multiversallogs

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Who: Shepard and YOU!
What: Various wanderings around Baedal. Specific threads for Kincaid's and the Arena.
Where: VARIOUS PLACES.
When: Various times, sukkardi/shundi.
Notes: All CR is welcome! I'll be putting up a couple of open thread starters but if anyone has ideas, just let me know and we'll get something going!
Warnings: Possible violence of the sparring sort in the arena; I'll update if anything else comes up.

Shepard is the kind of person who prefers a somewhat regimented kind of life - so it's no surprise that she quickly falls into a bit of a routine in Baedal. As long as she's not worrying about the basics - food, shelter and clothing - it's a matter of finding her way around and thinking about higher-order things - like keeping in shape.

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Shepard makes a face that falls somewhere between 'grossed out' and 'weirded out'. A healthy mix of the two.

"Well, I suppose that... cuts down on violence," she says after a moment's thought.

"I don't think they'd last long if they were feeding fresh," Not just because the militia might have something to say about that, but a lot of the regular citizens are the type to fight back.

Steph, admittedly, does not keep a stake on her person, but maybe she should.

"Yeah, I imagine it saves them a lot of trouble, in the short- and long-term," Shepard says thoughtfully. "If you think about it, it never really makes sense, all those vampire novels that have them just feeding off unsuspecting humans for centuries."

Steph shakes her head, "It makes sense if they're clever about it."

And that's all she says for a moment, before climbing off the machine to roll her shoulders and stretch out. Then she starts again, "The city I lived in, people vanished off the streets all the time. Either they got mugged and murdered, or they ran off in the hopes of finding something better. But -- No one gives a shit if they're poor, or if they're sex workers, or black or latino. So that's how a vampire could do it, as long as they got rid of the bodies."

She has a lot of feelings about crime, minorities and the justice system; Gotham might be better these days, but there are a still a lot of gaps in the system.

Shepard thinks about that for a moment, then nods. "You have a point. Where I come from - well, it's no utopia. If there isn't as much discrimination based on skin color, it's only because we have aliens to hate now.

"But there are still haves, and have-nots. Or there were, before the Reapers showed up. Pretty soon, none of it will matter."

"Seems to be pretty much the same everywhere. Even here," The classism is rampantly evident when you go to the Spatters, and although Steph hasn't seen any systematic racism, she wouldn't be surprised if it's there.

"I'm guessing the Reapers are your big bad?" They sound like it.

"Somehow, I'm not surprised that kind of system replicates even in an alternate universe," Shepard says wryly. "Humanity used to have some utopian ideal of what alien life might be like, too. When we finally met them, they were way more like us than we ever thought they would be."

The talk of Reapers gives her pause. "Yeah, I guess so. They're pretty big. And definitely bad."

"We have Superman, who's an alien and like, literally the nicest guy ever?" Steph really isn't even exaggerating, she has met Clark, he was the nicest guy ever, "But when the rest of his species turn up, we tried to blow 'em out of the sky, 'cause they weren't all like him."

God that was - such a fucking disaster. For everyone. Steph is embarrassed on behalf of the human race.

"I hope you manage to beat off the Reapers, if they really are the bad guys."

"Yeah, that's what I mean." Shepard shrugs. "Some aliens are perfectly nice. Some... not so much. Mostly, they seem to fall somewhere in between. Like humans.

"Except the Reapers." She sighs. "They're relentless. Ancient. Older than anything we know of."

"And yet we tend to lump them all together at one extreme or the other," Things aren't always that bad in Steph's world, but there's a definite trend that aliens are either the evil invaders, or the heroic saviours. She's not sure how she feels about it.

"What do they want with Earth?" There are lots of options here, and Steph has a few guesses, but it's easier to just ask.

"Yeah, we really love our binaries. Good and bad, black and white, all of that." Shepard shakes her head.

"No one really knows. But it's not just Earth they're after. They're attacking the whole galaxy. They - they enslave organics. Convert them into... mindless creatures, shock troops. It's not pretty."

Any comment she had on binaries is lost in the wake of what else Shepard says, because - "That's fucking horrifying."

Eloquent as ever, but Steph has a lot of feelings about that sort of thing and it shows in her expression. She's not exactly a soldier, but if something like that came to her universe she'd be on the front line.

"I really hope you can beat them."

"Me, too," she says quietly. "Even if we do, though... I'm not sure anything will ever be the same."

The Reapers have already destroyed so much, after all. Even if she got sent home tomorrow and was able to defeat them, it could easily take the rest of her lifetime and beyond to rebuild everything. All the homeworlds.

The batarians aren't going to be as lucky, she knows.

"That's the problem with war," Which Steph doesn't have any direct experience with, but she's seen the after effects plenty of times, both in small scales and the large scale.

They've had invading fleets come to Earth before, they're just lucky enough to have the Justice League and other superheroes to turn them away.

"We've never had it on such a huge scale before," Shepard says. "There's already been at least one species essentially driven to the point of extinction."

"Jesus," said in a low voice, barely more than an exhale as she pushes a hand through her hair.

That sounds - awful. It makes her think of Kara, and Megan, because they're both the survivors of nearly extinct alien races.

"I wish I could lend you some of your superheroes for a while, they'd be able to make a dent in the Reapers," Superman might be the nicest guy Steph's met, but she's also seen him in action and knows how much damage he can do.

"I appreciate the thought, but we'll have to deal with this with our own ingenuity, I suppose," Shepard says quietly.

Another reason to get a really good work out: maybe, if she's tired enough, she won't dream.

"You'll get through it, humans are nothing if not survivalists," As much as she will occasionally despair over the general state of the human race, she's seen how well they can pull through any awful shit - No Man's Land was good for something.

"We'll see." Shepard wasn't quite so sure, anymore. She put on a good front, because what else could she do? But this was bigger than anything anyone could've imagined.

"I hope you do," There's very little else Steph can say here - she doesn't want to give useless platitudes, they'd just be condescending. So she just pulls her arm across her chest to stretch.

"I'm gonna hit the mats," That areas reserved for yoga classes, but there's nothing on now so Steph can use the space to run through some kata, "I'll see you around, yeah?"

Shepard nods. "Yeah. It was... good talking to you." And that's true enough - it's actually almost cathartic in a way, to talk to someone about the Reapers who doesn't have firsthand experience of them.

Steph's smile is wry, considering the topic of conversation, "You too. I hope things work out back home."

She gives a little salute, in lieu of a wave, and then heads off to the other part of the gym.

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