what am i thinking?

History/Basic information

Sat, 17 Jun 2017 19:26:20 GMT

As she's from a novel series, and I guess not a hugely popular one??, I've cribbed this together. More will be added as I need it.

Name: Tisarwat
Age: 17
Sex: unknown - given emphasis because no, I really don't know. It's one of the series core concepts that male and female people are all referred to as she, as the Radchaai language is genderless and gender roles don't exist. Tisarwat doesn't present as male or female and I'm not going to choose one unless I need to, which I don't right now. :D
Appearance: Normal human seventeen year old, but her eyes are lilac-coloured. This is artificial - body modifications in the Radch are widespread and easy to get hold of. She's described as dark-skinned, and not very tall, but lanky in a way teenagers can be. I'm using Imaan Hammam as a PIB, so just imagine her with lilac eyes as I don't have Photoshop. ._.

tl;dr Character History: Tisarwat was a seventeen year old whose consciousness was ripped from her so a three-thousand-year old tyrant could use the shell of her body for shenanigans. The tyrant was caught and that consciousness was removed, so what's left is a giant existential crisis.

wtf are Radchaai: Anyone who lives within space annexed by Anaander Mianaai, Lord of the Radch and aforementioned tyrant. People who are civilised.

Radchaai:

*Speak Radch, a language with no gender. Everyone is she. It's very formal and very military. A standard form of address is 'Citizen' (literally: Radchaai).
*Believe in a pantheon of gods surrounding the god Amaat. Everything is really an alternative way of worshipping Amaat. They pray every morning and use fortune telling in decision-making (e.g. certain actions may be inauspicious for a certain day)
*See bare hands as a taboo, and always wear gloves. Stringed instruments such as the violin are very erotic because players have to wear thin, sheer gloves.
*Drink tea like it's a goddamn art form.
*Are implanted from birth with little bits of tech that let the AI of their space station/ship/etc know where they are and how they are. If the AI knows them well, it can use their biological telemetry to figure out how they're feeling.

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liberty city dumbassery

Sat, 04 Jun 2016 23:43:35 GMT

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DEL Medical Record (dated 01/04)

Sat, 16 Apr 2016 12:23:46 GMT

Name: Tali'Zorah vas Neheda nar Rayya
DOB (Age): 14/04/2161 (25)
Species: Quarian
Gender: Female
Height: 1.6m (5'3'')
Weight: 50kg (110lbs)

Current Concerns: Trace amounts of currently inactive nanotechnology attached to internal organs. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, generalised anxiety.

Previous Concerns: Genetic immuno-deficiency compounded by species reliance on sterile environments; cured by way of intensive gene therapy. Past evidence of polonium radiation poisoning. Healed bullet wound in ribcage (glancing blow). Evidence of healed internal damage in the vicinity of implanted nanotechnology. "Ploiatos" scarring from throat to right shoulder.

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thisavrou spacebook status

Fri, 26 Feb 2016 14:10:40 GMT

STATUS

(Please reply in the comments!)

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thisavrou stats/inventory

Thu, 21 Jan 2016 18:55:10 GMT

S
T
A
T
U
S

Rank

Princeps

Physical Status

Medical record as of 01/04/16
Physical Description: Tali doesn't generally wear her environmental suit in Thisavrou (and I use human PBs when she's not because that's the laziest thing I can do). Without it, she basically looks like this: fairly close to her canon appearance. She's around 160cm tall (5'3'') and weighs about 50kg (110lbs), with purplish-grey skin and markings on her forehead from inner-eyebrow to temple. (the markings are also down her throat, back and legs, but most people won't be seeing those) Her eyes are white with black sclera, and glow faintly, and her hair is about hip-length and black (...and needs cut, but she hasn't gotten around to that yet) - she also has rather longer canine teeth than a human would. She has two fingers and a thumb on each hand, and her legs are digitigrade (walks on her toes, and what's technically her heel is way higher up her leg, closer to the knee and looking like a backwards joint). Her skin is in general firmer and thicker than a human's and will feel rather odd to a human. She has a scar along the right side of her ribs from being grazed by a bullet.

~~There's also Ploiatos scarring around the shoulder to the sternum and throat~~ The skin of her arm/part of her arm was turned to glass in mid-July. At her hand, the glass is fairly transparent - muscle and tendons are visible underneath; the further up her arm it goes, the more crystalline the glass becomes, until it's almost entirely opaque at the shoulder, replacing the Ploiatos scars. However, anyone looking at her bare shoulder is going to see things in the glass - nothing tangible or identifiable, but still there. As of the end of July, the Ploiatos scarring is back on the shoulder/sternum and her arm is regular flesh again.

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U
F
F

On arrival

♦ Environmental suit - damaged: missing the right arm
♦ Omni-tool
♦ N7 hoodie
♦ Tool belt with a few small electrician's tools, spare wire and bits and pieces, that sort of thing
♦ CDC cuff - regulates life support. Off and completely non-functional on arrival

Picked up On Board

♦ A gift basket
♦ Clothes - a few casual outfits, dresses
♦ Geth Plasma Shotgun plus heatsinks
♦ Camping For Dummies
♦ A scarf
♦ The Komarr Report by Aral Vorkosigan
♦ A fancy drink set
♦ MID accessory; allows the wearer to see anything that would be on their MID; maps, texts, videos, etc.
♦ A shitton of beach gear
♦ A swimming costume
♦ Personal transportation
♦ A copy of Who Moved My Cheese?
♦ One ERC (Exploration Rights Card)
♦ A fancy drink
♦ A party hat
♦ A mask

code by vengeance_driven

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Mon, 07 Dec 2015 20:57:14 GMT

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Tue, 08 Sep 2015 19:22:42 GMT

Often nowadays she'll just be minding her own business doing something and find herself irresistibly thinking about Niko. Maybe about time they'd spent together earlier, or something he'd said. More often, though, it's not specific memories, just - the way he smiles at her sometimes, so fondly it leaves her aching pleasantly; the sound of his accent as it curves around whatever Khelish words she taught him most recently; the peculiar roughness of his fingers; the texture of his skin under her fingers, or her mouth...

And on a particularly quiet shift in the clanking heat of the engine room, her thoughts drift along into territory that makes her so glad there's nobody else in the room - and that no one can see her face through the mask even if there was.

They haven't had the chance for any more than brief moments together since they arrived - stolen kisses, lingering hands just hinting at something more. And she doesn't want to show that much restraint, not now. Not now that she's had him before, knows that he wants her as much as she does him. She isn't used to being able to have what - who - she wants, when she wants; it's a new and exciting sensation to realise, standing there at a control panel in the engine room, that she wants him - that it's gone from a pleasant sort of notion to a real need - and there's nothing stopping her from...

She considers for a second the idea that she could just wait for her shift to be over. But only for a second. Quickly, she opens her MID and taps out a quick message to Niko, asking him to come down to engineering. ...And then she goes back to work, a pleasant sort of breath-catching anticipation thrumming through her.

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NAVIGATION

Sun, 06 Sep 2015 19:22:54 GMT

SAVROU

CDC

MISC.

APPLICATION
INBOX
CRAU PERMISSIONS

STATUS/INVENTORY
THREAD TRACKER

SAVROU

CDC

MISC.

RECRUIT FILE
PERMISSIONS
INBOX

INVENTORY
THREAD TRACKER

SAVROU

CDC

MISC.

MISC. STUFF
CONTACT / HMD
PERMISSIONS

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CRAU PERMISSIONS

Mon, 31 Aug 2015 17:15:47 GMT

Basically, if you'd like to avoid dealing with any kind of CRAU bullshit while threading with Tali, please comment here! Comments ~~are screened~~ ~~will be screened as soon as I figure out why the option is missing DW WHYYY~~ are screened.

As in, if she met your character in her previous game, I can just fudge it so she doesn't connect the dots or doesn't remember it.

Or if she hasn't met them and you just can't be bothered dealing with CRAUing being brought up at all, also let me know and I'll just avoid it entirely!

It's absolutely no problem at all - I'd just like to know ahead of time, since I know dealing with CRAUs isn't everyone's cup of tea.

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Thisavrou IC Contact

Mon, 31 Aug 2015 16:47:17 GMT

I
N
B
O
X

IC Voice Mail

"This is Tali - go ahead and leave a message."

Player Contact

• PLURK: specialmandate
• PM this journal

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thisavrou application

Wed, 12 Aug 2015 20:41:59 GMT

EDIT: 23/08 Added two CDC items.

OUT OF CHARACTER

Player Name: Dara
Are you 16 or older: 16+!
Contact: PM this journal or specialmandate
Current Characters: N/A
Tag: tali'zorah (crau)

IN CHARACTER
Name: Tali'Zorah vas Neema
Canon: Mass Effect
Canon Point: ME2, before Haestrom
Age: 24

History: Timeline of the Mass Effect universe

Key decisions made by Tali's (Paragrade) Shepard in Mass Effect 1:

*Allowed the Rachni Queen to live on Noveria
*Gave Tali the information on the evolution of the geth
*Saved Wrex on Virmire
*Saved Ashley on Virmire; Kaidan Alenko was killed
*Talked Saren into committing suicide
*Saved the Destiny Ascension
*Recommended Captain Anderson as human representative to the Council

Plus, Tali will be a CRAU from CDC.
(NOTE: I'll put up a permissions post for this, and contact players of any character Tali interacted with in CDC before tagging them, just to make sure they're OK with a CRAU tagging them and to work anything out)

Made to believe her erstwhile homeworld was in some kind of danger, Tali signed the CDC contract without hesitation and landed on the CDC ship, the Neheda, right in the middle of a murder mystery. Between crew murders, a biohazard, wild animals running around the ship and getting into a face off with an AI, the Neheda wasn't exactly the safe space she was used to starships being, and while she still likes being in space - still prefers it to planets - they've lost a certain amount of the 'home' feeling for her.

