Nova Barnett (Clone Shepard) (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
petridish) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
thisavrou_log2016-08-12 12:16 am
petridish) wrote in thisavrou_log2016-08-12 12:16 am
Entry tags:
(no subject)
Who: Clone Shepard and Thane Krios
When: August 6th
Where: MID tech workspace
What: Ship rounds
Warnings: Xenophobia.
Of Shepard's numerous dead squadmates and acquaintances, Thane Krios had received slightly more coverage in her 'history of Jane Shepard' lessons simply because he had died so recently. Only slightly - Brooks hadn't bothered with the entire dossier she'd written - but he was at least more than the footnote Nihlus had gotten.
It's from scouring the directory that she finds out a drell named Thane is here, and she squints at the photo for a while before the easy familiarity of the video thread between him and Garrus confirms for her that this is indeed Shepard's former squadmate and Thane isn't just a common drell name. It's surprisingly longer before she encounters him, and only by chance that when her mind's wandering at work, she happens to look up from her MID and notice him.
"Thane." That's genuine surprise, but the pause she puts in here, the emotional expression; that's fake. (Well, somewhat. Her motivation behind the face is how terrible it is that she has to talk to aliens.) "It's... good to see you."
When: August 6th
Where: MID tech workspace
What: Ship rounds
Warnings: Xenophobia.
Of Shepard's numerous dead squadmates and acquaintances, Thane Krios had received slightly more coverage in her 'history of Jane Shepard' lessons simply because he had died so recently. Only slightly - Brooks hadn't bothered with the entire dossier she'd written - but he was at least more than the footnote Nihlus had gotten.
It's from scouring the directory that she finds out a drell named Thane is here, and she squints at the photo for a while before the easy familiarity of the video thread between him and Garrus confirms for her that this is indeed Shepard's former squadmate and Thane isn't just a common drell name. It's surprisingly longer before she encounters him, and only by chance that when her mind's wandering at work, she happens to look up from her MID and notice him.
"Thane." That's genuine surprise, but the pause she puts in here, the emotional expression; that's fake. (Well, somewhat. Her motivation behind the face is how terrible it is that she has to talk to aliens.) "It's... good to see you."
no subject
"Shepard," He nods his head slightly in acknowledgment of her words, though he's privately puzzled by the distance in her tone. "It's good to see you, as well." The warmth in his voice is genuine, because it is good to see her, though based on her lukewarm greeting, he's already inclined to think that this woman is not the Alliance commander he recalls working with. It occurs to him now that although Garrus may be wishing for his own particular version of Shepard, at least the turian had the questionable luck of being able to tell at a glance that all of the Shepards aboard are different than the one he worked with.
"I apologize for not getting in contact earlier. Old habits are hard to break." He means exercising extreme caution in a new and unknown situation, which Shepard - any Shepard - ought to understand.
no subject
"Of course," she says, with a nod and no idea what he's talking about, though she doesn't let the latter show on her face. She indicates the door. "Can we take this outside?"
Not wanting to get into this in front of her coworkers, she waits until they're in the hallway before saying anything more, but she takes a moment to just stare at him first. She's never met a drell in person before, and the new stimulus helps her anchor herself to here and now, instead of mentally drifting away as she has been lately.
"Sorry," she says eventually. "After Nihlus and Kaidan, I really shouldn't be surprised to see you here too."
Either back from the dead like herself and Nihlus, or from another timeline where he didn't die like Kaidan, she's assuming.
no subject
In which event, that alone tells him that this isn't his Shepard. But he'll still probe for a more concrete confirmation, just to satisfy his own need to know.
He nods to acknowledge her words before speaking, himself.
"I see...Am I correct in guessing you recall my own death, then?"
There's no need to mince words; he knows he's dying, and he only has a matter of months at most. Might as well just get it out of the way.
no subject
Ah. He's from before his own death. Which puts him in a better position to have clear, recent-to-him memories of Shepard that she'll lack. At least thanks to Shepard's e-mails on her omni-tool, she knows the basics of his post-Collector base whereabouts up until his death (in hospital on the Citadel under a fake name and in poor health), and thanks to Brooks's insistence on keeping up with current Shepard events through both the media and hacking Alliance files, she knows how he died.
"You died saving Councilor Valern from an assassination attempt," she informs him, and she gives him a thin smile. "Interesting way for an assassin to go."
Hey, she gets irony.
no subject
"Interesting or ironic?" he asks with the ghost of a smile. He wonders if this knowledge might cause problems when he returns. He doubts that information will stop him from acting when the time comes, but it might have other, unforeseen consequences that he can't predict. Hm.
"I am glad to know my death will be beneficial to others as well as quick." He'd always figured he'd pass slowly and uncomfortably from gradual oxygen deprivation. The idea of a quicker, more violent death suits him just fine.
no subject
"It can't be both?" Irony's interesting. So is a drell defending and even dying for a salarian councilor, when she's pretty sure there isn't much of a diplomatic relationship between the species, or even between the salarians and the hanar.
