Chereads / Mass Effect SI - The Afterlife / Chapter 4 - Arriving

Chapter 4 - Arriving

Speech - inner thoughts

'Speech' - talking inside of mind/telepathy

"Speech" - talking outloud 

Speech - narrator

Okay, important stuff first. Next time we'll meet, full-power glaring for a minute young lady. Doesn't matter if you can't hear me.

And now to the next priority. From what I can see, I'm currently lying on some futury looking bed, that kinda look old. Yeah, weird. The room itself easier to describe. Spaceship of a kind. Huh, so I'm in some sci-fi. Cool, easier to live then Medieval. I mean, working bathroom, c'mon, future for win.

Ah, and there are this body's memories. Why so late? You guys made me contemplate futuristic setting's advantage over more fantasy like. And they have magic. Although, this one could have magic, who knows. Maybe, my body knows. So, mental-sorting time.

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Name stayed, still same Mr. Cassidy. Handy, won't need to modify that habit. What's next. . . same music taste, only now it's really old. Wait, why haven't I check it in the first place? So, where is some chronomesuring tool?. Oh, body, give me the knowledge I seek.

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Huh, orange hologram on my dominant arm. Wait, does my Void body even have one? I guess no, considering unified state of it. So, I have a hologram on my right arm. Omni-tool, catchy. That's the phone of the future, and a PC, apparently. And so, moment of the truth.

2183, huh. Closer than I thought. Kinda hoped for 4K, sad. Oh, I can connect come headgear to listen some tunes. Now, where is my headset?

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Here you are, now…. press here…. drag that…. and…. done. And now I can listen to something light while digging and sorting. Let's see…. nope…. nah…. yes, Skillet for the win. That's the stuff, and now we can return to mind-sorting.

Age…. 23, huh I became older. Strange but that's a wildcard for you. Height… how can't you know that. Sure, I didn't, but you're in the future. Weight... yeah, same. Okay, holo-tool, here I go.

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*perusing sounds*

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There you are, full body scan. Input, one finger push, output, whole body hologram + a ton of useless info, apparently. Seriously, was I so… neutral? Not the right word. Apathetic? Yeah, could be. Not important to me, new soul, new personality. That's how it goes, right?

Anyway, finger goes here, aaaaand . . . loading bar. My neighbors can hear my deadpan, and we have walls in-between. Lucky for music, now waiting is much more enjoyable. If I had my playlist in the Void. . . okay scary thought, try to forget it. Yup, it always helps. Not.

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Loading complete, now what do we have. 84 kg, 176 cm, average, or I think. Never really was into all of that weight/height obsession. And the holo. . . okay, Void body, or that divine stick in the back. Pitch black hair with some dark purple strands, heterochromia eyes, one same dark purple, the other – dark green. Pale white skin, at least looks clean. Okay, I place my bets on both. The purple comes from the void, I guess, pitch black too. But eyes and skin are definitely her job. I now look like a Void vampire. Decided, she'll get the 10-minute glare reduction, I love it. But, maybe here I look kinda creepy, so no pick-ups. Got to live with that, I guess.

You know what, I'll just go with the flow. Oh, actually we will go with the flow. The other one being the ship. Multiple light streaks behind the window, remind me of color dance in the Void, sort of.

"Destination – Citadel. ETA – 10 hours." Robotic voice, huh? AI, nope pre-me read about it, the Council had forbidden any AI shenanigans cause of some . . . conflict. *sign* Did you ever read anything to the end, Chris Mk1? Guess that's another nerf from my human part. Oh well, I'll live. So, 10 hours, guess I'm painting memory's white spots with . . . different colors. So not nailed it.

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Quarians, race of space engineers, full on quarantine. They live in their suits, don't have any home planet, not anymore I guess, I swear to Miri, some stupid war is a reason. Pilgrimage, rite of adulthood? Ok, color me interested.

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Krogan, warmonger kind of lizards, so that's how T-Rex with the shotgun and full-body armor looks like. Note, before 300 in STR, no arm-wrestling with these guys. And what's that? Meaning of a 'quad'?

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Nope, thank Miri for pre-visit image, dodged a f*bleep*ing missile here. Hmm, Genophage? Don't like the sound, but feels important.

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On no they didn't. These f*bleep* . . .

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Salarians. . . Arrogant frogs, with advanced brain activity. Also, guys responsible for the genocide by some cloud. Already kinda hate them. Not all of them, I guess. Got to be some good souls. But for now, last place for me.

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Asari, literally no-man-allowed race. Kinda like Amazons from my . . .first world. Yeah, still uncomfortable. Anyway, natural biotic ability, gender related feature maybe? They look like artificially created race. 'Mind meld'? So, they have ability to mate by thinking? Yeah, my favorite race now.

Not that difficult though, considering frog version of Altmer, dinosaurs with quadriple . . . nope, I won't go there. And engineers that fucked up. I f*bleep*ng bet on Skynet scenario.

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Volus, quarians for sale, plus some Thalmor influence, for f*bleep* sake, another? Hanar, the jellyfish evolution, hentai approved, I guess. High religious value, yeah not my type. Still better than fly-eating-coats. Elcor, vocally non-expressive. Oh, I see. Their face incapable of any emotion, but evolution should've changed that. Unless, evolution stripped even their voice of any emotion. Ah, here it says that they speak in pheromones. Neat, or not. Next, drell – green guys with the generational genetic disease? This 'Vrollik syndrome' is basically racial off-switch, just with timer and without any button. Or with one. Then, another handcrafted race? Suspicous.

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Damn, this universe has a lot of info. Rich lore, good trait. So the last ones to be processed by the mighty Voiding – Protheans. Apparently, extinct race of sentient beings, that just poofed from the Universe. Even then, by finding tiny pieces of their legacy, races became capable of galactic stuff. Still no signs of FTL, drive cores use eezo, new element, that produces dark matter if used. Dark matter, sounds safe. No way that will mess things up later. Not.

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Okay, started getting scary, the Protheans, in accepted theory, created Citadel and these Mass relays, we travelling right now with their help. My theory, they're dimensionally connected to each other, creating lots of roads. Ships are basically cars. Not the scary part though. Guys of that ability disappeared without apparently 99,9% traces of their existence. Just disappear? I'm now in the process of surfing my omni-tool for a particular contact. Yeah, you guessed it, bulls*bleep*. Call me paranoid, but I bet my human part, someone helped them disappear. You might think, I want to get rid of that part, to be immortal or something along the lines. No. And never will.

But, no evidences – no case. So I'll just wait and look 360 around me. Hope it will be enough.

Okay, enough of lore part of my new life. How about something personal?

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Damn, that one is . . . don't even know what to say. Well, still have alive parents, just not on good terms with them. My mostly unemotional predecessor was basically a jellyfish. Not purple one, just really lazy. Combine with Alliance military dad and you got the tension. Mom . . . doesn't even have a presence, simply agreeing with him. And so, here I am, flying to some work he forced me to. Fun.

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"Mass relay exit – successful. Arriving to the Citadel"

Oh, we arrived. Still some time to enter the Citadel. Looks amazing, now that's a Nexus of all races if I ever saw one. Still, need to actually leave the ship, so – baggage gathering. By the way, need to start understanding my system, should be different from original. The Void, duh.

You know what, I'm looking forward to the sight inside. Heh. Should be really breathtaking, according to memory + holo. No comparison to the Void, but still. And to the work, apparently. Cause, sure, my body couldn't just fly here for sightseeing. *sign* I'll see when my legs are of this ship.