outer_divide | 002 ⌥ VOICE

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dropped: commander shepard (crau)

002 ⌥ VOICE

[In sharp contrast to her professional tone the last time she addressed the public, this time she's most definitely pissed. In a more level voice than she'd like to use:]

I don't know who you are or what you want, but stay the fuck out of my head.

[Yeah, Charles, this means you. Years of being mindraped by ancient alien beacons of doom and then a dozen curious asari have made her profoundly sensitive to when someone's poking around inside her head.

She's not going to put out any threats. She's hoping she doesn't have to. Her point's been made.]

[ ooc: sorry for posting again so soon, I'm done spamming the comm after this one. |D She just. Wouldn't have let this slide, and this is the only way to make sure whoever it is (cough charles cough) hears it.]

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I don't know. He's pretty tight-lipped so far, at least as far as anything we could use. Plenty of bullshit on the value of 'helping people believe in themselves', though, to justify taking a stroll through our subconscious.

[Now that is a worry they both share. She's got plenty of stuff in her head that she refuses to let see the light of day, and that makes this self-entitled anonymous asshole a liability.]

Figured they realized we saved their asses and decided we weren't half bad. [Obviously that's not the case, though, at this point.]

Supplementing air raid alarms with telepathic broadcasts reduced death rates via bombs by twenty percent¹. Supplementing radio broadcasts with telepathic broadcasts increased public morale to the point where some neighborhoods were rebuilding twice as fast², with close and prolonged exposure. In the field, it can reduce instances of battle fatigue and shellshock³ and bring soldiers home more whole and less scarred by the horrors they've experienced. This helps. Whether it's coming from a propaganda broadcast or a telepathic one does not change that.

ooc: ¹ - This also came at a time when air raid procedures were being refined and perfected, and citizens were growing more accustomed to the reality of bombings, which no doubt contributed to the statistics.
² - This particular neighborhood was targeted for several days at the peak of young!Charles' power for the purposes of filming some propaganda about how British citizens were handling the Blitz.
³ - This is true, but early on, Charles reducing a soldier's fears often meant increasing his likelihood of getting killed, and led to a rise in casualties in the short run. He's gotten better at the technique now but still not eliminated that problem. Also it tends to result in him absorbing the trauma of everyone's fear, thus making him someone you really don't want to be around in those situations.

The situation. If they don't listen and keep this up we have to do something.

You gonna keep me posted?

If they keep this up, we will do something. You think I was kidding, about hunting him down.

[After a second, she tacks on:]

And yeah. I'll keep you posted.

I'll have to do some research. I need to be able to trust that my judgement is entirely my own. [Even if sometimes, in the heat of anger, he makes some bad judgement calls. He's picky about who he lets be his conscience. That's for special people who'll put up with him.] Now that you mention it, I've felt more assertive than usual for the past few days.

[Narvin listens to the public replies and is going to continue to pretend that he's totally human and totally not psychic.]

Psychics? Are they...dangerous?

[Long pause. This isn't 'make the civilians feel like they're shitting out rainbows' anymore. Now they're talking about warfare.]

Look--This may have helped, back home. Hell, it might even help here.

But there are people with big goddamn guns here, people who won't put up with bullshit as long as I do. People who'll shoot you in a second if there's even a chance it'll get you out of their heads.

Knock it off. For your sake. Don't make me ask you again.

Let them try. No one has succeeded in killing me yet, but God knows there are plenty of reasons I deserve it.

That's it right there, then. [So the mystery anon really is getting everybody. That's sending Shepard's mind reeling through mathematics, the range distance-wise that the area of effect has to cover in order for everyone to be affected, calculated out into the sheer force of psychic power in general...

Damn it, there's a reason she went into military rather than science. She's not bad at science, mind you, but there's a separate sort of mindfuckery science involved in hypothetical shit like calculating the strength of someone's superpowers.

There's a pause, and when she speaks again she sounds a little more frustrated.]

I can't tell if he's incredibly egotistical or incredibly naive. He said shit like this is completely okay, where he's from. Cited a handful of statistics where it improved some kind of war effort.

The running verdict so far says 'no', but there's a pretty good chance that's a 'not yet'. It's like anything else in a place like this: It all depends on how they decide to use it.

So we're helpless to the whim of their continued good will? [His voice rises to a shrill squeak.] Oh wonderful.

I don't think you were. I'm in if it comes down to it.

Thanks.

[He has no idea what the precedent would be, either. So he's just trying to think of what it would take to protect a single person.]

Unfortunately, I think the only reliable source of protection would be the dome technology. They obviously know how to turn us off.

I would presume naive. If you ask someone not to do something invasive, it's a violation of their person to continue it. [Which he has very strong feelings about. But given the discussion he had before with Dylan, he'll try waiting for the diplomats.]

So you're one of those, huh.

[One of the downfalls of text--out loud, he'd probably have heard a grudging sort of kinship in her tone. She's 'one of those' too, a lot of the time. The sort who pays a little too much attention to past mistakes.]

So what will you do, then? Scramble their minds until they can't remember wanting you dead?

[ A long pause. ]

I don't do that casually. I consider it a fate worse than death to have free will violated so deeply.

[ He's only done that once. And that was a long time ago. ]

They lost over fifty people in a nearly depleted population. I should say they would stay inside for weeks -- not days.

You're backing yourself into a corner. Piss enough people off and you won't have many other choices.

You don't strike me as the kind of person who'd kill them, either. So what then?

Dome technology. Do we have any of that in salvage? [She remembers a couple of people were salvaging what they could from the bodies and the hovercraft she took down.] Anything useful, I mean.

I think the very attractive but irrationally angry woman screaming about something called "cylons" had some. As well as a few individuals that are wearing collars, which I may be able to help them remove.

Do you know of any that could be investigated?

Not entirely helpless. They might be dangerous, but so are we.

Then, I start to improvise.

Kara. [And she's making an executive decision:] I'll see if I can't find her. Been meaning to see how that all turned out, anyway.

Beyond her and the collars, I'm drawing a blank. Unless by some off-chance the shuttle I took down hasn't been stripped bare by now.

Weapons won't do much good if they can twist our minds. Or do you have another method for dealing with them?

I'll keep a look out. Considering I'm not human, I would rather treat this in a way that won't compromise me in the future. [Protecting himself as necessary- otherwise someone could decide his enhanced hearing or sense of smell would have to go.]

She assisted me when we were being attacked. Will you tell me how she is?

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