InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Would you like a jelly baby?"

kaidan alenko loves the decor in here (secondspectre) wrote in the100,
@ 2015-12-27 19:01:00

Entry tags:

!network post, alistair theirin, audrey parker, herc hansen, kaidan alenko, tali’zorah vas normandy

network post: kaidan alenko
I always thought I was just lucky that my L2 implants only cause migraines, when so many other L2 biotics suffer so much worse — but I think I spoke too soon. My migraines are getting worse, and pain is spreading, mostly through my shoulders and down my arms. I keep forgetting things, little things, and every time I have a lapse in memory or get confused or zone out I start to think that the L2s are catching up with me.

I haven't told Shepard. I didn't want to complain; he has enough of his own shit to deal with.

(Read comments) - (Post a new comment)

	stoptheclock 2015-12-28 01:05 am UTC (link)
	He'd want to know either way. If he's your commander, your health is important to his mission. As his boyfriend, your health is still important to him. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	secondspectre 2015-12-28 01:11 am UTC (link)
	When we were at war it meant pushing through the pain. Migraines were hard to fight through but getting the job done was more important. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	stoptheclock 2015-12-28 01:18 am UTC (link)
	I understand that. After all my years of service in a jaeger, there was no guarantee that the next time I suited up, the drift wouldn't finally overload my brain. No guarantee that I wouldn't get sick like so many of the first generation of pilots did. I took the chance time and again anyway. You're not at war here. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	secondspectre 2015-12-28 01:19 am UTC (link)
	Your first generation of pilots got sick? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	stoptheclock 2015-12-28 01:33 am UTC (link)
	We used nuclear reactors to power the jaegers. Pushed production through fast on the Mark-1s, didn't account for protecting the pilots from exposure. That was fixed later on. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	secondspectre 2015-12-28 01:39 am UTC (link)
	That's essentially what happened with the biotic implants. L1s didn't do enough to be functional, and the L2 implants caused major power spikes but they're unstable. Some L2s are demanding reparations from the government. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	stoptheclock 2015-12-28 01:42 am UTC (link)
	Unstable, causing problems like you described? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	secondspectre 2015-12-28 01:44 am UTC (link)
	Yeah. It's a piece of tech that gets embedded in your brain, and then there's a port at the back of my head where I can plug in a bio-amp and it boosts my biotic abilities. They're safe now, Shepard's got an L5x and they're fine. It's not quite like sticking yourself in a nuclear reactor. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	stoptheclock 2015-12-28 01:50 am UTC (link)
	We didn't think about the risk much back then. Just did the job, tried to stop the kaiju at any costs. There was a lot we didn't know while we were testing the program out and trying to make it work. So what can be done about the tech? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

secondspectre
2015-12-28 01:57 am UTC (link)

It happens, when everything's new. I try not to blame the people who put it in, and I just hope they didn't really know what it would do. There's a whole generation of biotic kids who are either dealing with chronic pain, mental instability, or they're dead because they couldn't take it — or they went terrorist trying to get reparations.

Nothing, really. There's a way to retrofit a newer implant model but that's not really possible here, and it's essentially a 50/50 risk of being lobotomized. Removal's not an option, either, but Tali's being optimistic.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	stoptheclock 2015-12-28 02:14 am UTC (link)
	I hope they didn't really know, too. It's not difficult to see why it'd be hard for them. I can't say we didn't know that illness was a possibility, but those of us who signed up in the early days really just wanted to do anything we could to stop the kaiju. If it wasn't radiation from the nuclear cores killing us, it was combat. Pain management, then? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	secondspectre 2015-12-28 02:20 am UTC (link)
	Sometimes you have to take those risks when you sign up. I've known a lot of good men and women who gave up their safety and even their lives in order to fight. Shepard's one of them. Basically. Hawke helps. I don't want to use up the medicine stores. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	stoptheclock 2015-12-28 02:32 am UTC (link)
	You have to take care of yourself, too. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	secondspectre 2015-12-28 02:49 am UTC (link)
	I can afford to take the time now. I couldn't, then. I spent a long time in the hospital after a brain injury I sustained on Mars — I think that might have something to do with this. I took it easy when I first got out, I was named a Spectre but I was essentially put on bodyguard duty for Udina, which ... went to hell. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	stoptheclock 2015-12-28 02:54 am UTC (link)
	Take the time. You've earned it. You've been to Mars. I don't know if I'll get over being surprised by things like that. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

secondspectre
2015-12-28 03:02 am UTC (link)

Mars is our next door neighbor, so that's not saying much. There's not a lot out there, outside of Lowell City and a few other colonies. Colonization halted because Prothean ruins were found and they're still out looking for more — well, that, and FTL travel took over, and Mars suddenly looked like our backyard instead of the next frontier. I was almost born on Mars, my parents worked there.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	stoptheclock 2015-12-28 03:11 am UTC (link)
	No one had been back to the moon in over 50 years where I'm from, so Mars is saying a lot for someone like me. (Reply to this) (Parent)

(Read comments) -