This was one story 4Ferelden and I wanted to write, inspired by the likes of Mass Vexations by Herr Wozzeck and Masses to Masses by iNf3ctioNz. But there was something I've noticed for both series, at least early on: as much as they were based on themselves, they explain little of their backstories as their stories go along. I didn't believe this made good storytelling.

The fic went through multiple incarnations over the years. Originally, it started at a Boston airport and Eric was 22 years old, already studying quantum mechanics at MIT, and his brother, Alphonse (now Alfonso), was the youngest. We had a bit of difficulty moving his scene to the next, so someone else suggested we should start this out in Bangkok. We both agreed this was for the best.

The older version of Eric went on for a few chapters before I decided to go for a do-over. I wasn't happy with the direction I was originally taking this fic.

UPDATE 5/31/20: I've moved the date of several real-world sections in this fic two years forward. I believe that 2016, with the election of Trump and the reemergence of extreme and dangerous ideologies such as the alt-right, is more of a start of a turbulent time compared to 2014.

Mass Foundations: A New Day

Eric Grimes, a high school graduate, had been transported to the Mass Effect universe while on vacation. The events of the trilogy have yet to occur, and he would be helpless to alter them as the next person. Seeing no other choice, he would have to find a way to survive through everything this universe would throw at him—or die while doing something useful.

Chapter One: Arrival

Year: 2016
Location: Bangkok, Thailand

The harsh June sun settled over Bangkok like a wet blanket. Even as the sun had set, a never-ending stream of taxis, delivery trucks, motorcycles, and bikes filled the streets. A gray Nissan SUV passed over a speed bump and into the sea of cars before it.

In it, 19-year-old Eric Grimes, short and thin, looked out the window to a tall obelisk among the traffic: The Victory Monument. Staring back at him was his faint reflection in the window—a small beige face with small hazel eyes and short black hair.

He sat quietly, pressing his rounded nose against the glass, fascinated by the chaos ruling Thailand's streets. Compared to Boston—with its outdated streets and aggressive drivers—the traffic here was insane.

"Eric? Mi hijo? Are you okay?" his mother, Felicia, called out from the driver's seat after their car had stopped at a red traffic light. Her brown eyes were focused on the mirror facing toward him. "You've been rather quiet lately."

"Um… yeah, Mamá," he answered, glancing at her before looking back toward the window. "Thanks for asking."

His mother looked on as the traffic light turned green and drove forward.

"Sure you are, Eric. Sure you are," his 22-year-old brother, Alfonso, replied sarcastically.

Eric turned to his brother, who sat to his left. So he had paid attention, he noticed. Alfonso had his nose buried in his 3DS with the games he got for Christmas.

It was easy to forget that Alfonso was a near-spitting image of their father. Alfonso had his medium height, his hazel eyes, and his chiseled nose. The differences were the skin tone like Eric's, his black hair reaching down to his neck, and worst of all, a large scar on his chin he got from a nasty fight back in school.

Eric sighed. "I'm fine, Al. Just drop it, okay?"

Alfonso scoffed and rolled his eyes before going back to playing on his 3DS.

Eric hadn't talked and neither did the rest of his family, as they were all occupied with what caught their attention. His 24-year-old, Garcia, was taking pictures of the city with her phone. Most of the pictures she took were of buildings and monuments. She gasped before leaning in and toward Eric. Her brown eyes, same as their mother's, met his as her beige face lit up with excitement. "Oh, I think I got a good picture. Wanna see?" she asked, breaking the silence.

Eric considered for a moment, tempted, only for him to shake his head. "Nah. Maybe later, though?"

"Okay," Garcia replied, crestfallen as she leaned back into her seat.

Eventually, the SUV pulled up and parked at the hotel they would stay in for the week. The hotel was tall and oval-shaped, with another building tucked next to it. It was like any other building in any metropolis city except for a garden that surrounded it with elephant statues and thin trees.

"Should we get out and meet up with Grandma and Grandpa, Mamá?" Garcia adjusted her dark, braided ponytail.

"They should be here any—" His mother's phone rang suddenly, and she picked it up. Eric held his breath for a second, hoping that his father called to see if they were all okay. Another second and his heart sank in disappointment when he heard the next words that came out of her mouth. "Hey, Papá. You just called us right as we parked. The taxi brought you here? Okay. I'll let the kids know. I love you. Bye." Eric looked over at his mother as she hung up.

"Okay, your grandparents are waiting for us inside," she called out as she pocketed her phone.

"Great!" said Garcia, more than relieved.

The family all got out of their rented SUV and grabbed their bags from the trunk and went inside. It was a good thing they all dressed for the weather. Shorts and t-shirts (or a tank top in the case of Garcia) for all of them, with Garcia and his mother's clothes being somewhat plain while Alfonso's was one of those game-inspired shirts. Eric himself wore a pair of brown sandals.

