I was pleasantly wasting my time on the internet watching YouTube and looking at memes when discord notification popped up. From "Candidates for getting Isekai'd", a server that I joined about a year ago. Funny place.
Small and cozy with surprisingly good moderators. As the name suggested, it focused on Isekai theme. Only around one thousand people were there and all of them, from what I read in "Introductions" channel, were there for escapist content. Myself included. Most people choose one or two channels with their favorite mediums, be it fan fiction, CYOA's, RYOA's, light novels, manga, anime, comics, webtoons, TV shows, web shows ect. And sit there, chatting with each other and participating in events.
Events. That is my favorite part about this server. Each channel had a moderator that from time to time organized an event that was based around the channel topic. For fan fiction for example there were writing events with tables containing certain keywords that you need to roll for in the chat and later post fan fiction that had them as its topic, like for an example gamer/world domination/paragon/marvel fanfic. For CYOA's there were jumpchain events when mod rolls for number of cyoas and then with one are going to be used in it and community CYOA creation when we band together and create CYOA from scratch. Took part in the second one few times. We have done good work. Having many opinions and people that know how to make interactive versions really allowed reaching higher quality.
I expected another event to take place in one of "my" channels. But to my surprise, it was a message. From NSO. Server Admin. Nice and friendly person. Couldn't ask for a better admin. She openly engaged in discussion and didn't use admin powers to diminish other people opinions. We could find her mostly chatting in general, sometimes popping up in other channels. She was also managing server cloud storage, where all of our shit is.
NSO
Hi. Did you look at CYOA Gemini posted?
I looked at CYOA's channel. Sure enough, Gemini, channel mod, posted a Mass Effect CYOA. Very old one. I took a glance at it. Simple one, designed for jumpchain.
MagicDude
Did just now. Short and kinda poor but decent.
NSO
Loaded question. Do you think that it could serve as isekai base?
MagicDude
You mean like someone does it and then gets Truck-kun'ed with all choices?
Maybe? Depends on what that person wants to do.
NSO
That. But maybe just Yeeted by ROB. Truck-kun can't reach all NEET's.
MagicDude
True.
NSO
Can you give me your choices? But serious ones. Pretty Please :)
Serious ones? Alright, that could be done. But knowing her from chating on general, I asked.
MagicDude
Any added conditions?
NSO
Yeah. No Asari, no Krogan and no Human as a race. Too boring.
There it is. She sometimes asked people to post another versions with scenario "if X and/or Y were not available". Boredom is often her excuise.
MagicDude
Human and Asari I get, but how are Krogan boring?
That's a dinosaur alien that can regenerate limbs and has enaugh power in his fists to cave in anyone skull with one punch.
NSO
Personal preference. Stories with them are too boring to me.
Stories? Maybe she wants to write, but needs some base for that. Alright.
MagicDude
Give me 10 minutes.
NSO
:D explaind your choices too. Why you picked them and all.
I wend page by page with cyoa and made my choices. Some of them required a moment to think, but I did have an idea in mind, just need to rethink if some things are worth their price. A few more minutes and I was done.
MagicDude
Here it is:
Race
Quarian - Male. Age: 23 (23=2+1+20). Tech mastery for the win + Geth can be buddies.
Location
Rolled an 8 - Would probably choose Palaven or Earth. Depends on with one would treat Quarian better.
Origin
Drop in - Saving points and there is no choice with civilian background.
Class
Engineer - Not combat orientated but helps in mundane shit and as this is sci-fi it will get shit done.
Perks
Not a stupid grunt - Being able to hack other people's omnitools? Cool. Being able to repair state of an art new Tantalus Drive Core? Now that's just awesome. (150cp thanks to discount)
Tongue of Shepard - As a Quarian being able to talk to people and make them not treat me like shit will be immensely helpful. (500cp)
Gear
Loadout - Basic equipment is a necessity and must have for living here.
