video, backdated to pre-plots

[thebioticwoman]

[Shepard has settled into her quarters, and the background to her transmission is a thrilling expanse of undecorated wall with a little bit of couch cushion visible near the bottom of the frame. She herself is a red-haired, pale-skinned human woman with green eyes and a calm, no-nonsense demeanor, wearing what looks like it could be a military or merchant marine uniform, though it has no obvious insignia or rank.]

My name's Shepard. I just got here, obviously, and I have a question. The staff was polite about it, but considering one of them nearly dropped his datapad when I floated the idea, there's obviously something they're not telling me...why is "Spectre" a bad codename?

[She could just freakin' Space Google it, but this is a good icebreaker. Besides, she doesn't have her omni-tool and she finds the omnicomm interface unreasonably clunky and inflexible.]

Comments

[unrecovered]

There's currently a wrath-of-God entity running around the galaxy and dispensing whatever they consider to be justice in...interesting, creative ways. Not something you want to be associated with.

Also, Google still exists. So you know.

[thebioticwoman]

[Oh, uh. That actually does kind of sound like her job. She's a merciful special agent with near-unlimited extrajudicial authority, at least.

Maybe best not to mention that just yet.]

"Google?" Like the number?

[Unspoken question: what does that have to do with what she asked?]

[unrecovered]

Like the search engine.

[No sarcasm; turns out dimensional differences are A Thing, and he occasionally needs a moment to remember that.]

It might not exist in your dimension.

[thebioticwoman]

["Search engine" she can figure out, even though they don't use the term where she's from.]

Oh. We just call it an "extranet search."

[Shepard's nose wrinkles a little in distaste, but she's looking just enough down from the camera that it's clearly not at Wash himself.]

Gotta get used to a new interface, I guess.

[AUDIO]

[kingtyrantranger]

Nice to meet you. I'm Jason.

[On to the question.]

Anyway, the Spectre's already around. They say he's the Wrath of God. Kills murderers and other criminals. Spooky powerful, too. I read that he destroyed an entire country because he figured they'd never stop their civil war.

All I really know for sure is that he let a teammate of ours die just to get a reason to kill someone.

audio

[thebioticwoman]

[Shepard hisses softly between her teeth.]

That's...very legalistic.

[kingtyrantranger]

Yeah. He works out of the Bible, I guess. We've got files and video of him in action, if you want.

But, yeah. At this point it's kind of like calling yourself Jason Vorhees or something. Sorry.

[thebioticwoman]

[There's a delay before Shepard replies, because she's watching the anonmeme video.]

...I see.

[She's got no problem with killing, but the legal system exists for a reason.]

I'm gonna assume "Vorhees" isn't your last name?

[Shepard's familiarity with 200-year-old slasher flicks is minimal.]

[saltsweet]

Partly because someone already has it and he's kind of an asshole.

He also killed one of our own, so using that for a code name really wouldn't go over well around here.

[thebioticwoman]

Yeah, one of the Spectres before me back home was no prize, either.

[saltsweet]

So Spectres are just as great in your universe too. [ The sarcasm is blatant. ] So why pick a code name with so much stigma?

[thebioticwoman]

[If Videl being a bit aggro is bothering Shepard, it doesn't show.]

One MP getting tossed for taking bribes doesn't discredit the whole parliament. Same thing holds for any organization, Spectres included. The Council revoked the guy's Spectre status as soon as they had proof he'd gone rogue, and sent me to take him down.

[Shepard can't honestly claim to be a fan of the Council, but she's not getting into her universe's politics over one person being weirdly confrontational.]

text

[mylawn]

Call yourself what you want. What'd you end up running with?

text

[thebioticwoman]

Sentinel. It's a nickname for my combat specialization. Nobody cleared their throats awkwardly about that one, so I think I'm good.

[mylawn]

Military?

[It is an entirely obvious thing to say, because she screams military, but hey. 76 wants to know.]

[thebioticwoman]

[Jack Morrison, detective.]

Marine, special forces.

[headinjuries]

Well, unless you wanna go for that "reclaim the name and make it good again" thing like Brainy is...

[thebioticwoman]

Not worth fighting over. I'm not attached enough to the title to insist on it.

[She's looking at Sam slightly dubiously. He looks a little young for this.]

[headinjuries]

Probably a good thing. People get kind of wacky about the religious stuff anyway.

[ He has noticed that dubiousness and is (with annoyance) trying to ignore it. He's good at this, okay. He knows stuff. ]

[spacesharks]

See, if you ended up anywhere else, that'd probably be a great code name. But some people just have to go and ruin it for everyone. It'd kinda be like going by Joker at this point. It sounds innocent, but doesn't exactly inspire confidence.

[...okay, maybe that was a "worst case" scenario, but you know.]

oh, well played

[thebioticwoman]

[Shepard blinks, then laughs in disbelief, shaking her head.]

Okay, I'll bite, what's wrong with Joker?

[Besides brittle bone disease and a pathological inability to take anything seriously.]

haha! all my gl examples were too obviously evil, had to go for something more "subtle."

[spacesharks]

More like what isn't wrong with it. Where I'm from, it belongs to one of the most notorious homicidal maniacs the world has ever known. I guess a thousand years into the future, not much has changed.

I always just kinda feel a little bad for all the innocent clowns out there that haven't murdered anyone yet.

[Yet...]

voice

[superscholar]

... You've probably already had the Spectre explained, I imagine.

[ Gohan does not like talking about the Spectre, just on principle. He was against letting the guy loose from the very start. ]

Can I ask why you wanted to pick that as a codename?

voice

[thebioticwoman]

It's my job title. Stands for "Special Tactics and Recon."

[Shepard's really only creative when it comes to killing things.]

voice

[superscholar]

Huh. Well, I guess that makes enough sense...

... If it helps any, we're working on a way to contain him again. It's a long shot, but if you ever want the codename back...