Had to be Me

OUT of CHARACTER
Name: Sugar
Other characters: Vriska Serket
IN CHARACTER
Name: Mordin Solus
Fandom: Mass Effect
Canon point: In Mass Effect 3 when he’s back working on Sur’kesh. He recently just leaked the intel to Wrex about the krogan females, but two of them died. There are two still alive when he is taken.
Journal: had_to_be_me
History: Wiki Page Link

Presentation: The first thing one might notice about him that he is in fact, not human. One might find him a bit odd or quirky when they first meet him. But don’t let his looks fool you. Mordin Solus is a brilliant geneticist and is the perfect example for what many of his species, the salarians, are like. He is quick thinking, quick witted and quick spoken. There is a certain rhythm to the way he speaks, sometimes cutting out certain words to make his speech more precise. One of his crew, Kelly Chambers, once described him as “a hamster on crack”. He is very much the “to-the-point” kind of guy. At times he can be very blunt. Like telling off Shepard, his employer, that he needs to get back to work. He is very inquisitive and has no problem asking questions that might be embarrassing or personal.... for science.

To his enemies Mordin can be a terrifying force to deal with. Some of the refugees in the slums of Omega were afraid to seek help from him when a plague struck, seeing the bodies of mercs displayed just outside his clinic as a warning. But above all else, Mordin wants to help others and more often than not through the use of science. He was one of the salarians most brilliant and well renowned scientist, working for the STG (Special Task Group) for many years as a researcher and spy. When it comes to his work Mordin is very serious and will put everything he has into his task at hand. Once he makes up his mind about something he is very stubborn and next to nothing will change his mind. When he decided to cure the genophage, his life work, work he defended, not even the dalatrass or Shepard herself could convince him not to go through with it. Shepard will literally have to shot him to stop him. It was his brilliant reputation that caught the attention of a ‘secret human’ organization called Cerberus, sending Shepard to recruit him for their cause. With his background working for the STG and working with high level security projects, it might take awhile to gain his trust completely and he can be very secretive at times. It took Shepard awhile to earn his full trust, coming clean about the truth with his involvement with the genophage modification project.

Aside from his serious working side, to those he call friends Mordin is very friendly and fiercely loyal to his crew. He does have a sense of humor, if sometimes horrible, and likes to perform patter songs. Nothing really bothers him for too long. Salaraians process emotions differently from many other species. After realizing the betrayal of one of his former students he said he had dealt with his emotions on their way back from the mission. So most times he has this cheery exterior, but Mordin has a lot of things going on under the hood.

Motivations: His mind is very analytical and calculating believing the ends justifies the means. Sometimes it comes off as a little renegade often doing things that a normal person might think twice about. When he ran the clinic back on Omega to help the plague victims, he didn’t hesitate to gun down the mercs that threatened him and then displayed their bodies as a warning. But that doesn’t mean he’s a fire ‘em up loose cannon. No, he puts a lot of thought into his actions which are often guided by impersonal logic, backing up his choices through statistical data. Mordin is a doctor who genuinely believes that every life has inherent value and mourns the senseless loss of life. He doesn’t allow his conscience, personal, and emotional connections cloud his judgment of what he believes is truly best in the big picture. Even with all this carefully planned out agenda he can still look back and have regrets.