A few members of the Normandy crew were on the Neheda as well, all from Tali's future - or...the future she could have had; she's not sure. Garrus especially tried to fill her in on things - the Reaper War, the planets that would fall...and he accidentally slipped up and told her about her own trial for treason and her father dying. Not sure how the passage of time works when you're between universes, Tali still thinks she might have already been tried in absentia - and maybe even exiled.

Another part of being on the Neheda: the Black Box trials - essentially a simulation training the recruit on their weaknesses, putting them in situations where they're expected to fail. Tali's was dealing with the geth without letting her hate for them get the better of her. Even in a simulation, she couldn't bring herself to choose the geth over the quarian fleet, and failed spectacularly every time. Even simulated deaths are pretty hellish, for the record.

And then came her first mission, and the drop onto the planet Macha, right in the middle of a jungle. Tali's initial experiences of Macha: a lot of mud, a lot of plants, a lot of hiking, a lot of hating everything. She even got to meet the wildlife: a kind of butterfly that could bite through metal - and environmental suits, which ended up with her having to duct tape a hole in her suit's arm.

The Macha mission involved a lot of fighting with the locals, both animals and a sentient species called the Neraki, and while Tali has never had a problem killing for self-defence, this was a people fighting to defend their home. She killed them because she had to, because they would have killed the crew given half a chance - and even had to kill a few child warriors - but that didn't make her feel better about it. The idea of destroying whole planets hadn't quite sunk in for her, but having to do that, along with killing the wildlife that almost seemed to know the crew was a threat, made it slowly sink in.

She eventually lost the arm of her environmental suit - without having technicians from the fleet or the right materials available to replace or repair the torn parts, it was useless to her. Eventually, asked if she had any spare metal parts to build a prosthetic arm for someone, she gave up the whole arm for parts.

More shenanigans on the planet included: having to be taught how not to drive like someone's grandmother; being in a rover as it was kicked around by giant alien animals either playing with the thing or fighting each other over it; an animal stampede right into their camp (Tali's solution: avoid it and volunteer to do recon elsewhere); and a not-very-successful trip to try out diplomacy with the Neraki. There was a lot of recon, a lot of physical labour, and then she got to play with a small Neraki child...while having to eat bugs.

The diplomacy mission didn't work out so well, and her whole group was punished (without entirely knowing why). The punishment turned out to be a half-minute cut off of her life support - half the length of time it would take to kill her. That terrified her. The CDC had control over her anyway by being able to destroy her homeworld, but this total control over her literal life was something she hadn't anticipated, and for a while it broke her down.

Not so long after that, they left the planet. It was about to be destroyed. If knowing that wasn't bad enough, the Neraki thought this sudden departure just meant the invaders were finally just leaving and a few came out to make peace. That included a certain small child Tali had befriended, who gave her a wooden toy as a gift.

And that was it. One planet destroyed. Within a day or two of seeing Macha destroyed, Tali decided to change her name, not wanting to have see the Neema associated with what they were doing. In the end - with some help - she decided on changing to vas Neheda, not wanting to have to call herself by an exile name.

Of the friends and acquaintances Tali made in her time in the CDC, one of the most important to her ended up being Niko Bellic. Most of her friends are people she's met by working with them, and their friendships have been built around that. She met Niko when they took a race car out for a test drive and it didn't really get any more professional from there. They screw around with each other, Niko got her listening to 1970s rock music and somehow that turned into the safest and most comfortable friendship she had. They got pretty attached to each other, and eventually decided to try the whole dating thing (him thinking for a while that she was a lesbian notwithstanding).

Tali will be pulled out and brought to thisavrou not long after landing on the next planet: an alternate-universe Earth known by the name Substrata that was basically a watery ruin.

One final note: CDC crew were offered rewards of their choosing for completing missions. Tali requested that her immune system be restored to something normal, and this was due to be granted when the game closed. I've gotten mod permission for this to be carried over to thisavrou!

Personality: Tali is twenty-four years old. A lot of the time, though, you could be forgiven for mistaking her for a lot older than that. She's often quiet, serious and spends far more time thinking about work and duty than most her age probably would. But she's also a host of other things that can make her seem younger: curious to the point of incurably nosy, a nervous ball of energy in her own way, prone to fits of rambling and even of a slight awkwardness that can make her endearing.

As a 22 year old, not even an adult in her own culture, her first time away from home ended in being chased halfway across the galaxy, escaping (and killing) mercenaries - and even after that, she didn't hesitate to join Shepard's crew just because helping her was the right thing to do. Not just for her own people, but for the whole galaxy. It was a brave thing to do, though Tali maybe wouldn't have described it as such as herself - in most ways, she's modest almost to a fault. And in any case, she was raised to do her duty for the fleet even if it means death. That's not brave, it's just how she was raised - in her mind, anyway.

She's been described in canon as a prodigy, though...again, Tali wouldn't call herself one. First off, like most quarians, she's been learning engineering and about mechanical systems since she was a small child. Those things come as naturally to her as breathing. Secondly, she has pretty high demands of herself and she's a big perfectionist; her father being a brilliant man and a popular figure in the Migrant Fleet, he and everyone around them expected great things from Tali as soon as she was born. Their expectations became her demands of herself, and she strives never to fall short. Anything less than her best is failure. As far as Tali's concerned, though, any quarian could do what she can do (which is probably not the case).

Her upbringing also fostered in her a fervent sense of loyalty to her people - quarians are expected to give up everything for the Migrant Fleet if need be and Tali embraces that. She's a person who lives for others - it's not even a matter of prioritising other people over what she wants: what she wants is tied up in others. Quarians, already placing huge importance on family and ancestors before the Geth War, bring their children up to have...sort of an unhealthy amount of filial piety (bearing in mind they consider the whole fleet, especially their own ship, as family), and quarians are expected to dedicate themselves to the advancement of the fleet. As a daughter of an Admiral, Tali in particular is expected to hold to that, and does. To a fault.

Her father is a big influence on her as well. Tali mentions that everybody falls into the background next to her father, and that includes Tali herself, who feels like she'll forever be the Admiral's daughter. It doesn't help that her father is both demanding and really bad at showing he cares. She spends her whole life working to be good enough for him and never feeling like anything was - all it did was make her work all the harder, getting angrier about it all the while. Not that she ever does anything about that anger - she bottles it up because she has to, because letting it out isn't what the good daughter or the good fleet citizen does.

Part of the reason she got on so well on the Normandy was that she wasn't just 'the Admiral's daughter', and everything she did wasn't tied up in that. She made friends who didn't care who or what she was, and came to kind of hero worship Shepard. She would have eventually gone back to the Migrant Fleet after her Pilgrimage, but she definitely dawdled in leaving after Sovereign and Saren were defeated - she only left when the Normandy was destroyed entirely, killing Shepard. In a lot of ways, she really felt like she belonged there, just as well as back home.

Tali can also be quite a bitter person at times, and not just because of her father. In another example of how quarians aren't raising their kids in stellar ways, they foster a deep fear and hatred of the geth into them. To quarian children, the geth are the monster in the closet, the spectre at the edge of your vision in a nightmare - to Tali, they're the reason she can barely remember what her own face looks like, much less those of her parents, and why their whole race are basically space hobos. By this point in her canon, that hatred is still alive and well, although having met Sovereign, and knowing the Reapers are a threat that's right around the corner, the hate has lost its edge a bit - there are bigger monsters lurking out there.

It's important to note, though, that that hate doesn't completely apply to other forms of synthetic life - Tali's probably quicker than most to recognise the personhood of an artificial intelligence because of her level of technical/personal understanding of the issue, and the amount of thought she's put into it. (They tried to destroy the geth because they developed personhood - it's a really important thing about AI) It doesn't mean she'll trust them - she has zero trust for AI and will absolutely believe the worst of them in any situation - but it's not the kind of singular hatred she reserves for the geth.

Are there inconsistencies to how she thinks? Totally. She won't hear anything against what the quarians did or how she thinks, even when Shepard points out with simple logic that it's dumb as hell. It's a little understandable - she lives for her people. She suffers because of the geth. They're the victims here, how can they be wrong? If they are, what does it mean for the way they've lived their whole lives? She's really sensitive and defensive about the fleet anyway, even in situations not related to the geth. Anything that could be taken as an insult to her people is something she'll flare up over. (Tali's temper tends to take the form of acerbic sarcasm, but - worst case scenario - can involve guns. If she's only threatening to shoot you, she's probably just teasing. It's her thing.)

Because of her upbringing - flotilla ships are very crowded, and often families live in tiny living spaces only separated from others by partitions - Tali is most comfortable around people, noise and activity. Silence isn't a peaceful thing to her, it's a dangerous thing, as silence on a flotilla ship could mean engine or life support failure. She likes to keep busy at all times, and can usually be found working or tinkering with something or other.

