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far from nowhere
"the trees rustle in the evening when we stand uneasy before our own thoughts."
With the events of Del Pascia behind the Moira, things are only now beginning to settle—and not very well. Through the combined efforts of some of the crew, D-E-L and her permanent residents were incinerated into the dust of space. While it’s not the most peaceful end, it is one, and not many are going to be thinking back on how nice Del Pascia’s facilities were for quite some time. Repairing what they could of the ship’s interior and putting as much distance between the Moira and the prison as possible, those aboard are informed by Navigation that they are approaching another planet. This means, of course, the potential for better supplies, as some things are beginning to dwindle, and the Captains elect to dock so long as the crew follows protocol. WELCOME TO AMISSIS-RE
Amissis-Re is an unregistered planet with no documented histories or signs of life. The Moira’s Navigation crew have scanned the planet for any usable resources and have discovered a faint signal emitting from beneath the surface of Amissi-Re. Using the transporters and any other crafts located in the Cargo Bay, the crew are able to travel to the source of the signal. Upon arriving in its exact location, they’ll find a small series of lakes that lead to a tower-like structure that appears to be in use. Crew must cross a poorly assembled bridge system that sways and dips when weight is applied to it in order to gain access to the entrance. Once there, a woman comes out to greet them and explains, excitedly, that she is so very happy that they have come to Amissis-Re.
Everyone can go home.
Their host insists that she has done the impossible and has somewhat fixed the Ingress that’s been built on Amissis-Re a long time ago, and what’s more, she can send crew home for short bursts of time. Upon following this woman inside, crew will find that the planet is not, in fact, barren at all. Diving deep into the underbelly of Amissis-Re, it’s like an eternal factory of machines, and while vast, for whatever reason, it also seems incredibly welcoming...
☄ LEAP OF FAITH ( 05.01 and on ) The barren planet of Amissis-Re is devoid of vegetation and organic life except for a lone woman, and the planet itself is an intricate honeycomb of machines that go for miles below the surface. Yet, that seems insignificant and unimportant in comparison to the news that the crew has just received. After Thán has looked at the Ingress, he tells the crew that he cannot say for certain that it is properly functioning, but Emiri native, Ben Link, will volunteer to test it out.
An elevator takes crew down to a glass platform that overlooks an inverted Ingress portal. In order to return home, the Moirans will have to take a leap of faith and jump in. Ben, in order to show his commitment to the crew and willingness to help get them home, takes that jump with Captain Thán seconds behind him. Jumping feels like dropping through wind; lights swirl, it’s warm, and a soft buzzing encompasses you as you fall. You don’t feel the landing. One moment you’re falling, and the next, you’re in a new world.
A few hours pass before a similar elevator rises from below and to the left of the Ingress, stopping beside the platform. Ben and Thán step out unharmed.
It works, and everyone can temporarily go home. Will you jump? ☄ COMBINE THE EXTREMES ( 05.01 and on ) The woman that greeted the crew and led them to the platform will allow anyone that wants to go home the opportunity to go. There’s only one catch: it’s not permanent. She’s worked for years to fix the Ingress so that she can return to her own home but hasn’t been able to make the trip an everlasting one. Everyone always comes back. Always. They go for a few hours, at first, but that amount of time increases with each visit.
The one guideline, she says, is that you can’t go alone. Each trip requires a partner, or it becomes too much for the mind to bear. These rules are simple: the world takes shape depending on who jumps first, but if crew go hand-in-hand and leap at the same time, the worlds combine. This new world will be populated with people that existed in both and may appear to be a jarring combination of both worlds. It may seem unusual, but if the woman is asked, she’ll explain that the combined world does exist as there are more universes than can be imagined. The Ingress tries to take the person to their own home, their original home, but when jumping together, it finds the closest possible match and deposits them there instead.
From that point on, you can travel the world together or split up, but remember, this world is a living, functioning world. It doesn’t matter if it’s the home of one crew member or a combination. You meet other people. You can get hurt. You influence and are influenced by others.
Be cautious, and enjoy your visit “home”. ☄ LINGER ON ( 05.05 and on ) The more times the Amissis-Re Ingress is visited, the more it seems that your trips last longer and the experience becomes even more vivid. More real and harder to distinguish from the current reality that you know. It’s difficult to explain why, but you get the feeling that maybe if you went without the aid of the host, that perhaps you’d be able to stay. Forever. It takes some subterfuge, but in time, you see your chance: she’s nowhere in sight, and you take it.
The world you are in now is completely your own, whether another crew member accompanied you or not. The people you know are there, everything around you is exactly as you remember. A few hours pass, and you don’t feel that familiar tug, that invisible hook at the base of your spine that signals that your visit is over. Even more time goes by, and you’re still in that world, your home. When the first day has passed, you begin to question if you’ll ever go back, or if life on the Moira was all a dream. The person with you won’t be able to convince you otherwise, and they’ll start to feel less real, a stranger that you used to know.