Extra Credits - Quarians are treated like trash, so extra money on hand is always helpful. (50cp)
Medi-gel kit - Useful and as a Quarian my wounds are more life-threatening than others. I hope that I can make it easily with my replicator. (50cp)
Assistant VI - Always helpful to have one, and maybe one day I can upgrade it to full AI. (100cp)
Conflict Minerals - Large stash of element zero maybe? Fuck Yeah! Maybe I could sell it and buy a ship with this and fly to Rannoch. (200cp)
Drawbacks
Shepard's Flock - I want to get involved with them, even if this mean suicide missions. After all, trying to stop Reapers is suicide in itself. (100)
Still have 50cp and nothing to spend it on.
There. I explained all the choices. Still, I'm a little salty about the remaining 50 points. There should be more cheap options. Maybe we could make a new version of that CYOA? As I started thinking about writing in the chat about it, NSO responded.
NSO
Nice. This could be good. Still, that 50 points is a bummer.
But don't worry! I have an idea.
I will give you few options, and you spend them here. Give me a second.
That got me curious. I wonder what she will come up with. There could be many options, but they will probably be small conveniences. Maybe some small tech or license for piloting?
NSO
Got it!
Early start!
You can get a more early start than 2181.
Price: 5cp per year
No mind rape for me!
Asari just can't meld with you properly. In meld, you control what they are allowed to get from you!
Price: 20cp
You helped me. Why?
In your first dangerous situation when your life could be lost. Someone will come to your rescue!
50cp
Lucky Star for Begginers!
This star will shine for the first three months for you! Some things will just click right for you!
Price: 30cp
Why there is a Deus Ex Machina here?!
No star child! No dying stars dropped plot. The origin of Reapers is slightly different and does not make plot holes in lore.
Price: 0cp
Better gear!
Pick one element of your gear. Now it is a better version of itself. Civilian omnitool? Now a high tier military one. That simple pistol? Now an all mercenaries favorite.
Price: 20cp
What do you think? :)
Wow. These options were great. Too great.
MagicDude
You know that for that amount of points, these things should be pretty mundane/weak?
All of them should cost from 100cp up.
Expect Early start.
And Deus Ex Machina one.
This should be a default for anyone.
NSO
True!
But you did manage to save these points, so you can pick something from my personal DLC :D
MagicDude
Fine :)
Then I will take: Better gear (omnitool), Early start x2, No mind rape and Deus Ex machina.
NSO
Good picks.
So...
Quarian marvel engineer?
MagicDude
Yeah.
I know that suit stuff is fucked up and people would treat me like shit, but I do like their race. It would be a challange but so would be any other in their own ways.
NSO
Yup.
Every choice has its upsides and downsides.
Yours is very interesting and should be fun to watch.
MagicDude
Watch?
NSO
Yeah.
You picked good stuff. Now I will do my part and generate the rest that wasn't in cyoa.
Good Luck :)
Screen started glitching. In the span of 5 seconds, it went from random discolouring to showing strange symbols with changed pixels. I couldn't move. I wanted to, but something was pinning me down. Then it turned completely white. Not just white. It blinded me like a flashlight in the middle of the night. And just like that, I lost my senses.
The first thing I noticed was that I was sitting in an unfamiliar chair and pain in my head. I moved my head and opened my eyes. I saw a futuristic looking lobby. Grey colors of metal mixed with plastic and glass that formed arcs made of straight lines, giving me a familiar vibe. Taking a look around, I took note of more chairs and few tables lying in regular patterns. There was a single glass door that lead outside this room. I focused my eyes and saw a corridor. Much to my surprise, I also saw someone moving through it. A turian. My brain tried to process that when something more hit me. Flexing my right hand, I took a look at it. Instead of human hand, I saw a three-fingered hand in a glove. Glove that didn't end and just fused with the rest of the clothes. I stared for it for a good five seconds before something made me stand up and move towards one of the glass panels in the room. Walking there slowly, I had trouble moving my legs. I guessed why, but I didn't want to look for confirmation. Step by step, I reached the semi-mirror and looked at my reflection. I saw a Quarian in dark-grey suit with light blue visor. All my recent memories flashed in my mind. Conversation with NSO, doing that cyoa, flashing screen.