However, despite – or rather, because she is such a people person, Tali can sometimes feel very isolated from others, feeling as though the enviro-suit is a barrier between her and really being able to get to know other people. She worries that all people see when they look at her is a mask, and wishes she could just take the thing off and live her life like a normal person, especially since going on her Pilgrimage and seeing what exactly 'normal person' means to everybody around her. She has a romantic streak that makes her long for things like the touch of another without the suit between them, to really see a person's eyes or watch the sunset of her homeworld without a mask. However, the fear of sickness wins out most of the time – her mother died of an infection, and she and her entire people live in fear of things as minor as the common cold.

No one can see her face to know what she’s feeling by expression (though her closest friends can usually tell), so she has a tendency of talking a lot to get her emotions across more clearly; this is especially bad when she’s nervous. In general she's a very open and friendly person. She's highly expressive in movements and voice, though she has her moments of being awkward and rambly, and has little qualms about talking out how she feels most of the time (even to people she barely knows). Asking her a simple question can lead to her talking your ear off. So you know...watch out for that.

Tali has changed somewhat since her time with the CDC. The fact that she's destroyed a planet and killed everything on it to keep her homeworld safe is something she has a lot of self-loathing and guilt about - especially because she knows she would do it again if it came down to it. Her people are still the most important thing to her, but in a departure from canon, she has no desire to ever go back to them. If she can help them from a distance, she will, but essentially, it's shame keeping her away now. She doesn't want them to know what she had to do to keep them safe, and doesn't feel like she can even look another quarian in the eye.

That's made her a lot more lonely and isolated in a wider sense - she still connects with people (maybe even more eagerly so to make up for it, and that's part of why she connected as well with Niko) and doesn't feel alone in that sense, but she no longer feels like she has a home or somewhere she really belongs, and having grown up with that being one of the most important things in her life, it's a difficult thing to come to terms with. She wants something else to connect to in that way, but it was never going to be the CDC.

Her experiences there made her somewhat more cynical - or maybe just flat out pessimistic - about the world as well. Back home, she helped save the galaxy a couple of years ago and people like Shepard proved to her that great things are possible. She always believed that some day her people would take back their homeworld from the geth and even the Reaper threat was something she thought they could definitely overcome. Seeing the destruction of an entire planet, knowing that it wasn't the first or the last and having it drilled into her that the CDC have full control over her... It's taken some of the fight out of her. Great things are possible, but they come with a steep price. Even with all that, though, she has faith in individual people, and maybe that's even been bolstered by being with the CDC crew - if nothing else, they were always in it together. Maybe she's turned into a humanist. (In a manner of speaking)

On a minor note, even when she's able to take her mask off full-time...she probably won't. The CDC left her pretty wary about something as simple as the environment around her, and wearing her mask is added safety. Besides, actually? She'll learn pretty quickly that she's used to having it there. Still, having the choice is incredibly important to her.

Hearing about her own future from people she knew didn't...really help her much. Actually, it's intensely frustrating and while Tali's usually someone who tries to proactively work out her own problems - be it by shooting them, talking them to death or whatever - the future in another universe is not a problem she can shoot or talk at. Her father is going to die in part because of things she did - she's about to go on trial for treason and she can't even be there - the Reaper War is about to really start and her people aren't ready - the quarians will make peace with the geth and share the homeworld. This last is the most purely frustrating: not having experienced anything else, her opinion on the geth is still about as hateful as it ever was, but people are telling her the quarians will make peace with them and that they know everything she's ever been taught was wrong. She doesn't see it, doesn't believe it, and not being able to do anything about it is upsetting as hell. All she can do is try to put it all out of her mind...and that's not something Tali was ever good at.

Being away from the CDC will probably be good for her. It won't get rid of the shame or guilt, but it'll give her something to focus on that isn't destroying planets, which can only be an improvement. Those several months are an experience she'll be eager to leave behind her - not that it'll be that easy.

Abilities/Skills: Tali's a highly skilled engineer and machinist, as well as being well versed in programming and hacking, and she's a very fast learner. Her study of AI is mostly focused on the geth, a specific subset of AI, but she has a good foundation in robotics.

On top of that, she has military training and she's a good shot with a pistol, but she's best with a shotgun. (She can put together grenades and bombs and the like, and modify hand weapons as well.)

Her omni-tool has programs installed that give her certain abilities:
-AI Hacking - allows her to change the loyalties/IFF of robots. (Note: this won't work on PCs who are AI, or anything relevant to the game without mod permission)
-Combat Drone - spawns a small holographic robot that can give electric shocks, work as a distraction or just float around wherever Tali wants it to be. (Tali's is pink and it's called Chiktikka vas Paus. :3)
-Energy Drain - drains kinetic barriers to charge the barrier emitters on Tali's suit. This part won't work in game, but it also gives one hell of an electric shock.

As mentioned above as well, Tali's reward for taking part in the Macha mission in CDC was to have her immune system restored. Usually, 'has a healthy immune system' wouldn't count as an ability or a skill, but for a quarian, it's actually a pretty major one. She has no need for her environmental suit at all. (That said, she'll be wearing at least the mask most of the time, which means she can breathe in space/underwater/in biohazards without trouble)

Strengths/Weaknesses:

Strengths
-A very fast learner of new mechanical systems - even things that are completely alien to her, she can pick them up quickly
-Works really well in a team
-Resourceful - never throws anything away if she can find some use for it
-Loyal - almost too much so
-Physically fit, with military training

Weaknesses
-No personal ambition - her own advancement takes a back seat to the needs of other people
-Lacks authority
-Neurotic - tends to worry too much about little things; sometimes can't see the forest for the trees
-Mistrust/dislike of AI - she'll have genuine difficulty working with one
-Too trusting (with organics, at any rate) - she's quite susceptible to being manipulated/exploited

Items:

Environmental suit - damaged: missing one arm
Omni-tool
N7 hoodie
Tool belt with a few small electrician's tools, spare wire and bits and pieces, that sort of thing
CDC cuff - regulates life support. Will be off and completely non-functional on arrival
CDC Blackglass - communications device. Also off and non-functional

SAMPLES
Network Sample:
[There is absolutely no reason for Tali to use the video function on the MID. Even she wouldn't want to be forced to stare at a gas mask for as long as it takes her to verbally spit it out. Text it is.]

Is there anybody on the crew who knows anything about multiverse theories, or has any idea at all what might have happened to us to get us here?

It's mostly back home I'm worried about, you know? Like...did our universe just go on without us? Maybe we've vanished without a trace and no one knows what happened to us. Or maybe taking us away made a whole new universe branch off from ours, and we're gone...but at the same time we didn't leave at all and we're still back there.

I'm not sure if that makes us some kind of quantum clones or if I'm thinking too much. Anyway, I'd rather talk to somebody who knows what they're talking about, instead of just losing sleep wondering if there's another Tali at home right now living my life.

[Or another Tali in the CDC right now, destroying more planets. That's the one making her lose sleep.]

Prose/Action Sample:
Sample #1 - and Sample #2 if required.

comments

Fri, 24 Jul 2015 23:44:42 GMT

In the end, all there was to it was to barricade the door. It locked from the inside, but...keys. Lots of people probably had keys. Better safe than sorry and all.

She wasn't going to get sick. Her mask had been off for a while now. Multiple times. It was off right that moment. If she was going to get sick? It would have happened already. That didn't stop her mind stuttering over the possibilities in a haze of nerves, nonetheless.

"So, ah..." Her mouth was still wet from kissing him, or maybe she was just imagining it. "They're pretty easy to take off bit by bit - they have to be in case of emergencies, right?" She gestured vaguely at her arm, went back to fiddling with the neck and head portion of her suit, the cabling there where everything should just unclip and pull away. "I've never actually taken the whole thing off myself, though, last time there was a doctor helping me and it was a couple of years ago now, so this might take a little while..."

She licked her lips and forced herself to stop. "Sorry, I'm just really nervous." Deep breath. "Okay."

And with a few motions of her shaky fingers - uncoupling wiring, detaching clasps - she pulled away the top portion of the suit, leaving her entire head and neck uncovered...and it was...weird. She was so used to the weight of the suit, and the very slight restriction of movement that came with having cabling along her neck, that being without left her stood there simply moving her head experimentally for a moment to get used to the sensation. Twisted it to one side, rolled it back...then, hesitantly, she reached up with her bare hand to touch her hair, pulled back tight against her head and coiled in plaits at the base of her skull.

It was thick, soft under her fingers, and for a second she forgot she was being watched. Even as a smile touched the corners of her mouth, tears jumped to her eyes unbidden. It was a stupid thing, such a simple thing - but she'd had no idea what her hair even felt like. She still had no idea what it looked like now. For a moment, she was lost in a reverie - and then her gaze focused again on Niko, and she found herself laughing self-consciously, smiling at him toothily. A little embarrassed though she might have been, she'd wanted him here for this - still wanted him to share it with her.

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stuff and things

Fri, 24 Jul 2015 00:39:26 GMT

She wasn't quite sure she believed it yet. One trip to Medical and...an entire lifetime of being on tenterhooks, fearing for her life every time she so much as sneezed - gone. Just like that. The CDC could reverse indoctrination, manipulate time and universes, but somehow it still hadn't quite sunk in that they could do this one thing.