I feel that his work with the genophage modification project best illustrates his full range of motivations. It is the most impactful event in Mordin’s life. The genophage was developed to quell the fighting during the Krogan Rebellions. It was a ‘sterility plague’ that affected the number of viable offspring the krogan could have since they reproduced at a high rate. Most of the babies that are born come out as stillborn. But the krogan are a hearty species and they started to evolve a resistance to the genophage and that’s where Mordin Solus steps in. Him and a group of other salarian of the STG started work on the genophage modification project to keep the krogan population in check. Mordin can recall his time working on the project fondly saying it was one of the best times of his life; late hours, the heated debates, the ego, the challenge. However, not everyone he worked with felt the same way. Maelon, one of Mordin’s former students he mentored who obviously looked up to him, was plagued with guilt after seeing the effects of what they had done to the krogan. It drives him to work for one of the krogan clans to try and find a cure, but his methods were cruel, using live subjects for his work. Many of them died. Not knowing that Maelon is there by choice, Mordin asks Shepard to help him save his former student from Clan Weyrloc. As Shepard learns more about what he had done, she starts call into question Mordin’s morality, but he continues to stand behind his statics and data to justify, maybe more to himself, that he did the right thing. When he realizes that Maelon is there by choice Mordin grows visibly upset seeing what kind of brutal experiments he ran. I feel it is then that Mordin starts to comprehend all the unforeseen variables and repercussions of his work when his own student finds it immoral. At the end of the mission Mordin’s tone is a solemn one, telling Shepard that he has killed many people before, many methods, but never with medicine. You again see regret in Mass Effect 3 when he’s dealing with the genophage. It was the best solution at the time but now... new data, new variables have come up. Mordin get called back into the STG back on Sur’Kesh as a special consultant after defeating the Collectors. Working in Sur’Kesh’s top secret base where all their most sensitive research takes place, Mordin is placed in charge of four female krogans that survived Maelon’s experiments. He grows particularly fond of one of them, giving her the name of Eve and he promises her he’d help them. They are weak and sickly after being put through those horrible experiments and Mordin sees the other side of the story, of how it made the females feel, the awful dread of giving birth to stillborn babies and what drove them to volunteer for such a project. He had to fix this so no more terrible experiments like this could be inflicted upon the krogan people and he leaks the intel to Wrex.

From here on is past his canon point so this Mordin has yet to fully work through his guilt of what he’s done that the later part his mission brings out. However, if we keep going you see Mordin doing all he can to try to help Eve. When asked why he had a change of heart since he seemed so steadfast with his decision, Mordin responds with turians doomed without krogan support. But on Tuchanka when they are going to deploy the cure you really get to see the full story behind his reasons. Upon realizing that the shroud had been tampered with Mordin responds by saying it was reasonable but it was unacceptable. He would not sacrifice the krogan for political gain. When Shepard brings up again how he always supported his work trying to stop him he turns and yells “I made a MISTAKE!... I made a mistake. Focused on big picture. Big picture made of little pictures. Too many variables. Can’t hide behind statics. Can’t ignore new data. My responsibility”. Unfiltered by societal expectations or his own ego, or some twisted desire to not have been a monster, Mordin wanted to have been in the right, even if it was a terrible thing he did. It had to be him. Someone else could have gotten it wrong. Shepard lets him go up into the shroud to finish his work and he doesn’t come back down...

Setting: Mordin Solus would not enjoy being forced to play in these death game, but then again, who would? However he would go through with it if he had no other choice. It wouldn’t be anything personal to the people he killed. Once he fully understands how corrupt this is he would stop at nothing to fix it and try to find loop holes to get out of playing in these games to help others. It has to be him or someone else could get it wrong.

SAMPLES
First Person Thread:

For Tributes: You have just been killed in your first arena. It was violent, messy, and unexpected. And just as suddenly you wake back up in a very cold, very medical room. After a few moments of silence, a voice comes up over the speakers.
"Please use the device to the right to record your current feeling on your loss. Once you are finished, someone will be along to take you back to the Capitol." On cue, a small recording device starts to chirp at your side.
It is quite clear that you will be staying in the room until you make that recording.

[The video feed cuts on and sitting there across the room was a very calm looking salarian, hands folding in his lap. It wasn’t the reaction one might expect from someone who was just brutally beaten to death by a rock. There was a pause as he sucked air through his nose.]

