entrancelogs | open } she's had her fill of destinies and that's why she flew away

Right, they talked on the Citadel. That wasn't super long ago for Shepard, but everything's a bit of a blur right now, and she's certain she's not the only person Georgia spoke to during that event. Regardless, Shepard does a little feathery bow when she claps, swinging her taloned arm to her midsection and raising her eyes in a way she hopes looks like raised eyebrows. God, trying to make expressions without a movable mouth is hard.

"I'll be honest- did not expect it to be that impressive. Still kinda getting the hang of this magic thing." She doesn't quite put out the fire, though she does kick some sand on the nearer flames. "Glad I could help."

She did a lot more than help, considering Georgia's own powers are so support based. Still, if she's offering support, at least it's very useful support. "Need healing? Seems to be a specialty of mine."

She brushes some of the wisps of flames off the ends of her feathers, still a little bit amused. "I'm good, actually. I think part of the boon is if I burn something, it replaces the plumage. Damn sick of the phoenix jokes, but I guess at least now I get something out of it. You alright?"

Georgia shrugs and lets dark energy come out of her fingertips, touching her own arm. It courses through her and the bruises and scrapes she's accumulated through the course of the battle fade away. "Now I am."

Her eyes still burn a little, but that's okay in a different way.

"Phoenix jokes. Those come before or after the feathery makeover?"

See, now that was much more interesting to watch, in her opinion. Then again, she's pretty desensitized to fire, but objectively speaking a giant flaming bird is probably a pretty fascinating sight to most people.

"Before. Way before. At this point I just think Wonderland wants to fuck with me." She shakes one of her arms, quelling the flames to a tiny smoky smolder. "First time I haven't been human though. It's less weird than I thought it'd be, I guess."

"Same. There was an event where I could turn into a fox, but I could also turn back." It had still been weird as fuck. "I suppose at least I'm still a mammal." Can't be nearly as weird as suddenly being a bird.

"You have a habit of bursting into flames and coming out of the ashes alive?"

Oh yeah, she remembers that one. Didn't really end up using that animal thing an incredible amount. Mostly it was about that fucked up series of mind puzzles, but she got through them without much fuss. But Shepard can't help but snicker at Georgia's comment, speaking before she actually remembers that telling people you were super dead is horrifying to most.

"Well, only once, and technically I was dead for about two years in the interim. But, y'know, combo that with the hair and the obligatory firepower joke and I've heard it a thousand times."

Georgia's face might be different than she's used to and her lack of sunglasses makes hiding her emotions more difficult, but she still is very used to not giving anything away. So while her eyes widen very slightly at the reveal, it doesn't register as anything more than mild surprise. And she's not horrified, though it isn't what she expected. More... sad. Maybe it went better for Shepard than it did for her, but somehow, she still doubts it was easy.

"It was only about a year for me. Legally, though, I guess I still am." Which is great. No one would miss her if she disappeared. She's not even supposed to exist. "That'll be a fun legal battle."

“Oh.” It kind of slips out before she can think to hold it back, because honestly, she’s never met anyone else who died and came back. It’s a surprise she didn’t expect to meet, even though it makes no sense that there wasn’t someone else out there in the multiverse that had her same experience.

Maybe she just spends so much time letting it isolate her that it’s jarring now to hear there are others.

“It kinda was a paperwork disaster, though, yeah.” Keep it light, keep it fun. “Thankfully I had some people in security that owed me a few favors so I didn’t have to do much but go ‘Hey, well, I’m alive, aren’t I?’ But it could’ve been way harder.”

"I do have a few connections I can probably pull."

The president and vice president of the United States, for starters. Also the EIS agents who are breaking her out. She's sure it's not out of the goodness of her heart, and if they actually want something out of her they're probably going to have to establish her as legally alive and herself.

"I have to escape the highly unethical secret government cloning lab first. That was sort of a work in progress when I came here."

She can't help but chuckle, because god, is this what it feels like to talk to her most of the time? That what she did just sounds incomprehensible taken out of context? It's kind of remarkable.

"So clones too, huh? Mine fell out of the cargo bay after trying to lock me in a vault and then stealing my ship. Was about one of my last actions before I showed up here." Man, that still sounds weird to say, even. "Was kind of a secret clone situation, though. Not government funded in my case."

"I am the clone. But since the original is dead and I've got 97% her memories, I don't think she'd mind me starting up where she left off."

