texted during the meeting, displaying as being from Nova Barnett

[petridish]

[Those who check the contact list may notice there is now only one Jane Shepard listed, but this user looks almost identical to her, just mad.]

Suggestions for ways to change your appearance? Long term but not as permanent as that asteroid's genetic modification, both things that can be done on the trip and recommendations for service providers for when we get back.

[All Nova's replies will also be in text unless otherwise specified.]

Comments

[petridish]

I don't want to change my style, but hair could work. I was looking at changing the color on the asteroid but couldn't decide.

[PRIVATE]
It's Shepard here. Nova now, if you want to update the Rescue Op files before we leave for Sawarga.

Sorry for the unplanned absence.

private.

[warandpeace]

Shepard? [If there was actual audio, she would hear concern. It seems odd she'd have to change her name and her whole appearance.]

What happened? Why do you have to look different from the other Shepard?

same until otherwise noted

[petridish]

[As per usual when someone shows a sign of giving a damn what happens to her, Nova is mildly confused. She'd think he'd be annoyed with her player being on hiatus absence.]

Nova.

She killed me, completely unprovoked. I'm done with looking like her.

[warandpeace]

Nova. Right.

[He's not. He couldn't be upset with anyone being missing, considering he was stabbed twice in the past two months. But he was lucky. He escaped death.]

It's a good name that suits you.

Did she have a shadow that attacked you or was it her?

She seems to have gotten into some pretty serious trouble lately. [Between what happened with the intermediaries during the Ingress hijacking and this...]

[petridish]

Thanks.

[She still hasn't figured out what to do with compliments except quickly try to move on from them.]

How the hell can shadows attack people? It was her.

[Someone A) died on the first day without seeing the posts and B) hasn't caught up on the network yet.]

I don't give a damn what trouble she's been in.

[warandpeace]

There were 'shadows' of people, not actual shadows. Demons that were summoned by someone abusing the Ingress. A lot of them seemed to be the worst of people's fears and angers. I had to save one of my friends from his shadow.

Are you sure that it wasn't one of those?

[This could potentially be a very bad mix-up, but... On the other hand.]

Even if it turns out that it was a shadow and not her, I think you're making a good choice.

[So she can try to search for things that are more herself and not just be a cynical copy of Shepard.]

[petridish]

[This is definitely a less biased source of this information than Shepard herself is, but Nova is too angry to absolve her.]

I don't know, and even if it is, that doesn't say much for her anger or whatever.

I've been trying to choose a name for a while anyway. This just gave me a good push to a decision.

[warandpeace]

I'm not sure of everything that happened between you two. I know most of the shadow attacks were provoked by some sort of bias.

Does your last name have some significance?

[petridish]

[Somehow, she wasn't expecting anyone would ask that.]

Barnett means place cleared by fire. Because that's what I'm doing to my past.

[warandpeace]

[Because names mean something. His own name meticulously chosen to suit his mother's desires after her wartime losses. "Peace". So why wouldn't Nova's own chosen name be important? Something to make her?]

I can see it.

Just be careful how you deal with what happened. I don't want you to end up in trouble. There's been enough of that.

I hate having to ask this, but did returning to life go relatively smoothly?

[Yes, he knows this is an absolutely ludicrous question.]

[petridish]

I'm not out for revenge like that one person's suggesting if that's what you're worried about.

Yeah, I woke up in the Ingress complex cryo department today all healed. Not even any scars or anything.

[warandpeace]

Did you go home for any amount of time?

That might seem like an odd question, but it happened to someone that I knew that died on board the Moira. They're back, but three years down the road and they remember everything that happened to them.

[petridish]

No. I don't have a life back home to go back to anyway.

[Ah, the joys of being dead.]

[warandpeace]

Ah.

Well, I'm glad you came back quickly then.

Believe me when I say that a change in appearance could work wonders. I changed mine to match one of my heroes after my injuries. And there's a reason I've not cut my hair in a while. It's a symbolic appearance change.

[petridish]

[She could have done without coming back, but it feels impolite to tell him this.]

I'm done with matching people. [And she doesn't have any heroes anyway.]

Isn't longer hair kind of a pain?

[warandpeace]

A little bit. It'll probably be easier when it's long enough to keep back in a more reliable way.

[He's going to go back to wearing his beret though.]

[petridish]

So there's an in between stage. Got it.

What's your change symbolic of?

[warandpeace]

It's a cultural thing. In not cutting my hair, I'll always have a part of me physically that was there when something in my life that I lost that I don't want to forget.

[petridish]

Ah. You're hanging onto the past.

[Which is not a judgment, just the opposite of what she's trying to do.]

I wasn't taught any cultural things like that.

[warandpeace]

How about this. Some time I'll share some of my culture with you, huh? I'll let you hear some good Enka music.

[petridish]

[what is this.........]

Sure, I'll give it a try. Maybe on Sawarga?