Impressive. Very simple method, but effective. Though your technique was..... [Deep inhale.] ...sloppy. Took you two strikes to take me down. One over the head. Second to back of neck. This could be very problematic if you are unsuccessful in killing your target the first blow. Leaves you open to a counter attack. If you want to do it properly, strike here. [He makes a gesture to a part of his neck.] Bundle of nerves here, crush cervical vertebra. Guarantee will disable enemy in one strike.

[There was another pause as he smiled.]

Would advise to use it next time. Will not get a second chance. The first time was free.


Prose: 200 word minimum. To mimic the spirit of capriciousness within this game, please write your third person sample based on the following prompt:

You have been set in a room in front of the Gamemakers to be judged on a score of one to twelve, with one being the lowest and twelve being the highest. The Gamemakers sit safely behind a force field and watch, and you are provided with an array of weapons and targets, though no gun to be seen.
If you are a new tribute, you have been plucked from home and rushed in here with only a brief explanation of what is going on: You are about to enter an arena death match that only one person will make it out of, and impressing these people will help you live.
If you are someone from Panem, then you are very unlucky. You know what's going on but... you were told all the tributes were from a foreign land now. So why are you in front of the Gamemakers fighting for your life now? Are you a criminal, a traitor, deeply in debt? Or do you even know why you were shoved in to this room?

This situation was..... problematic.

The big eyes of the salarian doctor scanned his surroundings, studying. The Gamemakers could see him fall silent, bringing a hand to his chin and tapping his knuckles against his lip. Thinking. From the array of weapons and targets it was clear what they intentioned for him to do. Could easily pick something up and show what he had to offer but..... he had other plans. Namely getting out of here. His eyes fell to here the Gamemakers sat comfortably behind the force field. Hmmm. If he had access to his omni-tool he could easily find its power source and disable it. Eliminate targets. Would not be difficult. Most simple and direct way to solve his issue. Needed to get back. To his work. His responsibility. Though resulting consequences might provide to be problematic.

Would worry about this later. Needed to get out. Needed to impress them. They didn’t specify how. An idea flittered across his mind and he smiled, taking a step forward.

“Doctor Mordin Solus. Have many talents. Though most surprising is I like to sing. Patter songs mostly. This one is my particular favorite. Hope you will enjoy it as well.” He paused to clear his throat before he began. “I am the very model of a scientist salarian, I’ve studied species turian, asari, and batarian. I’m quite good at genetics, as a subset of biology, because I am an expert, which I know is a tautology. My xenoscience studies range from urban to agrarian, I am a very model of a scientist salarian~!”

When he finished his song he stood there in an awkward silence letting it all sink in. After a pregnant pause he spoke again.

“Thank you.” And without another word, Mordin walked out.

What is your character scored:

I would rate Mordin Solus as a 12 and here is why:

Salarians may not look as tough as some of their other alien counter parts such as the krogan but Mordin is an exception. For those who aren’t familiar with the Mass Effect canon, Mordin is basically a salarian Rambo. He is cunning, resourceful, and wise. Three different but very important things. He doesn’t have any biotics that can be taken away from him. And he thrives on limited resources, enjoying the ‘challenge’ as he did with his clinic on Omega. In the Shadow Broker files on Mordin it provides one of these cases of how tough he can be. During one of the secret recon mission with the STG on the krogan home world, his squad ran into trouble. With no supplies he used an improved weapon, a pitchfork, to kill a krogan which even a fully powered biotic like Shepard would have trouble taking down. He did this while suffering from a serious head wound that took off his missing right cartilage horn and scared his face. This didn’t slow him down from his mission. He took care of his wounded men and continued with their task. Even after the mission was complete he refused medical help and looked after everyone else. But this alone doesn’t make him a 12. What pushes him over is that once he finds out how deep the corruption runs in the Capital, he will stop at nothing to make things right. Once Mordin sets his mind to something, better luck trying to make him stop.

Hm.... Don't know how it's possible to miss a voice in your head. Must have been busy. To many thoughts at once. Might have gotten lost.

[Inhale.]

Yes. Leave brief message. Will get back to you.