Tali left Medical caught somewhere between nervous and excited, fidgeting and unable to keep still even for a second. The visor in front of her face had only rarely been this claustrophobic before, and she was acutely aware that there was a world of vivid colour and fresh air on the other side of it. And it could be hers if she could just get over the nerves.

...She maybe lasted ten minutes before contacting Shepard. Voice call, not text, words tripping over each other - Tali needed to meet her, talk to her about something, it was really important, nothing wrong just really important, she was outside on the edge of the lake, see her in five.

The five minutes or so between the call and the familiar sight of Shepard's figure appearing in the distance was spent alternatively pacing back and forth and rocking on her heels, fiddling with the pockets of that N7 hoodie she had on and forcing herself to take deep, even breaths.

She was fine. Totally fine. ...Just nervous as hell for so many reasons.

comments

CDC Inventory

Fri, 09 Jan 2015 02:56:50 GMT

■ CREDITS. 300

❚❚❚❚❚ CLOTHES．

■ ENVIRONMENTAL SUIT. Lightly armoured, shielded, with its own air purification system, life support, temperature control, storage for medi-gel and an HUD built into the mask. ~~Torn in the right arm as of Macha - soldered after the butterflies, duct taped after the kraken.~~ Missing the right arm as of sometime around day 111-113 - given in aid of Marco Bott's new arm.
■ DUFFEL BAG WITH CDC ISSUED CLOTHES. Sleeveless storm jacket (grey), winter cloak (grey), insulated leather boots, full sleeved waterproofed shirts (2), lightweight waterproofed trousers (2)
■ SHAWL. Orange.

❚❚❚❚❚ WEAPONS．

■ COMPACT GAUSS GUN. (20) rounds chambered, two extra magazines (20 x 2), two clips (70).
■ FROSTBROOD TOOTH KNIFE + HOLSTER. Straps to her leg; carries an electric charge.

❚❚❚❚❚ MISSION SPECIFIC SUPPLIES．

■ NANITE GUN. (4) shots remaining.
■ ENERGY BAR. (3) bars remaining.
■ LED FLASHLIGHT. Batteries full.
■ CANTEEN (1.5 LITRE). Contains water.
■ FLARES. Green (3), red (3)
■ SMOKE SCREENS. (1 RED, 1 BLUE, 1 WHITE)
■ BOMBS. (5)
■ LASER CUTTER. (1)
■ VISOR (NIGHT VISION FIELD).
■ WATER FILTER. (2)

❚❚❚❚❚ OTHER．

■ COMMUNICATIONS DEVICE.
■ SYNCHRONIZER CUFF (ORANGE).
■ OMNI-TOOL.
■ DUCT TAPE. 5m 3m.
■ INSULATED BLANKET.
■ TOXICITY TESTER KIT.
■ WATERPROOF MATCHES.
■ MEDICINE. Several packets in powder form - painkillers, decongestants, herbal tea, etc.
■ INSTANT FOOD. 1kg; various types.
■ NOTEBOOK. Plus pen.
■ ELECTRICAL TOOLS. A small bag.
■ PERSONAL HYGIENE SUPPLIES. Bars of soap. Washcloth.
■ MOLOTOV COCKTAIL. (1) Created from materials found on Aqada.
■ SEALED GLASS JAR. Filled with home-made Napalm, made on Aqada.
■ DAGGERMAS LIST.
■ EVERYTHING ON THIS LIST.

comments

what the hell am i doing

Wed, 07 Jan 2015 18:32:03 GMT

● ○ ○

○ ● ○

○ ○ ●

●●●	About Tali
24. Quarian. Likes ships, shotguns and romcoms.

comments

CDC Thread Tracker

Fri, 05 Dec 2014 23:47:50 GMT

I've just gone ahead and stolen the code from vengeance_driven - thanks very much!
http://consignment.dreamwidth.org/tag/tali%27zorah - network
http://enlistment.dreamwidth.org/tag/tali%27zorah+vas+normandy - logs

❚❚❚❚❚JULY 2015

■ Lydia Shepard: Day 141: Everyone is fine, there are no insects.
■ Garrus Vakarian: Day 141: All the kids are doing parkour these days.
■ Yosuke Hanamura: Day 142: She doesn't have AIDS, gawd.
■ Niko Bellic: Day 144: Everyone has learned something today.
■ Sheva Alomar: Day 144: Tali's friend isn't gone anymore. ;;
■ Honey: Day 144: Have a fun rest of your lives with the CDC, guys.
■ Captain Falcon: Day 145: No insects here, nope.
■ Lydia Shepard: Day 145: Illegal Alliance contraband.

comments

CDC Permissions

Fri, 05 Dec 2014 22:12:01 GMT

❚❚❚❚❚ ＢＡＳＩＣＳ．

■ NAME & ID CODE: Tali'Zorah vas Neheda (formerly vas Neema) | NHD-A10-VSN-527
■ CANON: Mass Effect (ME2: Haestrom)
■ AGE: 24
■ CURRENT TEAM & STATUS: ~~ORANGE~~ BLUE| Life is terrible.
■ LANGUAGE: Modern Khelish (native); ancient Khelish (in much the same way you learn Latin in high school); standard galactic trade tongue (basics, plus haggling and insults - all the essentials)
■ INVENTORY: Here.

❚❚❚❚❚ ＩＣ．

■ PHYSICAL AFFECTION: She won't object if she knows you well enough.
■ PHYSICAL VIOLENCE:
❚ Would she die for a character currently in the game? Castmates, Niko Bellic.
❚ Would she kill for a character currently in the game? Yes, but it depends on the circumstances - Tali isn't squeamish about killing people, generally.
❚ Is your character comfortable with and/or willing to mutilate a dead recruit’s body? Nnnnno.

■ RELATIONSHIPS: Currently in one. Not interested in branching out.
■ MENTAL INFORMATION: Tali has a pretty overactive mind, and she's usually worrying about something or other unless she's busy - so usually, she keeps herself busy. She's a pretty open book and naturally honest, though - if she likes you, you'll know about it (and vice versa) - and she's terrible at suppressing how she's feeling.
■ MEDICAL INFORMATION:
❚ Is she vertebrate? Yes.
❚ Is “breathing” necessary for her survival? Yes.
❚ Does she feel hunger? Yes.
❚ How many fingers and eyes? Two eyes, two fingers and a thumb on each hand.
❚ Misc. She has digitigrade legs and is fairly slight by human terms. She has a severe immunodeficiency, so her environmental suit can't come off - if it's ruptured, she will get sick. She could die. It's not pretty. Also, her physiology is dextro-amino-acid based, so human food isn't particularly good for her.

■ FAVORITE SENSORY INPUT: She has very little sense of touch (pressure only in the suit; very limited haptics) and taste is pretty useless. (Fun fact: her suit has olfactory sensors - she can essentially switch her sense of smell on and off. You're very jealous right now.) Her sight is good naturally - including excellent night vision - but her visor is semi-opaque so her eyes aren't damaged by brighter lights (blatant headcanon), so it evens out to normal. Hearing and sight are the best bets.
■ OFFENSIVE SUBJECTS & TRIGGERS: Tali is really over-sensitive on matters of race - if she thinks somebody is saying anything against her people, she will get up in arms about it. Her father is also a sore subject, but only castmates are likely to know about it right now - and it's an even sorer subject now that she's been filled in about what happens to him. The geth and AI in general are not a conversation she wants to ever get into (which means people need to get her into this conversation).
■ REBELLIOUS TENDENCIES: On her own, she doesn't. If there's no risk to her homeworld and she trusts the leaders of any movement, though, she might fall in.

❚❚❚❚❚ ＯＯＣ．

■ PLAYER: Dara
■ PREFERRED CONTACT: specialmandate
■ BACKTAGGING: I usually rely on it heavily, so absolutely yes!
■ THREADHOPPING: Go for it!
■ FOURTHWALLING: I'd rather not, but discuss.
■ ACTION VS PROSE: I'll go either way!
■ OFFENSIVE SUBJECTS & TRIGGERS: n/a I'm fine with everything.
■ YES/NO SCENARIOS: I can't think of any straight nos at the moment, so assume I'm fine with anything unless I say otherwise?

comments

[CDC] IC Inbox

Fri, 05 Dec 2014 22:08:16 GMT

NHD-A10-VSN-527

vasneheda.talizorah@cdc.org
DOWNLOAD: DATABASE FILE

 >> TEXT

<span style="font-family:courier;"> <b>FROM:</B> EMAIL@cdc.org

[[200 max character message here]]</span>

 >> AUDIO MESSAGE

<span style="font-family:courier;><b>SENT:</B> DAY#, HOUR
<B>CALL ID:</B> CDC ID</span>

[[3 minute max message here]]

 >> VOICE MAIL

<span style="font-family:courier;"><b>SENT:</B> DAY #, HOUR
<B>( 1 ) VOICEMAIL</B> LAST NAME, FIRST NAME

[[3 minute max message here]]</span>

modified from seadra of g-s

// ARCHIVE

D## NAME@cdc.org

// ACTION

D## NAME

comments

aaaargh

Fri, 14 Nov 2014 19:59:38 GMT

PLAYER INFO.
✖ Handle: Dara
✖ Contact: specialmandate
✖ Are You Over 16: Y
✖ Other Characters Played in Consignment: n/a

CHARACTER INFO.
✖ Character Name: vas Neema, Tali'Zorah
✖ Canon: Mass Effect (Haestrom)
✖ Character Appearance: Image link
✖ Character Age: 24
✖ Pick A Number: 527, 099

✖ Canon Setting:
Mass Effect is a sci-fi game trilogy set throughout the Milky Way galaxy almost 200 years into our future - however, the story starts several billion years in the past, with the creation of sentient machines called the Reapers. Created to keep sentient organic life from becoming so advanced they create AI that will ultimately destroy them, the Reapers live in the dark space between galaxies for 50,000 years at a stretch. When a galactic community is established and starts to thrive, the Reapers return and wipe it out before it inadvertently destroys all life. They return to dark space, leaving the more primitive races intact, and the cycle starts anew.