I really was transported to another universe. That or some crazy dream, but I never had that much intense dreams. I tried to focus on my memories. I went to sit back. I took notice this time of smull hud on the edge of my vision. When I focused on icons, they enlarge and give me information. When I sat down, I tried to activate my omnitool. If cyoa was the reason, then I should have all the items from the list. Moving with just three fingers, I quickly took speed when somehow a familiar feeling came to me. Finally, I found notes about activating the damn thing. Move on an arm and specific gesture. Bend only pointing finger. I moved according to it, and a blue holographic display formed around my arm. I started looking through files on it. Quickly an certain folder ended up prey to my eyes. Big letters in not English but what I somehow recognized as Khelish under a green notepad icon. I understood what they were saying. Not just in english but as they were originally intended. "List of shit to do!" Alright, maybe whoever NSO was knows me good enough. That do is asking for my attention. I opened it and saw a list.
1. All minerals and metals are placed in Palaven Transport Committee. Someone should come and give me a location and access along with vouchers for them.
2. Betting on market brought profit. 10,000 credits should be on my account by coming to Palaven.
3. I need to find a placinformatione to stay in. I don't know how much time I will be here.
4. Buy something to eat. Maybe they have refined food, so I can celebrate with something tasty.
5. Check extranet quarian forums about palaven. Maybe they have some info about good spots.
Well, that do help. I closed the display and decided to try something. While waiting, I tried to get a feel of my new body and also think about possible memories that it had. Memory by memory, muscle by muscle.
I remembered things that felt completely like my own. Nila'Shimas nar Oregon and Hann'Yaanar. My parents. I twisted my hands, getting a good feel on them. Good parents, best you could ask for. I gave my arms a move. Good memories living on a ship only to move to another ship by the end when you actually know the place. I flexed my legs feeling for the first time, yet with unknown familiar note, bend of quarian legs, stiffness leaving my calves. Living was hard, but we were wealthy for quarians outside the migrant fleet. I knew that mother often earned lots of money on some side programming jobs. When she only worked online and presented herself as asari. Nice one. I creaked my spine as I straightened. They both taught me a lot. Mother programming and engineering while father showed me how to shoot. By 14 when I would be legally adult on migrant fleet, dad taught me how to navigate extranet and how to hide myself on it. Mother showed me how to get simple one pay one job contracts that could earn small side money.
I stood up, wanting to pass the door and walk on the corridor. I was 23 and wanted to leave and roam a little on my own. Days before that we were on some turian colony when batarians attacked. I zoned out while walking.
I was with a team that some retired officer ordered to help civilians. Just that. Not where to go. Just to help. Seventeen turians and me. I remember hearing someone shout from the distance. I moved. Some turian asks where I was going. I told him to move it and run to screams. We ran and ran from house to house. Initial assault destroyed the communication array. This will be notice and help will come, but we had to buy time. Little by little we cleared debris that blocked some from escaping. We secured a perimeter and brought every civilian to the most secure building in the colony, while in the distance we could hear turrets blowing up batarian aircraft. They soon will move in on land.
We secured the entrance and took a defensive position. We only fought about fifteen pirates, but ancestors damn me, were they hard to beat. Victory was thanks to the question I asked. "What were in these funny looking containers?". Fuel they said. So we moved them while making additional layers of somehow protective cover and then hide containers with some cloth among it. Add to that me sending programs that messed with sensors, and we won. Small but intense skirmish with surprise multi explosion set of with a perfect turian timing. But the sound from around us suggested a more massive siege being far ahead.
After 5 hours we were released from duty. Turian patrol came in and destroyed pirate ships. Two Frigates and a transporter had no chance with a dreadnought. We celebrated. I did too until some turian come to me and took me aside. My parents died while defending turrets. The reason they hold out so well. Both of them died while helping turians defend their colony. In honor of them they treated me like a hero and also because it turns out that, that 15 batarians were veteran military men that definitely were from hegemony but with no traces to hegemony. After that, I took some rest and blacked out on some bed. The day after, I went through my parent's stuff. Turn out the reason we were here was so mum could collect the stash that she, as she said, earned on extranet. Lots of minerals. Officer of fleet helped me took all of that and offered lift to Palaven. I agreed.
And now I find myself standing side to the wall, a few steps from doors. That memory felt so fresh. I was saddened, but knew that I should move. I have no one now here, and I need to somehow survive. Just as I was about to open the doors, someone stood outside wanting to do the same thing. A female turian in professional attire stood there, placing her mandibles in a way that I know as them smiling.
