And if EDI could, she did, and passed it right up the chain. Ultimately, it made for a useless attempt at confirmation, but it was incredibly effective at manipulating Miranda.
The fact that Miranda knew that didn't actually help. She's no closer to deciding what to do when she returns to the message. ]
That is - very privileged information, and if you're playing then you're playing a very dangerous game.
Unfortunately, there are other possibilities to consider.
One more question: what did I ask you when I was trying to assess your mental state on the way to Minuteman station?
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Where they need her right now.
When Miranda comes back on she practically leaps at the tablet. She's not losing her cool quite yet, but there's violence lurking there. That patently Shepard look of a force of nature about to be unleashed. As soon as she finds who to unleash it on.]
I made a hard call sharing that. I'm thinking you owe me something in return.
[She wants to extend a hand. Extend trust. But there's too much here that she doesn't understand. How much does she risk?
Well. Since, she is Shepard, the answer is pretty obvious.]
You asked about Virmire, and about defeating Saren. I told you what happened - about leaving Kaidan, and about the Council and Udina. Jacob stopped you asking more, but - that was enough, then.
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[ Simpler times, but Miranda knows this is going to have to be enough now, too. There's no reason she has to trust this Shepard completely, much less fall in behind her banner and follow her on another crusade. Here, they're on footing more equal than they've ever been.
It's enough to move forward instead of running away. ]
Alright. If I owe you, what is it that you want?
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The real Miranda. The one she can trust.]
Some explanation about the "man" thing would be a good start.
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It's exactly as I said. The person I know as Commander Shepard, the person I put back together with my own hands and followed into hell... that person's name is John Shepard. He's the one who helped me find her, not you.
Even if you believe yourself to be Shepard, and have his memories, it's impossible you're him.
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If you can believe the different worlds idea, I guess I have no choice but to. [Her voice is soft, despite its urgency. Part of her is focusing burying her fear. Can't look afraid when Miranda looks at her and hopes to see Shepard.] Miranda Lawson put me back together. Asked for my help to find her sister, and followed me through the Omega Four relay. Whatever that means to you, I trusted her.
[Maybe she's offering that too easily. This is her weakness. But it's a weakness she's fine with having.]
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[ Miranda remembers herself then; as foolish as it is to put your trust in her now, it was even more foolish back then. He'd fought it, too, repeating that he'd never work for Ceberus again and again.
It had never stopped him from coming in her cabin to try and pick her apart, though, or from having her at his back during missions. Maybe it had been the same, for this Shepard and her Miranda. ]
-But I don't know what else is different in you world. I can't know.
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She'd failed on Horizon, after all.]
All right, let's compare notes. [Her voice is businesslike suddenly, her face not quite sealing, but drawing on the commander's mask. Miranda and her, they're both pragmatic sorts.] You know about Virmire and Kaidan. John Shepard - was he in the Skyllian Blitz too? What about Cerberus - did he work with them willingly?
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[ Facts - as crazy as they are - provide some degree of comfort, at least. She can do this. She knows Shepard.
She knows circling, too, though; she can do it as long as it takes. The degree of honesty she'd given freely on the SR-2 couldn't be replicated here, not until she had some way to know beyond a few scraps of circumstantial evidence. ]
He never worked for Cerberus without an objection and got out from under the Illusive Man's control the second he could manage.
Did you turn yourself in, too, or was that stroke of insanity universe-specific?
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[John Shepard. It's not the gender difference itself that gets her - it's the idea that someone out there could have had the same life as her but have made different choices. She curbs a stabbing urge to ask about Virmire again.]
It all checks out so far. Maybe we're not - [that different? Different at all? Abruptly she decides to take a turn in the subject. She can only do this so much.]
The Collectors' base. Did everyone make it out? I'm not trying to imply anything, [she adds before it can sound like it.] If your run was anything like mine, a whole lot of it was just down to luck.
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[ She turns her attention forward with a ghost of a smile. The resolution fo the 'suicide mission' was one great success that Miranda could look back on with second-hand pride, untainted by everything that came after. She doesn't see it as her own accomplishment, but she could take pride in Shepard's now and then. ]
The only things that died on that mission were Collectors and half a Reaper. He was very thorough.
That brings us up to a few months ago, the beginning of the war.
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She's not counting on it happening again. But she smiles back a little, for a moment, before Miranda brings up the war and everything goes dark and hard again.]
Earth got hit. I was meeting the brass in Vancouver, and we were attacked - just a couple of hours ago. Before I woke up here.
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[ Miranda isn't one for cursing the universe for her bad fortune, but she'll make an exception. It couldn't give them this?
Her own face falls, and she inhales sharply as if she means to add something, but doesn't actually speak. ]
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... months?
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- well, if Miranda lies to her, the real Shepard would probably know -
- this Shepard probably already knows shes's thinking about it by the look on Miranda's face -
but if Miranda lies to her and gets away with it, there's a risk that that will be what dooms the galaxy. Someone else's galaxy, but apparently still filled with the people Miranda wanted to protect. It's that which makes her decision for her. ]
Months. I wasn't with Shepard, for most of them; we parted ways after he surrendered to the Alliance, obviously, though we ran into one another a few times over the course of the war.
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And there are the implications, crashing in on a delayed reaction. Personal consequences are for people who don't have a galaxy riding on them. There's just the kind of miracle she needed here and she seizes on it and everything else can wait. Whatever mess this could make of her life here, or of Miranda's. Because Miranda would understand.]
I want to know everything. The war, the Alliance - Earth. [There's an insane amount that can be said with one word if it's the right one, and Earth is what Shepard's entire being is wrapped in, right now.]
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[ She says this, as if she wouldn't be cloak-and-dagger even if everything were completely normal. After that, though, she slips into mission briefing mode: detached, personal, as if she weren't talking about the near-annihilation of their entire way of life. ]
In broad strokes, the attack you witnessed was the beginning of a full-scale, systematic invasion: the worst case scenario. They harvested what they could, turned the rest into husks. We were completely unprepared.
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