Fast forward to the late 2100s, and humanity has just entered the galactic community, centred in this cycle around the Citadel Council. The primary Council races are the asari, the turians and the salarians, but humanity earn their own place on the Council after not so long a time. Most of the other various races of the galaxy not on the Council are still governed by it, and they hold embassies on the Citadel space station, essentially the capital of Council space. However, then you've got the very few races that don't have ties to the council, willingly or otherwise. One of those is the quarian race.

Until three hundred years ago, the quarians inhabited a planet called Rannoch in the far reaches of the galaxy. They were known for their art and their technological skill, had their own Citadel embassy - they were fully-fledged members of the galactic community. That was until they created the geth, a VI that seamlessly evolved into true artificial intelligence entirely by accident. When the quarians realised what they'd done, they tried to deactivate their creation. Unable to do so, they tried to destroy it. So began the Geth War. The war was a messy defeat for the quarians, and resulted in the mass exodus of all surviving quarians from the planet. They've been travelling in a makeshift flotilla called the Migrant Fleet ever since.

So the fact that they live permanently in space, their homeworld, and the geth are three most important things about quarian culture. The flotilla is very insular, partly by choice and partly because the whole galaxy can't stand them. Because the flotilla takes up a lot of space and uses up a lot of resources, whole systems have banned entry to the fleet completely. Every quarian has to go out into the galaxy on a rite of passage called the Pilgrimage, and they learn pretty quickly that the dislike extends to individuals as well.

The Migrant Fleet is also under permanent martial law. In practise, there's a lot of democracy, and quarians like to spend a lot of time talking about every single little detail, but the military has a lot of power.

The other major thing with quarians is that they are... disadvantaged, biologically. For one thing, they're dextro-amino; humans and most other species are levi-amino, which makes things awkward when you don't have a home planet you can grocery shop at. For another, they had a unique symbiosis with their planet that meant, a long time ago, that they didn't really need strong immune systems. Living on sterile ships, those have atrophied completely, and they have to wear environmental suits just to survive.

To put it all in very short terms, the quarians are a race that has been given the short straw by the whole galaxy - but they don't exactly make it easy on themselves, either.

✖ Character History: Mass Effect wiki link

Key decisions made by Tali's (Paragrade) Shepard in Mass Effect 1:

*Allowed the Rachni Queen to live on Noveria
*Gave Tali the information on the evolution of the geth
*Saved Wrex on Virmire
*Saved Ashley on Virmire; Kaidan Alenko was killed
*Talked Saren into committing suicide
*Saved the Destiny Ascension
*Recommended Captain Anderson as human representative to the Council

✖ Character Personality: Tali is barely an adult when you first meet her, not long left home for the first time, and already she's uncovered evidence of a conspiracy and been chased half way across the galaxy by assassins. Already she's tough, she's resourceful and she's curious as hell about the galaxy around her. ... That said, all this came from wanting to help destroy the geth, and it got several people killed along the way. It's a good reflection of her people as a general whole - Tali's hatred of the geth (which is vitriolic at best) isn't good for her, isn't good for anybody, and has gotten her into serious trouble.

But then, hating the geth is just part of being quarian - at least, that's how she was brought up: to think of them as the monsters under the bed, the things childhood nightmares are made of. If you care about the flotilla and your people, you want the geth to be destroyed - and Tali cares about her people. It's been instilled in her since childhood to give up everything for the good of the Migrant Fleet, even her own life. For Tali, it's even more important to be the good quarian, as her father is basically one of the leaders of her people.

She has a difficult relationship with her father, though. Being the good daughter is one thing - excelling in her studies, being well-behaved, bringing back an impressive gift from her Pilgrimage - but Rael'Zorah was absent for most of her childhood and never seemed to care about her when he was there. Really, he was just terrible at expressing himself, but Tali didn't see it that way. All she sees is herself trying her damndest to impress him and it never being good enough.

That doesn't mean she doesn't love him, and she's fiercely loyal to him, and to anybody else she cares about. When she discovers later that he endangered the fleet to perform inhumane experiments, she fixes his mess and covers it up to protect his reputation - even if it meant she would take the blame and be exiled from her people. She doesn't have much family, and her closest friends and crew essentially become family to her - later, the following exchange will happen with Commander Shepard:

Shepard: About your father, what he did... You deserved better.
Tali: I got better. I got you.

Even though she's given the name vas Normandy basically as a mark of shame, she keeps it even after she's found not guilty of treason. The Normandy isn't quarian, but it's hers, and she's willing to lay down her life for its crew and commander. Tali doesn't half-ass things - her work, her opinions, her relationships; she throws herself whole-heartedly into everything, even when it might not be a good idea.

She grows up a lot over the course of her Pilgrimage as well. She starts as a naive young woman who knows nothing about the galaxy outside the fleet, and she has to learn about it the hard way. If assassins, Reapers, racism and Shepard's driving don't kill you or your curiosity about the world, you're doing pretty well. The only real sticking point about that is that learning about the galaxy means that she knows a lot better than most what her people are missing out on by being trapped on the Migrant Fleet, and trapped in their environmental suits. Most people can take home and tactile contact and seeing each other's faces for granted: quarians don't get it and have to treasure it. The wider her horizons get, the more her suit feels like a cage. Also, meeting aliens and realising just how much they hate quarians has (understandably) put her pretty on edge about any comments about her people. She can get quite self-righteous and overly-defensive when she wants to be.

For all that she's a genius space hobo in a hazmat suit with an absentee father who just happened to help save the galaxy a couple of years ago, though, Tali is actually just... kind of normal. She loves chick flicks, hates spiders, fidgets all the time and babbles when she's nervous; she somehow pulls off being both immensely self-centred and selfless; she's honest and open... but a pretty damn big hypocrite about certain issues (see: geth). And she has a surprisingly sharp tongue and deadpan sense of humour - and if they don't work, she has a shotgun.

✖ Character Powers & Skills:
SKILL SETS
1. Engineering: Tali has an affinity towards all things mechanical. She's worked on spaceships her whole life and is used to cobbling together what she needs from scrap parts. She can learn new mechanical systems remarkably quickly (even alien ones, since her people usually repurpose alien ships) and build and repair anything she needs even out of scrap.
2. Tech: On a related note, she's also well-versed in computer systems - she has skills in hacking/decryption and programming, weapon sabotage and AI combat.
3. Combat: Tali has military training and can use and modify shotguns, pistols, and her omni-tool for close-range combat. (Her hand-to-hand combat is... less impressive.)

POWERS
1. Energy Drain: A power of a sort, this is an offensive omni-tool program that attacks kinetic shields, machinery or armour, draining its power to bolster Tali's own shields.
2. Envirosuit: Also a... power of a sort? Tali can tolerate temperatures right down to near absolute zero (as in, the vacuum of space), and a lot higher than any human would be comfortable with (this is not to say she won't complain about either extreme, but it won't cause any problems). It's also a self-contained air mask.

CHARACTER SAMPLES.
✖ First Person POV: TDM top level
Thread with Raleigh Beckett
Thread with Mikoto Misaka

✖ Third Person POV:
The first time she'd ever laid eyes on a quarian building, and she couldn't just relax and enjoy it. It wasn't the homeworld, but Tali would have been willing to take whatever she could get... if she didn't have to spend the whole time darting from shady spot to shady spot, calibrating instruments, avoiding geth sensors and generally looking up at the sky instead of down to the earth. For one of the first times in her life, she'd rather be doing the opposite.

But right now was the middle of Haestrom's day cycle. It was the best time for sleeping, which was exactly what most of the group was doing. Tali, however, had taken the opportunity to work through some of the calculation problems they'd encountered that morning. It was a hard process considering her eyes just didn't want to stay open anymore.

"Tali'Zorah?"

She looked up from the pad to see a woman from... from... the science team? Face masks or no, Tali should really have been able to tell who it was - her voice, her build, something should jog her memory. But her mind was drawing an obstinate blank, be it from tiredness or stress or whatever, and she didn't have the energy to feel guilty about it.

Maybe later.

"What do you need?" she asked, gesturing to the closest chair and glancing back down at the pad. Her voice felt rough, like it was starting to rust over from lack of use. The woman took a deep breath that hissed through her suit mic.

"The homeworld-- I think the homeworld's in danger."