There’s only one way to go back to the Moira. Someone from the other side has to come in and retrieve you both. Once in, contact with a third will jump-start a link through the Ingress, and it will pull all crew back to the platform.
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thisavrou_log2016-05-01 09:04 pm
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"And it might be your only chance to speak to her, too."
He worried, though. The language was hard for her. He didn't want anyone yelling at her for her inability to speak English. And he took her hand in the way he usually did, though in this case it looked as if they both were holding their hands in a "v" shaped way.
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"I don't think she would think you'd abandon her deliberately." She didn't know his mother, and never would. But she knew Niko. She pauses a second, and a small smile grows on her face - though there's a slightly sad tinge to it.
"Yeah. I do want to write her something. I don't know what, but I'll think about it." In the limited time she had. It wasn't exactly going to be anything profound, but she wanted to say something.
"Did you want to try to find your cousin as well, while we're here?"
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"Not close up, anyway. I don't want to get in an argument or anything. Have him ask where I have been." Something they would both know. But... the fact that Tali didn't know any of these languages was actually striking him for once. If he introduced them, she wouldn't be able to talk to him.
"Maybe I teach you Serbian and English when we go back. I know it is unlikely we would come back here. But... in case we did, I would want you to know. And I know if one day we actually... you know... decide to have a child. I would want it to speak our languages."
He had put some thought into it anyway.
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"It would help--Ah--" She had to quickly pivot out of the way as someone nearly shoulder-checked her. "Keelah-- What's the English for 'watch where you're going'."
But Niko had made a point she hadn't thought of before. Tali had grown up in a culture where no one really needed to learn other languages, either because of translation technology or lack of contact with anyone who didn't know their singular language. She hadn't much considered the logistics of kids anyway, but... Huh.
"Uh, anyway... I should. Half the ship speaks English anyway, that might come in useful on board. And you should have somebody to speak Serbian with."
Like he'd done for her. Kids weren't going to happen for a long while anyway. She had time.
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Then he looked at Tali with a shrug. "In this place it is just as likely he knew Serbian. Also I think it's a better language than English to be angry in." He has no shortage of words in both tongues.
"I'll show you how when we get back." But then, he huffed some. Realizing he needed to address that giant elephant in the city. "If I get us a sniper scope, you want to see my cousin? I'm not getting up close. But, you know..."
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"So, I can talk shop in English, then yell at people in Serbian. Got it." She grinned as she remembered something. "You'll have to tell me the one about making shoes again." The insult he told her a very, very long time ago that she had long forgotten the real gist of.
There was something intimidating about this city, she realised as she walked. She hadn't been in many cities, it was true, but they hadn't felt quite like this. The sun beating down and bleaching everything with light, the swarms of nigh-hostile people, the vehicles beeping and screeching in messy lines up and down the street - it combined in a way that left her feeling a little uneasy to be there.
"A sniper scope?" She looked up at Niko over the rim of the sunglasses - which at least stopped her eyes stinging and watering in the bright light. "Resourceful. I like it." And was glad for the opportunity; Niko deserved to see at least one family member again, even if talking wasn't possible, not in the time they had.
"So... A weapons store...?" She looked around as if expecting something to jump out at her. Weapons were so common and so easy for people like her to just get a hold of back home that the idea of there being any trouble getting a scope didn't even occur to her.
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Just in case Tali wanted to stay on the straight and narrow. And though Niko wanted to keep fatalities to a minimum, he didn't give two shits about the law itself. It was made by obnoxious upper class wealthy men who controlled the government. He had no love there.
"...Also..." he started to admit sadly, "I am about to steal a car."
Once he found a decent one parked out of eyesight of the cops.
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And he was going to steal a car; something in Tali immediately balked a little at the idea - of the very few capital offences on the fleet, ship-stealing was a prominent one. She'd done it before, technically, but even in a different universe, it felt viscerally wrong. Niko even sounded unhappy about it - although she wasn't sure if that was because of the act itself or just that he was doing it in front of her.
"Or we could get a cab and you don't have to do that." Beat. "They have cabs, right?"
She's only ever seen shuttle cabs before, but they have to have...car cabs. Surely.
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He crossed around the block and there was a blocky something or other. It would do.
He checked one way. Then the other. Then slammed his elbow into the window of the driver's side, shattering the glass. He opened the door and brushed out what fell into the seat and unlocked the passenger side.
"Give me a moment-" he ducked down to get at the wires to start the thing.
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She stood nervously for a moment, fidgeting, as Niko checked the area, and she too started to look around, checking for--
Smash - she jumped violently, and swung round to find Niko was already inside. She let out the air trapped in her lungs in an explosive sound.
"This is much easier than the last time I stole a vehicle," she said as she climbed in, watching Niko fiddle with the wiring with open interest. "I mean, it was a military frigate, but still..."
Glass windows and the wire ends sparking on each other as Niko worked. It just seemed too easy.
"I keep forgetting this is two hundred years ago." More than that, she kept forgetting Niko was from two hundred years ago. Also kept forgetting he was a merc.