The wooden walls inside surrounding him and the black-and-white striped tiles on the floor gave away a gorgeous environment, combining the luxuries of hotels like the ones in New York City and the southeastern Asian cultures.

It didn't take long for them to find his grandparents in the lobby, as they sat on two of the chairs that surrounded a tall, thin plant, with two suitcases sitting by them. Especially his grandfather Arturo since he wore a colorful Hawaiian t-shirt to go with his khaki cargo shorts. Eric's grandmother, Carol, sat next to him. Her graying, wavy hair reached down to the top of her neck, not even touching the wooly collar of her sweater. Eric was sure she had lighter clothes in her suitcase. After all, she was considerate of herself and others.

"Felicia! It's so great to see you!" His grandmother stood up and gave his mother a hearty hug.

His mother smiled. "Good to see you too, Mamá."

His grandmother hugged his brother with her thin arms, who looked like he would rather be somewhere else right now. His grandfather let out a toothy smile with his puffy lips and gently patted Eric on the shoulder. "Hey hey, Eric! How was the trip? Found any cute guys on the way?"

Eric shook his head. "No, I didn't hook up with a complete stranger."

"So how are you holding up? You seemed pretty nervous back on the plane."

Eric looked away from his grandfather. "I don't know," he stuttered. "I, uh… I guess it has to do with MIT."

"And what is it you wanted to study there?" his grandfather asked.

"Um, I wasn't so sure what to pick at first, but my Physics teacher helped me out," he answered.

"And what did he do?"

"He said that if calculus was the language of God, then quantum mechanics was His canvas. Pretty sure he quoted that." Eric fell silent for a moment. "I mean, sure, I'm a bit skeptical at first, but I guess it was enough for me to pick classes into quantum mechanics and stuff."

His grandfather smiled. "That's good, Eric. I know you had a rough time recently, but you did well. You're going to MIT, one of the best universities out there. I'm sure you're gonna do something incredible and amazing. I'm proud of you for that."

Eric exhaled and looked back at his grandfather. "Yeah. Thanks for the talk."

Satisfied with how it turned out, his grandfather turned his attention to his mother. "Have you checked us in?"

After consulting with the receptionist, they got their cards for their rooms. They settled for three rooms on the sixth floor. One was for his grandparents, one for his mother and sister, and the other for himself and his brother.

Eric and Alfonso entered their room and turned on the light inside. It was a large room with two king-sized beds, a TV in front, and a bathroom by the exit. A large window at one end showed the entire city.

Alfonso landed on the bed farthest away from the window after dropping his bag. He let out a relieved sigh. "Dios mío, this is so comfy!"

Eric dropped his suitcase on an empty bed and opened it. He grabbed a toothbrush and a half-filled tube of toothpaste after going through his clothes, placing them in the sink in the bathroom. When he got out, his brother had already stuck his nose in his 3DS.

"Hey, want something from the lobby?" Eric asked.

"Nah, I'm good. I ate on the plane. Wait…" Alfonso curled his lips. "I want a candy bar. Got your card?"

Eric nodded. "Should work here."

Before he stepped out, Alfonso spoke again. "Hey, so you're looking into quantum mechanics and stuff, right?"

He stopped and turned. "Yeah. Why?"

Alfonso shrugged. "I dunno. I just find it funny that A Link Between Worlds deals with parallel worlds. You're gonna deal with something similar in your class. The many-worlds theory or something."

Eric cocked his eyebrows. Quantum mechanics, as far as he knew, covered a bunch of topics like transport processes, string theory, dynamics and waves, physical chemistry, nanomechanics, and biomaterials. "That's not the only game to use parallel universes as a plot point. It's not even the only Zelda game to have done that. Bioshock Infinite has done it, too. Some of it was based on actual theories." Eric wasn't into video games as much as his brother, but he was in a mood for conversation.

"I know that," Alfonso replied. "Hey, remember when Final Fantasy X was remastered. Kinda weird you have to look for single-letter dictionaries."

"So you don't mind finding anything useful? At all?" Eric asked. "One of the most advanced technologies we ever found from ancient civilization was a battery jar."

Alfonso paused his game and gave Eric a dirty look. "You're such a downer, you know that? If they found some abstract cave art and shadow theaters last year, think they can find more?"

"Anything's possible," Eric answered. "I'll ask the others and see if they want anything. See you later."

"See ya," Alfonso replied just as Eric left and shut the door behind him.

