009 ⌥ TEXT [filtered against erik, sorry bro]

[femshep]

1. If you join him, you're a fool. A public call to arms is what the enemy's been waiting for. They'll kill you where you stand. No hesitation, no remorse.

[Yes, Shepard has a plan. No, she isn't letting on that she has one here. If Erik wants to be a big flaming distraction, more power to him, but she isn't letting him take anyone else down with him.]

2. My offer for weaponry's still open. No compensation necessary, I got what I needed. If you can't shoot, I'll teach you. He was right on one thing: Defense is crucial.

3. Eliot, a word? Later tonight, unless you want in goring range of a ten-ton reptile. Let me know where to find you.

4. Kaidan--I'm on my way.

[She thinks. She and the triceratops are doing a bit of sizing up as she types this, so it's all up in the air how well this'll end up working.

MEANWHILE, anyone on the main road will see a single triceratops making haste more-or-less toward the pen Kaidan mentioned. It has two or three ropes tied near the ends of each of the two primary horns, the other ends of which are in her hands as she straddles its shoulders, just barely too far back for any potential injuries from the dinosaur's crest. The aforementioned hands are glowing a faint blue--she's strong, but not quite strong enough to steer a triceratops. Not without her biotics, anyway.]

Comments

[femshep]

[She shakes her head, then realizes he probably can't tell, as rough as the somewhat-belligerent dinosaur's gait seems to be. So she tries again out loud:]

No.

[Another tug on the reins to one side, then she continues:]

I'm from Citadel Space, circa 2185. [But that's not the answer he was after, is it?] From the ship, like you and most anyone you'll talk to. [The natives tend to keep very strongly to their own, she's noticed.]

[professorwolf]

[That set of numbers is familiar. Lyall turns some to keep her more in his line of sight, takes in her bearing and clothing, and makes a guess.]

Ah. Commander Shephard? Major Alenko mentioned you.

[But not that you'd be riding a dragon. Or is that one of those dinosaurs he'd been talking about...?]

[femshep]

[It's less 'clothing' and more 'armor', which is probably all the more telling.

Meanwhile, that makes both of them who recognized the other this afternoon, although it's one-for-two in correct recognition.

But the dinosaur's got momentum and it's heading right on past him, so before anything else, she calls dryly:]

If you want to talk, you have to keep up. This thing stops for no man. [Because steering it's the best she can do at this point. Here's hoping it at least stops for the wall of a well-built pen.

After a second, she continues.] Just 'Shepard's fine.

[professorwolf]

[Definitely more telling. Lyall isn't entirely sure following would be the best idea-- he's not sure where she's going, and it's a bit undignified-- but he wants to at least introduce himself, so he sighs a little and breaks into a trot to follow along.

Back the way he'd come. Oh, well.]

Professor Randolph Lyall, how do you do.

[It seems silly to pop out the polite-society phrase while jogging in the wake of a dragon-dinosaur-thing, but it's how one manages confusing situations, and this is definitely confusing.]

From eighteen seventy-five. I've only just come from that-- ship, as the Major called it. He was quite helpful on the subject of-- well, everything, I suppose.