yogen | 8/22 un: j.shepard

i've seen a few, but many have gone missing

it doesn't to me but i can ask someone i know if he knows anything?

i can bring you a towel, we can talk a bit more in depth then. is that okay?

Missing?

That's fine on both accounts. I'm in the courtyard, I think.

okay, just a second.

( and a few minutes later, shepard will catch sight of a short teenage girl running out with a cloth bundle- she's visibly exhausted, but she's here to help. once she's in range, nene holds out the towel, but given the state of the woman... hhhhrm. )

Oh jeeze- what happened? You're soaked through- now I'm not sure this one's gonna be enough... A-Anyways, we've had a couple of robots, and a big psychic sphinx cat? ( if thats what we want to call mewtwo, yeah. ) And a talking puppy- but they're all gone. I... I said missing, but. We've got every reason to think they're dead- but we don't know how. If anyone's escaped this place alive...

I-I'm sorry, that was really dour. Um. I'm Nene Yashiro, it's nice to meet you.

Thanks.

[she looks...young. definitely someone who should be here, but she takes the towel when it's given to her and starts to rub her hair with it.]

And that's what I'd like to know too. I showed up here like this. Last I checked, I hadn't jumped into any oceans recently.

[long sigh.]

It's okay. I'm a "get to the point" sort of person anyway. I'm Jane Shepard.

So, um- there's been a lot of us here trapped starting in... March? Yeah, March. Something is barring us from leaving through the front door or the windows, and we can't go past certain points in the courtyard. There's been a lot of people, including the ones I told you about, who um, have gone missing... the natives to this place will act like they've just transferred schools or something, but... ( though she's been trying to give information readily, she trails off here. for her credit though, she only looks away- down to the ground- for a few seconds before returning ton attempt at a steady gaze. ) They're dead. We've all seen it happen to somebody. ... I, uh, did see someone with a purple faceplate recently, though?

( it's kind of hard to miss! )

You're not the only adult here, but you're probably gonna be treated like a student like they are too.

What the hell...

[she kind of mutters it because god, this is a lot to take in. suddenly being an adult in a school seems a lot less weird when all of this is going on.

it sure is something. it's kind of overwhelming actually, but she does hear something that takes absolute first priority.]

Purple faceplate? Was her name Tali, by any chance?

Yeah! Yeah. It's. It's a lot and it super sucks. But we're still here.

( which is more than a lot of people she's seen in yogen can say. nene thinks carefully though- she'd seen the person around, but. well. she's spent the month having a panic attack to be honest? approaching new people didn't seem like a good thing at the time. )

I'm sorry, I haven't spoken to them- her? Yet. But there's only so many places she can be, since... you know.

( they're all trapped here, and all. )

[Tali stares at the message that came across her screen for far to long. It can't be. Can it? Surely it's just the hope of finding the most important person in the galaxy to her, but she's been here a week already and while she hasn't exactly adjusted, she was getting used to the idea of being stuck here alone. She didn't like it, but she had accepted it. And now Shepard was in this hell with her.

But if anyone could figure their way out of this nonsense, it was Shepard.]

There's a lot of shit you won't like, but at least there's one friendly face waiting for you?

[that username...was that really--]

Tali, is that you?

It is. [There's so much she wants to say. How much she missed her, how worried she was about her, what shit she's had to deal with for the last week--

But that's all better saved for in person. She wants to see Shepard too badly. To make sure it's really her. To make sure she wasn't crazy and imaging her here with her--]

Where are you? I'll bring you that towel.

Courtyard. Someone brought me a towel, but I probably need another one.

Give me a few minutes and I'll be right there.

[Not like she wasn't already rushing to figure out where Shepard was from the moment her name appeared on her PDA. She's quick to grab another towel from a storage closet, then rushes to the courtyard. When she pushes the door open to go outside, her breath catches because she can hardly believe it.

Shepard. In the flesh and blood. Just as beautiful and wonderful as she remembered. Tali had only been here a week, but it felt like forever without Shepard.]

It's really you. You're here.

[Shepard ends up pacing around the courtyard, trying to sift through all the information she's gotten since she'd posted here. everything is entirely too much...

but she does breathe a sigh of relief when she sees Tali approach. at least there was at least one person that she knows here, and it's one of her most important.]

Yeah, it's me. [she approaches now, reaching out to touch the side of Tali's cowl.] ...You're okay, right?

[Shepard can't see it, but a smile crosses Tali's face as Shepard approaches and reaches out for her. She helps clears the distance between them, leaning into Shepard's touch. She places her hand on top of Shepard's, closing her eyes. Even if she can't exactly feel her touch, the connection makes her heart skip a beat, in a way only Shepard could cause.

