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

[insurgent]

the unique bit doesn't
but believers call the energy that moves throughout the universe "the force"

[valcurie]

( huh, that sounds familiar. but unlike other things from her world like druids and warlocks and alchemy, there's no real world equivalent, historical or otherwise, so she doesn't think of it beyond that. )

Does this force have any goals or aim? Or is it just kind of there?
There are similar beliefs to that in my world. Something like a universal consciousness.

[insurgent]

maybe
supposedly it's been channeled for good and evil

[ if one believes in the legends of the jedi and the whispers of darth vader's work for the empire. doesn't mean the force itself has aims. ]

[valcurie]

What do you mean by channelled? Can it actually be used?

[insurgent]

life energy is still energy, isn't it?
all you need is the right conductor

or at least that's what the stories say

[valcurie]

That is true. If 'force' isn't just a mystical cognomen, then that might imply it could follow basic laws of physics.

I take it you haven't seen this force for yourself? If it's all over the universe, I imagine that would be something hard to miss. Or at least witness the effects of it.

[insurgent]

[ it takes her a few minutes to reply. she recalls her mother's earnest belief — or perhaps it was only desperation. trust the force. across the galaxy, people (rebel, imperial and unaffiliated) revered and valued kyber crystals. she thinks of chirrut, blind yet possessing foresight. most of all, she ruminates over the words he uttered to her the day she lost her papa on eadu. the force moves darkly near a creature that's about to kill.

he saw something that day. ]

i've seen things

[ informative. ]

[valcurie]

( well, thanks for that.

honestly, Mercy laughed at that. it suggests to her a statement of--not quite open-mindedness, but more a hint of willingness. there is a part of her that shares the sentiment. science has proven what consciousness actually is in her world, but if there's something more? provided it's not intangible, and given how crazy the world now is, she's not completely anathema to the notion of what if. but there has to be proof. )

That make you wonder?

[insurgent]

yes

[ it's not much, but jyn's willingness to give little answers like this means something, for her. ]

have you?

[valcurie]

( well, she's humoured her and more, so she only thinks it's fair to answer in kind. does she believe in souls? no, not as people in her world think of them. could there be something else? of course, that's always a possibility, and with the way things have ended up working out? she's not just about tell someone they're wrong because of her own, realistically very limited, experience. )

I have always been too busy for such things.

But there are people I know who have experienced things I have not.

[insurgent]

then why ask about this?

[ souls. beliefs. things. ]

[valcurie]

I would better know what my potential patients think. And, at least just a little bit, aren't you curious about what people from entirely alien worlds might think? Such a perspective is fascinating.

[insurgent]

i've been all over my galaxy
people have different perspectives in every spaceport

but the places themselves are more interesting

[ seeing them, not hearing about them. ]

[valcurie]

( somehow, she can't say she's surprised to learn this. though unseen, she smiles lightly. )

What's the sight that's inspired you most?

[insurgent]

when i was small, i climbed through the crystal caves on alpinn
they felt endless

[ but they've been mined and destroyed now; she's sure. ]

[valcurie]

Did they ever change depending on the time of day?

[insurgent]

no
have you seen crystals that do?

[valcurie]

If the sun is hitting them.
But only stones, never caves.
I would imagine they are dangerous to climb in.

[insurgent]

oh
i see

[ so a change with natural light, not the way kyber shifts in the core of lightsabers. ]

not too dangerous, really, when you have an experienced guide

[valcurie]

Where there any other adventures?

I've always wanted to go skiing again. Maybe one day.

[insurgent]

a few
meteor showers on wrea
chases through the smuggler's run asteroid belt

[ others, too, but none that are untinged by sadness and loss. ]

what's skiing?

[valcurie]

That smuggler's run is one I'd like to try. Well. The run. Maybe the smuggling.

It's a way to get around in the snow. You put long thin boards on your feet and then manoeuver with poles. It's most fun when you're going down the side of a really tall mountain slope. My home had a lot of those.

[insurgent]

[ she thinks of the snow-capped mountains of alderaan. do they skii there? ]

only for fun?
or is to expedite travel?

[ look, there wasn't much time for hobbies in the war. ]

[valcurie]

It depends on where you are.
Some place still have soldiers the are trained as part of a ski unit.
They do stealth missions, espionage, that kind of thing.

[insurgent]

[ man, that sounds way better than some of the dust-bowl missions she went on. ]

interesting
do you think they'll have skiing here?