002 ⌥ VOICE

[femshep]

[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.]

Comments

text ; locked ; 2 of 2

[femshep]

[Sent a couple of minutes later--you'd be proud, Charles, she's attempting diplomacy.]

No, not a specific one. What you described sounds about right.

And I'm not psychic. Just had enough people in my head for one lifetime.

text ; anon ; locked until indicated otherwise

[radars]

Yes.

Well, to be more specific, few people have ever noticed it before, but it constituted a significant morale boost at a time when it was desperately needed. People felt better.

text & charles!anon until indicated otherwise too?

[femshep]

You can't force people to feel better. That's just not how things work.

[By 'can't', she means 'that's not kosher'. She definitely knows by now that he's physically capable.]

I've been raising crew morale for almost ten years now, and I don't have an ounce of psychic power.

If you want to help people, use your goddamn words. This is cheap. So knock it off.

[radars]

It hardly has any more effect than a rousing speech would; however, it's subtle and people believe it comes from within. The end result is that they believe in themselves, not in a leader, and I believe that end is worthwhile.

I'm sorry for her, she Has Opinions about these things

[femshep]

But it's fake. Built on a lie.

[But a minute or so later, another text:]

That's not even the point. These people are god knows how far from wherever the hell they call home, getting attacked by the only people we've seen so far with bigger guns than we have.

The only place anyone has that's theirs is the inside of their own goddamn head. But obviously, you have the right and privilege to disregard that entirely just because you can. Nobody complains because nobody knows.

Try announcing it on the network. You don't even have to put your name on it--just tell the general public you're putting ~good vibes and happy thoughts~ in their heads and see what the hell they have to say to that.

[radars]

The broadcast is more for the inhabitants of the Old City than those in the ship, which would make a network broadcast somewhat ineffective.

Furthermore, if the effect of a speech isn't fake then neither is this. It's simply real on another level, and one you refuse to accept because, I can only assume, you've had bad experiences with psychics before. You'll be doing these people a favor if you can overcome your prejudices.

[femshep]

Try announcing it.

I'm by far not the only one with 'prejudices'. But I guess that's too damn bad for us, then, right?

supertext is OOC notes

[radars]

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.

roger that

[femshep]

[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.

[radars]

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

[femshep]

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?

[radars]

[ 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. ]

[femshep]

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?

[radars]

Then, I start to improvise.

[femshep]

That sounds... promising.

[Not so much, actually. Considering killing them and controlling their minds would pretty much be the two ways to stop everyone he's angered from killing him, and he just took both of those off the table.]

[radars]

That would be one point of view.

I'm not going to stop. Now that you know the effect is there, it should be easy enough to shrug off. It's very mild.

[femshep]

It's not just me I'm concerned about.