Before she can answer, though, she can't help but sniffle.]

...Of course. But even better, now that you're here. [Because having Shepard made everything better. Facing certain death wasn't even frightening when you had Shepard by your side.]

[Shepard smiles briefly, and then raises her eyebrow when she hears the sniffle. that's something that's not quite normal to hear...

she takes the towel now, starting to dry her hair again before she speaks.]

Was that a sniffle I just heard? Don't tell me you're that you're that choked up about me...

[it's. mostly a joke.]

N-No, I mean-- yes, but it's not-- [dammit stop stuttering!!]

I have a cold. When I found myself here, I didn't have my suit on, so... As I'm sure you can imagine, I haven't felt the greatest since. But I'm getting better. [At least there was medicine readily available.]

...But I did miss you.

[...........................Shepard just sighs. of course it'd be something like that. she slows down in drying herself off, taking another look at Tali as if to see if there's anything wrong with her.

Hm...

She looked fine, otherwise.]

But you're okay, right? There's at least medicine here, I hope?

[she'd go tear this whole place apart if not tbh]

...I'd say I missed you too, but it hadn't been that long since I've seen you. Are you by yourself here?

Yes! Yes, there's medicine here. Not what we have back home, but it seems to be helping. [Tali doesn't feel completely miserable anymore, but she's definitely still having some fevers.]

I'm the only one of our crew here so far. It's been a little over a week now. [She pauses briefly before she continues.] What's the last thing you remember? From back home? [She's learned about different worlds and times by now, so she knows Shepard might not remember the same things she did. She just hopes Shepard hasn't forgotten how much they mean to each other. But it's probably better to rip the bandaid and clear the air, for both of their sakes.]

[Shepard just sighs in some sort of relief -- maybe it wasn't all bad right now, if Tali was able to get some help.]

A little bit is better than nothing.

[she blinks a little bit when Tali asks about her memories, and she rubs the back of her head. it's kind of annoying that it's so weird right now, but...]

We had just destroyed the Collector base, and I told the Illusive Man to kiss my ass, basically. Why?

My thoughts exactly. [She wasn't getting worse so that was a good sign, right?]

Because, people arrive here from different times and places. Alternate realities, completely different versions of the universe. I-- wanted to make sure we were on the same page. [And from a time where they acknowledged their feelings for each other.]

[...oh.

she blinks for a moment, realizing what that might entail. that's troubling enough to hear honestly, so now she's thinking too.

hm.]

Then...what do you remember, Tali?

Don't worry, that's what I remember too. [Trust her, Tali would've been a lot more panicked if Shepard remembered something entirely different. That doesn't stop her from wringing her hands though, the same way she always does when she's nervous.]

I was scared you wouldn't remember...us. [To be honest, she still can't believe she's the one Shepard would choose to care about like that. But from the moment she learned that people could come from the same planet and remember different things, there was that fear in the back of her head that Shepard might not even know who she was when they saw each other again.]

[Shepard lets out a long sigh when Tali replies, relieved that they at least seemed to remember the same thing. she hadn't really known how to react if it was something else.]

I remember. You don't have to worry about that.

[phew.]

At least you don't have to waste your breath trying to get me to remember, huh?

[Tali really didn't know how she would have reacted, either. She had built up the possibility in her mind, to prepare herself, but now there's just relief that she doesn't have to go through any of those scenarios.]

If you really want to hear all about my people and the Flotilla again, you could always fake it. [At least she's able to cut a joke again.]

Did anyone else catch you up? About this place?

I think I'm good.

[that'd be a Lot.]

I've gotten a little bit here and there. If you have anything at all to add, now's the time to do it.

That's what I thought.

[Honestly, she's had to explain her culture so many times to people here, she's a bit tired of it herself.]

I'm sure you've heard the basics: we're trapped in this school, with no way out and no idea how we got here. The school is closed for the summer, so there's no classes at the moment. We sleep...wherever we can find a spot, and currently the only food is the vending machine. Which isn't dextro-amino, by the way, but apparently I can tolerate the food here? Which is great. There's a weird, dark void that appears in a negative version of the school when someone dies-- which is more often than I'd care to admit.

Oh, and when I found myself here? I didn't have my suit. Which explains my current cold. Did I miss anything?

ooooooh! ooh! i know this one. shinigami! they're the gods of death
here i drew one.

hope this helps

Edited 2021-08-24 06:32 (UTC)

[ah...............well. this person has the spirit...?????]

Close, but not quite. I think they mean something different to you.

[at least she's not completely saying Crona's wrong.]

reaper is a shinigami right? is the drawing not good enough?

