[IC] Contact (maskormenace)

[youbastard]

Hello, you've reached the voice mail of Ellie Langford. If you leave a message with your name and number I'll try to get back to you as soon as I get the message.

Comments

[youbastard]

Alright. [ She shakes her head. ]

Trust me, I know exactly how that feels. It's...really awful. Especially here. The longer I'm here the more I've realized just how little power I have with everything back home.

[kanadian]

Yeah. I mean, at least at home there was...hope? We might be outnumbered and outclassed, but there's something there. There's -- I don't know, I feel like we have a shot.

Half the time here, it's like there's no chance at all that we can stop it. It's like... I don't know, we have to take each hit and just keep taking. No matter what we do, we can't -- I can't prevent it. I've never been this unprepared.

[youbastard]

Welcome to my life back home too. [ She said it with a tiny laugh to try to make it not as depressing of a statement it was. ] It's really hard to deal with knowing that there's no way to be prepared. But it sounds like you've at least got something with the omnitool possibility. At least that's a plan.

[kanadian]

Yeah. I'm hoping... I don't know, I hope it works. I... really hope it works. It might -- I'm gonna have to do some programming to get it right.

[youbastard]

Do you think you'll have to test it first?

[kanadian]

Probably, as unpleasant as it'll be.

But I'd rather test it than wait until the moment it's needed.

[youbastard]

[ She looked at him and took another drink. ] I can help whenever you do it. I could heal if anything goes badly or you need something and I could negate pain if the attempt got too bad. [ They are special people to be discussing this so casually. ]

[kanadian]

Oh -- That's... That's a great idea, actually.

I'd appreciate it. It's...reassuring? Less chance I'll just keel over dead.

[youbastard]

And nobody would want that. There's also less chance you'll end up in agonizing pain.

[kanadian]

Oh. That's good. I don't want to be in agonizing pain, either.

[youbastard]

Had you not thought of that as a possibility yet?

[kanadian]

Oh, I have, I'm just...used to it.

[youbastard]

You're used to agonizing pain?

[kanadian]

Migraines. They're worse here -- without the painkillers we had back home.

[ Well, they were bad enough back home, here they were...something else. ]

But, you get used to it.

[youbastard]

Why have you never said anything? [ Why do the people she knows always suck at sharing things like this?

oh wait who is she to talk? ]

There's probably things you could do here. Or you know, maybe someone could heal you and take it away. It could work. Or could be attempted. I could have helped you if you've ever had a bad one.

[kanadian]

Uh -- I didn't realize --

Ellie, it's not a big deal. I've been getting them since I was a teenager, and I'm lucky, it's my -- implant. Healing it isn't going to do anything. I'm used to it by now.

[youbastard]

I can't imagine getting used to it happening. I'm sure if you looked or something you could find some better painkillers at least.

[kanadian]

[ He laughed. ] It's not... muscular. It's...mechanical.

I'm not dead,and I'm not crazy, so the pain is something I can deal with, but painkillers aren't... they don't really work. Not for this? It's hard to explain without the medical officer to use all of the technical terms.

[youbastard]

I think I'd probably be more confused if the medical officer was here to give me the technical terms. [ She let out a tiny laugh of her own. ] As long as you can deal with it.

[kanadian]

I've been on the battlefield with it, and I'm still standing. I'd say that's a pretty good sign so far. Trust me, if it gets bad, I know how to deal with it. I've had these since I was... I don't know, probably almost two decades ago.

[youbastard]

I'm surprised they let you out on the battlefield with something like that. I guess that's a testament to how well you handle it. [ She shook her head. ] Norton couldn't even handle little injuries out on the field. [ Her ex was pathetic. This is a fact. ] I'm still sorry you have to deal with something like that at al.

[kanadian]

Hey, it's... I guess you could say I'm used to it. As bad as that sounds, I am used to it. They wouldn't have let me through basic if they thought I had a chance of snapping, but after the whole thing with Conatix when I was a kid...

I think they feel safer with me on their side, than on the other side. Or...I think that's how it probably started, but then I proved myself. They can't argue with results.

[youbastard]

You might be surprised at just how much people can argue with results. [ It was pathetic but a lot of people did. ] I've known some people that even argued with people who had proven themselves.

[kanadian]

Yeah. [ He rubbed at the back of his neck. ]

I've been known to do that myself. Sometimes... prejudices -- or our perceptions kind of get in the way. I got like that about Shepard once, and it... I'm not proud of it.

[youbastard]

[ She frowned a tiny bit. ] At least you got over it before it was too late though and you learned from it.