themainframe | [video] now with extra dragon hugs

[Well, there's a face we haven't seen in a while. Shepard is holding the D-Terminal fairly close to her and looking rather grim, and not just her facial expression. Her hair badly needs a trim and a wash, there's dirt on her face and what's visible of her clothes, and she even appears to have lost weight.]

Commander Shepard reporting in.

[Her voice is the same strength as ever, though.]

Looks like randomly ditching me all the way across the damn island by myself is this place's idea of a joke, so I'm going to need an update. And preferably a check in from a few of you, just to make sure nobody's gotten themselves blown up while I was gone.

[This means you, heroic-type friends and boyfriend. There's a quick flash of purple at the bottom of the screen, and Shepard's expression shifts from solid irritation to a sort of rough affection.]

Stop nuzzling me, Cadet.

I've been looking everywhere for you, Commander!

[Shepard pauses before reaching down to pat her partner on the nose. She looks back at the screen.]

I should go.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[She frowns. Heavily.]

Who fell in? Are they alright?

[Aaand there's a wince.]

Your tethers broke? Did that happen last time?

Masaru--one of them, anyways. He's fine, he managed to get out on his own.

The tethers breaking was new, too... but we figured it out. Basically, a crest appeared for me and it showed us a path out.

[Yeah... Tenacity. That thing he had... that crest that had made Guilmon go crazy. His face falls a little, though he doesn't let the smile leave his face. It turned out fine.]

[She's given up on the 'doubles' of people being explained.]

A crest? Who or what is that?

[Ed holds up his crest of Tenacity.]

You know, like they talked about in the intro letter? It lets our digimon digivolve further.

...In my case, the light was dark, and it made Guilmon go crazy. I don't think I should be using it.

[Man, it's been a long time since the intro letter.]

Didn't really expect them to be... jewelery.

[But her eyes go wide at that.]

It can overpower the digimon's free will? Like the dark digivolutions?

...It was a dark digivolution.

I screwed up.

What'd you do?

[There's more curiosity than judgement here, at least.]

I... kept going.

And going.

Until I couldn't anymore... and then I saw a pth open that'd let me keep going and I just went after it.

[Okay, that doesn't quite make sense to her.]

Makes sense to me.

[She's a soldier, man, she doesn't ever stop pushing the limits.]

How'd you mess up?

The 'path' that opened up was my crest letting me divert some of my energy into Kyubimon. So, I was desperate, 'cause I'd pushed too far and Kyubimon wasn't moving and I wasn't moving anymore either so I just diverted what I could into it.

...I probably used more than I should have, or something. It got warped and turned weird and suddenly bam. Kimeramon. I threw off the balance.

[It sounds more like a hardware problem than a personnel problem, but, then again, digimon aren't entirely organic, are they? Shepard nods.]

You made a mistake. Everyone came out of it alive, right? Don't beat yourself up, you got valuable information on how to work with digimon that the rest of us can use, and you couldn't have known what would happen.

[Overloading the cannons or pushing a soldier of a new species too hard, what's the protocol when it's one and the same?]

Yeah, but... I should have known.

This energy path stuff felt similar to magic and things like that... Magic's like the one thing I really know, and I couldn't even tell it was going wrong before it happened. I should have been able to--there were signs. It felt sour, desperate.

This kind of stuff isn't black and white. Sometimes what you do when it's do or die, or when it feels like do or die isn't the best idea in retrospect, but that sure didn't occur to you at the time.

Yeah, b-but... I can't make that kind of mistake. I can't afford to.

Well, it happened. Beating yourself up isn't going to help. Learn from it instead.

But what if I do and then I make the same mistake next time and then I keep making the same mistake?!

I'm bull-headed about this stuff!

Do you really think you'll do exactly the same thing twice?

...Probably not.

Then you've learned something.

[SIGH.]

Y-yeah.

Man, just once I want to learn something without almost dying.

[Okay, that made her laugh.]

I feel you on that one.

[Every information gathering mission involves bullets. It's a problem.]

[I just keep getting stabbed and/or horribly mutilated.]

We need to figure out a way to just like get information or something without all the getting hurt. But no, I never listen... [Sigh.]

At least nobody's died for it yet.

[Soldiers!]

[video] now with extra dragon hugs

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject