video

[boyscoutking]

[ The video feed is fixed sharply on a man sitting at a table, broad shoulders pinned back in the perfect example of good military posture. As soon as he realizes the video is recording, his lips part, momentarily silent as he contemplates what it is he's got to say. Hesitation isn't Shepard's usual MO, but here he is verging on ready (he thinks) to ask a difficult question. ]

Hello, I'm Commander Shepard. [ He pauses to nod briefly at the beady little eye of the camera, jaw set in a way that spells out dogged determination despite the exhausted look in his eyes. ]

To those that have some experience here, I've got a question about the process. [ A very specific question that he's not been able to answer for himself. ]

Is there any data you can share on imPorts who were dead before they arrived?

[ He'd like to know how he's here, in one piece, despite dying for a second time right before he woke up. ]

I'd appreciate an explanation.

[ And that's all he really has to say, nodding at the camera once more before reaching out to the comms device. ]

Shepard out.

[ The video goes blank, the recording ended just like that. ]

Comments

[permavid]

[heartstings]

I'm dead-ish back home. Like, I'm living it up in Valhalla but that's the afterlife so...

I guess I'm like a ghost or something? [ She shrugs. ]

audio

[boyscoutking]

A ghost?

When you arrived, did you get any information on how you could have been brought back from being... dead-ish?

[heartstings]

The best equivalent I could come up with, 'cuz it's like I'm still alive but I know I'm not.

I didn't bother asking because that was kinda the norm before? Like, the first 'Porter in the other world kinda like housed a goddess or something equivalently powerful. She was a bitch but had the power to bring back the dead.

But that's getting into a loooooong boring story.

Anyway! Them bringing us back is connected to the nanites they shoot us up with when we arrive.

[boyscoutking]

I think I understand.

[ At least, he appreciates the effort she's going to in order to explain.

A lengthy pause, and then: ]

Not sure I follow how they'd be able to inject nanites into a... uh, not a body.

[heartstings]

[ She shrugs. ]

I guess the 'Porter, like, 3D prints us a body?

[boyscoutking]

[ Not exactly the first time he's been at least partially rebuilt. Should be used to it by now, if that's really what happens. ]

Not a bad theory. I don't have any better ones.

Have you ever come across anybody in a similar situation?

[unrepentantsoul]

This one has been dead for some time in her world, but also alive again. Is the Shepard asking about how it happens in general or how it happens here?

[boyscoutking]

I was thinking more specifically here. I've got a couple ideas of how it happens otherwise.

You were dead in your world? Where are you from?

[unrepentantsoul]

The world that exists on Mundus, the material plane, is known as Nirn. And yes, this one was very much dead. And then she was not.

[boyscoutking]

What cluster is that in? Haven't heard of it before...

Did you get any information when you got here about how you're alive again?

[unrepentantsoul]

Cluster...?

[Her would be question was cut off at his new one and she paused, brows knitting.]

Ah. No. This one is sorry for not being clear. She died in her world and was then alive in her world. And then she was here. She did not return to life in this world. Yet. She assumes that if she dies here she will reform here as the information about the nanites she was given speaks of this.

[boyscoutking]

Yeah, that's the impression I'm getting though the fact nobody knows for sure is... a little unsettling.

In my experience, being brought back is never without condition. I'd like to get to the bottom of what those conditions really are.

video

[am_i_a_monster]

I died before I came here.

The best explanation I can give is it has something to do with the porters and the nanites, but I don't understand it. I knew others who deserved a second chance at life more.

audio

[boyscoutking]

Thanks for responding. Nanites seem to be coming up a lot.

Not sure many people deserve what they get. Guess it's about how you use what you're given?

[am_i_a_monster]

Yeah, I try to make the most of the life I have here.  I have a lot that I couldn't have had back home and very day here is one more day than I was supposed to have had.

[boyscoutking]

Good way to look at it. Coming back to life from death... it's not easy.

[am_i_a_monster]

I take it you're another member of the back from the dead club?
Are you okay?

[boyscoutking]

You could say that.

[ Second time and counting.

And he does appreciate the follow up question, even if he's not going to be honest in his reply. ]

Me? Oh, I'm fine. Thanks.

Finding it helpful to try and get to the bottom of the 'how did I get here' question.

permavid

[mortalweapon]

[ There is an all blue, armored thing watching back through the feed. ]

You are not the first.
And you will not likely be the last.
The machine that brought you here is not held by traditional constraints like time or space.
Death, if anything, is a minor logistical inconvenience.

audio

[boyscoutking]

Yeah, I'm starting to figure.

Seems strange that it exists in this world but... I don't know, maybe I'm wrong but... this world doesn't seem technologically advanced. Unless I'm missing something.

Makes me wonder how that machine got here. Where's it from? If it's always been here, who made it?

video;

[youarespecial]

I died back in my world, but then I came back to life before being imported.

audio

[boyscoutking]

So... you were alive before you got ported in? Not dead?

audio

[youarespecial]

Well, I did get hit by another car right before I got ported in.

[boyscoutking]

...another car?

That sounds... rough.

[youarespecial]

Yes, another car. Fucking hate cars.