Tali looked up properly, squinting at the woman in a mixture of bemusement and good old-fashioned exhaustion.

"So I've heard. Apparently it's being occupied by the geth," she said presently as she glanced back down, and if there was a tinge of asperity to her voice... well, it was late. And people were saying idiotic things while she was trying to work.

"I mean..."

Tali's sarcasm was going ignored. Probably for the best.

"I mean I think it's going to be destroyed." The woman leaned forward at the desk, closer to Tali, who had frozen in the act of scrolling down from one long page of near-gibberish to the next.

"Where did you-- how--" She tried a couple more times to put together a question that would encompass the full range of her confusion, but she was cut off.

"Please, you've got to help - you've got to do something."

It was something in the intensity of the woman's voice that made Tali put down the pad and lean forward in turn, heart jumping in sudden panic. She wouldn't really start to consider until much later the fine distinction here between intensity and emotion, the latter of which was just... not there.

"Of course - of course I'll help. But you've got to tell me..."

That was about as far as she got. The unconscious aren't too good at talking.

CHARACTER ITEMS.
✖ Pick a Team: Orange: Tali's a prodigal engineer and techie and has spent her whole life working around ships and studying artificial intelligence (at least, a specific kind of it). Since her people are both universally poor and not considered suited for civilised galactic company, they're also good at resource management, scavenging and have a good eye for detail in that regard anyway. Tali's no different there.

Green: Tali had a military upbringing (albeit not a great one in some ways) and has full marine training - she's not great at leadership stuff, but she's good with offensive tech and handheld weaponry (she specialises in shotguns), and can both work in a team and follow orders.

✖ Reason for Joining the CDC: Keeping her home planet safe is enough of a cause for her - and making sure other quarians don't have to do it. She's way too invested in doing whatever it takes to keep her people and their planet safe to not be willing to join them. (if not 100% happy about it)
✖ Mission Freebie: M-22 Eviscerator Shotgun plus 15 rounds
✖ Personal Item or Weapon: Her omni-tool - a multi-purpose microcomputer mounted on the arm, used by holographic interface. It's a computer, communicator and an interface to other systems. It also lets her use Energy Drain.

✖ Character Inventory:
1/ Environmental suit - essentially a hazmat suit/armour/space suit adapted for everyday long term wear; ideally, they never need to be taken off. Tali's is designed to be worn into battle - it has multiple military adaptations, including kinetic barrier generators (designed to repel/soften the impact of bullets), an HUD, super-thin carbon fibre armour, combat seals in key areas of the suit to prevent the spread of infection, and inbuilt medigel storage. It's also got a lot of pockets, and some fancy decorative fabric to go with it.

2/ M-5 Phalanx Heavy Pistol [CONFISCATED]

3/ Various small tools and niknaks [CONFISCATED]

4/ One combat knife strapped to her boot [CONFISCATED]

5/ Three doses of dextro-amino medigel [CONFISCATED]

comments

ic contact [ev] (tali.zorah@compass.net)

Wed, 21 Aug 2013 04:55:57 GMT

hellboy@compass.net (15)	[text]	09/01
kasumi.goto@compass.net (6)	[text]	22/01
kasumi.goto@compass.net (16)	[text]	04/02
abe.sapien@compass.net (6)	[text]	01/04
catherine.halsey@compass.net (7)	[text]	02/04
unsc.ctn-0452-9@compass.net (6)	[text]	02/05
kasumi.goto@compass.net ([])	[text]	02/05
vergil.2@compass.net ([])	[text]	02/05
leonard.church@compass.net (2)	[text]	02/05
rebecca.crane@compass.net (3)	[text]	02/05
ghost@compass.net ([])	[text]	02/05
james.kirk@compass.net ([])	[text]	04/05

E-MAILS

TEXTS

This is the Gamma inbox. Beta inbox here!

comments

Week 17 Day 3, Tali and The Eleventh Doctor

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 05:31:05 GMT

The best thing she could say about this week was that she was no longer hungry. The back end of the last week had been a blur of her stomach gnawing on itself and her giving up on even trying to eat her rations or drink water because each turned into a slimy, sickly sweet-metal taste in her mouth that had, the first time, made her spit it out in sheer shock.

Good thing she had suit scrubbers.

As soon as the new week started, she'd gorged herself - but it hadn't stopped the irritable feeling she'd been nursing in her gut the whole time. First out of hunger, then out of something else she imagined was related to the number that had appeared on the breast of her suit - a large number 1 she hadn't wanted to risk trying to take off, but had instead simply lived with, thinking about it for the past two days as little as possible.

It didn't exactly represent something she was dealing with well - at all, in fact. Pragmatism was easy to fake for someone like her, as it turned out.

Today - the third day, only the third - and the irritation had developed like a worsening disease through her system, crawling into every cell in her body and leaving her ready to snap at anything.

The Doctor's call had been welcome, all things considered: she could drain anger working on the generator and the Doctor would be something of a calming presence. She would have been down there anyway at some point - now, she just made her way there all the earlier.

Even if she didn't feel any better afterward, something would at least get done.

comments

Charon 101: NPCs

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 07:37:33 GMT

The Captain:

The first Captain was loud, irritating and usually only appeared anywhere to shout at new passengers over the loudspeaker, and occasionally at the rest of us over the network. All we knew about him was that he wasn't the original Captain of the Charon - he was installed by COMPASS.

He didn't show up in person until Week 13. It turned out he was composed of/had control of some kind of electrical energy - he could move at lightning-speeds and hit people with surges of electricity. The only way to defend against him was with lightning rods, and bullets apparently had a limited effect on him, but standard strategies didn't seem to work.

He was killed on the 6th or 7th day of the week.

As of Week 16, there's a new Captain, but we don't know anything about him yet.

The Engineer:

One of the ghost crew. Not a COMPASS employee: he's been on the boat since before it was commandeered by COMPASS - when he was alive.

He's been willing to help us as much as he can almost since the beginning. He has the ability to travel through realities to our own homes, and he's willing to collect items for us if we help him in turn - or if we give him the vouchers from the docking surveys.

comments

Charon 101: Weeks 1 and 2

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 04:07:27 GMT

W1

First drop off of prisoners to the Charon, with an announcement from the Captain. I don't remember the content, but it was probably unhelpful. Some people arrived from the former KERNOS island with their memories of what happened there intact; others were entirely new.

A lot of people on board suffered from nightmares during this week. Some suffered hallucinations. A few others received what seemed like antidotes in pill form - taking them stopped both nightmares and hallucinations.

Besides that, prisoners spent the week exploring the boat - the crew is made up of ghosts, plus the ghost of a little girl haunting the storage room, and the entire boat was in a state of complete disrepair. Ideas were thrown around for roll calls, hydroponics and power systems, repair attempts and a system of rules for passengers.

Finally, it was discovered that there's a sixty foot radius around the boat where prisoners can fly or swim without being attacked by sharks or the albatross.

W2

Half way through the week, the ship stalled and needed repairs. Power was out completely, and the only source of light was the lamps from down in the holds. During this time, the first dark snakes started appearing in Hold 3, before moving around to the rest of the ship.

Dark snakes can only be hurt in the light - in the dark, they're invincible, and they can even climb walls. While the power was out, they were free to move around the entire ship.

[ Resistance Filter ]

Room C2 in the Captain's Block was previously locked, but it opened up at this point, revealing a room full of detailed files kept on everybody on board. The files had everything from basic information that would have been easy to obtain to things they should have had no way of ever knowing. A lot of the files were removed before the room closed again.

Later in the week, C4 opened as well. That room contained photos of passengers taken from various places on the boat, with no way to tell how or when they were taken. The room also held several memos written by COMPASS about the passengers - referred to by COMPASS as the 'phortion'. It was written in a substitution cipher that passengers later deciphered:
[[ooc: a few letters plus numbers have yet to be deciphered - pretend they're not on this]]

#1
Darkness
Devour
Phortion growing restless
Steps must be taken.

#2
Dock at location ### week #
Let the Phortion stretch their legs

#3
Crew is growing too close to the Phortion.
A measage must be sent.

#4
New Phortion coming soon.
They must know to fear us.
Demonstrate

Furthermore, the Little Girl's room was locked for the first part of the week - when she reappeared, her mouth was sewn shut, apparently in punishment for telling the passengers things she shouldn't.

[ / Resistance Filter ]

W16

The new Project Head made his first appearance. The last PH was made of/utilised tar; this one has the same control over water, and looks to be made of it as well. He seems to be a lot more hands on/less wary than the previous PH. He gave a speech to the passengers, but he was interrupted partway through. He reacted by encasing the offender in water and drowning her.

He announced the presence of a new Captain, but no one has seen him yet.

Half way through the week, the new PH invited passengers to a banquet in the Captain's Block, attended to by some of the ghost crew. Attendance was supposedly optional, but not going or not eating resulted in punishments as severe as those who did: everything they ate for the rest of the week turned to ash. Everything they drank turned to blood.

For those who did go and eat the food, the effects varied based on what they ate. There seemed to be five distinct manifestations:

A sort of reverse sunburn: spending any time out of natural sunlight resulted in severe burns. Artificial lighting mitigated the effects, but not much.

Dermal changes: Hair and nails fell out and skin turned translucent, with veins/muscles/organs being clearly visible beneath.

