003 ⌥ VIDEO -- saturday night

[femshep]

[And here's Shepard, out in the fog but you can tell she's walking briskly (presumably back toward the Flop) by the slight rhythmic sway of the camera. But she has SOMETHING IMPORTANT TO SAY, so listen up.]

If you hear this, you need to get inside and keep your door shut. There's something in this fog--the residents are all clearing the streets, and I think I saw a few putting on gas masks.

I repeat, if you hear this, you need to-... [A pause in which keeping a straight face seems difficult, and then she's busting up laughing.] You need to put on a skirt and stand on your head or something, because shit, I don't get why the hell you all listen to me, anyway. [By 'listen to' she means 'generally take orders from', and she distinctly remembers it making sense an hour ago, but now she's had an epiphany and it's fantastic.

Meanwhile, she tames the laughter down to an ecstatic grin, and in a tone that probably definitely makes you wonder what she's planning next and if you should duck and cover, she offers just two words:]

Shepard out.

[End transmission.]

Comments

[audio]

[seesobserves]

You tell me, Commander.

[A sigh like he's settling back, getting more relaxed. He's managed to hold back his laughter for the time being, but this is all being said through a smirk.]

It'd have to be someone on your squad. You'd barely have a social life outside of it, probably none at all. Someone you'd been working with a long time. He would have had to sneak in under your radar to get behind that so carefully-guarded military wall. Even once he did, you would have kept your distance. A close watch. Cede nullis, or however your military puts it.

Has he actually died yet, or have we managed to avoid the inevitable?

[audio]

[femshep]

[The mirth is gone now, completely and thoroughly. And for a good ten, maybe fifteen seconds, there's silence.

And then she lets out a harsh breath of laughter, but it's definitely not the euphoric kind from even five minutes ago. Harshly:] Goddamn it-- [And she's looking to turn the device off, abrupt as it might be, but god, she can't even process how right now so it's just a bunch of buttonmashing and fumbling so go ahead and get your last few jabs in, you smug smug asshole.]

[audio]

[seesobserves]

[He was right about all of it, wasn't he? His laughter is just as giddy as before, although the way she perceives it may have changed.]

Call me 'cute' now. You haven't got a clue.

[audio]

[femshep]

Neither do you, so just-, just don't even-- [The haze in her brain wasn't so bad when she had the situation in the palm of her hand. But then he mentioned the 'him' and now she can't get it out of her head and the fact that she can't pull coherent thought together just makes that so much worse, and--

There's an utterly frustrated growl through her teeth, the brief but distinct sounds of the communicator going airborne, then a hideously loud crunch and the transmission goes dead.

Because clearly, when you can't turn the damn thing off, the only option left is to hurl it against a nearby building.]