The next two days were spent touring the city, seeing many monuments, and trying out Thailand's delicacies. It was clear everyone enjoyed it except for Alfonso and the dancing shrimps one time. It didn't work out much for Eric as his thoughts drifted on about the relics he saw at a museum. He was looking forward to visiting Angkor Wat.

On Wednesday morning, they went off to the temple. For most of the four-hour trip, there was nothing but wetlands, even after passing through customs at the border to Cambodia with little difficulty.

They arrived at the temple, parking at a café nearby. Even from here, the massive, ornate temple was magnificent. The structure had outlasted the empire that built it and countless wars. Some believed Angkor Wat should be called the Eighth Wonder of the World. Eric would agree.

As they got out of the car, his grandmother basked in the fresh yet humid air. "Y'know, I'm half-expecting Al to make a joke about those head-shooting monsters," Garcia remarked.

"I was about to. Don't forget about the death traps and stuff," Alfonso quipped, kicking the dirt around his feet like he was a bored child.

Eric's mother turned to his grandmother. "Did it help, Mamá? I know the city has been rough on you."

Eric's grandmother was a chain smoker when she was around his age, which caused many health problems. The worst of which was lung cancer that, thankfully, her doctor took care of at an early stage.

"Very much, Felicia. Thank you for asking." His grandmother smiled.

His grandfather stepped forward and gently gave her a hug from behind. "We'll make it work. Right?"

She nodded.

"How about we all take a picture together? How does that sound?" his grandfather asked.

"That would be very nice," his grandmother answered.

As they parted, he pulled his digital camera out of his fanny pack. "We'll take one of those selfies in front of the temple," he said as he gestured to the others. "Well, by the bridge, to be exact."

Alfonso rolled his eyes as they stood in front of the bridge. "Y'know, Abuelo, we do that with smartphones."

"And you know I can't figure these things out for the life of me. Call me old fashioned. Besides…" With a smirk, his grandfather flipped the camera's screen out. "This camera takes high-quality pictures, so it's not cheap."

"He has a point there, y'know," Garcia remarked.

"Yeah. Sure." Alfonso shrugged dismissively.

As they all gathered and, as Eric took a deep breath to calm his nerves, squeezed together in one spot, his grandfather reached out, the camera facing them. "Okay, is everybody smiling?" he asked before he turned and frowned at Alfonso.

Everybody else turned their eyes on his older brother. Eric, his face scrunched in annoyance, also turned behind him, whose hand had suddenly dropped.

"What?" Alfonso asked, defensive. "What'd I do?"

He's at it again with the bunny ears. "Please stop it."

"Stop what?"

"Alfonso, look, we all saw it," his mother replied. "Would you please don't do that? This is important."

Alfonso pouted, now caught in that little scheme of his. "Fine."

They all turned back to the camera. Right as they were to pose and say "cheese" or some other equivalent, his grandfather curled his lips. Eric looked over him to find a red battery icon flashing at the upper-right corner of the screen.

His grandfather sighed as he began to dig into his fanny pack. "Guess I forgot to change the batteries."

"I got it," Eric interjected when he pulled out his smartphone and looked at his grandfather smugly. Once again, the young people reign supreme. "You were saying?"

His grandfather chuckled and shook his head in shame. "Okay, I guess you win this one."

Satisfied, Eric raised his phone, the screen facing toward him and his family. "So, uh… what's a good word, then?"

"Familia," Garcia suggested. "Family."

"Sounds nice, Garcia," his mother replied. "We should go with that."

Eric took a deep breath before looking back at his smartphone, the screen facing toward them. He smiled when everybody else did. "Alright everybody, say 'Familia!'"

"Familia!" everybody said in unison right as Eric took the picture.

He parted from the others and looked at the photo. The lighting was good, the angle was also good, and everybody was in the frame with a smile on each of their faces.

He returned to the others and showed the picture to each of them. "You know, you should take up photography sometime," said Garcia.

"Nah, I don't think so. I was lucky with that shot, anyway," Eric replied.

"Got it saved?"

"Yeah, on the SD card." Eric sighed as his smile faded.

"What's wrong?" Garcia asked.

"I wish Papá came with us instead of working."

She nodded sullenly. "Yeah, I know. After, well…"

Eric looked at her. "Look, I don't want to talk about it. Let's just go to the temple, okay?"

"Okay."

Eric and his sister caught up with the rest of their family as they crossed the bridge to the temple. They entered inside, and Eric noticed how much more imposing it was up close. Many tourists climbed the stairs up to the smaller towers, his siblings among them.

On the walls of the passageway, its white paint had faded from centuries' worth of wear and tear, decorated with carvings that detailed large-scale battles like the Battle of Lanka, according to the information on his smartphone, and aspects of Hindu mythology. Eric was so entrenched by the level of detail and the stories of people and powerful deities long past unraveling before him that he lost track of time.

