A New Life
Disclaimer: Unfortunately I do not own any part of the Mass Effect franchise or universe; so all rights belong to Bioware and affiliated companies.
Rating: M – Language, sex-related themes, and violence.
Plot: James White; a normal teenager in virtually every single way. Unfortunately the universe and Cerberus has larger plans for him, and within moments he finds himself sucked into the Mass Effect universe as a walking, talking experiment that was lucky to survive the things embedded within him. Follow James as he fights for justice, finds love, and finally accepts belonging.
Pairing: OC/Jack
Warnings: AU, OOC.
A/N: This is not a SI. A shout out goes to Herr Wozzeck; author of Mass Vexations, and Demon Spartan; author of Semper Fi - they were an inspiration.
Life is an absolute bitch sometimes.
Three weeks ago I was very nearly pissing myself in fear because my final exams were coming up… and I hadn't done the faintest little bit of study… for any paper at all. Three weeks ago, I was busy procrastinating said study by looking up the best price for another ATI 6870 graphics card that I could put in Crossfire with the other one I brought six months ago - because let's face it, 1 gig of graphics just isn't enough to handle the best games these days. If you're interested, I found one for a bargain $280 delivered to my very doorstep.
Two weeks ago my exams begun; triggering nervousness and moments where I wished that I hadn't in fact procrastinated with my schoolwork and study. It started off well enough with English, which I'm damn good at, not to toot my own horn or anything, but due to the exams that followed... well, the two weeks that I sat my papers quickly deteriorated into a veritable 'hit-head-against-hard-surface-repetitively' sort of moment in my life.
One day ago I sat my last exam - biology paper 3 I thought you ought to know - and later that night I sat down in a restaurant with sixteen of my fellow classmates and my physics, biology, and chemistry teachers whereupon we dissolved the teacher-student relationships and switched to a far more comfortable, and entertaining, ex-student and teacher relationship. To be quite honest I enjoyed that dinner far more than I expected I would; just reminiscing on all the good times, the good ol' days where we were so innocent and didn't expect the world to take us and toss us around like we were in a washing machine.
Twenty hours ago I was sitting in my computer chair, cracking my knuckles with a maniacal grin on my face; my shoulders free of the burdens of another exam the next day, and with nine weeks of holidays stretching out in front of me. My high school career was over; I had just purchased the Kasumi DLC for Mass Effect 2; I had installed a new six-core CPU and had overclocked it to 4.1 GHz; and my new graphics card and cross-fire compatible motherboard was in the mail.
One hour ago I had successfully romanced Jack, and had shared a beautifully intimate moment with her that went against all the 'badass' she is portrayed as being, and left me feeling mushy inside.
Fifteen minutes ago Miranda had told the Illusive Man to shove his 'keep the collector ship so we can study it and do some secret shit' plan where the sun don't shine. Ten minutes ago the credits had started rolling and I had sat back in my chair feeling tired, drained, but wonderfully contented and liberated; for me it was the start of the rest of my life; the end of an era of education that had consisted of thirteen years.
Nine minutes ago I had felt a tug on my navel and had wondered if the fact I hadn't eaten for approximately twenty hours hadn't, in fact, been such a good idea, but that theory had been metaphorically tossed in the waste-basket before I even had time to ponder over previous experiences regarding lack of food. The reason for this was that I couldn't move, everything around me had disappeared into darkness saves the credits still rolling on my computer screen, and the music blasting into my ears from my headphones was no longer music - instead sounds of a rushing wind was most prominent around me.
Seven minutes ago, after watching the screen come closer, and closer, and closer, I felt like I was being squeezed through a pipe the size of a pinhead. Pain tore through my entire body; as if I was being ripped apart by forces on all sides, but my lungs had no air to expel in order to let loose a scream.
Five minutes ago, or at least that's what if felt like, the pain had stopped, and I found myself sprawled out in the middle of a very expensive-looking kitchen with haptic interfaces gently glowing in the dim light that allowed me to see.
Four minutes ago I picked up the pad that I'm writing this on, and that fact that it was, and is, disturbingly identical to the data-pads in Mass Effect 2 did not, and has not escaped me.
Right now, I'm seeing just how ironic this whole situation is; just last night I spent time looking back on the good ol' days with my classmates, friends, and teachers… and now last night, according to this data-pad's auto-entry feature, was 168 years, 2 months, 10 days, and 16 hours ago.
Which begs the question: just what the fuck happened?