VIDEO

[squadgoals]

Hi all — Shepard here, just a quick couple of questions.

First, I know the mail system can be all over the place, so I wanted to reach out to everyone. Last month, I received this-- [And here, she holds up a hypospray with this label affixed to it. She rotates it slowly, showing off the entire label as she speaks.] --in my mailbox. Not sure what kind of medicine it is, but if you know, or know who it belongs to, please let me know as soon as possible.

Second, I wanted to ask about the Ingress. From what I've read and been told, it opens once every month, at the beginning of that month. Now, I've only been here a month — can anyone with more experience tell me if it's normal or not that it hasn't opened by now?

Comments

Voice

[tearmeanewone]

Whatever you do, don't touch either end of it.

[She's met with the business end of her hypospray, and it was not a pleasant thing.]

Videooo

[squadgoals]

That bad? [she furrows her brow, investigating the smalltext of the spray.] Can I ask what happened?

[tearmeanewone]

A very embarrassing couple of hours. I couldn't stop talking. Everything I thought I just said.

[squadgoals]

It really is a truth serum, then. Sorry you had to find out the hard way.

At least it looks like it's one-time use?

[tearmeanewone]

It is exactly what's on the box.

Does it? I've never seen anything like this before, where I'm from we jab a needle into somebody's arm and call it a day.

[squadgoals]

Actually, I'm not sure. Do you still have your spray? Not that I'm recommending you try it again.

[beat; and her tone is almost amused]

Where are you from where needle jabbing is part of your every day? [She's certain it's just a joke.]

[tearmeanewone]

Uh...

Well. I suppose so. At least one of the places I've been to, it's pretty much a daily occurrence.

[Rapture man. Rapture.]

[squadgoals]

Wait. Seriously? [what]

Can I ask why?

[tearmeanewone]

Rewriting your genetic code in Rapture is as easy as drinking a tonic. And these abilities are activated by a substance called Eve. The most direct way of getting Eve into your system is to inject it, so people who use the abilities these tonics give them are constantly using needles.

[squadgoals]

[what.]

Hold on. So you're saying the reason you used the drug we found was because... you thought it might be like one of those tonics? Re-writing your genetic code?

Are the results permanent?

[Just the idea of something like that existing is a little unnerving. It reminds her of some kind of insidious Reaper tech, slowly taking over people's systems.]

[tearmeanewone]

No, no-- God no. I don't just run around willy-nilly drinking and injecting whatever I find on the ground. I had a record player in the box too, my hand got caught between the hypospray and the player.

[She's not an idiot, gosh.]

But yes, the results of plasmids and vigors are permanent. Whether or not you use them is up to you.

[squadgoals]

[Whew. Good to hear. Who goes around digging through boxes and using stuff they find in them? Not this guy.]

In that case, I apologize for my assumption.

From the way you mentioned it, it sounded like it was run of the mill in... Rapture, was it? It's a little off topic, but could you tell me more about it? I've never heard of a system like that being made available to civilians, unless I'm misunderstanding something again.

[tearmeanewone]

No offense taken-- I imagine a lot of people here adopt a 'try it and see' kind of attitude towards their mail items, but after I felt the pinch I tried to get the hypospray to the medical bay in case it was going to have an adverse affect. Which it did, just not in the way I thought it would.

You're right-- it was made as a consumer good, believe it or not. Each one was supposed to solve some particular problem-- from lifting people up to change lightbulbs to seeing women changing their clothing through walls. But in Rapture, anything could be pursued or produced-- the city was founded as a response to political and religious oversight, as a place where limits on research and development and creation didn't exist.

[squadgoals]

[Note to self: do not take "try it and see" approach to any mail.

She raises an eyebrow at the second "problem", but doesn't comment immediately, letting Elizabeth finish her piece.]

So, and stop me if I'm on the wrong track: Rapture was designed and envisioned as a limitless paradise for people looking for good times and loose moral boundaries, both scientific and otherwise?

[tearmeanewone]

What could possibly go wrong?

[There has never been a drier sentence spoken with more sarcasm.]

[squadgoals]

[WELP]

What happened? [Initial hedonistic paradise, followed by boredom, followed by a Machiavellian decent into a twisted hell borne of science itself? Just mentally spitballing.]

[tearmeanewone]

[On point mental spitballing, Shepard!]

With no clear laws of leadership, recreational gene mutation, and an industry that exploited children to provide for that habit? Civil war, to put it in the most dry and technical of terms.

[If she were being honest, she's worried the Moira is next. The rules are next to nonexistent, and the enclosed nature of the ship reminds her of Rapture. They've already got people with extraordinary abilities covered.]

[squadgoals]

[WELPx2]

I can't say I'm surprised... but, children? Most criminals won't even cross a line that low. Leave it to a higher class of anarchists to really turn civilization's morals on its head.

I'm sorry you had to deal with that. Was anyone able to step up, and bring things to an end, or...? [Or did you come here before that? Or was there no end?]

[tearmeanewone]

[Both and neither-- though she refrains from confusing Shepard and opening up the floor to more questions that she may or may not want to answer.]

Yes, someone did. I never met him, but he was the right person for the job. All of those girls were freed, and had lives after they escaped. [Like she'd hoped she would after Columbia. But it took a spaceship to give her what she'd been looking for.] Rapture collapsed, but they made it out.

[squadgoals]

Wow. [She's a little struck by it — if anything, it sounds like the best-possible conclusion for a damned situation.] Good to hear.

What about you? Did you make it out alongside the children?

[Private]

[tearmeanewone]

No. I didn't.

But I try to keep that to myself, if it's all the same to you.

[Super-Private]

[squadgoals]

[Oh.]

Understood. I'm sorry for dredging it up.

[Super-Private]

[tearmeanewone]

Please, don't think anything of it. I made peace with it before it happened, and there's nothing anyone can do about it now. I keep it to myself so no one will feel distressed over it, that's all.

[perma-super-private!!]

[squadgoals]

[She nods, mulling for a moment.] All the same, I apologize.

Feel free to stop me, or say no if you're not interested: there's a number of people on board who have been, or are, in a similar situation, people who wouldn't shy away if you ever wanted to talk. [And, after another pause:] Myself included.

[perma-super-private too!!]

[tearmeanewone]

Oh I... I don't like it to be public knowledge, so I couldn't tell whatever number of people are in the same situation. I'm supposed to be a high ranked crewmember, I can't have everyone looking at me and wondering if they should pity me.

...but it might be good to get it off my chest, if you wanted to exchange stories sometime.