Isolation: An inability to see or hear people, or be seen or heard in turn. Physical contact was still possible, as was texting over the compasses.

Parasites: Some kind of insect infested the victim, living and crawling under their skin, and emerging from orifices, including skin pores. Any attempt to get rid of them would result in being stung. Any person making physical contact with the victim was attacked.

Agglutination: Skin began to merge with anything it was in contact with for too long - furniture, tools, other people, etc. It wasn't simply sticking to those things, it became part of whatever it touched.

The new Project Head made his first appearance. The last PH was made of/utilised tar; this one has the same control over water, and looks to be made of it as well. He seems to be a lot more hands on/less wary than the previous PH. He gave a speech to the passengers, but he was interrupted partway through. He reacted by encasing the offender in water and drowning her.

He announced the presence of a new Captain, but no one has seen him yet.

Half way through the week, the new PH invited passengers to a banquet in the Captain's Block, attended to by some of the ghost crew. Attendance was supposedly optional, but not going or not eating resulted in punishments as severe as those who did: everything they ate for the rest of the week turned to ash. Everything they drank turned to blood.

For those who did go and eat the food, the effects varied based on what they ate. There seemed to be five distinct manifestations:

<ol>
 <li>A sort of reverse sunburn: spending any time out of natural sunlight resulted in severe burns. Artificial lighting mitigated the effects, but not much.</li>
 <li>Dermal changes: Hair and nails fell out and skin turned translucent, with veins/muscles/organs being clearly visible beneath.</li>
 <li>Isolation: An inability to see or hear people, or be seen or heard in turn. Physical contact was still possible, as was texting over the compasses.</li>
 <li>Parasites: Some kind of insect infested the victim, living and crawling under their skin, and emerging from orifices, including skin pores. Any attempt to get rid of them would result in being stung. Any person making physical contact with the victim was attacked.</li>
 <li>Agglutination: Skin began to merge with anything it was in contact with for too long - furniture, tools, other people, etc. It wasn't simply sticking to those things, it became part of whatever it touched.
</ol>

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Charon 101: Compass Guide

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 22:57:13 GMT

Everyone comes on board with 2 devices on them: an earpiece and a compass.

The earpiece is surgically attached to your ear/the side of your head. It's very basic in design: there's a small night vision camera on the front and 2 audio channels. These are controlled by buttons on the bottom and back of the earpiece. However, it's mostly useful as a face-to-face translator. Anything someone says to you in any language is automatically translated into your own by the device.

Then there's the 'compass'. It doesn't work as a compass - all it does is point toward the boat while it's docked (and nowhere when it isn't). Keep it on you at all times: there are some turrets down in the holds that will attack anybody not carrying one. Each compass is connected to every other compass on the ship by way of an intranet.

The network is public. It's automatically translated as well, and there are three possible formats: text, audio, video. Select one and the record/write your message. If you have skills in encryption, you can lock messages to only a few people. It's also possible to post anonymously. Neither of those things are foolproof - anyone with the proper skills can crack it given enough time.

Private messages are the most secure by far. Everyone on board has a COMPASS-provided mail address - givenname.familyname@compass.net. They're almost impossible to hack with another compass, whereas encrypting messages on the network is prone to failure and open to interception.

[ Resistance Filter ]

The power source isn't detectable, but you'll notice the power draining after you've used it for a long period (it averages about a week). It seems to draw somehow from the energy of the user; when the power drains, you'll notice fatigue and weakness that steadily worsens as it recharges. The effect it has seems to vary between people, but it can be quite severe.

They're not passively recording you.

Map

The map automatically downloaded when you came aboard. It shows all open and locked rooms, can be marked at any time for dangers or used to cross off rooms during a major search, and shows where exactly your compass is on the ship. If you're somehow lost, it can give directions.

It can be used to broadcast your location to the other compasses on the ship either constantly or in case of emergency - that can be switched on and off any time. The whole app can also be removed at any time.

There are small marks on the map that change on a week-to-week basis. I believe the system is inadvertently picking up a signal of some kind, but I've never found anything at those locations. In all likelihood, they're a form of surveillance. Avoid them if you're doing anything you wouldn't want COMPASS to see.

Cipher

Any encryption used on the compasses right now is probably visible to COMPASS - this system won't be. The new program should have successfully installed onto all of the compasses.

There's been a change to the basic compass interface. When making a network broadcast, there is now an option to input a passcode. Someone will have told you it - it won't appear anywhere on the network. Don't put it there. With the correct passcode, the program will encrypt the content for the network.

An input box for the same passcode will now appear on broadcasts encrypted in this way. If you're reading this, you've already used it, but it will appear on every post with this encrypted content.

The passcode is rotated frequently. Once more - when it changes, don't publish it anywhere on the network.

This cipher is specifically for content COMPASS should not see. Try not to use it for personal matters COMPASS probably doesn't care about.

[ / Resistance Filter ]

Everyone comes on board with 2 devices on them: an earpiece and a compass.

<a href="http://i763.photobucket.com/albums/xx275/masaomi/exitvoid/earpiece.png">The earpiece</a> is surgically attached to your ear/the side of your head. It's very basic in design: there's a small night vision camera on the front and 2 audio channels. These are controlled by buttons on the bottom and back of the earpiece. However, it's mostly useful as a face-to-face translator. Anything someone says to you in any language is automatically translated into your own by the device.

Then there's the 'compass'. It doesn't work as a compass - all it does is point toward the boat while it's docked (and nowhere when it isn't). Keep it on you at all times: there are some turrets down in the holds that will attack anybody not carrying one. Each compass is connected to every other compass on the ship by way of an intranet.

<a href="http://images.plurk.com/0c95d5f8bc779a074fd6df0b90a44cab.jpg">The network</a> is public. It's automatically translated as well, and there are three possible formats: text, audio, video. Select one and the record/write your message. If you have skills in encryption, you can lock messages to only a few people. It's also possible to post anonymously. Neither of those things are foolproof - anyone with the proper skills can crack it given enough time.

<a href="http://images.plurk.com/be711b8accdbab21a7fd165d980063da.jpg">Private messages</a> are the most secure by far. Everyone on board has a COMPASS-provided mail address - givenname.familyname@compass.net. They're almost impossible to hack with another compass, whereas encrypting messages on the network is prone to failure and open to interception.

[ Resistance Filter ]

The power source isn't detectable, but you'll notice the power draining after you've used it for a long period (it averages about a week). It seems to draw somehow from the energy of the user; when the power drains, you'll notice fatigue and weakness that steadily worsens as it recharges. The effect it has seems to vary between people, but it can be quite severe.

They're not passively recording you.

Map

<a href="http://i.imgur.com/1KeMD.jpg">The map</a> automatically downloaded when you came aboard. It shows all open and locked rooms, can be marked at any time for dangers or used to cross off rooms during a major search, and shows where exactly your compass is on the ship. If you're somehow lost, it can <a href="http://i.imgur.com/FPx0c.jpg">give directions</a>.

It can be used to broadcast your location to the other compasses on the ship either constantly or in case of emergency - that can be switched on and off any time. The whole app can also be removed at any time.

There are small marks on the map that change on a week-to-week basis. I believe the system is inadvertently picking up a signal of some kind, but I've never found anything at those locations. In all likelihood, they're a form of surveillance. Avoid them if you're doing anything you wouldn't want COMPASS to see.

Cipher

Any encryption used on the compasses right now is probably visible to COMPASS - this system won't be. The new program should have successfully installed onto all of the compasses.

There's been a change to the basic compass interface. When making a network broadcast, there is now <a href="http://i.imgur.com/2xrpen2.png">an option</a> to input a passcode. Someone will have told you it - it won't appear anywhere on the network. Don't put it there. With the correct passcode, the program will encrypt the content for the network.

<a href="http://i.imgur.com/jNgQxyz.png">An input box</a> for the same passcode will now appear on broadcasts encrypted in this way. If you're reading this, you've already used it, but it will appear on every post with this encrypted content.

The passcode is rotated frequently. Once more - when it changes, don't publish it anywhere on the network.

This cipher is specifically for content COMPASS should not see. Try not to use it for personal matters COMPASS probably doesn't care about.

[ / Resistance Filter ]

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[box] app

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 23:51:55 GMT

Player Information
Player name: Dara
Contact: specialmandate
Are you over 18: Yup!
Characters in The Box Already: None

Character Information
Character Name: Tali'Zorah vas Normandy
Canon: Mass Effect
Canon Point: London, Mass Effect 3 endgame
Is your character Dead, Undead or Alive: Alive

History:
Timeline of the Mass Effect universe

Key decisions made by Tali's (Paragon) Shepard:

*Allowed the Rachni Queen to live on Noveria
*Gave Tali the information on the evolution of the geth
*Saved Wrex on Virmire
*Saved Ashley on Virmire; Kaidan Alenko was killed
*Talked Saren into committing suicide
*Saved the Destiny Ascension
*Recommended Captain Anderson as human representative to the Council

*Recruited all companions, including Kasumi and Zaeed, completed all loyalty missions, mostly Paragon
*Obtained all upgrades to Normandy
*Tali was not exiled (rally crowd option: Kal'Reegar and Veetor'Nara spoke up for her)
*Destroyed the geth heretics
*Helped Liara become the Shadow Broker
*Destroyed the Collector base
*Completed covert mission into batarian space, attempted to warn batarians, but ultimately destroyed relay and system

*Recruited Javik, Diana Allers, Ashley Williams
*Helped Mordin Solus to cure genophage, Eve survived
*Saved Rachni Queen (again)
*Brokered peace between turians and krogan, quarians and geth
*All ME2 squadmates survived where possible
*Tali and Garrus taken on final push to London

Personality:
Tali is twenty-five years old. To first meet her, you'd think she was a minimum of ten years older than that. She's often quiet, serious and spends far more time thinking about work and duty than most her age probably would. But she's also a host of other things that can make her seem younger: curious to the point of incurably nosy, a nervous ball of energy in her own way, prone to fits of rambling and even of a slight awkwardness that can make her endearing.