"Hael'Yaanar?" She asked. Her mouth moved a little different from what the sound would suggest, but that should be translation software doing its work. And I recognize that name as mine.
"Yes." I spoke after a small pause from having found a mental switch from english to khelish.
She put on a pleased face. "Good that I caught you before you went somewhere. I'm Qulia Mutirian, I'm from PTC. I come to give you your note and vouchers." It was kinda hard to not stare too much. Kinda first time seeing an alien. She slipped something out of her pocket and handed it to me. A set of small metal chips.
I put my hand out and grabbed them. "Thank you. Is there something I should sign?"
"Yes." She gestured with her hand inwards. "If we could enter and sit for a moment, I can give you some time to read the agreement."
We did just that. I have read the whole thing. Solid, from my look of it. Must be the fact that I came here with turian patrol. I doubt that this treatment was available for many quarians. Everything looks good, so I signed it.
"Thank you. I should be on my way." She and I stood up. I gave her my thanks.
"Thank you for coming here and bothering with me." I said. "I appreciate that"
She froze a little. Was she shocked at that behavior? "If you want advice as someone new." She said. "There are many hotels around that could house you for a medium fee. Try avoiding the ones that are popular with the military that patrols batarian border."
I nodded to her and she took her leave. Probably should take care of the next step on the list. Sitting down, I opened my omnitool.
I tried accessing my bank account. After some digging, memories floated to the surface. Second after second I got familiar with my omnitool discovering and rediscovering things that I had on him. Sure enough, a Special VI popped up. Its name was Haenu. After some character from a very old quarian show that I remember watching. A pleasant, robotic female voice asked me.
"How I can help?" A small moving icon representing soundwaves appeared in the bottom left of my vision.
I tried voice command. "Search quarian forums for information about hotels and motels or any other place that I can rent." I looked at the icon while VI worked on my question.
"Related topics have been linked in this file." I smiled, hearing the sound.
I opened the new file created by VI. Links allowed me to open forums on extranet and look for information. I took me a long time to search through it all. Many places were good in a sense that they will let you rent at all. Many were cheap but in poor condition, too poor for quarian. Finally, I found something worth looking at. A small place away from city center and ports. Pictures were attached in one of the posts. Female turian and female human. Huh. Their motel had a look of mixed earth and turian cultures. If they together own that, then there is a chance that they will be welcoming to quarian.I checked for other opinions, and they confirmed my assumption. I use map app and set my target. HUD lit up, pointing me where I needed to go.
I got out on the corridor and quickly moved to the exit. It turns out that I was in spaceport lodge. Getting out and searching for communal transport was easy. Looking at alien architecture and focusing on walk was not. Games never let you visit palaven. It had a certain beauty to it. And my wonder over alien helped it a lot. Looking at clouds obscuring the sun, I suddenly remembered something. My luck that my suit came with dedicated radiation protection. Sun here was emitting waves stronger than that of earth or Rannoch. Getting used to the views. I entered a magnetic train that worked more like a bus here. Paying with my omnitool in terminal, I took a sit and wondered what to do.
I have some money to go by, but I yet don't know for how long it would last. I could sell all that minerals and earn more. Speaking about that, let's see what is in there. I turn on omnitool and started reading that file that Qulia send me. The file tells me that I have five thousand units of Element Zero, two thousand units of Iridium and Platinum each, and one thousand units of Uranium. I searched on extranet and that was a good sum if I could sell it. That out of the way, I started to think what next. All numbers from the list are done. Only thing left to me is to get to that motel. I should add some more to it. I started typing.
6. Find a good place to sell minerals.
7. Find how much for a flying ship.
8. Try some side work on extranet. Look for programming orders.
That should be enough. I leaned back and looked out the window. The image of the city moves out of the way for silver natural landscape as the train rises along the hills. This is so damn beautiful. And awesome. After some time, I got used to seeing turians. Many of them walked in and of while I stayed. Good. No one was bother by me and in turn bothered me. And I think I could have a normal conversation with people again. Even if they are alien. After a few minutes, the map app popped up with notification. My stop was next. I waited for the train to stop and stood up.
