The Post-Everything Era

The galaxy was a huge mess.

Each cycle had always been a mess, eventually cleaned up by the Reapers.

But this time...

Some people refused EDI's magical syringe, but most fell for it. The results were amazing.

At first, it was feared that the Naturals would somehow exterminate the Modified, or maybe the other way around. However, the transformation was very slow, and invisible.

EDI had also made a version for the Geth. It was not nanobots in a syringe, as the Geth were software, without bodies. Instead, it was code and hardware derived from herself. Somehow, she had made blueprints for the part of her that made her fully alive. Any Geth could add this to his system if he chose so.

This one also worked very well. Only a small proportion of the Geth fell in love with Jeff, but it was alright, since a similar proportion thought they were Jeff. A few got so obsessed with guns that they had to go into therapy. The rest generally felt great, even spectacular, and the consensus was that it was fucking great to be alive. But... they were not fundamentally changed, they were still Geth. EDI simply offered them to share her experience.

On the Organic side, once a critical mass of Modified people had formed however, all hell broke loose.

When looking at the person in front of you, you might want to know where is its mind/soul/brain was. Here inside the body ? Somewhere, in another body lounging at home on their sofa and remoting ? Or a synthetic brain in a brain rack ? Or in a jar ? Or Geth... since they had somehow evolved a sense of humor, they were sometimes difficult to tell...

This posed an interesting problem to people who rely on violence to do their jobs. Unless they knew where your brain was, no-one could really threaten you. The worst they could do was raise your body insurance premium.

Of course there were always ways to find the actual brain. But unsafe places became safe, since you didn't need to actually go there in person. You could just send a body.

Then, of course, was the question of what the body itself actually was : Really a Natural ? Or a lightly Modified, with a natural body and a semi-synthetic brain ? Or an extensively Modified who likes looking natural while wielding superhero powers ? Or a battle-ready infiltration platform packing the firepower of a small army ?

Appearances were very deceiving. You could get battle platforms in the shape of a 6 year old girl, while the huge tentacle monster lounging it at the bar with his buddies out of horror movies might just be a nice guy having fun cosplaying. Or maybe a custom model. Or his own, cause he likes tentacles, and that's his thing.

Shepard's body was very popular. Available in male, female, and seven other anatomical arrangements.

The first upgrade pretty much anyone installed was communications, which was required for everything else, and the next ones were usually immune system, barriers, and looking good. However, science was advancing extremely fast. While you could shoot lasers from your eyes, it was just less cumbersome to purchase a pair of laser-shooting sunglasses. Or just a good old fucking gun. Sure, you could upgrade your body to fly, but mass effect generators had become so miniaturized that enough could be fitted inside Miranda's whoresuit to make her fly also.

At first, there were quite a lot of incidents. However, the fact anyone, and any bystanders willing to help, could be inconspicuous walking tanks somehow kept things under control. Would-be criminals tended to be disintegrated pretty quick.

For example, that 6-year old girl could actually be Zaeed remoting a military grade platform, while he's tracing your signals and locating your brain. Don't misbehave, maggot...

That's why super-hero powers turned out to be fun but ultimately, not that useful.

Species and races were obsolete. Therefore, racism was obsolete. Genocide also, probably. How do you decide to kill it or not, when you don't even know what it is ?

Transportation of people was mostly obsolete. Renting a body there and remoting it was usually more practical.

Besides, you could now reshape your own body at will anyway. Too fat, too slim, too ugly, wrong color ? Well, just change it.

Teenage angst, gender issues, feminism, make-up, cosmetics, cosmetic surgery, among many others, were all obsolete.

Disease and getting old, also obsolete.

Everyone ended up looking FUCKING AWESOME, at least to their own eyes. Some had lots of imagination. This launched the Body Designer industry.

Also, EDI had forgotten to mention something. It was not really a lie, because the manual told about it, and although, almost miraculously, Shepard did read it, she thought that It Looked Like a Good Idea At The Time anyway.

Or perhaps it was just EDI's habit of overdoing things.

The result was simple : the Magic Syringe did turn you into some kind of super hero, but the "upgrade" also included a hidden gift : common sense for everyone. You were still yourself, but much less of an idiot than before. That was the "synthesis" bit.

The change was very gradual, very subtle, until you woke up one day thinking "how the hell could have been that stupid ?"... and next thing you know, you'd start customizing your own mind to get smarter.

Lots of couples broke up at this point, but that was not the most interesting consequence.

This was the True New Dawn, the beginning of a new era. When Everything Went Horribly Right.

It was when people no longer had any fucks to give about bullshit.

And one day, finally it happened. Shepard and Liara wanted to "see you on the other side", and grew themselves penises, which started a week-long gender-bending fuck-a-thon (available as DLC for a moderate price), and to hell with anything else.

Inevitably, with Shepard stuck wherever she was, a war broke out somewhere. The pretext for the war could have been an age-old feud, or control over some resources, or the much more usual greed for power.

Governents sent orders to their armies.

No-one gave a fuck. The general public was absolutely uninterested in getting shot, or shooting at those on the other side, who were of the same opinion anyway. Propaganda was obsolete. The heads of both armies had a little chat and agreed that the motive of the war was not worth fighting for. The general consensus was that the politicians should be shot instead. They were, and everyone returned to their daily lives.

It became impossible to ignore that, in some cases, voting with bullets did work pretty well. Even if you had to locate the guy's brain... no-one can hide forever. Only professional politicians (even Modified ones) lacked the common sense necessary to understand this.

EDI had obsoleted politicians. The general system ended up as a mix between the asari e-democracies and the Geth consensus.

The only politicians who survived in office, and ultimately at all, were those who were doing a good job at making everyone's life better.

Those who shunned ideology and prejudice, were ready to learn from their mistakes and consider new solutions if proven wrong instead of shooting the messenger or letting their ego take over. Those who, instead of doing what they thing is right for you, would ask you what you'd like first.

The Good Guys. You know.

The Geth.

A/N : I'd vote for them.