Somehow, he found himself in a small, circular room. It was empty save for a plain pedestal mounted in the middle. The pedestal seemed to reach up to his chest and on top of it was a transparent orb. When Eric thought it shone on its own, he looked up and found the ceiling had openings in it. Some of them were man-made while others resulted from erosion. Rays of sunlight pierced through and illuminated the otherwise dark room that reflected off the orb's surface.

"Huh. Kinda cool," he commented.

The placement was convenient. At first, he couldn't help but compare this place to an item room in a Zelda or a Mega Man game. He sighed and lowered his head. Why did he make that comparison to what seemed like a priceless artifact made long ago?

He looked around and noticed markings on the floor. They were faint, arranged in concentric order, and paralleled perfectly with each opening carved in the ceiling. He guessed the room might have been an observatory that tracked lunar cycles.

He tried to leave but stopped and turned. Something bothered him about that orb. Were the glassblowers able to make something that perfectly round? How did a piece of something as fragile as glass survive all these years inside, through several wars and a revolution? Could it have been replaced many times over the years?

Judging by the fresh smell of sandstone, this room could have been built recently. Not only that but the markings had numbers, as if they were equations that would be far too advanced for a time long ago.

He pulled out his phone, took pictures of the markings and the orb, and sent it to his sister. Knowing her, she spent her time studying Thailand and Cambodia. He waited for his phone to send the message only to find it didn't have a signal. He grunted in frustration and pocketed his phone. With nothing else to do, he walked closer, hoping to see what these equations were. Maybe he would find something that would elaborate on the orb's history, like an inscription the authorities could have put up.

Up close, the orb grew brighter, taking on a blue hue as if it reflected off the skyline. He looked back at it again, and he wanted to touch its cold and smooth surface, but he thought better of it.

No use in disrespecting whatever tradition it was a part of, he thought as he turned away. I better find Garcia and the others.

A hum vibrated in his teeth, but he didn't look back. He circled the room's perimeter before realizing there wasn't an exit. Somehow, he ended up here without a visible entry point of any time.

A wave of panic struck him as he pounded on the wall. It was useless, but he didn't know what else to go on. He fell off his feet and crawled to the wall behind him.

The entire room lit up so bright there wasn't even a trace of a shadow on the wall he faced. The small symbols in the stone seemed to glow on their own, but the illumination came from the orb. If he looked at it now, he could go blind or worse.

The hums and the vibrations reached fever pitch, and he couldn't hear anything, not even his screams. He closed his eyes despite facing away from the source. He collapsed in pain as a jolt of electricity coursed through his body.

When he opened his eyes, he found himself in a black void. For a moment, he thought he died, thinking his soul would move onto the afterlife. And for a moment, he expected something like a light at the end of a dark tunnel. But he still had his body and his clothes. He was floating and he could hear his heart beating, though harder and faster than normal.

Without warning, a wave of nausea hit him, followed by a headache so agonizing and so head-splitting that he wished someone would cut his head off. An unseen force then yanked out of that void like a fish being pulled out of its pond. All the while, Eric screamed at the top of his lungs.

"Hoooooollllllllllyyyy shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiittt!" he exclaimed, his voice trailing along as he went higher and higher. Somehow, he flew past Angkor Wat until the ancient temple became a small dot on the globe. "This isn't real! It can't be real! It's impossible!"

He flew out of the Earth's atmosphere, his body swinging forward, round and round. He stopped, and he found himself in outer space. How did he not suffocate from the lack of oxygen here, let alone freeze and boil at the same time? None of this made any sense.

"What the fu—?"

Just when he least expected it, he was yanked yet again and whisked around the Earth. And yet again, he screamed at the top of his lungs.

Within seconds, time and space turned and bent around him, forming into a circular tunnel full of blinking lights and changing colors. With his body straightening out, he could only let out a whimpering cry.

The last thing he saw was a body of water going closer and closer before a flash of white hit him.

When he came to, he felt something pressing against his chest, then something on his mouth in a pattern and air flew into his chest. He gasped hard and his eyes fluttered open as he looked at the bright, cloudy sky. With some difficulty from the pain in his chest, he turned his head to someone looking over him. His vision cleared up even more and the figure was a woman, seemingly in her twenties or so.

"Hey, what's your name? Can you remember your name?" the woman asked.

"Eric," he croaked. "Eric Grimes."

"Okay, Eric." She let out a relieved sigh. "Help's on the way. Stay still and you'll be fine."

Eric would be more than happy to follow that advice. In fact, he really should rest up. He was starting to feel light-headed, anyway. His eyes rolled back as his body began to relax.

"Hey! Stay with me!" he heard the woman before losing consciousness again.