video | un: Mercy

[valcurie]

Hello there! ( the image that appears is of a smiling blonde woman, healthy and bright looking, dressed now in pristine weight to present herself, projecting poise and elegance and friendly invitation to hear her out. her German Swiss accent is quite strong, though, so hopefully no-one is overly attached to their w's. ) I hope everyone is doing well this evening. I am coming onto the network to reach out to anyone I might not have been able to yet. My name is Angela Ziegler, and I am a doctor from Earth. Human, as you can see. ( a light, pleasant laugh and an even more pleasant smile ) You may also know me as Mercy. It's my agent name from when I was in service to a global peacekeeping organisation known as Overwatch.

I'm from the 21st century, so the treatment that I can offer you is science based ( a slight pause here as if she's considering one last time how to phrase this ) rather than magic based, but I have a good deal of practical experience with general medicine so there's almost nothing I haven't seen or dealt with. My expertise is in applied biotics, and I also have experience with gene therapy, prosthetics, and cybernetics, if there is anyone here who may need more specialised care. My qualifications also include emergency and trauma response so, if you ever find yourself wounded and in need of immediate attention, please do not hesitate to contact me. Think of me as personal 999 for refugees!

If you do come to me for any kind of care, I promise to do the best I can help you, while upholding all the oaths I've taken as a doctor to do no harm and to protect my patients. I'm not charging anything at this time.

And, if you'd like to humour me and help me to understand our group a bit better, I have a set of questions: do you believe you have a soul? What makes you think you do or don't have one? And is such a belief common where you're from? ( she doesn't mention religion, because it isn't strictly speaking a religious idea. she's known plenty of atheists and nay-theists who thought there was something beyond intelligence that made people paramount to other species. whether they called this unique internal animating light a soul or not, it didn't really matter. )

Comments

i'll throw something in your inbox, then!

[valcurie]

( perhaps it is a good thing she asked, then, even if she does inspire him--or whatever it is that is it-- to walk the line. )

All right. I will see you soon, Ardyn.

( Neutrally delivered, though there is a hint of a smile left for him. With that she ends the feed. )

[valcurie]

( hey, part of showing respect for someone, is also giving them a hard time. who cars if you also get to have a little bit of fun? )

Is that appropriating, or reapportioning?
Hmm. Not romance.
Space pirates, then? Whatever is the space equivalent of a swashbuckler.

[valcurie]

( she cocks her head for a moment, even putting her hand under her chin. )

Witches?

( that's an easy one, right? she's pretty sure he's messing with her. )

[valcurie]

So far it's people who are much older than they look. ( she laughs, because really, it's a lot older. ) Are you sure you haven't met any? It seems like if you were to toss a stick in any direction, you'd probably hit one. Maybe two.

[strictdiscipline]

[ She smiles, genuinely pleased. ]

Wonderful. Do you have a place of practice set up already or are you using your own home currently?

[ It seems a little rude to intrude on someone else's personal space for such a thing. ]

[rhygret]

Wh...no, look. Come on it's not as bad as it...

[ Actually. ]

...Okay yes it is as bad as it sounds buuuut! But: it's not like I lived on Pandora for most of my life. I actually had a pretty cushy job before it didn't work out, great health plan so long as you didn't die.

[ Since that's technically how the Big Promotions happened at work. Someone wanted your job and they spaced you for it. ]

I'm fine with doctors, seriously. Don't worry about it. How d'you think I wound up with a cybernetic arm?

[ That last bit there is him trying to lightly joke and lift the mood. He didn't expect her to sound so sincerely upset by this. Pandora has always sucked and he figured what little healthcare there was outside of Hypos sucked too. Heck he spent most of his time on Pandora being beaten up, he should know. ]

[kimaris]

[ It's complicated. That's really all there is to it. He's much more dead inside now, but at the same time, he has so much more to live for.

Then again, all of his reasoning here has been about someone else. Gaelio's becoming okay with his own soul, his humanity. It's not perfect, there are ways to improve, and there are parts of it that have been blown away and are likely unrecoverable.

Still, he's more interested in the fate of a different soul. One that he's failed to save. One that happens to be here. He's not going to correct her on it, because he'd rather keep the anonymity. ]

I don't believe in it more than as a state of mind. But the idea of one's humanity has been on my mind for the past couple of years. Even then, that should be the same.

[exonerated]

[ Congratulations, she chose the worst one yet!!

But he continues on, good natured as always, ] The one I know best is half-Giant, half-Djinn, and she is rather magical, though not as fantastic as you might believe. I never witnessed her use her power for good.

[ He can go on, if she still thinks he's messing with her. ]

[revlon]

My brother would say that I was born seeking a life of adventure. But somehow I don't think he could have imagined anything like this place.

Is that what you are, then? You and those you work with. Heroes?

[valcurie]

My own home, such as it is. ( a slight pause, then she sighs. ) Of course, things being what they are, I find Thesa provides a good deal of privacy. I can also make house calls, if one's roommates are not a concern.

[valcurie]

( congratulations, he's triggered her!! though to be fair it's not his fault that she takes helping people so seriously. he's trying to ease her tensions, she thinks, and that only makes it worse.

so she works on reining herself in immediately. )

Even a butcher-surgeon can remove a limb.