[ They can redo it! ]

I guess it could be in some cultures, but what I'm talking about is different. You wouldn't be able to miss it -- giant robotic spaceships, and stuff like that.

Oh...Miss is talking about stuff I've never heard of...sorry.

[ What the hell is a spaceship. ]

I can keep an eye out for things if you'd like! I stand out in the hallways lots, so I can look out windows.

It's okay. At least you made an attempt.

Thanks. I don't really know what's up with this place yet, but more eyes to help out is better than nothing.

To answer your questions...

1. I am a demon. I have not, however, seen any "crew members", unfortunately. We formerly had more nonhumans around, truth be told, but I'm not sure where they went. Two automatons, one named Turing, and one named Legion, as well as a dog named Angel. Do they ring any bells?

2. "Reaper" to me means the Devildom's Grim Reaper, though I highly doubt that's what you meant. They don't often speak to others.

3. Have you checked the cleaning supply closet? There may be some in there.

4. I, too, am about two thousand years too old to be in high school, and here I am. As for explanations, so far, I have none, and I doubt anyone else does either.

I know Legion. I don't know the other two -- you said they disappeared?

You'd be right when you thought that that's not what I was talking about, but thanks for the information anyway.

...I'll try to find it for next time. Someone is bringing a spare.

Two thousand years old? They really don't discriminate on ages, do they.

Yes, each of them disappeared within the last month. To be frank, Legion had something happen to them, which seemed to be a case of possession... but to be honest, the details are unclear to me still. How it happened, why it happened, the sort. A fellow student named Add and I worked to solve the issue, but after that...

[He doesn't type what doesn't need to be spoken: Legion disappeared.]

And, no, they certainly do not discriminate on ages. There are several other adults here who are too old to be in school — off the top of my head, Clamor, Sidney, and Elizabeth, are in the "too old to be in high school" club. We did have others at some point, but people, unfortunately, tend to go missing around here.

[weird..............it's actually very concerning, but she figures she could investigate that later.]

Maybe some sort of virus? Or they were hacked? I guess I wouldn't be able to know for sure unless I saw it for myself.

[or if Tali saw it, since she's an expert on that sort of thing...]

This bodes well. The disappearances, I mean. Is there anything in common with the disappearances, or does it just seem random?

[There's a long pause before Lucifer replies in one massive wall of text. This is not a man who sends multiple messages at once, clearly.]

Neither. We've had prior cases of possession, unfortunately, and this was the same thing here.

As for the disappearances, there are no correlations that I've discovered. Of the disappearances I can recall off the top of my head, we've had the aforementioned set of nonhumans, a young lady who was a demon hunter of a sort, a very young child likely no older than nine or ten with a penchant for doting on cats, an astrologer, a young lady who was a pianist, a detective and that detective's archrival, and a... I suppose I'd call him a cowboy.

So, no, I wouldn't say there are correlations here. It seems that the people who arrive here are completely random as well.

[after all of that............a cowboy.

her lips twitch a little bit in amusement on her side of the pda, but that doesn't come across in her text.]

That's quite the set of people that've come through here already. It's always possible that they found out something they shouldn't have.]

[. . .]

Well, some of them. It's something to start looking into, anyway.

That makes sense... unfortunately. They haven't turned up dead, though...

We did have a case a few months ago where missing students appeared again and fought one of our students in a gladiatorial-type battle. The missing students who appeared, however, were... not themselves, I suppose. It was as if they were being controlled or puppeted somehow.

I think that bodes well for us.

[oh, well that does sound a little bit familiar, and Shepard's not sure that she likes that.

long sigh.....]

Great. So there's some sort of mind control going on here too.

There are beings with abilities to control people like that where I'm from -- hopefully we're not talking about the same thing.

I should hope not, and I reason that there's a low probability that we are. However, elaboration would be helpful. How did you deal with those beings back where you come from? Furthermore, do you know of a way to break mind control?

They're synthetics, sentient machines who wipe out entire races every hundreds of thousands of years for the galaxy to restart. One of their first ploys is to use indoctrination -- essentially mind control, or bringing the ones they've killed back in a form of a monster.

[which was. traumatizing. but carrying on--]

We haven't figured out how to break indoctrination yet, but it seems like the sheer force of will of an individual plays a factor into it. There was a scientist running tests on it...but he's not here, as far as I know.

[where's Mordin when you need him]

they don't care how old you are. trust me on that one.

Seems like no one knows why, either. My high school glory days weren't something I want to relive.

I've gotten the basics of info here, is there anything else I should know?

8/22 un: j.shepard

un: n.yashiro

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un: t.zorah

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un: c.gorgon

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un: m.lucifer

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s.meanswell

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