"Better that than being spaced over a grudge," she agrees. Not that she really had a way to die beneficially, not with the real Shepard in the world. Of course, she'd rather Shepard wasn't spaced in the first place. They wouldn't have needed her then. "Although that was a while ago. A few weeks before I ended up on the Moira, and that was nine months ago now."
no subject
"Are you talking about before we met?"
no subject
"I got spaced before we met, sure, but I meant your death was a while ago. I've been here the longest of the Shepards here."
no subject
"That is not an insignificant amount of time. I...don't suppose there was some conclusion to the conflict with the reapers before you were pulled here?"
He expects it's a long-shot, but who knows, maybe by the time he dies the efforts made by Shepard and her team were closer to coming to fruition.
no subject
Even seeing their strange truce on Rannoch for herself, she would have let them kill each other. The sight of geth helping quarians with construction had been creepy.
"One of the other Shepards might have," she adds as an afterthought. "I know the other Jane's further along than me." Not that she'd bothered to ask exactly where, but she's talked about things the Shepard of her own universe hadn't yet done.
no subject
"What a time to go to war," he remarks with a bit of a sigh, accepting the subject change with ease. "I'll be sure to ask them, as well."
He pauses briefly for a moment to collect his thoughts, and tilts his head slightly as he asks his next question: "How long has it been since the destruction of the Collector base?"
no subject
"Nine and a half months," she replies more readily. "Before ending up here, anyway. A couple of weeks between the Collector base and Aratoht, the Alliance held me on Earth, the Reapers attacked six months in, and it's been three months since then." And she was woken up three months into Shepard's lockdown.
Interesting choice of landmark events on his part. "Is that the last thing that happened for you?"
no subject
He knows he doesn't have long left, but still. That's quite the perspective.
But back to the topic at hand...he nods in response to her question, and ads:
"Give or take about 48 hours, yes. I'm sorry to hear you were disciplined because of it."
Of course, she had suspected she might be, but for Shepard, when it came down to the choice between doing the right thing and doing nothing, it was a given that she'd go for the former. "I take it you were pardoned when the reapers attacked?" Because that's kind of what it sounds like.
no subject
She shrugs off the sympathy. The six months Shepard had spent in custody somewhat blends into the mass of Alliance incompetence she's aware of, and in this particular case, she does get it. She thinks it's stupid, but she gets it.
"Reinstated with full diplomatic authority," she says, the slight sarcasm in her voice more for the Alliance than for his optimism about Shepard's treatment. "I don't remember getting an actual pardon: It would piss off the batarians too much, and I guess the Alliance couldn't hand me over to them any more than they could afford fighting them off."
She sighs. "Of course, it wouldn't be the only thing I can't remember. How's your amp? Mine got jostled when I came through the Ingress and it must've knocked something in my brain, because I've got gaps in my memory - things in between the big events."
She'd enjoyed the break she'd had from needing to pull out this excuse for a while, with the months between Shepard's arrival and the sudden doubling of the squad (and Shepards), but every time it's with another biotic, she wonders how plausible it sounds. The Vanguard Shepard hadn't said anything.
no subject
He wonders if that explains her stiff reception of his approach.
"I've had no problems with mine since I arrived." He pauses briefly before asking, "How many gaps?"
The idea of Shepard - any Shepard, as strange as that is to think - with missing memories is a bit alarming.
augh I'm sorry
With an appropriately helpless and frustrated look (inspired by the thought of ending up on the Moira in the first place), she shakes her head. "It's hard to tell," she says. "It's not like I remember what I don't remember; I only really know when someone mentions something that happened and I don't know what they're talking about."
She sighs. "It's getting a little better lately, for the last few months before I ended up here, but that's been slow." In fact, her improving 'memory' of Shepard's time since the Reaper attack is due mostly to receiving Shepard's omni-tool in the Ingress, complete with her personal e-mails, but who needs those details?
/pat
He shifts his weight briefly, uncertain for the moment whether or not to pursue any further questions. He has the distinct feeling they're both rather uncomfortable, although their individual reasons for that shared discomfort couldn't be more different.
"I should probably let you return to your work."
scene?
"I should go," she agrees, unable to entirely hide her relief at escaping this conversation. "I'm sure you've got more to work on too. Up in the vents...?"
She's not entirely sure what he's doing up there (cleaning, maybe?), only that now she should probably keep an eye on the vents as well as being conscious of the ship's cameras. (She also has no idea why vents might be significant to him.)
"Glad to catch you up," she adds, and she starts her retreat back to her workstation.
sounds good! o7
"Among other things, yes," Cleaning the vents isn't particularly strenuous, and so he's left with plenty of time for other things. Like observation. Which he will most certainly be doing more of, now that this disquieting conversation has reached its conclusion.
"It's been good to speak with you, Shepard. I'll be in touch."