...But, tell me, what do you mean you have not always lived on Pandora? Did you work on a space station or something? Some kind of lunar settlement? ( his world is kind of confusing. )

[valcurie]

I'm guessing she didn't have a cute owl.

( haha. she has to admit, she's curious now, and a bit more than confused. a djinn and a giant coupling? she's glad she wasn't there to witness that one. she's going to try one more. )

Hmm. What about valkyries?

[valcurie]

( of course, she only has what she's presented with from him. and she's not really making many assumptions about him. she's just been inclined not to. perhaps because, for whatever reason, there doesn't seem to be much he's giving her to judge. he seems like a reserved, contained kind of person.

now that she thinks on it for a few seconds, it's rather striking. though, she doesn't dwell on it, she considers instead the different philosophical parameters. )

I understand what you mean though as said before, I would keep them defined separately.

I am not, however, the authority on things like that. I can heal bodies, but I cannot fix minds. That delicate work is beyond me. But it is good that you consider such things. I think being aware of them makes you more inclined to make better decisions.

[valcurie]

Was he rather well-adjusted? I think even in my own world, imagining something like this, would have got a few eyebrows raised at you. Especially the magic bits.

That is who the agents wanted to be. My job was just to make sure they didn't die doing so.

[strictdiscipline]

I'm sure they wouldn't mind, but there are five of us housed within the small space.

[ Not exactly ideal for house calls. There's barely enough free surface space for them, let alone a visitor. ]

But I'm sure they all could use a check-up as well, if you don't mind the extra work.

[rhygret]

[ That's an understatement... ]

Yeah, actually. I was back on Eden-5 until I got out of school and started interning for Hyperion. Once the Helios space station was finished out in the borderlands I transferred out there. Worked there for a couple of years until a promotion got stolen out from under me, went to get back at the guy by stealing his deal and...uhh. Long story short it didn't go well.

So yeah I lived on Pandora for a bit but it wasn't, like, a forever thing. Just until I could get Atlas--that's the company I started running before the world ended--back on its feet.

Settling on one planet forever is something you can do, sure, but you don't have to. People hop ship for vacations all the time. Aquator was especially popular among the upper execs.

[ before Rhys accidentally killed most of them. ]

[valcurie]

( a good-natured laugh comes before she speaks, aduibly brightened by the idea. she's a practical woman, and she likes to help people, so really, what better arrangement could she ask for without being grossly selfish? ) Well, that won't be a problem. Recently I have become better at working in confined and cramped places.

I would be happy to give everyone a check-up, if they will let me.

[valcurie]

( yeah that's pretty complicated...

at some point she sets her device down and wonders if she shouldn't be writing all this down? )

You were caught trying to get revenge?

And, excuse me for being dense, but I don't understand. If Pandora was such an awful place, why would you base your company there? Were other planets like Aquator too expensive?

[rhygret]

Yeah we, uh... Stole ten million dollars to try and grab a deal out from under someone. Only what he was supposed to be buying turned out to be fake and Hyperion doooesn't exactly like it when people steal from them. It all sort of worked out in the end?

But yeah. Pandora's...like probably the worst place in the galaxy to be honest. But it's got Eridium which everyone wants, and more than that it has Vaults. They're like super-secret alien treasure caches guarded by giant monsters. Sucks dealing with them but the stuff inside of them is worth millions.

[ AND Rhys totally hunted one of those bad boys down. Not to brag or anything. ]

[valcurie]

( ten million dollars.... has futuristic inflation made that, like, the equivalent of one hundred of hers, or is Rhys actually capable of such grand larceny? maybe she ought to give him another once-over just to be sure next time. even if he's already learnt his lesson. )

It sounds like a bit of dumb luck worked out in your favour. I pray you wouldn't try it again.

( ah, so millions are a lot. ) Did you ever manage to get any Eridium, or any of those loot hoards?

[rhygret]

[ hey now... Come on :c He had help! Vaughn was the numbers guy, it only took him a few seconds to abuse his accounting prowess for the greater good. Of him and Vaughn and Yvette. ]

Actually...we did find a Vault, yeah. But get this--the moment we opened it? The universe went and ended and I never actually got to see what was inside the dumb thing. I was totally ripped off by that Storm.

[valcurie]

( but who was the mastermind? not the one getting revenge? of course, revenge isn't something she likes to take, so her eyebrows always raise when someone else does. )

I believe they call that a cocktease. Or a cosmic middle finger.

[rhygret]

[ Rhys was definitely the mastermind. He was the one who found out about Vasquez buying a Vault Key, and he was the one who came up with the idea to steal the deal with Vaughn and Yvette's help. ]

Yyyyep. Sucks.

[ he wanted his alien treasure?? ]

[valcurie]

Well, I hope you get a chance to redeem yourself. Find some worthy treasure here. Becoming a treasure hunter seems like a fitting profession for this world, doesn't it?

( maybe he can mastermind that, too!!! )

[rhygret]

From the looks of things, yeah. But I have to admit it's not really the sort of life I've ever pictured myself living? Maybe when I was a kid playing pretend and stuff, but honestly? Running a business has always sort of been my dream. Vault Hunting, finding alien treasure... That's Fiona. I can barely keep myself out of trouble most of the time.