themainframe | 006- Accidental Broadcast [video]

006- Accidental Broadcast [video]

[Today's broadcast is brought to you by Shepard's D-Terminal... But she's not on the screen. Nor is Monodramon. Instead, it's shaky footage taken from eye level, and it very rapidly becomes apparent that it's battle footage. From Shepard's helmet.]

[Of the first 7 and a half minutes of this. (Spoilers for the end of Mass Effect 2! Those who don't want to watch all 7 minutes can get the gist from the first thirty seconds and a quick glance at 6:10.)]

[Why? Well. Shepard figured out how to transfer files from her helmet's eyepiece to her D-Terminal, and determined that clip dangerously classified and disturbing enough to flat up delete, rather than risk anyone stumbling upon it.]

[And Monodramon has just broadcast it to the entire network by mistake.]

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[Well, you've successfully distracted her from wanting to murder her digimon. She caught the word 'Jabberwock' and, believe it or not, she does know the origin of that word.]

Alice in Wonderland..?

[She can't help but laugh a bit at that. She didn't really have much time to mull over the irony of that whole naming thing...]

Ah... sort of. It's a bit complicated to understand, and I'm not sure if you'd think I was crazy or not if I explained.

I no longer think anyone is crazy.

... Then would you believe me when I said I encountered the Jabberwock while I was fighting the physical manifestation of the concept of "nursery rhymes" that was summoned by a girl only coincidentally named Alice?

[. . .]

In the real world or in the computer?

The computer. But it's... complicated. The "nursery rhyme" manifestation, and all the partners of my opponents were programs, but... not just programs. The computer had been observing humanity since its very beginning, so they're not just something the computer made up. They're based on everything the computer recorded about a certain person.

[Shepard frowns and goes over that in her head.]

I think you lost me. The computer was making people based on... other people?

Pretty much.

[That's probably the simplest way to describe it.] They were perfect reincarnations of famous people from history, myth, and legend. Like Sir Francis Drake or Robin Hood.

Who are you? Or. Who was your partner? I'm not sure how that works.

I'm- [She was about to say "nobody", but that would kind of hurt.] Not anyone special. You're right; it's only our partners that were the famous ones.

[A pause. She's not sure how thoroughly to go into this, considering she was completely blown away by the revelation of her (female) Saber's true identity, so... maybe she should just stay vague...] My partner was a Roman Emperor.

[Well, she's heard of the Roman Empire.]

Which one?

[There's a moment of silence, and when Hakuno speaks up again, she sounds more than a bit hesitant.]

... Nero.

[Well. That. Shepard isn't the biggest history nerd, but she's heard of that one.]

Does he... live up to his reputation?

[...]

Er.

[...]

Well...

[Well this is awkward. Can't really hide it though, so...]

In some ways... not really. Like the fact that he isn't a he at all. Turns out Nero was actually a woman.

[It's funny, she didn't really have time to marvel at the strangeness of the gender mistake, when Saber first told Hakuno her true name. She was more concerned with the fact that the woman she had grown to care greatly for had met such a pathetic end as Nero's.]

She certainly was flamboyant enough to live up to the Roman Emperor stereotype. But under all that ego, she was... pretty nice. Not like the Caligula-ish monster that historians made Nero out to be.

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