She doesn't know for sure. She is Georgia, since it's not like there's anyone else she can be, but she also isn't, not exactly. Her memories don't tell her how the original Georgia would have felt about a clone. It was so far beyond the realm of probability that she never bothered thinking about it.

Her expression darkens a little. "Better me than the less accurate clones they built."

That much, she's sure of. Original Georgia might not have liked being replaced. But she wouldn't want Shaun to be alone, and she absolutely wouldn't want him to get the brainwashed other Georgia they were making for him. And besides, when it comes down to it, original Georgia's opinion doesn't matter anymore. She's dead. And this new Georgia is the closest thing she'll get to living on.

Damn, this just keeps getting wilder. She quirks an eyebrow, not in a way that seems judgmental but absolutely seeming curious. "Yeah, I think you've got me beat in the clone department. Only got the one that ended up functional enough to move."

She knows she's her, at least, because her clone didn't have any of her old memories- couldn't replicate those, or maybe they just didn't bother.

"Sorry about that, though. I imagine it'd be rough to readjust."

Readjusting isn't really the rough part. Getting used to a factory fresh body that isn't as strong as the one she was used to since it just hasn't had the opportunity to get that way, getting used to her brand new eyes that don't give her migraines but also don't give her the creepy advantages she's used to.... it's a little rough. But not half as rough as the part where she's still being held and used as a lab rat and they definitely don't intend to ever let her go or give her internet access.

She just gives a slim, barely-there smile. "You'd know just as well as I would. If it wasn't cloning, what brought you back?"

"Well," It comes out less like a word and more like a sigh. "Got spaced when my ship went down trying to get my pilot off. Massively rich mystery man heading a human-centric terrorist organization got the rights to my body and ended up regrowing everything piece by piece. I woke up after 2 years under, did a little bit of work for him mostly because people would've died if not, and then stole all his shit. Then a couple years after that, turns out they'd made a backup of some kind without my memories, in case I needed extra organs or something. Someone had broke her out and she was coming to kill me and take my place. Wasn't me, though. Just looked it."

She shrugs, like this is just a normal day for her, because objectively, in her world dying for 2 years isn't even a hugely major plot point. "She made the mistake of not winning over my crew. Kick my ass, sure. Kick all my friend's asses at once? Much harder of a fight."

She raises an eyebrow. "Pardon me if I'm missing the subtleties, but what's the difference between what he did and cloning?"

"I mean. I feel like the idea behind a clone is you started from nothing. Still my brain, I guess." Honestly, she's never thought about it. Maybe she's just never had time to think about it. It's... a little worrying, if she's being entirely honest. "That was the only difference between me and her, aside from the memories."

There's a part of Georgia that's jealous, though she doesn't let it show on her face. She'd spent a while holding on to the slim if not entirely realistic hope that her brain was still her own. She didn't know how it would be possible, since the virus would have been active there as much as anywhere else, but she felt like herself. She wanted to believe that the most important part of her was still intact somehow.

But it wasn't. It was just a copy of the contents.

"That's got to be something of a relief. That she didn't have your memories. She might have looked like you, but she wasn't you."

"I guess." She's not sure what she would've preferred, honestly. If the clone had been a better version of her, maybe her friends could've gotten a better Shepard. Guess it's just her now, though. At least she didn't try to lock any of her friends in a vault until they suffocated.

"It was pretty jarring seeing her walk up, though. Especially since she'd spent the day trying to kill me with us on a wild goose chase to try and track her down. The whole thing was wild, to be honest."

"I can relate." Her other clones hadn't been walking, but seeing them nearly broke her. It did break some of the clones that came before her, which is nice and fun to think about. "I hope that you don't have to deal with things like that again."

"You too." Not that either of them will remember this when they get home, but who knows what could be pulled out of someone's memories while they're still here. As if the lab event a few months ago and seeing her adult body in a vat wasn't bad enough.

"Well. You lookin' to find more of these things to fight? 'Cause I wouldn't mind making some targeted strikes with a partner if you're still down to party." She can't quite raise her eyebrows like this, being that birds don't have them, but she's hoping the slightly open beak and head tilt convey the playfulness of the statement.

Georgia considers, tilting her head. "I'm game." It's usually more Shaun's thing than hers, but... she's got a whole lot more aggression to work out lately. There are worse ways than beating the crap out of some rock mutants.

She grins, even if she can't quite grin with the beak. She hopes it conveys properly, at least.

"Let's get it goin', then. I promise to keep you away from the fire."

open } she's had her fill of destinies and that's why she flew away

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