003 ♁ Video

[twiceadays]

[As soon as the video feed turns on, it's obvious that the good commander is pretty pissed off.

She jabs her finger hard at the screen, teeth bared.] Dr. Sponde, Initiative, whoever the hell you are.

What the hell just happened to us all? I don't know about you, but I don't exactly find the idea of having to murder my friends to keep them from killing me the ideal situation in training. I don't care if it was a simulated situation or not.

Comments

[hornedomen]

[All that turmoil from a broken machine; it gave him a grim view of the technology here.]

Did you see the other worlds? Everyone could walk into the worlds of others and when it happened, all the enemies turned against them. There was also a dark place. I think it’s everywhere, between the worlds.

[Because of Shepard’s status, he thought this knowledge would be best with her.]

[twiceadays]

I saw a few of them. [She remembers the dark space, the prison. The prisoner who didn't belong.] It wasn't... They weren't real worlds, but we did walk into the minds of other people. That's how this technology worked.

[Which is really just as gross. It's a violation of privacy.]

[hornedomen]

I know it wasn’t real but it looked real.

[His voice became softer as he walked away and returned. He was drawing something, which made the sound of crinkling paper.]

It was like our worlds, I mean, our minds were all over the place. There was no real direction into or out of it. But then whose mind was the dark place? And why was it the only one that was everywhere?

[twiceadays]

[She's listening to the drawing, but waits to ask about it, thinking over his questions first. She doesn't have all the answers, never really has, even back home. But it's a good question.] Someone who was trapped. [It was a prison, he wasn't armed, and he didn't even attack.] There's something about that mind that is relevant to us, but I don't know how.

[pause.] What are you doing over there?

[hornedomen]

[The drawing sounds continued. He was listening to Shepard but he spoke as if he were talking to himself.]

I’m drawing what our minds together might have looked like. I think our minds were like little patches of our worlds stuck on the dark place. That’s why it’s everywhere, because it was the base.

I haven’t seen him before. Do you know who he is? I think he has something to do with the machine.

[twiceadays]

The base of the programming? [Her eyes narrow, even if he can't see it.]

I know nothing about him, except that he was trapped there.

[hornedomen]

Yes.

[He sounded uncertain because he was unfamiliar with the terminology. If the man was trapped, perhaps the Initiative was responsible for it. However, he did not mention it because he did not want to say it over the network.]

[twiceadays]

He could be powering it, like... An AI. [She's mostly muttering to herself at this point, but who would create an AI with the ability to feel trapped and actually leave it that way? Hm.]

[hornedomen]

[Even if he heard her, he would not be able to understand what she was talking about. He said all he wanted to say and he thought she could make better sense of it.]

I’m very thirsty. I think I should go.

[twiceadays]

Okay. You take care, Ico. Try to not overextend yourself.