As a 22 year old, not even an adult in her own culture, never having ventured out into the galaxy beyond her own fleet of ships, she was able to hold her own with Shepard's crew in taking down Saren and Sovereign. Only two years later, she was able to keep up with the greatest talent in the galaxy fighting the Collectors (canonically, she basically equals the hacking talent of the greatest human thief in the galaxy - and an AI). Whether or not she sees herself that way (more on that below), she is one of the best at what she does, period.

While she's probably what you could call a prodigy, it's not just innate talent. First off, like most quarians, she's been learning engineering and about mechanical systems since she was a small child. Those things come as naturally to her as breathing. Secondly, she wants nothing but the best from herself; her father being a brilliant man and a popular figure in the Migrant Fleet, he and everyone around them expected great things from Tali as soon as she was born. Their expectations became her demands of herself, and she strives never to fall short. This is part of why she works so damn hard on everything she does - because anything less than her best is failure.

Her upbringing also fostered in her a fervent sense of loyalty to her people - quarians are expected to give up everything for their people if need be and Tali embraces that. She's a person who lives for others - it's not even a matter of prioritising other people over what she wants: what she wants is tied up in others. Quarians, already placing huge importance on family and ancestors before the Geth War, bring their children up to have an incredible amount of filial piety (bearing in mind they consider the whole fleet, especially their own ship, as family), and quarians are expected to dedicate themselves to the advancement of the fleet. As a daughter of an Admiral, Tali in particular is expected to hold to that, and does. To a fault.

Tali's father's high demands and lack of any acknowledgement of her rising to them mean that she has spent her whole life feeling like no matter what she does, it isn't good enough. It always has to be better - and while she's acknowledged on the fleet as having genius-level talent and a hell of a lot of skill for someone her age, she blithely attributes her talents to simply being a quarian: they're all good at tech stuff. She may work hard to be good enough, but often feels like she falls short, even if she hasn't in the eyes of anybody else.

Her father's death as well meant that far from knowing whether or not he ever cared, she also had his responsibilities and the task of making up for his actions on her shoulders. Finding out that your parents aren't infallible is difficult - finding it out in the way she did and to that degree was worse. Tali's loyalty to her father, despite their whole relationship and what he did, trumped over that to the fleet - she spent her whole life trying to impress him, trying to be good enough for him. To go against that now would be to turn against everything she was, in a way.

For the most part, it's something she puts up with in silence; it's what she has to do, and she'll do it. When she opens up to Shepard about her anger with her father, it's when the pressure has reached such a point that she's drinking herself into a stupor - sober, she might never have said anything at all to anyone.

Tali can also be quite a bitter person, and not just because of her father. For years, like most other quarians, she despised the geth for taking their homeworld from them. To quarian children, they're the monster in the closet, the spectre at the edge of your vision in a nightmare - to her, they're the reason she can barely remember what her own face looks like, much less those of her parents, and why their whole race ekes out an existence between the cracks of other races' affluence. While her hatred of the geth lost its edge as she grew older, gained some perspective and actually met a geth, becoming friends with it and even mourning it when it died, she started downright vitriolic. Even with the war ended, she's not one hundred per cent comfortable with them. It's important to note, though, that this doesn't fully apply to other forms of synthetic life - Tali's probably quicker than most to recognise the personhood of an artificial intelligence because of her level of technical and personal understanding of the issue, and the amount of thought she's put into it. It doesn't mean she'll trust them (her first words upon meeting EDI in her new body are essentially, 'don't try anything stupid'), but she does acknowledge them readily.

However, for a long time, she refused to even hear the inconsistencies in her arguments about the matter because it was easier to blame the geth than look at her own people's faults - a people she lives for. If something she dedicates herself to entirely can be so wrong, so corrupt - what does that mean for her? Tali is a person who has dedicated herself to people and concepts that end up falling apart around her, and she does grow stronger for it, despite what she might think.

In truth, though, Tali is actually a very open and friendly person most of the time. She is well-liked, not only on the flotilla (where there was a campaign to instate her as Admiral after her treason acquittal), but on the primarily human-centric Normandy. She has little qualms about talking out how she feels most of the time (even to people she barely knows) and sees no shame in that, and asking her a simple question can lead to an in depth talk rather than the one-sentence answer you may have wanted.

Because of her upbringing - flotilla ships are very crowded, and often families live in tiny living spaces only separated from others by partitions - Tali is most comfortable around people, noise and activity. Silence isn't a peaceful thing to her: it's a dangerous thing, as silence on a flotilla ship could mean engine or life support failure. She likes to keep busy at all times, and can usually be found working or tinkering with something or other.

However, despite – or rather, because she is such a people person, Tali can sometimes feel very isolated from others, feeling as though the enviro-suit is a barrier between her and really being able to get to know other people. She worries that all people see when they look at her is a mask, and wishes she could just take the thing off and live her life like a normal person, especially since going on her Pilgrimage and seeing what exactly 'normal person' means to everybody around her. She has a romantic streak that makes her long for things like the touch of another without the suit between them, to really see a person's eyes or watch the sunset of her homeworld without a mask (which she finally did, even if it did make her ill). However, the fear of sickness wins out most of the time – her mother died of an opportunistic infection, and she and her entire people live in fear of silly things that would barely stagger any other species.

Because no one can see her face to know what she’s feeling by expression, she has a tendency of talking a lot to get her emotions across more clearly; this is especially bad when she’s nervous. While she has something of an air of vulnerability and she’s still kept a little bit of innocence to her, Tali is more than capable of taking care of herself, can have a temper (especially when people she cares about are involved) and can be surprisingly sarcastic in a very deadpan way – or maybe not so surprisingly; her shipmates on the Normandy have been rubbing off on her over the years.

Items on your character at canon point:
Environmental suit - essentially a hazmat suit-slash-armour-slash-space suit adapted for everyday long term wear; ideally, they never need to be taken off. Tali's is designed to be worn into battle - it has multiple military adaptations, including kinetic barrier generators (designed to repel/soften the impact of projectiles such as bullets), HUD, super-thin carbon fibre armour, combat seals in key areas of the suit to prevent the spread of infection and inbuilt storage of antibiotics / medigel to be dispensed automatically in emergencies (there is storage for medigel, but she hasn't any on her).

Geth plasma shotgun - a geth weapon, triple-barrelled, firing mini projectiles which fragment and flash-convert the air between them into conductive plasma.

Arc pistol - a quarian-developed pistol originally developed as an anti-synthetic weapon. Ionises the air to make it conductable enough to hit the target with a high-amp electric shock.

Omni-tool - a multi-purpose microcomputer mounted on the arm, used by holographic interface. Useful as a computer and a communicator in its own right, but also as an interface to other systems, a scanner and a weapon. It's offensive stuff will be offline in The Box.

Abilities, Strengths and Weaknesses:
Tali is a mechanical genius. Her people have a natural aptitude for mechanical systems and are known for their ingenuity, but Tali is a prodigy even among them. She can be put on an alien ship the likes of which she's never seen and know it inside out within a month. In her canon, she keeps up with an artificial intelligence and the greatest human thief/hacker in the galaxy. Complex programming problems and engineering systems aren't just easy for her, they're as natural as breathing.

She also has military training - specialising in pistols and shotguns, with technical knowledge of a variety of handheld firearms. In combat, even her technical expertise is a weapon - her omni-tool has functions that can be used to distract, weaken and hurt.

However, that's the extent of Tali's ability - she is fairly average physically. She's short, not particularly strong and can probably barely even hold her own in hand-to-hand combat. Quarians also have almost totally non-functional immune systems - if the suit malfunctions, she'll fall ill from any number of pathogens in the air. Generally stuff that humans wouldn't even notice could kill a quarian.

Samples
Network/Action Spam Sample:

[The voice that comes through in the broadcast is very slightly distorted, by someone speaking through a helmet-mic into a phone, but it's clear enough.]

This isn't exactly an omni-tool, but it'll do. [An attempt at looking on the bright side.]

My name's Tali'Zorah vas Normandy. I've heard it's not the first time this has happened, but apparently... I've been here before. I don't remember anything about this place, and I'd rather not spend much more time than I have to asking my crew all sorts of questions about things I was there for.

[... Pause to breathe.] So if anyone's got the time, I'd appreciate any important information you can think of. Things to watch out for, what the... Technicians? What they do to us, major events... I don't know. Anything useful.

Or even if it's not useful, I might want to know about it.

Tali'Zorah out.

Prose Log Sample:
Text drive!

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