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"The cops don't care unless you inconvenience them. Is pretty easy. Made a lot of money and didn't require a lot of killing," he told her, bluntly. Because she deserved to hear and see the type of life he used to lead. Well, if she was going to see the results of it, might as well know how it went.
wow niko, don't judge her driving skills
She paused for a second, looking at him thoughtfully, then said, "You know I don't care about what you did here, right? I'm not going to get really angry with you because you didn't mention stealing cars."
...And then: "But if we get arrested, I'll definitely get angry."
judgin' so hard
Then something struck him. A place he needed to take Tali, so she would know. So she would understand it as a real thing that happened, not some empty story.
"We're going to a church first."
hey she got...a bit better...
"A church," she repeated, slightly bemused. "I didn't realise you were religious."
On the fleet, faith in gods didn't exist - only veneration of ancestors. She wasn't even sure she believed it mattered a damn what her ancestors would have thought of anything. Churches - or the quarian equivalents - weren't exactly places she spent any of her time. After a short breath, she spoke up again.
"You know I'm not, right? Religious. Would I be allowed in?" Was that how it worked?
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Because despite everything that happened since, it still felt like the Most Important Day. Even above the day his friends died.
"I was Catholic growing up, though. This with Muslims in our village. It was what led us to be attacked, this mix. Most Muslims there are Bosniak and they were targets. Even if some of us were Serbs, and you could tell, it was easy to get rid of us. Including sympathizers."
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And she would have said so, but before anything else, she was twisting in her seat to face him, one leg curled up underneath her, looking at him intently.
"You don't need to show me that - not if you don't want to go there."
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Because somehow he guessed with how dismissive he was- it might not be as important to feel "real" with most people. But with Tali? He needed it to.
"Then we'll go look up Roman. I remember where his last apartment is. Considering he liked it so much, he might still live there."
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She got what he meant, and if it was important to him, it was important to her...but not as important as Niko and his well-being.
"You know, you never told me much about what she was like." Thinking about her alive had to be easier - at least, that was what she hoped. She'd rather think of Kate as a real person - build up a picture of her in her mind that wasn't just a victim or a source of pain. It felt more respectful that way, to Tali. "Was she a merc as well?"
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"Now... Now I don't think I can. In some way, I don't think I want to anymore. Not completely. But I know I could not handle someone that might be violent with me." He looked at her thoughtfully for a moment, then back to the road.
"She had red hair, lots of curves, a good smile."
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She'd never worried about Niko's violence, not towards her or anything or anyone either of them cared about; she hadn't realised he'd worried about...
She twisted to face Niko again. "I just want to make sure - you know I'm not- I wouldn't do anything to you, right? You haven't been worrying about that?"
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"We understood each other in a way. But her only kiss was on my cheek, I only got to hold her close on the day she died. So, that's who she was."
It wasn't the best explanation but he hoped that Tali would understand.
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"I think..." There was a pause as she thought even more. "You two would have been good together. Should have been good together."
Maybe if she hadn't been murdered, and Niko hadn't been taken away, they could have helped each other, could have been happy together back on Earth. For one somber, strange moment she found herself wishing that could have happened - then had the sudden notion that maybe, a universe away, he was with Kate and they were happy. A universe where Tali didn't exist, or wouldn't for centuries to come - but that was just how things were.
...A moment later, and she finds herself smiling, letting out a breath in half a laugh. "So you loved each other, but you'd never even kissed? That's kind of cute."
And totally normal for quarians, but she could assume Niko and Kate didn't have suits in the way.
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But he shrugged somberly.
"Roman told me he was going to name his daughter after her."
It didn't take long at all, though, before they were before a large Catholic cathedral with stained glass windows. He stopped, emerged from the "borrowed" vehicle, and walked over to the spot. "She was standing here, and me there."
Oddly, he didn't look despondent, or bitterly sad. Just... accepting. He was bad news. Tali had survived him. Kate had not.
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She joined Niko around the other side of the car, eyeing him cautiously all the while. He talked about his past with such a flat sort of detachment that she didn't know if he wanted to be comforted or left alone.
'There' turned out to be where Tali had come to a stop, and she gave him a startled look before stepping quickly forward next to him. The touch was a little ginger as she reached out to slide an arm around him, but if he wouldn't stop her, she wanted to be touching him.
"Hey," she said softly, and she did sound despondent, like her voice was being weighed down by empathy. This was a beautiful place, and it was full of misery. "I'm really sorry."
She rubbed his back lightly, touch reassuring. "For Kate, definitely. But...you're still here. And I'm sorry this happened to you."
There was nothing more to do for Kate now except remember her - talk about her, name children after her, think of her as what she was before dying. But Niko still had to live with the pain of this.
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"I needed to show you this because the reason I am with you is that I guessed you were strong enough that this would not happen to you. Or else, I do not think that I could have taken that risk."
Which made her problem, the one with him, all the more perplexing. It was at that point he was able to step away from that invisible memorial.
"Come on. We need to go stalk my Cousin's apartment and see if he is there." Because that was what responsible family did for each other.
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TIMESKIP
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