I walked of off it and look around me. Big sets of houses that could host multiple families were set side by side with sizable patches of silver trees. Strange architecture. My HUD told me to turn left and go straight. While moving, I decided to look at extranet and see how it compares to internet of earth. I was massively impressed. Interface changed a lot. The amount of customizations is astounding. You can have everything set just for you and your liking. My icons have simple style, but were animated in loops that went slower while not in use. But most important to me was that my interface was very practical. I could easily navigate through it. Not gonna lie, I took a look if 4chan still exist. And sure it is. Bastards are still up. Moved server off earth, thou. YouTube blew up and remains formed into many smaller sides. Until merge that happened after ten years and side was ever alive again up to today. I stopped looking when the app gave me a final pop up. It's here.
Looking to the right, I saw a few stories high building with a strange mix of turian and human styles. Strict turian style give in some places to more comforting human tones. A huge signboard with written in turian language name was placed above the door. "Peaceful Passage" my software translated. When I walked in, I saw the same design being used in furnishing. Turian style used with human furniture and vice versa. Yet all of this despite being used together, they made an open yet cozy feel. Motel lodge had plenty of places to relax along with a bar. I walked over to it and saw female turian 'smiling'.
"Welcome. How can I help you?" She asked.
"How much for a one room for one day?" Asking for price should be the first step here.
"Just 11 credits per night." She moved her hands and handed me a brochure. "If you have prolonged rest, the pay goes down to 10 credits after the first two weeks and then down to 9 after a full month. We also provide then a more home like rooms."
I took a look at it. "Do you have rooms that could accommodate quarian? Maybe a clean room?" I hoped that they did. Should have looked more into it.
"We do have five rooms that have one clean room each attached to them." She leaned on the bar. "Don't worry about people giving you trouble. We welcome only good people here and have a huge group of regular clients. There will be no problems with you here."
That was... comforting. I believed her. She presented herself as someone very honest. I should take at least two weekends of vacation here, to get a feeling on my body and skills. "Two weeks for now then. One of these rooms will be fine."
"I will register you then. Your name?"
"Hael'Yaanar."
"And?"
"Just that. Hael'Yaanar."
She blinked at me. "No ship name?"
"No. My parents lived outside the migrant fleet. I was never on it, and thus no ship name." No reason to lie here.
"Surprising. Not many quarians from outside it to see." She gave me a curious look. "Are you now on your version of pilgrimage?"
"You could say that, yeah." This is kind of true. "Any chance to buy refined turian cuisine here?"
"We have a list of services that firms with deal with us provide." She pointed to the open brochure. "This one, MeatBits, deliver very good quality meat that quarians can it. It is more prized, but still worth it." She had a proud tone. "I have opinions of previous clients to confirm that."
She gave me a metal chip with engraved motel name. "Your key. Room number 22."
"Thank you. I will go and settle in."
"Sure. If you need something, call me or my friend when it's her shift. Numbers are here." She pointed at a board placed high on the wall next to the bar.
I nodded and went to find my room. Passing through doors, I moved along the corridors until i saw number 22 on the far end of one next to the door. Chip allowed me to go inside. Nicely sized room with small open kitchen and separated by sealed doors, clean room. Furniture was mostly soft, and I could clearly see human patterns on cushions. I piled them up on the bed and then laid down on it. I opened my omnitool and connected it to a display that hanged from the ceiling. Sure enough, all that I needed was to connect the key to my omnitool. Display come to life and started broadcasting news from Palaven.
I relaxed and checked galactic date. 2179 CE. That means that I have four years before events of the first game. I need to think about what to do. Short and Long term. But I really need some rest. I used my omnitool and switched the display to show YouTube. "Let's see what humanity have to offer for all that time." I searched for many familiar things. Finally, I decided to look at some cartoons and anime that dropped after 2020. Maybe it's finally a good time to watch JoJo. I selected some good quality reboot that was in a playlist with all of its episodes. "Maybe I can order some weed for quarians. Future, show me what you got!" I clicked play and stared to search for a shop that suits my tastes. I made order only after 5 minutes. Packed with epic piano music intro just ended. Relax now. Work later.